Chapter Twenty-Five
"Good afternoon, Father… Hello Carrie. It's good to see you again." Damian said, kissing Carrie and looking into her eyes with an intense gaze that seemed almost disconcerting.
"Hello, Bruce. It's been a long time." Dick said.
"Yes, it has. You've gotten much taller… How is Damian's training going?"
"Very well. He's becoming extremely proficient at using his new superhuman abilities. His ability to use his Ki has become very advanced."
"I see… And your abilities, Dick?" He asked.
"Well… I have a wide variety of powers. I'm getting better at using them, too. We certainly have all the time in the world to train them. I've gotten in months of training with the team so far." Dick said.
"Good, good. I'd love to get a chance to spar with you. Damian seems happy to be home." Bruce said, looking over at Damian, who was kissing Carrie tenderly and talking with her, seeming excited to be back. Carrie seemed less excited, though Dick could tell she was happy to see Damian.
"So… Are you planning on becoming Robin again?" She asked. So that was it. She was afraid that Damian was back to take her job up again.
"No. I'm going to take my own superhero identity and hopefully work alongside Batman. Just because I'm his partner doesn't mean I'm his Robin anymore. I'm actually considering joining Titans East. They're in Pennsylvania, so I would be much closer to you guys. Or I might go off on my own in Gotham. After all, Batman is good, but he can't take care of all the crime that infests this city. Hey, Dick!" Damian demanded. Dick looked over from his conversation.
"Yes?" Dick asked. Damian scowled.
"Do you have any more of those bioenhancement pills?"
"Pills? You mean like steroids? You're nuts, Damian. I'm not taking steroids." Carrie said, her face falling from the smile that had been on it before.
"No. Not steroids. They're just programmed biomass. When swallowed, they target your current abilities and enhance them at a rate based on which abilities you're strongest in. For you, your flexibility, speed and acrobatic abilities would be enhanced the most."
"Maybe if you go off on your own, I could be your…" Carrie began.
"No. I appreciate the offer. But I wouldn't want the conflict of interest of my girlfriend being my subordinate as well. That wouldn't end up well."
"If I was going to fight with you, I wouldn't be your subordinate. I would be your partner, or I would be nothing at all. If you don't want me to fight with you, that's fine. But me being a subordinate and being a conflict of interest is not a legit reason, yeah?"
"Of course… I'm sorry. I said that poorly. You're right. That wasn't right to say. I would be worried about the conflict of interest, still. If you weren't with me and were with Batman, I would be worried about your safety. Batman doesn't have a great history with his Robins. One of them died, one of them was driven insane, one of them was driven away by his controlling nature and that just leaves you and me.
"But if you were my partner, I would…"
"I get it. You don't ever want to be put in the position of choosing between saving the city and saving my life. You're right. It would be a conflict of interest. I shouldn't have brought it up." Carrie said. Damian's eyes widened. She was way more understanding than he thought she'd be.
"So, what did you come here for, Dick?" Bruce asked. Dick nodded.
"Straight to the point then. Damian wanted to come back to Gotham. So I brought him. I'd rather he stayed. He's getting better at controlling his new powers, but he's not perfect yet and I think a few more months in the Time Dilation Training Simulator will help him along the way. I can build one in your basement that would essentially be the same as my own if you like.
"It can be connected to the Bat Cave. I still don't get how nobody's figured out that you're Batman. You had a super high-tech cave with a rotating fucking counter for the Batmobile to sit on. Did you really think the people who built it weren't going to talk to someone?"
"Well… I have my ways of keeping people from talking." Bruce said with a smirk.
Damian scoffed at this. Bruce turned to him.
"You've seen that Carrie is alright. You need to go back to Jump City. I don't doubt that there will come a day when we can take you back here. But for now, you still need more training with the team you're on to control your new powers, and I think they've been a good influence on you. I'll permit you to come back to Gotham City on the weekends. You can spend the day with Carrie. I'll still need her at night."
Bruce said this forcefully. Damian nodded, though. This was more of a compromise than Damian thought Bruce would be willing to make. He nodded.
"That's fine. But I get to come back here for holidays as well. I'd like to be able to have days like Valentine's Day with Carrie."
"Awww…" Carrie said, flattered by how sweet Damian was being.
"Valentine's Day may be a day created by corporate fat cats, falsely advertising the idea that buying cheap candy for your love interest on that day means you have a good relationship, but I suspect that Carrie has a slightly better opinion of it than I do."
"Okay. You can come here on holidays as long as you tell me beforehand that you're coming. I take it you don't want to be here for certain holidays."
"Well… Religious holidays don't mean much to me personally. I'm aware that beings with godlike power exist, but I don't think they're worthy of my particular respect, much less adoration or worship. So Christmas and Easter don't mean much to me.
"But that's not necessarily a reason to pretend they don't exist. Maybe I could spend Christmas at home with you at least?" Damian asked. Bruce nodded.
"Of course. Carrie will probably be with her parents for Christmas, but you're more than welcome here."
"My parents don't celebrate Christmas and they're usually more than a little bit buzzed or at least they have a good smooth going from the joints they're smoking."
"Well, you're welcome to join Damian and me for Christmas if you prefer, Carrie. I'm sure Damian would be happy to see you."
"I'd also like to spend Thanksgiving at Wayne Manor." Damian said. Bruce laughed.
"Sure… It's good to see you're becoming so friendly. Wouldn't you want to spend holidays with the Titans, though?" Bruce asked.
"I'll think about it." Damian said. Then he looked at Dick.
"I guess that's our cue to leave. I love you, Carrie." Damian said, kissing her on the lips before going over to Dick, who held a hand up and walked over, sitting down next to Bruce.
"Actually, there's a few things I need to go over about your new suit. It's bioenhancing. When put on, the suit has tendrils that are about a molecule thick.
"You'll feel them entering you, but they shouldn't hurt too badly. Once they enter your body, they'll connect to your Central Nervous System and enhancements of between ten and fifteen times your current ability levels can be expected. Small static shocks to the Central Nervous System allow you to react faster than humanly possible. The fabric of the suit is designed to redistribute shock waves, so when you punch with your enhanced strength, you won't shatter your bones.
"It will take some time to get fully used to. But within a few nights, you should mostly be used to it. The cape, when your arms are held out, will fuse to the sleeves of the suit and form a glide suit that will stiffen so that you can catch the wind and attack from above. The wings have wires in them that will allow you to control your movement in the air. Your boots have rockets in them to allow for greater propulsion and speed than a suit that didn't have them.
"I've written everything down in the book I sent you, but the main combat uses of the suit are what you should look at first, since if you're not familiar with them, they could work against you in combat. The palm has tiny chambers in it that can release a large cloud of dust for cover, whether to escape or to distract. Take a few days to practice with the suit before using it in your patrols of the city." Dick said. Bruce thanked him and Dick got up, handing Carrie a book for her suit as well.
"Now, your suit is similar to Bruce's. But yours enhances your flexibility, agility and reflexes far more than your strength, so don't go thinking that you can punch through concrete walls with the suit. Your suit may enhance your strength by a factor of five at the most. But most of what it does in terms of strength is allowing you sudden, explosive strength for jumping and acrobatics. Expect that you could jump with relative ease a height of about three times your height.
"How tall are you? 5'2"?" Dick asked. Carrie nodded.
"About that." She said.
"Good, well, you should be able to jump at least fifteen feet with your new suit. It will allow you to create sudden explosive strength for such jumps and will prompt your Central Nervous System to allow you to land without hurting yourself.
"Like Bruce's suit, it dispels force outward and backwards. So if you punch something harder than you mean to, before you hurt yourself, a good portion of the force will be redistributed so that your bones and muscles don't take too much strain. The suit will almost constantly be doing that while you run as well. Your gloves have wires in them that you can fire and they have small grappling hooks that grip with greater than Peak-Human Strength.
"So you'll be able to use the hooks to climb or as a distraction if you prefer. Read the book for a full course on your suit, but I've given you some decent bullet points." Dick said. Carrie grinned.
"Cool. Will it redistribute the force of an opponent's attack? Like if a really strong opponent hits me, will I take damage, or will it redistribute it so I take none?"
"Well, it redistributes force at an approximate rate of 500 pounds per second. So as long as the opponent doesn't have superhuman strength, you shouldn't have any problem redistributing the force. However, I recommend that you don't stick around for the punch. The suit isn't an excuse to be lazy. It's a backup in case you and Batman get into a situation that you can't handle on your own. I've never known a situation that Bruce can't take care of in some way.
"But still, even Bruce isn't perfect, no matter what he may tell you. Be careful. Even with the suit, you're not invincible." Dick said. Carrie nodded, giving a thumbs up.
"Cool. Is that it?" She asked. Dick nodded. Then he put a finger up.
"Not quite. I need to build the Time Dilation Training Simulator… If you want it, Bruce?" Dick asked. Bruce nodded, intrigued by the idea.
"What exactly does it do, and how does it work?"
"I'll implant you with all the information you could need on it." Dick said, heading down to the lowest level of the manor and using his telekinesis to clear out a decent sized space, smoothing out the walls, floors and ceilings and coating all of it with biomass. Afterwards, he touched one of the walls and turned it into a tesseract. He had been practicing with that particular ability.
It wasn't exactly magical. It was alchemical. He used the biomass to create a solid liquid if someone could picture that. He then turned the "liquid" into a space that was larger inside than outside. Then he began to program the biomass to rearrange itself into various terrains at the command of the owner, that would be Bruce, and produce different weather conditions at different levels of intensity. After about an hour, he finished and went over to Bruce, putting his fingers up to Bruce's forehead.
"Alright. You're going to feel a shock when the information enters your mind. But it will essentially be cemented in place, so you'll never lose it. Three… Two… One…" Dick said. Bruce gasped and his knees crumpled underneath him. He just barely managed to catch himself, and he sat down on a block that came up from Bruce's mental command.
"Good. We're finished here. You know everything you need to know. You can command the room to go at different temporal speeds. Slow the speed of time in the room by no more than 30% at first. If anything seems wrong, call me. I'll be right over. Alright, Damian. We can head out if you like. I'm sure the Titans are wondering where we went. I told them I'd be back in less than an hour. It's already been more than twice that." Dick said. Damian nodded.
Dick grabbed Damian's arm and gripped tightly, teleporting away with him. As soon as he was gone, Carrie looked at the pills and observed them for a few minutes, smelling them to try to detect any chemicals. It had no smell. She licked one. It had no taste. She squeezed it a bit, it gave underneath her fingers, showing that it was squishy. It seemed like it was harmless. After a while, Bruce sighed and walked over to her.
"I admire your desire to test the pill before you take it. But I've taken one so far, and it hasn't had any negative effects. I am feeling much stronger, faster and more intelligent."
"More intelligent than you already are? I didn't think that was possible." Carrie said. Bruce nodded.
"Of course it's possible. There are many beings far more intelligent than I am. Godlike beings who were they so inclined, could destroy the world with their powers.
"My intelligence doesn't necessarily reach that high yet. But who knows what will happen when I complete the cycle of pills Dick has given me."
"And you're really confident that these pills won't hurt you, boss?" Carrie asked. Bruce looked at her.
"I don't know about the pills. But I trust Dick. He was my first Robin. I trust him unconditionally. If he says it's safe, and he's willing to give it to his friends, I trust him."
"Wow… That's a lot of trust. Okay." Carrie said, taking a pill out of the bottle labelled "1st Cycle" and dry swallowed it. Bruce nodded.
"I trust all my assistants. Most of them, I've adopted. You still have your parents, and so are an exception. But I expect the same level of devotion to the cause from you."
"Sure, boss. We need to test out our new suits. Can we do it now?" Carrie asked.
Bruce nodded, putting on his suit in his bedroom and heading downstairs to see Carrie already dressed. Her suit was a slightly modified version of the traditional Robin suit. It was red, black and green, but it was sleeker and looked more high tech.