Should I try to do a first person Robin story one day? Spice it up?

Thanks to Jenny_Mythical_Witch for the title name

Edited 07/02/2024: format changes and small additions

Robin didn't like it. He wanted it to stop. He needed to think but he couldn't no matter how hard he tried to stay traught. All he could do was hug his knees and pray that they don't find him. How could he ever fight back? As much as he liked to pretend he could take on anyone and anything, he was still human at the end of the day. A human with minimal supplies since he didn't come in knowing he was going to have to fight for his life. Together, the team was much stronger than him so hiding was his only option until backup arrived. So under the table, he sat, waiting for things to go back to normal.

Suddenly, he heard footsteps enter the room. They were coming towards him, he knew it. He held his breath and began to crawl cautiously to a new hiding space. The footsteps paused so he paused. His heart was going a mile a minute and it took all his strength not to hyperventilate.

"Robin, it's okay. Everything's fine now," M'gann's sickly sweet voice called out. "Just come out." His eyes narrowed, not believing a single thing she said. Silently, he crawled to the cupboards and climbed into one, being extra careful to make sure the door didn't make a noise when it closed. They'd find him eventually. It was a small living space after all and they had a super on the team who could likely hear him breathing. 

He took this spare second to look at the distress signal he sent out when this whole thing started. It'd been received thankfully. Now he could only hope they didn't find him before backup does. He thought back to what happened a few hours ago, trying to comprehend that this was real and wasn't some nightmare he'd eventually wake up from.

It had all started on a mission, like everything that plagued Robin's existence did. He'd been excused because he was deemed 'unfit for service' since he hadn't slept in four days. Bruce had introduced the new punishment after he pulled five consecutive all-nighters and went on a mission purely fueled by energy drinks and a couple of crackers. 

He wasn't quite sure what happened on their mission but when the team came back they started acting weirdly. For one, they all said they had headaches after fighting some villain. Then they had a private meeting without him after their faces went blank. 

Naturally, he didn't think they were under some sort of mind control, instead, he assumed they had something to settle like an argument of some sort. Arguments weren't exactly rare on the team and they tried their best to squash whatever beef they had with one another before they were sent out again. In hindsight, they were probably plotting all of this or maybe it was whoever was using them as puppets were plotting it. Whatever had control over them, didn't want him around to see what was going on. He knew that for sure

When they came back, Kaldur asked him to come to take a look at the pool because he thought there was something wrong with it. Not thinking much of it, he followed him to the pool despite not hearing any specific problem with it before going. Briefly, he thought it was code for a chat without the others hearing so he excused the lack of explanation. 

"What's wrong with it?" he remembered asking.

"Something with the suction, just feel it," the older told him, putting his hand in the water to demonstrate. Robin did the same but couldn't feel what was causing his worries. Then a hand clutched his hair and shoved his head underwater. It took him a minute to regain his thoughts through the blind panic. He kicked whoever was doing this in the stomach and rolled forward into the water, dragging the attacker with him into the cold water. 

As soon as he entered the pool fully, he swam straight to the edge of the pool and jumped out. In the water, he could see Kaldur's figure swimming after him. At first, he couldn't believe that he was trying to kill him. They'd been friends all this time. He was a hero. Even if he didn't like Robin, he couldn't just kill him without the League beating his ass. Quickly, Robin scrambled to his feet and ran off.

Instantly he knew not to go find the team. The private meeting meant they were most likely all in on the murder plot. His instinct told him to hide in the ventilation shaft so he opened a small grate and climbed inside. He crawled a few feet away from the grate so they wouldn't be able to see him then sent out the distress signal. The plan had been to wait it out there since he was the only one who knew the vents like the back of his hand. That idea went out the window when he heard someone climb after him. In his panic, he must've left the gate open. 

"Great job, giving away my position like that," he berated himself.

For the next hour, he tried to escape whoever was following him. They'd surely kill him if they found him. That thought scared Robin the most. These were his friends chasing after him, trying to end his life. For some completely unknown reason, it really messed with his head. Like that could've been M'gann, the sweetest person he knew, or Wally, the guy he'd known since he first started out. He shook those thoughts out of his head and decided his best option was to hide out in one of the rooms. His bedroom would be too obvious and the closest room to him had been the kitchen. Luckily, he was small enough to fit in most of the cabinets so there were plenty of places to hide. Sometimes being so small was a blessing. He opened the grate, jumped down and closed it as quickly as he could before hiding behind the kitchen island.

He was shaken from his thoughts by another set of footsteps. They're heavier than the first and he knew they belonged to Connor. The pair was never that far from one another. He stifled a fearful yelp as the footsteps stopped outside of the cupboard he was hiding in. He must've heard Robin breathing. As much as he'd like to hold his breath for an unknown period of time, he hadn't mastered the art of stopping his heart on command.

Before he knew it, the cupboard door swung open and strong hands gripped his ankles to pull him out. He tried to grab onto whatever he could to stop Connor from revealing his hiding space but his efforts were futile. Connor pulled him out and the world turned upside down as he dangled in front of the superhuman. For a second, he thought that this was all a joke and they were about to tell him about this elaborate prank and how he should've seen his face. That was until he spotted the thunderous look on his face, his left eye twitching a little. He didn't know if this was it for his short existence. 

"You don't want to hurt me, do you Supes?" he asked quietly. He couldn't believe what was happening even though he could physically feel the pressure around his ankle. His friends had turned on him and with no idea if he was going to be rescued, he felt scared. His mind whirred with fifty different thoughts all at once. Just as he thought he was being lowered down and set free, Connor threw him against the wall on the other side of the room. 

For a while, all he could see were stars and black dots that clouded his vision. He heard Connor move forward towards him. 

"He's going to kill me for real," he thought. Connor stopped, glaring down at the limp body in front of him, and Robin could just make out his boots through the waves of nausea. The superhuman turned him onto his back and then put a boot on his chest, putting pressure on him. Robin gripped the boot as the air was pushed out of his lungs. Ironic, he thought, this was how they first met.

Suddenly, the robotic voice announced the arrival of their mentors who quickly caused a fight in the training area. Connor was distracted for a moment, allowing Robin to grab his foot and throw him off balance. 

"Sorry supes but I got places to be," Robin commented, running to meet his mentor. He heard Connor grumble under his breath. At least he was still in there somewhere. 

"Come back here!" he yelled down the hall. Robin was certainly not going to go back there. He continued to run to the training area, finding his mentor in the fight. 

"Took your time. I was about to be dead meat," he quipped, joining Batman in the fight against his friends.

"They shut off the Zetatubes which set us back an hour," Batman explained.

"My theory is that I annoyed them so much they want to kill me, what's yours?" he asked, casually knocking Wally out. 

"They're under mind control. We just need to get them in the same place so Manhunter can get a good hit to the link." Robin looked down at the unconscious ginger and cringed at the bruise he'd left behind. It'd fade in less than half an hour but he wasn't going to feel much better about it. 

"Well, I've got one person who's not going anywhere."

"Rob, did you just knock out my nephew?" Flash shouted whilst fighting Artemis.

"He was trying to kill me earlier, call it payback!" he responded with a laugh. They were happy to see his humour wasn't killed.

"Where's Connor?" Superman asked. 

"He should be here in five, four, three-" Connor's yell interrupted his counting. "Huh, he's early for once."

It took a good few punches to keep the team down long enough for Manhunter to break the link between them and their puppetmaster. They brought them to their beds, allowing them to sleep off the effects of the mind control. Robin yawned and stretched his arms. 

"We better get going if we want to start patrol on time," he told Batman. 

"You're not going anywhere other than a bed," his mentor replied.

"You're joking?" He shook his head. "You'll have to catch me first old man!" Robin didn't even make it to the training area before Batman caught up with him. The older picked him up and threw him over their shoulder with ease. "Okay, maybe I do need to sleep. Can we compromise on a fifteen-minute power nap?"

"No, you're getting a full night's sleep. You've been up for four days." He had a point but that didn't stop Robin struggling in his grip. "Don't make me tranquillize you."