Wax Figurine | T. Drake ✔

[35]

Tim sat up, coughing from the ashes and smoke that surrounded him. He lifted off the kevlar fallen over him as a protective covering, seeing that it was Batman's cape.

"Bruce?" He called out, trying to stand up and search for him.

His ears were still ringing from the very loud noise of the explosion and it was a miracle they had survived considering the intensity of the landmines erupting together. Olivia's bio-dome and laboratory was all destroyed, fallen into a rubble around them.

A firm pair of arms hoisted him up from the rubble and Batman's stoic features came into view, a sigh of relief escaping Tim to see him alive.

"Are you alright?" He asked and the boy nodded, shaking his head and blinking to clear his vision and hearing.

"Did you find her?" Tim asked, recalling that they were there for Olivia and she must be in danger.

"No," he replied, "I've searched everywhere. She's not in the forest."

"What should we do then?" His tone was laced with concern as he asked.

"We should go back to the cave as everything here has been reduced to rubble and finding any clue will be difficult," Bruce told him, checking him over for injuries himself, "we will track the location of Olivia's old phone and perhaps we'll find Ashlar through it. If we do, he can tell us more about what's going on."

"Okay..." His head swayed but before he could stumble, Bruce had supported him, "can you drive or shall we call Alfred?"

Bruce considered then spoke up, "I'll drive. You close your eyes and rest."

"I can't rest..." He mumbled as Bruce helped him into the Batmobile, "we don't know where she is and for all we know, Liv would be in trouble... I have to get to her..."

But his eyes were fluttering shut and Bruce was worried for him too. "If you don't rest to get better, I will not allow you to continue working on this case."

"No please... I'm fine. I just..."

He shook his head, knowing that he was stubborn, "close your eyes and don't open them until I tell you to."

Tim was too exhausted to put up a fight so he did as he was told. By the time they reached the Batcave, he had passed out from fatigue.

Richard had immediately come to them and lifted Tim out of the car, taking him to the medical wing. Bruce followed however as they reached there, he got another shocking news.

"Bruce, that body we found today, its postmortem reports came in," Barbara told him and he paused, "the DNA matched with Ashlar McArthur."

"Ashlar?" A mix of surprise and concern flickered on his features upon hearing that.

"Yes, it's him," she replied, "the cause of death is alcohol poisoning. Later he was disfigured by being exposed to harsh chemicals. However, no trace was found on him of the killer."

That was another very alarming situation. If Ashlar had been killed, there was no chance of them finding out beforehand what Gemma could be up to. And they had failed to bring Olivia to safety as well.

Right then they were running against the clock and everything seemed against them.

"Can we find out what poison was used?" He asked, knowing that their leads were running short, "and the chemicals composition of what was used to disfigure him?"

She nodded, "I'll try."

Turning to Richard, he gave him his phone, "you'll find a video here sent by Olivia's number. I want you to track the location and dissect anything we possibly can from the video. Do it as soon as possible."