Hi PhoenixxFlame here!

This is my first fanfiction ever so please be kind.

I hope you enjoy!

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M'gann busied herself in the kitchen. Breakfast had become a lot easier for her to prepare since her arrival on earth and she took pride in watching each member of her team enjoy her creations, although this only happened a few times as most of the Martian's creations often ended in disaster. But today M'gann was determined to get it right and had woken up early to make sure everything went smoothly. Her determination came from the fact that today was one of the few days that the entire young justice had stayed over at Mount Justice the night before and were planning to remain together for the entire weekend to catch up on some training. While they were all there Batman had recommended some team building exercises, so Black Canary had offered to come down and help and would be arriving at midday. This gave the team the entire morning to themselves to relax and hang out, so M'gann had decided to make the team breakfast to celebrate.

Slowly, arguing could be heard echoing throughout the halls of the mountain and was increasing in volume as the participants made their way into the kitchen. M'gann smiled to herself softly as she broke some eggs 'Looks like Artemis and Wally are awake', she gave a soft chuckle.

"What's so funny?" a deep grunt came from her left, surprised M'gann almost dropped the bowl she was mixing. "Conner! You scared me. And nothing really, I'm just surprised at how they can both still argue this early in the morning" She explained. A grunt was Superboy's only reply as he turned and leaned back against the counter, content with watching M'gann cook. The arguing continued as Wally and Artemis entered the kitchen.

"How can you say that!? A woman can match a man in a 100m sprint hands down!"

"Look Beautiful. All I'm saying is that men are physically built better for work, and therefore would beat a woman!"

"Not necessarily! Women can train and kick a man's ass without much effort! I mean, I could beat you in a 100m sprint if you don't use your super powers!"

"oh yeah!?"

"yeah!"

"Bring it!"

"Anytime, anywhere."

The argument abruptly ended with Artemis and Wally entering a glaring contest, refusing to give into each other. But life continued as normal around them, M'gann continued with her cooking and Superboy had made his way to the TV to watch the static. This continued for a few minutes until Aqualad came in from his morning swim.

"Good morning everyone, I trust you all slept well" Kaldur inquired. This seemed to knock Artemis and Wally out of their little argument as they both turned to greet Kaldur. Superboy inclined his head in acknowledgement and went back to sitting in silence and M'gann smiled and began using her telekinesis to lay the table ready for everyone to eat. The atmosphere brightened as the young justice interacted with each other.

"Why do you think Batman wanted us to work on team building? I thought that we all work quite well as a team already" Artemis asked.

Kaldur shrugged, "I do not know, but I don't think it can hurt. It could improve our team work even more than we thought we could just by going out on missions."

"I'm just enjoying everyone being together, it's been a while since we just hung out" M'gann included.

"Well, I'm looking forward to some training", Wally piped in, "we've hardly had any missions lately and I'm itching to get up and do something." Superboy grunted in agreement.

"Well" M'gann announced "breakfast is ready so could everyone sit down" she looked around the kitchen "Where's Robin? Is he still in bed?"

Wally shrugged and sat down in an empty seat, "Must have slept in" and abruptly dug into the pancakes on the table, "this is great M'gann!" He shovelled them down without even taking a breath. Artemis raised her nose in disgust and gave Wally another glare, "You're disgusting".

Wally just looked up at her and gave a smile, "Fast metabolism babe", he stated before returning to his meal. Superboy sighed, Wally obviously wasn't going to do anything about it, "I'll go get him" he said to no one in particular and made his way to Robin's room.

Dick was bent over his desk concentrating on a stack of files laid in a random order in front of him. All the lights were off except for the lamp on his desk, casting eerie shadows throughout his room. Dick worked better in the dark, it helped keep him focused on the task in front of him.

Frowning, he glared at the files. He knew the real reason why they were all sent to Mount Justice for some 'team building exercises'. Bruce wanted Dick out of the way which didn't go unnoticed to the Boy Wonder, but instead made him more frustrated and angry.

Leaning back in his chair, Dick closed his eyes and took a deep breath to calm him. He knew that he shouldn't be completely angry with Bruce, the fact that half of this he brought on himself. He sat there in silence, letting his thoughts drift back to when it happened.

It was a typical night in Gotham, crime was on-going as Robin made his way on patrol. Robin was having a great time; a few weeks back he had a run in with the Riddler and had injured his leg, tonight was the first night he was allowed back on patrol and he soared through the air as he grappled his way throughout the city. It was times like these that made staying up all night beating criminals worthwhile and Robin enjoyed every minute of it.

So far he had stopped a raping and three muggings on his way to meet up with Batman, it made Robin feel good, but he ached for something to get is blood pumping. Suddenly a deep voice spoke through his ear communicator. "What's up?" he responded.

"Where are you?" the monotone voice enquired.

"Coming to find you and before you ask, yes I have finished all of my homework." Robin rolled his eyes as he spoke, it had taken him this long to persuade Batman that he was fit and ready to go out on patrol. He wasn't going to ruin it because he didn't finish off his maths homework.

"Good." Was Batman's curt reply, "How close are you to the city hall?"

Robin took a moment to glance around where he was, "I'm around 2 minutes away. Why?"

"I just spoke to Gordon, there's a situation down there. A gang have taken control of the hall and have taken the entire staff hostage. We don't know what their after or who's running the show, but I need you to head there now and scope the area. I want to know how many hostages there are and how many captures there are. Do NOT engage, I'm just finishing up here then I will make my way over to meet you. Understood Robin?"

Robin nodded even though Batman couldn't see. "Understood"

"Good, Batman out". Robin smirked to himself; this is what he had been hoping for. With his signature cackle Robin leapt off the building he was currently occupying and soared towards his destination.

As Robin arrived he spared a glance at the police cars parked at the front of the building before continuing his way to find an entrance. Without too much trouble Robin found an open window on the second floor and made his way inside. Finding a nice perch that was concealed in the shadows Robin watched the seen unfold in front of him. There were 8 captures in all. They were all heavily armed with two covering the back entrance and two covering the front. The hostages had been dumped in the middle of the hall and tied by their hands arms and feet so they had little movement. Most were crying and choking on their gags as the 3 of the captures circled them. Set just in front of the hostages a man sat on a chair smoking a cigarette. He looked bored, his eyes lazily glancing over the hostages. He was obviously in charge.

Robin continued to watch and analyse until he was certain that he had gathered everything important. Quietly he reached up to his communicator to contact Batman while keeping an eye on the situation down below.

"Batman" he said in a whisper.

"Report."

"There are fifteen hostages and eight captures in total. All hostages bound and gagged placed in the centre of the hall. Captures armed with semi-automatics and guarding both the front and back entrances, two posted at each end. Three captures surrounding the hostages and one sat in front of them, I don't recognise any of the captures so I am assuming that they are not associated with any known Gotham villain."

"Good work, now sit tight and wait for me to arrive."

"But Batman I can take them!" Robin protested. The reply was immediate, cold and precise.

"No Robin, this is your first patrol in two weeks and your leg has not completely recovered, no matter how hard you try to hide it from me. The only reason I let you patrol tonight is that you promised me you would not engage in any dangerous operations, do not go against my orders. Now sit there and wait." Robin felt a stab of anger,

"Understood", Robin replied through gritted teeth and ended the communication. He let out the breath he didn't know he was holding and stared back down at the hostages. The man down in the seat twitched and raised his hand to his ear; he didn't move for a moment before he stood and began to stretch. Robins eyebrows furrowed in confusion, something was happening. The man then wondered over to the hostages and grabbed a woman by her hair. She screamed into her gag in protest and struggle to get free, but the man took no notice and threw her into the chair. The other captures snickered as the women screamed and Robin had to grip the wood around him to prevent himself from jumping down there.

Then the man proceeded to hit the woman on the face repeatedly, her screams echoing throughout the hall. But Robin had had enough; he couldn't wait for Batman any longer and flew down on top of the man, instantly knocking him out with a swift kick to the head.

All was silent for a moment as the captures realised what had happened, one moment they were happily watching their leader beat up a woman and then the next a foreboding figure stood in his place. Then, chaos erupted. Robin ran straight toward the captures surrounding the hostages and punched the closest in the stomach. As he doubled over in pain, Robin quickly brought his knee up to smash into the guy's head and he dropped like a rag doll. Two of the other captures ran over to help their friend But Robin didn't stop and vaulted over them and kicked them both in the back. He continued to dance across the room, evading his opponents' attacks before countering with his own, a smile apparent on his face. This continued until he heard a gun cock from behind him, turning he realised one of the captures he had taken down had awoken and now had his gun trained on the Boy Wonder.

Acting on instinct Robin began to leap out of the way, but his leg suddenly spasmed and the bullet grazed his shoulder. Letting out a yell Robin fell to the floor, clutching his shoulder. Now of all times his leg had to fail him! Just as he began to lift himself up from the floor a familiar sight began to walk up to him, his eyes widened and he struggled to push himself up further but was kicked back down again by one of the thugs.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't boy blunder, I was wondering how long it would take you to show up"

"Scarecrow" Robin growled in response. He began struggling again but was rewarded with a kick to the stomach, winding him.

"Now, now, don't get angry. We haven't seen each other for a while and I expected more of a friendly greeting." Robin could practically feel him sneer underneath his mask as he struggled to breathe from the blow.

"Boss" Scarecrow looked up from Robin to see one of his lackeys approach him.

"What is it?" Scarecrow growled.

"T-the Bats on his way" the man stuttered. Robin could see the man's adams apple bob up and down as he swallowed.

"Tch, so soon? I haven't finished my chat with little Robin here. Well," Scarecrow huffed "it looks like I'm going to have to end this." He motioned to his lackeys, "hold him down".

Scarecrow then lifted Robin's head by his hair and showed him a syringe filled with a cloudy liquid. "This", he paused for dramatic effect, "Is a diluted version of my fear gas. So don't worry you won't die, but it does last for several hours and by injecting it directly into your blood stream only increases the effects." He let out a sick laugh "Oh how I want to watch you suffer! Let's see how long it takes you to scream". Robin saw the smirks on the thugs' faces as Scarecrow plunged the needle into Robin's side.

Robin gritted his teeth as the serum burned its way throughout his body, but he refused to scream. Scarecrow rose and looked down at the Boy Wonder as he twitched on the floor, writhering in pain.

"I have no idea what a man like him would want with a runt like you". This caused Robin to look up and stared at Scarecrow's mask. Without warning the mask's eyes began to glow red. Suddenly Robin's ears were filled with screams, and maggots crawled out of its eyes and landed directly onto Robins face. He could feel the maggots eat their way into his skin, and he clawed at his face to try rid himself of them. The pain was excruciating. Just before Robin blacked out he heard glass mask and dark figure descend onto the thugs.

Dick awoke three days later from his experience with the fear gas in his room in the manor. He learned that after he was injected with the serum, Scarecrow had proceeded to give all the other hostages fear gas which had in the end, driven all of them mad. Bruce was angry at Dick for not following orders and when Dick told Bruce what the Scarecrow had said about someone taking an interest in Dick, which made Bruce furious and in turn banned him from patrol for two months. Dick refused and had started a major argument between them both, each too stubborn to give in and so Bruce left. The next thing Dick knew he was being sent to Mount Justice for the weekend where he would have no information on the case.

Dick rubbed his shoulder thinking back on the memory; it still hadn't healed from the incident and every now and then protested if Dick demanded too much.

He felt anger swell up inside him again at the thought of Bruce banning him from patrol, let alone sending him off to Mount Justice. Dick knew he could help Bruce more in Gotham, even if it was only down in the Batcave on the computers while Bruce went out as Batman. But instead he sends him away to do some unnecessary training! He's trained by the freaking Batman! He doesn't need any more training.

Bruce didn't say it, but he didn't need too. Dick already knew that he also wasn't letting him back to Gotham because someone was after him. Luckily Dick had managed to slip into the Batcave and download some files on the case before Bruce shipped him off, so now he was determined to make sense of it and find out who the mysterious man was. But so far he wasn't having any luck, all of the current cases in Gotham didn't connect in any way to this mysterious man and there were no sightings either.

Dick felt a migraine coming on. Up all night and no luck, he rubbed his temples hoping to sooth the pain and calm down. He was getting himself worked up and was getting nowhere.

Suddenly there was a knock at the door. Dick groaned and stood, giving a small stretch before walking over to it.

"Hey Supes" The boy Wonder said as he opened the door, a smirk evident on his face.

Superboy just stared at Robin for a moment, wondering how he knew it was him before he opened the door. He took a quick glance at the room behind Robin and took note on how dark it looked. Conner turned his attention back to Robin and saw the slight dark bags underneath his eyes, as well as how Robin's hair stood out in a random mess. He obviously hadn't slept that night, and Conner opened his mouth to comment but immediately closed it again as he changed his mind. It was none of his business. Robin's eyebrow rose at this but said nothing.

They both stood there in silence for a while, one standing in the hallway and the other in the crack between the door and wall. Dick looked up at Superboy and frowned, he was a good head shorter than Superboy his forehead barely reaching the kryptonian's shoulder.

"So… is there… anything you needed?" Dick questioned.

"M'gann cooked breakfast and it's ready." Superboy replied.

"Oh ok. Well then let's get going" Robin stepped out of his room and locked the door, Superboy walked slowly down the hall as Robin typed in the numerous passcodes and locks to his room. Once completed Robin turned and sped down the hall, quickly catching up with Conner.