Working on a Case, chapter 8: Tagged Urgent
Characters: Titans as of the end of the Family Lost paperback, starting with Bart Allen (Kid Flash) and Tim Drake (Robin). This installment also includes Conner Kent (Superboy), Raven, Gar Logan (Beast Boy), and Vic Stone (Cyborg).
Rating: PG.
Content: Mystery with comic relief, or perhaps comedy with mystery relief.
Word Count: about 1,200 words per chapter. Unknown number of chapters.
Summary: Bart Allen as Kid Flash wants to help Robin on a Titans case involving a convict with a super-power and a strange police record. He knows honing his investigatory skills will require insight, concentration, and...what was the third thing? Bart has just learned that the prisoner he and Tim were investigating has made a bloody escape from Alcatraz.
Continuity: DC Comics standard.
Disclaimer: The Titans and its members are owned by DC Comics under copyright and trademark laws. This pastiche is offered freely with no hope of commercial reward.
Notes: It all started here.
Chapter 8
Tagged Urgent
As soon as I hear Kon say, “escaped!” I gulp down the rest of the corn flakes, and I run down the stairs and out the door and halfway across the harbor, and then I see I’m not wearing my gloves, so I turn around and dash back for them and then sprint across the harbor again and get to the shore of Alcatraz Island and wait for Kon to show up.
“Who escaped?” I ask him.
“A guy named Crossley,” Kon says, and he doesn’t stop to talk-he flies straight up the cliff to the prison.
And I run after him, not feeling surprised ’cause I already deduced it was Crossley, but I was still hoping it was some other guy.
Kon tells me, “Vic’s pissed.”
“Ooh, is he mad at me? ’Cause I didn’t mean to sleep through the alarm; I was out really late working on a-”
“Vic’s pissed at everyone,” Kon says, and he keeps flying up to the roof of the prison. “He’s even mad at Tim.”
“But-But Tim told the warden not to bring Crossley here yet!” I tell Kon, running up the stone wall. “What happened?”
“I don’t know the whole story. What I heard is that the Marshals brought him in on their helicopter. There was a guard and a psychologist waiting-”
“Dr. Margarethe Sackler Ignatieff?”
“What? I don’t know, Bart! Will you just listen? The helicopter lands, and the doc and the guard go out to meet it. As soon as the door opens, the guy slashes the guard’s throat! He yanks the doctor into the helicopter, and it takes off with him shooting out the window at guards on the walls. I just flew one of those guys over to St. Luke’s.”
That’s the hospital where they fixed my knee, so I know the surgeons will do a good job on that guard, but I also know it would have been better for him if he hadn’t got shot at all. And now that I’m on the roof of the prison, I can see Raven and a medic crouching over a man lying on the gravel, so I deduce that’s another wounded guard, and I run over to them and ask, “What can I do?”
“He has already started to heal,” says Raven. “I took much of his pain.”
“Yep, signs are stable,” says the medic, and she waves Kon over. “Flyboy! This one’s ready for the E.R. Keep pressure on all those wounds, and try not to drop him.”
“Pressure. Got it,” says Kon, and he wraps his thick arms around the guard and zooms off toward the city.
And I’m jumping around in front of the medic, asking, “Is anyone else hurt? I’ve read eight books on emergency surgery!”
“And here I’ve wasted the last nine years with hands-on training,” she mutters as she rips off her latex gloves. “We don’t need you now, kid.”
“What about that guy?” And I point to where another guard is lying on the ground next to the helipad, and as soon as I do I realize why they put a sheet over him, and why the sheet has big red spots. “Oooh.”
“You could’ve helped twenty minutes ago,” says the medic, and she picks up her equipment and walks away.
And I look at Raven and say, “I didn’t mean to come late! But I never heard the alarm before, so I didn’t know what it sounded-”
“I must return to the Tower,” Raven tells me. “All the emotions below are so intense, angry, chaotic. I do not know what might happen if I stay.”
“Yeah, you should leave,” I agree. “But what can I do?”
“Cyborg is asking where you are.”
“Um. What else can I do?”
And Raven peeks out from under her cowl and says, “You must not be afraid, Bartholomew”-but I’d be a lot less afraid if she didn’t say that in her spooky voice and then disappear in a column of black smoke.
I still don’t want to see Vic ’cause I know he’s all angry, but I also know I have to, and I want to find Tim, so I run down to administration ward and into the office of Warden Easton’s secretary, and there’s Gar leaning on the wall.
“Glad you could join us, Kid,” he mutters.
“I didn’t mean to-”
But Gar puts his finger over his lips and points his thumb into the warden’s office, and inside we can hear a man yelling: “Right there on my screen! A message from ‘Agent R’ saying we should bring in Crossley first thing this morning. Tagged URGENT. I was up till midnight arranging his transfer with the Marshals.”
“Warden, I never sent that email,” says Tim.
“You? This is ‘Agent R,’ Stone? I asked for your best investigator, not some kid!”
“Robin is our best investigator!” barks Vic. “And he never sent that email.”
“So what’s this?” says Warden Easton. “It hit my in-box at 10:38 last night.”
“We were still working on the case then!” I whisper to Gar. “Tim was on his computer-ooh!”
“Let’s keep that detail to ourselves,” Gar whispers back.
And a woman’s voice is saying, “...that email’s in the same format as the message that asked us to fax Crossley’s file to Agent R. The exact same format.” And I deduce that lady is the secretary whose office Gar and I are hiding in.
“And,” finishes Easton, “it starts with the security code we agreed on for this case. And now you’re telling me you never sent it?”
And there’s no sound for what seems like a long time to me-two or three seconds at least-and then Tim speaks, but his voice sounds small and tight: “I didn’t send that email. I left you a voicemail with my advice at about 2:40 in the morning.”
“Voicemail?” shouts the warden. “Do you see a light blinking on my phone? Susanna, did I have any voicemails this morning?”
“No, sir,” says the woman. “None.”
“Warden, I called your line from a diner somewhere between here and...a secret location in Nevada.”
“A ‘secret location’? A phone call no one heard from a place no one can identify?”
“Watch it, Easton!” growls Vic. “You bust my balls all you want, but don’t talk to my kids like that.”
“Stone, I’ve got one man dead, my best department head missing, and two guys in the hospital because of your kids! The Marshals are down two deputies and a pilot because of your kids! So I’ll say whatever I have to!”
And I know what I have to do. I run into the warden’s office and zip between Vic and Easton and open my mouth-and I see their angry faces, plus Susanna’s and even Tim’s, and I want to run out again. But I don’t! I say, “Robin called from Guy’s Diner on Highway 108 in Long Valley, California! For takeout, call 760-835-2215!”
Continued here.
Rating: PG.
Content: Mystery with comic relief, or perhaps comedy with mystery relief.
Word Count: about 1,200 words per chapter. Unknown number of chapters.
Summary: Bart Allen as Kid Flash wants to help Robin on a Titans case involving a convict with a super-power and a strange police record. He knows honing his investigatory skills will require insight, concentration, and...what was the third thing? Bart has just learned that the prisoner he and Tim were investigating has made a bloody escape from Alcatraz.
Continuity: DC Comics standard.
Disclaimer: The Titans and its members are owned by DC Comics under copyright and trademark laws. This pastiche is offered freely with no hope of commercial reward.
Notes: It all started here.
Chapter 8
Tagged Urgent
As soon as I hear Kon say, “escaped!” I gulp down the rest of the corn flakes, and I run down the stairs and out the door and halfway across the harbor, and then I see I’m not wearing my gloves, so I turn around and dash back for them and then sprint across the harbor again and get to the shore of Alcatraz Island and wait for Kon to show up.
“Who escaped?” I ask him.
“A guy named Crossley,” Kon says, and he doesn’t stop to talk-he flies straight up the cliff to the prison.
And I run after him, not feeling surprised ’cause I already deduced it was Crossley, but I was still hoping it was some other guy.
Kon tells me, “Vic’s pissed.”
“Ooh, is he mad at me? ’Cause I didn’t mean to sleep through the alarm; I was out really late working on a-”
“Vic’s pissed at everyone,” Kon says, and he keeps flying up to the roof of the prison. “He’s even mad at Tim.”
“But-But Tim told the warden not to bring Crossley here yet!” I tell Kon, running up the stone wall. “What happened?”
“I don’t know the whole story. What I heard is that the Marshals brought him in on their helicopter. There was a guard and a psychologist waiting-”
“Dr. Margarethe Sackler Ignatieff?”
“What? I don’t know, Bart! Will you just listen? The helicopter lands, and the doc and the guard go out to meet it. As soon as the door opens, the guy slashes the guard’s throat! He yanks the doctor into the helicopter, and it takes off with him shooting out the window at guards on the walls. I just flew one of those guys over to St. Luke’s.”
That’s the hospital where they fixed my knee, so I know the surgeons will do a good job on that guard, but I also know it would have been better for him if he hadn’t got shot at all. And now that I’m on the roof of the prison, I can see Raven and a medic crouching over a man lying on the gravel, so I deduce that’s another wounded guard, and I run over to them and ask, “What can I do?”
“He has already started to heal,” says Raven. “I took much of his pain.”
“Yep, signs are stable,” says the medic, and she waves Kon over. “Flyboy! This one’s ready for the E.R. Keep pressure on all those wounds, and try not to drop him.”
“Pressure. Got it,” says Kon, and he wraps his thick arms around the guard and zooms off toward the city.
And I’m jumping around in front of the medic, asking, “Is anyone else hurt? I’ve read eight books on emergency surgery!”
“And here I’ve wasted the last nine years with hands-on training,” she mutters as she rips off her latex gloves. “We don’t need you now, kid.”
“What about that guy?” And I point to where another guard is lying on the ground next to the helipad, and as soon as I do I realize why they put a sheet over him, and why the sheet has big red spots. “Oooh.”
“You could’ve helped twenty minutes ago,” says the medic, and she picks up her equipment and walks away.
And I look at Raven and say, “I didn’t mean to come late! But I never heard the alarm before, so I didn’t know what it sounded-”
“I must return to the Tower,” Raven tells me. “All the emotions below are so intense, angry, chaotic. I do not know what might happen if I stay.”
“Yeah, you should leave,” I agree. “But what can I do?”
“Cyborg is asking where you are.”
“Um. What else can I do?”
And Raven peeks out from under her cowl and says, “You must not be afraid, Bartholomew”-but I’d be a lot less afraid if she didn’t say that in her spooky voice and then disappear in a column of black smoke.
I still don’t want to see Vic ’cause I know he’s all angry, but I also know I have to, and I want to find Tim, so I run down to administration ward and into the office of Warden Easton’s secretary, and there’s Gar leaning on the wall.
“Glad you could join us, Kid,” he mutters.
“I didn’t mean to-”
But Gar puts his finger over his lips and points his thumb into the warden’s office, and inside we can hear a man yelling: “Right there on my screen! A message from ‘Agent R’ saying we should bring in Crossley first thing this morning. Tagged URGENT. I was up till midnight arranging his transfer with the Marshals.”
“Warden, I never sent that email,” says Tim.
“You? This is ‘Agent R,’ Stone? I asked for your best investigator, not some kid!”
“Robin is our best investigator!” barks Vic. “And he never sent that email.”
“So what’s this?” says Warden Easton. “It hit my in-box at 10:38 last night.”
“We were still working on the case then!” I whisper to Gar. “Tim was on his computer-ooh!”
“Let’s keep that detail to ourselves,” Gar whispers back.
And a woman’s voice is saying, “...that email’s in the same format as the message that asked us to fax Crossley’s file to Agent R. The exact same format.” And I deduce that lady is the secretary whose office Gar and I are hiding in.
“And,” finishes Easton, “it starts with the security code we agreed on for this case. And now you’re telling me you never sent it?”
And there’s no sound for what seems like a long time to me-two or three seconds at least-and then Tim speaks, but his voice sounds small and tight: “I didn’t send that email. I left you a voicemail with my advice at about 2:40 in the morning.”
“Voicemail?” shouts the warden. “Do you see a light blinking on my phone? Susanna, did I have any voicemails this morning?”
“No, sir,” says the woman. “None.”
“Warden, I called your line from a diner somewhere between here and...a secret location in Nevada.”
“A ‘secret location’? A phone call no one heard from a place no one can identify?”
“Watch it, Easton!” growls Vic. “You bust my balls all you want, but don’t talk to my kids like that.”
“Stone, I’ve got one man dead, my best department head missing, and two guys in the hospital because of your kids! The Marshals are down two deputies and a pilot because of your kids! So I’ll say whatever I have to!”
And I know what I have to do. I run into the warden’s office and zip between Vic and Easton and open my mouth-and I see their angry faces, plus Susanna’s and even Tim’s, and I want to run out again. But I don’t! I say, “Robin called from Guy’s Diner on Highway 108 in Long Valley, California! For takeout, call 760-835-2215!”
Continued here.