This story is completed, however, as I am a comment whore ;) the rest will be uploaded after I know that someone at least likes it lol Also, I apologize for not being able to indent my paragraphs. Please enjoy!

"Nightwing, may I remind you that if there were any significant brain damage, it would not take only, 'a tick', as you suggest for me to discover it," Martian Man-Hunter stated, exasperated that his mental abilities were so readily available to be taken advantage by the humans once again. He didn't really mind. He had known the boy since he was nine and Nightwing had taken a serious blow to the head earlier during patrol in Blüdhaven.

The young hero sighed, "I know, I just don't want to go to the meeting with this blinding headache. Going through the meta-tube was rough enough. I don't think I could handle an hour and a half of Batman reprimanding the Justice League for letting Darkseid escape." The time-warping, trans-dimensional alien demon, Darkseid had been securely imprisoned since the League's run in with him in Metropolis where he attempted for the third time to steal Super Girl. Unfortunately, when Batman labels something 'secure', a certain Lex Luthor makes it his primary objective to redefine security.

J'onn grimaced, "I understand the hesitation. Batman may only be human, but his ability to make words sting is by far supernatural." Nightwing merely chuckled. "Now, relax. To enter into your mind in order to search for damage, you must be fully submitted to my own. I will not enter any secured doors you create, but if one appears weakened, it may be the cause of the headache. It is also highly possible you have sustained a concussion so I need to connect deeper into your mind than usual to maintain your active consciousness. Ready?"

Nightwing took a breath, "sure." His breath hitched and his head was forced back in reaction to the sudden pulse of energy inserting itself into his mind. The world went blank and the absence of sensation, for however many milliseconds it was, was enough to send fear and anxiety through his body. Suddenly, Nightwing was standing in full uniform in a small room full of wiring and blinking blue and red lights. The green Martian appeared shortly after.

"Welcome to the core of your brain," J'onn said with a wave of his arm. Nightwing instantly picked up on the flashing red lights. "Yes, it appears there has been significant damage to this area of your nervous system. Tell me, did you notice lack of feeling in your left arm or perhaps your entire left side?"

"I thought I was just tired," Nightwing admitted pathetically.

"Indeed, you are. I am glad you suggested I take a look, as while it stands, there may only be a minimal lack of feeling, but left unattended, you could have lost the ability to operate the entire left half of your body." Nightwing's mouth dropped.

"Damn."

J'onn smirked and began removing wires here and there and plugging them into empty sockets. Nightwing collapsed as a shock wave of motion sickness overcame him.

"What the Hell did you just do?" The young hero asked as he thought up a bucket and proceeded to vomit.

"I apologize, I forgot that such a process has a nauseating affect. I cannot fix such damage on the surface. As I said, I will need to connect myself deeper. However, the process is not complicated and will take a few hours at most."

"A few hours? Can't we wait?" As much as Nightwing did not want to hear Batman's rant, he knew he'd get much worse if he didn't show up to the meeting.

"I am restoring your motor skills and cognitive function while I am within. The advantage of this process is that it will allow you to function in the real world while I repair the damage. However, you will feel somewhat of a pinch upon insertion. I like to compare it to a flash drive being stuck into a computer. You can run other programs at the same time."

Nightwing's stomach settled and he almost laughed at the Martian using a computer metaphor. "What's a disadvantage?"

J'onn glanced back at Nightwing with a cocked brow, "It is remarkable that you also look for the negative of situations." Nightwing ignored the obvious comparison to his former mentor. "However, you are correct in assuming there is a disadvantage. Like, a flash drive, I must be safely removed or software on both ends may become… corrupted."

Nightwing grimaced but he Martian continued, "Should we proceed?" The hero nodded and was hurtled through a blinding white light and into the present. His body inhaled sharply, shocked by the sudden information being received by his senses. Nightwing looked around to find himself back in Martian Man-Hunter's room aboard the Watchtower. J'onn smiled and helped Nightwing to his feet as he had apparently slipped from his chair during the rewiring. "So," he began rubbing his head, "you're still in here?"

Martian Man-Hunter nodded, "Indeed. This way we both may withstand the verbal abuse shortly to come."

"I don't understand, how can you be fixing anything and still be functioning out here?" Nightwing asked waving around his arms. The two left the quarters and began their way to the meeting room.

"As I hope it is obvious to you, I have an extremely large mental capacity. On a regular day, I do not occupy the entirety of my mind. Your mind is small enough that I can focus on two subjects at once. I quite enjoy the opportunity to work to my fullest extent."

"Oh," Nightwing nodded, soaking in all the information. "Hey, wait a minute-" He turned on the Martian but found himself standing in front of an open door with J'onn smirking. The Martian held out his arm to indicate Nightwing should enter the room with the rest of the Justice League.

Inside sat the original six, with J'onn making it seven, as well as several newer members of the League, including various 'sidekicks' who had been involved in taking Darkseiddown the first time. It had truly required a combined effort to subdue the monster. A few turned to the two with lowered brows. Nightwing groaned internally as he looked up and saw he was the sole recipient of the infamous Bat-glare.

"You're late," Batman growled.

"The fault is entirely my own," J'onn mercifully intervened. "Please continue."

Batman seemed to take a second to think over which was more important, the meeting or reprimanding his now twenty-four year old former ward. The meeting won out as he began a long and tedious lecture on the importance of regular maintenance checkups. Just as Nightwing was about to fall asleep, he noticed an irritating buzzing noise coming from behind his right ear. He couldn't remember when it started or how long it had been going on, but now that he noticed it, he couldn't focus on anything else. Not that there was much he wanted to focus on right at that moment. J'onn grunted and Nightwing looked up at the Martian only to hear his voice within his head.

"I apologize for the nuisance. It is a side-effect of this process." Nightwing's brow furrowed and J'onn spoke again, "I can hear your conscious thoughts without censor; I again apologize for this side-effect." He smirked, "And yes, I do see the resemblance between Mr. Burns and Bruce Wayne."

Nightwing stifled a yawn and just as he was imagining some calamity that would break up this meeting clearly designed to bore the League to death, the Watchtower shuddered violently. The terrifying sound of metal scrapping and bending against metal echoed through the room and down the halls as the League jumped to their feet and rushed to the main hall in the center of the satellite.

"Batman!" Nightwing yelled over the increasingly loud noise coming from a purple and red orb of light in the center of the hall. The light pulsed and gave off a roar of sound and energy which whipped at the uniforms of the League and shattered any nearby glass. Batman glanced back at Nightwing but clearly wasn't interested in explaining anything as he switched his cowl to detective mode. The light was giving off an insane amount of heat and light and suddenly Batman knew what it was and he growled.

"Superman!" Batman ordered at the Boy in Blue standing beside him and instantly Clark knew what was happening. The light orb opened into a purple and red portal allowing one large and angry Darkseid to stroll into the Watchtower without hesitation. Superman clenched his fists and flew faster than a speeding bullet right at Darksied's rock abdomen. The black beast laughed as he batted away the Kryptonian like a fly.

"He works just as well with a team as you do," Wonder Woman scoffed at Batman. The Dark Knight was annoyed that any thought could be spared towards cheap shots at a time like this, but he did not respond. Rather he turned to the others assembled and began giving out orders of attack.

Before Nightwing would get in on the action, J'onn pulled him back. "You cannot risk further injury to your nervous system!"

"You want me to just sit here!?" Nightwing asked, baffled.

J'onn did not waste the time to give an answer, he only gave a curt nod and rushed into the fray. Nightwing stood motionless and desperate to help. He looked around, trying to find some way to get involved without putting himself in direct danger. His efforts were cut short however, as he heard Batman yell with strained effort.

"NIGHTWING!" Darkseid had The Bat in a death grip and Superman under foot. Wonder Woman was focusing all her efforts on freeing the nearly immortal Kryptonian while the others were failing to rescue Batman who appeared to be running short on time. Nightwing forgot immediately about his condition and J'onn's warning and dove into the fight to free his former mentor. He released a flurry of shirkens directed at Darksied's eyes. The trans-dimensional war lord grunted as his vision was momentarily obscured which gave Nightwing just enough time to stab his escrima sticks right into the beasts' ears, shocking Darkseid enough to loosen his grip on Batman. Superman took this moment to break free from under Darksied's foot and pull Batman away from his reach.

Though Nightwing was trained better than to fail to think a step ahead, he froze as the buzzing in his head increased and soon found himself in the exact position he had just freed Batman from. The air was squished from his lungs and his arms were crushed to his waist. His escrima sticks fell uselessly to the floor. Darkseid now kept Wonder Woman and Martian Man-Hunter at bay with his Gamma vision as Superman pelted the beast with his own heat vision. Superman's beam, with a stroke of luck, hit Darksied's eyes moments before he released another wave of Gamma radiation. Darkseid was thrown back, bringing Nightwing with him as he crashed to the floor of the Watchtower, bending the metal floor beneath him. Nightwing felt too much blood rush to his head and panicked as his vision became blurred. He felt Darkseid scramble to rise and felt an extreme rush of heat followed by a roar so loud, his brain rejected all sound completely. The noise stopped and before Nightwing's senses went blank he heard a muffled voice as though it was coming from under water, "NO!" Then all was black.

The first sensation that came back was smell. He was somewhere wet and made of asphalt that smelled vaguely of a night on patrol. His brain found his eye lids and slowly Nightwing opened his bright blue eyes. The familiar mesh lenses affirmed that he was still in uniform. He couldn't feel the rest of his body, so Nightwing settled on looking up at the dark and raining sky. Nightwing hazily noted that it had been just passed noon when he entered the Watchtower, but that seemed unimportant now as he felt a tingling in his fingers. He bent his forefinger, then his middle finger and slowly closed his fist, checking for breaks as he had been trained to do so many times before. Next, were his toes and shortly after, Nightwing found he could sit himself up, but he dared not stand as his stomach protested violently at the sudden movement. Nightwing hurled and felt his head spin but he refused to faint again.

Okay, I'm in an alley. Nightwing looked around and found a dumpster and a few trash cans. A street light nearby allowed him to see he was completely alone. Apart from the sound of the rain on the dumpster, all was perfectly silent. Nightwing took a deep breath and forced himself to stand. He stumbled but regained his balance quick enough. He checked his equipment and found he still had his utility belt, but his escrima sticks were missing from their holsters. Damn. He moved out to the street which, though lined with cars, was completely abandoned. Probably because of the rain. He pulled out his grapple and lifted himself slowly to the roof top. Gotham?

Nightwing scanned the skyline and concluded he was in Gotham city. However, it wasn't the Gotham that he was used to. I know I've been gone a while but it couldn't have changed this much. While the Wayne Enterprises 'W' still illuminated the city below, several skyscrapers were missing, as well as several other monuments such as the orphanage Bruce had opened soon after he had taken in Dick. Nightwing caught sight of the Wayne Hospital and quickly came to the conclusion that he was in a different version of Gotham as several wards were missing and there only stood one central building made of brick. His brow furrowed. He shouldn't have been able to see the hospital from here as he realized even more buildings were missing from the skyline. What the Hell?

He lifted his arm to his mouth as he tried to open communications with Batman or Robin. "Batman, Batman its Nightwing. Batman, come in! Robin!" His communicator buzzed with static and after several more failed attempts to reach anyone, Nightwing turned off the communicator and began to travel across the rooftops. It was significantly more difficult to traverse the city of Gotham without the towering skyscrapers to grapple to but travel would've been slow regardless as Nightwing took several stops to ease his dizziness. He found an area heavily populated compared to the empty street he had come from and moved closer to get a better look.

The red-light district, Nightwing recognized the fancy cars and not quite so fancy women under the dim street lights, ignoring the rain to make a living. Batman shut this place down years ago. He remembered the horror stories Selena had told Bruce and shuddered thinking about the children selling themselves on behalf of their pimps down there. Nightwing stiffened as a car screeched down the street, guns blazing behind them as a single police car recklessly followed, nearly maiming several of the working girls in the process. Nightwing growled at the police and their apathy towards the women. Ignoring his throbbing headache, he rushed after the cars and gracefully dove down on top of the fugitive's vehicle. He grabbed ahold of the roof for support and pulled out his grapple, firing it at the left tire of the police car, popping the tire immediately. The police car spun out of control but came to a stop without harming the occupants within. Now for the criminals. Nightwing leaned over the windshield and waved as the driver and his partner yelled in surprise. Nightwing prepared himself for the swerving that always came after he announced himself and smirked. Bad guys were so predictable. He swung himself over the side of the car as the roof was riddled with bullets. So predictable. One quick gloved strike made short work of the driver's side window. He proceeded to reach in and unload the semi-automatic weapon and then grabbed onto the roof of the car and removed the driver by wrapping his legs around his torso and pulling him out through the window. Nightwing knew the man would survive the fall, but he looked back to make sure. Satisfied that he hadn't killed the criminal, he inserted himself into the driver's seat, quickly subduing the others with his grapple, and drive the car to a safe stop.

"You kids have fun now!" Nightwing saluted playfully but before he left one of the criminals called after him.

"Who the Hell are you!?" They seemed genuinely frightened but confused and Nightwing started, surprised.

"What?" He looked down just to affirm he was in fact in uniform. "I'm Nightwing! How could you live in Gotham and not know who I am?" The men just stared back, bewildered. "You're serious?" Nightwing asked, a little hurt. He didn't have time to hear what they had to say, however, as the streets filled with the sounds of sirens. The first car to appear screeched to a halt as the working women who had gathered around the spectacle scurried away.

"Put your hands in the air! Don't move!" The police bellowed threateningly. Nightwing's mouth dropped as he lifted his hands slowly. Despite his ready surrender, the second car to arrive on the scene began unloading at the young hero. Fuck this!

Nightwing flipped out of the line of bullets and released several gas bombs, making his escape all too easy. Once safely on the roof tops, he studied the cops below as they searched around in total confusion and anger. I'm in a nightmare.

The rain had stopped near the break of dawn and by that time Nightwing had found an abandoned apartment of the West side of town to get some rest. Sleep came easily but refused to stay for too long as a buzzing from the right ear woke him up every couple of hours. Just before the Sun came up, Nightwing decided to find something to eat to quell his groaning stomach. What he wouldn't give for Alfred right now.