Who: Cipher (Max), Nightwing (Roger) What: Breaking and entering! Where: The bank When: Tuesday night around 9:00 PM Warnings: Typical Max/Roger swearing and an explosion!
Nine o’clock, and Max had just left Amanda at daycare (again), and she was having a hard time ignoring Eden’s quirked brow as she left the screaming baby in her arms yet again. She needed to find a balance between work, and a child, and being part of a team again. When she’d been in Aubade, her leave check had gone to pay the bulk of Audrey’s rent, with the remainder going to cover the supplies for the warehouse and the paper. Now, with the paper closed and the warehouse gone, she was finding that childcare and baby supplies cost more than any warehouse and publication.
She parked the truck, and she didn’t bother with the front door, climbing the fire escape instead, in the mood for the adrenaline it offered. Baby weight long gone, she was dressed in black, intentionally to blend into the darkness, and she had her gun tucked in the back of her pants.
She knocked on Nightwing’s window frame, and she waited.
Nightwing was cleaning the apartment, a sight that would likely throw off anyone who knew him well enough. To be fair, his version of cleaning was walking around the apartment with a giant trash bag and throwing pizza boxes in, but at least it was something. When 9o’clock rolled around he was so caught up in the mundane task of picking up trash that he had completely lost track of time. Jumping at the sound at his window, he peered outside to see Max’s frame and then made a gesture like he was an idiot for letting it slip his mind.
To be fair, it took him a whole ten seconds to suit up. Roger wasn’t fancy and neither was Nightwing. He reemerged from his room in his full get up, adjusting his belt before pulling his gloves tight on his hands. Walking over to the window he pushed it open and laughed. “I don’t know why I’m surprised. No. Fuck it. I’m not surprised at all.” He thought women were supposed to slow down after giving birth, but the idea of Max slowing down was just fucking laughable. He made a motion for her to get going and then slipped out the window after her.
“It’s been over a month, Nightwing. Did you think I’d be fucking knitting in a rocker?” she asked, easily climbing down to ground level, and motioning with her head toward the alley. The bank was close to Bathos, and it would be easier to approach on foot, under the cover of dark. She had gloves on, shoes made for scaling, and by the time they reached the building at the end of the alley, she was climbing the escape to the top with ease, waiting for him at the top and nodding toward the skyline, which gave them a pretty direct roof-jump to the bank. “Bring any grappling hooks?” she asked with a grin.
This was his kind of assignment. Climbing stuff was the first thing he taught himself how to do and now all he needed was some lasers to do flips over. Nightwing had been doing this vigilante thing for a while and he had yet to come across a cool laser defense. “You best believe it.” Nightwing handed her a grappling hook that looked very similar to the ones that Batman used, but seemingly more military grade. He assumed she was well versed on the contraption, so he didn’t bother explaining it.
He didn’t use grappling hooks unless absolutely needed, but damn they made him feel cool. Something about being suspended in air, even for a brief second, never failed to wake up his senses and make the transition from Roger to crime-fighting Nightwing a lot smoother. Replacing the grappling hook on his belt, he put his hands on his hips and waited for her to swing over. When she made it safely he added, “I don’t know I figured you’d be too busy with your new mom’s Pilate's classes or some shit.”
“Fuck you,” she said with a warm, easy laugh. “I’m back in Bathos. I can’t afford fucking Pilate’s. Are you saying I need to work out more?” she asked, tease and a grin and not at all affronted.
She knew how to use the grappling hook alright. It had been a year, but it wasn’t something you forgot and she’d been training her ass off for the past month. It could be called overcompensating, getting into better shape than she’d been in before the baby. But she thought of it as a practicality; she had more shit she cared about protecting now than she had before.
Her feet landed on the roof beside his with only a momentary loss of balance as she got used to the sensation of landing again, and she didn’t bother handing the hook back to him. Most of the building were close enough to jump, but some of them would require the additional assistance of the hook. “So,” she said, moving quietly in the dark and enjoying being out after so long, “I got one of your memories,” she said bluntly.
“I was worried that would happen.” He said as they moved. “One of my friends got one, figured you’d get one, too.” A small pause. “Can you tell me what it was?” Nightwing’s voice turned up almost childishly. As if she had found his action figure on the playground and he was asking for it back. Zoe somehow got one of his vigilante memories, so maybe he’d be so lucky with Max. He tried to think of the worst thing he had done, but only came up with yelling at the Bat. Max already knew about nearly every detail of their fights. If that’s what it was, he could rest easy.
She waited to make the next jump before answering. “Something about your your father,” she said, leaving out the part about the gunshot and the blood just then. “About not having family here, about the Bat having family when you didn’t,” she said, keeping it vague, but not pulling any punches. “It’s not true,” she said, walking again, “the bit about not having family.” She looked over at him. “You’re as much a part of this family as I am, as Robin is. It might not feel like it - hell, I don’t feel like part of this fucking family recently - but it doesn’t change the fact that we want you here, and that you belong with us, cheesy as that fucking sounds.”
He cocked his head to the side and then waved his hand dismissively; embarrassed. “No, no. I-” Nightwing clearly remembered feeling the way she described as it commonly bubbled up when he was alone. A pause before he put his hand on her shoulder. “Thanks. I mean, you guys are stuck with me so I guess it’s good you see it that way.” There was a smile behind the face mask. A grateful one. He worried she was just taking pity on him, but Max wasn’t that sort of girl. If he wasn’t part of the family she’d be the first to tell him.
She shoved at his shoulder with a glove covered hand. “Thank me again,” she said, “and I’ll kick your ass. I need practice.”
The next building required the grappling hook, and she founding her footing with much more ease this time, turning to watch him make the jump himself. “We aren’t stuck with anyone. We’d kick your ass right out if we didn’t want you,” she told him, sobering after a second. “But the family stuff - wife, kids - that stuff you can still have, you know. This doesn’t mean you can’t, despite popular belief.” There was something a little sober there, in her voice. “Things have been rocky lately,” she admitted.
Nightwing stood up straight, his balance teetering slightly as he took a step back as if she had actually hit him. “He hasn’t gotten his head out of his ass and fallen madly in love with you yet?” It wasn’t clear if he was trying to make a joke or not, but there was that usual tone of disappointment in his voice. Disappointment in Thomas for not taking something that was perfect for him. Worried that maybe he was incapable of it.
She looked down at the bank below, and she laughed quietly. “Not this week, Nightwing. Ask me again next week.” She paused, and she looked over at him. “You’ve known him a long time, longer than me, than Luke. You’ve known him around other people. Think it’s a lost cause?” she asked. She trusted Roger, trusted him to not give her a line, trusted her to understand how Thomas worked, too - maybe better than anyone. “I don’t know. I keep thinking maybe he just doesn’t think he has it in him. I don’t think that’s true, though,” she added. “And don’t think you can change the subject that fucking easily. You can have the family, the wife, the kids. What’s stopping you from going after it?” she asked, nodding down and then using the hook to cross and drop to a cracked window on a top level, which she opened the remainder of the way to crawl inside.
She had a signal disruptor in her pocket, and old thing from Musings that worked just fine here, and it jammed the security signal. They’d have a few minutes before anyone noticed, but not much more than that.
“I told you what I think.” Nightwing crossed his arms and shrugged. “He’s Bat first, Thomas second. The Bat can’t afford to be close to anyone like that. But,” he dropped his arms to his side and walked over to the opening she was standing by. “If he’s that important to you, there’s no point in talking you out of it. Hell, I think it’s fucking romantic.” Romance was something that was completely foreign in his life and he sort of envied her for it. Even if it was unrequited. “And me? I’m just waiting for the right girl who won’t get in the way of the mask thing.” For all of Nightwing’s childish ideals, that was probably one of the silliest. Nightwing wasn’t exactly the type of man to settle, however. He was an idealist at heart.
He eyed the opening and then slipped through as soon as the disruptor started working its magic. It was dark inside the building, but he knew better than to pull out a flashlight. Nightwing really had to bug Batman about some sweet night vision goggles.
It was dark, but Max knew the building schematics pretty well, even without the report on Oracle’s laptop. She chuckled at the romantic ideology, and she kept her voice a whisper as she led the way down, because she knew there wasn’t anything to find on the upper levels - he’d already checked those. “A Mask, or a quiet girl who lives a quiet life?” she asked curiously. “I don’t think you can be two people, Nightwing. He’s the Bat, and he’s who he is, and that’s all one fucking person. Same as you,” she said, shoving at his shoulder.
A light came around the corner, and she flattened back against the wall as the night security looked this way and that for trouble, since the system had gone offline.
“No one is just one person. Everyone wears masks.” Nightwing gave a hidden smirk under his face shield. “And, I don’t know if a quiet girl will ever put up with me.” He certainly wasn’t known for going out with girls that could be considered quiet by any sense of the word, but maybe that’s what he needed. Either that, or a girl who could keep up with him. He went silent as he heard the night security and hid in the shadows. The security did a lazy sweep; more interested with fixing the technical difficulties than looking for a breaking and entering. Nightwing waited for an opening and then made a gesture for them to continue onwards.
She followed when he motioned. They had worked together enough that she trusted him, and she considered the partnership equal, which was important in the military. She led the way down the stairs, carefully rounding the landings and trusting him to raise an alarm if something was ahead of them. On the bottom level, they found the dead end, and she reached into her pocket and pulled out a small bit of clay and an explosive - small, but powerful. She quirked a brow at him. It was a dangerous move, but she agreed there was something beyond that wall. It just didn’t make any fucking sense.
“Before we blow this place up,” she said with an unworried grin, “do you want to date Gwen?”
“Jesus fucking christ.” He gave a sharp whisper and threw his hands up like he was trying to surrender. “Of course I do. But, I’m not stupid. She’s got a man. I’m a fucking loser. She’s not even interested. Now let’s blow some shit up.” Nightwing seemed to be under the impression that his feelings for Gwen were a secret and it alarmed him that it was apparently so fucking obvious. He intended to keep it a problem he’d have to either bury in the ground or get over and forget about. The mockingbird incident made him worry and think about her for weeks and now hoping to just keep her at arms length was becoming troublesome. He’d have to, of course, but it was still difficult.
“I talked to West. They’re on the outs, and he didn’t even want to go see her. She likes you, Nightwing. Ask the woman out once she’s home. Maybe you can have that family you want, and maybe she can have a Mask who understands what fucking matters to her. Win-fucking-win, and you might even set a good example for the Bat,” she said, handing him the explosive and pressing the clay to the wall, low, and then tucking the explosive in the clay. It would be loud, but with security upstairs after the disruptor, she was counting on them having enough time to get in and out before they made it through the rubble. “Schema shows this connecting to sewers. If we run into trouble, we hit the grates,” she said, and then she lit the match and moved back to take cover as the wick burned down.
“What.” Nightwing was dumbfounded. Mostly because he couldn’t think of anything he wanted more than to see Gwen. What kind of mook wouldn’t want to be there for her? Even just to show a ghost outline of support? It made him almost angry. Like he wanted to drag this asshole down to see her whether he liked it or not. Of course, he’d never do that considering West was currently competition. He snapped out of it when she started giving him a game plan and then gave a slow nod to show he was listening and focused. He ducked behind cover with her and waited for the explosion. It was a loud, glorious thing that made him grin like a ten year old who found a firecracker. It was hard not to enjoy himself when they were swinging from buildings and blowing shit up.
As the dust began to settle he started to move quickly. Hopefully these security guards were just as incompetent as a run of the mill cops for hire, but there was no point counting on it. If someone was smart enough to capture Gwen and nearly destroy the vigilantes, being lazy in their domain was a big mistake.
“She likes you, too,” Max added when the dust settled, not stopping for his reaction as she followed him through the rubble. They were covered with white and gray dust by the time they reached the other side, and the adrenaline had kicked in, and she just turned around and had to catch her breath in order to process what she was seeing: A row of perfect jail cells, one after the other after the other, with three apparently in use recently. There was yelling upstairs, and she knew the time was short, so she tossed him one of the two mini-cameras she’d brought along. “Take as many as you can,” she said, taking the row to the right. She could see the sewer grates, one at each end, and she looked over her shoulder at him. “We should each take one. Make sure we get the info back to the Bat,” she said of the sewers, the voices on the stairs getting louder. “So, got a gameplan?” she asked, obviously back to Gwen and not talking about the cells at all any longer.
Nightwing did his best to take as many, varied pictures time would allow. The idea of Gwen or anyone being kept in these cells pissed him off, but this assignment wasn’t going to be as easy as just beating the shit out of whoever did this to Gwen. They clearly had money and that meant more influence than a typical mob boss. This whole ordeal was moving a lot slower than he liked, but that’s how giant assignments tended to go. Soon, the time for gathering evidence was up. He moved to the other sewer grate and looked over his shoulder at her.
“Gameplan? I’m gunna do my best not to look like a fucking asshole.” He cussed in true Nightwing form. And really, wasn’t that the best any man could do for a woman? “Call if something goes wrong. I’ll come looking for you if you don’t show up at Bat headquarters and I except the same from you.” He said as if it were only the polite thing to do.
“Just kiss the fucking woman,” she said with a laugh, adding, “you’re a good partner, Nightwing,” and coming from someone who had always preferred solo-ops it was a compliment. She tossed her camera to him. “Get those uploaded to the Bat. I have a kid to grab on the way home.” She tugged off the other grate, just as the men reached the rubble, and she dropped down and started running in the opposite direction of Nightwing’s footsteps. She wasn’t worried about outrunning some hired guards, and at least they had more information than they’d had going in.
“Missed having you on the field, shorty.” Nightwing winked as he caught the camera with one hand and tucked it into his jacket. He heard shouting just seconds away from them and he seemed energized by it. The night wasn’t complete without a good chase, even if it was stacked unfairly in their favor. “Tell Manda I said hellllllllllooooo!” He shouted as he sprinted down the other direction.