Behind the Mask

Chapter 5

Robin didn’t see Assassin Girl, or Artemis, again for a long time and he began to think she’d left Gotham altogether. That or she managed to free herself from Sportsmaster. He hoped it was the latter. For whatever reason, that girl wasn’t a ‘normal’ assassin, or whatever she was supposed to be. Not that there was such a thing as a ‘normal’ assassin, but one got the general gist. Robin had of course told Batman how she’d saved him from her apparent ‘sister’ (and gotten a berating from the Dark Knight for letting himself get incapacitated so easily) and Batman, being nosy as he was, looked into her. As it turned out, there were no records of an ‘Artemis’ working with either Sportsmaster or the League of Shadows. Whoever she was, she was new and unknown. That, added the fact that neither of the Dynamic Duo heard or saw her again basically ended the investigation.

So it wasn’t a surprise that when Robin did finally see Artemis again, he’d almost forgotten all about her. Especially considering all the things that had happened since their last run-in almost a month ago.

The team, Young Justice as it was called, though Robin wasn’t too keen on the name, was off to a good start, with two missions under its belt and multiple other ‘unofficial’ ones as well. They’d even decided on a leader, which had turned out to be harder than they’d originally thought. Robin had, in the end, pronounced Aqualad as leader, which the others all agreed to, even though the Boy Wonder had been vying for the spot in the first place. Robin saw it as his place to be leader of the Team, (and apparently so did Aqualad for he’d said he would hand the burden over to Robin when he was ready) and he’d originally thought he’d make a great leader. Until it became obvious that his dynamic with Batman was getting in the way. So he’d let Aqualad lead. For now.

Other than the leader situation, the Team had been getting along fairly well with each other, though it had taken a couple of bumps for them to really mesh. He’d always got along well with Kid Flash and Aqualad and soon found the new additions to be just as easy, if not easier, to get along with. Miss Martian, Martian Manhunter’s ‘niece’ (though Robin thought something about the claim was fishy) was almost like a motherly figure, caring for everyone on the team and even attempting to cook for them.  She was especially nice to Robin, and he presumed this was because he was the youngest and smallest and her motherly instinct was especially strong towards him. Of course it might also have had something to do with the fact that Kaldur acted like an adult and Wally spent all his time flirting with her. Oh and Superboy….

Well, Robin soon found Superboy was an interesting case, no matter what the circumstances. Miss Martian, whose real name was M’gann M’orzz or Megan, seemed to have developed a liking for him and his t-shirt. (Wally had taken him shopping so he didn’t have to wear his white pajama solar suit all the time. He’d bought the clone a black Superman t-shirt and cargo pants, which was all he ever wore. Ever.) He and the Martian were staying at Mt. Justice as permanent residents and Robin was told the clone had actually slept on a bed once or twice now. Neither alien was very well versed in Earth culture, but the Kryptonian seemed to have no clue whatsoever about anything that wasn’t ‘practical’ as Cadmus would have put it. Hence there had been some awkward moments but Superboy was adjusting well and everyone on the team liked him a lot. Especially M’gann, but Robin kept that to himself, for Wally’s sake.

In all, Robin found he enjoyed the Team immensely, as, despite the painful fact that he was the youngest (not counting the nineteen week old clone, who everyone acted like was sixteen years old) all his teammates looked up to him. He had the most experience and was trained by the Batman. It was also nice to get out from under the watchful eye of his mentor. As much as Robin enjoyed working with Batman, he needed a chance to stretch his wings (metaphorically of course, for he wasn’t, despite his name, a bird! Robin Hood people!) and the Team gave him the perfect opportunity to do so.