Roy Talod

Chapter 3

The batmobile raced through the streets of gotham, batman and Nightwing had just reached Otisburg and were now heading towards the container yard.

Nightwing sat akwardly next to bruce.

"So, can i change the radio?" he asked hopefully. "No, i like this song."
The song that was playing was Kiss from a rose by seal.

"You're a seal fan?" Nightwing said in disbelief.

"You aren't?" batman kept his eyes on the road nodding his hear in time with the song.

"Did you talk to Damian?"

"Did you know?"

"I did."

"Yeah, i talked to him, caught his boyfriend sneak into his room seconds after i had left, nice kid."

"He might be a nice kid but I'd still keep watch on my wallet around him."

"I would too." bruce addmitted as he brought the car to a halt.

"Alfred, we're here. We need a way inside the tunnels that run under the city."

"Master bruce, look for a manhole cover. There should be a one near you that will give you and master dick access."

"Thanks, Al." Nightwing said greatful for the butler's help.

He turned to face bruce only to find he had already gone down.

Nightwing sighed, Typical batman.
It didn't take long for dick to catch up to bruce underground.

They walked through tunnels, their habds scanning over the tiled surface that was the walls, searching for any hidden entrances.

Dick eventually found a tile that could he pushed back, however it seemed to require more than one tile to reveal the secret passage.

Bruce searched the wall opposite dick,
He eventually found the other tile and pressed it, slowly the tiled wall retreated into the floor revealing a dimly lit narrow corridor.

"Bad guys and their need for dark, ominous, hidden away spaces."dick murmered to himself

"Lets go." bruce pushed past.

"Still no sense of humour i see."
Nightwing remarked as he followed after bruce.

The passage was narrower than they first thought, forcing them to walk single file.

"How much do you wanna bet well find zombies?" Asked nightwing.
"I'll bet two hundred."

"Ill bet you three thousand we'll find anything other than zombies." batman stated as he pushed open a wooden door.

The door lead them into a laboratory and what they saw made them question everything.

Trapped, cryogenically frozen inside a test tube was a sixteen year old Ryland Wilson.

But that raised the question, who was running around as talon if ryland was trapper here.

"I'll give you a week to give me my three thousand." batman smirked for a few seconds.

"Dam."

They both ran over to Ryland, a computer file told the vigilantes that this was indeed Ryland, not a Clone like they suspected.

"We need to get him out." Nightwing said urgently.

"Can we risk it?"

"Bruce, he's been here for years, the court probably just cloned him because they couldn't break him."

"How long has it been since the original Ryland was taken."

"He's been gone a long time he should be 26."

Bruce nodded sullenly, he felt guilty, he knocked Ryland out that night at the royal hotel and didn't take him back to the batcave, he let Slade reunite with his son. this was all on him.

"a little over 10 years!" bruce growled as he hacked into the console.

"I failed him, dick!"

"I should've taken him back with me to the batcave, but i left him!"

Nightwing was taken aback by this.

"How do you know him?"

Ryland fell from the cryo chamber and into Bruce's arms as the door opened at batmans command.

"He helped me, briefly, for a few hours on Christmas eve." the bat recalled.

"Before me?"

Bruce nodded. "Before even you, i had no Robin's to help, but i had some limited time with Renegade."

Together Batman and Nightwing carried Ryland who was without clothes, only in Orange and black boxer shorts.

Dick grimaced as he saw all the scars on the "younger" boys body, not even bruce had that many scars.

Nightwing also noticed the boy was very well built.  He had a six pack, muscled arms, and he looked to be healthy. Which wasn't what dick was expecting from deathstrokes son, did slade actually care about the boy?!

"Slade, we've found Ryland. Come to our location." batman told the mercenary.

"Slade doesnt need to." a familiar voice said from the shadows.

Deathstrokes beaten body was thrown at their feet, he wasn't dead just unconscious.

"He's already here." Talon stepped out from the shadows. 

Batman hannded Ryland to Dick.
"Get him out of here."

Dick nodded as he took off sprinting the best he could, the boy may be shorter than him but he was heavy.
Suggesing that the court fed him well before he was frozen.

Dick heard Talon and Bruce go at it in the distance, he soon heard slade begin to wake up, that made dick feel slightly better, he knew bruce was a good fighter. No understatment. But he also had a good fighter like slade to help him against an even better fighter like Clone Ryland.

The ladder was the next issue, how was he supposed to carry a sleeping princess up a ladder...

He couldn't, so instead he settled on hauling the boy over his shoulder and grappling up.

The two made it to the batmobile safely.  Dick placed Ryland onto the backseats and contacted bruce. Asking if he should take Ryland and come back for him and slade.

He didnt need to as seconds later an explosion was heard and batman and deathstroke were limping towards the car.

Batman got behind the wheel while slade crawled in the back shifting his son so his head was on his lap.
Bruce put the car in reverse and they shot off in silence back to the batcave.

"What happened." dick asked.

"I got stabbed, four times."

"How are you not dead!"

Sladr smirked at dick's reaction.

"Healing, boy, healing." he groaned.

"Bruce." slade spluttered coughing up blood.  Take care of him for me."

"I will." he promised the dying man.

Nightwing watched him go. He was sad, but at the same time happy.

Slade had chosen to die saving his son. That was admirable, he died the way he was always prepared to, giving his son a chance at life again even at the cost of his own.

That for slade was enough, that moment made up for a life time of bad choices.

And for dick, it was enough to class slade as a decent man trapped in an indecent lifestyle.

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End of chapter 3