A Week with the Batkids

Galaya

Yes, I am well aware that it was actually Robin's uncle who survived, but I really wanted it to be his cousin. It just seemed better for some reason. And also, since Romani isn't a written language, I'll use Romanian in its place.

Chapter Two: The Past - Saturday

(^o^)

The next morning, Robin was in the training room with his youngest brother. He was obviously holding back somewhat so as not to harm the four-year old, but not as much as his friends thought he should. But Damian didn't seem to be entirely outmatched. He was holding his own much better than people twice his age possibly could.

The Young Justice team- minus Wally, Roy, and Robin- watched the two Bats spar. Robin was obviously more acrobatic, but Dami was only four years old. The scowl on the young boy's face was so obviously something he had inherited from Batman. Not for the first time, they wondered what Robin's story was.

His second youngest brother, Tim, joined them, watching his brothers. "He's the only one of us Dami gets along with."

"What?" asked Artemis, not following the boy's words.

"Dick. He's the only one Dami gets along with."

"Hey, I didn't do anything to insult you!"

Tim blinked owlishly at her. "Er… Dick, as in Richard. Robin. That's his real name. Well, his first name. I would tell you his last name, but… Bats's orders."

"Wow, his real name is Dick?" Artemis grinned. "And I thought Wally had a bad name. Looks like we finally have some blackmail."

"He's immune to jokes about his name, just so you know. Or ethnicity. Or background. Well, kinda, for the last one. Mentioning his parents is a bit sore for him. I can understand why. I was there that day, and I didn't even know them, but it still gives me nightmares. I can only imagine how bad it is for Dick. 'Course, on overnight missions, he'll take a sort of modified sleeping medication so he doesn't get any nightmares. And he tries not to stay at the Cave overnight."

"So, how and why were all of you get adopted?" asked Kaldur.

"Well, Dami's not actually adopted, like Dick said. I'm not getting into the story of how he was born, but his mother was going to raise him to be an assassin, and Bats decided to take custody of him. As I recall, he was absolutely furious that such a young child would be forced into a life like that. No one really knows this, but Batman has a bit of a soft spot for kids."

"So, he's really the Batman's son? Wow. That's a bit unexpected. Who's his mother? Or can I not ask?"

Tim shrugged. "Well, it's not really a subject we're supposed to talk about. But his mom was in cahoots with Cadmus, which is how Damian was born. It's really a pretty weird story. We found out about him because his mother had a brief moment of conscience and told Bats about him."

"What about the rest of you?" wonder Artemis, looking genuinely curious.

"Well, about a month before we found out about Dami, Batman and Robin were fighting two assassins named David Cain and Lady Shiva, whom you've probably heard of. Robin went around back to find any other incriminating evidence for David Cain. He found Cass instead. I still remember how angry he was when he and bats came back. We were thinking he was about to tear out their throats for what they did to her. They were trying to turn her into the world's greatest assassin by depriving her of human contact, so she never really learned how to speak properly. Dick had issues with people being abandoned because of his experiences with the Social Services. According to Batman, he brought her out of their, took one look at Bats, and told him 'We're taking her into the family.'

"About three months before that, my parents were shot at a party. Dick was covering me so I didn't actually see it. And I'd known him since Bats adopted him, as we were neighbors. My parents often asked him to babysit me while they went off places, so Dick and I were pretty close. He asked Bats if they could adopt me. Like I said, he had a bad experience with the social services and hates it whenever they get custody of children.

"During Dick's second year as Robin, he got captured and tortured by Two-Face. While he was out of commission- and fired, temporarily, it's a long story of how he convinced Batman to let him fight crime again- Batman was out on patrol. When he got back to the Batmobile, he found Jason stealing the tires off the car. That part's kind of funny, really. Anyways, he was stealing the tires because his mom died of an overdose and his dad worked for Two-face, but disappeared suddenly and owed money. Bats decided to take Jason in, and Jason briefly filled Dick's position as Robin until Dick came back. Don't ask about what happened there."

M'gann looked rather troubled. "If that's what all of your pasts are like, I'm a bit nervous to know Robin's. Well, Dick's."

Tim nodded. "I know his past 'cause I witnessed part of it. But anyways, Dick's parents were trapeze artists. One of them was Romanian, the other was Romani. I don't remember which was which. But anyways, they lived in Romania. When Haly's Circus- yes, the same one he dragged you on a mission to without actually having gotten permission from Batman- came into Romania, his parents, aunt, and uncle auditioned for a place. During the audition, Dick's mom went into labor, so he was literally born in the circus. Jack Haly decided that was as much of a sign as any, so gave them the place. They were the best trapeze act in the world, Dick and his parents being the only people ever alive to be able to do a quad. That's actually how I figured out who Batman and Robin were. Yes, I did know before becoming part of the family.

"Anyways, they lived in the circus for eight years. When they came into Gotham, the day of the show, Dick raced into the big top, apparently, eager for practice. But he was stopped by a strange man, Tony Zucco, and his brothers. Zucco offered 'protection' in return for payment, really meaning he'd leave the circus alone if he was paid. But Dick's parents were strong people and refused. Dick called the cops, and the call was intercepted by Batman. Bats ended up taking down one of his brothers.

"Zucco felt that Dick's family was responsible, so he sabotaged the act. Dick was about to join the act when he hesitated and turned to look at the cables. They came off and Dick started screaming in Romani to his family as they fell. All of them died except for his cousin, who is in a coma. The doctors don't know if he'll wake up or not."

Tim fell silent after that. The Team watched their cheerful teammate spar with his youngest brother. They'd never have guessed that Robin had such a tragic past, not with how often he laughed and joked and pranked all of them. It was just too strange to think about. It didn't match up with his personality. Another thought struck Artemis.

"You kept on mentioning that he had a bad experience with the Social Services. What happened?" she inquired.

Tim shifted his weight nervously. "Well, there were no foster homes available, the orphanage was full, and Dick's half Romani so there's a bit of racism involved as well. They put him in the Juvenile Detention Center. Bats didn't found out for six months. When he did, he was beyond furious. He literally threatened to have numerous people jailed if they left Dick there for another day. Dick never talks about what happened, so I don't have a clue what went on in there. All I know is that it took Batman a whole month before he saw Dik smile once, and that was after they'd taken down Zucco, when Dick first took on the identity of Robin. Apparently, he chose that name to honor hi mother, who often called him 'her little Robin.'"

Silence once again fell over them as they watched the two Bats. Robin wasn't quite so mysterious anymore. Somehow, his backstory made him seem both more human and more immortal at the same time. Artemis had the easiest time accepting the story. He definitely was one of the strongest kids she knew. No, the strongest kid she knew. To come from that grinning and laughing and enjoying life showed that. She'd often wondered why a vigilante would have chosen such a cute name, but the sentiment behind it made it seem… there was no way of describing how it made it seem. Immortal? Honorable? No word quite fit it well enough.

As if the bird had figured out what they were talking about, he leapt into the air and preformed the trick Tim had spoken of, a quadruple flip. Watching their youngest friend, their was a newfound awe for the Bat. He'd been through a lot, yet was one of the most optimistic people they'd ever known, and ever would.

With his signature cackle, Robin landed in front of them and peeled off his mask, shocking his friends. Bright blue eyes sparkled with mischievousness, yet were darkened by a thin sheen of deep sadness. The result was odd, yet fit the bird well. He smiled slightly at them.

"So, I'm guessing Tim told you my backstory. I think you can understand now why I pressured Bats into letting me help him. I doubt I'd have been able to survive if I hadn't become Robin," Dick assumed.

"I never would have guessed your past was so terrible," Conner spoke up for the first time.

Dick shrugged. "Yeah, well, I hate being down. There's so much more to life. My family wouldn't want me to become bitter and depressed all the time just because they're gone. Well, I'm hungry. What's for lunch?"

They laughed, even Conner cracking a smile. Artemis cocked an eyebrow at the Boy Wonder, finally recognizing him as Dick Grayson from school. She elbowed him.

"We'll laugh about this someday," she muttered in his ear.

He turned to grin at her, cackling. "Yep!"

She shook her head in amusement. Dick's youngest brother walked up beside him, frowning.

"I still don't see what is so great about being able to reveal your identity," the four year old muttered, surprising the Team with his vocabulary. He scowled more at them. "Tt. Worthless idiots."

Dick glared in- rather fond- annoyance. "Be nice, Dami. This is my team, and they're all worthy of being here." He looked back up to his friends. "Sorry. Dami's a little… well, similar to Conner, in a way. Except not so much in attitude as past. Talia's a perfectionist, and tried to imbue all her ideals of perfection onto Dami. That left him with a lot of social problems."

"Yeah, there's a reason I call him the Demon Child, or-" Tim muttered, cutting off when Dick sent him a hard look.

Dick then bent down to pick up his youngest brother, who latched onto him, as he walked out of the training room. Tim glanced up at the Team.

"Damian actually likes Dick for some reason, and Dick's also really fond of him. Well, not overly so. He makes sure he gives all of us the same amount of attention," Tim said.

The Team and Tim nodded and followed Dick. They entered the kitchen, where M'gann immediately began making lunch. Dick simply worked to hide all of the knives, which made Dami give something suspiciously close to a pout, although he denied vehemently it when Dick mentioned it.

Jason came in grumbling about something or other while Cass walked quietly beside him. They ate lunch- which was sandwiches upon Dick's request. After the meal, Dick went to go change into civvies. The Team gave him weird looks when he walked out, because he had a scarf wrapped around his neck even though it wasn't that cold. He just shrugged and grinned in response.

He walked over to the TV and politely asked Conner if they could change the channel to something a bit more exciting than static. Conner just shrugged, raising an eyebrow as Damian studied him. Apparently, the kid decided he was okay, because he sat down on the couch beside the clone and made no disrespectful comments. This appeared to shock all of his siblings, except Dick, who just smiled, explaining that it was probably because they were both created as weapons, but ultimately chose the path of a hero. Damian had never had anyone who could relate to that before.

They ended up turning on a kid-friendly movie. Although, since the kids were Gothamites and Bats, they didn't chose one that was recommended for their age. Damian drifted off about halfway through. By that point, he'd already managed to shift into his oldest brother's lap unconsciously. Dick didn't rally seem to notice.

After the movie, Dick carried Damian back to his room and put him in the spare bed. The rest of the day passed quietly. When training rolled around, all the Bats- excluding Dami- showed up. The Team was a little nervous about the kids practicing with them, but chose not to question it after seeing Robin spar with Dami earlier that day. Even Black Canary was impressed with the Batkids, although Tim certainly needed work. His siblings laughed at that.

Robin gave a teasing grin to the younger boy. "He'll get it eventually. But sometimes, we swear he was replaced with a robot at birth. You know how good at hacking I am, right? Tim's ten times better. And that's not exactly an exaggeration. He's the thinker of the Batfamily, even more than Batman himself. Sure, I'm smart, but Tim's a genius. It's unfortunate the schools won't bump him up a few grades."

"You're the one who says Tim is a robot, because you're jealous," remarked Jason.

"And why would I be jealous? I'm Robin."

"Yeah, yeah, whatever Gypsy Boy."

"Wait, gypsy?" Artemis queried.

Robin gave a sheepish smile. "Yeah, like Tim said earlier- well, mostly said- I'm half Romani Gypsy. I get a lot of trash talk for it, so I usually try to hide it a bit. And Bats likes for me to blend in as much as possible. Although, sometimes it's nice to go with the traditional styles, like the scarf. That's what I grew up with. And it's why I like messing around with words. English is the second hardest Earth language to learn. And my tutor kind of skimmed over the importance of prefixes."

"So, in your civilian identity, do you ever practice your acrobatics?"

"Well, yeah. I mean, if someone were to find out that I am still so… uh… graceful, I guess, it'd be a lot easier to explain if I publicly continued my acrobatics. Hiding in plain sight, you could say. 'Cause everyone assumes that your secret identity will be the exact opposite of what your like in costume- like what Bats does. Having Bats act the complete opposite but me almost identical actually helps, because it's confusing."

Dick then turned to Jason. "Hey, Jay, feel like goin' on patrol tonight? Of course, the Team will come also, but want to join us?"

"Are you sure it's wise to bring an eleven year old with us?" questioned Kaldur.

Robin just shrugged. "I was fighting crime in Gotham when I was nine, and Jason filled in for me a few years ago. We just have to find another identity for him- which he's still in the process of working on. And that's till only if we really run into trouble and he has to give a name. I'd bring Tim and Cass as well… Actually, I might bring Tim. Cass can keep an eye on Dami, but I don't want Tim getting hurt."

"Wait, I get to come?" Tim brightened up, looking like it was the best day of his life. "I haven't gone on a single mission yet!"

"And it's just a simple patrol. If there's trouble, you're staying back, because I don't want you getting hurt."

"Yes!"

Robin shook his head, laughing. "Just go get into costume, both of you. And tell Cass that she needs to keep an eye on Dami. Jay does it tomorrow, then I think Conner, since Dami accepts him. And I might ask Selina. Well, if Bats says it's alright for her to come here."

"Why wouldn't he?" asked Jason rhetorically. "I don't know about you, but I'm still waiting for one of them to ask the question. You know."

"Yes, I know, just don't mention it to Bats. Now go change!"

The two bats didn't need telling twice as they raced to their temporary rooms. When they came running out a few minutes later, Tim was wearing a modified version of Robin's costume with much more red and Jason was wearing a leather jacket and long, loose black pants that allowed for more movement. Both were wearing red domino masks, unlike Robin's own black one. Cass followed them, looking a little disappointed to not be going with, but seemed to accept it after a silent conversation with Robin. That left the Tem wondering just how well the Bats could read other people, if it was that easy to hold a conversation amongst themselves with no words.

Robin, realizing what they were wondering, explained that reading body language was practically Cass's first language, and that they'd actually had to ask Martian Manhunter for help to get her to be able to understand English.

They entered the dark streets of Gotham. It was a fairly quiet night, with nothing much appearing to happen. The three Bats began idly chatting as they swung from roof to roof, talking about things as random as the color of people's shoelaces. It was surreal to the Team at just how comfortable even Tim was with the death-defying acts of how they traversed Gotham.

At some point, Robin got to talking about how he'd discovered that Batman was part of the Justice League. The story had everyone laughing, although Wally seemed hurt- jokingly- when he heard that Robin was already well aware of the Watchtower long before Independence Day, and had actually seen it during an invasion from a synthetic alien race known as the Joining.

However, peace was broken when they notice a spotlight in the sky with a negative bat in the middle. Robin changed direction and picked up the pace, heading for the Batsignal's origin point. They dropped into the streets warily, with Tim stuck in the middle of the group for maximum protection.

A strange man dressed in a tuxedo and a top hat rounded the corner. He saw the Team and halted, eyes widening.

"Uh oh," he murmured, before taking off in the opposite direction.

Robin smiled and flipped over the villain's head to land in font of him. "What'd you do this time, Penguin? Try to form another team to steal yet another bird statue, ultimately only annoying your 'teammates' in the process?"

"None of your business, Boy Blunder!" Penguin replied. "I will be the one defeat you! And then no one will underestimate the Penguin again!"

"You know, Ozzie, all I think of when I see you is how you humiliated yourself during the incident with Rumor. I mean, what kind of villain begs to be arrested? I mean, yeah, Rumor was going to kill ever super villain in Gotham, but still. That was just asterous."

Penguin pulled out his umbrella, holding it like a weapon. "That was years ago!"

But the umbrella was knocked from his grasp by a birdarang thrown by Tim. The villain turned around, shocked, to look at the younger Bat.

"Who're you?" he demanded, beginning to look a bit afraid.

"Uh, I'm, uh…" Tim thought, trying to come up with a good name. "Uh, Red… Red Robin! Yeah…"

"Let's just tie him up already," Jason grumbled, pulling out his grappling hook, using the cable to tie Penguin's hands together.

Robin gave his brother a proud look before grinning at Penguin. "See you around sometime, Ozzie! Although, if you're so afraid of heroes and antiheroes, maybe you should actually consider staying in jail!"

"Ozzie?" Artemis whispered in Tim's ear.

"Yeah. His real name is Oswald Cobble pot, but Rob likes to call him Ozzie, because he thinks it sounds funny. But that's Robin and his horribly lame jokes for you."

Robin gave his signature cackle, disappearing into the night. The Team just followed his brothers, hoping they had some inclination of where he'd disappeared off to. This would be a long, but fun, week.

(^o^)

Well, that was fun to write. Better than my week, definitely. Tuesday, a wasp gets in my sweatshirt sleeve, so when I go outside, I get stung. Luckily, I don't appear to have any allergies. Well, unless you count mosquitoes, but who isn't allergic to mosquitoes? Then on Wednesday, I roll my- still recovering from a 2nd to 3rd degree sprain in April- ankle. Then, Thursday evening, I was jumping on the trampoline and a spring had to break and hit my head at the least twenty miles per hour from only like three feet away, if even. Then today, I was on the trampoline again and I stepped to close to the edge, resulting in me rolling my ankle again! And it didn't hurt until hours later when it swelled up so badly even flexing my toes or straightening out my leg- don't know why the latter- hurt like heck. So, yeah, this week hates me. Except for the fact that I'm finally on the sixth chapter of rewriting my book! Impressive (sarcasm). Anyways, review? (Maybe that would make my week better…)