Bats Hanging Around [Tim]

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Another night and Dick found himself at the Batcave. He had not exactly planned this, but since the work with the Outsiders were picking up, he was finding this happening more and more.

With all that work, he didn't have the time to be at his place to look up the information on his case as he would like. And the computers he worked on back at his place were highly advanced in comparison to the ones at the bunker. Though it never seemed to be able to compete with the supercomputer of the Batcave.

All the more files he would have to look at. And easier access to police records here. It would only take moments to hack compared to his personal computers he had back in Bludhaven.

Nightwing had made it off without a trace from patrolling for the night. He could fit everything to his schedule it seemed at times. And right now was his chance to get away for a bit and work on his missions.

He was sure Alfred would have figured who was in the cave if Bruce was out. Not many others this early on in the night to be up to some more work. And with being back in town, it was easier for him to work this way.

The bunker could be noisy with all the teammates there at once. And he could never really get much work done.

He had come suited up as Nightwing, now with his mask to the side. He had brought a set of spare clothes in case he decided against going on patrol all night. And right now there was a short time for a patrol of Gotham tonight. He'd try and get to Bludhaven later in the morning when he got the chance before sunrise.

Dick sat typing away at the computer as he looked through the police records. He found nothing on Williams and no past mug shot to tie him to. All the more to keep looking through other files Bats had on people in town lately.

He knew Bruce well enough. New business was always something to look into when it was a threat to the others as well as how it had grown so fast.

[Deleted]

Tim trotted down the stairs into the Cave, taking care by habit to try and minimize the amount of noise he made as he did so. He was a lot more successful at it now than he had been before becoming Robin. He was too restless to stay upstairs right now, and some extra training seemed like the perfect thing to remedy that. Rounding the curve, Tim stepped out onto the main cave floor. His eyebrows went up. Bruce wasn't back already, was he? He padded towards the computer bank, eyes flickering over what he could see on the screen. Police records, rap sheets...

...And that wasn't Bruce in the big computer chair at all. Tim lit up, a grin spreading across his face as he leaned into the side of the chair and gave his older brother a solid poke.

"Oh my god, you are real!" he exclaimed. "It's been so long I almost thought I was hallucinating things. What, are you avoiding me now?"

He was kidding, of course. Mostly. Really, he knew that Dick had been busy with his own caseload and everything lately. It hadn't been at all intentional that he hadn't seen Dick in while.

Except for how it could've been.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Dick could hear the foot fall of someone coming into the cave long before he would give off that he did. There weren't many that walked like that. He could only figure that was one other person in the Manor down in the cave this early on. And it wasn't Alfred.

He kept his eyes on the computer in the meantime. That was his intent for being there. But he'd allow for his focus to be shifted for the time being.

The chair shifted slightly with the weight of the boy leaning against it. And the poke to his arm was all the more reason to give his attention over to the boy who just entered.

Dick turned to look at him. The wide grin on Tim's face only made him react by giving a slight smile in reaction. Unlike Bruce who might have remained silent or asked him if he had training to perform.

"Me, avoid you? What would give you that thought? Thanks for the thought though, maybe I'll use that as my reason next time," Dick replied. A broader smile played across his face in his teasing.

There were mainly two reasons why Tim was down there. Either he was bored or was getting away from homework.

"Had enough of the school books? Or are you on a training schedule tonight," Dick asked.

[Deleted]

"Mm... A bit of both, kinda? I had to do a big project for chemistry tonight and I just finished," Tim explained. "Needed to work off some energy, so..."

He shrugged. Training  would do the job. Plus, it was satisfying, the burn of his workout leaving him feeling like he'd maybe made some actual progress. It was almost as good as actually going on patrol sometimes. Besides, he knew he could always use more practice - he wasn't the natural athlete Dick was, or as adept as Jason had been. All he could do was work harder and train longer, make the attempt at closing that gap. So that was what Tim did.

Tim nodded to the computer.

"Are you looking for something? Maybe I can help."

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"Doesn't school drain it out of you with boredom," Dick asked. "Always seemed to put me to sleep."

Dick wasn't overly fond of school when he was growing up. Sure he had been great at math and all, but he preferred his night life of course. Though he could image, not much had changed with the house rules under Alfred's care.

School came first before training in the cave. That was unless there was an emergency. Though Dick had found many ways to turn simple tasks around the Manor into ways of training.

Long story short, he was told not to jump from banisters that were higher than one story. It was hard to train a circus boy to act like a city kid.

"I've got what I've needed for now," Dick replied as he switched off the files he had been looking at. The screen going back to older stuff that had been up since last night or late morning.

"I'm assuming Alfred knows you're taking a break from the school work," Dick asked. "If he doesn't, I won't tell."

He smiled at the youngest member of the bat-family. He knew how things worked around here. After all he had been the first to go through growing up with Alfred's watchful eye and Bruce's discipline.

[Deleted]

Tim watched the screen change, running his eyes over the familiar information as it reappeared. Hm. Alright, then. He turned his attention back to his brother.

"School is school. I don't mind it, for the most part; I just wish we were still allowed nap-times." Tim grinned crookedly. "And tell Alfred whatever you want - my schoolwork is done."

Until his teachers gave him more tomorrow, anyway. Tim planned on doing most of it in study hall, then finishing on the ride back home, like he usually did. It was only the bigger projects and assignments that tripped him up, because those were the kind of things that took time and planning.

"You haven't been around lately," he added, a note of explanation in his tone that was almost sort of rueful. "You come to Gotham a lot, I know, and you've seen Batman. But you don't come over to train anymore, and I keep getting sent out when you do stop over. Or left behind when Batman's going to meet you."

Tim shrugged again and straightened up, deliberately not looking at the computers with too much scrutiny.

"Maybe I'm just reading too much into it. People get busy. I'm going to go get changed into some workout clothes, okay?"

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"Well aren't you the teacher's pet," Dick teased him.

Of course he was going to pick on him a bit. Tim was the closest thing to a real brother he had in this family. Considering what had happened to Jason.

Dick leaned to the other side of the chair, resting his arm on the armrest. Looking to Tim as he shifted the conversation.

"We've had a bit of work that's going on in Gotham. Nothing to get alarmed over," Dick replied. "Just files to go over."

Dick slightly lied. Though easy for him to make it sound like any other time he and Bruce had done going over records on some crooks to catch up on it Gotham. Even though this was more for missions than just reviewing.

"You're definitely reading too much into it," Dick replied.

At the next part of Tim's comment, Dick thought for a moment. If Tim wanted to workout, why stay at the cave?

"How about getting suited up and heading out for some training exercises? There might be a gang or crook we could take down during that time. Not like Bruce would find about about the extra work on the side," Dick smiled at Tim.

He knew every well that Bruce was over protective of Tim at times. And field work was not something he'd probably suggest for Robin to do without him.

[Deleted]

Tim gave Dick a long, pointed look, but he left it alone, allowing the change of topic.

"Yeah, okay," he agreed. "I think you're overestimating Bruce's protectiveness just a little, though - I am allowed to do some solo patrols, you know. Going out with you shouldn't get me in trouble, anyway; I'm as safe with you as I am with him."

Because whatever Dick said about Bruce not finding out, there was no way Batman wouldn't know. Tim left to go change, already looking forward to getting out of the Cave, out of the Manor, and into Gotham proper. It didn't take him long at all, too practiced at getting into uniform in a hurry to dawdle at it now, and he was hurrying back out to meet Dick with his mask in one hand and the other fastening his cape just about five minutes later.

"Ready! How are we gonna go?"

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

"Alright. I'll back off on the comments over Bruce being protective," Dick replied.

A slight smirk came to his face as he then commented,"He doesn't have some sort of tracer on ya, does he?"

He was only teasing. And he knew there were programs within their masks' computer systems to help track them in case of an emergency. At least their had been back when he had been Robin. Now as Nightwing, Dick had a program that monitored his body stress-levels and sent out a message for help. Something he had learned from Alfred that was good to have around.

Then after Tim ran off to get changed, Dick finished up his work on the computer in that time. Closing out all files and erasing all the history of those files being pulled up.

"I still don't miss the cape," he commented as Tim came out still trying to fasten it.

"Depends, you feeling up for a solo ride on you bike and trying to keep up with me? Or we could commandeer the Batmobile for a bit," Dick commented. He grabbed his mask as he stood up and walked away from the computer.

[Deleted]

"I like my cape," Tim protested mildly as his fastened cape closed around his shoulders. He reached up to put his mask on. Aside from it's more obvious functions, his cape kept him warmer on cold nights, and made a great replacement for an umbrella when it was rainy. "It's useful. And my comm has a GPS function."

He walked over towards his bike. It was still a little strange, that he had a motorcycle of his own - he was still three years from even getting a license - but he did love his Redbird. He was still learning how to modify her on his own, but that didn't mean it wasn't still a whole lotta fun.

"Let's ride, and we'll see if you can keep up with me. B just helped me tweak the suspension." Tim grinned at Dick, very nearly bouncing in his excitement. "Just wait'll you see; it's like she can read my mind."

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

Dick shook his head a bit as he gave a light laugh over the matter. The cape had been nice up to a point, but with his acrobatic abilities it was easier to do without. The capes had to be designed differently for his suits when he had been Robin. It had to be light weight, yet still provide the protection needed.

As were his suits designed from the same material, but light weight and flexible. And the Nightwing suit, he had taken care in design them himself along side with Alfred's help over the important matters of the materials.

It was the lack of cape and utility belt that made the Nightwing suit quite different from the rest of the Bat-family suits.

Dick followed Tim over to the Redbird, putting on his mask as he walked along. He looked over the bike as Tim exclaimed the addictions and improvements to the bike. "Only one way to test it out then," Dick said as he put his hand on Tim's head, ruffling his hair a bit.

A moment later, he was running toward his own bike. Twisting quickly to face away from it and performed a back handspring the rest of the way. Grabbing onto the handled of the bike first to lower himself quickly into the saddle.

He slide on his helmet, the bike roaring to life beneath him. The computer system was kicking in to start up. This was just another feature to also safeguard the bike from theft. It also had an auto-pilot to track him down when a signal was given.

"Try to keep up," Dick called as the jet black motorcycle sped off. The lights on the side became blue and red streaks as the bike took off up the ramp leading to the woods escape.

[Deleted]

"Show-off!" Tim called as Dick flipped onto his bike, hurriedly fixing his hair as he swung a leg over Redbird and fired up the engine. He was laughing, though - that was just Dick. Sometimes, Tim was pretty sure that Dick would never just walk anywhere if he didn't have a secret identity to keep. God knew he seemed to avoid it enough as Nightwing. He roared after his brother, cape flying out behind him, and he whooped as they broke out into the crisp winter air. This was so much better than just training in the Cave. Not just for being outside, either.

Honestly, Tim had missed Dick. And it had been hard not to worry that the older man hadn't changed his mind about the whole 'brother' thing after all. Still was, sorta, but it was at least easier to ignore.

Taking a corner at a tight enough angle that his knee nearly brushed the pavement, Robin finally managed to slip by Nightwing's bike. He was grinning hard enough to make his cheeks hurt as he pulled back up and revved the gas to keep that lead.

"So where to?" he asked Nightwing cheerfully over the comms. "D'you have any particular kind of training in mind, or are we - " he broke off to snicker a little - "winging it?"

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

It was rather amusing that Tim was trying to keep up. Well now, it was Robin.

There was snow on the ground as they came tearing out of the cave. And to their luck, no ice on the roads. The snow had remained from a few days ago. So as far as the road in the city and he had traveled, there wasn't ice to be found.

The North end of Gotham was perfect for this kind of activity. Low traffic and more freedom for now. The challenge would be faced in the central end of Gotham if they headed there.

Nightwing held onto the lead as long as he could. Maybe just slowing it up a bit as to not lose Robin right off the bat.

It was then that Robin came speeding around the corner and took the lead. Nightwing laughed to himself. And Robin called him a show off. The kid knew how to ride and had caught on quickly.

"Depends, are you up for an extreme game of tag starting at the rail yards? Or some blindfolded combat at the dockyards," Nightwing responded back over the comm.

The two places could be rather tricky. Though Nightwing rather enjoyed the combination of blindfold training on the trains themselves. But he though this might give him and Robin the chance to just have some fun. Then again, it seemed rather fun to Nightwing either way.

It beat training blindfolded in the batcave.

[Deleted]

Oh, man. Tough decision - they were both fun options. Robin debated it for a second, deftly taking his bike through another curve. He was still nowhere as good as Nightwing in combat, but it would be good practice. On the other hand...

"Extreme tag," Robin decided. He liked actually standing a chance at winning. It wasn't like tag wasn't good training, too. "The big rail yard in Tricorner, or the repair yard in Coventry?"  

They'd have been heading to Tricorner anyway, if they'd been planning to spar - either Tricorner or Dixon Docks, but they were close enough - so maybe Nightwing just wanted to spend some time in that area, but Coventry was good for rooftop tag, too. It was worth asking.

[Dick Grayson - Nightwing]

It wasn't long before Nightwing was able to spot his chance and take along side of the Redbird. He'd pull ahead when he wanted to.

Though his mind was debating over where they should head off to next. Both suggestions were good locations to start with. But he wanted to provide Robin with a challenge.

Since it was tag he had chosen, Nightwing did not take long to come up with an answer.

"We'll go with Coventry then," Nightwing replied.

Sure there were less training moving through that area at night, but it would provide more of a stomping ground for them at points. And Nightwing wasn't going to go easy on the kid.

Heck, back when he trained with Batman, he had used to hunt down Batman. The hardest of the training challenges was keeping out of Batman's sight for more than four hours during the more intense training. All a part of working in the shadows.

It had taken some getting used to at first. And it certainly was not an easy task.

Nightwing sped up to gain the lead again. "Want to call it a fair game and go unarmed? Otherwise I could leave you tied up some where," Nightwing joked.