Smarter than I Look
By: DYlogger
A/N: Dammit, why can I not write drabbles, or even double-drabbles? It's supposed to be (not-very-insightful) insight. Anyway, remember the episode Unmasked? The last episode of the show (excluding The Once and Future Thing and Epilogue from JLU)? The one (spoilers!) where Terry reflects back to when he showed his face to a kid who was caught in a burning building and COBRA kidnapped the kid? No? Well, too bad and lucky for you. I didn't think it was a good episode, but I decided to do a reflection of what the kid who was rescued thought.
I know Batman.
No, I'm not one of those people who got saved by him and claim I 'know' him. Well, okay, I am. I know he saves thousands of people every night- he wouldn't just remember any one. I don't even know if he remembers me (but secretly, I like to think he does). I'm just another civilian in danger. But I do know I'm different.
Because I know who he is. I've seen his unmasked face.
It was the night I was stuck in a burning building. Batman came up to me and took off his mask to show he was human and not just a monster in the night. COBRA found out, kidnapped me, and made me relive that moment. At that point, I didn't even remember Batman's face. Before I had seen him, I had always imagined him with the face of my favourite fictional hero. I guess I still imagined the face of my hero in my memory. COBRA let me go after I replayed that image from my mind's eye on a screen.
Afterwards, I replayed that moment again, and I realized that the face on the body of Batman wasn't the face of the actual Batman when he showed me.
I know this because I've met Batman. He's the older brother of a kid who plays on my soccer team. I didn't realize it at first, but when Terry McGinnis came to pick up Matt from practice one day, it hit me. I knew Batman, and unlike the mistake I had made a week ago, I wasn't going to tell anybody.
That was four years ago. I'm twelve now, and I'm a lot smarter than when I was eight- and I was pretty smart back then. Now I know not to tell anyone not just to keep myself safe, but also to keep others- and Batman himself- safe. People still remember the incident, but they don't comment on it because the memory replayed was false, as everyone learned. They think that I still think Batman isn't who he is.
The lesson of the incident? Never underestimate a kid. Because I know who Batman is, and nobody seems to bat an eye at it.
A/N(2): No pun intended. *insert silly smiley emote here* In my head canon that I'll probably never write fic for, the kid from Unmasked is Robin (because he could potentially be a neo!Tim), Matt is Spoiler (just because, or he and that unnamed kid could take turns), Max is Oracle, Dana is Black Canary (granddaughter of Dinah, Ollie, J'onn, and J'onn's wife who is the root of Dana's Asian heritage), older!Ro is Huntress, and Melanie is Matt's babysitter. Obviously, it wouldn't be this coincidental if superheroes actually existed, but they don't, this is DCAU which is easier to twist than the comics!verse.
A/N(3): Follow the moral of the story. Younger kids might be somewhat naïve, but they're smarter than they look.