With no real choice, I held a small fireball over my head to light the cave around us and brought up the rear of our ragtag procession. Robin led the way with a flashlight taken from his omnipotent utility belt. Pulsade, in the middle of the group, provided the best light. She held up a glowing strobe that flashed intense white light a dozen times a second. It made everything look surreal and slow like a scratchy, old timey black and white movie.

I wasn't too happy about walking through a dark, dank cave with folks that, earlier in the day, had been dead set on cracking our skulls. But there was one thing I was thankful for: By design or not, Michael walked directly behind Robin, about as far from me as he could get. The two of us wouldn't be singing campfire songs together any time soon, at least.

Robin surprised me. From what I'd seen and what I heard, he was real hardcore. He was Batman's protege, after all. But minutes after beating them off, he'd allowed a group of...criminals...to join us. Admittedly, the only crime they committed, (that we were aware of), was attacking us. But that was good enough for me.

Maybe Robin had a bit of forgiveness under that badass exterior after all. Or maybe he just considered Mr. Freeze so dangerous that he needed all the help he could get.

I gulped and hoped the first theory was right. Mr. Freeze was a Gothamite. Anyone who tangled with Batman on a regular basis had to be tough...

Then there was Noir, right in from of me. He walked with his head down, trying not to look directly at Pulsade's light. But other than that, he seemed like his usual self. That was Noir for you: He could adapt to just about anything.

And then the one Pulsade and Michael called Simon was in front of Noir. He was a metahuman who could manipulate fire and as bald as the day is long...but he seemed to be the most normal out of his group.

"Simon," I said. If, for no other reason, then to break the silence. "My name's Bard and this is-"

"Noir." Simon finished, never breaking stride and never looking back. "I know who you are. You can only be a Titan for so long and keep your anonymity."

"Heh, imagine that, Noir." I patted him on the back. "We've done gone and got ourselves known. I reckon we're famous now."

Noir smiled nervously at me.

"So is Michael Jackson." Simon threw over his shoulder.

I opened my mouth to reply to that, but then I stopped. I felt a soft gust of warm air. At first I thought I imagined it, but then I felt it again. Only this time, it brought along with it the smells of grass and trees and sunshine. I smiled. The way out was just ahead. In my eagerness to get out of the cave I tried to hurry along the pace, but everyone in front of me moseyed along at the same old pace.

After what seemed like an eternity, we stepped out of the cave in to a sunshine filled clearing surrounded on all sides by trees and bushes. I felt ten times better.

"Phew," I said, letting my fireball dissipate. "I'm happy to get out of that durn cave."

"Our journey isn't over yet." Robin reminded me. "We still have a way to go-"

KA-CHINKT!

We all got on guard and looked out at the forest. Noir held Myrkblade at eye level with both hands, smoke escaping between his fingers.

KA-CHINKT!

The sound was louder that time, coming closer. Bushes and branches moved and trembled at it came towards us.

"Um..." I blinked. "Anyone wanna go back into the cave?"

"You scared, cowboy?" Michael leered at me.

"Hell. No." I cracked my neck and drew my laser pistol, aiming with my free arm straight across my chest to steady it.

KA-CHINKT! KACKHINKTKACHINKTKACHINKT!

They dove out of the thicket like lions. Robots. Over a dozen of them with human-like bodies and silver, metal skin. A few others were cylinder-shaped and floated with laser turrets pointing out of their bodies.

A humanoid robot leaped at Robin. He back flipped out of the way, landed and sprung back at it, his bo-staff whirling.

WHACK!

I paced around the clearing, methodically taking out the flying robots.

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

One of the humanoid robots rushed me from the side. I turned-

SLASSSSH!

Noir skidded to a stop with Myrkblade extended. A second late, the robots fell in to halves. We saluted each other and went back to out collective ass-kicking.

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

SL-SLASH!

It seemed like every laser-shooting robot I shot down, two more took their place. I was suddenly on the defensive while the others took care of the humanoid robots. I back stepped until I bumped into someone...Michael. We stood back-to-back, me with my laser pistol and him with his magnum.

BLAM! BLAM!

He took out to flying robots and glanced at me over his shoulder.

"You never once thought I'd be watching your back, did ya, cowboy?"

"Yeah...just don't be a Jack McCall to my Wild Bill Hickok."

ZAP! ZAP! ZAP!

"Haaaaaa...AH!" Simon pressed his wrists together with his palms out and created a billowing stream of fire. Robin and Pulsade sprinted on either side of it, jumped and side kicked a humanoid robot. The two of them vaulted of the fire, passed in midair and landed on another pair of robots.

They looked up, panting. Michael reloaded his magnum while I covered him. Simon stopped his fiery torment and sweat while Noir blurred to a skidding stop beside me.

And the robots were still coming.