Author's note: This chapter is for Ellen, who hates cliff-hangers :) And just a reminder to the readers, I love to hear from you! Please review! And Happy Thanksgiving to all of you.
CHAPTER 26
The Eagle Building
(The Aerie)
"Owlman?" Talon called a second time, twisting around to find the location of the scuffling noises off to the side. Owlman was struggling with two assailants and one was a girl! The boy must be Tim Drake, also known as Red Robin. And the girl was...beautiful. She had long red hair, a great body in a skin-tight suit and she was fighting with skill and daring. She must be...must be...he cast his memory back to recall Owlman telling him about Batgirl, aka Barbara Gordon.' A vague memory of a girl dressed like this one flitted through his mind, only she was smiling at him and he knew that he had been smiling back. Couldn't be...He'd never met a 'batgirl', although he Gordon's daughter had been an acquaintance of his on the other Earth. He shook his head to clear it. For some reason he felt fuzzy and uncoordinated tonight.
"Nghhhhhhhhh..." A groan from beneath him drew his attention. So, he wasn't dead yet. Give it time.
"So, Batman, aren't you sorry you tried to steal me away from Owlman?" Talon asked with a smirk.
"No. I'm not," the injured man breathed. "I don't regret trying to save Dick Grayson, the boy I raised. I'm not sorry I tried to rescue you."
Talon felt something uncomfortable roiling deep inside; some kind of emotion he couldn't identify. "Well, you're wrong!" he said with bravado. "You didn't raise me, Thomas Wayne did and I'm loyal to him."
"You've always been loyal, Dick," Batman whispered. "I'm proud of you..Always have been proud of you..." His breath trailed off. He was silent, struggling to breathe.
Irritation warred with a kind of panic inside Talon. "Stop that!" he said sharply. "You don't know me! You never have known me and I'm not your Dick Grayson!"
Batman's eyes opened again behind the semi-opaque eyelets of his mask. And he smiled a smile so full of love and acceptance that Talon's panic could only grow. He climbed off the Batman's soon to be deceased body, staring down at him. But before any word could leave Talon's lips, Batman himself forced a shout.
"Hood! No! Don't kill!" Batman gasped out, addressing someone behind Talon and over his head. Talon looked behind him to see a man dressed in a full face red mask sitting on a rafter near the skylight, pointing a pistol at Talon's back. Red Hood. That had to be Red Hood. Talon was proud that he remembered the entire briefing Owlman had given him.
"No...killing...!" Batman wheezed.
Red Hood said "Shit! You really have gone round the bend, haven't you Dick?" He leapt down from his perch, straight for Talon.
Afterwards, Talon blamed his long hesitation on the aftereffects of the drugs Owlman had given him to clear his system. Certainly it wasn't because he had any feelings for this strange man diving at him. In any case, Red Hood plowed into Talon's chest feet first, knocking him off the prone and bleeding Batman. Talon scrambled to his feet, ready to fight Red Hood, only to find that the battle was already over. Red Hood held a spray to his face and smiled. " G'night Dick," he said and sprayed it into Talon's face.
When he woke, this time it was Talon on the floor with Red Hood had just finished tying his wrists behind his back; his legs and ankles were already trussed up. A quick look to the side showed Owlman similarly restrained with the beautiful 'bat girl' finishing the job.
The other one, the young boy, Red Robin had gone over to Batman and was taping a thick pad of bandage around the protruding knife.
Talon's stomach inexplicably lifted when he saw that the blood was still flowing. Batman wasn't dead. He'd failed. He closed his eyes, wondering why he wasn't more upset. Killing Batman had always been the plan. By killing his kidnapper, Talon would be revenged on the man and also demonstrate his renewed loyalty to Owlman. He tried his bonds without success. They had him hogtied. What had happened to Thomas? He didn't see Alfred anywhere. Maybe their butler had escaped and could free them?
"Has anybody heard from Agent 'A'?" Red Robin asked. "I'm about done here."
"Now we've got Owlman, what do we do with him? Leave him for the GCPD?"
"No," Batman whispered. "Bring him...to cave...with Dick..."
"We've got to get Batman out of here, right now," Red Robin said, wiping blood off his hands with a cloth. "He's lost a lot of blood and we don't know how deep his wound is."
"Okay," Red Hood said. "I'll carry Batman while and you two get Dick. Wish I knew what happened to Al...I mean, Agent 'A'...and that weird butler of Owlman's." He got up and went over to Batman. "When you said you were calling backup, Batgirl, I was thinking Superman or Wonder Woman or somebody."
"And quite properly, she called on me, young sir," a crisp British voice rang from the back of the room. Alfred limped forward, dragging Owlman's unconscious Pennyworth, bound the same way as his master and Talon. "If you will give me a moment, I will bring some modes of transport." Dumping the evil butler, Alfred faded into the darkness and they heard a door close.
"We didn't know what Dick's condition would be," Batgirl explained tiredly. "We needed a medical expert, not more firepower. I knew that among us, we could handle it. As it turns out, it was the right call."
A few minutes later, Alfred returned with a fully unfolded wheeled gurney with two portables stacked on top. "Load up Batman and Master Dick as well as Owlman. Take them to the ground floor and you will find two of our 'ambulances' parked nearby."
"Is he good, or what?" Tim muttered with a grin as they put the three onto the gurneys, Owlman and Talon strapped down extra tight. Jason slung the butler over his shoulder in a fireman's carry for the ride downstairs.
The ride gave no trouble since Owlman, Talon and Pennyworth were all well-dosed with sleeping gas. Alfred hooked Batman up with an IV and oxygen mask, leaving Tim to drive.
"Alfred," Batman murmured. "Good job."
"Thank you, sir," Alfred said. "Your supposition was correct. Owlman was er...hanging...in the wings, waiting to see whether his protégé would remain loyal. I have already called Dr. Thompkins. She will be waiting for us in the cave. While your wound is serious enough, it didn't reach your heart so far as I can see. You'll survive this yet."
"...hurts enough..." Batman said and sighed. "Dick got me...right where the kevlar ends...Knew the suit's weakness."
"It remains to be seen whether Owlman instructed him on where to strike or he planned it himself," Alfred replied reassuringly. "Have faith in the boy you raised, sir. I do."
"I do, too, old friend," Batman murmured and closed his eyes.
Batcave
Room 1A
Talon woke on a bunk in a brightly lit room. He felt strangely cool and realized that his mask was gone, as were his suit and boots. He had been dressed in hospital scrub-style pants and nothing else. His eyes narrowed. These people were smart enough to know that lots of weapons could be hidden inside seams. Pushing himself up to a sitting position, he looked around, scanning his surroundings.
There was no window. The walls seemed to be made of stone, buffed smooth, as was the floor. A small vent, the size of a deck of cards, allowed air into the room. The light itself...He studied the ceiling closely. Chemical panels illuminated the room. No access to electrical wiring or air conditioning ducts. A small metal toilet and shower occupied the corner with a drain hole to let the shower water out. No privacy screen. He swung around. The room had a single door with a recessed lens above it. He was being watched.
"Where is Owlman? What have you done with him?" Talon demanded, glaring into the camera. "Is he all right?"
Main Cave
In a different room, Alfred turned from the monitor with a sigh. "Regardless of his loyalties, he is still our Dick Grayson, thinking of others before himself."
"How are we going to bring him back to himself, Alfred?" Barbara Gordon, now dressed in civvies, asked. "Can we counter the drugs they gave him?"
"That remains to be seen," Alfred replied. "Neither Master Timothy nor I recognize the chemicals we found in Master Dick's blood sample. I have left a message for Barry Allan. Hopefully, he can determine what the concoction is and counter it."
Alfred stepped away from the display and Barbara took over the surveillance of their captives.
"What do you think, sir?" Alfred asked as he sat beside Batman's hospital bed, well within sight of the monitor array.
Bruce lay back in bed with a crooked smile on his face. "He didn't kill me, Alfred. He couldn't."
"What do you mean, sir?" Alfred asked. "Leslie said that the stiletto just missed your heart. It punctured your lung!"
"That's the point," Batman replied, smile growing to as near a grin as he was capable of . "First, he used a stiletto, a long, narrow, thin knife. He had to be precise to kill me and precision isn't anything Dick has ever lacked. Instead, he carefully inserted the knife in such a way that he avoided more than clipping my lung and missed my heart entirely. Oh," Bruce raised his right hand. "He thought he was killing me, or the constructed personality did. But deep down inside, our boy is still there, Alfred. He's still in there!"
"Then how shall we...erm...extract our Dick Grayson from the Talon which Owlman has constructed?" Alfred asked.
"I have a few ideas, for both Owlman and Dick," Bruce said.
Room 1A
Talon tried passing the time by doing exercises. He stretched every muscle, then he ran in place, then he ran through various katas. Just as his stomach began to rumble, a hatch in the door opened and a paper plate slid through onto the floor.
"Hey!" he said, putting on his best coaxing smile. "How about some company with the food?" He picked up the plate. "And don't I get a fork and knife?"
"Sorry, Dick," a young voice said. "You could do too much with cutlery, so it's finger food right now. And I'm not supposed to talk to you until you're better."
"Timothy? Um...Tim? Tim Drake?" Talon winced as he stumbled over the name Owlman had given him. "I can't hurt you, locked in here. And it's getting kind of lonely."
"Well, all right," the voice said. "But don't tell Batman I did this, okay? What do you want to talk about."
Talon found that the paper plate was full of stuffed mushrooms, his favorite. He started eating. "These mushrooms are wonderful! They're just like Alfred makes..."
"Yeah, our Alfred's a pretty good cook too," Tim answered. "So, Dick...You really don't remember any of us?"
"Sorry, Timbo," Talon paused. Now why did I call him that? That's weird. "Um...There's no reason I should. I was born on the other Earth and Thomas Wayne raised me after my parents died. Any memories I had of Batman or you are fakes that Batman planted."
"No, that's not what happened at all," Tim insisted. "And you call me 'Timbo' all the time, Dick, like you just did."
Talon's appetite went away. He put the plate down, his stomach churning with that panicky feeling again. "No. That's some residue of the false memories that Thomas tried to remove from me."
"Dick, if we showed you hard evidence that you belong here with us, would you believe us?" Tim asked quietly.
"You can't have hard evidence because there isn't any!" Talon insisted. "Anything you have is either faked or...or...is just photos or film of your Dick Grayson who died!"
"Our Dick Grayson isn't the one that died. He's very much alive and I'm talking to him now," Tim said. "If you're done with dinner, put your plate through the hatch and I'll take it away."
Silently Talon pushed the paper plate through the small opening. He tried to push his hand through after it. A warm hand, smaller than his own took his fingers and held them.
"Dick, please pull your hand back or I have orders to taser you," Tim said. Talon heard the taser turned on and quickly withdrew his hand. The hatch was slammed shut and locked down.