Batman: Chase - Chapter 4

Chapter 4

Past midnight, The Bat and The Bird delved into the night. 

Tonight was a major departure, since Bruce and Dick hadn’t worked together ever since he stopped being Robin and donned the mantle of Nightwing. 

The reason as to why Dick was back in town after being away for so long? With Bludhaven becoming his new permanent home, he surely needed a good reason to return here. That reason was that everyone was talking about Batman having turned into a bloodthirsty murderer. This was worrying, to all of us, especially because we perfectly knew it wasn’t true. I was aware that Bruce used to be tormented by the dilemma of going too far while dealing with criminals, but he wasn’t the same person he was before—not after he came out of that seemingly bottomless pit within the cave. 

Tonight, Batman and Nightwing rushed to Richmond Avenue in Gotham, where another sighting of the mysterious winged killer was flying and terrorizing in the sky. It was reported tonight that this dangerous individual had been on the hunt again and that they had gone after more innocent citizens of the city. Nightwing took to the sky and jumped from rooftop to rooftop while I stayed with Batman, comfortably sitting to his right inside the batmobile. His reasoning for using the batmobile was that he was convinced that whoever this flying assailant was, he had to come down to the ground at one point or another because they were human and that was the logical outcome for any man who attempted to take flight—something he learned the hard way at the beginning of his career I was convinced.  

“Batman, what makes you so sure who we’re looking for is human?” I wanted to know what made him so sure why he presumed that we were going after a person or not an animal, as I thought was the case. After all, many reports mentioned victims being hunted by a horrifying flying monster. I thought there was more to it than simply a costumed freak—no offense to Batman or Nightwing, of course.

“It’s always the same thing,” meaning that he didn’t think we were going up against a wild animal.

“But the reports I read indicated that—” 

“—Batman, I think I have a visual,” but before I could finish what I was about to say, Nightwing’s voice was heard over the communicator within the dashboard of the batmobile.   

“You can see the target?” Batman asked him as he sped up in the rather vacant street of Gotham we were patrolling on. 

“It’s right there, and it’s—that’s impossible, it can’t be a person—unless it’s a strange costume or something,” he haltingly spoke, but often mumbling some of them. Something was wrong, and I hoped nothing bad was going to happen to him up there.  

“What do you see?” Batman was eager to know. He still came across as in control, but he wished he could see what his partner saw up on that rooftop. 

“It’s… A giant bat!” He informed the two of us.

“See? I told you we weren’t going after a person. All the reports said that it was a wild animal prowling them.”

“This case might just be even stranger than I thought,” Batman admitted.

“You said it, Batman—ugh—it turned around! It’s staring at me,” Nightwing updated us on what was going on up there. 

“Nightwing, proceed carefully,” his mentor warned him not to do anything reckless. I agreed with that sentiment. 

Then, a horrifying screech was heard, and filled the batmobile. More screeches were heard, ones more brutal and alarming than the last. Those had to be the screeches of the giant bat. I could already imagine it flying toward Nightwing, and the worst thing about the situation was that he was all alone up there-we couldn’t do anything for him if something went wrong, unfortunately, I couldn’t stop thinking that something wrong had happened. Especially when Nightwing’s communications suddenly came to a brutal stop. The last things we heard were the screeches of the creatures and Nightwing grunting.

“Nightwing, do you read me? Nightwing?” Batman elevated his tone as soon as we ceased receiving updates from the acolyte. 

“Nightwing!” Even I began shouting in the hope that he would hear us, but he couldn’t since his communicator was shut up and was never reactivated. 

It was so silent—too silent. 

“We need to go up there and help him!” I urged Batman.

“Hold on,” he spoke again with confidence and control. I could tell from the tone in his voice that he was never to let anything happen to his partner, even if he was no longer as vulnerable as he might have been once under the alias of Robin.

The Dark Knight took charge of the situation, and he revved the engines of his batmobile. The Batmobile roared to life and tore down the streets of Gotham City. The engines snarled, and the wheels slipped for a moment before the dark vehicle gained even more speed. We were a few buildings away from his location, so Batman took it upon himself to get to him as fast as possible. The batmobile was typically ultra silent whenever it was in function, yet, it was surprisingly not the case tonight and this made a lot of sense since this was the faster we had ever been with the batmobile, at least with me aboard. 

A split-second later, we were right under the building where Nightwing and the creature were. 

“Stay.” 

This was the only word Batman said, which left me confused. 

“What?”

Thud! 

The roof of the cockpit of the Batmobile opened up and Batman stood tall and exited the vehicle from the top, leaving me alone with that simple and clear task for me to do which was to “stay”, not exactly something that excited me too much and that I knew how to do too well. With his grappling gun in the palm of his hand, he shot from it and a second later, the caped crusader took flight like he was truly flying. Everything happened so fast, and he immediately arrived at the rooftop and I couldn’t see him anymore.

“Chase,” a silence later, Batman finally spoke to him through his communicator.

“Batman?”

“He’s not here,” he declared.