A/N- Idea and storyline given by Nightwingwriter (this is a two-shot.)
This is a bit different from my usual one shots, but those of you who enjoy Vampire stories, here you go! (A little bit of whump may or may not show up). (Also, it's a big lead in with a cute game for the characters to play and hints of the future with it).
Enjoy! (this is 3354 words long, counting the A/N)
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"You're blocking the view, Connor!" Impulse whined, bouncing up and down in his seat restlessly, trying to get a better sight out the window of the jet.
Oddly enough, THE Batman had gotten them a ride to their destination this time rather than letting them go on their own. This came as a rather interesting thing to hear from such a man that always told the youngsters they had to 'tough it up' rather than sit back in a seat and relax, letting an engine take you to where you want to go. So it came as a surprise that morning when Nightwing heard his father step into the meeting and announce, quite loudly, that he had a jet ready for them to fly them to Northern Montana.
"We aren't teleporting?" Nightwing had asked the older man before he had a chance to say anything else. Batman turned to him, a flash of knowing in his eyes, and then shaking his head, he smiled to the group.
"I'm giving you a break. You're flying this time. Relax and save your energy, because when you get there, this mission is going to be top priority and no-one is going to flake off the job."
Obviously, at the moment, they weren't exactly saving their energy. Impulse couldn't stop moving, shaking in anticipation. Bumblebee was talking non-stop about something to a giggling-nervously Blue Beetle. Superboy was groaning and shaking his head, trying to fall asleep against the window, and yet every time he tried, Impulse would bring up the excuse that he 'needed to see the view.' M'Gann was nearly hyperventilating at the thought of a tough mission that they couldn't take on, even though Nightwing kept assuring her multiple times that they had it handled and they've probably been in tougher situations than this upcoming one. Beast Boy was literally bouncing off the walls in hyper excitement, as if he were high on sugar and couldn't keep still for even a second. He had formed himself to become about 30 things already in the first ten minutes. By now, Nightwing had him down in a seat, still jittering nonsense like there was no tomorrow.
"Look, I understand the way you're feeling M'gann, and it's going to be alright," Richard said, smiling cheekily in order to calm her down. The martian smiled shyly back in order to keep herself calm as well, but it didn't work as well as she thought it would, and it was gone as soon as it came, her breath quickening again in panic.
"Hey, calm down. Look, remember when we found Connor? Our first mission together? That scared the heck out of us all and we survived it. We survived being caught, tortured, and we came back with him," Richard gestured to the annoyed young man sitting in a seat only an aisle away.
"I know, I know. I just... Batman has never given us a reason to ride on the jet before. Never. What does he mean we need to save our energy? It just makes me feel like I should panic more about an enemy we might not be able to fight the way he wants us to." Her hands shook and clasped together in worry. Luckily, it looked like she was calming down by the look in her eyes.
Nightwing stretched his clasped hands out and away from him like he was getting ready for a joke. He glanced mischievously at M'Gann and got a confused look back.
He slowly got up from his seat and looked at his phone, checking the time. It wouldn't be for another 6 hours until they would make their destination. He smirked. Just enough time.
M'Gann watched the leader stand and reach into his pocket with a hidden grin. Suddenly, the hero brought out a squirt gun and sprayed the nearest hero - that being Beast Boy and fortunately not M'Gann - in the face. Beast Boy exclaimed in surprise and yelped, falling off the roof from which he had positioned himself upside down as a bat.
"Three hits and you're out!" Nightwing yelled to the rest of them as though he were back to being Boy Wonder again, smiling and leaping behind a seat that was unoccupied and hidden to sight, then he added rather loudly, "Find your gun! They're hidden around the plane! Only one per teammate!"
With that, Richard Grayson gave off his signature cackle (slightly deeper now that he was older, but still creepy childish as all get out to the rest of the members on the plane).
He heard his team scrambling about on the ship and laughing at each other nervously, still anxious for the mission ahead, but relieving the anxiety a bit by bumping into each other with every movement they made in the jet plane.
"I'm giving you all..." Nightwing glanced down at his watch that was disguised on his suit, "...30 seconds!"
He heard some of them mumble curse words as they fumbled around the cushions while others cried with joy as they must have found their assigned weapon of defense, jumping for cover in their own destinations.
"15!" Nightwing exclaimed from behind his seat, chuckling when he heard M'Gann cheer with glee, having found her weapon and go invisible.
"Don't use your power. This is strictly fair for everyone!" He added after a moment of thought, smirking when he caught a glimpse of Bumblebee grumbling to herself and resizing.
"Aw, man!" and "Pff, come on!" came the responses from Beast Boy and Impulse. Nightwing shook his head in amusement at the two and took a glance over the cushions of the couch to look at the scene. Almost everyone had their weapon. Everyone except Connor, who was calmly staring out the window that he had been blocking just minutes ago.
"Superboy, that's an order!" He proclaimed, earning a glare from the clone and for a moment the younger man felt the need to duck to avoid any heat lasers coming at him. Fortunately, Connor sighed and simply waited for the command to start, staring at Nightwing for info where his gun was.
With a snort, Richard glanced up at the compartment above his seat, and Superboy looked up, unlocked and reached inside, and came out with a super powered turbo water gun. His eyes slowly raised to meet Nightwing, and the bird impersonating superhero could nearly swear he saw the idea before it happened.
The thirty seconds were up.
Connor's gun rose and water began flying through the air nearly spraying the stealthy bird, but Nightwing bolted out of his spot in hiding, yelling a swift 'GO' to start everyone else in the game.
M'Gann let out a war cry and the rest yelped and let out their own cries of defense, hiding or shooting, or both.
With guns raised, water shot out everywhere and sprayed the walls, the windows, the floor, the cushions and the roof, and not an area was left un-drenched.
It was an hour before it was just Superboy, Beast Boy, and Nightwing left in the play. Beast has been sprayed twice, Superboy once, and Nightwing was still free of being sprayed, but he had rolled into every puddle they formed on the cushions and floor to avoid being shot, so he too was pretty soaked.
At this time, with every player that had been shot the third time, they were somehow removed from that section of the plane but a camera positioned in the room let them see the ending for the next person after them, and after that, and so on. They left the room and changed their outfits into another pair that Alfred had set out for each and every one of them as if he were in on the whole thing too.
The room was somewhat dimmed, per Nightwing's odd request to the pilot, but it made the game more fun as well, not being able to perfectly see, but also able to stealthily move around. Of course his nocturnal vision also helped him see in the dark, not like he was going to let anyone know that.
"Surrender now or you will be shot where you do not want to be, my friend!" Nightwing placated, cackling lightly underneath a chair and aiming the gun at the standing Beast Boy. Superboy was hidden in another section of the jet and didn't say a word.
Beast Boy groaned, whipping around in all directions, aiming the gun up and down and left and right with a playful sneer. He was not ready to give up, but he seriously could not pinpoint as to where the Boy Wonder's voice was coming from. It had this way of echoing off the walls of the jet, and Beast Boy couldn't help but shiver involuntarily.
It wasn't long before Superboy had enough and he leapt out of his tight hiding spot and sprayed Beast Boy straight in the face before the kid could even react. Beast Boy yelled in surprise, whipping around and facing his direction, his back now to the bat protege. Nightwing grinned.
"AH! Not AGAIN! Are you serious!?" Nightwing heard his green teammate nearly shout as Beast Boy moved out of the room to change.
Somersaulting to land behind the seat across the jet aisle, Nightwing breathed in deeply, holding the squirt gun in his hands tightly and biting his bottom lip in thought. He leaned to peer out through the two seat cushions behind him and furrowed his brows. Connor was no where to be seen.
A wet sensation hit the back of his neck three times and Nightwing nearly jumped out of his skin in surprise, swinging around to nearly smack Connor in the head with his squirt gun, and stopped just inches before punching him. Superboy rose an eyebrow in skepticism at the move, and Nightwing lowered his tight fisted gun, grinning sheepishly- of course he closed his lips to cover his teeth, worried that the sharp pain in his mouth did something to his appearance.
"Sorry, used to defense rather than submission to defeat. Good game, bro." Richard reached his hand out and after a second of stoic ness from his teammate, Connor gave him a tight smile and grabbed his hand gently, shaking it.
"Congratulations to Superboy, you have one the cup of best aim. Or in this case, it's the cup of stealthiness," Richard said with a laugh, standing from his spot with drenched clothes. He rose both his arms at his sides and shook them of some water that was dripping off the end of his sleeves.
When Connor didn't actually get a cup or reward, he furrowed his brows and stared confusedly at Richard. He was not a man of many words, obviously.
"Oh, just imagine you got it. I didn't actually make an award." Richard laughed aloud, lightly punching Superboy on the shoulder as he stepped past.
Before Nightwing could make it to the doorway that lead to the changing room, he felt another cold spurt of water hit the back of his neck and shuddered visibly, grunting and running into the changing room without letting another shot get to him.
-
It wasn't long before everyone was back in a rather comfortable section of the jet and Richard's plan had worked, everyone had pretty much worn themselves out by playing water fights. Of course Nightwing himself didn't exactly move much during the game, so he didn't really feel like sitting still like the rest of his team- not that he wanted to give them a bad role model. So instead, he sat with his foot thumping against the floor softly, listening to music through headphones while most of the team was either fast asleep or just lounging and peering out windows.
That is until about five minutes in of relaxation and music, the jet went dark. All light was distinguished or turned off, and Nightwing's music stalled, stuttered, and then shut off.
He slowly removed his headphones and set them on the floor beside him, standing up and squinting his eyes in the dark lighting. Being half bat did have its perks. Nocturnal vision being one of them.
The jet lagged a moment and Nightwing felt the plane begin to dip forward, resulting in him losing his balance and falling backward. This jostled the others awake and most were already wondering what was going on.
M'Gann's eyes widened when she blearily looked out the window in shock. Nightwing stumbled, grabbing onto the edge of his seat's headrest and the headrest of the seat on the other side of the aisle to keep stable.
The jet rose again, shaking and jostling the members of the plane again.
"What's going on?"
"Why did the lights go out?"
"Is the engine failing?"
"What happened to the power? My phone is dead."
Nightwing squinted to see the front of the plane again, but he couldn't see much even with his better vision during night, and the light streaming in from the windows on the plane barely helped.
A hand on his wrist got his attention and Nightwing looked to his right to find Blue Beetle looking him in the eyes with wide ones.
"I think we're about to crash," his teammate whispered with a grunt as the plane began dipping again.
Nightwing tightened his grip on the seat rests when the jet dipped, and this time it didn't seem to be raising again. Blue Beetle might have a point there.
"Richard!"
The comms came alive and the lights flickered on again as the voice filled Nightwing's ears again. His eyes widened when he heard the familiar voice.
"Batman?! Do you know what's happening with the jet?" Nightwing nearly had to shout with the sound of the engine sputtering and giving out outside of the jet.
"Why? What's happening?" The man on the other side sounded mildly worried on the other side, and even with the gruff tone, it couldn't be masked very easily. Two of his kids were on that jet.
"We-"
Static interrupted the line between them and the comms lagged for a moment before starting up again, along with the lights among the plane. A song blasted among the jet now and the speakers shook with the sound. But Nightwing didn't have the courage at the moment to say it loudly, because this brought back too many memories, and in the moment he felt like what his parents may have felt.
"We're falling," he whispered.
The plane fell out of the sky and all heads turned to the left to find the wing was ripping out of its socket with the wind's forces against it. How high had they been? Were they going to crash on land or water?
It was when the emergency door leading to the outside was being rattled that Nightwing truly felt panic filling his gut and he immediately lurched forward, trying to stumble through the middle aisle to get to the emergency door.
M'Gann yelled. The window cracked, and wind spilled through.
Beast Boy groaned. He was hit in the head with a piece of metal that came crashing through from the other side of the plane.
A hole was formed in the side of the plane before Nightwing could even make it and he didn't want to look out the opening to see his doom.
Superboy shouted, leaping across the aisle and shielding M'Gann from a piece of glass that came whipping past them.
"Oh, no... no, oh no," Nightwing whispered softly, turning to find the team screaming and holding on, clenching their teeth with wind whipping their hair back and their eyes as wide as saucers in shock. His younger adopted brother was looking at him with fear in his eyes. Tim hardly ever showed fear.
The footsteps of a man met his ears and Nightwing moved to turn around and see him, but with the shock of what was going on the wind causing him to stumble on his feet, he was caught from behind and arms wrapped around him. This prevented Nightwing from using his hands and arms.
An arm snaked around the front of his chest and a long, sharp, and jagged knife touched the edge of his throat. He tried struggling out of the man's grip, but he was stronger than usual, and even Nightwing the bat protege could not escape his right grasp. He swallowed. The knife met his skin a drop of blood slipped out onto his neck.
The man bent down and he felt hot breath hit the back of his ear. Nightwing couldn't help but shudder, quite visibly, at the feeling. He mentally was disappointed in himself for reacting at all.
"Can't fly, can't move. Feel similar, bat boy?"
Nightwing's eyes widened, and the smell of his own blood had him trying to hold back the urge to let his teeth get any sharper than they were naturally supposed to. But the urge to kill the man behind him was too strong, and the teeth grew longer and he felt them slip down his bottom lip, just by a millimeter. It pinched and dug into his bottom lip and he tried holding it back from growing longer. He never knew how long they could go, but he never really wanted to see anyways.
His eyes closed and he growled lowly in the back of his throat in warning, feeling an animalistic urge to just kill the man holding him right now. He could use his speed... but what good would that do if a knife could just immediately slit is throat the second he started moving?
"Just like your parents... I'm going to let you witness them fall too."
Nightwing watched M'Gann try to stand. She could fly, she could get away. She and Bumblebee- Bumblebee, Where was she?
His eyes fluttered around the seats and couldn't find the yellow and black female buzzing anywhere.
Out of no where the door to the cockpit creaked and suddenly flew off it's hinges, flying toward Superboy. He ducked and yelled at M'Gann to duck. She was hit square in the head with the object, and slammed into the wall behind her.
Nightwing let out a strangled scream for M'Gann, beginning to step for her, but the knife dug more into his neck, and blood seeped out further. His teeth pinched his bottom lip as they grew further and her groaned in pain, feeling the urges come back.
"I know, it hurts so bad doesn't it? I didn't think it was enough for what you did to me when I got your parents up in the ring. I..." the voice was thoughtful for a moment, "...I wanted more blood. You know, I needed something a little more extravagant. Have fun, and then I rip everything you love out of your hands the second you think life is nice. People always talk too soon."
Nightwing didn't care now. He bared his teeth and leaned back, digging the back of his head into the man behind him and trying to get farther away from the knife.
"You talk too much," Nightwing muttered back un-amusedly.
Disregarding the knife for a moment, he closed his eyes and prayed that his team didn't see this part.
He struggled and the man tightened his grip on him, moving the knife to the left a bit and exposing his wrist to Nightwing.
The vampire opened his mouth and chomped down on the man's wrist. His teeth dug into the man's skin and he tasted the metallic blood filling his mouth the second his fangs sunk in.