Avoiding Past And Future

(60) Intermediate

With the light now crashing down below, their landing spot had disappeared.

Phantom fell down the newly created hole first, cackle echoing after him as he went. Robin was about to grapple out to safety when he felt something attach to his chest. "Ah-ah-ahh." Phantom taunted, pulling the trigger on his own grapple that he had attached to Robin's logo. Being one of the most supported parts of the entire suit, it made for one hell of a grapple point in emergencies. Before he could even slice the wire off, it pulled taut, dragging him down along with Phantom.

Wrapping his arms around Robin, he quickly threw down a pillow pallet so they could land softly. Bouncing off the sudden foam, Phantom backflipped one too many times to be necessary, ending in a triumphant pose as if they were competing in an actual gymnastics competition. His brother on the other hand wasn't as lucky as he stumbled from the sudden crash and release.

Catching himself before actually tripping, he panted slightly, trying to regain the breath that was slammed out of him. "Playing dirty huh?" He joked, only to look up wide eyed as Phantom pulled out a trigger from behind his back.

"Oh," He mockingly cooed, feigning innocence as he twirled the release button to whatever he had planned. "If you thought that was dirty, I guess I should apologize." Following his gaze, Robin looked down at his chest. Right where the claw had attached, and two more across his chest, were their new boosters. Before anybody had even a chance to react to the new development, Phantom pressed the button.

In an instant, the boosters activated, sending Robin flying into the wall behind him. With a heavy thud, he connected with the stone. Using the extra grip from the claws, he locked himself in to prevent falling as his focus slowly broke through the shock. "No fair, we're still testing those!" He gruntled discontented. "B literally only cleared them for trial a few days ago." Ironically, at the same time Danny got cleared for fieldwork but that was something they'd laugh at in private later.

Phantom bounced a few steps closer, matching the same excitement Robin held before their spar. "Aww, is somebody pouty they didn't think of it themselves?" He cackled harder as Robin sneered up at his brother, who was still doing a victory cheer.

Scratching the wall as his clawed hands balled, Robin growled out. "You are toast, Phantom."

"Oh yeah, you and what toaster?"

Using his self-made anchor points in the wall, he used it as a launching pad to jump Phantom. "The one you blew up yesterday when you tried to figure out how," He was relentlessly throwing hit after kick Phantom's way, letting his frustrations take the lead. "And I quote,"

Phantom dodges every attack by a hair, moving in perfect sync with Robin while trying to get a hit in of his own.

"ThE tOaSt ToAsTs WiThOuT bEiNg ToUcHeD bY tHe ToAsTy BiTs!" Robin exclaimed, not giving out as he sent a flurry of fists in any direction he saw an opening. "I couldn't even have toast for breakfast. I had to eat sad soggy bread because of you!"

Phantom blocked every hit to the best of his ability, which wasn't all too amazing when up against a pissed off bird with 5 years of combat experience compared to his barely 6 months and a bit of training in recent weeks. "It was for science!" He defended himself, half-pouting along the way. "Toast is the root of all evil and you know it!"

Growing more enraged and suppressing his matching amusement, Robin picked up the pace. "You could have just googled it!" The more he went in, the more he could tell his brother was starting to fall behind. Hand to hand was never his strong suit after all. He had powers and a big mouth to do the hard part for him.

Which is exactly what they had been training for these past few days. There weren't all too many metas in Gotham that Robin got to beat up on the regular. He had to get his practice in somewhere, and what better way than to claim fighting with one's brother as educational enrichment?