Notes: I'm hoping to send my laptop off for repairs today. I'll be without it for about 2-3 weeks. I'm also hoping that this doesn't affect updates. I have a fairly good tablet, google drive and usbs and a computer I can borrow. However, there may be unforeseen consequences so, updates may slow.
Chapter 5 – Red Robin
Mar'i's alarm went off. It was annoying however, she had promised her dad that she would go to school, even when he wasn't around.
She dressed, ate breakfast, put on her shoes and started walking to school. The fastest route she knew involved going up a fire escape and jumping across a few rooftop terraces before climbing back down to ground level. It was faster than going around the buildings or wasting time searching for and climbing fences.
She arrived the same time as someone else.
"Colin!" she called as she stopped the tall, red-head near a tree.
Colin seemed to flinch, shooting her a surprised expression.
"Oh, hi," he said.
"What's wrong?"
"I didn't think you would talk to me in school because of our… night jobs."
"That's ridiculous," Mar'i said with a frown. It wasn't like anyone knew who they were.
"How do we explain knowing each other?" Colin questioned.
"Uh, the way we met?" Mar'i responded. "I was lost and you helped me out."
"But-"
"Colin, you're being more paranoid than my father. And that's a feat."
"Doesn't your dad have a reputation for being the nice one? He was Nightwing, right?"
"That's because he doesn't let himself get caught doing the not-so-nice things."
Colin thought about that for a moment before shivering.
"Didn't need to know that. Should I be worried about Damian then?"
Mar'i laughed. Damian was hardly threatening.
"I think my dad failed to teach Damian the more subtle things he does."
Colin raised an eyebrow and questioned, "should I be worried about you?"
Mar'i giggled.
"I'm not too good at that. Dad says I'm a terrible liar. Then again, he's well trained at picking out lies so, maybe I'm good and don't know it?"
"I really don't know. Unless you've lied since we've met?"
"Not that I can think of."
"Damian's not a good liar either," Colin pointed out. "The same night we met, I figured out who he was. It was hard not to, with the flips he was pulling off everywhere."
Mar'i's heart did a little leap in her chest and she grabbed Colin's arms.
"You have to tell me!" she squealed. She had heard the story from her dad's point-of-view however, her dad had turned up to find a bulky Abuse and blood-masked Damian standing by a hole in the ground, claiming they didn't kill anyone. She really wanted to know what happened and not just her father's deductions. Especially now that Colin mentioned he figured out Damian's identity; she really wanted to know how.
Colin hesitantly agreed and Mar'i felt her face heat up as a few people around them seemed a little too attentive. There were a couple a people laughing and she couldn't help thinking they were laughing at them. It was just too well timed.
"Uh, sorry," she muttered, pulling her hair over the side of her face. Her purple headband had been replaced with a green hairband her mother had bought her. The purple one was Nightstar's, who wore her hair down. Mar'i wore her hair up in a ponytail.
"It's alright," Colin said. He was used to the stares. "I'm often alone anyway. Ever since they made me repeat a grade."
"They made you repeat a grade? Why?" Colin raised his eyebrow again and Mar'i sighed. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?" She had a bad habit of asking people for 'stories'. It was her father's fault. Most of her interactions with him involved stories of heroes and villains as he told her happened since the last time they talked.
"I'm not sure what, but I guess I can tell you later," Colin responded.
Damian sat outside the school on his motorcycle, looking extremely bored.
"You have got to be kidding me," he grumbled when Mar'i and Colin walked out together. "Why are you two together?"
"Why are you here?" Mar'i countered, cocking a hip and smirking as she turned his question back on him.
"Sorry, but we do go to the same school," Colin said. "And Mar'i's nice."
"Of course she is," Damian muttered in a scolding tone. "She's Grayson's daughter."
"I'm going to ignore that comment," Mar'i responded. She was her own person and so much more than her father's daughter.
For one thing, she could actually fly.
"And I'm going to ignore you. I'm here to pick Colin up."
"Really?" Colin was surprised.
"Of course. This is your bike."
"Uh, not it's not."
"I owed you a bike after borrowing and crashing your other one. Here's your new one so get on already!"
"You did what?" Clearly, this was the first time Colin had heard this. "Is this why you haven't returned it? Damian, I liked that bike!"
"And I got you this one. Jason says it's a good model and I modified it for our kind of work."
Colin gave Mar'i a hesitant look.
"Go. I'll meet you two tonight," Mar'i said to them.
"Sure," Colin responded as he walked over to the bike. He immediately started insisting that, because it was 'his', he was driving. Damian tried to argue but, he had said that the bike was Colin's and Mar'i was all too happy to join Colin's side and remind Damian of that.
Nightstar was first up that night. She was going to try walking around as 'Batman Damian's bait' later and see if that changed her odds of hitting whatever disaster was causing young women to vanish.
Mar'i walked out of her family apartment and down to one of her father's safehouses in order to change. She didn't like the way the cameras had seemed to follow her and she didn't want to be waking up to any more bats or birds in her room (and she wasn't talking about the animal kind).
Nightstar took to the rooftops. She helped an old lady cross the street; the lady had been almost unable to see with the bags of food she had been carrying. Then she listened to a runaway teen, who cried about how their father was doing things they didn't like. She then helped the teen to the police station and made a point of staying with them while they told the police their story.
When she left the police station, across the surrounding rooftops, she was stopped by a mild but demanding voice.
She smiled and turned. Red Robin stood there in all his red and black glory. He was frowning, even as she greeted him with a happy, 'hi'.
"You are Nightstar, correct?" he said.
"You hear that from Batgirl?" she responded, still trying to be pleasant.
"Didn't have to. You're creating quite a stir."
Nightstar raised her eyebrows. She hadn't expected that. After all, she was just one vigilante of the many in Gotham (yet another reason to pick Gotham).
"Really?"
"Yes." Wow, Red Robin was gritting his teeth. What about her annoyed him so much?
"That's cool and all but, why are you cornering me on rooftops? I already had the 'you shouldn't be doing this' talk with Batgirl."
"Yeah. She mentioned that. She had a feeling you wouldn't listen. What I find interesting is that we can't find you."
"What do you mean?" Nightstar asked innocently.
"We're trying to figure out who you are and why you're doing this but, you seem to vanish from our radar every night."
That explained the cameras.
"Oh, sorry. My daddy always says I should never give my name to strangers," she teased. It was actually true. Her dad had coached her on how to interact with strangers so that she didn't give away any information. He was always paranoid that one of his enemies would come after her. "But you already know me. I'm Nightstar." It was a combination of her parents' hero names so it was enough to pass for a 'real name' in her book.
Red Robin did not look amused.
"-tt-, honestly Nightstar, you've not going to last in Gotham, if you keep bugging the local flora and fauna."
"Batman," Red Robin hissed, not happy to see him.
"Batman," Nightstar frowned. "You know, I can take care of myself."
"And while you do that, there's a building on fire with people trapped inside." Batman pointed a gloved finger a few streets over where they could see smoke wisping to join with the night sky's clouds.
"I can help with that," Nightstar said, a rush of power going through her. She quickly moved towards the fire, eager to help.
She could still hear Batman and Red Robin talking in the distance behind her.
"A grapple? Now where did she get that?" It was accusatory in tone.
"Don't look at me," Batman growled back at Red Robin. "Her equipment is out-of-date and I wouldn't even let you use it."
Nightstar was slightly offended as her equipment worked fine! It might have looked old, because it was one her dad's old ones, but her dad taught her the basics of its upkeep and modifying it.