Chapter 21: The black sheep

Crackling and occasional sparks filled the destroyed Batcave as Bruce and Clark entered it in shock.

Stunned, the billionaire stared at the many wreckages of his technology that ultimately made Batman the hero he was.

They stepped deeper into the darkness of the cave with the help of a flashlight when Clark began to ask incredulously:

"What happened here?"

Bruce gritted his teeth in annoyance before answering:

"Damian happened."

The man looked closely at one of the machines before continuing:

"It looks like a strong electromagnetic pulse destroyed all the electronics...Oh no, he wouldn't have...!"

Bruce quickly moved forward into the darkness, heading for a very specific section of his Destroyed HQ before standing stunned in front of Dick's cage, shining his light between the metal bars.

He was...gone.

Bruce's fingers trembled slightly.

This was not good. This was not good at all.

"Bruce what is..."

Clark stepped behind him, now seeing the emptiness in front of him as well.

"Dick, he's...gone."

Immediately, the Kryptonian pulled out his phone and dialed a number. It took several agonizingly long tuts before his wife picked up:

"Lois, please look if Jon is in his room right away. It's extremely important."

Bruce couldn't believe Damian had really gone that far. Sure, it was Damian, but he really hadn't expected that rational thinking boy to do something so reckless and stupid.

He heard the cell phone break in Clark's hand behind him, and the Kryptonian angrily smashed one of his machines with his fist in response.

The problem had just been taken to a new level.

Clark's eyes began to glow red with anger. He grabbed his friend roughly by the collar and yanked him toward his face before the Kryptonian growled in warning:

"Bruce I swear to you, if anything has happened to my son, I will hold you personally responsible!"

With these words, Clark jerkily pushed Bruce away from him and immediately flew out of the cave to look for Jon.

With that, the billionaire stood alone in the darkness and alone with his fear boiling up. His greatest horror was to bury someone of his family again. And even worse, if another family member was responsible for it.

Bruce wasted no time and contacted the Watchtower. The computers there were intact, so he could start the search for Damian. Besides, he had to do something right now to escape his demons.

In a town about 200km away from Gotham:

"Hello Todd."

Instantly, hearing his name, Jason paused in confusion. Only slowly did the synapses in his brain connect the childishly snide voice to the oddly small figure, and as if struck by a bolt of lightning, the realization promised him only the psycho Gremlin himself:

"Demon brat?!"

Jason's mind was more than agitated, considering this little devil, who at least on paper was called his brother and this little growling souvenir he had with him:

"Shit Damian! What the hell are you doing here and what kind of critter is that! How did you even find me?"

Damian now pulled back his hood, revealing the boy's disapprovingly raised eyebrows, before holding the small cell phone-like device in one hand, clearly visible to Jason:

"You serious Todd? You gave me this thing yourself, for the case of the unlikely event I ever needed your services. And tracing the signal from it is really something even idiots can do."

Jason recalled his words on the day of Dick's funeral:

'I know I'm not Dick, yet you can always contact me if the bat ever gets to be too much for you.'

Annoyed, the taller one closed his eyes for a moment. He really didn't think that the little guy would really make use of it. And also in such a strenuous night. He was really too tired to get too mad about it.

Jason sighed and looked resignedly at the dark ceiling of his apartment:

"Let me guess, stress with your daddy?"

An irritated hiss escaped Damian:

"-tt- That's not the primary reason why I'm here. It's..."

Damian was about to start telling Jason his circumstance when Jason just interrupted him, bored:

"Yeah well, whatever it is, would you have the goodness to take this feathered critter off me first? It's not exactly pleasant to be pushed to the ground."

Jason contorted his face slightly in pain as this monster leaned menacingly closer to him, putting more pressure on his limbs.

"Besides...arg...it's about to break my joints."

Damian jumped off the creature's back and commanded calm: "Back off."

Instantly, the strong limbs disengaged from Jason and the monster stepped just in front of the outside door, where it continued to hiss warily in the direction of the man it didn't know.

"He's all right." Damian held out his hand to Jason before speaking subliminally to the Outlaw, "Grab it, or he might kill you."

Confused by this, Jason at first, just looked in disbelief at the proffered hand in front of him before deciding to simply not question this strange gesture. The taller one grabbed it and let Damian help him on his feet. Again and again the boy seeked eye contact with his new upset pet. He seemed to be weighing how safe the situation was for Jason and tried to keep it calm with words:

"See? He's not dangerous. He's not going to hurt you."

Skeptically, Jason rubbed his slightly sore wrists and then looked more closely at this snarling critter a few feet in front of him. What kind of beast had that little gnome dragged with him again!

"Say, aren't you getting tired of pets? I don't know how many there are now, but there are definitely enough if you ask me. Besides, what kind of monster is that anyway? Where do you keep picking up all these critters?!"

Damian's primary focus right now was on his winged partner in front of him. If Dick attacked Jason now too, that would be really bad for them. After all, he didn't know where else to go with Richard, and Damian didn't want him to have to be put in a tight little cage again. So the smaller one hissed back only briefly:

"He's not a pet Todd and unless you want to get yourself killed a second time, I'd advise you to keep quiet now. He doesn't know you and he sees you as a threat right now."

Jason just crossed his arms in annoyance and rolled his eyes. He was really too tired for this shit.

Meanwhile, this creature now came growling at him and instinctively the hairs on the back of the elder's neck stood up, but he remained calm. The fronts of hunter and pray were clearly distributed.

Before the monster was with them, Damian inconspicuously pressed something into Jasons hand and whispered: "Give him this. He can be bribed with that."

Jason looked at it for a moment. It was an egg, apparently something this critter liked. But Jason's thrill had other plans. He hid it behind his back and Damian looked up at him in confusion. A grin befell the older man's face:

"Let me see what it does."

Damian could have slapped his own forehead. This idiot was going to tip everything over.

Dick was now about 3 meters in front of Jason. His feathers set menacingly, his nose wrinkled in a sniff. Jason slowly crouched down to his eye level so as not to appear too threatening and held his empty hand out to him slightly.

At first, Jason's counterpart just growled suspiciously at him for the unexpected move, but then he started sniffing his fingers curiously. And something strange happened that even Damian hadn't seen coming. Dick's eyes snapped open and he grabbed Jason's hand, causing him to gasp in surprise. The winged man pulled the rough fingers closer to him and sniffed them greedily before moving further along Jason's arm, searching for the origin of the interesting smell.

Caught off guard, Jason fell backwards and tried to push this intrusive creature off of him, as it got closer and closer. But he was no match for the superhuman strength.

Seeking help, he turned to Damian: "Hey brat! Can you whistle your lapdog back?!"

But the boy did nothing, only seemed to study his creature's behavior analyzingly. Much to Jason's regret.

Once again he was pushed to the ground and meticulously the curious nose wandered over his body, searching for something very specific. Jason frantically held up the egg Damian had given him:

"Damn you bastard, here it is! Now get off me!"

Jason visibly hated the way this creature pressed itself against his body.

Definitely too little personal space.

But to both Jason's and Damian's surprise, Dick hadn't been looking for the egg at all. He continued to run over the young man's body, sniffing closer and closer to Todd's face before staring directly into his eyes. Jason saw the bright eyes scrutinize him with interest before the creature's face moved even closer to his, sniffing briefly above his lips.

Definitely too close.

"Damian I swear to you, if you don't get this turkey off me right now, I'm going to put more than one hole in both your skulls."

Damian hissed once before he too tried to push Dick off Jason:

"Richard back off! Stop it!"

But the request was only partially heeded. Although he let go of Todd's face, he continued to drive down his body in a searching manner, which visibly brought horror to Jason's face and he resisted with all his might. Finally he reached his pants and tugged at them curiously. It had to be somewhere in there.

Jason's eyes snapped open in panic and he gripped his jeans tightly before growling at the Wayne heir:

"Damian, you are so dead!"

Damian kept trying to get Dick off of him, but he was too weak. What had gotten into him all of a sudden?

The waistband was already sliding half over Jason's hip bones when Dick found what he was looking for. The sharp claws pulled out a small box from one of the trouser pockets and as soon as he realized that this was the source of the good smell, Richard immediately retreated to a corner in the back of the apartment.

Jason lay on the floor, relieved at first. Then he stood up meaninglessly, straightened his pants, and went to his bag, which was still standing by the front door. To Damian's astonishment, he routinely pulled out two pistols, which he immediately armed. Threateningly, the Outlaw looked over his shoulder at the perplexed boy:

"Give me one good reason not to shoot you and that son of a bitch right now."

Damian just smiled at him: "The only one who would bite the dust on this would be you Todd. So take those things down before Richard deems it a danger. What did he steal from you anyway?"

Annoyed, Jason checked his pockets briefly before looking up, slightly puzzled:

"My cigarettes...wait, you call that thing Richard? Don't you think that's a little macabre?"

Damian looked at Dick, who seemed to be having the time of his life as he ripped open the sticks and wallowed in the tobacco like a dog in mud. Now that's weird.

He turned back to Jason and finally let the cat out of the bag:

"Well Todd, this is Richard. He's back, or at least what's left of him."

Jason's eyes initially grew wide with disbelief before narrowing to slits suspiciously:

"If this is supposed to be a joke pigmy, it's not funny."

Damian just crossed his arms in annoyance:

"Your visual comprehension is truly disappointing Todd. As close as he came to you, you should have been able to tell it was Richard by looking at his face. Besides, I'm not kidding and not a pigmy."

Jason's head shifted into overdrive. His eyes wandered to the monster in the corner of the room. Dick was alive and...this thing?

Damian was a little surprised at how much these news knocked the bigger one out of his sails. Since Jason didn't say anything, he decided to just go on:

"I don't know if you saw it on the news, but about three weeks ago there was an accident at Metropolis' new particle accelerator. I'm not sure exactly how yet, but Grayson suddenly showed up there during the complications. Until a few hours ago, Dad was keeping him in a small cage because he was too unpredictable from his point of view. So I released him and now I'm here with you. At least that's the short version."

Jason strode up to Dick, who was still busy with the scattered tobacco and happily lolling on the ground.

He looked closely at the many wings, the bird-like legs, just everything. It was such a surreal thought that this should be the oh-so-great poster son Dick Grayson.

"Why...is he like that?"

Damian replied with a depressed undertone:

"Demon blood and a scant 104 years spent in that hell made him mutate like that and forget who he actually is. Unfortunately, there are no cures yet."

Jason could remember the report. He had read about the hostile conditions in this hell and the circumstances of the case. In this report, Dick was quickly declared dead. Signed off by Batman.

Anger instantly spread through him, causing his fingers to tighten into a fist. Just thinking about what Dick must have gone through alone, reminded him of his own fate and old feelings boiled up inside him. Even though Jason himself had tried to kill Richard a few times in the past, Dick was one of the few people he really respected and this circus clown just didn't deserve something like that.

Todd stomped sourly toward Damian and suddenly grabbed him by the throat. He pushed the boy against the nearest wall and pressed one of his pistols against the little one's temple before yelling at him: "You both declared him dead when he wasn't and you let him suffer in there all this time?! How could you make such a mistake?!"

Damian gritted his teeth and tried to break free from Jason's grip. He couldn't breathe, but what worried him more at the moment was Dick. Todd that idiot didn't know what he was doing, after all. However, he couldn't form any clear words because of the firm pressure on his throat.

"And if he's been here for three weeks, how come I'm just finding out about it now?"

Damian nevertheless tried to warn this bungler:

"T-todd...d-don't..."

But Jason was too charged to listen to Damian's words.

"So much for Bruce accepting me back. I'm really starting to shit on this pseudo family! In my opinion you can all...Arg!"

Jason was hit hard in the side by something and landed crashing into the leather-jacketed coat rack of the entryway. Its breaking components now burying him underneath.

Damian slumped to the floor and gasped hard as Dick now stood before him. Concerned, he eyed his little friend. As feared, Richard had seen Jason's emotional outburst as an attack on Damian and had catapulted him away by a lash of his tail.

Damian heard Jason groan painfully under the rubble, so that Dick's attention now turned back to him.

Tense, the winged man's dark pupils narrowed to slits, and Damian sensed his intent to finish Jason off. Surrounded by sparkling lightning, Richard's tail rose, ready to impale the man not far in front of him.

But before the situation escalated completely, Damian forced his legs to move and placed himself between Dick and his prey. He stretched his arms out in front of him in a determined attempt to calm his partner:

"Richard no! He's not going to do anything anymore. Calm down!"

Though Dick paused, he continued to growl and did not relent in his attack stance. For the moment, his distrust of Jason simply prevailed.

Damian noticed this and strode cautiously toward him. Stretching his hands slightly down in front of himself, the boy tried to reassure Richard further.

"It's all good. He didn't hurt me, so relax."

The turquoise eyes moved skeptically from Jason to Damian and the pupils defused slightly.

In fact, it seemed to be working. The flashes died down, Dick's tail slowly moved back down, and as Damian's hand settled on his shoulder, the tension seemed to move out of Richard's body. He was now focusing more on the boy instead of the attacker.

"See? It's all right."

Damian exhaled in relief as he finally had Richard back to a semi-relaxed level. That had been pretty close call.

Behind them, sounds of clacking wood fragments suddenly rang out as Jason struggled out of the wreckage of his wardrobe:

"Arg, fucking hell!"

He sat up and rubbed his filthy head in annoyance:

"What a bummer. I 'm gonna get more than a just bruise."

Dick began growling warningly in Jason's direction again. He just didn't trust him and Damian was disgusted that this idiot had so thoughtlessly destroyed the initial trust. He turned and angrily confronted Jason as he continued to calm Dick with his hand:

"Damn it Todd! How headless are you! Richard's behavior is very unstable right now and with stupid actions like that, you're just triggering him to attack. If you have to act like an insulted little princess, then not in front of him! So keep your shit to yourself and don't throw anything at me without knowing the exact circumstances!"

Jason looked annoyed at the boy as he pushed the many pieces of wood off his body and saw Damian's eyes move to the ground, slightly disappointed, before he continued:

"I think it was foolish of me to come here. I don't know what I was expecting. I'm leaving again."

Damian was about to swing back onto Dick's back when Jason sighed in resignation. This was really going to be a shitty night:

"Aw god damn. Squirt stay here. The message has gotten through, so keep your feet still."

The young man stood up slightly agitated as his body ached. Wordlessly he went into the open kitchen and grabbed a cold pack from his fridge while the other two eyed him with interest.

Jason came back and dropped onto the couch with a strained groan, pressing the cold bag against his forehead in exasperation before turning back to Damian:

"As you said, I don't know the exact circumstances. I'm not going to do anything anymore, I'm just going to sit here and listen to what you have to say. So get your butt over here and tell me what the hell happened."

Damian briefly weighed whether he should just leave. But even if he did, where was he going to go with Richard? He had no one else who could help him in this situation without risking being betrayed to Batman, since Dick wasn't exactly what you might consider harmless. Besides, sunrise was getting closer and Richard is just too sensitive to light.

So he decided to give Jason another chance. He let go of Richard, who then looked confused, and went to the long couch, where Damian sat down next to the Outlaw, plenty of distance between them. Dick watched the two closely, in case Jason would hurt his little friend again.

So Damian began to describe the situation from the beginning and Todd simply listened.

Plenty of time passed, during which Jason sat silently, only frowning a little now and then, while his gaze kept wandering to Richard. At some point, Dick had stopped growling and gone back to his corner to continue the tobacco fun. However, he still remained vigilant.

Finally, Damian finished his remarks.

Jason wordlessly leaned over to the small parlor table in front of them and opened one of the drawers to pull out a new pack of cigarettes. He took out one of the butts and lit it. Greedily, Jason drew in the necessary nicotine and relaxed, resting his throbbing head on the back of his neck as the smoke left his lungs again. In response, the thin lips formed only five words:

"Such a fucked up shit."

Damian contorted his face in consideration of the fetid smoke. He truly was not a fan of those things. The boy had done enough medical studies to know exactly how stupid it was to use them to get relief from stress. Especially in their occupational field. But good sense had never been Todd's strong point.

The older man took another drag and then rubbed his tired eyes once.

"I think I need to let all this stuff sink in. I've really been through enough crap for today. You can sleep in my bedroom if you want. I fall asleep on the couch a lot anyway."

Jason got up and headed back to the fridge to exchange his cold pack for something else.

Armed with a whiskey bottle, he sat down again and took his first sip.

Yep, really no trace of sanity.

Damian's left brow raised in annoyance: "Todd are you serious? You're even more pathetic than I thought."

Jason just defiantly showed the kid his middle finger and switched once between bottle and cigarette before replying, unimpressed:

"Let yourself grow some hair between your legs first, you greenhorn, then you can criticize me."

The taller one took another sip of the intoxicating drink before continuing to speak:

"What's the deal with Dickie, anyway? Does he need anything?"

Damian glanced briefly at Richard, who seemed to be finished spreading tobacco over himself.

"Lots of warmth and darkness. But mostly warmth so he doesn't get sick. Also, I still need to clean off the residue of Jon's blood on his feathers."

Jason leaned his arms casually over couch backs while pointing his thumb behind him:

"I've got a sauna in the back, if that helps. You could darken that one some extra, and the bathroom's just to the right of it."

Damian raised a brow skeptically: "Since when do street rats like you use a sauna?"

"Since when do you freeloader come to me when you need help? I know your golden ass doesn't understand the saying, but it's the little things in life that should be enjoyed."

Again Jason took a sip as Damian turned his head thoughtfully to the floor and to his surprise replied: "But things don't make you happy, at least that's how I see it."

Jason looked at the boy in confusion. Where did that come from all of a sudden?

But before he could elaborate further, Damian jumped right to the next topic:

"Didn't you actually have some weirdos who went on missions with you? Where are they, anyway?"

"You mean the other outlaws? I'm solo right now because of some gangs I had to tail. But I was able to take them out earlier today, so I'm through with that now. Be glad I can focus all my attention on making sure you don't pull any shit and steal my helmet again." *

Jason looked reproachfully in Damian's direction, who just grinned nastily:

"Trust me Todd, right now I don't need that pile of junk since I don't have a room for trophies at the moment anyway. Besides, you definitely don't wash that thing enough."

"Hey. We don't all have an Alfred to clean up after us. But if you then don't get on my nerves, I might not wash it at all anymore."

Jason smiled meanly and put his head back in his neck in a relaxed manner as he took a drag from his cigarette.

"You really are a crime against humanity Todd."

"Congratulations demon dwarf. That makes two of us."

Jason closed his eyes wearily:

"If you don't mind pigmy, I'd suggest you take care of Dickie so I can finally get some sleep. It's already 5:30 and I've been chasing these idiots non-stop for the last three days. I'm not capable of any productive thoughts at the moment. And if the turkey bites my throat in my sleep, I'll change my mind and blow your head off after all."

Damian could only agree. He, too, had not slept much lately and was quite drained. However, he saw the last point a little differently:

"Todd how are you going to shoot my head off when you're dead? That's pretty stupid."

"Do I need to remind you that being dead hasn't worked before? By the way..."

Jason turned his head and looked at Damian with his teasing grin before continuing:

"You blew up the cave huh? Welcome to the Black Sheep."

The boy just frowned disapprovingly:

"Don't be silly Todd. As soon as Grayson gets his memory back, I'm going to clear up some things with Father. Don't think I'm going to let anyone else take the mantle!"

Jason was so not impressed and he relaxed and closed his eyes again:

"If you say so pigmy. Nobody wants that rag anyway."

Damian just wrinkled his nose in annoyance as the taller one was already half asleep. Finally he rose and then disappeared into the bathroom with Dick to clean up the remaining blood.

What was he actually thinking seeking out Todd's help.

Notes:

Damian always wants to proof, that he is the best robin and because of that he once paid Jason a visit and not only put a crowbar inside his bed, but also fought him and stole his helmet and bike.

(Batman and Robin 2011 #11)

Such a naughty little boy. (￣y▽￣)╭