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Chapter Twenty-One
—The Team: Robin—
—Saturday—
Robin was sent ahead to Mount Justice, alone, because Batman had some quick business to take care of on the Watchtower. The Justice League was pulling out all the stops to track down Slade and coming up empty-handed. The Team wanted to help—had nearly begged to help—but Batman put his foot down.
The only consolation was that Batman's answer had been a 'not now' and not an outright 'no'.
Dick had barely spoken to Bruce since they returned to the Batcave last night. Bruce had gone straight to the computer and started typing, and was still there when Dick came down that morning. One all-nighter wasn't enough to make Dick worried—this was Bruce—but this wasn't the first all-nighter Bruce had pulled this week. Or even the second.
M'gann, Conner, and Kaldur were eating breakfast in the kitchen when Robin walked in. He was smoothly integrated into their mental conversation—it was becoming natural for all of them. This morning it felt like a bother, though. They were discussing the Titans, last night's mission, and Slade, all things that Robin had fallen asleep thinking of and was tired of hearing about, so he mostly avoided the corner of his mind that his teammates were occupying.
"No, thanks," he answered distractedly when M'gann offered him some scrambled eggs. He was leaning against the countertop, facing the living room so that he could watch the Titans out of the corner of his eye. They had claimed the sofa as their territory.
"Check it out, Raven," Beast Boy was saying. "I'm Superman." He pointed at his shirt he was wearing, one of Conner's that had shrunk in the wash. His hero uniform was having a rip in the arm stitched up courtesy of a less-than-thrilled Jinx, who seemed to have some skill with a needle. She was the only other Titan in civilian clothes—some of Artemis's that hung just a bit too loose on her frame.
"Of course you are," Raven said sarcastically. She was holding a steaming mug of tea. Beside her, Speedy was clicking through TV channels with the remote and making unimpressed noises at what he saw on-screen.
There was only one Titan missing.
Other Robin decided to grace them with his presence five minutes later. He slowed when M'gann, Kaldur, Conner, and Robin glanced over at him, then frowned and said an awkward, "Good morning."
"Where have you been?" Robin asked after Other Robin poured himself a glass of orange juice, accepted a couple pieces of toast from M'gann, and sat down to eat at the far end of the counter, as far away from the others as possible.
"I wanted to go out and get some fresh air. I didn't realize that we were locked inside."
"Going outside isn't a great idea," Robin said. "It's storming really bad out there." There were thunderstorms from here to Metropolis, from what Robin had seen on the weather channel before Speedy moved on to Saturday morning cartoons.
Semi-civil small talk about the weather was a good start, Robin supposed. He didn't have to worry about any new topics of conversation, because Batman was looming in the doorway.
Robin never got tired of watching other people's reactions when Batman entered a room. Straightening of postures, flinches, various nervous tics… He felt a little smug as he leisurely observed the other teens in the room, until he noticed that Other Robin was doing the exact same thing.
They locked eyes through their masks for a split second, then both looked away just as abruptly. Close one, Robin thought. For a moment there, they almost had something in common.
Batman had a rolled-up newspaper tucked under his arm. Robin was confused. Was it to whack Other Robin on the head with, if he started mouthing off? The newspaper was tossed on the countertop in front of Other Robin. It was that morning's edition of the Daily Planet.
"Page five," Batman said gruffly.
Other Robin looked at him with incredulity, and then started flipping pages. Everyone watched as Other Robin's eyes widened at the correct article. He mouthed the words as he read.
Suddenly, his head dropped onto the counter with a thud. "You've got to be kidding me," he groaned into the news-type.
Robin, overcome by curiosity, tugged a corner of the page out from under Other Robin's face so he could see the article. He became aware of eyes peering over his shoulder, reading along with him.
It was a small article, with a blurry, cell-phone quality picture of Other Robin running through Metropolis. Robin read. Then he laughed. "Wow, look at all the names the witnesses are calling you! Impostor, fanboy, mental patient… And they got an actual psychologist's opinion! Look at all the names she's calling you!"
"You need to get me a copy," Speedy told Batman.
"Me too," piped up Beast Boy.
"Me three," said Jinx. "Make it a few copies."
"Who're you going to send them to?" asked Speedy as he flopped back onto the sofa. "Your HIVE buddies?"
To Speedy's visible surprise, she nodded. "I know we're not on the best terms, but something like this needs to be shared. They'll get a laugh out of it."
"What?" Robin cried in outrage, still reading. He turned to his mentor. "'Batman and Robin declined comment'? When were we asked to comment? I have so many comments!"
Batman gave him that expressionless look that would have been an amused smile if there weren't others around. Robin turned his eyes back down to the article, and poked Other Robin in the arm. "Hey, did you notice who the reporter was?"
Other Robin lifted his head to glance at the by-line. He groaned again.
The second good surprise of that morning was Roy—their Roy, Red Arrow—walking in right when the article's humor started wearing off. Batman had told Robin that Roy was invited to the JL meeting because of his previous involvement with the Titans, but he hadn't known that Roy was coming to Mount Justice beforehand. Roy didn't visit as often as any of them would like.
Robin and Kaldur smiled and greeted their friend warmly. Roy grunted in return, his gaze immediately landing on Speedy.
The two archers eyed each other warily for a moment, then seemed to come to a wordless agreement. Red Arrow unslung the quiver and bow he'd brought and dropped them on the floor by the sofa.
"Heard you lost your equipment," he told Speedy.
Grinning, Speedy reached over to pick up the quiver and sort through it.
"There'll be time for that later," Red Arrow said dismissively. "You're already familiar with some of my arrows—" He shot his interdimensional twin a dangerous glare. "—so I don't need to give you the specs on all of them. But we've still got plenty to discuss." With that ominous statement, he turned away from Speedy and asked Batman, "Are we going to the Watchtower?" Some eagerness that he was trying to hide slipped its way into his voice.
"The meeting—"
Batman was cut off by a startling smash. Everyone whirled around to the source of the noise, and saw that Raven had dropped her mug. It had bounced off the sofa cushions and fell to the floor, spilling tea and shattering into a dozen sharp pieces.
"I'm sorry," said Raven, her eyebrows knitted together. M'gann was already floating to the spill with a dishcloth. "For a second, I thought I sensed… I'm not sure." She shook her head. "I must just be tired."
"Considering the experience you went through yesterday, it is understandable if you are not fully recovered," Kaldur said kindly. "Quite a strain must have been put on your powers. No one will mind if you stay at Mount Justice rather than attend the meeting."
"Yeah, it's no big deal if you want to stay behind," said Robin. "JL meetings are super boring."
He knew from all the times he'd bugged the meetings that Leaguers spent a lot of time having long, cheesy discussions about duty, responsibility, and the heavy burdens they carried as Earth's protectors, and blah blah blah. But the last time he listened in he thought he heard Flash cracking up in quiet laughter, so maybe his bugging devices weren't as secret as he'd hoped.
"If Raven's not going, I'm not going," said Beast Boy quickly.
"If we're suddenly allowed to not go, then I'm definitely not going," Jinx stated.
Other Robin stared at his teammates in disbelief. "Guys—"
Speedy stood up and interrupted him. "Maybe it's better this way," he said, clapping a hand on Robin's shoulder. "We do have the most experience dealing with Leaguers."
Other Robin hesitated, looking around the room at how M'gann, Conner, and Kaldur still calmly sitting in the kitchen in civilian clothes, making no move to leave and go to the meeting, staying behind just like three of the Titans. Robin could practically hear the gears turning in Other Robin's head as he figured it out.
Divide and conquer. Take away the stingy leader and get a chance to talk to some of the others at length.
"I know what you're doing," Other Robin said, turning on Batman. "It's not going to work." He told his team strictly, "Everyone… Best. Behaviour."
Beast Boy yawned. "Robin, the last time you said that was when we went to Japan. And if you remember what happened, then you know you're not one to talk."
"Yeah, didn't you get arrested for murder or something?" Jinx asked carelessly, without looking up from her sewing.
"Murder?" Batman asked Other Robin, in a voice that seemed to make the temperature in the room drop drastically.
"I was framed!" Other Robin explained frantically.
"Murder?" Robin demanded, unable to process the idea.
"Oh, no, it wasn't like that!" said Beast Boy. "See, the guy he killed was actually this character made out of ink and not a person at all, and it was this big set-up to keep us out of the way so this evil policeman could take over Tokyo with more ink-people. But then we took care of everything and it rained and it all went back to normal." Then, he added, "We got medals!" Like that was all that mattered.
"Your universe doesn't make much sense, does it?" M'gann asked.
"None. You don't know the half of it. If you knew how much sense our universe doesn't make, you'd...you'd..." Beast Boy trailed off, at a loss for how to finish that sentence. "Like, one time we were in TV!" he blurted out.
"You mean, on TV," said Conner.
Raven sighed. "Sadly, no, he doesn't."
Other Robin gave his teammates one last warning glare before Batman led both Robins and both Roys out of the room to the zeta tubes.
When Robin emerged on the other side of the zeta beam he was somewhere familiar: the library in the Hall of Justice. The lighting was dim, there were no tourists in the observation gallery, and the place was so silent that it had to be closed for the day. Even the security cameras by the ceiling were dead.
"We're not meeting in the Watchtower?" Speedy asked, looking around him. "Bummer. It has a cool view."
"You've been to the Watchtower?" Red Arrow asked enviously, stopping in his tracks and staring at his counterpart.
"Sure. A few times. Like, once when we had to give a report to the League after taking down this worldwide corporation of villains. No big deal."
"No. Big. Deal," Red Arrow repeated through gritted teeth.
oOo
They were in a secret, sub-level meeting room that Robin hadn't known existed. It was surprisingly nice—as nice as any of the rooms in Mount Justice. There were gaps around the large, shiny conference table from Leaguers not in attendance, off on the hunt for the Titans' villains or fighting crime. It was hard to get them all in one place at one time.
There was no Zatara, no Lanterns, no Hawks, no Martian Manhunter… But Superman was there, and so was Wonder Woman, Flash, Green Arrow, Black Canary, Aquaman…
Bored, Robin rested his chin in his hand and drummed the fingers of his other hand on the table. The meeting was off to an unpromising start, just the JL trying to get a list of where the Titans had been during their time in this world, and exactly what they'd been doing. And getting even those dull details was like prying teeth. More often than not, Other Robin would answer with, "No comment."
Robin looked over at Red Arrow. Most of the enthusiasm the older teen had about attending a League meeting seemed to have evaporated since he'd seen who he was sitting beside: a thirteen-year-old, and his old mentor that he was still on shaky terms with.
Robin had stashed a scrap of paper and a pen in his utility belt in case of boredom. After some stealthy writing, he passed the note to Red Arrow.
If a DIScussion is when everyone talks and shares info, does that make this a CUSSION? The Titans aren't answering any questions!
Red Arrow read it, frowned in annoyance, and scribbled a fast, messy answer while looking up and trying to pay attention to what was being said around him. He balled up the paper and flicked it onto Robin's lap.
DONT KNOW DONT CARE.
Robin responded thusly:
:'(
Red Arrow didn't want to take the note again. Robin had to poke him in the leg with the pen a few times before he relented. When he read it, Robin could tell he was rolling his eyes under his mask. But Red Arrow was a good sport and wrote a reply.
So instead of DIScussing… the JL's CUSSING?
It took a lot of effort for Robin to keep from grinning. That must have resulted in him making an odd face, because the Flash was looking at him curiously. Only when no eyes were upon him did Robin risk writing an answer.
Bad heroes! Bad!
that means ollie = hypocrite for telling me not to swear.
Robin nearly laughed. He had forgotten how great Roy could be when he wasn't busy being angry at the world.
Without warning, a dark-gloved hand reached over and plucked the note out of Robin's grasp. Holding the paper out of sight under the table, Batman read it surreptitiously and didn't react. He simply folded it in half and passed it back.
Robin took that as a cue to pay attention.
"You can't get mad at us for refusing to spill," Speedy was saying. "We're only following your rules."
"Our rules?" asked Superman.
"'Limit interference'," Other Robin stated. "It's standard JLA protocol—your protocol. Not as strict for parallel universes as it is for time travel, but it still applies. Especially when the universes are so similar. Haven't you dealt with anything like this before?"
A few Leaguers raised their eyebrows at this teenager citing protocol at them.
"Can't say we have," Superman said, his patience limitless unlike some of the other adults that were losing theirs. "A bit of time travel, but nothing inter-dimensional to this extent."
Other Robin was struggling to explain. "Say one of you is a traitor in our universe, but not here. If we told you, would you ever be able to look at them the same way again? And if you found out an alternate version of you is a traitor, would you ever be able to trust yourself?"
"One of us is a traitor?" asked the Flash, looking around the table. "Who?"
"It's just an example."
"And if one of us is dead in your world," said Batman, "you wouldn't want the person in question to feel like they have a death sentence hanging over their head."
Other Robin didn't have anything to say to that.
"You should be glad we're good at keeping our mouths shut," Speedy said after a moment. "After all, we know a few of your secrets, too."
"Are you threatening to blackmail the Justice League, young man?" Aquaman asked seriously.
"No, he's not," Other Robin answered for his teammate. He nudged the archer with his elbow. "Right, Speedy?"
"…Right."
oOo
"Best behaviour," Beast Boy echoed. "I dunno why Robin seemed so worried. So what if I like to talk? I'm not a total blabbermouth."
Raven had left the room to go meditate in peace, soon after replaced by Wally and Artemis, leaving Beast Boy and Jinx as the only two Titans among Team members. It made for an incredibly awkward atmosphere as they all watched television and either asked or dodged questions.
Jinx nodded. "And so what if I hold lingering resentment toward Robin for all the times he put me in jail, and the only way I can safely express it is by making fun of him behind his back?" she asked. "I usually know where to draw the line."
Beast Boy and Jinx looked at each other with widened eyes, as though realizing that maybe their leader was right to be worried. Then they shrugged in unison.
"So... what's your team called?" Beast Boy asked the other heroes at the start of the commercial break. "You never told us."
Kaldur blinked. "Pardon me?"
"Your team name! Like, we're the Teen Titans, and the Justice League is the Justice League. What are you called?"
"The Team, I guess," said Conner, shrugging.
"Hmm." Beast Boy stroked his chin, deep in thought. "We could think of a better name. Junior Justice? Little League?"
"We're not a kids' baseball team," grumbled Artemis.
"Sidekick Squad," Jinx said sardonically.
"No, Super Sidekicks!" said Beast Boy.
"We're not sidekicks!" Wally said heatedly. "And why does there have to be alliteration?"
"Justice League doesn't have alliteration," M'gann pointed out. And no one could argue with that.
During a particularly boring commercial, Beast Boy asked the Team, "So... how does your theme song go?"
oOo
Everyone around Robin was playing the blame game—the game where no one ever won.
If you had left us alone and let us do our job, we would have been free to go after Slade sooner…
If you had come to us for help from the beginning and co-operated, we would have been able to work together and take down the villains…
And on and on for what felt like hours. They were all wrong, but they were all too stubborn to admit it. Robin zoned out for a while. He snapped back to attention when the arguing had dwindled and he heard Slade's name being said often.
"You really worked for Deathstroke?" Green Arrow asked Other Robin
"Either I became his apprentice or let my friends die," Other Robin said in a dull voice, his brow furrowing at the recollection. "I made my decision."
"How did you get out of it? Did you call the Justice League, or just Batman?"
"You mean, did I get the adults to bail me out? No. We took care of it ourselves. Slade's had it in for us ever since. Me especially."
"In case you haven't noticed, you're not the only you here," Robin said. It was the first time he'd spoken in a while.
"We need to prevent Slade from getting any leverage, in case he tries to…coerce our Robin," Black Canary said, choosing her words delicately.
Still, Robin frowned, feeling like he was being talked about like he wasn't in the room, sitting right there with them. He wasn't stupid. He wouldn't make mistakes and let himself be coerced into being a criminal like Other Robin. He was better than that. But the League was probably too worried to let him prove it.
"That's one of the reasons why I didn't want any of you to get mixed up in this," said Other Robin. He rubbed at his stress-lined forehead. "But when I think about it, with all his bad experiences with apprentices it's hard to believe he'd want another one. If he does target you in the middle of this," he told Robin, "I'm not sure how much of it would be him wanting a new apprentice and how much would just be his determination to win. He could just want to get back at me."
oOo
"…And then the Justice League showed up," Wally said. "We told them that either they let us be a team, or we were going to do it on our own. And here we are." With a satisfied smile, he looked around the room at each of his teammates. "So, long story short, it was the craziest Fourth of July ever."
Beast Boy shook his head. "No way. It's a great story, but let me tell you about the craziest Fourth of July ever…"
oOo
Wonder Woman had her hands clasped on the table as she calmly observed Speedy and Other Robin. "Perhaps it would be best if we could speak with your Justice League instead, once your communications are working again."
"What for?" asked Speedy, looking genuinely confused.
"They're the ones that sent you on this mission, aren't they?"
"No," Other Robin said. "We sent ourselves."
"You came here without their approval?"
"We don't need their approval. The Teen Titans are completely independent. We're not affiliated with the League."
"You don't work with them?" Green Arrow asked.
"No," Other Robin answered impatiently. He gave a long-suffering sigh, like having to keep explaining this over and over to make the League believe him was sheer torture. "After we deal with something big, they usually want a report, but that's about it."
"But, how can they be okay with you fighting crime on your own?" asked the Flash incredulously. "I mean, you're just kids."
Robin knew that Flash didn't mean it that way. Just like his nephew, he had a talent for saying the wrong thing. It came from speaking before thinking—a speedster trait.
"Kids," Speedy said flatly. He glanced over at his teammate. "Hear that, Robin? We're just kids."
"Kids that established a world-wide network of heroes," said Other Robin.
"Kids that ended HIVE Academy and defeated their psycho, brainwashing, half-robotic headmaster."
"Kids that stopped a maniac from taking over Jump City, several times over."
"Kids that took down an organization consisting of some of the worst bad guys on the face of the planet."
"Kids that reversed the apocalypse."
"But besides all that, just kids," said Speedy, waving a hand airily.
oOo
"…And that's how we beat the Brotherhood of Evil," Beast Boy finished with a proud smile.
"You decided to switch sides right at the end?" Conner asked Jinx. "That's convenient," he muttered.
Jinx rolled her eyes. "Not like I haven't been hearing that for the past year."
"Well, why'd you do it then?" Wally asked, his tone sharp with suspicion.
"Somebody thought I could do better. Really went out on a limb to reach out to me. How rude would I be if I didn't give the hero thing a shot after that?"
"Who was it?"
She swiped a finger and thumb across her mouth in a 'lips sealed' gesture.
oOo
"Red X isn't our primary concern right now," said Other Robin. They'd talked about Slade, and that Rouge lady, and now the topic had changed to the masked thief. "I wouldn't say he's harmless, but compared to Slade he's just an annoyance."
"He's in my city," Batman said tersely.
"Then you deal with him." The corners of Other Robin's lips twitched when Batman stiffened and didn't respond. "You can't catch him, can you?"
"And you can?" Robin asked, defensive. He'd faced off against Red X in the couple of patrols he took that week with Batman, and it hadn't ended well. It was tough to apprehend someone who could teleport away at a moment's notice.
But Red X was okay, for a criminal. Not twisted, sadistic, or particularly violent like most of Gotham's villains. He was more of a Catwoman type. Causing a bit of trouble, stealing things, messing with the Dynamic Duo for kicks. Earlier that week he'd taken the tires off the Batmobile and hid them in the nearby alleyways, just as a prank. Robin would rather fight him than the Joker, that was for sure.
"Robin could probably catch him, yeah," said Speedy. "He knows more about the Red X suit's tech than anyone, considering he made it, and used to be the one wearing it."
Other Robin let out a frustrated breath when faced with the Justice League's surprised looks. "I was undercover, trying to get more information about Slade. I didn't tell my team; it went too far; I was stupid; it was a mistake," he said quickly. He rattled off an explanation about how the suit was stolen and being used by a thief of unknown identity. "And you've already lectured me about it," he told Batman, "so don't bother saying anything."
"Listen," said Superman, "you've put in a lot of hard work trying to fix this accident, and we appreciate it. But after everything you've been through, maybe it would be best if we took over from here."
"I already told you," Other Robin huffed. "It's our job—"
"You should not let your pride stop you from accepting our help," said Aquaman.
"Pride? You think this is pride?" Other Robin asked. He turned to Batman. "Batman, is it pride that makes you refuse help in Gotham?"
"No, it's—"
"Responsibility. Gotham is your responsibility. Only you know how to deal with it. These villains are our responsibility."
"Well, he's definitely your kid, Bats," Green Arrow remarked.
Two thunks of sharp kicks came from under the table, and Green Arrow lurched forward, flinching in pain, while Red Arrow and Black Canary glared daggers at him from either side.
Robin smiled at Red Arrow, and he got a very small, almost minuscule, one in return.
"Can we avoid beating around the bush and get to the real reason you want to bench them?" Red Arrow asked loudly, making Green Arrow wince beside him at the outburst. "It's because of their ages. You think they're kids. Just admit it. If they were Green Arrow and Batman—"
"And we're happily not," Speedy muttered, although not as quietly as he probably thought. Robin could swear he saw Superman smile, just a tiny bit, at that comment.
"—then you wouldn't be giving them such a hard time."
The Leaguers exchanged glances, but none of them came up with a way to argue that, or deny it.
oOo
"Well, they aren't very thrilled with you two," Red Arrow told the two Titans.
The Justice League was through grilling the Titans for information, and had more or less kicked all the teens out of the conference room so they could deliberate privately. The four of them were walking the deserted hallways of the building. They were supposed to go back to Mount Justice for now.
Speedy shrugged like it wasn't a big deal. "Hey, at least no one was yelling like last time." He looked at his counterpart seriously. "Have you ever heard Batman yell? Like, not just raise his voice a little, but actually yell? You don't want to. I still have nightmares."
"Why was he yelling at you?" asked Robin. He'd only heard Batman yell a few times. And never at him.
"Not me. Robin was the one he was less-than-pleased with."
"It was nothing," Other Robin claimed, crossing his arms. "We just had a few disagreements with the League in the past. They weren't nearly as bad as Speedy's making them seem."
"I wonder how the others are doing," Speedy said as they reached the library, walking past rows of bookshelves on their way to the zeta tube. "Think they've ripped each other apart yet?"
oOo
"…And instead of birdarangs," Beast Boy said, barely stifling his own laughter, "Monkey-Robin had bananas!"
There were laughs all around, except from Conner. He scowled and muttered about his dislike of certain animals.