WHO: Dick Grayson and Kate Bishop WHAT: First contact WHEN: Early October WHERE: Facility Range WARNING/STATUS: Medium, some sads, but mostly fun
-THUNK-
Since returning to this world Dick had been attempting to reintegrate himself back into the life his other self had started to make for himself there. With varied success. The portal security gig was okay, although the long stretches of nothing were starting to grate. Back home he'd still been undecided about returning to the vigilante life and reclaiming his role as Nightwing; but now he was here and wasn't technically allowed to be his alter-ego, he found himself wanting the identity more.
-THUNK-
Then there was the invitation to join a team and go on missions that the official Avengers wouldn't be able to touch with a ten foot pole. It was tempting and reminded him of the Titans to a certain degree. It'd itch that particular scratch, but he imagined their outings would be few and far between. Still, just the promise of seeing some action had brought him down to the range, where he was taking advantage of having the place to himself, and honing some recently remembered skills.
-THUNK-
Hopping over the barrier, he went to retrieve his wingdings from the various targets he'd hit, calling out that there was someone down range as he heard the door swoosh open. "Give me a couple of seconds to get clear."
It wasn’t just her universe and then Scott… but now America, too. Kate had been climbing slowly out of the funk she was in after losing the man she loved, and now she’d lost one of her best friends, too. And the world she knew. And though she’d gotten her car out of the deal (and her car was awesome), it didn’t exactly balance the scales.
Life sucked. She wanted to drink and shoot things. ...not necessarily in that order. ...okay, maybe in that order.
There was someone else in the range, which wasn’t a dealbreaker--the place was big enough for the both of them. She headed in, giving him time to do whatever he needed to do while she readied her bow. She watched him pull… things... out of the targets and then start back.
She’d been crying, so her face showed the telltale signs: puffy eyes, blotchy skin, smeared eyeliner… but she wasn’t crying now. She was watching him curiously. “What are those?”
Turning to the young woman with a smile, he registered her appearance, but didn’t comment. It didn’t take his detective skills to realise the source of her tears, there had been a lot of departures registered via Tim’s system, but everyone had the right to grieve, so he kept his thoughts to himself. “They’re one of my weapons of choice. Wingdings is their nickname. Or Birdarangs. But technically they’re just throwing stars, only bird shaped.”
Stepping back over the barrier, he offered one to her so she could take a look. “These are just the sharp ones, but I have some which deliver an electric shock on contact, and some others with fun modifications back where I’m from.”
Thankfully he didn’t comment on Kate’s appearance. She knew she looked like shit, she didn’t need to be reminded. It was kind of him, really. Thoughtful. Kate always needed more kind and thoughtful people in her life. She set the bow aside, her quiver of arrows still over her shoulder, and stepped closer to him to take a look. She accepted it and turned it around in her hand.
“Huh.” She felt the thing’s weight and balance, and realized that she could do some damage with a thing like that. (She wasn’t just good at bows and arrows.) “Reminds me of the trick arrows that I used back at home. Net arrows, incendiary arrows, even boomerang arrows.” She offered it back over to him. “Are you a ninja?”
“Of a sort.” Dick took the weapon back and tucked into the pouch pocket of his hoodie with the others. “I’m actually a lot of things. I was born into the circus life, so trained as an acrobat from a very early age. My guardian trained me to fight like him, and he was trained by Ninjas. So maybe I am?” His gaze settled on the bow and quiver for a moment and he grinned when she mentioned the trick arrows. “Ah, you’re a vigilante Archer? I know a few of those back home. Very twitchy about people touching their bows.”
Offering his hand this time to shake, he gave a formal introduction, “Dick Grayson, we may have already met, but I blipped out of this world, then back and I don’t remember anything about being here before.”
"The circus life, eh? My best friend grew up in the circus," Kate responded with something of a smile. It almost felt like her face had forgotten how. Thankfully, thinking of Clint was still a bright spot in her otherwise dingy existence. For now, anyway. Kate was nothing if not resilient. She would get through this. She was a survivor.
She turned to look at the bow, then back to him. "Just call me Robin Hood, I guess. I'm a lot less twitchy about her." She motioned to the bow. "Life's too short, y'know?"
Then she stepped forward and shook his hand. Hers was surprisingly warm and soft. "Kate Bishop. It must be really weird to be here and not remember having been here before."
“Clint? Yeah, we reconnected and swapped stories again. He’s a great guy, I like him.” Dick’s smile was easy, thinking that Kate was great too, just from their initial interaction. She was hurting, he could sense it, maybe she needed another friend and he’d be happy to slip into that role if she wanted.
He laughed at the self appointed nickname, immediately thinking of Roy dressing up as said character for Halloween. “Yeah, I know. Too well and it seems like you do too.” There was a sympathetic edge to his smile this time, “Do you use other weapons? Or just the bow?”
Giving a little squeeze as they shook hands, Dick’s smile brightened, “Nice to meet you, Kate. It is weird, not gonna lie. But the memory thing is sadly familiar. I recently had amnesia, my whole life just vanished from my mind because of one bullet. It was scary, not having an identity, but I’m trying to get it back. Hence the target practice.”
"Yeah, Clint. We're from the same world." Kate definitely wasn't surprised that Dick and Clint had connected. Clint was that kind of guy; he became friends with pretty much everyone he met. Kate was trying to be more like him in her own life, but it was hard.
At his question, Kate glanced at the bow, then back to him. "I use anything, really. The bow is number one, but I'll take what I can get. Down here for some practice, myself. How about you? Do you have more than the Wingdings?" Maybe they could swap stories.
He gave a really good handshake. Kate was distracted by that for a moment, but then, "Oh my God. Are you okay?" One bullet? It sounded crazy, painful, and stressful. "How can I help?"
“Oh that’s cool, I’m glad you each have someone here from your home world. I’m sure it makes things a lot easier. I definitely feel better about the whole world hopping thing with Tim, Steph and Babs here too.” If Kate was anything like Clint then he was sure he’d get along great with her too.
“I’ll try not to get in your way, unless you want to try and hit moving targets of course.” He grinned, not at all worried that the arrowheads might damage his Windings. They were a ridiculously strong composite, so it would take a lot. “I use escrima too. I did have a bo-staff for a while but I found it made my fighting style a little clunky.”
As she immediately offered her help, Dick felt a surge of warm affection for her and he gave a genuinely grateful smile. “Yeah, I’m okay now, physically.” Lifting his hand, he parted his hair so he could show her the chevron shaped scar he had as a keepsake. “I guess I just need to figure out who I want to be… talking helps, so y’know, you’re already helping and I’d like to return the favor, if you need anything?”
“You’ve got a whole gaggle here from yours,” Kate said, the smile coming back. Trying to break through, anyway. It was really, really hard for Kate to stay depressed for long. Sure, she was wallowing, but she’d break through eventually. The pain was just too fresh, too real right now. Too recent.
“Moving targets??” Kate asked. “Color me intrigued. You wouldn’t mind if I knocked your Wingdings out of the sky, then?” She asked, smirking softly. Hey, a smirk was an awful lot like a smile. It felt good to smirk. “You do sound like a ninja. We could probably do a little hand-to-hand, later, too, if you’ll go easy on me.”
She took a step toward him and looked up where he moved his hair. “Ohhh yeeeah. At least you’ve got a good story to go along with that one,” she offered, lifting a fingertip to tap once, gently, against the scar. “Most of mine are considerably less interesting than ‘I took a bullet and had amnesia.’” She raised an eyebrow. “Amnesia. I think you win at all the stories, ever. That’s like, telenovela stuff.” She paused for a moment, the playful expression slipping from her features. “...there’s not a whole lot to say. Just… some really bad stuff happened.” She wasn’t sure how much she wanted to go into it right now. Wouldn’t do to burst into tears a) in the range when she’d come down to practice, and b) in front of someone she’d only just met. Re-met?
“...you wanna throw things for me to shoot?” Kate asked, picking up her bow. “Because I dunno about you, but that sounds like a really good time to me.”
“I do, I’m probably one of the luckiest here, aside from the natives.” He really was, when he’d stepped through that portal the last thing he’d expected to find was half his family already there.
“Not at all.” Dick shrugged, he was pretty sure his weapons could hold up to any punishment Kate’s arrows could deal out. He’d done the same for Roy when they were bored at the Tower. “Everyone needs to train, right?” Returning the smirk, he nodded, “I have two sets of Escrima here, so if you wanna try them you can.”
He didn’t flinch when Kate tapped the scar, but a very weird feeling slipped down his spine, as if the raised line was still oversensitive. Chuckling, he tilted his head, acknowledging that yes, his life sounded like a b-movie at times. Especially with this particular plotline. “I’ll take the win, and I’m sorry about the bad stuff. Hopefully life will give you a break and nothing else will happen, at least for a while.”
Picking up on the change of subject, Dick retrieved the Wingdings from his pocket and grinned. “Let’s do this.”
“Oh, you definitely don’t want to offer that,” Kate warned him with a tiny smirk on her lips. “You’ll never get rid of me.” When Kate went in, she went all in. And she had so much to learn… if he was willing, she’d be there every day studying. Practicing. It was better than wallowing in her own pain and sadness.
Yeah, maybe stepping in close to touch his scar was an invasion of personal space. She took a quick step back, giving him room again. Her cheeks flushed. “Fingers crossed. I’m honestly not sure how much I can take. A girl’s liver will only take so much alcohol before everything shuts down.” She hadn’t really meant to say that last part. It just snuck out.
But she picked up her bow, shouldered her quiver, and grabbed an arrow. Notched. Drew. “Ready whenever you are.” As soon as he let the thing fly, she’d trail it with the tip of her arrow. The space wasn’t so large that she would lose track. Kate was an ace shot, and didn’t miss a beat. Every Wingding thrown would hit the tip of an arrow and crash down to the floor. Actually, it was really fun. A lot more fun than shooting at stationary targets alone.
“Who said I want to get rid of you? Friends are good to have, especially in a world as crazy as this is.” Dick smiled again, thinking of all the bat fam back home that he’d trained with, so many Robins… His brow creased with concern when he learned exactly how Kate had been coping, and he shook his head the tiniest bit. “I’d leave off the alcohol for a while, just give it a chance to regroup.”
This kind of training was the best kind, fun and a work out all in one. The more Dick threw, the more he felt like his old self again, all he’d really need was to hurl himself off of a few tall buildings and he’d be back to normal. Mostly. Hopping the barrier again to retrieve the Wingdings and arrows as the last was spent, Dick cartwheeled over to the first, just for the hell of it, then collected the rest like a normal person.
“D’you want to try throwing a few ‘dings? Something tells me you’d be good at it.”
Well, that was an exceptionally good answer. Kate liked the idea that someone didn’t want to get rid of her. A surprising feeling bubbled in her chest--warm and gooey, and altogether unfamiliar lately. She felt instantly guilty at it, though, and attempted to squash it down. “Friends. Yes, it’s good to have friends when the portals decide to fuck with us so much.” And she should have expected the advice about leaving off the alcohol. She wasn’t sure she was going to take it--wasn’t sure she could right now: too much self-medicating to cover the pain. But it was nice of him to give it, anyway.
Kate was actually grinning by the time they’d been through all the Wingdings, and she watched him cartwheel around, collecting them. It felt good. She was doing something she was good at, though challenging at the same time, and with someone who knew what he was doing, too.
“Yeah, actually. I’d love to give it a try.” She stepped over to him and took the arrows to slip into her quiver. Then she set those aside. “Show me how it’s done?” With only a little prompting she was sure to pick it up--she’d thrown Shuriken before, so this was probably very familiar.
“The portal does seem to like fucking around.” Dick agreed, though he could only vouch for his own weird experience with it. Being returned and then retrieved as if on the whim of the interdimensional doorway. Still, if he found people like Kate on this side of the doorway then maybe it wasn’t such a bad place to be.
“It’s pretty easy to get the hang of, especially if you’re already good at hitting targets.” Passing one of the Windings to Kate to start with, he took one for himself and showed her how he held it. “Have you used throwing stars or knives before? These are similar, just make sure you don’t hold it near the wing tips, or edges, they’re razor sharp.”
Tilting his hand, he made sure the weapon was between his knuckles, his preferred release point. “My brothers and sisters have their own ways of doing this, I tend to put my whole body behind the throw and then flick my wrist too and I throw it ‘backhand’.” He demonstrated what he meant, sending the projectile hurtling down the range and smirking as the tip of it embedded into the bullseye.
A wave of tension and sadness bubbled up within her, and Kate had to swallow several times in order to force it back down again. She couldn't think about it right now. She didn't want to break down again, to cry in front of Dick. He would definitely get the wrong impression. "Yeah," she finally managed. "It really does."
Kate stepped a little closer and accepted the Wingding, holding it carefully so she didn't accidentally cut herself on the sharp edge (also not a good look). She felt the weight of it again, then slipped it between her fingers and gave a throwing motion without releasing.
"...I could get used to this," she responded, breaking into a smile. It felt good in her hand. She watched him throw it, impressed with his form, then she took a step away and repeated the motion she'd seen him take. Hers... well, at least it hit the target. Not in the bullseye, though. If she threw a couple more, she'd get used to it. A few more after that and she'd be making bullseyes, too.
His smile matched hers as she complimented the little weapon. They had been a staple in his life for so long, he sometimes forgot how cool the things were. Dick could tell just by the way Kate handled the Wingding, that she would be good at using it. Especially when she watched his own throw so closely. She reminded him of Tim, a good student and eager to learn, even if the lesson was difficult.
“Not bad!” Dick encouraged, grinning as the ‘ding hit the target. “I can see you’ll get the hang of this real quick.” Handing over another of the weapons, he let her have another try, giving a couple of pointers on when to release for maximum impact. She’d definitely be hitting bullseyes in no time.
“Did you learn archery with Clint, or was that something you could already do when you met?”
Kate accepted the next Wingding and took his suggestions to heart. She made some slight alterations in the way she held it, the pose of her body. Following his instructions and pointers… when she let the second one loose, it came much closer to the center of the target. And that made Kate smile a much warmer, more genuine smile.
“No, it was something I picked up on my own.” There was a long, sad, infuriating story behind why she decided to pick up self defense and archery. This was neither the time nor the place to disclose her deepest wounds. She lifted the longbow and held it out to him. “Are you an archer as well?”
He sensed there was a story there, but he also knew when not to ask difficult questions, so he let it be for now. Maybe when they knew each other better they could get into the long, unhappy, tales. “I don’t claim to be. Roy tried to get me more interested in it, and Helena -my version was a little different to the one who was here- insisted I familiarise myself with her crossbows.”
Taking the bow as it was offered, he examined the weapon for a moment, getting to know the weight of it. “What’s the draw weight of this 30lbs?” Levelling his shoulder with hers he measured their arms and smiled, “I think my draw length is a little longer than yours.”
“I’ve used my fair share of crossbows, too. And I used a rocket launcher thingy once. It was Deadpool’s idea.” Kate had been both thrilled and terrified at using it.
And then she smirked a little at him as he examined the bow. He certainly knew what he was talking about. That was interesting--a good sign. “Good catch. Yeah, it’s closer to forty, but I can go much higher. When I first started with the Avengers, I had Clint’s old bow… he was dead at the time. Kinda. Long story. Anyway it’s got a much higher draw weight than this one.” Like, much higher. “It’s back in my old world, though. Actually, Clint has his here... Maybe I should steal it.” She considered this almost playfully for a moment.
“I like this one. She’s been nice to me so far. Not that I’ve had a lot of occasions to use it… just trapping dinosaurs and stuff.”
“Ooh, they have a bit of a kickback, but they’re kind of fun.” Dick grinned, not as used to firearms of any description as Jason, but he’d fired a fair few whilst with Spyral.
Nodding as Kate explained the bow’s, and her, capabilities, Dick smiled again, being reminded of Roy the more Kate spoke. “Kinda dead? I understand; that happened to a lot of my friends too. Guess it goes with the costumed hero territory.” It made sense that Clint’s bow would be heavier on the draw, considering he was a pretty big guy, but the fact Kate could use it was impressive. “He may cry if you did.” Dick smirked, then quirked an eyebrow at the dinosaur comment. “Net arrows? Cool.”
Taking one of her arrows, he aimed and fired at the target they’d been using, managing to miss the group of Wingdings already embedded in it and hitting the second ring. “I like her too,” he stated with a smile as he handed the bow back, “Her owner’s not bad either.”