File Stealing

Part Five

‘Goss you want and goss we got.

The latest little tidbit about our Babybat makes us weep for joy just to know that the darlin’ thing is human, after all.

We have it on the bestest of authority that while he may be super-kid (no offense to the Kryptonians amongst us), he’s still a teenager. It seems that he was in the Batmobile with Mr. Bat himself, just about to power up and head back to the Batbarn after a night of Batcrimebusting when the following was overheard coming from the Batcockpit;

‘All I asked was if you finished your homework.’

‘Of course I finished my stupid homework, will you just give it a rest.’

‘You know that if your grades ship…’

‘I know, you lock me up till I die. I get it, will you lighten up?’

‘And you’ve been slacking off on your workouts, as well.’

‘Jesus, I’m ranked in the top five gymnasts in the world!’

‘I’m simply pointing out that with some work you could be number one.’

‘Better than you’ll ever be.’

This is where Mr. Bat saw our little bird standing beside the car, getting all this down, so hit drive and practically flew to whatever passes for the Bathome.

But—it’s nice to see that our favorite Babybat has some spunk, as it were.’

“So who was this informant supposedly eavesdropping on that argument? Did you recognize him?”

Dick kept his eyes on the computer in front of him. The Titans had managed to recover the stolen laptop and he was trying to find out if it had been hacked or not. It was easier said than done. “No, I didn’t know who he was, did you?”

Bruce shook his head. “Any luck with that?”

Dick shrugged. “Hard to tell but I think we’re dealing with more than one source for all this gossip and leaks that are getting out.”

“What makes you think that?”

“Simply because I think it’s a stretch that any one person would have that many contacts or that much access to that many of us. I mean Roy, Donna, Me—we’ve all had things that were supposed to be secret and classified leaked in the last few weeks.”

“Like?”

“Donna and her problems, Roy and Lian, me and my parents.” He said the last without emotion.

“Maybe, it makes sense. Anything definite?”

“Close but not yet.” Dick stretched and tried to get the tension out of his neck and shoulders. “I’m starting to suspect that there may be a bunch of known—or unknown—bad guys working for a central man. Or woman.”

“What about the hints about your background? You know as well as I do that the barebones of the story can be googled and then it’s just a matter of time before someone puts Dick Grayson together with Robin. I’m worried about that—we’ve always known it was possible that our identities would get out, but the repercussions could be disastrous for us.”

“It’s under control.”

“I’d like to know how.”

Dick gave Bruce his signature grin, the one he used when he was about to come up with one of his famously bad puns. “Holy crapshoot, Batman—it’s all gonna turn out swell!”

‘Word has it that some of the baby Titans and I mean the actual progeny, not just the younger members, darlings, should be kept under closer watch than usual. My little birdie tells me that some real bad baddies may have designs on them and that ain’t good.’


“Hey Roy, you see this?” Wally held out the printout of the blogger’s latest piece of crap. “I called Linda, she’s taking the twins to the lockdown to make sure nothing happens to them, you might want to do the same with Lian.” They were in the rec room of the Tower, hanging out, waiting for something to happen they might be needed for or, failing that, someone to decide what to order for dinner.

Roy skimmed the paper, worried but not wanting to show it. “I think she’ll be okay, I mean she’s here.”

“Well, sure, but she’s still like two years old ad we’re not always around to protect her, y’know? Hey, your choice, but I’m not leaving my kids to just sit at home.”

“You sayin’ I’m a bad father?” Roy could get a little prickly about that, knowing it wasn’t true but given his rep for responsibility…

“No, didn’t say that, just said that there’s a possible threat and so you might want to take some extra precautions, that’s all.” He turned to leave, “You’re choice, man, do whatever you think’s best.” And he was gone.

Screw it, he was probably right and you couldn’t be too careful when you had an infant. Okay, fine. “Hey Rob? I’m taking Lian to the lockdown till this is over; be back in a while.”

“Good idea. Who’s babysitting?”

“I think Linda is doing it since the twins are on their way.”

Robin nodded. “Good. Make sure all the security systems are set and I’ll let the JLA to know just to be on the safe side.”

Roy was gathering up toys, formula and extra clothes to stuff in the already filled diaper bag. “That’s the side I like to be on.”

 

* * *
 

Bruce stared at the monitor; this was one of his worst nightmares finally coming true. He knew it was a matter of time before it happened and here it was but—damn.

According to reports, seemingly reliable, several of the well-known criminals were joining forces to take over and eventually split up various cities into ‘turfs’. Two-Face, Selina—Catwoman—Scarecrow and Joker were teaming up to take down the various local police departments and divvy up Gotham, New York, Washington DC, Philadelphia, Boston and planned to expand out to Chicago and the twin cities with Atlanta, Miami and the Twin Cities in line down the road.

The gossip items, the slow eroding of their reputations was just the first salvo in softening up the Titans and the JLA.

And what game was Selina playing with Dick if his was what she was up to? Lulling him into a false sense of security because he thought they were working together and on the same page? Dammit—he wasn’t used to dealing with a woman like her and he didn’t mean that as sexist as it seemed. He was a kid; he wasn’t used to playing this kind of game and this was wasn’t the way for him to learn.

“Have you checked that crappy blog?”

Bruce didn’t bother to look over as Dick walked down the cave stairs. “I take it there’s something to see?”

‘So it seems that some of those oh-so-clever kiddies on the computers—you know the ones, the kids who can do anyanyanything with computer?—well, it seems that these clever little boots are googling any one and everyone who has even the slightest chance of being one of the Batman or Robin duo just to see what they can come up with coincidence-wise.

Let’s talk, shall we?

Lives in or near Gotham. Check.

Tall, well-built man and young cohort who may or may not co-reside with the older gent. Check.

Age range between 25-40 and around 13-17? Check.

Athletic. Check.

Intelligent. Check.

Did we mention very athletic? Check.

Interest in do-gooding. Check.

Interest, specifically, in crime fighting, truth, justice and the American way. Check.

Access to some major fun toys and the mega funds to acquire said toys. Check.

Did we mention having serious money? Check.

Reason to have interest in crime fighting—past trauma, perhaps? Check.

Possible past crime victim—either our heroes or perhaps a family member or close friend? Check.

Connections with everyone to learn everything about everyone? Check.

Really a lot of money? Check.

Some kind of cover identity to blend in and divert suspicion? Check.


“You think he’s really onto something or just stating the obvious?”

Bruce shook his head; “It could go either way. We’ve known for years that there aren’t that many people who could fit the basic requirements of Batman and Robin; he’s just laid them out like ducks in a row.”

“So I gathered.” Dick hated being patronized and this felt like it. “And…?”

“And so we don’t comment and let anyone who wants to spin their wheels. It’s not the first time people have tried to figure out who we are and it won’t be the last. Leave it alone, sooner or later the interest will wane.”

“Bad pun and I don’t think that it will—and even if it does I think it’s just a matter of time before we’re revealed.”

Bruce gave a small shrug; he couldn’t be bothered. “And when and if that happens we have plans in place to deal with it. Don’t worry about it. Wally and Roy moved the kids out of harms way, right?”

“This morning, yes.”

“Good because there’s something else I discovered while I was working on the computer a while ago.”

‘Now you know we can’t tell you how we know, but our little birdie insists that Robin—that sweetheart!—used to be a professional child performer and while he wasn’t as well known as a Lindsay Lohan or a Jodie Foster, he was up there in his specialty and those in the know have long suspected that he grew up (if you consider a mid-teenager to be grown up) to be Robin. How do they know? Because he has moves no one else does and he’s been recognized. No—not those moves, minds out of the gutter, kiddies—I mean all those backflips and zigging and zagging he’s oh so good at.

So, if he looks like someone you may have seen once upon a time, sans mask—well, could be, darlins’, could very well be.’

“Crap.

“Yeah.”

TBC
 

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