If someone were to ask Dick what the hell happened, he wouldn't be able to tell them.
Quite simply, he had no idea.
One second he and Raya were squabbling... like they usually did after one of her episodes. Then they were plunged into complete and utter chaos after an explosion blew the Manor's front doors inwards in a shower of wood, plaster, and other debris. Thick smoke filled the foyer and made visibility poor.
A second explosion came from another part of the Manor. Dick assumed the intruders set an explosive device on the doors either at the entrance into the pool area or the back garden. Where Raya and Malcolm had walked less than three hours ago. That thought brought Dick up short. Had these men watched as the two casually strolled the stone paths together? Had they taken pictures of the two as they quietly talked about whatever it was they discussed? It's a definite possibility, he realized, fingers curling into fists.
Bruce never ordered them to remain inside. He should have, though. Not that it'd have stopped Berkeley from sending another batch of mercenaries after Malcolm.
"My father," Raya growled in his ear. "He's the only one who'd dare something like this."
Dick didn't bother confirming she was right. The team of men making their way inside through the dust and debris was proof of that. A team of mercenaries invading the Manor didn't bother him. Ra's sent his League there at least once a year. Bane, even, attacked the Manor once. That happened a few months after he came to live with Bruce. Those mercenaries showed up with swords and assault rifles, not grenade launchers. The sight of those grenade launchers gave him serious pause. Sent pinpricks of alarm dancing up and down his spine. Caused his belly to curl with a mixture of anxiety and dread.
Those launchers meant business.
Serious business.
Only one reason they have for those, he thought as Raya's breath whispered across the back of his neck. That was bad news for him, Alfred, and Jason. Berkeley was not taking any chances on another Bellevue happening. Not that Dick planned to surrender. His reputation was at stake here.
He was Robin, after all.
Boy Wonder.
Fenix's best friend and partner.
"Dick." Raya's fingers curled around his arm. "We need to get to our suits."
"Take Malcolm and go to Bruce's study," he told her. "Contact your uncle. Let him know what's going on. Tell him we need backup and fast."
"What about tall, dark, and moody?"
Dick shook his head. "He can't get here in time to help."
Unlike the last time, he added as hushed whispers came from below. No, this time they were completely on their own against a bunch of well-trained mercenaries.
"Are we talking about the same man?" Raya drawled in a tone as dry as Alfred's waffles. "Because the one I'm talking about has a plane at his disposal."
"Still take him twenty minutes to get here." Dick waved at the men fanning out below. "They're already inside. Gordon is the only one we can rely on outside of ourselves."
"Could call Superman."
That, Dick realized as a few of the men headed down the hall towards the ballroom, isn't a bad idea. The Man of Steel could get there faster than Batman and even Commissioner Gordon. And it'd be kinda fun to watch these goons shoot grenades at a man faster than a speeding bullet.
"Take Malcolm and head for the cave."
Raya's eyes popped wide as his order registered. It wasn't like it exposed their secret. She'd already done that when she confirmed Malcolm's statement. Even if she hadn't told him the truth, what other choice was there? The alternative was letting Malcolm be taken or killed. Where he'll end up being killed after who knows how much torture.
"What about you?" Malcolm's face was white as a sheet. "Aren't you coming with us?"
"I've gotta get to Jason and Alfred." His eyes met Raya's. "You've gotta keep them from taking Malcolm." Refusal brimmed in those green depths, trembled on her lips, but he shot it down. "You know what'll happen to him if they catch him."
You know what your father will do to him if he gets his hands on him, he told her silently. Raya's face hardened. The hand on his arm quit trembling. He'd have teased her about compartmentalizing her emotions the same way as Bruce but now wasn't the time. Not when Malcolm could be the one who got hurt.
"Don't do anything stupid, bird boy."
He flashed her a cheeky grin. "Hey, it's me, remember?"
"That's my point."
A small sound, one that might have been humor, came from Malcolm. Dick winked at him before telling Raya, "Go."
Raya squeezed his arm once before grabbing Malcolm's hand and pulling him behind her towards Bruce's study.
Once they were gone, Dick turned back, weighing what options he had. Not that he had a whole lot to pick from. Granted, he had the home court advantage of knowing the Manor, but he was without his armor, and any of his gadgets against men with grenade launchers.
Fight smarter, not harder, Grayson. Lesson number one in the Batman playbook. Followed by, use whatever weapon is handy to bash the bad guys over the head with.
"Alrighty, boys." A tallish, thinnish man strolled into the grand foyer as if he owned the Manor. "Find the Whitly kid."
"What about the girl?" A dark-skinned man on the right rasped. Dick thought the man familiar. He squinted to try and get a better look, but the haze and shadows prevented him from getting a good look at the man's face. "Boss wants the little bitch brought to him along with the Whitly brat."
Rage bubbled and burned beneath Dick's skin. He rejected it, however. Anger wouldn't help him keep these men from taking either Malcolm or Raya.
"Find the Whitly boy." A smirk screwed up the corner of the tallish man's thin lips. "You'll find the girl."
"Yes, sir."
The mercenaries spread out like a volcanic wave, making their way through the manor in search of the two they'd been sent here to find. Dick slid into the shadows and waited for the two coming up the stairs to pass him.
When they did, he struck.
Quickly, silently, efficiently.
Just like Batman taught him.
He made his way down the stairs slowly, eyes watchful, senses on high alert.
The hunted had now become the hunter.
...
Jason exited the armory a couple of seconds after the first explosion rocked the Manor. He managed to get a foot from the entrance when a second explosion shook the ground beneath his feet. Hell's going on? he wondered as smoke filled the hallway. Has Ra sent the League to screw with Bruce again?
Bane looking for a rematch?
Maybe it's the Clown Freak.
Something told him it was none of the above.
Not that it mattered who was attacking.
The Manor was under attack and that meant one thing: Jason needed to help defend it. He weighed what he should do against what he wanted to do as he got back to his feet. Down to the Cave was where he was supposed to head should a situation like this occur. It was literally the first thing Bruce taught him after revealing to him he was Batman. Worry and concern for Alfie, Dick, Raya, and especially Malcolm — who Jason found himself liking — overrode Bruce's lessons. He had to find them, make sure they were okay. They could all get to the Cave then and call Bruce.
As they were instructed to do should something like this happen.
Decision made, Jason scurried down the hall, mindful of intruders, and any more explosives ready to go off. He skid to a halt when he spied the armed goons in the foyer.
"Find the Whitly boy," one of the goons said. "You'll find the girl."
So, he thought, eyes narrowing into slits. These buncha creeps are here for Malcolm and Raya.
Well, they'd get them over his dead body. Jason hid himself behind one of the suits of armor that lined the hall as a few of the mercenaries headed his way. They passed him, heading exactly where he assumed they would: the armory. A grin crept over his face as he quietly followed, devising a plan in his head for how to cut the number of jerks from four to none. Preferably without one of them shooting him with a grenade from one of the grenade launchers they held. If he could get my hands on one of them grenade launchers, though...
He'd certainly even the playing field.
Boy, wouldn't that shock 'em? he thought as the men paused outside the armory entrance. A kid blasting 'em with their own weapon. Sure, using guns went against Bruce's no-kill rule and all. Jason wasn't honestly sure he subscribed to that particular way of thinking. He learned how to survive Gotham's seedy underbelly by doing what it took.
If that meant having to kill?
So be it.
Jason tried to obey Bruce's golden rule after he started training under him and all.
He really did.
He just found it hard to adhere to such a strict policy when it came to stopping men like these from hurting people he cared about. I won't let them take Raya and Malcolm, he decided as he hid around a corner, watching and waiting for an opportunity to arise that'd allow him to relieve one of the baboons of their grenade launchers. I'll do whatever it takes to make sure they're safe. If it eliminated a few bad guys in the process?
Oh, well.
...
Malcolm's hand vibrated hard enough in hers that it rattled the bones of her hand. Raya understood his fear and anxiety. Being targeted by trained mercenaries wasn't something people expected to happen once in their lifetime. Malcolm had now found himself a target twice. All in less than a month's time.
Each one because of the sperm donor listed on her birth certificate as father.
The pieces of her fragmented memories started coming together now that she figured out the connection between his father and hers. She couldn't dwell on that, though. Not while the Manor was under attack by men who wanted to take Malcolm back to her father. Who'd do unspeakably cruel things to him before killing him just because he could. A crash from below had her quicken her pace. While reaching her uncle was prudent at that point, calling Superman for backup was the best option they had for getting through this attack with the least amount of injury possible.
Especially since there was no way Bruce, even if he elected to use the Batplane, could get to them fast enough to provide them with backup.
First thing she needed to do, though, was get Malcolm somewhere safe.
The Cave was the best option they had.
Another thing Dick had been right about.
She could have Barbara lock the Cave down while she got to her armor. She could then return upstairs and takeover the fight so Dick could then get to his armor.
Not that he'd appreciate her defying his orders.
Too bad, she decided as she pulled Malcolm into the study. Fenix's job is to backup Robin.
And she was still Fenix.
Until Bruce took away her mask for failure to do her duty. Raya pushed that thought to the back of her mind and told Malcolm, "I'm going to call my uncle and then get you somewhere safe."
"What about you?" Malcolm said, breathless from their race down the hall. "Dick told you..."
"I know what he told me." Raya made her way to Bruce's desk. "I'm not leaving him to fight these men alone."
"He has Alfred and Jason to help him."
"He's still outmatched."
"But..."
"Trust me." She took a second she didn't have to reassure him. "It'll all work out."
Malcolm gave her a doubtful look but remained silent. Raya reached for the phone when an armed man dropped down outside the window, hanging above the ground by a rope.
That didn't concern her as much as the assault rifle the man held in one hand.
"Malcolm, get down!"
He dropped to the floor as the man fired through the window. Glass shattered, and the mercenary swung inside, crunching shards of glass beneath his boots. Those sharp fragments nullified her plan to attack with a jump kick so Raya improvised by snatching the lamp off the desk and throwing it at him.
The man swatted it away with a laugh.
"That the best you got, kid?" he growled. "Gonna have to do better than that."
"Oh, I think you'll find I'm full of surprises."
"Gonna be full of lead if you don't surrender."
"Nah, don't think so." Raya backed up until she felt Malcolm's hand against the heel of her foot. "If you want to surrender, though, well, I'll gladly accept."
"Got a mouth on you, girl." The man took two steps forward. "Someone should teach you to watch it."
"Man paying you tried."
Malcolm let out a small, distressed sound at her snark. She wanted to send him a reassuring smile but couldn't risk taking her eyes off the man in front of her.
"I ain't gonna try."
"Promises, promises."
Another small sound came from Malcolm. Raya slid her foot over his hand, tapping out a message to trust her with her toes. If he understood what she was trying to tell him, she didn't know. He remained quiet, though, and that was most important.
"This ain't no promise."
Raya snorted a laugh as the man came around the desk. "You mercs are all the same."
She was stalling, waiting until the merc cleared the desk and the glass before attacking.
More men crashed into the room just as he stepped over the last of the glass fragments. Raya's hope for a quick escape plummeted.
Six men stood behind the first.
Seven against one.
Even with all her skill and training the odds were more solidly in the mercenaries favor.
They had the numbers and the weapons.
She wasn't out of the game entirely, though. Fighting seven men in full rig, armed to the teeth, each outweighing her by a good hundred and twenty pounds, without her own armor might be a bit of a stretch. However, Bruce didn't train them to fight bad guys one-on-one in full body armor.
No, he prepared them for anything and everything.
Expect the unexpected was rule number four, after all. Followed by number five: and deal with the unexpected by remembering rules one through four. She considered her options as the men spread out. There were few. All she had on her were three of her toxin-laced talons. Enough to cull their numbers to a more manageable number, yes, but not enough to stop them. With no smoke pellets, she couldn't create a distraction so she and Malcolm could escape.
Time, she thought, sliding her hand into her hair to palm one of her talons. I have to buy enough time for Dick or Alfred to get here and help.
To do that required a weapon.
Her eyes landed on Dick's broken bo-staff on its display by the door. She never understood why Bruce had chosen to keep it and right now it didn't matter. The pieces would work to bring down the remaining four men. Speed would be her greatest ally. Strike first, strike fast, make the hit count, and move on.
"Get her!"
The men started advancing like a solid wall of human flesh before they split off, slowly flanking her on all sides.
Time slowed to a crawl.
A familiar blaze burned in the pit of her belly.
Raya drew her arm back but froze when a deep voice came from behind her.
"I wouldn't if I was you."
She slowly turned to face a dark-skinned man with different colored eyes. The biting retort on her tongue died when she saw he held Malcolm in front of him, a knife to his throat. The biting retort on her tongue died when she saw he held Malcolm in front of him, a hunting knife to his throat.
"Let him go."
"I don't think so." His fleshy lips spread wide as he yanked Malcolm's head back. "Now, drop whatever it is you are holding and come along quietly. Otherwise..."
He didn't need to specify what he meant.
The knife against Malcolm's throat told her clearly what'd happen if she refused.
"You win." Raya's eyes met Malcolm's red-rimmed eyes. "You win." She dropped her talon. "I'll come quietly."