Dick Grayson was on Bruce's last nerve. Dick wanted to move to the other side of the country, fine. He could give him his space. He wanted to set up a secret operation there, fine. He borrowed his batmobile, no scratches, so okay, he'll let it slide. But this was the last straw.

"Alfred, where is he now?" Bruce growled over the comms. His gaze was fixed on the near dark horizon as he flew his small plane. He went over and over in his mind how he was going to chew him out.

"He's on fourth and fifth Street." Alfred's voice stated calmly over the comms. "You should be coming up on him now."

Bruce saw him, alright. It was sort of hard to miss the armored batsuit designed to fight the strongest man on Earth. "I see him." Bruce growled. He landed the small plane a few feet from where he was.

"might I suggest letting him explain himself, first." Alfred encouraged.

Bruce growled in response. He wasted no time getting out of the plane as he approached Dick, in his batsuit no less! "You've got some guts stealing from me." He tried to remain calm, but his overspilling anger crept into his voice.

"I can explain." Dick panted. Sounded like he had a good workout out. If Bruce wasn't so mad he'd be concerned.

"You better believe, you will."

"There was a kid."

"What kid?" Bruce's temper was climbing.

Dick looked around for a little bit, then shrugged, "He must have run off."

Bruce lost it. "Get that suit back to my cave, now, before I rip it off of you." He seethed.

Dick raised his hands in surrender. He got into his plane, which was slightly larger than Batman's single rider. Batman kept him in sights the entire flight back. He was able to resist the urge to shoot him out of the sky. Alfred was waiting with a steaming cup of hot cocoa for Dick and a stiff drink for Bruce, once they were back inside the batcave.

Bruce inspected his armored suit, and felt his anger rise again."There are scratches all over it!" He stuck a finger up to the second knuckle into one of the scratches. "It's completely ruined! I'll have to get a whole new suit! What on Earth were you fighting?!" Bruce yelled.

Apparently, he was loosing his touch, because Dick only shrugged and sipped his cocoa indifferently.

"What has gotten into you? Why did you steal the suit?!" He yelled.

"I told you, a kid was in danger." There he went again, keeping his secrets, being vague.

"I have had it up to here with your secrets. I have tried to do everything you have asked, but this," he guestured to the suit, "is crossing the line. This has something to do with that girl, Reyna Ramirez, doesn't it?"

That got a reaction. Dick's head snapped up to meet Bruce's glare. "Have you been spying?"

"I don't need to. Her name was announced at the Charity Ball, and you went scampering after her. Who is she?" Bruce interrogated.

Dick's expression changed as a sly smile formed on his face. "What's the matter? You couldn't find anything on her? Have the skills of the great detective met a dead end?"

Bruce growled in frustration. He was right, of course. He could not find anything on the girl. He even checked government ghosted files. It was like she didn't exist. "Why are you protecting her? You're letting your emotions cloud your judgement. I've told you this."

"That it's better to be alone and miserable than find someone to make a little happiness in this messed up world?" Dick snapped. "And did it ever occur to you, all powerful Batman, that I'm trying to protect you?!"

Bruce felt like he had just been slapped across the face. "What?!" He said incredulously.

"I've seen too much, so I can't really go back. You already have so many enemies, I was trying to prevent you from . . . from . . . a whole lot more."

Bruce felt slightly stunned at Dick's confession. "Dick, you're not alone. The reason we have the Justice League is because we are stronger together. Whatever it is you have gotten yourself into, we can help you."

Dick lowered his head. "I'm afraid it's too late. I messed up. I messed up bad."

Bruce opened his mouth to speak when a strong voice behind him called out, "Nightwing! Are you Nightwing?"

Bruce turned to see what looked like a hanging picture hologram with a rainbow sheen. From the chest up, a young, bulky Asian man dressed in ancient Roman armor with a purple cape draped behind him stared at them.

"That's me!" Dick practically shouted. "I'm Nightwing." He tried to act more calmly the second time around.

"Nightwing, I am Praetor Frank Zhang of the twelth legions of New Rome. I beg of you to put aside whatever differences you have had with Praetor Reyna. We are under attack and being slaughtered."

Bruce glanced at Dick who had suddenly become pale and a look of horror crossed his face. "Reyna?"

"We got separated when she went to protect the children. Please, the auguries said we could not do this without mortal help."

"I'll get to Camp Jupiter as fast as I can." Dick rushed.

"Camp Jupiter isn't under attack, the Wolf House is."

"Where's the Wolf House?" Dick questioned.

Frank looked uneasily to the side. "North of Camp Jupiter. Google it!" Suddenly several shots were fired and Frank disappeared from view.

Bruce stared at the empty hologram until it just evaporated. "What the . . . ?" He turned to look at Dick, but he was gone. He just caught a glimpse of his plane racing out of the Batcave. "Alfred!" Bruce roared as he ran to his own small plane.

"Tracking him now." Alfred's calm voice replied.

Bruce sped out of the batcave, hoping to catch up with Dick. "He's headed west." Alfred reported.

"Look up the Wolf House." Bruce ordered.

"Looking now, sir."

What did Dick get himself into? Kids dressed up in Roman armor? What was going on? Whatever it was, he wasn't facing it alone.

"Sending coordinates now. It's an old burnt down house built by the author, Jack London, in 1913. It's in the middle of a park in Glen Ellen, California."

"What could possibly be going on there?" Bruce mused.

"Whatever it is, Master Dick is pushing the limits of his plane. He could tear up the engine before he gets there."

"How far out are we?" Bruce asked.

"At Master Dick's current speed, he'll reach it in fifteen minutes. At your current speed, in half an hour."

"Then I'll have to up my speed." Bruce increased his speed as far as he dared. Even though he was racing across the country, time seemed to creep to a standstill as he urged his plane to go faster. His fear grew with each passing minute.

"Master Dick has arrived." Alfred announced.

Bruce speed up a little bit more. "You are ten minutes from arrival. Master Dick has activated his guns. It seems he is firing into the park."

"What the . . ." Bruce speed up a little bit more.

"The plane is moving to hover over the Wolf House structure."

"How far out?" Bruce scanned the night sky.

"You should probably start slowing down. You should be approaching it now."

Bruce backed off on the speed and looked out over the horizon. It wasn't long before he he could see flashes of light emanating from machine guns. Bruce parked the plane a quickly as he could, jumped out, and ran towards the fray. He stumbled across some young kids, dressed up in roman armor. They were bleeding and reached out toward him. "Help me." They called. Bruce tried to control the panic rising inside him. Dick was out there in this. He had to find him.

"Rally to me! Rally to me!" A strong voice called out in the dark. Bruce followed the cry. He walked until soon he was walking with other kids, all dressed up in armor. They walked right up to the same young Asian man that called out to Nightwing in the rainbow hologram.

Bruce pushed his way to the Praetor. "Where's . . ." Bruce's question died as he saw Dick walk out of the decayed structure with a looking broken. "D . . . Nightwing.! Bruce called out as he ran over to him, relieved he was okay.

"This fight is not over!" Frank yelled to the kids standing around him as if they were troops in an army.

"What is going on?" Bruce asked him.

"Our allies, the Justice League, will help us with the mortals." Frank continued. A roar went up.

"I tried to warn you." Dick growled as he tapped his mask, no doubt switching to night vision. He pulled out a baterang in each hand as he glared out into the night.

"And we will show these monsters that you don't mess with half-bloods, you don't mess with Rome! We will send them back into the pit, where they belong!" Frank roused the kids.

A roar went out among them.

"This isn't a game!" He turned to Dick. "Their play armor, won't stand a chance against bullets!"

"Then I better make sure they don't get hit." Nightwing then ran into the night with an entire army running after him.

Bruce had no choice. He ran after Dick, turning on his night vision as he ran. Bullets rang out has Batman pulled ahead of the kids. It wasn't long before he caught up to Nightwing who fought ferociously as he took down five soldiers dressed in full army gear. Bruce saw more flanking his side. It seemed that they also had night vision goggles on. Batman quickly intervened an knocked them out.

"What do we have here?" A sultry voice asked. A beautiful woman dressed in a sequined dress walked out of the dark in front of him. "Hmm, a big strong hero all dressed in black. Aren't you just delicious." She sashayed up to him and draped her arms over his broad shoulders, bringing her face inches from his.

Bruce felt himself relaxing into her as the sounds of the battle around him faded. Her face inched closer to his. There was a yell beside him and a young, short girl with darkened skin stabbed her in the neck. The woman staggered back and lit on fire as she screamed/gurgled. Except, she was no longer quite human. She had claws and fangs and was that an animal's leg? She then burst into a cloud of golden dust. It took Bruce a moment to recover his senses.

"What . . . what was that?" He managed to get out.

"An Empusa. You might recognize it as a vampire." The girl answered in a southern drawl. "I'm Hazel."

"Batman"

"Obviously. You recovered enough to fight?" She asked.

Bruce felt offended. "I'm fine."

"Good. You take out the mortals, I'll take out the monsters." She stated matter of factly. He was twice as tall as her, but as she got into fighting stance, she looked just as intimidating.

He fought long into the night side by side with these kids that fought for their lives. It looked like a mismatched battle with the kids waving swords around and grown men with full army gear and guns pointed at them. Add strange looking creatures that shifted from human form to the strangest looking creatures, and the whole thing felt like a bizarre nightmare.

Frank appeared by Hazel's side as he sliced easily through a strange looking monster with a dog's face. "Hazel," he called out, "dawn approaches. We have them on the run. Go to the medic tent and help them get the bullets out."

Hazel nodded once and ran off. It wasn't long after that, he saw Nightwing beating up several men with a touch of routhlessness. Batmanpunched a man out cold and turned to face Nightwing. He only glared back.

"We did it." Frank panted as he looked around. The sky lightened, and they could see their surroundings better.

A man groaned nearby. Dick quickly found him and raised his fist. "Wait." Batman stopped him. He looked at the man, who was coming to. "Hey, wake up.". The man's eyes snapped open. "You think it's fun to shoot up kids?"

"Wha . . .?"

"Look around you."

The man did and his eyes free wide.

"Who do you work for?" Batman interrogated.

The man just kept looking around in horror.

"It's no use He was obviously being controlled by the Empusa." Frank said.

Batman looked at Nightwing, who looked pensive.

"The mist will take care of them." Frank said calmly as if that solved everything.

He looked sadly over the field. "Every able body, gather the wounded and . . . the dead!"