Chapter Text
It’s only once Tim’s the last person standing, that he decides to take a breath. Finally, he thinks with relief, swiping the sweat off his face. He looks around, just in case there’s another person he has to face, but fortunately there’s no one else.
It’s just Tim and the magic user he’d just managed to defeat.
With a pleased grin, Tim puts his bo staff away. Now it’s a matter of waiting for his body to calm down. It will take a minute. He can still feel the adrenaline coursing through his veins from the fighting he's just had to do.
For a minute, Tim thought he’d need the other’s help.
Dealing with goons can be a walk in the park—heck it’s something Tim can even do with his eyes closed if he so desires—but magical users? That’s a different thing altogether. Magical users involve dealing with spells.
Like water and oil, spells and Tim happen to not get along. At all. It’s not because of the lack of experience, because please, Tim’s got years of experience under his belt with this type of situation.
Bruce taught him all he needed to know to deal with this line of work.From aliens, to metas to even superhumans, Tim knows how to handle them. Today, however, was an exception. A magic user.
Every time Tim has to face a magical user, he feels he doesn’t know what exactly he's dealing with.
Everyone knows spells come in all shapes and sizes. All the possible types of spells one can imagine. This time the wizard, who, based on his appearance, seemed to be some sort of experienced user, would not stop throwing magic spells at him.
Tim wished he was kidding or exaggerating, but it was almost like the wizard was throwing fireworks and confetti all over the place. Like a fervent tornado, the wizard threw every possible spell he knew at Tim.
Thank god Tim got the upper hand at last, because if he had to request the rest of the team’s help, they would have laughed at him afterwards, for sure. Gosh, he can already imagine Jason mocking him for this.
Or even worse, Damian.
A shudder passes through him at the thought. Just thinking about it makes him want to wince because knowing Damian or Jason, they probably wouldn’t have let it go for months, if not years, altogether.
Luckily, none of those spells hit him. It sounds crazy, Tim knows it sounds taken straight out of a Hollywood movie, but he feels completely normal.
As far as he’s aware, he is perfectly fine. There’s no tingling hands or numbing feet. Neither has he grown a second head nor three more arms—been there, done that. 0/10, Tim does not recommend it.
So as far as Tim's concerned he’s fine. This isn’t denial or anything. He’s fine. Tim’s one hundred percent fine.
Now it’s only a matter of waiting for the police to arrest the bad guys, and this mission will finally be over. Then Tim will get a couple of hours of sleep and he’ll be ready to face another day. Yeah, he thinks while closing his eyes, deciding to rest against the wall.
One thing is for sure; next time there’s a witch threatening to take over the city, Tim’s not going to get involved. Might as well leave that for Jason. His pseudo-adopted brother has a knack for them, after all.
Just as he’s about to doze off, he remembers something that makes him open his eyes wide open. He forgot to activate his comm. And just like that, the fatigue from the fight turns into adrenaline, because if he forgot to activate his comm, then his family don’t know his status.
(They don’t know if Tim’s alive or not)
He swallows past the adrenaline and tries to reel his anxiety back. One thing is for sure; Bruce is probably gonna kill him for turning his comm off. A comm turned off only means the worst outcome one can possibly imagine. In the Bat world, an unknown status between members means immediate aid.
And Tim had concentrated so hard on dealing with the wizard, he forgot to turn his comm on. Damn! Tim messed up big time. Now he’ll have to give out explanations because if his hunch is correct, the rest of the team are probably on their way.
After a minute of hesitation, Tim lifts his injured hand and clicks the device in his ear. Just like that the silence he’d been enjoying suddenly explodes with multiple voices speaking over the line.
The worst part? They all sound worried.
“Where’s Red Robin?” Bruce’s gruff voice can be heard loud and clear over the comm. Tim has no doubt they have been talking about him for some time. “Oracle, I can’t find his location.”
Tim’s stomach instantly drops.
He passes a hand over his hair. No, no, no! A concerned Bruce means dealing with an overprotective Bruce.
“I’ll send you the location,“ Oracle swiftly replies, unaware that Tim’s currently listening to whatever she has to say, ”Nightwing where are you?”
“Of course Drake can’t bother to turn on the comm—”
“Now is not the time, little D,’” his older brother replies, cutting off whatever Damian wanted to say next. There’s concern laced in his voice. “I’m right behind Hood.”
“I think Red Robin is on the line,” Oracle points out. “His signal is very weak. How long until you reach him, Hood?”
“ETA 3 minutes.” There’s a slight pause, before Jason exclaims “Birdie, what the hell is happening?”
God damn, what do I do, Tim thinks, chewing on his lips. On one hand, he wants to keep things under control. On the other hand, he wants, but… He opens his mouth, ready to say ‘I’m fine, the situation is under control’.
His mouth, however, decides to betray him.
“I don’t know what’s happening,” Tim blurts, before his brain can even process what’s happening “I was fighting a wizard and I got the situation under control but I think the wizard hit me with something and I don’t know what he did to me and I’m anxious and frightened and—-”
He clasps a hand over his mouth to stop himself from talking.
It seems like the wizard did hit him with something.
With no less than a truth spell.