Chaos In The Flesh

Chapter 31 (part 3)

Sunday, March 6th, 5:33am

Tim parked his bike in the Batcave and rushed to meet his siblings for breakfast. Bruce had called him late Saturday night and Tim barely had time to scrounge for his backpack and a meal before having to get onto the road to get to Gotham on time.

"Master Tim, back home so soon?" Alfred greeted him at the elevator. Tim smiled sourly as he observed the scar running just above his right eyebrow. It was healing nicely, but still...

"Special call," Tim replied as Alfred pressed the main floor button. Tim shifted his shoulders uncomfortably as his backpack held him down to Earth. "I should be gone by midafternoon. I can't afford to lose any more sleep or have any more class absences."

The elevator sped up quickly, and before Tim knew it, he was sitting at the dining room table, squished between Jason and Duke Thomas. At the head of the table, Bruce sat with papers scattered all around the surface in front of him. Dick sat at the first seat on his right and Babs sat at the first seat on his left. Other members of the family were trickling in, exhaustion and hunger clouding their eyes.

"Alright," Bruce started, as Alfred laid out pastries, coffee, tea, and water in the center of the long table. "Here's a little snack until breakfast at 7. We've got a lot of shit to take care of and not a lot of time. So pay attention and we can get out of here by midafternoon."

"We couldn't have pushed this off a little longer?" Harper asked, her black hair with blue highlights thrown into an awkward bun and misshapen hanging to the side. "I'm pretty sure that Gotham can relax until nightfall without its defenders. The cops are still out and about."

"Tim's still in school until further notice," Dick replied as he reached for a mug. Pouring himself a cup of coffee, he looked around the table, making sure everyone heard him. "Tim is the only reason we get first coverage of the Super twins in Kansas. We need to abide by his schedule to the best of our abilities. So unless we all want to drive 21 hours back and forth over the weekend to see him, I suggest y'all suck it up for waking up early after finishing a late shift."

Everyone spun around to face Tim, who sheepishly grabbed a freshly basked croissant.

"21 hours?" Duke sputtered, choking on his coffee. "You drove 21 hours on your motorcycle to get to Gotham from fucking Kansas?"

Tim shrugged. "When you add in the factors of no traffic, speeding, and finding shortcuts... I could get it down to 17."

"Motherfucking BEAST!" David laughed, biting into a doughnut.

Bruce smirked for half-a-second. "Alright, back to business. Barbra, inventory status? Dick, I need updates on training facilities. Jason, updates on Arkham. Then Tim can give his spiel about the Super twins. We'll have breakfast and get working on a new plan."

"What about Wonder Girl?" Stephanie asked, her voice strong and commanding. She sat at the very end of the table, a little farther from everyone else.

Bruce always made sure to keep one chair farther from the rest of the group, and that was to make sure that if any attacks were to be sprung, that person had the opportunity to leap into action first. And sure enough, Stephanie was the only one in her night gear with dagger and baterangs strapped to her thighs.

Everyone alternated between looking at Bruce and Tim. Bruce took a breath. "I'll give everyone updates on the Amazon approach of what they will be doing in order to prepare for the next upcoming months. Tim will give an update on his friend when he talks about the Super twins. Until then... Barb, you can start."

Wednesday, March 9th, 4:52pm

"Holy shit, holy shit, holy shit," Jordan grunted as one of Momus' lackeys pushed against him, attempting to get back to destroying the Main Street. He grunted and did a 360, tossing the lackey back into the sky. He knew that this man would eventually be back, because no matter how many times he threw these suckers across Kansas, they always showed up five minutes later.