Shooting The Breeze

Series note: This is the first act of the Red Bird, Blue Bird series. Each story can be read alone, but contains numerous references to the goings on of other parts in this series. The next in the series is The Escaped. Thank you and enjoy!

"Sometimes I just wanna chew his head off with how much of an arrogant little prick he can be! If the bitch would have just told B about the brat in the first place, maybe he wouldn't be so stuck up! He just gets on my nerves with it all!" Jason huffed, pacing back and forth in front of Dick. They were in full uniform, standing on a darkened rooftop not far from Crime Alley.

"He does have a way of getting under most people's skin," Dick agreed mildly to let Jason continue with his rant so as to blow off some steam. Jason needed this, sometimes; to just have someone he can vent it all to. The next best thing to get out his frustrations is to blow the heads off of some dead beats, so Dick much preferred this solution.

Jason turned to face his older brother, stopping his pacing to throw his arms into the air in exasperation. "'Wing, that's not just it, he just thinks he knows everything! It's so damn frustrating, especially since he is only twelve years old! I dunno how Bats of all people puts up with him!"

"Most of the time he doesn't," Dick mumbled, mostly to himself, remembering times in which Bruce and Damian would go at it and he would have to play mediator. "But like you said, he is only twelve years old. Most twelve year olds seem to think the world revolves around them. I'm hoping it's just a phase," he announced wistfully.

Jason had continued his pacing again, and when he turned to face Dick, he noticed a small, red laser dot suddenly appear on Nightwing's chest and travel up his neck and over his jaw. "Uh. . . 'Wing, you've got a little something on your face," he said, indicating his right side.

Dick bemusedly reached a hand up to the side of his face in an attempt to brush off whatever it was.

With a smirk, Jason let out a huff of amused disbelief, before, without warning, tackling his brother to the ground. Red Hood immediately rolled off his brother when they heard the gun shot and saw the ground splinter into a few little pieces where the bullet hit.

"Well," said Nightwing as he rolled onto his front to crouch beside the two foot barrier the roof ledge made for them. "That was unexpected. Thanks for that, by the way."

A second gunshot prompted them both to take cover by the raised ledge.

"Don't expect it to happen again," Red Hood remarked gruffly, reaching for the guns holstered behind his back, preparing to shoot back at whoever it was.

Nightwing followed his younger brother's lead, pulled out a Wingding and peaked over their barrier. He got all of a moment's glance of the moonlit city before the crack of another shot forced them both to duck.

Red Hood was quick to return fire in the direction the sounds came from.

"Who do you think would be shooting at us? Joker is locked up, along with Two-Face, Scarecrow and The Riddler," Red Hood asked over the gun shots that were being exchanged.

"Not sure," replied Nightwing as he tried to get a glimpse of their attacker. "Laser sight was a bit of a rookie move. New player, maybe? I'm more interested in how they knew where we were."

"Maybe they followed us?" Red Hood reloaded and continued to rain fire on their attacker. "I agree with the laser sight thing, I only use it on purpose to get my victim's attention." Red Hood smiled even though he knew Nightwing couldn't see his face.

Nightwing's only response was a smirk.

After a short time of only the sounds of Red Hood's pistols discharging without opposition, Nightwing risked rising from his crouched position. When no laser dots or bullet holes appeared on his black and blue armor clad chest, they knew the coast was clear for the time being.

"We need to go investigate to get some kind of clue as to who was shooting at us," Red Hood suggested. "We could split up and meet in the middle?"

"You got a comm?" Nightwing checked. Red Hood just nodded and patted his inside coat pocket. With that, the former circus performer dived off the edge of the fifteen story building, grapple in hand, and swung out of sight towards the rooftop the sniper had shot from.

Red Hood let out a sigh and jumped to the next rooftop. He kept racking his brain to try and figure out who it was that would want to kill them this time. There obviously were a lot of people on that list, but most of them were locked up in Arkham. Unless Nightwing was right and they were dealing with someone new. When he finally met Nightwing on the rooftop where the shooter was, the older detective was already scouring the area for clues.

"Got anything?" Red Hood asked, coming closer.

Nightwing nodded. "Shell casings, 7.62 . . . NATO round?" The last part he voiced as a question, Dick deferring to his more gun knowledgeable brother.

Red Hood looked at the casing, "NATO is correct, the good thing about casings is we can link them to the rifle and, hopefully, to the shooter." Red Hood walked over to the ledge and examined it, there were gunpowder burns. This guy was a total amateur. If it was him, he wouldn't have left any traces that he was there. He was taught to be untrackable, that way Red Hood remained a mystery to everyone. Everyone but Dick, that is, who had an uncanny knack for getting into Jason's head.

"Guy's pretty green at this to leave so much behind. Even in a hurry, that's pretty sloppy," commented Nightwing, whose thoughts had been running along the same lines as Jason's. He glanced at the younger man as he thought over his next words. "Should we head over to the Batcave to have a look at this?" He hoped his subtle suggestion of Jason coming with him to Wayne Manor would go unnoticed, yet heeded.

Jason turned to look at his older brother, "You can go to the Batcave. You know how I get along with Batman, Robin, and Red Robin." Red Hood shook his head and retuned to looking for any more clues the wanna-be-assassin left behind.

"My bike got totaled by Two-Face last week, I've been on foot all night and it's a good seventy-five minutes' run to the 'Cave from here, "Dick explained quickly. "So unless you're going to lend me your bike. . ."

Jason sighed and rolled his eyes, "You're not gonna make this easy on me, are you?" Jason shook his head.

"Nope!" he replied cheerfully, popping the 'p' and bouncing on the balls of his feet.

"Let's go," Jason growled. He jumped over the ledge of the building onto the fire escape. "Are you coming or not?"

"Lead the way." Dick flashed him a grin.

The two made their way a few blocks over to where Red Hood had left his motorcycle earlier that night. Without a word, Dick hopped onto the back of the bike after his brother, arms wrapped around Jason's waist as they sped off down the twisting, dark streets of Gotham.

They got to the Batcave in no time. Jason parked the bike next to the Batmobile, swinging his leg off after Dick dismounted. "Let's get this done and over with, then, Dickiebird."

Taking that as his cue, Dick proceeded towards the Batcomputer. He typed in his passcodes and opened the appropriate program for ballistic matching.

"Grayson," came a voice from the shadows near the path towards the training area. So used to sneaky younger brothers, Dick hardly batted an eye at Damian's sudden appearance. "I see you brought Todd with you," he spat.

"Shut your trap, Hell Spawn!" Jason snapped at Damian.

Damian rolled his eyes, "What are you two doing here, anyway?" the youngest Robin asked his oldest brother.

"Trying to figure out who decided to take pot shots at us about thirty minutes ago," Dick explained distractedly, placing the shell casing onto a scanner. As he waited for the results, he turned to Damian. "What're you doing home, Li'l D? Shouldn't you be out with Daddy Bats?"

Jason had walked away from his two brothers. He didn't want to get heated over it again. He had already calmed down, plus he was more interested in who was shooting at them.

Damian shook his head, "I'm grounded for the night. All because Todd and I got into that argument." He said the name like a vile word, spitting out as though it had offended him; which, it sort of had. "I'm sure he told you about it."

"Yeah, I heard about it. You wanna talk about it?" Dick asked sympathetically, causing Jason to roll his eyes at the eldest's predictable mother-henning.

Damian's response came with a pointed glare. "There is nothing to talk about, Grayson. Todd is an imbecile and Father overreacted."

Jason grumbled and just shook his head not wanting to get anything started again.

"Well, let's avoid the subject of opinions of character flaws of family members, as I'm sure that debate could last well into next week." He glanced at the computer screen, then, seeing that the program was still searching for a match, turned back to Damian. "Did you finish your homework?"

"-tt- I'm not incompetent. And I don't see how it's any of your concern anymore, anyways."

"You are always of my concern. All of my brothers are," Dick answered honestly.

Before anyone had a chance to reply to that declaration, the Batcomputer chimed to signal the finding of a ballistic match, breaking the sudden sappy mood Dick Grayson seemed to love to create at random and unexpected moments.

"What does it say?" Damian asked interested.

"Can it, Demon," Jason said running over to the Batcomputer. "Grayson, come look at this. The casing lead to the weapon. AW Covert registered to Arnold Lenard 'Lenny' Smith."

"What kind of a mother would name her son 'Arnold Lenard'?" Dick questioned with quiet confusion, moving to join Jason at the computer, "Nice little rap sheet he has there; petty theft, grand theft, assault and battery, assault with a deadly weapon, assault on a police officer. Ex-Delta Force, dishonorably discharged two years ago. . . But why take shots at us?"

"We could go ask," Jason's sarcastic remark left a smirk on his face. "I am trying to figure out what he wants with us. I've never even seen or heard of this guy before."

"Same. Last known address is in Pennsylvania, though, so he must be a new comer to Gotham."

"Great. Then how the hell do we find him?" Jason asked, starting to get pissed, just this time at his big brother and not the Hell Spawn.

"Don't tell me you've forgotten all that Robin training already, Jayjay," Dick grinned brightly, tone teasing. "We just canvas the area 'til we find him."

"Which is almost fucking impossible, Dick!" Jason said throwing his arms up in exasperation. "We will be patrolling these streets for days trying to find him at this rate."

"Language," Dick reprimanded quickly, indicating Damian still standing among them. The twelve-year-old huffed impatiently, crossing his arms over his chest in annoyance.

"Oh please, Grayson. We live in Gotham; I hear profanities on a daily basis."

Dick ignored Damian's comment and instead chose to answer Jason's. "Then we'd better get started. He had a shot on us once. You never know, maybe he'll find us again." He turned to head back to Red Hood's bike to leave, only to be stopped by Damian's next words.

"I'm coming with you," he demanded.

"Hell no," Jason countered. "You and I argue enough. Plus I don't need to be responsible for you. Especially, after Bats grounded you. Another thing, you being grounded shows that I am right. So you stay here and do whatever Bruce told you to do," Jason said, straddling his motorcycle. He kicked it to life, then grumbled barely under his breath, "Bike's crowded enough as it is."

Dick grimaced at Damian. "Sorry Li'l D. You know I would. Trust me, I know how much it sucks to be left behind, but grounded means grounded. And if Robin wants to fly again any time soon, you'd better stay here." He ruffled the kid's hair affectionately, eliciting a hand swat from Damian in return.

And with that, Nightwing hopped onto the back of the bike and gave a wave as Red Hood sped out of the Batcave.

"So, we are just gonna patrol and look around for this guy? We need to figure out why he went after us and keep him from going after anyone else." Jason called over the roar of his bike as they sped through the streets of Gotham.

"I have a feeling our guy will come to us, so long he knows where to look. We just need to make it obvious where we are," Dick replied casually, though loudly.

Jason nodded, "So where am I going? The rooftop where he fired at us, or what?" Jason asked pulling to the edge of the road where they picked up the bike last time.

"We—" Just then, a piercing shriek broke the night, catching both Nightwing's and Red Hood's attention as they raced towards the alley the scream originated from.

Surprisingly, Red Hood was ahead of Nightwing as they sprinted over to the alley. Jason stopped to take in the sight before him. This pretty brunette girl was putting up a good fight with her attacker, a middle-aged man with a beer gut and bad teeth. "Hey, dirtbag! Pick on someone your own size." Cheesy, he knew, but it was the only thing that came to his mind. The mugger looked at him and Nightwing, a terrified expression on his face. This guy obviously knew who they were.

Good, Jason thought, cracking his knuckles.

However, as soon as the man looked away from her, the young woman took her chance and kneed her assailant in the groin, making him drop with a moan to curl into a tight ball of deserved agony. The blow caused both vigilantes to wince in sympathy, before a smirk grew on each of their faces.

"Hah! That was awesome!" Nightwing crowed to the shaken woman. He turned to his brother as he said, "She didn't need our help, at all!"

"Damn!" Red Hood instinctively covered himself. "All she needed was a distraction. Remind me not to piss her off." He whispered the last part in Nightwing's direction. He was also trying not to laugh at the douchebag on the ground.

"I'll call Gordon to have him send someone to pick up trash. You wanna tie him up, Hood? I'll check on the girl."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Of course you get to check on the girl." Jason didn't fight it, plus being a smart ass was his thing anyway. "I got the dirtbag." He walked over taking rope from his belt, tying him up and had him lean up against a wall.

After sending Gordon the pick-up request, Nightwing approached the woman. "You alright, miss?"

"Yeah . . . yeah, I'm okay." The brunette replied, hugging herself as though cold.

"I'm glad. That was amazing, by the way. If more people could take care of themselves like that, there would be a lot less for people like me to do," he joked lightly, hoping to get a smile from her.

It worked. "Thanks. Thank you, both of you. I . . . just . . . thank you." She smiled, radiating gratitude and admiration.

Nightwing grinned gently. "No problem. Can you make it home from here or do you want me to—"

"No, no. I can make it. I'm just around the corner." She looked right in his mask covered eyes as she uttered 'thank you' one last time before turning the corner, presumably towards her home.

"Alright, lover boy, let's get back to the task at hand," Red Hood decided as he approached his brother. "We should hit the rooftops and spread out, cover more ground to try to find this wanna-be-assassin."

"I'd kind of prefer if we stuck together on this one."

"Why? We would get more done if we split up," Red Hood protested.

"What, I can't want to spend some time with my brother – who I have hardly seen lately, just to mention – while hunting down a guy with a big gun, itchy trigger finger, and a hate for birds who's already tried to kill us tonight? Perfect bonding material if you ask me."

Jason honestly couldn't tell if his brother was being sarcastic or not. If anyone could find enjoyment in nearly being shot, Dick Grayson could. There was obviously more to the request than merely 'bonding time', but Jason knew he couldn't win against his brother, no matter what he tried to do. "Fine. If it gets you to shut up, then fine," Red Hood said shaking his head. "Let's get to the roof."

Pleased grin firmly fixed on his face; Nightwing shadowed his brother as they made their way to the rooftops via the fire escape.

As Nightwing climbed over the roof ledge, Red Hood signaled him to be quiet, pointing at a figure on the other side of the rooftop. Years of training in stealth had made their ascent up the metal staircase all but silent, so the crouched figure was entirely unaware of their presence.

"Do you think it's him?" Red Hood whispered low enough only Nightwing could hear him. He crouched in the shadows out of sight.

"Came back to the 'scene of the crime'? How stupid is this guy?" Nightwing replied just as quietly.

Red Hood shrugged, "No way he could be that stupid. I bet you five bucks it's not him." He smirked under his helmet.

"Deal," Nightwing grinned before standing and shouting, "Hey, you!"

The silhouette of the guy jumped up and turned to face them. The look on his face as horror, and surprise all in one. It sure as hell was that Arnold guy. Red Hood cursed under his breath, he just lost five bucks.

"Hah!" Nightwing shouted in triumph. "Heya, Lenny boy! We've been looking for you!"

"Oh shit," mumbled the would-be-assassin and turned to run, only to suddenly fall flat on his face when Nightwing threw a bolas at him, wrapping around his legs.

Red Hood walked over to Lenny, after handing Nightwing the five bucks. "What makes you think you can get away with trying to kill my buddy over here?"

"I-I-I" the prone man stuttered before seemingly getting a grip on his nerves. "Hey! Get this offa me!"

"No can do. We've got a few questions to ask you, anyway," Red Hood said with a smirk on his face. "Like why the hell you would try and come after my buddy in the first place?"

The man tried to sit up but Red Hood pushed him back down flat with a single boot clad foot. Accepting his position rather begrudgingly, Arnold Lenard sighed in frustration. "I had to kill someone high profile enough to get noticed. I wouldn't kill a kid and if I killed the Bat, I'd have a swarm of metas on my ass. Who better to kill than Red Hood or Nightwing to jump start my career as a contract killer?" He explained in agitation. Then, as an afterthought, "It's nothing personal."

"Nothing personal to you! It's definitely personal for me!" Red Hood shouted, getting heated.

"You tried to kill me as a marketing campaign?" Nightwing asked, rather more intrigued with the concept than he probably should for any normal person. "Well, hate to break it to you, Arnie, but you kind of missed," he announced with feigned regret.

"Don't call me that!" The wanna-be-sniper demanded. "The name is Sharp Shot!"

"'Sharp Shot'? Really?" The two boys snorted simultaneously.

"You really think 'Sharp Shot' is a cool name?" Red Hood asked.

"It's better than being unoriginal with the name 'Red Hood'," The dirt bag said.

"He might have you there, Hood," Nightwing agreed teasingly.

"Shut up, Bigbird," Red Hood growled.

"You have to admit; though, 'Sharp Shot' is a teensy bit better than his actual name. I mean, seriously," Nightwing adopted a horribly fake Transylvanian accent, "I am the Arnold Lenard Smith! Beware!" An unsuppressed grin spread across his face. "That'll strike fear into the hearts of many!"

Red Hood shook his head. "You watch too many cartoons," he sighed. "But call Gordon and tell him everything. This idiot needs to be locked up and off the streets."

"I may watch a lot of cartoons, but I wasn't the only one who got the Danny Phantom reference," Nightwing replied, and in a move of absolute maturity, stuck his tongue out at his brother. He called up Commissioner Gordon for the second time that night, this time informing him of all they knew about their would-be-murderer.

Keeping an eye out for the wanna-be-assassin, they both walked a little ways out of ear shot of him. "All right say it. I know you have some type of comment towards his 'villain name'," Jason said, knowing his brother just a little too well.

"He certainly isn't the sharpest tool in the shed," Dick burst out, more than happy to finally let out the one liners he had been holding back since discovering their newest villain's name. "I think he over shot that. Missed his mark, you could say. Not looking very sharp. Rather dulled in comparison. I think he missed the point of it. Wasn't a very sharp plan. Bit of a shot in the dark, really."

"Okay, that is way more than enough," Jason said shaking his head. This was why he liked working alone.

Just then, the door to the roof opened, 'Sharp Shot' was still sitting where they left him, and Gorgon became visible.

"That the guy?" Gordon asked them both, indicating the bound baddie.

"Yup!" Nightwing announced with a pop. "Calls himself 'Sharp Shot'."

"'Sharp Shot'?" Gordon asked, mildly incredulous. "You've got to be kidding me."

"Right!? Completely off target. And catching him was like shooting fish in a barrel," Nightwing said brightly.

"The dumbass decided to come back to the crime scene. We just happened upon him." Red Hood shook his head as the Commissioner sent the other officers he brought with him to apprehend Lenny.

"Thanks guys," Gordon said.

Red Hood nodded in response, and Nightwing gave a two-fingered salute before the two vigilantes left together. Once a few blocks away, alone again save for each other, they meandered towards Red Hood's hidden motorcycle, once more.

They walked in companionable silence, which, of course given his current company, couldn't last long with Dick Grayson.

"So, I guess that guy kind of shot himself in the foot," Dick said, suppressing a grin. "Figuratively of course."

Jason's pointed silence did nothing to deter Dick's next attempt.

"Oh! Knock, knock!" Dick practically vibrated with excitement as he waited for his brother's response.

Jason sighed. "Who's there?"

"Needle."

"Needle who?"

"Needleless to say, he wasn't very sharp."

"Really? Come on! Enough with the damn puns already!" Jason exclaimed.

"Don't shoot that glare at me. Truly, it cuts me." He couldn't stop. He had hit pay dirt here. "I guess I just tend to shoot my mouth off."

Jason shook his head. "You're a dork. I'm gonna ignore you all the way to your place and then drop you off. After that, I am still gonna ignore you!"

"Aww! Come on Jaybird. We're just shooting the breeze!"

The end.

*Edited for content and quality: 1/26/18