A very very grumpy Robin was swinging through the city, trying to calm his mind before he Zeta'd out to Mount Justice.

Stupid Bat. Stupid mystery drive. Stupid sedation.

Prost totul (Stupid everything)!

How dare Bruce go to Belle Rêve and not take him with? League business' his ass, the fool hadn't turned off his tracker. Dick knew full and well where he was the whole time. He even got Alfie to lie to him! That has got to count as a sin on some level!

And not only did both of them lie to him and take him as an idiot, now he won't even tell him what it was all about! The stubborn fool even went as far as to code lock the damn file history on the batcomputer just so Dick wouldn't be able to find out what he looked at.

Ce pusca mea! (what the fuck)

How was any of this fair!

Even now they were still treating him like a dumb child! "HeAd HoMe, YoU'rE dIsTrAcTeD." Dick mocked in his thoughts. No shit sherlock, they were hiding stuff from him after sedating him! Like who does that? He was already going to sleep after, there was no need for that if you asked him. Not like they bothered to ask anyway.

"We checked the cameras, Dick. There wasn't anything there."

"Are you sure you weren't just seeing things from exhaustion, young master?"

Well then they got hacked somehow! He knows what he saw! He would bet his left leg that there was some trickery involved that made them not see the literal glowing green furball. Even volunteering to take Wonder Woman's lasso for a spin wasn't enough for the adults to believe him. "Oh BuT tHe CaMeRaS" DECI CE (SO WHAT)?! They had no right to claim he was just imagining things! Câinele a fost acolo, la naiba (the dog was there, damn it)! They already have proof the câine (dog) can influence tech, was it really that far of a reach that their cameras just couldn't pick up on it?

They hadn't even gotten a chance to investigate Belle Rêve before they decided to violate his rights, so who are they to say their stupid tech was more believable than Dick's own memories. Ridiculous, utterly ridiculous! He had a missing brother and a trippy little dog to deal with but they were more concerned with his 'mental health'. What mental health? Why would his mental be healthy when his brother was in the most secured prison in the country!

UGH

Of course he wouldn't be fully paying attention! Who would when all of that was going on! It wasn't his fault he didn't see the goon sneak up on him. Batman didn't need to save him, the man chose to do that all on his own. Why was Robin being punished for another person's choices! This had to be some sort of violation of his rights, right? Surely there had to be something he could hold over Bruce's head next time.

Still halfway grumbling to himself, he reached the roof next to the alley where the Gotham City zeta tube was hidden. He looked around to see if the coast was clear when he saw Artemis walk up to it. The girl looked quite nervous and unsure of what to do. Was this her first time zeta-ing in from Gotham after her school transfer?

Ducă-se. (screw it)

Carefully he slipped down to try and scare her. Right as she least expected it he popped out from behind the broken phone booth. "Artemis?" He did his best to sound like his usual, somewhat cocky self. The gremlin in him enjoyed how the green clad heroine jumped slightly at his sudden appearance.

"Robin!" She nervously stuttered, "I-um." Robin decided to have some fun and be a bit of a menace before meeting up with the others. "Random that you are in Gotham City, instead of Star City where your uncle Green Arrow lives." Should anybody ask, he took no enjoyment in watching his teammate nervously squirm while trying to find a cover story on the fly. Of course he already knew she lived here with her mom, but she didn't know he knew so why not have some fun with it.

The poor victim-girl, the poor girl stammered as she tried to answer the young Bat. "I'm uhhm here to um see my cousin! She... was in the state spelling bee. Here. In Gotham." Dick was trying to hide an honest smirk as he saw right through that poor excuse of a cover. Still he had to hand it to her that it might have fooled anybody that wasn't already in the know or looking for the signs of a lie. Maybe he should recommend some improv classes to Oliver so he can help her improve for the real deal.

Still, being the gremlin he is and somewhat surprised at how easily it was for him to get properly distracted for once, he decided to play along. Totally not to make her suffer more. Totally not. "C-O-O-L. Did she W-I-N?" The voice in his head begged him to spell it out, of course he had to comply.

The look on the archer's face immediately dropped to a rather unimpressed stare as she blankly answered. "N-O."

Dick tried very hard to not laugh at her attitude change. The smirk on his face intensified just a bit at her annoyance and slight glare. "D-R-E-G." The smirk faltered just a bit when, instead of looking at him even more annoyedly, she was confused. Did she not know what drag meant? Well her first language might have been Vietnamese so maybe some kind of translation issue?

"What?"

Artemis looked at him as if he had said the weirdest thing ever. He was half tempted to check if he had grown a second head with how she was eyeing him. "Did you mean drag?"

Now it was Robin's turn to look confused. Wasn't that what he had said?

Picking up on his confusion, Artemis clarified. "D-R-A-G. You said E, not A." Both teens kept staring at each other as Robin still didn't seem to grasp what he had said wrong. He knows how to spell, he knows he said drag.

Maybe Batman was right about him not having his head in the game tonight?

Slightly shaking his head, Robin smirked back at her like nothing happened. If he acts like it didn't happen, then it didn't. That is the logic we're rolling with today. Clearing his throat to rid himself of the awkwardness he stepped forward. "Yeah, let's just go to the cave." Luckily for him, Artemis stepped out of his way, gesturing for him to go first.

Before Dick even fully materialized in Mount Justice, he could immediately tell something was off. Unusual heat gave way as his eyes laid upon the hangar being encased in smoke and flames. He yelled out to his teammates but none of them responded. Behind him he could hear Artemis' code being called out as she too materialized into the chaos.

He could faintly see unnatural movement from the smoke and figured the assailant must be hiding within the fire. Prepping some batarangs, he threw them out before yelling at Artemis to dodge the incoming fire ball.

Both teens started attacking the direction from where the fire blasts came from. The only sign they had that it hit their target was a dull metallic sound as the batarangs connected. As they dodged yet another blast, two humanoid shapes started coming forth in the smoke.

"Who are we fighting?" Artemis growled out as she notched another arrow. Robin walked closer to her to keep a distance between him and the figures. "Don't know. But we're sitting ducks here by these tubes. Head for the exit!" Barely finishing his sentence, Robin already started running towards the docking bay.

A pillar of fire blasted towards them as they narrowly avoided becoming roast duck themselves. As they entered the tunnel, a rogue wave of water blocked the way forward. "Or not." Robin snarked before the two of them were hit and dragged along. The water pushed them hard against the opposite wall, knocking the air out of their lungs as they fell back to the ground.

With no time to waste, they ran off again to dodge even more fire blasts. Running down a different hallway that led deeper into the mountain, they only just managed to make it in before a freak fire tornado reached them.

Running through the gym rooms, Robin tries to comm in to his friends. "Robin to team." He called out, "Come in! Aqualad!" Frustratingly he got no answer. While he was doing that, Artemis tried to telepathically call out to M'gann with just as much luck as Robin had.

Somehow the fire whirl had caught up to them and blasted through the gym doors, knocking both of then to the ground yet again. Scrambling back up before the fire overtook them, the teens rushed over to the other side of the room. "Robin to BatCave, override R-G-4." Running through the adjacent rooms, Robin tried desperately to reach out to anybody. "Cave calling Justice League H-O-G / Watch Tower. B 0 1, priority red!" They rushed to the showers and started twisting them all open. "Comm is down. Blocked." He informed Artemis as they grouped together in the middle of the open showers.

"At least the water's helping."

As if the karma gods up above had a persona l vendetta against him, the pipelines in the showers started groaning as pressure rapidly built up. Showerheads started flying off as water spewed out of the wall. "Or not." He mumbled to himself as now the room was quickly flooding. Within seconds the pair was completely underwater as the liquid seemed contained to this one area. Swimming out of it was also not quite an option as the only exit was still blocked by the fire tornado that didn't seem to disparate.

Pulling out some more batarangs, Robin swam towards a wall and set them off to explode, effectively creating a new exit for them before they drowned. The water flooded back out as the teens caught their breath on the floor. Really, at this point the floor was becoming a second home to them.

Not ones to waste too much time, they quickly ran down the hall and entered the kitchen. "We need to get lost, fast." Robin warned as he looked for possible escape routes. "The air vent!" Artemis called out, perhaps a bit too loudly, as she ran over to the big vent over the stovetop. Robin stayed back just a little bit to connect his wrist computer to the panel on the wall next to him.

"What are you-"

"Downloading Cave blueprints. Could come in-" Robin cut himself off as he heard footsteps closing in. Disconnecting, he rushed over to where Artemis was and quickly jumped into the vent behind her. Not a second too late as a blaze of fire shot through right after they turned a corner.

Breathing a sigh of relief, Robin continued to guide Artemis through the vents until they popped out in the old boiler room.

Just as they reached the lower level, fire shot out of the vent they were in just a few seconds before. Within the flames they saw a humanoid figure rise up. Before it could spot them, the pair quickly ducked behind one of the massive boilers. The being commanded more fire to fill up the room, causing the pressure gauges on the boilers to rapidly approach dangerous levels.

Robin coughed as smoke surrounded them. Visibility was nearing zero as it became hard to breathe. Behind him, he was vaguely aware Artemis was also struggling. Brain a total mess, and disoriented from the chaos of tonight, the boy wonder couldn't remember where the escape hatch was. He tried to pull up the blueprint but he couldn't see the screen clearly as smoke enveloped them completely.

Echoing throughout the room were heavy footsteps and fire blasts that seemed to be getting closer and closer.

Dropping to their knees to stay out of the smoke as much as they can, the heroes started to panic. Artemis tried to notch an arrow and aim for their attacker, but she could barely keep her hand steady as oxygen levels were dropping fast. Absolutely adding no assistance at all, pipes around them started to burst as now steam also started to fill up the room.

Robin could feel his eyes blur as the smoke stung his eyes. He tried his best to feel on the ground for where the hatch was but was unsuccessful. Through all the alarms and burst pipes, Robin swore he could hear the faintest little bark. Maybe he had imagined it?

Again he heard a little bark, ever so slightly louder this time. Forcing himself to open his eyes again, the boy saw a bright green smudge just a little bit in front of him. Unsure if his eyes were playing tricks on him, he shuffled closer and tried to reach out to the smudge.

When his hand wafted through the smoke and vapor, the smudge disappeared. Defeated, he dropped his hand to the ground again.

Only

He found the hatch!

Making sure his foot was over the hatch cover, he stretched out to tug Artemis towards it. Before he jumped through, he deployed a few more explosive batarangs, hoping the resulting outburst took out their attacker.

A/N in case of confusion on why he spelled it wrong in the beginning; a grumpy Dick (and Danny for that matter) is a Dick that switches between his native language (romanian/romani) and the one he speaks most often (english), in some languages the vowels are pronounced differently. romanian and english have different pronounciations which makes the letter you say be something different eventho the sound is the same. this comes from personal experiance messing up spelling words verbally a LOT (also the romanian is google translated so please dont come after me for it being wrong i did my best)