"JOKER HAS ESCAPED! Calling all units, the man known as the Joker has escaped from the Asylum. He was last seen on 45th Avenue! Three nurses killed and two officers, including Dectective Montoya!"
Instantly, Bruce wretched the car around and made a beeline for Arkham. We knew that we needed to find Joker but we also needed to check out the Asylum first.
Within three minutes, we had ran four stoplights and nearly killed an elderly woman walking across the street. Thankfully, no one died because of Batman's recklessness and we arrived at the front gate of the Asylum.
There was a huge police force at the Asylum. Not surprising considering the death of two officers. Normally, Batman would have opted to sneak up on Gordon, but tonight, he didn't waste that time. He walked right up to the Commissioner.
"What happened?"
Gordon sighed heavily before he responded. He already looked tired and the night was just beginning.
"We were moving all of the prisoners into the main building. It's the only one with the appropriate security measures and the building is big enough to house everyone. He was the last inmate in the lockdown wing that needed to be moved. They cuffed his arms and his legs but just as they got out of range of the camera and the armed guards, he turned and bit one of the guards that was escorting him."
"How bad was it?" I asked cautiously.
"He tore out the jugular. He bled to death." Gordon replied solemnly. "Then, he attacked the other two guards. One of them as a broken leg and the other has a knife in his side. For whatever reason, they had the keys to his cuffs. Once he found those, he took the gun off the guard he killed and made his way outside."
"The radio report said three nurses were killed." Batman observed.
"They were all in the lobby. They were the first people that he saw after escaping. He shot all three of them in the stomach and then again in both legs. Not enough to kill instantly, but enough so they slowly bled to death before we could save them."
"What about Montoya?" I replied. For some reason, I was talking a lot more than usual.
"He was standing outside waiting for Joker's transfer. When Joker came outside, Det. Montoya was facing the wrong direction. So Joker blew out his kneecap, probably taunted him for a few seconds, and then unloaded the rest of the clip into him. The lockdown guards carry Ruger AR15 Carbines."
"What does that mean?" I asked Batman.
"A 40 round clip. Assuming it hadn't been used, he used 9 on the nurses and then 1 on Montoya's knee."
"30 rounds?"
All Batman did was nod. I thought I was going to be sick.
"Then, he took Montoya's keys and stole his car. We were able to shut off the vehicle but he got away before we could apprehend him. We're really going to need your help. There's no way we can follow the leads in time to capture him before he can do something heinous." Gordon admitted.
"We'll find him."
Forty minutes later, Bruce and I were at the recently created Satellite Cave underneath Wayne Tower in downtown Gotham. From there, we were able to hack into the city's security camera system and figure out where the Joker had gone. As we watched the tape, the police car he was driving came to a sudden halt. Just when you thought he was going to be trapped in the vehicle, the driver's window exploded outward and he dove out the window, shotgun in hand. We spent the next twenty minutes tracking his movements in various places around the city. Finally, we found that he had taken refuge at an old warehouse for Axis Chemical.
Bruce pulled his cowl back over his face and as he adjusted it, he spoke.
"Initiate lock down sequence."
"What's that for?" I asked Bruce as I replaced my own mask.
"This place has some new security measures. We now have five minutes to get out before the system goes active and becomes very deadly."
"Awesome." I said, always loving when he upgraded the security. It always gave me a good excuse to try it out. However, if Bruce is using the word deadly, that usually meant for him. That meant that NO ONE was getting in.
Another twenty minutes later, we were at the warehouse, armed with Batarangs and my handy bo staff. We lined up on the building opposite the warehouse, ready to swing across at a moment's notice. In fact, we were nearly ready to go when a voice rang out from behind them.
"Look boys! It's the Bat and his Boy Wonder!"
Instantly, we both turned around to see Joker and a small army of henchmen. Apparently, Joker had been recruiting.
"Joker." Batman growled next to me.
"Ooooooo. You seem upset." Joker giggled. "Aren't you happy to see me?"
He instantly stepped forward and got right in Bruce's face. He instantly stepped out and grabbed Joker around the neck. In a flash, all of Joker's henchmen raised their weapons and aimed them at Batman.
"Put your guns down, you fools! You'll hit me!" Joker yelled at his lackeys. "Plus, I'm sure Bats will put me down."
"Why would I do that?"
"That little red dot on your boy's forehead."
Batman turned and looked at me and the look on his face told me everything. Somewhere in the distance, a sniper was focused in on me.
"Put me down, Batman. Or I'll tell my boy to pop on in your boy's noggin." Joker said menacingly.
"You wouldn't." Batman replied. I nearly laughed as he said it.
Joker did laugh. Hard.
"Do you know me, Bats? I would shoot your boy just for fun!" Joker growled. "Now let me go!"
Batman hesitated a little longer than Joker must have wanted him to. Suddenly, he pulled his sleeve up to his mouth and spoke.
"Drop him."
In a flash, I saw the red dot on my forehead drop to my stomach. Then, before I knew what was happening, I was down.
"Drop him."
To my horror, I saw that red dot move to Robin's stomach. The next second, a shot rang out and Robin fell off the side of the building. Forgetting about the Joker, I dropped him and dove after him. As I grabbed him, I grappled up to the closest building. From there, I was able to lower us to the ground and remotely call the Batmobile.
Once we were down, I assessed the damage. One shot from a .50 caliber sniper rifle to the midsection. Probably from a couple hundred yards away. Joker must have gotten Deadshot or someone as good. The last time I checked Floyd Lawton was in Blackgate, but I guess that it was possible that he had been released.
Going back to looking at the shot, I was thankful that the bullet had exited in the back. That meant no bullet to remove. Unfortunately, the explosive mark in the back meant that he had used a phosphorus round that had formerly been used by fighter planes. The bullet was incredibly rare. If Lawton didn't fire the shot, he certainly knew who did.
Phosphorus rounds used on people were rare but when it did happen, it meant a lot of scarring and pain. Robin was going to be out of commission for awhile.
Moments later, the Batmobile pulled into the alley I had hid us in. I quickly loaded Robin into the passenger seat and just as got in, Joker's men started on firing on the car. Lucky for the both of us, they didn't have weapons large enough to penetrate the armoring I had recently put on the 'Mobile. I reached forward and hit a button on the console, hailing Alfred at home.
"Sir?" Alfred's concerned voice rang out in the car.
"Dick's been hit." I said, utilizing my normal voice to try and calm myself down. While I was sure that Dick would survive, I was certainly worried about any potential spinal damage from where the bullet went through.
"What shall I do?" Alfred asked. His voice remained as elevated as before but it got no worse.
"Prep the medical bay in the Cave. Also, call Leslie. We may need her if it's bad enough."
Leslie Thompkins was one of the few people that both Batman and Bruce Wayne trusted. She had been there to help Alfred care for Bruce after his parents had been killed. If Bruce was honest with himself, he often thought of the pair of them as his surrogate parents, taking over for his own when they couldn't any longer. The only part that made his relationship with Leslie difficult was her incredibly strong pacifist attitude. The first time that Bruce had taken a bullet during his quest for justice, Alfred had called Leslie to help him. While she strongly detested the way that Bruce chose to fight violence, she supported Bruce and had shared his secret with no one.
Unfortunately, he wasn't hurt. He could deal with her when he was injured. But now that it was Dick, he knew there would be no stopping her.
"Are you sure that is wise, Master Wayne? She may forget that she is against violence if she finds out that she will be working on Master Grayson."
He knew that Alfred was right.
"Call her anyway, Alfred. She might be right."
"Yes, Master Wayne. She'll be here when you arrive."
Alfred was right in all regards. She was there when Bruce and Dick returned from the city. Unfortunately, he was also right about her mood. She was enraged.
"Well Bruce I hope you're happy! It serves you right when you get shot but that's not enough for you, is it? Now, you have to get one of the few people you do care about shot!"
Bruce removed his cowl before he spoke to her. He had considered talking to her as Batman, but knowing that she deserved better and that it would just serve to make her angrier, he had decided against it.
"Leslie, as I told you when you found out that Dick was going to become Robin, it was his decision. Do you ever think what someone with his ability could do if not properly observed?" I argued in return.
"You are Batman! That's what you do! You could have stopped him!" Leslie screamed at him.
"Maybe. But what happens when I get too old to stop him? What happens when he gets better than me? Who can stop him then?" I yelled back. "I'll admit that I was frightened to think of what someone so smart and so physically able could do when properly motivated? And what better motivation that the death of the parents, caused by a deranged clown? I did as much to protect the world as I did it to gain a partner!"
Finally, Leslie seemed to calm down. I'm sure that this wasn't the end of our arguments but for now, she seemed more concerned with Dick that with our fight.
"Where is he?"
"He's still in the car. Is the medical bay ready?"
Leslie nodded as she walked towards it. I quickly ran back to the car and pulled Dick out of the passenger seat. Walking as quickly as I could, I arrived at the medical bay and set Dick down on the operating table. Leslie immediately got to work. Her time as a forensic scientist before she became a surgeon made her the best person to both help Dick and identify the type of bullet and shot needed to fire it.
After she took the upper half of Dick's uniform off, she began working, examining the wound.
".50 caliber. Definitely fired from a high velocity rifle." Leslie spoke, mostly to herself. She continued to work on her own when she suddenly spoke up again. "This is interesting."
"What is?" I asked her as Alfred and I stepped closer.
"The wound is uneven. However, it's not like the shot was fired from an angle. You'd still get a completely symmetrical wound. It would just be rotated to match the angle of fire. But, if you look at this, you'll see that part of the wound isn't nearly as fleshed out as the rest of it is."
"What does that mean?" Alfred asked her.
"It means, my dear, that when the bullet entered Dick's torso, it wasn't a complete bullet. Which means that the person either miraculously bounced the bullet off a surface to hit Dick or that they purposely shaved off part of the bullet so that it would turn ever so slightly and make it nearly impossible to track."
"Sounds like Deadshot." Alfred said, repeating what I had earlier thought.
Instantly, I turned and began pacing.
"What is it, Master Bruce?" Alfred said, noticing the worry in my eyes when I matched his. "This is not your fault, Master Bruce. Dick knew the risks when he agreed to join you."
"Yes, but I should have made sure that he was older when I allowed him out there." I said, confirming to myself what I was about to do. I turned to the computer and spoke again.
"Computer, initiate Operation Bird-Down."
Suddenly, the uniform bay section devoted to Robin's closed up.
"What are you doing, Master Wayne?" Alfred asked with worry.
"At 11:30 PM, Robin was shot in the stomach and I was unable to get him back to the Cave in time. At 11:41 PM, Robin succumbed to his injuries." I spoke to the computer.
Instantly, Alfred ran over to me and grabbed me by the shoulders and shook me.
"What are you doing!"
"I'm undoing it! I can't take that he might not survive the next time this happens because it will happen again!" I replied back to Alfred, raising my voice.
Finally, I calmed myself down and spoke again.
"Robin is no more."
Unfortunately for me, Leslie had drugged Dick and with the lack of pain, he had managed to wake up.
"What!" he said as he still winced at the pain he was feeling.
I hadn't wanted to tell him this way but now that he had heard there was no other way.
"Dick, you're done. You need to get out of this. You have a life and you should be allowed to live it. Plus, I couldn't stand it if you got shot again and something worse happened."
Dick seemed to be taking it in stride. I slowly stood up and despite the hole in his stomach and back, he began to pace back and forth. Leslie stepped forward and tried to stop him but he waved her off. I stepped forward and was within arm's reach of him when I spoke again.
"This isn't your fight, Dick. I'm doing this to protect you."
That's when the most unexpected thing in the world happened: Dick turned sharply and pulled an uppercut directly under my chin. Despite his injury, he could still throw a punch. The power combined with its unexpected nature knocked me straight backwards onto the floor. Dick sat down on the edge of the operating table, obviously in pain.
"Not my fight, Bruce! Last time I checked Joker killed my parents, not yours! If this is anyone's fight, it is mine! Who do you think you are?"
Something inside my snapped as I stood back up.
"I'm in charge! That's who I am! From the beginning I've told you that this was my show. And sure, for awhile, you listened. But then, you decided that you knew better than I did! Who trained for seven years to become the best? I did! I am Batman and you were Robin!"
Then, just as suddenly as I had snapped, I returned to a normal state of thinking. One where I realized how horrible what I had said was.
"Dick, I'm...I'm so sorry."
Suddenly, Dick changed too. He shifted from his aggressive stance to a much more passive one. He tricked me into thinking that he was forgiving me.
"It's okay, Bruce. You're right. You don't need Robin. Freeze wouldn't have killed you if I hadn't been there. This is your show, afterall."
"Dick, really. I'm sorry."
Then, just as suddenly as he'd changed, he was back.
"I don't fucking care whether you're sorry or not! You think that you can do what you do without me! I thought that we were partners, Bruce. I thought that after five years, I had earned the right to fight beside you. Not because you let me but because you considered me an equal! But, here's the truth: you don't think anyone is your equal. And you know what? For now, you're probably right. But one day, someone will be better than you for one day and they will kill you. But do you know who could be better than both of us? NO ONE!"
"Dick, I thought we said that this was my operation to run." I replied calmly, trying to justify myself.
"Why, Bruce? What gives you the right? What did you ever have to fight for? You had a billion dollar trust fund that got you everywhere you wanted to go! Anytime you wanted to come home from your travels, you could have! You don't know what it's like to go without food because the promoter of your show takes the profit first and if the show doesn't make enough money, you don't get food! Everything you've done in your life, you've chosen to do! And you think you're better than me?"
"Dick..."
"That's it, Bruce. I'm done." Dick said as he turned to Leslie. "Wrap me up and take me to the clinic. You can do the surgery there."
Then, he turned to Alfred.
"I'll send you the information for where I'll be staying at." he said, giving Alfred a brief, painful hug.
"How will you survive?" I asked Dick.
"What you don't know is that my parents asked half of every paycheck they ever received from the circus to be put in a trust fund for me. When I turned 18 last year, the specifics were send to me. At one of your parties, I asked Lucius Fox to do some simple investing. He turned it into three million dollars. So, even though I started school late because of my life in the circus, I can legally move out of here and on my own. I'll finish high school early at the end of this year and then enroll at GSU like I was planning on it."
I was dumbfounded that I didn't know any of this. Lucius had kept it from me. Alfred had probably kept this from me. Dick was serious. He was leaving.
"Dick, I'm...I don't know what to say."
Dick looked at me one more time.
"If you come to where I live, I'll beat you within an inch of your life. If I want to see you ever again, I'll come to you."
He turned and grabbed the top half of his suit. I watched as he and Leslie got in her car and exited using the service entrance. I couldn't imagine what had just happened. Dick was really gone. In a flash, I had gone from watching the boy I had considered a son eating dinner with his best friend to watching him leaving the Cave.
"Please, come..." I started to talk as tears ran down my face. "Please, Dick, I'll...i...I'll do anything...Please come...back."
I sat there on the floor, tears flowing. My son was gone.