Part eight: Alfred:
I am Alfred Pennyworth, and I have been the Wayne’s butler for years. Recently my last master, Bruce, died. He left me alone, but he also left me with a suitcase in which was his plan.
Yet, I am on the run with a young man who used to be Robin, but now is Red hood, the criminal. Jason Todd came back from the dead and took it upon himself to pursue Batman’s mission, but go deeper.
We are most likely pursued by the army, although I am not sure they are aware of our current location. The first step of master Bruce’s plan is maybe the hardest: gathering the remaining superhumans. For this, he has left us a device, which is supposed to contain all of master Bruce’s knowledge on superhumans, including the way to contact them, their habits, and for an awful lot of them, their identities. It seems Batman spent a lot of time trying to understand those he worked with, and those he might one day have worked with. We are starting our mission by the bat-family, which means we are looking for dick Grayson, Batgirl, and Red Robin. Even though these three are not superhumans, they definitely are going to resist and fight back, and we must find them to prevent their deaths.
This is why we are headed to Blüdhaven, at Jason’s initiative. Even though they hate each other, it seems that Jason feels the necessity of saving him first.
We arrive at Blüdhaven by night, and we try to contact Grayson. When he picks up the call, he answers with a voice I had never heard from him, a mix of despair, hope, and a salt spoon of depression.
- yes?
- Master Richard?
- Alfred?
This call seems to have created some kind of push for him, his normal voice then replaces the other.
- Alfred? What are you doing here?
- We came to pick you up.
- We?
- I am with master Jason.
- Red Hood is with you?
- He saved me, we need to get you out of here.
- I…
A long pause follows, where I can hear him walking, through the phone.
- Meet me at the harbour, there should not be anyone.
Red Hood then speaks over my shoulder, loud enough so that Nightwing can hear.
- are they looking for you already?
- It’s you Jason?
- Yes it’s me.
- To answer you, yes they have been looking for me, but I tricked them, they think I am gone.
- Pack up your important stuff.
- You’re giving me orders?
- Yes, it’s for you, idiot!
I show Jason he has to stop, and begin speaking again.
- Master Richard?
- This guy’s a dumbass.
- Yes, but he is right.
As I say this, Jason turns his head around, I can feel an unhappy face under his mask.
I pursue.
- we are moving to another place, we need you to pack only important stuff, the Batmobile is a not a big container.
- You have the Batmobile?
- Yes, we used it to escape the cave, the military had found it.
- Damn… all right, we meet in fifteen minutes.
- How can we find you?
- I will find you.
He hangs up.
- so? What is the idiot doing?
- We meet in fifteen minutes at the harbour.
- Great…
He drives fast, we get there three minutes before the rendezvous. I get out of the car, getting some air is important for someone as old as me.
Jason tells me to come look. I put my head through the window, he indicates me the radar. The small screen shows two helicopters and three cars approaching. I understand immediately.
- He has given us! Jason says loudly, showing his anger.
- No, they were following our conversations, they got to Bruce Wayne, it’s obvious… what an idiot… they knew who you two were, they only listened to my call… oh no!
I am pointing him the screen, it is showing an arrow coming from a helicopter, on our left.
Jason jumps out of the car, grabs his gun, and shoots, the bullets miss, but the arrow didn’t hit either. It’s green…
We hear them approaching, the cars stopped at the entrance, one of them is going for the exit. The helicopters, faster, are coming down on us. Jason tells me to get in the car. The helicopters stopped.
- surrender now, and nobody’s gonna be hurt.
- Yes, you won’t.
Jason has always been like this, only this time he’s going to get us killed. He whispers me to close the windows. I get it, the whole batmobile is bulletproof. He takes two guns, one in each hand, and starts shooting. He is aiming at the helicopter where green arrow is located. The answer comes from a blast of the helicopters machine guns. He dives to cover as the bullet hit the car, strangely, I feel incredibly safe right now. I look on the radar, the third car is blocking our exit, and more are coming. I tell Jason through an earpiece. He answers me not to worry, backup should not last.
I look again, and it seems some kind of motorbike is dashing between the cars, coming right here. I tell Jason again. He laughs. “told you!” I look at the exit point, where the car is parked, and I see a bike, literally jumping over it. I cry to Jason.
- in the car, now!
- Right.
He jumps out of cover, only this time, an arrow hits him in the shoulder. I get out of the car and begin dragging him in as Green arrow jumps down from his vehicle. He starts shooting at us again. The helicopters are retreating, they do not want to interfere.
A black and red bike drives past us as a shadowy figure is jumping over the batmobile.
It lands in front of us and blocks the arrows. Nightwing.
I finish placing Jason in the car when Arrow and Nightwing charge each other. He is buying us time. Our ally dodges Arrow’s shots, dancing around them like the acrobat he is. Arrow fires an explosive one, which, even dodged, still hits. Nightwing is off balance, but he still stops the shots with his sticks.
I get what he’s doing, he’s provoking him so that our attacker uses all his arrows. He can easily dance around them. Arrow seems to have understood as well. He begins to use a strategy I read about in master Bruce’s suitcase. He fires three explosive arrows, quickly followed by a nest arrow and then by a glu arrow. Nightwing is thrown aside by the three first, then fends off the nest, but takes the glu one in the chest. The glu arrow frees some kind of sticky material, that imprisons our young friend.
- Drive!
A feverish Red Hood is asking me to drive, I drive. I get past him in ten seconds, Jason grabs hi through the window, drags him in the car, then takes his closed fist outside, just in time to hit the Green man. In a few seconds we are going to meet the cars at the entrance… we can make it. I tell Jason to fasten his belt as we hit the barrage made by the cars. Both of them fly in the air. The shock still broke the front of the car… I look back, it seems that the helicopters are first rescuing Arrow, they won’t see us anymore when they’ll start chasing us again. Never mind.
We stop in a forest, we get the glu of master Grayson. There is three of us now… but how many are experiencing fear out there…
next part: Amanda Waller
previous part : Constantine
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