The Competition Mission Re-Write

The Mission

The school had wanted me to compete with my acrobatic skills in this stupid competition, it wasn't like I wanted to do it. To be reminded of my 'what I should have been doing with my parents' with every trick. Yes, I can practise by myself, but to perform. That was what they did, what we did. The flying Graysons. Not the flying Grayson.
But what I wanted even less was this briefing.
"Team, the upcoming talent competition is your next mission," Batman begun, taking care not to look directly at me as my eyes widened at the back of the group.
"What, you want us to beat up some people in front of people for fun?" Wally interrupted, a gleeful smile on his face which suddenly turned deadly serious, "What's the catch?"
"If you would let him finish," Artemis hissed, slapping him round the back of the head.
Wally held up his hands in surrender and B-Man continued, "We have reason to believe that at the final there is going to be an attack. And not just one performer on another. We believe it's going to be something big."
"So why don't we just go for the final?"
"Shut it Baywatch," Artemis said and he ducked as she swiped at him again.
"The reason you are not just attending the final is because we believe it to be another competitor to be the threat. The quicker they are neutralised the better," Batman explained, a very slight hint of exasperation in his voice that you would only hear if you knew him well, "You will be split into a trio and a partner team."
"That makes only five," Kaldur was the one to speak this time, "Who is on the teams?"
"Team one is Kaldur, Wally and Conner. Team two is Artemis and Megan," Batman said, "Robin shall not be joining you as he will be helping me with the training of a new recruit. Dismissed."
"What? Okay, one, new recruit? Two, but Robins our best undercover man! Not even we know his identity," Wally said.
"No arguments, it's already set and you're already entered. Robin is not participating in the competition," Batman bit, "Now go and plan, I have League Business to attend to."
We slowly dispersed from the room, the two teams splitting to decide on their act for the auditions that would hopefully get them through to the show, though I suspect Bruce had already paid the Judging panel to let them through whatever happened.
"Hey Rob," Wally called as he leapt over the back of the sofa and took his usual spot, "Who's the recruit?"
"That's none of your business," I said, sitting next to him, "But if you do need to know she will not be interested in someone like you."
"What? Who doesn't like me? I am a total babe-magnet," He said and I heard a giggle from the girls.
"You keep telling yourself that," I said, "So, what's the team idea?"
We had all sat back down by now on the sofa's as a whole group, each thinking about how they were going to pass this.
"M'ggan and I were going to do something with archery or something like that. But we don't really know how to use Megan's skills," Artemis explained, "So maybe we'll just have to find something else to do, but I don't know what."
"Illusions," Kaldur suggested, "M'gann could use her levitation and mind control to influence choices and make something seem like magic. You could also do a connected minds trick or similar as well, like we see on those talent shows all the time."
"That is a good idea, thank you," M'gann said and jotted it down in a notepad.
"We don't actually have a clue ourselves," Kaldur continued, "We are just so mismatched."
"You could..." Artemis started but she had nothing, as did we all, "Well, you'll definitely need something with water, we know that much," She tried to recover her long pause.
"We shall come up with something by this evening," Kaldur said, "Did anyone catch the audition details?"
"Printing them now," I said and finalised a few clicks on my hologlove as the printer whirred up on the side.
"Next week!?" Artemis called as she read it, "How are we meant to have an act that will get us through to the finals by next week?!"
"Calm yourself," M'gann said, "We will be fine."
"Calm?!" And SB spoke his first words, "How are we meant to stay calm when we are competing against acts who have been practicing for a year and actually want to be there?! How M'gann? How?" He had stood now, red in the face, his flyer balled in his fist.
Talk about anger issues.
Megan shrank back as Kaldur tried to calm Conner down and in a few minutes we were all sat back down in an almost calm manner.
And after another half hour of them panicking I left for the training room.
Whilst they thought they had it bad, I had it worse.
I was competing as Dick Grayson after my school signed me up a couple months ago, and so I was going to be doing a mixture of silks, hoop tricks and trapeze. All in all, it was one of the trickiest things I had ever done, even more so than some of my missions with Batman. I chalked up my hands, swapped my sunglasses for a mask and climbed up the trapeze. I grabbed the bar and swung a couple of times before double flipping to the next bar. I lifted myself above the bar and stood on it, swinging with more momentum now, and then I flipped over catching my feet on the bar until I was upside down and then triple flipped onto the hoop which was now fixed in the middle instead of a bar. I began to swing but quickly slowed until it was just spinning as I sat in it, panting.
"Rob!" I heard called from below and looked down to see Wally, "Batman wants you for a mission in Gotham."
"Thanks," I called back down and dropped down onto the net and bounced off to the side.
I followed him out and left him at the Zeta Tubes as I headed to the Bat Cave. I didn't miss a step as I headed over to where Bruce was sat waiting in front of his computer.
"What was it you wanted?" I asked as I leant on the back of his chair.
"To speak to you about the teams mission." He swivelled round and I changed my stance to make sure I wasn't about to fall on my face, "The description that they have gotten through of the suspect is very vague. All we know is that they are suspected to be doing a sport act and are male. That will put you on their suspicion list."
"Well that's fantastic," I muttered, rolling my eyes to show my sarcasm, though I think even a deaf man could hear it.
"I am just warning you now to be prepared for them to investigate you. You cannot let them make any matches between your two identities," Bruce said, "And that means no more practicing in their cave. I have set up an aerial set the same as the one in the training room here for you to use instead. Dismissed."
Of course, I was slightly peed at this, but at least Bruce has updated the set for me now. Months of begging and all I had to do was enter the team in on a competition. At least I knew for next time.
I went to our training room and checked that he had changed it, and it turns out he had been truthful, but I didn't bother practicing again just yet. Instead I jumped into the shower and changed into my civilian clothes. Just because it's 6 at night does not mean I don't have a social life, in fact, I was volunteering at the gym near my school. I changed into my sports gear and set off at a light jog down that way, leaving a note for Bruce and Alfred in case they weren't watching the cameras.
When I arrived I had shed a light sheen of sweat and my breath was coming in pants, but apart from that I was fine.
"Grayson, you here for another lesson or for your own session?" Kevin, the desk man, asked.
"I got a text from Heather saying that her and Veronica were here," I said, "They wanted another session for flexibility."
"Alright, I'll sign you in. Have fun," He called as I walked into the gym.
I strolled past the first part which had all the cardio equipment in, then the second which had all the Ariel equipment that they added after I said I'd start classes for it on Saturday mornings and finally entered the dance studio where Heather and Veronica were waiting. Along with some other guy.
"Dick, this is Martin, my boyfriend," Heather said as I entered, "Martin this is our mentor, Dick."
"That kid, he's looks 14," Martin commented, a sneer on his face.
I could tell he was the violent type, and he had the muscles to pack a punch that would knock me out. And for the sake of keeping my identity a secret, I would have to let him land that hit.
"16 actually," I replied, "Are you going to be taking part in the session or not?"
"I might," He said lazily and Heather just rolled her eyes.
"Alright, let's get warmed up then." I said as I turned to face the girls and started up our playlist.

Three hours later we had finished for the evening, Martin joining in for a few stretches, and all departed back to our respective homes. I jogged back to the manor, took another shower, changed into an old top and sweatpants which I used to sleep in and headed back downstairs to the kitchen.
"Master Dick, you're just in time for tonight's dinner." Alfred said as I walked in.
"Is Bruce joining us tonight?" I asked as I sat and he placed a plate of beef, peas, carrots and broccoli in front of me.
"Master Bruce is currently away on mission, he should be back in the morning." He replied as he sat down with me.
We ate over small talk and then both cleaned up. Then I headed up to my room, scrolled through social media a while and then went to sleep.