The Call
Disclaimer- own nothing except OC's and plot changes
Italics- telepathic communication
Dawn's POV
I grunted in pain as Clayface slammed me into a wall knocking all the air out of my lungs. I fell to the floor and tried to stand, but my head was spinning from the hit making it hard to focus and see what was going on. I could faintly make out Clayface punching Aqualad into a wall causing him to grunt in pain.
The rest of the team was unconscious on the ground to my right and everyone was caked in mud and sweat. My head was throbbing like someone decided to pound it repeatedly with a jack hammer and my body was sore from head to toe like I'd been pushed in the path of a speeding train. Clayface shuffled over to Aqualad and laughed as he transformed his hand into a giant hammer.
"Aqualad" I yelled as Clayface lifted the hammer intending to bash Aqualad's head in while he laid helplessly on the ground.
Before I could do anything to try to save him the glass roof above us shattered. I covered my head with my arms to protect it from the raining glass as Batman jumped through the roof and threw exploding batarangs at Clayface. The batarangs were absorbed into Clayface's arm and blew it up from the inside successfully breaking if off before he could reform it.
Batman landed on the ground and pulled out his high-tech taser gun from his belt. He pulled the trigger and two wires shot out attaching themselves to Clayface's chest before electricity pulsed out of them. Clayface growled in pain from the electricity and melted into a pile of mud on the floor.
Batman returned the gun to his belt and looked at my unconscious teammates. I saw him narrow his eyes before he walked over to me. He held his hand out and waited for me to grab it. He pulled me up and helped me to stand without falling.
"You ok" he asked as I rubbed my head in a vain attempt to ease the throbbing.
I cracked my neck to loosen it before answering "Yeah I'm good. Dirty, soar, exhausted, and suffering from a splitting headache, but otherwise I'm fine."
"Good, lets wake up the others" he said turning on his heels to walk towards my teammates. We woke everyone up and called the police so they could collect Clayface before transporting to the mountain.
As we walked out of the zetabeams Batman turned to the team and said "I need to talk to Aqualad. The rest of you hit the showers and head home."
I could tell Bruce was angry, very angry, so Robin and I decided to stay behind to give Aqualad some support.
"Head home? I am home," Superboy muttered as everyone walked off to clean themselves.
Batman glanced at Robin and I before saying "just Aqualad."
I gave Aqualad a sad glance before walking away followed by a very reluctant Robin.
"I'm going to take a shower and change, after that we can go home," I said to Robin as we walked down the hallway.
"Yeah that's fine, meet by the zetabeams in an hour" he said curtly before disappearing into his room.
I opened my door and slipped inside. I tore off my muddy uniform and threw it in the laundry basket before hopping in the shower, rinsing off all the mud and grim from the mission while simultaneously easing my strained and soar muscles.
I finished my shower and turned off the water before stepping out. I lifted a towel from the rack and wrapped it around my body. I walked out of the bathroom feeling clean and refreshed and flew over to my drawers to grab a pair of jean shorts and a plain red t-shirt to put on. After I got dressed I left my room and flew to the zetabeams.
As I flew towards the kitchen I saw Superboy covered in milk, eggs, tomato paste, and several other various ingredients while Megan used a towel to try to wipe off the mess but wasn't having much success. As she hastily tried to clean the gunk off of Superboy's body she mumbled to herself and apologized to Superboy numerous times. She then started to wipe his face and her voice faltered as she noticed how close they were. I was planning to go through the kitchen to get to the zetabeams since it was the quickest route, but I didn't want to interrupt their moment so I turned around and went the long way.
Dick was already waiting by the zetabeam when I arrived and Bruce was nowhere to be found.
"Did Batman already leave?" I asked.
"Yeah he left like ten minutes ago" Robin said as he started the zetabeam.
"You ready to go" he asked and I responded by nodding a quick yes.
When the zetabeam was ready we walked through and teleported to the cave.
"Mother I'm home" I yelled in a British accent laughing to myself as I saw Alfred waiting for us at the top of the stairs.
"Evening Mistress Dawn, Master Dick, how was your day?" he asked as we walked up the steps.
"Painful" I muttered rubbing my arm which was still a little sore from being slammed into a wall.
"I'm sorry to hear that" Alfred said sincerely.
"How was Zaphira?" I asked quickly changing the subject.
Zaphira stayed at the manor with Alfred all day so I was curious to see how she did.
"She behaved very well mistress Dawn. She gave me no problems at all," he said smiling.
"Well that's good to hear," I smiled.
"I'm heading towards the training room. You guys have fun doing whatever it is you guys are going to do" Dick said before storming off towards the training room without waiting for a response.
I stared at him as he stalked out of the room and sighed pinching the bridge of my nose in exasperation, "sorry about that Alfred it's been a long day and he's in a bad mood" I explained trying to justify Dick's actions.
"It's quite all right Mistress Dawn everyone has a bad day," he said understandingly.
I lifted my head and raised an eyebrow "Now that I think about it I've never seen you have a bad day Alfred, like ever, you always seem to stay calm and collected no matter what's going on."
He glanced at me and smiled while clasping his hands behind his back "I'm not the average person mistress Dawn, you of all people should know that."
"Touché Alfred Touché" I grinned and gave him a hug before flying off towards the training room to try to calm Dick down.
When I got to the training room Dick was already twirling on the rings and muttering things to himself in an angry whisper. He only had like a five-minute head start on me but he'd already managed to work up a sweat, but regardless of how exhausted he was he continued to twirl.
He flipped off the rings and onto a nearby platform, but his head wasn't in the game so he lost his balance. He tripped and rolled on the floor so he wouldn't face plant and then tried to flip back up to his feet, but he had too much momentum so when he tried to flip back up his back collided with the wall knocking the wind out of him before he regained his balance.
What worried me more than seeing him painfully collide with the wall was that he lost his balance and tripped in the first place. Dick never loses his balance…like ever!
If theirs one thing I know about Dick it's that when it comes to gymnastics he's always balanced. Not once since I've known him have I ever seen him stumble or not stick a landing, so to see him actually trip and fall was…disturbing to say the least. This proved that something was off, way off.
He growled and punched the wall leaving a decent sized dent in it. My eyes widened as I stared at the large hole he made, when did he get that strong?
"Dick what's gotten into you lately? You dissed Alfred, you were grumpy the entire way here, and now you're loosing you balance and punching walls " I said pointing to the hole in the wall.
He turned to me clenching his fists and I faintly heard him mutter, "nothing, I'm fine."
"Well that's a load of bull cause you're obviously not fine. Is this about Bruce sending us away to talk to Aqualad? You know he didn't mean anything bad by it, he just wanted to scold Aqualad without an audience looming over his shoulder" I explained.
He scoffed "yeah whatever" he pushed past me and grabbed the water bottle and a towel from the bench before sitting on it.
Ok seriously what is up with him today? Dick doesn't usually act like this. He gets snippy with people sometimes sure, but he isn't usually this cold to people, especially me.
I was about to ask him why this bothered him so much, but unfortunately I was forced to postpone my questions when Alfred walked into the room "Master Bruce wishes to see you both."
Dick rolled his eyes and took another swing of his water before standing to follow Alfred. I shook my head and sighed before following as well.
Alfred led us to the outside basketball court behind the manor where Bruce was waiting patiently in loose sweats and a baggy t-shirt. Without warning he tossed a basketball at Dick expecting him to catch it, which he did out of instinct.
Dick looked down at the ball in his hands "what's this" he asked wondering why Bruce had tossed him a basketball.
Bruce smirked and crossed his arms "training, hand eye coordination."
"One on one" Dick asked smiling slightly. These type of bonding moments were rare because of how busy they both were so when one did happen it was always special.
"If you think you can handle it," Bruce taunted.
"Ohhhhhhh Dick he just called you out. You can't let that go unchallenged," I said in my announcer's voice urging him to play.
"You can play too if you want" Bruce said to me.
I shook my head "Na I'm good, I'll just watch and be the announcer this time" I said taking a seat on the grass by the court.
Dick grinned before dribbling the ball and rushing towards the basket.
"This is the game everyone's been waiting for folks, Bruce vs. Dick, Father vs. son, who will take home the gold. Dick's got the ball and he's rushing towards the basket. He takes the shot, he's going for it, it's going… it's going… it's going... OH and its smacked away by Bruce. Look at that defense ladies and gents; Bruce is killing it out there tonight. What a play folks, what a play!" I continued to call out the significant plays of the game in my announcer voice. Since I couldn't choose a side I cheered for them both as the game continued.
Alfred stood off in the corner smiling to himself as he watched the father son bonding moment.
They'd been playing for about 15 minutes when my phone started ringing. I fished it out of my pocket and looked at the caller ID, it was an unknown number.
My eyebrows scrunched up in confusion. Did I forget to add a friend's number into my phone, or did someone get a new number and forget to tell me? Not many people know my number so it could only be a handful of people calling.
I shrugged and answered the phone swiping my finger across the screen and put it up to my ear "Hello, who is this?" I asked.
"Hello Shade" a familiar male voice said through the phone.
My cheerfulness instantly melted away and I stiffened going completely still. Bruce, Dick, and Alfred seemed to notice my sudden change in demeanor because the game came to a screeching halt as they all looked at me suspiciously.
"Now since your so good with remembering voices I'm pretty sure you already know who this is so I'll skip the formalities and get straight to the point."
"How did you get this number?" I growled tightening my grip on the phone.
Hearing the growl in my voice Dick and Bruce quickly walked over to try to hear the conversation.
"Oh come on Shade is that anyway to greet a friend."
"You're not my friend BlackBlade, you might not be my complete enemy, but you're definitely not my friend" I said.
"That hurts Shade, hurts me deeply," he chuckled.
"What do you want?" I asked.
BlackBlade got serious again "I need to talk to you face to face, I have some important information you need to hear ASAP, but it can't be discussed over the phone."
"Not going to happen, not now not ever," I said narrowing my eyes even though he couldn't see it.
Bruce pulled out a wristwatch that had a small computer in it and tried to trace the call, but it was heavily encrypted making it hard to track, even for the mighty Batman.
"I don't think you understand Shade, this is about your family and Priscilla," he said quietly.
I froze, how did he know about Priscilla? The only people who know about her are Bruce, Dick, and Alfred.
I remained calm and didn't show him that what he said had affected me "what are you talking about, I don't know a Priscilla, and there is nothing you could possibly have on my family."
"Cut the crap Shade you know exactly what I'm talking about and I know you're just dying to figure out what else I know so to save you the hassle of having to ask, meet me on the roof of the old Mike's dinner downtown in one hour."
"How do I know this isn't just a trap?" I said suspiciously.
"Cause I'm telling you it's not, and tell your partners its pointless to try to trace this call, the call's being bounced between hundreds of different phone polls so it will take them hours to get a location and by that time I'll be long gone. Since I'm sure they're not going to let you come alone tell them they can come too. I'd suggest they stay behind but I already know you'd just bring them anyway so why bother suggesting it, and while you're at it go ahead and bring your little wolf pet along as well."
I was silent as I thought about all the ways this could possibly go wrong, and by my count there were over a million different scenarios, but he did know things only a select few should. If he knew about Priscilla what else could he know? I have to know how much information he has and where it's coming from.
"I'll be there" I said before hanging up.
"Ok what the heck just happened" Robin asked as I stood up and walked into the house towards the cave. I was so zoned out thinking about the call I didn't notice they were calling my name until we were in the cave and I was pulling my suit suit out of its case.
"Dawn" Robin yelled grabbing my arm roughly knocking me out of my trance.
"What" I snapped smacking his hand away.
"What's going on?" he asked a little softer this time.
"I'm going to the old Mike's dinner" I said while slamming the door to the changing room so I could change into my suit. Once my suit was on I opened the door and walked over to the chair by the computer.
"He thinks he can intimidate me, threaten me, but he doesn't know me as well as he thinks he does. That stupid cocky, arrogant, no good bastard doesn't know who he's messing with" I ranted as I roughly pulled on my boots unaware that I was saying all this aloud and not solely in my head like I thought I was.
"Dawn stop for a second and tell us what happened" Bruce commanded.
I sighed and faced them "BlackBlade wants to meet face to face, he says he has information for me."
"How do you know he's not just lying" Bruce asked.
"He knows about Priscilla and Zaphira, I've only told three people about them both and they're all standing in front of me, so how could he possibly know these things since I know none of you would ever tell anyone. So trap or not I need to know how he's getting this information so I can stop it" I told them.
Bruce narrowed his eyes and was about to speak, but was cut off by Robin "wait a minute, he called you on your cellphone, but that's encrypted. It's not suppose to be able to be hacked or tracked by anyone besides us, Bruce made it himself. If he broke through the phones security wall that would mean he's a good enough hacker to break into Batman's systems," he yelled.
"Well I guess he's an amazing hacker or knows one because he called me on my cell and I obviously didn't give him my number," I yelled back.
"Alright you two that's enough. Dick suit up, we're going with Dawn on this meeting as backup" Bruce said while pushing a button on the computer causing their suits to lift out of the ground. I whistled and Zaphira came out of the opening we built for her a few days ago. She could now leave the cave and go into the house whenever she wants as long as we don't have company. She even has her own room in the manor now.
"Dawn what's happened?" she asked seeing everyone getting their suits from their containers.
"We're going to a meeting, a boy, designation BlackBlade, says he has information for me and he knows about you and Priscilla" I told her telepathically as Bruce and Dick changed into their uniforms.
"How is that possible?" she asked.
"I don't know but I'm sure going to find out. Care to tag along," I asked smiling.
She seemed to do the wolf version of a scoff "I was going to come whether you wanted me to or not" she said in a playful yet serious tone.
Once everyone was changed and ready to go Bruce and Dick hopped into the batmobile while I jumped on Zaphira's back.
Alfred walked over and stood next to the four of us "be safe" he said seriously.
"We always are" Bruce assured him before taking off towards Mike's dinner.
"Well this is going to be interesting," I thought as Zaphira ran through the streets of Gotham blending in with the shadows as she ran.
We arrived at the dinner 15 minutes later leaving us with 10 minutes to spare. I slid off Zaphira's back while Bruce and Dick jumped out of the batmobile.
We all looked at each other before Bruce asked "You guys ready."
"Lets do this" Robin and I said together as he pulled out his grappling hooks and used it to lift himself onto the roof while I flew up next to him. Zaphira stepped back and leaped onto the roof landing beside me.
The first thing I saw when I reached the roof was BlackBlade in his suit twirling a throwing star in his hand. Batman and Robin immediately pulled out batarangs preparing to throw them while Zaphira stepped in front of me and crouched down so she was ready to pounce at a moments notice as she growled at BlackBlade.
Before anyone could released their weapons I put up a hand in front of Bruce and Dick signaling them not to attack.
"Zaphira its ok" I reassured her through the link "stand down."
Her growling softened and she stood up to move to my left so I could be seen while still showing BlackBlade she was near and ready to protect.
"It's ok guys, Blade tends to always be twirling throwing stars in his hands. It's like his trademark. If he were about to attack you'd know cause he'd visibly tense up. The stars aren't a threat… at least for now," I said folding my arms across my chest.
Because of his mask I couldn't see his face but the slight movement around the area where his mouth should be made it seem like he was grinning "Oh Shade you know me so well" he joked making Batman, Zaphira, and Robin growl slightly. I remained calm showing him he wasn't going to throw me off.
"You wanted a meeting, you got it, now what do you want" I asked getting straight to the point.
He suddenly stopped twirling his stars and returned them to his small pouch in one fast fluid motion that an untrained eye wouldn't have been able to see.
He leaned against the railing of the roof and folded his arms "and so the fun begins" he said grinning.
Cliffhanger! How does BlackBlade know all these things, what information does he have, can he be trusted? All questions will be answered next chapter. Reviews are appreciated!