Chapter Text
Rutledge cheered down to them, “Because the floor is!”
The trio of heroes looked over the room and not floor and answered the hosts question declaration at varying levels of enthusiasm. Dick practically bounced as he yelled out in glee, “LAVA!”
While Jason looked over the room and stated, “Lava.” In a complete deadpan as he surveyed the room and the different paths they could take. There seemed to be two paths to start and they should split at least somewhat at this point.
Tim, who looked like he deeply regretted both not just letting Dick reveal his blackmail to everyone, and not buying a new coffee machine no matter how much he missed his well-seasoned pot that made things even stronger from the residue of old pots, he missed Ambrosia, she made such wonderfully coffee that once had Bart going so fast, he actually vibrated through a couch, sighed out, “Lava.”
Jason and Tim shared a tired look as Dick grinned at the lava as it shot up throughout the room.
Jason turned towards the wall of picture frames with bugs inside them, “I should head this way as there’s no way tiny Tim is making it past those Toi Moko.”
Dick blinked, “The what?”
Jason rolled his eyes, “The Easter Island Heads.”
“Oh, yeah that’s a bit tall for Tim.”
Tim glared at both of them, “Well those of us who aren’t giants will just have to take a path that we won’t have to worry about breaking any of the props on.”
“Guys,” Dick pulled both brothers into side hugs, “Come on, lets go!” Letting go of the other two Dick flipped and landed on the first crate. Nearly slipping off the small crate he had to flip onto the larger crate where he ended up flat on his back, “Ow.”
Jason laughing turned to the small crate in preparation to climb onto the wall of bugs, “This looks movable,” Jason picked up the painting, “Got some heft to it, think we could use it?”
Tim frowned at it, “It’s a picture of a bridge, and this room isn’t designed by Nigma so we can probably use it as a bridge.”
Jason grinned, “Sounds like something you're going to need short stack.”
Tim glared at him, “Just put it down and I’ll start heading towards Dick, without ending up looking like a turtle.”
Dick smiled at the two getting along, even at his expense before grimacing at the feel of the ‘lava’ dripping down his back from where his hair had picked up some of the water on the crate, “Well pass it this way then.”
Jason easily picked up the painting, but made sure to make it look like his muscles were straining as he held one side of the painting and Dick kneeled on the other side on top of the crate, “Climb on baby bird.”
Tim rolled his eyes but did climb onto the board Jason was holding up flat with Dick kneeling on the other side so he could easily crawl over before turning a glare on Jason, “Move it or I’ll start to think you're scared of bugs.”
Jason raised an eyebrow as he looked over at the wall and back to Tim, “Do you really think I’m scared of bugs after living on the streets of Gotham?”
Tim shrugged as he helped Dick turn the painting to be a bridge to the next crate, “Okay maybe you haven’t left because you're scared of the lava.”
Dick grunted as they moved the painting, “Okay this is heavier than it looks.”
Jason rolled his eyes as he stepped onto the small crate to grab onto the finger hold track, “I’m going, I’m going. Glad I didn’t wear the shoes the idiot wanted me to. These ledges are tiny and my toes would not have been able to keep a hold on this toe rack.”
Tim didn’t look over as he held the bridge steady for Dick to get to the next crate. He was not going to be the reason any of them failed, “Your toes too fat?”
“I’m not the ballerina of the family, now make sure Dick doesn’t go on the doom pyramid.”
Tim looked at the pyramid and then at Dick who was eyeing it down, “Doom pyramid?”
“Just look at it, there’s no grip. Even the pretzel is not making it back off that thing.”
Dick pouted, “I could.”
“You get on that and fall, we will all mock you forever.”
“I can balance on the to-”
Tim snorted as he started over the bridge catching Dick’s eye, “We will all mock you forever if, and when you fall off that thing.” Tim sided eyed him, “It would take someone of immense balance and almost superhuman talents to balance on that.”
Getting the hint, Dick pouted, but took it as it was meant and started looking along the path to the other crates, “Alright then we’ll head towards the elephant. I’m going to call her Zitka.”
Jason rolled his eyes as he grabbed the rope that was between the two sets of insect climbing walls, “Every time we go anywhere and you see an elephant you call it Zitka.”
“Zitka is an awesome name.” Hearing a splash Dick turned towards Jason where he would now see one of the sarcophaguses had opened, “Oh cool the sarcophagus opened!”
Jason snorted as he continued along the wall, “Yeah and revealed an alien mummy in it that just looks creepy… wait these aren’t insects.” Jason stopped to glare at the case containing a pair of bats.
Tim looked over from where he was watching Dick scamper over the elephants’ ears to the opposite side, “What are they then? Your head’s so big we can’t see anything.”
Jason went a little to the side so the other two could see the shadow box, “They got two bats up here!”
Dick gasped, “Bats? How dare they hurt poor little bats!”
Tim nodded, “As a Gothamite I find such a thing deeply wrong.”
“Oh shut up both of you,” Jason continued along the wall grateful for all his years of clinging onto things, as he faked a missed grip, as it allowed him to succeed well enough that he could fake not being as capable as he was. If Dick hadn’t seen the invite for this show he would have turned it down as it was too potentially identity revealing to have out on the internet forever, “It’s probably rubber.”
Dick decided to do a handstand on top of the elephant crates because he could and if he did bite it here, he could definitely catch himself before he hit the water, “Violence against plastic bats is sad too. Just think we could be dropping them on Bruce.”
Jason pivoted, careful to wobble as he got his foot down on the sarcophagus with the alien mummy in it, “On Bruce?”
Dick nodded, folding himself over so he’d slide down one ear to the spot on the crate opposite where Tim was, “He used to be terrified of them. Now let’s recap. Where is everyone and how do you feel?”