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“Alright, now that everyone is here, we can start.” Dick raised his eyebrows at Jason who was ten minutes late. Jason just shrugged. “B is investigating Penguin. Everyone who’s supposed to be in Arkham is still in Arkham and there has been no major gang activity, so tonight should be quiet.”
It was one of the rare nights where all of them actually were in Gotham and on those nights they usually met up on Wayne Tower before patrol. It was easy to coordinate the sectors when there were only three to five people in town. With eight it got a bit more complicated.
“BG is on technical support tonight because she didn’t listen to her doctor, when he told her that she should stay off her foot.”
“It’s not like someone was trying to kidnap me”, Babs chimed in through the communicator.
Dick laughed: “You could have gotten away without using your legs.”
“But then how would I have kicked him in the balls.”
Everyone was giggling for a moment and Dick waited a few seconds for them to quiet down.
“Anyway, we’re using the Greek system tonight.”
Tim frowned: “We’re eight, not seven.”
“Spoiler will be coming with me if that’s alright with her.”
Steph nodded looking slightly confused. Tim raised his eyebrows.
“Does anyone have any preferences?”, Dick asked.
Jason immediately said: “Alpha.” Sector alpha contained Crime Alley and a big part of the poorer neighbourhoods. Jason’s preference of patrolling that area was the reason they had changed most systems to have a sector with it. Before they had split the neighbourhoods up between at least two sectors.
“I’d like Delta”, Kate said. Right, she’d been tracking a smuggling ring lately and Delta was the area around the harbour.
“Epsilon.”
Dick looked at Tim in surprise. Usually Tim avoided any sector with clubs in it. Even on a slow night there were too many hard decisions there: Is she drugged or just a bit too drunk? Is that guy following her or just walking home? It was way too easy to misinterpret a situation and Tim liked clear information.
Dick’s confusion must have shown because Tim rolled his eyes: “I wanted to investigate a club that might be involved with the maffia.”
“Please tell me it’s not Gibson”, Steph said.
Tim raised his eyebrows: “How likely do you think it is that an LGBT club is involved with the maffia?”
“You’re right. Monica is an angel and would never do anything bad.”
Jason nodded in agreement. Dick was pretty sure Monica was the owner. He hadn’t been there in ages and even back when he had been going out in Gotham, he had only ever been there twice.
“I want Zeta”, Cass broke the silence. Zeta was the sector with most of Gotham’s museums, the opera house, theater and ballet.
Dick nodded in agreement: “Robin, Signal, any preferences?”
“None”, Damian said and Duke shrugged.
“Okay, then how about Robin takes Gamma, Signal Eta and Spoiler and I will take care of Beta.”
Dick had been hoping no one would want Beta. It was a relatively quiet sector even in the busiest of times containing the business district and above all Wayne Enterprises.
With no one disputing anything everyone but Kate agreed to meet back on the WE building at 2 am. Kate said her investigation might take a while longer. Soon, Steph and Dick were alone on the rooftop.
“So, why exactly do you want to patrol with me?”, Steph asked. It was obvious the curiosity was eating at her.
Dick grinned: “I thought we could do a bit of training. Escrima stick special, if you will.”
Steph’s eyes glistened with excitement.
They returned to the WE building after two hours, at 12 am.
“Can we start now?”, Steph asked impatiently.
Dick laughed: “Sure. Let’s start with this: You can only attack, I can only counter. You can block my counter attacks but not counter yourself, you have to start an independent attack.”
“So if I didn’t want to be hit, I’d just not attack at all.” There was a grin behind Steph’s mask that Dick knew was there but couldn’t see.
“Exactly.”
They both took out their escrima sticks and fell into fighting stances. Steph immediately went for a hit to Dick’s right side which he blocked easily without countering. The next hit came from the left. He blocked, feinted from the other side and took a step back. Steph launched into a serious of strong and fast hits. Dick blocked and stepped sideways with each one and hit the escrima sticks out of Steph’s hands with her last two strikes.
“Oh, goddamn”, she swore and shook out her hands.
Dick relaxed his stance while Steph collected her escrimas: “You need to watch my hands while you attack.”
Steph looked at him attentively.
“You look where you want to hit - which also tells me where you’re trying to hit - and ignore what I’m doing.”
Steph nodded with determination in her eyes and settled back into a fighting stance. They repeated the scenario a few more times, Dick giving advice after each round. Steph would have a more secure stance if she moved her foot a bit to the side. She should try few feints once in a while. Every time Steph incorporated what Dick had said perfectly.
“Okay, let’s switch it up. I’ll attack, you’ll counter.”
Dick started with a few light hits and gradually upped the speed. Steph blocked every time but Dick saw her attention slowly shift to just that effort. She wasn’t trying to counter anymore, just not to get hit. A few more hits and Dick swiped her legs from under her. Steph landed on the rooftop with a grunt.
Dick held out his hand: “You can’t let your opponent dominate the match. You always want to have at least some control over what’s happening.”
“But I’m not supposed to attack”, Steph pushed herself up without taking Dick’s hand.
“You can still control your opponent’s possibilities. You can leave yourself open on purpose, you can force them to follow you in a certain direction, you can dodge instead of blocking.” Dick paused for a moment. “But I do admit that I was being purposefully difficult.”
Steph laughed.
Cass and Jason arrived half an hour early and sat on top of the roof access doorway to watch. Steph shot Cass a nervous smile - she’d taken off her mask a bit earlier. Cass just shot her a thumbs up.
“Kick him in the balls”, Jason called before Dick and Steph started their spar.
Dick grinned because Steph had actually tried that earlier. He did of course wear his cup so no harm done. And at least it wasn’t a brick to the face. Steph smiled back.
“Oh my god! You actually did, didn’t you? Damn, he’s wearing a cup, right?”
“Yes to both”, Dick replied and Jason started giggling uncontrollably.
Dick shot Steph a questioning look asking her whether she was alright with training in front of the others. She was the one with the least training and he could definitely understand if she wasn’t comfortable with it. Steph just nodded, twirled her escrima sticks and got ready to fight. Dick followed suit.
Steph drifted to the right a bit every few seconds, leaving herself open on her left, and closed the opening again. She was paying attention to everything Dick had pointed out to her which was a lot. He’d have preferred to give her a few pointers and give her more in a few weeks but he didn’t know when he would actually have enough time in Gotham again for a training session like this one.
Steph was definitely a good fighter. She had Jason’s creativity and toughness. That street style attitude. In one or two years she would probably be on Tim’s level. Not strategically of course - Dick hadn’t even been able to keep up with Tim on that front for a few years now. But in a spar. For now, she still needed to get all of those instincts the rest of them had.
Dick was pulled out of his thoughts by a hit to his side he barely stepped away from. He should really be paying more attention. Especially since Jason had let out an excited whoop of joy at Dick’s obvious blunder. Steph grinned and went for a kick to Dick’s stomach. He stepped to the side and wanted to use the resulting imbalance - she usually leaned too far in one direction - but Steph had made him step far enough so that he wasn’t in range for a good attack. Next one, then.
Their spar continued for a while. Neither of them was looking for a high-speed and -energy spar. Steph was trying to incorporate his advice and Dick wanted to give her the opportunity to do so. In the end, she forgot to stabilize herself - the stance issue he’d pointed out relatively early in their training - and Dick couldn’t resist. It was just perfect for that one throw Cass had shown him the week before.
Steph landed on her back with a groan and looked up at Dick: “The foot, right?”
Dick nodded and held out his hand, which Steph took. Her face was pulled into the exact copy of the look that Tim got whenever he was unhappy with what he’d done.
“Don’t”, Dick said. Steph looked at him: “You did amazing. You were paying attention to so many things, it’s a wonder you didn’t forget something earlier.”
“Yeah, that was great!”, Jason called and Steph smiled a bit. Jason didn’t just hand out praise to anyone. He always meant what he said.
“Thanks for the training session.”
“I would do it more often but I don’t get away from Blüdhaven often enough for that”, Dick begun. “However, if you ever want to drop by, your codes can deactivate my apartment’s security system. I’m always open for guests, patrol or training partners.”
Steph’s jaw dropped and then slowly climbed up again: “Thank you so much!”
She jumped at Dick with a hug and Dick laughed.
“What exactly is going on right now?”, Tim stage-whispered to Jason as he dropped onto the rooftop.