Grayson and the Outlaws
The Mission: VI
"Matron..." Came the voice behind the desk in the dim red lit room. The weird, dark, and eerie crimson office was occupied by the curly haired Italian and Spyral's faceless mastermind. The latter seated in his chair, going through files on his computer as his best spy stood in front of him. He was looking at her from the corner of his eye, but of course she wouldn't be able to tell thanks to his constant swirl of a face. "Word from Agent 37 yet? It's been quite some time since he's presumably been captured."
Helena held her arms behind her back, standing up straight and dignified as if everything were all right. But she was stressing in her thoughts. Grayson was her responsibility, her hand picked partner. She was too slow and allowed him to be captured and it was eating at her these past couple of days. But if she knew him like she thought she did, he was just fine. He was always fine... Call it wishful thinking for a comrade. But was that really it? Dick once told her that he tells her his stories so that she could get to know him better. And whenever she asked why it was even relevant he would always answer: 'Because. To know me is to love me.' Stupid. He always said it with that stupid grin of his. "Nothing yet..." She finally replied softly.
"Oh what a shame. You are dismissed." Mr. Minos waved his head agent out of his office. He just wanted to see her reaction. She was attached to the retired hero. It was all too evident. Truth be told, he knew everything his new agent was up to. The implant worked as a tracker. If the Spyral implant was still doing its job then he had his location. He didn't do anything because he wished to see if the oh so great Nightwing could save his own ass. He had no intentions on babying the man that's supposedly as skilled as The Batman himself. He'd give him another day.
Enemy Facility. Cell Block A. Holding Room.
Pinning Grayson to the wall by his throat now was someone radiating with a fiery aura. Blue eyes meeting green. Red hair a mess. Tanned body tense. Face confused with anger. An orange fist raised. She was about to pummel him in a fit of blind fury.
In shock the dashing spy was lost in thought. "Kori...?" Dick did the only thing he knew to escape what would be a bloody confrontation like this. He kissed the tan beauty...
"That skank just kissed my boyfriend..." Agent Clancy dead panned. And Red Hood sighed, the poor girl had no clue what that secretive spy was doing to her. The sad little hypnotized undercover spy lady...
Arsenal was about to go bat-shit crazy! The fucking weirdo kissed his girlfriend. His girl! The redhead was readying up his bow and lining it up so that he would hit this imposing freak in his swirly little face! But a hand was placed on his shoulder. Red Hood. Arsenal watched Jason nod in disapproval. This time it was Jaybird calming Roy down from a temper tantrum. Let whatever this is play out.
Starfire's grip on Grayson lightened, but she still had him pinned to wall. The anger in her eyes shifted to that of soft compassion. She was feeling like a giddy teenager from that swift heart fulfilling kiss. Like when she was younger with... Oh no.
Grayson watched the eyes of the stunning woman in front of him widen as if she had come to realize something. Shit. Was that kiss too much for her?
She shook her head in attempt to shake the painful thoughts from her memories. No. This couldn't be, but everything in her head started clicking, setting off a chain reaction of revelations. She couldn't see his mouth, but she damn sure felt the slip of the sneaky tongue wiggle its way pass her lips. And that was all it took. She took her free hand and placed it on Grayson's chest. Immediately she rubbed down to his stomach, memorizing the rigid muscles until she started to move towards the spy's face. With that free hand, she cupped the side of his hidden face.
She knew. He just knew it. Dick took her hand off his cheek, placing it to her side slowly. He didn't say anything. He couldn't... What was he supposed to say? Sorry for attempting to spare your feeling of I'm not dead...?
"Again..." Before Grayson could think of anything to stop her, the alien princess dove in. Closing the little space between them. A kiss. Deeper. Longer. More affectionate. Heart warming. She felt complete at this moment. Yes she was being selfish; she knew exactly whom she was kissing. She lied to herself... Telling herself she needed to be sure it was him by delivering a kiss of her own. She forgot everything around them. The enemies, the situation, her teammates, all of it... Except the man currently locking lips with her. Just the two of them again, like it used to be.
But unfortunately for our Agent 37 he couldn't enjoy it as much as he would have liked to. His brain was unconsciously over analyzing everything. Damn it! But he was still letting her lead the kiss. When he thought it was done, she only went back for the next round of suffocate the spy... and he let her.
She finally released his lips, "Dick..." She whispered into his neck as she fought back the tears. "I almost... I-I'm so sorry..." She whined quietly in his embrace.
Grayson gave off his goofy smile. That all so stupid and innocent smirk. "All that from a kiss huh?" He placed his hands on the small of her back, rubbing it gently.
She looked up into his eyes, well where they were supposed to be. She smiled all too purely. It was nothing but her genuine feelings arising after a long time of sinking into the depths of her soul. Hidden for so long. And then she gave him a chilling reply. "I know everything about you. Everything, Dick..." It just took her time to figure it out and come out of denial.
It was then Grayson realized she wasn't pinning him to the wall anymore. She was embracing him lovingly as she kept the levitating above ground. Damn it. Now he was feeling giddy...
Zip!
Grayson's hand shot out in front of him, grabbing the arrow that had flown through the air with ease. Those damn Bat-reflex exercises sure came in handy. He inwardly chuckled. But he couldn't even reminisce about such things because he had to turn his attention to the infuriated redhead of an archer who just initiated the attack.
Arsenal was giving his target the stink eye as Star brought the both of them to the ground. He couldn't believe it! He just hypnotized his woman into kissing him? Wasn't one hot hypnotized chick enough for him? He loaded another arrow and shot again.
Grayson moved himself slightly to the side, avoiding the arrow aimed for his head. It would've been a dead shot, but this spy wasn't going to have it that way. "What's the big idea?" He had no intentions of starting a fight with his old friend for whatever reason.
"Get your swirly face hypnotizing ass away from my girlfriend." Arsenal yelled. He could feel his blood boiling. His muscles tightened trying to hold back that rage only a little bit. But he wasn't sure how long that would hold when he wanted to pummeled this guy until anyone could barely make out his face. Well you know what he means...
The words of Arsenal hit Grayson fast and hard. He looked from his childhood friend to his first love... A look of shock set in, but unbeknownst to anyone. He felt his heart sink... Was that really how it was? Had Star moved on to Roy? One of his closest friends? Why would Roy do something like that after knowing what happened between he and Starfire? It was started to make him feel sick... Sad and sick to his stomach...
"I had to hypnotize her... She was about to kill me..." He kept his eyes on the orange vixen; he was so glad she couldn't make out the expression on his face. But hers... Hers was the same he'd felt... Hurt. Confused. Deceived. Betrayed? "Just go along with it..." He whispered with a depressing undertone in his voice.
Starfire's eyes had indeed widened in realization in what Dick was doing. He hadn't hypnotized her, he was just trying to make it easy on the both of them. Keep his identity safe and her from the questioning of her actions. At that thought Star's cheeks hide a tent of red. That kiss... It was very much real. The heated kiss was really from the man that held her heart. Heart stopping. She felt butterflies in her stomach. But she knew she'd have to act as if this was nothing... As if she just hadn't figured out Dick was still very much alive. So reluctantly, she moved away from the secret agent and towards the team of Arsenal and Red Hood.
Arsenal pull Kori to his side, but not before giving the spy his best bat-glare. Red Hood noticed this and had to hold in a chuckle. It was a nice attempt, but not quite there. That was when Red Hood remembered who actually gave Batman's glare a name... Dick.
"Maybe we should go our separate ways from here." Red Hood spoke out. "I wouldn't want a fight to break out; that would be counterproductive." He said as he looked at his angry possessive teammate.
Grayson scratched the back of his head awkwardly as Agent Clancy made her way towards him. "Yeah, that would be great."
"Alright, it's settled." Red Hood looked at Star and pointed upwards towards the ceiling. She nodded and instantly a beam of energy shot through the top of the building. "Star take us out before lover boy makes another move." Whether he spoke of the spy or his teammate was unknown.
Starfire let out a deep breathe of air as she grabbed both Jason and Roy. She didn't want to leave Dick... Quite the opposite. She wanted to tell him how much she missed him. How mad she was at the 'incident'. She wanted to kiss and make up. Her being away from him so long, allowed her to think some things over. But that didn't turn out well... With watery eyes she flew the trio out of the building as the deafening alarms rang throughout the building. She wanted to say bye so bad...
Grayson stood there looking up at what he could once call friends and family... He would have dwelled on that fact if it wasn't for Agent Clancy forcibly poking his chest angrily...
"Don't you ever do that again mister! I don't care if you're about to die or not, never kiss another woman while you're with me! You here?!" The short haired double agent was trying to drill useless information into his head... Grayson seriously was started to regret what started out as a joke.
'Maybe I should have made her a wannabe mime instead of a nagging starstruck girlfriend...' He thought but quickly changed his mind. "Nope. Mimes are annoying as hell with their stupid box trick." He laughed.
"What the hell are you talking about mimes for?!" She agitatedly yelled. But all of a sudden they were surrounded.
Damn it. This woman was his responsibility now. He put her in this situation and had to get her out. But how? This wasn't looking well... Grayson sighed as he put his hands up.
"Three targets have escaped. Over." An agent spoke calmly into his comm. "Yes sir. The Spyral agent is still present, but the agent charged with uncovering his identity has been compromised. Over." After a small pause everyone's guns aimed at the two. "Eliminate the remaining targets."
"Man this brings back memories." Grayson said just before dropping a smoke bomb. He quickly pulled Clancy into his side and aimed his escrima stick up towards the hole created by the alien princess. Grayson and his hypnotized accomplice then grappled out onto the roof.
"What now? They're sure to follow." Clancy stated. "A little smoke won't stop these guys."
"Unless that smoke is an oneirogenic general anesthetic." Grayson smirked. His nerdy side had just unearthed itself, "I mean knockout gas." He chuckled.
"But where do we go from here?" Clancy asked. They wouldn't be able to escape from this area in time with all the surrounding enemy agents. But she saw her 'boyfriend' pointing upwards. "Huh?"
Above them a helicopter had revealed itself from camouflage mode. See, before he rescued Arsenal and Red Hood he did some researching. Apparently this base hid a couple of captured enemy helicopters. And he took full advantage of that by 'borrowing' one of them. He was just lucky as hell Starfire's bolts didn't destroy the damn thing. "Let's get you out of here."
...
Pacific Ocean.
Grayson was flying the plane back to Spyral base. Well not exactly to it, but to a location where he could dispose of the helicopter, then he and previous double Agent Clancy make their way to St. Hadrian Finishing School. And figure out what to do with her then.
But one thing he was thinking about now was none other than Kori. He couldn't shake the feeling of being heart broken. Yeah he was mad, but it was overshadowed by his grief. He hated feeling like this... Hopefully he'd get over it soon. Let it go. Forget about it. But he always did that, leave his problems behind all because he didn't know how to deal with them. People think it's easy to forgive and forget, but it's not. Grayson knows that first hand with all the problems he's had over the years. It's just that... This situation cut him deep... He told Roy after the incident what happened. He knew damn it! Weren't he and Roy friends? Grayson never went for his friend's ex-girlfriends because of respect. He was above that! Wasn't he? He thought so... "Ugh... I just wanna punch something..." He said under his breathe, keeping his eyes on the skies...
Outlaws Base. Area Unknown.
Red Hood was seated on the beat up sofa. He was cleaning his guns off, leaning over a wooden table which his red helmet sat on. He could here the noise of his two companions, but he was disinterested. He couldn't make out the loud voices. His thoughts were elsewhere. That guy... His mannerisms were so familiar. As if he had studied them once upon a time. Not to mention that damn feeling he gave off. His aura. It all felt so damn like HIM! But being logical it couldn't have been THAT guy. He was dead. They buried him, he was THERE! He saw the cold dead body lying in the casket. Everything was very much real. No one was playing with his head... NO ONE would ever play with HIS mind ever again! Jason slammed his gun down on the table. Resting his head in the palms of his hands. "Then again I'm not logical... I died, but I'm here..." He sighed, "So just maybe..." He slammed his fist on the couch, in denial. "He's dead. I know for a fact because Bruce would have told us... he's never coming back..." Jason reassured himself...
Tidbits #1: The character Bridget Clancy was originally Dick's landlady before the New 52. They dated for a while.
Tidbit #2: There is a separate Nightwing #30 that was unpublished that showed Dick's funeral which I refereed to. You can find it online though.
Tidbit #3: If you didn't know Dick was killed by Lex Luther in the events of Forever Evil while strapped to the Death Machine. But was immediately resuscitated.
C.o.B. (A/n): And there goes the conclusion of The Mission Arc. Just how much will this encounter between The Outlaws and Grayson change things? What is the 'incident'? Why did Roy even try to hook up with his friend's hot ex-girlfriend? What's the fate of the double agent now on bad terms with her previous organizations? Will Helena's feelings get in the way of Agent 37 and Starfire? Well the next Arc is next! Hope you enjoy!