Tang Ri Shan

Red Wings

(This is a sequel to Beware the Batman: Conundrum. I suggest reading that story if you have not done so already)

Chapter 9

Oracle glanced at her wristwatch, which read 7:58 pm, and then turned to glance towards the main entrance to the construction site where she was waiting for Richard to show up. As she peeked around the pillar she was hiding behind, she felt a stab of guilt in her heart.

I don't like doing this! She thought to herself, But I've got no choice. He needs to know what he's getting himself into. Richard's face suddenly seemed to swim before her eyes, and she felt her lip quiver.

The quiet crunch of feet on gravel snapped Oracle from her reprieve. Glancing up, she saw a figure standing in the main gateway, glancing around.

"Hello?" Richard called from the gateway. Oracle ducked behind the pillar, fighting the urge to answer back. "Is anyone here?" Richard's voice seemed to echo around the place.

Taking a deep breath to steel herself, Oracle crept from her hiding place, dodging from pillar to pillar like a silent ghost. Thank you Batman for the stealth training! She send a silent thanks to Bruce for teaching her to walk quietly in any kind of terrain. She was only five feet away from Richard, but the boy had no idea she was there. As he stepped further into the site, Oracle darted behind the deserted booth that was used by the men who guarded the site from intruders. There was no one in it because the building site had been temporarily closed down, another reason why Barbara had chosen to make the meeting here. Okay, here goes nothing. Oracle pushed her unusually strong emotions down, pasted a sneering smile on her face, crept out from behind the booth and stood in the middle of the entrance gate a few feet behind Richard.

"Richard Grayson" Oracle said loudly, making the boy spin around to face her. "Son of John and Mary Grayson, co-owners of the 'Flying Graysons' circus" Seeing Richard open his mouth, she quickly added "I see you got my note"

Richard froze, his mouth still open, then his eyes narrowed. "You wrote this?" He demanded, holding the crumpled note up.

"Yep" Oracle nodded as she took a few steps towards him, smirking. "You know I have to admit, when I learned that you were Red Robin, I could have kicked myself. I mean, it was so obvious I'm almost ashamed I didn't figure it out right away"

"And how did you figure it out?" Richard finally asked, turning to face Oracle as she prowled around him in a circle

"Oh I just slapped a tracer on you when you fell on top of me at City Hall" Oracle smirked

"What?" Richard gasped

"And then I followed the signal back to your little nest. Or should I say, the nest of your guardian, Miss Kathy Kane" Oracle added, laughing as Richard's face flushed.

"That's cheating" Richard growled.

"Duh!" Oracle scolded, as it it was supposed to be obvious. "Heroes don't have to play fair all the time. You should see the precautions that Batman has in place. I used to think he was paranoid, but now, not so much."

Richard's eyes widened. "Does Batman know?"

Oracle considered telling him the truth, then realized that she actually enjoyed having Richard in this somewhat helpless position and shook her head. "No, not yet" She said, placing emphasis on the last word. "Of course, that could change at any moment" She added, letting her hand fall to her coat pocket, making sure Richard's eyes followed the movement "All I'd have to do is..."

"What do you want?" Richard cut her off, his left eyebrow twitching. Oracle could hear the fear in his voice and, surprisingly, it made her feel good.

Is this what Batman feels every time he confronts someone? She wondered as she stopped her prowling and walked straight up to Richard. Her boldness made him step back into a pillar, but in an instant the two were practically nose to nose. "What I want doesn't matter" She said firmly. "It's what Batman wants, and he wants you so stop what you're doing"

"Then why isn't he telling me this?" Richard countered.

"Because he has better things to do than waste time dealing with vigilante wannabes." Oracle said coldly, and she was rewarded with a flash of anger in Richard's eyes."That's all this is to you, isn't it? Running around in a mask, fighting bad guys and saving the day? Playing hero? You probably think this is all just a big game, don't you?"

"I..."

"Well now you listen up, 'Red Robin'". Oracle made her face hard and her voice firm. "This 'game' has high stakes, higher than you can imagine, and the consequences of losing, even once, are...severe"

"I know that!" Richard snapped back. "I'm not an idiot!"

"Well you're sure acting like one!" Oracle countered. "What kind of person would put their life on the line night after night, and do so deliberately?"

"Batman does!"

"Batman has the technology to protect himself"

"Katana does!"

"Katana has special training"

"You do!"

Oracle's frown deepened. "Actually you're wrong. I'm not usually in the field with him." But as Oracle spoke, her mind flooded back to dangerous times when she had found herself face-to-face with Batman's enemies, like when she had been held hostage by Tobias Whale, or the time when she had been chased by Killer Croc, or when she and her father helped fight against Ra's al Ghul. In her head, her words sounded hollow, but she pushed these feelings to the back of her mind. "In fact, the only times I've helped him, are times when he's asked for my help. I don't charge in at any random moment, unlike someone else I know"

Richard growled, but didn't say anything

"Why are you even doing this?" Oracle pressed. "I mean, I know that you miss your parents, and I'm sorry about their accident, but surely there are..."

"That was no accident." Richard snarled with such force that Oracle stopped talking. "My parents were professionals on the trapeeze, they would have never allowed what happened to occur"

"Then what are you saying?" Oracle asked, even though she already knew what he was getting at, but she wanted him to say it.

"My parents...were murdered" As Richard spoke, tears began to form in his eyes and his voice choked with sudden emotion. "They were murdered right in front of me and I couldn't save them!"

For a moment, Oracle didn't answer. She couldn't, she was so stunned could barely move. Now everything was clear, in a way Richard was a pint-sized version of Bruce. Both had watched their parents die and both had been powerless to stop it from happening. Maybe it's not Richard I should be trying to convince! Oracle wondered. She thought back to the death of her mother, she hadn't seen it happen. It had been over a year before she had learned what had really happened, but still her trauma suddenly seemed small when compared against what Richard and Bruce must have gone through.

"I couldn't save them." Richard continued, his voice trembling now "But I can avenge them. I'll find the guys who did this, and make them pay!" He snarled, and and the venom in his words seemed to click inside Oracle's mind. Richard still kept speaking, but his voice suddenly seemed muffled as Oracle's mind focused on something Bruce had told her, that Justice, not vengeance, was the reason he did what he did, and one thing that Barbara admired about Bruce was how selfless he acted, both as Batman and as Bruce Wayne, how he would almost constantly put the needs of other before his own. As Oracle compared him with Richard, she felt anger begin to grow inside her. Bruce Wayne and Richard Grayson may have shared a similar traumatic experience, but that was the only thing similar about them.

"What did you say?" She asked suddenly, the tone of her voice making Richard pause.

"I said I couldn't save them, but I can avenge them by..." Richard paused as she saw Oracle's frown grow into a full on snarl.

"So that's your game?" Oracle snapped bitterly. "You want revenge for your parents? You want to find the people that did this and kill them?"

Richard's eyes widened. "No! That's not what I said..."

"Save it, Circus Boy!" Oracle cut him off. "I don't want to hear it!"

"But you don't understand..."

"Oh I understand perfectly!" Oracle cut Richard off again, this time with such force that the boy actually took a step back. Oracle backed away as well, shaking her head in disgust. "I understand that you don't care about justice, or about helping others, like Batman and the Outsiders do, all you care about is yourself!"

"That's not..." Richard paused and his face suddenly reddened and his gaze fell to the floor.

Its true! Oracle thought in horror, though she was careful not to let any of it show on her face. It took all her self control not to scream out at him. But when she spoke next, her tight voice betrayed the tension that her thoughts were under. "Go home Richard, this is not the life for you. Leave that job to us" With that, she turned and began to walk out of the construction site.

"Hey wait!" Oracle's heart sped up when she heard Richard's running footsteps behind her and and her mind suddenly felt like it was on fire. She braced herself, her mind flashing back to her training session with Alfred and Katana just a few days ago. She felt Richard's hand on her shoulder, and she reacted instantly. Grabbing his forearm, she leaned forward and twisted, wrenching Richard's arm and his body, over her back in a judo move. As Richard went sailing over her, she caught a look of pure surprise on his face, which morphed into a grimace of pain as he hit the hard ground. Not giving him a chance to recover, Oracle knelt down until her face was right above Richard's, bending his arm back as she did so, making him cry out in pain.

"This is your last warning Richard" Oracle said in what she hoped sounded like a snarl. In truth, it was all she could do to keep her voice steady. "If I see so much as a red-winged shadow anywhere near Batman or his allies again, I will personally see to it that you are locked away. I know Police Commissioner Gordon personally, and he'd love to clear the streets of a loose cannon like you!"

Despite the pain, Richard's eyes widened at the threat. But Oracle didn't say any more than that, she released Richard and darted away through the open main gate, disappearing into the darkness beyond. She didn't even pause to look back, she was still so angry. I can't believe I liked that guy! She thought angrily and lashed out at a nearby wall, which gave her no reward except a split knuckle and a sharp pain in her hand.

Meanwhile...

"You wanted to see me?" The tall man wheezed as he stepped into the shadowy room, shutting the door behind him.

For a moment, there was no reply and the man started to think that he had the wrong room, but there was suddenly the kaww kawwing of a raven and a large chair behind a fancy-looking desk spun around.

"Mr. Crane, how long has it been?" The man in the chair cackled. No sooner had he did so when there was a sudden explosions of kawing and the sound of wings flapping as a cloud of ravens burst from the shadows behind the desk and flew straight towards the man. Any other person would have flinched or even fled at the spectacle, but the thin man simply smiled as he felt the raven's wings brush his face and body.

"A good attempt Mr. Cobblepot, but you know full well that I do not scare easily" He said calmly as the birds flew past him out of a window into the night sky.

There was another pause followed by a chuckle and a scraping noise as the man lifted himself out of the chair and walked around the desk towards him. "Ah well" Oswald Cobblepot sighed as he appeared in the shaft of moonlight shining in through the window. "It was worth a try" Mr. Crane was about to add something else when he suddenly felt the cold tip of an umbrella resting just below his Adams Apple. "And it's Penguin to you" The man holding the umbrella said firmly.

"Yes, of course" Mr. Crane nodded, and Penguin lowered his umbrella. "Now, what can I do for you?"

"I have need of your talents." Penguin replied, returning to his desk and picking up a photograph. Turning back, he handed it to Mr. Crane, who glanced down at it.

"Pretty" He commented, then glanced up at Penguin. "Who is she?"

"Her name is Dinah. Dinah Lance" Penguin said simply. "I want you to teach her about fear"

Mr. Crane's grin widened until it split his face. "Where can I find her?"

"You won't have to" Penguin smiled as one of his ravens returned and rested on his shoulder. "An associate of mine is bringing her to us as we speak. I've already set aside a room in the basement for your use."

"You work quickly" Mr. Crane commented as Penguin raised a remote and pressed a button. A screen behind his desk flickered on, showing in image of what looked like a cross between a laboratory and a torture chamber. In the center of that, were five cots and lying in each cot was a teenage boy or girl, restrained by thick straps around their neck, arms, and legs.

As Mr. Crane's eye widened, the penguin chuckled. "You have no idea Mr. Crane."

And Cut!

So, for those of you who haven't guessed yet, the main villain of this story is Oswald Cobblepot, AKA the Penguin, and we are also introduced to a new villain. Anyone recognize him?

It appears that Barbara's crush on Richard has been...crushed (for lack of better word). Will this be the end of their relationship? What will happen to Dinah? And what is the Penguin's Masterplan? To find out, stay tuned!

Until Next time!