Sorry this took so long. I had several... obstacles. Most school-related. Anyways, Chapter 2.
Disclaimer: If I put this into a comic once I finished this, then the people in charge of DC comics will have a reason to yell at me.
The bats screeched as light hit their leathery, furry bodies, and took off right across the windshield of a certain black vehicle.
"That was asterous." The Dark Knight's lips twitched.
"The Joker or the bats?" He turned the key and the motor died.
"Both." His protégé unbuckled and stretched. It had been a long night and he was tired. "Why doesn't Arkham keep that clown under heavy lockdown 24/7?"
"Perhaps that it would make too much sense, sir?" Alfred was at his side, holding a covered tray. "I took the liberty of making a midnight snack for both of you. However, since it is currently after 4, I do believe it is your early morning snack." Robin leaped out of the car, performing an aerial somersault before landing in front of the butler.
"Thanks, Alf." He took the lid off the tray, revealing two plates of cookies and two glasses of milk. "What would we do without you?"
"I am sure I exist if only to keep you both from starving or at least food poisoning. Neither of you are able to properly feed yourselves."
"Just because I accidentally blew up the microwave once doesn't mean I can't feed myself."
"Correction, Master Dick, you blew up the microwave four times."
"Okay, so I lost track." The boy smirked. "At least I haven't blown up the kitchen."
"Yet," the butler added. "Though if I do say so, young sir, you mess with my kitchen any longer you'll break even Master Bruce's record."
"Thank you, Alfred." Batman's voice dripped with sarcasm as he turned to glare at his butler. "Keep mentioning that. Then it won't surprise you when he does break my record."
"With all due respect, sir, you seem to expect it to happen as well."
"Can't stop it now, Alfred." The boy's grin was nearing Cheshire-like proportions. "I've got Bruce's record to beat!"
"Which is going to have to wait until tomorrow." The beginnings of a snicker sounded in his throat until he met his mentor's gaze.
"I can't skip school?"
"You can't skip school."
"Not even for this?"
"Especially not for this."
"Darn." Robin peeled off his mask, becoming Richard Grayson, resident rich kid. A sheepish grin covered his face. "Shouldn't have checked." Batman took off his cowl, becoming billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne.
"No, you shouldn't have. Now, go to –"
" – bed." Dick finished, sighing. "Right. 'Night Bruce. 'Night Alfred."
"Goodnight, Dick."
"Goodnight, Master Dick." Once the boy had gone upstairs, Alfred turned to his employer.
"I trust that you will be heading off to bed soon as well, sir?" Bruce turned towards the illuminated screen.
"Perhaps. Once I've finished a sweep of Gotham." Alfred sighed.
"Master Bruce, you have a meeting at 8:00 later today. You desperately need to get some rest." Bruce turned his chair to glare at him.
"I need to run a scan on Arkham's latest security, to know whether or not WayneTech should offer to upgrade so that maniac won't escape. Again."
"Of course. And while the computer's doing that it gives you, sir, some time to catch up on sleep." Alfred returned the glare. After a few minutes rolled by, Bruce turned back to the screens.
"Wake me if there's any change." He pressed the button and started up the stairs.
"Sir?" Turning around, the vigilante caught his loyal friend's raised eyebrow. "Your uniform?" His lips twitched.
"In this case, the exception that I allowed Dick will apply to me as well." The Dark Knight reached the elevator and pressed the button. He stepped inside the small area. "Goodnight, Alfred." The doors closed. Alfred smiled with relief.
"Goodnight, sir." He walked to the computer and stared at the screen. It was 04h30, and the scan was nowhere near done. Sighing, he sat in the chair and leaned back. It was going to be a long finish to an already long night.
Shadows filed into the room, feeling their way inside. The light in the room wasn't great, but it was enough where they could see the time. 04h30. Ten pairs of eyes gleamed in the darkness, revealing nothing in their shining depths. The one who gathered them nodded to his master as he stepped aside to let him enter. Ra's al Ghul walked into the room and nodded in satisfaction. Ubu had picked his men well.
"I thank each of you for being here," he began, pulling a chip out of his pocket and inserting it into the computer. "I am sorry for having Ubu wake you this early in the morning; however I have a mission for which I needed the best of the best, my core of elites." The light from the computer brightened and extended to form a hologram of the Earth in the middle of the room, revealing dark-clothed men with every patch of skin concealed with the exception of around their eyes. They carried no arms at their sides, none that were noticeable at least. Ra's looked around to certify that they were all looking at him, cleared his throat, and continued.
"I want you to kidnap Robin." Confusion flickered in the eyes of the ten and on the face of his servant. Ra's kept going. "Suffice it to say, I want to use the boy for a special purpose. The details do not matter." He used his hand to tug at the hologram, changing it from a globe to a map of the United States to a view of the northeastern states. He zoomed in to focus on a patch of cities. The closest to him was Gotham. "This afternoon you will be practicing road work. These two roads, here and here," he pointed at the outside ones, "must be demolished by the time Batman's protégé arrives. Leave the middle one open. There is sufficient cover for all of you. When the boy passes through, make sure he never gets out." One of the ten cleared his throat and stepped forward. Ra's beckoned to him.
"How will we even be sure that Robin will take this road?"
"A… friend of mine will create a distraction that will force the child to take that road. After all, it is the shortest and quickest road to here." He pointed to the town at the end. "Make sure he never reaches his destination." He saw the same man step forward. "Yes?"
"How do we know that Robin won't be taken there by one of the League or even Batman himself?"
"Leave that to me." Ra's commanded. "Go take the boy and bring him to me. You have until midnight." With that, the men bowed their heads briefly and padded out. Once they were gone, he turned to his servant.
"Has our fellow intellect responded?" Ubu nodded and inclined his head in deference.
"He has, and wants you to know that he was only able to break out the smallest ones. He also said that their abilities, both mental and physical, have been improved."
"Excellent." A smile carved its way onto Ra's face. "Once our friend gets them to Happy Harbor, their enhanced abilities will create enough trouble to keep the League and their children busy." He started towards the door. "Prepare the rooms. I must check on my daughter's progress."
A fancy black car made a sharp turn as it pulled into the driveway of one Wayne Manor. Dick's ears winced at the screeching of the tires. Normally he'd crack a joke to Alfred that his driving was getting sloppy, but now was not the time. Right when Alfred had picked him up, his pager went off, the figure of the Bat blinking and beeping. Something serious must have happened.
Richard jumped out of the limousine as soon as the butler opened the door and sprinted towards the Manor. He barely acknowledged Alfred's call of, "Watch where you're going, Master Dick," as he neared the front door. His eyes narrowed. If the Joker escaped again, I'll be the one to put him in a body cast.
The front door burst open. The acrobat performed an aerial somersault, bouncing off the floor to the bannister, to the wall to land at the top of the stairs. As soon as his feet touched the floor, he ran. He made it to the grandfather clock, moved the minute and hour hands to their correct positions, and moved into the elevator.
As soon as the doors opened, Dick was out of there. The stairs went by with a blur as he made it over to his mentor's side.
"What's the problem?" Bruce pulled up footage of his team fighting at least seven monkey-sized creatures.
"Happy Harbor is being attacked by a group of genomorphs, similar to the ones you saw from Cadmus." Robin groaned.
"Not again. Zeta-tube?"
"No, the mountain is completely locked down. I'm finding out why. Use your cycle."
"Got it." The Boy Wonder ran to the edge of the platform and took off, performing a triple somersault. He landed on the balls of his feet, straightened, and glided over to his R-cycle. He looked back up at his mentor and grinned.
"See you there!" Helmet on, the lad revved up the engine. Throwing a final smirk up at his mentor, he zoomed out of the cave.
Everything was silent.
"Kid Flash, behind you!" Two jets of water streamed back the ginger's back to collide with two G-Gnomes that had just appeared. He zoomed over to his savior and rubbed the back of his neck.
"Thanks, Aqualad."
"You are welcome."
/Aqualad, Kid Flash. I need your help/ M'gann's voice wavered. Both guys sensed the distress in their friend's voice, not to mention something pounding against their mental link. /The lead G-Gnome* needs to be taken down, otherwise I won't be able to keep this up/
/Anything for you, babe/
/Wally, is it possible for you to focus on something serious for once, such as the fight?/ Artemis snorted. /If not, then do us all a favor and let yourself get killed/
/Artemis…/ Kaldur tried.
/What's wrong, Replacement? Jealous that you don't look as good as Beautiful here?/
/Wally…/ Kaldur tried again.
/At least I don't get distracted, Baywatch/
/Would you stop calling me that/
/STOP FLIRTING WITH M'GANN/
/Shut up/ Connor finally joined the conversation. /Sheesh, Robin is right: you two do need a room/ Both directed angry glares at him.
/Besides, M'gann needs our help – NOW/ Aqualad took back the conversation with ease. /Separate. I have an idea/
/It better be a good one/ Kid Flash glanced nervously at the G-Gnomes. /Good thing Bats got our message. Just hope Robin got it too. We need some serious ninja stealth here/
Robin pushed his motorcycle to the fastest speed possible. The last time his team had fought the G-Gnomes, they had barely made it out in one piece. From what it sounded like, the playing field was a little more even this time. Blockbuster, Guardian, Dubbilex, and the larger genomorphs weren't present, and M'gann was gaining more control over her telepathic skills. Plus, they had gotten two new team members since that time. He activated his GPS button and touched the center of the viewscreen mounted on his bike.
"At the very least, I should get there in the next fifteen minutes. As for routes – holy CRAP! Woah!" Robin swerved his cycle to the center lane, just barely escaping the gaping hole in the middle of the road he had been on. Glancing at the other road on his left, Robin saw that it was torn up too. He sighed as he slowed down to view the extent of the damage. The center lane was the only one unscathed. His eyes narrowed to slits behind his mask. First the genomorphs and now this.
"That works. I was planning on taking the shortcut anyway." He revved up his engine and shot down the road, leaving behind two torn down roads and one set of unnoticed, unblinking eyes.
When Batman drove up, everything was clear. The G-Gnomes had been knocked out thanks to the timely arrivals of Martian Manhunter and Black Canary. None of the larger ones had been present, which he found to be odd.
"Batman!" He turned to see Canary waving him over. He swung over the side of the Batmobile to walk towards her. Once he got close enough, he looked at her.
"What's your recommendation for our little friends here, if only so Supe – Conner," she glanced worriedly over at the clone, "won't rip them to pieces?"
"I called Green Lantern. He and Martian Manhunter will secure them in the Watchtower for future analysis," he responded gruffly.
"Alright." She sent Connor to help the others. Once she was sure he was far enough away, she turned back to Batman. "Thanks again for helping me get out of the Mountain. Any idea who caused the lockdown?"
"None. Whoever it was had advanced equipment but moderate skills. It didn't take long."
"Blue Beetle is helping Red Tornado with getting the Zeta-tubes back online. Not sure how he knew, but I got a feeling you were behind it." He nodded.
"Hey." Both turned to see the team standing there with Wally at the front. "Rob isn't doing Gotham solo again, is he?"
"What do you mean?" Canary asked.
"Well he hasn't shown up, so I figured that Bats was probably going through another overprotective streak and kept him home."
"He hasn't shown up?" Batman asked. The team shook their heads. Without another word, Batman turned.
"Where are you going?" M'gann asked as they watched him walk back to his vehicle.
"I'm going to get Robin," Batman responded flatly. Without another word, he jumped into the driver's seat and closed the roof. The Batmobile sped off.
"Damn," Artemis said. "Sure hope Rob's not in trouble again."
"He's been doing this since he was a kid." Wally assured her. "He's probably just waiting for Batman to get there so he can tease him about his overprotective parent mode."
Black-gloved fingers tapped the keys, bringing up the radar. He scanned for the tracker he planted on Robin's R-cycle. Huh. For some reason, he couldn't get the signal. Fear grabbed at him, threatening to drown him, but he shook it off. No reason to get paranoid so quickly.
The Batmobile screeched to a stop and Batman leaped out. Noticing some irregularities in the road ahead, he started walking. Once he got closer, he frowned. The road he was on was all right, but the other two were demolished. Someone wanted Robin to take this road, but why?
As he walked back, he found his answer. Trees shrouded the road on either side. Wouldn't be difficult to reach down, grab the boy, and make a run for it. Or to drop something, causing an accident. There was only one way to find out. Batman clenched his teeth. Where was that bike? Suddenly something blue and red whooshed by and hovered in front of him.
"Superman," Batman growled. Before he could say anything else, Superman held up a hand.
"I found the bike," was all he got out before the vigilante shoved him aside and strode past into the trees. Clark followed, giving directions when needed.
When Batman reached the clearing, he stopped cold, causing Clark to zoom back before he accidentally hit him. The cycle lay on its side in the clearing, the GPS and viewscreen slashed to bits. No wonder he couldn't track it.
He bent down and studied the ground. Barely visible footprints, about eight to ten pairs of them, marked the ground. A sliver of yellow and black waved at him. He focused in on that. It was a piece of cloth. He came to pick it up with tweezers, and froze just as he was about to store it away.
It was a piece of Robin's cape.
"Bruce," Superman said softly, but the Dark Knight ignored the Boyscout. His shoulders slumped in inches. Dick hadn't made it past this point, which explained why no one had seen him.
Robin had been kidnapped.
*Note: G-Gnomes are what the small, monkey-sized creatures from Young Justice Episode 1: "Fireworks" are called, with the exception of Dubbilex, who is a G-Goblin. The first G stands for Genomorph.