Richard Grayson wasn't you ordinary teenage boy. At the tender age of seven, he lost both of his parents, the famous Flying Graysons, in a freak 'accident', caused by the infamous Zucco. He wanted justice for his parents and wanted to avenge and honor their deaths by killing their murderer. Bruce Wayne, also known personally, by few, as The Batman, the protector of Gotham City, adopted Richard to train him as him as his sidekick and eventual successor. Bruce saw potential in the boy, but he also saw immense amounts of pain and anger in his electric blue eyes, so Bruce, knowing his pain, also knew that this boy needed someone, a father.
Richard was nine years old when he finally made his first appearance as Robin, and it was that same day that he met met his best friend, Wally West, the Kid Flash. With the dynamic duo, among other superheroes, Gotham was safe from the rising terror of criminals. Crime rates dropped, and things were finally looking up for Richard.
When he was 11, he joined the Young Justice, the current team that all of his friends were on, and even though he was dyslexic, he was the smartest one on the team, and the fastest hacker in the world. He was that smartest one is his school, and he was proud. He was 13 when he started going to High School with the rest of his team, and joined most of them in at least one of their classes. He made sure to stay as Richard Grayson when he was around them, because none of them, besides Wally, knew who he really was, Robin. He didn't like how Bruce told him to keep quiet about his identity, but he never argued. Wally knew, and that was all that mattered to him.
Then, in the middle of his freshman year...he got his powers.
He didn't know why he got them, or where they came from, they just showed up. He didn't tell anybody. He didn't want to. Bruce was just as clueless about his powers. Alfred had his suspicions, but the old butler though that he was doing drugs or some sort of illegal thing, not...accidentally electrocuting things. They just showed up one day. He was in the kitchen, hiding from Alfred so he didn't have to do his homework, when he got stuck behind the refrigerator. He couldn't tell Bruce where he was, he would just laugh, along with Alfred and scold him, correct his mistakes and tell him what to do next time so he wouldn't be stuck in the same situation. He didn't want that, so he stayed there.
He was stuck there for three hours when he finally started to get frustrated. There was a distinct smell of ozone and electricity, but he payed it no mind, thinking it was from all of the wires, until lightning shot out of his fingers and the fridge blew up. Richard freaked out and ran to his room, locking himself in. He hid one of his birdarangs, that way when he told Bruce, he could say it was just a malfunction in the technology. It was easier than telling him that that lightning ad shot out of his fingertips.
He never told Wally. He didn't know why, and the secret was harder to keep every day, but somehow he didn't feel comfortable telling anyone when the powers had shown up so suddenly.
The next incident happened almost a year later during a YJ mission. Dick's hologram on his watch wasn't working, and he got mad because he forgot to fix it from the last mission, and he accidentally shorted out the camouflage on his uniform and blew up his watch. Nobody noticed since he was still linked with M'gaan and he had still gotten them into the base that they were infiltrating. He never put it in the mission report. He just said that his suit and watch malfunctioned, and he didn't explain how or why. They never asked. Its been nearly 10 moths since the last incident, but every time Dick feels a strong emotion, he could feel the electricity streaming though his veins.
Dick is a junior in High School now and just turned 15 a month ago.
Today is the anniversary of his parents death.
...Na Na Na Na Na Na Na...
"Hey, Robin! How's it going?" M'gaan chirped happily from where she was floating in the kitchen. Dick smiled at her and shrugged, not wanting to talk in fear of blowing something, or her, up. His powers were going haywire today, since his sadness was overrunning every other emotion he had. This morning when he was walking out of his room, the doorknob shocked him, and he jumped back in shock, causing sparks to fly off of him. He didn't want to risk that out in the open, so instead, he reached out to M'gaan with his mind, and she happily accepted the link.
"Today just isn't a good day for me. I'm definitely whelmed." Dick told her, a hint of sadness seeping into his voice. He showed her flashes of the memory of his parents falling to their deaths, then closed the link all together. M'gaan looked at him and smiled sadly at the Dark Knights protégée, nodding in understanding. She didn't talk after that, and Dick was extremely greatful.
There was a quick blast of air from dicks right side, and then he had a face full of red hair and concerned bright green eyes. Wally looked at him in brotherly concern for a long moment before grabbing Dick by the shoulders and pulling him into a strong hug. Dick started to shake in the speedsters arms, and shakily brought his arms up to hug him back.
Today he didn't flip Wally, or throw him into a wall, or expertly kick him away like he normally did. He just stood there and hugged him with all of the strength he could muster up. He clung onto the redhead like he was trying so hard not to let go, the memory replaying in his head over and over again.
"It's okay little bird. It's okay..." Wally murmered in Romanian, Dicks first language. Tears escaped Dicks eyes as he let loose a broken sob, the electricity building in the pit of his stomach before he let go of his best friend. Wally was 17, a Juniro in high school just like Dick, and although he didn't understand his pain, Wally knew how to comfort him.
Dick backed away from his best friend, shaking his head as he wiped the tears away. Yesterday, when he realized what today was, he let his emotions slip, causing him to lift into the air unaccordingly. Birds had flocked to him in hundreds, swarming him but never touching him. The moment he regained control over his emotions, he fell out of the sky, and landed in a nearby tree.
"It'll never be okay..." Dick whipsered back in English, so soft that M'gaan almost didn't hear it, even with her enhanced hearing. Dick backed away from Wally, turnes and headed for the couch, slumping into the closest one. He wanted to ba alone today, but Bruce had told him to hang out with his teammates this year, in hopes that it would help lessen the pain.
Wally nodded, movin slowly to the couch to sit next to his best friend. He knew how sensitive he would be today, and he didn't want to risk anything.
Wally Allen West, the son of Hermes, was assigned to protect Richard Grayson at a young age. At first, their meeting was accidental. Wally and Barry had been racing at the park when Wally first saw Dick hanging out of a tree. Wally had called up to him and shocked Dick and had made him fall out in the process. They indtantly became best friends. Months after meeting eachother, Wally went back to camp, and Chiron had called him up to the Big House, to ask him to keep an eye on Dick because the Gods had suspicions that he might be the second son of Zeus. Wally, barely 10 years old at the time, had accepted the task, and still, 7 years later, Wally had never left Dicks side.
Dick got up from where he was sitting on the couch and walked over to the kitchen to grab the plate f cookies that M'gaan had just finished making. He sat back down on the couch and turned off the TV. He stared blankly at the screen, slowly eating one cookie at a time.
Wally was concerned, looking at Dick with worried eyes. He neer seemed so off or so tense, even during this day or one remotely close To being this traumatizing.
"Hey man, what's wrong?" Wally asked, ignoring the rest of the team as they walked into the living room to greet eachother. He looked down at the younger boy, and frowned when Dick just scoffed at him and shoved a cookie in his mouth harshly. He was never this violent either.
"You know what's wrong, Wally." Dick said solemnly, but Wally just shook his head. Since Wally was also the son of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, Wally could tell that Dick knew exactly what he was talking about.
"You know what I mean, Dick." Wally whispered into Dick's eat. Dick glared at Wally and huffed before turning back to the TV. Wally sighed in frustration at the young demigod. Wally knew why his bestfriend was tense. He could sense the electricity in the air and the building tension. Although Wally was upset that Dick hadn't told him about his powers, he couldn't really be mad at him. Wally didn't tell anyone about his until years after he found out he had them, and that was only because his 'mom' had brought him to Camp Half-Blood. He just wanted Dick to tell him on his own time.
"I...I just feel...trapped. Like I won't be able to control myself if I..." Dick sighed out, looking at Wally. Wally was beating himself up about telling Dick who he really was, and how he already knew what he was talking about, and how he was feeling. He wanted so bad just to tell him 'I understand' because he did, because he knew. Dick, like himself, was not born from one, but two Gods. Zeus and Hera. He had his mothers body type and facial structure, but his fathers looks, eyes, and powers.
Dck was basically the 21st Century Hercules, and he didn't even know it.
Wally didn't know what to do, or who to call, so he stayed quiet, hoping that his brain would supply the answer for him. He tuned into his teammates conversation, just to waste time. Dick didn't want to talk and Wally wasn't about to make him.
...Na Na Na Na Na Na Na...
"What's wrong with Baywatch and Big Bird?" Artemis, Wally's ex girlfriend, asked Connor. Wally felt his eyes shift to them momentarily, before he focused them back on the TV. Connor grunted in reply to the archers question.
"How should I know? I can't read minds." Connor muttered, looking pointedly at his girlfriend, M'gaan.
"No, Connor." M'gaan said sternly, glaring at her boyfriend.
"Come on M'gaan. Just a little sneak. Rob is so secretive and I just want to help." Artemis sighed. M'gaan and Connor could tell that she was telling the absolute truth, and they both agreed with her, but it wasn't the young Martians secret to share.
"I would say to ask him yourself, but he didn't even phisically talk to me. I know what's wrong...but it's not my place to tell you guys." M'gaan sighed, looking at Artemis and Connor with a 'sorry' expression and shrugged. Artemis nodded, looking back as she heard Kaldur enter the room. He eyed them all curiously. They were all usually loud in the mornings, arguing over simple things or debating on what channel to put on the TV. Instead, Connor, Artemis and M'gaan we're talking in hushed voices, occasionally looking at Robin and Wally, who were both staring blankly at the TV.
"Goodmorning my friends. It is a very nice day today, but I'm afraid we have business to attend to." Kaldur's voice boomed through the living room watching as they all nodded wordlessly. There was something very wrong with today. Wally didn't complain or whine, Rob didn't cackle and disappear, Artemis wasn't yelling at Wally, and M'gaan and Conner weren't emersed with eachother. They acted almost...professional, and anyone would think that they were responsible young adults if the tension in the air wasn't as big as a blue whale.
"Lead the way." Wally mumbled, walking right next to the leader of their group. Kaldur nodded wordlessly, and walked in from of him to lead the rest of the group to the Zeta Tubes.
"Where, exactly, are we going?" Artemis asked Kaldur once they were in front of the giant machines.
"We are all going to the beach. The Batman has informed me of some information that could help us find where this ship has gone. It seemed to have been heading in this direction the last time the League spotted it." Kaldur said, a hologram of The Argo II popping up on the screen.
Wally breathed in sharply, and exhaled loudly, hoping that it would just come out as an annoyed sigh instead of shock. A few weeks ago, Leo had told him that he was going to come visit, and that he was bringing his boyfriend, Nico, the son of Hades and Dicks cousin, with him. Wally had assumed that they would be shadow traveling here in some discreet location so they could meet up, not come in on their oh so handy warship.
"Where was it last spotted?" Dick asked, his mind switching into spy mode and battle tactics.
"It was last seen by the satellites headed into The Bermuda Triangle, but was spotted a few days later a hundred miles to the east of our base. The League believes that they could be coming in for an attack on base, but ther suspicions have not yet been confirmed. They want us to track its position and monitor its movements to try and figure out if the people on board should be treated as a threat." Kaldur responded looking around as the team all nodded in response to the information.
Wally blanched at the news. On board were two, maybe more, of his closest friends, and if they, or the League, tried to attack them...all hell might break loose.