Bruce Wayne ran a calloused hand through his hair. Exhaustion was evident on his face as he sat at the Batcomputer in full Batman garb minus the cowl. He’d spent the whole day taking down Amazo with the League and wanted nothing more than to collapse into bed. But as it was, Batman’s job was never done. The robot was currently being packed up into two separate vans, heading for a secure location and Batman would soon have to go and check how the job was coming. There were also multiple files up on his Batcomputer, all of which really deserved his attention, but were currently being neglected.

Bruce sighed, reaching for a mug on his desk filled with now-lukewarm coffee. He’d have to ask Alfred to refill it. And to make sure Dick was in bed. The boy needed more sleep than he was getting, what with school starting soon and all. Patrols always made it hard for him to get seven or eight hours a night and often he ran on less than six when school started up. In the summer is was easier and they both usually stayed up well after midnight, sleeping in late the next day, but Bruce knew Dick needed to get in the habit of going to bed earlier before the school year started. Hopefully Alfred would come down soon and Bruce could talk to him about it.

The vigilante-dressed philanthropist turned his attention back to the screen, the light making his eyes ache. The two files that caught his attention the most contained information about Cadmus and a picture of a teenaged girl dressed in black. The second was new, recently created after Dick had told him of Robin’s run-in with the ex-assassin-in-training on Gotham’s streets. He’d already dug up as much information as possible after the first encounter with Sportsmaster’s apprentice, but it hadn’t been much and he hadn’t dwelled on it for long. Once she’d come into the light once more, this time on the right side of the law, Batman had dug even deeper and created a new file with her labeled as a potential hero. He desperately wanted to find out more about her, especially since she had the nerve to go crusading around his city, and whether or not she could be trusted, but the other file held far more importance in his eyes.

It was labeled Cadmus, though all evidence to this point showed that it really had nothing to do with Cadmus at all. Every lead Batman had found led to a dead end. Every villain he interrogated, every thug he intimidated all claimed they worked for Cadmus, yet upon arriving at the lab, there was nothing. Guardian had no idea what Batman was talking about. There were no records or anything. It was as if whatever they did to Robin had never happened.

Bruce took a sip of the coffee, scowling slightly at the coolness of the liquid, and brought the Cadmus file to the front of the screen. He strained his eyes, desperately trying to find something he might have missed before, something that would explain why someone wanted Robin. He’d have to talk with Penguin later, see where that led him. Probably just another dead end, but what else could a man do? Even a man who crusaded around Gotham as a bat.

Tomorrow Robin’s team would have a mission: they’d be guarding the shipments of Amazo’s parts as they crossed the country and he didn’t want a kidnapping attempt to get in the way of the mission. Robin would be relatively alone, with probably only one other teammate, most likely Superboy if Batman knew Kaldur, and he’d virtually have no one to back him up if someone attacked him. Superboy was still naïve, and sticking to the mission was about all he could handle at the moment. If someone were to threaten Robin, they’d have no trouble separating the two without Superboy even aware of the absence of his team mate. Then Robin would be alone to confront whoever was hired to get this time. Batman was exceedingly confident in his partner’s abilities, but he didn’t really want to take any chances.

Bruce scrolled slowly through the file, nothing jumping out at him. He’d been on this case for a little over two weeks, since the kidnapping attempts started, and he’d really made no progress.

A soft whirring sound floated through the Batcave as the elevator came to a halt at the bottom. Bruce looked over to see an elderly gentleman gliding towards him with a tray in one hand and some sort of black cloth in the other.

“Alfred,” Bruce sighed, leaning back in his chair and smiling gratefully as Alfred approached him and placed the tray, which Bruce now saw held a dark mug and a small platter of cookies, in front of him, still holding the black fabric.

“Master Bruce,” he nodded, English accent heard.

Bruce took a sip of the black coffee and closed his eyes in pleasure as the warmth traveled through him. It was still hot outside, but the Batcave could get chilly at times. He replaced the mug on the tray and turned back to his butler, noticing again the object he held in his hands. He raised an eyebrow at it and Alfred sighed.

“Master Richard’s, or Robin’s I suppose, cape, sir,” he explained, handing it to the billionaire. “I went up to make sure he was asleep and found it on his floor.”

“So I assume he is asleep then?” Bruce asked, taking the cape from the butler and running it through his hands. It was relatively clean, though smelled old so he assumed it had been lying in Dick’s room for a while.

“Yes, quite.” Alfred assured. “Though he was mumbling something in some language I could not decipher. I trusted it was normal occurrence, though, and let him be.”

Bruce only chuckled, amused at his ward’s sleeping habits.

“Have you found anymore leads, Master Bruce?” Alfred asked, noticing the file on the computer screen for the first time.

“I’m afraid not, Alfred.”

“Hmmm. Perhaps you should alert the League of this.”

“No,” Bruce said quickly, reaching for his mug again. “No, the League doesn’t need to get into this. This is about Robin, and he’s my partner. I can handle this.”

“And you don’t want the League getting the way.” It wasn’t a question. 

“You know me too well, Alfred.”

“Indeed I do, Master Bruce. Indeed I do.”

*&*

“Recognized: Robin B-01.”

“I left my sock there and now it’s gone!”

“I am sure there is a reasonable explanation-”

“Yes! Maybe it was magic!”                                                

“There’s only one thing that could have happened to it-”

“Maybe someone’s washing it-”

“I am sure we can find it, my friend-”

“-It originated from a particularly acidic chemical on the cave floor-”

“I’m leaving now….”

“Oo! Are you looking? I’ll help look!”

“-Exposed to such extreme environment conditions, the molecules in the sock broke down, the acid eating away at the chemical bonds -”

“Perhaps it fell under the couch.”

“Not over here!”

“Until only the base components were left and – Robin!”

“Hey, KF, whatcha doing?” The boy in question asked, walking over to where Wally stood on the arm of the couch behind which Kaldur’s back end was visible, his head stuck underneath the furniture. Robin could make out M’gann and Superboy in Mount Justice’s kitchen, the Martian poking her head in the cupboards while the clone stood watching. They were all dressed in civilian clothes, Robin included, his mandatory dark glasses in place. He had no idea what was going on, but judging from the Team’s various positions, he could only assume the worst.

“You won’t believe what happened, Rob!” Wally exclaimed, jumping off the couch and positioning himself in front of the younger boy.

“Considering it’s you, I probably won’t.” Robin agreed, folding his arms over his chest.

“My sock spontaneously decomposed!”

Robin blinked, taken aback by Wally’s declaration, then gave Wally a questioning look, hoping he would elaborate. He did.

“See, I left my sock on the floor-”

“Your first mistake,” Robin muttered.

“-And when I came back to get it, it was gone! I looked everywhere for it!” Robin had a hard time believing that. “But I couldn’t find it anywhere! The only truly plausible explanation is that some sort of highly acidic chemical rose up from the floor and-”

“Is this what you’re looking for?” Superboy suddenly asked, walking into the room, holding a grey sock in his hand.

“My sock!” Wally shrieked, racing over and snatching the sock from Superboy’s hand. He began turning it over, leaning in close, eyes squinted as he examined every inch of it.

“That’s wonderful Superboy.” Kaldur exclaimed, crawling out from under the couch and congratulating the clone.

“Good job!” M’gann applauded, floating out of the kitchen.

“Where was it Superboy?” Robin asked, watching as Wally sniffed his sock, a pensive look coming over his face.

“Um, on my foot,” The clone answered awkwardly, glancing down at his boot as if to check for any leftover sock residue. Robin didn’t blame him; Wally’s socks were gross.

“Well, I’m sure Wally is very happy you found it.” Kaldur told him, looking over to where the speedster stood. “Perhaps you’d like to thank him, Wally?”

“Huh?” Wally asked, looking up from where he looked like he was about to lick his sock. “Oh, oh yeah. Thanks Supey.”

The clone grunted and stalked away, looking disgruntled at the current events.

“I’m, uh, going for a walk.” He said, before disappearing around the corner. Three pairs of eyes followed his receding back, the other pair fixated on a tongue, inches away from the surface of a sock.

“Wally!” Robin exclaimed, snatching the sock away from his friend’s tongue. Once he got a closer look at it, he wished he hadn’t.

“Wha?” Wally asked, his tongue still stuck out. “I had oo tetht it to thee if it wath on the vird of decompothting.”

Robin just raised an eyebrow, pretending that he couldn’t understand what the speedster had said. It was rather disturbing that he could. The other two heroes looked equally dumbfounded.

“Ugh!” Wally exclaimed, ripping his sock out of Robin’s hand and shoving it in his pocket. “You guyth jutht don’t un’erthtand.”

“Um, I’m going to go make cookies.” M’gann announced, floating back towards the kitchen. Kaldur trailed after her, sending a glance back at his two teammates.

“I will go help her.” And then Fish-boy was gone as well.

“So,” Robin said, turning back to face Wally. “Spontaneous decomposition. Best theory you could come up with.”

“I was in the heat of the moment!” The speedster protested.  “I was really stressing out, my tongue was getting all swollen, my throat was dry-”

“Sounds like allergies.” Robin smirked, amused at Wally’s exasperation.

“You would know, wouldn’t you.” Wally shot back, digging his sock out of his pocket as he sped over to the couch and plopped down, yanking his foot up to replace the missing article or clothing.

Robin humphed in annoyance, flipping over the back of the couch to sit next to his friend. But not too close, considering his sock was still exposed to the world. That boy had the worst smelling feet Robin had ever smelt. Not that he went around smelling feet or anything.

“So why’s this sock so important?” Robin asked as Wally pulled on the item in question, quickly shoving his shoe over it and lacing it up at superspeed.

“Specially designed.” Wally explained, shooting to his feet and running a few circles around the couch. “To cope with my superspeed and all. Normal socks burn up at the high speeds me and the Flash run, so Uncle Barry designed ‘speedster socks’ to cope with that.”

Robin nodded in understanding (Barry would come up with something like that), jumping up from the couch and watching Wally’s circles for a moment before sticking his foot in his friend’s path, successfully tripping the speedster and sending him flying across the room. The Boy Wonder cackled as Wally sat up and rubbed his head.

“Dude!” He exclaimed, glaring at the younger boy. He looked ready to pounce on the acrobat when an enticing aroma drifted in from the kitchen. The speedster was on his feet in seconds, shooting off towards the scent, his prey, forgotten. Robin rolled his eyes, following the boy into the kitchen.

Mount Justice, formally the Headquarters of the Justice League until its secrecy was compromised, was huge and had all the necessities of a permanent residence, as it was for M’gann and Superboy. The kitchen was just off of the sitting room, which was home to a giant flat screen TV, and bedrooms were just down the hall from it. The main training area was right in from the zeta beam entrance and was equipped with all the highest tech and served as mission briefing as well. There was also a room towards the back of the mountain with weights, treadmills, rings, a few targets, and high bars along with a room housing a giant pool right off the back exit.

When Robin walked into the kitchen, his nose was assaulted with an enticing aroma of golden brown cookies. I looked, or smelled, like M’gann was actually a pretty good cook, as long as she remembered she was cooking. Wally was already shoveling six of the cookies down his throat at once while M’gann giggled, already sticking another tray of raw cookie dough in the oven.

“Mff, Rob, dese are good.” The speedster mumbled around the cookies in his mouth. “Goo’ zyob Me’a, you ah ge’ing re’wy goo’ a dis.”

M’gann giggled again. “Thanks, I think.”

“Wally, stop being gross.” Robin chided, smacking the back of his head.

“Me’abowism.”

“Metabolism?” Robin asked and Wally nodded. “Not really an excuse.”

The red-head just glared at him.

“Robin, do you want a cookie?” M’gann asked, hovering slightly as she waited for the next batch to be done.

“Nah, I’m not really hungry,” Robin answered. “Thanks though.”

“Hey!” Wally exclaimed, nearly knocking the remaining cookies to the floor. “We have our first training session today! With Black Canary.” He got all dreamy eyed at the end and Robin knew the speedster thought their teacher was hot.

“Oo!” M’gann squealed. “I can’t wait! I’ve never trained with a team before. Well, I’ve never been on a team before….”

“Yeah, should be great.” Robin agreed, actually excited at the prospect of training with the team. Compared to Batman’s training, it would be a breeze. At least endurance wise. When it came to hand to hand combat, Robin could fight forever, unless someone got him down, and Robin knew that Kaldur was a particularly skilled fighter, and Superboy had already beaten him once. The fights here wouldn’t be as physically demanding as the ones he had with Batman, but that was only because his opponent would actually take him down if they got the chance, whereas Batman kept him up and fighting for as long as possible.

“Yo, Rob,” Wally said, waving a hand in front of his face. “Kal says Black Canary’s here. Get changed?”

“Huh? Oh, yeah, let’s go.”

oOo

Artemis officially hated monkeys. Especially robot monkeys. The things wouldn’t leave her alone and she’d run practically halfway across Gotham! She shot another arrow at one’s head that was about to jump down from a roof onto her head and then spun around, knocking another two away with the end of her bow. They went flying, smashing into a wall and shattering, only to be replaced by four others. Where were they coming from? They were like the Hydra! Whoever they belonged to was lined up to get a piece of Artemis’ mind if they ever showed themselves.

Artemis took off running again as five leaped at her at once, grabbing onto her hair and trying to force her face first into a wall. She whipped them off and dashed down the street, glad it was dark out now as a teenage girl running from robot monkeys would be certain to attract police. Not that Artemis was worried about police or anything. They’d never be able to trace her to her father, right? Besides, she was a hero now, fighting crime; they’d never suspect a thing…. But it was better to be safe than sorry.

A fence loomed up into Artemis’ view and she knew immediately where she was: Gotham Academy, school of the richest brats in Gotham. Without a second thought Artemis leaped onto the fence and climbed over it as fast as possible, dropping to the ground on the other side, bow drawn and arrow ready. This would be the perfect spot to pick off the monkeys from.

 A robot head appeared and Artemis let an arrow fly; it hit its mark dead on with another already on the bow. Two more monkeys appeared an Artemis sent an explosive arrow at one, the resulting explosion knocking away the other. Three more monkeys took their place and Artemis shot them in quick succession, only to have four on their tale. She sent two more explosive arrows at them, smirking when she heard the clang of their parts hitting the concrete below and then was forced to stab one with the end of her bow that had somehow managed to sneak up on her. Two more faces appeared over the fence, but they quickly disappeared, perhaps seeing they were the only two left.

Artemis breathed a sigh of relief, only to be interrupted by a smashing sound accompanied by shouting and the sound of explosions coming from the large brick building behind her. She spun around, just in time to see a boy smash through ceiling of the building, followed by a giant, shirtless man. A very ripped, giant, shirtless man, Artemis noted. A large hole was now visible in the roof of Gotham Academy through which yells and shattering sounds could be heard. More robot monkeys were now pouring into the hole, followed by a rather eccentric looking man suspended in the air by two of the robotic freaks. Okay, this merited an investigation.

Keeping her bow close to her body, Artemis sprinted across the courtyard to a window and peered in. At first all she saw was a trashed display case, the trophies strewn across the floor among the shattered glass, but then she noticed a dark shape moving at the far end of the hallway. She watched as the shaped got closer, crouching in the shadows and seemingly glancing about itself as it moved. Then a yellow blur flashed across Artemis’ vision and she nearly shrieked as a yellow and red clad boy smashed into the dark shape, knocking both to the ground. The sickeningly bright boy got up first, shooting to his feet at inhuman speed and reached down and yanked up the smaller figure which Artemis now saw to be none other than Wonder Boy.

Said boy was now silently berating the speedy boy, waving his hands around in a dramatic manner. The yellow and red boy, who also happened to have flaming red hair, was rubbing the back of his neck, looking sheepish until Robin stopped yelling at him, at which point he ruffled the smaller boy’s hair before shooting off around the corner almost faster than Artemis’ eyes could follow. So, he was a speedster. Robin’s shoulders seemed to slump at what appeared to be a sigh, before turned and disappeared into the shadow again.

Artemis stood at the window, thoughts running through her mind almost as fast as the speedy boy, the most foremost being why Wonder Boy was working with what appeared to be other sidekicks. The archer didn’t know why this got her so much, but it seemed strange and gave her an odd feeling in the pit of her stomach. Of course she’d known there were other kid heroes out there, but she had no idea they all knew each other, much less worked together. And worked together without any apparent adult help. This idea appealed to Artemis in a way she really didn’t think it would. She didn’t want to work with other sidekicks; she was fine by herself, even if she really didn’t do much. A team would just slow her down and they’d probably expect her to be nice to them.

Another smashing sound was heard, followed by a rather guttural yell and clapping. Artemis shot out of her reverie and without a second thought, smashed open the window she was standing at with her combat boot and hoisted herself through, though not without cutting her exposed stomach on the edge of the glass still attached to the window sill. Once she was through, she quickly glanced down at the wound, hoping it wasn’t too bad. It didn’t hurt too much and wasn’t bleeding a ton, so it wasn’t too deep; she’d tend to it later. She yanked an arrow out of her quiver and nocked it, pointing her bow at the ground as she took off running down the hallway that speedy boy disappeared down. Whatever was going on screamed ‘bad news’ and that was practically Artemis’ middle name.

Following the sound of explosions and screaming heroes, the archer found herself at a door leading into a large gym in which an all-out battle was taking place. The giant, shirtless, insanely muscular man, which Artemis now saw was wearing green pants and acting rather robotish, was busy tossing another insanely muscular, though not quite as much as the robot man, boy into the bleachers where the eccentric-looking man sat cheering with some robot monkeys. The speedy boy and Robin were both on the opposite side of the gym, across from Artemis, picking themselves up off the floor, looking rather dazed.

Artemis watched as the three sidekick boys battled the robot man, each going down harder than the previous as Green Pants chucked them around like ragdolls. Robin was attempting to throw batarangs at the creature, but whenever one got close to him, he’d mutter something like: “Access: Martian Manhunter” and go all intangible on them. The hulk-boy was throwing punches left and right at Green Pants but they didn’t seem to faze him one bit; in fact, when he muttered “Access: Superman” he sent a punch back at the boy, causing him to go flying again. As she watched, Green Pants continued muttering “Access: Fill-in-the-blank-with-a-super-heroes-name” and apparently gaining the powers of the superhero of his choice. So basically, the sidekicks were doomed.

Artemis leaned back against the door behind her and played her options through her head. She could run away, pretend this never happened, and perhaps pick up an espresso on the way home, cause man was she beat, or stay and get her butt kicked by a shirtless robot alongside Team Hero-Wannabe. It was practically a no brainer until Green Pants started hugging Speedy Boy to death. As much as Artemis wished that the other boys would be able to handle it, Robin’s words from the other night still rang in her head: “Heroes….. Our job is to save people, got it?” It looked like that espresso would have to wait.

Artemis stepped out from her hiding place and yanked her bow up, aiming at the robot man’s head, and slowly pulled back the string until it rested next her mouth. She sighted down the shaft and let the arrow fly. The aim was true and the arrow shot straight at the monsters head. Artemis crossed her fingers, hoping that Green Pants wouldn’t access Superman for invulnerability. Her wish came true as the robot in question muttered “Access: Martian Manhunter” at the sight of the arrow, and went intangible again, the arrow soaring harmlessly through his head and Speedy Boy sliding through his virtually non-existent arms.

Artemis allowed herself a smirk at her own genius, but quickly shrank back into the shadows as Robin’s masked eyes narrowed at the arrow that had landed only feet away from him. Crap, she thought, collapsing her bow and stowing it away before slipping out the door of the gym. She really didn’t want to explain to Wonder Boy why she was helping his little team, because she could only imagine what he would then suggest.

oOo

“You could join us!” Came the overly eager voice.

“No.”

“Why not?”

“Because I have better things to do than run around with teenagers in tights.”

At this, the small shoulders slumped and an annoyed looked cross the usually smirking face. Geez, Artemis had noticed how young and small Wonder Boy was.

“That’s hardly fair.” He argued, putting his gloved hands on his hips. “You’re a teenager. Or else an old lady with a facelift fetish.” He muttered under his breath.  “And none of us wear tights.  Superboy wears cargo pants; Miss Martian’s clothes are organic so probably wouldn’t be classified as tights; Aqualad, well, I dunno what he wears, but I’m pretty sure tights don’t have fins on them; and Kid Flash… he wears a full body suit.”

“So like, fully body tights?”

Robin looked pensive for a moment. “Yeah,” he finally conceded. “But he’s the only one.”

“Oh, so what do you call those things you’re wearing?” She asked, unable to help herself.

“Leggings.” Robin growled, seemingly prepared for this question, as if it was asked a lot. “Enforced with Kevlar. Not tights.”

“Mmhmm? Whatever you say, Sherlock.”

He looked like he was going to argue, but then thought better of it.

“Well, I’ll see you around.” Artemis said, turning around and shooting a grappling arrow through the hole ‘Superboy’ had made in the ceiling. She didn’t really want to take her chance with the window again. Now that the adrenaline rush was over, her stomach was starting to hurt. A hot shower would really feel nice right then.

After her little intervention on behalf of the Teen Tight-Wearers, as she so fondly nicknamed Robin’s team, the archer had hurried out as fast as possible, but obviously not fast enough. Robin had caught up to her as she wandered the hallways, having very little clue where she’d come in since she’d paid little to no attention to the path she’d taken on her wild dash. He’d put on a rather feigned expression of shock and promptly asked her what she was doing, evenly though she could tell from his smug attitude he knew she was helping him. He’d then come up with the apparently brilliant idea that she join his team. Um, no.

“Hey, Assassin Girl, wait up!”

“No thanks.” Artemis shouted down from the roof, scowling at his nickname for her. She was about to take off running when a hand grabbed her arm.

“Not this again.” She groaned, trying to shake off Robin’s grip. That kid was strong for such a little guy.

“Come on, Artemis.” He pleaded, his face softening into an almost puppy-dog-look. It would have been cute if he wasn’t wearing his domino mask, but as it was, it was borderline creepy little kid. Or creepier little kid, in his case. 

“How many times do I have to say ‘no’. Don’t answer that.” She added, seeing as he looked like he was calculating a number.

“Why not? Join the team I mean.”

“I already told you why.”

“And I already told you: none of us wear tights!” As if that solved it. “I could talk to Batman and-”

“Never mention talking to Batman if you ever want to convince someone to do anything.” Artemis advised, shuddering inwardly at the thought of the masked vigilante. She wasn’t scared of him, of course not, but he wasn’t someone she wanted to cross paths with. Ever.

“-And he could hook you up with Green Arrow,” Robin continued, ignoring her comment. “He’s an archer too, though you probably knew that. He could train you, and you could join our team and-”

“My answer hasn’t changed, and never will.” She growled, yanking her arm out of his grip and stalking across the roof, ready to yank her bow out and send an arrow through his brain if tried to follow her.

“A team, Artemis,” his voice carried across the roof. Wrong thing to say, Wonder Boy. She’d had enough of teams. “You wouldn’t have to fight alone. It would be like a new start.” Great, he was better at this than she thought.

She stopped walking, freezing against her will as the words ‘a new start’ rang through her head. How did he know? How did he know what she wanted? What she was desperately searching, fighting, for? Some part of her wanted desperately to turn around and rush back, beg to join the team, beg to be trained by this Green Arrow person, beg for a new start. That, of course, was the irrational and always-ignored part of her brain. The more logical, reasonable side wanted to go and beat the daylights out of the kid for breaking through her so easily. As it was, neither side really got its way.

“Think about it?” Robin asked, not having made any move to follow her, for which she was glad.

“Fine; whatever.” She mumbled, staring down at her boots.

“Great!” Was the last thing she heard before a creepy cackle echoed across the roof and the Boy Wonder was gone.

oOo

Robin leant over and rubbed his sore leg as he limped through the hallways of his school. The team was waiting for him at the bioship, having cleaned up as best they could while their hacker had disappeared on ‘Batman business’, claiming he’d be back shortly. It was ‘Batman business’, technically. The Dark Knight had been doing quite a bit of research on Assassin Girl and had talked to Green Arrow about her a few times as well. Robin smirked to himself, impatient to get back to Mount Justice and tell his mentor about his encounter with said girl and hopefully convince him to let her join the team. Cause he wasn’t about to let her have a choice in the matter.

“Robin?”

Robin froze, recognizing the voice instantly. He spun around, wincing slightly as his bruised leg protested the sudden movement.

“What are you doing here?” He asked, putting as much authority into his voice as he could. Despite being only thirteen, nearly all of Gotham’s citizens respected him, if not looked up to him. One of the perks of being a hero.

“Um, I was practicing. I’m on the gymnastics team here. I heard the commotion from the fight and was wondering what happened.”

Robin sighed, his eyes running over the bright red hair and blue eyes. He had to hand it to her: she was pretty brave to stay in the school with all that had been going on. Brave and stupid.

“It was a fight, nothing more.” He told her, trying his best to act like she was just another civilian girl, not his best friend. Who didn’t even know she was talking to her best friend. Dual identities suck.

“Is everything alright?”

“Fine. Everything’s fine.” He assured her. “But you should leave. It’s really late and the streets aren’t safe at this time.” It was true. Gotham was bad at night. Well, it was bad during the day too, but even worse at night. Robin couldn’t help but wonder why Barbara was out so late. He knew she was dedicated to her gymnastics, but why would her dad let her stay out so late? Couldn’t she just come during the day sometime?

“Okay.” She agreed, shrugging her gym back higher up on her shoulder.

“Do you have a ride home?” He asked before he could help himself.

“Yeah, my dad’s outside waiting.”

Robin nodded, narrowing his eyes as she scanned his face, almost as if searching for something, or someone, in his features. He crossed his arms, trying to give her subtle body language for ‘leave’. She apparently got the hint because she gave Robin one last look over before turning and walking towards the exit. After she’d exited the building, Robin limped over to the window and looked out, watching her cross the courtyard before disappearing into the shadows of the street, her dad’s car nowhere in sight.

oOo

At mission debriefing Robin quickly accused Green Arrow of following them, using Artemis’ arrow as proof. It was a sign to Batman that he’d encountered Assassin Girl again and wanted to talk later on. Of course the rest of the team (mostly Wally) then quickly jumped to the conclusion that it was Speedy’s arrow and Robin had to resist the urge the face palm. And beg for it to be true. He really missed Roy; even though they’d always fought, it had been playful banter and Roy was like some kind of messed up, misplaced older brother who no one really understood and everyone wanted out of the house as soon as possible. But then missed as soon as he was gone.

Once the rest of the team had dispersed, Batman motioned his protégé into another room where Green Arrow was waiting.

“So, you met Artemis again.” Batman stated.

“Yeah, she saved KF from becoming a Speedster Pancake.”

“So it was her arrow.” Green Arrow mused, stroking his beard. Robin fought hard not to laugh at the stereotypical ‘pensive old man’ move. Instead he simply nodded, not trusting himself to speak.

“Did you talk to her?” The Dark Knight asked, giving Robin the look that meant, ‘laugh, and you will be cleaning the Batmobile for a month’.

“Yeah,” Robin managed to get out while keeping a straight face. “I asked her to join the Team. Told her you would talk to GA about taking her as a protégé.”

“And?”

“Well, she kinda blew me off.” Robin admitted, watching Green Arrow’s face fall. Looks like he was missing Roy too. “But I followed her and I think I hit a nerve and got her to consider it.” Maybe.

Green Arrow brightened at this and looked over to Batman.            

“Good.” The Dark Knight said, unemotional as always. “I have managed to trace her civilian identity; she lives in Gotham with her mother. Green Arrow and I will talk to her mother this week, and then to both of them soon after.”

Green Arrow nodded, looking like he was trying to conceal his excitement. It looked like him and Artemis were polar opposites.

“Can I come?” Robin asked, thinking perhaps she’d be more comfortable if she knew someone. Not that he really thought she’d be afraid of Green Arrow, or even Batman, but he was Batman and he was intimidating.

“No.”

“Why not? I know her!”

“Barely.”

“Better than you do!”

“This is not up for discussion, Robin. Head back to the cave; I need to talk with Green Arrow and then I will join you. Good job tonight.” He added, almost as an afterthought.

Robin silently fumed. He would have exploded at his mentor if Green Arrow had been there, but as it was, he spun on his heel, wincing again at his bruised leg, and stalked off to the zeta beam.

“Recognized: Robin B-01.”