Night Rider

11: Nightrider

AN: wow! Over a hundred reads! Thank you to everyone who has been following this story!
The following chapter is probably a little anticlimactic, but things are certainly gaining momentum.
- Felicity-Amber-Grimm
Time since discovery: 7 months

Basic Skill Set:

-hacking, advanced operations, motorcycle operation, striking fear into the hearts of enemies, martial arts, multilingual use, tracking

Transitional Skill Set:

-hand to hand combat, self defense, first aid, bo staff, tactical planning, toxicology, agility, multitasking

Advanced Skill Set:

-equine training and application, knife throwing, witty remarks, artistic rendering, memorization and organization, human behavior and understanding, interpersonal relationships, high speed action

Additional Notes:

-has somehow acquired the ability to reduce everyone to gasping laughter in the space of a few minutes. All are affected, Jason and Damian included
-despite multiple attempts, Nightwing is unable to flirt her into any sort of uncomfortable situation
-picks up on new techniques very quickly, puts her full effort into understanding
-does not seem to think she is athletically inclined, but she is durable, holds far more potential than gives herself credit for
-unfazed by blood, gore, and large amounts of pain

...
Robin swung an elbow back into my gut sharply. I gritted my teeth into a grimace and brought my fist up into his ribs, ducking away from his follow up blow.

"Better, but you're still not focusing right," he leaned into me again with a series of blows I just managed to block. I was bigger, but that wasn't really an advantage.

Robin was way too fast. He was a sparrow to my tortoise.

"I just can't seem to move with it right. I know," I blocked a hit only to have another one skim my ribs, "the forms, the moves, but they don't feel natural. At slower speeds it's fine, but once I have to stop thinking?"

Robin swiped my feet out from underneath me and I crashed to the ground- again. This was the fifth time today he had taken me to the floor.

"Thank you for that. Ow."

Robin sighed and pulled his mask off, "We're done for today Lyn, it's obviously not sticking."

Yeah, no kidding. Thanks for making me feel better about my sudden abysmal hand to hand combat skills.

"Yeah, probably a good call..."

...

Instead of going back upstairs, I hit the barn. If anyone was going to console me about my problems it was going to be Sitdka and Tuffy. I didn't even bother to tack up, just swung onto Tuffy bareback and wandered about the arena, listless, telling her how things were.

As a genetically modified horse, I was pretty sure she could understand more than most people would give credit.

"It's like I've hit a wall the past couple of months, Tuff. I thought I was getting it, getting better, but the moment things got tougher... It all just fell apart," I leaned back over her spine, "It doesn't come to me like you and Sid do. I'm really good at mounted combat, but on the ground I'm pretty useless, I have to think through everything and by then it's too late. Hell, everything just makes more sense when related to horses," with a sigh, I closed my eyes.

Two seconds later I sat bolt upright, eyes wide, causing Tuffy to squirm at the sudden movement.

"Holy crap. How did I not get it before? I don't have to think when I'm with you guys! That's it! I just have to relate it and then I'll understand!" It was like someone had replaced a dim bulb in my brain with a military grade laser.

And now I completely understood how to get out of my stalemate. I had to apply my equestrian training to my other physical training. There was no time to lose. Forget putting a saddle on, we had places to be.

"Rock and roll Tuff! Time to go kick some booty!" I squeezed my legs and put my hands on her neck for balance as I ran her at the fence. Tuffy gathered herself up and we sailed over the arena fencing, touching the other side only long enough to pelt out of the barn doors with a whoop.
...

We rolled into the Batcave like we were bringing the party. Tuffy snorted and I jumped off. Bruce wasn't down here, he was out at Wayne enterprises for the day.

"Yo, Damian! I want one more go today," I called out. Hopefully he was still down here. If not I was going to have to take techno tube back upstairs and find him. Even after Dick had explained how to work it, I still didn't like the jazzy blue glowing pipe.

"Walker, I told you. You're done for today."

Yes! He was still down here.

His head popped around the side of the bat computer, scowling.

"Why is Tuffy down here?"

"That's not important," I waved it off, "I figured it out, that's what's important. One more round, it's gonna go better this time for sure."

"..."

"Excellent! Let me put my gear on!"

"This better be good Lyn, or I'm going to let Grayson know you got your butt handed to you on your own insistence..."

"Pah," I slipped into my suit out of his eye line and went over everything in my head. My hips needed to move... And my balance needed to center around... "I'm ready."

Damian shook his head, "This will not end well."

We squared up and I forced all thought out of my head. I knew the forms. I knew what to counter with. And now I knew how to connect the movement.

Damian rushed me at impossible speed.
Instead of panicking me as usual, I breathed out and, in one fluid motion, slipped out of the way. He reversed quickly, coming back with a series of blows.

I parried, letting the motion come from my hips up into my torso and shoulders. Doing so allowed me to free up my stiff posture, it was a horse related movement. Its lack of thought brought out the things I needed to concentrate more on.

The uncomfortable forms I had already learned flew through my body smoothly, as if I had been doing them much longer than a few months. I was still mostly blocking and not going on the offensive, but as Damian started to racket up the pressure I thought, what the heck?
I leaned out of his next kick and slipped under his guard. The punch rolled up from my hips and landed with a smack on his briefly exposed chest.
He stumbled back ever so slightly, a little shocked.

"How did you figure this out so quickly?"

I grinned and pulled back, seeing that our sparring was done, "I remembered how I move. It took a while to recall how everything relates back to riding for me, once I had that though I could finally use my real balance."

"It would appear that way," Damian thought for a moment, "Perhaps father has been focusing on the wrong tactics. You are suited for mounted combat, as proven every time the horses are out. Last week it was throwing batarangs, today it's your entire balance core. Perhaps we should put you in the field with a horse relat-"

"Like a rider in black!" It was a exactly what I had been looking for in my head, something that made so much sense I wanted to hug Damian and laugh. "A night rider!"

He stared at me, unamused, "Father would never go for it Lyn. This is a crazy idea-"

I smiled at him and crossed my arms, "I think he will. After all, what's a dark Knight without a Nightrider and a Calvary?"

"So you're Nightrider now? This is ridiculous, he's never going to allow you to gallivant about on Sitdka and Tuffy-"

I whistled for Tuffy and swung up on her back.

"Naw, I think it'll work out. I'm gonna go feed these guys, and then I'll let bats know I finally came up with a name! This is great!" I whirled Tuffy about and gave Damian a wave as we ran out of the cave, his protests floating past my deaf ears. This was so going to work...