Chapter Text
Back in Gotham…
Tim walked down the streets of the city urgently, constantly glancing from his left to right to see if anyone was around, if anyone had seen him near Crane, Red Hood, or the gang members. Thankfully, there didn’t seem to be anyone around, and the streetlights showed that the only human shadow was his own. That didn’t mean much to him though. Anyone could be hiding in the alleys. This was Gotham. Criminals could jump out from anywhere at any time. He’s hoping that all the chaos, and the presence of police officers and the Titans would have made everyone gone to ground.
It seemed like he was right, until a figure suddenly dropped from the night sky and landed right in front of him. It was a man, no, a teenage boy, like him. One with black hair and blue eyes, but it was his shirt that really caught Tim’s attention. The teenager was wearing a black T-shirt with a very familiar red logo on the front. The logo of Superman.
“What are you doing?” Superboy asked as he titled his head, looking at him curiously.
“You’re Superboy,” Tim whispered in shock and awe.
“Yes, I am. What are you doing?” The hero repeated himself, his voice curious but firm.
“Um, walking?” The teenager answered, still awestruck but now a little fearful of the superhero.
“You were right by the fight scene. Why?” Superboy questioned, taking a step closer, which caused Tim to step away, only to back in the lamppost that lit up small area where they were standing.
“Oh you know,” Tim chuckled nervously, “when there are heroes around, a crowd gathers.”
Superboy frowned. “Not in Gotham they don’t. They run for cover. You though, you came to the fight and watched. Why?”
“Um… well, I thought,” Tim’s stammering was cut off by the sound of a police siren.
The two boys looked over at the street in time to see a police car pulling over beside them. Neither of them moved. Tim knew that running was a sure-fire way to, at best, get the cops chasing you. At worst, a bullet in the back. Superboy, being part alien, wouldn't have that problem, but at least he appeared to be staying calm. That would help keep the officers from getting twitchy.
“Hello. Is there a problem, officers?” Tim asked as two cops got out of the vehicle.
“You tell us,” the officer closest to them replied. The light of the lamp post made the few white hairs hidden among the man’s black locks glow.
“No trouble here. Superboy was just making sure I was getting home okay,” Tim said the first thing that came to mind. Based on the expression on the cop’s face, he didn’t believe him. Connor’s obvious confusion at Tim’s lie definitely didn’t help.
“It doesn’t look like it,” the cop remarked. Both of his hands were on his hips, but his right one was practically resting right on his handgun.
“Trust me, sir. We’re all good here. Right, Superboy?” Tim subtly knocked his foot against the young hero’s, trying to tell him to go along with his fake explanation. While Superboy remained silent, he did nod, confirming the lie to the cop.
Unfortunately, the officer that they had been speaking to looked convinced, and he turned his attention towards the superhero.
“It’s Superboy, right?”
“Yes,” the young Titans’ member confirmed, his eyebrows furrowing.
The cop gave a nod, then said, “I’m going to need you to come with us then.”
“What?” The word fell out of Tim’s mouth before he realized it. At the same time, Superboy asked, “Why?”
“Everything will be explained down at the station,” the man said, moving closer to Superboy.
“You can’t do that,” Tim protested, shifting to stand side-by-side with the superhero.
The cop’s eyes flared. “This has nothing to do with you. Why don’t you head home before we take you in for being out past curfew.”
“If you want to arrest me for breaking curfew, fine, but you can’t arrest someone without telling them why.”
“That’ only if we actually make an arrest. We just need to have a conversation with Superboy.”
“If I’m not under arrest, then why do I need to go with you?” Superboy questioned, his confusion as plain as day.
The officer took another two steps closer to them. “Are you going to cause us problems? Because that will not go over well for you.”
Tim’s eyes darted back to the officer’s hands. Sure enough, the man’s hand was actively grasping the handgun in his holster. The officer standing silently by the police car was doing the exact same thing. Superboy must’ve noticed too because he reached over for Tim, pulling him back and slightly behind his body so that he was now blocking the human teenager from the officers.
That’s when all h*ll broke loose.
Tim barely saw the guns coming up before he heard them going off. He shrunk down, trying to make his body small behind the superhero who was standing in front of him. But suddenly, arms were wrapped around him and dragging him away.
When the arms let go and Tim was able to lift his head, he saw that Superboy had pulled him into the alleyway and behind a dumpster, giving them cover from the flying bullets.
“Why are they shooting at us?” Tim shouted over the sound of gunfire.
“I don’t know!” Superboy yelled back. “We need to get out of here!”
“How?” Tim asked, nearly screaming the word. Gunfire was extremely common in Gotham, but Tim had never been this close to it before. It was a lot louder than it was on TV.
Superboy looked at him, then back in the direction of the cops, then straight up at the sky. “I have an idea, but you’re gonna have to trust me.”
“I trust you.” It wasn’t even a question for Tim.
The superhero’s eyes widened, but then moved so he was behind Tim. The teenager was confused, until he felt Superboy’s arms wrap around his waist. Before he questioned it, Superboy bent his legs, then jumped into the air, carrying Tim with him.
Tim’s stomach nearly fell out of his body before they landed. The strong arms that were holding him let go once again, and Tim took the opportunity to see where they were now.
It appeared that they were on the roof of a building, in the center so that neither could look down to see the streets below. And no one on the streets could see them if they looked up, nor were they in danger of being shot at from here. He was grateful for that, but also a little scared. From this spot, he wasn’t sure which building he was standing on, or where in the city he was. It was a bit disorienting.
“Nightwing, I was with Tim, the guy you told me to follow, and cops showed up and started shooting at us,” Superboy said, causing Tim’s eyebrows to shoot up. Superboy was told to follow him? He unnerved Dick Grayson that much?
“No, we’re okay. We’re up on a roof, but I don’t know what to do.” Superboy answered whatever question Dick asked. Tim wished he could hear the whole conversation.
“Are you sure about that?” Superboy questioned, looking over at Tim with suspicion. He waited a minute, then said, “Okay, we’ll be there soon.”
“What did he say?” Tim demanded.
Superboy looked over at him and said, “You’re going to have to come with me.”
2018TITANS2018
“Dick, sit down. You’re gonna wear a hole in the floor,” Dawn said as Dick made another turn so he could continue his pacing. Dick ignored him.
The Titans were already on their way back to the Batcave when Conner called. They were pretty much done at the factory, having searched what they could before letting the police and forensic teams take over. Gar wasn’t really happy about it, as he wanted to keep looking for clues that proved that he was right, that Jason was being forced, or manipulated, into working with Crane. But there wasn’t any other evidence that they could find, and since Dick had quickly downloaded a copy of everything on the computer system that they were using to look over at the Batcave, there wasn’t really much of a reason to stay. And when they got word from Conner about being fired at by police officers, well, they were glad to be away from any other cops until they figured out what was happening.
When they did arrive, Dawn and Komand’r were already waiting for them, wanting a debrief of all what they all missed. Dawn was getting antsy about not being able to go out with the team of vigilantes, but they all agreed it was for the best until they could make time to clear Dove of stealing the truck filled with millions of dollars’ worth of gold. Kory also privately told her that she would prefer to have someone keep an eye on her sister. Despite Komand’r having helped when the majority of the group had been hit with fear toxin, Kory still didn’t trust Komand’r to not get into some kind of trouble.
Once they filled the two women in of the fight and the call from Conner, they settled to wait for the half-Kryptonian and human teenager. Well, the others did. Dick immediately began pacing in worry. He was grateful that Conner was there to protect Tim, but if the police officers were attacking the Titans, then Tim might have only been in danger because of Conner. He really hoped that neither of them were injured.
After what felt like hours, though in actuality more likely only around 20 minutes, Conner arrived in the Cave, carrying Tim in his arms.
“Are you two okay?” Dick nearly shouted as he rushed over to the two teens to look them over, the rest of the heroes following right behind him.
“We’re fine. Bulletproof, remember?” Conner tried to joke as he let go of Tim.
Tim seemed able to stay composed as Dick examined them, but as soon as he was done, Tim said, “I’ve had cops try to intimidate me, but I’ve never had any try to shoot me before. What was that about?”
“Yeah, I thought we were working with the police,” Conner chimed in. “Why would they try to kill us.
Dick, now satisfied that the two were indeed unharmed, let out a frustrated groan and ran a hand through his hair. “Odds are those officers are dirty. All the gangs in Gotham have at least three or four cops in the payroll. And some cops will do whatever anyone wants for enough cash, no matter who it’s coming from. Since Scarecrow and the Red Hood are working with the gangs, they must’ve called in some favours.”
“Does that girl, um, Barbara know? She is the head of the police, isn’t she?” Kormand’r questioned from the far corner of the desk, which she was sitting on.
“About the dirty cops? Absolutely. It’s not a secret at all in this town,” Dick said.
Hank, Dawn, and Tim were the only ones not surprised by this revelation. They all knew that corruption ran rampant in practically every crevice of Gotham City. That’s why the people trusted Batman and Robin. They actually tried to bring criminals to justice, while the cops were too lazy to do their job, or were willing to look the other way if it meant adding to their bank account.
“So, you think a gang leader put the hit on us?” Kory asked.
“It’s possible. I’ll call Barbara, see if we can get ahead of this,” Dick replied. He pulled out his cell phone, intending to call her immediately, but then Tim revealed more information that had him pause.
“It’s more than possible. I overheard Jason and Scarecrow. They were talking about the gangs having cops on their side. I don’t know how exactly what they are planning, but it didn’t sound good.”
“You were out there, watching the fight?” Dick's voice tight and controlled. Tim subconsciously took a step back from the older man, who took two steps closer to the teenager. With a lowered voice, he said, “Do you have any idea of how dangerous and stupid that was?”
“I was just trying to figure out a way to help. I wanna help. Gotham is my home too,” Tim defended himself, his voice strong and sure. For a split second, Dick felt like he was looking at his 12-year-old self when he was trying to convince Bruce to let him back out as Robin after Two-Face nearly killed him with a baseball bat. It was a bit unnerving.
Dick took a deep breath to calm himself, then asked, “Are you sure you’re alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine, Superboy shielded me,” Tim confirmed.
“Good job, Conner,” Dick said, shooting a nod in the clone’s direction.
“Um, secret identities?” Gar spoke up. When everyone turned to give him a flat look, he realized that while they were still in the uniforms, no one had their masks on. All of their faces were completely exposed. Even if Tim hadn’t already figured out that Nightwing was Dick Grayson, he could now easily figure out who they were. “Yeah, I guess there’s not really a point to that right now, is there?”
“And there’s something else,” Tim nervously spoke up again.
“What?” Kory inquired, coming to stand beside Dick.
“I overheard two gang members talking. They’re planning on using Scarecrow and the Red Hood to take down the Titans, then they’re going to turn on them.” Tim’s words caused everyone to tense.
Dick placed his hand on Tim’s back and ushered him to the nearest chair. As soon as Tim sat down, the Titans’ leader ordered, “Okay, tell us everything you heard.”
2018TITANS2018
It took all of Barbara's self-control to not slam her hands down on her desk after finishing her phone call with Dick. She knew that there were still some corrupt officers in her police force. Officers that have, so far, managed to slip through the cracks, hiding behind legal loopholes and practically invisible actions that yielded no evidence. She knew who some of them were, but there was no doubt that in her mind there were more. She was doing her best to keep an eye on those she knew about, and was always watching for any sign of a new corrupt officer, and her entire police force knew it. She couldn't believe any of them would be bold enough to shoot at the Titans, their allies.
Yet, when she pulled up the body camera footage of her officers that were duty, there it was. Video evidence of Superboy and a civilian, named Tim Drake apparently, out on the street and being fired upon by her officers. For what felt like the millionth time, Barbara was grateful that she had arranged to have all of the body cam footage automatically download to a storage site that only a select few could access in order to keep any corrupt officers from deleting or hiding the footage. Oddly enough though, there was no audio in footage of the shooting. All the body cameras had audio. She made sure of it when she purchased the mandatory equipment, but the videos that caught the shooting were completely silent. When she saw the names of the officers who had the cameras that took the footage, the ones who did the shooting, she frowned.
Detectives Marcus Grant and Anthony Morgan. Grant was in his 50’s, on the force for over 20 years, and was most definitely dirty. His involvement didn’t surprise Barbara. In fact, she started wondering if this situation will be what she needed to finally fire him. That would be nice. Morgan’s name however, she didn’t expect. He had only been a detective for about five months, after being a street cop for three years. His work had been good. No sign of corruption in him at all until now. That was confusing. The redhead made a mental note to look into him and his work later, then reached for her office phone and put in a call to Grant’s desk phone.
"Detective Grant, come to my office, now," Barbara demanded before slamming the phone down.
Only a minute later, the man entered the office. He walked quite confidently despite Barbara's less than pleased or professional tone of voice.
"You called, Commissioner?" Detective Grant said with a smile that felt eerie after seeing him shooting at Conner and a civilian for no apparent reason.
"What's this I hear about you and Detective Morgan shooting at one of the Titans' tonight? And at an unarmed civilian?" Barbara got straight to the point, her tone making it clear that she was in no mood to for any kind of games.
"You mean Superboy? He was evading us, so we shot to try and stop him," Detective Grant answered with a somewhat nonchalant voice.
"Excuse me? Evading you? Why were you trying to bring him in?" To say Barbara was confused would be an understatement.
"Because of the truck robbery. The one that the Titan, Dove, committed. I'm still working that case," Detective Grant reminded her.
Barbara's stomach turned. With all of her attention on Crane and Jason, she had actually forgotten about Dawn's stunt with stealing a truck carrying $50 million worth of gold. At the time, she put down that Dove had been blackmailed into stealing the truck and was using it as an opportunity to try and track the vehicle in order to find out where the Red Hood and Scarecrow were hiding, excusing the whole thing. Since she had been able to track the truck, it seemed to settle the case for the moment, but she knew that she'd eventually have to actually get Dove to make a statement of some kind, and give some sort of evidence of the 'plan' that did not actually exist. Apparently, her time was up.
"I thought I told you that Dove was blackmailed, and had come up with the plan to track the vehicle to Red Hood's hideout?" Barbara responded, her body immediately going into professional mode to hide her inward panic.
"You did, but I haven't found any evidence of that, nor has Dove come forward to give any kind of statement. We need more than just your word, Commissioner."
The head of the Gotham Police Department bit back a groan. One of the first changes her father made when he became the Commissioner was that a cop's word alone was no longer good enough in regards to cases. Too many dirty cops went unchecked and escaped unpunished simply because they were cops and what they said was considered 'truth' when it went against the words of civilians. They needed evidence backing up their statements, just like in any case. Barbara, of course, kept that system, along with putting in several others meant to keep police officers accountable. It p****d off a lot of officers, and ended up convicting several of them. Now, it was p***ing her off.
"And how does Superboy figure into the truck robbery? He wasn't involved," Barbara pointed out.
"Do we actually know that?" Detective Grant questioned. Despite his calm demeanor, Barbara could see a hint of pride in his eyes, as though he believed he was getting away with something. The worst part was, she could see exactly why he would think that, and knew he was right.
"Please explain," Barbara requested anyways, just to make sure she did understand what was happening, and to see if there was a way out of this.
"Well, the Titans are a team, are they not? They work together, and presumably, live together, if the online theories are to be believed. You really think one just went rogue? They could've easily planned the whole thing together, especially since they were supposedly planning to track the truck. That's not even mentioning Nightwing showing up to Dove and Red Hood's little showdown," the man said, then shrugged. "It seems enough to question all of them to me."
Barbara hid a clenched fist under the desk.
"So, instead of coming to me, the person who can easily contact Nightwing and the other Titans, you confront Superboy on the street and start shooting at him?"
"Well, he refused to cooperate, and with the way he was acting, he appeared to be a threat to an innocent civilian. Detective Morgan and I did what we thought we needed to do in order to protective the civilian and bring Superboy in."
A scoff escaped from Barbara as she said, "You two firing your weapons put that boy in more danger than Superboy did. Superboy is bulletproof, just like Superman. You were more likely to hit the civilian you were trying to protect."
Detective Grant ducked his head slightly to hide his sheepish expression, murmuring, "We know that now."
"You didn't answer my earlier question," Barbara pointed out. "Why didn't you come to me if you wanted to talk to the Titans?"
"No offense, Commissioner, but since you're the one that's gone up to bat in defense of the Titans, and you are the one who gave explanations on their behalf without getting an official statement from them, or getting any kind of evidence, it makes us question your ability to be impartial."
The police commissioner brushed off the insulting notion and said, "I went looking for the footage from your body cam. Yours, and Detective Morgan's. For some reason, there was no audio, from either of yours. Can you explain that?"
Grant tried to look shocked, but there was still a slight smugness in his eyes.
"No, I had no idea. It should've been on. I checked it yesterday evening, after Morgan and I broke up a brawl in a bar to make sure we had the footage for the case, and it was fine then. I can take it to get checked out and pick up some replacements if you want."
Barbara sighed through a clenched jaw, trying to figure out what exactly was the best course of action. She couldn't keep covering for Dawn anymore. That was clear. She would have to come in and give a statement, and they would need some kind of evidence backing up her claims. This would most likely get Hank involved, as he was the one who's life was threatened, which pushed Dawn to commit the theft, and Dick, considering Nightwing is the leader of the Titans and was there when Jason took the truck. It would be extremely difficult to prove that he wasn't helping Dawn. And if the Titans' leader was involved, then how could the rest of the Titans' not be?
However, if what Dick said about dirty cops helping the gangs and Scarecrow take down the Titans was true, then Detective Grant had just proven it to be true. There was no way the audio for both body cams had stopped working right when they approached Conner, and Timothy Drake. Trying to imply that she was guilty of helping the Titans' get away with a crime was just downright stupid, along with insulting, even if it was somewhat true. Add his barely hidden smugness, she was definitely going to be looking into him, and his partner.
"Bring your body cameras directly to me, so I can check them personally. And I'll get in touch with the Titans for you, so they can come in and give a proper statement for your case. I will not have my officers shooting at our allies or innocent civilians. Is that clear, Detective?" This time, her words seemed to hit a chord with Grant, because he immediately straightened his posture, the arrogance fled from his body, and he looked truly nervous.
"Of course, Commissioner. I'll get those to you right away. And please, let me know when the Titans are coming in." The man stammered slightly, which was not that unexpected.
"I will," Barbara promised. "So get them, and get back to work."
The detective didn't even bother giving a response. He simply left the room, obviously trying to walk calmly when in reality, it looked more like speed-walking. As soon as he was out of earshot, Barbara picked up her phone and sent a text to Vee. She highly doubted that Grant would actually bring her the body cams, and if he was as stupid as he showed himself to be just know, he would be making a very important call to someone from one of the many criminal organizations in Gotham. Barbara would need someone to keep an eye on him, as she now had another very important matter to deal with concerning the Titans and the possibility of facing criminal charges.