'hey what's up' - This is thinking

"hey what's up" - This is speaking

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Eyes...people say their the window to one's soul. Dick hated his eyes. They weren't the familiar blue from his childhood anymore. His left eye was now a golden yellow, and his right was a dull blue. Every time he looked in the mirror, they were there. The eyes. Always reminding him of what he is...was...

Dick sighed as he sat down on his beat-up couch. He'd been planning to go out tonight but...that might not happen anymore. His new suit was complete, he just couldn't think of a name.

'Just gonna have to wing it!.. Wait,' he thought, 'If I go out at night, and basically wing everything...' he stood up and began pacing, 'How about Wingnight!?' he exclaimed, finger shooting into the air.

Dick stopped pacing and stood for a moment. 'Nope, no, nope. That's bad, like, real bad.'

Dick sighed in frustration, running a hand through his hair as he began pacing again. 'It can't be Wingnight. It has to be something clever, something that people can love, but also fear. Something like...Nightwing.' A smile crept across Dick's face.

Looks like he's going out after all.

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Jason's day was running smoothly. Well, it had been running smoothly until one of his men called saying they were having trouble on a job.

Grumbling to himself, he grabbed his helmet and keys before heading outside to his motorcycle. His men were at a warehouse down by the docks. They were supposed to make a deal with some of Blockbuster's guys and get a few of his buildings. Jason sighed, turning on his bike. The ride shouldn't be more than 10 minutes.

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Nightwing was making his way towards the docks.

He'd gotten...beaten...some information out of a thug about a deal going down. He was still new to Bludhaven, so the gangs were still unfamiliar, but the thug had said something about a Red Hood. Was that the gang's name or was it the boss? Or both?

Well, he'd figure it out one way or another. Right now, he needed to get to the right building.

As he approached the the building he slowed down, not wanting to be spotted by any lookouts.

Nightwing surveyed the warehouse from the opposing roof. There were four men guarding the front entrance, each of them had an automatic rifle -and what looked to be a grenade. He wasn't positive though, knives were more his thing. There was one man walking along the side of the building.

'Using my great detective skills, I am able to deduce that there is also a man on the other side as well.' He quietly snickered at his sarcasm.

Taking out his grappling line, he stood and shot it towards the roof of the warehouse. Only a soft 'pat' could be heard as he landed. Nightwing waited a few moments, making sure even the soft noise wasn't heard before creeping towards the skylight.

'What is it with Bludhaven having skylights in all their building? Honestly it's ridiculous. Their just asking for someone to break in,' he thought.

When he looked through the glass he saw about ten men in the room. Six of them had a patch with two B's on them. 'What does that stand for? Bad Boys?' he quipped mentally. Focusing on the remaining four, he saw that they each had a red helmet, with two AK's crossing each other on the back of their jackets.

'Huh, I think those might be the Red Hood guys. Ya'know, just guessing.' Each of the men in the room had some kind of weapon, whether it be a gun or knife, they were all armed. 'This may be slightly difficult, just a bit. Nothing I can't handle though.'

Right when he was about to make his dramatic entrance -crashing through the skylight- a guy on a motorcycle burst through the doors.

'I wonder who he is?' Nightwing, deciding to hold off on his dramatic entrance for a bit, sat down to watch and see what would happen next. 'For ya know, educational purposes,' he thought. 'Let the show begin!'

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Jason was pissed. He'd shot the men in front of the warehouse with his pistol. Of course, it had a silencer on it, although his bike probably gave him away. All he wanted to do today was watch some T.V. But noooo... his men just had to go and be stupid. Honestly, what was the point of goons if they couldn't so much as handle an exchange? Okay, don't answer that.

To lazy to get off his bike, he drove through the doors and stopped in front of his people. He turned off his bike and slowly got off with a lazy and dragging gate, facing Blockbuster's men.

"Is there a problem here?" he spoke incredulously, internally happy as his helmet altered his voice into something deeper, something dark. He watched the faces of the men go from confident to scared as he waited for thug number one, as Jason decided to call him, to speak up.

"Uhh..n-no Sir, n-no problem here. We were just about to reach an agreement, right guys?" he look towards his fellow men for conformation. The five thugs nodded their heads vigorously, not wanting to get shot. None of them looked up from their feet, not daring to look at Jason. Well, they wouldn't be looking at Jason per say, no, they'd be looking at the Red Hood.

"That's what I thought," Red Hood spoke, "You can continue then, from where you left off. I'll just wait here for you to finish." He eyed Blockbuster's men, knowing he had them trapped. Now they had to make the deal, or he'd kill them. Thug number one looked up and nodded.

After this deal is complete, Jason's plan can finally move to Phase Two. Perfect. All he needed to find was a partner.

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As soon as the guy spoke, Nightwing knew he was the Red Hood. Or it was probably the helmet. Defiantly the helmet.

Dick slowly crept away from the glass, and peered over the edge of the roof. The Red Hood was on his bike conversing with one of his men. Making a split-second decision, Nightwing began to follow the Red Hood when he turned into the street.

Nightwing ran seamlessly after the bike, flipping easily on occasion to keep up. He skid to a stop when the Red Hood slowed down, parking his bike and entered a nearby alley.

'What's he doing?' Curious, Nightwing glided along the roof, silently watching. 'Maybe, if I follow this guy around, I can figure out better ways to gain control over the crime.' Nightwing wondered.

A loud voice is what broke him out of his thoughts. He looked down to see the Red Hood staring right at him, gun drawn.

"I know you've been following me," he boomed, somehow still sounding lazy despite the anger. "Now get the hell down here before I shoot you. Don't make me ask twice!"

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Immediately after Jason left the warehouse, he knew something was wrong, and the feeling kept getting worse the longer he drove. Call him paranoid, but he could've sworn he saw a flash of red reflect behind him.

"This day keeps getting better and better," he muttered while pulling over. If somebody was following him, might as well get the confrontation over with. Better here than at his apartment. He parked his bike and sighed. He really didn't want to do this today. Looking around, he spotted an alley. Might as well go meet the guy in there.

He slowly entered, looking for any imperfections in the shadows. His eyes roamed the edges of the rooftops when he saw it -thank you Slade- a shadow of light flicker on his left. He quickly drew his gun, pointing it at the shadow, and bellowed:

"I know you've been following me," he drew in a breath, "Now get the hell down here before I shoot you. Don't make me ask twice."

Jason swallowed anxiously. He was about to yell again when the shadow moved. The sha -man, as he could now see,- fell gracefully onto the buildings fire escape, peaking through the black bars almost childishly.

Jason stared at him for a few moments, taking in his appearance. The man's hair was black, and he wore a domino mask that covered most of his face. His outfit consisted of a black body suit, with a bright red V across his chest. It almost looked like a bird, but not quite. The red flowed from the man's chest, to his shoulder's, extending to his fingertips. For weapons, the man had two sticks strapped across his back. He probably had more weapons hidden where Jason couldn't see.

This man was dangerous, that much he knew. The reason being that he was able to follow Jason in the first place. What he didn't know was what the man wanted, and Jason was going to find out.

Jason waved his gun at the man, showing that he would shoot him, and yelled.

"Who the hell are you? If you're here to kill me, let's just start the fight already. I don't need to hear your monologue."

Jason looks readily up at the man, waiting for his answer. The man doesn't reply, he only tilts his head to the side, like a dog or bird would.

Jason steps back when the man flips off the fire escape and lands in front of him, crouched and innocently staring up at him.

Red Hood moves his gun, aiming it at the mans face. He gestures to the man with his gun, "Stand up," he spoke. He thought for a moment before adding, "Who sent you?"

The man rises slowly, raising his arms to show that he means no harm. Red Hood watches, confused, as the man lowers one hand, and places it on his throat before pointing to his belt. Jason's thoughts run wild as he tries to figure out what it means. The man before him huffs and places a hand on his throat again, with more energy, and points to his belt once more.

Jason's eyes widen in surprise as it clicks. He can't talk. Why else would the guy touch his throat. He can't talk.

With this in mind, Red Hood begins to speak. "Do you have paper in your belt? Is that why you pointed to it?" The man nods and Jason speaks again, "Okay, so what I want you to do is slowly, slowly reach into your belt and grab you paper an pencil, okay? Try anything funny and i'll shoot you."

He watches carefully as the man pulls out a small notebook with a pen. The man slowly steps forward and holds out his shaking hand towards Jason. Jason quickly looks down, still pointing his gun at the man, and sees a business card. Grabbing the card, he watches as the man backs up again, arms raised, before reading it.

Nightwing. Hero of Bludhaven

Under the last line, in writing, Jason sees where Nightwing scratched out the word hero and wrote, 'I'm not a good guy.' underneath it.

Red Hood pockets the card and lowers his gun. If the man wanted to hurt him, he would've done it by now. He looks down at Nightwing, noticing he's a few inches shorter than himself, and approaches him. Nightwing flinches slightly, and Jason thinks he would've missed it if he hadn't been looking for it. Other than that, Nightwing doesn't move.

Red Hood points to Nightwing's notepad. "Open it. I'm about to ask you some very important questions. Okay?" Nightwing tilts his head like before and nods, opening his notepad.

'Maybe this guy can be the partner I need. I only need to figure out what his motives are,' Red Hood thought to himself.

"Alright, I know it's rude to ask people this, but I need to know. Have you ever killed someone?" Red Hood watches as Nightwing winces and writes down his answer. "Good. Now, question two: Do you want to save people?" He watches Nightwing write down his answer and look up at him. "Did anyone send you here to kill me?" Nightwing writes his answer once more. "Okay, I have one more question, but I need to see your answers first." Red Hood watches Nightwing's shaking hand as it holds out the notepad for him. Jason nods and takes it. Nightwing suddenly becomes very interested in the rocks by his feet as Jason reads.

1. Yes -to many 2. Yes I do 3. No -I don't work for anyone

Red Hood nods to himself and looks back to Nightwing, who's silently kicking the rocks. "Here," Jason holds out the notepad, speaking softly, "take it."

Nightwing looks up and grabs his papers. He flips to a new page, ready to write his answer. "My last question is the most important, so take your time if you need to think about it." Nightwing nods as Jason continues, "Do you want to come and work with me? Like, be my partner. I can teach you a few things about the crime here. It'll give you an advantage." Jason holds out his hand for Nightwing to take, watching him carefully. He looks up from his notepad, shocked, and stares at Jason's hand for a few minutes. He looks from Jason to his hand a few times before finally reaching out and taking it. Red Hood could feel the tremble in Nightwing's hand as they shook. 'Why's he shaking so much?' Jason thought as they let go.

Red Hood smirked underneath his helmet. Phase Two can finally start. He looked to Nightwing one more time before stating, "Follow me."

Neither of them noticed a camera on the building zoom in as they left the alley.

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Batman had sent out an notice to all security cameras in Bludhaven to alert him if the Red Hood shows up on camera. So when he got an alert and hacked into the security cam, he was expecting to see the Red hood. What he wasn't expecting to see was the back of a man, the new hero that he'd been following to be exact, standing with Red Hood in front of him.

Batman zoomed in and tried to see what they were meeting about. Red Hood lowered his gun, and by the way Red Hood moved his hands, Batman could tell he was talking. To bad this camera didn't pick up audio. The hero was writing something down, and handed it to the Red Hood. Why was he talking with a known criminal? Batman watched silently as Red Hood shook hands with the hero, and proceed to leave with him. Batman tried to zoom in more but the camera couldn't find them. They were gone.

Batman swiftly stood from his chair, cape flowing behind him. He glided across the cave towards the zeta tube. He needed to inform the League. They needed to get to get the Hero on their team before the Red Hood ruins him.

Batman walked into the zeta tube, and in a flash of light, he was gone.

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Wow, I'm sorry with how late this chapter is. I tried to make it longer as an apology. It's up now though. What did you think? Is there anything you want to see happen in the next chapter? I'll try to add it.

I want to give a thanks to my beta reader: WhenUniversesCollide They've been super helpful and I totally recommend them to anyone that may need help!

Other than that I don't have anything else to say other than that if anything in the story starts to confuse you, message me and i'll explain it!

Til next time,

~Rachel :)