Disclaimer: I own nothing.
"Did you see the look on his face?"
"I know, right?"
"Kodak moment if I ever saw one."
"Please, what is this Kodak?"
"I bet he's gunna have nightmares now."
"It's a type of camera, Star."
"Like this one! Say cheese!"
Robin winced at the sudden flash but couldn't help but smile at Wonder Girl as she raced off to take more photographs. It just felt fantastic to be home. Beast Boy had already claimed a spot on the couch, or at least those looked like green paws hanging over the edge of it, Starfire was chatting animatedly with some of the other Titans, Cyborg was checking up on Titans East, and Raven was...well, she was making an effort to be sociable.
He couldn't believe how well everything had gone. The Titans had banded together and stopped the Brotherhood of Evil. Sure, it had been a little rocky at times, but they had done it because they were a team.
"Man, crime fighting makes me hungry! Got any eats?" Kid Flash was besides him in, well, a flash and Robin couldn't help but grin at the speedster. He was always hungry. Regardless of whether they had been fighting crime, or just hanging out and playing video games.
"We haven't been here, so we haven't stocked up. Maybe we can order some pizza." Robin suggested.
"Sounds like a plan!" the Speedster crowed. "I'll go see what everyone wants." Before the Titan's leader could blink Kid Flash was gone flitting between the crowd.
Well, at least the other teen was efficient.
Speedy wandered over clapping Robin on the shoulder. It was a gesture that made the younger teen slightly uncomfortable because it reminded him of Batman. There was a friendliness to the gesture, though, that was clear Speedy. Robin smiled at the archer in greeting.
"Bee told me to tell you," the archer began before he changed his stance entirely cocking a hip to the side and resting his hands on his hips like a diva. Robin smirked at the display. "As soon as this party's over we're going home." it was a really awful mimic of his teammate.
Of course, Bee would choose this moment to wander past talking animatedly with Jinx who went from having empty hands to suddenly holding a rose. (Kid Flash was so slick. ) Speedy and Robin both jumped, laughing awkwardly about the whole thing.
"But hey," the archer socked his younger friend in the arm. "It was great fighting besides you instead of against you," he winked. "The whole Titan-cicle thing was a bit of a drag." the other boy shrugged as Robin frowned at that comment. "But we should definitely team up to kick bad guy butt more often. All of us."
The young leader nodded in agreement, though, he still held on to the shred of hope that he wouldn't need to draw them all together to fight like that again. One war was enough. Their generation of superheroes had almost been wiped out.
Luckily Kid Flash arrived to allay any and all fears about the population being wiped out. Especially since he was announcing that he had just ordered about three hundred pizzas. Robin was pretty sure if he could catch the kid that he would throttle him. Speedy had backed off while Robin was turning hilarious shades of color at the news that they'd just bought enough pizza to feed an army.
That left Robin alone as soon as the hummingbird that was Kid Flash had jetted off to go flirt with some ladies. Not that he had a chance. The Boy Wonder shook his head and wandered over towards the computer like the paranoid person that he was. That pizza bill was going to be steep. Hopefully they had enough on hand to cover it. He typed in the codes and studied the security logs only to frown in a concerned fashion. There was a security breech. On the roof.
His communicator went off a second later and he was staring at the face of his mentor. "Get on the roof," the man ordered gruffly. Robin stared in surprise down at the device, which had gone static when Batman dropped the communication, before he snapped it shut and headed out of the common room.
No one stopped him. Maybe nobody noticed. There was also the possibility that anyone who saw the expression on the boy's face had decided it was a safer idea simply not to ask. He made it into the hallway and pushed the elevator button. The elevator had never seemed so slow.
Raven caught him glaring at the elevator doors. The young leader hadn't even noticed her at first. She moved over besides him, an unreadable look on her pale face. "Robin," she greeted him in that gyrating monotone. "What's wrong?"
It was difficult to keep secrets from Raven. It was even harder for Robin because of their connection forged a terrible day when he'd almost died because of a drug in an old Slade mask. The boy gave a sigh and slouched slightly. "I'm not sure," Robin said darkly. "Batman is on the roof."
"Do you need-?" she left the question half finished, her dark eyes studying him.
"No," he replied almost too sharply. "I'll be fine."
She responded with a nod, but if she'd decided to say anything further the elevator doors had made her decision for her. They opened with a ding and a woosh. Robin gave Raven a final nod, moving inside the elevator compartment, and smashed a finger on the close door button. There was a delay before the doors closed leaving Robin truly alone with his thoughts for the minutes it took to get up to the roof. Thinking was a dangerous pastime. Thinking about why Batman would be on the roof demanding to talk to him was a dangerous and paranoid one. By the time the elevator opened on the top floor that lead to the roof Robin was convinced that Batman was going to drag him back off to Gotham. Unfortunately, as he took the final flight of steps and opened the door to the rooftop he realized it was much deeper than a family squabble.
The most important members of the Justice League were standing on the Titan's roof. Every eye was drawn to the boy in the bright colors as his pace slowed down in dread. The Justice League was here, and he was pretty sure they weren't planning to join their celebration.
"I'm disappointed, Robin," Batman informed the boy as he approached. The former sidekick stopped short, scowling at his mentor, and feeling the heat of shame pull from his core to his face. When a conversation started with Bruce sharing his feelings, the kid knew it was only going to get worse from there.
Superman looked at Robin in a remorseful way, as though he'd come to deliver the news that Batman had died. Except Bruce was there, looking very much alive, and unhappy. "What's wrong?" the Boy Wonder asked, feeling lead in his stomach.
"Robin," Clark started, his blue eyes catching the masked ones before they pulled to the left. "I'm sorry, but we've dec-"
"We're shutting down the Titans," Batman interrupted, not dancing around the issue like Clark had.
Robin froze. Not literally, like when Brain had put him in a jar to add to his collection of frozen baby heroes, but his brain seemed to stop, and time seemed to stop, and everything stopped because such a thing was crazy. Shutting down the Titans? He stared, his masked eyes wide, first at his mentor and then at each member of the Justice League in turn. Some of them would meet his gaze: Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, Batman. Flash didn't. Superman tried his best, but was obviously uncomfortable with the whole situation. It was odd to see a man so powerful fidget while telling children no.
"What?" Robin finally managed to ask as his brain kicked back into gear. "You can't shut down the Titans!"
"We can," Batman informed him matter-of-factly.
"We are," Wonder Woman agreed.
"But," Robin protested, his gaze bouncing from member to member, pleading sympathy. "We just defeated the Brotherhood of Evil. The team is capable. We can fight crime just like you all do!"
"What if you hadn't defeated the Brotherhood?" Batman asked stepping closer to his ward. Robin knew him well enough, though, that he was not overly intimidated by something that would scare some of his teammates senseless.
"We defeated them," Robin repeated as though Batman had completely missed the point.
"If your Teen Titans hadn't defeated them we could have lost an entire generation of heroes," Wonder Woman explained.
"That's not a risk we can let you take," Superman jumped in. "Can you imagine the damage if we lost an entire generation of heroes? You kids are the future. We have to protect you."
"You don't have to protect us," Robin protested. "We've proven we can handle it."
"Your staggering damage costs and high risk exploits suggest otherwise," Batman pointed out dryly.
"You can't stop us! We want to fight crime. We want to help people, just like you do," Robin said.
"You can't help people if you're dead," Batman replied.
The Boy Wonder stiffened and glared at his mentor. He could understand Batman raining on the Titan's parade, but why were the others so worried about it? Had Batman turned them against the Titans?
"The Justice League is enacting strict age limits on superhero activity," Superman informed Robin. "We've decided it is too much of a risk for anyone under the age of twenty-five-"
"The age your human brain is fully developed."
"-thank you, Jon. Until twenty-five no one may engage in any heroic activity unless under the close observation of a mentor." the man of steel informed the child in front of him. "The age limit for side-kicks is now eighteen, but you and your Titan friends who agree to returning to, or gaining, a mentor will be grandfathered into the system."
Robin was dumbstruck. Twenty-five? That was forever from now! He didn't want to go back to Batman, he wanted to stay with his friends, to become his own person. Robin grit his teeth. "And if we refuse?"
"We will be strictly enforcing this," Batman informed him. "If you decide to go against this measures will be put in place to stop you."
"You will always be welcome in the Justice League," Superman said kindly. "But we can't risk another battle like this," a sentiment Robin had echoed not too long ago. "The Titans have to break up. I'm sorry."
While the big blue boyscout looked sorry Batman certainly didn't. The Boy Wonder glowered at his mentor and the rest of the adults. "I have to go inform the team," he said, turning abruptly away, not caring if he was being rude.
"Robin," it was Batman's voice, and the child paused and turned to see what other demeaning comments the man had for him. Nothing more was said. Instead an envelope was shoved into his gloved hands. Robin took the paper with a nod, not opening it until he had walked down the steps and back into the sanctity of the elevator. When those doors whooshed closed behind him the young leader relaxed, prying open the envelop he had been given, and feeling rage bubble to the surface as he found airline tickets to Gotham. They were marked for the next morning.
There was the crunch of paper as the Boy Wonder crumpled the offending ticket in a green gloved fist. Batman was so sure that he would be returning to Gotham. This wasn't fair! He and the Titans had defeated the Brotherhood of Evil. They'd stopped the apocalypse! They'd defeated Slade, and Brother Blood. But Batman didn't care to listen to their accomplishments. He just wanted Robin to go back to Gotham, to play the sidekick, and take orders, and be fired again the moment Batman decided it was "too dangerous" again.
He shoved the crumpled mess of tickets into an empty compartment on his belt as the elevator doors flicked open to the sound of the party he'd nearly forgotten about on the roof. The change in atmosphere was jarring, or perhaps Robin had brought a massive raincloud with him, floating above his head, because everyone he passed seemed to quiet or still. They knew something was wrong before Robin had the chance to announce it.
"Dude, what's-" Beast Boy asked, rolling off the couch and shifting from a dog back into a human. A green clad hand was held up in response, demanding silence, as the Titan's leader made his way to the center of the common room.
"Titans," Robin said the word and silence dropped over the crowd. The ones who hadn't noticed their leader head towards the middle of the common room with purpose now turned to stare at him. Slowly they drifted closer to the center. The Boy Wonder had been born for the spotlight, but he felt oddly uncomfortable now that every eye was on him, and he had terrible news to relay. "I've just spoken with the Justice League."
A few faces near him lit up, Wonder Girl popped above the crowd, floating into the air with a massive grin on her face. "Are they coming to the party? Did you see my sister?" but her smile fell when Robin didn't respond with one of his own. The girl's blue eyes widened and she dropped down to the ground besides a bewildered Starfire.
"The party is over," Robin informed his team, ignoring Kid Flash's whine about not even getting any pizza yet. "The Justice League has decided that we're too young to be heroes. They are disbanding the Teen Titans." there was silence as the kids around him realized what was going on and processed his words. Then outrage started in a whisper, and grew to a roar. Robin understood what they were feeling. He was feeling the same thing himself. Still, there was more they needed to know. "They've put an age limit on heroing without a mentor. We have to wait until we're twenty-five-"
"Dude, that's ancient!"
"They're just jealous because we're better than the League."
"What if we don't have a mentor?"
"I don't need a mentor!"
Robin held up a hand again, drawing it down slowly as the crowd around him quieted. "The Justice League has offered to mentor any Titan who decides they will conform with their new regulation. In the meantime, we are expected to abandon the tower, to go back to our mentors, and to do whatever they tell us to." perhaps it was unclear where Robin stood on the issue, but the moment his hand grasped the R symbol over his heart and ripped it off the silence was so instantaneous that it was possible to hear the disk fall to the ground.
"I'm not going back," the Boy Wonder declared. "This is our city, and our team. They think they can stop us? We're not children, we're Titans."
A cheer rose up at his proclamation. Under any other situation so many empowered teenagers might have caused an unruly mob. These kids had work to do. Robin grinned at his fellow underage superheroes, holding up a gloved hand for silence once more, as he declared: "Titans, we're going underground."
I've got some more of this story, but I'm not terribly motivated with it. I figured I'd post it, and see if I should even bother continuing. Any comments are welcome.