AN: I want to address something real quick, because no one has commented on it. Maybe that's a good thing, but I feel like I need it off my chest. Let's talk briefly about drag queen Robin.

If you haven't already noticed, LGBTQ issues are very important to me, and I didn't add this aspect to Robin for laughs. I did it because of a tiny little feature in the 2004 show that even the animators felt was important. Robin wears a mask. He never took it off. It made him feel comfortable and safe. This is the same effect I'm seeking here: to give Robin aan identity that let's him be at ease. In the same way that Kori's comfort state is perfect for them and "alien" to those around them, Robin's comfort state is easy to misunderstand and might look fake at times. He's still a boy. Just a boy who likes to be someone else sometimes, perhaps blurring the line between cis and gnc.

Anyway, if you're still reading, you probably understand and trust me. I just needed to clear that up, especially after rereading a reaction I got to Kori's coming-out and how much it meant to them. I still get watery eyes every time I read it.

And now, back to the story…

"Earth to spaceman!"

Victor chuckled. "Sorry. What's up?"

Garfield gestured to Kori, who also laughed.

"I was thinking," they said, "about joining the volley ball. What do you think?"

"Uh, well, you'll probably be on the girl's team. If that's cool with you, I say go for it," replied Victor.

Kori nodded. "I suspected this. I will try out, then."

"Well, it was nice knowing ya," Garfield grumbled.

"What's that supposed to mean?" asked Robin.

"Come on, man. It's not that serious," said Victor. "At worst, it cuts into the Tuesday pizza party."

"It's not like we've never been one person short," added Robin.

Garfield pouted. "It was a joke. It's how I deal-"

"With changes. We know." Kori said, smiling gently. "What has distracted you, Victor?"

"Huh?"

Robin chuckled, and Garfield rolled his eyes.

"You are worried about Raven?" Kori guessed.

Victor sighed. "Yeah, I guess I am."

They nodded. Garfield's face crunched again.

"Why?" he asked.

"She's meeting Dr. Quinzel today, right?" Robin said. "She'll be fine."

"Right. Right," Victor said, nodding. "I'm just gonna head to class early. Maybe the bot will distract me."

"If it doesn't, Garth will," Robin chuckled, following him.

Victor growled. "Just because someone agrees with you doesn't mean you're right."

"I'm right because I'm right," Robin laughed. "Having someone agree with me is just a bonus."

"And the two of you know more than ten seniors, of course."

"Miss Simms thinks we do."

Victor rolled his eyes and opened the room door. Another tall boy looked up from his laptop to glance at them and grinned.

"Hey, Vic. Rob. You're here early," he said.

"Hey, Garth," Robin called. "Working on the program?"

He nodded and pulled his long hair back to tie it up. "My cousin looked through what we had so far and just… laughed. I'm trying to fix it."

Victor groaned. There was nothing wrong with that code. Even Robin said it was-.

"Seriously? That bad?" Robin winced.

"Man, chill," sighed Victor. "Try to remember that your cousin works at the Pentagon."

"Yeah, so he knows what he's talking about," Garth said, scowling.

"You saved it just in case, right?"

"I'm not an idiot, Robin."

Victor leaned over his shoulder.

"'Then' is spelled with an E, genius," he sighed.

"Wha-? Oh, my god!"

"How did we spend all week on that and not notice?" Robin asked, squeezing Garth's shoulder.

"Better question: How am I getting an A- in English?"

Victor laughed. "How am I getting a C+?"

Garth growled and said, "Okay, someone else is going to have to check for typos, because I am clearly not that smart."

"The formatting looks right, though."

"Yeah, and that's a common mix-up," Robin said. "Like 'it's' and 'its.'"

"Okay, that one is stupid," Garth said, pointing accusingly at Robin. "Possessives use apostrophes!"

"Not possessive pronouns."

"As fun as it is to listen to two underclassmen bicker over punctuation," Victor butted in, "I'd rather talk shop."

"Right, right. We should be able to test today," Garth said. "Let's hope we don't overdrive the motor."

"Shouldn't be an issue. What was the math, Rob?"

"It should hit a thousand RPM on the low setting."

"Both ways?" Garth asked, skeptical.

"I'm more worried about it being cheating," Robin said.

"It's not cheating. It's modular," Victor assured the younger two. "The pros do it all the time!"

"It's barely even modular. It's one part that comes off and goes right back on," said Garth. "We're literally just rotating the flywheel."

Robin paused, then dug into his bag for a notebook. Victor smirked.

"Oh boy, you made him think," he snickered.

"What if," Robin said, opening the book and drawing, "instead of being modular, we made an articulated arm?"

"We'd still need to move the screws between-."

Robin cut him off. "No, Garth, like an industrial arm. One we can adjust remotely, on the field, on the fly."

Victor whistled. "Those are some advanced commands, man."

"We can do it," said Garth. "If you can build it, I mean. I know I can find the commands."

"You can change a fly to a spinning disk with just a pivot joint and a hinge," Victor added. "The hard part is keeping the gears aligned."

Robin smirked again. "Not if you add a separate motor in the head to power the blade."

"Isn't that dangerous?" asked Garth. "If that gets hit, your primary weapon is gone."

"The primary would have to be gone to reach it."

"So," Robin said, "if we had two drivers- one running the chassis and one on the blade-."

"It has been done…"

"This is a really advanced piece, Rob," Victor said. "Maybe hold onto it for the finals? Let's start with this smaller one as proof of concept."

"But it'll work."

"Hey." Victor grabbed his shoulders gently and grinned. "I think you're right. But it won't be ready in two weeks. This is something we'd need everyone working on, not a quarter of the class."

"It's a great idea, Rob. But Vic's right. It's a pretty involved concept, and a lot can go wrong. We'd need time to test, troubleshoot, modify… If we can make the modular design work, though, we could submit this one for the final class project."

Robin nodded slowly. Victor sighed.

"If you want to," he said, "we can make it a personal project instead."

"Personal?" Garth repeated.

"There's not a law or anything saying we can't, say, hang out in my garage and build a robot without the school being involved."

Robin's blue eyes started brightening again. "Wayne will buy the parts for us. I know he will."

"Wayne as in Bruce Wayne?" asked Garth.

"He's my sponsor."

Garth smiled. "Awesome! Any chance we can take a peek at the industrial development branch of WI? It'd give us an idea of how to move forward with the design."

"P-probably."

The morning bell sang.

"Aw, man! I didn't get anything done," whined Victor.

"You got distracted."

"He's got a point, though," Garth said. "We can talk more later. Maybe over lunch?"

"Hey, we've got a spare seat today. Sounds good!" said Victor.