December 22; 8:33pm
Robin felt her breath hitch, watching as the white and red flags blowing in the night wind, seemingly innocent as children around screamed and yelled, running around in delight and excitement.
"You okay, Danna?" Miss Martian, or now known called Dawn, asked, frowning in concern.
"Yeah, just stage-fright," she brushes off. The fourteen-year-old makes eye contact with Roy, now called Dane. The redhead archer gave her a knowing look.
"Are you still not feeling well?" he asks her.
Robin shakes her head, "No, but I'll be fine. This is our first show so we need to go up or we won't make the cut for the next show. Dawn?"
"On it," Miss Martian says, walking away but Robin feels her make the mindlink. "Link established."
"Dangers! You're up in five!" someone tells from the inside at them.
Robin raises her hand in acknowledgment, "Will do!"
"Remember the routine?" Robin asks them as the five of them make their way to the tent.
"Blonde and I are shooting arrows in the air, Superboy throws barrels in the air, and you and Miss Martian are swinging on the trapeze above," Roy answers as they make their positions in the dark, Robin and Miss Martian climbing the ladders up to the trapeze. "But remind me again why there aren't any nets?"
Robin feels a cold shiver rush through her at this, reminding her about that one single fact that has her freaking out and nervous on the inside. "Because they didn't have any trapeze artists lined up for the tour. Besides, Miss M and I could handle it."
"That's not what-"
"WELCOME TO HALY'S INTERNATIONAL TRAVELING CIRCUS!" Haly yells down below and Robin feels her breath hitch once more, a nauseating feeling settling within her.
"Robin? Are you sure-"
"Yes, it's too late to back out now."
"-AND THESE ARE OUR LATEST PEARLS, THE DARING DANGERS!"
With that, it was their cue to start their rehearsed performance. Robin took a deep breath before smiling and waving at the audience before leaping off the platform, her arms outstretched, and caught the trapeze bar.
Both her and Miss Martian start doing flips in the air and when Robin was about to launch herself, Miss Martian hanging upside down on the bar, her hands outstretched to catch her, Robin knew she didn't put enough strength into it.
"Crap," she thought just when she felt her fingers brush against Miss Martian's.
"Robin!"
The three teammates from below quickly looked up at that as the audience around them screamed in fright.
"Don't blow cover!" Robin reminds them, trying adrenaline now pumping through her veins.
"But saving your life's ok?" Superboy says from below and Robin turns her head down to the ground and sees a green barrel being thrown up in the air.
Turning her body mid-air, Robin lands on the barrel, the momentum of the barrel strong enough to launch her back up in the air where Miss Martian is swinging, still upside down, and ready to catch her.
With one hand on the barrel, Robin finds the strength to try to stand up and stretches her arm out for Miss Martian but she soon feels herself fall down once more.
"It's not-"
Robin is cut off when she feels herself lift more than it would have, Miss Martian now gripping onto Robin's hand, swinging them both back on the platform as the barrel falls down to the ground and the crowd erupts into loud cheers.
"What did I just say?" Robin couldn't help but ask as her feet touched the ground, both her and Miss Martian waving to the audience down below.
"The crowd couldn't see me use telekinesis from below. Besides, I've been using it all night, I'm not exactly the acrobat you are."
"Yeah, neither am I right now. I think I caught that 24-hour bug that's been going around the circus but the show must go on."
The both of them start climbing down the ladder, waving at the audience. They meet up with the rest of the team by the middle, Miss Martian keeping a steady hand behind Robin, helping the fourteen-year-old stand upright.
"Keep it up for the Daring Dangers!"
They wave at the crowd on their way out, Miss Martian still helping Robin. "Didn't think you'd make it through."
"Neither did I," Robin amends and once they make it past the circus curtains, Robin feels the adrenaline finally slip and her legs give in. Miss Martian and Roy right beside her to catch her.
They quickly help her over to their designated area, letting Robin sit on the chair, head hanging low with her eyes shut tight.
"Robin, you're burning up," Miss Martian says in concern. "Maybe we shouldn't-"
"No," Robin cuts her off, her hands clenched into a fist, forcing herself to stand despite nausea. "We're still going on that stakeout tonight."
"But you can barely walk!" Artemis argues back.
Before she can say anything, someone walks over to them, a concerned frown on his face. "Danna!" Haly says. "That wasn't part of the rehearsal, is everything alright?"
Robin feels her heart tug at this, knowing full well that he was having flashbacks to a certain night in Gotham. "Yeah, I'm fine," Robin smiles, her headache forgotten. "Think I got that 24-hour bug though, but I'll be fine!"
Haly frowned in concern at this before a small smile was on his face. "You go rest if you still have that fever tomorrow, you and your sibling won't need to perform in the next show. I also have the trapeze nets be brought over for our next show if you and your sibling wish to continue to our next stop in Geneva."
"We'll think about it and let you know," Robin smiles and Haly walks away.
"Danna," Red Arrow says, walking up to her, his voice in a hard reprimanding whisper. "I know that this means a lot to you but I still need to look out for you."
"I told you I'm fine," Robin brushed off, turning her back against him but when he elbows her, she turns around to get mad at him but sees that the redhead was looking somewhere else, a frown on his face. The fourteen-year-old turns to stare at what he's looking at and sees Haly having just got out of the argument with two of the performing twins and bumping into a man in a suit.
"Oh, for crying out loud, not you again. We're in the middle of a show!" Haly complains to the guy.
"Then we'll talk after, but we will talk," the man says. "Another city last week, another tech firm robbed, another stop on your tour. If I prove you're responsible, I will shut you down."
"I've got three minutes to gather props and get back to the center ring," Haly growls out, moving to walk past the agent.
The three of them watch him walk away before the agent turns towards her and Red Arrow and walks over to them, everyone now watching him.
"Faraday, Interpol," the agent introduces himself, showing his badge. "New act?"
"Yeah, we just joined the tour," Robin answers.
"Probably clears you but don't get too comfortable, Haly's going down for this," the agent turns and Robin glares at the agent as he leaves.
"We're doing this stakeout, no arguments," Robin huffs out before walking away and going into the train cargo and into their designated room. She closes the door behind her and sits down on the foldable couch with a groan.
She sits alone in the shared carriage, head in her hands as she tries to think of the stakeout that night. She brings out her hologlove, placing it on and accessing the files Tim gave her that morning. She hears her comm beep with an incoming call and seeing there were only four people who were given access to contact her, she answers it.
"Kinda busy, what's up?" she answers the call, eyes still trained on the data.
"Why are is Haly's Circus trending all over the internet with a video performance of-" Tim keeps quiet at that, not continuing what he was saying.
"Wow, that spread fast," Robin couldn't help but say, knowing that if she acted like it was affecting her, her brothers would instantly call her and the Team back.
"Dixie."
Robin sighed, shoulders slumping. "I'm alright, just got distracted, everything is-"
"You just fell! Why weren't there any nets!"
"Because there isn't anyone on the tour who was using them, I thought you were doing your research," she couldn't help but tease. "And besides, it was purely my fault, I wasn't concentrated and didn't put enough strength in that swing."
"You're going home, I knew it was a bad idea-"
"If you finish that sentence, I'm going to cut you and the others off," she growled out. "I've got everything handled, I even have an idea where tonight's break-in is going to be."
Tim remains quiet for a minute or so before she hears him sigh in defeat. "I'm sorry, I just flipped out when I saw the video. We asked you to do one thing. Try not to draw too much attention to yourself. And what did you do on the first day? Get a video of you trending all over the internet. What next? I'll find something on the news tomorrow morning?"
"Well…"
"Don't even answer that," Tim sighed, earning a laugh from her. "Well, without a doubt Bruce already saw the video, it's just up to Damian, Jason, and I to play damage control."
"Just get Agent A to help then," she tells him, knowing that Alfred would take their side.
"Oh, that's smart, I'll talk to him about it right now. Good luck at your stakeout tonight. Some heads up for damage control would be good."
Robin smiles, closing her holo-glove. "Well, I'll let you know. Look, I gotta go, we're going to go soon. I'll contact you later for damage control."
"You better."
"Okay, bye," she rolls her eyes, ending the call just as someone enters the room. She turns to see Miss Martian and Artemis enter the room.
"Who was that?" Artemis asks, raising an eyebrow.
"Intel about tonight," she tells them, getting up from the foldable couch. "The others?"
"Going to prepare, the show just ended," Miss Martian answered.
Robin nodded at this, pulling off one of the trunks from the overhead bin. "Then let's start changing. Can you tell the boys that we're leaving in 15?"
The Martian nods and Robin opens the trunk to see her and Artemis's costumes. Robin tosses the archer her uniform and the both of them change, Miss Martian merely shifting the clothes she was already wearing into her uniform. The fourteen-year-old eyes the Martian with a pout as she threw her cape over her shoulders, clipping it on. "Wish I could do that."
"Yeah, would save so much time and awkward situations," Artemis says. Miss Martian and Robin stare at her, questioning what she means by that. The blond archer just shrugs, not bothering to explain herself.
Robin turns her back and with her hair acting as a curtain, she switches the mask she has on and wears her signature black domino mask. When her mask is in place, she turns back around, tugging on her gloves.
"You didn't remove the contacts you were wearing?" Artemis asks her.
"Contacts? I wasn't wearing contacts," she frowns, confused by what the archer was saying.
"You weren't?" Miss Martian is the one who asks this time. "We all thought you were wearing contacts, secret identity and all."
"That and your eyes were so blue," Artemis adds.
"Batman may want me to keep my identity a secret but not to that extreme," Robin smiles. That and she wanted to give Artemis a hint on who she was, seeing if the archer recognizes her with her eyes not covered. "But enough about that, let's get going."
Miss Martian sets up the mind link and the five of them quickly sneak out of the train cabin, the lights closed and doors locked, making it look like they all went off to bed but in reality, they slipped out through the cabin windows. They were now overlooking one of the warehouses, Robin looking around the place with her binoculars.
"If Interpol's already on this, why are we bothering?" Superboy asks.
"Because Batman said so, why? You got something better to do?" Robin shoots back.
"How do we know the thieves will hit here?" Artemis asks as she pulls up her binoculars.
"There are more obvious targets," Red Arrow adds.
"And Faraday will have them covered but I've analyzed the take already stolen and the pattern suggests this is the place."
"How are you feeling?" Miss Martian asks in concern.
"Lousy," the fourteen-year-old answers but seeing the quick flash of concern, she quickly waves it off. "But I'll manage."
"Contact, Northeast quadrant," Superboy suddenly says.
Robin pulls out her binoculars, looking in that direction only to see a man leap over the wired fence with a light pole with ease.
"It looks like we know why Carlo missed a performance," Superboy comments.
"Could be Carlo, could be his brother," Robin lowers her binoculars, keeping it in her utility belt. "Keep an open mind. And move in."
She leaps off the builder she and Miss Martian is covered and swings herself over the wired fences, landing on her feet with ease. She sneaks up to the side of the building, the others joining her. "Did you see where he went?"
"The warehouse," Superboy says.
Robin stares at the clone, a sudden question and an unnerving feeling overcoming her. She turns to look at Red Arrow who didn't seem bothered by it. "Okay, move in."
The team and her make their way into the building, being careful to not make any noise. They enter through one of the open windows, Miss Martian levitating them to the ground as to not make any noise.
Artemis points to the lower right of the building and Robin sees the man prying a crate open with a crowbar. Inside the crate looked like mechanical parts of an engine or machine.
The man pulls out something from inside and in the corner of her eye, Robin sees Red Arrow and Artemis pulling back an arrow. The Girl Wonder couldn't help but cackle, the man flinched at this, turning around to face them. "Caught red-handed, red-faced too, I'll bet."
"Acrobatics won't get you out of this," Artemis remarks.
The masked man grabs the discarded wooden piece from the wooden crate, igniting it, and to all of their surprise, the fire actually intensifies and is blown in their direction.
They all quickly hide and take cover, Superboy taking a brunt of the attack but is left unharmed because of his powers.
"Those crates are full of live ammo," Red Arrow says and Robin turns to see the crate he was talking about, the fire already eating away at the wood.
"In here!" Robin yells, opening up a metal containment unit. They all rush in, Superboy quickly shutting the door. They don't even get to rest for a minute before they feel the explosion, the whole crate, moving and heating up at the shockwave. Superboy quickly breaks the whole thing, the metal all weak from the explosion.
Robin rushes to Miss Martian, who instantly fell, the fire and heat already getting to her.
"That guy's dead meat," Superboy growls, ready to chase down the man.
"Superboy, no!" Robin yells after him. "You need to get her out."
Superboy turns, seeing Miss Martian looking tired and ready to pass out.
"He's getting away!"
"And that matters more than Miss M?" Robin snaps. "The fire is killing her!"
That seemed to do the trick, realization and shock flashing across the clone. "Right," Superboy says, snapping out of his anger. He rushed over to his girlfriend, picking her up and quickly left the burning building to help her.
"Artemis, Arrow, find the thief," she tells her other two teammates, the heat and fire getting to her. She feels her knees slowly giving in as the pounding in her head intensifies with the heat. She collapses on the ground with a grunt, her head aching. The two archers are instantly by her side, helping her.
"Because he matters more than you?" Artemis asks, helping her up.
"You're still off you game, pal. We're getting you out too" Red Arrow says, grabbing her arm and throwing it around his shoulder and the two archers help her out of the collapsing building.