I know realistically Dickbin first showed up swinging and going after Tony Zucco so everyone kind of got the gist of Robinâs deal quickly enough but that small amount of time between his intro and being known where people didnât understand what they were looking at has so much potential.
Just imagine two drug dealers in a dead-end alley doing their thing. Itâs dark. Thereâs maybe a neon sign or a single lamp post giving off just barely enough light to examine the rest of their product. Then, the flight flickers. They look up because the loss of light caught their attention and there, down at the other end of the alley, is, what must be because thereâs no other explanation for what theyâre seeing, a child.
The child is shrouded in a yellow cape and shadows and stares owlishly through bright white lenses that catch the light of the lamp post or the neon sign. The child doesnât move. He doesnât say anything. He just. Stares.
A chill goes down one of the dealersâ spine. They feel like theyâre being watched. Hunted. But they canât see anything else in the alley except the kid.
One of the dealers decides to try to look tough. He pulls out his gun with a flourish. âHey kid,â he yells, âget outta here. This ainât the kind of place you to be.â
The kid simply stares, unresponsive.
The other drug dealer shoves the first guy forward. âGet him out of here!â He hisses.
The first guy turns back. âWhat does it look like Iâm doing? What do you want me to do? Shoot the brat?â
The second guy murmurs out a horrified, âo-oh fuck.â
First guy turns to see the child has finally done something. Heâs smiling. No, not smiling. Heâs grinning. The air in the alley goes cold and both dealers are hit with the sudden feeling of being distinctly unsafe. They look to each other then back to the kid except the kidâs gone.
The dealers freeze. They scan the entire alley but the kidâs just gone. He didnât even make a sound!
Guy two smacks guy one. âH-hey, letâs get out of here.â
So they both try to high-tail it out of there but thereâs another flicker of the light. Thereâs an eerie, echoing laugh. Then theyâre both on the ground, bodies broken and sore, feeling like theyâve been run over.
Dealer one canât understand whatâs happened but then he sees the kid standing over them. The kidâs disarmed them and is trying to tie up their buddy. The guy tries to struggle and the kid slams his foot into the guyâs chest and drives a punch straight to his jaw. His buddy crumples with broken groans before the kid slams his head into the pavement and he passes out. The kidâs yellow cape, itâs definitely a cape, slides and he gets a full view of the kidâs body. Heâs wearing a stupid red and green costume that honestly shows a lot more leg than he was expecting and the dealer wants to laugh but the way the kid moves has him pausing. Solid muscle ripples through the kidâs entire body as he finishes tying up the dealerâs buddy.
Those eyeless white lenses turn onto him, then.
âAre you gonna be stupid like your friend?â The kid asks, voice high and accented, like English is his third or fourth language.
The kid doesnât wait for him to struggle. He slams a green fist straight into his nose and he drops like a sack of potatoes as it cracks. He shrieks. Blood runs down his face. He canât wipe it off or recover before the kidâs fucking on him, fist in his shirt, white masked eyes in his face, foot pressing all of the kidâs weight into his chest.
âWe have some questions for you, Quince,â the kid says.
The dealer, last name Quince, freezes again. How the fuckâThen, the kidâs words wash over him. We?
The light disappears entirely as a long shadow falls over them. The kid lifts his head and Quince follows his gaze and there, towering over them, is the Batman. Quince sucks in a breath. Itâs the freaking Batman! Heâs real! And heâsâŚhe looks from the Batman to the kidâŚand he has a kid with him?
âApril 10th, 11pm, your girlfriend, Brenda Langley, was shot and her body dumped in the harbor after meeting with a known associate of yours, Zach Minetti,â the Batman growls, âYou set up that meeting.â
âW-what? Brenda? Hey I got nothing to do with that!â
âWrong answer,â the kid says. The kid slams his fist in his face again. Fuck! The kid packs a damn punch! âTry again!â He sounds almost gleeful at the violence but the kidâs face remain passive and serious.
No way. The Batman has a fucking kid doing his dirty work now?
âO-okay! Okay! Yes I set up the meeting but I swear I didnât know Minetti was gonna shoot her! I swear it! He just wanted to talk to her after she ruined a big deal!â
âWrong answer AGAIN!â The kid says and a smile cracks the kidâs face. He looks like a freaking little devil. âYou knew Minetti was gonna shoot her. You didnât plan for Minetti to get out alive either but he did and now heâs making trouble for you, isnât he?â
âH-howâŚwho ARE you?â
âTell the truth or youâll be joining poor Brenda with the fishes!â
The kid presses his foot against his chest and something compresses he canât fucking breathe as the kid winds up his fist again. He looks up to the Batman and the guyâs just watching the kid and acting like this was normal. What the fuck!
âOkay okay okay! Shit! Yes, I set it up. The little skank had been taking my product and selling it on the side with Minetti. But youâre wrong! It was all Minettiâs idea! I sent her in to kill him! But he fucking shoots first and now heâs god knows where!â
âSo youâve been tearing through his known associates looking for him,â Batman growled.
âYeah but I ainât found the bastard yet!â
Something changes at the information but he canât tell what. The Batman says, âRobinâ, and the light flickers again, and just like that, theyâre both gone. Quince collapses. At the same time, a police cruiser blocks the entrance to the alley.
He tries to tell the police he saw the Batman and he had a kid with him!
The cop just laughs at him as he shoves him into the back of the cruiser. All Quince can think, is, what or who is Robin, while the image of a child with white eyes and yellow cape haunts him into the next morning.