Night Rider

17: Advice on Being Dead

- One Week Later -

Training had intensified since Bruce had grudgingly allowed me to join the team. I understood it was to make sure I was prepared and all, but currently it felt like he was punishing me for my sass. Every muscle up and down my body had been throbbing since the day after our conversation; and they continued to throb when every consecutive day held the same brutal regime.

On the plus side though, Damian and the rest of the guys weren't mad at me anymore.

At this point it was only my muscles and Bruce still holding a grudge.

"My body hates me Tuff," I muttered and stretched over Tuffy's back with a groan. She nickered back to me softly and continued to eat her hay.

Sitdka had slightly more sympathy and nudged my leg with his nose.

"Good horse." I raised my hand to rub his face.

But before I could, his head shot up and his ears swiveled around, fixated on something coming into the barn. Tuffy did the same a moment later and I was nearly rolled off of her back by the movement.

"Hey, Lyn! You in here?" Jason's voice called from the barn doors.

"Depends on what you want!" I called back.

He didn't answer until he was right next to me.
"Someone's been looking for you Lyn."

And the way he said it sent chills down my core. I knew exactly who was looking for me.

The question was, did he?

...

Damian~

Damian hadn't seen Lyn all evening. Come to think of it, he hadn't seen her all day. Not since breakfast at least

She couldn't be mad at him for something, could she?
He racked his brain for any good reason she would be in the barn all day and came up with nothing.

"Pennyworth," he called. "Inform father I have gone looking for Walker if he inquires why I am late to training."

"Of course master Damian." Alfred answered as Damian slipped out of the house.

A chilly five minute walk had him at the barn, muttering about Lyn and her inconsistent behavior. To his surprise however, when he went inside she was not there.
"Lyn?"
No reply, from anything. Which was odd as both horses always nickered at his approach.

Coming slowly to a conclusion, Damian hurried to check the stalls. Empty.
But a note sat duct taped to the smooth wood. In typical Lyn fashion it read:

Damian,
Jason and I are investigating a lead on someone looking for me. I know who it is, so don't worry. They aren't dangerous or an enemy. Please don't tell Bruce what we're doing (though I bet he probably already knows about the situation regarding the person looking for me). But don't worry, I'm with someone (Jason) like I promised and my com is on if you need to find me. I also turned the gps in my saddle on just in case.
I'll be back later, lots of love!
Lyn

As if an affectionate ending made things any better. Damian sighed and pinched the bridge of his nose.

...

Lyn Walker~

"No offense, but why'd you bring the horses?" Jason said it in such a way that I knew he didn't mean the no offense part. Sweet of him.

"Because I needed a mode of transportation that wasn't as obvious as revving a motorcycle down the driveway. And for the hundredth time Jason- I can't drive a motorcycle!" We were sitting in one of his safe houses, mapping out our route for tonight. We had spent the morning discreetly staking out Park's hotel, and then the afternoon following not only her, but also another one of my closest friends in the world.

We still didn't know exactly why they were in Gotham to begin with, but I had a gut feeling that it wasn't for vacationing purposes.

I rubbed Sitdka's nose and leaned over our notes.
"I can't believe I forgot to ask this, but how did you figure out they were looking for me anyways?"

Jason, in the middle of a retort to my original sentence, frowned. "They hacked GPD files looking for anything on Nightrider and Lyn Walker. GPD didn't notice, but apparently one of your friends is outrageously good at hacking. Bats probably knows, he's just not telling you anything."

I nodded, figuring as much. But had that been a note of... Disguised impress in voice?

Yes, it totally had been.

I grinned and shrugged.
"That'd be Arianna. Park is boss at getting into places she shouldn't be, but Ari's got a thing for computers," I said, then added, "and sneaking up on people like a ninja. You think you guys are bad? Wait until she pops up out of nowhere."

"So I noticed, smart &$$. But the real question is, why are they looking for you in the first place?" He smirked.

... Right.

We had already established (through our morning research) that my friends had been in Gotham for several days investigating something else before focus had been turned on me. The real mystery was what they were investigating originally. Since I also hadn't yet told Jason that Park had seen me.  As far as he knew, something had leaked and they had found me via some other situation. One that put me in danger of Cadmus, which was not the case.

I rubbed the back of my neck and mumbled. "I may have... ComeacrossParkwhileIwasoutonmyowntheother *cough* night...  Andsavedherlifeintheprocess..."

"I'm sorry, I couldn't hear you over the sound of bull$&!#."

I mumbled it again, a little louder.

"So help me Walker, if you don't speak up I'm going to lace your room with explosive blueberries."

"Fine. I saved Park's life the other night. I didn't talk to her or anything or show her my face- but I've known her since I was like five, so she knew it was me despite what was happening..."

"You did what now?"
It was phrased like a question-
"Idiot! The whole point of being dead is that NO ONE KNOWS YOU'RE ALIVE! What the hell were you thinking?!

-Definitely not a question.

"It's not like I planned to see her!"

He muttered something filled with curses. Then he smacked the back of my head.

"I suppose I deserved that."

"You suppose." He said dangerously. I inched away from him a little ways.
...

Despite Jason's attitude, within a half hour later we were geared up and ready to hunt down my best friends. Time to resolve my procrastinated problem.