Second Chance

Chapter 13

I'm back! I also have nothing to say here. Reviewer responses!

lindz4567: Thanks!

Zatanna Carrile: I probably will do a big family moment in the next chapter, actually. Uh, the blog address isn't there... guessing it disappeared for some reason. Can you try putting it in your next review, with some spaces? That might make it work. And make it actually show up. I really want to look at it!

Cee Morgan: Thank you! Same problem with the blog address, please try again. I love looking at other people's work, so... hopefully it'll work next time. I like your idea for a side story, I'll do that in a bit, once I've figured out a way to write it.

So, on with the story! Italics=thoughts, bold italics=Romani. Also, all the tech stuff in this chapter is completely made up, don't kill me for inaccuracy. The ages for when Tim and Jason became heroes are also made up, I couldn't find them.

I still own nothing. I also still hate disclaimers.

Lost and Found

Jason yawned as he woke up. For a split second he was confused, looking around a room that wasn't in the Manor or the Batcave. Then he figured it out.

Right. Titans, Mount Justice, Birdie... I don't remember falling asleep. What time is it? Clock, clock... nine AM?! Holy shit, I've been here all night?!

"Jay?"

"Morning Birdie."

"Why are you in my room?"

Jason looked at his brother sheepishly.

"I... fell asleep."

Dick sat up, rubbing his eyes and yawning.

"Kind of figured that. I meant, when did you get here?"

"You don't remember? Well, I guess that makes sense, you were pretty out of it. Last night, I came to check on you after patrol. I was pretty tired, guess I just dozed off."

"Last night? What time is it?"

"Nine AM."

Dick looked surprised.

"Nine? Huh, figured it had only been a couple hours."

"If you're still tired, you can-"

"I'm not tired Jay. I am hungry though."

Just then, someone knocked on the door and Wally stuck his head around the door.

"Hey guys! We made pancakes and bacon!"

The two brothers shared a grin. Dick laughed as he grabbed his sunglasses.

"Talk about timing!"

One hour later

Robin blinked, mopping up the rest of his syrup with the last bite of pancake.

"These are really good. Oh, by the way, how's the search going?"

M'gann smiled in acceptance of the compliment, as Wally fidgeted nervously; worried by the news he had to share with his friend.

"Well, you see, while we were threatening you to get you to take a break, we maybe kind of lost the trace..." his voice faded to a mumble as Robin turned on the Batglare.

"Lost the trace? You lost the trace?! It took me three hours to get that trace, and you lost it in all of five minutes! Great work KF, just great!"

Wally gulped, unable to speak, and Kaldur took over.

"It is more complicated than that. First, it was actually an hour to convince you to rest."

Robin stared at him.

"Really? Wow, my sense of time is screwed."

Kaldur sighed. "And, secondly, we lost the trace after someone hacked the system."

Now Robin and Red Hood both looked shocked.

"Someone hacked Birdie?"

"Someone hacked me?! No, no no nonono. I am not supposed to get hacked. Unless... if it's tech the systems aren't compatible with, then maybe with the right amount of power, it could hypothetically... but that would take like, god-level tech. Wait, let me think... Cyborg. Yeah, that would probably do the trick. Seems like a good time for a system upgrade. If I use some of the automatic scanning tech, maybe it picked up on Cyborg's stuff..."

Still muttering to himself, the bird absently flipped over the table and headed towards the computers. The others glanced at each other. Artemis, bored, looked around for something to do. She decided that questioning their guest would be very interesting.

"So, how long have you known Robin?"

"About five years. I was around when he started the whole hero thing."

The Team gathered around, sensing an opportunity to get answers to some of their questions. M'gann came up with the next one.

"How long have you been a hero?"

"I started the year before Birdie, so six years."

"You started when you were ten? Isn't that a bit young?" M'gann seemed shocked that anyone could or would start so young.

Hood sighed before answering.

"Listen, M'gann was it? Kids grow up fast in Gotham. Heroes especially. I'm sure Artie can relate to that. I started when I was ten, Nightwing and Cardinal started when they were ten, Birdie started when he was eight. We all chose this life, and none of us regret it."

Connor grunted.

"Batman has a thing for child endangerment."

"Not exactly. I'm not sure how Wing and Cardinal did it, but I 'borrowed' a prototype uniform from the Batcave, and Robin made his own uniform. We both had to sneak out for our first mission. Bats wasn't too thrilled, let me tell you." He chuckled at the memory before continuing. "But hey, we all got our wish, and those mother fucking criminals haven't been quite as big a menace ever since."

Wally snickered. "Language Hood. Not everyone here is as used to you as I am."

"What language would you prefer?"

"You could just *gasp* stop swearing!"

"Ah, you're no fun."

Artemis grinned, then asked another question.

"How long has Robin been going all OCD over searches and stuff?"

"Five years, give or take. Possibly longer, but I didn't know him before, so..." Hood shrugged. "You could ask him, but I wouldn't recommend it. His past is a touchy subject."

"He's never done it here before."

"He tries to rein it in for other people. We've all known him since he was eight, he doesn't care if we think he's weird. We already know he's weird."

The next question was Connor's, for a change.

"So what's with that laugh?"

Red Hood thought for a minute. Opened his mouth. Closed it again. Thought some more.

"You know, I have absolutely no idea."

Several minutes later

Robin stood by the computers, syncing his wrist-comp with the system mainframe, talking himself through the procedure in quiet Romani.

"Okay, the systems are synced. Now just access the scanning software... got it! Good, it picked up Cyborg's tech. Now, just upgrade the system to recognise and stop his stuff... and... upgrade complete!"

The bird smirked, proud of the fact the League systems had accepted the upgrade so quickly.

It makes sense I'm proud. After all, Tim and I did design the systems. I'll have to tell him about the upgrade speed, he'll be-

And it was at that precise moment the wall blew apart. A chunk of shrapnel whipped into Robin's head before he could do anything, filling his vision with black spots. When he could see again, the Teen Titans were glaring at him.

"Oh boy. Hey guys?"

"Yeah Birdie? What the fuck just happened?! We heard an explosion-"

"You know how we were trying to find the Titans?"

"Yeah..."

"Well, they found us."

"Shit!"

Soon, the Team was gathered around him, ready to fight. Robin shook his head, trying to get rid of the darkness encroaching at the corners of his vision. The Titans looked at them, as though searching for a way to defeat them. Apparently they couldn't find one, as they all back away, exiting through the new doorway they had created. Cyborg looked at them.

"Next time, kids."

Then he was gone. Robin blinked. It was getting really hard to concentrate. After all, he did just get hit in the head with a rock. Luckily, it hadn't been big enough to cause permanent damage, but it still hurt like hell. He swayed on his feet, trying to fight the darkness blocking out his sight long enough to get to his room. Naturally, however, Jason realized something was wrong.

"Birdie?"

Dick realized he couldn't fight anymore.

"Birdie!"

The ground rushed up to meet him, and the Boy Wonder blacked out.

Can I just say, ouch. In the next chapter I'll probably have Dick comment on how sad it was that he was pretty much defeated by a rock. I mean, that's just embarrassing. For such a skilled hero... let's just blame Psimon. Forget the rock. We must protect Robin's dignity! Not him though. No, we can screw with him as much as we like. Until next time, and

REVIEW

-Bird