Hey, gang! Nyx'sBlackRose here with the newest chapter of Nights With A Wolf! Thanks so much to everyone who reviewed the last chapter; I love you all!
Thorn: *rolls eyes* Oh, gag me already.
Thornie, do I really need to keep reminding you of the dragon to make you cooperate? *dragon roar sounds*
Thorn: *pales* No, ma'am. I just keep forgetting.
Then on you go, Thornie.
Thorn: *salutes* Yes, ma'am. *turns to audience* My boss lady Nyx'sBlackRose owns absolutely nothing except Kiki, Wolf, and any other minor Ocs who show up every now and then.
Thank you, Thorn. Now, on to the chapter! (Btw, this is from issue #5 from the B:GA comics in case you wanted to know.)
For the next few weeks Dick tried contacting Kiki in and out of costume, but she never answered him and anytime he went to see her she wasn't home. Although she was avoiding him, she still patrolled Gotham; he had seen her, and she still helped him out at times. But whenever he tried approaching her, she sank into the nearest shadows and just disappeared.
Dick grew frustrated and discouraged by Kiki's actions; they had made excellent progress since they joined together, and now she was tossing their partnership out the window just because they showed each other the faces behind their masks.
One night, Dick got lucky when a gang tried to rob a store; Kiki not only showed up, but she joined in and didn't shy away from him when he helped her and vice-versa. After they started slugging the guys around, Dick heard his communicator ring; he knocked out the guy he was fighting and picked it up.
"Nightwing, here," he answered it; a young voice that Kiki recognized as Tim's-and Robin's-spoke to Dick frantically.
"Calm down," Dick soothed the terrified boy. "What's the emergency?"
"I'm at Wayne-Tech One. Some guy named Grant Walker(1) just shot the place up. . .he kidnapped everybody!" Tim answered. He hesitated before going on.
". . .It's a big mess here. . .I think. . .I think I hurt Bruce. He's out cold.
"Sit tight. I can call the cops from here." Batgirl-Barb, Kiki realized-spoke up on the frequency from the Batcave.
"Thanks," Tim murmured; he added shyly a moment later, ". . .Could one of you get over here? I think I hurt Bruce bad. . ."
Dick's face softened as he and Kiki went to work tying the guys up to leave for the police. "It's only three blocks. Be there in two minutes." He answered as he finished tying the gang to a lamppost. Kiki began to disappear as she always did, but Dick just caught her this time.
"Ki, wait," he said quickly; she turned to look at him curiously. "Tim would want you with us," he said, making Kiki hesitate. She sighed and turned from the shadows to join Dick as he mounted his motorcycle a little too happily for the situation. She smacked his shoulder as she put on the helmet he handed her.
"Don't get too smug, Grayson," she told him. "I'm only doing this for Tim; the poor kid."
The ride over was unusually silent between the two; they arrived at the Wayne building and entered it quickly, finding Bruce and Tim inside with about half of the GCPD, lots of futuristic lab equipment, and the living remains of Mr. Freeze(2). They talked to the police force for a bit, then went to question Bruce and Tim.
"It's your call, Mr. Wayne. What's our next move?" Dick asked him.
"Getting me to see Dr. Thompkins. . .my head is on fire. . .I can't see through the spots. . ." Bruce groaned, rubbing the back of his next.
"I'm so sorry. . ." Tim bowed his head shamefully, making Kiki's heart go out to the little guy. Bruce turned to him.
"Don't be, Tim. I owe you my life." Bruce reassured the kid. "And if I had been a little faster, I'd have stopped Walker from taking D'Anjou, Brodie, and the others."
Freeze turned to Bruce with alarmed surprise. " D'Anjou? Dr. Francis D'Anjou? How dare you keep that from me, Wayne." He glared at the four of them and went on.
"You must reconnect me to my body this instant!" he ordered. "Only I can effectively face Walker on his own terms. Francis D'Anjou must be saved!"
Kiki was a little confused. "Why? Who's this D'Anjou guy?" she asked curiously.
Freeze's cold face softened a little as he answered her. "When I was declared dead, my beloved Nora remarried. Francis D'Anjou is Nora's husband. And she loves him." He murmured.
With Bruce's and Gordon's consent, Freeze's mechanical body was activated and his head reattached. Freeze back in action, he, Dick, and Kiki made their way to what Freeze thought to be Walker's hideout with a little police backup.
"Oceana. Even in ruins like this, it would take a month to search through it. But I know he took them here. I know where they'll be. I know this facility and I know Walker. . ." Freeze paused for a moment. "It will be no effort to find him."
Dick pointed to an opening in the rubble. "That looks like a good place to enter," he suggested.
"Enough foolish waiting. . .we must go in." Freeze said impatiently. Gordon approached the group and Kiki couldn't help but wonder if he knew if Babs was moonlighting as a vigilante.
"You have one hour," he told them. Dick smiled cockily like he always did in and out of costume.
"A whole hour? What'll we do with the other forty-five minutes?" he asked playfully. Kiki rolled her eyes as the three entered the ruins.
"I remember when Walker built this place. . ." Freeze said. "Oceana. . .the self-contained city of tomorrow."
Dick nodded. "If it wasn't for his nutty plan to turn the rest of the globe into a frozen wasteland he might have pulled it off," he agreed. Kiki was silent, which disappointed Dick slightly; he'd been hoping for her to ask him questions about Walker's first appearance. Suddenly, laser blasts filled the remains of the hallway they were traveling on, making all three dodge them.
Freeze was too busy trying to dodge blasts to notice the rubble above him had been hit as well; luckily for him, Kiki noticed.
"Freeze, look out!" she cried, knocking him out of the way. Unfortunately, Kiki was hit with the debris and knocked to the ground under it. Horror filled Dick as he rushed to Kiki's side.
"Wolf! You all right?" he asked worriedly as she struggled under the rubble.
"One of my legs is pinned. . ." she grunted, twisting around under the debris, trying to take some of the pressure off of her leg. "I can still feel it, so it must be all right. . .just trapped."
Dick sighed in relief and turned to the third member of their party. "Freeze! I could use some help here. . ." When he looked, he saw Freeze beginning to turn the corner.
"Hey!" he shouted, getting Freeze's attention. "Stop! We're not going anywhere without Wolf!" he ordered.
"I am here to rescue Francis D'Anjou," he replied coldly. "Nothing else. You and Wolf are not necessary."
Anger filled Dick, and he left Kiki to stalk up to Freeze. "Listen, Freeze, Wolf just saved your sorry robotic behind!" he growled. "With your augmented strength it would take you five seconds to lift that rubble off of her. You owe her your life!"
Freeze paused and looked over Nightwing's shoulder to where Kiki was lying under the debris; Kiki glared back fearlessly. Freeze broke eye contact and turned away.
"My life doesn't matter," he said as he turned the corner and walked down the hall. "All that matters is saving Nora's husband. You are on your own."
Dick growled in frustration and rushed back to Kiki, taking piles of rubble and moving them off of her.
"Dick, you don't have to do this," she protested, wincing slightly as a few larger pieces of debris brushed against her pinned leg.
"Yes I do," he grunted as he picked up another pile and tossed it away. "It's a way I can make it up to you."
She looked at him in confusion. "For not telling you sooner," he explained. "I kept you in the dark for so long about everything and didn't even imagine you'd be a part of this until your mask came off. I want to make it up to you in any way I can; so we can be friends again, Ki."
Kiki's face softened as Dick shifted the last big pile off of her and he held out a hand to her; she smiled and took it, standing up carefully with his help.
"I'm sorry, Dick," she said. "I panicked when I saw it was you; honestly, I didn't think you were a part of this until then. But I'm through running; I want to be friends again, too."
He smiled and ruffled her hair with his free hand, his other one tightening around hers. "Then we're friends again," he said. "Should we go find Freeze? Or should we get you to the medics?"
She pouted at him slightly. "I can walk fine, thanks," she grumbled teasingly. He chuckled and they speed-walked down the hall.
When they found Freeze, he'd found Walker and the scientists; the scientists had escaped except for D'Anjou, and Freeze was one literal step away from smashing Walker's helmet in.
"-But that will no longer be a problem in a matter of seconds," Freeze was saying as they came in. Kiki used a grappling hook to drag Walker out of Freeze's reach, and Dick charged at the villain.
"Not today, Freeze!" Kiki said.
"Not ever!" Dick added. Freeze swung at Dick.
"You think yourself capable of stopping me, boy?" he asked as he swung at Dick repeatedly, and Dick dodged.
"You are merely human. . .slow. weak." Freeze said as he almost landed a punch on Dick's chin. A blue, glowing ball of electricity appeared in his palm as he swung at Dick once more.
Dick dodged and managed to press a button on a black mini-remote around his wrist. "And prepared," he added to Freeze's list. As Dick pressed the button, Freeze's robotic body stiffened and fell to the floor accompanied by a storm of clicking noises.
"You're a cold, heartless killer, Freeze," he said.
"We didn't really trust you as far as we could throw you," Kiki added.
Dick knelt down next to Freeze's frozen form and showed him the remote around his wrist. "So we built a safety switch into your suit before we put you in it," he said.
"But 'thanks' for your help," Kiki finished as she stood next to Dr. D'Anjou.
"I require no thanks," Freeze said. "It is enough that Nora's husband is safe. I am done." With a blinding flash of light, Freeze's head disconnected from his body, a set of small metal spider-like limbs growing from it; in a flash he was scuttling away from his robotic shell of a body.
"I designed this body," Freeze said as he scuttled off. "There is much you don't know about it."
Dick's jaw dropped in surprise. "Hey! Can he do that?" he asked.
"He's moving fast!" Kiki said sharply. "I can't catch him with my bum leg. . ." she growled in frustration.
Dick went to chase after the moving head, but Dr. D'Anjou pulled him back. "Let me go, doctor!" Dick said.
"No! The servo limbs in his head are without weapons!" Dr. D'Anjou said. "He's no possible menace to anyone in this state." He let Dick go and went on.
"I owe him. . .not only for coming to my rescue. . ." he paused, then went on. "But also for Nora, for saving her life. And because Victor Fries was Nora's husband," the doctor turned to look at the robotic body that Freeze left behind, "and she loves him."
After Walker was in police custody and Dr. D'Anjou joined the other scientists, Dick took Kiki to the ambulance that Gordon had ordered just in case for someone to look at her leg. When the check-up was done, her ankle was declared broken and her foot was put in a cast. She complained, but complied as an EMT handed her a pair of crutches. With Dick's help she hobbled back to his motorcycle and was driven home.
They entered through Kiki's back door, and Dick carried her up the stairs to her room, declaring that she was in no shape to try walking up the stairs on her own, and lightly tossing her onto her bed upon arrival. Kiki grumbled jokingly about a hard landing as she got off the bed and hobbled into her bathroom.
"You can grab a few pieces of my brother's clothes or something and change, Dick," she said. "I don't mind." He nodded to her and went downstairs to grab his backpack, changing in the first floor bathroom. When he walked back up to Kiki's room, he knocked to make sure she wasn't changing, then entered.
It was decorated in different shades of blues and purples, with a window seat and bed covered in pillows. The walls were adorned with different posters and pictures; on one wall above a wooden desk, a giant cork board was mounted and plastered with notes, postcards, pictures, sketches, and dozens of other things Dick couldn't even begin to identify. There were a few bookshelves scattered around the room overflowing with books, a few topped with piles of CDs and magazines.
He turned around and brought his inspection to a halt as the bathroom door opened; Kiki hopped into her room in a sweater and long skirt, her hair held back from her face with a headband. He smiled at her.
"Did you have anything planned for tonight?" he asked her. She frowned curiously but shook her head at him.
"Dare I even ask why, Grayson?" she asked, eying him warily.
"I was going to ask if you wanted to catch a movie, but if you're gonna act like that," he huffed jokingly.
"Calm down, Dick; I'll go with you," Kiki smirked a little. "You pay and I'll pick the movie," she added.
"It's a deal," Dick answered with a grin.
Sorry for the cliff-hanger ending guys, but it's past 11 and I wanna get some sleep tonight. Before I doze off at the keyboard, your notes for this chap:
1: Walker was one seriously messed-up guy from the original BtAS series; the episode is called 'Deep Freeze' if you wanna look it up.
2: For those of you who don't know, the condition that makes Freeze a frozen immortal actually destroyed most of his original body; all that's left is his head. In the new BtAS, he has a robotic suit that he designed himself to make up for the loss.
Thorn: Now, please R+R this chap; no flames, please!
Thank you, Thornie. G'night, everybody!