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Everyone had days when everything that could go wrong did go wrong.
Even heroes.
So Nightwing had nothing to be ashamed of.
And luckily for him, Spoiler and Red Robin had one of those days too, because all three of them had fallen into the same trap from the Pinguin.
"We're not telling anyone about this, right?" asked Red Robin.
"What do you think?" Spoiler looked at him in disbelief.
"But whoever frees us has to zip it as well," sighed Dick.
And with his luck, it would be Red Hood, who would also take photos to prove their misery.
The three of them were sitting on a platform surrounded by a shark tank.
And no, there was no way to get across the water using the grappling hooks.
And no, the sharks hadn't been visible when they had swung onto the platform.
They were experienced superheroes... who had made a mistake.
Spoiler and Red Robin scowled at Nightwing as if it were his fault.
Dick simply sat down. If he was going to be criticized, he'd do it in a comfortable position.
After all, Penguin had made no sign of coming back any time soon. If his words were to be trusted, he would even come back just for the leftovers.
They endured exactly three minutes and ten seconds in silence.
Nightwing knew that because he was meditating and counting the seconds.
Three minutes and ten seconds before Spoiler couldn't take it anymore.
"I spy with my little eye something white."
Nightwing could have disagreed now, but deep inside him was always the big-brother role that loved nothing more than when he could do something with his siblings.
"The lampshade?"
"No."
They both looked at Tim expectantly and he seemed more than opposed to it. But Tim was weak too, so he bowed to peer pressure. It was better than being hated by the only two people around.
"The bones at the bottom of the pool?"
"No," Stephanie replied as Dick jumped up.
"The what?!"
And sure enough. There were piles of bones at the bottom of the pool.
"Penguin must have been busy," Spoiler shrugged.
Red Robin looked at them in confusion: "No. Look at the bones. It doesn't look human. They're mainly leg bones. He probably bought them somewhere to give the pelvis a special touch."
"Where?" Spoiler laughed, "In an aquarium store?"
"Those stores have a lot of things that are worse," a shiver ran through Dick. He'd been in a pet store like that once with Damian and he'd never been this close to hell - including the one time he'd been in hell.
Stephanie didn't seem to believe him, but then she'd probably make the mistake of marching into a store like that someday. Her own fault.
"The lenses of my mask or his?" continued Nightwing, trying to change the subject.
Spoiler shook his head with a grin.
"My clean record?" joked Red Robin.
Nightwing and Spoiler went into a fit of laughter. This week alone, Red Robin had committed so many crimes that he could definitely no longer be considered innocent.
"Haha," Tim said dryly.
The only stupid thing was that Dick had to pass: "I really don't know. Everything here is so dirty that everything that used to be white is now gray."
And it was true. It was basically just an old warehouse with gray walls and a concrete floor and a huge shark tank in the middle. There was nothing else to see. Even the advertising posters on the wall had faded so much that they were no longer legible.
Tim also gave up.
Spoiler thrust her fist victoriously into the air.
"It was your teeth," she grinned cheekily at Nightwing.
Tim groaned, but Dick was pleased that someone had noticed how good his teeth looked.
"Now it's my turn," Tim said firmly, "I spy with my little eye something red."
"Your outfit," Dick said immediately.
Tim shook his head: "How obvious do you think I am?"
"My wound?" Stephanie asked.
Tim grimaced and reluctantly admitted: "Right."
Nightwing jumped up again instead, "What WOUND?"
It took ten minutes before he was convinced that it was just a small scratch.
But in that time, Spoiler looked so unhappy and Red Robin so smug that Nightwing realized that this had been Tim's plan all along.
"Next time you report such injuries immediately," Nightwing said firmly.
"It's a scratch!"
"That doesn't change what I said."
Nightwing used his best Batman voice and Spoiler cringed.
"Yes, Dad," she rolled her eyes, at least judging by her voice. But she agreed and that was all that mattered.
"Then it's my turn now," Nightwing said, looking around.
After a while, he said, "I spy with my little eye something black."
"Your suit?" asked Tim.
"No."
"Tim's suit?"
"No."
"Spoiler's mask?"
"No, you'll never figure it out."
"The dark eyes of the sharks?"
"Nop, better give up now."
"No way! Your hair or mine!"
"Nooooo!"
And so it went on with the few pieces of furniture in the room until both Spoiler and Red Robin had to give up.
And clearly reluctantly.
"It was Black Bat," Nightwing grinned, waving at Cass.
His two colleagues wheeled around, only to see Cass melt out of the shadows.
Tim breathed out in relief, "So we can finally end this game."
"Then we're saved, you mean," Stephanie took offense, since it had been her idea and she was the winner.
"The important thing, guys," Nightwing said reassuringly, "is that Cass would never tell anyone about our mistake."
The relief on the faces of the other two was clear to see as Cass began the rescue.
Sometimes you just had days where everything went wrong, but even those days eventually came to an end.
Nightwing was just glad that his bad day was finally over.