Chapter 15 - Bats
After that morning, school was dull. It felt like a commercial break after a cliff hanger:
Will Bruce realise he's a meanie before Dick punches him for it, will Damian be Robin or will he make a grand return as the Batman, and will Mar'i be accepted as part of the family in some way? Find out next time!
"Sounds like you and Mr. Grayson threw the Waynes into chaos," Colin mused at lunch that day. Mar'i was sitting with him, despite being in different year levels, because he was the only one she could talk to about this.
"Yeah. If only I could feel good about what happens next," she commented. There was a sick worry in her gut. She felt good about what her dad had said and done that morning but everything else was completely uncertain.
It had been nice of him to actually ask if she would be okay with him exposing her identity to the family. Not that it went the way either of them had thought.
"Don't worry about Damian. He'll figure something out. Batman doesn't control Robin as much as he would like to think so."
"At least Dad's on Damian's side. And me too. And you."
Colin nodded.
"Although I don't know about standing up to Batman. Robin does sort of belong to him." Mar'i didn't agree and that was clear on her face. Colin coughed and elaborated, "I just hope Damian doesn't have to change his name or pave a path for himself."
"Why not?" Paving a path for themselves sounded like a great idea to her. It was basically what she was doing.
"He worked so hard to be Robin. To uphold what Robin means, to himself and to others," Colin explained. "Starting from scratch isn't right. He shouldn't have to pave a path for himself once he's already done it as Robin."
"Except he wants to be more than Robin," Mar'i pointed out. This was her father's experience speaking. Her father's stories.
There was a reason Dick Grayson agreed to let Damian Wayne be Batman while he and Bruce were out of the city.
"I guess it makes sense. He's an adult. It's not like he has to worry about an assignment due tomorrow or something."
Mar'i froze. She quickly went over her subjects and all the work assigned to them.
There was a mathematics assignment due next. She hadn't finished the final question yet.
Colin was worried when he heard that. He checked his watch. "You have twenty minutes until the end of lunch. Do you think you can find it?"
"The task sheet is in my locker. Shouldn't even take five minutes to finish." Having to write everything down was the most time consuming thing ever.
"F-five?" Colin stuttered in surprise.
"It's easy. Although, I know dad wouldn't approve if he knew I had left it so late." She used to do that as a kid, right up until the time the teacher caught her finishing all her sums in the few minutes before class started.
When her parents had found out, they both gave her lectures on laziness. Mar'i never wanted to sit through a repeat of both lectures; because she had no doubt that her dad would tell her mum and they both would have something to say about it.
The final bell of the day rang and Mar'i internally cheered. She quickly made her way out of the school.
"Hey, Starshine!" her dad called from where he had parked the motorbike.
"Dad!" she gaped in surprise and embarrassment. A couple of students around her laughed at her childhood nickname.
"Hello, Mr. Grayson," Colin said, having spotted the man and deciding to walk over.
"Colin," Dick greeted with a smile. "It's been a while. Still hanging out with Damian?" Colin nodded. "Good. He can use the friends."
"Do you know anything about what's going on?" Colin asked. "Damian hasn't been answering my calls the past few days."
Dick looked between Colin and Mar'i. "I guess you already have an idea of what went on this morning?" Colin nodded again. "The follow up happened about an hour ago."
"An hour ago?" Mar'i questioned. She thought it would have been earlier in the day than that.
"I wanted to use picking you up as an excuse to leave," Dick responded. "Hard to do that unless it's near the end of school time."
"Gee, thanks dad," she responded sarcastically.
"How did it go?" Colin questioned with a worried expression.
Dick hesitated. "Not as good as it could have gone. Robin is ungrounded, maybe."
"Maybe?" Mar'i repeated. "How do you 'maybe' unground someone?"
"By making it so they have to oversee everything. Which is worse because Damian can't sneak out."
"Damian is on mission control?" Colin questioned. When Dick nodded, he heaved a heavy sigh. "I guess we won't be patrolling around Robinson Park tonight."
"Not like anyone will be there," Dick and Mar'i said in unison. They shared surprised looks before Dick indicated for Mar'i to continue.
"Poison Ivy broke out sometime last night. No one will want to go near the park and we'll know if she does something."
"Which she won't for a few days. Batman will probably hit there later tonight anyway," Dick added with an apologetic shrug.
Colin heaved a disappointed sigh.
"I guess I'll do the usual," he commented.
Mar'i and Dick both felt for him. It was obvious that Colin missed his friend.
Nightstar was reminded of why she wanted to keep her parentage a secret.
"So, Dick's kid, huh?" Batgirl mused in a thoughtful manner. But, considering she had been following Nightstar for about 20 blocks by now, Nightstar suspected it was more teasing than out of interest.
"Got a problem with it?" she countered. Batgirl smirked and bounced over the gap in the rooftops.
"Not really, I was just wondering what it's like to be related to him. Did he think you weren't cut out for this kind of work?" She caught the twitch in Nightstar's expression. The annoyance one which meant she hit the nail on the head. "Oh, he did. I guess you changed his mind, huh? Good on you!"
"What happened to asking me to quit?" Nightstar questioned, suspicious.
Batgirl pretended to think hard about it. "I guess I realised that if you managed to convince Dick to let you be a vigilante, then you're probably not going to be swayed by anything I have to say."
That's for sure, Nightstar silently agreed. But there was another issue.
"You weren't even there this morning, how do you know who my dad is?"
"Oh, Red Robin told me."
"I thought you two broke up," Nightstar countered.
"We're still friends. I thought your dad told you everything."
Nightstar glared. She knew that however, she wanted to prod at old wounds. It seemed that Tim and Steph were good friends. Good enough that it eased the pain of their break-up.
Red Hood was easy to spot, considering he wore a red hood on his head. She could see him out of the corner of her eye, gone when she turned to look at him but there all the same. She wondered why he didn't come and speak to her.
Whatever the reason was, it couldn't be too bad since he didn't run away when she finally decided to approach him. Talking with Red Hood would go smoother than talking with Batgirl.
"You're following me and it's obvious," Nightstar said, crossing her arms and trying to look intimidating. There wasn't too much height difference between them.
"Sorry," he said in a flippant tone that wasn't sorry at all. Nightstar was not impressed.
"Whatever. Can I ask a question?"
Red Hood was surprised. "Uh, sure. I guess?"
"Why did everyone seem to think I was dad's protege? I mean, we were careful to not have anything connect him to me as Nightstar." Except maybe the training thing but she doubted that Deathstroke would share that information with members of the Batman family.
Red Hood looked away. It was really obvious, even with the hood covering his head.
"To be honest, I never said you were his protege." He attempted to redirect the conversation.
Nightstar wasn't fooled.
"If you didn't think it, you would have said something. So, why?"
"Why not?" Red Hood shrugged. "You're young and new and somehow knew Dick. We all know what he's like when there's young heroes needing instruction."
"Not to the point of taking a protege in Gotham who wasn't already here. And even then, he trusts most of you guys to be able to handle yourselves."
Red Hood snorted in disbelieve. Or at Dick's naivety.
"Or for Batman to judge the young vigilantes in Gotham," Nightstar corrected.
"Look," Red Hood huffed in an annoyed tone. "How about you ask someone else? Maybe even the Big, Bad, Bat yourself?"
Red Hood seemed more annoying. Or more annoyed at her presence.
The cameras were following her again and Nightstar resisted the urge to scream. It seemed like someone was keeping her under tight monitoring.
Notes: Some action-y plot stuff coming up next chapter. (Sorry Oracle fans, she's probably not going to make an appearance until the chapter after that).