Tip of the Iceberg: Chapter Four

Dick's POV

"It's been a long time since we've done something like this," Barbara says as we hold hands from across the table.

"I bet you remember the last time like it was yesterday though," I reply with a smile.

"The view of the sky was beautiful that night, that was a classic Dick Grayson date."

"What do you mean by that?" I laugh.

"Do you honestly not realise?"

"No, tell me."

"Dick, you only take people on two kinds of dates. Mission dates, like this one, or you go to a high up place with a great view. You've always loved heights, you can't help yourself."

"Huh, I think you're right."

"Of course I am," she says, taking a drink from her glass.

I look at the buffet behind us and then back to Barbara.

"Well we're in a unique situation here where good food is actually available for a so called 'mission date', do you want me to get you some?"

"That depends, are you going to have anything?" she asks.

"Uh..." I look down and pat my stomach, "that will have to be a no. I may have eaten a gas station burrito the other day and-"

My explanation is cut off by Barbara chuckling and shaking her head.

"I told you to stay away from those things."

"But they taste so good!" I reply.

"That's probably just because you know they're bad for you," she smiles.

"You're so right, but I so don't care, the stomach irritation is worth it!"

"Well if you're not having anything, I guess I'll have just stick with this very expensive wine," she says, pouring some more into her glass.

"I see that Cassandra's on Tiffany duty," I mention as I look over to Cassandra who seems to be trying to scout the place out, while an excited Tiffany slowly pulls her towards the dance floor.

"Yeah... usually that would be Stephanie's job but she's busy tonight," she says, pointing to Tim and Steph as they also start to walk towards the dance floor. I turn back to Barbara as she gives me a look I recognise.

"You know I'd love to dance with you Barbara, but I promised Damian we'd finish this mission up as quickly as possible so he can join. I promise we'll have all night to do so afterwards, how about that?"

"That sounds like a deal to me," she says with an alluring smile, "That's another classic Dick Grayson thing."

"No way, I love to dance!"

"Not that," she says with a laugh, "Sacrificing for your friends. It's one of my favourite things about you."

"My family," I correct, "And it's not just that, I don't want you guys showing us up this time. We're capable too, you know?"

"I'm sorry for what I said about that yesterday."

"Sorry about what? Telling me to get my act together? You were right Babs, we make a real mess of all of our jobs. You're never screwing up so much that you wonder if you'll even get the reward, we do that all the time!"

"But you always find a way to get the job done. I know you, you're not a quitter. Sure you sometimes have problems finishing enough jobs to pay the bills, but everyone works differently, all at different speeds. That doesn't make one person better than the other."

I put my head in my hands, "I know that, and a little while ago I really believed it. But sometimes lately, I just wonder if I'm doing a good enough job. For the others, not for me, I don't know if I'm setting the best example or just setting them up for failure."

"Dick, I feel like that all the time," she says, gently prying my hands away from my face.

"You do? Why?" I ask.

"It's just something that goes with the job of caring for other people, for your family. Look over there," she says, directing my head to the dance floor, "They look happy, right? And healthy? That's all that matters, Dick."

I sit there for a few seconds, watching Tim slowly grow more confident in his dancing with Steph, Cass letting Tiffany stand on her feet as she dances, just taking in the image before turning back to Barbara.

"I guess I've been beating myself up over nothing, huh?"

"Don't worry, we all do it sometimes," she says as she starts to hold my hand again, "that's why we have friends to point us in the right direction."

After that, we just stare into each other's eyes for a while, before Babs breaks the silence.

"Now, come on. You said you wanted to finish this quickly, so that's what we'll do. First thing is to find that vault."

Jason's POV

As I walk into the ballroom, the first thing I do is look for Dick, I can't let him see me or he'll just lecture me about leaving Damian on his own. I'm sure the brat's fine, he can handle himself, and Penguin's tied up. I spot him sitting at a table with Barbara, then make sure to stay out of his line of sight as I make my way towards the food. I'll just grab some of this, and that, oh and a couple of these, yeah that's good. Okay, I'll eat this as I look for the vault, if I can't find it in... I don't know maybe fifteen minutes, I'll go back and check on Damian. Then I'll just have to hope the threat of Damian also getting a talk from Dick will stop him ratting me out.

I start to check the hallways leading out of the ballroom one by one, trying to look as unsuspicious as possible, while also staying out of Dick's sight. Which I think goes well for the first hallway, where I spot absolutely nothing. Then as soon as I get back to the ballroom, Dick's gone, I can't see him anywhere. He must be checking around like I am, but he left the others on the dance floor... I'll just have to be more careful when I turn corners not to run into him I guess.

So I continue my search, once again trying to look as unsuspicious as possible while checking behind paintings and through doors, now also having to be careful with every corner and room I enter not to run into Dick. I realise how much work this is, and start to consider going back to the ship when I hear something from around the next corner. I know I've heard the sound before but I can't quite pinpoint it. I carefully peek around and spot the vault I've been looking for, the entrance is the size of a normal door and definitely cracked open right now, that's when it hits me... penguin feet, the sound of penguin feet on the floor! Penguin's goons are inside there.

As I get out a couple batarangs my stomach rumbles, quite loudly. Then the noises from the vault stop. Crap! My stomach's getting me into all kinds of trouble today. With my plan to surprise them out the window, I wait for a couple minutes to see if anyone leaves the vault. But nothing happens, there's just silence. I consider calling for Dick, but then he'd know I left Damian... Screw that, I can do this on my own, it's just a few of the penguin guys.

I creep towards the door and gently lean against it, readying myself to jump around and throw these things at the first two people I see. I take one deep breath as quietly as possible, then my stomach starts to rumble again.

"God damnit!" I yell as I hop around the door and hit two of the Penguin's guys with the batarangs, "Stupid stomach blowing my cover ag- oh... shit."

"Jason, I was wondering when you'd arrive," Penguin says with that annoying toothy grin as he sits on a pile of his stolen goods, pointing a gun towards me, "Come inside, slowly, I'd advise you not to put up as much of a fight as your brother did, it would end just as badly."

As I follow his orders, I look at the one man of his I didn't bring down, he's easily recognisable with those flippers for arms, Dick warned us not to mess with him. Then I notice the blood on Penguin's face, his nose and mouth look even more screwed up than before. Damian really didn't go down without a fight, but I shouldn't have left him, I really fucked up this time!

"He better not be dead, because I can guarantee you if he is, things will end much worse for you than me," I growl, as I start to feel light headed. I stumble a little as Penguin directs me into the corner. What's going on? First my stomach, now-

"I don't think you'll be in any condition to hurt me, Jason. The poison from the food and drink seems to already be taking affect. Now wait there until your bro-"

"POISON?" we hear from the hallway, Penguin's head darts to the entrance. I try to take advantage of the distraction and grab his gun, but fall to the ground before I catch up to him as my muscles seem to give up.

"And here they are, Dick Grayson and Barbara Gordon. Please, come in."

Dick's POV

Poison, that explains why Barbara started to feel a bit weak halfway during our search. I slowly wheel her inside as Penguin points his gun at us. As my stomach starts to rumble, Penguin's grin grows even wider. Of course Jason left him and Damian on their own! I should have seen that coming... I swear when I find out what he did to Damian, he'll endure an equal amount of pain. No one hurts my brothers, no one. I look down at Jason on the floor, he looks like he's in a lot of pain himself right now, must have eaten a lot of the food.

"Now what's going to happen is simple, you're going to stay there while the poison starts to affect everyone in the building. Then when you and everyone else are too weak to move, we'll commence the extermination."

"Extermination?" I ask, giving him a furious glare as I clench my fists.

"Well we're going to kill everyone in the building-"

"But why? What do you even have to gain from doing that? I thought the whole point of this was so that your hideout would be hard to find? Poisoning a bunch of rich people does the exact opposite. Also, how they hell did you even get in here looking like that?"

"You bounty hunters are so arrogant," he lets out some mixture of a growl and a chuckle, "you think all criminals are stupid, as if that's why they don't follow the law. But the truth is, we just weren't all blessed with good looks and loving parents. All I had to do to fool your little group was to pretend to be an idiot, as if I hadn't thought of all the possibilities. I didn't care about this being secret, and I bribed all of the security, not just the night crew, I want the world to know about what happens here today. This here, the building my father cherishes more than anything, his legacy... it's mine now. And after all the rich snobs in this building die thanks to their own greed and we seize Cobblepot Tower, I'll finally have my revenge. The legacy of this building will forever be linked to me, the son he abandoned! And I'll have my revenge on you. Because I made a promise to your little brother that I intend to fulfil. You're going to lie there helpless as I murder your brothers in front of your eyes, knowing there's nothing you can-"

"See that's where you're wrong, Penguin. You might be right about criminals and bounty hunters, I know we've certainly made plenty of mistakes to be standing here right now, but there's no way I'm letting you hurt my brothers any more than you already have."

"And how exactly are you going to stop me? When the poison takes full effect you'll-"

I smile with a mix of pity and rage.

"I didn't eat any of the food."

His face drops.

"But your stomach, I heard it!"

"Oh that? Gas station burrito," I say, patting my stomach, "it's been rumbling all day. But unluckily for you, I think I might have finally digested it."

I quickly get out my escrima sticks and toss one to Barbara, "You have enough energy to knock this guy senseless, Babs?"

"I think I can go a couple rounds," she replies as I dash towards Penguin.

BANG!

He fires his gun at me, but I manage to knock it upwards just in time to send the bullet into the ceiling, before shoving my elbow into his ribs. He steps backwards, clutching his side in pain with his free hand. I go in for another strike before-

WHACK!

Penguin's right hand flipper man hits me on the head, forcing me to the ground. It gets harder to focus as I start to feel dizzy, but I manage to look up to see Penguin aiming his gun at me.

THWIP! BANG!

I flinch from the noise, it takes me a second to realise, I'm not dead... I look up again to see Barbara wheeling herself as fast as she can into Penguin, attempting to clothesline him which doesn't quite work. But it causes him to slip on some of the stolen goods at his feet and fall into the wall, Barbara follows up by knocking him around with the escrima stick.

"Dick! I've got Penguin, focus on the big guy!" she yells, bringing me back to my senses a little.

I roll on the ground, hearing the impact of Flippy's foot as it lands right where my head was a second ago. I leap back to my feet and manage to get a blow in on the back of his head before he can react. It looks like it was a good hit as he starts to shake, that should level the playing field a bit. I try to take advantage and sweep his legs before he can focus, but he swings one of his flippers into my side, stopping me in my tracks.

He attempts to follow it with an overhead swing with both of them, but I manage to hop out of the way just in time. I then kick his right flipper as he brings it back up, thinking I might be able to weaken his main weapon, but it backfires as all I get is terrible pain in my foot. Those things are hard! The situation goes from bad to worse as I bring my foot back down and stumble as I find myself unable to put any pressure on it. Flippers notices this and uses the opportunity to slap my back with a lot of strength, bringing me down to the ground again.

Always with the same move! God damn it, get up Grayson! You've got to keep fighting, if you don't, your family's going to die! I sit up and see Mr. Flippy towering above me. Through his legs I notice Barbara in a struggle with Penguin over his gun, normally I'd put odds on Barbara winning that, but with the poison taking affect, even if she only ingested a little... Wait, through his legs, the ultimate weak spot!

I look up at Sir Flippington and grin, his expression goes from determination, to confusion, to agony as I use all my strength to uppercut him between the legs. I stand up as he drops backwards to the floor, attempting to clutch the area in pain, but all he can manage to do is whack it again with his flipper.

"I'm done playing with you, guy," I say as I look down and kick him in the side of the head with my good foot, knocking him out cold.

"DICK!" I hear Barbara yell.

My eyes dart to Penguin as he points his gun directly at my head, Babs lying on the floor behind him. I flinch once again as-

BANG!

"AAAAAAaaaaahhhhh!"

I... huh? That wasn't me... I open my eyes and see Penguin clutching a now bleeding hand, looking at the batarang that's gone right through it as his gun lies on the ground. I notice Barbara's shocked expression as she looks towards the door, I turn around to see Damian leaning against the door frame, his face covered in blood.

"No one threatens to kill my brothers, but me," he says, panting.

"Damian... What did he do to you?" I ask, my voice cracking as I start to tear up.

He slips down to the floor, appearing to lose his strength.

"It's okay, I... I saved you," he says.

He saved me... but that's not his job, I should have been the one to save him! I never should have let this happen!

I ball up my fists as blood rushes to my head.

"This is your fault, Penguin," I growl as I turn back to the man who hurt my brother, who forced him to push himself all the way here with god knows how many injuries!

Before I know it, I'm already wailing on him, landing punch after punch on his head.

"HOW DO YOU LIKE IT?" I find myself yelling, "YOU MADE A PROMISE? WELL I PROMISE TO BEAT YOU UNTIL YOUR FACE IS SO COVERED IN BLOOD, ALL YOU'LL SEE IS-"

Someone grabs my hand.

"Dick!" I hear them yell.

I stop. I look at my hand and realise it's Barbara holding onto me, I stare at her.

"You've done enough, Dick. I understand you're angry, but you can stop now."

I turn my attention back to Penguin and notice that we're both on the ground and his face is now covered with blood, my hands are in a similar state.

For a while I just look at him and breath, lots of deep breaths. I know I shouldn't have snapped like that, but I can't get the image of Damian's bloody face out of my mind.

"Come on," Barbara says, snapping me out of my thoughts as she climbs back into her chair, "I don't think these guys are getting up any time soon. Let's get some help for everyone."

"Yeah... we need to check on the others."

Barbara makes her way to the ballroom to contact the police and get some medics as I help Jason and Damian up, taking on as much of their weight as possible so we can all limp there together.

"Sorry," I say to them as we go through the hallway, "I should... Well I should be setting a better example than that."

"You're kidding me, right?" Jason replies, "After what he did, he got what he deserved. You didn't kill him, I'm not sure I can say I wouldn't have in that situation."

"-tt- We all know that either of us would have finished him-"

"But you didn't, Dami. You could have with that one shot, but you went for his hand instead. I'm proud of you for that. You guys may not believe in yourselves, but I do, you're good people, remember that."

"I obviously went for the hand as the only way to guarantee his shot would miss, it had nothing to do with wanting to spare his life."

"Give it up, brat," says Jason, "Face it, I guess we're all good people."

"Yeah" I smile, "I guess we are. Sometimes we just need someone to remind us, that's all."

"I was joking," Jason replies with his own smile.

"My point still stands."

"You're both idiots," Damian adds.

When we make it to the ballroom, I help Jason and Damian sit down before going to check on the others. I find them all lying on what was the dance floor, Cass is covering Tiffany in protection, but I explain they're safe now and help them into chairs. Then I go to Tim and Steph, who I find facing each other.

"Sorry your little date ended up like this," I say as I help them up like the others.

"That's okay," Steph says as she smiles at Tim, "Most of it was great."

"Yeah," he replies, "I had quite a lot of fun, even the dancing was good, you know, until it stopped."

"Glad to hear it, we'll have to arrange something like this again. Now you stay there, I'm going to help Babs with the medics and everything else," I say as I turn to walk away.

"Don't worry, we're not going anywhere," Steph replies with a strained laugh.

As I catch up to Barbara, I join her in talking to the medics and the police. We explains the poison situation to them, and how from what Penguin said it sounded like it isn't lethal and just immobilises. The police then confirm this with Barbara's help using reports of local stolen drugs and chemicals by Penguin's gang. I ask the medics on how to treat it, they advise for everyone to just relax and stay hydrated until the effects wear off. The cops go to check on the Penguin and his stash to confirm our bounty reward.

When they drag Penguin out towards their ship and I look at his bloody face as he passes by, I feel no remorse for what I did to him. Which isn't something I'm used to, and I think Barbara realises I'm bothered by it as she offers me a distraction when she says-

"We should get the others into their beds."

And I gladly take it.

"Good idea," I say as we make our way towards our adopted families, "You okay? I know you didn't take in much of the stuff but-"

"I'm fine," she cuts off, "A little weak but nothing I can't handle. I'm not going to let it ruin my date" she says as she gives me a smile.

We help everyone into their beds, I take Damian back to the ship last as I have to clean his wounds. He's barely awake as I do it, and when I finally place him on his bed, I take a moment to watch all my brothers resting in turn. With all the things they had to go through today, I think about my worries earlier about us not being good enough, and they sound ridiculous to me now. As if my brothers could ever not be enough of anything. I love them, hell, I beat a man half to death for them. With that thought, the image of Damian's bloody face pops into my mind, but is quickly replaced by the peaceful one in front of me. I guess in the end, the day ended as I expected, everyone worn out from the excitement... but for me, there's one last thing to do.

I make my way to The Bat to find Barbara readying herself in the cockpit.

"Hey Babs, I don't want this to be how today ends, you know?"

"I do, but with everyone else in bed, what did you have in mind?"

"I'll show you. I'll get into The Robin, you follow me, okay?" I ask as I turn to leave.

"Whatever," she replies.

So we fly off, making sure to keep the ships as steady as possible to not disturb the others. I know about a perfect place, a hilltop where you can see almost the entire city across the horizon. As we arrive, I notice the sun is starting to set, almost as if I planned this from the start. I dart out as soon as we land, not wanting to miss the opportunity. Barbara tells me to calm down as I rush into The Bat and wheel her out. But as soon as I stop she understands.

"You only take people on two kinds of dates," she says.

"I think this view might even beat the last one. So, I believe I promised you a dance?"

"Not just a dance, Dick. You said we could dance all night."

"Well perfect timing then," I say as I take her hand, "The night's about to start."

So that's the end of this first story for The Robin in Space, hope you enjoyed it :)
Sadly, I don't think I'll have time to write another one for a while. But thanks so much for reading.