Tang Ri Shan

Red Wings

(Sequel to Conundrum. Written on request from Superfan 44. Enjoy!)

Barbara sighed and rubbed her eyes, as she struggled to clear the mental fog that had settled on her mind. After watching that 'reckless kid', as Batman had called him, Barbara had spent almost the whole night searching for their intended target, stopping only when Batman finally ordered her to go to sleep. Even then, she was so frustrated that her mind refused to shut down, she tossed and turned all night, before finally falling asleep at around 4 in the morning, only to be woken an hour later by her father moving around.

Her brain, which had been hard-wired and alert last night, was now sluggish and slow. The only reason she hadn't fallen asleep already was her recent training. Even since joining Batman's inner circle a year ago, Barbara had undergone almost nightly training with the rest of the Outsiders in many different fields, from unarmed combat to detective work. Usually she was trained by Katana or Alfred, but there was the occasional night when Batman himself, in his guise as Mr. Wayne, had taken some time to teach her personally, and she always looked forward to these lessons, like that evening the two of them, along with Katana, had disguised themselves as a family of three and went to a fancy restaurant. Mr. Wayne had asked Barbara to point out any suspicious activity that she could see from her chair, she hadn't seen any, and was stunned when Mr. Wayne pointed out several happening right in front of her, including an embezzling waiter, a cheating husband, a pickpocket, and a chef who was acting in a way that seemed most unsanitary. After seeing the chef, Barbara found the following meal difficult to sit through, even though the food was good, mainly because she wasn't sure who had prepared it.

Barbara shook her head to snap herself out of her dream-like trance, and found herself looking into the eyes with her mathematics teacher, who was frowning in her direction. Barbara quickly smiled and sat up, her eyes scanning the board to get some sense of what the teacher had been saying for the past half hour. "Well, Miss Gordon?" Her teacher's frown deepened. "Can you answer the problem, or were you more concerned with sleeping?"

"Uh...well..." Barbara shifted uneasily in her seat as her mind raced to think of an answer, or a way out of getting in trouble. That salvation came with a sudden knock at the door. Still frowning at Barbara, the teacher strode over to the door, opened it, then stepped into the doorway. Barbara could see he was having a quiet conversation with...someone, but she couldn't tell who it was. A few minutes later, the teacher stepped back into the room, followed by a short, thick-sett man Barbara recognized as the school principle, who had his arm around a teenage boy she had never seen before. He was about Barbara's age and had a head of messy black hair.

"Attention everyone" The principle announced, and everyone instantly stopped talking. Barbara saw the teacher frown and fought the urge to smile. It would take him three or four tries to get the class to calm down. "I would like to introduce a new student joining your class today. This is Richard Grayson" The man placed a porky hand on the boy's shoulder, causing him to raise his head. Barbara saw dark eyes peer out at everyone from under his hair.

"Richard?" A boy at the front of the class piped up. "You mean as in D..."

"Yes, I do!" The principle snapped suddenly as Richard scowled. "But you will not utter that word while in this building!" The boy nodded vigorously and the man raised his eyes to the class. "That goes for all of you, understood?"

"Yes sir" The class replied in unison and the principle smiled before turning to the teacher.

"I trust you can handle things from here" He nodded before turning and leaving the room, leaving Richard standing in front of the blackboard, squirming slightly under everyone's gaze.

"Okay Richard, let's see where we can put you. Hmmm..." The teacher scanned the room. "Ah, there's a seat next to Barbara Gordon in second back row" Barbara stiffened as the teacher turned to look at her. Richard followed his gaze, the slowly made his way through the desks towards her. "And while Richard gets settled, I believe Barbara still owes us a math problem." The teacher gave a small smile as Barbara felt her face begin to sweat as she scanned the board.

"Oops! Darn it!" Richard cursed next to him as a piece of paper fell off his desk and fluttered next to Barbara's feet. "Um...could you please...?"

"Sure" Barbara knelt to pick up the piece of paper and as she did, she saw there was writing on it.

The answer is 20!

Barbara handed the paper back to Richard, locking eyes with him as she did so, and he gave a tiny nod.

"Well Miss Gordon? Can you answer the problem?" The teacher challenged, now looking thoroughly annoyed. Barbara decided to trust Richard and narrowed her eyes, pretending to concentrate on the problem.

"Um...Twenty! The answer is twenty!" She announced.

The teacher blinked in surprise and then smiled. "Correct. Glad to see you're back with us, Miss Gordon." He turned to the rest of the class. "Now, as I was saying, if we simply..."

As the teacher continued to talk, Barbara glanced over at Richard. "Thanks" She whispered.

"No problem" He whispered back, though his eyes never left the blackboard.

Smiling now, Barbara returned her attention to the lesson.

"Whew! I am soo glad to be out of there!" Barbara exclaimed as she left the classroom twenty minutes later.

"You can say that again" A pretty blonde girl with blue eyes smiled at her as she walked past. "You really got grilled in there!"

"Totally!" Barbara laughed, but her laughter died as an attractive trio of girls walked up to them. The dark-haired leader glared at Barbara like she was a piece of mold and gave a dismissive sniff.

"Dinah, what have we told you about talking to the commissioner's kid?" She turned to the blonde girl, her voice tight. The blonde and red-haired girls flanking her were still glaring at Barbara.

"Um...don't?" The girl answered after shooting a frightened glance at Barbara.

"Exactly. Now come!" The first girl turned and walked away, flipping her hair as she did so, an action her tow colleagues mirrored perfectly.

"Sorry" The blonde girl mumbled as she made to follow the others, leaving Barbara standing alone by the hallway window.

Barbara felt her features darken with a scowl before she forced them pack into the face she wanted. What she really wanted was to run after those girls and knock some common sense into their thick-haired skulls, but she knew she would break character if she did that. One of the first things Batman had taught her was to hide who she really was behind a mask. Bruce Wayne did it all the time, hiding his true feelings behind a smiling face of a stoic playboy. Barbara had to admit the face Bruce had chosen was a good one. It was so obvious, and at the same time, almost impossible for anyone to make the connection between the two. Barely two nights ago, Barbara and her father had stopped by a party Bruce was throwing and she had seen him surrounded by at least five different ladies all vying for his attention. Barbara had found it very hard to keep a straight face.

Barbara had decided to do the same, taking on the face of a cheerful, mild-mannered girl who never seemed to get angry, no matter what was said, and who certainly did not go beating people up. Knowing the lecture that Batman would give her if she broke character just to satisfy her petty desire for payback, Barbara just sighed and turned to leave.

"Out of our way, newbie!" A girl's voice made Barbara turn just in time to see one of the trio shove Richard backwards, causing him to stumble against a locker, which caused his backpack to slip from his shoulders and fall to the floor. When it hit, the backpack burst open, causing a clutter of papers inside to fly in every direction.

Student in the hall laughed and the girls smirked, except for Dinah who frowned helplessly, as Richard tried to recover his flying papers. One landed near Barbara's feet and she reached down to grab it. As she did, she noticed that it was a photograph..of Batman! Barbara froze in surprise, then glanced at the photograph and got an even bigger surprise. The photograph was time-stamped two days ago!

"Ahem! Do you mind?" Barbara heard a voice growl and the photograph was snatched from her hands. She looked up to see Richard glaring down at her as he carefully smoothed the photo out and placed it back in his binder.

"Sorry" Richard snorted, signalling that he accepted her apology and turned to leave. Before Barbara could stop herself, she blurted out. "That's a great photo!"

Richard froze and slowly turned back to look at her. His blue eyes seemed to home in on Barbara's brown ones and Barbara suddenly found herself thinking of the moon and stars that always seemed to shine on nights when she trained. At that moment, she felt...at peace. Then Richard blinked and the spell broke as he frowned at her, turned, and stalked away. As Barbara watched him go, she suddenly felt very, very lonely. She'd never felt like this before, except when her mother had passed away, but she saw no reason why she should be feeling this way now. Shaking her head, Barbara got to her feet and turned to go back to her locker. As she did, her phone buzzed. Barbara glanced at it, and felt her heart quicken when she saw the number.

"Y-yeah?" She cursed herself for stammering.

"Barbara, I need you to meet me at Wayne Manor, now" Katana's voice was curt, even through the phone.

"Why? What's happened?" Barbara asked, wide eyed.

Katana paused, then solemnly said "There's been a murder"

"So, did you take care of it?" A voice cut through the smokey air. The room was dark, the only source of light coming from an overhead lamp. The lamp shone on a wooden table, Two figures, both bathed in shadow, sat at opposite ends of the table.

"Yes, the deed is done" Another voice growled, his tone smokey and unclear.

"Done how, exactly?" The first man asked, a note of skepticism ringing in the air as he spoke.

"Well, they say that Turquoise is supposed to protect one from falling, but it didn't save Miss Clay from an open elevator shaft door" The second man said simply.

The figure grinned, then chuckled, then finally burst out laughing. "Oh, that's hilarious! The irony! Now I see why they call you Deathstone!"

"I did not do it for your amusement" The second figure snarled.

"I know. I know." The first man sighed, then reached down and set a briefcase on the table that separated the two men. He pushed the case over to the second man, who opened it to reveal a small pile of bills.

"This is not what we agreed upon" The second man growled.

"I am aware of that" The first man said calmly, breathing out a thin stream of smoke from a long-tipped cigarette holder. "And I assure you, you will soon have the rest of your little nest egg"

"When?" The second man sighed impatiently.

"After you have completed a few more 'tasks' for me" The first voice assured him, before giving an evil chuckle.

"I am not one of your hired goons!" The man slammed a gloved fist down on the table.

"Well, if you are bothered by this, you can take what you have now and walk away. I will not stop you" The first man's voice sounded calm, but there was a slight hardness behind it that enforced the true meaning of his words.

There was a long pause where both men stared at each other through the black smokey air. It was a wonder they could even see each other at all. Finally, the first man broke the silence. "Who else?" He asked in defeat.

The smugness in the second man's voice was crystal clear. "John Wilcox, he runs a respectable jewelry business which has recently profited. One of his underlings works for me. I want him disposed of." As the man spoke, he passed a folder along the table to the first man. "Oh and one more thing, he's born in July."

"The month of the moonstone" The second man mused, starting to turn away, then paused and turned back. "But how do I know your promise will be kept?"

There was a slight pause before the first man answered. "You don't. But as I said before, you can reap your reward now, or try to claim a bigger prize. The choice, Mr. Deathstone, is yours."

The killer sighed and shook his head. "You're a greedy little bird. You know that, right?" He commented, before turning to leave the table. "I'll be in touch when the deed's done." With that, the man walked away.

The second man stayed where he was. Then he gave a fluttering whistle. There was a cawing sound and a raven flew in to land on the table. It squawked something and the man chuckled. "You have no idea sir" He said aloud as he gently stroked the raven's feathers.

And that's all for chapter 2!

FYI: The Deathstone character was inspired by a Batman comic from the 60s that I read when I was younger and I still remember it clearly.

Anyone think they know who Deathstone's employer is? There are one or two hints in the chapter, if you know where to look!

As always, feel free to R&R (Read and Respond), feedback always helps move things along!

Until next time!