Disclaimer: I don't own the Batfamily (I also don't own anything Disney, which I forgot to mention in the last chapter).
Robin's First Easter
It was unusually quiet when Damian woke up. He didn't think much of it at first as he was usually awake before Grayson anyways, but when he noticed that Pennyworth was not in the kitchen preparing breakfast, he began to grow wary. Before getting too worried, however, he decided that he should do a thorough sweep of the penthouse before settling on the idea that Grayson and Pennyworth were both missing.
He first checked Grayson's room, which was empty. The bed was even made, meaning that Pennyworth had to at least have been around long enough to make it because Grayson sure as hell didn't make it. Next, Damian checked Pennyworth's sleeping quarters. No sign of the butler there either. After an extremely comprehensive search of the penthouse, Damian decided that they were not, in fact, there.
But Damian was not worried yet. There was still the Bunker to check. Perhaps Grayson had been awoken by an emergency that Batman needed to take care of and he and Pennyworth had gone downstairs to take care of it. If that was the case, Damian was slightly irritated that Grayson had not awoken him, but he knew that the older man would have thought it was important for Damian to sleep. But Damian made his way down to the Bunker anyways, hoping that was, indeed, the case.
"Grayson!" he called when he exited the elevator. "Pennyworth, are you down here?"
There was no answer. Damian was now starting to get anxious. "Grayson, if this is your idea of a sick joke, it isn't funny! Where are you?" Still no answer. "And Pennyworth, it is absolutely deplorable that you are playing along with this."
Damian made his way further into the Bunker towards the computers. Perhaps Grayson was out? Maybe something on the computer could give him a clue. Damian approached the large swivel chair and made to sit down in it only to discover that the chair was already occupied. Sitting on the chair was a laptop and a bright green, egg-shaped, plastic object. Confused, Damian investigated the laptop first. He turned it on only to discover that it required a password.
Frustrated, Damian set the computer aside and moved on to the plastic egg. After turning it over in his hands a few times, he realized that it had an opening in the middle. Damian knew better than to just open something that could potentially be dangerous (Grayson was constantly telling him to think before he acted), but for all he knew Grayson and Pennyworth were in trouble.
Taking a deep breath, Damian snapped the egg open, waiting for an explosion of some sort. When none came, he let out the breath he was holding and peered inside the egg. All he found was a folded up piece of paper. Setting the egg down, Damian examined the paper and unfolded it to read its contents.
Mister Damian Wayne,
As I'm sure you have already discovered, Richard Grayson and Alfred Pennyworth are not where they should be. In order to find them, you need to log onto the laptop which will reveal their location. However, the laptop has been encrypted by one of the greatest minds on the planet. You will require a password. The egg that you are holding is just one of twelve. Inside each egg is a clue as to what the password to the computer is. The remaining eleven eggs are hidden on the grounds of Wayne Manor. I'm sure you know how to get there.
I hope to see you soon,
The Easter Bunny
"The Easter Bunny!?" Damian growled, clenching his fists. "What kind of supervillain name is that? He must some sort of holiday themed villain." He crumpled up the note and tossed it onto the chair. "No matter. If this Easter Bunny has harmed Pennyworth and Grayson, he will pay dearly."
Damian began to make his way to his motorcycle, only to remember that there was probably a protocol for this type of thing. If Grayson and Pennyworth were kidnapped, then perhaps he should contact Oracle or Drake? And someone had clearly been inside the Bat Bunker. This was suddenly bigger than Damian knew how to handle. This Easter Bunny character had addressed him using his real name. This person knew who he was.
They had been compromised.
Damian rushed over to the computer and immediately tried to contact Oracle. If this person had been inside the Bunker, then perhaps she could dig up footage or at least some sort of clue. When there was no response from Oracle, Damian swallowed his pride and attempted to get ahold of Drake. There was still no answer. Had they been captured as well? Was he alone? There was only one more person he could think to call and that was Brown. He hated that he was resorting to this, and he honestly didn't think she was capable of helping anyways, but Grayson was clearly in trouble. Desperate times called for desperate measures, indeed.
Brown didn't answer either. He really was alone in this. Damian ran to his bike and began the drive to Wayne Manor.
In his haste, Damian missed a second piece of paper that had fallen, neglected, to the ground. It read: Happy Easter, Damian! I hope you enjoy our game. Alfred and I will see you at the finish line with candy so come hungry!
"Well, looks like he's off," Dick said to Alfred, gazing down at a handheld screen in his hand.
"He seems quite flustered," Alfred observed.
"Oh, it'll be fun! Besides, how else am I going to get him to search for Easter Eggs? He certainly won't do it if I just told him to. I have to educate him in the ways of Easter egg hunting." Growing up under the tutelage of the League of Assassins, Damian had never experienced the tradition of hunting for Easter Eggs on Easter Sunday. He'd never been given a basket full of candy and he'd never been told the story of the Easter Bunny. Damian never had Easter and Dick was right that he wouldn't want to celebrate simply because someone told him he should.
Alfred looked to the young man beside him. It really was quite the genius plan Dick had come up with. He'd even gotten Barbara, Tim, and Stephanie in on it as well. Barbara had provided the laptop with top notch security and all three had been sworn to secrecy when Dick made them promise not to answer if Damian tried to contact them.
"Come on, he'll probably be here soon so we should make ourselves scarce."
Damian jumped off his bike immediately upon arrival at the Manor and began his hunt for the remaining eleven plastic eggs. He had been expecting them to be hidden in hard-to-find locations, but even as he was passing through the gates, he saw one. It was wedged in between two of the spokes on the top of the gate. Damian found this to be a bit odd. Was this some sort of trick? Was this supposed to give him a false sense of security? Surely finding all of the eggs wouldn't be this easy.
Nonetheless, Damian had climbed up the gate and plucked the egg from its hiding spot. He popped it open and found another slip of paper as well as a few Hershey's Kisses. Damian decided that he would not touch the candy, fearing that it could be poisoned or otherwise tampered with. Instead, he focused on the paper. All that was written on the paper was the letter "A." Frustrated, Damian shoved the paper into his pocket and continued his search for the remaining eggs.
He searched everywhere. He checked in bushes, under rocks, in the garden, in the highest branches of the tallest trees. He had even climbed the Manor itself in his search for these elusive eggs. His search had been meticulous and methodical and he made sure to cover every square foot of the land owned by his late father. Finally, after nearly two hours of searching, he had all twelve eggs and all eleven clues.
He had soon discovered that the clues merely consisted of one digit each. Damian assumed that, when put together and scrambled up, they would reveal the password to access whatever clue was on the laptop. The letters he had were as follows: A, E, E, H, P, P, O, R, S, T, Y.
Easy Prophet? Nope.
Shape Poetry? No.
Erase Thy Hop? Still no.
Damian tried every combination of letters that crossed his mind, but none of them seemed to be working. He was so frustrated that he had considered simply smashing the computer. He restrained himself, however, because he knew that the laptop was his only hope of finding Grayson and Pennyworth and returning them home safely.
It was then that Damian realized that perhaps this villain had already given him a clue. The Easter Bunny. Of the eleven letters that he had, six of them spelled out Easter, leaving only H, P, P, O, and Y.
Easter Pophy?
Easter Pyhop?
And then it hit him.
Hoppy Easter.
Hoppy because he's supposedly a rabbit? Damian didn't quite understand the phrase, but it worked when he typed it into the computer and that was all that mattered. He breathed a sigh of relief as the password was finally accepted and a map of Gotham appeared on the screen. Across the top of the screen were the words "Misters Grayson and Pennyworth are at this location." Below that, Damian found a large X on the center of the screen.
"Robinson Park," he said as he wrote down the exact coordinates. Then, not wanting to wait another second, he ran back to his bike.
When Damian arrived at Robinson Park, he was met with a horrifying sight: children all throughout the park were gathering brightly-colored plastic eggs. Had the Easter Bunny kidnapped more than just Grayson and Pennyworth? Failing to notice that these children were not frightened, but rather happy, Damian hurried on his way. The only chance he had to stop this menace was to follow the clues and find Grayson.
Damian continued to the specified coordinates, preparing himself for the worst. When he arrived in the area, he noticed that nothing seemed out of the ordinary. There were no children in this part of the park so it was much quieter, but aside from that, Damian did not see what was so special about this location. The thought occurred to him that perhaps the location was meant to be underground. Maybe he was supposed to be looking for the entrance.
He began to comb the area, looking for anything suspicious. Just as he was about to check the map again, just to make sure he hadn't come to the wrong spot, he noticed something sitting in the grass. As he approached it, he realized that it was a stuffed rabbit. Propped against the rabbit was a paper folded in half. On the front was his name. Alert, Damian knelt down next to the rabbit and picked up the paper.
If you want to know where Richard Grayson is, turn around.
Damian tensed. In the time that he had knelt to examine the toy, someone had approached him from behind. Clenching his fists, Damian slowly stood up and turned around, ready to pounce if necessary.
"Happy Easter, Damian!" a chipper voice said to him.
"Grayson?" Was this some kind of trick? Standing in front of Damian was the man he'd been searching for. He had a broad smile on his face and in his hand he was holding a large basket full of candy.
"You found me!" Dick congratulated the boy.
Wait. Had this all been just a game? A joke? Damian's eyes narrowed. Damian tightened his fists and, with an angry battle cry, he ran at the older man and tackled him to the ground. Surprised, Dick wasn't able to hold his stance and fell backwards, the basket of candy flying to the ground.
"Grayson, you idiot!" Damian shouted, pounding his fists into Dick's chest. "You were safe the whole time?"
"Whoa, Dami, what's wrong?" Dick asked, grabbing Damian's arms, stopping the boy's punches.
Damian was breathing heavily as he struggled to break free. "Unhand me!" Dick gazed into his brother's eyes and he realized that he knew that look. He had seen it before in Jason's eyes. Damian felt betrayed. A wave of realization washed over Dick as he sat up and embraced the furious boy in his arms.
"Damian, I'm so sorry. Did you not get that this was a game?" Dick asked, trying to sooth his brother.
He hadn't realized the effect this would have on him. When Dick had come up with the idea, he had imagined that Damian would embrace the challenge of solving the mystery of Dick and Alfred's disappearance. He had included the message revealing that this was in fact a game because he didn't want Damian to panic. Had Damian not seen it? Had he been worrying this whole time, afraid that Dick and Alfred were actually in danger? And now to see that he was perfectly safe….
Damian had stopped struggling, but he was still shaking. "I'm fine. I'm safe. So is Alfred. I promise, no one is in any danger," Dick said. "It was supposed to be a fun Easter-themed game and I didn't think it would get this out of hand. I'm so sorry, Dami. I didn't mean to worry you." They were silent for a moment. Dick kept his tight grip on Damian, waiting for him to calm down.
Finally, when he felt Damian's breathing return to normal he asked, "You want some candy?"
Dick heard an angry growl before he felt both of Damian's hands pushing against his chest. Damian successfully escaped from Dick's hug and stood up. "No, I don't want any of your stupid candy, Grayson."
Dick stood up, picking up the basket of candy. "But I bought it all for you! There are little chocolate robin's eggs, some peeps, some jelly beans-" Dick's list of candy in the basket came to a halt when the stuffed bunny collided with his face. "All you had to say was 'no.' No need to take your anger out on the poor bunny," Dick said, grinning.
"That is only the beginning of my revenge, Grayson."
Dick jogged to keep up with Damian. "I'll be ready for it." As they walked out of the park, Dick placed his hand on Damian's shoulder. "You'll never be alone, Dami. I promise." Damian didn't respond, but Dick was sure that he felt the boy lean into his touch ever so slightly.
AN: Thanks for the reviews/follows/favorites guys! Damian might be a little traumatized by Easter after this, unfortunately. The next update won't be this fast, but it will be soon, I promise.