Behind the Mask

Chapter 9

Dick Grayson stared at the text on his phone.

‘Hey, u wanna hang out @ the mall soon? W/me?’

The sender was Wally West, the number was 417-555-1516.[1] Sure, Dick would love to hang out with Wally anytime, anywhere, but there was the matter of secret identities and the fact that Dick wasn’t supposed to have told Wally his. Maybe some time when Bruce was away; this was happening more and more often recently. League missions, Wayne Tech meetings, over-seas business trips, more League missions, patrols which Dick wasn’t allowed on – the list went on. Bruce was currently gone on another League mission at the moment, but would be back either later that night or the next day. It was already past seven, though, and would be too late for him and Wally to meet that day, besides the fact that Bruce could return any minute.

Bruce had been keeping a closer eye on him than ever before, what with the identity thing and all. After interrogating the Maskeys, Batman had found that they did, indeed, claim that their boss was working for something called Cadmus, but that was all they knew. Like usual. Artemis, now a member of the Team, though less liked by a certain speedster than Robin would have hoped, was still grilling him for information on Cadmus and through that, they’d grown to be friends. It was odd, to say the least. Nothing like a couple near death experiences to bring two people closer together, not to mention one of the those experiences resulting from fighting each other.

The rest of the Team didn’t get along with the archer as well as the young vigilante did. Kid Flash especially. Those two hated each other from the beginning, which only got Robin caught in the middle. Not that it mattered much to him. If his two friends hated each other, then they could deal with that problem themselves.  Artemis’ first mission hadn’t been a great start, but Robin knew that they had been fighting her sister so it was to be expected. It hadn’t left the greatest impression on the Team, but they’d accepted her none the less, though Wally had done so rather grudgingly.

Dick rolled back onto his back on his bed, staring at the ceiling as he heard his remaining summer homework crinkle under his back. He only had one more day of summer school and then he’d have almost three weeks off until school started officially. Wow, three weeks of summer as compared to nearly three months. Why was his life so hard?

“Master Richard.” Alfred’s voice crackled through intercom. “Miss Barbara’s on the phone – she wishes to talk with you.” Barbara? Hmm. “She’s sounds very distraught.”

“Kay, Alfie, be right down.” Barbara, calling him, on the main phone, sounding distraught?

Dick rolled off the bed onto his feet and headed for the stairs, walking down them briskly and taking the phone from Alfred who was waiting at the bottom. He put the phone to his ear, letting his “Hello?” travel through the mouthpiece. He heard what sounded like gasping, or possibly sobbing, on the other end before a muffled sounding: “Hi, Dick” carried to his ear.

“Barbara,” Dick exclaimed, walking over and sitting on the bottom step of the marble staircase. “What’s wrong? Are you hurt?”

“Y-yes.” Came a gasp, followed by a near-silent sobs.

“W-what happened?” Dick nearly shouted, half-rising from his sitting position, his left hand, the one not holding the phone, clenching into a fist.

“I-it’s not like that.” It was whispered, barely audible.

Dick sat down again, relaxing slighting as he realized no one had physically hurt Barbara. “Something bad happened, didn’t it Babs?” He asked, careful to keep his voice gentle. Another sob, this one sounding like it meant ‘yes’.