Nightwing: Out of Time 3 – The Hunt for Black Robin

Chapter 5

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 wanted to thank you again for agreeing to see me," the computer-designed head commented from the man's laptop screen. It was the light green representation of Oracle that was used for those people who did not know she was really Barbara Gordon. In fact, many people could not swear as to whether or not Oracle was even a woman.

Or human.

"It's quite all right, really. I know of your relationship with Batman and any friend of his is a friend of mine, even when it involves private matters," the man said, again emphasizing that he was extending a great courtesy to Oracle.

"Then I will get to the point. You, of course, read my earlier e-mail. It gave specific details concerning certain genetic traits. I am sure that you are certainly aware if such a condition exists in your family." The screen image flickered a bit. "I am not at liberty to discuss the reasons why I need this information."

"It is rather personal," the man began, running his hand through his hair. "However, if you must know, then the answer is yes. The trait was passed down by my mother. It is prevalent within my family."

"I hate to sound so blunt," Oracle said while she wrote down some notes on the other end, "but several members of your family have had…well, let's just say aggressive tendencies in the past."

The man sighed. "Yes, we are not known for our cool temperaments." He then leaned forward, as if the computer-generated image could actually see him. "Why aren't you at liberty to discuss why you need to know these things. Normally, I would send you away without another word and I strongly suspect that the Batman does not know you are questioning me."

The Oracle head regarded him and again there was a flicker. The distance between the two was great and it required Oracle to route the transmission through several secure routers. All of that was causing the signal to sometimes skip a beat. "Why would you say that?" she asked.

"Because I know Batman all too well. If he wanted this information, he would contact me personally…not through his associates."

Barbara snorted. The man obviously thought more of his relationship with Batman than Batman did! "You're right, he doesn't know because I'm not doing this for him. In fact, I never said I was."

The man chuckled. "You are a strange one, Oracle! Then you must be doing this for Nightwing."

Oracle did not respond and Barbara pondered the statement. It hadn't been a probing question, but put forth like a fact of life. Oracle and Nightwing belonged together he seemed to be saying. Was that how the community at large saw them, always as a couple? It seemed as if they were breaking some natural law by not being together.

Or was that simply wishful thinking?

"I'm going to sign off now, I have more pressing business to attend to," he said. Then he added, "If you ever find it in your heart, I would like to know why you had to have this information. Of course, you realize that I will be making my own inquiries."

He ended the transmission before she could reply, not that she knew what she was going to say anyway. Taking the headset off and shutting down her Oracle program, she turned to the woman behind her.

Dinah Lance was a beautiful woman by any standards, but the frown she wore under her golden hair did nothing to improve her looks. She had stood by silently during the whole conversation, shaking her head most of the time. "You know how much I hate these cloak-and-dagger type things. The man had a right to know," she said in a stern voice.

"That's not really up to us to decide," Barbara said.

Dinah was taken aback. "Really? Then whose decision is it? I've been busting my hump as Black Canary out there, tracing down leads that end up going nowhere and you come across a big, fat one and the best way to confirm it is to ask the guy. Spill the beans, go for the gusto!"

Barbara wheeled over to some houseplants and picked up the water sprayer. As she sprayed the plants, Dinah continued. "It's about Nightwing, isn't it?"

"You're dreaming again, Dinah."

"Bull! I know this road, honey; Oliver Queen drove me down it several times. You guys break up though you can't figure out why and now he's out carousing the country with the world's most perfect woman…"

"She isn't perfect," Barbara said, moving over to a fern that was showing some brown.

Dinah laughed. "Have you ever actually met her? Tall, strong, giant boobs, thighs and buns of steel, perfect teeth! I have no doubt that she was molded from clay and not born, though I would assume at first glance she was sculpted by a man."

"It's over between Nightwing and I," Barbara said.

"No, it isn't," Dinah responded as she walked over and turned the wheelchair around. She dropped to her haunches and took the spray bottle away. Barbara was starting to tear up. The Woman who was the Black Canary spoke with a soft voice. "You wanted to verify the information all by yourself and present it to him, didn't you. Make him think of how much he needs you…"

"He doesn't need me…"

Dinah grabbed Barbara's hands and patted them. "God, Ollie used to make me feel that way! The funny things is that, really, you two seem to belong together, but you just can't seem to get it to work. You blame it on your legs, he blames it on his…hell, I don't know. Barbara, you knew him long before you lost the use of your legs; didn't you love him then?"

She nodded and sniffed. "Yes, I did."

"And he loved you, too. It's obvious! But…and this is a very big but…there is something keeping you two apart and I'd have to say its fear."

"Fear?"

"Yeah; and it is going to keep ripping the two of you apart until you both overcome it. You're so afraid he'll end up getting killed and he looks at you and realizes his worst nightmares have already come true and there was nothing he could do about it." Dinah stood up. "If you two don't stop worrying, then you'll never solve the problem."

"What if it's too late?"

Dinah shrugged. "There are no definites in life, honey. Maybe this last break-up did him in. Maybe he's tired. He's a good guy but I'm sure he has his limits. That's like with this kid thing; I dated Ra's Al Ghul, remember? If that cold-hearted bastard did something like this to me, I'd kill him! Nightwing has to be on the very edge…"

"I don't want to think about that," Barbara said. She looked back at the laptop. "He needs to know this information."

"You solved one part of his mystery, though I'm sure he's not going to be very happy when he finds out who the mother is," Dinah commented as she walked into the kitchen. "You got any beer? I could use a beer. A cold beer and a hot bath…"

The man looked down at his laptop, the small mail icon was flashing. He smiled, as he had expected his words would have forced Oracle to reveal her secrets. It was one thing to call up and ask a general question, but probing into a family's medical history was something else entirely.

He double-clicked on the icon and the message popped up. He read it quickly.

Thirty seconds later, he had jumped from his balcony and was flying through the air, trying to get to America as quickly as he could.

Officer Richard Grayson finished the final report for his shift and stretched. He would be off in another fifteen minutes and the bribe he had paid to the watch commander ensured another 48 hours off in order to pursue "a girl" as he had put it.

Which girl was he chasing in his mind right now, he wondered. Certainly Andrea was always in his thoughts, but he basically knew he had some time to get to her and he really didn't know what he'd do. Would Rebecca Lawson, the assassin who was taking care of her, try to kill Nightwing or would she willingly give up the little girl to her father.

He had considered that maybe Rebecca was the actual mother; perhaps he had encountered the assassin during his career. Only the Lord knew how many times he and Batman had gone up against the forces of Ra's Al Ghul. He hadn't slept with any of the criminal's underlings, but that apparently didn't matter. If you had the right recipe, you could cook up a baby with little effort apparently.

Yet, he confessed internally, he found his thoughts drifting to Wonder Woman. Why was he attracted to her? It really had nothing to do with her physical appearance; he had been with Kory for years and he had also had a secret affair with Donna Troy, Wonder Woman's twin. There really wasn't anything new for him to see under the costume.

He guessed it was her personality. He had always been attracted to strong women, women who were ready to kick-butt and take names. Wonder Woman was all of that plus something else. When he was with her, he got the sense he was speaking to a real legend, much the same feeling her got when he was with Superman. She radiated power and charisma and that had an intoxicating effect on him.

Plus, he had to admit, it sure seemed like she was flirting with him. That wasn't possible was it? But she herself had pointed out that physically, there wasn't much difference between them. She was older, but she was also immortal.

Was it just wishful thinking on his part, or was he reeling from his break-up with Barbara. Ever since he had returned from the future, he had been haunted by Black Robin's words of how he and Barbara never lasted. Was that true only in that future, or was that the way things were supposed to go.

Obviously, that future was not going to occur. He had already warned Wonder Woman of the impending breast cancer and he had sat down with the Red Tornado, another hero shattered in the future, to talk about life's problems. In the future, the Red Tornado was more robotic than he usually was and the android had hinted that he had killed a man in his past.

So, that future would never come to be, which threw in all kinds of time-paradoxes. If that future never occurred, then how would he know about any of the things he talked to the other heroes about? He had posed the question to Wally, who as the Flash traveled time frequently, but he simply shrugged, feigning stupidity.

Still, it seemed as if he and Babs were never going to get their fair shake in life and maybe he just needed to convince himself of that. It seemed that the harder he tried with her, the harder she pushed away and that was getting old very quick. He was still young and in no hurry to try and walk down the aisle again (his marriage to Kory had been destroyed by the villainous Raven on the wedding day). Maybe he needed to just push Babs out of his mind and heart and make room for someone else.

He tried to imagine him and Wonder Woman going out, but realized that Donna might object. Of course, nothing had ever stopped Donna from pursuing other relationships, even two or three with Roy! That brought up another issue: would he be dating Wonder Woman only because he couldn't date Donna? Certainly Donna had made it clear that she did not want any of her friendships to go beyond a certain level, ever.

Dick smiled to himself; he was already imagining himself dating Wonder Woman. What would Bruce think? What would Superman think?

What would Aquaman think?

It was no secret that the King of the Sea had a torch burning for the Amazon princess, but it had never gone beyond flirting for all he knew. Of course, all she did was flirt with Dick as well.

"Grayson! Pick up line one!" someone yelled.

Dick reached over to the phone and dialed into the extension. "Officer Grayson."

"Will you be eating before you get here?" Wonder Woman asked.

"No," he said, checking his watch.

"I'll order room service then," she said.

He nodded. "Make it a candlelight dinner," he joked.

"Oh, most certainly…officer," she replied before hanging up.

"Well, if anything, she's got a great sense of humor," he said aloud. Hopefully, she also had some information he could use.

Nightwing climbed into the apartment via the window for the bedroom. Diana never stayed in here when he was expected to arrive. He was tired and famished, now regretting not stopping to get something to eat. The room service food was not the greatest in the world.

He turned on the light and saw a file folder lying on the bed. He opened it and scanned the information. A Swiss bank account in the name of Rebecca Lawson, formerly of Star City, had been emptied of several hundred thousand dollars. The transaction had taken place via telephone from Midway City on the same day that Andrea and her mother had been reported as leaving. The money was then dropped into ten different bank accounts around the United States, obviously to keep confusion up for Ra's people.

Earlier that day, a deed was recorded in the Hamilton County clerks' office for a new home purchased by Ms. Lawson. The amount of the home matched closely to a deposit made into an account in Lexington, Kentucky. There were other papers as well, detailing withdrawals being made from the other accounts and Nightwing wondered if there was not a whole network, a sort of Underground Railroad, established for former assassins.

Then he noted that one of the withdrawals involved a direct transfer to the account of an organization that specialized in hiding battered spouses. "Pretty damn smart. She's hooked up with people who already know how to hide from everyone. No wonder Ra's couldn't find them; he was up against a sophisticated network that could not afford to be infiltrated."

Dian's UN contacts had paid off big time. He wanted to go to the home immediately, but he knew it would be better to eat. Dealing with ex-assassins on an empty stomach was not a good idea.

He pulled off his mask and listened, just to make sure that no visitors were present before he walked out in costume. Satisfied that they were alone, he opened the door and walked into a darkened room. Diana sat a table, wearing a long gown that wasn't too fancy but wasn't tacky either.

On the center of the table was a single candle.