Please, Please, Please Read The Author Note at the End of this Chapter!
Prologue
Pale, blue moonlight graced the dark navy sky of the Happy Harbour bay as the midnight hour dawned over the city. Twinkling white stars gleamed on the dark sky, and reflected into the soft waves of the water below. The sounds of cicadas chirping, and the occasional splash of water as the tide rose up onto the rocks onshore were the only bits of noise in the quiet area. It was quite the night, with cool air and the salty smell of the sea, the perfect mood lighting and a soft breeze sweeping on through. Calm… Peaceful… Only such peace could be found in the depths of the best nights, such as tonight.
Yet, like all good things, the silence and soft breeze did not stay, and were soon disrupted by the whirring of a large, powerful jet as an aircraft flew overhead and drifted over the horizon, outlined by the glow of the moon, causing powerful gusts of wind to surround it for a brief second before coming to a landing state on the outer layer of the mountain that the citizens had come to know as 'Mount Justice.' After a few moments, the whirring faded, and the silence was restored in the city.
Meanwhile, in the large mountain by the water, the Bioship that had just disturbed the city's silence, slowly opened, a ramp forming out of seemingly nothing to allow the passengers to come off the ship from their lengthy ride. Behind them, the bay doors to the mountain slowly slide shut, to prevent any intruders from coming in. Though that did not prevent a few mice from scurrying out, as the resident wolf of the mountain bounded after them.
As the teens of the team slowly slunk out of the ship, the Dark and Brooding hero of Gotham City, Batman, stood and approached them from where he had been working on the holographic computer in the center of the room. He gave them each a flat voiced greeting, "welcome back," with his usual emotionless modulation. None of the team members actually answered him, merely giving him small nods of greeting.
The first to come off the ship was Wally West, aka Kid Flash, who was already munching on a granola bar, much to both Batman and his teammates disgust as he talked through a mouthful, yawning as well in between words and bites. With Kaldur'ahm, or Aqualad, close behind, Wally seemed to be yapping to the Atlantean, who stretched out his limbs and gave a small nod as he yawned, trying to be respectful in the boring conversation.
Artemis was the next to come of the ship, trying to make Conner Kent, the Superboy, make some other expression other than the plain faced, emotionless stare that he usually had. Batman observed her, and saw that Conner still didn't bother to show any other emotions. Though, that did not concern him, not nearly as much as the existence of the clone still unsettled the whole league.
M'Gann M'orzz, or Miss Martian, quickly stepped after them, calling out as she didn't move fast enough to join the conversation. The last off the ship was Robin, or as Batman- and only few others- knew him, Dick Greyson.
Batman rose an eyebrow as the Boy Wonder stumbled down the ramp, black cape pulled over himself like a blanket, he could hardly even walk in a straight crime, letting out deep yawns every few seconds. No one would blame him, or any of his teammates, for being tired. It was, afterall, midnight, and they'd all been quite active the past few days while on their most recent mission. Though, not only the mission stood in their way of their rest, but they also had duties to their mentors, which meant that they were to be by their partner's sides no matter how tired they were.
For Robin, this meant that he would only get about an hour of sleep a night… After all, crime never rests, so neither would the Dynamic Duo. Batman had grown concerned when the Boy Wonder almost tripped at the end of the Bioship ramp, but picked himself up like it hadn't happened- causing Batman to recoil his comments. He was a thirteen year old after all, and Batman didn't feel like going through another argument with the stubborn bird.
"All of you hit the showers, Robin, the Zeta Beams to Gotham are down, I'm your ride home tonight."
With that said, the teens all stumbled to the locker rooms of the cave for quick showers before they headed to their rooms, and/or their homes in the neighboring cities. With his shoulders slumped, Robin returned to Batman with a towel in his hands, drying out his damp hair. Normally, Batman would tell him to straighten up, but decided to let it slip as he also noted that the boy's belt looked a bit off. "Let's go." He sighed, with Robin in tow, making his way towards the Batmobile. Robin swaying lightly from exhaustion.
Batman was in the car before Robin, who took his time to prevent any accidents in his drowsy state. Once the Boy Wonder was in the Batmobile, Batman revved the engine and opened the bay doors from the inner panels on the driver's side door of the Batmobile.
When they began their long drive home from Happy Harbour, Robin had turned on the radio, sitting back, and trying to use the hard rock as an excuse to stay awake. Yet, soon the radio turned to static, which Batman ignored- knowing the teen would soon change it.
And yet he didn't.
Glancing over, Batman let a small chuckle escape his lips as he saw that the Boy Wonder was fast asleep in the passenger side seat. With his body twisted into a ball on the seat, the seat belt had been pushed out of the way, which Batman quickly fixed, not wanting anything to happen to his partner and son. Batman tightened the belt around the boy, who shifted and pulled his cape around him, mumbling incoherently, though, Batman found himself making out a few words, "khusthi rarti dat…"
Batman's face turned into a small smile, "khushi rarti Dickie dester' edre… Goodnight Dickie Bird…" He said in a soft, affectionate tone, using both Dick's native language of Romani- the Gypsy language- as well as plain English. It had been a while since Batman… No… Since Bruce had seen Richard so calm, so unalert to the world around him, trusting that his father figure would keep him safe and sound.
It was the first time since Dick had become Robin that Dick had given into his human needs, such as sleep and food, as well as schooling, and while the boy was absolutely astounding when it came to school work, and he had quite the appetite, it was rare that he would ever admit to being tired.
Bruce found it as a milestone for him, after all, admitting that he was only human was hard for Robin- with all his teammates having extravagant powers, and bodies that could withstand more, it was hard for the teen to keep up.
Yet he did.
They drove on in silence for a few more minutes as Bruce merged the Batmobile from Star City into Gotham, sighing as the starless sky of Gotham held a giant, white, 400 watt light packed into one giant Bat Symbol.
Not wanting to wake Richard from his well needed rest, Bruce gave a sigh, debating his decision, before deciding that the boy could stay in the car and sleep- hopefully not to wake in the time that Bruce would be gone. Pulling the Batmobile into an alleyway, which was well hidden from most people's view, Bruce silenced the engine and stepped from the car, quietly closing his door and locking the car.
Grappling up to the rooftops, Batman made his way towards the source of the symbol, spotting Commissioner Gordon before the Commissioner noticed him. Gordon was pacing a bit, and when he turned, he gave a sigh of relief, "Batman!" He exclaimed as the Dark Knight approached.
"What seems to be the problem?" Though Batman had just been chuckling and smiling at his ward, now had a completely plain face and a formal tone. He wanted things down to the point, he couldn't just leave his son in the car forever afterall.
"It's the Riddler, he sent this not even an hour ago," Gordon explained, whilst holding out a letter to the Caped Crusader, it had been opened before then, and Batman merely had to pull the sapphire blue card from the envelope of the same color, finding that the card had been scrawled on with neat black lettering.
"So cleverly hidden, when I shan't be used,
Yet all over Gotham I cruise,
With many a foe, I've been given great abuse,
But dependable I chase them,
I need not water, nor air, nor food,
Though my fuel is no secret.
After time, I grow hotter, that is, under the hood,
And a betrayal I'll play, since Riddler has gained!"
"Any assumptions?" Batman questioned gruffly, analysing the letter silently whilst waiting for Gordon's answer, thinking over every single word with detail and open mindedness.
"My first guess had been you, but, 'no water' debunked that…" Gordon explained, "now I'm not quite sure."
"I think it's a vehicle," Batman announced, looking down at the letter again, "'my fuel is no secret, gasoline… And the engine grows hotter under the hood… He's implying that it's a vehicle…" Batman fell silent for a moment before saying with a grumble as he hurridly moved towards the parapet of the building. "You weren't far off Commissioner-" He said in a hiss of a tone.
"Oh?"
"He plans to hijack the Batmobile-" Batman grunted with a growl as he pulled out his grapple and disappeared over the parapet.
Author's Note - Okay, so, I have this story here for everyone, but I'm going to say a quick disclaimer and say that this story is somewhat of a reboot for the story "Sleep" by OptimisticEmotion on Fanfiction. If you have not read the original version, I would suggest that after reading this, or before. This story, however, will follow closely to the line of their story, but I plan to add another piece of plot that they didn't have. With that said, I rewrote this chapter better, and I also claim no ownership over Young Justice or DC's Characters. Thank you for Reading!
