GOTHAM KNIGHT: YEAR THREE-VOLUME TWO

CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO: IN SEARCH FOR THE BATMAN

It had been a day, since the mysterious disappearance of Bruce Wayne/ Batman. Due to Batman's sudden disappearance, Dick hadn't give up and had been patrolling the streets of Gotham as Robin.

THE BOWERY:
A night later, Dick had suited up as Robin in the day and had searched the city for any sign of Batman. Meanwhile, he came across a mugging in a back alley. "Just toss it in the bag and no one has to get hurt", the mugger threatened a couple, "great, another nice day in Gotham", Dick thought sarcastically to himself.

Suddenly the mugger heard someone shout "Hey!", as he turned as he heard "why don't you pick on someone your own size?", Robin joked sarcastically, as the mugger was surprised to see Robin alone, the mugger shot at Robin, as he dropped down, throwing a Batarang at him, disarming him, as he pulled him forward with his grapple gun, held him against the wall and tossed the bag on the floor in front of the couple, "you okay?", Robin asked, as the man responded, with a surprised face, "you're literally a kid?", Robin responded, trying not to take offence and keeping it cool, "don't judge a book by it's cover, go on, get outta here". The couple took another look at Robin, as the guy said, "thanks", as they both ran. "Every time...", Robin said to the mugger, before knocking his head against the wall, knocking him unconscious.

Robin then grappled up onto a nearby ledge, proceeding to patrol the city.

A few hours had passed, as Dick continued to patrol the city, he ended up outside of the powers club, as he noticed a small group of street kids. He dropped down, following them and told them, "come on kids, street's not safe this time of night", as he noticed there was a trail of blood through an alley way. "Stay back", he told them as he carefully walked through the kids, minding his surroundings. As he reached a point it looked as if someone had been dragged through an alley but then the trail stopped suddenly, however there were tire marks on the concrete ground. "Looks like a kidnapping", he thought to himself, as he began to picture a scene of a victim being dragged into a car after possibly being shot or stabbed. "But why would they either shoot or stab the victim ?", he thought to himself, as he continued to look around the scene, in search for clues.

Sometime later, Dick had returned to the bunker in frustration and aggressively beat a punch bag, as Alfred questioned sarcastically, surprisingly still awake, "what did that bag ever do to you?", Dick have the bag another strong punch, as he wiped the sweat off his face, "I just don't know what to do Alfred, I've searched the entire city, as soon as the criminals find out Batman's gone, chaos will emerge worse than ever". "The Court have gotta be behind this, they sent a Talon after Bruce before, maybe they did it again...no, Bruce...he's not gone...if I could just...", Dick explained, whilst a million thoughts flew through his head, "i-i just can't do this alone Alfred, i-I'm not ready", Dick added as he shed a tear. "Master Bruce would be beyond proud of you right now, you know that don't you?", Alfred said as he sat besides Dick, putting his arm around him, reminding him of a time he sat with young Bruce Wayne in a similar position.

WAYNE MANOR, 1976:
After a hard day at school, fifteen year old Bruce Wayne had been in a fight with one of his  classmates.

After Bruce had taken a shower and changed from his uniform to a black t-shirt and a pair of black track pants, he sat on a leather couch with Alfred, in front of a fire.

"You know how proud your father would he of you standing up to one of those idiots, don't you?", Alfred told Bruce, after making him a bowl of soup whilst covering a cut with a band aid. "Now don't go around punching up every prick you meet, but always stand up for yourself and don't let people push you around", Alfred told him, as Bruce slightly smirked, whilst drinking the soup, and then looked towards a painting of a younger self  with his parents.

Days had now past, still no Batman...

Now weeks had past, the GCPD had sent blimps into the foggy, night skies of Gotham, where search lights shined across the city, whilst car's drove through the streets with officers pointing flashlights into windows and alley way's. Crime had only got even more worse as time went on, a few imposters had emerged slowly over time but were quickly arrested by the GCPD, and Robin continued to work closely with Gordon, as Batman did.