AN: please note that we have changed the time frame for this story a little... see the AN in chapter 1.
Thank you so much to those of you who are following this story and those of you who favourited it! Thank you again to those of you who have taken the time to review too!
Chapter 3
Leo was breathing hard as he regarded his opponent wearily. He had heard Robin's team make comments about Robin being a 'freaky ninja' but he hadn't taken the comments too seriously, but after what felt like an hour of sparring Leo had to give it to the kid that he definitely knew what he was doing.
Leo glanced at the team and his brothers who had finished their sparring matches long ago. He noticed that Superboy still looked a little irked and Leo couldn't supress a smirk at the memory of how easily Mikey took the super powered teen out simply by trash talking him, the same tactic the energetic turtle used on Raph all the time.
Robin saw the smirk on Leo's lips as he regarded their audience and took advantage of his opponent's distraction. He surged forward and threw himself into a series of front flips and hand springs, aiming to land on the turtle's chest and knock him over, but Leo wasn't as distracted as Robin thought he was.
He quickly side stepped Robin's attack and whirled around in time to see Robin twist in mid-air to land in a crouch facing Leo. Leo was definitely impressed, this kid moved through the air as if that was his natural habitat. The kid was definitely good but Leo could see that he was loosing his patience. Leo took advantage of this and made as if he was bewildered by Robin's amazing moves.
Robin saw Leo's expression go kind of slack and immediately surged forward. He wasn't entirely sure what happened next. He just knew that one moment he was throwing an attack at a distracted Leo and the next he was lying on the floor staring at the words 'ROBIN: FAIL' floating above his head
Leo stood over Robin and gave him a hand up.
"That was some amazing fighting there Robin." He said as he lifted him up.
"Not too bad yourself, considering you beat me."
"Well done Leonardo." Aqualad said appearing beside him.
"Thank you, I was thinking of us perhaps training together as a team next."
Aqualad nodded in agreement, "I was thinking the same thing, but would you and Robin not like to rest for a few minutes first?"
Robin shook his head, "I'm fine, lets keep going."
Leo noticed that the boy was drenched in sweat and still breathing hard, much the same as he was, and was about to suggest that taking a break didn't sound like such a bad idea but Kid Flash beat him to it.
"Dude you two were sparring for a good fifteen minutes! I mean look at you! You're drenched in sweat."
Robin glared at Kid Flash, "I'm fine, KF." he practically growled
To everyone else it looked like Robin was only being stubborn but Wally could see right through Robin's tough guy act.
"Dude," Wally lowered his voice, "I know you're worried about Batman, we're all worried about our mentors, but you won't be any help to anyone if you wear yourself out now."
Leo watched Robin's shoulders slump a little and couldn't help being reminded of the time when Master Splinter had been captured by the Shredder.
Leo walked up to Robin and put a hand on his shoulder.
"I kinda need a break, I think it will be ok if we take a few minutes." Robin looked at Leo and could see he understood. He nodded and they went to join the others.
Wally and Mikey were all too happy for a break, that meant snack time and a few minutes of video games.
As Mikey and Wally started the video game Donny approached Robin who was slowly sipping a bottle of water.
"Hey Robin," Donny said, "Artemis told me that you're the teams hacker."
Robin smirked, "That I am"
Donny grinned, "I do all the hacking too. So I was wondering..."
"Hack off?" Robin asked with a grin
"You hack my system while I hack yours." Donny challenged
"Bring it on!"
Robin and Donny sat at their computers.
"Well," said Robin as he clicked his knuckles, "I didn't beat you turtles in the brawn but maybe I can beat you in the brain department."
"You can give it you best shot." Donny said, "But don't take it too harshly when I beat you." Robin chuckled.
"Ok you two lets get this weird obsession over with quickly, i wanna go check out the gym." Raph said. "3-2-1 go!"
The room was silent with only the computers making the odd technical noises every now and then. The two boys were in deep concentration it was actually funny. Finally Robins computer displayed the words "Access granted" with green surrounding it.
"Woohoo!" The boy wonder exclaimed, "That was the longest it has ever taken me to hack, but it was definitely asterous!"
"Asterous?" Donny asked.
"The opposite of disasterous." Superboy supplied
"A.K.A totally rad dude." Mikey explained to his brother
"Ok let's go to the gym!" Raph said
"No wait, I'm almost through!" Donny exclaimed
Two minutes later Donny sat back with a satisfied smirk on his face as little comic Robin faces flashed green on his screen along with the words "Welcome, Boy Wonder."
"Dude, you have so got to show me some of your tricks!" He said to Robin, "I haven't been challenged like that in ages!"
"Sure! A little while back I created this programme it can..."
"And so the nerd talk begins." Superboy said, "I'm out of here, come on Raph I'll show you the gym."
Artemis was sitting in the kitchen watching Megan bake.
"This is the tenth batch of cookies! Imagine I had to bake like this all the time." M'gan said and she popped the last tray of cookies into the oven
"I smell cookies!" Wally sang as he and Mikey entered the kitchen
"You'd drop dead and Kid Mouth would keep eating until he died." Artemis answered M'gan
Aqualad entered the kitchen followed by the rest of the team and the turtles, excluding Superboy and Raph. Donny and Robin were still talking computers.
"We need to start the team training." Aqualad said
"Okay Aqualad, we just need to wait for this last batch of cookies to come out." Miss M said
Superboy and Raph joined them just as M'gan's cookies were done.
"Aqualad?" Megan suddenly asked looking upset, "Do you think uncle J'onn and the others will be ok?"
The room went quiet and the turtles saw the teams uneasyness at the thought. Except for Superboy that is, Superman didn't care for him so he just returned the favor.
"I think they are fine megan." Aqualad put a hand on her shoulder, "And they are just waiting for us to rescue them"
"Yeah, they're the Justice League." Kid Flash tried to sound encouraging, "They can handle anything."
"If they can handle anything then why did they get captured?" Superboy asked bluntly
"Because they don't know the Shredder," Leo told them calmly, "I'm sure they weren't expecting to run into a ninja army and a guy who doesn't die even if you cut his head off."
"What?!" Artemis's eyes widened, "How are we supposed to beat him then?"
"Uhm well we haven't figured that out yet." Donny said.
"Hey you guys deal with the other dudes, we will deal with the shredder." Raph told her
"No, the only way we will succeed is if we work together as a team." Aqualad said
"He's right, Raph." Leo said"Well then lets get started!" Megan flew to the training simulation and the others followed.
The following training exercise didn't go very well. Megan forgot to inform the turtles of how they communicate telepathically, so when she spoke to them in their heads they kind of freaked out. The next few minutes that followed Donny was trying to figure out how she did it while Mikey tried to do it.
The team used their code words for their tactics which left four clueless turtles doing their own thing. This ended up in alot of collisions.
The turtles barely spoke at all and constantly stuck to the shadows leaving the team clueless as to what they were doing.
All in all the simulation failed within ten minutes
Superboy punched the wall and growled, "This is useless! How are we supposed to work with them if they keep disappearing and not even talk to us!"
"Hey how do you expect us to work with you if you keep using codes that we don' even know? And thanks for the warning about the telepathy!" Raph growled
Superboy and Raphael glared at each other, looking ready to attack eachother
"Superboy calm down," Aqualad said, "I'm sure you'll recall that we did not work together as smoothly as we do now when we started out."
"Yeah, remember Robin kept disappearing too." Wally added helpfully
"So then lets put all our cards out on the table so we know more about each others tactics and will be able to communicate better." Leo suggested
Raph and Superboy reluctantly backed down and the team and turtles spent the next hour or so working out their communication problems before trying the simulation again. This time it went much better and they succeeded with only a few problems.
They spent the rest of the afternoon running different simulations until they all worked together as well as a well oiled machine
At around 10p.m. everyone was dead tired. Everyone went to bed and the turtles crashed in the lounge, falling asleep instantly. Except Leo who's brain wouldn't shut up with all the new fighting styles and tactics he had learnt today. Eventually he got up to go to the gym to try and make himself tired again.
When he got there he found that he wasn't the only one with that idea. Robin was on the gymnastics equipment that he hadn't payed much attention to earlier. Leo watched him in awe for a few minutes as he flew through the air with a grace and fluidity that he had seen on very few other people.
Robin finally noticed Leo watching him and dismounted the bars, landing perfectly before turning to face Leo
"Couldn't sleep either?" He asked
Leo shook his head, "But I think we have different reasons for our insomnia."
"What gives you that idea?"
"Because I can see that you're worried about your father."
Robin jerked in surprise, "How did you...?"
"You have the same look on your face that I saw every time I looked in the mirror a while ago."
"Your father was kidnapped too?"
"Yea by the Shredder." Leo said his name bitterly. "I also almost lost my brothers to him. And i couldn't stop him."
Robin saw the guilt on Leo's face and knew how he felt.
He was starting to hate the Shredder almost as much as the Joker. Almost. No person had the right to take away someone's family, and the Shredder had done it to the turtles before and now him. He would not let him get away with this