Tim Drake-Wayne (redrobin) wrote in doorslogs, @ 2013-01-09 01:39:00 |
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After a couple days of planning and preparing gear, Damian had Tim meet him at a halfway point around Old Gotham. Without telling anyone but Grayson and his father, the little bird decided that it was time to go back to being Robin. Honestly? He kind of liked the surprise in people’s eyes. His costume hadn’t changed much except the boots and belt seemed heavier. Same red vest, same green mask, same oversized yellow cape. In this Gotham, a costume liked that almost looked goofy, but Damian didn’t feel comfortable being anyone else. He wasn’t a Bat or a Talon. And, his father needed a Robin. Batman always did. He perched on the side of the building, looking down at Gotham as he made sure his gadgets were calibrated and tried not to think too much about facing his grandfather. He’d never admit it, but he was nervous with a hidden rage and even fear of the side of his family tree that threatened to make him a monster if he slipped too far down the wrong path. Damian waited for Jade to soothe his nerves, remembered she wasn’t there and sighed. Now he was just a baby bird filled with frustrated anger that itched to get out. It didn’t help that working with Drake put him on edge, even if he wasn’t about to admit that either. When Drake appeared Damian lifted his chin in acknowledgement. “Found a trail?” Tim was all sorts of shaken up. Dick still didn’t trust him, Stephanie slept with Riddler, Morgan bought Tristan’s place and was a dominatrix too, and something happened with Helena that he didn’t know about. Add to that the threats hanging over them by Ra’s, the fast approaching deadline, and all the other regular Gotham problems they faced on a daily basis, plus Tim’s own minor identity crisis, and he was barely keeping himself together. If they had time, he would’ve put this off a few days but it couldn’t wait and he was pissed at Ra’s all over again. He had to remind himself that getting angry would only cloud his judgement and he needed to be at the top of his game. Speeding through the streets of Gotham on his motorcycle helped him clear his mind. He parked the bike in one of the many hiding places he had all over Gotham before scaling one of the buildings just a few rooftops away from the meeting point he and Damian had decided upon. Seeing the familiar robin costume felt like a punch in the gut but he came up behind Damian so he had a moment to collect himself. Just another thing added to the list and he was so, so tired of everything. “Yea. Four.” Ra’s was being tricky. He didn’t set out to move anywhere though. He needed to talk to someone and who would have ever thought he’d be willing to unload on Damian? Tim wanted to be surprised but it was just this place that drove him crazy. “Did Selina mention anything about Steph and Riddler?” “Narrow it down to two?” Damian asked, eyebrows raised like clearly he wasn’t the one to do the hard thinking in their little duo. He probably could if he applied himself like he did at school or training, but detective work was easily the most boring thing he could think of. Most of it was tracking down useless information or looking at residue marks. Damian did not have time for that. The Riddler question caught him off guard, teetering a little from his perch. Selina had said some stuff, but it was mostly what Steph had said and how she said it that made everything really clear. “Yeah.” The littlest bird gave a wary look to Tim, like tell me how much you know first with a squinted look over. He didn’t know the specifics of Drake’s relationship with Steph and wondered lightly if she was playing both him and a supervillain. Steph could be an idiot, but she wasn’t that dumb. Right? Tim rolled his eyes when Damian asked him to narrow it down to two. He really should’ve had it narrowed down to one, but he was distracted. Yet another reason why it was good to have Damian in on this. “Alright, give me a few minutes.” He pulled out a small tablet where he had the details of his four possible leads, plus all the information they’d cobbled together about this Ra’s and his movements in the city. He focused mainly on that but glanced at Damian when he gave such a short reply. “They had sex,” Tim said flatly. He wasn’t pleased about it, but it wasn’t like he and Steph were anywhere near on speaking terms lately. “I ran into Riddler’s Vegas side at that Christmas thing and she let it slip earlier.” From the carefully controlled way he was speaking, it was clear he hadn’t quite worked past it yet. He also didn’t want to think about it. “I dropped off info for Bruce on the clench and what happened during No Man’s Land. He missed a lot, coming from the movies.” Tim figured that every little bit counted and if they knew some of the options that might still exist in this world, maybe they’d get lucky. And speaking of lucky...”Looks like the warehouse district is our best bet.” “Gross!” Damian made a face, but he didn’t seem that surprised. Just really grossed out. Stephanie was like a sister to him, so talking about her sex life, especially with a psycho dweeb wasn’t something he was comfortable with. He frowned. “Are you guys together, too?” The question was mainly rolling around in his head to protect her. Damian was no stranger to vaguely feeling jealous about something like that, but Stephanie and Riddler had been spending time together for a while now. Damian had only spent a couple months following Selina around before he tried to make out with her, too. That’s just how people were. Gross was a serious understatement as far as Tim was concerned, so he just nodded. “No. We haven’t been here. We were back home, on and off. I just don’t understand her here.” There was a hint of jealousy there as he repeated back the words Steph threw in his face all the time. He shrugged. “Look, you’re closer to her than I am here. Maybe she’ll listen to you.” Riddler could be good, sure, but he could also be bad. People just didn’t stop being villains, just like people didn’t just give up the cowl. If Riddler was a speed bump on Steph’s road back to normalcy, fine, but Tim didn’t have to like it. Nor did he have to keep his mouth shut. Damian stood up from his perching position, crossing his arms with a look on his face like Tim was being a dweeb, too. “Do you trust Stephanie? Because I do.” He said it with the kind of certainty that was pretty uncommon in the little bird. He changed his mind on a lot of things because being a teenager so suddenly was rough, but there were a few things he wasn’t ever going to waver on. Even if he threw fits and ran away. He always came back. Especially for Grayson and Steph. “He might be a psychopath and a nerd, but if she doesn’t think he’s going to hurt anyone then she’s probably right. And, I haven’t seen her this happy in a long time.” Damian’s gaze snapped over the city before looking back over to Tim. “But, I don’t want to be her boyfriend. So, it’s not really my problem.” Tim stood up too and turned to face Damian. “I trust her. She’s been through a lot, worse than questionable judgement with her taste in men, and come out on top. It’s him I don’t trust. What do we even know about him? Where is he from? Is he the Riddler we all know? Or is he from one of those movies too? Maybe he has a different comic history than we remember.” He shook his head and looked back out over the city. “I don’t want to be her boyfriend, Damian. It’s so much more complicated than that.” And he didn’t want to talk about it with a ten year old. “Let’s just go.” “If you’re so worried maybe you should go mess him up.” Damian suggested because violence usually solved most of his problems. Threatening the Riddler and beating him up a little would probably be good for Drake anyway. Stephanie would be mad, sure, but if the Riddler hadn’t actually changed like she claimed he had, then he’d go ballistic on Drake. See? The little bird was a problem solver. He smirked and lifted his arm to shoot out a grappling hook before swinging over the Gotham skyline. Being in the Robin costume again was an adjustment since being Talon didn’t rely on any kind of gliding, but the large cape had a way of naturally grabbing air. Not that he was complaining. If anyone could see his face under the spread wings, they might notice a tiny little feathered smirk. He wasn’t supposed to enjoy this, but all the Robins sort of did. Arriving at the warehouse district, Damian landed on top of a walkway, pulling his hood over his head as he scanned the area for thugs and/or ninjas. “Quiet. Only a couple patrols I can pick up. How are your stealth skills, detective wonder?” His voice was dry and serious. “Because we can do this one of two ways. One, I cause a distraction and you swipe the information or we both sneak in there. I naturally prefer the first option considering I brought explosives and also smoke bombs.” Mess him up? Tim honestly hadn’t thought about that. He’d considered reaming out Steph, going to Bruce or Selina, but he hadn’t thought about confronting the villain himself. Resorting to violence could destroy any progress Steph had made with the man, not to mention piss her off, so maybe he could just talk to the villain about it. With Sadie’s help, it could probably be managed. Damian grappled away when it became clear that Tim wasn’t going to reply and he followed a few minutes later. He was still bruised and scraped up thanks to his work on the gangs so he was wincing by the time they landed on a walkway in the warehouse district. “Still better than yours,” Tim replied, and it was surprising how goodnatured it seemed. Maybe he really could adjust to this place. “Just try not to blow up something important.” Leaving Damian to it, Tim slipped away, melting into the shadows to watch for where Damian would draw the guards out of. That would be the best place to start looking. As soon as he was in position, he pinged Damian and waited. Robin smirked, diving off the scaffolding in a blur of yellow. Brandishing his rounded knives, he landed behind a patrolling thug and sliced his body armor open before kicking him hard in the open wound. The thug’s scream alerted another armed man who sent a nervous spray of bullets across the warehouse walls and ground. Child’s play. Robin seemed to fly in a blur of color at the man and slammed a roundhouse kick to his chest, sending him into a nearby light post. Surprise jolted through the second thug’s expression and he scrambled to push an alarm button on the wall near him. Robin was too fast for him though, catching his wrist and crumpling finger bones like chicken wings. “Please! I have a kid!” The thug cried. “Go home and be a family man.” Okay, maybe Damian spent a little of his free time after school at the arcade. He chopped his arm down on the man’s neck to make him go out cold and turned to wait for the ninjas. With his grandfather there were always ninjas. It didn’t matter where he was from. After a couple dead moments, Robin turned and punched the alarm button himself. In a whirr, lights flashed, bells went off and predictably ninjas crawled out of every hole like spiders. “ttt.” He seemed unimpressed, but that tiny smirk on his face was still there as he threw out a handful of smoke bombs and lost himself in the chaos. Less than a minute later and Damian had things going. It wasn’t until the ninjas came out of the woodwork that Tim was able to pinpoint the building that was most likely to be Ra’s hideout. It was nondescript for the most part, but once Tim got to the roof, he was able to find the traces of boobytraps and alarms. Stealth was something he was good at though so while getting in took a few minutes, he was able to do so without tripping any of the alarms. Well, as far as he could tell. Tim made a beeline for the computers, inserting a hack that would hopefully bypass some of the security. It was a trick he’d picked up from Oracle and he was glad he’d still remembered how to set it up. Ninety seconds later and a map of Gotham popped up on the screen. Five seconds later and he recognized it as dispersal patterns. “Robin, we’ve got a problem,” Tim murmured through his comm. “Get in here quick.” He transmitted his exact coordinates and then set to work trying to find more information about just what was being dispersed all over Gotham. Of course the dispersal started in Gotham, but then it went wider, only this simulation didn't show that. That was what Ra's was counting on by infecting a businessman. Businessmen traveled, sometimes wide and far, and if they were already infected then there was no better place than an airplane to infect others. His patient zero was already selected, it was simply a matter of time to wait until everything else was also in place. He had expected this little break in weeks ago. This Tim seemed younger, this Detective certainly was, which was why he had left the clues everywhere he possibly could -- they weren't yet the ones that he could count on. If he'd had to do anymore, he would have put a neon red arrow sign on top of his warehouse. Watching Tim from a catwalk above the computers, he waited for his grandson to make his appearance. The information on the computer was nothing more than he wanted them to find, real though it was, it wasn't the full scope of everything.. That information in a separate warehouse, along with the lab that was currently working on creating his virus. As the smoke cleared, knocked out and unconscious ninjas could be seen strewn about the entrance of the warehouse. “Pathetic.” Damian stood up, his yellow cape already splattered with blood and torn from the battle. They got a couple good hits in, but ultimately it was the little bird’s night. His grandfather was in for a big surprise if he thought he could pull a fast one on him. Moments later, Red Robin was chirping in his ear. “What happened?” Robin was already on the move, climbing up through one of the vents a ninja was using as a hiding spot, he crawled through the warehouse towards the computers. Popping up from one of the lower vents, he pulled himself up to where Red Robin was and tried to make sense of the data in front of him. He gave a sideways glance to Tim to get him to explain. Tim hadn’t found anything all that useful on the computer besides the dispersal map, but it was a start. He downloaded a copy of it onto an external device so that they’d have it for later. Just in case. Damian showed up in his periphery and he wondered when Ra’s would make his appearance. They needed more information. “It’s some kind of dispersal map. Looks like it won’t take very long for it to spread throughout all of Gotham. A day, two tops. It’ll be just as bad as the Clench, if not worse.” He spoke quietly, just in case anyone was around. “I can’t find anything about what it is he’s infecting Gotham with, but knowing him, it’ll be bad. Very bad.” And there he was. "Don't make assumptions, Mr Drake," Ra's said calmly from his vantage point. Maybe there was something about being up on roofs -- though no, he preferred the flat wastes of the desert where you could see anything come miles off and there was no high ground to be had by anyone. "I wondered how long it was going to take for you to show up here." Cane sword in hand, Ra's was the picture of cultured ease as he strode down the stairs, Ubu and two other ninja trailing his steps. As much as he expected them to show up, he didn't expect them together -- not that it mattered. If this was the family that his grandson wanted, let him have it for these last few days before he died with them. "Hand delivering your thank you for your gift?" He asked Damian as he stepped onto the ground floor. Damian’s hands clenched into fists when he heard his grandfather’s voice. It was different in some ways, but his ears burned with recognition. “Oh good, you’re here. We can skip all the sneaking around crap and get right down to me kicking your ass.” He was in a bad place and anyone who knew Damian could see it. Grayson wasn’t here to calm him down and Drake was incapable of talking sense into the little bird. No. This was the one person that symbolized everything he was trying so hard not to be and Damian needed to destroy it. Without even a moment’s pause, Robin took his knives out and charged at Ra’s, His first instinct being to try and slice his grandfather’s face wide open. "I'll take that as a no." It nearly reminded him of a younger Bruce, so full of anger that he ran in without thinking. There was a slight lift to the corners of his mouth barely a smile at all as he lifted the cane up to block Damian's wild swings. He could have let Ubu or his guards take care of his little wayward grandson, but Damian was family. Ra's would take care of him himself. "The problem with children these days," he ground out, "is that they have no manners." He didn't have his vambraces on, but that didn't stop him from leaning in close, arm lifted up and elbow aimed straight at Damian's face. Robin wasn’t thinking. He could defeat a hundred ninjas, a pack full of trained killers or a cave full of bears, but that was because he was taught to remove himself from the agression. To be efficient over anything else and put his attention on winning instead of punishing. All of that was gone the second he went after Ra’s. This wasn’t just the hate he had for his grandfather before Passages. No, this was a year of fighting a ghost that appeared at the edge of the Lazarus Pit. That fought against Damian’s need to stay in the bat family. Ra’s was more than just the man in front of him. To Damian, he was a symbol that he needed to tear down. The elbow connected and Damian stumbled back, nose dripping with blood that he smeared away with the back of his gloved hands. He hooked his knives back onto his belt, opting to just tackle the old man like this was some kind of bar fight and launching all of his weight at Ra’s with something that sounded like a growl. As soon as Damian launched himself at Ra’s, Tim was moving. He should’ve anticipated that Ra’s was there, should’ve been more aware, but there would be time for that later. All he knew was that as much as he wanted to join Damian in attacking Ra’s, it wasn’t the way to beat the man and that was their end goal. “Robin!” It was no use though, because Damian wasn’t listening and the two ninjas weren’t keen on Tim joining the fray. Ubu stood just behind Ra’s as he and Damian traded blows. He tried to keep an eye on them, but the ninjas quickly took over all of his concentration as they came at him, unrelenting in their attack, just the way their master taught them to be. Luckily for him, Shiva was just as unrelenting. His bo staff clicked into place as it extended, the snap of his wrist a practiced movement as he did a back handspring to get a moment to collect himself before facing his opponents. He got barely a moment. Where he lacked acrobatic skills, the ninjas had them in spades and it took all of his considerable powers of observation to dodge and block the incoming blows. For a few moments there, it was all he could do. Tim knew how it went though and he waited patiently for his opening. It came a minute later when he was able to land a harsh blow to the one ninja’s middle, just below his rib cage. The blow forced him stumbling back, giving Tim time to swing the bo staff in a wide arc, getting enough power to thwack the second ninja in the side as he advanced. He was a flurry of movement as he fought for the upper hand, utilizing his toolbelt and the various tricks he had hidden there. By the time the two were incapacitated, Tim was slightly out of breath and he took a moment to catch it before whirling around to see where Ra’s and Damian were at and where he was needed. More emotion than thought. At the last moment, Ra's stepped aside, like a matador with a bull (he even had the cape, though it was not the traditional muleta used in the tercio de muerte of a bullfight) perhaps Damian would even like the comparison, though Ra's was sure he wasn't going to like the way he turned, following his grandson with a swing of the sheathed sword aimed at his backside. It really was a shame that he hadn't gotten to use Damian as his body. There was so much strength there, so much that he could have used, but now he didn't have to wait for the young man to age. Perhaps in the future, if he needed another body, he'd keep his grandson in mind. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Tim come rushing in but stopped by his guards. Damian didn’t have time to try and recover, the swing to his back knocking him on the ground with a cracking thump. He tried to kick to his feet, so much fight left in the little bird and enough aggression to flood the room. But, his body was already feeling battered. His nerves completely frayed. If he was choosing to not think before, now he was simply forced to rely on his raw anger. Robin turned to look up at Ra’s, hate seething from his bloodied expression. That moment felt like forever as he acknowledged the pain he was in and staggered back to his feet, arm straightening in perfect form before he chopped it down towards his grandfather’s neck, a yell rumbling through him as he attacked. Where he'd come from, Damian had been trained by the League and Ra's had trained them. All that anger tended to make someone wild, unpredictable, but they had trained little Damian for as long as they could, hadn't they? He knew those moves, like he knew the moves of the Detective and of the League. There was a momentary, split second appraisal of his form before Ra's lifted his cane and slammed it into the inside of Damian's elbow. Oh he could have reached for him and stopped him there, but there was a saying that he'd heard somewhere, more than a few times, something about sparing a rod. And Damian? Was very spoiled. "Do you think there is one part of you that I have not touched?" He growled out, as that cane came whipping down on his grandson's shoulder. Those wild strikes were telegraphed from there. "I trained the League." A hard, fast strike to Damian's hip. "I trained the Detective." He wouldn't kill Damian now or here, which was why the sword remained sheathed within the hard scabbard. "Your mother knew I was right." Talia had come back to him in his world, just as he knew she would and even as his grandson fought back (What al Ghul could ever lay down and be beaten?) Ra's continued his assault, a swinging strike to the side of Damian's knee. "And when all of Gotham falls around you, it's my legacy that will save you. Not the Detective's. Not your mother. You will pray for the Pit and the knowledge I gave you," he said and smiled, no warmth behind it, just the knowledge that he was right as he swung the scabbard towards Damian's cheek. Damian wasn’t one to acknowledge defeat or even a mistake, but even he understood strike after strike that he had gone too far this time. As a child, the thought wouldn’t have crossed his mind, but here in his grandfather’s territory under his rules, he knew that this was a losing battle. Bleeding and broken, he crawled to his feet, struggling to look up at his grandfather through the blood. “I will never use that Pit again.” The little bird growled like the bat. “I don’t care if you kill me.” Because in that hazed moment, Damian almost wanted it. Could it be that the littlest bird had thrown himself into harm’s way tonight without utilizing any of his training or skill because dying for the cause was a lot easier than struggling along with this new person he had become? No. Robin stumbled backwards in retreat, not even looking back to see if Drake was planning on stepping in. They got the information they needed, so what would keep Red Robin from just leaving Damian there? He tried to lift his arm to shoot a grappling hook in order to gain some height and escape, but the beating he took sent every small movement through a world of shooting pain. Robin howled, clutching his shoulder before trying for the grappling hook again and failing miserably. Tim had immediately moved to join the fray but Ubu stepped up to stop him. He was more concerned about getting to Damian, to having his back like he’d promised. It wasn’t hard to miss how angry Damian was and that never ended well. Tim tried to simply duck under his arm to get to Robin but Ubu pulled him back by his cape. Surprised, Tim unhooked his cape so that it would stop pulling his neck but it was too late. Ubu made it clear. He’d have to go through the giant to get to his partner. A determined look came across his features as he found his footing and squared off against the man, sizing him up. Where Ubu had him beat in pure size and physical strength, Tim had him beat in speed and agility. He knew if he wanted this over as quickly as possible, he needed to be smart. With Damian depending on him, Tim swore to himself that he would be. He glanced over at Robin, watching as Ra’s’ staff connected with the younger man over and over which provided Ubu the perfect opportunity to land a punch that sent Tim toppling over. He got back to his feet by rolling away and springing up, staff at the ready. He moved quickly, aided by the absence of his cape, and managed to trip Ubu up just enough to send him stumbling forward. Grinning just slightly, Tim moved in to engage and the pair traded blows, leaving Tim a bit dazed and Ubu barely winded. Knowing he wouldn’t be able to physically overpower Ubu, he began looking for other ways to incapacitate him. An idea came to him a moment later and he fumbled with his belt to get the extra cord that should have belonged to his grappling hook. Instead, it would be used to tangle the giant up. It took some finagling, but Tim managed to get the cord wrapped around one ankle while Ubu had him in a tight grip. He squirmed and elbowed his way out of that and focused on his speed and agility, using every ounce of control he had, to get Ubu so tangled up in the strong cord that he fell face first onto the floor, struggling against the bonds. That would keep him busy for a few minutes, hopefully long enough to allow them to escape. Tim whirled back to Damian, who was reaching for his grappling gun. “Robin!” Tim charged forward, wincing as he heard Damian’s cries of pain. They needed to get out there. Fast. He used his staff to vault over to Damian’s side, one arm going around his waist as the other hand fumbled for his own grappling gun, his staff dropped in the process. He was face to face with Ra’s though and Tim wasn’t going to waste that opportunity. “Whatever you’re planning, we’ll stop you. And you won’t get near her.” Tim didn’t clarify because he didn’t want Damian to know and hopefully he’d assume he was talking about Steph. Or he’d be so out of it that he wouldn’t remember. "You can't stop Gotham from falling, Timothy." Ra's made no move to stop them once the other former Robin appeared. He wanted them alive, wanted them to take this information back to the Detective, and then he wanted them to watch as this city fell apart. And everything they did, it would aid him, he'd make sure of it. "Go home." Planting the bottom of the cane on the floor, he gave it a little outwards flick towards Damian. "Take him and go," he started, but then his gaze focused on his grandson and he gave another one of those smiles, utterly without warmth. "When all of Gotham is dying around you, remember it's your legacy, my legacy, that could have saved them. Will you use it then? Will you save them? Or will you be as weak as your father?" Damian clenched his teeth, taking a much needed break to recover from the grueling pain his grandfather had put him through and finally managed to get a firm grip on his grappling hook. He’d get through the pain. He always did. “There’s only one legacy that’s saved this city. And, it’ll never be yours.” Damian grumbled darkly, using both hands to lift his grappling hook and with a pop managed to aim it up at the high warehouse metal beams. With an unceremonious woosh, Damian vanished into the darkness, adrenaline and that burning hate he still had for his grandfather carrying his little broken wings towards home. Tim could appreciate Damian’s issues with Ra’s and he understood them a little bit more watching the pair of them interact. He didn’t want to think too much about that now though, not when Damian was clearly injured and too proud to take the help he was offered. Tim almost glared at Robin as he grappled away, but then he turned to face Ra’s. He wanted to say something but thought better of it and simply grappled away after Robin. They had information to share and Damian needed medical attention so as soon as he was up on the roof, he had his comm flicked on to pass along the update. |