Nightwing
Robin
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Real Identity: Richard "Dick" Grayson
Affiliations: The Team
Appearances: Independence Day Part One, Part Two, Welcome to Happy Harbor, Drop Zone, Schooled, Infiltrator, Downtime, Bereft, Homefront, Alpha Male, Revelation, Humanity, Failsafe, Disordered, Secrets, Misplaced, Coldhearted, Image, Performance, Usual Suspects, Auld Acquaintance, Happy New Year, Alienated, Salvage, Beneath, Bloodlines, Depths, Satisfaction, Darkest, Before The Dawn, Cornered, True Colors, The Fix, War, Complications, The Hunt, Intervention, Summit, Endgame, Princes All, Royal We, Eminent Threat, Private Security, Away Mission, Rescue Op, Evolution, Triptych, Home Fires, Exceptional Human Beings, Another Freak, Nightmare Monkeys, True Heroes, Influence, First Impressions, Elder Wisdom, Unknown Factors, Antisocial Pathologies, Terminus, Into the Breach, Nevermore, Tale of Two Sisters, The Lady, or The Tigress?, Og Htrof Dna Reuqnoc!, Kaerb Ym Traeh!, Nautical Twilight, Forbidden Secrets of Civilizations Past!, Rescue and Search, Ego and Superego, Zenith and Abyss, Over and Out, and Death and Rebirth
Appearances (Comics): Stopover, Haunted, Hack and You Shall Find, Face Your Fears, By Hook or By Web, What's The Story?, Fears, Rabbit Holes, Wonderland, Cold Case, Hot Case, The Pit..., The Pendulum, ...And The Penalty, Under The Surface..., Common Denominators, Uncommon Denominators, Monkey Business, Gorilla Warfare, Players Chapter One, Players Chapter Two, Players Chapter Three, Players Chapter Four, Players Chapter Five, Players Chapter Six, Ominous Tidings, Evocative Intel, Foreign Affairs, Last Rights, and Yesterday's Children: Memory Six
Appearances (Games): Legacy
Powers/Skills: Acrobatics, Sciences, Martial Arts and Unarmed Combat, Electronics, Above Average Attributes, Escape Arts, and Infiltration
Voiced By: Jesse McCartney
Born on December 1st, Dick Grayson was a nine year old acrobatic prodigy when he began performing alongside his family as the Flying Graysons of Haly's Circus. Grayson's mother affectionally referred to him as her "little robin." While Haly's performed in Gotham City, he happened to witness a gangster named Boss Zucco attempt to extort Mr. Haly. When Haly refused, Zucco swore he would regret it. Later that night, Grayson watched in horror as his family died when the high wire snapped. The only survivor of the fall was his uncle but he was paralyzed for the rest of his life and was unable to care for his nephew.
The Gotham billionaire Bruce Wayne adopted Grayson as his ward. Batman saw a kindred soul in Grayson and wanted to help him in this thirst for justice. Batman believed doing so would prevent Grayson from becoming like him. As Robin, the Boy Wonder, he became Batman's partner. Batman and Robin became known as the Dynamic Duo and brought Zucco to justice. Together, they fought crime and were the best of friends. He was forbidden by Batman to reveal his secret identity to anyone. Robin earned the nickname of "the laughing daredevil" for evoking laughter before appearing on scene. As Dick Grayson, he currently attends Gotham City Academy and is a 2011 Mathlete Honoree. He has at least conversational aptitude in several languages, including French, Spanish, Italian, German, Japanese and Mandarin Chinese.
Robin developed a close friendship with Kid Flash and secretly revealed his identity to him. Four years later, on July 4th, at 12:00 Eastern Daylight Time (EDT), Robin attacked Mr. Freeze while Batman delivered the finishing blow. When contemplating the possible array of secrets their mentors were still keeping, Robin proposed he hack Justice League systems and find out. Utilizing a computer interface on his gauntlets, Robin found a mere sentence dedicated to the mysterious Project Cadmus. Once inside, Robin discovered the first of several oddities, a high speed express elevator for an alleged two-story building. While he was occupied downloading files on the Genomorph Projects, the Guardian arrived and attempted to capture them with a squad of Genomorph 0777's. Instead, Robin activated the elevator and took the trio to the lowest level, Sub Level 52 where Project Kr, the most heavily guarded secret, was. It turned out to be Superboy, a clone of Superman. He was ordered to take out the three. Robin was no match and was rendered unconscious when Superboy pressed down on his chest.
While Robin attempted to pick the locks in his restraints, he and the others tried to reason with and convince Superboy to join them. Superboy obliged and aided in their escape. Robin destroyed their stolen DNA samples with an exploding projectile. Upon being led to a vent, Robin formulated a plan. He hacked the motion sensors and led their captors on a diversion while they headed for the surface. However, Dr. Desmond stood in their way and transformed into a monstrosity called Blockbuster. He analyzed a floor schematic of Cadmus' lobby and improvised a plan to collapse the building onto Blockbuster. Aside from a broken rib or two, the heroes survived and won. The four heroes convinced the Justice League they were ready to use what they were given and taught. Robin joined the Team as the youngest and most experienced member. He was given the designation B-01, to be used when scanned by Justice League computers. Aided by his personal mode of transportation, the Redbird motorcycle, Robin also became the unit's strategist, genius, and hacker. However, unlike his mentor, Robin was not voted leader of his team but was promised he would one day. His greatest fear is not being needed by Batman nor the Team, the latter because he is the youngest.
Following the Cadmus fiasco, Robin continued to monitor related data streams. After cross-referencing seemingly unrelated data, he found a pattern: over the past few days, several people who done business with Cadmus met with untimely accidents. Eager to work with the more experienced of teammates, Robin suggested Miss Martian and Superboy be kept out of the unsanctioned mission. On an August 8th mission to protect Dr. Serling Roquette, Robin and Superboy left to pursue the League of Shadows' weapon, the Utility Fog. Robin used his knowledge of WayneTech's security systems to override lockdown and enter the building. He linked up to the mainframe via a cafeteria register and uploaded a virus that rendered the Fog inert before it could steal raw data and send it to the Shadows. On August 19th, Robin went with Batman on a mission to Cape Canaveral to defeat Ra's Al Ghul and prevent his latest doomsday plot. Robin used his ingenuity to neutralize Ubu then ran interference while Batman scaled a satellite modified by Ra's. He then disarmed the satellite of a diamond lens. After tossing it over the edge, he watched in horror as Ra's jumped off after it and fell to his death. On August 26th, 08:15 EDT, Dick Grayson was on hand at the Wayne Foundation to witness Bruce Wayne inspect a package sent to him. It turned out to be Clayface. Batman and Robin were soundly outmatched. Batman assigned the Team to meet up with Robin and track Clayface. However, on August 27th, 04:49 EDT, Clayface attacked the Team and defeated them at 06:17 EDT.
On September 11th, Batman and Robin went after a group of kidnappers. On September 22nd, Dick Grayson attended his first day at Gotham City Academy and sighted Artemis Crock. He quickly took a picture with her and walked away in glee as Crock was unaware of who Grayson was. However, his friend, Barbara Gordon was mildly annoyed with his antics. Later that day, Robin arrived at a hidden Zeta Beam teleporter tube and found Artemis. Inquisitive about her presence, Robin toyed with her before teleporting to the Cave. They were immediately attacked by two android invaders. Robin remained calm per his experience and downloaded the Cave's blueprints and security footage in hopes of outwitting their enemies. Through the course of the incursion and realized an electromagnetic pulse would stop them. With Kid Flash in communication, Robin took a vircator from a X-Ray machine and converted into an ad hoc EMP emitter. However, it needed to be hooked up to the Cave's generator where the androids awaited surrender. Unfortunately, the circuit was incomplete and Robin was captured. Artemis used an arrow to complete the circuit and generate the pulse.
On October 10th, Robin quickly introduced himself to Zatanna, Zatara's daughter, and was rather smitten with her. After the failed training exercise, Robin admitted to Black Canary he no longer wanted to grow up to be like Batman and felt guilt over his leadership decisions. On November 11th, Robin worked with Batman, Aquaman, Aqualad, and the Flash to destroy a Flying Ice Fortress. On November 22nd, Batman assigned the Team a new mission. Since Aqualad was absent, Batman made the logical choice and designated Robin as team leader. In order to prevent an international crisis, Robin had Miss Martian pose as Queen Bee while President Harjavti outed her scheme. In late December, Robin took part of the Team on an unofficial mention to clear Haly's Circus' name in relation to a series of technology thefts across Europe. The Team posed as a trapeze act known as the Daring Danger's. As Dan Danger, he had his abilities stolen by Parasite and suffered a 24 hour period of weakness. Robin managed to steal a flash drive off of Parasite and learned his objective. He notified Interpol agent King Faraday and the Team neutralized Parasite. Robin then deactivated the modified Large Boson Collider before a black hole was generated.
Some time after the Light incident on the New Years holiday and between the end of Team Year Two and early Team Year Five, Grayson resigned from the Robin identity and became Nightwing. He also moved out of Wayne Manor to Bludhaven. On February 16th, 21:31 EST, Team Year Five, Aqualad and Nightwing were working in the Cave when Kid Flash and Artemis arrived, just in time for a new assignment from Batman. On February 17th, after Alpha Squad returned from Verhoyansk, Nightwing made 3D scans of the statue fragments taken from Sportsmaster. It became apparent they fit together. Following the Santa Prisca mission, Nightwing uploaded the corrupted files from Dr. Sandsmark's message and ran them through repair algorithms. He also noticed Aqualad was noticeable shaken up, having just learned Black Manta was his biological father. Aquagirl appeared on screen and shared research she gathered from the Watchtower database. Nightwing noticed the millennia-old statue had something that looked almost like a circuit board. The repairs to Sandsmark's message was a sucess and Nightwing reconstructed and played it for the Team and Batman. Their next lead pointed to Gotham Docks. Nightwing took the lead of Alpha Team.
On February 17th, 20:20 EST, Nightwing and the rest of Alpha ran afoul of snipers working for the Riddler. As they moved through the docks, Alpha ran into more of Riddler's armed goons as well as LexCorp robots. Nightwing searched among several Haly's Circus crates and found a photograph of Dr. Sandsmark and her daughter Cassie. Alpha Squad made their way to Haly's International Circus and were ambushed by Riddler's men. They fought their way to the far ring, where Dr. Sandsmark was tied up. However, they were suddenly attacked by the comatose Psimon and battled him on the mind realm. After they awoke, Nightwing untied Dr. Sandsmark but the Riddler issued more riddles over a loudspeaker. Nightwing deduced Riddler was hiding out in a funhouse with the last statue fragment. He made a request to the Cave for backup to escort Sandsmark to safety. Alpha solved Riddler's puzzle and confronted him. After disabling his giant spinning wheel, they surrounded Riddler. Nightwing socked him and caught the last fragment.
Upon returning to the Cave, it was revealed Klarion stole back the fragments and Aquagirl chased after him through a portal. Nightwing took control of the situation and retrieved the last file Aquagirl was working on - the nature of Tiamat's powers and that it was invulnerable. Nightwing recalled Riddler's riddle about charades and made the connection with Tiamat and Marduk, Marduk somehow shut Tiamat down like any other kind of machine. The Team had no idea where to find Klarion and to make matters worse, there were eight epicenters of seismic activity. Nightwing remembered when Zatanna used a spell to locate Klarion's locus of sorcery when all adults went missing years prior. Zatanna tried the same spell and Klarion was found to be in Bialya. On February 18th, Nightwing formed a Beta Squad and explored the second path found in the Esagila. Making their way up the northwest passage, Beta entered the Sacred Well Room and were immediately encased in a force field by Klarion.
After some back and forth, Nightwing realized the Tablet of Destiny was how Marduk stopped Tiamat. Aquagirl chimed in and revealed the Tablet was an artifact of Order. Klarion left the chamber and left Beta to face Tiamat. As the battle kept on going, Aquagirl suddenly revealed a sarifice was needed to stop Tiamat. Nightwing implored her to stop but Aquagirl knew it was the only way. Nightwing revealed the news to Aqualad and Tempest. As they pulled her body from the debris, Nightwing radioed the Cave and informed them the threat was eliminated. Back at the Cave, Nightwing didn't want to let Aquagirl's sacrifice go in vain and tried to rally the rest of the Team to take the fight to the Light's doorstep. However, Aqualad was missing. While the Team dispersed, Nightwing noticed a message left on a holo screen. It was from Aqualad, who had taken a leave of absence to find answers to some lingering questions. Nightwing was now the leader of the Team.
On December 1st, Team Year Five, Nightwing helped personally recruit Blue Beetle to the Team. The incursions brought on by Kylstar and The Collector of Worlds cut the meeting short. Nightwing invited Reyes to come with them to Metropolis. Alpha Squad were concealed by Zatanna's glamour spell and infiltrated The Collector's ship. Nightwing became alarmed when could not communicate with Martian Manhunter who was ejected from the ship along with the Flash and Atom. Alpha Squad was attacked by The Collector but Blue Beetle and Sphere saved them. Help came in the sudden arrival of those taken by Kylstar. On Nightwing's orders, Lagoon Boy blasted the Collector into pieces. The Collector, however, was not destroyed but in a surprising turn was amicable to discussion once he discovered Superman was a Kryptonian and his generator probe was in danger. On December 2nd, 00:16 EST, Grayson returned to his home in Bludhaven to find Barbara Gordon waiting. They went inside and celebrated his belated birthday.
Nightwing, along with Miss Martian and Superboy, had declined an offer to become members of the Justice League citing they were fine with where they were. On January 4th, Team Year Six, Nightwing briefed the Team on a coordinated mission with the Justice League. He joined Wonder Girl on Alpha Squad and flew to Philadelphia with the Super-Cycle to hit a suspected Krolotean base. However, one Krolotean escaped and one Zeta Platform was found to be non-operational. On January 6th, Nightwing was present when the Zeta Squad returned from Rann. He then participated in a joint mission to Malina Island and confronted Aqualad. However, Nightwing was forced to try and stop a bomb, allowing Aqualad to escape capture. However, Nightwing realized it was an alien bomb and couldn't disarm it. He ordered everyone to retreat to the Bio Ship.
On January 26th, Nightwing was present when some of the League left Earth for Rimbor. On February 13th, Nightwing took the night off and went to Washington, D.C. to take part in an intervention for Red Arrow. Nightwing brought up the fact that he, Kid Flash, and Aqualad never knew the original Speedy and trained and befriended him from the start. On February 28th, Nightwing went over Krolotean intelligence, taken from Malina Island, that was recently fully decrypted and translated. However, while pondering what a meta-gene was, Nightwing was interrupted by the arrival of Bart Allen. After he neutralized Allen, Nightwing offered him a drink to both take a DNA sample and trick him into swallowing a subcutaneous micro tracker. After Impulse left to head for Central City, Nightwing called Wally West for help with the situation. Nightwing later confirmed Impulse was a biological match with Barry and Iris Allen.
On March 19th, Nightwing went into the field with Gamma Squad to protect the Earth-Mars-Communication-Satellite at Cape Canaveral. He called Artemis out of retirement to take part in the next phase of his secret mission to expose the Light once and for all. Artemis was to fake her death at the hands of Kaldur'ahm. Nightwing rushed to her side and declared her dead. On March 20th, 04:00 EDT, Nightwing met with Kaldur'ahm, Wally West, and Artemis Crock in Bludhaven. He placed a Glamour Charm he acquired from Zatanna onto Artemis. Artemis was now disguised as someone else and left with Kaldur'ahm. On March 23rd, during battle, Nightwing was secretly given a flash drive by Kaldur'ahm containing vital intelligence. West was not so sure of Kaldur'ahm's loyalties and confronted Nightwing in the Hall of Justice. Nightwing used the intelligence to craft a rescue mission on a Reach Ship in the Pacific Ocean.
On April 1st, Nightwing welcomed Superboy, Miss Martian, Mal Duncan, Wolf, and Super Cycle to makeshift sleeping quarters in a warehouse in Bludhaven. On April 2nd, he attended a meeting with Captain Atom, Black Canary, and two scientists at the Taos branch of S.T.A.R. Labs to talk about the Reach and their Metagene research. On April 8th, 09:02 EDT, Nightwing gave Robin leadership of Alpha Squad and assigned the unit to covertly investigate LexCorp Farms. At the conclusion of their mission, Nightwing and Superboy attained permission from Jonathan Kent to use his farm to learn more about Green Beetle. On April 9th, Nightwing and Superboy arrived too late to save Miss Martian from being kidnapped by Tigress and Deathstroke. They took Lagoon Boy to the hospital, who was in a rage. Nightwing revealed the truth about Aqualad and Artemis' deep cover mission. Once outside, Superboy berated him for keeping secrets and revealed Miss Martian was kidnapped because she fried Kaldur'ahm's mind.
On May 23rd, Nightwing attended a briefing aboard the Watchtower on long range scans of the Warworld. He and Captain Atom then met with Green Beetle and Adam Strange at S.T.A.R. Labs Taos to go over intelligence on Mongul and Warworld. On May 26th, Nightwing and Aquaman monitored the joint mission from the Watchtower. On May 27th, 06:04 EDT, Nightwing arrived on the Warworld through a portal generated by Dr. Fate. After taking Blue Beetle's statement and ordering him to go home, Nightwing investigated the docking bay on his own. He found scratch marks, the damaged airlock panel, and one of Robin's Birdarangs. Upon scanning it, Nightwing learned there were traces of Blue Beetle's armor on the Birdarang. On May 28th, 20:04 EDT, after watching a recap of Blue Beetle's public debut, Nightwing angrily snapped the Birdarang in half.
On May 30th, Nightwing and Miss Martian flew around the Warworld in the Bio-Ship in search of the Team. After several hours, they boarded the Warworld and encountered Sphere. She changed into Super-Cycle and took them right to the rest of the Team. However, the room was sealed and there were many Reach soldiers waiting. The trio took them out and led the rest of the Team and runaways back to the Bio-Ship. Nightwing passed the decision to dismiss Arsenal from the Team once they returned to Earth for endangering teammates several times in order to further his own agenda or guard against personal demons but also noted he could rejoin if he proved himself. Nightwing was shocked to see Asami Koizumi with a Father Box and watched as the runaways and Arsenal boomed away. On June 19th, Nightwing took part in the Santa Prisca mission. At 05:24 EDT, he returned command of the Team back to Aqualad despite praise for his leadership under dire circumstances. Nightwing agreed with the assessment and insisted that was exactly why he was giving up the title.
On June 20th, Nightwing was assigned to Epsilon Squad with B'arzz O'oomm during the strike on the Magnetic Field Disrupters. Later in June, Grayson attended Wally West's funeral. After the Reach was defeated and removed from the planet, on July 4th, Nightwing turned in a leave of absence citing his need for a break after Kid Flash's death. Aqualad understood and accepted Nightwing's request. Nightwing reiterated Batgirl was willing to step up and help lead the Team. He watched as Aqualad presided over the Team and handed out assignments. Nightwing commented "business as usual" and left the Watchtower. In January Team Year Eight, Nightwing helped disable Joker's explosives in the United Nations General Assembly. He was horrified when Batgirl took a sword strike to the spine from a Shadow trying to assassinate the Joker. Nightwing hailed A-33 for a medical evacuation as he tried to keep her awake. At some point, Nightwing joined a secret group of various leaders in the League and Team who would focus only on stopping the Light.
Nightwing continued to investigate and dismantle meta-human trafficking rings around the planet. On July 28th, 03:03 MSK, Team Year Eight, Nightwing took down a Bedlam Syndicate hub in Moscow. He freed several teenagers, took a sample of Tar used for meta-activation, and blew up the building. Oracle informed him the Tar originated from Markovia. On July 29th, 07:16 PDT, Dick Grayson went to Will Harper's home in Star City to recruit Artemis Crock for the Markovia mission. He heard of the assassination of King Markov and Queen DeLamb-Markov and went to Happy Harbor to recruit more firepower, namely Conner Kent. At 22:16 EDT, he approached Jefferson Pierce outside of his ex-wife's place. Pierce declined, citing his powers not working. Grayson stated he wanted the man, not the powers. On July 30th, 00:00 EDT, Crock and Kent met with Grayson at the Centennial Park Zeta-Tube. Pierce showed up and stated he was only doing one mission. On July 30th, 19:23 EEST, Grayson and Crock arrived at an airport in Markovburg as a couple using falsified passports.
After hacking the guest list, they were allowed into the pre-coronation reception for Gregor Markov at the Markovian Royal Palace. They scoped out the other guests for possible members of the Bedlam Syndicate then they split up. Grayson followed Dr. Simon Ecks and Prince Brion Markov to the Markovburg Children's Hospital then released a Beetle Drone. On July 31st, 00:02 EEST, he entered the hospital and disguised himself as a doctor. He found a secret passage in the morgue but lost contact with Oracle. He observed Superboy and Prince Markov in Metamorphosis Pods while Count Vertigo and Dr. Ecks argued with Dr. Jace over meta-activating Markov. Baron DeLamb arrived and turned out to be the leader of the Bedlam Syndicate. Super-Cycle arrived soon after and Vertigo boomed away with several occupied pods while DeLamb fled the scene. Nightwing and Jace rigged the base to explode. Once outside, Oracle regained contact and pointed him towards a GBS report about DeLamb framing Markov for his crimes. Superboy went after Markov, while the rest dealt with the syndicate.
After Vertigo retreated, Nightwing felt the mission was over. Tigress took Halo-girl with her while Lightning took Dr. Jace to Metropolis. On August 1st, Grayson went to Bowhunter Security with Jim and Roy Harper to recruit Will Harper for a mission in Star City. Will Harper agreed to help if the trio helped him with a gig then he'd help them take down a meta-human trafficking ring that night. All they had to do was guard a shipment of Goode Goggles. Will Harper subtly told Grayson he needed to help out Halo and Markov. The Harpers and Grayson unwittingly turned the three rigs over to Brick's cronies. They pursued in Will Harper's SUV. At 12:21 PDT, Brick ripped the SUV's steering wheel out. Grayson and Will Harper jumped to the top of the third rig and the latter directly stated the former had to be responsible for the two strays. They threw Brick off the truck and took over the rig. Grayson eventually conceded it was true. That night, they broke up the trafficking ring.
On August 4th, Grayson zetaed to Lucas Carr's Zeta-Tube in Happy Harbor along with Crock, Pierce, and Halo. Grayson gave everyone access to the Zeta-Tubes with hacked G designations and officially started his search for any data on Halo. Crock was annoyed he was only just starting. Grayson convinced Brion Markov to stay by promising to find his sister Tara Markov. On August 5th, 21:04 EDT, he attempted to sneak up on Barbara Gordon while she played Funny Monkeys on her Goode Googles. He was tossed onto his back then they kissed. Grayson went to Happy Harbor to tell Markov about an assassination that involved a Shadow with geokinesis. Markov wanted to confront the Shadows but Grayson cautioned him on the danger and insisted they needed to gather more intelligence first. Grayson, Crock, Pierce, Kent, and M'orzz went to Infinity Island to rescue Markov, Halo, Forager, and Sphere. The irony of them rescuing rebellious teenagers did not go by unnoticed.
A training session was held on September 8th, 11:04 EDT, at Mount Justice's beach. Grayson gave Halo and Markov "super-suits" designed by Fire. Grayson sparred with Forager with the restriction of only fighting in a circle he drew in the sand. By the second attempt, Forager adapted and won after throwing sand at him. That evening, they all sat around a campfire. Grayson compared the plight of Neanderthals and modern man to the ongoing surge in meta-humans. Grayson then prompted the trio to choose their hero codenames. He and Crock traded quips about their own codenames. Training continued with Maneuver Seven. The session was just about over but Halo discovered the ability to generate illusions. Grayson stated they were starting over. On September 25th, 23:43 EDT, Grayson briefed his covert team about a mission to capture Cheshire and get intelligence on the League of Shadows from her. On September 26th, 00:56 EDT, they arrived at a hangar in Detroit and engaged a meta-squad working for Branchwater Security.
Nightwing was unable to land a hit on Mist in her gaseous form. She manifested a solid form to upper cut then choke him while over apologizing to him. He took a syringe out of a belt pouch and injected it She hardened and was frozen in place. Mist and Livewire were liberated from the nano-technology and were sent to the Meta-Human Youth Center in Taos. Tigress learned from Cheshire that the Shadows were now headquartered on Santa Prisca. On September 26th, 02:24 EDT, the secret group met in the Batcave to discuss their role in making sure Branchwater Security was taken down. Wonder Woman voiced misgivings about lying to their teammates. On September 29th, 13:02 EDT, Grayson held a training session at Owing Mills. He suddenly started attacking Geo-Force, Halo, and Forager with a sniper rifle to teach them how to react to a surprise assault. Coincidentally, Lobo crashed the session to execute his latest bounty and kill Forager. Forager faked his death by shedding his exo-shell and letting Lobo destroy it.
On October 12th, 08:22 EDT, Grayson held another training session at Owings Mills and used the game of tag. Geo-Force voiced his impatience about not going after the Shadows. Grayson stated they were not ready. On October 15th, Grayson zetaed to Carr's Zeta-Tube and caught Markov trying to access files on Santa Prisca. Grayson informed him his sister was no longer there. Markov vented his frustrations on Grayson. He put forth the question of looking back at the past where he lost eveything and everyone or if he would look forward to who he would become. At 19:07 EDT, he approached Markov at the beach. Markov confirmed things were okay between them and implied he was going to look ahead. At 19:21 EDT, he talked to his covert team, Miss Martian, and Dr. Jace about Vic Stone. Forager and Violet Harper explained how she generated a Boom Tube and somehow located him. They all realized she was really the soul of a disassembled Mother Box in the Bedlam Syndicate's base who bonded itself to the corpse of Gabrielle Daou.
Grayson decided she and Stone needed to stick close to each other until a Stone could be permanently cleansed of the Father Box's influence. On October 31st, 17:42 EDT, Grayson arrived at Carr's residence and informed the teenagers he had actionable intelligence on Tara Markov's location. Violet Harper stayed behind to keep an eye on Stone. At 21:46 UTC, Nightwing briefed the team about the meta-human auction they were going to infiltrate. On November 1st, Nightwing released a Beetle Drone then they disguised themselves as bidders. Once Tara Markov was secured on Bio-Ship, the team suited up and proceeded to liberate the other meta-humans. Black Lightning caused a black out then Forager had Bio-Ship fire on the auction site. Nightwing and Tigress took on the Terror Twins and were aided by the two Markovs. On November 1st, 03:16 EDT, Nightwing informed his team the coordinated strikes against other meta-trafficking rings across the planet by the Justice League and the Team was a success. He believed Geo-Force, Halo, Forager, and Terra were ready to join the Team.
On November 4th, 10:21 EST, Grayson, Kent, and Crock formally made the four the offer to join the Team. On December 8th, 00:01 EST, the secret group met in the Batcave to discuss the Outsiders' debut mission in Brooklyn, Maine. On January 1st, 21:10 EST, Team Year Nine, the group met in the Batcave to discuss the Dublin mission. Wonder Woman was the only one to object to manipulating the Outsiders into destroying a Spider Bot factory there. On January 20th, 20:26 PST, Nightwing and Black Lightning sneaked into Gretchen Goode's Hollywood home. The latter's concern it was too easy were confirmed when they were boomed into an X-Pit and suffered constant pain and torture for nearly a day. On January 21st, Kaldur'ahm and Wyynde extracted them from the X-Pit but Goode objected to them taking Mother Box. She ordered the brainwashed Nightwing and Lightning to attack. Violet Harper, Vic Stone, Garfield Logan, and Brion Markov suddenly boomed to the home. Harper cleansed Nightwing and Lightning then they boomed to the Premiere Building while Oracle ordered a Batdrone strike on Goode.
On January 22nd, 02:21 PST, Grayson was suffering severe after-effects from his exposure to the X-Pit. Dr. Jace tried to mitigate his high fever with ice packs. Alfred Pennyworth came to help. Jefferson Pierce observed Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake, Kaldur'ahm, and M'gann M'orzz outside the medical bay and realized they were all working together in secret. His anger overtook him and he contronted them, then realized the Justice League walk out was planned, Grayson recruited him for the Markovia mission to keep him involved in the hero community, and their secret group manipulated it so the Outsiders' first mission was a success. He spoke to Wayne and Kaldur'ahm in private. Wayne refused to apologize and stated the mission came first. Pierce objected on the grounds they would lose themselves in trying to do so. Grayson, now conscious, tried to take the blame. Brion and Tara Markov arrived and informed everyone that Dr. Jace betrayed them and handed Violet Harper over to Gretchen Goode and Ultra-Humanite. Pierce left.
By January 25th, Grayson was nearly recovered. At 14:28 PST, he asked everyone present not to tell Barbara Gordon he wasn't resting because he just convinced her to leave. Kaldur'ahm revealed she left after he promised to keep an eye on him. On October 26th, 01:17 UTC, a squad of the original members of the Team ran interference at the Orphanage while the others searched for Violet Harper. After the Female Furies, Mantis, and Parademons arrived, Nightwing triggered explosives to force the enemy through a choke point. Nightwing began to succomb to a fever dream and hallucinated Kid Flash. They hacked the Javelin and activated its drones to join the fight. Everyone experienced the fever dream thanks to Miss Martian's psychic link. Nightwing apologized but Tigress stated Wally West would always be with them. The squads converged on Granny Goodness and Violet Harper but they all fell prey to her Anti-Life Machine. Thanks to a simultaneous Outsiders mission on Earth, Vic Stone boomed to the Orphange and freed Harper from the Cerebral-Leash then she took on Granny and cleansed everyone.
On February 16th, 01:33 EET, Nightwing led Beta Squad for the Markovia mission. They attempted to flush Baron Bedlam out of the Markovian Royal Palace but came under attack by Count Vertigo. Nightwing managed to throw one of his escrima sticks at Vertigo's head and knocked him out. To everyone's horror, Geo-Force executed Bedlam and took the throne for himself then banned everyone from setting foot in Markovia ever again. At 01:24 PST, everyone processed what happened back at the Hub. On February 20th, 20:02 EST, Grayson and Gordon snuggled on the couch while they watched Tod Donner's report about Lex Luthor's term as United Nations Secretary-General ending. Gordon shared rumors that Troia would succeed him and mentioned her father turned the Batsignal back on. On February 24th, 19:00 EST, Nightwing presided over a meeting of the League, the Team, the Outsiders, and his and Batman's covert teams. He admitted to the actions of the secret group's various manipulations to combat the Light. Aquaman and Wonder Woman admitted to their roles and resigned as League co-leaders. Miss Martian resigned as Team leader.
Nightwing then proposed Black Lightning as the next leader of the League. The vote was unanimous. Lightnining was reluctant to accept and turned to Batman who pointed out he wasn't a member. Lightning countered either he was "in" or he was "out" and there would be no more secrets like the Anti-Light. Batman agreed to fold his team back into the League and Team and adhere to Lightning's stipulations. Nightwing agreed as well and rejoined the Team. Black Lightning accepted the nomination and gave a speech that highlighted his desire to end keeping secret operations from each other and stressed the ends don't justify the means or else they would become what they fought against like Vandal Savage, Ra's al Ghul, Black Adam, and Geo-Force. On February 28th, 16:16 EST, Grayson attended a private party at Bibbo's Diner for the original members of the Team, their significant others, and their children. Gordon came as his plus one. By February 23rd, Team Year Ten, Grayson took another break from the hero life and performed as Dan Danger with Haly's International Traveling Circus.
On March 26th, Grayson and Kaldur'ahm went to Will Harper's house to inform Artemis Crock of Superboy's death on M'arzz. They attended multiple memorials. On April 19th, 21:17 PDT, they visited the memorial garden on the Watchtower. Grayson tried to advise Kaldur'ahm to take a break so he have the proper amount of time to grieve. He even noted Kaldur'ahm tended to put everyone else's needs before his. Kaldur'ahm declined the notion and cited his need to prepare for a conference of nations in Poseidonis. On April 20th, Nightwing helped respond to a turf war between Penguin and Two-Face. On May 14th, he responded to a League emergency and dealt with Child's Pillar of Fire in Agra with Black Lightning, Superman, and Ambassador Garth. On September 4th, 20:09 MDT, Grayson performed as Dan Danger in El Paso. After the show, he got a surprise visit from Zatanna and was further surprised when she revealed she needed his help as a detective. On September 5th, Zatanna explained she thought Superboy was still alive. They went to the Warehouse in Bludhaven.
Dick Grayson was skeptical until she showed him what she saw of Superboy in the Phantom Zone. Zatanna got him to agree to look into it for 24 hours. He admitted his hacking skills were rusty but looked into Bart Allen's credit card history. They quickly connected the MIA Kid Flash to it. Grayson saw Kid shopping with two teenagers on some security footage on the day he was last seen. He ran a facial recognition but there was nothing so he ran a face match against collected footage. He soon matched them to a prior appearance at the United Nations when Superboy went public. At 19:48 EDT, they approached Clark Kent inside Bibbo's Diner. Grayson informed him he was seen with the same two teenagers in the diner. Due to his promise to avoid affecting the timeline, Kent did not give many answers but stated they were trustworthy. Back at the Warehouse, Grayson worked the angle they were preparing for a mission and pondered what else they needed. They went to the Watchtower and spoke to Tigress at 20:56 EDT. She was surprised they knew of five Inhibitor Collars, a Space Belt, and a Zeta-Tube power core that were unaccounted for.
They went through security footage. Nightwing spotted Kid Flash's boot. Tigress went to the Warehouse with them and voiced her skepticism. Grayson soon deduced Kid Flash and the mystery teenagers went on a mission off world. Tigress recalled a League squad just came back from an off world mission that involved a time traveling Kryptonian. Grayson recalled Kid was a time traveler, too, and asked who the lead on the mission was. The trio met with Raquel Ervin at her apartment in Dakota City at 20:24 CDT. He asked who or what destroyed the Phantom Zone Projector. Ervin admitted he looked like a beam fired from a camoflauged Bio-Ship. They saw that as a connection the M'arzz and Superboy. Grayson asked Zatanna to show them Ervin's memory of the Projector's destruction. She cast a spell. Grayson deduced Superboy was trapped in the Phantom Zone and Kid and the mystery teenagers were on Bio-Ship and destroyed the Projector then realized Superman's vague statement was to protect the timeline and the teenagers were time travelers who likely knew about the evil Kryptonian. Ervin thought he was seriously reaching.
On September 6th, 01:36 UTC-2, Nightwing and Rocket zetaed to Poseidonis to talk to Kaldur'ahm. He declared he had come to terms with Superboy's death. He went to the Warehouse with them and studied their findings and asked what they needed. They gathered in the Tower of Fate at 00:16 EDT to summon Klarion for access to the Phantom Zone. Tigress and Aquaman voiced concern he would not cooperate. Zatanna was confident he would not leave the summoning circle and step foot into the Tower. She was wrong and he handily defeated them with duplicates of himself. Zatanna invoked the Holy Balance to charge him with honoring his debt to her. He instead spared their lives and left, musing being trapped in the Tower would be worse than that bus. Zatanna remembered Klarion possessed a school bus after Teekl was killed and tasked Nightwing with finding it. On September 9th, 19:47 EDT, they pulled into a scrapyard in Metropolis. However, the bus had already been compacted into a cube. Zatanna summoned Trogowogs to restore it to working shape. One held out but Tigress bribed it with Nightwing's bag of Chicken Whizees to his chagrin. To add insult to injury, they also wanted his SUV. He pointed out he wasn't Bruce Wayne.
Zatanna opened a portal to the Phantom Zone in the bus doors. They each put on a Space Belt and flew in. On September 13th, 21:34 UTC, they made visual confirmation of Superboy outside Dru-Zod's fort in the Phantom Zone. They approached but Superboy was still under the effects of the Zone Sickness and pledged loyalty to Zod. They were surrounded by Zod and his loyalists. Due to their lack of experience fighting in the Zone, they were defeated. Nightwing tried Kryptonite but it had no affect. Nightwing called on Zatanna to cast a glamour spell and they retreated. From a high point, they observed a Boom Tube appear. They modified their mission to prevent the rest of Zod's loyalists from entering it. On September 14th, 00:04 UTC, they made their way to the tube but its properties neutralized the glamour. Nightwing went through alone to see where the destination point was. He arrived at Superman's Fortress of Solitude and detonated the two Solar Pods Dru-Zod and Ursa Zod were using. Lor-Zod, their son from the future, was furious and charged. He threw Nightwing into the twin statues of Jor-El and Lara El. He quickly improvised and cut his forehead and slowed down his heartbeat to fake his death. Lor-Zod fell for it.
At 09:41 UTC, Nightwing stepped out of the Fortress only to see the crash site of Bio-Ship. Miss Martian revealed it was partly an illusion she and Saturn Girl made to fool Zod's group. They both briefed each other on what was going on. Baby, Bio-Ship's progeny, arrived to help. At 06:08 EDT, while en route, Nightwing emphasized they had to stop Zod and his group before sunrise or they would gain full strength. He told Miss Martian she had to go all out despite her fear of abusing her powers. The battle took place at Metropolis' Planet Circle. Nightwing teamed up with Tigress to fight Non. He ordered Miss Martian to run interference while Zatanna helped the Kryptonite-poisoned Superman. Once Danny Chase regained control of Kaizer-Thrall, he opened a Boom Tube. Nightwing and Tigress used the West Maneuver to trip Non up and send him into the tube back to the Phantom Zone. All but Ursa Zod and Lor-Zod were dispatched through the Tube. She fled the planet and Lor-Zod stole the Time Sphere Rocket used. Miss Martian managed to restore Superboy back to normal.
On September 16th, Grayson was one of Conner Kent's groomsmen at his wedding in Happy Harbor. On November 9th, Nightwing was assigned to Beta Squad and zetaed to help search for the kidnapped Queen Perdita Vladek. On November 10, 07:54 EET, the squad posed as part of a United Nations commission to infiltrate a hospital in Vlatavastok where five comatose patients were being observed. Dick Grayson told a doctor they were authorized by Secretary-General Troia. The doctor noted he looked too young. He lied he was working toward his doctorate and the three young ladies with him earned their internships. He asked how long the five patients were in a coma. The doctor estimated they were in a coma for nearly two years and they believed it was the result of a toxin. Grayson told him there might be an antidote and promised to get back to him. Stephanie Brown informed Grayson the patients consisted of two miners, two geologists, and one mining engineer and Andi Murphy learned from the wife of one of the victims they all worked at a mine outside of Krastmala.
At 20:06 EET, they infiltrated the mine. Mist was assigned to stand guard while Nightwing, Spoiler, and Orphan descended down the mine. They transmitted their data to Oracle. Mist hailed them on comms to warn six of the individuals who kidnapped Queen Perdita Vladek and liberated Count Vertigo were headed to their location. Nightwing reminded Orphan not to kill anyone. To his shock, she immediately sliced one of their heads off. He caught it and realized they were all robots. Orphan signed their body language revealed they were not human. Spoiler translated but Nightwing informed her that he understood ASL, too. Nightwing ordered them to take out the other five with extreme prejudice. They dodged sonic blasts. Nightwing took cover and quickly dismantled the faceplate then hailed the rest of the Bat Family and asked for help in figuring out whose technology was used for the robot. Robin and Oracle searched for a match. Robin determined the robot contained proprietary technology common to Lex Luthor's Spider-Bots.
On November 11th, 12:06 PST, a conference call was held between Wonder Girl, Beast Boy, Nightwing, Oracle, Robin, and Cyborg to discuss the motive behind Queen Vladek's kidnapping: the Vlatavan National Mining Company in Krastmala discovered something, kept it secret, took the discovery directly to Queen Vladek, and she contacted Green Arrow and Black Canary seeking help with setting up transfer of it to Dr. Serling Roquette in S.T.A.R. Labs in Star City. Nightwing surmised the intel was still leaked somehow. He then went on to explain the robots behind Vertigo's escape, Vladek's abduction, and the ambush in Krastmala were all created with proprietary Lexcorp technology and thus, Lex Luthor was the prime suspect. On November 12th, 12:03 EST, Miss Martian reported no heroes were left behind in the Bialya mission and Psimon left no surprises behind in Vladek's mind either. Nightwing was sorry they lost the stolen Kryptonite to Lex Luthor and Metallo. She stated he made his choice and she made hers to spare him.
Nightwing pointed out it was Kryptonite. Superman was fine with it and knew they would deal. Still recovering from Kryptonite exposure in a solar chamber, Superboy mused you lose some, you win some and took solace in saving Vladek as well as getting their brother Match back.