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Chapter: 11
Dick jumped across rooftops, ignoring the twinge of pain each motion brought from his wounds caused by his fight with William. He looked around the area, frantically trying to find any sign of Darren. He and William had fought for a while, not that long but long enough for Darren to completely vanish. It was impossible, there wasn't even a hint of blood or any notion at where he had gone. He felt responsible, if only he'd arrived sooner, before William came. He and the Talons with him had disappeared once Dick had been knocked out. He didn't know why they didn't just kill him, Dick figured they thought at least they had a time advantage to find Darren or they just didn't care whether he lived or not. Dick limped to the edge of the rooftop only to jerk back and crouch down behind it. The three Talons were on the rooftop across from him, and William looked livid. The wind whipped away some of what he was saying, but Dick got some information from his yelling,
"He…away!" William growled, "He is fourteen…human!…bloody fools! How…outsmart you idiots! Just…Grandmaster….punishment!" Dick grimaced at that indication, he pitied those two Talons. That made things slightly better. Darren wasn't in the hands of the Court…he's just…lost…somewhere in Gotham, one of the most dangerous cities in the world,
"Just great," Dick muttered,
"Are…telling me…he took him!?" William thundered. Dick straightened at that, someone new had kidnapped Darren,
"Not good!" he growled, reaching up to activate his comm, which he should have had on the whole time everyone was probably worried about him, only to bit back a curse. It wasn't there, "Touché Cobb," Dick muttered. Talons may not be up to speed with all technology, but they knew about the communication devices he and the rest of Gotham's vigilantes used. They probably destroyed it. Now he could go all the way back to the Cave and tell everyone what he discovered…but that would take time. He instead stood and limped back the way he came. He pulled out his grappling gun and held it up, only to wince in pain and clutch his side,
"Okay…first I'm heading to Leslie's Clinic to get patched up…then I'm going to find out what happened to Darren," he muttered to himself tiredly before leaping—more like slumping—off the rooftop and to the ground. He nearly fell over when he landed, he must've lost more blood than he thought, and stumbled over the next few blocks to where he knew the clinic was. Sure Alfred was an expert medic, but when they were in the field and needed fast and superb medical attention, Dr. Leslie's Clinic was the place to be. He quickly went to her office window and rapped his knuckles on the panes. A light flickered on and the door opened. Leslie's face appeared in the window and she did not look happy,
"Do you people ever use doors?" she tut-tutted, as she pulled open the window and Nightwing clambered in. He landed roughly, causing him to hiss in pain, "Oh now what did you do to yourself my boy?" she asked, helping him up and guiding him into one of the medical rooms down the hall,
"I really just need a quick patch-up Doc. I need to be looking for someone," he said,
"And the others can't take this on while I deal with you?" she asked raising an eyebrow as she got together the supplies she needed. Dick answered her as he pulled off the top section of his suit,
"They don't know where this guy has been and it would take too long to go there and back to here just to fill them in. The person I fought destroyed my comm device. Cell phones aren't allowed in the field so there's that," Leslie rolled her eyes,
"Then use my phone,"
"For all I know only Alfred is in that cave right now. It's late enough that everyone is out already," Dick stated,
"Then I'm sure they'll find this boy. You need to rest," Leslie said as she started stitching up his slashes and deeper wounds. Dick tried not to fidget or wince. Usually she'd give him something for any pain but he'd refused anything because he needed to be aware right now. Not drowsy on pain meds,
"I can't rest. He's my cousin. I need to find him," Leslie's eyes widened at this but she didn't say anything, just focused on her work, "Do you know what happened to him?"
"No. I was knocked out for a bit…but from what I can tell someone, not the people who were after him or at least someone else who's after him, took him,"
"Seems he's a popular kid," Leslie said dryly,
"In an infamous way," Dick replied not smiling at her attempt of a joke, "The leg wound is the only thing worrying down there," he said kicking off his boot and rolling up his suit. She stitched that up but told him to come and see her after he found Darren. Dick promised he would and started towards the window only to stop noticing the computer on her desk,
"Could I borrow that?" he asked, already sitting at the desk and starting to type,
"Um…sure. My login is—,"
"Leslie Thompkins and mcKitty45, yeah I know,"
"How—?"
"Batman's kid," Dick said with a smirk. Leslie rolled her eyes in annoyance before saying dryly,
"You better not be doing anything illegal. I don't have the firewalls and security the batcomputer has,"
"I know. I'm going to be brief, I just need to know who took Darren and if it was near a road or somewhere that's within sight of some CCTV camera in Crime Alley it would give me that information," Dick typed as fast as he could, scanning the feeds and switching within the timeframes of when the whole attack took place. He followed as Darren sprinted away from his and William's fight, switching cameras as Darren darted across the street, the two Talons gaining on him. He lost him once he turned down a random alleyway but found him again when he turned down another alley near a traffic intersection…and the person who kidnapped him,
"It can't be him!" Dick exclaimed, "Why would he want Darren?!"
"Who?" Leslie asked but Dick had already exited out of the feeds and returned the computer to how it was before. He needed to find Darren and fast. One of Dick's enemies had his hands on him and Dick knew from past experience that was not a good thing, not at all. He was out the window and on the rooftops of Gotham city before Leslie could even blink or wave her goodbye.
"Should we be concerned that Nightwing hasn't radioed in yet tonight?" Tim asked Bruce as they leapt across the rooftops, "This isn't like him,"
"He can take care of himself," Damian replied, "Besides you arguing with him didn't help matters,"
"Oh you're one to talk, all you ever do is argue with everyone!" Tim snapped, glaring at the younger boy. Damian started to snap a retort only to be interrupted by his father,
"Knock it off you two or I'm sending you both back in," Bruce growled at them,
"It's quiet tonight," Barbara said through the comms as she leapt to her quadrant of patrol for the night, "It's strange,"
"Unexpected for sure," Stephanie's voice crackled in next, "But if there's anything I learned from doing this every night is that quiet means something big is about to happen,"
"Like a fourteen year old kid being killed and then resurrected as a Talon," Tim muttered, "I can't believe we didn't find him,"
"Don't beat yourself up. We tried…it's just the Court went underground…way underground. This was sprung on us so suddenly too, we didn't even know he existed until now!"
"It's weird though, how overshadowed he was. I mean I know it was the Powers's doing, but you'd think Gotham would remember the Crownes," Barbara mused,
"I think it had to do that they traveled so often. They were never really in Gotham enough to be fully recognized. They were very wealthy, they just didn't bask in it as much as the others did," Tim replied,
"And now we know why," Damian stated, "They were caught up in the web that is the Court of Owls,"
"Focus on the matter at hand," Bruce told them all, "I know this is frustrating and trying, but this is about more than just one person,"
"We know. It's just not many of us have relatives left. And yeah, I know. Blood makes you related, loyalty makes you family and the blood of the convent is thicker than the water of the womb and all that, but on a literal ancestral linage scale, not many of us have many blood relatives left. I have my mom, Batgirl has her dad, even Robin still has Talia! But Nightwing…he doesn't have any relatives left, this is a big deal for him. And he got to live a life free from the Court while Darren didn't. He'll feel guilty about it for a while," Stephanie said,
"We don't even know if they went through with what they planned to," Tim stated, "Perhaps we still have time?" he was being too hopeful,
"That's wishful thinking," Damian monotoned,
"Keep an eye out tonight, spread out. Send for backup if it's too much to handle on your own. Damian you're with me, and keep an eye out for Nightwing. If he's trying to find the Court something tells me William will be even less inclined to keep him alive than he would Darren." With that Tim leapt off to his location within Gotham, keeping a watchful eye on the city and all of them watched out for their missing bird.
A/N: Some Batfamily patrol moments there. Dick is still in search of his cousin and the others are oblivious to it all. Try to understand though, they have a city to protect and they can't just drop everything for one person.
Also, for those who don't know. The quote that states: 'The blood of the Convent is thicker than the water of the womb' is usually shortened to 'blood is thicker than water', but it doesn't mean what most would expect. The actual meaning is that bonds made by choice are more substantial and honored greater than the bonds made by blood or kin. I usually associate this quote to surrogate families in stories and such, but it is commonly referred to those who fight in or experience war.
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Next chapter tomorrow. Things of the Future will be updated on Monday as usual!
