Guys...Young Justice is coming back! I'm so excited! Anyway, please excuse any mistakes I may have made. Italics is personal thought and bold italics is electronic communication. I do not own DC Comics of any of their characters. Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter, please do so again. Sorry this chapter's kind of short. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Last Time:
Richard's hand gripped the communicator in his pocket. Bruce stood and walked over to him. He looked at him for a second before clicking at his ear. The communicator in Richard's pocket buzzed and it was audible in the silent room.
"And yet you still have that communicator." Bruce said.
Richard knew Bruce thought he won this little scuffle and Richard had to admit he kind of did.
"I was going to give it back to you." Richard said.
"But you haven't. You've been pawing at it this whole time, but you never took it out of your pocket." Bruce said.
Richard stared at him.
"You want to be Nightwing, you're just not sure what that would entail." Bruce concluded.
Richard stayed silent.
"Would you like me to show you?" Bruce asked.
Richard hesitated for a moment.
"...Yes."
Richard had followed Bruce down into the Batcave, and he now stared at it in awe, forgetting his previous frustration. He ignored the peculiar trophies the Batman had, like the giant penny, and focused on the advanced equipment. The man had state of the art technology, a large gun barrel looking thing in the wall, holograms, and interactive holo-computers. Needless to say, Richard was impressed. He looked at the gun barrel looking thing and nodded to it.
"What's that?" He asked.
"A zeta-tube to various locations around the world." Bruce said.
Richard could practically hear the grin the man had on his face. Richard had to admit that he was acting a little childish, gawking at the technology.
"So where's Tim and Jason?" Richard asked.
Maybe their absence is due to them being out heroing right now.
"Somewhere." Bruce said mysteriously.
"Somewhere as in out?" Richard said, giving Bruce a pointed look.
"You'd have to ask them. They're on their way here."
A few minutes after Bruce said that, the zeta-tube lit up with a bright gold light. Two figures stepped out of the light.
"I'm telling you, Tim, Superboy's anger issues are" Jason noticed Richard,"...going to get us killed one...day."
A moment of silence fell upon the four men.
"What the hell is he doing down here?!" Jason broke the silence while pointing at Richard.
Richard opened his mouth to reply, but Bruce beat him to it.
"He agreed to a...preview of what the job would require." Bruce answered.
Tim smiled.
"So you're considering the hero gig, huh?" He said.
"I can't say I'm not impressed, but like I said before: I'm not fit to be a hero." Richard replied.
"You've said it many times, Detective, but there's no evidence to support that conclusion." Tim replied.
"You should consider becoming a lawyer. You have the tone and everything already." Richard responded.
Tim gave him a smile.
"I'll consider it if you give Alfred a suit design." Tim bargained.
Definitely a lawyer. Richard sighed.
"Fine." He said.
Tim walked over and guided Dick to drawing pad. It wasn't paper and pencil; it was a stylus and a blank screen.
"The batcave as electronic drawing pads?" Richard said.
"It's used for drawing out plans, blueprints, and, now, suits. Enjoy." Tim said and walked away.
Richard felt Jason walk up and stand behind him. Richard's hand holding the stylus, hovering over the screen.
"You have no idea what to look like do you?" Jason asked.
Richard gave him a shy smile.
"Not really."
Jason sighed and shook his head slightly before stepping up to Richard.
"Give me two colors." Jason said while he took the stylus from Richard.
"Um, Red...and blue." Richard said.
"That's Superman." Jason replied.
"Blue and yellow?" Richard tried.
"Booster Gold."
"Red and yellow?"
Jason gave him a pointed look.
"Not a good mix, huh." Richard said.
He sighed.
"And the Flash." Jason said.
"How about blue and black?" Richard asked.
Jason thought for a moment then shrugged.
"Okay. What style?" He said.
"...Style?" Richard asked.
"Yeah, cape, no cape? Long sleeve, short sleeve? Gloves, no gloves?" Jason listed.
"No cape, long sleeve, gloves." Richard replied.
Jason murmured an okay before drawing. It started off as a plain dark blue long sleeve shirt with kevlar and black pants. He added gloves, then he began drawing the design. He added a high collar and a light blue X across the chest with outlining gold. He added a small mask and light blue boots. He leaned away to let Richard look at it. The costume had quite a bit of flare, but Richard didn't want to be noticed in his...preview.
"Something a little less..showy?" Richard said.
Jason sighed.
"You were in a circus." He muttered.
Richard chose to ignore that.
Starting to draw again, Jason took away everything and restarted. The shirt and pants now black and a blue V shape in the chest that spread to the shoulders and down the arms to the gloves. He added gloves like Batman's, with the angled spikes on the side, and added black boots. He kept that small mask, but this time is had little elongated points at the ends. Jason leaned black to let Richard look at it again. Richard liked this one better. He smiled at Jason.
"Much better." He said.
"ALFRED!" Jason yelled, suddenly.
Richard looked at him.
"No need to yell in my face." Richard laughed
Alfred came out of nowhere.
"Yes, Master Jason?" He said.
"Think you could make this in a few hours?" Jason asked.
Alfred gave him a pointed look.
"Right. Why ask." Jason said and turned to Richard.
"Alright then, Dick, let me introduce you to the Team." Jason said with a grin.
"No." Bruce's stern voice broke in.
"What? Why not? You're the one trying to introduce the Detective to the gig. Why not introduce him to some of the younger heroes?" Jason whined.
"Because he didn't know about them." Bruce growled.
Jason looked at Richard.
"Shit." He said.
Richard laughed.
"I actually did know about them, I just never thought it important enough to mention." Richard told Bruce.
"Who's on it?" Bruce interrogated.
"Kid Flash, Miss Martian, Aqualad, Artemis, Superboy, Robin, and, apparently, Red Hood." Richard listed automatically.
How the hell did I know that? Bruce narrowed his eyes.
"Just how did you come across all of that information?" Bruce questioned.
"To be honest, I'm not quite sure." Richard smiled.
"Dude, you're missing a lot of people." Jason said.
"Hey man, I didn't say I knew everyone. I just knew it existed even if I'm not sure how I knew." Richard defended.
"Weird, think it could be from those missing years?" Jason asked Bruce.
"Maybe." Bruce responded.
"By the way, where are you on that?" Richard cut in.
"Nowhere, actually." Tim said as he came back in regular clothes.
"Tim." Bruce said sternly.
"Nowhere?!" Richard asked. "What does he mean?"
"All we know right now is that you were with Deathstroke and William Cobb, an Owl in the Court of Owls." Bruce answered.
Richard took a moment to calm down. In that moment, Jason left to go change into regular clothes.
"That's all?! I already knew that!" Richard stressed.
"Right well, that's all we've got. We were trying to track down Deathstroke, but we've had no luck; and the Court of Owls is a lost cause. We've only caught whispers of them. No one wants to talk about them." Tim said.
Richard heaved a sigh. Speaking of Deathstroke…
"What do you know about Floyd Lawton?" Richard asked, slipping into detective mode.
"Deadshot, rival to Deathstroke. Has a family, weakness, reputation for never missing a shot." Bruce replied.
"Why?" Tim asked.
"Do you have his location?" Richard asked, ignoring Tim.
"...Yes." Bruce answered.
"What is it?" Richard questioned.
"He's currently based in a warehouse near the bay. The old Gotham Shipping storage." Tim answered.
"I'll be back." Richard said as he turned to leave.
"We can't let you go by yourself!" Tim yelled from behind him.
"What is he doing?" Jason asked.
"He's going to get himself killed, that's what!" Tim stressed.
"Uh…" Jason said intelligently.
"He's going to Deadshot to ask where Deathstroke is." Tim said with annoyance.
"That's a good idea." Jason said.
"Wha- No!" Tim said.
The two started arguing, but Dick couldn't hear them anymore. He was already near the front door with his jacket on.