The Dark Knight Chronicles; My brother; Renegade – My Father, The Batman –

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Chapter 9: Crawling From You

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Dick batted open his lashes slowly. He could hear nothing but a buzz in both of his ears. His suit was gone. His mission to apprehend that freak from the subway….did he –

"Richard…" Steph was there, with someone else.

Slade.

"I told you to stay and wait for back up, you never stayed in range…now, look at you…"

What…. what was he say –

Dick looked at his body.

Blue .

Blue veined marks littered every inch. He was in nothing but a speedo that must have been for….as he stopped breathing long enough pass out, the ringing finally had stopped.

~Just rest…. we're getting you home. ~

/

Tim had his head in his laptop. Dami and Cass were still amiss. Stephanie had found Slade and had tagged along. But…what had happened?

"Was he drugged up pretty badly?"

"Yes."

Tim tried not to stir as Slade's displeasure was thick in the air around the troupe.

"How…. how did –

"Any more questions will have to wait until after the testing, is done." Slade stated, curtly. "Are we clear on that?"

/

An hour, and the results weren't good.

"Fifty types, or was it grams…" Steph pulled back as Tim rolled his eyes, head now hung. "No, it was a dose of the components to make up a number of solutions. Mostly, I can't say but I'm sending this to a second source. What the test did find evidently…" Tim swallowed. Slade was breathing over his shoulder, having as little strain on the topic as was possible for the killer to show. Tim still felt like curling into a ball. "Electrum."

"Owls."

Slade pulled off; Tim had room to wipe his brow at last. "We're not letting this slide; you'll have to defend your territory before they come for him."

"They will? I mean, why?"

"It was to activate it." Tim tried to end his sentence, but Slade knew the substance. It granted something even a super soldier would hail as deadly. "He'll be talon material before long. We should erase the evidence then –

"Jason?"

The ex-robin crossed over and pointed a finger at the mad man's chest. Slade just stood, letting the insults swing over and over. This was Dick's penance. The owls were so damned impatient and though so, they'd broken their deal. "How did you know to look –

"His tracker was just one. He's mine, you forget."

"He is NOT." Jason snarled back. "Dick is now a target! Dami already gave us reason to freak that they'd start ripping down the walls after we just fixed half the manor from Cobb's last attack!"

"Cobb isn't the one."

"How do you know??"

Slade paused. "Not alone, he isn't. It could be the head of the owls getting ready to do more damage."

"Why."

How this game could tire.

"Figure it out." Slade crossed his arms over his chest, eye brow raised below the mask. "You are the bat's other kid. You should have the detective gene intact; I hope for all of our sakes."

/

Dami and Cass made it to the place where Dick was found nearly in a coma. Not truthfully, but right now seemed to be due to the traumas he'd faced. Dami had checked things out on the down low thanks to Cass's stealth and cunning mirroring his own. "Anything spotted?"

"No." She replied. The ground, it didn't have a similar pattern which meant…

"Wait."

Cass brought a gloved hand to the wall instead. "Here." She knocked and by golly, it was not like the others. "A passage beyond the wall."

"Get your mask ready." Dami told her. "We are going in."

/

Tim was still convinced that he should contact Luke Fox soon about some of this. That the new bat was conked out until further notice. "Who is going to put on the suit?"

Tim turned as Jason's pertinent question had eyes raised. "Well? Did you know about that plan B? That age before beauty matters here?"

"That would point to me." Smirked the merc as Jason growled back at him. "No! I'm the next son, the second and YOU." He sniffed. "Are a real threat to this city. Dick doesn't need you – we don't need you keeping us in a bubble! I'm dumping you out of the cave."

"Fight me then, like you did him."

"Gladly."

"Hey, hey!" Steph jumped between them, brashly ignoring the fact that these two could mop the floor with her in seconds. "Wait until he wakes up and the results…. how long again, Timmy?"

"An hour, tops. He might wake up." Tim clutched his temple and bit his lip, not looking at Slade as he backed down. "As of now, he's still acting Bat. You'll have to wait until there is a verdict in this case, Todd."

/

Alfred ignored the tension and went about his work, while Oracle did what she could to map out where below the city, the baby bat duo had ended up…

/

The floors were like soot, or blown up to cover an incident here. Dami shone a strong flash of light over the area, masks up in case the fountain was present to distract them. "We can't really get a good shot."

"Hardly, Cass. I need a bit more, light…but it's better if we don't cause a disturbance here."

He could be right, but it was nerves. This place was an old lab. Not too old, minus the things Dami recalled from his last stay in Cobb's sheltered world for ever a bleeding moment.

"This looks like a facility…for –

"Dick." Dami sniffed. "He had to have been here, that's odd though." The boy tapped about to see if a new wall would open. And so, it had.

"Electrum stores…. empty??"

/

From the rafters, the owl of the owls just watched with interest from his roost. Dami was shuffling through debris, but was he intent on finding out about what that special stone could accomplish?

Who's to say. Wayne had raised a real detective, better than the first by now. And by now, he had to make a quick stop….

/

Stepping about a foot from the bed, the boy was waking. Slade sighed. "You needed more rest anyway since we got here." He chuckled. Richard clutched his side, the man's eyes were different though. "What, is it something on my face?"

"More than that, but you'd better wait –

"No." Dick interrupted. "Come ere'."

With a lean down into the hero, Dick pointed to the man's sword. "As you wish." Slade took out the blade as Dick looked at his reflection through it.

"My eyes…what happened to my…."

Shuddering, he began to panic. "I…. I didn't –

"It's fine." Slade slipped the blade back into its scabbard. "You're not sick, you're just disoriented." He lied. "Slade…. why did, the owls come after me this soon? Bruce…...I really am living his life, aren't I?"

"Maybe, or maybe you have a nemesis out of them, just like he did."

"Really…" Dick thought, breathlessly. "Slade, do the others…?"

"Dick." Babs was there and her eyes were quite watery. "We'll get to the bottom of this for sure. Don't –

"I…lost it…Something went wrong and…. I can –

"You have to, Renegade."

Slade's word for what he was, that title; it brought life back into him. A bolting jolt of electricity ran up his spine as he saw the man's pity. Or was that an act, did failing here make him so sure he'd won their little bet?

Dick pursed his lips. "You're right. I can't give up what's been done. I don't want you to be right about my choices."

"Slade, he might be onto something…but only you can recover the answers, Dick…"

"Thanks, Barbie." Smiled the ex-boy wonder, weakly. "I should try to stay up and test out things with Timmy. Will you be staying the night at the manor again?"

Her eyes softened a bit. "I'm a part of the team. Count me in, just until the results come in." She replied, assuredly. "I'm not going anywhere."

/

Dick tossed and turned on his side of the mattress. He'd given it a day and in that same night before, Slade had said very little between them. Dami and Cass had found a lab that had been blown up to bits right before the events took place. Or after, since the gap was a bit fuzzy. They'd found a small remaining portion of electrum as Tim now had extra homework to do while Slade mentally beat him into a drill that was not at all for the OSHA guidelines of secret and private super vigilantes into criminal investigations. Slade was one to do, not ask a whole lot but it was a spotty relationship. Tim needed space, and yet Slade was versatile in his role. His brain allowed for this sort of flexible diversity of interests as Tim only tried to keep up with his reel of data to unwind. "Got a match. It's not…. found??"

"Illegal or no longer registered contraband." Slade huffed and put down a vial he was fiddling with. "Dick's abductors had old stores. Very old by the signs of the sample out there. Can't you access it from the database the bat –

"No can do." Tim's red flags went off as soon as the bat's files on the owls were involved. The hell he even wanted to side with Jason, but Steph was only playing coy to cope. It was kind of her thing…

"If we don't have a record from the bat, then what do we have? How can we cure Richard if you won't trust me?"

"Because, none of it makes sense!" Tim threw his hands up. "Why are you so invested in…in…orchestrating this?? I'm not an idiot, I saw how you were with Dami. I see everything that they think I'm just scrolling over." Tim narrowed his eyes. "You're grooming my older brother, and worse…worse! You knew who did this before it even did happen to him."

"That is a strong accusation that I think you should revisit at another time."

Tim shook his head.

" What are you planning to do with Dick, Deathstroke. What are your real plans for even being here?"

/

Dami was too worried about the damned fact that Slade was…was…. canoodling with his brother. His brainwashed, not drugged into a state of unease big brother. "I'm going to speak to Timothy." Cass ignored the boy and went back to her science homework. Oh look, chemistry questions were next…how ironic.

/

He made his way to the grandfather clock by the hall, yet all that appeared was a yawning Wilson and so human looking at that…

"What were you doing."

"Tim is finishing up down there." Slade stretched and was really putting on the act too thickly. "I wouldn't disturb his work if I were you."

With no other warnings to implement, Dami was left to make the choice of going back to his room, or seeing to Tim's late night scrolling down in the bat cave.

He chose the latter and saw the man with screens etched over his eyes. Scrolling through the owls' files, and the files of one his eyes locked onto for a mere few minutes.

/

"Who is Thomas Wayne?"

Tim was at the breakfast table late. It was Sunday and the bats had scattered. Cass and Steph were at the mall while Alfred had offered to stay close by…and he needed a few things at the local store down the street from their meeting place. There was a sale on bowties, maybe?

Or white gloves.

Tim was practically drooling over the food as Duke walked about and tried to still write a love letter to his crush. Slade took him aside for a second while Dami had zero luck with seeing if Tim would talk. To his dismay, the man was close to heavy lidded so Dami shoved the idea that Tim wasn't already a complete eye sore to look at. He needed answers….

Indefinitely, soon.

/

Duke was sure Slade had talked to him before as he left the kitchen in a daze. The man was busy munching on a juicy red apple while reading the news from his tablet. The paper beside it was a bit satirical of a title. It must have been why he'd put it down.

~ Fowl not found, and are the bats still roosting? No Sign of the Batman; Court Nay – Sayers on the rise. ~

Duke was taken from his bubble as Slade's blue orb tore him from himself once more. "Duke, are you looking for someone?"

"Ah, in a way…. but not here!" He sheepishly replied. "I'm late, to…. meet some friends."

"Do you have your comm handy?" The man flicked the screen with a finger, multitasking as his coffee remained piping at his side of the table. "No, I…. I do." Of course. This was a watcher of all things wanted and useful, a strategist by any hour. An anti – batman, and Duke had to say that he rarely saw the resemblance as he did now. With Slade DRINKING out of BRUCE'S FAVORITE MUG.

/

Dami was there with a brow up as Duke left the room, his eyes fixated on the teenager's reaction and skittishness for once. "Who were you talking to?"

"I, just…ah…. Can we talk somewhere else?" Duke rubbed his neck and whispered, while Dami's brow went a little bit higher this time.

/

"You think that you've been…"

"Hypnotized, but it's hard to tell. So I need you to figure out if I am."

"That could be why…"

"Why what?" Duke blinked at the boy as they sat in Duke's room and rapped about well, Tim's mental health.

"He's a zombie, like. A literal, want to eat your brains kinda, zombie? Dami…that is…" Seeping in a sound and doubting the kid's story, the older teenager exhaled.

"It's not that easy."

"Nothing we do ever is, Thomas."

"Hey, look." Interjected the African American esper. "If I am hypnotized like Tim, then we ca say that it had to have happened –

"The night that the bomber was found…"

"Maybe, or the reason is more like someone got through security."

Dami stood up the bed dipping as he hopped down for the door handle. "I didn't give you any clues! –

"I have the answer." Dami grinned. "I know who is behind our sudden lapse in memory and what they are after. Let me take care of this case. Try to lay low…. for now."

~Oh, but what if this is all a trick by whoever is in charge of keeping us in the dark? ~

The beeping was on silent as the boys looked over their options. The mad man's eye peered back through the small camera at what he could see. What he could do to address the problem with their, trust.

~If I know anything, it's likely that we're being played by someone who's nothing to take lightly. Whoever they are. ~

"Of course, you know who I am, little bat." Chuckled the one behind the scenes as he logged off and took one more sip of his piping hot cup. "Was this an antique?" Wondered the man as he drank the last drop, before leaving one more for these "cunning" detectives; a vague enough clue to find. The scent of deception as his feet took him back to somewhere, lacking at the moment.

And aching to be told how much IT was needed to finish the job.

/

O

K!

So! Slade is in on this but how and why?

Easy, he and Dick are on a different page but Slade is actually doing this to hunt another foe and bring them out of hiding because well…we can't spoil it.

Slade is using a technique to have the team forget every time he encounters them trying to drive themselves away or too close to the clues that he wants. He's prepping them and the condition of Dick being almost a talon will wane as long as the test shows it did not succeed in turning him.

Imagine if it had – but wait! Bruce also was sold off because Slade is being hired to do another side job. To dismantle the fam so that the next threat that actually took Bruce can start fresh. And once their little army is down for the count, they won't have the bat to pull the city up by the bootstraps.

Thomas Wayne got Ra's a little miffed so right now, Thomas is acting intentionally to get Slade to hand over the city since he's the one who has that authority. Whereas Slade wants to get the bats ready to tear apart the court and have Dick do away with the competition so he can't pull from their contract. Dick is still restless (sort of aftermath horny) from ivy's toxin in his body, so Slade is trying to be sure it won't be lasting yet Dick's serum changed something through the process to counteract it. Thus, he may actually be attracted to his enemy Slade and it is making him act all kinds of a mess! Whoa. Jason is a love hate kinda brother so he wanted to take the burden of Dick's off his back as well as kick Slade out of their house. What happens if Dami's theory is right? What if Tim and Duke can go after him with a snap of Slade's fingers? Who will don the costume and raise the gong for the people of Gotham again?? Where is the real bat and why is Ra's tempted to keep him quiet? Find out!