Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice. I only own this plot line.
Authors Note: Sorry for such a late update, I don't really have an excuse. Thank you for everyone for continuing to support this story, I'll try to update sooner from now on.
So if you hate it/ love it/ or think it's ehh, please review and let me know.
Thank you to the people who've reviewed so far, it really means a lot. 40 REVIEWS on chapter 5 alone, that's not counting the straggler reviews on previous chapters. THANKS GUYS! Let's try to get 40 for this chapter :) I want to hit at least 180 reviews before I post chapter 7. That's my goal! :) And sorry for the delay, I'm pretty swamped with real life as well. :0 I'l try harder to get chapters out sooner :D Thanks to jclark775, 49478, Unturned, jelloshots99, GenderBender25, xXLostParadoxXx, rey, KizzenNekoLuzZeBatgangYJ, Yuu101cutie, randomkitty101, Queen Sound, RobinsReckoning, yelrac, BabyBird101, animegal1357, Popcorn427, jaynon, weehoodle, FunnyDs1, Grace, Living-Life-To-It's-Fullest, Guest, neko. with. a. chainsaw , yourREADER, SpringStars, Guest, BlackWing10, ExiledEnmity, Guest, IceAurora, Guest, PainInSilence, Guest, Guest, lego50, Taylor Devline, FutureSight, Guest, Duly Ignored, and Cruz
Cruz: I wish you had an account so I could have gotten back to you sooner. I also have this story posted on Wattpad under the same penname of Rainbowlalaland and on ARchive of our own under the penname Rainbowlalalaland. However if you are talking about another story under another penname I would greatly appreciate it if you'd let me know the penname it is under so I can check it out.
Circus Act
Chapter 6
C.I.R.C.U.S. A.C.T.
Robin, after cooling down a little, began to regret taunting Conner into attempting the trapeze, let alone attempting it without a net. Yeah, he was still frustrated by the team's dismissal the night before, and the fact that none of them have any skill at performing, and the fact that he has to teach them all how to do their acts – acts that they're already supposed to know how to do – and the fact that he just plain doesn't like them because they're obviously lying to him about something… but still, that wasn't any reason to taunt one of them into a dangerous situation! If it wasn't for the fact that the rest of the team didn't even look remotely worried, well except Roy - but he looked more mad than worried - he would have called it off. However he already knew that the rest of the team disliked him for some reason – and it couldn't have been his pranks because for one they haven't been around long enough for him to even get them with a good one yet and two because they went out of their way to ditch him before he had gotten the chance to prank them! Sure he had woken them up with icy water this morning, but that was really more of a payback than a prank. A prank would be highly more embarrassing than being startled awake by cold water. So the reason for the animosity had to be something else, he planned to get to the bottom of it too.
But first – "Have you ever done the trapeze before?"
"No," Conner ground out, so tightly strung the veins in his neck were visible.
"M'gann, go set up the net!" Robin made a sweeping motion to the net rolled against one of the red columns. Yeah, he'd get to the bottom of their behavior later, first he needed to make sure they stayed alive long enough for him to figure out their secrets.
"I thought we were doing this 'No Net'." Conner said, his arms crossed tighly over his chest.
"Yeah that was before I found out you had no trapeze experience. Pop Haley wouldn't be too happy with me if I accidently killed you." Robin said lightly, already bouncing on the tips of his toes in anticipation. "Maybe if you turn out any good we'll have a go without the net."
The thought made his heart race and his lips twitch into a small smile. To have someone as his catcher would mean being able to fly with no restrictions. He's have someone there to catch him, so he could do any move he wanted without fear or calculation.
"It can't be that hard, all you do is swing from one bar to the next."
A scowl instantly plastered itself onto Robins face. Well so much for that elated feeling.
"Yeah and I bet flying the Batwing is easy too. All you have to do is push buttons and pull levers." Robin grumbled with a roll of his eyes, not missing the slight widening of everyone's eyes nor the pursed lips as Roy gripped his bow tighter.
Strange…He filed the information away to look into later that evening.
"Let's just get started, you'll see that it's harder than it looks." Robin smirked, turning on his heel and heading towards the trapeze ladder.
He stepped onto the first rung, began to hoist himself up, gliding smoothly up the ladder with practiced ease. He was half way up when he turned his head to peer at his new "team". Pitching his voice louder than usual he called, "Well are you coming or not? At this rate it's going to talk all day to get you even half way decent at these! Or are you chickening out?"
Conner's eyes burned with his anger and his hands clenched tighter. "No, I'm coming." He grit out.
Roy sent a wary look to Kaldur. Conner was the second newest member of their team and had already shown tremendous anger management issues over the few months he'd been working with them. However he was a member of their team and the last thing he'd do is take someone else's side – especially if that someone was clearly taunting the older boy, pushing him farther and farther past his breaking point, headless of the multiple flashing signs lit up saying "DANGER, DANGER". That didn't mean that Roy wasn't worried that Conner would snap and hurt the kid, the worry was only stemmed because of the distinct possibility of it becoming a reality. He was positive that Conner punching the boy - because a punch from Conner was like getting hit with a bat (when he was going easy) – would go over well with the Circus or the League.
Kaldur caught Roy's wary look, and a panicked smile was sent back. The slight waver did nothing to reassure the leader of the mission. Whatever the consequence, they knew that the repercussions would fall onto them as well, because it was their job to keep the others in line. They also knew that at this point in time there was nothing they could do or say to stop this from happening – Conner would refuse to listen to any kind of reasoning. Robin had done a good job on riling him.
M'gann established a mind link when Roy gestured for her to do so, and the teens instantly felt five others in their mind.
"M'gann, can you think of any tips to give Conner?" Kaldur started immediately, knowing that they didn't have much time before Conner reached the trapeze landing.
"Uhm, I was using my powers all day to help me get from bar to bar. It's a lot harder than it looks. Robin just kept telling me to relax and trust that he wouldn't let me fall." M'gann said. "Sorry I'm not much help, I don't think Conner can use that advice."
Artemis scowled, "Conner shouldn't have taken the stupid bet, he's going to end up blowing our cover."
"You were about to take the bet too!" Wally shouted through the mind link. "You were like literally three seconds from accepting." He fought to keep his body language from showing their conversation.
"Well so were you!" Artemis scowled back. "The difference between me and you two though is the fact that I have a little bit of experience with things similar to the trapeze, plus I'm more flexible and lighter so it'll be easier on his body and mine to do an act together. The boy can get hurt just from attempting to catch Conner should he mess up. Why do you think he had the net set up?"
This gave Roy a pause, "You think he had the net set up because he knew it'd hurt him should he try to catch Conner."
"I don't get it, what's the big deal, so he set the net up so he wouldn't get hurt -" Wally got cut off by Artemis.
"-Because Kid Idiot, that increases his chances of being our culprit!"
"What Artemis is trying to say, Wally, is that he didn't set up the net because Conner might get hurt, he set it up because he might get hurt should have to catch Conner. Our culprit has left multiple injured people on the robbery lots, the only thing he hasn't done is kill. This also increases Robins percentage of being our culprit, because if he had no qualms about killing he wouldn't have set up the net and could have passed off Conner falling as an accident and 'Conner's fault' for accepting the challenge without any trapeze experience.
Wally groaned aloud. "Oh."
Conner had, by this point, reached the platform that Robin was standing on and looked down and watched M'gann secure the safety net. He glanced at the boy beside him, and when he saw a masked face staring back at him he turned his head with a growl and stared down at the ground again.
Robin smirked, he never would have guessed that he enjoyed getting under people's skin this much if it wasn't for this new team. That and they were all so easy to annoy. It was fantastic!
Conner felt his ire begin to ebb away. "Let's just get this over with." He made to reach for the bar clipped to the large pole behind him but Robin beat him to it, grasping it with both hand and holding it tight.
"Naw uh uh," Robin sang, a silly smirk on his face. His excitement for a base was returning, even despite Conner's obvious dislike for what they were about to do. "You're going to need a basic run down if you don't want to be tangled in that net within the next fifteen seconds."
The thought forced a chuckle from Wally's lips, but he quickly snapped his mouth shut when Artemis shot him a glare.
"First, you need to remember that when we're in the air we are partners. We need to have a mutual trust that we won't let the other down, because when performing this act without a net no trust often times leads to serious injury or even death." Robin said, his voice completely serious for the first time that day. "Second; if you're a flyer you cant be stiff, but if you're a catcher you have to be stiff otherwise you'll hurt your wrists when catching a flyer." He paused to let Conner digest the information.
Conner took the information more gracefully than Artemis and Wally who were both scoffing and shaking their heads in disbelief, muttering about trust. He studied the way Robin carried himself, noticing how when standing he put all his weight on his left leg, only leaving his right on the ground for balance. He noticed how despite all of his infuriating tendencies that made him seem like a huge irritating threat, he was just a kid who barely came up to his chin and seemed to be painfully thin compared to himself.
"So we'll start this off easy." Robin began before being cut off by the bigger boy.
"When you and M'gann were practicing earlier you two took turns doing tricks and catching each other, how are you going to do that with me? I'm twice you're size, there's no way you'd be able to hold my weight." Conner said, a frown etched into his face, tugging his lips down a fraction of an inch.
Sighing, Robin massaged his thigh. "I was getting to that."
"I'm going to be the flyer, and you are going to be the catcher." Robin explained. He held the bar out to Conner, "Hold this bar here for me."
When Conner grabbed it, Robin pulled a face and motioned the other boy to use both hands to hold it steady. "This is how you're going to sit on the bar," Robin pulled himself up, swung his legs over the top and grasped the bar with the inside of his knees and he leant back and held himself upside down on the bar. "You're going to need to spread your legs so that they clasp the outside of the bar to give yourself more leverage or when you catch my weight it might unbalance you and then we'll both fall."
Robin twisted himself around, his body curling in ways that Conner found almost frightening. He didn't think that a knee should ever be that close to a back unless it was someone else's. The younger boy landed lightly on his left foot and gingerly lowered his right to the ground in a way that Conner would have missed had he not been looking for it.
"Do you understand?"
Conner nodded, and rearranged his grip on the bar. "Yeah, I just hang upside down in the middle and catch you. Like I said, it doesn't sound that hard."
Robin felt his temper getting closer to snapping with every condescending word that left the older boys mouth.
Well he'd show him not to mock the trapeze. It wasn't so easy that just anybody could do it, it took years of practice to actually get good! Not even the M'gann girl was that good, sure she was decent, but he could tell by working with her that she has very limited experience with it.
"Let's get started then." The irate boy grit out, motioning for Conner to take his spot.
Conner, not use to trying to be graceful, was a little lost on how to dismount from the platform. Did he jump? Or just step off? His hesitation showed and Robin told his to step off the platform and just let his weight carry him, before pulling himself into the position that he was supposed to take. Conner did as directed, and a minute later he was situated upside and swinging back towards the platform that Robin was standing on.
Grabbing the bar behind him, Robin climbed up a few rungs to give himself a little more swing on the bar and jumped off. His body was wound tightly, held in a stiff line with pointed toes so he would cut through the air and gain more momentum and he swung his body with the bar. He passed Conner, swinging wide above the older boy, and his bar reached the end of it's reach.
Robin's right hand released the bar, and he crossed it over his left, gripping down to hold himself steady. He twisted in the air, never leaving his stiff form and he sped up even more. He knew he shouldn't be trying to gain this much speed on the first run, he doesn't even know if Conner would be able to catch him or not. However his body just didn't seem to care. It wanted to fly, and so he was going to go all out.
He swung past Conner again and this time when his bar reached the end of its reach he glanced out of the corner of his eye, made sure that Conner would be in position to catch him, and released both hands while swinging his legs up and executing a double back flip. His arms were raised in front of him, hands open ready to grasp the first thing that came in contact with them, and for a moment wondered if Conner would let him fall.
Then he felt the jarring sensation of big hands wrapping around his wrists and jerking his downward momentum to a stop. His shoulder strained to carry the weight that had just dropped onto them. His weight. And then he felt a searing pain.
That idiot.
Ok, so maybe it wasn't his fault Robin justified, still peeved but nonetheless happy that the older boy didn't let him fall.
"Ow." Robin deadpanned.
"What?" Conner asked, glancing down at the boy whose wrists he held. "I caught you."
"Yeah, and you can let me down now too. I think I tweaked my shoulder, it might have gotten dislocated." Robin said, the quickly backpedaled when he saw Conner's distraught expression. "It wasn't your fault though, or ok maybe it was, I should have explained to you on how to catch properly to avoid injury. I didn't think that far ahead, or I just forget…maybe."
Robin felt the grip loosening around his wrists and he twisted himself as he fell so that he could land on his back and roll to the edge of the net without having to put any weight on his leg or shoulder. Wow this really wasn't turning out to be his week. First he hurt his leg, and now he hurt his shoulder.
What else could go wrong?
Wait, no. Don't answer that. Robin scowled, that was just inviting trouble.
He reached the edge of the net and swung his legs off the side, sliding to the ground when he felt a "light jostle" of the net behind him, signaling Conner dismounting the same way he had.
And of course, that "light jostle" unbalanced him just enough to send him pitching forward into Kaldur who had stepped forward to help him down.
Groaning Robin mentally face palmed. This is why he should never ask himself what more could possibly go wrong. Because something always does. Always.
C.I.R.C.U.S.A.C.T.
C.I.R.C.U.S. A.C.T.R&R - Sorry for the late update guys, I've been working on this chapter for a long time. Let me know what you think, what can be improved, and what you want to see in future chapters. Sorry for the lame chapter, Ill try to get a more exciting one out next time!
- Rainbowlalaland
