Dick bursts into the pub in a rage. He immediately spots the people he's looking for sitting around a table by the bar. Second rate villains working for Blockbuster, who have hurt an awful lot of people. He's sick of it. So sick of it. It hasn't been a great week for him, between being fired, finding out Blockbuster's involvement in hiring Slade and him discovering that Tarantula is the one who killed Redhorn. He had been looking after a killer. He hasn't been sleeping much either. He's exhausted, but determined to keep going.

He doesn't leave any of them untouched. Dick ties them up and exits before the cops arrive on the scene. He sees a giant spotlight shining over the city, similar to that of the bat signal, but instead of a bat shape, it's akin to one of his little wing-ding throwing stars. It's coming from the BPD. Amy.

He arrives on the roof of the building. It's pouring rain. Her husband is with her and he's pretty confused.

"Turn that off," Dick says, referring to the signal. Her husband does just that, clearly intimidated by the vigilante his wife is speaking to. Dick had met him before. Nice guy. Amy probably hadn't briefed him on the situation for his own sake.

"I didn't know how else to reach you. You weren't home and I don't have a number for you," Amy says.

"Why did you call me here?"

"Blockbuster. Something has to be done. You're the only one who knows where he is. I know you are," Amy says. She sighs, then takes out a gun and his old badge, "As a cop...legally you can..."

"No," he says with stoney determination.

"There's nothing else we can do. He's going to keep hurting people, like he's hurt so many people already. Nobody is able to catch him. He's too strong. But you.."

"No. I don't kill. I can't do that, Captain," Dick says, looking down at his black and blue boots. He turns around, ready to jump off of the roof.

"Nightwing, wait!" She calls out as he swan dives.

The bad night to end all bad nights climaxes in the fire escape staircase of an old building. Tarantula has a gun aimed at Blockbuster while he's down. His head is reeling with what Amy had said to him. Blockbuster has hurt so many people.

--------------------

"This is Dick, I can't answer my phone right now, so leave a message after the beep."

Wally holds his phone up to his ear, frowning as he hears Dick's voicemail play. It's the third time he has tried calling him today and it's now 6:30pm. Even if Dick had slept in, he'd certainly be awake by now.

"Am I being paranoid?" Wally turns to his younger cousin, who is watering his potted flowers. Kid Flash hadn't managed to find any chocolate scented flowers anywhere, so had decided to by some seeds, stick them in a pot with some soil and hope for the best.

They're standing in Iris's small suburban garden. The potted chocolate flowers were the only ones in sight, save a few daisies and buttercups scattered on the little patch of lawn. Iris doesn't have much time for gardening.

"Your boyfriend isn't just any guy. He's Nightwing, man. He's like Batman but younger and more friendly."

"But what if something happened to him on patrol last night?"

"Like what?"

"Someone could have shot him. He's fast, but he's not a speedster. He can't catch bullets like we can."

"He's been shot before, hasn't he?"

"Yeah, but what if he bled out in an alleyway somewhere?" Wally frowns, working himself up.

"If you're so worried, run over to Blüdhaven and check on him," the fourteen year old tells him, "Nothing stopping you."

"Yeah. Okay."

Wally sticks his head in through the sliding doors to Iris, who is in the kitchen typing on her laptop, "Hey Aunt I, I'm going to dash over to the Blüd. Dick isn't answering my calls and I just need to find out what's going on."

"Sure," Iris nods, "Tell him I say hi."

She looks up and her eldest nephew is already gone, "Or not?"

Wally vibrates through the door of his boyfriend's apartment. Dick had given him a key, but it was more of a token than a practical item. He doesn't need it and Dick knows that.

"Dick? Babe?" He calls, walking around the apartment in his Flash suit, "Hello?"

No reply. He checks Dick's bedroom. The bed doesn't look slept in at all, like he didn't come home that night. Wally's heart is literally beating a hundred miles per hour.

He finds himself frantically running around the streets of Blüdhaven. Wally passes a newspaper stand, then backtracks and stops in front of it. The man behind the counter looks incredibly surprised to see him.

"Flash?"

"Hi," Wally says, picking up a newspaper, "You didn't happen to see Nightwing around, did you?"

"U-uh no."

Wally sees the main headline, 'Roland Desmond aka: Blockbuster shot dead last night.' He speed-reads the rest of the article on the front page.

"Oh no."

"Are you looking for Nightwing because you think he killed him?" The guy, whose name tag says 'Marc', asks.

"No, there's no way he did this. Nightwing doesn't kill."

"Are you friends or something?"

"Or something. Hey, thanks. Gotta run," Wally outs the paper back and runs away again.

He dashes all over Blüdhaven again, but there's no sign of his vigilante boyfriend. He runs upriver to Gotham and does the same there. Still no sign. He does however, spot Tim sitting outside a Starbucks with a blonde-haired girl. Stephanie, he believes, who goes by Spoiler at night. Also with them is Duke.

Suit willed away, he approaches them. Tim looks at him over his sunglasses.

"Hey guys, sorry to interrupt this teen gathering but have you guys heard from Dick?"

They exchange glances, before Tim says quietly, "No. Is something wrong?"

"He's not answering his calls. I checked his apartment too. It seems like he never went back there after patrol last night."

"Maybe he just went on some super secret mission," Duke suggests, "You guys tend to do that without warning,"

"He would have told me if he did. God, he's not been in a good headspace recently. What if-"

"Hey, hey. No. If anyone's even mildly suicidal, it's me," Tim says, then sips his size large black coffee.

"Every time you say something like that I really hope you're joking, because I can never tell with our age group nowadays," Steph says with a sigh, "But he's right. No way. Not Dick."

"You guys know where Bruce is?"

"Business trip," Tim says, "But you know, he might as well be in space."

Ah. Bruce is in the Justice League's watchtower. Wally is no longer a JL member, like he was before all the crazy time stuff. He doesn't have access, even though he really ought to. Dick was on the JL reserves after taking over Bruce's role as Batman for a time. He still has access. Maybe that's where he went?

"Have you got access to the place?"

"Not officially no, but that hasn't stopped me before. B reset his password last week, so I can't currently."

"Right. Do you think Dick might be with Bruce?"

"Highly unlikely. You could ask Alfred if you wanted to though," Tim says.

"Do you want any help looking?" Steph asks, but Wally is already gone again.

"Should we be worried?" Duke asks, "Because he certainly was."

Wally finds himself standing on top of the Wayne Tech building, trying to call Dick for the tenth time, "Please. Please pick up."

Once again, it goes into voicemail. After the recorded message and the beep, Wally leaves another voicemail.

"Babe, please call me back. You didn't go home after patrol last night and I'm really worried about you. If you're mad at me for something, I'm sorry, even if I have no idea what it is."

Wally remembers Tim's advice and runs out of the city, towards Wayne Manor. He arrives at the entrance and is just about to ring the doorbell when Alfred answers the door.

"Mr West. May I help you?"

"Oh, wow Alfred, that was quick, even in my eyes. Have you seen Dick anywhere today?"

"He hasn't dropped by, no. Is everything alright?" Alfred asks sincerely, yet professionally as always.

"Dick usually calls me on patrol. I haven't heard from him since yesterday afternoon. I'm getting pretty worried. You know what he's like."

"Indeed I do. Would you like to come in?" Alfred offers. Wally shakes his head.

"No thanks, I just came to ask. Tim suggested that I do. He hasn't seen him either. Do you know if Bruce has heard from him?"

"Master Bruce is up in the watchtower currently. I don't believe he has, but I can ask him."

"Thanks, Alfred."

Wally leaves again. His worry is only increasing. No wonder people find it so annoying when he runs off without warning. He checks everywhere Dick could possibly be again. He returns to Central City, 45 minutes after he left, tired.

"There you are, Wally. I ordered pizza. Do you want some?" Iris asks as he sits himself down at the kitchen table, next to his cousin.

"I don't really feel like eating right now to be honest," Wally admits.

Wallace scoffs, "Dude you know just as well as I do that you kind of have to eat often with speedster metabolisms."

"Did you and Dick have a fight?" Iris asks in concern.

"No. He's missing. Nobody knows where he is. He's not answering my calls. What if he's hurt, Iris? Or already dead?"

"Let's hope not, honey."

They hear the front door open and close and a few seconds later Barry strolls in, "Hey guys. Oh, Pizza. Can I have some?"

"Sure, go ahead," Iris says.

"I was up in the Watchtower with Batman. He got the message saying you stopped by. He hasn't seen or heard from Dick either," Barry tells Wally.

"Your bae is MIA man," Wallace says. Two out of the three adults have no idea what bae means, but kind of understand what he's saying anyway.

"I should go back out and keep looking," Wally says, starting to stand up.

"Not before you eat something," Iris says, "I know you're worried about him Wally, but I don't want you passing out between cities."

The redhead sighs and flops back down. Wallace passes him a slice of pepperoni pizza, "Yo maybe he just dropped his phone while doing a flip and didn't realise it."

Wally shakes his head, "Went to his apartment. The bed didn't even look slept it."

"Maybe he made his bed?" Barry says.

"Never makes his bed until he's about to get into it. He's weird like that. Looks the same as it did yesterday morning," Wally takes a bite of the pizza. There is the thing of why Wally knows this information, but thankfully nobody brings it up.

"This sounds weird but Batman probably has a tracker planted in Dick's suit," Barry says, "I know he's got one in all of the league's suits."

"If he did, Dick would have found it and removed it," Wally says.

"Fair point."

Wally goes back out to search after eating almost an entire pizza. He didn't feel much like eating, but made himself eat anyway. Barry and Wallace run around for a bit too, before going back to Central City at 9:25pm.

Wally finds himself sitting on the couch in Dick's apartment, staring at the window in the hope that his boyfriend might climb through it. He'd honestly rather Dick coming through it battered and bruised than not at all.

He had checked again and there was no indication that Dick had come home last night. Wally calls Donna, who picks up after a few rings.

"Hey, Wally. What's up?"

"Have you seen Dick by any chance? Is he with you?" Wally asks hopefully.

"No. Only person with me right now is Roy," she says, "Why?"

"He's not answering my calls. His family haven't seen or heard from him either. He never came back to his apartment last night. God Donna, what if he got himself killed?"

"Slow down, Wally. Think rationally. As awful as this sounds, if he did get killed it's likely someone would have found him and reported it. If he's hurt very badly even he knows when to get help. Is he working on a case at the moment? It could be keeping him distracted. You know how he is," Donna reasons, then turns away from the phone and says, "Shhh Harper!"

"I saw a newspaper saying Blockbuster had gotten shot last night. His case is finished."

"How many people have you spoken to about his whereabouts?

"Red Robin, Spoiler, Signal and Alfred, who asked Batman. Barry and Wallace were helping me look earlier."

"What about Jason or Batgirl? I don't know where you'd find Jason but Batgirl would probably be with the other Birds of Prey."

"Hey does Roy have Jason's number?"

"...Probably," the next part sounds more distant as she speaks to Roy instead of the phone, "Yep. He'll text it on to you. But be warned, Jason mightn't answer. You know how he is."

"Thanks Donna. Tell Roy thanks too."

"No problem. If you need help looking let me know. You're getting me worried too."

Wally hangs up and a few moments later he receives a text from Roy with Jason's number. He copies the number and calls it.

Thankfully, Jason does pick up on the fourth ring.

"Yello?"

"Hey, Jason. It's Wally."

"Wally? Why the fuck are you calling me? Who gave you my number?"

"Roy, but-"

"Bastard."

"Jason this is important. Dick is missing. Have you seen him at all?"

"No. You sound worried. How long's he missing?"

"Coming up to 24 hours now.." Wally says.

"Well fuck. No reports of a body?"

"No," Wally's heart is racing.

"Mmm. I heard from the criminal underworld that some shit when down in Blüdhaven last night. Blockbuster was shot. Some people are suspecting Nightwing, naturally enough, but Dick wouldn't have it in him to off a guy, even a real scumbag like Roland Desmond. Plus, he wouldn't use a gun in a million years."

"I know all that already. But he didn't come back to his apartment last night and he's not answering anyone's calls."

"...I mean, Wally. In our line of work...Dick is starting to sound pretty dead. If not, he's probably not in a good way at all. And I don't mean physically - although that is also likely - he could be mentally in a bad way. I've been through some pretty..bad patches in terms of my mental health."

Wally nods, even though he knows Jason can't see him, "Yeah."

"Look if I hear anything I'll let you know. Don't tell him I said this, but Dick wouldn't go down easy. He's tough. He wears down after long periods of keeping things to himself before he breaks down. But when he breaks down, he really breaks down."

"I know. Thanks, Jason."

"If you find him, tell him he's a terrible boyfriend, because he is. Adios."

Jason hangs up. As much as Jason pretends he doesn't, he really does care about his brother. However, Jason seemed ready to hear news of Dick dying. Wally certainly isn't ready to hear something like that, not now or maybe ever.

He leans back into the couch. Wait. Barbara. He has to ask Barbara if she has seen Dick.

Fifteen seconds later he's standing in a room in Gotham Clock tower, right inside the giant face of the clock. To say he gives Batgirl a fright is an understatement. She tries to attack him instantly, then realises it's just Wally.

"What the hell Wally! Can you knock next time so I won't accidentally punch you in the face?" She pinches the bridge of her nose, right between her eyes and then sighs.

"Sorry, I'm not really thinking straight at the moment."