Chapter 36: Odds Against Them

It was an evening in the middle of winter break that Batman and Robin heard. Barry had sped in on them eating dinner and pulled off his cowl. He was a deathly pale shade but immediately Bruce stood up. He knew that look. He had that look whenever something happened to Dick. "Dick go help Alfred."

"What? No! I wanna hear," Dick protested.

Bruce opened his mouth to reply but Barry beat him to it. "It's better if he hears this now too."

Dick looked at him curiously. Barry took a breath. "Wally found my notes from the night of the lightning strike. He recreated it in our garage. I've already gotten him to the hospital but they're not experts in this stuff."

"Is he okay?" Dick asked not waiting Barry to ask Bruce what he wanted too.

"I don't know the odds aren't good," Barry said sadly. "We need to keep our fingers crossed."

"I'll make some calls. We'll need to find a way to keep the doctors out of this before they get suspicious just in case he starts showing symptoms of a speedster. Leslie can probably help," Bruce said. "We might need to move him too the mountain. Do you have any doctors you trust enough to tell?"

"Haven't had too before," Barry grimaced. "Speed healing."

"Leslie will do for now then. Call up Dr Midnight. He might be able to help. I'll arrange to get Wally to the mountain."

Barry nodded and sped out and Bruce turned to go the Batcave. Then he suddenly turned back to Dick. "I know you want to help but you need to be patient. We'll take care of Wally."

Dick nodded though Bruce knew he wanted to protest. Bruce looked at him once more before running down to the cave.

Wally woke two days after his accident completely wrapped in bandages showing no signs of super speed. He was kept on a strict bed rest as he slowly healed extremely disappointed that his experiment didn't work. Dick was only allowed to visit a week after Wally woke. To both boys the whole experience was traumatizing, for Dick to see Wally like that and for Wally to have been hurt as he was.

Then two weeks after Wally's accident when it became night and Dick and Bruce prepared for patrol in the cave. Both were walking toward the Batmobile when two streaks of light came in and blew everything around. Standing there were Wally and Barry.

Bruce pulled off his cowl as Barry did the same. "When?"

"I came home from work to see him speeding around. He just managed to figure out how to slow down his speech right before we ran over. He's not having to much trouble learning."

Dick figured out what was going on. He turned to Wally with wide eyes. "You got powers?"

"Yeah!" Wally cheered. "Isn't it awesome?"

Dick looked at him confused as Wally hadn't realized he was speed talking. Wally blushed realizing what had happened. "Sorry," he said slowly. "I meant isn't it awesome?"

"It is pretty cool," admitted Dick.

"I got up and I was shaking like crazy with no more scratches or burns from the experiment," Wally explained. "Barry taught me to slow down how I speak but he said I don't need to learn a lot else."

Meanwhile Bruce and Barry were speaking. "He wants to be my sidekick," Barry explained.

"You don't want to let him," Bruce said.

"I can't be responsible for him when I'm fighting the rogues. He'll get hurt too. He's not as fast as me, though he might be a little faster than Jay. He'll slow me down and put everything at risk," Barry explained in a harsh whisper.

"You should do it," Bruce told him.

"What?"

"I said you should do it. That kid has dreamed of being your partner for a long time. He almost killed himself to do it. What's to say he won't do it again like Dick did, sneaking out to fight? And when the world needs heroes once we're to old to continue or we can't because of something worse don't you want someone else to be able to protect Central City? Some one you can trust."

Barry's gaze became contemplative. Seeing he was getting somewhere Bruce continued. "I won't lie to you and say he won't be difficult. Dick's annoying. He talks my ear off, he's impulsive, gets into hard situations and has gotten kidnapped by more villians than I thought possible. But he keeps me grounded and focused. I have a reason to fight. I have someone to watch my back. He keeps me from crossing the line and he's smart, makes me see things in a way I wouldn't think of. It'll be hard but you won't regret it."

Barry nodded. "C'mon Wally, it's time to start training."

Wally looked at Barry disbelivengly for a moment before Dick pushed him forward and then he ran forward. Then the two speedsters ran off.

It seemed like providence that Bruce had said those words two days later when Dick had been separated from Bruce on patrol. They'd been investigating some issues with Two-Face. The villain had been kidnapping people off the streets. As he liked to do things in pairs it was nearly identical people that disappeared each day. The just too excited 8-year-old had gone on ahead without Batman's notice. Two-Face had stood with his gang in the middle of a warehouse guns aimed at several chained hostages. Robin dropped down into the shadows and sneaked over to try and untie one of them. One of the thugs spotted him. "Boss, we've got something."

"It's the Bat's brat. Chain him up," Two-Face ordered.

"Let these people go then you can take me," Robin yelled.

"Let's see if my coin agrees," Two-Face said. He flipped the coin and caught it on the back of his hand. "Heads I let them go. Tails I kill them all."

He lifted his hand and gave a half grin with his unburnt half of his mouth. "Tails. Shoot them all."

Machine guns fired as at least five hostages fell their wide eyes still terrified leaving a traumatized eight-year-old to watch. Their blood started to pour onto the floor. Two-Face looked at Robin. "Luck wasn't on your side today. Tie him up and take him."

Robin felt something hit his head. Everything blacked out. The next thing he remembered was waking up on the floor of a cell, chains on each of his limbs and Two-Face standing over him. He held a coin in his hand leering down at Robin. "You ruined my gamble kid. The Bat didn't even have enough respect to show up himself. So you're going to help me teach him a lesson. Let's see where we'll start. Heads or tails?"

Robin didn't answer. Two-Face flipped anyway. He looked at it and grinned. "Heads it is."

Pulling his arm back he punched Robin's face. He frowned as Robin held back a cry. "Hmm. It doesn't look so nice with just one side being that beautiful purple black and blue. Let's do the other."

He hit Robin's face on the other side. "That's better. Makes you look more symmetrical."

Robin spit some blood onto the floor. "So you mean I look a lot better than you?"

He earned a punch in the stomach for that. Then the coin appeared again. "Ready? Heads or Tails."

The coin flipped landing on Harvey's hand to be shoved in front of Robin's hand as he uncapped it. "Tails. I'm lucky today."

Two-Face picked up a baseball bat and hit Robin's legs. The kid could already feel it bruising. Two-Face continued his sick game for two hours only ending when Robin's nose and leg had been broken. But Robin knew he'd be back later.

In excruciating pain as his skin blossomed with new bruises and he tried to breath through the blood Robin drifted of to a torture sleep only to be woken again with a coin flipping and the soft saying of 'heads or tails.'

Batman didn't return home in the morning as he usually did having noticed Dick had disappeared and so had the trail on Two-Face. He'd managed to find the warehouse full of bodies that were now full of bullet holes and a coin on the floor along with all the chains. He could already tell Robin had rushed in without him and Two-face still had him.

Batman searched through the entire day for his partner unable to find any hint of him through the city and hearing no answer over the comms. He didn't answer to any of the leaguers who had tried to call him worriedly and when Superman had shown up to help he drew out the box of Kryptonite ready to open it so the man would allow him to find his son.

Robin had no inkling of the time that passed only the amount of times that Two-Face had come to visit him in the small cell. On the tenth time he closed his eyes as Two Face punched his stomach again and his ribs cracked more. He took a pained breath and felt himself fade as he tried to breath again. As his eyes closed he saw something descend out of the darkness and rip the bat out of Two-Face's hands. And Robin smiled knowing he was safe.

Batman looked around him when Two-Face was knocked out and found Robin strapped down to a bed. Cutting the restraints he took in his partner, his ward. Robin's legs were splayed out oddly. His face was bloody and the rest of his body wasn't much better. He held his fingers out for a pulse and found one but there wasn't a lot of breathing. Robin was fading and fast. Calling the Batmobile and Alfred at once Batman carefully carried Robin out so he could be tended too.