Nightwing: Sins of the Fathers

My Mistakes Were Made For You

Staring down the barrel of a gun had become all-too-familiar to me over the years. Quite frankly, being a hazard of the profession, it wasn't something that particularly bothered me. The thing is, if you can see them pointing the gun at you, it usually means they've already waited too long to pull the trigger.

I could usually predict what was going to happen, whether they were going to fire, whether they had it in them to shoot, to potentially kill me. Looking at Melissa's tear-stained face through the glass, I couldn't see anything, no next move, no strategy of any kind, nothing but blind hatred. I knew I had to get out of there, but I was rooted to the spot. Something in those eyes had frozen me solid. I wanted to reach out and explain. I imagined pulling down the hood and taking my mask off, but that would only make things worse. She needed Dick Grayson, not Nightwing, not the man who, as far as she knew, had just killed her father.

Regaining some kind of feeling, I raised my hands slowly to surrender, analysing her to see if there was a way to disarm her. My mouth twitched to speak.

And that was when she pulled the trigger. A pop followed by the shattering of glass sent a bullet hurtling into my armoured chest plate. It hadn't penetrated the kevlar, but I was completely winded, seizing the railing as I stumbled backwards.

The second shot rang in my ears as she marched toward me, her intentions clear, and pinged another round off my chest plate before a third hit my shoulder. They weren't going through, but she wasn't stopping. Taking a massive gasp of air, I rolled to my left and narrowly missed a fourth shot which would have likely broken through the armour.

I'd run the whole length of the large balcony before Melissa had emptied the 12-round magazine, not managing to hit me again. Taking one last look back at her face, I leapt over the edge and swung into the alleyway below.

"Freeze!" An officer shouted as I pulled my hidden gym bag from the dumpster. To my surprise, he opened fire without letting me respond, forcing me to disarm him with a kick before zipping up on to the next building.

I sprinted as best I could along the rooftop, blue lights and sirens were everywhere, and my options were looking pretty limited. There was no time for thinking about next moves as I was headed off by whirring helicopter blades. A GCPD chopper, complete with an onboard sniper was staring me down. The PA system blurted: "Drop the bag and put your hands in the air, you are under arrest."

This couldn't be happening...

I raised my hands, sliding one past my utility belt as slyly as I could, still holding the bag.

"Drop the bag!" The voice called impatiently.

It was a risky move, but I managed to fling a smoke pellet down to the ground and leap to one side before the sniper was able to let off a shot.

"Nightwing," came a voice in my ear, "It's Batgirl, what the hell is going on?"

"Long story!" I replied, my voice coming out raspier than I'd expected.

"You're all over the news; they're saying you threw Roland Daggett off of his penthouse. There's a video and everything!"

"Throwing him? I was trying to save him!" I snapped.

"I assumed as much; it's me remember. But the footage looks bad, Dick. You need to get away from those cops ASAP and get to the mansion," Barbara explained.

"Easier said than done if you have any suggestions I'd love to hear 'em. Half the GCPD is on my tail!" I jumped a moderate gap, landing on a slightly lower building.

"Your best bet..." Barbara began, pausing for a second.

"Is?" I snapped.

"The sewer," She said.