A/N: New chapter!

Thanks so much to: READINGhearts17 (haha, he will explode, don't worry! Just not yet. But when he does it will be bad.), c0pypa5ted3lete (Your reviews are so amazing! i love reading them so much! Honestly, quite often they are what inspire me to write!), FudoTwin17 (you review like every chapter! It's awesome!), anon, Lakeshine, and Anonymous!

Disclaimer: I remembered! I don't own Young Justice.


"Well?" A whiny voice demanded.

"Penguin failed to retrieve the subject, sir."

Grumbling.

"Sir?"

More grumbling.

"Um, sir?"

"What?"

"Well, um, I just-"

"Who'd you send out this time?"

"Um, no one sir-"

"Why not?"

"Well, I was just wondering if you wanted to switch tactics, because, you know, this isn't exactly worki-"

"No, I do not. The boy's in Gotham, is he not? It's not like he's hard to find."

"Well, no sir, but-"

"Then why hasn't someone caught him yet?"

"Well sir, he's hard to catch. The Batman is always protecting him and-"

"Get him when he's not with the Batman then."

"You see sir, when he's not with the Batman, he's with the other sidekicks."

"Then get him when he's not Robin."

"But sir, we don't know who he is when he isn't Robin."

"Then find out! Must I really do everything for you?"

"Of course sir."

"I must do everything for you?"

"N-no, no of course not."

"Then why did you say 'of course'?"

"I was saying 'of course' I'll find out who he is when he isn't Robin, sir."

"Then why are you still here? Go!"

"Y-yes, sir."

oOo

Dick Grayson was bored. It wasn't a normal occurrence in the thirteen-year-old's life, for which he was grateful, but today was one of the unfortunate occurrences. Batman was out with Green Arrow talking to Artemis Crock, as he'd learned her real name was (seriously, Artemis and Artemis?), and despite all of Robin's pleading, he still wasn't permitted to accompany them. So he was stuck at the manor, homework long finished, waiting on Alfred to finish cooking dinner and Batman to come back so they could head out on patrol. He could, of course, go out patrolling by himself, but some sort of sixth 'Batman' sense told him that his mentor wouldn't be too enthusiastic about the idea.

Honestly, Dick couldn't understand why the man was acting this way. He was being way more overprotective than usual and it was starting to get on Dick's nerves. So far it had just been subtle things, like demanding that he stay back and keep lookout in a certain fight that he'd normally be allowed to fight in, or that he return from patrol early on some nights, but Dick could only assume that it would escalate. No doubt this behavior had something to do with the kidnapping attempts, but that didn't make it any less odd. Dick and Robin had both been kidnapped multiple times and while Batman had been overprotective for a little while, it had quickly faded. This showed no signs of letting up. The Dark Knight even seemed to be doubting the Team and his protégé ability to work out of the safety of the Bat's wing.

This better end soon, Dick growled to himself, pacing his bedroom. He had nothing better to do, really. He could train, of course, but wasn't really in the mood, for some reason he couldn't quite place. Normally with such free time, Dick would have called Barbara and meet up with her somewhere, but she was visiting her mom in Chicago, so that wasn't an option. He couldn't help thinking how pathetic it sounded that he really only had one friend he'd ever really hang out with. Sure, Wally knew his secret identity, but Bruce didn't know he knew, so hanging out with him, while Bruce was around, was just asking for trouble.

"Master Richard, supper is ready. Master Bruce just arrived and will not appreciate dawdling." Alfred's voice carried through the intercom in Dick's room, slightly crackly, but unmistakably Alfred. The intercom system was installed into the mansion some forty or fifty years ago for the very purpose of calling the inhabitants to dinner, and Alfred still used it whenever he wanted to contact either Dick or Bruce in more remote corners of the grand estate. Dick personally thought them to be rather outdated, and he couldn't see why cell phones couldn't be used, or at least a newer intercom system installed, but Alfred claimed that the old ones worked fine and Bruce didn't really care.

"Coming Alfred," Dick called, pointing his face towards the black square piece of plastic mounted on his wall, before gathering up his finished homework from his bed and shoving it in his backpack. He quickly threw his shoes in his closet and folded his school uniform on top of his bed and then cleared off his desk of junk before finally setting his backpack by the door; Alfred was very particular about his room remaining clean. He then slammed the door shut – Alfred was rather nosy and despite Dick's best efforts would probably find something out of place, but he wouldn't look if the door was shut – then ran down the steps two at a time before skidding to a halt outside the dining room. Man, he had a lot of energy that needed burning off. Patrol, patrol….

"- yes please, Alfred, thank you – hello Dick, homework finished?"

Dick rolled his eyes at Bruce's obvious lack of faith in his wards study skills before answering:

"Yeah, about an hour ago."

"Good." Was the only response he received. Typical Bruce.

They sat down for dinner – Filet Mignon with some sort of Potato Gratin and a type of sauce that Dick couldn't name, despite his three years of French education – and it soon fell, naturally, upon Dick to promote any small talk at the table besides business. Though conversation at the dinner table had improved since Dick arrived at Wayne manor, neither the butler nor the billionaire were very experienced in the art (Alfred probably was, but Bruce was anything but helpful in a discussion and it was usually required that the other participant do most the talking, continuously) and it would get quiet real quickly if Dick didn't keep a near monologue going. Once Bruce and Alfred had reached a low point in their discussion on the updates being made to the Wayne Tech building, which didn't take long (though Dick was in the opinion that it had been at a low point from the start) the acrobat threw out a question that he'd been waiting for Bruce's return to ask.

"So, how'd the meeting with Assassin Girl go?"

"The meeting with Artemis went fine." Bruce answered, heaping some more of the unknown sauce onto his plate. "Her mother was actually quite enthusiastic about her getting some training and supervision in the crime fighting field. She'd apparently been on the wrong side of the law while her mother was in jail and Paula Crock was pleased with her conversion."

"By 'on the wrong side of the law' you mean working with Sportsmaster, right?" Dick asked, pushing his own sauce around on his place, feeling little inclination to eat it. It was a weird pale yellow-y-orange color with green specks. Like puke, which was gross.

Dick looked up, noticing Bruce hadn't answered.

"Right?" He asked again.

Again Bruce didn't answer.

"Fine then. I know the answer anyway – I fought her after all."

"Then why'd you ask?"

Dick huffed, shoveling some more filet into his mouth and digging around for another question he could ask about Artemis.

"So, she joining the Team?"

"If Green Arrow sees fit."

"Why wouldn't he?"

"Whatever his reasons would be." Yep, Bruce was a very hard person to carry on a conversation with.

Once dinner was nearly over and Alfred was beginning to clear away plates Bruce stood and stretched before turning and heading in the direction of the Batcave.

"Patrol?" Dick asked, setting down his silverware and making to get up, leaving his unfinished puke sauce on his plate.

"Yes, suit up."

Dick shot to his feet and was almost out of the room before Alfred's voice brought him back.

"Master Richard, come finish your béarnaise sauce."

Oh, béarnaise sauce. That was made of butter and stuff, not puke. He should've eaten it with the Filet.

oOo

Robin scowled to himself as he shot his grappler at the roof and let it pull him away from the now-tied-up thugs in the alley. A robbery. That was all he'd gotten all night. A common robbery. That was good right? It meant Gotham was finally cleaning up its act, right? Wrong. It only meant that Robin was patrolling in the cleanest, newest, least crime ridden parts of Gotham, much to his infuriation. It meant that Batman had again sent Robin away while he dealt with the real threats – alone. Tonight it was the Joker. Apparently he'd been seen terrorizing some victims in the Narrows near the bridges leading to Arkham Asylum. While Robin was frustrated at his treatment, he could almost understand Batman's reasoning – almost, but not quite.

Sure the Joker was one of the worst and, while they were rare occurrences, his terrorization streaks were brutal, Robin had gone up against the Joker before, a year or so back, and it hadn't turned out too bad. In fact, he and Batman had managed to send him to Arkham Asylum…. where he only remained for a few months, but that was Arkham securities fault and beside the point. Of course they'd both suffered injuries, a few broken bones and numerous bruises, but that was to be expected with the Joker. Besides, Robin was older than he'd been then, and had progressed farther in his training, so really there was no reason for Robin not to go and help Batman. It wasn't like the Joker would be working with Cadmus, or whoever these people really were. He was an insane psychopath, not a mercenary villain so to speak. Batman was just being paranoid, Robin decided, unreasonably so.

The boy flew around a corner on his grappler, barely avoiding a nasty collision with a brick wall, and scanned the quiet, sleeping streets of Gotham. As his gaze fell over a row of apartment complexes Robin caught sight of a very familiar long tail of blonde hair through one of the windows. So, that's where she lived. This would be fun.

The Boy Wonder landed lightly on the balcony outside the window, immediately blending into the shadows. He peeked around the corner and watched as Artemis strapped on her quiver and picked up her bow from its place on her bed. She was dressed in her black ninja-like suit as Robin couldn't help but think of it as, and she was just pulling on the half face ski-mask-like head piece. The acrobat slowly snuck around the corner, smirking as he saw that her window was open, and quietly slipped into her room when her back was turned. He crouched down in the shadows of her dresser, waiting for her to turn around.

Her room was small, but had two beds, which he couldn't help but think was rather odd, and above the other bed, the one that Artemis didn't appear to be using, was an Alice in Wonderland poster. Other than the poster, the room was bare of decoration and had only a small desk on the opposite wall of the window and a small dresser between the beds.

"Aaaaah!"

Robin jerked upright at Artemis' screech, nearly hitting his head on the window sill.

"What are you doing in my room?" She asked in a much quieter, yet just as angry, voice.

"Stalking." Sure, why not.

"Ugh! Get out!" She yanked him up by the collar of his cape and marched him over to the window, attempting to shove him over the sill. He let himself get shoved forward, but caught himself on the edge of the window with his hands and kicked his legs up into a hand stand, looking upside down at the angry girl in front of him.

"Freaking little Peter Pan impersonator." She muttered.

"You really like the fairy tales, don't you?" Robin asked.

"Move over."

"Going on a little crime fighting joyride, are we?" He smirked, shaking some hair out of his face that had gotten caught on his mask.

"How is it a joyride? I'm not stealing anything to do it." The archer argued, slinging her bow over her shoulder and crossing her arms, obviously waiting for Robin to move. He didn't, only replied:

"My city."

"Huh?"

"You're stealing my city."

"Your city? How is Gotham your city?"

"Well, Batman's city, but same difference."

Artemis raised an eyebrow before shoving him to the side and stepping out the window onto the balcony. Robin let himself get shoved and turned it into a flip which landed him in Artemis' path on the balcony. Yeah, he was showing off. He smirked at her, his hands on his hips.

"Can't you just leave me alone and go do your hero stuff somewhere else?" She asked, turning around the other way before reaching for a grappling arrow.

"You forget: this is my – er, Batman's city, so anyone interested in doing any vigilante-hero work has to receive express permission from either the Bat or myself." Robin said, stepping around the archer until he was in front of her again.

"Since when?"

"Since always," he replied, stepping back in forth to stay in her path as she tried to move around him. Honestly, he felt like he was dancing with her. "Cause if you don't, Bats'll come looking for you."

"Big deal; he's already visited my house, thanks to someone."

Robin gave her a cheeky smile before asking: "So, does this mean you're joining my team?"

"Do I really have a choice?"

"No need to sound so enthusiastic."

Artemis sighed, looking annoyed at the fact that she was unable to get off her balcony because of Robin. Well, she could use her grappling arrow and get onto her roof, Robin thought, but maybe she know I'll just cut it before she even gets off the ground. Seriously, she needed to get stronger line. Hopefully Green Arrow would take care of that.

"Are you going to let me go, or am I going to have to make you?" She growled, pulling her bow off her back and replacing her grappling arrow with a different, more dangerous looking one.

"I already went over this," Robin grumbled, hand straying to his own belt. "Batman's city. And Robin's." He added. Couldn't leave any arguing points open. "'Sides, why do you want to go out so bad anyway? Tomorrow, or the next day, or someday soon, GA will come and take you patrolling in Star City. Can't you just wait till then?"

Artemis looked like she was going to yell at him, or attack him, or something violent-like, until she suddenly deflated and lowered her bow, stashing her arrow.

"Listen, er, Robin," she began, obviously uncomfortable with the fact that she actually called Robin by his real name. It was a rare occurrence for her. "I just wanted to get out, get a little practice in so hopefully Green Arrow won't thing I'm…. I dunno…. Not worth it." She finished quietly, looking down at the bow in her hand.

"So, you do wanna be Green Arrow's protégé after all." Robin prodded.

"Why do I even tell you these things?" The archer grumbled, leaning against the balcony railing in defeat.

"Cause I'm just so charming, you can't resist pouring out your very heart and soul to me." Robin stated, jumping up and sitting on the railing, balanced rather precariously over a considerable drop. Artemis' apartment was on the fifth floor. He watched the older girl, studying her. She'd make a great addition to the Team, no doubt; even if they hadn't been in desperate need of an archer, they needed someone with her personality. Or at least someone else who understood 'Earth culture' as M'gann called it, so he and Kid Flash weren't stuck cracking jokes at each other. It got old real fast.

"Are you just going to watch me all night?" Artemis snapped. "Cause if so, you might be here awhile: I'm not going to bed anytime soon."

"Nope," Robin grinned, leaping off the railing. "I'm gonna teach you how to be on a team – Robin style."

Hey, what's the worst that could happen?

oOo

For a while, it seemed, the worst wasn't too bad. Robin dragged Artemis through the Gotham night, both of them handling a couple robberies, one drug deal and a harassment that looked like it was about to dissolve into something nastier, but was stopped in time. The worst through all that was that Robin had gotten smacked upside the head by woman whom they were saving from harassment – she had started wildly swinging her purse around once the two heroes showed up and Robin's head had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It was an accident, of course, but Artemis found it hilarious and hadn't stopped laughing for nearly ten minutes straight.

After that incident it had been quiet for nearly an hour – Robin claimed it was because everyone had thought that Artemis' laughter was the Joker's so they took off – and the acrobat knew that it was getting close to the time to call it a night. Batman would radio him soon and tell him to head back to the cave and the Dark Knight would either join him – if he'd either caught the Joker or lost him (the latter more likely) or the he would stay out until one of the two happened. Either way, Robin considered it a productive night on his part (at least considerably less boring than it would have been with the absence of the archer) as he'd successfully, in his opinion, taught Artemis how to be on a team. More accurately, his team.

"You said there's a Martian?" Artemis asked after Robin explained to her about her new teammates. "And an Atlantian?"

"Yep," Robin grinned, swinging his legs back and forth over the edge of the roof upon which the two teenagers were now perched. "And a kryptonian clone. But don't call him a clone."

"Riiight," Artemis said, looking rather doubtful. "So are there any other humans?"

"There's Kid Flash, who's a speedster, but not an alien." Robin replied.

"Any other non-meta-humans?"

"Nope, just me and you!"

"Great."

"You don't sound too whelmed."

"What is with you and this 'whelmed' thing? What does it even mean? Never mind, don't answer that." She added quickly, probably seeing that Robin was about to launch into a long, overly detailed explanation on prefixes and suffixes. Her loss.

"Seriously Artemis," Robin continued. "It'll be great. 'Sides, I-" He cut off.

"What?"

"Shh." He whispered, eyes narrowing behind his mask. He'd heard something. His gaze traveled to a nearby warehouse where he could just make out the small glow of a light from one of the grimy windows.

"What?" Artemis asked again, much quieter.

"Heard something." Was all Robin replied. What he'd heard…. Was it really what it sounded like?

"Come on." He whispered, beckoning her to follow him. The Boy Wonder shot a grappler across to an adjacent roof and leapt off the roof they were on, letting the line carry him near silently to the ground. He heard the tell-tale sounds of Artemis following him. He crouched low and snuck quietly up to the warehouse, trying to find a window low enough for him to look in as they were all well above his head. Like a lot of things were.

"What are we doing?" Artemis hissed, coming up beside the boy.

"Investigating," Was all Robin said before launching himself quietly into the air below a window and grabbing the ledge with his gloved hands, using it pull himself up. He perched on the window ledge and peered into the gloom of the warehouse.

It was a rather cliché, typical abandoned warehouse, what with the dusty windows, crates stacked against the walls, single light bulb and visible electrical wiring. And to add to the cliché, in the middle of the room were three wooden chairs with wires and rope attached to their slats. In the chairs were three blindfolded men, one in each chair mind you, strapped to their pieces of furniture with leather and ropes. In front of one of the men, for they were all facing different directions, were three masked figures, each holding a gun and one holding a remote-like device. The man with the remote was talking, and loudly, his voice echoing around the room.

"I'll ask you again: who is Robin? What's his real name?" The voice held a twinge of impatience, and a ton of anger, but neither made Robin's heart stop more than what it had said.

"I already told you!" One man shrieked. "I don't know! No one does!"

"Liar." The masked figure growled, hitting a button on his remote. Robin knew what was going to happen before it did. As electricity traveled through the three chairs, the men screamed in pain, one even begging for mercy. The sight was too much and Robin had to look away. Sure, people had tried to figure out the Dynamic Duo's secret identity before, but it didn't help dull the pain of when others were tortured for the information. Artemis was looking up at the acrobat and Robin could see question in her eyes.

"What're they doing in there?" She asked, standing below Robin's perch, obviously having heard the masked man's question.

"Electric chair. Low voltage though. Not enough to kill." Yet.

"What do we do?"

"We go in." He replied, flipping gracefully to the ground beside the archer. "But we go cautiously. No full-out assault, alright? We stay to the shadows and take out their weapons first."

Artemis nodded.

"Oh, and we don't kill, got it?" He added, as a precaution. She was Assassin Girl after all.

"Yeah, I know. I understand. Batman already went over that with me." She replied, in a voice that held something akin to self-disappointment.

"Okay," he began, getting his leader mode on, as Kid Flash called it. "There's two doors that I saw: one front, one back. You take the back, I'll take the front. Get in, preferably during the screaming, we don't know how oiled the doors are." Weird way to put it, yes. "And keep to the shadows. Don't move till I give you the signal."

"Which is?"

"Um, I'll throw a batarang and disarm the head masked guy."

"What?"

"There're three masked guys and three guys tied to electric chairs. The masked guys have guns. I'll disarm the head one. You'll know who he is when you get in there." Normally Robin would want Artemis to be able to see the situation instead of charging in blindly, but there really wasn't time.

"Got it?" He asked.

"Yeah, got it."

Without another word Robin disappeared into shadows heading for the front door. Or at least he assumed it was front. Really, it could have been the back too. Or the side. But that was beside the point. He waited by the door, listening as Maskey Number One asked 'one more time' who he was, and as the pleas of 'we don't know, we don't know' were followed by agonized screams. As soon as the screaming started, Robin carefully pushed open the door – it was thankfully only slightly squeaky and had obviously been opened recently, probably by the masked men – and slipped inside, immediately blending into the shadows.

He glanced across the room at Artemis, and, seeing her inside and hidden as well, pulled out two batarangs and snuck around for a better shot. He waited for three minutes as Maskey Number One questioned the captives again before finally raising his gun, a small revolver, as Robin knew he would once he was denied the information one to many times. He was the biggest of the three masked figures, and obviously male, the others smaller. One looked like a woman while the other was scrawnier and possibly a teenager or young man.

"Tell me or I'll shoot ya." Boss Maskey (he seemed like the boss) growled, stepping closer.

Whether his threat would have been followed through with or not, Robin would never know, for at that moment he sent a batarang flying at the weapon, knocking the gun out of the man's hand and sending it skidding across the warehouse's cement floor with a clatter. An arrow followed almost immediately, knocking the remote from his other hand.

"It's the Bat!" Skinny Maskey shrieked, dropping his own gun and putting his hands over his head. Why did they always assume it was Batman? Sure, it was a batarang but Robin used batarangs too. Robin sighed; obviously he needed to work on his popularity among Gotham's crime world.

He let out a cackle, throwing his voice so it echoed all around the warehouse as he shot a grappler at the ceiling and soared over the Maskey's heads.

"It's not the Bat," the woman, for the voice was very feminine, said, raising her own gun. "It's just his sidekick."

"Partner," Robin corrected, swinging back and dropping down on her shoulders. Was that so hard to remember? He used her shoulders as a springboard to launch a flying kick at Skinny Maskey's face. He went down hard.

"Get the kid!" Boss Maskey yelled, dropping to the floor and scrambling for his gun. "Boss'll pay big for him."

Ms. Maskey started firing at Robin, causing him to dodge and weave the flying bullets as Artemis rushed out from the shadows, swiftly kicking Boss Maskey in the face as he tried to stand up with his newly retrieved gun.

"Nice!" Robin called, pausing in his wild dance to watch the archer.

"Yeah, thanks, but watch the bullets!" Artemis yelled, engaging in hand-to-hand combat with the only partially stunned head masked man. Robin watched her for a minute, still dodging bullets: she was good, especially for a long range fighter, but of course Robin already knew that; he'd fought her after all.

"Hold still kid!" Ms. Maskey growled, now firing her downed partners gun.

"Yeah, sure." Robin agreed, coming to a halt. His hand went behind his cape, grasping a batarang as Ms Maskey turned to face him, gun raised.

"Finally," she grumbled, taking aim. Robin watched as she pulled the trigger… only to pull on air, her gun skidding away into the shadows, thanks to his batarang. Man, did he love pulling that trick – her face was priceless.

"You-" she started, about to launch into a very profanity laced, carry-on sentence, no doubt, when an arrow landed at her feet and exploded, releasing a dark grey smoke. Robin held his breath, even though he was probably a far enough distance for it not to affect him. When the smoke cleared, the woman was out cold.

"Nice!" Robin shouted, again. He'd have to come up with some other word of praise to use.

"Mmf." Artemis grunted, delivering one last kick to Boss Maskey's head as he dropped to the floor, if not unconscious then too stunned to move.

After checking to make sure that both Ms. Maskey and Skinny Maskey were down for the count, Robin ran over to the three captives, hands flying to untie their bonds. They were all shaking, though thankfully conscious and obviously suffering from shock and fear. The young vigilante yanked off the blindfolds before unbuckling the wire-laced leather straps and cutting through the ropes with a batarang. Once they were all freed, he ran a brief medical test over them with his limited knowledge, finding that two were suffering from mild concussions and one from chloroform exposure. They all showed signs of electrical shock, though it was mild enough that it most likely did not cause any nerve or brain damage.

"Robin!" One of the cried once he was free of his blindfold.

"Robin? What's he doing here?" The one to his left demanded.

"Freeing you," the acrobat replied.

"It's your fault we're trapped." The second said.

Artemis walked over, her bow in hand. "Oh shut up." She commanded, crouching next to Robin as he ran his medical tests. "It's not his fault, it's these, um, creeps fault." Good word choice, Assassin Girl.

"They wanted us 'cause of him." The same one argued again, flinching away when Robin went to examine him.

"Well he just saved you, so a little gratitude might be in order." Artemis grumbled, standing up and glaring at him. He glared back, though with less force than the archer.

"Artemis, is the last guy down?" Robin asked, his medical exam complete.

"Yeah, he might be still conscious, but he isn't getting up anytime soon."

"Good. We need to call an ambulance, get these guys to a hospital to be treated for electrical shock. Hey, any of you have a phone?" So far, none of the men had made any move to get up, which was probably wise, as they'd probably just collapse as soon as they did.

"Here," one of them said, handing Robin his phone. He was dressed in a business suit and his hair showed signs of having been previously neatly combed back. "I, uh, never thought to use. Guess I was too out of it." He mumbled, looking ashamed.

"No biggy. Totally understandable." Robin replied, taking the phone and punching in 911. He let the receptionist answer it, only replying "This is Robin. Warehouse, downtown Gotham, three men suffering from electrical shocks received from three masked criminals, all of whom are restrained" to the question of "Gotham City 911, where's your emergency". He then handed the phone back to its owner and beckoned Artemis stand next to him.

"Alright," he began, facing the men, already well-versed in how to handle the next step. "I know you probably don't want to relive what just happened, but I need to know exactly what took place from the time you were kidnapped till now. You can make it brief if you want." He added. He watched their reactions closely: they all seemed surprisingly calm compared to most victims Robin had met, though it might have been only a front they put, but a welcome front none the less. The young vigilante could see that they were visibly shaking, and their eyes all held fear.

"W-well," one began – the one who'd first greeted the Boy Wonder. "I was heading home from the office, it was late, mind you, and dark and I prefer to walk to and from my office so I was on foot, when something hit me from behind on the back of my head. I woke up here, tied to this chair with these two, when a voice started questioning me about your identity, Robin. Of course, I didn't know and I don't think either of these two know either, so I told them that, that I didn't know, and suddenly I felt this shocking feeling that got worse and worse and I started screaming and they kept doing it and doing it and asking me over and over again and wouldn't stop and I didn't know…." The man started hyperventilating towards the end so Robin left and moved to the one on his right, the one who'd given him the phone.

"Is your story the same?" He asked, already entering the other man's information into his gauntlet computer.

"Yes. Except I was drugged. With chloroform I think."

"What about you?" Artemis asked the man who'd previously accused Robin.

"Yeah, same."

Robin nodded, quickly typing in details about the location and the warehouse and scanning the men's appearances into his hard drive. It quickly came up with all their information; relationships, place of birth, names, and various other personal details which, if Robin were them, he would really hate to be at the fingertips of a thirteen-year-old superhero. The beauty of being Robin.

"Did any of you hear any information about why they wanted my identity?" Robin asked, closing his gauntlet computer and moving over to secure the three masks.

"Yeah," the man who Artemis had yelled at said. "Something about caddice. It was before I was fully awake, but they said something about their boss wanting the information cause caddice would pay a lot for it. Dunno what 'caddice' is though."

"It's a coarse woolen fabric, yarn, or ribbon binding." Phone Guy whispered. "It's also a type of worm." Okay, probably not what they meant.

"Cadmus?" Robin asked, walking around to face the man. "Did they say 'Cadmus'?"

"Yeah, sure. Like I said, I was still pretty out of it."

Robin sent a look at Artemis who narrowed her eyes and sent a look back that clearly said 'I want to know what this Cadmus is and will get you to tell me'. She wished.

"Alright," Robin said, turning back to the once-captives. "The police are coming; they will handle all legal and medical matters. Don't try to get up until they get here or you'll regret it." He then motioned to Artemis to follow him a ways away before he started talking to her in a hushed tone. "I'll enter the Maskey's info into my computer then we'll leave. I'll send Batman a message and he'll take care of interrogating these guys." Robin didn't mind interrogating criminals too much, but he knew Batman was far better at it than him and the Dark Knight would want to do it anyway.

"Won't the police get here first?" Artemis asked, fingering her bow.

"Yeah, but Bats and the Commish are pretty close. He'll get first swing at the Maskeys." Robin then proceeded to yank the masks off the unconscious criminals and scan their faces into his gauntlet computer (the names and faces were unfamiliar to both Robin and Artemis). Once he was finished, he motioned for Artemis to follow him and they both slipped out of the warehouse just as the sounds of police sirens could be heard in the distance. They both took off running into the night, grappling onto a roof once they were a considerable distance away (yet close enough that they could still observe the scene below).

"Alright, Boy Wonder," Artemis began, turning on Robin with her hands on her hips. "This is the second time I've been with you, (the fact that I've even been with you two times is bad enough) that the name Cadmus has come up and someone's tried to kidnap you. Explanation please?"

"It's just an organization that, uh, has something against Batman and I." Robin began, struggling to find an explanation that wouldn't lead to investigating on Assassin Girl's part. "So, they want to kidnap me to punish Batman. Happens often enough."

"Mhm?" Artemis hummed, an eyebrow raised. "You're a terrible liar." Yes, he was aware of the fact. "Do you not trust me enough, or what?"

"Yep, totally trust you. It's a common thing with me to trust people who've tried to kill me." It was a joke, and he did trust her, to some extent, but Batman was Batman, so to her, Robin was a closed book.

"I saved you, remember?" Artemis asked.

"Is that like your greatest achievement or something?"

"Grow up."

Robin laughed, pulling out his communicator and sending a call to Batman.

"Well, I'd say it's time to head back." Robin told her, waiting for Batman to pick up. "Seems like we've kicked enough butt for one night."

"Yeah…." Artemis sighed, suddenly looking rather downcast. Downcast, really….

"Woah, woah, woah," Robin laughed, seeing her face. "Does this mean that you actually enjoyed this?"

"Yeah, I enjoyed this, but not you, if that's what you're getting at."

"Well, you'll getta do this a lot more once you join the Team." Come on Batman, pick up.

"Mhm." She didn't look convinced.

"You'll like the Team," Robin assured her. "And they'll like you. It'll all work out."

"Yeah, okay, I'm glad your world works like that." She replied, pulling out a grappling arrow and shooting it off into the night. "Well, I'll, uh, see you around."

"Yep. Later." And on that cheerful note, Assassin Girl was gone.

"Batman." Came the deep, gravelly voice in Robin's ear.

"Hey, Bats." Robin greeted his mentor, his finger on his communicator. "I found three masked, uh, people interrogating three victims for my identity. Said they worked for Cadmus, or at least their boss does. Commish has them now."

"I found traces of the same occurrence. I'll head down to the police station and interrogate them. Were there any clues as to who they worked for?"

"None that I could find. Nothing trademark about them and I've never seen or heard of them before." They were probably common criminals who found a job with some slightly richer common criminal who decided to join the 'Cadmus Club'.

Robin could hear Batman grunt at this. "You should head home."

"Kay, got it. Robin out." Of course he'd be sent home. He knew that. So why did it bother him so much?

oOo

"Alfred?"

"Yes, Master Bruce?"

"I've received a tip that Ra's al Ghul may or may not be involved with the Cadmus Case."

"Ra's al Ghul? Oh dear, this doesn't bode well."

"No, Alfred, it doesn't. I also have reason to believe Bane may be involved as well. I was interrogating some criminals who'd been after Robin's identity and by the information I gathered about their boss, he's been associated with Bane and al Ghul as well as Cadmus - all within the last month."

"A highly unlikely coincidence, sir."

"Exactly my thoughts, Alfred. I'm returning to the Batcave to do more research on this. Has Robin arrived yet?"

"Yes, sir, he pulled in about fifteen minutes ago. Are you going to tell him about this?"

"I don't know, Alfred. He's already got a lot to worry about."

"I know sir, but this Cadmus Case is really getting to him. As is the fact that you've been leaving him out of so much."

"It's for his own safety. I need to solve this case and I don't want his life jeopardized in the process. I'll make it up to him."

"I hope so, Master Bruce, for your own sake."


A/N: Woah, did i just hint at something? And is Ra's al Ghul in this now? And Bane? And the Joker? Oh the Joker, I can't wait till we get to his part. I think you'll all like it!

Next chapter is sad, so bring tissues! (If you cry a lot, if you don't, then you're lucky). Thanks so much for reading and please review! It means so much and i know that people are reading this and liking it! You can tell me what i'm doing wrong, what you like, comment on your favorite parts, make predictions, beg for certain things to happen (I might just honor your request) or demand Robin to break out in random Romany one day! Your choice, just review! Thank you!

Alex out.