I wanted to first thank everyone who has reviewed so far, and then apologize to you for the longer wait for this chapter. It's been a very rough week for me, some things happened that I wasn't expecting, and it made it even harder to write this already difficult chapter. So thank you for your patience, and hopefully it was worth the wait. I have the next chapter mostly written up, so hopefully I won't make you wait too long.
"He looked like what?" Jason demanded suddenly, interrupting Dick's account.
"Basically like you if you had just gotten out of facial reconstructive surgery right before the big reveal ," Dick shot snarkily, slightly irritated at the interruption. "Dressed in all black, with a brown leather jacket, and his whole head was wrapped in bandages."
"White bandages?"
"Are there other colored bandages I'm not aware of?" Dick raised an eyebrow. "It's not like he had a five year old kid's cast around his head."
"Don't be a smartass," Jason frowned, leaning against the wall next to the Bat computer.
"So who is he?"
"How am I supposed to know?"
"Quit playing dumb, Jay. You obviously recognized him from my description," Dick stared him down, arms folded across his chest. "Spill."
"…No."
"Why not?!"
"You and I both know that the big guy banned you from this case. My lips are sealed," Jason replied with a grimace. "Sorry, kid."
Dick glared, seething. "Bruce said he didn't want me on the case, but he promised that if I could help, he'd let me. Quit trying to keep me in the dark!"
Jason groaned, running his hands over his face before sighing and looking at the irate teenager. He opened his mouth to speak.
"Red Hood," Batman's voice spoke suddenly from the communicator. Jason turned, slipped on his helmet, and typed some keys into the computer. Batman's face appeared on the monitor from within the Batmobile.
"What did you find?" Red Hood asked.
"Whoever he was, he left a trail for us to follow. Track my location from your motorcycle's GPS. I want you as backup," Batman ordered.
"Copy that," Red Hood ruffled Dick's hair obnoxiously before jogging over to his motorcycle.
Dick watched him start up the bike with a sinking stomach and turned to protest, when Batman spoke again. "Robin, I want you on standby in the cave."
Dick blinked. "Standby? Really?"
"Yes. Stay in the cave and wait for my call. Understood?"
The teenager nodded, and the screen went black. Well, that was more than he'd hoped for. He'd been expecting Batman to just send him straight to bed. At least this way he would be allowed to help.
Dick began to wait. After a few agonizing minutes of silence, he turned to the computer. He flipped through old files, practiced hacking the Justice League database, and finally hacked into Jason's cell phone and changed both his password and ringtone to pass the time.
He glanced at the time. It had been an hour with no word. Worry began gnawing at his stomach, and he finally couldn't sit still any longer. Dick rose and switched out of his uniform and into his white and blue training gear, leaving the mask on for if/when Batman did call. They were always required to wear their masks in those kinds of situations in case someone expected burst in at the scene. He jogged over to the gymnast equipment and chalked his hands before pulling himself up on the first set of bars.
Dick ran through four of his regular routines before pausing in a vertical handstand on the highest of bars and glancing again at the time. What if something had happened? Batman had said that the mystery guy had left a trail. What if it was a trap? Shouldn't he have heard something by now?
He had just made up his mind to go over and track their vehicles to get their location when the call came. Dick quickly somersaulted to the ground, landing lightly before jogging back to the computer.
He pulled up the call. Batman was seated at a computer monitor in a darkened room. It looked as though newspapers and pictures littered the cracked, gray walls, but it was too dark to tell. The only light came from the computer screen, casting Batman's shadow against the wall behind him.
"He's not there?" Dick asked.
"No. I need you to hack into his computer and access the mainframe. His files are protected," Batman replied.
"Not a problem," Dick cracked his knuckles. "Just plug me in."
Batman pulled the cord from his communicator and inserted it into a slot in the tower. A second screen popped up on the monitor of the Batcomputer, and Dick began to work. Immediately he frowned. "Whoa," he blinked in surprise. "Whoever this guy is, he has some serious tech! This is major security for a personal computer."
He began fighting his way through the digital walls set up, noting the sophisticated and intricate way that they had been built. Instead of crashing through the barriers, like he might have with the most basic security measures, Robin was forced to weave his way inside. Though he didn't want to admit it, he was impressed. He hadn't had a challenge like this in a long time.
"Robin?"
"Almost there," he said distractedly, his fingertips flying over the keys. A grin spread rapidly on his face as he finally cracked his way through, and a series of files were suddenly open on the monitor.
"Good work," Batman commended as he took over.
Robin leaned forward in his chair, eyes on the screen as Batman selected what appeared to be some sort of digital diary. He could tell Batman wanted to end the call to prevent Robin from seeing the contents of the files, but didn't want to raise the teenager's ire at being mollycoddled again.
The Dark Knight was scanning through the information, and Robin was about to read alongside him, when he realized something. Red Hood was nowhere to be seen in the room behind Batman. He opened his mouth to ask when the familiar rumble of a motorcycle quickly grew in the cave.
Robins swiveled his chair around in surprise, and sure enough, Red Hood was pulling into the cave. Well, that answered that.
He turned back to the screen. Batman was frowning deeply as he continued flipping through files.
"I didn't need a babysitter you know," Robin commented drily. "I wasn't going to leave the cave."
Batman paused in his research and looked up, eyes narrowed. "Meaning?"
"You didn't have to send RH home," Robin crossed his arms over his chest. "Or was it because our mystery mummy guy wasn't there?"
Robin's trained eye noticed the rapid change in his mentor's demeanor; the man became stiff and alert, his eyes boring through the screen. Robin found himself mirroring Batman's tension automatically. "What's wrong?" the teen asked.
"I didn't. Red Hood is right-"
"Find anything?"
Robin stared in shock as Red Hood appeared in the monitor, entering the room just behind the Dark Knight.
"Robin, MOVE!" Batman roared, rising from his seat at the computer.
Robin's eyes caught sight of the reflection in the monitor; the Red Hood look alike was standing about fifteen feet behind him, arm raised, with a gun pointed straight at him. He threw himself to the ground as the gun fired. The bullet went straight through the monitor, sending sparks of electricity flying as the computer crashed and died.
The teenager wasted no time. He took off running as a hail of bullets followed him from the computer to behind a large wall of stone. "RG override 683, intruder in the Batcave. Activate emergency protocols and engage nocturnal mode!"
Every light within the cave died, and it was suddenly pitch black. Robin switched to his night vision lenses in his mask and dove behind a half wall. He peered around his cover and spotted the intruder near the batcomputer. Now that he had a better view of the man, there was no mistaking how obvious it was that the intruder was not the Red Hood. Robin had seen the crimson helmet, leather jacket, and motorcycle, and assumed it was his brother. And why shouldn't he? It was supposed to be impossible for anyone else to enter the cave.
Who it was and how they got in wasn't as important right now as staying alive and subduing the intruder. The shock and panic that someone had gotten in one of the most secure locations in the world would have to wait.
"There's no point in hiding in the dark, boy," the intruder's voice was deep and slightly muffled by his helmet. "You are not the only one who lives in the shadows."
It figured that someone who managed to break into the Batcave would also be equipped with night vision. Still, if he thought that he had the advantage, he was wrong.
"I don't know what you want or how you got in here, but if I were you, I'd be hightailing it out of here," Robin called from his hiding place. "Not only is Batman on his way back, but an emergency signal just got sent out to a lot of heroes who can easily kick your butt."
"Your mentor is across Gotham and will not make it here in time to save you. And I would not be relying on your friends, either. No signal was sent from your little cave."
No way. There was no way this guy had the time or the skill to hack into the cave and disable the emergency signal.
Wasn't there though? Robin had just hacked into the intruder's personal computer that had extremely sophisticated security. And if the intruder was able to break into the cave, a fact Robin's brain was still trying to come to terms with, who was to say that he couldn't hack in as well?
Robin glanced from behind his cover and saw with a thrill of horror that the intruder was nowhere to be seen. The hairs on the back of his neck rose as his senses warned him of danger; he lunged from his hiding place and bolted for the armory just as a hand shot down to where he had been crouching.
The sound of heavy boots followed after him as Robin leapt down a small section of metal grated stairs and turned sharply to the left. Finally in the armory, he barely had time to seize the nearest weapon, a bo staff, before his enemy was upon him.
Even though he knew that the person fighting him was definitely not Jason, it was still disturbing to be fighting what looked like the Red Hood. He swung the staff as hard as he could as the intruder turned the corner; with lightning fast reflexes, the man ducked and dodged to the side before swiping his leg to knock Robin's feet out from under him. Robin slammed onto his back and rolled left as a boot came crashing down. He jabbed up, thrusting the end of the bo staff into the intruder's side as he used the momentum to fly to his feet.
The man grunted from the impact, stumbling back before seizing the other end of the staff and yanking Robin forward. Robin used the motion to his advantage, releasing the staff at the last second and spinning to deliver a harsh kick to the man's head.
Still, the intruder was too fast, releasing the staff and seizing Robin's foot in the same moment, continuing the teen's momentum and throwing him across the room. The hero crashed into the shelves with a cry as the contents crashed over him.
The intruder stalked towards him, cracking his fists menacingly. Robin's hand connected with something familiar, and he threw the disc without hesitation. In the same moment, he closed his eyes, clamped his hands over his ears and turned away.
The flash bomb went off in a violent burst of sound and blinding light. Robin could hear the man cursing violently as he removed his hands from his ears and smirked. A flash bomb was horribly painful to anyone, but for someone wearing night vision lenses? It was agony.
Robin seized the forgotten bo staff, rolled to his feet, and attacked. His first blow caught the intruder in the chest, knocking him back, and the second thrust into his chin, sending the phony Red Hood helmet flying off of the man's head and clattering to the floor.
It was the man he'd seen earlier that very evening, the one whose face was completely wrapped in bandages. The sight through his night vision lenses made Robin pause for a split second, which was his biggest mistake.
With a growl of rage the man lunged blindly, accurately guessing where Robin stood in the dark, knocking away the staff as if it was nothing, and slamming his fist into Robin's gut. The teenager choked, his air completely expelled from his body, before another fist slammed into his temple, making him see stars as he collapsed onto his back.
Robin grabbed his head, his teeth clenched at the pain as his vision slowly cleared. There was a snapping, then a hissing sound, and suddenly a bright light burst in front of him, made exponentially more painful through his night vision. He cried out and flinched back as he closed his eyes. His fingers reached up and switched his night vision off just before a heavy boot smashed onto his chest.
He grunted as his ribs creaked and his lungs struggled to expand and the weight bearing down on him. The intruder leaned over him, glowing flare in hand as he looked down at the young hero with contempt. "This is all the Batman's protégé has to offer? Pathetic."
The boot lifted from his chest. Robin barely had time to suck in a breath before the boot impacted with the side of his head, and he knew no more.