Chapter 6: Cold-Hearted
Dick woke up on the morning of November 11th as he did any other day, the alarm clock next to his bed began going off at 6:50 am, which gave him an hour and 10 mins to get up shower and change before heading downstairs to eat breakfast before Alfred would drive him to school in one of their many limo's. But today he wasn't awoken by the sound of his buzzing alarm clock he was woken up on his own after his body felt like it had had enough rest. His eyes opened to glimpse around his bedroom seeing everything was perfectly normal, after stretching his limbs he realized it was a school day and turned to his alarm clock to see it was 10 am making him over 2 hours late
But surely someone should have woken him up, and his alarm clock was set to 6:50 am. After closer inspection he saw his alarm had been turned off, he got of his bed and went to the curtains of each of his windows to open them and was met with a cold chill so quickly closed them and finally got a look at the outside, snow was coming down hard, like they were in the middle of the largest blizzard to have ever hit the country. The weather forecast didn't call for any snow for a couple more weeks. The roads that led out of the gates of the Manor were completely blocked off by the snow piling up which means no one was leaving the manor anytime soon, not by a vehicle anyway
He went to his bathroom and put on one of his housecoats over his pajamas then headed downstairs to see what was going on
"Master Richard i see your finally awake" He was greeted by Alfred when he reached the foyer
"Yeah, what happened"
"Well Master Bruce and Miss Selina thought it would be good if you slept in for once now that we have had a sudden change in weather. School's have been cancels for the day"
"Oh okay" He nodded understanding "Where are Bruce and Selina?"
"They are having their morning breakfast right about now, you may go join them and i will bring you a fresh plate"
Dick nodded to him before heading back out of the foyer toward the dining room, he walked in to find Bruce and Selina at the head of the table conversing with each other while enjoying their morning breakfast but both of them turned their attention to him when he walked in
"Good morning Dick" Bruce greeted him
"I hope you had a good sleep" Selina greeted him
"Yeah i did, Alfred told me you let me sleep in now that school's been canceled"
"I thought you deserved a good rest after how hard you've been working on your schooling" Dick smiled at her nodding before taking his usual seat at the dining table
"So i take it neither of you can make it to work in this weather either?" Dick asked taking a look at their clothing to see they were both in their pajamas too
"All the roads in Gotham are blocked off by this sudden blizzard, it was so surprising that the city didn't have any time to prepare for the snow trucks to make their rounds. Everything in the city has been canceled because of this we can only hope this blizzard will be over soon so we can get back to our daily routines"
"Right"
Alfred stepped out of the kitchen doors with a tray of food "Here you are Master Richard, your favorite breakfast" he began sitting each plate down in front of him, one plate of blueberry pancakes, another plate with over easy eggs, bacon, and sausage, a plate of white toast, and a small bowl of fruit and a cup of fresh orange juice
"Thank you Alfred" Dick smiled up at him
"Your welcome Master Richard. Isn't it Master Wallace's birthday today"
"Oh right you got him what he he really wanted for his birthday right, he's gonna be so excited" Selina looked over to him
"I don't know how excited he'll be since he's been hinting about it all week" Dick shook his head thinking about how many times earlier that week Wally had been talking to him about the newest game console that had come out a few weeks earlier that he really wanted but didn't have the money. He had already figured that he could probably get it for him since every year he always gave him expensive gifts for his birthday which was nothing more than pocket change to him. He had been showing him commercials, magazine articles, online videos, and fantasizing about it in front of him
"You should hurry and finish eating then, don't want to be late for Wally's surprise party" Bruce told him
Dick nodded eating the last of his breakfast "I'll be back later" He nodded to them before heading upstairs to change
"I'm happy that Dick is finally getting back to his usual self" Selina smiled after Dick had left
"He most likely needed time to fully come to terms with what happened" Bruce smiled over to her, Dick had gotten back to his normal self right after the fight against the sorcerer's, he had begun talking to his friends again and his family as he used to and perhaps even more because now he was spending much more time with everyone doing anything anyone may ask him to do. Barbara had asked him earlier that week to take her and some of her girlfriends to the mall to shop to make up for missing their usual Halloween routine, Dick hated shopping with her but he had agreed without even groaning at the thought he even paid for her entire bill then took her to eat at her favorite restaurant. He helped the Soccer team at school win their game to get them into the championship
He spent a lot of time with the team playing the video games Wally had with him, they went out to Happy Harbor's amusement park, Dick's treat to them, he had been treating them to all sorts of fun things to do since he got over the simulation events, and he had even helped plan Wally's surprise party
"Has any members of the league been able to figure out what happened to Klarion? or what that creature was?" Selina asked changing the subject
Bruce let out a heavy sigh "No, whatever that thing was it's in none of the league's Green Lanterns went off to Oa to discuss it with the guardians and we should be learn more once he gets back. As for Klarion, because his cat was thrown into that void he was unable to keep himself stabilized in this dimension and vanished without that cat he can't return"
"So in a way that thing got rid of one of our most dangerous adversaries?"
"I suppose, but until we figure out what it was we can't rule anything out"
"SURPRISE!"
Wally's face didn't look in the least bit surprised
"What? A Surprise party for me? You guys, you shouldn't have"
Dick smirked and crossed his arms at him "Right, it's not like you've been hinting for days or anything" Wally only grinned at him in response
The party for Wally kicked, Dick immediately noticed Wally trying to cozy up to M'gann and shook his head "Can't believe he hasn't noticed yet" Artemis snorted at his comment from her spot next to him as they gathered around the table
"We made two cakes"
"Awesome what'll you guys eat?"
"We'll split the cupcake, make a wish"
"Way ahead of you" Wally took a deep breath then blew out the candles on both of the cakes getting cheers from everyone in the room, he turned his attention back to M'gann "You know if i tell you my wish it won't come true but if guess-" M'gann handed him a slice of cake "Nope guess again"
Dick noticed Artemis turn away from the two but then smirk when M'gann only gave Wally a small peck on his forehead so he turned his attention over to the teenage magician that had been standing at the edge of the group so decided to go over and try to keep her company "Hey Zatanna, how you liking the team so far?" He asked handing her a slice of cake that she took gratefully
"It's been fun so far, especially after all the trips you've taken us to Happy Harbor"
"Just trying to help make good bonding time" He smiled looking around at all the team members in the room
"Well it's definatly been fun since i was given permission to join the team from my dad"
"I told you he'd come around and maybe someday..." He paused purposefully "You'll be able to handle the sight of watching Wally eat" he motioned over to Wally seeing him shove an entire slice of cake into his mouth making Zatanna laugh at the sight
Dick smiled seeing he had cheered her up
"You know the team had actually been telling me that you were keeping distance from everyone for the past few weeks, but i guess you were doing something with your personal life back in Gotham"
"Yeah, But i've already sorted all that stuff out" Dick then heard quiet footsteps come up behind them so turned to see Artemis walk up between them
"You think we should tell him?" She asked, gesturing over to Wally seeing him continue to try flirting with M'gann
"He is the only one who doesn't know" Dick smirked
Artemis smirked back "Then please..allow me"
He and Zatanna watched Artemis walk over and lean down next to Wally whispering into his ear, His eyes went wide before he looked over to see M'gann feeding a piece of cake to Conner wiping off some crumbs from his lower lip "Aww Man!"
"Attention team" Bruce's Batman voice came over the Mountain's audio system. Dick immediately stiffened thinking the Green Lanterns had arrived back early "Suit up, Polar Stealth, Mission briefing in 5"
"Guess we'll have to wait till the mission is over to open your presents" M'gann told wally before they all left to their individual rooms to change into their polar uniforms. Dick rarely ever used his room at the Mountain, he only kept a few things there which were basically necessities, some spare clothes, uniforms, a couple books. He threw on his snow gear pulling the cowl over his head before returning out to the mission room
Batman was on the holographic screen, he was standing in the Batwing, Catwoman could be seen in the back round working some of the controls
"Where's Flash?" Wally asked
"Flash and Red Tornado already have their assignment's" Batman spoke just when a large thunder and lightning cracked behind the jet "A massive ice storm has paralyzed North America from coast to coast" Dick eyes widened at the thought, he knew this was a large blizzard but for it to have hit the entire continent, that was not normal, he didn't sense any form of sorcery being used at all "Satelittle Imagery has detected 5 flying ice fortresses, source unknown, which seems to be responsible and must be stopped"
"Well can't the watchtower blow them out of the sky or something?" Wally asked
Zatanna turned to him "What's a watchtower?" Batman spoke before he could answer
"The League's orbiting headquarters is not weaponized and with both Green Lantern's off world, I need all hands on deck"
Dick blinked before what Bruce had just said fully sank in "Then that means The League and The Team will be fighting side by side for the first time"
"Whoa really!" Wally gasped
"Superboy, use the supercycle rendezvous with the Batwing at Ice Fortress 1, you'll drop off Robin and Aqualad and continue on to meet with Black Canary and Red Tornado at Ice Fortress 2. Miss Martian, Artemis, and Zatanna, take the Bio-ship and rendezvous with Green Arrow, Martian Manhunter, and Zatara at Ice Fortress 3. Other leaguers will take care of fortresses four and five. Sending all coordinates now"
Zatanna shifted next to him, he looked over to her feeling a pang of anxiety in her, this was going to be her very first mission since officially joining the team so he could guess that she was a bit nervous but she would also have her dad watching out for her when they met up at Ice Fortress 3
Wally stepped closer to the screen "Uh, Batman i think you skipped-"
"Kid Flash, a young girl in Seattle is in desperate need of a heart transplant, with all conventional air traffic grounded by the storm, you'll need to pick up the donor heart in Boston and run it three thousand miles across the country" Dick saw Wally deflate after hearing his assignment, Dick glanced between him and Bruce, he knew his adoptive father was giving Wally a more important task than a simple delivery of a heart, he had heard earlier that the Queen Perdita of Vlatava was in a hospital in Seattle awaiting heart surgery
Wally didn't understand the importance of this task "Who is this girl?!" he blurted out getting glares from both him and Batman
"Does it matter?"
"No...of course not...but-can't we zeta-"
Dick understood what Bruce was trying to do by not revealing the identity of the girl, he was giving Wally a test, a high risk one because someone's life depended on it, a very important someone but a test none the less "The zeta-tubes are all offline" Giving a nod to his holographic computer " Sorry"
"Right...then...how can i say no" Wally moaned in disappointment "Guess i won't be need stealth" he tapped the symbol on his chest changing his polar stealth to his usual yellow and red uniform "Speedy delivery boy at your service"
Dick could tell that Wally had been real excited about the prospect of fighting along side the league but this test would assure his maturity in becoming part of the League one day, other members of the team had already had their own test of maturity including himself so hopes Wally could pass his own. He went to join Superboy, Aqualad, and Wolf in the supercycle sitting in the front seat before it flew out of the cave's entrance into the sky. he was grateful that his polar stealth uniform gave him a cowl to cover his entire face apart from his nose and mouth area but at least his ears and cheeks wouldn't freeze in this form with these protective clothing
The ride to Ice Fortress 1 took a lot longer than he had initially thought, the supercycle went at the same speed it always did when it came on missions with them but thought maybe the snow was slowing it down for a moment, so while he waited for them to arrive he began thinking up strategies on how to bring down the fortress from the image he had seen of it during the mission briefing, most likely something as high tech as this wouldn't be left unprotected once it was discovered so it likely had a lot of defense systems programmed into it so they would have to give a direct attack first before being able to get into the system and deactivate the snow pouring out of it.
He heard behind him Aqualad and Conner talking but he tuned them out, his eyes widened all of a sudden then looked down at himself moving his arm in front of his chest seeing it was trying to shift from it's usual human skin form to the blue shaded humanoid arm"No,no,no,no,no!" He whispered to himself clenching his eyes then began pushing the power that was trying to leak out back in
"Robin are you alright?!" Aqualad yelled down to him
"Yes! I'm fine!" He quickly yelled back over the snow, looking back down to see his arm was back to normal and sighed with relief. It was becoming more dangerous for him to keep his powers locked away, it had been becoming more erratic the longer he went without finding Eavon and Oshiana to perform their union spell, he thought to himself looking saddened before he heard Conner trying to get his attention "Yeah, what?!"
"I said we're almost above the clouds!" He yelled down to him
That meant they were finally approaching the Ice Fortress, when they were above the clouds, Dick caught movement out of the corner of his eye and turned to see the Batwing coming out from under the clouds, the dark glass didn't allow him to see inside though but he knew Bruce and Selina were inside
"There it is!"
Dick turned back to look ahead seeing the large black steel covered Ice Fortress in front of them
"Be ready my friend!" Aqualad yelled down to him
Dick nodded back to him reaching into his utility belt and getting out a grappling hook but as they got closer they saw that the weaponry of the fortress had activated sending large chunks of ice and beams into the sky at them "Watch out!" He yelled back as Conner steered the supercycle away from the line of fire, Aqualad got out his water bearers to make whips and destroy any chunks of ice that had been fired at them, Dick couldn't really do anything in this form without actually being on the fortress he turned to see the Batwing had activated it's own weapons and was firing down at the Ice Fortress weaponry to give them a window to get closer
"Go!" Conner yelled to him and Aqualad
Dick launched his grappling hook down at the ice fortress and then jumped out of the supercycle he landed right after Bruce had thrown a couple of Batarangs down at two turrets destroying them both, while he landed on another attaching one of his destructive disks to it before jumping off it and it blew up in an explosion, he saw out of the corner of his eye Aqualad use Aquaman as a spring board and destroy one of the other turrets but he didn't have time to keep an eye on his fellow team members as more of the fortresses weapons began activating. He back flipped a couple of times to avoid some of the beams before sending more of his disks into the direction the beams were coming from destroying the turrets
He looked to see Bruce had sent a couple of his pellets down at the smaller weapons, he continued to fight along side Bruce while Selina piloted the Batwing above them using the weapons of the jet to attack the fortress with them, he had to pause for a second taking cover by two to of the destroyed turrets when his inner Esclion power began trying to leak out again as he continued to exhaust himself, he had thought over the night after defeating Klarion why Lucero hadn't shown up but remembered that if there weren't enough living nature around you it wasn't easy to sense Esclions so that must be why Lucero hadn't come because he was in Gotham City that was covered with man made things. After absorbing the power back inside he got back into the action attaching two turrets together making their weapons turn on each other destroying them both
After a what seemed like hours of more fighting the last of the weaponry was finished off
"That was exhausting" Dick muttered once they regrouped
"The others fortresses have been engaged but the rest of the League have yet to finish dismantling the weapons" Bruce told them after he contacted the league members at the other four fortresses
"Wow, that means we finished first" Dick smirked at the thought "So what now?"
Bruce reached into his utility belt pulling out some very familiar bombs, they were the same ones he used in the simulation to destroy the mothership "We need to bring down the fortress to stop the storm, take the explosives and place them on the anti-gravity consoles"
Dick nodded reaching for some of the bombs but the fortress began shaking getting him off balance, Batman, Flash, Aquaman, and Aqualad also had to catch their own balance but they heard the sound of metal scraping against each other and they all turned to see large bulky looking monsters made out of the metal of the fortress emerge from the ground covered in patterns on their chests and head in purple glowing light.
Dick looked at them in horror, he thought he had been safe but before he could do anything Batman and the others rushed in to attack, he didn't have time to warn them as the Batwing above him flew off to attack as well. He rushed in to help protect them fighting off the Esclion powered monsters getting out his bo staff to fight them off but from past experience he knew that these things were easily defeated so far they could only hold them back. Dick took a look around but didn't see Lucero around but he noticed something else that didn't make any sense, the color of the magic powering these monsters were purple which could only be used by a girl Esclion and he knew Oshiana wouldn't do anything to hurt him
He didn't have time to thing it over as one of the monsters tried crushing him by a fist but he back flipped out of the way making a hole in the metal where he had been standing, he looked to see the rest of the them weren't faring any better and to make things worse his Esclion form was edging to come out again, he made a quick decision in the heat of battle to use his magic in Human form to destroy these monsters, a long time ago Lucero had made a spell on the earth to create these monsters to destroy them whenever he wasn't around and their life essence would immediately transfer through the monsters to him which could only mean that Lucero or whoever was powering these things weren't even close to the earth.
"Perdere Monstris in Spiritu et Virtute" He whispered to himself blowing out a small specks of blue magic from his mouth that traveled to each of the monsters and directly after making contact with them blasted them into pieces blowing each of the members of the league to the ground from the shock waves. The force of the explosion also causes the snow machines to shut off and for the fortress to begin to descend
"We need to move!" Batman yelled to the others, the Batwing quickly flew around to them and the hatch opened for the to move inside before the fortress really began falling out of the sky
"What were those things?!" Aqualad asked once they were safely inside the Batwing
"I have no idea, i have never seen anything like them" Aquaman answered him
"And how did they just suddenly explode like that?" Flash asked
"All good questions" Bruce gave his only answer before moving up to the Batwings monitor's
Selina put the Batwing on autopilot and went over to him "Robin are you alright?" She asked looking him over seeing his shaken expression
"I'm not injured don't worry" He told her
"That's not what i meant" She narrowed her eyes at him
"Just a little shaken up, that's all" He answered truthfully
"Don't worry, we'll figure this all out. Your safe now"
'For now' Dick thought
Once all the snow had been cleared off the streets school's had been resumed, Dick couldn't concentrate as he had been for the last few days though after what had happened on the fortress he knew his time was running out and he needed to find Eavon and Oshiana soon, he knew that the two of them were likely together and would be wondering where he was because he had supposed to get his memories back when he was 10 years old and he remembered when he was 13 that was extremely odd and he would have to discuss that with them whenever he did find them. He went through the entire school day as best he could until the 8 hours were finally over and he walked out to the gate where he was supposed to meet Alfred but after waiting for a while he didn't see their limo coming down any of the streets
He frowned wondering why Alfred was suddenly late when his phone began ringing in his pocket and he took it out to see it was Alfred calling "Yeah?" he answered
"Master Richard I am terribly sorry for the delay, but i have to run an emergency errand and can't make it to the academy"
Dick sighed at first before answering "It's fine Alfred i can walk back to the Manor, it'll be good exercise anyway"
"I'll be sure to make it up to you soon sir"
Alfred hung up before he could answer so he put his phone back in his pocket and put his sling backpack over his shoulder from where he had set it on the ground and made his way down the street. He made his way down the streets of Gotham City as the crowds went back and forth next to him, he was sort of on auto pilot himself as he headed across the city toward the manor thinking about his situation, he couldn't just pack up and leave because it would raise too many questions, leaving would raise questions no matter how he put it. He had been spending extra time with his friends and family to make his behavior less odd to them and that had been working as they had stopped asking him questions about his behavior after the simulation
Dick swallowed thinking about the fortress events, Bruce would likely ask the Green Lanterns about that when they returned with the information about Esclions. The guardians did have information about them since they were as old as the universe and knew everything about it even the extinct races, and would also know that they could take on different forms to blend in with the species of any planet and it would only be a matter of time after that, that he would be found out and then their lives would be put on the line and he didn't want that to happen. He cared a lot about the family and friends he had and he didn't want them to die because of him, he would live again even if he was killed, but none of them would
Dick had been walking past an alley between two apartment buildings when a hand shot out and covered his mouth and dragged him back into the alley, Dick's eyes widened and quickly let his Robin training take over elbowing the person behind him in the stomach making their grip on him lessen giving him the opportunity to grab their arm and flip them over his shoulder, he then heard a second person come up behind him before he could take a look at the first so quickly turned and kick the seconds person in the stomach
"DAEVI!"
The name made Dick pause in his tracks and made him finally look at the two people's faces, he looked to the ground seeing the male holding his stomach as he got back to his feet and once he fully got up he got a look at his face, his eyes widened seeing him for the first time "Eavon?!" he gasped at the sight of him then turned to the second seeing her looking at him in shock "Oshiana?!"
That ends Chapter 6! Now i didn't expect to do Cold-Hearted as i thought Misplaced would be the last cannon chapter but i thought it would be good to do those monsters on the fortress thing
Hope you guys liked it!
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