The Night Star (ABANDONED)

Chapter 2

The criminal writhed around, trying to free himself from Robin's trap.

  Robin tied the last knot and admired his handiwork. The purse snatcher he'd caught was now tied up and hanging upside down from a fire escape.

"Now, you are going to stay here until the authorities arrive." Robin turned away from him and started to walk away.

  "You can't— you can't just leave me like this! Kid! Do you hear me?!"

"Oh, I can hear you just fine," Robin responded. "I'm just choosing not to answer."

"Aghh! You know what?! Screw you, kid! Screw you and the stupid Bat—"

The criminal stopped speaking when he and Robin saw a large streak appear across the sky. It looked like a shooting star, only it had a purplish hue to it.

Then, they heard a loud noise, like something slamming into the asphalt street. Whatever they had seen had crashed not far away from them. Curious, Robin decided that he would investigate.

  "You stay here!" He called over his shoulder while running off to find the source of the noise.

"Where else would I go?!" The purse snatcher shouted back and scowled.

  From the rooftop of a building, Robin could see that in the middle of the city, there seemed to be a giant indent in the road. Maybe a meteor crashed? But that theory vanished as he saw someone in the crash site stand up.

  People started to gather around. Robin jumped off the building and used his cape like a glider, landing a few feet away from the scene. He crouched down behind an empty car, so he would not draw attention to himself.

Now that he was closer, he could tell that in the center of the crash site, there was a girl. An alien, it seemed. She was very frightened looking as more and more people gathered around to gawk at her.

Robin pursed his lips and decided he'd have to call for backup. Dealing with aliens wasn't the norm in Gotham, so calling for Batman seemed like the best option.

Robin reached up for the comm-piece in his ear when one man from the crowd took a picture of the girl with his phone, the flash upsetting her.

She started blinking rapidly, her eyes trying to adjust after the flash. Someone was brave enough to try and approach her and she immediately backed away from them, her eyes beginning to glow.

Seeing this, the people ran in fear that she would attack them.

    But she did not attack. She just looked at her surroundings and up at the sky in a panicked frenzy, trying to remove the metal shackles that covered her hands. She banged them against the ground, but had no luck of getting them off.

Robin then realized that the alien girl was not a threat, but a refugee.

Deciding there was no time to wait for backup, he decided to intervene. He left his hiding place he made his way over to her.

"Hey!" He called out, hoping to gain her attention.

The girl whirled around and froze at the sight of him. As Robin took a step forward, she slowly began to back away. Robin moved closer to her and tried to speak to her in a calm manner. "I'm not going to hurt you."

"G'ok ta. G'ok ta bu'ungnuh." She said. She didn't clearly speak English.

Well, that just made things a whole lot harder, Robin thought.

Robin studied her over, now that he was closer. She had long black hair, tan, almost golden-like, skin, and her eyes. Those bright green eyes that were otherworldly and alluring. Only one other person he knew of had eyes like that; Starfire.

    This girl must be Tamaranean. But he had to be sure. The only plan he could think of was to contact Dick. But, he was all the way in Blüdhaven. He had to get ahold of him somehow. Because if anyone knew anything about Tamaraneans, it was Dick Grayson.

Backup was definitely necessary now. Robin reached up to press on his ear comm once more, but paused when he heard police sirens wailing off in the distance. If he knew his father at all, Robin knew that Batman would be following the sirens. He'd be too preoccupied to deal with this.

Robin held back a sigh. He was on his own.

He supposed he could take her back to the Batcave. And then he could contact his father and Dick. It wasn't the best idea, nor was it the smartest, but he was running out of options. And he couldn't just leave her here. Especially not after people had taken her picture.

Robin knew that she was too afraid to just follow him, he needed to be able to communicate with her somehow. But first, he had to get those things off her hands.

  "I'm not going to hurt you," Robin repeated. "I'm just trying to help."

  He grabbed her manacles and her eyes glowed, warningly. He held up a hand, as if to mean hold on, and she gave a puzzled look. He retrieved a little tool from out of his utility belt and picked the lock on her manacles. They fell to the ground and she gasped. She rubbed her wrists and looked up at him, her eyes full of curiosity.

"Ne talmak?"

He still needed to find a way to communicate with her. How did Starfire learn to speak English?

Then he remembered and grimaced. Starfire kissed Dick to learn his language. He tried his best to recall if there was any other way to transfer language to her, but no other solution came to mind.

Robin inwardly scowled. He was not one for physical contact. But, he'd rather her be able to communicate with him than to be utterly confused by everything he said.

With slight hesitation, he leaned in and pressed his lips against hers. Her eyes went as wide as the moon and with a whoosh! the ends of her hair caught aflame.

Robin quickly pulled away from her and asked, "Can you understand me now?"

  Flustered, the girl grasped for words. "Y-yes, I can, but—"

"Great," He said, taking her hand. "Now, you have to come with me."

"Why? Where are you taking me?" She asked.

"Somewhere safe and out of sight." He hurriedly pulled her along, hoping that they would not be seen.

"Wait! Please! I need to know where I am, I need to find my father!"

"And I can help you with that, but you have to come with me."

  "May I at least know your name?" She asked him.

        Robin wasn't one to give away his identity. He wasn't one to trust in people easily, either. But she was clearly from off-planet and wouldn't have any prior knowledge of Gotham, or Earth for that matter. And she did seem pretty panicked. The least he could do was try and make her feel more secure while she was with him.

He looked around, to make sure that no was there to hear him, and no one was.

Leaning in a bit, he told her, "My name is Damian."