Chapter Text
Richard Grayson wakes with a gasp, choking on the salt water that jerked him from unconsciousness. He shivers violently as he sits up, looking around blearily at the dark ocean around him. The piece of sheet metal keeping him afloat rocks gently with the motion of the waves, reminding Dick of the past 14 hours.
-Flashback-
Dick laughs quietly as he watches Wally bicker with Artemis over the armrest between their seats until Mr. Gutiérrez, their history teacher, intervenes and moves Wally to the seat next to him. Wally immediately claims the armrest with a snicker. Dick rolls his eyes and goes back to typing on his phone. "Wally, did you know that, in Japan, it's actually polite to slurp when eating noodles? You'll fit right in."
"Hey!" The redhead protests, but smiles all the same. "Dude, you're such a nerd."
Artemis laughs at the pair. "Pot calling the kettle black, Wally."
M'gann and Conner laugh from behind Artemis, chatting amongst themselves as the plane taxis to the runway, then takes off smoothly. The teenagers spend the first 10 hours of the long flight talking and watching movies on the inflight entertainment, moving seats between themselves as they please. Fortunately for the sextet of friends, the flight is mostly empty, so they are allowed to do so.
Around the time that the flight attendants bring around the dinner cart, they hit some severe turbulence and the seatbelt light comes back on. The teens do as told hurriedly, slightly worried, as most of them have not flown this long of a flight before.
The flight attendants hurry to sit down as well as the turbulence gets worse, thunder rumbling outside the plane, and lightning crackles closer and closer. Until one of the bolts strikes the metal tube of the plane, and it falls out of the sky.
Almost in unison, everyone in the plane screams in terror, the pilots doing everything they can to restore power to the plane. Dick makes eye contact with Kaldur seconds before another lightning bolt strikes the plane, splitting it in two as one of the engines explodes. The teens scream again as the plane spirals, luggage going flying through the air, knocking their teacher out.
"Hold on!" Dick shrieks desperately before they impact against the ocean and everything goes black.
-End Flashback-
"Wally! Artemis! Kaldur! Roy? Anyone?" Dick yells desperately, falling silent and straining to hear any response, none forthcoming. He shivers again, but a dark spot on the horizon catches his eye, and he starts making his way towards what he hopes is an island. As he goes, he passes more wreckage from the plane, his hopes raising as he sees someone on another piece of metal nearby. Dick paddles closer, then stifles a gag as he realizes that he found one of the flight attendants, who is already deceased.
He shudders lightly, but continues paddling after a soft sob escapes his lips, knowing he has to make it to the island before night falls, which he guesses will happen in a few hours. Dick continues calling for his friends and looking for any survivors desperately on his way to the island.
The 14 year old paddles for over 2 hours, before he sees another floating piece of metal from the plane, with two figures huddled on it. "Wally? Artemis?!" He yells hoarsely, slowly getting closer to them. "You're okay!"
"Oh my god, Dick!" Artemis sobs out. "We thought everyone else was dead... we saw the pilots and Mr. Gutierrez being...." She breaks off and looks away. Wally reaches out to pull Dick's raft closer to them so they can stay connected.
"We should hurry and get to the island, hope that any other survivors made their way towards it too," the youngest teen mentions after they all hug in relief. Artemis glances over at the slowly growing island with a small smile.