A/N: This one's sad… and if you guys like it enough and provide ideas it also has the potential of being a two shot.
I do not own anything that is DC Universe officially.
Enjoy the story!
Home Alone
For Robin, the Boy Wonder, and Dick Grayson, the Rich Kid, this week sucked. Nothing went right.
For Dick Grayson, school was a literal hell. Football was in its off-season, which left the football team bored and greedy. Dick had already received five beatings in the form of "Christmas Presents" by Tuesday night. And his History teacher had decided to assign a project that was due at the end of the week which included reading "A Christmas Carol" and then writing a ten-page essay. Dick had finished the book by Wednesday night, but he ended up writing eight essays due to, again, the football team.
But compared to Robin, Dick Grayson had it easy. Crime always jumped exceedingly around Christmas. There had been dozens of robberies, break-ins, and several kidnappings. Batman was off-world Monday through Friday on an unavoidable mission, so Robin had to deal with it all himself. But his biggest problem occurred Friday night…
Batman trusted Robin completely, and had faith that the boy could handle anything that was thrown his way. But, there was always one villain that Batman told Robin to stay away from… the Joker. But, on Friday night, Joker had grown restless.
Robin was doing his usual patrol which, in December, included five intermediate robberies. Like the Wonder he is, Robin had caught the first four within minutes and was circling back around to a robbery at the Gotham City Wonderland, which was a major toy store. But, upon arrival, Robin quickly realized that the situation was beyond him.
Through the large windows that made the entire front wall of the toy store, Robin could see a dangerous hostage situation. There were about fifteen children lined up in a row, tied together, and surrounded by large canisters. Robin didn't care what the canisters held, because whatever they were, they were dangerous.
Prancing about in front of the children was the Joker who had Harley Quinn clinging to him with a big smile. In the Joker's hand was a small detonator, and all he had to do was push the button to kill the children.
The front doors were blocked by seven well-built men with guns and clown-masks. Five police cars had just arrived on-scene. Robin noted that Commissioner Gordon had not yet arrived. Stealthily, he made his way down to the police lineup. He heard and officer call "Aim!" and Robin felt that they were about to make a terrible mistake. Before he could react, the officer confirmed his suspicion and called out "Fire!"
Just as it was said, the children and the Joker hit the floor, trying to avoid the gunfire. Robin jumped into action; he had to stop the gunfire before the Joker got killed. He leapt onto one of the police cars in the front of the line of fire, spread his arms, and ordered a cease fire. Not wanting to hit him, the gunfire quickly stopped, and the officers looked around in confusion. The officer who had ordered 'Fire' came forward and stood in front of Robin.
"What the hell do you think you're doing kid?!" He screamed angrily, and made a grab for Robin's arm. With quick reflexes, Robin flipped onto the ground and stood at the officer's side.
"What am I doing? What are you doing?! Are you trying to get everyone KILLED?!" Robin accused the officer.
"I'm trying to kill that sadistic maniac before he presses that button!"
"Well it won't work, just wait for the Commissioner to get here."
The officer looked down at him angrily. "Now that maniac in there made a mistake. He set himself in a position where we can easily stop him with a bullet. Now, give me one good reason why I shouldn't do exactly that!"
"Because he's the Joker, he always has a backup plan. If you kill him, you'll set things into motion. He probably has goons that are ordered to blow both this place and a dozen other locations upon his death. Killing him isn't an option because he's more dangerous dead than alive; he has too many pieces in this game that are triggered only by the event of his death. When it comes to the Joker, being alive holds him back. He's not willing to destroy all his toys while he's still alive to play with them. The moment he's dead, Gotham's of no use to him anymore, and neither are you."
The officer looked at him dumbfounded. "Are you saying that if we kill him, things will get worse?!"
Robin rolled his eyes under his mask. 'Man, this guy is an idiot. He doesn't even know the Joker's habits.' Robin thought. "Just wait until Commissioner Gordon gets here. Don't do anything until then."
With that, Robin disappeared into the shadows of the rooftops. 'Well, now what?' He thought. 'Maybe I can go in from the back while Joker is distracted by the police up front.'
It wasn't much of a plan, but it had to do. So, with quiet speed and stealth, he moved to the back of the building. There, he found an office window two floors up that had been left open. Before he entered, he hacked into the camera feed and shut off the power. Then he proceeded to cut the power to the whole building. 'Like Batman always says, your eyes can deceive you, so it's best to stay in the dark.' He found his way carefully to the bottom floor from the third-level office. Once there, he found an air duct to crawl through.
'Joker isn't usually this careless. He would normally have guards in the back. Something isn't right.'
'Maybe Joker has figured out that Batman isn't in Gotham, that I'm alone. Maybe this is a trap.' Robin argued with himself in his thoughts.
'Still, trap or no trap, I have to save those kids. Maybe Joker can settle for just catching me.'
Now, Robin was on a second-floor balcony where he could look down at the bottom floor of the main toy room. Down below, the children were on their knees, crying for help. Joker was bent down talking to one of them, and Robin's eyes widened as Joker pulled a blade and let it rest on the child's cheek.
'I have to do something now, before he can hurt them.'
The police had shined several spotlights into the room, which was stealing Robin of his shadowed attack. Robin pulled out a mirror and begun to reflect the light in a pattern.
'If Gordon is there, he'll know what I'm telling him.'
And, just as Robin suspected, Gordon picked up on the message which meant "Turn the damn lights off." And yes, conveying the word damn was necessary.
Moments later, the room filled with a comforting darkness.
'Now's my chance.'
He dove forward, flying past the children and the Joker. Between Joker and the door, Robin stood his ground. He could feel the movements around him; the seven guards had come inside. With blinding speed and accuracy, Robin attacked.
He lunged at one of the guards, shoving him to the ground. Using that same momentum, he did a hand stand off the guard's chest and kicked another in the face. He spun as he heard the click of a gun, and he tumbled to the ground as it went off. He rolled forward and hit the gun from underneath, causing it to fall to the floor. Then, with an upward motion, he thrust his palm, hitting the goon in the jaw and sending him back.
'Three down, four to go.'
Three more lunged at him simultaneously, and Robin leapt into the air at the last possible second, then he came down onto their heads, knocking them unconscious. The last guard turned towards the commotion, just in time to see a shadowed figure lunge at him. He fired a few pointless shots before he was knocked to the ground unconscious.
Robin then turned to the children and cut their ropes. A few of the children cried and hugged him.
"Now, run to the doors, it's safe. Don't stop until the police have you," he whispered to them, "Go, Now!" With a sudden urgency, the children filed out the doors and into the parking lot. Robin was about to disappear when the lights flicked back on.
'Crap.' He thought, and looked over to see Harley with a laptop. 'She must have turned them back on.' Robin threw one of his projectiles and hit the laptop with accuracy. His device beeped and Harley dropped the laptop to run. But she was too late as it exploded and she was thrown into a wall.
Robin turned and faced the Joker now. 'This is where things tend to go wrong.'
"Well, well, well! If it isn't my favorite, Bird Boy!" Joker said, and secretly, his voice sent chills down Robin's spine. "I was hoping you'd come! And I see my suspicions are correct, the Big Bad Bat isn't around to save you!"
"Give it up Joker; there are a dozen officers outside and only one of you. Your goons proved to be utterly useless, by the way."
The Joker nodded and smiled. "Well, Boy Blunder, can you tell me then; why haven't the police come in and taken me away yet?" Robin glared at the man. "In case you've forgotten, I still have a hostage."
"Is that so?" Robin shuddered inwardly. 'He's right. I've put myself in a bad position. He still has the remote, and I'm standing here by these deadly cans of… whatever. I wonder if this was Joker's plan all along.'
Joker laughed crazily. "Well boy, looks like we've gotten ourselves into a situation! But don't worry, I can tell you how it goes from here. You're my new hostage, and there's nothing you can do about it. See, this is a toy store, and I came to get a toy; that's you. I'll play with you a little, and then a helicopter will land on the roof, and I'll leave."
The Joker picked up a metal bat from a shelf and begun to walk forward. "It's almost Christmas, and I'm in a good mood, so I won't kill you. Just make sure to tell the Big Bat I said hello." He hit the bat against his palm and lunged. In this situation, Robin could do nothing but take the beating; otherwise, he risked suffering what was in the cans.
Commissioner Gordon watched helplessly as the young hero was beaten. He couldn't risk the Joker pressing the button, because that would kill the boy for sure. He was forced to just watch instead, and hope that the Joker didn't kill him.
About ten minutes went by and Robin lay on the floor panting. He was sure almost all of his ribs were broken, and one of his ribs may have pierced one of his lungs. But now, Robin could hear the drown of a helicopter above him, and the Joker smiled down at him.
"Well, it's been fun, but I have to go now!" And the Joker made his way to the stairs. Once at the top, Joker stopped and looked back. He lifted the remote and pressed the button. Robin's eyes went wide and he could hear the gasps and screams of people outside. Robin stared in fear as the tops of the cans popped off.
But, to his surprise, the cans split in two once the lids were off and thousands of pennies spread across the floor in waves.
'Canisters of pennies.' Robin laughed in dismay, but it came out as more of a cough and blood splattered the floor. 'Well,' Robin thought angrily 'You suck, Joker.' He was laying here in pain because Joker filled some cans with PENNIES! This whole time, and it was only pennies.
The police and medics were approaching the front door now, and Robin had to get up.
'It hurts like hell, but I can't let them take me to the hospital. They'll find out my secret identity. I'll have to get back to the cave on my own and have Alfred help me.'
So, in unimaginable pain, Robin managed to stand without screaming. He shot his grappling hook to the second floor and swung upwards. He heard the police spring at him and stop where he had been only moments ago.
"No Robin, wait!" The Commissioner called out, but Robin ignored him. He made his way to the back window by forcing himself to run. He held his breath as he couldn't breathe and walk at the same time. Once he was out the window and onto the next rooftop, he began a seemingly lifetime journey back to the cave. Still, he pushed himself to go as fast as he could.
'If I take it slow, it will hurt less, but I'll bleed to death internally before I make it home.'
He would have liked nothing more than to be allowed to drive the Bat-Mobile at a time like this, and his bike has been out-of-order since an explosion two days ago. Besides, his bike didn't have auto-pilot.
Finally, he entered the tunnel to the cave and walked the final two miles through it. Once in the cave, he called for Alfred and collapsed on the ground. He listened and waited for Alfred to come, and he forced himself not to fall asleep in fear of never waking back up.
He heard the elevator doors slide open and footsteps. "Master Richard?" Alfred called into the darkness. Alfred reached over and turned on the lights. He gasped as he saw the young boy on the ground, and he ran to his side. "Master Richard! Dear God, what happened?!"
"J-J-Joker," Dick replied weakly.
"Come, I must get you to the medical bay." He tried to support the boy as much as he could as Robin walked on shaky legs and stumbled his way along. The rest of the night, despite multiple sedatives, was spent in agony. Alfred couldn't give him a strong enough sedative to ease the pain without putting him to sleep. And once in sleep, Robin's breathing would surely stop.
Alfred worked for nearly four hours, and then stayed awake with him for the rest of the night, never leaving Robin's side. And Robin barley managed to keep his eyes opened; only the pain allowed him to stay awake. Bruce came home the next morning to find Robin on the cot and towels soaked in blood. Alfred was cleaning the blood as best he could when he looked up and saw Bruce staring with wide eyes.
"Dick?! What the hell happened?!"
"Funny, that's like the opposite of what Alfred said."
"There's nothing funny about this Dick. Now answer me, what happened?" He walked over to the cot and placed his hand on Dick's shoulder.
"I kind of got into trouble."
"Well, obviously! I can't leave you alone without you almost dying, can I? Who did this to you?"
Robin hesitated. 'He isn't going to listen to reason, he's going to be pissed that I didn't call the League for backup. But there was no time!' He looked up and saw Bruce was becoming impatient.
"It was Joker." Bruce sucked in his breath. "He had hostages, and there wasn't time for backup from the League, Superman and Flash were off-world with you, and they were the only ones who could have gotten to me on time. I had to act or those kids were going to die." Bruce turned away from him angrily.
"You still shouldn't have gone in alone!" He said, and he hit the table with the tools on it, making it clatter and Robin jump.
"I didn't have a choice," he said timidly.
"You always have a choice Dick! I thought I'd taught you that by now!" He was getting louder and angrier. "You know that I've forbidden you from ever going up against him alone! I usually make you stay behind. Maybe I haven't taught you as well as I'd thought. Maybe I have too much faith in you. Maybe you shouldn't be Robin at all!" At that, Robin flinched.
Bruce turned and stormed out of the room. Secretly, he had seriously regretted that last comment, but taking it back would mean taking back everything he had said, and he had meant everything else. He was still angry at him.
But, with a little time, Richard would forgive him for his last comment and the Dynamic Duo would continue on with their lives, the same as always… right?
Right.
A/N: This use to be the first chapter for a failed story I did. The story didn't go so well so I deleted it, but this first chapter had been really good so I decided to just re-post it as a one-shot in this series, since it does have Gordon in it and all...
This may turn into a two-shot. Depends if you guys like where this is going, or if one of you gives me a good idea of how to continue this. I'm not using it to re-do my failed story right now, but I may make another chapter to turn this into a two-shot if you readers want me to. The second chapter would have to include more of Gordon. If any of you have ideas for continuing this, feel free to share them. X)
If you have any ideas for other one-shots, share those too. I want to hear them. X)
Alright then, please review!