Breathing Easy Sequel
Chapter one
Day 1
Nightwing was walking across the roof to a 12 story building. He stepped cautiously. He was following a shadow, he couldn't remember why, but he knew he had to catch this shadow. He was low to the ground, the shadow dropped to a slightly lower roof just a foot from the edge of the roof Nightwing was on. He crept forward. He made it to the edge. The shadow was gone.
"Dammit." Nightwing muttered under his breath.
"Oh really? Richard I believe you really are dammned." Nightwing twisted and saw behind him the shadow. The shadow was grossly misshapen this close. Nightwing saw the shadow step into the light. He jumped back in horror.
"No!" he yelled out. He scrambled back as the corpse, for what else could it be, stumbled towards him. Nightwing felt bile rise in his throat. The greasy creature in front of him reached out to him, then its hand fell off. Nightwing scooted back faster than ever. Nightwing, in his haste forgot the edge was just feet away. He slid off the building.
The next building is only a foot or two down! He thought frantically. The painful landing on his tailbone didn't come. Nightwing glanced a look underneath him. He saw the ground rushing towards him, faster. Faster. FASTER!
Nightwing looked up just before he hit the cement of Bludhaven's sidewalk. The corpse was right above him.
"Richard." It said lovingly.
"Who are you!" Nightwing called. The ground was just below him. He knew with certainty he would not survive. The corpse wrapped her arms, or what wasn't flying off behind her, around Nightwing's neck.
"Dick, don't you recognize me? I said I would love always. It's me, Barbra."
Dick shot up in bed just as he hit the cement.
"No!" He cried out. He was breathing heavily. He felt his sheets around him, and gripped them so tight his knuckles were white. Sweat dripped off his forehead. He took a few shaky breaths.
Breath. In. Out. In. Out. In. Out. Slowly he relaxed. His head hurt like crazy, and his heart was still pounding. He checked the clock on his bed stand.
"3:00 ? Damn. Well I'm defiantly not going back to sleep tonight." He muttered. He wearily got off his small, twin-sized bed that everyone sleeping in the Watchtower received. Technically he was in Batman's room, but the older hero let Nightwing use it whenever. Nightwing was usually the one who stayed at the Watchtower at a regular basis anyway.
Nightwing leaned on his knees and held his head in his hands. In three hours the others would start waking up. He had three hours to do some research on whatever the hell he wanted to.
Might as well research Hell… he thought to himself wryly. He finally got out of the bed and walked to abandoned pile of clothes. There was a sweat shirt, boxers, sweatpants, and his uniform. He threw on the sweat clothes.
Nightwing straightened his sunglasses and walked to the main control room. He was surprised to see a figure in the room.
"Artemis?" he called. The figure looked at him.
"Nightwing! What are you doing up?" She asked. Artemis was a unofficial hero now. About two months ago, when the mentors had returned and Nightwing's plan had been reveled, she had come back. Artemis wouldn't drop the hero business anymore, she said she couldn't; but she had a life. Nightwing sighed.
"Why are you here?"
"Well, my travel abroad program is in Vietnam. You know, trying to figure out better ways to do large farming without polluting water as much. I had free time, called up one of the heroes in China, and got an express ride here. I've been living there for a while now, so to me it is about 3:00 pm."
"Hmm, how is Wally?" Nightwing hadn't really talked to the red-head much. The had a bit of a argument, and the rest had been a spiral downhill. Artemis smiled.
"I'll have quite the phone bill this month." Nightwing smiled, and Artemis frowned.
"It is the middle of the night, why are you up?" Nightwing smiled at her motherly tone.
"Just remembered I had some work to finish before the other awoke." Nightwing said. He walked over to the computer and started it up. Artemis frowned, but went back to what she had been doing before Nightwing had entered, staring at the Earth.
"Artemis!" an hyper voice said about three hours later. Nightwing frowned and Artemis smiled and turned to the sound of the voice. A red-headed blur tackled into her, pinning her to the wall with a passionate kiss. Nightwing sighed heavily.
"Hey Wally. It is great to see you." Nightwing muttered under his breath. Behind Wally, half the team, YJ and JL, walked into the main room. Nightwing sighed in frustration. He rationalized that this was the center of the Watchtower. He felt the angry tension in the air, and ignored the people, just as they ignored him.
"Would you like coffee?" He heard a sweet voice ask. He didn't turn, he didn't fool himself. He knew Megan was offering the couple a cup of the caffeinated brew, not him. He didn't want any anyway. He exited his program and stood up. He immediately felt the wave of dizziness, but hid it. He groaned mentally. Last night he had gotten three hours of sleep, the night before that, four.
"Nightwing." Nightwing looked over his shoulder. He hoped he had hidden his surprise.*
"Yes?" IT had been Conner who had called out to him.
"You slept last night, right?" Nightwing heard the tone and scoffed. He saw Conner's eyebrows narrow.
"Of course I did. I know you guys hate my guts, but I'm still your leader until someone else steps up to the position, I have a responsibility to be my best for you all." Everyone still, silent. Nightwing had just given them a challenge, though it was more like an open invitation. He had basically just said he would step down if someone wanted to be leader. No one stepped up. Nightwing scowled. He shook his head and left the room. He went into the kitchen, and was surprised to see a coffee cup floating in front of him.
Here, you may be able to fool the others, but I can feel your tiredness. Megan said sternly.
Thank you Megan. Please stop snooping in my mind from now on though.
Nightwing just grabbed the coffee cup and sat down at the breakfast bar. He sighed again and stared into his coffee cup. The dark brown liquid had a heavy aroma.
"Black, just like you like it, right?" Another voice removed Nightwing from his mental wanderings.
"Yeah." He said. He lifted the hot mug to his mouth and downed the whole mug in five large gulps. His throat felt like it was on fire, but he just stood up and tried to get back to his sleeping room. He scowled when the red head in his way put his hands on Nightwing's own shoulders.
"We need to talk." Wally said. Nightwing scowled.
"Wally, I have work to do. You should probably get back to college anyway." Nightwing wouldn't meet his once best friend's eyes.
"Look, dude I don't want to start a fight. Artemis is planning to go on the next mission with you, I want to go as well."
"You afraid I'll steal your girl? Dude, Artemis is way to dedicated to you for that. You don't need to worry."
"Oh, I trust her completely. It is you I'm worried about."
"Why? I thought you were still mad at me like everyone else!" Nightwing could feel a very familiar fire start in his stomach.
"Wing, why are you determined to keep everyone pissed at you! We want to trust you unconditionally again! You are the best leader, but we are scared you've given up on yourself!"
"What are you talking about?" Nightwing was confused now. He thought everyone had been so angry at him, they just tolerated.
"Yes we were, maybe some people still are, angry at you. But it seems to me that you've been punishing yourself much more than is necessary! Has anyone seen you out of uniform at all?"
"I'm not in uniform now…"
"Yeah, I take it you were just going to change into your uniform now?" no answer.
"What were you going to do after that? Gotham has Batman again. Bludhaven is fine, you've been patrolling there non-stop for days. The crime rate there is as low as ever! Since you can't patrol, you were headed to the training room weren't you? I can tell by your whole air you're wearing yourself out! Wing, what is wrong?" Wally sounded worried. Nightwing growled.
"Lay off." He pushed by Wally and slipped into the familiar dark of the sleeping chamber. He shed his sweat clothes and put on his uniform. Just the Kevlar rubbing against his skin alerted his senses. He checked police reports for Bludhaven. Nothing. He sighed at how predictable he was, but since there was nothing else to do, he headed towards the training room.
About five minutes of using the punching bag, a shadow fell over Nightwing. He felt a stab of fear as he remembered his nightmare. He flipped backwards and prepared to defend himself. He saw Conner, who looked confused.
"Conner. What are you doing here?" Nightwing asked. He wasn't wearing gloves, and hadn't wrapped his knuckles. Blood flowed between his fingers.
"Why didn't you at least wrap your fingers? You're using Superman's and my punching bag. It is.." Nightwing cut him off.
"It weighs about one hundred pounds more than a normal punching bag, I know. It is the only punching bag I don't send flying because of the reinforced chain."
"That is supposed to be only for Superman and me."
"Fine, I'll stop using the punching bag today." Nightwing hissed. He spun around towards t he dummies. Conner frowned. He watched Nightwing beat up the dummies, flip over them, do amazing feats that were only more amazing because of their beauty. Conner also knew Nightwing would also do these moves in an actual battle. That just made this more impressive.
"Conner." Wally, Artemis, Cassie, Robin, Jaime, Bart, and BB, followed by Megan walked into the training room.
"Should we do some sparring?" Jaime asked the group. Everyone seemed pretty happy with that idea.
"YO! Nightwing, will you partner us off?" Robin called. Nightwing was in the middle of a flip, and caught himself on a dummy's shoulders, so he was doing a handstand.
"Um, sure!" Nightwing jumped off the dummy and walked over to the group. Everyone felt awkward. They had all avoided Nightwing for almost two months. Nightwing was suspicious on why people were coming up to him today, but he didn't care. He was actually happy people seemed to forgive him.
"Let's see, Bart and Gar, Jaime and Megan, Cassie and Conner, Robin and Wally, Artemis and… Batgirl!" Everyone had confused faces until the female bat walked into view.
"Aren't you going to spar?" Robin asked, a little disappointed he couldn't spar with his 'brother.' Nightwing smiled.
"I think I'll monitor how you all are doing after a short break from my training." While there was laughter in Nightwing's voice, his comment brought back the awkward feelings of trying hard to ignore the fact that the team had been giving Nightwing the cold shoulder for a month and a half. The teens went off with their partners.
"Blue and Megan, you guys are up first." Nightwing called. The duo went up and began when Nightwing gave the signal. Within a few minutes, Megan had been beaten.
"Sorry!" she laughed. Nightwing frowned.
"In hand to hand combat, do not hesitate." He told her. Megan was shocked when he left it at just that.
"Ok, Robin and Wally, you're next." Everyone was excited to see this. The old Robin had always taken Wally down within minutes, if not seconds. As expected, the Boy Wonder beat the Speedster. It had taken about three minutes. Wally gave Robin a high five.
"I wonder if I'll ever beat a Robin!" Wally laughed. Nightwing however seemed very upset about something.
"Wally, you have super fast reflexes, use them." Nightwing's voice was clipped. It wasn't very noticeable, but his closer friends, Artemis, Batgirl, Robin, Wally, Conner, and Megan, noticed. They brushed it off. The ignored the first sign.
"Bart, Gar." The two youngest boys began their spar as soon as they were on the mat. Gar eventually won by knowing more moves that enabled him to trip Bart.
"Whoo!" Gar did a little dance.
"Bart, just because you have a super power doesn't mean you don't have to learn to fight." Nightwing said, his tone noticeably sharp to everyone now. Bart frowned.
"Don't worry Bart," Conner said, "It took Black Canary two years for me to understand that."
"Conner, you and Cassie." This battle was rather pathetic. Conner won within the minute by pinning Cassie.
"Cassie, did you even try?" Nightwing sounded rather mad now. Cassie dropped her head in shame.
"Maybe I need personal training?" she said softly.
"Obviously." Nightwing snipped. Cassie walked by him, and being behind him smiled. The team realized her plan and all face-palmed.
"Artemis, Batgirl. Please actually have a good spar." Nightwing said in exasperation. The two girls looked at each other and smiled evilly.
"Nightwing, how about it be you against us?" Batgirl said. Nightwing glared at her. He stepped on the mat.
"Robin, you're judge." Nightwing was the only one in uniform, the girls wore sport bras and a tank top over them with athletic shorts.
"Hey, I think you shouldn't be aloud to have you uniform on! That thing is booby trapped!" Gar yelled.
"You tried to mess with my suit?" Nightwing asked. Gar shifted into a fly.
"I'll agree with Gar though." Artemis said. Batgirl nodded. Nightwing sighed.
"Fine, I'll change." Nightwing said. He turned to go to his room, but Zatanna blocked his way.
"That'll take way to long!" She said cheerily.
"When did you get here?" Nightwing asked. Zatanna ignored him.
"Sehtolc tuokrow otni gniwthiN egnahc!" she shouted. Nightwing glowed for a minute, then was in workout clothes.
"What happened to my suit!" He demanded.
"Chill, it is in your room." Zatanna said. Nightwing shook his head and rolled his eyes, but his mask hid his last action, though everyone imagined that it happened.
So Nightwing was now is a black, skin-tight, UnderArmour shirt, grey athletic shorts with black stripes down the leg, and black socks under black shoes, the kind that were 'barely there'. Artemis had a green camo tank-top over a black work-out sports bra. About two inches of her midriff showed. She also wore black athletic shorts. She had sneakers on as well. Batgirl was also in a black sports bra, but she wore a black tank-top with the bat-signal of it. She had black spandex/compression shorts on. She had loose, super short black cotton shorts on over her spandex.
"No biting, Batgirl." Nightwing said. Artemis laughed as Batgirl blushed.
"Was that an innuendo?" Robin whispered to Jaime. Jaime shrugged.
The trio faced off. Artemis attacked first with a killer jump kicked towards Nightwing's face. Instead of dodging, Nightwing caught her foot and threw into Batgirl who had followed Artemis's charge. Batgirl dodged her friend by dropping and trying to swipe Nightwing's feet from under him. Artemis had recovered in the air and tried to do another head kick. With Batgirl swiping from underneath, and Artemis from head height, it seemed Nightwing could only jump or fall to one or both of the attacks. Nightwing smiled and jumped, stretching himself parallel to the floor, in-between both kicks. He added a spin, and as the girls finished their kicks, threw his hands to the ground, and spilt kicked, sending both girls flying. The two stood, catching their breath. Nightwing stood up and motioned for both girls to approach. Batgirl and Artemis ran towards Nightwing. This time, Nightwing struck first. He tackled Artemis around the hips, he rolled so he hit the floor, then shoved Artemis with his legs, into Batgirl. Once again Batgirl dodged. Artemis stepped off the mat, she had had the wind knocked out of her. She knew she was out of the fight. Wally came up behind her and gave her a high-five. Now it was just Batgirl and Nightwing.
Batgirl stood out of Nightwing's arm reach, though just barely. She was hoping to get him to over reach for her. Nightwing shook his head, implying he wouldn't fall for her trick. After a second, Nightwing struck again. He feinted a straight attack, then dropped as Batgirl jumped up. She had meant to grab his shoulders, then maybe flip him, but by dropping, Nightwing had caused Batgirl to over commit herself to the move. As fast, almost faster, than humanly possible, Nightwing twisted onto his back, and jumped up, catching Batgirl from falling on her face. His shoulder also hit her straight into her gut.
"Ow." She groaned.
"Tapout?" Nightwing said. He was standing with Batgirl over his shoulder.
"Um, I think Nightwing won." Robin called.
"I'm not done yet!" Batgirl called. Using her gymnast flexibility, Batgirl threw her legs down, and arched her back so Nightwing had to change his hold if he didn't want her to dislocate his arm. Nightwing completely let go of her, and ducked down so Batgirl rolled onto his back. He then dropped to his knees and lengthened one leg. He spun around knocking Batgirl off her feet.
"Ok, I surrender." Batgirl said. Nightwing smirked and helped Batgirl to her feet. Batgirl smiled at Nightwing, and Nightwing had the sudden image from his nightmare. He stepped back quickly, pulling her up much faster than she expected. He also let go, and she had to catch herself.
"Everyone, do what ever." Nightwing called, his short period of happiness was gone. He was withdrawn again. Conner and the rest of the team watched as he headed towards the gymnastic part of the oversized workout room. Artemis walked over to Batgirl and put a hand on her shoulder.
"Are you ok?" she whispered.
"Yeah… for just a minute his skin grew cold… I'm worried about him."
"Why?"
"Besides the fact he ignores peoples' attempts to forgive him, I don't think he is sleeping enough again."
"Well, when we defeated the aliens and Batman returned to patrolling Gotham, Nightwing went from a schedule of: train, patrol Gotham, patrol Bludhaven, fight the invaders repeat, to: train, patrol Bludhaven. He must be unused to so much free time."
"Still, I'm going to join him in that corner." Batgirl said.
"Me too!" Cassie flew over.
"Was I ever that obvious?" Wally asked. Megan, Artemis, Conner, Zatanna, and Batgirl smirked.
"No, never." Artemis said with heavy sarcasm.
Nightwing was on the parallel bars now. He spun himself around, then stopped in a handstand. He released his muscles and flipped around again, tucking himself so he could spin faster. He, while spinning, pressed his feet against the bar. He pushed off as hard as he could. The Watchtower had four parallel bars. Each bar was five feet higher than the next. It went five feet, ten feet, fifteen feet, then finally twenty feet high. Nightwing was on the ten foot, he went almost straight up. He straightened his body, and spun, doing a twisting layout. He kept his eyes closed, feeling the weightlessness. He didn't hear the frantic calling of his name. He was falling backwards, just like in his nightmare. Nightwing's eyes snapped open, but it was too late. His knees caught the twenty foot bar. He had so much momentum, he spun twice, going backwards. He arched, going with the direction he was spinning in stead of fighting it. He grabbed the bar, just as his knees slipped from the bar. He stiffened his body, tightening every muscle beyond its natural limit. His skin caught on the bars, rubbing and causing blisters. Nightwing squeezed his hands tighter, ignoring the pain. He snapped his stomach muscles, folding his body, then kicking out. He finally had control of his momentum again. He stopped, balancing on his hands, breathing heavily. He folded his body again, putting his feet on the bar. He stood up and released his breath.
"You idiot!" Barbra, a.k.a. Batgirl, stood beneath him. Of course everyone else in the workout room had to look to see what was up.
"Why?" Nightwing asked, making his voice sound bored. He was actually loving the adrenaline flooding his body. He hadn't had a near injury accident while training in years.
"Think I didn't see that? You almost missed the bar!"
"Yo, I didn't." Nightwing put his arms up and stretched his back. His stomach might be sore tomorrow. He jumped slightly, causing Batgirl to gasp, but once again caught himself with his knees. That was when he noticed that he probably had bruised himself.
"You were spinning pretty fast." Robin said, walking over. Nightwing shook his head and began to do sit-ups while hanging upside down, with almost fifteen feet between his head and the ground.
"I was in control."
"The whole time."
"When am I not?"
"You stupid, cocky idiot!" Batgirl said. Nightwing shrugged. Cassie hovered at about eye level with him.
"Why were you eyes closed?" she asked. Nightwing groaned as bother Batgirl and Robin raised their eyebrows. By now everyone had wondered over.
"Why were you eyes closed, Nightwing?" Robin said, crossing his arms over his chest.
"Try just falling with your eyes closed, it is good training. Also it feels cool." Nightwing didn't stop his sit-ups once. The rhythm was fast, about a sit-up a second. Batgirl pulled on some fingerless gloves that had grips on them. The team noticed how bare Nightwing's hands were. They had seen how fast he had spun, they were a little worried. Conner, with his super vision, saw Nightwing's knuckles had scabbed. Batgirl shimmed up the pole and was on the twenty foot bar, standing over Nightwing in a minute.
"You all should be training!" Nightwing scolded.
"You should be resting." Conner countered. He saw Nightwing scowl. Batgirl hung upside down next to him. As Nightwing straightened, she whacked his stomach as hard as she could. Nightwing snapped up at unbelievable speed.
"That wasn't nice." He gasped.
"Most people don't relax their stomach between sit-ups. Your loss."
"Wait, the muscle control needed for that is huge!" Bart said in amazement. Nightwing grabbed the bar, let go with his knees, and flipped through his arms. He dropped just before pressure was put on his shoulders. He fell straight down, landing just inches from Robin.
"Everyone, one hundred push-ups!" Nightwing said loudly. The team groaned, but dropped down to do it. Even Batgirl.
"And next time, don't bother me when I'm training unless it is important."
"SO over-training isn't important?" Robin asked.
"Ten more push-ups." Nightwing ordered. He then stormed off to the punching bags. Everyone finished their push-ups and looked up. Nightwing was still boxing. They were shocked to see two punching bags had already been detached from their stands.
"Wow, that isn't normal." Bart said. Just then their mentors entered. As Flash entered, Nightwing gave the punching bag a devastating kick that snapped the chain holding it. The bag flew right towards Flash.
"Barry!" Wally and Bart zoomed towards their uncle.
"I'm ok, I dodged it." Flash said. The mentors looked at Nightwing. All the mentors looked to Batman.
"What do you guys want us to do?" Nightwing asked.
"Nothing, just you all have been in here all day." Green Arrow said.
"Not all day. Just three hours.[2]" Nightwing said.
"Don't interrupt." Batman scolded. Nightwing raised his eyebrows. The rest of the team walked over.
"Why are most of you arms shaking?" Black Canary asked.
"We just did one hundred push-ups." Gar said, whining.
"Only one hundred?" Superman said in astonishment. Batman slapped him upside the head. The other mentors glared at Nightwing. Nightwing shrugged.
"They didn't have to train, I said go do whatever. They stayed. Then they bothered me. I said do one hundred push-ups and they did.
"I did one hundred and ten." Robin said.
"I once made Nightwing do one thousand, you should be happy." Batman growled.
"Why did you do one thousand?" Cassie asked, eyeing Nightwing's biceps.
"Something about being rude…" Nightwing let his sentence hang. The team got the message.
"Nightwing, I expect you to re-hang those punching bags."
"Don't I always?"
"What?"
"This isn't the first time I've been in the work-out room." Nightwing crossed his arms over his chest. The mentors had worry flash over their eyes. Batman sighed.
"Defiantly a Bat." Superman said.
"What does that mean?" all the 'Bats' demanded.
"Anyway, we came to tell you guys to get out of the training room. You've done enough today." Black Canary said. Everyone nodded and ran out of the room. Nightwing stayed behind.
"You too Nightwing."
"I still want to do a few more things in here, anyways I have to re-hang the punching bags." Nightwing turned away from the mentors. He didn't see Conner motion to the Mentors to follow him. The Mentors did.
"He was using our punching bag." He told Superman mostly.
"Well, I guess anyone is allowed to…" Superman started.
"But he hasn't even wrapped his knuckles, not even for the normal bags. He didn't chalk or wear gloves on his hands and almost spun out on the parallel bars." Conner seemed worried about his friend.
"He won't hurt himself. He knows he has to be in his best shape constantly for the team." Batman's tone was accusing.
"We know we were wrong to be so mad, but so many people could have died. So many people were lied to!"
"But look how many people were saved."
"Yes, I understand that now. It still hurts."
Nightwing was panting heavily. He lifted the bar again. The two hundred pounds on it was burning. His blistered palms protested. He barely got the bar up on the stand. He quickly took the weights of. He also sprayed the cleaner fluid on the bar. He knew he was being paranoid, but he didn't want people to know what he did in the weight room alone. He couldn't catch his breath. He was exhausted.
"Shower." He panted. He sat down and tilted his head back, trying to breathe. Painfully he stood up and slipped into the boys locker room. He turned on the water, letting the cool sensation relax his tense muscles. HE didn't even notice he hadn't taken his clothes off. He just stood under the shower half asleep. Eventually he reluctantly turned off the water. He grabbed a towel and patted himself dry. He hair and clothes were damp.
"Damn." He muttered. He pulled of his shirt and dropped in the laundry basket. He did the same with his pants. The clothes would be cleaned by a machine, then he would pick them up tomorrow. He more or less staggered to his room, not Batman's sense he knew Batman was in the Watchtower. He was worried Batman would walk in on him, and Nightwing didn't want that. The Watchtower was silent. The Eastern group, or heroes who were from Asia and Australia, were on watch. Nightwing turned on his laptop and plugged it into the wall. He hacked himself into the mainframe. He rubbed sleep from his eyes.
Isn't working out supposed to make you feel more awake? Nightwing mused. He checked the crime rate for Bludhaven. Still low. Nightwing groaned. He got up and threw on some pants from his drawers. He snuck to the kitchen and poured himself coffee. He sat down. It was the strongest coffee the world had and was black, not that Nightwing liked his coffee black, but he knew it was strongest and would work fastest without cream or sugar. His head bobbed and he fell asleep before even taking a sip.