Robin stalked towards the Zeta-Platform in the Batcave, eyes burning with fury behind his mask. Nightwing hadn't shown up in Gotham for over a month now, and it was time someone slapped him upside the head.
Stepping out of the dimming lights of the Zeta-Platform in the cave, he saw that Nightwing was facing his team; it looked like they were about to go on a mission. Nightwing halted mid-sentence and looked over at his little brother.
"Robin? What are you doing here?" Nightwing was slightly apprehensive. Damien wasn't supposed to be here, and with Tim going on this mission the situation was even worse. It didn't help that the kid looked like he was ready to eviscerate someone.
"Tt. If you don't know by now, you are more hopeless than previously expected. Why have you not shown up for patrol?"
Nightwing looked confused. "I've been running the team, like I was supposed to." Speaking of the team, they looked at Robin with more than a little curiosity. There hadn't been a Robin on the team since Tim changed his name to Red Robin. This Robin had a very similar design to the old costume, except for the ominous black hood that covered his face, adding another layer of shadows to his already indiscernible features.
Robin was about to protest in earnest when his communicator beeped. "What? I'm busy!"
"Robin! Thank God, I've been trying you for an hour. I need your help, now! Joker got out again, and I—" The sound of Batgirl's voice cut off and a sound like her being punched trickled through.
Robin's eyes widened. "Batgirl! Batgirl, answer me! What is going on?"
Batgirl's voice crackled on the comm link, static polluting the signal. "Robin, are you still there? I can't hear—clapped his hands over—eardrums—hurt! Can't hold—" An explosion sounded through the communicator loud enough for everyone in the room to hear.
"Hurry!" She shouted. Then the comm beeped out.
Robin stood stock still for a moment, then raced to the Zetas. Nightwing hurried after him. "Robin, wait! What's wrong? Was that Babs?"
"Like you care, Grayson! Stay with your precious team."
The team stared after Robin as he left, unsure what their leader was going to do. His conflicting emotions were evident on his face, so Red Robin stepped up. "Nightwing, this mission takes priority. I'm sure that they can handle it."
Nightwing slowly nodded, then turned his back on the fading lights of the Zeta-tube.
Robin swung across the skyline of Gotham, racing towards Batgirl's last recorded location. He was annoyed that it had taken him almost twenty minutes to get here; the feeling that he was too late was overwhelming.
As he arrived at the building, he noticed the veritable army of police officers outside, one of them being Commissioner Gordon, Batgirl's father. Landing beside the seasoned cop and ally of the Bats, Robin looked at him expectantly. Gordon got the message immediately.
"The Joker's been in there with his goons for almost two hours. Twenty hostages. Batgirl went in an hour and a half ago, and we haven't heard anything since." Robin paled. That would have been difficult even for Batman; Barbra couldn't have fared much better.
Racing into the building, he saw that this must have been where she entered. There were almost twenty unconscious and armed joker lackeys laying in the lobby.
He pried open the elevator doors and grappled up through the shaft, listening to where the sounds of fighting were strongest. Robin kicked out the door for the eleventh floor and rolled right into the middle of an intense fire fight.
The Joker and his goons were lined along one side of the room, firing continuously at the opposite end; their numbers were in the forties by his estimate.
The other side of the room consisted of Batgirl, firing batarang after batarang into the goons, taking down almost three per throw. The twenty hostages were cowering around the corner, out of range and sight of the Joker. Robin quickly rushed to his partner's side, adding exploding bird-a-rangs to the mix.
Batgirl's costume was sliced open all over; at this point there was more uncovered skin than covered. Blood poured out of a wound on her head, and her sides were heaving with the pain of what looked like multiple broken ribs and exhaustion from having fought like this for over an hour. The most concerning, though, was the fact that the ends of her tattered cape were on fire. Those things were supposed to be fire-proof; if they were going up in smoke, things had gone about forty degrees past south a long time ago.
Batgirl looked at Robin from the corner of her eye. As she flung another Batarang into the fray, she huffed out an order. "Robin! Get the hostages out, now!"
Robin threw an explosive at the Joker, who dodged, letting one of his goons take the hit. "I will not leave you!"
She groaned. "Not really the time to argue, I—" Batgirl cursed as her hand reached into an empty compartment. "Damn, I'm out." Pausing in her fight, she looked at Robin, seemingly stripping away every barrier he had with one look from her haunting blue eyes. "Damien. Get them out."
He slowly nodded, making his way to the hostages. As he moved away, Batgirl let out a cackle. "All right boys! You wanna play with fire?" Then she ran towards them, throwing every explosive device from her utility belt. When those ran out, she dealt out punches and kicks.
Robin and the rest of the people paused for a moment, caught up in the grace of her movements. Even exhausted, and beaten past the point where any other human being would have given out, she flew threw the air with a grace that even Nightwing, for all his acrobatics, could not hope to match. Now Damien understood what his older brother had meant when he said that Batgirl was more lethal than he could ever hope to be.
Shaking off those thoughts, he motioned to the people before him. "There's a fire escape out that window. Move!"
The scampered over each other and clambered out the window, Robin hanging on the sides to make sure none of them fell. The sounds of explosions and punches faded into police sirens and the occasional gunshot from above.
Robin delivered the people into the hands of the paramedics, then stepped foreword to go back and help. But before he could, a strange silence fell over the scene.
Everyone looked up at the window they had climbed put of, frozen in the frightening quiet. Then a single gunshot rang out, echoing across Gotham. People turned heads and looked up as the noise, so very common to their streets, seemed to scream for attention.
Robin waited with baited breath as the silence continued. Then a different sound jarred the silence, causing every man, woman, and child to go white with fear. All of Gotham fell silent as the Crown Prince of Crime laughed.
And laughed. And laughed.
Robin cried out in terror. "NO!" His grappling hook shot out and the police stormed the building.
The scene before him was one born of the nightmare of every Bat.
Batgirl lay on the ground, bleeding out of the wound in her stomach that she was desperately clutching. The Joker stood not three feet away, gun still raised and smoking.
Robin's vision turned red, but before he could move, the Joker smiled at him. "So long, little birdy! Uncle J's gotta run!" Cackling, he slipped out a door in back, leaving almost thirty goons to cover his trail.
He slowly turned to look at them, his eyes speaking not of the Batman's one rule, but of the training he received for the first ten years of his life. The Batman would chase them off, lock them up, hold Robin back.
But the Batman wasn't here right now.
Screaming in rage, he leapt at them, striking at the bases of their spines and necks, throwing bird-a-rangs towards their eye sockets. In his state, they all missed, but there was no doubt that they would be hospitalized for the next few months, and scarred for the rest of their lives.
As the last of them fell, he turned back to Batgirl and dropped to her side. Tearing off his cape, he pressed it against her stomach, then raised a hand to his ear. "Nightwing, Nightwing come in!"
"Not now, Robin! I'm in the middle of a mission! Maintain radio silence!"
Robin screamed in frustration. Why did Grayson insist on staying with that team? Gotham needed its heroes, and every time one of them was away, the crime rate skyrocketed.
Robin growled and signed off, focusing on Batgirl's wound. Just as he tied it off around her, the police slammed through the door, Gordon leading the charge.
The commissioner stopped short at the sight of Batgirl lying on the ground and Robin leaning over her, doing chest compressions. The young boy looked over at him, and for the first time in his long, long career in Gotham, he saw fear in the eyes of a Bat.
Robin looked up at him for a moment, then turned back to his partner. Just a he was about to do mouth to mouth, she gasped and her eyes fluttered open.
Everything was blurry, and the pain in her stomach was almost unbearable, but she pressed her hands to her wound and looked over at the boy beside her who was still so young; too young to have seen the things that he had.
Said boy slumped with relief, then pressed a hand to his ear again. "Watchtower, I demand immediate transport!"
Mal Duncan's voice trickled back through the comm. "Who is this? How the heck did you get this line?"
Batgirl tilted her head, looking up at Robin. "Activate my comm link."
Robin growled and pressed a hand to her ear for her. She coughed for a moment, the blood trickling out of her lips causing Robin and the Commissioner to freeze in terror.
"Mal…request immediate… transport… to watchtower. Call… Leslie."
Mal didn't answer, and Batgirl slumped in resignation. She wasn't going to make it. But she couldn't let Robin think that; it would crush him. Putting on a brave smile, she looked at him.
"It's going to be… alright, Robin. I'm… fine." Her torso seized with a violent coughing fit, blood spraying everywhere. Batgirl's eyes remained closed this time.
Commissioner Gordon crouched down beside Robin, putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. "I'm so sorry."
Robin's mouth crumbled, tears streaming down his face. Choking back a sob, he gently put his arms around her, laying his head on her chest. The men and women behind them took their hats off, laying them over their hearts in mourning. The loss of a Bat was not something you could ever shrug off, or ever forget. Everyone remembered the night that the second Robin had been murdered by the Joker; Gotham had shrunk in terror of the Batman for weeks.
Batgirl's mouth turned upwards ever so slightly. "Aww… didn't know… you cared so much, demon."
Robin jolted up and grinned through his terror. "Oh, please, peasant, do not fool yourself. I simply mourn the amount of work you had left me with. The Joker is not going to arrest himself."
Batgirl opened her eyes and, with great effort, shrugged her shoulders. "You never know. That maniac may just decide… that he's had enough… and take up ballet."
Robin choked on another sob. He knew what she was doing, and the worst part was that it was working.
Just as he was about to speak again, a strange light appeared around himself and Batgirl. Yes! The ignorant fool in the watchtower had listened. There was still a chance to save her. The destroyed office building disappeared and gave way to the main hanger of the Watchtower.
Robin yelled out when they finished materializing. "Guardian! Martian! Someone, come help me!"
Three figures came running into the room, then stopped cold at the sight before them; Robin crying, Batgirl bleeding out on the floor…
And Jim Gordon crouching next to them, a look of sadness and awe dawning on his face.