Chapter Text
With exams approaching far too quickly for comfort, most of the classes at Gotham Prep had been replaced with revision sessions. Students with blurred, tired eyes, copied endlessly from their text books onto flash cards and highlighted entire paragraphs.
At the back of the history classroom, Duke was flicking through his notebook desperately
“I’m missing almost a whole semester of notes.” He groaned, resting his head on two of the many blank pages “I’m doomed.”
“I could help you with the bits you missed.” Tim offered
“Do not do that.” Steph cut in, raising her own head from her notebook “Never study with Tim.”
“My revision plans work!” Tim defended
“They’re insane!”
“How insane are we talking?” Duke mumbled from the notebook. Stephanie snatched Tims planner from in front of him and rifled through
“Arkham Levels. He’s allocated himself 20 minutes of sleep every four hours over three days here.”
“Because then I won’t get groggy!” Tim said, desperately trying to snatch back the planner. The last thing he needed was a picture of it being sent to the Bat Chat, and all of the school age heroes being benched until exams were over. Life would also be much easier if Bruce didn’t discover his plans for bribing the professors if, due to no fault of his own, he ended up short of the necessary credits to graduate. He absoloutly refused to waste another year in high school.
Steph tossed it over to Duke, who caught it neatly and let out a low whistle
“I can’t even read half of this, it’s all on top of each other.”
Tim snatched it back and shoved it in his bag
“It’s flexible. If you don’t plan to fail, then you haven’t planned at all.”
“I think I’ll just take the F.”
“All you need to do is work out what will be on the exam, and learn those bits!” Stephanie insisted, flashing her own colourful notes. Rather than actual information, they mostly contained previous test questions
“What we need is for some big nasty villain to attack the school during the exam, then everyone gets an automatic A.”
“No, they just reschedule the exam to take place after they’ve declared the building safe.” Tim said, eyes skimming over his notes again. Idealy if he could memorise all the information now, he could spend the evening with his case files
“So, we draw Scarecrow here. Fear Toxin would have to get them to delay exams by at least a week!”
“Gonna be hard to study if we’re all having nightmares though…”
“Do you think Dick would show up in the cowl and declare the school unsafe if I asked?”
“No way. I’m not sure who I would be more scared of facing if we tried that - Bruce or Alfred.”
All three of them shuddered, already imagining the lectures about endangering the families sacred secret, about neglecting their education.
“On the bright side, you could stay home and study with Damian.” Stephanie grinned at Duke “I think he’s still under lockdown, and I’m sure he’d love to help you .”
“Are you an idiot? I’ve known about the Battle of Gettysburg since I was two. I shot a real musket through my history teacher for practice.” Duke said, in a far too accurate immitation of Damien’s accent
“Stop you’ll give me nightmares!” Tim shuddered “It’s bad enough being around him at the manor.”
“See I was almost sympathetic until that last part. You can’t whine about your home life when you live in a mansion.” Steph smirked
“You basically live there as well at this point!”
“Not the point, I sleep in an apartment. You privileged private school kids just can’t relate…”
“We are literally attending the same private school right now!”
“Yeah, but your adopted dad pays my fees.”
Tim groaned but before he could retort, everyone was distracted by the loud crash of thunder outside. It had been drizzling all day, and no one was a stranger to a storm in gotham, but the flash of lighting that followed directly after signalled that the storm was directly on top of them. At the second crash of thunder, all of the lights went out.
“Not normal…” Tim muttered, and they all scrambled to grab their phones.
“I don’t have any bars?” Duke whispered, unable to hide the concern in his voice. Although to any onlooker all their phones were standard Wayne Tech, they were all connected to Oracles Network. And it’s backup network. If their phones were down, something was seriously wrong.
“There’s us three, and Cass is over in gym right now, I’m sure that we can handle…” Steph whispered, but she was clicking resend on her message to the batchat over and over. Each time it bounced back red and undeliverable.
“Not as civilians. We need to work out whats going on, then help evacuate everyone until enforcements arrive.” Tim murmered.
“What a great day for Signal to prioritise his education…” Duke said, cancelling the Call Failed screen and trying his uncles number again
Tim ignored him, walking across the classroom to peek out into the corridor. He wasn’t the only one, and he heard a few screams down the hallway as there was another crash, and the hallway lit up for a second. In that brief moment, he saw something large and metallic making it’s way towards them.
“Lock your classroom door now, get everyone to hide!” Tim said as loudly as he dared, and to his relief he heard multiple doors slam and lock. He turned back to see Duke and Steph hovering awkwardly beside him. As the lightning flashed again, he risked another glance at the machine. For that horrifying moment it felt as though it’s bright red eye was locked on him.
“It’s some sort of robot. It’s here for something specific, it isn’t mindlessly searching or attacking.”
“Well that’s just great…”
“It’s seen me already, I’m going to risk the corridor. See whether it attacks or pursues. Lock the door behind me and leave through the windows. Duke, you go and find Cass then try and find an evacuation point for the students. Steph, you go up to the second floor to see if theres anymore up there. The priority right now is to stop everyone from panicking.”
Before they could respond, Tim slipped out into the hallway and pulled the door closed behind him. He heard the click of the lock. The murmer of voices and shuffling of furniture as Duke and Steph organised everyone. They’d be alright.
The red eye stopped approaching briefly, seeming to take in the boy in front of it. Tim felt exposed, no gadgets or mask to hide behind. He took a tentative step away from the robot, and it matched him, maintaining the distance between them. He took two more slow steps, and the robot copied.
“What do you want…?” Tim whispered, and almost in answer, the robot began to charge. Tim was ready for this, poised on his toes he sprinted down the corridor. His lace up leather school shoes squeaked on polished floor. He couldn’t pick up his usual speed in them, so heavy in comparison to his suits boots. When he dared a glance back, the robot was gaining far too close for comfort. He couldn’t attack it here though, not with the scared faces of students pearing through the doors glass panes or peeking out of the doorways. He just had to lead it somewhere less exposed.
He reached the end of the corridor and ended up in the main entrance. He skidded to a halt and swore when he saw another robot straight ahead of him down the corridor ahead, and another posed at the top of the grand staircase. He pivoted through the front doors, out into the now hammering rain outside. He almost lost his footing when he noticed that the furious storm clouds seemed to be spread almost perfectly across the school grounds, a harsh contrast to the normal cozy grey clouds over the rest of the city. There was no time to wonder about this though, as the robots clashed trying to follow him out of the doorway. Far more quickly than he’d like, they backed off to filter through one at a time.
Going outside was a mistake. He realised this instantly. Not only was he more visible from all the classrooms at the front of the school, but the wet gravel slowed him down and the grass wouldn’t be any better. He decided to follow the school drive down to the gates, hopefully if he could get off the grounds then his phone would work, and he could find out who was on the way. Even if it was two in the afternoon, someone had to be on their way, right?
“Not so fast Timothy Wayne!” A voice called above the rain. It was the name more than anything that made him falter. He wasn’t used to villains addressing him by his real identity. It felt like just as much as an attack as a punch, a horrible feeling of being known by something that wished you harm. A horribly familar short bald man grinned at him, flanked by two more horrible robots. The amount of enemies was racking up for too quickly for comfort.
The fact that Hugo Strange hadn’t brought Monster Men into a highschool during classes was a good sign. He wasn’t interested in a massacre. But that left the horrible open question about what he could want with a building full of teenagers.
“What is this?” Tim yelled back, continuing to edge away. The robots matched him, never letting him expand the distance. They were here to herd them, not to attack. He needed to stall.
“I’m here to help you, to help all of the Robins escape from The Batmans shadow!” Strange said, approaching. His horrible robots began to spread out, trying to surround him. Tim could only pray that his voice wasn’t carrying, that none of the students could hear the monologue he was sure was about to begin. How to stall without letting Strange talk?
“You’re insane!” Was all he could think of to yell back
“Lets not waste time lying to each other Timothy.” Strange said, as he approached Tim tried to back up but they were all coming closer now. Closing in.
He’d worked out Dick’s identity by watching him fight, and by proxy Bruce’s. He couldn’t risk a fight here with so many witnesses. He couldn’t risk being the one to expose them all. There was a chance that Strange was merely trying to confirm a theory, make them panic and make a mistake. He scanned frantically, hoping to see Bruce’s silouette on the roof. Dick’s agile form. Even Jason’s red helmet or Damiens katakana would be welcome. Strange was getting closer and he was frozen, fighting against his every reflex that told him to run, to fight, to hide. But he wasn’t Red Robin right now.
“You don’t need to be frightened Timothy. I don’t want to hurt any of you. You’re all much too impressive specimens for me to waste merely killing. Once the mouse is caught by the cat, it only prolongs its suffering by trying to squirm away.”
Cass and Duke, still in their school uniforms, appeared at the doorway. They both immediately tensed, all of their training preparing for them to jump into the fight and protect their friend, their team mate. Tim met Cass’s eyes as he raised his hands slowly.
‘Stay over there.’ He willed them ‘We don’t all have to go down.’
He saw her reluctantly hold back, hand out to stop Duke from approaching. If Strange had noticed them, he didn’t seem interested. His grin was widening. His horrid, manic eyes were fixed only upon Tim. He might be targetting the most well known Wayne kids first, his official wards that accompanied him to all the galas and events that so often covered the pages of the Gotham Gazette. If he was after Robins, that might mean that everyone else was safe.
“If I come quietly, no one gets hurt?” Tim asked, his heart pounding in his chest. This wasn’t the first time, and it wouldn’t be the last, that someone targetted Tim Drake. Timothy Wayne. He had the trackers in his phone, shoes and wallet. It wouldn’t take long for them to find him, and the worst thing he’d have to endure would be Jason’s gloating about saving the damsel in distress
“Of course.” Strange grinned “I’ve always appreciated how practical you are. I’m sure it’s part of why Bruce chose you.”
Tim ignored the comment, taking a hesitant step towards the insane man, who surely didn’t mean any of them well. He tried to keep his face blank, to smother every reflex that he’d trained and toned that were screaming at him to run. To fight. He couldn’t stop himself from flinching away from the bright disk that Strange tossed at him. It stuck to his blazer, and made short work of making it’s way through the fabric, through his sweater and his shirt. He let out a gasp as it’s teeth embedded themselves in his skin. Then a yell of pain as his entire body was shredded into pieces.
Everything was white.
Until it was red.
Then black.