pHe woke up later that afternoon, after getting to bed and being pressed to take some rest by miss Swansorn. He could sworn having stood up to her for the sake of it, like a kid who wanted to finish the movie past his bedtime, but even if he was a real butthead, she had that strong motherly vibe who made him obey nonetheless. He had a good rest because his body wasn't as heavy as yesterday, his mind was clearer and his bones didn't hurted him like they did when he pushed himself too hard. Comfortably laying on the soft mattress, his head under the duvet, he couldn't help but think about his other bed. At ihome/i. Sure, the one he was currently in was comfy and warm, but the iother one/i was just more. Larger, fluffier, warmer. It even smelled differently, kinda like animals furr even if he was doing everything he could to not let any of his boss' pets in. Usually, he was awaken by shuffling and tiny barks, or worse, with a cat on his head, purring with delight and mischief. And he couldn't go back to sleep, after that. There were just too many things to do. Like his morning training, waking ihim/i up (funny that he was always the first to be awake, you could have guessed a former trained assassin wouldn't be one to sleep heavily). It was always funny to burst into his room and jump on the bed. And avoid getting punched, which happened the first time he did it. Then he had to prepare breakfast, doing more training and starting to clean the mansion. /p
p After the morning chores, he either goes to college or helped ihim/i, Damian Wayne, his mentor, his ancor point, his iBatman/i, at Wayne's entreprise, acting like his secretary, taking notes of his appointments and such. He, of course, didn't really needed Ross' help, but it was one of the things a secretary had to do, right? Plus Ross was payed for that, as he asked it to be. He didn't needed him to pay everything And, more importantly, when the sun sunk into the horizon and stars sparkled into the sky, he had to do his most important job. Being the sidekick of Batman. It was an helluva of a job, but it made him feel more, feel like what he was doing mattered. Clothed in red and black, cape floatting in the wind, battling against crooks and killers, and all the filth in Gotham's streets. There were also downsides to the job, but he couldn't care less. /p
p Sure, he got hurt, physically and mentally, he got so sore after patrol that sometimes he couldn't lift a finger, but this was nothing compared to the magic of being Robin. /p
p A Ping! caught his attention, sign that the Mother Box was talking to him. He could understand her to certain extent, but it was all abstract and weird and he wasn't really sure he understand all she 'said', but the result of their 'conversation' were deemed efficient and suffecient by both of them. Ross wasn't one to talk a lot, especially about himself or his wereabout, and the Mother Box wasn't human from the start so she didn't really knew what to think of the boy. They where both stranger to one another, linked accidentaly by some bound, temporarly, he wished. Not that being linked to a Mother Box hadn't their advantages, but he wasn't sure he was deemed worthy of it. After all, even with a link as weak at theirs, a slighty higher tolerance to pain, poisons and a still slighty higher regeneration of his wounds and so on. He didn't really knew the extent of her power over him. /p
p Maybe he didn't really understand her because their link was still young, fresh and kinda forced. Maybe it was because he stil was reluctante to allow anyone to control his body, his mind. Maybe when he'll get back to his own Earth, after increasing her power, the inhabitant of New Earth would be kind enough to let them stay together. Or maybe he would be condaimed as a thief among them, and not allowed to ever look at a Mother Box again. /p
pShuffling in his bed, he was wondering why was that Mother Box abandonned, locked away like a shameful thing, probably despiced because of some errors in her 'program'. When he had found her, on Earth, and not on New Earth, which was really strange and kinda unsettling, he hadn't thought his geste had big consequences. But only a few days after, and totally by accident, when they where after some idiot who wanted to explode the nuclear plant near Gotham, a discharge of energy from it was suddendly sucked by the Mother Box, who, over powered and totally not in control, opened a Boom Tube right under his feet, sending him in that stupid Earth he knew nothing about. /p
pHe then realised he was all alone./p
pHe couldn't go back to his own world-the Mother Box didn't had enough energy for that- and he couldn't possibly go back to Wayne manor. Nobody knew who he was. Nobody was looking after him, here. He wasn't supposed to be here./p
pIt wasn't like his life wasn't hard enough from the beginning./p
p
iPing./i
/p
pHe jerked up on his bed, eyes difficultly focusing, still half closed with sleep. /p
p"What did you say?" he asked, refrening a yawn, rubbing his tired eyes, hating the simple fact of leaving the comfort of the duvet./p
p
iPing./i
/p
p"I am… late? Late for what?"/p
p
iPing./i
/p
pHe ignored that last nonsence and got back under the warms, but his gaze fall on his alarm clock who haven't made a sound, shamelessly. 03h12pm. He was late for school, and not by a short straw. Cursing under his breath, he bolted out of bed, putting on him random clothes, took his bag contening his books and what he needed to learn and was trying to put his shoes on when the Mother Box reacted./p
p
iPing./i
/p
pHe turned his head toward where he have left her yesterday and frowned slighty./p
p"I am going to school, of course. What else do you wants me to do."/p
p
i
bPing./b
/i
/p
p"I still have two courses, I don't care about the morning ones, I can ask a classmate for his papers. Plus, it's not like I really need them, but I need to act like a responsible student."/p
p
iPing./i
/p
pHe knew the Mother Box had a point, but you can't live and work with the Bat without being stubborn yourself. That didn't meant he couldn't take a day or two without going to school, to rest a bit, because he really felt exhausted, even with all the sleep he got. Working himself that hard was really bad for his body, even with the strange help of the Mother Box. He sat down on the bed, taking his head on his hands. It was impossible for him not to notice how strained he was, and how weak he felt. Not so much sleep, for working nearly every nights on his machine, or stealing parts for it, or just roaming around the neighborhood either helping as much people he could without drawing attention to himself or just trying to learn his way around. His days where filled either with classes, faking a social life and helping miss Swanson. Speaking about her, he wondered why she didn't woke him up, seeing all late he was. Last time he overslept, she was here, dragging him by the ear and scolding him. For someone else, he would have become really upset and lashed out at them, but with her, it felt different; she didn't asked to much of him, was always here when he needed to borrow a thing, and acted quite motherly toward him. Ross founded that nice, to be honest. It was something he wished he felt with his own mother, back in his Earth, back in his time. But that was a wish who could never came true. /p
pHe decided to see by himself if miss Swanson had left some note for him in her appartment, because it wasn't her habit to leave him be, especially when she obviously saw how bad he was just early that morning. He opened the door leading to her appartment, and called her softly. Nobody responded to him, which couldbe both seen as a good and a bad sign. But he couldn't make any assumption so soon, so he goes to the kitchen, but there weren't any notes on the counter. Ok, so it was weird./p
p"Miss Swanson?" He called, even if he knew, somehow, that she would not respond to him. His search in the appartment gave him nothing substantial on where she could be, and he also was extremely relieved not seeing her lying on the floor, helpless while he was himself sleeping soundly. But nothing explained why she wasn't here, why there weren't anything to tell him where she went and for how long. The place was spottless after he cleaned it yesterday, there wasn't any dust, any bauble out of /
There was a bad feeling growing in his /
Something was going on. Something bad was happening./p
