Chapter Text
"Okay, so the only one left to find is Red Hood right?" Nightwing says into his comm; it had been modified by Oracle to use a frequency that could be heard across different universes, because Babs was just amazing like that. He was currently peering down at this universe's Red Hood who was sporting a red bottom face mask and domino, sans his famous red helmet, and was currently beating up thugs attacking a woman with- wait, was that a CROWBAR?!?
Nightwing continues to study the scene in front of him when he hears the voice of Oracle pipe up in his ear.
"Yes, Red Robin, Black Bat, and Robin have all been located and retrieved from the universes our multiverse meddling 'friend' sent them to. The others are helping you search for Hood now."
Sparing one last glance to the strange sight below him, Nightwing reaches for his waist, and clicks the belt that would bring him into the vicinity of the next universe's Jason, or, if their Jason was there, then the vicinity of the Jason that most resembled their universe's signature.
Dick feels the uncomfortable jolt as he is once again pulled violently into the next universe.
It was bad enough that Gotham housed so many established crazies already, but then they have to deal with these two-bit kooks that want to make an 'unstoppable army of versions of himself from across the multiverse', and Dick had to spend his Saturday night getting jerked around because said two-bit kook had thrown his siblings into different universes!
Well, it had been an interesting night at the very least. The fact that there was a universe where Jason had become a priest was almost worth seeing. Almost.
With a soft grunt Nightwing falls to one knee as he lands on hard packed dirt beneath him. God, he is going to be sore after this. Standing up, Nightwing reaches a hand for an Escrima cautiously taking in his surroundings.
He appears to have landed in a desert of some kind. The air was hot and dry and there seemed to be little plant life in sight, just scraggly patches of grass here and there. The sun was high above, beating down on the hard baked earth, and reflecting harshly off a green supply truck parked a little ways off from a plain metal building.
Where was this place?
A sudden crackle of static pulls Dick from his reverie and Batman's gravel voice speaks in his ear.
"We've located Red Hood, no injuries to report. Return to the Cave."
Nightwing reaches for his belt, with a nagging feeling that something was off about this place, but eager to get back to the Cave. As he does, he turns to study what looks like a hazy campsite made of tents and a few more permanent buildings off in the distance, in doing so placing the green truck and what was most likely a warehouse to his back- wait.
The device designed to teleport him within 100 yards of a universe's Jason Todd had brought him to a warehouse, in the desert, with no Jason in sight.
Ooooh he has a very bad feeling about this.
As if to prove him right the banging sound of a door rings through the air and Dick instinctively dashes behind the warehouse for cover. He feels a burn of anger as the Joker's high pitched, singsong voice mock his little brother.
"NOW my little birdie, I really can't stay another moment, I am already running quite late! Oh, puppy, dry those tears, what is that saying? 'Don't cry because it's over, SMILE because it happened!' I know I SURE AM! HAHA! No really I MUST be off, I mean, look at the time! Goodbye Boy BLUNDER, Goodbye Dear Sheila, enjoy your party of two, I'm sure it'll be a BOMB! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!"
Dick felt his fist's clench but forced himself to stay where he was, despite dearly wanting to pulverize the clown. He heard the sound of people climbing into the car, the Joker still giggling and barking orders at his men. In the background Dick can hear voices buzzing in his ear, but they're drowned out by the blood pounding in his ears.
Once the sound of the ignition starts and the vehicle drives off, Dick springs into action and rushes around the building till he reaches a door bearing a large padlock, meaning he won't be able to kick that fucking door in, and imagine it's the Joker's face. Yet at least.
Dick reaches into one of the reinforced pouches on his suit and pulls out his lockpicks.
It probably takes him a total of 30 seconds to unlock the door, but it feels like an eternity. The second the lock falls off, Dick spins on his heel, and back kicks the door so hard that it slams into the wall. He turns to the doorway, bracing for the no doubt horrifying sight before him and- freezes.
The floor of the warehouse is covered in blood and a scrap of what was once probably canary yellow fabric was tossed in a corner, half of it slowly soaking up red. All around him are stacked crates containing who knows what, and an explosive rested on top of one, red numbers slowly counting down the seconds till it's detonation. That wasn't what had stopped Dick in his tracks though.
What stopped him was the fact that neither Jason, nor Sheila Haywood appeared to be in the warehouse. Rather, in their stead were... dogs?
Dick and the two dogs stared at each other, neither moving.
One of the dogs (a large Golden Retriever maybe?) was wearing what looked like a white shirt, and was tied tightly to one of the support beams. The other dog was beat to hell and back, and had been gnawing on the ropes before Dick had burst in. It was also dressed in some kind of clothing though it was torn and dripping red onto the floor. Watery blue eyes looked at him from holes in the fabric tied around it's head.
The sound of an ominous beeping sound snapped all three of them out of their staring contest as the bomb counted down the final 10 seconds.
The wounded dog yelped and went back to furiously gnawing at the other's bonds, who seemed to be at a loss of if they were more scared of Dick or the bomb.
Dick ran over to help, falling to his knees next to the bloody dog, who growled warningly at him, but stopped when Dick pulled out a Birdarang and began furiously sawing at the Retriever's bonds.
If Barbara ever found out he risked his life for two dogs, one of which looked like it might die anyway, she would kill him; but how the hell could he live with himself if he left two innocent animals to burn alive.
In a moment the Retriever was free and Dick yanked the bonds off the animal. It glanced at Dick, the bomb, then finally the other dog, before fleeing out of the warehouse.
It wouldn't make it out of the blast radius, but it would probably live. Dick and the other dog wouldn't be as lucky if they didn't escape NOW!
Dick snatched the dog, feeling a pang of guilt when the creature let out a cry of pain, and slammed his hand on the button right when the timer hit zero. Dick felt the barest beginnings of the blast of heat and then they were gone.