Hey! So, yes, I know I have a lot of stories I need to update. Buuutttt, I've been watching/ re-watching YJ and I just needed something that I don't want to have to write continuous chapters for. So I give you Nightwing and Robin-centric one-shots. Ohh, and if anyone has prompts that they want to read, I love suggestions! This doesn't take place any time exactly, but before the start of season two because Artemis and Wally will still be on the team. And all original members know Dick's ID by now.
Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice or any of its characters.
Started: July 10, 2016 / Completed: July 11, 2016
One-shot # 1: Saturday
It was supposed to be a simple Op, but then again all their missions were. And all their missions also tended to end in all-out brawls with the people who they were supposed to be covertly spying on. And just like all Ops, they heavily relied on M'gann's telepathic link instead of their hackable earpieces. The hackable part was proven by the former Boy Wonder many times. They had eventually succeeded, for the most part. They had re-gained the leaked information that was taken from the Justice League's servers hours before, and the hacker had been brought to justice. But, it turns out it couldn't be that straight-forward. As always. The hacker had been protected by some Metas – high skilled, obviously trained – who had increased strength and speed above normal human peeks. They weren't expected.
Beginning of Mission
The team commissioned to follow them was compromised of Wally, M'gann, Conner, Kaldur, Artemis, and Nightwing, the original team members. M'gann and Kaldur infiltrated the building where the hacker was supposed to be, a dingy abandoned building on the outskirts of Central City. Nightwing followed after them while Wally and Conner watched for reinforcements outside the building. Artemis was positioned on a neighboring building to have a better shot if the hacker tried to escape. Once M'gann and Kaldur made it inside, they signaled Nightwing that the cost was clear.
Nightwing, M'gann's voice rang across the telepathic link, the cost is clear. No visible guards and I can only sense three others in the building. Second floor, third door on the left once you enter.
Good work, M'gann.
While Nightwing made his way to the room, M'gann and Kaldur took position outside the window, with M'gann levitating Kaldur. Nightwing entered the room silently, clinging to the shadows in a way only a Bat could. He signaled them to enter, and to apprehend the hacker and bring him to the bioship while he took out the guards. The hacker was taken out quickly, he was obviously more brains than brawn, and the man barely made a sound when he was knocked out and levitated through the window. Kaldur then jumped in as Nightwing began attacking the larger of the opponents, a gruesome looking man with a large scar across the right side of his face.
The man was a good fighter, Nightwing thought, he definitely had elevated reflexes and strength as shown by his staggering punches. And speed, Nightwing added as the man made a quick block to his attempted punch to the stomach. But then again, Nightwing was more than just average human, too. He was at peek human endurance, and this man wasn't. He was already panting, and he looked pissed. He took a few steps back as Nightwing moved forward, but in the blink of an eye he brought out a strange looking gun and shot at Nightwing. He attempted to move away, but the villain expected that and the shot connected with his shoulder, right under the Kevlar armor. The pain was nothing to Nightwing, after all he had been doing this since he was nine. He had been shot enough to know that this wasn't a regular bullet. But Nightwing wasn't deterred. He punched the man across his face, and his knee connected with the villain's stomach. Nightwing then took the man's hands behind his back and cuffed them together, but not before kicking him in the head and rendering the man unconscious. He looked over to Kaldur, who was securing the man with restraints made of electrified water, and saw that he had knocked out his guard, too. Nightwing made is way over and cuffed this man to be brought along with his guard. M'gann had brought the Bioship up and they headed back to the Mountain.
"Good job, team. We have apprehended the hacker, I.D.'d as Neil Ghrimm, and have stopped his download of the Justice league's servers." Nightwing summarized as he faced the team.
"Dismissed" he added as an afterthought. M'gann, Kaldur, and Wally sat down, with M'gann steering the ship and Artemis watching over the guards in the cells, but Conner moved over to Nightwing on his way to his seat.
"'Wing," Conner said, grabbing Nightwing's attention, "are you okay? Your shoulder's bleeding." The others in the bridge turned to them, motherly worry all over M'gann's face.
"I'm fine, Con. Just a lucky shot. Wasn't even a bullet, but I'll get the chemicals checked out at the base." Nightwing turned around to head back to his seat, but before he could, he passed out, Conner catching him before he could hit the ground.
"'Wing?!"
The dreadful smell of anesthesia hit Nightwing first as he regained consciousness. He could recognize the smell anywhere now, and the beeping of a heart monitor told him exactly where he was. Well, he narrowed it down to two places: the med-bay at the Mountain or the Cave. As his memories rushed back to him, he deducted that he was probably at the Mountain (4). He opened his eyes, and realized that he wasn't wearing glasses. Or his mask. Probably means only the original members get to see me. Well, and Tim and Babs, but they're on another mission right now. He sat up, barely noticing the pain in his right shoulder. Where he got shot, he remembered. He looked to his left, and saw M'gann sleeping on the chair next to his bed. On his right were Conner and Kaldur. Artemis and Wally were sitting on a couch near his feet. The original members back together again. He guessed Conner realized his change in breathing once he woke, because he stirred and woke up. Artemis woke up next and shook Wally awake, who quickly rushed over to Dick's side. M'gann and Kaldur woke, too, and quickly stood up, with M'gann putting a hand on Dick's arm.
"Dick! How are you feeling? Does your shoulder hurt?" M'gann's face was set in a frown, concern rolling off her in waves that even Dick could feel. "I'm fine, M'gann. No pain at all." Well, not totally a lie. It definitely wasn't the worst he's had, not even the worst this week.
"You're lying, Dick." Wally said, not trying to hide the concern on his face. Of course he would realize, they knew each other since his Robin days.
"I'm fine, Wally. Really. Just a little sore, nothing to worry about. What time is it?"
"10:30 p.m." It was Conner this time. He also had stood up, looking a little unsure as to what he was supposed to do now. His usually stoic expression was morphed into one of apprehension and worry. His head shot up. "10:30? Crap. I've gotta get to Blüdhaven, I have to patrol." Dick said as he got up from the bed.
"Slow down, Dick. You just woke up." Atremis replied, oving over to stand with him and the others.
"Don't worry, 'Mis." An easy smile slipped onto his face. "I put away the big guns that escaped yesterday, so today should be pretty light." The team didn't know much about the 'Haven, but Dick knew that even they had to knew that it wouldn't be that light. After all, it did have a reputation for being even worse than Gotham.
"That is not wise, my friend." Kaldur chimed in. "You were injured, you need rest."
"I've gotten plenty of that today, Kal." Dick smiled. "I've gotta go, guys. But you should get some rest. I know you've been awake for a while watching over me. Thanks for that, but please get some rest." And they did. Wally and Artemis headed back to their home, and the remaining members went to their respective rooms to sleep.
When Wally opened his eyes again, it wasn't to the sound of his alarm clock. He wasn't in his nice bedroom with Artemis at his side. He was in a dark area, not a room, just space. M'gann, Kaldur, Conner, and Artemis appeared in a circle around him. Artemis was the first to speak.
"Where are we?" M'gann's eyes glowed green, then she turned to us. "We're in… remember how when we were in Bialya? I had to connect our minds. This is kind of like that, but we're all connected to one person's mind."
Kaldur spoke next, asking the question on all their minds. "Whose mind are we in, M'gann?"
"It's… Nightwing's mind. We're in Dick's mind."
"Well, what's gonna happen?" Artemis spoke up. "Does he know we're here?" M'gann began shifting, as though uncomfortable with the whole thing. "I don't think he knows we're here. He would try to reach out to us if he did, I think. And from what I gather, we're going to be able to see and hear everything that he does. It'll be like watching a movie, I guess. But we'll feel his emptions, like I would be able to regularly."
Conner spoke after a minute of thought. "What could cause this to happen?"
M'gann again looked to be in thought, but it was Wally himself who spoke up. He snapped his fingers in realization, then turned to the others. "What if that chemical-thing that Dick got shot with did this? I looked at the results, it was uncompleted and they probably had no clue what it was supposed to do. We didn't ether. Until now, I guess. I'm betting it caused this."
Megan looked on in thought, but nodded her head. "Well, I suppose that could happen."
"Why aren't we seeing what he's doing now?" Artemis asked. As though commanded, a bright light encompassed the room. The team closed their eyes because of the intensity of the light, and when they opened them again, they saw a giant holographic-screen, like what they would use to see recordings during debriefs at the cave. The cave flickered to life, and they saw a third-person view of Nightwing.
"Dick!" Wally yelled, a smile slipping onto his face. "He can't hear you, Wally." Artemis chided as she moved next to him, placing a hand on his chest in a comforting matter.
"Ohh, right. Hey Megs, why are we seeing this in third-person or whatever, shouldn't we be seeing it like Dick is?" The screen then switched to show the first person view, and the team pieced it together.
"We can control this? That's so cool!" Wally replied, before saying commands at it in what was known as "super-speed-speech".
Before Artemis could yell at him, Kaldur walked up to Wally, who shut up seeing the annoyed look on the Atlantian's (?) face. Kaldur then ordered the screen to go back to first-person view, and the team gather around, eager to see what it was like to fight as Nightwing.
After leaving the Mountain, Dick zeta'd over to the 'Haven. He usually started his patrol around 10, so he was a little late. He made his way from the zeta beam port to the top of one of the largest buildings in Blüdhaven. It also happened to be in about the middle of the city, so he could easily get to anywhere that needed help. He turned on his police scanner, and waited for the inevitable call for help. It was not a minute later that that call arrived, so he took out his grappling hook, and then dove straight off the side of the building.
The team watched in astonishment as Dick dove of the building, they saw the ground fast approaching, and then surprisingly felt the pull as Dick shot the grappling hook to a nearby building. The team looked on in shock as they could see how truly fast he was moving. He was swinging from building to building, movements graceful and important. The team was silent, until Conner scoffed.
"He makes it look so easy. Seeing it like this is – amazing." The team agreed heavily with that. They watched Nightwing swing into downtown, stopping various muggers or thieves along the way.
"Is it truly always this busy? I thought Dick had said it was a quiet night today." Kaldur grimaced.
Artemis responded, "This is probably nothing. The 'Haven has worse crime rates than Gotham." The team sat, stunned, until Nightwing came to a stop on the roof of a warehouse. Why is it always a warehouse? He positioned himself on the roof, until he moved in through an open window. He clung to the shadows, taking out guards along the way. The team watched at how silent and quick he was at taking out the guards. Until one of the more intelligent thugs noticed him, and opened fire. The other guards started firing, too, and a barrage of bullets rang out through the warehouse. The team could feel pain radiating off Nightwing, and grew nervous. A second later, they shouted out in pain as if they had been shot.
"What happened?" Wally asked.
"Dick was shot in the arm. We're feeling it, too, but we're not really injured." M'gann replied, worry creasing her face for her "little brother".
While they cried out, Nightwing had barely flinched. They knew he was used to this, but what he showed was such an extreme level or normality at being shot. It scared them. The screen came out to a third person view, and they could then see how pissed Nightwing looked. He was taking down thugs left and right, and it was brutal. There wasn't one man left who wasn't clutching a broken bone or two, if they weren't unconscious. Of course they had seen Nightwing fight, but the team had usually been in a fight themselves, so this was a truly amazing thing to see. Their baby brother, taking out giant men with two movements. Well, maybe he wasn't their "baby" brother anymore. Nightwing had finished the last of them, just as one of the braver (stupider) thugs tried to take the bird in surprise. But before the team could even shout warnings that they knew he couldn't even hear, Nightwing had turned around and threw a birdarang into this thug's leg, causing the man to trip and fall to the ground. M'gann, Aqualad, and Wally cringed at the brutality of the act. They continued watching Nightwing patrol Blüdhaven for a while. For a few hours, Wally and Artemis had taken to counting the number of thugs Dick had fought so far. They lost count. They watched as he returned home at around 4 a.m., the time most of them were still heavily asleep at, and saw as he removed his gear. They had seen him without a shirt, of course, but they realized now they had never truly been looking. And as Dick took off his chest armor and they saw the scars scraping across his tan chest, they were horrified. Horrified that they knew to expect them there. Horrified that these monstrosities committed to their bird barely made angered anymore. And then Dick moved through his tiny appartement, one that the team felt guilty for never have visiting before, and into his bathroom. He washed his face off and took a quick shower, cleaned the bullet graze they had all-but forgotten about. The team had all but stopped watching until they knew that Dick was about to sleep. They saw the clock, 4:30 a.m., and heard Dick's words before he slept.
"It's good it was a light night, I really need this early night,". He was sleeping deeply before they knew it.
They thought the next thing they would see would be the ceiling as Dick woke up, definitely not a circus tent covered in blood. They turned around and saw a tiny boy with black hair and blue eyes that they recognized anywhere by now.
M'gann realized what was happening first. "We must have been pulled into his dream." She explained.
Wally approached the boy, with a hesitant call of "Dick", the boy looked up.
"Da? Cine sunteți ? Ce - Ce sa întâmplat cu circul? (1)" The team looked taken aback at the use of this different language. They knew that Dick had grown up in a circus, but this use of a new language surprised the team. Well, most of them, anyway. Wally walked up and crouched down to the kneeling acrobat, before speaking.
"Bună, sunt Wally . Noi suntem prieteni. M-ai învățat niște română. (2)" The team was even more surprised to see that Wally of all people knew what Dick was saying. But they were glad he could understand Dick, as they were utterly clueless as to what he was saying.
"Poți să vorbești engleză pentru noi, Dick ? Ei nu înțeleg. (3)" Wally continued, and understanding dawned on Dick's face.
"Ehh, yes. I am sorry." Dick replied, voice heavily accented. He turned to the team, as though scanning them, and then nodded and repeated his earlier question. "Do you know why everyone is dead?" he asked, with an expression so serious it looked unbefitting on his childlike face.
Kaldur kneeled down next to Dick, on Wally's right side. "Who died, my friend?"
Dick turned to Kaldur and looked him straight in the eye. "Everyone. Mama, tata, my aunt, uncle, and cousin. They died. He killed them." Conner looked ready to ask who Dick was talking about, but a look from Wally stopped him. It's alright, Dick. You're fine."
"Yes," a scratch and joyous voice replied. "You're just perfect, boy blunder." The Joker turned the corner, bloody crossbar in hand, and Dick shook awake.
Dick woke up from, quite frankly, one of the weirdest nightmare he'd had in a while. He remembered most of it, the team was there. And then – he shuddered, absentmindedly tracing over a scar in the shape of the letter "J" on his right side. Unbeknownst to him, the other original members of the team were waking up at the same time, miles away. They called each other up, making sure that they hadn't just experienced some weird collective dream, before making plans to go have a visit to Blüdhaven.
While Dick was training at one of his safe places in the 'Haven later – it was a Saturday, after all. That meant he got to have some leisurely training, - he was surprised to have the originals waltz (well, barge, more accurately) in and drag him back to the mountain, where they made him put on some comfortable civvies and sleep for another few thankfully nightmare-free hours before dragging him from his bed to watch some movies with them. They spent the day just relaxing and having fun – like nothing had changed since when he was 13. He felt home, and after years of solitude, loss, pain, and responsibility, he felt safe and free. And if they babied him a little, he wouldn't mention it today. It was Saturday, they could have some fun today.
Okay, yes. I know I could have spent some more time on that ending. But just let me have a cheesy, probably un-realistic ending. Okay? Sorry if I made the characters OOC (as I'm sure I did…), I haven't written much with them. And I know that some things aren't cannon (ex. Wally knowing Romanian), but ehh. I tried to include all members equally, but I probably failed in the end. I also didn't have anyone read over this (besides myself) so sorry again for any spelling/ grammatical errors I missed in editing. It was fun to write this and I hope you guys liked it!
Okay, now for this story: I will be writing different one shots based on Robin (Dick Grayson) and/or Nightwing. I will accept and hope for ideas from you guys, if you have anything you want me to write, leave a comment or DM me if you want. I will be gone next week, so don't expect any updates then. I don't have an updating schedule exactly, but I will try to update at least once every two weeks. Have a great summer and stay whelmed.
(4) Okay, so I forget how these locations are referred to in the show, but I'm going with Mountain = Mt. Justice/ Cave = Bat Cave
Translations:
Mama/ tata = dad/ mom
(1)Yes? Who are you guys? What - What happened to the circus?
(2) Hi, I'm wally. We're friends. You taught me some Romanian.
(3) Can you speak english for us, Dick? They don't understand.