Nightwing: Out of Time 3 – The Hunt for Black Robin
Chapter 3
By Christopher W. Blaine
e-mail: darth_yoshi@yahoo.com
DISCLAIMER: Nightwing™ and all other characters and situations portrayed in this story are ©2002 by DC Comics Inc., an AOL/Time-Warner Company, and are used without permission for fan-related entertainment purposes only. No profit is made from this writing. This original story is ©2002 by Christopher W. Blaine and may not be reproduced in part or as a whole without the express consent of the author.
"I've gotten several hits," Barbara said into her headset as she worked on her toaster's wiring, "one in Midway City that looks promising."
"Why is that?" Dick asked as he spoke into a similar headset while he did push-ups. Midway City was the old stomping grounds of Hawkman, but he wasn't too sure where the Winged Wonder was roosting now.
"A missing persons report was placed concerning a woman named Rebecca Lawson and her daughter Andrea by a social worker. School records show that Andrea was enrolled in a local public school for only three months before they disappeared." Barbara muted the connection while she threw a few curse words at her ornery appliance. "Their social security numbers are fake, but the local cops don't know that. The report was filed by the Midway City cops after two gang-bangers were found dead outside the Lawson apartment in the housing projects."
"Did they leave in a hurry?"
"Police report pretty much says that; I took the liberty of e-mailing it to you."
He grunted and then stopped to sit on his floor. "Any thoughts on where they would go?"
"They seem to be avoiding any towns with a Bat connection. I've traced them to three other cities in the past two years." She rolled over to her worktable and hit a few keys on her laptop. "Keystone City, San Francisco and Boise."
"Doesn't give me much to go on," he groused. He took a deep breath. "I'll talk it over with Diana tomorrow…"
"Diana?" Barbara asked, a lump forming in her throat. Was there not any female super-hero that didn't seem to jump at the chance to work with Nightwing? She felt silly feeling that way and she regretted making the outburst.
Nightwing dismissed it. "Yes, she's agreed to help out."
"I thought you worked alone."
There was a short pause. "She…has resources to offer…"
I'll bet I know what those 'resources' are too! "Sure. Whatever, Dick. Listen, I've got to go; Bruce wants me to do some research on something else for him." It was a lie, but it was the only reasonable one she could think of. The cold specter of the woman she could have been had it not been for the Joker hung over her like an angel of death.
Barbara Gordon did not normally pity herself, she had long since passed that stage; sometimes, however, the circumstances of her existence got the better of her. Love was an incredibly powerful force, but even it could not overcome every shortcoming. Time and time again, Dick had told her that her condition did not matter to him and she believed that with all of her heart.
It was a problem for her and he didn't see that.
He could not understand what it was like to be involved with someone and not be able to do the things you wanted. She wasn't dead, just wounded and her sex drive was as active now as it ever had been, psychologically, of course. She remembered quite well the feelings, the bulging muscles knotted into sinewy cords, the sweat and the ecstasy. It was not something easily forgotten.
"Will you be available later?" he asked, his voice very quiet.
"Much later," she said, wiping a tear from her eye. This whole mess with Andrea was tearing her apart. She saw the way he was pursuing this matter because while frightening, the idea of becoming a parent was also exciting to him. Flesh of his flesh…there was no substitute and she knew that it was the one thing she could not give him.
The line went dead and she slowly pulled the headset off and then put her face in her hands.
A rooftop away, the Batman dropped the electronic ear he had pointed at Barbara's window and shook his head. He had held reservations about his son and the daughter of his best friend getting together since the first time they had met. It was obvious even then how much they were attracted to each other. It was too bad that attraction was destined to destroy them.
The Batman was no stranger to such things. The one woman in the world that could make him stutter in his speech, cloud his judgment and make him wish for the things a normal life could provide was Talia, the daughter of Ra's Al Ghul. He had noted that Barbara had accessed his personal files on the villain the night before. That was not so strange except that Wonder Woman had done the same thing.
The Batcomputer files, for the most part, were open to his fellow JLA members, part of Superman's new policy of "no secrets". Certainly Al Ghul was someone to keep up on but having two of the worlds most intelligent people access the information on the same night was not a coincidence.
Besides, the Batman did not believe in coincidences.
He had only gotten part of the conversation, but he understood that his son was looking into some murders in Midway City and that they were somehow connected to Ra's Al Ghul. Also, he had enlisted the help of Wonder Woman, a strange choice indeed.
Something was up and the Batman intended to find out exactly what it was.
"I'll be right out, Richard," Diana called from the shower. Nightwing noted that the bathroom door was open and it took all of his discipline not to look. He instead busied himself looking through the magazines on Donna's table.
Several minutes later, Wonder Woman appeared in full costume, toweling her long dark hair. Nightwing did not bother to look up. "Leaving the bathroom door open is a mistake."
"Why? You may have wanted to look, but you would not allow yourself to. It's called honor, Richard, and it is the redeeming quality I find in men. Some men have a perverse sense of it, while others know its true meaning." She put the towel on the floor and bent over, allowing her hair to hang while she brushed it. "You have an honor streak that is not only true and proper," she said before looking up at him and giving him a wink, "but it is quite attractive as well. Don't think that women are only interested in your muscles. I've met Hercules."
Nightwing watched her brush her hair, wondering if she was flirting or trying to teach him another lesson. It was so damn difficult dealing with a woman who was hundred, maybe thousands, of years old but looked like she could fit in at any college dorm. "Are you sure you want to help?" he asked, changing the subject.
"Ra's Al Ghul is a vile man who has brought harm to this little girl without even lifting a finger. Oh yes, I am quite sure about this." She stood back up and threw her hair back and it fell into place, perfectly. "Do you wish to drive to Midway City? I can fly and carry you…"
"It might be best if we borrowed one of the Titans' aircraft, in case we find Andrea," he offered. "She might not take well to be carried through the air." The truth was that having Wonder Woman carry him brought back unpleasant memories of when either Donna or Kory had done so because Robin, the Teen Wonder, could not soar like his namesake. Wally, then Kid Flash, had given him too much hell about it for him to ever be comfortable with it again. If he had a choice, he'd rather pilot a plane.
"Good thinking!" she said. "We just need to stop to get some breakfast. It is important to maintain a healthy diet in our line of work." She moved towards the door and then stopped. "How did you get in with your costume on?"
"Trade secret, I'm afraid," he said with a grin. He could tell she wanted to ask more, but she decided not to. The Batman had after all, trained Nightwing. "We'll have to go out the window. Try to keep up."
"If you discover the mother," Wonder Woman asked as the flew towards Midway City, "what will you do?"
Nightwing chewed on his lower lip. "I've thought about that and to be honest, I don't know. The fact that Andrea was artificially created in another country already has a host of legal problems when I try to claim custody. And," he added with a grim tone, "it isn't like Ra's Al Ghul is going to march into court to proclaim my parental rights."
"And if the mother fights for custody?"
He sighed. "I'll more than likely lose. Dick Grayson is not the model citizen a family court is likely to put a child with if given a choice. I live in a bad part of Bludhaven; I'm a cop which is inherently dangerous and I'm allegedly estranged from my foster-father, Bruce Wayne. Most of my actual funds are tucked away in special accounts here and there."
"Do you think that a single parent should be allowed to raise a child?"
He rocked his head back and forth before making a speed adjustment. "Do I think that life would have been easier of Bruce had gotten married, then the answer is no. Bruce's life is too complicated to think that hearth and home would have any positive effect. He and I are extreme cases, but for the norm, no, I do not believe that a single parent family is in the best interest of the child."
"It goes against your religious beliefs?" she asked.
He tapped the fuel gauge. "Damn thing is always sticking," he mumbled. Wonder Woman waited patiently and he slowly turned towards her. It was like staring at Donna, the same voice and the same mannerisms. However, there was decidedly something more feminine to Diana than Donna, something exotic and yet an almost girl-next-door quality. He knew that she would press him for an answer and he was surprised how easily he had fallen into conversing with the Amazon princess.
Wonder Woman was considered one of the heavy-hitters of the super-hero community, an icon that many other female (and male) heroes tried to emulate. She was accustomed to discussing a threat to the universe, not his views on God. Still, he found it hard not to reply. "It does. Call me funny but I believe there should be a mother and a father."
"I have no father," she stated as of she were ordering a pizza. "Do you find me flawed?"
"There are always exceptions to the rule. Bruce is a decent person but what would he have been like if his parents had lived? What about Superman? He was raised by a kindly couple and look how far he had gone." He turned back to look ahead, something in the distant sunlight gleaming. "I know you come from a different background, a different religion…"
"Oh, you would be surprised at my personal religious beliefs. Don't think because we have an association with the gods of Olympus that we are beholden unto them. Our race, the Amazon race, is very complex and I can't break it down into terms you would understand." She leaned back and stretched and Nightwing had to force his eye from wandering. There was a mission at hand and he had to…
"Great Hera!" Wonder Woman cried out, sitting up. Nightwing looked out and saw what had caused her to jump. The gleam ahead of them was a private jet and one of the engines had just exploded.
Without speaking, they went to work. Nightwing eased back on the throttle and strapped himself in tight, while Wonder Woman moved back to the hatch. She flung it open and leapt out into the air.
The cabin pressure immediately dropped and Nightwing grabbed the oxygen mask as it fell and put it on. His costume would help keep him warm but he knew that he still needed to act fast. He couldn't close the hatch in case Wonder Woman needed to get in again.
The Amazon Princess dove hard, and then pulled herself up, using her momentum to get the extra speed she needed to catch up to the falling jet. Inside, she saw the pilot and co-pilot struggling with the controls and she noted that the engine seemed to have caused more damage than she originally thought.
She tried to signal to the pilot, but the cockpit was simply too confused for her to get through. Gritting her teeth, she swept to the underbelly of the craft and reached up. Magically enhanced muscles flexed and her fingers dug into the metal. She had to be careful, lest she tear the plane apart.
She started to push up, working against the energy of the plane's descent and the force of gravity reaching up to bring it to its bosom. She grunted and pushed again and finally started to see some results. For several minutes, she and the jet fought for control, but in the end she won. A thousand feet above the ground, the plane was righted, supported by her strong arms.
Nightwing gave a howl and pressed the button that would shut the hatch. He brought the Titans jet in behind Wonder Woman and followed her to a large field. As he set down, she brought the jet down to a soft landing. When she crawled out from underneath, the crew of the jet were already piling out. Some were weeping, while others kissed the ground. The pilot came up and offered his hand to her.
"Ma'am, I can't thank you enough," he said, his eyes leveled on her chest.
She smiled and accepted the gratuity but then hurried off to leave. Nightwing was just finishing up his call to the local sheriff's office about the plane when Wonder Woman plopped into the seat next to him. Seeing her foul mood, he didn't ask, but instead engaged the vertical take-off and hurriedly resumed their flight.
After a few moments, she turned to him. "Why is it that men cannot stop looking at breasts? What is this fascination you have with them? Mine don't even function right now since I am not with child, yet…" she waved a finger in the air, "yet, so many men act as if it my chest is me. I am…what did that one young man say to me several weeks ago…'tits with legs'."
He shrugged, not knowing what to say. He was certainly guilty of occasionally glancing down an open blouse. "I guess it's because we don't have them, so we're fascinated with them."
"That is the way of men, always wanting what isn't theirs." She folded her arms over her chest. "For every one decent man I meet, I run into ten more who are nothing but pigs."
Nightwing didn't say anything, but kept his eyes straight ahead. "That could explain why your daughter had such an attitude in the future."
Nightwing turned to her but didn't say anything. She considered that a cue to continue. "You said she was attractive, so she must have been hit on by every male she came across. She had no positive male role model, apparently, until Bruce took her in."
"There's your poster boy for emotion…"
"Actually, I find Batman's emotional level refreshing. He loves with an intensity that I have never seen. He allows his love for his parents, for you and for his friends…even his love for Gotham City to dictate his actions. He meets the basic requirements." She relaxed a little, her anger over the pilot disappearing. "Regardless, I think we both agree that having this child raised by an assassin, even one who is trying to reform, may not be in Andrea's best interest."
"Amen to that, sister," Nightwing said.
Wonder Woman laughed. "'Sister' is a term of endearment to the Amazons, Richard. Watch yourself, you never know what kind of message you're getting across."
"You sure this is the town?" the man asked.
Per Degaton took another bite of his gilled cheese. "Yes; Rebecca Lawson will settle into this city and will raise the child here."
"I'm not too sure about wasting a kid," the man said, sipping at his coffee. "I mean, that's taking it a little too far."
Per Degaton nodded. "That isn't your concern; you have been hired to kill Nightwing. You are an unknown in this time period, an ace up the sleeve. How can I ever hope to rule the world one day if my plans are constantly interrupted by a boy in long underwear?"
"These new age heroes, they ain't like the ones we fought back in forty-two, are they?"
"The Justice Society yet lives, my friend; some of their most powerful members have retained their youth up until today. Green Lantern, Hawkman, Dr. Fate…I would prefer not to encounter them. One lone hero should not be a problem." The red-haired villain stared out the window. "We have time, I believe, a couple of days before Nightwing catches on."
"How can you be so sure?"
"Heroes always find the details, they always recognize the clues. All you have to do is wait until the time is right and they always appear."