Birds of a Feather

6

The report had said that Killermoth was breaking into the bank downtown which meant that I was there in only about five minutes. When I approached the bank, I could immediately tell that something wasn't right. Every time I've ever fought Killermoth there's been an army of some sort of bugs ready to protect him, but this time it was silent. I leaned against the door of the bank and couldn't hear a thing, no buzzing, no wings flapping, no strange noises. Instead of making an obvious entrance through the front I walked to the back of the building and phased through the back wall. I ended up in the middle of a grand staircase that led from the basement to the second story.

Looking around in the main lobby I could see no sign of Killermoth being there at all. I walked down to the basement to see if I could find anything or anyone and was met with several offices separated by glass walls. Everything seemed so eerily quiet, until I could hear what sounded like classical music coming from one the offices to my right. My hand reached for the communicator that was strapped to my belt but before I could fully get to it two hands grabbed my arms and held them behind my back. The person behind me didn't speak but pushed me into the direction of where I had heard the classical music coming from.

When we reached the office, I could see that whoever was sitting in the desk chair was turned around facing the large tv that was on the back wall. The tv was playing footage of the incident at the park earlier except it wasn't the same footage that I had seen in the pizza place. This footage showed the explosion and then people running in every direction. All I could hear were screams of the people I saw running trying to get away from the green smoke. We walked through the door and the footage switched to show the moment I threw the Joker into the air and Nightwing landing with his foot square in the Jokers chest.

The office chair squeaked as it turned to face me. "You sure have a good arm. Although I'm sure those powers of yours help. Harley." The Joker said as he smiled up at me evilly. I heard a click behind me and turned to see Harley wave a key in my face. "You're not gonna be using those fancy powers of yours anytime soon." She laughed and walked over to sit on the desk. I pulled at my hands and felt some sort of hand cuff pulling back on them. When I tried to use my powers to get them off nothing happened. I looked up in fear as I saw Joker start his laughing fit once again.

"How did you....? How did you build these?" I asked, my voice a bit shakier than I would have liked. I may not be afraid of the Joker when I have my powers but without them, I knew what he would be able to do to me and I couldn't help but start to panic. I looked around for something that could help me escape but found nothing.

"I'm sure you've figured out why you're here Raven." Joker said. I looked at him and kept my face as calm as I could manage. I refused to say anything partly because I still hadn't figured out why I was truly here. After a minute of silence Joker began to laugh with Harley nervously following his lead. "She still doesn't get it! Harley, go get the case. It's going to be a fun night for our bird indeed." He smiled at me and stood up while Harley left the office and walked back toward the staircase. "Please Raven, take a seat. You'll want to be sitting for what's next." He smiled and walked towards me. I stood still not wanting to give into his orders until he reached under the desk and pulled out a gun. "I said, take a seat. Raven." He repeated aiming the gun at me and yelling much louder than before. I swallowed and tried my best to remain calm and sit in the chair that was sitting against the wall behind me.

"Now since you're clearly not as clever as everyone made you out to be, let me just fill you in on our situation." He said, he sounded annoyed which couldn't be good for me. "You see Raven, I've long known that I couldn't get to the Bat without breaking his Robin's first, and with Nightwing out of the way the others would be easier to catch. He is considered to be the best of them or so I hear." He began. While he was talking, I tried desperately to reach for my communicator. A long time ago, after Robin had been captured by Slade and turned into his apprentice, Cyborg installed an emergency homing device in each of our communicators. If I could just reach the top and press the button, hopefully someone would be able to find me. I looked at the Joker and realized he was waiting for me to reply. "I don't understand why I needed to be involved with that. I haven't seen Nightwing in years nor do I care to see him now." I said flatly, hoping not to give the Joker any indication that I was growing more nervous by the second.

"Well, why don't you see for yourself. You're lying and we both know it little bird." He smiled and walked back to the computer on the desk. He plugged in a flash drive and started clicking around looking for something. Meanwhile I was pulling my belt around my waist inch by inch until I was able to get a hold of my communicator and press the button. I'm not even sure if it would work, Starfire was on a different planet, Beast Boy gave up his hero life, Cyborg was across the country, and I knew for a fact that Nightwing didn't keep his old communicator. Still I pushed it in hopes that someone would be able to get me out of this glass trap.

"Ah, here we are. You see back in Gotham I got my hands on some fear gas and used it on our dear old Nightwing. Even better, I made a new friend who is just as interested as getting rid of Nightwing as I am. He's where I was able to get the technology to be able to see his fears, and now so will you."

I looked to the screen and at first didn't know what I was seeing. Slowly it began to focus, and I could see that it was Titans Tower, but everything was destroyed. The windows were broken, and the roof was starting to crumble into the water below. It changed and now it looked like a first-person view of what I could assume was Nightwing's worst fear. The video showed the inside of the tower which also appeared to be destroyed. It looked like there were sladebots lying around the place and then I spotted the first horror. Starfire was laid across the couch under a pile of rubble and looked to be lifeless. I winced in my seat as the screen shook making it look like Nightwing was shaking his head no. I looked at Joker who had a disturbing smile on his face. "Like what you see? Just wait it gets even better." He laughed as the screen moved and I saw what looked to be Beast Boy sitting lifeless by the stairs. The video continued out of the common room doors and to the left Cyborg was sitting against the corner completely grey and disassembled.

"This is the best part." Joker laughed. I knew it was most likely me. Realistically I was the only one left. I saw as Nightwing walked to the steel door with my name written across it. When the doors opened, I flinched at what I saw. It was Slade holding a knife to me. The screen looked down and I could see Nightwing's feet trying to move but they couldn't seem to move past my doorway. The video panned up in time to see Slade bring down the knife into my back. I tilted my own head, not needing to see any more of what was happening. The Joker clicked the video away as Harley opened the door holding a large briefcase.

"So, you see Raven. Bird Boy is afraid of losing you. Clearly his feelings are at play a lot more than he lets on. Something I think you can relate to." He smiled as he opened the briefcase. I saw a syringe with some sort of orange liquid and something that looked like a grenade. The Joker picked up the syringe and walked towards me. He took my chin in his hands and smiled as I winced. "So, what are you going to do. Kill me? He won't come for me; he thinks I went after Killermoth." I snapped as he let me go with a laugh. "Oh no pretty bird you've got it all wrong. You see, you're the key. I saw how much you meant to Nightwing and the plan was to originally kill you just to make him suffer even more before I kill him. Until my friend here told me about your history. See, I believe with a little work, you're my answer to getting rid of the boy wonder." He laughed.

"And who exactly is this friend of yours?" I asked. The Joker began to laugh and didn't answer my original question. He placed the syringe in the back of my neck and immediately the room started to sway. I tried to focus on the Joker as he pulled the grenade looking object out of the case and ushered Harley out of the room. "Now let's see what makes this bird tick." He laughed and pulled the pin closing the door and running towards the stairs. Gas began to fill the room as I struggled to fight the drowsy feeling that was coming over me. I looked around looking for an escape but when I tried to stand my knees gave out and I fell to the floor.

As I looked up from my spot on the ground, I saw a glimpse of someone standing on the other side of the glass. The half gold half metal mask was reflecting against the window as they stared at me before I fell completely to the ground unconscious.