Chapter Text
“Jokers escaped.” Only one of the four people in the Batcave jumped at the presence of the Dark Knight. Alfred then ran off to clean up the tea he had spilled.
“Again?” Tim rubbed his temples at the thought of having to deal with the maniac. The stupid clown always found his way out of Arkem despite the major funding Wayne Enterprises was giving.
“You honestly thought he’d stay put Drake?” Tim frowned as his least favorite Robin and sibling questioned him. The kid had tried to kill him to many times for Tim to consider him a friend, unfortunately Tim had no rule over whether Damian was his brother or not.
“How do you plan on going after him B?” Dick was eating the plate of cookies Alfred had left for the four of them. His Nightwing costume was covered in crumbs. Tim looked up at his mentor to silently ask the same question.
“I’m not sure yet, and although waiting is not my preferable option we need to see what he plans on doing first.” Batman removed his hood, revealing the well-known face of Bruce Wayne.
“We cannot just wait father. You know him, he’s not going to wait for you to find him and then make a plan.” Damian looked slightly ridiculous lecturing his dad. Bruce had several feet on the 10 year old, and in normal circumstances Tim would have laughed at Damian’s failed attempt.
Unfortunately Damian was right. They couldn’t wait for the Joker to make his move and then make theirs. Innocents would get injured or killed that way. He either needed to convince Bruce to act or act by himself.
“I hate to say it Bruce but Damian’s right. We can’t wait on something like this.” Bruce paused to consider Tim and Damian’s ideas but both of the boys could tell they were not winning this. They needed a third opinion.
Damian sat down next to Dick and Tim sat on the other side.
“Dick we need your help.”
“Can’t Babybirds. B is to stubborn.” Dick stuffed another cookie into his mouth. Leave it to Dick to put full faith in his mentor’s actions. Usually this was one of Dick’s good traits; today Tim needed the opposite.
“Please Dick, you know that waiting isn’t the right choice. And if you help us Drake and I will get along for two whole weeks.” Dick and Tim’s eyes widened at that.
While Dick considered the bargain, Tim began to think about how horrible it would be trying to get along with Damian of all people. The little brat was rude, annoying, had no respect for him, and tried to kill him on multiple occasions. He was just supposed to put that aside and act like the two were…friends?
“Okay I’ll help.” Dick got up off the couch and walked over to where Bruce was. Tim scooted closer to Damian.
“Us. Get along. For two weeks?”
“I hate it just as much as you do Drake but we both agree that we can’t wait for someone like the Joker. Trust me the second those two weeks are over I’ll have a knife at your throat.” Damian joined the two older heroes in their discussion.
“Good to know.”
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It felt good to be home. Jason had spent way too much time on the rooftops of Gotham today and he was sore. His apartment would be welcoming and clean, as it should be.
However when Jason opened the door to his beloved apartment, it was a complete disaster. The bed covers were ripped and thrown onto the floor while Jason’s weapon collection on the wall was destroyed. The floor was scuffed and covered in bullet holes, and broken glass was everywhere. Jason pulled the handgun out of the holster on his thigh and quietly walked into the room.
It wasn’t until he saw the bloody crowbar on the bed that he put down the gun.
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Dick had failed them.
That was Tim’s first thought. Now there wasn’t anything Dick could have done, so Tim really shouldn’t be mad at him. But he had trusted Dick to persuade Bruce to take action. Stupid Bat was too stubborn.
This meant that Tim had to take care of it. Or at least that’s what he believed. Someone needed to look for the madman or someone was going to get hurt. And knowing Joker it would be someone he cared about.
Tim had most of his costume on, minus the domino mask and the wings. Tim loved the wings but they were such a pain in the ass to put on, and it was extremely embarrassing when he was late to meet Stephanie because he couldn’t get the damn things off his back.
Tim would need to work on an improved design later. First he would need to design a search plan and find out what plans he could put off to make more time. Sleep would be the first to go…
“Need help Drake?” Tim stopped trying to attach the second wing to glare at Damian. Tim kept eye contact as he continued to try and fail at attaching the wing. Damian silently walked over and took the piece from his hand and attached it to Tim’s back easily.
“Thanks.” Tim muttered.
“All I ask in return is that you let me accompany you in your search.” Tim froze.
“No.” Absolutely not. Never in a million years. And not just because of how annoying Damian was. Bruce would have his head if anything happened to his youngest son. Tim knew first hand how dangerous Joker was. Damian was so far lucky enough to evade the Joker, but every Robin had their personal encounter with the clown at some point. Tim would not be the reason that Damian was taken.
“What if were there to?” Tim groaned. Could he ever have time alone? Tim pinched the bridge of his nose as Dick walked towards them.
“Well if you’re coming, why don’t we just go ahead and ask Jason to. Make it a family outing.” Tim’s voice was dry with sarcasm.
“So mean Timmy.” Tim ignored his older brother and sat down at the Batcomputer. As he began to open several files on the Joker, Dick and Damian left to change into their own costumes.
Tim ignored most of the information. He had read it enough times to know which files he needed and which were useless. It didn’t take him long to find the list of safehouses the Joker had used in the past. Tim assumed this would be a good starting place for the search. He doubted Joker would actually be in any of them, but searching every single inch of Gotham would take to long.
He sent the files to the mini computer on his wrist and placed a domino mask onto his face just as his brothers came back in full costume. Dick was smirking, Damian was glaring, Tim was tired of his brothers.
Although Dick begged to take the Batmobile, Tim already knew they were in trouble for disobeying Bruce’s orders to wait. He had no intention of getting into more trouble. They each had a motorbike. The first safehouse was to far away to go by foot.
--So what’s the plan Babybird?—Dick’s voice buzzed over the intercom.
“Don’t call me that. The plan is pretty simple. We search the safehouses on the list and hope that we find something.” Tim checked his wrist. Only five minutes from the first place.
--That doesn’t sound like a plan.—
“Do you have a better idea Damian?” Part of Tim hoped he did. Randomly searching Gotham wasn’t going to work. The other part of Tim wanted Damian to finally accept that Tim was not a complete idiot.
Silence answered Tim’s question. Which was probably for the best considering they had reached the first safehouse. A small boat storage building on the docks. Most people thought that it was abandoned and unsafe for people, but looks can be deceiving. The inside was well decorated with Joker’s fatal gadgets. But everything was covered in a thick layer of dust. No one had been here in awhile.
The three heroes walked around the wooden place silently, the only noise coming from the small waves of water below them. Tim quickly found a light switch and one light came on. A very old light hanging from the roof flickered on and off as the boys continued to search the building.
“No one’s here.” Dick announced. “Where are we going next?”
It was true that no one was here but Tim felt like something was off. Sure Joker may have not been to this specific safehouse in awhile but Joker was almost as paranoid as Batman and would have left a trap or something for any unwanted visitors. But the safehouse had given them no issues whatsoever.
“Uh, an old jailhouse in-“ Tim was cut off by the sound of cracking wood. Suddenly the floor beneath them broke and the three fell into the dark water. Tim thanked his protective suit for both keeping out a thousand splinters and keeping out the cold temperatures of the water as he fell. However, his suit did not stop the moment of shock and it took a moment for him to figure out which way was up.
Tim’s head broke the water to hear Dick calling his name.
“Yeah! I-I’m fine. Where’s Robin?” Tim called to the older, trying to make out his brother’s shape in the now dark room.
“I don’t know, he hasn’t responded to me.” Dick sounded like he was he on the verge of panic. Tim wasn’t much better. He pulled out the rebreather he kept in his utility belt and went under again. Tim pulled out a waterproof flashlight as well. It took him far to long but he spotted the younger hero struggling against something under the water and swam towards him. In the meantime he needed to figure out what was keeping Damian down. His flashlight glared on something metallic and Tim made out the object as one of Joker’s explosive and dangerous clacking teeth machines. The things were absolutely ridiculous but deadly. This one had Damian’s left leg trapped within its sharp teeth.
Tim was right, there was a trap.
The sandy floor was covered in half buried machines that would react when in contact in something. Tim was only feet away from Damian, when a large figure dove into the water right in front of him. The figure shot at the clacker several times until it opened its mouth again to attack. The figure took that time to grab Damian and pull him up towards the surface. Tim quickly followed.
The room was still dark but Tim found an unbroken piece of dock that he used to pull himself off.
“Nightwing?”
“Here Red. We need light now.” Dick’s voice sounded slightly frantic and Tim made his way back over to the light switch he found before. After flipping it a few times out of desperation the one light turned back on, revealing two rather terrifying things.
One being Damian’s bloody leg.
The other being Jason Todd.