When Worlds Collide

35) Getting to Know the Ghost Dude

A/N: she a tad bit short

-Tim POV-

Tim at on the bench with Kon after he finished his spar and watched as his little brother and Canary approached the mat.

"This is either gonna be amazing or terrible," Bart said with a laugh.

"What do you mean?" Kon asked.

"Are you kidding dude? It's Canary versus GK. We all know she's a badass, but Nico is like a demon when he fights. I saw him fight his cousin a few weeks ago and it was crazy."

"When did you meet his cousin?" Artimis asked as she sat down next to them.

"I mean you've technically met him too. The guy who showed up with Surgeon to get Nico after Markovia, that's him. I think his code name is Tidal." Tim tried to remember what Nico had said, but honestly he wasn't sure. At the time he was pretty focused on the fact that his brother was dying, so he wasn't really paying attention.

"Oh," the blonde said, probably not sure what to say.

"I went to the descendant base a few weeks ago with Nico and it was awesome. I wish you guys could have seen it," Bart said, a smile on his face.

Tim was about to respond, but then Canary and Nico began their spar and everyone immediately forgot what they were talking about.

At first the duo just circled each other, but once Canary made the first more, it was on. They were a flurry of movement. They dodged attacks that Tim could barely see coming. Nico was mostly playing offense, but it was clear that he was actually being challenged for once. Usually when he came to the mountain, he would have to hold back in the fights unless he was fighting a Bat or Kon. This was different though. Canary loved to play mind tricks in her fights, trying to get in their heads and figure out what they were going to do next, but Nico fought off instinct. He rarely knew what he was gonna do until he already did it when it came to fights like these.

"Holy shit," Cissie said as she watched.

Jamie nodded. "We weren't kidding when we called him intimidating. He showed up, fighting like that, and unafraid of the Bat."

Tim snorted, his eyes still tracking the fight as he spoke. "Nico is a bit of a power house. We found him in Gotham after he saved Nightwing's life."

"What?" Virgil said, looking at him in surprise. "He saved Nightwing?"

"Robin too actually. Him and I were patrolling together and he got shot. Nico jumped in and helped me take down the people we were up against. He came out of nowhere and just took down like 15 mobsters before he brought us to his apartment and patched us both up."

"What do you mean by 'patched up'? Like he just bandaged you up and sent you on your way?" Artemis asked.

"Nope. Got the bullet out of Robin and stitched him up. He's trained in field medicine," Tim said casually as the team gapped at him.

"Wait wait wait, apartment? I thought he was a Wayne. Doesn't he live with his family?" Tracie asked.

"This was like a year ago, before he got adopted." Tim watched at Canary finally get the upper hand and swept Nico's legs out from under him. "He's a lot of things, a Wayne is merely one of them."

Canary pulled Nico to his feet and the two shared a few words before stepping off the mat.

"Jamie and Cassy, you're up," the woman yelled.

The duo went to the mat as Nico took Jamie's spot on the bench and drank some water.

"That was a good spar. Not a lot of people can keep up with Canary," Tim said with a smile.

Nico gave a small nod, still catching his breath. "It's not everyday someone can keep up with my reflexes. I need to practice more hand to hand combat with my leg. I'm used to the groundedness of weapons combat."

"But in that interview you said you've been missing a leg for a while," Tracie said, confusion clear in her voice.

Tim was worried Nico would get mad or offended or something— his leg was a sensitive topic when it came to strangers— but the teen just shrugged. "I couldn't exactly say that I lost it after Slade poisoned me in Markovia."

"Wait, you lost it on a mission?" Virgil asked.

Nico snorted slightly. "That makes it sound like I misplaced my leg, but yeah. Slade stabbed me in the calf with a poisoned knife. I tourniqueted it and kept fighting, but I lost my leg after the battle," the demigod said casually, but the team members that had been there all stiffened. They didn't know how to react to him talking about it, or if they should mention what else happened.

"Why did you keep fighting?" Cissy asked.

"I have a bad habit of not quitting when I'm ahead. Plus, the others needed me. I was able to even the odds of the battle."

Tim nodded. "We were getting overwhelmed by the sheer numbers we were up against. Nico evened the playing field."

"It was totally crash. He was all 'I make my own team' and then it was like boom, ground split-" Bart was cut off by Kon elbowing him. "Dude!"

Nico shook his head and chuckled. "It's fine Connor. I don't care if the newbies know about my powers."

"You mean the shadow stuff?"

"Shadows are only part of what I do. I can speak to and summon ghosts, I can sense death energy, I have some geokinetic power,

and stuff like that, but Bart was talking about how I summoned undead soldiers."

Virgil's jaw dropped. "You made Zombies?"

Nico shrugged. "Basically, I guess. It's a bit different than what you're probably thinking, but that's essentially what it is."

"Why were they unsure if you would want us to know?" Cissy asked.

"I wasn't allowed to say when I first got here. The team only saw a small amount of my powers up until Markovia. They had seen some shadow stuff and kinda knew about the ghost summoning, but nothing crazy." Nico's eyes remained trained on the sparring duo while he spoke, but Tim could tell he wasn't really paying attention. "I have had bad experiences with teams in the past, so I didn't want to freak them out. Most people don't want to get to know the kid who can raise the dead."

Tim nudged him with his shoulder. "Good thing we're not most people." 

A/N: yay! chapter! I have a decent idea of what the plot will actually be, so I promise there is some good stuff coming up

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