Summary: Dick's first ever real case in Gotham. He has been Robin for a few months, but hasn't gone on any real missions with Bats outside of regular patrol, where he just stops muggings and small robberies. Bruce has been training him up till this point. Dick is 9 here.
Disclaimer: I don't own DC
To say Dick was excited would be a massive understatement. He and Bruce had been working together for 7 months now, but Bruce hadn't taken him on anything big. Just muggings and the occasional bank robbery. Not at all whelming. He once snuck out to take on the Penguin, but it ended horribly. Dick ended up getting captured and severely tortured until Bruce found him. He spent nearly 3 days in bed, unable to move a muscle without it hurting. Bruce had almost fired him then and there for disobeying orders and getting himself tortured to near-death. Still not sure why he didn't. Probably knew he couldn't stop me, anyways. Because of that stunt, Bruce extended his training by nearly 3 months. But now, half a year later, he was FINALLY about to get some real action.
"Alright, Bats! So, who'll I beat on first? Joker? Two Face? Poison Ivy?" The Batcomputer answered his question. You have GOT to be kidding me! RIDDLER?! Half a year of waiting and I'm stuck with the freaking RIDDLER? "Uh, Bruce, there's gotta be some mistake here, Is Riddler working for someone? Joker maybe? Who's the REAL big bad?"
"You're looking at him. Don't underestimate the Riddler. He may not be Joker or Ra's Al Ghul, but he's not a walk in the park." Riiiight. Didn't Bats take this guy as his first real outing? Like, less than a year into things? Where's the REAL action?
"Now, what do you remember about him from your reading?"
"Eddie Nashton, A.K.A. Edward Nygma, A.K.A. the Riddler. Obsessed with riddles. Always leaves big green question marks at his crime scenes as a calling card, along with some weird riddle for you. Obsessed with one-upping you and proving his superiority. Not a big threat in combat, just some very mild one-on-one staff combat. Weird riddle cane can shoot lightning from the question mark at the tip. Loaded with a ton of weird gadgets and robots to do his bidding." Bruce nodded.
"His biggest threat is his mind. Do not let him catch you off guard. Nygma broke out of Arkham a little over a week ago, but didn't make a move until last night, when he broke into a law firm to take hostages. He has the judge, several jury members, and guilty suspect. He also has Jack Ryder. Ryder was going to report on the case. Now, it's time you met another one of my allies. Let's get to the GCPD."
"Ooh, are we gonna go see Barbara's dad? The Commish?"
"Yes. He doesn't know our secret, so don't give anything away."
"Copy that." The Dynamic Duo hopped into the Batmobile to speed off to the GCPD.
"Hey, Batman." Before Gordon could speak again, he noticed Dick. "Who's the kid?"
"Jim, meet Robin. My partner." Dick puffed his chest out eagerly.
"Partner?" Jim looked at Bats with an eyebrow raised. "Look, no offense, kid, but this is some pretty scary-"
"Robin can handle himself. Believe me. Now, did you get anything on Nygma?"
Jim paused before speaking. "My guys found this at the scene, but I thought you might want to see it first." He gave Bruce a paper with a message scribbled on it. 'This poignant civil worker always loves to RIDE the waves of his ego.' Ooh, how clever. Now who do I know has a big ego and the word ride in his name? Bruce was one step ahead, pulling out a radio communicator gadget and tuning it to the frequency of Jack Ryder's radio talk-show.
"Nygma, release them."
"Well, well, well, if it isn't the great detective himself! I would congratulate you on a job well done, but even a pea-minded ape could have solved that." And I thought Ryder was full of himself. "Come alone, detective, to Gotham Steelworks. We shall play a game, and if you win, I just might let these hostages go!" Jim stepped back to think before speaking.
"Alright, Bats. I'll leave you to it, but just let me know if you need any backup." The Dynamic Duo nodded before grappling off as Gordon watched. "Nice kid, but one weird costume."
Bruce and Dick made their way to the abandoned factory, to find it coated in green question marks and other strange markings. Suddenly, the giant screen Nygma had set up activated, and the Dynamic Duo were met with the Riddler.
"Oh, Bats, I thought I told you to come alone! Wait, I recognize you! Ah, yes. You're the Bat's new protege, aren't you. You've made quite the impact on muggers and bank robbers, I must say."
"Name's Robin." I am SO gonna wipe that smug grin off his ugly-
"Well, Batman, normally this act would be punished, but I can see how eager you are to share your misery with another, so I'll allow it this time. Now, here's how this game of ours will work. I will give you a riddle to solve, and should you get it correct, you may free a hostage. But, should you get it wrong, the hostage dies. Now, Dakr Knight, ready to play." bruce reluctantly nodded and Dick watched on. "Oh, don't worry little bird. You'll get your chance, too. First riddle is for the Bat. A man was to be sentenced, and the judge told him, 'You may make a statement. If it is true, I'll sentence you to four years in prison. If it is false, I'll sentence you to six years in prison.' After the man made his statement, the judge decided to let him go did the man say?" Oh, this is easy! He said-
"The man said 'You will sentence me to six years'. This way, whatever the judge said would be a contradiction, and so the judge chose to let him go instead of being proven a fool."
"Very good, Dark Knight! Now, YOUR judge may be found in the old armory. But act quick, because in a few minutes, he may not need a jury as much as he will need a doctor!" Batman and Robin sprinted into the armory, but before they could do anything, Riddler set up a field around Dick. "Not so fast, little bird. Batman may go ahead, but YOU still need to answer your riddle. Now, let's see if you can keep up with the detective! A man was found dead in a field of snow. The only tracks were a set of footprints between two parallel lines. Who should the police be looking for?" Okay, so there's a single set of prints and two lines. The body has already been found so...
"A man in a wheelchair. The footprints belong to the guy who found the body."
"Bravo, Robin! Now, the guilty party in that riddle may be wheelchair-bound, but the guilty party down in the boiler room certainly isn't, at least not yet!" Dick sprinted off, pulling up the schematics for the building to find the convict. Here we go! He burst into the boiler room to find a group of Riddler bots guarding the man. Robots? Alright, piece of cake! Dick got to work, hurling birdarangs like nobody's business until the bots were destroyed. He walked up to the convict and freed him. The man immediately threw a fist at him, but Dick flipped him over, knocking him out before dragging him back to the main room, where Batman was waiting for him with the judge.
"Alright, Dynamic Duo! This next riddle's a big one, so listen up! A man is in court for killing his wife. In the closing statements the man's lawyer surprises everyone when he announces 'His wife was just missing. Everyone look at those doors. His wife is going to walk in those doors in about 30 seconds.' The entire court is silent and the jury stares at the door as the lawyer and the defendant stare at them. After a couple of minutes the lawyer says 'See! If you were so sure he killed his wife, you wouldn't be watching that door!' The jury goes into deliberation and comes back almost immediately with a guilty verdict. Why did the jury convict him?"
Before Dick could respond, Bruce calmly stated the answer. "The defendant wasn't looking at the door because he knew his wife was dead." Nygma seemed frustrated as he gave away the location to a member of the jury.
The game continued on for a few more minutes, Nygma getting more and more angry with each successful answer and freed hostage. Finally, it was down to the last member of the jury, and it was Bruce's turn. However, before anyone could do anything, Nygma activated a device that blasted Batman into a wall, knocking him out. Dick turned in shock as he saw Bruce go down. What the hell?!
"Sorry, Bats, but you've timed out of the game. Alright, little runt, let's see if you're REALLY as good as you think! Answer my final three riddles, and I shall let my hostage go! Answer falsely, and I will execute him on the spot!" Dick looked back to see Bruce make a hand motion. Secret message, huh? Dick deciphered Bruce's hand signal and knew what to do. "Well, little boy? What do you say?"
"Bring it."
"That's the spirit! Mr. and Mrs. Clyde went on a trip to the mountains. But 2 days later, Mr. Clyde returned home alone. He went to the police and said that Mrs. Clyde had fallen to her death. The next day, Detective Stevens visited Mr. Clyde and arrested him for his wife's murder. Clyde confessed his guilt and asked the detective how he'd found out he was the murderer. Stevens said he'd simply called a travel agent and asked for some information. What did the travel agent say to the detective? Well, two people go, one comes back.
"He said that Clyde bought two tickets, but only one of them was a return ticket. He planned to kill his wife." Wow. Morbid.
Riddler growled before asking his next riddle. "At night they fly, you'd better run. These winged things are not much fun. What is it? Wow. Original.
"A bat."
Riddler was visibly infuriated, and as he started to vent, Dick spotted Bruce in the background, working on freeing the hostage. "Very well, bird. This next one takes the cake. Why did the police arrest the bird?" I shouldn't dignify that with a response.
Before Dick spoke, he looked to Bruce, who had just about freed the hostage and was walking up to Riddler. Almost there, Bats. Better play it slow. Dick waited for the timer to tick down before Riddler laughed and celebrated his short-lived victory.
"Ha! Time's up! As usual, I, the Riddler, have been proven to be the superior intellect, and YOU and your-wait. Where's Batman?!"
"Well, superior intellect, why don't you tell me?" Before Riddler could respond, he felt a tapping on his shoulder, and looked behind to see an armored fist approach his face.
Gordon and his men arrived shortly after to clean up the mess, help the hostages, and drag away the Riddler. Dick ran up to him before he could get dragged away and whispered.
"By the way, the answer to that final riddle? The police arrested the bird because he was robin." Riddler roared in anger and muttered a bunch of gibberish before being tossed in the squad car and driven away. Gordon walked up to the Dynamic Duo.
"I gotta say, kid, you did good work here."
"Thanks."
"I know Bats here may not admit it, but he's lucky as hell to have someone like you watching his back." Dick smiled at that before Gordon's radio went off.
"All units, robbery on the corner of East End. Suspect in question is Two Face." Gordon looked back to address the Dynamic Duo, but found them already gone.
"Damn, the kid does it, too."
Sorry I couldn't upload yesterday. I was pretty slammed with other work and by the time I finished, I was way too tired to write this one. I'll do my best to update daily, but as I've said before, I might miss a few days here and there. I will never go more than 2-3 days without publishing, though, unless something big happens. Next chapter is YJ S1 Ep8, which has almost no Robin but has a little bit of Bruce/Dick bonding, so I'll just add to that. It'll be a smaller than normal chapter cuz not much to write. I skipped my original idea for the next chapter just to get to the second half of S1 more quickly, and also cuz I thought my original idea would have been a bit boring. As it is, this chapter wasn't the best, but I didn't have much time to work on it, so I'm sorry if it feels rushed. I have a ton of chapters planned (like 32 different ideas in total), and 90% of them involve Zatanna in some way, so I kinda just wanna hurry up and get to the point where I can write that stuff (Zee is introduced in ep 15, but joins the team in ep 19. I will be skipping a few eps before that cuz Dick's just not in them much, but it'll still be a little while until then). Reviews help, so please review and also leave suggestions for a future chapter so I can add it to the list. Also, thanks for all the support! It really means a ton since this is my first ever real story. Next chapter up soon.