Chapter 1

Ah Metropolis, one of the wealthiest cities of the U.S. with 11 million citizens and home of the Daily Planet, LexCorp and a certain man in spandex causing this town to have the lowest crime rate of the whole state.

Dick understands why the school would organize a school trip to this city, but that doesn't mean he has to like it.

The problem isn't Superman. Batman may have a personal vendetta on the guy, but that doesn't mean Dick has to share that aversion no thank you. On the contrary, he sometimes actually welcomes Clark's pure and happy attitude when the dark and brooding Batman becomes a bit overbearing.

No, his problem is that although crime rates in this city is low, the number of super villains isn't. Sure, Robin can handle most things these guys can throw at him, but Richard Grayson is a bit more helpless and shouldn't be looking like he fights bad guys on a regular basis in front of his classmates and the press.

To make matters worse, their homeroom teacher miss Applegate found it a fun idea the bring the whole class to the Central Metropolian Bank as an excursion, meaning that most of the items in Robin's utility belt has to stay at the hotel since the bank has metal detectors in place.

All in all, Dick isn't exactly in his comfort zone right now.

'Oh my god look Superman!'

One of Dick's classmates, Charlie, vehemently pointed up to the sky and started cheering and waving. Soon all the other classmates followed and even Dick looked up, despite the fact that he has seen the man flying around many times.

Dick expected the Kryptonian to do his signature smile and wave before moving on, what he didn't expect is Superman to tense up and suddenly dive towards them with urgence.

He swooped down and picked up two of Dick's classmates seconds before a truck screeched by the group with full breaks.

The cheering stopped for a second, but that silence was followed with even louder cheering from the classmates and most of the bystanders who watched it all unfold.

Miss Applegate however, immediately rushed towards the two children as Superman was putting them down again.

'Liam! Ellie! are you both OK?!' Miss Applegate all but screeched while looking over the kids for any injuries. 'Thank the lord you were there Superman!' Superman nodded towards the teacher while the two kids were looking up towards him with mouths agape.

'Oh my god are the kids all right?!' The truck driver frantically exited her vehicle and rushed towards the group with worry etched into her face. 'I didn't see them on time and when I hit the breaks I saw that I wouldn't be able to-'

Superman turned towards the lady: 'Don't worry ma'am, they are fine.' 'Oh thank god I'm so sorry for all of this.'

Miss Applegate addressed the truck driver: 'Don't worry about it miss nothing about this situation was your fault. You did everything you could.' She turned towards her students again. 'YOU TWO!' Miss Applegate took hold of their shoulders as she almost yelled out. That seemed to finally snap the kids' attention away from Superman to their teacher. 'You both know you should NEVER get distracted while crossing a road! Never do that sort of thing again do you understand me?!'

As the scolding continued, Superman looked around the class a bit before locking eyes with Dick. A spark of recognition passed though his face and Dick smiled and subtly nodded towards the man, receiving a smile and a subtle nod back.

Suddenly though, the alien flinched and snapped his head to Dick's right as though he heard something loud. He quickly said his goodbyes to Miss Applegate while saying the cheesiest 'Always look before you cross the road kids' line Dick has ever heard before flying off again to who knows where.

Dick felt sorry for his teacher, who now has her work cut out for her trying to get the overexcited class back under control.

As the group slowly started to move towards their destination again, Dick had to admit that the bank of Metropolis was already quite impressive from afar. It was clear that the building has been here for a long time: It was a made up of massive granite stones with thick walls and many carved details of historic figures which miss Applegate was currently discussing.

As Dick expected, the class had to go through a metal detector prior to entering the building and although it is apparently not common sense for a few people that belts contain metal, the line went relatively fast. Fifteen minutes later, the class was gathered in the central hall listening to yet another story from miss Applegate, this time about how the building itself was constructed.

However, Dick had to admit he was only partially listening to the teacher. He would have been interested in the stories if the bank was located in Gotham, but as the dark knight doesn't have any business here, this stuff was simply not worth remembering.

Dick looked around and saw that he was not the only one of his class thinking this. A few kids were whispering with Liam and Ellie enthusiastically at the back of the group, while a few other classmates looked at them in awe. Well, it doesn't take much work to become famous I see. Dick rolled his eyes when he heard Liam say that he won't wash his upper arm anymore, as that is where Superman touched him.

When miss Applegate was done with her tour it was lunchtime and the class was free to move about the building.

'In groups of minimal three please and tell me where you are going. Be back here by 14:00 or we'll leave without you!' An empty threat of course but it does the job for this particular class as different pre-made groups rushed off while yelling to miss Applegate that they were going to the cafeteria that the building held and that they would be back on time.

The teacher sighed with a small smile at the kids antics before redirecting her attention to a few shy children who were approaching her with their pre-made lunch in their hands.

Dick felt around his backpack for his Alfred-made lunch: a box with a large Batman logo on the top, holding two sandwiches with the butler's homemade salmon spread and vegetables and one with peanut butter and jelly. Alfred isn't fond of this combination, but Dick insisted on it.

He was looking around for a place to sit when Graham, another classmate and friend of his, approach the raven teen. 'Hi Dick cool lunchbox!' Dick smirked when he saw the same logo in a different colour on Graham's box. 'Thanks, you too.'

'Haha yeah think it's obvious we are from Gotham?' Graham replied sarcastically. 'Charlie and I were planning on walking around while eating our lunch. Wanna join?'

'Yeah sure.' Dick replied and followed Graham heading towards miss Applegate to tell her their plans. Graham's younger brother was already standing by her and waved at Dick as they approached.

'Hiya Charlie.'

'Hiya Dick, I already told miss Applegate we were going to see the sights a bit so we can go whenever.'

The two brothers wanted to see the Central Hall again where the counters were: the group quickly walked through it during the tour as it is a busy area, but Graham and Charlie wanted to take a longer look at the impressive ceilings and murals that decorated the space.

Although the two boys hardly look alike – with Graham's hazelnut brown eyes and similar colour hair that flowed to his shoulders versus green-eyed Charlie's practically platinum blond hair buzzed a few centimetres away from his scalp - the two boys had a shared love of all thing art-related thanks to their parents business. They regularly invited Dick to come along their expedition: they could drop fun facts about the art around them for hours and Dick didn't mind learning about all these things. Bruce was always happy when Dick showed interest in things outside of the vigilante work, so the two families have bonded quite a bit during their many outings.

Today was no different as Charlie began telling the story of a certain general who fought in a war a few decades ago, which was depicted in a corner of the ceiling. Graham corrected him and added some more details Charlie missed, but Dick wasn't paying attention to the story anymore.

He caught an unusual movement from the corner of his eye: a group of men holding large seemingly empty duffle bags held one hand inside their jacket as they manoeuvred through crowd towards the multiple counters where the bankers were working.

It took two seconds for Dick to understand what their plan was, but the men only needed one.

One of the burglars took the gun from his jacket, aimed it to the ceiling and shot it two times before pointing the nuzzle at the nearest banker. The a few of the other men aimed at the remaining bankers and the rest were pointing their guns at the crowd.

Shit. Dick thought as he pushed a startled Charlie and Graham to the ground. 'Stay low. Don't make a sound.' He whispered to them.

A few of the other visitors around them unconsciously did the same and soon everyone was on their knees with their hands behind their heads while the bankers jerkily threw the money in the duffle bags.

'Well will you look at that boys: we don't even has to tell them what to do!' A man with a red mask laughed while looking around his "colleagues".

'Indeed, it ain't Metropolis for nothin' sir.' A man wearing a pink mask bellowed and the others laughed.

You think people from Metropolis are used to danger, just wait until you rob a bank in Gotham and see what happens. Dick internally smirked.

He thinks about his gear, neatly tucked away behind the dresser in the hotel and cursed internally. Can't Bruce make the weapons out of reinforced plastic next time, that would have saved a lot of trouble.

He heard shallow gasps coming from Charlie on his left and when he looked, he saw that the boy was almost as pale as his hair: he was sweating profusely and his pupils have become so small, Dick could hardly see them. Shit. Shit shit shit.

Graham also heard the sob and grabbed Dick's shoulder in panic. 'Charlie!' He harshly whispered. 'Where is your inhaler?!'

'It's- It's still, in my- my backpack.' He said between gasps and he struggled to remove said backpack from his back. Graham moved to help his little brother; however, the upheaval was noticed by the robber in the blue mask. He approached the trio with a smirk: 'Bit panicky are we lads? Don't worry we ain't gonna harm ya as long as ye DON'T. MOVE.' These last two words were emphasised by the robber jabbing Charlie in the chest with the tip of his boots.

Charlie moves backwards onto his backpack and he let out a large gasp as his much-needed air escaped him.

'What's wrong with this one?' The blue-masked man asked towards Graham.

'He having an asthma attack thanks to a certain group of people.' Graham said tensely to the robber as he crossed his arms.

Dick had to keep his sigh in. Note to self: lay off the sass around Charlie; it's a bad example.

Graham's neck was suddenly grabbed from behind. 'Oy we 'ave a smart-ass on our hands don't we Blue.' Said another burglar – wearing a yellow mask this time – with a sadistic smile as he lifted Graham of the ground.

The boy tried to break free in vain while his airway was cut off and Dick knew Bruce and Alfred were really going to scold him for what he'll do next.

The undercover vigilante placed his two hands on the ground and with one swift motion, threw his feet towards that of the burglar holding Graham.

The larger-than-average man fell down hard, unconsciously letting go of the struggling teen to break his fall. Dick quickly grabbed Graham and jerked him away from the man behind himself. He crouched down on his knees in front of Graham facing the yellow-masked burglar. The man vehemently looked around and Dick mustered all of his acting skills drilled by Bruce to feign innocence. Unfortunately, even a peanut-sized brain could deduce what happened apparently.

'You little fuck!' The sadistic smile was back again as the burglar slowly stood up and moved towards him, but Dick could do little else than look away 'scared' and hope that the man would instantly loose all interest in a teen who floored him not 5 seconds ago.

Yeah, that'll go well.

A boot made contact with his jaw harshly and Dick fell to the ground disoriented tasting his own blood.

A rough hand then grabbed his hair and jerked his head up towards the burglars face. Dick had to bite his lip not to scream out; he had a feeling that that particular type of reaction would not work in his favour.

The burglar brought his face close to Dick's; his breath smelled like Italian food the teen noticed. 'Ye have a lot of nerve kid. Let's see how far that gets ye.'

'Don't overdo it Yellow. Ya know how ya get.' Blue called from near Charlie with a nauseating smile.

'Well, we got enough 'ostages if it comes to that right?' Yellow answered and Dick felt the muscles in the man's hands tense up as his head was thrown towards the ground. He instinctively turned his head slightly to the right to spare him a broken nose, but that did nothing to reduce the impact as stars danced around his vision.

'Please leave the child be!' 'Can't you see he's bleeding?!' 'Let him go!' A few brave people called out from the crowd and they started to become restless, but another gunshot rang through the room.

Dick panicked for a second and quickly scanned around, fearing the bullet had hid some of his sympathisers. He breathed a small sigh of relief when he saw the shot was aimed at the ceiling again.

Dick quickly took his chance: he got up to his feet and dashed away before the yellow-masked burglar's focus would be back on him again. After two paces however, he felt a sudden pressure on the front of his neck as he was grabbed by his collar and pulled towards a smouldering bearhug, effectively pinning his arms next to him.

'Nice try kid.' He heard from behind him and Dick could practically hear the smirk in the blue-masked burglar's voice.

Damn it.

The new position gave Dick a chance to look around: he saw two burglars running towards a backdoor holding now filled duffle bags; the two other burglars were still 'coordinating' the bankers filling up the last few.

The crowd was docile again as nervous eyes darted left and right and especially up as they are used to help coming through ceilings in the form of superpowered aliens.

Speaking off… What the hell is keeping him?!

He also spotted Charlie - still on the ground - and his worry increased tenfold again: the small teen's breathing has become very shallow as he laid unmoving on the ground, his hand weakly reaching for the backpack which he finally managed to get off his back. Graham desperately tried to reach his brother to help him, but he was being held back by the burglar with the yellow mask, who apparently lost interest in Dick and laughed maniacally at the two brother's situation instead.

Dick didn't try to hide his strength anymore as he kicked and screamed bloody murder to let Graham go, but although he landed a few good hits with his feet, the burglar's grip wouldn't budge.

Suddenly, a red mask filled his vision and Dick felt his chin being grabbed roughly, holding his head in place.

'Oi Yellow, search something up for me.' He called towards his right. The burglar holding Graham looked up and started rummaging through his pockets with one hand while shifting his hold on Graham in the other hand.

'Sure boss, wha' do ye want to know?'

'Look up what that millionaire Bruce Wayne's kid looks like.'

'This ain't Gotham you know Mr. Red sir,' Dick heard his restraints say behind him, 'I doubt we'll find any of them rich kids in this dump.'

Yellow reached the group and he held out a picture pulled from the internet Dick hadn't yet seen towards the two burglars. It showed Dick dribbling a basketball past Bruce with a large loopy grin on his face as the big man had clearly tripped over his own feet and was about to fall on his bum. Dick remembered this 'hand-eye coordination training' well as it was one of those rare occasions where he and Bruce were just fooling around. It sickened him to think there was a reporter hiding inside the canopy nearby, taking pictures of an intimate moment while he was unguarded and vulnerable.

'Well well well…' The red-masked burglar raised his voice, 'looks like we got a celebrity in our midst boys!'

Dick was getting really tired of these situations as he glared at the apparent leader of this whole operation. The masked men around them started shouting and calling as they knew that it meant an increase in the profits of this organisation.

The burglar with the blue mask let go of Graham in the excitement and the boy did not hesitate to grab the inhaler from his gasping little brother's backpack and putting it to his lips. The apparatus had an instant effect as Charlie's eyes bulged from the sudden rush of oxygen and he started coughing harshly. Graham stroked Charlie's back supportively as he first looked his brother over for any lasting effects, before looking worriedly through his brown locks in Dick's direction.

The two locked eyes and Graham mouthed a quiet sorry, but Dick shook his head in a sign of understanding and mouthed hide before his restraints started shifting.

'Well then, let's bag 'im up shall we? Oi Green!' A burglar who had just finished his business with a cashier looked up. 'Got any rope left?'

Dick's blue-masked restraints attempted to move the teen towards the ground while the green-masked burglar approached, holding a thick bundle of rope in both hands.

The grip on the vigilante lessened for a second and Dick acted quickly: he twisted himself out of the man's grip and started to move himself behind him instead, constantly trying to remain in his blind spot.

'Shit where'd he go?!' The blue-masked man called out and looked around him. Dick looked towards Graham again to see if he followed his orders and he was immensely relieved to see that he and Charlie had moved more towards the crowd, completely unknown to the perpetrators.

The teen grabbed the large man's arm and twisted it upwards with all his strength. It had the desired effect as the man bend forwards to try and release the pain.

Dick then swiftly stepped onto the large man's back and before the green-masked burglar could finally reach the two, the little Robin took to the air with a backflip. He landed slightly behind Charlie and Graham and immediately pulled them and himself into the crowd, disappearing from the burglars' views.

'Where the hell'd he go?!' 'Ye can't run from us kid!' 'Show yourself you little twerk!' The men began to panic as they saw their big bonus getting away and started shouting towards the crowd.

The people around Dick spotted the three teens easily and started bundling towards them, completely hiding hem from his potential captors. Dick smiled despite the situation at the bit of heroism of the common Metropolian folk and got his phone out, quickly looking through his contacts.

A scream sounded as an adolescent sounding woman was pulled from the crowd by the red-masked burglar. Dick found the contact he needed and quickly dialled.

'COME OUT COME OUT WHEREVER YOU ARE KIDS, OR I BLOW THIS WOMAN'S BRAINS OUT!' The woman's pleading sounded suddenly more erratic and Dick got a weird feeling he recognised the voice. The crowd started shifting wildly again and he heard Graham gasping as he was able to look towards the upheaval, but Dick's view was still blocked.

Some of the people in the crowd started shouting again to let the woman go and Dick saw a gun being raised above the crowd as the boss burglar loosed another bullet towards the ceiling.

Three on three shots missed… Ha they won't have the nerve– The phone was picked up after the third ring: 'Little bird? That you? I'm still a bit busy you kno-'

'Central Metropolian Bank, now.' Dick whispered harshly before hanging up again, not wanting to give the good people around him hints to who he was speaking with. He relaxed a tiny bit unconsciously, straining his neck to look past the crowd in the direction of the hostage situation.

His breath caught in his throat.

Another shot rang.

Dick's eyes widened as he saw the body of his homeroom teacher crumble to the floor. Her slightly plump head hit the ground painfully and her shoulder-length blond hair partly fell in front of her lifeless brown eyes; Dick could not look away as he saw the red liquid slowly flowing out of a 4mm bullet-sized hole on the side of her head. He unconsciously fell backwards onto the ground.

There was a silent moment as no one in the crowd dare to move, then the sound came back tenfold as the burglar grabbed another person from the crowd; an elderly man this time.

The people in the crowd were now taken with pure panic and scampered in all directions, but the burglars surrounded the crowd to prevent their 'big catch' from escaping. Dick was haphazardly shoved to all sides and got separated from his two other classmates.

'I'll repeat my question: WHERE ARE YOU LITTLE SHITS?!' The red-masked burglar had managed the impressive feat of raising his voice above the deafening sounds of the crowd.

'THERE THEY ARE!' The blue-masked burglar spotted Graham reaching in the direction of miss Applegate. He picked him out of the crowd with both hands before raising him high above his head.

Graham trashed and screamed frantically without breaking his gaze from his dead teacher and Charlie weakly pulled on leg of the burglars pants, crying and pleading for him to let his brother go.

'Hold the kid still Mark, I'm not that good of an aim.' Dick saw the red-masked burglar quickly aim his gun towards his friend.

'NO STOP DON'T!'

Dick raised his hands in the air and quickly got up on his feet. He locked eyes with the red-masked burglar who smiled wickedly; it reminded him of the Joker and he involuntarily shuddered, feeling suddenly very vulnerable without his mask.

The burglar turned himself and his gun towards Dick. 'Very noble boy.' He snickered. 'Now come here.' He beckoned with his gun. Dick glanced at the body of miss Applegate before moving forward through the entranced crowd.

His intention was to move slowly, giving Superman ample time to crash the party damn it. However, he felt a sudden sharp pain on his scalp as he was pulled strongly forwards from his hair. Again.

Dick struggled to regain his footing in an attempt to release the pressure on his hair follicles. 'Ungh let go! What's you fetish with hair anyway?!'

He had his eyes shut tight because of the pain and thus missed the red-masked man's swift approach. A large fists connected with his abdomen, causing him to hunch forwards. This wasn't enough to keep him down though. The yellow-masked burglar noticed this and had no mercy as he hit the teen on his temple harshly with the back of his gun.

Dick wasn't aware of anything as his vision disappeared for a second. As he was trying to regain his bearings and shake the temporary blindness off, he felt his wrists being pulled together behind his back as he was forced on the wet ground.

Why is it wet? Dick thought as he managed to open his eyes again. He really wished he hadn't.

He tasted blood again; however, it wasn't his own.

He felt his stomach constrict and his sparsely eaten lunch threatened come out the same way it came in: his head laid in a puddle of his teacher's blood which still escaped her unmoving body laying not even a metre away from Dick.

He felt tears of frustration form in the corner of his eyes as he stared into miss Applegate's lifeless ones. Fuck how could I have been so naïve… how many bad guys do I know that wouldn't be above killing innocents. Damn it!

Dick felt himself move again as he was thrown over someone's shoulder.

'Gross this is gonna be such a pain to wash off!'

'Shut your dramatics Blue, it's on the move again!' That voice came from further away and Dick felt them move suddenly towards that direction. The disoriented teen's head throbbed painfully in rhythm with the jerky movements and he squeezed his eyes shut in an attempt to ease the pain.

'DICK!' He heard Graham call from far away. A second later however, the voices and sounds from the Central Hall all became muffled. Dick moved his arms around slightly to assess the tightness of the bonds, but he had a hard time concentrating on this task in between his incredibly bumpy ride and splitting headache.

The headache increased even more as his eyes were suddenly assaulted with the unexpected brightness of the sun, but the light was quickly obscured again as he was thrown nonchalantly through the side of a black van with heavily tinted windows.

He was vaguely aware of the sounds of shouting people and an explosion-like sound before the door was slided shut and Dick felt rather than saw the car rush off hastily.