Hey guys, long time no see (like, two months?) So I was on a school camp for 9 days in Buchan, Victoria (where there was no showers or toilets, we shat in bomies, slept in bivvies and ate scrogin. Fun fun fun! haha, but we did raft the Snowy River, that was fun) so that would explain my lack of updates, then i had tests and shit to do but now its finally the summer holidays, no more school for two months! Woo! I intend to finish this before 2015, so expect alot of updates (hopefully) soon! :) Hope you enjoy! (btw, anyone whos like dafuq is Dracarys 2.1, I've taken a new pen name, its no longer flamemouth27)
Chapter 10
"…and he just leaped out of the window!" exclaimed Nico in an (probably) over-exaggerated surprised voice.
"So you're telling me, Mr. di Angelo, that an intruder broke in when you were on your way back from the bathroom to class, pushed you into the classroom and threatened you with a gun?"
"Yes, but when he heard people coming he just opened the window and fled."
"Mr. Bron, was the window opened when you entered?"
Nico's English teacher stroked his chin.
"I remember the cleaners had already opened the windows to air out the room."
The principal then turned back to Nico, eyeing him down. Nico shrunk back into his seat a fidgeted uncomfortably, but he kept his eyes to Principal Willet's, knowing that looking away would seem too suspicious. Suddenly, the door slammed open.
"What's this about an intruder?" asked Commissioner Gordon as he strode into the office, glancing at Mr. Bron and the principal, before his eyes flickered to Nico and he raised an eyebrow.
"Nico di Angelo, we meet again."
"You've met this young man before?" asked Mr. Bron.
"Most certainly. I gave him and Richard a ride home."
And Nico swore he could see the slight disappointment in Principal Willet's eyes at this; perhaps the man had hoped for Nico to have a criminal record or something, as an excuse to kick him from Gotham Academy. The half-blood snorted inwardly at this, if the students mind so much about the profits of their parents, of course the principal would be worse than them, especially how I'm on a scholarship. After Willet relayed everything Nico told him yet again to Gordon, the police commissioner tilted his head thoughtfully.
"I will send a group to investigate this intruder."
A warning glare and a repeat of the school rules later, Nico strode through the hallways of the main reception building, and several of the students who passed him stopped and stared. The Son of Hades ignored them, and headed straight for the front doors. Lunch had just begun, and he intended to head for his locker when he ran straight into a blur of blonde and white.
"Oh, I'm so sorry!" said a female voice.
Nico grunted and brushed himself off, before kneeling and picking up a book the girl dropped.
In permanent marker, a blur of black was scrawled on the front of the book. Nico stared at it for a moment, trying to read the name, even squinting to see if it helped, until the girl cleared her throat and he flinched out of his concentration.
"Oh, it's okay…um…"
"It's Artemis. Artemis Crock." She said.
He glanced up at her, and noticed how her blonde hair resembled Annabeth's in a way. Her face an Asian tint to it, and Nico guessed that she must've been a half Caucasian.
"Um, I better be on my way." she said, edging away from his intense obsidian black eyes.
The younger boy unnerved her, and it was pretty hard to intimidate Artemis, the Green Arrow's niece.
Nico shrugged and kept walking, and after grabbing his lunch, headed for Dick and Barbara who were sitting on the lawn talking while eating their lunches.
"Oh, hey Nico." said Babs, and Dick turned around so quickly Nico was surprised his neck didn't crack.
"What happened?" he said, his seemingly light tone seemed forced.
Nico frowned.
"An intruder came in, attacked me before jumping out the window."
"A 3-storey window? With no pipes or anything to climb off of? And no one saw this guy?" exclaimed Dick in a joking way, almost as if he was mocking Nico.
"Hey, I was there. You weren't. Don't go ape shit on me just cause some guy attacked me and you weren't there to see my ass getting kicked." said Nico, glaring at the other boy.
However, the demigod was actually surprised with himself whilst he was at the principal's office. He didn't think Mr. Willet would buy the story so quickly, nor the rest of the students and Mr. Bron.
"Okay okay, just settle down guys. Jeez. Nico's fine and dad's already sent some people to catch the guy."
Unlikely, thought Nico when he recalled how the Lamia had vanished in a column of fire. Dick and Nico glared at each other for a while, neither backing down nor surrendering. The tension in the air was so thick that Barbara had to whistle twice in their ears to get them to break away.
"Hello? Guys? I'm trying to tell you a case here." she said exasperatedly.
"Yeah Babs, we're listening." said Dick, glaring at his half-eaten sandwich while Nico fidgeted with his ring.
Dick had moved his eyes to the half-blood's actions, and found himself studying the ring intently. He swore he'd seen that ring before…somewhere.
"…Wayne Enterprises…"
Both Dick and Nico's heads snapped up when Barbara said this.
"What?"
Barbara rolled her eyes with a huff, but began her story yet again.
"There were two robberies last night. One had Wayne Enterprises and the other at S.T.A.R labs." stated Babs.
"What was stolen?" asked Dick, frowning at the possibilities if something important was stolen.
Babs shrugged, "No idea. Dad didn't say anything about that to me. Said it was confidential or something. But that's so not fair, I mean, I'm his daughter, it's not like I'm going to tell anyone other than you two."
And she then went on to say complain about how Commissioner James Gordon never tells her anything in detail. Neither Dick nor Nico was listening, however, when they both shared the same thought: the Italian project will have to wait.
"Room 790." said the nurse, and Robin thanked her with a nod, before heading for the elevator.
A surgeon was in the lift with him, and the man's eyes nearly bulged out of his head when he saw the Boy Wonder enter.
"R-robin?" he squeaked.
"One and only." smirked Robin, although he rolled his eyes inwardly at the reaction. It wasn't the first time he used the elevator with other people around.
The surgeon gawked at him for a moment, before taking out his phone when he got a message.
"Can I please take a picture? My daughter…she loves you."
Robin considered it for a moment, before replying with a sigh.
"Batman doesn't allow pictures…" he said, and disappointment was shown on the man's face. "But I guess I'll make this an exception." He said with a smirk, and needless to say, the surgeon would still have that grin on his face by the time he got home.
A ding! rang out, and the elevator slowed when it reached the seventh floor of Gotham City Hospital. Robin headed out with a wave to the surgeon, before heading down the corridor, in search of room 790. When he found it, there was a doctor standing outside, in a deep conversation with a nurse.
"How is he?" asked Robin.
Both the doctor and the nurse looked at Robin with surprised looks, before saying that their patient was in a stable condition. Robin nodded at this, and proceeded to enter.
"Dr. Stone?" he said as he entered.
A dark skinned man lay on the hospital bed, a bandage around his head and arm. Thick-framed glasses sat on his nose, and on his chin was a goatee. Next to him, a boy probably a year older than Robin sat by presumably his father and the he looked at the Boy Wonder in admiration when he entered.
"Yes, Robin?"
"What happened?"
Robin had already met Dr. Stone once before, when he had to deliver a meta-human's DNA to him.
"This man in a hood broke in just as I was locking up. He had chalk-white skin, shot some weird red energy things from his hands when he saw me. I took a few blows on my arms, and just as I was about to sound the alarm, he wanked me other the head with a fire extinguisher. Next thing I knew I was here."
"What did he steal?"
"A very dangerous and important serum. See, the experiment we were working on involved the scientists from Wayne Enterprises. The serum he stole was made of Induced Pluripotent Stem Cells mixed in with things like Potassium Chloride, Iron-Sulfur protein, Cacodylic acid. It was going to be a break-through experiment to help with flesh-destroying diseases."
"What was it meant to do?" asked Robin.
"It was meant to be the answer to help patients who suffer from incurable diseases such as Peripheral Arterial Disease or something like Diabetic Foot Infections. The idea is that instead of having to amputate their limps, the Cacodylic acid in the serum would first kill off the bacteria, and fuelled by the Iron-Sulfur protein, stem cells and Potassium Chloride, it would replace the damaged cells with metallic properties."
"So pretty much, it replaces bacterial-damaged body cells with metal?"
"Yes." said the bioinorganic chemist.
Robin nodded his head in thought, before asking the ultimate question.
"Do you know what happened at Wayne Enterprises?"
Dr. Stone shook his head.
"I'm sorry, Robin. I've heard nothing."
"So what was the deal, as in, if the scientists at S.T.A.R labs worked with the ones at Wayne Enterprises, which side did what?"
"We were the ones to provide the chemicals that are hard to obtain, and Wayne scientists provided the stem cells for experimentation. There's a three metre by three metre tube at their lab, filled with the serum. We miscalculated the amount of it that was needed and ended up producing too much of the base serum. It's not as strong as the final one that was stolen last night, because it lacks the Iron-Sulfur protein and Cacodylic acid, but a large amount like that would be dangerous for human contact, and if touched by any sort of flesh, regardless if it's dead or living, could have drastic results."
Robin frowned at this, for this serum was beginning to sound more and more like it was taken from one of Dr. Frankenstein's diaries.
"Results like…?"
"Horribly mutated skin, permanent open wounds due to the mixed stem cells and acids messing up the blood cells, the list goes on."
The chilly feeling of dread and anxiety washed over Robin as he realised how serious the robbery was.
"Thank you, Dr. Stone."
"Anytime, Robin. Victor, say goodbye."
The boy stuttered out one, and Robin waved, before turning and headed out the door.
"Any idea where it could've gone?" asked the scientist.
"No. It's like the tube just vanished. See? It looks like a huge chunk of the wall had been ripped out of it."
"I wonder what Mr. Wayne will say about this,"
"Probably just shrug and pay for it. Like he always does."
The other, male scientist unlike the other snorted.
"I doubt he even understands what the word 'science' means, and I don't think he'll give two living shits about how dangerous this really is."
"Yeah, tell me about it. I mean, he's away in Tokyo for business reasons? Please, I bet he's just taken an interest in exotic women."
The two scientists continued to talk on about their annoyance with their boss, but they'd said all Nico needed to know. He became one with the shadows, and emerged from the rooftop of the Wayne Enterprises building, stumbling slightly. Eavesdropping by hiding in the shadows was a tiring way to get information, but it was the only way to bypass all the security and go in without being seen or detected by heat-sensors. After all, shadows had no body temperature. Though Nico knew he should never try doing that for a long period of time ever again; he remembered what his father had said once, about exceeding the limits of his powers.
'If you shadow-travel too much, you could potentially be a shadow for the rest of your life, meaning that you will fade into nothing.'
Nico shuddered at the thought; he still had way more things to do before fading away. And he was a half-blood; he didn't want to die because he was careless and abusive of his own powers, it would be like a wolf biting off his own foot and bleeding to death. The tired Son of Hades leaned up against a vent that stuck out of the roof, taking a moment to gather his surroundings. He took out the folded map of Gotham from his pocket, and examined the crumpled piece of paper. He'd planned to investigate Wayne Tower after Gotham Power Plant, where the next location was, but after hearing from Barbara that there was a robbery, he decided to investigate the latter first.
Unknown to him, that very vent he leaned up against was actually the one of the power boxes to the many security cameras in the building, the electricity flowing straight into the one camera that was pointed right at him from the roof door several metres away.
"It's him." said Robin, frowning in annoyance as he stared at the hunched figure of the Ghost King, who leaned against what appeared to be an air vent on the roof of Wayne Tower.
"We have squad surrounding the building, and we've sent men guarding the staircases and every elevator entrance. This kid is going nowhere." said Commissioner Gordon, with an air of certainty.
"Would you like my officers to deal with him, or you?"
The Commissioner knew the answer, though, but it felt polite to ask.
"I'll deal with him myself." And with that, Robin strode forth and headed out the front entrance of the Tower.
"Wait, don't you want the lift or something?" Robin simply turned and smirked, before disappearing out the door.
"Couldn't stay away from all these valuable stuff, hey?" Nico jumped slightly, before cursing when he noticed Robin and the security camera for the first time. Wordlessly,
Nico began looking around for an exit, a door perhaps, but Robin's voice made him stop.
"Don't bother, the building's surrounded, and I'm sorry to say that your lies won't help you now."
Nico could fucking see the red and blue lights flaring off the police cars, three-hundred storeys above the ground; he hadn't realised how tall the Wayne Tower really was. He opened his mouth to say something, but a voice inside his head stopped him.
Save your breath, Nico, there's no point staying to chat. You've gotten the information you need, well, sort of anyways, so just go!
Nico wanted to scream at his subconscious for being a bloody idiot.
How?! He yelled inwardly, his eyes growing slightly frantic for an exit.
Look with your eyes, stupid.
Nico took a step back, and his heart stopped when his heels hit the ledge of the roof. He glanced behind and below him, and saw the policemen on the streets the size of ants. He glanced back up at Robin, who held a bo-staff crackling with electricity in his hands.
I could probably fight him…and then that thought was crushed when twenty or so officers burst through the roof door, Taser guns drawn and pointing at his chest. All hopes of shadow-travelling away perished. He bit his lip, glaring at everyone on the roof, the Boy Wonder in particular as he clenched his hands into balls of fists. He hated the thought of having to surrender and be arrested, but realised he had no choice. Slowly raising his hands, he sighed in defeat as he dropped into his pocket.
"Knives out, all of them." commanded Robin as the officers moved closer, arms never wavering, guns still pointed at him. He reached inside his cloak, about to take the first dagger in his pocket out…and that was when he noticed it. That was when he noticed how…Oh…I get it.
Nico froze in his actions, before slowing looking up, and the smirk on his face made the officers stop their advance and Robin's own smirk to fade a little. He took a step back, and Robin's eyes went wide when he realised what the Ghost King intended.
"No, wait!"
Too late. Nico had taken another step back, his feet meeting air as the sight of Robin and the officers disappeared from sight in a whoosh. His body was spinning in the air, and when his face spun towards the ground hundreds of metres below. The ant-sized people were growing into the size of his thumb, and their looks of horror became clearer and clearer as the ground came speeding towards him…
A/N LOL. Another cliffie. hehehe, I feel evil. Hypothetical high-fives to whoever noticed the two cameo appearences of two heroes (one that's not quite one yet ;) sorry if this is kinda bad, it's 12:55 in the morning and im so tired. Next update will be within the next week, thanks for reading! :) (also, come check out my tumblr! I reblog pretty random crap, but the link is on my profile! :)