Lost Stars

Chapter Nine

-Dick's POV-

"It's kryptonite."

I walked around the warehouse, looking around. I didn't see anything. "Where?"

"Here." Batman crouched down, holding out some sensor. Around him, there were broken boards off of crates, but nothing really important.

"You sure? There usually isn't a lot of that lying around."

"It's a radiation trail." he handed me the sensor. Sure enough, there was a large red line, with an even larger red circle where we were standing. "It's strong. Too strong for the amount of time that's passed since it occupied this space."

"So...I guess that means there was a good amount of it sitting here."

Batman tucked his sensor back into his belt. "No...it means that there was over a hundred pounds."

I gasped. Over a hundred pounds of Kryptonite? In a vault in the Batcave, Bruce had quite the collection, but I even doubt that he had over a hundred pounds. That much of it would be worth more than diamond, more than gold. Superman was one of the most powerful beings in the Universe. To even have a small amount of the weapon would provide a normal person with enough protection. But, the more you have, the less you have to worry about Supes, meaning you could safely operate inside Metropolis.

Almost every large city in the world had a hero to guard it. Some cities had more protection than others, but the effort was still there. However, in America, there are a few main cities that are the hardest to work in for a criminal. Those cities are: Coast City, Central City, Star City, Bludhaven, Washington D.C., Boston, Metropolis, and Gotham. Those cities had the most protection from the most powerful superheroes.

But, the more dangerous it becomes to work in a city, the more valuable their property becomes. Gotham criminal businesses were worth a ton of money because Batman doesn't have a weakness, not really. But, Metropolis was also a Boom town. Gotham housed more of the sneaky and "normal" criminals while Metropolis dealt with more of the meta-humans. To succeed in either of those cities would make someone rich for the rest of their lives. And to have a weapon against the main protectors would allow someone to succeed without any fear.

Which is why it was so important that we find out who had the Kryptonite.

"This is pretty slow going," I said as Batman zipped through Gotham in the Batmobile.

"I know. Despite the strength of the signal, it fades in and out." We had been following the radioactive trail, but, as Batman pointed out, it wasn't very dependable.

"We could probably get better coverage if we track from several points. Let's get..." I cut myself off and looked out the window. No, that wouldn't work. It was a stupid thought.

"Yes..?" Batman looked over at me.

I sighed and shook my head. "Never mind. Forget it."

"You were going to say "Nightingale." That we should hail Nightingale, who could help us trace the trail from another location and potentially trace it from another computer."

"Yeah..." It really sucked to work with the World's Best Detective sometimes. "But, we don't have that option. We came to rely on her far too much."

"Well, I guess we won't have to worry about that anymore." An image of her in the hospital, silently sleeping in a coma, came to mind.

"No, we don't."

Batman cleared his throat as the sensor started to beep. "There. There's the radiation trail again."

"Woohoo! Finally!" I shouted, slapping me knee.

The trail lead us through Gotham. We stopped outside a building, hearing gunshots from inside. From the sound of it, there were about two machine guns firing off rounds as well as a couple other guns. We hopped out of the car and silently snuck in.