Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“A little higher, Dami. You’re still tending towards the heart.”

The younger boy scowled up at him. “I can see that. I don’t need you to tell me.”

Jason simply nodded and Damian continued throwing knives at the dummies. They’d been training non-lethal moves and skills for hours now. Damian had grumbled about it a bit, but he understood not every target was meant to be killed. Taking prisoners was a thing. Currently they were in a training room in the basement of one of Talia’s villas. He was trying to get Damian to hit shoulders, thighs, and other such areas, but Damian’s muscle memory was for throats, heads, and hearts. They needed something a little less instant death. He was doing a pretty good job adjusting so far, especially in so little time. Although…

He frowned slightly, watching Damian more than the knives. Kid had been a little off all day and he wasn’t really sure why. Maybe he was upset that Jason was leaving tomorrow? They’d spent four days together already, but Jason wasn’t exactly happy to be leaving either. Damian was usually more clinical about the type of stuff though.

Rather than try puzzling it out, Jason opted for the direct approach. He’d tried being subtle, but it was getting him nowhere. “Is something wrong, Dami?”

Damian paused his knife throwing, fist clenching tighter around the handle. “No,” he blatantly lied.

Jason cocked an eyebrow. “Is it because I’m leaving tomorrow or is there something you aren’t telling me?” He needed to know he could trust Damian to tell him if something really bad was about to happen. Bad by sane human standards, not Damian’s standards. He dreaded one day coming back to find out Damian had done the trial of a hundred blades where he had to kill a hundred assassins in a row to prove he was a worthy heir or whatever insane tests the League had probably made up. He didn’t trust Talia to tell him so Damian had to be the one to say if he had some big test coming up or if he was getting some new, evil teacher, or if his grandfather was coming for a visit (which would never end in anything less than something horrific).

“I would have no cause to complain if you were leaving for a good reason,” Damian sniffed.

Ah, so it was about Jason leaving. That was a relief. But he didn’t understand what Damian was trying to criticize.

So far, Jason had only done one job for the Brotherhood. He’d stolen some components from Lexcorp (heh) for them, but he still wasn’t sure what they were doing with them. The parts were similar to what Freeze used for his stuff but there was a lot different too. They apparently wouldn’t be using the whatever it was for a while though, so figuring it out wasn’t his top priority.

Damian knew about his undercover work and he hadn’t complained when he left last time, so Jason didn’t understand the hostility now. Or maybe it had been there last time and Damian had just hidden it better.

“I have a good reason though,” he pointed out. “The Brotherhood plan to make a move on those kids soon. Now that I have the info I need I can get to them first. I just need to sneak the kids from the orphanage to the drop off point without the Brotherhood noticing. It won’t be a long mission.”

His explanation didn’t seem to help though because Damian just scoffed. “They should not need your assistance. They have powers and are therefore perfectly capable of defending themselves. Such a mission is a waste of your valuable time.”

Jason stared at Damian with blank confusion, replaying these words in his head. No, he’d definitely heard that right. “They are little, little kids, Damian,” he said in disbelief. “The oldest just turned six.” Then he remembered who he was talking to and that Damian had only just turned eight (turns out their birthdays were only a few weeks apart. That had been the longest Jason had ever been able to stick around with the kid.) so the kid not grasping the age concept kinda made a sad sense.

“So?” Damian asked, crossing his arms. “I was already quite formidable at six and I have no powers.”

What the hell had they been having him do at six?! Cursing so many people that he was eventually going to kill, Jason scrubbed a hand over his face. “You’re a… special case. Normal kids aren’t cut out for that stuff, even if they have powers. I doubt they can properly control them yet and even if they can, they don’t have the experience or mental maturity to make it on their own. The youngest is only two.” Surely two would be baby enough for Damian to comprehend. “Plus, they’re mostly surrounded by other kids at the orphanage, they don’t have the support to take on an organization like the Brotherhood. They need to be moved and they need to get connected with the hero community.”

Damian glared mulishly at the ground, clearly wanting to argue but holding his tongue. Jason sighed and walked up to the much smaller boy and tussled his hair. The distraction worked and the kid immediately snapped to glare at him. “I think we’ve done enough knife throwing for today,” he told him. “There’s one more bit of training I want to do before our movie night.”

“Oh?” Damian perked up, setting the knives aside and turning to look at the supply closet. “Will we require any equipment?”

A smile slid onto Jason’s face. “We’ll definitely need equipment. Not from here though.” He tugged lightly on Damian’s arm “C’mon, I’ll show you.”

Damian didn’t resist, though his expression grew more and more confused the further they got from the training area. By the time they walked into the kitchen the kid’s expression had become downright suspicious.

“Why are we here?” Damian asked, scanning the room like an enemy was going to jump out of one of the cupboards. Which sadly wasn’t as crazy as it sounded. “You said we were getting equipment. We already had knives downstairs.”

“Not going to need any knives for this,” Jason told him, opening one of the cabinets and pulling out a couple metal bowls. “Well, for the butter maybe, but the equipment we really need is all right here.”

He’d expected anger (hence his previous vagueness) so he wasn’t even a little surprised when after a few moments of blank staring, Damian’s face twisted in disgust. “Jason,” Damian said, voice dangerously calm, “tell me you did not bring me here to do servants’ work.”

“Cooking isn’t servant work, Dami,” Jason scolded lightly, moving to start pulling ingredients from the pantry. They were doing this after dinner so none of the servants would be back here until the morning for breakfast. It was always so awkward having to deal with them plus Jason knew Damian would flee no matter what Jason said or did if anyone caught him cooking. If he had any hope of being successful here, they couldn’t be interrupted. “It is a basic and important life skill. Do you really want to rely on others for something as necessary as food?”

Damian’s mouth snapped open then he seemed to rethink what he was about to say. Crossing his arms he argued, “I would not starve without a servant’s services.” Though confident, he didn’t sound as offended as before.

Jason shrugged. “I guess you could shove raw ingredients in your mouth. Bland though. Less healthy too. Besides, cooking is fun. A lot of people do it as a hobby. I used to help in the kitchen all the time back in Gotham.”

“Tt.” Damian glanced uneasily at the door then back to Jason. “What do you even intend us to make? We have already had dinner.”

Jason beamed down at him because that was basically an agreement. He slapped the recipe he’d typed up that morning down on the granite countertop. “Chocolate chip cookies! We won’t make a full batch though since its only the two of us.”

Damian slid up to eye the recipe skeptically. “Do we have chocolate chips?”

“Bought some this morning,” Jason informed him, pulling out the bag to show him. “while you were doing your morning exercises.”

Scowling lightly, Damian shook his head. “Slacking off in your training then.”

“Hey, I completed all of my exercises,” Jason defended himself. “I’m just that good.” The guy Talia had given him as a temporary trainer had actually been alright. No jeers or cruel taunts or evil speeches. Harsh, but his advice and tips had all been constructive. Too bad they weren’t all like that.”

Damian let out a long-suffering sigh. “Though this task is mundane and beneath us both, I suppose I shall assist you if you are going to do this regardless. To speed up the process.”

“Great,” Jason cheered, setting the oven to preheat. He nodded his head towards the sink. “Go wash your hands.”

Damian trudged over to the sink. They were both wearing fairly casual clothes. He’d had them change out of their training uniforms before the knife throwing to smooth the transition to the kitchen.

They each took a bowl and, after reading over the instructions, Damian started working on the sugars while Jason worked on the flour part. It all went smoothly at first. Damian was being aggressive with his mixing, so he was ahead of Jason who was going at a more casual pace.

Damian was glaring down at the egg in his hand like it had personally offended him.

Knowing Damian wasn’t going to ask, Jason told him. “Just tap it against the edge of the bowl.” He added baking soda to his own bowl.

Damian scoffed, but did as he said. Very literally, there was barely any force behind the tap and, unsurprisingly, the egg was unaffected. Huffing, Damian braced the bowl and slammed the egg against the edge and this time it kinda exploded. Half of it was splattered across the counter and the other half along with its shell landed in the bowl. When Jason turned to see what had happened the kid looked so genuinely surprised a laugh escaped his lips before he could stop it. He muffled it quickly though.

Probably should have just given the kid a demonstration. Damian was a little storm cloud as Jason moved over to assess the damage.

“The pieces are pretty big,” he observed. “I think we can salvage it.” He began picking the eggshells out of the batter. “We’ll have to be careful how much more egg we put in though since there’s one already some in there.” The yolk had slid down onto the counter so only some of the white had made it into the bowl.

Damian growled and stomped over to the sink, throwing away what was left of the egg in his hand and washing off. He was pretty sure the kid was embarrassed but it was coming off as angry. Relatable.

While he was doing that, Jason wiped the counter down. Dying of salmonella in their line of work would just be humiliating. When Damian came back, Jason grabbed a new egg.

“You just did it too hard,” Jason told him, glad Damian hadn’t tried to storm off. Now the problem was they only needed one egg. Well, as much as he hated wasting food, Talia did have plenty and this was for educational purposes. “Here’s how you do it.” He tapped on the bowl with the appropriate force. “You just want to crack it-” he broke open the egg over one of the measuring cups. “- then you break it the rest of the way yourself.” He handed Damian another egg. “Try again.”

The boy scowled down at the egg. “They are far more fragile than I was led to believe.” The scowl turned into a smirk when he copied Jason and broke the egg correctly.

“It depends on where and how you apply pressure,” Jason said, removing some of the egg so it evened out. “But the egg didn’t stand a chance against you.” He carefully kept the amusement from his voice, but he almost cracked when Damian nodded seriously.

The kid was adorable.

Only refraining himself from a hair ruffle because they were baking, Jason went back to what he had been doing. A little more than a minute later they combined their batters together and added the chips.

Jason started rolling the dough into balls but paused after the second one. Kids liked more interesting shapes, right? They didn’t have any cookie cutters, but they could do at least decent by hand.

“What are you doing?” Damian asked, eyeing the ‘J’ Jason had just formed from one of the balls with confusion. It kinda looked like it could also be a candy cane…

“I’m taking creative liberties,” Jason informed him, making the next balls into a ‘D’ and a square. Honestly, his creative liberties could be a little more creative.

Damian’s nose scrunched and he poked at the ‘D’ dough. “Does this affect the way they cook?”

Jason shook his head. “Not if we keep them all about the same size and thickness.” He squished another ball into what would probably come out looking like a star. That was a bit better. Probably shouldn’t go too crazy with it.

“Then what is the point?” Damian demanded.

“Fun. You try some.”

“This is childish,” Damian complained, rolling his eyes, but he started poking the dough in front of him into something not round.

After a few seconds, Damian glanced back over at Jason. He raised an eyebrow. “Is that supposed to be a cat?”

Oh good, Jason had been worried it just looked like a circle with triangles on top. “Yep.”

“Tt, are you trying to simulate eating a cat?”

Jason snorted. “Of course not. It’s just a shape. You just made a bat.” Which was… fine. It was fine. He wasn’t going to say anything about it. “Are you trying to simulate eating a bat?”

“No,” Damian admitted. Then added, “It’s not a very good cat.”

Jason rolled his eyes good naturedly. “Such a critic. If we were using frosting, this would be a masterpiece.”

By the time they were done they had each made six cookies. Jason had a ‘J’, a ‘D’, a square, a star, a cat face, and a dolphin. Damian had a bat, what could be a cloud or a flower, a shuriken, a leaf, a triangle, and a diamond. No repeats. Hopefully, they’d at least mostly keep their shape as they baked.

Shutting the oven, Jason dusted some of the flour off his hands while Damian peered at the cookies through the glass. “Now we just have to wait about twenty minutes, and they’ll be done.”

Damian whirled around; eyes wide. “Twenty minutes?! Can’t we make the oven hotter so they cook faster? This oven is capable of much greater heat than you are currently utilizing.”

The memory came out of nowhere, just suddenly popping into existence in Jason’s brain.

“C’mon little wing,” Dick whined, pouting down at him. “Can’t we just make the oven hotter so they’ll be done faster? I hate waiting. I want cookies now.”

“No,” Jason scowled. He couldn’t believe the older boy was being such an idiot. “You do that and they’ll burn and you won’t get any cookies. And you just ate, like, a third of the chocolate chips, do you even have room for cookies?”

“I always have room for cookies,” Dick sniffed. “And I did not eat a third of the bag.”

“Yes, you did.”

“Did not.”

“Did too.”

In the present, Jason took a deep breath.

“We make it any hotter, they’ll burn,” he explained to the child who actually had an excuse for not knowing this stuff. “They’ve got to cook slow enough that it all heats evenly and the whole cookie gets baked all the way through.”

Damian took the explanation much better than Dick had. He nodded, glancing at the timer on the oven. “What do we do in the meantime?”

“We clean the kitchen,” Jason said, going over to start moving all the dishes to the sink.

“Clean?!” Damian sputtered, turning to look at the counter like he was seeing it for the first time. “Surely we can call a servant to do it.”

Ah rich kids. Or grandkids of cult leaders. Both in this case. Actually, did Talia pay the servants? He’d never thought to ask. They didn’t seem like prisoners or anything but…

Jason shrugged. “Think of it like cleaning up evidence.”

That made Damian pause in his soon to be tantrum, as expected. After mulling it over for about thirty seconds, he huffed. “Fine.”

Jason still ended up doing most of it because the kid had clearly never cleaned a dish in his life, but he was proud of the kid for actually trying to help. By the time they were done the smell of freshly baked cookies was wafting through the air and it was time to take them out of the oven.

They piled the cookies onto a plate, grabbed two glasses, and a jug of milk and moved to Jason’s room. Talia didn’t have a movie room despite being able to afford one, so they were using the huge TV in Jason’s room for their movie night. Damian’s room didn’t have a TV. They changed into their pjs and put the jug of milk in his minifridge so they wouldn’t have to go all the way downstairs for refills.

Jason had selected Dreamwork’s Spirit for their movie. He didn’t remember where he’d first seen it, but he remembered really liking it and it seemed like a movie Damian would like. Plus, it was animated while not being a baby movie. Where Damian had gotten the idea that animated movie equals kiddie movie Jason didn’t know. The plan was that seeing this movie would make Damian more open to animated movies in the future. His only fear was that the movie might inspire Damian to some kind of horse revolution. He just had to make it clear they were dramatizing for the movie and that domesticated horses weren’t all miserable or Jason saw a lot of horses roaming the streets in the near future.

They settled down on the floor at the foot of his bed so they could rest their backs against the bed, building a pile of blankets and pillows around them. Jason put Damian on his lap and curled the blankets around them. Damian was already eating the ‘D’ cookie and after hitting play, Jason grabbed the ‘J’ cookie for himself.

As the cookie hit his tongue, another memory hit him. A jumble of memories. But none of them were clear like the one before. Just flashes of scenes and it was painful and also familiar, and he wasn’t sure if he was imagining the slight haze of green or not. He almost spit the cookie back up, but he forced it to stay down.

Damian’s eyes were on the beginning of the movie, he hadn’t noticed anything usual from Jason. What the heck was that? He was almost scared to take another bite, but he had to eat at least a few. These were Damian’s first cookies; he couldn’t not eat them. Why had he used Alfred’s recipe? Well, he knew why, it was the only recipe he knew, but he could have found a new one, even if it was inferior.

Jason shoved a few cookies down quickly, hoping he’d either deaden himself to the memories the taste brought, or he’d have eaten enough to not hurt Damian’s feelings. Nothing compared to that first burst though, everything after was just lingering familiarity.

Forcing his brain to stay in the present, Jason turned his attention to Damian. The kid seemed intrigued by the horses so that was good. Jason started petting the kid’s hair, lightly scrapping against the scalp as he stroked. In the beginning, Damian would have protested such an action but all he did now was lean further back into Jason.

Jason smiled softly. This was everything to him. Moments like this with Damian was the only time he was truly happy anymore. He’d give almost anything to be able to live with the kid full time. Anything but Damian’s safety. And for now, this was the safest place for him. Jason himself couldn’t risk staying for any long period of time in case Ra’s started to take notice but the few days he occasionally got were the most precious things he had.

So, he’d enjoy it for now. He had to leave in the morning, but they still had tonight. And he was going to savor every second of it.

Chapter Text

It was really dark in here.

A small bump in the road jostled him and the boxes around him. Sighing, Jason took out his phone and opened the GPS. About five minutes away from the orphanage now.

He left the phone on for now so he had at least some light as he went over everything in his head.

The plan was simple. He’d been very careful. Red X had shown no interest in the kids. Hadn’t volunteered to capture them, never asked about or mentioned them. When the kids escaped, there would be nothing linking it to Red X.

He’d already contacted one of the orphanage workers and, after making sure she wasn’t on the Brotherhood’s payroll, told her about the situation. The kids didn’t know yet. He couldn’t have them acting differently and who knew how they’d react.

If nothing went wrong, they should have a big head start on any pursuers. The kids and building were both being watched but he’d found a way around that. There were no cameras in the garage, the kids weren’t allowed to go in there. The orphanage bus was kept in the garage, but it always went outside to load up the kids. Which was why he was currently in the back of a Uhaul truck. He’d bought a lot of clothes and toys then hired the truck to take the donations to the orphanage. It was all untraceable and nothing would look suspicious to anyone watching.

Jason glanced up as he felt the truck come to a stop. He stood up as he heard the front car door open and shut. A few seconds later, the driver pulled open the trailer door, letting in an eye stinging, but not actually very bright, light.

“Garage door closed?” Jason checked. He couldn’t tell from here.

“Yep,” the man confirmed, starting to unload the truck. Jason moved to help him since the kids weren’t here yet and the faster this went, the sooner they could leave.

He was setting a box down when a familiar feeling pricked down his neck. He whirled around, but there was nothing there. Scanning the area, he didn’t see anything either. But he could swear he was feeling watched right now, his instincts were what had kept him alive this long (minus that one death). He didn’t like it, they needed to hurry.

The feeling went away, but Jason was already on edge.

Thankfully, the door leading to the main house opened and a young brunette woman holding a blonde toddler stepped through. She was closely followed by a small blonde girl with twintails and an even smaller boy with spiky ginger hair.

Jason frowned at their outfits. Why were they wearing ‘hero’ costumes? They couldn’t be anything else. Melvin’s shirt had a big pink ‘M’ in the middle and a pink cape. Timmy had a red and yellow uniform, gloves, belt, and everything, with a ‘T’ logo in the center. Teether might not be wearing one; the light blue onesie looked almost normal. However, the sleeves covered his hands like built in gloves and his bib had what could be a ‘T’ logo on it (or it could be a blob, it wasn’t distinct).

Originally, he’d thought the three were siblings. Brain’s files hadn’t been clear on the subject, just calling them a ‘team’. Upon further research though, Jason had discovered that only the blondes, Melvin and Teether, were siblings. Timmy had been their neighbor. What exactly had happened that had left the group orphaned and with superpowers, he hadn’t been able to get a concrete answer. Must have been a crazy neighborhood. But he sure as heck wasn’t bringing up dead parents now to try and get answers. This was already going to be difficult enough.

“Ooh, toys!” Timmy cheered, racing up to one of the partially opened boxes and grabbing a dinosaur action figure.

Jason’s stomach clenched at the sight. He hadn’t even considered this. Leaving was already going to be tough on them, now he was whisking them away from a mountain of new toys too. He didn’t exactly regret bringing the toys, but he still felt bad.

Melvin took a few steps towards the toys as well, then turned to look directly at Jason who was standing a couple yards away. “Who are you, mister?” she asked, head tilting.

A good question, especially considering the mask. The domino mask was the only unusual thing he was wearing though. Just jeans and a black hoodie. No red anywhere in the outfit. No Red X stuff at all. He’d even dyed the white bit out leaving him with solid black hair. Honestly, it was too much black for him, he liked a bit of color to keep him from looking like a goth or a certain person he knew. He wasn’t trying to be fashionable right now though.

The important thing was the way he looked now had nothing to connect him to Red X. Not that that was a hard thing to pull off, it was a full body suit. Skin color, hair color, his entire face, everything was hidden. For all anyone knew, Red X was a ginger with tattoos covering his face and no nose, the mask didn’t give any hints. Still, he’d added an extra precaution of extensions in his shoes to make him appear almost half an inch taller so even their heights didn’t match. Even if he was seen, even if he had to fight, Red X was safe.

Jason looked towards the lady holding Teether, Lisa was her name. She looked sad. Turning back to Melvin, he answered, “You can call me Fox.”

He’d put a lot of thought into what to call himself. Anything to do with the word ‘Red’ was out. Colors in general were out. So were any other single letter codenames. He’d settled on ‘Fox’ for a few reasons. It was a popular animal. Everyone liked foxes, except maybe farmers, so it was a name almost anyone could be using. It also wasn’t scary for the kids. Plus, fox, Todd, it just seemed to fit while also not being obvious.

Melvin stared at him curiously, one of her twintails jittering around as if pulled by some unseen force. It must be related to her powers. Her next question caught him off guard. “Are you angry?”

“What? No,” he refuted, blinking in confusion. Was he? No. Well, maybe at the situation, but no fire in his blood, active angry type angry.

“Oh,” Melvin said, seemingly instantly believing him. She walked closer, looking up curiously at his mask. “Bobby thought you might be. Why are you wearing that eye thingie?”

Jason’s eyebrows furrowed. Bobby? Who was Bobby? Had someone else seen him? But that was impossible. “Who’s Bobby?” he asked, slightly worried.

“My friend,” she answered, pointing out at the rest of the garage. There was no one there though and that area was clear so there was no place for anyone to hide. “He lives in here. He’s too big to fit in the house.”

…was this an imaginary friend situation? Jason had never had one as a kid, so he wasn’t really sure how they worked. There was definitely no one else here though.

“That’s cool,” he said neutrally.

“Is Fox your real name?” she asked curiously,

“Nope,” he shook his head. “Just a codename. I’m here on a secret mission.” He looked up at Lisa who had joined them, unsure of how much she had told them.

Melvin glanced between them. “So is this the person you said we were going to meet?” she asked Lisa innocently, clearly not understanding what was happening.

“Yes,” Lisa told her. “He’s…” her voice faltered. “he’s here to take you on a trip.”

“A trip?” Timmy had wandered over to them, still clutching the dinosaur. “To the park?”

“No,” Jason said, fighting down a well of guilt. He shouldn’t feel guilty, none of this was his fault. He tried to sound upbeat as he continued. “Even better, I’m going to take you to see the Teen Titans. You know who they are?”

Melvin’s blue eyes widened. “The superheroes?” She clapped her hands together excitedly. “They want to meet us?”

Lisa nodded. “Yes, isn’t that exciting?”

“Oh wow,” Melvin gasped. She paused and seemed to think for a moment. “But don’t the Titans live super far away? We wouldn’t make it back in time for dinner.”

Jason shook his head, stomach twisting. “It’s not too far. The Titans are meeting us halfway. It’s probably going to be a while before you come back here though. There’ll be food there though, you don’t have to worry about that.” He just had to bite the bullet. He needed to tell them the truth.

Lisa spoke up before Jason could say anything. “This isn’t going to be a short trip.” His own guilt was reflected in her voice. “I’m sorry, you aren’t going to be able to come back for likely a long time. It isn’t safe here for you anymore.”

For a moment, there was no reaction. The kids just stared at Lisa uncomprehendingly. Then Timmy teared up and Melvin stared sadly at the floor. She seemed suspiciously unsurprised though.

“I don’t wanna go!” Timmy howled and Jason nearly slapped a hand over his mouth out of fear of being heard. There shouldn’t be any Brotherhood members here at the moment, but Brain could send someone over at any time.

“It won’t be forever,” Jason tried to assure him, crouching down to his level. “just until the bad guys are caught. Think of this as an adventure.”

“Who are the bad guys?” Melvin asked, her gaze moving to focus on him. “We have powers, we can beat them up.”

If only it was that easy.

Jason shook his head. “There are a lot of bad guys. They’ve teamed up. And most of them have powers of their own.” He didn’t want to scare them, but he had to tell enough get across that they needed to leave. “They’ve already gone after other young heroes. Some have been caught.”

Timmy’s wails had died into sniffles and Melvin looked hesitant. He didn’t think the toddler, whose gaze was wandering between them as he sucked on his pacifier, really understood what they were talking about.

“But,” Melvin’s voice wobbled, “we could, or, um, can’t we just fight them here?” Yeah, no, they weren’t going to be fighting at all.

“There are a lot of other kids here who don’t have powers,” he reminded her gently instead of what he really wanted to say. “Even if you could fight them, you don’t want the other kids to be in danger, right? And it’s only going to be until the Brotherhood are dealt with. It’ll be a fun adventure and then you can come back.” Adoption would be better. Finding good parents who could handle kids with powers though…

Melvin’s entire being seemed to droop, twintails hanging low. “He’s right, Timmy,” she said, placing a hand on the sniffling boy’s shoulder. “We can’t let the other kids get hurt.” To Jason she said, “Are the bad guys the people Bobby’s seen sneaking around outside?”

“What?!” Lisa gasped, eyes wide. “Melvin, why didn’t you tell anyone?!”

“We didn’t wanna worry you,” Melvin explained. “They weren’t really doing anything.”

Bobby again? So he was a real person? Jason was now very confused.

“You should have told us!” Lisa scolded, sounding upset. The worried kind, not the angry kind. “There should never be strangers near the house.”

“We’re sorry,” Melvin apologized, eyes downcast. Shit, they were just kids. Little kids. They shouldn’t have to deal with any of this crap.

Jason finally stood from his crouch. “Those were probably the bad guys,” he confirmed. At least she truly knew there was a threat lurking nearby. That would make this easier. “They’ve been watching this place for a while. They’re watching right now. That’s why we’re going to use that truck to sneak out.” He nodded towards the back of the truck.

The kids all turned to look at the truck. “We’re going in there?” Melvin asked. She was the most talkative of the bunch. Not surprising, but it would be useful.

“Yep,” Jason nodded. “For a bit. Then we’ll switch transports, er, vehicles and meet up with the Titans.” He actually didn’t know where the Titans planned to take them. His exchange with Dick had been brief and mostly one-sided. Jason had shown enough to prove what he was saying about the kids was true despite the info coming from an anonymous source and gotten Dick to agree to the pickup, but they hadn’t really communicated anything beyond that. But he trusted Dick (on this at least) not to screw it up.

“When do we have to go?” Melvin asked, thankfully sounding curious rather than upset.

“As soon as the truck’s done unloading,” Jason told her, very aware that there were only four boxes left. “We need to get as much of a head start on the bad guys as possible. Even if they don’t see us leave, they’ll eventually notice you aren’t here anymore.”

Melvin glanced towards the door to the house. “Should we go pack our stuff?”

Jason shook his head. “No need. It’s best for us to travel as light as possible. Once you get to the Titans, the bad guys will stop watching this place and we can send you your stuff then.”

“N-no dinosaur?” Timmy wobbled.

Jason looked at the toy uncertainly. It was only one toy and if it made him feel better… but if he allowed it, the other kids would probably ask for something and they really shouldn’t be lugging around a pile of toys. Maybe Jason could get a backpack or something and carry the toys for them so long as they were small…

Before he caved though, Lisa crouched down, placing Tyson (because his name wasn’t Teether. Obviously.) and taking the dinosaur. “I’ll send the dinosaur with the rest of your stuff,” she promised.

Relief washed over him when Timmy nodded and allowed the toy to be taken. He wanted to thank Lisa but now with the kids watching wasn’t a good time.

“We’re not going to get to say goodbye to the other kids, are we?” Melvin sighed.

Smart kid. “It’s best not too,” Jason confirmed, wishing things were different. “We don’t want them acting differently and it’s safer if they have no idea where you are.”

“Ok,” Melvin nodded, determination glittering in her eyes. “Ok, we’ll have lots of cool stuff to tell them when we get back.”

Lisa wrapped all three of them in a hug. “We’ll have a party when you come back. Have fun on your trip and make sure you use your time with the heroes well. They’ll be able to help you with your powers more than we ever could.”

The truck was empty now except for one small box in the back corner. It was time to leave. Jason reached down and picked up Tyson. “All right kids,” he said, forcibly cheerful. “Let’s load up.”

“Bye, Miss Lisa,” Melvin said, one hand grabbing at the empty air. Strangely, she kept it there, like she was holding something. It was almost like she was holding an invisible hand, but it was too high up and her fingers weren’t in the right places.

He was so focused on trying to figure out that mystery, he only heard the end of Timmy’s goodbye, which had been a lot more tearful than Melvin’s. Tyson seemed to understand goodbyes were being said and waved a little hand as they stepped into the back of the truck.

Jason placed Tyson on the floor of the truck and Timmy sat down next to him, anxiously wringing his cape in his hands. Melvin was standing at the entrance of the truck but not entering, her hand still in that odd position.

“Um, something wrong?” Jason asked after a few seconds of her just standing there. She didn’t look sad or scared and her friends were already in here…

“Bobby doesn’t like it in there,” was her confusing explanation. “It’s big enough, but there are no windows. He doesn’t like the dark.”

Now, most people would probably look at this situation and assume this was a child using her imaginary friend to say she was scared of the dark without admitting it. Jason, however, was now convinced of something he had not accounted for in his plan. Firstly, Melvin was a child, not an infant. He didn’t believe she would endanger her real friends for an imaginary one. Second, she still had her hand raised in what was not a comfortable position unless she was actually holding onto something and her finger positions hadn’t changed at all. Not so much as a twitch. Kid wasn’t a mime. She was definitely holding onto… something he couldn’t see. If she didn’t have powers, he would have been more skeptical, but she did and this was somewhat in the vein of things she might be able to do. Her file’s power description had been vague, not seeming to be able to decide if she was a telepath or a magic user or something else. ‘Imagination Manifestation’ was what they called it so having a real imaginary friend wasn’t as crazy as it otherwise would seem.

“I’ve got a lantern,” Jason said, pulling the electric lantern out of the small box still in the corner. He flicked it on. “And we won’t be in here long. Just until we get far enough away from the orphanage.” Was he seriously trying to convince an invisible monster to get in the truck? Apparently he was. “Plus,” he pulled out his phone. “I’ve got little cameras on the outside of the truck so we can see out even without windows.” Like hell was he travelling blind. He showed the camera feed on his screen, which was currently showing various angles of the garage.

Melvin’s hand suddenly dropped and the truck shook like something massive had just stepped in and Jason was not feeling okay about this. No wonder the kids weren’t allowed in the garage if this- thing was living in it. It must be safe then though, right? If the kids weren’t scared of it and the adults allowed it to stay. But knowing that didn’t make him feel any better travelling in a somewhat small box with some massive thing he couldn’t see. He could feel its eyes on him but for all he knew, it didn’t even have eyes. Was it even a recognizable creature? Melvin had created it so it was probably a giant puppy or cat or something, not some demon spawn. Right?

At least Melvin had climbed in as well. So that was all the kids. And he could guess where the monster was by where Melvin was sitting.

“Er, is Bobby always invisible?” he asked, trying to hide his nerves.

Melvin shook her head. “Naw, he’s just a little shy around new people so he’s hiding.” Wonderful.

Jason would like very much for him not to be hiding. But- at the same time- having a visible giant creature thing following them around would attract way too much attention. So… crap.

“Okay then,” he said weakly. He stood to grab the truck door. Lisa was still standing by the pile of unloaded boxes. “I’ll make sure they get to the Titans safely,” he promised and she nodded, putting on a brave face as she gave the kids one final wave.

He slid the door shut, leaving him alone with three children and an invisible monster. Why did there have to be an invisible monster?

With a sigh, he turned back to the kids.

Chapter Text

Now that Jason was actually sitting with the kids, he realized just how long it had been since he’d had any prolonged interaction with normal, not-Damian kids.

He blamed some of his uncertainty on the invisible monster apparently crammed in here with them. No one could blame him for being at least a little distracted. But crap, now Timmy’s eyes were starting to water and this was a scary situation for them so he needed to get over himself.

“So, you all have powers, huh?” he said casually, not wanting it to come off as an interrogation.

“Uh huh,” Melvin nodded, tapping her toes against the floor of the truck. Thankfully, this first part wasn’t a long drive.

“You don’t have to tell me what they are unless you think it’s important,” he assured her. He already knew anyways.

“Naw, it’s fine,” Melvin said cheerily. She pointed over to where Timmy was sitting with Tyson in his lap. “Timmy can make really loud noises that make your head hurt, Ty can eat anything, even gross or really hard things, and spit it at people, Bobby’s really strong and a really good dancer, and I-“ she hesitated, lowering her hand. “-I, um, have brain powers, I guess.”

A pang of sympathy shot through Jason’s chest. Her powers were the most complex of the three. No one really understood what her powers were. Not fully. Of course it would bother her. Hopefully, the Titans could give her some guidance on that front.

“Hey!” Timmy snapped, glaring over at Melvin. “You didn’t explain my power right! You didn’t make it sound cool enough!”

Melvin tilted her head. “I didn’t?”

“No!” Timmy shook his head empathetically. “You coulda said- like, um, explosions of sounds or somethin’!”

“Hmm, I guess explosions are cool,” Melvin said thoughtfully. “But you don’t usually set things on fire. Don’t explosions need to have fire?”

“No!”

“Not really,” Jason said, amused by their bickering. “An explosion is a violent expansion in which energy is transmitted outwards as a shockwave. An outburst of almost anything can be considered an explosion. Light, noise, water…”

“Ha!” Timmy cheered. “See Melvin! I waz right!” Jason’s lips quirked at the childish mispronunciation.

“What about you, mister?” Melvin asked. “Do you have any powers?” Her blue eyes brightened. “Oooh, can you turn into a fox? Can I pet you?”

“Um, no, I can’t turn into a fox,” Jason told her, a little startled by the question. “It’s just a codename.” As for her first question… Should he answer honestly? “I don’t have superpowers.” 99.9999% of people didn’t have powers, he wasn’t giving away anything damning. He could make up a fake power to throw people off, but then the kids would ask to see it and then they’d see him as a liar. “I can fight just fine without them. I use martial arts, tech, ninja type stuff.” Really oversimplifying it. And he sure as hell wasn’t using the master assassin label for a bunch of kids.

“Oh,” Melvin said, nodding in understanding. “So you’re like Batman?”

Green invaded his vision and his body tensed, ready to lash out. She just had to make that comparison? Was Batman that well known these days? Seen as a hero? Jason was nothing like that bastard!

Little kid, he reminded himself harshly. Little kid, you can’t snap over this.

“Yeah,” he said through gritted teeth. “Kinda like Batman.” He prayed she dropped it there because things could go badly if this conversation continued.

Suddenly, the truck shook, and not from a pothole. Jason’s attention jerked to where ‘Bobby’ was supposed to be, fear overriding his anger. “Woah, woah, what is he doing?!”

Melvin shrugged, one of her twintails was doing that twitchy thing again. “He’s just a little nervous.” Turning to the space beside her, she scolded. “Stay still, Bobby.” Then she continued to speak to Jason like they hadn’t been interrupted. “Batman’s not really a bat either, you know.”

What was-? His brain was scrambling between being very concerned about what Bobby was doing and figuring out what Batman comparison she’d been trying to make. Had she been talking about their lack of powers, their fighting styles, the animal names or- no. No, he didn’t care, and he refused to think about it.

“Only a couple minutes until we get out of the truck,” he told them, glancing at his phone screen. Hopefully, knowing he wouldn’t have to be in here much longer would make Bobby less nervous. Timmy had started playing with the lantern, flicking the handle back and forth, but that was fine. Tyson was now sitting by himself next to the redhead, watching intently.

“Where are we going when we get out?” Melvin asked.

“From there, we walk through a forest for a bit then we take a bus to meet up with the Titans,” Jason told her. The forest walk wasn’t long. It was mostly so they weren’t getting out of the truck and hoping onto the closest bus and so they wouldn’t have people around the area seeing them. The harder to track the better.

“Are you friends with the Titans?” she asked. In the background, Tyson had started chewing on Timmy’s cape which was upsetting Timmy. It was a great excuse to not immediately answer that question.

“Don’t chew on other people’s stuff,” Jason said gently, pulling Tyson off the cape (which was actually just a blue blanket that could clip on his shoulders) and reinserting the pacifier. Timmy calmed down now that his blanket was safe, but now Tyson looked upset. Unsure if the kid would want to be held by a stranger (a stranger with his eyes covered no less) or not, Jason picked up the toddler and put him in his own lap. Thankfully, he seemed happy with the attention and chose to look curiously at the images on Jason’s phone rather than crying or squirming.

Melvin was still waiting expectantly. Ugh, so he was going to have to answer that question then. Fine. Better than Batman questions.

“I wouldn’t say we’re friends exactly,” Jason said carefully. “We don’t hang out for fun or anything. We’re working together so we’re allies.” He was deliberately leaving out if they’d ever met before. Dick was going to grill these kids for every drop of information they could give and was going to be sorely disappointed.

His vague answer seemed to satisfy Melvin. He braced himself as the truck took a turn and they all slid a little in the opposite direction. The kids giggled and Jason glanced at his phone. This was their stop. About ten seconds later, the vehicle came to a halt.

Sliding Tyson off his lap, Jason went to open the trailer door. Outside, they were parked beside a small building near the very edge of the town. Some kind of nick nack shop. The forest stretched out just past it.

Jason shivered and moved to one side of the trailer as he felt something pass by him. The truck bounced slightly as something large got out. He looked to the dirt for some kind of clue, but the whatever it was wasn’t leaving footprints. Why did he ever get his hopes up?

The man who had driven them rounded the corner of the truck. Jason reached into his pocket and handed him a couple hundreds. “If anyone asks, you can tell them you gave us a ride, but don’t say anything unless asked.” He wasn’t getting the guy beat up or worse for almost worthless information. And Jason somewhat doubted he’d keep his mouth shut if threatened anyways. “We’ll be gone in a minute.”

A little wary, the man nodded, but shoved the money in his jacket pocket and went back around towards the driver seat. The story they’d given the man was the barest it could be, just that they had to sneak the kids out unseen because someone bad was after them. Lisa backing him up had been enough to convince him. That and the money.

Melvin hopped out of the truck and trotted over to where Bobby presumedly was. She was the only way he had to track this thing so far. Jason helped Timmy climb out then carried Tyson and placed him by Melvin. No people currently in the area, but the sooner they moved the better.

Going back into the truck, Jason grabbed his draw bag from the box and tossed it over his shoulders. Then he picked up the lantern and the now empty box and exited the truck, closing the trailer door behind him.

The box he broke down and threw away. The lantern he left by the back of the door of the shop. Now it didn’t look like someone had been trying to hide or get rid of it and someone might still be able to get some use out of it.

“Alright,” Jason said, scooping up Tyson. “We’re going to walk through these woods-“ he nodded to the forest in front of them. “-to a bus station that will take us to the Titans. Stick close to me.”

“’Kay,” Melvin said, reaching for that invisible hand again. Timmy just nodded, staring at the woods with curious eyes.

So, they started walking at what felt like a snail’s pace. If Jason had been by himself, he could have gotten through these woods in 15 minutes. With two of the kids having to walk themselves though, with their short little legs, it was probably going to take around 45 minutes and that was only if nothing unexpected happened to slow them down.

They also weren’t taking any established path which had two fairly large disadvantages. 1. The kids might struggle more compared to a clear path with no branches or holes or other such obstacles. 2. While Jason would very much prefer to have the kids walk slightly in front of him where he could see them better, he needed to lead the way. He was trying to keep them beside him best he could. Timmy had grabbed his free hand a few steps into the forest, so he was easy to keep track of. Melvin was by herself and while she was the most responsible of the three, she’d sometimes break away a little because ‘Bobby won’t fit’. It wasn’t by much, mostly just skirting around a tree or bush, then rejoining the group, but it still made Jason nervous.

Despite all that, things were going smoothly so far. Timmy would ask a question every once in a while, but seemed occupied watching the nature around them. Melvin was handling Bobby and Tyson appeared to have fallen asleep on Jason’s shoulder.

“Are there any dragons in this woods?” Timmy asked.

“These woods,” Jason corrected automatically. As for the question… Once, he would have said dragons aren’t real, but he’d heard stories of supers fighting dragons so… “Nope, no dragons here. Birds, deer, squirrels, but no dragons.”

Timmy perked up, looking around eagerly. “Deer? Where are the deer? Are they the deer with horns?”

“Well, deer are very shy so they’ll probably avoid us if they can,” Jason explained, feeling a burst of fondness from how his excitement reminded him of Damian. “And all deer, as a general species, have horns.” Not 100% true, there was the water deer, they didn’t have any antlers. Jason had seen some during his brief time training in China. But those things shouldn’t count as deer anyways. They’d weirded him out with their lack of antlers, small size, and giant fangs that looked like someone had taken a sabertooth’s fangs and slapped them on a deer-like creature. Some called them vampire deer. Jason called them abominations of nature. So no, he wasn’t counting them. “They’re called antlers and the boy deer have them, but the girls don’t. Reindeer are the only species of deer where the girls also grow antlers. No reindeer around here though.”

“Course not,” Timmy scoffed, because that was somehow more outlandish than the dragon. “They’re all in the North Pole with Santa!”

Yeah, no, Jason wasn’t shattering that bit of childhood. Especially not with everything they’d already gone through today.

“Are we almost there?” Melvin asked, looking up at him.

“More than halfway,” Jason answered, glancing down as Timmy let out a moan. He frowned slightly. “You okay kiddo?”
The kid mumbled something unintelligible, so Jason turned to Melvin. “What did he say?” he asked, figuring she knew him better and even if she hadn’t heard him, she’d still understood what the problem was.

“He’s tired of walking,” Melvin translated. Hm.

He stopped, turning to the side. “We can take a break,” he told them. “Not too long though, we need to keep moving or we’ll be late for our meet up with the Titans.” And the more time passed, the higher the chance of getting caught. He scanned the area for a good place to sit. Ah, that would work.

Moving to sit on a sturdy fallen tree, he carefully shrugged the bag off his shoulders. Not careful enough though because Tyson woke up. Internally sighing, Jason set the toddler on his lap. Probably wouldn’t have stayed asleep the whole time either way.

“You guys hungry?” Jason asked, pulling open the bag. “I have snacks if you want some.” He’d asked Lisa what they liked. Better to eat now, who knew if it would be possible to stop for lunch later on in the day.

“Yeah,” Timmy agreed, not seeming to fully trust the offer. The kid inched towards the bag, eyeing it with suspicion.

“Sure,” Melvin nodded, dropping the invisible hand (making Bobby now truly invisible. woo-hoo), and plopping down on the ground beside the log.

Jason handed each kid the granola bar they liked. Timmy looked surprised, studying the snack like it was some kind of trick before chomping down eagerly. Giving a toddler a chewy granola bar felt wrong, but Tyson scarfed it down at an alarming, and unnatural, speed. He didn’t think the kid even had all his baby teeth yet.

Casting a searching glance at their surroundings and seeing nothing, Jason turned to Melvin. “Does Bobby need to eat?” He had no idea if he had anything he could feed him, it might eat anything from meat to human dreams for all he knew. But if one thing was worse than an invisible monster, it was a hungry invisible monster. And while the creature freaked him out a bit, he didn’t want to hurt or starve it or anything.

Melvin looked over to her right, twintails twitching. “Nah, he’s not hungry right now.” Which wasn’t an answer to his direct question though it did answer his implied question.

“What does Bobby eat?” Jason asked. He should know just in case.

“Um, human food,” Melvin answered in-between bites. “He likes pancakes a lot.” Jason wasn’t sure what he’d been expecting but this was good. He could deal with that.

Tyson was squirming in his lap so after a quick scan for anything not child friendly (poison ivy, anything sharp, etc) Jason let him down. The toddler used the log to help him stand up, gazing around curiously.

Jason watched him for a few seconds to make sure he didn’t fall over or try to wander off then turned to ask Melvin another question. What greeted him almost caused him to fall off the log and he rocketed to his feet, brain kicking into defense mode.

“What the he-ck?!” A giant bear monster had somehow teleported into the clearing. A Frankenstein bear. A- Frankenstein teddy bear?! Its skin was fabric. Stitched, patchwork fabric of various shades of brown. Its eyes and nose were plastic. The huge claws on the end of its hands (paws?) were real enough though. And it was moving.

Shoving his bewilderment aside, Jason leapt in front of the kids, drawing his gun from his jacket in one hand and taking mini-explosives out of his pouch with the other. His knives probably wouldn’t do shit to this thing. Would cutting its throat even do anything? With those claws, ranged combat was his best bet. What was it even doing here? He didn’t think it was from the Brotherhood.

Before he could move, something grabbed onto his leg. He almost kicked it off on instinct but a fearful “No, don’t hurt Bobby!” made him freeze. He looked down to see a tearful Melvin looking up at him pleadingly, her whole body wrapped around his left leg.

His eyes darted back to the bear, it was just standing there, but didn’t lower his weapons. “That’s Bobby?!”

“Yeah,” Melvin nodded vigorously. “He’s not going to hurt anyone so leave him alone!”

In front of them, Bobby looked down at the ground, ears flopping sadly. So this really was- Jason put his weapons away. He still didn’t understand what was going on but if that was Bobby… “Why can I see him now?”

Melvin didn’t look on the brink of tears anymore, thank God, but she still hadn’t let go of his leg. “Bobby was shy before,” she explained, “so he was hiding, but he decided you were okay. And we’re in the woods now. Bears like woods.”

Alright, he kinda understood that. Would’ve been nice to have some warning, but fine. A teddy bear friend was the sort of thing a little kid would come up with. Bobby was a little… unsettling though. Had she given Bobby giant claws and the crudely stitched Frankenstein patchwork on purpose? Was he based off a toy she owned? Maybe a mix of that and what she thought bear claws looked like? How much control did she actually have over it?

“Sorry, Bobby,” Jason apologized. He didn’t regret his reaction time, which had been on point, but he genuinely felt guilty about scaring something that hadn’t meant them harm.

Bobby perked up but didn’t say anything. Could he talk? Melvin was communicating with him but that seemed like more of a psychic connection type thing. He had a lot of questions about how all this worked. Most important first,

“So can everyone see Bobby now?” No way were they getting on the bus if Bobby gave the driver a heart attack. Melvin seemed like she could always see him but was it an all or just Melvin situation? Could Bobby appear for specific people or was visible just visible?

“Um, yeah?” she confirmed, sounding confused. She let go of Jason’s leg and pointed at the now very obvious bear. “See, he isn’t hiding anymore.”

So everyone then. Fine, okay, not necessarily a problem.

“Alright,” Jason said, running a hand through his hair anxiously. “That’s fine for now, but will he be able to hide again later? We’re trying to be sneaky.”

He felt a wave of relief when she nodded. “Don’t worry, Bobby’s good at hiding.”

That was the important thing. Jason did have more questions, a lot more questions, but he didn’t need those answers. The Titans would be the ones helping her with her powers, not him. All he was doing was dropping them off.

“Nice to officially meet you, Bobby,” Jason said, giving a small wave as he slid down to sit on the log again. He didn’t know if it knew how to do a handshake and his big paws paired with those claws were, well, the wave was effectively the same thing.

Bobby smiled with large and surprisingly sharp teeth. Somehow, it came off as friendly rather than scary. Now that he was getting a better look at him and wasn’t worrying about an attack, he was kinda cute in a weird way. A friendly giant type vibe. One new observation was that Bobby didn’t have a true muzzle, more just the bottom half of his face bumped out, which was odd for a bear- oh. The connection clicked. Bobby the bear. It was alliteration. Heh, cute.

There wasn’t time to learn much more about Bobby though, they needed to get moving again. Jason glanced over to see if the boys had finished their snacks.

What the-?!

Alarm shot through Jason’s veins, and he jumped to scoop up Tyson, who was in the process of eating the far end of the log. “Tyson, no!” he scolded, but the kid swallowed whatever he’d been chewing. Judging by the many chunks of tiny bite marks already missing from the log, the toddler had already consumed a lot and Jason didn’t know what to do.

Guilt weighed down on him. This was his fault; he’d been distracted by Bobby and hadn’t been watching him. Anxious thoughts swirled through his brain. Would this make him sick? Had he cut the inside of his mouth or anything on the way down? He knew this was part of his powers, but it felt wrong.

“Will he be okay?” he asked Melvin anxiously, trying to look inside Tyson’s mouth for any sign of damage. Amazingly, there was no sign of splinters or cuts. “Does he eat this kinda stuff a lot? Is he really hungry?”

“Naw, he’s fine,” Melvin assured. “Teether just likes chewing stuff. Wood’s never made him sick before.”

The information made him feel better but now he knew to be more careful. Giving Tyson his pacifier back, Jason crouched down to examine the other problem.

The damage to the log was obvious, even at a distance, the light color of the holes contrasting heavily with the dark brown bark. It might not be immediately recognizable that they were tiny human bite marks but if someone was looking, well, Jason’s whole being rebelled at leaving such a clue. But what could he do?

Destroying the log further to cover up the damage could end up looking even more suspicious and would take time. He could try to roll the log over so the bite marks weren’t showing but it was a big log and the moss would be on the wrong side. It was the end of the log though so-

He grabbed the log and pulled it further so the part where Tyson had been biting into it was obscured fully by the already encroaching bush. It was good enough.

He stood up, throwing their trash into a plastic bag and throwing that into her draw bag. Taking Timmy’s hand, Jason said, “We need to keep going. Not far now. We’ll have a longer break when we’re on the bus.” Melvin nodded, taking Bobby’s paw. Jason couldn’t decide if it looked more or less weird now that he could see the giant teddy bear.

The rest of the trip through the forest went smoothly. Bobby turned invisible again before they reached the bus station. Jason had been worried about getting him into the bus, but he managed to fit through the door. The driver had looked confused when the bus shook slightly and had gotten out to check around the vehicle but hadn’t found anything.

The man had given Jason a weird look when he saw his domino mask but dropped it when he saw the kids. Their hero costumes had helped him not look like a creep. It made it look like they were all just wearing costumes for some unknown reason and the man hadn’t asked questions.

Fortunately, no one else was currently going to the train station in the middle of nowhere so Bobby had enough space and didn’t have to worry about anyone bumping into him. The kids were small enough that they could all fit in the same row. Timmy and Melvin sat on the same seat closest to the aisle while Jason took the window seat with Tyson on his lap.

“The drive is about forty-five minutes,” Jason informed them as they settled in their seats. “The Titans are waiting for us at a train station.”

“Ooh, a train!” Timmy exclaimed gleefully. “Never been on a train before. Are we going to ride in the train?”

“Yep,” Jason nodded, “You’ll take the train to wherever the Titans are bringing you.” The kids didn’t seem to notice the ‘you’ part or they just didn’t understand what it meant. He was putting off telling them he wasn’t coming with them all the way as long as he could.

Timmy kicked his legs excitedly. “Cool.”

Picking up his draw bag from where he placed it on the floor, Jason removed the tablet he’d brought. It had no internet connection but he’d predownloaded some children’s books on it. As distasteful as he found virtual books to the real deal (no flipping of pages, no book smell, no weight of the book in your hands) they did sometimes have their uses. He couldn’t have hauled around a pile of kids’ books all over the place.

Turning it on, he brought up the list of books. “Here,” he said, handing it to Melvin. “You guys look those over and pick a few and I’ll read them to you.”

The two kids scrolled through the list curiously scanning the book covers.

“Ooh,” Melvin gasped happily. “Berenstain Bears! They’re some of Bobby’s favorites!”

“No!” Timmy argued, trying to snatch the tablet away from her. “Curious George! I wanna monkey story.”

Jason plucked the tablet away from them. “We can do both,” he told them. “We’ll do a Curious George first then a Berenstain Bear and keep switching.” He opened curious ‘Curious George Takes a Train’ because it seemed the most relevant of the list. “And George is an ape,” he observed, looking at the picture. He didn’t really know much about children’s books; he’d skipped to the more advanced books pretty fast. His mom had used to read some books they’d gotten from the library before she got sick, but he barely remembered any of them. Swallowing against the pang of grief he continued, “Monkeys have tails. George does not so he’s an ape. Like a gorilla.”

Timmy stared at him like he was crazy.

Explaining that alone would probably take the whole drive so Jason just let it drop.

The stories were actually pretty good, for kids’ books. He liked the Berenstain ones better because they were more relatable and a little more complex but the art for Curious George was fun and colorful. Although the Curious George books had the audacity to call George a monkey which was blatant misinformation in a children’s book of all things. He’d never read either of them before, but he could see why they’d been listed as popular. The kids liked them too, occasionally giggling at funny bits or throwing in a comment. They also thought the higher pitch voice he did for sister bear was amusing.

With the books to occupy them, the drive passed quickly. Jason put the tablet away when they were a couple minutes out from Myrberg Station. Looking out the window down the dirt road they were now on (this place really was out there), he saw a purple smudge in the distance standing beside the building. Only a purple smudge. Nobody else was there.

Jason stared in disbelief. Had Dick only sent Raven? Raven? Annoyance sparked under his skin. There had better be a damn good explanation as to why Dick sent only miss goth, gloomy, I-have-probably-never-really-talked-to-a-child-in-my-life Raven to babysit and escort three kids to a safe location. Seriously, a city better be about to blow up or something. It wasn’t that he doubted her fighting ability or her competence but come on. Even Beast Boy would be able to handle kids better than her. Literally any of the other Titans would have been a better pick, so why her? Admittedly, he didn’t know her personally and Dick did, but Jason felt pretty confident in his judgement based on what he had seen and read of her. He wanted to thump his head against the glass of the window in frustration but that wouldn’t be a good look in front of the kids.

Well, there was nothing he could do at this point. He couldn’t stay with the kids; he couldn’t let Raven see him at all. And there was no time to call and demand an explain from Dick and bring in another Titan. Raven would have to do. She might not be the best emotional support for the kids, but he knew she’d at least keep them safe.

He turned to the kids. “Alright, when we stop, you’re going to have to get out of the bus quickly, “he instructed, hoping the kids wouldn’t ask why they had to leave quickly. Jason had made up a story for the driver that he was in a big rush and had paid him extra to leave as soon as the kids got out. This was the first train of the day so no one should be waiting to get on the bus so no need to wait the unnecessary five minutes and give Raven time to search the bus. “Raven from the Titans will be waiting for you. She’ll be the one in the purple cape. She’ll be taking you guys from here on out.”

Melvin tilted her head. “Y’mean you’re not coming with us mister Fox?”

“Nope,” Jason shook his head. “There’s something else I need to do, and Raven will take good care of you.” She’d better. “She’s a Titan, after all. I was just escorting you to her.” He was very aware that they were seconds away from stopping.

“Oh,” Melvin said, looking a little sad. Timmy mirrored her. He hoped they didn’t think he was abandoning them.

The bus came to a halt.

“You guys have to hurry,” Jason reminded them. “Raven’s waiting for you. Have fun on the train.”

Melvin was the first to stand up. “Thank you for helping us, mister,” Melvin said. Jason was blindsided by the quick hug she gave him before grabbing Tyson and hurrying down the aisle.

“Yeah, thanks,” Timmy echoed, following behind the others, not wanting to be left behind. The bus bounced slightly again as Bobby stepped out and Jason watched the kids start going up to Raven. The bus started moving again a second later, but Jason could see them start to talk to Raven, who didn’t look happy to see them but she never looked happy so it was hard to say if she was actually unhappy, before they got too far away to be able to make anything out. He did see them enter the station before the bus crested a hill and cut off his line of sight completely.

Sighing, Jason thumped his head back against the seat. He’d done it. His main objective for joining the Brotherhood was over. The kids were safe so now what?

He looked out at the rapidly passing countryside. He could leave the Brotherhood now. It wasn’t like they could chase down Red X for leaving because Jason wasn’t Red X when he was training. He didn’t even necessarily have to ‘betray’ the Brotherhood to quit, he could make up an excuse. The work he did for them was contractual and he’d completed all his contracts so far. He could just say he’d gotten work elsewhere and have Red X not lose face with the villains.

He tapped his fingers against his leg.

However, he was already there. It seemed a waste to back out now. It wasn’t like they weren’t bad guys, they still needed to be stopped. Sure, the Titans could handle it alone, but they’d be able to do it quicker with Jason leaking them information. And he hadn’t killed Chang yet and he definitely wanted to do that when he got the chance.

Jason sighed again. Guess he wasn’t quite done with the Brotherhood yet. At least they didn’t have any jobs for him at the moment. And he was going to enjoy watching them fail.