OK, so I go from the longest chapter ever to the one of the shortest. It's not too short though, don't worry. Whatever, that's just how this one turned out. There's no dialogue, so maybe it'll seem longer? I kinda got tired of all the talking, and I wanted to bring in the team, so...

This chapter is complete literary trash, but it's actually one of my favorites so far. It's just not written very well.

DISCLAIMER: Blah blah blah, does anyone even look at this?

The Team FINALLY Opens Their Eyes and Gets a Clue:

Wally West was somewhat annoyed. His best friend, his little brother, had been in Gotham for a little more than a week now and he hadn't seen him since the thing in Jump. Dick hadn't returned his calls, hadn't been visiting anyone in the League, and he hadn't shown up at the team reunion they had had. Everyone had been annoyed, but Dick refused to answer any of their calls. Batman had gone AWOL and no one in the League was answering their questions. So, Wally had been nominated to find out what was going on for the important fact that he was the only one who knew where to find him. None of the others knew his ID, after all.

The first thing he'd done was call Wayne Manor. Alfred had answered, and when asked had politely replied that neither Master Richard nor Master Bruce were available at the moment. He'd deflected a few more questions and then hung up. Wally had stared at the phone for a moment and was overwhelmed with a feeling that something was wrong here. Very wrong. Alfred had been using his overly polite, I really don't want to speak to you and have much more important things to do but I'm a proper English gentleman so I'll deal for the moment voice. He never used that voice with Wally. The humoring voice, or the one that exuded impatience, but never that cold, polite tone, but with an undertone of worry. Something was really wrong. And it had to do with Dick. Who else could evoke that kind of a response from the Wayne household? Of course it had something to do with Dick. And he was going to find out what.

He was now a bit more than annoyed.

So he poked around. He asked Flash, who had just stammered out something about Bats, and how they were odd, and how it was better to leave them be. He'd looked extremely uncomfortable and zoomed off as soon as he could. Aunt Iris hadn't helped either, but she had seemed more confused than anything. Not like Barry, who obviously knew something but wouldn't share. More like the I have no clue what you're talking about but if my husband is hiding something about my pseudo nephew I will murder him violently confused.

The Team met up again and compared notes. Everyone had asked their mentors and snooped a little. No one else had any luck. It was quickly concluded that the Leaguers knew something, but weren't telling. Batman was impossible to find or contact. And Nightwing was still MIA. Wait...

That was when everyone paused and stared at each other. Of course. Nightwing was missing. The League didn't know where he was either, and Bats was going nuts trying to find him. It was the only logical explanation.

That brought up another question. Who would be stupid enough to kidnap Nightwing just after he'd been reuniting with his family, meaning that the League would do anything, short of…. well, short of nothing, they'd do anything to get him back.

The answer? Someone who didn't know about his connections. Which pointed to a Titans villain. Or someone after Dick Grayson, but only Wally thought of that. Anyway, Dick hadn't really been in Gotham long enough for someone to stage something, not to mention that his only public appearance had been that party of Bruce's, and it had been crawling with heroes. No one would have been able to do anything then even if they had tried. And no one tried.

So, Titans villain it was. But one who knew Nightwing was in Gotham?

Putting the issue of which idiot did it aside, they had no real proof of any of this, so they couldn't just go to Jump, demanding an explanation. So, Wally had recruited Roy to help gain proof. Their method?

They kidnapped Tim. Duh. Who else but a Bat would know about what the Bats were up to?

Well, yes, Superman was a possibility. But he wasn't there, was he? He was off with Batman, doing who knows what who knows where because who knows who had maybe kidnapped Nightwing.

So, they ambushed Tim outside of school one day, before he was picked up by Alfred. The boy had been annoyed, sure, but he understood where they were coming from. He would want to know too. He just would have hacked the Batcomputer instead of kidnapping someone.

It only took a little bit of begging (Wally, because Roy would never), pleading (ditto), threatening (finally, something up Roy's alley) and bribing (both of them) to get him to crack. Once he did, though, it was like hitting the mother load. He told them about how Dick had been kidnapped saving Bruce, how it had been a Titans villain by the name of Slade (who said the Bats were the only detectives with the League?), how Batman was determined to keep this a 'family matter', Bats only (plus Superman, but he was kind of unofficially a Bat. Sorta.), and how Batman and Superman had informed the League before going to Jump to see what they could find there. Wally and Roy stuck a pair of sunglasses on the kid and dragged him to where the Team was waiting and had him tell them everything too. They unanimously decided to go to Jump and confront Batman about this. Tim begged to come. They let him.

Screw leaving the Bats alone. Who cared about the wrath they would no doubt incur. Privacy? What privacy? This was their little brother, and they sure as hell weren't going to sit around after he'd gotten himself kidnapped. 'Family matter' be damned. They were family, whatever Batman said.

Blood is thicker than water, and god knows they'd seen enough of the stuff as a team, together. The bonds formed by saving each others butts a million times over were stronger than either.

So, they went to Jump. They knocked politely on the door of the Tower, and then told Batman that they'd have Superboy break down the door if he didn't let them in, using a friendly tone of course. They didn't want to sound threatening after all. It's not like they were furious with him for keeping this from them. Nope, not even a little bit. And Batman wasn't the least bit intimidated when they marched into the main room and nailed him with seven angry sibling glares, one of which had been trained by Batman, plus one angry girlfriend glare. Superman didn't think that their glares were almost worse than the Daddy!Bat glare. Of course not.

Privately, Superman winced. So much for don't let them find out through the grapevine. Oops.

Yeah, so Team is pissed. Who wouldn't be?

Um... don't really have anything else to say. Oh well.

REVIEW!