NIGHTINGALE'S SONG:
By: ShadowWing
Disclaimer: Batman, Robin and Company belongs to D.C. Comics and WB Television. Belle Anderson/Nightingale, MJ, Captain Vess, Dr. Parkingson, and Black Magic belong to me.
Author's Note: This story takes place after "The Adventures of Batman and Robin" and "Subzero" but before "The Lost Years" Mini-series and the new animated series.
Chapter 1:
New York City: At Night-
New York was a dark and sinister place by night, where one misplaced step could lead to a persons' end. This fact was forefront in the young woman's mind as she ran down the deserted street. The shadows hid her face and the long overcoat, not common in New York's early spring weather, hid her form. At the end of the street she spotted a phone booth, as she darted inside she considered her next move. She needed help, and there was only one person who could assist her and she really didn't want to call. But she realized she had no where else to turn, as she dialed the almost forgotten number she glanced down the street and gasped. They had found her.
Gotham City: Gotham City University-
Dick Grayson glared at the phone. He had just gotten into bed as was looking forward to a few hours of sleep before classes. Who in the world would be calling him at 4 o'clock in the morning? Bruce? No, he had just left the cave and Bruce understood that he had classes in the morning. One of his pals playing a prank? Most likely. "I'll let the machine get it." he grumbled as he turned over to get some sleep. After the fifth ring the message started, "Hi, I can't come to the phone right now...."
New York City:
As the message started the young woman swore, she glanced down the street they were still looking for her and they had not spotted her yet, she had a little time. As the message stopped and the tone sounded she began to talk quickly and quietly. "Rich, I hope you can hear this because I am in allot of trouble and I am going to need help..."
Gotham City University:
As the person began to talk the identity of the person finally hit Dick. He lunged out of bed and reached for the phone. Just as he was about to pick up the receiver he heard a cry and a loud crash before the line went dead.
New York City:
The young woman barely had time to get out of the booth before the guy with the flaming sword had turned her into cold cuts. As she rolled out of the way she turned to face her attacker, then a pair of hands reached out and grabbed her. "Damn! How'd you get there?" She shed her coat to reveal a form fitting dark purple and gray costume while a black domino mask hid her facial features. She turned to knock out her assailants but before she could do so a number of others were coming. Given what she had already been through that night, a battle was not in her best interests. "Better scram and call for help later." She turned and ran with her "friends" hot on her trail, an alley up ahead seemed to be a perfect way out, until the wall at the end of it stopped her cold. "Hi wall. How did you get here? DAMN!" Before she had a chance to counter, a dart hit her square in the shoulder. As she pulled it out she remembered it from.... She faded into darkness as the dart slipped from her hand and to the ground.
Gotham City University:
Dick Grayson, now wide awake, stood there with the phone in hand and disbelief on his face. Only one person called him Rich. Only one person would call him at this hour. And judging from the number on the Caller ID box, only one person would call from New York. But...it.....was.....not.....possible! "Well it looks like I am not going to sleep until I put an end to this. I just hope I'm wrong." Dick took down the number from the ID box and removed the tape from his answering machine, then he donned his costume. Robin slipped from the campus and into the night.
Gotham City; Bat-Cave:
As Alfred was tidying up he heard somebody enter the cave. Odd since Master Bruce left a short time ago to investigate undercover, as a result he would not be around for several days at least. Alfred was surprised to see Robin enter the main area, Master Dick usually left for the University by now and he did have classes the next day. "Is anything the matter Master Dick?"
"No Alfred. I just want to check on something that I forgot to earlier. It's not going to take long."
"I see. Will you need any assistance?"
"Nope." Robin replied as he moved toward the computers
"Well Good Night then." Alfred sighed. Both Master Dick and Bruce could be so alike when they were working on a problem. Though neither one of them would ever admit to it.
After Alfred left Robin entered the phone number he had gotten from his ID box into the computer. It was from New York, and one of the lower districts, mostly warehouses. "Well that fits." muttered Robin. Then he placed the tape from his answering machine into the computer's analyzer. He punched in the proper commands to have the computer compare the voice sample on the tape with the ones in the computers memory. He was prepared to wait while the machines did their work. It did not take long.
MATCH FOUND. DO YOU WISH TO SEE FILE? Y/N
Robin took a deep breath and hit the "Y" key. He prayed he was still wrong.
NAME: ISOBELLE "BELLE" ANDERSON
AGE: 19
HAIR/EYES: BROWN/BROWN
HEIGHT: 5'3"
WEIGHT: 120LBS
KNOWN ALIAS: NIGHTINGALE
DO YOU WISH TO SEE REST OF FILE? Y/N
Robin sighed. He was right it was Belle and she had gotten herself into a world of trouble. Now how could help? He couldn't go to Bruce, Belle and him did not part on the best of terms. And he could not just up and go, if Bruce didn't get on his case the University would, he had already missed too many classes already this semester. As he paced an idea came to mind. It was so simple and the perfect cover to use to help Belle. As he cleaned up the cave and cleared the computer of what he had been doing he muttered, "Babs is going to kill me for doing this before all of our lab assignments are turned in but duty calls." As he left the cave and returned to the campus.
New York City; Unknown Warehouse:
As Nightingale slowly came around she wondered what hurt more. The knock out drug that she was hit with in the alley or the beating she took trying to get out of this place earlier tonight. She was, as expected, bound hand and foot and quite well. She would be able to free herself with a little time and some work. As she was about to start she heard voices, looks like her captors were taking no chances this time. She had not one, but two men standing watch nearby and armed well. The two men's backs were to her and they hadn't noticed that she was awake yet. Since they were talking Nightingale decided to listen.
"I say we should kill her and be done with it!"
"You know Rollo's orders. He wants her alive. And he does not want her to escape from us again."
"She is one of the so called heroes of this city. We will not be able to scare her into silence like some of the others that have stumbled onto our operation. She must be destroyed!"
"Rollo is wise. His decisions come from the Blessed One himself. If she can be of use to the Order then they will use her. I am sure once she as fulfilled her role then she will be taken care of."
The conversation died after that. This had started out as a simple information gathering mission for a contact she had with the New York PD. Her contact knew that large amounts of contraband was being smuggled into the city by a new ring. Nightingale had been asked to gather information on this new group before they got to firm of a hold in the city. Well she had found the ring's main base of operations, that was good. But it had already gained a good foothold in the city by eliminating several smaller rings, that was bad. And it was allot more than a smuggling ring, during her observation she noticed several high placed city officials and industrial big-wigs working with this "Order", that was worse. Plus it did not look like these guys were coerced into helping, that was catastrophic. Now she had been captured and her only hope for help rested with a cut off message to a person who may not give a damn about her any more. "Please Rich." she thought silently, "Help me."
Next Morning; Gotham City University
Dick was trying to stay awake in class. After telling Babs Gordon about his "plans" she had been determined to ignore him for the rest of class. "So much for asking for her notes while I'm gone" he muttered. At the end of class he approached his professor so put his plans into motion.
"Mister Grayson! Have you given anymore thought to the work study program we had talked about?"
"Yes Professor and I think I will take up on it after all."
"Wonderful! The opportunity to work in an actual crime lab in not one to pass up. I thought that you were not going to accept it because it was in New York City?"
"Well things have changed and New York is not going to be a problem after all. And as you said it is not an opportunity I can pass up since GCPD is not letting any more students into the crime lab for the rest of the semester."
"Well I will contact your teachers about your absence and contact NYPD about your decision. Will 2-3 days be enough time to allow you to settle into New York?"
Dick grinned.
Afternoon; Wayne Manor:
"New York, Master Dick?" Alfred was surprised. It wasn't like Master Dick to make snap decisions.
"Well the Gotham Crime Labs are not taking any more students for awhile and I am going to need the credit to graduate Alfred."
"But I thought you were going to turn this down and wait since it was in New York rather than Gotham. It's not like you have no experience in a crime lab and waiting would not hurt your academics too much till GCPD could accept you."
Dick smiled as he replied, "Alfred you know that and I know that but the rest of the world does not know that so we have to keep up the act. Right?"
Alfred sighed, Master Dick's mind was made up. "Just try not to make the regular lab assistants look like fools Master Dick."
Dick's smile broke into a grin.
Early Evening; Amtrak from Gotham to New York
As Dick settled into his seat for the two hour ride to New York he tried to keep his mind from the past. He failed miserably.
He had met Belle when she had come to Gotham soon after the death of her younger brother. It seemed that she and Bruce were related distantly and her family thought that some time away might help her cope with the loss. Since he had just lost both of his parents the two of them became very close friends as they found ways to deal with the grief.
Later when Bruce revealed that he was also Batman he gave both of them a roles as his partners. He took the name Robin and Belle became Nightingale. It was great working together and with Bruce. Things started to go bad when Belle's headaches started and weird things began to happen around her. The Bat-Cave's computers told the story, Belle was a Meta-Genetic. A extra factor in her DNA gave her the ability to read minds and move objects with her mind.
Dick was caught in the middle after that. Bruce wanted Belle to retire Nightingale, Belle wanted to do no such thing. Dick agreed that Belle should take some time off but not go into retirement. Things came to head one day while he and Alfred were out shopping. When they returned they found Bruce out cold in the main hall of the manor amid shattered vases that decorated the area. It looked like somebody had thrown him across the room. To this day Bruce refuses to talk about what happened.
Since Bruce wasn't telling he and Alfred turned to the manor's security tapes for an answer. The tapes were visual only, but they do say that actions speak louder than words. It looked like Bruce and Belle had gotten into one hell of an argument, again. And Belle had lost her temper. Dick tried to block out the next scene of Bruce flying across the room and into the vases by the power of Belle's mind alone and of Belle, terrified of what she had done, leaving the manor. A few days after that he received a postcard from Belle. It said she needed to deal with what she had become and that she was sorry. It had no return address but it did have a New York City post mark.
Dick was shaken out of the past by the train pulling into New York City's Station.
Chapter 2:
Early Morning- NYPD Headquarters
Dick Grayson walked into the large brick building that served as the NYPD's headquarters at 9:00am per the instructions he had received from his professor in Gotham. He walked swiftly to the receptionist's desk for directions to Dr. Parkingson's office. According to the information he had received at Empire State University earlier Dr. Parkingson was in charge of the students that were doing work study in the crime labs.
"Excuse me," he asked the receptionist, "can you tell me where I can find Dr. Parkingson?"
She looked up at him and had to stop herself from visibly drooling. Once she got her composure back she asked "May I ask who's calling?"
"Richard Grayson, I'm part of the work-study program?"
"Oh yes, we've been expecting you." the receptionist turned toward her phone and dialed the Doctor's office number. Silently she thought 'If this is what the guys in Gotham look like I may have to ask for a transfer!' After contacting Dr. Parkingson and relaying the information she turned back to Dick. "Dr. Parkinson will be right down, by the way my name is Mary Jean or MJ, I'm part of the work-study program too." Offering her hand.
"Glad to meet you. I'm just glad I'm able to do this before the end of the semester." he replied. "So what's it like around here?"
"Not bad actually." MJ replied, "Other than the press trying to storm the place if there is a big case." The elevator pinged, "Ah, looks like Dr. Parkingson has arrived."
Dick turned to meet the Doctor, and did a double take. The person who stepped out of the elevator did not look like a doctor at all. First of all Dr. Parkingson was a she, and was also a complete knock-out. She was almost six feet tall, and had a figure that would make super-models green with envy, that even the conservative suit and lab coat she wore couldn't hide. Her blond hair was fashioned into a bun, and violet eyes were behind a pair of glasses. She held out her hand "Richard Grayson I presume?"
It took Dick about a minute to respond "Yes, and please call be Dick." MJ was chuckling under her breath, he gave her a dirty look. Dr. Parkingson looked amused.
"Don't feel bad," she stated "it happens all the time." She started to walk toward the elevator. "I just show you around today, tomorrow will be soon enough to start you working." As they went up to the actual lab area Dr. Parkingson outlined a few rules, which Dick was expecting. Once on the floor she showed him where the different labs were and what tests they performed in each. At the last lab area a young man was seated at a table examining something under a microscope. Dr. Parkinson made introductions, "Jean Paul?" The man looked up, he appeared to be about Dick's age with long blond hair a small glasses over blue eyes that seemed to be somewhere else. "Yes?" he replied.
"This is Dick Grayson, he'll be working with us for a few weeks. Dick, this Jean Paul Valley, another work-study student from Empire State University."
Dick held out his hand for a shake, the other man seemed to hesitate a moment as if not sure what to do, before taking his hand to shake. The hair on the back of Dick's neck stood on end, something was wrong here. But before he could give it further thought someone else entered the room.
Captain Vess entered the room and exchanged greetings with Dr. Parkinson, he was a tall African-American with a strong no-nonsense voice and attitude that reminded Dick allot of Comm. Gordon. As he shook Dick's hand he stated "Glad to have you here son. I believe Dr. Parkinson keeps this program running so she'll have the extra help that the city refuses to pay for. Everybody laughed at the joke, except Jean Paul Valley, as they left the room Dick asked,
"Is he O.K.?"
"Jean Paul?" answered Dr. Parkingson, "Yes, I think he's lived a very sheltered life though, did a great deal of traveling so socially he's a bit odd."
"Understatement." muttered Dick as they continued the tour.
Wrecked Phone Booth, Later that Night-
Robin carefully circled around the twisted metal and broken glass that was once a phone, he checked the location again and muttered "This must be the place." He crouched down to better examine the slash marks in the metal. "Wait a minute..." he muttered, he took a pair of tweezers out of his belt a pulled something out of the cut. "This looks like a shard from a blade of some type." He secured the evidence and talked his way though the scene.
"O.K. Nightingale was in the phone booth, saw the guy with the blade and ran out. He destroys the booth and she runs...." Robin glanced around, "most likely toward that alley way for an escape route." He jogged across the street and was rewarded by finding more shards imbedded in the wall. He continued talking "She went into the alley and ran..into a wall?" Robin glanced around for more clues. He again knelt down and spotted something under a dumpster. When he pulled it out he discovered it was a dart of some type, he sniffed at the needle "Whoa," he quickly pulled back, "Smells like a tranquilizer of some type. Most likely used on Nightingale and they took her some place." After another sweep area he decided to run some tests on the clues he collected and continue tomorrow.
Warehouse, Order of St. Dumas Headquarters-
Just before she was able to free herself Nightingale ran into a problem, a six foot dressed in a scary black, red, and gold outfit with a big flaming sword problem. She gulped "Can we talk?" He raised his fist. "Guess not." she muttered before he fist came down and the world once again went black.
When she came around, again, she was now strapped to an examination table of some type. A glance around the room did not help, it was filled with a mix of some of the finest medical equipment around and devices that looked like they came from the dungeons of the dark ages. She swallowed, the guy who had knocked her out was standing at the door his costume was a dark red bodysuit with what looked like a tabard from the middle ages over it. The tabard was black, gold and red with streamers of some type coming out the back that faintly resembled wings. His face was covered by a full face mask and a hood. Scary didn't do him justice, hell she thought, this guy might be able to give Bruce lessons. Two other men were in the room as well, both wore what looked like monks robes, the first one wore red and gold and cap of some sort while the other was in gray and a mechanical eyepiece of some sort over his left eye. The one in red spoke.
"Ah you are awake...." his smile made Nightingale's skin crawl, "You are no doubt wondering why you are here."
"The thought did cross my mind." she replied dryly
"You are here to aid to the creation of a truly divine being!"
"Pardon?!"
"I am Brother Rollo, head of the Order of St. Dumas, he " motioning to the man in gray "is the Gray Abbot, and he" motioning to the one in the mask "and he is the avenging angel, Azreal."
"Charmed." she muttered. "So what does this have to do with me?"
"You have a power," Rollo stated "A great power that should be held by the avenging angel not a mere woman." He spat out the last word as if it was contaminated.
"Power?" Nightingale tried to look innocent "What power?" Inwardly she cursed herself for using her telekinetics last night to break out of here. She glanced around to find psi blockers everywhere, she was in it deep and getting deeper.
"Do not try to use you wiles on me woman." snarled Rollo, "We are prepared. The Gray Abbot's job is to insure the creation of Azreal, he will take the secret of your power and bestow it upon the next Azreal where it rightfully belongs."
The Abbot was starting to put something on her head, "Do I want to know what this does?" she quipped.
"No." he answered before flipping a switch. Nightingale was lost in the pain.
Empire State University, Dormitory-
Dick had just returned to the hall after checking out the phone booth. He was worried about Belle, if she had been captured he was faced with problem of finding her. He sighed, he hoped that the dart he found would give him a clue, but he couldn't run any tests on it until morning. There were certian perks to having 24 hour access to a full crime lab under your house. As he looked up from his train of thought he spotted MJ at the hallway's pay phone. She slammed the receiver down while her face went from angry to worried. Dick spoke to her.
"Is something wrong MJ?"
She gave him a startled look, not realizing he was there and answered "No." It sounded like she was trying to convince herself.
"Doubt it, if that phone could talk it would agree with me."
MJ sighed, she needed to talk to somebody, "A friend of mine has gone missing. It's been at least 3 days since I last talked to her."
"Could she have just forgotten to call?" asked Dick. As a college student himself, he knew this happened all the time.
MJ shook her head, "No it's not like her at all. She has an elderly grandfather, he's only family she's got and she always makes sure somebody knows where she is or has a way to contact her if anything happens to him."
"What's her name? Maybe I can help." asked Dick.
MJ took a deep breath and replied "Belle Anderson."
Chapter 3-
Belle Anderson's Apartment- Early Morning-
Dick and MJ walked up to the front door of the apartment. Dick spoke his mind.
"Are you sure this will not get us killed?"
"Don't you mean arrested?" quipped MJ
"No, I mean killed," he replied "I do know Belle. She has a thing about her privacy."
"Yeah," answered MJ "but if we help her out of whatever mess she's in she can't kill us for that now can she?"
"No she can't" answered Dick, "She'll thank us, then kill us. Now do you have a key?"
"Nope." replied MJ.
"Then how do you expect to get in?" he asked. MJ pulled out a set of lock picks, Dick groaned, "Now I know that we are gonna die. Where did you learn to pick a lock?"
"I used to be a petty thief." MJ had the door open in 30 seconds flat. "After you."
"Remind me never to tell you where I live." muttered Dick as he entered the apartment.
"MEOW!!!!!" The streak of black lunged at Dick's face.
"YOW!!!" Dick yelled as he threw up his arms to cover his face.
MJ lunged and grabbed the black lump of fur before Dick lost a good portion of his skin. Dick slowly lowered his arms to see MJ hold a very grumpy cat at arms length.
"Dick Grayson, this is Black Magic Belle's cat." sighed MJ "Now I'm really worried, if she was going somewhere for awhile she would either take Magic with her or ask me to cat-sit"
Dick looked at the cat and looked around, "Looks like she hasn't been fed for a few days, no wonder she attacked me." he headed for the kitchen "Do you know where the kitty-chow is? I don't want to search this place while a hungry cat is chewing on my ankles."
After distracting the cat with a can of tuna, MJ and Dick returned to their original task of searching Belle's apartment. Dick was working on her computer in the living room while MJ checked the bedroom. The objective was simple, try to figure out where Belle had gone, as he hacked into Belle's computer MJ talked to him from the next room.
"So Dick how did you and Belle meet?"
"In Gotham," he answered "she was visiting a relative there after her brother died."
"Oh, " MJ continued "How long was she there? I don't remember her mentioning that she lived there."
"A few years at least." he answered "She and the cousin she was staying with parted on real bad terms. I have heard from her occasionally, I was hoping to see her while I was here." Dick finally broke through the password. "Got it. I'm in her computer."
MJ sighed with relief, "I'll keep searching in here."
Dick quickly searched through the files. Overall they were well organized, he spotted a large one named "Order of St. Dumas" he opened it. The file outlined a smuggling operation whose main base was rumored to be a warehouse on the lower east side of the city. It was only a mile or so away from the phone booth where she had called him from. He quickly downloaded the file onto a blank disk he pulled from her desk. He then walked toward the bedroom to see how MJ was fairing. He was almost at the door when he spotted MJ hiding something in the back of Belle's closet, it was a very familiar costume, Belle's original Nightingale uniform. After MJ hid the uniform he pretended to have just entered the room.
"Find anything?" he asked
"No." she sighed, "I hope she's all right."
Dick looked at his watch, "We'd better get going, I'm due at the lab soon."
"Me too." she muttered. Before locking up MJ took the cat with her. Dick swore that the cat was still giving him the evil eye.
NYPD Crime Labs- Early Afternoon:
It was a slow first day. Dr. Parkinson assured Dick that it was usually busier, but she wasn't complaining. Both noticed that Jean Paul was acting weird, even for him.
Jean Paul could barely keep his mind on his work. All day the images of that girl that the Order has captured went through his head. When he wore the costume of Azreal, the things that were done to her were accepted. In Azreal's mind she was just a woman to be used for the good of the Order, when her purpose was done she would be discarded. But in Jean Paul's mind, he knew that this was wrong. If she was also a member of the Order, that was one thing. But the girl who called herself Nightingale was not a member, she did not believe in the Order, therefore she should not be made to serve it. Jean Paul shook his head, these thoughts were treason to the Order, St. Dumas knew what was right, and Rollo received his orders from Dumas. Therefore Rollo was just in using the girl, right?
Dick was biding his time, Jean Paul was distracted with something causing a mishap with some of the equipment. When Dr. Parkinson went to help him Dick started to test the dart he had found. He glanced over his shoulder, Jean Paul had really screwed up, Dr. Parkingson was going to be occupied for awhile. Dick's luck seemed to hold, the tranquilizer that was in the dart wasn't a common one. He ran it through the computer database, looking for places where it was sold, or stored. One address leapt out at him, it was the warehouse that was listed in Belle's file on the Order of St. Dumas. Dick knew what he was going to do after work.
After the mess was cleaned up, the next hour went by without incident. The phone rang, Jean Paul picked up and talked for a few minutes. Then when to Dr. Parkingson.
"Doctor, it's my father again."
"It's O.K. Jean Paul." she answered, "You can go, I hope he gets better soon."
After he left Dick asked "What's up?"
"Jean Paul's father has a cancer of some type, sometimes he has to leave to take care of him."
"Does he have to leave often?" Dick was curious.
"When he first started, no, but I guess his father is getting worse. This is the fourth time this week he's had to leave."
Empire State University- Early Evening-
MJ sat in her room trying to watch TV and not think about her best friend. She was failing on both accounts. Black Magic was sitting nearby purring softly, then without warning the cat jumped up spitting and hissing and leapt out the window.
Being on the sixth floor, MJ began to panic. "How am I going to explain to Belle that her cat is now street pizza?!" The cat came back in, along with a masked young man in a bright red, yellow, green and black costume who was holding Black Magic at arms length in a green gloved hand. Robin was about to make introductions when he all of a sudden found himself against a wall with a nasty looking blade at his neck.
"Give me one reason why I shouldn't throw you back out that window." spat MJ.
"Friend of Nightingale's?" he answered.
MJ pulled back, "Start talking."
"My name is Robin. We met in Gotham. I got a distress call from Nightingale a few days ago, I come here to help and find out she's missing. I was wondering if you knew what she was working on."
"How do you know that I know her?"
"Easy." answered Robin "I hacked into her computer I found your name on her files. I removed some of those files before leaving."
"Well, that explains why Grayson couldn't find anything and why the cat hates you." she sighed, "All I know is that she was working on bringing down a smuggling ring on the east side. Some whacked out religious group called the Order of St. Dumas runs it, the more she found out about it the worse it got. She told me that she found the group's headquarters and she was going to investigate it. That was several days ago."
"I knew some of that." replied Robin "I found out where the headquarters is too. If she is being held by this Order that's where she'd be. Know anything else?"
"I wish I did."
"Well I'm going after her." he handed her a disk, "If you don't hear from either of us in a day give this to the police. I think they can take it from there." With that he jumped out the window.
After he left MJ shook her head "Belle when you get back we are gonna have a serious talk about your friends from Gotham."
Warehouse: Order of St. Dumas Headquarters-
Once inside the warehouse Robin whistled softly. There was contraband ranging from high-tech weapons to Cuban cigars. "No wonder Nightingale was nervous about this group. I wonder why we haven't heard of them before?" He systematically began search the place.
He found a series of labs in the basement. He looked into one and nearly lost it, he found her. Nightingale looked like she had been through hell, strapped to a table of some sort her costume was torn and was out cold. Robin checked her vitals, they were steady but he still had to get her out of here. He gently tapped on her face as she slowly came around.
"Come on Nightingale." Robin muttered "Wake up."
She slowly opened her eyes and focused on him with some effort. "Robin?" She whispered thinking she was seeing things.
"Yeah, it's me," he began to work on the straps "Let's save the reunion for after I get you out of here.."
"Robin! Duck!" Nightingale yelled.
Robin did as he was told. He felt the heavy sword whistle over his head missing by inches. Rolling out of the away he turned to face the attacker. He swallowed. He was facing a stranger in a costume welding a three foot flaming broadsword. The man spoke.
"Know that men call you liar! Know that men call you betrayer! Therefore it is the duty of the angel Azreal to give you punishment!"
Robin now had a real good idea on who destroyed the phone booth. "Oh boy." he swallowed.
Chapter 4
Warehouse- Order of St. Dumas Headquarters:
Nightingale was working on the bonds as fast as she could, Robin would not be able to dodge Azreal for long. She should know, she tried. "Damn!" she swore under her breath. They were on tight, Robin was on his own for now.
Robin leapt up to give Azreal a swift kick to the chest. Good news, it connected, bad news, it didn't even phase him. Worse news Azreal got a hold of him and tossed him into a bank of computers. Nightingale winced. Then Azreal stalked toward the dazed Robin with every intention of sending him to the next world. She began yelling in a vain attempt to distract Azreal from his purpose, no luck. He raised his flaming sword over Robin when the young man sprang to life and tossed a handful of small pellets into Azreal's face.
On contact with his face they exploded into a combination of a sticky substance and a foul smelling gas blinding the avenging angel. Robin moved fast, he leapt toward the table and cut though the straps holding Nightingale. "Can you move?" he asked her.
"Do I have a choice?" swallowed Nightingale motioning to the extremely angry Azreal who was rapidly clearing his eyes and shaking off the effects of the gas.
Both of them decided that actions spoke louder than words and ran for the door. Azreal was after them in a short time.
Five minutes later the pair ducked into a room Azreal was nowhere in sight. Once he got his breath back Robin spoke, "What is that guy made of?!"
Nightingale answered, "From what I can tell he's been trained at birth to be a super-human trained killer at the beck and call of this Order. I think he could give a mutual teacher of ours a run for his money."
"Lovely," muttered Robin "we just have to get past him to get out of here."
"Oh," answered Nightingale "is that all? And I thought this was going to be tough." She looked around. "Robin have you noticed where we are?"
He glanced around, "Looks like the main control center of this place." He grinned.
"Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"
"I don't know," quipped Robin "Last I looked you were the mind reader."
The pair attacked the files and the computers as one. Batman did teach them how to find what you were looking for quickly. A few minutes later they had enough evidence to get the Order out of New York, and were about to gather enough to destroy it for good when they were interrupted.
Brother Rollo, the Gray Abbot, and about a dozen foot soldiers came in through one door and Azreal came in through another door on the opposite side of the room.
"Acolytes! Attack the intruders!" bellowed Rollo.
"Defilers Die!" roared Azreal.
"I've got twelve guys with guns here," muttered Nightingale
"One big guy with a flaming sword here," swallowed Robin.
"Old Belfry-Brain would be a welcome sight about now." She growled as she kicked an acolyte into Azreal.
"Tell me about it." snapped Robin as he dodged gunfire from another acolyte.
"Destroy both of them by the order of St. Dumas!!" screamed Rollo at the top of his lungs.
"Oh shut up!" hissed Robin as he decked the head of the Order into oblivion.
"Didn't know he had it in him." muttered Nightingale as she crowned the Gray Abbot with a gun she liberated from the thug she just knocked out. "That's for the extreme headache you gave me." She stated at the form at her feet.Gunfire rattled the air as Robin tackled her from behind. "Down or your Swiss Nightingale!"
When they looked up Azreal loomed above them, "Damn." Both said in synch. In the background Nightingale heard the hiss of a leaking pipe. "Oh no."
Robin smelled what she heard, "Please don't let that be a..."
Azreal's sword lit with fire, and the world exploded.
Later the duo surmised that a gas pipe has been cracked or broken during the fight, and that Azreal's flaming sword had ignited the gas. Moot point at the current time as Nightingale found herself under a large beam with the world around her in flames. The only thing that kept her from being crushed was a TK shield, but in her weakened state she didn't know how long it would hold up. "Robin!" She yelled more worried about the person she considered her brother than herself.
A hacking and coughing answered her as Robin came through the flames. He pulled a gas mask from his belt and put it on. He reached Nightingale and swore. "Get out!" She snapped. "I'll be all right."
"You were always a bad liar." he answered trying to pry the beam off of her. "No way I'm leaving you here."
"If you die saving me I'll never here the end of it from Bruce or Alfred!" she snapped, her shield began to slip causing her to take in a lungful of smoke. She began to choke.
Robin found the spare mask from his belt and put it on her, she continued "I can't keep my shield up much longer, and you can't lift this beam off so I'm saying this again Robin. GET OUT!"
For the first time in many years Robin had no idea what to do, his mind told him that Belle was right, but his heart told him that there was a way to free her. A sharp crack from above lead to another beam falling toward them both, but before he could react it stopped. Azreal stood above them tossing the flaming beam aside. "Oh great, just what we need ." He braced himself for an attack.
That never came. Azreal reached down and pulled the beam that pinned Nightingale and tossed it aside as if it were nothing. He then helped her to her feet and vanished into the flames. Both Nightingale and Robin stared after him before escaping the flaming building.
Outside the Warehouse- A short time later:
Nightingale called 911 on a nearby pay-phone and waited for the police to arrive before joining Robin on the roof nearby. Both had swept the building for survivors with little luck. Captain Vess arrived with the other emergency services, he thought he felt something brush aside him but when he looked nobody was there. He did feel something in his pocket. When he looked it turned out to be a computer disk wrapped in a note, it said:
Captain Vess just put the disk back into his pocket and smiled.
Empire State University- MJ's Room
Nightingale crept into the room, Robin had told her that she was watching her cat. Upon seeing her mistress the cat bounded up to her with meows and purrs. Nightingale saw that MJ had fallen asleep and Nightingale didn't have the heart to wake her. She left a note:
Chapter 5
Empire State Building- Three days later:
The Order had vanished as mysteriously as it arrived. Even the public officials that had been working with the Order had also vanished, but with the evidence that Captain Vess had provided to the D.A. it was doubted that the Order would or could try again. Robin landed on top of the what was once considered to be the tallest building in the city waiting.
He received a message from Belle to meet him here while he was at work. How she figured out his lab schedule was beyond him, the note was in the pocket of his lab coat. He hadn't seen much of her. It had been a busy day. Dr. Parkingson told him that Jean Paul had left the program with no real explaination, on the plus side, MJ was almost bouncing into work, saying that Belle was O.K. and at home. Dick had just smiled and said that he was right and she was fine all along. He reminded himself to ask her if she knew anything about that note. He was brought out of his train of thought by a tap on the shoulder. And nearly fell off the building. He whirled around "Don't do that!"
Nightingale smiled "Couldn't help it."
He groaned. "Will you ever change?"
She shook her head, and continued "Thought you would like an explanation about what happened."
"Would be nice," he replied "but I've already figured out most of it."
She sighed, "Thanks"
"For what?"
"Coming after me of course." replied Nightingale "I don't want to know what would have happened if you didn't come."
"Why did you call?"
"I needed help, you were the first person that came to mind."
"Can I ask a question Nightingale?"
"Shoot."
"Why didn't you come back to Gotham?"
She sighed, "Aside from the obvious reason?"
"Yeah."
"There are way too many differences between Bruce and I. If you recall we disagreed on allot even before my powers came around. All they did was move what would have happened up a bit. Except the Ming vases."
Robin winced "I remember, Alfred was mad about those. Bruce's pride was the only thing he was mad about. He still doesn't talk about it."
Nightingale sighed "Maybe I'll head up there and apologize. But not yet." she continued "All right enough of this serious stuff, so how long are you here?"
"The semester, why?"
"I'm sure Batman would not approve of you slacking off just because your in New York instead of Gotham. Right?"
"Right."
"So if you are willing I know of a few drug pushers that a certain Captain Vess wants off the street and in his interrogation room for their suppliers. Are you interested?"
Robin grinned and pulled out his line. "If he finds out I'm dead!"
"Do you care?"
"At this time? No."
The pair jumped off the building and into the night.