Amusement

~Damian + Stephanie~

Maybe it was just him, but Damian didn't think anything about this place screamed "criminal". Unless, of course, it was criminal to run through crowds of whining children, carrying funnel cakes and overstuffed Superman dolls.

He hated amusement parks.

But, of course, this was where Dick had sent him. A crummy little carnival center on the outskirts of Gotham, with maybe a few nice roller coasters to its name. And those were just in order for the park to maintain its dignity. What on earth he was doing here, Damian hadn't the slightest clue. He should be out with his father, not following the orders of a man who wasn't even Batman anymore.

The ten-year-old was standing in the middle of the entranceway to "FunVille Gotham", wishing for the life of him that he was someplace else. The park entrance was decorated with blacktop and a large, swooping arch entryway. There were various banners declaring upcoming events, a crowd of ticket stands, and bathrooms that were so backed up there was a line coming out the doorway. Then, of course, there were the cameramen. They were all in bright green shirts and were wearing masks that made them look like cartoon animals, wandering around, practically throwing themselves at every photo opportunity they saw. Damian himself had been asked for a picture twice already, and he wasn't even with anyone.

He never did understand the appeal of these parks. You could get a far greater adrenaline rush jumping off a rooftop. Or hijacking the Batmobile. Yeah, that was pretty fun too.

He glanced around for a moment, wondering where you started when you were "investigating" a child's oversized play place. A little girl with pig tails scampered by him, dropping peanuts from a little bag she held as she went. In her other hand was a map.

Well, it was a start.

Damian put his hands in his shorts pockets and headed over the way the girl had come, to an information stand bursting with advertisements and papers. He plucked a map from one of the crammed shelves and unfolded it.

The map didn't surprise him much. It was drawn and colored in an anime-style that made the buildings all look goofy and far more exciting than they really were. There were the typical rides, the Log Flume and the Carousel and the Circus Wheel. Then there was another, smaller area shaded with darker colors and patterned like a disco ball. The Teens area, or so said the map.

If there was anything to "investigate" in this park, it would be over there.

He tucked the map into the back pocket of his shorts and started heading south, into the depths of the park. He passed three frozen lemonade stands and two stores selling miniature fans and fanny-packs before something caught his interest.

It was resting next to the Teens Area entrance, something you only really saw when you had nothing else to look at. It almost made him laugh out loud. Had Colin been here, he probably would have.

It was a store selling Batman merchandise. But, of course, this didn't really surprise Damian. He'd seen several kids lugging around lunchboxes picturing his famed mentor plenty of times already. But there was something else, hanging by a string to a little post. Something he had never seen before, a rarity among the Batarang key chains and Batmobile replicas.

It was a doll. A little, plush-sized replica of Gotham's very own Fatgirl.

Damian wasn't one to get distracted from a mission easily, but this was too good to miss. He grinned in spite of himself and stepped towards the store, marching right past the mini-shelves that displayed action figures.

He picked up the Batgirl doll by the string and unhooked it from the post, giving it a good look-over. It was surprisingly detailed for an amusement park doll. Smooth, blonde hair that curled down over a small sheet of black and purple fabric that served as the doll's cape. Little triangles of cloth were attached to the forearms, like the spikes on Fatgirl's gloves. The Batsymbol decorated the doll's chest, and there were purple stripes along the lengths of each side. The eyes behind the mask were even blue.

He frowned, looking at the doll more closely. The eyes were blue, although not quite the right shade, he noticed. No, Stephanie's eyes were more of a clear, bright turquoise, not a dark—

"Oh, stop checking me out already."

Damian froze.

Oh God, no.

He turned around and, of course, there she was in all her teenage glory. Stephanie Brown, wearing a pink t-shirt and jean shorts, sipping from a Pepsi cup that she held in her left hand. She smiled at him smugly, then jerked her head towards the doll. "You know, that's nothing like the real thing."

Why did she have to be here, of all people? Damian had been just beginning to enjoy himself.

"What are you doing here?" he asked accusingly, immediately tossing the doll back onto the shelf, where it struck haphazardly and fell onto the floor. Stephanie saw this and narrowed her eyes, scooping to pick it up and put it back more carefully.

"I could ask you the same thing," she said. "This is the Teens section, Damian. You're ten." Her eyes flicked over to the very obvious "Teens Area" sign.

"I'm investigating. Grayson sent me."

"Dick?" She raised an eyebrow. "I thought he was riding solo now. Nightwing-in' it up."

"He is. I'm doing him a favor." Damian crossed his arms.

Stephanie snorted, almost spitting out some of the soda she had been drinking. Damian's face twisted into something like disgust at this grotesque action.

"Favor? You?" she asked, laughing. "Little D, I may not be the World's Greatest Detective, but I've worked with him, and you are not the kind of guy who gives favors."

Damian rolled his eyes at this and attempted to walk past her.

"Hey, hold up, hotshot." She turned and followed him, walking beside him. "You said something about investigating. Why? This park's hardly suspicious."

"I don't know, ask Grayson. He told me there were weird things going on lately, missing workers, so on and so forth. Told me to investigate. So I am." He turned and cocked an eyebrow at her. "Is that so awful?"

For a moment, she seemed taken aback by this. "I—well, no. It just doesn't make sense. FunVille's, like, the most normal place in Gotham. I'm here with a couple of friends."

"Good for you. Glad to see you're interacting with your own breed. Now, if you'll let me on—"

Stephanie took an extra step forward and cut him off, standing in front so that he was forced to stop in his tracks. She put her hands on her hips. "Now, hold on one sec. First of all, aren't you happy to see me? It's been two months. And secondly, I can help you. Believe it or not, I still remember a few things from my Bat days."

Damian looked at her bluntly, considering this for a moment. It was true that he hadn't seen Stephanie for two months, since she gave up the Bat costume and went off on her own. Sure, it was odd not having her around bugging and pestering him every waking second of every day. But did he miss her? Certainly not. She'd been a pain in his side since they first met.

As for helping, well…

"I thought you were going solo," he pointed out, unconsciously mimicking her action and putting his own hands on his hips.

Stephanie saw this and smirked. Then she met his gaze again. "Yeah, I'm going solo now. But it doesn't mean I've totally opted out of team-ups. Come on, I've got nothing better to do tonight. Let me help."

"That makes you sound pathetic," Damian said. "It's Friday, Brown. What are you, a sociopath?"

"Says the kid with only one friend," Stephanie replied, narrowing her eyes. "I've already told you I'm here with a couple buddies."

Damian threw up his hands, already exasperated. "Whatever! Why don't you go out with Drake or something?"

"Tim?" She snorted. "I haven't heard from him in three weeks, let alone seen him. I'm guessing he's off angsting his way into middle-aged life. I swear he had grey hairs last time I saw him." She winked. "So I'm free tonight."

Damian sighed, crossing his arms. "You can't get in my way."

"Have I ever before?" She asked, smiling. Then she caught his glance and the smile faded. She quickly added, "Okay, don't answer that." She waved a hand at him dismissively. "But sure, fine, whatever. Deal."

"10:00 tonight. Meet at the pizza shop," he ordered, glancing around quickly to make sure no one was listening. Paranoia was almost definitely a gene he'd inherited from his father.

"Gotcha. 10:00. I'll be there," she told him, and started walking off. "Tell your daddy I miss him!" She raised a hand to her head and pretended to tip an imaginary hat, then ran off towards her group of high school friends.

Damian watched her leave with his arms crossed, shaking his head.

"One day, I'm gonna kill her. I swear," he muttered to himself, turning and walking the other way.

He actually considered this for a second, and then smiled slightly. Nah, he couldn't kill Stephanie. She'd probably get herself killed before he could get the chance.

And even if she didn't, he wouldn't kill her anyway. There was something odd about that girl, something that made him somewhat like talking to her. Maybe it was because she didn't talk down to him, the way his father, Drake, and even sometimes Grayson did.

Maybe.

He shook the thought away and headed back the way he'd came.

************

Later…

Damian glanced over at the large digital clock that rested over the Funville entranceway. 10:05, it read, and the famous Miss Brown wasn't here.

Of course she wasn't.

He was resting on top of a pizza shop's roof, his cape flapping gently behind him in the wind. His hood was resting nicely over his head and the park was completely dark and deserted, besides a few streetlamps and the occasional janitor, cleaning up after the raucous kids rampaged through earlier in the day.

He sighed, figuring he was going to have to do this alone. It wouldn't be the first time, but it would have been nice to have an extra pair of eyes. Even if Stephanie was so clumsy it was sometimes hard to believe she could stand without a crutch.

He pulled himself into a crouching position and pulled out his line. He was just about to leap when he heard another cape flapping, this one faster than his own. He glanced up.

Damian had never seen Stephanie in her Spoiler costume before. It was an odd purple-pink ensemble, complete with hood, swooping cloak, and black sheath that completely covered her face. If it hadn't of been so incredibly girly, Damian might have thought it looked cool. The hood especially. He liked the hood.

"Hiya," she said simply, as she landed (somewhat) gracefully on the rooftop beside him. It was incredibly strange hearing her voice but not being able to see her lips move. Like Spiderman or something. Damian couldn't stand that Parker kid.

"You're late," he replied, trying to sound serious but unable to hide a slight smirk.

Stephanie ignored this comment and did a quick twirl for him, causing the cloak to spread out like the skirts of some 1900s party dress. "You like it?" she asked. "Made it myself in the pre-Batgirl days."

"It's alright," Damian replied, pulling his hood tighter over his head. "We could sit here admiring your costume all day or we could actually get the job done."

She made a sound that caused him to think she was probably rolling her eyes. "Sure, sure, whatever. You're such a spoilsport."

Oh, Lord. She'd made a pun. He could practically hear her grinning.

He sent a narrowed-eye glance her way, then cast his line. "Come on, let's check out the coasters first. One of the workers there went missing a couple of days ago. Grayson said his name was Adam Kingston," he told her, then leapt into the air, letting his line carry him.

She quickly followed, casting her own line and flying beside him. "What's he look like?" she asked over the increased sound of the wind.

"Brown hair, hazel eyes, medium build. Used to be a lawyer, lost his job, got one here. Probably has a decent amount of cash leftover though."

"Jeez, that sucks. A lawyer and now an amusement park worker?" She shook her head in disbelief. "You think that's why he went missing? Some mobster wants his money?"

"Probably. Could be a matter of other things. Why don't you do some of the figuring, Spoiler?" he asked dryly, pulling on his line and landing on the asphalt ground.

"I would, but I figured you could work on your Junior detective skills while I relax a bit. Running solo's not as easy as it seems," she replied and landed beside him.

The duo looked around at the various roller coasters. The only one that looked mildly exciting was to the left, a black hunk of machinery with a couple inverted loops and a corkscrew at the end of the track. It was the only one that appealed in the least to Damian, and so he started walking towards it. Stephanie followed without a word, although he could sense her irritation at having to do such. Personally, he was loving it. It was like having his own sidekick. And it was Stephanie.

This day just kept getting better and better.

He grabbed onto the fencing that surrounded the ride and climbed over it, dropping onto the other side and heading towards the area where people would wait in line to ride. The place was designed to look like a cave, and thus was painted a stony grey, accented with black shadows. Gravel crunched beneath the ten-year-old's boots.

"Check out around the coaster, see if you can find anything," Damian ordered Stephanie, looking around.

He heard her abruptly stop, and he stopped as well, turning to look at her. Of course, her hands had gone to her hips.

"Okay, mister. First of all, you're ten," she said, holding up her index finger. As she moved onto her next point, her middle finger shot up. Damian found this rather ironic. "Secondly, when did you become such a crime-scene analyst?" she continued. "And thirdly, how do you have any right to order me around? I'm older than you! Taller, stronger, and smarter too," she said, and though Damian couldn't see her face, he could imagine it pretty well.

"I doubt that," he replied smugly. "I was raised by assassins. Go check out the coaster, Fatgirl."

The white triangles on her mask, the ones that indicated her eyes, narrowed. "You're impossible. And it's Spoiler."

Damian shrugged, and turned away, continuing to walk towards the waiting center. He heard Stephanie sigh behind him, and then the crunch of gravel as she began to walk towards the coaster.

Huh. She was actually following his order.

Wow.

Ignoring this small surprise, he made his way into the dark building, turning on the night-vision aspect of his mask. The building was empty except for the dividers that would have told where people should stand to wait in line. He jumped over these and headed towards the ride itself, where he could see a set of controls on something that looked like a cross between pedestal and miniature cockpit.

Once he reached these, he did a few quick analyses. Scanned for fingerprints, checked around the area for DNA, blood, etc. There was nothing, but the card resting on the pedestal-cockpit stated that the controls were under the service of Adam Kingston. It was a start. He picked up the card and pocketed it, reaching for his earpiece so that he could comm Stephanie.

It then struck him that he couldn't. Stephanie wasn't Batgirl anymore; she was going solo. She didn't comm anyone, much less him. His comm was attached to his father and that was it.

He blinked at this, as if it wasn't something he already knew. Why did it seem so…weird?

He shook his head, lowering his hand, and glanced up to where an exit sign glowed dimly. He jumped over the pedestal-cockpit and made his way over, opening the door and hoping to God an alarm wouldn't go off. It wouldn't be a huge deal if it did, but it would be rather inconvenient. And it would mean several knocked-out guards that Damian would have to clean up after.

Thankfully, nothing happened. He exited out onto the gravel, underneath the twisting track of coaster. He looked up and saw Stephanie resting on one of the sides, her hood and mask pulled back to reveal her face. Her bright blonde hair was in a ponytail and looked almost silver in the moonlight. He considered telling her she looked like an old lady, but decided against it.

"Brown!" he called, and cast his line up to join her. He landed beside her as she raised an eyebrow at him. "Found his card." He pulled out the small piece of information and showed it to her. "That's about it."

"Doesn't really get us much of anywhere, does it?" she replied somewhat smugly, as if she was quite satisfied that he had found nothing.

"What about you?" Damian asked, highly doubting she'd found anything herself.

"Well, there's the cars," she told him, and glanced backwards into the building from out of which the coaster cars would come. She stood up and started walking along the roller coaster track like it was a balance beam. Her arms were outstretched and she tottered back and forth, circling her arms rapidly every time she started to lean one way or another.

"What about them?" he asked, watching her do such and amusedly wondering if she might fall. He cast his hook and flew over top of her, right into the building. He turned around and grinned at her. "It's easier to fly, Fat—"

"I wanted to practice my balance, Little Bird. Yours probably sucks 'cause you're so damn impatient." She jumped over the last piece of track and followed him into the building. "Look, the cars are all set up and ready to go. Like they're expecting riders," she told him, and walked over to the set of conjoined cars. She ran a hand over the smooth metal. "S'probably nothing, but it's kinda weird."

Damian climbed on top of one of the cars, already beginning to search for anything strange. There wasn't really any other lead that they had. Stephanie followed him, stepping into one of the cars and leaning against the seat.

"Careful. Don't break it with your weight," Damian told her without looking at her. He had heard the car squeak and smirked.

"Ha-ha. You should be a comedian. People will love how you make the same jokes over and over again," she replied, climbing over the car and into another one. "I don't even know what we're looking for. Things the janitors left behind?" she asked, looking at a discarded gum wrapper she held between her gloved fingers.

Damian didn't reply. He had frozen, swearing that he heard something.

"I mean, there is literally nothing to look for. There's not even a DNA scan for us to go on," Stephanie perseverated, stepping into another car and bending over. "Maybe if we had—"

"Bat—I mean, Spoiler. Shut up," Damian hissed at her, his body tensed.

"Excuse me?" she turned around to look at him, looking angry. But the expression vanished when she saw him anxiously looking around, holding a finger to his lips. She went into a crouching position as well, following his gaze around the room.

"You think someone's here?" she whispered, getting closer to him.

He nodded, reaching for his utility belt. It was about time they found some action. He'd been itching for a fight all day. He'd almost asked Stephanie for a spar. Almost.

He slipped forward, switching his mask to a more magnified version, hoping he might be able to see a shadow or something, creeping in the dark. He stopped again, as he heard a scuttling to his left. He abruptly turned that way, but saw nothing. Maybe someone had tossed a rock, toying with him.

Damian brought out his escrima stick and gritted his teeth. He hated being toyed with.

Stephanie did the same, although she yanked out a Batarang-looking device instead of the thin stick Damian held. She pulled the mask back over her face quickly, looking around.

"Spoiler," Damian whispered, tightening his clutch on the escrima. "When I say 'go', head to the—"

Suddenly, the room was bathed in incandescent white light as the overhead bulbs flashed on, causing both Damian and Stephanie to start. They blinked at the brightness, shielding their eyes and getting into fighting positions. Then they heard something like a rumbling engine turn on, like a computer that was restarting.

"Robin…" Stephanie began hesitantly, but Damian cut her off with a quick shh. He placed one foot in front of her, ready to stand and defend.

The rumbling sound continued to grow.

"What is that?" Stephanie whispered.

Damian started to answer, but before he could, the entire world turned into a blur.

It was just gone, a dizzying mass of shapes and colors all mixing into one. His heart skipped a beat as adrenaline shot through his system like a bullet.

What the hell? Had someone hit him?

He turned around and faced forward, hearing Stephanie yelp in surprise. Her hand shot out and grabbed his, pulling him down into one of the roller coaster cars. It was then that he realized the car was moving. And fast.

Someone had turned on the coaster.

He sat in the car with wide eyes and mouth agape, hanging onto the safety bar for dear life. The car blasted forward at something near Batmobile speed or faster (at least it felt such), and, hell, Damian was still trying to get over the shock that it was moving at all. How had he—what had—

He glanced over at Stephanie, who was sitting beside him, and saw that her expression mimicked his. The sudden jolt had knocked back her hood and mask, revealing her pale-faced expression, her lips twisted into something between horror and ecstasy. If that was even possible.

Someone had turned on the coaster. It was one of those coasters that went from 0 to 70 in a matter of seconds. Okay, it wasn't really a big deal, Damian realized. He wasn't falling unconscious. It was just a surprise. Just a stupid roller coaster. It—

Damian looked down. He hadn't noticed it, but Stephanie's hand was still tightly gripping his, squeezing it to the point that he was losing circulation. He opened his mouth to alert her of this, then closed it again when he saw her face. The half terrified, half happy look had turned into one that was completely happy and not terrified in the least.

Stephanie threw her head back and laughed, her hair flying in wild strands, whipped by the wind. She tossed her hands into the air (along with Damian's, which she was still holding) and cheered as the coaster took them up into an inverted loop, one that made Damian's heart nearly drop to his stomach.

His eyes remained on Stephanie for a reason he couldn't quite explain. It wasn't like she looked pretty or anything. She looked like a God-forsaken banshee, her face pale and her hair shooting in every which direction like miscast spells in Harry Potter. But good Lord, he didn't think he'd ever seen Fatgirl (never mind Spoiler) this happy. She was having a blast.

Absently, he glanced up at his hand, which was still tightly held in her own. It was numb now, yes, definitely numb, but he had it in his right mind that Stephanie probably wasn't going to be letting go anytime soon.  

In spite of himself, his lips twisted into a slight smile.

Yeah, alright. He'd let it go for now.

For now.

********

Back in the building, a certain black-haired young man whistled contently as he watched this happen on an overhead monitor. He pulled his fingers through his hair and smiled.

"Dick, my friend," he said to himself, "you are the world's best matchmaker. Plain and simply. This is beautiful work."

He turned to Adam Kingston, who was leaning in the doorway and holding out his hand expectantly.

"Oh, fine, fine," Dick said, rolling his eyes and handing over the $40 he had promised the ex-lawyer for faking his own kidnapping.

Then he twirled the keys to the coaster controls around his index finger, grinning and walking out of the control box, figuring he'd let the Batkids go for a couple more rounds.