Here's the second chapter, hope you like it. Please review and/or follow and thanks to the people who already did. Enjoy!


After she left the apartment she headed for the docks already knowing what was going to go down there tonight.
A big shipment for Black Mask was coming in and she had 'accidentally' tipped of one of Batman's informants so she knew he would be there too.
What he didn't know was that she was going to be there too and that she was going to give him a run for his money.

Upon arriving she silently entered the ship carrying Black Mask's order, all in crates.
It was a good thing she knew what she was looking for and where to find it or she would have been utterly lost.

She had just found the crate she needed when she heard commotion outside which told her Batman had arrived at the scene.
She quickly opened the crate and activated the android inside with the remote control she had made before disappearing from the scene with it and another part of the cargo that she needed for later.


When Batman arrived at the docks after receiving a tip from an informant he hid in the shadows on the roof of a warehouse across the dock where Black Mask's ship was anchored.
He had been observing the men guarding the ship for only a minute when he heard a voice behind him.

"Hey"

Batman suppressed the urge to sigh and greeted "Nightwing" without turning around.

"Warm night."

Batman absentmindedly replied "Yes unseasonably so. This time of year makes them careless. Comfort makes them careless."

Now he could hear Nightwing sigh "I don't know what's worse. The fact that we're making small talk about the weather or the fact that you could turn it on a dime into crime fighting."

Batman gathered that the other vigilante wasn't going away any time soon so he turned around to face him. "Checking up on me?"

"That's exactly what I'm doing here. In light of recent events … I thought it wouldn't hurt for me to stay close to home." Nightwing answered with a bit of a pained expression before continuing "And with my leg still healing up …"

Batman seemed to think on that a bit before jumping to the roof of the next warehouse and saying "Blüdhaven is… was your home. New York is where you work with the Outsiders. How does Gotham enter into it?"

Nightwing sighed before following him while saying "It's good to see you too." In a rather sarcastic tone.

Batman didn't seem to notice his tone or just chose to ignore it as he said "I'm working a case. If you want to stay… I won't stop you." and moved closer towards the edge of the roof.

Nightwing smiled and said "The warmth is overwhelming." just as Batman jumped of the roof.

Then he heard him say "Unseasonably so."

Nightwing feigned chock as he followed Batman's lead and said "Good god, he made a joke."

A quiet "Be quiet." could be heard the moment Batman touched the ground behind one of the goons guarding the ship and knocked him out.

He replied "Yes sir." with a smirk before taking on a goon himself.
Then he stopped paying attention to Batman and focused on the idiots that were closing in on him.
They started shooting at him so he jumped over the rain of bullets and let his knee connect with one of the men's jaw while gloating "Those are some nice guns, fellas" before using his elbow to take out a guard that had hoped to catch him unaware by approaching him from behind. "You got them at some high-tech gun show or off the internet?" Nightwing continued while using the head of that guard as a push-off for a back flip that ended with another man on the ground with Nightwing on top of him.
He noticed no more of them were coming so he looked up and saw that every single one of them had been taken down by either him or Batman.

Batman started in the direction of the ship and he followed picking up one of the guards' riffles to study it. "These boys where dressed for a small war. Do you recognize these?" He asked as he held the riffle in front of Batman.

Batman moved past it and started inspecting the crates containing the cargo of the ship. "They're D.E.O. Stolen three weeks ago. Heavy arms. Someone values the cargo." Then he looked at Nightwing and said "The lids are clear of explosives."

Nightwing then started opening a crate as he asked "What do you guess? Arms? Drugs? Tech?" he paused before adding "I'm betting arms." In a confident tone.

Batman shot him a grim look before saying "¨Probably. But these casings don't match up."

"Well maybe we're in for a …" Nightwing paused as he had opened the crate to take in what he was seeing inside it before adding more hesitantly "surprise." Then he looked up at Batman and asked "What is that?"

Batman simply answered "Just what it looks like." in an expressionless voice. "Those are boomerangs from Captain Boomerang… a few of Freeze's guns… those bombs are Joker's…"

Nightwing whistled "Admittedly, it's all very lethal stuff but do you think someone was more interested in their novelty? Like a collector?" He asked in a tone that said he was hoping he was right.

Batman's expression looked pensive as he replied "Maybe."

Nightwing shrugged and said "Well, it looks like you've got yourself a few new trophies for the cave." while opening another crate. "I'd never…" he paused when he saw the content of the crate. "Aw hell."

The crate contained a bomb and by the looks of it, it had just been activated.

Batman boomed "Move."

Then both ran for the safety of the water.
They managed to jump off the ship before it exploded but it was a narrow escape, very narrow.

You okay?" Batman asked as they climbed out of the water.

"Fine." He answered as he stood up.
Then he heard Batman say "There. On the roof." And indeed on the roof of the warehouse in front of them a figure could be seen.

He answered "Go." and they both fired a line from their grapple gun at the warehouse in question.
When they got on the roof the figure was already running away but Nightwing could see that he was wearing some sort of red helmet.
He asked Batman "You know him?"

"No, and at the moment I don't care." Came the gruff reply. "Just get him."

Nightwing watched the man jump off the roof they were on and land in a perfect crouch on the next one where he didn't waste a second before continuing on and Nightwing couldn't help but notice that their opponent was fast and seemed very well trained.
The figure never seemed to have to think before acting and moved with agility that almost could rival his own.
And there was something else, something familiar about the way he moved but Nightwing couldn't quite place it.
Then Batman shot a line towards the man that caught around his ankle but then the man did something that really impressed Nightwing.
He cut the line before it went taught – that was a move even he couldn't always pull off.
Of course it could just have been dumb luck but then he saw the man jump off the roof they were currently running on and decided that no, it wasn't luck but practice.

The figure was going into free fall towards a lower roof and for a moment Nightwing thought the chase was over but then he heard glass breaking and when he looked down he saw that the figure had gone through a skylight into another warehouse.
There was no one to be seen on the floor which suggested that the man had escaped. Nightwing whistled "Impressive."

But Batman said "Nothing we haven't seen before." Then he jumped and added "Or done before."

"Got that right." Nightwing answered with a grin.

They both landed on the floor with a thump and Nightwing felt the strain on his still healing leg. "That hurt…"

He could hear Batman say "Stay sharp." just as someone seemed to switch the lights on.

His eyes went big as he saw what was in front of them.

"Oh, boy."

Batman repeated "Stay sharp."

He heard that the shipment would be something big but this wasn't what he'd been expecting.
Yeah sure it was big! In front of them was an Amazo.
A highly advanced android designed to take out the Justice League.
Then the android spoke.

"I guess I will just have to settle for you two."

Nightwing vaguely heard Batman say once more "Stay sharp." but was more focussed on the trajectory of the androids fist that seemed to come right at him.


The Red Hood watched from the shadows as the two heroes attacked the android already knowing they would win the fight but it bought her the time she needed to escape and that was all it had been meant for.
She left the warehouse l using a door and slipped back into the shadows after seeing Nightwing being dragged into the air by the Amazo.

She then went to check on the crate she'd made the Amazo carry for her to another warehouse and when she saw it was okay she left the docks by rooftop and went on her way to her apartment.

When she reached the East End, where her apartment was, she started feeling weird and started having doubts about her plan again.
She decided to stay out a little longer to clear her head and after running aimlessly over the rooftops for some time she sat down on one to think.
She had just released the hatch on her helmet to take it off when something(or was it someone) slammed into her and pinned her down.
She looked up and when she saw who was pinning her down she said out of surprise. "Dick!? Shit!"


So most of the conversation in this chapter comes from the comics (Under the Hood) but after this it will be my own imagination again.

For who's interested I also posted a new chapter for my story 'Related'.