Old Memories
"We're close, we should land here" Batwoman announced
M'gann nodded flying the Bio-ship toward the ground below them and opening the hatch in the back letting them all walk out to the forest
"So what does this base look like anyway?" Wally asked
"Most of it is underground" Batman continued to walk in the direction he remembered the base was
"Really?" Wally asked
"That would make sense, I mean hikers would have seen a giant base while walking out around here right?" Artemis said
"Gotham doesn't seem like the type to have hikers" Raquel frowned
They continued to walk until they began coming across ruins and the trees began clearing from the path "I'm guessing we're getting closer?" M'gann asked but neither of the bats answered until they finally stopped walking
"What's wrong?" Conner asked but still neither of them answered until the team looked in front of them and saw an old looking compound, it was falling apart, the nature around it had been growing over it and it didn't seem like anybody had ever been there since the talons disbanded
"Smaller than I thought I'd be" Wally muttered but then was slapped on the back of the head "Ow what?!"
"He said it was mostly underground"
"Oh right"
Batman ignored them moving to the entrance where the doors had collapsed in front of it and rusted over "It's too unstable in this condition to go inside"
"Zatannna can you perform the spell?" Batwoman asked
"Of course" Zatanna nodded moving into a floating sitting position putting her hands together and after a few seconds of concentrating she said the spell, after a burst of golden light from the compound everything looked so much younger around them, and it was suddenly night
"What happened?" Kaldur asked
"I reversed time to this part of the forest including the base to just a few hours before the fire destroyed it" Zatanna told them "I'm actually surprised it worked"
"Wow that's cool" Raquel smiled
Batman and Batwoman turned to the base entrance and it looked just like it did the day they rescued dick instead this time there was no fire coming from the inside
"Hey look up there" Wally pointed to the roof of the compound making them all look up to see some Talons standing at a look out post but they didn't even notice them
"They're frozen" Zatanna let them off their guard "Time is frozen at the point I reversed it"
"Oh ok"
Batman moved back to the entrance of the base and pushed the two large doors open leading into a dark hall way, batwoman close behind him along with the team
"What are we supposed to be looking for again?" Conner asked
"Anything that could give us a clue to where the new base is" Batwoman told them
"Can you read the minds of any talons like this?" Artemis asked M'gann
"I don't think so" she shook her head
Batman walked to the training area where they had found dick trapped under the large beam to now find it filled with some talons, training equipment, the beams were perfectly aligned supporting the ceiling. There was also a railing above them leading from one side of the area to the other
"This place is huge" Wally looked around the place
"Must have taken a lot of time to dig up the ground to build this" Conner crossed his arms
Zatanna looked around the place remembering that Bruce and Selina had told them Dick said he was not allowed outside for two years, there was no sign of any windows, grass, or nature that could have let him see the world beyond these metal walls. She looked up and looked at the talons in the room but not seeing any 9 year old boy that looked like her boyfriend so sighed in relief
"Doesn't seem like there's much around here" M'gann said
Batman looked up at the railing and moved over to climb the stairs with the others right behind him and looked to both hallways leading to different sections of the base "Team" turned to them "You will search the left section while Batwoman and I search the right, radio us if you find anything"
Kaldur nodded and turned to the others "Let's go" each of them running down the left hallway while the Bats turned to the right hallway
"This place is much bigger than I expected it to be" Wally looked around at all the hallways and doors "This is going to take a lot of time"
"Not if we split up" Conner offered
"I don't think that's a good idea we could get lost in this place" Zatanna said
"We always have our tracker to find each other" Raquel retorted
"So is that a yes?" M'gann asked turning to aqualad
"The talons are unable to move and it would cover more ground faster"
"That's all I needed to hear" Wally put down his goggles
"But!" kaldur yelled stopping him " I think we should at least take a partner with us"
"Ok then" Wally went over and picked up Artemis "Let's go" rushing off down a hallway
"I can go with you kaldur" Raquel offered and he nodded
"And Conner and I will go together" M'gann smiled holding his hand but then they all turned to Zatanna who was left alone
Zatanna imagined a silhouette of Black Bat next to her and sighed. M'gann came over to her "Well you can come with us right Conner"
"Yeah sure" Conner nodded and they took her with them down another hallway
"I didn't want to say this in front of Zatanna but do you think Bla-Dick is still alive?" Raquel asked
"I do believe that the Talons kidnapped him for a purpose as Batman concluded" Kaldur answered moving down another hallway
"I know that but he was also dying from the Electrum wasn't he? What if it killed him instead?"
"Even if he is no longer alive the Court of Owls do need to be stopped, and finding the base is a good way to start" she nodded following him
oOo
Wally and Artemis continued to walk down the hallway they had taken coming across a few locker rooms, Bedrooms, and other personal areas "Didn't these guys have real homes?"
"Well they were assassins right? Then they had to always be training or doing jobs for other people, I mean does your dad or sister ever come home?"
"No" She shook her head
"Maybe we should look through the lockers maybe there's something in there" Wally offered
"You think they would actually carry something like that around in their pockets?"
"Well you never know" He shrugged opening one of the lockers "No lock?"
"Everything was probably unlocked for the spell"
"Nothing much in this one" Wally shirted through the locker only finding some personal stuff like clothes, and some papers with plans on them for a machine. He turned back to artemis to see she was watching him "You gonna help?"
"Oh right" She moved to another locker opening it and shirting through the stuff
oOo
Conner, M'gann, and Zatanna walked through a much lower part of the base where it was much darker
"There isn't much down here from the looks of it" Conner looked around only finding empty hallways "There aren't even any talons down here"
M'gann continued to float on ahead, seemed that the only thing down here were the power systems, she opened a large door leading to another room that had vents leading to the ceiling "Probably the air and heat system"
Zatanna moved on from that room and found a dark hallway leading to a much lower part of the base "This isn't low enough?" looking to the hallways they were already on but from what she could see down that hallway there weren't even any lights down there. From the light emitting from the hallway she was in she could tell that down there was mostly made of concrete instead of metal
"What is it?" Conner came up behind her making her jump
"I'm getting a bad vibe from down there, maybe we shouldn't all we have to look for is clues right?" M'gann said joining them at the doorway sized entrance
Zatanna made a small orb of light in her hand and made it float in the air in front of her as she began walking down the stairs
"Zatanna!" M'gann yelled
"Everything is frozen, it's not like anything will hurt me" She assured them as she continued to move down the stairs. Conner thought it over and then followed after her and after some hesitation so did M'gann
The stair way wasn't as long as they thought it would be and soon came to the bottom finding the walls were made of more concrete along with the ground and ceiling
"What do you think is down here?" M'gann asked gripping Conner's arm like something was going to jump out at them
Zatanna was brave enough to keep her cool, if her boyfriend Dick had to live here for so long without anyone to comfort him than she would do it to by inspecting every part of the base if she had to, she could somehow sense that dick had been in this part of the base for most of the time he had been here. As they continued to move ahead they started to come across doors made of metal far apart from each other
"From the looks of it this is the prison part of the base" Conner frowned looking at the doors and moving to one of them gripping the handle a little nervous of what might be on the other side
"Conner?" M'gann asked
He shook the feeling out of himself and opened the door only to find that it was empty, just a simple concrete room with a rectangular window showing the forest outside so closed it back up "Nothing" answering the girls looks
They nodded moving ahead "Zatanna I don't think we're going to find much down here" M'gann told her as she continued walking
Zatanna bit her lower lip sensing something familiar ahead of her, she looked up to see a T intersection of hallways and moved to it sensing it was coming from the left side and moving down that way until she came to another metal door but there was no handle to it instead it looked like you had to have some kind of key to it
"Zatanna?" M'gann asked as they came to join her
"I sense something familiar inside" Zatanna gulped hoping it wasn't who she thought It was she didn't want to have to see him in the kind of condition it was described as even as a small child
Conner looked to the door also seeing it didn't have a handle or even a peephole to look inside, he could use his strength to force it open but was thinking the same thing as Zatanna "Do you want to see?"
After a bit of hesitation she nodded, she would try and feel the same thing dick had to help him through his recovery once they found him
Conner nodded and punched the door making a large dent in it then gripped the side of the dent and slide it open to find a pitch black room, not even a window like the one he had seen in the other room "I don't think anything's in here Zatanna"
Zatanna moved inside letting the orb light up the room to see it was a small square concrete room but when she looked ahead of her she saw what she had been sensing, there was a raggedy old blanket on the ground that had large blood stains on it. She looked to what was lying on the blanket to see shackles with connected to the ground with blood stains on the inside of it, she then looked to the back wall of the room to find two more shackles hanging from the wall with blood on the inside of them which was dripping onto the wall too
She was kind of happy she didn't find Dick himself in here but she did know that he was here and from the looks of it not too long ago
Conner hands turned into fists when he saw the shackles that were described to be Dick's cage, from the shortness of the chains on the wall and on the ground he could tell that dick had to sit up while he was chained to them and could barely move even an inch. The amount of blood here made him sick and something caught his eye on the right wall on a hook, he glared at the item that should only be used to train animals but he could tell it was used to torture his friend
M'gann didn't really want to be in this room any longer, she already concluded that Dick had been here a short time ago from a torture session so what was there left to see, he obviously wasn't here now and there weren't any clues that could help find him now so shouldn't they leave "I think we should move on there obviously isn't anything here"
Zatanna nodded turning back around and closing the metal door
oOo
Kaldur and Raquel searched through the hallways of their section finding a large cafeteria with several tables along with some talons inside going about the business they had that day while eating their food and talking
They had moved on ahead to find a hanger that looked somewhat like the hanger back at Mount Justice except it was much larger, there were a lot of motorcycles inside but all of them looked the same, and on a much outer part of the hanger they could see a helicopter with its pilot outside talking to another talon
"This is most likely the port center " Kaldur concluded
"Looks like someone is about to go on a mission too" Raquel looked over at the Talon and Pilot
"We should move on there isn't much for clues here" Kaldur turned around to walk back into the hallway when Raquel gripped his arm
"Shouldn't record the vehicles so maybe the style would stand out from any others we may see during our search for Dick?"
"Oh right" he nodded moving over to the vehicles
oOo
"Dick never did tell us where William's office was" Selina said as she and Bruce continued to walk down the hallway "Didn't really see the point since the base was destroyed"
Bruce nodded continuing to move down the hallway, there wasn't much that he could see not even any talons in this area but it did seem like an important part of the base "This was supposed to be a few hours before the base was destroyed, dick was on a mission wasn't he?"
"It's still early from the looks of it, I don't think he would have left yet" Selina said but she didn't really want to see 9 year old dick in his talon armor
Bruce nodded continuing to move down the hall until they came to a large metal door, it had an intercom next to it along with a handle, and above the door he could see a red light "This must be William's office"
Selina stepped forward and tried to open the door but it wouldn't budge, they thought about attaching a bomb to it but thought they might end up destroying some vital information "Perhaps Superboy could force it open"
Bruce reached to his com "Team report to my location"
"Right away batman"
"They'll be here in a few minutes"
And not to long after that the team began arriving, first were Wally and Artemis, then Kaldur and Raquel, and finally Conner, M'gann, and Zatanna. "We sorry but we didn't find much information that could be of use"
"It's alright but we think we've found William's office, Superboy can you force it open?" Selina asked and he nodded moving to it and doing the same thing he did with the prison door in the dungeon but they found two very important talons inside
Bruce and Selina already recognized one of them even thought his back was to them they could still recognize their own son at 9 years old, they tore their eyes from him and looked around the room that was William's office and saw the case of files dick had told them about. Bruce ignored the two people in the room and moved over to the case opening the first drawer that had dozens of files inside
"How are we going to look through all these?" Selina asked looking at all of them
"They're labeled" Bruce indicated to the top right half that had names on them of specific topics "Look for one that could indicate a new base"
She nodded opening another drawer and looking trough it finding battle plans, some names of people, blueprints, and other stuff dealing with the court.
While the bats were going over the files the team got curious of the two people standing in the room, and moved to the front of the child, Zatanna and Artemis's eyes widened at the sight of him, it was a younger version of Richard Wayne clad in his talon armor
"What's wrong?" Wally shook artemis's shoulder looking the kid up and down, the kid was looking at the ground but he could still see his eyes were a cerulean color
"Don't you recognize him?" Zatanna asked, she could recognize her new boyfriends face anywhere but the team had only seen a brief picture of him on the screen at the Mountain so said a spell to pull up an image of Richard and Black Bat each of both sides of the boy
"Black Bat!" M'gann moved closer to him getting a better look of him, but his face was emotionless even thought he was frozen
Conner looked his younger version friend over seeing he was dressed in his assassin armor that he had seen the other talons wearing on the mission to Santa Prisca, he had a sword strapped to his back, the strap had bombs attached to it, guns on his hips, knifes on his thighs, and a belt that contained other items he used in the field. he didn't look happy though his face didn't portray any emotion at all
Zatanna had always wondered what her boyfriend was like when he was little, he was supposed to be 9 years old right now, and his height was about the same with her chest, she would actually call him a little cute if he had a happy smile on his face
The rest of the team was a little shocked to see their friend dressed as an assassin, he had a lot of deadly items on his person at the moment, a 9 year old boy shouldn't have those kind of things in his possession but they remembered that Dick was not your average 9 year old child. The team turned to the person behind them
While the two bats we're going over the files Bruce did come across a file with Richard John Grayson labeled on it, he was a bit curious and took it out opening it up to find a small picture of their son at the top paperclip to the file, he also saw a few other documents with Haley's circus involving them but what really caught his eye were two familiar names as signitures on the bottom of the paper
"What is it?" Selina asked
"It's the contract the Grayson's made with the Court" Bruce glared at the paper and also finding Dick's birth certificate below his picture "And Dick's birth certificate"
"Really?" Selina moved to see it too
During Dick's adoption they had no original record of his birth certificate so had to get a copy of it instead, they had always thought that the court had destroyed all evidence of dick's existence so never asked him if he knew where his original birth certificate was
"So is this William?" they heard and turned to see the team looking at the man so turned to look at him too, he seemed to be about ra's age, about the same height as Bruce and muscular considering his age. They also saw those familiar cerulean eyes
"We've never actually seen William so we wouldn't know" Selina told them, dick had described what he looked like though and the man did match the description
Bruce turned back to the files and looking through them and after another short while he found one labeled 'Base 2' so took it out and opened it seeing it had several maps in it, one had an image of Europe so that narrowed down the search to a continent "Dick isn't in America anymore" he concluded
"Where is he?" Selina asked as the team came up to them wanted to hear too
"The new base is located in Europe" He told them as he continued to read over the papers and found another map between the papers finding it was an image of Romania that William had put several marking on in Romanian. "It's narrowed down to a state" looking to Zatanna "Romania"
"I should be able to perform a locator spell now" She nodded
"This seems a little too easy don't you think?" kaldur asked drawing their attention "Wouldn't it seem to careless to leave something so vital in such an obvious place and have us come to the new base?"
"That is true, do you think it could be a trap?" Raquel asked
"We'll find out in time" Bruce told them "When we go and search for Dick at the new base we'll be sure to bring backup"
"The one's in the league who actually care about dick" Selina smiled
oOo
It took several days but the process was finally complete
William smirked watching the lid begin opening and his grandson began stretching his muscles as he stepped out onto the floor "Is see you're finally done" his eyes twitched and his raised his head to Williams face "How do you feel…grandson?"
He smirked opening his eyes with a dark look on his face "Perfect...Grandfather" grinning
To be continued
