Ladies and Gentlemen, I present a new chapter for you to read. Hope everyone enjoys it and hopefully I'll be able to upload a second chapter this month depending on my schedule, but as of now it looks like a possibility.
Not a lot to answer in the way of questions left for reviews expect for here is the next chapter for those who asked for another update.
Anyway, I don't own anything DC and on to the chapter...
YOUNG JUSTICE
THE BIG DUMMY
GOTHAM CITY
September 9, 18:00 EDT
"Welding tools, motion control gyroscopes, and now construction equipment?!" Alfred asked, stunned, holding up a damaged Red Robin costume, with gashes in the front.
Red Robin sat up on the operating table, grimacing as Bruce was stitching up the open wounds on his chest.
"I agree with Alfred, Bruce," Nathan said, slightly pouting at his new solo assignment, "Ow!" Nathan hissed as he flinched back from Bruce.
"I have a hunch these are connected," Bruce started, still stitching together Nathan's battered chest.
"A hunch?" Nathan whined, "come on Bru! Ouch! Cut that out!" Nathan hissed again, only getting a smirk from Bruce in return.
"I might have let you start to do team missions again, but you're still on probation, so you do what I assign to you," Bruce spoke sternly, looking at Nathan as he did so.
"Alright," Nathan signed in defeat, "Still think it's a wild goose chase though."
"Done," Bruce spoke as he finished closing up Nathan's last wound from his previous mission. "I have more work to attend to with the Justice League, so I'm leaving you and Alfred to handle this."
"Sir yes sir," Nathan replied, giving Bruce a salute. Bruce shook his head as he left his protégé and butler to start with their task.
After watching Bruce leave, Nathan walked over to the Bat-Computer and started to get to work.
"Nathan don't-" was all Alfred got out before Nathan hit a button to get rid of what was currently on the screen only for the next thing, he saw on the screen to startle him.
"Is that my text thread with Barbara?" Nathan asked, looking it over, "I didn't send those last two texts," he said, spinning in the chair to give the butler in the room his bat-glare.
"I did," Alfred admitted, "Your relationship with Barbara is in disarray," Alfred started, "You literally forgot your relationship with her on your last mission. I only sought to try and help you and get your dating life back on track."
"Thanks Alfred, but I can handle this," Nathan spoke genuinely.
"Clearly." Alfred retorted, rolling his eyes.
"Hey I'm well ahead of Bruce and Dick seeing as neither of them have a girlfriend."
Alfred smiled and walked over to the bat-computer and hit a few buttons and Nathan couldn't contain his laughter.
"I started working on this for Master Bruce." Alfred explained, with a smile on his face. On the bat-computer was an online dating profile that Alfred was in the middle of building for Bruce.
"Oh, you gotta let me help," Nathan smirked going over Bruce's profile, "Interests huh…" he smirked as he clicked the text box.
"Careful," Alfred warned, but wore a smile on his face, "What is Master Bruce's interests?" he pondered.
"Dispensing justice to the evil doers of Gotham," Nathan replied in his best Batman voice.
"How about 'Enjoys athletic pursuits.'" Alfred offered.
"Good," Nathan agreed, typing it in, "driving fast cars and… being a night owl." he spoke aloud as he typed. After finishing the rest of Bruce's profile, they clicked submit and started trying to find matches.
"Here we go," Nathan spoke, pulling up a girl who lived in Gotham, "Her name is Becky."
Alfred looked at the screen and a smile grew, "I'm usually social but sometimes I retreat to my cave…"
Just then the screen flashed with a break-in in progress.
"Gotham Air and Space Museum," Red Robin said, "Looks like I got to run and you have to set up Bruce with… Becky" Nathan smirked at Alfred as he rushed to put his upper half of his costume back on. Once on, Nathan slid down one of the poles in the Batcave to the bottom level and jumped on his bike and sped off, screeching the tires.
GOTHAM AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
September 9, 18:22 EDT
Red Robin arrived on scene and made his way inside through the rooftop of the Gotham Air and Space Museum and landed on one of the planes that were hoisted in the air and watched as directly below him two bigger thugs were hauling a fuselage frame out on wheels. They stopped underneath Red Robin and he decided now would be a good time to introduce himself.
"I still want to know how this stuff is supposed to make us rich," one goon voiced to the other.
"Funny you should ask," came a voice from above them. Both thugs looked up in time to see Red Robin land on top of the fuselage frame, "been wondering that myself."
Red Robin hopped down from the fuselage frame and found himself between the two bigger thugs. Red Robin watched both thugs with calculating eyes to see which one moved first and before long he got his answer.
The thug to his left moved first and charged with a cry, hands up to grab the teenage sidekick, but Robin ducked under him and used the thug's momentum to judo throw him toward his friend. The second thug ducked and his friend flew past him and hit a display case behind him, shattering the glass.
The second thug then charged Red Robin, but he easily ducked and then jumped and landed a few feet away from the thug to keep distance between himself and his bigger opponent. He then let loose a birdarang towards the goons head, who ducked as the birdarang whizzed past.
"You got a lousy aim kid, nothing like The Bat," the thug smirked.
"Wasn't aiming for you," Red Robin spoke in a sing-song voice, as something snapped behind the thug.
The thug's eyes went wide and turned around just in time to see a space capsule swing down and hit him in the gut, launching the goon towards the wall behind Red Robin. Red Robin then turned to make sure he dodged the capsule on the comeback trip and saw the goon hit the wall and then fell on top of a table.
Red Robin then turned to see the space capsule swing back into a display case, shattering it, but also hitting a lever that switched on a nearby plane. The plane's propeller started up and was gaining speed as time went on. The whole plane then started to rotate clockwise on top of the display platform.
Red Robin then heard a noise to his right and looked over and saw one of the goons throw a small jet towards him and rolled to miss the incoming fighter jet as it continued and smashed off another plane that was behind him.
The goon then charged at Red Robin and shoulder tackled him right into his chest. Red Robin staggered backwards and felt his chest wounds opening slightly and causing him pain. The goon then grabbed and spun before throwing Red Robin towards a plane. Red Robin felt his back hit off of metal and immediately went to his knees, breathing hard. He then got himself up and pulled out his bo staff and rolled out of the way of a punch from the goon that just threw him.
The goon turned towards Red Robin and received a bo staff right to the side of the face staggering the goon back. The goon fell to his knees, giving Red Robin the opening to deliver another swing taking the thug out of the fight for now. Red Robin allowed himself to smirk for a quick second and wipe his bottom lip with his hand to wipe away blood.
"Yo! Bat Freak!" came a 40's gangster voice from behind him.
Red Robin turned around to be greeted by an Al Caponeish puppet in his face. The puppet had on a gray blazer with a black button-down shirt, that had several top buttons unclipped, and gray pants. The puppet also had gold earrings and a gold necklace around its neck. What really stood out though to Red Robin was the massive scar that ran over his right eye.
"What the -?" was all Red Robin could get out before looking past the puppet in his face to the frail man who controlled the puppet. The man was in his late 50s and was professionally dressed as well with a balding head and gray hair along the sides and back, leaving the top part of his head bald.
"Hey!" came the puppet from in front of him, "I'm the one talkin' here."
Red Robin looked back at the puppet and received a 'slap' to the face from the puppet. Red Robin leaned his head to look at the man behind the puppet again, who only gave a slight chuckle.
Red Robin narrowed his eyes at the man, but before he could do anything was shoulder tackled into his right side by the goon he knocked out with his bo staff earlier. The goon then picked up Red Robin, who was dazed on the ground and threw him across the room, till his back hit off a panel next to the rotating bi-plane. As he made to get up, the two thugs slammed a lunar lander on his chest and pinned him to the panel. He quickly looked at the rotating plane with its propeller spinning and immediately tried to lift the lunar lander off him but to no avail.
"Ooh," came the puppet's voice again, "he's headin' for more than a pretty scar."
The puppet's goons then proceeded to finish wheeling the fuselage frame out of the museum.
"Come on dummy let's go" said the puppet looking back at his master, "don't want to splatter the suit," the puppet finished, laughing menacingly.
"Right away Mr. Scarface sir." the man replied before making his exit as well, leaving Red Robin to his fate.
GOTHAM CITY
September 9, 18:17 EDT
Barbara stood over her bed in her bedroom with the door shut and locked. Her father was at work, but she didn't want to take any chances. On the bed was the box that Red Robin had given her a couple days ago, with all new gear inside that she finally was able to get to peek at. She had laid out the batarangs on her bed, after admiring them for hours, and was now about to start looking at the good stuff.
She started with the pellets that for the most part looked similar except for some outer design difference which she figured was to differentiate what each did, so she started sorting them that way and once that was done, grabbed a gun that she saw Red Robin use plenty of times, a grapple gun. She admired it in her right hand and went to put it down, but pulled the trigger and flinched when the gun went off.
Following the slack rope she found the line stuck to her wall next to her bedroom door, "Way to go Barb," she mumbled to herself.
She looked at the gun and rotated it to figure out if there was any way to figure out how to detach the end from her wall. She cursed Red Robin's name under her breath as she stared at the buttons for not giving her a manual to figure this stuff out. She decided to give one button a shot and pressed it and found her wall suddenly getting closer and then pain as she crashed against it and fell to the floor.
"Ugh," she moaned, rubbing her head from her position on the floor, "glad Dad and Red Robin or any of the Bat fam didn't see that." she finished mumbling before trying another button and this time the grapple detached from her wall and landed on her legs. She gave the inanimate object a batglare and then pressed another button and the line reeled back in.
She walked back to her bed and placed the gun down on it and looked into the box and found more pellets. She grabbed a couple and started to place them on her bed when one fell out of her grasp. In her rush and panic she reached out to catch it and the pellet exploded in her hands.
"For the love of…" Barbara coughed out angrily as she tried to make it where she knew her bedroom window was and moved through the smoke and opened it to let the smoke out of her room.
Once she aired out her room, she finished unpacking and then emptied all her old equipment out of her old utility belt, then placed that belt in her closet, then grabbed her new one and started to place her new gadgets in that one. All her old equipment she placed in a backpack to take back to GCPD lockup.
Barbara then dawned her Batgirl outfit and placed her new utility belt around her waist and exited her room through her bedroom window, shutting it once she was out and then proceeded to her rooftop.
Batgirl stood on her rooftop and pulled out her grapple gun and took a deep breath and practiced grappling her way across Gotham. She found herself eventually at an abandoned building and decided this was a good place to practice using her other gadgets.
The building had two floors and Batgirl stood on the second floor and pulled out one of her new batarangs. She took aim at an old empty plastic bottle and threw the batarang. She was surprised when the batarang didn't go anywhere near the bottle and didn't make it as far through the air as she thought it would have before it took a nosedive and embedded itself in the floor of the first floor.
"Huh," Batgirl sighed frustratingly, but determination showed on her face, "I'm gonna have to get used to that."
Several batarangs later Barbara finally managed to to throw a batarang that cut the plastic bottle in two and continued and embedded itself in the wall. Batgirl made her way to retrieve it only for the batarang to start beeping. Batgirl stopped and watched and listened as the beeping got louder and more frequent. Realizing what it was, Batgirl dove for cover just as the batarang exploded, throwing rubble and debris in every direction.
Batgirl, after the dust settled, stepped out from her cover and now noticed the building had a gaping hole in the wall where her batarang once was and mumbled another curse to Red Robin.
GOTHAM AIR & SPACE MUSEUM
September 9, 18:29 EDT
Red Robin, still pinned under the lunar lander was running out of time as the spinning propeller from the rotating bi-plane grew closer and closer to making him headless. Red Robin looked to his right and saw the panel that turned on the plane. The space capsule pinned the lever into the on position and there was no way to undo that so thinking quickly he pulled a birdarang from his belt and threw it at the control panel for the bi-plane. The birdarang embedded itself in the control panel and beeped several times in quick succession and exploded.
The bi-plane continued to rotate for several seconds and the propeller sliced into one of the lunar lander's legs by Red Robin's face, causing him to flinch back before the plane came to a complete stop. Using the weakened leg of the lunar lander, Red Robin was able to break the leg off and cause the lunar lander to fall to the ground freeing himself.
Red Robin, seeing that there was nothing left here to investigate, decided to leave the museum and head back to the batcave to regroup, slightly wincing as he pulled out his grapple gun and left.
BATCAVE
September 9, 18:50 EDT
Red Robin sat at the Batcomputer trying to figure out who the puppet was that almost tried to kill him at the museum.
"Looking at other dolls Nathan? What would Barbara think?" Alfred asked, coming to stand beside the teen hero seated at the batcomputer.
Nathan smirked at Alfred, "Figured there are fewer dummies than thieves in Gotham so I'm trying to I.D. my perp through the publicity headshots. Nathan informed the butler, as he combed through picture after picture.
"There!" Nathan shouted, seeing his perp.
"Scarface?" Alfred asked, "interesting chap."
"Yeah, I'll say," Nathan retorted, rubbing his neck with his right hand as he spoke, "belongs to a small-time performer named Arnold Wesker…" Nathan read, continuing to scan the profile, "one night after an audience booed him off stage, Wesker and the doll robbed them. I'll have the Batcomputer run a search on Wesker."
Just then a notification popped up on the Batcomputer, "Care to chat?" Nathan read allowed with a picture of a woman.
"Becky responded to Master Bruce's chat request, err my chat request." Alfred interrupted.
"Where is Bruce now?" Nathan asked with a smirk.
"Well he should get a notification on his phone. I believe he's doing Wayne Tech business at the moment."
Just then Nathan got another notification on his phone and took a look. Barbara had texted back stating that she would love to go out tonight, and not to worry about the rocky start to their dating relationship.
Nathan smiled and put his phone away, "Thanks Alfred."
"See? Disarray." Alfred responded with a chuckle.
"Yeah yeah."
This time another couple notifications appeared on the Batcomputer, the first was an alert of a break in at the Fuque's Computer Factory and another was a message from Becky introducing herself. Nathan swirled in his chair and made his way over to don his Bat Gear, "Well you handle this Doll, while I handle the other Alfred."
FUQUE'S COMPUTER FACTORY
September 9, 19:15 EDT
Red Robin landed on the rooftop of Fuque's Computer Factory and peered through one of the skylight windows to see Wesker take off with Scarface to an area in the back of the room that was caged off with an 'Authorized Personnel Only' door. Wesker opened it and Red Robin decided to open the window and drop down to introduce himself again.
"Only one heist away from retirement in Montana and the honest work of a cowboy."
"You know," Red Robin stated, getting gasps from the other two in the room, "Arkham Asylum has a thriving retirement community." Red Robin stood on a conveyor belt looking down at the two.
Wesker started to retreat towards the open door behind him.
"Where do you think you're going?" Scarface asked, turning to look at Wesker.
"Texas, maybe Montana," Wesker rescinded before swallowing a lump in his throat.
"Get back in there and take this punk teen out!" Scarface ordered, "Or I get another partner."
Red Robin jumped down from the conveyor belt and slowly walked towards the ventriloquist and his puppet.
"Agh!" Scarface roared in anger and Wesker lunged at Red Robin, but looked like the puppet was actually making him lunge forward. Red Robin easily stepped aside and then pushed Wesker in the back and made him crash into a panel that started the conveyor belt and the machines that were placed along the assembly line started to build what looked like motherboards that were on the conveyor belt.
Wesker got back up to his hands and knees and let out a groan, "Get up already," Scarface chided, "Get back in there."
Wesker stood up and yelled as he charged Red Robin who just stood his ground and punched Wesker in the face, sending Wesker into one of the loading dock doors where Wesker crumpled down to the ground.
"Enough with the act," Red Robin ordered Wesker, who was face first on the floor, "lose the dummy."
Wesker picked himself up to his hands and knees and Scarface looked towards Red Robin, "I would, but he keeps following me around." Scarface retorted back to the teen hero.
"Wait… this isn't an act is it?" Red Robin asked, shocked as he connected the dots in his head, raising an eyebrow as he asked the question.
Wesker charged at Red Robin again, but Red Robin grabbed hold of Scarface as Wesker approached and spun so that he took Scarface from Wesker's hand and after spinning gave Wesker a little shove in his back and made the man fall to his hands and knees again.
"Consider this therapy," Red Robin stated, looking back at Wesker with an unmoving Scarface in his hands.
Wesker looked conflicted and after several seconds charged Red Robin again, "Coming sir!" he stated as he ran forward with determination.
Wesker this time was able to grab hold of Scarface and he and Red Robin entered a tug of war over the puppet, each having a grip of one of Scarface's arms. Red Robin's grip on the pupper slipped and without the opposing pressure provided by Red Robin, Wesker lost his balance and took several steps back but was unable to hold onto Scarface and the puppet flew through the air over the safety glass that separated the conveyor belts from the factory floor.
"No! Mr. Scarface sir! No!" Wesker yelled as he pounded his fists on the glass as Scarface traveled down the conveyor belt. Wesker then tried to climb the safety glass to get to his puppet, but Red Robin rushed over and tried to pull him down, when a door busted open and the two goons from the museum showed up again.
"Red Robin's alive?" one asked, shocked.
"Get him" the other called back, and the two rushed forwards, causing Red Robin to back up and Wesker to climb over the safety glass to try and rescue his puppet.
The two thugs advanced on Red Robin, one threw punch after punch, but Red Robin who now had his bo-staff out was able to block them. Using an opening between punches Red Robin extended the staff out and hit the thug in the stomach, doubling him over and with a spinning swing of his bo-staff hit the thug on the side of the head, knocking him out and leaving him tumbling to the floor.
The other thug has used the time while Red Robin was fighting his partner to get behind Red Robin and grab him in a bear hug, but Red Robin was able to duck under his arms, and did a sweeping leg kick to knock the feet out from under the thug, Red Robin continued the momentum of the kick to swing himself back around and into a standing position and swung his bo-staff down on the thugs head and knocked this thug out as well.
Red Robin looked around for Arnold Wesker and Scarface but didn't see either of them so he turned his attention to the two knocked out thugs on the ground and smirked.
GORDON RESIDENCE
September 9, 19:20 EDT
Batgirl dropped down by her bedroom window and opened her window and climbed back inside, shutting and locking her window behind her. Once inside she immediately got out of her uniform and happened to glance at the clock and a panicked look crossed her face.
"Shoot, I need to get ready for my date tonight," she mumbled to herself and immediately started getting ready.
FUQUE'S COMPUTER FACTORY
September 9, 19:20 EDT
The two Scarface goons hung upside down tied back to back. Red Robin then approached them and pushed him so they swung back and forth several times before stopping them abruptly with his hand.
"Start talking," he stated as intimidatingly as possible, "what's this big heist Wesker's planning?" he asked, narrowing his eyes at the two goons.
Both goons looked at each other with worried faces, "The gold at the Gotham Federal Reserve," the one goon, who was faced away from Red Robin started talking. Red Robin then spun the goons, so that the one talking he could look directly at for a time as he let them continue to spin around as the goon talked,"Scarface err… I mean Wesker, he said he was building something to help us bust in and carry it out."
"He never told us what, honest!" the one shouted
"Hmmmm," Red Robin sighed as he thought to himself, "I think I know what." He then made his leave of the computer factory.
"Hey man," the goon stated, " you can't just leave us here!"
"Oh?" Red Robin asked, stopping to look back over his shoulder at the goons, "Pretty sure I can, GCPD is already on their way since I tripped an alarm for them." he explained to them before leaving.
GOTHAM FEDERAL RESERVE
September 9, 19:33 EDT
Red Robin sped through the streets of Gotham on his motorcycle making his way to the Gotham Federal Reserve building. Red Robin as he sped his comm went off in his ear.
"Hello?" he asked, not knowing who it was, or expecting someone to call him.
"For your date with Barbara," Alfred's voice came over the comm system, "were you thinking semi-formal or semi-casual?" he asked.
"Not really the best time right now Alfred," Red Robin responded with a little bit of his sing-song voice, "Scarface is on his way to the Gotham Reserve."
"Scarface?" Alfred questioned, "don't you mean Wesker?"
"You'd be right either way. It's no act," Red Robin explained, "Wesker is a genuine case of split personality and Scarface is his dominant side."
"Alfred," Red Robin asked as a question came to mind, "if Red Robin is my dominant side, and Batgirl is possibly hers, does my relationship work? I'm not completely like Bruce and I won't sacrifice everything like he does, but I do want to become Batman, or become like Batman."
Before Alfred could give a reply, Red Robin arrived at his location and parked his bike and grappled to a rooftop of a nearby building. Once there he could see Scarface and Wesker were already inside due to the gaping hole in the front of the Federal Reserve building where there should be the front door. Figuring they would leave eventually he bided his time to strike.
Red Robin raised his eyebrows at the giant metal Scarface, with Wesker sitting on his left hand, "Well," Red Robin shrugged, "At least it has a weak spot… Wesker."
Red Robin shot his grapple gun to a nearby gargoyle and swung down at the metal Scarface, who now stood at about fifteen feet tall. Scarface saw him coming and the midsection of the metal former puppet lifted slightly and spun so that when Red Robin swung down to make a pass for Wesker the metal Scarface rotated so that Red Robin came up empty.
Red Robin landed on the ground and quickly looked back at his opponent and prepared for the next move.
"Well, well, look who don't know when to quit," spoke the metal menace as he walked over to a parked car and kicked it toward Red Robin. The car flew through the air, alarm going off as it did, Red Robin quickly dove to the side to miss it, only to look back at Scarface and see him about to bring down a giant adaptation of his gold necklace to squash him. Red Robin quickly dove back towards where the car was smashed on the ground and ran across the building face that was behind him, keeping hold of his grapple gun in order to do so.
As he ran, Scarface swung the giant necklace that carved its own scar into the building following Red Robin. Red Robin pushed off the building and landed back on the road a good distance from Scarface hearing a loud thud hit the ground too as Scarface's necklace crashed to the road several feet from him.
Scarface reached to pick the necklace back up, but Red Robin acting fast, detached his grapple gun from the gargoyle, reeled it back in and fired it again, towards Scarface's outstretched hand. The grapple wrapped around the hand and Red Robin also wrapped the line around the light post nearby then pulled the line taught and pulled Scarface's hand towards him preventing him from picking up the necklace.
Scarface looked irritated and pulled his hand back, sending Red Robin through the air as well as the light pole. Red Robin flew up onto a subway line that ran over the street that he was previously fighting on and hit the ground, skidding to a stop on his side.
"I'm not through with you punk!" yelled Scarface, as he then started to climb up to where Red Robin had landed.
Red Robin got to his feet only to see Scarface climb up to the subway line and pick him up with his other free hand, "That's right squeak toy," Scarface growled, as Red Robin tied to push his way out of Scarface's metal grasp, "I'm unstoppable and I'm gonna hit every bank in Gotham."
"But sir!" cried Wesker from his place in Scarface's other hand, "What about the ranch? You said we'd retire!" Wesker cried.
"Yeah?" Scarface questioned, still having Red Robin stuck in his grasp and hoisted in the air, "Change of plans" Scarface growled.
Red Robin continued to try and push himself up and out of Scarface's grasp when a train horn blew, getting Red Robin's attention. Red Robin reached down to this belt and thanks to the gaps in Scarface's fingers was able to reach for a birdarang.
"Hey Scarface!" Red Robin yelled, getting the robot's attention.
Scarface turned his attention toward the teen in his grasp who then threw the birdarang impaling Scarface's right eye.
"AGH! My eye!" Scarface cried, covering his eye with his free hand. Scarface backed up and tripped over the railroad tracks behind him and fell to the ground, throwing Wesker from Scarface's other hand.
Red Robin landed on the other side of the track, now free and saw Wesker trying to pull the giant robot off the tracks before the oncoming subway train came. Red Robin, seeing Wesker wasn't going to give up on his friend, ran and dived at Wesker, tackling him just before the train screeched by smashing into the metal Scarface and carried on like it was nothing, as gold bricks and pieces of the metal gangster scattered the area.
Red Robin approached Wesker who was looking over his broken friend in sadness, "We were going to go to Texas or maybe Montana," he said to Red Robin, hanging his head as he sighed at the loss of his puppet.
"We all have places we'd rather be." Red Robin said before cuffing Wesker and leaving him for the police, who were sure to arrive any moment. Red Robin then checked the time and panic crossed his face, "I'm gonna be late."
Red Robin then took off to his parked motorcycle and sped off to Wayne Manor to get ready for his date with Barbara.
GORDON RESIDENCE
September 9, 20:39 EDT
Alfred pulled the car up in front of Barbara's house, as Nathan tried to get his hair to do anything that approached a normal look. The cowl on his uniform looked cool, but was the cause of many a bad hair day for him. Nathan was about to call it a lost cause when he heard a distinguished cough come from beside him. Alfred had parked the car and made his way around to his door and had opened it and was now standing there holding out a can of hair gel.
"Mr. Grayson has a habit of leaving these in the car often" Alfred said with a smile.
"Guess, I'll have to thank him for his Foppish nature next time I see him" replied Nathan as he grabbed the hair gel and straightened his hair, checking himself in the reflection of the car window. "Thanks again Alfred for all the assistance, I think I got things from here, let me know how things go for Bruce and Becky." As he made his way to the front door of Barbara's house. Nathan waited on the front step until Alfred had pulled away and then turned to stare at the door and collected his breath and rang the doorbell.
Nathan was just finishing taking his third breath when Barbara opened the door. She was wearing a loose white long sleeved sweater with colored horizontal stripes and small shapes dotted over it, she had the sleeves pulled up to just below her elbows. The sweater was tucked into a mid calf length royal blue skirt that flowed out, with black tights underneath, and flat high heeled boots on. "You find new ways to amaze me with your presence every time I see you" said Nathan with a smile.
Barbara smiled at the compliment, but it quickly shifted into a judgmental glare. "Well maybe you'd have more time to be amazed by me if you didn't ignore my texts for two days! I thought something happened to you!"
Nathan took a step back and put his hands up to ward off the anger. "I'm really, really sorry about that, Dick and I went hiking outside Gotham, and it was only supposed to be a same day affair, but uhh we kinda got lost and had no phone service, so it turned into a camping trip"
"Well that explains why Dick wasn't answering me either I suppose, but honestly you two need to be more careful, what if one of you had gotten hurt? Did anyone even know where you were?" Barbara replied her initial relieved tone changing back to worried and angry once again.
"Bruce knew the general idea of where we were, but we were a bit vague on the plans and he didn't realize we weren't coming back until we did return, he already gave Dick and I an earful when we told him what happened" Nathan quickly replied, going with the flow of the story, reminding himself to text Dick and tell him about the "camping trip" they took. He mentally laughed at himself if one squinted the right way you could consider that mission a camping trip. Nathan almost let himself smile but saw the fear and worry in Barbara's eyes and it brought him back to the present. "I'm really sorry for worrying you, and I'll make sure to be careful in the future"
Barbara looked him in the eyes and finally she sighed and stepped forward to give him a hug "Ok, your forgiven, but you still owe me." she said pulling away as she finished her sentence and put her hands on her hips.
"I'm paying for dinner tonight? Isn't that enough to get me off the hook" asked Nathan.
Barbara laughed and said "Not by a long shot mister, you've already asked me out on this date twice."
"So, this is officially a date?" asked Nathan just wanting to confirm, he hoped but wasn't sure her thoughts on the matter.
"Well, that is what I thought it was, especially since you're the one paying" answered Barbara with her signature grin now back on her face.
"Cool, cool, so a date…" Nathan mumbled as his brain started to go into overload mode thinking of all the things that he should be doing for a date.
"Yeah, a date" Barbara said, watching as Nathan started to sweat a bit. She let him stand there for a moment expecting him to say something but when he didn't she reached out and tapped his forehead. "Why are you acting so weird? We've hung out by ourselves plenty of times before."
Nathan came shooting back to reality and his mouth started before his mind just saying what he was thinking "I don't know… because this is official, like we are going on a date, in public, it feels like it should be different or special"
Barbara giggled and looked reassuringly at Nathan "Well this is our relationship, and I say we get to make the rules, and my first rule is that this won't be weird, and nothing needs to be different. So start acting like your normal funny, charming self, and I'll be my usual polite demure self." She finished this with a play curtsey and folded her hands in front of her gracefully.
"Since when am I charming, or you demure? You can make up all the rules you want, but they do have to stay in the world of reality." Nathan scoffed.
"Are you saying I'm not demure? Barbara asked threateningly.
"I'm saying you are Barbara Gordon, the smartest, feistiest, toughest girl I know" Nathan said as he held out his hand.
"And you said you weren't charming" Barbara joked as she took his hand, and they turned to walk down the stairs.
"I have my moments. So normal, eh? Then how are things going down at GCPD? Any interesting cases lately?" Nathan asked as they started walking down the street towards the diner.
GORDON RESIDENCE
September 9, 23:30 EDT
Nathan had just finished walking Barbara home after their date at the diner. It had been simultaneously normal and extraordinary at the same time. He was comfortable with Barbara, she was one of his best friends, talking to her and spending time with her came easily, but there were the awkward moments as well, like as they walked holding hands, and feeling her shoulder brush his. He wasn't used to that kind of contact with her, and it made him overthink. Barbara had been perfect though all through the night, she seemed to know when he was overthinking and would do or say something that would bring him out of his daze and back to just enjoying her company. Once they reached the steps that led to Barbara's door Nathan stopped and turned so he was facing her. "Looks like this is your stop," he said.
Barbara giggled "It seems so, thanks for asking me out, and for finally showing up, I had a lot of fun, and hopefully I showed you that just because we are dating things don't have to be weird."
"It was my pleasure, I had a lot of fun too, and you did, thank you for keeping me grounded" Nathan replied sincerely.
"You're quite welcome sir, and I'm glad you had fun, because I would like to do this again sometime soon. I heard the circus is in town next week, we should go!" Barbara said with a little bit of excitement in her voice.
"That sounds like a lot of fun, does Tuesday work for you?" Nathan asked, while mentally going through his patrol nights, and team mission logs in his head.
"Tuesday would be perfect, now I hate to run, but I don't want to get dad worried, it's already pretty late." Barbara said, confirming the date.
"Right, don't want to get the Commish mad at me after our first date." Nathan said with a dry chuckle, knowing he did not want to get on the Commish's bad side.
"Nope, I need you in one piece for next week. Thanks again." Barbara said as she hugged him, and before pulling away completely she got up on her tiptoes and quickly kissed Nathan on the lips, pulling away before he completely registered what was happening. "Good night"
Nathan stood there watching as she skipped up the stairs and opened the door. Finally his brain caught up, he smiled. "Good Night Barbara, I'll text you tomorrow"
Barbara returned his smile, "You better, none of that three day business ever again." she gave a quick wave and closed the door.
"Never again, I promise" Nathan stated solemnly to himself, as he made his way towards his house, letting his mind reminisce on his evening with Barbara, and the goodnight kiss.
Hope you guys and gals enjoyed this latest chapter. Next one will be fun to do as I build up Nathan and Barbara's relationship so I can as Seth Freakin' Rollins would say 'Burn It Down!' Muahahahaha!
Anyway, follow and fav the story if you are able and leave reviews even if its just to ask questions and I will answer them.