TMB If Only 4 Teleportation
4: What could be a potential side effect for being used for a portal?
The sun shined softly on the empty courtyard, burning away what was left of the snow to make way for the few daisies that signaled the beginning of spring. Dead weeds and fallen leaves poked out from the decreasing white layer, decorating the entirety of the courtyard floor, undisturbed. The weeds filled cracks in the pavement and consumed the few plants that existed. Vines crept up the trees, wrapped tight with thorns sticking out to those who would dare touch them. A squirrel chittered in the trees.
A bright red robin flew into the scene and landed on the window sill. He twittered away and shook his head slightly. On the other side of the glass, a pale hand reached out and touched the window, wishing he could touch the free-flying robin. The robin turned its head, studying the boy who faced him.
"Paraishe? Dick? Are you listening?" Dick jerked to attention, wincing as the sudden movement caused his aches from the experiment to tingle. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the bird startle and fly away down into the courtyard.
"Yeah, yeah. Of course I'm listening."
"Oh yeah? Ok. Tell me the last thing I said." Alex smirked at his distant roommate.
"Uhh… You have a longing for olives?" Damian giggled as Alex's smirk slipped off. Dick's cheeks turned bright red. Alex glared at the laughing midget, which of course just made him laugh harder. Eventually, Damian's giggles died down slightly, enough so that he could talk.
"Cloudy was talking about how the slop needs to have taste if he's to believe it has calories and nutrients." He said in a mix of Romani and Arabic
"Ha! I was right! You do have a longing for olives." Alex blushed as Damian's laughter picked up again.
"Well, duh. That's a given, but it's not the last thing I said. Anyhow, Damian probably doesn't even remember what real food tastes like and I doubt you've been making an effort to remember. Damian, what's your favorite food?" Damian shrugged. "See, this is blasphemy! Blasphemy, I say. We need to find your favorite."
Dick tuned the two out as they began an argument about the necessity of having a favorite food. He turned back to the window, looking for the robin he'd seen earlier. It was down near the ground, pecking at the cracks in the pavement. The few patches of ground that weren't snow covered looked wet. Dick imagined they would feel cool beneath his feet, the cold wind pecking at his arms. He closed his eyes, picturing himself down in the courtyard, with the robin.
A few seconds later, Dick could feel the frigid air biting at his skin as if it was really there. The howl of wind blowing loud as the noise of his roommates faded completely. The squirrel sounded close, as if it were right next to him, and the birdsong was louder than before. Something cold dropped onto his head just before his legs gave out beneath him.
Dick pushed himself up slightly, feeling cold, wet, and more cold, and opened his eyes. He froze in shock. He was staring directly at the red robin, who was watching him curiously.
A shrill alarm broke the background, causing the bird to fly away. Dick took in his surroundings. He wasn't in his room anymore. He was outside, in the courtyard. He whipped his head up and located his window. Alex and Damian were staring down at him with wide eyes and partially open mouths. As he watched, other kids in neighboring rooms came to the windows and looked out.
The long neglected courtyard doors crashed open. A large group of bluemen rushed out and surrounded Dick, who was still blinking with confusion, not moving a muscle as he tried to figure out how he got outside. He didn't so much as twitch as the bluemen stalked closer and scooped him up. As he was carried back inside, it occurred to him that he probably should have fought back, stayed in the cold, fresh air for a little while longer.
The door closed with a firm click, followed by the sound of multiple locks moving into place. Dick blinked as he began to come out of his shock. A menacing glare dug into his back. He turned around as best he could with his right hand and ankle chained to the table and chair respectively and met the steady gaze of Frederick. Frederick had his arms crossed and was leaning against the wall, a little to Dick's left, close enough to scare him yet far enough to easily get in his way and grab him should he try to make a move for the door. Not that he would, he would never be able to get around all the locks, which were clearly only on the outside, fast enough to not set off the alarms. Dick's left hand twitched up to touch his googles. He pulled them down around his neck for further protection.
Ten minutes ticked by on a clock Dick couldn't see, probably a watch. He fidgeted under Frederick's glare and focused on his breathing. Bruce had taught him more than a few breathing exercises to help him calm down from nightmares or whenever he was stressed or panicked. He'd used the exercises many times when he had been kidnapped in the past… and many times in the past three… or was it four? months. They had kept him sane in the never ending isolation of the box, however long he'd been in there. Had the bluemen taken his vitals before shoving him in here? He thought they might have… but maybe not?
After another five minutes, the doctor from the injection room entered followed by a couple bluemen and the doctor from the circle room. The two bluemen each stood on his two sides while the two doctors sat down across from him and studied him. One took his right wrist and took the pulse while the other focused on blood pressure. They jotted down their notes and studied him again, circling like sharks and writing extensively on their clipboards. After a moment of studying Dick and taking notes, the male doctor, the one from the circle room, jerked his head at the bluemen.
Dick felt one of the bluemen grab ahold of his shoulders while the other leaned down and maneuvered his left leg onto the table. Dick cried out in pain at the contortion, but the chair was molded to the ground, so he had no way to escape it or make the pain easier. He grabbed ahold of his ankle to try to ease the bend, but the blueman just shoved his hand out of the way. The man held his foot and shin while the other blueman let go of his shoulders and attached a thick metal anklet with a click. She adjusted the inner band so it was firm around Dick's ankle, but didn't activate it yet.
"How did you do it?" The blueman who had attached the band asked.
Dick shifting uncomfortably, trying to ease the strain on his left leg. He didn't answer. How did he do it? All he could remember was watching the Robin from the window and thinking about how great it would be to fly again. How great it would be to be free to walk his own route and flip through the skies. He missed home. He missed Bruce and Alfred and Jason and his friends and teammates. He missed participating in mathlete tournaments and winning trophies. He missed the relaxation that came with hanging out with Babs and getting into mischief with Wally, to be dug out by Roy or, when they managed to drag Roy down with them, their mentors.
But as much as he missed home, none of that had anything to do with the sudden ability to teleport. Unbidden, a tear dripped down from his eye, followed by another. He really needed to stop it with the break downs. Or at least save them until he was back in his room with only Alex and maybe Damian to see. The bluemen were still watching him for an answer he refused to give, even if he had understood how it happened.
He heard a sigh and then felt a firm pinch around his ankle as the anklet was activated and adjusted to fit just around the inner band. "I suppose we'll just have to figure it out then. For now, you're going to disappear to the basement for a while. You need a punishment for an attempted escape after all." Dick still didn't give her a reaction. He did not resist as they tied a blindfold around his eyes and led him out to parts unknown. There was no point right now. He could benefit from them testing his powers.
Besides, he couldn't leave without Damian.
Hey everyone! I'll give you the stuff about this scene first and then author's excuses and update on The Medium Between and its sequel.
This was a deleted scene that was written partially early in November 2014. I originally stopped partway into the scene with Frederick, one paragraph into that scene. Part of the reason I stopped was because I had no idea where I was going with this. I hadn't thought that far ahead yet, with just the main climaxes in place and some of the beginning scene written already. Obviously, they'd want to know how he did it. There would have to be consequences, one of which would have been the tracker anklet because they would be wary of letting Dick out of their sight and would want to know immediately if he teleported again. It was actually a stronger anklet that would shock him severely so that he'd stay where he was until the bluemen could recover him.
This scene created several holes in the plot. Due to the anklet, Dick wouldn't be able to be a part of the escape because he couldn't be far from a blueman and they could easily incapacitate him if he fought back. He also could have just teleported out during the finale scene taking Damian with him. The courtyard wouldn't exactly be much safer, but they'd be more accessible. He could teleport out any kids he found and hand them over to Superman before the bombs went off, which would have been great, but the story would be over and when I was writing this scene, The Medium Between, the story that I posted as The Medium Between, was quickly becoming a sprouting off prequel to a few potential plotlines through use of the portal, still is actually.
Giving Dick teleportation also felt like I would be taking away from his character. Bats have a habit of sneaking up on people, intentionally and unintentionally. If he had teleportation, everyone would attribute his asterousness to that, and it just felt wrong. That doesn't mean he won't get superhuman or supernatural powers, but teleportation will not be one of them if/when he does.
The nicknames (Paraishe and Cloudy) were another thing that didn't make it through the early stages of this story. They were related to
On the other hand, it was fun to write this scene as an exercise in imagery.
Inky here! This chapter has been half written for ages and was one of the earlier things that ASV-
-just got the update that ASV got bumped to first class -.- (cruelly abandoning Inky to the wild unfettered wastelands)
….Anyways, this was one of the earlier scenes that was discussed between us, and, like she said, got abandoned fairly quickly as the plot developed more. I completed editing this chapter while we were waiting in an airport- as you might figure out from the previous update. We had to deplane our original plane after boarding, b/c it got damaged when they were cleaning out the engine, and then had to travel half a terminal to the new plane, which ofc has an arrival time nearly an hour later than the original flight- which wouldn't normally matter, but this flight was already a redeye.
Enjoy this chapter!
ASV- I'm sorry I haven't actually personally updated anything since April. I just took one of my finals from Spring semester yesterday that I couldn't take due to my concussion interfering with my ability to study. I couldn't use a computer without pain until mid-June because I had major light sensitivity problems that lasted past everything else healing (think Sunglasses at night in a dark alley with a few dim lanterns, or think a bat), so didn't get much writing done. Completely better now!
That said, I have started work on the sequel to The Medium Between, which is currently tentatively called The Wrong Batcave, but that will most likely not be the final title. Several people have pointed out the last chapter of TMB is awkward, so I'm going to write another chapter to resolve it a bit more before the epilogue. The epilogue is written, although I might add a bit more, and came out well. So, that's an update on that. Inky and I have been having fun working on The Wrong Batcave to develop and finalize a clear plot. The smallest things go to whole new outcome, so neither of us are really sure where it will end. Inky and I will be constantly bugging each other with lots of travel time to write for the next two weeks, so I might be able to post the end of The Medium Between in mid-August. There's over 12K words written so far, plus a ton of background work.
Also, our flight finally took off after a good two and half hour delay with lots of interesting problems. Interesting for a budding engineer anyways.