Robin wasn't tired anymore. He hadn't slept for a straight 113 hours. It was his fifth day without sleep and all signals for the thing had been long cut off. He and Wally were alone at Mount Justice again, this time in street clothes, sparring. Robin had just beaten Kid Flash again when the Dark Knight walked in, but neither of them noticed the Batman zero-one that the computer had chimed.
"And you didn't use your powers?" the redhead asked, astonished.
"Nope." replied the black-haired boy, a cheeky smile playing has face.
"What powers?" Bruce cut in.
The two boys, even Robin, nearly jumped a mile high. Then Robin turned to Wally and said "Run!" The two boys took off at a supernatural pace. Batman narrowed his eyes. That speed was normal for Wally but far too fast for the young acrobat. Batman gave chase.
The boys were down a straight corridor when robin turned his head and asked "Why are you going so slow?"
"Because I want you to keep up!" countered the scarlet speedster.
"Forget me. Just go, go! And meet me at the edge of the woods."
Wally sped off towards the exit. Robin heard marbles rolling across the floor up ahead. When he reached the crossway of the two halls he leaped over the marbles and hit the ground running, this time on all fours, and sped off at top speed to meet up with Wally at the edge of the woods that surrounded one side of Mount Justice.
When he got to the edge of the trees, he leaned over his knees and tried to catch his breath. They had lost Batman, at least for now.
"Come on," Dick panted. Then they walked into the woods before ending up in between some trees.
"What do you hear? Is he coming?" Wally demanded. Robin listened and heard four heartbeats: his, Wally's, Batman's, and Kayla's as he caught her scent of school and gun powder.
"Yeah. He's coming." Robin paused in thought for a moment, and then told Wally to start climbing one of the trees.
"Why?"
"Look, if Batman has to figure this out and finds both of us, we'll both get in trouble. If he figures it out and only finds me, you'll be fine. In order to avoid both of those, I'm going to tell him but you need to climb that tree so you won't be caught. Stay in the leaves so he won't see you."
As the speedster began climbing the tree's lower branches, Dick began to pull off his jacket, shoes, socks, shirt, communicator, and a necklace with a tooth on it.
"Dude! Where'd you get that?"
"Rachel gave it to me," Replied the werewolf as he thought back to the day he was returning home from the island on his second full moon.
"I want you to have this," Rachel had said as she presented him with a brown leather necklace. It had two black beads on it about an inch away from where the wire pendant was. Expertly held on by the wire was a single, long, canine tooth.
"Whose tooth is it?" Robin asked as he put it on and looked at the slightly yellowed fang.
"It's one of Peter's," she replied, referring to the trained mountain lion that resided on the island. "I made it myself," she added, answering the unasked question.
"You're really good at jewelry making," Robin had complimented.
"Yeah. Although, now I'm getting more into makeup effects. That started a while ago and it's the longest kick I've ever been on."
Dick smiled as he pulled the necklace over his head and put it with the rest of his clothes.
"Dude!" Dick looked up in alarm, and then collected himself.
"Oh, uh. What?"
"I said 'are you okay?' you look a lot paler than usual."
"Yeah, I'm fine. I just haven't been sleeping." He fought to not snap at the speedster. After all, tomorrow night was a full moon. And he always got a little more edgy just before the moon.
"Why not?!" the speedster asked with concern plaguing his voice.
Dick didn't answer. He simply concentrated as he began to shift, timing when Bruce might arrive at the same time. When he was finished he hid behind some bushes to wait for his mentor's coming. Sure enough, two minutes later, Robin heard some familiar panting.
With one last look around to make sure Kayla wasn't near enough to see him, he made a very risky move.
He stepped out of the bushes.
Immediately the Dark Knight turned around to face the unfamiliar-and-yet-familiar dark gray wolf. He pulled out some bat-a-rangs and got ready to throw them. The wolf stopped dead in his tracks and looked Bruce in the eye as best he could, seeing as Batman had his cowl on.
Bruce seemed conflicted. On the one hand, this was a wolf in a place where they simply didn't have wolves. It could potentially be dangerous. But on the other hand, Bruce's gut told him to trust this wolf. Bruce chose to go with the latter. He put the bat-a-rangs back on his belt. The wolf simply narrowed its eyes. He then took off his utility belt and threw it away, holding his hands up after that. This time, the wolf took a few steps forward; and then charged at him, pinning him to the tree that his back was facing.
"Oof," grunted Batman as he sized up his possible opponent. But then the most amazing thing happened.
The wolf dropped one paw and simply looked him in the eyes as he – wait- paw? It was no longer paw-like. Now its fingers were elongating and what had been claws now shortened and spread out into finger nails. The same was happening with the other hand as well. Batman watched in awe as the once-wolf's features began to become more human-like.
But it was when the fur finally faded out and a young person was left standing there that he found something more shocking than the wolf's transformation. No, it wasn't just the black-haired boy who stood there; it was the very condition of his son.
Dick looked extremely pale. He was naturally pale as a result of his long nights but this was far too pale to be healthy. The next thing Batman noticed was Dick's eyes. Or rather, the large bags underneath them; complete with dark circles in the inner corners and stretching down his lower lids. His normally dark blue eyes lost that spark as they went from amber in color to normal. Even the rest of Dick's shirtless frame seemed exhausted, as if he could collapse at any moment. It was perfectly healthy, aside from the paleness, but it seemed as if he might start trembling. Batman hoped it was just the change that had strained him and that he wasn't infected with some sickness.
Dick swallowed and then said "Bruce. I…" he cut off and turned around in worry.
"Bruce you need to climb up that tree. NOW!" he demanded.
"What?" Bruce muttered under his breath, coming out of the shock he had been in.
Now, Robin snapped. "JUST DO IT!" he shouted; yes, shouted, at his mentor.
Batman didn't argue but climbed up the tree that he now shared with Wally.
"Wally, keep him quiet; keep him up there until it's safe. No one can know you're up there."
He hid his pile of clothes in the same bushes he had been hiding in and stood waiting. About two or three minutes later, he got what he was waiting for.
From Bruce's spot in the tree next to Wally he could see everything, although he was hidden. He watched as a woman with lightish brown hair stood in front of Robin, holding an electric cane. He listened to their conversation.
"Hello Dick, or should I say 'Robin'?" she began, sarcasm dripping from her lips.
"How did you find out?" Robin spat back menacingly. Bruce was startled. He had never heard him talk this way. He recognized the woman but couldn't place why she looked so familiar.
"Come on, you live with the richest person in Gotham and we have a resident hero who would be very expensive to be. He gets a sidekick who is the same age as you and has black hair, it wasn't that hard." With this, she thrust the cane at Dick, who dodged it almost expertly. Batman could tell he was struggling to fight his apparent fatigue. He wanted to jump down and help him but he knew Dick had put him up there for a reason.
Batman and Wally watched the fight continue from their place in the trees. Robin managed to evade the woman most of the time. He looked sloppy, though. As if he was beginning to give in to the exhaustion but refused to give up without a decent fight. Batman winced as Robin had just failed to land a lazy punch on the woman and, as a result, got about one million volts shot through his back while he screamed in agony. He dropped to the ground, shivering while the woman talked over him and said some pretty nasty stuff, all the while letting the cane in her hand arch electricity around his head and watching his hair frizz with the static.
Robin screeched angrily as he charged at her, managing to land a few strong punches. But these were not effective enough to seriously hurt her and make her stop. She shocked Robin again, this time in his left side. She had burned him where she had touched the black cane to his ghostly skin. He slid down a nearby tree and sat there, trying to block out the pain and to not pass out, while she knelt down next to him. She whispered in his ear and stood up again. He said something back though batman couldn't tell what it was, but he was sure his voice trembled with rage. The woman simply laughed and pulled out a handgun, aiming at his shoulder. Batman shut his eyes tightly. He didn't want to look at this anymore. He heard the gunshot and a sharp hiss. When he opened his eyes again Robin was leaning against the tree, blood oozing out of a wound near his left armpit. Robin's eyes were closed. His body just couldn't take the abuse anymore. He had passed out. The woman sneered and turned to leave. That was when Rachel appeared. He looked in the surrounding trees and thought he saw flashes of brown and black. It must've been Nicole and Abby, hiding in the trees.
Rachel looked at Robin and screeched "MURDERER!" at the woman. She huffed and aimed her gun at the young girl. Impressively fast, Rachel attacked her and landed several punches and kicks on her, expertly staying behind her assailant. Rachel may not fight completely honorably, but she knew what she was doing. She pinned the woman to a tree and leaned in as if to whisper in her ear. She then screeched inhumanly, like a nazgul. The woman screamed in pain and Rachel let her go, letting the stranger run away. She looked at Robin again and then turned to the tree where Batman and Wally were hiding.
As Abby and Nicole dropped out of the trees, Rachel said "It's okay. You can come down now. It's safe."
Dick slid down the tree. He couldn't bear the pain anymore. He breathed heavy in order to not pass out. He looked Kayla right in the eyes. She knelt down right next to him and whispered in his ear.
"I won't kill you," she began.
"Still bound by the code?" he retorted, his voice trembling. Half with pain; and half with rage.
Kayla chuckled. "No. I'm not going to kill you because I'm going to come for them. I'm going to make them bleed. And I'm going to make you watch every second of it. And when you're crying over the bodies, then I'm going to slaughter you."
Dick knew she meant his feathered friends. He learned long ago that she thought they were also werewolves.
"You know I won't let you do that. You know I'll fight for them until my last breath," he said, near tears and also feeling the tendrils of fatigue creeping over him. Even though he hadn't been tired before, the shift and the fight had been the final nail in the coffin. Kayla chuckled again. She pulled out a hand gun and aimed it at Robin while he took notice of a few birds in a tree. They were a barn owl, a red-tailed hawk, and an osprey. The girls were coming. Robin looked Kayla in the eyes but squeezed them shut and winced when the trigger was pulled and the gun went off. He felt a pain in his left arm but was too dizzy to really take notice. His vision went blurrier and blurrier and his eyelids felt like they weighed twenty tons each. He finally slipped into unconsciousness.
Rachel, Abby, and Nicole had been hanging out in the air coming off the ocean. Mount Justice had a pretty good location. It had some woods on one side, a beach on the other, as well as general grass that was awesome to run in and have campouts and play sports.
The three were pulling off a maneuver they called the Fahrenheit-a straight incline or a few hundred feet and then a free fall until you catch yourself- when all three of them heard robin scream in the woods. Rachel listened carefully for his heartbeat. It was going a mile a minute but she didn't hear the usual bone crunches of shifting. She realized that his heart was still pounding but it was getting slower and his raspy breathing was too. She signaled to the others to land and told them to fly as fast as they could into the forest and to stay hidden. Now that she focused, she could hear Kayla's heartbeat too. At least, she thought it was Kayla.
Rachel began to run into the woods to confront the hunter who had undoubtedly shot her friend. She was sure because she also heard the gunshot. Kayla's guns weren't silenced like her's were.
When she had reached Kayla she looked at Dick, unconscious against a tree with a gunshot wound in his shoulder. Despite knowing the condition of her friend, she thought it would bring about more dramatic effect if she might have made Kayla think she had killed him.
"Murderer!" she screeched. With that, and a slight huff from Kayla, Rachel waited for the hunter to pull her weapon. When she did, Rachel charged at her, dipping into her super speed as given by the strength of her owl. Landing numerous hard punches and kicks, Rachel managed to pin her to a tree by the shoulder. She leaned into her ear like she was about to tell a secret. What she gave was no secret of hers. Rachel let out an inhuman screech that was at such a high pitch, it would have shaken the mountain if it was loud enough. When her lungs began to change; all those months ago, so did her vocal cords. They sounded normal enough when speaking but her human scream had mixed with a barn owl's screech, causing a wraith-like sound. As Kayla added her own pained cry, Rachel let her go.
She looked at Robin once more. He had taken off his shirt; he'd probably shifted into his wolf form. She noticed he was incredibly pale and she saw the bags and dark circles under his closed eyes. As Abby and Nicole slipped from their hiding places in the trees, Rachel turned to Batman and Wally whose heartbeats she had also heard. "It's okay. You can come down now. It's safe." She called.