The Story of Elastic Nightwing

“You can take the boy out of the circus, but you can’t take the circus out of the boy...”

Born in the heart of a set up Haly’s Circus, Richard “Dick” Grayson was born with a little robin bird at the window on the first day of spring.  His parents John and Mary Grayson were just another part of the long legacy of the Flying Grayson.  A family that for generations mastered and revolutionized the trapeze act.  For the first few years of his life Dick naturally started learning about the act, practicing his acrobatics and adapting quickly to life on the road.

However Dick Grayson around his 9th birthday decided as much as he enjoyed doing the trapeze act he wanted to go in a different direction.  That was when he discovered his own flexibility and being double jointed.  The people running the circus show wanted a contortionist act and Dick worked diligently to fill the role.  Surprisingly he got it, not just in his work ethics and training, the promoters saw it as a cost saving measure as well.  Initially his parents were uncertain how to feel about their son going against the legacy they had all built.  However after a very successful first show for Dick Grayson’s contortion act.  They became very supportive of Dick.

After a few years of Dick Grayson performing his contortionist act for the circus.  The promoters started to hear about a mysterious substance from India known as Gingold.  Which those who practiced contortion there use to make themselves more pliable and able to do harder moves.  Interested they suggested to Dick the idea of getting some and having him try it.  Dick Grayson was completely on board with the idea, and soon the promoters were able to get a vial of concentrated gingold straight from India.

The night Dick Grayson ingested the gingold however was one he would never forget, for all the wrong reasons.  It wasn’t just that the stuff tasted awful, like lawn clippings that had rotten garbage sitting on it for a month.  But as soon as he tasted it Dick’s body began to feel very strange.  Every fiber of muscle in his body feeling like it was being pulled and twisted.  Unbeknown to him, a latent gene in Dick’s body began to almost violently manifest itself to life.  Suddenly all of Dick Grayson’s limbs along with his torso began to stretch out across and around the room like noodles.  Screaming in fear both his parents and Dick himself were horrified as his body was turning into series of stretching out body parts against the chair he sat on and the floor of the circus tent.  Eventually Dick’s body stopped stretching out, but he had very little control over his limbs anymore and no idea how to go back to normal.

Crying hard into that night, Dick Grayson thought his life was over.  His parents did as well, chewing into the promoters for what they did.  Eventually though cooler heads prevailed as Dick was able to make it clear he wasn’t in any pain.  Plus some concentration showed that he might be able to control this in time.  So the promoters promised to let Dick have as much time as he needed to get himself right again, and to not put him into the freak show like they had started to think before Dick’s parents put a very hard stop to that idea.

Around two weeks later Dick’s limbs and torso were still all over the place, slowly he could feel them retracting but it took constant concentrating.  His parents helped him as much as they could, feeding him, helping him go to the bathroom, and carrying him from one place to another.  Still Dick often had trouble with just handling himself, and struggled to adjust to what felt like his life now.

Meanwhile the circus had traveled into Gotham City for a special charity show.  Being run by Wayne Industries with the owner himself Bruce Wayne in attendance.  Before the show however, infamous mob boss Tony Zucco came to the circus promoters and violently demanded money from them for protection.  The promoters however refused and were only told that because of that, they better keep an eye out for any... accidents.

Nearby Dick Grayson had heard all of it.  Now not only completely helpless but scared, Dick Grayson tried to go warn his parents but couldn’t find them before the show began.  Where during their performance.  Both the cables holding up the trapeze bars and safety net both broke.  Causing John and Mary Grayson to both plummet to their deaths.

Dick Grayson had no where to go as he desperately tried to flee the scene.  Only essentially crawling on stretched out limbs to get away scared the mob was coming for him too.  It was in that moment he ran into Bruce Wayne himself.  Completely frightened Dick didn’t even considered how he looked begging Bruce for help and telling him what he had heard.  Bruce Wayne though saw the distorted, strange young crying boy, and helped him get away.  Giving him a space in his limo.

Soon Dick Grayson, in all the trauma, was able to figure out how to control his powers.  Finally looking like his old self, he realized with a little more practice he could now stretch and mold himself in many different ways.  However it still didn’t help cope with the pain he felt losing his family.  Bruce Wayne though offered to adopt Dick Grayson, which went through leaving the young now former circus performer living with the CEO in his Wayne Manor.

“Bruce, I gotta tell ya, this job could have been fun for you sometimes if you ever let it.”

Living with Bruce Wayne was even at first a strange experience for Dick Grayson.  Even while trying to understand and perfect his newfound elastic powers.  The young man wasn’t used to a life of luxury he now had at his lap. On top of that Bruce had Dick Grayson enroll at Gotham Academy, marking the first time Dick Grayson wasn’t home schooled by his mom.  Bruce Wayne wasn’t home very often, either working or out doing... something.  Bruce and his personal butler Alfred were very coy about what exactly.  Usually Dick was told Bruce was out at some gala or party.  But Dick started getting his suspicions about it.  Until one day Dick while roaming around the manor bored stumbled across a secret entrance to a cave from the library.  It was going into this secret entrance Dick found himself in non other than the Batcave.  

After promising he would keep the secret safe with Bruce, he started begging Bruce to let him join Batman fighting crime in Gotham.  The pain he felt from losing his parents because of a mob boss still haunting him.  At first Bruce refused, not wanting to see Dick Grayson get hurt.  However Dick Grayson proved he not only could take care of himself, but his elastic powers made it almost impossible for him to get hurt.  Finally, with a good amount of hesitation, Bruce agreed provided Dick Grayson was willing to go through combat training.

The training was something Dick Grayson could have never prepared for.  First off Dick had numerous things done to undermine his elastic powers.  Either having to train in an extreme hot or cold room which messed with his powers.  Forcing him to put extreme focus into training otherwise he would melt or become painfully stiffened respectfully.  Other times Bruce resorted to gadgets which handicapped Dick.  Such as magnetically sticking an arm or leg to a pole, or taking before hand a slow burning air capsule.  Forcing Dick to finish his training before completely inflating into a helpless balloon.  Finally after a tough two years a now 15 year old Dick Grayson proved his worth.  Batman giving the young man a suit that made him into Robin.

As Robin, Dick Grayson provided Batman a big advantage in numerous ways.  Batman himself even admitting that Robin with his powers could sneak into areas better than he could.  Still Robin felt a swelling sense of pride in what he did, and that he may had found a true calling for him.  His relationship with Batman was also strong, as the two were able to work in strong harmony.

Soon the two were joined by a third member.  Barbara Gordon, the daughter of Gotham City PDs commissioner.  As she became Batgirl, Dick became smitten with her.  Eventually Dick and Barbara started to go out.  The two fell deeply in love with one another.  Even though Bruce was quick to warn Dick that having a relationship with Barbara would be a dangerous proposition if something happened to either one of them.  Dick didn’t heed the warning, his romance with Barbara growing to the point that one night in the batcave the two lost their virginity in a small space under the batmobile.  Where Dick learned his elastic powers have benefits well beyond fighting crime.

One night however Barbara was at home when suddenly The Joker broke in with goons.  In his attempts to get to Commissioner Gordon, Joker proceeded to trash their home.  Finding Barbara who was fending off his goons when he shot her directly in the spine.  Batman and Robin had arrived but it was too late, as they both found Barbara Gordon laying in a pool of her own blood fighting to stay alive.

She had survived, however the bullet severed her spine, leaving her permanently wheelchair bound for the rest of her life.  Devastated Dick lost control of his common sense, hunting down Joker until he attacked him violently.  The Joker had planned for this, and was egging Robin to kill him.  It all seemed like it was destined to happen until Batman had to pull Robin away.  The two got into a vicious argument and in that moment Dick Grayson told Bruce Wayne he was never going to trust him ever again, and that he was done being Robin.

“[Alfred] always had faith that the dynamic duo could survive anything. Except maybe each other.”

Very quickly after Dick Grayson moved from Gotham City to the neighboring Bludhaven.  He started going to college while having decided he was not only going to not return to fighting crime, but finding himself.  It was a strange process for him, not being used to being on his own like this.  Plus he gradually used his elastic powers less and less, more to just stretching a hand over to the fridge to get something.  On top of that he stopped working out as religiously as he had before, developing for the first time in his life a bit of a pot belly.  He still made time to visit Barbara though, still blaming himself for what had happened to her.

She saw the way he was practically willowing away and as she started to get more and more comfortable with her predicament, started to get an idea on how to get Dick Grayson back into action.  One night the two were in Dick’s small apartment when Barbara asked him if he had ever considered doing hero work in Bludhaven.  Dick got upset she would ever insinuate such a thing, getting madder and madder about it until he forced her out in frustration.  However the idea was planted in Dick’s mind.  Which only grew stronger as he looked at himself and the miserable state he was in.  Out of shape, trying to find his direction when it wasn’t even that long ago he had one.  Finally Dick Grayson made the call.

Dropping the excess weight, and getting back into practice, Dick Grayson began using everything he had learned as Robin for something new.  He didn’t want the old alias again, and especially now it was being used for some new kid Bruce brought in.  So Dick Grayson had to think of a new alias.  One which came from when he was younger, when Clark Kent, AKA Superman, had come over to visit.  The two retreated to a room where they figured Dick wouldn’t hear them.  Only Dick was hiding behind a bookshelf flattened to listen in.  Clark was talking about how he wasn’t a fan of the alias Robin.  Suggesting other names, one in particular was Dick’s favorite, Nightwing.

As he started to get back in shape Dick made a new suit, black with blue notes and made completely elastic.  It was around this time too Dick started to figure out how to get his hands on gingold, the very substance that gave him his elastic powers the first time.  It was from this he realized taking gingold now made his elastic powers much more potent.  Going from being able to stretch across town to being able to stretch across a whole state!  So he started keeping some capsules of concentrated gingold on him at all time for emergencies.

As Nightwing started to become a more powerful force in Bludhaven, Dick began to find avenues to help him out in two major areas.  First off he joined Bludhaven’s police department to not only be able to get access to criminal intel, but to fight crime during the day as well.  His assistances also came from Barbara Gordon.  As a way to make up for getting upset at her.  Dick worked hard to get Barbara Gordon a base of operations and more than enough tech to hack any system.  Thus Barbara became known in the superhero circle as Oracle.  Who could provide numerous kinds of help any superhero who needed it.  It was from all this Dick and Barbara rekindled their relationship.  Dick spent a lot of his free time around her and helping her however she needed it.

“Better you're mature enough to realize your limits than to find out late that you don't.”

These days Nightwing has taken Bludhaven by storm.  An elastic, acrobatic machine that has struck fear in many evil hearts.  Seemingly the hero is in the papers every night for things as simple as stopping some robbery, up to once inflating into a giant balloon to catch and stop a falling airliner.  Meanwhile Dick Grayson has had his personal life pick back up.  Him and Barbara have had a very serious relationship, that only had a brief hiccup when Nightwing met a strange alien woman named Starfire.

Meanwhile time and having to work together have mended the wounds between Dick and Bruce Wayne.  It even led to Dick Grayson becoming a mentor to those who take up the Robin mantle.  At one point Dick Grayson found himself having to take up the mantle of Batman itself.  In both a means to keep the identity secret, as well as in tribute, Dick Grayson made sure to never use his elastic powers as Batman.  Even still his skills had developed so much, even without his elastic powers Dick Grayson was still a one man wrecking crew.

Privately Dick Grayson has always enjoyed the elastic powers.  Still a bit of a kid at heart, Dick always saw the powers as sort of being like a cartoon character.  He had Barbara move in with him, and planned on getting a ring soon.  How does a superhero propose anyways?