Chapitre 19: Chapter Nineteen
Once again Bruce opened his eyes to see a dark room, his arms and legs were restrained to a metallic beam. But judging from the energetic feel to his body and the exposed skin that seemed to have been revitalized he guessed his latest trip through the Lazarus Pit had restored his body to around his late fifties. He believed at one time that he would be happy if he was at least this age again, but he felt nothing.
How could he, his boy had been killed. He never thought that even Ra's could do such a horrible thing to his own family, but he was wrong again. If he wasn't so angry about it, he might have even laughed. For so many years people always said 'You can't argue with Batman, because he is never wrong about...'
Sure, some of those words were just said in jest, but Damn them for suggesting such a thing. Damn him for half-believing them. Maybe he could have seen something like this happening if he hadn't.
"Beloved, I have come to see you one last time." A woman's voice from the unguarded doorway said drawing his attention.
"Don't bother. I wouldn't exchange the time of day with you," Bruce bitterly responded back.
"I can understand your anger towards me, it is a matter of course. After what I am doing to you now." The sadness in her voice was apparent. She sounded like an abandoned wife hearing her husband's banishment for the first time.
If Bruce didn't control his emotions with a vice-like grip he might have even sputtered at her words, "What you did to me? What you have done to me is nothing. Sure, it hurt my pride a little, but I know the loyalty you have always held for your father. But Damian was our son!" Bruce yelled then paused to collect himself before continuing again, "You disappoint me, Talia. For your father, you turned your back on the only person that loved you as much as anyone ever could. That makes you just as much a monster as Ra's... No, it makes you more of a monster than Ra's ever thought about being."
Stricken by his words she replied at a faster pace probably panicked at the implication of Bruce's words, "He is not dead. Father has assured me! He is alive, just in a dormant state!"
Rolling his eyes, "What has happened to you, Talia? You were never this dumb before. What happens to anyone when their thoughts are overwritten? The brain is an amazing muscle but it doesn't come with backup data banks. Where would Damian be stored if he has nowhere to go? The answer is simple…" Bruce couldn't say the words, but he wished he could spit them at the woman. Even if they could get their son back, how could he be the same person? How would he not be damaged… he'd be a mere shadow of his former self.
"No, it cannot be. He said that…" Talia started muttering to herself Bruce couldn't make out everything she was saying but he wasn't going to let her sink down in hysteria just yet.
"He lied. It's been too long. Not even Damian can come back from this," He growled.
Tears spilled out of her eyes at the realization of the truth of his words.
---
It took about twenty minutes for most of the supplies to be packed inside the aircrafts. It appeared that Angela had already left to put on the Robin gear and Dick decided to also pull out his old gear as well.
'It's not what I'm used to anymore, but I guess it will have to do..." Walking to the pod that contained his Nightwing uniform he placed a hand over the biometric scanner allowing it to identify him.
Suddenly, the floor beneath his feet began to open and something began to rise up from the space. Dick backed away cautiously not sure what was happening. After a few moments, they all gasped in surprise.
Terry should have guessed the old man had made something like this. From the moment Terry met Wayne, he was very consistent in one aspect. Wayne always had a backup strategy. So, he wasn't too shocked to see this happening.
When the new suit came out of its hidden compartment, everyone was finally able to get a good look at its new design. From the data tubes on League history, Terry remembered Dick's original suit design was basically a combat suit with a blue hawk on the chest with a domino mask shielding the wearer's identity. And although the mask protected his alter ego's identity relatively well from being revealed, this new design was on an all-new level.
Though the new suit was still retro enough to look like his previous one, this new suit had more of a shinobi vibe instead.
The dark blue symbol was still on his chest but where the wings normally came to a point, they instead flowed up his neck and down his arms to his gloved hands. Terry could also see the neckline was much higher up his chest and was also attached to the mask and increased the shielding around his head more.
Dick didn't wait long before he left to start suiting up as well, he seemed to be more excited than a child on Christmas morning.
"We have incoming! Both Superman and... Supergirl?" Diana said looking at Terry for confirmation. Which he gave a slight shrug of his shoulders. How would he know?
"Powergirl, actually. I considered the name 'Supergirl' but I feel this name suits me a little better." A feminine voice said from the stairs.
She was wearing an all-white leotard with the all too familiar vibrant red and yellow 'S' on her chest. Her cape hugged tightly to her shoulders and stopped around five inches before her feet. Her arms and legs were covered with gloves and boots which were similar in color and covered all four extremities to the joint.
Terry's jaw was slackened and somehow, he forgot how to form full sentences. It wasn't until Diana nudged him sharply in the ribs that he woke up. He couldn't help it. 'Slag! That girl is smoking hot!' Terry thought internally.
"It's nice to meet you Powergirl, but I believe Batman has already met you," Diana said winking at him.
Though he could definitely have gone the remainder of his life without the hostile glare the taller man behind her gave him after seeing Terry's reaction.
"Superman, it's good to see you again," Diana said breaking the tense atmosphere a little with her calm words. But one look at the amazon told anyone that Clark's glare was not appreciated.
Confused at her glare, Clark didn't say anything more as he guided his cousin the remaining distance into the cave and directly towards them.
Seeing the exchange from his vantage point, Terry had some complicated emotions roll through him. As Diana's student and friend, he couldn't find anything wrong with the protective instinct that she obviously felt for him. Even going to the extent that she would shield him from a glare but he had the feeling she wasn't protective of him because of being her student but because she was apparently his… mother. If that was the case then something felt wrong with it… It was all so new and he wasn't sure how this all fit into his life.
The man of Steel hadn't lost a step in maintaining his physique, astoundingly toned muscles were packed within a black and white suit. His face had obviously aged but he still looked to be in his early fifties with the man's temples greying slightly. Terry also noticed the 'S' symbol had a different font than usual, at first glance, it appeared to be two oddly shaped boxes but the more he looked at the symbol the more he filled in the blank space to appear like an 'S'.
"It has been a long time, old friend." Superman offered a handshake in greeting. It was apparent he still remembered the days they fought side by side years ago.
"It has indeed been a long time. Clark, I'd like you to meet the new Batman. He is Bruce's apprentice and apparently our son." Again, that awkward silence entered the room making everyone freeze including Kara he saw her mouth form the word 'son' in surprise.
Terry expected the woman to say a lot of things but this was definitely not one of them. If he had an inkling that she was going to confess this 'particular' truth, he would have interrupted her… But the cat was out of the bag now. He hadn't even gotten his head around the idea, and now he was going to have to answer questions... slagging.
"So, you and Bruce…" Superman started to say but she waved a hand cutting him off.
"No, it appears to be something else. But Amazon's view family differently than people in the world of Man. We share genetics, which means to me he is a part of my tribe… Meaning the new Batman is an Amazon." Diana said looking fondly at her newfound family.
Hearing the words 'Batman is an Amazon' Terry wanted to go lay down somewhere. This was all happening too fast. 'Well, her words answered some of the questions he had been having.' Terry internally thought and he did appreciate how she didn't go into details about his specific origin, for all he knew Question was just off his meds today and none of it was true. Regardless it wasn't time to focus on any of this.
"O... kay, well it is nice meeting you too, young man," Superman said seeming a little unsure, but his smile was genuine.
Shaking the offered hand Terry briefly remembered that... This person is Superman! Yes, Batman was his favorite superhero currently (because Batman was Terry himself), but as a child, Superman was every little boy's favorite. He had played with his friends and more often than not, they all fought over who was going to be this man in front of him. It was a little mind-blowing, but before he could make a fool of himself Dick's voice rang out drawing everyone's attention.
"Okay everyone, gather around we need to go over strategy. With recent satellite images of Infinity Island and as we all know the island is very small but the facility goes down several layers." Dick pauses and presses a few buttons on the Bat-computer and images of an Island with large ancient-looking structures.
"There are two primary locations Bruce could be held. First is the holding cells…" Dick hardly pauses in his speech and images of different locations would periodically show up and the images would soon follow with detailed explanations of access points and possible resistance. Suddenly Terry felt like he was back in high school listening to the most interesting lesson he had ever listened to. It wasn't hard to tell why Nightwing was considered Bruce's greatest partners in history. He was thorough, hardworking, and had great deductive reasoning skills that were almost on the same level as Bruce himself.
He found himself wondering about the real reason why Dick had disappeared all those years ago, but his mind was quickly placed off track a second time in just a few minutes by the girl that began to walk out of the shadows wearing a dark purple hood that covered her face. There was a cloak over her shoulders and beneath the shadow of the cloak was the Robin suit in all its glory.
He couldn't imagine Dick ever wearing such a revealing outfit. Although he hadn't thought the word 'revealing' would best describe this suit when he saw it on display.
But on Angela… Well, let's just say he had to quickly look away from her due to the fantasies that started popping up in his head.
Taking a moment to compose himself, Terry refocused on the debriefing Dick was giving them.
"…my guess, he is probably in what they call the 'Shadow's tomb'. Above the ground appears to have a simple layout but this is where the tomb's entrance is located. There will probably be a few assassins protecting that entrance but if we cause enough of a distraction on another front, we should be able to get in and locate Bruce."
"So that means we will be splitting up," Kara said interrupting Nightwing's continuous flow.
Meeting her eyes, Nightwing nodded his head, "Yes, we will need to break up in at least three teams. Batman and Robin will be one team. Wonder Woman, Superman and you will be another. And I will stay with the ships manually controlling them until a decent enough distraction has been provided. Once Batman and Robin locate Bruce, they will communicate that information back to us and we will all converge on their location. If for some reason they have not or can not communicate within one hour, we will reconvene and extract them regardless of whether Bruce is found."
Dick halted meeting everyone's eyes, allowing his words to sink in. He meant that they might fail, that Bruce was a lost cause, Terry realized. As much as he wanted to stand up in protest, and as much as he wanted to scream that they were not abandoning the old man.. be didn't or couldn't he wasn't sure. It was the pain in Dick's eyes that gave him pause in that familiar anger.
Then I dawned on him, Bruce would never want anyone to sacrifice themselves for him and everyone here was someone he cared about. He'd much rather die himself, rather than let anyone here die in his stead.
Determination lit Terry's features as he raised his head to meet Dick's penetrating one, "We will have the old man within one hour, you can count on us."
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
Lonefrog
Lonefrog Alright, this chapter was a set up for the next chapter that will immediately go straight into the action. I have the next chapter wrote about 40% so far so I'll have it up either today or tomorrow.
État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
-- Classement
Power Stone 
-- Power
stone