VECTOR IN DC

[Barbara Gordon's POV] 

Robin stumbled into the Batcave, his face bruised and battered, a look of shock etched onto his features. When I asked him what had happened, he refused to speak, but I could tell he had been in a fight like last time. I quickly tended to his injuries, and he retreated to his room, exhausted and depleted. 

I couldn't shake the feeling that something was off, so I decided to investigate further. Using the tracker on Robin's utility belt, I traced his movements and discovered that his last location was a property belonging to a man named Tom. I did some research on Tom and uncovered some intriguing information.

As Robin slept, I delved deeper into my findings, determined to get to the bottom of what had happened to him.

At first glance, Tom's profile appeared to be completely ordinary, with no suspicious or incriminating information. However, my suspicions were aroused when I noticed Jason standing behind me, fear etched onto his face.

When I asked Jason if he knew Tom, he was hesitant to speak at first, but eventually opened up about his encounters with him. I decided to investigate further by visiting Tom's house and seeing what I could uncover. If someone with Tom's power and influence had such a normal profile, then he was definitely hiding something.

I went over to his house a few nights after his encounter with Jason, in hopes of getting information concerning him and not the perfect version of him that was painted on his records. 

When I arrived at Tom's apartment, it appeared to be a perfectly ordinary dwelling. I deftly picked the lock with a pin and entered cautiously, making my way through the living room and slowly working my way towards the bedroom.

At first I thought he would attack me so I was prepared and ready to evade whatever came my way and strike back, but the first words I heard was a friendly hello. It was completely unexpected and here I was offered  tea by the potential-threat stranger. 

"So, are you here to get revenge on Robin's behalf? If so then I'm sorry but you are in for a load of disappointment." He said with a calm tone as he set two cups on the counter and poured tea into each. 

He extended a cup to me but I was a bit suspicious of him and was hesitant to take up his offer. 

"How am I sure it isn't poisoned?" I asked him and he just burst into a nonchalant chuckle. If I didn't know any better, I'd say he might be psychologically unstable. 

"You literally saw me make the tea and poured it right in front of you, I even took a sip before handing you yours." He said, trying to stop himself from his series of laughter. 

I winced at his reaction to a serious question I had asked him. "Sure you made the tea right in front of my eyes, but I can't be sure you didn’t lace my cup with poison. What else would you invite an intruder for some tea?"

"Damn, the thought of you thinking I'm that maniacal keeps cracking me up. But you've got a point there, okay forget the tea and let's just talk while I enjoy my tea all by myself." He said as he brought the cup towards his mouth, while giving a gentle blow of air to the surface of his tea before taking another sip. 

"First, I'd like to know why you roughed up Robin like that?" I asked him as I made sure to remain in the shadows, with minimum light reaching me. 

"You have to be a little more specific about that. Are you asking about the first time, or the second?" He asked as he crooked his eyes a little, he seemed to enjoy talking about that topic and I was going to use that to my advantage so I could get him talking and get answers for the shuffling in my head. 

"I would like to know about the first and second time you encountered Robin. You don't seem violent, so I don't understand why you would do that to a kid you are not too older than." I gave a more elaborated insight to my question. 

"Well you see, the first time I was driving off in my motorcycle, minding my own business when Robin attacked me and it almost resulted in an accident." 

"That's a lie, Robin won't just attack a civilian without a valid reason or warrant on their head. If not, that'll be assault or misuse of power." He let out a sigh, then shrugged off my interruption before continuing. 

"Believe it or not, he actually did. That's what I thought at that time, and yet the brat had it in him to give me a fucked up reason that just doesn't make any kind of sense."

"What did he say was his reason?" I asked him with curiosity clearly noticeable in my voice. 

"Well a few minutes before then, I witnessed a man who got his ass handed to him and would have probably ended up dead if someone didn't interfere." He paused then looked at his tea for a second, realizing his cup was empty already. 

"And you helped him right? So where does Robin fall in?" I asked cutting him short of what he was saying. 

"Nope, I looked him in the eye and realized it was none of my concern and saving him wouldn't benefit me in any way. If I saved him, then I would have to save all the unfortunate people in Gotham who found themselves in similar circumstances. So I drove off and Robin somehow witnessed me abandon that dude and was pissed off by it." He reached for the tea he had poured for me and took a satisfying sip from it. I should have at least taken the tea, it might have had me calm enough to listen to this. 

"That sounds like Robin but he wouldn't attack you for it." I said to him, I knew Jason really well and he might always be in his head and want to prove himself, but he wouldn't do such a thing.

"Well as you can see, I had no other choice but to give the lad a befitting beating." He had a satisfying look on his face as a smirk slowly found its way to the side of his cheek as he lips spread onto it. 

"Okay, how about the second time?"

"Well he somehow tracked me down to my place, sadly he did not learn anything from his first beating. So he came for another lesson and I wasn't in the mood for that, but who was I to reject the chance to educate the lad." He made emphasis on certain words, which made him seem more scary than he looked earlier. 

"You are one twisted bastard, you know that?"  I asked him as he seemed to revisit the event in his thoughts and relish in it once again, the creepy smile that appeared on his lips was a dead giveaway. 

"I know, but this world is fucked up and it slowly twits the soul of everyone in it. You either adapt to its fucked up ways, or you die." He put down the cup as he seemed to be done with that one too. 

As we sipped our tea, Tom seemed to relax a bit and take a deep breath before speaking. "Tea is truly a calming elixir," he said. "But now, can we wrap up this questioning and you can leave? I need to get some rest and pick up where I left off. The tea has definitely hit the spot, and I feel like I could fall asleep right now and have a satisfying slumber."

"Sure I guess I'd narrow them down to just one."

"And what is that?" He asked as he cocked up an eyebrow. 

"Robin mentioned you have some kind of weird powers. Can you tell me about your ability? It was a long shot but I had to take my shot at it. 

"Sorry sweetheart, no can do. Well, that's that and I would like you to take your leave now." He stood up and gestured to the door, signifying for me to head out. As I headed out, I decided to give it one more try and with a little push. 

"Well I won't push it, I'm guessing you are self conscious about your powers. There wasn't any record of you being a meta human, so I was curious as to what kind of powers you have. Also when and how you got them."  He didn't seem to give my statement any thought before closing the door behind me and locking its locks. 

"Well, that's that." I muttered to myself. Despite his casual demeanor, I couldn't help but feel like there was something off about Tom. As I made my way out of his apartment, I couldn't shake the feeling that I had barely scratched the surface of what was really going on with him. 

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