Love Birds

Chapter Thirty Five

-Athena's POV-

I stood, frozen. Dick stared into Barbara's face blankly until turning around and remembering that I existed. He grabbed her hand and led her over to me. My fingers instinctively glided down my thigh to rest on my dagger. Even if this Barbara person saw me kissing Grayson, I wanted her to know that fighting and caring for myself comes before anything else.

"This is the newest member of the Bat Family. Nightingale, Batgirl. Batgirl, Nightingale," Dick smiled at me as the girl stuck her hand out for me to shake.

"Nice to meet you, Nightingale. I'm Batgirl, or Barbara Gordon." The girl shook my hand softly. I was surprised by how weak her grip was. How is she considered Batgirl when she's that weak? I wouldn't choose her to represent the female side of the Bat, just saying, I thought. "Is this the same Nightingale that showed up in Gotham right before I left?"

"Mhm. Not actually evil, believe it or not," Dick said, "her name is Victoria Smith." They seemed to talk like I wasn't even there, so I turned around and began to walk towards the door.

"Hey! Wait!" Dick called, his fingers reaching for my arm. Already knowing his habit of doing that, I dodged and walked past the two. "Where are you going?"

I snapped around, trying to keep my face as neutral as possible. Grayson seemed shocked by my face. "Out." I zipped out of the house before Dick could protest. I mentally prepared myself for him to run outside and start bickering to me about how I "couldn't leave without backup" and how "team is important". But, he never did. I looked at the door and he never came out. Shrugging it off, I strolled to the entrance gate and climbed out.

My new target was a couple of gang members. Nothing special, just a group of bad people. It was pretty late in the night -- maybe two or three in the morning. According to my computer, the three members I was after were all in the same place. They were in some building in the heart of the city.

I quickly scaled the building and climbed onto the loft above the meeting room they gathered in. To my surprise, there were way more than three people inside. About nine people sat at the table. The three people I was tracking were there too of course, but so were many other people. Instead of just killing Roger Fethero, Scarlet Geotie, and Henry Cox -- the three I was originally after -- I decided to stay and listen.

"I hear that that Nightingale chick is hunting all of you," one man on the opposite side of the table said, "she causing major dents in your income?"

Henry nodded. "The girl has killed a large portion of the Black Sharks already! She stopped for a couple of weeks, but we can't be too cautious. The Boss isn't even doing anything about her!" I smirked to myself.

"So, what do you want from us?" Another man, a big man, asked. He turned to the three. Henry was the wimpiest, Roger was pretty tough-looking, and Scarlet looked like she was straight out of the army. She was definitely the leader of the three.

"Well, first off, more members to replace the fallen ones was on top of the Boss's list," Scarlet said, "and then we need some of your territories to set up our drug labs. Sharkies aren't getting made quick enough."

"Ha!" One side laughed. "The Angels of Death have worked too hard to give up our property in Gotham." The two representatives of his gang sat beside him. They nodded in agreement.

"Street Demonz will give some recruits, but you're stupid if you think any of us will get rid of any territory within Gotham. It's hard to get and hard to manage." That gang all agreed.

"The Boss said he will target you personally if you fail to comply," Roger growled. Everyone went silent in fear."So I suggest this: Angels give up their land by the Harbor. Street Demonz give us recruits. Reapers give us their land on the border between Gotham and Bludhaven. And the Monster Men give us assassins to get Nightingale."