Nightwing and Speedy returned to their apartment after another night of vigilantism and began changing into civilian clothes for their journey to Blüdhaven. They began packing their gear into their bags before Dick's phone began ringing."Hello" said
"Hey, it's Oliver" he said " my...acquaintance, Ray has agreed to lend you his jet."
"Really?" Dick asked
"Well, he agreed to lend it to Felicity..." Oliver said " he doesn't need to know, right?"
"Right" Dick chuckled " where is it and when do we go?"
"The jet's at Starling International" Oliver said " and the two of you should be there in about...two hours"
"Plenty of time"Dick said "Thanks Ollie"
"Anything for a friend" Oliver said " a friend who happens to be dating my sister. See you soon." He hung up the phone. Dick and Thea began grabbing thier things when Thea stopped"Can we stop by the foundry for a sec?" She asked
"Sure" Dick said" Why?"
"I think I'm gonna switch my current weapons for a bow and arrow" She said "My psycho dad taught me archery." With this they set off for the foundry and retrieved a spare bow, a set of arrows ,some trick arrows and a quiver. They arrived at the airport and the pilot was waiting. As they were about to enter the jet the pilot reached for the bag with their costumes in.
"I'll take that" Dick said swiftly blocking his hand and grabbing the bag. The two of them entered the plane and set off for Blüdhaven. Hours later when they arrived they looked through the windows and looked at the city. It was a complete mess the streets were lined with homeless people, litter and graffiti. Dick looked at Thea and said "Thea, this city needs us."
"Damn right" She replied, not even looking away from the mess of a city. When they had landed they flagged down a cab, a rusty,run down cab. Dick could tell by the drivers eyes he had a drug problem. The hotel they had decided to stay in was supposedly the best in the city, even then the wallpaper was tearing itself down and the place stank of cigarette was just the lobby.
When in their room Dick began making some trick arrows for Thea. He replaced the pointed tips of several arrows with the tips of escrima sticks. He also attached his sticky noisemakers to some more arrows. Much later Dick & Thea suited up to investigate where the previous kidnapped civilians supposedly were being kept . They took the first few down with ease until getting to the final three warehouses, which were considerably more difficult to infiltrate. They finally came at the second to last location. Dick entered through the side window on the upper floor, while Speedy entered through the back. There were two guards Dick signaled for Thea to take one down while he took the other. Speedy fired her escrima arrow at one guard while Nightwing lept from the shadows and choked the other unconscious. But another guard saw them and began warning the others, who reached out to the final location. Dick dropped a smoke pellet and began beating all the thugs senseless, while Speedy mixed her mild knowledge of martial arts with her archery. Soon after the mercenaries were down and Thea was releasing the hostage taken, one of the thugs radios went off and Dick went to investigate " Who are you?" He asked the caller
"Hello 'Boy Wonder' " said a familiar Australian voice. It was Slade Wilson " Long time no see"
"Slade..." Dick said gritting his teeth
"You remember me!" Slade said " I'm flattered"
"What do you want?" Dick asked
"You don't get it do you Grayson?" Slade responded " me and my lovely hostage are waiting for you here at the old Ace Chemicals building"
"Who are you working for?" Dick asked hoping to find whoever hired him
"Come over and find out kiddo" Slade grumbled before destroying the radio. Dick and Thea headed to the Ace Chemical building Slade had mentioned and barged in the front door.
To be continued!