Oh my gosh, you guys, this is getting close to the end. I mean, there's probably only about ten chapters left, max. Just in time for school, I guess. Good news is I have another fic in the process of being planned out. Bad news is, I start up school and have to write my play for my drama class to perform, so I'm going to be a bit preoccupied for the most part.
Tim paced. He had been pacing for the entire day; carving out a path from where Roy sat uncomfortably in the Batcave with a sling around his left arm, past Jason, still asleep from when Alfred put him out to fix up his broken ankle, past Kon, who mentally counted the number of times Tim had passed him, past Alfred, still recovering from being pushed around by the clown who had taken Bruce, past Martha and Thomas, who sat next to Damian, home from the hospital strictly on Bruce's bribery of the hospital, past Bruce on the Batcomputer, and back around in a circle.
There was a small groan from the miniature superhero on a temporary hospital bed set up in the cave and instantly Bruce was at Damian's side.
"Father?"
"How do you feel?" Bruce ran a long hand across the boy's forehead. "You're okay now, son. Just rest easy."
"My identity?"
"Wasn't compromised." Bruce answered seriously.
Sure, he was angry his sons had gone behind his back to train to become superheroes. He was angry that he hadn't been informed of this from his family, and he was absolutely livid that they were hurt trying to rescue him, but he knew he must save it for after this ordeal. There was no sense in yelling at them now, not when everyone was in such bad shape.
"You hurt?" Damian looked his father over before looking past him and out at the rest of the occupants of the cave.
"In better shape than you are. Now sleep, Damian."
"Robin?" Damian asked, his eyelids fluttering. Bruce must have clicked the button for more morphine.
No one answered him and he was pulled back into the peaceful oblivion of unconsciousness. Tim stopped pacing and turned to his father.
"We need to go find him!"
"No."
"Dad, he could be hurt or—"
Bruce cut off his son. "You could as well!"
Tim curled his hands into fists, struggling to release his frustrations without completely blowing his top. Jason piped up from his spot just in time to save him.
"It's part of the job."
"It's not your job. Not any longer." Bruce snapped, his voice echoing through the cave. "You said he'd meet us here. We'll wait for him."
"He was being chased by those guys!" Tim argued. "He's our brother! Why won't you let us go get him?"
Bruce stewed on the thought. Tim considered Dick his brother. It was probably true, at least now anyways. The boy had shown up nearly a year ago and wormed his way into everyone's hearts.
"Sir," Alfred offered, getting up approaching the two, "if I may?"
"Of course, Alfred." Bruce sighed, backing off and going back to Damian's side.
Martha traded places with him, going to sit and care for Jason, who whispered to her. Thomas rubbed at his temples. He couldn't exactly blame his son. Bruce was caught between a rock and a hard place. If he let Tim go find Dick, there was the possibility of another injured son needing to be carried home. However, by not looking for Dick, it was like leaving a lost sheep to be slaughtered by the wolves. Could he risk one son to save the life of a child who had saved his own?
"Young master Timothy, your father doesn't want to lose you." Alfred grabbed the fifteen year old's shoulders. "It's dangerous out there."
"I know, Alfred, that's why we need to go save Dick now! We're wasting our time by arguing here."
"Who was it who trained you?"
"It was Dick." Tim answered, annoyed, frustrated, and not quite getting what Alfred was trying to say.
"Who is it that you want to rescue?" Alfred offered a small comforting smile. "Young master Richard has shown enormous skill and we must have faith that he will come home safely. If anyone can get out of this, it's him."
"Tim, I'll go, okay?" Kon stood up. "I'm Superboy; it's going to take more than a few bad guys to bring me down."
"He's my brother, Kon." Tim suddenly pulled his cowl on. None of them had changed except for Damian, now clothed in hospital garb. "I'm going with you."
"I said no!"
"I don't care!" Tim hollered back. "I'm not letting him die because you're scared I'm going to get hurt."
With that final note, Tim rushed out of the cave, Kon stumbling to catch up to him. Bruce stared after him for a moment, trying to decide what to do.
Dick had never been so thankful the sun was down. He was exhausted; running from villains, insane villains, for just under two days without more than an hour break and no sleep was starting to really take its toll on him.
He was running out of places to hide. The second he tried to hide down in the sewers Killer Croc had nearly taken off his leg. He tried to get away from people and hide in the parks and forested areas toward the edge of Gotham, but Poison Ivy was always lurking, lying in wait to wrap a vine around his neck and squeeze what remaining breath he had left out of his body.
Penguin was on constant air watch. Helicopters patrolled the city, police or unmarked, and Robin knew from experience neither were safe. He couldn't hop rooftops or use his grappling hook. Two Face had guys everywhere making rounds in black vehicles. It didn't matter what type, if they were black they were on the hunt for him. Any streets were out of the question.
The Joker would pop out from any corner, any building, anywhere. Nowhere was safe from the most insane of the bunch. Robin was running out of options. He was tired, dehydrated, hungry, and his utility belt was almost bare.
Batman. He needed Batman.
Batman wasn't coming. He'd sent the message three days ago; he would have gotten a reply, a signal, anything if he was preparing to come get him. If he even got the message at all.
He hoped Damian was going to live. Guilt stabbed him over and over as he thought about what he'd done. From the beginning he was never supposed to have gotten involved. He'd given in to weakness and ruined Bruce's life all over again. If Damian died, Dick knew Bruce was going to hunt him down, too. Tim, Jason, and Babs might even join the manhunt.
"You killed someone tonight. You're just as bad as they are!"
No. Not this again. Dick struggled to swallow down the tears. What if he had killed Damian? Now he had two lives to make up for. Could he even do it? He'd tried, but in the end he'd just taken another life. He was better off dead.
Batman must be satisfied right now; Dick was being hunted down like Batman hunted them down. He deserved this, and it was only a matter of time before justice was dealt his way. He was never good enough.
He wasn't going to survive the night.
There was the laugh from behind him and Robin bolted, running down the street as fast as he could make his exhausted body move. Bullets hailed down from the helicopter patrolling this area. He whimpered as he pushed himself down behind an outdoor restaurant table, managing to wait until the helicopter ran out of bullet before darting once more.
Right as he ran by an intersection, abandoned by the terrified civilians who had just barely caught on to the fact that Gotham was more dangerous than they'd ever imagined at the moment, there was a burst of light and out of the corner of his eye, Dick could've sworn he saw the long pointed ears of Batman's suit.
He didn't have time to stop. His body was in flight mode and he kept up on his path, ducking around the corner before the light grew brighter and then vanished, leaving six figures in the middle of the intersection.
Batman took in the sight of his city. Gotham was a mess from where he'd been placed. Two of the nearby buildings were on fire, another wrecked and half knocked down. A helicopter hovered in the air above him, and a burst of light coupled with a few groans from behind him stole most of his attention away from the helicopter.
Five children were tangled up on the street. Slowly, each of them got up and brushed each other off. Batman glared at each and every one of them, lips curling into a snarl. They had no right to be here.
"What do you think you're doing?" Batman barked, causing M'gann to flinch and clutch at Connor's arm.
"Rescuing my best friend." Wally answered, looking around. The place was a mess, and he hoped Robin was still as safe as he said he was in the message he sent.
Batman bit back the angry roar he planned on dealing out to Kid Flash. There was nothing he could do now. He was stuck with these kids and he might as well put them to work. What a coincidence it was that he'd decided this now; the helicopter spat out bullets in chaotic lines and Batman dove out of the way, already planning a counter attack.
He never got the chance, however, because Red Arrow got to it first, firing off an arrow at the helicopter blades, freezing it. The helicopter gave no warning, just falling straight to the ground and crashing in an explosion. Wally immediately set to work trying to dig out any survivors while Kaldur put out the flames.
"This doesn't look safe." Connor stopped for a second and listened. He heard the sound of air being pushed out of the way and fast.
M'gann furrowed her brows, trying to figure out what had caught his attention. She realized just a second too late as two figures approached Young Justice. One was flying in a blue and red suit, holding onto the arms of another, who wore red and black. For a second M'gann's heart soared. Robin!
She was wrong. The first figure dropped the second once they reached a safe altitude and the Robin imposter landed a bit shaky on the ground. The other dropped down next to him, looking them over with wide eyes.
"Who are you?" Batman scrutinized them, wary of these two.
"You!" One of them pointed, pulling down the cowl and revealing a head of dark hair and a look of awe on his face. "You're Batman!"
"I'll ask once more, who are you?"
Silence reigned for a moment and Wally looked between the two of them, trying to figure out the seemingly internal conversation they were having.
"I'm Red Robin, this is Superboy."
Connor tensed, looking at his counterpart. Kon did the same, a small smile on his face. It was strange seeing a carbon copy of themselves, but their attention was refocused on Batman and Red Robin.
"You have to save my brother!" Red Robin blurted, chest heaving and fists clenched at his side. "Robin, I mean."
Batman narrowed his eyes. "Start talking."
JuJu, this is going to be a very long message to you, just thought I'd let you know. You asked how Robin and everyone could know about the dimensional travel stuff. Well, the Justice League has experience this kind of thing before.
As for Shirtless!Robin, my only recollection of the episode is it has something to do with Bane. Google it?
Now we get to the big stuff. What does the Reboot do the DC Universe? It's supposed to put everything back to the beginning. DC is "rebooting" their universe to fix some problems in the continuity. Apparently, (and I don't know all of the details) superheroes have only been around for about five years. There are going to be 52 comic titles starting at issue number 1, and everyone gets a costume change. As for how big of a costume change depends on the hero. For instance, Batman's suit change isn't that big of a deal because he changes designs on his suit relatively frequently, but Superman is losing his red undies.
As for how it affects the Batman Universe, well, Batman is going to still be Batman. There's one title where it's just Batman, another where Batman and Damian are a team instead of Dick and Damian. Uh, that might be a bit confusing for you if you don't know about Batman RIP and the Battle for the Cowl. There's another title where it's Dick as Batman, Dick back as Nightwing, and Jason has his own with Red Hood and the Outlaws featuring Starfire, Red Hood, and Red Arrow.
Unfortunately, DC isn't really "fixing" anything, but making things ten times more complicated. Damian shouldn't be in existence, Dick should be 8 again and Robin, but he's still like 20 and Nightwing. Barbara, who was shot and disabled now has use of her legs and is Batgirl again. All of the Robins are supposed to be "interns", and nothing makes sense anymore.
Good luck following all of this, because I'm pretty much just as confused as you are. We'll just have to see what DC brings us.
By the way, I want the blue back in Dick's Nightwing Costume and they'd better fix the no finger stripes soon. Red Robin's outfit is nice, and as always, Jason looks fabulous. What do you guys think about all of this? Enough rambling on this, I'm going to go write out that next chapter.