The Batpoint Paradox

Batman and Robins: Public Enimies

*Wally
Who the hell was Batman? That was the question that had been running through my head on a loop ever since the black clad criminal had eluded me days ago. The Bat themed villain had managed to escape with the help of yet another ninja like accomplice before I'd been able to detain him. Though after finding out how easily he'd taken down my teammates I'd begun to doubt the likelihood of my actually being able to apprehend the man at all.
Four new villains in one evening, clearly bat guy and his friends were no ordinary criminals, they'd taken down almost every member of the team that we'd sent with such ease and in such a short period of time that they'd quickly become one of our highest priorities. We hadn't seen much of the one who'd aided the "Batman", he'd worn a red and black costume, a black cowel similar to the at one, just without the pointy ears. Like the rest of them appeared to have a multitude of tools and weapons easily accessible during battle, though while the others wore belts with pouches, the red and black dressed villain pulled his from a set of crossed bandoleers across his chest. The other two, the ones who had triggered the alarms were just as much of a mystery, but in a different way, the bigger one bore a striking resemblance to the Gotham city crime Boss, Red Hood. However there were two major distinctions from what I could tell, first there was the red bat logo across his chest plate, and second, unlike the real Red Hood he favored rubber bullets as opposed to real ones. Between the two of them though it was the younger guy's costume that really irked me, it was clearly a rip off of my good friend Roy's little brother's first hero identity; Robin.
Who were they? And what was their plan? Clearly the first guys were a distraction so the other two could get something from the science wing, we didn't know wha yet but we had people combing through the whole building and with any luck we'd soon learn what they were after.
I'd just gotten off work and was on my way to base, I knew there was sure to be some new information on our baddies waiting for me when I got there. We had the entire Justice League database at our disposal, not to mention access to most of the US government's resources, no matter how good they may have seemed they were no match for us. With that in mind I was optimistic as I made my way into HQ, there was no reason to let that bat guy get under my skin, I'd never let a no name criminal do so before, there wasn't a reason to start now.
I spotted Donna immediately as I walked into the common area, we'd been going out for about a year and by all rights I should be the happiest guy in the northern hemisphere, and I mean I am, really. Donna's the best there is, next to WonderWoman herself Donna is it, much too good for me really, I'm one lucky SOB. She's fierce, brave, intelligent, and so incredibly strong, both physically and mentally, and don't even get me started on her beauty, the woman's a literal goddess. I'd been hitting on Donna since the moment we met, honestly I never actually expected her to give me the time of day, hitting on women way out of my league was one of my favorite pastimes. Yet for some reason after years of bad come-ons and near constant flirting, she actually said yes to one of my countless, basically second nature come-ons. At first I thought she was just messing with me, it'd been known to happen, Zatanna had enjoyed yanking my chain on occasion, and Kori flirted like it was a sport, but Donna was usually pretty straight up, in the past she'd always just smiled fondly and jokingly scolded me. When I realized she was serious I figured it was best not to question it, no reason to look like anything less than absurdly thrilled like I should have, so I just went with it, and a little over a year later there I was. Even now though I still hadn't quite figured out why she was with me, Donna's never been the type to settle, never been one to tolerate BS of any kind, certainly not mine. Honestly I'd always kind of figured that she had my number, that she'd had it since the very beginning. I'd always been of the opinion that nothing got past the great Donna Troy, sometimes I wondered if she knew more of our secrets than Lilith did. All things considered though I really wasn't in the place to look a gift horse in the mouth, if Amazon warrior goddess Donna Troy wanted to date me than I should count my blessings. With that in mind I busted out my brightest smile and sped over to her, in less than a millisecond she was in my arms and I was pressing a soft peck against her smiling lips, things were good.

"Right on time Flash boy, I'm in need of a sparring partner and I think Gar's afraid of getting his ass handed to him by a girl." Donna quipped as she dragged me onto a training mat.

"Hey! I'm not that I'm afraid of getting my butt kicked by a girl, I'm afraid of you whooping me so hard I can't sit for a week, I saw the shape Virgil was in after sparring with you last week. Nu uh, count me out wonder chick!" Gar exclaimed defensively, really I couldn't blame him, Donna hit hard, and if you didn't have some kind of invulnerability or speed healing you were likely to end up in a world of hurt. Luckily for me the speedforce had my back, besides I'd been sparring with Donna for years and I'd gotten pretty good at it, so twenty minutes later when she slammed me into the mat I was able to roll out of the way of her fist before she put a crater in my face. After that I figured it was a good time to call it, didn't wanna push my luck.

"You're lucky you're fast." She smirked.

I just laughed, "Fast, what? Who said I was fast? You just like me too much to turn my face into applesauce."

She snorted, "Either way, luck." She smiled and offered me a hand, I took it and pulled her back down with me.

"Can't argue with that."

She just shook her head and bounced back up, heading towards the showers.

After she was gone I stayed on the mat for another minute looking around to see who all was there. Gar had watched our fight for a bit before wandering off, I saw Aqualad and Bumblebee sparring across the room, but what caught my attention was the dark haired archer talking to Superboy. He was a relatively new addition to the team, I'd had very few missions with him and even fewer conversations, but for some reason whenever he was around it was a constant battle to keep my attention off of him. That of course was a major concern for a few reasons, I mean he was Roy's little brother, not to mention I barely knew the guy, and three, well I really didn't want to go there. Despite my logic and reasoning though the pull or whatever it was seemed to be getting stronger by the minute, part of me had to wonder if the guy was hiding some kind of attraction based superpowers or something. I'd gone my whole life without feeling something like this, I'd been around alien princesses, amazons and any other number of beautiful young people, but that one man, that seemingly inconsequential person is somehow under my skin in a way no one else ever has. It was maddening, I attempted to distract myself with the contents of the communal fridge, going as far as to stick half my body into the cold space, yet at that moment I could feel his eyes on me, even though I couldn't see him, I could just tell. I forced myself to stay leaned into the fridge until the feeling dissipated, chancing a glance over my shoulder I saw that he was talking to Roy, I couldn't make out their words but he seemed to bounce between amused and uncomfortable. Finally Roy gestured towards the monitors a few feet away and they began to walk in that direction, I looked at the screens they were walking towards and shook my head thankful for the reminder of what I should be focused on. Doing my best to push my confusing feelings aside I followed them across the room to where the team was beginning to gather around the screens, displayed on them in high definition the masked faces of the mystery villains stared ominously at the room. Alright "Batman" whoever you are, time to spill your secrets.