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Chapter Text

It's 2 in the morning, and the docks should be completely abandoned. 

The night is quiet. The air is slightly sticky, with the threat of rain hanging as heavy as the dark clouds blotting out the sky above. It sets the night as an uninterrupted spread of dark grey. There'd be no sign of stars even in perfectly clear weather, though - the city is too filled with smog and grime and light pollution to ever break more than a few inches of blue sky at a time. 

Taki's perch at the docks isn't any different. The few streetlights that still work nearby are just as coated in a thin layer of who-knows-what, and the ground beneath his feet probably hasn't been clean since the bricks were first laid. And right beside the small spread of buildings, the ground suddenly disappears into the pitch black water. 

It's deceptively still. No boats are foolish enough to try and moor in the dead of night - not in Gotham Harbor of all places, and certainly not in this stretch of the city waterline. He can see the glinting metal of at least three shopping carts sticking out from the black water, and he knows that the shore isn't exactly shallow. Hundreds of years of trash has probably built up, just below the surface, and the city has enough malice that he wouldn't be surprised if even the rubbish is trying to cause trouble.

A hundred years of pollution, stolen bicycles and empty bat-burger cups. 

A hundred years of bodies being dumped as well, if Taki's being honest.

Gotham isn't exactly known for having a clean slate when it comes to crime. Hence why Taki's even here in the first place.

There's a breeze. It pulls at the end of Taki's cape even as he drops into a crouch, tangling around his feet. He's almost completely hidden from view from his vantage point on the roof of an old shipping building - settled into position about twenty minutes ago and keeping his eyes on the warehouse in front of him ever since. 

He's re-read the file before he'd left the cave for this surveillance mission, so he knows what he's looking out for like the back of his hand. A few nights ago, Fuma, better known to the streets of Gotham as Batman, had come across information that one of the many supposedly abandoned warehouses would be the site for something illegal. 

Really, that could have meant anything. As previously mentioned, Gotham isn't exactly a paradise for the local law-abiding citizen. Something about being built on a cursed swamp or pissing off some evil spirit, if you chose to listen to Yuma, and something about simply needing more structure and investment if you listened to Fuma. 

The warehouse deal could have been mafia. It could have been anything from drug smuggling to illegal weapons import. It could have been the latest meeting place for the Riddler to hold a brainstorming session, or a new shipment of crazy hallucinogens that would find their way onto the street.

But despite the fact they'd easily tracked down which warehouse the information had been talking about, there's been no give on whatever supposed illegal activity was going down. Not a single hint about what would be going on. That probably meant it wasn't actually as exciting as Taki's various suggestions were painting it, and was much more likely to be a bunch of high schoolers getting high. 

As such, it simply didn't register as a high enough priority for Batman to derail the planned patrol routes and spend the night watching as nothing probably happened. As such, Batman hadn't even thought twice about filing the warehouse case away, with a simple note to follow up later if needed. 

And. Well, it wasn't like Taki had anything better to be doing with his night. 

Hence why he's now sitting on the top of a rooftop, watching a warehouse do absolutely nothing. There's usually a certain type of focus that comes along with these stake-out missions, but tonight Taki is restless. He's waiting for something to happen. Anything. The smallest little mouse could run across the sidewalk and he'd take it at this point. 

Two in the morning, and nothing has happened. It's like the criminals in Gotham don't even care about the vigilantes - what if he'd had other places to be! 

Another ten minutes pass, and Taki's this close to calling it a night when something does change. 

Movement catches his eye.

The waterfront still hasn't shifted, even with the breeze and the fact that it should be the sea, so when a metal grate on the right side of the warehouse begins to lift open, Taki immediately narrows in on the disturbance. Light spills from the inside out into the darkness of night. The angle means that he can't see inside - means that he can't get any closer to catching a glimpse of what might be happening - but also means that he can't be spotted from his perch.

From his original perimeter check of the building, he can make a good guess at what the grate is. It's facing the water and there's a concrete slope dipping down to meet the waves. Once upon a time they must have wheeled small boats inside to keep them safe. He'd still be able to see the rust stains if the street lights were actually doing their job.

A plume of cigarette smoke curls into the night. There's the distant hum of voices, something snappish and from a few metres inside. He's too far away to make out any distinct words.

Taki pulls a face. Two hours waiting for something to happen, and this is the closest he's gotten? The fact that some goon inside smokes cigarettes, and that someone else speaks with a heavy accent. It's not exactly going to narrow down the suspects.

He'd chosen this point on the roof because it was well covered, close enough that he'd get a good view without being spotted. But it's too far away to actually be of any use if nothing more exciting than a metal shutter being opened happens, and Taki finds himself standing up to scan the distance before his brain can properly catch up with his body.

The right side is out. There's a chance that no one inside is watching the perimeter, but the proximity of the smoke means that there's someone at least standing nearby - too close to risk. The warehouse roof is majority corrugated iron, and landing with any sort of force would echo his footsteps. There's a wall nearby he could grapple to with enough height to crouch behind. Or he could overshoot the right side anyway - if he hits it high enough, the angle could stop him from being seen...

The robin outfit may be brightly coloured in the light, but Taki's gotten pretty good at sticking to the shadows when he doesn't want to be spotted. The cams on his suit aren't currently transmitting footage, but they are still recording. Even if he had to run afterwards, a couple of frames could still reveal something useful.

It's not like Fuma is here to whisper about subtlety .

Batman probably made loads of decisions like this, especially when he was still Taki's age. He doesn't even know Taki's on patrol at the moment, so it's not like he can lecture him when they get back to base anyway - 

It's not like K is here to whisper about subtlety either. He's the one actually more likely to lecture, thinking about it. Fuma would raise his eyebrows at Taki's grand plan, and if he was sure that he wasn't actually going to be hurt from them, would let him fall flat on his face without a hint of mercy.

K would probably ground Taki, lecture him for two hours, forget about the grounding and then lecture him again. Of course, it would probably change course to 'this is why you should stay inside at night and not fight crime as Robin' and 'I just want you to stay safe, Taki, I already told you that you're not allowed to be Batman's partner' .

Bold words from someone who dresses up in a leather bodysuit and calls themselves Street Cat. Alas, trying to use that as a defence has historically never worked out well. 

What neither of them know can't hurt them. 

Taki stretches his legs. He reaches his arms out in front of him and cracks his fingers back. His hand finds the grapple gun hooked into his belt. He's just about to point and leap when something else catches his eye.

Whereas the light spilling out onto the docks is on the right of the warehouse, there's also a shadow moving on the left. The dark of the night obscures any identifying features - Taki can only just make out an outline - but they appear to be alone. The darkness also means that it's unlikely they can be seen from inside. That's only one confirmed pair of eyes to catch him approaching.

This is an even better opportunity than the fly-by. This is someone he can follow to a secondary location - someone he can track to a base or an entry-point, or maybe even a target he can plug into a character database, giving him a name. 

The casefile for the warehouse pretty much starts and ends at a location. A confirmed identity would be a huge leap into starting to create an employee network or the association to a specific gang. 

It's too good to pass up. Even if he'd told himself he was just here to watch, he hasn't learnt anything from his rooftop position so far. If this risk pays off, it's an invaluable foothold into figuring out what's actually happening. 

In one smooth movement, Taki adjusts his direction. The grapple gun is instead pointed to a high wall where the warehouse borders into an alley. He waits until the figure disappears from sight before silently leaping forward, letting himself be pulled until he can smoothly land on the brick. 

His shoes are a Bat special. They're almost silent as they connect with the ground, and the whir of the line back into the grapple is nothing more than a hushed hiss. He's pulled back enough that the patchy streetlight doesn't catch any of the red or green in his outfit, and the yellow underside of the cape is hidden tight around his shoulders.

Taki lands. He has just enough time to hook the grapple back into his belt before a fist flies towards him.

Okay. Maybe his landing hadn't been quite as subtle as he'd thought.

No point trying to keep it quiet now, though. The figure he'd been planning to tail is fast - coming back up the alley to get into his space in only a few seconds. It's dark enough that they don't quite catch his leg with the aim of their punch, but that also means he missteps. His heel doesn't catch the wall again, instead slipping off the brickwork, and suddenly he's facing the figure head-on in the alley. 

"Woah!" Taki says, training kicking in. He manages to land the slip before it can catch him off-balance. "Careful there! I almost thought you were aiming for me!"

The figure swings another fist, but it clearly isn't their preferred style of fighting. There's enough force behind it, sure, but a clear lack of technique in the way their fingers are tucked and their body is left too open. There's enough of a gap for Taki to dodge and then swing back himself.

It lands. There's a burst of pain in his knuckles where the hit connects and - okay, sue him, fist-fighting like this isn't his preferred method either.

The person seems to recognise this. They don't go for another punch but instead lunge forward, using Taki's weight at the tangle of the cape behind him to knock him off of his feet. In an instant, they go from the beginnings of a spar to wrestling on the ground.

Taki's breath is knocked out of him. His head connects with the ground - thankfully not hard enough to do any damage - but his jaw snaps shut and the momentary distraction is enough for his opponent to tangle a hand in his hair. They're fighting dirty then. Taki can work with that.

Just as his scalp gets yanked, Taki forces his knee up between his opponents legs. When their grip loosens in a reaction to the sudden pain, he tries to wrap his hands around their neck, attempting to tip the scales of the fight and free himself.

It only half works. There's a moment where it seems like he's going to be able to pull it off, but then it devolves. The slow-motion thinking of the fight disappears and Taki finds himself scrambling for any sort of handhold or opportunity. His opponent tries to slap him and Taki uses his fingers to drag down their suit in search of a weakness. 

His legs are flailing. They roll over finally but hit the wall before Taki can use it to his advantage, and then he's being forced back down. There's the sharp bite of pain in his ribs, easily ignored with the adrenaline of the fight, and someone's foot hits a metal garbage bin, causing the sound to ring out loud in the alley.

He'd wanted to avoid a fight.

His arms are still sore from training with Fuma yesterday, and his legs aching from where he'd tried to keep up with K on a run that morning (coincidentally trying to prove that he hadn't been training with Fuma the night before - such was the drawback of living a double life). His opponent is also better than their attempts at fist-fighting would show - they know where to hit at least, and Taki's beginning to feel the effects of that.

Okay, well he doesn't really want to get injured. If Fuma thinks he's doing jobs with K, or K thinks he's getting hurt on patrol with Fuma... it'll just prolong their weird enemies-definitely-not-also-lovers bit even more . 

"We can talk about this-" he tries to say as they tumble over each other again and he manages to twist their wrist in a way that's surely painful. "I have a lot of experience in compromise-"

Not that it usually works. 

K's made his opinion on Taki being Robin very clear (aka that he does not approve at all), but he also dresses up like a cat and robs museums, so Taki just has to call him a hypocrite. Fuma keeps putting Taki on patrol when he knows K is on a job in an attempt to dissuade him - like seeing his little brother is suddenly going to make K return to the path of the straight and narrow. The compromise is that Taki just does it all anyway, and hopes that the sexual tension between them keeps working as a distraction.

The day they actually begin to work through it? Oh, he's screwed. 

"Shut up," the person he's fighting hisses. It's too low to make out a gender (or anything useful really), and it's also accompanied by another jab to Taki's ribs. They flip again until his opponent is pinning his legs to the ground - only caught up because Taki's now constraining both their arms in an effective hold. 

It could be a stalemate. The fast pace of the fight could begin to bleed away as they've both restrained each other. 

Except, that's when the conveniently-placed door to the warehouse swings open, bathing the alley in the sickly pale glow of cheap LEDs. Their fight hasn't exactly been quiet. They've caught the attention of the thugs inside the building, now holding weapons and not looking very happy at all - and Taki has just enough time to think oh shit, a 6 vs 1, perhaps this wasn't a good decision after all.  

It occurs at the same time as that LED must be really cheap, the flickering is already starting to give me a headache, and isn't that the thug we already took down a few days ago?

Then, because his life is a joke and he has to realise everything in what is possibly the most stupid order ever, Taki finally realises that it's not a 6 vs 1. 

The person pinning him down isn't a goon.

The person who he'd just spent the last five minutes fighting isn't a target at all. They're not working with the criminals in the warehouse unless they've had a sudden career change over the last week.

"Robin?" They say, only a tad less horrified than Taki feels. 

Under the pale LED white cast, Taki finally sees the colour in their outfit. It's almost entirely purple and black - a vigilante suit more homemade than bat-produced, but still with a serious level of body armour sewn into the fabric. There's a purple hood pulled over their hair and a black mask that obscures the lower half of their face.

From this close, Taki can even see the blond locks of their bangs falling across their forehead. He can see the way their brown eyes widen. 

Not a goon at all. Criminal in only the loosest sense of the word, in the way that all vigilantes are. They've even crossed paths a couple of times before this - even had an incredibly memorable first encounter involving a heartwarming meeting between a brick and Taki's face.

They've managed to avoid Batman learning their real identity, covering their tracks well whenever they've appeared, but Taki knows their name .

"Spoiler?" Taki says, incredulously. 

Then one of the actual goons throws a canister of gas to the pavement about three inches from Taki's head, his lungs fill with something that makes his head spin into a pile of cotton wool, and Taki's last thought is that maybe going on patrol without backup wasn't the greatest idea after all.

Chapter Text

Taki comes to it with an odd taste in his mouth.

His lips are dry. His tongue is exactly the same, and swallowing makes his throat bob painfully. The roof of his mouth is tacky when he starts breathing with some force again - and there's a certain removed quality from his brain to his actions. It's like he's slowly being rebooted. 

His thoughts are finally starting to come back on line. The taste in his mouth - it's the first thing he'd noticed other than how dry his lips had become - means he's probably been sedated. Moved to some sort of secondary-ish location. He still can't open his eyes without immediately feeling queasy, but he's pretty sure he's not in the alley anymore.

So. Sedated somehow. If he can't open his eyes, then he might as well start working on something. It says more about Gotham than anything else that he doesn't immediately start panicking, and then it says something about Batman that Taki's next step on reflex is to catalogue exactly how he's feeling.

His head is spinning but not pounding. They'd been spotted in the alleyway - their fight had probably been a bit loud in hindsight, whoops, not the best idea for a stealth mission - and he'd ended up passing out. But the fact that it isn't aching with physical pain probably means they'd they hadn't knocked him out with a hit to the head.

Okay. Plus one to the goons, Taki's feeling a little more sympathetic to them now. Concussions are a bitch to deal with. When he eventually does track them down again, he'll make sure to avoid their heads out of politeness. 

He tries to roll his neck, searching for any soreness in his muscles that could give him a length of time for how long he's been out, but doesn't quite make it that far. There's something much more pressing than how he'd been knocked out - because at least that's in the past now. 

His nose itches slightly. Taki goes to reach up and scratch it, except his arms do not move, because instead they are tied down to his sides. 

That's the issue.

Being tied up is not ideal. The slow track of his body he'd been doing to catalogue his injuries is immediately discarded. Instead, he pulls his arms against the - rope, thick and probably for more dock-related uses than tying-up-human uses. There's a slight give when he flexes. It isn't enough to free himself from pure strength, but it means there's some weakness - and Taki has been taught by both Fuma and K that a weakness in a situation is something to exploit.

His head isn't swimming quite so much, probably because of the sudden shock of adrenaline, but he keeps his eyes closed for now.

First, listening to the surroundings. 

He can hear the lapping of water. It's close considering there'd still been some distance from the alleyway and the warehouse to the docks. The smell hanging in the air says that they've haven't moved to a different body of water, at least. It's hard to tell from underneath the cloying taste in his mouth and the biting scent of oil and grease, but he's fairly certain they're still nearby to the original location. 

There are voices as well. People working - not close enough that he can catch more than muffled snatches of conversation. Taki strains his ear, but ultimately gives up on trying to get anything more than that. 

Finally-

There's the sound of breathing nearby. Taki shifts his weight as naturally as he can. He leans to one side just enough as the ropes allow. It's enough to brush his shoulder against someone else - also sitting down judging by the position of their connection - and probably the source of the breathing.

Spoiler.

It's got to be Spoiler. They'd been right on top of each other when the goons had found them, and though Taki can admit the other vigilante is good, he also doesn't think they're that good. A few more seconds of listening to their breathing tells him that Spoiler is also awake. 

Slowly, Taki opens his eyes. He finally sits up from where he'd slumped down into a hunched-over sitting position, and acts like he's just waking up whilst also making it as subtle as possible. Sue him, he likes putting on a bit of a show sometimes. 

"What are you doing," Spoiler hisses. 

... Maybe not quite as subtle as he'd thought, then.

The warehouse is large, but Taki and Spoiler have pretty much been tucked away entirely into an unused side. The walls are metal and rusted at this part, bleeding into the actual material of the building like it's a shoddy extension. There are no windows and only a dim lightbulb hanging above their heads. The dark corners are made even darker with the way it flickers occasionally.

Just as he'd guessed, most of the goons seem to be continuing the work on the shipment. The area that Taki and Spoiler have been left in is practically abandoned, though he notices the way the men are all wearing masks anyway. 

Opening his eyes hasn't made listening into their conversations any easier. He does notice the weapons they're all carrying, however, the way that most of the men are built at least double his entire body-weight. There's probably a boss around here somewhere, but a stack of crates makes it hard to see more than a few metres into the actual space of the warehouse - anywhere that's not just the weird back bit. 

The ground they're sat on is sloped and concrete, oddly rusted in the same way as the walls, and something about that pulls at Taki's mind. 

There are more pressing things, however. They're tied not quite back-to-back against a large pole. Taki's guess at ropes had been correct, they're looped around both their arms and are doing a pretty good job at trapping them there. There are zip ties he hadn't noticed before around his feet. No gags or blindfolds - and Taki spots an unused pile of chain in the corner.

Interesting. 

"Waking up," he tells Spoiler in a low voice. At this angle, he can get a slightly better look at them. The mask is the same - their dark eyes are narrowed to stare back at him over the top of it, they haven't been able to reach up and fix their hair, so it's all been pushed to one side and looks a little bit funky. 

The hood is still up, though. It must be actually attached to the sides of the mask to stay in such perfect position. There are no visible weapons that Taki can point out on their suit othewise, but he has no idea how thorough of a rummage the thugs might have had before tying them both.

He can glance down to his own suit, but it's hard to tell with his hands tied. It doesn't seem like anything more than his mosts obvious batarange have been removed. Probably for the best considering how many booby traps are primed to go off the moment that someone tries to pull the suit apart without knowing every little intricate detail.

Taki frowns. He squints. Spoiler follows his eyes - even though Taki had been trying to be subtle - and makes a sound that's an odd combination between a squeak and a sigh.

"I'm a guy," they say, almost immediately catching onto what Taki had been trying to work out. "You don't need to stare at my chest to work that out. You could have just asked."  

The light above them flickers again. It's not enough to hide the way that Taki's cheeks go bright red. Maybe he should also be investing in one of those lower-face masks. 

"I wasn't staring at your chest," he says, because it's true. "I was also trying to work out whether you had any weapons on you. And plus I still would have asked- because even if you did.. y'know, that doesn't mean you couldn't be a guy!"

Spoiler stares at him. It's hard to make out his expression with the shadows cast over his forehead and the mask hiding the twist of his mouth, but Taki thinks he frowns then his expression softens a little. Like he's seeing Taki in a slightly different light.

He never gets a chance to ask.

In the distraction of his minature outburst, Taki had pulled his eyes away from the space between the crates. He hadn't forgotten about the situation - being tied up is surprisingly a very good constant reminder - and it usually wouldn't matter. He's been trained to stay aware of his surroundings. He doesn't need to be looking in one direction to catch everything else that's happening.

The fact that someone else has entered the room without him means one thing more importantly than anything else.

That they're dangerous.

"Boys," says the person. The light above them really is picking the perfect moment to flicker out. Taki doesn't get a chance to see them before the room is plunged into darkness again. He's aware of his own breathing loud in his ears, and the way that the air seems heavy and damp with their proximity to the docks. 

It might rain later tonight. Or - early in the morning. Taki winces.  He has no idea how long he'd been knocked out from the gas, so there's a good chance that it's long since passed midnight. He'll still hazard a guess that it's dark outside though. The criminals in the warehouse will be long gone before the first morning rays of light can brush the walls of their temporary hideout. 

"I take it that Batman doesn't know you're here."

It's aimed at Robin, of course. Taki sits up a little straigher and strains his eyes into the darkness. It's still hard to see - the person approaching them is backlit so shadows obscure the features of their face - and his eyes keep peeling away to take in the scene behind them.

There are fewer people in the warehouse than there'd been before. The noise is beginning to die down. The hum of conversation has drawn to a lull, the sound of crates being moved is now completely absent. Whatever deal was happening here has come to a close. Somehow, that's more of a blow to Taki's pride than being captured. 

He'd gotten himself caught - and for what? Not a single slip more of information. If he stays longer once he gets out of this mess he could case the location for anything left behind but... that's risky. They won't be so kind the next time if he gets caught, and they'll be on the lookout. 

And, what's probably far worse, is that with every hour the morning stretches out, the likelihood of being caught by Batman - or worse, K - only multiplies. 

"He's not my minder," Taki bites back. "We're not attached at the hip."

He frowns, narrowing his eyes. The outline of the figure is enough to tell him they're a man, slim but still fairly well-built. Not wearing the typical mob-boss outfit either. Though with how every part of this job has been falling to pieces with every step Taki's tried to take, that doesn't exactly surprise him.

It feels more like rogue set-up than low-level criminal business with every passing second. 

"Don't assume he doesn't know what I'm doing," Taki continues, this time slightly lower than before. There are goosebumps down his neck. "It won't end well for you."

The person in front of him laughs. "If I cared about what Batman might do, I would have stopped all this a long time ago."

Something twists in Taki's stomach. Beside him, Spoiler inhales sharply. The person steps forward at the same time that the light finally flickers one again - pathetic and cold but enough to cast away the shadows on their face - and they put the pieces together.

"I doubt he knows you're here either," Poison Ivy - Nicholas Wang - says, nodding towards Spoiler. "Considering the state you were found in the alley. You'd think that vigelantes would keep better track of their allies. Honestly."

"We're not allies," Spoiler says. He sounds very resolute in his statement, which has Taki frowning.

"We could be," Taki tells him. 

Under the flickering light of the warehouse, Nicholas' lips quirk up into what could be called a smile. Taki's attempt to stay lighthearted hasn't defused the situation at all - his heart is still beating a million miles an hour, and Nicholas is still slowly approaching.

His red hair is darkened to the colour of wine in the night. His hair falls into his eyes in a way that's almost certainly on purpose, and his long fingers tap against his skin where his arms are folded. The exact colour of his skin can't be distinguished in the darkness, but Taki knows from experience that his blush is dark green, the colour of chlorophyll. 

Taki swallows. He's a detective, he's Robin, he can't just be sitting here and running his mouth without picking up something from the situation. 

Nicholas is wearing a suit jacket that's slightly too large for him. It hangs off his shoulders slightly, exposing a thin line of skin - he's only wearing a tank top beneath. The suit jacket is... being worn for the impression then, not because it's fashionable - even though the words Poison Ivy and fashionable are never really that far apart anyway. 

There are a few vines woven into the fine strands of his hair and tight against his wrists. The dark clothing makes it too difficult to see any stray leaves that may have littered his appearance. There's a purple bruise high on one of his cheekbones and a set to his jaw. His eyes scan the two teenagers tied to the beam in the middle of the room. There's no sympathy in his gaze. 

Okay, what does this tell Taki? The clear lack of obvious plants - in their surroundings if not tangled up with Nicholas himself - says this can't be a permanent base. With how clearly the other goons seem to have cleared out, he guesses this is a temporary location for a deal. Now that whatever's been moved, there's no reason for anyone else to hang around. 

Except Nicholas, of course. His shoes click against the concrete floor as he approaches. 

"No hard feelings about this," Nicholas says with a wave of his hand. He's walked right past them now, standing on the other side of the warehouse by the iron wall. Taki has to strain his neck to see him, which is why it's the first time he notices that the floor is completely dark on that side.

Nicholas is standing up to his ankles in the water from Gotham Docks. 

It glints darkly, dangerously, and the pathetic swinging lightbulb avove Taki and Spoiler does nothing to make it seem anything but pitch black. 

"I don't doubt you'll be able to get out of this," Nicholas says. His hand rests on a lever, hidden by the shadows. He pushes it down as he speaks. The thin sheet of iron isn't a wall as much as it is a door, rising slowly with the creak of rust. 

The slanted floor, the odd stains on the ground and the damp hanging moisture of the air. Taki glances at the beam they've been tied to, squinting in the darkness, and sees what he's looking for. There's a clear tidemark there in plain sight. At least a foot above their heads. 

Water pours in. Gotham is unrelenting and the water of her docks mimics that - pooling around Nicholas' calves before he's even finished pulling the door up the entire way. It must be cold, but Nicholas doesn't flinch. He doesn't pretend to be affected as he straightens up and heads up the slanted floor again, even though his shoes must be soaked through.

"I'm not in the occupation of killing kids," Nicholas says. "This is business. There are... other factors at play." There's something else in his expression. 

Taki bites his lip. He knows when to shut up if it comes to a rouge monologue. There's no better way to get information than to let the person spill all without even realising that's what they're doing. And... the longer this plays out, Taki's beginning to think that Nicholas is right.

This isn't his normal behaviour at all. There are no plants around. Nothing but a thin layer of algae - and no sign of what had been in those crates at all. Nicholas talks like he's playing a role. This character is missing his wicked smile, his usual teasing nature. He's meant for the streets of Gotham and the stretching parks. What's he doing in a dingy warehouse by the docks?

"I couldn't have any little birds getting in my way," he looks at Taki hard, then swings his gaze to Spoiler. "Or little rabbits, either."

Taki feels like he should be saying something. Robin is always supposed to hit back - with words when his fists are tied up - the traffic-light distraction to the dark Batman outfit. It's the same part of him that aches to prove himself. 

Without needing to be in the shadow of Batman or Alleycat, or Nightwing or any of the other Gotham vigilantes that see him as someone not able to protect themself. A kid in a coloured costume. Robin chats back because Robin can't be knocked down. Taki chats back to prove himself - because his tongue runs off by itself and he finds himself with a foot in his mouth even when he doesn't mean to keep speaking.

Today, his mouth is dry and he can't think of a single word to choke out.

Not over the alarm bells ringing in his head. The lack of plants around Poison Ivy, the change in locations, the fact that he hasn't been able to get any more information about this whole situation - yet another failure in a long list of trying stupidly to prove himself.

"You won't get away with this," Spoiler bites, addressing Nicholas with something odd in his tone. Taki can't quite put his finger on it before Spoiler is continuing- "Whatever's happening here, I'll work it out."

Nicholas taps a finger against his bottom lip. "I suppose that is why they call you Spoiler. Always getting in the way of people's fun - or is that just what you thought they'd say when you came up with your name?"

"It's-"

Nicholas cuts him off with a cold stare. "I'm not in the occupation of killing kids," he repeats, "But I'll break a wing or paw if I have to. Don't make me repeat myself. Stay out of this if you know what's good for you."

The warning hangs heavy in the air. Nicholas turns almost as soon as the last words have left his mouth. The click of his heels fills the air again until the sound disappears into the night, fading as Poison Ivy leaves the warehouse - leaving Spoiler and Robin behind. 

"Well," Taki says, swallowing. His voice doesn't sound particularlly strong, even to himself, but he imagines it getting better the more he ignores it. "That was something. Can't say this is how I wanted my evening to turn out."

Spoiler glares at him. The fact that his eyes are visible above the mask really gives the expression more oomph. Taki's a little jealous - and definitely trying desperately to try and bring the tone back up. The Robin white-out eyes means that pretty much all eyebrow action is hidden, which really limits the potential for pulling faces.

Robin is light. 

"I'm not very impressed with this whole set up," he says, keeping going - because now his mouth has started moving, he can't exactly get it to stop. "Is this really the best hostage situation they could come up with? The most dangerous thing in this entire place in the water - and that's because it's probably toxic. Imagine the diseases you'd get from trying to swim in that."

The water, as he's directed attention back to it, is steadily approaching. Spoiler has twisted his legs to avoid his boots getting wet, but it'll have reached the ground beneath them within a few more minutes. The tide is strong here, apparently. 

"We're not hostages," Spoiler tells him. He pulls on his ropes - it makes Taki jerk forwards as well. "Hostages implies they want something from us. Money. If Poison Ivy wanted us dead, he wouldn't have tied these ropes so loosely."

"Or he would have used the chains in the corner," Taki says. 

See, he can notice things as well! Just because his usual mode of action does... not include noticing things - that doesn't mean that he can't do it! He's more perceptive than a lot of people give him credit for. Maybe that's part of the reason why he's happy to let them keep thinking that.

"We're going to get cholera," Spoiler says miserably. 

"Don't you have to drink the water to get cholera?"

"We're going to be drinking the water in about twenty minutes, if you hadn't noticed. Unless you think the tides are magically going to stop before that."

Taki frowns. "I still think we'd drown before getting cholera. I'd be more worried about the pollution, personally. I think I saw a fish with four eyes whilst tracking down Killer Croc last week. Skipped the three-eyes and went straight to four eyes, even the fish in Gotham are weird."

"Ugh!"

Okay, maybe that last comment did push it too far. Spoiler smacks his head against the beam in frustration, and even the cushioning of his hood probably can't stop it from being painful. 

Taki winces out of sympathy and presses his lips together. He vows to stay quiet from now on, but even that promise only lasts for a couple of seconds before, "I didn't realise it was you in the alleyway."

Spoiler stops whatever he's been doing. Taki can't see properly due to the fact they're tied up on opposite sides of the same beam, but he can crane his neck. 

"Well, I'd hope so," Spoiler says. "I hope you didn't get us into this mess on purpose. But..." he trails off, leaving Taki waiting for a few long seconds before he continues, "I didn't realise it was you either. I mean, I thought something was up, I didn't fight as I normally would, but..."

"Probably shouldn't have rushed into it," Taki finishes. There's a stiff movement from behind him so he hurriedly clarifies himself - "I also thought something didn't seem right! I just..."

"You just?"

"I wanted to prove myself. Batman didn't pick up this case. I thought I'd be able to show that I can patrol without him or Alleycat needing to watch my back."

Spoiler listens in silence. When Taki is finished, they sit quietly for a few more moments. The water has reached Taki by now and it's just as cold as he expected - the kevlar of his uniform doing a lot to keep him relatively warm considering, but the fact he's sitting still just letting it seep in through the joints of the suit. 

"Good for you."

"What?"

"You don't need Batman looking over your shoulder. He's not this... amazing, all-encompassing figure that everyone thinks he is. He misses things that are right in front of him, just like anyone else. And - you're not a kid."

Taki hesitates at that, letting Spoiler's words sink in. At first it almost seems like Spoiler has something against Batman - but the more Taki thinks, he doesn't think that's actually what Spoiler is trying to say. It doesn't quite fit. Not his attitude nor the tone of his words. There's something there that Taki simply doesn't have the knowledge to try and decipher.

It's another strand in the mystery that makes up Spoiler. It's one that Taki hadn't known prior to tonight, and one he's not going to forget about easily. 

"What's your plan here?" He asks instead, "What were you doing at this warehouse?"

He's so laced with the desperation to prove himself that it's easy to forget that the same emotion doesn't fuel everyone else's bones in the same way it snaps tight against every fibre of his being. Spoiler hasn't let anything about his own reasoning slip.

And it doesn't look like he's planning on changing that.

"I'm working on a few theories," Spoiler says, with a finality to his tone that says this is all Taki's going to get from him - no matter how much he asks. A beat passes and then he adds something else. "Listen... if you ever want to break away from Batman," his breath hitches.

It sounds like he wants to say more, only to let the silence drag in instead. In all fairness, his offer doesn't need to be completed to hang in the air with all its weight. It doesn't need to be spoken out loud for Taki to know what Spoiler is trying to say.

No mention of Alleycat, even though Taki had named them both in his original statement.

Interesting.

However, since he isn't actually planning on breaking way from Batman or Alleycat soon (no matter how much he might complain about them), he'd quite like to change the subject of conversation.

"Do you think Poison Ivy is far enough away by now?" 

The water is up to his thighs at the angle, and just below his hips. It's beginning to get slightly uncomfortable. The ropes are going to get soggy soon, more importantly.

Spoiler glances in the direction that Nicholas had disappeared into, craning his neck in the same way Taki had only moments before. 

He doesn't say anything, but maybe he's just as tired of the rising Gotham water as Taki is. He takes a deep breath, and just as Taki starts to twist his fingers and undo the knot behind him. 

It doesn't take long before they're loose enough that he can pull his wrists free. There are red marks down the back of his hands from the tight squeeze, but he's more concerned with shaking them out in front of him to get the blood flowing again.

Spoiler stands up just as Taki also gets to his feet. It doesn't look like he'd untied himself, although it's a little difficult to see with how the ropes have immediately dropped into the dark water. It's murky enough that they've disappeared even though they can't be more than a few inches down, and that thoughts enough to make Taki cringe.

He's still standing in that murky water. He's still soaked up to the butt in that murky water. 

Instead, Spoiler is holding out a long metal pole - a bō staff, Taki recognises. There's one end that he's holding up away from his body, and the flickering light above them illuminates it's slightly sharpened at one end. He must have used it to cut through the ropes - hiding the weapon on his body the whole time, Nicholas not having confiscated anything they were holding.

He'd been holding back when they'd fought, Taki thinks. Then he thinks of his own martial arts training and how they'd both devolved to just slapping each other pretty much immediately, and thinks he'd still be able to hold his own.

It doesn't help him when that same bō staff comes sweeping around out of nowhere.

It connects with such force that Taki is immediately knocked off his feet. It had hit his back so he's luckily not winded, but he still lands on his hands and knees in the water, momentarily stunned.

It only takes half a millisecond to regain his bearings, pushing the pain back down to glance back up - just to realise that Spoiler is disappearing into the darkness. The staff has disappeared again, his footsteps are quiet even as he wades out of the water.

He glances over his shoulder to Taki right before he escapes through the gap in the crates. Not for long, barely more than a fleeting flick of his head over his shoulder, but long enough to check that Taki isn't actually face down in the water.

Then he's gone.

Taki picks himself back up, wincing.

He should have expected something like that. Of course Spoiler wouldn't risk being followed back to his... base of operations or whatever. Hitting Taki hadn't exactly been very kind, but it had also given him enough of a confirmed head start to slink back into the alleyways without Robin having a chance of seeing which direction he'd turned.

It would have been nice for him to wait until Taki was at least on dry ground, though.

Taki wades out of the water, dripping. His uniform is beginning to smell damp, with an odd tinge from all the chemicals. The fabric of his leggings are clinging to his thighs. There's enough water in his boots for a small fishbowl, and there's no way his grapple isn't completely waterlogged from where it had been stored on his hip.

He doesn't even consider following Spoiler back.

Instead, he cuts his losses and calls Nightwing. By the time he's made it out of the warehouse, confirming that it is in fact abandoned and that the sun is beginning to rise on the docks, Yuma has laughed at him for at least five minutes.

He's promised not to tell Fuma or K, which means Taki just rolls his eyes in silence and doesn't complain too much when Yuma says he's still ten minutes out. He can hear the roar of his motorcycle through the phone line right before the call ends. 

Taki slumps against the wall as the sky lightens above his head. The empty warehouse sits behind him. 

Somehow, he's left with no answers and even more questions than when he'd arrived.