"WHAT THE HELL DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING, CLARK?" Batman frothed at the mouth as he thundered at Superman. The Boy in Blue looked stunned and ashamed and flinched at Batman's onslaught. "YOU DIDN'T THINK THIS WOULD HAPPEN AGAIN?"
Wonder Woman fought the urge to intervene. The Dark Knight's first protégé was missing and if there was ever NOT a good time to attempt to quell his rage, it was when one of the Bat Boys was in danger.
Superman swallowed hard, preparing himself for the fistful of Kryptonite he knew was just waiting in that bright yellow utility belt and sighed internally when the hit never came. Batman turned away sharply, obviously trying to prevent himself from chocking out the alien. Hawk Girl, careful not to step on any of the fallen debris and glass, made her way closer to Diana and the men.
"Perhaps Nightwing is simply somewhere else in this time. Darkseid doesn't only travel through time." Hawk Girl immediately wished she hadn't spoken as the wrath of The Bat was now fully focused on her.
"No, he doesn't does he!? So Nightwing could LITERALLY be at any PLACE in any TIME imaginable!" He had moved steadily closer to her so that they were mere centimeters apart. Hawk Girl swallowed hard as The Bat glowered down on her but she was granted mercy as he quickly turned back to Superman, "And this is all because Mr. I-Have-Every-Super-Power couldn't keep his DAMNED HEAT VISION AWAY FROM DARKSIED'S TRANSDIMENSIONAL WARP FIELD!"
Cyborg looked around at the wreck that was once the main hall of the Watchtower and groaned. All that work was going to be his, he just knew it. His attention was drawn away from the wreckage, however, as he heard a moaning from under a slab of metal. He rushed to the noise and heaved the metal without difficulty from on top of J'onn. The Martian moaned and passed out in Cyborg's metal arms.
"Uh, guys!" He called to the four super heroes bickering in the middle of the room. Batman whipped around, ready to strike when his composure changed entirely upon seeing J'onn unconscious in Cyborg's arms.
"His vitals all appear normal-"
"Except his heart rate," Superman chimed in, interrupting the Amazon.
"Right, and there is not physical damage that I can see."
Batman frowned deeper. What a shitty day.
J'onn struggled to open his eyes but when he did, he was greeted with the familiar faces of Batman, Wonder Woman and Superman all examining the medical equipment surrounding the bed he found himself on.
"I am fine," J'onn said quietly, making the other three snap around with relieved expressions. "I was simply stunned by the – the," he rubbed his temples as he made to sit up. "The change in space and time…" He focused on what he just said and realizing the ramifications of his statement, his eyes widened and his heart rate accelerated with worry and fear. He starred at Batman, panicked, "Where is Nightwing?" Batman did not answer but glared at Superman with a murderous look of disdain. J'onn understood what this meant. In a battle before with Darksied, Superman had used his heat vision against the war-lord while he was attempting to escape through his trans-dimensional warp field. The resulting explosion of energy had thrown several members of the Justice League to an alternate reality with a minimal chance of return. Thankfully they had in fact returned, but by the skin of their teeth.
"This cannot be good." J'onn murmured to himself. He felt his hopes rise however as he came to the realization that, "He isn't in an alternate reality."
The other three stared, confused at the Martian, obviously waiting for him to explain further. "Before the meeting, Nightwing came to me and asked me to scan him for brain damage-"
"Brain damage?" Wonder Woman asked, concerned.
J'onn nodded, "He had a particularly painful run in with Blockbuster this morning and felt unwell." He waited, but that seemed like enough explanation for the others so he continued, "I did find several parts of his nervous system were damaged and in need of my care. It was not so alarming that it required immediate and full attention so I simply rooted myself within his mind and we came to the meeting so that I could repair him subconsciously."
"You didn't think any amount of brain damage would require a full and thorough repair immediately?" Batman asked, obviously restraining his anger.
J'onn did not expect the humans to understand. "It was minimal enough for me to repair in this way and he did not seem to mind…"
"Of course he didn't-!"
"How do you know now that he isn't in a parallel reality?" Wonder Woman cut Batman off before J'onn was given brain damage himself.
"We are still connected." J'onn stated simply. "Had he been sent to a place beyond my range, I would've felt the tear in the connection. He must be relatively close to us in space and time." Batman stayed silent, "I assure you that had I anticipated this interruption in the process, I would not have attempted it. The repairs should have been completed within a matter of hours." Batman remained silent, unwilling to respond.
"Is there any way that you can find where he is?" Superman asked, always the optimist.
"No. I can only hear his conscious thoughts. Though, right now, I cannot hear anything beyond a murmur." J'onn frowned.
"Perhaps he is just within your range?" Wonder Woman suggested.
"Perhaps."
A stolen hot dog from a twelve year old kid who had to get up to pee wasn't exactly the first meal of the day that Nightwing had anticipated on having. When I get home, I am definitely designating a compartment in the belt for cash. His stomach growled at the unsubstantial amount of food quickly being digested as he crouched on a gargoyle looking around this distorted Gotham he had found himself in. He starred at a hill behind which he knew there was a manor stocked full of the most delicious food found anywhere in the city. Maybe stopping by wouldn't be that bad of an idea. He had no idea where he was, other than a different version of Gotham, and he was beginning to suspect he didn't know exactly when he was either. Regardless, if there was a Batcave under the manor, reaching it it was his only way of at least starting to think of a plan. In broad daylight, Nightwing decided that his uniform would draw far too much unwanted attention, so he elongated his travel time by travelling along the outside of the city in the lesser populated areas. Stepping across a building above an alley on the outskirts of the city, Nightwing suddenly stopped as he heard a rustling coming from below. He knew he wasn't exactly wanted here, but dark alley-ways rustling wasn't something the hero could ignore. He crouched over the edge of the building to get a better view of the alley and found his stomach tighten in anger.
"Come on, rich boy, we all know daddy has you loaded!" A young man, around Nightwing's age, was backed up by four other men, all wearing tattered rags and carrying baseball bats or some other makeshift weaponry. It was hard to tell who they were talking to as the rustling he had heard early seemed to have been them throwing someone onto a pile of trash. The trash began to move as a small boy emerged, shaking and obviously frightened for his life. Nightwing had seen enough. Kids always got under the hero's skin.
The acrobat flipped over the ledge and landed behind the assailants with only a ninja's grace. He reached for his escrima sticks but frowned when he remembered he didn't have them. Taunting is always fun.
"Excuse me!" The five men turned around, obviously startled at having been snuck up on. "Can I join the party?"
"Where the Hell did this clown come from? The circus?" The ring leader said, laughing. The others chimed in, finding Nightwing's costume comical.
Nightwing grinned, "Clowns don't sell nearly as many tickets as I did!" With that, Nightwing ended the conversation with a swift fist to the ring-leader's face. The hoodlum fell to the ground and his comrades followed suit after flailing their bats around aimlessly. Too damn easy, Nightwing thought as he brushed off blood off from his shoulder. I guess I didn't need to break his nose…
Rather than wait for the neighbors to call the police and relive last night's fiasco, Nightwing walked up to the boy and crouched to his height. Smiling, Nightwing offered his gloved hand, but the boy, shaking with fear, flinched away. "It's alright," Nightwing said with his best child-friendly voice. Despite his upbringing, he was a master with children. "Have you ever been on an apartment rooftop before?" Nightwing asked sarcastically and hearing the sirens, he wrapped his arm around the boy and grappled them both to the rooftop. The boy shut his eyes tight and whimpered. Nightwing smiled as he set his down gently. After the boy was sure he was safe he eyed Nightwing curiously, then studied his belt, watching Nightwing put away the grapple.
"May I?" The boy obviously had gotten over his fear of the masked vigilante enough to want to inspect his technology. Nightwing glanced at his grapple and shrugged.
"Sure," he tossed the tool to the boy who caught it with delight and began inspecting its mechanics. "Just, be careful, alright?" The boy gave the hero such a look of bored smugness, Nightwing could only chuckle in response.
Nightwing examined the boy's clothing as he sat, his back against a powered-off vent. "You don't exactly look like you're from around these parts." He stated, acknowledging the fine cut cloth and pristinely ironed pant. The outfit would be perfect for an opera, were it not for the garbage stains.
The boy again glanced at Nightwing, "No shit, Sherlock. Where did you come up with that brilliant deduction?" Nightwing's jaw dropped and had he not been trained by the World's Greatest Detective, he would be laughing at the boy's obvious confidence.
"How old are you? That's no language for a young man!" Nightwing mock-reprimanded but the boy's eyes grew wide with worry.
"Oh, please don't tell Daddy! Please!"
Nightwing laughed and waved the kid off, "I'm not telling anyone." Just then the police arrived below, but instead of arresting the criminals, they brushed off the work and continued on their way as though the paper work of booking the men was just too much for them to consider. Nightwing frowned, disappointed. He glanced at the boy who was also frowning.
"Daddy says the police here don't work like they're supposed to," he tossed the grapple back, no longer interested in the new toy. "But you…" he looked Nightwing up and down, "You kicked their butts and saved my life!" He grinned. "Could you teach me? I want to kick bad-guy butt too!" The boy began punching the air and kicking, obviously restrained by his expensive clothes.
Nightwing watched, amused. "Uh, don't you think you're a little too young to 'kick bad-guy butt'?"
The boy stopped punching, crest-fallen, "Well, how old were you when you started, then?"
Nightwing smirked, "That's not the point, now is it? The point is, what were you doing out here all alone on this side of the tracks?" Nightwing asked, changing the subject.
The boy sighed deeply and plopped himself down Indian-style beside the young hero. "Well, I was on my way to the circus…"
Nightwing's brow rose. "Oh, yeah?"
The boy nodded, "Yeah, I love the circus! But Daddy has meetings all day today and Mommy is sick. It's the last day that it's in town but Alfred-"
Nightwing coughed violently as his breath hitched. His heart raced and his eyes widened in disbelief as he regarded the boy before him with a new found perspective.
"Are you okay?" The boy asked, concerned. Now Nightwing definitely felt like a failed detective.
"Please tell me you're not Bruce Wayne, but in fact some distant cousin visiting for the week…" Nightwing asked pointedly.
The boy's face contorted in confusion, "What are you talking about? I don't have any cousins. You didn't know I was Bruce Wayne?"
Well now I definitely know when! "It didn't hit me, no," Nightwing said, running his hand through his disheveled hair.
Bruce laughed a bright, child-like laugh, "Wow! You aren't a detective, are you?"
Nightwing grinned, laughing at the situation. "Well, whose fault is that!?" He asked Bruce, but he knew he wouldn't understand. Nightwing loved Bruce's laugh. It was intoxicating and exactly what a child should sound like. His smile faltered however as he thought, "How old are you, Bruce?"
"I'm seven! Just had my birthday a week ago," Bruce smiled warmly and Nightwing's heart, once raised so high, sunk lower than any pit on Earth.
Nightwing tried to maintain his smile, though he found it difficult, "How would you like it if we went to the circus now?"
Bruce's face lit up like a Christmas tree. He sprang to his feet, "Really!? You'll take me!? Oh, yes please!" His face fell quickly though, "You're going to need something better to wear though." Nightwing smirked, looking himself up and down.
"I think you're right about that." His stomach growled angrily, "and maybe some food too? I'm starving." Bruce rolled his eyes, but nodded.