chapter twelve - homefront

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GOTHAM ACADEMY GROUNDS
SEPTEMBER 22nd — 8:56 EDT

"dick? helloooooo?" barbara gordon droned, grabbing dick's attention. "what are you staring at?"

dick pulled his eyes away from the front gate of the school grounds, setting his eyes back on the group of friends he was standing with.

"i've never seen him so focused," jason todd scoffed, sarcasm oozing out of his mouth like slime.

"shut up, jay." dick rolled his eyes, earning a laugh from everyone other than jason.

"you look tired, dick. have you been sleeping well?" stephanie brown asked. she meant well, but dick could feel his heart pounding at the question.

the truth was, he hadn't been.

ever since bialya—waking up with no memory in the middle of nowhere—he had started having nightmares again. he thought, he truly believed, that they had stopped. it had been months since he had one. he was wrong.

"uhm, yeah," dick stuttered, "stayed up too late last night, i guess."

"texting your boyfriend," barbara mocked in a sing-song voice.

even though it wasn't the reason he was tired today, dick still blushed. because wally was his boyfriend. his handsome, funny, brave boyfriend.

"i still can't believe you were the first of the group to be wifed off." duke thompson laughed. "steph's been going after harvey for two yea-"

"have NOT!" stephanie elbowed him in the gut. it looked worse than it felt, hopefully. she was very strong.

dick laughed at his friends' antics, but couldn't help but look back at the gate. and, finally, there stood artemis crock, in the flesh.

she was talking to one of the student liasons, looking bored as hell. her gotham academy uniform was the masculine versions (which was basically a suit) and it didn't surprise him in the slightest. she was a badass, as usual.

"i'll be right back," dick said absentmindedly to his friends, waving off their questions.

dick ran over to artemis, grinning from ear to ear. "welcome to gotham academy!" he greeted her.

"uh, thank-"

before artemis could say another word, dick had already pulled out his phone and taken a selfie with her. he was doing his best to not laugh. if she didn't recognize him from his look, she'll recognize him from his laugh.

"what are you-"

"we'll laugh about this someday." dick waved her goodbye, ignoring the scolding from the liason, and joined back with his friends.

"what was that?" barbara asked, keen as ever. (this is a pun)

"just greeting the new girl. i am, quite possibly, the funniest man on earth."

"i will be the funniest woman," stephanie said, kneeling as duke started pretending to knight her. "i take the weight of humour upon my shoulders."

apparently, the weight of mankind's humour wasn't that heavy, as the second that the bell rang she stood up and took off to class. classic stephanie.

-

later that night, dick stood, at the top of a residential building, waiting for artemis. his intent wasn't as creepy as it sounds. he knew that she was heading to the cave—he knew which zeta tube she took to get there—and he had time to kill. so why not confront her and make her nervous?

am i a dick? dick thought to himself, rolling his eyes at the accidental pun. this is the reason he goes by robin.

dick sighed to himself, peeking over the edge. he could jump, it was barely six floors up, but it was enough to do the job. he hopped up onto the ledge, standing with perfect balance. the wind blew through his cape, ruffling his hair.

"what the fuck am i doing?" dick muttered. his hands trembled at the question. what was he doing? what was he about to do?

a figure, clad in all green, walked hastily down the street, turning into an alleyway on dick's left. artemis.

dick scaled down the building, trying to forget what had just happened; trying to push the voices out of his head. he put on his game face, a goofy smile, a slight grin, and jumped down behind artemis.

"artemis!" he said, making her jump. "fancy seeing you here, in gotham city!"

she turned around slowly, her face more pallid than usual. "do you really need to sneak up on me like that?"

dick shrugged, pulling a bird-a-rang out of his utility belt and juggling with it. "it's good to be kept on our toes. what are you doing in gotham? shouldn't you be in star city... y'know, where you live?"

dick fell into step beside his teammate, and they began to walk toward the end of the alleyway, where an old photo booth is, a zeta beam entrance inside of it.

"i- i came here to see my, uh, cousin. he had a spelling bee tournament."

dick almost laughed at the lie. really? that's all she could come up with? there are probably a million more things that would be much more believable, but she went with her cousin's spelling bee tournament. right.

"aren't you family-oriented?! did he win?"

"uhh, no. no, he came second," artemis said, anxiously looking at where the zeta tube was.

"better luck next time!" dick cackled, opening the photo booth's door for her. "ladies first."

"no, no, it's your city. you first."

dick shrugged, stepping into the booth. "don't run out on me now, blondie. see you on the other side!"

-

the first word that came to dick's mind when he reappeared at mount justice was HOT.

and not the fun, athletic-ginger-with-freckles-and-pretty-eyes hot, the bad, it's-too-hot-to-breathe hot.

flames covered the cave, licking the walls with a brilliant anger. the room smelt of smoke and burned cloth, and all dick could hear was the flames cackling. ironic.

"-the fuck?" artemis yelled, running to his side. "what-fucking-now? m'gann's cookies gone wrong?"

dick didn't answer, just pointed straight into the flames. where, just ahead of them, the vague outline of a body was.

"should we fight them?" artemis asked.

"no, not yet. we have no idea who "they" are. other than the fact that they're immune to flames, we have nothing on them."

apparently the flame antagonist didn't have the same idea.

scorching hot air hit them first, luckily giving the two enough time to react before the fire hit them. artemis side-stepped, dick ducked, and they both looked at eachother with wide eyes.

"we've gotta go!" dick yelled, beckoning her to follow him. out of stress that artemis wasn't following him, he looked back. this was a terrible decision.

a humongous tidal wave hit him square on, rendering him still-shocked for a few seconds. it felt like a belly-flop from a kilometre high, but worse even, because it threw him back into the wall, leaving the entirety of his body in pain.

"fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck," dick muttered, picking himself off of the floor. cussing always seemed to help with this sort of thing.

he held out a hand for artemis, who was still on the floor, and pulled her up haphazardly. "run."

and thus, they ran. toward the nearest door, down the nearest hallway. it seemed like they were finally getting away, finally able to regroup, when the distinct sound of sizzling came from behind the pair.

"shit," artemis yelled, dropping to the floor. dick followed suit, and the flames went directly over their heads. it was a wonder that their hair didn't catch on fire.

"shower room?" dick asked, already up and running. it was times like these he wished that he had agreed to do the flash experiment with wally.

artemis nodded, and they both took a sharp left. seemingly on the same wavelength, they began to turn on every shower faucet to full blast. hopefully they weren't electrical flames, or else death was upon them!

"get ahold of the team. where the hell are they?" robin directed artemis.

while she did that, he called batman. then the watchtower, then flash, then red tornado. none of them answered. he went to ring superman when he noticed that the water level was rising. fast.

"shit. shitty shit shit," dick said eloquently. "any sign of them?"

artemis shook her head, eyes widening at the level of the water, now up to their waists. "robin, it's..."

dick felt himself lose the ability to touch the ground. the room wasn't that tall, maybe three metres, they didn't have much time left. he scanned the walls, but the door was closed tight and too heavy to move. not even mentioning the big fire robot standing on the other side.

the water was almost at the roof now. "i hope you can swim," dick said, taking one last gulp of air.

the entire room was water. it was like being in an aquarium, except they're the fish. it was dark too, and petrifying. but dick pushed it down, far and deep. he'd been doing this too long, he'd been in worse circumstances.

grabbing a bird-a-rang from his utility belt, he swam over to the nearest wall. with a three-tap code, dick armed the explosive, and once he swam back to where artemis was (she looked pale as a ghost) it exploded.

the water drained out of the newfound hole, bringing dick and artemis with it. they found themselves in the kitchen, sopping wet.

artemis took a huge breath. "ohhhh my god. what the fuck."

dick didn't answer her, instead he was staring down at his hologlove. "i've downloaded a schematic of the cave. now, let's climb some air vents!"

artemis stared at him.

"trust me, the vents in here are huge. it was probably because it's underground—you need more air flow—but it now works as an awesome way to get around the place."

dick walked over to the nearest wall, an air vent just a couple feet taller than him. he stood on his tiptoes, unscrewing one of the bolts holding it in place. as soon as that one bolt was out, the vent swung open like a door.

"you- you put a hinge on the air vent?" artemis blinked slowly, meandering over to said air vent.

"i use them a lot," dick explained, beckoning her over. "c'mon, you're rubbing the mint."

he pulled himself into the vent with ease, reaching out a hand to pull her up. she obliged, hopping up with much less poise, and closing the jagged door behind her.

"rubbing the mint?" she questioned, following her teammate as they crawled through mount justice.

"it's an idiom."

"oh yeah? from wh-"

artemis was cut off by robin yanking her sideways, into a marginally smaller vent. he had grabbed her by her waist, holding her as close to himself as possible, and had pulled them as far away from their previous vent as possible.

just in time for a massive, red-hot, plume of fire to blast through where they were just crawling.

"holy shit," muttered artemis.

dick checked his hologlove, beginning to unscrew a bolt from a vent cover just a few feet away. "sorry for yanking you. reaction time from verbal communication is a lot slower than just taking action."

he hopped out of the vent, gesturing for her to follow. "don't worry, i would rather anything other than incineration via fire."

dick shrugged, almost as if he didn't share the same opinion, and walked over to what looked like a generator. he flipped open a panel which was filled with input plugs, pulling an aux cord from his hologlove and plugging it in. 

"where are we?" artemis asked, milling around the room.

"temperature control. firegirl and waterboy are both robots. the cold can fuck them up-"

it was like they heard him. immediately after dick spoke, the door opened and one of the robots burned fire across the entire room. dick and artemis both leapt behind electrical equipment, but the room was burning and filling with smoke, they couldn't last long in that environment.

dick nodded toward the vent, holding up three fingers. out of sheer idiocy, artemis ignored these and just ran for the vent. resisting the (very attractive) urge to slap himself, dick followed her. 

this is why i wanted you all to learn asl. we can't rely on M for non-verbal communication. dick signed, while running through flames just as tall as he.

robin jumped into the vent, dropping a small explosive behind him, and shutting the door tight. artemis was already way ahead of him, and so he crawled after her as fast as he could.

KABOOM!

the vent shook as the room behind them blew up. dick stopped, sitting crosslegged and turning on his hologlove. with a few taps and a lot of high-character passwords, dick had secured their safety - for now.

"i disabled the motion and heat sensors. they shouldn't be able to track us."

artemis nodded, coming to sit beside him. she looked royally freaked out. the beginning stages of an anxiety attack, he would say. he would know.

"i have the security footage of when these cunts first arrived," dick said, hesitantly clicking the play button. this would either confirm or deny wally's state. alive or dead.

the footage started out average: wally, m'gann, and connor were all standing around sphere, chatting. kaldur walked over, bringing up artemis and asking about their thoughts and loyalties.

and then the camera went black.

dick switched to a different angle, a worse one. it was worse because, for just a second, before the camera went dark, you could hear the shrill screams of their teammates.

and that was all.

none of the cameras survived past that point. no angle showed their friends fighting, surviving. dick could feel himself slipping. the world around him went topsy-turny. black spots danced in front of his eyes.

"they're dead! they're all dead!"

artemis' voice snapped dick back to the present. he quickly regulated his breathing—in for four, hold for four, out for eight—and turned off the video.

"no. they're... they're fine. they're alright."

somehow, artemis trusted him. she calmed down, nodding fruitfully. "yeah. yeah, you're right. they all have superpowers! of course they're fine!"

"let's go to the hangar."

-

the fastest way from their location to the hangar was through a secret passage in the library. it was behind a bookshelf, the ol' pull-on-a-book-to-reveal-the-door type of thing. dick wasn't sure what came first: bruce's ideas for the batcave entrance or the mount justice architecture.

"robin? artemis?" red tornado's voice echoed through the library.

"it's red tornado!" artemis exclaimed. "the league's here! we're safe!"

artemis stepped out into the open. the smile on her face was one of newfound parents, but it soon decimated. dick peeked out from behind a bookshelf, seeing why.

there stood a bulky red robot, so similar to their den parent that they could have been siblings. dick recognized it as the water robot... the red torpedo.

red torpedo lifted one hand, pointing it at artemis. reacting in the blink of an eye, dick grabbed the blonde and yanked her toward him. nearly a second later, a jet-blast of water, so powerful it knocked over a couple bookshelves, passed right where she had been standing.

"yes on the red, no on the tornado."

dick scanned the bookshelf they were hiding behind, one book in particular catching his eye. he pulled on the spine of "passages, problems, and phenomena: everything you need to know about ancient egypt" and, like a testament to his intellect, the bookshelf swung open, revealing a passageway.

dick ushered artemis in, swinging the door shut behind them. he prayed (figuratively) that the bookshelf and door were stronger than red torpedo's water blasts. if that wasn't the case, well...

"how the hell are we supposed to fight these guys?" artemis whined, fumbling with her quiver.

dick was about to answer when the loudspeakers rang with a noise so shrill it made dick stuff his fingers into his ears.

"attention: robin and artemis," red torpedo said, "your teammates are in the hangar. they are alive... for now. you have ten minutes to surrender."

artemis turned to dick, her face twisted in anguish. "oh god. oh god, oh god, oh god."

"it's- it's fine. ten minutes is more than enough time."

"how are you so fucking calm all the time?!" artemis yelled.

"practice. i've been doing this since i was nine."

dick shook his head feverishly, as if shaking it would somehow clear his thoughts. he pushed them down, down, down, until all that was left was the mission. it didn't matter who the victims were, all that mattered was the mission.

artemis just stared at him, fumbling with her quiver again. she was hyperventilating. "your experience isn't gonna matter much once we're all dead."

"c'mo-" dick's mouth was suddenly filled with water. he choked, plugging his nose and covering his mouth. he was not about to drown because he had his mouth open when red torpedo attacked.

when red torpedo attacked.

dick looked around, squinting his eyes to try and spot the android, when he noticed artemis looking rather perilous. she struggled to not breathe in the water as dick shuffled through his utility belt, pulling out a rebreather.

he had dropped his rebreather the one night that he actually needed it. he would never forget it again.

he took a quick breath before handing it to artemis to use. looking at the cave schematics on his hologlove, it seemed like they were only a few metres from the entrance to the hangar.

dick turned back with hopeful eyes, like a child whose mother has let him in to a candy store, but that hope was soon decimated.

red torpedo was there, and he was grabbing artemis' ankle with so much force it looked like he was breaking it. dick looked around, spotting an arrow floating just underneath him. it must have fallen out of artemis' quiver when the water hit.

he jammed the arrow into the android's eye, pushing as hard as he could to get it deep. red torpedo seized, letting artemis go free. dick haphazardly grabbed a couple explosives from his belt, setting them off and swimming to the door of the passageway.

artemis and dick gangled out of the hallway, falling quick to their knees and breathing. or rather, artemis was breathing, dick was coughing.

"watch out!" connor yelled from somewhere below them. dick wasn't sure where, since the violent coughing forced him to shut his eyes.

none the matter, dick heeded connor's command, pushing himself down as much as he could. what felt like pure heat passed overhead, and his violent coughing finally ceased. dick opened his eyes, finally able to observe his situation.

wally and connor were both on the platform below him, entrapped in some sort of metal, woven to make a human cage. the room was slowly filling with water, but it didn't seem a danger to them yet. on the other side of the room, inside a terrifying cage of fire, was kaldur and m'gann. m'gann was already passed out and kaldur looked well on his way there.

"you have to save m'gann!" connor yelled.

kaldur nodded, his eyelids drooping. "i'm afraid we are both on the brink of death."

dick and artemis stood up, running over to the fire cage when two androids appeared directly in front of them. dick threw his bird-a-rangs and artemis her scarce supply of arrows, but nothing seemed to even penetrate the androids.

red torpedo made a wide semicircle around the pair, leaving them enclosed from both sides. red inferno blasted fire just as torpedo water, and artemis and dick did the only thing they could.

jump straight into the water.

luckily for them, it had raised some more, enabling them to swim. this, however, was very much unlucky for wally and connor, who were stuck with water almost at their chests.

dick swam over to wally, almost out of instinct, artemis right behind him. he held onto the metal that wally was trapped in, testing its strength, but it was fastened tight.

"are you feelin' me up?" wally grinned.

"we're in a vexing life-or-death situation, kf," dick said in a serious tone, but his hands said the exact opposite. "i was checking this metal. you guys are really stuck in there."

"we're all gonna die!" artemis yelled, her eyes filling with tears. "our four friends with superpowers are all gonna die and we are gonna watch. and then they're going to kill us too."

dick stared at wally, urging him to say something. when the infamous wall-man just stared back, dick took this situation into his own hands. "you seem distraught."

"distraught? m'gann and kaldur are dying! of course i'm distraught!"

"well get traught, or get dead."

"don't traumatize her, rob," wally interjected. "we're gonna be fine."

"no, no, we won't." artemis shook her head, tears running down her face. "i only have one arrow left. we're useless against these machines."

"machines!" dick exclaimed, looking at wally, who seemed equally excited. "they're only machines. all we need is-"

"an emp!" wally finished.

"do you know how to make one?" dick asked wally. artemis was still crying and connor seemed too preoccupied with staring at the fire cage to actually listen to the conversation.

"you just need a vircator—there should be one in the med lab's xray machine—and then all you need to do is reprogram the microwave conversion to produce emps instead of xrays. then you just need 10^12 power wattage."

"so i'll just need to hook it up to the cave's generator."

"SIX MINUTES REMAINING!" red torpedo yelled, conveying no emotion. next to the android, connor looked like the most emotional man in the world.

dick saluted his boyfriend goodbye, leading artemis to the far wall, where a hallway door was. getting there was draining—half swimming, half running—but eventually they made it and were able to sneak in.

the med lab was a dingy place, damp and dark. it probably hadn't been used in a decade. nevertheless, dick sped in, scanning for the xray machine and crouching down beside it.

he opened it up, plugging his hologlove into one of the two vacuums hidden inside the compartment. reprogramming it was definitely the easiest part of everything they've been through today.

"can you really just... reprogram an xray machine to do your bidding?" artemis asked, standing off to the side.

dick continued typing, not looking at her. "i can't make it 'do my bidding'; all i can do is change the microwave conversion. an emp is really just another electromagnetic wave."

finally, he succeeded, pulling the vircator out carefully. gesturing to artemis to bolt out of there. with only a few minutes to go, dick and artemis began creeping out of the hallway and up the stairs to the level that kaldur and m'gann were on, now both unconscious. the only reason that they could get up the stairs unnoticed was the absolutely vulgar insults being hurled at the androids from wally and connor.

"cover me," dick told artemis, attaching his grappling hook to the wall and swinging down to the generator, vircator in hand the whole time. he kneeled down beside it, opening up a panel with enough room for the vircator to be plugged into.

red torpedo and red inferno were distracted by their conscious friends threatening them, but that wouldn't occupy them for long.

dick plugged the vircator into the generator... but nothing happened. "la naiba," dick muttered to himself. "i need a piece of metal to complete the circuit!!"

"ROBIN, LOOK OUT!"

no sooner had artemis spoken, a giant tidal wave crashed into dick. it was giant and freezing and hurt like a madman. dick was one second saving his friends, and the next he was stuck underwater, with no hint as to which direction was up.

part of him didn't want to swim up.

dick closed his eyes, holding his breath but not trying in the slightest to save himself. it was the coward's route, sure, but it was a route nonetheless. suicide by antagonist. a peaceful suicide that would be seen as a tragic death. dick had always been so hedonistic.

-

"robin?? robin, please." artemis' voice was far-off, distant. so easy to ignore.

"robin. wake up."

dick's eyes flew open as his body was reeled upward. his lungs burned as he coughed and coughed and coughed. water spilt onto the floor and even when there was no more, he still continued to cough.

his eyes watered and his throat burned and everything fucking hurt.

the second he stopped coughing, artemis hugged him. "oh my god, oh my god. you're okay, you're okay." she muttered, over and over again.

dick didn't say anything, he wasn't sure he could; he just let his head rest on her shoulder.

after a couple minutes, artemis collected herself, letting go of dick and walking over to m'gann and kaldur, who were both sitting on the floor, tired but alive. dick tried to stand up, he just wanted to go home, but was immediately hit with lightheadedness.

"woah, woah!" wally yelled, "babe, babe, you just drowned. chill out."

dick looked over to him, seeing that both him and connor were still stuck in their metal prisons. "did you just... just call me babe in- in front of the team?" he asked, his voice raspy and hoarse.

wally grinned, though it looked forced. "you need to go to the hospital."

"you- you need to get out of there."

wally deadpanned him, his eyes sparkling. oh wait, those were tears. "i'm glad you're alive."

-

"just try the drill," wally groaned.

"i can't, kid idiot, the emp disabled all electronics!" artemis yelled, her face red. dick was surprised there was no smoke emitting from her ears yet.

"it's not gonna last for too long, genius. everything should be working again."

a loud BANG! sounded, coming from behind them. the door had been flung open and in walked red tornado. the six teenagers seemed to flinch at the sight of his crimson body, but upon recognizing the yellow sign on his torso, they relaxed.

"team? what happened?" he asked.

"two androids attacked," artemis pointed to where red torpedo and red inferno were laying, unmoving. "m'gann and kaldur almost died, and robin drowned. but we're all okay now."

now, that's an overstatement.

"other androids of my likeness?" red tornado hummed, completely ignoring the fact that half of their team was lethally wounded today. "i'm sorry that i wasn't here sooner. i tried to use the zeta tube once i realized that communications were down, but i was forced to zeta nearby and fly the rest of the way here."

a quiet buzz filled the room, electricity, it was. sphere freed himself from the wall and glowed a variety of colours. red tornado walked over to his brethren, reaching out for red inferno's hand. dick stared as a charge of electricity passed between the two androids.

red tornado turned back around to face the team, except his eyes were now glowing red. dick gave wally a worrisome glance and watched as red tornado lifted his arms, sucking the air out of the entire room.

for the second time this hour, dick's vision faded to black as he struggled to breathe. and, for the second time this hour, he accepted this fate with no trepidation.

-

"robin?" a gruff, yet caring, voice boomed. dick could feel himself being shaken awake and he groaned. his entire body was already in pain. no need to add more, bruce. no need to add more.

dick blinked slowly, shielding his eyes from how fucking bright the fluorescents were. "i'm awake."

his voice was still raspy, but at least he could speak without it feeling like he had just sipped from the tartarus river. batman stood right over top of him, staring menacingly.

dick pushed him away, sitting up and looking around. the justice league had arrived, and the majority of his teammates were up and talking to their mentors. wally and connor were still stuck in the intricate metal cages, but flash was on it, and it looked like wally was almost out.

martian manhunter had grabbed ice-cold water for kaldur and m'gann, and they were both looking much better than before. artemis was still unconscious, but green arrow was watching her intently, so dick assumed that she would be up soon.

dick checked himself for injuries. other than some carefully-placed bandages, covering burns, and his very sore body on which bruises were already beginning to develop, dick was ok. he was genuinely surprised to be alive and... somewhat well.

"don't worry, aqualad already debriefed me on everything," bruce said. "you drowned?"

"i passed out." dick argued, coughing into his arm. he didn't mean to, but he could continuously feel the itch on his throat. it also didn't help that he could only take shallow breaths.

"so near-drowned then. that's terrible for your body."

"i barely have any symptoms."

bruce probably would've continued to argue with his ward about the capacity of what he had just endured if wally hadn't run over, falling to his knees and throwing his arms around his boyfriend.

"wally, you're gonna asphyxiate me for the third time today."

dick had meant it as a joke, but wally immediately pulled away, looking guilty. "sorry, sorry. i'm glad that you're okay."

dick smiled, watching as batman awkwardly slicked off, chatting with black canary. "sorry that i scared you."

wally pulled dick into another hug, a much gentler one this time. "it's not your fault that i had to watch you drown. i'm just happy that i got to watch you wake up."

it is his fault.

dick closed his eyes, playing with wally's hair, which was fluffy and orange and soft and handsome. "i guess the team knows that we're dating."

wally giggled, pulling back to look at his boyfriend. "nah, i just called you by your true name: babe ruth."

dick laughed and wally pulled them up off the floor. "so, red tornado's gone, huh. just the ol' 'asphyxiate and run'."

"so are the others," dick noted, staring at the spot where red tornado had turned on them. had almost killed them.

-

after it seemed like wally had accepted the fact that dick was alive and well enough, artemis made her way over, sitting down beside him. she was covered in bandages, treating her burns, but other than that she didn't even look rattled like before. she was silent for a moment, looking around, before she leaned in and spoke in a whisper.

"richard grayson."

dick tried his best to not look shocked at the name. "what?"

"ever since i joined the team, i had this nagging feeling like i knew you," artemis explained, keeping her voice low. "i figured that it was just because i recognized your voice as robin, y'know?"

"continue."

"when you drowned, or near-drowned, or whatever, your mask came off. do you know what i saw?"

"please." dick chuckled. "what did you see?"

"that annoying kid that took a selfie with me on my first day of school." she glared for a moment, before it dissolved into a smile. "i realized that i actually recognized you as richard grayson. you're on the news a lot, you know?"

"you, a resident of star city, managed to recognize a gothamite socialite?" dick raised an eyebrow, playing dumb.

"i mean, you're all over wally's instagram." she leaned in closer to him, whispering so quietly that dick barely heard her. "i know that you know who i am."

dick grinned, patting her head. "i was waiting for you to figure it out. you're actually the first person on the team to, which is crazy."

"not even wally?"

"wally didn't even believe it when i told him my name."

artemis laughed, standing back up. "well, i'm honoured to be the first. looks like batman wants to talk to you, though. keep your lips sealed."

dick waved her away, taking a step toward bruce, ready to exchange some theories about the attack, when the entire cave swayed beneath his feet. dick would've fallen to the floor if it hadn't been for wally, running over and grabbing him.

bruce ran over, looking at the lightheaded, petit, and near-drowned boy of his. "you need to go to the hospital," he said.

"no!" dick shook his head. "no hospitals."

"agent a, then? you need to be checked out."

dick nodded, rubbing his eyes tiredly. "i just wanna go home, honestly."

and so dick waved his goodbyes to his friends, promised wally he would call in the morning, and finally, after all that, he went home.