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"What are you trying to say Artemis?" Barbra demanded, now a little concerned that she had told some things to the girl.
"Look, Barbra, I'm not trying to make you feel bad," Artemis continued, "but if what you told me is true then we can't just sit around and do nothing."
"But we don't know for sure what's really going on," Barbra continued, now calming down, "we can't just make false accusations. Let me finish my research-"
"Now you're researching him?" Artemis interrupted. "You're just as weird as Dick is! . . . Is that why you told me?"
"Well," Barbra sighed, "you and Dick seem to talk a lot, I wanted to see if he told you anything about it. . . . I already figured out he was lying about P.E."
"What?"
"He said all the bruises on his face were from P.E," Barbra continued, "but Dick passed P.E a year earlier and isn't taking the class anymore."
"Admit it, this is all too suspicious," Artemis bit her lip, "all I'm saying is maybe his-"
"My father is very good friends with Mr. Wayne," Barbra cut her off, "and my father is the Police Commissioner. He'd know if anything weird was going on, my father wouldn't trust him if he wasn't a good person."
"But-"
She cut her off again, "I can add up a million more details as to why he wouldn't and couldn't be committing any child abuse crimes, forget about Wayne Enterprises? He's got the publicity on his back, it'd be pretty risky don't you think?"
"Sure, you've got it all on paper," Artemis continued, "but when it comes down to it you forget that not everyone is as good as they seem – and I've grown up with some of those people. We've all got masks we hide behind, just some are more sinister than others."
"Let me handle this," Barbra told her, "if I come across anything I'll let you know." Barbra began to leave, when Artemis called to her.
"You know, I never knew you had such a detective side to you?"
"Eh, runs in the family,"
Later that Day:
"What's wrong with him?" Wally asked in bewilderment. "I talked to him just yesterday, he seemed perfectly fine to me. He's probably pulling our leg."
Artemis punched Wally's arm in irritation of his ignorance.
"Ouch, jeez, I was kidding," Wally rubbed his arm.
"Was it the toxin?" Kaldur immediately asked.
"Yes," Batman forced the words out, "I have done some research to find he is in a coma. When he inhaled whatever that substance was it stayed in his brain and spread like infection."
The team froze, tension rising among; Wally feeling bad for joking earlier.
"What can we do? How can we help?" Connor asked immediately.
"We might need a telepath-"
"I'll do it," M'gann interrupted, Connor becoming worried for her.
"You or your uncle," Batman continued, "but for now I don't want anyone doing anything. Pulling him out a coma when the toxin is still in his brain might kill him."
"What if he goes brain dead before that?" Wally asked.
"He won't, he's stable for now," Batman went on, "but we need to find a way to rid the toxin first, handle the coma second. If we must we'll pull him out before, but for now you are all to wait. That's an order."
They nodded nervously.
Meanwhile:
Robin, who is completely unaware he is in a coma, had an old memory of a mission playing through his head while in his coma. It was the mission they fought the Injustice League for the first time. It felt like he was living it all over again, and for all he knew this was the first time he had this experience. Everything was the same, Robin is in the forest with M'gann and about to run into the Joker, except something has changed, and he see's someone in the shadows. A tall man with a hat, the light of his toothpick the only thing glowing from his dark shadow.
Robin squints at the man, suddenly feeling chills slither down his spine as he recognizes the figure, but before he knew it the man was gone. Robin quickly made his own trail through the forest, every here and there seeing the man's figure as he followed it. He completely forgot about his mission, his friends . . . and his villains.
The sound of his friends fighting behind him slowly dissipates as he gets deeper in the forest, now about to catch the man.
Robin comes to a skidding halt as the man stands with his back towards Robin, his frozen figure like a statue, and as Robin looked closer he saw what the man was watching. Just down the hill from where the man stood were some supsious looking street thugs sneaking crates and boxes into a truck, the team had never even been aware that it was happening only a couple miles away.
About to rush the man and see what the men were up to, the man before him turned around. The moonlight hitting his face just perfectly to reveal who the man was, Robin felt goose bumps rise on his skin as his heart seemed to skip a beat.
"Zucco . . ."
"Surprised to see me? Or the part of the crime you and your friends never even saw happening?"
Robin clenched his fists and as he opened his mouth a hand slipped over his mouth, he flinched flinched from the surprise. He was about to throw the throw the person off him when he felt the cold tip of a gun press against his temple, and then he heard the gun cock right before his ear.
"I bet you're not surprised I'm here," he heard the Joker cackle from behind him, the color of his purple glove vibrant in the dark.
Meanwhile:
"I think I've found a lead," Batman told Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado.
"On the toxin?"
"Yes, looking at what I've learned I might be able to find someone who knows a cure," Batman went on, "I found a scientist who specializes in drugs and poison studies. I dug a little deeper and found she's worked with some of the Joker's venom, so just maybe."
"We wish you the best of luck," Red Tornado told him.
"Just watch after Robin, any changes be sure to inform me," Batman told them.
"We will," Martian Manhunter replied.
The team waited a while after Batman left, and eventually convinced Martian Manhunter to let them visit him. He didn't see how it could harm so they went right ahead. It had been a little while since anyone had seen him, and the team was becoming antsy. They slowly opened the door and slid in, trying to keep quiet although they knew they could not wake him.
As they approached him they immediately became surprised at what they saw.
"He doesn't have that creepy Joker's smile anymore," Zatanna observed walking closer.
She was right, the smile was wiped from his face making him look more like Robin again.
"Maybe Batman helped him somehow?" M'gann asked innocently.
"I don't know," Artemis joined in, "he looks . . . kind of scared."
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