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Nightwing parked the bike where he would usually park his. He looked up to the fire escape that connected to everyone's window, including his. Red Hood jumped off and dragged Nightwing along, who managed to grab the hover board before he was dragged. He jumped up and climbed the ladder, Nightwing in tow. With their predicament, they manage to get to the apartment.
As soon as they opened the window and stepped inside, Nightwing let out a deep, long sigh. He propped up the hover board against the wall near the window. Finally he was back. He made sure all the windows were secured and closed, and curtains down before he peeled his mask off and set it on the counter.
"Can we at least sit somewhere where both our limbs aren't being a pain in the ass to the other?" Red Hood growled out as he took his Red helmet and mask off and set it on the counter too.
Dick turned to him and saw him balancing on one foot, the other in the air attached to his wrist. Dick nodded as he went over to the large couch and plopped himself down, and Jason hopped on it and laid on his back, leaning on the arm of the couch.
Dick's eyelids were getting heavier. He was exhausted and the itch on his side was aggravating. He was about to scratch it until a voice creep up on him.
"You didn't even notice my presence at all." It said. Both of the birdies on the couch jumped up at the sound, but calmed after realizing who it was. Dick groaned.
"Jesus Christ old man, why the fuck are you here?" Jason said.
"I could say the same to you, Todd." Another figure emerged from the shadows, revealing a brightly colored hero.
"Demon."
"Mistake."
"Piece of shi—" he was about to get up but was stopped by Batman.
"Enough," Batman said, peeling his cowl off. Robin acknowledged it and took his mask off as well, being in a safe enough environments. "Now I know something is wrong with you when you can't even tell I'm here. You always do, Dick," he said. He turned to Dick.
Dick pinched the bridge of his nose. "Yea, not the best of nights for me."
"I could tell from the way you reacted today," Jason said to him. "Not very golden boy like."
"Why are you even here, Todd?" Damian asked. He could see the scowl on Jason's face. He heard Dick let out a harsh sigh as he lifted his left wrist, Jason's left ankle attached to it via a strange device.
Dick knew Bruce was cocking his eyebrow up, Damian smirking. Damian let out a snort. Dick ruffled his own hair, scratching it in the process and soon began to scratch at the side of his chest. So said scratch was definitely not dying down at all. After it finally died down, he could see Jason glaring at him, who was scratching his arm without him knowing it.
"How did this happen?" Bruce asked.
Dick sighed. "I went to investigate about the mysterious robber. I found his place and lo and behold, Jason was there. A cat jumped him and he fell over, and the thing got stuck to him. It binds to skin contact. I didn't figure it out until after I tested that out." He momentarily lifted his left wrist again, along with Jason's left ankle. "So here we are."
"Since you're here in all, think ya got somethin' in that handy dandy belt of yours to get us outta this?" Jason glanced at Dick closely, observing him although his question was directed towards Bruce.
Bruce walked around the couch and crouched down in front of the device. He stroked his chin and let out a hum. He began tapping at the strange device.
"It's alien tech." Jason let out. Jason explained to Bruce what Kor' had informed them. Damian just studied Dick, worried if he was alright. Something he would never admit aloud. The accumulating sweat on Dick's forehead only furthered Damian's assumptions that something was clearly wrong with him.
Damian sighed and peeled his glove off. He walked over to Dick and felt his forehead before being swatted away by Dick's hand. The boy furrowed his eyebrows. Had it been nothing, the man would never dare hit Damian.
"Grayson, you fool. You're running a fever," he said. It earned Dick a hard glare from Bruce and Jason.
"You are sick! I knew it was you!" Jason jerked up and pointed at him. "It better not be contagious."
"It's probably just a cold."
"Dick, you're coming back home," Bruce announced.
"I'm fine. I'm not going back just cause of a little cold."
"Grayson don't be a fool," Damian said.
"Yo Bats, can you do me a favor and remove me from him so I can get the hell outta here?" Jason grumbled.
"We can do it when we get to the cave," Bruce said.
"I said I'm not going back to the cave, Bruce."
"Yes you are…BOTH of you are." He glanced at Jason as well on this.
"God dammit." Jason growled out. "I am not going back there. All I want is to turn this in and get my money and sleep."
"You can sleep back at the Manor." Bruce said.
"No thanks."
"I'd gladly slice off your ankle if you wish so, Todd." Damian smirked.
"You little piece of—"
"Uh…am I interrupting something?" a new, hoarse voice let out. Faster that the fastest man alive would envy, Bruce and Damian put their mask back on and blocked Dick and Jason from sight. Both of them had batarangs in hand and took a defensive stance.
"Chill! It's me guys!" the voice coughed and emerged from the shadows. It was Red Robin.
"Drake you idiot!" Damian snapped. He peeled off his mask and sent him a glare.
Bruce sighed as he removed his cowl once again. "We all must be on edge. I didn't even notice you came in."
"It's my specialty, Bruce." Red Robin took his mask off and stuffed it in a pocket.
"What happened with your voice?" Dick asked Tim.
"Organizing Alien tech with the Titans and a few others are on my avoid list. Only way to settle the others shouting at each other is if I yell back at them." he ran his fingers through his hair.
"Why are you even here, Replacement?" Jason asked. Bruce got out of the way, same with Damian.
"I was thinking of asking Dick to help me on a little something, but I guess he has his hands full." He thought for a moment. "Wait—why are you all even here?"
"Golden boy here is sick," he said with slight disgust that he was still attached to him. An idea struck Jason's mind. "You're the tech wiz birdie; you get us out of this!"
"Out of wha—" Tim started, but realized what he was talking about. "AH!" he gaped, pointing at the thing.
Bruce raised an eyebrow. "So you've seen thi—"
"Why do you guys have that?" Tim shouted, and quickly covered his mouth. "We've been searching everywhere for it!" he said excitingly.
"Please enlighten us as to what the hell you are talking about, Drake." Dick elbowed Damian for the use of his language.
Tim took out a piece of paper from his belt and held it up. It was a sketch of the device. "This is what was stolen, among other things as well but we managed to track those down, from the guys we're helping."
"What the hell is it already!" Jason asked impatiently.
"Translated, it's a pet ring. It binds to specific molecules when programmed. Since it's out of its orbit, it automatically teleports the pet back home. Good way to keep track with their valued pets." Tim walked over to it and ran his fingers on it. "This one so happened to go a bit haywire and attached to every little thing it could come in contact with."
"So why were there so many guys after this thing?" Dick asked.
"The pet ring is only for exclusive, valuable pets." He paused. "The pet ring itself its worth quite a lot too. There are different values of these rings, and this one is rare, practically worth billions in our currency due to the technology behind it." Tim told them. "Word got out that it was being transported with some other stuff and they got hit and lost some of their things. This was one of them."
"How do we get it off, Tim?" Dick asked.
"The owners said it came with a key."
"…broke it." Jason muttered.
"What?" Tim asked confusingly.
"I broke the damn key!"
Tim face palmed himself. He sighed aggravatingly. "I'll have Cyborg ask them about it. Surely he can come up with something." He brought out his holo computer and typed in a few things. "In the meantime…Dick are you alright?" Tim glanced up at Dick. He looked a bit pale. "You don't look so good."
"Even Drake agrees, Grayson." Damian huffed.
"Heeuughhhchooo!" Dick let out a sudden sneeze that caught Tim off guard and hit Tim right in the face.
"…gee…thanks Dick." He wiped his face. "So gross."
"Sorry Tim. How fast you think they can fix it?" Dick asked, wiping his nose.
"Hmm, not long. Cyborg is pretty quick on this."
"Would you quit scratching yourself! I swear it's even making me itchy!" Jason growled out. He pounced on Dick and held one arm down with the attached ankle and the other with his right hand. "Just what the hell are you scratching away at?!"
Dick struggled against Jason, but was too weak to get him off himself. "Jason get off of me!"
"Look! You're almost tearing into your uniform!" Jason said, touching at it. Dick squirmed from under him.
"How long have you been scratching at that?" Tim asked, eyeing him.
Dick sighed. "I don't know…since yesterday night I guess." Tim smoothed his fingers over the thinning fabric. Dick winced at the contact.
"See? It's already tender."
Damian went over, after hearing enough, and pulled out a birdarang. "You better not move Grayson."
"What do you think you're doing?" Tim asked. He got in front of him. Damian shoved Tim out of the way and carefully cut open the fabric area that Dick had been scratching at. He ripped it, revealing a nasty red gash that was beginning to bleed.
"Augh, gross." Jason commented.
"It's already bleeding." Damian growled a bit.
"Dick, that looks terrible." Tim said.
"Enough. Let's get back to the cave so Alfred can treat Dick." Bruce pulled his cowl back on. "Come on."
Dick sighed and tried to get up. Jason however, didn't move an inch.
"I'm driving this time." Jason crossed his arms.
"What? It's the only comfortable way!"
"For you maybe."
"Guys, you can use this." Tim said, pointing over to the hover board. "This is so cool."
"I'm pretty sure one of us is going to fall off." Dick said, finally getting up from Jason. Batman tossed Dick his mask and Jason his mask and helmet as well.
"We don't even know how to fly the damn thing." Jason said, pressing the eyepiece on, slipping on the iconic Red Hood.
Tim studied the hover board for a second, flipping it around and groping at it. He went towards the open window. Bruce moved slightly so Tim could have enough room.
"Hm." Was all he said as he slipped on the eyepiece and jumped out of the window, startling Dick and Jason. Damian muttered, calling him an idiot while Bruce stuck his head out the window to observe. Tim was falling towards the ground whilst slipping the board under his feet. He shifted his feet around till he felt the hidden buttons. He pressed it with the right of his foot and his fall to ground halted. "What a rush." He messed with the controls until he got the hand of steering it. He swerved around, balancing on it. "Like a surf board. Gotta make a blue print of this." he thought to himself. He steered around and went back up to the window in the alley.
"The three of us can fit on here, but Nightwing, you're gonna have to let Red Hood stand."
Nightwing sighed. "Alright."
The two of them boarded, masks donned. Red Hood almost fell off once he stepped foot on it. Nightwing had no problem, almost felt like balancing on a tight rope.
"You should be used to this Jay." Nightwing snickered.
"And how about you shut that mouth of yours before I shove my foot and your hand down your throat at the same time."
"Guys…you might want to hold on." Red Robin said. He smirked over to the Bat jet that came up beside them in the air. Tim knew by how fast it could go from the ground to Dick's window, the thing was pretty fast. He wanted to test how fast it was compared to the bat jet.
Red Robin bent his knees, getting ready. Red Hood reluctantly grabbed onto his shoulders. Nightwing crouching down already, gripped onto the sides of the hover board, and got ready. Red Robin grinned and took off, racing the Bat jet.
"Fuck!" Red Hood wrapped his arms around Tim's waist to avoid being blown off. He didn't know how the boy was still holding on. "How the hell are you still sticking on?"
"Magnets." He pointed at his boots. "Duh."
~0o0o0o0o0o0~
Of course they, or Red Robin, lost to the Bat jet, but it kept a close race by nearly a mile back. Sounds far, but compared with the Bat jet, yea it was fast. Red Hood and Nightwing managed to not get knocked off the hover board, with the driver's very excited and enthusiastic interest on how well made it is.
As soon as they all arrived at the Batcave, their bikes, Red Hood and Red Robin's, mysteriously arrived before they have. Batman didn't press into that topic, as if it were nothing. All of the Bat boys took off their masks, finally able to relax. Jason took his jacket off and draped it over the chair near the bat computer. Alfred came down from the stair well, platter of refreshments ready. The medical table had been set up, after hearing a word from Batman.
"Ah, good to see Master Jason here again." Alfred smiled. Jason smiled. Ahh, Alfred. God 'ol Alfred. A god on earth. "It seems you and Master Richard have gotten yourself into a predicament I see." He said, eyeing the strange device clamped onto them. "Well then you two, on the table." He said as he turned and went towards the medical table.
The two awkwardly moved over to the table and hopped up on it, Jason bending his left knee to himself so the both of them can be comfortable and not complain.
Alfred put on some gloves and a mask to cover his mouth, careful to not transmit any bacteria or catch any of it. He looked over at Dick's side, softly touching at the wound.
"Dear me, how long have you been scratching at this, Master Richard?" Alfred asked. The scratch wound had torn his skin.
"A couple of days." He answered. Alfred shook his head and cleaned up the blood. What he found underneath the blood had shocked him, though he showed no emotion of it. He lifted his eyebrow at the discovery.
"Master Dick, I believe you have never gotten sick when Master Bruce had brought you home for the first time, but if you can recall, have you ever been sick before your time at the manor?" Alfred asked carefully.
Dick thought for a moment, bringing his right hand underneath his chin. "Don't think I ever did. I attended to practice every day, and went the performance in the audience when my family performed since I was still a bit young." He shook his head and looked up. "Nope."
"Are you sure?" he asked once again.
Dick chuckled. "Yes, I'm sure."
Alfred was sure of what is going on with Dick now. From how Bruce had described how he acted, it made sense.
"Alfred, what's wrong with Dick?" Tim asked, coming up to his side.
"He's sick!" Jason shouted. "Dickie bird here is just in denial because he doesn't want to break his record." He paused for a moment. "I mean, the sneeze in your face proved he was sick!" his hand gestured towards Tim.
"He sneezed on you Master Timothy?" Tim nodded.
"Well, aren't we in an odd predicament here?" Alfred thought for a moment longer, aside from the other's normal cold they would catch, they didn't have any other sickness. He sighed.
"Alfred?" Bruce asked.
"I'm afraid I have some good news and some very bad news." He paused. "Good news, it is nothing life threatening, what with Master Richard's great health he should be well in a matter of a week."
"And the bad news?" Damian asked.
Alfred went behind Dick and unzipped the back of his uniform. Dick took that as a sign to shrug the top part down. Alfred's calculations were right as soon as Dick's torso was bare.
Tim widened his eyes and pointed, mouth gaping open. "AH, Y-Y-YOU—" Tim couldn't complete his sentence. He was shocked and frustrated. "He sneezed on me!" he grabbed a fist full of his hair. "I was supposed to go on an undercover mission to help a princess in a couple of days!"
"Gross!" Jason tried to pry his ankle off, but it was hopeless. "Great," he mumbled. "The one time you get sick, you have to have THAT."
Bruce sighed heavily. Damian however, did not understand.
"What is with those markings on Grayson's torso?" he asked. Bruce looked down at him, while Jason and Tim stared at him in shock.
"You mean you don't know what that is?" Tim asked him incredulously.
"Drake, if I had known, I would not have asked the question you fool."
"Damian, did they not teach you about common human Illnesses?" Bruce asked his son. Damian shook his head.
"I left before they could, but it wouldn't have mattered. My health is always at its peak and I'm always taking proper care of myself."
"Young Master Damian, Master Richard has the chicken pox." Alfred answered the boy. "And I'm afraid you all have it as well."
"The chicken pox?" this was the first time he has ever heard it. "I don't feel ill." He turned towards Tim. "Explain, Drake."
"Varicella, or what's commonly known as the Chicken Pox, causes you to have a fever, and break out in a real itchy rash," Tim sighed. "It occurs more often in children like you. Some people don't manage to have at all or until their later years. Some can have it twice. It's rare to see an adult to have the chicken pox actually. I haven't had it yet…thought I was one of the lucky ones." He mumbled the last part.
"In all my years here, I have not seen Master Bruce have it either," Alfred said.
"Neither have I," Jason said, glaring at Dick.
"It's contagious. You can get it from skin contact, sharing their food, or being sneezed on. Basically any close contact can get you infected if you never had it," Tim explained to him.
"So, Damian caught it when Dick hugged him this morning, Jason from being in constant close contact because of the pet ring, Tim because Dick sneezed on him and I did from feeling his forehead." Bruce said. A thought came across his mind, realizing something. He smirked.
"Does something amuse you, Master Bruce?" Alfred questioned him.
"It's nothing." Bruce smirked, amusement in his eyes. "But I'm afraid you can't be here or a while." A bit of sadness lingered in his eyes.
"I was afraid so, Master Bruce. Shingles my age, I wouldn't bare." He paused. "It's time for me to pay a visit to my family; it has been quite a while," Alfred said with unsureness and gladness. Unsure of leaving the boys, but glad to get a break. "Although when I do come back, I wish to see the Manor the same as how I have left it," he said to everyone.
Bruce chuckled. "Of course, who do you see us as?"
"That is precisely why I requested so, Master Bruce." Alfred lifted an eyebrow. After he said that, a familiar beeping went off from Tim.
Tim reached into his pocket and pulled out a device. Yellow, with black markings and a large 'T' on the face of it. He pressed a buttons so it wouldn't automatically make a video call.
"Yo! You rang little man?"
"Cyborg! Did you get my email?" Tim asked.
"Yeah, but I'ma need a spectragraphic analysis so I can compare that to the metal we have." He paused. "You think you got a doo-hickey to do that over there? I can come over to do it if ya don't."
"Don't think you can come in the Batcave, Cy. My computer does, so it shouldn't take too long. "
A very manly squeal screeched out from the small device. "Uh— I mean I'll keep ya updated man," Cyborg quickly said, hanging up.
Tim blinked for a moment. "Uh…huh…" he went over to Dick and Jason and began typing a set of codes for the spectragraphic analysis. A blue light scanned the strange device and immediately sent to Cyborg back at Titan's Tower.
"Ya might wanna scan this too." Jason snatched the bagged broken alien key out of Dick's pocket. "Don't think you can glue it together."
"This broken? I don't know but I'll look at it later. Alien tech is weird."
"In the meantime, I shall prepare dinner. I suggest for you to go change and freshen up," Alfred said, taking his leave. "One last dinner to prepare would not hurt." He said.
"Well how the fuck are we going to do that?" Jason growled.
"Just clean up the best you can and cover up your suit with a robe," said Bruce.
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Shhh. Just enjoy. *Shoves confetti down your throat* I also love reviews too btw