#*both of them duck to avoid a Batarang that gets thrown*

[violent138]

Dick, eye twitching a little: "So kids are a little..." *hand gesture* "How the hell did you put up with me?"

Bruce, keeping his voice low, surveying the inhabitants of the Cave: "It wasn't easy, I thought of leaving you at a fire station once a week."

Dick: "Did you get that line from Alfred?"

Bruce:

Dick: "Nice try. Alfred told me I was a saint compared to you."

[itzagothamcitysiren]

Welcome to the Family

Sorry for that late post, stupid was a superhero stressful day at work and I took a super long nap as soon as I got home. Also, this is kinda a filler chapter, just to kinda of give a look of the dynamic between her and Bruce. It’s not my best but I wanted to also use it to practice writing more action stuff. :)

There's a Web That You Have Wove pt.2 

           The night was cold and the air almost felt damp as Batman and Nightshade stood perked up atop a stack of cargo crates that lined the Gotham City docks. They were high enough to not be able to be seen from below but still had a good line of sight of below. Batman stood, silently, peering into his pair of high-tech binoculars. He surveyed the activity below, watching as goons unloaded the unaccounted for children out of a delivery truck. The Dark Knight began calculating a plan in his head as he watched them being led towards another truck. They had to act soon before their window was closed.

           He folded the binoculars into themselves, placing them back in their spot on his utility belt. As they clipped on, he reached for his grappling hook, noting how Nightshade did the same as she was on the same page as him. Waiting for his orders, she moved forward from her spot behind him. He looked at her and then back to the scene below.

           “We take them out before they leave the docks, we cannot lose that truck.” He said, knowing she didn’t need that many words to understand what had to be done.  

           Nightshade nodded, following her mentor down as he shot his grappling hook to swing below. She landed moments after him, noting the slight pause as the goons were thrown off by their arrival. They looked notably scared that Batman and his sidekick where now standing between both trucks, cutting them off from finishing their job. The pause felt longer than it really was as the first goon to react began to rapidly fire his gun at them.

           Nightshade jumped out of the way of the spray of bullets, as Batman threw a batarang at the man’s gun, causing it to jam. She ducked behind a pile of crate before rolling out into a standing position. Nightshade then raced towards the truck that the kid’s had been loaded into as Batman found himself busy disarming the men attacking. Jumping up and off of a man, Nightshade kicked the gun out of his hand, bringing down a fist into his face as she pushed off of his chest. Flipping, she landed crouched down, swiping her leg out and knocking down another. She was back up on her feet and dodging more fists heading her way.

           It looked like she was almost dancing as she avoid more fire effortlessly. This was practically baby stuff. She reached the truck, disarming the two man who’d been shooting at her. She was about to place her hand on the doors of the vehicle to make sure the kids were okay but the sound of an engine starting caught her attention. The truck came to life, the tires squeaking as it was floored forward.

           “Fuck,” she cursed, shooting her grappling gun at it.  

           She heard Batman call out to her, telling her to wait for him. It wasn’t that he was struggling, that was far from the case. He had just taken the brunt of the onslaught of low-lives with guns. Normally he would’ve been mad at seeing his protégé not waiting and instead grappling a line to the truck, using it to pull herself to it. He knew she could handle herself and he said it himself that they couldn’t let the truck escape them. They’d never see those kids again if they did.

           Nightshade felt the wind blow her hair about making her glad that she had decided to wear it up tonight as the truck veered towards the exit that lead into the city. She held onto the line, grasping the backdoor handles to keep herself from flaring about. She could hear the kids inside screaming as the truck broke through the gates. Once the vehicle somewhat settled she began to climb up the back and onto the roof.

           She used her free hand to reach for her set of daggers she kept holstered on her lower arms, stabbing into the metal to keep her from being tossed off as the truck jerked to the side again, and turning into the streets. She crawled her way to the front of the truck, the wind hitting against her face as the truck picked up its speed. Taking a deep breathe, the adrenaline still fueling her, she hopped down and landed on the hood of the car. The driver hadn’t expected it and swerved his wheel to the right.

           Hissing as he drove off the cars in the other lane, Nightshade used the momentum to toss herself sideways and towards the driver’s side door. Gripping on the mirror for balance, she pulled her fist back, bringing it into the window. Her knuckle guards on her gloves made a satisfying shatter and she reached her hand in.

           “Pull over!” She shouted, gripping the wheel. She was met with him pulling out the gun he was hiding and aimed it point blank at her face. “Seriously?” She narrowed her eyes, not hesitating. Removing her hand from the wheel she grabbed the hand holding the gun, pointing it up watching as the bullet lodged itself into the ceiling.

           She heard the sound of a reeving engine, and quickly turned her attention behind her, smirking as she saw the Batmobile approaching. The driver’s eyes darted to his side mirrors, panic setting in as he saw the Batmobile right behind him. He wasn’t getting paid enough for this.

           Nightshade used the driver’s now distracted state to reach back in with her other hand, pulling herself inside. She was practically straddling the guy but didn’t care as she pushed the gun to the floor on the passenger side and put her fist to his neck. In one swift motion, a small tranquilizer dart jotted out of the armored gauntlet she wore.  As the man struggled to now stay awake, panicking as the girl turned around on top of him, sitting on his lap. She pressed her foot on the break, hands grasping onto the steering wheel as she did so.

           The man saw one of her knives holstered to her hip and used the last of his strength to grab for it. He felt the handle in his grasps and stabbed it forward, feeling pleased at it now was lodged into her thigh. Nightshade gasped, losing control of the wheel as she felt the pain shooting up her leg. Now slamming on the break, she tossed her head back, cracking skulls with the asshole sat underneath her. She felt him be knocked out cold finally and let the truck creak to a stop.

           “Ow,” She muttered, putting the truck in park, she let her head fall onto the wheel.

           She could hear the sound of cop cars approaching and knew that that was her cue to leave. Opening the door, she sluggishly dropped down from the car. Her feet landed on the concrete causing a jolt of pain to shot up to her thigh. She didn’t remove the knife, not wanting to make the bleeding worse until she was in the batmobile at least. She noted Batman approaching, opening the back doors of the truck. The children peered at him, still all frozen with fear. Police cars soon surrounded them, causing her to quicken her pace.

           She hopped into the open door, slamming it shut as she got in. Before taking the knife out, she reached forward into one of the compartments inside, pulling out a first aid kit kept for emergency. She took out what she needed to wrap it quickly and then ripped the blade out. Wincing from the sharp movement she bit her lip as she went straight into wrapping the fabric bandage around her thigh.

           It wasn’t until a handful of minutes later did Batman join her, handing off the kid’s and information to Jim Gordon the moment he arrived. He pulled away from the scene, sending a message to Alfred to prepare the medical area.

           “I’ll be fine.” She gritted her teeth, tying off the bandage. Her healing factor would kick in within the next couple hours and she’d been fine by tomorrow. The wound wasn’t that serious. “It was my fault. I should’ve been quicker.”

           Batman stood silent, only giving her a curt nod. Tonight had gone smoother than past nights and he couldn’t help but dwell on it. Even with this slight hiccup, he was satisfied with her handling of the situation when it went array. He’d become so accustomed to the chaos that ensured normally and knew why tonight had gone differently than others. He felt bad for admitting it, but he couldn’t help but let the thought cross his mind.

           Halley looked forward, slowly peeling her mask off her face and rubbing her eyes with her hands. The adrenaline gone now and the stinging feeling becoming extremely noticeable. Wincing, she shifted, trying to get comfy as they headed back to the cave. She let her eyes peek at Bruce as the car stood in silence.

           He looked like his regular brooding self and she quickly looked back down at her lap. She’d still yet talk to Bruce about how she believed he should let Jason back out on patrol. It’d been almost a full week and she didn’t know how much longer she could take Jason’s attitude about being completely left out of this case. It wasn’t her fault he didn’t take instruction well, he didn’t have to take it out on her.

           “So,” she bit her lip, trying to find the courage to address her thoughts to him. Once she saw she had Bruce’s attention, she continued. “When do you think Jason will be able to come back out?”

           She crunched her nose up at how lamely it sounded as it left her mouth. Clearing her throat she added, “I mean, now that this is over.” Nope, still lame.

           “I know he’s been skipping school again. I have to go to the school tomorrow for another meeting with your principal about it.” Bruce grunted, turning down towards their secret road once they reached the outskirts of the city. “Once he can prove-,”

           “He only skips because you,” she cut him off, before quickly slamming her mouth shut. She’d didn’t mean to cut him off, but she was sick of Bruce constantly knocking Jason down. Was he this hard on Dick when he was Robin? She felt the hair on the back of her neck stand when she saw Bruce’s lip form a straight line and his eyes narrow. Heart beating fast she hurriedly continued,

           “Sorry that came out wrong. What I meant was, that he acts this way because he feels like you’re just brushing him off. He just wants to prove himself to you.” She said softly, playing with her hands.

           “He needs to learn discipline.” Bruce retorted.

           Halley nodded, agreeing. She was surprised Bruce was actually having this conversation with her. They had a decent relationship but she wouldn’t say they were close or anything like that. They’ve had conversations in the past but mostly about their night job. He’d sometimes asked about how she was adjusting with school and stuff like that when he did actually join them for dinner but that was about it. She didn’t know that much about him, so this conversation felt awkward to her but she knew this was a conversation she needed to have for Jason’s sake.

           “I agree. But each time you bench him, his confidence gets knocked down a peg and then he comes back making the same mistakes, sometimes worse.” She retorted right back. She sighed, “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to question you.  I just don’t think this method is helping him.”

           She felt like she had pushed her limits when he didn’t respond to her after she spoke. Biting the inside of her cheek, she just sat in silence for the rest of the car ride.  Great job, Halley.

           She barely slept as the exchange played through her head all night. What if she made things worse? What if Bruce talked to Jason and Jason would be even madder at her for talking to Bruce about it? It plagued her thoughts all day during school as well, now it being her turn to avoid Jason at all costs. She just wanted to go home and on patrol so she could knock out her frustration on the filth of Gotham.

            Much to Alfred’s protests, Halley insisted she was fine to go to school the next day and even to go on patrol the next night. Her stab wound healed overnight, and was only a little mark by the time school was over.  Alfred relented as she showed him the spot before she put her costume on. She chuckled as he rolled his eyes at her before walking off to monitor the batcomputer.

           She went to finish changing, pulling out the rest of her uniform from his case. She began pull up the black spandex suit, zipping it up. Putting on the different parts of armor, she fastened them tightly. As she began clipping on her different weapons, making sure her darts were up well stocked up, she heard footsteps approaching the changing area. Looking up she smiled, seeing Jason walking over.

           He opened the case holding his uniform, peeling off his shirt and jeans so he could change. Even though she’d seen him changing before, she still looked away to hide her blush. It wasn’t that she had feelings for him or anything, she was still unaccustomed to the opposite sex. She never had friends growing up and the thought of boys had never crossed her mind. Even with that being said she could admit that Jason was in fact a good looking guy.

           “What are you doing here?” She asked, smirking as he pulled his pants up.

           “Bruce is letting me back on patrol.” He couldn’t hid the smile on his face. “He actually said he was sorry for kicking me off.”

           Halley smiled, smugly. She wouldn’t tell him about the talk she had with Bruce the night before. Jason looked so excited that Bruce was letting him back on his own accord, she didn’t want him to think any differently. He already spent too much time questioning how Bruce felt about him and if he found out she was the reason Bruce let him back, well she just didn’t want to take that away from him.