Who's robin?

Robin and Batman

6 oclock quickly arrived and robin left mount justice like he always did. He slipped out the door discreetly, went out to the garage to his bike, and sped off towards gotham. He made sure to drive in circles several times on his way there. Batman was adamant that he never be followed. Sometimes if he was particulary worried he made robin hide off the roads for an hour and keep watch.

Some people might consider it excessive, but robin knew how important batmans rules were. Every single member of the team had tried to secretly follow him home on multiple occasions. He never let them know he was onto their spying. It had gotten to the point where he had made a game of it. How long did it take him to lose each team member? Artemis had followed him the longest. He once almost made it to wayne manor before realizing artemis had tailed him the whole time. He had to go hide in an abandoned building before finally getting rid of her.

He didnt mind that his friends wanted to know where he went each day. He was the only one on the team who knew everyone's secret identities, and yet no one knew his. It had to be so frustrating. Almost made him feel bad for them...almost. He still took every chance to hang it over their heads how much he knew. After all, it wasnt a true friendship if there wasn't some good old fashioned teasing going on.

He finally made it to Wayne Manor and made his way to the underground entrance. An extensiv cave system was located just underneath the house. It was ideal because there was only one entrance. An entrance which Batman had covered with a large stone wall. To an outsider it just looked like a large boulder. 

When Robin pressed his hand to it though, the stone directly around his hand glowed a subtle blue. "Robin b278k2" he clearly enunciated. " analyzing DNA match" a robotic female voice replied back to him. A few minutes later the rock turned into a gelatin like material. It was still there, but with a bit of effort he made it through. The material was made from an alien prototype superman had given batman as a gift. The only DNA even able to get through the stone was robins, batmans, and alfred. With anyone else it wouldnt change its state of matter and be as tough as 4 feet of solid iron.

Robin walked in and found Bruce sitting at his desk.

"You ready for the Gala tomorrow Richard?" batman asked

Robin groaned and plopped down on one of the couches. "Do I have to go Bats? Maybe I could just go undercover with the team this year?"

Batman sighed and looked back at him. "You know that wont work. if you went with the team they'd find out your identity. Besides, the whole city would talk if richard didn't show up to the party."

Robin tried to control his frustration. "Bruce...dont you ever just get tired? tired of pretending to always be someone youre not? The whole city just thinks youre some idiotic playboy. Would it really hurt if they just...found out?"

Bruce slowly stood up and walked over to robin. He put his hands on robins shoulder's and looked him directly in the eyes. "Richard. I know this is hard. Heaven knows I put more responsibilty on your shoulders when you were ten than most people face in their whole life times. But that why i know you can handle this. If people find out our identity, it become almost impossible for us to save the lives we do. The board Wayne foundation would take away the whole fortune. But more than that, we cant do the things we do without anonymity, without hiding. Even if it means hiding from the law, from this city...even from your friends."

"But why cant I just tell my friends?? I get not telling the whole city but whats wrong with just telling wally, artemis, kalduran, meegan, and superboy?"

Batman's grip on robin's shoulder tightened. "Richard. you tell one of them and theyll tell there families. there families will tell everyone. Or what if one of them is captured and they are forced to give away your identity unwillingly? Do you have any idea what sort of danger you'd be in? I couldnt handle it if I knew you were hurt from letting you join crime fighting with me"

Robin looked back at bruce and could see he'd finally gotten down to the actual issue. Bats was afraid. Afraid of the only family he had-him and alfred- getting hurt. He disagreed with bruces logic, but knew there was no way arguing out of it. Batmans overprotectiveness  made sense; he had watched hi whole family killed in front of him decades ago.

He decided to just drop the issue. "So what's the plan for tommorrow then?" robin asked.

Bruce was once again all business. " The gotham tribune will be there. You'll need to give a comment on the donations to the orphanage and what it was like growing up in the orphanage.  Talk to some tabloids, plenty of the social elite..."

"I know that Bruce. what about the other stuff? Why is the team coming?"

"oh that. well thanks to your hacking, we've finally found out the criminal circle that inflitrated wayne tech. My sources say theyre coming to the manor to steal the weapons while the parties going on.  Its our only chance to find out who they are. "

"Ok makes sense," said robin, "but why do I still have to show up as richard?"

 " If the waynes dont show up to the gala, they'd become suspicious and halt the operation. And in case something does happen, you and I have to keep the cover of ordinary civilians. They thinking theyre stealing from Bruce Wayne, not batman. If we start openly fighting criminals instead of letting our body guards take care of it the whole city will immediately become suspicious. It could blow our whole cover."

"So we're just going to stand around and talk while my friends think they're wasting their evening protecting two rich incompetent idiots?" asked robin.

"Correct," said batman failing to notice robins frustration. "The ones with us shouldnt have to do anything. Its just Kalduran, superboy, and Meegan who have the actual fighting to do. Now go find a tux for tonight."

With that batman turned back to the dozens of computer screens behind him. Robin knew that meant he was done talking. He took of his mask, and headed upstairs.