Timothy Drake, being the child he was, had seemingly been underestimated more times than he could count. The death of his father had left him devastated. Tim might not always admit out loud his feelings but this occasion brought forth the true child within him. Sure he could better understand the wonderful world of adult issues but once again it proved to be a fruitless attempt. Nothing would change that his only other parent lay six feet under.
Despite the obvious pain Tim felt at the time, and still did, there were also the happier moments to his life. Thus leading him to his current dilemma.
"You can't be serious?" Disbelief.
"Of course I am...please, Bruce will love it."
"No, just no." Self-control wavering.
"Please... we both know you want one too." Screw it, Bruce could have his head any day those plushies were just too adorable to pass up. A thick glass plate separated Tim from what brought forth a possible headache and an irreversible action. A final sigh of defeat.
"Yes! Let's go Timmy those plushies aren't going to buy themselves."
Well for his own success he had held out longer than expected, after all Dick just tended to get his way one way or another. Taking whatever dignity he thought may still linger within him, Tim slowly made his was toward the possible looming Collectibles, really though anyone could tell it looked more like a toy store than anything. Maybe Tim was the younger of the duo but sometimes it seemed his older brother enjoyed filling that role more than him.
Tim never did notice that aside from their brief delay to Gotham's many commercial malls that he and Dick were being trailed.
"Alfred, might you know where Tim and Dick are?"
"I do believe Master Dick forcefully took Master Tim on an, I quote -quest to find the unexpected - perhaps an hour or so ago."
A court nod and a thank you later Bruce Wayne dispatched himself toward the main study room. For both Dick and Tim to be out at these hour came as no surprise, Dick did tend to go off running whenever given the opportunity. No, that was not the reason Bruce decided to ask Alfred where his adoptive children had gone, he could have easily just brought up the security feed and located them instead. His predicament lied with the fact that most electronically sets were down all over the manor, or at least the more advanced one, apparently common household appliances remained unharmed.
The former dark knight knew that was no coincidence.
Not even pausing to think twice he entered the study room, noting the oddity of finding a perfectly clean room, Alfred must have cleaned earlier. Never one to take chances though, Bruce scanned the very room he spent so much time in. Inspecting the area came first regardless of reminiscence.
No matter the circumstances there could and would be a motive for the sudden oddity inside Wayne Manner and he had every intention of finding what it was.
But before he fully immersed himself in former tactics once dawned as the Batman, he'd check up on his family first. It wasn't the first time something like this situation occurred and his family took priority, all of them.
"Hi Flash, sorry about Arrow over there but you see we kind of needed to catch the Leagues attention."
When Nightwing first saw Flash's immediate response to the supposed attacker he wanted to do nothing more than fall over with complete laughter. His expression was comical to say the least and with each passing moment Nightwing would settle with a burst of giggles just to relieve some of that building emotion.
No such luck sadly, dark and brooding it would have to be.
"So cat got your tongue or something?" Maybe not.
"Or something." Ah, so this Flash did speak.
"Alright that's progress, so how about a quick chat I hear speedsters have a natural gift for that."
Strangely Flash hesitated for a second. If any of the intel Nightwing had come up with was true then it may be on a large part his fault as to Flash's sudden muteness. Practically all vigilantes were monitored within the Leagues domain even more so any practical villain yet here, out of the blue, appeared a complete stranger who could even tip-off the fastest man alive.
Yup, things were most definitely going smoothly. Bonus points for his age too, he knew that although he was older than most of the League's cover ops group he still ranged, under their radar at least, as fairly young for this job description. Hmm... maybe even for the other side too.
"Who are you?"
"Don't you think that a bit I don't know cliché, I mean really there's like an infinite alternatives and you go and choose that." He really must not be in a good mood anymore.
"Can't really expect much else, with your teammate half dead on the floor, what you'd expect. Nice whether were having, don't suppose you might know the closest diner via rooftop."
"Fine I'll cut through all the evil mumble jumbo speech, names Nightwing, not really but you get the deal."
"It's a start so allow me to continue this charade and play the part of the brave knight and ask what are you doing."
Nightwing couldn't hold it anymore, he laughed. "You know at first I was totally against the idea but thinking twice about it, it'll be totally worth it." Yes it would most certainly be.
"Let's just say a group of robins aren't all that happy at the moment. Besides my jobs done.. for now at least, see ya real soon.
Not even checking the ground beneath him Nightwing dove off once again into the darkness know as Gotham, leaving a stunned Flash.
Record: Archive accessed **** unable to determine.
Prior codes overwritten...granting access to Justice League data base.
Downloading files and similar data pertaining to Superman and any member above three year membership.
No data available for search of Young Justice.
Proceeding to terminate database after transfer complete.
Access denied for permission for Batcave records.
Overwritten complete allowing views :Access High
Downloading files and similar data to Batman and family.
Detection to separate user... corruption of data... shutting all primal functions to device.
The hacker could only smile, sure the data was incomplete and he had been detected but he always did love a challenge.
A/N: So here's chapter two for those around.
Comments/reviews are appreciated... helps to know people are out there.
Also this story may come off as odd but I really don't know any other way to explain things, consider it a sort of challenge in trying to figure out where all the pieces are.
Hopefully it's not too confusing but then again things tend to seem better in my head...pointers would help too for anyone reading.