Without Hope

William Cobb

Bruce Wayne did not like the fact that he had been drugged to get a son. Though he loved Damian, it was very frustrating to find out that Talia had used him to breed Damian. He hadn't spoken to her ever since she had handed Damian to him. He dreaded going to the League of Assassins base, where he would most likely meet the wretched woman again. He could only summarize what Damian felt.

"Robin, I've got a lead." He stated, staring at the little black communicator in his hand. He really hated to tell his son this. He had been purposely banning Damian from all the patrols and missions that Ra's or Talia showed up in. Though Bruce knew that it was aggravating his son, he still continued to ban Damian. He only wanted the best of his son, and he didn't want any of his evil relatives killing him. Heck, he didn't want Damian to be near them at all.

"Oracle has a classified informant," Bruce had to say classified, or Damian would most likely hack into the Batcomputer's database, find that person, and then totally annihilate them until they gave him more information, "whom said that they had seen Nightwing."

"What?!" Damian's voice screeched on the other end of the line, and Bruce grimaced, holding the device away from his ear. "Why didn't you inform me sooner?!" Bruce could see practically see his son's scowl.

"The informant said that she spotted him in Ra's place. He was supposedly fighting some of Ra's usual thugs. He was apparently stopping a weapons bust." There was a unusual silence on the other end, and Bruce was immediately regretting telling Damian that. Maybe he should've sat him out, and brought in Batgirl and Red Robin instead.

"Well, what happened next, why is he missing?!" Damian's loud voice was back, and as irritating as it was, Bruce was relieved that he hadn't broken something inside of his son when mentioning Ra's. He knew that Damian despised Ra's, and even Talia to some extent. He had never got the full report of what had happened with Damian back at the League of Assassins, but he was pretty sure that it was horrible and grueling.

"Well, the informant ran, but they said that Nightwing never reappeared." Bruce switched the Batmobile from autopilot to pilot, needing to do something with his free hand.

"What? The informant ran?! What kind of coward would-" Bruce cut off Damian, dodging a nearby blimp that was way too close to the Batmobile for his comfort. The car's wings had propellers, which could rip right through the blimp's materials in one fellow try.

"Robin, not all people are like you. Anyways, meet up with Batgirl in the Batcave. The Flash may be there, but just ignore him. He'll only get in the way. I'll hand the debriefing to you. Tell Red Robin and Batgirl what I just told you." Bruce cut off the connection, and leaned back into his seat.

He silently mulled over the fact that his loyal butler and guardian would tell the Flash what happened, while pressing his foot on the gas pedal, enabling the Batmobile's thrusters to ignite, flying faster and smoother in Gotham's smoggy night sky.

Bruce was thankful that the sacred city 'Eth Alth'eban was close to Gotham. The Batmobile's battery was already running on fumes, and he cursed himself for not spending time on figuring out a way to convert the gas needed to fuel the car, to water. He could see the gas meter slowly turning right. He should've charged the battery yesterday, but Damian had ran after the Joker, and he had totally forgotten about it. It was a good thing that the car could still run on regular, fossil made, gas.

He needed to speak to Damian about upgrading the Batmobile.

Bruce looked at the little forrest that surronded 'Eth Alth'eban, and found a little spot where he could hide the Batmobile. Bruce silently touched down, stirring the leaves, but not making a huge noise. No ninjas came out of the trees to kill him, so Bruce unbuckled his seatbelt and hopped out of the car.