Terry had fought a lot of people. He'd fought whole gangs, people with crazy powers that put them leaps and bounds above human, and people with the kind of training that classified them as living weapons. All that he could handle, he'd been trained for it, but this? taking down a kid in a threadbare jacket... it didn't sit right. He knew the kid wasn't as defencless as he seemed, and the whole dome was proof. Moreover Terry had been trained to assess threats and deal with them. He'd do his job, even if he didn't like it.

Sinking into a ready stance Batman decided to end this fight quickly.

He stepped in, going for a grab rather than an outright punch. A headlock, get the kid off the ground, add a little knockout gas and this would all be over. Batman could hand him over to someone who knew how to handle this kind of thing.

Then the grass tangled around hit back foot, derailed that plan.

The kid watched him from a careful yard back, just out of range. his shoulders were hunched up, but there was the start of a smile on his face. "I think," he licked his lips and nodded, "Yeah, I think I want to be Thorn. That's a good name right?" The kid looked at the plants as if they could answer him.

Batman took the opening. He flipped open the last canister of plant killer. The spray created an arc of sickly yellow-brown starting at Batman ankle and cutting a swath between him and Thorn.

Thorn cried out, throwing up his hands. Batman lept, kicking out. The kid fell back, crying out as the grass cushioned his fall. Batman kicked on his boot jets before he could get trapped again. Thorn grabbed something, throwing it upwards.

The handful scattered, and for a moment Batman thought it was just sand, then he realised his mistake. Seeds pattered harmlessly on his armor, and a few of them stuck.

Thorn reached up, hand open. For a moment nothing happened, then green tendrils sprouted from the seams of Batman's boots, his ankles, and knees, anywhere there was a joint or gap in the armor. The boots stuttered and Batman twisted in the air. Somehow it helped. Most of the sprouts fell away, letting Batman gain a little more height. He needed to end this, fast.

Batman drew a stun-batarang. The ice batarangs did some damage to the plants but he didn't carry as many of them. In the middle of winter he hadn't thought they'd do much good. The stunners wouldn't do jack on the plants but there were even odds that if he knocked out the kid, the plants would stop.

Below, Thorn was muttering something to himself. Batman wasn't about to give him the time to come up with a plan.

His aim was true, but Thorn glanced up. He dived to the side just in time. The grass cushioned him. Batman flicked his wrist again, launching a second stunner. This time the grass closed over the kid, weaving into a serviceable shield.

A second later a cloud of pollen turned the air yellow.

Batman instinctively rose a few inches higher. He didn't like this. He had a possible solution, but it was a messy one. Not for the first time he wished Wayne was on coms. He couldn't ask Max, not with something like this. Batman was the one who made the hard choices.

"Last chance to give up piecefully. Ten seconds."

Below him the plants rustled. Batman flipped through the visor settings, trying to figure out if the kid had moved or not. His mental countdown hit zero.

Batman unclipped a small detonator from his belt. It wasn't nearly powerful enough to get rid of the plants but he didn't need it to. The pollen in the air was so thick it would go up like sawdust.

Setting the timer for two seconds, he cranked up his personal shield and let the detonator fall.

Ian only had to flash his badge to get through the perimeter around the filtration plant. It was still a crime scene and he'd been one of the arresting officers, of course he had access. Sneaking in a child, even if that child was Robin shouldn't have been as easy as telling him to duck down in the passenger seat, but to be fair the place only had a skeleton guard. Everyone who could be spared had been called in the help with the dome.

Pulling to a stop Ian looked at the front door. There was a guard there too. There was likely only one or two more inside, even considering how essential the place was to city infrastructure. Once they were inside, that was it. Or rather, once he was inside.

Ian pulled a spare headset from the charging doc and handed it to Robin. During the drive, the kid had linked himself into the car's signal and by now he was probably hacking into all the files ah HQ. If this came back to bite him it would be Ian's own fault and he'd likely lose more than his job. He wondered if he'd get protective custody in jail or if they'd let him hang...

Robin took the com, fitting it over his ear.

Ian took a breath. He shouldn't be intimidated by a kid who wasn't even in costume. One little mask did not count. Not that intimidated was quite right... Robin had saved him, they'd saved each other. When he thought about not trusting Robin, something broke. It just didn't fit. IT was all hypothetical and he still tried to find a reason that would let the kid off, mind control or hypnosis or a cloned evil twin.

Focus. Ian looked down at Robin and said what he had to. "You're not coming in. You can direct me from here. I'm sure you've already found the layout of the place. Once I'm at the control room you can tell me what systems to shut down. Anything else, well, I'll network you in if I have to but you have to stay here."

Robin or not, hero or not, the kid was still recovering. This problem didn't need him on sight, not if Ian was there to flip the switches. Plus the commissioner would skin him alive (even more then she was already going to) if she found out about it.

Robin nodded, most of his focus still clearly on the tablet.

Ian was conflicted. on the one hand, this was what he wanted, on the other he wasn't sure Robin would actually follow through. Well at least he had done what he could.

Ian flashed his badge to the guard just inside the entrance and headed for the control room. It was about what he would have expected. The door was thick with a airtight seal and a ridiculously sized keypad, retinal scan combo lock next to the door. Before he could touch the lock the light flipped to green. That had to be Robin.

It was kind of nice to have someone watching his back like that.

From the inside the room was a moderately comfortable shell over a concrete box. There were three stations, that each seemed to control a different section of the complex. The walls had some nice watercolor posters and when he sat down the chair was reasonably comfy but that was about the best that could be said for it.

The screens for the leftmost system lit up and a filtered voice came through his earpiece. "You need to pull up a map for the 11th district and close off the valves as I list them."

Ian nodded, "Right, looks like it needs a login."

"Username SisAdmin, password: 84tm4nl1v3s"

Ian started typing. He didn't know this system but it seemed straightforward enough. He narrowed the scope to the 11th district and started checking off numbers as Robin listed them. On his secondary screen graphs and numbers changed from yellow to green and back again, so he figured he was making some progress.

Then an alert popped up, and all the graphs went into the red. Ian tore his hands away from the keyboard, but before he could ask the voice was in his ear again.

"It's the dome. It's too late."