Winging Death

Renegade

Dick dumped the suitcase in the returns room back at base, opening it up almost straight away. Hygates must have been on orders not to open because it was so blatantly obvious it was for Batman. Non-lethal bullets for the car, research on a new kind of fuel that would allow for faster, quieter and more eco-friendly travel and something new Dick hadn't seen before. He pulled it out of the suitcase as it unfolded and he found himself looking at a flexible, bendable windscreen. Guess it would save getting it repaired and replaced every week. It must be new technology, Dick had never seen something like this before. He looked in the pockets of the suitcase to find a note and a spray attached.

Spray with this when fitted to keep shape.

Maybe that could come in useful for Slade then. Put him a step ahead of Bruce at least. He wouldn't even know that it was missing until the morning thanks to his impromptu fake funeral. Plenty of time for the evidence to be wiped and anything physical lost in the rain. He'd looped the footage when he was there anyway, but still better to be safe then sorry, so he quickly hacked back into the systems and cleared any backup they had of the time he was there. Even if it had picked him up but not shown it, it was gone now. He left the stuff in the room, closing the door behind him and headed back to his room to get out of the suit. He'd make a point to apologise to Wintergreen for dripping rain all over the place later. He place his suit over the rail in his shower to drip dry and changed into a loose shirt and joggers before heading to the kitchen.

No one seemed to be home as he flicked on the lights and took his food out of the oven where it had been keeping warm. And even as he finished his meal and washed up after himself no one made themselves known to him. He headed back to the returns room and picked up his weapons which he'd dropped there earlier, moving through to the weapons with them and cleaning out the sniper before hanging it back up. Then he finally returned to his room where the news was still playing. The funeral was over but it was still hitting headlines. Well, one of the attendees was anyway.

"Jason Todd, the second son of Bruce Wayne was spotted with a wedding ring around his neck at the private funeral of Richard Grayson," The reporter said as Dick took a seat on his bed, "People now wonder if there was something between the two boys that had been kept secret from the news."

Jason had found the ring that Dick was going to propose to him with what felt almost a lifetime ago. And he was wearing it around his neck, as if it meant something to him. As he Dick had ever been more than a game to him. And he was angry, angry that he brought that into the façade, there was no need for anyone to ever know about that anymore, it was not like it was ever going to happen. Maybe he was hoping Dick was watching it somewhere, hoping to rile him up to make a move and let the next body they bury actually be that of Richard Grayson. He would not rise to the challenge, he was playing a bigger game than what had been between him and Jason, but he still cursed out the Red Hood as he headed to the training room, picked up a gun, and started firing.

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Bruce has not expected the chaos that greeted him when he came into the Batcave the next morning. As if last night hadn't been bad enough Kieron Hygates had been killed and the upgrades for the car stolen. He'd been waiting on that screen for three months. Not only that, Deathstroke had come back to his full status now that he'd accidently called Bruce, and he was starting strong with last nights scene. He'd left a trail of dead bodies at the monthly financing meeting for the GCPD, luckily Gordon had taken the night off to be with Babs when he heard the news, Bruce didn't know what he'd do if he lost Gordon the night after Dick. He was barely coping now. And this time there would be no surprise revival like Jason had been, the damage was too severe for even the Lazarus Pit to fix.

Tim and Steph were looking into the murder of Hygates, Deathstroke was the higher priority for Bruce. After he had managed to stay off the radar for so long he had made himself known by phoning Jason. That was the part that didn't make sense to Bruce, if he wanted to come back he wouldn't have done it by phoning someone, and even if he did it would have been the Batman. But that was just one piece of the puzzle. How many cases had he written off as Deadshot or just random killings that were actually the mercenary? If he hadn't known Deathstroke was alive he would have written this off as a random killing, but the footage showed the man in the orange and black mask there, not bothering to hide himself anymore.