Disclaimer: I always forget a disclaimer in my first chapters. Anywho, I own nothing. Everything belongs to the people at DC. Except the plot. But it's probably safer to say I own nothing, so I'll just say that. xP Please don't sue. It wouldn't be worth your time. ^^"

A/N: Ok, so, batman-defeats-all brought up a good point in their review of the last chapter. I'll just tell you what I told him/her xP. I am ignoring certain aspects of the reboot. Dick isn't traveling with the circus- 'cause that just works better with my story -and Barbara is still Oracle while Stephanie is Batgirl. One reason is that I adore Stephanie as Batgirl, but the main reasoning is that I believe Barbara should've stayed as Oracle. I think the superhero community really benefited highly from what she did and it also proved that anyone could be a hero. I liked how she never gave up, despite such a crippling injury. There are other aspects I am keeping, though, which you'll probably see as we go along. ^^ There's probably more, but right now I can't think of any. xP

Thanks to all those who reviewed, favorited, and alerted. You guys are awesome!~

Ch. 2: Declaration of War

Barbara cursed quietly as she once again tried to locate Nightwing's signal. She had lost it about an hour ago. Thirty minutes after that, the news had reported that his apartment had exploded around the same time she had lost the signal. They hadn't released Dick's name, but she recognized the address.

She jumped slightly when something tapped against her window. She looked over and saw Nightwing grinning cheekily at her. She let out a sigh as relief calmed her nerves, before fixing a glare at the young man. It was a good thing he was alive, because she was going to kill him.

"Where the hell have you been?" she demanded as she opened the window. He just winked at her as she climbed in. "I lost your signal about an hour ago and now I'm hearing on the news about how they're looking for your remains!" It was a slight exaggeration on her part. The authorities were still trying to get confirmation on whether or not Dick had been in his apartment at the time.

"The explosion wasn't big enough to kill me," he said, a frown coming to his face. The explosion had the potential to severely injure him, but not kill him, not unless he was standing almost directly over it. So, he was either dealing with an amateur, or something more complex than he had originally thought. "And whoever did that must've messed with my communicator somehow, because it stopped working right after that."

Barbara nodded as her face became thoughtful.

"You need to warn the others," Dick continued, "this guy is probably after all of us and, somehow, he knows my ID. How else would he know I was in that apartment?"

Barbara nodded and went to do just that, but paused at his next question.

"Did you contact Jason? He could be a target too."

Barbara sighed and turned back to Nightwing. "I tried, but there's no way I could find to contact him, besides sending someone to scour the Earth for him."

"I heard he's traveling with some new team."

The disbelief on Barbara's face reflected Dick's thoughts. "That would be nice, if I knew who this supposed team was."

"C'mon, Babs," he teased, saying her name as he did his best impersonation of a sheep, "you can do better than that."

He abruptly dodged and caught the vase that was chucked at him.

"This is serious, Dick."

The grin vanished from his face as he set the base down. "Trust me, I know. That's why we need to find Jason. He could be in tro-"

"I think Jason is capable of taking care of himself" Barbara replied, giving him a look before turning her attention back to her computer to contact the others.

"Yeah, but-"

"He'll only be found if he wants to be found."

Nightwing sighed and massaged his temple. He decided not to reply, mostly because Barbara was now busy contacting the others. He listened as she gave the other members of the bat-clan the down low. Nightwing got to thinking. Should they contact the League? No, not yet. They had handled worse without the help of the League. Plus, he wasn't in the mood to have Bruce- that stubborn man –be irritated with him. Perhaps he should have Barbara gather the others, though. If they really were all targets, then it would be best if they were together. There was strength in numbers, as Dick knew well. But the only problem, the one that made Dick want to grind his teeth together in frustration, was the fact that they truly had no idea what they were dealing with. Nightwing was pretty sure that it wasn't a villain he had face before; they all tended to stick to their MO. For all he knew, the others weren't really "missing" and had everything under control. They could've been doing some undercover work or something.

Nightwing snorted. Wouldn't be the first time I was left out of the loop.

He crossed his arms over his chest and leaned against the wall as he reminded himself that that was in the past and didn't matter anymore. He had changed. Hell, even Bruce had, if even just a bit.

"Oh yeah," the fact that Barbara's statement was directed at him was what brought Nightwing out of his thoughts. "You left your cell phone here after your last visit." She nodded her head at a familiar device on her desk. Nightwing raised an eyebrow as he picked it up.

"That was a month ago."

Barbara shrugged. "I've been busy."

"Not too busy for those late night phone calls I keep missing. You've been lonely lately huh?" Nightwing questioned, wiggling his eyebrows as he grinned teasingly. Barbara gave him a confused look.

"Uh, what calls?"

His brows furrowed, becoming just as confused. "Haven't you been trying to call me?"

"Uh, no. Were there any messages?"

"No, but I recognized your number."

"Why didn't you call back?"

"You're not the only one who's been busy."

They both became thoughtful. What the hell was going on? A possibility clicked into Barbara's mind.

"What if… what if someone managed to hack into my system?" Dick gave her o doubtful look. "I mean, my system's amazing, but it's no batcave. It's plausible that someone's been stealing information from me, right under my nose."

"Is there any way for you to check?" Nightwing questioned, brows furrowed. Oracle nodded and turned to her computer and began typing away.

"There should be, now that I know to look for a hacker."

Nightwing opened his mouth to reply, but was cut off.

Red Robin… yuuuum.

He grinned sheepishly when Barbara turned to him and raised an eyebrow.

"It's my ring tone for Tim" he explained as he tapped the answer option on his screen. "Hey, where are you? We've been-"

"Give up. Resistance is futile," the voice was cold, calculated, and emotionless. Nightwing froze.

"Where's Red Robin?" he growled. There was a click as he was hung up on. He glared at the phone, wishing he could reach through and strangle whoever had Tim. He looked away from his phone to see Barbara looking at him, face concerned.

"What was that?" she questioned, although she had a good idea. Nightwing's eyes narrowed beneath his mask.

"A challenge."

A/N: -sigh- Another short one. Hopefully it'll get longer as it gets farther into it. Anyway, I have a question for you guys. There are a couple couples (ha ha xP ) that I'm thinking of having in here and I want to know what you guys think. It wouldn't be any hardcore romance, just some hints and stuff. Anyway, the couples I was thinking of were Tim & Stephanie and Bruce & Selina. As for Dick and Barbara, you guys can think whatever you want about the ineraction between those two. I don't really ship that couple, but I'm not going to flat out ignore it. I'm perfectly aware of the fact that about 98% of you ship that couple. xD Anyway, that's about it for now folks. If you got any questions or need any clarifications just ask. ^^ I hope you enjoyed this chapter. Review please! ;D

P.S. If you didn't get Dick's ringtone for Tim, there's a restaurant called Red Robin and that's the chime or whatever from the commercials. xD I just thought Dick would be one to find that amusing. :P