Unusual Skills And Habits

Tone Of Voice

The next odd experience they had was in training specifically training with Young Justice and the Titans as they were due for a joint mission between the two teams. The mission its self was more of a type that the Justice League does but they could so have left it to them while they handle something much bigger.

Everyone was nervous and excited all the same as to be expected. The excise they were going to be running was to train for surprise attack specifically snipers and other in the dark types of attack the assassins might use.

The Bats were used for villains since they had the most expertise in this field. Tim went first against the newer titans with a few managing to survive the time limit but enough for them to pass. Dick went next although not without a heated conversation with founding teen titans in a separate room.

The young justice team was given a factory setting next as Tim had already used the forest setting so it seemed pointless doing it twice in a row since the exercise was based on surprise. It was quite simple with fight basic training bots and the heroes were quite confused on where Nightwing was because wasn't he supposed to be attacking them already? It was then when the taunts started.

But unlike Nightwing's usual cheerful jokes that everyone has heard him use on missions to mess with petty criminals and world-ending supervillains, these were cold. Delivered in a monotone but a judgemental tone and they cut quite close to home, not too close to say that Nightwing had crossed a boundary but comments on fighting style, level of control over their abilities, and even their team dynamics were picked at.

Whenever one of them found him, it was obvious that what he intended, they never cut him off guard. Even the hit that usually got him in basic sparing did not land once, instead, he blocked every punch and threw punches back at them harder every time.

It didn't take him long to pick them off one by one, defeating them every time with a disappointed tone that they were so easy to beat. Which just rilled them up even more with anger.

When the existence finished there was a loud cascade of arguments all directed towards Nightwing by old and new heroes alike even the original young justice was angry at Nightwing for 'going to far'. They were cut off by Garfield turning into a dinosaur and roar, "Ok, now we've got your attention" stated Raven blandly,

"What is the problem?" continued Starfire ever the peacekeeper,

"The problem is with how Nightwing treated the newer heroes" stated Artemis pointedly not looking at Nightwing,

"Yeah, some of those comments were way too harsh, dude" exclaimed Wally,

"Villains are harsh, they don't care about feelings" replied Raven raising an eyebrow,

"That's not the point" retorted Superboy in frustration.

"Then what is Conner?," asked Nightwing stepping by the titans, "I treated them like how these villains will, and these villains are specifically known for messing with people's heads, if you all can't deal with those comments then I shudder to think of what might happen on the field". That monotone, uncaring, and downright mocking tone was back which made a lot of the young ones freeze especially with the glare that Nightwing gave superboy until Cyborg smacked him on the back of the head.

"Dude that's enough" muttered Cyborg before turning to face the other's, "alright it's clear you don't like how Nightwing conducted his turn but he's not wrong and keep in mind that he knows a lot more about you which meant he held back on many comments he could have made but the villains will if they have that knowledge" he stated leaving no room for argument as he continued, "we have done the same excise that you all just did and while we didn't like it, it has saved our lives in the end because we stopped letting emotions get the best of us and make mistakes".

It made sense to everyone but in all honesty, it was the fact that it was Nightwing who said those comments. Nightwing was supposed to be the light side of batfamily, a friend to every hero and older brother to the young heroes. They didn't like it and they could see that Nightwing knew that but it looked like he didn't care.

"Alright, how about one of us be the villain instead and Nightwing can observe?" suggested Starfire smiling but you could tell it was forced, 

"That would be much appreciated" replied Aqualad and with that, the training resumed but not without many heroes grumbling or avoiding Nightwing who had been pulled into another room by Cyborg for mission prep.

Tim who had been silent throughout Nightwing's villain role and subsequent argument, was in all honesty more concerned out than freaked by his brother's actions. He knew that when he took the role of leader, Dick was slightly more batman like but it was to be expected since he was in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly and they got out alive but it was the tone of voice he had used. When stepping into a role more suited for batman's reputation and skills, his brother always took on B's mannerisms and thought process but this time it was clearly not the case. He was emulating someone else but the question was who? Hopefully, his brothers could figure it out when he showed them the footage later.