Forgotten One Chapter 11, a batman fanfic

Chapter 11

Superman surveyed the gathered heroes around him. An emergency Justice League meeting had been called about the situation in Bludhaven. Batman hadn't shown up, but that was to be expected. The man was highly territorial and Bludhaven was way too close to Gotham for the man's comfort. He was probably waiting for the chaos to spill over the river.

Superman's attention was drawn back to the conversation when Oliver sighed loudly and crossed his arms. "I don't get why we can't just go to Bludhaven and take control of the situation. I mean we're the Justice League! People will understand if we butt in. And Nightbird, or Wingding, or whatever his 'name' is will understand. In fact, he probably will be thankful! Who wouldn't be?"

"We can't get involved in Bludhaven. We recently voted and unanimously passed an initiative that stated that the Justice League would not get involved in another hero's cities."

Wonder Woman turned to face him fully. "I was under the impression that that rule was only applied to members of the League. Small time heroes should not be solely responsible for major disasters without League assistance."

"I'd hardly consider the hero who is responsible for a forty percent decrease in crime in the most crime riddled city in the country to be a small time hero. The problem I see is that if we say we can interfere with non-League members, where do we draw the line? Next thing we know, we'll be interfering with League members with the justification that they aren't founding members. And then what? We become Batman? We interfere in everybody's business all the time? I don't want to go down that road. Besides, Red Hood is still keeping a watchful eye on Nightwing. If the two of them cannot handle it, I'm sure he will call in the Bat."

"Red Hood is not known for his love of his father. Are you sure that he will make the necessary call?"

Superman paused. She was right. Red Hood was not known for his relationship with Batman. In fact, it was the opposite. Red Hood was known to be highly irrational when it came to anything involving Batman. However. "Red Hood may have a rocky relationship with Batman, a relationship that we have no right to judge, but I can truthfully say that he would never endanger civilians. Even if it means swallowing his pride and asking for the Bat's help."

"Do you truly trust him that much?"

"No. But I do trust Batman's judgement. He wouldn't let Hood wander about, let alone monitor a new hero if he didn't trust the man. Additionally, I'm positive that Batman is monitoring the situation carefully. He'll let us know if we're needed. For now, we just have to wait."

Superman let out a small sigh. Knowing that all of them hated to watch and wait more than anything. They were heroes. They were supposed to be proactive. "Does anyone have anything else that they'd like to bring to our attention?"

###

Red Hood surveyed the room around him carefully. There was not a single doubt in his mind that this was one of a number of safe houses that Nightwing had in Bludhaven. Even in his current state, there was no way that he would willingly bring him to his home. A place where his secret identity would be revealed after minimal snooping. That said, the safe house that he was brought to was probably one of the nicer ones. There was a full medbay, and a computer that most likely linked to Nightwing's main frame.

Nightwing stumbled over to a cabinet filled with medical supplies withdrawing a syringe and a tourniquet. Expertly, he unzipped the upper half of his costume and peeled it off. Tying the tourniquet, he gave Hood a small smirk before sinking the needle into to crook of his arm. It only took a few moments for him to draw enough blood for what he needed. He shuffled over to the computer, unscrewing the needle from the barrel in the process.

Once at the computer, he screwed the barrel of the syringe into the little compartment, the blood immediately draining into the computer. The needle was thrown into the small incineration device. Red Hood glanced at the barrel, wondering if he would have a chance to collect the remains of blood after the tests were complete. All he needed was a single drop of blood to run a DNA test. Nightwing gave him a look, like he knew exactly what he was currently thinking, and hit another button on the council. A liquid squirted into the barrel, thoroughly cleaning the capsule and likely destroying any remaining DNA evidence. Well. So much for that idea. A little mystery was good for their relationship. Besides, Nightwing didn't know who he was, so their relationship was on somewhat equal footing right now.

Nightwing cleared his throat in a clear attempt to get his attention. "Did you call in reinforcements?"

Red Hood paused, debating. "Not yet, but I don't think he's gonna come. If we're lucky he'll send one of my brothers."

"Ten bucks says I can convince him. Call him."

"Deal," he said, simultaneously lifting his hand to his ear and clicking the small comm 'on' again. "Red Hood to the asshole in charge. Come in asshole."

"Red Hood."

"Requesting reinforcements in Bludhaven."

"You can have Red Robin. Robin and I are needed in Gotham."

Red Hood winced slightly before relaying the information to Nightwing. The hero's face clouded momentarily before he said, "Tell your mentor that he can either take a proactive stand and help us with the situation in Bludhaven before it makes its way into Gotham, or he can wait at the bridge like I'm sure he's doing until the chaos spills into his city most likely doubling his workload. Bludhaven may be a cesspool, but we don't have any crazies with powers."

"Hey. Not all our crazies have powers. Don't lump them all together."

"Just repeat the message, Hood."

"You got all that Bossman? Or do I need to repeat it?"

"Fine. Batman out."

Once again, Red Hood relayed the information to Nightwing. Nightwing gave him a Cheshire Grin before wiggling his eyebrows. "Told you I could convince him. I'll take my ten dollars in single bills. There's a vending machine where I work."

"Smug is not a good look on you."

"Yes it is. Everything looks good on me."

"You're an ass."

"Well they say that you are what you eat."

Red Hood blinked for a second before letting out a startled laugh. "Man, that was dirty. You caught me by surprise, I was not expecting that."

"I'm not innocent, you know."

"Could've fooled me."

"I was a teenage boy at one point you know."

"Wow. I'm surprised you remember that. That must have been so long ago!"

Nightwing's lips twitched before he let out a loud and carefree laugh. "True. It does feel like a few lifetimes ago. Have to say that I never thought I'd make it past eighteen."

"Same. And in a literal sense. I didn't."

Nightwing frowned and sighed, like he knew exactly what Hood was talking about. Which was impossible, wasn't it? Unless Nightwing knew about what happened with the Joker. Or worse, he knew who they were.

Nightwing let out a louder sigh and rubbed a hand down his face. "It was nice while it lasted. For a moment, I forgot about the hallucinations."

"Back with a vengeance?"

"Like an ex-girlfriend who's mad you moved on already."

"Yikes. That bad? Did the blood sample come up with anything good?"

"Not yet."

Red Hood pursed his lips, the helmet masking the expression. Nightwing wasn't doing good. That much was obvious. Whatever the drug was, it was messing with his head. They needed the lab results to come back quick.

The comm in his ear crackled to life once again. "Red Hood. Red Robin, Robin, and I are entering Bludhaven city limits. We need directions to your current location."

Red Hood made a face. He didn't really remember how they got to the safe house. "Uh. Hold on a second."

Nightwing smirked slightly and held his hand out expectantly. Red Hood bit back a growl. "Use your own comm! You don't need my helmet for that!"

Nightwing pouted. Legitly pouted. "You take all the fun out of things. Fine. What channel?"

"Two."

Nightwing pursed his lips, but changed the channel on the comm. Once again, Red Hood noted that the motion was practiced. He had no idea who Nightwing was, but he certainly had used comm units before.

"Hello Bat Fam. My name is Nightwing and I will be in charge the directions for your trip today. Please keep your hands and feet inside your vehicles at all times. We will be using back alleys today, so keep the speed appropriate and don't run over any friendly homeless men or women."

"Enough."

Nightwing rolled his eyes. Leave it to Batman to ruin his fun. At least his precious, oldest younger brother thought he was funny. He nibbled on his bottom lip for a second before letting out a small breath. "Okay, where are you?"

"Passing the Whaling Museum."

"Okay. Follow Highway 61. You want to go to the Melville Section."

A few moments later, Batman grunted, which Nightwing took to mean that he was entering said area. From there it was a matter of telling them to go right, straight, left, at the appropriate moments. When they were a block away, Nightwing instructed them to turn into an alley, remotely opening a false wall that lead to an underground tunnel. They would end up under his safe house in the parking garage.

Scrunching his nose slightly, Nightwing stood up and gestured for Red Hood to follow him to the hidden elevator. It was really too bad that this safe house would have to be burned after this. It was one of his favorites despite the fact that it was in a crappy part of town. Well, most of Bludhaven was a crappy part of town, but this was an especially crappy part.

Once they reached the garage, Nightwing pulled off his glove and put his hand on the scanner. The scanner and voice recognition were required to enter or leave the garage. Batman originally helped make the safe house which means that the security was overly cautious. Another way to put it, is that the Batman is a paranoid son of a Bat.

The scan of his hand completed, Nightwing slipped back on his glove. Time for the voice recognition part of the process. Looking slightly embarrassed, Nightwing said, "How many members of the Bat Clan does it take to screw in a lightbulb. None, they like the dark."

Red Hood gave him a look. Nightwing wished that he could see his facial expressions, but unfortunately the hemet prevented that. Finally, Red Hood shook his head slightly. "You're something else."

"It's voice recognition."

"Sure, and phrase too."

"Yeah. But to be fair, I had that phrase programmed since long before I met you. I always thought it was funny."

"I wouldn't call that funny."

"Whatever. Buzzkill. You should be nice to me, I'm hallucinating awful things and suppressing the need to kill you."

"Sounds like my life on a daily basis. Suppressing the need to kill the little devil that is my youngest brother."

"The feeling is mutual, Hood."

Red Hood turned, facing the direction where Robin, Red Robin, and Batman appeared. Nightwing seemed nonplussed by the appearance of the heroes of Gotham, simply turning around and leading them back up the stairs to the main safe house.

The Bats followed behind them quietly, the silence slowly becoming more and more deafening the longer that it went on. Nightwing was the one who broke it. "Thank you for coming. We're running blood analysis on me currently to see what the gas is. Hopefully it finished while we were downstairs."

Sure enough, the computer screen broadcasted two different chemical formulas as well as their creator's police records. Nighting twitched slightly. He should have known. "Looks like I wasn't wrong to ask you to come in after all. It appears that two of your villains are loose in my city. Not that I blame you for letting them cross the river. Who would miss two freaks like Mad Hatter and Scarecrow?"

###

Batman surveyed the room carefully. Red Robin was mumbling something while concocting an antidote. Nightwing was watching him, something akin to fondness flitting across his face. He looked up, noticed that Batman was observing him before sending him a smirk. Batman wasn't sure what to make of that. Nightwing stretched slightly, seemingly showing off.

Batman turned his attention towards Red Hood. His eldest son was watching him curiously. He probably wanted to know what he thought of his new friend. That should have been obvious. Batman thought that his so called friend wasn't trustworthy, he was an assignment. They needed to find out who he was and what his motives were. That hadn't changed.

Red Robin let out a small whoop, drawing Batman's attention. "I think I just synthesized an antidote. It should reverse the effects of the gas. I can't believe how complex this is. If they weren't bad guys, I'd be impressed by their genius. First the fear gas transforms people surrounding the victim into monsters, and then the nanobots in the gas kick in. The nanobots force the victim to attack the people surrounding them. No wonder the streets were in chaos. Really, it's a wonder that you were able to fight the urge. It would have been a nightmare to have to fight someone as well-trained as you appear to be Nightwing."

Nightwing gave a non-committal hum, not willing to rise to the bait that Red Robin was setting. His little brother was not so subtlety trying to figure out who trained him. Too bad Nightwing wasn't willingly going to divulge that information. They could probably figure it out if they studied him, but the answer would bamboozle them.

"How about we focus on giving me that antidote. I don't want to have to hold myself back from killing you anymore."

Red Robin gave an embarrassed smile like he had forgotten that Nightwing was doused. Grabbing a small needle, he injected the serum into the crook of Nightwing's arm. It took a moment, but it started to kick in. Around him, his brothers seemed to return to their normal forms and he no longer had the urge to murder them.

Batman tilted his head. "You are ex-special forces."

Nightwing raised an eyebrow, trying to keep his amusement contained and his facial expression neutral. "Oh?"

"Special Forces would give you the skills necessary to become a vigilante."

Red Hood snorted, before taking off his helmet. "Have you seen the guy fight? I wouldn't exactly say 'Special Forces.'"

Nightwing shrugged before nodding. "He has a point."

"Yet you did not deny that you were Special Forces."

Nightwing pursed his lips momentarily, not surprised at all that Batman didn't drop the subject. He just wished for once that the stubborn bastard would let it go like a normal human being. Then again, there was never a single being in the entire universe that called Batman 'normal.'

"You could say that I had specialized training."

"Once again, you failed to answer my question."

"And you're just going to have to deal with the fact that I am not going to answer your question at this point of time. Now if we were to build up the trust, if you were to treat me like an actual person, I might answer the question. Like if Red Hood were to ask me, the story might be different."

Nightwing gave his younger brother a pointed look, urging him to take the hint. Red Hood gave him a roguish grin, probably happy that he was about to help piss off Batman. "Hey Nightwing. Have you ever been employed by the military?"

"No. But I have worked for the government."

"So you were a spook."

"Sure. You could say that."

Nightwing grinned and turned to face Batman. "You see, it's not that hard."

Batman grunted, clearly not impressed by his impressive wit and humor. After a moment of silence Robin scoffed, clearly done with this conversation. "Are we going to focus on the real matter at hand? Now that Nightwing has been administered the antidote, we can actually focus on saving this damned city so that we can return to our own damned city."

Nightwing smiled. His youngest brother was so damned cute. He wished that he could take a picture of his small grumpy face. Or squish his little, chubby, chipmunk cheeks. It really was a shame that he would skewer him with his sword if he were to get that close to him.

"Your leadership skills are remarkable Robin. I bet you'll lead the whole Justice League one day."

"Ttt"

His brother was far too adorable. Maybe he had a meta gene that upped his cuteness factor through the roof. "Red Robin, how much of that antidote have you concocted?"

"Barely enough for you. I'm going to head back to Gotham and use the Batcave. I'll be able to create a bigger quantity there, probably of a higher quality too. No offense, but our equipment, and the chemical ingredients we have are of a much higher quality."

"None taken. While you do that, I suppose we will divide and conquer. We need to figure out where Scarecrow and Mad Hatter are holed up, and stop any further bombings."

"You think there will be more bombings?"

"There have already been two, which is more than I was expecting when I met up with Red Hood."

Red Robin gave a sage nod, his small smirk belying the innocent look on his face. "Explosions tend to follow my oldest brother around. He didn't tell you? Don't worry, you'll get used to it."

Nightwing's heart hurt. He was the oldest brother, not Hood. Red Robin should be complaining about his penchant to be kidnapped or his obsession with cereal, or his circus roots. Red Robin was giving him an expectant look, like he was waiting for him to laugh. Nightwing forced himself to do so.

Red Robin looked pleased with himself, which made it worth it he supposed. Red Hood looked at him, as if he knew that he was faking it. That was worrying. He needed to put some distance between the two of them. He was getting too close. He couldn't afford to get emotionally tied to his younger brother. Not when he didn't know who he was. It would hurt too much in the long run. He may have some masochistic tendencies, but that was too much even in his books.

He shook himself out of his reverie. He needed to focus. Red Hood was currently putting Red Robin in a headlock and rubbing his knuckles across his hair. A thought flitted across his mind that he was glad that Red Robin had ditched the cowl for the mask. It suited him much better.

"Enough."

Batman's growl automatically made Nightwing's back straighten. The action may have been subtle, but he guaranteed that his family noticed. They were far too observant not to.

"Okay. Hood and I can keep the riots down. Batman and Robin can look for their psychos."

"No."

Nightwing looked at Batman, slightly shocked by the blunt refusal. "Okay, why not?"

"Robin and I don't know the city well enough to be effective."

"Fine. I'll take Robin. We'll quell the riots. You and Red Hood can look for Scarecrow and Mad Hatter."

Batman gave him the infamous Batglare but Nightwing remained unruffled. He waited until the Bat turned to the side with a swoosh of his cape. "Fine."

Red Robin looked between them before gesturing for them to once again go to the garage. "Glad that's settled. Can we go now?"

Nightwing rolled his eyes. He was so damn impatient. The again, Bludhaven was a mess and they should probably be paying some attention to it. Once again he lead the party to the garage, opening the door with his hand print and the voice recognition. Batman wasn't pleased by the phrase, but Red Robin found it hilarious.

Red Robin and Robin brought their own bikes, which was lucky. The last thing Nightwing needed was Robin riding on the back of his bike with him. It would be too much like old times. It was already too much like a blast from the past.

###

Robin stared at the black and blue clad hero next to him. They just stopped a robbery at a tech store. He was sitting on top of one of the obnoxious neon billboards, surveying the city for more riots. The hospital was cordoned off by the police, and the streets surrounding city hall were also blocked from public access. The public was warned to stay indoors with their doors locked.

Robin surveyed the hero next to him. His build was nowhere near as impressive as his father's or Red Hood's. He was lithe, and his style was far different from the ones he had seen before. The man's movements were graceful and acrobatic. One would expect that his movements wouldn't be powerful, but they were. They were also well-practiced. Whoever Nightwing was, he had been well-trained.

Nightwing turned to him with a small smile. He knew that he was being observed. He was very well-trained. Most people didn't notice when Robin watched them. He was too well-trained for them to notice when he was observing them.

Nightwing didn't seem to mind, not commenting at all. Instead he said, "There seems to be a guy rampaging down there. Wanna tie him to the lampost? I gotta make a phone call."

"To Grayson?"

"No. To Sergent Rohrbach."

"Oh."

Robin didn't stay for Nightwing to comment further. He jumped off the roof, and down to the man causing a ruckus on the street. It didn't take much effort to knock the man out and tie him to the lampost like Nightwing suggested. It would keep him immobilized until they were able to administer the cure.

When he returned to the rooftop, Nightwing was frowning at his phone.

"What is the problem, Nightwing?"

"She didn't pick up. That's odd. I can't help but feel like there's something wrong."

Robin scoffed. Nightwing was truly a moron if he thought that he would figure anything out without his help. He had been a hero much longer. He would allow Nightwing to stew for a while. Once Nightwing realized that he couldn't figure it out alone, he would share with him. Then Robin would use his superior intellect to solve Nightwing's problem.

For the meanwhile, he would solve another pressing matter. "Any word on Grayson?"

"No. Look kid, I told Red Hood this, but Richard Grayson can take care of himself."

"I'm not worried about him!"

Nightwing rolled his eyes fondly. "Huh. Sure sounds like you're worried."

"I'm not!"

He held his hands up in surrender. "Okay. Whatever. You're not worried. The point still stands. Richard Grayson is a survivor and there is no situation that I can't see him thinking his way out of. He'll be fine. If it makes you feel better, we can keep our eyes open."

Robin frowned. Grudgingly, he said, "Fine. That sounds acceptable."

"Good." Nightwing gave him a smile, and Robin couldn't help but give a small smile on return.

###

Batman stood on the tallest building of Bludhaven surveilling the city. Oracle was looking at building plans, transmitting the images into his cowl. Next to him, Red Hood was sitting quietly, probably looking at the same blueprints that he was. They had already gone to three separate locations that housed the likelihood of being the location that Scarecrow and Mad Hatter were holed up in.

So far, there was no other location worth looking into, though that would change soon with Oracle on the hunt. Turning to face his son, Batman inspected him. He seemed relaxed. More at ease than he had seemed in months. Then again, all of them had been tense for the last year. The reason for that, had yet to be discerned.

"You became his friend."

Red Hood turned to face him, tilting his head in acknowledgement. "I did."

"He was your assignment and yet you allowed him to become your friend."

"Have you met the guy? It's hard not to become his friend. And I did my job. I analyzed his motives. Judged just how dangerous he would be if he turned against us."

"Oh?"

"He's dangerous alright. But he's also a hero. Total boy scout. More so than Superman."

"He could be fooling you."

"You can't hide your morals. Not that well at least. Not from someone as well-trained as I am."

"Hm."

Red Hood knew him well enough to realize that that was a dismissal, turning to look out over the city. They sat together in comfortable silence for a few minutes before their commms crackled on. "Batman. I have another location for you and Red Hood to check out. Sending it to you now."

"Understood, Oracle. On our way."

###

Nightwing frowned, studying his phone. He sent Robin to stop a dispute again so that he could once again try to reach Amy again. This time, she picked up. "How are you doing?"

"Nightwing, you called in the Bats."

"The situation was getting a little too far out of hand for me to handle alone. You didn't answer me. How are you doing?"

"I'm fine."

"Good. I'm glad that you're okay, Amy."

"Amy? My name is Alice."

Nightwing's eyes widened before he hung up. Alice. She said her name was Alice. There was only one person that had an obsession with Alice.

Robin landing softly next to him. "You look like he's seen a ghost."

"She said her name was Alice."

"What?"

"She called herself Alice."

"Who?"

"Amy. She said her name was Alice."

"Mad Hatter kidnaps women to make them his Alice."

"I know. I think I know where they are."

Robin frowned, putting all the pieces together. "They're at the police station."

Nightwing nodded. He felt lightheaded with all the thoughts, the statistics, racing through his head. "The one place that nobody would ever think to look. And if Amy's under Hatter's control, then so are the rest of the police officers. Nobody's safe. And I just inadvertently let them know that we're onto them."

A/N: Wow. Sorry for the long wait. And for those of you wondering about the updating schedule...I update when I finish a chapter. I don't have any schedule or set time when I sit down and work on this story. I am super busy with school, so I don't know when I'll be able to update next. I am taking more credits this semester than I was last semester which means more school work.

People were also wondering about if I know the ending or am planning on finishing this story, and the answer is yes. I do plan on completing this story and I do roughly know how this story is gonna go. Granted, every chapter things that I wasn't planning to happening, happen, so which is why the plan is very rough.

I really hope that you guys liked the chapter and that it was worth the wait!