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The cost of a single grocery shopping trip that will last them at most two weeks is getting kind of ridiculous.
That’s what Dick Grayson, Boy Wonder, is exasperatedly thinking while packing five mustard tubes into a shopping cart, under the bewildered gaze of passersby who probably think he’s completely insane.
The press will probably get a field day out of this. They’re pretty desperate for anything, since all of the Hive Fives members are in jail since monday (hopefully they’ll stay there for a long time, but he’s really not betting on that ).
He pays at the checkout, sighing as he hears a group of teenagers who seem barely older than him giggling. They are probably gathering the strength to ask him for a selfie, which is definitely going to be as awkward as it sounds.
He sighs again.
Better get it over with now.
Except that as soon as he turns around and looks back into the store, they’re gone.
"What?" he wonders out loud, utterly confused. He looks around for any trace of them in the alleys, but he doesn’t see anything. It’s like they vanished, completely and absolutely.
Dick blinks, before shrugging internally and looking back down at his purchases. Except, as soon as he isn’t looking in front of him, he has a bad feeling. A really, really bad feeling.
He learned to trust his instincts a long time ago.
He sets his bags lower down his arms and gets in a semi-defensive position, trying not to be too obvious about his mistrust in front of the other customers.
Speaking of other customers…
Bewildered, he takes a good look around himself.
There is absolutely no one left in the grocery store. No more customers, not even staff members.
With no witnesses needing to be fooled, he drops into a defensive stance, feeling very exposed without anything covering his eyes. He takes a few steps forward and his eyes widen as he hears the telltale sound of a metallic object hitting the floor and rolling.
His mind does an instantaneous rundown of everything it could be : smoke bomb, flash grenade, knockout gas, just flat out explosives…
As he gets a quick mental rundown of all the ways in which he’s completely fucked, a familiar robotic voice interrupts his thoughts with a shout. "Move!"
Before he can even react, he’s hit with the momentum of a body, before said body picks him up bridal style and runs back through the door.
Normally, he wouldn’t react well to being picked up like this, but he heard the alarming " tss " sound of knockout gas and he instead does the smart ( humiliating ) thing: he pushes his head into the black costume and blocks his mouth and nose.
After a few seconds, they finally stop outside, in an alley, and the boy drops him.
As soon as both of his feet are on the floor, Dick looks up and finds himself in front of a familiar face.
Red X.
Who simply says, "Follow me."
He takes a step towards the open manhole and crouches, taking the ladder.
While they did have some qualms in the past, Robin does think he can at least trust Red X to get him out of this situation safely because, for whatever reason, he decided to help a defenseless citizen of Jump City get out of a pretty terrible situation.
Dick Grayson, however, has no antecedent with him, and isn’t in the habit of following known villains (or thieves) around. "I’m sorry, am I supposed to know you?"
Red X looks back up at him, extremely unimpressed."Can we not do this now, Wonder Boy?"
Wordlessly, Dick takes the easy way out and lets it go, not willing to go deeper into this for now (read- why the hell does he know his name ?).
He only slides rapidly down the ladder and extends his (extremely exposed) arm, letting Red grab it, dragging him silently but rapidly through the sewers, like he’s been here before.
While walking, Dick looks around at the slimy walls, inwardly uncomfortable. Last time he was here…
He doesn’t finish his sentence, instead looking back at Red X, who looks particularly pissed about the path they’re taking, but still doesn’t deviate. Periodically, he throws small gadgets that Dick knows are a kind of smoke bomb down, trying to cover their tracks.
Dick can’t stop himself. "Where are we going?"
Red X glances back towards him for a second. "We…"
He abruptly stops in his tracks, narrowly avoiding a collision with him, before putting a finger to his mouth, staring at something behind him.
In the silence, both of them can hear the hiss of something moving back from where they came from.
They look back at each other.
Red urgently says to him. "Don’t come up for as long as you can. Deep breath."
Then he unceremoniously pushes him into the disgusting water.
Fortunately, Dick isn’t stupid. So he pushes through his initial disgust (he’s been through worse) and keeps most of his oxygen by not moving and pushing through the panic. He slowly unclenches all of his muscles as he listens intensely at the noise coming from over the surface. Unfortunately, he can’t hear a lot from where he is, and he doesn’t dare move.
So he does the only thing he can in this situation.
He waits as long as possible and trusts Red with the rest.
//
Red X has had, frankly, a pretty shitty day.
When he heard of a new potential deal of zynothium crossing the city, he marketed the date and prepared for it for months . When the moment came, he was ready.
Just for all of it to go to shit anyway .
At 9 o’clock sharp , he was hiding behind one of the shipment crates, looking for a suspicious merchant with a crate full of the stuff. And, as it is, he just found the jackpot.
Except there are idiots in front of the crate he’s trying to steal.
"Do you have the stuff?"
"Obviously. Do you have my money?"
The first man sighs, pulling the suitcase he’s carrying in front of the other, who opens it and starts counting.
“Where’s the rest of it?”
He isn’t particularly interested in listening to their conversation, moreso waiting until they both get out of the way to get to his primary objective.
“There is nothing else.”
Well, he ponders, at least if they start brawling it’ll be a good distraction to sneak in.
The seemingly older guy gets in the other's face, repeating in an angrier tone "I won’t ask again, dipshit. Where is the rest of my money?"
The younger one doesn't seem fazed. "My employer told me you would be like this. But he will not bulge: it’s this, or nothing."
It only enrages the other more. "He’s seen what this thing can do! I’m not running a fucking charity!"
When the smaller one doesn’t respond, he says "Get out of my fucking place. I’m not helping you."
Correction: when they start brawling, it’ll become a good distraction.
The other sighs "I’m afraid I can’t do that."
Before proceeding to absolutely beat the shit out of the buffer man.
And damn, if Red wasn’t terribly bored (and mad that it was over that fast , stopping him from sneaking around), he would be slightly impressed.
He only stops when the bigger man is unconscious on the floor, wiping his hands on his shirt, and sighs. He bows to the other man’s side, rummaging through his pockets until he finally finds what he’s looking for : a jar.
Disappointing, to be fair. He was kind of expecting a weapon of some kind.
Except, the thing inside the jar is moving. What the hell is that?
The man starts to talk under his breath, barely intelligible from Red X’s hiding spot. "This has to work, come on…"
He twists the lid only halfway before the smoke that’s inside starts to escape, and it makes the man smile as he starts to open it faster.
There’s a pop and a weird hissing sound, and the man yells. "Shadows! I am your new master! I demand…"
A yelp pierce through the air, and Jason watches warily as the man’s body lifts backward, a shadow tendril piercing through its stomach.
The shadows then reform in a human-ish form, letting the corpse of the man fall to the floor, before seemingly looking at a point in the horizon.
Red X follows its gaze to a big poster, and mentally groans. The poster, titled Gotham City’s fashion , stars a slightly younger Dick Grayson posing for a fashion company as the oldest of Bruce Wayne’s children. Uncommon, but not impossible to see, even in Jump City (to Dick’s dismay).
The shadows hiss again, the same noise they did before getting rid of the man as they start to dissipate, as if looking for… something.
Are they going to find- and kill- Grayson?
…shit, now it’s his problem, isn’t it?
Internally mourning the loss of a certainly promising loot, he teleports after them.
He has a feeble civilian to protect.
//
Which is why he is standing right here, in the sewers, trying to protect Dick against… whatever that thing is by using some homemade smoke bombs to cover their tracks.
The good thing about being here (read- the only good thing about being here) is that Jump City’s sewers are well and truly a maze .
So confusing a creature with bad vision should be easy, right?
Wrong.
Because holy shit, is this thing persistent.
Fortunately, Red X isn’t stupid. If it keeps tracking them, it’s clearly not with its sight, or with its hearing. So smell then.
They need to camouflage his smell somehow. So sewer water it is.
//
He pulls Robin out of the water almost a full minute later, as soon as the thing is gone.
He coughs, but he doesn’t complain, and in exchange, Red X lets him take a few seconds to compose himself before continuing to walk toward the tower, keeping his guard up.
After a few seconds, Dick asks, "How did you know it was tracking me via smell?"
Red X sighs. "Lucky guess. It doesn’t seem to understand or hear anything, nor does it seem to see things properly..."
He hums and they leave it at that, carrying on in silence, Dick lost in thoughts and Red X silently laughing at how wet and miserable Dick looks.
//
They get to the tower without further threats, and Dick enters the common room and heads toward the kitchen with all of his groceries, soaking wet, miserable and positively seething.
He drops his bags on the floor and ignores the other boy, who comes in unbearably smug.
Only barely stopping himself from lunging at his throat, he says, "I’m taking a shower."
Red looks him up and down. "Probably a good idea."
After a few seconds of silence, he unwillingly grumbles, "Just… cover me."
Red X just hums, the bastard. Just before he enters the bathroom, he hears, "You owe me!"
He turns the water on as soon as possible.
//
Jason Todd, aka Red X, is having the time of his life .
Well, relatively. It’s still a pretty shitty ass day, overall.
But he gets to explore in all legality the stupid (but kind of cool) tower that he usually has to break into for information.
He promptly hacks all the information related to zynothium shipments before Robin comes back (in minus 5 minutes because what is he, an amateur?) and goes back to stand unassumingly behind the counter, looking around. With a smirk, he gets closer to the television screen. Definitely an addition for Cyborg and Beast Boy. A huge television that can also be used to debrief missions…
Wonder where they got the idea.
In the reflection, he sees the other boy, still maskless, but in new civilian clothes, still wet from the shower and holding a towel. Somehow, he entered the room unremarked.
Not surprising, all things considered.
He grins under the mask and turns around.
//
Robin enters the room and stares at Red X, looking intently at the television screen, deep in though. He knows the exact moment when the other spots him just with the grin he can tell adorns his face under the mask.
He wants to get the important part out first. "I hate you"
"No, you don’t," Red X starts with a self-satisfied smirk, "‘cause your ungrateful ass owes me ."
Robin grumbles under his breath, still focused on rubbing the towel on his dripping wet arms, only pausing for a few seconds to glare at the seemingly disinterested boy who’s looking around the room.
Now that that’s out of the way…time for questions.
"How do you know who I am?"
Red X snorts. "You wouldn’t believe me if I told you."
Robin raises an eyebrow. "Try me."
Red X rolls his eyes. "Your secret isn’t in danger, Wonder Boy. Trust me."
And he can’t believe he’s saying this, but he trusts him.
So he changes the question.
"How long have you known?
"Hm, since the beginning."
Weirdly uncooperative. He’s not even gloating.
Moreso, he’s avoiding the question.
But as he’s thinking, he’s interrupted. "About that favor that you owe me…"
"I’m not helping you steal anything."
Red scoffs."Obviously, I wasn’t going to ask that ."
"Are you going to give me back my suit?"
"It’s mine, so no."
Robin does a slight hand gesture and rolls his eyes, a mix between you got your answer and you’re impossible , and drones. "Then, what do you want?"
Just as he opens his mouth to respond with a very good and not at all improvised answer (what? Does he need to have a reason to save his brother sparring partner ? He’s not always 100% selfish, alright?), something behind him just fucking explodes .
Red turns around in a defensive stance, dropping close to the floor, and glances back at the other boy who also crouched at the noise. He says quickly, "I’ll cover you. Stay hidden." before running toward the noise. He doesn’t look back.
//
Robin discreetly moves toward the rooms in the back, blanding in the shadows.
He doesn’t look back.
He trusts Red enough to know he won't voluntarily sell him out. Unfortunately.
He really, really should have made sure he received those emergency uniforms.
//
The shadows on the wall are moving, but they aren’t focused on him. Rather, they are very intent on finding and, probably killing, Dick.
Normally, he wouldn’t question Robin’s ability to protect himself, but right now, with no costume, no teammates and an identity to protect… he needs to keep them away from him.
Which is why Red X does possibly the dumbest thing to do in this situation.
He runs toward the creepy ass noise.
Obviously.
Having a good view doesn’t make what that thing is any clearer, unfortunately.
It just seems like a clump of whispering shadows, changing form and shape every few seconds.
It seems to be following an invisible tray of what he knows must be some kind of path to Dick.
With no idea where their mouth, nose or any general features (except the vaguest shape of the eyes) is, Red is a little stumped for possible weaknesses. So it leaves the basics.
He takes out one of his explosives and hurls it in the middle of the creature.
It does the job pretty well, all things considered.
The creature howls, a mix of smoke and shadows, and briefly takes an almost human shape before dissolving again.
Interesting.
But, of course, as soon as he gets the creature’s attention on him, the worst thing that could happen happens.
Robin’s teammates show up.
" Stupid fucking day ."
//
When Raven got the break in alarm from the tower’s security system, she was already done with all of her purchases and waiting ( extremely bored ) for the rest of her team to show up.
The alarm obviously changes that.
Her first instinct, basically second nature by now, is to check where Robin is, as well as any injuries he may have via their emotional link.
She can’t even say she’s slightly surprised to see that he is, in fact, also in the tower.
"Oh, that idiot ."
She takes out her communicator, warning everyone that their shopping spree will be cut short (and if she’s slightly scared for his well-being, well. That's her business and hers only.
She has a reputation to uphold, after all.
After the end of the conversation (the others telling her that they are well on their way), she switches the channel.
She has another call to make.
//
Red X doesn’t usually do teamwork.
Especially not with people he’s supposed to work against, not with.
Although right now he’s a little stumped for options, so he just yelps, "don’t attack me, attack… this thing!" which seems to convince them well enough, seeing as both of the girls immediately converge their attacks toward the monster.
The boys eye him suspiciously a second longer but he supposes their trust in the girls instincts is pretty strong, because soon they join in on his side of the fight.
Except the monster isn’t really interested in them.
It resolutely makes its way through everything they throw at it to go further in the room…
Towards Dick. Shit.
Then, a blur appears from the entry of the tower, hitting the monster a few steps back, making it hiss. It solidifies in front of them in the shape of Kid Flash, looking smug.
"Heya, team. Need a hand?"
Raven answers, deadpan. "Us, not really. He might."
They all look behind him to watch as a civilian Dick Grayson runs out of a room, avoiding what would be deadly attacks from the shadows by ducking while, somehow still keeping the facade of being a privileged rich kid who hasn’t had to fight a day in his life.
Kid Flash swoops in and takes Dick Grayson a few meters away from the monsters, setting him on his feet, while the rest of them fight.
Between her attacks, Raven asks Red X, "So why is the boy they’re looking for here?"
Red X grinds between his teeth, throwing another X, "Why would I know that?"
Raven looks at him incredulously, and, oh yeah. Mind reader. "I thought you were going to be here and could take him off my hands while I do more important shit."
Raven cryptically keeps her stare on him for a few more seconds, before turning back all of her attention to the fight.
Then, Kid Flash yells. "Hey, hum. Can we leave this place, think of a plan, instead of wasting our energy here?"
Which is a good idea, because they aren’t exactly winning .
Looking around at them, Cyborg makes his decision. "Team, we need to retreat!"
//
Dick looks around at that.
All of his team are surrounded by shadows, in a bind some way or another.
Cyborg continues. "Everyone head to the garage, we’ll take the ship and move!"
Red grabs his arm and practically hauls him to the ship, following Cyborg as Beast Boy covers their back and Raven and Starfire shoot blindly in the fold, trying to hold back whatever is in there while they take off.
While he hates that he can’t do anything, he understands that doing or saying anything even remotely distracting could compromise everything now. So he keeps his mouth shut until he’s safely in his seat, with his seatbelt (not remotely close to the driving seat, which feels bizarre) and they get Cyborg’s confirmation that they are officially on their way and out of the monster’s reach.
Great news.
Less great news is that all of the attention is now on him.
"So… where are you bringing me?"
Beast Boy and Starfire exchange a look as Cyborg answers him. "We’re going towards the Titans East headquarters, to get away from that thing."
"Alright."
There’s silence for about ten blissful seconds, before Cyborg talks again. "So. Do you know what these things are, or why they’re after you, specifically?"
He shakes his head. "No idea. They jumped me while I was shopping."
Red X interrupts to gloat. "I saved his ass from being annihilated in a grocery store."
The nice thing about not wearing a mask is that he can glare to his heart’s content at Red X.
Kid Flash retorts. "Why is he here, actually? Can’t he leave?"
Red X visibly closes off. "He’s my… I’m the one that found him and got him this far, which means I’m staying to make sure he stays alive, got it?"
"Well, he’s my best friend, so I should probably make sure he’s surrendered by people he can actually trust !"
Dick raises his hand. "Do I get a say in this?"
" No! "
Behind him, Beast Boy ponders "Kid Flash’s best friend is a rich orphan from Gotham?"
Which prompts both him and Wally to look back towards him as Cyborg shoulders him.
Beast Boy reddens, but to his credit, he doesn’t back down. "I mean, how did that even happen?"
He sighs. "It’s a fair question. Not one we can answer, unfortunately, for… privacy reasons."
Keeping it vague.
Wally adds, unhelpfully, "Yeah! You know, paparazzis and all of that!"
Starfire perks up at that. "Oh! These paparazzi you speak of. They are only for famous people, are they not?" She looks back at Dick, staring him down.
He can feel heat rising to his cheeks as she hums. "What have you done to be worthy of their attention, child of the Gotham city?"
Raven stares at him and, as always, she can definitely see through his soul.
And she’s clearly judging him heavily.
He directs his attention back on Starfire, ignoring her for now. "I… I guess it’s more the rest of my… family that’s famous. They usually talk to me for the superficial stuff, like… who I’m dating, or who I’m friends with. To fill their magazines."
Cyborg, who seemed deep in thought, finally speaks up, considering him. "How long have you been living here?" He sighs, crossing his arms. "Not to pry, but, man. How old are you, 15? That’s not old enough to live on your own."
He can’t help but sulk, slightly humiliated. He might be shorter than normal, but he’s not downright tiny! … Isn’t he?
Red X seems highly amused by the entire situation, and he can see a ghost of a smirk playing on Raven’s lips, which he does not appreciate.
"Not that it matters, but actually, I’m eighteen. And I got legally emancipated." He avoids responding to both questions about his living situation and the time he spent here, for obvious reasons.
To his credit, Cyborg does actually look a bit apologetic (but also partially surprised, which. Ouch.), and he does back down. "Alright then. Can you give us your apartment address, so we can escort you home?"
Dick just blankly stares at him.
Realizing how it sounds, Cyborg backtracks immediately. "You know, so we can protect you and assure ourselves that you stay safe in the future."
Surprisingly, it’s Raven that saves him this time. "I don’t know if that’s a good idea. We still aren’t absolutely sure why they’re after him. So it might be better for him to stay here in the meantime. At least in this place we can protect him in familiar terrain."
Wally nods. "Plus, if the problem isn’t solved by tomorrow, my teammates will be back. More backup is always good against an unknown villain."
It seems enough to convince Cyborg, even if he still seems a bit uncertain.
Beast Boy finally says, "Alright, can we go back to talking about… him?"
Everyone directs their stares towards Red X. "Like, how did you find Dick? And why ?"
Red X sighs and crosses his arms. "I was on a job, found a weird man releasing some kind of shadow monsters that were aiming to kill an innocent civilian, decided to stop them, ‘cause I’m not a fucking monster. That’s it."
Just as Kid Flash seems ready to argue, Raven cuts in. "He’s telling the truth. There’s no need to keep debating, since he’s already here. He’s an ally that’s better to have on our side."
Then, Cyborg calls out, "We’re here."
//
They disembark to the empty tower, and as soon as they enter the common room, Beast Boy yelps and ducks under an ongoing shadowy spike, and the hidden shadows come out to attack them.
Cyborg yells. "How the hell did they get here this fast?"
Raven replies the most logical option, while throwing around her own shadows. "They followed us. Maybe they even got on board through the ventilation system, they’re basically made of smoke."
Dick looks at all of this with a frown on his face. If this was under normal circumstances, he could help. Right now, he can only stand there, between Red X and Wally as the shadows attack again, this time aiming directly for their heads.
But especially his.
They also go for his arms, legs and torso, trying to stab him with shadowy spades.
Sadly, they underestimate his capacity to escape even the worst situation…
…as well as the protectiveness of literally everyone around him.
"Back off!"
As soon as a black tendril comes towards him, starbolts, lasers, (good) shadows and lightning block them, keeping him safe in his little civilian corner.
There’s a slight problem with this battle plan, however.
The shadows.
They’re multiplying. Fast.
All of the protectiveness in the world can’t turn those odds in their favor.
Something slams him hard, pushing him into the already fragilized window, effectively breaking it.
He barely stops himself from toppling over the edge by grabbing a part of the wall, unfortunately grazing the length of his other arm with the cutting glass edge.
He hurls himself away from the drop, pressing a hand to stop the blood from leaking from his injury. He looks around at the others, and they all seem too distracted with their own issues to realize what nearly happened. Well, almost all of them, since Red X is side-eyeing him pretty heavily.
He turns around, barely dodging a tendril in time, to see one of the monsters jumping on Cyborg’s back, twirling his black tentacles around his neck, effectively neutralizing him.
From there, his teammates fall like dominos.
Beast Boy gets taken by a cloud of black smoke solidifying as he goes to shift, trapping him against the ceiling.
Starfire gets cornered against a wall, shooting through an overwhelming crowd that finally traps her in black bounds.
Raven gets surrounded by smoke that ties around her mouth and then circles the rest of her body in a vice strong enough to bruise.
Kid Flash gets tripped by a monster and as soon as he touches the ground he gets covered by black smoke, immediately solidifying and trapping him.
Red X still stands behind him. They’re the last ones standing.
Their backs meet and Red X shoves something in his hand and quickly explains the plan in his ear before turning back to face the monsters. As he throws a bomb towards the creature, X mutters "Don’t you dare die, dickface."
It is a truly insane strategy. But it’s the only one they have.
When the shadows start to howl and hiss from the light and heat, Dick takes a few steps back, unwillingly getting closer to the monsters to get a head start.
And then he leaps out the broken window.
//
As soon as Dick leaps, Red X launches forward, laser-focused.
He only gets one shot at this, and if he fails, Dick dies.
No pressure.
As expected, once Dick jumps, the shadows lose interest in the rest of them, loosening their bonds as some of it evaporates to follow him, so he cuts through most of the bonds maintaining the team like butter.
Immediately, Kid Flash disappears, like he planned.
And as soon as he finishes freeing everyone, Red X teleports after him.
Half of the team gets rid of what’s left of the monsters close to them, all getting back up, while the other rushes after the shadows moving out through the window, trying to keep them from reaching their target.
//
During the two first seconds of his freefall, Dick’s half-convinced he’s going to die.
Red lied to him, no one will help him… and then he gets caught by a fast-moving blur, pressed against someone’s chest. Kid Flash.
For now, he hasn’t said anything. Maybe he wants to wait until they’re safely back on the ground.
Although KF has never been known for his patience. "You’ve done a lot of dumb stuff in your life, but swan diving out of a building, Dick? Really?"
He can barely hear him over the wind, but he has a feeling that as soon as they are back on safe ground, he’ll hear about it again anyway.
And he’s right, because as soon as both of his feet are on the ground, Kid Flash turns him around and puts both arms on his shoulders, forcing him to look him in the eyes. "Oh my god, Dick. I love you, but you are so stupid."
Before he can open his mouth to respond, he gets pulled into a hug.
And then punched in the shoulder.
Dick sighs. "Ouch. But I guess I deserve that."
He squeezes a bit harder before pulling out of the hug, smiling a little.
Then he turns around and comes face to face with Red X, standing next to them with his arms crossed. "Not to kill the mood or anything, but the rest of the team isn’t going to keep this thing away for long."
Dick immediately goes back to planning mode. "What are our options?"
Red X shakes his head. "Honestly, not sure. We could head to another of your towers, but…"
Kid Flash cuts in, shaking his head. "At this point we’re only delaying the inevitable. They would catch up on the way there, and we would still be disadvantaged."
"We stay here. At least here we fight in familiar terrain." He runs his hand through his hair.
"Without my suit, I can’t fight this thing. I’m a liability without a long-range weapon. If we knew more about the shadows, I could…"
"We need to use something that burns."
Both boys turn towards Red X, as he continues. "The only thing that seemed to affect them were my explosions. Problem is, it won’t stop them. It just seems to repel them temporarily."
Dick thinks. "What if we could repel them long enough to use some kind of freezing bombs to stop them?"
He sees a spark of understanding in Kid Flash’s eyes. "Then they wouldn’t recover in time to evaporate to avoid a direct attack. It could work."
Kid Flash messes with his hair. "We need to find Speedy. His arrows would work perfectly."
Red X retorts. "Well, alright. Still doesn’t solve how we actually hurt it ; flash bombs don’t work, I ran out of actual bombs ages ago and I’m not even sure if that would even work. I feel like we would need something radioactive . "
Just then, a purple portal opens in front of them, spitting out every Titans before abruptly closing again, as Raven steps out. "I teleported the shadows away, but they’ll be back any minute now. We need to either get moving, or find a new plan. Now. "
Red X replies. "We’re working on it."
Dick suddenly says, "Zynothium."
Red X turns to him incredulously. "The most unstable ore in the fucking world?"
Kid Flash, however, understands where he’s getting at. "What if we could stabilize it?"
"I mean, Robin probably knows how to do it, considering…" Cyborg makes a vague gesture towards Red X, "the suit."
He takes out his communicator. "Speaking of which, where is he…"
"It could work."
Dick’s voice cuts through the conversation evenly, quieter than usual. "Normally, to use a suit like this to move through space, you would need a stabilizer. You can’t use the usual stuff on the market, it’s too unstable to be safe."
Kid Flash brightens. "Right! Yeah, that’s right. We don’t even need to reach Robin, if we just figure out how to use the composant directly in the suit… yeah, I bet we could figure out how to make it explode on command."
Red X pulls at the end of his left glove, fingers hovering over the red X in the center. Dick’s eyes zero in on the action just as he prods at it. He freezes as he watches him pull out a pulsing red piece, removing a protection layer on top of his gloves, and then, squeeze it.
He yelps . "Don’t!"
He launches himself towards Red X, pulling the red material out of his hands and throws it as far as he can. Just in time, because almost as soon as it reaches the upward of his arc, it explodes with a noise resembling fireworks, leaving a cloud of red smoke in the air.
Everyone stands there for a second, slightly stunned, until Dick exhales and pinches the tip of his nose. "Now you know what to do as soon as they're frozen."
Cyborg starts to ask "How…?" but Raven looks at him sternly and he drops it, with an air of for now .
Beast Boy whistles. "Well, at least we know that works."
Red X hesitates. "There’s also just one problem."
They all look at him expectantly. "I’m low on zenothium. As in, I won’t be able to fight for long, let alone use any more of those makeshift bombs."
Dick feels the gears turn in his brain. "Raven. Could you transport all of us to a nearby port?
Raven watches him. "Depends which one. If it isn’t too far, yes."
As soon as Red X catches on, he intervenes, choosing not to think about how the hell Robin knows about the deal. "Close to Wayne’s enterprise."
Raven’s stare focuses on him, before she nods, and chants. "Azarath, metrion, zinthos!"
A purple portal opens, and they’re on the docks again.
Dick keeps going. "Now, can you find Speedy and bring him here?"
She nods, and then she’s gone, as Red X turns around and disappears in a crate full of zenothium, coming out with enough of it to power his suit.
Robin turns toward his team, the leadership emanating from him unmistakable. "Everyone listens to me attentively. Here’s the plan."
//
Barely a full minute later, Raven comes back, Speedy right behind her, who, as soon as he sees Dick, starts questioning him.
"I went to investigate a potential robbery and found half a dozen unconscious bodies in the staff room of a supermarket covered in weird smoke. Ten minutes later Raven shows up, saying the thing that did that is looking for you. What is going on? "
"It’s complicated."
Impassively, Speedy just stands there, crossing his arms. "I have time."
Red X exhales forcefully. "Maybe, but we don’t. These things are trying to kill Dick at all cost and they’ll be here at any moment. We just need you to help us take them down."
Roy takes the hint. "What do you need me to do?"
//
When the shadows finally appear, Robin yells, "Titans, go !"
They’re immediately surrendered by Beast Boy, Cyborg, Raven, Starfire and Kid Flash, who work together to immobilize them long enough for Speedy to take aim and fire an ice arrow on their solid form.
The arrow hits the shadows dead on the barely visible shape of their eyes, prompting a hiss for a single second before they freeze.
The Titans move away from the shadows, just as Red X throws his zynothium explosive to finish them off.
They explode in a flurry of blinding ice and red smoke, disappearing with a screech forcing Beast Boy to cover his ears, as the others finally get rid of the last of them.
Finally, finally, they can drop their weapons and breathe.
And immediately start looking at Dick expectantly .
He groans. "Can we not do this now? I need to sleep for ten hours before having this conversation."
Cyborg reluctantly agrees, but he does add in a serious tone. "Fine. But you better believe you’ll have some explaining to do, Rob."
Speedy and Raven both nod beside him.
The image of Robin being scolded like the teenager he is is so reminiscent of a past life that Red X lets out a laugh, completely unexpectedly for everyone (and himself).
He reddens under his mask and clears his throat, before bowing and saying, "Alright, alright. Well that was… an experience. But now that the innocent and defenseless civilian (he addresses his piques directly at Dick, who rolls his eyes) is saved, my job here is done."
Kid Flash makes a gesture for him to leave. "Yeah, yeah, we get it. Thanks. You can go now."
Just before he disappears, he hears Beast Boy yell. "Is that a poster of you ??"
Jason smirks internally. Just for that, he can almost say it was worth it.
Almost.