A Phantom Bat

Part One: There's a Ghost in the Bat Cave

Chapter One: The Escape

Batman had told Robin to leave well enough alone. The tip hadn't come from a reliable source, and there were more important things to focus on than walking into what was probably a trap. But Robin looked into it anyway. He was mad at his father for always doubting his abilities, and wanted to prove to him, and himself, that he was perfectly capable of succeeding on his own; and looking into a potential case of meta human experimentation seemed perfect.

The warehouse looked completely abandoned, and the only proof that Robin had the right place were the heat signatures; and a sleek black car that pulled out of an underground parking structure hidden beneath the building. A large amount of power was being consumed by something near the center of the structure. As the young vigilante snuck around on the nearby buildings, he spotted through his binoculars the tell tale heat signatures of hidden cameras built into the ramshackled crumbling walls. Turning his attention to the roof, he saw a large ventilation system.

"Perfect," he muttered to himself.

Circling the warehouse, Robin found the best spot to leap onto the roof without any cameras picking him up. With a running start, he pushed off the neighboring building and leapt into the air, using his cape to glide across the gap. He rolled to cushion his fall, and made his way to the air vents. Robin noted that there was no way Batman would be able to squeeze himself into these vents, despite them being larger than was standard. Clearly this facility was working with something that requires a heavy duty ventilation system.

Using a common multitool, Robin unscrewed a vent, and slipped down into the duct. Peering through the grates, he found himself in a maintenance room. Control panels and cooling units lined the walls, lights blinking ominously. Crawling onward in the tight space lead him to a hallway. The inside of the warehouse did not reflect the outward appearance. Everything here was new, clean, and state of the art. The hallway was cold white walls and floors, with heavy duty steel doors that possessed thumbprint scanners to open.

'All these security measures and yet no one is monitoring the vents,' Robin thought to himself amused.

After a little exploring, Robin found the room that seemed to be the source of the power consumption he noticed earlier. In a large dark room, a huge bank of computers lined one wall. After looking around to ensure he was alone, Robin used a small, powerful, laser to bore through the backs of the screws in the vent grate and dropped to the floor silently. Now with an unobstructed view, he explored the area.

The center of the room seemed devoted to an examination table, with strange straps that glowed green and all kinds of nasty looking tools. What was clearly dried blood had pooled under the table, and Robin knew that the tip they'd received was at least partly right. Some kind of unethical experiments were definitely being done here.

On the other wall, a large circular structure stood with a green swirling pool contained within it. It cast and eery light around the room. Robin thought it looked a bit like a zeta tube, but much more menacing. A strange device stood in front of the structure which appeared to be draining energy from it and storing it in large canisters.

Turning away from the hypnotic green swirl, Robin focused instead on the computers, booting up what looked like the main terminal, which was surprisingly not password protected. He pulled a USB cord from his gauntlet and plugged it in to download as much data as he could, starting with the most recent files and working backwards.

"Let's see what you guys are up to," Robin murmured softly, exploring the files while the download ran. He found what looked like the most recent video file, and after ensuring the sound was off, he pushed play.

The screen showed a boy, no older than Robin himself, strapped into the examination table, both arms and one leg bound by those glowing green restraints. His hair was raven black, and his eyes were an icy blue. His mouth was open it what must be a scream of agony as men in lab coats repeatedly dislocated and relocated his right knee. Robin could only watch so much before he closed the video.

Pulling up a different one, he found the same boy in a strange cage, the walls of which looked like a green force field. The boy looked exhausted in this video, and had a brutal black eye. As the video played, someone off screen pushed a cattle prod through the forcefield and into the boy's side electing a scream. When the cattle prod was removed, a blue ring appeared around the boys waist which split into two, one traveling up and one down. Where they passed over the boy, his simple cotton clothes changed into a black and silver jumpsuit. His hair turned white, and his eyes a toxic green. The boy floated off the floor and glared directly at the camera, hate in his eyes.

"Definitely meta experimentation," Robin confirmed to himself

Robin left off watching the videos, and instead started rummaging through a file holding budget information. He stumbled on a particularly interesting document which shocked him greatly. The government was funding this brutality!

A sudden noise startled Robin as he realized someone was starting to open the door. He yanked his USB cable out of the computer, shut the system down, and leapt back into the vents, holding the cover in place. A simple security guard opened the door and swept a flash light around the room before closing it again. Breathing a sigh of relief, Robin used some fast acting glue to put the vent cover back in place. It only had to hold long enough for him to find the boy in the videos and get out.

Since he was back in the vents, Robin continued his exploration of the facility. In the next room he found tanks of green swirling masses, but nothing that seemed alive. Moving on he found a break room, and a clean room that he couldn't get into through the vents; a powerful fan blocked his way.

Finally, he found a room with a single cell, housing a single prisoner. Looking down through the vent, the boy appeared asleep, with his hands behind his head on an uncomfortable looking cot. Like the rest of this place, his cell was cold and white, or it used to be. Dried blood was splattered on the floors and walls. Looking at the blood in the light, Robin noticed there seemed to be strange green flecks in it. Around the boys forearms, ankles, and neck were what appeared to be inhibitor collars, but they glowed green and the skin around them was red and irritated.

"Hey, you awake?" Robin whispered through the vent.

The boy opened those piercing blue eyes and looked at the vent.

"Did my ceiling just talk?" he asked.

"I'm Robin. I'm here to get you out."

"Robin as in Batman and Robin?" the boy asked as if this was a totally normal conversation.

"Yes," Robin hissed annoyed. "Do you want out or not?"

"Well yeah," the boy said slowly. "But I've tried break out before, I don't know how you'll be able to."

Robin, annoyed with this nonschelant conversation, cut through the vent screws like he had before, and dropped down into the cell. The boy looked him over, but didn't get up from where he lay.

"Come on, we need to leave before they notice I'm here," Robin said, holding out his hand to help him up.

"You want me to crawl through the vents?" the boy asked, looking up at where Robin had come from.

"Well duh, how else are you expecting to get out?" Robin was really starting to hate this rescue mission.

"Oh, it's not that the vents are a bad idea, but my knee is totally shattered right now, and crawling is going to be a bitch."

Robin looked at the knee in question. Even through the ill fitting cotton pants the kid wore, he could tell it was extremely swollen.

"Well look, it's either crawl on a shattered knee, or stay here and be tortured till you die," Robin said exasperated.

"According to these assholes I'm already dead, but I guess you're right. Help me up."

Robin ignored the weird comment and hauled the kid onto his one good foot. He made a step with his hands and boosted him up into the vent. After the kid dragged himself out of the way, Robin jumped up after him and sealed the grate back with glue.

"Okay, which way?" the boy asked through grit teeth.

Robin pointed to the right and lead the way, going as slow as he could for the boy to keep up, which was proving difficult.

"I saw a loading dock on my way in," Robin explained in hushed tones as they crawled. "I left my bike near it. It's our best chance of a clean getaway."

"Please tell me you mean a motorcycle and not a bicycle?" the boy snarked. Robin didn't even dignify the joke with a response. A moment later, an alarm went off throughout the building.

"Shit, they know I'm gone," the boy muttered.

"Just keep crawling," Robin responded.

Finally, after what felt like an agonizingly long time, they reached the vent that lead out onto the loading dock. Robin cursed. The alarm at the boy's escape had resulted in heavily armed guards appearing around the building. At least a dozen stood between the two teens in the vent and freedom.

"What's going on?" the boy panted behind him.

"There are guards. There weren't any when I came in." Robin explained. The boy wonder wracked his brain for a solution. The laser he needed to cut open the vent put off light; enough that they would probably notice. And if they didn't, and he was able to cut it open, the moment they started climbing out of the vent, they would be spotted. If the kid wasn't injured, Robin would just hold them off till he climbed out of the vent; but that was no good. The vent was at least seven feet off the ground, and there was no way the kid was getting out without help. Robin needed back up.

"Crawl back, I don't want to be spotted," Robin whispered over the alarm. The kid scooted back further into the vent shaft and Robin followed him. Once he deemed himself far enough away so he wouldn't be overheard, he made a phone call with his headset.

On the second ring, it picked up.

"Robin?" a voice on the other line asked.

"Nightwing I need a favor."

"What did you do?" Nightwing asked, instantly suspicious.

"I'm just in need of some help on a mission," Robin replied.

"You did the thing Bats told you not to do didn't you?"

"So what if I did! I need your help goddamnit!" Robin quietly yelled into the communicator. There were several seconds of silence.

"Where are you?" Nightwing asked. Robin gave the address with a sigh of relief.

"I'll be there in five minutes. Tell me the situation," Nightwing said.

"I'm in a ventilation shaft on the northside of the building where the loading dock is. I've got a meta they've been running exterements on,"

"Danny," the kid piped up.

"Danny," Robin continued. "His knee is busted and there's a dozen guards trapping us in. I need you to cause a distraction so I can get this kid out of here."

"Got it. I have the perfect thing," Nightwing said. "I'll keep the line open incase something comes up."

The next few minutes where agony. Robin knew it was only a matter of time before they found his tampering and realized they were in the vents. But luck was on their side that day, and they weren't found when Nightwing spoke up.

"I'm here. I see the loading dock. On my signal, get moving." Robin and Danny crawled back to the vent, and Robin got out his laser to begin cutting.

"What is that?" one of the guards said as something zoomed by, tossing dozens of smoke bombs onto the loading dock. Gunfire went off as visibility decreased to zero, and a few took off after the biker.

"Now!" Nightwing called over the headset.

Robin cut through the grate as fast as he could, not bothering to make it a clean job. It clattered to the ground as Nightwing sped by again, dropping more smoke bombs and tossing a few flash bangs into the mix. Robin jumped to the ground and turned around to catch Danny as he awkwardly flopped out of the vent, barely containing a yelp of pain as his knee jerked painfully.

"Nightwing, I need you to take Danny," Robin yelled into his headset over the commotion as he practically dragged the meta around the side of the building. Nightwing appeared out of the smoke and pulled Danny onto his bike instructing him to hold on tight. Robin pushed a button on his gauntlet and his bike roared to life where it was hidden in a nearby ally and drove to him on auto pilot. With a running start, he leapt onto the bike without it losing any momentum and followed Nightwing away from the facility.

Once they were far enough away that they could be sure no one was following, Nightwing pulled up next to Robin.

"We need to get this kid to a hospital now!" Nightwing said.

"No!" Danny and Robin said at once.

"What?" Nightwing asked.

"That facility is government funded!" Robin explained. "If we take Danny to a hospital, they'll just find him and take him to some other facility where we will never find him again!"

"He is totally right," Danny added.

Nightwing was quiet for a moment, his face screwed up in thought.

"Then there is only one place to take him," Nightwing concluded.

"Father is going to love this," Robin groaned.

Let me know what you think. I hope to update once a week, I already have the outline for most of the story figured out, but there are still room for suggestions if you want to see something.