His Last Hope of Coming Home

Chapter 2: A Familiar Friendly Foe

Dick hadn't spoken to Bruce since his outburst, and when Bruce had been debating to forcefully resign Dick as Nightwing. He was on a nightly patrol. He had come across a few muggings and some petty thieves, but nothing too serious.

He heard a gunshot.

Dick groaned. What now? Some more thieves trying to rob a bank or a poor old woman who wouldn't give up her purse?

Another one.

Dick leaped from roof to roof, following the repeating gunshots. He found himself hovering above an alleyway, sitting on the bar of the fire exit built onto the apartment.

The Alleyway was dark in the night. With the only light coming from the moon and the streetlights on the street. There were only two men there, one was wearing a nice, black, tux. His hair was combed back but didn't have any gel in his moca colored hair. He was also carrying a briefcase. It was thicker than a normal one and looked slightly heavy. The other man was on the cement ground, with a bullet in his head. He wore all black with his pitch black sunglasses on the ground in front of him, his blood flooding onto the floor.

"W-who's there!?" The man in the tuxedo yelled, looking into the shadows. A moment passed, and nothing happened. He was holding onto the oddly large briefcase so tight that his knuckles had turned white. Dick was about to jump down and confront the man, but someone walking out of the shadows behind the man in the tuxedo had stopped him.

He wore black and gray combat boots, baggy, dark, navy blue pants that were tucked into their boots. They had multiple belts on, some containing weapons such as guns and knives. They also had a couple of pouches on his thighs. They had a dark gray top on, with a brown half-cut jacket with a colar covering their neck. But the two things that stood out the most to him were the crimson helmet that covered his entire head but had two white slits for the eyes, and the crimson red bat logo that was imprinted on thier shirt. They were well built and decently muscular, which led Dick to assume that they were a male.

Dick had recognized the man as the newest vigilante, Red Hood. This criminal had really pissed off Batman. He had always seemed to know him. He even knew his identity somehow. But Dick had some suspicions that he wanted answers to.

Red Hood pulled a small pistol out of a compartment on his thigh and pointed it at the man in the tux.

"What's in it?" Red Hood asked. Dick could see the man shaking and seemed to hold onto the briefcase even tighter if that's possible.

"I-I can't t-tell you! He'll k-kill me!" The man stuttered. He didn't move. Red Hood's eye slits narrowed, and he put the gun to the back of his head so he felt it. The man froze, eyes wide with terror and pleading for anyone who might be near.

"Who is 'he'?" Red Hood asked. A click signaling that he was ready to shoot. After a moment, Red Hood yelled. "Answer the question!" He pushed the gun into the back of the man's head, pushing the man's head forward slightly.

"Two Face!" The man screamed in pure terror. Red Hood seemed to have tensed for a moment before shaking it off and spinning the man around to face him, then brought his face down to his knee and knocked him unconscious. He then stole the briefcase.

Before the vigilante could leave, Nightwing leaped down from his perch. The vigilante was surprised but recovered quickly and then sighed.

"I always have to deal with bats just to get a simple task done." The hooded vigilante shook his head and put the pistol back into its holster. Nightwing approached the man, but the other seemed unphased.

"Sorry, but stealing and assault is against the law, and I'm just here to reinforce that." He said, trying to sound high and proud, but his voice had betrayed him when it had cracked.

"Isn't stealing and selling highly dangerous weapons to incredibly dangerous villains all across Gotham illegal too?" He asked, cocking his head at the question he already knew the answer to.

Nightwing was taken back. Now he had even more questions. But if he was right about this guy, then he knew what he was about to give him next.

"If you're on a case, fine. Turn these guys in when you're done." He reached into a hidden, skin-tight pocket in his uniform and pulled out the crimson bat symbol and a piece of paper with a note. He reached his hand out to the vigilante. The vigilante hesitantly took it and looked at him before opening the piece of paper to find the bat symbol. His eyes widened underneath the hood and looked at Nightwing again, but he was gone. He then noticed the weight difference in his hand. He looked at his hand that held the briefcase, except it was gone.

The vigilante cursed under his breath before his lips twitched up into a small smile. "You were always the sneaky one when it came to this shit, Goldy." He said merely above a whisper. He stuffed the note and the bat logo into his jacket pocket and lugged the two men to the nearest police station.

-----

Nightwing had entered the batcave and peeled off his mask. He looked at the floor thinking about to bat symbol and note he had given to Red Hood. Was that really the best idea? The red bat logo was one of the last things he had of Jason, and if the Hood guy wasn't who he thought he was, then what? He would have to start all over.

"How was patrol?" Came a voice.

Dick looked up to see Tim sitting in a chair a little ways away from the batcomputer. He merely shrugged.

"Like normal." He lied. He didn't want anyone to know what was going through his head. Especially the stupid crazy idea he had pieced together in his head, giving him hope that was hoping that was true.

Tim nodded in response and looked back at the report he was filling out in his lap.

Dick to the elevator and was lifted up to the manor once more, thinking about the location he wrote in the letter.