Damian stood at the edge of the mat where Bruce and Nat would be fighting. They were currently getting ready, folding over strips of white cotton over their fists. Bruce sent a smirk Damian and Alfred's way. "Father, if you win, I get to drive the... car." Damian crossed his arms.
"Damian, there is no way I'm letting you drive my car," Bruce gave a light glare, but then raised his eyebrow as he noticed Damian let out a sigh. Usually, he wasn't this easy to negotiate with.
"Very well, then. If you win, I get to go to Bludhaven with Dick for a week," Damian rolled his eyes. Bruce nodded, agreeing to the terms.
"Wait, why do you benefit from my winning?Shouldn't it be if I lose, you get to go to Bludhaven with Dick for a week?" Bruce blinked.
"Fine then, if you lose then I go to Bludhaven," Damian glared at the ground. He knew his father was going to win, although he'd probably still let Damian visit Dick no matter the outcome.
"And if I do win, you have all of Alfred's chores for three days," Bruce smirked widely, winking at his old friend. "He needs a vacation."
"Master Bruce, I-" Alfred began, but Bruce sighed.
"Alfred, you are the kindest person I know, but even you need a break once and a while. Besides, Damian could learn something about arrogance." Bruce crossed his arms.
"You act as though you're going to be the one winning," Nat finally spoke out, her hands on her hips. Bruce finished wrapping his hands before he got into position.
The two opponents locked eyes before Tony and Steve walked in, causing them to glance towards the door. Of course, they locked eyes again, and Nat threw the first punch. Surprising the Avengers, Bruce caught her fist midair, and sent a kick to her stomach. Nat wasn't quite that easy to beat though, managing to twist her body to where the kick would have the least amount of pain and damage before swinging her own leg under Bruce's feet, who jumped above her in the nick of time.
Even Damian had trouble catching every single movement. The two's fists flew back and forth so quickly that you would have had to watch it in slow motion just to get a glimpse of a punch. Of course, Nat gave an uppercut at the first chance she got, sending Bruce staggering a bit backwards. Bruce recovered quickly though, and tried flipping Nat over. Of course, Nat landed on her feet anyways, but the surprise was just enough for Bruce to kick knee her in the gut.
Nat retaliated with a good punch to Bruce's shoulder. Bruce punched back, and it was a flurry of flying fists once again. The thing was, Bruce wasn't trying his absolute hardest. I mean, yeah he was trying, but he didn't want to give away just how good he was. This gave Nat a slight advantage, and she was using it. Bruce allowed her to win, just so that her pride wouldn't completely diminish. After all, he was just supposed to be Bruce Wayne at the moment, not Batman.
So, Nat ended the winner, a foot on Bruce's chest.
"You are very skilled," She smirked, helping him back up.
"As are you," Bruce dipped his head, a light smile on his face. Damian rolled his eyes, knowing better than to believe his father's facade.
Alarms blared, and the Avengers immediately ran out of the room, Bruce, Damian and Alfred following suit. When they got to where they could see why the alarm was going off, Bruce visibly cringed. Why? Why was he cursed like this?
"We'd probably better get going," Bruce smiled politely, and the Avengers nodding in agreement.
"I hope to see you again, Bruce." Steve shook hands with him as they parted ways. The second Damian, Bruce and Alfred were out of the building, his smile turned to a stoic frown.
It took them a minute to get to where their suits were, and a minute more to get changed. Thankfully, they weren't too far from where everyone was. Alfred was staying at the new hotel room they'd gotten for the next two nights, listening in through the comms.
Bruce hadn't noticed it was night before hand, but was secretly grateful for the change in daylight. Night was more his pseudo anyways.
At the bottom of the building that Batman and Robin were currently standing on, it was absolute chaos. The Avengers had beaten them there, and it was a three-way battle between everyone. There was a large group of thugs with guns blazing; Red Hood, Arsenal, Flash, Nightwing, Red Robin, Spoiler, and Batgirl were all over the place; and the Avengers were mostly after his children, taking out a thug here and there.
Bats jumped down to join them, Robin right behind him. "WHAT are you doing!?" He yelled out, and everyone froze, even the thugs. Nightwing was hanging upside-down from a street-light covered in net from one of Hawkeye's arrows; Red Hood had froze mid-punch, fist about two centimeter's from Captain America's face; Spoiler was hugging two different thugs that she had been about to bash heads; Batgirl was dangling onto Ironman's foot; Arsenal and Hawkeye each had an arrow pointed at each other; Red Robin was being hoisted above Black Widow's head; and Flash? He was still zooming around, plucking guns out of thugs hands before they were not surprised anymore and started firing at everyone.
"So you're this Batman we keep hearing about," Ironman stated, but was silenced with a glare from Bruce.
Wally had all the thugs tied down, and Babs let go of Ironman's foot, landing on the ground next to Robin. Bats face-palmed. "I leave you alone for five minutes, and you all decide to become felons..." He muttered under his breath.
"Home, now." He growled, composing himself. Red Robin, whom Nat had thankfully set down gently, was the first to follow orders, hanging his head low in shame. One by one, his posse, Wally, and Roy, followed after him. Well, except Robin. And Nightwing, who was still hanging from the light post.
Bats gave another look at Robin, who cut down Nightwing and left after his siblings. Nightwing looked at Bats, and stood next to him. Batman raised an eyebrow, and Nightwing simply crossed his arms. That glare hadn't been effective on him for years.
The Avengers approached them cautiously, all ready to fire at them any second. Bats was ready too, he just wasn't as obvious about it as they were. Captain America walked towards him, Black Widow stalking behind him silently.
"Care to explain yourself?" Captain America stated, his face in a cold glare.
"We're from another dimension and are waiting for our way home to charge up." Batman explained simply. Ironman, or Tony, laughed from above, falling down.
"You seriously expect us to believe that?" He stepped onto the ground next to Steve. Nightwing watched in horror as Bruce pulled off his mask.
"I own a multi-billion dollar company that specializes in technology, if I were from this Earth, you would have recognized me within seconds." Steve, Nat, and Tony all stared wide-eyed at him.
"Wait a minute, does that mean... Damian's Robin?" Steve was the first to snap out of it, concern for the boy evident on his face.
"It's better than if he were staying with his mother," Nightwing crossed his arms, glaring at Steve.
"Oh really? What? She'd dress him up as a different bird?" Steve yelled angrily. "You bring children into this?" Bruce was about to speak, but before he could Nightwing stepped in front of him.
"Damian was born into an entire group of assassins! His own mother has trained him how to kill since he was a baby! And guess what! In the League of Assassins, it doesn't matter how many wounds you've gotten, because they can just throw you in their magic hot-tub of insta heal and you can go right back to murder camp!
And yeah, maybe Bruce brought me in when I was twelve and trained me so that I could avenge my parent's murder without killing him and spiraling into something I'm not, and maybe Bruce couldn't get to Jason before it was too late and Joker blew him to smithereens, and maybe Tim's a bit sleep-deprived and heavily addicted to coffee, but at least he tried!
If he hadn't taken me in, I'd either be terrified of falling for the rest of my life or sitting in prison for murdering Tony Zuko. Jason might've ended up on the streets forever, or in prison for stealing, or even dead without anyone who cared! And Tim? He'd probably be in the system with nobody that cared about him, because Gotham's that screwed up of a place!
So you don't get to judge him for his parenting skills, because he tried the damn best he knew how." Dick took off his mask just so Steve could see exactly how angry he was. Bruce was actually near tears and trying his best to hide it. "Come on, Bruce. We're going home."
Bruce didn't have anything else to say, so he followed after Dick quietly. Dick turned back. "And we aren't criminals, you just automatically assumed we were all like Jason." The two grappled away and out of the Avenger's sight.
