Robin lazily opened his eyes as the rays of light seeping through the window beside him finally became hot enough to become a catalyst to wake him up. Letting out a massive yawn and forcing himself to sit up, Robin felt his consciousness spark back to life.
Immediately, flashes of the past night attacked his brain. Memories surged and slowly the pain from the night before resurfaces and Robin instinctively let his arms crumble before him and felt his back softly land on the bed.
"God...damnit!" He cried out to himself as his ribs ached and his chest felt like shit. Robin tried to get up once more... Only to feel his back hit the bed again.
"You've gotta be fuckin kidding me." The Boy Wonder said, a little louder this time around.
He scanned his surroundings. Clearly he was in his room, which looked a lot like a study, as many of his fellow Titans would testify. Shelves filled row to row with books took up most of the wall space, with a large board filled with maps, pictures, strings, and thumbtacks. Looking at it again, the light brown board looked a little crowded. Robin mentally noted that he needed to replace it. Next to the board was his jet black desk, or "office" as he liked to describe it. On the right side of it was his state of the art desktop computer, proudly made by the Boy Wonder himself. It was used mostly for recreation, as Robin thoroughly enjoys MOBA games (Naturally Challenger ranked), and occasionally for sites that are... Robin was a teenager after all. On the right were piles of assorted paper work, files, documents gathered up over the course of his several investigations of the Titans' enemies and allies. In the middle sat a meager desk light, currently off as it was morning. And finally, a pair of red nunchucks that he forgot to put back in the armory.
Before he could finish his tour of the room, he felt the distinct sound of his room door open, and his eyes quickly fell upon the sight of a casually dressed Raven, holding a tray that seemed to be holding a steaming bowl and a glass of water. Robin felt himself stiffen.
"I thought I heard something alive chirping around in here." Raven said in her signature monotone voice.
"Good mornin, Rae." Robin said, smiling at the sight of Raven, who was wearing only a white t-shirt and purple panties. He would never admit it but Robin found her deceptively curvy figure incredibly attractive, even before he had dated Starfire. He watched as she sauntered through his room and placed the tray on his desk, turning around to face him after she did so.
"You've been out for 3 days. Cy predicted 7 but his scanners didn't calculate the fact that it's ridiculously hard to keep you down for long."
"Yeah..."
Awkward laughter fills the room
"You owe me an explanation."
"..."
"It's the least you could do after you worry the shit out of m-! ...out of everyone."
Robin stared at the bandages wrapped around his healing wound. "I- I guess I do. I'm sorry." He said, knowing full well how much Raven had probably ruminated and worried about him during those 3 days.
Suddenly he felt a spoon enter his mouth and soon a warm, chicken flavored liquid excited his taste buds. "Shut up and start talking, idiot." Raven said as she pulled the spoon out of his mouth and scooped out another spoonful of chicken noodle soup.
"It started when I snuck out to patrol the city..."
It started when Robin snuck out that night to patrol Jump city. He had sworn this would be the last time he'd go patrolling, as Raven made him promise to stop his self-destructive habit. That night he had decided that he would go all out and try to clear up the streets as much as he could. Old habits die hard, after all.
Seeing that the rain that night is an absolute deluge, Robin chose to wear waterproof clothing: A blue long sleeve shirt with a black Kevlar vest worn over it; gray-black-and-blue camo cargo pants; thick black military boots; and a dark brown leather jacket. Finally he put on his mask, and the anonymity that went with it. He brought double the supplies he usually used in his patrols and even brought out experimental weapons that have barely been tested for combat efficiency. As Robin zipped up his messenger bag filled with supplies, he opened his phone to get a look of its wallpaper: a selfie of him and Raven, smiling happily outside the Hilton at the end of the Titans' vacation last year. He couldn't help but smile and reminisce at the thought of them being happy together, after having gone through Raven's problems and tribulations with her that year (Yet Robin didn't include this in his description of the story). He felt a pang of fear; there's always a risk of serious harm on patrols and it didn't help that the rain was particularly burdensome, the lighting particularly blinding, and the thunder particularly deafening that night.
But... After this he would feel much better, he told himself. Maybe he'd actually get more than 3 hours of sleep the upcoming morning. So with that thought he set out to conquer the night, hopping onto his sleek, jet black motorcycle and riding into Jump City.
His first stop was the docks, as it was closest to the Titans' tower. Parking his bike behind some barrels, Robin stayed alert as he climbed on top of a fishing boat being rocked rigorously by the irritated waves. Scanning the land, he observed five men, all wearing spec ops apparel and armed with rifles and shotguns. Looking up he spotted a lone sniper on a tower doing a terrible job of making himself hidden as he frantically surveys the area with his scope. Observing their gear and apparel and comparing them to how the men walked and swung around their guns, Robin deduced that the men were most likely lowlife thugs working for a crime boss with access to stolen military weapons and gear. The worst type of thug to go up against is the equipped-but-untrained type, thought Robin. They are the most unpredictable and the most difficult to take down safely.
"Sniper goes down first. Get a lay of the land. Probably more people on the ground that I'm seeing from here." Robin uttered to himself as he stayed in place, figuring out a game plan. He felt the rain mark his hair and face. He felt his vision change as lightning covered the sky in white and he felt his hearing numb as thunder filled the air with sound. He's practically invisible in this weather.
Taking a deep breath, Robin slowly and stealthily made his way towards the sniper's nest, walking towards the tower and quickly climbing up its ladder, making sure his presence wasn't detected once he landed on the tower's wooden floor.
With the sniper in sight, Robin took careful steps in his crouched position to advance towards his prey. Finally he was right on top of him.
He tapped the man on his right shoulder and as the man turned to face him, the Boy Wonder chambered all his weight onto the right and sequentially landed a wicked right hook, sending the crook to next week. Robin laughed. That was his favorite takedown.
Seeing the sleek sniper rifle laying next to the unconscious man who owned it, he took it upon himself to take apart the rifle and tossing its stock, just in case the sniper happened to have a stronger chin than he thought.
Using his newfound elevation, he pressed on his mask and activated his heat vision, finding that there are in fact 7 more vagrants than he had first scouted, all of them without guns but are instead using melee weapons like blades, staves, and knives. Some were wearing armor and others using riot shields.
"I could probably get away with taking most of them about before anyone notices. The five with guns go down first." Robin muttered as he began looking for ways to knock out the five armed thugs without attracting attention.
Each man was split up in different direction, with the exception of two thugs standing side by side seemingly guarding an entrance. A thug with a shotgun resting on his chest was sitting on a chair under the roof of a worn down building, shaking himself awake before he could succumb to sleep. Another was on his phone as he paced back and forth in a roofed hallway, and the third was rigidly standing guard near a couple of yachts, far from the rest of the thugs.
Anticipation racing through his veins, Robin set his plan to motion.
*Notes
Are these too short? I'm writing all of this currently on Google drive on my phone. The chapters look the appropriate length to me but I don't know how it is to the readers.
