AN: This follows Choices and Ultimatums, but has a three year time jump. Dick is now nineteen, Jason died about two years ago and Tim is now Robin.

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Nightwing reached his hand up to his comm. "Penguin is still in Arkham, right?"

"Confirmed," said Batman.

"Looks like his number two is carrying on the business."

"Grundy skipped town when Penguin was apprehended," stated Batgirl.

"Well, he's back and he's brought friends," said Nightwing.

"Report!"

Nightwing rolled his eyes at Batman's command. He was getting to that point, could the guy not show a little bit of patience every once in a while? "Gotham Docks, pier nineteen. I count eight guys including Grundy, all armed. They're unloading crates, I can't see what's in them-"

"Stay put and observe," ordered Batman. "Wait for us to get to you before engaging."

"Understood," said Nightwing as he moved along the container edge he was perched on to get a better look. Grundy was ordering people about and the thugs appeared to be listening. Perhaps Grundy was looking to take over rather than just wait for Penguin?

A noise behind Nightwing sounded through the night, making Grundy and his men look up and see exactly where Nightwing was standing, having him turn to see who might becoming towards him, but nobody was there. Turning back to look at the operation going on on the ground had eight men staring straight at him.

"Ahh crap!" Nightwing jumped off the container and dropped behind crates that were stacked on the ground, as gunfire started and all aimed at him.

Waiting for the gunfire to stop he drew his escrima sticks before launching himself over the crates and towards the thugs.

He hit the closest arm of a thug that was still had a gun raised, the snap of the elbow joint followed by the scream of the thug sounded through the night drowning out the other shouts from the thugs who were rushing towards him.

Nightwing rolled under a fist that was swung towards him, kicking out at the ankles of the guy which knocked him to the floor and landed on his back. Nightwing hit the guy in the solar plexus with his escrima, winding him, before rolling back to his feet.

Nightwing pressed the comm. in his ear before he quickly moved both escrimas up to a cross-guard to block a piece of rebar aimed for his head.

"Change of plan, they saw me. Engaged with targets."

"What?" asked the guy in front of him in confusion.

"I'm not talking to you," grinned Nightwing as he removed his escrimas from the guys path then quickly punched the guy in the nose, blood instantly gushing as the cartilage broke.

"You broke my nose!" wailed the guy.

"I did," smirked Nightwing. "Now I'm going to break a rib." He kicked at the floating rib on the left side of the guy's chest, instantly stopping the guys screams as he gasped for breath.

Ducking under another piece of rebar that another thug aimed at him from the side, he came up quickly to kick the guy in the stomach, knocking him backwards into his comrades.

"Don't take risks, I'll be there in five," stated Batman.

Nightwing ignored the chatter going on in his ear between Robin, Batgirl and Spoiler as they informed him of their ETA, his only job was to keep moving.

He continued to weave in and out of the thugs, blocking where he could and hitting out at others. He didn't know how many thugs were here, there seemed to be more than the original eight he'd counted, and he hadn't seen Grundy yet.

Out the corner of his eye he saw something shine, taking a quick look he saw Grundy holding a very large automatic gun. Moving quickly, he dived behind the crates he had originally dropped behind as bullets flew towards him for the second time that night. Wood splintered around him as the crate was hit, a piece sliding across his cheek.

"Don't just stand there, get him!" shouted Grundy as the gunfire stopped.

Nightwing didn't wait for anyone to come looking, he rolled out from behind the crates and launched his own attack.

There were several men on the ground some bleeding and trying to crawl away, others were not moving and the thought that they could be dead crossed Nightwing's mind for a moment before he focused on the guys still standing. Grundy and four others.

He jumped and landed in the space in the middle of the five of them, putting all of them in the cross-fire if they went for guns again – not that Grundy seemed to care about downing his own men.

Using his escrimas as an extension of himself, Nightwing spun and kicked out in fast succession, not letting any of the thugs get close enough to get their own hits in, only stopping when it was just Grundy left standing.

"So, how about you just give up now and-"

Something hit Nightwing in the right side above his hip with enough force to make him step backwards. Looking down he saw a blade of some kind sticking out of his body, he looked back at Grundy who looked just as confused as he did. There was someone else out here with them.

Still searching the shadows to see where the attack had come from, he didn't notice Grundy's fist coming towards him until it collided with his face. The force of the hit had Nightwing crashing to the floor, gasping as he felt the blade slide out of his body.

Gritting his teeth, Nightwing pushed himself up so he was sitting on his heels, looking up just in time to see Grundy's fist coming towards him again, right before it hit him, sending his head backwards, colliding with the edge of a shipping crate, and making the world disappear.

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"Put him down!" yelled Spoiler as she skidded to a stop, from where she had been running towards pier nineteen.

Nightwing wasn't moving as he was being held up by one arm by a creepy guy dressed all in black with a hood covering his head.

The man turned to face her, she couldn't make out any facial features as the hood covered his face too, but she could count the knives strapped across his chest and the sword across his back.

Nightwing hadn't mentioned this guy when he called in the activity.

The guy kept holding Nightwing up like it was no effort at all, he looked up to the top of the shipping containers where Batgirl and Robin had just landed. Remaining silent as he looked back at Nightwing, almost like he was considering something. Then he just dropped Nightwing and launched himself up and onto the top of a shipping crate and took off running.

"Spoiler, stay with Nightwing," ordered Batgirl as she took off running across the top of the containers, Robin on her heels as they followed the man in black.

Spoiler ran forward, jumping over bodies of fallen thugs. The last one she recognized as Grundy, he was definitely dead, his throat slit. So she knew that the mystery guy had done that, so wasn't part of Grundy's men, which just made it all the more mysterious.

Kneeling down next to Nightwing, she crouched low to check his breathing, relieved to find even breaths. "Come on dude, time to wake up now. Don't leave me with the dead guys," stated Spoiler as she started checking his body for injuries. Finding the wound on his right side, she gently pushed Nightwing more onto his back so she could get a better look. It was deep and bleeding a lot, no pressure bandage was going to stop that bleeding enough for them to get Nightwing back to the cave.

Reaching into her belt she pulled out a small silver packet, shaking it slightly before using her teeth to tear the corner open.

"Alright buddy, don't punch me," she muttered as she poured the powder onto the wound.

Immediately the wound started to bubble and fizz as the blood started to coagulate, reaching forward to place her hands on his shoulders as the older man's body tensed, his eyes snapping open as he yelled in agony.

"Easy, easy. Just take a breath," instructed Spoiler, though she had no idea if Nightwing could actually hear her.

Nightwing suddenly went limp beneath her, she eased up on his shoulders as she looked down at the wound, which was now closed. Moving closer to Nightwing's head, she brushed his bangs out of his eyes as they blinked slowly up at her. Right before he turned quickly and vomited all over her.

"I would have preferred the punch!" groaned Spoiler as she held her arms out, not wanting to touch her own body, the smell of puke clogging her nose. Nightwing though had passed out again.

The sound of the Batmobile pulling up behind them had her standing, and rolling her eyes as vomit dripped from her. Batman didn't say anything as he walked passed her and started inspecting Nightwing, before he picked him up in his arms and walked back to the car.

"Call this into GCPD before coming back to the cave," ordered Batman.

"What? You can't leave me out here, we're on the other side of town!"

Batman looked back at her, looking her up and down. "You're not getting in the car, like that," he said right before he got behind the wheel and drove off.

"You've got to be kidding me!"

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AN: I'm hoping Spoiler wasn't too OOC, I'll admit that I don't know a huge amount about her characterisation, but from other people's works I like how they write her sass. As always your thoughts are always appreciated.