Prompt: this is actually inspired by the new Batman #1 comic (which is really good!) where [spoilers] Dick goes under cover as the Joker for a few days. And he's really good at it.
so... 5 times Robin's acting skills were amazing/terrifying
Bonus! The one time he doesn't act at all. (and everyone thinks he is?)
Five Times Robin's Acting Skills Were Amazing yet Terrifying
1. Joker's Laughing Gas
Robin knew that he was in some pretty deep shit as the Joker loomed over him with his normal, psychotic grin.
Batman had asked the Team to help deal with an Arkham breakout. The reason why the Dynamic Duo wasn't dealing with the breakout themselves was the fact that Batman was currently across the universe. Batman hadn't like asking the Team, but Dick had told Bruce that they were ready.
Apparently, Robin wasn't.
Robin had been captured by the Joker when he had been trying to bring Harley back to Arkham. He had been caught off guard and was about to pay the price.
Robin could only hope that Miss Martian would be able to track his thoughts, or Kid Flash would ask Alfred to track him using the tracker Batman had placed on the uniform.
"Boy Blunder!" exclaimed Joker. "Where's Batsy? Usually, he would be all over us crazies."
"Busy," Robin stated shortly.
"Busy?" Suddenly the happy Joker was replaced by the jealous Joker. "What could possibly be more important than fighting me?"
"Aw, Mista J," started Harley, "I'm sure he just tryin' ta roun' up the others."
At Harley's words, the Joker's expression brightened again. "You're probably right, Harley honey. Now, what shall we do with our prize?"
Harley giggled. "M'ybe we shoul' use Mista J's gas."
The Joker grinned. "I like the way you think, cutiepie."
"Thanks, Mista J!" exclaimed Harley brightly.
The Joker brought out a vial of his laughing gas and put a gas mask on himself. Harley did the same.
"Hopefully for you, Boy Blunder, Batsy isn't going to be too busy to safe you!" exclaimed Joker.
Joker broke the vial in front of Robin's face, the gas spreading throughout the warehouse quickly. Robin had managed to gather a breath before the Joker broke the vial. After a few minutes, Robin could feel his lungs burning and he was forced to suck in oxygen, along with the laughing gas.
Suddenly, Robin started to laugh uncontrollably. Joker, hearing the laughs, started to laugh with Robin. Harley also added to the hideous chorus of laughter with her own soprano giggle.
The twisted piece of music was broken when glass shards rained upon the choir. As Joker glanced around, eyes shifting wildly, someone appeared behind Robin and started to untie his hands.
Harley had ducked for cover behind a box, where Miss Martian was waiting for us, knocking her out by throwing Harley into Joker. Joker immediately pushed Harley off of her and stood up, waiting for someone to attack him.
Suddenly, Joker realised that the beautiful, yet melancholic laughter of Robin had suddenly been cut. The Joker turned around, but, in the next second, all he could see was darkness.
Before Robin had left earlier, Batman had given Robin a laughing gas vaccine. When Robin had inhaled the gas, the gas only gave Robin the very small and controllable urge to giggle. However, Robin knew that it would be a bad idea to let the Joker and Harley know that the laughing gas wasn't working until the best moment. When Miss Martian had contacted him telepathically, Robin had laid out the plan.
"How did you manage to pretend that you were affected so well?" Kid Flash later asked.
Robin shrugged. "I've seen victims of the laughing gas; I've been affected by the laughing gas myself a lot. It wasn't hard to pretend to be laughing."
Kid Flash, a little unnerved, changed the subject to video games.
2. Playing Dead
It had been a regular covert mission: get in, get out, and be undetected. Robin couldn't figure out how it became a fire fight between the team and a gang with fifty people with loads of ammunition, pinning them behind metal boxes in what was supposed to be an abandoned factory.
Then again, their covert missions never went according to plan.
Superboy was down: one of the gang members had kept a piece of kryptonite on him, causing Superboy to grow weak and needing to be protected by Miss Martian, who was using all of her power to just keep the bullets away from her boyfriend and herself. Kid Flash had a broken leg due to a lucky hit from one of the gang members. Aqualad was down as well; Robin had hid him inside one of the boxes with small air holes so that he could breathe. Artemis and Robin were the only ones that were uninjured, but both of them had almost completely run through all of their weapons. Things were looking bleak, especially since the bad guys kept on reloading their guns, even if some of the ricochet killed some of their own people.
Artemis reached into her quiver to feel empty air. Artemis muttered a curse to herself in Vietnamese. In her brief reprieve, it allowed the gang members to shoot directly at Artemis. Robin, who was near Artemis, noticed the reprieve and shouted, "ARTEMIS, MOVE!"
Artemis startled and fell heavily to the ground when Robin tackled her.
"Urgh, did you have to push me so hard?" questioned Artemis with a groan. As they were at a higher ground and on the floor, the bullets flying in their direction wasn't even close to hitting them.
There was no reply from Robin. Artemis's eyes widened.
"Robin? ROBIN?!" shouted Artemis, shaking Robin's body.
There was no movement, not even a stir.
Hearing Artemis's shouts, Kid Flash paled. "No…Robin…"
Tears started to roll down Miss Martian's face as she struggled to keep the shield up. Superboy strained to try to use his superhearing, but with the heavy piece of kryptonite in the room, he had no access to his regular powers. Superboy gritted his teeth in anger. Useless! He was freaking useless!
Suddenly, the shooting stopped as the men left the factory. Artemis and Kid Flash were too shocked to notice anything but Robin. Miss Martian collapsed, breathing heavily. Keeping that shield up for, probably, thirty minutes was exhausting.
Someone started to clap. It echoed in the silent, empty factory.
That someone was Two-Face. On one side of his face, he could be considered handsome, but the other half was horribly disfigured.
"The mini-Justice League," Two-Face murmured. He stopped clapping in order to start flipping his special coin. "Let's try your luck. If you guys win, you guys can leave with your broken team. If you guys lose…" Two-Face chuckled darkly. "Well, let's just say the only way you can go back home will be in these boxes."
Two-Face continued to flip his coin. When the coin landed, Two-Face tsked.
"It seems like you all will go home in these boxes," Two-Face stated with a smirk, holding up the coin that showed the ugly face. It was at this moment that Robin burst into action. Robin jumped from the ledge to land a kick at Two-Face's head. The move was so sudden that no one could react. Two-Face dropped to the floor, knocked out. As his men had already left the factory, no reinforcements walked in.
Robin let out a sigh and sat down, rubbing his chest. Despite wearing Kevlar, the bullets were pretty high calibre, and while the Kevlar held, it still hurt like a bitch.
"We have, maybe, ten, fifteen minutes before his reinforcements will come in," stated Robin. "We need to get moving, now."
Stifling their shock, happiness, horror, anger, everyone in the Team helped each other to the Bio-Ship, which was waiting right outside of the warehouse. With the person with the kryptonite gone, Superboy managed to gain his strength back after five minutes and knocked down the wall after a couple of blows. All of them stumbled into the Bio-Ship, and they took off. Two-Face was handcuffed and tossed into the brig the Bio-Ship created from Miss Martian's command.
The Bio-Ship was currently on autopilot, allowing the Team to confront Robin. Aqualad had woken up by this time and was informed through telepathy from Miss Martian about Robin's actions.
"Why the hell would you pretend you were dead?!" shouted Artemis. God, she thought that Robin had died saving her.
Robin looked tired. "It gave us the element of surprise. Plus, I knew that Two-Face wouldn't stop shooting at us until he thought I was dead or dying."
"Couldn't you have let us know that you were alive?" questioned Miss Martian, eyes brimming with tears as she remembered the horror she had felt.
"It allowed the ruse to seem real," stated Robin tiredly. His ribs were really bothering him. "If you knew that I was alive, you guys might have let it show in your body language."
"Even if it was for the good of the Team," started Aqualad, "what you did was wrong. We do not want to see our friend, our brother, being gunned down and killed."
Robin flinched slightly in a way that no one noticed, even if they were studying him. Kid Flash glared at Robin.
"Did you ever stop and think about how it would affect us?" asked Kid Flash lowly, voice brimming with barely suppressed anger. "Do you know how horrible it was to watch your best friend die?"
Robin flinched, this time obviously to only Kid Flash. Kid Flash knew that he was pressing wounds that Robin had, but Robin needed to understand that what he did was wrong.
"We all experienced a feeling of helplessness when we watched you 'die'," stated Superboy, unaware that he was opening up scars from Robin's past. "We don't want to experience again; please don't make us experience it again."
Robin closed his eyes and leaned back, his brain making him relive the scene where he felt the same horrible feeling of helplessness that the other members of the Team did.
"I'm sorry," Robin murmured, before repeating it louder. "It won't happen again."
Kid Flash gave in and hugged Robin tightly. Miss Martian was the next to join, as she started to cry again. Artemis gave up and joined in the hugged, a tear escaping her eye; she had finally gotten the family that she never really had. Aqualad and Superboy joined in the hug together, both feeling slightly awkward.
3. Getting Upset
While Batman had been off-world and Alfred visiting family in Britain, a ten-year old Dick Grayson had been passed off to Oliver Queen and his ward Roy Harper. Despite Batman disliking Oliver, he was the only one who actually knew how to take care of children for long periods of time in the League. Clark didn't have any siblings; Barry was only starting to converse with his nephew; and the rest of the League either didn't know of Batman's identity or was Wonder Woman, but she was off-world with Batman also.
So, Dick was shipped off to Oliver until either Batman or Alfred came back to Gotham. Dick knew that he was going to have fun trolling Oliver and Roy, as both of them hadn't had much exposure to Dick yet. Dick and Roy had meant once before, when Green Arrow and Batman had to work on a case together. Dick and Oliver had known each other for over a few months, but with long periods between each visit.
Of course, Dick hadn't realised that Green Arrow and Speedy would try to leave Robin out of the patrols in both Gotham and Star City.
"It's my city," Robin argued. "With Boss gone, Gotham needs Robin more than ever."
"It's too dangerous," Green Arrow rebuked.
"And how well do you know the layout? The rooftops? The gang leaders? The right police officers to give the criminals too if Commish calls?" demanded Robin.
Speedy rolled his eyes. "You're just a kid. I'm sure we could figure all that stuff out easily."
"And, if not, you could tell us over the com. unit," stated Green Arrow.
Robin crossed his arms. He didn't want to go to his secret weapon, but with the way that Green Arrow and Speedy were trying to shoot him down was really annoying him. Robin had to have a few of these fights with Batman, but Robin knew exactly the way to play it so that Green Arrow would take him on patrol.
Robin glared at the older heroes. Green Arrow nearly shuddered, while Speedy actually did. There was a lot of Batman in that glare. "If you don't let me go with you, I'll just sneak out anyways. Without proper back-up, I might get hurt or killed. How upset would Boss be if he came back with me injured or gone? As upset as I am now. Now, you either let me go with you, or I can just go it alone."
Robin's voice was deadly calm, but had an undertone of steel. Suddenly, a tear escaped from Robin's mask as he sniffled.
"Plus, Boss would be so disappointed in me if I didn't help keep Gotham safe," Robin said sadly. "Boss is all I have left…"
Green Arrow sighed, feeling really bad and guilty. "Fine, kid, you can come with us."
The sadness in Robin's face evaporated, and he grinned up at the older heroes. "Then, hurry up, muggers aren't going to catch themselves!"
Robin cartwheeled out of the room.
Speedy stared admiringly at Robin's leaving form; knowing crocodile tears when he saw them. Green Arrow blinked, then realised he had been duped.
"That son of a bitch," Green Arrow remarked admiringly.
"I'm going to tell Batman you called Robin that," Speedy stated, before running out the door. Green Arrow cursed again.
4. Being Happy
The whole team had stayed overnight the day before April 1st, probably to see if they could stop Wally and Robin from pranking the whole mountain.
It didn't really work.
The first prank started on Wally. Wally was in a hurry to start off the day, so he rushed out of his room…only to trip on a tripwire. Wally fell down, letting out a grunt. There was a familiar cackling in front of Wally, and he looked up to see Robin in his usual civvies with his sunglasses.
"When are you never going to fall for that trick, KF?" asked Robin with another cackle.
Wally immediately looked over Robin. Wally had put a bucket of water over Robin's door that was supposed to pour on him when he left his room. Robin didn't seem drenched. In fact, there wasn't even a speck of liquid on him.
"You probably shouldn't have put your name on that bucket," Robin stated with a grin.
"WALLY, YOU ARE SO DEAD!"
Wally winced as he started to stand up. He could figure out what Robin did (although he couldn't quite figure out how); Robin had managed to move the bucket so that the prank would hit Artemis. And Wally knew that Artemis wouldn't hesitate to kill him.
"I thought you were my friend!" exclaimed Wally, looking to where Robin was standing a few moments ago to see air and the echoes of Robin's laughter. Wally cursed.
-x-
No one was safe from Robin's pranks. All of the batches of cookies M'gann made were inedible (Robin had switched sugar and salt, baking soda and baking powder, and chocolate and laxatives, which Wally cursed Robin about.) All of Conner's shirts were replaced by Batman and Robin shirts. Kaldur's water bearers were now painted pink, although the paint was able to be washed away by water, which Kaldur was thankful for. And there were many other pranks throughout the day.
That evening, the whole team, aside from Robin, was currently sitting in the living room. On the day before, the Team officially called the living room as the safe space in the mountain; the place where there would be no pranks. Everyone had agreed, and they knew with all of Robin's pranks, that the living room was probably the only safe spot in the mountain.
Robin was currently in his room, probably planning another prank. The other members were exhausted. Another of the pranks that they had planned at either hit each other or they were returned to sender; no pranks ever hit Robin.
"Wally?" questioned M'gann sweetly.
"Yeah, beautiful?" asked Wally.
"Do you mind asking Robin what he wants on his pizza?" asked M'gann. "For dinner tonight?"
"Anything for you, sweet cheeks," Wally agreed, before running to Robin's room. He stopped a few feet away from Robin's door, being more careful, just in case Robin booby-trapped his door. As Wally cautiously walked towards Robin's doors, he froze. Did he hear…crying?
Wally suddenly remembered that it wasn't just April Fool's Day to Robin, but it was also the day that Robin's parents, his aunt, and his cousin died and the day his uncle became comatose.
Wally wouldn't have remembered that April 1st was the day that Robin became an orphan if he hadn't heard Robin crying in his room. He had been acting like he usually did; so happy and trollish…
Wally knocked out Robin's door. "Robin?"
The door immediately opened. Robin stood in front of Wally, his probably red eyes hidden behind sunglasses. There were no remains tear tracks left on Robin's face. If Wally hadn't heard Robin crying, Wally would have never suspected that anything was wrong.
"You okay, Rob?" questioned Wally.
Robin grinned. "Why wouldn't I be okay, KF?"
Wally shifted slightly. "You know…Today…"
Robin ignored Wally's statement. "Tell M'gann that I would like pepperoni and Italian sausage on my pizza."
Wally blinked, and he wondered how the hell Boy Wonder did that. "Uh…?"
Robin shut the door on Wally's face. Wally shook his head. It was obvious that Robin didn't want to talk about it; choosing to just pretend to be happy rather than garner sympathy from the Team.
Wally rubbed the edges of his eyes as some dust from the spotless hallway suddenly went into his eyes. He raced back to the living room.
"He wants pepperoni and Italian sausage on his pizza!" exclaimed Wally with a grin.
5. Batman
With Batman in deep space, Nightwing knew if there wasn't a Batman that Gotham City would go out of control. Only Nightwing was roughly the same height and weight as Batman between him, Robin, and Batgirl, so Nightwing had to go out with Robin and Batgirl as Batman. He had felt it weird putting on the cowl, when he was just used to the domino mask. In fact, Nightwing hated the cowl, and he had gotten used to doing battle without a cape weighing him down.
Still, Nightwing had known Batman for ten years, and therefore knew all of his moods, his methods, and his fighting style. Robin had been worried about the latter, as Nightwing was more accustomed to using acrobatics rather than the tactics Batman used to fight. Batgirl was more worried about the fact that Nightwing was still chatty, despite having mellowed out throughout the years.
Nightwing had grinned at the two concerns and told them not to worry about it.
The next night, both Batgirl and Robin were waiting in the Batcave for Nightwing, or the new Batman, but he was nowhere in sight.
"Batgirl, Robin," stated a familiar deep voice.
Batgirl jumped. Robin turned around with Bruce's name on his lips before he froze.
Nightwing had completely transformed into Batman, as shown when he came out of the shadows. Nightwing-as-Batman looked exactly like Batman and even sounded like the original.
Batgirl and Robin stared at Nightwing-as-Batman in shock.
"There is intelligence that Penguin is getting a shipment of weapons," stated Bruce's voice from what they knew to be Dick's mouth. "Robin, Batgirl, I expect no distractions."
Robin nodded. Batgirl smiled.
"It looks like we were worried for nothing," stated Batgirl in relief.
Nightwing-as-Batman turned around, his cape billowing. "Let's go."
-Author's Note-
Sorry about my horrible villains.
And, yes, they'll be one more chapter. I just haven't finished it yet. XD
Sorry for any mistakes; I have no beta. Also, I really hate the Batman one, but I couldn't think of anything to do. :|