Gifts From the Sea, a Batman fanfic by Raberba girl
Batfam Bingo 2019: AU: Zoo
Chapter 39 - Reconnaissance (rough draft 2)
The trip took about two weeks, so Bruce had ample time to calm down and keep an eye on the developing situation from afar.
After Dick's interview, the Teen Titans started getting more routine news coverage similar to how the Justice League did, though the Titans never organized any official events or held anymore formal interviews. Most of their closeup appearances consisted of spontaneous shout-outs in passing or selfies with fans.
They quickly became a hot topic on social media with some people curiously tracking their activities, others criticizing them as a dangerous group with no oversight, and yet others creating memes and fanworks based on them. The online attention swelled once the Titans created their own blog, various members all using the same account to post pictures, videos, and random rants or comments.
There were eleven members, twelve if you counted the furry red dragon (it wasn't clear whether the creature was a pet or a teammate). The green kid who could turn into various animals was the most media-friendly member, closely followed by Dick and then the flame-haired girl (though in her case, it was mostly because she was often in close proximity to Dick).
The girl was apparently an alien, though from a different planet than Superman, and Bruce nearly lost his mind when she and Dick revealed they were dating. He was anxious to know if they were being responsible and safe (they seemed happy, at least...?), but Dick hadn't taken anything with him to Atlantis, including the cell phone Bruce knew the number to, and he refused to answer most of the messages Bruce tried to relay through their mutual friends in the League.
In addition to Dick, his girlfriend (Kori? Starfire? she seemed to have multiple names), and the Beast Boy kid, there were superhero sidekicks who must have gotten bored enough in their mentors' shadows that they'd abandoned their hometowns in order to hang out with other superpowered teenagers instead: Wonder Girl, Kid Flash, Aqualad, and Speedy, the sidekick of some Robin Hood rip-off in Star City (billionaire Oliver Queen was Bruce's guess, judging by the facial hair and how much money all that equipment had to cost). Bruce got as much information about them as their mentors were willing to share with him.
Diana, Barry, and Arthur seemed just as bemused as Bruce to see their proteges fighting crime together on the other side of the country, but they were a lot less worried than he was (easy for them, since their kids had superpowers. All Bruce's had was a fish tail, a charming smile, and some slapdash martial arts that Bruce had only taught him as a hobby).
Little was known about the media-shy Titans. There was a robotic person of some kind, unimaginatively dubbed "Cyborg" on social media; a cloaked figure, called Raven on the blog, who could fly and possibly control shadows; and two children in masks and capes who hadn't exhibited any obvious superpowers yet. These two went publicly unnamed for a while until social media started calling them Li'l Ninja and Baby Ninja, soon after which the blog announced that their official pseudonyms were Robin (the taller child) and Raptor (the smaller one).
Raptor was tiny yet somehow one of the most capable members of the team, comparable only to Wonder Girl and Speedy in terms of learned skill. Bruce felt his mouth hanging open sometimes as he watched footage of the child whirling around battlefields, wielding a sword or staff or knives as if they were natural extensions of their body. It made Bruce sick to realize that Raptor was efficient with firearms as well; they had been filmed picking up guns from fallen opponents and mowing down the rest of the criminals with ruthless efficiency. The Titans, thank God, seemed to have a No Kill code, otherwise Raptor's body count could have easily rivaled those of Gotham's most notorious gangsters.
Wild as the public got over the Teen Titans, the superhero team was still ultimately just a younger, fresher, and less organized version of the Justice League. Dick revealing himself as a mer with human-equivalent intelligence was what really exploded in the news.
Dick's old classmates and others from the beach town were heavily sought after for a while. They shared their experiences with Dick during the years he'd attended school like any other special needs child, making friends and decent grades. Although Dick's old acquaintances enjoyed the attention at first, many started getting frosty at the aggressiveness, persistence, and growing hostility of many of the enquirers.
The Wayne family kept all their communication with the press very planned and professional, trying to focus as much as they could on fighting for Dick's right to personhood. Still, some anonymous sources leaked intimate information, not all of it entirely truthful, about Dick's temporary stay in the manor, and Alfred informed Bruce that a couple of the maids had been fired for their lack of discretion.
ABAZ and Sandy's Ocean World briefly made some noise about suing the Waynes regarding Dick's well-being and their former rights to him, but backed off when the Waynes threatened to sue back, particularly after Aquaman and the rest of the Justice League started publicly allying with the family.
Bruce himself was conspicuously missing. Although he wasn't aware of any authorities trying to locate him, he was still careful not leave a digital trail, contacting his family only via coded, unsigned letters hand-delivered by League members.
The Deaf community was delighted with Dick, and animal and metahuman rights activists were having a field day. Dick went on record with rambling stories about his experiences in captivity, relying entirely on his memory and not bothering to do any fact-checking. Though his anecdotes and emotional impressions were authentic, he tended to be careless about other details.
"Tell him he's self-sabotaging!" Bruce begged during one of Clark's check-ins. "Even if he's basically right, he's giving his enemies ammunition by getting the dates wrong and mixing up ABAZ with Ocean World."
Now that the secret was out, Bruce made The Boy in the Fish Tank available to the public, and a single mention by Aquaman in an interview started the ball rolling. Sales grew exponentially, and though the book was often criticized for its dry and amateur writing style, the content was invaluable to both activists and researchers, and it helped put Dick's claims in better context.
Of course, there was plenty of pushback from the animal exhibition industry and its allies. They fought hard to defend themselves and to discredit Dick and Bruce, often resorting to outright lies and to behind-the-scenes intimidation tactics or bribery. They claimed that Bruce was a reckless criminal who was orchestrating a giant hoax. Amanda, the trainer who'd once befriended Dick and at first supported him when he went public, retracted her statements, recorded a stilted and awkward video praising her employer, then went silent. Mark, Bruce's old supervisor at ABAZ who now worked for a different park, persisted in his public support of Dick and was soon fired, the park claiming that it was for 'poor job performance' rather than retaliation.
Although the industry convinced plenty of sheep-minded people who in turn spewed vitriol at anyone even hinting that mer were more than just animals, it was pretty difficult for rational people to argue with the growing body of evidence. Bruce hadn't realized just how much material Dick's old schoolmates had collected over the years; it seemed like every day, new photos and videos were surfacing, clearly showing Dick interacting with human children on an equal level. A few of these were faked by attention-seekers jumping on the bandwagon, but over 99% of them were real.
Dick also posted copiously on the Teen Titans blog, hamming it up as usual. "Wassup, Tumblr!" he crowed into the camera in his latest post. "Chillin' with my homies here in our super secret base!"
Bruce, resting on a deck chair as Tim lay on his chest and practiced fastening and unfastening his shirt buttons, smiled with tears in his eyes at Dick's enthusiastic slang. He missed his kid so much, and Dick refused to even explain why he was angry at him, claiming through their intermediaries, "YOU KNOW WHAT YOU DID! It's what you ALWAYS DO! You're not allowed to hurt us anymore!"
Dick in the video was his usual bubbly self, with no trace of the anger that was all he had to offer Bruce. "Here's my pretty, pretty girlfriend, Koriiii!" Kori, elegantly stretched out on a pool float as she sipped at a drink, waved lazily at the camera. "And here's Aqualad and Beast Boy~!"
The green sea lion shifted into a green-skinned boy, who grinned as he gestured at the camera. "Yo!"
The Atlantean nearby nodded. "Hello."
"Let's see what everyone else is up to~" Dick heaved himself out of the pool and onto a scooter board, then rolled toward the elevator doors.
"Put on a sleeve, chum," Bruce murmured sadly.
"Sshum?" Tim inquired.
"I'm watching a video Dick made," Bruce explained, wiggling his phone demonstratively. Catching Tim's interest was a mistake: tentacles started fighting him for the phone and Bruce had to distract the boy by pulling up the same video on Tim's tablet. Tim slipped into the nearby kiddie pool and fixed his eyes on the screen, tentacles idly working at fidget toys.
Bruce resumed watching the video on his own device. Something had been edited out, because Dick was suddenly on a chair in a kitchen. The island in front of him and the counter farther back were a mess, looking like multiple people had been working and eating there, but right now there was only Kid Flash gobbling up a mountain of fries.
"You need protein to keep you going," Bruce complained under his breath. "Filling yourself up with junk food is just a waste."
"Say something to all the people, Kid Flash!"
The young speedster mumbled something unintelligible around the fries, smiled with his mouth full, and give the camera a thumbs-up.
"Cool! Now where did everyone else go~?"
Dick maneuvered back down to his scooter board and rolled into a lounge area where a sports game was playing on TV. The camera shifted around until the people on the couch were visible.
Cyborg was in the middle, hood up and face shadowed except for the red glow of a cybernetic eye. On either side of the couch were people clad in purple. The one on Cyborg's right was also hidden in the depths of their hood; they had a feminine body type and were reading an ancient-looking leather-bound book, sitting upright and poised like a maiden in a classic painting. The person on the other end of the couch wore an almost identical robe but had very different body language - they were curled up like a cat, nestled in blankets, and were clutching their paperback, the cover of which was obscured.
"Hi, Raven! Hi, Cyborg! Hi, Robin!"
"Hello, Richard," Raven said politely, her(?) voice low and dusky. Cyborg merely grunted, and Robin silently raised their middle finger.
Dick hummed cheerfully as he rolled onward. There was another abrupt edit and then he was in a different room where Wonder Girl was sparring with Speedy. On the other end of the room, the furry dragon napped, and a masked little boy sat beside the beast, polishing a sword.
"Raptor~~!"
"Are you wasting time again, Richard?" the child complained, sounding far more adult than his apparent age.
"It's for the blog! Do you have anything you want to tell people?"
"My only message is for more villains to come commit their crimes in San Francisco. I am running behind schedule."
"[beep]! I mean, Raptor!" Dick corrected. Most of the Titans took care to hide their real names just like adult superheroes did. "Don't tell bad guys to come here! They always interrupt when we're trying to do fun things."
"Life isn't supposed to be 'fun'! The Teen Titans are a very serious group!"
"Okay, Raptor," Dick said indulgently. Then he squealed and laughed when he was abruptly scooped up. When the camera settled, it was pointed at a young woman's face. "Wonder Girl~!"
"Are you bothering him, Dick?"
"Nope!"
"Do you want to take over with Speedy?"
"Yeah! I need a dip, though; fly me, please~?"
"Yes, all right."
"Yay!" The camera filled with Dick's smiling face. "Bye, Internet!"
"Goodbye," Wonder Girl said, and Speedy's fingers jabbed into view to flash a quick victory sign just before the video ended.
Bruce sighed and let the phone fall on his chest, then watched with idle affection as Tim finished watching. The octo-mer finally lowered his tablet and looked at Bruce. He made Dick's sign-name.
"Yes, it's Dick. He seems...happy. Without me."
"Lots of people."
"Yes. Those are the Teen Titans. They are...Dick's friends." Bruce rubbed at his eyes. "I'm feeling kind of tired, kiddo. I think I'm going to take a nap."
A tentacle reached out and deposited a fidget toy in Bruce's lap for no discernible reason.
"Thank you."
"You sleep, you wake up, we play hide-and-seek." Bruce hoped that Tim never learned that the real game involved the players hiding from each other. It was exasperating enough that Tim had already made a game out of occasionally hiding objects Bruce needed and watching intently as the man hunted them down. Bruce hoped that playing the game with nonessential items would keep Tim sated enough that he wouldn't feel the need to play it with important objects.
"All right, we can do that."
It was nearly three in the morning when Bruce woke up again. He and Tim had become largely nocturnal during the voyage, since the mer did better in dim lighting and the sun was so much brighter when they didn't have a house to shield them from it. Tim also spent much less time in the ocean than Bruce expected, since the mer refused to go down there without Bruce accompanying him in a small boat. There were not nearly as many toys or cozy spots on the yacht as there had been in the house, so Bruce taught Tim how to play chess and they spent long hours bent intently over the magnetic board.
This was what they were doing when the sky began to lighten with the approach of dawn. They finished up the game and Bruce put it away before Tim could try to set up the pieces for another round. "All right. Sun's coming, kiddo. Let's get ready to sleep."
"You love Dick?" Tim asked out of the blue.
"Do I-? Yes, of course."
"...You love Jason?"
Bruce tried to swallow the sudden lump in his throat. "Yes," he signed. "I don't want to talk about Jason."
He waited for Tim to ask the next logical question, but he didn't. "Don't die," the mer said instead.
"I'm not going to die, Tim." He paused. "I...I love you, Tim."
Tim made the particular tentacle gesture that Bruce was pretty sure indicated confusion. "You love fish and seal."
"Yes. And...octopus. I love you, too." He wished his voice didn't sound so empty and flat. Maybe Tim wouldn't notice... It wasn't like he was an expert on tone of voice.
"You love fish. Fish goes away. You love seal. Seal goes away. You love octopus."
"I don't want you to go away, Tim." Bruce suddenly felt cold. He knelt and grasped the mer's small shoulders, needing Tim to understand. "I don't want you to go away. I don't want you to get hurt or angry with me. I- Tim- Please don't leave me. Okay? I need- Please stay with me."
Tim was still a moment. He reached for his own face and pressed his mouth into a smile. He laid his hands on Bruce's heart. Then he signed, "I don't want you to die."
"I- I don't want to die, either, kiddo. I don't want to leave you alone. That would be wrong."
"It's wrong to leave you alone."
"We need to be there for each other. You...you've helped me a lot, and...I know I haven't done much for you, but- it's important. You're...important."
"You love children."
"Yeah. Yeah, I do."
"Good." Tim glanced at the eastern horizon, then crawled away, climbed into a kiddie pool, and pulled the nearby blanket over himself.
Bruce rested a hand on the blanket-covered child. Then he brought over an air mattress and went to sleep right next to his kid, needing to stay close.
TBC
