7.
AN: This one's about Robin after the latest mission
Wayne Manor, Tim's room:
It was late in the night, around two in the morning. Within the mansion of Bruce Wayne, two people resided with one resting for the night. For the last four hours the butler to the lord of the manor slept peacefully with the intention of waking up early for another day of performing his duties in his absence. The only other person in the manor was a young teenage boy who was more than used to staying up into the wee hours of the morning, including school nights.
Normally he would be out in the city of Gotham patrolling the rooftops and streets with his mentor and adoptive father, but with him off planet at the moment, that only left him, Nightwing, and Batgirl to keep the criminals at bay. This was one of his assigned off nights Nightwing had given him as he and Batgirl had the city covered and wanted him to reflect on his recent mission with the team.
He had to admit, it was hard staying behind while his two partners were out having fun stopping dangerous criminals from hurting innocent civilians but this was something even Bruce wanted him to do as a way to get things off his chest. It worked considering the life he came from with a father that taught him to be a criminal since the crib and if it wasn't for him being caught by the Batman and opening his eyes as to the type of person he would grow into he would probably be in jail or dead right now.
So, since there was nothing else for him to do before turning in for the night, he pulled open a desk drawer and pulled out a tape recorder.
"This is…Robin. For reasons of protocol involving my identity, I can't reveal my true name, not even to a tape recorder. I'm doing this simply because Batman told me it helps with the so called 'second life' I live. Still don't know how true that is but I guess it's worth a shot since it worked with my real one."
Letting out a sigh, he leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on his desk.
"It's been a day since I was elected the leader of Alpha Squad. I was surprised to say the least at being dubbed the leader for the mission and it showed, obviously. I was put in charge of Impulse, Blue Beetle, and our newest member, Arsenal, who is a story onto himself. Superboy accompanied us since he had connections to where or mission was, Smallville. Details of our mission can be found in the Batcomputer as well as the Watchtower database so there's no need in going over everything again. I will; however, go over separate specifics for the time being."
Reaching over to the side of the desk, Tim grabbed a bottled water and took a swig.
"Upon our arrival, Superboy got us set up in a barn on the farm of his…relatives. It was also our fallback spot should we need a place to hide. His…father I guess, went with us to the Luther facility where The Reach had their operatives, one of many places they had operatives actually. I was expecting things to go smoothly. After retrieving samples of treated food, we carried out our mission as instructed."
Pausing the recorder, Tim shook his head. "I'm just going back over what I told them already." He took a deep breath then continued his recording.
"Okay, so, I guess I had doubts as to what I would do on the mission. Sitting in a bathroom stall will do that to you, I guess. I was worried if I was indeed capable of leading another squad again. The first one didn't go so well as we almost got captured and killed with a group of hostages. I guess I was having a case of déjà vu at the time. Blue Beetle was, is a good team member to have as I have worked with him before. Impulse is…impulsive and couldn't keep still."
Tim paused for a moment with a thoughtful look on his face.
"Side note, Impulse ate one of the treated vegetables from the Luther building. I'll have to keep a close eye on him for any side effects should any develop."
He took another swig of water and ran a hand through his hair.
"I trusted those two, I've worked with those two. Arsenal was the wild card. I knew what he's capable of and at the same time I don't know a thing about him. Details about him can be found in the usual places so I'll move on. Leaving the stalls after the facility closed, I pushed all thoughts I had to the back of my mind and did what I was trusted to do, lead my squad on a successful mission and bring them back safely to the barn. And then that plan literally blew up in my face."
He pinched the bridge of his nose then removed his feet from his desk so he could lean on his elbows.
"Look, I gave specific instructions for them to follow but not all of them carried them out. Arsenal has a grudge against Lex that he can't be blamed for and nearly cost us the mission and our lives. All he had to do was stay put as I obtained a sample of what The Reach was putting in the water for the vegitables but he had to plant his explosives around the facility and eliminate our stealth mission. As if that wasn't enough, we were attacked by Black Beetle and all my doubts came rushing back. We were caught and I thought we weren't gonna make it out."
Leaning back in his chair, Tim let out a forceful breath of frustration.
"When I lose my confidence, even for a moment, I imagine the worst case scenario. I could see myself putting up a losing fight and watching my squad mates die before me. I had to pull it together but with our attacks not phasing him in the slightest, I thought we were all done for so I knew we had no other choice but to retreat. Unfortunately, Black Beetle was one step ahead of us and cut off our escape route. My confidence we would all make it back was hanging by a thread at this point. If it wasn't for our newest, friend, we may not have made it back. The Martian Beetle is still being questioned by the others at this time."
Looking at the clock, he saw it was getting close to his usual bed time, he did have school in the morning after all.
"I still have so many questions that need answers. Are the reach working with The Light and if so, to what purpose? Could this additive be something to unlock a person's dormant Metagene? Could it be a form of mind control like Nightwing once told me about? And what of the side effects that come from ingesting said additive? I will definitely keep an eye on Impulse for the time being."
Rising from his chair, Tim headed to his bed and moved a small picture on the wall to the side where a button was revealed. Once pressed, a tube slid out of the wall from behind a hidden panel.
"One more thing, I couldn't help but notice something happening between four members of the team, specifically Nightwing, Superboy, Miss Martian, and Lagoon Boy. Miss Martian has been distant as of late, completely different from how she normally acts and refuses to use some of her powers. Lagoon Boy has been complaining about her not talking to him or accepting his phone calls. Since they are in a relationship, this is strange. What adds to this is Conner's unknown whereabouts. He disappeared shortly after the Hall was destroyed and was not seen until late the next day. This happened several more times and each time he goes missing, Miss Martian is gone as well. This may be due to them attempting on working out what happened between them but as the others have put it, there may be something going on behind closed doors since they were together for the greater part of the team's existence and would like to keep it quiet, especially from you know who. This is like Nightwing and Batgirl when they're on patrol. They don't think I notice what they're doing behind my back or when they send me off to investigate alone, but I know. Superboy and Miss Martian relationship wise, I'm not going to touch that one as I don't have all the facts in as of yet. But if they are sneaking around, my money would be on Superboy when it all hits the fan."
Pausing once more, Tim stared out the window and saw the Batsignal light up the sky, knowing fully Nightwing and Batgirl would respond to it.
"I'll be out patrolling tomorrow night unless another mission comes up. I also would like to state how I…I can't wait until Batman returns to Earth. We need you here with us but we're holding our own. We can because you taught us everything we need to know. This is Robin…signing off."
With his recording complete, Tim removed the small tape from the device and dropped it into the tube in the wall. It would take it to the Batcave where it would wait for Bruce when he got back. In the meantime, he turned off his table lamp, climbed into bed, and went to sleep.
