Off the Deep End

Fallout

He paced in his room, trying to develop a plan. It would help if he was able to stop mumbling under his breath "stupid fucking idiot and his stupid dumb face and his stupid cowl and his stupid inability to emote and his stupid dumb batman-ness." Which interrupted any thorough planning pretty frequently. Every now and then he'd stop planning and just start thinking of all the things he could have said in the argument then kick himself for getting distracted by his emotions.

Fine, maybe he was distracted. Maybe he had a grudge. Maybe he was reasonably upset and should be given room to work with his issues.

But no, whatever. According to his legal guardian it was time for some repression.

He had a better idea.

What better way to deal with his distraction than to illuminate it. if he could find a way to prove Zucco should be thrown in a cell for the rest of his life then he'd be fine. He'd be happy. He would not be distracted.

A small part of his mind said that his plan was just revenge but without murder, and that he'd turned from that idea the first time round, when he became Robin all those years ago. But the majority of his brain said, 'get that old bag of bones in a jail and throw away the key!'

He figured he would just have to raid one of their bases, find the evidence, lure the police there, leave the evidence in obvious places and then let them take the credit. Bam, no involvement from Batman and Robin.

Which meant he couldn't be suited up as Robin, just in case. A problem that was less of a problem now that he was benched from the hero-ing. It did mean he'd have to loot his gear to find some basic training clothes with some armouring and gear that didn't make it obvious he worked with Batman.

The next problem was finding one of their bases. He heard Pino talking about some reunion party, maybe he could follow that lead. But Zucco would be there, and Robin wasn't sure he'd be able to hold himself back from attacking him.

And the final problem was doing it all without Batman finding out.

Dick heard Alfred shuffling past and realised he'd probably have to turn his light out, else he gain suspicion. He flicked the lights and sat on his windowsill, his laptop balanced on his knees. He was far enough away for the light to not be noticeable from under the door. And if someone walked in he could say he was studying, he usually did that on the windowsill anyway, it was high up and had a good breeze.

He rifled through all his sources. His laptop wasn't your standard device and it had all kinds of modifications and programs that he'd done himself. It was no bat-computer, but it was a portable knock off that he'd perfected and personalised down to the last Megabyte.

At some point he nodded off and woke up to the chilly mist seeping in through his window as the sky started lightening. He closed the laptop and started to get ready for the day, a plan already slowly setting itself up in his mind.

He saw Bruce only for a total five seconds, when he'd grabbed his food from the kitchen and then put the empty plate back. Selina watched on warily, glancing between her husband and Dick.

As he brushed his teeth he heard something come on the news. He rushed through it and ran out to his room where he'd left the TV on as white noise. He turned the volume up as he eyed the headline.

'Gotham bank attacked; suspected Maroni influence rising in the streets.'

The newsman rambled, he revealed that overnight an attack had occurred in Gotham. it was suspected that the Maroni's were responsible.