Ode to Nightwing

Chapter 6: The Dining Attack

        "HANDS UP!" A voice bellows and I flinch, peeking around my menu to see three men with shotguns, their faces masked with face paint. "Everybody get on the ground!" One of the guys points the barrel of their shotgun at the waitress that had been walking around. I keep up the menu as I grab the cutlery set and grab out the sharp knife, holding it in my palm as a robber came over and moved my menu and pointing the barrel of the gun at me. I freeze, glancing up at the man to see him smirking. 

        "On the ground." He growls, smiling, and I could see that some of his teeth were gold. I slide off of the booth, getting down on the ground, the knife still in my grasp, tucked into my bracelet so that it seemed like I was unarmed. "That's a good girl." 

        "Give us the money! Or we blow your heads off!" The head man shouted. "Hurry up!"

        "You seem like you have money too." The man beside me grins and I grimace. "Just wear would you keep it...?" He roughly grabs my upper arm and pushes me onto my back. As he pushed, I grabbed the knife by its hilt and slashed his forehead, making blood drop into his eyes. I then kicked him, wishing I still had on the heels. He fell backwards, cursing and shouting at me. I kicked the gun away from his grasp, hiding behind a booth as the shotgun goes off by the second man. It hits the booth above my head and I peek around the corner of it, breathing hard. Another gunshot went off and I flinched. Something thudded against the ground and I cried out when it was the waitress, whose body landed on the ground beside me, her chest having been shot... right through. Blood poured from her and I stumbled away, more gunshots going off as I remember the woman's face. Her blank eyes just staring up at the ceiling as her blood painted the linoleum floor. I kept crawling until something grabbed my ankle and I was yanked back. I rolled onto my back and tried to kick at my attacker, who was the man who came at me first. I tried kicking with my other leg, but he just knocked it away. He wiped the blood from his face and eyes, trying to see. He manages to stand and grabs me by my arm, roughly yanking me into a standing position. "You're going to pay for this." He growled, yanking me towards the side door. 

        My eyes widened. It was all coming back. The rain. The man. The truck. Everything was flooding back and I fought harder against him, screaming and elbowing him. I got him in the chin, but He threw me into the stone wall. I squeezed my eyes shut as pain radiated through my head, a headache coming into my mind. I blinked away the dizziness and kicked out at my attacker, and I got him in the gut. He cringed, but didn't back away, grabbing me harshly by the neck and squeezing my windpipe to cut off my screams. I choked, clawing at his hands, digging my nails into his skin, drawing blood, but it only makes him choke me even more. 

        My feet weren't even on the floor, he had me up that high. My vision was going blurry, but I had to keep fighting. I had too.

        I swing my feet and kick at him again, kicking his gut. His thigh. I finally kick him in his baby maker, and he drops me, cursing again. I fall to my knees, holding my neck. The man was on his back, cursing and spitting out insults and threatening to do nasty things to me and my body. I cough and stumble into a standing position. I stare down at him. "You need to learn how to treat a woman." I remark before creeping over to the door we had exited from, peeking into the diner to see if I could help anyone. I spotted another customer that was hiding under their table, and I held up a finger to make them stay for a little while longer. 

        I couldn't see the other robbers, so I stood up, heading into the room fully. They were in the back, ransacking the office's safe probably. I silently beckoned towards the surviving customer and made sure they got out of the diner safely. But I stayed back, wanting to make sure that no one else was in here that I could save. I peeked around the booths and under tables, before behind the bar. That was when I was hit on the back of the head with something very heavy. I fall forward onto the bar, my eyesight going black and blurry. "I told you you would regret that." It was my attacker. I dodged his other attack with a pipe, but as I was dodging it, he grabbed my neck and picked me up, throwing me onto the bar. He held me there as he got onto the counter also, sitting on me, smirking like a mad-man. "I am going to love hearing your screams before I kill you." He murmurs in my ear and I scream. He laughs, placing the pipe on my stomach as he got occupied with other things. As he was busy with getting stuff off, I was busy grabbing his pipe from my stomach and swinging it at his head, knocking him off of the counter. I sit up and head into the back room, surprising the other two men with a swing off the pipe to their heads. I threw their guns in the desk of the diner manager, dragging the men into the front of the diner, tying them up.

        As I went looking for a phone, I found a robber missing from my pile of unconscious robbers. I blinked a few times, thinking it was my imagination, but a hand covered my mouth, the other hand pulling my hair back. The hand covered my scream as my attacker just laughed in my ear. "You just don't know when to give in, do you?" He laughed and I bit down on his hand, making it bleed before he pulled it away, yanking my hair farther back before slamming my head forward and into the counter. He slams my head again before throwing me onto the ground. I try to reach for something- anything- to attack with, but I find nothing. He gets down in front of me, cursing at me to scream all I wanted, to make him enjoy it more. 

        He doesn't get to do anything as I grab a pen from the pool of blood near the waitress and stab it into his hand. He now screams and gazes at it with horror. I crawl backwards before finding my pipe, moving back and swinging it again his head. I then lay down on the ground, breathing very hard as all the robber laid around me, unconscious. 

        "You and pipes, huh?" A voice murmurs and my eyes widen as I sit up turning to look at Dick, who was in his Nightwing attire. "Thought you were going to wait for me by the wall."

        "I got hungry." I grumble, rubbing at my head. 

        "I see that you took care of the robbers. All three of them." 

        "One was very persistent." I mumble, tossing the pipe at my attacker, it hitting his stomach before dropping onto the floor and rolling away. "Got very handsie."

        "I can tell. Shame with the dress. I liked that one." Dick whispered, coming towards me and helping me up. I glanced down at my dress to see long gashes running up the length of it, and not where the slit was. Part of the bodice was ripped, also. 

        "I did too." I said softly and Dick led me out front where he had his motorcycle parked. He hopped on before making me sit in front of him, just in case I became unconscious, and he could keep me upright. "The police are coming right?"

        "Yeah, the man you saved called them. Talked to him briefly. You were very brave today. Stupid, but brave."

        "I only saved one person." I grimaced as pain shot through my head. 

        "No. You saved the cooks that were hidden in the storage room also, along with the manager. Only one person died tonight." 

        "I couldn't save her."

        "It wasn't your fault." Dick pulled up to the front of Wayne Manor, helping me off of his motorcycle and up to his room. "You take a shower and then we'll have Alfred take a look at you." 

        I nod weakly. "Okay."

        After my shower, Dick- now dressed in modern clothes- takes me to the Batcave, which I had figured would be under the manor. Alfred checks me out, but concludes that I don't have any concussions or any serious injuries, just some bruising on my arms and neck. Maybe some on my head. "Thanks, Alfred." Dick whispers and Alfred nods. 

        "Might I suggest you look at the news, Master Grayson, Miss Callie?" Alfred whispers and me and Dick head up to the giant living room, switching the television on. The news was already streaming. It was about the diner incident, and the cooks and manager were being interviewed, along with the one customer I helped get out. 

        "I don't know who she was, but she saved my life. She took on all three robbers with a pipe. Just a pipe. I owe my life to her." The man practically praised and I smiled, rubbing my arms with my hands. The man then looks into the camera directly. "Miss, if you are watching this right now, please, let me thank you in person. I don't know how, but please give me that privilege." I blush and Dick turns off the T.V.

        "You were a hero today." Dick glanced over at me and I nodded, heading over to the stairs, Dick following. I pause, however, at the top of the stairs. 

        "Dick?" I whisper and he stops beside me.

        "Yeah?" 

        "I don't know if this sounds inappropriate or anything like that, but can I sleep with you tonight? I don't feel safe on my own." 

        Dick rubs the back of his neck before offering out his hand to me. "Come on." He leads me to his room and we lay down, the silence covering us as well as the blankets. I then curl up on my side, my head on his shoulder as his arm was around me. "Don't worry. The cocky playboy will protect you."