Broken

Robin breathed deeply. He knew what Batman had said. “No unnecessary risks” blah, blah, blah, so on and so forth. But this wasn’t exactly “unnecessary”. He gave the thumbs up to Kid Flash and snuck around the corner of the column. This was meant to be a recon mission. Go, get the information, report back. But he had found something that didn’t exactly fit the job description. The Cobra base he and the rest of his team were supposed to be gathering the info from was also where they just happened to keep the kidnapped civilians that they used for test subjects.

So he was going to save them. Batman would also say “Civilians first.” And this was probably a time where civilians definitely came first. He looked around the column as the guards grunted in surprise. Smiling, he sprinted over to where Kid Flash and Aqua Lad were waiting.

“I still think that this is a really bad idea.” Aqua Lad said as Robin hacked the lock on the prisoner’s cage.

“No it’s not. And besides, Batman won’t mind. As long as we don’t get caught.” He replied as the cage doors popped open along the aisle. The prisoners walked tentatively out as Kid Flash ran up and down the row of cells, checking if they were all open. Then everything went dreadfully wrong. Alarms sounded and footsteps echoed down the corridor. Robin spun around as Cobra agents ran around the corner. Oops. It seemed as if the lock were all connected to the security system.

“Guys! Get the civils out of here! I’ll distract them.” He ordered Kid Flash and Aqua Lad as he ran down the corridor towards the guards.

“No, Robin, wait!” Aqua Lad yelled, but Robin couldn’t hear him. He threw a smoke bomb and disappeared from sight. “Man, I hate that kid sometimes.” Aqua Lad muttered to himself and then followed Kid out, ushering the captives to the entrance. As they got out, he looked back and saw Robin calmly jogging towards them, the building behind him smoking and fire alarms blaring.

“See? No problem at all,” he said when he finally caught up. They both jumped and spun around as a grenade blew at the front of the group and the civils screamed.

“Absolutely none,” Aqua Lad replied as they ran towards the explosion. They both skidded to a halt as they saw what was there. Some sort of Automaton had knocked out Kid and was holding him up as if he were a trophy. The civils all stood clustered in a group, surrounded by more, but less scary looking, automatons.

“Scanning,” the freaky robot said monotonously, staring uninterestedly at the unconscious sidekick in his hand. ”Scan complete. Designation: kid flash. Objective: unrelated.”

“Objective?” Robin asked to himself, but he barely had time to think about it as the robot turned and saw them. “Aqua, get those civils out of harm’s way and then come back ASAP. I may need some help taking this big guy.” He continued and ran at the robot. It stared at him almost uncomprehendingly and dropped Kid like a doll it had grown bored with. Robin dodged around it, jumping, kicking, electrocuting, everything he could think of. But the stupid thing just wouldn’t be destroyed. “Why will you not die already!” he yelled at it.

“Order not recognised. Complete objective.” It replied, still in that metallic, monotonous tone.

Then a huge CLANG rang across the yard as the robot hit itself in the face with one of its metal fists. Aqua Lad made it hit itself again, discombobulating it for a second longer.

“Robin! Grab Kid and get to the transport. I’ll follow you!” He ordered. Robin was quite happy to comply seeing as Aqua was doing such a good job at beating up the robot. He ran to the boat, supporting the semi-conscious Kid on one arm. When he got there, he loaded Kid into the back of it with all the captives and jumped into the driver’s seat. Looking back, he saw Aqua Lad running form the half-operating robot, which had a giant dent in its head from hitting itself.