Disclaimer: Not mine! Not mine! Not mine. sobs>

Author's note: First of all, I am sooo sorry for the delay in the update. I just kinda got into a couple of time-crunch periods. Reeeeaaally sorry. As for the next chapter, I've already written part of it, but I'd like to get a couple of more reviews before posting it.

7:34 - Batcave - Bruce's P.O.V.

Dick and I were walking down the manor's hallway leading to the batcave… Things hadn't gone too well between us since we left Bludhaven. Dick had asked me how I knew about his sister and her kids on the train. At first, I was reluctant to tell him. So I tried ignoring the question. But as always with Dick, that didn't work… I told him that when I was tracking down a couple of drug dealers, nearly a decade ago, I saw his name on the subway passenger list to Gotham. I was curious, and since Dick never visited me or Barbra anymore, I decided to keep a tab on him. It turned out that Dick actually came to Gotham quite often – at least once every three months. On one such day, curiosity pushed me into following him. That is when I finally found out about his other family. After that, finding out the history wasn't too difficult. It was quite clear in one of Dick's conversations with his sister that she had been kidnapped at a tender age, long before I met Dick. His family searched for her for many years, and Dick never gave up that search, even after his parents' tragic deaths… He made sure he kept that a secret from me even after all we've been through together as the Caped Crusaders, although I have no idea why he would do such a thing…Anyway, after he moved to Bludhaven, he found her. A couple of years later, she got married and settled down in Gotham.

When I told Dick about my… source, I knew he disapproved and considered it spying. He didn't say anything though, which is most unlike him, but his silence spoke volumes. And he managed to maintain that code of silence even as we descended the batcave stairs.

I felt Dick tense as we passed his old suit, but he said nothing… As soon as we took our seats, in silence, in front of the batcomputer, I tried to play what the computer had recorded in my absence. But it seemed that Terry's video link had been tampered with shortly after I left. And the small footage that the computer had recorded contained nothing important. So, I tried contacting Terry through the radio but found no reply. That worried me somewhat, but then I realized he was probably still unconscious, wherever he was…

I turned to Dick and knew, from his expression, that there was no need for me to speak my mind. He knew what had to be done. It was time for him to don his cape once again for a little old time detective work…

8:02 - Maller's Residence - Jake's P.O.V

The blast sent me sprawling into a bare oak tree. That took a lot out of me. I hit the tree pretty bad and was immobile for a couple of seconds with my face muffled in the snow. But those seconds seamed like decades; I couldn't breathe… As soon as the slightest bit of feeling returned to my limbs, it took me all the strength I could muster to turn my body so that I could lie on my back. My lungs burnt with every screeching gasp I took. It seemed like forever until my breathing steadied a bit. When I managed to pull myself to my full height, leaning on the oak tree for support, I was surprised to find Daph's diary still clutched tightly in my left hand…It was evident that my right arm had absorbed most of the shock judging by the ripped jacket and the swollen elbow underneath. I tried flexing the right arm and bending the elbow, but it was simply too painful to move. 'Great! Just great!… If I ever have to use my laser tonight it'll be a total disaster' I thought; I was right handed and completely useless with my left. I limped forward since my left ankle somehow got sprained. Glancing back at our house, I saw that it had become nothing but ashes and dying flames… A couple of trees around it were scorched, too. I continued to walk away from that horrible scene with no direction whatsoever…

I had absolutely no idea what to do. I couldn't contact the sector, for Sanlan could have tapped into the phone lines there and the GCPD would be of no use in such a situation. But maybe Uncle Dick could help…? He was a prize winning detective in Bludhaven. I saw him work on a BCPD case before when we were visiting, and he was simply – I could find no other word – amazing… When I asked him who he learned it all from, he just answered mysteriously, "The best…". 'Yes. Uncle Dick can definitely help' I thought. So, with my left hand, I carefully put Daph's Dairy in my pocket and pulled out my cell. Dialing uncle's number with my left was a difficult task and I kept pressing the wrong numbers.

I heard a loud blast and dropped my sizzling mobile. I looked up and saw the bomber with a 280G-laser. He was a head taller than me and had string blond hair and a turned up nose. The street light wasn't bright enough to be able to see his eyes clearly, but something told me they were an icy blue matching the rest of his stony face. He was also chewing a gum, making sure he stretched his jaws to their fullest capacity while doing so, imitating a hungry cow. This chubby bomber was only nine or ten feet away from me, his laser was at the ready and there was no way I could run, let alone fight, in the condition I was in…

For some strange reason, I had to fight the urge to laugh out loud. I guess the fear had driven me to hysteria as the grinning man raised the laser to my chest-level.

"Now, How 'bout ya tell me wha' happened in there? Da boss designed da bomb ta blow up everyting in a square mile." He said in a half-Irish, half-gangster accent, moving his gun in a threatening way while doing so.

"You're gonna kill me anyway, so why should I bother telling you?"

He smirked and lazily replied, "Cause da boss's go' yer li'l sissy"

"Where is she! What have you done to her!"

"Calm down, boy" he mocked, "she's OK… fer now a'least."

He gave me a testing yellow grin and continued, "Listen boy. I know yer 'fraid ta die, even if I can't read it in yer eyes. An' if ya tell me how ya did it, I'll give ya a thirty-second head start."

I couldn't argue with the fact that I was shivering from more than just the cold. I had never felt so…weak? His offer was too demeaning. He wanted me to run like a chicken then be slaughtered… But he was giving me time. And that meant time to execute a plan. But first, I had to keep him talking to come up with one.

"Fine. I changed the range of the blast"

"Explain", he demanded.

'There is a small laser M220 I once hid in a hole in the tree to my right.' I thought.

"I noticed that the top cover of your bomb was glass, which is pretty expensive these days, and only a bomber who thinks of his work as an artistic masterpiece would use it."

I slowly inched towards the next tree.

"Freeze", the bomber yelled.

'Think. Think. Think' I ordered myself.

"My ankle is hurt. I need to sit down." I explained quickly.

"Heh heh… Fine. Not dat it makes much of a difference anyway. You're dead boy."

I sighed inwardly in relief, limbed to the tree and gingerly seated myself against it.

"Continue boy"

"Well… From the way the wires were placed in plain sight, I could tell the bomb was put together in a hurry. So, the glass was definitely not put there just for decoration."

The hole was just above my right shoulder. I placed my left hand on that shoulder and rubbed it as if it were paining me.

"I knew the glass was there because the steel covering all the other sides of the bomb limited the range of that kind of explosion. The glass was installed to let the explosion out full scale from the side it was covering."

I furtively felt the bark behind me, searching for the gap. 'Aha! I found it.' I fingered the cold metal of the laser, still in the hole, and found the trigger. But, one problem still stood. I couldn't even shoot an elephant with my left…

"The living room has- had a steel safe. I simply placed the bomb there and locked it. Then I ran out of the house. I couldn't stop the whole explosion as the safe had many tiny slits, but I limited it greatly nonetheless."

"Heh… Smart, boy. Real smart. Now let's see how dat brain of yers looks on dat tree" He smirked.

"How about my 30-second head start?"

" 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5678910 , 30. Times up boy!"

What happened after that seemed more like a dream. I pulled the gun out with my index on the trigger and before I knew it, the bomber was on the ground clutching his hand. And his laser was a couple of feet next to him. But I had not pulled the trigger and there was something sticking out from his wrist. It looked like a … metal bird?

I turned towards a crunching sound and saw a man in a black suit with a blue bird emblem in the front. He was also wearing a mask that ended at the bridge of his nose. As he walked over to the bomber, who was whimpering in pain, I could sense a confident yet tense air to him. He picked up the laser and pulled out the bird-like object from the bombers wrist; the wound it had caused didn't look too bad. Then the dark figure came over and gestured for me to hand over my laser too. I obeyed, still shocked by what had just happened.

"Are you OK kid?"

His question only registered with me after I asked, "Who are you?"

He offered me a toothy grin along with a hand to help me up and replied, "Nightwing"