Chapter 3: Aliens and Strangers

Robin stared in horror as he saw the extended bodies return to their normal shape. Blood was spread all over the Slick Slimes' uniforms. Starfire's eyes were filled with anger and sadness. The man she married, the man she knew since they were teens, the man she loved was dead. No one could change that.

Robin felt guilt that it was all his fault his father died. He was the one who backed into the wall. He was the one who caused the death. He was not prepared. He was not able to stop the bomb. It was all his fault.

Starfire gave a battle cry before attacking the Slick Slimes that trapped her husband. Their bodies could withstand an explosion, but not Starfire's anger. Why couldn't she gain the energy to blast another hole? Was she too shocked? Too afraid to be caught in the explosion?

They contained the knocked out Slick Slimes, thanks to Starfire, and started to walk home. The two were going to place a gravestone in the cemetery for the dead family member. The funeral will take place before that. But who will come? Batman? Nightwing's brothers? Do they even care? Villains will laugh and dance with joy when they hear a great hero died.

Two days later, the funeral already passed. At least the League showed up, including Batman. No other Titans or Honorary Titans showed which wasn't a suprise since now everyone thinks they really vanished into thin air. But Nightwing's brothers did show, which actually was a suprise.

The gravestone in the cemetery stated

Nightwing- A Great Hero

Bruce Wayne didn't want to place the year of birth and the year of death dates. Everyone just needs to know a great hero is dead. To hell or heaven? Heaven. For the name Richard John Grayson still stood. Everyone thinks he is still alive since no one suspects that Dick is Nightwing.

()()()()

The Next Night

Robin and Starfire were on patrol at 11:00 P.M. They were offered to stay with the Justice League, but they refused to leave Jump City . They didn't allow a League member to be with them just in case something else happens.

On one of the rooves, Robin spotted red lights flashing in the sky. "Hey look!" He pointed.

"What do you think it is son Robin?" Starfire squinted her eyes and flew up more. Robin didn't like to fly a lot, so he did what his Dad always did. Jump, run, and keep up with your team.

"It's.. a ship! Do you know what species it belongs to?"

"I don't think so." Starfire shook her head. A second later, lazers started shooting at them from the ship. "Run!"

Robin ran while Starfire flew across the rooftops. They were able to get down onto the streets for more cover. They stopped and looked back to see the ship just in the spot where it had been when it started shooting; about five meters above a roof. The lazers ceased fire.

Starfire took in the sight of the ship and gasped. "I know them! They are called the-" She was hit from behind. She fell to the ground with a thump and hissed in pain.

"Star!" Robin crouched down and shook his mother. He stood back up quickly and his eyes landed on aliens which were standing on the street. "Who are you?!"

"You do not need to know, human." One of the purple aliens said. "We are only here to collect the Tamaranean." They stepped foward.

Robin stood in a defensive position ready to attack when they got near. Better not tell them I am half. I must be worth a ton! Mom said that no Tamaranean should marry a human. So I should be the only half human, half Tamaranean in this universe. But then again, I could only fly for my powers, what am I worth? I still shouldn't fly.

Once the aliens were close enough, he began his attack. There were only four, but only one of him. He never fought this species before, so he had to expect new moves and powers. First, he ran under one alien's legs and kicked that one in the back causing it to fall forward. He dodged lazers, which were being shot at him through blasters. Then, he flipped over to another alien, tripped it from the front, grabbed its blaster, and broke it in two. The alien that he just tripped used its claws to scratch his arm. He winced at the sudden movement but kicked the alien in the head. The scratch was barely bleeding, so he didn't think about it.

There were two left; one on the right and one on the left. He charged forward, but slammed into a sudden wall. He was in another dome... again. Starfire was now standing and used her powers to trap Robin in a dome. She never saw the alien scratch her son. Now he was confused. Why was his mother trapping him?

"Do not harm him." She simply stated.

Harm me?

"Only if you come with us, Tamaranean." The one on the right stepped foward a bit.

I just won against two of these guys. Why are they talking as if the bad aliens could hurt me?

"Yes, I will."

WHAT!

Next thing that happened was really hard to keep track of. The dome was still up while Starfire punched an alien in the face agian, again, and again. Robin was suprised its head didn't fall off from the force. So Starfire lied about going with the bad aliens was the conclusion.

"You leave us no choice." The alien that scratched him was standing, perfectly fine.

Didn't I just knock him out? I know I didn't do much damage to the thing but-

Its eyes glowed a color of purple. Robin immediately grabbed his scratched arm that hurt like hell. He tried to hold back screams, which were coming out as grunts. The other alien that he kicked was standing and watching. Starfire's eyes stopped glowing green and she stood still on the ground, worry and panic in her eyes. Her protective mother side kicked in.

"No! I-I will go! Please, do not harm him!"

"Grab her. Restrain her." One said while the other three took hold of Starfire. That one, who scratched Robin, must've been the leader since the others didn't talk; they obeyed willingly with no arguments.

The leader of the aliens walked over to the dome. It stared at the child, who was pounding his fists on the dome trying to stop the others from restraining the Tamaranean. It sensed something different about this human. Was he even human? They will see soon enough. It then walked over to the now restrained Tamaranean. Why was this child trying to help this Tamaranean if she is from another planet? Why aren't these humans scared of her? Why was she protecting the child? Of course, they heard of this city's history. The Teen Titans were heroes; they saw her as a hero. But now that team has vanished, and Nightwing was dead.

They took that as their chance to come and take the Tamaranean from this world. They still don't know why Nightwing, the child, and the Tamaranean worked together. The humans should fear aliens. If humans saw other aliens on Earth, they would be scared. Why did they not fear this Tamaranean? Maybe it was because the big ships looked threatening. Maybe because she proved herself.

"Time to go back." The leader said. The three aliens started to fly Starfire back up to the ship. They had just cuffed her with special material so she couldn't use her super-strength to punch or try to get away. But she still had her starbolts. Robin watched as his mother struggled against the aliens. She could of easily saved herself right?

And why did he have so much bad luck when there is a dome near by?

Starfire was knocked out so she couldn't use her starbolts when the aliens reached the ship. In there, her powers must've been blocked since the dome around Robin finally disappeared. He used his grappling hook to get onto the roof, where the ship was hovering above, but once he was up there, the ship was gone.

He was all alone.

His father dead, and now his mother missing.

The Justice League? He won't show weakness; he will not call for help.

He will get his revenge with no one guiding him and telling him his true purpose as a hero. His purpose to keep others safe. Only one thing on his mind...

Revenge...

He will destroy Slick for killing his father. He will track down those aliens. No matter what it takes, Adam will avenge his parents.

()()()()

Robin made it to an emergency base his parents set just in case something happened. The base was equipped with a living room, kitchen, storage area, six bedrooms, a lot of electronic devices, two bathrooms, a training room, and a basement. There was food in the fridge already, but it was still good to eat. It was inside a mountain that was just outside the outskirts of Jump City.

There were no windows since it was supposed to be a secret base. The one his family used was abandoned. Every person will soon know that Nightwing and Starfire are gone and poor little Robin was left all alone. The Justice League will get the message soon too, but Robin will not leave Jump City.

It was where he grew up, sort of. Sometimes they had to spend months from home so they could track down dangerous ciminals. But still, he was born in Jump City. He was homeschooled for safety. It would be suspicious if a new kid showed up at school then the next day Robin showed up out of no where.

But he was taught everything Nightwing knows, in knowledge, for the past six years for crying out loud (Again, he was 10) He didn't need to go to some school for 5th graders. But he still needed training; he hopes to be as good as his father. No, he hopes to be better than his father.

For the next three months, he went by a routine. Wake up, eat and drink, and train for the rest of the day. Adam trained harder and harder with each passing day. He never left the mountain to go stop criminals. He only went to get more food, but as Nicholas Taylor not as Adam Grayson.

He had grown dark. He now hated love and got used to being secluded; to hide from others even though none were around. Robin was now very agressive. He would show no mercy if he happen to come upon a criminal, but he never got to since he didn't fight.

Jump City was a wreck; no hero was there. The Justice League got the message by now and searched the city for the little bird. They didn't know about the secret base since, again, it was a secret from everyone except Robin's family. Maybe some members from the League stayed to protect citizens. Robin wouldn't know.

What he did know is that there are a lot of new members to the League. Why wouldn't there be? Before Adam was born, the Teen Titans were teens, and each Justice League member was 18-35 years old. Some probaly retired since now 42 of age. There was no Batman anymore. Just old Bruce Wayne since he couldn't do flips and kicks anymore. (This will not be a crossover with Batman. Just stating facts right now... It's needed.)

Robin was taking his 15 minute break when he heard a loud crash. He got up, rushed to get dressed in his new uniform he made (Now he has the uniform explained in Ch.1), put temporary red highlights in his bangs, and got prepared for an attack. He was not expecting at all for two teens, each about 15, to crash throuh the wall. Totally normal right? Nope.

"What the hell?" One of the teens shouted, a male. "Where are we?"

"Calm down Blaze. Hey look!" The other teen said, a female. She pointed to Robin who was in a defensive position. "Kid, where are we at?"

"Who are you?" Was Robin's reply.

"I asked you a question." The female walked up a bit. She was about two feet and a couple inches taller than Robin. Why does he have to be so short? "But I guess I could answer yours first since we were the ones invading. I am Virus, and over there is Blaze. Now, where are we?"

"I still have questions. What are you doing here? How did you find this place?"

Virus sighed. "We needed a place to stay for the night. I could sense technology and we came upon this place. And before you ask this, we are not from this area. Anymore questions? Now, where are we?"

Robin thought he could trust the two. They did look lost, and they were definitely not from this area or maybe the entire planet. Well, the female looked more like a human than the male, except for the clothes. "You are at a secret base my... mentors built. Not so secret anymore..." He mumbled the last part.

"Right. Sorry." The female looked around and walked up to Robin. He immediately flipped backwards unknowing if she was evil. "We won't hurt you, kid. Don't worry."

Robin hesitantly walked over keeping his guard up. He didn't show any signs of weakness. Blaze walked away from the hole in the wall. The teen inspected the living room and plopped down onto the old couch. "Where are your mentors kid?"

"They're... gone."

"Where to?" Virus asked. "We need to ask them if we could stay."

"You guys could stay..." Even though you still might be villains... Robin thought. "But they are gone. As in... dead." Great, tell them you have no one to protect you. Good thing I didn't tell them that they were my parents.

Virus's head immediately looked back at the kid. It was obvious he did not like the subject, so she changed it. "What's your favorite color?"

That was a little too random. She seemed way too nice to be a villain. "Um, black."

"Mine is purple."

Like Mom's... Robin thought.

"Mine is red!" Blaze shouted from the couch. He was flipping through channels on the large flat screen television checking out what was on. He stopped at a horror movie.

"Oh I forgot to ask. What's your name kid? I probaly should've asked that instead." She said smiling.

"Robin."

"Hey, wait. Your that hero that went missing when Nightwing and Starfire disappeared, right?" Blaze shut off the TV not finding the movie interesting anymore.

"Blaze, shut up." Virus went over and smacked him on the head.

"No, it's okay." Robin didn't like the subject being brought up again; he went with it to get it over with faster.

"Weren't your mentors that you mentioned actually your parents?" Blaze stood up and walked over the Robin.

"No." He lied. "Everyone thinks that."

"Oh. 'Kay."

Virus smacked Blaze on the head again. She was shorter by him by about three centimeters. They were like family, except they looked nothing alike. "How about we watch a movie maybe? But not that horror one. It's way too boring." Blaze said as he made his way into the refrigerator looking for food. Virus followed.

He reminds me of Beast Boy a bit.

"You guys just got here about ten minutes ago and you already want to watch a movie with someone you just met... by crashing through a wall. Oh but that's not it. You raid that kitchen as well." The others laughed. "By the way, what are you doing in Jump City if you're not from around here?" Robin finally moved from his spot, sat down, and began to look through movies that were on the television. The TV had a lot of movies downloaded into it when it was put in.

"Yeah sorry. We get comfortable in a place way too quick for some reason." Virus was pouring some juice from the fridge into a cup. "We are tracking down two other... creatures you could say. You see, I am a Technoian from the planet Techno. My people were born with power to control technology. Blaze and I are trying to catch the two creatures that we saw trying to escape the scanners that were set up around my planet. They seemed like criminals so we followed them."

"Thanks for the short bio. What about you, Blaze?" Robin picked out a movie and got ready to play it. Blaze and Virus got back, each holding a bowl of popcorn.

"I am a Red Demon. My eyes are red, so that's why I like the color red. I could cast simple spells like other demons, but I have these." He pointed to the gray marks on top and bottom of each eye. The gray marks made it look like there were lines going through his eyes. "These marks echance my powers. So now I could control people too instead of only objects."

Robin gave a nod in understanding. Blaze and Raven are both demons and could maybe know each other, but who knows. The movie began. Virus and Blaze sat together very interested in the movie. Robin sat alone on the other couch. One hour passed and the popcorn was not in the bowls but in their stomachs. Robin didn't eat any so he wouldn't get fat even from a few pieces of popcorn. He had to be carful. There could be a mini bomb in a piece of popcorn. The two teens could still be evil, even though they explained themselves, they could still be lying.

Robin was getting very tired. When the two blasted a hole in the wall to get inside, it was about 10:30 P.M. They talked until it was 10:45 so that was fifteen minutes. The movie still had another hour. Since one hour already passed, it was about 11:45. He was used to turning in for the night at about 3 in the morning. But tonight, he felt really tired.

His eyelids felt like lead. He put his head on the cushion to please a voice in his mind which was saying over and over, lay down on the soft cushions, sleep...Adam...

Robin gave in; he fell asleep.