Chapter 3

3 June 2013

Richard was doing better. He was out of the danger zone anyways. He could open his eyes and look around now, but it was obvious that he benefitted from the dim lighting of the cave. In fact, even the cave lighting seemed to be too much because he kept wincing away from it until Thomas gave him some sunglasses. Thomas had helped the boy to sit up a few times. However, he couldn't hold himself up for long. His limbs tended to just flop down after a few minutes of effort, weak from lack of activity. He could sort of pat Damian's hair, or rub something, but that's about it. Not for lack of trying. The boy was just too weak. Whatever caused the coma had come out in the blood and stool tests Thomas had done, rather than the brain scan. There were unusual compounds in Richard's blood that were interacting in a weird way. As time went by and Richard recovered, the compound count had gone down, but not disappeared.

Three times a day, Thomas rubbed the child's limbs to attempt to return strength and feeling to them. He gave Richard a ball to squeeze, and helped him to sit up to strengthen his abdominal muscles. He fed the boy broth and helped him sip water, but insisted on keeping the IV for additional fluids, the saline helping keep down what Richard was unable to ingest. The boy also was able to shift uncomfortably while Thomas was giving him a bed bath to prevent sores, and because, well, the kid needed a bath. He had taken to giving them when Richard was out of it so the boy would not turn bright red. Besides those times, Richard slept and recovered further.

The hardest part was that Richard either could not or would not speak. He just sat there and stared off into space. He'd answer yes and no questions with head movements or with the finger system they worked out, but beyond that he would mostly mumble words at a low volume. The words he could understand sounded like gibberish at first. Then, Damian had listened closely and explained that he thought his big brother was just jumbling up languages. Language confusion wasn't a normal effect he would expect in that sense, but it could occur with brain injuries. Thomas did not believe Richard had a brain injury as the main cause for the coma though. Richard might have one, but he'd never hit his head, so Thomas did not know how he would have gotten it.

That was the main extent of the physical effects on Richard. Thomas had not had the time with Richard awake or medical ability and authority to diagnose the psychological state Richard was in. In general, the boy seemed depressed and a bit confused. This was not the place the boy wanted to be or the people he wanted taking care of him, but that was all that was obvious. He'd barely be able to get confirmation that Richard believed the same story Damian did. When Richard got well enough to talk normally, Thomas planned to take him to Leslie Thompkins, a pediatric doctor he trusted, and get a recommendation for a trustworthy pediatric psychologist. Anything that could help was welcome.

Speak of the devil. Thomas felt his cape flutter as a strong breeze that screamed SPEEDSTER passed through the cave. Damian perked his head up from the ball he had curled into at the foot of Richard's bed. Thomas had been putting him to bed in Bruce's old room until he had time to get a new room set up, but Damian often came down to be with his brother despite Thomas's efforts. The boy was too antsy to sleep alone and often had nightmares. When he woke up, he'd wander the halls until he found the nearest entrance to the Batcave and made it back to his brother. Thomas tried to catch him, but usually only succeeded in getting the boy into a warm robe. It would not do for him to get a chill from the Batcave after all. Damian would curl up and Thomas would throw a warm blanket over him, and then turn back to his work. A couple times, he'd even gotten a brief patrol in, although it was nerve racking to leave the boys alone, even with the old baby monitor he'd set up.

"Mr. Wayne?" Barry asked, eyes obviously wide even with his cowl on. "You have two kids."

Thomas just looked at him, narrowing his eyes in a glare. He had yet to confirm if these were Bruce's kids yet. Well, Damian's blood test had turned up positive for a grandfather relation on his father's side, but Richard's had been negative. He didn't know if Richard knew who he really was…

"Uncle Barry?" Damian asked.

"… How come he is 'Uncle Barry' but you call me 'Not-Batman'?"

"…" Damian blinked. "I can call you Ajooz, if you want."

"What does that even mean?" Thomas rubbed his face.

"Old Man."

"Just… Stick with Not-Batman, or have your brother pick something when he wakes up."

"Err. Right. So, kids?"

"Yes. Why are you here, Allen?"

"You haven't been returning Cyborg's or my calls, and have only made brief appearances as Batman, and none in your civilian identity, although he doesn't know that, for the past two and a half weeks. He was starting to get worried, so he sent me to find out what's been going on."

"Just him?"

"Meh. I figured you were investigating something and lost track of time. So, kids? Who are they? How does he know my name?"

Thomas gave him a look over, assessing Barry's sincerity and honest interest. Barry was trustworthy. "They claim to be my grandchildren from another dimension, or at least that seems to be the general consensus. One where my ex-wife and I died instead of my son Bruce. Most of their facts line up. This little one is Damian, and his older brother is named Richard. They came through a portal into the cave almost a month ago, now. I assume they knew you in the other dimension?"

"Not me. Dick told me about his best friend Wally and his Uncle Barry. You're red and fast, so I guessed."

"Huh. I don't know a Wally." Barry moved over to stand next to the bed. Damian screamed when he appeared and nailed him in his tender spot, quickly crawling away to hide on the other side of Richard. Richard groaned and whimpered. They all froze. Well, Damian and Thomas froze, Barry was busy focusing elsewhere. Richard shifted a bit before settling back down into slumber. Thomas let out a sigh of relief and Damian reburrowed. Barry recovered from the shot a second later.

"Woo. You've got an arm on you there." Damian preened.

"Now that you're here. I need things for the boys. My clothes are far too large for either of them, and Bruce's old clothes are a bit too big on Damian. I need to set them up a room upstairs for the time being without Richard being disconnected from the IV for long. He still needs the help. Babysitting or room shopping?"

"Erm. I can do either. I'm not needed at home for the moment."

"You can't leave them."

"I understand. It might be faster for me to do the room, but I don't know much about their tastes."

"Ooo! Lots of color!"

"We can paint the room later. I'm sure Richard would like to join us when he's better. For now, I'll get some basics. You keep watch."

"Alright. I'll go get some stuff to do with a… four?... year old. I'm sure some games will go over great. You get ready to go."

Thomas nodded. "You'll need to stay down here to keep Richard in sight. I don't want you to be out of hearing range if he has a relapse. And get higher cognitive games as well as some simple ones. Damian's incredibly smart."

"What's a relapse?"

"Back in a Flash!" Barry disappeared making Damian jump again.

"A relapse is a term for when he has a sudden problem, a boo-boo, come back when it wasn't supposed to. It could make him worse."

"Oh." They stared at each other for a moment. Then, Thomas sighed.

"I'll need to wake Richard up before I leave and tell him what's going on. He'll know what you guys need for your room. See if you can't gently bring him out of it while I change."

"You're not going out as Not-Batman?"

"No. I'm going out as myself."

"Oh."

"Go on now. Mr. Allen will be back shortly."

"You mean Uncle Barry?"

"N-yeah. Okay."

"Okay." Thomas disappeared into the back area. Damian squirmed up his brother's chest and took a deep breath. He bent his head to face Dick's ear and blew forcefully. Dick flinched away, but didn't wake. Damian grinned and did it again. Thomas wandered back out dressed in a suit as Dick was weakly trying to push Damian away, still half asleep.

"Richard?" He asked softly, laying a hand on the boy's shoulder. "Richard, I need you to wake up for a bit. You can go back asleep in a moment okay." He waited for Dick to weakly open his eyes and focus on him. He slipped a pair of sunglasses on the boy when he flinched away from the light. "Nod if you're coherent." Dick gave a slight, weak nod in response. Thomas picked up his right hand. Their tapping system seemed to be easier on the boy, so Thomas used it whenever he needed clear answers.

"I'm going out for a while to get some things for you and Damian. Do you want to share a room? Damian seems to prefer sleeping with you, but I want to know your opinion." He got a one tap for yes. "Okay. One bed or two? Just give the number of taps." Two taps. "Got it. Any preference in colors?" Dick hesitated. "Right, need to give you a way to answer that. How about a sea theme? Blue and green with dark brown furniture? Would that work?" Dick gave a tap for okay.

"Color!" Damian called out.

"I'll get some colorful blankets." Thomas amended. "I thought we could paint the room later. There's one on the second floor that I think would work best. I'm going to have to help you up and down for now, but I think it will be better in the long run.

"For clothes, I thought maybe I should just get you basics for now. I assume you don't want anything white?" One tap confirmation. "I'll use my best judgment on that." He proceeded to ask Dick and Damian about specifics about underwear and special requests.

"One last thing. Once we get you upstairs, we're going to have to face the city. I've already started things with my lawyers, and I should be able to keep it out of the media, but we need to go over a story. We can talk about that when I get back, but if you're awake, think on it."

8 June 2013

"YOU IDIOT!"

Logan Burton winced back from the voice of his boss on the video screen. He was currently hiding in a small cabin in the middle of Switzerland from the Justice League. If it hadn't been for their focus on the children, he wouldn't have been able to slip away. As it was, several of the workers at Andoxly had not hesitated identify him as a major player, more particularly the one that went over the top with punishment. The cowards had bayed under the Justice League's fury and quickly gave up the bosses they knew of, which collectively was most of the leadership. Luckily, or unluckily for Logan, the people who controlled the operation had been spared identification by their own paranoia.

Someone, probably several someones, maybe even hundreds of someones, had pointed at Logan as the one who beat and tortured Richard Grayson-Wayne—that was a development he had missed—several times and shot and killed Roy Harper as well as a couple others who he had felt were already on their way out, or should be. Bruce Wayne and Oliver Queen were out for blood, and were using the Justice League as their medium to find him.

That… issue… was not what brought the conversation to this point. Although, strangely, the little brat was somehow extremely tied into his boss's ire anyways.

"You should have made arrangements to leave THE SECOND you discovered the escape, and moved the kids you could to a new location! Instead, your HUBRIS has traveled down the chain like dominoes."

Ironically, he had been warned about his hubris after releasing that video, and had, in fact, made moves to separate Andoxly from the rest of the organization. Unfortunately, it had taken too long. The hack that had gotten a location, had also, inexplicably managed to get into the computer systems like a Trojan Horse when they noticed it and had started downloading. While the download had been halted by the destruction of Andoxly, the heroes had somehow still managed to get enough damning evidence to take down the entire organization as was in progress.

Somehow, some way, Logan Burton's promotion in January to Andoxly head from special order child gatherer head, which had seem like such a good and well deserved idea at the time had managed to be the worst mistake the leaders made.

"We've barely managed to hold onto 60 children throughout the entirety of the organization due to YOUR error. Even then, you could have easily grabbed the most successful subjects and ran. Instead, you decided the best choice was TO BLOW THEM UP."

"You can't mean 169? That brat's the reason the League managed to find us in the first place!"

"No. The Justice League finding Andoxly is not 169's fault. It is yours. It is your incompetence that allowed so many children to escape, your faults and sadistic tendencies that gave the Justice League any leads in the first place. Your HUBRIS that lead them straight to Andoxly! They could not find us. They only had whispers of our existence until YOU confirmed their hunches with YOUR ridiculous video." Logan chose not to mention that they had approved that. It would not help his case. "On top of that, 169 was not the only successful subject that was sacrificed to your bloodlust. He was just the most important one in Project PUM, as no other subject lasted long enough and adjusted enough for us to send someone through the portal. We also lost all the successful subjects from Project Ank, Sin, and Tuna. Thanks to YOU we will need to start from the beginning!"

"What about his younger brother?" Logan suggested desperately. "Jason Todd-Wayne. They might not have the same DNA, but they've probably been exposed to many of the same factors. They even look alike!" There was silence from his boss, and his boss seemed to contemplate it. "I could grab him and take him to the new base, and you could see if he could make it as far." His boss held up a hand and Logan halted speaking.

After a moment, his boss decided. "Alright. You have ONE more chance. Only one. Capture Jason Todd-Wayne and bring him to Spain. Once you are in Spain with the boy ALIVE and UNHARMED, we will give you an exact location. You have four months, to allow time for Wayne to relax a bit. For that time, you will return to marking subjects for delivery, but will have no knowledge of where they're going. Fail that, and there will be consequences. If you fail to retrieve the boy within four months, consider yourself terminated."

A/N

Glasgow Coma Scale:

Eyes: Score of 4- opens eyes spontaneously

Verbal: Score of 4- confused, disorientated

Motor (physical reflexes)- Score of 6- obeys commands

Overall Score: 14, Minor Brain Injury category. Much better.

Ajooz is Arabic for grandfather, according to Google. Not sure if this will work, but here are the Arabic letters رجل عجوز from google translate if fanfiction keeps them.

I keep forgetting, but I've had a poll up for the last month or so for which characters people want to see the most in Young Justice Season 3. One person found it on their own, but I thought I'd mention it here so more people would vote.

Happy Birthday to Inky!

Edit: 17 December 2016 Had an a comment in there that I put in while writing and forgot to take out when posting. It just said 'Go Jason!', by the part about the Trojan Horse hack.