Chapter Text
“What’re you doing out of Gotham, Boy Wonder?”
The sudden voice was recognizable, but not exactly welcome. Surely his position, their position, was now recognizable to any others in the vicinity thanks to Superboy's not-quite-whispered greeting. Robin didn’t roll his eyes, if only because he was scanning the room for-
-There-
Robin lunged to the right, striking out with his staff to block the incoming drone from its path towards where Superboy was now floating next to him.
“Right now?” Robin forced the annoyance in his voice to sound louder than the strain of physical exertion that presented as he pivoted to strike down the second security drone which was locked in on Superboy. With both immediate threats handled he leveled Superboy with a flat look and finished his comment, “Saving your ass.”
Superboy didn’t bother holding back his eyeroll. He just reached a hand out and grabbed a third incoming drone, halting it just before it reached Robin. As Superboy crushed it, leading Robin to flinch backwards from a wire that sprung out and nearly slapped him across the cheek, he gave a cocky grin and informed Robin, “You missed one.”
“Watch it,” Robin stepped backwards with a glare, pushing away Superboy’s outstretched arm holding the drone that got too-close-for-comfort in the process. He pushed down his annoyance at the other young hero as much as he could while he continued speaking in the most serious tone he could muster, “When was the security system updated?”
“Huh?” Superboy only blinked with confusion.
Robin pointed to the shattered drone Superboy was still holding and asked again, this time with more words because apparently Superboy needed extra support, “There should only be two security drones in this building. When did they get an update?”
“Probably around the same time the warehouse shipments doubled in size,” Superboy said as if it was obvious. Then, in a tone of annoyed disbelief he continued, “I thought the bats were supposed to be geniuses or something, why is your info bad?”
Robin ignored the question to retort, “The shipments increased two weeks ago, I would have realized-“
“You mean two days ago,” Superboy pointed out.
“No, I mean- Wait, how long have you been watching this warehouse?” Robin’s frustrations were momentarily giving way to curiosity.
“Dude, like, two weeks. After…” A realization passed over Superboy’s face, “Oh. I guess shipments did boom two weeks ago but two days ago they doubled it again.”
That was… certainly useful information. Robin cast a questioning glance at Superboy as he asked, “Why are you watching the warehouse?”
Superboy crossed his arms over his chest and threw the question back at Robin, “Why are you watching the warehouse?”
Robin mirrored Superboy’s defensive stance and very maturely pointed out, “I asked you first.”
“Yeah, well-“ Whatever dignified, intelligent, thoughtful comeback was about to be spoken by Superboy was interrupted by the crunch of a fourth drone being struck down by Robin’s bow staff.
“Whoa, nice shot!” Superboy complimented with a grin, “But check this out.”
His expression gave way to a smirk as he rose a foot or two higher in the air. He snatched another drone out of its flight path and threw it across the room to where two more drones were incoming. Robin wouldn’t admit it out loud, but the guy had surprisingly good aim. The drone-turned-projectile ricocheted off one incoming drone and into the other, rendering all three disabled. Superboy raised his eyebrows at Robin and flexed his hands outwards as if to welcome in feedback, praise specifically.
Robin rolled his eyes and secured a line to grapple off the catwalk and onto the warehouse floor.
“Come on,” Robin instructed, “We don’t know how many more of those are coming.”
“Who put you in charge?” Superboy asked with an expression of distaste, but still followed after Robin.
“Can you hear any heartbeats or are there only drones here?” Robin asked. If superboy was here anyway there was no point in not using his enhanced skillset. The two young heroes have run into each other before, on occasion. They worked well enough together, Robin supposed. He’d consider the other hero a colleague, an acquaintance even. Welcome to collaborate with, but only while their interactions were kept to small doses. The pseudo-clone of Superman certainly had a knack for getting on Robin’s nerves.
“Whaddaya mean?” The boy asked.
“Are we alone or are there people here?” Robin reiterated.
“Well, as far as I can tell we’re alone,” Superboy shrugged nonchalantly.
“As far as you can tell?” Robin could feel his eye beginning to twitch.
“As far as I can tell,” Superboy repeated a bit more sternly. He nodded his chin towards the shipping containers that filled the warehouse and explained, “Those all seem to be lead lined though.”
“Why would someone lead line crates of drops?” Robin asked.
“Drops?”
“The drug,” Robin explained, “It’s a big deal in Gotham, but we had intel that some big players were looking to start marketing beyond Gotham. Tracked a smugglers operation here, I was looking for confirmation of contraband tonight.”
“Yikes,” Superboy said, “I thought these dudes were smuggling alien shit.”
That had Robin pausing for a moment. He cast a glance back at Superboy and questioned “What do you mean ‘alien shit?’”
“Uh…” Superboy shrugged. He furrowed his eyebrows together to think up an answer, “Like space tech. Artifacts. Hopefully not kryptonite.”
Robin stared pointedly, “Hopefully?”
“Well, I mean… Lead,” Superboy gestured back at the shipping containers as if it were obvious, “I can’t be sure.”
“Are you supposed to be in a warehouse packed full of ‘hopefully-not-kryptonite’ right now?” Robin asked incredulously.
Superboy flashed an easy grin, “Oh, no. I was supposed to stay outside and observe. See if any big moves were made or if there were hints of kryptonite anywhere.”
Robin could feel a headache coming on. He asked once more, but with a newfound urgency, “Why are you here?”
Superboy shrugged again, “Honestly, watching this place just feels like busywork from Big Blue so he can say I have experience with stakeouts or whatever. Low risk enough he doesn’t even need to supervise or-”
“Why are you inside?” Robin clarified.
“Well, I saw you go inside. Figured I’d check in.” Superboy spoke as if he was slightly bored.
“And blow my cover,” Robin spoke sharply, “And risk exposure to kryptonite. Do you even know how you’d react to-”
“Hey,” Superboy cut in, “Maybe if you were stealthier sneaking into the building in the first place I wouldn’t have caught you and followed you in.”
Annoyance flared once again as Robin began to move his way around the shipping bin closest to the two of them. He kept his eyes focused forward, listening for more drones, but he couldn’t bite back the remark of, “Oh, so this is my fault?”
“You wanted to be in charge,” Superboy said. Robin couldn’t see him from behind but he could certainly hear the shrug in his voice. Maybe that’s an exercise for him, trying to see how many times he can shrug “nonchalantly” in a day. Maybe he was hoping his shoulders would fill out more from the movement and he would be able to match up to Superman's one day.
The thought made Robin snicker to himself as he retorted with an eyeroll, “I’m not the ‘one-in-charge’ I’m the ‘one-who’s-supposed-to-be-here.’”
“Do you roll your eyes so much to make them stronger?” Superboy asked, “So you can find clues as easy as the big bat one day?”
Robin glared, turning around to face the boy as he insisted, “I am a good detective.”
A cautious smirk spread across Superboy’s face, “Then why didn’t you know about the security updates? Or the alien shit, for that matter.”
“Potential alien shit,” Robin reminds Superboy. Judging by the snort the other hero let out Superboy was under the impression he was winning the argument. Which, honestly, Robin was begrudgingly able to admit that maybe he was. This is a far larger operation than anticipated, with seemingly unknown smuggling elements occurring as well. He let out a sigh and began walking towards where the “office” area of the warehouse should be, assuming his map wasn’t outdated too.
“Where to now?” Superboy hovered right behind.
“Hopefully to find an inventory list,” Robin responded, reaching the small office area and beginning to use his lock pick to get them inside.
“You ever done that with a hair pin?” Superboy asked, almost distracting Robin from hearing the final click signaling the door unlocking.
With a flat glare he answered with another question, “Do I look like I pin my hair back?”
“I mean…” Superboy reached out, seemingly on instinct, to touch Robin’s shaggy hair and almost absentmindedly begin playing with it, “I think it’s almost long enough that you could-”
“Would you cut it out,” Robin swatted Superboy’s hand away. He could hear a whirring of fans growing closer now, no doubt a randomly unlocked door signaling their location. He spoke seriously to Superboy, “I’ll get the info, you handle the drones.”
“Why do you get to make the plan?” Superboy scoffed.
Robin was all but gritting his teeth. They didn’t have time to argue. He hissed out the question, “You wanna poke around the office or do you wanna smash the flying robots?”
Just then Robin could see at least four drones incoming towards them, flying out from behind various shipping containers, locking into their location.
“Fine,” Superboy conceded, “At least I get the fun job.”
Robin rolled his eyes and pried the office door further open. He clung to the shadows casting over the dark room. A camera in the corner, disconnected after only a minute. A camera on the computer, shorted out before clear evidence of his presence could be recorded. Robin -no matter what Superboy said- was extremely good at stealth. He was also a pretty good hacker, fairly well versed with technology. The academics, investigation skills, coding, those all came more naturally to Tim than the athletic skills from the time he first began working as Robin.
It wasn’t that he wasn’t a skilled combatant. He has had a few years under his belt by now, and his combat experience under Batman’s leadership was only further refined by sparring with Dick whenever opportunities presented.. He could hold his own in battle, he could fight and he could win, but his true edge that left him two steps ahead of any adversaries was inarguably his mind.
While downloading whatever files he could manage onto an external drive he scanned the room, looking for anything else that might be useful evidence. The drive was almost finished with it’s download when he heard the clashing sounds of metal and fighting outside the room grow a little louder. Through the door he could hear Superboy call out, “Hey, Rob! You almost done?”
Robin kissed his teeth in annoyance. He almost had all the information.
A loud clatter rang out and Superboy could be heard calling, “Seriously!”
The drive lit green, signaling the download complete. Robin began to eject the device and scrub any trace of his and Superboy’s presence tonight from the system. If they were lucky, the only evidence they were ever there in the first place would be the broken drones they leave behind.
A loud chorus of beeping suddenly rang out through the building. Over the high-pitched, irritating sound Robin could clearly make out Superboy exclaiming “Oh shit!”
The door was slammed open and Superboy was very suddenly at Robin’s side speaking in a rushed voice that could rival a speedster, “WeGottaGo!”
Robin tried to brush off the grip on his shoulders and insisted, “One minute.”
He continued his typing and Superboy gripped onto his shoulders once more. He whispered harshly, “You got like 20 seconds.”
“Hang on,” Robin insisted. Finishing the last few steps in leaving no digital trace. He could feel Superboy’s hands tensing on his shoulders and began to feel concern about what had the guy so worried. Not to mention the distinct lack of drones that followed him into the room. Robin turned to give him the all clear but he only managed to get out, “Okay, let’s-”
Superboy’s grip tightened on Robin as the Boy Wonder was picked up off the ground and flown out of the room. He couldn’t help the yelp of surprise that sounded as Superboy carried him, rushing up towards the catwalk and the skylight Robin had used as an entry point. They were moving fast, so fast that Robin was barely able to catch a glimpse of the sight that filled the warehouse. Drones, easily a hundred and probably more, clinging to the walls, floors, ceilings, all blinking red and beeping loudly. A mass self-destruct sequence. Shit.
Superboy carried them higher and out of the building. In a few seconds they were on top of a hill overlooking the factory, but in the next moment there was no factory to overlook, only a smoking pile of flaming rubble.
“Shit,” Superboy hissed out, watching the flames.
“We are so dead,” Robin matched his tone.
Suddenly a voice was crackling to life in Robin’s ear, “Robin! Come in! Report!”
“Oh, uh,” Robin cleared his voice as he moved to respond, “We’re not dead. We’re fine. We just-”
“We?” The low grumble of Batman was clearly confused and unimpressed.
“Well, you see-”
“Superboy!” A whoosh and an exclamation announced Superman’s arrival to the scene.
“Hey…” Superboy said slowly, with a smile that didn’t quite reach his eyes.
“Robin?” Superman questioned, “Does Batman know-?”
The whir of an engine announced the arrival of the bat-plane landing behind them.
“Here we go,” Tim grumbled.
“Robin,” Batman called, exiting the plane. He redirected his focus on the supers next to him almost immediately then asked directly, “Superman, what is going on?”
Superman crossed his arms, casting a glance over to the smoldering remains of the warehouse before looking back to Robin and Superboy while answering, “I was just about to ask the same thing.”
“There were no people inside,” Superboy is quick to insist.
“What?” Superman asks.
Superboy is still insistent, “Honest. Only heartbeats inside were mine and Rob’s! No one got hurt.”
“And what were you doing inside?” Superman questioned Superboy with a glare that could rival Batman’s. Maybe that’s why Robin found himself speaking up, all too familiar with the discomfort of a mentor wearing that particular expression.
Robin was smart. Robin, Tim, was able to figure out the identities of Nightwing and Batman and Robin when he was only a kid. He was smart and he knew it, only sometimes the instinct of a teenage boy took over and he would find himself doing something as stupid as lying to Superman, which is what happened in that moment when Robin said, “I called him in.”
“You called him in?” The man of steel cast a disbelieving look towards Robin. Batman was suddenly wearing the same unapproving glare Superman was just seconds ago, it was obvious even behind the cowl.
“Robin,” Batman Grumbled, “Report.”
Robin let out a sigh, casting a look towards Superboy who seemed to be staring at him in surprise. Robin turned back to Batman and began to spin an explanation, sticking as close to the truth as he could for both his and Superboy's sake.
“The mission was going according to plan, only once I got inside it became clear that our knowledge of the security measures were outdated. Superboy has been surveilling this building, so I called out for him for backup while I obtained evidence of the shipments.”
“You called for him?” Batman cut in.
“Superhearing!” Superboy cheerily cut in, pointing to his own ears.
“I see,” Batman grumbled, clearly unimpressed, “And how did you know Superboy was actively surveilling tonight?”
“Uh,” Robin paused. Hesitation was not good.
Thankfully Superboy seemed eager to jump in and corroborate the story, probably realizing it was his best chance at minimizing the scolding from Superman he was in for.
“He’s a really good detective,” Superboy said with a smile. For a second, Robin was pleasantly surprised at the compliment. Then Superboy continued, “Seriously, you should see his eye exercises.”
“Knock it out,” Robin nudged his elbow into Superboy, who was now rolling his eyes in circles as if displaying an example. Superboy didn’t move as Robin’s elbow hit him, but did stop rolling his eyes as he cast a teasing grin in Robin’s direction.
“How was the explosion caused?” Batman’s question brought both boys back to focus.
“Oh, like a trillion security drones went into self-destruct mode all at once,” Superboy answered.
Batman shifted his gaze towards Robin, clearly needing a better answer than that. Robin sighed, “A bit over a hundred. Plus more in the shipping containers, probably chain-reacted.”
He held out his wrist to show Batman a small screen where he was pulling up the inventory he gathered from the warehouse while he kept explaining, “Barely any drugs are moving through here, most of what’s being dispersed are high grade security systems and weaponry. And any drugs are moving in to Gotham, not out of.”
“Hmm,” Batman began reading into the new information Tim was presenting.
“So that’s what happened?” Superman said skeptically, “You both decided to work together, adapted to the situation as needed?”
Decided to work together was the word that was tripping Robin up, still, he nodded.
“Your heartrate’s pretty fast,” Superman pointed out. Shit. He did not want to be caught stretching the truth in front of Batman.
So Robin shrugged and pointed a thumb over his shoulder towards Superboy, “I’ve never flown away from an impending explosion. Definitely gets the adrenaline flowing.”
Superboy, the bastard, gave a cocky grin as he threw an arm over Robin’s shoulders and teased, “Thank you for choosing Superboy Airlines. As your pilot today, I gotta say-”
“Dude,” Robin interrupted as he shoved his way out from Superboy’s arm.
Superman, still with his arms crossed, turned to Batman and asked, “Do you believe them?”
Both young heroes froze, attention snapping sharply towards Batman as if his verdict held all the answers.
“I think,” Batman spoke carefully as he passed the information Robin recovered over to Superman for inspection, “That the boys did good work here today. While the outcome is a little more destructive than should occur for a recon mission, they had to -as you said- adapt to the situation as needed. I am trusting them to learn from their mistakes and never get caught up in such a foolishly reckless and destructive situation again.”
“I think that’s the biggest compliment I’ve ever received,” Superboy whispered to Robin.
Superman snapped his attention to the kid, then finally dropped his arms to his side and nodded. He took one more glance to scan over the information in front of him then conceded a nod and agreed, “He’s right. You boys did good work.”
He took a step forward, placing a gentle hand on Superboy’s shoulder, “Next time just give me a heads up of a plan changing.”
“What,” Superboy asked, “Am I supposed to just assume you were listening and-?”
“Of course I was listening,” Superman insisted, “How do you think I knew the place blew up?”
“Oh,” Superboy seemed a little at a loss for words after that.
“I just didn’t realize I should’ve been listening for the both of you, or for you talking to anyone for that matter. It was risky going inside,” Superman reiterated before casting his gaze towards Robin, “We didn’t know for certain if this was a smuggling route for kryptonite.”
“Superboy told me there was risk of that but by then we were both already inside and already fighting off security measures,” Robin hoped that letting superman know that Superboy informed his spontaneous partner of potential field hazards would get the guy a few brownie points at least, “Besides. Inventory confirmed no alien shhh-tuff.”
Superboy snorted, “Nice one.”
“These drones,” Batman’s voice cut through, “What can you tell us about them?”
Robin grinned towards Superboy and said, “Superboy was able to get real up close and personal with ‘em. I’m sure he could write a more comprehensive report than I could.”
“Dude,” Superboy scoffed, “Are you trying to pass on your superhero homework to me?”
“Might not be a bad idea,” Superman cut in with a grin, “Splitting up the work, I mean.”
“Splitting up?” Superboy questioned.
“Well you write the report on the drones,” Superman explained, still smiling wide despite Superboy’s groan, “While Robin writes the report on the mission itself and the intel you collected.”
“I mean, I’m more than happy to just give you a copy of the intel,” Robin tried.
“I’m sure a proper debrief and summary of findings would be greatly beneficial,” Batman said, flicking the corner of his mouth in the closest he gets to grinning behind the mask.
“Fine,” Robin huffs out. It seems even if they did “good work” he and Superboy would both be receiving the punishment of paperwork for going off script tonight. He pointedly did not roll his eyes as he relented, “We better get back to the cave then.”
“I’ll see you around, Boy Wonder!” Superboy declared it as fact with a cheery grin.
“See you around, Superboy,” Robin echoed. Despite himself he felt the corner of his mouth flick into the ghost of a grin. Small doses. He can handle the annoying, arrogant, overexcited kid in small doses. Tonight was even… kind of fun. All things considered.