Dick Grayson (![[personal profile]](http://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
daringyoungman) wrote2013-07-04 08:44 pm
daringyoungman) wrote2013-07-04 08:44 pm
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Wayne Manor remains big, and it remains empty, and Mr Pennyworth setting off fireworks in the garden doesn't make it seem any bigger. A private firework display for one is not what the 4th of July is for, but Mr. Wayne doesn't seem to understand that. Anything that can't be bought, he doesn't understand. He's got plans tonight, like he has plans every night, and he leaves Dick alone in the house.
He doesn't understand, and he doesn't care.
After the saddest most expensive firework display ever, after being sent to bed, Dick slips out of the manor again to get to the circus. Slipping onto the roof of the wagon Haly uses as an office, he finds a man in a bright shirt and a cowboy hat delivering a sucker punch right into Haly's stomach.
"If Mr. Zucco has to come out here again, Haly, it's gonna be bad. It's gonna make what happened to the Graysons look like a funhouse."
Dick doesn't need to know anymore. He drops to the ground and picks up a rock, which he slips into the slingshot he brought with him. Sending it flying through Haly's window, he brings out the slime and hits him with his second stone. Then Dick just stands o the balls of his feet, facing him down as scarily as he can, when that's a grown man and he's a kid with a slingshot.
"What do you know about what happened to the Graysons?" he asks, as menacingly as he can.
What happens next is confusing. There's a sudden hard pain right in the back of his head and Dick falls, smashing his face into the ground. He hears a man's voice above him - someone hit him with something from behind, and as Dick rolls over to see, that figure's shadow is taken over by the huge shape of a wide black cape and the guy is knocked away from him, a shapeless black mass crouching over him, hard to make out in the nighttime darkness.
"Bat..." Dick mutters, hearing that familiar growl, but not any words, "...man?"
And then the night rushes in and everything goes black.
Dick wakes in a bed, in a place he's never even seen before. He isn't even sure if he's inside or outside: there's no natural light, no visible sky or roof, but a huge sense of space. As he wakes up more, his head aching, he realizes he's in a massive cave, lying in a bed by machines that make it look like a hospital bed, a huge computer bank just beside him. And standing in front of that computer, his back to the bed - the Batman.
"What..." Dick manages, "what is this place?"
There's a floor that runs around the edge of the cave with a railing around the middle, where Dick can see another floor below, and another below, circles on top of circles. Across that center chasm he sees what looks like a life-size model dinosaur. Turning around, he can make out a giant sized penny against another wall.
"I never thought to give it a name," says Batman. And without really stopping he adds: "You want to find out who killed your mother and father."
"Yes."
"I can't let you go out there. Untrained. All you'll do is get hurt or worse."
Dick pushes himself up in the bed. There're bandages on his face, and his head hurts, and his resentment towards every adult in Gotham isn't going away.
"Why do you care what happens to me? I mean, I see more of you than that guy Wayne who's supposed to look out for me!"
Slowly, Batman peels back the cowl from his head, and turns to look at Dick with his face uncovered.
Bruce Wayne's face.
"Dick. I know we have a lot to talk about..."
Yeah, they do.
He doesn't understand, and he doesn't care.
After the saddest most expensive firework display ever, after being sent to bed, Dick slips out of the manor again to get to the circus. Slipping onto the roof of the wagon Haly uses as an office, he finds a man in a bright shirt and a cowboy hat delivering a sucker punch right into Haly's stomach.
"If Mr. Zucco has to come out here again, Haly, it's gonna be bad. It's gonna make what happened to the Graysons look like a funhouse."
Dick doesn't need to know anymore. He drops to the ground and picks up a rock, which he slips into the slingshot he brought with him. Sending it flying through Haly's window, he brings out the slime and hits him with his second stone. Then Dick just stands o the balls of his feet, facing him down as scarily as he can, when that's a grown man and he's a kid with a slingshot.
"What do you know about what happened to the Graysons?" he asks, as menacingly as he can.
What happens next is confusing. There's a sudden hard pain right in the back of his head and Dick falls, smashing his face into the ground. He hears a man's voice above him - someone hit him with something from behind, and as Dick rolls over to see, that figure's shadow is taken over by the huge shape of a wide black cape and the guy is knocked away from him, a shapeless black mass crouching over him, hard to make out in the nighttime darkness.
"Bat..." Dick mutters, hearing that familiar growl, but not any words, "...man?"
And then the night rushes in and everything goes black.
Dick wakes in a bed, in a place he's never even seen before. He isn't even sure if he's inside or outside: there's no natural light, no visible sky or roof, but a huge sense of space. As he wakes up more, his head aching, he realizes he's in a massive cave, lying in a bed by machines that make it look like a hospital bed, a huge computer bank just beside him. And standing in front of that computer, his back to the bed - the Batman.
"What..." Dick manages, "what is this place?"
There's a floor that runs around the edge of the cave with a railing around the middle, where Dick can see another floor below, and another below, circles on top of circles. Across that center chasm he sees what looks like a life-size model dinosaur. Turning around, he can make out a giant sized penny against another wall.
"I never thought to give it a name," says Batman. And without really stopping he adds: "You want to find out who killed your mother and father."
"Yes."
"I can't let you go out there. Untrained. All you'll do is get hurt or worse."
Dick pushes himself up in the bed. There're bandages on his face, and his head hurts, and his resentment towards every adult in Gotham isn't going away.
"Why do you care what happens to me? I mean, I see more of you than that guy Wayne who's supposed to look out for me!"
Slowly, Batman peels back the cowl from his head, and turns to look at Dick with his face uncovered.
Bruce Wayne's face.
"Dick. I know we have a lot to talk about..."
Yeah, they do.