"You know, you could have found another way to get my attention." I walked across the rooftops, towards the huge WAYNE letters where Red X was reclining in the center of the A.
"Tried them, you've been really busy. Haven't you, Kid?" I could practically hear the smirk in his voice as he calmly slipped from his perch to land silently on the ground.
"Call Richard Grayson for a good time, seriously?" I tossed him the card he'd stuck to Cyborg's back a night ago.
Only the barest tilt of his head showed that he watched the cards descent to the ground. "It'd not my fault you don't trust them enough to tell them." He crossed his arms. "You're not as surprised as I thought you'd be."
"Only so much you could have known without that being one of them, and I doubt questioning you about how would help…" I let the unspoken question linger in the air.
"Trust me, you don't want to know." He said. "No one else is going to find out the way I did. Anyway, we're getting off topic here." He pulled a flash drive out of his utility belt. "I've got the cheat sheet to Mister Wilson's test, I'll share if you do my homework."
"Well how much homework do you have, I've got some family matters I'll have to finish up before I can get started." I didn't bother making a grab for the flash drive, for all I knew, it was just an empty piece of hardware he was trying to bait me with. "And I've still got my reputation you know, don't want to get sent to the principal's office."
"Don't worry, we'll call it a group assignment, I'll even pull my weight, just don't have all the required materials." He tucked the drive back out of sight. "Want the answer to the first question, I'll trade you if you take a quick look at something."
"How do I know it's really the first question?"
He held up three fingers and lackadaisically waved his left arm out. I didn't have any time to ask when a building in that general area shook on its foundations, the BOOM sending out tremors that I felt even blocks away.
I'd taken two steps toward the explosion when my communicator went off and Red X grabbed hold of my cape.
"It's him." The thief said seriously. "Here's the question. Mini-Slade is in that building, along with his 'Master'," He practically choked out the word. "Do you A: Take your team into a fight they're not prepared for? Or B: Come along with the trained stranger to investigate."
," He practically choked out the word. "Do you A: Take your team into a fight they're not prepared for? Or B: Trust the trained stranger to be your backup and investigate yourself." He gave the communicator in my hand a pointed look before taking a step away and holding up his hands a pacifying gesture. "This one'll take more subtlety than they're capable of, but it's your choice Boy Wonder."
I kept my eyes trained on him as I flicked on the comm., "Robin here, the explosions a diversion, I'm sending you all co-ordinates of the most likely targets, split up and proceed with caution." I typed in some locations as far from the building as you could get without leaving the city and got a chorus of replies before putting the device away again. "That the right answer?" I asked, ignoring the stab of pain in my chest telling me that no, it really wasn't.
"We'll see." Red X shot out a line and took off ahead of me for the now quiet crime scene.
I followed after, keeping a good distance between us as we swung across Jump City's skyline. On top of keeping my friends away from Slade for just a little while longer, I took the chance to pry as much information from the thief as I could. We touched down across the street from our destination, pulling out our binoculars in sync.
"How did you get the cheat sheet?" I whispered as I watched scanned the building for any promising heat signatures. There were a lot of people working over time that night, though from their positions I figured they weren't in any immediate danger from Slade's attack, I hoped I'd be able to keep it that way.
"Some friends of mine." He lowered his binoculars to adjust some dials near the top before going back to scoping out the building. "Got shot at a few times, those Al Ghul's don't play with these things I'll tell you that."
"There's a smaller one on the sixteenth." I looked over at my partner for the night. "Any plans?"
"Wouldn't have come along without. They're won't be on the sixteenth long, Hugo Pharmaceuticals keeps their Stirkonite on a hidden section just before the basement." He pointed back at the building where a few of the heat signatures, including the small one, were descending rapidly. "We've just found the elevator, come on."
Getting into the building was easy, way more easy than it should have been, which made us way more cautious that we would have been under different conditions. There were very few security systems which really shouldn't have been surprising, aside from junkies who would go through so much effort to rob a pharmaceuticals manufacturer? Sure there were some super-villains who were way into psychology, but most of them made their own… no way.
"Why's it called Hugo Pharmaceuticals?" I asked as Red X scanned the seemingly normal office for any surveillance equipment.
"Because no one would by medicine from a place called Strange Pharmaceuticals." He exaggerated rolling his eyes and I resisted the urge to mimic him.
"And the Stirkonite?" We didn't take the elevator itself, choosing instead to grapple down the shaft which made it easier to conceal our arrival.
"Named after the first person it was tested on, in secret naturally." His voice was just loud enough for me to hear and I replied just as quietly.
"Naturally?" In Gotham at least , everybody knew who Cornelius Stirk was. A cannibalistic serial killer wasn't easily erased from the collective consciousness of even a city that often saw worse. As bad as experimenting on him was, there weren't many people who would have cared.
"Was supposed to cure anxiety, had some other… side effects." Red X continued. "And no, if you didn't even know who Slade is, there's no way your metal friend can get into the data bases that'll tell you these things."
My hands tightened on my line, not because I was defensive of Red X thinking Cyborg couldn't get the job done, but because I hadn't even considered asking my friend to try. "Like what?" I kept my voice level.
"That's enough free questions." He said. "You'll wish you knew less when this is over."
Being a place that worked with chemicals, Hugo Pharmaceuticals had a lot of very wide, very spacious air vents to carry off any escaping fumes, Red X and I used these to follow the small group of heat signatures through the sub-level discretely.
"… aware that the substance isn't as stable as we would have liked." A scrawny man was saying to Slade as he shut the door of the sterile looking room they'd entered. "Negating the effects after long term use has proved, shall we say, difficult." I angled my head to see as much of the room as possible without being visible myself, but couldn't make out most of the room.
"That's not an issue." Slade moved to a corner where he could watch the room while a woman picked his small apprentice up and set the boy on a steel table where he settled with a feint huff.
"I trust there have been no hiccups in the design?" Slade asked the only one in the room not wearing a lab coat.
"Moving smoothly for the most part, but we've yet to recover the missing machine core, the trackers went offline near the docks and we have personnel looking into it." The tall man was typing away on a tablet, seemingly oblivious to what the doctors were doing. "In my opinion it's already been stripped and sold in pieces as scrap."
"You'll do well to keep such opinions to yourself." Slade said as the wall next to him slid up, revealing a smaller room behind a glass screen.
"As for the devices, there are naturally some design flaws at this time, but this one was surprisingly the easiest to construct…" The man began explaining the design specifications of some machine they were working on and I set my recorder as near as I dared so I could go over it again later.
"Pulse strong." A doctor called out as she rolled the boy's glove back down, and got a stethoscope to check his heartbeat. I heard him suck in a breath at the cold metal touching his skin, and she chuckled, one hand starting towards where his head would have been before stopping half way.
"We're still having some trouble with the aeration clogging up, the tech side is trying to make the pipes larger without compromising the effectiveness, they assure us it's a minor problem and they'll have it ready ahead of schedule." He typed some more on the tablet and tilted it towards Slade. "Projections show the loss of the KORD industries beacon could stall production if a replacement isn't aquired in the next few weeks."
"Have your people locate one and I'll send my apprentice to retrieve it." Slade's offhanded comment shifted my attention briefly to the partially visible boy across the room.
The physical continued, the woman only pausing when she removed his helmet and set it down on the table besides her patient with a soft 'clack'. I tried again to get a better view of the room and groaned internally when I couldn't.The button on her penlight clicked as she shone it into what I guessed was his ear. He squirmed a little when she moved on to his eyes and went "uhh" when she told him to open his mouth.
"We've already found a suitable replacement, but the security is best tackled by a professional, the child chances of surviving such a stunt are slim." The tall man flinched at Slade's glare and turned the movement into a shrug at the last second. "Of course I leave such matters to your discretion. Lex Corp has recently released a solvent intended for space exploration crafts, and we've negotiated a price…"
"But?" Slade's eyes were fixed on the other side of the glass.
"We were hoping you could talk him down a few million dollars, out budget is stretched too tightly to afford both it and Calculators virus." His shaky hands fiddled with his glasses.
I tried again to get a better view of the room, and groaned internally when I couldn't. "How are you feeling?" She asked.
"Okay." His hands meshed together on his lap and he made a little noise like he'd started saying something else but cut himself off, the padding on his gloves creaking softly.
At first I was kind of relieved that Slade cared at least enough to make sure the kid got regular checkups, and judging by how familiar the doctors were with him they had to be regular. Then Red X nudged me and pointed to one of those whose actions weren't obscured by the bad angle.
This man was filing a syringe with a bright purple liquid. For the first time, Slade stepped towards his apprentice. He held the boy in place as the doctor approached. Ice shot up my spine as the boy, who'd been still and quiet since he'd entered the room, tensed up. Small hands clenched and unclenched as the needle drew closer. At the last second, he tried to pull away, but Slade's grip was firm and the needle sank into the child's neck.
The boy's only further protest was a whimper as the doctor pressed down the plunger, a few moments later and the tension drained out of him. His body went limp and he almost slumped over, giving me a look at the tears dripping off his chin before Slade pulled him up by his cape.
I barely noticed the woman repeating the physical, only how quiet he was being the second time around.
A glance at Red X showed the thief as composed as ever, and as much as I hated it, I knew going along with him instead of my team had been a good call. There wasn't one of them who would have been able hold off from attacking right then.
"How are you feeling?" The woman asked again, this time with an edge to her voice as the boy picked up his helmet with steady hands.
"Okay." He answered. I only picked up on how shaky his voice had been before when I heard how steady it was then. Slade lifted him by his cape, and I got the tiniest glimpse of his face before the room disappeared.
Red X's grip on my arm was painfully tight, his other hand closing over my mouth to muffled the shout I hadn't really noticed I was about to let out.
"What was that?!" I demanded, the crisp air atop the Wayne building stinging my face in stark contrast to the stuffy vent.
"Me stopping you from blowing your cover over that kid." Red X stretched out the stiffness that came with spending hours in tight spaces. "There's no way they'll think that was rats now." The regret in his voice about as real as the Easter bunny
"I was trying to get a better look at the room." I kept my hands loose at my sides while trying to push down the heat of adrenaline flooding my veins.
He watched me from where he was leaning against the letter N, outwardly calm as anything, not even the tiniest lick of tension in his shoulders. "They would have picked up on the hacked sensors in a few minutes anyway." He shrugged. "I'll see you when you get back from your family get together, see you then." He waved and started to walk off.
"Wait." I called and he paused, looking at me over his shoulder. "The first question on you cheat sheet?"
"Hmm" He hooked a finger at his chin like he was deep in thought. "A look at the baddies operation wasn't enough for you, huh?"
"They were your terms." I reminded him, if our goals crossed over enough that spying on Slade was beneficial to him too that was just a bonus,
"Okay, question one: Why were the original Stirkonite experiments scrapped and if you had your metal friend look the stuff up, why didn't he find them, or did he?" Red X reached for his belt and was gone.
Hugo Pharmaceuticals was visible from my high vantage point and I staked it out for another few hours, watching closely for when Slade left. The sky lightened, pinks and oranges replacing the starry sky before I gave up and conceded that he came and went from the place via a secret entrance.
If Red X was right and they'd figured out by now someone had been spying on them, Slade would be gone already, and if he used the same building again the security would be upgraded to keep anyone from getting in the same way again.
My comm beeped just as I was setting up some of my own cameras around the buildings exterior.
"Did you find anything?" I asked without checking to see which one was calling.
"We found glue, lots of glue, all of us. Dude where are you?" Beastboy's voice cracked with either irritation or worry.
"I'm setting up some cameras, ask Cyborg to hook them up on a closed system, I'll be home in an hour." I balanced the shoulder on my shoulder as I spoke, my hands occupied with holding both my line and the tolls for the surveillance equipment.
"Fiiine." Beastboy groaned before calling out. "Hey Cyborg…" he called out before the line clicked off.
I maneuvered my comm back into my pocket, thinking that I should have looked into a hands-free communicator as well.
.
.
.
It turned out that when Beastboy said they'd found glue, he hadn't meant in containers.
When I got back to the tower I was treated to the sight of the team gathered around the table, all of them with a few sticky patches of reddish glue still stuck to their hair and skin. The usual breakfast debates suspended in favor of their new common enemy.
Being the only one who hadn't shared their misfortune, that common enemy quickly became me.
"Sorry everyone, I didn't mean to get you all into such a sticky situation without backup." I struggled to bite back my snickers at the sight despite their heated glares. Okay, I really wasn't helping my case any, but I was running on hardly any sleep, and it was the one day I'd promised I'd be a little more cheerful.
"You knew." Raven's usually blank face was twisted into an accusatory frown.
"And now you decide is the time for the bad jokes." Starfire added on, her whole body arched as she shot towards me, one of her slender fingers pressed against my nose and I leaned back instinctively as she hissed. "Now is not the time for the bad jokes Robin."
"Yeah dude, I wasn't even finished getting rid of the gunk from the last time." Beastboy tugged at his hair.
I cleared my throat and bent backwards awkwardly to slip past Starfire and bypass getting too close to Raven. "So, any idea who set the…" I waved my hand in a circle at my sticky team. "Super glue trap?"
"I thought it was Red X, but seeing how the creep didn't steal anything last night I guess it wasn't" Beastboy poked miserably at his toast.
"And Chang wouldn't have set up something that harmless." Raven said.
"So it's either a new player, or we triggered the trap early." I got to the fridge and got another look Starfire's left over mush, now completely covered in blue mold, before I hurriedly grabbed an apple and closed it. When I turned back to the team they were putting up a united front, their glares all directed at me.
"And our leader just happened to be off on his own while we got stuck in it?" Cyborg crossed his arms. "Where were you?"
"I got held up." I gripped the apple and tried not to look too defensive. "You can't really believe I had something to do with that."
"I don't know, you are the guy that developed this stuff." Cyborg gestured to the glue on his arm. "And it just happened to be when Slade's around too."
I wished I could have been more surprised that they suspected me of deliberately luring them into the trap, but I knew they had the right. It wasn't the first time, and it probably wouldn't be the last either. I should have confessed, told them I was sorry, that I hadn't know Red X's trap would bother them so much.
None of that would have been true. Instead of feeling guilty, I was frustrated that I'd had to trust someone else, a thief of all people because I couldn't protect them on my own. Because Slade had timed his arrival for the worst possible time of year and there and he knew it.
I don't know whether they took my silence as confirmation, or a denial, but Raven broke it before I did.
"You have to admit Robin, you have been feeling off." She said softly.
Feeling, not acting, sometimes living with an empath made it really hard to keep anything private. It wasn't her fault, or theirs for worrying but there were things they didn't need to know about.
"It has nothing to do with Slade." I set the apple down on the counter without taking a bite. "And I didn't cover you all in glue." I had to push a little to get past them.
"Where are you going now?" Beastboy asked.
"To bed." I called, but didn't look back.
I heard them talking before I was completely out of earshot, but ignored them and went right for my room. My curtains stayed closed, the only light coming from the screen saver flickering across the computer monitors.
As inviting as the bed looked, I sank into the chair instead and turned my attention to the screens. Only a few minutes later there was a hesitant tap at my door. Only one person in the tower knocked like that.
"You can come in Star." I said and turned my chair towards her.
She stepped inside hesitantly and paused before coming all the way over to me.
"I have come to apologize." She said, wringing her hands in front of her. "I should not have accused you of being untruthful, but…"
"It's okay Star." All the guilt I should have felt in the kitchen washed over me, smothering the little anger that still lingered. "I haven't been acting like myself."
"No you have not." She took a step towards my bed and stopped to look at me before sitting down. "If you say it is not because of Slade's return, I will believe you, but I wish you would tell me why you are behaving this way. Perhaps that way we can address the issue."
I sighed and scrubbed a hand over my face. I knew it wasn't the most mature thing, but I'd always done my best to keep Gotham and Jump City separate in the same way I did Dick Grayson and Robin. They were easier to deal with when I wasn't dealing with them together.
"It's not an issue that can be addressed." I said at last. "And I don't want you worrying about something there's nothing you can do anything to change."
"We cannot know that for sure if we do not try." She said. "Please Robin, Friend Raven has said that your unhappiness had been…"
"And I wish she would stop telling you guys these things." I tugged a hand through my hair, turning the spikes into a messy nest. "I don't want to talk about this Starfire." I really, really didn't, not with anyone, but especially not with my team, the few people in that city that didn't seem to know already. There was a lie on this tip of my tongue, something to placate her, make them all trust me again, but I couldn't say it.
"It makes you angry that she shares these things with us? I don't understand." Starfire was confused, of course she was. Someone like her, who wore her heart on her sleeve wouldn't have been able to understand why I wouldn't want them involved. It made lying seem so much harsher than if anyone else had been asking me.
"That she tells you all without coming to me about it first." I said moving over to my closet and rifling through it. I got out a locked briefcase and brought it back to the bed. "I'll tell you about it, but only if you promise to wait until I'm ready to let them know."
She nodded, but kept quiet, as though she thought saying something would have made me stop, and who knew, maybe it would have.
"I never told anyone, but there used to be another Robin." I unlocked the case, it was the only thing in the tower that was Dick Grayson's alone, the only bit of Robin in it was one scrap of paper and that Robin wasn't the one talking to Starfire. I took out that one paper and slammed the case shut right after, pushing it under my bed where it was out of sight.
"Two Robins?" Her face scrunched up and she took the paper in her hands. I didn't look at, someone else would be staring at it enough that day, or worse at the morbid display case. "X'hal!" She held it closer to her face. "He is so very small." She chuckled and ran a finger across the picture.
It brought a smile to my face, that the picture could bring some measure of happiness to someone, even as her words made it feel like there was lead sinking into my stomach. "He was."
"Robin." She rested a hand on my shoulder, hearing my shift on tone. "You say that because he has grown?"
I shook my head, not confident to try speaking around the knot in my throat.
"No." She breathed out the word. For all her confusion at the strange new planet she found herself on, Starfire was far from stupid. A princess of a literal warrior race, she knew exactly what I was unable to tell her. Her warm arms wrapped around me. "When?"
"A year ago." I choked the words out. "While we were on Tamaran, I didn't find out until after."
"Robin, you should not have attempted to carry this burden alone." She said, patting my head. I wanted to feel comforted, glad she understood and didn't ask me to explain anymore than I had, but I just felt a little peeved that she was messing up my hair even more. "There is no shame in your mourning, our friends would understand."
"Don't tell them." I said, gently pulling out of her hug, but letting her keep one hand on my shoulder. "Just let them know it's not about Slade."
"If that is what you wish, but Robin," here she cupped my head in her hands, brushing aside the salty liquid I didn't even notice was tricking down my face with the pads of her thumbs. "You will speak to me of him a little? Perhaps it will ease your suffering to have a friend mourning beside you."
I managed a smile as I freed my head wiped away the lingering tear streaks with my arm, the spirit gum keeping the mask up was itchy when it got wet, I'd have to reapply it later. "Sure, but I think I need some sleep first."
"After then." She hopped off the bed kissed my cheek. "I will go and calm the others while you rest. Sleep well, friend."
I shut down the computers, making sure to erase the history before I got ready for bed. It didn't take me long to fall asleep, but I was vaguely surprised by what my last thoughts were of, even if I didn't remember them later.