"...Hey, Batman?" Flash ventured.
He glanced back at the man following him in the cockpit of the auxiliary jet. "What?"
"Um...look, I know he's your kid and all, but...you might want to let Robin slide a little on this one."
Not believing his ears, he stopped and turned to face the other man fully. "...What?" he repeated, his voice dropping dangerously.
"Okay, first off, I'm not twelve anymore, and the growl's effectiveness kind of wears off when you've grown up with it. Second, I'm just trying to help. Look..." Dropping into the co-pilot's seat, he crossed his legs one way and then the other, testing the comfort of each position. "I spent a fair amount of time around Damian while you were...you know, gone. More importantly, Dick and I talk damn near every single day. My point is, I have a pretty decent idea of what's been proven effective with Kid Vicious when it comes to correction."
"And what exactly would you advise?" he almost snarled. This isn't my first try at child-rearing, Wallace; I think I know what I'm doing by now.
"Not using that voice when you talk to him, for starters. Don't get me wrong, it will get him to do what you want him to, but it might also drive him away from you and make him look for new ways to rebel."
...Hmm. He didn't speak as he sat down and prepared the jet for takeoff. Even just a few months ago he might have brushed the suggestion off, but this morning he couldn't. Hadn't Alfred warned him mere weeks earlier that his youngest's behavior was likely to get even worse over the next few years? Didn't tonight, and for that matter so much of Damian's rage-and-ice behavior in the days since Dick and Tim had departed, demonstrate that puberty was indeed nigh?
The boy had never been pleasant, but there was a fickle sense of hurt lingering under his bad attitude of late that Batman had never seen in him before. Throw hormones into the mix and it wasn't difficult to imagine the canyon that already existed between them widening under the slightest provocation – as the result of an earthquake, for instance, he grimaced dourly. That was the last thing he wanted to happen, so he pressed for more information. "Is that what Dick would say?" he inquired with less ire in his tone than before.
"Maybe? I think so, at least. I'm probably mixing in some other stuff I've read on parenting, but...c'mon, man, you know the real reason he took the plane. I'm sure he does things just to piss you off sometimes, but this wasn't one of those instances."
...No, it wasn't, he admitted to himself. It was for Dick. With that being said, he was hard pressed to be mad at the child for his desire to find his eldest brother. He could still be upset by his actions, however. "He has to be punished for his poor decision." He could get himself killed out there, he thought, swallowing hard. To lose any one of them would be unbearable. To lose two would be death. To lose three in one go, though...if there was such a thing as a soul, his own would implode under the pressure of grief on that magnitude. "He has to know that I tell him to do things for a reason."
"Absolutely. I'm not saying don't punish him when this is all over and everyone's home safe. All I'm saying is that right now would be a terrible time to, say, restrict him to being under Alfred's direct supervision at the house. To be honest, Batman…if you don't let him have a hand in this rescue I don't know that he'll ever forgive you.
"Maybe that sounds like the ramblings of an outsider, although I would hope that by this point you don't think of me as removed from what goes on in your lives. The thing is, Dick talked about him constantly. There wasn't a whole lot else he could stand to talk about, I don't think, not with you 'dead', Tim mad, and Babs cold-shouldering him. So he talked, and I listened, because I knew what he was saying was important to him. Between that and watching them work together ever since Dick offered Damian a spot at Batman's side, I've learned one thing very, very well; that trying to come between Nightwing and Robin is almost as risky as trying to come between Nightwing and you."
The cowled figure stared silently out the window at the Appalachians far below, processing what had been said. Perhaps Flash's kinder, gentler method was worth trying, if only because his own had proven less than successful of late. Besides, Dick had managed the child so well during his long absence that he couldn't help but put stock in any technique those in the know said he would have utilized. Tilting his head just so, he spoke into the radio transmitter secreted alongside his face. "...Robin. Come in," he bade, keeping his words firm but not ireful.
"Batman! I'm at the force field, and-"
It had taken a moment for the reply to come back, and as a result a trace of annoyance slipped into his tone. "I know where you are, and I know how you got there. You are to get into the Batplane..." He glared, momentarily distracted as a red light appeared on the dashboard to signal that the cave was calling. "...And do nothing more than whatever it is you've already done."
"But-!"
"No buts," he said tersely.
"I fo-"
"Robin. In the plane. Don't move. Now." Stop interrupting me. I hate it when you do that. "I have to go. We'll talk later." Before the boy could launch another protest, he killed the connection.
"...Did he even get a word in edgewise?" Flash sighed beside him.
It was the sort of thing Dick would have asked had he been in the plane rather than Wally, and Batman felt a bolt of guilt go through him. I tried, all right? he bit back. He's just so damned pushy sometimes...like me, I suppose. The thought gave him a moment's pause. He might have chased it further, but there was still a bulb begging for his attention on the dash. Well...I did what I could. He'll wait where he is for now, and that's what matters. "I thought this was more important than listening to all the ways he's failed to get inside," he retorted, and picked up the handset.
"Batman! Good, I was about to give up."
...Clark? I just saw you. Why are you calling? "What is it, Superman?"
"There's been another quake."
His skin broke out in goosebumps beneath his armor as his blood ran cold. "...Under the force field?" he breathed. No, no, not there. Please not there. Haven't they been through enough?
"No. This was an 8.6, estimated, right on the border of India and Pakistan. Local signal disruption was the same as in the prior events, but it doesn't seem like there's a barrier of any kind." He paused. "Ours was bad, but-"
"Hold on." The tiny speaker nestled against his ear had dinged, and he switched it on impatiently. "Robin?"
"Batm-"
"Robin, I am extremely busy. Do as I told you until I arrive." Flash, he noted, didn't comment on his brusqueness this time. Robin could wait; another massive quake could not. "Go on," he told Superman.
"...Right. Anyway, ours was bad, but this one is in a whole different league. There's nothing left standing, and the political situation...well, it's India and Pakistan. You can imagine. They're not blaming each other out loud, but the tension's so high that they don't really need to." A beat passed. "Whoever our villain is, the park quake wasn't their last hurrah."
"We're inbound now. We'll report when we know something. Was there anything else?"
"No, I just wanted to let you know. I haven't had a chance to check the logs for energy transmissions yet, not with this new issue, but I'll let you know what I find. Good luck, Batman."
The bad news just wouldn't quit this morning, he reflected as he put the handset back. "...You're quiet," he commented to the pensive-faced Flash.
"Just thinking about how this baddie might not even have to set off too many more quakes in order to destroy the world indirectly through, say, nuclear war or economic collapse. It's the kind of thought that makes a person shut their mouth."
"Understood." While the younger man was focused on the potential aftereffects of the latest event, Batman couldn't stop wondering at the fact that it had been another intraplate temblor. "Whoever is responsible seems to have more than just a passing knowledge of plate tectonics," he mused aloud. "In fact, I would say it's more than even an enthusiast's knowledge."
"...You think it's a geologist or something, then?"
"I don't know, but to purposefully be making intraplate quakes..."
"It does seem like a unique fetish."
"Correct."
"But how does geology play into the force field? Could it...could it be something with the planet's magnetic field, maybe? That's probably a stupid question, but...what do you think?"
"I would say it was a good idea, but the magnetic field is monitored around the clock. Any sizable variation is noted and researched specifically to prevent anyone from doing what you just proposed. If this does have to do with that, then we either have someone reproducing the magnetic field in miniature on the planet's surface or we have a traitor in the Watchtower."
"...Let's hope it's not that second one."
"Yes. Let's hope." For this all to be the work of a professional in the earth sciences fit in with everything he knew and had speculated thus far. The magnetic field still didn't feel like the right answer, though. Before he got a chance to do more than begin to settle down with the question, one of the screens lit up. "Damn it, Robin," he muttered.
"What's up?"
"He's back in the plane, but he's taking off." Reaching out, he started typing in the codes that would let him override the other aircraft remotely. "I told him to stay put."
"Batman..."
"What?!"
"Why don't you wait and see where he's going?"
"No. He's being disobedient, and I'm stopping him." Another password came up, and he kept typing.
"He's probably just looking for them, you know. Just scanning the ground. I mean...what if he actually found them by doing that?"
"He won't find them by doing that. Not in that much area."
"Okay, well even if he doesn't, isn't he just doing what you would do if you were stuck waiting out there?"
"He's not me. He's a child."
"Yeah. Your child."
There it was again, that damned similarity. 'He's stubborn and argumentative and given to pacing,' Dick's voice rang in his head as a forgotten memory rose anew. 'Just like you are. It's adorable.' He wasn't finding it adorable at the moment, but as he calmed slightly he found that he could appreciate the aggravation that sitting next to the force field doing nothing would be. Damian needed punished, yes, but as Flash had said cutting him out of the rescue wasn't the way to do it. If he didn't go far, what was the harm in letting him look?
He sighed, his hand hovering above the display that would let him land the plane, lock its doors, and keep its engines shut off. Then he hit the button marked 'cancel' and watched the tracking map for a minute. The blip signifying the larger jet moved roughly a mile and a half from its start point, hesitated, and then retraced its steps and touched down.
...That was odd. He considered calling the child to ask what he'd been doing, but decided against it. He would be with him soon enough, and could ask such questions then. For now it would be more productive to try and piece together what he could about their adversary, and to maybe, just maybe, see what other techniques Flash could remember Dick using with the wayward youth back when discipline had been his problem.
It didn't feel like enough, but there was little else he could do from thirty thousand feet in the air. Suddenly his feet itched to walk the narrow aisle to his rear over and over again, if only so that it felt like he might actually get somewhere. Mm, his mouth tightened. All right, Robin. I get it now. A little movement to ease the pain…I understand that.
I'm coming, boys, he promised. I'm coming, and I'm going to do my best. It was all he dared swear to, given the circumstances.
He just hoped it would be enough.