Chapter Text
The mission went so wrong.
How did it go so, so wrong?
It was just supposed to be a simple recon mission, all they had to do was sneak their way into an office building owned by a Lexcorp shell company and investigate their more than likely shady business quietly.
But as always, the team was incapable of doing things quiet. Or even simple, for that matter.
It hadn’t been long before they were discovered. Robin can‘t even remember what did it this time – If Superboy lost his patience again, or if Kid Flash was just being his usual clumsy self and accidentally stumbled into the path of a guard’s patrol route. Whatever happened, the team had to scatter. Last he checked, the majority of the team was keeping the guards busy on the ground level, while Robin headed into the upper floors of the building, still trying to at least gather some intel so that the mission wouldn‘t end up a complete disaster, even if it already was quite heavily leaning on the dis. Kid Flash had followed him of course, like he always did.
Someone has to watch your back, he had insisted, the same way he has said it a thousand times before, whenever he went after Robin who had a habit of breaking off from the team without saying as much as a word every once in a while. It was a familiar routine at this point. Robin would disappear, and Kid Flash would rush to find him to provide the support he needed but never bothered to ask for.
So, here they were again; Robin was working to hack a computer on the top floor, which turned out to be much more complicated than anticipated because the security was very, very tight. Which just made him all the more determined to crack it because such overly complex security meant that these guys really had something to hide. Kid Flash, meanwhile, alternated between looking over his shoulder and disappearing every now and then for a split second or two to check if they were still in the clear.
So far everything was fine, but both of them knew too well just how fast that could change. Especially because in the last update Aqualad gave he told them to hurry up since the team was getting swarmed and rapidly losing ground. It was only a matter of time until some enemy forces slipped past.
Which is exactly why Robin was flooded with relief when he finally succeeded with getting into the system. Typing rapidly, his eyes flew over the screen, scanning for anything suspicious. Which, wow. There was a whole lot of suspicious activity going on. A lot to go through, with so little time. He‘d have to prioritize. Some of the stuff was being downloaded into a drive he had thought to pluck in beforehand, anyway, but there was no way of telling that it would get everything, especially since they‘d have to disconnect it and get out sooner rather than later.
So. Prioritizing.
“You see anything pressing, KF?“, he asked distractedly, because no matter what, Kid Flash would get much, much faster through the wall of information than Robin ever could. The direct prompt caused the speedster to lean more over his shoulder in order to get a better view, even if Robin was sure that he had already been reading with him.
Then, Kid Flash pointed at a folder somewhere in the bottom left corner of the screen. “There! Looks like they‘re developing some kind of new weapons. I‘d start there. Since, you know, we’re the ones that are gonna be attacked by those.“ Without hesitating, Robin clicked on the folder, only to be presented with an overwhelming amount of data, unable to do more but skim it in a rush.
Bla, bla, bla... Explosive blasts. Something, something… Huge force behind them… Stored in a lab two stories below the top floor they were currently in.
Before he could reread the passages about their exact effects, the door to the office room they were hiding out in was suddenly slammed open. Immediately, Robin yanked the drive out and pocketed it in his utility belt for safekeeping; Kid Flash was already running at the guards that stormed in. All he managed to take out were two men before something suddenly slammed into his side and threw him across the room and out of the window as the glass broke with a deafening crack upon the brutal impact.
Robin could do nothing but watch, his heart plummeting as he watched his best friend be thrown from the top floor of the very, very high building they were in.
That split second, just the sight of it, was enough for mission mode-Robin to just turn into thirteen-year-old Dick Grayson in an almost violent shift.
Because it was like Dick seeing the trapeze snap all over again.
Someone else he loved, about to fall to their death.
No.
No.
Wally wasn‘t about to fall to his death. Because Dick could catch him. He would.
This time, he wasn‘t powerless to do something.
Shaking himself out of his stupor, he broke into a sprint, ducking and weaving to dodge the shots and blasts and swinging fits. Somehow, he managed to evade all the attacks before diving out of the shattered window, eyes immediately fixing on Wally‘s falling form. Angling himself to be more aerodynamic and trying to manifest himself to fall faster by pure force of will, Dick tried to close the gap.
It would be a close call. Very close. Too damn close. The ground was getting nearer every second, and it did so nauseatingly fast.
It did not help that Dick had to actively blend out the memory of the sickening sounds his parents’ bodies made when they hit the floor in order to focus. This was no time to be distraught, he had to get traught right fucking now. He had to, so he wouldn’t have to hear that sound again.
When he finally reached out to Wally, it was almost too early, his fingers just brushing past him at the first attempt before finally managing to grab him and pull him closer at the second. Judging from the limp way his body flopped around in the air, he was unconscious and thus, fully unhelpful. But that was fine. Dick was entirely capable of wrangling him close and crushing him against his chest with a death grip in order to get a good grip on him himself.
With his other hand, Dick fumbled with the grappling hook, not taking as much care as he probably should when he aimed and fired it. But he was trying here, okay? It managed to catch somewhere, anyway, although it was perilous at best; The line went taut for only a moment as it caught the combined weight of Dick and Wally before it lost its precarious grip and slipped, making them tumble down the rest of the way, which thankfully wasn’t very far anymore. It had broken their fall just enough to still hurt like a bitch, and probably resulting in a few bruises to bloom soon, but not enough to cause any more injury, as Dick at least still was mindful enough to maneuver both himself and Wally to land as safely as possible.
He didn’t give himself a second to let out the breath he had been holding in before he laid Wally out on the grass, checking for any damage. There was a huge hole torn into the left side of his suit, showing the bloodied and burnt skin underneath. That looked like it would be painful. Dick was sure he wouldn’t hear the end of it once Wally woke up. But Wally would heal. He always did. Faster than other people, too. Of course he did, because he did everything fast. So he would be fine. Totally fine.
Dick’s heart was still pounding in his chest.
Why was he still seeing a body that was all mangled and broken each time he blinked? Because Wally was fine. Well, not fine. Not really. Not right now. Not yet. He was injured. Quite badly, too. But there was no pool of blood spreading out below him; He didn’t break any bones, all of his limbs were perfectly fine and normal and not twisted at all. He was still breathing. It was nothing like the worst case scenario that was still playing out in Dick‘s mind. On repeat. It didn’t help that Dick had seen the worst case scenario happen before. It only made it all too easy to project it onto Wally.
His mental spiral was interrupted by shouts in the distance. God, the rest of the team. How long had it been since they last checked in? It felt like an eternity, but right now, every second felt like it was stretching on forever. Maybe it had only been a few minutes in reality and Dick was freaking out over nothing. But what if something did happen? What if they were attacked by the same weapon Wally had? Only one blast had been fired, and it had packed quite the punch. Enough so that it could probably hurt even his superpowered friends. It had already hurt one of his superpowered friends. Damn it, Dick really should have thought to inform the others. He should have warned them. They could be seriously hurt, all because Dick- Robin didn‘t keep it together.
There was another shout, much closer this time. Only… It registered faintly in Dick‘s mind that it didn‘t sound like any of his friends. But before the implications of that could sink in, something hit him in the head, hard, and everything went black.