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Kid Flash was seriously impressed. Thirteen languages? Robin knew that many? Wow.
Batman left the room, Robin eagerly following after him. Black Canary sighed and followed them, with the team after her. She walked down the hallway and across the hall, into the corridor that led to the training room. When she opened the door, she saw Batman glaring up at a spot in the dark rafters of the roof.
“Umm, Batman?” Wally asked, “What exactly did the ceiling do to make you angry?”
Artemis snorted. Seriously, she thought, you do not use sarcasm on the Batman.
Batman just sighed. By this time, Conner, Kaldur, and M’gann had arrived. They all sat down on random pieces of exercise equipment just inside the door. Kaldur sat on the bench press, M’gann on the treadmill, and Conner on the exercise bike. Black Canary stood, and Wally quickly flopped onto a nearby chair, with Artemis glaring at him from where she sat on the floor.
Batman kept glaring up at the ceiling. Suddenly a cackle echoed around the large room, making Wally nearly fall out of his chair, much to Artemis’s amusement. Wally recognised that cackle, and he looked to the rest of his team to confirm his suspicions. They nodded.
“Wait, is Robin up there?” Wally asked. He cackled again, startling everyone except Black Canary, who snickered at the others’ reactions. Artemis had squeaked, Kaldur just looked bewildered, Conner had sprung into combat position, and M’gann had immediately camouflaged herself against the wall behind her. After receiving no reply, Wally repeated his question.
“Is Robin up there?” He asked. Batman glowered at him. Suddenly there was a whistling sound from above them. Wally looked up so fast he cricked his neck. The whistling sound stopped. Batman rolled his eyes, and he and Black Canary ushered the others back, away from the sound.
“Hang on… is he going to jump from there? That’s like, twelve meters! No way can he-” Wally was cut off by another whistling sound. Suddenly, they could see Robin jump from a rafter. M’gann made a move as if to catch him, but Black Canary put a hand on her shoulder.
“Stand down. He knows what he’s doing.” She said. No sooner had she said this, than Robin was fast approaching the ground. He was four meters from being a small pancake on the floor, three meters, two and a half…
Just before he hit the ground, Robin pulled his legs up to his body in a perfect tuck position. He did one flip, and then landed, turning the impact into a roll. He bled out the momentum into a handspring and a series of flips. He finished crouching, birdarang in hand. Batman glared at him. He just shrugged it off.
“Robin,” The Dark Knight said, “We are going to do a demonstration on ranged combat, stealth, and evasion.”
The rest of the team shared excited glances. They knew Robin was an expert martial artist, but now they’d get to see him in action. They’d seen him fight before on missions, but only glimpses, because when you’re running or fighting for your life, there’s not much time to check on your teammates.
Robin grinned. “Delta Plan twenty eight?” He asked his mentor. Everyone looked confused.
“Twenty seven.” Batman answered.
“Weapons?” Robin queried
“All non-lethal.” The response was growled back at him
“Environment and time?”
“Half an hour. Free.” Robin whooped at this last statement, before shooting his grapple gun and disappearing into the rafters. Batman immediately pulled out a batarang, and threw it at the grapple gun’s cable. It sliced clean through the reinforced steel cable that held Robin up. He knew what was going on, however, and he let go of the grapple gun, hanging on to one of the metal support beams in the ceiling instead. He swung his legs up so that he was crouching on the beam, before pulling out a smoke pellet from a pocket in his utility belt and throwing it at Batman.
Batman coughed, temporarily blinded by the smoke in his eyes. Robin took advantage of his predicament, and jumped off his perch. He plummeted downwards, and threw a large birdarang up at the ceiling. The birdarang had a very thin, very strong string attached, and when it hit one of the many beams above their heads, several small screws latched into the metal of the beam, leaving Robin swinging above a disorientated Batman. He leant forwards, gathering speed, before slamming his feet into Batman’s shoulders, nearly tipping the older vigilante over.
But Batman wasn’t as confused by the smoke as everyone thought. He worked in Gotham, for goodness sake! Smoke and smog were regular obstacles he had to overcome in his line of work. He grabbed Robin’s feet from his shoulders before the boy could swing off again, and flipped his protégé over his head.
M’gann, Conner, Kaldur, Artemis, and Wally held their breath, expecting their little bird to be slammed into the ground. What they didn’t expect was for Robin to actually push off from Batman’s shoulders with his feet, launching himself into the air. Batman threw a batarang at him, and it just skimmed his side. Although it missed, the projectile’s proximity to him seemed to break Robin’s concentration, and he skidded backwards slightly as he landed. He growled, frustrated at himself. Batman frowned. Robin sprung up, putting his hands on his mentor’s shoulders. He flipped over his head, digging his hands in to Batman’s back. He hit a nerve, and Batman winced.
Robin swung up into the ceiling once more, as Batman prepared for another attack. He dodged a batarang by flipping over and grabbing another beam. Batman pulled out all the batarangs in his utility belt. Robin gulped.
He jumped over one of them, landing on the 10-centimeter wide beam. He crouched low to avoid the next one, but before Batman could throw the rest, something started beeping. Batman straightened up from his combat crouch on the floor. Robin jumped down from the ceiling.
“Woah, why did you stop?” Wally asked.
“Robin won.” Batman replied.
“What?” Wally asked, “How did he win? He didn’t take you down; you were still able to fight.”
Black Canary rolled her eyes. “You’re not going to be able to take out a member of the league just yet. Robin wins by surviving. You all do. He hadn’t been taken out after half an hour, which is usually the time needed to stabilise any wounds and call for help.”
The rest of the team were just about to congratulate Robin when they herd the zeta-tubes announcing an arrival.
“Red Tornado 16.” The computerized voice said. Soon after, the android entered the room.
“Team, I have a mission for you.” He said.