Thursday afternoon
Barbara Gordon pulled into the visitor's parking lot at Hudson University on Long Island. Dick Grayson went to school here, and Xavier Cabrini taught here. It was as good a place to start as any. She could see her 'uncle Xavier' and maybe get a line on how to get a hold of Dick. Then she could visit with him for a while before donning the Batgirl costume and going out to look for Robin.
She knew which building the psychology department was located in thanks to the online campus map she had printed out before leaving Gotham. Hopefully the building would have a directory so that she could easily find Cabrini's office.
This was her lucky day. 'Dr. Xavier Cabrini, department head, office number 204.'
Barbara grinned and took the stairs two at a time in her usual exuberant fashion. Once on the second floor she found the sub-directory posted next to the fire emergency map. Cabrini's office was the second on the left, and the door was open.
"Excuse me?"
The secretary looked up from the stack of psychological journals she was rifling though. "Can I help you?"
"Is Xav—ah, Dr. Cabrini busy right now?"
"He doesn't have any appointments right now, if that's what you mean," the secretary answered with a smile. "Just go ahead and knock on his door."
"Thanks." Barbara then did just that.
"What is it, Maryanne?" a familiar voice called out from inside the office.
Barbara opened the door and stuck her head in. "Guess again," she teased.
Cabrini looked up sharply at the sound of her voice, then his face broke into a grin. "Ah! You've brought lunch!"
Barbara laughed and shook her head, entering fully into the office. "Sorry, Uncle Xavier. It's just me by my lonesome here to see you."
Cabrini played up a disappointed expression for half a second, but couldn't hold it. "Even better," he remarked, shutting the power off on his computer monitor and swiveling his chair to better regard his unexpected visitor. "Though I was hoping that your father sent you here with a sandwich or too. Alice seems to think that I need to go on a diet and is only buying light mayonnaise."
Barbara smirked and shook her head slightly. "Daddy doesn't know I'm here, actually. He went to work before I got up for class this morning. I left him a note though, and I plan to call him tonight so he doesn't worry too much."
"So you're going to be in town for a while then?" Cabrini asked. "What for?"
Barbara feigned a hurt expression. "What? You can randomly take off to visit old friends for lunch but I can't?"
"My missing a day of school isn't as drastic a decision as you."
"Ha! After my test this morning I decided to treat myself to a day off. I don't have any classes until tomorrow night, and I wanted to give my fingers a rest before I wear the letters off my keyboard."
"Fair enough," Cabrini conceded with a smile. "So what brings you here? I highly doubt that you drove all this way just to let me buy you lunch. Looking to transfer, are we?"
"Hudson doesn't have as good a computer science department as Gotham U," Barbara informed him. "And besides, it's suicide to try and transfer somewhere for your senior year."
"You don't trust your father to live on his own, do you."
"Not on your life."
Cabrini chuckled. "So, can I take you to lunch? You can help save me from the horrors of a low-fat sandwich."
"Unfortunately not, Uncle Xavier," Barbara said with fair chagrin. "Actually, aside from a random visit to my favorite uncle, I came to Hudson to visit a friend of mine who goes here."
"Oh really? Who is it? Maybe I know her."
"I was rather hoping you would," Barbara said. "And it's a him. Richard Grayson. All I have is his email address so I have no idea how to find him. … Uncle Xavier?"
"You couldn't have picked a worse time to visit Mr. Grayson if you tried," Cabrini said seriously. "Frank and I have him quite busy."
Barbara rolled her eyes. "Uh oh. What did daddy put you up to now?"
"Actually, your father had nothing to do with it. In fact, I think it's a rather amusing coincidence that the two of you are friends. Mr. Grayson is one of the most intelligent students I've ever encountered in all my years of professing psychology. Beach and I have conspired to allow him to take some of his finals early. Sunday, as a matter of fact."
Barbara took a few minutes to re-hinge her jaw. "Dick?"
Cabrini took silent note of her stunned reaction. "So really, Barbara you picked a miserable week to try and see your friend. He should have his nose jammed in a text book when he isn't in class."
"Wow… I never knew he had it in him."
Cabrini gave her a sly grin. "What's the matter, Barbara? Afraid to share the spotlight?"
Barbara shook her head. "I always figured he was smart—he never asked me for help with his homework. But he was always more interested in climbing trees and swinging from chandeliers than in schoolwork. Though, I never could beat him at chess…"
"Sounds like you don't know your friend as well as you thought."
Barbara nodded absently. "You wouldn't happen to know where he'd go on study break, would you?"
Cabrini shrugged. "Don't look at me. I just work here. Many of the students head to the local pizza place though. That's probably your best bet."
Barbara recovered enough from her initial shock to smile her thanks. "Great! I'll start there. If I don't have any luck then can I redeem that lunch invite for an early dinner?"
"Sure you can," Cabrini said with a smile. "I'll be here until six-ish tonight. After that, well, you know where I live. Alice would love to see you."
"Thanks, Uncle Xavier." And Barbara left Cabrini's office, her mind still quietly reeling, as she went to hunt for Dick Grayson.
Raven, Garfield, and Victor were sitting in a corner booth at Omega pizza, stealthily avoiding cafeteria food. Garfield and Victor were talking excitedly about… something… and Raven had her nose in a book not really paying attention to them. Usually Dick was there to keep the conversation at least bearable. Yet tonight, like the past two nights, he was nowhere to be found.
Originally, Raven had high hopes for this Victor Stone, whom Garfield had been dragging along to just about everything. His surface thoughts were scrambled—mostly coming across in a series of ones and zeros, accounted for by his cybernetic brain implants. Therefore it was quite easy to ignore everything he wasn't saying, and his emotions were generally stable, though sometimes she got glimpses of a unique paranoia during social interaction not unlike that of Garfield, but in Victor it was coupled with an underlying current of bitterness of which she was unable to pinpoint the cause. In general, his company was easier to tolerate then Garfield's, and when Raven chanced to engage in conversation with him without Garfield's immediate input she also caught snippets of a great intellect inside that mostly cybernetic brain. All in all, the outlook was promising.
That was of course until he got into a heated debate with Garfield on the validity of the Mortal Kombat movies. Her hopes irrevocably dashed, Raven stuck her nose in a book and hasn't emerged since.
"Yo! Raven, can you hear me?"
The vein throbbed in her forehead. Of course she could hear Garfield. She heard him the last five times he tried to talk to her. Unfortunately, he couldn't take the hint. Raven lowered her book slowly and gave him a questioning glare laced with daggers.
Gar simpered and laughed slightly. "Uh… I was just wondering if you've seen Dick lately."
Raven silently fumed. It was all Dick's fault that she was left to baby-sit Tweedle Dumb and Dumber by herself. "No." Her deadpan voice was colored in irritation.
"Dude, it's like, been three days! Where the heck could he be?"
Victor laughed. "Probably with his girlfriend."
"You really think he's driving back to Gotham every night?"
Raven fumed again. "He doesn't have a girlfriend in Gotham," she declared rather forcefully and pointedly at Garfield. "He has two finals to take this weekend. He's probably studying."
Victor laughed ruefully and shook his head. "Man, I wish they'd let me take a few finals early. Then I could get the heck out of my intro courses and into some real challenges."
Garfield's jaw dropped. "Dude, it's challenging enough just trying to keep up with the notes! I swear I'm gonna get carpal tunnel syndrome or something."
"Seriously though, all you've talked about is how this Grayson kid is gonna whoop my ass in Magic, but I ain't seen him since we ran into him the other day."
"Heh, neither have I, dude. If I didn't know better I'd swear he was avoiding us or something."
Raven nearly smirked. "Now why would he do that?" she droned. "Especially not the week before he has a couple of finals to take."
Victor shook his head, chuckling. "Damn, girl. Sarcastic much?"
Garfield laughed. "Dude, you have no idea."
Once again, Raven nearly smirked, and returned her nose to the book. The inane babble continued on, and she tried to ignore them.
"You listening to me? Raven?"
She growled audibly and lowered the book again. "No, I'm not listening to you Garfield. I'm reading. Leave me alone."
"Oh." His enthusiasm fell slightly. "I was just wondering if you wanted to go with me to the museum tomorrow."
Raven couldn't help but arch both eyebrows in pure surprise.
"I have to go for class!" Gar defended quickly. "I was just wondering… well I had mentioned it to Dick, but I don't think he'll show, what with all that studying n'all. And Vic said he's in—"
"Sounds like fun."
"So I figured I should at least, ya know, extend the invitation?"
The surprise on Raven's face melted back into serenity. "I've already been," she stated flatly, returning her nose to the book.
"Yeah, but tomorrow that cool new exhibit opens on ancient Egypt. That's gotta be worth checking out."
"No thanks," she dismissed without even looking at them.
"Your loss," Victor said with an amused grin. "It makes our life easier anyway, since you probably wouldn't be interested in a GameStation marathon afterwards."
"How astute of you."
Garfield's face light up in a grin. "Oh yeah! Dude, I am totally gonna pay you back for that travesty this afternoon."
"Heh, in your dreams, dawg."
"No, in your reality."
And their conversation continued, and Raven kept reading, tuning them out.
Barbara Gordon surveyed the crowd at the local pizza place—Omega's. Most of the tables were occupied by what appeared to be college students. Unfortunately, the one student she was looking for wasn't among them.
Barbara signed and was about to turn to go back to campus when her attention was drawn to the far corner booth. Three… unusual… students were sitting there: a girl with an interesting dye job, a large, cybernetic student that she had to guess was Victor Stone—she had read all about the breakthrough technology that kept him alive in one of her biophysics classes. The third student, wearing a baseball cap and long coat still wasn't able to disguise his green skin. Barbara smirked; that had to be Garfield Logan, the child actor that Dick had mentioned was in his classes. If anyone knew where to find Dick, then it was Logan.
Mustering her cutest smile, Barbara strode confidently to the table.
"—and I'm telling you, dawg. That's why Episode II sucked a—"
"Excuse me?" Barbara interrupted Victor by speaking to Garfield. "Are you Gar Logan?"
Garfield heard a soft soprano over his left shoulder and instantly his day was brighter. He turned slowly in his seat to find the source of the voice, and his heart skipped a beat at the sight of the tall, slender redhead standing not a foot away from him.
"For you babe, I'll be anyone you like."
Victor also had stars in his eyes at the sight of this beautiful young woman. Raven, for her part, had temporarily put the book down, officially interested in the turn of conversation.
"I wish you could be," Barbara replied. "Then you'd save me a lot of trouble. I'm looking for Dick Grayson."
Gar nearly fell off the chair in disappointment and disbelief, wishing that he could polymorph into humans, too.
"He mentioned once that you were a friend of his," Barbara continued. "I was hoping that you might know where I can find him."
"Why do they always want Dick…?" Gar moaned to himself.
"She's cuter than the last one," Victor observed.
Gar fumed and Raven smirked. Already she had lightly skimmed the redhead's thoughts. She caught flashes of curiosity mixed in with a strong sense of friendship for Dick. That satisfied Raven enough for her to back off.
"We don't know where he is," she stoically informed the redhead.
"Yeah," Gar piped up. "He's off hiding somewhere, studying or something."
"So I heard," said Barbara with a slight hint of dejection. "Well if you do see him, tell him that Barbara Gordon is looking for him."
"Will do," Victor replied with a smile. Barbara smiled back, then waved to the three friends and left the pizza shop.
"Why does everyone come to me when they want Dick?" Gar moaned again.
"I guess they think you're easy?" Victor offered with a grin.
"Or that you have connections," Raven deadpanned.
Garfield punched Victor and then had to shake the pain out of his hand. Raven smirked behind her book while Gar leveled a fiercely half-hearted scowl at her.
"Life just isn't fair," he whined, taking an angry slurp of soda.
Raven's smirk nearly became a grin. "It never is."
Late night
Robin was perched on a rooftop overlooking a row of warehouses in Hell's Kitchen. Hernandez had come through for him, informing him that the museum was installing extra surveillance cameras and contracting more security personnel to help safeguard the exhibit, which opens tomorrow. If Robin's hunch was correct and Two-Face really was planning a heist for Saturday night, then most likely he would need to hire more goons to counter the added security guards, and the best place to find cheap muscle outside of Gotham (when one doesn't have the time to go to Blüdhaven) was here in the Kitchen.
Robin knelt on his perch on the rooftop, reviewing the map of Hell's Kitchen he had formed in his mind during his whirlwind grappling gun tour. He reasoned that Harvey would show up here sooner or later looking for a few dumb grunts, and the warehouses below were gathering places for such men. Abandoned for many years, the warehouses were home to nearly a hundred of the City's homeless, more than half of which were vagrant, out of work drug users waiting to spend the last of their stolen petty cash on the next fix, which the rotating door of various drug dealers readily provided on a nearly nightly basis. After touring the neighborhood, Robin surmised that if Harvey was to try and recruit more help that this would be the first place he'd check, and so the Bird sat, patiently waiting.
That was until he heard a sudden burst of gunfire.
Robin's head snapped around to the east. He switched on the mild telescopic function in his mask and saw was appeared to be a mini-gang war erupting three blocks away. Cursing that he couldn't maintain his stakeout position, Robin whipped out his grappling gun and fired a jump line.
Barbara Gordon was swinging through the New York City skyline, relishing the rush of wind through her hair and reveling in the joys of being Batgirl. She knew Robin had to be somewhere in this city, and she was determined to find him.
Barbara figured that her best bet was to stick to the more crime-infested areas, for where else would a masked vigilante concentrate his efforts? That deduction is what brought her to Hell's Kitchen. She stood on the roof of a convenience store and took in the sights, admiring the skyline and the rush of adrenaline that was the knowledge that she was far from the Bat's protective reach. She was truly flying solo now, and without a safety net. The prospect thrilled her and scared her with equal measure.
She loved that feeling.
Barbara was about to take to the skies again to begin a serious search of the Kitchen when suddenly she heard the sound of gunfire.
"Looks like all I'll have to do is follow the sound of cowardly and superstitious criminals…" And she took off in the direction of the sound.
Batgirl traced the gunfire back to its source: five teenaged boys taking potshots at each other with semi-automatic weapons down an alleyway. Two boys were hiding behind a dumpster while the other three were taking cover behind a stripped car. Batgirl pulled out a batarang as she surveyed the scene, trying to decide how best to do this. In a perfect world, Robin or even Batman would be with her, and she would drop in on one group while her counterpart would simultaneously drop in on the other, taking out the crossfire. This time, however, she was on her own.
That meant that she needed a plan.
Batgirl quickly reasoned that she could get into position behind the two thugs at the dumpster without crossing the line of sight of the three across the street. She would then take out one of their guns with a batarang, effectively catching them off guard. Their moment of surprised reaction would provide the window she needed. She would be able to drop in and take them down quickly and easily in their moment of distraction. Then when the other three come out from behind the car, thinking that they've won, she would knock their guns out of their hands with batarangs and take them down in hand-to-hand combat.
Plan decided, Batgirl moved into position. She wasn't as stealthy as she would have liked—Batman hadn't gotten very far in teaching her that, but thankfully the thugs were too distracted with shooting at each other to notice the dark-clad vigilante leaping from rooftop to rooftop around them.
Batgirl got into position and crouched down, simultaneously aiming a batarang while getting ready to spring at the two unsuspecting thugs. She focused in on the one on the left—he was toting a Thompson's sub-machinegun that presented a larger target than his companion's Swenson.
The thug leaned out around the dumpster, fired two shots, leaned back. He caught his breath, leaned forward, fired two more shots, and leaned back again. The pattern repeated itself a third time, and Batgirl readied herself to make the throw. The thug caught his breath (wait for it…), leaned forward (hang on…), brought the gun up into firing position—
SWISH-SWI-SWISH-SWISH CLANG!
The batarang connected with the sub-machinegun and knocked it out of the thug's hands.
"What the—"
He didn't get a chance to finish his sentence.
Batgirl descended from above them, cape billowing out and casting menacing shadows in the flickering yellow streetlights. Batgirl landed a foot away from the thug, whose eyes went wide in the split second before she clasped her fists together and used the rest of her downward momentum to crack the thug atop the head and send him crashing to the pavement into oblivion.
The other thug stood dazed, unable to react as Batgirl took out his buddy. Batgirl winked at him before reaching out and swiping the Swenson. The thug looked to his hands in confusion right before he too fell unconscious, Batgirl having swung the gun around and hit him over the head with it like a club.
"Nighty night, boys," she purred. After double-checking that they were really unconscious, Batgirl crouched behind the dumpster and peered around the side. The three behind the car weren't firing at the moment. All she had to do was wait until they were confident enough to emerge from their hiding spot. Then she would have them.
She didn't have to wait long.
One at a time, like brightly colored prairie dogs, the three thugs stuck their heads above the stripped car. Finding no shots coming their way, the thugs gained the confidence to stand up, exposing most of their torsos. They still kept their guns at the ready as they cautiously made their way out from behind their cover.
Batgirl took three batarangs from her utility belt. Batman hadn't yet taught her how to throw many batarangs at once to take out multiple targets. She would have to throw them quickly one at a time. She wasn't worried, however. She was Batgirl. She could do this!
The three thugs made their way into the alleyway, looking around and laughing nervously as they spoke amongst themselves. Batgirl's cowl didn't have advanced hearing aids and her lip-reading skills were mediocre at best, so she focused instead on palming a batarang, waiting for the exact perfect moment…
It never came.
Suddenly Robin dropped out of the sky, landing with flawless grace between Batgirl and the three thugs. Batgirl's eyes widened and the thugs gasped in shock. Robin stood erect and stared down at them, his five foot ten inch frame seeming to tower over them in a perfect imitation of the Bat. His eyes narrowed under his mask, and his mouth was set in a thin, disapproving line.
"It's Daredevil!" one thug cried. "Run!"
Then all hell broke loose.
Two of the thugs—Batgirl couldn't see which ones, opened fire on the Boy Wonder. Unfortunately for them, in the time it took for them to raise their weapons and pull the triggers, Robin had moved well outside their line of fire. The burst of gunfire went sailing down the alley and Batgirl had to scramble for cover behind the dumpster.
By the time the thugs realized they were aiming at nothing Robin was already launching himself into the air from his out-of-the-way-of-gunfire position. Robin leapt high enough to grab onto the lowest rung of a sawed off fire escape latter. He then swung his legs up and caught one thug hard beneath the chin, sending him flying backwards into the side of the stripped car.
The two remaining thugs took aim and fired, but Robin was already executing a dismount from his makeshift high bar. He flipped over the heads of the thugs—who couldn't pivot, aim, and fire with enough speed and accuracy to hit him as he perfectly executed his patented quadruple flip. Robin added a half-twist to his rotation and landed in a crouched position on the roof of the car, facing the thugs.
The thugs took aim and fired again.
Once again Robin was too fast for them. Before either of them even got a single shot off, the Boy Wonder had launched himself off the car—arms outstretched—and sailed into the thugs before they had a chance to re-aim their guns.
The sheer force of Robin barreling into them was enough to knock them down. Before they were splayed completely flat Robin pushed off of their chests (where his hands had landed) and executed a perfect front half-twisting handspring. Robin was on his feet again, standing behind them as they rolled on the ground and tried to stand again.
They were so dazed that they forgot to pick their guns up from where they'd fallen.
Robin didn't give them the chance to correct the oversight. Actually, he didn't even give them the chance to finish standing up. He jumped high and kicked his feet out, hitting each thug square in the face. They tumbled backwards and hit the pavement.
This time they didn't get up again.
The two thugs were out cold.
Robin stooped and picked up their guns before walking over to the other thug, whom he had left reclining unconsciously against the side of the car. That thug was starting to come around, but Robin changed his mind with one well-placed punch. Then he picked up the last of the guns.
"Man without fear indeed," he muttered as he removed the cartridges from each gun. These he pocketed; the guns he dropped unceremoniously into a pile.
"I have two more cartridges for you," Batgirl called out as she approached him. She had the cartridges in one arm and the guns in the other.
"Good. They didn't shoot you when you were hiding behind that dumpster."
"Hey I wasn't hiding, I was taking cover!" Batgirl protested as she dropped her guns into the pile with Robin's. "I was only back there because I was taking out the two thugs using the dumpster as cover for this back alley shootout. And since I'm the reason you didn't have any crossfire to worry about, Short Pants, I think a thank-you is in order."
"What thank-you? Because of you I had to dance around like a jumping bean on crack instead of taking them head on so that you didn't catch a stray bullet."
"Yeah well I had everything perfectly under control until you decided to drop in."
"This isn't your city, Batgirl," Robin dismissed in a close approximation of the voice. "What are you doing here?"
"It ain't your city either, Short Pants," Batgirl pointed out rather hotly. "I could ask you the same question."
"First off, your observation skills need work: I'm not wearing short pants anymore. Secondly, if you're trying to claim squatter's rights to this city then I was here first. Third, I'm not looking for a partner." Then, in a lower, almost bitter voice: "Why don't you go try Batman, I hear he's working solo these days."
"Yeah well, first to you, Boy Wonder, I'm not here to take over New York. I came here looking for you, if you believe that. I wanted to know why you left Gotham and maybe ask you what horrible infestation crawled up the Bat's ass and died before you left. Second, partnering with Batman, while educational, is damn near intolerable and I honestly have no idea how you managed for so long. And third," Batgirl adopted a broad, teasing grin. "You'll always be 'Short Pants' to me."
"Nnnnngh, get a room…" One thug grunted as he tried to push himself into a sitting position. Simultaneously both vigilantes reached out and punched him, each hitting the thug directly in a different eye. He collapsed back down to the pavement in an unconscious heap.
"Go home, Batgirl," Robin ordered as he turned his back and began walking.
"Oh, why do you have to be such a… such a dick?"
Robin froze in his tracks. "Learned from the best," he said, neutrally. "And who are you to talk?" he asked as he continued walking. "You're a better dick than I am if you're his current partner."
Batgirl sputtered and fumed. "Oooooh! Why you little—"
She was silenced when Robin help up a finger from the payphone across the street he had crossed to. He used his calling card to alert the cops to the five unconscious thugs in the alley but hung up before they could ask for any specific details.
"I guess Bat hasn't trained you well enough," Robin mused coldly. "You'll need to work on those anger issues."
Just then a city bus drove through the street that separated them. In the two seconds that it took for the bus to pass, Robin had vanished without a trace.
"I hate it when they do that!"
Bartgirl spent nearly an hour combing Hell's Kitchen again looking for Robin. Finally, grudgingly, she admitted defeat. At least she found him once, she thought. Now that she knew where he was she could stop worrying that he'd dropped off the face of the earth, or worse, hung up the cape for good.
Barbara somehow managed to make it back to her motel room without anyone spotting Batgirl. A nice, long shower later and most of her anger had dissipated. In its place sat burning curiosity.
His suit was different. Contrary to popular opinion, that was obvious the first moment she saw him. Gone indeed were the short pants that he wore three seasons a year. Long green pants had replaced them, a few shades darker than his original coloring. In fact, darkness was the overall theme for the changes she noticed. The vest wasn't 'robin red' anymore. Instead it was a deeper vermillion color, and either Robin's gained considerable girth or there's armor sewn into the vest as well. The short yellow cape had been replaced as well. Now he wore a longer two-tone cape, black on the outside and dark yellow on the inside—much darker than the original yellow. She would even stake a bet that the bottom of the cape was lined with sharpened lead for an extra offensive weapon, just like Batman's. Yet it didn't seem to impede his tumbling ability any, which was surprising.
No… not surprising at all. Thinking back, Barbara had gotten a good look at his arms. The kid has obviously been working out, a lot. The extra weight of the new suit didn't seem to bother him in the slightest. In fact, she thought that Robin was operating at the peak of his performance.
With mixed feelings, she acknowledged that 'Short Pants' had finally grown up.
Of course, growing up is no excuse for catching the asshole disease. What was with the attitude adjustment? It seems that along with the original costume, Robin traded in the witty banter, cocky grin, and general enthusiasm for the job. He was all business now, no smiles and certainly no wasted words. He had grown more Bat-like, it seemed, and Barbara had no qualms mourning that fact openly.
Even still, not even Batman is as openly bitter and argumentative as Robin was tonight. From the way he was talking he made it sound like he and Batman were no longer partners. Heck, she wouldn't be surprised if they weren't even on speaking terms anymore. That would certainly answer a few questions.
Well, except for the obvious. What the hell happened in Gotham last year?
Even though she showered, Barbara still didn't feel quite ready for bed. Something else was nagging at her brain, something that she couldn't quite put a finger on. So she decided to head down to the hotel lobby and buy herself a copy of The Wall Street Journal. If that doesn't put her to sleep, nothing will.
Barbara climbed under the covers and turned on the reading lamp. She didn't get much farther than the first page before the paper nearly fell out of her hands.
Metropolitan Museum prepares for grand opening of Egyptian Twins exhibit.
A sinking feeling hit her stomach like a brick.
Harvey Dent's whereabouts were still unknown. Robin had made his first appearance in New York after months of apparent retirement barely a week after Dent had escaped. It could only mean one thing: Robin was hunting Two-Face.
Suddenly the second wave of dread hit. Robin was hunting Two-Face alone, with no help from or even communication with Batman.
"That's what he thinks," Barbara vowed. No way in hell was she letting Short Pants go up against a villain as dangerous as Harvey Two-Face Dent without any backup whatsoever.
The 'why New York' question answered, Barbara shut the light off and tried to get some sleep.
She wasn't very successful.
Robin made his way back around to the warehouses he was staking out before his little sojourn into a shootout. He couldn't deny how good it felt to kick the crap out of bad guys again. He noticed with relish how all of his extra training had made sure that the new, heavier suit didn't affect his performance at all. In fact, he believed that when all was said and done, he was even faster than he was before his enforced sabbatical a year ago. His strength and endurance were back where they should be, too, if not better as well. He was officially Robin again: reinvented to be stronger, faster, and entirely more badass than the 'Short Pants' Batgirl mistook him for in that alley.
At that thought Robin silently fumed. What the hell was she doing here anyway? While part of him was oddly touched that she came all the way out here to find him seemingly as soon as she found out where he was, the bigger part of him was too pissed off to care about sentiment. Robin doesn't need Batgirl to check up on him. Even though Barbara's three years older than him, Robin is a much better vigilante than Batgirl with more training and experience under his utility belt. What right does she think she has, coming here to look for him?
Of course, this arrogant machismo, wherein Robin kept telling himself over and over again until he believed that he didn't need help from anyone, not Batman and certainly not Batgirl, was just the cover story for the real reason he was so angry with her. Well, the two real reasons he was angry, if he was honest with himself.
First, that mini-showdown in that alleyway had distracted him from his real purpose in Hell's Kitchen: his mission to take down Harvey Dent. He wanted—no, needed Two-Face. Their rivalry was years in the making. As much as he wanted to rip the Joker limb from limb in payment for the gunshot wound and his falling out with Bruce… Two-Face is the only villain that's ever made him fail, and in their business, failure is NOT an option. When Robin fails… people die. Innocent people. People who by rights should still be alive today if it wasn't for his horrible, horrible mistake: his failure to anticipate Two-Face's probable move. Even though Batman had never blamed him, Dick knew that he didn't have to. His own sense of guilt was more than sufficient. In his mind, he will never atone for that failure until he takes Two-Face down, drags him by the scar tissue back to Arkham personally… behind his old motorcycle if he had his way.
Now Robin was perched on a rooftop again, overlooking the warehouses. To the untrained eye, nothing appeared to have changed. However, Robin was easily able to spot the subtle differences that drew his night from bad to worse. A few of the vagrants were missing, and there was a fresh set of skid marks, and a small puddle of something that leaked from a car that wasn't there before. Translated: Harvey had come and gone while Robin was off busting heads and arguing with Batgirl. While there really was no way to tell when exactly Two-Face had made his appearance, that didn't stop Robin from blaming Batgirl for making him take extra time with the alleyway bust as the reason he missed his opportunity at the warehouses.
He was afraid of that happening from the moment he detected Batgirl's presence behind the dumpster. That and, knowing Barbara as he does, the minute she gets wind of Two-Face being in town, there's no way she'd leave. Two-Face is a dangerous enemy, one that Batman strove to keep her from facing even when Robin was still his partner. Robin didn't want Barbara to get herself killed taking on a villain way out of her league. He's read in the Gotham papers that Batgirl had been spotted helping Batman capture the Mad Hatter and Catwoman (the latter unfortunately escaping police custody shortly thereafter), but as far as the spectrum of Gotham freak shows is concerned, those are two of the 'safer' villains. They aren't into random acts of violence and don't kill people as a general rule. Granted what Hatter has planned for the lithe blonds he captures would probably get him castrated with a butter knife if ever he went to Blackgate instead of Arkham, but that doesn't make him a villain that Batman would go out of his way to prevent Barbara from helping him take him down.
Concern for Batgirl's safety was only the outward reason. Dig a little deeper and you'll find the real reason: Dick wants Two-Face all to himself. No Batman to take the lead and certainly no Batgirl to back him up.
Barbara's already made him miss Two-Face once. If she doesn't leave town soon she'll find out about the museum and Saturday and she won't leave town at all. His vendetta will be spoiled and he'll probably be too worried about Barbara's safety to even secure the collar on Two-Face anyway.
As sufficient enough as those reasons to be angry with Batgirl were, they weren't what bothered him the most. They weren't the reasons why he spent three hours in the campus gym after returning from being Robin. As much as he wanted to, he couldn't go looking for fights as Robin because the more often he's seen, the greater the likelihood that Two-Face will hear of his presence in the city. If he wanted to take out his frustrations, the all-night gym was his best bet, and he took full advantage of it.
Dick settled for taking his anger out on a punching bag, and boy did that punching bag have a rough night. Aside from missing his chance at Harvey, aside from Batgirl complicating matters with her very presence, aside from his worry that she'll blow the entire operation, what bothered him the most about tonight was much subtler, much simpler than that.
Partnering with Batman, while educational, is damn near intolerable and I honestly have no idea how you managed for so long.
Partnering with Batman…
Partnering…
…
"There isn't going to be a next time. Robin is a liability that Batman cannot afford."
"Is that what I am to you? A liability? I thought we were partners."
"We were. I'm ending the partnership."
"But—"
"I won't risk you getting hurt again."
"It's my risk to take. I knew that going in."
"Not anymore. I can't—I won't, take that risk."
…
"Partnering with Batman, while educational, is damn near intolerable and I honestly have no idea how you managed for so long."
…
"I'm ending the partnership."
…
"I won't, take that risk."
…
…
…
That punching bag had a very, very rough night.
AN- Batman Forever combined the story of Dick's parents' deaths with his grudge against Two-Face. The real story behind the rivalry can be found in Robin Year One. This story is a retelling of older canon, however. During Robin's first year as Batman's sidekick, Two-Face captured both Batman and a judge (older canon: the latest Gotham district attorney, which is the identity of the victim used in this story) and it was up to Robin to save the day. To make a long story short Robin gets the stuffing beaten out of him (nearly to death) by Two-Face, Batman frees himself at the last minute to save his sidekick, and the DA dies anyway.
