Tomorrow Robin

The Aftermath

Robin was a little surprised when two weeks later he Zeta-ed from Gotham to the Mountain for training and Miss Martian's link was instantly in place. He heard her and Conner talking to themselves. Usually she could only connect everyone in range as she was linking. He must have Zeta'd in at exactly the right moment.

A day or two later he developed a mild headache while at the mountain. When he Zeta-ed back to Gotham, oh man... the Zeta felt funky; kind of like a tilt-a-whirl on drugs. He had patrol in half an hour and the headache was getting worse.

About halfway through patrol, Robin couldn't stand it anymore. It was like the whole city was buzzing.

"Batman. I need to call it a night," spoke Robin.

Batman looked up from where he was cuffing a mugger to an iron fire escape. He discretely tapped out a code on his belt that brought up Robin's vitals on the cowl cam. Robin's heart rate was elevated and he was running a low grade fever.

With a sharp nod, they were headed back to the Batmobile. "When did you start feeling off?" Batman interrogated.

"I had a slight head ache when we left but nothing concerning. Now, I feel dizzy, nauseous and the streetlights are starting to distort."

Robin fell asleep in the car on the way back to the cave. He got out of the car on his own and made it up to bed under his own steam.

Bruce said nothing about the episode because it was important that Dick speak up when he wasn't at a 100 percent. It was something Dick had trouble with in his role as Robin. Bruce knew his issues hiding injury had to do with Batman's own bad habits. Frankly, migrains because of their irregular sleeping hours weren't hugely rare for either of them.

About half a week later, Dick had no idea what caused it but he started waking up in the oddest places. Waking up in the batcave or the library wasn't too weird but when one night he woke up still dressed in his pyjamas, at Gotham Academy, in his calculus classroom, at three in the morning? It was time to involve Bruce.

"I don't even know how I got here. The school doors were all locked."

"There are no tracks. Your feet aren't dirty. You didn't trigger the household security. It's raining and you're dry." Batman drove Dick home. He asked question after question.

"I'm going to examine the Zeta system and I want to run some tests on you. Sleep in the infirmary tonight," spoke Bruce but his tone, inflection and expression was all Batman. Dick was the colour of wet ash. He was shivering uncontrollably. When Batman started running tests on him when they got back, he was slightly hypothermic and had a massive headache. Alfred piled heated blankets on him and gave him a pain killer.

"You're infused with the type of radiation given off by the Zeta system Dick," Bruce explained in the morning. "It should wear off eventually. The Zeta system has been taken offline for a complete systems check. I'll be taking you up by shuttle to the Watchtower later today for evaluation. The civilian story is we are headed out of the country on business to Russia."

It was a long day. Batman ran tests. Doc Leslie ran tests. Alfred presented Dick with a homework packet from school. Travelling by shuttle to a top secret space station sounded fun but it really wasn't. They were stuck at the airport for hours while the shuttle was loaded with emergency supplies for the Watchtower which was normally very dependant on Zeta transport.

Robin thought Batman was overreacting but he was too excited about a trip into space to protest much. His excitement quickly faded. The hospital gown, weird medical high tech oxygen mask, wack load of sensors, pic-line with IV and assorted on-demand medicines, adult diaper, fancy restraint system and fancy glorified coffin seemed like humiliating overkill. He was starting to get a little concerned. Bruce had tried to down play things but all the high tech medical equipment told a different story. Was he going to end up with cancer? Was his skin going to fall off? What did Zeta radiation do? Travelling patient class was a lot less cool then the spacesuits everyone else was wearing.