How To Guess a Robin's Identity

Meeting Zatara, Hawkwoman and Hawkman

So, Robin is officially seven now in this little universe of mine. (Also, I know very little about these heroes so apologies).

Enjoy!

When Zatara was called to the Watch Tower, he was extremely annoyed. It was troublesome enough finding someone he trusted to babysit Zatanna when he knew ahead of time but a last minute babysitter was almost impossible. But he had managed it, leaving her and dashing to the Watch Tower, wondering what could be so important that required his immediate presence. Finding out that he was supposed to help look after Robin, Batman's young protégé he only just managed to resist the urge to scream in frustration. He had heard plenty about the young hero - both from other League members and on the news, Zatanna was obsessed with the young hero to his annoyance (he'd had to stop her following him and trying to be a hero herself several times now).

Apparently everyone else the Bat trusted to supervise his kid were on missions and Agent A (whom he had never heard about before) was away, leaving Hawkman, Hawkwoman and him to look after the kid at the Watch Tower. Even if he was upset with the circumstances, he had to admit the kid was adorable. He was wearing his normal traffic light coloured uniform, pixie boots and domino mask as he did when Zatara saw him on the news, although he was smaller than expected - how old was this kid? Said kid clutched a Batman teddy bear in his left hand, which Zatara would never admit to chuckling at, of course the kid adored his mentor enough to have a teddy bear mimicking him. The kid was watching them with a blank face but Zatara got the distinct impression the kid was analysing him just as much as he was doing to the kid.

"Hi kid, I'm Zatara, this is Hawkwoman, AKA Shayera, and this is Hawkman, AKA Katar." He told the kid pointing at each person in turn. Both of the other heroes waved at the kid as they were introduced.

"Hi." The Boy Wonder replied in a quiet voice, starring up at Shayera's wings in wonder. "What's it like to fly?" Robin's question surprised all three of them, it seemed to come out of nowhere from the seemingly shy kid.

Shayera and Katar shared a glance before turning back to the kid. "It's amazing, like swimming through the air with nothing able to pull you down." Shayera replied smiling at the kid.

"I used to fly." The kid's statement shocked them. He looked fairly sad, lost in memories.

Zatara wondered if he meant he was a metahuman or he had wings hidden somewhere. The kid didn't seem to have any abilities from what he'd seen on the news and he hadn't expected Batman to take on a metahuman as a sidekick (not that anyone had expected Batman to take on a kid at all).

"Really?" Katar beat them to asking the question they were all thinking.

"Yeah, well as close as humans get to flying. I grew up on the trapeze." The kid gave a little frown as he continued thinking about it.

Zatara decided to change the topic as the poor boy looked as if he was remembering bad memories. For Batman to have suddenly taken him in suggested he either had a bad home life or none to go back too and that wasn't likely to have been a happy experience.

"Do you like magic?" He asked hoping he could make the kid smile again with a few simple tricks. It worked with Zatanna and surely she was about the same age as him. Robin squealed out a yes and then started jumping up and down in excitement. His face plastered with a giant grin. So that was a yes on the magic front.

"How about I do a spell?" He asked knowing what the answer would be.

"Yes please! Make me fly! That's my dream, to fly again!" The kid was still bouncing up and down.

Zatara tried to think of ways to break it to the kid that he wasn't a genie and it was maybe a bit dangerous. (He had heard about Daddy Bats and did not want Batman killing him for harming his precious ward - it was understandable, he knew how much he would give to protect his daughter). But he made the mistake of looking into the kid's hopeful eyes and decided just this once, he would play genie and try his best.

"Ekam niboR ylf!" He chanted, raising his hands. A swirl of blue surrounding Robin and the heroes starred down at the boy in worry as the light completely covered the young hero. A second later the blue light was gone and, to the heroes horror, so was Robin. That was definitely not good, Zatara stared in horror at the space the kid had been - his magic shouldn't have done that!

Hawkwoman squinted at the spot the little boy had been only seconds before, she thought she could see something moving. She crouched down to try and get a better view when she saw something, She let out a shocked gasp, bringing her hand to her mouth in surprise. She reached carefully towards what she had seen, picking it up and cupping it gently in her hands, moving back to Zatara and Hawkman who were watching her confused.

"Em... Zatara. I think your spell might worked a little too well."

In her hands was Robin, but not the human one, no, a little bird - a true robin. The small robin had the expected red breast and on closer expectation a small black pattern over his eyes - a domino mask. They had managed to transform Robin into a robin.

"We are so dead." Katar dead panned and Zatara had to agree. How were they supposed to explain this to Batman?

The little Bird shook his whole body and tumbled out of Shayera's hands. He plummeted towards the ground rapidly but before actually hitting the ground he unfurled his wings and took to the sky with a joyful chirp. The bird did twirls around the onlooking heroes tweeting out a happy song before soaring towards the roof. Zatara's heart jumped into his mouth - he really didn't want to lose the kid - bird - whatever. To his relief, as soon as the bird reached the roof it glided back down to land on his shoulder with a final joyful chirp.

"Quick! Put him back on the floor and change him back!" Katar shouted, unfortunately his sudden loud shout scared Robin, causing him to stumble off his perch and fly out of the room, leaving the three heroes to gape horrified.

"Yep, we're all dead." Shayera repeated Katar's earlier statement. That seemed to unfreeze the three of them as they leapt into action, chasing after the bird. As they entered the corridor the bird had disappeared into they found nothing. Exchanging glances they silently agreed to split up. Zatara turning left and Katar turning right, with Shayera taking to the air straight down the corridor.

Three hours later and the heroes had almost given up. They felt like they had checked every room in the Watch Tower twice, tearing through rooms and corridors alike (gaining many an old look from other heroes moving through the Tower). Zatara and Katar lay on the floor exhausted and trying desperately to fins a way to explain to Batman that they had his ward without getting killed (without any success) as Shayera checked over the security cameras hopelessly trying to fins any sigh of the small bird.

Zatara was shocked out of his thoughts by a small chirp. He shot up to a sitting position, trying to find the source of the sound. His eyes met empty air and he sighed, had he really gotten so desperate that he had started imagining it? Then there was a second chirp and he spotted the elusive bird perched on top of the computer that Shayera had been typing on. The bird fluttered to the centre of the room, sitting on the floor in front of him. All three heroes started at the bird in surprise, the bird was staring the three down and when they did nothing but look at him chirped for a third time expectantly.

It hit Zatara - he was waiting to be changed back! He quickly jumped up back onto his feet, , filled with new energy. he rolled his shoulders, pulled back his sleeves and got ready to do the spell. "Egnahc niboR kcab ot a namuh!" He chanted, hoping the spell would work. He really didn't know what he would do if it didn't.

A familiar blue light swirled around the small bird, Zatara held his breath as he disappeared from sight pleading for it to work. As the light vanished, Robin (the human) was left standing where the bird had been. All three heroes cheered - they wouldn't be killed by Batman today!

"Thank you, Uncle Zatara, Uncle Katar and Auntie Shayera!" Robin exclaimed before skipping off as the zeta-tubes activated and a computer announced the return of Batman, Flash and Green Lantern.

They barely noticed that however, too distracted with the young hero's last sentence. Did he just call them Auntie and Uncle? Oddly all three liked the warm feeling that spread in their stomachs.

At that moment Flash walked in, to see the three heroes with smiles on their faces.

Flash grinned. "I see, you've been Robined. Welcome to the club." He left the room laughing to himself. Oh, he was couldn't wait to tell Green Arrow about this.

Zatara definitely had a new tale to tell his daughter, although he sincerely hoped the story never got back to Batman.