DISCLAIMER: Do I really have to say that I don't own Teen Titans or any other DC Comics related material? Well…I don't.
Summary: Novelization. Having been betrayed by his own mother and all but forsaken his al-Ghul heritage, Damian feels lost and out of place. Desperate to prove his worth he ends up making a life changing decision.
PROLOGUE: LOST JUSTICE
-Metropolis
A monument to arrogance and an open target. That's what Damian al-Ghul Wayne, the fifth to carry the title of 'Robin', thought when he first saw the soon to be christened 'Hall of Justice'. It was a custom-built operations center and armory meant to serve as the de-facto headquarters of the 'Justice League', a team of superheroes co-lead by Superman and Damian's own father, Bruce Wayne, the Batman.
But, when Damian first saw it, he saw an easy target.
Trained virtually since birth to observe targets, whether they be people or buildings, with a critical eye, Damian almost immediately began to analyze how best to attack such a location. First, to say the perimeter was 'soft', i.e. easily penetrated, would be a compliment; there was no such perimeter. Just a bare sidewalk that marked the property line. A 'virtual fence' would merely alert the occupants that there were trespassers but do nothing to keep them out.
Second, the grounds were open and exposed. On the one hand, this prevented any would-be infiltrator from easily sneaking inside. On the other, this exposed anyone outside to a direct attack; especially from snipers. Third, and final, the grounds were large and spread out. This meant that any defenders could be easily separated and surrounded; or, again, an easy target for snipers. It also meant few means of funneling attackers into choke points.
And, in the case of tonight, it meant large crowds could gather. This meant a large police presence to maintain order. Smaller grounds would've meant smaller crowds and less need for control measures. Robin voiced these concerns to Batman when they arrived. His father didn't respond vocally, but he did narrow his eyes. This simple act spoke volumes and to Damian it meant he agreed. But, there wasn't anything they could do about it right now.
Still, ever paranoid, Damian kept his eyes open. He stood at the end of the line, next to Batman, as the Justice League stood in front of the building as the dedication ceremony got underway. Some of the reporters in the crowd assumed his constantly shifting gaze to be a sign of restlessness. Others thought he was looking at the plethora of attractive young women and girls in the crowd. More than one commented that he was getting a following of 'fan-girls' on social media. But, to say such that things were the last ones on his mind would be to assume they were on his mind at all.
Truth was that Damian really didn't want to be there. For one thing, Metropolis wasn't his kind of city. Much too bright, busy and cosmopolitan for his tastes. It's mostly metal and glass architecture contrasted Gotham's stone and brick work and the open, rustic feel of Nanda Parbat or even Wayne Manor. Gotham felt like it had more history and soul, despite its darker tone. Another factor was that he was the only 'kid' in the lineup.
Superman, Wonder Woman, Flash, Cyborg and Batman all stood to his right. Cyborg was technically only a few years older than him, a high school football star who was inadvertently exposed to alien technology that forever altered his mind and body. But, even he was still considered a full adult while Robin, only thirteen, going on fourteen, was treated like a child.
Of course, he could hold his own in a fight even against 'superior' opponents like Slade Wilson, aka Deathstroke. Hell, he's the reason Slade had only one eye. And he did that when he was only ten! And he's only gotten better after receiving training not only from his father, but his former protégé Dick Grayson, the first Robin, now known as Nightwing. And yet he was still considered little more than a 'trainee'.
He didn't feel like he belonged here, either. Ever since his mother had shown her true colors, creating a clone of him, giving it accelerated growth, in order to further her own agenda, and then killing the clone, essentially her own son…Such a blatant act of cold ruthlessness shocked Damian's psyche. Surprising since he was raised by assassins, he should've been immune to such things. Under different circumstances, he wouldn't have bat an eye. But, when it's your own mother…
The only thing he was able to take any sort of comfort in was his 'job'. He didn't really know what else to do but move forward. He was Robin. He still had a mission, and it's what kept him grounded. That's why he kept darting his eyes across the crowd; looking for any threat. At first glance, one would think that scanning a crowd of thousands for threats would be impossible. Not if you knew what you were looking for. And Damian knew what to look for.
To the uninitiated, the tactic of 'profiling' has negative connotations, usually linked to racism. But, the truth was that profiling was a legitimate tactic when one employed it correctly according to the mission at hand. Case in point: looking for a threat in a crowd was akin to looking for a needle in a haystack. If you were looking for a needle, you don't look at every piece of straw, you look for metal, anything shiny. In other words, you looked for anything that stood out. Anything that didn't belong. Among the crowd, Damian looked for anyone who looked out of place for the occasion. He found one; a couple clues had stood out to him.
The weather tonight was comfortable and clear, so most everyone either wore light clothes or a windbreaker or business jacket. No one was supposed to be wearing a heavy hoodie with hood drawn up and sunglasses on. That was clue number one. And at such an event, people would be focused on the speaker, or the 'guests of honor', the members of the Justice League. The police, however, would be looking the other way. The person wearing the hoodie was not watching anything, they kept their head down and face hidden. That was clue number two.
When he saw his 'mark' start to move forward, pushing past people, Damian knew trouble was afoot. "Father," was all he had to whisper to Batman to cue him in. Superman also heard this and looked over to see what Damian has spotted.
"Thirty yards," Batman said loud enough for the rest of the League to hear. When the 'mark' pulled their hood back, revealing a bald head and feral features, replete with all canine teeth, Robin was already pulling out a flash bang shuriken.
By the time he threw the weapon, the crowd had already picked up on the danger and had cleared a straight line for Robin's aim. The bat shaped weapon flew true and imbedded itself five yards in front of the 'weasel' detonating almost immediately, blinding and stunning the would-be attacker. Robin leapt forward and delivered a punishing sidekick to his target's gut.
When Robin's feet touched the ground, the weasel was struggling to maintain himself despite being blind, his ears ringing and now almost all the air forcibly expelled from his lungs. Robin compounded his dilemma but delivering an inward heel stomp to weasel's left ankle, painfully. Afterwards, it only took a strong haymaker delivered to just behind his left ear to send him crashing to the ground. He would be unconscious for the rest of the evening. The whole engagement lasted less than twelve seconds.
But, that was just the opening act. And, as Damian quickly figured out, just the decoy. A super villain had used the commotion to dart across the grounds to within striking distance of the front steps. Wonder Woman engaged this enemy, a nemesis known as 'Cheetah'. From almost directly behind him, cars began to fly across the field and street. Batman appeared at his side to wrap an arm around his son's waist. Both took to the air as Batman's grapple hook pulled them up to a building's ledge. "Get these people to safety," he ordered as he turned back to their assailant: Solomon Grundy.
"Like a shepherd guiding the sheep away from the wolves?" He asked incredulously.
"We'll handle this, but the civilians will get hurt if they get caught in the crossfire!" And with that he went after Grundy.
As Batman leapt back into battle Damian spotted Cyborg take to the air and Flash disappear in a blur to focus on their flanks where a man in a green suit was raining lightning bolts in their direction. He also spotted Superman charge a bald man wearing a powered exoskeleton. The celebration had turned into a conflagration and chaos as the citizenry panicked. "And there goes the neighborhood," Robin grumbled as the square quickly emptied of civilians, including the police who wisely decided to let the superheroes handle the 'bigger game'. "And I'm relegated to crowd control of a crowd that no longer exists," he said as Batman led Grundy towards a power substation.
A moment later and the lights in their area of the city went into brown out before coming back on. Even though he didn't see it happen, he knew just how his father subdued Grundy. The massive 'zombie' was an organic bulldozer of limited intelligence. It was a simple matter that he himself could've easily done. And yet, he was being benched. He spotted a trio of civilians who had taken cover behind a taxi to 'wait out' the fight. Finally, they decided the coast was clear and made a run for it. In the wrong direction.
'Go figure,' he said to himself as he reached into one of his utility pouches.
"Robin, report," his father called to him over the radio. "How's crowd control?" Damien tossed a shuriken with a reduced charge to the grounds below. That grabbed their attention. When they looked up at him he simply stuck out his thumb in the direction of safety. They complied.
'Typical.' "Well in hand, father," he responded after keying his earpiece. "As predicted they respond like contemptable sheep."
He didn't really like city folk. They thought themselves intelligent, sophisticated and debonair, yet half of them were running around in a fray, clueless as to what to do. It should've been obvious as far as Damian was concerned: see the fighting and explosions? Go in the opposite direction. Well, at least the smart ones did that. The rest either sought cover in the middle of the battle area or just froze in place.
Damian spotted an area, behind the Hall, that lead well away from the fighting. He leapt down to ground level to gather up the stragglers. "This way!" He shouted to a group hiding in a concrete bus stop. He pointed them towards the parking area behind the Hall. They nodded and bolted for it just as Flash brought his enemy down to ground level.
He could hear the villain plead, pathetically, "Not in the face!" He didn't know if Flash retorted or not, but he saw him oblige the request. He hit virtually everywhere except the face.
'Three down,' Robin said to himself as he spotted another group who were huddling in a coffee shop directly adjacent to the grounds. They too were led to the parking area and then off the streets towards the subway. More explosions were going off on the opposite side of the Hall.
For a moment, things seemed to quiet down. Damian was about to get on the radio and ask if the battle was over when he heard a 'boom' in the distance. He turned to see a blue and red blur burst forth from a skyscraper down the street. He barely rolled out of the way, coming to his feet near an MPD cruiser, as Superman cratered a few feet from where he had been standing. When the dust cleared he saw the Man of Steel had a small amount of blood trickling from his nose.
"What the hell did he hit me with?" He asked no one in particular.
"Himself…apparently," Flash responded cryptically. Damian looked up in the sky to see the 'Weather Wizard' flying up in the sky, howling in madness as a storm cloud gathered around him.
'Well that's new,' he said to himself, trying to analyze the situation as Superman flew past him to re-engage the supervillain.
He watched as Superman, Wonder Woman and Cyborg attempted to subdue the Wizard. But, astonishingly, none of them seemed to get close enough to lay anything meaningful on him. Robin noticed that there seemed to be a certain distance, an invisible line that, when one of them got past it, the Wizard would hit them with some kind of energy bolt, blasting them away from him. It was like an active defense barrier rather than an energy shield.
'Repeatedly attacking one at a time won't do it,' Damian surmised as a ring of energy began to form around the Wizard, who had been forced out over the bay. 'A focused blast will be needed to create an opening.' But, where to get such a bomb? He quickly thought of one: the Bat-Wing.
"Robin," Batman got on the radio. "Get all civilians inside." He'd never go for the plan. "Do you read me?" Time to take some initiative. And he was getting tired of being treated like the team's towel boy.
"I have a more efficient way to keep them safe, father," he said as he called the jet down to him. The canopy opened and he jumped in.
"Robin, I gave you a task!"
"Yes," he retorted, "as a human cattle prod. I'm being underutilized." He lowered the canopy and brought the aircraft vertically to altitude.
"What's your location?"
"Where I need to be," he said as he accelerated towards the target, "in the driver's seat." 'I have no idea why he never lets me do anything of my own initiative.' "Between the missile and the fuel cell detonations," he explained as he armed the warheads and activated the hydrogen fuel cells, essentially turning them into explosive charges, "I estimate at least a three-kiloton kick." It wouldn't be enough to threaten the city with the exception of a few small boats at the docks, but it should stun their enemy long enough for the others to get in and subdue him.
He quickly located the Wizard in the HUD and locked the autopilot for a collision course. "Target locked."
"Damian, stand down!" Batman ordered as he raced overhead.
"Too late now," Damian said to himself as he grabbed the ejection lever. The canopy blasted free and he was launched into the air. Once clear of the plane, the seat detached and deployed the parachute just as the Bat-Wing made contact with the target. True enough, a few private yachts were destroyed by the blast but their owners were insured and could afford to replace them. And the only structural damage to the city were blasted out windows on the buildings facing the blast and a couple piers damaged by the shockwave.
He was temporarily blinded by the blast, but, when his vision cleared he saw Wonder Woman bringing a captive Weather Wizard back to the Hall of Justice. 'Mission accomplished. Though I doubt father will see it that way.' On that he was certainly correct.
The next morning, Damian was 'ordered' to go to the airport where a chartered flight was waiting for him. At first, he thought he was being sent back to Gotham. But, as was explained to him only when the plane was airborne, he was being sent to 'another team' that was headquartered on the West Coast. When he landed, he was greeted by Nightwing in his own Batmobile.
It was not a welcome development for the 'Son of the Bat'.