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It was possible that Dick had misjudged the situation. Or at least how many henchmen would be at the drop sight.
"I mean seriously, who brings a whole hoard of people just to sell four boxes of weapons?"
"People who know someone will try to stop them?"
Nightwing knocked someone down and paused. "Good point."
"I make lots of good points."
"That's why I have you, Oracle," Dick grinned as he dodged a kick and spun around to return it.
"Truly, what would you do without me?" Even though she wasn't visible, he could hear the smirk in her voice, could imagine exactly what she looked like sitting in front of her monitors, the light from them glinting off of her glasses.
He was about to say a witty reply when he suddenly felt a sharp pain at the back of his head, making him drop his escrima sticks. Taking advantage of his temporary unsteadiness, a goon decided to tackle him where his head smashed against the concrete. His eyesight blurred, pain and panic trying to overtake his senses but he pushed them away. The goon on top of him was still there, wasting no time in mercilessly punching his face, restraining his arms.
It took him a second too long to figure out what to do, yet another second to get his body listen to his instructions. Pulling his legs close, he managed to buck off the goon. Straining to reach his escrima, he only just managed to deliver an electric shock to the man before he could get up again.
One guy dealt with, great. Only five more to go.
He groaned, head pounding as he staggered to his feet and faced the last few guys. Wiping the blood off his face, he picked up his other escrima.
"Who's next?"
Two of the guys charged, and he threw his escrima to knock them both out in one swift move. As he did so, a third guy came at him, swinging a fist at Nightwing's face.
Dick barely dodged the blow. His limbs felt weird, moving too slow.
The escrima he'd thrown returned to him and he moved to strike the guy on the shoulder, but the man just blocked it.
Shit, shit, shit.
"Nightwing, status? What happened? I lost you for a second."
"Doin' great, O," he grunted, focused on taking this guy out.
It shouldn't be taking this long, his mind screamed at him, but he ignored it. One crisis at a time.
He electrified his escrima, and waited for the guy to swing again. Soon enough, he did and Nightwing ducked under the arm, delivering a blow from his escrima to the back of the guy's knee.
The guy had only just touched the ground when another of the men attacked him, catching him off guard. The knife went cleanly into his shoulder before he even realised what happened, white hot pain exploding from his arm as the blade was yanked out. He didn't have a chance of dodging the kick aimed at his head, but what was one more blow to the head on top of two others?
This is bad, really really bad, you only just got your memories back, his mind worried.
Shut up, he told it.
"Nightwing, your suit's been breached." Barbara's worried voice came through his comms.
"I n't'ced," he ground out, struggling to get back up on his feet. He got a kick to the side for his efforts, making the world spin around him more.
"I'm sending backup," she said, leaving no room for argument. Any other day, he'd have tried to argue anyway but he was a little preoccupied with getting beat up.
He'd dropped his escrimas again, but even if he had them, he only had one functional arm to use them. He needed some advantage here…
It was a true miracle he still had a smoke bomb in his pocket. One shred of luck in an unlucky situation. His eyesight was already compromised - everything swimming in his vision, black on the edges - so he might as well even the playing field.
White smoke surrounded them two seconds later, and he used the opportunity to swipe one of the men's legs out under him. Another stroke of luck made the man fall into the other, and then both of them were down. They'd be up in a second or two, but it gave Dick a second or two to breathe. His shoulder was on fire and his head was still pounding, all in all not a great combination. Given how much it hurt to get in a full breath, he'd probably managed to bruise some ribs too.
And there's still these two to take care of, he groaned inwardly.
The smoke around him began to clear as a fog inside his mind crept in. He steeled himself, only to suddenly hear two loud bangs and then the two men were collapsed at his feet. His mind took its sweet time catching up to the situation.
With the threat now gone - what had even happened? - the adrenaline in his body ebbed and the pain he'd been pushing aside crashed into him. He stumbled, reaching out for the wall but missing. He couldn't stop himself from falling but he tensed… only for firm hands to catch him.
"Woah there, Big Bird."
Dick squinted at the red blob that had appeared next to him.
"Wha- Jason?" His tongue felt like a brick, too big and heavy for his mouth.
"Red Hood, but sure. How're you holding up?"
Dick groaned. "I c'n' th'nk 'str'ght."
"Red Hood to Oracle, I have Nightwing. He's not looking too good. Definitely a head injury, there's blood and his words are slurring and it looks like a stab wound in the shoul- woah ok," Jason paused, readjusting his grip to hold Dick up, who'd started tipping forward. "Have Alfred get the medbay ready, I'm bringing him to the Cave," Jason finished, then put his full effort on half-carrying, half-dragging his older brother outside to his bike.
"Dick, you still with me?"
Dick tried his best to give a proper reply, but all he could manage was a groan. Everything around him was a blur, the only clear thing being pain from every part of his body.
"Hey, no passing out on me Big Bird, you know how hard it is to ride with someone who's - " Jason warned, but stopped as Dick stumbled.
"'M s'rry, lil' - "
Dick never got to finish his sentence.