Katt Girl, Robin, & The Harley-Kidd: Chapter 23: Gifts by Chad Sheefel 11/27/19
Bane never rests. He had too much energy. When he wouldn't be giving out commands, he would pace back and forth, construing his future plans like a chess master. He had just came to Gotham only months ago. But, he knew what Gotham was all about. Criminals, filth, scum, and radicals. Ra's al Ghul came to him about nine years ago. Ra's told Bane he would be important, that Darkseid would respect him and give him high council. After training Bane for so many years, Ra's sent Bane to Gotham City to grow his own syndicate, to slowly take over Gotham until Darkseid would come and do the rest. Ra's wasn't counting on Bruce Wayne to interfere with future plans. After Bane was shot, Ra's could not heal Bane in the Lazarus Pit. Darkseid wouldn't allow it because Bane had failed him. Ra's believed that Bane would be a much needed pawn in his chess match with Gotham, so he gave Bane a venomous plant. The plant contained a steroid that would heal him, then make him stronger and wiser, but he had to keep inhaling it or he would die. In large doses, it could make Bane as strong as ten men. Once Ra's injected Bane with the plant venom, a vision came to Bane, and he instantly knew what he needed to do.
Bane stood at his command post. A military jeep was approaching him. The jeep stopped and one of Bane's men jumped out.
"Bane Sir! Vehicle number 9 has not returned to the base or tried to get into contact with us, Sir!" The man reported.
Bane pulled out a small handheld device. It could track anything in Gotham City in a ten mile radius. He looked for the tracking device signal for that vehicle. The signal was nowhere to be found. Based on the GPS tracking, it showed the vehicle going off-line about 5 miles past the Narrows. Instantly, Bane knew where his men were at.
"Load up! I want a thousand men at my disposal within the hour!" Bane ordered.
Bane knew all about Thomas and Martha Wayne. Ra's told him they gave funding to crazy doctors, that would allow terrible experimenting to go on. The Wayne's sucked Gotham dry of most of its money, becoming a monopoly. They had the luxury of living on a hill, while watching the rest of Gotham die. Bane knew Thomas and Martha were dead, but Wayne Manor was now a bad stain that needed to go.
"I believe it is time to burn down your privileged castle in the sky." Bane stated.
Katt Girl, Robin, and The Harley Kidd made it to Wayne Enterprise. As they hid behind a building, they could see there was a couple random gangsters standing by the entrance. The place looked dark. Windows had been busted out of it, about as high as a stone could be thrown. It looked much different than Gabby and Lola remembered it from when they would go to visit their mother. Dick still had recent memories of it because it was the last place he saw his brother.
"I don't think anyone is in there. It looks completely abandoned. The hood rats won't even go in there." Lola stated.
Dick realized Lola was correct. If nobody was willing to go into the building, that only meant one thing to him. Chad … or … Shadow Master could be inside. He took off from the group, running straight for the entrance way. The two gangsters saw him approaching and acted like they were going to try to stop him.
"Funny outfit!" The gang member said.
Robin didn't even stop. He pulled two batons out from behind his back, flew through the air, then whacked the gangsters across the head. All in the same motion, using their heads as a vault, and doing a triple flip, before sticking the landing. Gabby and Lola looked at each other, as they were impressed with his agility. Suddenly, six more men came running from around the corner. Robin looked at them, shrugged his shoulders, then said, "Oh, hey fellas, have any of you seen my cat?
"What!?" one of the gang members asked. Then he heard a noise.
"Meow." Katt Girl toyed.
"Looks like you found her!" Robin exclaimed.
D3 made little time with these guys. The gangsters got beat down within seconds. Twenty other men heard the scuffle, and came running around the corner. D3 saw them and started backing up toward the entry doors. Just as the gangsters were about to attack, D3 jumped into the building. The gangsters suddenly stopped. They didn't want to step one foot in the building as if it was haunted. Then, the gangsters scattered.
Robin poked his head out of the door and yelled, "That's right! You better run!"
D3 turned around and were suddenly startled. The Shadow Master was standing, or what might be considered floating, just behind them. All they could see was his bright purple eyes.
"You should leave now!" The Shadow Master demanded.
"Chad, brother, it's me! … Richard. Don't you remember me?" Dick said while removing his mask.
"The Shadow Master bent down, right in front of Dick's face and said. "Chad doesn't exist anymore! Now do as I say … and LEAVE!"
"No! I know you are in there. I refuse to leave!" Dick said as he fell to his knees crying. "You are the only family I have left."
The Shadow Master began to struggle, then he yelled out, "RRRRAAAAAAHHH!" Then the Shadow Master began to disappear. Suddenly, Chad Grayson fell to the floor. Dick quickly reacted as he fell over on Chad, then gave him a hug. Chad was very disoriented. His eyes were still glowing bright purple.
"Bro? Is that you?" Chad asked.
"Yes! It's me!" Dick exclaimed.
The last thing Chad Grayson could remember, was getting beaten to death by Jimmy Snipes.
"Where am I? What day is it?" Chad asked.
"We're at Wayne Enterprise. It's January 4th. You've been gone for a week and a half." Dick replied.
"How did you manage to get away from Falcone and Jimmy Snipes?" Chad asked.
"It's a long story Bro. But we can get caught up later. Right now we need to speak to a Mr. Fox." Dick replied.
"Sorry to interrupt the family reunion, but I found something over here." Gabby stated. "It looks like there are codes written on this desk. Maybe this place isn't abandoned after all, perhaps Mr. Fox has a secret place that nobody knows about."
Gabby quickly put the code together, it was instructions on finding a hidden room. It instructed her to go into the main office. Once they all went in there, Gabby walked over to a bookcase, then looked for the book The Fox and The Hound. Once she found it, she opened it up. It had a remote in it. Then she pushed a button on the remote. Suddenly, the floor began to open up below her, leading to a staircase. As they all started making their way down, the floor above them closed back shut. Once they made it to the ground level of the secret room, it was completely dark.
"Somebody look for a light switch already!" Lola demanded. "This is spooky."
"Spookier than the ghosts at Axis Chemical, or do you mean spookier than watching Dick's brother fall out of a purple spirit?" Gabby asked.
Suddenly, the lights came on. All of them had to put their hands in front of their faces because the light was blinding them. Then, they could hear a man start clapping.
"Congratulations! You cracked my code."
They all begin to adjust to the light, then stare in the direction of the man speaking.
"My name is Lucius Fox. Welcome to my wondaful womb of weaponwy. I mean, my wonderful room of weaponry." He chuckled as he introduced himself.
Then he walked up to them and said, "Ah, you must be the one that deciphered my code. Well done Katt Girl, or should I say, Gabby Wayne. And you must be her little sister, The Harley Kidd aka Lola Wayne." Then he looked at Chad and Dick. "I'm sorry about your parents. They were good people. Thomas and Martha new them when they were just starting out at the circus. My condolences to you all."
He looked at Chad and said, "You don't seem to be incognito like the rest of these heroes. Perhaps we can find you something a little better than a blue jogging suit."
"Wait a second!" Gabby scratched her head. "You're Bad Avenue?, no wait, Bumpy Road?, or is it ...Terrible Alley?"
"It's Mean Street! ... M-E-A-N S-T-R-E-E-T … got it? Chad insisted.
"Oh, so you three have already met? Mr. Fox said.
Dick stood there confused. He hadn't the slightest idea what Gabby and Chad were talking about. "Mean Street? … Terrible Alley? ... What are you guys talking about? Dick asked.
"It's a long story Bro. But we can get caught up later. Right now, I want to know why we are here." Chad replied.
"You are here upon Alfred's request to send you back with weapons that could defend an assault on Wayne Manor." Mr. Fox stated. "Plus, I have added a few upgrades to your outfits."
Mr. Fox pushed a button on his remote. Suddenly, a whole new room opened up. It had all kinds of weird gadgets and weapons mounted on the walls. Grappling ropes, boomerangs, stun guns, iron fists, jet powered backpacks, flame throwers, and much more. The kids were in awe. They couldn't wait to try them out. Dick grabbed one and was about to push a button.
Mr. Fox stopped him just before he could. "You don't want to push that button young man. You could have created a sonic boom and wiped us all out. Or at least our eardrums. Perhaps I will just keep this one in a different … hidden room."
Mr. Fox put away the weapon and showed them many other gadgets for their outfits. He put wings on all their suits, so they could drift through the air after jumping from a tall building. He also mounted small jetpacks to the back of their outfits. The jetpacks weren't meant for flying, mostly to give them a quick lift to higher ground. Then Mr. Fox took Chad over to another area of the room, he opened a large walk-in safe, then showed Chad an outfit.
"I was designing this for someone else, but it looks like it might fit you better. Plus, it looks like blue is your color." Mr. Fox said.
Dick could see that Chad and Mr. Fox was looking at something, so he went to investigate.
"Woe! Nice outfit. That looks awesome!" Dick exclaimed.
Then Gabby and Lola ran over to see what the fuss was about.
"Dick, that's your outfit … I mean … your future outfit! Gabby stated.
"Precisely Gabby! Your mother designed it herself, she said Dick would love it when he got older." Mr. Fox explained.
Chapter Recap: (Bane found out that some of his men were trapped at Wayne Manor, then started to prepare his army. Katt Girl, Robin, & The Harley Kidd made it to Wayne Enterprise to receive weapons and upgrades. Chad Grayson was able to release the Shadow Master's mental hold of him, once he saw Richard crying. Chad Grayson received Nightwings outfit, that future Selina Kyle designed, intending it to be for Dick once he was older.)