Nightwing; A Series of Doubts – Give and Take –
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Chapter 13: Tall Tower Damsels
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Ah, we are a - go one last time before tomorrow shows me the rack. Have at you, lucky thirteen! Warning once again, you know the drill.
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He woke up with a killer migraine and his ears ringing till kingdom come.
His mouth tasted, dry…or like metal. Dick licked his lips and found himself in bed. A sheen of sweat had dissipated as a light coating still made him rustle the cloth, just to see how long…
He shook his head and groaned.
"Shower…"
/
Dick was up and, in the steam, his body was responding much better as he made sure to get some water to drink also, for his headache. Adjusting the thermostat before he'd stepped into the stream, Dick noticed that he felt light. As in, looser.
"Huh." He did a twist and stretched to touch his toes as the water ran, coming back up with a pleased gasp as the pressure here was to die.
Slade, had made his body comfortable, but his mind had to fight this. He slowed down, running wet fingers through his tangled locks.
"Need a trim, already?"
/
A few moments later when he was dressed in his newest jogging attire, he took the liberty of contacting Babs. She didn't answer, probably because of the Galileo case he was supposed to be interested in. Dick yawned and did one more stretch before heading out the door with his phone, loose jacket and his keys to add to the lovely addition.
Even if it technically was a stolen piece of property, he'd have to be sure to add that to the abduction report when he was finally back…
The newspaper stands had the latest down the street as he kept pacing, sneaking a peek before taking out his phone to snap a shot.
Babs was in Gotham, with Bruce at the gala…all this time.
He checked his watch. He still had time; he could visit her place if he took his phone app for the metro to pay his way.
Dick got to the station and went up to the nearest gate, hand extended with the device out as he slid it over.
~ DENIED. ~
Staring at the place around him, he tried again.
DENIED .
Dick growled and realized he had to go to his bank later. Something was wrong with his account?
He dashed back to his place and unlocked the door, panting as he went to look out through the glass. A water bottle sat by his bedside and he took it.
"Where were you just now?"
Dick jumped and backed into the side table by his bed, placing the bottle back onto it immediately.
"Slade! Don't sneak up on me like that…" Huffed the boy wonder, wiping his forehead as if he'd just been inside a creepy, haunted house.
This ghoul was something he'd banish with enough resources to burn.
"Your location was muddled. I don't want you going out there with a hit still on your head."
"Huh?" Dick looked up with blue eyes, befuddled.
"Wa…whatever, but Slade…you don't have to sneak around all the –
"You're my student. My partner." Slade stalked forwards as Dick shifted towards the wall, cornered to it.
"I can't have you running off without telling me where you plan to go. It's not at all called for…and you have your homework to catch up on, remember?"
Dick blinked. "I didn't finish? Last night, I –
"You fell asleep." Slade leaned his arm on the wall, trapping the kid only barely. "When I'd called, you said to move our session to today. Seems a bit sloppy. Feeling a bit restless after waiting on your clone?"
"How did…" Swallowed Richard. "How, did it go? I saw a photo on the street. Babs went, and she was…"
"She couldn't tell you apart. Is that it?"
"Maybe, but she didn't…I was supposed to call."
"You did, she didn't pick up. It was an obligation to her role as Batgirl, Dick." Slade lifted up the boy's chin. "Go, you're a mess like the pole vaulting you did in here last night." Smiled that toothy bastard, wryly. "Take a shower, you filthy bum."
Dick threw his head to the side haughtily and walked away to do just that. Turning back by the hall divider, he looked back at the one-eyed role model – rapist.
"You don't have to stay."
"I can wait." Slade offered; hands laced behind his back. "Maybe you need some extra assistance with your major. I am rather skilled at that old card."
Dick feigned a sense of gratitude in his voice. "I'll think about it, thanks." Vanishing round the frame, Slade was a bit surprised that his little bird needed to trim those feathers.
He was going to look like a college woman soon, little hippie.
Slade looked around and saw the boy's phone. He could undo any lock with his digital version of a skeleton key he kept handy. "What did you see on your outdoor run, my little blue bird?"
Slade's eye narrowed at the gala image; a shot of the brat's family on the cover of the Gotham Times.
Dick really needed to get some new reading material. "I'll just save this for later use against Wayne, maybe his girlfriend too." Slade shrugged and put down –
He saw the water bottle by the boy's bedside table, then ran to find that stupid boy.
It wasn't empty.
He would still need to squeeze the rest of that damned solution out of him before the clock turned to noon…
/
Barbara G sat at the table with her father Jim Gordon over by the cordless., having her breakfast.
He, had been busting less cap more bottles since her presence was only a monthly trial.
So, naturally, there was an uptick in crime by the time her role was put back on the pedestal she'd chosen all of those years ago.
"Dad –
"Not now, sweetie. May have a case on our hands…uhuh…. uh….so, Bollock? What –
Are you shittin' me right now, Harvey? I'm…Alright. I'll be right there, thanks."
With a click, he was going to leave her. Just like her mother. Just like anyone else he'd neglected despite being a good father to his kid.
"You going to the office?"
"Officer spotted a lead on the "Suzie – Q Massacre. (Made it up.)"
"The one that ended up with multiple leads?" Her head perked up, a grin returning for her father's good fortune.
"That's great! I mean...I hope the GCPD can help the victims and get a proper background on the real perp. If you need –
"Mr. Wayne said you'll be movin' in temporarily with his crew at Wayne Manor." Jim turned to his daughter, hat in hand. "You'll be safer than anywhere else in the city. Only until Blud has a hand on –
"They won't find him, Dad!"
Her spoon clattered as Babs stood up, frustrated by how they were all running into a brick wall – over and over.
"Dick Grayson was abducted and I'm of course another target, but so are half of his family and –
"Why take a chance, Barb? I don't want to see a knife to your throat while I can't be there to stop it!"
"Dad? What if the thing we're after…is living and thriving throughout ALL of Blud." She hugged her arms to her chest, feeling like those words wouldn't stop. "What if this won't end unless we destroyed the whole city to find my supposed killer?? We can't just forget you knowing; that I'm a hero too. That you know Batman's secret!"
"A secret I'll take to mine an' your mother's graves, but you had better not be jumping into open fire as a heroine. I don't wanna be responsible for killin' our family twice –
"She wasn't your fault!" Babs ran to her dad, tears stinging her vision, grasping his coat as she refused to let him lock her up. "I'm not afraid! I can fight –
"Well, you can't Barbara." The man's tone was much angrier as he tugged her arm off without any sympathy to her pleas to be heard. "Pack up and see Pennyworth in one hour. He'll be here to get ya. Stop trying to get us all killed…I'd never forgive myself for that…"
She threw herself out there, one more time at the door to their family home.
"You didn't! –
Before he'd shut that same door in her face. No key. Only her breakfast, that was getting soggier than the tears soaking through her favorite chiffon blouse.
"It wasn't your fault…" She wept with her head to the wooden frame. "Mom is dead…I won't be…. daddy… please…"
She was locked in her tower, just like Dick was taken against her will…
She raised her head and paused.
"No..." She sniffled, rubbing her eyes clear.
"Because, I'm Batgirl!"
(I used the 'I'm Batman' to make this work.)
/
Bruce was in his private gym, waiting on the time when his guest would arrive to stay until further notice, while the other had acted strange all night…
Tim didn't speak a word, and the cut of course had healed by nanotech on the robot's arm. Bruce did see it, but he'd thought it was real blood.
Not scarring, which –
"Bruce? You in here?"
The little liar was back.
Bruce put away his free weights and stepped over to the cave's entrance.
"That you, Dick?" He called up as the boy waved back from inside the glass elevator that led to the man's haunt of a sort.
The doorway slid open as Dick reluctantly stepped out in a rather conservative outfit.
"Is it always business casual in your town?" Joked the billionaire, testing his theory.
Dick shrugged and made an indignant noise, sounding pretty human…
"Aren't you gonna talk to me, B?"
Bruce cocked his head at the supposed imposter. Sounded like him too. "Tim said you got hurt, cut yourself on that wine glass at the gala. Did Alfred take a look at it?"
"Yup." Dick flashed his arm out to show the hidden mark which was…wait. That wasn't how it had looked before!
"You heal quickly, compared to the real Dick Grayson."
/
The bot went still before it began clapping; a slow applause for the greatest mind in all of Gotham City.
"You got me. Well, I had no say in what Todd went through." It smirked.
"He was stuffed in the janitor's closet." Bruce gritted his fists, tape still on them from his daily training in the dojo some time before. "I want to know." Bruce looked at the false gaze of those two perfect blue eyes. "Why are you not from this universe."
/
"Dick, steady…you still aren't any better…. come with me."
"Slade…so, hot… why?" Whined the croaking teen as he was coaxed out of the bathroom in his one towel. "You had a bit of a bad piece of meat the other day." Slade lied. "I got you some medicine but looks like t already wore off." He acted the saint while a devil on the boy's shoulder, coaxing him to lie back down. "Do you want to go to an urgent care and get yourself looked at?"
Dick panted, clutching Slade's side…
"Need…. water…." He rasped through the horrid side effects. "Water…please…nightstand –
"Not that." Slade told him sternly. "I'll get you a fresh one, hang on."
The few minutes it took for Dick to pee out the contents of the drug, he was already a balloon that made Slade hard as a rock. In a sense, if he had been hard, Dick couldn't tell. With such a painful experience in his pants, it had to go down once his student was safe to say, out of harm's way.
Still…it killed him to see such a flooded product with nowhere to aim and release…
"Are…you…. still there?" Dick was breathing a bit better, so Slade needed what he wanted. He had the time to be a bit sloppy too. He put the bottle next to the first and handed that original to his drugged-up pupil to keep him teetering. He just needed…
"Slade…. tired…."
"You must be very sick…. let me call –
"N -no…bugs, go away…. never…soup, maybe…later?" Richard hissed past his full bladder.
"Of course, anything you want?"
"Broth…"
Oh, the kid was aching to turn into a water bed? How juvenile.
"You should go relieve your stomach, first." Slade slid a cold hand over that swell and as the boy bit his lip.
Damn it…insanity was a killer drug.
"Keep…" Dick wriggled at the touch. "Keep…. doing that…I like it…"
Drugs? They were a keeper, as Slade did as he was ordered.
"As you wish, boy wonder…" He purred and applied just a small bit of pressure a bit lower, seeing the brat, buck. Seems the drug acted as an Imodium. Blocked him off, made him such a joy to tease like this.
Slade tried not to drool –
Until Dick's phone killed Slade's good mood.
/
He'd let it ring.
"What a shame." The double sighed and shrugged up its hands. "No good, there. See? I'm just the messenger, Batman."
Bruce went into a defensive stance. "You have Dick's memories integrated into your central processor." Bruce stared down the intruder. "You were an accomplice of whoever kidnapped my ward."
"We're helping him, holding him up while the city shouts his name – but you can't understand art." Sneered the dopple. "You can't even understand how love works, can you. B?"
Bruce was inches from a button to drop attack drones or disruptors of all things, 'robot.'
He didn't like the thing that had stolen Dick's identity; how it wanted him to cave, to fight and lose this case to a corrupted supercomputer.
"I came to deliver his words, not mine." The robot tugged back his arm and let a hologram projection show in midair from it.
Of the real Dick Grayson's face.
~ Bruce; if you're watching this, then I didn't get to see you one last time. I'm taking a new path, and humbly want you to disregard me from your accounts or family registry –
"This is staged! Who is doing this to him!?" Bruce slammed the bot into the elevator doors as it grinned while the choppy message still played.
~ I am taking on a new alternate. I have my reasons and someone who wants to help me reach my peak. ~
"No…" Bruce's face became haggard. " TELL ME!" He snapped and slammed the smiling robot into the glass, Dick's face cracking as Bruce couldn't calm down.
" WHERE IS MY SON!"
The robot's grin grew, and got wider until it split and laughed, laughed like it was truly insane. Bruce let go of the robot, palms shaking. Breathing rapid, sweat dripping down his brow with an intent to drink him dry. Tearing at him, that laugh brought back the very image –
Of Jason's killer being put away while he'd still been gone.
The robot started to spark as Bruce grabbed it, searching for –
He rushed behind something sturdy and crouched down low.
As his own son, detonated.
Right before his father's eyes…
/
Slade let the ringing cease as his pet moaned and tried to roll over. Slade caught the kid, bringing him upright so he could go release what was in him, then get back to bed.
When Dick was done, his eyes looked fuzzy. The drug was still working beautifully, as Dick clung to Slade and nuzzled into another human body.
"Not much longer now, little bird." He coaxed the kid as Richard was carried bridal style to his bed to sleep off the unintentional reaction. "Patience, my dear Robin…"
He slipped off to the side, but this boy…
"Stay….be with me…when I wake up…"
That invitation, might have been a problem, but the drugged-up boy insisted and pulled that wrinkled collar to him, new hands circling his thin hips, as the two spooned for a bit before Slade and he called it lights out.
/
A few breaths before him now, the boy finally at peace, it was already after three. Slade had to get moving, this wasn't supposed to be so soon.
"Stick to the plan." The merc got himself untangled from the messy sheets and rose quietly to let his student dream of a better future.
Closing the exit door as softly as he could manage, Slade looked down and realized something that made his mind just, fuss.
He wasn't hard anymore.
/
Stockholm. We went there, and soon this will be quite dastardly a plot twist – no spoilers! So, next is when Dick faces his new nemesis and also wins. Then he dumps Babs, and Bruce and Jason make a horrifying discovery about the decimated robot double. Also, what did Slade mean by, not anymore? Gross, as a woman, the words work but I can't picture it. Slade! Get a dang room! Read on and find out! Stay curious for more debauchery.