Chpt. XXII: Enrollment

Dick drove his motorcycle into a parking spot on the edge of the curb. He switched off the ignition & swung his leg off of the bike. He looked up at what could potentially become Dick's future.

Dick began to walk down the street towards the front courtyard of Gotham Academy. He had gone over the idea of enrolling into the private academy with Bruce & Barbara for a few days, & he finally had the chance to test & see if he placed in the ranks of high society students. It was getting close to Thanksgiving break, so he wouldn't find out whether he got in for a while.

Dick stopped in the middle of the courtyard a few yards away from the front doors & sighed, staring up at the campus. It was a genuinely amazing sight in an artistic way. The building was styled like a Victorian castle, but yet, it had a few modern aspects to its architecture. The fact that there was multiple buildings on campus only highlighted the vast enormity of the first class education system, just as vast as the campus itself. The buildings were separated into classes for the arts, sciences, literary arts, & classes for younger kids. It sort of bothered Dick that the campus also had kids in elementary school. But other than that, Dick was actually excited about the prospect of enrolling in the fine school.

Just at that moment, a young girl no older than 10 years old ran passed Dick in her uniform. Dick glanced over his shoulder as she ran to the curb. Dick's eyes widened in alert when the girl almost ran across the street as cars sped on by in the school zone.

Beside the young girl was a black car. It was very sleek & stylish. The foreign brand on the car had caught Dick's attention. This car emphasized the type of people that attended this academy. Dick had doubts that he would fit in. He wasn't raised as a wealthy boy. In fact, he spent a good portion of his life fending for himself. Dick wasn't sure if he would manage to sit still in a desk surrounded by other kids for seven hours a day for five days a week for the next 32 weeks. He was raised to leap & fly, not to sit & obey.

Suddenly, a large suited man stepped out of the driver's seat of the black car. He walked around towards the backseat door and opened it. A young man stepped out of the backseat & began to walk around the car. He was dressed in jeans & combat boots. He wore a black leather jacket over a black t-shirt. He began walking towards the school with the suited man standing beside the car. It took Dick a few moments to realize who it was he was staring at.

"Shit," Dick hissed under his breath & turned back to the front. It was Nolan Drake, in broad daylight. But what the hell was he doing at Gotham Academy?

Dick felt someone step close to his side. Dick slightly turned to see Nolan stand right next to him, staring straight ahead. Nolan had a slight grin on his lips. He turned to look down at Dick. "Hey, Grayson."

Dick felt his blood run cold. His hands clenched to fists & his breathing became heavy. Dick's first instinct was to attack him. Dick wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to finally rid Gotham City of the disease that is Nolan Drake. But it wouldn't be wise to do it with Drake's personal detail waiting not too far behind, & especially not on the campus of one of the most prestigious schools on the East coast.

"Drake," Dick managed to growl in a mumbled voice.

Nolan cleared his throat. "It's been a while. How are you?"

Dick scoffed & turned to Nolan. "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"Hey, there are kids around," Nolan said with a grin.

"You blew up an entire city block."

Nolan shrugged. "Come on, it's not like the Mayor doesn't have money saved somewhere in his deep corrupted pockets."

Dick took this statement into consideration. Nolan Drake seemed to have a good idea of what kind of man the Mayor was. Of course, Drake could easily just be speaking out of arrogance, but what if he DID know the Mayor? He knew the Mayor's deep, dark secrets, which would just blow right back up into his face. Nolan Drake had resources, connections. Weapon dealers, the Mayor, Cadmus.

Cadmus. Dick needed to find Cadmus.

"Nolan, the police have done investigation on the city block bombing," Dick said.

Nolan turned to Dick slowly. "Really? Did they, now?"

Dick nodded. "They said that the attack was a chemical weapon based attack. GCPD is investigating into where the weapon came from."

Nolan's stern face grew into another devilish grin. "No, they're not."

Dick raised an eyebrow. "What?"

Nolan scoffed. "The GCPD isn't looking into this at all, or at least not thoroughly, and if they were, you sure as hell wouldn't be telling me everything they know. No, YOU'RE looking into this attack, Grayson, and you're trying to find out where I got the bomb."

Dick took a moment to take this all in. Drake was good. But Dick could play it another route. "You're right," Dick started. "The GCPD isn't doing jack shit. But I'm not the one looking into this."

"Oh, then who is?" Drake asked, stepping closer to Dick.

Dick raised his lips to form his own sly grin. "I think you know who."

Nolan stared into Dick's eyes with a raised eyebrow. When realization wash over his face, Dick could see it. The opening of Nolan Drake's eyes, the tightening of his jaw. It was sudden shock, and possibly fear. Hopefully fear. "The Batman," Nolan Drake whispered. "You DO know him."

Dick shook his head. "No, I don't. And you knew that, too. Cobblepot would've told you."

Nolan shook his head. "I didn't believe Oswald, & I don't believe you. I think you know exactly who the man underneath the mask is."

Dick shook his head. "It doesn't matter whether I know the Batman. All that does is that I'm going to stop you, Drake. I'm going to put you down before you hurt any more innocent people."

Nolan scoffed. "Innocent?" Nolan threw his hands outward. "Tell me, Grayson, who here in this city is innocent? Gotham is rotting, Dick. Rotting to shit. Rapists and robbers, thieves and thugs, crime lords and corrupt congressmen, they ALL run the city, and they're already killing those who claim to be innocent. But really, no one is. We all have secrets, we all sin. We are all born from the dirt that this city is fed. I'm changing that, Grayson. I'm taking over, and I'm tearing down the system to bring it back up the way Gotham is meant to be."

Dick felt his fists clench once more, ready to throw a punch, but just as Dick's bicep twitched to attack, a young boy ran passed him. "Nolan!" the kid called.

Dick looked down at the child, who rushed right through Dick to reach Nolan. The boy wrapped his arms around Nolan's hips and buried his head tight into Nolan's stomach. "Hey, slugger," Nolan responded sweetly.

Dick felt chills down his spine at what he was witnessing. The child had dark black hair & wore the school uniform a little loosely. It didn't seem to fit the small frail child. He wore glasses too big for his face, & had a red and yellow backpack strapped tight to his back. When the boy stepped back, Dick got a good glimpse of the boy's face. He was pale with eyes as blue as the ocean after dark, contrasting with his skin. His eyes were bright as they stared up at Nolan Drake.

Nolan bent down on one knee & removed the kid's backpack. "Did you have a good day today?" he asked in a soft voice.

The kid nodded. "Yeah, today we got to play with the baby chicks!"

"Baby chicks?" Nolan asked. "That's awesome, dude."

"Yeah, we got the eggs a long time ago, & we left them under a light, & we had to observe the eggs, & then they hatched."

"Oh, man, that's awesome!" Drake responded with an over-the-top enthusiasm. "I wish I got to raise baby chicks when I was YOUR age."

"Maybe we can buy our own eggs at the store, & then we can hatch them together!"

Nolan chuckled. "Oh, dude, those eggs at the store aren't the ones with chicks in them."

The kid's bright & excited face suddenly deflated. "Oh," he simply said. He turned to look at Dick. "Hi."

Dick was so shocked by the discussion the two had just shared that he was startled when the boy finally acknowledged Dick. "Oh, um, hi."

Nolan stood up & slung the kid's backpack over his shoulder. "Hey, want a little bit of ice cream before I take you home?"

The kid turned back to Nolan. "Yeah!"

Nolan smiled. "Alright, little dude, hop in that car where Quintin is," he said, nodding to the black car.

The little boy scurried off as fast as he had appeared. Nolan stared back & watched as the boy greeted Quintin the bodyguard, & stumbled to step into the car.

Nolan turned back to Dick, who wore a look of confusion the entire time. Nolan smiled. "He's a good kid."

Dick attempted to speak, but could barely form his words. "Is he…?"

Nolan stared at Dick, waiting for Dick to finish his statement. When Dick was at a loss for words, Nolan rolled his eyes. "I'm going to save this city, Grayson. For him. Nothing will stand in my way. Not the GCPD, not the Batman, & especially not you." Nolan turned and began walking back to the car. "See you around, Grayson!" he called as he stepped to the passenger seat of the car.

Dick watched as the car slowly began to pull out of the curb of the school and began driving away. He tried to recap what had occurred in the last few minutes.

The notorious Nolan Drake appeared at a school campus, which Dick found suspicious enough. Dick mentally kicked himself for not thinking to ask what the guy was doing at Gotham Academy. On top of that, Dick got nothing out of Drake about Cadmus. Instead, Dick was just reminded about Nolan's troubled mindset & his heinous operation to take over the city. Along with that, Dick discovered that Nolan Drake had...a soft spot? Was that child Drake's son? Dick thought back to how the child looked like, & he did look a little bit like Nolan, except for the eyes. But Nolan wasn't old enough to have a son...was he? Dick honestly couldn't tell. Nolan Drake had a sort of ageless face. Dick tried to recall whether he heard any stories in the Underground about Nolan having a child, or even a girlfriend for that matter. Was he keeping the boy a secret? Maybe the boy was Nolan's weakness. Could he use the boy as leverage?

No, of course not. That would be low; lower than even Drake's standards with kids, as Dick just witnessed.

Dick shivered. The very thought of Nolan Drake, the most sinister man he knew, speaking in that tone just chilled Dick, down to his very bone. It was like Lucifer himself had a demon spawn of his own. The Anti-Christ. "The rapture is upon us," Dick thought to himself.

It took Dick a moment to remember that he was at Gotham Academy for a reason. As Dick turned back towards the campus, a loud boom & a hot force pushed him back several feet. He slid across the grass, hitting his head against a nearby car on the curb. The car alarm bean to blar, along with every other car on the block. Dick stumbled back up onto his feet & witnessed as Gotham Academy had been blown up into flames.