'Red? Red? Jason?'
Jason peeled his eyes open to see a bright light shining.
'Jesus!' he yelled, shutting his eyes and raising a hand to push the light away.
'Sorry, just checking for a concussion.' Tim came into sight as Jason reopened his eyes gingerly. 'You seem to be ok.'
'What the hell happened?' He looked around, they were alone in the Medbay.
'Well Talon surfaced, kicked you in the head then shot you in the chest. Lucky for you your chest plate stopped most of the damage. Still knocked the wind out of you pretty bad, which is why you lost consciousness.'
Judging by the immense pain radiating from his chest, Jason figured that made sense.
'Where the hell is he?' Jason sat up in alarm when Tim bit his lip. 'Tim what the hell happened, where is Talon?'
'He escaped through the Zeta Beam. The League are in pursuit. He's in...'
'I know where he is and I know what he's going to do. We need to stop him. Now.' Swinging his legs off the bed he stood, taking a moment to regain his breath, then headed for the beams. Tim followed, questioning his plan. 'The night I found Dick while he was with the Owls he was in a bad way. Imagine all the training he's ever had with Haleys, Batman, Deathstroke. Then imagine all that training being used without morals.'
Tim looked as though he wanted to be sick. 'What do we do, how did you take him down?'
Jason stopped to type in the code for Gotham. He looked at his brother with sad eyes.
'I shot him.'
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
'Dick hold on!' Nightwing tried attacking the armored man again but was hit back. Talon kept his grip on Dick's neck. Regaining his balance, Nightwing pulled out his escrima sticks and attacked again.
Dick gasped for breath. He was suddenly becoming aware of what was happening. He was dying. The Talon was killing the part of the brain that was Richard Grayson. He was erasing him as a personality! But without him, the others would be easy pickings and then there would be nothing left but the assassin. And he was powerless to stop it. All he could do was watch as Red X was thrown into Renegade, sending them both flying. Robin was tossed aside like he was nothing. Nightwing kept fighting, but Dick knew there was going to come a point soon, when the hero would not be able to get back up.
oOoOoOoOoOoOo
'I can't believe he shot him. His brother.'
'Boy Scout this is really not the time.' Batman remained looking through his binoculars, scanning the city.
'Bats, your Son just tried to kill his brother. How are you so calm?'
'He didn't try to kill him. He knew Red Hood was wearing a bulletproof vest.'
'Are you sure?'
Batman said nothing. In truth he was not calm, he was almost at breaking point with concern. If Clark wasn't doing the same he probably would have been able to see the Bat's emotional turmoil. It had been several hours since they had lost track of their troubled friend. They were both becoming very on edge, worrying about what he might do.
'Bats.'
'Red Hood. Are you alright?' Batman lowered the binoculars, bringing a finger to the side of his cowl.
'I'm peachy. Where's Dickhead?'
'We don't have a visual. He's somewhere in Gotham.' said Batman, ignoring Jason's language. 'There's been no police reports as of yet. I'm hoping that means he hasn't done anything.'
'That doesn't surprise me seeing as who his last target was.'
'What do you mean last target?' said Superman, eves-dropping into the conversation. Batman reiterated Clark's question to Red Hood.
'The Owl's wanted Dick to prove that he was loyal to them so they sent him on a very specific job. That was when I found him.'
'Red Hood who was it, we need to find him before he gets to them.'
'You don't have to worry about finding him. He'll come to you. He was ordered to kill the Batman.'
A/N Hey look at me! Posting twice in a week! Hope you enjoyed this chapter. I've got a few more written, but I'm back to work tomorrow so I'll try and post them periodically once they've been edited. Please review! Karin xx
