Shadows and Cards (a Batboys x OC)

Chapter 21

Grayson

The sun was just cresting over the skyline of Gotham when the four of them made it back to Wayne Manor. They had been out since three in the morning and Damian had been out even later, so when they got back to the cave all of them practically crawled to their rooms and slept. When Grayson woke up, it was almost four in the afternoon. 

Rolling out of bed he found that he was still in his suit. It didn't surprise him though, he hadn't had more than a total of six hours of sleep for at least a week and a half. With Athena missing now he didn't expect to get any more. And when he entered the cave he saw that everyone was relatively the same. Tim and Damian were sitting bleary-eyed at the large table staring at the lunch Alfred had placed in front of them and Jason was sipping what looked to be his third cup of coffee judging by the mugs around him while looking through some files. 

This is how it used to be before Athena came. When she was here she would walk in and immediately throw some sort of object at them all to wake them up or burst into flames and burn her breakfast or papers in front of her to a crisp when she was especially tired and snappy. One morning she even came in blasting rap music from the speakers of the cave and everything fell off of the shelves, including one of Tim's important vials of something. Tim was furious and proceeded to attack Athena with a playlist of music that could only rival hers. Soon everyone joined in playing random songs and the whole cave was shaking with all of the music. It was the most that he had seen Bruce laugh in a while.

Grayson sat down at the table and poured himself a large cup of coffee and grabbed a sandwich off of Damian's plate. He was so tired that all he did was glare at him, which was nothing compared to other things. After a moment of eating, he asked Tim,

"So what did you find last night? Anything useful?" he said.

Tim looked up from his plate and stared blankly at him for a moment before the information seemed to process and he jumped up from his seat and rushed over to his lab. Grayson downed the last of his coffee and made his way over to the lab to find Tim holding a vial of bright blue liquid.

Grayson said, "Did you sleep at all last night, Tim?"

Tim ignored him, whether to not say or because he didn't hear him, and continued to swirl the vial.

"This is what they used to kidnap Athena," Tim said winningly.

Grayson said, "Ok, but what is it?"

"You know how Athena sometimes uses that Kreeal stuff when she overuses her powers? Think of this stuff as her Kryptonite. It will attack her enhanced cells and cause her body to spasm and could kill her. And I found traces of it in the leftovers of a smoke bomb. They probably used it on her to knock her out." Tim said.

Grayson took the vial and swirled it around. "The question is, who are they?"

Tim grinned. "That is a question that I can answer. This is actually a chemical that is being used in the new fuel that is being launched by Avinome. And their opening gala is tonight."

Grayson looked up at Tim who was grinning wickedly. "I assume that you have a plan?"

"Oh I have a plan," he said, "and it's a damn good one."

Three hours later the four brothers were dressed in suits and in a limo with Bruce on their way to the Avinome headquarters for their Harpy Energy opening ceremony.

"Ok, does everyone know what we're doing?" Grayson said.

Jason looked up from trying to fix Damian's cuffs and pulled up a holograph of the layout of the building.