Little Bird's Vengeance Chapter 27 Introductions, Ad Infinitum
War Machine was shocked. It was incomprehensible what Red Robin was doing. Why he would so aggressively take down three people he was so clearly acquainted, well acquainted with, he could not understand.
Well, that's what he would have thought if anything was getting through other than "huh?"
"Seriously, ribs in definite danger of cracking here," Red said, amused.
"We worried about you. Deal with it," the girl replied.
"Can you at least let me breathe?"
"Maybe," the larger of the two boys said. "Aren't you going to introduce us to your friend?"
"Oh," Red muttered as they gave him a little room, turning to War Machine. "This is Superboy, Wonder Girl and Kid Flash. Guys, War Machine."
"A pleasure," War Machine said at last.
"No names?" Superboy asked.
"Your choice, but keep mine out of it and not in public," Red shrugged.
"We can discuss this later," Wonder Girl said. "I assume there's a secure location?"
"I hooked up with the local equivalent of the League," Red Robin nodded, while War Machine wondered who the 'League' were. "We can head for their headquarters."
War Machine interrupted. "Are you sure that's sensible?"
"Yes," Red said flatly. "Guys, go aerial." The teen vigilante wrapped an arm around Superboy as Wonder Girl took Kid Flash by the waist and they shot into the air.
War Machine fired his flight jets, following the motley group. When they reached a certain height, Red pointed towards the Tower and they flew, unaided, in that direction. War Machine quickly called Tony, warning him to expect company, and shadowed the children. As they approached, Red split off, gliding with his wing rig and swept down to a neat landing on the launch pad, his friends close behind.
Tim could not describe how glad he felt in the presence of his friends. Of course, having the Teen Titans around would only make things more complicated, but how could he feel anything but sweet relief? Not only did their presence point to the possibility of the connection between worlds still being open, he wasn't alone anymore. He had people he knew he could rely on.
He swept into a landing, feeling rather than seeing Superboy and Wonder Girl land, Kid Flash released to stand on his own two feet. He wasn't surprised to see the Avengers already scrambling to the roof.
"Seriously? Why does the welcome wagon always come with live weapons?" he asked lightly. Arrows, bullets and flying shields they could all deal with easily, repulsors were relatively easy to dodge, and Thor had yet to appear. Nothing they couldn't handle.
"Red, who are these people?" Steve asked.
"Why, Captain, they're my team," Tim said.
"Your team? As in the one from your home world? The one you co-lead? That one?" Tony asked.
"Unless he's started up some more teams without telling us," Wonder Girl said playfully. Tim twitched his lips in a smirk and flicked his head from side to side. He had to project the body language a little more than he would with Bruce, Dick, Babs, Cass and Steph (he'd never talk that way to Damian), but he knew that most people would still miss the tiny flicker of conversation.
Clint raised an eyebrow, about to comment, and knowing him he heard the entire conversation, non-vocal and all, when the stairwell door next to the elevator slammed open, revealing a sincerely concerned god of thunder.
"Hey, Thor," Tim said, deliberately nonchalant. "I take it Dr Banner and Miss Potts are below, in case the company you were warned of is of the hostile and extremely dangerous variety?" Thor glanced from Tim to Steve and back with an ever so slightly befuddled expression on his face. Tim sighed. "It'll help if they come up here, so I only have to repeat it once."
Thor looked at Steve, who nodded, before retreating. Steve raised an eyebrow at Tim. "Should we call Fury while we're at it?" he asked.
"No, we can send him the footage," Tim replied. Superboy twitched his eyebrows in question, and Tim responded by pursing his lips as though avoiding answering a question, and then thinned them in displeasure. Superboy was asking who Fury was; Tim replying that he was someone who'd ask questions they didn't want him to.
"So…gonna share?" Tony asked.
Tim rolled his eyes, not that Tony could see it behind his mask. "When the others get here."
"Rob, I'm running on empty," Kid Flash spoke up. "Can I restock?"
"Yeah, sure, just don't be greedy," Tim said distractedly, trying to out-stare four people simultaneously.
"No problem," the chirpy little speedster said, before turning into a blur. Less than a second later, Tim clenched his hand around a coffee cup that had appeared in it. Glancing over, he could see Wonder Girl and Superboy with cans of lemonade and packets of potato chips. "You want anything else, Rob?"
"I'm good," Tim shrugged, sipping the coffee. Kid Flash had got his exact preference down pat about two years ago, when he finally realised that was Tim's default desire on a food run.
"Do I want to know where all that food came from?" Clint asked, staring at the mountain of snacks Kid Flash had piled up on the counter and was chomping through.
"Probably not," Tim answered.
"Why is there so much food?" Steve asked.
"Speedstermetabolismneedsalotoffuel," Kid Flash said in between mouthfuls. "IfIrunoutIneedtogoonanIVandthat'snotpleasant."
"More importantly," Tony interrupted. "Your real name is Rob?!"
"What? No, of course not," Tim replied.
"Rob, short for Robin," Superboy and Wonder Girl chorused. "How could you not get that?"
"We just called him Red," Steve said.
"You didn't tell them?" Wonder Girl asked, somewhat redundantly.
"Never seemed terribly relevant," Tim shrugged.
"What didn't? C'mon, tell us," Tony begged.
Tim glanced at the elevator door, which slid open to release Thor, Banner and Pepper. It was bound to come up with the Titans around, and it hadn't really been a secret. "The 'Red' is a recent addition to the name," he explained. "I used to be just Robin. The names are different; they have different meanings, different connotations, they are not interchangeable."
"Good to know," Peeper said, approaching. "We have…guests?"
"Yeah, are you ever going to introduce us?" Tony asked.
"Of course," Tim replied, restraining a smirk. "Guys, you met War Machine. Real name's Colonel James Rhodes, works in the Airforce. His suit of flying armour was made by Tony Stark, aka Iron Man, the one with the attitude and the beard like GA. The lady who just came in is his company's CEO, Pepper Potts; she's a civilian. The guy who came in with her is Dr Banner. When he loses his temper he Banes out, except green and stupid. That side of him's called Hulk. Otherwise, civilian. Man with the shield; Captain America, Steve Rogers. Super-soldier, fought in World War Two, spent the last seventy years on ice. He leads the Avengers. Those two, Clint Barton and Tasha Romanov, Hawkeye and Black Widow, assassin-spies. And the blond with the hammer is Thor, Norse god of thunder."
"Seriously, a thunder god?" Wonder Girl asked excitedly.
"Not now, and I want the footage," Tim told her, anticipating a coming fight.
Banner sighed, and came up to the Titans, offering his hand. "Bruce Banner. Red always leaves that bit off. And you?"
"Cassie. Wonder Girl. Daughter of Zeus. Trained as an Amazon," Wonder Girl replied, shaking his hand. "Nice to meet you, Dr Banner."
"You too?" Banner groaned.
Cassie smiled. "So, this is Superboy, and Kid Flash eating his own body weight in junk food."
"Kon-El," Superboy offered.
As the boys continued introducing themselves, Tasha drew Red aside. "Are your friends capable of defending themselves, or will they require protection?"
"They are very capable," Tim assured her.
"Are you certain?"
Tim allowed himself the luxury of a smirk. Time to show her one of their drills. His hand shot out, pulling her handgun from her belt and squeezing off a single shot over his shoulder.
The bullet bounced off Superboy's bicep, ricocheted from Wonder Girl's upraised bracelet, and headed directly towards Pepper before disappearing. "What the hell?" at least three people said simultaneously.
"Little warning next time," Superboy grumbled.
"Very certain," Tim said, handing Tasha her gun back.
"That could've killed Pepper," Tony protested, aghast.
"Unlikely," Tim said. "Bart?" A blur spend over to him and deposited a flattened bullet in his outstretched hand. He gave it to Tasha. "Will you be requiring protection?"
"Thank you, Red," she said, irritated. "I take your point."
"No problem. We can take care of ourselves," Tim said pointedly.
"So, how did you get here, Rob?" Wonder Girl asked.
"Don't know yet. I was 'porting up to the Watchtower, turns out I materialized unconscious about four metres that-a-way." Tim gestured to the lounge area. "You guys?"
"Uh, first, do you have a way back?" Superboy asked.
"Not yet. And I take it you don't have anything from home? I'm working on it; got an appointment with a scientist with a bit more experience in the field of inter-world travel later today."
"STAR?" Kid Flash suggested hopefully.
"I wish. What's been happening back home?" Tim asked.
Wonder Girl nodded to the couches. "Your new friends mind if we have a little privacy?"
Tim glanced round at the Avengers. They looked eager to hear whatever Wonder Girl had to say, but Tony smiled and waved them away. Talk about suspicious. Was probably going to have Jarvis boost the microphones… "If you want, but keep to Kryptonian," he said, switching to the language of Superboy's homeworld – which he'd insisted they all learn, just in case.
"Paranoia striking again, Rob?" Superboy asked, flopping down onto the couch.
"You wouldn't believe the surveillance in this place," Tim shrugged.
"Better than yours?" Kid Flash joked. "Aren't you going to sit down?"
"I'll stand," Tim brushed off. "You were telling me about how you got here?"
"Well, we found out you were missing pretty quickly when B called complaining that you'd said you were 'on your way' an hour ago," Wonder Girl started. "Of course, no-one could find you. Have to admit, though, we didn't even think of checking the teleports, or at least not from our end; I think B completely dismantled the one in the Watchtower. Nightwing- um, Batman- got everyone looking everywhere. It's been- Well, we all really missed you. We just got back a few hours ago, and found that someone had broken into the Tower. They left via the teleport, so we three decided to follow, and leave Cyborg and the others to search the Tower. Woke up in the park just now; Kon flew up to take a look, and then people started yelling "mutant scum". You were there for the rest."
"Yeah, and good work on the acting. Wasn't sure you'd quite get what I was after," Tim nodded. He'd made the hand sign for "follow my lead", which could have had numerous interpretations.
"And what have you been up to?" Superboy asked, his eyes glowing. "Must have been busy; I haven't seen injuries like that before."
"Nothing special, and stop x-ray vision scanning people," Tim complained.
"Yeah, like hell was it 'nothing special'. What did you do?"
"It's. Nothing," Tim said firmly.
Superboy snorted. "Hey, you lot!" he called. "What's Rob done to get second degree burns across seventy percent of his body's surface area?"
"He's what?!" Steve, Tony and Banner yelled simultaneously. Thor looked vaguely concerned, Pepper looked horrified, and Clint and Tasha looked slightly shifty.
"And of course you didn't tell them," Wonder Girl sighed. "Why do you think Kon x-ray scans you?"
"I got a professional to look at it," Tim replied defensively.
"And then went straight back out on the streets?" Kon snorted.
Tim shrugged. "What else would I do? Anyway, my suit's security system got fried. I had treatment. I'm fine. I've had work to do."
"Wait, Red, what was he on about? Burns?" Tony interrupted.
"It's nothing," Tim brushed off. "Bad fight a week and a half ago." He turned back to the Titans. "Three days, actually, and for heaven's sake don't tell them what caused it. I'll show you the report later."
"Please, just tell us when you're hurt," Wonder Girl pleaded. "I can't promise we won't try to coddle you a bit, but isn't it better that we know what to look out for?"
Tim sighed and glanced away. "Bullets to the right shoulder and left thigh. 'Bout a fortnight ago. Properly treated, healing well. Kon can confirm that."
Wonder Girl nodded. "So, you've been busy? With what? And what more can you tell us about your new friends?"
Before Tim could answer, there was a quiet, but definite bleep. "So, everyone, that's my cue," he said, draining the last of his coffee and setting down the cup. "Got five minutes before I have to leave for that meeting. I'll pull up the file I've been keeping."
"Sure, Rob," Wonder Girl said, nodding as Tim headed for the door. "So, Thor, you're a thunder god? 'Cause so's my father…"
AN: BEFORE YOU START SENDING HATE MAIL ABOUT THE BULLET, the other three Titans all have superspeed. For them, bouncing that bullet is like playing catch with a ping pong ball. Tim's played that game with them before; he trusts them to think fast. At the moment the Avengers are kinda shellshocked, but that'll clear up later. They're also about to receive a crash-course in Bat-secrecy...
Anyway, plot is still advancing. Also this week, exciting things happening in Family Ties.
Next week, a Black and Red update wherein Tim's investigating, and so is Barbara.
Other news, my series Dalek Invasion is going on hiatus. It's been receiving very little feedback, and hasn't been very easy to write. I'll return to it when it gets easier, but that won't be in the foreseeable future.
If you're unhappy about how this story is going, I don't mind you telling me, but I would prefer if you gave suggestions for improvements rather than just saying what you don't like. If you hate the bullet in this chapter, then by all means tell me, but don't turn it into flames. I've already explained why I think it's reasonable.
Of course, if you like this chapter, I'd be even more delighted to hear from you, and if you have queries, my inbox is always open.
See you soon,
Katara