<div class="floatright">(http://static.comicvine.com/uploads/original/11119/111195216/4557194-8073001623-18868.png)</div><hr/><strong>Name:</strong>Richard ‘Dick’ Grayson<br/><strong>Nom de Guerre:</strong>Nightwing<br/><strong>Affiliation:</strong>The Bat-family<br/><strong>Time:</strong>October 17, 2015; 2000 hours | Saturday<br/><strong>Location:</strong>Batcave 2.0 | Hamilton Building | South Gotham<br/><strong>Tagging:</strong>Oracle, Superboy, Batwoman, Spoiler.<br/><strong>Talking to:</strong>Superboy, Batwoman, Spoiler, Red Hood<br/><hr/>Dick wanted to argue, to tell Kate that Steph wasn’t ready for something like this yet, but he held back. Kate had been spending more time training her than Dick himself had, she’d have a better understanding of the young girl’s abilities.<br/><br/>Though, Spoiler’s insistence that 20 reps of the training exercise was too much made him seriously doubt that. It was only his desire to not sound like a cantankerous old man that kept him from mouthing back to her ‘20’s too much!?! By the time I was 12, Bruce had me 100 of those, and he didn’t hear a peep of complaint from me’<br/><br/>“Was I that bad with Bruce?” Dick muttered under his breath with a shake of his head. A brief moment of self recollection later, and Dick just sighed and smiled. He really was starting to sound like someone’s dad.<br/>“Who am I kidding, of course I was?”<br/><br/>Because, if Dick was being honest, he had complained all the time. Not openly to Bruce, but nearly everyone else had heard him complain about it; Jason Todd, the other young heroes he would go on adventures with, even alfred heard him complain about Bruce’s merciless regimine.<br/><br/>Then again, he lived to complain because of that merciless regimine. Heroes like Dick, Bruce, Kate, Steph, they managed to survive for so long because they pushed themselves past what most humans thought was possible. They didn’t have safety net like Conner, or even like Jason had gained after his experiences with the Lazarus pit. A single misstep, dodging a bullet just a fraction of a second too late, and suddenly their career was a hero was cut short. Best case, they would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of their lives. And that was the positive outcome.<br/><br/>Kate had been training Steph to fight, and had been doing a bang up job at that. But Steph still had to be trained in what exactly it meant to be part of the bat family, and Dick had been lacking in giving Steph that essential training.<br/><em>‘Still’ </em>Dick Thought to himself with a sense of resignation and acceptance<em>‘Sometimes there’s no training like training under fire.’</em><br/><br/>Still though, he had to get to STAR Labs first before he could scold Steph for being a disobedient brat. A quick touch at his communicator, and He was patched into the radio back at the batcave. The original, his Batcave. Which was staffed by his very own english Butler.<br/>“Alfred? Could you do me a favor and send”<br/><br/>Dick wasn’t even able to finish the request before Alfred Pennyworth let him know that his request had been anticipated and taken care of already.<br/><br/>“And send over the bat-cycle? Already done Master Dick. I had the auto driver move towards your location after the alarm first sounded. It will be waiting a block away on the south side of the Hamilton Complex.”<br/><br/>“What would I do without you?” Dick said with a wide smile. Alfred had been like another father ever since Dick joined the Wayne family, always lending his support in any way that he could. It didn’t matter if it was a shoulder to lean on because Dick’s first girlfriend had cheated on him, a gentle hand to help clean out a wound that he’d gotten on patrol, a reminder of why polite society had certain rules of conversation, no matter what Dick needed Alfred was there.<br/><br/>“Very likely starve to death. Or you would been killed years ago after one of your disastrous pranks on Master Jason.” The enterially suffering Butler said completely straight.<br/><br/>All Dick could do was let out a small chuckle of acknowledgment before heading back up the steps that had led him to Kate’s batcave.<br/><br/>Once on the roof, there was a brief moment of calm, where Dick truly let the majesty of the city surround him, where he judged distances and arcs of movements. It was the one moment of peace he’d allow himself, the one moment where he could transport himself back to before that fateful night. When he could allow himself to just be a young boy on the trapeze with his parents, taking a deep breath before taking the leap of faith. He hadn't had a chance to get up on the trapeze in a real circus since he'd taken his semi-retirement, before Bruce had died.<br/><br/>Then the moment was gone with clash of noise, Kate’s motorcycle speeding away into the distance and Conner jetting through the sky. His nosgatlicac remembrance was replaced by a hopeful glance towards the future. His parents may have been gone, but he had a new family now.<br/>‘Besides there’s no time for moping. No way in hell is Kate gonna beat me to the labs.’<br/><br/>And with that, his muscles tightened before taking the leap that left him plunging through the night sky, a zipline at the last moment the only thing preventing him from unceremoniously ending his heroic career early. Dick followed through the arc of the swing, picture perfect as always, and let go at the exact moment. One tumble in the air, two, three, and then a hand found itself pressed into a handstand on the seat of his custom motorcycle.<br/><br/>‘I love being me sometimes’ He thought as he slid into the seat and revved the engine before speeding off in pursuit of Kate and her own souped up cycle.