A heavy panting breaks the late afternoon silence at the penthouse suite at Wayne Towers. At most homes, people wake up in the morning. However for the Wayne family, waking up when the sun was already out was a typical day.
"You seemed very tired today, Master Richard so I held off on your usual wakeup call at noon and let you take the afternoon off. I didn't expect you to wake up with such a troubled look after such a long and restful rest. Shall I prepare the usual Ovaltine and cookies?" greeted Alfred, the butler, as he came in and handed Dick Grayson his mail for the day.
"I had a dream, Alf." said Dick in a quiet hushed tone as if he was still letting the importance of his dream sink in.
"Was it about the night your parents died again?" replied Alfred as he sat next to Dick and spoke in a consoling voice remembering that for his other master, Bruce Wayne, it was always about the night his parents died.
"It was about my parents but it wasn't about a time when they died. It was actually about a distant memory that I forgot." said Dick piquing Alfred's interest even more.
"Oh really? What was it about?"
"Alf, do you know what the sticks I use on the job are called and do you recall where and when I learned them?" said Dick as he referred to the weapons he likes carrying with him while in costume.
"Of course. They are called eskrima sticks and I believe you learned how to use them when you infiltrated that school run by Shrike and the League of Assassins."
"That's right but what I forgot was that I learned eskrima long before that. My dad was my first teacher." said Dick with a slight smile on his face as he remembered a cherished memory.
"I never could have imagined. Tell me more about this memory of yours."
"I was still a young kid. I just started learning how to be a trapeze artist. I was cleaning up the equipment after practice with my dad when suddenly a man came in. He had a gun with him. He took the ringmaster hostage and demanded that we give him our money. It was my first time seeing something that I thought could only happen on tv or in movies. I was so scared because I didn't know what to do but my dad told me to calm down while he took care of things. He took the trapeze bars we were using for practice. He snuck up on the man from behind, disarmed him then fought the guy till he was unconscious and taken away by the cops. Looking back now my dad's movements were clearly eskrima-based and his skills were clearly polished and refined. I even think he was better than Shrike and was clearly a master. When I asked him what his martial art was called, he said he didn't know but just moved by instinct. He taught me a few lessons later but eventually we stopped cause we didn't think we really needed martial arts at the circus. Instead I focused on my acrobatics. When some bad guy showed up, dad usually took care of them for us."
"To think that your father was such a master…How do you suppose he achieved that level of skill?" said Alfred in a surprised tone.
"I don't know but I can't believe I forgot about this. I'll go check the stuff Haley's left me and see if I can find a clue of some sorts." said Dick referring to the circus he called home. Then he came out of bed, got dressed and took a quick bite to eat in the kitchen.
As he was finishing his late afternoon cereal and sandwich combo, Damian Wayne walked in clearly straight from practice as he was still wearing his martial arts training gear.
"Finally up, Grayson? You should be ashamed. You wear the mantle of Father and you dare laze around sleeping. I was up since dawn down at the bunker training and educating myself to be Batman. If you are not up to the task, step aside and let me handle things. You can rest easy knowing that I can take the mantle from you anytime" chastised Damian as he grabbed a bite to eat as well.
"Nice to see you too, Damian. Say are you doing anything right now? I got a mystery that I need to solve and I need your help." said Dick in an excited tone as he easily shrugged his Robin's insults.
"-tt- Fine." said Damian as he begrudgingly accepted his mentor's request. If it were someone else who asked for his help, he would have easily ignored the person or threatened to slit that person's throat. However he could not ignore his brother's request for he was the only one he respected but this was not something he would dare say out loud.