Chapter 24

It happened so fast that Robin couldn't even process it. Somehow, he was snatched off his feet and passed off to someone, he didn't know who, and then he was passed off again to someone else. He started to fight, desperate to get away, almost positive that it was Slade or his cronies.

"Robin, do not fight, it is I, Starfire!"

"Starfire?" Robin craned his head around to look at the girl holding him. "What's going on? Is Batman all right? Is—"

Starfire interrupted. "He told us to get you away from Slade, so that was what we did."

Robin looked behind Starfire and saw Cyborg on the ground, Raven flying just above it, and a hawk Beast Boy flying over Starfire. All of his friends were with him.

"But what about Batman? Where's he?" Robin demanded.

"I do not know," Starfire confessed.

"We have to go back there and help him!"

"No way, dude, he already hashed that out with us!" Cyborg called up to him. "We're to get you out of here and we're not to go back trying to help him!"

Robin nearly groaned in frustration. Slade was too tricky, and he was altogether too cruel to fight fair. Batman didn't use guns, but Slade wouldn't have any sort of compunctions about using a weapon if it meant he came out on top in a fight. What could he do?

Raven's communicator went off, and she answered it. She listened for a few moments, said, "Gotcha," and hung up. "We can stop running now," she said, coming to a stop herself. "Slade's neutralized."

"How?" Robin asked as Starfire halted.

"According to Batman, some guy leapt off the porch and lay into Slade, knocking him out. He grabbed a control from Slade's belt and switched off the bots. Let's go back, I don't think Batman was done hugging you yet."

Robin glared at her, but let it slide. Raven wasn't exactly a touchy-feely person.

When they arrived back at the boarding house, they saw bots lying everywhere and an unconscious Slade that had been tied up with what looked like the curtain ties from the front parlor. Randall was bent over a Slade bot and had its back panel open.

"Hi," he said, looking up at Robin and grinning. "I'm snagging some Slade technology."

"Were you the guy that jumped off the porch and whaled into Slade?" Cyborg wanted to know.

Randall grinned again. "You bet. Oh, giving him a concussion felt so good, y'know?"

Robin found himself smiling. "I know what you mean."

"He won't wake up for a while, thank goodness," Randall said. "Hopefully we can find a prison that can hold him."

"I've already found one," Batman said. "If he escapes from there, I'll be surprised and admit that he deserves to escape."

"Well, good," Randall said, extracting a command chip from the bot he was bending over. "Hmmm. He's good, I'll give him that."

Batman said nothing, but began to work on a bot of his own. After all, Randall had a good idea: seize enemy technology when you could and up your own success rate. He gathered several chips, as Randall was doing. Randall would turn his over to Haven, and Batman would keep his for a "just in case" scenario.

Robin found himself strangely apathetic. He was reunited with his friends and guardian safely, Slade was neutralized, and there seemed to be no chance that there was anything wrong. Why wasn't he happier?

Space

The difficult work of getting Slade safely to Arkham lay before him, he still had to question that young Randall and the people of the boarding house, but Batman found he couldn't do it. Robin was curled up in a bed on the top floor of the boarding house, and Batman felt that he didn't want to take his eyes off the boy for fear he would disappear. Starfire had taken up a post in a chair by the bed, and she had fallen asleep holding onto his hand. Cyborg had collapsed in the rocker, Beast Boy had made himself at home on a cushion in kitten form, and Raven had claimed the window seat. They weren't taking any chances, it seemed.