Vigilante Justice - A Young Justice Fanfiction

Chapter 5: A Botched Thievery

Dick had gotten back to his apartment far later than he'd anticipated.

After finally finishing what felt like an endless series of incident reports, filing them all away, and slipping out of the department, it was well past his usual dinner time.

Which, admittedly, was already pretty late to begin with.

His apartment complex was in the rougher end of the city, wedged in between an often-vacant strip mall and a questionably stable block of shabby condos.

It wasn't that Dick didn't have money—even though Bruce had cut him off—his job paid fairly well. Very well, especially considering he'd only been on the force about a year.

It was more that if anything were to happen, it would happen on this end of town. Meaning he would already be within fairly close proximity.

That, and here was no better way to gather intel than to observe the lower end. To be aware of the comings and goings, the 'word on the street', so to speak.

He tromped up the stairs, ignoring the leaves that'd blustered in through one of the taped off windows.

His room was on the fourth floor, meaning he was a nearly winded by the time he reached it.

There was an elevator, but the young detective had never been courageous enough to attempt it. Death-by-elevator was rather low on his 'Ways to Go Out' list. Tenth, actually, right behind radioactive jellyfish.

But Dick digressed.

His door, the wood panelling swollen with moisture, had a habit of sticking when he went to open it. With a grunt, he rammed his entire body weight into it and felt it shudder.

It was good practice for forced police entry, he supposed. He resisted the urge to whisper a soft, "BPD, coming in" under his breath as the door shrieked open to reveal a dingy apartment room.

There was a squat entryway with a bathroom on the immediate right, which didn't have a door handle, for reasons unknown to him. From there the room opened up into a sort of living space, equipped with relatively intact furniture and a mounted TV, all of which was overlooked by an open concept kitchen.

The bedroom was off down another hall, secluded from the rest of the apartment and barely large enough for a bed and safe, the latter of which was technically unnecessary as he didn't have an intrusive roommate.

Thankfully. Dick couldn't even imagine what they would say to the birdarang holes in the wall, or the swathe of dark spandex airing over a spare kitchen chair.

Nothing good, that's for sure.

His plan for the night was simple; patrol for awhile, then break into his boss's office and steal key evidence to his own case. .

Usually, breaking and entering would take a little more recon, surveillance, and a teensy bit more scheming. However, since he knew all the ins and outs of the BPD, such actions would be mostly unnecessary.

'Sides, he'd worked with Batman. Compared to some of his previous missions, this should be a piece of cake.

*

Patrol that night was surprisingly anticlimactic, most criminals apparently having taken the night off. The only trouble he encountered was a mugging, attempted stabbing, and petty arson.

Not bad, for a night in Bludhaven.

He'd just used a thug's own phone to call the police on them, familiar blue and red sirens surging around the corner, when he checked his holo-display's time stamp for what felt like the thousandth time.