A Little Overshadowing Never Hurt Anyone

Don't Do Anything Too Robin-y: Chapter 9

Reminder! "Bold in quotations" Is talking through thoughts. 'bold in italics' is strong thoughts, but are not meant to be words, but the other can end up hearing.

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Bruce had been having a really long night. He needed to get back to integrating their new resident ghost for answers, but instead, he had to go and find out what the problem was with Gordon. It turns out there was some kind of octopus-like ghost that had been harassing civilians and the GCPD.

Batman managed to throw two ecto-coated batarangs courtesy of Red Robin at the ghost. It seemed to have cut one of its -tentacles?- And started dripping ectoplasm on the ground. It quickly disappeared before Bruce could get another hit and try and capture it. At the moment, they had no way to track it. Bruce just had to hope that it had gone home or somewhere else in the meantime.

He crouched on the floor before scraping up the ectoplasm off of the ground using the edge of a Batarang. He lifted it to the light and narrowed his eyes. He stood up and started walking away, he would continue looking for the ghost later. At the moment they had no efficient way to capture ghosts, so the best they could do is scare them off, which seems to be working so far.

But in all honesty, he was wondering why Gordon needed to call him away that urgently. The ghost hadn't hurt anyone yet and had been floating around scaring people mostly. Bruce could have sent Nightwing or Robin to deal with this. But this is a new threat and he had no idea what to be expecting so it is best that he arrived instead.

He had just been finishing up his investigation when his com sparked to life. "Nightwing to Batman." There was a pause. Something was wrong. Bruce straightened up, and narrowed his eyes, ready for whatever Nightwing was to tell him. "Red Robin's been taken."

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Bruce was back at the manor as fast as humanly possible, the moment he sped into the cave he could see Dick, Damian, and Alfred waiting for him. Dick and Alfred looked a lot more worried than Damian did. It could have been because Damian tried to kill Tim multiple times before in his quest for the Robin mantle. Or because he doesn't like showing his emotions, even around his family members. Or perhaps a little of both.

He could see the tension in the boy's shoulders though, so he was worried to some extent. Bruce walked quickly over to them with grace. Dick was wearing his Nightwing suit already but his Domino was removed, his eyes were a little red. While Damian was still wearing casual clothes and had his domino on as he looked up at Bruce with his arms crossed.

"Debrief now." Bruce's voice was serious. He kept the cowl on, but his sons and mentor (practically father) could easily tell he was worried.

Dick sighed, "The ghost we were holding escaped containment." He gestured over to the cage, now powered down and the door swung open. "Tim was the only one in the cave at the time and the ghost possessed him and took his body and escaped, leaving his tracker and equipment behind. He is in civilian clothes, and has left manor grounds. We can't find him."

Bruce nodded, lips in a thin line. So he knows of the manor, and Tim's identity then. Tim is now also kidnapped and is somewhere in Gotham being used as a spiritual vessel. He might have to contact Constantine about that. They can't locate him and have no idea of where he could be. All Bruce could do at the moment would be collect more information. "Did anything happen while he was in the manor?"

Alfred was forest to speak. "I caught him upstairs trying to sneak through the kitchen. He was in full costume. We engaged in light conversation before Master Dick arrived, sir. But the boy did seem uneasy about something."