Nightwing: Heartache

Part 45: PR Nightmare

January 17, 7:21am
The Batcave

Nightwing stood behind Batman at the main computer in the Watchtower. Bruce sat in his Batman uniform, cowl down, his fingers flying over the keyboard trying to get a handle on the situation.

Everything had changed so suddenly in the middle of the night. Rumors started circulating on the Darkweb, then Reddit, then Youtube, and now mainstream media had grasped onto the rumors that Dick Grayson was Nightwing.

"How did this happen?" Nightwing asked.

Batman shook his head. "I think it was one source who tipped off some key figures in the conspiracy theory media space. Then it caught like wildfire."

Batman stood up, done programming the computer to destroy any posts, webpages, or articles mentioning the rumor. It had caught on so fast that it took Dick, Tim, and Barabara to try and eliminate the webpages while Bruce designed the computer algorithm. It was like playing whack-a-mole, the number of posts talking about it popping up by the hundreds.

"The real question is who leaked the information," Batman's voice was grave.

It didn't sit right with any of them. Sure, most supervillains knew their identities by now, but it was an unspoken rule that it was better for all parties that the public didn't know the identities of the heroes or the villains.

Then it clicked.

"Lex Luthor," Dick breathed out.

Batman nodded. "Makes sense. His entire facade is falling apart. He lashed out."

"This is more than lashing out," Tim added, "this is a psychotic break. Lex has been an enemy of the Justice League for years, and some bad press finally pushed him over the edge?"

Batman stood, thinking things over. He sat back down in the chair and brought up recent articles about Lex Luthor. A number of them focused on talks of removing him as head of LexCorp. "He's losing more than just a public image. He's losing his mask as a philanthropist."

"The public is starting to see him as a villain," Tim thought out loud, "theoretically, if the tide is turning, it wouldn't be out of the question for the Light to also cut ties with him. He's literally losing everything."

"Which is dangerous," Dick said. "I get why he targeted me, but Lex knows most of our identities."

Batman nodded, standing abruptly. He pressed a hand to his earpiece. "J'onn? I need you." Batman walked past Dick and Tim. "The computer will continue to scan the Internet and put out as many fires as possible, but we can't make people forget what they've seen. We can't stop word of mouth."

Dick shifted uncomfortably. This couldn't really be happening, right?

"We need to focus on damage control now," Batman continued. "Bruce Wayne needs to be seen publicly for a few days, at the same time Batman is on the other side of the world."

Dick nodded. He understood. Bruce would pop up while Martian Manhunter posed as Batman somewhere else. Get ahead of any links that Bruce Wayne is Batman. It wasn't a far stretch for someone to link Dick to Nightwing and Bruce to Batman. So they had to contain the fire to just Dick. It was easier for Tim, because his parents were still alive, technically, so Bruce never formally adopted him, and never made a press release about it, putting distance between Tim and Robin. Jason was a street kid who ran away from group homes until the foster care system gave up, so not much press for Jason.

Dick ran a hand through his hair, the reality of the situation settling on his chest. For some reason, he had expected Bruce to be able to fix this. Dick felt like a little kid again, wishing Bruce would make all his problems go away. But this was out of all their control. People online had posted whole videos of Nightwing showing up at places Dick was. They had grainy photos, side by side comparisons, and old videos of when he was in the circus compared to more recent videos of Nightwing's acrobatics.