Dick Grayson

Chapter 22

Night Out (Part 8 of 10)

The air is cold and the streets are calm. A rare occurrence for a city of darkness. The sounds of cars swooshing by could be heard in the distance as a hooded boy reaches the streets of Gotham City.

"If I can remember…they lived somewhere near the slums."

I quickly rush to a building and begin scaling it as quickly as I can. I reach the roof top in a matter of .minutes. Once there, I notice a statue in the distance and begin racing towards it. Time fades me by and I reach the beacon. I stop and look down. Across the street, I can see through a window of the girl of my dreams. I pull out a hook and a line from my pockets and lasso the rope to the building. Once attached, I pull and swing across. I soar though the open sky, feeling each moist droplet of air. I've forgotten what it felt like to be so free. This feeling inside me warms my heart, but the moment does not last long. I quickly slam into the wall and slowly descend to the window. Once there, I tap three times. I stand and I wait. Nothing happens. So I tap on the window another three times. This time it opens. Flowing red hair glistens outside of the window. A face slowly turns and reveals to be Barbara.

"pft. I thought I would never see you again."

She says as she places her elbows on the window edge and continues to look at me.

"Yeah…sorry about the other night. Batman…well he's not to keen on having the commissioners daughter fighting crime on his watch."

"oh but an orphan from the circus he's fine with?"

She smirked and shook her head.

"Look, I can kind of see what he was trying to say, but I'm a big girl and I can handle myself. I don't need anyone to tell me what to do."

"Good, because I could use your help with something."

I say as I lean down and sit on the ledge of where I was once standing.

"So the boy wonder needs an innocent girls help? Well I'm listening."

I lean in closer and nod my head.

"Yes. I need to scout Robinson Park. I have a sense that a really bad guy named Vandal Savage might be hanging out there."

Barbara raises an eye and shrugs.

"Why not tell the Bat about it?"

"That's just it. I did tell him, but he didn't approve of my idea of him being there. So I came to you to see if you wanted to join me in my adventure."

She nods and quickly grabs a hooded Jacket. She puts it in and jumps on the window ledge.

"A chance to do something that no one knows about. I like it."

She grabs my hand and pulls me down as she falls straight down.

"Ahh! Wha-"

Before I can say anything more, we land in an abandoned school bus that was filled with tarps and loads of stuffed animals. At the bottom was inflated beds. We quickly deflate them as we landed. However no harm came to us.

"Are you alright Dick?"

She says to me as she helps me get off the ground and guides me out of the bus.

"Yup….lets see about making it to the park now."

I pull my hand away from hers and we quickly give race down the darkened street of Gotham. As we ran through the streets, I would turn back to check on Barbara. Every glance I took, she would be giving off this smile towards me when she'd catch me look at her. All the while, my mind was thinking about what I would do when we reached the park.

After some time, we reached the park gates. They stood closed due to the lateness of the night. I kneel down and hold my hands up to my chest towards Barbara.

"Girls first."

She smirked and ran towards me. With one step on the palm of my hands she was able to propel herself at the top of the gate. As she situated herself on the top, she leans down with her arm hanging out to me. I quickly grab her hand and with all her strength she pulls me up enough for me to grab a hold of a piece of the gate to lift myself over. We sat on the edge for a moment together and with one quick nod to each other, we jump down in synch.

"Alright Dick. We made it, but what's your plan now?"

I look up for a quick second and point towards the ground.

"Based on some of the plans I saw earlier. There should be some caves under this park. To me it feels like this is the kind of place a rat might hide. Buuuuut, I'm not sure where any openings are…"

Before I could finish my sentence, I feel a light slap on the back of my head and I see Barbara's finger point to a well in the distance.

"Oh, I see. Well I guess that might be one way to find a cave."

She shakes her head and grabs my hand again.

"Well come on slow poke. Lets get on with it."

We rush to the well only to see that there was a thick metal covering the opening, along with a lock. I dig through my pockets and find a few paper clips. I pull them out and begin making them straight. Barbara on the other hand takes out a small knife and hands it to me.

"Ah right. I got this"

As soon as I have the knife I begin to work on the lock.

"Hmmm….I don't think it fits in that way Dick. You may want to try and push it harder and twist it a little."

"Hush, it's my first time ok….don't make me loose focus Barbara…."

I push it in and twist like she says and finally I sigh with relief. I finally got this to work in the end.

"See, nothing to it!"

I smirk and give the knife back to her. At the count of three we lift the metal off from the well and stare down.

"That's a dark and long way down Barb….who gets to go in first"

She shakes her head and places a hand over my shoulder.

"You know, maybe you should go down first this time. Besides this is your "mission" after all."

I let out a sigh as I place my hands on the edge of the well.

"Your lucky I'm not afraid of anything."

"Nothing you say! What a lie boy!"

Said a mysterious voice from behind us. Suddenly I feel something push me forward and Barbara also flings forward with me. We both yell as we free fall down. Time ceases from moving forward and the darkness within becomes stronger. At this moment all I can think of is Batman. How I wish he could John Wayne his way down here and save us like a bad ass…

Meanwhile at Wayne Manor…

Bruce sits in front of the fire place, enjoying a cup of tea with Alfred cleaning the shelves.

"Say Alfred…do you think we should check up on Dick? I feel like he's been really quiet for the last hour."

Alfred nods up and down.

"I assumed you already did Master Bruce."

Bruce braces himself to stand up, but as steadily as he got up, he sat back down and shook his head.

"No, I think he's fine. It's not like he's in any kind of danger right now. Besides, he should be sleeping anyway."

Alfred returns to dusting shelves and Bruce closes his eyes.

"As you wish Master Bruce…..As you wish."

To Be Continued…

...SNEAK PEAK...

Enter….SHAAAAAZAM!...bitches.

Soon.

End….