Techna

Chapter Nine

When Tim woke up he was on a cot with Sarah asleep on the floor next to it. It didn't take long to realize he and his sister were kidnapped, he quickly looked over Sarah to see if she was injured. That's when she opened her eyes, she looked at him with a grim face.

"I'm so sorry Tim, I swear I'll protect you," Sarah said standing up.

"Sarah? What's going on?" Tim asked in a low voice.

"They need me to build something I wrote a theory on in middle school, they knew I wouldn't cooperate without proper incentive. You, Tim, are that incentive." Sarah said, putting her head in her hands.

"What do they want you to make?" Tim asked, confused.

"The Time Bomb," she said sadly.

Tim's eyes went wide, he read that theory in a magazine years ago, there was no name for the author. The Time Bomb was a bomb that could explode in the same location across multiple time periods, past, future, and present. It was just a theory with the argument that the Time Bomb could be used to terraform mountains or create tunnels within seconds. However, the writer finished the theory off by saying that while good can come from a device like that, great evil could also be derived from it, like if it was set off in Times Square New York.

"Sarah no! You can't!" Tim exclaimed, he knew she could do it.

"I have to, we don't know where we are," Sarah explained to Tim as the door opened.

Lex Luther smiled at them as he stepped inside "Sarah, our resident genius, it's time for you to begin"

"Not until my brother has eaten something decent," she said, Sarah knew she had some form of control and she was going to use it.

Luther smiled, expecting this, and waved in Ivy with a tray of fresh fruits. Sarah gave Tim a look that said eat, so he did. Once Tim was finished eating Sarah left the room following Luther to the lab they designed.

"Underwater?" She questioned when she spotted the glass ceiling.

"Why not?" Replied Scarecrow as he waited inside the lab.

"My babysitter, I assume?" She asked Scarecrow.

"Nope, im just temporary until Mr. Freeze gets here," Scarecrow said sitting in a chair near the workbench.

"Great, always wanted to meet Icy," she said sarcastically. "So hows does this work? I tell you what I need and you have someone making sure im not making something else?"

"Something like that" Luther said unamused. "I should tell you, this is the hub of villains, we have a lot of names, but personally I favor the Legion of Doom."

"So don't expect a rescue or escape," she said with a smirk "sounds like a challenge Lexxy"

"You are very infuriating" Luther mutters as he left the room.

Sarah let out a laugh as she walked to the workbench "if im stuck here im gonna entertain myself."

***

Bruce scowled at the footage of the abduction of two of his kids. Riddler left a clue, it was a ticket stub from the movie Titanic. No ransom demands were made so Bruce knew his kids weren't taken for his money. His scowl deepened when Dick and Jason entered the cave angrily arguing.

"Im telling you, we should go on a rampage shooting up the filth of this city until they tell us where Sarah is," Jason said seriously.

"Bruce would kill you, Sarah would kill you, and that's not how we do things!" Dick argued back.

"I'll let them kill me after Sarah is safe at home." Jason retorted.

"And Tim," Dick said.

"I don't give a rat's ass about Replacement" Jason grumbled.

"Will you two shut up!" Bruce yelled, uncharacteristically angry.

The sudden change in Bruce's behavior made the two boys stop bickering. Silence surrounded the room as bruce let out a sigh and stopped looking at his screen. He turned his chair around and his face of worry gave his emotions away.

"Bruce, you good?" Dick asked cautiously.

"I forced her to stop being Techna, to stop being herself, and Tim, he warned me that people may come for Sarah's knowledge." He put his head in his hands, giving himself a few moments to express his emotions.

When he straightened up, now back in control he turned back around and started working on Riddlers clue. Bruce of course never saw the Movie Titanic, just knew about the tragedy that killed hundreds of people in the middle of the Atlantic. Maybe the clue was in the movie, or maybe in the tragedy of the titanic, Bruce couldn't figure it out, Riddler usually left riddles or notes, this ticket stub was almost as if he didn't have the proper time.