Katt Girl, Robin, & The Harley Kidd: Chapter 24: Death In The Family by Chad Sheefel 11/28/19

Alfred had stepped away from the security monitor when he heard a strange noise coming from a storage room near by. He made his way towards the noise. Once he got there, he noticed some of Bruce's boxes with his old stuff was scattered on the floor. It appeared that the box was a collection of Bruce's old Halloween outfits.

"Oh my. Everyone knows they shouldn't be down here." Alfred stated. Then he heard a rustling noise in the back corner. "Okay, who ever is back there, come out this instant." He demanded.

Alfred slowly made his way through the stacked boxes, when suddenly, "Boo!" Newcomer Jason jumped out to scare Alfred. Alfred clutched his heart as he jumped. Jason was wearing a costume that Bruce wore for Halloween when he was 6. It was a Zorro outfit.

"Jason! You scared me half to death. You can't be in here. All of this …. Stuff … is Master Bruce's belongings. Please put it all back."

Jason put his head down because he felt scolded. As they were walking out, Jason picked up a mask that was shaped like a Dracula mask, then tucked it in his shirt. Alfred looked back to see what he was doing. Jason just looked up and gave a mischievous grin.

"Do you think my mother will be okay?" Jason asked.

"Thankfully, we got the bleeding to stop in time. Plus, the bullet appeared to have missed any major organs. So, I think after a little rest, she will recover nicely." Alfred replied in a reassuring voice.

Suddenly, Azrael came running towards Alfred.

"Bane's army is on their way! It looks like a couple hundred men at least!" Azrael warned.

"Oh my! Prepare everyone for an attack!" Alfred commanded.

Dinner bells began ringing all throughout the Manor. Everyone scattered to their hiding places and battle stations. Alfred quickly ran to the window and peeked through a hole in one of the many solid steel barriers. His eyes got wide. There was more than a couple hundred. Bane's men kept flooding onto the premises and surrendered the Manor. Alfred knew he would have to exercise plan B, which was to evacuate everyone through the cave, and down the back side of the hill. Bane stood out near the gates. He had a bullhorn in his hand.

"I'm only going to give you 10 seconds to surrender to my army, or you can guarantee your demise. 10… 9… 8…"

Alfred began ringing bells to let everyone know that they would need to evacuate through the basement.

"7… 6… 5… 4…"

Alfred took the children first.

"3… 2… 1…"

Suddenly, all you could hear was bullets bouncing off of the steel barriers. It sounded like an endless fireworks display. Alfred had just managed to get the children down the steps heading towards the basement as the bullets sounded. Azrael ran back upstairs to instruct people where to go. Bullets were finding their way through the protected barriers. Azrael made it to the canons, then lit them…

BOOM! … BOOM! … BOOM!

Bane's front line was blown to bits, causing the other men to slightly fall back. He began to reload the canons. Before he could load them, he noticed Bane directing four of his tanks to fire.

BANG! BANG! BANG! BANG!

Azrael ran from the window just in time, before the tanks blasted a hole through the wall of the upper floor. Then the tanks fired again. Azrael tried to make it to the lower level, but the stairs collapsed as he was making his way down. He was trapped below the rubble. He could still hear survivors screaming in pain from the explosion of the tank missiles. Bane sent the tanks straight through the front door. Some of the refugees tried fleeing out the back of the Manor, only to be gunned down by Bane's men. Alfred was making his way through the cave. He had ten children and only eight adults following behind him. Everyone else was left to the slaughter.

I'm so stupid! How could I have been so careless to walk away from the security monitors." Alfred said in frustration.

Jason heard him. He knew Alfred left the security monitors to see what he was doing. Jason looked back and realized that his mom was nowhere to be found. He decided to make one last effort to find her, as he turned around and darted back up towards the Manor. He made it close to the entrance of the cave, leading to the basement, when suddenly, BOOM! The entire structure was caving in. Bane had set off bombs.

"Mom!" Jason yelled, as the debris started falling in on him.

He began to get completely covered up by the rubble, but Alfred managed to grab him and pull him out. Then he picked Jason up and took off towards the exit of the cave. They made it to the exit just in time, as survivors helped them up. They all hid at the bottom of the hill, watching the entire place go up in flames. Once there were no more survivors left, Bane's army began to leave. The children cried in horror as they watched their families perish.

Katt Girl, Robin, Chad, & The Harley-Kidd we're making their ten mile trek back to Wayne Manor. They were carrying a larger load than last time. Mr. Fox had given them as many weapons as they could carry. Chad was wearing the new suit that Mr. Fox gave him. It was a dark blue suit, with a light blue insignia of a bird on his chest. Their spirits were high because they had mostly succeeded at their mission. Plus, Dick was reunited with his brother Chad.

"Are you still going to call yourself Bad Avenue?" Dick asked.

"First of all … its Mean Street … Besides, I'm not sure what else I should call myself." Chad replied.

"Nightwing!" Gabby stated.

"What?" Dick and Chad said at the same time.

"Nightwing, that is what Dick calls himself in the future." Gabby replied.

"Nightwing huh?" Chad questioned.

"I mean … you could keep calling yourself Bumpy Road, but I will have to keep making fun of you." Gabby remarked.

"It does make sense that you would call yourself the name I made up … or should I say … what I'm going to make up one day." Dick insisted.

"Well, Then I guess I will be called Nightwing." Chad replied.

"You can wear it until I'm old enough to fit in it. Then you have to go back to Calling yourself Terrible Alley." Dick said while Gabby and Lola laughed.

"I can't wait to get back to Wayne Manor. I'm starving!" Lola said as her stomach growled.

You are the dummy that gave away your rations." Gabby said.

Then Gabby reached into a bag and pulled out some crackers. "Here you go. They are a bit smashed up, but they should satisfy you for an hour."

Then, they came to a fork in the road. One way would lead them back towards the toxic clean up site. The other would lead them to the riverside.

"I'm not going back to the clean up site. You can forget it." Lola stated. "Besides, we have all these weapons. We could easily take out a crocodile with this much ammo."

"Sure, let's take the riverside." Gabby replied.

As they make it closer to the riverside, they can smell smoke way off in the distance. Gabby climbed up the Gotham City water tower to get a better look with her binoculars.

"Oh no! It looks like it is coming from Wayne Manor!" Gabby yelled down.

Then she looked down towards the road. She could see the headlights of hundreds of military jeeps. She could also see the tanks. "It looks like Bane's men are leaving a war zone."

"Okay, get down. We need to go see if Alfred managed to get everyone out!" Dick exclaimed.

Suddenly, as Gabby made her way down, they hear a voice yell out. "You guys aren't going anywhere!"

It was about twenty members of the Red Hood. They all had their guns drawn. Chad and the kid's got into fighting stance.

"You think your fists are going to stop all these bullets!" The leader of the Red Hood said. "You better hope your costumes are bulletproof. Chad quickly pulled out a shield from behind his back and blocked D3, just as the Red Hood started firing their weapons.

Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! Ting! … The bullets were bouncing off of the shield. Dick quickly grabbed a weapon out of his bag. It was the sonic blaster.

Chad looked over to see what he was holding. "Hey, I thought Mr. Fox said not to touch that one!" Chad yelled while trying to keep the shield in place.

"Well, I wanted to see what it could do!" Dick yelled back.

Dick aimed the weapon at the Red Hood. Then he pushed the button.

BOOM! A sonic blast fired from the weapon. It knocked Dick ten feet backwards. Suddenly, the gunfire stopped. Chad peeked over the top of the shield and noticed all of the Red Hood was lying on the ground unconscious. Gabby and Lola were a little disoriented due to the sound of the blast. All they could hear was ringing in their ears.

Then, Gabby looked through her binoculars again. "Oh no! Bane's men heard the blast and now they are heading this way!"

They weren't sure what to do. Chad spotted a tunnel leading into the sewer.

"Come on! We can hide in the sewer!" Chad instructed.

They duck into the sewer. The leader of the Red Hood began to wake up as Bane's men got closer. He quickly took off running, leaving his fallen comrades behind. Bane's army rolled up on the scene, just as the other Red Hood members were waking up. They saw the bright lights of all the military vehicles, then they instantly put their hands in the air.

Bane stepped out of one of the tanks. "What do we have here? You want to surrender to me now? Would you like to be judged in the courthouse at Arkham Asylum?"

The Red Hood members looked at each other, then started shaking their heads, no.

"Well then, judgement will be made now!" Bane proclaimed as he ordered his men to shoot them dead.

When the sound of the bullets stopped, Bane heard a familiar voice. "They went into the sewer!"

Bane turned to look, it was Killer Croc. Bane's army stood pointing their weapons at him. They were mesmerized by the large scaly creature.

"Lower your weapons!" Bane ordered. "The crocodile man is on our side!" Bane stated as he walked over to Killer Croc. "How do you suppose we fish them out? Bane asked.

"They were heading in the direction of the Narrows. They were probably underneath you as you rolled up on the scene." Killer Croc replied.

Then Bane looked back at the smoke in the distance. "Let them go! They have nothing left to go home to!"

Bane got back into his tank and rolled out with his motorcade. "I'll be seeing you around Crocodile man!" Bane yelled out as he rolled past Killer Croc.

Killer Croc shrugged his shoulders as if he could care less. Then he walked over to the Red Hood members, picked one of them up and said, "Your guts will make excellent fish bait."

Nightwing and D3 made it about a mile through the sewer before they came out one of the exit tunnels. The smoke was getting closer as they made their way towards Wayne Manor.

Once they made it there, the entire Manor was destroyed. They could see multiple dead bodies lying on the ground. The smoke was still too thick to try to go in to see if there were any survivors. Chad ran around the side yelling for Alfred.

"Check the cave!" Gabby insisted. "That is where we came out of last!"

Chad and the kids ran towards the cave on the backside of the hill. They spotted some people moving around as they got closer. Just as Chad was entering the cave. POW! Alfred smacked him with a stick, thinking it was one of Bane's men.

"Alfred, it's us!" Lola yelled.

Alfred bent down, then looked at Nightwing. "Oh, who is this guy?" Alfred asked while taking off Chad's mask. "Oh dear!"

Chapter Recap: (Bane destroyed Wayne Manor, killing many of the refugees that Alfred had taken in. Azrael was left in the ashes, as the Manor collapsed on him. Nightwing, and D3 were confronted by the Red Hood. Robin used a sonic blaster, that he took from Mr. Fox, to knock them out. They finally made it back to find what was left of Wayne Manor. Then, they found Alfred still alive amongst a few other survivors.)