The sun had retired for the night and instead the moon took its place in the sky, watching over Bludhaven. Shining stars were scattered across the dark void above, only projecting enough light that you were able to see outlines of objects and buildings. The streetlamps placed sparingly along the sidewalks barely did anything to light up the city either. Which is why so many people stayed inside at night, it was just too dangerous. The criminals in Blud used the darkness to their advantage.
Dick Grayson's apartment wasn't anything special. He had the necessities. A working fridge, a bed, a tv, a kitchen table and a few decorations. But the main piece of the entire apartment was a large poster that was stuck on the wall in the living room. It had the words "The Flying Grayson's" written on it with a picture of three acrobats standing in front of a circus tent, one of the acrobats being considerably smaller than the rest. The child on the poster was Dick. The posters had been printed just before the tragic death of his parents. He kept that poster ever since in memory of them.
Though his apartment also held a few surprises. The major one being that there was a secret room behind one of the bookshelves in his bedroom. If you pulled out one of the cooking books off the shelf it would release a latch and allow the bookcase to swing out, revealing a hidden office. But it wasn't an office like Dr Quinzel had in Arkham. His office looked way more futuristic. It was filled with large monitors along the walls and high-tech equipment was everywhere you looked. The whole room had a blue hue inside it from all the lights coming from the screens. That and because Dick purposely programmed the lights to have a cooler tone since blue was his favourite colour.
In the centre of the room was a cylinder glass case that held a black Kevlar armoured suit. The suit had a blue stripe, running from one wrist, up the sleeve and along the chest before going back down the other sleeve. There was also a black domino mask that was hanging just above the suit by two thin wires. It was unmistakably Bludhaven's well known vigilantes costume, Nightwing. He was the equivalent of Gotham's Batman. And you guessed it, Dick Grayson was Nightwing. During the day he worked as a police officer and at night he further protected Bludhaven's citizens as Nightwing. So long story short, Dick rarely got a break.
Now was a perfect example of this. Just earlier today Dick was on duty as a police officer and now he was seated in his office, staring up at one of the monitors. On his screen was a picture of Arnold Etchison and a few graphic images of his victims. He may have told Harleen that the BPD required the files on Etchison, but that was a white lie. It was actually Nightwing that required the information. The Asylum was just more likely to give a police officer classified information then a vigilante. Afterall, being a vigilante was against the law. Just the city was smart enough not to act as even though they didn't want to admit it, they needed Nightwing.
"Where are you?" he mumbled. He weas wearing a pair of grey sweatpants and a blue shirt. His hair was damp which was a tell-tale sign that he had previously just gotten out of the shower. He was resting one of his elbows on his desk and was propping his head up with the placement of his hand on his jaw. "Lillian Porters was your latest victim… but why her?" he spoke to himself quietly.
But his train of thought was lost when his phoned sounded with a notification. He fished it out of his pocket and found a message from a number that he didn't have saved. The message read.
'Hey! It's Harleen, from Arkham. Sorry for messaging so late. I had to stay back following an incident. But I believe we have a dinner to plan?'
How could Dick forget? He asked Harleen Quinzel on a date. A toothy grin spread across his face and he immediately began to reply, momentarily pulling his focus away from the case he was working.
'Hello, Dr Quinzel! Are you okay? Was the 'incident' bad?'
He sent the message and continued working until there was another notification. He couldn't help but be a little worried for the female. He knew how dangerous it could be at Arkham Asylum, especially for a woman.
'Nothing I haven't handled before. Let's just say that my job can be very interesting sometimes'
'I know what you mean. Now about the dinner, I know this nice place down the main street. Are you free around 7 tomorrow? I'll finish work and swing by your place to pick you up!'
'7 is perfect. Is the place fancy? Should I dress nice?'
'A little. But don't stress yourself out too much just to impress me. You looked beautiful today'
'Thank you, Officer Grayson. My address is, ** ******** *****'
'See you then. Sleep well'
'You too' Harleen responded simply.
Dick thumbed up reacted her last message and made sure to save her number in his contacts. He put his phone aside and looked back up at the computer screen. He ran a hand through his hair before sighing, standing up. He still didn't have any leads on Abattoir so he might as well just head out on patrol and make himself somewhat useful. Dick wasn't usually one to just sit around anyways. He enjoyed keeping himself busy.
Soon enough Nightwing was out in the city, grappling his way through the sky. His jet-black hair blew in the wind as he threw himself from rooftop to rooftop. This was one of the main things Dick loved about being Nightwing, the freedom. Being able to jump off buildings and swing around was always thrilling. It reminded him of his childhood. When he was swinging around on the trapeze at the circus. As a child Dick always dreamed of flying. Unfortunately, he didn't have powers like Superman did, but his grappling gun gave him the closest feeling. Often Dick would dive off a tall building, gain some speed and just before he hit the ground, he'd shoot his hook and swing out, keeping the momentum. Admittedly, he was a bit of an adrenaline junkie.
Nightwing was only out for half an hour when a familiar voice came through the device that was in his ear. It was the voice of a ten-year-old. But it was the most mature ten-year-old in the entire world It was none other then Damian Wayne, aka Robin.
"Nightwing. I have arrived in Bludhaven as per Fathers request. We have obtained information that Two face and his imbeciles will be targeting the local bank. I have come to assist you" he spoke matter of factly.
Dick couldn't help but scoff and shake his head. Damian was probably his favourite brother. The two just had a special bond. He hummed slightly before speaking.
"I didn't need your help, Robin. Knowing Harvey, this should only take ten minutes" he chuckled.
"Batman insisted I come so I can ensure Two Face's men makes it back to Arkham Asylum. Father claims he doesn't need my help back in Gotham. He's working a Catwoman case" Robin stated, making Dick snort.
"Catwoman you say?" he laughed and rolled his eyes. Bruce was going to owe Dick for basically baby-sitting the young hero. "Alright kid, you can tag along. I'll meet you at the bank in 3 minutes" Nightwing said.
Within the next few minutes both Nightwing and Robin met on the building across from the bank. Robins cape flailed in the wind behind him. Nightwing always hated wearing a cape when he was Robin. It was heavy and made certain manoeuvres impossible. That was the first thing that he got rid of when he became Nightwing.
"Long time, no see" Dick chuckled and walked over to Damian, reaching out to gently ruffle his hair. Immediately that displeased the young boy and he took a step back to begin fixing his hair.
"Stay focused Nightwing. They are likely already inside" he mumbled as Dick just rolled his eyes and moved to the edge of the rooftop to peer over at the bank. He could notice the lights from flashlights through the windows. Thermal scans also proved that there was about 10 men inside, all carrying rifles.
"10 men. All armed. We should take a stealthy approach and pick off a few before taking down the rest. It would be suicide to take them all on at once" Dick stated as he turned around to look at Robin. But Robin had disappeared, already heading across to the bank. Dick just smiled and shook his head. "You really are your father's son" he mumbled to himself fondly.
Nightwing then just jumped off the building and moved around to the back of the bank, finding a ventilation shaft. The pried off the covering before climbing inside. Carefully the male moved through the shaft until he was in the main room, directly above the armed thugs. He noticed Robin who was already inside the room, crouched behind one of the desks. Thankfully half of the thugs were distracted, working on opening the heavy vault. This gave Nightwing and Robin a window to carefully take down the other half.
Robin ran up behind one of the thugs and kicked him in the back of the knees before reaching up, placing a gloved hand over the man's mouth, rendering the man into unconsciousness. He laid the thug on the ground and went to take down another. Nightwing dropped down into the room and followed suit, coming up behind two men, knocking their heads together forcefully and laying them down silently. All and all, the two made a really good team.
Simultaneously the men at the vault began to place explosives around the door, planning to blow the vault door clean off.
"Hurry up! God knows what the boss'll do to us if we take too long" one of the men said impatiently.
"Probably something along the same lines as what we will do" Nightwing said cockily, pulling his escrima sticks out from the holster he had on his back. He turned the power in them up, sparking some electricity from the ends of them just to get the thugs afraid. But Robin took a different approach. He just got straight to the point. He grabbed a batarang from his belt and threw it at the ground in the middle of them all. But it wasn't an ordinary batarang. It was an explosive one. Pressing a button on Robins belt the batarang immediately exploded, causing the men to all be thrown back. The guns fell free from their hands making them less of a threat. While they still had their guard down Nightwing jumped forward, ramming one of his sticks into one of the men's chest, electrocuting him. Robin wasn't far behind, getting a few hard punches in quick succession to knock another man out.
Before long Nightwing and Robin was standing in a room filled with unconscious thugs. Nightwing holstered his weapons as he heard sirens coming from outside. He saw and flashing of red and blue and hummed. "I think that's our cue to leave. Thanks for the fun" he smirked and looked down at the man laying on the ground. "Come on R… aaaand he's gone" Dick sighed, realising that Damian was once again one step ahead of him and had already left the scene.
Nightwing left the bank and began to head back to his apartment. It was getting late and he needed to at least get a few hours of sleep in before work tomorrow. He also had to get some sleep so he looked half decent for the date tomorrow. Dark semi-circles beneath his eyes wasn't an attractive look. And he didn't want to stay out and risk getting any noticeable bruises or wounds that some special effects makeup couldn't fix.