Pay to Win

I would like to say that we calmly drove to the airport and made it on the private jet with no issues. But anyone knows if you put two guys on motorcycles and they have the same destination, its going to turn into a race.

I am not ashamed to say, I lost… Badly. No amount of bad patina finish is going to hide from me that he was riding a special made Ducati and I was still on my junkyard Frankenstein bike. No getting around that he was a better rider than I was all around. But I'm sticking with it being the bike's fault. When we got to the hangar that houses one of the many Wayne private jets, he snickered at me. To which I just turned up my nose and said, "Damn pay to win rich boy's."

He naturally cried foul on the bro code, but I ignored him.

The flight was a quick one, barely worth the gas it took to get there but these planes have to get their hours in the air somehow. Landing was no issue, the Wayne name on the plane registry guaranteed that.

We took a cab to the hotel nearest to the Circus and settled into our rooms with plans to head to the Circus after an hour.

Walking up to the big red tent, Dick kind of started rambling, "I have been to Haly's 5 or 6 times since I left it in Gotham, easier to see them in different towns, I guess. I probably would have waited this time for it to make its way to Gotham if you hadn't come."

Dick, "My life took a 180 when Mom and Dad died, then Matt adopted me. I left with him thinking that my Circus family didn't want me anymore because I saw the guy messing with our rope's and didn't say anything. I had a lot of guilt there. Mr. Haly later told me that he let me go for his own guilt of not paying the protection fee and that resulting in what happened. He figured the great Mr. Wayne could help me more than a traveling Circus could. I haven't been a Circus kid in years, but that doesn't mean I don't still love it."

He finished talking at the same time we entered the big top curtain and our eyes adjusted to sights in front of us. My eyes were drawn to two elephants and their handler. It looked like he was having trouble getting them to focus on his commands. I knew the courts had handed down some harsh rulings on Circuses that used these giant animals for entertainment and with good reason. Many Circuses just weren't well equipped to handle them properly and truly trained handlers were expensive. I could see that the male was unhappy for some reason and decided to intervene.

Dick and I walked into the ring, and he made a beeline for the only guy dressed in street cloths and a clown that were arguing. I bumped him and pointed to the elephants to witch he nodded. 

When I got about 20 feet from them, they must have caught my scent because they ignored their trainer and made straight towards me. Their poor trainer and a few of the performers panicked at the sight of the elephants headed my way especially a young dark-skinned woman that was talking with another girl dressed like a trapeze artist.

I laughed and waved them off hoping to ease their panic a bit, but I knew that until they saw me interacting safely with the elephants, they wouldn't calm down much at all.

Once they got to me the Bull backed off and let the Cow inspect me first as he watched his trainer and what I would later learn was his rider warily.

  Logan, "Well aren't you a gorgeous big girl." I said warmly to the Cow. Letting her run her trunk over me so she could get a full inspection done. She radiated pleasure as I ran my hand along her trunk, not trying to direct it just keeping my hand on it and rubbing.

The trainer came up to me obviously not happy he lost control of his wards, "Who are you and what are you doing in here. No one is allowed in here but the performers. You will need to leave. I would stop petting Liz, Chester is being super protective today for some reason. He took a swipe at his food handler this morning."

His tone calmed down as he saw my interactions with Liz and how happy she seemed because of my attention.

Logan, "Sorry, if I don't actively introduce myself to animals in my surroundings, they tend to throw a fit and I wanted to avoid that. I came in with Dick Greyson." I pointed over my shoulder to Dick who was watching me, along with the people he went to talk to. Deciding that his cow had all my attention long enough the bull called Chester pushed his way in and started investigating me with his trunk the same as Liz did. Chuckling I started to pat his trunk instead of petting it, he liked the impact more than the rubbing that Liz enjoyed.

A dark-skinned Mexican beauty walked up to me slowly and asked, "How did you do that? I have never seen them take to anyone like that. Even Bart here had to keep cage bars between himself and them for a month before they would trust him. I'm Cali by the way, their rider. I grew up under their watch.

As I turned to answer Cali, Liz got a bit demanding and wrapped her trunk around me pulling me to her chest possessively. I laughed and spoke over my shoulder to Cali, "Give me just a minuet to pacify this lovely lady and I will answer your questions."

Talking to her like she was a person, I asked "So what's the matter Liz, what did you need me to look at?"

Conveying the same thought mentally Liz opened her mouth and turned her head to the left. When I saw it, I turned my head to Chester and said "All right you old Bull hold your self together and ill get her fixed up." Again, conveying my thoughts mentally to Chester. Reaching my hand into Liz's mouth I took a firm grip on what looked like a large needle or small nail and quickly pulled it out of her gums. Her head jerked back at the pain but then she was trying to show me she meant no harm toward me.

Showing her that she hadn't panicked me I rubbed her trunk some more. After she released me, I handed the nail to Cali without a word and moved to Chester. "All right big guy, your turn."  He wrapped his trunk over my shoulder, and I fist bumped his tusk and told him. "Open up wide. Looking into his mouth I saw another nail but this one was stuck sideways between two teeth. It hadn't gotten into his gums, but I could see a few scratches on his tongue. I had to use both hands to pry it out because I didn't want to twist it into his gums.

Handing it to Bart he took one look and shouted, "Bryan, you best get over here." The guy in plane clothes and Dick headed our way and Cali said, "Ok, now can you tell me what's up?

Logan, "Well, best way I can explain it is that I have a bit of an empathic bond with animals. They don't talk to me, but they push their emotions on me."

Cali, "So you're a Mutant?" she said. "Not like we haven't seen our fair share, but most that come to the Circus have physical mutations. You got lucky."

Logan, "I most certainly did get lucky."

Dick walks up and asks, "What's up Logan?"

Logan, "I pulled nails out of the mouth of both these guy's mouth. One getting to them through the hay bailing process is one in a billion but both at the same time? Though I wouldn't put much stock in Chester here swiping at his feeder, that would be just like swinging on the waiter for the cook's meal."

Bryan, "Can't be anyone working for the Circus, that just wouldn't make sense. This is these guys last show also. We just can't keep the insurance the new court ruling demand. We are sending them to the Logan reserve in Africa to live. Maybe some activist's that are trying to get us shut down. I will bet money that there will be an inspector showing up today to inspect our animals."

Shaking my hand Bryan says, "This could really save our bacon, things are hard enough without being fined for set ups. I need to tell the handlers to triple check everything. You're a life saver for bringing this guy Dick."

Dick, "Good thing you noticed that Logan, things have been rough on traveling Circuses lately from what Bryan was telling me. This is Raya and the new Catcher Marc."

You could see the sour grapes Marc was chewing on with Raya giving Dick her attention. He practically dared him to get up on the trapeze ropes and the look in Dicks eyes said he didn't care. He wanted up there and nothing would stop him.