AN: Holy *! 99 reviews already? You guys are the greatest.
Here's chapter 9, so sorry, but it's unbeta-ed because I wanted to give you a chapter before I left the country.
Enjoy!
Blue Bird
Chapter 9
Kaldur stepped into the training ring and assumed a fighting stance, examining Nightwing coolly through his silver-grey eyes. Nightwing imitated him and the two began to circle, taking short, measured strides.
"You are very skilled." Kaldur said.
Nightwing shrugged, "I trained with a lot of people."
"Including the notorious assassin, Deathstroke." Kaldur said, "I am personally unsure of why you are still here."
"I'm persuasive." Was the only explanation Nightwing offered, "And it's not like I'm the only one here with dubious connections, right?"
Kaldur didn't reply, but his eyes narrowed slightly. Several more minutes passed of just them circling before either one struck, Nightwing leapt forwards and jabbed at Kaldur's unguarded left side. Kaldur blocked and made to return in kind, but only hit thin air as Nightwing danced away and fell back into his original position, waiting for Kaldur to make the next move.
The Atlantean dived in with a low, sweeping kick which Nightwing jumped, using Kaldur's shoulder as a springboard to launch himself across the room, where he landed in a crouch and flipped backwards, landing a neat kick to the small of Kaldur's back, sending him staggering forwards. Nightwing used this temporary unbalance to his advantage and landed a second kick to the back of Kaldur's knee, which sent him toppling to the floor.
"Aqualad: FAIL."
Kaldur accepted Nightwing's helping hand with the smallest of smiles; "I see I still have much to learn."
Nightwing shrugged, "Everyone's a student in their own life."
"Who said that?" Kaldur asked.
"Me." Nightwing gave a lopsided grin as he turned to Black Canary, "How about you give someone else a turn?"
Black Canary opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off as Batman's voice came over the loud speakers; "Team, report to mission room."
The five teens exchanged looks and headed in the designated direction, leaving Black Canary and Nightwing alone. The woman shrugged; "Since he's including you in everything else, I'm assuming he's letting you in on mission briefings. Good to meet you, Nightwing."
"Likewise."
The two shook hands and headed in opposite directions; Nightwing following the team to the mission room and Canary towards the zeta tubes.
Nightwing joined the mission briefing several seconds after it had started, but aside from a swift glare Batman didn't register his arrival and continued.
"... a large complex in London's sewer system, the local police force were unable to penetrate it and requested League assistance, you will provide this assistance. Your mission is to infiltrate the complex, find out what its purpose is and, if necessary, neutralise it. Nightwing will be accompanying you."
Batman didn't wait to hear any complaints; before they had formed he raised a hand to silence them. "Do any of you have any questions concerning the mission that do not involve Nightwing?"
Kaldur stepped forwards; "We wish to know what the situation is regarding Robin."
"The situation is a high League priority." Batman replied, his eyes narrowing in a way that quite clearly told everyone not to go any further.
Kaldur nodded, "Then that is all."
The team left and Nightwing followed suit, nodding at Batman as he did and took a shorter route to the hanger, arriving alongside the bioship and placing a hand next to where the door would be. The ship made a strange purring noise and assumed its awakened form, opening a hatch for Nightwing to enter.
Once onboard the acrobat took the seat designated to his past self and waited for thirty seconds before Wally zoomed in, took his seat and did a double take as he noticed Nightwing seated in the corner.
But before the speedster could do more than gape wordlessly the others had entered and given almost exactly the same reaction.
"What the-" Artemis managed to avoid cursing, "How did you get in?"
Nightwing shrugged and petted the console; "I think she likes me."
Artemis rolled her eyes and took her seat beside Wally, the rest of the team followed suit and within minutes M'Gann was guiding the ship out of the bay doors and out across the harbour.
"Activating camouflage mode." M'Gann announced, "ETA about five am local time."
Artemis turned to Nightwing, "What I think we all want to know is how come Batman trusts you to come on a mission with us?"
"It is a fair question," Kaldur agreed, "Given the type of hints you have been giving, such as being trained by assassins and training assassins. We would all like to know how Batman came to trust you."
"I'm from the future." Nightwing said, "A lot can happen in ten years, but right now, in this time, I'm someone he trusts."
"So... You're active in our time?" M'Gann asked.
Nightwing nodded, "Yeah, and sorry, no I can't tell you who. It would make the timeline go screwy."
"You expect us to trust you, even though we don't know who you are?" Artemis asked.
"Trust Batman's judgement." Nightwing said, "It did wonders for me."
The rest of the journey passed in silence, and when they reached London the sun was barely coming up. M'Gann put down the bioship on top of an apartment building and established a mental link.
(Everyone online?)
There was general murmur of ascent and Kaldur nodded, (Good. We will enter in three groups, Artemis and Nightwing take the left entrance and create an opening for Kid and Superboy. Myself and M'Gann shall enter last and deal with any additional resistance while Artemis and Nightwing retrieve the data we need. Understood?)
They all nodded and descended into the sewer, eventually coming up against a heavy bulkhead door. Nightwing retrieved something from his belt and set it against the titanium lock.
(What is that? A bomb?) Artemis asked, but Nightwing shook his head.
(Not exactly.) The vigilante replied.
A small bar of numbers lit up and began to scramble, within seconds the door was open. Nightwing disconnected the device and lead the way in; dodging the deluge of bullets that greeted them.
Immediately the team leapt into action, but it didn't seem to be them the guard were firing at. Half a dozen other people were ducking and dodging bullets through the fog of gunfire, occasionally taking out a goon.
Artemis notched an arrow, but one of the guards noticed her and grabbed the nearest member of their opposition, a girl in black and silver armour, and threw her towards the archer. The two collided and rolled away.
The stranger spat out a curse in something that sounded to Artemis like Cambodian. The archer took a precious few seconds to analyse the girl, who could be her next attacker; she was tall and lithe, about eighteen years old and wearing black and silver body armour, a cowl covered the top half of her face and hair; it was the same shade of grey as Wally's stealth uniform and only had one eye.
"What the-" The girl cursed again as she realised who she'd crashed into. "You wouldn't happen to know what happened to Nightwing, would you?"
AN: First person to guess who the girl is, who her friends are, how she got there and why she's looking for Nightwing gets a virtual cookie. :)
Until next time folks!
-Silver
