Double Trouble
January 14th , 2014.
Gotham City
"Can I tell you something?"
"Sure."
When nothing else was said Batgirl turned her head to look at Nightwing who sat beside her, overlooking the backside of the City Hall.
"Well, what is it?" she asked, a little annoyed but the look on Nightwings face made her bite her tongue. He looked .. sad.
"Alfred once told me something." he then said, his voice low. He didn't look at her, he continued to overlook the Hall. The snow had started falling half an hour ago, covering their still, black uniforms in a blanket of white camouflage. They'd been sitting there for hours.
"What did he tell you?" she asked gently, sensing she probably shouldn't push too hard.
"He told me of something that happened a week after Bruce had lost his parents. It was the day after the funeral. Alfred couldn't find him, so he searched the manor for him. After a while he found him in his room. He was painting."
Batgirl raised an eyebrow. She'd always had a hard time picturing Bruce Wayne as a child. On the surface he seemed like every other rich man – a spoiled playboy. But she knew that's all it was – a surface. A facade. A cover to protect himself.
"Painting what?" she asked gently.
"His walls. With a new color. He said.." Nightwing cut himself off.
"Heads up." he raised himself slowly, making sure not break the gentle snow cover. Batgirl followed suit. Their target had arrived.
Below them, behind the City Hall, stood Bane. With only a few of his henchmen.
oOo
He could stand. He could move. He could feel his strength return to him for every passing day.
The other prisoners helped him, for some reason. But then again, most of them weren't criminals in the traditional sense. And the few that had a criminal background had not done much more than stealing bread.
Bane may call it a prison, but a prison was a place for the real criminals. This.. this was something else.
The pain after the priest had pushed his vertebrae back into place had been almost as unbearable as when his back had been broken. He hadn't been able to move. Or, and that scared him more – he hadn't been able to think. In this pit, his mind was all he had. And with his back healing he now had two weapons.
In the last month all his thoughts had circled around Dick and how he was holding up. He'd been scared, afraid. But no more.
oOo
"You know what to do." Nightwing told Batgirl, who nodded. He grabbed her arm before she disappeared.
She nodded. "Roger. Stay safe."
He watched her disappear as Bane and his men left.
"Here goes nothing." he muttered, beginning to climb down the city hall, making to sound as he did so.
'Why did it have to snow! It's making me stand out like .. something that stands out..'
Almost on time, the snow started to fall more heavily making it almost impossible to see anything.
'Okay, scratch that. I like snow.'
He stopped in front of a window.
'And here we go.'
He broke through the glass, landing in the silent hall. No one was in sight.
Praising himself for his luck he started walking down the hallway, moving like a shadow.
"Come on, where are you.." he whispered, looking around the corner, spotting two mercenaries.
The two men had, unfortunately for them, their back turned to him. They never saw what hit them.
"Sorry guys." Nightwing quickly disarmed their weapons, pulling the two unconscious bodies in the empty office before tying them together. "Take a nap, I won't bother you anymore."
He crept along the hall way, melting into the shadows as more guards passed further down the hall.
He peeked around the corner. There were three guards standing in front of the door, and four going back and forth, patrolling.
'Bingo.'
Nightwing took a deep breath, clenching his eskrima sticks tightly in his hands, waiting for the guards to walk out of sight. They soon disappeared around a corner. He waited another ten seconds, holding his breath.
'Show time!'
He threw the grenade and a second later the gas filled the hallway. And two seconds later he heard the guards fall, unconscious.
'I really need to use that stuff more often.' He ran for the door. He could hear low voices from the other side.
He'd found the right place.
He had about three minutes to get what he'd come for.
He kicked in the door with ease. A few yells and screams from inside told him he'd chosen the right door. As he stepped in, he quickly surveyed the room. He spotted a large cabinet, which he quickly pushed in front of the door, making it impossible to get out. Or in. Maybe buying him a minute or two.
Nightwing turned around, facing the shocked occupants of the room.
The room contained all the members of the Wayne Board, all people he knew and liked. But he couldn't think of that now. He spotted the one he was looking for.
"Lucius Fox. I need some information."
The president of the Wayne Board looked at him with suspicion."Who are you?"
"My name is Nightwing, and I need you to answer some questions." Nightwing quickly grasped the coat of the older man, forcing him toward the window.
"Young man, let go of me! I'm..!" Fox began to protest, but was quickly silenced as Nightwing turned around, staring at him.
"I am sorry, but I don't have any time for pleasantries.. Now," Nightwing blocked out Fox from the other boardmembers.
"It's me.." he whispered ever so softly, seeing the realization in Fox's eyes. The older mans stare grew warm and then hard.
"What do you need to know?"
"I need to know more about the bomb. Bane says it has multiple triggers – is that possible?" Nightwing asked, his voice intense.
Fox thought for a brief moment. "Technically yes. But I don't think that is the case. Too many triggers could tempt the minds of lesser men. I don't think he would be willing to take that risk."
Nightwing nodded. "That's what I thought. My partner and I have been collecting triggers for the past month, and they don't seem to have a target to lock on. Bane was lying. There isn't a unknown number of triggers out there."
"But there is one." Fox said, grabbing Nightwings arms, staring into the masked eyes.
"I saw Dr. Pavol activate it when he made the bomb. Bane has it. There is one trigger."
Nightwing's eyes narrowed at this new piece of information.
"Are you sure Bane has it?"
"He had it when the bomb was activated. I don't know where it is now." Fox answered grimly.
"Is there a way to block the signal?"
"Maybe, but.." they were cut off when loud yells erupted from the hall.
"The other guards are back." Nightwing quickly stepped back.
"I'm sorry, but I can't take you with me. You'll get killed." he held up a grenade of the same type as the one he used on the guards in the hall.
"I'll activate this – it won't hurt you, it'll merely put you to sleep." he looked apologetic.
"I'm sorry, but I need you to hand me your valuables."
Some of the board members looked quite shocked. "Why!" one of the men stammered, covering his watch. "My wife gave me this, I can't..!"
"I need it to look like I was after something else. I am sorry, but please – it may keep you alive long enough for me to save you." he held out his hands. "I promise to keep your wife's gift safe and bring it back to you."
A few of the board members exchanged looks, but then stepped forward, handling him their valuables. "Please keep it safe." a woman, whom Dick had spoken to very little at his time at Wayne Tower, whispered, as she handed him her ring. He knew the ring – it was a gift from her deceased husband. She'd told him about it last summer.
"I will." he promised.
The mercenaries in the hall hammered against the blocked door. The cabinet swayed, barely holding against the force.
Nightwing stepped back, nodding to the board members. "Thank you. Be safe."
He kicked out the window, showing a rope dangling in front of it.
"Where'd that come from?" a board member asked, stepping back.
"I'm not working alone." Nightwing said with a smirk. He dropped the grenade before jumping through the window out into the dark night. As he climbed he heard the board members drop down, unconscious as the mercenaries forced their way through the door.
oOo
They sat in silence, back at the hideout.
They'd managed to get away before the entire area had been flooded with Bane's henchmen. Barely.
They'd run and flown without speaking, making it back in record time.
"So.." Barbara spoke up, breaking the silence.
"Besides getting away with the board members jewellery.. did you confirm our suspicion?"
Dick nodded, as he placed the valuables in a box, before closing it. "Fox confirmed it. There is, at most, one trigger."
..
Two weeks ago
The fight was getting messy. They were greatly out numbered, but luckily all of their attackers seemed to know nothing of finer combat style. It seemed like they would obtain their goal when..
"Hold it, bat brats!" a voice yelled, making both Nightwing and Batgirl turn around.
Their target, who'd set his – now unconscious – bodyguards at them stood a few meters away, trigger in hand, thumb on the button. The two heroes froze.
"I was told not to use this, unless I spotted a member of the Justice League. Are you members, brats?" the lowlife criminal laughed at his own, apparently, amusing joke.
"No, we are not." Nightwing said, carefully stepping forward. The eyes of the criminal widened.
"Don't come any closer! I'll use it! I swear to God!"
"Please, let's be reasonable here. If you use it, you'll die to. We won't kill you, all we want is the trigger." Nightwing said, lowering his hands in a peacemaking manner.
The gangbanger shivered, his facade of big bad bully crackling in front of them.
"To hell with you! Bane will kill me as soon as he finds out I've had a run in with you, just like he killed the others!"
Nightwing and Batgirl shared a startled look. "Are you saying Bane are killing off his triggermen?" Batgirl asked, making the criminal look at her.
"Of course! The ones who've managed to get away from him are all in hiding now – or they've committed suicide! Stupid brats!" the gangbanger's eyes were getting more and more wild by the minute.
Nightwing took a gentle step forward. "Please, we can protect you. Just give us the trigger."
"Fuck you! You can't protect me! Why should you, you owe me nothing!"
"If you hand me the trigger, I'll owe you big time. I can pay you, if you want money."
"No no no no no.." the criminal was sweating, eyes dancing, hands shaking.
'He's breaking down' Nightwing thought, holding the mans stare with his masked eyes.
"Please, just give me.."
"NOOO!" the man screamed, then taking the trigger in both hands, forcing down the glowing red button.
Nightwing and Batgirl jumped forward. The trigger fell from the criminals hand, he turned around and fled the scene. Nightwing and Batgirl stared at the trigger lying on
the pavement. Nightwing kneeled down, gently picking it up. The button was still down, the red light not blinking anymore.
"It didn't go off." Batgirl whispered.
"Why didn't it go off?"
..
Present time
"So what you are saying is, that our work the last few months have been totally in vain?"
When he nodded again, she stood up and let the room without a word.
They didn't speak again until a few hours later. Barbara found Dick in the control room.
"Shouldn't you rest?" she asked, sitting down besides him.
"I need to write the events of the day in our log." he answered without stopping typing.
She watched him for a few minutes. "Dick..?"
"Yeah?" he asked absently.
"That story you told me on the roof, the one about Bruce painting. Did you finish it?"
He stopped typing.
"No."
"Will you, please? It must've been important since you brought it up in the first place."
He remained silent for a few moments, watching her closely. Then, he sighed."
"Alfred told me.." he continued, turning away from the computer " that when he finally found him, Bruce was in his bedroom, painting the walls. Alfred then asked him why he was painting the walls of his room – the very same walls his mother had painted, in his favourite colour. You know what Bruce answered him?"
Barbara shook her head lightly, wonder and worry growing in her eyes. Dick's voice sounded so strange.
"Bruce answered 'I don't have a favourite colour anymore.'"
Dick fell silent, staring out into thin air.
Barbara gently placed a hand on his shoulder. "Why are you telling me this?"
Dick shrugged. "I don't know. Maybe because I think you should know some things about Bruce, about Batman, before you are getting in too deep."
"I'm already in deep."
"I know. But that story... Alfred told me it to me one night after we'd returned from patrol. We'd had a pretty rough run-in with Scarecrow and his thugs. Batman had taken the worst of the attack. As he laid in the infirmary back at the manor, unconscious, Alfred pulled me aside, telling me the story.
I don't know why, I never asked him. Just like me, I don't he told it because I wanted me to learn from it. But to make clear that something happened to Bruce that night his parents died, that something inside of him snapped. That I needed to know that. And you need to know that too."
Barbara nodded in understanding. "It's.. sad." she whispered.
Dick closed his eyes. "I know. It's weird.. both Bruce and I lost our parents to violence. But still we are so different."
"You had Bruce after your parents."
"And Bruce had Alfred. You know the man, he gave Bruce all the love and support he needed. And still, he snapped." Dick turned to her, taking her hands in his.
"Babs, I really appreciate your help. But look at what I've done – almost two months and I've done nothing but putting us in danger because I couldn't figure out that the triggers we obtained were distractions."
"Don't say that. How should you've known that? You managed to locate Fox and get the information from him without causing any deaths. Bane tricked us, but now we know the truth. That there is one trigger. That narrows down the problem to two. One trigger, one time bomb." she gave his hand a small squeeze.
"I haven't giving up hope yet, and neither should you. Now we can focus on finding the bomb and the one trigger instead of locating an unknown number of triggers."
"I need to inform the League about this." Dick shot in, straightening himself.
Barbara let go of his hands, watching him as he turned back to the computer, typing something in quickly.
"And how are you going to do that? There is the one trigger, and I don't think the mailman will drop by any time soon."
Dick looked at her. "Don't worry Babs, I have my ways. I'm done playing by Bane's rules. He's done something he shouldn't have. I'm not scared any more." He stood up, fists clenched as he looked at the screen. She looked at him, a little put back by the expression on his face.
"I'm angry."
oOo
"I'm not afraid..."
"I'm angry."
The qoute from Alfred in this chapter is from Justice League (v2) #009. I think it is one of the saddest things I've ever read. The pain was leaking from the page.
And look at that, we are back to one trigger. But then, who has it?
The other quote, the last one in the chapter is of course from DKR. I get goosebumps every time I hear it. It's so simple, and yet so powerful. Just like Batman.
The Title, Double Trouble, of the chapter both refers to the trigger and the bomb, the two main problems for our heroes. The other meaning is that Bane has actually managed to do it – to piss off Nightwing and Batman. There is going to be hell to pay.
I don't know what happened, two chapters in one weekend. But as I sat down to watch DKR, I could just feel the inspiration. Hope you liked it!
Have nice week! Stay awesome as always.