Without Hope

Bruce Becomes Batman

Bruce Wayne was used to the kidnapping. Being the Prince of Gotham attracted dangerous and larger foes. In addition to his secret 'night jobs', he wasn't all that surprised when one of his children got kidnapped. In fact, it became a usual thing.

At first, when Dick was still sporting his green scaly panties, Bruce hadn't been mentally prepared to have him missing. He had foolishly forgotten about all the dangers that came with being adopted by the Bruce Wayne, and the Batman.

When Two Face had kidnapped and beaten the life out of the first Robin, Bruce had had a mental shutdown. If it weren't for Alfred, he probably wouldn't have found Dick. He remembered not sleeping or eating for days. He hadn't even drunk anything, too occupied by searching in vain for Dick.

Of course, Bruce still did forget to eat, sleep, or drinking when his children went missing, but not to the same extent than when he had first taken Dick under his wing. Sometimes, he would grimly think about what would have happened if he had arrived a little later.

Sighing, Bruce put the lukewarm cup of coffee on the Battable. A memory popped up in his head, and he briefly chuckled. When Dick had first found out about the Batcave, he had first and foremost named everything with the word 'Bat' in the front of it. Bruce had long since gotten accumulated to the language, and had started to use it too. The memory quickly vanished, and Bruce turned his attention back to the Batcomputer.

He had sent Tim and Damian to Dick's apartment, so they could look for any evidence. He had been stuck watching the security footage. Bruce's head hurt from watching the sharp, gleaming dagger embed itself into his son's leg.

"Master Bruce." He quickly paused the video, and turned to the figure that had spoken his name.

"Alfred." Bruce addressed with a shake of his head. He stood up and stretched, knowing full well that Alfred was going to tell him to stop watching the damn video. The sound of a back cracking only further fueled Alfred's rampage.

"Master Bruce. I've got to clean the Batcave. Leave. Go. Get." Alfred not-so-subtly ushered him into the Batmobile, giving him an excuse to leave and do something. He knew that just sitting in the Cave and doing nothing must have been killing Bruce.

Bruce strapped himself in, and hurriedly thanked Alfred, who had turned to leave. He turned to the dashboard, which displayed various different colored buttons that flashed on and off occasionally. Damian had updated the Batmobile, giving it fully functioning fancy new gadgets.

He set the Batmobile to autopilot and pulled out his communicator. As one of the magnificently concealed rocks started silently moving upward, he called up Tim.

"Red Robin."

"Batman."

The two addressed each other, business as usual. The Batmobile rolled out of the Cave, right under the rocks.

"What did you find?"

"Arsenal was there. Other than that, Nightwing's apartment was completely the same. The only thing that was missing was his diary."

Of course Dick owned a diary. Bruce silently chuckled as he heard Damian in the background.

"Of course you would know where his diary is, Drake."

"No names out on the field."

He cut the signal as the Oracle sign flashed up on the screen. Shit. He had forgotten to tell Barbara, Dick's on and off girlfriend. She would be livid.

Bruce massaged his temples as he sent Barbara's call to Damian. He didn't have time for theatrics. Turning off the autopilot mode, he put his hands on the wheel, and pressed another button. The Batmobile slowly lifted up into the air, wings popping out of the sides.

He guided himself through the hazy maze of Gotham, her lights burning brightly, and her enticing smells wafting. Bruce finally made it to his destination, the building that Dick had been jumping off of in the security video. He nodded at the little hidden camera in the corner of the roof, and exited the Batmobile.

Bruce felt around his cowl, and felt the little button that Damian had also made. He pressed it, and suddenly he could see ten times better. The lenses were something that Damian had installed- it magnified and corresponded with Batman's thoughts. If he wanted to zoom in to look at something, all he would have to do was think about it, and the lenses would grant it. It had worked marvelously, and Damian had added the features to Nightwing and his own masks'. He had refused to give anything to Red Robin, so Tim had to make a prototype of his own.

Bruce knelt down, zooming the lenses in. There was a little red spot, one so minuscule, that it would have never had been seen with the naked eyes. He dug around in his Batbelt, and groped around for a swab.

At last, his Kevlar gloves closed around the swab, and he swiped it out of his belt. He took the swab, and dabbed the ground. When he lifted it back up, there was a wan pink that barely showed up.

Stiffly, Bruce stood up. If the blood had been able to be picked up by a swab, then it must've meant that it was fresh. Calculating the hours in his head, he deduced that if it was Dick's blood, then he had been hit with the knife at least a day again.

That meant that the other days that Dick hadn't returned his calls, and seemed to have been completely off the radar, was on his own record. Bruce remembered the argument that he had with Dick before he had stormed off. It seemed like every other spat that the two had shared over the past years, but it had been about something deep and personal.

That argument could've sparked the reason why Dick had disappeared. Which meant that it was Bruce's fault that Dick had been kidnapped. If he hadn't argued with him, than Dick wouldn't have ran, and he wouldn't have been in the situation he was in now.

Bruce looked around the roof, but found no other traces of evidence. As he lithely hoped into the Batmobile, his communicator rang. It was Barbara.

"Batman. You're a shit. Did you know that?" Her voice was strong, but Bruce could tell that it held traces of tears in it. Great, now his guilt was doubled.

"Oracle. What did you call me for?" He straightened his voice, putting his mask back on. He was not going to show any emotion.

"I'm sending in Batgirl." Bruce nodded, thought she couldn't see. Barbara and Stephanie Brown were friends. They had been, ever since the making or The Birds Of Prey, where the entire female Bats made a little group (including Catwoman) that was centered on Barbara, since she had lost all feeling in her legs.

"Is that it?" Bruce said, knowing that she had something else to say.

"Nightwing was seen around Ra's. He was stopping their weapons bust. I don't have footage; there was a woman who saw him fighting. She didn't see what had happened after."

"When did this happen?" He asked, already navigating his way to Ra's in the Batmobile. The jets in the back of the mobile were silent, but were strong enough to lift the Batmobile up.

There was a cough on the other end. "Yesterday."