Chapter 2: The Outsiders
AN: I'm so glad you guys are enjoying this so far! ^.^ this was just kind of a plot bunny that attacked me one day, and held on enough for me to make a chapter :P Thank you all so much for all the favs, alerts, and reviews! X3 you inspire me to try to write faster!
Dick hops up the stairs of the abandoned warehouse, grinning as he clutches onto the backpack full of blankets and heaters. He makes it to a blocked off doorway and knocks four times in abstract pattern. The door opens slowly, by a taller teen, about fifteen years old, with short, ruffled black hair, and light teal eyes. The teen smirks, opening the door wider.
"You're in a good mood, Dickie Bird." The teen teases. Dick rolls his eyes, walking into the room. There were other children and teens scattered about the room; about twenty-five total.
"Ms. Leslie gave us some blankets and heaters~!" Dick chirps happily.
"Are you sure there's seriously no strings attached?" The older teen asks, crossing his arms. Dick places the bag down and smacks the other's arm playfully.
"Oh ye of little faith." Dick chimes, zipping open the bag, starting to sift through it. "When have I ever led you astray, Jason?"
"You talk like an old man." Jason grumbles, starting to help the younger teen pass out blankets as Dick snorts. A young girl, about thirteen with shoulder length blonde hair and bright blue eyes, skips up to them, starting to help them pass out the supplies as well.
"We don't need help with this, Stephanie." Jason hisses, glaring up at the girl. She merely sticks her tongue out at him before sending a glare his way.
"Have you told Dick about our little problem?" Stephanie whispers, just loud enough for the three of them to hear. Jason glares right back at her as Dick glances at her curiously.
"Problem? What problem?"
"Well…" Jason casually drapes an arm around Dick's shoulder and leads him off to a more secluded part of the room as Stephanie continues their work of passing out the blankets. "You see, some thugs in the area heard about the whole 'Outsiders' thing." Dick nods slowly, urging him to continue. "And they are under the impression that this area is our territory now. They aren't too happy about that, since they run drugs through here…so…"
"They sent us a threat." Dick finishes, his eyebrows knitting.
"Yes. They want to meet with us. Alone."
"Don't they always?" Dick sighs, fidgeting with his ratty, royal blue scarf. "When?"
"Tonight." Jason answers, less than enthused.
"How kind of them to take our schedule into consideration." Dick drawls sarcastically. "Looks like we're heading out tonight. Let the others know." Jason nods, about to do as he was told. "Who were the thugs working for?"
"Two Face."
"Ah. Well. This should be fun." Dick mumbles, stuffing his hands into his pockets as he walks off.
Bruce's eyes narrow as he clicks on yet another police report involving Dick Grayson. There was more under the young, thirteen year old boy, than some criminals. Though, unlike those criminals, this boy's record was filled with nothing but tragedy. The Bat first found the newspaper article about the Flying Grayson's murder. They always preformed their acrobatics at the circus without a safety net. John and Mary Grayson, Dick's parents, had fallen to their death due to foul play with the wires of the trapeze. The boy, who had been eight years old at the time, had been there to witness it all. He had no living family left and had been placed in the orphanage.
The billionaire had cringed looking at the state that the orphanage was in. It made Arkham look like a five star hotel. Children were living on top of each other and far too skinny to be healthy, signaling that they were not properly nourished. Luckily, Dick was adopted after only two months of being essentially in prison. Bruce made a mental note to further investigate the facility later. Dick was adopted by what seemed to be a loving family. They had a son around the same age as Dick named Charles.
After three years of what seemed to be a happy life for the boy, tragedy struck yet again. The mother and Charles had been killed in a car accident. For the next year, Dick had been to the hospital nearly fifty times. The injuries varied from broken ribs, broken nose, collapsed lung, multiple concussions, and multiple broken limbs. It wasn't hard to piece together what had been going on.
The father had been abusing the child. It astounded him that none of the nurses or doctors had reported this to the authorities. Then again, this was Gotham. Needless to say, after the boy turned twelve, he simply disappeared. He probably found a way to escape that monster. Bruce made another note to have the Bat pay a visit to said man as well. Alfred walks in just as Bruce closes another document and sets a mug of coffee down next to the billionaire.
"It seems as though you found quite a lot on that boy." Alfred muses as Bruce continues to close out of all of the open documents on the computer.
"I don't blame him for hating adults. If only I had known; had been able to get to him sooner."
"You can't blame yourself, Master Bruce."
"I shouldn't have let him go to the orphanage." Bruce snaps, his eyes darting away from the computer monitor.
"You were out of the country and had no idea about what transpired. Sir, you cannot change the past. What you can do is everything in your power to make sure that his future is not filled with such sadness." Bruce sighs heavily, running a hand over his tired face.
"The hard part is getting him to trust me."
"No one said that it was going to be easy, Sir." With that, the elderly butler heads back up the hidden staircase as the billionaire starts on his coffee. It was going to be a long night for both Bruce Wayne and Batman.
Three thugs, shift around uncomfortably, smoking, while they wait for the new supposed gang leader to arrive. Two Face had been trying to expand his territory, and this new gang popping up posed a bit of a problem. The thugs straighten up, seeing two figures approaching from the shadows of a nearby alley. They frown, seeing Red Hood in his signature black leather jacket, red hood over his head, complete with red domino mask. He was accompanied by a more petite figure in a royal blue hoodie and domino mask.
"What the hell is this? We tell you to bring your boss and you bring this pipsqueak?!" One of the men sneers, tossing his cigarette on the ground.
"It's rude to call people names. You don't see me calling you Dumbo because your ears are massive." Robin smirks, slipping his hands into his jacket pockets as the man glares.
"You little-"
"I believe you three called me out here to discuss something? Or are we going to stand here and toss insults all night?" The bird raises an eyebrow as Red Hood snickers next to him, seeing the rage in the three adults' eyes. One of the men finally steps forward, nodding to his two associates.
"We did have business matters to discuss. You see, our boss has been slowly taking over this area for quite some time. Your little gang is hindering our expansion." Robin's eyes narrow.
"We're not going anywhere. Your boss is just going to have to expand elsewhere."
"We were expecting you to say that." The head thug grins, pulling out a gun as the two behind him do the same. Robin sighs, shaking his head in mock disappointment.
"I figured you boys wouldn't be civilized about this." Robin quickly takes a hand out of his pockets and flicks it towards the thugs. Three shuriken made from shaved chunks of scrap metal fly at brutes, knocking the guns from their hands. "Now, are we going to talk about this like adults?" Robin raises an eyebrow at the three, who growl angrily, whipping out knives. "Or not." The bird sends a meaningful look towards Red Hood, who merely grins, pulling his crow bar out of the hostler he had on his back.
"Looks like things just got interesting." Jason snickers, crouching down, ready to strike. The goons rush at them, slashing at the two masked teens blindly. Red Hood and Robin flip out of the way effortlessly. One of the lackeys rushes at Hood, trying to stab him in the chest, but the teen blocks it with his crowbar before quickly smashing his weapon into the thug's face. The man stumbles back, dropping the knife, and holds his face in agony as blood seeps from between his fingers. Robin sidesteps as one of the other lackeys slashes at him. He quickly takes out another one of his shuriken and stabs it into the goon's extended arm. The man cries out, knife forgotten as he grasps at the gaping wound in his arm. Robin and Red Hood smirk at the thug leader who simply glares at the two. The man waves a hand and about six more men creep out of the shadows, holding a variety of guns; the most prominent one was the M-16 one of them was aiming straight at the two boys.
The teens' smirks instantly vanish, and their eyes narrow, eyeing the weapons carefully. Robin raises his hand and about fifteen more children, holding what appeared to be semi-automatic weapons appear in the windows of the building behind the two teens, aiming straight at the thugs.
"It seems as though you're out-gunned." Robin smirks, slipping his hands back into his hoodie pockets. "Now. Go tell your boss that Old Gotham is ours. That is, unless you want my friends here to blow you all to hell." The men stare at the children, their eyes landing on two in particular. One was the little girl wearing a bright purple hoodie and grey ski mask, grinning maniacally at them. The other was unnerving, to say the least. It was a petite looking girl wearing a black ski mask, with the mouth hole sewn shut and into an ire grin. The gunmen start backing away slowly before running off. The thug leader curses before following after his comrades.
Batman frowns as he sees Two Face's goons run off from his perch on a nearby rooftop. What perturbed him more than anything was the fact that children were holding guns. Just as the Dark Knight was about to descend upon Robin and Red Hood, he sees Robin visibly relax as Red Hood glances at him irritatedly. Batman pauses, listening in on their conversation.
"That one was close. We need to get real weapons. Not just these paintball and BB guns. What if-" Red Hood rants.
"No. Absolutely not." Robin cuts the older teen off. "Spoiler and Black Bat have it covered. As long as we always outnumber them, we can use that to our advantage. I'm not putting actual guns in their hands. They're just children."
"We're not much older than them. And in case you haven't noticed; it's dangerous. We need a way to protect ourselves!"
"We've managed so far." Robin snaps, starting to walk off.
"They're going to come back in larger numbers. Two Face is persistent!"
"You think I don't know that?! This has gone too far. I never wanted us to be involved with actual gangs. All of this was just supposed to be a way for us to survive!" Robin grinds out through clenched teeth. Red Hood sighs, noting the way Robin was trembling ever so slightly. "I don't want anyone to get hurt because of me!" The fifteen year old grabs the bird's arm, pulling him into a hug. Robin instantly relaxes and clutches onto Hood's leather jacket like a life line.
"You're getting too skinny. Stop giving all of your meals away to the others." Red Hood mutters, hugging the bird tighter. Robin nods reluctantly before pulling away.
"Let's go back. It's freezing!" Hood nods in agreement, chuckling as Robin scampers off happily, flipping over debris every once and a while. Batman raises an eyebrow at the boy's antics. The other children that were acting as backup emerge from the building they were hiding in and giggle, chasing after the hyper bird. Were the Outsiders really criminals or just forgotten children trying to survive in the ghettos of Gotham?
FN: Sorry about the late update! Hope you guys like this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing this~! This chappy was actually really fun! It's always fun to write Dick being a BA ;)