Chapter Text
Harry watched the people from his new family arguing with each other as they floated on the water on planks. He didn't like this. If he fell, he couldn't swim. A wave washed over him, and sure enough, he went under.
"THE BABY!" Steph yelled, pointing to the empty plank.
Damian and Terry dove off their planks and swam down in search of the kid. They raced toward the child. They reached him, grabbed him, and swam for the surface. They surfaced to see the others working to tie all the planks together.
Terry called out to Dick and handed Harry up. He then helped Damian up, said boy glared at him. Dick then helped him up onto the makeshift raft. Terry looked to see that the kid was sitting in Cassandra's lap in the middle of the raft. She was holding his shaking figure and making sure that he was okay. Everyone was working hard. He quickly got up to do the same, and of course Damian came running after.
Harry still didn't trust these people. But those two had saved him, and this one was making sure that he was okay. He blinked around at everything. He then crawled to the edge of the raft. He saw everyone tense, but he just sicked up into the water and crawled back to the girl. He crawled into her lap and clung to her. She'd been the best since they'd met two weeks ago. She always seemed to understand him without him talking or making noise. He wasn't allowed to talk or make noise at the other place.
"I have discovered the game functions." Tim announced. He was sitting on Harry's left side. He showed them and told them all about what he'd found out. "This final function is the Inventory. These should be our newbie gift packs. I've played a ton of survival games to train my tactical thinking, and I love reading survival webnovels, just to see how stupid everyone is. I analyze what they do wrong and think of ways to do it better." He shrugged at the looks of exasperation that he was getting. "Anyway, these should have a few supplies in them. Fish hooks, fishing poles, maybe a day's worth of food and water if we ration carefully enough."
Everyone found what Tim said. Harry got four bottles of water and four round packages of cream-filled bread. Harry tried to hand over his supplies.
"No." Bruce spoke to the child. "That's yours. You keep it in your inventory and eat and drink it. You keep it."
Harry blinked at all of them, clearly confused. He did what he was told, though. He was good at rationing his food. He showed off his tiny fishing rod.
"Right." Tim nodded. "Dick and Jason, you both got hooks, so it is your job to hook supply crates that should be floating by. Haul them in, and they should give us materials. Steph and Terry, you got the nets, so you use them to gather resources like plastic and such from the water. Cassandra, Damian, and Harry have the fishing rods, so they catch the food. I'll check out the crafting and stay on that. Bruce and Kate are in charge. Steph, you are also assigned to the chat and trade channels. You'll be great at it. Everyone keeps an eye on Harry." He seemed to think everything through. "Yeah, that's perfect. I'll help with the hauling until I'm needed to do the crafting. Today's mission: Gather the resources and Materials needed to upgrade the raft."
Harry sat between Cassandra and a grumbling Damian as Stephanie taught him the new game called 'Fishing'. It wasn't long before he had a fish and was holding it up.
"Bruce." Cassandra said, catching everyone's attention. She nodded at Harry.
Harry was shocked that everyone was praising him for catching the fish. Steph even took a few pictures with her floating telly screen. They'd gotten so excited. He should catch more. One fish wasn't going to feed all of them. It wasn't even that big. He sat back down and continued the game. He soon found that he was good at this game.
His brother Damian was clearly not pleased. Damian hadn't caught any fish. Cassandra caught far less.
"I want to help Dick and Jason!" Damian demanded. "I should do something I'm good at!"
"You'll fish." Bruce stated. "Sit right back down, Damian."
"But, Father..."
Harry didn't mean to, but he sicked up again. Luckily, it all landed in the water. Unluckily, he almost fell in again. Cassandra and Damian caught him, and they went to a different side of the raft.
They all heard Damian complaining under his breath about a weak-stomached brother. Dick knocked him upside the head, but Harry was oblivious, so caught up in his 'game'.
"We just need a few more pieces of wood." Tim muttered. "And rope. Steph, don't trade the plastic; we need it!"
Tim felt a tug on his jeans. He looked down to see Harry holding up a blue sheet of paper. He took it. It was the very blueprint he wanted.
"This is great!" He declared. "Good job, Harry. You caught a real treasure."
He'd caught a treasure? He thought that the fish were the treasure. Maybe the fish were the treasure too. Maybe there were a lot of different kinds of treasures in the water, and he could get them with his rod or those nets.
He went to Terry's net and checked it. Lots of colorful shells. They were pretty. Terry was letting him help empty the net. He studied the colorful shells closely. Were these treasures? He was curious as to what these were.
Terry nodded to the others. He'd watch the kid. He had a younger brother at home. He had experience in taking care of younger siblings. Though Damian was closer in age to Matt. He'd helped take care of Matt when he was Harry's age too. He noted that Harry was fascinated by the shells. He smiled to himself and began telling Harry about the shells.
This kept Harry distracted.
"Harry found the Seawater Purifier Blueprint." Tim was explaining to everyone. "This will help us with hydration, but they never give much water in the beginning."
He crafted it just as Harry sat down to drink some water. Terry listened intently.
"Harry, do you want a nap?" Bruce asked an hour later.
Harry blinked up at him and ran to Cassandra. She took him back to the middle of the raft and lay with him in her arms. Harry was soon sound asleep.
Bruce nodded.
"At least he's bonding with one of us." He muttered, knowing full well that they could all hear him. "Kate, are you done with the watch list?" He grabbed Damian, who began struggling instantly. He put the boy on Harry's other side. "Nap, Damian."
"I'm not a child, father!" Damian protested.
"Save your energy and rest." Bruce ordered. "We'll all be resting today in turns. You rest with Cassandra and Harry."
"Actually, everyone to the middle of the raft." Tim called. "We can upgrade to an actual level 1 Raft, the same kind that everyone else has. Get the nets and rods and come to the middle."
Everyone actually obeyed him.
The raft began glowing and growing. It was soon a good length; they could all fit comfortably now. Though they wouldn't want to roll over, or they'd end up in the water.
"Nap, Damian." Bruce said when the raft finished upgrading.
Damian huffed and lay down next to his brother. He saw Cassandra watching him. He closed his eyes and felt her close hers.
Harry woke suddenly and began doing the potty dance. Damian instantly rushed him to the side of the raft while yelling at the girls not to look. He showed Harry what to do, and Harry copied him. It was clear to the guys that neither liked going over the side of the raft.
"Done?" Damian asked gruffly.
Harry nodded up at his brother, then ran to where Terry had set all of his shells. He liked these. He began carrying them to the middle of the raft. Where he realized some of the others were building something. He put his shells inside the feature where Cassandra had simply rolled over and gone back to sleep. Tim was unconscious now too, within the feature that was going up. He soon had all of his shells in a pile between the two of them and began sorting them.
Terry worked with Dick and the grumbling Jason. He'd suggested making a playpen for the kid. Bruce and Kate had told them to get to it. Damian began helping them. They had 3/4 of it done. He was shocked that they hadn't woken Cassandra or Damian when they started. Then again, Cassandra had just come off a night patrol when they'd been brought here. She was probably exhausted.
He looked to see that Harry had sorted his shells by color and size.
"Bruce." Terry waved him over, but had everyone's attention. He nodded at Harry's shell piles. "That's not normal kid behavior. I've got a kid brother at home; he never did this, and neither did the kids he hung out with." He took a breath and continued. "The neighbor kid does it...he's neurodivergent..."
"I see." Bruce nodded. "We'll keep an eye on it. Good spotting."
Terry hid how good that compliment made him feel.