The Teenage Son of Batman Adventures

Notes: The Teenage Son of Batman Adventures is presented to you via Word Prompts. The words for this story came from CaraLee on AO3 who is also doing a work using the same words: Hunt, Skin, Hook, Sanity, Picture, Injury and Bath.

Hunt

Damian flipped over a tree root and skid to a stop, taking a moment to catalogue his surroundings. Trees were all around him, foot holds and obstacles to be used to his benefit. However, his hunter could use them as well.

-Tt-

He started running again, back the way he came. He counted on his pursuer not thinking of that as he kicked off a tree trunk and into the air, grabbing another branch and using it as a bar to flip around and into the air. Across the tree tops he flipped and jumped and climbed, keeping eye and ear out for his pursuer.

The hunter was about to become the hunted. And so, Damian dived down towards the flash of red he spotted on the ground, grabbing a low hanging branch to swing on and so he could kick the figure to the ground.

Skin (follows Hunt)

Instead of skin, Damian hit twigs. Instead of a person, he found a dummy made of sticks and a familiar red hood.

He cursed as his mind put the pieces together, right as he was hit. Damian gave a hiss, in pain and annoyance as the blunt arrow hit the ground.

"Got'cha!" Lian announced from behind him. She had a smile a mile wide as she lowered her bow. "You're it!"

Damian really hated tag.

Hook

"Arrg! I'm a pirate!" Irey said. She stood with a foot on the stairs, a hand on her hip and a large hook in her hand.

"I don't think pirates have hooks," Colin said in his soft, knowledgeable way. "It's just something fiction has come up with to make criminals on the seas look more sinister."

The red haired speedster looked at the hook as she absorbed the new information.

"Okay. Then why is this here?"

"Probably to distract you," Damian said, walking out from the captain's quarters.

"Well?" Colin asked.

Damian shook his head.

"I have no idea where this ship came from."

"Or why it's sitting on your father's front lawn?" Lian asked from where she was resting against the side.

"Maybe it's a present." Three sets of eyes stared at Colin in disbelief.

Then a giggle sounded from above.

"If it's a present, it's not for father," Damian commented as he looked up at Mar'i climbing, swinging and jumping around the ropes up near the crow's nest.

Sanity

Damian looked through the shattered lenses of his Robin mask. Beside him stood Abuse, the new Red Hood, the new Kid Flash and Nightstar.

Colin, Lian, Irey and Mar'i, all coming to his rescue. He buried the touched feeling in his heart as everything shifted into sharp focus. For the first time since Professor Pyg and his Dollotrons appeared outside of Gotham, he was thinking and not reacting.

And what he was thinking was probably the sanest idea he had in a while.

The orphan who never lost his naïve view of what a hero did.

The arrow-assassin child crazy enough to take an anti-hero's name as her hero one.

The speedster girl determined to become Kid Flash, even though the Flash wanted her brother to hold the mantle.

The half-alien acrobat and gymnast strong-willed enough to stand up to her father and be a hero, in spite of his best efforts to keep her out of the life.

They'd make a good team.

He smiled at Abuse.

"Hey, want to give me an assist?"

"That's what we're here for, stupid," Lian responded, shooting off an arrow which stopped three Dollotrons in their tracks.

Picture

A smile brighter than her dark costume. Dark hair that curled around her hair and burned like a candle flame.

Mar'i smiled at the picture of Gotham's newest vigilante on page seven of the newspaper. If this didn't get her father's attention, she would have to up her game. It had been difficult purposely getting caught on camera. Making sure the person taking the photo was close enough to get a good shot but also far enough away that her identity would be safe from all but her father, who would recognise her on sight.

She was annoyed that Batman and Robin found her first.

"What are you doing in my city?" Batman growled and Mar'i suppressed a strange urge to laugh. Instead of focusing on Batman's black form towering over her, Mar'i turned to Robin. According to what her father had said, at fifteen, he was just a few years older than her.

"You want to know?" she asked with a smile and a playful tilt of her head. This was her chance to prove herself against the Robin her father chose. "Then catch me!"

Injury

Robin had seconds to make his choice. Even as he made it, he berated himself for it. It was a stupid decision. It was a Grayson decision. And a Bat decision.

"Come on, stay with me," he encouraged as he pressed to his hands to the bleeding wound in the criminal's side. Criminal or not, if this guy died, Mar'i would be sad. He quickly exhausted his knowledge and first aid supplies keeping the criminal alive while his 'partner', the guy who shot him without a moment's thought, fled into the darkness of the night.

Robin's head snapped towards the sound of fighting in the distance, then above him as the wind changed.

Nightstar hovered down beside him.

"I'll get him to hospital," she said. "Dad's taking care of his shooter."

"Right," Robin said, stepping back. Nightstar picked up the injured criminal and flew away in a trail of purple fire.

No one dies on her watch.

"Good job," Dick said, stepping out of the shadows, dragging the unconscious criminal behind him. "Want to join us for an after-patrol snack?"

Bath

"That is not a bath. That's a pool," Colin commented, looking around the bathroom. Damian gave him a sceptical look and looked over at the large, roman-style bathtub.

"Pools are bigger," Damian said. "Now are you going to shower? Because I would like to leave."

"What?" Colin looked at him like he was crazy. Damian was starting to feel that way. Colin had slipped in some mud outside the manor and Alfred had told Damian to show him to the bathroom so he could clean up. "You have a huge bath and you use the shower?" Colin motioned towards the clinical looking tower which housed the shower head.

"Yeah," Damian responded, matter-of-factly. "It's faster and more efficient."

Colin whimpered and knelt to hug the side of the bath.

"Oh, you poor thing. They don't appreciate you, do they?"

"Are you insane?" Damian questioned. "Was there some kind of toxin in that dirt?"

"Ha. Ha. Seriously, this is the best bathtub I've ever seen."

Damian frowned as he remembered where Colin lived. Did the orphanage even have bathtubs? He decided to ask his father later.

"Fine. Enjoy your bath then. I'm going to play some Swordwalkers."