A/N Hello, everyone. Sorry about the wait. Saturday is my main writing day, and I had a busy Easter weekend, so I didn't get as much done as usual. Here's what many of you have been waiting for, the beginning of the Truth!
Special thanks to Purple Pixie5 for informing me that Roy's middle name is, in fact, William. I love it when my ignorance is cured!
Disclaimer: I own nothing. Seriously, people, none of it is mine.
"Roy. Roy!"
Roy woke up with a groan. He felt like he had just fallen asleep, but it only took him a moment to remember yesterday's events and sit up with a jerk.
Dick was sitting up next to him, the holographic screen of his computer wrist watch casting a greenish glow on his face in the dim room. He was tapping quickly and methodically on the controls as he did-as Wally tended to put it-his 'ninja hacker thing.'
Wally himself just groaned and threw an arm over his eyes. "What time is it?" he muttered crossly.
"Eight-fifteen," the youngest replied casually. "We have roughly forty-five minutes before they begin considering whether or not to wake us up for breakfast. Considering the fact that they believe Wally is severely hypoglycemic-stoke of genius there by the way, Roy- Dr. Banner will most likely come to the conclusion that it is best to get us up in order to assure that Wally's blood glucose remains stable, and the others will agree."
"Food?" Wally immediately sat up, looking around almost frantically.
Dick shook his head with a sigh. "Not yet, Kid Stomach. You consumed roughly 390 calories about four and a half hours ago; maybe more, I've never seen that brand of orange juice before so I don't know exactly how many calories it contained. Along with the stew, which from what I could tell contained beef, potato, and carrot in a thick beef broth, should be plenty to keep you running, figuratively, for another three hours, or literally for about twenty minutes."
"Wait, we only slept for four and a half hours?" Roy groaned.
"Of course," Dick deadpanned.
Roy sighed in annoyance. "Stupid bats."
Wally sat up, his brain finally catching up with his friends' conversation. "Hey, Dick? Aren't we in the … what are they called again?"
"The Avengers."
"Yeah, aren't they pretty much this universe's version of the Justice League?"
"As far as I can tell."
"And this is their headquarters?"
"That's what the Captain said."
"Then won't they have cameras in their spare rooms?"
"Of course they do. Stark's AI, JARVIS, watches and knows everything that goes on here. I hacked it while you guys were sleeping. When anyone looks at the video feed from this room, they'll just see a loop of us sleeping. Also, if asked, the AI will tell them the same thing."
Roy shook his head in a mixture of amusement and admiration. "Why do we even ask, Wall-man? I mean, Dick's always at least four steps ahead of us."
"Blame the Bat, bro," Dick advised with a shrug, not even looking away from his screen. "Blame the Bat."
Wally sighed as he resigned himself to staying awake for the foreseeable future. "Well, if they're like the Justice League, how long do you think it will take them to figure out we're from another universe?"
"They figured it out at three twenty-two this morning," Dick replied promptly. "Stark set his AI to scan us for a certain kind of residual background radiation that they referred to as 'Tesseract' while Dr. Banner was examining us. It took that amount of time for the scan to be completed."
As Dick began rattling off the details about their hosts, the two older boys simply relaxed, used to the astonishing amount of information that their youngest always seemed to have on hand. Forty-five minutes later, Dick tuned off his computer screen. "Agent Barton is on his way to get us up. I'd suggest being asleep." He promptly laid down, curled up under the blanket, and as far as anyone would ever be able to tell, immediately fell into a deep sleep. Wally followed his example, but Roy opted to continue his watchful big brother routine and simply lay down with his eyes open.
A minute later, the blond man knocked softly on their door before poking his head in. He smiled softly at the boys as he entered completely. "Good morning," he greeted them. Roy remembered that Dick had said he was a super spy whose archery abilities could rival Green Arrow. He could tell from his expression that he knew Wally wasn't asleep, but that he didn't think much into it. He could also tell that, as usual, Dick had him completely fooled.
"Time to get up, kiddo." Barton sounded perfectly upbeat as he pulled the covers off of the boys. Wally sighed and sat up, but Dick just groaned and turned over. Barton chuckled and picked the
little boy up, smiling softly as he cuddled sleepily into his shoulder. "Sorry guys, but Bruce said it could be dangerous for Wally here to miss a meal. Plus, it sounds like none of you have had a decent meal in a good while. So, how does French toast and bacon sound?"
Wally immediately jumped to his feet. "Great! What are we waiting for?"
Barton laughed and turned to lead them to the kitchen. As he did, Dick met their eyes over the spy's shoulder, and confirmed what they were all thinking.
We'll just have to play this by ear.
AYJAYJAYJAYJAYJAYJAYJAYJAYJAYJA
Steve glanced up from his cooking as Clint came into the kitchen with the boys. They were ruffled looking and still in pajamas, reminding Steve of just how late it had been when they had finally gotten them to bed. Clint was carrying Dick, who was still fast asleep on his shoulder.
Pepper nearly cooed at the sight, despite her worry about how in the world they were supposed to break the news that they were in the wrong universe and that they had absolutely no idea how to get them home.
"Looks like someone wasn't quite ready to get up yet," Pepper chucked, taking the child from Clint's arms and cuddling him close. Dick opened his eyes for a moment, looking faintly startled, before accepting his new position and relaxing.
Pepper sat down and set the now awake boy in a chair next to her. Wally and Roy sat down as well and Bruce set plates of food in front of them.
After they finished eating, they headed back to their room to get dressed. They came back dressed in t-shirts, jeans and sneakers that Clint had gotten them.
Steve smiled at them before sighing and deciding to get to the point. "Roy, Dick, Wally, we need to talk to you." Roy and Wally gave him what could only be described as a cautious look as they sat down on the couch, but Dick seemed … oddly intense. There was no emotion on his little face as he watched Steve's expression closely. The super soldier couldn't help but be slightly unnerved.
He shook his head briskly. Snap out of it, Rogers. He's just a little boy.
Said little boy now had a slight smirk on his face, as if he could tell what Steve was thinking and was amused by it. Before Steve could begin his explanation, Tony burst into the room.
"Cap, have you told them yet? I need to ask them some questions before I can get started on a way to send them home."
Tony's teammates groaned in irritation as Steve glared at him.
"Steve was about to explain things gently to them," Bruce sighed at his friend. "They're little kids, Tony. They're going to need a lot of help to … adjust to the situation."
"You mean you wanted to tell us slowly in order to allow us the proper time to acclimate to the fact that we have been spontaneously transported to a different universe?"
All of the Avengers turned to stare at Dick, who smiled back at them pleasantly. "What? That was the only information you had that should have-to the best of your existing knowledge-shocked us to the point of causing somewhat avoidable afflictions including though not limited to: anger, denial, catatonia, and or complete despair. You had no way of knowing that we had figured out our location fairly quickly."
Tony bounced back first. "How did you figure all of that out?"
The boy smiled at the inventor. "It wasn't particularly difficult. One minute we were in the Watchtower waiting for our dads to finish a meeting, the next we were surrounded by blue light and then were standing in front of a bunch of mad scientists congratulating themselves on a successful trial run on inter-universal travel."
"How did you know that we knew?" Bruce asked, his brow furrowing slightly as if considering his own question.
Dick's smile widened. "Oh, I we knew there was a possibility that you would figure it out, considering who you are. So, after you put us in that room to sleep, I hacked your AI's systems to see what information you'd collected on us."
The momentary silence was broken by Tony's indignant yelp.
"WHAT?!"
What did you think? The Avengers now know that these boys are no ordinary children. I made Dick the main speaker here because he is the detective/hacker. He's the one who knows the most about what's going on. So, next the Avengers are going to find out more about the boys' back stories. I love back stories, especially shockingly sad ones like Robin's. Anyway, read and review if you please.
