Chapter Text
[Nightwing’s POV]
Nightwing had been out on patrol for a while now. Criminal activity in Gotham had spiked ever since Black Mask had gone back into business, quite a while after his first downfall. Ever since he came back - according to multiple different sources, he had been messing with Red Hood’s Territory again. And two Crime lords clashing were never a good thing- especially considering how many weapons they both had on each side. And the fact that Batman- Bruce, out of all people, had asked Dick to come over and keep an eye out already said a lot about the situation. Seriously, since when did Batman ask for help?
Ever since Red Hood had showed up, carrying a duffel bag full of heads, he had been a nothing but a pain to Batman. But similar to Black Mask, it wasn’t that easy to get it rid of him. They weren’t crime lords for no reason after all. And despite the fact that Bruce hated his way of operating, both him and Dick knew that there were worse things they had to watch out for. Atleast Black Mask and Hood stayed somewhat in their territory, in contrary to a few rather… annoying criminals. So they hadn’t been the biggest issues they had to deal with in the past few months. Their beef however, was a different story. Because this could bring a lot more problems.
Either way, Dick was now standing on an unlit roof at the edge of Crime alley, looking down. It was night and heavy rain from earlier had cleaned the air, only leaving a few stray droplets behind. Fresh cold air circling around his cheeks, Dick huffed. Oracle had heard about a possible deal Black Mask was going to go through with. Inside of crime alley. Why the hell didn’t the man just let his drugs get delivered towards his side of town? It sounded dangerously similar to a trap, something to lure in the Hood. Which meant that very likely, both Black Mask and Hood would end up facing each other and obviously, this wasn’t something neither Bruce nor Dick would allow.
Rushing through the dark, Nightwing had started to make his way over towards the supposed location the deal would be made at. It was a dock. Rather small in comparison to the bigger ones in Gotham, but still big enough to transfer huge containers of goods. According to Oracle, a huge container of drugs - strong ones at that - would be dropped off at around 1 am, ready to be taken in by black masks men. Multiple silent ships were already sleeping peacefully in the calm sea in front of the man, although he wasn’t sure if the one he was searching for was here just yet.
Sneaking around a corner, Wing tapped a small button on a device he was carrying before holding it in front of his left eye. Immediately, he was able to notice the outline of multiple people standing inside one of the small houses on the dock, right next to a large ship. Behind it he could see small heat signatures, looking like they were lifting heavy boxes here and there. A bunch of people were also positioned all around the dock, their density growing the closer you’d get to the ship. Their position and heat signatures heavily implied that they were all carrying weapons and were likely armed to the brim. Not good, but not unexpected either. Clearly, the ship had just arrived and they were currently working to unload it. Before Nightwing could swing in to knock each and every one of them unconscious, his breath hitched for a moment. There was another heat signature slightly above everyone else. Positioned on a roof, as if looking over all of it. Even without being able to see all the way over there, Dick knew that it was Hood. Which was.. definitely not good.
Contemplating calling for backup just in case, Dick ended up ringing Oracle - quickly giving her the information to tell Batman about it so he, himself, could decide if he thought Nightwing could handle it alone or not.
Before he could do more, screams and gunshots began to ring in his ears and without even looking up, he already knew that Hood had decided that waiting was a waste of time. Quickly putting away the device, Dick swung down without another thought. Even if all of these people were criminals - hell, working for the scum of earth - they were still people. And he sure as hell wasn’t going to let Hood leave a bunch of dead bodies behind.
[Jason’s POV]
Jason knew this shit was a trap from the start. But fuck it, the pit inside him was craving blood and showing Black Mask who the real boss is was still on his list anyways. Taking cover behind a crate, he began to slowly make his way over towards the small house stood on the dock.
With a smooth motion he ripped the door open, shooting down two people before quickly ducking back behind the wall. Angry shouts and screams erupted from inside and Jason could hear them shuffling around. They knew he was here now. A haunting neon green started to taint the edges of his vision, slowly closing in. Time to hunt. And with that thought still in his mind, he could slowly feel the pit madness taking over.
[Nightwing’s POV]
An iron smell immediately hit his face as he swung down closer, hitting one of BMs goons with a swift uppercut. Hood was jumping around the room, shooting at enemies left and right - There weren’t as much as Nightwing had expected, but still a ton. The man didn’t seem like he had noticed Nightwing just yet, but it wouldn’t be long. The way he moved was captivating. The grace he moved with - Dick couldn’t help but wonder who trained him each time he saw his fighting techniques. A second later, a bullet slid past the very edge of his helmet, almost touching it. With what looked like instinct, Red Hoods head turned to follow the flight path of the bullet, lenses widening ever so slightly at the sight of Nightwing. Dick could swear he heard a modulated “The fuck..” coming out of Hoods helmet, but there was no time to question anything either way. Even Hood’s head just moved back towards the entrance where more goons began pouring in. He simply didn’t have the time to deal with him right now and Wing knew that very well, continuing to knock out enemies left and right. He didn’t like the idea of working side by side with the crime lord, but he couldn’t focus on capturing him either. That would just get both of them shot dead on the fucking spot. Even though Dick did his best to knock a lot of the goons out, he knew that a lot of them had been shot too. Each passing minute he could see the red scarlett shimmer that had started to taint the floor of the whole room slowly spread more and more. But the goons didn’t leave him any breath to spare so he could go and grab Hoods guns either. Instead he had no choice but to continue fighting at the masked man’s side.
Suddenly there was a flash, then a loud bang before everything around them went silent. The kind of silent you’d feel before a storm, unrelenting and destructive. Nightwings skin began to prickle. Then there was another bang and a loud crash as three hooded figures rushed into the room, each of them wearing armor that looked oddly similar to the kind of tactical gear Batman would wear. A big black skull painted across their chest unmistakably indicated that they were clearly working for black mask. One of them had mechanical wings, while the other wore some kind of goggles. Wing took a step back, trying to analyze the situation. There were no more goons, except the ones writhing in pain on the floor and the ones that had let go of their last breath inside this house.
And every single one of them had their eyes dead set on the Hood.