"Get... d-down..." Robin mumbled. His back pressed painfully into the brick.

C'mon, Grayson, it's just a wall. Get up. But somehow, he couldn't get up. It didn't help that his head was spinning and his ribs felt both compressed and stretched at the same time and his spine felt like someone had taken a hammer to it and-

"Ro... k...?" hm. Wally's voice from somewhere.

He's probably asking if I'm alright. I should say something, "M'fine" he managed to croak. He could barely see the outline of his canary-yellow friend. That meant he was hurt. Badly.

Oops.

Earlier:

It was a common street gang. That's all. You don't see many around Happy Harbour, but there are some. About twelve, robbing a technology store. The team ran into them while walking Wolf (which, when it was hotdog season for street vendors, required everyone). It wasn't even a mission, just a fun outing.

They had already taken out most of the goons and were just cleaning out the rest when the unexpected happened. One of the thugs grabbed a thick disk, about the diameter of a dinner plate, from the ruins of the store. Robin recognized it immediately. A shockwave generator. A very large shockwave generator. Before he had a chance to say anything (get down, for instance), Mr. Brainless pressed the button on the top.

Nobody anywhere near the now thoroughly decimated tech shop did not get blasted away from the device with the resulting shockwave, including the dunce that activated it. Since the team was about five feet from it, they got hit hard. Hard enough to be thrown into the brick alley wall behind them (except Wolf, being a wolf he was below the blast radius and short enough to avoid it). Superboy was the first to get up, being made of steel and all. His section of wall, on the other hand, had been utterly destroyed. He roared in annoyance at nobody, since all the thieves had been knocked out by the shockwave, which made him all the more annoyed. Aqualad was next, his thick Atlantean skin taking only a bruise and a few scratches. The wall had taken much more damage, though hadn't been destroyed quite yet. He brushed himself off and tied up the dazed goons. A similarly dazed, tired and bruised M'gann got up third, with the help of Superboy. She'd used telekinesis and flight to cushion her fall, meaning her wall emerged relatively unscathed. Wally, with his super healing factor, ate a granola bar and got up fourth. Like M'gann, he'd used super speed to run against the wave, slightly lessening the impact. Like him, his wall was shaky and a bit crumbly but still standing tall. He immediately turned to help Artemis, who was injured. Her quiver had hit the wall first, protecting her from the worst of it, but she'd still taken a few harsh cuts with her bruised ribs and ego. She'd also been farther away from the initial blast, which helped her wall (which had only sustained a few cracks) more than it had helped her.

Leaving only one person still to get up.

Robin slid to the bottom of his completely unscathed wall. While Artemis' quiver had somewhat shielded her, Robin's fluid cape had done no such thing. Additionally, he'd been closer to the blast and his light weight increased the speed of his impact. He had sustained two broken ribs along with three bruised ones, gotten his leg and arm torn by the debris of Superboy's crash and a serious concussion. Slowly, the Boy Wonder gave a valiant effort to get up and, after failing miserably, realized he'd forgotten something.

Hey, better late than never, "Get... d-down..." he mumbled.

Present:

"Is everyone alright?" Aqualad asked, tying up his last criminal. He turned, glad to see Wally helping Artemis up before his gaze shifted past Superboy's bulk to the curled form of Robin.

Wally followed his gaze, then flashed to his friend's side, "Robin's hurt!"

"Thank you, Kid Idiot, I never would've noticed!" Artemis snarked, masking the concern in her voice. The Kid Idiot in question was too busy hovering over his best friend to notice.

"Rob, you ok?"

"M'fine..." Robin murmered. The whites of his mask were thinning, indicating closed eyes behind the lenses.

Superboy frowned, "I don't understand, what happened? None of the thugs were near him."

"How many fingers am I holding up?" Wally waved a three-fingered hand in front of Robin's, making Artemis facepalm in the background.

"Robin wasn't hurt by thugs, Superboy. His injuries are due to a combination of debris from the wall and hitting the solid brick," Aqualad said, "Move aside please," he nudged Kid Flash away and gently scooped his fallen teammate into his arms. Robin groaned before mumbling again, something about embarrassment.

"I am sorry, my friend, but we currently have no other option. I assure you, our respect for you will not change. M'gann, please open the bioship- ah."

For the moment, they had all forgotten that they hadn't brought a method of transportation. Aqualad turned around to find Kid Flash waiting patiently, arms out.

"I can run him back to the mountain faster than any of you," he said. The team leader nodded and gently passed Robin off. As soon as he was stable, Wally sped off.

By the time the rest of the team made it to the mountain, Robin was already in the med bay. Unfortunately, that also meant a very angry Batman was also in the med bay.

"I expect a debrief from all of you when I get back. Until then, I expect there to be no disturbances that have any chance of harming Robin," he stepped aside, allowing them into the room.

As hard as it is to believe, the good part of the scenario was Robin laying on the hospital bed, unconscious. The bad part was that Kid Flash was nowhere near unconscious. He had vibrated in the chair so fast the screws were coming out and half the armrest had caught fire, which he was patting out with superspeed. The fire went out, but the excess friction started two new fires, which he tried to pat out... yeah, you get the point.

Kaldur quickly levitated a huge bubble of water from the sink, dousing the fire, Wally and half the hospital bed.

The soaked speedster coughed a bit before smiling gratefully at the Atlantean, "Thanks, I'm sorry about the chair... it's just that I was staying still while Batman was here and then heleftandIjustcouldn'tsitstillcauseRob'shurtand-"

"Wally! Calm down!" M'gann cried, using her telekinesis to hold him steady. He had started vibrating again.

"Ah! S-sorry, I just... he's so... so..."

They all gazed at the team's youngest.

"... small..." Wally finished. The team nodded absently, still staring at Robin. Wally was right, he did look small. It would've been cute if they hadn't been suddenly struck with how very vulnerable he was.

"It is difficult to remember he is only thirteen," Kaldur said, gently brushing some ashes off the bedsheets.

"He- he's so weak," the rest of the group turned to Superboy sharply, who had the grace to shrink a little before plowing through. "I mean, he can't handle being thrown into a wall like the rest of us can. We all experienced the same thing... so why is he in a hospital bed while we aren't?" he turned to Kaldur, reasonably expecting the most accurate explanation to come from the team leader.

"In some ways you are correct, Superboy. Robin is the smallest and physically weakest, mostly because of his young age and acrobatic build. However, that does not mean he is a weak person. We all know him to be an intelligent, energetic boy with a strong personality who can fight very well. Has he not often beaten us in combat? He does not require our protection, even without the superpowers we rely on."

Artemis spoke up for the first time, "We still feel like he does, though," she turned to Superboy, "you didn't feel like this whenever I was injured, right? Yeah, didn't think so. It's like a pack of wolves, they always look out for their weakest member, right? It's subconscious, an important survival instinct that's in all of us too. However much he doesn't want to admit it and however well he can fight, he can't take the damage. He knows that, we know that, even our enemies know that. It kinda is our job to protect him."

Silence enveloped them for a few moments more as they stared at the boy in the bed. He was looking more and more like a boy now, instead of the formidable fighting teen they knew he was.

Of course, Wally was the one to break the tranquility, "You guys know if he hears us talking like this he's gonna kill us."

Artemis snorted, "Oh yeah, he'll spend all week proving he's not the weakest. He'll succeed, too."

"He's the only one succeeding right now," a dark voice said from the hallway. The team spun around only to receive a full on bat glare. "You have until we reach the hangar to think of a good reason why Robin's bed is singed, covered in ashes and soaking. Apparently, the words 'no disturbances that can harm Robin' mean nothing to you." Batman turned and stalked away, leaving five cringing teens in his wake.

"You had one job, Baywatch," Artemis hissed to Wally as they walked, "'Don't disturb Robin', how hard is that?"

"It's not my fault that the chair caught on fire! The ashes on the bed was all your fault for opening the door and blowing the-"

Smack

"Hey! It's not my-"

Glare

"Ahh, right. Hey Superboy, mind if I chill beside you while we walk?"

AN: Hi! Thanks for reading Barriers (title, by the way, stands for both the brick barrier the team smashed into and all the barriers Robin faces as a superhero). How did I do?

If you'd like, I could turn it into a two shot with Robin's recovery, but until then it will stay a one-shot. Reviews would be very nice, please. I hope you enjoyed the story!

Thank you.

-Nightwriter222