The Dark Knight Chronicles; My Brother The Renegade; My Father, the Batman –
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Chapter 10: Baby Said
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Title from Maneskin's album Rush. God, what a voice in Italiano. Whoo! Ah, but this one is…. you'll see.
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Bloody dreams. He couldn't slumber like a corpse. Slade had offered to speak to Alfred to have them back closer in the same hall, yet Richard knew he was not going through your average, withdrawal.
The shift didn't, however, seem to upset Slade as much as the others had witnessed in the start. In fact, he was back to his apathetic self when they were around, but at night. In the dark…
There had to be more to this forbidden romance that Dami and Duke with Cass, were not getting.
In the next room, Cass listened while in her outfit only used for stealth missions. She had no need to be a bat on the run if Slade could hear through concrete to the next macro – verse.
~ Dick, you really should up. ~
~Why? I have to patrol. ~
~In your less than perfect state? ~ He was putting down their leader, and Dick was angry about it. Cass swallowed and kept the device on the wall. Her ear plastered against the pale white, cold and full of microscopic vibrations.
~Slade, go and pester Alf if you can't keep yourself busy enough. He's done more than –
~Than, what. ~
She bit back a gasp. Maybe it was abuse….
~I'm sorry, but this is all way too…. too… augh! ~
~Temper tantrums, Dick? The old bat, would disapprove –
She understood now. Slade was acting as Dick's "Alfred…"
~How did you get out of the insanity of getting the United States military…you volunteered, I didn't. ~
~I know that, and the serum preserved a great deal because…the formula's effects were not completed. ~
~Are you – what did you find with Tim? ~
~The dionesum was too raw, not the sort that was perfected; you were left there but that may not be the last we'll see of the Court's scientists. Or Cobb… ~
~Oh, God… ~
Cass held her breath and left the hall. That was it, Slade knew the before, the fact that someone was working in a secret place with reasons for now that Tim didn't know. Slade was lying. His voice gave him away, a smirk behind the mask of a wanted criminal.
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Dami paced Duke's room as they both awaited the news that Cassandra would bring. That Slade was a bit of a double crosser, that Red Hood was right to have a recount to keep Wilson in the manor.
How he prayed to the gods of olden in other tongues that Slade had no alibi. No way out.
" Open up."
Dami swung out to reach for the handle. Her face was twisted - up as Dami waited for the real mystery to be unveiled. "What happened, Cass?" Duke was the first to jump with his question from the teen's study desk seat.
She panted out the words, breathless.
"Slade is, familiar with who did this and he lied. Tim doesn't know about what the formula was supposed to replicate. Richard's not a Talon yet, but…. but this is why we have to stop Slade, like now! He could be helping to make it so that the owls win, but why?"
"Why?" Dami's fists ground as his knuckles ached to hit that two toned freak's mask head on.
"Because Talon are soldiers, and he wants that for his pupil. A soldier, like the rest of us still didn't know. He's trying to subliminally change this family into his own personal army."
"How do we get this out and heard, already?" Duke asked as Cass tried to not get just as angry about Slade's agenda. "He could be countering this; the owls have a leader, right? Cobb is just a yes man for them. What if we got some chance, any to catch one."
"An owl, or a Talon?" Dami crossed the room and stared out at the courtyard from Duke's bedroom window. "Dick is an incomplete specimen, maybe Slade believes he has the power to own one, but I think he is just fed up with not being heard. Damned dictator." Cussed the kid. "I'll alert Luke and see if he might be of some help. As for one more…"
"You think she can distract him, tonight?"
"She has it in her to go toe to toe." Dami answered the flustered Signal. "If Slade doesn't convince Richard to back out of his plans to patrol the city."
"How to stroke an ego that mighty, is the question…"
"We don't need to, but I know who can rile Renegade up…"
Grinning, Cass had a plan as Dami nodded. "Todd could do it, as long as we get Richard out of the manor, though someone has to stay back and keep Slade preoccupied." Dami stroked his chin, raising his eyes as the others froze up, dumbly looking at one another. "So, who's going to pull that off? Any, volunteers?"
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This was operation "make Dick run into their ace in the hole." Kate Kane was a star pupil but a bit rough around the edges. She and Dick had never met officially, so whenever they would now, it could be up to fate that she'd get the rest out of him by her own tactics. However, that wasn't the one person alone who could pull off the job. Selina may have objected to using her wiles unless for the right reasons, yet Dami talked her down a notch. That Slade needed to quit pushing them so that they could find the real Bat. They had reason to suspect she'd have a back door to the manor, yet Alfred heard his share and to their surprise, he didn't oppose the idea. Not a bit. That…. made Dami cautious. If Duke and Tim were hypnotized by Slade or some creature posing as said adult, then who could they trust to keep the bats' assumptions safe?
She came as casually dressed yet fine as furs from the countries of those banned to keep live kills. Alfred was at the door, and with a turn of the knob, his eyes got a bit of glimmer to them. Dami rushed to the balustrade that new evening and saw him…. try to turn her away??
"Slade…" Dami rushed in, yet Duke took to dragging Dami back with a hand over his mouth to a coat closet. "Sorry, but you have to wait until they return."
"Duke?? Is Slade behind your hypnosis…and Alf –
The door shut as Dami had lost out. This was treason! He kicked at it and growled out. Of course, poor Duke didn't know he was doing this. Duke was a vic –
Dick….
Dami grabbed at his pocket for his comm unit. The damned luck??…
It had fallen out in the time he'd been grabbed, probably pocketed just as Selina had forced her way up the trellis to where Dami's hall was. "This is not overtime, it's just a friendly nighttime, service…Bruce…" She climbed, hoping to hop through a free window since this had been expected. Slade had a few new tricks, that never included not messing with her kids.
He was quite good at falling in that category, quite quickly.
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