AN: And we're back! Thanks to everyone who reviewed, favourited, alerted and generally made me feel like my writing is appreciated, and thanks to SakuraTenshi36092 who was kind enough to spend her Thursday lunch time beta-reading this for me.

And for those of you worried about Robin, I'm writing a sister story for what happens to him, which I'll probably publish after I've finished this, after that? Who knows? I might write a sequel.

Reviews appreciated.

Blue Bird

Chapter 3

The first thing Nightwing noticed when he woke was that he was lying down.

The second was that, whatever he was lying down on, he was handcuffed to it.

With a groan, Nightwing pushed himself upright and deftly examined his restraints, which attached his wrist to a hospital gurney in a medbay that had clearly had minimal use in the past year, either that or it had been at the mercy of Alfred in a particularly foul mood.

Nightwing laughed softly at the thought and set about making his hand as narrow as possible, wincing slightly as he heard the telltale pop of a finger being dislocated, with a final tug Nightwing's hand came free and he pushed his fingers back into their original positions without too much preamble.

"Never thought I'd actually find that trick useful," he murmured as, with an unnecessary flip, he vacated the bed, landing on gleaming floor without out so much as a thud from the impact. Nightwing made for the door, but pulled back, noticing, for the first time, a clipboard at the end of his bed, curiosity piqued, Nightwing picked it up, reading it at a speed that would have made Kid Flash jealous,

"Nite-Wing?" the vigilante mouthed, "Now that's just rude,"

He flexed his fingers and pulled the pen from the loop at the top of the flimsy plastic, without further ado he set about correcting the spelling errors, and then scanned the summery of behaviour section at the bottom.

"They make me sound like Ravager," Nightwing muttered, "Still; I guess it isn't deliberate, seeing as she isn't on the team yet,"

His eyes, still behind his mask, slid up the page to the diagnosis, "Distillation of cyanide, touché Slade,"

With these words the clipboard was tossed onto the bed and Nightwing made for the door, freezing inches away from the cold steel at the sounds of voices,

"Rahat," he searched frantically for a hiding place, spotting one above his head. Nightwing hoisted himself into the vents with seconds to spare.

The door slid open and a figure in a dark cape entered, followed by a slightly shorter one in blue, the latter was painted red, and Nightwing didn't need his genius-level IQ to know that it was only a matter of time before either one of the entities below sensed his presence.

Slowly and carefully Nightwing slid backwards down the shaft, away from a seemingly indifferent Red Tornado and what promised to be a very angry Dark Knight. Finally, Nightwing reached a junction and took the opportunity to turn around and crawl head first, he took a left, then a right, then hit a dead end and had to double back, taking another left and coming to a computer terminal,

"Finally," He muttered, "Thought I'd be trapped here forever, and then Batgirl would send Ravager and Impulse after me, that'd be embarrassing,"

Nightwing mentally slapped himself and hissed in frustration, "Focus, idiot, no-one's coming to get you,"

He pulled a cable from his glove and hooked it up, "C'mon, c'mon, I need a date here, anything?" the screen turned red, "No? Guess I'll find out the hard way then,"

Nightwing unplugged and crawled several feet further along until the soft rumble of voices could be heard below him,

"I get the feeling I'm going to regret this," he whispered, and, before he could change his mind Nightwing kicked out, sending a loose grille crashing to the floor, hopefully not on anyone's head, and leaping out after it and through the living room with hurried, "Excuse me!"

Leaving five confused superteens in his wake, Nightwing heard Kid Flash ask, "What the hell just happened?" before he disappeared around the corner,

It took the team five full seconds to realise that Nightwing, whom they mistakenly thought had kidnapped their youngest member, had just torn through with all the subtlety of Superman, and chase after him, by which time he was already safe in the rafters of the training room, the familiar silver platform dark and unused with the absence of Black Canary.

Both doors, on opposite sides of the room, slid open, Batman and Red Tornado entering through one, the team, save the missing Robin, through the other.

"What happened?"

Batman's voice would have left any criminal worth a cell at Arkham trembling, given Superman nightmares and caused Brainiac to develop irrational fears of the dark, and from his perch in the shadows near the ceiling Nightwing raised an eyebrow in admiration at the team's resolve, as not one of them had collapsed in terror under the extreme pressure of the patented Bat-Glare.

Aqualad stepped forward, "He must have exited the medbay through the ventilation system, he was probably travelling through it to find a safe place to exit and decided to try and get past us rather than risk running into any senior league members,"

"Try and succeed," Artemis commented, "The only place he could have gone is here, and the only way out is the door you and Red Tornado came through,"

"In other words," Kid Flash said, "He's vanished, again,"

"Maybe not," Batman said, softly, "Step back,"

The team and Red Tornado did as instructed and Batman's eyes locked on Nightwing, who tensed his muscles, ready to move at less than a second's notice, Batman waited, sizing his enemy up, Nightwing, subconsciously, did the same.

Without warning, Batman pounced and a Batarang was suddenly slicing through the air towards him, Nightwing waited, silently counting down to the last second; three, two, one. The titanium blade lodged in the rafter where Nightwing had been crouched only seconds before. With speed and agility comparable to a cat's Nightwing was flipping along the girder, playing for valuable time while he scrounged for some sort of plan which involved his survival and ability to walk being maintained.

Deciding to buy himself some time Nightwing decided to do something that would probably get him in serious trouble in about three years, thankfully this Batman had never met the Mad Hatter,

"Twinkle, twinkle little Bat, how I wonder where Bird's at, up above the world you fly, like a tea-tray in the sky, twinkle, twinkle little Bat how I wonder where Bird's at!" he sang, reflecting as he did that, even if this Batman had never met the Hatter, it was probably still a bad idea to mention Robin around him when the kid was missing.

Another Batarang embedded itself in the metal, millimetres away from Nightwing's left hand, an idea struck him and, with cheeriness that would have turned Joker green with jealously he flung it back with a cry of, "Careful! You could have killed me with that!"

The returning Batarang lodged in the wall above Superboy's head as Batman rolled out of the way and only Miss Martian's warning hand on his shoulder stopped him from launching at Nightwing with everything he had.

Batman straightened up, "You want to fight? Come down and do it properly,"

Nightwing rolled his eyes, "I don't want to fight, it was Justice League junior that attacked me,"

"After you ran," Artemis said,

"After Superboy leapt at me for no good reason," Nightwing said, "Either way you slice it it's your fault"

"Why don't you come down here and say that?" Superboy growled,

"I highly doubt my girlfriend, team, protégées and mentor will appreciate me getting into a fight which involves me losing my head,"

"Mentor?" Miss Martian asked, "You were trained?"

"Emphasis on the past here," Nightwing replied, "I got to the point where I was as good as him and got tired of his perpetual state of angst,"

"Never mind that," Artemis said, "You said you had students, as in plural,"

"Yes, and only half of them are ones my former mentor approves of," Nightwing said, "The other half he either doesn't trust or tried to kill Superman,"

"One of your students tried to kill Superman?" Kid Flash asked, "You clearly didn't train them very well if they failed,"

"The point was to fail," Nightwing said, "She was trying to scare him into stepping up and actually acknowledging a friend, properly, instead of just treating him like a dog to be trained,"

"I think I like this girl, whoever she is," Superboy said, folding his arms, "But that doesn't change the fact that you were where Robin disappeared,"

Nightwing didn't reply, and Batman scowled, his eyes raking the shadows for any sign of the younger man.

Finally Nightwing spoke, "You want me to come down and fight? Fine,"

He landed softly in the middle of the ring, an eskrima stick in each hand and a neutral expression on his face as he fixed Batman with a glare, "Bring. It. On."

AN: And, just to be annoying, I'll leave it there. Just kidding, I'm not trying to be annoying, it just comes naturally. That and I want the next chapter to be written well, so...

Next time: Batman VS Nightwing!

Until then,

~Silver