Simon Lewis (totalfangboy) wrote in momadness_log, @ 2022-10-25 12:51:00 |
|
|||
Entry tags: | dc: dick grayson, shadowhunters: simon lewis |
Who: Dick Grayson and Simon Lewis
Where: Near Coney Island
When: Saturday, October 15, 2019
What: Super Secret Guard Duty
Rating/Warnings: Some language, some violence
Status: Completed via GDocs
"I gotta say, I was expecting more drama from tonight." Simon took a tiny sip from his flask and did his best not to groan at the taste of sunshine on his lips. He'd been doing that all evening, and was proud of himself for not slipping up once.
He also took that opportunity to check what he'd just said and wincing at it. "Wow, that was really me trying to fall back on gender stereotypes and kinda gross just then. Sorry." Simon waved his phone, which had been receiving texts throughout the night that he'd been reading out to Dick as he got them. "I mean, these have been a riot, and I'm glad Jace seems to be having a good-for-him good time… Actually, no. Hard stop. I'm glad he's having a normal bachelorette party experience. I think he needs it. Needs normal things. Mundane experiences. Sorry to drag you out like this on account of my insec—on account of my concerns."
"That was a really dumb thing to say, not only for the stereotype." He flashed his co-pilot a grin, "But now you've definitely jinxed us."
Blue eyes tracked from the phone to the flask then back out to the street beyond the windshield. The glowing dials of the Batmobile were feeding him information on more than just RPM and fuel efficiency, he knew exactly where Jace and the party were, and had eyes on the limo too, just in case anyone tried to mess with that. It felt really good to be back out in the field, so to speak. Even if he wasn't in his full Nightwing gear, he still had his escrima, should he need them.
"No need to apologize, boo. I'm enjoying myself. I haven't tracked anyone in a long time, this is kind of refreshing." Simon didn't need to know about the possible Hydra cells he'd hunted out as the Bat for Clint when half their portal population vanished. "Taking the car out has been nice too. She doesn't see a lot of action nowadays. Not when Wals can run me places if I ever need to be somewhere fast and I take the bike to work."
By some miracle, Simon hadn't been jabbing and poking at all the fun things on the Batmobile panel. Mostly it was because he'd been entertained by Jace's stream of texts and the general chatter with Dick, but also he had no interest in accidentally setting off some kind of alarm or flare or whatever that would alert Jace to their presence and ruin the whole thing. Simon knew he'd never live it down if that happened—either from Dick or Jace. Probably Alec, too. And Alice. Yeah, she'd make fun of him for sure.
He grinned at being called "boo", which was fitting on a couple of levels, but it turned into open speculation as he shifted in his seat to look at Dick head-on. "Wals, huh? That's pretty cute. I saw you doing the whole Dirty Dancing thing at Threshold last weekend. Hot."
Right when he was about to continue his teasing, motion outside of the car made him look up and through the windshield. Simon felt his brows furrow before he could stop them. "I've seen that panel van before. The white one. Three bars ago, and now this block, twice. Am I being paranoid?"
Slowly meeting Simon's gaze, he lifted one eyebrow at the look he was given, and sucked in a deep breath, exhaling as he spoke, "Wals. My oldest hero friend, now he actually is a superhero, has speed powers." A smirk played across his lips at their dancing display being called hot, but thankfully Simon was distracted from any further digging. Dick wasn't wholly sure what he'd have uncovered with regard to Wally, and nebulous feelings which definitely blurred the line between friendship and something else.
"Hmm." Dick was equally amused and startled at how much like Bruce he sounded when he made that particular noise, but regardless, he reached forward and tapped on the HUD to play back footage from earlier. "It's definitely the same van, there's a scrape on the front nearside wheel arch."
Another tap had the thermal imaging lens focussing on the van, "Now why would there be two people lurking in the cargo area of that van?"
Simon quickly surveyed in the other direction. The party plus Jace had left the car and were making their way to the beach. He chewed the the side of his lip as he looked back at the display. "Look, I'm just as prone to seeing threats where there's just coincidences as the next person. It's the New Yorker in me. Fun fact! Did you know the NYC used to be have the nickname Gotham? Just, y'know, speaking of coincidences."
The thermal scanners showed minimal movement, but Simon couldn't ignore the twisting in his gut. "Have I mentioned lately how much I hate the wait-and-see approach?"
"I think I remember someone saying that." Dick answered, eyes not leaving the display. Coincidences weren't really his thing, the van looked shady, even without the damning heat signatures. Plus Jace had been hired to keep the girls safe, so the bride-to-be was most definitely a kidnapping risk.
"Me too," Another button press revealed a compartment containing his domino mask along with a couple of spares, one black and one red. Slipping the signature blue one to cover his own eyes, he glanced across at Simon. "Almost as much as I hate party crashers. Let's take them out."
"Whoa, hang on! We can't just assume that—" Simon trailed off as soon as he saw two things: movement toward the rear doors and the way the two figures were very obviously holding something in their hands. And unless he was very much mistaken by the blank spots in the thermal imaging, he suspected they were firearms. "Never mind, fuck it. Let's go be big damn heroes. Just don't go getting yourself hurt out there, Dickie-birb."
He and Dick were still about a block away, and Jace and the party were distant moving shadows on the beach barely glimpsed between buildings. "Okay, but just for the sake of laughing when it all goes to shit, what's the plan?"
The protest was met with an amused look, especially as his hunch was immediately confirmed. "Don't worry about me, I've been doing this since I was nine." Any injuries he could walk away from were fine by him, all in a night's work. Sometimes he forgot that getting hurt was a big deal for normal people.
"We move out now on foot, but don't cross the street just yet. My domino has thermal mode so I'll see when they decide to actually exit the van, we'll take them out, one each and then deal with the driver." Even as he spoke he was moving to climb out of the car, escrima already tucked into his thigh holster.
"Y'know, between you and Jace, I'm so about to call you guys the biggest cheaters. Not all of us can be secret and not-so-secret bad asses with tragi-serious pasts." Now probably wasn't the time for petty quips, but if fruitless grumbling was how Simon got through this, so be it. He agreed with a tight-jawed nod and followed the seasoned veteran's move.
Even this late, the night wasn't exactly quiet. Music spilled out from the bars down both sides of the street, and dueling baselines were like a call and response from the clubs the bachelorette party had left a couple of venues ago. Sometimes these new senses were a real curse, but Simon knew he could narrow them down in a way that was probably creepy. First, he locked on to Dick's heartbeat—and then the distant familiarity of Jace's all the way from the beach.
After that, it was relatively easy to discern the ones coming from the van.
They were worryingly calm and steady. Professionals.
Simon tried to keep his gait steady and unhurried as he moved up the block toward the van. With any luck, this would be nothing, just a funny coinky-dink, and he and Dick could laugh about it like some private joke. Then again, Simon's luck usually turned out to be really shitty.
"Oh yeah, we're awesome at an unfair level." Dick laughed, throwing his arm across Simon's shoulders as they started to walk. Which of course would help with their cover of being two guys on a night out. Music spilled from the clubs on either side of the street and in the distance he could hear the faint sound of waves on the beach. "I think your supernatural senses are pretty rad and definitely useful in this situation."
As the van drew closer, Dick inclined his head toward the road, suggesting they cross. They'd reached the middle when two things happened; the rear doors opened and the van shot forward to block access to the limo from the beach. "Shit."
Letting his arm drop, he sprinted toward the vehicle, escrima already in his hands as the first of the men exited the van.
The companionable moment lasted for way too short a time, but Simon enjoyed it while it happened. He'd been able to spare exactly one thought that he liked having a friend like Dick before the van roared to life. Putting on a burst of speed, he easily caught up just in time to see the two men in the back jump down. The pale orange sodium light gleamed off the ends of a pair of silencers. Oy. Who went this far for an heiress?
It was a little satisfying to register the surprise on their faces, but it dissolved quickly into irritation. "Unless you wanna have a really bad night, kid, fuck off the way you came."
"Okay, but see, you're about to ruin my friend's life, and that just not c—"
The shot came out shockingly loud, and Simon wasn't sure if that was because of his fun new hearing or the proximity. Either way, it hurt like a bastard when the bullet grazed his upper arm. Would have been his chest, but he'd moved out of the way. He glanced from his wrecked shirt to the man who'd shot him. The street went red, and Simon grinned. "Okay, that was just rude. Our turn."
The speed at which Simon moved was impressive, not on Wally's or Clark's level, but pretty damn amazing. Dick used the temporary distraction of Simon's appearance to take out the driver with a tasered escrima stabbed through the open window on his way past.
The cough of the silencer put him on edge and he rounded the tail of the van in time to see Simon's terrifyingly toothy grin. His concern for his friend's wellbeing was put on the back burner for the moment, as he moved in tandem with the vampire to take out the would-be kidnappers. His first step was always to disarm, and Dick brought one escrima down onto the blond assailant's shoulder, making his gun arm drop.
In one movement he holstered his weapon and snatched the silenced pistol from the man's slackened grip, releasing the clip and ratcheting the slide back to eject the bullet already in the chamber. Both parts of the firearm were then discarded, it had only taken a matter of seconds, and he looked to see how Simon was getting on.
Simon didn't have near the finesse of his companion, nor the technical skill.
What he did have, however, was encanto.
He lashed out and quickly swiped off the man's eye gear while also grabbing the bit of the gun where silencer met barrel and bending it. The second report was more of an explosion, and the would-be kidnapper dropped the smoking gun with a grunt of shocked pain. Simon wasn't too far behind him, ear-wise, but he didn't let it stop him from locking eyes with the assailant and saying, "Stop."
And the guy did. His body went lax, jaw dropping a little as he stared at Simon. No resistance—very creepy, but effective. "Eyes on me. Go grab the driver and bring him here. We're going to have a little chat, the four of us."
Turning to the second gunman, Simon none too gently pulled his goggles off as well, took hold of his chin, and forced him to look into his eyes. "You stay. You want to stay, don't you?"
A pause as the man very obviously struggled against Simon's control, and then he nodded slowly. "Yeah. Yeah, I do."
He could feel Dick close by, but he didn't dare glance over to see how he was reacting to any of this.
Whatever he'd expected from Simon, it hadn't been this.
No, that wasn't entirely true. Simon's show of inhuman strength as he'd bent the metal barrel with ease met up to Dick's expectations precisely. It was what came after that had been surprising. Luckily he'd had experience with psychically powered individuals before, so he didn't freak out at the display. Miss Martian would have been proud of that power of suggestion.
Watching, with a slightly bewildered expression behind his domino, as the first gunman obediently went to retrieve the driver. He shook himself back to alertness and came to stand at Simon's left shoulder, idly spinning his escrima while they waited for the other two would-be kidnappers to arrive.
"You think they'll tell us who paid for their delightful services?"
"That's assuming they know themselves or if they've just been contracted to a middle man." Simon waited until the driver was pulled around the back of the van, before admitting to Dick, "I've watched a lot of crime shows. And it just makes sense. Also, the answer depends on how embroiled we want to get in this whole thing."
He knew what his answer would be, but Dick was a veteran to this whole vigilante business. If it came right down to it, Simon would absolutely back his play. It took a second for him to capture the driver's attention—probably because of the shock, but he managed it. He'd never had to use his ability on multiple people and was definitely starting to feel the strain. "All right, fellas, tell the gentleman what he wants to know."
"Ohhh you called me a Gentleman," Dick smiled, dipping in a little bow, but noting the hint of strain in Simon's demeanor, he cut right to the questions without any further quips. His friend's guess about the middle man probably wasn't far off, but he wanted confirmation just to be sure.
Seven minutes later, he had his answer. The Bride's father supposedly made his money from designing and supplying office chairs. But the chairs were just a front for some less than legal businesses. Apparently he'd crossed someone who wasn't adverse to kidnapping and ransom to get even. Crime Families were so delightful.
Slipping zip ties out of his pocket he secured the three goons in the back of the van and sent a signal to the Batmobile to call in local law enforcement.
"Right then, you want to go peek at your beau?"
Simon kept up the encanto all through the interrogation and tying the goons up, but he held the door open before Dick could shut it, saying, "Yes, I do, and you can even make fun of me all you want, but I'm going to do one more thing. Guys? On me again. You know what we're gonna do from here on out?"
A chorus of head shakes. Simon smiled his most beatific and fang-showing smile. "We're going to leave here tonight, cooperate with the authorities, and make better choices with our lives. Be nice to people and to yourselves."
He closed the door to a trio of dull-eyed nodding and started back toward the car. There was a flask with his name on it that he desperately needed. "Do I think that'll last? Nope. Was it worth it to try? Why not. Hey, um… thanks. Think we should tell him now or never?"
"Do you think he'll be frolicking in the surf? Or sitting on the sand attempting to be professional?" Dick smirked, commending Simon for his effort in suggesting the three heavies rehabilitate their lives, but not thinking for a minute that it would last beyond tomorrow. "We can hope."
The Batmobile opened its doors as they approached and Dick peeled off his mask, setting it back in the cubby where it came from. He also retrieved a couple of alcohol wipes and a spare shirt from a different storage locker. "Hey, no problem, It was good to be out doing my 'day job' for a change. Will you heal after a drink, or do I need to break out the sewing kit?
"Whichever it is, we need to clean you up before we hit the beach." Contemplating the question for a moment, he shrugged. "Maybe tell him the full story at a later date. For now, tell him the live texts compelled us to join the fun."
"Knowing him? The latter. Definitely the latter." Simon laughed on his way back to the tricked out car, where he accepted the shirt and wipes and grabbed the flask from where he'd put it in the floorboards.
One swallow of red later, and he could already feel the skin coming back together. He knew all he had to do at that point was wipe off the last of the blood and change, which he did quickly. Simon grinned at his unexpected partner in saving the day. "That's the kind of plan I can get behind."