Oh man, I feel so bad…
It's been months…
I'm so sorry. Finals and tests and band stuff…
I'll leave all the personal stuff out to save space. If you'd like to hear the details of my boring life, then PM me or something, LOL
Also, I'm SO sorry for not being able to reply to everybody's reviews. I read every single one of them, but I haven't been able to reply. Stupid, stupid electronics.
(By the way, if you tell me that I made you cry, I laugh. Thought I'd throw that out there)
This one will be almost immediately followed by another chapter; I promise. I have a camp next week (this week? Not sure..) so I can't post then.
Also, this chapter has some dates in case you all were confused on when this stuff was happening. I'm confused too, actually… My timelines are all jacked up…
This doesn't belong to me, because if it did, something like this would've happened. Hehehe…
Robin came back to consciousness slowly. His neck hurt like nothing else, making him slightly grateful for the cold floor he was laying against. Every breath was a painful struggle, and the groan he attempted to mutter didn't come out at all.
Maybe it did, actually. But it burned to even try.
Slowly pulling himself to his knees, he tried to remember what had happened. Joker had wanted the codes from him, so he…
Wally…
He was bleeding. All over the floor, red painting the walls and the cement floor and his hands…
Hesitantly, Dick looked down. Even in the dim lighting, he could see his fingers glistening with blood. It would've been okay if it had been his own, but it wasn't.
It was Wally's.
His mind washed over with panic, and he managed to get towards the edge of the bird cage before violently heaving. The sharp tang of acid mixed with blood washed over his tongue, the only things his stomach had to lose.
After a few minutes, Dick crawled away towards the other side of his prison, sweat rolling down his face. He wiped his best friend's blood off on his pants, hoping the black would hide the dark red.
It was his fault.
Yes, Wally had speedy healing because of his powers and would probably be fine. But he was still bleeding. And it was the Joker. Who knows what that psycho could've done?
He knew he really shouldn't have given the codes away, but what choice did he have? He wasn't just going to let Wally die when he could save him. Joker would've probably gotten another captive anyways. Besides, anything the Joker sent would go right to the…
Oh no.
He hadn't been thinking. He'd given the wrong ones. Yes, he'd given Joker only the code to send pre-recorded videos, but he hadn't given him the one for the Watchtower.
Joker had the code to send videos to Mount Justice.
To the Team.
Dick groaned softly, closing eyes.
Could this get any worse?
He didn't want to know.
(line)
To say that Bruce was mad was a major understatement.
When he had gone with Barbara on Tuesday (Wednesday, really, considering that it was a minute before midnight when they'd gotten there) to investigate the scene, he hadn't done much. He could've spend hours in there, looking at every blood spatter and every single little out of place thing, to figure out exactly what had transpired.
But he hadn't wanted her to see all that.
Yes, Barbara is two years older than Dick. Yes, her father is a cop and probably brings some gruesome cases home that she looks at. Yes, she's probably seen things like the blood spilled across the floor of the kitchen.
But it's different when it's your son, or in her case, best friend. Barbara didn't deserve to have to be surrounded by that for much longer. After she'd broken down, he'd left, telling the police to preserve the scene. He'd taken her home before returning to report to Alfred.
The next night, on Thursday, he'd given the Team an easy mission to get them a bit distracted, at Black Canary's insistence. A drug bust in Gotham that he'd intended to hit with Dick and Barbara before… all this.
With the Team successfully distracted and Dinah appeased, he'd headed back to the house- alone, this time. Looked everything over- four times.
From what he could see, it looked like Joker had dragged Dick in through the back door and upstairs. Then he'd… put him in the bathtub? That was the confusing part.
After that, it appeared that Dick had been thrown down the stairs- even thinking it made Bruce's fists clench up in anger- before he'd been beaten in the kitchen. It still wasn't evident with what, which was probably for the best, considering how pissed he was without even knowing.
All in all, Bruce had spent upwards of four hours at the scene, and even longer than that running various samples in the Batcave. The entire time he'd been doing that, his communicator had been ringing. It had been a combination of Black Canary, Diana, and Green Arrow, but he'd ignored it for the night.
Now, he was finally home from an all-day Wayne Enterprises- for lack of a better word- thing. At nine o'clock at night. Some meeting where he had to sign papers and agree to things he didn't care about or listen to.
His time was wasted. He needed to find Dick, not sit around pretending to pay attention to some unimportant business.
"Welcome home, sir."
Bruce sighed, wiping the evident irritation off his face to nod at the butler. "Thank you, Alfred."
Alfred, ever faithful, smiled kindly and took Bruce's coat to hang it up. "I have prepared a small meal for you, sir, before you return to the cave."
Bruce nodded and walked towards the kitchen. Even with all the chaos going on, Alfred could always be counted on.
He'd barely taken a seat before Alfred was back. "Sir, your Justice League communicator has been ringing for the majority of the day."
Bruce raised an eyebrow, taking a bit of the sandwich Alfred had made. "Did you answer it?"
"No, sir. I figured it would be best if you did that yourself. Whoever is calling does seem to be quite persistent, however."
Bruce sighed and stood up, grabbing the sandwich and heading downstairs. "I'll check it out. Thank you, Alfred."
"Of course, sir." The phrase was said without the slight hint of laughter Bruce was now accustomed to. Whether the butler would admit it or not, he too was affected by Dick's absence- he couldn't stand to think of it as an abduction; that sounded too helpless.
The manor was reverting back to the darkness it had been in before the arrival of the hyperactive circus boy. And though Bruce told himself that, should he have to (he wouldn't), he would be able to readjust himself to the silence. But Alfred would miss it dearly, no matter how well he could hide anything.
Shaking those thoughts off, Bruce stepped down into the Batcave. Sure enough, his Justice League communicator was chirping some vibrant pop tune he didn't know the name of. The Dark Knight smiled fondly. Dick was always messing with ringtones on important devices, just to see the reaction he'd get.
Bruce picked up the small device and stuck the earpiece in his ear. "This is Batman. Go ahead."
"Do you ever pick this damn thing up? The entire League has been trying to get a hold of you for almost twenty-four hours, doing everything but heading out there to go get your sorry ass."
Bruce bristled slightly. "Is there something you need, Dinah?"
Black Canary sighed quietly. "You need to come to Mount Justice."
"Why? I'm busy."
"Well get unbusy," she hissed, hanging up.
It was unusual for her to lose her temper like that. Dinah was always remarkably patient…
Finishing the sandwich to appease Alfred, Bruce quickly changed and used the Zeta beam to get to Mount Justice.
The team was assembled in the main area with Black Canary hanging back, watching them worriedly like a mother hen. Miss Martian, though not crying, looked to be in shock. She was leaning against Superboy, who- for once- appeared to be more upset than angry, for once. Aqualad was a little bit blank, and Artemis looked like she'd been… crying?
There should be five of them…
"Artemis. Aqualad. Miss Martian. Superboy. Report."
Unsurprisingly, the Atlantean was the only one to step forward. "The drug bust was successful, Batman. All information has been forwarded on to the Justice League through Green Arrow."
The elder hero nodded. "Then where is Kid Flash?"
All of them looked down, with expressions nearly identical to the ones he'd seen when they'd first reported Robin's absence. It was too much to hope for that the speedster was simply in the infirmary.
"I called in that the ship was about to pull in," Miss Martian reported, her voice nearly emotionless. "And it hadn't even pulled in before… before…"
"Wally was yelling over the mind link." Artemis took over for the other distraught girl. "He was threatening someone, and swearing. We were trying to get him to respond, but he wouldn't… Then he dropped out of the link."
Batman raised an eyebrow under the cowl.
"He was knocked unconscious," Miss Martian added quietly. "And we think he got taken…"
"Didn't you go check?" Bruce asked, crossing his arms.
"I went and checked," Superboy muttered, scowling slightly. "Everybody else took out your stupid drug dealers. There was nothing there when I looked."
Before the Dark Knight could reply, a beeping rang out through the Cave.
"Incoming message?" Black Canary stepped up, pulling up the holographic keyboard. "A video message…" She turned to Bruce in question, who nodded.
"Let it through."
The holographic screen popped up in midair, and a second later, mad laughter filled through the cave.
"Hello, kiddies and heroes!"
"Joker!" shouted Superboy, taking a defensive stance.
Various threats and insults were shouted over the laughter, thought Batman himself stayed calm. On the outside, at least.
"Now, before you get all riled up, you need to know that this is a recording. So anything you're saying, I can't hear!" He giggled again, doubling over.
"Quiet," Batman growled. Silence from the team- and Black Canary- followed the command.
"Now, I need to talk to Batsy and Fish Boy. So you have a couple seconds to find them. I'll wait." Joker leaned away from the camera and sat back in his chair, whistling some twisted circus tune.
Aqualad looked over at Batman, who walked to stand over next to the team leader.
"Time's up!" Joker grinned and moved to the edge of his seat again, peering into the camera. "Alright, Batsy goes first. First off, Robbie sends his love. You saw that on my card, right?"
Bruce clenched his fists, masking his anger fairly well. Artemis swore bitterly behind him, but no one chastised her.
The heart had been drawn in blood; he knew that. But only now did it hit home that it was the blood of his son.
"He also apologizes for making such a yucky mess on the floor of those poor people's house. He would've cleaned it up, but we didn't have that much time." The Joker started laughing again, oblivious to the fuming Bat in front of him.
How dare that psycho make a joke out of Robin's pain…
"And now to the more serious part." The smirk and laughter stopped abruptly. "You're going to find him on my terms. So, if you put any detective work into finding him before I say it's okay, I'll gas half of Gotham and kill Bird Boy. Got it?" He started cackling again.
Bruce scowled at the floor, but realized it wasn't worth the risk. The clown really would go through with his threats. He couldn't risk it.
"Alrighty! Fish Boy, you're up next!" Aqualad stiffened next to Batman. "Now, I'm sure you've realized by now that you're short a buddy. Don't worry! He's waiting for you to come find him. I usually put my toys back where I got them, so you shouldn't have much trouble finding him." The Joker leered into the camera. "Might wanna hurry though. I've heard that he heals pretty fast, but I'm not sure how much blood he can lose!" More giggling followed that statement.
"So he means the docks where we did that drug bust?"
Batman turned around to face the rest of the team, nodding at Miss Martian's words. "Yes. But I'm coming with you."
"We don't need a baby sitter," snapped the clone.
"Ta-ta for now!" The screen vanished.
"I'm not giving you an option. My city, my villain." My fault. "I'm coming."
Aqualad nodded. "As you wish. Come. We need to get going."
The team moved off to get changed. Black Canary watched them leave before changing her gaze to the older hero.
"First Robin, then Zatanna, now Wally? Batman, how many more of them are we going to lose before we can stop this psycho?"
He didn't have an answer for her.
So like I said, I should have a new chapter up tomorrow.
PLEASE REVIEW IT MAKES MY DAY