Teen Titans

All These Lives

Chapter 2

A/N: Hey guys! Here's chapter 2 of All These Lives. I hope you all enjoy this chapter.

I'd like to thank ComixFan1224 for being my beta reader for this story. I enjoy reading her stories as much as she apparently likes reading this one. Heh.

Disclaimer: See chapter 1.

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Dick stood impatiently beside his black Plymouth Barracuda waiting for Harvey to show up. "Come on Harv," he muttered to himself. "You were supposed to be here 5 minutes ago. We're losing time here." Just then, his cell phone rang. Flipping it open, he said, "Grayson here. Talk to me."

"Dick, go ahead and start without me. I'm held up in traffic a couple blocks away. Some idiot crashed into an oncoming pickup truck," Harvey said, obviously ticked off. Other sirens could be heard in the background through the bad reception on his cell phone. "I'll be there as soon as I can. Be careful, okay? I don't want to tell the boss that he lost his daughter and his best detective. Got it?"

The young detective grinned. "Okay Harv. I'll try not to have too much fun until you get here." They both laughed and hung up. Dick stuffed the phone back into the pocket of his black trench coat. He turned to the officers that were there already. "Okay, you two take the building on the far left. You guys take the one on the right. I'm heading down the center." He flipped his microphone on and said, "Radio silence. Group one will be three clicks for a call sign, group two will be one long, one short and I'll be one short, one long." He demonstrated what he meant before continuing. "If the building is clear, one click. If you found something, two clicks. If you run into trouble, screw the radio silence. Yell at me to come save ya."

The group fanned out, Dick heading straight to the warehouse marked WARF 5. Quietly easing the door open, he stuck the barrel of his gun inside first and then eased in gradually. Scanning around, no booby traps were visible to his eyes. Moving in deeper, he noticed a large crane above him. The hook was dangling a few feet above his head.

"Hmm… looks like this was used recently. It's probably just the fishery workers unloading their catches. Explains the smell too." He wrinkled his nose in disgust as he moved in deeper still, trying to find the light switch.

He found it and suddenly felt as if someone was watching him. Whipping around, he extended his gun and clicked on the lights on in one movement. After a brief stalling noise, the lights flickered on, revealing an empty floor, except for a stray alley cat, which arched its back and hissed loudly before slinking off.

Dick sighed. "You're getting soft, Grayson," he said to himself as he finally decided the place was clear. Clicking in his call sign and his observation, he moved outside after shutting the lights off again.

He came outside and was glad he was wearing his sunglasses, which hid steel gray eyes. The initial burst of sunlight would have been blinding. Just as he was going to check on team one, they called in. Building one was all clear. That just left team two.

Heading over to WARF 6, they called him with a sign of 'Found something.' Dick whispered into his microphone, "This is Grayson to all teams. Head to building by WARF 6. Repeat, WARF 6." He pushed his way through the door and found the other cops standing around what looked like a scrap of fabric.

Rolling his eyes, he said, "Guys, probably just fabric from one of the workers. He probably just ripped his shirt when he was unloading some fish." As he got closer, he noticed it wasn't a male shirt scrap. It was a piece of a tank top. "Babs," he whispered. Motioning to the others, he said, "Fan out. We're going to comb this place from top to bottom. I'm calling in back up. Get to work!"

Moving away, he grabbed his microphone again. "Attention all units, this is Detective Grayson. We have a code red at the docks, warehouse 6. All units are to report immediately. We have a lead on the Tornado. Repeat, lead on the Tornado."

Harvey burst in, gun in hand. "Just heard ya. What do we got?" Dick showed him the scrap. "Well, by the looks of it, that matches the description that the Commissioner gave. Just gimme a minute to go grab the camera and forensics stuff from my car." Harvey turned and went back out at a jog.

Dick looked around, getting the uneasy feeling in the pit of his stomach. They were close. It was as if he could hear the psycho's breathing. "I'll get you Babs. I promise."

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Down below the surface of warehouse 6, Slade stared at a television set linked to a camera above and growled, "How did they find me so quickly? Now I need to move everything." He suddenly spun around. "KORI!" He dropped his wine glass, which shattered on contact with the floor, spilling what red liquid was left onto the concrete floor.

The girl was upstairs in her room, reading a book. She idly flipped the page and started a new chapter as she heard the thunder of her father's steel-toed boots on the stairs. 'He sounds mad,' she thought to herself as he reached her door. "What?" she asked, putting a bookmark between the pages.

He didn't give a verbal answer. He grabbed her by the shirt collar and gave her a backhand, which sent her spinning back onto the bed with a creak of springs. "YOU LITTLE WITCH! YOU GAVE THE COPS A TIP!" he screamed, slapping her again, causing her to curl into the fetal position.

"I DIDN'T!" she cried, covering herself as best she could as the blows rained down on her. 'The bruises from last time were just starting to heal,' she thought to herself. "I only went to the store and back! I swear it!"

He stepped back, breathing heavily. "Well, explain the nosy detectives upstairs then." He turned and left, heading down to the subbasement level. The last doors were closed, but the first was still bolted shut. He slammed it open and Barbara jumped in surprise.

Fear shone in her eyes again. "What are you going to do this time?" she asked timidly, still fresh from his last visit only hours before. All she had on was a large white t-shirt that was covered in sweat and other unmentionables.

He didn't say anything. He grabbed her by the arm and dragged her off. Just down the hall was a docking bay for a mini submarine he had bought for underwater exploration before he lost his mind, as Kori put it. "We're taking a small trip," he said in a greasy voice. "You'll live to see tomorrow if you cooperate." He shoved her in and locked the door from the outside before running back upstairs and grabbed Kori by the arm. "We're leaving. Grab your book and let's go!" He whirled around and left.

Kori sighed, grabbed her book and followed him. She knew better than to disobey him. If she fought back, he fought back harder than before. He almost killed her one time, when he was completely drunk. She still had the large scar on her back which she told everyone was from a 'boating accident.'

Climbing into the sub and sitting behind her father, she sealed the door and emptied the ballast tanks. "We're ready to go. Which hideout this time? Steel City? The Looking Glass?" The Looking Glass was an old abandoned observation dome that was out in the Gotham Bay, just a short distance away from the town statue.

"Steel City has been compromised. We're heading to the Looking Glass for a few days and then we're leaving to Metropolis for as long as necessary." He shoved the throttle open wide and the small sub jumped forward, blasting out of the bay and into the cold, dark waters of the Gotham City Bay.

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"HEY, OVER HERE!" one of the officers called, waving to get Dick's attention.

Dick ambled over, asking, "What did you find, Officer?" He followed the older man's gaze to see a large trap door a few feet off, with a large ladder leading down. "The basement! Why didn't I think of that?" he said, smacking himself in the forehead. "Okay, grab another officer. We're heading down there to look around. Bring the mini cameras that Batman gave us with you." He began clambering down the ladder. About halfway down, he saw another scrap of shirt, along with a thread of what looked like silk pajama pants. 'We must be getting close now,' he thought to himself.

He reached bottom and hit the wall in frustration. "We just missed them!" he muttered, seeing the broken wine glass and spilled wine on the floor. He noticed the television that showed a black and white image of the floor above. "That's how he knew we were here," Dick said to himself. After moving in deeper, he saw that all the clothes were still there, so they must have just seen or heard them above. He lost his cool and yelled, "DAMMIT!"

The other cops were now searching around, looking for evidence. Dick headed upstairs and found what appeared to be Slade's office and bedroom. A double bed stood in one corner and an oak desk stood in the other, holding a computer. Dick looked around and found a large metal pole in the closet. "That must be what he uses to bash a hole in the window." Pulling on a set of gloves and grabbing his finger print kit, he dusted the pole from top to bottom and found nothing. "Man, this guy is good," he said.

Checking around in the rest of the room, he found an operator's license. "He's a metal worker by day. Explains how he got the pole." Sticking both into bags, he moved back downstairs and presented the evidence to Harvey.

"Nice work Dick," Harvey said, tucking one bag in his pocket and the pole under his arm. "We'll get this to the Commissioner. We'll run down his boss, see when he was last into work. Maybe Slade slipped up and told the guy where he was headed." He turned and went to help load some computer equipment into a large basket to be hauled to the surface.

Dick sighed and said, "I got one more room to check. I saw another bedroom upstairs. Don't lift that basket just yet. I might find something for you." He jogged back upstairs and went inside. What he saw surprised him. Purple walls, a purple bedspread, and lots of books. Quickly rooting through some of the drawers, he determined from some of the contents that Slade must have a wife, daughter or was just decorating to make the experience of being a pervert more enjoyable. "HARVEY! YOU MIGHT WANT TO SEE THIS!" he yelled downstairs.

A minute later, Harvey was there. His jaw dropped. "Oh boy, didn't see this one coming." He poked around for a minute and hummed thoughtfully. "Come to think of it, I seem to recall a Kori Wilson in the system. Petty theft a few years back." He turned to leave. "I'll run it when we get back to the station." He patted Dick on the shoulder. "Come on, you need a break. You can come back later if you want to, but we need to let the CSI unit in here to do their work."

Dick nodded. "Fair enough. I could go for a catnap right about now. I was up until 2 the night before working on the Harper case." He was referring to the murder of one of his friends, Roy Harper.

"Tough case, eh?" Harvey asked, as they reached the main room again. "I'm stumped on mine too. I got the Simons case and I must be missing something big on that one cuz it's been on my desk for the last month and a half."

Dick, as they started climbing the ladder, said, "I'll swap you cases for a bit. Maybe we can find something in the other files. Scratch each other's backs, you know?" His foot slipped on one of the rungs, but he managed to catch himself.

"Sure, I'll give you the file when we get back to the station. The boss is going to be thrilled with all the evidence we bagged. The stuff in the computer systems is going to be enough to put this creep away for a long time," Harvey said as they finally reached the surface and nodded at the winch operator. "Bring it up slowly. We don't wanna lose anything."

The man nodded and activated the winch. Gears grinding, the basket began a slow ascent to the top of the warehouse. Once there, Harvey and Dick carefully loaded it into the back of Harvey's car. "See you back at headquarters," Dick said as he got into his own car and roared off.

The radio squawked loudly. "This is Commissioner Gordon. All units are to return to base immediately. Repeat, return to base immediately. I'll explain everything when you all get here. Gordon over and out." The radio became silent.

Dick flipped on his lights and siren and floored the gas pedal, making the car jump forward with a roar. Cars veered away and honked loudly at him, but Dick just ignored them. He finally reached the station and ran inside, seeing Jim sitting at his desk, his fingers in a steeple. His face was more grim looking than normal, so this can't be good, Dick thought to himself as more officers and detectives showed up.

Finally, the older man rose and said, "Thank you for all getting here so quickly. We just received this from Tornado." He held up a thick, black videotape and a picture of Barbara, bound and gagged, but still alive. "This video has not been watched. We're all going to watch it now and try to pinpoint his exact location. This fight stops now!" He slammed his fist onto the desk for emphasis. He then placed the tape into a VCR and punched Play so hard the button almost cracked in half.

After a few seconds of fuzz, an image of a metal mask came into view. The right eye was visible and it was glinting evilly. "Hello G.C.P.D and anyone else who happens to be viewing this tape. You should know who I am by now, but in case you have a few ignorant people in your midst, I am Slade Wilson, also known as the Tornado Kidnapper." He chuckled darkly before continuing. "Now, you should all know by now that I have the Commissioner's daughter." The camera panned to reveal Barbara tied into a chair, gagged and slightly pale. "You want her alive, don't you Daddy dearest?" Slade said from off camera. "Then leave me be. You will stop all investigation into my whereabouts, destroy all evidence you may have collected and put the case into the lock-up with the word CLOSED on the box. If you comply to these demands, your daughter will come back to you within the month, alive and well." The video flickered on and off before snapping off completely.

Gordon sighed. "I hate to do this, but I'm ordering that the case be closed and shelved, with all evidence in lock-up, just until we get Barbara back. We can go live with a broadcast destroying mock-ups of the evidence we have so far. As soon as my daughter is back, that pervert is going down the river."

Dick asked, "How can we be sure that will work? Don't you think Slade would have already thought we'd try that?"

"We have to risk it," Gordon said confidently. "We won't know unless we try. Let's get going men! We have some copying to do!"

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Kori was reading again, but thinking to herself, 'At least back in the warehouse, I couldn't hear him doing anything to the girls.' In the back room of the Looking Glass came screams for mercy from the helpless redhead and Kori was almost crying for the girl. She learned to keep that in. Her father saw crying as a sign of weakness and beat her for it each time. 'I wish mom was still here.'

Her mother had died a few years earlier in a car accident with a drunk driver. 'You'd think that Mom dying from a drunk driver would have made Dad turn away from drinking,' she thought, still reading. He'd been depressed ever since.

The cries stopped in the back as he came out, adjusting his mask before tightening his belt a few notches. "Did you deliver the tape?" he asked, sitting down beside her, but his back to her as he scanned some monitors for anything suspicious.

Rolling her eyes, she asked, "What do you think? Of course I delivered it along with your specific instructions to not watch until 3:00 PM today with all officers present." She turned the page on her book and continued reading.

Slade smiled and said, "Good girl. You just earned yourself a 'Get Out Of A Beating Free' card." He laughed at his own little joke before getting up to go to the kitchen across the hall.

'I need to get some help, but I can't do it with him here,' Kori thought, staring at the communications array near her arm. 'Maybe I can work out a deal with the police and get off easy. I just need for him to be away so he can't monitor me, even just for 5 minutes…'

It was just about 5:30, so the light had virtually disappeared from the water. The lights on the outside of the station clicked on, revealing a variety of fish, boat wrecks and skeletons of sailors who had been on the ships. 'It's a graveyard out there… and it could end up being Barbara's.'

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A/N: Well, I hope you all enjoyed this chapter of All These Lives. Thanks for reading! Don't forget the other R- review! There's a little button down in the corner that calls you. I'll update after 3 reviews.

Love, peace and chicken grease!

Dash