Nightwing - Alternate Rebirth – These New Years Lost Chapter – INFINITY RED-
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Chapter 4: Chain Smoke Rooms and Kaboom! Disco – Wing is Back?
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This is a bit cliché, yet MN and Apollo are a thing and Dick still knows him later in the comics. Yet this…will be tricky to pull off. Find out! Finally, back to the dark side of Roku's forbidden mythos! Parody in this, feel free to comment. Will be a bit shorter. Don't expect much else until Dick gets his curse going by Roku, and the organization is obsessed with spider's webs from comic vine web page.
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Dick was sure this club's back bar was by far a lot bolder. It even had a disco floor. Midnighter introduced himself as to look the part for any other S.P. Y. R. A. L agents in the back with the two men. Men at a transgender and gay bar, but who was counting. (My fraternal twin is trans and non-binary, so don't know if they'd care if I used this to dramaticise a bit. All in favor?)
"Unm, this your di –
" A – bub – bup." MN put up a palm at the offensive terms Dick had just spoken. "Your, is to what? My love life and life choices? Did Gotham lean for redder category elections, Gray – man?"
"Gray son…" Dick sighed and swirled his drink without thinking of why this was a bad idea. MN worked for S.P.Y.R.A.L. While Slade had stuck that darn chip into the back of his neck, MN was working up a story of his own to tell by the end of the night. "What's the sitch; I mean, on the organization's –
"Shush, you ever dance before?"
Dick blinked. "I…. have a wife." Dick frowned, seeing MN tut at him for the generalization of societal norms. "So? Plenty of couples don't compete for a trophy…. but didn't you have a thing you used to –
"In a casket, in the ground." Dick snorted. "Why is this turning into you trying to ignore my questions? I should sic Slade on you."
"That douche from another cave – digging reality?" MN raised a brow with a chuckle. "C'mon. Where is the Night owl spirit you bat – boys carry? Dis – co?"
"No." Dick crossed his arms like teen him would have done. "I'm not dancing to get you off –
" Ohhh –
"The HOOK." Dick seethed. "We have a mission."
"And that bar tend is the informant, dummy."
Dick blinked. "Dance…a cover? I –
MN nodded and gripped the reluctant hero in casual clothing to throw off his jacket and bare their chests on the disco style floor.
"One round, you an' me. Think you can pelvic thrust me off that stage, golden bird?"
Dick took the challenge in hand and brought his new mask of a performer to dangle for all to see.
"Well, how can I say no? We came all this way, might as well funk up the floor and walk to that, bar for a few words…. if you get me?" (Dick is rusty in jive and so, lingo is not his strong suit!)
"That…. will do, kid."
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Dick was the baddest bird in his twenties at that point, still there yet he was a cop. A dead weight Nancy who had the party ethic of a mathlete geek in middle school. Well, MN knew how to liven up the place. So much so, that the bar tender nudged for the men to waltz over to the back – back room. The owner was too busy dancing to "Boogie Fever" to tell that these handsome hunks had left the arena…
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"We might as well turn on a light."
Right then, lights did go on as Dick spied a few characters. One was a woman seated with a casual shrug of her dark black hair over her shoulder, purple lip stick as Dick gulped at the huffing other he imagined to be her partner; a man in a turban who was keeping his weapon concealed by his stance on the sofa beside the woman. Both wore suits, familiar to Dick's SPYRAL outing a few days ago.
"Welcome, Agent 37." She sat up and her face broke out to reveal a rather cunning smirk upon those painted lips.
"This, isn't a situation where we should get to know each other, is it?" MN asked the two and her other agents in the room. "Only he may stay, for now you already know who we are."
MN nodded, standing guard by the door as he ushered the woman to speak what could not be said.
"We cool."
"Does, that mean…he's a friend of yours..." Dick wondered carefully, the turban wearing agent was giving him a death glare from across the small room.
"Richard, you signed up to become one of the pack. I should tell you, that Midnighter is an associate by his involvement in past…. events. We have a mutual trust in one another, but what about you?"
"I'm an officer of the law who's been brought to the conclusion that my job will be at risk if I don't try." He shrugged with a nervous chuckle. "I can't take it seriously enough, that you'd want me to meet you….Miss…."
"Helena, but you can call me…. Matron. It's my code name." She grinned and leaned into her hand. "Use it wisely, Agent."
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"This is The Tiger, and you'll know the rest of our family of rejects soon enough. We hunt and secure secrets even the governments and the world, even Batman can't tap into our station. If you denounce the role, you play here, come and play with my superiors for a while, I'll be sure to get your office the deal it needs to crack its own cold cases. Name it."
"Excuse me?" Dick blinked at the details she was spewing without a care. "What are you asking for me to name?"
"What you want if you survive this, if the man or woman who put you into our ranks was intent on getting what they wanted through a negotiation with my higher ups." Helena told the hero. "Nightwing can stay here, we don't need his help right now. Just, Agent 38. Will you finally take the plunge, hero? Batman will already be fully aware the time you come home from your mission with us."
"How long will I be away from Blud." Dick asked. "Away from the city I'm supposed to protect."
"Not long, hero." The Tiger grunted and sat up; his mass as impressive as Slade's –
Dick swallowed that thought. Or Midnighter's as he stood whistling by the door, waiting to escort Dick from this place. Most likely to wake up with partial amnesia and under a new identity…
"We only trust you for the job. Take it, it might be enough to return to your family –
"You won't bring them into this." Seethed the hero as his fists went to clench. "Helena, Tiger? Give your superiors your word and theirs that no blackmail will happen this trial…. or else Nightwing won't come quietly."
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~Did Agent 38 seem dependable. ~
"Not as malleable as he wants, but that's up to the boss if he's the one we want to earn a rank in the organization." Helena paused and watched the two men walk off. After she'd bribed MN to bring Dick in cuffs and a bag to the rendezvous point, he'd reconsider this as just a mini vacation. "He also, pleaded that we not use "blackmail" over his family." She huffed and let the door shut as she talked to her boss through her ear comm. Good thing too, her long hair was not there for show.
~I'm maintaining our luck with keeping his allies from discovering our plans on the project; Batman and Deathstroke are over protective of that blue dove. I'd like to meet him one time or another…in person. Helena. Be sure he exceeds what this organization stands for. ~
"As you wish, Matron. Signing off."
She sighed and nodded to The Tiger; his frown as bad as her anxiety was over their new cadet.
"Is this man even worth Mr. Minos's time?"
"Tiger…. we can laugh at this plan until the city crumbles, you know." She shrugged and flipped her hair back as he followed her out the back in single file. "Grayson is who Agent 0 wants, so Minos had no choice but to hire us to lure that bird into the spider's web."
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