Revenge (Batfamily) - Sequel to Brother In Arms

Chapter 10 ~ Two Birds, One Stone

As they walked deeper into the sewer, the water level rose and was now already up to Damian's knees, forcing the young boy to paddle through it. As he looked behind him, he noticed that his yellow cape had turned brown as it was floating behind him in the filthy water. He made a disgusted face and swore to himself he would force Tim to clean it once they would get out of there.

Red Robin's scanner started beeping in his hands. At first, the signal was rather low but the beeping sound began to be louder and louder with each second. "The signal seems to be coming from the water." He then glanced at Robin.

The latter immediately offered him a death glare. "Don't expect me to put my hands into this rotten-egg smelling sludge, Drake."

"I'm holding the scanner."

"I don't care."

Tim grumbled and handed his scanner for Damian to take it. He then looked at the thick water and immediately felt sick to his stomach. He took a deep breath and plunged his hand in it, his face green with repugnance. The water was going up to his elbows and made a loud squishy sound as his hands touched the mud that was stagnating at the bottom of it that made him look away in disgust.

Tim took a few steps forward, his hands still in the water until he found a solid object. "I got something."

He was about to pull it out of the water when Damian screamed, "Wait! Don't take it out of there!" Tim gave him a questioning look and saw the concern on the boy's face. "You said the gas reacts when it comes to contact with air, right? There's maybe some remnant of it in this thing. I don't want to get killed in a stupid explosion like Todd, and even less if it's to die with you."

"ROBIN!"

The boy folded his arms over his chest and shook his head, "It's true. Don't deny it, you were thinking the same thing."

Red glared at him, still bent over the water and his hands gripping on what seemed to be a barrel. "What happened to Jason is awful, okay?! You can't make fun of his death like this!"

"I wasn't making fun of his death, I was only stating the truth."

"You're such a brat, that's unbelievable."

"Well if I were him, I'd have found a way out of the warehouse anyway. I'd have gotten out of it alive, punctured lungs and broken bones or not. It just shows how incompetent he was. He jumped head first in a trap."

"OH MY FREAKING GOD DAMIAN!!" Damian's eyes flew wide open. He watched in terror Tim unconsciously straightening up and getting the barrel out of the water to scream at him. Instinctively, the boy grabbed his cape and wrapped it around his body to shelter himself behind it. He closed his eyes and waited, still hearing his brother yelling at him. He waited for it a few seconds, but nothing happened. "What are you doing?!" Tim said, clearly pissed.

Damian let go of his cape and rushed towards the other man. He jabbed his index in his chest and pushed him angrily. "Have you even realized what you just did?!" he screeched.

Tim looked at the muddy barrel in his hands. He was too angry to even say something and cursed out loud for his mistake. Without thinking, he shot a dirty look at his brother. "We could have gotten killed because of your stupidly massive ego! And I forbid you to say once again that Jason was incompetent." Tim had taken a threatening step forward. "He died in terrible circumstances and he is still having trouble dealing with this even though he isn't showing it! I dare you to even try bearing what he's getting through every day, you freaking idiot!"

Damian shook his head and sighed.

Tim stared at him, his eyes shooting dismay at his brother. "How can you be so disrespectful?" Damian shrugged and made a humpf sound. While he shook his head once again, Tim looked at the barrel. It was in plastic, had a rather long plastic tube hanging out of it and something was written on the barrel's side. Too upset to even be disgusted by it anymore, he wiped away the trickling mud from it and shook it off of his gauntlet. "Systemlabs, school use only," he read out loud.