The Birthday Surprise

Ch. 3: Birthday?

M'gann was in the kitchen baking cookies and also trying out a new cake recipe she found on the internet the other day. As she pulled the cookies out of the oven, she saw that she had burned them again.

'Why can't I get this right?' she asked herself.

Just as she sat the tray of cookies on the counter, Wally came zipping in.

"Hey beautiful," he said as he eyed the cookies.

M'gann smiled at him and replied, "Hey, Wally."

Wally snatched a cookie from the cookie sheet and bit into it. As he finished that cookie and started on another, he looked at the oven and saw that there was a cake in the oven.

"What's the cake for, beautiful?"

M'gann turned to him from the dishes she was washing then looked toward the oven. "Oh, I was just trying out a new recipe that I found on the internet."

"Oh," Wally replied snatching yet another cookie and leaving the room.

As soon as he stepped into the other room, the computer announced the arrival of Flash.

"Uncle Berry, what are you doing here?" Wally asked heading straight for his uncle.

"Well, I overheard Bats talking about Robin's birthday and how he was planning something for him. I asked if I could help and he said that if I could help with the decorating he would be grateful, so here I am. I brought the decorations and I was hoping maybe you would help me set things up."

Wally's eyes got big when he heard that it was Robin's birthday. "No way! It's his birthday today?"

Flash smiled, "Yep, and Bats wanted to do something for him for you kids."

Wally looked totally confused. "For us? Isn't it Robin's birthday?"

Flash laughed. "Yeah, but Bats thought you guys might want to celebrate Robin's birthday. You can't very well go to his other party, then you would find out his identity and Bats doesn't want that."

"Oh."

M'gann came into the room and saw Wally and Flash talking and went over to them.

"Hey, I didn't burn the cake," she said excitedly.

"Great, that's one less thing we have to worry about," Wally said grabbing a few decorations and racing to put them up.

M'gann looked at him confused then turned to Flash. "What's he talking about?"

Flash grabbed a few streamers then turned to her and replied, "Well, it's Robin's birthday today and Bats was gonna do something for him here so you guys could celebrate it with him, but Robin doesn't know anything about this."

M'gann got excited. "You mean a surprise party!" she exclaimed a big smile coming to her face.

Flash laughed a bit and started hanging the streamers. "Yeah, something like that."

"Hello Megan. That's why Wally said that. My cake can be his cake. It's a good thing I bad it big," she said as she headed back to the kitchen to ice the cake.

Flash shook his head, with a smile on his face, and continued decorating the room.

YJYJYJYJ

After Flash and Wally finished decorating the room and M'gann finished up with cake and the other food for the party, Aqualad and Superboy enter the cave. They had been out helping Red Tornado with a small dilemma.

"What is going on," Aqualad asked.

Wally came racing up to him and replied, "We're having a party for Robin's birthday."

Wally didn't even wait for Aqualad to respond, he raced off to kitchen to see how M'gann doing on the party food.

"Did he just say Robin's birthday?" Aqualad asked Superboy.

Superboy just looked at him as confused as Aqualad looked.

Wally raced into kitchen, "Hey beautiful, how's the food coming?"

"Great. I got the cake decorated and I got the sandwiches made and I was going to ask you if you could go get some ice cream, I haven't quite figured out how to make that yet," she replied not even turning around from the sink with all the dishes in it.

"Great, as soon as Rob gets here we'll get this party started. Hey, where is Rob anyway?" Wally asked as he looked at the clock. "He should have been here hours ago."

M'gann stopped washing the dishes and turned to look at the clock. "Yeah," she said looking at Wally, "it's six-thirty, his school gets out at three-twenty."

Wally and M'gann went to find Flash.

"Hey Uncle Berry, when's Rob supposed to be here anyway?"

"Well, Bats called around three- forty-five and said that Robin would be a little late getting to the cave. That's one reason why he thought it would be a good idea to do the party today."

"Yeah, but should he really have taken three hours to get here?" Wally asked.

Flash looked at them a bit shocked. "Three hours? He should have been here an hour or so ago. I better call Batman and try to figure out where he is."

Flash goes to the computer and gets a hold of Batman.

"What's going on Flash?" Batman asked a bit confused at they're call.

"Well, we were wondering where Robin was. He isn't here yet and he should've been here hours ago," Flash answered.

"He hasn't showed up yet?" Batman asked.

"No, and we got the place all decked out in decorations," Wally replied.

"I'll try to find out where he is and let you know. If I need you I'll..."

"Wait!" M'gann exclaimed. "Look!"

Wally and Flash turn to the entrance of the cave, while Batman can only look forward and wait for someone to tell him what's going on.

"Dude!" Wally yells before running over to Robin.

Robin stagers into the cave about to collapse on the ground. He had cuts and bruises all over him, his uniform was torn in a few places, and his cape was completely gone.

"Rob, what happened?" Wally caught a falling Robin.

"Guy... park... girl... trouble," he got out before he passed out.

Wally looked over to his uncle and Flash looked back at Batman.

"You're gonna want to get over here, Batman, Robin has been beat to a pulp."

Batman nodded then cut off communications.