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Eleanor glanced over her shoulder, keeping guard, as Dick pried open the doors to a room loft in what appeared to be an abandoned building. They were in the East End and not far from where Eleanor used to live. They entered the room and Eleanor was quick to shut the door again, making sure they remained hidden at all times.
They turned to face the large table in the centre of the room and Dick let out a concerned sigh as he shone his torch on the multitude of burners, tubes and beakers full of strange liquids.
'What the fuck?' Dick muttered as he picked up a metal piece of debris. 'What were you doing, buddy?' He held it up to the light to inspect it, not taking notice of Eleanor grinning as she flicked a hose.
'My uncle had a set-up just like this when I was younger...' Dick turned to look at her, a look of slight exasperation on his face. 'Oh no, it's fine, he wasn't really my uncle,' she said as she moved around to the other side of the table, using her ballpoint pen to move around the yellow powder spilled on the table.
Dick closed his eyes for a brief moment and shook his head before pocketing the metal item. He moved closer to the table and picked up a small glass jar full of yellow powder. When he sniffed it, Eleanor silently yelled in surprise and threw her hands up.
The second she was about to cuss him out for deeply inhaling a strange yellow powder that they had no idea of its components, the door to the loft rattled and creaked. Dick turned his torch off and shoved both his hands into his pockets before swiftly moving to hide behind the wall.
Eleanor looked around for an escape in a slight panic as the door slid open, so she did the only thing she could think of and dropped to the floor to hide under the table. It was a horrible hiding spot and the man who entered instantly spotted her.
As he advanced towards her, and Eleanor pushed herself to her feet with the aid of the table, Dick jumped from his hiding spot and jumped the guy. When the guy was on the floor, Dick picked him up by the arm and the back of the neck.
'Who are you?' He asked. The man fucked his chances of leaving without an injury when he stayed silent. Dick slammed the man's face down into the table, breaking beakers and stands as he pushed down roughly. 'Who the fuck are you?'
Eleanor looked at Dick and raised her eyebrows in surprise.
'I sell in this building. I heard someone's cooking something new here. Didn't want the competition. But if it's you two—' Dick silenced the man by lifting his head and smashing it down onto the table once again, busting his cheek open.
'I'm not selling drugs, and neither are you. You come here peddling your shit again, I'll throw you out the fucking window. Do you understand?' He growled through gritted teeth as his grip on the man grew tighter and tighter.
The man nodded and whimpered out a quiet, 'Yeah.'
Dick lent forward and pulled on his arm, cracking his shoulder and tearing it out of its socket. As the man dropped to the floor in pain, crying, Dick held his arm out to Eleanor, his stare still on the man on the ground.
Eleanor moved around the table and grabbed his hand as she looked down at the man on the floor as he writhed in pain. She couldn't pull enough guilt out to apologise to the man, so she let Dick lead her out of the loft in a rush and silence.
+
Spinning in the chair, Eleanor threw her head back as they listened to the computer say, 'Chemical compound unknown.' Dick groaned as Eleanor sighed. No new leads there and it was their best piece of evidence yet.
When the computer began whirring again, Eleanor and Dick snapped their heads in the direction of the screen that beeped at them. Dick leant over and tapped on the screen that said, 'File update acquired'.
'Oh great,' Eleanor muttered sarcastically as it asked for a password. Dick typed Jason, but the access was denied. She stood up as Dick scooted his chair closer, thinking about what the password could be. 'Try Dick... Don't look at me like that, try it,' she said and crossed her arms, nodding her head at the screen.
Dick tilted his head to the side as a nod and typed his own name.
Access granted.
Eleanor grinned but it quickly fell in sync with her stomach an image of a young girl named Carrie Kelly filled up the screen. Then it was Daxton Chill. Stephanie Brown. Then Duke Thomas.
The young couple jumped in fright as one of the doors to the Batcave opened. Dick turned to face Bruce as Eleanor placed her hands on the back of the chair.
'Who're these kids?' Dick asked and gestured to the picture of Duke Thomas. Bruce remained silent and gently rubbed his palms together, an action that was supposed to calm nerves. 'Who are they?' Dick pushed.
'Potential recruits,' Bruce said and clasped his hands together firmly.
Eleanor's grip tightened on the seat as Dick asked, 'How can you even think this is a good idea? You want to do to them what you did to me? Turn them into a sidearm, a weapon? Abandon them like you did El? Fuck them up in the head, or even worse, get them killed like Jason?' Dick spat at him, but Bruce merely looked away.
Letting go of the chair, Eleanor reached up and squeezed Dick's shoulders.
'Do you know what this is?' Dick asked and held up the small glass jar he took from the loft.
'No.'
'It's an unidentified chemical,' Dick said as Eleanor moved to stand next to him.
'It's a drug Jason was manufacturing, or at least trying to,' Eleanor said, finally capturing Bruce's visual attention.
'What?'
'He had a loft in Gotham. Did you know that? Probably not,' Dick said as his leg began bouncing up and down at a rapid pace. Eleanor glanced down at it.
'No.'
'A lab.' Dick finally took a calming breath in through his nose. 'So I'm guessing this is what pushed him over the edge, what sent him out there to get his fucking skull bashed in.' And there goes his composure.
'Oh, I, uh... I didn't know,' Bruce stuttered out, and it did the trick in pissing off the young couple in front of him.
Eleanor dropped her arms to her sides in disbelief as Dick jumped to his feet, gesturing wildly between Bruce and the computer.
'You didn't know because you don't care. It doesn't matter to you. You were already looking for a fucking replacement!' Dick snapped at him.
Eleanor weighed in with, 'That's a whole other level of fucked in the head, Bruce. Those are kids!'
'You want to be Robin?' He asked her, taking her by great surprise— She could only stare at him in bewilderment as Dick cursed loudly. He then looked at Dick, his hope diminishing. 'Or you? You want to be Robin again? You?' His breath was trembling with fear whilst the other two trembled with anger.
'Do I want to be fucking Robin again? No, I don't want to fucking be Robin again! You know, Barbara was right. You're just as bad as the Joker. You and he have been poisoning this city together.' As Dick took a step towards Bruce, Eleanor grabbed his arm and quickly pulled him back, but she remained silent, not stopping him from letting his words fly. She just knew the second Dick had his hands around Bruce's neck that would be the end.
Bruce took in another shaky breath. 'Dick, please. I can't do this alone...' His voice shook as the fear of abandonment settled. 'Eleanor?' He looked at her with a deep but hopeful frown.
'Then don't do it anymore, Bruce,' Dick muttered. He shrugged his shoulders and followed Eleanor out of the Batcave. She wasn't waiting to stick around and see Bruce's breakdown.
~