Tale of Two Gothams

Ch. 4: Home Again

Bruce sat at the computer and stared at the information on the screen. He was trying to find out what the Portal Gun did to Dick, but he kept coming up with dead ends. It had been five days since Dick was shot, and he noticed that Dick wasn't acting the same.

Dick had been distant. Every time Bruce walked into the room, Dick would always run out of the room. He also wouldn't step foot in the Batcave. He finally caught Dick and asked him why he wouldn't go to the Batcave so they could go on patrol together, but Dick would just shake under his touch.

Two days ago he finally convinced Dick to go on patrol with him, but maybe he should've left him home.

-Flashback-

Batman and Robin were in the Batmobile heading out to patrol. Batman glanced at Robin and saw that he looked scared a little. "Dick, is everything alright?"

Batman saw him jump a little. "Yeah. I-I'm fine," Robin said quietly.

"You've been acting strange lately, more... distant. Are you mad at me or something?" He couldn't just stare at Robin and have a true face to face conversation, but when he did glance over again, he saw a surprised look on his face.

"N-no. I-I'm not mad," he said quickly looking away from Batman.

They sat in silence until a report of a break in at the art museum came over the radio. Batman turned the Batmobile around and sped to the museum. Once they got there, they both jumped out of the car and raced into the museum.

Penguin and both his Kabuki Twins had several paintings and statues in what looked like a shopping cart. Batman threw a few smoke pellets to confuse them a bit, and Batman ran toward them. Robin stood there for a moment then ran to join the fight.

The smoke cleared and Robin saw that Penguin was sitting, a bit dazed, against a wall and then saw a picture fall on top of his head. Robin smiled a little then fell to the ground. One of the Kabuki Twins had kicked him.

Robin looked up at the lady, fear clearly on his face. She used one of her knife fingers and sliced a nice long cut into his forehead. Robin screamed.

Batman heard this and looked over to where it came from and saw Robin pinned down by one of the twins. "Ro..." The twin that he was fighting roundhouse kicked him and sent him flying.

He twisted so he landed on his feet and then pulled a bat-a-rang and threw it at the lady. She dodged it with ease and charged at him. Batman then threw an ice pellet at her and she froze to the spot. He then turned to the other twin that was giving Robin many new cuts. He threw a bat rope at her and she fell to the side of Robin. Batman then ran to Robin and helped him up. "You ok?"

Robin looked up at him, fear still evident on his face, and nodded slightly. Batman was a bit confused as to why Robin hadn't defended himself, but he didn't have too much time to think about it because the two twins had gotten themselves free and was charging them again.

Batman got himself into a fighting stance and expected Robin to do the same, but saw that he just stood there in fear. 'Ok, something's definitely wrong with him.' He threw a few more smoke pellets down in front of them and grabbed Robin, causing him to yelp in fear, then pulled out his grappling gun, fired it, then soared to the other side of the room. "Stay here," he said then ran off to fight the two running at them.

Robin back up to the wall and slid down and sat on the floor."Why is he trying to protect me? I thought the only reason he told me to come with him is so he could finally get rid of me?" he asked quietly. He was very confused.