Investigation
Things went as smoothly as they could since, as Bryce suspected, the agents who came to pick him up were Fulcrum. He was saved thanks to Chuck's quick thinking and the Buy More's strange evacuation policy centred around the word 'Pineapple'. The Fulcrum agents were arrested and Bryce was back in the CIA's good graces. Mission success.
However, there was something else gnawing at Bryce. While in the Buy More, he had met Morgan, who; under the impression that he was just a look-a-like, told him what he thought of Bryce. It was not good.
There was another thing about Morgan though. Bryce noticed that he didn't bend down and seemed to favour one leg over the other.
It was simple enough to investigate. Morgan lived with a woman who considered him her son. Bryce slipped in through the window as he bid her goodnight and waited for the door to open.
"Morgan Grimes. I think we need to talk," he said as he made out Morgan's small stature filling the doorway.
Morgan screamed a high-pitched scream and motioned like he was going to hit Bryce with his crutch while balancing on the doorframe.
"Don't mess with me intruder, I will beat you up!"
"Oh for the love of-" Bryce huffed. "Turn on the light, Morgan." He winced as the light hurt his eyes but at least Morgan wasn't screaming.
"Bryce? What? It was you! Today in the store-" Bryce tuned out the rest of Morgan's ramblings.
"I notice you use crutches. What happened to your leg?"
"None of your business," Morgan responded. "And if you're not here to apologise to Chuck-"
"I'm here because I wanted to check something, Freddy."
Morgan froze. Then he winced. "Oh no, Chuck's going to kill me, I let out my identity to the Nemesis."
"Freddy, I know that Chuck is Billy too. I'm Robin."
"Oh. I thought you were Bryce."
"I am but I was also Batman's Robin."
"You're too old for Robin."
"The older Robin. Back when you guys were a crime fighting group."
Morgan snapped his fingers. "Right! The fourth boy Robin! The one who died for a while and then came back supercharged. You were Billy's friend." The he sobered. "Man, you really suck. You know about Billy and you still got Chuck kicked from his dream school?"
Bryce opened his mouth to respond and then realised that the CIA was now Chuck's secret too. And he couldn't expose Chuck's secret, if he didn't want it exposed.
He cursed instead.
"I'm glad you see my side of things," Morgan said. That wasn't why Bryce had cursed but he couldn't admit that Morgan was wrong.
"Look, there is a reason that I got Chuck kicked out. A reason Chuck knows about and it's his choice to share."
Morgan glared for a couple of moments before picking up his phone and calling for Chuck. Bryce resisted the urge to hit his head against the nearest wall.
"Morgan, why are you calling me? We have work tomorrow."
"The Nemesis is inside my room, Chuck!"
Bryce took a deep, calming breath as Chuck realised he was there.
"Look, I was just trying to explain that you know why I got you kicked out of Stanford and realised I couldn't really do that without betraying your trust a second time."
There was silence on the other end for a couple of moments. Then Chuck sighed.
"That doesn't explain why you're at Morgan's."
"Because he's Freddy and you didn't tell me."
"Because he's Batman and you didn't tell me!"
"He's not Batman."
"I'm not Batman. Chuck, why didn't you tell me?"
Chuck's voice rose in pitch, "Aren't you a bat? You don't need me to tell you when you can just figure it out."
"I was! And then Morgan had to call you!"
Morgan made an understanding 'oh'. Then he frowned at Bryce and pointed his crutch at the taller man's chest.
"Since you and Chuck seem to be friends again, I'll reluctantly allow it. But if you do anything like that to Chuck again, I'm calling down the lightning on top of you."
Bryce rolled his eyes and shrugged. He didn't care about the threat Morgan posed.
Flight
As soon as things were cleared up between the three of them, Morgan pushed Bryce to the side and hobbled towards the window.
"Where are you going?" Bryce questioned.
"Outside," Morgan replied in an 'isn't it obvious' tone.
"Why?"
"Because the magical lightning likes to leave holes in ceilings."
Bryce watched him work his way out of the window and then followed him out. He was curious about what Morgan's intentions were.
A cry of 'Shazam!' and Morgan was off, flying quickly into the distance. Bryce wondered if the little man realised that this wasn't over. He dashed out and hopped into his little round car.
He had designed and built this car himself. A press of a button and the vehicle was off into the sky like a shot. Bryce gunned the power, grateful that he had decided to go with a silent set up rather than one modified to make all the awesome vroom, vroom noises. He followed the signature of Freddy's particular offshoot of Shazam magic and quickly caught up with the flying superhero.
Morgan gave him a shocked look and Bryce smiled smugly back and waved.
They pulled up in a nearby city, landing on an empty rooftop with a helicopter pad. Bryce still had a smug grin on his face as he stepped out of his car. Morgan came running over. He looked the car over, inch by inch. He asked Bryce questions about it. He was a little surprised that Bryce had made it, not at all surprised that Bryce wouldn't let him fly it, and amazed by the technology inside it.
"Are we going to fight crime? Or just admire my car?" Bryce asked, pulling out a black helmet with what looked like a red 'v' on it. Just like his brothers, he had another alias he could call on outside of Robin.
Morgan's answer was instantaneous. "Fight crime." He pointed over to where a man was climbing out a window with a black backpack.
Red Bird liked that answer. With a chuckle of amusement, the vigilante jumped from the rooftop and grappled across to a balcony on the next building. He stood on the stone edge of the balcony and looked over. Morgan was holding the criminal by the collar, scolding him on his petty crime and how he should get a job.
"Really?" Red Bird questioned as he looked down over the edge. Vertigo wasn't an issue for him.
"Another one?" the criminal questioned in an annoyed tone. Red Bird didn't hesitate to jump down and land behind him, batarang in hand.
Morgan chuckled. "I'd be careful what you say to him. He can ruin lives!"
"Thanks," Red Bird droned, tapping the shape part of the batarang into the criminal's neck.
Morgan shrugged, pulled the criminal away from Red Bird and started to float. "I'm going to fly him to the police station! Find another crime while I'm gone."
"Sure, whatever." Red Bird watched as Morgan flew away. It seemed the superhero didn't notice the tracker he clipped to his cape. That was good. At least Red Bird would know whether Morgan left him here.
An Ultimate Battle
Bryce returned as the sun started to rise. When Morgan landed on the ground next to his car, he got out.
"Are you going to be alright at work?" he asked. Usually, people got tired after not sleeping a night or something. Bryce wasn't sure what that felt like since he was used to a schedule of cat naps and one short block of sleep before patrol.
"I'll be fine! It's nothing worse than an all-night gaming session!" Morgan responded. Indeed, the woman he lived with didn't seem surprised to see him walk in at breakfast time with another person in tow.
"Mother. What are you doing up?" Morgan asked.
"I noticed you weren't in your room and yes, I saw your note. However, I still slept on the couch so I could hear when your ride pulled up."
Morgan winced. "Sorry. I'll sneak out after you've gone to bed next time."
The little woman with the big hair stared at them for a moment before going to bed, with a 'you better' in Morgan's direction.
"Sorry about my Mum, she's a nice lady but a little overprotective."
Bryce was still shocked with her existence. "Wasn't your mother dead?" It wasn't a rude question when evidence to the contrary existed.
"Something like that," Morgan responded with a shrug. "Technically, she's my mother's sister, my Aunt. She was supposed to get custody of me when my parents died but their deaths were so sudden and someone messed up and I ended up in foster care."
That explains how Morgan and Chuck could meet as Billy and Freddy, although it didn't explain the other names or the whole 'mother' thing.
"It started out as a kind of joke between us which grew into more," Morgan responded with a shrug. "Don't look at me like that, sometimes things like this happen." He pulled out a controller. "Have you played Ninja Warrior 6?"
Bryce snorted and took the controller. "Of course. Bring it on, Grimes." He ended up staying even longer.
