Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl

Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo

Chapter 55 - Rescue Mission (part 1) [rough draft 2]

It turned out that the cape could function as a glider, but Bruce didn't have time to test it and didn't want to take the risk for the comparatively long journey from the Tower. He took a boat and hid it as best he could once they reached shore.

He was glad now for all the practice he'd gotten with the grappling line, since he had no private transportation on land. That meant making his way across the city in long, swinging arcs, feeling his cape flap behind him and the rush of wind and gravity and momentum all gloriously warring over his body. He understood why Dick was so addicted to this.

He stopped on a rooftop every so often to check the trackers, which were all clustered together. "You okay, Tim?" he'd ask, and get an affirmative poke in response.

At last, they reached the nondescript building where the Titans were being kept. It was multi-story and all the windows were tinted, so there was no way to determine exactly which level the kids were on. Bruce would have to search manually.

He started by inspecting the entire building. He made note of an open window, through which he could see two teenage girls in strange outfits lounging on beds and tapping at their phones. He located the building's power unit and backup generator. Once he was ready, he disabled both.

He made his way back to the open window and peered inside. The room where the girls had been was now dark and unoccupied, the door left open. He slipped inside and approached the hallway, then heard the sound of footsteps and ducked back inside, flattening himself against the wall.

Two people were approaching, making no attempt to speak softly. Two different devices were screeching. "Geez, we know already," one of the teenagers complained. "Is there any way to turn off the alarm?"

"I can't even see enough buttons to try," the other teen said, stabbing at the screen of their device with no effect.

"You think it's a drill or the real thing?"

"It's never the real thing, ugh."

They passed by and Bruce peered out again, using the thermal imaging in his helmet to scan for anyone else. Once the coast was clear, he made his way down dark corridors, searching for some kind of clue about where to go. Once, when he detected someone approaching but couldn't find any unlocked doors to duck into, he stood dead-still by a water fountain and the passing teenager (were there any adults in this place?) walked right by without even seeming to notice him.

At last, he came to a directory, which he would have missed if he hadn't been feeling the walls at every junction for that exact purpose. He risked using a flashlight long enough to allow him to read. Something labeled 'Detention' was located in one of the sublevels (of which there were an alarming number). Nearby was a doorway labeled as stair access, so he walked through, heard the sound of feet clattering down from an upper level, and immediately swung over the railing and onto a lower set of stairs.

He proceeded downward, using the same trick to avoid detection whenever he sensed someone coming. Once, when he was in danger of getting cornered by people approaching from opposite directions, he climbed over the railing and clung, hiding behind the edge of the staircase until the two parties paused, briefly consulted, then continued on together, none of them noticing his presence.

At last, he reached the 'Detention' sublevel. The door was locked, but the control panel was dark due to the building's lack of power. Time to put his toys to use. Bruce hunted through his belt compartments until he found a short-range explosive. "Cover your ears," he warned Tim, "it's going to be loud."

Inside was what looked like a deserted guard station and an empty corridor. At the end, Bruce reached a second door and broke through that one as well.

Beyond that, thermal imaging picked up a hulking form at the far end of the room and three smaller, crouched figures. The large creature shuffled, then made a familiar and distinctive noise. "Goliath?" Bruce called.

"Ree-unk," the beast confirmed.

The human figures rose to their feet and approached, chattering excitedly. "Bruce!" Bruce exhaled in relief at the sound of his son's voice and hugged Robin when the boy flung himself at him.

"What are you doing here?!" Speedy exclaimed.

"You found us! I am grateful, 'Team Dad,' " Aqualad said.

"The force fields cut out when the power did, but we couldn't get out of the room," Speedy explained.

"They took all our gear," Robin complained.

"Stop," Bruce called firmly, and the kids fell silent. "I'm glad I found you. Where are the others?"

"They split us up," Speedy said. "They locked Wonder Girl and Starfire in these giant things, and Dick got too lippy with Deathstroke so he took him off somewhere alone. Sounded like Kid Flash, Cyborg, and Beast Boy were taken to get...uh, 'studied.' "

"I don't know where Raptor is, either," Robin said anxiously. "He nearly escaped, but it sounded like they caught him in the next corridor. I don't know where they took him."

"We'll find him," Bruce assured the boy grimly. He was getting all his kids out of here alive and safe, both the ones that belonged to him and the rest of their team. "What about Raven?"

"Not sure. She slipped into the shadows at one point, but then we heard that they were fighting her. I don't know if she won or not. That was before the power went out."

"All right. Let's get out of here." Bruce led them to the guard station and started rifling through storage compartments, looking for the kids' gear. The boys joined him and ended up finding most of it, strapping their belts on and inspecting their weapons.

They headed upstairs, this time not encountering anyone. At one point, Goliath paused and cocked his head, then roared and took off. Bruce cursed and ran after him, the boys following.

Goliath eventually burst into a large room which was lit mostly by erratic blasts of energy bolts and by the parts of the room that were on fire. Raptor and Beast Boy were fighting for their lives at one end, both their abilities ill-suited to dealing with the energy bolt powers of the girl they were fighting. Raptor was mostly kept on the defensive; Beast Boy was struggling against a second opponent, some sort of bulked-up metahuman who kept roaring like an animal.

"I need water!" Garth cried. Robin tossed him a water bottle and Bruce scanned the walls with his helmet, then urgently told Speedy where to shoot with an explosive arrow. A burst water pipe started gushing, and Garth jerked a hand to magically gather the torrent of liquid before flinging it at the energy bolt girl.

"Man, am I glad to see you!" Beast Boy cried, jumping up into the shape of a bird to get a moment's respite from his mammoth opponent.

"Hey, ugly!" Robin shouted at the opponent in question. The bulky meta turned to look at him just in time to get hit in the face by Goliath.

"About time," Raptor snarled, joining their ranks. He squinted at Bruce. "Who are you?"

"It's Dad," Robin laughed.

"What?! Father?!"

"We need to get somewhere safe and find the others," Bruce said.

Raptor nodded, all business now. "I need weapons. I was stripped of most of my gear."

Bruce didn't actually have much in the way of weapons, but he did give Raptor some of his shuriken. Both of them were surprised when, after some shuffling at Bruce's back, a bō staff came poking invitingly out from under his armpit.

"Wh...what?" Raptor sputtered, staring at the odd sight.

"I think Tim is lending you his staff."

"You brought TIMOTHY?!" Raptor practically shrieked, looking worried. "He is nowhere near trained enough to handle a mission like this!"

"Well, it's too late to send him back," Bruce pointed out.

Once the energy bolt girl had been pinned down and the mammoth boy too dazed to keep moving, Bruce and the Titans made their escape. "Does anyone have any idea where the others are?" Bruce demanded.

"I can try to smell them out," Beast Boy offered. "That's what I was doing before I heard Raptor fighting."

"Let's get Wonder Girl and Starfire first," Speedy said. "I think I can get us back to that room where Deathstroke and the H.I.V.E. lady were arguing about his pay."

The room in question contained monstrous-looking machines which seemed to have been designed to restrain metas with super-strength. The power outage must have at least partially disabled them, but the girls each only had two limbs free and were struggling to get themselves the rest of the way out.

"Wonder Girl! Starfire!" Robin cried as they ran in. "You guys okay?"

Wonder Girl gave a fierce cry and finally managed to rip her remaining leg loose. At almost the same moment, Starfire wrenched one of her arms free, then started blasting starbolts at the metal encasing her last trapped limb.

"If you give us a minute, we can look over the machinery and try to figure out how to get the rest of it off safely," Bruce tried to say, but the girls ignored him and finished battering themselves loose. They sprawled on the floor, panting. Robin, Aqualad, and Beast Boy knelt beside them in concern.

"We're fine," Wonder Girl said impatiently, pushing Aqualad's hand away. "Just give us a moment to catch our breath. Is everyone here?"

"No. We need to find the laboratories and wherever Deathstroke would keep a personal captive here," Bruce said. "We also need to figure out where Raven is."

Beast Boy turned into a bear and started tracking Deathstroke's scent trail. He finally paused by a door long enough to report, "I think Deathstroke came out again and went that way, but I can smell that Dick's still inside."

That was all Bruce needed. He tried the door, which turned out to be locked; Starfire punched it off its hinges and Bruce strode inside, the rest of the Titans close behind him.

It was too dark to make out what kind of room it was, but there was a bed in it where Dick lay, barely moving. "Dick." Bruce reached a slightly trembling hand to rest on the side of his son's head. "Dick, are you all right?"

Starfire held up her hand to illuminate the room, and Bruce ran worried eyes over the mer's body. Dick was grimacing and shivering, his eyes closed. What little exposed skin he had was too dry and an unhealthy color, but his suit appeared to be mostly intact, which was a relief. (Why was he on a bed...?)

"I didn't," the mer whimpered in a low, slurred voice. "I didn't! Please...!"

"He smells weird," Beast Boy said warily, still in bear form. "I think he's drugged."

Bruce flicked through his helmet's modes until he found the X-ray vision, but Dick didn't appear to have any broken bones. "Do you smell anything else?" he snapped, fear for his child making his voice harsher than he meant it to be. "Blood? Or...anything?"

"No, just the drug smell. There's blood, but it's not fresh, I'm guessing from the fighting we did earlier."

Starfire picked up the mer, who gasped and then went limp in her arms.

"He needs to go home right now," Bruce said. "Starfire, Wonder Girl, one of you needs to take him."

"We can't leave without the others, and both of us are heavy hitters," Wonder Girl said. "This place is full of metahumans, and we don't know if Deathstroke left yet. We can't afford to split up."

"Then someone wait with him outside, at least!" Even as he said it, Bruce realized he couldn't bear the thought of splitting up, either. Wonder Girl had a point, and he was afraid of sending any of the kids into danger on enemy turf when they were already tired and vulnerable.

"The sooner we find the rest of our friends, the sooner we can leave," Speedy said.

"And once we regroup, we shall return and burn this vile place to the ground," Raptor added decisively.

Beast Boy resumed tracking their missing teammates, but their luck in avoiding detection ran out once they located the laboratories. Some of the metas in the H.I.V.E. base (this was apparently a training facility for young recruits) had been searching for the Titans while the Titans had been searching for each other, and now they collided.

Wonder Girl, Starfire, Raptor, and Goliath held off the attackers while the others raced into the labs, Bruce carrying Dick. "Found him!" Beast Boy shouted, morphing into a rhinoceros so he could batter his way into a cell. Bruce didn't know exactly who 'he' was until he skidded to a stop by the broken door and shifted his hold on Dick in order to shine a flashlight into the cell. He instantly had to suppress the urge to throw up.

"Wally!" Robin and Speedy cried, both forgetting about code names in their distress.

Kid Flash had been essentially nailed to the wall, torso and limbs impaled. He raised his head at their entrance and managed to muster a smile, saying weakly, "Hey, guys."

"Bruce!" Jason wailed. "Bruce!"

Bruce set Dick down and then strode over to Kid Flash. Beast Boy had changed into a gorilla and was pulling out the stakes; Bruce arrived just in time to catch the speedster as he fell. "I need all the food you can find," Bruce ordered over his shoulder, trying to maintain his hold on Kid Flash as he worked protein bars out of his belt. "Check the scientists' desk drawers."

Robin, Speedy, and Beast Boy rushed away; Aqualad knelt and started rinsing the blood off his friend. A couple of tentacles snaked out from under Bruce's cape and felt over Kid Flash in concern.

"They were testing my...my healing factor," the young speedster explained, then tore into the protein bar Bruce held to his mouth. It was hard to tell (Bruce had had to put the flashlight on the floor), but his wounds already seemed to be closing up. After a minute, the boy was able to raise his own arm to grasp the next protein bar.

"Hello?" a quavering voice suddenly came into Bruce's head. "Is anyone there?"

"Raven?" Kid Flash said cautiously.

Bruce tried to think at the voice. "Raven, where are you?"

"I...I don't know. It's dark, and I can't...I can't use my powers."

Robin came hurrying back in. "There wasn't much, but here's what we found," he reported, dumping a pile of junk food on the floor. "Speedy and Beast Boy are with Cyborg, we heard him calling."

"Just hold on, Raven," Bruce thought. "We're coming."

"Bruce?"

"I'm here, I'm with the other Titans. We're coming, Raven."

"It's...it's a collar, I think...I think the collar is stopping me..."

"Just hang on a little longer, sweetheart. We're here, we're coming."

Once Kid Flash was back on his feet, Bruce picked up Dick again and they hurried to join the other boys, where Bruce was horrified to find Cyborg in literal pieces.

"I don't know how to fix this!" Speedy cried, holding a metal leg.

Cyborg's torso (head included, thankfully) was strapped to an operating table. Beast Boy was making distressed noises as he collected more limbs. "I'll be fine," Cyborg said impatiently, "we can put me back together at home. Just get me off this thing!"

"Aqualad, take Dick, and Speedy, take Tim," Bruce ordered. "Robin, find a bag to put the limbs in; I'll carry it. Kid Flash, as soon as you're feeling up to it, go find Raptor and the others and see if they need help." All this time, he'd been hearing the crashes and shouts and blasts of the battle raging not too far away.

'Only one left to go,' he told himself. 'Just find Raven and we can get the hell out of here.'

"What about me?" Beast Boy asked anxiously.

"You're carrying Cyborg as soon as I've got him loose."

As he worked, Cyborg said, "I managed to plant some viruses in their systems while they were taking me apart, but then the power ran out mid-experiment."

"With me, too," Kid Flash said, adding bitterly, "Guess it was too much work for them to un-stab me before they all ran off in a panic."

The fight was mostly over by the time they returned to Wonder Girl and the others, and an arrow from Speedy took out the last opponent while she was distracted.

"Cyborg!" Starfire cried, flying over to him in distress. "They did this awful thing to you!"

"I'm fine, Star," Cyborg said reassuringly. "Up side of losing most of my body is that I lost most of my ability to feel pain, too."

They finally managed to track down Raven, who was trapped in some kind of crackling purple-black force field. The collar was difficult to remove and made her scream when they finally did, but at least they were all now free and together.

TBC