Chapter Text
The kettle was starting to boil on the stove, hopefully this time the tea would be at least somewhat close to Alfred’s and all its unattainable glory. Dick groaned as he got up from under his cocoon of blankets and braced against his apartment’s chilly air. Hopefully his second attempt at making tea would yield a decent cup.
He never makes tea, he’s horrible at it. But maybe a positive attitude would help him succeed. Yeah, this would be a great cup of tea! He really needed it to be. The way his day was going, well really how his week was going, he just needed something comforting to give him a sense of normalcy that he craved. Alfred’s tea usually does just that.
It was the dead of winter in Bludhaven, and the weather clearly didn’t want anyone to forget it. It had been snowing for three days now, and basically everything had turned into snow. There was no more ‘Haven anymore, and Dick was starting to believe there was never a city underneath all the white in the first place. It had been a pretty steady, windy snow fall with almost record low temperatures since Monday, but today it had picked up and basically was a blizzard now.
The city and all the surrounding areas had prepped for it a couple days in advance, and everyone settled into their homes waiting to be shut-ins for the week. Bruce and the rest of the family tried to convince Dick to hunker down at the Manor and wait it all out. In retrospect he should have agreed, the loneliness was already getting to him and it was only Wednesday. He just didn’t want to leave his city - it needed him.
Dick wiggled back under his blankets on the couch with his freshly brewed tea. He took a tentative sip. Okay so maybe not ‘Alfred-worthy’ tea, but maybe it was Jason-worthy? Dick set the cup down to let it cool off a bit longer. Maybe he should’ve listened to him family.
He was technically “working” even though he wasn’t at the precinct, so the city kinda did need him. He did put in a full day on Monday. All the detectives put their cases on hold to help with emergency response, traffic accidents, and road blockages. The whole of the BPD was on high alert until the city finally settled in early that night. After that most of the personnel were sent home for the week. They all gathered any case files they could work through from the comforts of their home, and were told to stay available in case anything changes. So technically he did need to stay in the city.
His ‘other’ job also needed him here, or so he thought. When Bruce initially suggested the week at home with the family, Dick insisted that the city would still need it’s vigilante. Bruce sounded unsure, but didn’t press the issue.
He was right. Dick hadn’t donned his uniform since the snow started, and there didn’t really seem to be a need to now. A city in hibernation didn’t need much watching over, not even criminals wanted to be out in what was being considered the worst snow storm in Bludhaven’s history. Also it was dangerous to fly when you couldn’t see more than a couple feet in front of you.
Not only did Dick’s reasons for staying stuck at home alone not really amount to much anymore, but he was also basically out of food. While he helped the city prepare for this nightmare week, he had neglected storm prepping for himself. He was living off the meager remains of his take-out left-overs, and the dwindling collection of non-perishables from the last time Alfred visited (or made him ‘monthly inspections’ as Tim called it.
“I’ll be fine,” he whispered to his tea as he took another sip. So, it wasn’t really Jason-worthy either...
No! Keep a positive attitude! Dick forced himself to take another sip, if anything he just needed it to warm him up from the lingering chill from Monday. Or maybe at least satisfy his hunger, so he can continue rationing out his food. He really can’t afford to lose all control of his will-power this early on. He really should’ve gone home.
Dick had tried calling his family earlier to see what they were up to, and to try and distract himself from his impatience and this caged-in feeling that was making him restless. They didn’t get a chance to talk for long before Alfred made Tim hang up for dinner. According to Tim they were having steak tonight, with some southern-style side dishes. Alfred even made banana pudding for dessert. The lucky ducks...
He had also talked to Barbara earlier in the day too. He would try calling her again, but she had hung up on him after a few hours working through one of his Nightwing cases saying that she had had her “Grayson quota” for the day. She would not appreciate another call that didn't have a point.
The case she had helped him with was at a standstill. It was some group that was new to ‘Haven. Dick wasn’t sure why they were headed here, but he caught wind of them a couple weeks ago. They were trying to move a large shipment of experimental, recreational drugs into his city. From the intel he gathered they wanted to distribute and set up shop right here under his nose.
They were originally going to be making the big move today, but that would clearly be on hold for the time being. Barbra had lended a listening ear as Dick tried to work through the case to figure out where they were coming from, and why here. After coming to multiple dead ends Barb ended their call, promising to keep an eye out for more intel from Gotham.
Dick took another sip. Who was he kidding, the tea was nasty. He’d have to try and find something to eat soon. That or call it a super early night and hope that sleep would get rid of all his problems.
Dick hummed as he tried to decide what to do. It was really too early to call it a night. He wouldn’t be able to settle if he tried. The growling stomach, the lack of human interaction, and his nose that was starting to leak would definitely keep him up. He didn’t really have any work he could do for his day job or his night job either. He couldn’t remember that last time he was this free, and didn’t have anything lingering over his head demanding his attention. He probably should be grateful, but he was too uncomfortable with the silence that was coming from every facet of his life. Maybe that was problematic, maybe he should be able to enjoy time like this.
Just as Dick began a decent into what would be a deep spiral of personal-introspection, a crisis of self he really wasn’t interested in exploring, a blessing broke through his thoughts. His computer dinged.
“Oh Thank You!” The speed at which he jumped up to see what emergency beacon went off was enough to send the bad cup of tea to the floor. It shattered as Dick ripped himself free of the blankets and scrambled to see his saving grace. The tea was no great loss, but the whole scene would’ve greatly disappointed the old butler.
As Dick rushed to get through his security protocols and enter the needed passwords his phone started ringing. Absentmindedly he reached out and answered as he kept his focus on what he hoped would be something good. He really needed it to be something good.
“Hello?”
“Dick, I just got a ping on the group you’ve been tracking. I’m working through it now. It looks like we were wrong; they’re making a move.” Dick relaxed back onto the couch as his own alert filled his computer screen, and he smiled. Babs was a gift. Man did he love her, always a step ahead. She continued to talk at break neck speed as he worked through the information on his own.
“I’m not sure how they plan on moving their merchandise, but it looks like it’s happening. Like tonight. Clearly their original plan from your earlier reports is still basically scrapped. The harbor is frozen over, and there’s no way a ship is headed out anytime soon.”
“Thanks Babs, I-“
“I’m not sure how they’ve managed to re-organize themselves this quickly. It doesn’t make sense and I don’t like it. The plan is definitely a go though. Their wire is flooded with communication. I can’t really decipher any new plans though. Only times and the green flag go ahead.”
“Babs.”
“It doesn’t make sense. The ships are out, the roads are closed, and there’s no visibility in the sky. There’s barely even any on the ground. It’s impossible to work in this. I would say it’s fake or a miscommunication, but its clearly not. Dick, I’m not even sure how you would go about acting on this new intel. I’m not ever sure it’s safe to try. We could pull Tim in and see if he can make any sense of this. Or maybe I could dig through some government reports and see if anything shows up. Honestly thinking this one might need to be let go for the time being though, there’s just no way-“
Dick sneezed. Green junk spewed out all over his hand. It was a surprising and vicious sneeze that was immediately followed by a full-blown leaky nose. Barbara had stopped rambling to listen. Dick could feel her gears shifting focus. She was about to change topics entirely and ask if he was okay, but Dick used her momentary pause to finally jump in. While he simultaneously grabbed a tissue.
“I’m not letting them slip through the cracks Babs, so don’t even suggest it. The whole point of tracking them this far in advance was to stop it all before it became a problem in the city. I want to stop these drug before they get to the streets. They must have found a different means of travel. I’m not sure what other way there could be, but it looks like I have an hour or so before they actually start moving so we’ve got to figure it out. I could just go hit the couple locations I scouted last week. I never confirmed connection between them and the group, but they’re the most likely options I gleaned from their encrypted data. I don’t want to miss them though, and chances are they’ll split the supply as soon as they enter the city.”
“We need a different angle then. There’s got to be something we’re missing. The snow has changed everything, and there really wasn’t that much time to start a multi-stepped plan that took weeks to plan over from scratch.”
I sniffled, “You’re right. I don’t know much about the group yet, but I don’t believe they’re this efficient and cohesive to completely change everything with such little communication. There must be something I missed... The only explanation is that they already had a backup plan ready to go.”
“Maybe it’s detailed out in some information you’ve tossed aside, info you didn’t deem important?” She was making a jab, Dick wasn’t as good at sorting through stacks of intel like Tim or she was.
“Babs, are you inferring that I would mistakenly toss out relevant data on a case? Defamation of my good character! You know B would have my head if I ever did such a heinous act.”
“Can’t fool me wonder-boy. It’s too late in the game to act all ‘by-the-books’, we both know you never listened to B long enough to hear that important lesson.” Dick started digging out some of his older case files and chuckled. She wasn’t wrong, there was definitely some bits of information that didn’t fit the rest of the puzzle he originally pieced together. He hadn’t scrapped it, but when he couldn’t make sense of it he had written it off as irrelevant communication.
Technically no information shared between any organization under bat-surveillance was supposed to be written off. But there were bound to be random messages over some simple day-to-day movements or recaps of older info already gathered. So, just like every bat, Dick had to learn how to shift through everything logically and put aside info that would just slow him down.
“I have a few reports that didn’t make sense. Maybe something is hidden in there. I didn’t share them earlier, but I’ve pulled them up on my computer. Can you see?”
“Duh.” Babs’ indignant response had Dick rolling his eyes as he wiped his nose again. Honestly he had stopped pretending Barbara didn’t have full access to all his technology whenever she wanted. She was probably already half way through the older reports before he even started speaking. “What’s this mention of ‘two pits’ from a week ago? Any relevance”
“I looked into that, they were referencing a warehouse on the corner of Second and Cherry St. It was a possible drop site, but it was too close to precinct 8 so they scrapped it.”
“There are multiple phrases like that one in here Dick... they keep using words that feel off.”
“Yeah, most of my information comes from communications like that. It’s their stab at trying to speak in code, it sucks. It’s a horrible method that could lead to multiple misunderstandings in my opinion, but somehow its working for them. Basically every word relates to whatever they’re actually talking about, it’s word association. So many of their code words could work in normal conversation though and can be completely unrelated to the drug move. So it’s a bit of a stab in the dark on whether or not a phrase actually has a second meaning.”
They kept on like that for another 20 minutes or so, shifting through wording or phrases that didn’t make any sense. Dick had already sorted through them all over the last couple of weeks. So, each new suggestion Barbra made as she read through some of the old correspondence, he had to explain and shoot down. He was about ready to call it quits. It was getting closer to the time they’d start getting to the city to make their shipment. He could still head out and at least check out some of their sites. Maybe he’d get lucky. He really wanted to catch the group before the whole shipment was moved. Chances are they’ll split it up as soon as they get here. He could maybe find some of it, but he’ll probably spend the next month cleaning the rest of it up off the streets.
“What about this ‘smoking pipe’? It’s mentioned a few times?”
“Yeah, I couldn’t find any correlation. It’s just what it says, they’re just taking about smoking. Pipes, cigars, and the rest.” Dick tried to sort through the little he had left and nervously glanced at the clock again. It was definitely time to call it and head out to try and salvage at least some of this case.
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah Babs, it’s quitting time. I’m gonna suit up and head out, you can keep searching it you’d like.”
“Dick, I think you’re wrong.” Dick had already stood up to go get dressed, but he stopped and waited for Barbara to continue. “It’s only mentioned a few times, but I think they start abbreviating ‘smoking pipe’ to just SP. It’s continued to be used in similar contexts, so I’m fairly certain its actually just the same reference.”
“SP... I remember that. It came across as initials for a name for me. I tried to get a hit off it, but I wasn’t sure if it was real or fake. I lost the trail pretty quickly.”
“No, I don’t think it’s a name. It’s being used in a lot of different way through a lot of your files actually. I see how it comes across like some of these other code names, but something’s different about it. Also it looks like it’s always smoking pipe. Never a cigarette, a cigar, or anything else. So there must be another word association with it that were missing.”
It clicked. There was only one way to travel through ‘Haven right now without being touched by the snow. They weren’t talking about how they planned on relaxing after a day of work, they were planning another way in. Smoking pipes. Pipes.
“BABS! The pipes! The sewers! They’re going to use the sewers under the city. It’s the only place not effected by the storm!”
••••••••
Okay, so he was wrong. The sewers were not the only place not effected by the storm. Sure there wasn’t any snow, but the cold blizzard raging topside had very much effected the pipes below to Dick’s great disappointment.
Bludhaven’s sewers were not strategically built. It was more like the city was built up with no idea there was already a rotting and haphazard sewer system below. Entrances were randomly placed and were few and far between. The pipes didn’t line up with the streets either and had a less than intuitive lay out overall. It wasn’t really ideal for anything, and really just barely functioned for it’s main purpose.
Their age and clear dysfunction also meant the large main pipes Dick was walking through were not really insulated for the cold at all. So even though he was protected from the wind and an onset of icy flakes, the temperature was dangerously lower than it was up top. The water had also frozen over, and the service path he was walking on along the side of the pipes had plenty of icy patches to step over.
Dick hated the sewers. He was meant for the sky. His nighttime activities almost never required a descent under the city as even the most foul of Bludhaven criminals didn’t find much use for them. It had been a nice change from all the years trekking through the muck of Gotham’s perfectly organized sewer system after some crazed criminal. Many of Gotham’s more well-known evil residences had even set up an evil-lair down there on more then one occasion.
Babs had made quick work of deciphering more of their code once they knew the crux of the group’s backup plan. They hadn’t been able to pinpoint why they used ‘smoking’ as part of their code for using the sewers, but had settled on it being another reference to the drug load. While Dick prepped for the mission, she went over what else she could and still managed to give him a full blown lecture about being careful in these conditions, it was all done in record time. Babs finally hung after after she promised to be available if needed and that she would keep shifting through the group’s communications.
While she was safe and warm at home, Dick was currently freezing in foul smelling air. He was a little surprised he had actually gotten so cold so quickly, he had on his thermal suit! Well, he opted to leave the heavy-duty thermal one behind. He figured he wouldn’t be in the elements for long, and the other suit restricted a lot of movement, not ideal for battle. It was usually only pulled out for long stake outs in cold weather. Dick figured this mission would end in an all out fight, but now he was regretting his choice. He didn’t expect it to be so bad down here out of the wind and snow, but he was starting to have a hard time imagining anything worse than this. He should’ve grabbed the better thermal.
“Nightwing, check in.”
“Really Oracle, so soon? Did you miss the sound of my voice already? The tabloids are right, you must really have a thing for me, huh?”
“Har har. Update?” Dick smiled. He definitely appreciated a little more company on this case. The cold was starting to seep into his bones, so any distractions were welcome.
“Nothing yet. Haven’t seen or heard anything. The water down here is frozen, isn’t that crazy? You’d think that would cause problems for the city, but I’ve had running water all day.”
“It would dummy. I’m sure it’s just the surface that’s frozen, the water is probably still flowing underneath.” Dick stopped and walked closer the the edge of the sewer’s walkway. She was right. Now that he was standing right above the water it was clear that there was just a thin layer of ice on top. He could see the water below slowly flowing along. “The smaller pipes in the city buildings freezing would be the ones to actually cause problems, but they keep those more insulated so pretty boys like you can still have running water.”
“You call to compliment me or call me names? Cause I’m starting to get mixed signals.”
“Actually I called to tell you I can’t be your eyes in the sky anymore. Some personal demands are going to take me away from my tower.” That meant Commissioner Gordon was probably calling upon his daughter unexpectedly. That was really the only thing that could ever take Babs away from her work mid-case. “Wing, I’ve alerted Red Robin and Agent A of your position and briefly filled them in on the case. They should be able to help you with any information you might need.”
“Thanks O.”
“And Wing, please check in with them regularly. The storm is getting worse here in Gotham, half the city lost power a bit ago and generators aren’t kicking in like they should.”
“Anything similar here?” I had worried about power outages when the storm started a couple days ago, but so far it hadn’t seemed aggressive enough to cause any damages. It definitely was getting worse though.
“Not yet, but doesn’t mean it won’t. I don’t really like that you’re out... And I’m on to you and your sniffling nose.”
“Just allergies.” I assured in my most innocent voice.
“Mhmm, sure. Just be careful okay?”
“Yes M’am!” Babs left and just like that he was alone again in the cold sewer pipes. He hated the sewers.
••••••••••
He was walking down a pretty straight part of one of the main tunnels. Barbara and him looked over the most updated map of the sewers available to figure out the group’s most likely route. Even though their intel gave them a pretty good indication of where to go, the maps still made it difficult.
The city hadn’t updated any of them in years, so they were very out of date. They were probably not even correct when they were in date. Dick had already passed multiple off-shoots of the main tunnels that never seemed to exist on paper even though they looked old as time itself.
Dick was also definitely headed deeper under ground. He had been walking at a slight decline for the past 15 minutes or so. He wasn’t sure what the need for the pipes to head farther away from the surface would be... But he was sure that this would be the most likely path the group would be taking, as long as they could survive this cold.
Dick hadn’t been down here for that long, but he was certain it had already dropped more than 10 degrees since he left his apartment. It was moments like this he understood why Hood liked wearing a helmet, Dick needed to add a scarf or something the next time he did a re-design.
Suddenly his foot jutted out in front of him. He cursed as he scrambled to regain his footing. He had stopped watching where he was going and didn’t notice the large patch of ice he’d stepped right on. He froze once his terror-filled movements stilled, and he regained some dignity. He was glad no one was around to see that. Graysons don’t slip, and they definitely don’t fall.
He tentatively shuffled over the patch until he was back on the stable, un-frozen part of the sewer walk. It wasn’t like him to not be aware of his footing like that, especially on a mission. The cold must be making him sluggish, or maybe he really was catching something... No, probably just needed to get his blood pumping again. A light jog would help warm him up, and his suit would have some actual heat to insulate.
He picked up a light pace, being very aware of where he put his feet. He probably should call into the cave soon, and update them that he was still trying to locate the drug shipment. He was starting to worry that he’d been too late, or that maybe Babs and him had picked the wrong part of the sewer. He hadn’t seen a single sign that anyone had been down here in ages.
He stopped.
Speak of the devils.
There were echos of voices comings from up ahead. Dick pulled out his escrima sticks, and flipped off his flashlight, stashing it in his utility belt. He’d have to rely on the very few service lights that were down here. Most were beyond dead, but some still flickered on.
He really wanted the element of surprise, and he wouldn’t be mad if he was able to do some surveillance first too. It wasn’t likely seeing as they were literally in a straight pipe, but Dick can dream. He much rather have the most information possible before confronting, it’s how he preferred to work.
As he closed in on the group, the voices started sticking out more. They definitely weren’t trying to be quiet. He figured there were about three men, at least the ones who had spoken since he first heard them. Three would be good. He could take three easy.
Dick slowed and lightened his steps as he started getting closer to their lights. He’d have to really pull out his inner-bat and keep to the shadows. He could make out most of the figures now, about five were up ahead. Okay sure, he could do five. Hopefully that would be all, he really didn’t want to drag more than five guys out of here.
He hoped he could just quickly subdue, gather the contraband, and usher the group back to the surface and into the nearest warm building to fully restrain and wait until cops could take over. Anymore than five would make that a much more difficult task.
“Hold up, here’s the spot I think,” the gruff voice called out and slowed the group. Dick also slowed, and carefully slinked forward to get a better idea of what was going on.
“It doesn’t matter. If we’re close, it’s good enough,” the guy near the front of the group responded. The leader perhaps? Dick couldn’t get a good look at any of them due to the poor lighting. They were definitely all wearing black. Large coats and thick hats, but all black. He needed to see some features to start making mental note of who this group was.
They all had stopped. One of the other guys stepped towards the middle of the group and swung a large bag off his shoulders. The drugs. Dick started scanning the group for the rest of the load, but was thrown off as the bag his the ground. It smacked loudly. But not like it should’ve. It made a loud metal clank.
“Careful!!” The gruff voice shouted, and a couple other guys also made sharp gasps and grunts in annoyance.
The bag clearly had something other than drugs in it. That or they were separated in nice little metal containers for storage. No, this was all wrong. It was the only bag in the group, and wasn’t near enough to match the very large shipment his intel had led him to inspect.
It still wasn’t great, but not really enough to warrant him leaving home in a literal blizzard. He could’ve found and busted a bag’s worth in like three days.
“It’s fine. They aren’t live yet.” Bag man dropped next to his load to unzip it. The rest of the group gathered near and obscured Dick’s line of sight.
“Whatever. Set it and lets move. We’re getting near the center and then we can split and finish this.” The maybe-leader said and made his way back to the front of the group. He kept walking away leaving the rest of them to mess with whatever came out of the bag.
There was some grumbling as they all watched Bag Man do whatever he was doing. Dick could hear a few complaints about the cold and wanting to get moving, but other than that he couldn’t make anything important.
He decided he needed to get in closer to figure out what was going. Surely they weren’t all shooting up in the middle of the gross, frozen sewers. Honestly, Dick didn’t think this was really about drugs anymore. He was having a hard time imagining what else it could be that the group has spent weeks planning to move into ‘Haven.
He needed to risk shortening the distance between them. Right as he made his first step towards them, they Bag Man stood back up.
“It’s done, lets catch up.” He swung the bag back over his shoulders, and they all started moving on.
They had left something behind.
Dick waited for a bit in his spot, nervous to make a sound and alert them to his presence. He wasn’t sure if they were keeping an eye on the not-drugs on the ground as they moved on. They clearly purposefully left it behind, but there wasn’t an obvious reason why that he could think of. It just looked like a box from his position.
Once he felt like they had gained enough distance and their lights were starting to fade a bit, he pulled back out his own light and carefully moved towards the shape. He would have to catch up to them in a bit. He’d gather whatever information this could give him and then run up and shut them down. Well maybe shut them down, if there were no drugs he wasn’t sure what illegal activity they were up to.
The box wasn’t actually metal. It was mostly wooden and the corners were reinforced with metal pieces. It had a slide off top, but Dick hesitated opening it. Maybe it was time to call the cave and check in. It had been about half-an-hour since Oracle had signed off, so it was probably about time.
“It’s not like you’re opening Pandora’s box.” There was no call for paranoia just yet. Dick let out a breath as he put his hand on the lid. He slowly slid it off, and peered in as it opened. He stared for a second, taking in its contents.
“Freakin Pandora’s Box.” He cursed. It was time to call the cave.
••••••••••
It was a bomb. It was a real live home-made bomb. Sitting right in front of him. In the sewers. Under his city. In the middle of a literal blizzard.
What luck.
Dick was floored. This group had completely turned their plans upside down, and now Dick was just really lost. Were the back up plans not only to move under ground, but also to blow up the whole city in place of turning it into a new drug ring? How did this make sense?
Dick turned on his comm. He needed help. This was way bigger than he was prepared to handle. There’s no telling how many more bombs were in that guy’s bag. And there was no telling what Dick’s bomb was going to do, hopefully it wasn’t seconds from turning him into a nice cloud of pink snow.
“Nightwing to Cave. Could use an assist. In need of immediate response, priority alpha.” He didn’t want to scare them, but if Tim was just sitting back with his feet up dozing off over his chemistry kit Dick needed to shock him into action. This was no time for dilly-dallying as Alfred would say.
“Cave reading you, it’s Red Robin. Please inform.” Tim’s voice sounded mildly panicked and slightly out of breath. Dick could picture the mad scramble he must have made to get to the main computer. He smiled at the image, if he was going to explode in the near future he’d rather spend his last seconds thinking of his brothers.
“Red, lovely to hear from you. Sitting in front of a slight problem at the moment. Currently under ‘Haven staring at an aggressive looking home-made bomb. Will need an assist in defusing.”
A pause, clearly Dick’s response was not what Tim was expecting. “A bomb? What happened to the drug bust? O said you were on a drug case Wing, nothing dangerous... what happened to the drug case?”
“Unclear. I finally caught up with my group. There are eight men down here with what appears to be a whole bag of the lovely little bombs. They moved on after setting this first one up. I am unsure if I just missed my drug group entirely and just happened upon another group who also decided this would clearly be a lovely night to take a stroll through the sewers. Or if my group decided to wildly change their plans within the past 24 hours. Or perhaps there were never even drugs in the first place. Lots of options, but not really my main priority right now.”
“Crap. Okay, tell me what you can about the one you’ve got and then we’ll figure out the rest.”
Dick worked through explaining the inner workings of the explosive device to Tim. His little brother was generally better at the more mechanical and engineering side of the job. Well, he was generally better at most parts of the job. He was a little genius, and Dick honestly wasn’t sure how Bruce and him managed to get anything accomplished before him.
The bomb turned out not to be as crude as it looked. According to Tim it was a ‘wonderfully designed system’. Dick’s response to that was that ‘this was no time to be complimenting the enemy’.
It was a ‘three-tiered’ system according to Red. Meaning that one part was the actual bomb and would cause the main explosion. It would be small range on it’s own, but the other two parts functioned to amplify the ammunition of the blast. They would increase the radius and damage. Wonderful. It also wasn’t on a timer from what they could tell. Which didn't mean it couldn’t still go off at any second. It was waiting on a signal, which was most likely with the group that was continuing to increase the distance between them and Nightwing.
“I would recommend you go ahead and try disconnecting the amplifiers first, just as I explained. Getting rid of those would help protect the city above in case something goes wrong with defusing the main part.”
“Okay, first question, why are we concerned something could go wrong with defusing the main part? I don’t like the sound of your confidence Red, it almost sounds like you don’t have any.”
“Sorry... I don’t.”
“Well crap.” Dick stopped to take a breath. “Why not?”
“From what you’ve described it seems the only way to defuse will be to disconnect some of the wiring, but also from the parts they’ve used it sounds very unstable. Disconnecting would defuse it, but also the small change in currents might shock the system and cause it to go off anyway. My suggestion is to disconnect the amplifies and then just leave it. It will cause some damage, but nothing too much to the city above, I’m pretty sure.”
“Pretty sure?”
“Well, there’s no way to be certain. I can’t tell how big the main blast will be, and there’s no way to tell from here. I just know the other part will make it ten-times bigger, at least.”
“Red, I need more. I can’t work off pretty sure when there are people above me. So I’m going to need to completely defuse this bomb and soon so I can get to the others before they’re set up too. There’s got to be a way.”
“I’m sorry, I don’t know as much about these types of systems. I’ve just contacted Hood though, he’s more familiar with them. I’ll fill him in with what I know, and hopefully he can get on his comm to help.”
Okay, Dick could work with that. Jason would help. He just need to wait a little bit longer and then they’d find an easier way to get rid of this ridiculous twist to his night sitting in front of him, and he could get a move on.
He started disconnecting the amplifiers as Tim had explained. This part was more familiar to him, and seemed similar to other bombs he had defused in the past. If something were to go wrong at least he could minimize damage.
“Goldie, I hear you’ve gotten yourself into yet another life-or-death situation.”
“Hood, perfect timing. I’ve got a bit of an explosive problem in front of me, thought it’d be right up your alley.” Dick slowly pulled out the amplifiers he had just finished disconnecting. Apart from the main component they were useless, but still, he’d rather they be far away from the device. He slid them across the ground as hard as he could. They skidded over the cement and then hit an icy patch that redirected them right onto the frozen sewer water. The amplifiers flew farther down the ice. They spun to a stop, sat for a second, and then the ice gave way and the device fell right into the water. Well that works too.
“I’m doing you a favor, don’t make me regret it with your ill-timed jokes.”
“My jokes are never ill-timed.” Dick chuckled, there was always time to push at Jason’s buttons.
“Red filled me in, how far have you gotten?”
“I’m ready to get started on the dangerous bit. I’ve completely disconnected and disposed of the amplifiers.”
“Okay, so there’s no way to defuse this next part with full certainty that it wont just go off. Red pretty much had it right; there’s not an easy solution, but I’ll walk you through it best I can.”
“Please be careful ‘Wing. I’m right here if you guys need me,” Red added his support.
“Quiet Replacement, no one needs you.” Dick could feel the eye roll from Tim as Jason shushed him, and they got to work.
They were correct, it was not as easy as just snipping the right wire and moving on. This device required twisting and pulling at just the right angles and at just the right time to disconnect each wire. And he’d better not bend or snip anything, cause that would break the connection and set it off without a moments notice.
Jason walked him through it step by step, while Tim kept up the support and encouragement Jay lacked. They made a nice little team. Dick wished Jason would join more of their missions, rather than just the ones where things went wrong. Well, technically nothing had truly gone wrong yet, so maybe they were entering a new era.
Dick pulled out the last wire. The incendiary device was now completely disconnected, they were pretty sure. He carefully probed his fingers around it to make sure nothing else was connected, and once he was sure he put his hands up.
“Success!” Dick grabbed his escrima sticks back up from where he set them aside and stood up. He took a tentative step back from the device and waited a second to see if he had jinxed himself at all. The device didn’t make a peep.
“Oh thank goodness.” Tim breathed out his relief.
“What now? If it safe to pick up and bring with me? I would love for you to look over it with me to see if we can gather any intel on whatever is going on with this group, Red.”
“NO.” Hood interrupted. “Leave it and get a move on Goldie. It is not a play toy, and it is definitely not safe for you to carry on your person, especially not when you’re about to go rough up bad guys.”
“I agree, just leave it for now and hopefully once this weather dies down we can send in a team to remove it with the right safety precautions. Also, if you catch up to the group before they activate the rest you can just bring those to me.”
Dick looked back down at the device and then looked around the sewer. He wished he could cover it or move it or something so it’s hidden and out of the way. Chances of someone else coming down here and finding it were probably next to none, but he’d still feel better knowing he wasn’t leaving a potentially dangerous bomb behind for someone to stumble upon.
“Alright, I’ll leave it. Thanks for the help, I’m going to-“ Dick turned to leave. He took a couple steps towards where his “drug” group had disappeared. He didn’t get to finish his sentence though. A small click sounded behind him, and then everything went dark.
••••••••••