Chap. 25
Crazy Talk
"How long has she been doing this?" Brett asked, as the group watched Kestrel go through her final training course by the Batcomputer. "I believe this is her fifteenth attempt." Alfred answered, as he watched Kestrel dodge the flying razor blades. "Still, she's doing pretty good." Robin said, as he watched the girl leap over the flaming pit of death. "It took me at least twelve tries to get through this course." "I guess being your daughter doesn't count for everything." Brett said, as he watched Kestrel catch the overhead chains, shimmy up over rapid machine gun fire, and swing off to the next one. "Indeed." Alfred replied. Glancing down at his watch, the butler suddenly said, "It's getting rather late, Master Dick. Shouldn't you be taking the young lady home soon?" "What time is it?" Robin asked, as Kestrel began to fight off the chainsaw wielding robots. "About six-thirty sir." "Man, I hate how time just stops down here." Robin muttered. Moving over to the control panel where Batman stood, he said, "Bruce, it's late. We need to take Lisa home now so she can get some sleep before school."
"All right." Said the Dark Knight, as he twisted a few dials on the panel. Instantly, the robots shut off and stood immobile. At that same moment, Kestrel, realizing she was no longer fighting for her life, collapsed to the ground. As she lay there, breathing deeply, trying to draw energy back into her sweat-soaked body, Brett teleported over and asked. "Good workout?" "If…. Not….so….. tired….. kill…. You." The girl wheezed out. "I doubt it." The bat replied, as he put out his hand to help her up. Kestrel took it eagerly, and as Brett dragged her to her feet and wrapped an arm around her to keep her upright the others came up. Walking close, Batman leaned down and asked, "Do you see what you can do when you keep your anger in check?" "Yes….. sir…" Kestrel rasped out. "I hope so Lisa." Robin said, coming to stand right next to his mentor. "Because from now on, every time you lose your temper on the field and it leads to trouble, you'll come back here and train for a full day. So are we going to have to do that?" Lisa's extremely vehement shake of her head, which coated Brett in a sheet of sweat, was answer enough. "Good. Now lets' go home." The former boy wonder said. Turning back to Batman, he said, "Thanks again Bruce. I really appreciate this." "Never a problem Dick." The Dark Knight replied. "It was almost like training you again. Except she can rip the robots' heads off." "That's from her mother. Or her aunt, we're not sure." Robin said. Shaking his mentor's hand, he gave Alfred a quick hug then began to head back up the stairway, with Brett and Kestrel behind him. As he reached the top, Robin suddenly let out a small chuckle. "What's so funny?" Brett asked. "I wish I had thought of this when Lisa was younger. It could have saved a lot of fragile, expensive objects." "I can only imagine." The bat said with a smirk, as Lisa, exhausted as she was, could only give a small sneer. But even that faded in exhaustion.
"Well, I see the conquering heroes have returned." Eddie said, as he turned in his chair to face the returning Titans. "How'd it go out there?" "How do you think?" Manimal said, as he coughed out smoke for the hundredth time since leaving the site. "I figured, but after what I saw on the news I'd ask your opinions." "We made the news?" Terra asked as she collapsed into a chair. "Well, considering everything the Titans do is newsworthy now, I'd be disappointed if we didn't." Eddie replied, as he turned over to look at Metallix. "But I gotta say kid, you really impressed me. You put yourself at a big risk out there." "It wasn't anything special." Metallix insisted, as he de-armored. "Yes it was." The dog insisted. "When you came here, you didn't seem to care. Now you're willing to sacrifice yourself for others. It's a good move." "He's right Martin." Sara agreed, as she walked over. "You've matured and now you see something outside yourself. I'm proud of you." "You should be too, you know." Rivers said. "Yeah man, you did good." Bart added, as he clapped his fellow Titan on the back. Martin's only response was to look at the floor and mutter embarrassed words of thanks. "Hey, you earned this, right Katie?" Terra said, as she looked over at her cousin. "Yeah. You totally earned it." Katie concurred, although there was a hint of melancholy in her voice. "See, it's unanimous." Rivers said. "Now, I think this earned us some kind of reward." He said, looking over at Sara. "Well, it could, but I don't know….." "Aw come on!" Bart said. "All right, follow me." Sara said, as she walked over to the door. The others followed, but Terra lingered a moment. Leaning in close to Eddie, she whispered something into his ear. Looking over at her, the dog nodded. "Hey Rivers," he said suddenly. "Can you hold on a second?" "Sure." The young boy replied, as he broke off from the others. Terra gave silent thanks, and rejoined the other Titans who quickly left the room.
"Listen Rivers, I need to ask you something." Eddie said, as he came over to the boy. "Sure, what?" Rivers asked back. "It's a bit of a personal question, but it's something that could save a lot of problems around here in the future. So I need you to be totally honest with me." "Eddie, I swear I'll help in anyway I can. Now what is it?" Rivers asked. Nodding, the dog cleared his throat, and as firmly as he could, asked his question; "Are you gay?"
"Huh?" Rivers sputtered back in surprise. "Look, it's ok if you are. I've been alive too long to care about things like that. But I think that if you can admit it then maybe….." "Whoa, whoa, whoa! Before this goes any further, I want to know where the hell this came from!" Rivers asked. "What do you mean?" Eddie asked coyly. "Look Eddie, I don't know what you've been thinking, but you have no right to ask me this sort of thing! It's none of your business!" Rivers yelled. Eddie was silent a moment, then asked, "So you're not gay?" "No!" Rivers snapped back. "OK then." The dog replied. "Then I apologize for asking you something so personal. I also apologize in advance."
"In advance for what?" Rivers asked. His answer was the sudden sting of Eddie's hand striking the back of his head. "OW! What was that for?" Rivers asked, as he rubbed the back of his head. "Well something had to wake you the hell up." The dog replied. "I don't want to see anyone get hurt on this team, and that includes my grand-niece." "Grand-nie… you mean Katie?" Rivers asked. "Who else? Now listen Rivers, you're obviously not gay, so you must be very thickheaded in these matters. Therefore I'm going to spell it out for you as clearly as I can. Katie likes you. I know it, Brett knows it, everyone knows it except you. Katie adores you and what you said today really hurt her." Rivers was silent a minute, then shook his head with a rueful smirk. "Man are you out of it." He said. "From my point of view, you're the one who's out of it." "Look Eddie, Katie and I are just friends. She doesn't have any reason to like me that way."
"Dude, people don't always need reasons for liking each other. If reason was the guiding factor behind love, Katie and Bart wouldn't even be here." "I'm sorry Eddie, it just doesn't make sense. She and I haven't known each other that long and I haven't seen her do anything to make me think you're right. And I don't think there's anything you can say to make me think otherwise." Eddie started to argue again, but then just shook his head. "Whatever kid, but will you at least admit that you hurt her a little today?" At that, Rivers' face did soften. "She was really quiet on the way back here. I shouldn't have tried to push her away when she tried to heal me." "Maybe you should say something." Eddie suggested. "I think I will." The young boy said, as he moved towards the door. As he reached it, h turned and said, "Thanks for telling me Eddie. Even if you are wrong about us." The dog nodded as he watched the boy leave the room. Shaking his head, Eddie returned to the computer console. "So that's what Sara and Brett were talking about." He muttered.