The air at Mount Justice was extremely tense.
Most of the team had been dismissed already. After giving their verbal reports to Batman, they had been sent off to write out their own more detailed reports for the mission records. The general debrief didn't leave much room for elaboration. All that they knew was that as far as they should be concerned the mission was a success with no escapees reported.
That now left the remaining group for the higher ranking debrief.
Batman, Martian Manhunter and Red Tornado as well as Aqualad and Robin were all present in the mission room.
Dick wasn't particularly sure what the adults were talking about. They were standing a bit off to the side around other screens that neither he nor Aqualad could see clearly.
Were they discussing which details to bring up?
Were they discussing him?
It'd been so long since he last saw him. Dick wasn't quite sure how old they were when they last physically met. He was almost sure they had a video call around their 11th birthday.
Right?
It can't have been that long.
Sure, they'd both been so busy and Wally had insisted on throwing a small party with uncle Barry and uncle Oliver there as well. At that point he hadn't met Kaldur yet so he wasn't really close enough to be invited to something like that.
Dick looked up at the Atlantean. Would he have done better? He already out-did the younger when it came to leadership, who's to say he wouldn't have been a better brother?
Was he that much of a fuck up that his own brother didn't want to see him?
That a prison was a better option than him?
Had he been so self-absorbed he didn't even notice anything wrong with his only surviving blood relative?
Is he even worthy of still being called his brother?
Dick felt the beginnings of tears prick in his eye. He looked up and blinked rapidly to avoid actual tears from forming. Of course his movement caught Batman's attention. Trying to play off his sudden reaction, Dick rolled his neck with an audible crack and focused on the debrief that had apparently started already.
"At 21:37 Miss Martian and Superboy encountered an unknown hostile, suspected to be an inmate, and a green hound-like entity. There are no prison records found about the hostile nor the entity outside of vague mentions in staff reports about incidents that occurred sporadically."
If there were no records, then how did he have a uniform and so, so many collars?
Were they just a disguise to make them not suspect anything?
But then how did he fly? Could it have been the green entity that did that for him?
Did he find somebody to replace Dick with?
Somebody or something that supported him better
"At 21: 43 the standby members of the team arrived on site to aid in the extraction of Miss Martian and Superboy. During which the team engaged in combat with the unknown hostile and the entity resulting in extreme damages and injuries to both Miss Martian and Kid Flash."
The sharpness in the Leaguer's voice made Aqualad divert his eyes. He felt the pressure of his decision to act press down on his shoulders. While his teammates hadn't gotten seriously hurt, there had been the potential for more disastrous consequences had their opponent so wished.
Connor was built like a titanium brick, he was fine even with being thrown through a wall.
M'gann still had a headache and a sprained wrist but other than that she was fine.
KF twisted his ankle and bruised a shoulder when he fell but with his healing factor he'd be fine by the end of the day if not sooner.
Dick almost fell but at least his team respected him enough to leave that little mishap out of the official reports.
Would it be in prison reports?
It's not like they could tell him to hide it too
What if he hadn't missed and hit him right on target?
Would it be a different story or would he just abandon him all over again
Batman saved him no time to reflect as he kept going over the debrief. "While allegedly communicating telepathically, the unknown hostile was able to respond and locate Robin's whereabouts."
With a pointed bat-stare, Martian Manhunter took the que and took over. "While my niece's abilities are still developing, they are quite strong for somebody of her age. When she creates these communication links in high stress situations, her mind reaches out to those who feel familiar to her. This is a closed bond that only other equally strong telepaths can breach if they weren't included." The man used the hologram screens to show a closed circuit loop between each member.
Dick did not like how they used prison orange for him. It should have been green.
Hummingbird green
No, not going there right now.
Dick clenched his thumb inside his fist and squeezed a few times, trying to force his mind to stay in the present. Had he not been wearing gloves, he was bound to have imprints from his nails already. Still he did his best to redirect his attention back on the Martian.
"Should it happen that there is a breach, not only should M'gann be aware of this, but everybody in the bond would have felt the disturbance an unwelcomed mind would cause. Somewhat similar to your previous mission with Dr. Rockette, it would have felt, how should I put this, uncomfortable? From my understanding, this was not the case?" Both Aqualad and Robin shook their heads. The link had felt normal as always until he had responded to them.
"I suppose it would be safe to say that forceful entry of the bond can be excluded then." The elder alien took a short pause as Batman grunted and typed away at the notes from this debriefing.
Dick watched Batman's fingers tap away, trying to decipher what the man was typing. Even if he couldn't figure out the code right now, he would later when they went back to the Batcave.
"Then it would be of my opinion that whoever the unknown is, he has a psychic signature similar enough to one of the team that neither M'gann nor any of the others noticed the inclusion until they had been made aware of it by the verbal response they received." He concluded and stepped back from the monitors to let Batman take the lead once more.
Dick felt his heart pause for a second. Had the others not noticed because they were used to Robin's presence? Had he not been there, would the others even notice it wasn't Dick that was talking? Had it really been his fault M'gann messed up and would likely get in trouble for it?
Were they really that alike others couldn't tell them apart at first glance?
Yet so far apart all the same
The young hero had to force himself to keep a steady breath as he did his best to make it through the rest of the debrief.
"-were unable to recover any camera feed of your encounter with the unknown hostile nor the entity. Up until your arrival at the south end corridor there was no interference. However upon entering a certain perimeter of the unknown's location, the camera's in all of your suits started malfunctioning. All trackable tech on your persons went dark until you collectively existed the perimeter where it all resumed as before."
Multiple screens popped up, each showing different angles. Feeds from both the team and security cameras of the prison malfunctioned in similar ways. The only difference being that the prison cameras actually managed to capture extremely distorted figures of what they could only guess was the hound-like entity and the unknown boy in different locations. Judging from the timestamps the green blob and the cyan blob were in different parts of the penitentiary. Upon convening together again the feed completely cut off until they both had left the vicinity.
"From this we suspect at least some type of electrical ability. Furthermore, both Miss Martian and Superboy report the unknown to have ice abilities as demonstrated by manipulating Icicle Jr.'s attacks."
Batman pulled up security footage of the entrance bay. It showed Riddler walking around, how he even ended up there was anybody's guess but that wasn't the point.
Within a few seconds of the footage being corrupted, Riddler had been attacked. Once the video returned to normal it showed a screaming Riddler encased in ice on the wall.
Dick couldn't help himself but smirk ever so slightly as he could lip read the profanities the wannabe supervillain was spouting at his attacker. No matter how upset he was at everything, one could always find the joy in Eddie being frustrated.
He could feel Batman's gaze on him. Cold and calculating to the outside, but Dick knew better. Years of experience allowed him to know there was worry hidden in there. The young bird didn't want to be even more of a distraction that he already was and gave their secret 'Im fine' signal. Too subtle for others to notice, just clear enough that Batman picked up on it.
Moving on he showed another clip from later that night as Red Tornado took word.
"Whatever this power was, it wasn't regular ice like the other villains used." Dick couldn't help the glare he sent at the use of villain. There was no way his other half was a villain, absolutely no reason to suggest similarities. "Guards had stood hours trying to melt the substance with no progress made since they started. By now the warden and guards had long since taken control back of the penitentiary. All collars had been turned on again per protocol yet the substance did not disappear. Then without warning it fully dematerialized in milliseconds."
Had it been any other time, Dick surely would have laughed at the glorious footage of Eddie faceplanting from a few feet up. For now at least it would suffice to have him not glare malware into the android.
Perhaps he could get a copy to show Wally later and have a proper laugh at his misfortune.
Would Danny enjoy it too?
Dick was beyond grateful he still had his mask on, literally and figuratively. Even with tears pricking his eyes again, he was not ready to unpack all of the new information in front of his fellow heros. That would be too unbecoming of THE Robin.
"With the penitentiary still under strict lockdown, further investigation will be halted until we are granted more access. Should anything of importance be discovered, the team will be informed. But for now, consider the case closed on your ends. The League will take over."
Dick knew a dismissal when he heard it.
Of course he absolutely couldn't care less what Batman said. They were both well aware Robin would still be on the case one way or another.
It shouldn't have come as a surprise when Dick was the first to leave the room. Debrief ended, they're free to go. Undoubtedly for Aqualad it would be getting a good night's rest after finishing up his own report. For Dick however, the night was only getting started.
Rules be damned, he was getting to the bottom of this and nothing short of Alfreds medicated tea would prevent him from doing so.