Chapter Text
It was the last week of May and school had just let out for the year. There were 24 teens who were metahumans; 6 of them had relatives who were willing to take them in. After Oracle did a thorough background check on their families to confirm they weren’t likely to be endangered if their family realized they were metas, it had been decided for their relatives to take custody of them. However, they were all designated to attend an “exclusive summer camp” once school let out, aka Titan’s Academy, where they would spend at least 2 weeks learning about their developing powers and ensuring they had control.
There were 18 remaining meta-teens who had been approved for “supervised-emancipation”, with Dick, Jason, and Tim co-sponsoring them while they lived split across a couple of the apartments at the youth center. The apartments each had 4 small bedrooms, and they had installed bunk beds in all of the rooms, for a normal capacity of 16, with some sisters sharing beds to make all 18 of them fit. In general, with all of the kids staying at the center on an emergency basis, there had been a bit of a squeeze. They’d put the meta-teens into the proper apartments rather than the dorm style rooms, since more privacy would better enable them to hide developing powers.
Dick reviewed his list accounting for the kids:
- “Boy’s” and Siblings apartment: Sisters Eileen(17F) & Morgan (13F) in a bed, rooming with Rebecca(14F); Matt(15M) & Blake(14M); Liam(13M) & Jude(16M); Archie(14M) & Nathan (14M)
- Girl’s apartment: Sisters Katelyn(17F) & Brianna (13F) in a bed, rooming with Holly (13F); Daphne (14F) & Patricia(15F); Sophia(15F) & Lola (15F); Nina (16F) & Carly (17F)
- Moved in with Relatives: Lindsey (16F), Jolene (16F), Kendra (16F), Cameron (15F), Jessie (13M), Evan (15M)
They’d quickly determined that Daphne had some level of precognition and Patricia had empathic abilities. Also, Carly had death sense; she had not spoken for days after the Bludhaven incident, being severely affected by having sensed so many people die. Patricia had actually been the one to realize something was wrong, her empathic abilities sensing that Carly’s depressed state was caused by more than normal grief.
They’d gotten Raven to stop by for a visit in the middle of the night and she’d done something to heal the psychic backlash affecting Carly and also guided her for creating mental shielding to better withstand her powers. Carly was doing better, eating and talking some now, but she continued to be quiet and withdrawn in a way that worried Dick. Her roommate Nina, who appeared to have some sort of vocal abilities, was helping keep an eye on her.
It seemed like several of the girls had sensing or vision-based abilities; they’d talked to Duke some about it to try and figure it out. Dick felt relieved that many of them were developing more minor powers like that, perhaps they could still live normal lives. One of the older boys, Jude, appeared to have some sort of sound based ability and seemed to be becoming decent friends with Duke. Based on the way Jude frowned at Duke’s girlfriend Izzy, Dick suspected the teen might have a crush on Duke, whether he realized it or not.
Sophia appeared to have developed omnilingualism; she’d realized after the homework for the Spanish class she was taking was suddenly easy and automatic. Dick had ended up talking to her in all of the languages he knew, which were many, and she could understand and respond to all of them, even Tamaranean. She described it as feeling like she was speaking English and that she struggled to tell the language had changed.
Some of their powers were not readily apparent yet. He’d talked to them about how he planned for them to attend the Titan’s run summer camp to explore their meta powers, and cautioned them to try and avoid using obvious manifestations of their powers while they were here, in the interest of their safety. None of them exhibited radiation sickness, with the activation of their meta powers being the main result of their radiation exposure. Apparently, all of them had been somewhat closer to the epicenter, which explained why they and not others had their powers activated.
Dick, Jason, and Tim were balancing the sponsor “co-parenting” thing. The supervised emancipation thing meant they didn’t have to be as hands-on as outright guardians, but they were still trying to do a good job of things. Tim was mostly acquiring them more supplies like clothes, ensuring they had the things they needed. Tim had also put together small photo books for them, using pictures he’d found digitally of them growing up and their family; they’d all lost such momentos due to the calamity of Bludhaven, and Tim wanted them to at least have pictures of their lost families, which they appreciated but were also sad about.
Jason was also generally helping to manage all the kids at the Youth Center, not just the meta teens, but he was consistently there to be a point of contact, at least for now. He gave the kids cooking lessons to ensure they could make basic food in their apartments and also arranged group meals for them. He also showed them other life skills like how to do laundry, which the kids were less enthusiastic about, but still willing to learn. Jason also helped with their academics some, especially English.
Dick helped them some with math and science homework when they needed help, but didn’t actively coordinate study groups the way Jason did. Mainly, Dick had been the one to help them talk through their emotions about things that had happened, talking about processing grief and such. He’d also been the main one to talk to them about their developing powers; the fact it was public knowledge that he’d previously dated Starfire meant it made sense for him to have some knowledge on the subject.
Dick did worry about them putting together his secret identity like Duke had, he’d tried to be more careful. He also was trying to balance being approachable and caring towards them while not actually getting overly attached to them. Anyways, the kids had more questions about the meta summer-camp thing, and Dick saw it as an opportunity to help differentiate him from Nightwing. Tim was the same height as him and had covered for him when he was injured earlier that year, he was good at impersonating Nightwing. Having Dick and Nightwing in the same room would go a long way towards warding off any suspicions the kids might have.
Susan the social worker had had questions about them taking the kids to a summer camp, since they needed her approval for them to leave the city for an extended period of time like that. Dick had explained it was an exclusive summer camp program, but she would not accept his vague explanations.
“Dick, I do trust you, but I have to ensure the kids are safe and aren’t about to randomly disappear, and your explanation is concerningly vague. You were also very particular about choosing this group of kids to sponsor for the supervised emancipation thing, I feel like there’s something going on that you’re not telling me,” Susan interrogated.
Dick sighed, considering a moment before realizing he had to tell her at least part of the truth. “I’ll tell you, but it has to stay off the record, you can’t tell anyone else about the reason why,” Dick warned.
“I can keep a secret, as long as they aren’t being hurt or anything,” Susan said.
“It being a secret is for their protection, people may try to target them if they know. They all tested positive for an activated meta-gene following the radiation exposure. Many of them are developing minor powers; others we expect will develop powers, but we don’t know yet,” Dick explained softly.
“Is the camp to train them to be superheroes? That’s….child superheroes are child endangerment,” Susan expressed her concern. As the original Robin, the original child hero, Dick had a lot of feelings about the child heroes who had followed in his footsteps and then died; he did not allow those feelings to show on his face.
“No, the program, which is run by the Teen Titans, is to provide a safe space for youth who develop meta powers and to train them on how to control those powers to stay safe. It is not intended to train them to become superheroes. I…my ex-fiance and friend, Kory Anders, is known to be Starfire, so I have….contacts there. They also have a school there, for regular education purposes. The program is mainly to protect children who are at risk of being kidnapped and exploited if people discover they are metas and to ensure they learn to control their powers to avoid becoming a risk to themselves or others. Many then go on to live as civilians and don’t become heroes,” Dick explained. He had to be careful to not reveal too much about himself.
“They better not be going out and acting as heroes while they are still legally somewhat minors and under my purview,” Susan warned.
“Kory explained that in more recent years, they’ve been trying to shift away from child heroes. The Teen Titans has quietly instated an age minimum of 16 for active missions as part of their team. Part of them creating the school is so that younger metas with unsafe living situations have somewhere to go and live safely without having to be a hero; previously, joining a youth hero team was the main option for people in such a situation. Anyways, some of these kids might decide to become heroes once they are 18, or perhaps if they are over 16 and fully legally emancipated, but they won’t be going into the field while they are legally minors. And I’ve had conversations with them about how being a hero is dangerous and they shouldn’t feel obligated to choose that path just because they have powers,” Dick explained.
“You clearly know more about this than me, that sounds reasonable and I trust your judgement. Make sure there is an appropriately documentable civilian cover for this, I’ll send you the paperwork to fill out,” Susan agreed.
The 4th Sunday night of May, Jason and Dick gathered the 18 meta-teens for a meeting at 11pm, after the center was closed, in one of the plain classroom rooms at the Youth Center. Kory, in technically civilian attire that matched the color scheme of her hero suit, along with Tim in the form of Nightwing, arrived to speak to the kids. They would be leaving for Titan’s Academy tomorrow and the kids had questions. Duke was also with them, he would be going to Titan’s Academy for a couple weeks; he’d previously visited over spring break to train his powers some.
Many of the kids asked about what classes or activities they would be doing, and Kory explained. Some asked if they would become heroes, and Nightwing answered that question for them.
“So, the Titans now has a minimum age of 16 to go on missions, with preference for people being 18. Due to legal concerns, you aren’t allowed to act as heroes until you are 18 or fully emancipated. You do not have to become a hero simply because you have powers; you can choose to live as a civilian. Now, the purpose of Titan’s Academy is simply to train you on how to control your powers. The plan is to stay a minimum of 2 weeks, like a summer camp. Then, those who have less obvious powers and that they have good control of can return to civilian life. Others may wish to stay through the summer to learn more control. Some may decide to stay there full time, it is also qualified as a boarding school. Those discussions can be had later along with your guardians as we know more about what you need,” Nightwing explained. Tim was eerily good at imitating Dick’s Nightwing, his intonation and body language and such was very accurate, which was good considering these kids had previously met Nightwing.
Archie spoke up, “Why are you so against kids becoming heroes, isn’t that hypocritical? Nightwing, weren’t you the original Robin, you started when you were like 10, why do you now have a policy limiting heroism to those over 16? And there’s that new Bat, the healer, who definitely appears to be under 16.”
Tim’s face twisted into a saddened grimace of sorts that Dick felt in his soul, “What changed is that kids died. My baby brother, the second Robin, died, and so did other child heroes. There is a cost to living the life of a hero. Once you become a part of this life, it’s hard to get out of it alive, and as children, we were too young to see the cost of the life we were choosing for ourselves. We were the first generation of child heroes, there was no one to warn us or show a better way. As for the newest Bat, Nightingale, well, he had an unconventional childhood and even then, we are trying to keep him out of a combat role until he is older, which is why he is currently known for acting as a healer.” Dick wondered for a moment if Tim could read his mind, he was so good at speaking from his perspective.
After a pause, Dick spoke up, “Perhaps it could be useful to look at being a hero as a job with risks, like being a firefighter; you can’t choose to be a firefighter when you are underage. As a teenager, you can train for what you want to do as an adult, take first aid classes and such, so you can be trained on things at Titans Academy, but you won’t be going into the field. And I want to emphasize, there is no obligation for you to become a hero simply because you have powers.”
Kory nodded, “Right, becoming a hero is a personal choice. For many of us, the decision was made less based on having powers and more because negative things happened to us and we wanted to protect people from suffering the same. It takes a certain mental fortitude to be a hero and it should be an active choice one makes, not something someone feels pressured to do. At Titans Academy, some of the lessons we teach are more about things like ethics and healthy emotional processing, and we can discuss this matter further there.”
With everyone’s questions suitably answered, they all went to bed. Everyone had their bags properly packed with all of their personal belongings, which unfortunately were still few.