chapter five - schooled

•

MOUNT JUSTICE
AUGUST 3rd — 13:06 EDT

"bet you ten bucks that i can win at air hockey," wally said.

dick raised his eyebrow at the guy sitting on the opposite side of the couch he was laying on. dick marked the page of the book he was reading, setting it down beside him. "oh yeah?"

"i've been practicing."

dick let out a laugh, sitting up into a crosslegged position. "you've been practicing so that you could spring this on me?"

"it's the element of surprise, babe," wally said, standing up and outstretching his hand.

dick took it, letting wally pull him up. "you're lucky you're so cute, iubit. maybe i'll go easy on you."

~

turns out that wally was really fucking good at air hockey. dick blamed the fact that he didn't even know they had an air hockey table at the cave, let alone use it, but in actuality? wally was talented.

so talented, in fact, that m'gann and kaldur had come to watch him utterly decimate his boyfriend. training was at 1:30 and they were all waiting for black canary anyway.

"i believe that's nine to three?" wally hummed, holding up his puck-hitter thing (dick didn't know the name of it) with a grin. "first to ten wins, huh."

"i'm jealous, walls, i really am," dick pouted, placing the puck in the centre of the table. "you're making me look bad."

wally hit the puck, laughing at how dick barely managed to deflect it. "think i should go pro?"

"oh, yeah. wallace west: the professional air hockey player." dick blocked the puck again. "has a nice ring to it."

wally hit the puck, watching as it bounced off of the walls a few times before sinking straight into dick's goal. "kachow!"

"congratulations, wally!" m'gann piped up, clapping.

"thank you, thank you!" wally bowed dramatically. "i accept my payment in both cash and kisses."

"ha ha." dick pulled a ten from his utility belt, handing it to wally.

recognized: superboy-b04

"hi, superboy! how was metropolis?" m'gann asked, frowning when superboy just walked away silently.

"ready for training, everyone?" black canary walked in from one of the hallways, martian manhunter in tow.

"uncle j'onn!" m'gann exclaimed, running over and hugging him. "what are you doing here?"

"i was in the neighbourhood; i thought i'd drop in to see how you are adjusting."

dick almost visibly cringed at the display of familial love. was it a ptsd thing? it might be a ptsd thing.

m'gann smiled, tucking her hair behind her ears. "a few bumps, but i'm learning a lot! it's been a lot of fun!"

"stick around!" black canary yelled at the slowly departing figure of superboy. "it's 1:30. training has started."

she walked to the centre of the room, the floor lighting up beneath her. dick leaned over to wally, lowering his voice. "it's the exact same training simulator as at the batcave. this whole place is just b's garage."

wally giggled into his hand, forcing black canary to grab their attention again. "ahem. i consider it an honour to be your teacher. i'll throw a lot at you—everything i've learned—and i expect for you to pay attention, learn from your mistakes, and grow smarter, faster, and stronger."

"do you think your training can make robin grow taller?" wally said, earning himself an elbow nudge from dick.

"i am AVERAGE!"

"last time i checked you were 5'5", rob." wally started laughing at his own joke before even telling it. "gonna have to change your name to shawty."

"combat is about controlling conflict," black canary continued. "you should always be acting, never reacting. now, i need a sparring partner."

she pulled off her jacket, revealing a dark leotard over top of grey leggings. dick could physically feel wally's eyes ogling her. boyfriend of six months being attracted to their teacher? that's gotta sting.

"uh, i'll, uhm, i'll go!" wally said, walking up to the taller woman.

black canary nodded, taking wally down in two steps. the ol' fake punch, leg sweep combo. dick remembered that one from his first training sessions with bruce.

failed: kidflash

"did anyone catch what he did wrong?" black canary asked, helping wally back up off the floor.

dick threw his hand in the air. "i know! he hit on the teacher and got rightfully served!"

"did not!"

"he allowed me to dictate the terms-"

"dictate the terms my ass," superboy interrupted. "i'm a living weapon. the battle's always on my terms. this is just a waste of my time."

black canary crossed her arms. "prove it."

superboy walked onto the simulator, bracing his fists against his chin. she copied his stance, and superboy punched first. black canary dodged his punch, grabbing his arm and throwing the kryptonian to the ground.

failed: superboy

dick started laughing, he couldn't quite stop himself. that was fucking ironic. kaldur nudged him to stop laughing but, come-fucking-on! shit's hilarious. superboy pulled himself up, glaring at black canary. dick finally managed to stifle his laugh, watching intently for what was going to happen next.

"you're angry, but don'f react. channel your anger into-"

black canary was cut off by superboy running at her, lobbying a punch right at her chest. she flipped over him with ease, squatting down and sweeping his legs out from under him.

failed: superboy

dick started laughing again. superboy should consider stand-up. or maybe anger management lessons. those would probably help more.

black canary extended her hand, but superboy just swatted it away. "i'm done."

black canary opened her mouth to argue, but closed it when a hologram of batman's face appeared just beside them.

"batman to the cave: five hours ago, a menace attacked star city. the attacker was able to study, then perfectly duplicate, the powers an abilities of its opponents. arrow called in reinforcements, which just let him grow stronger and harder to defeat."

"holy shit," wally muttered. "one guy with an arsenal spanning the entire league?!"

"it took eight leaguers four hours to defeat and dismantle the android-"

"and android?" dick perked up, stepping close to the hologram. "who could've made something that powerful? has t.o. morrow upped his game?"

"my thoughts too," batman said. "but red tornado doesn't think so. the technology bear the signature of professor ivo."

"uhhhh." wally raised his eyebrow. "i thought he was dead."

"so we all hoped," black canary said.

batman cleared his throat, directing their attention toward him once again. "to make sure that this threat is permanently neutralized we are sending the android's dismantled parts to two separate star labs facilities: one based in boston and the other new york. every precaution is being taken. we will have four decoy trucks to fool anyone who may attempt to recover the remains."

"you think ivo's going to try to take his android back?" kaldur asked.

"perhaps, or it could be anyone in the business of opposing the justice league," batman said. "you five will split into undercover teams to protect the real trucks."

"so, what i'm hearing is roadtrip!" wally piped up, grinning.

"more like we're taking out the league's trash," superboy sneered, rolling his eyes. wow. he was sure in his sassy-teen arc.

"unless you have something better to do?" batman said, his tone flat.

"c'mon, team, head out!" kaldur said, gesturing for them to make their way to the bioship as bruce ended the call. "everyone in civvies, we're going casual."

LITCHFIELD COUNTY
AUGUST 3rd — 20:08 EDT

"do you know how many people die from motorcycle accidents every year?" wally asked, frowning.

"uh, more than one?" dick smirked, watching wally silently freak out at the answer. "dude, it's fine. i'll catch you on the flippity flip, okay?"

wally huffed, sliding his helmet overtop his gorgeous face. "don't get into a motorcycle accident."

"i've been riding since i was nine."

"not funny!"

dick smirked, revving his engine and waving m'gann, kaldur, and wally goodbye. he wasn't joking about his experience with motorcycles, this mission was looking like a piece of cake.

~

dick pulled up closer to superboy, shielding his eyes from the blazing sunset with one hand. "so, if dislike is the antonym of like, wouldn't disaster be the antonym of aster? instead of shit going wrong, it goes right!"

superboy didn't respond to dick's language crisis. ever since cadmus, he couldn't stop thinking about it, about how the english language made no sense. how could he be fluent in the pile of shit words that was the english language?

"you don't seem to be feeling the aster," dick said. "what's up?"

"canary." superboy finally stopped looking straight ahead, switching between eye contact with dick and checking the road. "she's teaching combat to a living weapon. i'm one of the strongest guys on earth and she wants me to learn basic footsteps?"

"those basic footsteps have saved my life a few times." dick turned his gaze back at the setting sun, the sky was a mix of pink and orange now. "fighting guys bigger than us is part of the gig. canary learned that the hard way, so did batman. so did i."

"seems like everyone you fight is bigger than you," superboy spat, revving his engine and beginning to speed up.

"commenting on someone's body is socially unacceptable!" dick yelled, but he just kept driving away. "fucking dickhead!"

a rustle in the cornstalks on the side of the road caught dick's eye. he stared at it for a few seconds, expecting a coyote, when a dozen green and black monkeys flew from the corn, landing on the truck.

"robin!" kaldur's voice came from dick's earpiece. "our truck is under attack!"

"i figured." dick sped up, getting back beside superboy. "it's like children of the corn all over again."

"i HATE monkeys," superboy yelled, anger evaporating off of him in waves.

"oh, but they're robot monkeys!" dick laughed, pressing a button on his motorcycle. "totally ivo's style, guy's a flamboyant little prick."

the front wheel of dick's motorcycle pulled in to the centre as the back wheel was detached, opening into a drone and flying behind them. dick designed the motorcycles, he, too, was a flamboyant little prick.

"oi, supes, switch your bike into a one-wheeler."

"no need," superboy said, jumping off of his motorcycle and onto the truck.

"the fuck?" dick yelled, watching as superboy's motorcycle came crashing down, as it was devoid of superboy.

dick jumped off of his own bike just in time for superboy's to crash into his, running both of them into the cornfields. dick pulled out his grappling hook mid-air, attaching it to the back of the truck and letting it pull him to it, not even hitting the ground.

superboy was on the roof of the truck by now, hitting off monkeys left and right. there were still five or so holding onto the back of the truck, so dick kicked them until they lost their grip and fell off.

unfortunately, the monkeys could all fly. with every one knocked off, it just flew back. dick's drone put a monkey out of commission using a laser, but the flying monkeys quickly took out the drone using their own laser eyes.

dick did his best to hold onto his grappling hook, trying to dismantle the monkeys with one hand. it didn't really work. things didn't seem to be going well for superboy either, as dick looked up to see four monkeys carrying him into the sky.

what the fuck was this? the wizard of oz?

the monkeys dropped him after a few more metres, flying back on the ship to attack dick again. couldn't a guy ever catch a break? hopefully wally and the others were having a better time with their monkeys.

dick pulled out his emergency escrima sticks, hitting off the last few monkeys on the truck door and climbing up to the roof. he hit every single monkey off, but they just flew back, barely a scrape on their ugly little bodies.

superboy jumped back on the roof, nearly knocking dick off with the force of his landing. the majority of the monkeys flocked to him like sheep, but dick watched as two crawled down toward the tires, using their laser eyes to pop them. the truck started to swerve violently.

"futu-i!" dick yelled, crawling down the the drivers side door and swinging it open. "get out!"

the driver unbuckled quickly and dick grabbed his arms, jumping with him into the cornfield beside the road. the landing was rough, but it was much better than how the truck was landing: flipping onto its side several times and exploding.

dick coughed, watching as the monkeys flew away with the box of parts that they were supposed to be protecting. the truck flipped over once more, this time from superboy pulling himself out from underneath. he jumped after the monkeys, not even bothering to look at dick.

"you alright?" dick asked the driver.

"oh yeah, just dandy." the man coughed, pulling out his phone.

"aqualad to robin: we lost our cargo. did you-"

"it's gone northwest." dick sighed, walking out into the middle of the road. "my partner's gone too."

"superboy, radio your position so that we can help."

"i don't WANT help!!" superboy yelled over their commline. "i don't NEED IT."

"superboy?" kaldur tried.

"i think he ditched his comm."

"oh, that's just fucking awesome!" wally mocked.

"he's out of my telepathic range," m'gann said. "maybe our best bet is just to contact red tornado?"

"not yet," kaldur affirmed. "the mission can still succeed if we recover the parts before they're assembled."

"yeah, that would totally work if we actually KNEW where to look," wally huffed.

a destroyed monkey laying in the middle of the road caught dick's eye and gave him an idea. he pulled out an aux cord from his hologlove, plugging it into the monkey. "maybe we do. we would know if the decoys were attacked, no? so these little moncunts knew which trucks to target."

"whelming. go on," wally said.

dick pressed a few keys on his hologlove grinning at what showed up. "nice! the parts have gps, the monkeys were just tracking the signal. i can easily track them, give me a moment."

"you're a lifesaver, robin!" m'gann rejoiced.

"i dunno if that's what the government would call my hacking, but thanks anyway." dick laughed, but his expression was soon faltered. "it looks like the both sets of parts are heading to... gotham city?"

"you're the closest, robin," kaldur said. "m'gann and i won't get there anytime soon, i'm sending kid to meet you."

dick slung the monkey over his shoulder, walking over to the driver. "i have to go, do you want a ride to the nearest city? my bike's kinda a one-seater but it's not far."

the man shook his head. "i'm alright, called my husband to pick me up. thank you for saving my life."

dick shrugged, shaking the man's hand. "part of the gig. sorry for totalling your truck, this kinda turned out to be a disaster. heavy on the dis."

"eh. hopefully the insurance covers it."

dick laughed, calling his motorcycle to him via his hologlove. it drove itself over to him and he gave it a quick once-over. luckily, nothing was broken. it had plenty of scrapes, but it was sure resilient.

and so dick boarded his steed, riding off into the sunset to meet with the love of his life.

GOTHAM CITY LIMITS
AUGUST 3rd — 21:37 EDT

dick rode down one of gotham's exit roads, his cape billowing behind him. he smirked as the somewhat-fuzzy figure of a man clad in yellow spandex appeared beside him.

"what? did you strip in the middle of the cornfields?" wally asked, laughing.

"just because you can change in a millisecond doesn't mean that you weren't also naked in the cornfield, walls."

"i feel more naked in my civvies than i do in my birthday suit," he argued. "you still tracking the parts?"

"doing my best," dick said, updating the location of the parts. "they were heading straight through gotham but- what the fuck?"

"what?"

"they're at my school!"

"what are the chances?!" wally guffawed. "might as well damage the most pretentious school in new jersey, i guess."

"okay, mr keystone high," dick shook his head, turning into the gotham academy parking lot. "school for farmboys."

"keystone is one of the biggest cities in kansas!" wally smacked his head, looking disappointed.

"doesn't your neighbour own cows?"

"they're his pets-" wally argued, entering the building with dick.

they were immediately hit with the sound of yells and clanging coming from the left. dick ran toward the stairs, gesturing for wally to follow him.

"y'know, sneaking around in a pitch-black high school after hours is kinda hot," wally thought aloud.

"y'know, superboy has super-hearing, right?" dick led wally toward the gym, toward the noise.

"superboy?"

"who do you think the robot's fighting?" dick asked, opening to gym doors.

his hypothesis was certainly correct. superboy was being smashed to a pulp by a 7 foot tall metal dude. someone sitting on the bleachers with two monkeys caught dick's attention, but he didn't have time to investigate due to superboy's declining health. superboy was kind of a dick (no pun intended) but he was part of the team, they couldn't let him get murdered.

the metal guy knocked superboy to the floor, about to smash his brain in. "yoink!" wally said, grabbing superboy and pulling him back over to dick. just in time, too, as, not a moment later, teh android's hands came crushing down onto the gym floor.

dick threw a couple bird-a-rangs at the android, but he just activated martian manhunter's powers, density-shifting so that the projectiles flew right through him.

"access: red tornado," the android said, forming a large tornado underneath him and flying toward the trio, the powerful winds knocking them down.

"access: captain atom," metal boy said, turning to wally and extending his right palm. wally barely dodged it.

wally whipped around to hit the andoird from behind, but he was just thrown to the ground by black canary's scream. superboy went for a punch but was knocked away by superman's own left-hook. dick threw more bird-a-rangs but the android simply aimed them away with martian manhunter's telekinesis.

it seemed like, no matter what they did, they couldn't win the fight against the justice league.

wally ran at the android again, but the android just caught him, picking him up and squeezing him as tight as possible. dick watched, unable
to take his eyes away, waiting for that sickening crunch.

just like his parents.

but, at the last moment, the android activated martian manhunter's powers, density shifting to avoid an arrow. wally fell to the ground, running away. the arrow went straight through where his heart would've been, landing beside dick.

dick looked at the direction that the arrow came from, expecting green arrow or maybe even roy, but no one was there. he didn't even recognize the type of arrow that was fired.

superboy ran at the android, going for a  tackle. metal boy just used his own strength against him, flinging superboy straight through the bleachers. dick flicked another bird-a-rang, but the android caught it, crushing it with his fist.

"access: superman," he said, turning to dick and shooting lasers from his eyes. dick froze, not knowing if it was an automatic response or a subconscious choice he was making.

the next thing dick knew, wally was tackling him out of the way. like, way out of the way. dude sent them both rolling to the opposite side of the gym.

"you alright?" wally asked, pulling himself off of where he landed on dick. was he blushing? it was too dark, he couldn't tell.

"rough landing."

"it was passionate," wally laughed. "bats was right, though, you gotta stop doing that."

"landing roughly?"

"accepting their shots." wally deadpanned, holding up his hand. "pinkie promise?"

dick sighed, intertwining their pinkies. "pinkie promise."

"what's the point?!" the man on the bleachers yelled, now that dick was actually looking, he noticed that it was ivo, live and in the flesh. "amazo is programmed to copy and replicate the abilities of others during but you're all such poor copies of the originals."

the monkeys on his side seemed to actually laugh.

"we're not copies," superboy shouted. "don't say that, it makes me ANGRY."

he jumped toward ivo, probably would've crushed him if ivo hadn't rolled out of the way. superboy walked toward him, clutching his fists. "DO YOU WANNA SEE ME CHANNEL THAT ANGER?!"

"he's a head-case," wally muttered, standing up.

dick stood up too, watching as ivo tried to scurry away. "yeah, but maybe he has the right idea."

"AMAZO!" ivo yelled. "protect your master. priority alpha."

amazo shot superboy in the chest with his captain atom hand-laser as the two monkeys lifted ivo up, preparing to take him away.

"anybody wanna play keep-away?" dick yelled, running over to ivo and kicking him in the back.

ivo went flying, right toward where wally had ran. "i prefer monkey in the middle, myself!"

before wally could get the chance to hit ivo, however, amazo activated his superman abilities, stomping the ground so that wally tripped.

dick turned on amazo, throwing bird-a-rangs in order to avenge his dearly beloved, but amazo just activated his martian manhunter powers, density-shifting right through them. perhaps dick needed to start using his boomerang again.

superboy jumped up behind amazo, throwing a punch toward his head. amazo saw him and activated his superman abilities, but not soon enough. the android was solid again, but superboy's punch was still lobbed straight through his head.

amazo short-cirtcuited as superboy pulled his hand out, evidently taking off the android's entire head. he fell to the ground with a metal CLANG, smoking and unmoving.

"quick!" dick yelled, rushing over to the body. "disassemble him!"

"he's decapitated, dude," wally said, walking over and rubbing his arm like it hurt.

the gymnasium doors flew open and in ran kaldur and m'gann. "don't spare even a chance!" kaldur yelled, helping dick with the disassembling process immediately.

"you're a little late to the party," wally smirked, sitting down beside dick to help pull amazo's arm off.

"superboy!" m'gann whined, running over. "are you alright?"

"i'm fine," superboy said, catching dick's eye. "i'm... feeling the aster."

shit like that almost made dick like superboy. permanently.

"wait, where'd ivo go?" wally asked, looking around.

dick spun around, scanning the whole gym. there was no sign of him. "shit."

wally shrugged, pulling off every one of amazo's fingers, which wasn't necessary, but to each their own. "we took amazo down with three people in half an hour, they can't blame us for losing him. we're 24x better than them."

"have fun telling that to batman," dick smirked, patting wally's leg. "losing ivo means that he can make a dozen more amazos, each more powerful than the last."

"and if that time comes, we'll fight each one," kaldur said, his expression soft. "good job tonight, everyone."

MOUNT JUSTICE
AUGUST 4th — 01:06 EDT

"amazo is in pieces again, safely being analyzed by the two s.t.a.r. labs," kaldur debriefed. "unfortunately, ivo managed to escape during the fight and he is arguably much more dangerous."

"capturing professor ivo will be a league priority," black canary said, uncrossing her arms. "with luck, we'll apprehend him before he manages to create any more androids."

martian manhunter turned toward where superboy was standing. "i understand that your mission encountered... other complications?"

everyone looked at superboy, who awkwardly averted his gaze. did he annoy them (especially dick) by dipping as soon as the mission got hard? yes. did the league have to go all mean girls on him to prove their point? yes. definitely yes.

"complications come with the job," batman said, stepping in front of canary and martian manhunter. "your ability to handle them has impressed us. but there's no shame in asking for help, that's why the league exists-"

"please!" wally cut off. "we'd never get the chance to ask!"

he gestured to dick to bring out the arrow from earlier. dick pulled it from his back pocket, handing it to batman.

"you were following us?" m'gann asked, sounding sad.

"babysitting, more like it," superboy spat. "you still don't trust us!"

now felt like the time to tell them that it wasn't green arrow's weapon. dick probably should've said something beforehand. bad move on his part.

"we didn't follow you," bruce said.

green arrow pulled out one of his own arrows, holding the two against eachother. they were of completely different makes. "not my arrow."

"speedy?!" wally smiled, taking the arrow from the other. "souvenir!"

okay, dick couldn't break his heart now.

"he has our backs!" kaldur smiled, breathing a sigh of relief.

batman dismissed them all shortly, and wally walked over to dick, grinning. "i'm building up my collection!"

dick took the arrow from wally, turning it over in his hands. technically it could be speedy's, maybe when he left he got new arrows? "gonna put this in your room? next to your eyeball?"

"no, no, no!" wally pulled dick into a side-hug, gesturing in front of them as if there were a movie. "i am turning one of the old storage rooms into my very own souvenir room. envision it, rob—a whole shelf filled with knick-knacks on one side and a shelf filled with snacks on the other. it will be legendary."

"so proud of you for finally heading into interior designing!" dick mocked. "maybe you can redo my mount justice bedroom! it is barren!"

dick had meant it as a joke but wally seemed genuinely excited. whoops.

"i literally will! i'm planning it right now. i'll-"

"slow down there, mr kate," dick grabbed wally's hand before he could run away. "it's late, let's watch a classic!"

"hhgghggghg," wally whined, turninf to where m'gann, kaldur, and superboy were chatting. "do you guys wanna watch a movie? ferris bueller's day off?"

"i would love to, but it's so late already!" m'gann said, superboy nodding.

"i agree, i should be getting to bed," kaldur apologized.

"no worries, good night, guys!" wally waved them off, leaning close to dick. "i guess that makes this a date."

dick laughed, interlocking wally's hand with his and leading him toward the cave's living room. "i guess it does."