Chapter Seven

"Don't worry about Allen Smitheson, Bruce! Nightwing and I have it covered. I'm sure it won't be necessary for you to interfere for a few hours." Tim could hear Oracle speaking to Bruce as the man tightened his tie and smoothed out his suit.

He knocked, gaining Bruce's attention. "Alfred's waiting outside for us." he informed his father. Bruce promised to call Oracle back after the charity event and hung up. He approached his son and adjusted his tie for him. Then, the two marched out the front door where Alfred was waiting to chauffeur them to the Gotham City Hall.

Bruce to a calming breath, he and Tim heard from Dick about his attack from Allen and he laid a comforting had on his young partner's shoulder. "You ready for this?"

Tim unbuttoned the two top buttons of his dress shirt to reveal his Robin costume underneath. "Ready." The two of them grimly continued into the car.

Drake fixed his tie for the fifth time in the last seventeen minutes and checked his watch. It was almost time for Bruce's speech. He glanced around carefully, not quite sure what to look for but wary all the same. It had been a while since he had dressed so nicely and was in high-class company like this. It worried him, what if his cover was blown? He shot glances at the entrances again just in time to see the Waynes walk in. He swiftly turned and made for the other end of the room. The last thing he wanted was to be seen by the Waynes, or be seen with the Waynes by Malak.

He saw he was walking straight toward a table occupied by a beautiful red head in a wheelchair. Barbara Gordon, Commissioner James Gordon's daughter and close friend of the Waynes. He immediately veered off course and wished he could just hide himself in the magnificent drapes that hung from the ceiling over the platform. He walked toward a group of boys about his age who were talking quietly. He fitted in perfectly. Barbara glanced at his retreating back and thought she recognized him but shook the thought away. She had to keep her focus on the Waynes or on any suspicious persons. Dick hadn't come to the event just like he told her over the phone, even if he was forced to do it. But she knew for sure that Nightwing was hanging around nearby.

Soon, the time came for Bruce Wayne's speech and the man marched up to the elevated platform to deliver. Barbara and Tim held their breaths but Drake didn't look up from his wristwatch. He counted down the seconds under his breath and glanced up at the platform.

Drake sucked in a breath and braced himself a second before the windows shattered and the loud sound of rapid gunfire filled the air. Glass broke, the drapes were turned into Swiss cheese, splinters were shot up into the air from the quickly destroyed wooden platform. Everybody panicked. Bruce was the first to snap into action and quickly got of the platform, dragging Tim, who was standing beside him, to safety with him. Everybody lurched for the exits.

Barbara floundered, being shoved along by the waves of masses trying desperately to escape and saved by the strong arms of her father who quickly guided her to safety.

Nightwing, who was loitering about on the roofs, heard the commotion and saw the gun firing from the building across the city hall. He swung down and dove through the glass, shattering it in the process. He skidded on the carpeted floor and turned, regaining his balance. The gun was firing randomly without a shooter. He quickly unarmed it and threw it disgustedly to the floor. The gun was shooting blanks, it was a diversion. The assasin was near his family. He rushed to save them. He shot off a line to swing through the already shattered windows of the city hall and pushed off when his breath was knocked forcefully out of his lungs and pain shot through his ribs. He grunted and clenched his jaws together as he felt his grapple-gun slip through his fingers.

Tim gasped in horror as Nightwing was shot out of the air. His shoulders sagged in relief when his older brother managed to twist in midair and shoot off another line to swing himself to safety. He glanced around for their attacker and out of the corner of his eye, saw a man he hadn't noticed during his first look at the crowd. The man really didn't stand out, Tim wouldn't have second glanced him if he wasn't carrying and gun and was making his way toward them quickly. How he had gotten it past security was beyond the boy. Bruce instinctively stepped between the man and his son. This only made matters easier for the assassin. He raised the gun and took aim.

He was completely unaware of Drake who was also making his way toward the Waynes, cutting through the surging crowds like a shark fin in water. Drake saw Bruce and Tim, then Malak a second later. His eyes barely registered the gun the assassin had in his hand when he was wrapping his small hands around the larger man's wrist and directed it upward to the ceiling, discharging the weapon into the air. The two wrestled, the gun shots blaring in their ears as they toppled over a splintered table before falling to the floor, still in each other's death grips. By the time Tim and Bruce Wayne had gotten to safety and the Dynamic Duo appeared, Drake and the assassin had broken apart, the gun lay empty and smoking between them. They circled each other warily. Drake, knew his hand-to-hand fighting skills to be inferior to Malak's and was stalling. Malak knew himself to be superior but unsure whether Drake had some tricks up his sleeve.

"Should we interfere? The guy will totally kill Allen!" Tim exclaimed worriedly. If Batman was seriously sizing Malak up, the assassin could probably overpower Robin as well.

Batman motioned for him to stand down. "Lets just see what happens."

Drake did indeed have a hidden trick up his sleeve. An explosion shook the whole building, knocking everyone but Drake, who was ready for the blast, to the floor. Drake leapt forward and threw a mean-looking throwing knife at Malak who just barely managed to block it with his arm. Drake flitted over the rubble toward the explosion and discharged a grapple gun that he had bought from a crook in Crime Alley. The man claimed to have salvaged it from one of Batman and Robin's flights, Batman knew that style gun. Drake discharged it into the floor near the gaping hole created by the explosion and jumped down through it. Malak followed closely on his tail and saw that Drake had planted multiple bombs, one on each floor, opening a direct route through to the ground floor and finally into the sewers. Malak grabbed one of the drapes and followed him. Batman and Robin exchanged glances and took off after them.