Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters portrayed, this fanfiction is based on the universe and characters of DC comics.
Dick leapt out of the small panic room, his eyes scanning the room first, no immediate bad guys, then his eyes moved to the window for a moment, quickly looking for any flare of glass where there shouldn't be. But the sun was beginning to set, he was blinded. Clever, the sun is in my eyes, concealing the shooter, terrific.
Barbara followed, Dick was flat on the floor by the door, expecting more gunshots, he needed to gauge where the shooter was. Barbara saw Dick thinking, and stood still for half a second in full view of the window. She was being bait. Then suddenly she too dropped to the floor, just as a second bullet sliced through her hair. Red strands followed her to the floor.
Dick's mask quickly analysed the bullet hole in the glass, for some reason the glass was still intact, angled. His vision turned to 'Detective vision' as Bruce calls it. It mapped out the trajectory of the bullet path and it was an angled shot. One window smashed, must have been more of an angle? This one had less of an angle, hence the hole. Close range.
Barbara had crawled to him and Dick explained his thoughts, she agreed, and then they both believed the best course of action was escape. Without bullet holes if at all possible.
They crawled out of the bedroom to the living room, and Dick pulled down the blinds across the window. They were a dark silver, with the setting sun against it the shooter would be blinded. The two crime fighters relaxed a little, and as expected they heard scuffling of feet outside the door, they had visitors.
They had merely seconds before the room was breached by an undetermined number of professional killers, but Dick still had some security systems installed. Barbara and Dick took cover, Dick behind the sofa near the window, Barbara opened the refrigerator door and slid against it.
They waited. And the door swung open with a crash.
The family didn't often do much together, other than fight crime occasionally, but one thing they did do was paintballing. Something about guns without bullets made them seem much more fun. Bruce was almost semi uncomfortable, Damian and Jason felt right at home, as did Alfred surprisingly, Barbara too, her dad was a cop. Dick however didn't enjoy the shooting and hoping strategy that Tim adopted, he enjoyed using his acrobatics to always be above the family and "shoot bats in a barrel". He usually did extremely well.
Dick had kept four paintball guns. He had modified them, and primed them into semi-automatic paintball guns, and placed them in the space above the ceiling, aimed them down, two at the door, one left of the door, and one right. The guns would fire due to an electric charge, which were routed into two different light switches, either side of the bedroom door. Dick was right in front of one, and he flipped the switch, heard popping and jolted screams, followed by coughing. When the coughing started Nightwing and Batgirl emerged and attacked, their objective was now immobilising the assailants with no gun shots, it only takes one badly placed bullet to kill, and neither wanted to endanger a life of another tenant in the building. Nightwing saw Batgirl out of the corner of his eye, he had taken out one escrima stick, and turned on the stun charge. His plan was broken wrists, and knockout stuns. He counted six bad guys, all armed with rifles, zero handguns or knives. Odd. Easy.
Dick charged through one in a tackle, winding him and knocking him to the ground, the other two had realised what was happening and were turning to him, Nightwing clasped his stick and lunged right, stabbing the stick to the man's neck, right against the jugular, the stick gave a harsh hiss as the electric current passed into skin against nerve and muscle. He didn't pierce the skin, but it would bruise, and swell, and hurt. The merc folded over, clutching his neck. Clearly not used to pain, not a pro.
He leapfrogged over the falling mercenary and caught the final hired gun's assault rifle in his left hand, he pivoted right and the weapon fell from the man's hands. Really not a pro, Dick smiled.
He relaxed, and heard a horrific crack from behind. And then a sigh. He turned and saw Batgirl standing over her victims. She looked at Nightwing, and lifted her chin. Behind you…
Dick took two paces forward just as the mercenarys fist swung past his head. He turned and lifted his left leg, turned, and forced it hard into the stomach of the guy. Batgirl stepped towards them, she had seen the winded "soldier" regaining his breath and she stomped on his knee. Another terrible crash and a scream. And the soldier lost consciousness.
It all took about fifteen seconds.
Dick smiled at Barbara, she smiled back. Her eyes were stunning. Her lips were cracked, as were his. But to him they looked perfect.
They both turned to the only conscious member of the assault team. Batgirl moved the guns further from the sleeping bodies, Nightwing turned the stun off his stick. Batgirl picked up the closest gun and covered the hallway, no need for more surprises. Nightwing grabbed the would-be assassins Kevlar vest and dragged him to the door, tapped Batgirls shoulder, she nodded and moved forward as Nightwing followed.
She lead him to the stairs at the end of the hall, Nightwing had holstered his stick and pressed a button on his wrist, his heads up display in his mask had a waving line along the top, and he spoke clearly 'Lockdown.' He heard a slam as his panic room door closed and bolted, a sliding wall would pass over the door and anyone who would come to the apartment would look in the bedroom and disregard it all.
His masks vision went back to normal. He checked his new captive, really? Unconscious? I didn't even hit him hard.
They went up the stairs to the roof, slowly, carefully, Barbara had the safety catch on, the gun wouldn't be firing, but appearance is everything, and her thumb was right next to the catch for warning shots. She flicked her head down and revealed her newest toy, a clear band to go over her eyes, and act as her own HUD and detective vision, as a bat she has a screen on her forearm, but sometimes it's easier to work with what you can see. She activated her thermal vision and blurry lumps of orange appeared against the walls, all different sizes but pretty much all the same shape. She flicked her head up and it deactivated. No use.
They reached the roof door and Batgirl flipped the safety of the rifle off. Much less chance of hitting an innocent here. Nightwing tapped her shoulder again and she opened the door slowly, they walked out and scanned the rooftop, and Nightwing checked the other buildings, he lived here for the height of the building, it was one of the tallest in the area, it would take Deathstroke himself to hit any of them with a sniper from the buildings of the business district. Maybe. With no wind at all and a clear day. And the buildings around them were below them, but to be safe they moved to the east, so that sniper couldn't see or reach them, and if there were any others they'd see a glint.
The soldier was waking up, but everything was odd, his head felt funny, like head rush but it hurt. He felt light. As if he was falling but not moving. He took a moment to enjoy the bliss of ignorance. And then he tried to move, and he realised his predicament. He was hanging upside down over the ledge of a rooftop.
Terror took over, panic and adrenaline surging he looked down at his body and saw a black and blue silhouette. And he was waving at him. And a horned black outline next to him, smaller, but terrifying.
Barbara asked the question with the most obvious answer, 'Who do you work for?'
The soldier just whimpered, and his crotch darkened, spreading over his lap and presumably up his body.
Barbara sighed. Dick smiled. 'Who do you work for?' She repeated, but louder, there was more blood in his head, his ears could be ringing.
'D-deathstroke! Please don't kill me I don't want to die!' he screamed,
'What the hell,' Dick muttered, 'these guys are awful, they go in without backup, only rifles no side arms, not even knives, barely trained, and now they have bad intel, they should know we don't kill especially if they work for Slade.'
Barbara nodded thoughtfully, something definitely wasn't right. The screaming man was still pleading below them. They looked down at him and decided to bring him up and relieve what must be a screaming headache.
Dick started lifting and suddenly it felt a little lighter, as the man's head below burst. In a split second the man was crying out and then one side of his face was shrouded in red mist. Dicks eyes widened as Barbara grabbed him and ran, they both ran hard for the south side and pulled out their grapnels, they leapt off and fired to swing out to the Bat Bunker beneath Wayne Towers.
