Rating: G

Canon: Animated/New Batman Adventures

Disclaimer: I don't own anything, no need to sue... I have no money

Teaser: Tony Zucco returns!

~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~*~~

It's been a fairly quiet week. A few minor crimes. None of the *big* names are out, fortunately.

Unfortunately, in my searching, I did find there had been one break out from Arkham: Tony Zucco.

~~*~~*~~*~~

"Wow, this guy's got a record a mile long," Tim said. Receiving silence, he turned to Batman. "There's something really wrong with this, I can tell." Still silence. "Bruce?"

Batman finally turned and looked at Tim. He removed his cowl and allowed Time to see a twinge of pain of his normally expressionless face. "I should let Dick explain it to you when he gets here..."

"I'm here!" Dick announced, entering the cave. He joined them by the BatComputer. He looked at Bruce. "You know, I'd *prefer* handling this on my own..." He narrowed his eyes. "...But since I'd sorta gotten carried away the last time..." He looked at Tim. "You remember I told you about Zucco?" Tim nodded. Dick pointed at the screen. "That's him. Quite the list of aliases, huh?"

Tim looked at Dick with a confused look. "Umm... how should I react?" He shrugged, sympathetically.

Dick smiled at Tim. "When I figure out the right reaction, I'll let you know." He looked at Bruce. "I'm trying to decide between giving him some losened teeth or a couple of broken ribs."

Bruce replaced the cowl. "I'll handle this myself." He went to the Batmobile and peeled off.

"I *knew* he'd say that," Dick said, shaking his head.

~~*~~*~~*~~

"...And I was so close to just dropping him off the pier. Instead, I tossed him aside and walked away. Of course, by that point, I had tossed him around quite a few times and he was fairly beaten up... and probably scared out of his mind that this masked person was beating the tar out of him for, seemingly, no reason," Dick finished.

Tim whistled. "Wow."

Dick smirked. "Not quite my usual style, huh?"

"Well, no, but after careful consideration of hat he did..." Tim started, with increasing sarcasm.

There was a knock at the door.

Alfred answered it. "Miss Barbara, what a pleasant surprise!"

"Babs?" Dick said, quietly. He turned and watched her come in.

"Thanks, Alfred," Barbara said. She looked into the next room, glaring at Dick. "I take it I missed Bruce."

"Oh, geez..." Tim muttered, then ran a hand over his face and through his hair.

"You're not out there beating the crap out of him?" she asked, still glaring at Dick.

"Better take cover, Tim," Dick warned, quietly.

Tim nodded, got up, and left the room, taking Alfred with him.

Barbara crossed her arms over her chest.

"Oh, don't give me that!" Dick said, standing. "It's been, what, 3... 4 years since that happened."

"Yeah, but how should that affect anything? You should've known better than that," she argued, adding the last part in an accusing tone.

"Geez, you act like you were *there*! Which, by the way, you weren't and you only know because *I* told you!" Dick argued back.

Barbara walked up to him. "Listen, I know you wanted revenge and I understand that, but you'd handled it so poorly." She raised a hand to keep him quiet. "You let your heart call the shots. You should've just stayed in the cave like you were *supposed* to."

Dick was silent for a moment. "So... are you for against what I did?"

"Well, you didn't kill him..." she started.

"That's all I need," he said.

Barbara glared at him. "But I didn't finish."

Dick crossed his arms over his chest. "I know."

Her glare softened. She'd watched his eyes the entire time they argued. "It's really not bothering you that he's out?"

"I keep thinking about what happened that night. I got retribution. Now, I'm leaving it up to Bruce--and I mean that. But if he wants my help, although I doubt it," he said, then grinned, "I'd gladly give Zucco another pounding he'd never forget."

"So, I guess your alter ego won't be making an appearance, then, huh?" Barbara asked, beginning to smile.

Dick smiled. "I wouldn't go as far as to say that, especially if *he* gets to fly with your alter ego."

"I'll think about it. After the way you left, my dad saw how it affected me, and, needless to say, he's not awfully fond of you right now," she said, smirking.

"Well, then, I guess I'll just have to change the way he thinks," Dick said, a hint of mischief in his voice.

~~*~~*~~*~~

That night, he slept restlessly on the couch. He had tried sleeping in his old room, but something didn't feel right. He tossed about several times and some nearly sent him to the floor.

The cause of the restlessness? It was an altered version of the nightmare that had plagued him for a lengthy time after he first arrived at the manor.

This time, they just kept falling. No landing, just falling surrounded by blackness.

"Dick?"

The sound of his name cut through the nightmare, but didn't wake him nor did it cause the falling to cease.

"Dick?" This time, a gentle shake accompanied his name.

"No..." he mumbled into the pillow before he stirred. He lifted his head off the pillow and found, "Batgirl?" He gave her a weird look.

"I've been trying to contact Batman for forty-five minutes with no response, not ever any static," she said.

Dick sat up and rubbed the back of his head, but didn't say anything, nor did he look into her eyes.

*Batgirl* sat down next to him, but she spoke as *Barbara*, "Dick, please, you can't ignore this. I know you said you wanted to leave this up to Batman, but... something's happened to change that. I want to help, but I'm not going by myself. Please?"

Dick dropped his head into his hands and stayed like that for what seemed like forever before finally looking up and into her eyes. He sighed. "You know, they never landed."

She raised an eyebrow. "What?"

"That dream, it was different. There was no landing. They just kept falling," he said, shook his head, then paused. "Alright, I'll go with you."

~~*~~*~~*~~

Batman found Tony Zucco, but Zucco had been ready for the Bat. With about fifty goons, there were just too many. Now, Zucco had him held up in some run-down warehouse on one of Gotham's many piers... a fitting hideout.

Unfortunately, Batgirl's tracking device was in the Batmobile, which was atleast a mile from the warehouse.

Batgirl and Nightwing tracked down the car, but found no sign of Batman. They searched around the car and came up empty.

"Where could he have gone?" Batgirl wondered aloud, not expecting an answer.

Nightwing remained silent. He leaned on the hood of the car.

Batgirl moved to the opposite side of the hood and shot a glare across at him. "I know you didn't want to be involved, but why do you have to mope?" She crossed her arms.

He continued staring at his reflection in the hood. Again, he saw the dream, but this time he saw the man who'd "rescued" him from Juvie Hall. A half-smile slowly formed.

"Nightwing?" She moved around next to him and put an arm around his shoulders.

He turned to look at her. "Let's go find him." He started towards the nearest warehouse.

Batgirl followed, now unsure of whether she should've brought him along. Maybe she should've asked Robin... She shook her head to clear her thoughts and went to catch up to him.

~~*~~*~~*~~

As it turned out, his determination seemed to be blinding him to some rather obvious traps.

After the fourth narrow miss, she let out an audible sigh and began to pull the weighted net off of him. "This is ridiculous... no, this is down-right pathetic, Nightwing. Where is your head at? I'm starting to wish I hadn't come to you about this. Don't make me get ahold of Robin and make you sit out the rest of this... again!"

He remained sitting crossed-legged on the floor, a look of clear disdain spreading across his face. "I'm sorry, alright? I'm still trying to figure out what the variation on that dream means. I can't shake it." He glared up at her.

Batgirl sat next to him. "You're worried something has happened or will happen."

A grin formed on his face. "Are you Dear Abby?"

She smiled. "Dork," she teased, then paused. "Are we ready now? Can we act like we're on the same page now?"

"Hey, all I needed was a swift kick in the butt, which you *thoughtfully* supplied. Yes, I'm ready now," Nightwing said, then stood and helped her up.

"Good, and if you ever need another kick, just ask and I'll be glad to supply it... or anything else that may involve *it*," Batgirl said, then grinned.

"You're such a tease," he said, then added, "Come on, let's go find our missing Bat!" He grabbed her hand and dragged her along after him.

~~*~~*~~*~~

Zucco drummed his fingers on the table in front of him. He watched as a group of his goons tried to keep Batman occupied so he could think of something to do with the menace. He hadn't originally considered the possibility of catching the Bat, especially after the *last* encounter. Now, here he was, in possession of one, seemingly, very pissed off Bat.

He'd had enough and loaded a clip into his machine gun. He pointed it at the group, but aimed his threat at Batman, "If you don't stop struggling, I'm gonna let'er rip with this tommy gun at the whole *mess* of ya!"

Batman ceased his struggle.

Zucco grinned. "Now, that's better."

~~*~~*~~*~~

Up in the rafters, Batgirl and Nightwing crept along the catwalk and watched the whole scene.

Nightwing shook his head. "So, he'd just kill all of them."

Batgirl stopped and turned to him, nearly causing him to walk into her. "Stop it!" she hissed. "Will you just focus here? Listen, you *know* the way Zucco works and you know you do. Could you, atleast momentarily, push aside wanting to tear him apart and think rationally. Obviously, he's willing to kill anyone for *any* reason. So, we *need* to take him down before he gets another chance to wave that machine gun around."

Nightwing stood frozen, stunned. "Yes, ma'am." For some reason, he now felt fearful of his life... and it wasn't because of Tony Zucco's machine gun. 'How does she do it?' he thought.

She stifled a chuckle at his reply. "Better. Now, let's figure out a plan of action."

~~*~~*~~*~~

Batman was taken away to another part of the warehouse by the 20 or so goons. Zucco tried to think up a clever way to secure The Bat, but couldn't get his mind to focus. He had a bad feeling about the situation.

Once the group had taken Batman from the main room, he immediately took out five of the thugs with one spinning heel kick.

Zucco was now alone in the main room. Batgirl and Nightwing looked down at him from the catwalk.

"So help me if you let your anger get the best of you..." she started.

"I promise to keep it in check," he said, cutting her off.

"Shall we?" she asked.

"Let's go," he replied.

They swung down and landed on either side of Zucco, whose focus shifted from one hero to the other.

"What the hell? I've heard of rabbits multiplying, but bats?!" Zucco exclaimed, standing.

Batgirl folded her arms. "Is that the best you can come up with?"

Zucco looked at her, then him, receiving a simple grin from Nightwing. Zucco squinted at him, thinking he'd seen that look before.

Seeing the change in Zucco's expression, Nightwing decided he'd throw the killer for a loop and proceeded to tell him the same thing as before, "I've waited a long time..."

Zucco became expressionless. He knew he had 25 or 30 thugs who'd show up in a heartbeat, but was trying to place that... Then it hit him. He almost grinned. "I should've known it was you."

Nightwing gave him another grin.

During the exchange, Batgirl had picked up Zucco's machine gun. Now, while his attention was completely diverted she hit him in the back of his head with the handle.

The blow didn't drop Zucco, but he staggered into a flurry of punches and kicks from Nightwing, who seemed to be thoroughly enjoying himself.

Batgirl stood back and watched. When Nightwing finished, he looked over at her. She had an annoyed look on her face.

"What?" he asked.

"We have to find Batman," she said, bluntly. She walked away while he stood there.

"What'd I do?" Nightwing asked again.

~~*~~*~~*~~

The two heroes checked rooms in silence. They heard some commotion from one room and ran to it just in time to see Batman deck six goons at one time by tossing one into the other five.

Batgirl and Nightwing jumped in and the three heroes easily downed the rest of the goons.

Batman eyed Nightwing, who rolled his eyes and sighed audibly. Batman then eyed Batgirl, who now had an annoyed look on her face. She could see the tiniest bit of disappointment in his eyes.

Nightwing finally had enough of the silence. "Okay, so I changed my mind. Besides, I only beat him up. He's still out there." He pointed towards the direction they came from, then added, mumbling, "Geez, I hate the silent treatment."

A few moments later, Zucco ran into the room, with a small pistol in his hand. He started shooting around, most of the shots going over the heroes' heads. The last of the six shots ricocheted and grazed Nightwing's upper left arm.

Zucco clicked the gun, finding no more bullets in the chamber. Batman and Batgirl went over and tied him up, while Nightwing left silently.

Batman finished with Zucco as Batgirl looked around. She sighed loudly. He looked at her. "Talk to him."

Batgirl started for the door, while mumbling, "Like he'll listen."

~~*~~*~~*~~

Barbara knocked on the door. "Dick?" She knocked again. "Don't make me kick in this door! Don't make me give your neighbors something to talk about!" she threatened.

The door opened and she was pulled in, yelping in her surprise.

"My neighbors already have enough to talk about," Dick said, plopping down onto the couch. He glared at her. "*He* didn't send you, did he?"

She paused a moment. "No... You know, you can be such a dork sometimes."

He smirked. "I know... you've only told me a good couple hundred times." He crossed his arms and sighed. "Well?"

"Alright, straight to the point: You've been acting *really* weird. First, you didn't want any part of this, then you pounded him and very much enjoyed it, then you disappeared after his shooting spree..."

"That last shot grazed my arm! Look at this bruise," he said, then showed her his arm.

Barbara pushed his arm away. "What's the matter with you?"

"I guess I just wanted to beat him up, you know, like all those before that I've stopped. I didn't think I'd let my emotions get the best of me again, but... okay, I admit it, I flipped out again," Dick said, then paused, "this doesn't leave the room."

"Promise," she said. "However, Bruce may want an explanation..."

Dick frowned. "Please. I have a feeling he already knows. I just don't want him to know I actually *said* it."

Barbara gave him a confused look and shook her head, as if to clear it. "I'm feeling a slight headache coming on."

"Babs," he said, flatly.

"Sorry," she said. "That's all I had." She stood. "Guess I'll be going..."

"Wait a minute," Dick said, grabbing her arm. "Thanks."

Barbara smiled. "You're welcome." She went to the door and turned back. "You're still a dork, though." She turned and left, closing the door after her.

He sighed. "I know."

The End