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The vine slapped against the ground, sending Batman careening into the wall with a hard thud. Dick ducked and dodged as he tried to approach Poison Ivy. The vines snaked after him, eager to spill blood. He leaped across the outstretched vines, “Wait!”
Dick shook a piece of paper in front of Ivy’s face. “I brought along this diagram of a leaf I’m supposed to make, and I was just wondering if you had any time to help me?”
He tilted his head to the side, hair flopping in front of his eyes. The vines slowed.
“What are you talking about?”
“It’s due tomorrow and I know I’m going to be here all night dealing with this,” Dick pouted, “And I used to think botany was kind of boring, but it’s starting to grow on me—”
Ivy sighed heavily, the vines fell to the ground. “Ugh, fine,” She took the diagram and pointed at the leaf,” So this first layer is the cuticle, followed by the epidermis—”
“Any last words, brat?” Penguin sneered, teeth sharp as a talon’s beak.
Jason swayed, arms crossed and still hanging upside down, “Yeah, how have the new city rezoning laws affected your turf?”
Penguin paused, frowning. He leaned in as if to hear Jason better, “I beg your pardon?”
Jason resisted the urge to say then beg. He really needed to fix his grades before Bruce benched him. “One of our assignments is to discuss how current events are impacting business owners in Gotham,” Jason explained.
“You’re asking me?”
“Yeah, you’re a pretty successful business owner I know with a large reach.” Penguin’s face lit up. “So, if you wouldn’t mind—”
Crack.
Jason blinked, barely registering the black blur flying into Penguin as Batman. Jason sighed, uncrossing his arms and letting them dangle above his head.
“—I really did need that answer.”
Bruce squinted at him for a moment.
“What?” Jason leaned up to try and untangle himself. “I thought I’d ask the expert. You can’t get mad at me for taking my academic pursuits seriously.”
Bruce gesture to himself. Jason tilted his head, eyebrows furrowed.
“Successful business owner?”
“Yeah, you just knocked him out.”
“So you asked the Penguin?” When Jason didn’t respond, Bruce clarified, “I’m a successful business owner.”
“Jealous?”
Tim squinted at the words on the page. He hated reading Shakespeare’s work. It just never clicked in his brain the same numbers did. He preferred math, enjoyed it even. Math had right answers and wrong answers. English had many interpretations. With math, Tim didn’t have to stress over saying the right words or if his analysis was too much of a stretch. He clenched his book in his gauntlets, half hoping to break the book. It was a hardcover. Sturdy. Heavy. An idea clicked in his brain.
Clayface rounded the corner, looking over his shoulder as he shouted at Batman. Tim saw his chance. He took it.
The book made a sort of squelch noise as it was lodged into Clayface’s body. Tim watched as his expression went from surprise to delight as he dislodged the book, clay dripping from the pages.
“Oh, I love Hamlet!” Clayface held the book by the spine as the clay slowly dripped off of it. “I performed this in high school.”
“You did?”
Clayface nodded, clearly caught in the nostalgia. “I played Hamlet.”
“Interesting. And what was your interpretation of Hamlet? Did you believe he had truly gone mad or was he just playing along?”
Tim almost regretted asking as he saw the look on his face. This was going to be a long night, but at least he didn’t have to worry about his essay anymore.
Batman glared at the camera, as the Riddler laughed. “You didn’t think it would be that easy, did you, Batman? You’ll have to solve my next riddle if you wish to find me…”
“Oh!” Stephanie clapped her hands together.
“I haven’t even told you the riddle yet,” The Riddler said dryly.
“No, no, I need your help with something,” Steph unfolded the paper from her pocket and shoved it towards the camera, “My math homework!”
“You…want my help with math homework?”
“Yeah. What’s wrong? Don’t think you can solve it?”
Stephanie thinks she hears a low growl coming from the camera but presses on anyway, “This too difficult for ya? Did you fail geometry in high school?” She shakes the paper tauntingly. Batman takes a step forward, about to pivot the conversation back to the mission. She shoos him away with her hand. He pinches the bridge of his nose.
Stephanie barely manages to conceal her smirk as the Riddler starts listing off the correct answers. Work smarter, not harder.
Damian sighed as he scribbled his colored pencil across the page. Normally, he enjoyed anything art-related, but this was work suited for a much younger child. A toddler could do this Damian thought angrily as he colored in the picture of a brain. Each lobe of the brain was meant to be colored with a different color and then labeled. Damian felt this was a waste of his time.
“Ooh, ‘watcha got there?” Harley Quinn hung from the fire escape, hands doing a gimmie motion towards the paper. Damian handed it over.
“It’s for my science class,” Damian explained, “It is unsuited for someone of my age. I am much too old for something so simplistic.”
“Ah, yes, you are very old. Wise beyond your years. Mature.” Damian knew she was being facetious, but he ignored it.
“Wow, this takes me way back,” She sighed wistfully, “I remember learning about this in an introduction to psychology course I took during undergrad.” She popped off the cap to her eyeliner and began labeling the different parts of the brain. Damian let her. When she began to ramble about her time studying psychology, Damian listened patiently.