Hey! So first off, I want to thank all the people that reviewed my last story. I was more than thrilled, even though it was a small amount and most of them were just demands for more writing XD
So this is sort of a sequel to Truth or Dare. You don't have to have read that for this to make sense though.
I didn't get a chance to edit this, so if you find any spelling/grammar errors, feel free to let me know.
ONTO THE STORY!
Disclaimer: Young Justice belongs to the evil people who took it off-air... None of us are happy with them...
"Do not go out on patrol alone while I'm gone."
Those had been Batman's last words before he'd disappeared into the teleporter that would take him to Justice League headquarters, leaving a very disappointed, already suited up Robin in his wake.
For an hour, the nine year old Boy Wonder sulked in a chair. Alfred was busy doing something upstairs, leaving the boy to himself. And since he didn't have anyone to go on patrol with, Robin was bored, nearly out of his mind.
He'd been thinking of a loophole for the whole time his mentor had been gone while occasionally turning on the police scanner. If he couldn't be there in person, he'd watch his city from afar.
Every single way he'd thought about it, Robin could not find a loophole. He could go on patrol with someone, but he didn't really have anybody to go with aside from Batman, and if Batman were here, he wouldn't be having this problem at all. He'd tried calling Kid Flash, who he'd met a month ago when Flash and Batman were working on a case together. But Flash wouldn't let his protégé leave for Gotham to go on patrol when it would just be two kids.
So now he was back to square one.
It was unfair of Batman to do this to him. True, he'd been Robin for less than a year, and had only been semi-active (Batman wouldn't let him out past midnight, and he couldn't go out if he hadn't finished his homework by 9:30), but he was still more than a match for those stupid thugs he'd been fighting. He wasn't completely helpless.
He groaned in frustration and turned up the police scanner.
Broken phrases of nonsense came through for a while before finally, something of importance sounded out.
"Calling all units: the Joker has been spotted on the corner of 54th and 38th at Gotham National Bank. The Joker is considered armed and highly dangerous, all available units to-"
Robin had stopped listening at that point and was halfway to his motorcycle. This would prove to Batman that he could work on his own. The last time Joker had broken out of Arkham, Batman hadn't let him out on patrol until he had been locked up again.
But Batman wasn't here now. And the Joker was probably very dangerous. The cops couldn't be trusted to do this on their own.
For a brief second, Dick stopped. Was there a reason that Bruce was so protective of him when it came to the Joker?
He shook the thought off though, and rode into the city as fast as he could.
Dick parked a few blocks away from the scene. The police had blocked off the streets for about three blocks around the bank. Robin would have to go the rest of the way on foot.
He raced across the rooftops, looking for the bank. It wasn't hard to spot; the flashing lights were visible as soon as he'd gotten up on the roof. He ran towards the lights, hoping nothing had gone down without him.
Dick could see at least three helicopters surrounding the old marble building, their lights pointed down in search of any movement. Surely no one person warranted three helicopters…
Robin had read some of the files on the Batcomputer on the Joker. He wasn't any worse than say Scarecrow or Killer Croc. The only thing that he could think of that might set him apart was that he was definitely insane. He was always locked up in high security at Arkham.
Dick tried to remember what Batman had told him about Joker when he was suddenly pulled out of his thoughts by the helicopter lights moving and a voice.
"THIS IS COMMISIONER GORDON! COME OUT SLOWLY WITH YOUR HANDS UP!"
Robin's eyes shot down to the scene below. The click of guns loading could be heard even from the height he was at. The doors to the bank swung open, and out walked a short figure, too small to be an adult.
"It's the hostages!" shouted a voice from below.
Medics ran out of the crowd of police officer as at least ten more people followed behind the child.
Movement on top of the bank caught Robin's eye, and he quickly switched his focus to that. Someone had just left the emergency staircase, and now they were running across the roof. They leapt off and hit the roof of a neighboring building, then kept running.
Robin grinned. That had to be the Joker. He quickly shot a grappling hook to a building the Joker would intercept in a few seconds and jumped.
He closed his eyes as he swung through the air, hand tightly gripping the tiny device that held his life. For just a few seconds, he could pretend that he was once again Dick Grayson of the Flying Graysons, flying through the air on a trapeze in the Big Top.
The instant he opened his eyes, the illusion was gone. The figure he'd been chasing was already halfway across the building Robin was about to land on. Robin looked for where he was going to land, and noticed too late that there was the metal cover of an air conditioning unit right beneath his feet. So much for a silent landing.
He clunked across the metal, which was louder than he'd expected it to be. As soon as he'd landed on it, he leapt off and ducked behind the air vent it was attached to.
"Who's there?"
Dick cringed, knowing Batman would have killed him for such a loud entrance. Thankfully, he wasn't there.
"Batsy?" asked the same jovial voice as before.
The air conditioner was off, so Robin expected it to be easy to hear the footsteps of his opponent. He heard absolutely nothing, aside from the sounds coming from the police. But they were several blocks away now, and the sound was faint. Why couldn't he hear the Joker?
He was scared half to death by a figure dropping in front of him, brandishing a knife. The look of glee on the starch white face was suddenly replaced with confusion at seeing the boy.
"You're not Batsy…"
"You sound disappointed," muttered Dick, unfazed by the knife. He flipped himself up and over the air vent, kicking the clown in the chin in midair.
The Joker somehow managed to not fall off the edge of the building, and instead walked back out to the open air space where Robin now stood. As soon as the Joker walked back into his line of sight, Robin sunk into a fighting stance.
"You sound disappointed," mimicked the Joker in a babyish voice. "Of course I'm disappointed. I was expecting more of a challenge than a little kid in tights. Where's the Bat?"
"Not here," growled Robin.
"Well then who are you supposed to be?"
"I'm Robin."
The last thing he'd expected to see was a huge grin spread across the clown's face.
"So you're Robin…" the Joker let loose a maniacal laugh. "You were the talk of the town in Arkham. I couldn't wait to meet you when word first came out, so I broke out. But apparently DaddyBats didn't want you to have a play date, so he locked me back up again. But here you are. Batman's new sidekick: Robin, the Boy Wonder."
This cracked the Joker up again. "He's nuts!" muttered Robin to himself, too quiet for the Joker to hear. Finally, the Joker's laughter died down.
"So, tell me, Boy Blunder…" The Joker's grin spread, something Robin hadn't thought possible. The clown reached inside his ugly purple coat for something.
"Why so serious?" asked the Joker, pulling out a gun. Robin's eyes widened, and he let out an involuntary gasp. The Joker cackled. "Bye bye, Birdie!" Then he pulled the trigger. Robin closed his eyes as the gunshot rang out, bracing himself for the pain that was sure to follow.
It never came. The Joker's laughter grew louder. Cautiously, Robin opened one eyes. Hanging out of the muzzle was a flag, with the word "BANG!" written on it. Dick let out a sigh of relief, pulled out a bird-a-rang, and knocked the weapon out of the Joker's hand. The Joker stopped laughing as soon as the gun was knocked out of his hand.
"I guess you didn't think my toy was funny," growled the Joker. "I didn't think yours was either." He almost instantly lightened up, and pulled a switchblade out of his suit pocket. "Let's get rid of Bird Boy's weapons, shall we?"
The Joker moved faster than Robin had anticipated. Within seconds, the clown was right in front of him, his disgusting, hot breath on Robin's face. The boy backed away from the madman, who was throwing the knife from one hand to another.
"Which hand, Bird Boy? Left," he threw the knife to his left hand, "or right?" The knife switched hands again. "Lucky for you, I'm ambidextrous, so it doesn't matter. I'll still be able to hit you with either hand. What do you think, little Bird?"
Robin's back hit a wall. He hadn't noticed a wall when he'd jumped to the rooftop. Now he was trapped between the Joker and a solid brick wall. And the former kept getting closer.
Dick fought panic. True, there was nothing physically scary about the Joker; he wasn't super strong, like Killer Croc, and he didn't have any sinister weapons like Mr. Freeze. He didn't have any powers as far as Dick could tell.
But the Joker had this… aura of madness around him. There was a glint in his eyes that scared Dick, like he was enjoying everything about their encounter, like he didn't differentiate between right and wrong. Like he would slit Robin's throat in a second, and not even think twice.
Dick swallowed hard and tried to think of a way out of the situation. But sheer panic had overridden all of his training. Instead of searching for a way out, his eyes had focused on the knife that was slowly coming close to him with every step the Joker took.
The Joker stopped when he was just a few inches from the boy. His putrid breath cause Dick to turn his head away, but he still kept his eyes on the Joker, afraid of what would come next. The Joker raised the knife above his head and looked the boy in the eyes. His eyes were shining with excitement and his disturbing smile deepened once more.
Dick stiffened and closed his eyes, waiting for the piercing pain that was sure to come this time. He'd seen it in the Joker's eyes; this time was death.
He heard the soft swish of the knife as the Joker brought it down, but instead of the tearing pain in his chest like he'd expected, it was a sharp pain at his waist.
Dick cried out as the knife pierced his skin, and he heard the Joker laugh at his pain. Then, Dick felt the Joker back up.
He hesitantly opened one eye, and saw the Joker was now standing about a foot and a half away from him, holding the knife in his left hand, and a yellow utility belt in his right. He'd left Robin completely defenseless.
Robin's eyes widened with the realization, and the Joker laughed even harder, carelessly throwing the utility belt behind him.
"Now, that wasn't so bad, was it Bird Boy?" the Joker asked with a false sweetness. The clown brought the knife up to examine it. Dick fought the urge to hurl as the Joker licked his blood off the knife.
"Y-you're insane," whispered Robin, fighting the wave of nausea that had overcome him.
The Joker's eyes snapped towards him, and the laughing stopped, though the grin remained. "Exactly."
He walked closer to the trapped bird, who felt his nausea vanish and fear quickly take its place.
"Now, that was the left hand…" the Joker tossed the knife to his other hand. "Let's see what we can do with the right."
The Joker was in front of Robin in an instant. Robin squirmed and turned his head away, trying to get the Joker's breath out of his nose. The Joker harshly grabbed the young hero's face, forcing the boy to look at him again.
"Now, now, Robbie, that's no way to treat ol' Uncle J, is it?"
Robin felt his stomach clench up at the nickname Joker had given himself.
"Hmmm, what to do, what to do…" Joker turned the Boy Wonder's face from side to side as he spoke. "I know; let's take a look at the face behind the mask."
Dick was washed over with cold, full-blown terror. Bruce was going to kill him. The cold tip of the blade slid underneath the corner of his mask, slicing lightly into his skin and causing the boy to sharply suck in breath through his teeth.
No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, thought Dick in panic, closing his eyes doing his best not to struggle as the knife edged its way closer toward his left eye.
Suddenly, the knife stopped moving, and stayed in one place. The Joker was panting now, digging the knife tip into Robin's face.
"Nooo, no, no," whispered Joker, unknowingly echoing Dick's thoughts. "No, no, no, no. We can't do that; DaddyBats wouldn't be happy if I knew who you were." The knife slipped out from underneath the mask. Dick felt blood leaking from the tiny incision near his eye, tiny droplets of blood slipping out from under the mask, like little crimson tears.
The Joker caressed the boy's face with the knife, purposely leaving little scratch marks in the wake of his blade. They were shallow, but deep enough to draw blood and deep enough to cause the boy to flinch every time a cut was made.
"Tell ya what, since you can't tell me your secrets, how about I tell you one of mine, hmm?" The Joker's excited whisper caused the trapped boy to struggle even more. "No, no, no; don't struggle Bird Boy, you'll make it worse."
Dick realized Joker was right when the blade dug sharply into right cheek. Robin's eyes flew open and he let out a shout of pain. The Joker removed the knife from the face of his victim, and Dick squeezed his eyes tightly shut once more as he saw the Joker's tongue flick out towards the bloody knife.
Several seconds later, the knife was back on his cheek, and the Joker started to speak again.
"Now, when my buddies and I entered the bank today, we'd intended to borrow some money," began the Joker. Robin hadn't seen any of the Joker's henchmen. Had he left them behind? Or had they come out, pretending to be hostages. Then the Joker continued.
"But those people there, they just freaked out when they saw me. One of them unwisely called the cops. I'd just broken out of Arkham; I really didn't want to go back yet. Besides, I hadn't gotten a chance to meet you yet; I couldn't leave!"
The Joker gave an excited giggle before continuing. "So I was just going to leave, but then I remembered that I had a couple of spare explosives hanging out in my pockets. So I set them up while my buddies made sure all the nice people at the bank were watching. And now that I think about it… Give me a second…"
The hand released Dick's face and the knife quickly moved to his throat, leaving a gash on his cheek as it went. Dick cried out and flinched again, feeling blood slowly trickle down his cheek from the new wound.
"There it is," muttered the Joker. "Look, Bird Boy."
Robin kept his eyes clenched shut.
"Look, look, look, look, look."
Robin stubbornly kept his eyes shut; he didn't want to know what the Joker had.
"LOOK!" The knife dug into his cheek slightly, and Robin opened his eyes with a whimper.
Right in front of his face was what looked to be a controller for a remote control car. The Joker was grinning wildly, looking as excited as a child at Christmas.
"I got out of there as fast as I could, of course," continued the Joker. "And now that I'm gone, I think I'll blow it up." The madman started to laugh, the knife shaking with each chuckle. Blood was seeping out from Dick's neck now, and it took all of the self-control he had to keep back tears. His whole face stung, as well as the knife wound by his waist.
"Joker!"
The laughter abruptly stopped and the Joker spun around, keeping the knife on Robin's throat.
"Batsy!" Joker exclaimed joyously. "I was hoping you'd drop by!"
Robin saw Batman staring right at him. At the sight of his partner's blood covered face, his eyes narrowed dangerously.
"Get away from him, Joker," growled the Batman, fury lacing his words.
The Joker grinned and removed the knife from Robin's throat. Dick took in great gasps of air, falling to his knees on the hard concrete roof. The Joker moved slowly away from him, and Dick heard a metallic clatter as the knife dropped out of the Joker's grasp. Suddenly, a hand wound itself in his hair, yanking him harshly and forcefully to his feet.
Dick cried out in shock as the Joker's arm wrapped itself around his neck. He felt himself pressed against the Joker's body, and he could see Batman start to move towards them.
"Not so fast, Batsy!" called the clown happily. Robin's neck was twisted in a painfully awkward direction as the Joker used the hand that was around his neck to reach into his coat pocket. Robin looked to see what the Joker was reaching for, but it was just out of his line of sight.
Suddenly, the tip of a knife dug into his cheek, drawing blood. Dick whimpered but refused to cry out, determined not to show weakness in front of his mentor. Joker started to back up slowly, forcing Robin to walk with him.
"Now, you get to make a choice, Batman: Save the innocents," Dick saw the controller being waved around out of his peripheral vision and realized with a jolt that that was the detonator for the explosives in the bank.
"Or, you can save Bird Boy here." Bruce's eyes narrowed even further at the nickname, and Dick locked eyes with him.
He didn't want to die, but he had known what he was getting into. Those people hadn't made the decision become possible casualties in the war against crime; Dick had. Those people were innocents. He wasn't worth the lives of all those people.
He set his gaze and nodded ever so slightly. Bruce didn't respond, and Dick was afraid that his partner hadn't gotten the message. Then Bruce's eyes lightened up slightly, and the Dark Knight swallowed and gave a barely perceivable nod. Robin had picked this time. Civilians always came first. Only this time, there was no second. Bruce could only pick one option.
"Oh, and Batsy, you might want to hurry up and pick." The Joker stopped moving, and his grip around Robin's throat tightened. "Gravity isn't very patient."
All at once, Joker moved the knife and let go of Robin's throat, flinging him backwards. There was no roof behind the Joker; just a sheer drop off to the street.
Dick screamed as he fell off the building and for a split second he fully expected to see the Batman silhouetted against night sky. But then he realized that he had made the choice. Batman wasn't coming.
Robin spun himself around in midair, now facing the ground. The wind stung the wounds on his face and stomach, but he knew that the pain he felt would be nothing compared to what he would feel when he came into contact with the earth.
The sidewalk was coming closer and closer. Dick closed his eyes, ready to embrace death.
Suddenly, strong arms wrapped around his body, and Dick found himself moving upwards instead of down. A few seconds later, the person holding him landed on something solid. Dick opened his eyes and was set on his feet. Crouched down in front of him was Batman, who looked concerned and angry at the same time. Clutched in his right hand was the Joker's controller.
Batman snapped the antenna off. Robin looked around his mentor's shoulder and saw the Joker tied up, hanging off of the "L" of the "Laughing Cat Bar" sign.
"I thought I told you not to go on patrol alone," growled Batman, obviously angry.
Dick couldn't hold back the tears any longer. He turned away from his mentor, ashamed as he let the tears of mingled fear and relief flow. "I'm sorry," he whispered, closing his eyes.
Without warning, Robin felt the same strong arms that had caught him catching him once more, but this time in an embrace. Dick turned and buried his head in his adoptive father's cape, clinging to him and returning the rare hug.
"Let's get you home," whispered Bruce in the boy's ear, scooping Dick up to carry him.
If any of you have any requests for something else I can write, I'd be glad for the suggestions!