9
Summary: What if Miss Martian didn't restore Robin's memory in Bialya?
Author's Note: An alternate story based on "Bereft," Young Justice S1E9; Batman: Son of the Demon; and "The Resurrection of Ra's al Ghul." This story is AU, so besides the obvious differences from "Bereft," B:SotD, and TRoRaG, there will be other canon changes.
Acknowledgements: Chinese mythology from Selected Chinese Myths and Fantasies . . Apologies in advance for the liberties I took with the myths. Also, Wikipedia is my go-to site for DCU character and place backgrounds.
Special Thanks: A special thanks goes to my two fantastic and patient beta-readers, PJ and Beth. Your critical reading and helpful comments have helped make this a much better story.
Disclaimer: All characters belong to DC, Time Warner, and CN; this is an original story that doesn't intend to infringe on their copyright. Feedback is welcome.
Copyright: June 2012
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A Good Soldier
By Syl Francis
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
[13 Years Ago…]
The dark haired, young man stands nervously, his arm around his beautiful raven-haired wife. The comfortably furnished waiting room boasts a fireplace with a cheery fire and a large picture window that overlooks open, well-maintained grounds. From a distant playing field, the crack of a bat can be heard, followed by the sound of cheers. Closer in, younger children play ring-around-the-rosie, supervised by two nuns.
The young woman smiles at her husband as the sound of children's laughter uplifts their spirits, bringing hope.
The young couple waits anxiously, staring at the closed mahogany door before them, willing it to open. The Mother Superior, director of the St. Mary's Orphans Asylum, walked through there almost a half hour ago, after requesting they stay seated until her return.
At last, a matronly woman in a white nun's habit emerges, a wide smile brightening her plain face. In her arms she carries a small, blue-blanketed bundle.
"Well, here we are," she says, uncovering the baby's sweet face. "Isn't he beautiful? We found him on our doorstep two nights ago."
"He's perfect," the younger woman exclaims, her eyes alight with excitement. Eagerly, she holds her arms out and carefully takes the baby. She is instantly in love. "How could anyone give away such a beautiful baby?"
Her husband bends down and runs his finger tenderly along the baby's soft cheek. "I don't know, honey, but it's a real blessing for us."
The baby's tiny hand latches onto his much larger, calloused finger. Husband and wife share a look of pure joy. They are both obviously smitten with their new son.
The new mother speaks fervently. "We will love you with all our hearts…and we promise that you will grow up to be the happiest baby in the world."
"You will be part of a great legacy," the baby's new father continues softly. "A proud legacy that traces its roots back for several generations in a direct line from father to son."
"You'll have the world's largest extended family," the young mother adds with a slight laugh.
"And the coolest!" Husband and wife share a knowing look, gray eyes smiling at blue ones, which are the same shade as an April sky. "With lots of aunts and uncles who'll love you as much we do."
Seeing an object peeking out from the blanket's folds, the young woman digs out a small, oblong box. "What's this?" she asks curiously, opening it. She gasps, her delicate mouth forming an O in surprise. She and her husband both stare at the exquisite single strand of pearls lying on a bed of dark blue velvet.
Smiling sadly, the Mother Superior shrugs. "It was tucked inside the baby's blanket when we found him. It was probably left behind as a memento..." She makes the Sign of the Cross, blessing the new family…
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
[Present Day]
When Robin woke up, he couldn't remember what happened. Holding his hand up to his head, he groaned.
"Did'ja get the license plate of that truck, B.?" Squinting, he looked around. He was surrounded by desert as far as the eye could see. "Holy Wizard of Oz, Batman," he muttered sarcastically. "I'm definitely not in Gotham anymore."
The question was how did he end up here? A sudden vision of Bruce promising that tomorrow was "The Day" flashed in his mind's eye. Was that today? Did he somehow miss it? No, wait! That didn't make sense. Tomorrow was a school day. And last he remembered, Bruce's only response to his constant wheedling about being allowed in the Justice League's HQ had been answered with a curt "No."
Sitting up, he ran a mental assessment of his physical condition. Other than a blinding headache, which was receding even now, and a few of the usual aches and pains that came from hand-to-hand combat, he seemed to be all right.
But…where was Batman? Was he in trouble? Robin squinted in the glaring sun. He had to find some shade. Spotting a protected rock overhang, he stumbled toward it. Reaching the relative coolness out of the direct sunlight, he leaned against the hard surface and slid down to a sitting position. Activating his wrist computer, he ran a locator check on Batman and was surprised to find his beacon in Gotham—Wayne Towers to be exact.
"Huh." He looked bemused momentarily. Shrugging, he was about to contact his mentor when he had another brief vision of Batman: "Remember, this is a covert mission. Radio silence is in effect."
"Or not," he muttered. Sighing, he was about to start walking, when he heard the sounds of heavy machinery off to the distance, but growing steadily louder. Someone's approaching, he realized. Climbing the rock formation for a better vantage point, he searched the distant horizon until he spotted the telltale dust cloud that announced visitors.
Adjusting his mask optics, he zoomed in and focused on the lead vehicle. "Bialyan soldiers! What are they doing here?" he asked. "Wherever here is—!" Running a self-locator on his wrist computer, his eyes widened further. "Okay…what am I doing in Bialya?"
Batman had said something about a covert mission in which he had to maintain radio silence. But why? Why would Batman send him alone into the Bialyan desert? It didn't make any sense.
Unfortunately, he didn't have time to speculate further because by the sounds of the shells suddenly exploding all around him, he'd been spotted.
Seeking higher ground, he shot his grappler to the highest outcropping he could spot and flew up. Just as he was about to release, he felt a giant hand slam him from behind. The last thing he saw before everything went black was the ground rushing up to meet him.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
The buzzing in the background seeped slowly into his consciousness. Eventually, it began to take on a recognizable form—words, but not English. The cadence was too fast, too guttural. He concentrated a moment longer.
They were speaking a common Bialyan dialect. Thankfully, one he knew. Lying still, he listened to their conversation as he covertly moved his arms and legs.
"~The Master wants him alive…do not forget.~" It was a woman's voice. Someone used to being obeyed.
Hmm…Nice to know someone likes me. His hands and feet were free. Okay…their mistake.
"~Yes, Mistress. And what of the Superman clone?~" A man, probably a servant, his tone obsequious.
Wait. What Superman clone?
"~Dispose of it. It is no longer of use to us.~" Cold, calculating.
Somebody cloned Superman? This is so not 'asterous.
"~And the artifact?~"
"~Prepare it for transport.~"
"~What of the boy?~"
"~The same…make certain that he remains unconscious. It is a long trip.~"
Oh, you did not just say that!
Robin heard light, high-heeled footsteps recede and the sound of a door closing. He felt rather than saw a presence loom over him. When a large, calloused hand closed around his forearm, the Boy Wonder made his move.
He grabbed the man's arm and twisted it behind him. Before the man could cry out, he brought his feet up and kicked him in the face, quickly applying pressure to a nerve point near the carotid. Within fifteen seconds, the teen hero had quickly and efficiently disposed of his opponent.
Sloppy, he thought critically. Batman would have his hide if he knew how long it took him to eliminate an untrained enemy.
Inexplicably, he heard Kid Flash's snarky voice in his head. "Seriously, dude…that's what you're afraid of?"
Robin winced at the sudden knife-like pain in his head. "Ow…! What the—?" The sharp pain receded almost as soon as it appeared. He sighed and paused a moment to get his bearings.
Looking around the room he'd woken up in, he saw that he was in a small infirmary. It was a somewhat cheerless room with no windows and little furniture except for a hospital bed, some medical monitoring equipment, and a bedside table. Unfortunately, it also had only one door.
Activating his wrist computer, he called up his virtual keyboard and ran a quick scan of the building to find his own location.
Ground floor…good. Robin felt relieved and inordinately pleased. Grownups—especially the evil, super-villain kind—tended to underestimate him.
Next, his fingers moved rapidly as he searched for any electronic surveillance devices. A holographic schematic popped up, detailing cameras and motion sensors. Opening the door, he took a quick look to see if it was all clear, ran a few feet down the corridor and made his way to a small room only slighter bigger than Alfred's pantry.
Locking himself in, he quickly made his way to a section of wall with a floor-to-ceiling control panel. It had several color-coded cables snaked into it, originating from different points along the ceiling and floor. Various green, red, and yellow indicator lights blinked in random patterns. It was the maintenance control panel for the building's electronic devices.
Plugging in, Robin's fingers flew quickly across his virtual keyboard. He typed in a query to find the location of the Superman clone and whatever artifact they had mentioned.
Two red dots flashed in the lower quadrant of his virtual monitor. He touched first one then the other dot with his forefinger, and the screen immediately zoomed in. Typing a quick command, he watched the flat-screen schematic become a 3-D image of the building he was being held in. The two flashing dots—the Superman clone and the mysterious artifact—were ten levels down in a (secret, nuclear-hardened) laboratory.
Definitely not 'asterous, he thought.
His young face grim, he pressed enter three times on his keyboard, and with each keystroke a laughing Robin icon appeared. He waited impatiently as a malignant virus uploaded into the building's comm/sec network. Finally, his screen flashed: UPLOAD COMPLETE!
A red outline suddenly appeared onscreen, instantaneously fanning out from the control panel to the rest of the building. It showed a total communications-electronics security blackout.
And let that be a lesson to you! Bad-guys shouldn't mess with the Bat-guys!
With a satisfied nod, he cautiously walked out of the electronics maintenance closet and made his way to the nearest stairwell. He had to find this Superman clone because now that he thought about it that was probably the mission: Uncover whatever was going on here and report it back.
For the moment he ignored a little voice that asserted Batman wouldn't send him halfway around the world without backup. It was quite an insistent voice telling him—no, nagging him—to call the big guy for help. If he was suffering from memory loss, then the mission should be scrubbed.
Immediately.
But no…this was his mission. Whatever the circumstances, his one clear memory was that of Batman instructing him to maintain radio silence. Slipping silently down the stairwell, he made up his mind.
His mission, his responsibility.
No matter what.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
Unknown to Robin, while he was descending the stairwell, his teammates who were also suffering from amnesia reunited in the Bialyan desert. When they allowed Miss Martian, a powerful psychic, to use her abilities to restore their memories, they realized that they were missing two members of their team.
Miss Martian immediately scanned the area for Superboy and Robin's psychic "fingerprints." She felt Robin's confusion overlaid with a grim determination. Probing the area further, she felt a painful backlash that brought her to knees—a blackness, swirling with impotent rage and pain.
Clamping her hands to her head, she screamed, "Conner!" Unable to withstand the torturous pain, Miss Martian passed out.
~ / ~ / ~ / ~
The sounds of doors slamming open above him, accompanied by yelling and steel-reinforced boots on metal stairs warned Robin that his escape had been discovered. He still had two more levels to descend, so he did what any self-respecting acrobat would do—he jumped. At the last possible moment, he reached out and caught a part of the railing to slow his descent. Releasing almost instantaneously, he flipped and landed easily on his feet.
Acquiring two of his specially modified birdarangs—the new addition to his arsenal was a gift from Batman for his thirteenth birthday—he readied them as he pushed open the door leading to the laboratory on Level 10.
As he went in, he subconsciously assessed the situation. A boy with an S-symbol on his chest was strapped down with some seriously high-tech, metal clamps to an upright table. A man in a lab coat was having way too much fun pressing a button on a control panel that sent electrical impulses to the clamps holding the boy prisoner. With each press of the button, the boy arched his back and screamed in agony.
Armed soldiers stood guard on an elevated catwalk that ran about twelve feet above on three sides. As soon as Robin came tumbling into the room, they opened fire, blanketing the areas that he had just vacated with deadly fire. He executed several back flips and forward somersaults, twisting in midair in a series of complicated, yet graceful movements, avoiding the barrage from above.
Angry beyond all measure at what was being done to the Super-boy, Robin threw the two birdarangs he already had in his hands. One hit lab-coat guy on the wrist just as he was about to press the button again. Robin grinned in grim satisfaction as the evil lab-coat guy cried out in pain.
"Nothing like a little payback to keep evildoers humble," Robin muttered.
The second birdarang hit the control panel. A blinking light was the only warning lab-coat guy got. His eyes widening, the scientist dove for cover just as the panel exploded.
Meanwhile, Robin was still busy dodging the continuous spray of bullets from above. Whipping out a couple explosive birdarangs and throwing them up at the metal catwalk faster than he'd ever done it in his years as Batman's partner, Robin leaped high and easily executed a triple somersault, landing next to Superboy.
With birdarangs exploding on the catwalk's support beams, the whole thing began to groan as it collapsed under its own weight. Soldiers, metal grating, and parts of the ceiling came down in a resounding crash.
Robin, of course, had been busy freeing Superboy during this time. He couldn't risk explosives because from what he'd seen, Superboy wasn't 100 percent invulnerable; therefore, he had to do it the old-fashioned way. He used one of the many skeleton keys he carried hidden on different parts of his uniform.
As soon as he finished freeing the boy, Robin started tossing smoke pellets all around.
"Come on…! We've gotta get outta here—now!"
"Don't tell me what to do!" Superboy roared. He ran toward the enemy soldiers who were recovering from their fall and began flinging them left and right like mere dolls. When a couple fired on him, he brought both his fists down on the concrete floor, causing the whole place to shudder as if hit by an earthquake. Several of the soldiers who had just stood up, were abruptly knocked down again like ten-pins.
"Or…not," Robin mumbled. Hearing a strange banging noise coming from a sealed crate, Robin hurried over to it. "Okay…whatever's in there wants to get out, so it's probably a prisoner, too." Shrugging, he attached a magnesium strip onto the right hand side of the crate. Then, pulling a tab to activate the chemical reaction, he stood back and covered his eyes. The magnesium burned hot for a couple seconds, then the entire right side of the crate fell open.
Much to his surprise a perfectly round sphere rolled out and blinked (inquisitively?) at him. The next thing he knew, the sphere went into attack mode and rolled (angrily?) at the enemy soldiers who were still shooting at them.
Can a thing show anger or curiosity? Robin wondered, only to duck as a piece of metal grating that Superboy had thrown went flying by him, just barely missing his head. And what's with the Super-kid? Doesn't he know I'm on his side?
"Unfortunately for you…no, he doesn't."
Robin spun around only to be confronted by a really grotesque figure in a robe. His eyes widened in disgust when he spied an exposed brain! The figure had a pasty white face, his expression smug, evil.
"I may not remember a lot about this mission, but I do remember you!" As he spoke, Robin inched his way toward the new threat, readying a pair of birdarangs. "You're Psimon, the ex-leader of the Fearsome Five."
"I am impressed, Robin," Psimon replied with a smirk. "Psimon says…lay down your—!"
Before the former leader of the Fearsome Five could complete his command, the sphere slammed into him from the side, knocking him unconscious. The sphere turned to Robin, its control lights blinking at him.
"Um…thanks?" Robin offered.
The sphere blinked again as if to say "You're welcome." Then, at the sounds of pounding at the door, it began rolling back and forth impatiently.
Robin's eyes widened. "Right…time to get out." He turned to the door, seeing that large sections of the ceiling and catwalk had landed in front of it. "Okay…only exit blocked, so—?" He waved at Superboy to get his attention. "Uh, hey! Super-kid, um, think you could, you know, fly us out of here?"
In answer, Superboy ran toward the door and rammed into it at a full tilt. The heavy fire door along with the debris from the catwalk fell back onto the onrushing enemy soldiers. Superboy kept bounding up the stairs, leaping from landing to landing, without bothering to check if Robin was following him.
"And…that works, too," the Boy Wonder said with a shrug. Waving at the sphere, he called. "Let's go."
Taking the stairs two at a time, Robin ran a quick systems check on his wrist computer. "Uh-oh," he muttered. "This is not good." Heat signatures showed that all the exits were blocked with enemy soldiers and more were moving in. They needed another way out. Pausing a moment, he checked for weaknesses that would allow a quick way out. At last, he saw that part of the building's east wall was less structurally sound than that surrounding it. "That's it!" Speeding up, he tried to catch up to the super-clone.
"Hey, Super-kid—!" To his shock, the super clone was suddenly in front of him, grabbing him by his tunic. Okay…he can definitely move fast.
"I am the Superboy! I was created to replace Superman and…?" He faltered. "I…can't remember." His face suddenly filled with the same fury that never seemed far from the surface. He lifted Robin by his red tunic and shook him like a helpless puppet. "How did I get here? Why can't I remember?"
"Hey, whoa, there! Look, I don't know what's going on. I can't remember what I'm doing here either." He held his arms out in a placating motion. "But I want to help—"
"I don't need or want your help!" In another fit of ire, Superboy flung Robin over the railing. He leaped up to the next level, and angry that he wasn't making fast enough progress, slammed his fists into the east wall—in the exact spot that Robin had been about to tell him to do the very same thing.
As Robin tumbled down several flights, he managed to right himself and fired off his grapnel. It latched onto a railing a few levels up, and stopped his fall. Relieved that he was not about to die at the moment, he just hung there until he caught his breath.
"Hey, you're welcome for the rescue," he yelled up the stairwell. Then added in a disgruntled undertone, "Super-jerk."
He hit the retract button on his grapnel and zipped back up. As he was about to release the safety line, he heard and felt the building shake as Superboy burst through the wall farther up. He just managed to jump back onto the stairs as large pieces of the wall came smashing down. He crouched and covered his head with his cape. "Sheesh…! The guy's like a super-hippo in a china shop." He shook his head. "Next time, he can rescue himself from the evil, mad scientist!"
Recovering his grapnel, he tucked it back into his utility belt when he felt more rumbling. "Okay…now what?" Again, taking the stairs two at a time, he ran up to the level with the gaping hole in the wall that Superboy had smashed through. "All right, now this is what I'm talking about."
About to fire his line to the roof, he again felt the building shake. However, this time he also heard accompanying explosions all around him. Simultaneously, he felt a presence in his mind.
Robin! Can you hear me?
"What the—? Who—?" Another explosion shook the building.
Robin, listen to me. You are suffering from memory loss brought on by Psimon!
"D'uh…I got that part already," Robin replied. He shot out his jump line and zipped up to the roof.
We're coming for you and Superboy. Where are you?
"Sorry…that's classified." Landing on the roof, he rolled to absorb the impact, getting to his feet only to be knocked down by yet another explosion. Oh boy…this is so not good.
Robin, what is it? What's going on?
"Get out of my head!" 2 times 2 is 4…4 times 4 is 16…16 times 16 is 256…256 times 256 is 65, 536…
He ran to the edge to see the safest route down. There were soldiers running everywhere, scrambling vehicles, loading supplies and personnel. It looked like a general evacuation.
Times tables…seriously, dude?
"KF?" That gave him pause.
Yes! Now tell us where you are!
"I'm on the roof of the main building of the compound. The Super-jerk's gone…don't know where he went." He checked his wrist computer, his eyes widening. There was a massive energy build up coming from below ground. "KF…lock onto my signal. How far out are you?"
Ten minutes!
"Not gonna make it, buddy. This popsicle stand is wired to blow in the next two minutes."
What? Get to high ground, then!
"Can't…it's going nuclear."
M'Gann, you've gotta pour on the juice!
"Don't! Do not come here! Turn around now!" As he spoke, Robin made his way down the same jump line that he'd used earlier and climbed back through the same opening in the wall.
No! Rob—!
"I'm gonna ride this thing out in one of the sub-basements I was in earlier. I'm pretty sure it's nuke hardened. Don't worry about me…just get away from the blast zone."
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End Part 1