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The sharp crack of the back of Robin's head against the concrete was unusually loud. Everyone went still, all at once. Cissie looked at Robin with something like horror on her face, Cassie was eying the exits and vibrating slightly like she was about to try and escape, and Secret just looked confused. She was the first to break the stillness and approach Robin, crouching next to him in her incorporeal form and poking at him slightly.
Robin jerked awake. Secret wasn't sure if he was reacting to her touch or if he was just sensitive to being stared at. Her money was on the latter. Cissie and Cassie both cautiously approached, Cassie's eyes still darting and Cissie's guilt almost palpable.
Robin stared at them blankly. It was his disappointed look. It was almost impossible to meet head on and it made Cissie bow her head and play with her fingers guiltily. Robin tilted his head.
"What happened?" he asked, his voice quiet.
"I didn't mean to!" Cissie insisted immediately. "You've got to know that. I didn't do it on purpose."
"Okay," Robin agreed. "You didn't do it on purpose."
"It was really Cassie's fault for distracting me," Cissie attempted.
Cassie made a noise of disbelief and hurt. Cissie glanced at her, but she couldn't contort her face into anything even resembling an apologetic expression. Cassie frowned, but ultimately didn't say anything. She knew Robin was less likely to kill two people, thus why Cissie was spreading the blame.
"What did she distract you from?" Robin asked, his voice as calm as untouched lake and holding just as many unfathomable depths.
"Cissie wasn't trying to shoot your rope," Secret posited.
Robin hummed. He looked down and noticed the rope lying beside his hand. Cissie looked even more guilty, when he looked up again.
"Okay," Robin said, and he really was being much more agreeable than he usually was.
Usually, mistakes like this earned them long lectures on paying attention to their surroundings. Robin had very high expectations that he held them all to, unfortunately, and so it was rather strange, his lack of visible annoyance or disappointment.
The three girls stared at Robin. They expected him to snap out of his strange mood and start talking in his Disappointed Mother voice. What he actually did was wobble to his feet and catch himself on the wall when he nearly fell over.
"Are you okay?" Cassie asked, her worry over being yelled at replaced with worry about Robin. "You fell from pretty high up."
Robin seemed to glance at her, or he at least looked in her general direction, but he didn't say anything. He rubbed at the back of his head, and all four of them jumped when he pulled his hand away to find blood.
"I'll go get Red Tornado!" Cassie exclaimed, already halfway across the room.
"Oh my god, Robin," Cissie said, feeling vaguely like she was about to throw up. "Oh my god."
"Do you want to sit down?" Secret asked.
"I don't know why you're so concerned," Robin commented, his own surprise at the sight of his blood seemingly forgotten. "Heads bleed more than other places. I'm not dying."
He tried to stand up straight and let go of the wall. He listed to the side and nearly fell before Cissie managed to catch him. His fingers dug into her arms for a moment, and the visible part of his face looked tinted green. He removed one hand to palm at the wall and replace Cissie as his support.
"Maybe I should sit down," he admitted, and the very idea of Robin agreeing with one of them when they advised him on his health was almost terrifying.
He slid down the wall until he was sitting with his back against it. Secret noticed that blood was trickling down the back of his neck. Robin fell silent, and Cissie's concern for him was growing by the minute. This was definitely not average Robin behaviour.
Cassie returned in a whirlwind with Red Tornado by her side. Red Tornado only glanced at Cissie and Secret before lifting Robin up to stand on his feet again. Cissie felt all the guiltier. Robin nearly fell to the side again, grabbing onto Red Tornado and clinging to his arm to stay stable.
"Are you feeling okay, Robin?" Red Tornado asked, concern in his tone.
"Not... really," Robin admitted, his voice very quiet.
Cassie and Cissie were officially panicking. Red Tornado also seemed surprised by Robin's easy admittance.
"Cassie told me what happened," he said. "You probably have a concussion."
"Okay," Robin said, as agreeable as earlier.
"Let's call Batman," Red Tornado said.
"No!" Four voices rang out in unison.
Cissie and Cassie both glanced at Secret, who was as insistent as they were on not calling Batman, which was strange for a variety of reasons. She shrank a bit under their stares.
"He scares me a tiny bit," she reminded them softly, holding her fingers close together.
He'd probably take Robin away from us and never let him return if he knew he was hurt by our actions, she didn't say but was thinking very loudly.
They looked at Robin, instead, who was struggling to stand upright.
"You don't need to call him," he said. "There's really no point."
"You're hurt," Red Tornado stated. "Let's at least take you back to Gotham."
"We're not in Gotham?" Robin asked, surprise in his tone.
"No, we're in the Justice League Headquarters," Red Tornado said gently.
"How did we get to the Justice League Headquarters?" Robin questioned. "What are we doing here?"
"Robin, are you feeling alright? Your breathing and heartrate have picked up-"
"This is the strangest kidnapping I've ever experienced," Robin sighed, before he threw up and the topic was lost.
It took over an hour for things to settle down. Robin lay sprawled on a bed in the old medbay, his expression as calm and collected as ever. If it weren't for the cold washrag on his head and the fact he couldn't move without dry-heaving, he would almost seem normal.
"Why do you think this is a kidnapping, Robin?" Red Tornado asked very gently.
"Well, I don't think it's one anymore," Robin told him blithely. "There's no way Red Tornado would kidnap me. My vision was just kind of blurry, that's all. I couldn't recognize anyone."
"Do you recognize anyone now?" Red Tornado asked.
Robin fell silent. He didn't answer for long enough that Red Tornado sighed, an unprecedented sense of resignation filling him that he'd never experienced before.
"You said I have a concussion, right?" Robin began instead of being forthright. "I'll remember everything in a minute."
"You don't remember anything?" Cissie exclaimed.
Robin went very still. He shifted a bit, then relaxed again.
"To be honest," he said, "no, I don't."
"You don't know who we are?" Secret asked, her tone vaguely sad.
"I know that I should know you," Robin assured her. "The exact details escape me at the moment."
"Batman's gonna kill me," Cissie stated, holding her face in her hands. "He's gonna hide the body and nobody will ever find me."
"You'll be a missing person's case for years until an unlucky traveller stumbles upon your body-" Cassie said.
"Stop!" Cissie insisted. "You aren't funny!"
"I mean, it was kind of funny," Secret said.
"It's not a joke if it's the truth!"
"I don't think Batman will kill you," Robin said. "Unless I've forgotten more than I think."
"You didn't see the way he looked at Superboy when he pretended to drop you," Cassie commented.
"Batman won't kill you," Robin said firmly, slowly sitting uprigt. "I'm fine."
"Are you starting to remember everything?" Cissie asked hopefully.
Robin smiled pleasantly. Cissie immediately tried to escape, but he snagged her arm and kept her in place.
"What have I told you about paying attention to your surroundings before you shoot?" he questioned.
Red Tornado, Cassie, and Secret all sighed in relief. Robin was back to normal.