Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Ah Metropolis, one of the wealthiest cities of the U.S. with 11 million citizens and home of the Daily Planet, LexCorp and a certain man in spandex causing this town to have the lowest crime rate of the whole state.

Dick understands why the school would organize a school trip to this city, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

The problem isn’t Superman. Batman may have a personal vendetta on the guy, but that doesn’t mean Dick has to share that aversion no thank you. On the contrary, he sometimes actually welcomes Clark’s pure and happy attitude when the dark and brooding Batman becomes a bit overbearing.

No, his problem is that although crime rates in this city is low, the number of super villains isn’t. Sure, Robin can handle most things these guys can throw at him, but Richard Grayson is a bit more helpless and shouldn’t be looking like he fights bad guys on a regular basis in front of his classmates and the press.

To make matters worse, their homeroom teacher miss Applegate found it a fun idea the bring the whole class to the Central Metropolian Bank as an excursion, meaning that most of the items in Robin’s utility belt has to stay at the hotel since the bank has metal detectors in place.

All in all, Dick isn’t exactly in his comfort zone right now.

‘Oh my god look Superman!!!’

One of Dick’s classmates, Charlie, vehemently pointed up to the sky and started cheering and waving. Soon all the other classmates followed and even Dick looked up, despite the fact that he has seen the man flying around many times.

Dick expected the Kryptonian to do his signature smile and wave before moving on, what he didn’t expect is Superman to tense up and suddenly dive towards them with urgence.

He swooped down and picked up two of Dick’s classmates seconds before a truck screeched by the group with full breaks.

The cheering stopped for a second, but that silence was followed with even louder cheering from the classmates and most of the bystanders who watched it all unfold.

Miss Applegate however, immediately rushed towards the two children as Superman was putting them down again.

‘Liam! Ellie! are you both OK?!’ Miss Applegate all but screeched while looking over the kids for any injuries. ‘Thank the lord you were there Superman!’ Superman nodded towards the teacher while the two kids were looking up towards him with mouths agape.

‘Oh my god are the kids all right?!’ The truck driver frantically exited her vehicle and rushed towards the group with worry etched into her face. ‘I didn’t see them on time and when I hit the breaks I saw that I wouldn’t be able to-‘

Superman turned towards the lady: ‘Don’t worry ma’am, they are fine.’ ‘Oh thank god I’m so sorry for all of this.’

Miss Applegate addressed the truck driver: ‘Don’t worry about it miss nothing about this situation was your fault. You did everything you could.’ She turned towards her students again. ‘YOU TWO!’ Miss Applegate took hold of their shoulders as she almost yelled out. That seemed to finally snap the kids’ attention away from Superman to their teacher. ‘You both know you should NEVER get distracted while crossing a road! Never do that sort of thing again do you understand me?!’

As the scolding continued, Superman looked around the class a bit before locking eyes with Dick. A spark of recognition passed though his face and Dick smiled and subtly nodded towards the man, receiving a smile and a subtle nod back.

Suddenly though, the alien flinched and snapped his head to Dick’s right as though he heard something loud. He quickly said his goodbyes to Miss Applegate while saying the cheesiest ‘Always look before you cross the road kids’ line Dick has ever heard before flying off again to who knows where.

Dick felt sorry for his teacher, who now has her work cut out for her trying to get the overexcited class back under control.

As the group slowly started to move towards their destination again, Dick had to admit that the bank of Metropolis was already quite impressive from afar. It was clear that the building has been here for a long time: It was a made up of massive granite stones with thick walls and many carved details of historic figures which miss Applegate was currently discussing.

As Dick expected, the class had to go through a metal detector prior to entering the building and although it is apparently not common sense for a few people that belts contain metal, the line went relatively fast. Fifteen minutes later, the class was gathered in the central hall listening to yet another story from miss Applegate, this time about how the building itself was constructed.

However, Dick had to admit he was only partially listening to the teacher. He would have been interested in the stories if the bank was located in Gotham, but as the dark knight doesn’t have any business here, this stuff was simply not worth remembering.

Dick looked around and saw that he was not the only one of his class thinking this. A few kids were whispering with Liam and Ellie enthusiastically at the back of the group, while a few other classmates looked at them in awe. Well, it doesn’t take much work to become famous I see. Dick rolled his eyes when he heard Liam say that he won’t wash his upper arm anymore, as that is where Superman touched him.  

When miss Applegate was done with her tour it was lunchtime and the class was free to move about the building.

‘In groups of minimal three please and tell me where you are going. Be back here by 14:00 or we’ll leave without you!’ An empty threat of course but it does the job for this particular class as different pre-made groups rushed off while yelling to miss Applegate that they were going to the cafeteria that the building held and that they would be back on time.

The teacher sighed with a small smile at the kids antics before redirecting her attention to a few shy children who were approaching her with their pre-made lunch in their hands.

Dick felt around his backpack for his Alfred-made lunch: a box with a large Batman logo on the top, holding two sandwiches with the butler’s homemade salmon spread and vegetables and one with peanut butter and jelly. Alfred isn’t fond of this combination, but Dick insisted on it.

He was looking around for a place to sit when Graham, another classmate and friend of his, approach the raven teen. ‘Hi Dick cool lunchbox!’ Dick smirked when he saw the same logo in a different colour on Graham’s box. ‘Thanks, you too.’

‘Haha yeah think it’s obvious we are from Gotham?’ Graham replied sarcastically. ‘Charlie and I were planning on walking around while eating our lunch. Wanna join?’

‘Yeah sure.’ Dick replied and followed Graham heading towards miss Applegate to tell her their plans. Graham’s younger brother was already standing by her and waved at Dick as they approached.

‘Hiya Charlie.’

‘Hiya Dick, I already told miss Applegate we were going to see the sights a bit so we can go whenever.’

The two brothers wanted to see the Central Hall again where the counters were: the group quickly walked through it during the tour as it is a busy area, but Graham and Charlie wanted to take a longer look at the impressive ceilings and murals that decorated the space.

Although the two boys hardly look alike – with Graham’s hazelnut brown eyes and similar colour hair that flowed to his shoulders versus green-eyed Charlie’s practically platinum blond hair buzzed a few centimetres away from his scalp - the two boys had a shared love of all thing art-related thanks to their parents business. They regularly invited Dick to come along their expedition: they could drop fun facts about the art around them for hours and Dick didn’t mind learning about all these things. Bruce was always happy when Dick showed interest in things outside of the vigilante work, so the two families have bonded quite a bit during their many outings.

Today was no different as Charlie began telling the story of a certain general who fought in a war a few decades ago, which was depicted in a corner of the ceiling. Graham corrected him and added some more details Charlie missed, but Dick wasn’t paying attention to the story anymore.

He caught an unusual movement from the corner of his eye: a group of men holding large seemingly empty duffle bags held one hand inside their jacket as they manoeuvred through crowd towards the multiple counters where the bankers were working.

It took two seconds for Dick to understand what their plan was, but the men only needed one.

One of the burglars took the gun from his jacket, aimed it to the ceiling and shot it two times before pointing the nuzzle at the nearest banker. The a few of the other men aimed at the remaining bankers and the rest were pointing their guns at the crowd.

Shit. Dick thought as he pushed a startled Charlie and Graham to the ground. ‘Stay low. Don’t make a sound.’ He whispered to them.

A few of the other visitors around them unconsciously did the same and soon everyone was on their knees with their hands behind their heads while the bankers jerkily threw the money in the duffle bags.

‘Well will you look at that boys: we don’t even has to tell them what to do!’ A man with a red mask laughed while looking around his “colleagues”.

‘Indeed, it ain’t Metropolis for nothin’ sir.’ A man wearing a pink mask bellowed and the others laughed.

You think people from Metropolis are used to danger, just wait until you rob a bank in Gotham and see what happens. Dick internally smirked.

He thinks about his gear, neatly tucked away behind the dresser in the hotel and cursed internally. Can’t Bruce make the weapons out of reinforced plastic next time, that would have saved a lot of trouble.

He heard shallow gasps coming from Charlie on his left and when he looked, he saw that the boy was almost as pale as his hair: he was sweating profusely and his pupils have become so small, Dick could hardly see them. Shit. Shit shit shit.

Graham also heard the sob and grabbed Dick’s shoulder in panic. ‘Charlie!’ He harshly whispered. ‘Where is your inhaler?!’

‘It’s- It’s still, in my- my backpack.’ He said between gasps and he struggled to remove said backpack from his back. Graham moved to help his little brother; however, the upheaval was noticed by the robber in the blue mask. He approached the trio with a smirk: ‘Bit panicky are we lads? Don’t worry we ain’t gonna harm ya as long as ye DON’T. MOVE.’ These last two words were emphasised by the robber jabbing Charlie in the chest with the tip of his boots.

Charlie moves backwards onto his backpack and he let out a large gasp as his much-needed air escaped him.

‘What’s wrong with this one?’ The blue-masked man asked towards Graham.

‘He having an asthma attack thanks to a certain group of people.’ Graham said tensely to the robber as he crossed his arms.

Dick had to keep his sigh in. Note to self: lay off the sass around Charlie; it’s a bad example.

Graham’s neck was suddenly grabbed from behind. ‘Oy we ‘ave a smart-ass on our hands don’t we Blue.’ Said another burglar – wearing a yellow mask this time – with a sadistic smile as he lifted Graham of the ground.

The boy tried to break free in vain while his airway was cut off and Dick knew Bruce and Alfred were really going to scold him for what he’ll do next.

The undercover vigilante placed his two hands on the ground and with one swift motion, threw his feet towards that of the burglar holding Graham.

The larger-than-average man fell down hard, unconsciously letting go of the struggling teen to break his fall. Dick quickly grabbed Graham and jerked him away from the man behind himself. He crouched down on his knees in front of Graham facing the yellow-masked burglar. The man vehemently looked around and Dick mustered all of his acting skills drilled by Bruce to feign innocence. Unfortunately, even a peanut-sized brain could deduce what happened apparently.

‘You little fuck!’ The sadistic smile was back again as the burglar slowly stood up and moved towards him, but Dick could do little else than look away ‘scared’ and hope that the man would instantly loose all interest in a teen who floored him not 5 seconds ago.

Yeah, that’ll go well.

A boot made contact with his jaw harshly and Dick fell to the ground disoriented tasting his own blood.

A rough hand then grabbed his hair and jerked his head up towards the burglars face. Dick had to bite his lip not to scream out; he had a feeling that that particular type of reaction would not work in his favour.

The burglar brought his face close to Dick’s; his breath smelled like Italian food the teen noticed. ‘Ye have a lot of nerve kid. Let’s see how far that gets ye.’

‘Don’t overdo it Yellow. Ya know how ya get.’ Blue called from near Charlie with a nauseating smile.

‘Well, we got enough ‘ostages if it comes to that right?’ Yellow answered and Dick felt the muscles in the man’s hands tense up as his head was thrown towards the ground. He instinctively turned his head slightly to the right to spare him a broken nose, but that did nothing to reduce the impact as stars danced around his vision.

‘Please leave the child be!’ ‘Can’t you see he’s bleeding?!’ ‘Let him go!!’ A few brave people called out from the crowd and they started to become restless, but another gunshot rang through the room.

Dick panicked for a second and quickly scanned around, fearing the bullet had hid some of his sympathisers. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw the shot was aimed at the ceiling again.

Dick quickly took his chance: he got up to his feet and dashed away before the yellow-masked burglar’s focus would be back on him again. After two paces however, he felt a sudden pressure on the front of his neck as he was grabbed by his collar and pulled towards a smouldering bearhug, effectively pinning his arms next to him.

‘Nice try kid.’ He heard from behind him and Dick could practically hear the smirk in the blue-masked burglar’s voice.

Damn it.

The new position gave Dick a chance to look around: he saw two burglars running towards a backdoor holding now filled duffle bags; the two other burglars were still ‘coordinating’ the bankers filling up the last few.

The crowd was docile again as nervous eyes darted left and right and especially up as they are used to help coming through ceilings in the form of superpowered aliens.

Speaking off… What the hell is keeping him?!

He also spotted Charlie - still on the ground - and his worry increased tenfold again: the small teen’s breathing has become very shallow as he laid unmoving on the ground, his hand weakly reaching for the backpack which he finally managed to get off his back. Graham desperately tried to reach his brother to help him, but he was being held back by the burglar with the yellow mask, who apparently lost interest in Dick and laughed maniacally at the two brother’s situation instead.

Dick didn’t try to hide his strength anymore as he kicked and screamed bloody murder to let Graham go, but although he landed a few good hits with his feet, the burglar’s grip wouldn’t budge.

Suddenly, a red mask filled his vision and Dick felt his chin being grabbed roughly, holding his head in place.

‘Oi Yellow, search something up for me.’ He called towards his right. The burglar holding Graham looked up and started rummaging through his pockets with one hand while shifting his hold on Graham in the other hand.

‘Sure boss, wha’ do ye want to know?’

‘Look up what that millionaire Bruce Wayne’s kid looks like.’

‘This ain’t Gotham you know Mr. Red sir,’ Dick heard his restraints say behind him, ‘I doubt we’ll find any of them rich kids in this dump.’

Yellow reached the group and he held out a picture pulled from the internet Dick hadn’t yet seen towards the two burglars. It showed Dick dribbling a basketball past Bruce with a large loopy grin on his face as the big man had clearly tripped over his own feet and was about to fall on his bum. Dick remembered this ‘hand-eye coordination training’ well as it was one of those rare occasions where he and Bruce were just fooling around. It sickened him to think there was a reporter hiding inside the canopy nearby, taking pictures of an intimate moment while he was unguarded and vulnerable.

‘Well well well…’ The red-masked burglar raised his voice, ‘looks like we got a celebrity in our midst boys!’

Dick was getting really tired of these situations as he glared at the apparent leader of this whole operation. The masked men around them started shouting and calling as they knew that it meant an increase in the profits of this organisation.

The burglar with the blue mask let go of Graham in the excitement and the boy did not hesitate to grab the inhaler from his gasping little brother’s backpack and putting it to his lips. The apparatus had an instant effect as Charlie’s eyes bulged from the sudden rush of oxygen and he started coughing harshly. Graham stroked Charlie’s back supportively as he first looked his brother over for any lasting effects, before looking worriedly through his brown locks in Dick’s direction.

The two locked eyes and Graham mouthed a quiet sorry, but Dick shook his head in a sign of understanding and mouthed hide before his restraints started shifting.

‘Well then, let’s bag ‘im up shall we? Oi Green!’ A burglar who had just finished his business with a cashier looked up. ‘Got any rope left?’

Dick’s blue-masked restraints attempted to move the teen towards the ground while the green-masked burglar approached, holding a thick bundle of rope in both hands.

The grip on the vigilante lessened for a second and Dick acted quickly: he twisted himself out of the man’s grip and started to move himself behind him instead, constantly trying to remain in his blind spot.

‘Shit where’d he go?!’ The blue-masked man called out and looked around him. Dick looked towards Graham again to see if he followed his orders and he was immensely relieved to see that he and Charlie had moved more towards the crowd, completely unknown to the perpetrators.

The teen grabbed the large man’s arm and twisted it upwards with all his strength. It had the desired effect as the man bend forwards to try and release the pain.

Dick then swiftly stepped onto the large man’s back and before the green-masked burglar could finally reach the two, the little Robin took to the air with a backflip. He landed slightly behind Charlie and Graham and immediately pulled them and himself into the crowd, disappearing from the burglars’ views.

‘Where the hell’d he go?!’ ‘Ye can’t run from us kid!’ ‘Show yourself you little twerk!’ The men began to panic as they saw their big bonus getting away and started shouting towards the crowd.

The people around Dick spotted the three teens easily and started bundling towards them, completely hiding hem from his potential captors. Dick smiled despite the situation at the bit of heroism of the common Metropolian folk and got his phone out, quickly looking through his contacts.

A scream sounded as an adolescent sounding woman was pulled from the crowd by the red-masked burglar. Dick found the contact he needed and quickly dialled.

‘COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE KIDS, OR I BLOW THIS WOMAN’S BRAINS OUT!’ The woman’s pleading sounded suddenly more erratic and Dick got a weird feeling he recognised the voice. The crowd started shifting wildly again and he heard Graham gasping as he was able to look towards the upheaval, but Dick’s view was still blocked.

Some of the people in the crowd started shouting again to let the woman go and Dick saw a gun being raised above the crowd as the boss burglar loosed another bullet towards the ceiling.

Three on three shots missed… Ha they won’t have the nerve– The phone was picked up after the third ring: ‘Little bird? That you? I’m still a bit busy you kno-’

‘Central Metropolian Bank, now.’ Dick whispered harshly before hanging up again, not wanting to give the good people around him hints to who he was speaking with. He relaxed a tiny bit unconsciously, straining his neck to look past the crowd in the direction of the hostage situation.

His breath caught in his throat.

Another shot rang.

Dick’s eyes widened as he saw the body of his homeroom teacher crumble to the floor. Her slightly plump head hit the ground painfully and her shoulder-length blond hair partly fell in front of her lifeless brown eyes; Dick could not look away as he saw the red liquid slowly flowing out of a 4mm bullet-sized hole on the side of her head. He unconsciously fell backwards onto the ground.

There was a silent moment as no one in the crowd dare to move, then the sound came back tenfold as the burglar grabbed another person from the crowd; an elderly man this time.

The people in the crowd were now taken with pure panic and scampered in all directions, but the burglars surrounded the crowd to prevent their ‘big catch’ from escaping. Dick was haphazardly shoved to all sides and got separated from his two other classmates.

‘I’ll repeat my question: WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE SHITS?!’ The red-masked burglar had managed the impressive feat of raising his voice above the deafening sounds of the crowd.

‘THERE THEY ARE!’ The blue-masked burglar spotted Graham reaching in the direction of miss Applegate. He picked him out of the crowd with both hands before raising him high above his head.

Graham trashed and screamed frantically without breaking his gaze from his dead teacher and Charlie weakly pulled on leg of the burglars pants, crying and pleading for him to let his brother go.

‘Hold the kid still Mark, I’m not that good of an aim.’ Dick saw the red-masked burglar quickly aim his gun towards his friend.

‘NO STOP DON’T!’

Dick quickly raised his hands above his head and got up on his feet. He locked eyes with the red-masked burglar who smiled wickedly; it reminded him of the Joker and he involuntarily shuddered, feeling suddenly very vulnerable without his mask.

The burglar turned himself and his gun towards Dick. ‘Very noble little hero.’ He snickered. ‘Now come here.’ He beckoned with his gun. Dick glanced at the body of miss Applegate before moving forward through the entranced crowd.

His intention was to move slowly, giving Superman ample time to crash the party damn it. However, he felt a sudden sharp pain on his scalp as he was pulled strongly forwards from his hair. Again.

Dick struggled to regain his footing in an attempt to release the pressure on his hair follicles. ‘Ungh let go! What’s you fetish with hair anyway?!’

He had his eyes shut tight because of the pain and thus missed the red-masked man’s swift approach. A large fists connected with his abdomen, causing him to hunch forwards. This wasn’t enough to keep him down though. The yellow-masked burglar noticed this and had no mercy as he hit the teen on his temple harshly with the back of his gun.

Dick wasn’t aware of anything as his vision disappeared for a second. As he was trying to regain his bearings and shake the temporary blindness off, he felt his wrists being pulled together behind his back as he was forced face-first onto the wet ground.

Why is it wet? Dick thought as he managed to open his eyes again. He really wished he hadn’t.

He tasted blood again; however, it wasn’t his own.

He felt his stomach constrict and his barely-digested lunch threatened come out the same way it came in: his head laid in a puddle of his teacher’s blood which still escaped her unmoving body not even a metre away from Dick.

He felt tears of frustration and sadness form in the corner of his eyes as he stared into miss Applegate’s lifeless ones. Fuck how could I have been so naïve… how many bad guys do I know that wouldn’t be above killing innocents. Damn it!

Dick felt himself move again as he was thrown over someone’s shoulder.

‘Gross this is gonna be such a pain to wash off!’

‘Shut your dramatics Blue, it’s on the move again!’ That voice came from further away and Dick felt them move suddenly towards that direction. The disoriented teen’s head throbbed painfully in rhythm with the jerky movements and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to ease the pain.

‘DICK!’ He heard Graham call from far away. A second later however, the voices and sounds from the Central Hall all became muffled. Dick moved his arms around slightly to assess the tightness of the bonds, but he had a hard time concentrating on this task in between his incredibly bumpy ride and splitting headache.

The headache increased even more as his eyes were suddenly assaulted with the unexpected brightness of the sun, but the light was quickly obscured again as he was thrown nonchalantly through the side of a windowless white van.

He was vaguely aware of the sounds of screaming masses as the rest off the burglars rushed in, but quickly after the doors were slided shut and Dick was secluded from the outside world.

Chapter Text

Ah Metropolis, one of the wealthiest cities of the U.S. with 11 million citizens and home of the Daily Planet, LexCorp and a certain man in spandex causing this town to have the lowest crime rate of the whole state.

Dick understands why the school would organize a school trip to this city, but that doesn’t mean he has to like it.

The problem isn’t Superman. Batman may have a personal vendetta on the guy, but that doesn’t mean Dick has to share that aversion no thank you. On the contrary, he sometimes actually welcomes Clark’s pure and happy attitude when the dark and brooding Batman becomes a bit overbearing.

No, his problem is that although crime rates in this city is low, the number of super villains isn’t. Sure, Robin can handle most things these guys can throw at him, but Richard Grayson is a bit more helpless and shouldn’t be looking like he fights bad guys on a regular basis in front of his classmates and the press.

To make matters worse, their homeroom teacher miss Applegate found it a fun idea the bring the whole class to the Central Metropolian Bank as an excursion, meaning that most of the items in Robin’s utility belt has to stay at the hotel since the bank has metal detectors in place.

All in all, Dick isn’t exactly in his comfort zone right now.

‘Oh my god look Superman!!!’

One of Dick’s classmates, Charlie, vehemently pointed up to the sky and started cheering and waving. Soon all the other classmates followed and even Dick looked up, despite the fact that he has seen the man flying around many times.

Dick expected the Kryptonian to do his signature smile and wave before moving on, what he didn’t expect is Superman to tense up and suddenly dive towards them with urgence.

He swooped down and picked up two of Dick’s classmates seconds before a truck screeched by the group with full breaks.

The cheering stopped for a second, but that silence was followed with even louder cheering from the classmates and most of the bystanders who watched it all unfold.

Miss Applegate however, immediately rushed towards the two children as Superman was putting them down again.

‘Liam! Ellie! are you both OK?!’ Miss Applegate all but screeched while looking over the kids for any injuries. ‘Thank the lord you were there Superman!’ Superman nodded towards the teacher while the two kids were looking up towards him with mouths agape.

‘Oh my god are the kids all right?!’ The truck driver frantically exited her vehicle and rushed towards the group with worry etched into her face. ‘I didn’t see them on time and when I hit the breaks I saw that I wouldn’t be able to-‘

Superman turned towards the lady: ‘Don’t worry ma’am, they are fine.’ ‘Oh thank god I’m so sorry for all of this.’

Miss Applegate addressed the truck driver: ‘Don’t worry about it miss nothing about this situation was your fault. You did everything you could.’ She turned towards her students again. ‘YOU TWO!’ Miss Applegate took hold of their shoulders as she almost yelled out. That seemed to finally snap the kids’ attention away from Superman to their teacher. ‘You both know you should NEVER get distracted while crossing a road! Never do that sort of thing again do you understand me?!’

As the scolding continued, Superman looked around the class a bit before locking eyes with Dick. A spark of recognition passed though his face and Dick smiled and subtly nodded towards the man, receiving a smile and a subtle nod back.

Suddenly though, the alien flinched and snapped his head to Dick’s right as though he heard something loud. He quickly said his goodbyes to Miss Applegate while saying the cheesiest ‘Always look before you cross the road kids’ line Dick has ever heard before flying off again to who knows where.

Dick felt sorry for his teacher, who now has her work cut out for her trying to get the overexcited class back under control.

As the group slowly started to move towards their destination again, Dick had to admit that the bank of Metropolis was already quite impressive from afar. It was clear that the building has been here for a long time: It was a made up of massive granite stones with thick walls and many carved details of historic figures which miss Applegate was currently discussing.

As Dick expected, the class had to go through a metal detector prior to entering the building and although it is apparently not common sense for a few people that belts contain metal, the line went relatively fast. Fifteen minutes later, the class was gathered in the central hall listening to yet another story from miss Applegate, this time about how the building itself was constructed.

However, Dick had to admit he was only partially listening to the teacher. He would have been interested in the stories if the bank was located in Gotham, but as the dark knight doesn’t have any business here, this stuff was simply not worth remembering.

Dick looked around and saw that he was not the only one of his class thinking this. A few kids were whispering with Liam and Ellie enthusiastically at the back of the group, while a few other classmates looked at them in awe. Well, it doesn’t take much work to become famous I see. Dick rolled his eyes when he heard Liam say that he won’t wash his upper arm anymore, as that is where Superman touched him.  

When miss Applegate was done with her tour it was lunchtime and the class was free to move about the building.

‘In groups of minimal three please and tell me where you are going. Be back here by 14:00 or we’ll leave without you!’ An empty threat of course but it does the job for this particular class as different pre-made groups rushed off while yelling to miss Applegate that they were going to the cafeteria that the building held and that they would be back on time.

The teacher sighed with a small smile at the kids antics before redirecting her attention to a few shy children who were approaching her with their pre-made lunch in their hands.

Dick felt around his backpack for his Alfred-made lunch: a box with a large Batman logo on the top, holding two sandwiches with the butler’s homemade salmon spread and vegetables and one with peanut butter and jelly. Alfred isn’t fond of this combination, but Dick insisted on it.

He was looking around for a place to sit when Graham, another classmate and friend of his, approach the raven teen. ‘Hi Dick cool lunchbox!’ Dick smirked when he saw the same logo in a different colour on Graham’s box. ‘Thanks, you too.’

‘Haha yeah think it’s obvious we are from Gotham?’ Graham replied sarcastically. ‘Charlie and I were planning on walking around while eating our lunch. Wanna join?’

‘Yeah sure.’ Dick replied and followed Graham heading towards miss Applegate to tell her their plans. Graham’s younger brother was already standing by her and waved at Dick as they approached.

‘Hiya Charlie.’

‘Hiya Dick, I already told miss Applegate we were going to see the sights a bit so we can go whenever.’

The two brothers wanted to see the Central Hall again where the counters were: the group quickly walked through it during the tour as it is a busy area, but Graham and Charlie wanted to take a longer look at the impressive ceilings and murals that decorated the space.

Although the two boys hardly look alike – with Graham’s hazelnut brown eyes and similar colour hair that flowed to his shoulders versus green-eyed Charlie’s practically platinum blond hair buzzed a few centimetres away from his scalp - the two boys had a shared love of all thing art-related thanks to their parents business. They regularly invited Dick to come along their expedition: they could drop fun facts about the art around them for hours and Dick didn’t mind learning about all these things. Bruce was always happy when Dick showed interest in things outside of the vigilante work, so the two families have bonded quite a bit during their many outings.

Today was no different as Charlie began telling the story of a certain general who fought in a war a few decades ago, which was depicted in a corner of the ceiling. Graham corrected him and added some more details Charlie missed, but Dick wasn’t paying attention to the story anymore.

He caught an unusual movement from the corner of his eye: a group of men holding large seemingly empty duffle bags held one hand inside their jacket as they manoeuvred through crowd towards the multiple counters where the bankers were working.

It took two seconds for Dick to understand what their plan was, but the men only needed one.

One of the burglars took the gun from his jacket, aimed it to the ceiling and shot it two times before pointing the nuzzle at the nearest banker. The a few of the other men aimed at the remaining bankers and the rest were pointing their guns at the crowd.

Shit. Dick thought as he pushed a startled Charlie and Graham to the ground. ‘Stay low. Don’t make a sound.’ He whispered to them.

A few of the other visitors around them unconsciously did the same and soon everyone was on their knees with their hands behind their heads while the bankers jerkily threw the money in the duffle bags.

‘Well will you look at that boys: we don’t even has to tell them what to do!’ A man with a red mask laughed while looking around his “colleagues”.

‘Indeed, it ain’t Metropolis for nothin’ sir.’ A man wearing a pink mask bellowed and the others laughed.

You think people from Metropolis are used to danger, just wait until you rob a bank in Gotham and see what happens. Dick internally smirked.

He thinks about his gear, neatly tucked away behind the dresser in the hotel and cursed internally. Can’t Bruce make the weapons out of reinforced plastic next time, that would have saved a lot of trouble.

He heard shallow gasps coming from Charlie on his left and when he looked, he saw that the boy was almost as pale as his hair: he was sweating profusely and his pupils have become so small, Dick could hardly see them. Shit. Shit shit shit.

Graham also heard the sob and grabbed Dick’s shoulder in panic. ‘Charlie!’ He harshly whispered. ‘Where is your inhaler?!’

‘It’s- It’s still, in my- my backpack.’ He said between gasps and he struggled to remove said backpack from his back. Graham moved to help his little brother; however, the upheaval was noticed by the robber in the blue mask. He approached the trio with a smirk: ‘Bit panicky are we lads? Don’t worry we ain’t gonna harm ya as long as ye DON’T. MOVE.’ These last two words were emphasised by the robber jabbing Charlie in the chest with the tip of his boots.

Charlie moves backwards onto his backpack and he let out a large gasp as his much-needed air escaped him.

‘What’s wrong with this one?’ The blue-masked man asked towards Graham.

‘He having an asthma attack thanks to a certain group of people.’ Graham said tensely to the robber as he crossed his arms.

Dick had to keep his sigh in. Note to self: lay off the sass around Charlie; it’s a bad example.

Graham’s neck was suddenly grabbed from behind. ‘Oy we ‘ave a smart-ass on our hands don’t we Blue.’ Said another burglar – wearing a yellow mask this time – with a sadistic smile as he lifted Graham of the ground.

The boy tried to break free in vain while his airway was cut off and Dick knew Bruce and Alfred were really going to scold him for what he’ll do next.

The undercover vigilante placed his two hands on the ground and with one swift motion, threw his feet towards that of the burglar holding Graham.

The larger-than-average man fell down hard, unconsciously letting go of the struggling teen to break his fall. Dick quickly grabbed Graham and jerked him away from the man behind himself. He crouched down on his knees in front of Graham facing the yellow-masked burglar. The man vehemently looked around and Dick mustered all of his acting skills drilled by Bruce to feign innocence. Unfortunately, even a peanut-sized brain could deduce what happened apparently.

‘You little fuck!’ The sadistic smile was back again as the burglar slowly stood up and moved towards him, but Dick could do little else than look away ‘scared’ and hope that the man would instantly loose all interest in a teen who floored him not 5 seconds ago.

Yeah, that’ll go well.

A boot made contact with his jaw harshly and Dick fell to the ground disoriented tasting his own blood.

A rough hand then grabbed his hair and jerked his head up towards the burglars face. Dick had to bite his lip not to scream out; he had a feeling that that particular type of reaction would not work in his favour.

The burglar brought his face close to Dick’s; his breath smelled like Italian food the teen noticed. ‘Ye have a lot of nerve kid. Let’s see how far that gets ye.’

‘Don’t overdo it Yellow. Ya know how ya get.’ Blue called from near Charlie with a nauseating smile.

‘Well, we got enough ‘ostages if it comes to that right?’ Yellow answered and Dick felt the muscles in the man’s hands tense up as his head was thrown towards the ground. He instinctively turned his head slightly to the right to spare him a broken nose, but that did nothing to reduce the impact as stars danced around his vision.

‘Please leave the child be!’ ‘Can’t you see he’s bleeding?!’ ‘Let him go!!’ A few brave people called out from the crowd and they started to become restless, but another gunshot rang through the room.

Dick panicked for a second and quickly scanned around, fearing the bullet had hid some of his sympathisers. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw the shot was aimed at the ceiling again.

Dick quickly took his chance: he got up to his feet and dashed away before the yellow-masked burglar’s focus would be back on him again. After two paces however, he felt a sudden pressure on the front of his neck as he was grabbed by his collar and pulled towards a smouldering bearhug, effectively pinning his arms next to him.

‘Nice try kid.’ He heard from behind him and Dick could practically hear the smirk in the blue-masked burglar’s voice.

Damn it.

The new position gave Dick a chance to look around: he saw two burglars running towards a backdoor holding now filled duffle bags; the two other burglars were still ‘coordinating’ the bankers filling up the last few.

The crowd was docile again as nervous eyes darted left and right and especially up as they are used to help coming through ceilings in the form of superpowered aliens.

Speaking off… What the hell is keeping him?!

He also spotted Charlie - still on the ground - and his worry increased tenfold again: the small teen’s breathing has become very shallow as he laid unmoving on the ground, his hand weakly reaching for the backpack which he finally managed to get off his back. Graham desperately tried to reach his brother to help him, but he was being held back by the burglar with the yellow mask, who apparently lost interest in Dick and laughed maniacally at the two brother’s situation instead.

Dick didn’t try to hide his strength anymore as he kicked and screamed bloody murder to let Graham go, but although he landed a few good hits with his feet, the burglar’s grip wouldn’t budge.

Suddenly, a red mask filled his vision and Dick felt his chin being grabbed roughly, holding his head in place.

‘Oi Yellow, search something up for me.’ He called towards his right. The burglar holding Graham looked up and started rummaging through his pockets with one hand while shifting his hold on Graham in the other hand.

‘Sure boss, wha’ do ye want to know?’

‘Look up what that millionaire Bruce Wayne’s kid looks like.’

‘This ain’t Gotham you know Mr. Red sir,’ Dick heard his restraints say behind him, ‘I doubt we’ll find any of them rich kids in this dump.’

Yellow reached the group and he held out a picture pulled from the internet Dick hadn’t yet seen towards the two burglars. It showed Dick dribbling a basketball past Bruce with a large loopy grin on his face as the big man had clearly tripped over his own feet and was about to fall on his bum. Dick remembered this ‘hand-eye coordination training’ well as it was one of those rare occasions where he and Bruce were just fooling around. It sickened him to think there was a reporter hiding inside the canopy nearby, taking pictures of an intimate moment while he was unguarded and vulnerable.

‘Well well well…’ The red-masked burglar raised his voice, ‘looks like we got a celebrity in our midst boys!’

Dick was getting really tired of these situations as he glared at the apparent leader of this whole operation. The masked men around them started shouting and calling as they knew that it meant an increase in the profits of this organisation.

The burglar with the blue mask let go of Graham in the excitement and the boy did not hesitate to grab the inhaler from his gasping little brother’s backpack and putting it to his lips. The apparatus had an instant effect as Charlie’s eyes bulged from the sudden rush of oxygen and he started coughing harshly. Graham stroked Charlie’s back supportively as he first looked his brother over for any lasting effects, before looking worriedly through his brown locks in Dick’s direction.

The two locked eyes and Graham mouthed a quiet sorry, but Dick shook his head in a sign of understanding and mouthed hide before his restraints started shifting.

‘Well then, let’s bag ‘im up shall we? Oi Green!’ A burglar who had just finished his business with a cashier looked up. ‘Got any rope left?’

Dick’s blue-masked restraints attempted to move the teen towards the ground while the green-masked burglar approached, holding a thick bundle of rope in both hands.

The grip on the vigilante lessened for a second and Dick acted quickly: he twisted himself out of the man’s grip and started to move himself behind him instead, constantly trying to remain in his blind spot.

‘Shit where’d he go?!’ The blue-masked man called out and looked around him. Dick looked towards Graham again to see if he followed his orders and he was immensely relieved to see that he and Charlie had moved more towards the crowd, completely unknown to the perpetrators.

The teen grabbed the large man’s arm and twisted it upwards with all his strength. It had the desired effect as the man bend forwards to try and release the pain.

Dick then swiftly stepped onto the large man’s back and before the green-masked burglar could finally reach the two, the little Robin took to the air with a backflip. He landed slightly behind Charlie and Graham and immediately pulled them and himself into the crowd, disappearing from the burglars’ views.

‘Where the hell’d he go?!’ ‘Ye can’t run from us kid!’ ‘Show yourself you little twerk!’ The men began to panic as they saw their big bonus getting away and started shouting towards the crowd.

The people around Dick spotted the three teens easily and started bundling towards them, completely hiding hem from his potential captors. Dick smiled despite the situation at the bit of heroism of the common Metropolian folk and got his phone out, quickly looking through his contacts.

A scream sounded as an adolescent sounding woman was pulled from the crowd by the red-masked burglar. Dick found the contact he needed and quickly dialled.

‘COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE KIDS, OR I BLOW THIS WOMAN’S BRAINS OUT!’ The woman’s pleading sounded suddenly more erratic and Dick got a weird feeling he recognised the voice. The crowd started shifting wildly again and he heard Graham gasping as he was able to look towards the upheaval, but Dick’s view was still blocked.

Some of the people in the crowd started shouting again to let the woman go and Dick saw a gun being raised above the crowd as the boss burglar loosed another bullet towards the ceiling.

Three on three shots missed… Ha they won’t have the nerve– The phone was picked up after the third ring: ‘Little bird? That you? I’m still a bit busy you kno-’

‘Central Metropolian Bank, now.’ Dick whispered harshly before hanging up again, not wanting to give the good people around him hints to who he was speaking with. He relaxed a tiny bit unconsciously, straining his neck to look past the crowd in the direction of the hostage situation.

His breath caught in his throat.

Another shot rang.

Dick’s eyes widened as he saw the body of his homeroom teacher crumble to the floor. Her slightly plump head hit the ground painfully and her shoulder-length blond hair partly fell in front of her lifeless brown eyes; Dick could not look away as he saw the red liquid slowly flowing out of a 4mm bullet-sized hole on the side of her head. He unconsciously fell backwards onto the ground.

There was a silent moment as no one in the crowd dare to move, then the sound came back tenfold as the burglar grabbed another person from the crowd; an elderly man this time.

The people in the crowd were now taken with pure panic and scampered in all directions, but the burglars surrounded the crowd to prevent their ‘big catch’ from escaping. Dick was haphazardly shoved to all sides and got separated from his two other classmates.

‘I’ll repeat my question: WHERE ARE YOU, YOU LITTLE SHITS?!’ The red-masked burglar had managed the impressive feat of raising his voice above the deafening sounds of the crowd.

‘THERE THEY ARE!’ The blue-masked burglar spotted Graham reaching in the direction of miss Applegate. He picked him out of the crowd with both hands before raising him high above his head.

Graham trashed and screamed frantically without breaking his gaze from his dead teacher and Charlie weakly pulled on leg of the burglars pants, crying and pleading for him to let his brother go.

‘Hold the kid still Mark, I’m not that good of an aim.’ Dick saw the red-masked burglar quickly aim his gun towards his friend.

‘NO STOP DON’T!’

Dick quickly raised his hands above his head and got up on his feet. He locked eyes with the red-masked burglar who smiled wickedly; it reminded him of the Joker and he involuntarily shuddered, feeling suddenly very vulnerable without his mask.

The burglar turned himself and his gun towards Dick. ‘Very noble little hero.’ He snickered. ‘Now come here.’ He beckoned with his gun. Dick glanced at the body of miss Applegate before moving forward through the entranced crowd.

His intention was to move slowly, giving Superman ample time to crash the party damn it. However, he felt a sudden sharp pain on his scalp as he was pulled strongly forwards from his hair. Again.

Dick struggled to regain his footing in an attempt to release the pressure on his hair follicles. ‘Ungh let go! What’s you fetish with hair anyway?!’

He had his eyes shut tight because of the pain and thus missed the red-masked man’s swift approach. A large fists connected with his abdomen, causing him to hunch forwards. This wasn’t enough to keep him down though. The yellow-masked burglar noticed this and had no mercy as he hit the teen on his temple harshly with the back of his gun.

Dick wasn’t aware of anything as his vision disappeared for a second. As he was trying to regain his bearings and shake the temporary blindness off, he felt his wrists being pulled together behind his back as he was forced face-first onto the wet ground.

Why is it wet? Dick thought as he managed to open his eyes again. He really wished he hadn’t.

He tasted blood again; however, it wasn’t his own.

He felt his stomach constrict and his barely-digested lunch threatened come out the same way it came in: his head laid in a puddle of his teacher’s blood which still escaped her unmoving body not even a metre away from Dick.

He felt tears of frustration and sadness form in the corner of his eyes as he stared into miss Applegate’s lifeless ones. Fuck how could I have been so naïve… how many bad guys do I know that wouldn’t be above killing innocents. Damn it!

Dick felt himself move again as he was thrown over someone’s shoulder.

‘Gross this is gonna be such a pain to wash off!’

‘Shut your dramatics Blue, it’s on the move again!’ That voice came from further away and Dick felt them move suddenly towards that direction. The disoriented teen’s head throbbed painfully in rhythm with the jerky movements and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to ease the pain.

‘DICK!’ He heard Graham call from far away. A second later however, the voices and sounds from the Central Hall all became muffled. Dick moved his arms around slightly to assess the tightness of the bonds, but he had a hard time concentrating on this task in between his incredibly bumpy ride and splitting headache.

The headache increased even more as his eyes were suddenly assaulted with the unexpected brightness of the sun, but the light was quickly obscured again as he was thrown nonchalantly through the side of a windowless white van.

He was vaguely aware of the sounds of screaming masses as the rest off the burglars rushed in, but quickly after the doors were slided shut and Dick was secluded from the outside world.

Chapter Text

Left.

The driver’s style was nothing short of haphazardly as Dick felt them speed through the busy Metropolian streets. The van’s movements were extremely sharp and jerky – the moneybags flying all over the place – while Dick heard klaxons going off in all directions. He couldn’t help but roll his eyes. As if you can out-drive Superman.

‘What’s so funny kid?’ Dick redirected his attention towards the apparent leader of the burglars – now promoted to captors – sitting on the other side of the van, still wearing that stupid red mask. Dick shrugged: ‘Obviously nothing.’

Another left. Followed by a right.

‘Boss how long until-’ the pink-haired burglar suddenly stopped talking as a rumbling noise very much unlike the traffic outside was heard.

Although Gotham’s main villains rarely resorted to these tools, the city’s general evildoers were enough of a fan of these weapons that Robin could still easily recognize the distinctive sounds they make as they go off. Bombs.

The red-masked burglar/captor gave a sly smile towards the pink-masked one: ‘That answered your question?’ He received the same smile back: ‘Yessir! That’ll hopefully keep him busy some.’

‘You didn’t…’ Dick couldn’t help but mutter.

‘Yeah we did.’ Dick slowly looked sideways towards the burglar with the yellow mask sitting next to him. ‘Planted them on the cashiers and told them to dance. Let me tell you kid they were suddenly so lively I wish I could have been there when it was time for the grand finale!’

The sadist was smiling at him as if he just shared some wonderful fucking news, but Dick could do nothing but grit his teeth and glare as Bruce’s words echoed in his ears: ‘Just keep your head down and don’t fight back. Don’t draw attention to yourself; let them underestimate you until you find an opening to strike.’

Dick hung his head back down and closed his eyes as he breathed heavily in an attempt to regain control over his emotions. They’re OK. Everyone’s OK.

He let his focus fall back towards the van’s movements. Taking a left on a roundabout. That would take them currently towards the New Troy borough – the same area where the Daily Planet is located.

‘Feeling comfortable, are we?’ Dick looked up toward the person who spoke – the blue-masked man sitting across from him – and had to think about that one as he struggled to find any pain-relieving position on the build-in folding chair he was currently sitting on.

The burglars had extended the rope holding his arms behind his back to loop around part of the van’s structure. Furthermore, they had some leftover handcuffs, which they used to pin Dick’s feet against the van as well. This meant that his legs were forced into a weird angle behind his centre of mass, making it near impossible to keep any kind of stability in the rashly moving van. His balance was held purely by the coarse ropes tied around his wrists, cutting off any circulation with every movement while scraping them raw in the process.

‘Honestly, I’ve been less comfortable during corporate soirées.’ This wasn’t a lie. The vehicle veered sharply to the right. Ugnh, slightly less of a lie.

Another sharp turn and Dick felt the nose of the vehicle tilt slightly upwards as the traffic noise diminished, meaning that they likely reached the bridge connecting New Troy with the other side of the river.

The leader felt this change as well and frowned as he carefully moved towards the front of the van. He opened the little sliding window: ‘Hey, where are we? There wasn’t any bridge on the escape route we planned.’

A voice answered back: ‘Sorry boss, y’know what traffic in Metropolis is like. I had to deviate a bit. Good news is there’s no alien freak in sight yet.’

‘Didn’t answer my question Grey.’ Dick heard the getaway driver softly groan. ‘If you really wanna know, we’re now headed to the snob district.’

‘What?! Why?!’

‘Don’t worry bossman, we’ll get there eventually- WOAH!’

The car suddenly veered to the right and Dick could feel the two wheels beneath him lift up, no longer in contact with the ground. The turn was much too sharp for the van to be able to regain its balance and soon all the unbound passengers were flown against the side of the van as it overturned.

Dick felt a pop followed by an immense pain he wasn’t unfamiliar with spreading from his left shoulder. His body had been thrown violently away from the seat on impact; however, the bonds fully absorbed the movement and the force combined with the weird angle of his arms had caused his shoulder to dislocate painfully.

He now hung limply from the top of the van – the pressure this caused on his arms and shoulder almost unbearable – as the men beneath him started to find their bearings again.

‘WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED OUT THERE?!’ the yellow-masked burglar exclaimed.

The red leader quickly scanned his surroundings before looking up, making eye contact with Dick. He looked then back at his colleagues: ‘Yellow, Pink, with me outside and find us a next ride! No, leave the money! Go!’ They nodded and exited the vehicle.

Blue, grab the kid!’

‘What?! But boss we have no time!’

‘Else we have no money, just get on with it!’

‘I’ll help!’ A voice yelled out from behind the back doors. A head concealed with a grey mask popped around the corner: the getaway driver.

‘YOU! WHAT THE HELL ‘D YOU DO?!’ Grey ignored Yellow’s exclaims from outside the van and outstretched his hand towards the blue-masked man. ‘No time, just hand me the keys for his feet!!’

Blue looked back towards his leader. ‘Augh let’s move people!’ he groaned and stepped outside as well.

Dick tried to squirm away from the two men attempting to free him, but any small movement was excruciating and he quickly decided he’d much rather remain into the hands of petty criminals than to bear this pain a minute longer.

He hung limply as he waited for the two burglars to finally free him from his bonds. Blue succeeded to cut through the now bloodied rope around his wrists and just as Grey released the first of the two shackles around his ankle, the van suddenly started moving again.

‘Why the fuck are we moving?!’ The blue mask exclaimed.

‘THE HELL IS THAT CAR DOING?!’

‘STOP IT HIT THE BREAKS!’

‘OH NO THEY’RE GOING TO FALL!’

Multiple voices – not just the burglars’ – were exclaiming from the outside of the van.

‘MARK! TOM! SHIT HURRY UP GET OUTTA THERE, YOU’RE BEING PUSHED OFF THE BRIDGE!’

But it was too late. The three passengers felt the van’s nose pointing downwards and not a second later, weightlessness overcame them as they plummeted towards the river.

‘SUPERMAN!’

He had perched himself on top of one of the higher buildings of Metropolis and opened up his super hearing to the maximum of his capabilities, hoping to hear any sign of the multi-billionaire’s heir.

The Kryptonite shards imbedded into his arm were starting to burn again, but Superman didn’t pay it any mind.

Come on kid you weren’t unconscious when they dragged away so don’t be stubborn now.

…

Superman!

It was a faint cry in between overpowering noises of panic, but the integrated alien abruptly opened his eyes as he finally heard the voice had been hoping to hear for the last fifteen minutes.

Thank God, took you long enough.

With as much speed he could muster, he followed the sound of the loud ruckus to a large bridge connecting a borough to the rest of the city. Some of the bystanders spotted him approaching and yelled frantically while pointing towards the water.

Superman didn’t stop to smell the panicking flowers as he immediately dove into the water – he saw enough of the damage on the bridge to deduce where the little robin could be.

He sincerely hoped he was wrong.

As he looked around in the water, he quickly spotted what looked like a stereotypical getaway van. It was sinking nose-first at a fast pace towards the bottom of the river and Superman could faintly hear gurgling noises coming from inside.

Hold on kid!

Superman quickly reached for a tear in the body and tore it away to-

BOOM!

The shockwave ripped through the waters, the force of the blast causing the water around the vehicle to instantly evaporate, creating a haphazard chasm of rapidly expanding and contracting pockets of water vapour and debris. Superman could only watch as the van was being ripped apart in that split second of chaos.

Not a second after the start of the explosion, the van and its passengers were gone. The sudden and contrasting silence and stillness of the water surrounding him giving the illusion that everything had been nothing but a dream, a figment of Superman’s sudden morbid imagination.

As his eyes followed the last pieces of debris slowly floating deeper toward the riverbed however, that feeble illusion was broken: his super vision spotted the distinctive Gotham Academy pin Dick was sporting earlier that day.

He slowly reached for the pin, afraid that any and all pressure would break the only thing remaining of his nephew in all but name.

A few hundred metres downstream of the explosion, a car was parked at the side of the river. Two strongly build men clothed in suits and sunglasses were leaning against a Lexus LS 500. The black-haired, chocolate-skinned man was idly playing with a lit cigarette in between his fingers, the other bald but bearded, peach-skinned man held a device in his hand resembling a small cell phone.

Although the men appeared relaxed and at ease to any passerby, when they would look closer, they would see the tense lines in their body as the eyes behind the black-haired man’s glasses were lazy but steadily scanning the surface of the water.

They too had seen the car fall off into the river – they would have been blind to have missed it – but contrarily to the people on the bridge, the two men already expected this to happen.

Then, the bald man calmly rose up to his feet and started to slanter upstream following the river, his gaze still fixed on the device. His partner extinguished his cigarette, put his hands in his pocket and followed suit.

After a few paces, the bald man stopped walking and looked up towards the river. There, a few strokes away from where they were standing, they saw small air bubbles rise to the surface of the water, forming ever growing ripples.

The dark-skinned man grinned as he approached the edge of the water and crouched down towards the ground, his hands draped lazily on top of his thighs.

The air bubbles increased more and more and through the ripples, the men could see a shape slowly rising up towards the surface.

Suddenly, a head broke though, gasping for air as it struggled to stay above the water. It was the head of an adult man, his semi-long brown hair almost fully obscuring his eyes as he spotted the two men waiting on the banks of the river.

He then looked back down towards the water with panic, reaching toward where another shape was still visible. He groaned as he tensed his muscles and suddenly, another head popped out of the water. His face was only partially visible – a small portable scuba set concealing the bottom part – but the face was clearly that of a teenager. He appeared unconscious.

The conscious man shifted his body to a backstroke position as he placed his younger charge against his chest, trying to keep them both afloat as he made his way towards dry land.

The moment he felt his back connect with the earth, he let out an enormous sigh in relief and felt his whole body relax, the ordeal finally over.

‘Well done sport. You made it look easy.’

He looked back in the direction of the voice and locked eyes with the crouched down dark-skinned man. His head fell down again as he removed the small scuba gear from the boy’s mouth: ‘Very funny.’

‘Grab the kid.’ This was the other man that spoke.

‘You grab the kid. D’you know what happens with suède when it gets wet?’ He gestured to his shoes.

‘Take them off then.’

‘…Fuck you.’

After a few seconds, the now barefoot man approached the older one and grabbed hold of the teen still draped over his chest. He placed one of his arms in the crook of the boy's knees and the other arm looped around his back, his hand gripping his shoulder to hold him more securely.

As he lifted him up and started to walk away with the target, he felt a hand take hold of his ankle: ‘My payment.’

The henchman sighed and nodded his head towards the white Lexus a little ways off; his partner was already halfway there.

‘It’s in the car, so if you get your lazy ass moving, you can come collect it.’ He shook the hand off his ankle and walked off in the direction of the car as well, the man lying in the water struggling to follow suit.

As the older man got up, he felt something shift around his neck and he held it in front of him. It was a grey-coloured mask.

The object fell to the ground as the traitor looked back towards the bridge one last time: ‘Sorry Mark. It was strictly business.’

As he turned around towards the car again, the thud of a silenced gun sounded.

‘Funny, I think my partner was just about to say that.’

In the last moments of life, Tom saw the peach-skinned man put away his gun as the multi-billionaire’s child was placed in the car.

Then he would know no more.

Chapter Text

Sounds were ringing all around him, but Clark couldn't concentrate on them.

The police had arrived at the scene not long after the explosion happened, interrogating witnesses left and right, attempting to recreate the occurrences before their captain arrived.

“It was awful...”

“The car just kept going.”

“What a lunatic!”

Superman looked through grieving eyes as an older couple was explaining step by step what they remembered.

“The car went on its side because another car wouldn't get out of the way!” The female explained. “Then as those people with masks crawled out, the same care came out of nowhere again and it pushed the car into the water.” The other female of the couple added.

Near the edge of the scene, the burglars were being apprehended by the police. As they were shoved into the patrol car, they're fearful eyes remained fixed on Superman. He locked eyes with the ‘leader’ of the group, who flinched and took a step back.

Superman should have felt ashamed losing his temper like that during his ‘interrogation’, but he found he couldn't care less. Especially since the kidnappers couldn't tell him anything useful as they had no idea what happened.

“And have you seen where the driver went?”

“No, she drove off that way,” the women pointed in the direction of the New Troy borough, “but I don't know where she went after that.”

“-were still some people in the car as it went over the edge.” Superman focused his hearing to another conversation, hoping he had missed a vital clue that could tell him the little bird wasn't...

“The driver rushed around the van and went inside. I heard at least another person in there.”

The burglars had a more complete story: there were still two people in there.

“No there was another person in there!” A teen suddenly joined the interrogation. “They were dangling from the top of the van, or the side I guess. The two inside the van were trying to get them out!”

“And how would you describe the third person, son?” The officer asked.

“I don't know I couldn't see them very well...”

“Wait I've seen these masked people on the news just earlier!” Yet another man interrupted. “Didn't they rob the Central Bank?”

“Oh yeah, I've seen that as well! They also took some super rich Gotham kid hostage, right?”

“Oh my gosh could it be that the kid in the van was Bruce Wayne's son?!’

Superman hung his head again. Bruce... He would kill him.

The worst part is, Superman would let him.

This was deliberate, he didn't need to be the world's greatest detective to deduce that.

Batman replayed the security footage he recovered from the CCTV cameras on the bridge, making sure to not miss a single detail as his eyes fixed the large screens without blinking.

What he saw until now matched with the statements from the Metropolian news report. He saw the van topple over following the brusque manoeuvring. Seven seconds later, two burglars crawled out of the back of the van and the driver hurriedly exited his cabin as well. There was a little bit of tension in the burglars’ body language as the driver jumped in the back while the leader of the group stepped out.

Then, a Mercedes-Benz S65 – the same one who caused the van to topple – turned around and violently slammed into the underside of the vehicle, extracting a clear reaction out of everyone involved. The burglars appeared to yell something to the back of the van as they attempted to stop the car. The recordings were without sound however, so Batman couldn't make out what.

Face recognition didn't give him any hits yet on the identity of the female driver and as Batman attempted to retrace the Mercedes’ route back to the potential headquarters of the perpetrators, the car ‘disappeared’ into one of the many blind spots of the viewing angles. Damn it at least in Gotham, every corner is covered.

The dark knight was squinting to see anything out of the ordinary, anything that caught his attention in the few seconds it took for the car to reach the edge of the bridge. Alas, no movements came from the van as it fell below the road and out of view of the cameras. Conclusion, Dick was still in the car when it went over the edge.

Unfortunately, the river was another blind spot in the Metropolitan camera system – Batman would really need to talk/punch someone about this when he gets there – so, he couldn't see where his son escaped to after the van hit the water.

Bruce refused to think that Dick is dead. Simple as that.

There were multiple questions now turning in Gotham’s senior vigilante’s head. Was this move just a completely unfortunate set of terrible accidents and possible intoxications? Not likely. as this ‘accident’ staged by the robbers? Following the seemingly genuine shock of the masked men, combined with the witness interviews and radio chatter, also not likely. This was a separate group then.

That begs a new set of questions: Was this move just a completely bad timed and disproportioned vendetta against the burglars? Or was Dick their actual target?

If it was the first, how would they know the van would be on that bridge on that very moment? Or, was there a trap set for them at every bridge? If it was the later, then how could they have possibly known that the burglars would have grabbed Dick during their burglary? Batman watched the footage and witness statements again – including Superman's rushed one – of that particular scene as well, and everything he learned lead him to believe the kidnapping was a spontaneous decision.

And then the weirdest occurrence of all, the van's explosion. No part of the ‘accident’ would have caused a leakage or internal fire, and this is even more unlikely when the vehicle was submerged in water. There was absolutely no reason the van should have exploded as it did.

“Master Bruce...” A heavy and solemn voice sounded from behind him.

“It just doesn't add up Alfred. Why would they kill him instead of holding him hostage? That’s what they usually do… I'm sure there is something I’ve missed, there has to.”

“Sir...” Alfred sounded hesitant, “maybe they just didn't know Master Dick was in there.” The billionaire took a sharp breath in.

On the monitor, a video footage a witness mage kept playing and the two could see Superman rising back into the camera's view, his head hanging low and upper body hunched over.

“He looks so very pained master Bruce.”

The superpowered alien then snapped his head in the direction of the burglars who attempted to make a run for it and his fists balled.

He flew to them quicker than the frame rate of the cheap mobile phone camera could handle and a few frames later, the burglars were lying on the ground as Superman loomed over them. A few of them were squirming about, but a few were also unmoving.

The red masked burglar was lying flat on the ground in a small crater created due to the strong impact of his body against the asphalt. Superman was kneeling over him, one hand holding the man down as the other was balled and ready to use above his head. His eyes were glaring daggers with a fury the Dark Knight had hardly seen from him before.

A few words, which Batman assumed were mostly threats and demands, were exchanged and a few seconds later the alien loosed his fist towards the burglar's head.

Batman looked mildly shocked at the alien's fist, but found himself slightly relieved as the fist came up unbloodied a few seconds later with a few pieces of rubble coming loose from it. It appeared to have the needed effect however, as the burglar immediately started rambling. Batman couldn’t make out what the man was saying, but Superman clearly could as he grew more and more irritated as he was apparently displease with the information he was getting.

The body language of the burglar slowly became more confident and Batman could clearly recognise the face of a villain spatting out an insult. The goody two-shoes couldn’t handle much of that apparently as he suddenly held the man up by his collar, slowly squeezing it tighter as he held the man’s ear close.

Batman couldn’t imagine what Superman said to be very threatening, on the other hand, he rarely saw the man as angry as he is in the footage.

Superman then let go of the robber, who crumbled to the floor and attempted to move away from the Metropolis superhero as Superman walked towards a group of police officers.

Batman had seen enough. He switched off his screens as he turned to face his butler.

‘Your valise and all other necessities are packed and ready for you in the car master Bruce. I shall keep you updated to any messages you receive in your absence and will eagerly await your and Master Dick’s return.’

Bruce attempted a small smile despite the pit currently nestled in his stomach.

‘Thank you Alfred.’

Slowly but surely, he felt his consciousness drift back to him.

At that moment, every once of training prevented him from groaning – a sharp pain blossoming from his head shoulder as a movement caused his body to shift slightly. He attempted to keep his breathing steady as he suppressed the pain.

He was being transported.

He wondered by whom as the last time he was conscious, he was hanging from the side of a van as it plummeted towards what he could only assume was the river. He brought his mind back to the present.

The boy slowly moved his arms through the pain and found that surprisingly, he could. That’s new…

He figured he was currently lying across the backseat of a car with a driver that was probably not entirely innocent. What he didn’t know however, was if there was a passenger present next to him.

Remaining completely still, he focused on any signs indicating the presence of a third occupant and unfortunately, he heard two different breathing patterns coming from the front of the car. I’m going to have to time this well.

He heard the passenger on the right shift.

After a few seconds, he said: ‘You think he’ll stay under the whole way? I still think we should’ve tied his hands up.’

‘…Not needed,’ again a few seconds passed. ‘He’s a sheltered little snowflake who just fell off a bridge and nearly drowned. The kid’s not gonna wake up for a long time.’

Dick loved it when bad guys underestimated him. It made things so much easier.

The man – judging from his voice – shifted again as he turned back around to face the front. Silence returned in the vehicle and Dick dared to slightly open his eyes for just a second, what he saw made these guys officially his favourite bad guys of the month: the rear-end mirror was not turned towards him, which means they didn’t keep continuous tabs on him.

Another few painful turns later, the teen felt the car slow down substantially and the incognito vigilante prepared himself for his escape, hoping that the door would not have a child lock in place. He was confident it wouldn’t have.

He moved to open the door, however as his hand almost reached the handle, the handle moved away and he came face to face with a slightly tall female, hair slightly dishevelled as she looked towards him with great surprise.

‘Shi-‘ ‘Wha-?!’

Dick bolted past the lady and ran two steps before a dizzy spell overtook him. He was wheezing and coughing, the world around him spinning as his headache intensified, and narrowly avoided loosing his footing and crumbling to the ground right then.

He forced his feet to move again, but the grogginess wouldn’t leave him and it affected his speed greatly.

He thus wasn’t surprised when he felt a body slam into him from behind and force his body to the ground.

‘Nice try kid.’

The world slowly came back into focus as he laid on the ground, confused and out of breath. He could hear voices paired with footsteps moving closer to him: ‘Good work Dom!’ ‘Stupid kid.’

 As his sight sharpened, he saw the black male and tall female from earlier approach him with smug faces. He also took not of the seemingly abandoned petrol station that served as a backdrop of the scene.

The weight on his back suddenly lightened and he felt his body being picked up by his collar. He panicked for one second, feeling his throat constrict. The pressure luckily disappeared as quickly as it came when he felt his footing return; however, the white man still held a vice grip on his upper arm as the other one snickered: ‘The kid’s not gonna wake up for a long time huh?’

‘… shut up.’

‘Idiots.’ The female rolled her eyes.

Suddenly, Dick heard what he assumed was a rusty door creak open from behind him as a voice yelled: ‘What y’all waiting for dammit? For the sun to set?!’

‘Yeah yeah don’t get you tighties in a bunch, we’re coming.’ The bald man yelled back.

The black male – Dom apparently – turned and moved towards the entrance of the building, easily dragging Wayne enterprises’ son along with him.

‘Welcome to your new home sweet home young master. We shall do our utmost best to make your stay most enjoyable.’ Dick really didn’t like that peach-skinned man.