BEEP BEEP BEEP! Ugnn… Robin rolled over in his bed, trying to ignore his morning summons to well, everything. Training, fighting crime, tofu bacon. It was probably the tofu bacon he was avoiding the most, darn Beastboy. His efforts to avoid life all together were shown to be futile however as an eerily familiar voice entered his ears.
"Young master Grayson, it is time for you to arise" Alfred said, opening the curtains, even though it was far too early for any sunshine to come pouring in. What the heck? Robin sat straight up, turning to look at the elderly butler. Did he just call me…? How is he…? Where the heck am I- this isn't my room!
"Ah good, you're awake. Master Wayne is waiting for you in the Batcave, do hurry- he seems to be mildly aggravated this morning"
"Alfred" Robin said dumbly, still not certain that what he was seeing was real.
"Yes?" The older man croaked from the doorway.
"This is Wayne manor" Robin said stupefied.
"Yes, yes it is- why are you so surprised? Did you have a strange dream?"
Did I..? Was the team..? No, I couldn't have- this is not my room, period. What the heck was going on?
"Yea, I guess so" He said halfheartedly, pulling himself out of bed, waiting for the butler to leave before investigating. The calendar on the wall showed the date to be… January 15th, 2011. If that was the case, what was he doing at Wayne Manor? He'd left years ago… after that fight with Batman…
"You really must hurry young master, I did tell you he's not in a fair mood" Alfred called from the hall, apparently sensing Robin's doddling. How am I back here? Robin wondered to himself as he yanked on some track shorts and matching top and made his way for the BatCave. And what's with all this? Everything was in the same place as it should be- but it all looked…wrong. Like the paintings of nameless old guys with beards were of different nameless old guys, and the wallpaper, while it was the same color, had a different pattern to it. It was like someone tried to re-create his life, but did it wrong. Was this Mad Mod's doing? He nearly jumped out of his skin from sheer paranoia when a maid went by with a stack of dishes.
"Hello Master Grayson," She said before continuing on her way.
What the…? He finally made it to the entrance to the Batcave, having crept along the walls the whole way; suspicious of everything. And there he was… Batman, or Bruce Wayne rather.
"Ah, Dick, your up- good, let's get to work all right?"
Robin resisted the urge to begin screaming that something was terribly wrong, and instead followed Batman down the Batpoles and into the Batcave. The rest of the morning was… strange. He trained with Batman as if no argument had ever occurred, as if he'd never left, as if he'd never formed the Teen Titans. At least, he thought there were no Titans until Batman spoke.
"You were out rather late last night with the team," Robin's brain flipped in a loop again. If this was Mad Mod's idea of confusing him, it was elaborate, but weak. Really weak. The Titans didn't exist when he was acting as 'The Boy Wonder'. Should I confront the matter, or figure it out some more? Mod hasn't appeared yet…
"Yea, well, I'm busy" Robin scowled, trying to keep his cool and not fall under the spell of Batman's charisma. Seriously, the guy could say one word and create world peace, no lie. He'd seen it happen.
"Do we need to talk Robin?"
"Talk? What about? This is crazy-" He cut himself off, there was no way this was a creation of Mad Mod; Batman was too real. And to imitate him, well, you had to see him. Not to mention the use of our secret identities… What was going on?
"Whatever it is, I'm sure you'll either resolve it or tell me later, now go, you need to prepare for school now" School? What. Robin hadn't been to school since he left Batman, he'd taken on his Robin persona completely, having a secret identity was just too much work. It was easier to be super all the time. Too much at stake, to many things to lose as Dick Grayson. Plus algebra class had been pretty awful.
"School?" He eeped, getting The Batman's attention.
"Is something wrong at school?"
"No- no, of course not, I'll just uh, go, get ready- see you, later… Batman"
Robin practically flew up the Batstairs and out of the Batcave. School? When was that again? And crud… my hair will have to go flat again won't it, stupid Gotham Academy. He shook his head as he stormed down the hallway, trying to get a grasp on things. Stop worrying about your hair Robin! Try and figure out what the heck is going on! Why does Batman know about the Titans? How could he? Why does everything look wrong? And why am I back here again in the first place? Once back in his room, which looked nothing like his old room in Wayne Manor, he showered, and as he was dressing himself in the incredibly cheesy Gotham Academy uniform (meaningless crest on a dress jacket, dress pants, dress shoes, blegh.) he looked in the mirror and almost screamed. Had he been made of weaker stuff he definitely would have screamed, but he wasn't, he was Robin. The face in the mirror though… wasn't his. Sure, it was similar; shaggy black hair, blue eyes, ears that stuck out… but the chin… and the general shape of it, was all wrong. Whoever was looking back at him was not him. For one thing, he was younger by a couple of years, and for another he had a lot less hair on his head.
"What am I supposed to do with this?" He moaned aloud, exasperated, trying to style it with the sad jar of hair gel in the room, he eventually just gave up, and let it just hang as a shaggy mess on his head. He would've tried more, but Alfred's voice stopped him.
"Young master Grayson, it is time for school" Terror entered his heart. School. This had better be all some crazy dream because this is just nuts. And so, grabbing the pair of shades from the top of the dresser, he headed out to face school. Little did he know though, the worst was yet to come.
BEEP BEEP BEEP. Robin's hand flew and hit…nothing? Wait. Where'd my alarm clock go? Sitting up he was surprised by a number of things. For one, his clock was now on the other side of the bed. For another, he was not in his room. Well, that's just plain weird. Cautiously he got up and out of the strange bed, expecting booby traps at every step he took. Grabbing his utility belt, he began the trek across the room, carefully checking for pressure plates and hidden bombs, jumping when he so much as touched a stray sock on the floor. Whose sock was that? Their last prisoners? Finally he made it to the door, some mad space-age sliding thing. One thing was for certain, this was NOT Wayne Manor, and he was getting more and more chalant by the minute. Creeping along the wall, he jumped at every sound; somewhere ahead of him a tv was on, a radio was playing and a microwave had just gone off, there were also voices.
"Man that kid last night was annoying,"
"No kidding! Dude! My nose is still hurting- and I went rhino!"
"At least we dealt with him,"
"Yes- I do not believe he will be a problem to anyone, anymore!"
Villains! Was Robin's first thought, have they kidnapped me? Pretty pathetic job at locking me up, the door came right open! He crept more and more down the hall, he could just make out his kidnappers around the corner. One was an enormous bulk of a man, with freakish metal parts fused to his skin; a borg. Another had sickly green skin and impish pointed ears, who laughed constantly. The third one had wild red hair, and eyes with green sclera, and was literally floating off the ground she radiated so much power… But the last one was the worst of them all. A hooded, vaguely female figure, around whom the very shadows danced, clearly some sort of dark sorcerer, maybe another Lord of Chaos like Klarion or something just as heinous. You'd think they'd be able to do a better job at locking me up; they even left me my utility belt, amateurs. Well, they won't know what hit them. Reaching into his utility belt he was dismayed to find that everything had been moved around, and that some things were missing. There was also some random collapsible metal bar thing, which wasn't weird at all. Stay whelmed Robin, must be some reason for this… heck, I don't even remember being kidnapped! Not that that isn't a first, probably knocked me out with sleeping gas or something… anyways, here goes. Let's give them the full on Robin treatment.
"Do you guys hear laughing?" Raven asked looking up from her book.
"Yea and man is it getting on my nerves!" Cyborg replied, hands planted on his ears.
"Do you believe it is Robin?" Starfire asked, floating between the two. "He does have a rather… interesting laugh"
"I don't care whose laugh it is- let's just get them to stop! It's freaky!" Cyborg growled, heading towards the source; the hallway. He was followed by Starfire and Beastboy, Raven stayed behind; she really didn't care if Robin was trying to scare them. The three of them were surprised however to find that no one was in the hallway, instead they found a small stack of… red and yellow bombs?
"Dudes- why did Robin leave these here? And why are THEY laughing? What's so funny? I'm not seeing the joke" Beastboy complained as they leaned in closer to the things.
"Friends- why are they blinking like that?" Starfire asked innocently as Cyborg put his hand to his face."Oh man, guys we gotta move. Now!"
BOOM!
The Bombs went off, sending the three titans flying. An eerie laughter filled the halls as something moved stealthily past them and into the main room, where Raven was still sitting. Raven closed her book and looked up, "Who's there?" she said, scanning the room with her eyes. Whoever it was, they were good. But no one was good enough to hide from the shadows. She spotted it- just the slightest flicker of movement making it's way toward the doors, raising a hand she spoke, "Azarath Metrion Zinthos!"
The outline of a human figure came floating towards her as the other Titans pulled themselves back into the main room, shaken but not really injured.
"What, Robin? Are you serious?" Beastboy shouted. "Is this because you don't like my tofu bacon? It's because of my tofu bacon isn't it? And, crud, is that what your pajama's look like?"
"Bacon? What are you talking about?" Robin wriggled and writhed until he was dropped from the black energy field. "You kidnapped me!"
"Um. What did he just say?" Cyborg said more than just a little confused. He became even more confused when Robin drew from his utility belt a few Birdarangs.
"Do you need your ears checked? You kidnapped me! From. My. Home. How'd you even find it? It's secret for a reason you know!" What was with these guys? Robin wondered, and why do my Batarangs look different? Whatever. They do the same thing.
"Friend Robin, we have not kidnapped you! And we mean you no harm!" Starfire, the floating one, protested.
"Yea, dude, we came home last night after beating that freak Witch Boy, you went straight to bed- said you were tired" Beastboy added.
Witch boy? Did he mean Klarion? And what did they mean, 'he went straight to bed', he'd never seen this place in his life! Why weren't they attacking him, and what did the floaty one mean by 'friend'?
"I've never been here before in my life- what are you talking about-"
Raven cut him off. "Do you work with Batman?" She asked suddenly, the other Titans giving her 'well DUH!' faces, which she ignored.
"Yes! And obviously, since you're my kidnappers- you knew that! I'll warn you though, I've been kidnapped before, and from what I can see, you guys are pretty bad at it" Robin replied, raising the Batarang above his head, ready to fire. Who to target? The big guy could obviously pack a punch, but the creepy shadow girl could literally stop him in his tracks. The red head and the green one didn't seem to be any trouble.
"I knew it. Someone's wiped his memory" Raven sighed in a seemingly nonchalant manner.
"WHAT! Wiped his memory!" "But how?" "Dudes!" "That's just crazy!" The Titans went crazy at this thought, and Robin watched feeling more confused by the minute. Wiped my memory…? Sure he'd had that happen to him before… he remembered the desert incident, but still. He had no idea who this people were.
"What do you mean someone's wiped my memory?" He demanded, looking straight into the eyes of the hooded girl.
"I mean someone's taken you back to when you worked for Batman, obviously they thought it would weaken the team- or even set you against us,"
"What do you mean 'when I worked for Batman', why would I stop?"
"This is going to be tricky to explain,"
End chap. 2.
So the Robin's have it rough xD
What do you all think? :3