Conner pulled up to the school's curb in his beat-up Ford truck. With a quick look, not a person was to be seen. Considering it was the Monday after winter break, most people were at home asleep. But one person should still be there, Avery.
The clone rolled down the window to his car and turned off the engine to see if he could hear the newest inhabitant of the Cave. There were two female voices off in the distance, but both were too high pitched to be Avery. He got out of the car to see if he could hear better, but there still wasn't anything to point him in the right direction.
As he stepped up on the curb to look around, his foot hit something, a black backpack. Curiosity overruled and he zipped it open. There was nothing unusual inside for your average high school student. But a peek at the papers inside the binder indicated that the binder at least belonged to Avery. Unless there was a mix-up in plain binders that day, it was safe to assume the backpack was Avery's too. Being closely associated with many a paranoid superhero, the worst possibilities started popping up in Conner's mind.
Conner quickly grabbed his phone, only used in emergencies, out of his back pocket and dialed a number not many people know. The answer came on the fourth ring.
"What is it?" Batman was quick to the point.
"Avery wasn't here when I came to pick her up, but her backpack was," Conner quickly answered.
There was a slight second of hesitation on the other line, "Is there a keychain on it?"
Conner looked at all the zippers and possible places to attach a keychain, "Not a single one. Why?"
"Get back to the Cave, now. I'll be there in a few minutes." The gruff order was delivered and the call was ended.
.:Back to Life:.
Avery tried to remove the stiff feeling in her neck while recollecting what just happened. Death has a way of messing with memory, even an eidetic one. "Oh yeah, I was killed," Avery scoffed aloud. She tugged on her limbs, all immovable thanks to metal chains. "And kidnapped," She remarked, becoming a little angry.
"So I see you've finally woken up," A voice said from somewhere Avery couldn't see.
The room was dark already, just a lone light bulb hanging above Avery's head. It didn't help that her glasses had been removed. Now all she could see were blotches of color and anything had to be within a foot and a half radius to be clear. But it was still clear as day who the man in the orange and black mask was as he approached.
"'Woken up' is one way to put it," Avery remarked, venom seeping its way into her voice.
"What would you rather I say? Welcome back to the realm of the living?" Deathstroke taunted as he circled the tied up girl.
"No, not at all. Next time though, you should at least buy a girl dinner before snapping her neck and dragging her back to your place, only to end up securing her to a chair with more than enough metal to keep a human being in place." Avery glared as best she could as Deathstroke rounded in front of her.
Deathstroke narrowed his one visible eye and muttered with condescension, "Cute."
"Thank you, I thought so." Avery finally twisted her neck and cracked it audibly. "So, let us just get down to brass tacks. I am not going to give you the formula. There is no point in you asking for it."
"Well, people have a way of changing their minds. Let's see if you'll change yours, shall we?" Deathstroke pulled the gun he carried for more unmanageable situations out of his belt.
"A gun? You better have something else, because that is not-" Avery stopped midsentence as a scream was ripped from her throat because of the bullet that shattered her right knee cap.
.:Back to Life:.
Batman was waiting as Superboy arrived in the cave. He immediately ordered the clone to hand over the backpack. As a confirmation of his own suspicions, he went over every inch of the pack to look for the keychain. Just as Superboy had said, there wasn't one.
The Dark Knight quickly pulled up the holo-computer available to the Cave and connected it to the Bat-Computer. With the connection established, he started a tracking program.
"What are you doing?" Conner asked from where he was standing off to the side.
"That keychain on Avery's backpack has a tracker in it. Since it isn't anywhere on her backpack, it would be a hopeful assumption that she has it on her person. If she does, we can find her." Batman kept typing without picking his head up.
"Of course it does," Conner sighed. "Should I get Nightwing or Robin or Batgirl, anybody?"
"Get Nightwing, only Nightwing," Batman ordered.
The clone picked up his phone and started dialing since Nightwing wasn't at the Cave that day to begin with.
.:Back to Life:.
"Try again," Avery taunted as she spat the blood collecting in her mouth to the floor.
Deathstroke assessed the teen before delivering another blow. She's been shot, hit, and had a few bones broken. But she wasn't saying anything useful in the slightest.
"What? Getting tired already?" Avery wondered aloud at the mercenary's hesitation.
"No, but you are," Deathstroke countered.
"Excuse you?" Avery's eyes narrowed as her tone dropped.
"Your healing is slowing. You haven't noticed?"
Avery didn't speak. Her eyes widened and her lips parted in surprise, which said more than words ever could. She'd been too busy working past the pain of being beaten up to come to the realization. Her brain began whirling to find a way out. She needed nutrients if she was going to keep taking blows, otherwise the near future could be pretty grim. The chains were secure, no lock was in sight or range of feeling, Batman hadn't gotten to the advanced lock picking lesson yet anyways. Her only hope lay in the hands of the people she went to for protection in the first place.
A/N: Here's a quickie. I originally planned to be in Pheonix this weekend, but that got derailed. This chapter was just something to hold you guys over until the next update. Hopefully, the next one will be longer, but no gurantees. Let me just say, I really loved your guy's reactions to last chapter. It was pretty priceless. Anyways, have a good day.
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