A/N: Once again, sorry for the late chapter, mental block persists again. Please leave a review or PM me if you have anything to say, good or bad! I can't become a better writer without help or criticism.
Blüdhaven. The Docks. Roman Sionis AKA Black Mask is moving his latest purchase from a container ship to a truck to transport it to his warehouse.
"You know, I will kill you if you drop that thing" Black Mask said to his goons as they lifted the first Gatling gun off the ship.
"I know boss but," the goon groaned as the full weight of it left the container and onto their shoulders, "but this fucker is heavy." As the first gun slowly made its way towards the truck, Black Mask stood up.
"Make sure that perimeter is tight. I don't want any winged intruders busting in here." The lookout guard turned around and raised his weapon; the night-vision scope mounted on top of his rifle glistened emerald in the night. He scanned the surrounding area.
"Ah shit," he said to himself before grabbing his communicator, "Boss, we got a problem."
"I swear to god, Bones…" Black Mask clenched his fists.
"Rigsy is down." The tremble in his voice starting to show, "I don't know about Spark or Knuckles but…"
"But what? Bones? Answer me you sack o' shit" Black Mask turned sharply towards the rest of his crew. "Double time boys, we got company." They struggled, shuffling along towards the truck with more vigour, but they stopped dead as a gunshot rang through the area.
"Is it the Bat? Nightwing?" One of the crew asked.
"No. That came from a handgun. As far as I'm aware you're all carrying semi-automatics." There was a brief pause as they all looked around, cautiously. Then, out of nowhere, a figure leapt out of the darkness, flipping over a guard, grabbing his head and snapping his neck mid-air. The figure landed, and pulling out two pistols from his jacket, fired either side, taking out two more guards with perfect headshots.
Five against one, he thought, this'll be easy. He darted forward, jumping to kick the rifle out of the first guard's hand, then swiftly ducking under the swinging punch of another and continued moving. Running backwards, he fired two more shots at them and took them out before turning back towards Black Mask. Three. Black Mask stepped back as his lieutenants moved forward. The tall, burly muscled man pulled a knife out of his pocket, whilst his smaller, yet much rougher looking compatriot grabbed a crowbar from the top of a wooden crate. The figure walked slowly up to the two of them, putting his guns back in their holsters and cracking his knuckles. As one guard swung his crowbar, the figure ducked under it and parried it further, sending the guard flailing sideways. The guard wielding the knife started slashing, aiming for the figure's chest. The slashes were dodged again and again. Suddenly, after a poorly aimed lunge, the figure grabbed the guard's wrist and bent it backwards. Using the momentum against him, he pushed the knife up and into the guard's neck. Two. Almost instantly, he let go, pulled the knife from the guard's neck as he fell and moved straight on to the other guard, who was now standing in the middle of a tight alley between stacked crates. He burst forward, ducking two swings of the crowbar and jumped. Pushing off of a crate in the alley, he jumped up and span in the air. As he passed the guard, he threw the knife. The figure landed, his crimson helmet glistening in the dim light of the floodlights above. He stood up to the faint sound of the guard's body hitting the floor, clutching the knife lodged between his ribs.
"Red Hood" Black Mask said, "I didn't expect you to make the journey to Blüdhaven."
"There's nowhere you can go that I can't go too, Sionis" Red Hood replied, his voice sounded metallic and gravelling with the voice modulator in his helmet. Red Hood approached Black Mask, pulling one of his guns out. Black Mask raised his hand and a small pistol appeared from under his sleeve. He fired at Red Hood who ducked to the left, span around and threw an elbow, knocking the pistol out of Black Mask's hand. As he raised his own weapon and aimed at Black Mask's head, a small projectile knocked the gun out of his hand. As it hit the ground, he instantly recognised it: a small batarang shaped object, with a blue bird at the top.
"What are you doing here?" He said. Swinging in on a grapnel hook was Nightwing. He landed next to Red Hood and Black Mask.
"You know why I'm here" he replied, folding his arms.
"Look bluebird," Black Mask said, "I'm flattered that you thought you both needed to be here but…" Red Hood swing a punch that shattered the wooden mask. Roman Sionis grabbed his face. "Jheez, I think you broke my nose."
"Shut up" he turned back to Nightwing.
"You can't be doing this anymore. Not without proper oversight" Nightwing said.
"That never stopped me before" Red Hood said. Sionis started to back away. Nightwing saw him and shot his grapnel hook at him. Latching onto his shoulder, it pulled Sionis towards him and he left his arm out as Sionis crashed into it, sending him falling down the stairs. He landed in a heap on top of the corpse of one of his guards.
"It wasn't the law before. Now it is. You need to register like the rest of us, or stop what you're doing. Otherwise you'll end up like Sionis, unconscious and about to go to Blackgate." Nightwing replied as he walked downstairs to Sionis.
"And if I don't?" Red Hood replied.
"Then we have a problem, Jason." Red Hood unclipped the buckle on the holster of his other gun. "Don't do it" Nightwing said, reaching for his electrified stun sticks.
Red Hood drew his gun suddenly and fired at Nightwing, who dived out of the way and took cover behind a crate. "Dammit, Jason!" he shouted, "You don't need to do this! You're better than that."
"I'm just lookin' out for myself, Dick" Red Hood replied, strafing to the left to flank him. He jumped over a crate, down the flight of stairs, all the while keeping his gun firmly aimed towards Nightwing's last known position. "You oughta know by now, family means nothing when it comes down to it. He forgot about me once, and when this all consumes him he'll forget about you too." He moved past the final crate to see that Nightwing had gone. He smirked.
Hold on. I'm smarter than this. He felt the softest change in the breeze behind him. He turned sharply, pulling a full 180. He parried Nightwing's lunging haymaker and threw a return jab. Nightwing ducked underneath. From a low position, he put his hand up, grabbed the bottom of Red Hood's helmet and pushed up. With the throat exposed, he threw a Jiu Jitsu strike upwards. Red Hood stepped back clutching his throat, struggling to breath. He removed one hand and pressed a button on his mask. The buckle came un-done and he pulled it off his head.
"Remind me never to piss you off." He smirked. With all the pain in his larynx, he still had the energy to taunt him.
"You're an idiot" Nightwing said. He hurled a roundhouse kick at Red Hood. The former Robin hit the deck.
"Nightwing to Watchtower" he said into his communicator, "Gonna need some assistance on this one.