This chapter is heavily based on "Pawprints" By Silvermoonphantom over on AO3. Sorry it took so long but life happened and I have too many story ideas, I even started an entirely original story, but haven't posted it at all. Enjoy!
A few days later, Robin had the Team gathered around the huge computer screens in the Cave, explaining the situation to them.
"So, what you're telling us is that you, oh great protégée of the Batman, hacker and ninja extraordinaire, you who can find anyone in a matter of minutes, couldn't figure out who this guy is, and you expect us to do better?" Kid Flash half-mocked, slightly incredulous. Robin rolled his eyes behind his mask.
"No, I haven't found him yet, and I expect you to look over the footage and help me get a fresh perspective and more ideas on who, or what, this guy might be,"
"Or what?" Superboy queried,
"He demonstrated abilities that mark him out as either a metahuman, not human, or possessing technology that allows him to gain said abilities." Robin elaborated, before continuing, "and there was something else, before we review the footage I'll give you some more background, but before that, I have a close up of the guy's face, tell me what you think when you see him, I want to confirm something." The team of young superheroes crowded around as the face of a young man, late teens or very early twenties at the oldest, filled the screen. He had wheat-blonde hair with an odd cowlick that one would think impossible to occur in a human's hair, clear, sky-blue eyes framed by rectangular, wire-framed glasses, and a slight smirk on his face, looking like it could break into an all-out grin at any moment. He was wearing an old, well-worn, but clearly well looked after, World War Two bomber jacket over a red button-up shirt. Everyone in the room couldn't help but smile at him, before frowning curiously as they thought over the trust they felt for a man they had never met before, a man they had no reason to trust. Wally, ever the impulsive one, spoke first.
"That's freaky. Like, I feel like I've met him a hundred times, like he should be my best friend or something, but I can't think of his name, or any time we met. Super weird." The others nodded slightly, agreeing with the speedster.
"Surprisingly eloquent description of the feeling," Aqualad commented, causing Wally to shoot him a glare, "though I do believe I have experienced a similar sensation before, though it was… stronger in a way."
"When?" Robin asked, interested to see if this would give him a clue to the identity of the man,
"In Atlantis," Aqualad said, "There was a young woman, one of my people, of course, but I instantly felt a kind of trust and comradeship with her, despite never having seen her before in my life, she was speaking with my king, but left shortly after I arrived. When I asked my king her identity, he simply said that she was an advisor and a very old friend, though I have not seen her since and I had never seen her before that day."
"Did you have a crush?" Kid Flash teased, trying to get a rise out of Aqualad and earning himself a whack in the back of the head from Artemis,
"No, as I said, it was similar to the feeling of trust I have with this man, despite not knowing him at all," Aqualad, calm as ever, did not respond to the jibe.
"He reminds me of all of the friends I've made since coming to Earth," M'gann commented, floating slightly above their heads to give the others more room in front of the large computer screens. Robin hummed slightly, acknowledging the comment, and turned back to the screen. He brought up security footage, spread over several different angles, of the lobby of a laboratory in Washington DC,
"Just watch the footage, tell me what you think," He said, hitting a key on his wrist computer that started the feed.
The footage started. A figure appeared at the doors, pushing them open casually, it was the man from the photograph they had been shown. No-one in the lobby seemed to notice him as he made his way to the labs fingerprint scanner, standing in front of them with a slight slouch and an almost bored expression on his face, one hand scratching the back of his head, the other placed on the smooth face of the scanner. The scanner was quick to identify him as one of the doctors and allow him to pass through the doors, that opened for him smoothly. He made his way efficiently through the building, the camera angles on the screen changing as appropriate, bypassing other security measures equally casually, including, but not limited to, number codes, password locks and retina scans, Wally let out a low whistle at the sheer amount of security the building contained, as Robin kept up a running commentary about the specifics of the security measures, why the man shouldn't be able to bypass them, even if he had some sort of meta-human ability or high-tech tool, and the fact that this man was on no records at the lab, none of the doctors knew him, and he didn't look anything like any of the doctors the scanners recognised him as.
Suddenly, Robin cut everyone off, pausing the video, ultimately silencing the discussions on who, or what, this man could possibly be.
"This bit is the bit that concerns me the most," Robin said, signalling for everyone to pay attention as he cranked up the volume and pressed a key, starting the footage rolling again.
The man was walking with more purpose now, striding quickly as opposed to the easy stroll he had been using when bypassing security in the rest of the building. He was in a room lined with lights and shelves, though he ignored all of the experiments and equipment on these, striding straight for a door in the corner, which led to a domed enclosure. He placed his hand on the scanner at the entrance, and, as the door opened and welcomed him with a, "Welcome, President sakdlbalskkssshhhhhh…" a terrifying look of pure rage flickered across his face. It was gone as soon as it came, but it was enough to send a shiver up their spines. They hardly noticed that the computerized voice had been cut off with the feed from the scanner camera as the man had pressed his hand down with terrifying ease and crushed the entire contraption. They snapped back to attention as a soft animal cry sounded in the background and the scene changed.
"What.…" Aqualad's question was cut off as Robin shook his head, gesturing to the screen. The enclosure was modelled after an Arctic scene, false ice-caps bobbing in blue-tinted water that became deeper as the gentle slope of the floor progressed. Two of the cameras appeared to be motion sensitive, locking onto the man and tracking his movements smoothly, the third was a stationary view from the very top of the dome. The man let out a sharp whistle, before calling out,
"Hey! Nanuq! You here little dude?" The animal cry, louder now, sounded again, and a small, white animal came bounding over one of the ice-caps, leaping from cap to cap, leaving them rocking in its wake. As the creature neared the edge of the water, it slipped in, keeping its head above water as it paddled expertly to the man, who went down on one knee and dug around in an inner pocket of his jacket as it got closer. As the animal got out of the water and shook itself off, the team was able to identify it as a polar bear cub. The man stopped digging in his pockets and held out his hand to the animal, sitting down as he did so, he started speaking to it,
"I finally found you, man. You okay? They didn't hurt you?" Wally snorted,
"Why is he talking to a…" He was cut off as the bear opened its mouth, and a childlike voice rang through the enclosure, leaving most of the team shocked,
"Who're you?" The man smiled, opened his mouth to say something, before looking around at the cameras, seemingly considering his answer, finally, he opened his hand, revealing a bottle of amber liquid… no, syrup, their assessment changes as the bottle was rocked and the substance's consistency was revealed, with a bright red and white label.
"I'm Mattie's brother, remember?" The bear gasped and leapt forward as soon as the bottle was offered, grabbing it with its front paws and opening the flip-top easily with its mouth, slurping hungrily as it settled in the man's lap. The man laughed, grin threatening to split his head in two, not seeming to mind as his clothes became soaked by the still-wet cub's fur.
"Did they even feed you, buddy?" The man asked as the bear, Nanuq evidently, finished the bottle, licking the top for a moment before abandoning it on the ground, it licked its lips,
"They did, I hate frozen fish," It said, earning another laugh from the man,
"Dude, you're seriously spoiled, you know that, right?" he retrieved the empty bottle, tucking it back into an inside pocket of his old jacket, pushing the small bear away a little when it tried to sniff and paw at the inside of his jacket, evidently searching for more.
"I'm hungry," It said, and the man picked up the bear in both arms and stood up in one fluid motion, as though the animal weighed nothing at all,
"Then let's get you home, Matthew's been frantic since you disappeared during that meeting, I'll Hop back with you as soon as we get to my boss's place, sound good?" The bear made a sad little noise in the back of its throat,
"I'm lonely," It said, putting its nose in its paws, which were hanging over the man's arm.
"Do you think they deserve to have their stuff trashed?" He asked the bear,
"I want to go home," Was all it said, and the man smiled sadly and walked out the door.
Robin stopped the feed,
"The rest of the footage is just him walking through hallways and bypassing security in the same way he came in, when he passed people, they didn't seem to notice him or the bear, and security cameras on the outside of the building show him getting on a bus and leaving, I've already traced the bus routes"
"Have you any idea on where he went?" Aqualad asked,
"I'm couldn't find any camera feed of him getting off, but that doesn't mean anything, a lot of the bus stops didn't have any cameras watching them." Robin frowned in frustration, "We're at square one, as far as tracing him is concerned. But I did find something interesting, when I was looking for who he is." He tapped at his holo-computer again, and a series of photos popped up. "Look here," he said, zooming in on a face in the photographs, the old, World War 2 era photographs. There he was, looking exactly the same, grinning proudly among the other pilots. Wally whistled,
"Well, whatever he is, he ain't human," He said with finality.
