Chapter 1: An Eventful Night
The raindrops fell down his face, the darkness coated his expression as he looked down on the city of Gotham, sitting over the edge of a roof and relishing in the silent yet deadly night Gotham had always offered.
The man sighed as he twirled a batarang with his fingers, his black outfit blending in perfectly with the dark night, the blue bat symbol that could vividly been seen the only indicator that he was there.
"Why do I have to be one out in this rain? "The man sighed as he watched the few cars that zoomed by below him, their headlights illuminating the dangerous roads of Gotham.
"Stop complaining and just keep an eye out." A voice came from an earpiece he was wearing, the man simply shook his head and wiped the raindrops off his mask, standing up and leaning over the roof to get a closer look at the bank he was told to keep an eye out.
"Look Bruce, you're not the one standing out here in the rain. I am." The man argued.
The voice behind the intercom ignored his comment, "Remember what I told you Nightwing. N-"
Before the voice could finish his sentence, the man cut him off midway, "Yeah I know. No personal identities when we are out on patrol. You happy, Batman?"
"No. Now keep an eye out." Batman replied as he stayed hidden within his batmobile, a few blocks away from the bank.
Nightwing looked on, minutes passed then hours as the two watched on, intel they received from Commissioner Gordon was that the joker was planning on hitting the bank tonight. The self-proclaimed "Prince of Crime" had been a foe the two heroes had to deal with countless times, tonight was no exception. Always escaping the two's grasps, time after time but tonight was going to be different, Nightwing thought as he made a promise to himself to end this cat and mouse chase once and for all.
Nightwing checked his clock, fifteen past one and still no sign of the Joker or any of his goons. He was about to call Bruce to call it a night before he heard a car around the corner, he watched as the black van stopped a few metres away from the bank. Masked men coming out of the van, masks with the iconic pale white skin and green hair painted on to it. Nightwing smiled.
"Hey Bruce. "
"How many times do I have to tell you not to us- "
"They're here."
Batman knew exactly what Nightwing meant and started approaching the bank, Nightwing also proceeding as he watched the five masked men come out of the van and began conversing with one another, although something seemed off about one particular masked individual. He was not like the others, Nightwing thought to himself. He soon labelled it as one of his many thoughts and approached the masked criminals.
"Sorry guys. Bank's closed if you need a loan, better try tomorrow."
Nightwing told them as he made his way behind the men, the men startled by Nightwing's sudden appearance, did not have much of a chance to react as Nightwing quickly dispatched of one of the five men by giving him a kick to the side of the neck, sending the man against the van and knocking him out cold. The other four masked individuals soon lept into action, taking out their firearms and taking aim. Nightwing smirked, holding his arms up.
"Can we talk about this? This might have been just a misunderstanding. "He laughed nervously and right before they could fire their weapons, Batman arrived from above, quickly incapacitating two of the four men and tackling another to the ground. The last masked criminal started running into the nearby alleyway, seeing that Batman was busy, Nightwing gave chase. The masked individual was fast, fast enough to keep NIghtwing to focus, climbing over the wall at the end of the alleyway and making their way up above on to the roofs. Jumping over buildings before reaching the end where the gaps between the two buildings was too wide to jump.
Nightwing followed close behind, breathing heavily and slightly winded. "You gave me quite the marathon. It's no use running, just give up already."
The masked individual was slender unlike the four other individuals Nightwing saw, he quickly took out his Escrima sticks and went into his stance.
"I don't want to do it, but I will if I have to do."
The voice from the masked individual was familiar, almost too familiar.
" There you go again. Trying to act cool again."
The masked individual removed the mask, Nightwing stared at the person behind the mask in shock and with wide eyes. That iconic white makeup, slowly dissolving due to the rain, the red lipstick and the black mask that covered the eyes.
"Didn't think I would see you here but then again, I should have." Nightwing positioned himself even more warily. "Good to see you again Harley Quinn."
Harley smiled at Nightwing, his tense posture and his sudden reaction to seeing her which made him bring his guard up only made the slightly mad accomplice of Joker laugh.
"OH LITTLE BATSY! You crack me up, if only you were not so tense. Then you would definitely be cuter."
Nightwing didn't reply, Harley Quinn was one of the closest or the closest person to the Joker and there was no way in hell he was going to let this chance slip up. He connected his two Escrima sticks, turning it into a staff and rushed Harley but before he could do anything of note, Harley smirked and threw something on to the ground, not long after, a bright light engulfed the area, temporarily blinding the vigilante as he clutched his face, stunned and desperately trying to regain his focus. When he came back to his senses, he felt a sudden pain across his cheek, only to see Harley whack him across the face with her signature hammer, only god knows where she kept that thing, but damn did it hurt. Nightwing thought as he fell to his knees and backed away.
"That's punishment for getting in our way for tonight." Harley told the know bleeding Nightwing, blood coming out from his nose from the sudden blow from the hammer.
"Mister J isn't going to be happy with me again and this is all your fault!" She screamed at the masked vigilante.
"What is his plan, Harley?" Nightwing asked, still dazed from the hit from the unusually strong accomplice of the Joker.
"Nope that's only a secret for Mister J and me ~ !"
Before Nightwing could reply, an explosion could be heard, one that was big and strong enough to cause the whole city of Gotham to feel the rumble, the explosion which caused the woman in front of him to stagger and lose her footing, tripping on herself and falling backwards off the roof. Nightwing acted quickly and rushed forward, grabbing her by the arm just in the nick of time and holding on for dear life. Harley looked shellshocked and stunned from the sudden change in events, her heart was racing as she almost fell to her own death and a hero saving her.
"What the hell are you staring at!? Get yourself up here!" Nightwing shouted at the woman, breaking her out of her temporary trance. Pulling her up and sitting down, Nightiwng took a deep breath and let out a sigh.
"You okay, crazy?" Nightwing asked, the woman nodded and retracted her hammer and placed the now compact weapon on her hip. Nightwing smirked and went back to his usual serious mood. "So back to the explosion. What was that explosion about?"
Harley looked surprised by the vigilante's sudden question. She thought the explosion was his doing, but it seems she was wrong. Judging from the clueless look on Harley's face, Nightwing concluded that someone else was behind this, he looked on as the sky began to clear up and the red burning fire in the distant illuminated the once dark sky, the smoke engulfing the skies. He tapped his intercom.
"Batman you done? You seeing this shit." Before Nightwing could say anything else, a sudden voice joined the signal the two heroes were using.
"BATMAN, NIGHTWING ! There's trouble! We need your help evactuating people now! That explosion just caused a whole chuck of the city into chaos!"
Nightwing swore under his breath and looked back to Harley to find that she had disappeared, looking around to not see a sign of her. He sighed in disappointment and replied to the emergency voice that had joined their channel.
" Got it Barbs. The old man and I will get there as fast we can."
" Who the hell are you calling old man? "
Batman stood around the unconscious bodies of the masked robbers they were initially targeting, staring up at the smoke that rose from the explosion. He looked on and pondered,
who would have done this and for what reason? Until finally it clicked for the world's greatest detective, his panicked and stern voice echoed over the channel. Both Batgirl and Nightwing wincing before finally having a shocked and panicked look of their own.
" That explosion was at Arkham Asylum. "
Chapter 1 End
Writer's Notes
HI HI. It's been awhile since I've written a fanfic so I'm definitely rusty. Also english isn't my first language and I'm not really an experienced writer so any form of advice, criticism or anything you think of would be amazing ! Not really sure how I want to take this story going forward, I read an amazing fanfiction about Nightwing the other day and really wanted to write one just to satisfy my own need lol.