I finally convince Danny to get into a pair of loose sweats and a t-shirt. He can't get the jumpsuit on until we take off his casts, but he really didn't want to hear that. Before we leave the bathroom, I give him stuff to brush his teeth and shave(although at most he had a five o'clock shadow), and then we go back into the medbay.
His spirits have undeniably lifted with the shower, food and clothes. Jazz had dropped off a backpack full of all kinds of things, including a couple books, a notebook and pens, clothes, and a cell phone.
Danny sits back down on the bed, probably tired of standing for so long. Just as he's about to ask me something, my watch beeps, signaling me to the mission room. "Hey, gotta go."
"When will you be back?" he asks.
"Don't know. It's a mission. But here-" I pull out a random book from the bag. It's a heavy book with the title The Cambridge Star Atlas. Huh. Light read. I put it on his bed anyway. "Read this."
He gives me raised eyebrows but pulls it towards him. I jog out of the room and down the hall towards the mission room. The rest of the team is already there, including Tucker and Jazz.
"Late much?" snarks Wally, probably still annoyed about earlier.
"Gay much?" I return. Artemis snickers and Wally just goes red again.
"If I was, I wouldn't date you," he retorts.
"That's fine; if you were gay and wouldn't date me, I'd just date Artemis." Artemis looks startled before going absolutely livid.
"Enough," Kaldur orders, but I catch his humored smile.
I'd been with Batman almost five years. He's been with me the same amount of time. We share a telepathic thought: We're going to talk about this later. Batman may be all deeply messed up and hard and cold as a rock and stuff, but even he has to appreciate a good ironic joke about Wally. Not that we have anything against gays; it's just hilarious to think of Wally, who's train of thought is exclusively about girls, like that.
Even though now I know Artemis is probably going to kill me because of it.
Batman starts going over the aspects of the mission he'd found for us: a lab similar to Cadmus that had belonged to the light had opened back up after its shutdown following the attack on the Justice League. He explained that they were unaware that we even knew about the lab, so it was strictly as covert as possible.
"Robin," he calls after the briefing, and I go over to him expectantly, the Team going to either to bioship or the computers. "How is Danny Phantom?"
I send a quick glance back at the Team, seeing that Tucker and Jazz were well enough immersed in a conversation with Kaldur and Zatanna that they wouldn't eavesdrop. "He has accelerated healing. The wounds on his head are almost gone."
"Should his casts be removed?"
"Not right now… He doesn't do well with people yet."
Batman nods once, knowing exactly what I'm getting at. "So when you return?"
"That should work."
"Has he displayed any memories?"
"Some fragmented ones. He remembers a couple impressions, like the meaning of random words. He remembered his hero uniform, and he got this look of nostalgia. Other than that, nothing."
"Nostalgia?"
I shrug. "Wistful. You know… Like he had an impression… If I had to guess, the actual aspect of being a hero is something he remembers the best."
Batman is silent. Of course, the Batman is always silent. But there are different reasons for his silence, and the auras of them are different. The silence he has right now has the ambiance (that's a weird word) of deep thinking.
"What are you thinking?" I ask.
"There are studies of amnesiacs whose hobbies are the key to their memories. A pianist, for instance, could remember more easily while playing the piano."
"You think he should be a hero again?"
Batman gives a slight nod. "Maybe. But first, the mission."
I give him a salute and a cocky smile, running off to where the Team is waiting for me in the bioship. I flip into a seat, the chair automatically molding to me and locking me in.
"What was that about?" Wally asks, chewing on a granola bar.
"Just asking about Danny," I inform.
"How's he doing?" Kaldur asks.
I shrug. "Jumpy, paranoid, socially anxious. All the things you'd expect. He's already showing improvement, though. Jazz and Tucker just need to be patient."
"Ha!" barks Conner. I can't even scold him. They are not the patient type.
M'gann lifts the bioship into the air.
"Urgh, everything hurts," whines Zatanna, collapsing in a seat. The other Team members trudge on, all exhausted.
The mission fared like all our others.
Horribly off plan.
Stay covert, stay out of sight. Ha! Yeah, right.
We'd blown our cover, fought several dozens of robots powered by green energy that didn't stay down until we blew them up, all got knocked into unconsciousness at least three times each, and of course, we left the building only seconds before it blew up.
We do have something for this mission that we didn't have before, though: Aparato and Vision. Aparato-Tucker- hacked through the connection I set up for him and got tons of info downloaded back at the cave before the place blew.
Even Conner was injured, a feat nearly impossible in and of itself. In fact, the people with the super strength got hit the hardest by the energy guns the robots wielded. At least no one had any broken limbs. There were some broken ribs, though.
The ride home is silent, the Team just barely keeping their eyes open. I'm pretty sure we all have multiple concussions, to be fair. If you can even have more than one concussion at a time, that is.
Batman waits for our debriefing in the mission room. One look and he decides it can wait. "Everyone to the medbay," he commands. We do this kind of nodding motion, sluggishly changing direction from aimlessly walking to the medbay.
Tucker and Jazz stand up worriedly, coming to help with those of us who couldn't walk well, i.e. Wally (twisted ankle) and Zatanna (who was walking in curves).
The medbay has ten beds, fortunate because all of us are going to need to sit down, even me. I knocked my head into more rocks than I cared to count, and was having trouble remembering the fight clearly.
Danny had been sitting against the pillows, legs bent so his book could rest comfortably. He sets it down when we all come in, glancing nervously at all the people. I choose the bed next to his, sitting on the edge. As soon as my feet leave the ground my head hurts even worse.
"What happened?" he asks quietly, to which I'm grateful. At least he's not yelling it, right?
"We got our butts kicked," I supply. It sounds a little distant, kind of like an echo. "Echo, echo," I echo.
Batman comes over to me after hearing this. "This side," he demands. Confused, I switch from the side facing Danny to the one facing away. I understand as soon as Batman carefully pulls off my mask. Of course he wouldn't want Danny seeing my identity. I also notice he shields my face from everyone else with his body. Jazz and Tucker hadn't found out my identity yet, but knew everyone else's.
"Follow my finger," he commands again. He moves it back and forth in front of my head, and I can feel my eyes not working right.
"Batman," I complain. "You're making me dizzy." He pulls back with a deeper frown. He replaces my mask, clicking the lenses to something darker.
"How many times did you knock your head?" Batman asks.
I start counting. Once when a robot slammed my head in the wall and another time on the ground. Something blunt but hard hit me another time, but I lost consciousness so it could've been more. I think one other time?
Three, maybe four.
"Robin."
Oh, I never said it outloud. Three or four.
"Robin!" It's no louder, but more urgent. Even the change of tone hurts my head.
"Sorry," I murmur. "I was counting. Four, I think."
"Did you lose consciousness at all?"
"Yeah, couple times. I don't really remember though."
"Do you feel pain anywhere else?"
I do a mental inventory. No, my suit protects everywhere else on my body. My foot hurts a little, but I've felt it broken before and this is nothing. I shake my head, but immediately regret it. My head is now swimming. Batman helps me lean back against the pillows.
"Phantom."
I don't hear him reply, but know he answers Batman nonverbally.
"Make sure he stays awake."
"Okay."
Batman moves to Artemis next, who I think is the one with the broken ribs. I also see Black Canary working on Conner and Red Tornado on M'gann. Strangely, Jazz seems at ease with wrapping Wally's foot. I'm surprised Batman let her, too. Zatanna sits with Tucker, who chats endlessly. I think she has a concussion, too.
"Robin!" Danny snaps.
"Calm down, I'm still awake," I groan irritably. "I've done this before." My head is pounding. Ugh. Should've asked Bats for some aspirin.
"Do you want an ice pack?" he asks. I mumble a yes. But instead of going over to the freezer to grab one, he reaches behind his pillows and pulls out the one I gave him a while ago.
"That's not going to be cold anymore," I tell him.
"Ye of little faith." I want to snicker at his tone, but I'm a bit too exhausted. He gets off his bed slowly and slips the surprisingly freezing pack behind my head. I lift my head because it's a bit too cold. Danny notices and takes one of his unused shirts from a pile at the foot of his bed and puts that between my head and the pack.
"How is it so cold?"
"My hands do it," he explains, like that makes all the sense in the world. I ask him what he means. "I don't know. I just hold it, and it stays cold."
"Well, it feels nice." So nice, in fact, my head has stopped hurting so bad. Now the only problem is how heavy my eyes are. I try to ignore the fact that I'm exhausted, but I can't. I just want to sleep. I haven't slept in forever. How cruel that the people that are the most tired are the ones who can't sleep!
"Robin, tell me another story."
"I don't know any stories."
"How'd this team form?"
"Hush, I'm tired."
"And I'm curious!" I wave him off. "Robin, are you guys sidekicks?"
"No," I say sharply, more forcefully than anything else I've said so far. I want to wonder why he chose that specific word, but it's not in my best interest.
"Really? Why not?" He pokes me in the arm when I don't answer. "Robin, Robin, tell me the story!"
"Geez, fine!"
I start telling him the story about how we rebelled against the Justice League, investigated Cadmus, broke out Superboy, got our butts kicked by Superboy and then our fantastic escape. Everytime I try to gloss over details, Danny gets annoying again and I have to go back and elaborate.
After I'm done, I whine that I want to sleep.
"If you can walk," Danny challenges.
"What do you mean?"
"Well, if you have a concussion, you have to stay awake only if you can't hold a conversation, can't walk straight, and if your pupils are dilated," he lectures. Batman glances over, curious, but nods that that is, indeed, correct.
"How do you know that?"
"I just... do." He gets that confused and faraway look in his eyes. Then he snaps back to reality before I can call him out on it. "Get up."
I mutter about bossy idiots and no respect for the injured but drag myself out of bed and walk back and forth in a straight line to prove to my two nurses that I'm fine. "Ta-da."
I carefully climb back onto the bed and back against the cold pack, which isn't very cold anymore. "Now can I go to sleep?"
Batman nods. Danny nods. He also reaches behind my head and refreezes the pack, turning it cold again. I don't even feel him withdraw, I'm so quickly asleep.
Hi again!
I'm so excited for my plans for this story! I've got his memory return figured the heck out and what happened to Sam!
-If you find any problems with the plot, please let me know, because I tend to forget little things in it. By the way, I put a little DP quote in one of Danny's chapters, I think it was the third... See if you can find it!
One last order of business: I have another FanFic, already completed and my first beloved. It's not a crossover and is a futuristic story, next generation. Do you guys think I should post it? Cuz Idk
-Disclaimer, disclaimer