Love Birds

Dead Bird Squawking

Dead Bird Squawking

Dick Grayson

            “Dick, come back here!” Dick dropped his helmet beside his bike as Bruce called his name from behind him while he jumped out of his car. A familiar emptiness was invading Dick’s chest; someone else he cared about was gone; just like that. There was a stake impaling his stomach that told him that The Raven was never coming back and neither was Ace Card.

            “Dick!” Bruce yelled, Alfred glancing between the two heroes curiously. Dick began climbing up the stairs towards the mansion when a firm hand gripped his shoulder and spun him around. The teen glared harshly up at Bruce. “It had to be said,” Bruce claimed calmly, his mask removed and his stern, fatherly eyes sincere.

            “She’s gone, Bruce,” Dick hissed, his fists clenched by his sides. “For one thing, you had no right to discover her identity. I mean, as far as I could tell she wasn’t itching to find ours,” he snapped, his stomach boiling with rage. “Secondly, you’re a grown man and she’s a teenager; there was no reason for you to be firing back at her the way you were,” Dick continued, watching Bruce’s jaw tighten and his eyes harden.

            “Did you know that part about her gambling parents before you claimed that she murdered them?” Dick questioned lowly, seeing the dark answer in his eyes.

            “No,” Bruce stated quietly.

            “I wouldn’t have called it murder, Bruce. That’s called self-defense because Ace was only trying to defend herself from being forced into the hands of some psycho.”

            “You don’t know that,” Bruce growled.

            “No, I don’t, but I know Ace Card better than you and I know she would never kill anyone without justification,” Dick argued before tearing out of Bruce’s grip and furiously storming up the rest of the stairs. Bruce watched him leave and felt Alfred appear behind him.

            “You told him, Master Bruce?” the old butler questioned even though he already knew the answer. Bruce released an exhausted sigh and nodded. “Master Dick’s merely a juvenile teen, no worries, Master Bruce; he will get past this soon. Every teen boy does after his first heartbreak,” Alfred said wisely before shuffling off. Bruce nodded, unsure but hoping that Alfred was right.

Bruce sat behind the computer, staring intensely at the monitor as he tried to busy his mind in his work. The poker card, the Joker of Hearts. By now, the vigilante had concurred that there was some sort of pattern The Joker was following. In the bank, he left behind a King of Diamonds, at the Burk residence he discarded a Queen of Clubs, and at the most recent victim’s the psychotic clown left a Joker of Hearts. But what did it all mean? Bruce spent hours wracking his brain for what the pattern meant,

            After a while, Bruce had discerned that each card was symbolic for the most recent victim; after being robbed of priceless jewels, the bank was blown up using explosives which left napalm residue on the King of Diamonds card, Principal Burk was a respected man beaten to death with a baseball bat and then assaulted with a Queen of Clubs card, and lastly, Tiffany Lord was an upperclassman at Gotham High who was the elected Prom queen and notorious heartbreaker; she was killed with a knife and found clutching a Joker of Hearts card.

            That was the King, Queen Joker, the diamonds, clubs, and hearts. According to a deck, what were left were the ace and the spade. Bruce’s brain pulsed and stressed as he analyzed the pattern, as well as his knowledge on The Joker.