Chapter Text
It’s like a faint vibration at the back of Tim’s mind that constantly warmed his cerebrum while active. It was like a comm but in place of crackle and white noise, there was a lurking and distinct invasiveness.
M’gann pulled her slender hands away from his face, her nails scratching against his skin as they pulled away. Her eyes that had been lit up an otherworldly green colour, dimmed down to something more human “I’ve put up barrier’s around your memories.” She stated monotonously, like she had to every other member of the team she’d done this to “No one should be able to see them when we link up. Your identity is safe in that respect, but everything else is down to you. As a Robin, I trust you won’t need to train in the difference between internal thoughts and voiced thoughts?”
Tim shook his head “No, I think I’ve got that covered. This mind link won’t be active unless we’re on a mission correct?”
The Martian nodded, the seriousness on her face easing up immediately “ It will only activate if I or Martian Manhunter have been given permission. Though I should warn you that it’s always active in and around the mountain.”
The Robin stood up from his seat “Perfect.”
Mind linking; Tim can’t say he likes it. He and the rest of the Bats had religiously used comms for communications on missions, which were nearly all high stress situations. Not to judge ‘The Team’ that came before him, but this mental communication thing was wildly ridiculous and borderline not necessary for the type of work they were doing. Sure, they were specialising in 'covert operations' but any team that involved ‘Impulse’ in its roster couldn’t be that dedicated to stealth.
Speaking of Impulse “It feels super weird, don’t it?!” The speedster asked, flitting around the Robin like a hummingbird. The pair were sitting in Bart Allen’s semi-permanent accommodation at the Cave, a standard room made unique with soddy posters and clothes littering every available surface. The longer the time traveler was here the more it was looking to be his permanent residents; it really annoyed Superboy who previously had the space all to himself after M’gann moved out. Tim had been just looking for a place to chill out for a bit before traveling back to Gotham; twenty minutes later and he still couldn’t get used to the buzzing sensation at the back of his mind, and so he sat still in the speedsters room.
Bart crawled over to him, plopping himself next to the Robin on the bed causing the whole thing to jostle “It’s like a tingly sensation that won’t go away.” He continued wiggling his fingers in front of Tim’s face.
“Does it bother you?” Tim asked, straightening himself up.
“Sometimes at night,” Bart shrugged “I usually go for a run to get outta Martian range.”
“That makes sense. Maybe I should head to Gotham than, I feel a headache coming on.”
The speedster let himself fall onto the Boy Wonders lap, acting as a paperweight and pinning Tim to the bed “Aww stay?” he pleaded. The Robin sighed as arms wrapped around his waist to keep him in place more securely. Maybe he would stay a little longer. Impulse by all accounts wasn’t that bad, regardless of what Wally West says. Weirdly enough, he was one of the only individuals on the team Tim was even remotely close to. Possibly because Bart already knew who he was and so trying to keep any sort of persona around him was a losing game; though trying to wrap his mind around how a boy from the 30th century could know him specifically in the future made his brain hurt. So simply, Bart was his friend.
The speedster looked up at Tim, a certain gleam in his eye “You’re my best friend as well.”
The Robin bolstered his shoulders going tense “You heard that?”
Impulse nodded letting go of Robin’s waist and pushing himself up to be eye level with the Boy Wonder “Remember!” he shouted seriously “Internal thoughts and external thoughts. Theres a difference!”
“Yeah you’re right. Maybe I need some practice.”
_Break_
Conner was going to claw out this mental link even if it killed him. It buzzed incessantly at the back of his neck like an annoying fly, constantly putting him on edge. He’d asked to have it removed ages ago, when he and M’gann broke up; but Batman, being the ultimate authority, deemed it necessary for his involvement in the team. However, there wasn’t much of a team left. Nightwing went solo, Kid Flash retired with Artemis, Kaulder was doing something in Atlantis; and M’gann was M’gann. All Conner was left with was the new team that crept in, and he struggles to say he knows any of them well. He’s in such an awkward position being a senior member but not having the ability to age like a regular person. He was six but looked sixteen, the age he’d be forever.
Coming to grips with that was something only others like him would understand, but he was horrifyingly unique.
“So, you’re a clone huh?” Arsenal. The real boy to Red Arrow's clone. He saddled up to Conner with a nonchalant stride, leaning against the metal lined walls of the Cave with a distinct gusto that Conner didn't quite know how to read “Got myself one of those, who’s your donor?”
Conner felt his eye twitch at the former archer; current adrenaline junkie apparently as he's clearly set out to piss off the only half-Kryptonian in the room “Why do you care?” he responded curtly.
“I really don’t.” Arsenal spat with as much discontent as Conner had given him “Making conversation.”
The Superboy looked out across the room at the people he didn’t know; he could respect Roy for making an effort. I wasn't as if he was going to talk to the others, “Superman.” He answered shortly “He kinda wishes I didn’t exist.”
“Yeah well, I can understand that. Least he hasn’t been on ice for the last half a decade.” Arsenal scoffed shuffling a little closer to Conner on the wall “Is it weird? Seeing this team?”
“You could say that. Everyone seemed to age out of this, and I can’t age.”
“That must suck.” Arsenal grunted “All my friends are now older than me.” The ginger pushed off the wall and stood in front of Conner holding his hand out like he was a sleezy little business man “Listen supes, way I see it we’ve been given the short end of the shit stick. Maybe we should stick together.”
Conner raised his eyebrow “In what way?”
The clone feels the buzz in his mind flicker as a direct message floods his system ‘In the way that I’m asking you to come to Star City and have a smoke with me.’
_Break_
“I’m worried about Superboy.” Nightwing voiced to Robin out of nowhere. They’re both in the Batcave at opposing sections working on their own cases. Dick at the massive expanse of the Bat computer while Tim was on his laptop tightly curled around his desk. Had it not been for the echoey nature of the cave, he mightn't have even heard Nightwing.
“Conner?” Tim calls out, lower the laptops lid to get a better view of his co-worker, “Why? What’s up with him?”
“He’s been hanging around Arsenal. They’ve been making more and more trips back to Star City but to none of Green or Red Arrow's dedicated hideouts. I don’t know what they’re doing but I suspect it isn’t good.”
Tim eyes Nightwing’s back, trying to isolate the reason he’s telling him this. Dick wasn’t one for casual conversation; hardened by his own time as Robin, and further by the death of Tim’s precursor, he hadn’t time for much useless conversation. He was a squad leader and a tried-and-true vigilante. He wouldn’t be telling Tim about this unless he wanted Tim to do something about it. Dick grunted turning to face Robin, sitting a little straighter to heighten his authority “I can hear you thinking.”
“I do it often.”
Dick narrowed his eyes at the new Robin “Your thoughts?”
Tim shrugged turning his attention back to his laptop with as much dismissiveness as he could muster, “They’re your friends. They’re your team. You know them better than I would.” he says flippantly.
“You’re saying you, the most observant of us, have no comment on this unlikely team up?”
“Not ones I want to voice, no.”
Nightwing stood from his seat his arms crossing against his chest. He always did that when he was trying to be more imposing “You’re being difficult.”
Tim didn’t say anything, typing away on his computer. At this point he was pretending, hoping the clacking of the keys would somehow deter Nightwing away from him. It only sent the man walking towards him with subtly annoyance growing with each step. He pushed the laptop lid down and moved his hands either side of Tim’s chair, forcing the Robin to face him “Stop being so blasé. I’m here to teach you to lead a team, to do that you need to monitor what going on between its members.”
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Tim bit back “I forget where I signed up to be part of that team. When I found out who Batman was and showed up at your door pleading with you to become Robin again so he didn’t lose his mind- I forget where I asked you to mentor me!” Dick’s face scrunched up but as he opened his mouth to retort, Tim cut him off “Anyway they’re friends.”
“Conner and Roy?”
“Yeah.” Tim reopened his laptop, unlocking it without even looking at it “Dickhead.”
Nightwing pulled away from Robin, allowing the younger man to swivel back around to the computer properly “When did that happen?”
“About a month ago.” Tim replied quickly “Now stop asking me to keep spying on your team.”
“It’s not spying if your naturally observant.” Nightwing grunted “Why are you so against knowing this team.”
“Cause I’m Batman’s Robin, not the teams.”
“Then why even participate?”
“Because he asked.” Tim groaned “I took this role to make sure he was okay. So that Gotham would always have her protector. Everything else is a distraction.”
“So Impulse is a distraction?”
Tim narrowed his eyes at the older man. He'd regretted every telling Dick he had a friend “I never said distractions couldn’t be pleasant.”
_Break_
Dick was mad at him, Connor was sure of it. He’d been doing his darndest to stop him and Arsenal from coupling up on missions. It didn’t work for their outside excursions, but their leader was certainly trying to keep their work hours separate. Which leads Connor to now, sitting in a car with the new Robin facing a Star Labs warehouse; the boy wonder looked equally as unimpressed to be there. To be fair, the other squad had been sent on a covert operation into a Lexcorp facility; sitting in a car waiting for a heist that might not happen was boring in comparison.
Conner looked over to take the new Robin in; he was the third of his kind by his count and boy did he have some frightening shoes to fill considering what happened to the last guy. He wasn’t like his predecessors who had fought to be the top of the proverbial food chain in their teams, this Robin didn’t seem to want anything to do with the team. The only people he initiated interaction with were Wonder Girl and Impulse, everyone else was an afterthought. He was not one to showboat, and most of his work for the team flew remarkably under the table; no one questioned when entrances to high security areas were unlocked, or when none of them were seen on security cameras. If anything, this Robin was much closer to what the public perception of the mythical Robin was, than his two predecessors had ever been. Conner got the impression that he viewed heroism more like a nine to five rather than something they all did out of want for fame and glory, and or moral obligation.
Batman must have a particular vision for Robins because every single one so far was fair skinned with black hair. Standing them all next to each other you might confuse them for being the same person. The only real difference Connor saw was in the hair; unlike the other two, this Robin took the time to style his it. Connor could smell the wax and other products this Robin had used to style it into a kind of lowkey Mohawk. It wasn’t punk-rock or anything, but it was certainly a lot spikier than his predecessors. ‘It suits him’ Conner had thought ‘if nothing else, whatever he’s using to make it that way smells nice.’
It'd been two hours of absolute silence. Robin’s eyes glued to his laptop which had a feed from the security camera’s inside, Conner’s own eyes glued to the entrance of the building. Still his attention was divided. It was unnerving how little the new Robin moved when focused, it was like he was a robot. As they approached on hour three Robin sighed, stretching himself out; Coner was acutely aware of how his joints cracked as the Boy Wonder shook out the stiffness “So do you like Red?” he asked out of nowhere looking over at Superboy. His body creaked again as he used the glove compartment as a pivot to crack his back “All your suits have it accented so I assume you do.”
Connor glances at Robin “I mean, it’s okay. I’ve never really got to customise what I wear.” His hands which had been in his lap, unconsciously move to the black and red superman shirt he’d always worn.
“I’m sure if you asked the League they would give you an actual suit?” Robin shuffles in his seat turning his attention back to the cameras.
“I prefer the shirt thanks.”
The bird boy hummed clicking away on his computer “Not much for Spandex? Smart choice really, chaffs like hell.”
Conner turns his head fully towards Robin, his next sentence stuck in his throat. He wasn’t entirely sure how to carry on this conversation. His eyes travel to the virtual unchanged Robin costume. It'd been that way from coming on three iterations now. “Your suit’s red.” He blurts awkwardly.
Robin’s gloved hands move to his costume, pulling the fiber to be in front of his face. He took a second to examine it intensely before turning to Conner with a dead serious expression “Good God Sherlock, you’re right!” he says dramatically before devolving into a giggly little smile.
The Superclone feels his face flushed, the bird boy was making fun of him, he was sure of it “Well do you like it!?” he shouts.
The Robin shrugs turning his attention back to Conner “I’d say so, red goes well with Black.” He gestured to his cape “The yellow helps.” Robin narrows his eyes at Superboy’s chest, obviously looking at the Superman sigil before bringing his eyes to meet Conners “Y'know I have it on good authority you'd look good in blue.”
Conner huffs, he’s got admittedly mixed feelings on the colour because of it’s associations with his kind of mentor, kind of brother, kind of dad; they’ve never really worked that out. “Maybe.” He takes a second to look down Robin’s form again. The red, black and yellow did suit him, he’s having a hard time thinking what else would could even wear to compliment. There weren’t that many heroes with black hair who didn’t utilise red in their outfits; Wonder Woman and Superman both had it, Hawkwoman had little accents of it; he guessed Zatanna mostly stayed clear of red except for the occasional bowtie. That new guy Kyle Rayner had black hair, “What about…Green?” he asked the Robin who immediately broke into laughter “What?!” Conner yelled feeling his face flush again.
“Oh god no!” The Robin chuckled, beside himself.
“What’s wrong with it?!”
Robin pulled up his cape again to reveal the yellow “Red, yellow AND GREEN? What am I? A traffic light?” Hands flew to Conner’s face to stifle a laugh that almost punched out of him. The visage of the cool and suave teen sidekick dressed as a traffic light is a fantastic vision in this otherwise dull night. He hears Robin continue to laugh through his nose as Conner tries to stop himself from deliriously laughing. The bird boy calmed down a little, his eyes falling more solidly on the clone in his entirety.
‘Oh man…’
The clone shudders feeling the telepathy at work, buzzing at the back of his skull. Being that it’s only them in the general area, the words could only have come from one source, the Robin in front of him. Unlike M’gann whom had been doing telepathy since she could think, the message wasn’t a soft thought slinking into Connor’s mind with practiced ease but rather a little hit to the back of his head from one who’s inexperienced. Just as soon as the message came, another one hit just as quick.
‘…He’s actually pretty handsome…’
Conner did his best to remain neutral, but Robin’s feelings were intertwining with his own. No one had called him handsome before; hot or cute most definitely but handsome not once. He didn’t know if it had a different connotation than the other words, but it certainly felt that way as his heart began the squeeze a nice feeling. Robin seemed just as neutrally happy as he, but Connor could feel the birds cheeks warming, his toes curling in his boot, his eyes drifting. It was like a phantom impression of the other person.
Just as soon as Connor felt all this, he felt it fade away. Robin rolled his eyes closing his laptop “Hey I’ll be real with you. I’m pretty sure Nightwing set us up on this little ‘mission’ to punish me. I don’t actually think anything is going to happen at this point.” He pointed out the windshield towards a car pulling up in the building parking lot “Security has just arrived and in about ten minutes the whole system will turn to day mode for the morning shift people. Any criminal attempting a break-in now are either very confident or stupid; not mutually exclusive.” Robin turned the ignition, the car’s engine roaring to life “So you wanna get breakfast?”
It's three A.M so the only place available to get a feed is McDonalds, not that Connor minded. They went through the drive through, Connor getting a McMuffin meal while Robin only got a tea “I got this one.” Robin announced pulling some cash out of the glove box and handing it to the teenage cashier, who seemed not at all surprised or bothered by the two heroes in her drivethrough.
“I’ll pay you back.” Conner promised only for Robin to shake his head as they drove around to the collection window.
“Trust me supes it’s nothing.”
Robin drives them up to this cliffy area surrounded by trees. There’s a nice view of Happy Harbour through the windshield and Conner takes a second to just admire it as Robin gets out of the car with his tea. He sits on the hood on the vehicle, crossing his legs to create a cup holder for his drink while he looks out over the Bay. Connor joins him pulling much the same move to hold his own coffee. He plucks the hashbrown in the bag egging Robin to take it “You haven’t eaten in a while.” He argues.
Robin sighs, taking the fried potato and taking a small bite out of the top. They don’t talk as they eat but it isn’t as tense as it was when they were on the stake out. They were more comfortable with each other. Conner scrunches the bag of their trash and pokes it into his lap “So Nightwing's mad at you?” he asks Robin.
A little smirk pulls at the birds lips as leans back onto the car, stretching out with an almost triumphant exhaustion “Yeahhhh- I called him a dickhead.” he admits. Anyone one else wouldn't dare call a Bat such a name for fear of repercussion, even the original team had grown weary of Dick Grayson's unorthodox protection under the League. To see someone speak so outright was a breath of fresh air, though Conner understands it's could only be Robin who could do it.
The clone laughs through his nose “That would do it. Why’d you call him that?”
“Cause he was being a dickhead. He thinks just because he's my elder or something he gets a free pass on all the information I have. All my opinions, all my thoughts, ectara ectara. Sometimes he forgets that I work for Batman and not him, and because of that he thinks he can order me around instead of asking.” Robin grits through his teeth “I don’t really want to be on this team to be honest. I’d way prefer to focus my effort on Gotham.”
“Then why are you?” These bird really are an oxymoron. They are by far the most free of all the sidekicks and partners, implicitly trusted to act in the Bat's best interest, and so their leash isn't half as tight. And yet here Robin was, unallowed to choose where he wants to make a difference.
“Batman said I should be. That it would be good for me developing my team building or…whatever. Bit hypocritical from him.” Robin hummed, tapping his pointer finger aggressively to metal “In reality I think he just wants me to keep an eye on Nightwing, and for him to keep an eye on me. It's not too crazy to think about given…well given the last guy.”
“That’s a big ask,” The Bird shrugged looking up into the sky. Perhaps Jason was up there looking right back at him; saying something gruff and yet wholesome no doubt.
Jason was never part of the team; not really. To his credit it wasn't his fault, he was the friendliest kid on this planet, and given more time Conner was certain they would've been friends. But the team was going through growing pains, they were all outgrowing 'the sidekick', and their mentors weren't ready for them to. That left poor Jason in the lurch, and he never quite escaped it. He certainly wouldn't now.
But enough of the past, what was Conner to do now? Asking about how Robin felt about his dead predecessor seemed egregious, even if they were closer. He glances at Robin looking for any sort of clue to what socially he should do, only to find the bird looking crestfallen while languidly laid out on the bonnet. Conner tries not to stare too long but he held a certain allure. Well if he can't talk about Jason, there was another, and Conner could talk on him plenty “Dick has been a bit different since he came back from his solo stuff.” Conner muses “I just assumed he…’matured’…or something.”
“He’s anything but.” Robin snorted "He's peacock Conner! Even when he was Robin he was."
“Well he is a bird." Conner could hear the smaller boy next to him chuckle. They sat there for another second before the clone felt compelled to continue "I think he’s angry at me, or Arsenal. Or both of us.” Conner admits staring out to the city. Somewhere in that skyline is Star City and he'd much rather be there most days “He keeps splitting us up. Which is stupid because we work well together." It wasn't even a lie, it's half the reason he kept seeing Roy.
“To be completely honest he thinks Roy's a bad influence on you. I don’t actually think he wants him on the team- the guy uses his gun arm most of the time, not really something Bats are traditionally okay with.”
“Yeah, I got the impression him being there was more of a favour to Will than anything else.” Conner leans back on the car as well, getting comfortable but keeping a space between them “Not that I’m complaining. Do you have a problem with his gun arm?"
Robin shakes his head and hums “Roy’s good intentioned. He never sets out to hurt people and really that's all you can ask for in this line of work. I can’t blame him for being angry, the light basically stole his life and gave it to someone else. I think it's just confronting to Dick. They were friends once but then…I guess it's just too complicated now."
Connor nods at the sky “He told me we both got the end of the shit stick.”
“Is that why you’re friends?”
“I guess so.” Conner nods “We’re in a weird sorta age limbo.”
“Yeah, I feel that.” Robin turned so that he was lying on his side looking at Superboy “I’m a fifteen-year-old taking care of a forty year old for the sake of my city.”
Conner turns his head to look at the bird boy curling in on himself “and I'm a six year old clone who'll be sixteen forever.”
"Cadmus really cheated you out of that one."
"Well Gotham cheated you out of a life."
Robin shrugs “Batman needs a Robin.”