Author's Note - THIS IS THE FINAL CHAPTER. I finished my first story ever. *Squeals with excitement* I have a new story in the works, the first chapter should be coming soon! I LOVE YOU, FOLLOWERS AND REVIEWERS!
"Team, mission room. Now." a gravely voice announced over the intercom. Within 60 seconds Superboy, Miss Martian, Aqualad (now fully clothed), Artemis, and Wally were all standing in the mission fully suited up. "Something is wrong with Robin. He has not been seen all day, but he is most definitely still in the cave; as you all well know," stated Batman, cutting straight to the cheese (He he he. Cut the cheese!). "Fan out and search the cave. We have to find him. Miss Martian, can you set up a mind link?"
"Of course, hellooo Megan!" exclaimed the Martian girl. Can everybody hear me? She asked, receiving a mental yes from Batman, Artemis, Aqualad, a grunt from Superboy, and a loud and clear, Beautiful from Kid Flash. The team plus Batman turned away and each headed off down separate halls.
Batman found Robin in the training room, facing away from him and lazily swinging upside-down from a trapeze. Six empty cups of coffee lay on the mat underneath him. He approached the boy slowly and circled around to face him. His face was extremely pale despite the fact that he was hanging upside down, and the white eyes of his mask were abnormally large, but most disturbing of all was his mouth. The corners of his lips were stretched back into a deranged smile that almost reached his ears and showed all of his teeth. He turned his head slightly to stare at his mentor and after about 7 silent seconds, burst into laughter that sounded more like a screech than an expression of joy. The boy dropped from his perch and charged the Caped Crusader, bird-a-rangs whirling from his finger tips.
The team barged into the med bay of the cave to see Robin strapped down to a hospital bed still giggling. Batman was peering into a microscope and didn't even bother to look up when the team entered the room.
"Um, Batman?" Kid Flash asked.
"What." he grunted still looking into the microscope.
"You have a bird-a-rang in your back."
"Oh," the Dark Knight replied nonchalantly, standing up, reaching for, pulling out, and throwing aside the pointy object piercing his shoulder blade.
"What's wrong with him?" M'gann asked from Robin's bedside, stroking his ebony hair off his forehead. The young boy snapped at her fingers and started panting like a dog with his tongue lolling out of his mouth followed by a hyena laugh.
"Joker gas," Batman stated as he pulled away from the microscope.
"How did he get exposed to joker gas?" Superboy asked.
"Last night, most likely. We apprehended the Clown for using carrier pigeons to drop bags of dog feces on pedestrians. Robin must have breathed it in while he was fighting with the Joker," Batman detailed.
"Where were you?" the Boy of Steel questioned.
"Preoccupied."
"HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!" Robin screeched gleefully, "Preoccupied? Preoccupied! That's one way to put it! Try stuck in a giant cage full of pigeons and covered in doo-doo!" Robin wiggled under his restraints in a fit of giggles.
"Moving on," Batman said hastily, "it seems that the Joker has formulated a compound that lays dormant in the body until exposed to a catalyst."
"And the catalyst would be…?" Aqualad probed.
"Caffeine," Batman said gesturing to the many empty coffee cups in evidence bags on the table next to the microscope.
"The most heavily used drug in the world," Kid Flash informed as he took Batman's place looking into the microscope.
"Quite," agreed Batman, "I was actually about to contact the Flash to see if he could reverse engineer a cure."
"Ppsshhh!" Kid Flash scoffed, "I can do that! This is baby science," he boasted, puffing his chest out a bit.
"I'm not sure Wally…" Batman said only to be interrupted by the young speedster.
"Batman, I gave myself super speed when I was ten, I've got this."
Batman sighed in resignation as the yellow and red streak blurred around the room. Bunsen burners turned on, Robin laughed manically as his blood was drawn, cabinets flung open and beakers, bottles of chemicals, pipets, and graduated cylinders were zipped around the lab tables. The team pressed up against the door, not wanting to trip a speedster in a room full of glass and chemicals.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Dick groaned at the noises interrupting his sleep. Throwing the covers over his head, he nestled deeper into his pillow in an attempt to block out the sound.
Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep. Beep.
Sighing, he sat up and and yawned, cracking his eyes open to be met with an unfamiliar sight. He was not in his own room. This was not his bed. These were not his clothes. Actually, there were no clothes (cue fangirl squealing in background). The only thing Dick had on was black boxers and (thankfully) his mask. He was hooked up to a heart rate monitor and IV. Jolting out of the bed he ripped off the electrodes and pulled out the IV. The young detective observed the room; he found nothing but the bed, heart rate monitor, IV stand, and a small table with a clock and a coffee cup full of pens. Dick grabbed a ballpoint pen. A semi-pointy weapon was better than no weapon at all. Pen in hand, Robin tested the door handle, growling when he realized it was locked. He spun around and after a moment grinned. Whoever had captured him clearly neglected his affinity with air vents.
Robin was still crawling around the ventilation system after about ten minutes with only his instincts to guide him. Occasionally he would come across a vent and peer through to see foreign hallways. After twenty minutes, he still found nothing. At the thirty minute mark, Boy Wonder heard warbling coming from the shaft to his right. He silently scrambled to the vent grate and looked down. He seemed to be over some sort of assembly room. Six figures sat in chairs some thirty feet below him, but the dimmed lights made it impossible for Robin to properly analyze. An insane cackle from someone outside of Robins sight line reached the young hero's ears, and he stiffened (read footnote for explanation!). The Joker. Robin was 98.726% sure it was the crazed clown, he knew that laugh anywhere. Somehow, he had been captured by Gotham's number one villain.
Silently removing the vent grate, Robin gripped his weapon, the mighty ballpoint pen, and formulated a plan.
Silently drop from vent onto group of thugs
Use pen to poke out a few eyeballs and kick butt
Once the goons were taken out, go after the Clown
Was this a solid, well thought out plan? No. Was Robin going to go through with it anyway? Yes. Why? It was his best chance at escaping, given that he had no weapons. Or clothes, for that matter. Taking a deep breath, Robin plummeted from the ceiling.
THUD.
"Ow!"
SMACK
"What the?!"
CRACK
"Oooomph!"
"Dude, stop punching me!"
"It's not me!"
"I fink my noz iz bloken!"
"Aaaack! Can't. Breathe."
"Somebody turn on the goddamn lights!"
The lights turned on and everybody froze, scrunching their eyes to the sudden brightness. Robin blinked rapidly and his mouth formed a perfect "O". The Flash was sitting flat on his rear, his hands covering a very bent, very bloody nose. Wonder Woman, Superman, Aquaman, and Martian Manhunter were picking themselves up out of their dog pile with stunned expressions.
"But you-"
"I thought that,"
"Oh, wow."
"Sorry…"
"My bad-" the four heavy hitters gibbered over each other.
"Robin, please release Green Arrow."
Robin looked down and gasped, realizing that the "thug" he was choking with his own bow was indeed the very purple Emerald Archer of Star City. Robin jumped back, his race contorted into an expression of bewilderment that was easy to see, even under his mask.
"Robin."
The Boy Wonder jumped and spun around with his pen still gripped tightly in his hand. Dick relaxed at the sight of his dad, dropping the pen and glancing around. In tack and shattered chairs were scattered across the room, two wooden tables had been cracked in half, the other leaguers were still on the floor groaning, and Robin was fine, but still in his underwear.
"Oops?" the Bird said bashfully.
Robin's med room door in the Watch Tower swung open and Batman exited followed by a fully briefed, and fully clothed Robin. The Dynamic Duo entered the public examination room silently. Flash was peeling tape off of hi nose; it had been broken but healed in about 45 minutes. Green Arrow was holding a bag of ice to his neck, and Superman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, and The Martian were standing and talking.
"Well, how I was supposed to know! If KF's antidote hadn't worked, he could have still been a Joker drone! Locking him in seemed like a good idea!" Superman was protesting.
"The kid gave himself super speed Supes. The antidote was going to work," injected Green Arrow.
"But…"
"Use your brain, Blue!" said Flash cutting the Kryptonian off. "It's Baby Bat's we're talking about. Robin. The Boy Wonder. The future Batman. Would you lock Batman in a room, alone, in a place he had never been before?" the Speedster explained.
"No…" Superman replied embarrassedly.
"Smart, because that would be a big mistake," sounded a gruff voice. The heroes turned around and saw the two Gothamites standing behind them. Superman hadn't even heard them come in. The Dynamic Duo walked out of the med bay, leaving the stunned Leaguers behind, and Dick looked up at his dad and smiled.
"FIRST ONE TO THE ZETA TUBES GETS TO DRIVE THE BATMOBILE HOME!" he shouted. Bruce let out a rare smile and started off sprinting down the hall after his son.
The explanation: Dick was taken to the Watch Tower after he was given the antidote and heavily sedated. The "Joker Laugh" he heard was actually a replay of security footage that the heroes in the assembly room were watching. Batman was briefing them on what happened with Robin at the cave, and the video was actually of Robin laughing, not Joker. You can see how that would be confusing to a highly trained crime fighter who had just busted out of a locked room in an unfamiliar place. Never underestimate a Bat, Superman, never.
Authors Note - THE END! I hope you liked it, let me know! I will be posting another story soon! XOXOXOX