Pay to Win

Logan would like to say that he and Dick calmly drove to the airport and made it on the private jet with no issues. But anyone knows if you put two guys on motorcycles and they have the same destination, its going to turn into a race.

Logan was not ashamed to say, he lost… Badly. No amount of bad patina finish is going to hide from Logan that Dick was riding a specially made Ducati and Logan was still on his junkyard Frankenstein bike. No getting around that Dick was a better rider than Logan. But Logan was sticking with it being the bike's fault. When they got to the hangar that housed one of the many Wayne private jets, Dick snickered at him. To which Logan just turned up his nose and said, "Damn pay to win rich boy's."

Dick naturally cried foul on the bro code, but Logan ignored him.

The flight was a quick one, barely worth the gas it took to get there but these planes have to get their hours in the air somehow. Landing was no issue, the Wayne name on the plane registry guaranteed that.

They took a cab to the hotel nearest to the Circus and settled into their individual rooms with plans to head to the Circus after an hour.

Walking up to the big red tent, Dick kind of started rambling, "I have been to Haly's 5 or 6 times since I left it in Gotham, easier to see them in different towns, I guess."

"My life took a 180 when Mom and Dad died, then Matt adopted me. I left with him thinking that my Circus family didn't want me anymore because I saw the guy messing with our ropes and didn't say anything. I had a lot of guilt there. Mr. Haly later told me that he let me go because of his own guilt of not paying the protection fee and that resulted in what happened. He figured the great Mr. Wayne could help me more than a traveling Circus could. I haven't been a Circus kid in years, but that doesn't mean I don't still love it."

He finished talking at the same time they entered the big top curtain and their eyes adjusted to the sights in front of them. Logan's eyes were drawn to two elephants and their handler. It looked like the handler was having trouble getting them to focus on his commands. Logan knew the courts had handed down some harsh rulings on Circuses that used these giant animals for entertainment and with good reason. Many Circuses just weren't well equipped to handle them properly and truly trained handlers were expensive. Logan could see that the male was unhappy for some reason and decided to intervene.

Dick and Logan walked into the ring, and Dick made a beeline for the only guy dressed in street clothes and a clown that was arguing. Logan bumped Dick and pointed to the elephants to which he nodded.

When Logan got about 20 feet from the elephants, they must have caught his scent because they ignored their trainer and trotted straight toward Logan. Their poor trainer and a few of the performers panicked at the sight of the elephants headed Logan's way especially a young dark-skinned woman who was talking with another girl dressed like a trapeze artist.

Logan laughed and waved them off hoping to ease their panic a bit, but he knew that until they saw him interacting safely with the elephants, they wouldn't calm down much at all.

Once the elephants got to him the Bull backed off and let the Cow inspect Logan first as he watched his trainer and what I would later learn was his rider warily. His irritation at them was obvious.

"Well, aren't you a gorgeous big girl." Logan said warmly to the Cow. Letting her run her trunk over him so she could get a full inspection done. She radiated pleasure as Logan ran his hand along her trunk, not trying to direct it just keeping his hand on it and rubbing.

The trainer came up to Logan obviously not happy that he lost control of his wards, "Who are you and what are you doing in here? No one is allowed in here but the performers. You will need to leave. I would stop petting Liz, Chester is being super protective today for some reason. He took a swipe at his food handler this morning."

His tone calmed down as he saw Logan's interactions with Liz and how happy she seemed because of his attention.

"Sorry, if I don't actively introduce myself to animals in my surroundings, they tend to throw a fit and I wanted to avoid that. I came in with Dick Greyson." I pointed over my shoulder to Dick who was watching me, along with the people he went to talk to. Deciding that his cow had all my attention long enough the bull called Chester pushed his way in and started investigating me with his trunk the same as Liz did. Chuckling Logan started to pat his trunk instead of petting it, he liked the impact more than the rubbing that Liz enjoyed.

A dark-skinned Mexican beauty walked up to me slowly and asked, "How did you do that? I have never seen them take to anyone like that. Even Bart here had to keep cage bars between himself and them for a month before they would trust him. I'm Cali by the way, their rider. I grew up under their watch.

As he turned to answer Cali, Liz got a bit demanding and wrapped her trunk around Logan pulling him to her chest possessively. Logan laughed and spoke over his shoulder to Cali, "Give me just a minute to pacify this lovely lady and I will answer your questions."

Talking to her like she was a person, Logan asked "So what's the matter Liz, what did you need me to look at?"

Conveying the same thought mentally. Liz opened her mouth and turned her head to the left. When Logan saw it, he turned his head to Chester and said "All right you old Bull hold yourself together and I'll get her fixed up." Again, conveying his thoughts mentally to Chester. Reaching his hand into Liz's mouth, Logan took a firm grip on what looked like a large needle or small nail and quickly pulled it out of her gums. Her head jerked back at the pain but then she was trying to show him she meant no harm toward him by snuggling him with her trunk more.

Showing her that she hadn't panicked him, Logan rubbed her trunk some more. After she released him, Logan handed the nail to Cali without a word and moved to Chester. "All right big guy, your turn." He wrapped his trunk over Logn's shoulder, and Logan fist-bumped his tusk and told him. "Open up wide. Looking into his mouth Logan saw another nail but this one was stuck sideways between two teeth. It hadn't gotten into his gums, but he could see a few scratches on the elephant's tongue from the nail. Logan had to use both hands to pry it out because he didn't want to twist it into his gums.

Handing this nail to Bart the caretaker who took one look at it and shouted, "Bryan, you best get over here." The guy in plain clothes and Dick headed our way and Cali said, "Ok, now can you tell me what's up?

Logan laughed, "Well, the best way I can explain it is that I have a bit of an empathic bond with animals. They don't talk to me, but they push their emotions on me."

"So you're a Mutant?" she said. "Not like we haven't seen our fair share, but most that come to the Circus have physical mutations. You got lucky."

Logan, "I most certainly did get lucky. But I also think the term is Meta, not Mutant."

Dick walked up and asked, "What's up Logan?"

"I pulled nails out of the mouths of both these guys. One nail getting to them through the hay bailing process is one in a billion but both at the same time? Though I wouldn't put much stock in Chester here swiping at his feeder, that would be just like swinging on the waiter for the cook's meal."

Bryan, the one that came over with Dick spoke, "Can't be anyone working for the Circus, that just wouldn't make sense. This is these guys' last show. We just can't keep the insurance the new court ruling demands. We are sending them to the Logan Reserve in Africa to live. Maybe some activists are trying to get us shut down. I will bet money that there will be an inspector showing up today or tomorrow to inspect our animals."

Shaking Logan's hand with both of his, Bryan says, "This could really save our bacon, things are hard enough without being fined for setups. I need to tell the handlers to triple-check everything. You're a lifesaver for bringing this guy Dick." As soon as he was done talking, Brian ran off.

"Good thing you noticed that Logan, things have been rough on traveling Circuses lately from what Bryan was telling me. This is Raya and the new Catcher Marc. They work the trapeze here."

You could see the sour grapes Marc was chewing on with Raya giving Dick her attention. During the group conversation. Marc practically dared Dick to get up on the trapeze ropes and the look in Dicks eyes said he didn't care. He wanted up there and nothing would stop him. A few more cras comments about the Great Grayson's was all it took to lite a fuse in Dick and he was off.