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As with many buildings in Gotham, no one was accusing the Gotham Knights stadium of being particularly well designed. It had many features of a typical baseball stadium, with concrete tunnels housing food vendors, and sketchy stairwells that shook terribly when the crowd got excited.
The one thing that the Gotham Knights stadium had, that many well-designed Baseball stadiums did not have, was a completely separated section of the stands only accessible by a 50-yard tunnel with inadequate lighting. These were, quite logically, considered some of the worst seats in the house. As such, it was generally where school groups, business groups, or rowdy bachelorette parties were seated. It was also the only spot where people could still find open seats when purchasing tickets at the last possible moment.
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Duke had never sat in the Small Stands before; prior trips to watch a game with his parents had been well planned, and they had always selected seats to maximize the chance of Duke being able to catch a foul ball. He never had, due to bad luck and a complete lack of any skill in catching baseballs. But he felt like he’d had a fair chance.
Duke hadn’t been expecting to catch any baseballs on this impromptu family outing, but he had kind of been hoping to be able to see the game. Like, at all.
There were no foul balls, stray balls, or even clear sight lines of the ball in the Small Stands.
“Man, I sure do love this view,” Duke mumbled, glaring at the concrete pillar nearly directly in front of his seat, blocking precisely half of the field, leaving Duke with a view only of the outfield and a smidge of second base.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. At least you can see a base,” Tim replied, glaring even harder at the concrete pillar, which was completely blocking Tim from seeing a single inch of the field.
“I also am unable to see over this ridiculous barrier,” Damian added, arms crossed in indignation.
“Listen, these were literally the last seats in the entire house,” Dick laughed, sounding only slightly apologetic, “I think there’s a reason no one wanted to sit here.”
Jason was sat at the very end of the row next to Dick, and coincidentally the one with the best view of the game. Duke wasn’t certain, but he was pretty sure Jason had been running a long con since they got into the building to get himself situated with the best view.
“Hey, at least you can see the big screen,” Jason grinned.
“I can’t even see that!” Tim yelled, hands thrown up in the air.
“Hm, well maybe Duke and the demon brat can tell you their half of what's goin’ on, and you can piece it together!” Jason suggested, “You like that puzzle shit.”
Tim groaned and put his head in his hands. Duke patted his back sympathetically.
“Why did we even come?” Tim asked, probably rhetorically.
There was no answer, as Jason and Dick had started cheering along with everyone else in the stadium. Presumably, something had happened, not that Duke could have known what. Seeing as the giant, ugly concrete pillar was still in his way.
“This kinda sucks,” He said, which garnered nods of agreement from Tim and Damian.
Whatever had happened must have stopped play, as loud music began playing from the speakers and the announcer’s remarks turned towards the audience.
“Folks, as we can see, an impressive cup snake is being started over in section H, it is already spanning over 4 rows.”
“A cup… snake?” Damian asked, wrinkling his nose, “Grayson, what are they doing to the snake?”
Duke couldn’t stop from laughing. He hadn’t been sure if Damian had gone to a baseball game before or not, though after that question, the answer appeared to be no.
“No, no,” Dick said quickly, holding up his beer as an example, “It’s a stack of beer cups that kinda looks like a snake?”
Damian nodded and glanced around quickly before standing up on his seat to get a view of the cup snake.
“I do not agree with the assessment that it looks like a snake,” He sat back down with a huff, “And it is not that long. They need more cups.”
“They’ll get more cups as the game goes on, and the crowd drinks more,” Jason said.
“Can we provide them more cups when you have finished your beverages?” Damian asked, he somehow managed to make it sound like a business proposal rather than asking to join in a silly crowd tradition.
Dick threw an arm around Damian, and heaved a long, dramatic sigh that Duke was sure did not match the intensity of whatever story Dick was about to spin.
“Ah, you see while everyone with the misfortune of sitting in this section longs to partake in the tradition of the cup snake, we are barred from participating,” Dick explained.
“They don’t letcha bring trash from this section back over that way. They make you throw it out before the tunnel,” Jason explained again, filling in some gaps that Dick had left.
Duke snorted, of all the rules for the venue had chosen to enforce. Games were regularly stopped for routine rogue antics, and fans were definitely carrying weapons in the venue (as all self-respecting Gothamites did.) But trash from one section going into another? Apparently, that was taking it too far. Damian seemed to think similarly of the situation.
“That rule makes no sense, I still wish to assist with the cup snake endeavor,”
Duke grinned. They could try to smuggle a couple of cups out of the stands. Then he took a closer look down the line, Jason had turned to scope out the single security guy guarding the tunnel entrance, Dick and Damian had both turned to surveil the crown as if estimating the number of cups (and due to what looked like 3 separate bachelorette parties, the number was likely quite high), most concerning though was Tim, who had whipped a tablet out of god knows where and was drawing up with looked to be battle schematics.
“Guys…” Duke interrupted the planning, “No…”
Tim placed a gentle hand on Duke’s knee.
“Guys, yes.”
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The plan was slightly insane and slightly overboard for the given situation. But it definitely beat out staring at that damn concrete pillar, so Duke went all in.
Phase One was easy; the three sections of seats over in the Smalls Stands were split between Duke, Time, and Damian. They would canvas each group to gauge their interest in the project.
Damian had been sent to the middle section, which was primarily comprised of two bachelorette parties with a few families mixed in.
Tim had been sent over to the left-hand section, which contained the entirety of Gotham University's marching band, out on a team social.
Duke had been assigned the right-hand section, the lower half of which sat the third bachelorette party, and the upper half sat a corporate night out for what might be the local museum's staff. Duke wasn’t sure, but he thought the lady in the pink sweater had led his class during a field trip a few weeks prior.
He figured the bachelorette party would be an easier job, so he scouted out the group as he picked his way between the seats. The bride was directly in the middle, so it was likely not a good starting point. Barging his way through the group did not sound like an effective tactic.
He picked out a trio of women sitting on the edge who looked friendly enough, and made his approach.
“Hi, uh,” Wasn’t really a smooth approach, but an approach nonetheless. He decided to soldier on past the bad start.
“So, um, congratulations to the bride?” Second attempt was not much better, “My, uh, brothers are looking to do a big donation of beer cups to cup snake over there.”
He jerked a thumb behind him, in the general direction of the beer snake across the field. The bridal party had all drawn to attention when Duke had approached, but now they were smiling. A few of the women started seeking out empty cups, two of the women chugged whatever was left of their drinks, and passed them forward towards Duke.
“I mean, we are like, so in,” the woman wearing a shirt declaring her the maid of honor said. “But how are you gonna get them over there?”
Duke grinned, emboldened by the positive response to his request.
“Don’t you ladies worry,” He said with a flourish and a wink, “We have a plan! Currently, we need cups; any and all beer cup donations are welcome. We will be staging our heist right down center, by that horrendous concrete pillar.”
The maid of honor stood and gave Duke a solemn salute as he made his way up the stairs to chat with the corporate outing.
“We will back your quest, young man,” She giggled slightly before regaining her composure. “When do you need the goods by?”
“We ride after 7th inning,” Duke called, making his way to the next group of supporters to rally into their mission.
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Phases two and three, gathering and organizing of the beer cups went quickly. They had managed to rally support from all of the groups present in the Small Stands, and the donations were being passed down to where Dick and Jason were arranging the cups into neat, easy-to-carry-sized stacks.
They had managed so far to stay under the radar, which was a feat considering how many cups they had already collected. Duke performed a quick count of the stacks and nearly laughed when he realized that this run was going to require at the very least four people. Which could be a problem, as Damian had been assigned to distract the security guard, leaving only himself, Dick, Jason, and Tim to make the run.
Duke’s focus was pulled away from his logistical musings by a scream followed by a huge commotion.
Two of the bridal parties had converged into one ginormous and confusing crowd of pink cowgirl hats and green body suits. The two brides had very different tastes.
“We bring another round of donations!” One of the brides yelled, which seemed to signal all of the bridesmaids to get down on one knee in front of the tunnel and began to chug,
This was apparently too much to ignore, and Duke watched the fan cam on the big screen pan over to the beer-chugging bridesmaids.
“Folks, this may be a new one for Gotham Knights Stadium,” The announcer's voice boomed over the loudspeakers, “We appear to have at least two bridal parties having a group chug!”
Duke clapped along with the entire stadium as the bridal parties finished their drinks and cheered. As they finished, each cup was brought over and handed off to Dick and Jason’s waiting hands.
“Now we have something else going on in the Small Stands, what on Earth are they doing?”
“Shit!” Dick yelled, “They’re onto us, we move now! Load up!”
Dick shoved stacks of cups into Duke’s arms; he managed three stacks in each arm.
“Do we have a cup snake challenge coming from the Small Stands?”
The crowd booed, and the original cup snake was carefully wiggled side to side as if it were a real snake posturing.
Dick had moved on to loading up Tim’s arms with Jason supplying the stacks of cups for Dick to balance in Tim’s grip.
“We aren’t gonna make it, there are too many cups,” Jason said, and gestured to the remaining stacks on the ground in front of him. Duke has to lean awkwardly to see around his armful of cups, but he had to agree with Jason’s assessment.
“We need volunteers,” Duke mumbled, mostly to himself.
The bridesmaids. Duh! He turns back to the rest of the Small Stands
“WE NEED VOLUNTEERS,” Duke hollered as loud as he could.
“Well folks, we can’t actually figure out what is going on over there, but they certainly have a lot of cups.”
Duke’s plea was heard by two of the women he had talked to earlier. He nearly fist pumped, but fortunately remembered his armful of cups as the bridesmaids jumped multiple rows of seats to accept their own armfuls. A good Samaritan behind them helped Jason and Dick to load up the last stacks of cups.
“Damian now!” Dick ordered, as deadly serious as when they fought rogues.
Damian was off like a shot, giving them only a few seconds to get down onto the walkway before he got right up in front of the security guard.
“Look! An endangered osprey!” Damian yelled and pointed wildly up into the stands.
The security guard was either very stupid, very disengaged from his job, or secretly supported their cause, because he turned his entire body to look in the direction Damian had pointed, leaving them with the perfect opportunity.
They sprinted. Duke fell in behind Jason, while Tim took up the rear behind the bridesmaids, and Dick led their righteous march.
“It’s a jail break, everyone!” The announcer’s voice sounded even inside the tunnel, “Folks, they have made it past the first layer of security, but that tunnel is only 50 yards long, and they have yet another security on the other side!”
Duke could see the light at the end of the tunnel, approaching fast. None of them are running full tilt, as they do have civilian identities to maintain, but 50 meters is not far while sprinting, and Duke could make out the security guard blocking their exit.
“And the excitement keeps coming!” The announcer said, though Duke couldn’t parse out why, he was more focused on whether Dick was going to run over the poor security guard.
But then a miracle occurred, as they were making the final few feet of the tunnel, three more figures seemed to melt out of the shadows, cornering the security guard just enough to let them sneak through.
Duke nearly stumbled into Jason’s back when his eyes adjusted just enough to recognize who was clearing the path for them.
Steph, and Cass, and most importantly, Barbara, using her wheelchair to box the security guard to the side of the tunnel. This did explain why none of the three had wanted to join them at the baseball game, they already had better tickets. Duke wanted to see if he could sit with them after this, if they didn’t get kicked out of the game.
They emerged from the tunnel victorious, like Olympians crossing the finish line, the six of them were greeted with cheers and roars from the crowd. People parted to give them a path, throwing jackets and purses out of their way and directing them to their destination.
Duke grinned; he was on top of the world with the cheering and backslaps as he sprinted up the stairs through the crowd. Their destination, as it turned out, was about three-quarters up section H of the stadium, where a group of visibly trashed frat boys (none of whom were wearing shirts) were screaming and pounding each other's backs with growing excitement as the convoy of new cups approached.
Dick reached them first, taking a knee and bowing his head. Duke knelt beside Dick, and he bowed his head as well, though it was more to hide his laughter; he didn’t want to ruin whatever grand speech Dick was planning to give. He heard the bridesmaids and Tim kneel as well, the bridesmaids very out of breath, while Tim gave a halfhearted performance of being out of breath.
“We propose an alliance,” Damian’s voice comes from behind Duke, and he nearly fell over laughing that the speech he had been expecting was not coming from Dick, but from Damian, who must have followed them through the tunnel after his distraction was successful.
“For far too long, this stadium has been divided,” Damian continues, “It is unfair that your cup snake should comprise only of two-thirds of the stadium, we have elected to rectify this. We humbly offer you these beer cups, and only request that I get to put the final cup on the snake.”
“We did not agree to that as the terms,” Tim mumbled. Damian shushed him with a smack to the head.
“Do you agree to our terms?” Damian asked.
The frat boys formed a huddle, as if that meant that their excited giggles couldn’t be heard by everyone nearby. They whispered amongst themselves for a few moments before breaking the huddle with an elaborate handshake. The largest of the frat boys broke from the group first, and turned to address Damian.
“We accept your terms, little broski,” The frat boy said, “Bring on the cups!!
“Well, folks, it looks like a deal has been reached,” Came the announcer's voice as Duke handed over his stacks to the nearest fraternity brother, “This is definitely a record-breaking cup snake for Gatham Knights Stadium, let's give them a round of applause, folks!”
It definitely felt different compared to the baseball games Duke went to as a kid, but it wasn’t every day that you got to pull the heist of the century at the old ball game. And watching the glee in Damian’s eyes as he placed the last cup on the snake? Well, that was pretty cool.