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The Justice League’s latest meeting had once again dragged on far past the allotted hour, and Barry did not hesitate in heading straight to the nearest Watchtower kitchen the second it was over.
Alright, he could admit that the delay was slightly the fault of the group of Leaguers who often derailed the topic at hand, a group that may or may not have almost always included him. But in his defense, Batman’s briefings were so boring, so really, could he be blamed for doing whatever it took to not make him literally fall asleep right there on the meeting room table?
Whatever. It was over now, and as Barry finished up the rest of the pizza that had been left behind in the fridge from the last party the Justice League had held (since Batman was allergic to fun, he hadn’t come, of course), he switched to thinking more happy thoughts; mainly, how he couldn’t wait to finally get home and fully relax the evening’s stress away.
“Hungry?” Superman asked bemusedly as he walked into the room to fetch his own snack, eyeing the open pizza box sitting in front of Barry.
“Not anymore,” Barry grinned, the last bite of the last piece vanishing down his throat. He paused. “Okay, I mean, I’m always a bit hungry. But I think I’ll catch a bite to eat on the way home… believe me, I’ve lived through quite enough lectures on eating all of the leftovers in the fridge.”
Superman raised his hands in a gesture of innocence. “I wasn’t going to say anything of the sort, I promise."
Barry believed him, because Superman was honestly a saint. “Well, still, you know what I mean. Anyways, I’ll see you for tomorrow’s shift?”
“Tomorrow,” Superman agreed with a smile. “Have a good night, Flash.”
But of course things could never be that simple; just as Barry was about to take a zeta beam down to Earth, he reached for his comm and realized it was nowhere in sight.
…Damn. Well, at least there were really only two places he could have left it (the kitchen or the meeting room), so it wouldn’t slow him down that much. He checked the kitchen first (“forgot something?” Superman asked knowingly, and Barry gave him a sheepish smile of agreement), but it wasn’t there, so all that was left was to zip over to the meeting room.
There it was, luckily, sitting on the table right in front of his usual spot. Somebody had probably found it and put it there for him, which was nice of them.
With that thought in mind, Barry was fully prepared to head right back to the transporter room to re-continue his plans of getting a(nother) bite to eat, doing a quick patrol, and heading home. But then he heard something; a voice from the room adjacent to the one they had just met in. Batman’s voice. Barry was extremely not interested in getting roped into another mind-numbing speech on protocols or whatever, but he was curious, so he stopped just outside the doorway, expecting to overhear Batman scolding one of Barry’s poor teammates or something to that extent.
What he actually heard made his blood run cold.
“…went over the monitor schedules today, and I made sure to give myself a slot alone on Friday, so you should be able to come in then without anyone else noticing.” Batman paused, evidently listening to the person on the other side. “No, nobody should suspect a thing.” Then silence for a bit while the other person said something. “Red Hood should be able to cover you on that, correct?” One final pause, and then Batman grunted in agreement to something and put a hand up to his hear. “Good to hear. Batman out.”
Barry had never been so glad in his life to have super speed, because if he hadn’t been able to process the horrors of that conversation within a split second, Batman undoubtedly would have caught him and done who knows what with him. As it was, he barely zipped back to the meeting room in time before he could see Batman’s shadow as he stepped back into the hallway.
And then, because his luck was the worst, the man stepped into the meeting room.
“...Oh, hi, Batman,” Barry said, only just managing to make his voice sound vaguely normal.
Batman narrowed his eyes slightly, and Barry waited with bated breath for him to call him out. “I found your comm unit on the floor after the meeting,” was all the man said after a moment, though. “You’re a hero. It is your duty to keep control of your personal belongings.”
“...Okay. I will. Do that,” Barry said.
Batman’s lips thinned slightly. “See that you do.” And then finally, blessedly, he walked out of the room.
It was another five minutes until the zeta beam announced his teammate’s departure, and Barry’s heartbeat settled back to his normal.
Not to say that he was fully calm. How could he be? Apparently one of their most trustworthy teammates was a traitor, a traitor in league with at least two supervillains, a team who together apparently had plans to infiltrate one of the most secure bases on (or rather off) of the earth.
They were screwed.
Of course, the first person Barry went to was Superman. He was both the most obviously reliable person any of them knew, and he was still in the kitchen, ready to listen with rapt attention as Barry recounted what he had heard.
“That is… deeply troubling,” Superman said at the end, his expression as serious as Barry had ever seen it. “I believe you, but I think we should go to the control room and make a copy of the audio log from that room so that we can share it with the rest of the League.”
Barry nodded immediately; he had known coming to Superman had been a good idea. “Captain Marvel and Martian Manhunter are on duty right now, so we can tell them too.”
“Good idea,” Superman agreed, standing up and moving to the doorway. “After you.”
The audio logs from that room in the time period Barry had overheard that conversation were not on the Justice League computer. It was as if that entire period of time had simply not been recorded.
“This is grave news indeed,” Martian Manhunter agreed as he and Captain Marvel too listened to Barry’s story. “We must alert Wonder Woman and the other Justice League members of this immediately. Although…” His expression grew even more somber. “For the time being, I believe we should consider our communication devices unsafe to use for this matter. If Batman and his mysterious villainous allies have the ability to alter our recording systems in this manner, we must consider that they have some level of control over our technology.”
Barry’s gut curdled with even more anxiety, if that was even possible, but he nodded tightly. He was right. “What should we do, then?”
Superman pondered that for a moment. “We will have to pass the message on through word of mouth,” he decided. “We know when Batman’s ally is infiltrating the Watchtower, and they don’t know that we know. We need to take advantage of that. On Friday, when Batman has his solo shift, as many of us as are available will need to be laying in wait to arrest him and the other villain together.”
The other three nodded their agreement, sharing serious looks with each other. This was a deep betrayal, one that none of them had ever imagined would come, but they would work through it together.
On Friday evening, Batman arrived for his shift in the control room. As planned, he took over the positions of Green Arrow and Zatanna. Barry wasn’t there to hear it, but the two of them had agreed to ask Batman if he was working alone, a final litmus test to gauge his intentions; if he lied, that was the final proof they needed that he really had gone to the dark side.
Sure enough, when the two of them returned to where the rest of the League was lying in wait, their expressions were somber.
“He lied,” Zatanna said. “He said he wasn't expecting anyone else to show up for the entirety of his shift.”
“Thank you, Zatanna,” Wonder Woman said, smiling grimly. “I know you have a prior engagement, so you may go home now. As for the rest of us, we will be here.”
And then they waited. In the end, they had managed to gather a sizable team; Barry, Superman, Wonder Woman, Captain Marvel, Martian Manhunter, Black Canary, Green Arrow, and Aquaman. For a threat this unknown, they had had to prepare for the worst.
Just as Barry was beginning to worry that he’d somehow made all of this up and he’d just hallucinated everything he thought he’d overheard, the zeta beam device suddenly fired up, something it only did when someone was coming through. And then the voice over the speakers made an announcement;
“Unknown. Override; B-01.”
It was true. It was all true.
The group waited with bated breath as the villain materialized in the beam.
And it was…
A kid?
Well, a teenager. But whoever their mysterious villain was, there was no world in which he was a grown adult.
Regardless of his stature, though, this was certainly no civilian. He wore a close-fitting protective suit in red and black with yellow accents, and a cape fell from his shoulders. Most obvious of all, a red domino mask obscured his face, hiding his identity from anybody who would try to identify him.
He also looked perfectly at ease in the Watchtower, not even hesitating before heading down the hallway that would take him straight to Batman.
Unluckily for them, this was the very same hallway in which the Justice League was lying in wait.
“Stop where you are,” Superman commanded, moving directly into the path of the young villain. The rest of the group filed out too, a few of them circling around to the back of the villain, just in case he tried to make a break for the zeta beam.
The villain stopped in his tracks. “...Huh.”
“We know you know Batman,” Green Arrow said, pointing at him.
The villain frowned and tilted his head to the side. “I… do, actually, yes.” His words sounded carefully measured, his tone neutral.
The way he was acting combined with just how young he was had clearly gotten to more than just Barry, though, because Wonder Woman stepped forward first, her expression soft. “You’re young,” she said. “You don’t have to do this.”
“You…” The villain’s next words sounded amused. “You think I’m a villain.”
“We know you’re a villain,” Superman said, although his voice was similarly gentle. “We overheard Batman’s plan; schedule a shift where he alone stayed on the Watchtower, then smuggle you on board, with help from the crime lord Red Hood. I will admit we don’t know the full story, but we do know that you’re just a teenager. Turn yourself in now, tell us Batman’s plans and let go of your villain persona, and we’ll make sure no harm comes to you.”
“Tell us Batman’s plans,” the villain repeated, and this was not going how Barry had thought it would, because the next thing that came out of his mouth was a hysterical giggle. “Hold on, you… you think Batman is a villain too?”
The mood shifted to confusion, because this was really not going how a single one of them had expected this to go. “...Yes?” Black Canary said, although she sounded just as unsure as Barry felt.
The villain was silent for another moment. And then suddenly he broke out into peals of laughter, his next words barely audible through it. “You… oh my god this is the funniest thing that has ever happened to me.”
Finally he managed to contain his laughter, straightening back up. The corner of his mouth kept twitching upwards, though.
“So… you’re not a villain,” Barry said, just to make sure, because that made no sense.
“No, I’m not a villain,” the… mysterious person said, an edge of amusement still very audible in his voice. “I’m a vigilante. Red Robin, at your service.”
A hysterical part of Barry’s brain almost said yummmm out loud. He suppressed that part of his brain as violently as he could (and only just barely succeeded).
“But you work with Red Hood,” Aquaman said, which both a much coherent response than Barry’s, and also just a very good point.
“Oh, well, yeah,” Red Robin agreed. “But he’s not a villain either.”
Green Arrow squinted. “Red Hood as in Red Hood the crime lord? Didn’t he fill a duffel bag full of human heads-”
“Yep.”
“-and almost murder some kid?”
The amused smirk was back. “That would be me, yeah.”
“That… would be you.”
Red Robin pulled down the collar of his suit, just slightly, enough to expose the pale line of a scar running horizontally across his neck. “I’m fine, and that wasn’t Hood’s fault. Magically induced murderous psychosis, you know how it is.”
…Unfortunately, they actually did know how it was.
“We… deeply apologize for the assumptions we have made,” Martian Manhunter said, the first one to recover enough to actually know what to say in response to all that. “However, we do still need to know why Batman decided to keep your presence here a secret from us.”
The smile that appeared on Red Robin’s face was gleeful now, there was no other word for it. “Oh my god, this is the best day of my life,” he muttered to himself, and then straightened up to his full height (which wasn’t much, but it was clearly the principle of the matter). “So you know how Batman is always going on about how he works alone and doesn’t need help for anything ever?”
“Yes,” Superman said immediately, since he was always the #1 person to recommend all of them to lean on each other for support whenever they needed it. He was not a fan of Batman’s refusal to even so much as let another hero set foot in Gotham.
“Well, guess what; he’s a liar. There are actually, like, eight vigilantes in Gotham, and he hasn’t worked alone in so long. He was only a vigilante for like a year before he got his first crime-fighting partner, and-”
“That’s quite enough, Red Robin,” Batman’s severe voice came from behind the League. They whirled around in shock, not having noticed that he had arrived. He eyed them all, looking like he had observed that fact too and was incredibly unimpressed by it, but surprisingly didn’t mention it. “...I do suppose this wasn't a secret I would be able to keep forever,” he said instead, his voice extremely begrudging. Honestly, Barry hadn’t even known that Batman could be begrudging.
“Spoiler and Nightwing owe me money,” Red Robin agreed smugly.
“Spoiler?” Barry said, immediately latching onto the new name. “Is that one of your teammates?”
“Isn’t Nightwing that Blüdhaven vigilante?” Captain Marvel said at the same time.
“Yes,” Red Robin agreed, although he didn’t specify who he was talking to.
“Red Robin,” Batman said, and… reached a hand up to massage the bridge of his nose, like a tired parent. “Remember what you’re here for.”
“Yeah, yeah, the system update can wait,” Red Robin said dismissively, as if dismissing something Batman was something that could even be done. Then again, Barry was learning a lot tonight, so maybe it could be. “This is way more interesting. I'm so glad you were too busy watching the news on Earth to notice half of the Justice League lying in wait for me."
"Clearly I need to update the protocols for switching out shifts," Batman said, which was at least a little bit more like the no-nonsense man Barry knew. Well, thought he knew.
Red Robin nodded, clearly agreeing with this plan. "But for now... oh, the others are going to be so glad that you've finally been forced to stop coddling us."
Batman. Coddling.
“...I'm sure they are,” Batman said gruffly, though, which was pretty much the nail in the coffin of Barry’s perception of Batman’s personality.
Red Robin grinned. “Does this also mean you’ll admit that these guys are your best friends?”
...Never mind, it had somehow gotten weirder. With that, Barry bluescreened.
"I have other friends," Batman said gruffly, but Red Robin just scoffed.
"Who? Your grandfather? Your doctor? Your rogues?"
"Red Robin," Batman repeated again, his voice even more firm this time.
Red Robin narrowed his eyes at Batman, and a short staredown ensued. "Fine," Red Robin said eventually, and rolled his head in a way that made it abundantly clear that he was rolling his eyes as well. "I'll go do the update. But just know that even though you think you've won this battle, you've definitely lost the war." Then he strolled off down the hallway in the same direction he'd been going in before, cheerfully heedless of the Leaguers who had to step out of his way in the process.
And just before he disappeared around the corner, Barry saw his hand go up to his ear, and then more and more faintly as he got further away; "Hey guys? I have great news, and the funniest recording ever to send you once I'm done this update..."