Robin and Wayne Kid One-Shots

Scars

This part could technically go in my 'kidnapped' one-shots book (shameless self promotion-- check), but said kidnapping is in no way the main focus. Plus I needed to update this one somehow.

This is a popular topic, but I felt like being original in my way of going about it.

Lots of angst. Lots. And kinda torture. Okay, actual torture. So sue me.

And here we are.

xXx

Wally stirred. What had happened? His arms were tied above him and he could feel a dampener collar digging into his throat. He could see the rest of the team around him, restrained in a similar fashion. Except Robin. He was tied, shirtless, to an angled metal slab and trying, unsuccessfully so far, to free himself. But why were they--

It all came rushing back to him. The stakeout, the discovery, the gas. The laughter.

The speedster started to struggle when he realized who they were probably facing. He hoped that he was wrong.

He wasn't.

The clown prince of crime stepped out of the shadows. "Hi there, kiddos. Nice to finally meet the rest of you formally. I've heard SO much about you."

Robin froze, wide-eyed. No, not this, he thought. Not now, not with the team here.

"It's been a bit, boy birdie. We haven't had a checkup in ages!"

"What do you want with Robin?" Wally demanded.

"Didn't I say? I wanted to have a checkup, like old times!" The Joker pulled a light out and shone it on the Boy Wonder's shoulder. "That's a new one! What a beauty! Bullet, .22, right?" He ridirected his attention to his lower torso. "Ooh, and look at this knife wound! Not too old yet, either." It was a thick red scar running along his waist and up his side, compliments of an assassin wannabe from three weeks ago. Wally knew Robin had been wounded in the fight, but he hadn't known it was that bad. The boy wonder had done a good job of hiding it.

Robin hated every second of the involutary examination. His team looked horrified at all the scars he had, and he couldn't do anything to lighten the mood like he would have under different circumstances. He had been planning on showing them eventually, but this was no way for them to find out.

The Joker pulled the teen forward to examine his back. "I remember this one! It's from our first checkup! Why don't you tell your team what I did THERE all those years ago?" Robin responded with stony silence. "It's either you or me to tell them, boy!" the clown cackled.

Robin glared daggers at him with a curl of distaste in his lip. "You branded me."

"That's right, little bird! And I haven't had the chance to test out my new brand!" He pulled out a red-hot iron out. It was a complex variation of a Joker card, none too small. "Let's see what kind of mark THIS makes."

He pressed it against the boy's bare flesh, just above his heart. For a moment, Robin gritted his teeth and moaned quietly, but even he couldn't withstand the agony for long. Within a few seconds, he was screaming.

It was heartwrenching for the team to watch their teammate, always so strong, endure this torture. They wanted with every fiber in their beings to stop it. But they couldn't. They could only pull against their bonds and shout protest.

Once the iron had cooled a bit past red-hot, it was pulled away amidst the stench of burnt flesh.

"Ooh, I like that one! And thanks for putting up with the look-see. It was nice seeing you, birdie!" Joker cackled and stepped away, into the shadows from where he came.

Not five seconds later, Robin freed his right hand. He released his other arm and his legs, then pulled his shirt on, wincing. He then went about freeing his teammates.

Once free, Wally planted his fist in his palm. "When I get my hands on that creep, I'm gonna kill him."

Robin shook his head as he found his cape and fastened it around his shoulders. "I've said that a few times myself. Every time, Batman's told me no. It would be crossing the line, and there's no coming back from that. And besides that, it would mean the Joker wins. The clean-handed heroes committing murder-- it's exactly the chaos he wants. I usually just settle for beating the tar out of him."

"You don't exactly seem like you want to beat the tar out of him now," Artemis stated with a obvious question in her tone.

Robin shrugged. "This is just what happens. It's what he does to other people that really ticks me off."

Wally stepped in front of his raven-haired companion, arms crossed. "'Just what happens'? What's that supposed to mean?"

"It means it isn't important. It's just another day in Gotham. The world spins on. It keeps going on, day after day, with or without us. What I've gone through has taught me to get up and going as soon as possible, literally and figuratively. Life goes on, and I don't plan on getting left behind. Now, are we going to leave, or are we going to stand around here for the rest of the night discussing this?" Robin walked away, pulling his cape tightly around himself.

xXx

So that happened.

If it seems rushed, it's because I had the general idea and didn't really fine-tune anything.

Comments? Questions? Concerns? Requests? Condiments? Refreshments?