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Initiate Nightfall Protocol
Dick Grayson lays on the couch flipping through the channels aimlessly. He's currently wearing a black bear onesie. The reason being because Bruce loved the cold air and would leave his house at freezing temperatures.
The front door opens and he can hear the sound of a woman's voice. It's not Dianas's, not Selina's and certainly not Barbra's either. He assumed Bruce took some supermodel with him to his birthday. He gets up and makes his way over to see who it is. Truth be told Dick never cared who Bruce brought over to the house, it was always something that happened. But after Diana, the random women stopped coming, so it was surprising to hear the voice of another woman.
He enters the dining room and sees a beautiful woman with silver hair smiling beautifully at Bruce. Dick was astounded, he had seen many beautiful woman before but this woman was beyond beautiful. But it wasn't just her beauty that astounded him. Rather it was her smile. Most women smiled flirtatious with Bruce, they wanted his money of course. But this woman's smile seemed genuine. The woman looks at Dick, still smiling she says something but Dick couldn't hear it. She looks at him with confusion and says something again.
"Wh-what?" Dick asked dumbly while blinking rapidly confused.
Alfred gives Dick an annoyed look. "Over eight years of education and the only word you could muster was, "what?"".
Dick looks at him in confusion but then realizes what just happened. He got caught up in his own thoughts. Dick blushes red from embarrassment. He felt like he was a kid with a school yard crush. He hadn't felt this way since Starfire kissed him for the first time.
Silver chuckles at Dick's expression and introduces herself again. "Hello, my name is St. Silver Cloud. But please, just call me Silver." She says while stretching out her arm for him to shake.
Dick shakes out of his initial awkwardness and reaches for her hand. "Hey, I'm Dick Grayson," he says while shaking her hand.
"Ah, so your the first son of Bruce then. Must've been hard for you." She says while giving him a teasing smile.
Dick returns her smile and responds, "you have no idea".
Bruce smiles at the sight of them and steps in. "Oh come on, you making me sound like I'm the evil stepmother."
"More like the overprotective father," Dick clarifies while smirking.
Silver laughs and nods in agreement. "A perfect description of him,"
Bruce looks back to Alfred for help, only for Alfred to simply nod in confirmation. Bruce sighs as he's attacked from all angles.
Dick and Silver laugh at his expression.
Alfred looks at everyone's expressions. Everyone was smiling…everyone was laughing… everyone's was happy. His face turns solemn.
For so long Bruce was angry, for so long there was a great darkness over this house. When Dick arrived a little bit light shone through. The same about Barbra, Jason, Tim, and Cassandra. With the arrival of his children more light began shining through the darkness, until the Joker. The Joker took away one of his children, Jason, and after that he was never the same. He became harsher, more ruthless and more angrier. His changed attitude made his children look at him with another expression, and one by one they left him. Until finally he was alone with Alfred. But then, like lightning Diana came into his life. She brought forth a light so bright with her that it broke through his darkness or so everyone thought. His contingency plans on the Justice League strained his relationship with them, especially with Diana.
Silver looked at Alfred's expression with her very own worried expression. She looked back to Dick who was still laughing away unaware of what was happening with Alfred. "Dick?"
Dick stops laughing and turns to Silver.
"Do you think you can find some baby pictures of Bruce? I would love to see him as a little angry baby." She says with a smile.
Dick gives her a big smile and runs off to find some photos of young Bruce.
Silver then turns to Alfred and walks over to him. She grabs his hands and holds them up. "What's wrong Alfred?" She asked with warmth in her voice.
Alfred gives her a smile and shakes his head. "Nothing, Miss Cloud. I'm quite alright I assure you. But thank you for your concern. I'd be more worried about Master Bruce, he always seems to get himself into all sorts of trouble. That hasn't changed since he was a child,". He finishes still smiling.
Silver gives him a knowing smile and then turns to Bruce. The source of Alfred's concern. "Bruce,"
Bruce turns his gaze from the pair, he can't look at them in the eyes.
Silver walks up to him and grasps his face gently. Bruce unconsciously leans into her palm. "Bruce, tell me what happened,".
Bruce closes his eyes before finally opening them and staring back into Silver's eyes. He begins to explain what happened. He tells her everything, he tells her when he created the contingency plans, when he began studying his team members and how his plans nearly killed them. He tells her of his relationship with Diana, when they started dating, and how their relationship is now strained. He tells her of his resignation from the Justice League. And finally, he tells her of his genuine love for Diana.
Silver gives Bruce a sympathetic smile, 'Bruce, you've never been good with expressing your emotions. You opening up this much is a surprise, but a welcome one.' She thinks to herself. "Bruce, dealing with women has never been your specialty."
Bruce smiles into her hand, knowing full well the truth behind her words.
"Have you explained yourself?"
"I did explain myself to them,"
"To them, but not to her. Bruce, you need to explain yourself to her and to her alone. Not to the group. And don't be your usual intimidating cold hearted self. Don't go to her as the Bat, but as the man." She moves her hand from his face to his heart. "You're a good man Bruce, whether you like admit it or not. Bruce isn't the mask, but neither is the Bat. They both are an extension of yourself. They both are who you are. Your not just some hardened masked vigilante. You're also a man who cares, a man who can sympathize with the people who need help," she moves her hands to his head and brings him closer to her lips. She kisses his forehead affectionately. "You are more than just Justice, you are hope. Remember that Bruce," With those words she leaves with Alfred showing her out. Alfred had already taken the liberty of calling Silver a cab when they arrived at the manor.
Bruce is left alone with her words and his thoughts. For so long he believed he was vengeance, but his vengeance turned into justice. He was the Bat nothing more, and Bruce Wayne was the mask. Not once did he believe otherwise, until Silver came into his life. Silver showed him along time ago a life outside the Bat. A life where he could do good without the need of having to wear a mask. And now, once more she's showing them way. The way outside of fighting crime with fist, but rather with his heart.
He breathes in and out, calming his heart.
"She's rather something isn't she?" Dick says while leaning against the doorway.
Bruce turns to him with a smirk, "you have no idea."
With that they both turn in for the night.
Elsewhere, evil is scheming in the darkness of night.
Cobblepot walks back and forth, he's talking with someone over the phone. The man does not sound please.
"The weapons I bought from you have been confiscated?" The man questioned with a voice radiating authority.
"Uhm, well no sir you see… we have a bit of a bird problem over here. Nothing we can't handle I assure you!" He adds quickly while nervously bitting his teeth.
The voice on the other end doesn't say anything. Until finally the man chuckles, "If that were the case then why are my guns currently under the custody of the GCPD?"
Cobblepot stumbles over his words, unable to find an answer for his question.
"It would seem I will have to step in after all."
"NO!" Cobblepot shouts before covering his mouth after realizing what he just shouted.
"No?" The man questions.
Cobblepot shakes his head aggressively trying to regain his cool. "Please just give me one more chance, I promise I'll make it right,".
There is no answer, it's silent. Deathly silent. Until finally, "Very well, but under one condition."
"Yes sir, anything sir!".
"Bring me the head of the bird that's driving my guns to ashes." With that he hangs up the phone leaving a stressed penguin alone with his thoughts and men.
Cobblepot in rage smashes the phone to bits. "Arrgghhhhhhhh! That son of a bitch! Who the hell does he think he is!"
The men try to calm his down.
"Calm down sir"
"Yeah don't worry boss, we'll get those guns!"
"Hell yeah,"
"The guns aren't the problem boys," Cobblepot explains. "The problem is that fucking BIRD!" He yells referring to Nightwing.
The men rub their heads not knowing what to say.
"I want double no triple the men on every warehouse from now on! We're going to kill this son a bitch no matter what it takes! Place men in every nearby building near every warehouse. If one gets attacked everyone is to stop what they're doing and rush over. Am I understood!" Cobblepot orders.
"Yes sir!"
"Then get of here, guard those guns with your life's!"
The men quickly leave the warehouse and start heading to their respective locations. Cobblepot follows them out slowly, taking a puff from his cigarette. 'I'm going to gut that arrogant bastard,' he thinks to himself while remembering the cocky smile Nightwing had on his face.
It's morning, Wayne Manor is especially quite nearly all the time. Bruce sat at the dinner table drinking a coffee. He was always an early riser. Never did sleep in, well not counting his early days as Batman when he first started out. When he first started his crusade he would often sleep in. But as the months passed by he required less sleep until finally he needed only four hours of sleep to be fully functional.
Dick drags his feet over to the dinner table, still wearing his onesie. Of course not everyone in the family was like this. Dick takes his seat and places his head over the table with his eyes close. It's clear that he's tired from last nights late event.
Tim also enters the dinning room table returning from his investigation from last night. He wasn't as tired as Dick was. He was like Bruce in that regard, they both were used to late nights.
Finally Cassandra also makes her way to the dinner table. If anyone was similar to Bruce it was Cassandra Cain. Daughter of one of the most dangerous assassins in the world, Lady Shiva. Cassandra was by no means a stranger to late nights, nor was she a stranger to martial arts. It's best not underestimate her because of her gender.
Alfred enters the room and places plates of food for everyone to eat. He gives everyone except Tim coffee. Tim's been banned from Coffee, after his staying up for a whole week trying to solve a case. Alfred found him twitching and muttering to himself while writing all over the walks with chalk. Alfred left him orange juice.
He walks over to Bruce and hands him the morning newspaper with a smirk.
Bruce takes the paper with a questioning gaze before looking at the cover page. His eyes widen a bit, before he rolls his eyes annoyingly.
Tim looks to Bruce, "what's wrong?"
Bruce refuses to answer. So Alfred takes the initiative.
"Master Bruce made the cover page today,". He says with a smile.
Tim is still confused, it's not like Bruce Wayne never hit the cover page. So what was on the cover page that made him roll his eyes. "I still don't understand,"
Alfred still hasn't dropped his smile. "Well you see Master Tim, Bruce went to his birthday yesterday with one Silver St. Cloud. They both made the cover page." He explains.
"Cloud? Whose that?" Tim asked.
"Our birth mother Tim, our birth mother." Dick says exaggerating.
Tim gives him an annoyed look. "Well, so nice of you to join us Dick. Did I miss the pajama party yesterday?"
Dick smirks, "say whatever you want but the point is, is that I'm comfortable." He says while hugging himself.
Cassandra doesn't participate in the conversation but enjoys the bickering in silence.
"Miss Cloud is an old time friend on Master Bruce's." Alfred explains.
"But what's the problem?" Tim asked.
Cassandra takes this opportunity to turn the television on.
"Breaking news, I'm Anna Jackson bringing you today's morning news here at GNN. Last night, GCPD stormed a warehouse where they found crates of guns. They apprehended three men, however so far none of them have begun talking. In other news the crown prince of Gotham City made his appearance last night at the Ice Berg lounge. That's right folks, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne made his public appearance." A picture of Bruce Wayne appears on the screen.
"I hate that you're able to look good no matter what angle they get of you." Dick says while eating his breakfast.
"Jealous Dick?" Tim asked smirking.
"Ha! As if, not all of us inherited Bruce's good looks," Dick says while fluttering his eye lashes at Tim.
Tim glares at him, but then looks back to the television.
"But that's not all, Bruce Wayne has been seen with a lot of women over the years, ranging from Supermodels, to actresses and even heroines, but for the first time he has been seen with one Silver St. Cloud,". The news anchor woman says.
The screen shifts to a picture taken of Silver kissing Bruce on the cheek. Tim and Dick spit out their drinks at the screen. They both then turn to Bruce for confirmation. He ignores them and flips the newspaper to the next page.
His silence answers their questions, however not all of them.
"Wait a second I thought you were dating Wonder Woman!" Tim questioned.
"You didn't tell me she kissed you!" Dick exclaimed.
"Can you pass the salt?" Cassandra asks.
Bruce passes her the salt, Cassandra nods in gratification. "Wonder Woman and I are currently not in a relationship and I didn't tell you because I forgot the part where you were my chaperone," he answers before taking the final sip of his coffee. He gets up and starts to leave the dinning room. "I'll be gone for a while, Cassandra I want you to come with me. Get dressed we'll be heading out soon."
Cassandra nods her head and finishes her breakfast.
Tim and Dick stare at each other before looking at Bruce. "And the rest of us? Why does Cassandra get to go, wherever it is you're going?" Dick asks.
"Cassandra brought in Zsasz last night and you still have work to do, find out the locations of the warehouses and begin taking them down one by one. Tim, keep investigating the victims bodies. I want that murderer found." He says before leaving the room.
Cassandra finishes her plate of food and then stands up also leaving the room.
Tim and Dick watch her carefully as she leaves the room. She nears the exit but before she leaves the room she turns to the other two males and sticks her tongue out at them before finally rushing out.
Both Tim and Dick slam the table and stand up. "Hey!" They both yelled as she ran out. "Alfred!"
"Why are you yelling I'm right here,"
"Cassy stuck her tongue out at me," Dick whines.
Alfred rolls his eyes and starts to leave the room carrying both Bruce's and Cassandras Dishes. "Yes well, I'm sure we'll never ever hear the end of that,". He says as he leaves the room leaving the two brothers.
The two brothers make eye contact and nod at one another. "I'll call Bab's," Dick says.
"I'll get the car," Tim says while they both rush to their respective rooms.
Five minutes earlier
Over in the watchtower the Flash is racing back and forth carrying lots of food over to the table for him to eat. Both Wonder Woman and Martian Man Hunter watch in amusement. Finally the Flash stops and sits down with them and starts eating.
The three of them enjoy their breakfast while watching the morning news. Suddenly some of the news anchors begin talking about one billionaire playboy, Bruce Wayne.
Flash watches with interest and Martian watches passively focusing on all the monitors. Diana though, tries not to pay attention but can't help but focus her attention at the mention of Bruce.
"The crown prince of Gotham City made his appearance last night at the Ice Berg lounge. That's right folks, billionaire playboy Bruce Wayne made his public appearance." The news anchor said.
Flash looks at the screen with an annoyed expression. "I don't get it, what do they see in that guy? Sure he's good looking, sure he's rich and sure he carries that mysterious aura around him. But I mean so do I, I'm wearing a mask for Christ's sake. That's pretty mysterious right?"
"Do you go to your dates wearing your costume?" J'onn asked.
"No! I mean, maybe. Sometimes I do." He answers. "The chicks dig it."
"I'm sure they do,".
"But that's not all, Bruce Wayne has been seen with a lot of women over the years, ranging from Supermodels, to actresses and even heroines". The anchor adds.
"Seriously? Heroines? Well there's no way our Wonder Woman will ever fall for his looks right Diana… Diana?" Flash looks over to see her focused on the screen.
"And for the first time, he has been seen with Silver St. Cloud,". The screen shifts to a picture taken of Silver kissing Bruce on the cheek.
*Crack
Both J'onn and Flash turn their gaze from the screen to Diana. They look down at the table to see it cracked and broken. Looking at Diana they see a very angry expression written on her face.
'That son of a bat eared wearing bastard! Not even a day! Not even a day and he automatically finds himself a new fling! Unbelievable! The nerve of him to do this!' She thinks to herself while glaring at the photo in front of her. Without finishing her food she gets up quickly and leaves.
"Umm Diana?…. Where you going?" Flash asks however he receives no response from the Amazon warrior.
Both men wait a while for a response or something but hear nothing.
"Was it something I said?" Flash asks turning to J'onn for help.
J'onn looks at Flash's concerned face and answers "No." He becomes transparent and floats down out of sight leaving his food.
"H-hey! Wait up!" Flash runs off chasing after the pair. He comes back and quickly eats all of his food and the food they left behind.
Diana storms to the teleporter but is stopped by J'onn who appears in front of her.
"Diana, I understand that this must be a difficult time for you. But perhaps seeing him right now might not be the best thing to do currently."
"Out of the way J'onn, that little man has it coming to him," she says still angry.
"Has what coming?" He motions to her closed fist. "A beating? You know we don't do that Diana."
"I know! But," she grabs her hair. "That man has left me confused and angry about everything!".
"I know, but if you go to him now, like this. You may end up hearing more lies and will end up further from the truth."
Diana breathes in a out, she sighs to herself. "What do I do J'onn? I don't want to see him right now, but I want to know what he's thinking. I want to know the truth."
J'onn begins to think to himself, he was trying to think of anything that could help his friend. But truth be told he had little experience in matters like this. He never had to deal with this type of situation back on Mars. He was married and had children but never not once did he experience what Diana is currently experiencing. Suddenly he remembered something. Wayne always held charity events and as luck would have it, a charity event was coming soon with the Justice League being invited.
"The charity event," he says.
Diana looks at him in confusion.
"He never misses his charity events. At least if we base it on his track records, he hasn't missed a single one yet."
"Yes but those are invitations only."
"It just so happens that the Justice League has been invited." He says with a small smile.
Diana widens her eyes and then smiles as well.
"Of course we can't all attend the event, originally only two of us were going to attend. Superman being one of them and Hawk Girl being the other. Batman's orders of course." He explains.
Diana was hurt that Bruce didn't want her to show up at the event but shook it off. "I want to go,".
J'onn nods his head in understanding. "The event won't take place anytime soon Diana, Wayne has decided to host the event on December 24. That's a little over three months away."
"That's fine J'onn, thank you for this." She says smiling up at him.
J'onn returns her smile. "Have fun over there,"
Suddenly the Flash comes zooming in creating a gust of wind. "Have fine where!? Who's having fun!?"
Diana looks at Flash smiling, suddenly she had an idea. "Hey flash,"
Flash stares at Diana. "How do you feel about Charity events?" She asked while smiling with a mischievous glint in her eye.
Back with Bruce and Cassandra they both enter the main building of Wayne Enterprises. They enter the elevator and begin going up to his main office. Exiting the elevator they pass his receptionist and enter the room. There already was Lucius Fox.
"Good morning Mr. Wayne," Lucius greets while walking over to him. He shakes his hand and greets Cassandra as well. "Morning to you as well Ms. Cain."
Cain nods her head.
"So what can I do for you this morning. I don't suppose this is a social visit?"
"No, I came here for a suit,".
"Hmm your suit won't be ready for a while, perhaps you'd like to take one of the new ones out instead, it's high time they got some air."
"The suit isn't for me, it's for Cassandra." Bruce explains.
"Ah I see," Fox heads to the computer and shows them some of the suits in development. "First suit we have here is the Insider Suit. The suit has heat vision, a camouflage mode, and can allow you to travel at high speeds. Perfect for sneaking and startling your victims. It's also able to fly and teleport to locations however those are still in the testing stages. So for now it can only camouflage, run fast and produce heat vision."
"Have you incorporated the boom tubes?" Bruce asked.
"Yes as a matter of fact we've been making quite huge technological advancements because of it, however as per your request we've only used it as a reference. Not the source.". Fox confirms.
Cassandra looks at Bruce in confusion.
"Darkseid controls the mother boxes, I don't want him getting control of any of our technology here and then using it against us." Bruce explained to which she nodded in understanding.
"The next suit we have here is the Batwing suit. It has enhanced durability, speed, and strength, and it also comes with a jetpack. This suit was originally created to give Bruce here a leg up on his villains who prefer flying over walking. The suit won't do to well in tight places though." Fox explained.
Both Bruce and Cassandra nodded in agreement.
"The next suit we have here is the Stealth suit. It comes with nearly a full stealth capability and with intense full-body armor. I doubt even the man of steel will be able to spot you." Fox says with pride.
Fox shows all three armor sets side by side. "So, have any favorites?" Bruce and Fox look at Cassandra waiting for her response.
Cassandra looks at the suits and is impressed with them, but truth be told she didn't need a suit to help her be more stealthy and to be honest she didn't feel the need to fly either. She looks to Fox and shakes her head.
Fox smiles at her response, "Like father like daughter. I thought you might say that, which is why I took the liberty of improving your day to day or rather night to night suit." He presses a button and reveals a secret closet and out comes her new suit. Her suit looked exactly the same only this time, her utility belt was black and not yellow making her suit quite literally all black.
Cassandra walks over to the suit and touches it. It felt smooth.
"The suit is lighter than the one your currently going out with. Not to worry though the suit will still be able to stop knives and bullets, however if you take to many shots it'll go straight through like paper. Although I've never had to worry about you being shot before." He says with a smile. "You'll be able to move faster with this suit, so with your added skills you shouldn't have to worry about being shot." He walks over to her. "So? What do you think?"
Cassandra turns to him and smiles, "I'll take it."
"Perfect," Lucius packs it away in a briefcase and hands it over to her. He then turns to Bruce "and now for you Mr. Wayne don't think I've forgotten about you just yet. Your suit isn't ready yet, still adding the finishing touches but it should be ready soon for you."
"Thank you Lucius, and how about the suits for Dick and Tim?"
"Suits are ready and have been sent to Alfred. He'll take care of them." He says with a smile.
"Thank you Lucius." He says before giving him a hug and begins to leave the room with Cassandra following after him.
"Oh! I've also sent the request to begin building in the jungle. They've responded with a yes. Fox adds. "I'll let Mr. Luthor know we've got permission. I'll talk with him about the prices and all those miscellaneous tasks you deem unworthy of your time." He says playfully.
"Perfect, you are the best Lucius".
"Ha! One of us has to run this company." He jokingly says.
Bruce and Cassandra wave him goodbye and leave the room.
"Those two are far too similar. One might actually believed they are blood related." Lucius says with a smile.
Bruce and Cassandra enter the car again, once they enter Alfred starts up the car and leaves.
Cassandra looks to Bruce, "where to now?"
Bruce's face turns serious, "Arkham,".
Luthor stares out the window of Lex Corp. He stares intently at the Daily Planet, watching, waiting for Superman to go rushing in to save little Ms. Lois Lane.
His phone begins to ring. He pulls it out of his pocket and brings it to his ear. He answers the phone and says, "Hello?… Ah Mr. Fox, how may I help you this morning?….I see, so they've approved the expedition?….Perfect" Lex turns and walks over to the wall on his right. "Mhm, I see. Not to worry I fully intend on paying for everything…" He places his hand over the wall causing it to glow and open. "Not to worry, I'm not concerned with unknown poisonous plant life…" A canister comes out of the wall, it's filled with a green liquid and a person. "Why you ask?…Let's just say I've got my own poison."
The canister is revealed to contain one beautiful woman, she's unconscious and naked. Her green skin and her red hair, there could be no room for doubt. It was indeed Poison Ivy.
A/N: Alright Chapter 2 down. Let me know your thoughts on everything, let me know if you hated this chapter or loved it. And without further ado I'll see you all later, bye for now.
