If you recognise it, it's not mine.
The sound of glass shattering rang through the room.
Conner and Kaldur whipped round from the video game they were playing. Robin glanced over, smirked and went back to attempting to explain the rules of solitaire to M'gann, who had quickly levitated the glass shards from the floor and into a bin.
Artemis rolled her eyes. "So that would be the answer to the question, 'Why don't we have many glass doors?" she sighed, glaring at the teenager.
"Sorry!" Wally skidded to a halt and looked behind him, smirking at Artemis. "You have to admit, I do know how to make an entrance."
"And how to destroy one too," Robin quipped. "You should try stroying stuff sometime, Kid Crash."
Wally rolled his eyes at his friend, flopping down on the couch opposite Artemis and picking up a nearby newspaper.
"So that card could go there?" M'gann asked, pointing hopefully.
"No, these piles go by suit, the columns are in the red-black pattern," Robin corrected.
"This game is so confusing!" M'gann wailed, accidentally levitating the cards into the air. Robin shuffled them together quickly, shrugging.
"I guess that's why it's a one player game- not a lot of people get the rules," he smiled, patting her on the shoulder. Jumping down from the top of the cupboard- and why he'd been playing up there in the first place, M'gann had no idea- he landed smoothly in an armchair. M'gann floated down after him, glancing at the crossword puzzle Wally was poring over. "You do crosswords?" she asked in surprise.
Wally shook his head with a laugh. "Nah, Robin tells me all the answers and I fill them in. Hey, Boy Wonder, three down, a wolfish flower?"
Robin straightened up, thinking for a few seconds. "Uh...Dog Rose?"
"Too long. Five letters. Blank, blank, blank, blank, blank, blank."
"That was six blanks," Artemis pointed out without looking up from her book.
"Was not."
"Was too."
"Lupin," Robin said, cutting off the rising argument.
"What?"
"The answer is Lupin. A wolfish flower. Lupin comes from the Latin root for wolf," he elaborated, in a tone which showed that he'd known the answer all along. Wally wrote it in quickly, then turned to the next question. The group quieted again, and M'gann glanced around the room. Artemis was curled up with a book called 'Pride and Prejudice'. Judging by her bored expression and extraordinarily slow progress, it was something for school.
Kaldur and Conner were playing a game which involved a lot of brightly coloured pathways and various cartoon characters in strange little cars. M'gann was slightly surprised to see the usually bookish Atlantean playing a video game, and neither teenager looked like they fully understood the game, but they seemed to be enjoying themselves, so she didn't question it.
Robin had literally wandered along the back of the sofa to stand behind Wally, and was currently balancing upside-down on his hands to read the crossword clues. His sunglasses remained firmly in place.
"Okay, eight across, Beirut is the capital of-"
He was cut off by cries of surprise from Kaldur and Conner. The video game had suddenly switched off. A split second later, the lights went out. Wally squealed in shock, although he promptly insisted that he didn't.
Robin flipped the right way up, rummaged in his belt and pulled out a small torch. A bright light illuminated the room. "Power cut," he said, tossing more torches to Artemis and Kaldur. The room seemed much brighter, and the team grouped together in the centre.
Then Robin's torch flickered.
Slowly, all three lights faded away.
"This is no power cut," Kaldur muttered.
"Something's draining the power!" M'gann gasped.
A beam of light suddenly appeared beyond the broken door. A figure, tall and bulky, stood silhouetted in the glow. "Justice League, stand and face me!"
The young heroes felt the familiar twitches of the mind link activating.
"Think we should tell him they aren't in and he'll go away? Like a sales call?" Wally suggested. Silently, Artemis kicked him in the shin. "Ow!"
"We should investigate," Kaldur thought. The team followed him down the hall to the stranger. As they approached, Wally, Kaldur, Conner and M'gann felt a strange draining sensation, as if the intruder was pulling their strength towards him.
"Justice League, you will fight me! And then I will take your powers, and the world will be mine for domination!" The voice was not one they recognised, and the team exchanged wary glances. An unknown villain could men anything.
"Who the hell is that?" Robin asked over the wavering mind link.
"Who the hell are you?" Wally asked aloud. The stranger whirled round, and the teenagers saw that the light was coming from the palm of his hand. His other hand was held out as if he was waiting for something to be placed in it.
"You're not the Justice League," he said, sounding disappointed.
"Nope, sorry, they aren't in today. Want us to take a message?" Wally said, stepping forward. The stranger laughed, reaching out and gripping Wally's shoulder. The teenager sank to his knees, face paling. Kaldur sent a jet of water at the pair, breaking the attacker's concentration. Pulling his friend away before he regained his focus, he sent another message through the mind link.
"M'gann, is the link still open?"
"Yes, but I can't support it much longer. I think he's draining our powers."
"Don't let him do that," Wally added. The speedster was leaning against the wall, breathing heavily. Some colour had returned to his face, but it was obvious that he wasn't going to be of any use in the approaching fight.
"Attack plan Omicron?" Artemis suggested. The others nodded.
"I hate attack plan Omicron," Robin thought, before stepping forward to face the stranger.
"Uh, hey, I'm Robin," he said, looking smaller than usual next to the huge intruder. Up close, he could see the man's face. A black helmet covered most of his head, and navy clothes similar to a security guard's outfit twitched in a hidden breeze. "So, what's your name?" He neatly dodged the huge hand which was about to land on his shoulder, and nodded to the rest of the team. They began trying to sneak around behind them.
"I am Orbital! I drain the powers of those around me."
"Really? That must be...uh, fun," Robin said, ducking again. Behind Orbital, Kaldur beckoned to Conner, gesturing to the villain's head and holding up five fingers.
"I take their powers through my mind.." A few feet behind Robin, M'gann gasped, stumbling as the mind link flickered out. Robin casually stepped away from her, drawing Orbital's gaze away as Artemis pulled her out of sight. Kaldur flicked down one finger. "I take their strength by touch..." He reached out for Robin again, but the acrobat fell away, rolling into a fluid stance. Kaldur held up three fingers. Orbital still hadn't noticed anything, busy describing his power to Robin. "I can drain the strength of the walls themselves!" he shouted. Robin backflipped away, as Kaldur folded his remaining fingers one by one.
"That's nice," he said, at the same time throwing himself forward in a flip. His foot connected with Orbital's exposed face at the same time as Conner slammed his fists into the sides of his helmet. Orbital blinked dazedly for a few seconds before he was knocked off his feet by a small tsunami, helmet clattering to rest at Wally's feet.
"You cannot defeat me! I am Orbit-" He struggled to lift his head for a second, then an arrow smacked off his forehead. He flopped down, and stayed down.
"Amateur," Artemis sighed.
"You didn't kill him?" Kaldur checked, putting bindings around the unconscious villain's ankles.
"Blunted arrow. Hurts, but doesn't kill. He'll have a headache when he wakes up," the archer said, smirking slightly.
Kaldur glanced over at Wally, who was being helped upright by Robin, and M'gann, who had both hands pressed against her temples and was trembling. "Good work, team," he said. "I think we can relax now. I doubt that there will be two villains in one day, and he's not going anywhere soon."
"To the video games!" Wally cheered, shrugging off Robin's hand, evidently fully recovered. He paused to grab the fallen helmet. "Souvenir!" The others began to follow, but Robin hesitated. Something didn't seem right. He could feel a pattering of dust on the back of his neck. Robin looked up, then reached out to touch the roof. A thin crack was inching across the stone. He had never seen any kind of damage to Mount Justice, save that which Conner or the other teenagers (but mostly Conner) were responsible for.
"I can drain the strength of the walls themselves!"
Robin looked down. Orbital's fist was still glowing, enough for him to see the limp hand splayed against the stone wall.
"It was hollowed out and reinforced by Superman and Green Lantern in the early days of the League."
Robin stood up, glancing at the crack again. It had grown, stretching across more than half of the tunnel. More dust pattered down. Robin kicked Orbital's hand away, breaking the connection, and ran down the corridor, calling out to the others as he went. "The ceiling! He's still draining the stones, it's going to collapse!"
"What?" Wally skidded to a halt beside him. Robin explained quickly, gesturing to the ceiling above them. A second crack, longer and wider than the first, was almost directly above their heads. Wally swore softly, and then sped back down the corridor, presumably to let the others know. Feeling several small pebbles tumbling onto his head, Robin began to run after him.
But then the ground shook.
A mild tremor, not uncommon, but at the worst time possible. Before Robin could do more than stumble backwards, away from another crack, he was knocked to the ground by crashing boulders. His training kicked in instinctively, tucking himself into a ball, rolling. His hoodie and jeans didn't protect him as well as his Robin costume would've, and he could tell he'd have some spectacular bruises in the morning. Robin scrabbled to the wall, pressing himself to the stone, when suddenly there was a blunt impact at the back of his head, then a sharp pain.
He squeezed his eyes shut and waited for it to stop.
When the rocks started falling, Kaldur's first thought was a somewhat colourful Atlantean curse. Artemis muttered the rough English equivalent, while M'gann simply screamed until a tumbling piece of ceiling collided with the side of her skull. Conner, with a surprising presence of mind, caught her as she fell and shoved them all backwards, back to the games room with the destroyed glass door. The damaged structure seemed to stop there, and Conner laid M'gann down on one of the couches. A lump was already rising on her temple, and a stream of blood was trickling from a graze above it. Artemis grabbed a box of tissues and a bottle of water from the desk, cleaning the wound. Kaldur looked around the room, checking that everybody else was okay. They were all dusty and shaken, and had a couple of small cuts or bruises, but were generally fine.
"Wait," Wally said, also glancing round the room. "Where's Robin? He was right behind..." Voice trailing off, he crossed to the entrance to the corridor. His heart twisted urgently as he saw the blockage at the other end. "Right behind me." The whisper was left in the room as an echo as he sped down the broken hall, miraculously not tripping on any of the scattered stone.
Kaldur glanced at M'gann again, and nodded to Artemis, indicating that Conner should follow him. When they reached Wally, the speedster was hammering on the stone, gabbling his best friend's name in a blur. "Robinrobinrobinrobinrobinrobin!"
"Kid Flash," Kaldur tried. The red-haired teen ignored him, instead attempting to climb the rocks. Conner reached out and set him back on the ground.
"Wally, we need to keep the rocks stable in case they collapse on us or Robin. Understand?" Kaldur said firmly, wincing at the fresh scrapes on the boy's knuckles as he sat on a boulder.
"But Robin..."
"Will not be helped by being crushed."
There was a heavy silence, and then, "K-Kaldur?"
"Robin!" Wally shouted, jumping to his feet.
"KF, i-it's dark." The voice was quiet and wavering. That set alarm bells ringing in Wally's head. Robin never stuttered.
"Yeah, the lights haven't come on again yet. Are you hurt?"
"I...I don't know." There was silence for a few seconds, then it was broken by a sudden whimper, and then another. "T-there's r-rocks on my l-legs." Robin's breath hitched, and Wally knew this was really bad. "I c-can't..." He trailed off, and Wally realised several things.
Robin was trapped. They couldn't move the rocks by hand, in case more fell, and M'gann was unconscious, she couldn't move them.
Robin was scared. Not of the dark, Wally was pretty sure the Boy Wonder thrived on shadows to hide in. But he was definitely scared of something, and it was showing. Robin never showed fear, or pain if he could help it.
The last one hit him like a punch in the gut.
Robin was thirteen years old.
Sure, he was a genius and a ninja and all that, and Wally could count on one hand the instances when Robin had actually acted his age, rather than their ages or older, but right now he was thirteen and trapped and hurt and frightened.
Kaldur and Conner were standing looking somewhat awkward, and Wally realised they had no idea how to act around Robin, not when he was like this. So he took charge.
"Kaldur, you need to try and make contact with the Justice League, tell them what happened. Conner, I guess you should go round, see if there's another way to get to him."
The two boys nodded numbly, not questioning his staying, and jogged away, back down the corridor.
"Are they g-gone?" Robin muttered, voice fainter than ever.
"Yeah, they're going to get help."
"S-stay?"
Wally's throat suddenly seemed to have a lump in it. "I'm staying, Robin," he promised.
The smaller boy gave a huff of relief. "T-they're getting h-help," he mumbled drowsily. "Stay... stay t-traught."
His voice trembled, and Wally was suddenly gripped by a wave of fear. Get traught...or get dead. "Don't go to sleep."
"Y-you talk." Robin couldn't keep the pain out of his voice no matter how hard he tried. If it was as bad as Wally thought, if it was him under there he would be screaming, or unconscious, or something, and Robin had barely cried. "T-talk, KF. N-not usually a p-problem f-for..." Robin broke off into a coughing fit, and Wally began to talk.
He kept talking, at a relatively normal pace, pausing to hear a stumbling comment from behind the rocks.
He talked about anything he could think of, about video games and past missions and telling jokes. Halfway through, the lights flickered back on, but apparently it was still dark for Robin, trapped in the blockage.
Conner turned up after about ten minutes, saying that the hall was completely blocked. He'd caught Orbital trying to escape and had ended up kicking him to the training room and tying him up with the gymnastics equipment. Wally raised an eyebrow at that, but didn't question the clone's logic. Conner asked if there was anything he could do. Wally told him to go help look after M'gann, seeing that was all the big guy really wanted to do. And then he went back to talking to Robin, about how much school sucked, especially French, and why did he take that language anyway, he should have stuck with Spanish because that teacher doesn't notice when you fall asleep. Every few minutes he would stop and run a few questions past Robin, checking he was still conscious.
"Still awake, Robin?"
"Yeah."
"What's the capital of...uh, Beirut?"
"Beirut is a c-capital city. L-lebanon."
"Okay, then. Seventy-eight times ninety-four?"
Silence.
"Robin? Robin!" Wally's heart leapt into his throat, and he jumped to his feet, pressing his ear to the rocks. "Robin!"
Coughing. Weak, painful coughing.
"Robin, are you okay? Robin?"
"W-wally..." At the sound of his semi-secret identity, Wally stiffened. Usually, Robin kept to the annoying nicknames in the mountain. "W-wally, I...I t-think I'm c-coughing up b-blood."
Wally's blood ran cold. He knew that coughing up blood was a bad sign, and Robin was stammering worse than ever. "Rob, just hang on, okay?"
He heard more coughing, and then Robin's tiny, wavering voice piped up again. "S-seven thousand, t-three hundred and...and..." He faded out for a moment, then seemed to pull himself together. "T-thirty-two."
Wally almost laughed. His best friend was trapped and badly hurt, and doing maths in his head.
Kaldur jogged up behind him, Artemis in tow. "How is Robin?"
"It's not good," Wally said dully. Then he thought for a second. "Actually, it's really really bad. He's coughing up blood. Listen." Kaldur moved to the rocks, where he could hear Robin. Wally sighed and sat down on the floor, resting his head in his hands. Artemis placed a reassuring hand on Wally's shoulder. "It can't be that bad, right? He isn't screaming or anything." Wally turned his face away, because she didn't know Robin as well as he did, didn't know that each tiny whimper hinted at agony, at terror.
"Have you managed to contact the League?" he checked, knowing that it was more important than ever that they came and got Robin out.
"I have contacted Aquaman. He says that he will alert the League and they will arrive in an hour, three quarters of an hour minimum," Kaldur replied.
Wally nodded. "How's Miss M?" he asked, glancing down the corridor.
"She's awake," Artemis said. "I think Superboy's explaining-"
She was cut off by a familiar shriek of "Hello, Megan!" The Martian flew down the corridor towards them, Conner following. "Why didn't you guys wake me up earlier? I can lift the rocks off him, right?"
She landed in front of the stone, ready to concentrate, but Kaldur stopped her. "Miss Martian, Robin is badly injured. If we move the rocks too much, they could collapse on him, and I doubt you are in a condition to lift them all at once." He gestured to the bandage wrapped around her head. M'gann's face fell, and Artemis wrapped an arm around her shoulder. The group huddled together, probably formulating some sort of plan.
Wally ignored them and crossed back to the wall. "Robin?" he called, worried at the sudden silence.
"H-hi, KF." He must have heard the others talking, dropping the use of his real name. Not that it really mattered, but still.
"How are you doing?" Wally asked.
"S-same."
Wally frowned as he heard yet more coughing. "Are you still...you know, coughing up blood?"
"I t-think s-so." Robin wasn't stupid. He knew how serious this was.
"Hey, Baywatch, get over here! We've got an idea!" Artemis called suddenly. Wally gestured for them to come over so Robin could hear them properly. "Look, what if Miss M only moves some of the rocks? That one there could be pulled out a bit, then Superboy could lift it. It seems pretty well supported, and we could prop it up with these." She pulled out a handful of reinforced arrows. Wally instinctively winced; one of those had punched through a steel wall inches from his head once.
"One of us could crawl through to Robin," Conner added.
"I'm doing it," Wally said firmly. Robin was his best friend, and his little brother. Nothing would stop him helping him as much as possible.
M'gann stepped in front of the rock and reached out to it, eyes glowing. Slowly, the boulder inched out. As soon as there was space, Kaldur slotted in an arrow. M'gann's hands were trembling, and a thin line of blood was showing through her bandage.
"Enough," Kaldur said, guiding her to the wall. She slumped to the ground, a single tear running down her face. Conner pulled the stone away easily, stirring up a cloud of dust. When it settled, there was a hole in the blockage which looked just big enough for someone to crawl through. Wally moved forward.
"Wait!" Artemis shoved two of the torches from earlier, a large bottle of water, and a first aid kit into his hands. "Take these."
"How did you think of all that?" Wally asked gratefully. He hadn't even noticed her go to fetch them.
Artemis smiled. "Go look after him, Baywatch." This time, there was less malice in the nickname. Wally nodded, and ducked into the gap without another word.
It was a tight fit. Robin could have slipped through it easily, but it was several undignified seconds before Wally scrambled through the hole, turned round and hit his head off the wall. This place was small, only about a metre wide, if that. And it was dusty. Wally took one breath and spluttered.
"Robin?" he called, grabbing one of the torches and flicking it on. The light illuminated the space in stark shadows. Wally wedged the torch into the ceiling and switched on the other one. A weak groan came from behind him, and Wally turned round, hitting his head again.
Then he swore, scrabbling to the end of the cave.
Because Robin looked just as bad as he feared he would.
"Kid Flash, can you see him?" Kaldur's voice drifted through from the other side.
"Yeah, I'm right beside him," Wally replied, reaching for the first aid kit.
"Can you give us a status report?"
"Just give me a minute, okay?" Wally took a deep breath, choked on a mouthful of dust, and tried to figure out which bit of Robin to tend to first.
The younger boy had several scarily large rocks on his legs, and Wally could tell that one of his feet was definitely not supposed to point that way. There was a trail of blood running down his neck, probably from a wound at the back of his head. Robin's face was almost pale grey, starkly contrasting with the red blood dribbling from the corner of his mouth. Wally relayed all this to the team, mentioning the dust and breathing difficulties. Then he saw a gleam of blue in the grey face. Robin's sunglasses were cracked in half, lying squint on his face, and one lens had completely shattered. His eyes were open, blinking at Wally with a mixture of confusion and fear and pain.
Wally couldn't remember the last time he'd seen Robin's- no, Dick's- eyes. A while ago.
"Hey, Robin," he whispered. Robin coughed weakly, more blood trickling from his mouth. Wally tugged the first aid kit open, wiping the blood away with a cloth. "Do you want some water?" he asked, offering the bottle. Robin nodded, wincing, so Wally tipped the bottle to his friend's lips, making him swallow a couple of painkillers with it. "I'm gonna need to fix your head up, Rob," he murmured, and for the next few minutes, Robin's breathing was ragged as Wally cleaned and bandaged the gash at the back of his skull.
"W-what h-happened to M-miss...Miss M?" Robin croaked after a while.
"Orbital took her powers, and then she got knocked out by a lump of stone. Took a lot out of her. She'll be fine though."
"Is a-anyone else h-hurt?"
"Nope. Few cuts and bruises, but we're all good." Wally plastered a fake smile on his face to cover his ever-growing worry about his friend. "Hey, should I try and move these stones off you?"
"I...I g-guess you c-could t-try," Robin breathed. Wally reached for one of the smaller rocks on the boy's legs, and began to tug it away. Before he'd even really moved it, Robin's shaking hand gripped his arm, eyes squeezed shut in agony, a low moan escaping his gritted teeth. Wally stopped immediately, internally panicking.
"Robin, I'm sorry, I've stopped, dude, breathe!"
Robin groaned faintly. "D-don't m-move the s-stones..."
"I won't," Wally said, reaching out to smooth Robin's hair away from his eyes. The pale skin was clammy to the touch, and Robin was shivering. Wally tugged off his own hoodie and wrapped it around the smaller boy, and started talking again.
He kept talking, occasionally raising his voice when Robin showed signs of dozing off. He didn't even know if he was making sense, just that he needed to talk, and to keep Robin awake. Somehow, he manoeuvred himself so that he was leaning against the wall with Robin's head in his lap, and he kept talking. Sometimes the team would ask how they were doing, and he'd tell them, but mostly he talked to Robin.
And finally, finally, the Justice League arrived. By that time his voice was barely a hoarse thread, choked by dust and worry. He heard Black Canary asking Kaldur and the others what happened, and them explaining, and then Martian Manhunter and Superman were lifting up the rocks. Robin was whimpering, lips clamped shut, almost screaming but not quite, and Wally felt a painfully tight grip on his wrist as the stones were lifted off the younger boy's body.
And then Batman was there, a whirl of dark cape, bending over Robin and murmuring something Wally didn't hear properly.
They took Robin away to the medical bay, looking so small and fragile in his mentor's arms.
Of course he looked small.
He was only thirteen.
Wally was left sitting in the rubble with blood and dust smeared on his hands, until two people crouched next to him, taking his elbows and leading him away.
"C'mon, this way. Let's get you cleaned up." Flash, still in uniform, bright red on his right.
"You did okay, Kid Stuck-in-a-hole." Artemis? Yes. He can feel the strap of her quiver digging into his shoulder, feel the end of her ponytail brushing against his arm.
They took him to his room and then Flash left, saying he'll check on the others, but he'll be back in a minute.
"Artemis?" She sat down on the edge of his bed, head down. Wally washed his hands, getting as much of Robin's blood off as he could before sitting next to her, still wondering why she, of all people, is the one who stayed with him. They didn't say anything for a couple of minutes, until they stood up at the same time, Artemis to pace, Wally to get a hoodie because he gave his to Robin. Their fingers knocked together, and they instinctively gripped each other. It lasted a split second, and then Artemis dropped his hand as if it had burnt her, cheeks flushing pink.
"I was just-"
"The others will be wondering where we are."
"We should join them."
"They're probably watching TV or something."
"Or something."
"I'm just going to-"
"Yeah."
"Yeah."
The others were in the room with the destroyed glass door again. Kaldur was still wearing his water bearers. Conner's fingers were digging into the armrest and leaving dents. M'gann looked better at least- not so pale, not so shaky. Flash was talking to them, Black Canary at his side.
"-I think the Green Lanterns are dealing with him now. Why the trapezes, Superboy?"
Conner shrugged. "If he drained strength from the walls, I figured he shouldn't touch the walls."
"That makes sense," Canary said, nodding. "Artemis, Kid Flash, why don't you come sit down," she added, gesturing to the couch.
"You all worked as a team admirably today," Flash said. "You were efficient in dealing with the intruder, and when you were put in a crisis situation you kept level heads."
"If anybody wants to talk, they can come and speak with me just now," Canary offered.
"Can we just...leave it," Artemis said, standing up. She began pacing, footsteps loud in the quiet room. Her hands were twitching angrily at her side, clenching and stretching at random.
"Artemis-"
"Leave me alone!" She stormed out, reaching to slam the door before realising that it was smashed, settling for kicking over the bin next to it. Flash zipped over and caught it before it fell. They could hear her angry footsteps all the way down the hall.
"She's not happy," Wally guessed.
The two mentors exchanged glances. "I think you should try and occupy yourselves. We'll let you know as soon as there's any news about Robin." With that, they left. Conner reached out for the TV remote and switched it on. Static filled the screen.
"Video game?" Kaldur suggested.
"I thought you didn't like video games?" Wally asked.
"I don't, generally, but this game requires a level of concentration sufficient to take our minds off things."
"Okay, what were you playing?" Wally vaulted onto the couch, landing in between the two boys.
"A game called 'Mario Kart'," Conner said, gesturing to the controllers.
Wally grinned. "Cool! Dibs on being Luigi."
"I must admit we didn't fully understand certain aspects of the game," Kaldur said sheepishly.
"That's okay, I'll explain," Wally said. "Hey, Miss M, want to join us?"
"That's okay," M'gann replied. "I think I'll just go...bake or something. To calm down."
"Okay, then. See you later. Come talk to us if you want to, okay? Now, the point of the game is that you race each other, in these cool little car thingies..."
They played video games, and tried to drown out the nagging worry in the back of their heads.
M'gann made a cake and two trays of cookies before she tried concentrating, tried to focus on the minds around her. And slowly, she picked out a certain thought pattern. Robin had once called it her own kind of hacking. He seemed to be the only member of the team who didn't completely protest against the ability.
The thought pattern was painful. It was like a kind of river, except in layers. On the surface, there was a mess of agony and fear and don't show it, keep it hidden.
Then there was the awareness, fuzzy guesses of people, nearby or not. Names blurred into each other, a confusing mix of identities and aliases, merging together.
BatmanWallyMeganAqualadArtemisConner...
And then, deeper, where everything was dark, there was a sudden stop, as if there was a brick wall in the way. Only one small sensation drifted through the cracks.
falling...
M'gann pulled herself out as fast as she could, leaning against the counter to steady herself. Uncle J'onn had told her never to go deep into minds, past any walls, unless she had to. Tentatively, M'gann searched for Robin's mind again, but found nothing, just a trace of pain and then sleep. He was unconscious. That was probably good. There were other minds though. Some were filled with bright colours and music, masking a layer of worry. Probably the boys with their video game. The adult's minds were darker, with nothing to distract them, and M'gann skirted around what was essentially the black hole of Batman's mind.
Then she found someone who was sending out mental lightning bolts of pure anger.
Artemis.
M'gann put the last tray in the oven and levitated the dishes into the sink. Following the hallways to Artemis's room, she paused outside the door. "Artemis?" she called softly, knocking.
A few seconds of silence. "Go away! I don't want any stupid therapy!"
"Artemis, it's me. M'gann."
More silence, and then the door opened. Artemis's eyes locked on M'gann's for a split second, and then she dropped her gaze, gesturing for the Martian to enter.
Artemis had trashed her room. Anything which could be picked up and thrown at a wall had been. Clothes, books, and bedsheets were strewn across the floor. As the door shut behind her, M'gann saw several arrows embedded in the wood.
"I kinda freaked out," Artemis admitted quietly, staring at the floor. M'gann didn't say anything, instead levitating a desk chair upright and clearing a path across the room to nudge it against the other girl's knees. Artemis jumped, then sat down.
"Everybody is worried," M'gann said, sitting on the bed.
Artemis glared at the floor. "It's just... It was always going to be Robin, wasn't it?" she burst out suddenly. "Superboy is like, made of iron-"
"Steel," M'gann corrected softly.
"Right. I've seen Aqualad get smashed into walls, leave a dent and get up before anyone else, plus he's got all that electric water stuff. You've got loads of Martian powers, and Kid Cocky has his super speed." Artemis stopped and took a deep breath. She had been speeding up throughout the rant, and her hands were twitching in her lap.
"You're human," M'gann pointed out.
Artemis raised her hands halfheartedly. "But a bow is a ranged weapon. I don't have to be right in the middle of the fight. I could take the bad guy down from across the room. And Robin is always right there, and I know he's good at what he does- hell, he's easily good enough to be in the League."
"Why isn't he, then?" M'gann asked, subtly beginning to clear up some of the stuff scattered on the floor.
"Because he's thirteen!" Artemis snapped. "He's tiny, seriously, the only person that age I know who's smaller than him is this kid at my school, Grayson. But when it comes to injuries, and big ones, it was always going to be Robin, wasn't it?"
She stopped suddenly, realising she had been shouting. Then she sniffed the air. "Is something burning?"
M'gann clapped a hand to her forehead, wincing as the familiar movement hit her bandage. Her Martian healing meant that it would be fine in a day or two, but until then she needed to be careful. "My cookies!" Artemis followed her as she flew back to the kitchen, arriving to see her staring at two trays of perfectly baked cookies, and Kid Flash lifting the last one out of the oven.
"Kid?" He jumped, dropping the tray. M'gann levitated it onto the table before it could hit the ground. Wally promptly started babbling.
"Sorry! I just thought it would be nice if your cookies worked out for once, because even burnt they taste amazing so I thought I should take them out before-"
"You know how long cookies take?" M'gann asked in surprise. Wally shrugged. "That's really sweet of you, Wally. Thanks for taking them out for me."
"Wait, if the cookies are fine, what's the burning smell?" Artemis asked, wrinkling her nose.
M'gann gasped. "Hello, Megan! I made a cake, too!" Diving for the oven, she pulled out a long, flat tin full of a charred mess. She stared at it miserably. "It was a special Martian recipe too."
"Uh...Is that blue?" Wally asked, scraping at the top layer of charcoal.
M'gann nodded sadly. "Yes. When you first put the mixture into the tin, it's bright red. As it cooks, it turns orange and yellow, and when it's ready, it turns green. If it gets burnt, it goes blue. The first time I tried it, it went bright purple. It's a very precise recipe."
"Woah..." Wally muttered. "Like... titration, or pH paper?" Everyone stared at him, and he realised that while Wally West was a science geek, Kid Flash was not seen as such. "I've got a test after the holidays," he improvised.
Artemis scoffed. "You revise, Kid Lazy?"
"Yeah! Of course I do!" he said, pretending to be offended. Of course, if he got bad marks, Flash would probably punish him by not letting him out on patrol...
A pair of giggling heroes, joined by a slightly smirking Kaldur and a stone-faced as ever Conner, who had come to see why the speedster wasn't back yet, alerted Wally to the somewhat embarrassing fact that he may have said that out loud.
Oh well.
At least they smiled.
By the time Flash came back, the burns on Wally's hands had healed (and no, he didn't know that you were supposed to wear oven gloves, and besides, he heals really fast anyway and nobody noticed).
"Is he okay?"
"Can we see him?"
"What happened?"
"Is Robin okay? Is Batman going to kill us?"
At that last comment, Flash had stepped aside to reveal the Dark Knight himself. Wally cringed, but Batman seemed to ignore him, speaking to the group as a whole.
"He's stable, and sleeping now. He won't wake up until tomorrow morning at the earliest. You can see him now, but only two at a time."
And then he was gone.
"Wally, you should go first. Who wants to go with him?"
And for some reason, Wally shook his head. "No. Artemis, M'gann, do you want to go first?"
Artemis came out and locked herself in her room again. M'gann followed her, paused outside her door, and they had a brief telepathic conversation. After a while, M'gann came and curled up on the couch.
"Is she okay?" Wally asked once Conner and Kaldur had left. M'gann nodded mutely. "Are you okay?" She hesitated for several seconds before answering.
"I will be."
By the time Kaldur and Conner came back, it was nearly ten at night, and although they hadn't been long, Wally had planned just about every worst case scenario he could have thought of. So when he walked into the room to see his best friend looking somewhat battered, but still recognisable as Robin, he was relieved.
Robin looked way better than he had earlier. He had some sort of eye mask on, fresh bandages at the back of his head, and the blood on his face had been cleaned up. He was still pale, but not grey anymore. Wally could see a lump in the blanket where it seemed his legs were covered in thick casts. Several needles were stuck in his arm, attached to one of those monitor machines, an IV, and what looked like a blood transfusion.
Wally reached for the medical chart at the end of the bed, which he suspected had been left there for his benefit. Robin's legs were broken or fractured in five places altogether, including a broken ankle. He had a concussion, but the cut on his head would heal fine. Wally sighed in relief when he understood that his friend would make a full recovery, putting the chart back with a smile. "Okay, so I'm guessing that means no acrobatics for a while then, Rob?" he said, shaking his head at himself for teasing his unconscious friend. He had never seen Robin so still. Even when he was concentrating, his foot would always be tapping or his fingers would patter across the nearest surface as if he was playing an imaginary piano. Wally sat down in the chair beside the bed, humming a song he'd heard on the radio to break the almost silence. It was peaceful, and it had been a long day. Wally slid down in the chair, finding it harder and harder to keep his eyes open.
"Just a few...minutes..."