A/N:
Hey guys :) I'm here again. I've tried to have time for writing but I've been having exams. Hey, at least summer's almost here! I hope you guys like this chapter. I thought it would be interesting to look at the Wayne's / Team's / Delta's perspective on ongoing things. Hope you enjoy remember to review please xxx
Last chapter:
"Yes Matthew, yes we are." Nightwing said, grabbing Matt's shoulder.
Matthew stepped back. He wasn't mad, just… surprised I guess. I mean he didn't actually think that the Bats would tell him. The surprised feeling was immediately washed away by guilt and frustration. If Aaliyah is Delta then he actually talked to her at the party. He was right next to her most of the time and she still got taken. He just couldn't accept that. "I-uh I don't know what to say." Matthew said, looking up at Nightwing and Batman. The sleepiness was now gone and the sun had risen. "Matthew, we trust that you will not tell anyone else about this." Batman said, not making eye contact.
"Yeah. Of course." Matthew nodded.
"Bats, what are we supposed to tell the rest of the team? They're going to want an explanation." Nightwing asked, downloading all the files into a USB.
Batman paused for a moment. He turned to Matthew who was rubbing his eyes and looked at Nightwing who looked even more tired. "Matthew, I need you to make sure that the team doesn't find out about the Ketamine. Nightwing took it off the computers so it shouldn't be a problem, but still. Better safe than sorry. Distract them. Try to lighten them up. You all need to be in good condition. Nightwing, bring the USB back to the manor. I'm taking you back to get some rest." Matthew and Nightwing nodded. "We will check back in a few days. Expect visits from other Leaguers. If you need to contact us at any time, use the cave's system." Batman continued. Matthew nodded. They left the room and walked to the Zeta beams.
"Batman A-02, Nightwing, B-01." The Zetas said. Matthew sighed. He looked at the time. 6:00 am. He wasn't hungry yet and it would be useless getting back to sleep. Might as well train. He had to get some stress out of him. He walked over to his room, trying to be as quiet as possible and changed into his gym clothes.
At the Joker's hide out…
Delta jerked awake, sweating. Shivering, she looked around. How could it be this cold in the summer? Where was she? She looked down and she was tied up, her wrists behind her and her ankles were tied to the floor. He legs were tired. Come on, they could have at least let her sit down. She still had her mask and costume on so her secret identity was still in tact. She tried moving, but winced at a pain at her side. Crap she thought. A stab wound. What happened to her? Where was everyone? Suddenly, everything came back to her; the party, the fight, everything. No. Not here again. That's why it was so familiar. This is where she was when Joker last kidnapped her. She needed to get out.
Delta tried twisting her wrists to reach her utility belt. Oh surprise, it's not there. Delta sighed and blew her hair out of her face. The one time she didn't have her spare lock picking tools in her glove. The one time.
The door slammed open and light burst through the room, which made Delta squint. "Oh! Look who's finally awake!" Delta groaned, seeing Poison Ivy. I mean, better than seeing Joker, but still, she was just plain annoying.
"You know, it was much easier taking you than we thought. I'm unimpressed." She said.
"Ugh. You wait until I get out of this. You just wait." Delta said, hatred flowing through her. Poison Ivy laughed. What is it with villains and laughing like crazy people all the time? "Actually, we WILL be letting you out." She said, walking towards Delta.
"Wait what? Uh not that I'm complaining about being let out or anything, but isn't the point of kidnapping someone like not letting them free?" Delta asked.
"You know, you remind me so much about Nightwing. I would punch you for that, but we need you to be in good condition. You see Delta, we're going to turn you into one of us. A cold-hearted villain. Could you imagine? One of the Bats, a villain?" Ivy said, thinking to herself. Delta's eyes grew wide. No. They couldn't have known. What would happen if she got turned? All the people she would hurt… Play it cool Delta.
"How would you plan on doing that?" Delta asked, masking her concern with a smirk.
"We know about your powers, how you can't control them and what happens when you lose control. We just need to find a way to get you out of control. Find your deepest fears, the things that make you the weakest." At this point, Delta started getting scared. After what happened last time when she was with Joker, she couldn't imagine what would happen with Ivy, Riddler and Psimon joining in. "Dear, you're in for a rough time." Ivy said, walking out the room and slamming the door shut. Delta looked down. She couldn't do anything now. She needed a way out of this mess.
Back in the cave…
Jimmy sat down on the couch, holding a plate of pancakes. The team had woken up and decided to eat breakfast. "Has anyone seen Matthew?" Mika asked, putting a stack of pancakes onto a plate. "Yeah. He's been in the gym since like 6:30. He's not taking it well." Owen said, looking out the window.
"Well, neither are any of us. Didn't you guys hear? Nightwing hasn't gotten any sleep at all. Batman had to come in and take him home." Dominick said, sneaking a pancake off the plate Mika was plating.
"I mean, we can't keep going on like this." Jimmy said. Mika looked up, confused.
"You know, if we keep on being sad for Delta, we'll never get anywhere with finding her and getting her back. We need a bit of positivity." Jimmy said. Owen stood up, drinking out of a cup. "Jimmy's right. If we want to be successful, we need to go back to the team we were before." He said. "We especially need to lighten up Matt." Mika took a deep breath in.
"I'll go talk to him." Dominick said, standing up. "I'll get him to come in."
Dominick walked into the training room to see Matthew violently punching a dummy. "Matt." He said, trying to get Matthew's attention. Matthew didn't even flinch. Punch after punch after punch, all of them getting faster and faster. Dominick hesitated for a bit. Matt seemed really mad and no one wants to have to deal with a mad speedster in the morning. Whatever, they needed to talk anyways. "Matt!" Dominick yelled. Matthew yelled in surprise and punched the head of a dummy. He turned around to look at Dominick, exhaustion clearly showing on his face. "Oh, sorry Dom, didn't see you there." Matt said, heavily breathing. Dominick gave him a bottle of water.
"You alright? You didn't come down for breakfast and you've been working your ass off in here." Dominick said.
"Yeah. I just need to blow off some steam, you know, because of Delta…" Matthew said, trailing off. He wanted to tell Dominick what happened earlier, but it would just give the team more stress. And he would probably get murdered by all the Bats.
"So the team and I were talking and we all need to have a conversation." Dominick said. Matthew threw the towel he was using onto the side. "What about?" He asked.
"I think it's better if we all talked about this together." Dominick said.
"Okay… I AM really hungry." Matthew said, trying to keep the mood light. Dominick managed to laugh a bit. The two walked towards the kitchen. Dominick turned to Matthew. "You know, this is the longest I have seen
you go after a workout without eating." Matthew punched him.
"Shut up." He laughed.
The two boys walked into the kitchen where Owen, Mika and Jimmy were sitting on the barstools, eating pancakes and drinking juice. "Glad to see you finally got out of the gym." Mika said. Matthew and Dominick sat down.
"Yeah. Don't tell Barry that I knocked a few heads off dummies." Matthew said. Mika passed him a plate stacked with pancakes and syrup. Matthew started eating like he hadn't eaten in years. Well honestly, he only hadn't eaten a lot in the last few days, but for a speedster, it's like not eating for years. "So I'm guessing Dominick told you about the team having a conversation?" Mika asked. Matthew nodded.
"Yeah, so what's this all about?" He asked.
"Okay, so we had a little talk and I guess we just need to lighten up for Delta." Owen said. Matthew looked down for a second. The smile on his face was gone.
"What do you mean 'lighten up'? Delta is being held against her will by Joker and we can't find them." Matthew said. Mika put a hand on his shoulder.
"Matt, I know it's hard to accept. It is for all of us, but we all know we work better if we're in good moods. How many times have we worked well with each other when we were mad? Yeah. None." Mika said, looking at all the boys. "Guys, listen. I'm not saying we should be happy she's gone. We just need to lighten up a bit. Delta is a strong person. She's probably sassing them now or beating them up." A few chuckles were heard.
"Yeah. We all know that she was our team leader. She would want us to be happy. She wouldn't want us staying up all night or working out until we drop." Jimmy said.
Everyone looked at Matthew. "I – uh I guess I agree. I mean knowing her she wouldn't want us to care this much. We just need to get rest, spend time together and re-group. We can find her faster." He said. Mika smiled.
"Okay, we need a rest day. We'll find her. Don't worry." She told Matt. "So, who wants more pancakes?" Mika asked. Matthew looked up sheepishly. He rose his hand. "Yeah. We knew you would say that." Mika said, going to get more.
Wayne Manor… 3 p.m…
A knock was heard on Dick's door. "Dick?"
Zatanna and Wally said, coming in. Dick groaned, waking up. His hair was messy and his eyes were trying to adjust to the light. "What? Oh, hi Zee, Wally." Dick said. Wally was in his uniform. Wait what time was it? If Wally was awake and in his uniform…
"Sorry if we woke you up." Wally said. "We were just wondering why you hadn't come out. Alfred had gotten worried that you were working too much again." Wally put a plate of food on his desk and snuck out a cookie.
"It's great that you got some sleep." Zatanna said. Dick smiled a bit.
"Wait, what time is it?" He asked, confused. Wally looked at his phone.
"3 p.m." Dick's eyes widened.
"What?! I uh I've got to get back to looking for her!" He rushed out of bed and tried looking for his pants… that did not go so well. "Dick, Bruce said you needed to rest." Wally said, standing in front of Dick.
"I'm fine! Look at me!" Dick said, grabbing him. Zatanna put a hand of Dick's shoulder and told him to sit down.
"Dick, you are not well. We are all looking for Aaliyah. You need to rest first." Zatanna said. Dick looked up at her and sighed. He did feel terrible lately. He didn't know if it was him feeling guilty or if he really was sick from the lack of food and sleep. "Dick, if Aaliyah were here she would force you to rest for the day. For now, I'm going on patrol. Who knows, I might see them. We need to hope for the best. I mean since a lot of people are looking for her, the best will come." Wally said, offering Dick a cookie. Dick took it and stared at it. He looked up at Zatanna and Wally. They were both right. She's a strong girl and when we find her, they're all dead. "Thanks… I uh I'm going to eat this." He said, motioning to the food.
"Alright. Tim and Bruce are on patrol too. And try to stay positive nothing bad happens to her okay? You work terrible when you're in a bad mood." Zatanna said, standing up. Dick nodded.
"Yeah dude. We'll be around if you need us. Just call or text or whatever. See you." Wally said, walking out the door.
"See you guys later." Dick said. The minute the door closed, the sat in his bed and sighed. He needed to relax for a day. After all, there are others looking for Aaliyah as well. Okay Dick, rest today and re energize yourself. He thought. He looked at the food and started eating. He didn't realize how hungry he was until now, but he just needed to get better. He couldn't help his sister if he himself was sick.