Dr. Leslie Tompkins strode down the stairs of the Batcave. Many had
been the times that the good doctor had taken these stairs to bandage up
Bruce, Dick, Tim, Cass or Barbara. But it had been a first that she was
going to attend to one of her charges without her other guardian there to
aid her, Alfred. She missed the man, missed his conversation, missed his
steady hands while patching up her charges, missed everything about it.
After her near miss, she missed having him to talk to, to make her tea, and
console her.
She loved the man, and was regretting now not telling him that.
She had recognized the Black Canary as she opened the door, although she looked especially strained. Although it was no surprise; she knew that the superhero and Barbara had been good friends, and she knew about Barbara's condition. However, Dr. Tompkins did not recognize the bald headed man in the wheel chair that greeted her at the bottom of the stairs nor several of the other heroes that were congregated in the Cave. The ones she did recognize she identified as the Titans.
"Hello Dr. Tompkins," said the man, "my name is Dr. Charles Xavier. I have been attending to the patients in your absence. It has been a while since med school, but I have been able to clean them up a little and set up basic medicinal drips until your more expert opinion would be available."
"Hello Dr. Xavier. I would say it is a pleasure to meet you, but under these conditions I would be lying," said Tompkins. Seeing the bald headed man nod, she continued. "Patients? It was my understanding that there was only the one."
"While you were gone, another team brought in another injured party, a man," said Dr. Xavier. "They say his name is...."
"Commissioner Gordon," Tompkins gasped. "Oh my god. Father and daughter. This isn't right."
The Gordons were both in similar condition. They were extremely beaten up, with a variety of cuts and bruises all over their body. The former Commissioner had several broken bones, as well as a concussion. He had been, in short, worked over.
Dr. Xavier began, "Madam, I know this is hard for you, but do you think that you can handle this on your own for a while. I must consult with the others as to what we need to do next. But after you finish with the patients, if you could speak with me, I have some questions to ask you."
"But of course," said Dr. Tompkins attending to her charges, slightly flustered. "You have done admirably well in cleaning them up and setting their limbs. I will double-check your work, alter medication levels, and be right with you."
Xavier rolled over to the group, and listened in on the conversation, as it was being narrated by Rogue. "We show up at the guy's place and the place is in a shambles. Gordon had been laid out, and he was just a wreck. Pulse was weak, and we hauled to get him over here. However, short of the very limited information that we were able to get at the Iceberg about the guys with the funny accents leaving the country and those bad guys teaming up, we didn't get much."
"Neither did any of us," said Xavier perplexed. "Whoever did this was thorough, and so was the Batman. We can reasonable ascertain that whoever did this is not native to Gotham, but is from somewhere else. Any guesses?"
Harper shook his head, deadly serious after figuring out the possibilities of what could be happening to Nightwing. "The Bat's enemies are a long list. They go around the block and around the corner. Even if we were to exclude people that are Gothamites, there are plenty of people like Luthor or Kobra who would love to take a shot at him. The list doubles when you consider the others who are missing, like Robin and Nightwing."
Xavier nodded and paused to consider all the possibilities while his allies argued who it could be. He was missing something, some common thread about who the attacker could be. What did these victims have in common? Why the video camera? Why the attacks period? And why were the people that were missing, missing? Seeing Dr. Tompkins waving to get his attention, Xavier prepared himself for the questioning.
"Dr. Tompkins, thanks for taking time to talk to me," said Xavier. "I'll to make this brief. First a little about me. I know this will sound fantastic, but myself and some allies of mine are from another Earth. We are heroes from there, and we have come to help here. I know about Batman's secret identity, and I know a little about your relationship with him. I know this may be hard to swallow but..."
"No, it is not," said Dr. Leslie. "I have known Bruce for years, and after everything I have heard he has gone through, heroes from another Earth is not so out there. How can I help?"
Xavier smiled in appreciation at the forthright nature of the lady doctor. "OK then, did Bruce tell you where he was going?"
"No, but that's not uncommon," said Leslie. "He goes often without letting anyone know, because of the Justice League or his own cases. I didn't know anything was wrong until I did not hear from Alfred and there had been no sightings of Bruce, Cass, or the boys. I called the house, Dick's, Bab's, even came over once. But no one was around. I didn't know what to do."
Xavier nodded, and then he thought he saw a connection. "Dr. Tompkins, have you been attacked lately?"
Dr. Tompkins eyes slightly bulged and asked, "How did you know that? I was almost mugged, but Green Lantern stopped it. That's another reason I knew something was wrong. A bunch of other heroes were filling in for Bruce, which he would never let happen unless something was seriously wrong."
"Has anyone else close to Bruce, as Bruce Wayne been attacked."
"Well, there are not a lot of people close to Bruce. He is very private person for obvious reasons. But, now that you mention, Lucius Fox got badly beaten in a house robbery recently. I can't believe I didn't see it before."
Xavier paused for a minute and asked, "Can you give me the names of loved ones or people who are close to the others that are missing?"
Leslie paused and said, "Well Alfred and Cassandra are really only close to Bruce, the boys, Cass, Babs, and myself. However, Dick had a partner named Amy Rohrback that he was close to. Babs is good friends with a computer guy named Ted Kord. And Tim has his family, the Drakes."
Xavier nodded and thanked Dr. Tompkins. Xavier wheeled back to the group and called for Cyborg to come over and gave him some instructions. Cyborg nodded and went to the Batcomputer and got to work.
"What do you got Professor," asked Cyclops.
"Possibly a break. But more importantly, did you notify the League on our discoveries" asked Xavier.
"Yes, but they are off-planet on a mission," replied Troia. "Plastic Man was manning the Watchtower, but he is the only active left, so he can't leave. He said he would pass on the word, but said that Superman left something that might help you Professor if we had to go out before they came back."
With that the Transporter activated and a large metal exo-skeleton materialized. The Professor and the X-Men marveled at the Kryptonian technology. Troia continued, "Superman said he hoped that he wasn't presumptuous, but your chair did not look like it was sufficient to handle a strenuous mission. This suit responds to mental commands through a device. It has a variety of non-lethal weaponry, series of jets that allow for limited range of flight, and free mobility that should be sufficient to protect. Superman also said that it should not hinder any of your telepathic abilites."
"Superman did well in providing this for me, as I think we will have to move soon," said Xavier. "I believe that I know where the 'Batclan' is, provided that Cyborg's search comes up with what I think it will."
"What," exclaimed Roy Harper. "Who is it? Who took Robbie?"
"I don't know," said Xavier. "But given the parameters, the computer, I have been told, should be able to arrive at a conclusion."
Cyborg walked up and nodded saying, "You were right professor. The search you asked me to do turned up negative on all counts."
"WELL WHO IS IT?!?" yelled Arsenal.
"Ra's Al Ghul. It's the only person that makes sense," said Cyborg. "But let Xavier tell you about it."
Xavier nodded and said, "It was quite simple really. I am unfamiliar with Al Ghul, but presumably, based on the information I discovered I knew that the person who holds Batman knows of his double identity, and that the attacks were some sort of assault on Batman and on his other identity. To understand how I determined this, well, you have to know who Batman is, and some of us don't. Troia, I think everyone needs to know Batman's identity." Telepathically he sent Troia a message I should be able to wipe their minds afterwards, so they will forget.
"If we are going up against Ra's Al Ghul, you better," conceded Troia, staring hard at a currently wide eyed Cat. "Everyone needs to know where he is coming from if we are going to get out of this in one piece. Batman is Bruce Wayne."
A collective gasp went up from those who were from the Bat's Earth but were not previously in the know. "Whoever holds Batman and his charges attacked people that Batman and Bruce Wayne knew, for what purpose, I don't know as of yet. The Gordon's were acquaintances of Batman, Lucius Fox of Bruce Wayne, and an attempt was made on Dr. Tompkins who was of both.
"I also had Cyborg run a check on persons that are close to the other members of the Batclan, as I assumed that if they knew Batman's secret identity they would know the identity of his associates. All of the close parties to those persons have remained safe and have not been harmed in anyway. That suggests that the attacks have been meant for Batman alone. His other charges, if they are held, are being held due to their relationship with the Bat, not because of who they are as vigilantes per say."
"I put those parameters in the Batcomputer," continued Cyborg. "Only two people know for a fact about Batman's double identity and would put forth an assault in this form: Hugo Strange and Ra's Al Ghul. Since Wolverine beat up Strange in Gotham, and the attack on Commissioner Gordon was commenced by 'guys with accents' the obvious party was Al Ghul. The Batcomputer used some satellites and broke into some security networks. I have coordinates for where they are probably being held."
Arsenal said, "Fine, it's Ra's Al Ghul. Great lets bust some heads." He turned to move towards the Batjet, when Black Canary stopped him.
"This doesn't make sense," said BC. "Al Ghul wants to marry Batman to his daughter, to be his heir. This daughter, Talia, is infatuated with Batman would never hurt him." At this, Catwoman narrowed her eyes and hissed slightly. "Why this attack? And Al Ghul should know that if the entire Batclan dropped off the face of the Earth, the heroes of the world would look for them."
Jesse Quick snapped her fingers and said, "I got it! I may not be an expert on Al Ghul, but I am on superheroes. Al Ghul is pretty smart, and he probably did his homework. He probably predicted that the Justice League, Titans, and everyone else would not tear up the globe looking for Batman, too public. Like Superman said, Batman is not a public creature, and out of respect for him, we would not send up a big search party. But Al Ghul would probably expect someone like the Titans or some other team to come after him.
"But we also forget the Protocols incident with the Bat. For those of you who weren't here, Batman created strategies on how to take down a bunch of heroes, specifically the Justice League. Al Ghul got his hands on them and had the League on the ropes, but they managed to pull through with Batman's help. Knowing Batman, he was probably thorough. So he probably came up with Protocols for all of the heroes he knew, which means Al Ghul has them now too."
"That's not good," said Troia, who paused thinking. "But if he had all of these protocols, which were non-lethal in nature, why not use them on the Batclan? They left willingly. 'Family business.' Why not use it on them?"
"I think I can answer this one," said Wolverine growling. "The Batpunk may be a pansy with all of his plans and strategies, but he is no idiot. For his clan, he probably did not have them written down on a computer. He probably memorized all of them for his kids, and had his kids come up with strategies for him."
Troia and Jesse nodded. "Sounds about right. But why did they go? What caused them to leave?"
Xavier stated, "it had to be Alfred. He is the only non-superhero missing, and from what I know of the family he is the patriarch. Taking him would be easier than taking one of the other members of the clan, it would be serious enough for everyone to drop everything, and it would mean the absence of not someone who is obvious to other heroes. If Batman, Robin, or Nightwing had been taken, their respective teams would have noticed. If Batgirl had been taken, others would have noticed. But, with them leaving willingly, providing for their absence..."
"We would not start looking for them until the trap had been sprung and Ra's had them for a while," finished Damage. "Man, we have been played."
Arsenal nodded, "From start to finish. Ok, we know who has 'em, we know where they are, but we can't get them. So what do we do?"
Xavier spoke, "We are not without our advantages. He may have protocols for you, but not for us. Batman had never encountered us before, could not study us. Thus, Ra's is without a means to stop us."
"Plus, Batman doesn't have a file on me," said Catwoman. "If he knew how to stop me every time without killing me, he would. He can't, and I am going in. I want to have a discussion with Ra's daughter."
"Agreed," said Xavier. "We will need all the help we can get in there, and you can be useful."
"And what do we do during all this," asked Arsenal sarcastically. "We only have one waterboy on the team in Garth. Sorry."
"Bite me Quiverbreath," retorted the Atlantean.
"No," said Donna. "We will provide the diversion. Ra's has an army. They will be expecting us, not the X-Men and Catwoman. We land, we fight the army away from the stronghold, while the X-Men sneak in."
"Yay," Arsenal said deadpan. "We get to the fight the army of assorted goons. Again. Yippee."
"Sounds like a plan," said Cyclops nodding.
Troia nodded and said, "There is no use in us moving right away, and we'll be useless if we don't get some rest before heading out. X-Men and Catwoman, and we'll head back to Titans Tower. We'll meet back here tomorrow to move out."
She loved the man, and was regretting now not telling him that.
She had recognized the Black Canary as she opened the door, although she looked especially strained. Although it was no surprise; she knew that the superhero and Barbara had been good friends, and she knew about Barbara's condition. However, Dr. Tompkins did not recognize the bald headed man in the wheel chair that greeted her at the bottom of the stairs nor several of the other heroes that were congregated in the Cave. The ones she did recognize she identified as the Titans.
"Hello Dr. Tompkins," said the man, "my name is Dr. Charles Xavier. I have been attending to the patients in your absence. It has been a while since med school, but I have been able to clean them up a little and set up basic medicinal drips until your more expert opinion would be available."
"Hello Dr. Xavier. I would say it is a pleasure to meet you, but under these conditions I would be lying," said Tompkins. Seeing the bald headed man nod, she continued. "Patients? It was my understanding that there was only the one."
"While you were gone, another team brought in another injured party, a man," said Dr. Xavier. "They say his name is...."
"Commissioner Gordon," Tompkins gasped. "Oh my god. Father and daughter. This isn't right."
The Gordons were both in similar condition. They were extremely beaten up, with a variety of cuts and bruises all over their body. The former Commissioner had several broken bones, as well as a concussion. He had been, in short, worked over.
Dr. Xavier began, "Madam, I know this is hard for you, but do you think that you can handle this on your own for a while. I must consult with the others as to what we need to do next. But after you finish with the patients, if you could speak with me, I have some questions to ask you."
"But of course," said Dr. Tompkins attending to her charges, slightly flustered. "You have done admirably well in cleaning them up and setting their limbs. I will double-check your work, alter medication levels, and be right with you."
Xavier rolled over to the group, and listened in on the conversation, as it was being narrated by Rogue. "We show up at the guy's place and the place is in a shambles. Gordon had been laid out, and he was just a wreck. Pulse was weak, and we hauled to get him over here. However, short of the very limited information that we were able to get at the Iceberg about the guys with the funny accents leaving the country and those bad guys teaming up, we didn't get much."
"Neither did any of us," said Xavier perplexed. "Whoever did this was thorough, and so was the Batman. We can reasonable ascertain that whoever did this is not native to Gotham, but is from somewhere else. Any guesses?"
Harper shook his head, deadly serious after figuring out the possibilities of what could be happening to Nightwing. "The Bat's enemies are a long list. They go around the block and around the corner. Even if we were to exclude people that are Gothamites, there are plenty of people like Luthor or Kobra who would love to take a shot at him. The list doubles when you consider the others who are missing, like Robin and Nightwing."
Xavier nodded and paused to consider all the possibilities while his allies argued who it could be. He was missing something, some common thread about who the attacker could be. What did these victims have in common? Why the video camera? Why the attacks period? And why were the people that were missing, missing? Seeing Dr. Tompkins waving to get his attention, Xavier prepared himself for the questioning.
"Dr. Tompkins, thanks for taking time to talk to me," said Xavier. "I'll to make this brief. First a little about me. I know this will sound fantastic, but myself and some allies of mine are from another Earth. We are heroes from there, and we have come to help here. I know about Batman's secret identity, and I know a little about your relationship with him. I know this may be hard to swallow but..."
"No, it is not," said Dr. Leslie. "I have known Bruce for years, and after everything I have heard he has gone through, heroes from another Earth is not so out there. How can I help?"
Xavier smiled in appreciation at the forthright nature of the lady doctor. "OK then, did Bruce tell you where he was going?"
"No, but that's not uncommon," said Leslie. "He goes often without letting anyone know, because of the Justice League or his own cases. I didn't know anything was wrong until I did not hear from Alfred and there had been no sightings of Bruce, Cass, or the boys. I called the house, Dick's, Bab's, even came over once. But no one was around. I didn't know what to do."
Xavier nodded, and then he thought he saw a connection. "Dr. Tompkins, have you been attacked lately?"
Dr. Tompkins eyes slightly bulged and asked, "How did you know that? I was almost mugged, but Green Lantern stopped it. That's another reason I knew something was wrong. A bunch of other heroes were filling in for Bruce, which he would never let happen unless something was seriously wrong."
"Has anyone else close to Bruce, as Bruce Wayne been attacked."
"Well, there are not a lot of people close to Bruce. He is very private person for obvious reasons. But, now that you mention, Lucius Fox got badly beaten in a house robbery recently. I can't believe I didn't see it before."
Xavier paused for a minute and asked, "Can you give me the names of loved ones or people who are close to the others that are missing?"
Leslie paused and said, "Well Alfred and Cassandra are really only close to Bruce, the boys, Cass, Babs, and myself. However, Dick had a partner named Amy Rohrback that he was close to. Babs is good friends with a computer guy named Ted Kord. And Tim has his family, the Drakes."
Xavier nodded and thanked Dr. Tompkins. Xavier wheeled back to the group and called for Cyborg to come over and gave him some instructions. Cyborg nodded and went to the Batcomputer and got to work.
"What do you got Professor," asked Cyclops.
"Possibly a break. But more importantly, did you notify the League on our discoveries" asked Xavier.
"Yes, but they are off-planet on a mission," replied Troia. "Plastic Man was manning the Watchtower, but he is the only active left, so he can't leave. He said he would pass on the word, but said that Superman left something that might help you Professor if we had to go out before they came back."
With that the Transporter activated and a large metal exo-skeleton materialized. The Professor and the X-Men marveled at the Kryptonian technology. Troia continued, "Superman said he hoped that he wasn't presumptuous, but your chair did not look like it was sufficient to handle a strenuous mission. This suit responds to mental commands through a device. It has a variety of non-lethal weaponry, series of jets that allow for limited range of flight, and free mobility that should be sufficient to protect. Superman also said that it should not hinder any of your telepathic abilites."
"Superman did well in providing this for me, as I think we will have to move soon," said Xavier. "I believe that I know where the 'Batclan' is, provided that Cyborg's search comes up with what I think it will."
"What," exclaimed Roy Harper. "Who is it? Who took Robbie?"
"I don't know," said Xavier. "But given the parameters, the computer, I have been told, should be able to arrive at a conclusion."
Cyborg walked up and nodded saying, "You were right professor. The search you asked me to do turned up negative on all counts."
"WELL WHO IS IT?!?" yelled Arsenal.
"Ra's Al Ghul. It's the only person that makes sense," said Cyborg. "But let Xavier tell you about it."
Xavier nodded and said, "It was quite simple really. I am unfamiliar with Al Ghul, but presumably, based on the information I discovered I knew that the person who holds Batman knows of his double identity, and that the attacks were some sort of assault on Batman and on his other identity. To understand how I determined this, well, you have to know who Batman is, and some of us don't. Troia, I think everyone needs to know Batman's identity." Telepathically he sent Troia a message I should be able to wipe their minds afterwards, so they will forget.
"If we are going up against Ra's Al Ghul, you better," conceded Troia, staring hard at a currently wide eyed Cat. "Everyone needs to know where he is coming from if we are going to get out of this in one piece. Batman is Bruce Wayne."
A collective gasp went up from those who were from the Bat's Earth but were not previously in the know. "Whoever holds Batman and his charges attacked people that Batman and Bruce Wayne knew, for what purpose, I don't know as of yet. The Gordon's were acquaintances of Batman, Lucius Fox of Bruce Wayne, and an attempt was made on Dr. Tompkins who was of both.
"I also had Cyborg run a check on persons that are close to the other members of the Batclan, as I assumed that if they knew Batman's secret identity they would know the identity of his associates. All of the close parties to those persons have remained safe and have not been harmed in anyway. That suggests that the attacks have been meant for Batman alone. His other charges, if they are held, are being held due to their relationship with the Bat, not because of who they are as vigilantes per say."
"I put those parameters in the Batcomputer," continued Cyborg. "Only two people know for a fact about Batman's double identity and would put forth an assault in this form: Hugo Strange and Ra's Al Ghul. Since Wolverine beat up Strange in Gotham, and the attack on Commissioner Gordon was commenced by 'guys with accents' the obvious party was Al Ghul. The Batcomputer used some satellites and broke into some security networks. I have coordinates for where they are probably being held."
Arsenal said, "Fine, it's Ra's Al Ghul. Great lets bust some heads." He turned to move towards the Batjet, when Black Canary stopped him.
"This doesn't make sense," said BC. "Al Ghul wants to marry Batman to his daughter, to be his heir. This daughter, Talia, is infatuated with Batman would never hurt him." At this, Catwoman narrowed her eyes and hissed slightly. "Why this attack? And Al Ghul should know that if the entire Batclan dropped off the face of the Earth, the heroes of the world would look for them."
Jesse Quick snapped her fingers and said, "I got it! I may not be an expert on Al Ghul, but I am on superheroes. Al Ghul is pretty smart, and he probably did his homework. He probably predicted that the Justice League, Titans, and everyone else would not tear up the globe looking for Batman, too public. Like Superman said, Batman is not a public creature, and out of respect for him, we would not send up a big search party. But Al Ghul would probably expect someone like the Titans or some other team to come after him.
"But we also forget the Protocols incident with the Bat. For those of you who weren't here, Batman created strategies on how to take down a bunch of heroes, specifically the Justice League. Al Ghul got his hands on them and had the League on the ropes, but they managed to pull through with Batman's help. Knowing Batman, he was probably thorough. So he probably came up with Protocols for all of the heroes he knew, which means Al Ghul has them now too."
"That's not good," said Troia, who paused thinking. "But if he had all of these protocols, which were non-lethal in nature, why not use them on the Batclan? They left willingly. 'Family business.' Why not use it on them?"
"I think I can answer this one," said Wolverine growling. "The Batpunk may be a pansy with all of his plans and strategies, but he is no idiot. For his clan, he probably did not have them written down on a computer. He probably memorized all of them for his kids, and had his kids come up with strategies for him."
Troia and Jesse nodded. "Sounds about right. But why did they go? What caused them to leave?"
Xavier stated, "it had to be Alfred. He is the only non-superhero missing, and from what I know of the family he is the patriarch. Taking him would be easier than taking one of the other members of the clan, it would be serious enough for everyone to drop everything, and it would mean the absence of not someone who is obvious to other heroes. If Batman, Robin, or Nightwing had been taken, their respective teams would have noticed. If Batgirl had been taken, others would have noticed. But, with them leaving willingly, providing for their absence..."
"We would not start looking for them until the trap had been sprung and Ra's had them for a while," finished Damage. "Man, we have been played."
Arsenal nodded, "From start to finish. Ok, we know who has 'em, we know where they are, but we can't get them. So what do we do?"
Xavier spoke, "We are not without our advantages. He may have protocols for you, but not for us. Batman had never encountered us before, could not study us. Thus, Ra's is without a means to stop us."
"Plus, Batman doesn't have a file on me," said Catwoman. "If he knew how to stop me every time without killing me, he would. He can't, and I am going in. I want to have a discussion with Ra's daughter."
"Agreed," said Xavier. "We will need all the help we can get in there, and you can be useful."
"And what do we do during all this," asked Arsenal sarcastically. "We only have one waterboy on the team in Garth. Sorry."
"Bite me Quiverbreath," retorted the Atlantean.
"No," said Donna. "We will provide the diversion. Ra's has an army. They will be expecting us, not the X-Men and Catwoman. We land, we fight the army away from the stronghold, while the X-Men sneak in."
"Yay," Arsenal said deadpan. "We get to the fight the army of assorted goons. Again. Yippee."
"Sounds like a plan," said Cyclops nodding.
Troia nodded and said, "There is no use in us moving right away, and we'll be useless if we don't get some rest before heading out. X-Men and Catwoman, and we'll head back to Titans Tower. We'll meet back here tomorrow to move out."