The Sleuth's Apprentice

The Sleuth's Apprentice - Part 6 of 17

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The Sleuth's Apprentice - Part 6 of 17

Superboy, Superman, Batman and Robin are Copyrighted and owned by DC Comics.

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Although Robin was sound asleep in his bedroom, Jamie lay wide awake in bed. The super kid really didn't need the sleep, and he just stared out the window. It had been his first, full day as a crime-fighting super hero, and he was extremely excited about it. He felt like he could totally trust Robin, and he wanted to learn as much as possible.

He thought about all the people they had spoken to that day. He also pondered all the questions which Robin had asked, in order to get the right information from them. He asked very specific questions, which forced the interviewee to respond with very specific answers. Jamie replayed all the encounters with the victim's parents, and he concluded that Robin was truly a great sleuth. And, no wonder, he had been trained by Batman, who was the world's greatest detective!

When Jamie realized that Robin had woken up, he decided to meet him in the kitchen, located on the ground floor of Wayne Manor. Jamie strolled around the house, just wearing shorts, a t-shirt, and tennis shoes and white socks. He decided to wait to put on his Superboy outfit, only when Robin or Dick Grayson would tell him to do so.

After a few moments, Alfred, the butler, walked into the kitchen, carrying an empty dish in his hand.

'Good morning, Master Jamie' My name is Alfred, and I'm Master Wayne's butler. Would you care for some milk, juice, or hot chocolate to drink this morning?'

'Uh' Some hot chocolate, please'' the young guest replied.

Alfred then walked into the large kitchen area, where he poured some boiling water into a mug. He then grabbed a jar, containing some brown-colored powder, which he spooned a little into the mug. After he stirred the powder in the water, he quietly walked over to the spot where Jamie was sitting. He set the mug before the boy, before he turned around and walked back into the kitchen. It was an odd feeling to Jamie, to be served this way, and he had to get used to it.

After a few moments, Dick had come out of his room, and he sat on the opposite side of the table, where Jamie was seated.

'So, are you ready to go undercover?' Dick asked Jamie.

Jamie just shrugged in reply. 'I'll be ready when you are! Just tell me what to do, and where to go, and I'll do it!'

'Great! Let's enjoy some breakfast first, before we head down to the Batcave''

The boys enjoyed several servings of milk, toast and pancakes, before they put on their costumes and went down below to the secretive Batcave.

While Jamie and Dick are researching some of the findings on the internet and using their own computers in the Batcave, something else was taking place outside of the confines of their secret location.

In the city of Valery, two boys had gotten jobs working for a gas station. The boys reported for duty on the first day, and they worked their shifts. They pumped gas, they washed some of the windshields of the cars, and they filled tires with air. They learned how to use the cash register, and they even sold cans of soda at the service counter.

At the end of their first day, they were having a small break in the lounge for the employees at their store. The lounge was located in the back room of the facility. Jackson, who was the store manager, came up to them and gave them each a one-hundred Dollar bill, just for being there and for doing their work which had been assigned to them.

The boys thought it was great, and they accepted the extra cash, of course. However, things got weirder after the second day. Jack gave them each twice as much money, really making them even more excited about working at the gas station.

When the third day came and the boys showed up for work, after school was over, they earned the same amount of cash as they earned on the day before. However, jack pulled them aside and sat them down in the meeting room. At first, he offered them each a beer to drink, but both boys refused to accept any alcohol, because they knew that they were underage and that it was illegal for them to accept alcohol from adults.

Then Jack showed them two round-trip tickets to Nogales, Arizona. He offered them trips to a secret training camp in southern Arizona, where they would receive special instruction which they could use for the rest of their lives.

The boys told him that they needed to think about it first, and they had to get their parents' permission before they went on a trip like that. Jack told them that the parents' permission wasn't required, and that they would be taken care of. This all sounded very strange to them, so they walked away from the meeting, not knowing for sure what to say.

After the fourth day at work, Jack approached the boys again. He took them to the lounge, and he asked them the same thing. Jack explained several things to them, and the boys thought the offer was simply too good to be true. Jonathan was the oldest, and Jonah was the younger of the two brothers.

When Jack had finished making his final offer to the two boys, Jonah agreed to it and Jack had him taken away by two other coworkers from the gas station. Jonathan, who was the oldest, didn't agree to it at all, and he tried to persuade his younger brother to change his mind. But, Jonah gave in to Jack's persuasive arguments, and he allowed himself to be taken away by Jack's employees. They prepared Jonah and sent him on a flight to Arizona. In the meantime, Jonathan argued and fought hard against them taking Jonah, but it was too late. Jonathan finally walked out of the gas station, threatening Jack that he was going to file a report at the police station. In his eyes, his little brother Jonah has been kidnapped by the owners of the gas station, and he was going to get the police involved in it.

It was at this moment that Jonathan was walking home that afternoon. They had only worked a few hours, and Jonathan was walking home alone. He was lonely and scared. This was the first time ever that he wasn't walking home with his little brother, and he had no idea what to say, nor did he know how he was going to explain his little brother's kidnapping to his mother.

Jonathan was walking home, when he felt a chill going down his spine. Somehow, he had the feeling that he was being followed home from the gas station. And, rightly so, his feelings were correct. Jonathan had just come into an alley, where he suddenly hid behind one of the round, silver-colored trash cans. Moments later, he noticed two thugs, who were the henchman who worked for Jack, and they were walking down the same alley, looking for him.

Luckily for Jonathan, Robin and Superboy happened to be flying and riding close by that area, when Jonathan realized that he was being followed. Jonathan quietly hid behind the garbage can, while the two thugs walked past him. They didn't hear him at first, so they passed the trash can and continued walking, until they turned the corner.

When Jonathan stood up, and tried to run the other way, he accidentally knocked the lid off the top of the trash can, allowing it to land on the floor with a loud, crashing sound. One of the thugs had heard it, and he ran back to the alley, where he spotted Jonathan running away. He called his other companion, and the chase ensued.

Suddenly, one of the thugs was running right behind Jonathan, and he was gaining ground on him. Jonathan ran into another street, knocking over several trash cans as he passed them. He had hoped to create a few obstacles for the thug, in order to slow him down. Somehow, he noticed that only one of the thugs was following him, and he wasn't sure where the other one was.

When Jonathan thought that he had lost the thug, he quietly turned around in order to flee, when he felt a strong fist grabbing his shirt from behind. Before Jonathan could say anything, the man had made a fist with his right hand, and he plowed it into Jonathan's cheek, sending him to the floor.

Jonathan was in a daze for the moment. Then, as soon as he opened his weary eyes, he saw the figure of the thug looming over him. The man grabbed Jonathan by the collar, and he slowly tightened his grip on his jacket. Finally, he lifted him up off the ground, before giving the boy a mighty shove. Jonathan went flying through the air, before he landed with his back against the brick wall, before falling on the floor once again.

The poor boy was barely conscious. Yet, he was able to spring to life one more time, just as the thugs were walking towards him.

'Help!' he cried out. 'They're chasing me. HELP!'

'Shut up, you little twerp!' one of the thugs yelled at him, before he caught up to him.

Jonathan knew it was no contest at all. There were two thugs chasing after him, and he was trapped in a dead-end alley in the middle of the city. The thugs were bigger, taller, and stronger than him. He knew that the situation was bad, and that he needed to find some way to get out of the predicament that he was in. For the moment, he was trapped and the thugs had blocked off his only escape route.

'Leave me alone!' he shouted at them. 'No! Get away from me! Help! HELP!'

'Nobody will here you here, you little brat!' the thug sneered at him.

'You're not getting away with this, you creep!' the boy shouted. He knew that the situation was hopeless. The thugs had him cornered. He had no idea who, if anyone, would have heard his cries for help. He was outnumbered and he was hopelessly trapped in this dark, deserted alley, located in the heart of the poorest part of the city. He realized that he was now at the mercy of the two thugs, and he knew that they could basically do whatever they wanted to him. They could seriously hurt him, knock him unconscious, and leave him there to die without food and water, and nobody would know what would have happened to him or who could have done this to him.

When the thug grabbed him again, flashes went through his weary mind. He thought about his mother, who was left all alone and having to take care of the two boys, ever since their father died. He thought about his little brother, Jonah. He had always taken care of his little brother, and they had always done everything together, until now. At the time, it was a great idea to get a job at the gas station. Things were tight and there was no money available for anything, so they both figured that they would help out their mother by getting jobs at the gas station, so that they could chip in and help ease the burden from their mom's shoulders. The job at the gas station was supposed to have been a good thing, and there was absolutely no intention at all for this to end up becoming the nightmare that it had turned out to be.

'Say your prayers, boy'.' The thug chuckled, as he looked down at the boy's face. He saw the helplessness in his eyes, and the man knew that the boy's life was now in his hands.

Once again, the boy's life suddenly flashed right before him. He saw and he had accepted his fate. He had faith, that someone was going to look after him, and that justice would somehow prevail. The boy decided to allow whatever to happen, to take place. And, somehow, and someday, justice would be served.

'Let the boy go''

The thug turned around and gasped, when he saw Robin standing right behind him.

The man shoved Jonathan back on the floor, when he turned around and swung his fist at Robin. The Boy Wonder was ready for a fight, and he immediately jumped out of the way. The thug then ran after him, attempting to swing his fist at him again, when Robin spun around and kicked the man in the stomach with his right foot.

Robin stood and watched, while the thug cringed in pain. Suddenly, he felt someone else's arm as it quickly wrapped around his neck. The second man had his arm wrapped around Robin's neck, and he tried to force Robin to fall to his knees by attempting to choke him.

Robin used his free hand to grab a hold of him, and he bent forward, launching the thug up into the air! The man was suddenly hurled over Robin's body and he ended up landing a few feet in front of where Robin was standing.

When the man got back on his feet, he turned around and started running in the opposite direction, when a blue-and-red figure landed out of the sky and came down just a few feet in front of him.

'Where do you think you're going?' Superboy chuckled, as he stared at the frightened man, who was standing before him, trembling in fear.

The thug tried to ran away from Superboy, but the Boy of Steel easily caught up to him, thanks to his super speed. In fact, he was so fast, that the thug didn't even see Superboy pop up in front of him. He was running in the direction, when the young Superboy materialized out of nowhere, with his hands on his hip and his long, red cape, billowing in the wind.

'That's not fair! Two guys are beating up on one!' Superboy smiles, as he slowly walked closer to the man.

The thug got up and grabbed an old baseball bat, which was lying on the floor, right next to a trash can. He quietly approached Superboy, who didn't move at all. He tried to swing the bat at Superboy, but the bat cracked in half, upon making impact with the boy's head!

'Oh my God'.' The man exclaimed when he realized that the kid, who was standing before him, wasn't just a boy in a fancy, colorful costume. He really was Superboy!

Superboy slowly started walking towards him, but the man's back was now against a brick wall.

The Boy of Steel reached out with his right hand, before he grabbed the man by the jacket's collar, and easily lifted him up. The man gulped as he looked down and noticed that his feet were dangling several inches above the ground!

In the meantime, Robin noticed that the lost boy needed some help, so he attended to him first. While he wasn't looking, the first thug got up, and ran away. Superboy spotted the man running away, and he turned to look to see what Robin was doing.

'Let him go for now' Robin instructed Superboy. 'Let's take care of the boy. We can always come back for these thugs later''

'Awwww' I wanted to play some more with these guys'' Superboy sighed, before he tossed the man on the ground with just one hand. 'Oh well''

The man slowly crawled a few feet away, before he stood up. He was limping a little, and he knew that it wouldn't do him any good to stick around. He understood that Robin and Superboy were too powerful, and that the best thing for him to do right now was to run away from this place as fast as possible.

He turned around and ran out of the alley as fast as he could; shouting out the name of his companion as he aimlessly ran around the dark, narrow streets, until he found his companion. The two then went back to their gas station and locked the door to the lounge, hoping that the two boys in the colorful costumes wouldn't come after them.

'Are you alright?' Robin asked the buy, who had several wounds on his face and on his arm.

'Who' Who are you?' the boy whispered.

'I'm Robin' and this is Superboy!' he said, as he pointed to his red-and-blue companion, who suddenly appeared standing right next to him at super speed.

'Hi there!' Superboy cheered. 'I hope you're feeling OK''

Jonathan opened his eyes and stared in amazement at the two boys in the colorful costumes.

'Gosh' Thanks a lot for helping me out, you guys'' he mumbled to them.

'Do you want us to take you to a hospital?' Robin asked him.

'No' I'm okay' I just want to get home right now'' Jonathan replied. 'I just wanted to make sure that my mom was alright''

'What's your name?' Superboy asked him.

'I'm Jonathan. These guys know me from the gas station where I was working at''

'Why were they chasing you and beating up on you?' Robin wondered.

'It's a long story' I'd rather not talk about it now' If you don't mind''

'Tell us where you live?' Robin added. 'We'll bring you home.'

Jonathan gave Robin the address of his mom's house, and Robin allowed Jonathan to sit on the back seat of his motorcycle, as he gave him a ride home, while Superboy continued to fly overhead.

Several minutes later, the super boys had dropped off Jonathan at his house. Robin had set an appointment to meet with him the following day, so that they could talk about the job at the gas station, and about what had happened to Jonah, Jonathan's little brother.

After Superboy and Robin had dropped him off at his mother's house, they sped back to the Batcave, where they regrouped and talked about what they had discovered so far.

When the two heroes got behind the computer, they came across several newspaper clippings from the city of Valery. They searched for clippings which had something to do with William Wancho, and they found at least two articles.

'Listen to this' Robin began, as he found some information on the computer display and began to read out loud so that Superboy could hear it. 'The public transportation company of the city of Valery, called Valtran, had just been acquired by Willco about six months ago!'

'That's a coincidence!' Superboy noted.

'No, it's no coincidence at all!' the Boy Wonder responded. 'All the former employees of the bus company have been fired from the company, the minute that the bus system was taken over! The following week, a large ad was placed in the newspaper, allowing these former employees to get their jobs back, if the agreed to the new terms and signed the new contracts, which Willco had written up for them.'

'That's interesting''

'Lastly, all new company employees had to undergo special training in southern Arizona, before they could start working for the company under the new management.'

'We heard that somewhere before'' Superboy chuckled, while rolling his eyes.

'This Wancho characters runs and owns a company that has interests in a bus company, grocery stores, and gas stations. That makes no sense at all''

'Maybe he wants to control the food business?' Superboy wondered.

'No, I don't think so. There are plenty of places that sell food. There's got to be more to it than that'' Robin pondered.

'Then' Maybe he wants to control the gasoline business?' the Boy of Steel added.

Robin got up and paced around the control room for a moment.

'You might be on to something, Supes'' he said, while he was in deep thought. 'Why would someone want to control the sale or distribution of fuel in a city?'

'Maybe he wants to make a lot of money?' Superboy wondered, as he sat down in the chair, which was nearest to the computer.

'Well, greed has a lot to do with it. These characters are only interested in making lots of money, having lots of power, and gaining lots of influence. It just seems that the way they're going about it doesn't seem to make sense''

'Maybe they want control over all the fuel in our state? Or, they want to control all the fuel in the entire country?'

'Hmm, yeah' There's more to it than we see so far' Robin thought out loud. 'And then, the question is, what do these companies have to do with all the robberies which had taken place in Carnaville? Is it possible that the same thing might happen in Valery?'

'How about we ask Jonathan some questions?'

'Yeah. Well, he's had a rough day. We'll let him rest up a bit this afternoon, and we'll pay him a visit in the morning. We can use the rest of the afternoon to hang out and do something fun''

Superboy noted that Robin paced around the room, passing the desk every time. Then, he noted three small bags, which were lying on the desk, side-by-side.

'Hey, Robin' What are those three little bags for?' he said, while pointing to the desk.

Robin took the three bags in his hands, before he stood straight and faced Superboy. Then he tossed on bag in the air, so that it reached a little higher than his head, before it came back down again. While the first bag was in the air, he tossed the second bag, which was in his other hand. Lastly, he tossed the third bag in the air as well, and alternated hands while catching and tossing the bags as they came down. He tossed the bags in a way, where it seemed that they were traveling in an elliptical line. He was showing Jamie how to juggle!

'This is a juggling kit, see?' Robin explained, while he was still juggling the three bags. Superboy just stared at him in awe. 'I learned how to do this, while I was working for the circus along with my parents.'

'Wow! I'd love to learn how to do that! Can you teach me? Please?' Superboy pleaded with him.

'Sure!' the Boy Wonder answered, as he caught all three bags with his hands. 'It's easy. All it takes is patience, timing, and a little perseverance. I'll have you juggling these bags in no time at all!'

Robin realized that all work and no play wasn't fun for either him or Superboy, so he decided that it was time to do something fun with his younger guest. He suggested that the two go to the ice cream parlor, and get some desert, before they headed out to the fair, which was in town that weekend.

He was pleased to see how quickly Jamie had picked up on the juggling act. Jamie had mentioned to him earlier that he was always considered the class clown in school, and that he had even dressed up as a clown for Halloween. Jamie was always one of the funniest kids in school, and learning how to juggle would be just another one of those skills that he would treasure for the rest of his life.

After Robin noticed that he could now juggle on his own, he allowed Jamie to keep the three little beanbags so that he could practice wherever he went. Jamie actually stored the three little bags in one of the pouches in his cape, so he always carried them with him.