Chapter Text
Two months passed with very little happening, they’d gone on a few missions (none of which ended up being eventful… for the first time in forever their stealth missions stayed as stealth missions). The most interesting thing was when Nightwing’s grapple had failed mid mission, causing the elder to nearly fall face first into a particularly villainous meeting. His brother’s face one of pure shock as he clung to the rafters, doing his best to go unnoticed by the group below.
Tim made it his duty, as a good brother, to rub the mistake in Dick’s face at every given opportunity. In return Dick made sure to ensure Tim would fall flat on his face at least once every patrol.
It hurt... but seeing the usually calm gymnast getting ticked off by his teasing made it so worth it.
So, when he was commed to the Tower he assumed it was for a usual “get in, get the info, get out” mission- He’d been a bit wrong with that assumption.
That was how he found himself herding a group of metahumans through a decrepit hallway, the crowd ranged from ten to eighteen years old- so it was more like a group of meta-teens. From his vantage point the crowd was a mix of all sorts of colours, sizes, and shapes of people as they shuffled towards the open double doors.
The League members were waiting to sort them into groups, they’d all be sent to centres to help them with their brand new powers, but sadly they couldn’t all go to the same place.
The mission had been a hit on one of the many underground metahuman trafficking rings. They typically snatched kids up (ideally ones that wouldn’t be missed), put their bodies under extreme stress to try and trigger their meta-gene. Once their powers came to light they would be sorted into groups, have a price tag slapped on them and sold to whoever wanted them. This ring was no different.
Tim internally shivered at the thought of what happened to those who didn’t have the gene.
His eye caught a familiar head of blonde hair in the crowd- he spied Cassie as she walked in the centre of the group, casually chatting to a reptilian looking boy. Logically Tim knew she was doing her part to keep the rattled teens calm, what they’d been through was awful… however, an awful part of him twinged with jealousy. Maybe he wasn’t as “over” the blonde as he originally thought.
It was in that moment a gravelly voice chimed over the mindlink.
“One available team member is needed in the West side laboratory,” Batman’s painfully monotone voice echoed through their skulls. A quick glance around confirmed his presence wouldn’t be missed.
“On my way,” he replied as he headed West.
xXx
The laboratory was just as trashy as the rest of the place, the equipment was obviously second hand (most of it was cracked or charred), the walls were made up of boards nailed together and it was in desperate need for a clean. This particular smuggling ring was relatively new and it showed.
Batman stood directly ahead of the door in the centre of the room, his back was to Robin as he stalked in.
“Hey,” he mentally greeted, “what’s the si-” his line of thought scattered when he saw what his mentor was looking at. At the back of the lab was a generic looking table shoved against the wall, it was solid looking and covered in scratches.
What shocked him was what was under the table.
A kid… maybe eleven or twelve. He was small, his cheeks were sunken and his eyes had dark shadows under them, shadows too big for any child that young- they would look more at home on Tim’s own face. His short hair was spiked up in every direction as his clothes hung from his frame, clothing was probably a generous description… they were more like rags with how torn and mucky they were.
The part that hurt Tim’s soul the most was the look in the kid’s eyes, they held a wild look that told tales of unimaginable trauma. The way he was tightly curled in on himself told him the kid held no trust towards the two heroes standing before him.
The unnamed kid was also a Meta if the collar clamped around his neck was anything to go by.
“He won’t come out,” Batman stated.
“He’s scared, can’t really blame him…” Tim trailed off. With very slow movements Robin lowered himself to the floor so he was kneeling. “Hey…” he said out loud, making sure to keep his voice cheery.
The kid just held his knees tighter to his chest, those brown eyes flicked between them like a scared animal.
“I’ll call for Martian Manhunter, we don’t have time to wait for him to come out if he won’t do so consciously,” Batman stated as he turned towards the door.
“No,” Robin stopped his mentor in his tracks. The Dark Knight turned very slowly to look at his protégé.
“No?” He asked, Tim had to force himself to remain calm.
“We’ll never gain his trust if we just knock him out when his trauma inconveniences us!” He could feel the kid’s gaze stare at his caped back, to him their conversation probably looked like an overly intense staring contest.
“Robin,” he grumbled aloud, his gravelly voice seemed to echo around the room, “we do not have time for-” he was interrupted by a familiar woosh from the doorway.
Tim looked around Batman’s shoulder just in time to see lightning crackle along the frame as a friendly face stood looking at them.
“Hey!” Kid Flash chirped, “what’s in here?” He moved to step in the lab as Batman spoke up.
“Kid Flash-”
“There’s a kid,” Tim waved to the bundle of tense muscles, completely ignoring his mentor as the man glared directly into his soul.
Kid ventured further into the lab, carefully zipping past the Bat before he came to a stop at Robin’s side. “He’s scared…”
“Of us,” Robin finished as Bart waved at the kid, the poor thing just tucked his face further into his knees- his gaze never leaving them.
He looked over at the youngest Flash and For the first time since they’d arrived Tim got a good look at the other teen. He immediately saw a streak of dirt smeared down Bart’s face, “you’ve got…” he waved a hand at Kid’s face.
He got a look of confusion before he was gone in a streak of colour… only to return whipping his face with a damp rag, effectively ridding himself of the dirt.
Robin didn’t miss the way the kid perked up at the show of Bart’s powers.
“He likes your powers,” he stated aloud. Bart threw the rag over his shoulder and wiped his hands on his thighs before zipping forward to sit cross legged in front of the kid. The unnamed Meta stared at Bart with a look of awe.
“Hey!” Bart waved and the kid shrunk back again. “What don’t you like? Is it the masks? Yeah, I’m not overly keen on masks either… they’re good, I promise!” He made sure to keep his hands visible as he picked at his gloves.
When the kid didn’t move Bart sighed and grasped the edge of his goggles, “how about this?” He pushed his tinted goggles into his hair, revealing his bright green eyes.
Both Robin and Kid Flash ignored Batman when he barked the speedster’s alias. The kid raised his head as he stared straight into the speedster’s eyes.
“You’re scared… Why?” Bart asked in a soft tone.
To everyone’s shock, the kid spoke up. “ Me llevarás lejos…” His voice cracked as he spoke.
When Bart looked back at him with a slightly startled look Robin took mercy on him and translated, “he’s worried we’ll take him away?” It came out as more of a question.
“Don’t you want to leave?” Bart looked back at the kid, he got a shake of the head as an answer. “Why not?”
“¡Mi hermano!” The kid tried to yell, only for it to come out as a squeak.
Bart may not be fluent in Spanish but he knew enough to decode basic statements, “where’s your brother?” When the kid didn’t reply he tried again, “if we’re gonna help him we need to know where he is…”
The kid stayed silent.
Behind them Batman was standing in the corner brooding, probably relaying what was happening to the other League members.
“I had a brother… a twin actually,” Bart’s voice snapped them out of their thoughts, he could sense his mentor perking up at Kid’s admission. “We were inseparable, our mom always said if he didn’t have blonde hair she’d have to write our names on our foreheads to tell us apart…” He trailed off with a sad chuckle.
When the kid lowered his legs and leaned forward Bart soldiered on, “we both had superspeed, I was faster but he always said it was him… I was older so I saw it as my big brotherly duty to let him believe that.”
There was a tense moment when no one spoke, until the kid broke the silence. “Cuanto mayor?”
Tim translated and Bart nodded before answering, “I was a whole fourteen minutes older! Something I was immensely proud of… Are you older than your brother?”
The kid hesitated before shaking his head, “¿Lo que le sucedió?”
“He wants to know what happened to your brother,” Robin said before Bart could look to him for help.
“He died…” The speedster trailed off, it didn’t seem like he was planning on elaborating until he looked directly in the kid’s eyes, “I lost my brother… I don’t want you to lose yours too, so we need to know where he is…” he spoke slowly and the kid looked conflicted for a second.
What he said next threw Robin through a loop as he rushed to translate to his teammate, “when our raid started his brother shoved him under there… Told him to stay still before the ‘mean people’ took him away, apparently they took him to a basement?” Batman was already pulling up several holo-maps as he updated the team, they could only guess how many more metas could be squirreled away, waiting to be sold… hoping to be saved.
With a firm nod Bart turned back to the kid as Bats left the lab, his cape fluttering around his ankles dramatically. “What’s your name?”
The kid shuffled forward a bit, his skin looking an unhealthy shade of white under the fluorescent lighting. “¿M-Menos? Me llamaron Menos…”
“Menos! That’s an interesting name, I like it!” Bart chirped, it earned a small smile from him, “what about your brother?”
“Mas!” Menos was a lot happier talking about his brother. Tim relayed the info to the team, they were looking for a young hispanic boy called Mas.
“Do you want to come with me?” Bart asked, opening his arms as a universal sign of I ain’t gonna hurt ya. Much to Tim’s shock Menos scrambled forwards, latching onto Bart like a baby koala. With a chuckle the speedster rose to his feet with Robin’s help, standing with a literal child wrapped around your chest wasn’t the easiest thing to achieve.
The trio were soon winding their way through the disgusting hallways, Bart was in front with Menos’s legs wrapped around his waist and his chin propped on the auburn’s shoulder. The kid stared at Robin as he trailed behind them, his bo staff clutched in his hand- always ready for an attack.
“¿Pájaro?” He directed his question at Tim.
“Casi un petirrojo… Robin en inglés,” he explained.
“Ro-Rob-in?” Menos said his name slowly, like the word felt wrong to say.
“¡Perfecto!” It was Bart who congratulated the kid, Menos giggled and buried his face in Bart’s shoulder. Tim couldn’t help but smile at the sight as he brushed his hair from his face.
Dammit the kid was cute.
xXx
It wasn’t long before the trio found themselves walking up to the group of heroes gathered by several buses stuffed full with metas. Menos clung to Bart tighter when he saw the crowd they were approaching, the closer they got the louder it was… that wasn’t surprising considering there was a decent amount of rowdy teenagers not too far from them.
“Hey!” Jaime greeted as he emerged from the crowd. “Who’s this?” The beetle pointed at Menos who’s grip turned iron.
Thankfully Tim answered for him, “we found him hidden under a table… He says there’s possibly a basement of more metas.”
“That must be where Nightwing took some of the others…”
Suddenly Traci burst from behind her boyfriend, “oh my gosh! Who’s this cute little guy?” She moved to ruffle his hair, only for Menos to immediately tense up and hide his face in Bart’s neck.
The speedster simply glared at the girl as he turned away, muttering something into the kid’s ear. Tim simply stared at the couple before moving to wrestle his way through the crowd.
Miss Martian was his target.
xXx
The Bioship was a lot quieter, it acted like a natural noise cancelling chamber- It turned out all Menos needed to calm down was a bit of quiet.
“Wanna grab something to eat after this?” Tim asked as he glanced over at Bart.
“Absolutely,” the speedster muttered. He moved to tiredly rub his eyes, being careful about not disturbing the kid sleeping in his lap. Bart looked as tired as Tim felt, and he felt like he wanted to sleep like the dead for a century at least.
He was broken from his daydreaming when his comm crackled to life.
“Robin!” Nightwing sang, he winced at the high pitch tone, “we’ve got Mas!”
He peered up at that, Bart gave him a wary side eye as he replied, “can you bring him to the Bioship?”
“Be there in five.” With that, the line cut out.
xXx
The kid that walked up the ramp behind Nightwing looked exactly like Menos… huh, so they were twins…
The newcomer’s clothes were just as abused as his twins’ however, his skin was twice as dirty. Robin hadn’t gone with the sub team to find the last few metas, but he could imagine the basement wasn’t the cleanest of places. The bruising making its way around his temple stood out against his sickly pale skin.
When Mas saw his twin his eyes lit up like it was christmas, he scooted past their team leader and rushed to Kid Flash’s side. His expression was one of pure concern as he eyed the snoozing speedster warily, his hand twitched like he wanted to reach out for his other half, but thought better of it.
“Está bien, solo dormido.” Tim explained in a hushed tone, making sure not to wake them. Mas seemed to calm slightly at the sound of his mother tongue, he simply perched on the seat beside Bart, his eyes never leaving his twin as the ship descended into silence.
His brother came to sit next to him, they stayed in silence for a whole minute until the motormouth gymnast broke it, “Bats cleared it for these two to stay in here… the buses are full so it makes sense,” he explained. Copying Tim’s hushed tone.
“Thank you,” he murmured, resting his head on his brother’s shoulder. Nightwing rattled off what had been in the basement but Tim wasn’t overly bothered, he was just tired.
xXx
The ride back to the Tower was quiet for once, everyone kept their chatting (more like gossiping) to a minimum whilst all orders were given over the mindlink. Tim didn’t miss the way Batman would keep glancing towards Bart and the kids, Mas now snuggled up to the sleeping speedster’s side.
He could tell his mentor was pissed about Bart uncovering his face in front of an unknown meta.
Tim couldn’t care less… which surprised him a bit. When he first confronted Bruce about knowing his identity he’d looked up to the man like he was some sort of deity. However, now the whole hero worshipping had worn off- leaving behind a Robin who knew Bruce was all bark no bite. The worst he’d do would be suspending Bart (and maybe Tim) for a week or two.
While some time without Robin would suck ass… Tim was used to doing nothing. That was what he’d done all his childhood when his parents were on business trips after all.
A hand near his thigh twitched and the third Robin’s attention was stolen by the speedster waking up next to him.
Bart woke up slowly, his muscles twitched and his face scrunched up like a grumpy cat. Those bright emerald eyes flickered open as he took a millisecond to take in his situation, he mugged Menos closer as he shuffled slightly to sit straighter.
That was when they noticed Mas had woken up, he was staring at Bart with those massive eyes from where he was still snuggled up to his side.
“Mas?” The speedster whispered, the kid nodded. “That’s crash, I’m Bart,” he waved as well as he could with a child occupying his arms. Mas nodded once and snuggled deeper into his side.
Tim caught Bart’s eye, the speedster gave him a simple thumbs up before settling down to nod off again, Tim copied him- they had another two hours of waiting to do after all.
xXx
It was a few hours later when the duo found themselves in a generic Central fast food restaurant, Tim was busy munching on his wrap and fries as Bart polished off his second burger.
It had only been half an hour since they’d dropped the twins off at the Meta-Human Youth Center, but it felt like hours since the speedster had to pull Menos’s tiny hands off his suit- the kid was determined to keep him around. They’d eventually managed to convince them that Ed was a good guy and he was there to help.
The parting hadn’t been without some tears on behalf of Menos though.
Tim was finishing off his milkshake (chocolate of course) when Bart’s phone buzzed, a quick glance over made the speedster’s face contort in confusion.
“Huh,” he muttered.
“What’s up?”
“Mas and Menos… they’re speedsters…”
That took Tim by surprise, “didn’t see that coming… why didn’t Mas’s bruise heal though?” He thought back to the colourful injury painted on the kid’s face.
“Apparently it’s only when they’re touching? Like-” He flailed his hand around, “magnets or something?”
The raven nodded slowly, “that’s a new one…” Bart hummed as he went back to his meal. “Just a heads up, B is gonna want to talk to you at some point.”
“Not right now, I’m too busy eating,” he made a big show of taking an exaggerated bite. He couldn’t help but chuckle when a blob of ketchup fell on the speedster’s phone, Bart’s panicked face was something to behold.
He’d ask him about his mysterious brother on another day, for now the duo were content.