1. Chapter 1 (1/2)

i own nothing.

robin pov:

his body moved with the air around him. sweat was glistening off his pale skin and he panted as the moves get more complicated. punch, kick, right hook, kick, back flip, duck, handspring, kick, jump, punch twice, front flip, kick. he soared through the air and twirled three times before landing on his invisible opponent. punch, duck, right hook, left hook, duck, swipe leg, flip. calculations were running in his mind as fast as he can blink.

as he fought the invisible enemy, he is doing his math homework. you should know that robin is a master at multitasking. the homework was due in three days and the boy wonder still had to train. so why not do both at the same time? as he fought, he concentrated on the problem in his head.

question: what's the geometrical meaning of the central extension of the alge

a of diffeomorphisms of the circle?

punch, hit, slap, duck, kick, kick, flip twice, handspring, punch, kick...

answer: f(x) = x/2 if x is evenf(x) = (3*x+1)/2 if x is oddthen the conjecture is: iterates of f(x) will eventually reach 1 for any initial value of x.

robin stops to take a

eak. he sits down, grabs a pencil and writes down the answer. then he takes a swift drink of cool, refreshing water, stands up, stretches, and takes his stance.

before the boy wonder can continue his training, a voice is heard from the doorway of the training room.

"whoa," wally comments as superboy nods his head. the two teammates were observing the youngest for about three minutes. even though he was in his white/blue workout suit with his mask on, they could still tell he was working hard.

robin smirked knowingly and stated, "i was just training." an idea formed in the young boy' s head. why not train, fight a real opponent, and do my math homework all at once? robin smiled. genius. "hey, supes! care for a friendly match?"

normal pov:

superboy raised his eye

ow and grunted which robin seemed to take as a yes. the taller male unfolded his arm and walked gruffly towards the middle of the training room with robin following suit. kaldur appeared by the doorway to join the redhead and wally said, "this is gunna be a good spar!"

he then zipped to the kitchen, grabbed a bowl of popcorn, flashed back, and sat down while chewing loudly.

voices could be heard in the hallway coming towards the boys as robin and conner began to stretch.

"...i'm telling you, there is no such thing as glow in the dark lamps! what would even be the point of having—hey! what's robin and superboy up to?" artemis said as she walked in with m'gann.

wally looked up from the floor and said, "sfurpfboy anf rofin—"

"conner and robin are having a match as it may seem. would you like to join us in watching the friendly spar?" kaldur interrupted to save wally from be punched for talking with his mouth full.

artemis shrugged as she sat down far away from the annoying redhead while m'gann looked nervously from superboy to robin. a webbed hand is put on her shoulder and she looked up to meet the soft eyes of aqualad. "they will be fine." he said reassuringly.

m'gann visibly relaxed and sat down next to artemis who was trying to take the popcorn away from wally. she was saying something about being too fat to be kid flash. either way, kaldur sat down next to m'gann and the match began.

before any hitting was informed, robin flipped through the air and landed next to the bench. quickly, he scanned the next problem of his math homework before he handsprings back to the circle in the middle of the room. the smaller boy cracked his knuckles before saying, "okay, i'm ready!"

superboy's pov:

superboy charged at robin with his fist at the ready. to conner, it was just like fighting a villain. you had to imagine all of your loved ones were at risks if you didn't win. but most importantly, you had to remember the skills and the techniques. without them, you were nothing. black canary taught him so many things. all of which were running through his head as he tried to land a punch on robin.

superboy knew better than to use his super strength in a match between friends. robin was only 13 years old and he was only human. if it was kaldur, wally or m'gann, he could probably let just a little of his power out. but no way would he turn that power on between a match with robin or artemis. he knew very well that the wrong punch could kill them.

robin's pov:

to robin, it was just like training. you had to read your opponents next moves before they made them and when they did, you'd be ready. in robin's mind, millions of little strips of thoughts were swimming through his head.

2,000 million times the power of 12 equals the equation of pi times the...

punch, kick, watch his fist! quickly now, perfect! nailed it! jump, now! kick, crap, he dodged it! punch to the nose, kick to the chest, jump, flip, dodge, duck, duck, swipe! yes! kick...

if twelve times 42 equals x then that must mean 564 multiplied by the power of 344 is the distance of the ride! so that means 2,334 divided...

he's going to punch you. dodge! he's going to kick you, it's a fake, so duck then swipe. now do a front flip onto his back, kick off and punch! now!...

friday, friday gotta get down on friday, ughh! i gotta get this crappy song out of my head!

wonder what it's like back in school...? bar

a is probably wondering where i'm at...

dodge, kick, swipe, flip!...

artemis pov:

the rest of the team watched as if hypnotized by robin's movement. he seemed so concentrated, so in charge, so focused on winning. if only they could see his eyes, they would know he was in a hundred places at once.

through all the punching and kicking, only artemis seemed to notice something was off with superboy. his movements were ridged and getting stiffer by the minute. his lips were perched in a growl and it almost seemed like he was snarling. but the thing that caught her eye was that there was a weird kind of gleam in his eyes.

the blonde girl cursed silently as she realized what it was: anger.

well that can't be good...

superboy pov:

superboy was angry. no, he was furious. robin was dodging everything conner threw at him! why can't he get at least one freakin hit in? the older boy knew robin was good at fighting, but he was superman's clone for god's sake! superman would have already beaten the boy wonder. so why. can't. he?

rage consumed the older boy's body and he saw robin flip away from yet another of his hits. conner mentally screamed in pure anger and lashed out at the younger male. he tried to punch robin in the face but the boy wonder gabbed his fist. so superboy concentrated all of his super strength power into his leg and kicked. hard.

robin pov:

i got it! x equals the square root of 2,328,442. that times pi equals... yes!

robin dodged another one of conner's hits and flipped backwards. since robin already finished his math homework, it was time to finish up this match. superboy charged once again with his fist placed at his side. from the stance of his position, robin already knew conner was going to punch. so the boy wonder grabbed his fist.

before anyone realized what conner was going to do, it was too late. before robin had time to organize his thoughts, a kick to his chest was aimed precisely at him. no time to dodge or duck. the poor boy didn't even see it coming.

normal pov:

robin grunted as the large foot connected with his ribs. crack!about four rids shattered with the process and robin flew through the air like a bird.

when robin flew, his mask peeled off of his face revealing two surprised, pain-filled eyes. the team stared in horror as their 'little

other' soared across the room and hit the back wall with a loud slam. not even wally had seen that coming. and he was the fastest boy alive!

robin stayed against the wall for about two seconds before his eyes fluttered closed, he peeled of the wall, and he limply fell to the stone cave ground. by then, wally's

ain caught up with his eyes and he zipped over to where robin's landing point would be. the small boy landed with a thud into the redhead's arms and kf gently placed the boy onto the ground.

kaldur and artemis ran over as fast as they could to their fallen teammate. m'gann flew. all of their hearts were beating rapidly as the team surrounded their little bird.

artemis felt anger at herself for not realized sooner what conner's intent was. m'gann felt a deep hole in her heart, sucking out all cheerfulness and leaving a painful sorrow in its mist. kaldur felt such a strong sense of worry and pain; he felt the prickle of tears come into his eyes. wally felt such dread and agony, he could not bear to look at his best friend, yet he couldn't take his eyes away.

superboy had the worst of all. guilt was pricking needles into his chest as he ran over to the fallen bird. guilt, shame, horror, sadness, dread, agony, hurt... all were piling up in his mind; making his

eathing into short quickened

eaths of air. he did this. he hurt his best friend. the only person on the team who had tried to reach out to him. to include him. the only person who could make him laugh and feel like he was loved.

robin was the only person who seemed like he actually cared about him. not the pity kind of care. but the real kind. robin had given him advice, helped him learn and how did he repay him? by almost getting him killed.

normal pov:

the team surrounded their youngest member. robin's eyelids were closed tight and he was very still. his head was turned to the side; facing the teammates. every small

eath he took seemed to be cause pain into his features and a grimace on his face. this was the first time the team saw robin without his mask and without a knowing smirk plastered on his face. it didn't feel right. robin without a smirk was like the sun without its light.

everyone held their

eath as they all looked at robin. after a moment of the tension building silence, artemis whipped around to glare at the blue eyed clone.