Orange...
Here, please have a longer chapter in apology for my super long absence. (Well, I tried to make it longer...not sure if I was able to accomplish said goal or not...probably not...)
And to those of you (...everyone...) asking about Jason, don't worry, he'll be making an appearance soon~ *wink wink, nudge nudge*
Now, on with the story before I give too much away!
Dick and Ryder arrive back at the manor a little after noon. Lunch had already been finished but Alfred was swift about reheating the leftovers in the oven. He had tried, unsuccessfully, many times to rid the home of its microwave. Due to the other people that lived there liking to eat midnight snacks at ungodly hours, having no patience to allow the oven to preheat, as well as that unhealthy 'microwave popcorn' that always accompanied movie nights, Alfred was outvoted. (It hadn't stopped him from unplugging the appliance from time to time though, in hopes the others would assume it had broken and choose to use the oven instead).
As they wait for the food, Dick and Ryder sit down at the table. He pulls his phone out to catch up on any texts he had gotten recently as well as try to contact Jason again. Not surprisingly, there was still no answer.
Ryder fell into a familiar routine and pulled out her dice bags. From her colored one she placed green in front of her, and then set orange next to it before turning her attention to her white dice.
Dick glances over upon hearing the noise, instantly intrigued by the colored cubes. "Green is Dami...so who's orange?"
He knows he won't receive a verbal response from her so begins to rack his brain for who was which color so he could ask a relevant yes-no question. "Is it Babs?" When he thought of the color orange he saw her fiery red hair.
In addition to a double tap meaning no, Ryder reached into her little bag and placed her yellow die on the table for Dick to see. Oh yeah, with the exception of Bruce, their colors all matched up with their uniforms. And since Barbra used to be Batgirl, who had yellow accents, that was a reasonable conclusion. But then, who could orange be?
"Do we know this person?"
*tap*
Well, crap. This was going to be another Gold-is-Captain-Marvel, isn't it? Who on the League had orange in their uniform? It was kind of an obscure color so no one was jumping immediately to mind. Maybe his first thought was on target; maybe it did have to do with hair color...
"...is it Wally?"
Because yeah, everyone loved the Flash. Hell, even his own Rogues loved him (which still confused Dick to no end. But he had come to accept that Gotham and Central/Keystone are very different places from each other, best just to accept the strange fact and move on).
Two taps indicate his guess was incorrect. Currently no other hero was jumping to his mind so he decided to ask the resident expert on such matters, and it just so happens that said expert had entered the room. "Alfred! Who's orange?"
"I beg your pardon?" the older gentleman questions as he places the plates of food down in front of the two children, the younger of which happily digs into her meal, forgoing silverware again. The butler sighs quietly at that even as he subtly pushes said items closer to the young girl in hopes of her using them one day. Alas, today is not that day.
"Ryder's dice colors; who's the orange one represent?" Dick clarifies his question.
"I am afraid I do not know."
"Hmm... She says we know him. Or her. And he-slash-she is hanging out with Dami right now I think?" he adds as he glances back to her colored dice that she placed next to one another.
"Ah. Perhaps it is Master Colin? He has come over to visit Master Damian today."
*tap*
"...now how do you know Colin...?" Dick just watches her, a tint of fascination in his gaze, as he tries to figure out this latest puzzle concerning the young girl.
After eating, Dick and Ryder made their way up to Damian's room to find the two boys sprawled out on the floor pouring over a map of Gotham City.
"And just what are you two up to, hmm?" Dick asks with a smile on his face and a hand on his hip from the doorway.
"Mr. Grayson!" Colin looks up and waves to the older man enthusiastically, grin spreading across his face. Damian just huffs at the interruption.
"Wilkes and I are going over possible patrol routes for tonight."
"But Damian~! I thought we were gonna go out as soon as I got back?" He was not whining, dammit, grown men do not whine.
"Very well, Grayson. I shall allow you to accompany Wilkes and myself but you'd better not get in our way."
That's better than nothing, he supposed; Dick would take it. He'd be happy with whatever the boy gave him.
"Oh," Colin just seems to notice the fourth person in the room right at this moment (she was being obscured by Dick's legs so it wasn't really his fault at all...those legs were kinda fat [Hey!]). He blinks and cocks his head slightly to the side before waving, "Hi."
Ryder's gaze never wavers from the floor as she stands next to Dick.
"Are you alright?" the little red head questions sincerely.
*tap*
"Well of course she is fine. She's living here; do you think we would not provide the basic necessities to our temporary guest?" Damian huffs at his best friend. Perhaps he could get Colin to help him get rid of the little pest...hmm...this plan would require some fine tuning before he could place it into effect...
"Ah, no, that's not what I was talking about. About a week ago Josh gave her a black eye and I couldn't find her afterwards to check on her. But it seems everything worked out just fine if she's here, so...oh, wait! What's her name? I asked before but she was pretty quiet and only ever said one word to me."
"She-? You-?" Damian was at a loss for words so Dick decided to be the helpful older brother and just kind of shrugged in Colin's direction.
"He's orange."
The League of Assassins brat recovered quickly. "Well, of course he is, I choose him for a best friend after all. If he couldn't even pass a simple child's test then he'd have no business being in my presence," he huffs as he crosses his arms over his chest.
"Aw, Dami, you're my best friend too!" Colin addresses the other boy with a 1,000 watt smile on his face. Of course that part was the only thing he picked out from that little speech. Dick was rather impressed, Colin was the prefect friend for his littlest brother; he'd have to arrange more play dates between the two of them in the future.
"What have I said about calling me that, Wilkes?!" Damian bristles and rounds a glare on the red head, the two others all but forgotten. The smallest of said forgotten duo made her way over to Damian's drawing desk where she busied herself with a small task.
"That I can call you Dami as often as I like until you call me Colin?" He shoots back immediately. If possible, his grin spread even wider, and Damian's scowl just grew darker. Dick was slightly worried about an imminent blowup from Damian until Ryder stepped between the two and offered an index card to Colin, her eyes trained on the ground around his feet.
Confused, Colin takes the small paper and reads what has been written, "'Ryder?' What does that mean?"
"It's her name. Her name is Ryder."
"So, let me get this straight. Ryder was only at the orphanage for a night, but somehow she managed to find you 'safe,' get a black eye, and run away without anyone noticing," Dick ticked off on his fingers as he listed everything Colin had said.
"Yep. It was kinda weird though...it almost seemed like she moved in front of Josh's elbow, like she wanted to get hit. It would have completely missed her otherwise. Though I guess it had to be an accident since she's always looking at the ground, probably just didn't see the older kid move at the same time she did."
Both Dick and Damian knew that couldn't be right; so then why did she get a black eye on purpose?
Damian, who's had to solve puzzles much like this back when he was with his mother, was the first to realize exactly why she did it. "You-! You received a black eye on purpose! To gain sympathy from Father and Grayson and Gordon and Pennyworth!" He observes Ryder like this is the first time truly seeing her, "...I approve." Maaaaaybe Damian would stop trying to get rid of her, at least for now.
Dick's jaw drops. Colin bursts out laughing. Ryder just continues lining up her dice on the floor, seemingly oblivious to the world around her.
Just another completely normal day in the Wayne manor. (How the hell does Alfred put up with this day in and day out? [The world may never know]).
-Nightwing, stop getting distracted by the flashing lights and focus on patrol.- Robin snapped through their comm. link as he jumps to the next building with Abuse not far behind.
-But they're so pretty~- The acrobat adds just enough over-the-top whining to his voice for Robin to -Tt- at him. The kid was probably rolling his eyes at him under the mask too. Big brother goal: accomplished.
So far they had stopped two car jackings, a mugging, three attempted breaking and enterings (one of which was at a bank, so technically they stopped an attempted bank robbery), and four attempted rapes and/or murders.
Overall, a fairly quiet night, all things considered.
-You just had to say that out loud, didn't you Mr. Nightwing.- Abuse's deeper voice comments through the extra comm. link he was given for the night (neither he nor Robin had told the older hero that he already has one that the youngest Bat smuggled him a few months ago. Didn't want it confiscated even though he was fairly certain Nightwing wouldn't say anything, best to be cautious).
-I just jinxed us, didn't I?- The acrobat groaned, cursing his big mouth.
-Yep.- The hulking child doesn't even try to sugarcoat it from the older man. Nightwing isn't sure if he appreciates this or not.
-Tt. There are no such things as jinxes, curses, and such.- The last of their party decides to chime in.
-Zatanna wouldn't agree. Nor would Doctor Fate. Or- -
-Tt. I know that. But a spell caster would be needed for a jinx to actually take effect and you have no such ability.-
-I'm really feeling the love here Robin, really.-
After that, they decided to split up to cover more ground, straying no more than two blocks from the others, and to limit their comm. talk as to not get on anyone's nerves again. Which is why, when Nightwing summons them all to his location to investigate a strange flash of light he had seen inside the building, Robin just looks at him exasperated.
"Really, Nightwing? A Game Shop? Are you sure you didn't just make up the lights as an excuse to break in and check out all the new games?"
"Of course not! I know a Morse code S.O.S. when I see one; I wouldn't just make that up!" He sounded genuinely affronted by the accusation. "What do you take me for?"
"A simpleton," is the bird's short answer, but when he sees the clear look of hurt on the others face he quickly changes the subject to one more relevant than feelings. "...I don't see anything," Robin redirects their attention as he turns his gaze on the store front, willing more flashing lights to appear if just to get them (him) out of this situation...even if he still had his doubts about the existence of said lights.
Well, let's recap. After Robin willed the lights into existing (they were already there, he just refused to accept it) and he had a fleeting thought about having some latent magical abilities, the three heroes went right in, guns-er- nonlethal weapons a blazin'. And, lo and behold, it was a trap. Not even a very good trap. More annoying than anything else, really.
But of course you-know-who had to have some hand in it again, just like those other traps they had recently come across that also, so helpfully, came with a riddle (note the sarcasm).
They fly, I can't, it's black and white
Slice 'n' Dice, put up a Fight
Names have meaning, mine does too
Don't get distracted, or I'll kill you!
What does it mean? Well, everyone is currently more focused on getting away from the bomb than figuring out some dumbass riddle (but don't let Riddler know you think that, you'd be deader than a doornail in 2.5 seconds).
Yep. So. Recap: Game Store, riddle, bomb, run-for-your-life, explosion, Red Hood.
Oh. Right. Jason showed up. Could this night get any better? (Please don't jinx us again, Mr. Nightwing!)
Red Hood had been out and about, minding his own business and that of some drug dealer's (but they are no longer of this world so they can be forgotten), when suddenly, off in the distance, an explosion lit up the night sky. Knowing it wasn't one of his, he made his way towards it, wondering if he'd be helping out the innocents trapped inside or picking off the bad guys one by one as they crawled out of the debris. Both have happened before. This time, though, neither one of those predictions was what he ended up doing.
As he finally got within a good line of sight of the burning building he noticed some very familiar costume choices and promptly turned on his heel to try and sneak away. But, alas, the demon brat spotted him almost immediately and drew the rest of their attention towards him before he could run off.
"And what are you doing here?" At least the brat had stopped addressing him with his real name while in uniform, though that might have just been self preservation since he had no qualms about using Robin's real name in the field right back at him.
"Just passing through; saw the explosion and wondered if there were any pretty damsels in distress I could swoop in and save. Alas, the damsels I see are not very appealing."
Robin fumes and swears at him, only just barely being held back by Abuse as the green bird attempts to advance to murder the black sheep of the Bat Family.
Nightwing chooses right then to come up to Red Hood with the most pathetic kicked puppy expression imaginable. "I...I am so sorry for what I said before Jay-" A tensing of his muscles was as good of an indicator of a harsh glare as any with the other man's helmet on and corrects himself quickly, "...Red Hood. I was...caught up in the heat of the moment and started saying the first thing that came to mind, without thinking of the consequences. Will you ever be able to forgive me?"
Red Hood just takes in his hesitantly hopeful expression, that was in no way hindered by his mask, before scoffing. "Stop grovelling you dumbass. As much as I love to see you sniveling and begging, I'm not even mad."
"Wha-? But-!"
"Dude, stop. This whole situation was fucking hilarious. And it was just as hilarious as ignoring your calls, knowing you were beating yourself up because of it. So yeah; I don't even care about it."
"But-! But I care!"
"And that's your problem: you care too much. Just drop it already or I really will get angry with you."
Nightwing looked like he was biting back a dozen different things he really wanted to say but in the end ended up dropping it like Red Hood wanted.
And not a moment too soon it seems like. Police sirens could be heard off in the distance and the flashing red and blue lights would be bouncing off every solid surface in a two block radius in the next thirty seconds, best to get out of here before they were seen.
Somewhere in the chaos Red Hood ducked away from the merry band of kiddies and went on his own way to hunt down another drug dealer or two before heading back to his latest safe house.
Nightwing, ever the responsible mentor, decided it was time to call it a night for the younger two under his care. They swung by Colin's orphanage to drop the red head off, then proceed to return to the Batcave where Damian was sent up to bed while Dick entered the latest riddle into their database before crashing into bed himself.
Not knowing this would be the last night for a while that any of them would get a decent amount of sleep.
When Ryder woke up the next morning she immediately went down to the living room where Damian had set up a chess game and was waiting for her arrival. He had already claimed white and made the first move, leaving black for her. Settling into the game, this one moved much quicker than their previous ones had.
A little over halfway through the game, Ryder went rigid. Her hand hovering over the board, frozen, as the knight she was clutching clattered as it dropped.
Half a second later, the doorbell rang.
Damian could hear Alfred coming to answer the door but kept his eyes trained on Ryder who still hadn't moved a muscle.
Finally she moved, standing up too quickly and sending the chair she was sitting in backwards. A hand shot to her pocket where she began to fumble with something before she pivoted towards the door and the object slipped out, tumbling to the floor.
Ryder ran. She ran to the door because she knew who was behind it.
Damian got up, went over to the fallen object and scooped it up to get a better look. The black die. His attention immediately shot to the door that Ryder was halfway to already and Alfred had just reached and was now opening.
"Miss Cassandra, what a pleasant surprise."
...and Black.
Thank you, everyone, for your patience with me as this story takes longer to write than I originally anticipated.
Two more of Ryder's dice colors are revealed, which means everyone she's met that has been given a color is accounted for. But she hasn't met everyone from the Bat Family yet~ hehe!
I hope I got Colin's personality correct. I wasn't able to find a whole lot of comics with him in them, let alone get a hold of them to actually read them. So yeah...mostly just made him the polite, adorable, little orphan boy.