The dark clouds loomed over Gotham in a hazy fog, reflecting the city perfectly. Loud sirens rang through the air along with the never-ending sound of vehicles as people raced to get home. After all, their was one absolute rule in the crime ridden city; Never go out alone at night. That is, unless you can protect yourself, are a criminal, or a certain Dynamic Duo.
As the sun seemed to be setting, (with the dark clouds, most normal people couldn't even tell where the sun was, but the people of Gotham were used to their gloomy city) more and more people disappeared from the streets.
And then, when the moon was faintly visible in the sky, the streets were almost deserted. Apart from the people who had to work night shifts. Those were always the ones they had to worry about.
The lights from the street lamps and buildings seemed to fill the dark city with life. At least to those who didn't know what city were looking at. But there was one building in particular that always caught every passerbys attention.
On top of one of the tallest buildings in the city were giant letters that blazed a dazzling white light. The word 'Wayne' overlooked the city as if it was a protector, and in some ways, that was true.
But what most people missed were the two shadows that sat atop of the white letters, watching over their city of crime.
One was big and burly, with a large cape fluttering behind it. The other had a small frame but was similar to the previous, and was almost dwarfed by the shadow next to him. Some would say he looked like a kid. And those people would not be wrong.
The Duo sat perched upon the sign for a long time, waiting for something to sound in their communicators.
"Why is tonight so quiet? Usually by now there's at least some petty burglar trying to rob a bank or something." the smaller figure exclaimed, but only earned a glance from the man next to him.
"And it's good that we haven't heard anything yet." the man simply stated in a gravely voice. The small shadow beside him groaned and leaned back on the letter 'N' that he was perched upon.
"Yeah, I guess. But I was kinda hoping to get some action tonight. Let's just say school hasn't been treating me well the past few days." The boys voice was on the verge of a pout, which made the shadow next to him force back a smirk. But the shadow of a smirk quickly disappeared when he heard about his wards school troubles.
"Be patient Robin. Knowing Gotham, this is just the calm before the storm."
Then, as if on que, both of their communicators alerted them of people who were trying to break into the Museum.
The smaller shadow, Robin, smiled in delight.
"Finally." he mumbled, gracefully jumping down and onto the roof of the building, his mentor right behind him.
"C'mon! Let's go show them the power of Batman and Robin!" Robin exclaimed as he ran towards the edge of the building, grabbing his grappling hook from the utility belt he carried. Batman followed his lead, unable to hide his smirk at his young protègè.
Without another word, they both shot their grapples to a nearby building, making their way to the Museum, on a mission to protect their beloved city. No matter the cost.
"You're going to pay for this Bird brain! You here me!" Artemis exclaimed through the mountain as she held up a bright purple version of her suit.
Kaldur, who was sitting on the couch reading, only gave Artemis a questionable glance as the Atlantian returned to his book.
The young archer growled as the familiar cackle of a certain bird rang through the rafters, making it impossible to figure out where he was.
Then, beside Artemis, a fast breeze pasted by, and before she knew it, her suit was ripped from her hands and a red headed, freckle-faced boy was infront of her. He took one look at the suit and burst out laughing, dropping the purple suit to the floor.
"Wow, nice one Rob! I wish I would have done it!" he exclaimed, earning another cackle from the rafters.
The blonde huffed and grabbed her suit off of the floor.
"Shut it Wally!" she yelled in Wally's face, and making the ginger laugh harder.
Wally wiped away his tears, and was still slightly giggling as Artemis stomped back to her room. There was a loud grunt of irritation, then her door could be heard slamming shut.
And as soon as it was closed, Wally noticed the new presence that was beside him, giggling just as he was.
"Why'd you have to leave me out of that Rob!?" Wally pouted playfully as he turned towards the giggling boy next to him and pushed him lightly in the shoulder.
"If I let you in on it then you would have revealed it way too soon. And I wanted her to take her sweet time figuring it out." Robin, who had stopped giggling, shrugged nonchalantly as if he didn't just anger the archer.
"Wait, when did you dye it?" Wally asked him.
Robin gave him a wicked and mysterious smirk in return.
"Over three weeks ago."
Wally just gaped at him as he made his way to the Zeta tubes. Then he ran back up to the ebony haired boy.
"Dude, how did you keep that hidden for three weeks?!" the speedster asked amazed.
Robin just gave him another smirk.
"A bat never reveals his secrets." was all that he said before the Zeta beam activated, and he disappeared in the flash of light.
"Why was Artemis shouting? I could feel her anger." Wally and Kaldur both looked toward the garage, where Superboy and Miss Martian were emerging from.
"Ask KF. He was the one complaining that he wasn't the cause of her anger." Kaldur calmly explained, taking his eyes off of the pages of his book.
"That's a first." Superboy mumbled, more so grunted, as he passed Wally and went to the kitchen and began to wash grease off of his hands.
"Hey, I don't make her mad all the time!" Wally retaliated.
"Yes you do." was the immediate reply from all of the three teams. Wally finally sighed in defeat.
"Rob dyed Blondie's suit purple three weeks ago and she just found out about it."
In response, Superboy just grunted and rolled his eyes. M'gann giggled, but whether it was directed to Robins antics or the clones reaction, the rest of the team weren't sure.
"Well, I hope Artemis will be able to get the dye out." M'gann said sweetly as she flew towards her room. Wally scoffed.
"Doubt it. Knowing the Boy Blunder, he would have used permenant dye." After saying this, Wally turned into a blur and was next seen sitting on the couch with a bag of chips and the TV remote in his hand.
Wally turned on the TV, and the team went back to doing their own thing, Robins prank still fresh in their mind.
Especially Artemis's. As shown by the occasional cuss as she hopelessly scrubbed at her suit, trying to get the purple out. In the end, it was not worth the trouble.
"Robin Bo1" the monotonous voice announced throughout the cavern.
The young boy walked confidently in the dimly lit cave, having been accustom to the darkness. Robin still had a small smile on his face from what happened only minutes earlier. Her reaction was better than he had anticipated. To put it simply; Artemis was definetly not whelmed, not whelmed at all.
He stopped walking when he saw a note on the giant computer monitor. Curious, he reached up to grab the slip of paper.
Went out. Don't go on patrol tonight. Eat dinner and get to bed at a reasonable time please. You have school tommorow.
~B
Robin silently wondered what Bruce had gone out for. It was still to early to go out on patrol, (as Batman sometimes left the boy home) and as far as he knew, Bruce didn't have any buisness meetings.
He was about to investigate when someone called him from above.
"Master Dick. Dinner is ready." he heard his faithful butler, friend, and grandfather figure shout. Dick smiled at the mention of food. He hadn't eaten anything all day, due to the fact he was training and fooling around at the mountain, and frankly, he was starving.
So, with the note still in the back of his mind, he changed into his civvies. He then ran upstairs and was greeted with the sweet aroma of pasta. Dick smiled even wider, and briskly opened the grandfather clock, speed walking to the dining room through the huge manor. He had memorized the massive building in two days after he arrived all those years ago, and was soon at his destination. And he was delighted by what he saw.
He entered with Alfred placing a plate of spaghetti on the massive dining table. He mentally noted that it was only one plate, when usually there were two. One for him, and another for Bruce.
"Where's Bruce?" Dick asked casually as he plopped down onto the chair and began to dig into his meal, Alfred giving him a small smirk at his childlike behavior, but it also held a hint of disapproval. He was a very classy Englishman after all.
"Master Bruce had business to attend to." Alfred said simply, purposefully not explaining any details. But he already knew what the ebony was going to ask next.
"What kind of buisness?" strings of noodles were falling out of the boys mouth as he said this, as Dick did not bother to chew.
Alfred sighed. But he had already come up with an excuse.
"Do not speak with food in your mouth, Master Dick. And it was work related buisness."
Dick raised an eyebrow at him.
"But he doesn't have anything scheduled." the boy said and mentally smirked to himself, knowing he had run the old man into a corner.
"It was an unexpected work problem. Nothing too serious, but he was still needed. Now eat your dinner while I go clean up the kitchen."
Without another word, the butler left the dining room, leaving a curious boy. Reluctantly, he ate the rest of his meal like a normal person, and was about to confront Alfred about his lies when Dick realized he didn't have to. He was Robin, he could figure out what was going on by himself.
With a smirk plastered on his face, he made his way back down to the infamous Batcave. He didn't bother to change into his uniform. He disabled the Zeta beam to all but Batman anyway. No one would walk in on him without having to break in, which would be next to impossible.
He plopped himself down onto the big chair in front of the Batcomputer, and immediately started to type.
Before long, he discovered that there really was no emergency at 'Wayne Tech', and Bruce Wayne had not been there at all that day. He confirmed his suspicions about Bruce leaving not being a work emergency, but it could have been a different type of work emergency.
So, he checked all the recent news on Batman, The Justice Leage, and all of their villains. And came up with nothing. That was until a article came up that was only an hour old.
He looked at what the headline was, and frowned in realization on why Batman didn't want Robin to join him on the mission. It was because it involves the Clown Prince of Crime. The Joker.
The article said that The Joker had overtaken Arkham Asylum and was on a murder spree. Killing any innocent officer, doctor, nurse, or visitor he saw. The article didn't go into very many details, but Dick knew it must be bad. It didn't help that the other patients were helping to kill them all.
Dick leaned back on the chair and sighed. He knew that Bruce just wanted to keep him safe from really dangerous missions such as these, but he still hated it when he wasn't allowed to go with him when it involves The Joker.
Obviously, though, Robin had fought the Joker before. And had gone through some unspeakable things he would like to keep hidden. But that was only when the Clown was not originally a part of the mission.
And Dick knew how to handle himself. Didn't Bruce see that? He could help.
But despite his urge to go and help his mentor, he knew that he shouldn't. Bruce knows what he is doing.
Dick knew that being a young hero in one of the most dangerous cities in the world put a target on his back. And being the protègè to the Bat himself made that target even bigger. Criminals would most likely use him to get to Batman, and Dick knew that all too well. Which is also a reason why Batman never allowed him to go on missions involving the Clown, knowing that his worst enemy would do horrible things to the boy if he got his hands on Robin. And just to get under his skin.
Bruce would tell him if he was in any imminent danger from anyone, though. Dick knew that if any threat was made against him he would be alerted, especially by any of the worst baddies.
The boy then rubbed his eyes, unaware of how tired he was actually becoming. Looking at the clock on the computer screen, he groaned. It showed that it was three in the morning.
This would definetely not count as getting to bed at a reasonable time.
So, not wanting Bruce to be angry when he got home, he trudged up the stairs and went to his room.
But as he slept soundly in his bed, his mentor was fighting vigorously with his arch-enemy, just on the other side of the city.
WOOO! Prologue done! And, geez, it's long! DO NOT expect every chapter to be this length! (I mean, maybe they will be...you never know...) Anyway, hope you liked the beginning of this story and stick around to find out what happens with Batman and Joker in the next chapter!
Bye!
P.s. IM SO FRIGGIN EXCITED TO BE WRITING THIS AND FOR HAVING YOUNG JUSTICE SEASON THREE!! AAAAAAHHHHH!