I saw this thing on the news while at work and thought of this. Cyber-bullying isn't something I've faced, but I still think it's cowardly and cruel. It's also longer lasting. Though the nature of the bullying isn't explained, the effects on those who know the person personally is seen here. Please enjoy.
Dick-16 Jason-12
Cyber Jerks
Jason gaped at the message he got on his phone for a minute before running out of his room to find Dick. Normally when it came to messages like this he'd just roll his eyes and delete it before Alfred or his dad saw it, but not this time. This time he had to share it with the right person. Why his 'friends' spammed him these things was beyond him, but in a small way he was grateful this time.
This time it was personal.
It took him fifteen minutes to find his older brother in the gym, working on a few routines between the monkey bars, uneven parallel bars, trapeze, and rings, all at the same time. The teen had to be half monkey. Ignoring the acrobat's need to show off whenever he had a workout, Jason shouted out to him. "YO! CIRCUS FREAK! GET YOUR BUTT DOWN HERE!"
Dick scowled mentally for a moment before twisting into a few more flips and dismounting. He landed about six feet away from his brother, glaring the entire time. "What? I wasn't even halfway through!"
"This." The serious expression on the preteen's face brought a frown to his. Something was definitely wrong if Jason was that serious. He took the offered phone and glanced at the screen to see what had him so nattered. Anger melted into surprise and slight horror as he saw the image on the screen.
"What the..."
"You think this is real?" A worried tone came from the younger's lips. He didn't want to believe it was.
"Can't be. She'd never..." Dick jerked his eyes up to him, slightly outraged. "Where did you get this?"
"One of my old lab partners sent it to me," Jason explained. "He sends me picts like this all the time and-"
"You need a censor on your phone," the older boy stated evenly, running a hand through his hair. This was not happening. "You shouldn't even be exposed to these things..."
"Which is why I brought this one to you." More worry came from him. "So, is this real?"
His brother looked at the photo again for a long moment, not sure how to answer. "It... It's completely out of character. Someone must have doctored it."
"The words on the pict should be proof of that enough."
Dick grunted an agreement and scowled painfully at the words at the bottom. How dare they... Without a word, he turned and ran out of the room towards the study. He ignored Jason's protests for taking his phone with him and kept on running. He didn't have the skills to fix this, not really, but he knew where to get them.
Before he knew it, he was in the cave, coming up behind Bruce as he worked through some case files. From a glance he could tell he was updating information on lesser violent crazies from Gotham, Riddler in particular. The guy was loose at the moment but hadn't caused any major problems yet. A calm before the storm they were sure but all the same not necessary.
Just as he opened his mouth to speak, the screen changed and the man was talking into a mic. "Green Arrow, head over to the labyrinth in Hide Park. Judging by Nigma's clues, that is where he took the Sulta's."
"A maze?! Seriously?!" Oliver sounded very stressed out over the comlink. "I suck at these things!"
"Unless Nigma's electrified the walls, you won't have to worry too much about it. There should be a handful of skilled fighters with him but if you're clever it shouldn't be a problem." The infamous B typed away at his computer, looking into something else. "Call in Speedy if you're really worried about it."
Ollie cringed on the other end. "Yeah... about that... he's kinda... I'll call Canary."
A scowled appeared on the man's face. "Is something wrong with Speedy?"
"It's personal," the archer snapped back, angry(er) for a minute. "Just get me that intel on Brick will ya? I've got work to do."
"Queen-" The distinct click of a line being cut came from the speaker, making him growl. "Dammit... What's that idiot up to?"
Quickly he worked on his cyber pursuit of this Brick character (had to be from Star, so Riddler had to be there too. He never heard of a Hide park in Gotham). Dick hesitated coming forward but then remembered that things on the internet spread like wildfire and the worse the subject, the faster it got out. Approaching carefully, he decided to watch the man work before interrupting.
Bruce was completely absorbed in stalking the criminal through the computer system he developed. It was the best he could do without being on the streets interrogating the people directly involved with the madman himself, and he'd gotten rather good at it. It really was impressive what someone could find on the internet, but making sure the information was true was another story all together. Without the cross-referencing program they couldn't be certain about anything. The League had several sites that put out false information to protect their identities after all. The bad guys could be doing the same. And mean spirited kids followed suit.
Suddenly unsure, the acrobat didn't know how to bring up what he'd just learned. He glanced at the image on Jason's phone again and steeled himself. He didn't want to get her into any more trouble. Bringing this up in a bad way would do just that. Bruce shouldn't see her like this either. So he had to work this from another angle. Using the acting skills he acquired from both the circus and Alfred, he put on his best interested face he could and came close to the computer.
"Who's that?"
The man didn't even look up at his voice. Probably knew he was there for a while. "A criminal from Star City. Shouldn't you be practicing?"
"Got bored. Figured you'd be doing something interesting with the League and wanted to watch." He looked over the data and cocked his head. "Not a lot on this guy is there?"
"He's new and prefers to stay off the grid."
"Didn't think that was possible anymore."
"Is if you're smart." He typed away, digging up older and older documents and pictures in order to get everything he could. "There's little up to date intel on him, but if you dig, you can find a lot."
"Whoa." Dick stayed quiet for a moment in thought, watching him work to see how far he had to go. Not terribly it turned out. "Is there any way to completely erase their existence in the system?"
"It's possible," Bruce murmured, "but extremely difficult. You'd need a computer expert who can hack through every system out there. Taking out someone in official databases would be easier than removing yourself from social networks though. It'd be easier to fake your death and set up a new identity elsewhere than erase your existence. You wouldn't have to worry about hard copies that way."
"That's... pretty extreme." He chewed on the thought for a second before pretending to come up with another question. "But, what about those near misses with the League's IDs being exposed? Is there a way to prevent that?"
The man stopped for a moment, suspicious about the questioning. "I have a program online warning me if there's a picture or article containing both their identities being put up. If it needs to be deleted or modified, I take care of it. Prevention is key here."
"Cool. So..." the teen turned his head slightly to give the man his full attention. "How do you do it? Get rid of pictures and article and stuff."
His father watched him for a moment before falling into a critical gaze. "What's going on Dick?"
"Nothing. I'm just curious." Dick focused on not blinking too much and keeping his eyes on the man, trying to not make him any more suspicious than he already was.
"Dick..."
"Seriously I'm just curious. I mean, I learned some hacking already so I can get intel and watch people on security cameras from watching you, so I thought it'd be interesting to learn how to delete stuff online and cover tracks, beyond me being in someone else's system that is."
"What's on the phone?
He blinked once and shook it off. "Just expecting a call that's all."
"On Jason's phone?" The knowing look on his face made the teen freeze and look down at the device in his hand. He forgot his phone was blue with a Superman sticker on the back. Jason's was a blood red with a swirl pattern and a bat etched on it. There was no possibility of confusion with their phones, at all. Bruce extended his hand. "Hand it over."
"It's...not what you think." He ducked his head as he passed the device to him.
"Just tell me what you did and how it got online." Quickly he woke the screen back up and started putting in his unlocking override code to get a good look at what was there.
"It's not about me." He watched solemnly as Bruce's eyes grew wide at the picture. "And I'm pretty certain it's faked or something. Barbara would never do anything like that."
"Agreed." The hero looked at the picture a moment longer then opened up the phone's mail to send it to his computer. "It's completely out of her character. This is either something to discredit her or her father. I've heard about cyber-bullying on the news."
"She hasn't acted weird at school so I think this just came online." Some relief entered his voice as he rambled on. "Some people give her a hard time because she's a scholarship kid and others want to get close because of her dad, but she's never really had any problems with people."
"Any crazy ex-boyfriends?" The man quickly deleted the photo from his son's phone and sent a message to the person who sent it as a warning. No more of these kinds of images would be on this device in the future. He'd be checking Jason's computer later and investing in a parental censor program in the near future for the others.
"Does her nutzo brother count?" Bruce grunted, admitting how true the statement was. Dick came closer to the computer in anticipation. "So, how do we get rid of this picture?"
"I'll take care of it." The boy jerked around, ready to object but his dad cut him off, handing him back the phone. "You just get changed and drive over to the Gordons and see how she's doing."
"But-"
"I'll show you how to do it yourself later," he promised. "Right now, Barbara may need your support. As a friend," he emphasized. "This is her reputation that someone's ruining. She's going to need as many quality allies as possible."
"Yu... You're letting me go out to her place at this hour?" Dick couldn't believe it. He barely had his license and they had a fight not too long ago about his relationship with Barbara. Plus it was a school night.
"Jim will be home soon," Bruce countered, making the teen's hopes drop a fraction. They were going to be supervised. "And we need to know where this photo was taken. I'll figure out what I can from my end but it'd be easier if she knew where to start. If it is a case of cyber-bullying, it can be handled in a civil court. If it's part of a criminal's plot, that's a different story all together.
"Now get going. You still have to be home by eleven."
The acrobat blinked twice, then bolted out of the cave faster than a bullet. It was nearly eight right then. It took half an hour to drive safely to the Gordons, and that wasn't accounting for late night traffic. He'd only have two hours with his best friend and girlfriend, and that was if he got through the door and past her father. No time to waste.
While Bruce played hero online, it was Dick's job to make sure the victim was well taken care of.
A/N: so yeah, I stopped it there because I didn't want to go into too many details of how it hurt Barbara. Haven't quite gotten her character yet. Not sure if it was just punk kids or a bad guy's plot against her dad, but either way it stung. Placed after Dick and Selina have their chat on a ledge, way before sacrifice.
yeah, saw this news report about a girl who was bullied online and decided to kill herself because of that. I'm sure there was more to it but that's what it said pushed her over the edge. can we as a people start behaving please? and to my teen readers, remember that what other people say matters very little out there. It's how you view yourself that does. What you do, your choices, they determine what adn who you are. There was this great quote about what others said and whether their opinions mattered or not but I forget it. XP Oh well. Over all, bullies are idiots trying to make themselves feel better by degrading another. It's because they have no imagination and can't torture fictional characters that they target real life people.
Anywho, beyond that happy subject, still working on other projects. may I remind people that this is an AU that bounces around adn is updated whenever there is inspiration, not because I like it more. My other works are being held off on being updated until they're completed so you can enjoy daily updates and stop waiting in teh future. I'm learning from my mistakes. =D Poll is still up adn the details about the DNB batkids costume redesigns is on my DA page. Enjoy!