Everyone already knows that DC owns every character mentioned.
Darkness and dread filled the place as the iconic Boy Wonder dug a rut into the stone wall of the Batcave with a 10 year-old Batarang that had definitely seen much better moments. There were some miniscule blood 'splats,' for lack of a better term, on the tipped bladed edges of it as gravely dust stuck to the blade. Hidden blue eyes glanced upwards at the sound of a bat screeching. It had heard something. He was returning.
He was 90 seconds from entering the cave.
The sting under Robin's chest had scarred over by now, but whether the wound was of only external or internal origin-it had become a ghostly hole underneath his once freshly sewn together skin now. He tried to decide what exactly his thoughts were. The boy could only clear enough of the foggy mind haze to realize that the thoughts weren't drifting, as many people put it in words both written and spoken to others, but that they were sharply scattered-like the box of dominoes upstairs that were stamped out across the raised marble platform that stood directly in front of the main room's fire place.
They were wooden and he could have-should have-burned them in the fire. Of course there were problems with that. The fire place hadn't housed a decent fire in about three months, so burning the dotted cookie-looking things wouldn't have happened anyways. The child raised his head and tilted it backwards as three more screeches rang out from above.
60 seconds from entering the cave.
The Boy Wonder had been waiting for something to break in the guy, but now he was beginning to think that perhaps a lot had broken inside the man a long time ago. The Manor, the Cave and even the guy's presence were all…chilly. Once again, lack of a better term. He thought that a long hyphenated word that made no sense would fit the bill of the situation much more efficiently but it wasn't his mindset at the moment.
-It never really was. Half of the Bats above started squirming; it looked like a bunch of penguins waddling, and tiny screeches escaped their mouths. The screeches weren't as loud as before, but Robin hated that the little waves of echolocation reminded him a secretive Midwestern death bell.
20 seconds until-
The child heard something dragging and guessed it to be the armor that hadn't been cared for in quite a while. The front left edge of the rotor was damaged and the axel needed realigning. He would need to get busy as soon as he dealt with this. 'This,' being something that he should have done a long time ago. If he could just go back and snatch it before-stop him before he- Robin breathed an irritated sigh and tossed the old Batarang into the darkness, deciding to send those particular thoughts into the forgotten darkness.
8 seconds
Green gloves and boots dug into the stone floor and wall before the colorful figure stood up. He reached up to run a hand over each side of his green mask to ensure that it was on securely. He let one fall onto the yellow 'R' that rested over his heart, keeping the other on his mask. He was Robin. He hadn't bothered to contact anyone for near half of a year now and as the engine roaring reached his ear, Damian had to force himself to NOT think about the long ago last meeting he had had with his father. And his last moments with the others after-
3
Throwing his arms into a tensed, strait-down position at his sides, Damian Wayne made his way to the spot where he would stand right in front of the Dark Knight when he climbed out of the Batmobile.
Given the lack of light (When had replacing lights taken such a faraway back seat to everything?) he didn't see much other than shapes in the atmosphere that were about 15 percent darker than the actual air that filled and suffocated the cave. The largest and loudest shadow stopped directly in front of him and the Wayne heir began speaking as soon as the door to the vehicle opened.
"Damian?"
All he got was that startled gasp of his name as he started speaking. He had already planned his speech and had promised himself that this would be the only weak moment that he would allow his mind to get lost in that memory. It would be better if no other thoughts were able to alter or give a sheen shade of variance to his perfectly chosen and carefully constructed one-way conversation. He even closed his eyes when his lips spoke only the second sentence of his long monologue.
He didn't let his mind wander. True it would only hinder his approach to the Dark Knight but allowing it to truly 'wander' was dangerous, so he allowed it to skip and splinter over the memories instead.
"Behind you Robin!"
The Boy Wonder turned sharply and sliced at the alien slug with his sword. Seriously! An alien invasion on his birthday!
OK, so he had been quite adamant about not caring for or wanting a birthday party at first but he couldn't decree that he disliked the attention exactly. Sure, most of the people were idiotic embers of high society that lead boring, meaningless lives. He conceded though, that he had been enjoying everyone showering him with gifts. Who cared if his mother had disowned him-the royal blood that made him a prince still flowed through his veins. Admittedly, the older women gushing at how cute he was he could've done without and he wished he could've chased a few of the more annoying people out of the manor.
The party had been Grayson's and Pennyworth's idea.
And here he was working on trying to fight his way, with various members of various superhero-teams, through an army of slugs that were slithering around in the extraterrestrial acid that seeped out from their underbellies. He could be back home, dining on that giant cake dotted with hand molded candy that gleamed as numerous gemstones surrounded by a spicy cinnamon sugar, all topping the silk velvet cream icing that shined in disguise as gold dust. He couldn't complain too much when Grayson and Pennyworth had presented it to him.
Damn these slugs and alien invaders! He wanted to eat his cake!
He had no patience to deal with some Tron-wannabe aliens that had nothing better to do with their time than attack unsuspecting planets in a pathetic search for Helium. They could get it from the stars instead of invading earth!
Oh, if he ever got his hands on this alien leader!
"Robin, I need you to fall back and hit an offensive strike on the group's right side."
Slicing up another one of the purple slugs with his new sword, also a recent birthday present, he raised a hand to the com-link in his ear, "Care to explain why Batman? The sooner we take these guys out-"
Grayson's voice came back over the line, "For one, Bruce and Oracle need the stasis field down there so they can get a lock on every other ship surrounding the planet, and two-these slugs are just the pets."
"Perfect," Robin said with a sarcastic scoff as he turned and searched out a thin trail that would allow him to back away from a lot of the invaders and find a way around to the side of the ship
"Don't worry Robin. I've still got another present for you later. Your party is long from over."
"Tt! Whatever."
Being a diligent, good hero, the Boy Wonder made sure to spot check the other heroes fighting the same battle as he made his way to the far side of the alien ship, that had landed with mainly the pet slugs, where their local tech team had located a mass amount of electric activity that they estimated to be a technical control center for the ship. Access to it would give them an opportunity to track all of the other ships.
Thankfully, his father was in Hong Kong where an 'old friend' had managed to develop a device that would decode any information from the alien ships that they could recover. All Damian knew beyond that was that the 'old friend' was a retired superhero but his father hadn't said much more than that. Truthfully, Bruce Wayne didn't actually know that his son was out fighting the alien slugs at all.
What he didn't know-wouldn't hurt him.
He had just reached the thin but solid wall of the ship and sliced through it, a purple goo had oozed out in response, when his partner's voice came back on the com-link.
"Red Robin, Superman and I are inside Robin; call the heavy hitters to draw the slugs away."
"Tt. Fine, but these dirt-eating, extraterrestrial vermin are hardly a threat. I'm wasting my time here."
"Robin!"
Great, he could just see the look on Grayson's face with and without the cowl.
"I'm on it Batman."
Running under the influence of adrenaline for the remainder of the battle, Robin found himself only more angry that after all the slugs were sliced up and the ships around the world were being taken down by the majority of the Justice League, Batman and Superman were taking forever within the scouting ship that had landed. Every hero had had instructions from Batman to scan the surrounding area when the army of slime creatures were destroyed but he decided to stick around and rightfully display how pissed off he was to Grayson when the idiot finally finished the data retrieval. Well, that was actually Red Robin's job.
TT! He would have been a better choice than Drake.
The young hero only held out for about five minutes after the area had been deserted and he decided to follow his partner inside the ship.
He didn't remember the intimate details of the hallways or any rooms that he passed. He did realize that the ship was much too quiet and that's what made his feet quicken that slightest bit and that last room he came to…
He couldn't exactly remember what was in the room or the fact that his green boots sunk into a pile of blood in the doorway. What he saw…how cliché was just that?
That was the first sting under his chest where the rocky terrain had scraped the top layer of his skin after one of the slugs had puked acid in his direction. He noticed the figures in the measurable distance at first and then the Tron-wannabe aliens at his feet.
Black cloth folded over itself with wet blood stains against the fall wall. His mentor's black gloved hands were holding the cape and cowl of his uniform and he was bent forward slightly, blood dripping down his chin, as he spoke to the figure in front of him too quiet for Robin to hear.
The one in front of him?
Red Robin, Tim Drake.
Drake's hands were clutching the black cloth of the Batman cape, staring at the bleeding form of his brother in shock.
Then, Damian was able to hear.
"Tell Bruce I'm sorry. Take-care of…him."
Then the dead fell forward and Red Robin only continued to stare in fear and shock.
The air choked the two birds.
The invasion had been a complete disaster for everyone-but that was another story.
"You need my help."
Unconsciously, one of Damian's hands had traveled up to the birthday gift he had gotten at that time. He knew the wooden domino might have left splinters in his hand if he hadn't had gloves. The domino set. He had thought it to be stupid afterwards.
-Until he found bloody fingerprints with a black light and later learned that Dick Grayson had made each one by hand and that the black dots of paint on one particular domino had been just a cover for the gems embedded into the wood. This single domino, the 4/6 domino, stood for his birthday.
The lights of the Batmobile flared to life and the dark figure in front of the boy stood out like the proverbial pink elephant in the room.
"Grayson would not wish for this."
The Dark Knight just kept staring down at the Boy Wonder.
"And it was not your fault that the invaders retraced the signal back to them. Gordon's and my father's deaths were not your fault either."
All in one move it seemed, the cowl was pulled back and the older hero dropped to his knees before reaching out and pulling Damian into a hug.
"I'm sorry."
"Tim."
The man just held him tighter.
"It's not your fault. You need my help."
After all, it had been three years since Damian had left Gotham.
"Batman and Robin will never die."
Just a writing practice.
~Moonsetta