"Be diligent, stay safe, and always do the right thing."
"Be diligent, stay safe, and always do the right thing."
These are the only words of his that stuck with me all these years. These are the only words I can tell myself right now. I'm finally going to do it. I'm leaving, and I'm going to make a name for myself. I've lived in his shadow for too long, and it's about time I do something about it.
I knew our relationship was different ever since I was old enough to remember. He was gone most of the time. For the first decade of my life, all I ever really knew about him was what I read in the magazines. The press made him out to be some big shot who didn't have time to raise me between running the biggest business in New Gotham and pleasing his "lady friends." I never knew my mom, but the media still likes to spend their time trying to piece together who she might be. Instead, Alfred raised me just like he had raised him, but he's gone now too.
To be honest, it was easier then; before I knew the big secret. I was lonely, yes, but at least life seemed easier. When I was eleven, he decided it was time to tell me. I don't remember how he told me, and I can't remember how I reacted. To this day, all I can remember is how drastic my life changed. My daily routine stayed the same, I still went about life in my regular fashion, but knowing meant looking at life in a completely different way; and just because I knew, didn't mean I was allowed to talk about it.
Well now I'm ready to say something. It's been four years since the initial accident, and two since the fabricated death of Bruce Wayne. They said he broke his one rule. They say, on that day, New Gotham lost something. Nobody could have known that I lost something too, at least not until two years after the fact, but my life isn't supposed to be some melodramatic origin story. New Gotham might have lost something, but I'm ready to find it and take it back. My name is Robin Wayne, I am Batman's daughter, and my dad is not dead.
It's a late night in Jump City. Uncharacteristically quiet. Robin Wayne stands on the roof of the old Telelectric Inc. Tower located just enough on the outskirts of the city as to get a good view of everything going on. It's been two months since she left Wayne Manor. She's alone. She hasn't got a solid lead regarding the search for her father, but at least her determination hasn't disappeared completely - yet.
Maybe I was wrong…
It might be time to...to drop it...this false sense of hope...this...blind determination...I can't really continue...to…to believe...that my father is really not dead...and…and that there's still a chance for us to have...some sort of relationship...maybe I-I...I…
Robin's thoughts pause between her unsuccessfully stifled sobs. Rubbing away the tears, Robin forces herself to remember why she left home in the first place. All of that searching, and now she's hiding away in an abandoned tower for a week, too tired to continue.
"Be diligent, stay safe, and always do the right thing."
"Be diligent, stay safe, and always do the right thing."
Looking up at the endless sky, what looks like a shooting star passes in the distance. Closing her eyes and clenching her fists, Robin wishes for a sign.
Despite the fact she's not very superstitious…
Scrummaging through even the nastiest of Jump City's alleyways was second nature for Logan, I mean, at least after she got past the smell. She wasn't afraid of it anymore too. Nothing could be as scary as the last place she reluctantly called "home." Even so, she thought about the past six months as she looked for something salvageable to eat.
It's too bad...even after all that I went through, even after joining Doom Patrol, I still end up here...in the garbage...I'm...trash...no...I'm not...I'm not trash...I might look funny, but I'm not going to stand being kicked out of anything ever again. It's time to grow a backbone. Toughen up that skin Lo! You got this! Come on Lo! Go, go, go!
Ever the optimist, Logan's soliloquial pep-talks hardly last long, but she tends to make them count when it's most important. Just last week she had someplace to stay. She thought the Doom Patrol her family, but that all came to an abrupt end.
At least I'm used to this by now. Logan says to herself as she shapeshifts from a rat to a dog in order to gain leverage over a large garbage bin. It's hardly the life a fifteen-year-old girl dreams about, but Logan takes pride in the fact that she hasn't completely lost herself through it all.
Just as she's about to full-on dump dive, Logan hears a bbzzzzzzzmmmmm sound overhead. In an instant, Logan shifts into a bird of sorts (she can't remember what kind of bird, all she knows is that it's pretty, so she likes it) in order to see what's going on. But before she's able to make a rooftop landing, an unfamiliar flying object comes hurtling towards the building, missing Logan by just a likely inch.
Even so, the last thing Logan remembers is the blinding spectrum of white light following the crash before losing grip and falling towards the cold, dark pavement.
Bbbzzzzmmmmmmmkk-kcrashhhshhhhhhhhh
On the edge of the abandoned Telelectric Inc. Tower, Robin feels the ground shake as she opens her eyes to see the falling star she wished upon had apparently crashed into a building. In the distance, she sees a bright white light flash, almost blinding her as she falls backwards. Quickly breaking her fall, Robin shuffles up and grabs her staff. Instinctively ready for anything, Robin steadies herself, then runs, staff positioned, towards the edge of the tower.
Holding her breath, only for a second, she jumps.
The bright light is what startles Raven most, who had been hiding in the shadows of the alleyway when the accident took place. She was scared before, but she's completely terrified now. She isn't used to life on Earth. The people here are strange and unbecoming compared to the people of Azarath. She had just began to regret her decision to come here when she found the alleyway. She had been praying for a sign. Any sign, to let her know whether she should stay or go.
Raven came to the swift decision that the sudden crash was a bad sign and began running towards the exit of the alleyway. Before running even a few yards, Raven was startled again by an object that had fallen out of nowhere in front of her. Shrieking, she turned the dark blue hood of her cloak up and over her head and held her face in her hands. Raven opened her eyes and looked down to see what had fallen.
"A Raven…" she whispered in awe. She recognized the bird, but was confused by the color.
Ravens aren't supposed to be green.
She noticed the odd bird lay unconscious and bleeding, it's left arm bruised and possibly broken. Raven knelt down, hoping that she could nurse the bird quickly back to health using a regenerative spell. She gently touched the damaged left wing.
"Azarath...Metrion...Zi-" Interrupted again, the green bird shifted in her hands. "Ah!" Raven began to feel her heart fleeting. Earth was making less and less sense. The bird had morphed into a small, green-skinned girl with short, green hair in dirty, worn-out clothes. Raven mistook her freckles for dirt and tried to brush them off the strange girl's face.
Her eyes began to open slowly. Raven panicked and felt her cheeks flush. How was she going to explain herself to this stranger?
"Y-You-You're green…" was all Raven could manage.
The green girl just stared. Raven was becoming more uncomfortable with every second.
"I am green," the girl groggily replied, almost laughing a bit to herself before her face contorted in pain. "w-what's your name?"
"Raven…" she said, awkwardly so, seeing as just minutes before the green girl had been a raven.
"Ha! That's funny...I don't know why though…" the girl continued to ramble even though that meant exerting more energy than she should at that moment. "I'm Lo...Logan Garfield." she said. Then she looked right up, into Raven's eyes, still lying in her arms and said, "Well Rae, I gotta be honest with you...that is the weirdest looking pimple I've ever seen!" and with that, Logan Garfield fell asleep in Raven's arms before Raven had time to react to such a comment.
"Pimple? Pimple!" Raven was taken aback and thoroughly annoyed now. Logan was obviously referring to the black and red ajna chakra on her forehead, but still...her annoyance evaporated upon realizing Logan still lay wounded in her arms and was now asleep. She feared the strange girl would fall into a coma. Struggling to collect herself, Raven was soon relieved when she heard snoring. Logan was asleep, which was good because now she could peacefully heal her arm.
While performing the necessary spells, Raven thought about what had just happened. She came to the conclusion that this was, in fact, the sign she was looking for.
Raven decided to stay.