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.
"Robin. Red Robin. Batgirl. Did you get the mission debreif?" Bruce turned on his communicator and started walking, trekking through the wildlife. He was careful of the various twigs that were scattered around the floor. They looked small, but the sound they made, when applied the right amount of pressure, was very loud. If Bruce had a penny for each thug who stepped on a twig and alerted him… he would have a million pennies or so.
"Batman. The Flash has infilitrated the 'Cave." Damian's loud voice was back on the communicator, and Bruce grimaced as he lowered the volume down a bit.
"Infilitrated? More like let in! Agent A opened the door for me!" Now, the Flash's obnouxios voice came from the other end. Bruce hurridley turned the volume down even lower.
"Be quiet. Get here now. I'll send you the coordinates-" Bruce started typing, while looking through his Bat-binoculours. He saw Talia, speaking to a man clad in black.
"Your in 'Eth Alth'eban right now, aren't you?" Damian asked, something soft in his voice. Bruce pitied him. The reports had said that this was where Damian was raised.
"Good. So you know where it is. Come here right now. Don't bring Flash," With that, Bruce ended the call, and started gliding through the woods even more smoothly this time. When he reached the edge of the woods, he stopped. There was no use in just charging in half-assed. So, Bruce took out his Bat-binoculars and continued to look through the balcony windows of one of the biggest buildings in 'Eth Alth'eban. He waited for the backup to arrive.
It didn't take long when Bruce heard the soft sound of something rustling.
"Robin. Red Robin." Bruce stood, placing the binoculars back into his belt. "Lets get going."
He took out his grappling gun, and grappled his way up to the open balcony doors. Damian and Tim followed. Talia looked around, but then left. Bruce silently noded at his two partners, and then stealthily ran to the crates that were conviently place in the shadows. He watched as Robin flipped himself onto the beams on the ceiling, and Red Robin tucked himself into the shadows of the balcony doors. All was set, all except for one thing; Talia. Several thoughts came to mind, did she even know what happened to Nightwing? Futher more, why would she tell him?
After a few seconds of silence, silence that Bruce was long used to, the door opened again. Talia walked in, a dark smirk set upon her face. There was another figure too, one that Bruce couldn't see clearly, whom went behind Talia's 'throne'. The woman herslef sat down, and crossed her arms.
Bruce tensed, ready to jump out of his hiding place and give his partners the signal to help, when the door opened again.
"Ma'am! The Batmobile was spotted in the forest! The Batman must be close!" The same black-clad ninja whom Batman had seen before they had busted in, was hurriedly whispering very loudly to Talia.
Talia smiled, and took the ninja's head in her hands. She looked innocent, but Bruce knew that she could kill with one fellow swipe of the hand.
"Bring me my phone." The woman smirked, removing her red nails off of the ninja's face. Bruce chose to wait even longer, wanting to know whom she was going to call.
After the ninja came back with Talia's phone, Bruce eavsdropped on the conversation. It seemed as though Ra's was coming, soon. Now was the time to appear, before Damian's grandfather showed.
Bruce stood, his cape making a rustling sound on the ground. It seemed as though it had alerted Talia, and she perked up in her seat.
"Hello?" She said, getting up. Her voice was soft, but had a dangerous edge to it. He saw Tim poke his head from the balcony. Bruce shook his head in a warning. Talia was dangerous. He wanted to see if she would attack, or tell him where Nightwing was.
"Beloved, is that you?" Talia started walking towards him. She stopped, and the all-knowing smirk was gone.
"Are you looking for that gypsy trash?" Talia's eyes narrowed, and Bruce looked up to see Damian shaking in anger. He inwardly sighed. Ever since he had been sucked into a time lapse, and Dick had become the Batman, nothing had been the same. It wasn't like he didn't like the bond between Damian and Dick; it was just that Damian had changed.
Bruce didn't know what to think of it. When he had first met him, he had been an angry, hotheaded brat. Now, Damian was much more…how to say it…clear-headed.
He was shaken out of his thoughts when Talia moved, placing a hand on her hips.
"Damien. Come out." Bruce looked upward again, seeing that Talia had called Damian. Curiosity took over him; what would Damian do?
"Mother. You pronounced my name wrong." Damian's dark green combat boots crunched on the carpeted ground as he jumped off the rafters and onto the floor. Bruce silently groaned. Of course he would show himself…
He was about to come out of his hiding place too, when Talia said something interesting.
"Oh, I wasn't calling you, Damian. I was calling for my real son." She sneered, disarraying her supposed gentle face to a frozen image of cruelty. Bruce shuddered, it was a wonder on how Damian got as far as he did today, surely any other child whom had to face the wrath of that monster would have long since discovered the realm of insanity.
The figure that had walked in with Talia showed itself. It was a clone, a clone of Damian.
"Damian meet Damien. Your new brother." Bruce widened his eyes as he saw Damian struggle to hold his calm posture, if he showed any sign of weakness, Talia would probably take advantage of it!
"What is this, Mother?!" He could practically see the waves of emotion rolling off of Damian in red waves of fury. Maybe he should come out of his hiding place and try to break the tense anger in the air.
Bruce droned out of the rest conversation, which was pretty unusual. He just couldn't stand to listen to that cynical woman's taunting voice. Usually, Batman would spend every millisecond looking and analyzing data out of speech, Unfortunately, the woman was so monstrous that even he had to zone out everything.
Red Robin jumped out of his hiding place, apparently not seeing how dangerous Talia was. He had his bo staff ready, and his fighting stance fixed to perfection. Tim's courage snapped Bruce out of his mulling, bringing adrenaline pumping back into his bloodstreams. As if he had been awoken out of a deep spell, he jumped out from behind the crates.
"Beloved. You finally choose to come out hmmm? Well, Ra's is already on his way, and if you really want to know what happened to that gypsy trash, then why don't you just ask me?" She made her way to Bruce, a dark sneer tarnishing her features.
Damien, Damian's clone, walked behind her, and Bruce anxiously snuck a peek at the child.
"Father. You're shorter than expected." Bruce's eyebrow twitched in annoyance underneath the cowl. It was like he had traveled back into time; Damien was exactly like Damian when he had first arrived at the manor.
"Talia. I'm not here to fight you. I just want to find out what happened to Nightwing." Bruce didn't yell, he didn't scream, he didn't whisper. He merely used a tone that boarded off all of his emotions.
"You're no fun! If you want to him that much, here's a little hint," Talia leaned towards Bruce's ears, which were hidden under his cowl, and Bruce sucked in a breath to control himself from shuddering under the woman's presence. She was worse than Silena, which said a lot.
"What hides in the shadows, and is not a bat? What has its Talons out, ready for a snack? What preys on evil, but no justice is prevailed? Be weary, for they know, how to make the game of life easy and slow." Bruce's eyes narrowed as he reran his brain over every little possibility that the riddle held. Talia poked his chest, and said something that made his eyes widen.
"That's Talon with a capital T!" Bruce thought back, back when Dick had been in scaly green pants. There had been one incident, one that Bruce had never solved. William Cobb, a man that had called himself "Talon" had been the prime suspect in a long list of murders across Gotham.
Talia said something, but Bruce was caught up in his own thoughts. He signaled for Red Robin and Robin to follow him, and jumped out of the balcony, grappling his way to the Batmobile.