Brick Ballads
Chapter Six: "Lost Words"

Matt held the phone nervously for several minutes. He'd just recovered from his flu after three days and had come to a decision about himself. He was not Batman. He couldn't be. As much as he loved the detective work and the sense that he was doing something important, he knew he didn't have the heart to cope with the kinds of things Terry saw on a nightly basis. He'd never be able to make the kinds of decisions his predecessors had. If he tried, he had a feeling it would eventually kill him inside. He'd managed to tell Bruce and then the rest of the League who knew his identity, but now came the hard part: telling Terry.

Finally deciding that he'd accomplish nothing if he didn't try, he dialed Terry's number. In reality, it didn't take long for his brother to answer, but anxiety had a funny way of making a couple of seconds feel like a couple of years.

"Hello?"

"Hey, Terry. It's Matt."

"How are you doing?"

"Pretty good. Just needed to tell you something."

"What?"

He took a breath. "I don't think I'll be able to do this anymore—being Batman. I'll finish up this assignment, and I can do it on a temporary basis, if you're sick and need someone to fill in, but I can't do what I originally agreed. I can't handle it."

Terry's voice was reassuring as he answered, "That's all right."

This was a surprise. He'd expected something completely different. "You're not mad? Or disappointed?"

"Why should I be? You have the right to choose your own path. I'd be more disappointed if you did this when you didn't want to."

Relief swamped Matt. "Thanks."

"No problem. Is that all you needed to say?"

"Yeah. I'll leave you and the wife to the rest of your honeymoon." Terry laughed.

"All right. See you soon."

"Bye."

Matt hung up the phone and leaned back in the chair. It was done. He'd taken the first step on his path. He wasn't going to have to try and put his heart into this when he couldn't handle seeing the horrible things and making the important decisions that Batman had to. He was free to make his own destiny, just as he always had been. But this time, he wasn't tied down by a promise.

He opened his bedroom door and walked toward the living room, hearing Merina humming in the bathroom. The four man team was meeting in his apartment today to discuss the case, and Merina had arrived earlier than the others. She was currently in the bath to avoid dehydration. David, luckily, had class all day, so there were no awkward questions about why there was an unfamiliar blonde woman in their bathtub.

There was a knock on the door, and Merina quickly went silent. Matt checked to be sure it wasn't David before letting in Rex and Kai. It took him a minute to get used to Rex in civilian clothes—he'd never seen him without the Nth metal wing harness. But he finally closed the door and announced to Merina, "It's all right! It's just Rex and Kai!"

"I'll be out in a minute!" she answered.

Kai blinked and Rex looked nonplussed for a second before asking, "Is she in the bath?"

"She showed up early, and we were waiting for you guys, and she got worried about being dehydrated," Matt replied somewhat defensively. "I told her she could take a bath if she needed."

"It's all right," Rex assured, obviously noticing Matt's half-panicked tone. "We were just asking."

"Your roommate didn't ask?" Kai checked.

"He's got class still," Matt explained. "Plus, when it comes to women in the house, we have a 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. As long as we don't see or hear what the other's doing, we're happy."

"Well, I hope you won't need that policy," Merina commented, walking out of the bathroom. She'd changed into a sweater and jeans and was pulling her wet hair up in a bun. "I made sure to clean up after myself. Thanks for letting me use your bath."

"No problem," he answered.

"Sorry we're late," Kai apologized. "I had to help Rex find the apartment."

Matt stared at Rex in surprise. That wasn't something he expected from a senior Justice Leaguer. "You got lost?"

"Kai gave me the directions," Rex argued. "If it's anyone's fault, it's his."

"I don't know," Merina replied with a smirk. "I understood his directions easily."

Kai took one look at the slightly confused expression on Matt's face and questioned, "What? Not used to seeing us act like ordinary people?"

"Definitely not," Matt admitted.

"We do these things from time to time," Rex explained. "We're like family so much that we can't help it sometimes."

"But then, you only saw our human sides that one night," Merina remembered. "It was a moment of weakness."

"Guess it's a good thing to know that I'm not the only one with those kinds of things," Matt commented.

"It's not a weakness," Kai warned him. "It's our greatest strength."

"Yeah, I've been learning that a lot lately," he replied. "So, should we get started?"

They set out their compiled research on the coffee table and gathered around it—Kai and Merina on the couch and Rex and Matt in chairs they'd taken from the kitchen. Most of their information was declassified Cadmus files sent to the Justice League after their battle against Lex Luthor and Brainiac: notes on the Ultimen, Doomsday, Galatea, and the Royal Flush Gang, among others. The information salvaged from the destroyed Cadmus facilities themselves didn't amount to much, just records of aborted projects. The critical stuff had been at Waller's.

"Here's something," Kai noticed, picking up one of the Galatea reports. "It's a record on Supergirl."

"Makes sense," Matt agreed. "After all, they were cloning her, so they'd want to keep notes on her strengths and weaknesses." He was silent for a second, letting his own words sink in. "Well, we can assume that's with the Batman Beyond records."

"There's probably a lot more where that came from," Rex added solemnly. "After the Invasion, Cadmus probably kept extensive notes on my mother—same kind of thing: strengths, weaknesses. Since we didn't find them, I'd bet anything they're in the stolen records."

"It's a start," Merina pointed out. "We can at least assume that what our enemy is looking for is somehow related to bringing down the Justice League."

"Don't forget that there were also things from Waller's days as a liaison," Kai reminded her. "That could add more to the theory. What could help more than information from a government official working closely with them?"

"Good point—wait," Matt suddenly declared. Frowning, he searched through the various printouts.

"What is it?" Rex questioned.

"You went and picked up these things from Bruce and the Commissioner, right?" he checked.

"Yeah," Rex answered.

"Was there anyone else who added any?" he asked, examining another paper.

"A man named Drake," Rex explained. "He used to be Robin. Said he was glad to help in any way he could."

"No one named Grayson?" Matt pressed.

"No. Why?"

Matt sighed. "I knew it."

"What did you know?" Kai asked.

"All right, you know that Tim Drake was Robin and Commissioner Gordon was Batgirl?" At the nods, he continued, "Dick Grayson was Nightwing. Terry and I don't know all the details, but he and Bruce had a falling out years ago, and they haven't spoken since. Probably the last time they saw each other was when Dick gave him the suit back. I wouldn't have thought much of it, but I remembered at the wedding, the Commissioner and Bruce were talking about it. Grayson doesn't want anything to do with Terry either, just because he's Batman. He's got that much of a grudge."

"You don't think he could be behind this?" Merina questioned.

"I don't know," Matt confessed. "I don't think so, but I don't know. Still, I'd feel better if we had some kind of response from him, some way of knowing whether or not he knows anything."

"Nightwing fought in Blüdhaven, right?" Rex asked. Matt nodded. "I can go over there and talk to him."

"No, it probably should be me," Matt decided. At the looks everyone shot him, he added, "Family stuff, remember? The worst he could do is throw me out of the house without telling me anything, and we'd just be back to this."

"All right," Rex agreed. "Just let us know what you find out."

All in all, it was a frustrating job trying to track down Dick Grayson. Everything Matt looked up led to a dead end. There were no current phone numbers, home addresses, or e-mail addresses listed, although everything pointed to Grayson still being alive. The man simply did not want to be found. How Terry and Dana managed to even send him an invitation, Matt would never know. The only promising lead he had left was Dick's grandson, a Carter Grayson, twenty-six years old and currently working as a firefighter in New York City after two years spent in the military. Again, there was no address listed, but it did have the address of his firehouse.

"It's something," he muttered, driving the Batmobile away from Blüdhaven and heading for New York. It took a couple of hours to get there, but he was not going to let that deter him. He needed answers.

Somewhere over Manhattan, Matt figured out how to access the city's security cameras through the Batmobile's computers. This made his job so much easier; he didn't know the layout of New York the way he knew Gotham, so he could use this feature to find the firehouse. A couple of searches later, he found it, but a fire engine was zooming out of the garage. He frowned. There was a possibility that Carter Grayson had stayed behind—unless it was a massive emergency, the fire department wouldn't send out everyone. But he had a responsibility to help people in danger, even if this wasn't his city. He'd just have to hope that Grayson was in that engine.

Matt drove in the direction of the firehouse and then followed the path he'd seen the engine take. From there, it was a simple matter of following the stalled traffic—the worst congestion was in the lanes where cars had to pull over to let the engine through. He'd never been so glad that the Batmobile could fly higher and faster than standard cars; otherwise, he might not be able to catch up.

He parked the car when he found the flashing lights of the engine in front of a burning house. Like most built in the past ten or so years, the exterior and the structure were fireproof, ingeniously designed so that after a fire, the family could move back in a lot faster, after the interior was refurbished. But even though the houses were fire-resistant, things inside it definitely weren't. Carpets still burned, as did furniture and appliances, and people. Houses were fireproof, but people weren't.

Matt flew down to the scene, startling the firefighters who were hosing down the house with flame-retardant foam. Most of the family was staggering away from the fire and toward the medics. One firefighter was trying to carry two kids out of the way.

"Batman?" he asked in surprise.

"I was in the area investigating a case," Matt answered, helping him with the children. "I noticed the fire and couldn't turn away."

"Thanks," the firefighter replied once they got the kids to a couple of paramedics. "We could probably use the help." Turning around, he noticed another firefighter strapping a tank on his back. "Damn it, Grayson, what are you doing?" Hearing this, Matt quickly focused in on the other firefighter, a young man with black hair and bright green eyes who bore a passing resemblance to the old pictures of Dick he'd managed to find in the files on Nightwing. Apparently, he'd inherited his grandfather's heroic side.

"There are people still inside who were asleep when the fire started," Grayson replied. "I'm going in to get them."

"Grayson, quit playing hero!" the first firefighter argued. "You're not helping anyone if you get yourself killed!"

"I'll go with him," Matt volunteered. Both men looked absolutely shocked. "You've gotten this mostly under control, so we can go in and get those people out."

"All right," agreed the firefighter, whom Matt suspected by now was the captain, "Grayson, go on. But don't do anything stupid!"

Matt reached into his belt and pulled out an oxygen mask. As he put it on, he hurried over to the engine and strapped on one of the extinguisher tanks. Grayson had traded in his regular helmet for one with a contained air supply and was holding onto a shoulder pack. He looked at Matt with a combination of gratitude and awe.

"Thanks," he finally managed to say.

"No problem," Matt replied.

They sprayed foam through the front door, taming the fire enough so that they could enter unharmed. In the living room, the couch was still ablaze. Matt quickly hosed it down, asking Grayson, "Which way?"

"Upstairs," he answered.

"I'll go first," Matt volunteered. "I've got enough filters in my mask that I can see better than you in this smoke."

"Good plan," Grayson agreed.

Matt started climbing, scanning through the smoke all around him to find any survivors. Infrared was useless, but most of the other filters in the mask still worked.

"So, you're not the original Batman, right?" Grayson questioned rather awkwardly. Matt stopped to hose down their path. "I mean, you weren't around during the Near Apocalypse or anything. My grandfather grew up in Gotham, and he always said that Batman was just as human as anyone else."

"Yeah," he replied. "The original was my father."

If Grayson's question had been awkward, his sudden silence at the answer was worse. Matt suppressed the urge to crack a grin; apparently, Dick Grayson hadn't predicted that Bruce would have kids.

"Okay," Grayson answered, finally accepting this. "Then who was your mother? Catwoman? Batgirl?"

"A civilian," Matt replied, again trying to hide his amusement at Grayson's surprise. Now he really wished he'd managed to find Dick, if his grandson was having such a hard time with this. It would be especially more fun, considering that Bruce's biological sons were so much more well-adjusted compared to his adoptive ones.

As they reached the top of the stairs, the smoke became thicker. To their left was a burned woman lying half-naked on the floor, the remains of most of her clothes discarded a few feet away and still smoldering. Matt and Grayson ran over and carefully turned her over.

"She's not breathing great," Matt warned. Grayson reached into his shoulder pack and pulled out an air mask.

"Put this on her," he instructed. "I'll check the other rooms to be sure no one else is in there."

Matt gently placed the mask over the woman's mouth, softly saying, "Breathe gently. That's it." She coughed a few times, trying to rid her lungs of the smoke she'd already inhaled, but it calmed down after a few minutes. Grayson still hadn't returned from the bedroom.

"Niños," the woman suddenly croaked.

"What?" Matt asked, translating the word from Spanish. It meant "kids." "There are kids—niños—in that room?" He pointed to where Grayson had gone.

"Sí," the woman whispered. She said a word that he couldn't understand, but it didn't matter. He knew enough.

"I'll get the kids," he assured her. "I'll be back." He wasn't sure if she understood his words, but his meaning came through clearly. She made a very slight nod and gave him a grateful look.

He ran into the bedroom, shouting, "Grayson, there are kids here!"

"I know!" Grayson yelled back, trying to open the closet. "They hid in here!"

Matt joined Grayson and took hold of the closet door. Between the two of them, they managed to break it off enough for two little boys to escape, desperately grabbing onto their rescuers and crying frantically in Spanish. Grayson managed to get air masks on them and carried them out while Matt took the injured woman. Once they got outside, paramedics took over immediately, getting the woman in an ambulance and rushing the kids over to the rest of their family.

"That woman was their aunt," Grayson murmured. Matt looked to him for an explanation. "I managed to catch a little of what they were saying. One word they kept repeating: Tía, tía—aunt."

"She must have come to live with them," Matt realized, noticing how many children the family had: six. "To take care of the kids. And when the fire started, she tried to get them all out to safety, but she noticed those two were missing, so she ran back to find them."

"Well, thanks for your help," Grayson commented. "You probably need to get back to Gotham. Sorry if I made you uncomfortable with any of the questions I was asking before."

"It's no problem," Matt assured.

"Yeah, well, I lived most of my life in Blüdhaven," he explained. "Nightwing was our urban legend, and we all knew that he used to be part of Batman's team—the original. My grandfather always told my cousins, brothers and sisters, and me stories about Nightwing, some from the days when he was in Gotham. But that's what they were: stories. We had no way of knowing what really happened, so we had to go by what my grandfather remembered and what he probably made up. He wasn't all that fond of the original Batman, but he respected him, even if it was a bit grudgingly. He said that he never gave up protecting the people important to him, even if it was hard to tell if he did care about them. I always wondered about the whole truth, why the two of them split ways, but I guess it doesn't matter."

"They had their own destinies to follow," Matt answered. "That's what it all comes down to."

"Batman, no matter what my grandfather thought about your father, it doesn't matter either," Grayson said suddenly. "He always thought your father was a hero, and he thinks the same of you. He may not agree with either of your methods some of the time, but he has to admit that he admires what you're doing."

"Thanks," Matt replied. "It was good meeting you."

"Good meeting you too."

Matt returned to the Batmobile and headed back to Gotham, Carter Grayson's words still echoing in his head. He considered telling Terry and Bruce, but changed his mind. They probably already knew. Even without hearing it for themselves, they probably already knew.

A couple of hours later, he returned to his apartment, took a shower, and checked his e-mail. It was almost dawn, but he wouldn't have been able to fall asleep anyway after all of the excitement he'd just gone through. He could always take a nap after class.

There was another e-mail from an unfamiliar address in his inbox. Unsure whether or not it was Justice League-related, he opened it. It read:

"You may be wondering how I knew to write you. I figured out your brother's identity pretty quickly, and I managed to get Barbara to admit that you took over for a little bit. She mentioned the Cadmus case you're on, and I did a little investigating on my own. Your brother was investigating a couple of robberies in Blüdhaven that involved high-end technology, the kind of stuff that would be part of a Cadmus plot. He wasn't looking for that connection, so he probably didn't think of it. I was planning on waiting for you to figure that out on your own or for your brother to come back and take over the case and find the connection, but I got a call from my grandson earlier, telling me about how you two went into a fire together to save three people. He said that he could see why people respected Bruce and your brother, and he definitely respects you. I don't sleep much anymore, but I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep if I ignored everything he said, so I'm sending you the names of the two companies to look for in your brother's case files. You'll probably be able to find a connection to your case.

"—Dick Grayson."

"Thanks," Matt whispered. This was all he'd hoped to find, and he was glad to have it. He briefly remembered Kai's comment about needing to settle the past in order to move on into the future. It had taken more than sixty years, but that had finally happened.

Tomorrow, he'd check the Metro Tower database and try to access Terry's files. It was time to bring closure to other parts of the past as well.

Carter Grayson is named off of the Red Ranger in Power Rangers Lightspeed Rescue, although this Carter bares only the slightest personality resemblance to that one (mainly just being heroic and being firefighters). The idea basically came from Ellen Brand's "Legacy." And as for who Dick wound up with, that's up to you to figure out.