Gotham City, NJ

March 31, 23:45 EST

"Robin! Batgirl! Report!"

"Got a visual of the target, Nightwing. He's headed to… Oh good lord…"

"What Robin?"

"Crime Alley. Klarion's just gone into Crime Alley!"

Nightwing felt his molars grind together at the news. "Don't engage, Robin. Wait for Batgirl and me to get there. Nightwing out."

As soon as his communicator was flipped off, Nightwing growled softly under his breath. "Wrong place, Klarion! You couldn't have picked worse place in Gotham to try and stir up trouble!"

It took mere minutes to reach Robin's position. By the time Nightwing got there, Batgirl was already by their youngest brother-in-arm's side, on a rooftop overlooking the alley. "Is he still there?" he asked.

Robin shrugged. "All I'm sure of is that no one's come in or out of the alley by any normal means. If he's used his magic to go somewhere else, there's no real way for us to track him."

Batgirl looked over at the alley, her arms crossed over her chest. "So either he's there or he isn't." She glanced over at Nightwing. "Is it bad that a part of me hopes that he has gone somewhere else? Sure, it'd be hell to try and track this jerk down again, but the thought of fighting anyone here… Well… This place is sorta like hallowed grounds."

"No sorta about it," Nightwing said. "This place is hallowed grounds. Batman might not be here right now, but if we let someone like Klarion desecrate this place under our watch, then none of us are fit to watch over his city."

Batgirl and Robin nodded in agreement. Then Nightwing pulled out his escrima sticks. "Robin. You keep a lookout up high. Scan the fire escape and windows of the adjacent buildings. If he's inside either of them, you let us know immediately."

"Understood."

"Batgirl… You and I will scout things out at ground level. I'll come in from the north entrance. You'll come in from the south. If everything clears, we three meet in the middle."

"Time to get to work"

The three of them scattered and started investigating the dark, secluded alley from their assigned vantage points. Robin carefully scanned one building before leaping across the rooftops so that he could repeat his scan on the other. Meanwhile, Nightwing and Batgirl took it to street level. The alley was deathly quiet. Even the noises from the street didn't seem to reach the innermost section of Crime Alley.

Some people might've called it the silence of the grave.

It took several minutes, but finally all three of the teenage vigilantes met in the middle at ground level.

"No sign of him anywhere," Batgirl said with a small sigh of relief. "I guess he really did teleport somewhere else from here."

"It's good that he's gone from here, but we can't afford to relax. We need to try and find his trail again before he stirs up any real trouble. Chances are, he's here because of something involving the Light, and nothing they have planned can be good for anyone but themselves." Nightwing sighed himself and rubbed the back of his neck. "Damn, this is gonna be a long night."

Suddenly there was a loud crash and everyone snapped to attention, weapons at the ready and aimed at the source of the noise, a set of fallen metal trash cans. Something caught Robin's eye, and he knelt down to try and get a better look. He relaxed visibly. "It's nothing," he said. "Just a stupid cat."

The animal Robin had seen, that had made the commotion in the trash, stepped delicately out of the shadows that it had been drenched in. As it stepped into the moonlight, its orange fur, red eyes, and jeweled pendant gave its true identity away to Nightwing immediately.

"It's Teekel!" he shouted with alarm as he whirled about to scan the alley again. "Klarion's still here—AUGH!"

Nightwing's cry of pain mingled with similar cries from Batgirl and Robin. Beneath their feet, while they'd been distracted by Klarion's familiar, arcane circles appeared and activated, binding all three vigilante with tendrils of electrified light.

"Well this is a slight disappointment," the dark-haired witch-boy said with a bored air as he slithered out from the shadows on the wall opposite his cat. Teekel daintily walked between the restrained teenagers and leapt onto Klarion's shoulders. "I had hoped to catch four Bats in my web tonight, not just three."

"What do you want, Klarion!" Nightwing choked out, despite the pain. "Why are you here?"

Klarion grinned sharply. "Why isn't it obvious? To play!" He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small device. "Anyone know what this is?"

This time, it was Robin who struggled to speak. "It— It's a mother box," he said with a grimace.

"Correct, Baby Bird," Klarion commended. "It was a present from the Light. A brand new shiny toy for a job soon-to-be well done."

"What job?" Batgirl asked through gritted teeth.

"Why, ridding the Light of its resident Bat infestation, of course!" He reached up to scritch his cat beneath her chin. "Teekel said that this place smells special… Like catnip for Bats if you cause mischief here." Then Klarion frowned. "But there's only three of you little Bats. Where is your leader? Where is the daddy Bat?"

Nightwing struggled futilely against his bonds. "Like we'd tell you anything?" Though he made it look like he was struggling to break his restraints, Nightwing's struggles were more to try and activate his Justice League networked communicator. He hit a switch he hoped would send an emergency audio feed straight to the Watchtower. "Make this easy on yourself! Let us go, Klarion!"

Klarion smiled. "You know what. I think I'll do just that. I will make this easy on myself." He aimed the mother box at Nightwing with a grandiose flourish. The other-worldly, New Genesis device surged to life, crackling as Klarion fed his own chaotic energies into it. All three teenagers froze in their struggles and stared in horror at the energy building up at the front of the box.

"I ought to be nice and warn you," Klarion said with false sincerity. "That I really don't know what's going to happen. I've never used a mother box before, and my magic is always so… unpredictable… when it mingles with tech." He chuckled darkly. "It could just teleport you somewhere random? Or maybe it'll just blow you up!"

As Klarion laughed maniacally, Robin and Batgirl were beside themselves with alarm.

"Stop it, Klarion!"

"Let us go!"

"Don't do this!"

The witch boy soaked up the desperate words of the others, then smiled darkly at Nightwing, the whites of his eyes completely engulfed by black. "Bye-bye, birdie."

The last thing Nightwing heard as Klarion fired a weird beam of light at him was his name being screamed by Robin.

Not his codename.

His real name.

Then everything went white.

—-

Republic City

April 1, 00:01 RCT (Republic City Time)

To Asami Sato, it was hard to believe that it had been nearly a month since the fall of Amon. So much had happened in such a short amount of time. Some of it good, most of it not so much.

At least, not so much good for her.

She'd lost so much over the last several months… Her father… Her boyfriend… Her family's reputation… With the help of Tenzin and Lin Bei Fong, she was able at least to regain her family's fortunes that had been confiscated when her father had been revealed to be an Equalist supporter. However, Asami had always been a smart girl, and she knew that all the money in the world was never going to be able to erase the taint of her father's betrayal from the company name.

Future Industries was ruined.

Like so many other nights, Asami couldn't sleep, and so she found herself driving aimlessly on the practically empty streets of Republic City. She just couldn't find any comfort anymore in the family mansion now that it was so empty. Even though she had an open invitation to stay with Tenzin and his family at Airbender Island, she just couldn't bring herself to stay with them any longer.

Not while Mako lived there.

If it had just been Bolin living there, it would've been alright. Or even just the Avatar. Despite everything, Asami couldn't bring herself to blame Korra for what happened with Mako. Korra, at least, had made it a point to apologize nearly every time their paths crossed for what happened with Mako. Korra, at least, seemed genuinely sorry that Asami had gotten hurt when Mako made his ultimate choice.

Mako, on the other hand, turned into a startled turtle-duck every time he chanced to see Asami on the street. First there'd be a surprised expression. Then he'd tuck his head in, pulling up his collar and his scarf. And finally he'd turn tail and head off in a hurry in the opposite direction.

Asami's eyes narrowed and her leather gloves creaked a little as she tightened her grip on the steering wheel and set her foot down harder on the gas pedal.

"Mako… You jerk!" she thought to herself as she hit her clutch, grabbed her handbrake, let go of the clutch, and hit the gas pedal once more so she could drift around a corner without losing too much speed. As she accelerated down the straightaway, Asami's expression softened, and she sighed. "Maybe I ought to just leave Republic City… Move somewhere else… I hear Ba Sing Se is nice this time of year… Or perhaps spend a few weeks and relax at Ember Island… Maybe catch a play or two… Drive around the island…"

Despite herself, a random thought flitted across her mind that brought a small, sardonic smile to her face. "Heh… Maybe if I'm lucky, I'll run over another future boyfriend with my moped while I'm out there."

Suddenly, a brilliant flash of white light blinded Asami's vision!

—-

For a solid minute, Nightwing couldn't hear or see anything. His ears felt like they'd been stuffed with cotton, and his vision, while slowly clearing, was still blurry as hell. In the end, it amazed even him when somehow, at the very last minute, he managed to see a strange looking car barreling towards him.

Sheer reflex alone moved the masked vigilante's body before his brain could even register what was going on. As he finally heard the scream of alarm from the woman inside the car, Nightwing was already in midflip. He leapt up and forward towards the car, handsprung off the hood with an audible impact, and flipped himself completely over the speeding vehicle before tucking and rolling back into his feet behind it. Still dizzy from whatever it was that Klarion had done to him, though, as soon as Nightwing stood upright a wave of dizziness overcame him and he sat back down hard onto the street.

The car he'd just flipped over came to a screeching halt, leaving a trail of burning rubber on the pavement in its wake. Its driver leapt out and ran towards Nightwing, though they stopped a few yards behind him.

"Who are you?" a firm woman's voice demanded. "Are you an Equalist? Where did you come from? What was that flash of light just then?"

Nightwing turned around from where he was sitting, and behind his mask his eyes went wide. Standing before him was one of the most beautiful women he'd ever seen, an exotic looking beauty with long dark hair, deep red lips, and skin like porcelain. She also wore a pair of leather goggles over her eyes and a rather wicked looking leather and metal glove that crackled ominously with electricity.

"Wow…" he said simply.

Asami frowned at him. "What?"

"You're gorgeous."

An unexpected blush colored her face, but she steeled her expression. "Don't think a line like that will work on me. Now who are you?"

Nightwing frowned a little as he held his head. "I'm… not sure," he observed as he tried to get to his feet. He wobbled unsteadily, but managed to get completely upright.

Now that he stood at his full height, the woman's defensive posture dropped a little as she took in his full appearance. Dressed in all black with form fitting body armor that left precious little to the imagination, his chest emblazoned with the image of a bird, he certainly wasn't what she was expecting at all in a rogue Equalist sympathizer. Asami pushed her goggles to the top of her head and she looked him over head to toe… twice. "You're… not from around here, are you?"

"I don't know… Where is here?"

"Republic City."

"Never heard of it. At least it doesn't sound familiar." Nightwing tried to pinch the bridge of his nose as a headache started to build right behind his eyes, and was visibly startled to find the mask upon his face. Asami watched with growing curiosity as he hesitantly felt around the edge of the mask before using his gloved hands to pry it gently off his face. When he opened his eyes and looked at Asami, the young woman felt her heart skip a beat and a blush rose to her face.

He was gorgeous! Asami figured he was a looker just from his general body appearance and what she could see of his face, but his eyes… They were so blue, like the eyes of a water bender!

Those eyes suddenly started to roll back in his head a little. He tried to take a step forward to steady himself, but another wave of dizziness sent him nearly falling flat on his face. The only thing that kept him from hitting the ground was the girl as she rushed forward to lend him a hand. Not the menacing electrified one, but the one that smooth and soft with perfectly manicured nails.

"Woah there. You're really out of it, aren't you? Did I hit you?"

"No. I don't think so. Not hurt, just dizzy. Really, really dizzy."

The girl smiled apologetically. "Well, seeing as how I nearly ran you over, I feel kinda responsible for making sure you're really ok."

Nightwing smiled back at her. "Thanks. I appreciate it."

She helped him back to her car. "By the way, my name's Asami."

"You can call me…" He paused to think a moment, then frowned. "I don't know… I can't remember what my name is."

Once he was in the passenger seat, Asami got behind the wheel and placed a comforting hand on his. "Don't worry. I know a really good healer. She was trained by the best."

Asami was graced with another smile that made her feel all warm and fuzzy inside. "Thanks, Asami." His eyes then wearily slid closed as Asami started up her car to head towards Air Bender Island.

Author's Notes: This is a story that started on a whim, inspired by a collection of images posted recently on Tumblr where animated images of Nightwing (Young Justice) and Asami Sato (Avatar: The Legend of Korra) were Photoshopped together. I originally wrote a short drabble starring the two of them and their first meeting. The idea of the pairing and the crossover potential lingers, though. So I'm re-writing my drabble and turning it into the first official chapter. We'll see if it goes anywhere from there…