Red Hood's Safehouse

"Couldn't sleep either?"

Red Hood's head snapped in the direction of the voice. After Kaine and Jade's confrontation they had decided to get some rest. Jason had barely slept five hours but he didn't feel tired. Nor did Barbara apparently as she wheeled herself towards him. Although this was more of a base of operations than a home there was still enough rooms for everyone to fit comfortably.

"Not really a time for sleep red" Jason replied as he began putting his weapon back together. He'd been in the process of cleaning his gun when Oracle had appeared.

She approached him awkwardly and stopped next to him. Barbara always had trouble talking to Jason. Why shouldn't she? He wasn't like the other members of the Bat-family and had previously fought against them.

"So whats next?"

The question shook Oracle from her thoughts and she looked at Jason's expectant face.

"I guess find this holding area. Wherever that is. The Talons have captured Bruce, Cass, Stephanie and quite possibly Grayson, Drake and some of the Titans too as we haven't been able to contact them. We need to get them out as soon as possible" Barbara replied a note of worry in her voice.

"If they're not already dead of course" Jason muttered as the last piece of the pistol clicked into place.

"Don't pretend like you don't care Jason. I know you better than that" Oracle said sharply. Jason wasn't bad. Not really. She remembered him when he'd been Robin. So full of joy and excitement all that had changed with the Joker of course.

That sick psychopath had done so much to both of them. Part of her agreed with Jason that the clown should be put down but she also knew why Batman wouldn't do it. Whereas she had accepted and understood it Jason had seen it as an act of betrayal. He didn't hate him or the others though. Not really.

"I don't care red. Would I prefer it if they were alive? Sure. Doesn't mean I'll go out of my way to cry about it if they aren't though" Jason replied curtly.

"Still that should be our next move" Barbara insisted.

"Ok we'll start looking into it now" Jason relented. "Hopefully we'll find something before the others wake up."

A few hours later

Kaine lay on his back looking at the ceiling of the weapons closet. Despite the sheets it would have been cold if it wasn't for Helena sleeping on top of him. Her jet black hair sprawling over his chest as she used him as a pillow. For the first time in his life he didn't really have any idea where his was going. Previously Kaine had been focused on revenge, then escaping his past and now Madame Webb sent him to some other dimension where he'd met a woman who made him want to do anything just to be near her and who had the innate ability to control him with nothing but her eyes and words. The reason he would fight these Talons or whatever they were called was for her.

If he thought she would run away with him then he would do that to keep her safe but Kaine knew she wouldn't abandon her friends and it would be selfish to even ask. That left but one option. Find them and kill them. All of them. Down to the last wretched one so they would never come back to haunt her or her friends again but where did he start looking.

"Gah" Kaine let out a grunt of frustration and instantly regretted it as he felt Huntress's skin move against his, an indication that he'd woken her. Her head shifted to look up at him as she brushed a few locks of black hair from her eyes. Kaine couldn't believe how she could still look this gorgeous despite the haze of sleep still clouding her face.

"What is it?" Helena asked as she noticed the frustration on his face.

"Nothing. I'm just thinking about where we go from here" he replied as he pushed a stray lock of her hair she'd missed behind Huntress's ear.

Helena's heart jumped. She wasn't good at talking about her feelings but she had meant what she'd told Kaine the first time they'd been together. She didn't want it to be a one-night thing.

"Can we wait until after this thing with the Owls is dealt with before we talk about us?" she asked cursing herself for taking the easy way out. Kaine looked at her in surprise. "You were talking about what we should do about the Owls weren't you?" Helena began, realizing her mistake.

"Yes but we should talk about us too" Kaine replied quickly.

"Look I like you. I really do but with all this going on and my friends being in danger I can't think straight" Huntress continued biting her lower lip nervously. "Is there any chance you would be content to just be there for me until then?" Helena really hated herself at that point and wished she'd shut up but for some reason her mouth was on auto-pilot saying things she was sure she didn't mean.

Kaine looked slightly dejected but nodded in agreement.

"Thank you" Helena smiled as she pulled herself up his body so her head was level with his and kissed him. A crash followed by a shout of anger caused Kaine to quickly push Helena from him and dart into the main room. Had he been concentrating he would have known whatever it was wasn't a threat as his spider-sense hadn't gone off but he hadn't so he burst into the room stingers extended.

Heads snapped round at his abrupt entrance. Luckily he was still wearing the bottom half of his suit or the current situation would have been awkward.

"So that's what you look like under that mask" Cheshire commented raising an eyebrow in approval.

"Wow you're jumpy" Catwoman said eyeing Kaine as he straightened up out of his aggressive stance.

"Well when you're under threat by undead people who dress up as birds it doesn't really help to calm your nerves now does it?" the Scarlet Spider snapped back. "What was that noise anyway?" he asked turning away from Selina.

"It was happy-go-lucky over there" Hawk replied gesturing to Jason who was currently punching the wall in frustration.

"What's the problem?" Kaine asked approaching Red Hood as he turned away from the wall.

"We can't find them. Any of them. Me and Oracle have been looking for hours but it's like they just disappeared into thin air" Jason cursed angrily, frustration evident in his voice. Kaine turned his attention to Barbara.

"Look Oracle I know the people captured were your allies but we are wasting time searching for them. We should be looking for a way to stop the Owls."

"Not a chance" Barbara replied sharply from behind her laptop.

"Believe me I know a bit about emotional pain but we can't expect to win if we don't face the problem head on" Kaine snapped back his temper rising to meet Barbara's.

"WE ARE NOT LEAVING THEM!" Oracle shouted back startling the others.

"SO YOU'D CONDEMN US TO DEATH INSTEAD?" Kaine shouted back eyes blazing. "You'll forgive if I'm not prepared to throw my life away for people I barely even know. This isn't worth our time and it definitely isn't worth our blood. I know this is hard but we can't waste our time searching for them when the Owls could be at our doorstep any moment now" the Scarlet Spider finished calming himself. He removed his hand from the desk he'd been grasping in anger revealing a burning mark in the shape of a hand.

"So you'd prefer to just let them die?" Barbara asked coldly.

"What the fuck do you expect me to do?" Kaine countered struggling to keep his cool.

"I want you not to give up. I want you to pull out whatever decency you have left in you and help us find them!" Oracle snapped.

"Well this is going well" Dove whispered to Dinah as they watched the argument.

"Hopefully it won't get out of hand" Dinah whispered back her eyes firmly fix on the pair.

"How? I don't have special people detecting powers. I'm not a bloodhound. I'm strong, I'm fast, I can shoot god damn webs none of which help to show us where the Talons have hidden them" Kaine snapped back. "I know! Why don't I go stick to a wall for a while? Maybe the Talons will just stroll by and tell me where to find them" he continued sarcastically. Barbara's eyes narrowed angrily. "Or I know how about I talk to…" Kaine began but then trailed off.

A look of realization began spreading across his face. Turning away from Oracle he closed his eyes and took a few deep breaths.

"What are you doing?" Cheshire asked looking at him curiously.

"Just shut the fuck up a moment" Kaine replied placing his fingers on his temples.

Huntress emerged from the room largely unnoticed by the group apart from Ravager who happened to glimpse her leaving the same room she'd seen Kaine enter the night before. It didn't take a rocket scientist to put two and two together and a pang of jealousy flashed through her but she pushed it to one side a returned to looking at Kaine as the others were.

After his resurrection Kaine had gained quite a few abilities he still didn't quite understand yet. He was still waiting on Julia to give him the run-down but she was generally less than helpful so he'd had to figure quite a few things out for himself. One of his new abilities he had come across quite by chance and it was the ability to communicate with spiders. Kaine had discovered he could do this when a small spider had crawled onto his hand during a bus trip and he suddenly found himself seeing the world through the tiny creatures eyes. The experience had been so shocking he had jumped to his feet in surprise and ripped the bus seat from the metal support in the process so he'd had to make a quick exit.

It wasn't an ability that he used very often but it was very effective for covering huge distances. Being able to see the world through the eyes of every spider in Gotham meant there was almost no place anyone could hide from him for long. Then he saw it. Barely a flash but it was definitely Batman he recognized the mask. Concentrating he attempted to pinpoint the exact position. To his surprise Batman seemed to be below ground level. As he looked through the spiders eyes he found himself above the floor looking down. Batman was curled up in a corner not moving however that was not what confused him the most. It was almost as if he was looking down at some kind of maze. Walls criss-crossed everywhere creating a jigsaw-like pattern.

"Kaine?"

The voice followed by a hand on his shoulder snapped him out of his trance but it didn't matter he had what he needed to know.

"I know where Batman is" Kaine began, turning to Dinah as she removed her hand from his shoulder.

"What?" Oracle exclaimed her previous anger turning to surprise.

"He's underground somewhere. In some sort of maze. Any of you know of anything like that?"

A flash of recognition passed across Barbara's face as Kaine said this.

"Last time the Court of Owls attacked they took Batman prisoner, put him in a maze beneath Gotham and used psychological torture to try and break him" Oracle replied looking at Kaine suspiciously. "How do you know where he is? Or about the maze?"

"I…..ermm…" Kaine began hesitantly. He knew how weird this was going to sound. "I can talk to spiders" he relented sighing at how stupid that sounded.

"You can talk to….bwhahaahhahahaha" Barbara began, bursting into laughter. She was quickly followed by a few other of the people in the vicinity.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah laugh it up but I found him. What have you done?" Kaine muttered angrily.

Even Huntress was smiling slightly as well, a quick glare from the Scarlet Spider made her pull a straight face but the laughter was still in her eyes. Kaine couldn't help but smile slightly as well as the thought of being able to communicate with spiders seemed hilarious to him as well.

"I'm sorry" Barbara finished choking back her laughter. "I just didn't expect that."

"Its fine. It doesn't seem any less stupid to me either" Kaine replied sighing.

"Well now we know where he is we can…" Oracle was cut off by a beeping noise coming from one of the computer panels.

"Who is this?" Jason asked as he pressed a button on the panel and spoke into the microphone.

"Its Azrael" came the familiar gritty voice.

"Yo Az heard you were running around. What can I do for a psycho religious nutbar like yourself?" Jason asked sarcasm evident in his voice.

"Cut the crap Hood. The Owls are launching attacks on important members of Gotham society. I've been hunting these things all night" Lane replied impatiently.

"It's me again" Barbara said picking up the mic and pushing Jason aside. "Who are the targets?"

"All of them" Azrael replied darkly.

"Wait what do you mean all of them?" Oracle asked dreading the answer.

"I mean they are trying to take out anyone who has any authority in Gotham. Police chiefs, Politicians and businessmen" Azrael replied confirming what Oracle had feared.

"Shit. They're doing what they did last time. Targeting high profile people to induce panic and anarchy" Barbara growled.

"I can't stay on the line I'm already tracking another. You and your people better get your asses in gear before this gets out of hand" Azrael finished before the line went dead.

"We need to move now. Scarlet Spider you go and find Batman. I was going to send a group of us to rescue him but there's no time. You know where he is and you're abilities mean you'll be much faster than any of us" Barbara said turning to the Scarlet Spider.

"I'm on it" Kaine replied turning and walking back to the room where he'd left the top half of his costume.

"The rest of us need to get out on the streets now and disrupt the Owls as best we can" Oracle continued looking at the rest of the team.

"Agreed we need to keep them at bay as long as possible to give us time to come up with a plan" Dinah nodding in agreement. Just then Kaine re-emerged pulling the mask over his face.

"Oh and Spider while you're out there try and find some kind of sign of the others" Oracle added as Kaine made his way to the exit.