When Robin walked in on an impending fight between Ace and Wolf, he knew it was going to be an interesting mission. The Team was gathered in the hanger, waiting while he spoke with Batman, and the two giant canines were facing it off in the middle of the gathering. After promising Batman that yes, of course he would be careful, yes, he'd remember everything he'd learned the past few months, and yes, he wouldn't do anything stupid, Robin hurried off to board the bioship. And found his dog in a dogfight.
"Who's the dog?" Superboy was asking as Robin walked in. The clone's arms were crossed and he was glaring between the two animals.
"It's Ace," Wally replied, now dressed as Kid Flash. "He belongs to Robin."
"Tell him not to attack Wolf. He'll tear him apart."
"Wolf or Ace?" Wally nervously asked, rapidly glancing between the two opponents.
"Ace, come," Robin commanded, making his presence known as he entered the hanger. Ace growled one last time at Wolf before obediently trotting over to his master and staring up at the boy eagerly. "Good," Robin praised, rubbing Ace's head.
"Your dog was thought he could mess with Wolf," Superboy announced, stalking over to Robin.
"Good thing they didn't start fighting," Robin replied and Superboy broke in with, "Yeah, the dog would've gotten destroyed."
Robin raised an eyebrow at the clone. "I wouldn't be so sure…."
"Fight, fight, fight," Wally started chanting quietly and Miss Martian giggled a little.
"Boys," Artemis cut in sharply. "Stop being boys and let's go."
"Is Batgirl here yet?" Robin asked, stepping around Superboy, who was smiling just the tiniest bit.
"Am now." Batgirl marched into the hanger, her black and purple suit on and her cowl pulled over her face. She gave Robin a small smile as she passed him and he winked at her in return.
The Team boarded the bioship and took their places inside, the two canines commanded to 'stay' back in the hanger. Robin was a little surprised Ace was at the Mountain in the first place, but figured Batman must have sent him with Batgirl. Probably another one of the man's overprotective quirks.
As Miss Martian put the bioship into drive (or whatever the 'forward' gear was called) it suddenly hit Robin that this was his first mission back. A first mission he'd never thought he'd have. Being in the bioship, feeling the familiar feeling of weightlessness as they took off; it was… a relief, almost. A reassurance that no, Robin wouldn't be stuck the rest of his life limping around the Manor, aimlessly living his life with nothing to do except attempt to read a book or watch TV until his head hurt. Again. He was free once more, unconfined by any chains and able to do what he wanted. Robin smiled a bit.
"We should have a party!" Kid Flash suddenly blurted out and everyone looked up. "It's Rob's first mission back so we should celebrate!"
Miss Martian squealed, almost losing control of the ship. "That's a great idea, Wally!"
"I mean, it's almost a party for us, too," Kid Flash went on, crossing his legs and resting his hands behind his head. "You know, finally getting missions again."
"Wait," Robin sat up, looking around the bioship. "You guys didn't get missions while I was gone?"
"Some," Aqualad replied. "But Batman was often busy in Gotham or with you. And any missions we received from the rest of the League…."
"Were lame," Kid Flash finished.
"I actually agree with Flashy on that one," Batgirl sighed.
Robin frowned; why hadn't anyone told him? Artemis had hardly even mentioned the Team to him, Batgirl had kept mostly to herself too, probably not wanting to rub in the fact that she'd essentially replaced him on the Team and Wally… well, he always complained. "Sorry, guys," Robin finally said. "I had no idea."
"It's not your fault," Miss Martian quickly put in.
"They are exaggerating," Superboy added. "We had a few good missions."
"Like the one to Bialya!" Miss Martian beamed.
"I heard about that one," Robin smirked a bit. "Wanna tell me about it?" That had been the night that started it all….
"Well," Miss Martian began, practically glowing with… excitement? "We, that is, the Team and some of the League, flew to Bialya in the dead of night to thwart a kidnapping plan by the Injustice League. They'd recently escaped, by the way," the green girl added.
"A kidnapping plan?" Robin repeated, surprised. Batman had told him very little, if anything, about what the mission had consisted of (most of the time post-mission had been spent scolding him for sneaking out), and all he knew of it was from what he'd managed to weasel out of Artemis and Wally.
"Yeah, with that kid, Garfield, from last time." Superboy didn't seem very interested in the conversation, but Robin could feel the clone's eyes on him all the same.
"Garfield Logan?" The boy asked, looking over to meet Superboy's gaze.
"The one and only," Batgirl grumbled.
"He's really annoying," Artemis muttered to Robin.
"Yes," Aqualad cut in with a glare in both girls' directions. "It seems that when Miss Martian gave him a blood transfusion, that wasn't all she gave him. The Injustice League discovered his powers and when his mother passed away, they moved in to… kidnap him and presumably use him to their advantage."
"What can he do?" Robin asked, trying not to feel annoyed he hadn't heard about this new, supposedly superpowered kid.
"He shape shifts," Kid Flash answered. "It's pretty cool. His skin's green now and he can turn into any animal he wants."
"Wow," Robin breathed.
"And now he thinks of me as his sister!" Miss Martian beamed. "At first I was really upset because I did this to him, but he doesn't blame me at all! Actually, he really likes his powers. And I've always wanted a little brother."
Robin nodded, attempting a smile. It was his fault the kid had ended up like he had. "How did his mom die?" He asked, turning to look at Aqualad.
"A car crash," the Atlantean replied. "She lost control of her vehicle and drove into a waterfall."
Robin nodded again. Poor kid…. He knew what it was like to lose parents and then be sucked into the crazy world of heroes. Hopefully the boy was doing okay….
The Team rode in silence for a while, each presumably caught up in their own heads, thinking through whatever snare they'd gotten tangled in the past week, month, year. Robin gazed out the window, slouching back in his seat a bit in attempt to get more comfortable. He could feel the atmosphere like it was jello; thick, wobbly, and sticky if broken. Unasked questions floated through the air, together casting a menacing shadow on the Boy Wonder over which they flocked.
The Team knew virtually nothing about what Robin had been doing the past year, aside from the time he'd spent kidnapped. After Batman had sent them news that Robin was safe again, all communication stopped. Any attempts at bridging the gap were thwarted from both ends. The rest of the young heroes knew that Robin had been gravely injured and that was it. They were told he wasn't returning to the field, but nothing more. On the flipside, Robin had no idea what the Team had been up to during his absence and any questions regarding the subject were sidestepped, backtracked, or openly avoided by his Wally, Artemis, Barbara and Bruce. It was enough to create a massive information gap that threatened to suck everyone inside if it wasn't filled fast.
And it wasn't just Kaldur, M'gann, and Conner in the dark. Artemis and Wally, while knowing Robin had started training again, had been taken completely unawares by Robin actually accompanying them on the mission. Robin could practically see Kid Flash restraining his mouth from blurting out question after question. Artemis was slouching in her seat and looking moodily out the window, but Robin saw her occasional longing glances thrown his way. She had just as many questions as her boyfriend, if not more. Barbara was the only one who knew the whole story, from both ends, and Robin could see the smugness in the very way she sat.
Outside the weather started changing as the Smokey Mountains came into view. Shaggy peaks of brown and white, jutting out of the Earth almost rudely. The sight was fascinating to Robin; while touring the country (and world) with Haly's Circus he'd seen many mountain ranges and spent many nights camped out on their doorsteps. His parents had always told stories about the mountains; about creatures that haunted their untraversed depths, preying on lost travelers and eating all sorts of nasty concoctions. The snowy peaks enraptured Robin, calling him to explore their heights and caverns as well as sending fear shivering through his bones. It was a complicated relationship, to be sure, but an exciting one and Robin felt the adrenaline begin to course through his body as the bioship got closer and closer to the giants.
"We're almost there," Miss Martian announced, her attention fully focused on keeping the ship on course as the wind began to pick up. "Cheshire's plane was spotted going down right on the edge of the mountains."
Robin saw Artemis scowl a bit at the mention of her sister and the older girl's potential plane crash.
Less than five minutes later, Miss Martian was carefully landing the bioship in a small mountain clearing on the edge of the range. It was shaped like a bowl, mountains rising up on all sides, and a smoking plane dominated the center of the bowl. Robin watched as Artemis first spotted the wreck and then refused to take her eyes off of the charred remains of the plane.
"Alright, Team," Aqualad said, calling the young heroes into a circle once the bioship had landed. "We are here for recon only-"
"Of course," Kid Flash muttered.
"To investigate the wreckage and determine if there are any survivors," Aqualad finished with a stern look at the speedster.
"And," the boy continued, oblivious of the look. "Cheshire was spotted with a case, a very important case, so we should look for that too."
Artemis narrowed her eyes and Robin gave her a questioning look. She scowled at him and the acrobat took it to mean that they would discuss it later.
"Um, before we head out," Batgirl spoke up. "Does anyone else think it's weird Batman sent on this big of a mission – alone? I mean, I know that he's dealing with Sportsmaster and Luthor and the big baddies, but still…." The girl trailed off, looking contemplative.
"Hey, these are the types of missions we used to get," Kid Flash replied with a wide grin. "Back when Rob was on the Team. Hate to break it to you, babe, but you joined during a dry spell."
"Don't call me 'babe'," Batgirl snapped and Artemis gave her boyfriend a look.
"Kid Flash is right," Aqualad sighed. "This is the caliber of missions we were used to."
"And deserve," Artemis added.
Robin bit his lip, not meeting anyone's eyes. He knew they weren't intentionally trying to blame him, but he couldn't help but feel bad about it. And a little defensive. It wasn't his fault, it was Batman's. The man obviously wasn't very involved with the Team during Robin's absence and that left the rest of the League to dole out the missions. Unfortunately, it sounded like the Leaguers willing to step into the Bat's shoes were not nearly as trusting, or perhaps didn't have nearly as much influence, as the Dark Knight, leaving the Team with crappy missions and wasted time, from the sound of it.
Robin looked up and found that the rest of the heroes were heading out into the snow, their discussion apparently over. The boy followed, putting his thoughts behind him like he'd been trained and focusing on the mission at hand. Now was his chance to prove himself and not the time to mess up.
Proving himself…. That was part of what had gotten him into all this trouble in the first place. First it was proving to the League that the sidekicks couldn't just be pushed around and deserved to act on their own. Then it was proving to Batman that he could take care of himself and didn't need to be protected twenty-four-seven. Proving that he deserved respect from the man he thought of as a father and proving that he wasn't afraid of the men after his body. It was stupid, all of it. If anything, he'd proved the complete opposite of what he'd set out to prove. He couldn't take care of himself, he needed protection, desperately, and he was afraid of the men after him – deathly afraid. And yet, here he was, back out in the field, away from Batman's side, once again given the chance to prove he could handle it. Given the chance by the very man he'd failed to impress.
As Robin stepped out into the snow, hearing the sound of it crunch beneath his feet, he figured that he'd always feel like he had to prove himself to Batman in one way or another. The man was a legend, untouchable, and Robin figured he would never add up. And yet the legend wasn't really nearly as untouchable as the boy had always thought. Despite feeling that overwhelming need to prove that he was worthy of belonging with the Shadow of Gotham, it wasn't really as urgent as his mind made him think. Somehow, in some way, he'd already proved himself to Batman and to Bruce Wayne. The man was giving him a second chance (okay, more like a fifth chance or something) and in all honesty, the Bat had never even asked for proof that he was right in doing so.
"Wow, looks like Chesh went down pretty hard," Kid Flash mumbled and Robin turned his attention the charred aircraft in front of him. Wally was right, it did look bad. The plane had nosedived into a small pile of boulders and had split in half, the right wing falling off and the entire front of the plane smashed like an aluminum can.
"There aren't any signs of life inside the plane," Superboy stated, circling slowly around the wreck.
"I don't see any bodies," Batgirl called from a few yards away.
"Neither do I," Miss Martian said from her vantage point a few feet in the air above the Team's heads.
"Looking for something?"
Robin turned to see Cheshire standing at a gap in the bowl, a metal case in one hand, her mask grinning malevolently. The Team was gathered together in a second, hands raised in fists, eyes glowing green (or, two of the eyes, anyway).
"So much for recon," Kid Flash laughed. "As usual."
"Please." Cheshire let out a small laugh, her free hand going to rest on her hips. "Like I would come alone."
"I am flora, not fauna. I am foliage, not trees. What am I?"
Robin's eyes shot to the figure standing on the rim of the bowl; green suit, purple tie, and hideous sideburns.
"Come on, it's not that hard," The Riddler smiled. "I'm shrubbery, not grass, what am I? I-"
"Am bush," Robin muttered and the Team turned to look at him just as the entire bowl started shaking. Seven pairs of eyes quickly found the source of the disturbance as twelve foot tall pylons burst out of the top of the mountains that made up the bowl. The large balls on top sparked to life and a green energy shield stretched across the top of the bowl, successfully trapping the Team and the villains. Mammoth and Shimmer, two villains Robin hadn't seen or heard of in a long time, as well as masked goons with long spears dotted the ridge of the bowl with Riddler.
"Team, be ready," Aqualad ordered and twelve eyes narrowed in acknowledgment. "Miss Martian, hook us up."
"Done."
Robin wasn't sure whether to smile or grimace at the familiar feeling of Miss Martian's voice inside of his head again, but was saved the trouble of deciding as the enemy took that moment to descend from its perch and start the attack.
Superboy immediately went for Mammoth, a sudden intensity overtaking the clone the Robin had never seen before. Batgirl went to join him, but was nearly immediately distracted by two of the spear wielding white-masked snow-men (not like the kind made snow; just men dressed for the snow). Miss Martian flew towards the Riddler who was still perched on the edge of the mountains and Aqualad summoned a large shield of water and followed. Kid Flash went to superspeed and headed for Shimmer, leaving Artemis and Robin with Cheshire.
Robin launched himself over a charging snow-man, kicking the goon's head as he sailed over it and landing flawlessly, first on his right leg and then following through lightly with his left. The man went down, groaning a bit, but otherwise making no move to rise. His buddy was close behind and Robin narrowly avoided a spear to the face. He ducked, going low and tackling the man to ground. Before the goon could respond, the acrobat nailed him in the side of the head and he was out for the count.
Looking up, Robin saw Artemis battling her way through more snow-men to where her sister stood perched on the wreckage of the plane. The girl's movements were fierce and calculated, her blows hard and potentially deadly. Robin knew that something had happened between the two sisters; one minute Jade was dating Roy and the next she was chummy with her father again; but there had to be more to the story. Artemis knew Jade was bad news, no matter who she chose to make-out with.
Superboy flew overhead, his battle cry echoing around the bowl as he dove at Mammoth. Batgirl was busy annoying the beast, flipping around his head and – wait, Superboy flew?
"Supes, you're… flying!" Robin exclaimed over the mind-link, wondering if this was another development he'd missed during his extended absence. "Did I miss this too?"
"Not… exactly," the clone responded with hesitation.
Robin narrowed his eyes at Superboy's response but didn't respond. Two more snow-men were advancing on him. With a kick, Robin was up in a one-handed handstand, spinning around his hand like an axis and nailing the two goons with splayed legs. One was out cold, but the other tried to retaliate, jabbing sharply at the acrobat with his jagged spear. The point of the weapon caught Robin's cape and the boy flipped backwards and away from the man, unclasping his cape as he went and letting it whip back in the enemies face. With another kick the man was on the ground next to his compatriot.
Cheshire was now unguarded, still lording over the battle from her throne of the old plane. Robin tossed a handful of smoke pellets behind him as a snow-man tried to make an advance and raced towards the sister of his best friend. Artemis was closing in from the opposite end of the plane and when she saw Robin she yelled:
"I can handle this!"
Robin groaned, leaping over a boulder. "C'mon, let me have some fun too!" He joked, dodging a flying (and this time not of the clone's own volition) Superboy. "I've been out for way too long; I deserve some action!"
"Yes, let the boy join, Sis," Cheshire laughed. "You always did need some lessons in humility."
"Robin, let me handle this," Artemis hissed over the link. "This… is personal."
"Exactly why I should join you," Robin replied.
They reached Cheshire at the same time. The assassin easily dodged both of their initial projectiles with ease, flipping down from the top of the plane and coming to rest in the snow surrounding the wreckage. Robin went low, aiming a kick at the girl's stomach and Artemis went high, aiming for the chest. Cheshire blocked Robin kick and spun him away from her and dodged her sister's punch, turning and sending an elbow at Artemis's face.
The archer ducked, jabbing the end of her bow at the older girl's side. Robin sent three batarangs flying at their opponent, one succeeding in chopping through the assassin's hair while the other two were avoided. Cheshire landed a solid kick in Artemis's midsection and the girl landed in the snow with a huff. Robin narrowly dodged an attack to his blind spot, only to receive a vicious blow to his bad knee.
The excess padding as well as the high-tech brace encasing his knee absorbed the brunt of the blow, but Robin still felt the pain reverberate through his abused appendage and up his body. He collapsed to one knee in the snow, ruefully rubbing the injured area. Artemis was back on her feet and exchanging blows with Cheshire again and she sent Robin a brief, concerned glance.
When the glance got her a kick to the neck, Robin was on his feet again, escrima sticks in both hands. He struck a solid hit to Cheshire's shoulder blades and another to her arm as she turned to punch him in the side. Artemis was back with a side-kick to her sister's hip and Robin was about to attempt a flip onto the assassin's shoulders when a Mammoth sent flying by Superboy collided with all three combatants and sent them crashing to the ground at the foot of the mountains.
Robin blinked, dazed. He lay ten feet from Artemis and Cheshire, his back resting against the cool stone of the mountain looming above him. Looming and… moving? As Robin's senses began to return he became aware of a loud… ripping sound accompanied by grinding rock and then a thunderous crashing. Focusing his disoriented eyes, Robin watched as the mountain above him came tumbling down on top of him.
oOo
Artemis groaned, striking out with her foot in an attempt to kick Jade somewhere before her sister could get her bearings again. Artemis could feel the cold snow riding up her shirt and soaking through her pants as she lay in the shadow of the bowl. Thankfully she hadn't struck any rocks on her way down and she felt mostly unharmed. When her foot collided with air, Artemis tried to sit up, swiveling her head desperately to find Cheshire before the older girl found her first. And then the mountain started moving.
Artemis looked up and saw Superboy hammering on Mammoth, breaking off a large chunk of the mountain in the process and creating an avalanche of snow and rock. Which was currently charging towards Artemis at full speed.
The archer shot to her feet, only to be assaulted by a wave of dizziness that nearly sent her toppling to her knees again. Suddenly a body slammed into her side, knocking both of them clear of the avalanche and back into the snow. Rubbing her head, Artemis sat up (again) and found Jade looking at her through the Cheshire cat mask.
"Wha-?" She asked, eyes wide as she stared back at her sister.
"I'm your sister, I don't actually want you dead," Jade sighed, her voice a little muffled from the solid material in front of her mouth. "If I did, I would have fought with these." She patted the katanas on her back.
"Then why did you betray me – and Mom?" Artemis retorted, rising to her feet and angrily crossing her arms as she glared at her sister.
"It's… a long story."
"If we duck behind the avalanche rubble no one will see us."
"Artemis, just trust me. I have to go-"
"No, you don't." Artemis grabbed Jade's arm roughly and deftly snatched the case from her distracted sister. "Tell me what's going on or I destroy this."
"You should anyway," Jade retorted, yanking her arm back. "I only stole it from Mom to get on Dad's good side so he could get me into the Light."
"The Light?" Artemis raised an eyebrow.
"It's… complicated, but I think they have Roy under some type of mind control. He comes to me, not remembering where he's been for hours at a time and before I busted Dad out of prison I caught him with Lex Luthor and Queen Bee. He didn't recognize me, so I decided to get in with the Light to figure out what was going on and… to watch him."
"Don't suppose you were planning on giving this back, were you?" Artemis held up the case.
"I was, actually. I was hoping you would come after me today so I could drop it, accidently." And then Jade was gone.
Artemis looked around, trying to catch sight of where her sister had run off to, but she saw nothing. She held the case in her hand, her brain trying to catch up to what she'd just heard. Roy was under mind control? So Jade was undercover with the Light trying to figure out why. Or maybe just to watch out for her boyfriend's hide.
Turning back to the newly created pile of snow and rock, Artemis watched as Kid Flash slid down the side of the mountain before charging back up and nailing Shimmer in the face. Superboy and Batgirl were tying Mammoth up, Miss Martian and Aqualad were taking care of the rest of the snow-men and the Riddler was nowhere in sight. And neither was –
"Robin!" Artemis exclaimed over the mind-link, suddenly remembering that the boy had also been in the path of the avalanche.
"Under here, Artemis," Robin's voice replied and the archer scanned her eyes over the pile of snow. "I'm near the back, by the side of the mountain. There was a little cave thing and I rolled into it, but now I'm trapped."
Artemis snorted at the absurdity of the situation. At least he hadn't been crushed. "Hey, Supes, come here," Artemis thought to the clone and Superboy flew over. "Robin's trapped under the snow – can you dig him out?" She asked as he landed next to her.
"Yeah." And he got to work. In less than a minute he'd managed rip away enough of the boulders to reveal the small cave-like indention in the mountain that Robin was curled up in. The acrobat blinked rapidly as sunlight filtered in and Artemis reached down and took his hand, pulling him up and out of the hole.
"Sorry about that," Artemis sighed.
"It's no big deal, you only forgot about me after an avalanche buried me," Robin assured, giving her a light punch to the shoulder.
Artemis rolled her eyes. And then caught sight of a familiar flash of green and purple. "Riddler," Artemis hissed and Robin turned to look, catching sight of the villain as well. "Together?" The archer asked, picking up her bow from where it had fallen when Jade had knocked her away.
"Together," Robin nodded.
The two heroes charged forward, Artemis sending a series of trick arrows at the man and Robin whipping around batarangs. The Riddler was surprised at being caught as he tried to sneak away through a crack in the side of the bowl. Before the three were even engaged, Robin tossed a small handful of smoke pellets, followed by a bola and just like that, the Riddler was lying on the ground, his arms pinned to his sides and a disgruntled look on his face.
"Argh," he whined, twitching around in his binds. "I don't do straightjackets! I'm strictly Belle Reve, not Arkham!"
"Sorry?" Artemis muttered, letting her boot accidently kick the loony in the head.
Slowly the Team regrouped in the center of the bowl, Artemis still in possession of the case and three villains lying tied up a few feet away. They were all breathing heavily, excluding Miss Martian, who looked like she could win a beauty pageant (Artemis ruefully brushed her tangled, destroyed ponytail out of her face). Kid Flash was still vibrating slightly and Batgirl looked like she was still revving for a fight. Superboy was panting rather hard and looked a little shaky while Robin had a big grin on his face as he bounced from foot to foot. Aqualad was as calm as ever as he addressed the Team:
"Good work, Team," he said with a small smile, his hands resting on his hips. "We did good work here today. And Robin - it was good to have you back."
"I second that!" Kid Flash shouted.
Robin smirked. "Thanks guys, it's good to be back."
"Alright," Aqualade continued, back to business. "Superboy, Miss Martian, and I will load up Riddler, Shimmer, and Mammoth and Robin will start the bioship."
Everyone nodded and Artemis followed the Boy Wonder into the red ship, collapsing into her seat immediately. Robin took the pilots seat and started up the ship. He flashed a grin at Artemis and she returned it just as Kid Flash walked with Barbara. They both gave the two other heroes weird looks, but didn't say anything, taking their own seats in exhaustion.
The flight back to the Mountain was nearly silent, with Robin flying while Miss Martian rested in the back (apparently she'd gone through a lot of strain helping Superboy destroy the pylons that fueled the shield over the bowl). When they arrived back at the Mountain, Batman, Green Arrow, Red Tornado, and Black Canary were waiting in the main room. They seemed pleased with the Team's success as well and after congratulating them (something Robin said the man never did – ever) Batman took the case full of some type of bio-technology integrated with blah blah blah, and, with the rest of the Leaguers, left for the Watchtower to examine the contents more closely. He left no orders, and none of the Leagures even mentioned if they would be back soon.
So now the Team was lounging around the Mountain, the one's that lived elsewhere not knowing whether to return home or not. Batgirl and Robin had had some type of secret conversation about Batman and where he was going and whether they should return to the Batcave or wait for him at the Mountain, but when Kaldur, who announced that he should go and meet up with his King, tried to leave through the zeta-beams, they found that the entire Mountain had been shut down.
"The hangers locked too," M'gann announced, floating into the main room with Conner behind her.
"All the computers are down," Robin sighed, looking up from his gauntlet-computer. "And the signal on my comm is jammed. So is my phone."
"Great," Artemis sighed. "So we're stuck here until the League lets us out?"
"You think they locked us in here?" Batgirl asked, coming in from the kitchen where she'd been checking the electronics in there. Luckily for Wally, the fridge still worked.
"Yes… no… I don't know!" Artemis sighed. "There's really no reason why they would."
"Unless they don't want us crashing their League induction party!" Robin cackled. "How much you wanna bet it was Roy's idea?"
"Yeah, probably was," Wally laughed. "Hey!" The speedster suddenly exclaimed. "They never even told us how the mission went with Sportsmaster!"
"Yeah," Artemis growled. "And since the computers are shut down, we have no way of finding out."
"For now," Kaldur spoke. "We have no choice but to wait here for contact from the League. Hopefully someone will return to the Mountain soon and reactivate the zeta-beams."
"I'll keep trying to get into the computers," Robin said, pulling his gauntlet-computer back up.
"And I'll get food," Wally added.
After two and a half hours of nothing, Artemis was pacing around the cave. Batgirl had gone to the gym with Conner, M'gann was off either baking something or mentally trying to contact her uncle, Kaldur was in the control room or in the pool or in the gym or somewhere, and Robin and Wally were on the couch, probably playing video games while Robin tried to hack into the computers.
Artemis rounded the corner into the main room and was greeted by the sight of both Wally and Robin passed out on the couches. Wally was sprawled in all directions, his mouth open and a half-eaten chocolate bar in his hand. Robin was curled up against the armrest with Ace by feet, the boy's gauntlet-computer still up and casting a bluish light on his face as his head rested on his arm. Artemis actually wasn't positive he was asleep as she couldn't see his through his shades, but as his fingers weren't typing on his computer and he didn't move when Artemis approached him, it was still a pretty safe bet.
Most of the Team had changed out of their costumes after the first hour as sweaty spandex wasn't the most comfortable thing in the world. Robin was dressed in a pair of jeans and an oversize hoodie, still wearing his glove on his right hand. It doubled both as his computer and a convenient way to hide his semi-robotic arm from the rest of the Team. He had his bad leg stretched out to the side and Artemis figured it was probably sore; she'd seen Jade give it a pretty hard kick. He looked exhausted as he slept, his face pale and the scar, which, as Robin, went uncovered, stood out against the pallor of its background.
Running a hand through her recently-washed hair, Artemis silently tiptoed around the couch, carefully stepping over Ace who she really couldn't tell if he was sleeping or waiting to eat her, and sat down carefully next to Robin, leaving Wally to sprawl on his own couch. Kicking her feet up on the coffee table, the archer leaned back and let out a long breath, letting her head fall back on the couch cushions. She was just getting comfortable and maybe even considering letting her eyes fall shut when Robin started talking… or muttering, or something… in some other language. Artemis only managed to catch snippets of it in English.
"No… B-Bruce… p-please…."
The boy's voice was extremely quiet, but his face started screwing up with pain and fear. His hands weakly went up to attempt to cover his eyes and he continued to mumble and whimper. Ace sat up and immediately turned to look at his master. Artemis sat in stunned silence for a moment, unsure what to do. Obviously he was having some type of nightmare. When Robin began to thrash around, the archer shook herself out of her stupor and seized the boy's arms while Ace rested his head on the boy's leg and Artemis hoped the contact would wake him up.
It worked, but Robin panicked at the restraints imposed by Artemis's hands and started fighting against Artemis, kicking out at her with his good leg and trying to head-butt her.
"Robin, Robin, it's me!" Artemis hissed, pinning his flying leg with her own. Ace was still whining softly. "Robin – Dick, stop trying to kill me, it was only a dream!"
Robin froze at the sound of his real name and stopped struggling, focusing on Artemis and letting his body go limp. "S-sorry," he muttered, taking a shaky breath.
Artemis started to tell the boy that it was fine – she knew what nightmares were like – when the zeta-beam glowed to life.
"Recognized, Red Tornado, 16."
"The League," the robot stuttered, staggering into the Mountain. "The League are-" The monotone voice cut off and Red Tornado sputtered before sparking and going limp, frozen in the center of the Mountain.