Chapter 1: Substance

The mission was fairly simple…

"Break in silently and retrieve the samples," Batman had told them mere hours ago. "Do not allow yourselves to be noticed and do not give yourselves away under any circumstances. Am I clear?" They all nodded in unison, understanding the importance of his warnings. Retrieve the formula samples and leave before you are spotted. But, he never explained exactly what this was a sample of. Maybe he himself did not know, which would certainly explain the dangers of the stuff.

Robin held the small vial in his hand, and it was a very small amount within the container. "I wonder what it is." He said staring at the black liquid intensely as if it were going to come to life at any moment and attack. "It just looks like tar to me; thinned out disgusting tar."

"Hey, be careful with that before you drop it." Warned Kid Flash from a few feet away. They were hiding in the shadows waiting for the coast to clear up enough for them to make it to the bioship. It was clear up until Ked stepped on a stick and broke it, alarming the enemies. Luckily they weren't noticed and were able to hide themselves in time.

At last Robin had the perfect idea that would distract them long enough to get away. "M'gann, I need you to camouflage yourself to go over there by the crates. And make sure you knock them over some, perhaps even make a bunch of noise that would cause a commotion. Even feel free to throw some, you know, whatever you want." His was a risky plan, but they didn't really have many options in their current situation if they wanted to get out of there.

The others watched as stacks of crates toppled over and people panicked and scattered about. Good, the distraction worked. They all made a run for it with M'gann close behind. As they ran she called the ship so that they could quickly board without anything slowing them down. "Well, that was easy. I didn't think they were stupid enough to fall for a trick like that, not that I'm complaining," Robin said as he entered the ship, vial held tightly in his hand. He was so concentrated on the others making it onto the ship that he didn't notice a drop of the substance drip down onto his hand and soak through his glove. "Hurry up!" he yelled to M'gann as she started flying towards them as fast as she could,

Once everyone was aboard M'gann put her bioship into stealth mode and headed back to Mount Justice. Everyone Remained silent for the entire trip back aside from the occasional yawn that reminded the others how late it was and how exhausted they all were after this mission. It had quite a long day, and they had been hiding in the shadows for at least five hours staying perfectly still, well all except for Kid Flash who couldn't stay still even if his life depended on it. There were a couple instances that he almost gave away their position. Luckily they thought nothing of the disturbance and continued with what they were doing.

It was almost daybreak by the time they arrived at Mount Justice. The team dragged their feet as they entered. Batman was already there ready to great and assess them. He held out his hand for the vial as they approached him. Robin handed the sample over, noticing that there was a little less than earlier, but he didn't think it was anything to be concerned with. "Good job." Batman said as he took the container and stared at it for a moment, "I will do some testing on this, and you guys, go get some rest." He said no mare as he walked towards the zeta tube and left.

It was a Saturday, so Robin could just stay the night there instead of going back with the bat. He was thankful for it too because he had never been so worn out in his life, which was odd because this mission involved little to no action, but he felt like he spent the whole day doing intense training. So, like everyone else, he went to his room and changed into something much more comfortable. He wore a white tank top and black sweatpants. He flopped down onto his bed, not even bothering to pull the covers back, As his eyelids slowly began to close he believed he could feel a slight tingling sensation in his right hand. Again, he thought nothing of it.

Robin awoke early, earlier than usual, and with the same tingling sensation only now it was slightly worse than earlier that day. But, he figure that maybe he just slept on his arm and he got dressed. He went ahead and put on his Robin uniform since training was going to begin shortly and he liked to have an early start at warming up. He entered the training room and began stretching. This wasn't a normal training session for the whole team, just a personal one that the Boy Wonder decided to do himself to keep his skills as sharp as he possibly could. He then began to do some flips to help limber himself up a bit before moving on to some more difficult exercises.

Wally walked by as Robin was doing a few back flips. He then proceeded to do a front hand spring, but right as his hands were on the floor his hand cramped and he fell to the floor, and he just laid there in confusion. "Rob, are you okay?" Wally asked as he made his way over to his friend's side.

"Yeah, I'm fine. M-my wrist just gave out or something for a second is all. But, it's alright now." He held up his right hand and rotated it a few times, testing its mobility. It felt fine, well aside from the lingering tingle feeling. He let the thoughts slide from his mind and continued training while Wally watched in amazement.

He trained for an hour or so before stopping to get some water and taking a break. He filled a glass with water. As he took a sip he felt the glass begin to slip from his grasp as the muscles in his hand tightened. He flinched at the sound of the shattering sound that echoed throughout the room. Robin looked at his hand and was shocked to see that it was slightly shaking and he could feel a dull pain within it.

"Whoa, what happened?" Wally asked as he bent over and started picking up shards.

:I-I don't know. I think it just slipped."

Megan and Conner ran in at the sudden and startling noise. They stopped when they saw broken glass and water covering the floor.

Robin spoke before they had time to ask questions, "Don't worry; I just dropped a glass is all. No big deal." Something was off though, Robin was never clumsy enough to drop stuff like that, let alone stumble while doing such a simple stunt.