Starling Wing - Arrow & Rising Robin Crossover Fanfic

Chapter XI: Scarab

Richard stared at his computer, ideas percolating in his thoughts. He needed to track down Jason Todd again, but he had to hold up his end of his deal with Oliver Queen & help catch Tobias Church again. He needed to sort out his priorities & determine which he was more concerned about. On one hand, Jason Todd was a lost murderer who needed to be stopped before he got caught by the SCPD. On the other, Tobias Church was a cruel, demented crime boss who also needed to be stopped before he killed again.

Richard sighed. It was times like this where he missed talking to Barbara.

Richard glanced at his phone & slowly reached for it. He unlocked his cell & began to scroll through contacts list. He stopped when he got to Barbara's name. It had a ring emoji next to it. Richard stared at the contact name. His thumb lingered over the dial icon. Richard sighed, clicking the edit option & removing the emoji from her name. Things had changed. Richard needed to stop dwelling on the past.

Richard tossed his phone to the side of his desk, rubbing his temples. He needed to relax again. He needed to take his mind off of Barbara. He needed to do some work.

Richard pulled up his files on Tobias Church's activities in Blüdhaven, recounting the damage that the criminal man had done there. Church imported weapons from overseas, ran drug rings, & had began infiltrating the city's police department. Nightwing shut down all of that, ruining the gang's plans & cleaning up the law enforcement. After Church's departure from Blüdhaven, Richard was convinced that the washed up thug was done with crime. Richard was naive to believe so.

Richard thought back to what he knew about Star City. Drug rings were a big concern here. Vertigo was launched, selling in record numbers in the streets. Church was most likely involved with that product as well, despite it having already plagued the streets. Richard recalled the other night, when he first tracked down Jason. He remembered the two thugs referring to their product as Stardust. That was something relatively new. Richard hadn't heard of the drug outside of Star City at all. But Jason somehow did.

If Jason was already on a trail leading to a Stardust dealer, he may have intel on Church. Following the Stardust lead could lead Richard to Church, but also allow Richard to investigate the ring enough to find out how Jason infiltrated the gang in the first place. He may just be able to catch two birds with one stone.

Richard placed his hands over his keyboard, suddenly realizing he didn't necessarily have any leads on the Stardust ring himself. Jason was the one who knew the most, & he was gone.

Richard thought back to the night where Jason confronted the Stardust dealers. They were discussing someone who they had connections with...some boy. Maybe Richard could look into that. What was his name?

Richard typed in "Jaime Reyes" into his computer, hoping to gain some information on his lead. A file came up from the El Paso Police Department in Texas, showing a record for Jaime Reyes' arrest a few years ago. This hardly caught Richard's attention. Richard saw a file that came from a Cadmus research facility in Metropolis. Richard gasped softly to himself. He had more than his fair share of experience with Cadmus. Suddenly, Richard felt an obligation to find this boy as well.

Richard attempted to access the Cadmus file, but it was restricted. Richard sighed. He decided to use the image of his mugshot from El Paso to track any facial recognition of him through any traffic cameras in the city. After a while, there was one result that showed a clip of a boy walking down the street. He was entering an abandoned warehouse. The boy wore a hoodie over his head, but facial recognition matched the kid.

Richard wrote down the address that appeared on the side of the screen, then ran to his bed & picked up his Nightwing suit.

Richard stood over the edge of the building across from the abandoned warehouse where he believed Jaime Reyes to be. The footage he had scene was recorded only an hour earlier that night. He may very well still be inside.