Dick Grayson
Starling City
Saturday, April 15th, 2009
"Think you can handle it for the night?" Green Arrow asks, winking at me cheerfully. Kid Flash and I nod enthusiastically, while Speedy crosses his arms over his chest.
"We can handle it, Ollie," he insists and his mentor nods. The Flash shrugs.
"I trust them to watch out for each other. I'm sure it's good for them to go off on their own for a little."
Everyone turns towards Batman, and I put on my best, "I can do this" face. It must work, because Batman says, "Alright. But be careful."
"We won't be more than a few hours. Don't stay out past one, and if you run into anything that you can't handle, do not engage. Call Clark if there's an emergency," Flash says, looking back and forth between me, KF and Speedy.
"We'll be fine," Kid Flash replies, trying not to whine.
"I'm serious. Literally just shout. We told him to keep his ear out," Flash adds.
"You guys trained us to be ready. You can trust us to be careful," I add convincingly, "Plus, we all have our communicators."
Finally, our mentors nod. As they turn to leave, Green Arrow looks back at us and grins.
"By the way," he calls cheekily, "If you destroy my city, you're all grounded."
We watch from the rooftop as the Batwing rises off the ground and shoots away, a dark streak in the night sky.
"You're so lucky that you're rich," Kid Flash says, "You guys get all the cool stuff."
"Yeah, I guess, but it stinks sometimes too. The parties are super boring and there's just so many of them. Speaking of which…" I spin around, pointing a finger at Speedy angrily, "You weren't even there last night! You left me there all alone! I had to deal with three hours of rich old hags poking at me and saying how 'wonderfully generous' Bruce is. And Mrs. Miriam kept trying to pinch me!"
Speedy shrugs, smirking evilly, "Sorry kid. I just had so much homework to do. Plus, Ollie owed me for catching that sniper he missed last week."
"You're an ass," I pout. Roy messes up my hair and smirks even wider.
"Like you didn't sneak off to watch tv as soon as Bruce turned around. And swearing doesn't make you sound cool."
Wally laughs, "Wow, Rob. Tough life you've got there."
I stick my tongue out at Roy and turn back to Wally.
"Yeah, we get some pretty cool gear. Bruce just made these new smoke pellets that gets filtered through the mask lenses so we can see through it."
"That's so cool! How does it work?"
Before I can respond, Speedy interrupts, "Are we just going to stand here and talk all night or are we going to go stop a bank robbery?"
He holds up the handheld police-scanner that Ollie modified to show crimes happening around the city. The scanner reads, "Bank robbery in-progress. 48 South George Street. Hostage situation. All units respond."
"That's only eight blocks from here," Speedy says, stowing it away, "I'll show you guys how to get there…"
"Race you!" Kid Flash interrupts, pulling his red goggles over his eyes and speeding away.
"Cheater!" I call after him, grabbing my grappling gun and jumping off the roof. I fire it towards the nearest building as I fall, and the line catches my weight as I swing forwards. I let out a cackle as wind whips around my head and my heart pulses with pure adrenaline. There's nothing as fun as flying through the air. I tuck and roll when I land on the next rooftop and reel in the grappling line. Without interrupting the movement, I break into a run and start to cross the cityscape. I jump over air-conditioning units and dive from building to building without missing a step.
Behind me, Speedy tries to follow my route, but he's having a much harder time making some of the longer jumps. I feel a rush of pride and speed up, trying to spot the yellow and red blur that is Kid Flash. About two minutes later, I see him running up the side of the building to get a better view. I land beside him and pull out my binoculars.
"I circled the block a few times to check for explosives, getaway cars or anything that might be a trap. It's clear."
"Good thinking," I look through the binoculars, trying to see through the bank's windows. Speedy lands behind us with a thud.
"There's six of them in there. I can't tell if they have hostages or not," I say before Speedy reaches for the binoculars.
"Let me see," he insists, but Kid Flash is faster and grabs it out of my hands.
"I only see five," he says, staring through the lenses in deep concentration. Speedy growls in annoyance and pulls the binoculars away. He studies the interior of the bank.
"Rob is right. There's six; one by the main entrance, four in the center and one in the back. There's someone tied up in the back, maybe multiple people. We have to be careful."
I snort; Speedy lives for excitement, and even Ollie thinks he's too reckless. How did he say that with a straight face?
"So what's the plan?" Kid Flash asks. Speedy takes another look through the binoculars.
"If we get the doors open, how fast can you disarm the guns?" Speedy asks and Kid Flash thinks.
"I can disarm them all in three seconds."
I shake my head, "That's not fast enough. The average trigger reflex is faster than a quarter of a second. There's too high of a chance that someone will get hurt."
"Rob, how good is your aim?"
"How good is yours?" I shoot back, insulted.
"I'm serious. Can you jam the barrel on the first try?"
"I can knock it out of their hands with one shot."
Speedy nods.
"Alright. We have to move fast. I'm going to draw out the guy in front. As soon as I do, KF, you disarm the guy on the hostages and take him out. Rob, you take out the left two. I'll get the right two. Make sure you disarm them before they have a chance to shoot. We can't risk anyone getting hurt."
"Got it," I nod, and KF does the same.
"On my mark," Speedy instructs. Kid Flash pulls his red goggles over his eyes and I pull out two batarangs.
"Ready," we say in unison.
"Good. Let's move."
"Tuck your knees in and follow your weight. It's easy!" I exclaim, leaning over the edge of the building. The next rooftop is maybe eight feet below, so it's a perfect spot for Wally to try a flip.
"If he misses, we're going to have to clean speedster pancake off the ground," Roy snips, wiping dirt off his bow.
"He won't miss! It's so easy."
"Uh, actually I might be with Roy on this one," Wally interjects sheepishly.
"What? KF, don't be a wimp."
"I'm not a wimp!"
"Could'a fooled me."
"Hey, did you see me earlier? That guy waved a machine gun in my face and I didn't even flinch."
"That's because you were moving faster than he was."
"Yeah, but he still could have shot me."
"Ugh, will you two shut up?" Roy complains, leaning his chin on his bow, "Let's go find something else to do. I'm bored."
"What kind of crime happens in Starling City anyways?" Wally asks, sitting against the building's partition with his legs outstretched. He's tossing bits of gravel in the air absentmindedly, and the small bits of rock are moving so fast that smoke is starting to rise off them.
"There's some gang activity, robberies, a few super-powered crazies and a surprisingly large number of assassins. I don't know what it is, but assassins love this city," Roy answers, staring over the cityscape.
"You're lucky. We just get a ton of psychos who are bent on world destruction. Also, there's a lot of theme villains," I chime in.
"Central City gets a lot of theme villains," Wally responds, "But they don't really care about world domination that much. They care more about stealing stuff and causing trouble."
"Metropolis probably has the weirdest villains, though. Aside from Luthor, Superman has to deal with the wackiest people. Like Toyman or Mr. Mxyzptlk," Roy adds, looking over his police scanner for anything to do.
"Yeah, I'm glad Supes is the one to deal with him," I snort and they both stare at me.
"Supes?" Roy repeats incredulously.
"Superman is just too long to say all the time. I figured it's easier to shorten it."
"Yeah, but Supes? Really?" Wally asks. I stick out my tongue and shove him.
"You're a weird kid, Grayson," Roy shakes his head. He leans back on his hands and lets his head loll backwards, "This is so boring! Why isn't anything happening?"
Wally jumps up and covers Roy's mouth with his hands.
"Don't say that!" he exclaims as Roy pushes his hands away, spitting.
"Don't tell me what to do!"
"You just jinxed us. Now, every baddie in the city is going to come after us tonight!"
"Don't be so dramatic."
Ollie's police scanner lights up. The three of us look down eagerly.
"What is it?"
"There's a break in at the museum."
"I bet it's the special exhibit!" I say eagerly.
"What exhibit?" Wally asks.
"A team of archaeologists in the Himalayas uncovered this ancient monastery library filled with these ancient spiritual texts about life and reincarnation."
"Oh!" Roy nods, "That must be why Ollie paid so much to that Mongolian research team."
"We've got to check it out!" Wally grins, vibrating with excitement.
"Do you think we should call the League?" I ask, "If Ollie paid for the exhibit, he might have been setting a trap. He'll probably want to know about this."
Roy shrugs dismissively, "If he's trying to set a trap, then he'll be watching the museum too."
"So it's settled!" Kid Flash cheers, lowering his googles over his eyes, "Rob, hop on!"
I climb on to Kid Flash's back, hooking my arms around his shoulders.
"Let's go stop a robbery!"
"Okay, maybe you weren't being dramatic…" Speedy says exactly twenty-six minutes and forty-one seconds later as the crowd of assassin thieves closes in on us.
"I got the left!" I quip, pulling out a smoke pellet and disappearing into the cloud of gas.
"I'll take the right!" Wally responds quickly before zooming into the forwards against his attackers. Roy grumbles something about the middle, but it's hard to hear him in the middle of all the yelling and punching. I throw batarang after batarang, punching, kicking and flipping with precision. For a bunch of highly trained assassins, they're honestly pretty easy to knock out.
"Rob, behind you!" Wally shouts. I drop to the ground and Roy's bolo arrow wraps tightly around the last assassin's arms. I do a spin kick on the ground, knocking their legs out from under them.
"Nice one, Speedy!" I cheer. Then I dive out of the way of a sword… and the guy holding it.
"Does anyone have eyes on the package?" Speedy shouts. I look at the display case, and the backpack stuffed with priceless documents is gone. I flip backwards to avoid Mr. Sword's sword and then I spot an assassin with the backpack making a break for it.
"There!" I point.
"He's getting away!" Kid Flash shouts, cornered by three other assassins.
"Robin, go!" Speedy orders, shooting a net arrow at the assassin trying to turn me into a Robin-kebab.
"I got it!" I pull out my grappling hook and shoot up onto a low roof. I follow the assassin's path from above, diving from rooftop to rooftop and swinging across wide gaps between taller buildings. The assassin ducks into alleys and over dumpsters, climbing over chain-link fences with impressive speed. I'm still moving a lot quicker than he is. Suddenly, he looks up at me and throws a shuriken that almost cuts my ear off. When I look down, he's gone.
"No!" I jump off the roof and swing off a light post, landing softly in the alley.
Where did he go?
There's a thump that sounds like something heavy hitting the ground. It's coming from the window on the right-hand wall. The window pane is lying on the ground, cracked in three giant shards. I grin before taking two running steps and diving through the window, rolling smoothly when I hit the ground on the other side.
Uh-oh.
I freeze. The assassin is slumped in a pile on the ground, unconscious but clearly still breathing. Standing over him… Slade throws me the backpack filled with the stolen texts.
"Looking for these?"
I catch the backpack on pure reflex. My head is spinning and my brain stalls.
"What are you doing here?"
"I told you I would be in touch," Slade responds, "We need to go over the details of our arrangement."
"Uh… this really isn't a good time…" I start nervously, trying to edge my way towards the window.
"This won't take long," Slade promises. He stares down at me, crossing his arms sternly, "Unless you don't intend to uphold your part of the bargain."
"No. I… I do. It's just…"
Kid Flash and Speedy are waiting for me. I'm in uniform. I hoped Slade forgot. Part of me thought none of it was real. But it was. And I promised. I inhale, shaking my head to jump-start my brain before meeting Slade's gaze.
"Okay. What are they?"
"We will meet once every three weeks. I have acquired a property in the southern part of Gotham that we will use for immediate future. You will make your way there by seven o'clock. If transportation is an issue at any point, send me a message and I will provide something for you. We will meet for three hours unless I tell you otherwise. I will tell you the next date every time we meet, but to remind you I will send a message on your phone. I have a burner phone specifically for this purpose. It cannot be traced back to me, nor can it be tracked. You can use this number if you need to reach me in an emergency. If you have any conflicts and absolutely cannot make it, tell me with as much advance notice as possible, but I expect you to make every effort to show up. Do you understand?"
I nod.
"Discretion will be essential for both of us. The less contact we have with each other, the less likely it is that anyone will get suspicious."
I nod again. Less contact sounds good.
"I will text you the address from the burner phone. Be at the garage by seven o'clock next Wednesday night. Do you understand?"
I don't patrol on Wednesdays. How did he know that?
"Yes."
"Good. Now I believe you have some stolen property to return."
When I look up, the warehouse is empty. All that's left is the unconscious assassin against the wall, the backpack in my hands, and the taste of dust in my mouth. My mind is racing as I manage to make my way back across the rooftops to the museum by muscle memory alone.
"Nice work, Rob!" Wally cheers, thumping me on the back when I pass the backpack to Roy.
"Thanks," I mutter, trying to smile back at him but it doesn't really work. What did I get myself into?