Second chapter in about half an hour. Woo~ I hope you all like this! It's a Damian-centric chapter. Whee~
Gotham City: October 16th, 2151
Damian finds Drake in the Batcave, as if he intends to live there forever. As if he intends to usurp the title of Batman from him. Well, he has news for Drake: Damian is in like to succeed Batman, not Drake. From what Damian understands, Drake never took up the mantle, and after being alive (if one could call it that) that long, it oozes incompetence if he never once managed to hold on to the cowl.
Images are flashing up on the computer screen, pictures of Batman (an older version), along with pictures of dark haired, light eyed boys. The screen stops on one that looks so much like Todd as to be baffling. Then, it minimizes and Drake turns around to look at him, an eyebrow raised. He is so ridiculously condescending that Damian wants to challenge him to a combat to the death. It is unlikely that his father would approve, which nips that plan in the bud.
Damian speaks first. "I demand that you share with me your technical secrets."
Tim looks at him, a hint of a laughter blossoming for an instant on his face, then disappearing. "Okay," he says.
Damian opens his mouth to demand further with threat of death, but stops, realizing what Drake had said. "...what?"
"I said 'okay.' After I go off my own way again, Bruce is going to need another tech-kid. I can teach you about modifications and stuff. It's not that hard." Drake turns back to the computer and pulls up details blueprints.
"Wait, no argument? No defense of your mastery over technology? Don't you want your position of Robin back?" Damian is horribly confused. How does Drake think? Sharing his technical knowledge will impede any hope he has of gaining the title of Batman. Why would he share it so freely? It is a trap, a lure? This doesn't make any sense. It makes even less sense when Drake starts to laugh, startling the bats clinging to the roof of the cave.
"You think I want my job as Robin back?" He says this through chuckles. It sounds ridiculous.
"Well, don't you? Why else would you come back?"
"Damian," Drake says this with affection, the way Dick talks to him, as if they are brothers, "I can break a man's wrist with three fingers." He holds up his thumb, forefinger, and middle finger. "I can crush a man's spine with one hand." He clenches his fist. "I can lift the front of a bus with one arm. I can flip that bus with two. I'm not going to take the future cowl from you."
"I am obviously missing the joke here. You just listed reasons you could take the cowl from me. Or from father."
Drake snickers. "You misunderstand. Supers were never allowed in this city when my Bruce was running it. After my accident I relinquished my title as Red Robin because I no longer fell into Batman's 'not-Super' rule. I can run faster than he could, I can jump higher. I'm stronger than I ever was before I blew myself up. This city doesn't need me, with my augmented abilities. It needs you and your family. I'm just here, making sure my place is still available in the family, not in the heroing business." Drake shakes his head with a snort. "As if I'd take Robin from you."
Damian is baffled. Drake is crazy. Being alive so long has made him mentally unstable if he just didn't want to be Batman. A microprocessor must have shifted, or a synapse just isn't functioning properly. Damian would try and wrest the title from an intruder. After all, he had tried to take out Dick before he went out on his own. (Damian is very defensive of his birthright, regardless of the fact that it's Dick's birthright too.)
"So do you want to learn the magic of technology or are you just going to stand there with your jaw on the floor? Because I've got this new thing I want to make. It's a Batarang with stunning capabilities. It has little claws that latch on and then generates electricity." Damian moves closer to look at the blueprints, still having trouble keeping his jaw closed (Drake didn't want to be Batman. Insane!) "Since Bruce almost never goes back to get them, I figured that we could give them the potential to recharge, but making sure it's not a waste of money or energy to just leave them where they end up." Drake looks at him. "You follow?"
"Of course. I'm not a simpleton." Damian is defensive of his pride, too.
"I didn't accuse you of being a moron, I just talk quickly on occasion. Especially now, since I've gotten so chatty." Damian does not quite catch the reference, but he knows the joke is hovering at the back of his mind. "Okay, I've got the skeleton of the new tech over on that table," he stands and walks away. Damian follows at his heels, eager to see this new weapon.
It is shaped like a bat, as always, but there is a square place for a small discharge mechanism. Damian assumes that is what the rectangular object next to the Batarang is. Drake takes the mechanism apart and begins explaining, enthusiasm for technology layered in his voice. Damian feels that perhaps Drake would have made a good teacher, if only he had aged. His explanation is very thorough, to the point where Damian wants to put it back together on his own.
He does an exemplary job. When Drake smiles, Damian feels a smile try and force its way onto his lips as well. He does not understand where this smile comes from, only that this person treats Damian as family. A sense of loss, a sense of missing Drake wells up inside him. His hands tremble as he waits for the feeling to subside. Instead of disappearing, it lingers.
"Are you alright?" Drake asks, ceasing his fiddling with the prototype Batarang.
"Why wouldn't I be?" Damian snaps and looks away. He adjusts his position so that his back is now to the staircase. He will excuse himself and make a break for it. "Well, thank you for today's lesson. I assume we can do this again?"
Drake nods. He is concerned, Damian can tell. That concern makes him sick on the inside. His stomach rolls and he feels as if he will pass out. Perhaps he is ill. He needs to ask Dick to make him soup, if that is the case. He needs to be well enough to patrol the city with Batman. If he passes out on a mission, he'll be grounded until he is well again. Damian and his father have differing meanings on what "well enough" means.
Damian practically runs up the stairs, feeling Drake's gaze on his the whole way up.
The despair of missing an older brother follows him beyond Drake's stare, and settles in the pit of his stomach, threatening to sink him.