@Ink Blood I challenge you to a Dick duel!
C O N C E P T A B S T R A C T:
Think you know Nightwing? You don’t know Dick.
The orphaned circus performer adopted into a hollow home by the gracious charity of a man named Bruce Wayne, Dick lost the only family he ever knew only to find himself living in the shadow of the Bat. He was the first Robin. Why? Revenge mostly. Maybe an effort to try and please his adoptive father. At a certain point, Dick stopped trying because he realized there was no pleasing the Batman. And Bruce Wayne was just a fiction.
As Robin, the sidekick to the Batman, the teenaged Dick was introduced to several other young heroes whose stories and backgrounds were not unlike his own. Together with Wally West, the Supergirl from Krypton, and others they would form a group that came to be known as the Teen Titans.
The forming of the Titans, and the sharing of his secret identity with others, would become a divide between Dick and Bruce, over which they’ve never entirely reconciled. Dick cast off the mantle of Robin and stepped out of Bruce’s shadow to be a hero in his own right: Nightwing. Emerging as the leader of the Titans, Dick proved to be a mentor to a new generation, including Jason Todd, the new Robin.
That all changed after Jason died.
The death of Robin, orchestrated by the Joker, was a little closer to home than Dick had been prepared to deal with. He decided to take a leave of absence from the Titans, handing leadership over to Starfire and Supergirl. Then he just started hitchhiking back toward Gotham, leaving all of his Nightwing paraphernalia behind him.
He realized that he’d need a job about the time he managed a lift to a truck stop outside of Bludhaven. Bruce had always been so adamant about the idea that every cop within a fifty mile radius of Gotham was corrupt, the idea of seeing the inside of how the police operate had always been in the back of his mind. A week later, Richard Grayson was at the police academy, becoming one of Bludhaven’s finest.
He wasn’t sure just what he’d expected, but this certainly wasn’t it. Trying to operate within a system of rules. Trying to build a case with due process in mind. Having to justify everything with a chain of custody. The experiences caused Dick to re-evaluate his own perspective on some of the things that Bruce had tried to teach him about the nature of crime. And the nature of the police.
Then he worked the Hutchinson case. The body of a twelve year old girl casually discarded off the side of the road. The circumstantial evidence was there, but the district attorney wasn’t even going to take it to a grand jury without something of substance. So Dick got back to his roots. He knew who the perpetrator was, he just needed to lead the cops and the prosecutors to the right decision. And he did, but not without breaking a few laws. But he told himself that the ends justified the means. The evidence helped the jury to put a man on death row and Officer Grayson could sleep just fine with that fact.
The Hutchinson case brought him to the attention of a S.H.I.E.L.D. recruiter. In all honesty, Dick really hadn’t been interested in being some half-ass special agent with a gun and badge, his interest in all of this had been cleaning up Gotham. But the people in S.H.I.E.L.D. just seemed to know things. About the Hutchinson case. About Dick. About the Titans. About Bruce. In the end, Dick wasn’t really certain whether or not S.H.I.E.L.D. was really asking him to join. Agent Coulson seemed to artfully walk a fine line between friendly conversation and straight up blackmail.
Now, Dick sometimes has a hard time keeping it all straight. He’s not Richard Grayson anymore. At least, not all the time. He’s Agent 37. He’s Freddie Dinardo. He’d the guy behind the bar. He’s whatever the job calls for.
He’s the last thing the bad guys never see coming.
S U P P O R T I N G C A S T:
James Bond
A British MI-6 agent known as 007.
Lorraine Broughton
Dick’s supervisory agent in S.H.I.E.L.D., famous for being a successful triple agent during the Cold War.
Donna Troy
The former Wonder Girl of the Teen Titans, now Dick’s partner in S.H.I.E.L.D.
Dr. Shondra Kinsolving, MD
A physician operating a free clinic inside Gotham's so-called Crime Alley.
Colin Wilkes (Abuse)
A young orphan in the care of St. Eustace's Home for Boys.
R O G U E ' S G A L L E R Y:
SPECTRE
An international criminal organization operated by a corporate tycoon known as Ernst Stavro Blofeld.
HYDRA
A terrorist organization devoted to bringing about a new world order. In the past, it nearly succeeded in this endeavor by embedding itself into the Third Reich of Nazi Germany. In modern nights, it still operates as a kind of shadow military.
THE COURT OF OWLS
A secret society devoted to Gotham politics. It bills itself as a benevolent benefactor, but a bloodthirty mafia would be a more apt descriptor.
THE LEAGUE OF SHADOWS
A first blush, an assortment of thugs and killers for hire. Led by the mysterious Demon’s Head, the group has a far more sinister purpose behind its activities.
Dick’s typical sidearm is a conceal carry Glock 36 pistol, chambered for .40 caliber rounds in a law enforcement 6+1 configuration.
Dick gets around in a variety of vehicles, including a Chevrolet corvette, a Ducati Panigale, and a Cadillac XTS sedan.
