Nightwing

Issue #1

"Home is where the crime is."

A dark figure moved silently across the rooftops of Gotham City. He hadn't been in this neighborhood for quite some time, but his memories of the area were as clear as ever. Not much had really changed. The chimneys and exhausts were where he remembered them to be. The same statues and skylights were where they always were. Muggers, rapists, pickpockets, and murderers were all still haunting the allies.

The more things change, the more they stay the same, Dick Grayson, a.k.a. Nightwing, thought to himself.

It was true that it had been a while since Nightwing had chased prey across this city, but it had been even longer since he was asked a favor of this magnitude. It had barely been a year since…well, since he and Bruce decided on different ways of handling things.

That had always been the problem between them. Bruce Wayne, his adoptive father figure, the Dark Knight Detective, his teacher and mentor, did not always see things as Nightwing saw them. Nightwing was more of a…"people person." He trusted that there was good in most people. Bruce was of a more paranoid nature. He kept most at arm's length.

Can't blame the guy, Nightwing thought as he vaulted over a gargoyle statue onto the next rooftop, Bruce has experienced the darker side of the human soul as the Batman for years. I suppose it's only natural.

After rounding the corner of another building, Nightwing caught a visual of his prey: Tommy Minh, carrying a large satchel. The satchel was filled to the brim with stolen diamonds, which had been taken from a safety deposit box inside the safe at Gotham Savings and Loan. Tommy, along with his crew, had avoided the building's security measures during the break-in. It was impressive; Tommy's crew had managed to rob the place completely undetected…except for the sensors Batman himself had installed.

Paranoid or not, Bruce is good, Nightwing thought.

Nightwing watched as Tommy Minh walked to the end of the block, set the satchel down, and lit up a cigarette. Like a lot of the inhabitants of this neighborhood, the street light he was standing under was burnt out. Tommy was probably waiting for a pickup or an exchange. Nightwing had dealt with the Minh family before, back when Bludhaven was habitable. He had even helped them out a couple of times. He didn't trust them, but he did know that they were dead serious when it came to business deals, and they covered their tracks well. If someone was meeting Tommy to pick up those diamonds, chances were they would never be seen again. The time to act was now.

Nightwing reached up to a tiny earpiece imbedded in his hearing canal, activating the device. "Hey, Babs," he whispered.

A strong feminine voice responded:Oracle when we're working, lover.:

"Sorry," Nightwing said, shaking his head after realizing his small mistake. In their line of work, even a small mistake could spell disaster later on. "I've got Tommy Minh in front of me, evidence in hand."

:I've already hacked into GCPD dispatch, and I'm sending two squad cars to where your GPS says you are. ETA: three minutes.:

Barbara never ceased to amaze him. She was always one step ahead. "I'll leave a nice present for the boys in blue then. Thanks, Oracle. I'll be home in a couple hours."

:Then there will be a nice present waiting for you to unwrap, former boy wonder: Oracle replied playfully, before cutting off the communiqué. Nightwing simply smiled.

Dropping from his perch on a nearby ledge, Nightwing silently came up behind Tommy. Seemingly melting away from the shadows, Tommy never even had the chance to turn around.

"I wouldn't take you for a common loiterer, Tommy," said Nightwing.

Tommy jumped, obviously startled. He spun around to see Nightwing's fist slam into his jaw. The next thing Tommy knew, he was on the ground.

"I've places to be tonight, Tommy, I'll make this quick."

Tommy, the vocabulist that he was, let fly a long string of obscenities while drawing out a 9mm handgun from inside his jacket. Faster than Tommy could follow, Nightwing slapped the gun out of his hands with the back on his right hand, and flowed with the momentum, spinning and connecting with the bottom of his right foot across Tommy's face.

Tommy cradled his chin, blood dripping down from his nose. "Wuff the fuff, mon!"

"I'll pretend I didn't hear that." Nightwing began to pull long stretches of high-composite cable from inside his almost invisible and seamless belt. The cable was very thin and extremely flexible, but at the same time was strong enough to withstand close to a metric ton of pressure. He could carry yards upon yards of the stuff without weighing down his costume.

When the police arrived a minute later, Nightwing witnessed them pull Tommy Minh down from the street lamp he was strung up on. The officers collected the satchel full of diamonds, secured the scene, and waited for the forensics team. None of them looked the least bit amazed at the sight of a known gangster tied to a street light.

The more things change…Nightwing thought as he silently crept back into the shadows to continue on his way. He had many more roofs to jump before he went home to unwrap his present.

---

"Honey, I'm home!" Dick said. He felt corny, but who cared? He was happy to be home.

Dick Grayson, out of his costume, dampened his face with a soft, green towel. Thwarting several muggers after his little diamond exchange interception earlier that night had caused him to work up a bit of a sweat.

"Up in the Nest!" he heard Barbara call down. She had barely come down from the tower since they had moved in last week. She called it "the Nest." In actuality, the Nest was the highest point in a tower on top of the Grissom Bridge.

It was a pretty sweet setup…the central pillar of the suspension bridge, which was in the heart of south Gotham (right above the harbor), had everything they needed. The Nest at the top held all of Babs' equipment she utilized as Oracle, the super hero information broker. Directly underneath that were full living quarters, equal in size to maybe a three-bedroom apartment. The bottom of the support pillar, of course, rested beneath the waves of the river. An elevator provided them transport to the base and an airlock for easy access to any watercraft. Also at the bottom was the entrance to a series of tunnels that led out in all directions to the city.

This was where they both lived now. They had settled in, for the most part. At least as much as a couple can settle in after only a week. It wasn't the most social of places…Dick doubted that they would be throwing any grand parties anytime soon. However, as a public face, they had decided to rent an apartment several blocks away, so the city had a record of their address. Who knows, they might even stop and see the place sometime soon.

He liked their new base of operations, but he felt it was a little too similar to some cartoon he saw once about a duck in a cape. It was a lot different than his apartment back in Bludhaven. Most of that was gone now, though. Bludhaven was currently little more than a big pile of rubble at best.

I feel a little guilty about leaving the 'Haven behind, but with the now homeless criminals gouging their way into Gotham, aren't I needed more here? I've got a history with some of these guys, and now they're looking to set up shop all over again. The Minhs don't seem to be phased all that much…

He walked over to the elevator that would take him to the Nest. Peering out the window as the lift began to move, he saw the river below. Twenty-one dead men had floated up that very river into Gotham when a drought backed up the estuary. It seemed like decades ago Batman had sent him to Bludhaven to investigate. The bodies had their necks broken and twisted by the large hands of Blockbuster, Bludhaven's self-appointed crime lord.

Dick had found a home there. He had gone out on his own, and he proved he could handle an entire city by himself. Batman looked at him more as an equal now instead of a sidekick. He attributed a lot of that respect to Bludhaven.

It was a favor that sent me there, Dick thought, and now a favor is bringing me back to Gotham. I'm not surprised that Bruce asked me to come back, or that he divided up the city like he did…but I am surprised that he's been so quiet since my return. I didn't expect him to bug me constantly, but I thought he would check in every other day.

As the elevator reached its destination, Dick stepped out into the cozy area the woman known as Oracle had claimed as her own. Expensive equipment was stacked all over shelves lining the walls. Wires and thick cables were strewn about the floor, making it hard to walk in certain places.

"Babs?"

"Be right there!" she called out from above him somewhere. Looking up, Dick saw Barbara strapped into a safety harness about fifteen feet above him, carefully connecting what he recognized as a backup power supply in case the power was cut out unexpectedly…which happens more often than one might initially guess.

She finished the connection and released the brace on the harness, sending her sliding down through the air on a cable just like the one he had used to tie up Tommy Minh earlier. She decelerated her fall just before plopping into her wheelchair. As Dick was having a little trouble stepping over all the cables on the floor, she seemed to have no problem navigating over to where he was.

He leaned down and kissed her full on the lips, eliciting a soft moan of approval from her. "How was the rest of the night?"

"Typical. You have everything up and running here?"

"Pretty much. We don't have any non-lethal defenses set up yet, but everything else is about finished. I'll tweak it as I go along, but this is pretty much it."

"Well, how about taking a little break from tweaking and spending some quality time with your husband?"

Barbara Grayson wheeled back slightly and looked at Dick with a raised eyebrow. "Aren't you tired from saving the world tonight, Adult Wonder?"

"Maybe I should change my name to that; has a nice ring to it," Dick said, mockingly, "Or maybe I'll change it to…the Tickler!" The hero quickly began tickling his wife, causing her to squirm. It wasn't long, however, before the sounds of her laughter turned into sounds of another kind.

---

The next morning, Dick awoke in their shared bed by himself. Barbara was probably already up in the Nest installing some other technical device, he assumed. After a quick tour of the bathroom, Dick made his way to the "gym." It wasn't any bigger than their bedroom, but with a few collapsible pieces of exercise equipment, he could get a full workout with no problems.

He went through his routine on the various machines, feeling the burn in his muscles as the lactic acid began to build up. One of the things his great teacher had taught him about martial arts was that size doesn't usually matter…but stamina and endurance do. Keeping fit gave him the speed he needed to out maneuver most opponents.

After some stretches designed to help cool down from the workout, Dick walked back toward the bathroom, but stopped when he heard his wife on the phone in the kitchen.

"The protocol connections can wait; it's the stylized matrix I'm worried about," he heard her say as he approached. Seeing him out of the corner of her eye, she wheeled around and said, "Hold on, he's walking over now, Bruce."

"Bruce?" Dick mouthed as he took the phone from Barbara. She nodded an affirmative in response. He raised the receiver to his mouth and said, "Hello?"

:Good morning, Dick. I trust you're ready for some leads:

That's Bruce, always business, Dick thought before he replied, "Yeah, what do you have?"

:Several things. Sources indicate that Oswald Cobblepot just filed the paperwork for his new nightclub on 34th Street, called "Icetopia." The forms and licenses are all legit, but he paid for the building in full with cash.:

"After having declared bankruptcy seven months ago?"

:Precisely. When Bludhaven was destroyed, it seems Penguin lost most of his legal assets, but he still managed to keep some from being seized. Even still, he shouldn't have that much money. Look into it. As you well know, when Bludhaven was decimated, a large section of the populace went up the river to Gotham, which is why you are where you are. There's already a power struggle in northern Gotham, I don't need one in the south, too.:

"I'll take care of it," said Dick, "What else?"

:Tommy Minh was released on bail this morning at 9 o'clock sharp.:

Anger and confusion engulfed Dick's mind. "What! I watched the police collar him red-handed! He's a flight risk if I ever saw one. How the hell did he get out on bail?"

:Minh's lawyer was able to convince a judge that the diamonds couldn't have come from Gotham Savings and Loan since no evidence was found of a break-in. Apparently, there was no record of the diamonds being put into the safety deposit box they were supposedly taken from.:

"But, the sensors you installed…"

:…did not malfunction. Tommy Minh and his gang stole those diamonds, and erased 100 of the evidence of the crime. They may have connections within the system already; I'm not sure. You know them better than I do.:

Dick certainly knew them. One of the first things he had done in Bludhaven was try to save some of Lady Minh's kids. Only the kids turned out to be her unfertilized eggs, which he found out just in time to be caught off guard and sent to the bottom of the drink. He barely escaped that little jaunt. His other encounters with the Minhs hadn't wound up much better than that.

"It's never simple with those guys," said Dick, shaking his head. "I'll try and figure out how they did it, or at least gather some evidence to land a conviction. Any tips?"

:However they did it, they had to have help from inside the bank. When I installed those sensors, I made note of the intense security already in the place. I honestly never expected it to be robbed without an explosion or two. I'll contact you in if I need to pass on something else.:

Dick heard the unmistakable sound of the person on the other end of the line ending the call. Abrupt as usual, thought Dick.

"I take it you'll be making a few visits this evening, Mr. Grayson," said Barbara.

"Looks like. Bruce hung up before I could ask him some things, though. What if I had information to give him? I don't even know how to reach him."

"That's Bruce for you," Barbara said dismissively, "If he isn't aware of it, it must not be important enough to know. Did you have some info for Ol' Bats?"

"No…just some questions." Like why he still acts like Gotham is his town when he hasn't even been in the same zip code for months.

---

Later that night, Nightwing, in his full black and blue costume, made his way onto the roof of Gotham Savings and Loan. If he was going to try and prove Tommy Minh was ever in the building, he needed to prove how the robbery was committed.

Oracle had tracked down some basic information earlier that day that had proved helpful. Whoever owned those diamonds did not want anyone to know who they were. Oracle had found an entry in the bank's database showing activity in the account that supposedly didn't exist. Someone left the diamonds in that safety deposit box about a month ago. Oracle had uncovered the transaction, but there was nothing pointing to the identity of who did it.

Why wouldn't the owner want their expensive property recovered? Nightwing thought, Unless the owner had acquired those diamonds by illegal means. Blackmail perhaps?

Nightwing moved silently across the roof, especially for how quickly he was moving. His boot tread, while very durable and rife with traction, provided a certain level of sound dampening for his footsteps. It came in handy for all the times he needed to sneak up on someone.

His eyes gazed over the surface of the roof, trying to figure out how the robbers had gotten in. The first sensor of Batman's that had been tripped was in the ventilation shaft just a few feet to his left. The bank must have had sensors covering that entry point, too, so how had they gotten around them and not Batman's?

Reaching the edge of the grating, Nightwing slid his fingers along the seal, trying to determine where the bank's magnetic alarms must be. "Bingo," he said as soon as he felt a small knob just below the top right corner of the grate. Keeping his one hand on the knob so he wouldn't have to search for it again, Nightwing reached to his belt with the other. He pulled out a very small, thin, black cylinder and held it up to the knob. Pressing a small button on the cylinder, he heard a soft click as the magnetic alarm became disarmed.

After safely pulling the grate off, Nightwing entered the ventilation shaft. It was a bit cliché, but he didn't have time to find an alternate means of getting in. Besides, this seemed to be how Tommy Minh did it.

A few feet in, the air shaft abruptly dropped straight down, and he could hear the large air conditioner supplying cold air to the entire building. The building was only three stories tall; not large by any means. It wouldn't take long to drop down to the main floor where the vault was.

I'll just secure my drop line, and slide on down. As soon as I get a visual I'll give Babs a call to see what she's turned up while monitoring my little break-in. Maybe she's even found something out about the diamonds.

Nightwing placed a magnetic grappler to the top of the ventilation shaft to use as an anchor for his drop line. Swinging out into the narrow space, he began to repel his way down the shaft to the first floor.

He hadn't gone more than ten feet before he heard a quiet "beep!" Just below him, he saw a red light flash and a flimsy perforated metal slab slid across the air shaft.

Motion sensor? Nightwing thought, Probably to keep birds or something out in case the grating got knocked loose. Whatever had happened, the metal slab had cut off his descent.

"Oracle?" Nightwing said, raising his hand to his ear.

:Oracle here: she replied into his earpiece.

"I'm in the ventilation shaft, and I've just been obstructed by a metal mesh set off by a motion sensor. Can you disable it from the Nest?"

:Are you in the vertical part of the shaft:

"Yeah, just a few feet lower than the roof level."

:No alarms went off. Must be to keep birds out or something. Okay, there should be wiring for the bank's security network in between the shaft and the building foundation. Punch through the shaft and connect my little black box to the wiring. I'll need to be patched in directly to override things.:

Nightwing grabbed the small box Oracle had given him that was clipped to his belt. He fastened the high-composite cable to his belt and grabbed another tool that would enable him to cut through the side of the metal shaft like it was butter. In just a few moments, he was through and attaching the box to the wiring.

"All set," he notified.

:Gimme a sec.: Nightwing could hear her quickly typing on a keyboard. A few seconds later, the mesh slid back, leaving his path clear once again.

"Thanks, babe. Nightwing out."

:Hold on: she quickly said. :I'm looking through the bank's system, and the motion sensors on the whole first floor have been shut off. I thought maybe I did it by accident when I shut off the motion sensor in the air shaft, but it looks like they haven't been on since early this morning when the bank first opened.:

"Is someone in the building right now? Maybe the manager is working late," Nightwing said, even though he doubted that a bank manager would work until three in the morning.

:No, the thermographs aren't detecting anyone there. Something feels fishy about this to me, Nightwing.:

"I'll get a better look when I drop down to the first floor. Maybe they just forgot to set them tonight. It happens. Nightwing out." He started his descent again, his mind trying to wrap around the situation.

It didn't take him long to drop the remaining sixty-odd feet to the first floor. At the bottom of the air shaft, Nightwing laid down on his stomach to get a view out of one of the air conditioning grates. What he saw he didn't like.

The safe was wide open, and three men dressed in black, complete with black ski masks, were unloading large satchels from the vault. Satchels just like the one he took off of Tommy Minh last night.

They're robbing the place again! Not even a day after the first robbery!

One of the three men stopped abruptly and dropped the satchel he was carrying. He raised his hand as a signal for the other two men to do the same, and reached around to the small of his back. He pulled out a small handheld computer with an antenna. He pushed a few buttons and turned to face his companions.

"Trouble," he told them, "Someone else is here."

The man turned to face Nightwing's general direction, although he wasn't looking right at him. His eyes seemed to be skimming the wall, looking for something.

"Whoever it is, they're somewhere on the other side of that wall," he said as he returned the handheld device back to it's resting place. "Light it up!"

Not missing a beat, the other two men swung Uzis around from behind them and let loose a wave of hot lead into the wall. Nightwing could see from his position that the bullets would soon reach his corner of the air shaft, so he had to come up with a plan fast to save his own hide.

Unless Babs really wants to spend the next couple days stitching me up.