Chapter Text
Dick cracked his eyes open. The domino mask still intact and firmly on his face. The familiar weight of it felt calming, grounding. He was lying on his back and heard the humming of a motor. Motor? Motors?
Trying to fight off the dizziness he let his eyes wander. All he could see was the sky and the clouds. Bright, white, and fluffy clouds. Nothing like the dark, stormy thing that had brought him here. Wherever here was.
He tried to take a deep breath but realized that it made the dizziness only worse. The air was too thin. Was he high up in the air? On a plane? But he could see the sky and feel the air around him, was it some kind of open plane?
The more the dizziness disappeared the more Dick noticed. He couldn’t only hear the humming of motors, he felt it! It reminded him of sitting in a car.
Finally finding the strength to move, he rolled onto his side with a groan and lifted himself to his knees. He raised his head, trying to look around again and stilled.
He was surrounded by people and every single one of them pointed their gun at him.
The people around him wore some kind of black uniform with a symbol on their sleeve. It looked like a type of bird, maybe? The uniform reminded him of secret agents. But neither the uniform, nor the logo reminded him of any secret organization he knew.
“Hey, guys! Mind telling me where I am?” Dick asked and got onto his feet. Or at least he tried to. The moment he tried to move the agents shifted and he heard the safeties come off. Ok, maybe standing up wasn’t a good idea.
“Who are you and how did you get up here?” a woman in front of Dick asked. She wore a uniform like everybody else and her brown hair was in a strict bun. She looked like someone who wasn’t fond of bullshit.
“Where is up here? Am I on a plane?” Dick completely ignored the first question. He flexed his muscles, every fiber in his body getting ready to run.
The strict woman narrowed her eyes at him. Seemed like she noticed his movements, no matter how discreet it was. “Who are you and how did you get up here?” she asked again, the gun she was pointing at him didn’t quiver. This woman meant business.
No one should see how Dick’s eyes wandered around the premises, through his white out lenses. At least he was sure that no one saw, otherwise strict-bun-woman would have shot him already. “Well, it’s a funny story actually.” He tried to give the woman a bright and charming smile.
It had no effect.
While Dick had looked around he realized that he was indeed up in the air. But the thing he was on didn’t seem like a traditional plane. It was just an open … flying … board … thingy. With some type of building on it. Maybe a control room or something. Somewhere in the back he was able to spot a few planes. So if he really is up in the air, he needs to get to a plane and get the fuck off this space-plane-ship.
He really didn’t know what to call this thing.
Very slowly and carefully he raised his hands above his head, to appear as non threatening as possible and to show that he was unarmed. He had no idea where his escrima sticks were anyway. Under watchful eyes he flexed his muscles again. His flee or fight instinct going haywire.
“Agent Hill? Should we detain him?” asked one of the people around him.
The strict woman answered, “Not yet. First I want to hear what he has to say.”
Agent? Interesting. So some kind of government or secret organization.
“Which is very nice of you, sadly… I don’t know anything.” With that Dick swiped his leg under the legs off one of the agents next to him.
The agent fell into his colleagues behind him and Dick immediately jumped up and rushed through the newly formed opening. Only thanks to Bruce’s brutal year-long training and his gut instincts he managed to avoid the gunshots that were fired at him. He picked up his speed and tried to run toward the nearest plane.
But Dick came to an abrupt halt when a person came from behind the plane that he was trying to reach. It was a gorgeous woman, with beautiful red hair in a black jumpsuit. Behind him all the agents came to a sudden halt as well. No one made a move to interfere.
“Hello.” The woman smirked at him. “Going somewhere?”
“Well, now that you’re asking-” Dick didn’t get to finish his sentence, as the woman struck at him viciously.
She was fast… and strong! She had run up to him and started throwing her punches at him in just a few seconds. Dick had barely any time to react! He managed to block her punch, wich she had directed at his face and threw one at her himself.
“You know, I don’t want to hurt you.” Dick managed to grab her arm and twisted it with enough force that she had to turn around and he pressed her back against his chest and pressed the forearm of his other arm against her neck.
Dick felt how she pressed her lithe body against his. She was so close to him that he could smell her and her beautiful red hair tickled his nose.
Lord, have mercy! He had to stay focused.
She kicked her leg behind her and managed to strike Dick right between his legs! Damn, she fought dirty. “Ugh!” He grunted and loosened his grip slightly.
That was enough for her to slip out of his grip and she spun around quickly, kicking her leg in the air and striking him with a roundhouse kick right in his face. The force was enough to throw him down onto the floor. Right before she managed to step, or more like stomp, onto his face he rolled to the side and swiped his legs under her.
She jumped back and Dick saw her bracelets sizzling with electricity. Nice ones. Dick jumped and pretended to throw a punch at her head. The decoy worked! While she tried to move aside she aimed her bracelets at him to electrocute him. Thanks to his flexibility he bent over backwards, put his hands onto the floor, so he was standing in a back arch and threw one of his legs up, as fast and as hard as could.
He managed to kick her lightly in the face. It wasn’t enough to knock her out, as she managed to avoid the full kick, but it was enough to make her stumble. Quickly, Dick stood up again and managed to land a hit into her abdomen before he had to jump back again as she struck at him with her bracelets.
Something hit him in the back with a thud and suddenly pain shot through his whole body. He could hear a sizzling sound all around him and felt how the muscles in his body cramped up. His vision blacked out for a second and his heart was beating irregularly in his chest. Dick got fucking tasered! “Ngh!” he managed to croak out before he suddenly fell down to the floor.
While his muscles still twitched and he slowly began to lose consciousness his eyes drifted across the platform. He saw how a bunch of agents came running up to him, probably ready to arrest him. He wondered why no one had aided the woman in their fight. His gaze shifted to the building in the middle of the platform. As he eyed the building from bottom to the top, he noticed a blonde man in a purple hoodie on the roof. Was he holding a bow? Did he get hit by a trick arrow?
Then Dick’s vision went black.
Dick woke up with a groan. He was sitting in a very uncomfortable chair with his legs bound to it, his hands locked on the table and his face between them, flat on the hard table.
“Oh, fuck, not again…,” he groaned and tried to sit up. He rolled his neck and shoulders, trying to loosen up. And he immediately realized that there was no way to get out of these cuffs. They were out of metal and came out of the table and the chair respectively. So whoever these people were, they were prepared for some dangerous individuals.
The room Dick was in was cold and gray and the only way in or out of it was a single door across from Dick. He also realized that his gloves and domino mask were gone. Great. Awesome. He was so screwed. Bruce would kill him! Ok… maybe not kill him. But he definitely would not be happy!
God… he had just wanted to spend a nice and relaxed patrol with his brothers. How did he end up here? Did it happen because they argued so much? Dick sighed and slumped down in the chair.
Suddenly the door opened with a swoosh and a tall black man entered the room. He wore a black trenchcoat and an eyepatch… and people (Jason) called Dick dramatic.
“Are you cosplaying as a pirate or something?” asked Dick with a grin. A sad attempt to loosen up the situation.
“You think you’re so funny.”
“I think I’m hilarious.”
“And I think you’re up to something and I’ll make sure that you’ll tell me.” The man stood across from Dick and slapped a brown folder on the table.
Dick looked at the folder and then back at the pirate man. “You know, I would love to read that folder, I’m sure the content is amazing. But-” he wiggled his cuffed hands “-as you can see, I’m busy, Mr…?”
“Director,” the man grumbled unhappily.
“Mr. Director?” Dick raised an eyebrow.
“Fury.”
Dick tried to raise his hands in a calming motion, but all he managed to do was raise his palms. “Wow, calm down. No need to get mad.”
The pirate man narrowed his eye at Dick. “I am Director Fury and you are being detained by the Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement, and Logistic Division. Do you know what that means?”
He thought about it for a second. “That someone really wanted your initials to spell shield?”
“Very funny, smartass,” scoffed Director Fury. “I thought someone like you would know about SHIELD, so you can drop your act of cluelessness.”
“What act? What do you mean people like me?”
Fury opened the folder and Dick leaned forward to see better. He watched as Fury skimmed through the pages. On every single one was a picture of someone who looked a lot like Dick. But it wasn’t him. Not one paper actually showed a picture of him with the name Richard Grayson beneath it.
“We have the best facial recognition software in the whole world and we have found no match. Not with your face, neither with your fingerprints, nor your dental impression.” Fury put his hands on the table and leaned above Dick in a threatening manner. “It’s like you don’t even exist,” he hissed.
Now that… was not possible.
“Well, that’s obviously not true.” He didn’t know what else to say.
His first thought was that maybe Bruce had blocked facial recognition softwares from recognizing him. But then he remembered that there was no organization called SHIELD. Bruce would know. And he was still the son of Bruce Wayne. There was no way that he was untraceable. But Dick Grayson has been a superhero for most part of his life. From Robin to Nightwing, from leading the Teen Titans to being a member of the Justice League. He just knew that something was very very wrong.
“Ok, listen.” Dick looked into Fury’s eye and tried to look as honest as possible. “I have no idea what’s going on.”
“Oh, don’t bullshit me!” Fury slapped his hand on the table.
“I am not!”
“You literally fell down from the sky, which is funny, because the helicarrier is up in the air right now. There is no way to find out who you are. So you are either a very good hacker who managed to delete his entire existence or you are a visitor from somewhere far away.” Fury glared at him.
“Wait, you think I’m an alien?” asked Dick flabbergasted.
Fury looked skeptical. “Are you?”
“No!”
This guy couldn’t be serious.
“Wait!” Dick jumped up. Or at least he tried to. But all he managed to do was rattle the chair a bit. “You said I fell from the sky!”
“Yes?” Fury stepped back from the table and crossed his arms behind his back.
“Only me?” asked Dick, his voice trembling with fear. How did he not think of this earlier?
“What is that supposed to mean?” asked Fury. “Did you come here with a group?”
“I did not ‘come here’!” He tried to put the ‘come here’ in air quotes. “But are you sure that I was alone? Have you checked the whole premise?”
“Of course we did. We checked more than once. You were alone.”
“Fuck!” Dick slumped back down in the chair.
Fury asked in a quiet voice, “So, you brought a group.”
“I did not bring anyone! I was out with my brothers, and if I am alone here, who knows where my brothers are?!” screamed Dick.
Shit, how did he not realize this earlier? He woke up all alone. So his brothers were not on this helicarrier. That means they had to be somewhere else. But where the fuck could they be?! It’s going to take forever to find them.
“How many brothers do you have?” inquired Fury.
The door opened again. A blonde guy entered the room and stepped right next to Fury. He wore sweatpants and a purple hoodie and… are those hearing aids in his ears? The longer Dick looked at him, the more he realized that that was the guy that had tasered him!
“You!” accused Dick!
“Hey! Sorry about the taser.” the guy scratched the back of his head, like he was really feeling remorse. He had a bandaid on his nose.
“What do you want?” snapped Fury, but the blonde guy was absolutely unfazed.
“Stark called. I think you might want to talk to him.” explained the blonde guy.
Fury looked between the blonde guy and Dick. “Watch him!” he barked and walked out of the room.
“Let me guess, you haven’t told him anything, right?” asked the blonde guy and pulled himself up on the table to sit on it. By doing so he accidently threw some papers on the floor. “Aw, folder, no,” he whined.
“And who the hell are you?”
“I am Clint. Today was supposed to be my day off but I forgot to sign some papers from my last mission. But the moment I got here everyone was running around, screaming about an intruder on the deck and here we are now. At first I didn’t want to get involved but considering that you managed to land a hit on Natasha, I thought I should do something,” Clint introduced himself.
“Natasha?” Was he talking about the red headed, mean, beautiful woman.
“Yeah, Natasha. Usually no one wants to get between a Black Widow and her target. But like I said, you managed to land a hit. Who knows how long this fight would have lasted. Even if it means that I’ll have to listen to her complaints about me getting involved in her business on my day off,” Clint shrugged. “Normal Wednesday.”
“Wednesday?” repeated Dick.
“Wednesday,” confirmed Clint with a nod.
“That can’t be. It was Saturday night, so now it has to be Sunday.”
Clint looked at him like he had lost his mind. “Are you ok? Have you hit your head when you fell from the sky?” He rummaged through his hoodie and pulled a very fancy looking phone out and tapped on the homescreen before holding the phone in front of Dick’s face. There was a picture of a golden retriever who was happily eating a piece of pizza. But Dick’s eyes were glued on the time and date.
“It’s Wednesday morning,” stated Dick.
“It’s Wednesday morning,” repeated Clint.
“In March.”
“In March.” Clint nodded
Dick planted his face with a loud thud on the table. “What the fuck is going on here?! It was September!”
“I have no idea, but how about we start with your name?” suggested Clint.
With a sigh Dick propped his head up on his chin and glanced up at Clint, who was looking down at him with a sympathetic smile. This position was very uncomfortable so Dick straightened himself up again.
“My name is Dick Grayson,” he introduced himself. Bruce would find a million ways to torture him for revealing his identity, but he had no idea where he was, these people could not find out who he was, he had no idea where his brothers were. He didn’t know anything. But he was waiting for recognition in Clint’s face.
But he remained unimpressed. “My name is Clint… but I have already told you that. But listen Dick-” Clint smiled brightly at Dick, he was much friendlier than the mean red headed hot woman. Natasha, he reminded himself. “-we will find out what’s going on, but for that to happen, you need to help us, too.”
Dick sighed again. What Clint said made sense. How could they help him if Dick didn’t tell them shit? These people obviously had ressources. But how come they didn’t recognize his name? Sure, he wasn’t known on an international scale, but pretty well known in America.
“Do you know who I am?” asked Dick hesitantly.
Clint cocked his head. “No, should I? Are you famous or something?”
Well, he wasn’t necessarily famous… but Bruce is a goddamn billionaire.
“Wait a second.” Clint tapped on his phone. “Dick Grayson…” he mumbled and started scrolling. He shook his head. “Ok, let me try something different. Richard Grayson…” He started scrolling again, only to shake his head. “Nope. Sorry. Nothing.”
Dick decided to take a gamble. “Can you look up Bruce Wayne?”
“Sure!” Clint typed the name into his phone. Then he held his phone in front of Dick’s face. “Anyone you recognize?”
No… no one. All Bruce Waynes that came up, were random people on social media. But no news about a billionaire playboy and his horde of children. “Something is wrong. Only yesterday he was all over the news in Gotham again.”
“Where?” Clint looked confused.
“Gotham?”
“What is Gotham?”
“Gotham City?” How did Clint not know about Gotham? It was the city with the highest crime rate in this country.
“Where’s that?”
“In New Jersey.”
Clint looked pityingly at Dick. “Are you sure you haven’t hit your head? Maybe the taser left some lasting damage. There is no Gotham City in New Jersey.”
Dick started to panic again. Not only did he not know where the hell his brothers were, he had only revealed his identity, Gotham City didn’t exist, what else?
“What about Metropolis?” he questioned.
“Never heard of it.”
“Central City?”
“Nope.”
“Star City?”
“Definitely not.”
“Coast City?”
“What’s up with those names? Central, Coast, Star City? Not very creative if you ask me.”
“Fuck!” Dick slammed his head back on the table.
A presumption was creeping up in Dick’s mind, about what was going on. And he didn’t like it in the slightest.
“Are you ok?” Clint sounded concerned.
Before Dick could answer the door opened up again and Fury came waltzing into the room. “We have to go and you’ll be coming with us. You said you came with your brothers.”
Dick’s head snapped back up and he glanced up at Fury with hopeful eyes.
“We might have found one.”