Hey, all my viewers! Until I get at least five good reviews, the next chapter will not be posted. Also, check out my other story if you like either Percy Jackson or Katniss Everdeen. Jacki has spoken. You may read.
After school the next afternoon, Dick Grayson was in no hurry to get home. There was no question that he'd be required to come down to the Batcave and help Batman search for Dr. Song.
For two and half days now, Batman had been trying to find anything that might help them find the Song's father. Dick could still remember Valarie's scent as she had pressed him against the ground.
Of course he wasn't falling in love with her! Batman always said that you couldn't protect a city efficiently when always trying to protect your love interest. Take Superman, for example. He always had to save Lois Lane.
What was going to happen if he had to choose between saving a city and saving Lois Lane? There was no doubt he'd choose Lois.
The kids that went to Gotham City Academy were a bit dull, but Dick doubted that many of them had a secret identity. He had a few friends, but he was always disappearing for training or for a mission. No one could depend on him. It was hard, but Dick enjoyed being Robin so much, that it didn't bother him.
Just then, the limousine pulled up. Alfred was in the driver's seat. Dick turned away, pretending that he hadn't seen Alfred. But he couldn't pretend when he felt a tap on his shoulder and a formal voice saying, "Pardon me, Master Dick. But Master Bruce has requested your presence immediately."
Sighing, Dick followed Alfred to the car. "It would be a little less conspicuous if you just used, I don't know, a sedan or sports car?"
"I'm sorry if I caused you any inconvenience, Master Dick, but can you honestly say that I would 'fit in' as you say, if I drove the Batmobile?"
"No." Dick sighed and slumped against the window. It was going to be a long drive.
By the time Robin reached the Batcave, Batman was on the phone, talking to somebody. Most likely Commissioner Gordon, whom they got most of their missions from. "Yes, Ms. Song."
Oh. "I assure you, we will keep you posted on every development."
Robin sat down, tracing lines in the stainless steel table. The cold froze his fingers, but it felt good. "Hold on one second, Ms. Song." Batman put a hand over the receiver and glared at Robin. "Somebody could trace your fingerprints. Put your gloves on."
Batman could be pretty paranoid at times, but Robin complied, pulling on the green gloves.
There were sometimes when Batman's instructions made perfect sense, but other times when Robin just wanted to be able to go his own way. "Yes, of course. Here he is."
Robin looked at the nudge from Batman. He was holding out the phone, his expression impossible to read.
Robin took the bright red phone and held it to his ear. "Hello?"
A calm voice, but one he didn't recognize exactly, spoke softly. "Robin. Can we talk somewhere alone?"
Robin sat forward. "Who is this?" He demanded. The voice on the other end said something indistinguishable, then two laughs flowed out of the earpiece. The voice came back on, composed once more. "My name is Caesar, and I would like to talk with you privately. Can we meet tonight, where you and Batman had a little run-in with Valarie Song?"
"How do you know that?" Robin demanded.
"That's for me to know and you to find out. Now, you might want to hurry, as this might be the last time you ever hear from Ms. Song." The voice said her name in a very formal way, almost like Alfred.
The line went dead. Robin looked at the phone, then set it on the stand again. "Batman, we have a problem."
At midnight, Robin peeked out from behind a trash bin in the alley where he and Valarie had hid from her senseless older brother. The time was right, but Caesar hadn't shown up yet.
He checked the time again. Yup, it was 12 o'clock, midnight. Where was the jerk? Valarie had saved his life once, now it was only right that he return the favor.
Suddenly, a small object rolled into the alleyway, stopping at Robin's feet. He leaned down to look at it, then became aware of a ticking sound, getting quicker with each passing moment.
Robin, realizing it was a bomb, jumped as far back into the alleyway as was possible. The bomb went off, but instead of exploding, sparks and smokes came pouring into the night air. Coughing and choking, Robin hid his nose and mouth inside his cape, eyes watering.
When he'd recovered, he looked back out. Standing where the smoke bomb had gone off were two figures. One was tall and muscular. The other, standing slightly behind the first figure, was small, lean, and also rather toned.
The smoke cleared even more, revealing the first figure to be a man, the second to be a woman, or maybe a girl.
The man was wearing a Roman-styled death mask, with leather jacket, boots, and dark jeans. He was wearing a top hat that had a ring of gold branches around it, almost like the brim. It might have not looked good on other people, but he managed to pull it off.
The girl had cherry-pink tresses, curled into tight ringlets and pulled into high ponytails. Her dress was pink, frilly, and had hearts all over it. She was wearing white tights that disappeared into pink, heart and diamond encrusted platform boots. The outfit wasn't helping Robin out in finding out anything about Valarie's abductors. There was a quiver full of hot pink arrows slung over her shoulder, and she was holding a bow of matching hues.
Her face wasn't recognizable, either. White face paint cover over most of her face, and the area around her eyes was covered with a stylized sparkly pink mask. It looked like something you would wear during Mardi Gras.
Robin, after taking all this in by the end of a millisecond, got into a fighting pose.
"Oh, please, Robin. We're not here to fight you." The man said. He had a thick English accent, rivaling even Alfred's.
"Yeah, we just wanna talk." The girl standing behind him giggled. Her voice sounded remarkably like Harley Quinn's, though she was way too young to be Harley. Maybe they came from the same region?
"I thought you said to come alone." Robin said, keeping one eye on Mardi Gras girl.
"Ah, yes. Please excuse Eros. She absolutely refused to be left behind. By the way, have you two met? Robin, meet my protégé, Eros. Eros, meet Robin, Boy Wonder. You two have a lot in common, you know. You're both protégés, and you both are considered rather stupid by a lot of your enemies; no offense intended."
"Hey, Robin." Eros cocked her head to one side, her curls bouncing. "I must admit, you're not exactly what I expected." She blew a bright pink bubble of gum, popping it loudly.
"Enough of the talk. Tell me where she is!" Robin demanded.
"Ah! I always like a fellow who gets right to the point!" Caesar exclaimed. "Eros, please go and fetch Ms. Song."
"Sure thing, Mistah C." Robin swore that if it wasn't so obvious Eros was his age, he might have thought that Harley had abandoned the Joker and teamed up with this psycho.
Eros ran around the side of the building, right back onto the street. The action made Robin suspicious. Who puts a hostage right were everyone can see them?
Apparently, these goofballs still had an awful lot to learn. Eros came back around the side of the building, carrying the unconscious girl. Robin had to admit, that girl was strong. Eros dumped Valarie against the dumpster and came back over to stand by Caesar.
"Ms. Song! Are you alright?" Robin asked lowly. Unfortunately, Caesar heard him.
"She, unfortunately, will not be fine. You see, she knows too much. It's a liability, you understand. I am terribly sorry about this."
Caesar raised his gun and shot, before Robin could do anything. "No!" He cried, leaping forward. But he was too late. The bullet pierced Valarie's temple, and even being unconscious, she seemed to crumple into herself.
Robin was horrorstruck. Valarie…was gone. Just like that. Even in the short time that he'd known her, she'd seemed to get him, understanding. Even now, he couldn't have said he loved her, but she had become a very dear friend.
He whirled to glare at Caesar and Eros. "How could you do that?" He demanded. "She didn't do anything wrong."
"Well, I'm sorry you're so upset, Robin, because, well…"
"This is a prank!" Eros pulled off her mask, revealing the laughing face of Valarie underneath it. "You should have seen your face!" She chortled. "Classic!"
Caesar had pulled off his mask; revealing Julius Song, laughing so hard tears were sliding down his face.
"Dude, that was hilarious! I can't believe you fell for that!" Julius was leaning against the wall for support, banging his fist into it hard enough to crack sections of the stone.
Robin, watching them, was at first relieved, then angry, then curious. "I have to ask: how was Valarie standing next to you, Caesar, and over there?" He pointed to the dumpster, where Valarie's dead body had been.
"Dude, do you ever get out?" Julius asked. "My mom made us some projectors that have 3-D images on them. We filmed Valarie in all the different positions that we needed to pull this off, then 'Caesar and Eros' took care of the rest."
"Here, I'll show you." Valarie slipped off on off the fingerless gloves she had been wearing. Around the wrist was a cluster of fake gems. Valarie hit the heart-shaped one in the middle, and over by the dumpster, a duplicate of her being carried on a shoulder lit up. Valarie hit a white fake diamond in the ring around the big gem. Up flashed a still image of her leaning up against the dumpster.
"Okay, that makes sense. But how did you make her die?" Robin asked.
"They used special effects." A deep voice answered. Batman walked into the small cove, almost disappearing as he moved out of the glare of the streetlamps. "The technology they used came from a film company."
"That's right." Julius nodded. "Our uncle and his girlfriend were in the area and managed to get us some." Julius suddenly rubbed the back of his head, looking embarrassed. "Uh, by the way, Robin. I'm sorry that I shot at you. I wasn't really in full control of my actions. I'm deeply regretful of everything that happened while I was in that state."
Valarie nodded, swinging her arm and wincing, clutching near her shoulder blade. Robin noticed, sliding around Batman and Julius to get close to her and see.
The bloody bandage was all he needed. "You shot your own sister?" Robin's disbelief was evident through his voice.
Julius looked heartbroken. "I really didn't mean to do it. It just sort of, I don't know, happened."
"Besides." Valarie broke in. "I've forgiven Julius already. You should too." She glared at Robin so fiercely that Robin nodded as quickly as he could.
"Yeah. He's forgiven."
Valarie relaxed. "Good."
"One more question." The brother and sister turned to stare at the Boy Wonder. "Were in the world did you come up with those names?"
Batman answered. "Julius Caesar was am ancient Roman emperor, while the name Cupid, as you know is Ms. Song's nick name, is the Roman version of the god Eros."
Both the Song kids looked stunned. Julius shook it off first. "Alright, that's great and all, but Val and I have something to tell you. Is there somewhere private we could go?"
Batman and Robin looked at one another.
In five minutes, they were all in the Batmobile. "I'm going to have to knock you out." Robin apologized.
"We understand. Maintaining cover and all." Valarie acknowledged. Julius nodded.
Robin pulled out a piece of cloth kept for just such occasions. He held it against each of the Song children's face for a couple seconds. The effect was immediate. Both of the kids slumped as if hit with Harley Quinn's hammer.
Robin got into the front seat and Batman floored the pedal. They were about to take the two siblings somewhere no other person had ever seen: the Batcave.