Dick sat in the penthouse of the apartment building he'd purchased upon his arrival in Bludhaven. As what amounted to the adopted son of one of the richest men in the world, as well as the holder of his own multi-million dollar trust fund, no one had batted an eyelid when he'd spent just short of a million dollars on the building, and another four on refurbishments.
He was looking at a holographic interface, custom designed by Bruce. It was the same one used by the Justice League on the Watchtower, their mobile high altitude base of operations. There'd been a symbol on the shoulder of one of the men at the exchange, a white knight chess piece. He was trying to find some kind of correlation with any existing figures or groups. Needless to say, Bruce had come up a few times, and even Dick himself, in his previous alias as Robin, had also cropped up once or twice.
"Anything good?" Victor said as he walked in, removing the metal faceplate he wore over the left side of his face, a beep indicating it disengaging from his cybernetics as he did "Or just reminiscing?"
"I'm trying to find the white knight symbol. There are a few charitable organisations who use it, and even a couple of companies that are subsidiaries of less than scrupulous businessmen, but no one of interest." Dick said, sighing as he added "I even tried cross referencing it against some of the more ethical ones. Wayne Enterprise, Queen Industries, they're both clean. Chimtech, Maxwell Lord's company, brought up a couple of red flags, but both were in heavily encrypted, classified files. Something to do with some paramilitary group called Checkmate, a Government division. I can't get in."
"Why not ask your girlfriend?" Victor teased "If she's as good as you say, she could do it, right?"
"She did hack the Batcave." Dick said "But that was a low jack. Completely different to what we need, and far too easy to trace."
"Then what's the plan?" Victor asked, cocking an eyebrow "Going by our last few months in this town, and who trained you, I'm assuming there is one?"
"Yeah." Dick said, grinning "I'm going to get an appointment with the head of the applied sciences division of Chimtech."
"And how do you intend to do that?" Victor asked as Dick brought up an application, an image of Bruce Wayne appearing alongside a number as a dial tone began "Of-"
"Quiet!" Dick said as the phone was picked up "Bruce, I need a favour."
...
Dick stepped into the Chimtech building in Bludhaven, wearing a black suit with a blue shirt. After he'd got off the call to Bruce, he'd received one from Doctor Paul Westfield, head of Chimtech's applied sciences division, confirming his visit to them on behalf of Bruce to deal with some details of a joint project between the two companies. Apparently, Westfield had been surprised someone so young was interested in such things, until Dick informed him he wanted to understand the process of business deals, in case he ever found himself running a company of his own.
As he moved through the plaza, he noted the two people who'd been following him since he walked in; large men in black suits. On paper, they would be able to restrain and probably kill him with ease. In practice, not so much, although that would mean giving himself away. For now, he'd ignore them. Besides, he had someone else to see besides Westfield. The person who, for cover purposes, had been taken on as Bruce's executive assistant six months ago.
"Barbara." He said, walking up to Barbara, who was perched on the edge of a fountain wearing a blue pencil skirt suit with a white blouse, her hair in a pony tail, with a pair of wire framed glasses perched on the end of her nose, with a smile, kissing her on the cheek as he reached her "I expected Bruce to send Lucius to supervise."
"Mr. Wayne and Mr. Fox regret to inform you they are both indisposed at the moment, Dick." She said with a smile "So, as Mr. Wayne's executive assistant, I was sent as his representative in this matter."
"I thought that was me." Dick grinned, before offering her an arm and gesturing to the elevator in the corner of the area "Shall we?"
The two of them walked through the plaza, eventually reaching the elevator, Dick quickly pressing the control to take them to the fiftieth floor, where he'd been informed Westfield's office was on the phone the night before. As the doors closed, he turned to Barbara, quickly getting her against the wall and kissing her passionately.
"Dick... Maybe now isn't the best time..." She said in between kisses "We're on a job..."
"Come on, that's hot." Dick said, grinning at her before the doors opened, the two of them straightening out their outfits "You're right. Maybe later."
"Your place?" She said with a small grin.
"Joker couldn't keep me away." Dick said, returning the gesture, nodding towards the woman at the desk "I think you're up."
"I think you're right." Barbara said as they reached the reception of the department "Richard Grayson and Barbara Gordon to see Dr. Westfield."
"Let me check that." The blonde girl in glasses behind the desk said, typing it into the computer "I'm sorry, I have you down for next week."
"There must be some mistake." Dick said, flashing the girl a smile "Can you check again?"
The girl checked again, whilst Barbara gave Dick a disapproving look, getting a sheepish grin in response. Finally, the girl looked up from the computer.
"I'm sorry, my mistake, Mr. Grayson." She said with a smile "Have a nice day."
"Thank you." He said, quickly glancing at her name tag "Nice to meet you, Rose."
"I don't like her." Barbara said "The way she was looking at you-"
"We're on a job, remember." Dick said with a grin "Besides, I don't go breaking the necks of every guy who looks at you."
"You couldn't." She said with a laugh, pausing before saying "Could you?"
"You know what they say..." Dick said with a smirk "Anything Bruce can do, I can do better."
"I'd like to see you tell him that." She said, returning the smirk as they walked through the doors "Let me do the talking."
As they entered the lab, a middle aged man with greying red hair approached, holding a hand out to Barbara.
"Miss Gordon, I understand you're here on behalf of Mr. Wayne? Paul Westfield." He said, shaking Barbara's hand and then Dick's "And you must be Mr. Grayson."
"Doctor." Barbara said with a smile and a curt nod "Nice to meet you. Mr. Wayne told me to convey his sincere apologies. Apparently he had a matter to deal with urgently."
"Yes, I imagine super models don't date themselves." Westfield said, smirking to Dick "What do you think?"
"I wouldn't know. Haven't dated any." Dick said with a wry grin "So, I heard you did some work a few years back with a paramilitary unit. Checkmate, I think the name was?"
Westfield froze, his smile faltering. He was worried about something. Something about Checkmate had spooked him. Given what Dick had seen recently, he could imagine why; he was spooked, and he'd thrown down with the Joker and Scarecrow. Hell, he'd been trained by the Batman, and could even manage to at least tie with him about fifty percent of the time in sparring matches.
"Yes, but our working with them ended years ago." Westfield finally said with a smile "A shame. They had some interesting R&D ideas."
"Aha." Dick said with a smirk "Well, that answers all my questions. Babs, I'll leave you to business while I go and get a coffee."
Dick didn't wait for a response, instead turning around and walking out. He walked past Rose's desk, pausing before turning back, leaning on the desk.
"I nearly forgot." He said with a smile "Doctor Westfield, he told me I could get the contact info for a group called Checkmate for Mr. Wayne. Bruce has been dying to work with them."
"I'm sorry, Mr. Grayson." She said with a smile "That's not possible."
"Dick, please." He replied "Why isn't it possible?"
"Checkmate has been defunct for three years." She said "Sorry, Dick."
"Not a problem." He said, smirking as he said "Every cloud has it's silver linings and every Rose has it's thorns. All those other glass half full or half empty metaphors. I'll be seeing you."
Dick turned and walked out of the office, pulling his phone out of his pocket as he entered the elevator.
"Vic, apparently, Checkmate's been defunct for years." Dick said "Anything on the system?"
"Nothing I can access" Came Victor's reply "Sorry, Dick."
"Don't be." Dick said "Me and Babs will be back soon, and we'll call up Batman. See what he can get."
Dick hung up. He had to call up Bruce and find out what he could find.
...
Dick sat at the computer, his costume on. He was ready to go out and act as soon as he had the info on Checkmate. He just had to call Bruce up. He pressed the command to contact the bat-cave, having a brief pause before the image of a young man with dark hair, about seventeen or eighteen in what looked like his old Robin costume, minus the mask.
"Hi there..." Dick said "Is Batman home..?"
"He's gone out." The young man replied, cocking an eyebrow "Let me guess; you're his old partner?"
"Old partner?" Dick questioned "I didn't realise he had a new one..."
"Jason Todd." The young man said with a smirk "You can just call me Robin."
"And you can call me your worst nightmare if you tick me off." Dick replied, a little more aggressively than he'd meant to "Dick Grayson."
"Charmed, I'm sure." Jason replied "What are you after?"
"I need access to the bat computer." Dick said "See if Bruce has any files on a group called Checkmate."
"Can't help you." Jason replied "I don't know how to give you access."
"I'll put on someone who does." Dick replied, panning the camera round to Barbara, who was sat beside him "Jason Todd, Barbara Gordon. Barbara Gordon, Jason Todd."
"So you're the new kid." Barbara said "Alfred mentioned Bruce had got someone in."
"Did he?!" Dick said, Barbara rolling her eyes in response.
"Men." She said to herself "Anyway Jason, to give me remote access, just search for a program called 'Oracle 2.0.' Once activated, it'll give me full access."
Barbara waited, seeing the Batcomputer's desk top appear on screen as Dick got up, moving over to a punch bag and beginning to hit it.
"Thanks, you're a star." Barbara said with a smile "And don't let Dick get to you. He just likes to think he's irreplaceable."
"I heard that!" Dick called over as he hit the punch bag hard, barely dodging as it swung back at him.
"You okay?" Barbara asked as the screen Jason had been on went back to it's screensaver "Dick?"
"I'm fine!" Dick said, turning and walking towards the exit "I'm going to go meet with someone. Give me a call when you've got the info."
"Who're you going to meet?" Barbara asked "Dick?"
She turned around. He was gone. Suddenly, she knew how her Father always felt.
...
Westfield stood in his office, pressing controls on the computer. He had to finish the project he was working on for a fusion reactor. As he input the latest set of calculations, everything went dark. He reached down into his desk, pulling out a torch. As he pulled it out and turned it on, he felt the cold, hard steel of a sword blade against his throat.
"Don't move, Doctor." Came the cool, calm voice of a man from the darkness "Lights!"
The lights were thrown back on, dazing Westfield. There was a tall, slim woman stood by the lab's breaker, wearing a black leather bodysuit, a long blonde ponytail coming out of the back of her cowl which covered the top half of her face, the right side orange whilst the left side was black. Red lenses covered both of her eyes, an orange belt on her wait with a katana in it's sheath on her left hip.
He looked to the person holding the sword to his throat. It was a man, around six foot three, wearing a black bodysuit, with a bandolier going over his left shoulder. Coming over his right shoulder was a telescopic staff. On his left and right hips were a pair of automatic pistols. Completing the ensemble was a mask similar to the girl's, covering his whole face.
"I understand you've been talking about things you shouldn't." The man said "The Black King and the Wall don't take kindly to that."
Before Westfield could reply, the man drew his sword across quickly, separating Westfield's head from his body.
"That should serve as sufficient incentive to get us a little visit from the people investigating us, but I have another idea." The man said "But just in case, maybe we should pay Mr. Grayson and his girlfriend a little visit."
...
Sorry it's taken so long to update this. This section is concurrent to the second part of volume 2 of the Bat; indeed, the section with Dick and Jason is seen from Jason's perspective in chapter 11 of that fic. R&R, please, no flames. B.