Chapter Text
Silences aren’t usually good, despite the connotation that they come with. For Dick, they were usually the calm before the storm, or the falling action of something horrible.
He worked better when he completely expected to jump to his feet. The noons in Gotham make him want to jump to his feet, that is why he is good at his job. The dragging school days make him want to jump to his feet, but not in a good way; in the way that he wants to jump, but he can not because he is in school, as a normal civilian, who should be able to control his hyperactive body. Running around with his team as Robin makes him soar. Being in the lounge with the rest of his team, doing nothing— not so much.
Routine is the way of heroes: this is what Dick has learned during his tenure as a cape. Whenever things were out of place within a routine, it almost always meant that something was wrong. He supposes that the fact that everything was going in routine up to the climatic moment of chaos… only added more shock factor into it.
He pressed against the counter, the tension keeping him awake. The team and himself are doing absolutely nothing, which only makes Dick’s eyes more likely to droop. His body has become adjusted to night and daytime hero life but, as a plunking reminder of how human he is, his body still feels heavy from the back to back work.
While his teammates found their spots to relax, his internal mask remained half off. (His friends will say it’s a flaw, and that he needs help, something so that he can be able to fully relax again but, in the end, was it not this tension in his body that allowed him to be able to push Artemis out of the bullet’s path fast enough that she still breathes with us today?)
In seconds’ time, the silence that his teammates sat in comfort with turned into tension; the type of tension that was warm under one’s skin— fight or flight tension. The intruder alarm, a loud siren accompanied with a robotic voice, only made Dick’s heart beat faster.
Dick, admittedly, doesn’t know what the rest of the team was doing because his eyes were glued on the intruder. A bulky man— tall and muscular— stood at the center of the lounge. Dick isn’t sure where exactly to begin describing him. A standard gun was in his hand, obviously the one where the bullet that almost hit Artemis came from, but it was obvious the man had more weapons on his person. He was completely covered, from the tan military style pants to the jacket that was left unzipped, to the shiny red helmet that was only the second most noticeable thing to Dick. The first: a red bat logo printed on the intruder’s chest.
Dick could not begin to question anything (Who was this man? What was he doing here? Why is a gun and the bat symbol on the same person ?) because his thoughts can and should only be of the ways to take the threat down. Artemis was next to him, regaining her composure. (Right, she hasn’t been doing this as long as everyone else.) He doesn’t need to know what’s going on with everyone else right now. He just needs to focus on disarming the intruder.
A minute after the shot was fired, 53 seconds after the alarm rang, Dick rushed at the intruder.
The man, who was unmoving up until this point, seems to snap out of whatever daze he’s in because of Dick’s movement. “What the- WOAH!”
The intruder drops his gun before Dick even reaches him, and blocks the incoming staff. The intruder scoffs, the nerve. “Replacements replacement got replaced?”
Dick doesn’t have time to let confusion settle in, but before he can make his next move, Kaldur’s voice rings in his head. M’gann.
(“Fall back, Robin.”
“What? He’s armed and dangerous.”
“He purposefully dropped his weapon. Maybe we can solve this without fighting.”
“What if he’s playing mind games to get us to drop our guard?”
“Why would he shoot then try to mess with us?”
“We don’t have the time for this. Kaldur, I hope you know what you’re doing.”)
Dick—Robin— does as told. He carefully backs away from the intruder and joins his team on the other side of the room.
Kaldur is the first to actually speak. “Who are you?”
“That’s what I’d li’ta know,” the distorted voice speaks. Dick can’t see his eyes through the blacked out helmet, but years of training tell him the intruder’s staring right at him. “You’re not a new Robin, are you? ‘Cause I would’a known by now. I mean, it’s not really my business anymore what the birds be doing but you’d think they’d have some decency to tell me when there’s new wings in the flock.”
…What?
(“‘A new Robin?’”
“There’s multiple?”
“I don’t know what he’s talking about. I’m the only one.”)
Wally speaks for everyone. “What are you talking about? You appeared to us with a gun . Who are you?”
“‘Who are you?’ this, ‘who are you’ that. Lemme ask a new question. Where the fuck am I?” His aggression peaked, as well as Dick’s instinctual need to fight.
(“Potty Mouth.”
“He’s messing with us, right? We shouldn’t tell him?”
“Yes, no one say a thing of our location. He may have recorders on his person.”)
At the lack of response, the intruder gets agitated, which screams danger despite the fact that he’s ‘unarmed’. “Look, kids, maybe we got off on the wrong foot here. I was in Gotham like two seconds ago. Doing really fucking important shit. I got a whole team to report back to, like, yesterday. So just tell me where the hell I am, and I’ll get out your hair. Deal?”
(“What the heck, guys.”
“How could he have gotten here from Gotham?”
“Maybe he hacked a zeta.”)
“No deal,” Dick says sternly.
Dick can't tell, but he’s sure the man gave him the glare of a lifetime. “Where the hell are the adults?”
“Right here.” Black Canary says, drawing everyone’s attention to the newly arrived members of the Justice League. Amazing timing. Dick can’t even be mad that this means the entire Justice League has access to their alarms. Or at least one of them did and called in some others as reinforcements. Of course, Superman, The Flash, Wonder Woman, Black Canary, and Batman were ample fighters.
The man in the helmet doesn’t turn to face the League at first. Instead, he spoke facing the Team. “Why do I have this strange feeling that this Justice League is gon’ be ten times more annoying than it’s mini’s?”
His shoulders slump dramatically as he finally turns to face the League. Dick watches Batman’s face turn into a frown once he spots the Bat logo.
“Who are you,” Batman asks, obviously unimpressed by the man’s theft of the Bat logo.
The man all but sighs. His body language changes drastically. The aggression is gone, which makes his movements harder to read. “Someone who’s not where they’re supposed to be,” the intruder mumbles.
“Well, I coulda told you that,” Wally says out-loud because honestly .
The man groans. “I’m being serious. you might have a big space-time continuum fuck-up on your hands”
This pulls the interest of the League. Wonder Woman, who as always, stood at the center of the League, addressed the man with tame command. “Explain.”
The audacity of this man to plop himself on their couch after shooting at them. “Ok so boom, I'm on a mission to take down this new drug lord that fucked up and took his business into Gotham. He was specifically marketing his drugs to young people, and we just can’t have that, right? So I ‘ask’ around and find out about a new shipment coming in tonight. Obviously, I'm gon’ to take ‘em down ‘cause there’s already enough drugs on the streets of Gotham but I had already made sure all the dealers stay away from the minors, especially from the ones in the Narrows. So I didn’t need a newbie messing up my hard work. And guess what? He went and messed up my hard work; setting his base right in the heart of Crime Alley. Obviously, ‘found the base, beat up some bad guys, and the big boss shows up. I wasn't expecting to find him on the first night. But the weirder thing is—“
“ Wait wait wait. You’re talking a whole lot but literally none of what you’ve said explained anything. How—“
“I was just getting to that, Boy Wonder .” Dick visibly grimaces at the name. “As I was saying, the weird thing is this man showed up with a jack-in-a-box. Of all things? A clown?” His voice lowers. Any Gotham resident could take a guess as to why. “So now, I'm agitated. I pull out my gun,” for emphasis, he makes the hand sign for ‘gun’, “and as I fire, the jack comes out the box, and a light flashes. ‘Lemme tell you, that was the brightest light I’ve ever seen; ‘had to close my eyes even with this helmet on.” He taps his helmet, the only sound in the room after he finished talking.
“Okay… that still tells us nothing.”
Intruder-man turns his head to Wally’s direction, and shakes his head. “Forgot how slow you used to be.” He addresses the entire room again,reilihiterating, “ A light flashed and now I'm here. This y’all’s first time?” He puts his hand on his chest. “I’m not an intruder. Just majorly displaced.”
“I don’t know any vigilante in Gotham that matches your description,” Batman breaks the silence for everyone else. “In fact, there is no other vigilante in Gotham besides myself and Robin.”
“That’s what I mean by majorly displaced,” The intruder says. “I don’t think this is my world.”
“Ex-“
“-plain. Yeah, yeah. Well for one, everyone knows who I am in my world. So, of course, the other explanation is your memories have all been erased but that doesn’t really add up so it’s crossed out. Two, Mount Justice doesn’t exist anymore where I’m from.”
Kaldur narrows his eyes. “We didn’t tell you we were in Mount Justice.”
“Yeah, I figured it out, no thanks to you.” He gets up from the couch. “No Mount Justice means that this could easily be time travel, but some of your kid-heroes don’t match with the heroes of my world. I come from the year 20XX, I’m guessing that’s far off here.”
20XX?!
“It’s 2011…”
Silence falls upon the heroes again before Superman speaks. “You could be lying, making bizarre statements so we could believe you.”
The …intruder sighs. He reaches into his pockets— which, like everything else he’s done, sets the room on edge. He takes out a hunter's knife, tied cleanly in a cloth.
He drops it on the ground.
In another pocket, he takes out smaller, sealed, blades. Three. Five. Nine.
Drop. Drop. Drop.
He reaches into all his pockets, pulls out what seems like an entire armory on his person. Guns. One. Two. Three. Five……
Ammo. Bullets. Explosives , and—
(“IS THAT KRYPTONITE…?!”)
Dick doesn’t even have the time to process the fact that this unknown person had access to kryptonite. The man speaks with his hands above his head, his helmet still on. “Look, if i wanted you all dead, you would’ve been dead by now. I need you alive so I can get back home. I’m not gon’ lie and say I’m 100% a hero or even a good person, but I’m not your enemy. I… need your help.”
The Justice League seem to speak with their eyes. “We won’t let you leave freely,” Batman says.
“I’m not asking you to.”
“Is this all the weapons you have?”
The intruder nods. Dick’s not sure he’s telling the truth.
“You’re going to let The Martian Manhunter read your mind to confirm your past.”
“Oh, bad idea.”
“Why is that?”
“On the slim chance I am from the future… Do you really want the spoilers?”
“He’s right,” Flash agrees, “we can’t mess up this era more than it’s already been by his possible travel here.”
The man lets out an exaggerated gasp. “Wow, you’re a lot smarter here.”
Superman grabs him by the arm. An unappreciated gesture, from the man’s side. He tries to smack Superman’s hand away but Superman keeps a firm grasp on him. “We’ll take you back to League Headquarters.”
(“WHAT.”)
Conner steps up.“Hey, he dropped in on us. He should be our responsibility.”
“Hardly. We have no idea how dangerous he could be,” Supermanargues.
“Exactly, so taking him to the Justice League headquarters is a terrible idea,” Dick says.
Canary sighs. “If we leave him here, you all must be on top alert all the time.”
The Team looks at each other then nods. “We can handle it,” Kaldur tells them.
Batman turns to the man, who they still don’t have a name for. “We’ll need the helmet.”
Intruder scoffs. “Hard pass.”
“And why’s that.”
“My helmet is lined with explosives. One wrong touch from the wrong person and…” He imitates an explosion with his hand. This creates an air of tension between them. Walking around with a bomb attached to your head is… yeah.
“Why would you put yourself in such danger?!” Wonder Woman asks in distinguished concern. What’s even more concerning is the man’s lack of tact about it.
“Secret identities are important,” he says with a shrug.
Dick must admit, the idea of someone head wrapped in explosives leaves him with a foul taste in his mouth. But even he couldn’t stop himself from looking at Batman after the man’s words. He’s sure B has said the exact same thing at some point.
“You can't deactivate it?”
“Mmmm… no.”
A silence falls upon them again. This time, slightly more dreadful. Nobody asks the questions everyone’s thinking. Did he put those explosives there himself? Or is it the action of some other insane person? Dick’s not sure which one is worse.
“Helmet stays, but we take the rest,” Flash offers.
“Cool with me.”
Each member of the League takes a handful of Intruder-Man’s weapons. They’re especially careful with the slightly worrying pile of kryptonite. Once all the weapons were gathered, the League headed for the zeta. Batman was the last person to leave. His eyes meet that of Robin and Dick doesn’t need to read his mind to understand him.
Be careful .
When was he not?
Once the entire league is gone, they return to silence. Awkward silence, unarguably the worst kind.
“So…” Wally drawls.
The man cocks his head back. “Hm,” he puts a hand on his hip. Assumingly after looking over them, he chuckles.
“What?” Dick questions out loud.
“Nothing, I just never realized y’all used to be this short.”
“Is that so?” Kaldur responds.
“Mhmm. Except maybe…” he points between Kaldur, M’gann, and Artemis. “I’ve never worked with you three before.”
Artemis doesn’t take his attention well. “You almost… You almost fucking shot me.” She walks up until she’s standing in front of him. “Don’t think you get an ‘out’ just ‘cause you’re a time-traveling dimension traveler or something. You’re dangerous… Stay away from me.”
She leaves, obviously distraught about the whole thing. M’gann goes after her and Connor follows.
“This is why Batman doesn’t work with guns,” Dick mutters.
“Untrue,” the man points out. “We both know the reason Batman doesn’t work with guns.”
Dick’s whole body goes tense. What… is he alluding to? He eyes him warily. What are the chances that this stranger knows Batman’s identity as well as his past? His eyes catch the red bat centered on his chest again. Way too high.
He lowered his voice, but Dick’s sure Wally and Kaldur heard him. Whether they did or didn’t, neither of them commented.
“I’ll set up the room, he’ll…” Kaldur stops mid-sentence. “Actually, it would be nice if you could give us your name, even if not civilian, so we can know what to call you moving on. I go by ‘Aqualad’.”
Dick thinks he sees the man actually think about giving Kaldur his civilian ID. “Red Hood. You can call me that. ‘Aqualad’… I haven’t actually met you before. Nice to meet you.”
Red Hood. Red? Hood ? Red flag is more like it.
Dick can’t hold back his questions anymore. The others wouldn’t have noticed it, because they’re not from Gotham, but Dick needs to acknowledge it.
He waits until Kaldur leaves to even begin. Dick gives KF a look and Wally takes the hint, quickly following to help Kaldur.
Dick turns to the man. “ Red Hood? As in the Joker? Just who are you?”
Dick swears he can feel the man smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know, Dickie-bird.”
That made Dick’s brain freeze for a couple seconds. Then it restarted.
“So you do know our civilian IDs.”
“You’ve just confirmed it, yeah.”
Well, fuck.
“So we’re friends? In your world?”
“… I wouldn’t say that.”
Shit.
Dick is literally going to get no sleep if he just accidentally gave his civilian ID to an enemy. An alternate reality enemy? Ugh, that’s even worse.
“Don’t stress. We already know each other.”
“What—“
”Does that mean? I’ll explain later. Or maybe not…” He trails off as he looks around the place. “Do you guys have anything to eat? I’m probably gonna be here ‘a while.”