Avoiding Past And Future

(60) Intermediate

Still, Robin had gotten the silent message. Using the smoke as nothing more than some nice decoration, they let themselves fall backwards. With the small smoke trail behind them, they immediately shot out a grapple to get over to the other's spotlight perch. Nearly missing the other by a hair, they had effectively just switched placed by the time the smoke fully cleared.

And that is how their game of ceiling lamp chess-tag began. Flipping over to different lights, they competed on who could do the most extravagant move without getting hit by random projectiles. Of course, they only got one move to get closer before the other could make their move.

Was Bruce going to yell at them for wasting resources on a game of tag?

Most likely.

Was he going to appreciate how much their Batwatchers were utterly seething the entire time?

Oh you betcha.

"All of this over some stupid cookies?" They heard Artemis mutter over the link. Robin half expected Wally to speak up and defend the holy treat that is Alfred's baking but the redhead stayed quiet. Sparing him half a glance he could tell the speedster was 5 seconds away from just zooming up there and stepping in to ruin their fun.

"Must be some cookies." Connor grumbled, glare zeroed in on Phantom. He almost laughed, reminded of their first meeting when Connor tried to use laser vision. The glares were quite the match, though the situation was the total opposite.

"You know," Robin called out, dangling upside down from one of the supporting wires and pulling everybody's attention back to the main event. "It's a shame your moves are about as bland as your personality." Fully ignoring he basically shaded himself, Robin cackled as Phantom did a completely useless triple axel as he jumped over to a different lamp.

Landing perfectly in an overly graceful attitude, he remained still for a breath longer for no reason other than to show off. They hadn't been practicing the most random things for nothing after all.

Taking a shallow breath, Robin leapt from the wires he was tangled up in. Trying to outdo Phantom, he went for however many spins he could manage before landing on the exact spot they had both been slowly inching towards without making it too obvious.

"I'd offer you a battle strategy," Phantom called out, prowling on his lamp. "but it seems like you enjoy failing more." He teased, grinning as Robin pouted. Ever so carefully, Phantom tapped his leg. Just out of view and not quite touching either, he gave the signal for their game to actually start without the others noticing.

Without a warning they both leapt forward trying to reach the other. The chess part completely forgotten, their game of tag fully started. Launching himself right at Robin, Phantom landed square on his chest before pushing himself off again. Falling backwards, he shot out a grapple to zip up all the way to the ceiling. With the claws Robin had oh so graciously given him, he anchored himself into the rock above.

Craning his neck in an inhuman angle, Phantom stared down at his brother. Robin had recovered from the push, moving back just enough to fall back to the last lamp on the edge of the grouping.

Not letting Phantom breathe for long enough to form a new plan, Robin threw flashbang pallets up. Forcing Phantom to choose between blinding himself and dropping down, he smirked when the ghost did exactly as he hoped.

Phantom landed two fixtures away of the faulty light with a slight bounce. Neither could quite hide their smirk but considering they were supposed to be in a genuine spar, not a single person below clocked their plan.

In a final frontal attack, Robin rushed forward, prompting Phantom to do the same. "You know, these aren't as stable as the ones in the BatCave." He taunted right before throwing a batarang at the supporting cables of the broken light. As if it had been an ill timed mistake, Phantom had done the exact same.