"Follow me," Leslie spoke quickly, leading Dick to a back hallway and up a flight of stairs.
Confused, Dick raised an eyebrow as soon as their feet slapped against the tiles of the second floor of the hospital.
"How much do you know?" the elderly woman asked as she turned back to the man whose injuries she had treated since he had been a young boy.
"Oh," Dick breathed and ran a hand through his hair in an attempt to distress the knot of information all tangled up in his brain, "I know that whoever this is, is after all of us, possibly knows who we are and as far as I know, has gotten every one of us that isn't in this hospital currently. By the way, I need this ID."
The hero pulled the hook of his cable that had been stained with the person's blood from his pocket and handed it to Leslie.
"What about the cave, or the bunker?"
Here, the man sighed, "All the entrances to the cave around the Manor have been caved in or sealed and the bunker-"
He remembered when he had checked in on his old HQ. Thankfully, he had still been able to access it and hide the Batmobile inside but-
"I could blame the torn and severed state of the wires on invading rats and mice but the internal damage to the machinery was definitely someone with a motive. The Batmobile is on high lock down for the time being."
"Oh my," Leslie breathed.
A silence settled between the two for a few seconds.
"Dick, what are we going to do?"
The acrobat narrowed his eyes in determination, "I'm going back out there."
"You can't go alone!" the doctor protested.
"I'll have to. Damian just woke up, there's no guarantee that the toxin's completely gone from his system, Bruce and Alfred are still comatose, and our cat duo have been running around for a strait 48 hours without sleep, and from the looks of it, you've gone a bit longer."
Leslie smiled slowly and wiped at the cover up under her eyes, dark shadows revealed themselves, "Selina said it would work."
Doctor Leslie and Selina Kyle/Catwoman sharing beauty tips.
NOW he had seen everything.
Dick just shook his head, "I'm not going to question that. Just," his voice dropped a few decibels, "I just need you to look after everyone here."
"I will Dick, don't worry about that. This ID will have to wait until tomorrow, that's the only time I'll be able to sneak around security."
The hero nodded sharply, "Now I have to go."
"There," Leslie said, pointing out a nearby window to a fire escape on the next building.
"Perfect," Dick said with a smirk.
"But please see the others before you leave and if you're going to be running around the city be careful. I may be a woman of medical science but I just have this bad feeling that-"
A hand on her shoulder stopped her sentence and she looked up into a bright smile, "Don't worry, I'm going back to the Manor to look around some more. I don't plan to scour the city for the rest of the night. If I'm not back by 2:00am, take the others and go see Commissioner Gordon. Tell him Nightwing sent you."
With that, he turned to the window, opened it and jumped across the space that separated him from the next building's fire escape. In less than three seconds he was ascending the fire escape, attempting to get to its rooftop.
Back in the hospital, Doctor Leslie looked on with sad eyes, "Be careful boy."
With a last breath, she closed the window, backed up to the staircase that had lead her and her companion to the second floor and took out a remote from her lab coat pocket. She pressed the object's single green button and the camera in the hallway turned to the window.
Thank goodness she could display freeze frames on every camera in the building for as long as she wished.
Silently, she slipped the remote back into her pocket; put the bloodstained hook in a plastic bag before inserting it into an inside pocket and she went back downstairs.
Kitrina yawned and stretched her arms up towards the ceiling before glancing over at the prone figures lying comatose on the beds. Bruce Wayne and Alfred Pennyworth were as silent and unmoving as stone statues. She chanced a glance at her mentor and followed the woman's gaze to the child sitting on a chair beside the bed.
Damian was asleep.
For the girl, it was awfully boring. She wished they were still out in the city, what good did sitting around here do? Sure she was a bit tired but she was more bored just sitting here. The girl considered turning around from where she was sitting by the window and gazing out to see if there were any bad guys around the perimeter of the building but that would probably be 'dangerous' as the adults put it. So she just sighed and leaned back against the window.
Tip-tap!
She heard the small sound and felt the vibrations through the glass. Selina looked up as well when she turned to draw back the curtain. Imagine the cats' surprise at the sight of Nightwing hanging in front of the window.
Kitrina scowled and opened the window, "Where have you been?"
"Seeing about an ID on that blood," he answered her truthfully.
The blue and black clothed hero's eyes scanned over the people inside, his eyes dropping at the ones unconscious at the moment. For some strange reason he felt that they looked cold. Pushing the random thought out of his mind, the acrobat handed over two small earphone communicators to Kitrina.
"Listen, I need to find a way to the Batcave."
"You can't go out there alone," Selina said and then grew silent when Damian shifted slightly in his sleep.
Thankfully he settled down again into a peaceful sleep and they all breathed silent sighs of relief.
"I'm just heading back to the Manor. If there's any chance to get back into the cave, the entrances there will be the ones I'm most familiar with and I might find some clues. You all stay together; use the communicators to stay in touch with me."
With that, the hero swung off into the night.
"That guy is going to get killed," Kitrina said with a huff while crossing her arms over her chest, "I bet he doesn't even have a clue what he's doing."
"He never does. That idiot."
The felines turned at the voice and noticed that Damian was sitting up strait, wide awake.
That sneaky little assassin!
The youngest got to his feet and walked towards the window before turning back towards the others with a glare, "I'm going after him, unless one of you is going to try to stop me."
Selina just tilted her head with a smirk, "Go after the 'idiot' and make sure he doesn't lose an arm or something."
The newest Boy Wonder smirked and left via the window.
"How come he gets to leave!"
And Kitrina's protest was the last thing Damian Wayne heard before he was climbing the fire escape of the next building and flipping up to the rooftop.
Dick found himself waiting on the same branch that he had before. It was the exact same one he had literally "caught" the bus from.
So here he was, yet again.
"You can come out from the bushes, I know you're there."
Below, there was a huff and a rustling of leaves as a figure moved from a group of bushes below.
"Took you long enough."
Dick smirked at the response, "I knew you were following me when you stubbed your toe on that brick back on Fifth Street."
"You know sometimes I really hate you?"
Nightwing closed his masked eyes with a smile, turned his head down and reopened the pools of blue. He spotted the brightly clothed figure below quite easily. Secretly, he was glad that the full yellow cape had returned to the iconic costume. The ole was back.
"You should be back at the hospital with you father, you know?"
There was a silence below that caused the elder hero to frown in worry. Was everything alright with the boy? It seemed only natural that a child would stay with their parent in this situation-
"I'm helping."
Helping wouldn't be word that Damian would say normally, but the way he said it-like there wasn't a debate that could change his mind-
He should send him back but then again-he probably should have done that before. The only problem was that even Fifth Street was far from the hospital. Sending the boy back through the city couldn't be even a decent idea in the slightest now that they were even further out and nearing the wreckage of the Manor.
Whether it was for the best or the worst, the elder sighed and tilted his head towards the area in the distance where the remains of the Manor rested, "Let's go."
Dick couldn't help but nearly pout at the smirk that fell over Damian's face at his invitation. At times, he hated getting attached to this kid.
As they continued their way through the trees though, and the newest Robin stepped on a weak branch that broke under his weight, Nightwing found it all a bit OK as he reached out and plucked the bird up before he could fall.
OK, so in the end-maybe it was all worth it.
Ruffling through the dead leaves that covered the underground entrance revealed that the break in the ground was indeed barricaded with debris from the collapsed barn. But something wasn't-
Dick reached out and tugged at a rotten board draped in a white and black colored moss.
At its assumed rate of decomposition, it should've splintered away from the remaining main body of the wooden plank easily.
It caught tightly and held fast.
Muttering a hum under his breath, Nightwing turned and reached for a dark metallic, pipe and pulled.
It held fast as well. Even with his above average strength, it held fast. Something was just unusual about this. Everything was packed surprisingly tightly for a collapsed building. Given a random packing of debris from a collapsed structure could, in effect, be packed very tightly, but everything here just fit too well.
Like it had been…manually packed.
He sighed, his thoughts drifting around and away from the situation. Any chance he could lure a grizzly bear or elephant out here to move this stuff? His ebony hair was blown from his face as his eyes followed the gust up towards a group of trees in the extreme distance.
Nope. No grizzly bears or elephants living here.
His masked blue eyes went back down, scanning over the grassy lawn. There was no evidence of any kind of burning, so it was obvious that fire hadn't touched the Manor in any way, hadn't been part of its destruction. Walls were face down on the ground, windows lay in heaps of glass, debris was strewn about in every direction and everything was quiet. There were no animals around either. Whatever had happened had definitely been a big commotion to scare them all away and keep them away. In that sense, it couldn't have been the fear toxin from the Scarecrow. It wouldn't scare every creature away from one area alone.
He bit his lip silently and left the area. Nothing. There was nothing. Whoever had done this was good and thorough, explicitly thorough. Walking around the remainder of the Manor's interior revealed little more to him; he pushed his feet through the inches of debris that covered the floor and continued his seemingly meaningless search. Boards, stones, bricks and concrete slabs were all his eyes continued to find. Running a hand through his hair in aggravation he turned to a still standing door and kicked it down when it was impossible to open. The whole doorframe was still standing with it…
The door fell back after another few kicks and Nightwing released a breath when the wood finally hit the floor. Inside, it didn't take him long to discover whose room he found himself in. Seeing something glint in response to the light that he took out to search the dark room, he found as recognition filled his mind. In the closest corner was a sword sheath with the most minimal of decorations covering it. The object's matching sword lay a few feet from it, in about a dozen pieces.
It was Damian's.
This was the kid's room.
Funny, this room had been on the third floor. Pretty well structured then, impressive.
Dick ignored the splintered sword and made his way to the center of the room where the room's king sized bed was in about thirty pieces itself. Everything that could be torn was and every piece that could have been broken was as well. That's when something on the opposite side of the bed caught his eye as well as the beam of light.
It was a thick chain.
From what he knew, Damian didn't especially like chains after that incident with the Joker. Shudder, he told himself not to think about it too much. A second thing he was storing away for the time being. As he stepped over the flattened bed and crouched down to get a closer look, his heart near skipped a beat when he noticed the details he should've noticed immediately. The chain was covered with numerous spikes for one and each spike was tipped with blood.
OK, he had not seen any wounds on Bruce or Alfred that could've been caused by such a device.
It was clearly a wrapping chain the way it was made.
So who-ugh, wasn't this entire situation a big enough tangle of knots already?
Take a deep breath, observe.
The blood was long dried, but not impossible to get a DNA signature from.
A ring echoed out from his earpiece communicator.
Wasn't the cats, but Damian. He had told him to check the perimeter of the Manor while he took the more dangerous task of checking the inside. More dangerous, but frightfully much more progressive in the beginning.
As Damian spoke, something flashed in Dick's mind.
The only one he had seen with wounds was-
Damian!
As the call came through though, he tried to keep the worry from his voice. You know, try to sound professional and all that.
Beside a crumbled wall, a little bird was picking at the grass with his eyes, fighting an unknown. The heat seeking adaption to his mask was very helpful as Damian's eyes scanned the side field of Wayne Manor, passing over grass both dead and alive, broken trees and lawn statues and everything else that had once made up the place.
So, he was completely focused on scanning the yard until-
"The back is clear other than the entrance to the Bat-Cave being stopped up with the collapsed barn."
Nightwing reporting in, at least he had something to report.
"..."
"You OK Robin?"
The Boy Wonder felt the muscles in his right hand jerking. NO! He was fine! The new fear toxin was NOT controlling him again. He would maintain control! He was Damian Wayne and would not allow a menial substance in his bloodstream to overcome his right to-
After sidestepping an old log he felt the wounds on his body twist uncomfortably. He bit his lip in response and took a shaky but silent breath. He should not be bothered by such a meaningless pain. Surface wounds were not serious.
"Nothing by the old dead tree Nightwing," he reported, though he realized that even under the log, the place was devoid of insects and every other type of creature.
"Check the cottage," the elder said, was his voice wavering or the communicator just losing power?
"But it's nothing but a brick wall," Damian protested, what good would come-
"..."
"Fine!" he yelled in exasperation, stupid Grayson, what could possibly be near the cottage?
It was a good 500 feet from the barn out back that the elder hero had just been examining. The idiot was being lazy as well as stupid.
He didn't see anything here either why would Dick want him to-
His breath caught and he must have near gasped because his mentor's voice immediately followed the release of breath.
"What is it Robin? Are you OK? Robin?"
He didn't need to ask. Damian could already hear the fool near jumping over Wayne Manor to get to him.
"I'm fine, and I found...something."
The boy noticed how the ground was a bit darker in one place below one of the trees and how, as he stepped to the side at the perfectly correct angle, something glinted that laid on the patch of darkened dirt.
It was only when he picked up the object that he could have the opportunity to guess at what it was; a gleaming, red, flat and bent piece of glass, like someone would use in a helmet to cover their eyes. And he had noticed from where his fingertips had brushed the ground, the dirt there was wet.
But who would have such a-?
Robin glanced up as he caught the black and blue costume of Nightwing rushing towards him. He had told him that he was fine!
-Yikes! And that little note reminded the boy to focus double time to stop his hand from shaking. Stupid muscles and fear toxin!
"Robin?"
The boy turned and held up the glass eye plate. In response, the older hero dug his heels into the dirt to stop and stare at the object in shock. But that look was unusual and so weird that it was too obvious. Now mask on or off, Damian could just as plainly see that his previous mentor was surprised. When Dick's eyes narrowed behind his mask seconds later, the boy was quick to ask after the information he required, knowing that what they were facing was someone that the elder knew.
"Who did this?"
"I-"
"I know that look. YOU KNOW. You know who this belongs to, you know who's doing this and you're going to tell me now!"
Damian punctuated the sentence by near stomping towards Nightwing, his hand on his sleeve, probably ready to go for a hidden knife of some kind. Nightwing gritted his teeth and held out his hand.
"Give that to me," Dick ordered his face dark and eyes near glaring.
Perhaps it was the time he had spent seeing the guy as Batman that made him hand over the red glass plate, maybe the bit of toxin still in his blood played a part too, but when the elder hero's hand wrapped around it Damian tightened his grip, "When you tell me who this is."
"Robin I-"
"YOU KNOW! TELL ME!"
"Robin listen, it's important that we get back to the hospital and to the others before-"
"Grayson don't you dare act like my father and keep information from me! We were Batman and Robin once, partners! Don't you dare keep secrets from me!"
No one could claim that the youngest 'Bat' didn't leave an impression on anyone that he met.
In a normal sow of compassion, the elder reached out and clasped Damian's hand between each of his and spoke softly.
"I'll tell you on the way, I promise."
Sincerity was one thing the younger was familiar with only because of the other hero. Now feeling awkward, Robin only nodded and pressed his lips together firmly. He would get the whole story before speaking.
Rebelling against his old mentor was one thing, but disrespecting him was quite another. He would never allow himself to fall that low.
Let me know in a review if you'd like me to update with another chapter tomorrow.
~Moonsetta