Chapter 1

Happy Days

When I opened my eyes, I was sent into some kind of intense panic that I had never felt before. First of all, I was not in Wayne Manor, Mount Justice, or the Batcave. Bruce never took me to hospitals, and the sunlight coming through the window said that I wasn't in the Watchtower. The second reason? I was, of course, strapped down. Or at least my hands were, because my legs still had no feeling in them, which caused more panic when I realized that. The third? My mask was gone. Like, really gone; I couldn't find it anywhere from my position on the thin mattress.

A door on the far side of the room slid open and a woman walked in holding a tray with a glass of water and what looked like medical supplies; bandages, tape, etc. On instinct, I tried to pull away as she moved closer, but the restraints held me in place.

"Calm down," the woman said, setting down the tray and sitting on a stool next to me. "You were thrashing around, so we had to restrain you to keep you from hurting yourself anymore."

I watched closely as she removed the restraints and smiled at me. "Would you like something to drink?" she asked, walking over to the tray, still watching me.

I nodded slightly, finding my voice non-existent.

She came back with the glass and lifted my head with one hand and held the cup to my lips. It was strange, having a complete stranger who may have well been considered a kidnapper, holding my head up and giving me water.

She pulled the glass away after a few seconds and set it back on the tray.

"Can you tell me your name?" she asked.

I thought about saying "Robin, of course," but then realized that it was pointless, because they clearly already knew who I was. "Dick." I said. "Dick Grayson."

"Nice to meet you, Dick," she said, smiling. "I'm Doctor Rebecca Holiday."

"Where am I?" I asked, moving to sit up, which was much more difficult than I thought it would be, so Holiday came over and helped me, pushing up on the upper part of my back.

"The White Knight's base," she said.

"Who are the White Knights?" I asked, extremely confused.

"We're kind of like EVO control. Our methods are different from Providence, so we work in secret. Or, partly secret."

"What's an EVO?" I asked, watching as she returned to the tray and picked up a cloth that had apparently been soaking in a small bowl of water.

She gave me a strange look before asking, "You're not from around here, are you?" She paused. "I need to clean your wounds again."

I nodded my approval and noticed for the first time the many bandages wrapped around my hands, arms and chest. She removed the fabric from my chest first, and I figured that the wound was the one on my back.

"It all started five years ago," she began, telling the entire story as if it were common knowledge to any living thing. She eventually started removing bandages from my arms, and asked "Where did you get these burns?"

I stared at the vile looking things for a few seconds before I actually realized what could have caused it. "Lightning."

She looked horrified at the thought, "What were you doing out in the middle of a storm?"

"I wasn't," I said. "At least, I didn't start out there… I was in a warehouse with Batman… he was about to pull me out of the machine Joker had made, when there was a flash of light, and I was on top of the car int eh ally."

"Who's Batman?"

"WHO'S BATMAN?" a scream erupted. We both looked over and saw the kid from before, Rex, standing in the doorway holding a pile of comic books.

"You know Batman?" I asked, hoping that Bruce was somewhere nearby.

"Of course!" he said. "And you're Robin, aren't you?"

I nodded eagerly, "in the flesh!"

"I always knew you guys were real!"

My hope faded and I stared at him. "Of course we're real."

"Well, now it's confirmed, but you used to just be characters in comics."

"Rex, where did you get those?" Holiday asked, eyeing the stack in his hands.

"Noah let me borrow them," he said matter-of-factly.

"Can somebody tell me what I'm doing here?" I asked, interrupting the silent battle between the two.

"What do you mean by 'here'?" Rex asked.

"This world," I said. "It's not mine. I need to find Bruce, I-" I cut myself off, throwing off the thin sheet and pushing myself off of the table, forgetting about my… problem. I fell right to the floor, but continued to drag myself, not caring how ridiculous I looked. I had to find Bruce and I wasn't going to wait around.

"Rex, stop him," Holiday said, and suddenly I was being lifted up by a massive robotic hand.

"Let me go!" I screamed, punching at the hand. "I need Bruce!"

"Dick, you're going to hurt yourself," Holiday said, motioning for Rex to set me back on the table. "Can you calmly tell me who Bruce is?"

"He's-" I started, but was interrupted by Rex.

"He's Batman, duh!"

"Rex, why don't you go find Ben and take him to see Noah," Holiday suggested, and Rex took the hint.

After the door slid shut, Holiday turned back to me. "Now, who is Bruce?"

"He's my…" I thought for a minute. Nobody had ever really seriously asked me who Bruce was before. I mean, they already knew that he was Batman, but what did I call him? My Warden? that made it sound like I was in prison though.. "My dad."

"You're father is Batman?"

"Well, sort of. He adopted me."

"What about your real parents?"

"They…" I hated talking about them. It was always a tough subject, but it seemed important if they were going to get me home. "They were murdered a few years ago."

"How old are you now?"

"I'm 13," I said, noticing her mazed expression, though I'm still not sure if it was because of my size, or because I was Batman's partner.

She didn't say anything for a while, so I broke the silence, "Will I be able to walk again?"

She looked stunned at the question, but really, I probably sounded like a scared child when I asked it. But I guess that's just what I was; a scared kid who hadn't hit puberty yet.

"We're working on that," she replied. "There's a pretty good chance for you, because you're still young, and the glass didn't get too far in. It will take time, though, and it will be painful."

I smiled at her, "Lady, pain is part of the job description."

HERO_EVO_ALIEN

It had been weeks… about 2 or so, maybe a little more. I had actually popped a few stitches in my back with my attempt at dragging myself from the room, so I was finally able to be moved again now.

You wouldn't believe how happy I was to see Holiday come into the room pushing a wheelchair. I mean, Rex and Ben were great company when they weren't fighting EVOs, but I needed to get out of that bed!

"Am I free to go?" I asked hopefully.

"We can take you around the base and introduce you to Six and White, but I still want you resting."

I sat up as she approached me and began unwinding the bandages, examining the wound for what seemed like the trillionth time in the past 2 weeks. She removed the blankets from my legs and asked "can you try moving your toes again?"

The past two weeks had been the same thing; starting with toes, seeing if they would move. So far there had been no such luck, but this time, I was determined to get something out of the stupid limbs.

I really focused now, trying to be patient. It was a pain, trying to sit still for so long, only trying to move one little thing. Nothing was happening, and the look Holiday had said that we would try again later, but I really was determined this time. I would make it move. I would fight crime again, because if I couldn't do that, then Bruce didn't need me, and it was right into the system for me, so being paralyzed was not an option.

"Dick, maybe we should-" Holiday started, but then it happened; it moved. At first it seemed like a twitch, like in Lord of the Rings, when the guy Gimli killed randomly twitched, so Legolas shot him, but then it started wiggling, moving up and down when I told it to.

First I was smiling, but then I was laughing for the first time in two weeks. I mean, Rex was a funny guy, but it was really hard to smile when there was a possibility of being handed over to some crazy foster family who renames you so that you and the other 50 kids all have names of the same letter…

I honestly didn't realize that I had started crying. Very lightly, but the tears were there, and I couldn't figure out why-why would I be sad about moving my toes? I was happy, so maybe… maybe this was the first time I had been truly happy since my parents died. Since Bruce took me in and made me the Robin to his Batman.

"I told you I would fly again," I said in response to the look of amazement on Holiday's face