Hey guys. Please excuse any mistakes I may have made. Italics is personal thought and bold italics is electronic communication. I do not own DC Comics of any of their characters. Thanks to those who reviewed last chapter, please do so again. Sorry this chapter's kind of short. Thanks for reading and enjoy!
Last Time:
"He's currently based in a warehouse near the bay. The old Gotham Shipping storage." Tim answered.
"I'll be back." Richard said as he turned to leave.
"We can't let you go by yourself!" Tim yelled from behind him.
"What is he doing?" Jason asked.
"He's going to get himself killed, that's what!" Tim stressed.
"Uh…" Jason said intelligently.
"He's going to Deadshot to ask where Deathstroke is." Tim said with annoyance.
"That's a good idea." Jason said.
"Wha- No!" Tim said.
The two started arguing, but Dick couldn't hear them anymore. He was already near the front door with his jacket on.
Richard had navigated through the city to the warehouse Deadshot was currently using as his base. He had put the communicator back into his ear, just in case he needed help. Deciding to not alert the mercenary to his arrival, Richard got off his bike and hid it around a block away from the warehouse. Richard quickly but silently made his way towards the base. He stopped by a dirty window and peered in. He could make out two silhouettes and general traits. He could tell it was two men. One was sitting; he had light hair, almost white. He looked to be wearing all black. The one standing was talking very animatedly. He had brown hair and was wearing dark clothes. Richard heard the two men fighting, but their voices were muffled. Richard moved closer to listen in on what they were saying.
"-helping him!" A rough voice said.
"I'm not asking." A smoother voice replied.
The first one is definitely Floyd Lawton, but I don't know the second...It sounds familiar.
"Fuck you, Wintergreen. You can tell Slade to go fuck himself. I may be a mercenary, but I'm not working for my rival no matter the money." Lawton growled.
Richard's eyes widened in recognition. Wintergreen?! Deathstroke's associate.
"Your rival will pay generously." Wintergreen purred. "However, I don't think you're cut out for this."
Richard could tell that the room's temperature dropped at Wintergreen's sentence.
"What?" Lawton snarled.
"You're not good enough." Wintergreen stated.
"Oh, I'll show you who's not good enough." Lawton said with the clicking of a gun.
"If you can't sense the ear outside the window, then you're not good enough." Wintergreen said.
Richard cursed and ducked as the two men opened fire at the window Richard was near. The bullets shattered the glass as they flew over Richard. Some of the shards cut his jacket and nicked his hands and face. The bullets stopped. Footsteps came rushing towards the window. Richard drew his gun and aimed it at the window. He saw Floyd Lawton first.
"Don't move! Gotham Police!" He shouted.
"Fuck the police." Floyd growled and jumped through the broken window.
Richard squeezed off a shot, shooting the mercenary in the leg.
"That didn't get you very far, did it?" He snarked.
"No, but he's stupid and impulsive."
Richard peered inside the warehouse. Wintergreen had taken a seat and had a half-full wine glass in his hand. Classy.
"Wintergreen, I presume." Richard said.
"Nice to see you again, Richard. You've grown quite a bit." Wintergreen looked him up and down.
"Again?" Richard asked.
Wintergreen looked at him from over the rim of the wine glass.
"Don't remember?" He laughed. "I didn't think they'd go through with it."
"Go through with what?" Richard asked.
"That's not for me to tell." Wintergreen replied before standing.
"If you'll excuse me."
Richard jump inside.
"I can't let you leave. I need to know where Slade Wilson is." Richard stated.
Wintergreen looked at him from over his shoulder.
"I'm not sure you want to do this."
Richard reached inside his jacket and pulled out his escrima sticks.
"I'm sure."
Richard had never known a human could move as fast as Wintergreen did in that moment. The man lunged forward with a knife Richard hadn't seen him pull. Richard barely crossed his sticks in time to block the blade as it came for his neck. Richard's wide eyes made contact with Wintergreens bored, narrowed ones.
"I warned you." He said simply.
Wintergreen had mercy on Richard and made his defeat quick. Taking advantage of Richard's shock, he hooked his foot around Richard's ankle and yanked his leg out from under him. He stomped on the detective's chest, causing a few broken ribs. Richard gave a choked sound.
"Next time won't be as nice." He warned.
Wintergreen straightened his clothes before leaving Richard lying on the ground, wheezing. Richard painfully rolled over, coughing. He could hear Lawton laughing.
"No one fights Wintergreen, dumb ass." He said.
"Shut...up." Richard breathed.
Dick raised a hand to his ear and clicked the communicator.
"I fucked up." He said.
"Of course you did." Jason's voice replied.
"We're on our way." Tim cut in.
Richard painfully got up and stumbled over to Lawton, who was still clutching his wounded leg.
"Tell me where Deathstroke is and I won't throw you in jail." Dick said.
Floyd laughed.
"Why would I tell you?" He snarled.
Richard grinned.
"I may be a detective, but I'm from Bludhaven and I grew up in Gotham's foster care system." He said.
Lawton got serious real fast.
"Okay, okay, last time I heard, he was in Metropolis and going to Star." Lawton said.
Richard smiled.
"Thank you. You can go." He joked.
Lawton narrowed his eyes.
"Don't worry, I'll patch you up." Richard said.
As he finished that sentence, Red Hood, Robin, and Batman dropped down.
"Oh fu-" Lawton started.
"Hey, there's a child around." Richard chastised.
Robin glared at the two men before noticing Richard's labored breathing.
"Are you okay?" He asked.
"Fine, I need to patch Lawton up and let him go." He explained as he went up to Batman and pulled his belt off.
Richard played with a few compartments before finding stitch string, a needle, and tweezers.
"Here we are." He said as he dropped down to Lawton's leg. "This may hurt."
Richard gave no warning as he began digging around Lawton's leg for the bullet. He extracted it after a few seconds of Lawton trying not to jerk around and grunting in pain. Richard dropped the bullet onto the ground and began stitching the mercenary's leg. He heard Robin, Red Hood, and Batman have a quiet conversation before the two younger bats left. Batman stayed to watch over the detective. Richard finished stitching up the leg and patted Lawton's thigh.
"All good. Sorry for shooting you." Richard said with a smile.
Lawton looked at him.
"You just apologized for shooting me…" He said.
"Yes, I did." Richard replied.
"I was going to kill you." Lawton responded.
"But you didn't." Richard said with a smile.
"I like you, Kid." Lawton grinned and reached a hand up.
Richard helped the man to his feet and made sure he could walk okay, then let him go.
"So do I have you as a friend?" Richard said before Lawton walked too far away.
The mercenary looked over his shoulder then at Batman.
"Maybe. Take care of those ribs." Lawton said before continuing to hobble away.
Richard turned to Batman. Batman had a questioning look on his face.
"I got into a brief fight with Wintergreen...I may have some broken ribs." Richard said, sheepishly.
"Come on." Batman said and turned with a whoosh of his cape.
Richard followed him, dragging behind a little. They came up to an old telephone booth, Batman opened the door and nodded towards it. Richard looked at him with a raised eyebrow.
"Just get in." He said.
Richard made a noise and walked inside. Batman closed the door and Richard heard him messing around with something outside of the door.
"Don't freak out." Batman said loudly.
"What? Why would I-" Richard started.
A bright light cut him off and and Richard squeezed his eyes shut.
"Start walking forward!" Batman yelled.
Forward? There's just the damn wall! He waited a second
"Walk forward!" Batman commanded
Doing as the man said, Richard started walking and came out into the Batcave to greet Red Hood and Robin as Jason Todd and Tim Drake. They looked at him. Holy shit, I'm dizzy. He swayed where he stood. Jason laughed.
"That was me on the first ride too." He said.
Batman entered the Batcave in a bright light.
"Alfred!" Tim called.
The loyal butler came up and lead Richard to the medical table. He then told Richard to take his jacket and shirt off. Richard did as told. He heard gasps as his chest was revealed. The middle of his chest had a bootprint bruise on the center of his chest and heavy purple bruises were already forming around it.
"Shit, Grayson." Jason said.
"It doesn't hurt as bad as it looks." Richard assured.
"Really? 'Cause that shit looks bad." Jason doubted.
Richard hissed as Alfred poked and prodded at the bruises.
"Wintergreen did this?" Batman, now Bruce, asked.
"All by his lonesome." Richard confirmed.
He grinned. Alfred began wrapping Richard's chest.
"But guess who got Deathstroke's location."
"No way. You're practically heaving each breath and you're happy you got Deathstroke's location?!" Jason said.
"Well, yeah…" Richard responded.
"I'll give that to a Team and League co-op mission." Batman said.
Richard perked up causing Alfred to give him a warning glance. He relaxed.
"What? No, this is my deal. I'll handle it." Richard protested.
Silence filled the cave as the bats, including Alfred, had a silent conversation. Man, that's not fair. I want to know what's going on. Richard looked at the exchange, slightly annoyed. But it's pretty damn cool. They seemed to come to a conclusion as they all directed their attention to the detective.
"I don't like that…" Richard said uncomfortably.
The two younger bats smiled.
"I definitely don't like that." Richard said.
"How would you like that to be your first mission?" Bruce asked.
Richard took a moment to process what they were proposing.
"You want me, an inexperienced whatever you want to call this, to go on a mission with the Justice League and the mysterious Team to go catch Deathstroke." Richard cleared.
Bruce nodded.
"I'm not sure that's a good idea." Richard replied.
"Come on, Grayson. You'll be with the Justice League and the Team. You won't get hurt or anything." Red Hood reasoned.
"That's not why I'm hesitant. This is something personal...I'm not sure I want that many people getting involved with something that I'm not even sure of." Richard explained.
"So you're worried about people figuring things out before you?" Tim asked.
"That's such a Bruce thing to do." Jason commented.
"Look, I know you're trying to help, and I appreciate it, but maybe this should just stay between us." Richard said.
The bats looked at each other. They made a few gestures and Alfred finished wrapping and securing Richard's chest.
"Are you just saying that so you won't reveal that you feel that you won't be much help because of your ribs?" Alfred cut in, interrupting the bats silent conversation and getting their attention.
Richard didn't respond.
"Ha! That's why?! Grayson, I've seen you fight. Those ribs won't hinder you much." Jason said loudly.
"Yeah, Black Canary told us all about that time in the medical wing." Tim smiled.
"Ignoring your injuries, will you go as Nightwing on this mission?" Bruce got serious.
Richard pondered for a moment before giving Bruce a determined look.
"If you can guarantee Deathstroke's capture, then yes." Richard said.
Bruce nodded.