Present: The First Sidekick Is Related To Assassins

"So, let me get this straight," Roy Harper, Red Arrow, started to summarize what he was just told when he was dragged into The Nest by a speedster. "You brought me here because you found out Nightwing has a relative in an assassin organization called the Court of Owls?" Roy asked, voicing his disbelief.

Wally frowned and shifted on his feet as he stood in front of the archer. "You're not bothered by this?"

Roy shrugged. "I knew he was too good for just being Batman's prodigy child." Wally blinked at the thought.

Kaldur stepped into the conversation. "Remember that I am Black Manta's blood son, blood doesn't define you."

"Thank you, Kaldur. It's great to be reminded of that." Nightwing commented, walking into the room and collapsing in his earlier spot, eyes closed behind his mask. While he had changed into sweatpants and a t-shirt, he still had his mask on.

"Are you okay? Did Black Frost hurt you?" Garfield asked, staring at Nightwing's slumped form and heavily bandaged stomach. Everyone's attention back onto Nightwing, away from their own conversations that were happening.

A small groan was the only reply to his questions, until Lou's the holographic A.I. form appeared. "No, Black Frost didn't hurt him. He got hurt when he defended Robin from the Talons who shot him." The A.I. turned to Nightwing. "You should have just told her about the injury, you know how she gets when you get hurt."

Nightwing grimaced and shivered slightly. "It wasn't that bad, she over-reacted."

Lou gave him a look. "When it comes to you, she always over-reacts. And when it comes to her, you always over-react. That's just how you two are. Right, Ren?"

A look crossed Nightwing's face. "Don't do that."

"Do what? It's what you're known by." She gave an innocent look.

Nightwing sighed, sitting up. "If this is about retiring again-"

Lou rolled her eyes. "Of course not, you two will never retire. No, it's about the fact that you need to let go and stop spending so much time in the past. Things will get better once you let go, it won't be easy. Though you two hate doing things easy." She muttered the last part.

"Remind me again not to let you meet Agent A."

A few the heroes that had met Agent A, snorted. "Again?" Some sounded amused, others confused.

Lou ignored them and smiled. "Why do you say that? Because I know many of your secrets, like the fact that you kissed-"

"Lou!" Winter Angel walked into the room, face going red. She wore a simple black shirt with jeans, and no mask, revealing her brown eyes. "Shut up! It was one time..." She trailed off, sounding uncertain.

Many eyebrows were raised at the two. Lucy burst into the room, shouting. "Wait! You two kissed?!"

Winter smiled a little uncertain. "Maybe..." Many didn't know what to think about that.

"So, you two are together?" Roy asked, looking Winter Angel up and down, wondering why Dick picked her.

Winter Angel smiled softly. "More than you know..." She quietly said, before she cleared her throat. "Anyway, Robin is awake if you want to see him." She looked towards the bats of the room, excluding Nightwing who had vanished during the conversation.

Batman and Batgirl stood up, leaving the room. Winter Angel watched them go.

"What did you mean by 'more than you know'?" Superboy asked, quoting her earlier words.

Winter smiled, a little nervous. "We should probably get you all back to the Watchtower."

Batman chose that moment to enter the room with Batgirl and Robin in tow. Robin looked a little pale and had a bandage wrap around his head and another around his stomach covering his slightly torn suit.

Winter looked at them, just staring in thought. "Well," She addressed everyone. "Let's get you all back to the Watchtower."

Artemis stood up. "No." She put her hands on her hips. Winter looked curious and patient, letting her state her case. "I want to talk to Nightwing before we leave."

Winter's face softened. "Winter, you can't possibly be thinking about-"

"Lou," She cut off the A.I., staring at Artemis with a soft and sad smile. "Unfortunely, Night has changed. It's not because of Black Frost or her operation, it's because of the Court of Owls and his great-grandfather. He has had to fight battles and make sacrifices that you may not ever be fully aware of." She looked at each person seriously. "I'm actually against the fact that he wouldn't contact any of you for a long time. I tried pushing him into not pushing everyone else away, but he's as stubborn as Black Frost." Winter smiled ruefully.

"If you want to see him, follow me."

~

Artemis was slowly rethinking her decision to stay and try to talk (knock) some sense into him. It wasn't an immediate thought, it took a scary hallway for her to feel like she made a mistake demanded to talk to Dick.

Winter Angel took them through the hallway that went towards the med bay. There were a few doors on either side of the hallway, one that look like an elevator. Going down past the med bay that was past two other branched off hallways, and past a room that had writing on the door.

Some stopped once they saw it, a second later everyone stood in the hallway, staring at the door in disbelief. "Does that say, 'Black Frost, The Frosty Queen'?" Flash asked, blinking rapidly trying to get his normally fast-paced mind speed up.

Winter Angel laughed. "Yeah. It was a practical joke from almost two years after Nightwing came here."

Miss Martian looked curious, almost looking like the sweet innocent girl she once was almost ten years ago. "Who did it?"

"Nightwing. It's his handwriting." Batman answered, sounding so certain. Of course he was, he's Batman.

"You should have seen what happened." Winter smiled remembering the day with an almost sad smile on her face.

"How did she react?" Wonder Woman asked, worried of what happened.

"She was glaring and annoyed at first. She yelled Nightwing's name in some anger." Winter laughed at the next part. "He just came walking in and looked way too innocent. She glared, and he couldn't take it, he laughed so hard. That's when she really got annoyed, but that proud grin he wore." Winter frowned, shaking her head slowly. "He did it to see her reaction, he wanted to finally know how much of a heart Black Frost had, and he wanted to prank her back for some comment that Frost had made a few days prior. He got an reaction from her, her laughing and her heart warming. Frost's ice cold-hearted barriers melted because of him. They would do anything for each other. They have done anything and everything for each other."

"Where is Black Frost." Superman asked, looking around.

"Out." Winter said shortly.

Bart looked excited. "So, that's her room."

"I wouldn't. You wouldn't like what you find in there." She looked sadly at the door, lost in thought or memories it seemed.

Winter cleared her throat, starting to walk back to the direction they were headed. "We're almost there. Frost wanted her room close to the training room, or how we call it the Gymnasium Named Everything."

"You named your gym Everything?" Roy asked, looking like she was insane.

Winter frowned looking back at him. "No. We named it Gymnasium Named Everything." In a 'duh' voice.

"Gymnasium Named Everything. Who started that?" Green Arrow asked.

"We used to have a long name for it, and kept switching up the name. We were drunk-" Winter started, stopping at two seven foot tall doors.

"You were drunk after drinking one and half cases. Wing was somber." Lou cut in.

Winter frowned. "Right. I said something similar, and he tried translating. That was the first time he saw Frost drunk." She laughed at the thought.

"She was drinking?" Aqualad asked, wondering what had happened here with Nightwing.

Winter looked sad. "Everyone has a way of coping, hers is drinking." She quickly cleared her throat, opening the doors dramatically. "Welcome to Gymnasium Named Everything!"

The doors opened slowly, revealing a huge football field length room with high ceiling filled with gymnastic equipment. In the center of the room, Nightwing was flipping around, avoiding lasers in a moving laser grid.

"What is he doing?" Artemis asked, looking in awe as his skills have grew to the point he could change mid-flip faster than before.

"Trying to beat Black Frost." Was the answer as Nightwing did two front handsprings out of the laser grid. He landed on his feet, falling to his knees. "Computer?" He asked, panting slightly.

"You beat your record by 54.7 seconds, Nightwing." A computerized voice responded.

Batman's face twitched. "What was his previous record?" He asked.

"53 minutes, 3 seconds, and 6 milliseconds on the highest setting, Sir." The voice responded again.

Robin frowned. "That's too high of a number for-"

"The point of the exercise is to last as long as possible in the grid using your preferred fighting style, Sir." The computer explained.

"I thought Frost's record was-"

"Her record is 1 hour, 14 minutes, and 9 milliseconds, Night." Winter cut in.

Nightwing groaned, quietly swearing in another language under his breath.

Winter raised an eyebrow, amused, while the ones who heard him just raised an eyebrow. "Forget it, Nightwing, you can't beat Black Frost's fighting style." She smirked.

Nightwing stood up, face blank. Before he could say anything, Lucy and Fred came running in through the open doors. "We found them!"

~MsPenguingirl1234.

Published: July 4, 2017.