Distortions
Title: Distortions on an Empty Face
Fandom: DC Comics
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: DC abuses them more than me.
Summary: After being hit by Alexander Luthor, Jr., Dick has the opportunity to change things in Robin's life, though he is thoroughly stuck in his own.
Distortions Chapter 1
.:N:.
Sounds filtered through the darkness, seemingly random sounds, which slowly weaved their way into syllables. The syllables merged and twisted to form a word: Robin. There were other sounds around the name, spoken softly and yet urgently, as if a sentence was merely syllables of the same word, almost a speedster’s speech. But the two syllables that made sense were Rob-in and Dick really wished Tim would respond to the person so the voice would just leave him alone. Unless Tim was unable to respond.
Dick’s unfocused eyes snapped open and darted around the room. The movement wasn’t enough and he jerked his head upwards to gain a better view, or at least attempted to. His body felt tight around his mind, slowing him as if unused to his commands. The room began to spin and he need to concentrate, to lock onto something in the chaos: green eyes. The green eyes stayed centered as everything moved, but after a few moments the image began to slow and he could start to process his surroundings.
“Robin?” The same voice said, gentle and worried.
Yes, Starfire, where’s Robin. But his vocal cords locked.
“You must calm down.” A hand pushed firmly at his shoulder and he was forced to lean back the few inches he had managed to move. “We have been so worried.”
I will calm down when you tell me about Robin and Oracle and Batman. He still could not speak, which might have been just as well as asking about Oracle might be too obvious, but he hoped she had known him long enough to know what he was saying.
The room stopped spinning and he looked back at her. His mind panicked and jerked back away from her touch, but his body was comforted by the familiarity of the alien princess and seemed to battle his mind. Not again. He managed a few broken syllables this time, sounding more like “Na-a-an” than a real word.
Kory attempted to move closer to him. “Are you well? You are distressed. I will get the others.” The teen’s swift flight from the infirmary should have been followed by a streak of red, curly hair, which Dick noticed was oddly absent. But maybe not so odd as Starfire‘s teenage body. After nearly dying in battle for the survival of the dimension, it wasn’t fair to wake up to find the superhero community aged incorrectly -- again. He was supposed to get breaks in between these sorts of things. He was supposed to be used to these sorts of things, but his lecture only lasted until he noticed his own smaller hands. He was supposed to be immune to this sort of thing.
Dick had never expressed to anyone his relief at his immunity to Karion’s meddling. If only for selfish reasons, he felt slightly regretful that his orders years ago had prevented Wally from becoming immune as well. Then at least the speedster would have worked with the Titans instead of the JLA. Not that he begrudged his friend for being in the JLA -- he could understand more than anyone else why it was important to Wally -- but the situation was tied to the original Teen Titans and so Wally just should have been with them. And that was beside the fact that the man had been thirteen for his honeymoon, the situation which seemed too close to his own soon to be predicament. But Wally had dished on teen Batman’s temper and attitude, so there was some advantage to having an inside man. Before the Flashes kicked his ass and disappeared. Dick did not want to consider the possibilities of Kon’s words. While flying he had spoken to Kon about Wally at the beginning so he wouldn’t have to think of what might have been the end. He was suddenly grateful for any world crisis to keep his mind diverted, even if he had teenage hormones again.
As if on cue, Kory returned, bringing other too young heroes behind her, and though he still thought that something other than her age seemed off about her, he shifted his focus to the odd lineup. Vic was thankfully not gold, and hopefully old enough to not hit on anyone with breasts. Gar hadn’t avoided the situation this time apparently, and Dick briefly wondered if the green teen was going by Beast Boy now or Changeling. He was Beast Boy with Tim‘s team, but at his current age, he would’ve thrown a fit if you called him that. Not that either name was really easy to say in a pinch, Gar had chosen codes names that might have only been two syllables, but somehow were a complete mouthful of curvy words. Raven had returned to Earth young, so there wasn’t much change there, though she did appear more gray than pale. Perhaps his little brother had been aged again and he found himself amused at the thought of Tim being the older brother.
“Dude, we’ve been wondering when you’d wake your lazy butt up.”
“Back off, Beast Boy.” Gar now hung like a fish from a robotic arm for a second before he really was a fish. “Give the man some room.”
Four sets of eyes stared expectantly at him and if he hadn’t grown up with Batman he most likely would have sunk into the bed. He opened his mouth to have Kory slip an ice chip in his mouth for his trouble, letting those eyes stare at him while his throat relaxed. His voice was still weak and cracked despite his efforts to control it.
“I’m fine you guys, really, considering,” dimensional crisis, dead friends, deathray, de-aging “everything. But how long have we been like this? And who was it this time?”
“What do you mean ‘like this’? You are the only one who has sustained injuries.”
“Yeah, you promised you’d stop running off in battles on your own, too.”
“What happened? Don’t you remember anything?”
Dick cocked his head in thought. If they didn’t realize something was off with their age and he did, then it probably wasn’t just a simple age issue. Crap -- Limbo -- which was perfectly plausible since the walls of reality had just been crumbling. It also meant that he was probably the “Robin” Starfire had been worried about before and maybe Tim was not in danger. And since he doubted all four of them could be fooled by the illusions of Limbo, they were probably figments instead of his friends. Gargoyle had probably chosen a different set of friends, since Roy had accidentally saved them all last time. Though Figment Raven was a poor choice considering she had helped him escape from Gargoyle the second time. Limbo was more a nuisance than a threat, and the fastest way out would be to figure out what was holding him here.
“No.”
“Slade.” Figment Beast Boy’s voice was filled with a weary venom Dick hadn’t heard from him since the days after Deathstroke’s trail, when Gar had spoken to the man and was still unsure he could hate the merc. He said the words like it explained everything, and it almost did.
The venom was echoed in Dick’s mind, a seething hatred he never felt for the man until very recently. Even while infiltrating the Society, he had had some measure of respect in at least Slade’s honor and moral code. A respect that had clearly been misplaced. The man who had attempted to stop Cheshire from bombing Qurac had now blown up at city, his city, most likely chosen for that reason. Slade liked leaving messages like that.
The burn marks weren’t on his left hand from when he had briefly lost his glove in a building collapse, and for now, that was poof enough he wasn’t in his own body. This body felt more like a deadweight to him, and for Dick who was movement, it felt like death. He had let his emotions overtake him and he reflexively clamped down on them as not to hurt Raven before he remembered this was Figment Raven. She had not spoken yet and seemed undisturbed by his recent turmoil, which Dick hoped meant she wouldn’t offer to dissipate his emotions for him. After rebelling against Bruce he had enjoyed having any emotion, even unpleasant ones. Though that could be her purpose here, to skim off his anger so he’d always be stuck.
Limbo was annoying enough, a Limbo that promised his recent Terminator issues was going to be a blast.
He had forgotten that the figments were waiting for a reply, so Dick swallowed as much disgust as possible before he echoed Figment Beast Boy. “Slade?”
“He was attacking the Wayne building for some electronic doohickey Cyborg could tell you about.”
“He lead you away from us as battles before.”
“We found you unconscious with this,” Figment Cyborg produced a metal disk with a stylized “S” on it that Dick didn’t recognize, “which in short attacked your nervous system by disconnecting your brain signals to the rest of your body. I think it was supposed to be worse than that, but something must have disrupted it. Your situation should only be temporary, maybe a few more days.”
“I have been monitoring his brain waves. I can detect no damage or alterations on the surface, though I would have to go deeper to be sure.”
“No, Raven, that won’t be necessary. Guys, I’m really okay. Just give me sometime and I’ll be good.”
“I believe it is shock that prevents his remembering, he should be fine with some rest.”
The figments’ eyes shifted towards some vague center point, as if they’d seen Dick’s recovery habits before.
“Look, it’s not like I’m going anywhere; I can’t move.”
“You are right, Robin,” Dick was not going to wince when Figment Starfire called him that, “would you like us to bring you some entertainment, perhaps a board of games?”
Dick was also not going to wince at the figment’s speech pattern. “Just my computer is all. I should update some old case files.”
“I would rather you rest than work, but I’d rather you work than be bored. We will get you your computer on the condition you rest first.”
Dick gave them his most reassuring smile, the one even his real friends had never gotten entirely immune to, and was rewarded with a beaming smile from Figment Starfire before she ushered the rest out.
“And don’t worry about a thing, I’ve got the whole leadership thing taken care of while you’re stuck in bed all week.”
“Sure thing, Green Genes.”
He shouldn’t have been so informal and comfortable with the figments as it stopped them all near the door to stare at him. Dick was worried they weren’t going to leave for a minute, but they finally filed out leaving him alone. The repercussions for “Salad-Head” could have been a lot worse he supposed, but it reminded him these weren’t the people he knew. Though why his mask was on when Gargoyle knew his face and name?
Roy should be here to do something unexpected. Dick could take crazy risks instead of complex plans as field leader, though not without assessing the situation more than his team realized. There were just too many assumptions for him to proceed at this point, and he couldn’t just go around punching everyone until he was free. So he had to gather as much information as he could about what was keeping him here and away from his family and fiancée. He silently hoped the answer would be on the computer, like all the written word was replaced with Kryptonian symbols or the answer was typed repeatedly on the computer screen like so many movies.
As he was, Dick couldn’t do much more until he could move. He chose a Tibetan meditation technique Bruce had taught him long ago, and Dick had used enough he should have been able to regulate and slow his breath easier. Mind and body slowly merged as his awareness flowed to the edges of his limbs and beyond.
After one thousand heartbeats, Dick felt the fabric shift as his mind sent signals down his arm and forced the fingers of his right hand to curl. After two thousand, he could no longer feel the fabric as his mind forced his right hand to lift an inch off the bed. After three thousand, he could feel latex as his mind forced his right hand to rest across his mask. His eyes opened and blinked in confusion as he looked out through the fingers of his left hand.
.:N:.
Fandom: DC Comics
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: DC abuses them more than me.
Summary: After being hit by Alexander Luthor, Jr., Dick has the opportunity to change things in Robin's life, though he is thoroughly stuck in his own.
Distortions Chapter 1
.:N:.
Sounds filtered through the darkness, seemingly random sounds, which slowly weaved their way into syllables. The syllables merged and twisted to form a word: Robin. There were other sounds around the name, spoken softly and yet urgently, as if a sentence was merely syllables of the same word, almost a speedster’s speech. But the two syllables that made sense were Rob-in and Dick really wished Tim would respond to the person so the voice would just leave him alone. Unless Tim was unable to respond.
Dick’s unfocused eyes snapped open and darted around the room. The movement wasn’t enough and he jerked his head upwards to gain a better view, or at least attempted to. His body felt tight around his mind, slowing him as if unused to his commands. The room began to spin and he need to concentrate, to lock onto something in the chaos: green eyes. The green eyes stayed centered as everything moved, but after a few moments the image began to slow and he could start to process his surroundings.
“Robin?” The same voice said, gentle and worried.
Yes, Starfire, where’s Robin. But his vocal cords locked.
“You must calm down.” A hand pushed firmly at his shoulder and he was forced to lean back the few inches he had managed to move. “We have been so worried.”
I will calm down when you tell me about Robin and Oracle and Batman. He still could not speak, which might have been just as well as asking about Oracle might be too obvious, but he hoped she had known him long enough to know what he was saying.
The room stopped spinning and he looked back at her. His mind panicked and jerked back away from her touch, but his body was comforted by the familiarity of the alien princess and seemed to battle his mind. Not again. He managed a few broken syllables this time, sounding more like “Na-a-an” than a real word.
Kory attempted to move closer to him. “Are you well? You are distressed. I will get the others.” The teen’s swift flight from the infirmary should have been followed by a streak of red, curly hair, which Dick noticed was oddly absent. But maybe not so odd as Starfire‘s teenage body. After nearly dying in battle for the survival of the dimension, it wasn’t fair to wake up to find the superhero community aged incorrectly -- again. He was supposed to get breaks in between these sorts of things. He was supposed to be used to these sorts of things, but his lecture only lasted until he noticed his own smaller hands. He was supposed to be immune to this sort of thing.
Dick had never expressed to anyone his relief at his immunity to Karion’s meddling. If only for selfish reasons, he felt slightly regretful that his orders years ago had prevented Wally from becoming immune as well. Then at least the speedster would have worked with the Titans instead of the JLA. Not that he begrudged his friend for being in the JLA -- he could understand more than anyone else why it was important to Wally -- but the situation was tied to the original Teen Titans and so Wally just should have been with them. And that was beside the fact that the man had been thirteen for his honeymoon, the situation which seemed too close to his own soon to be predicament. But Wally had dished on teen Batman’s temper and attitude, so there was some advantage to having an inside man. Before the Flashes kicked his ass and disappeared. Dick did not want to consider the possibilities of Kon’s words. While flying he had spoken to Kon about Wally at the beginning so he wouldn’t have to think of what might have been the end. He was suddenly grateful for any world crisis to keep his mind diverted, even if he had teenage hormones again.
As if on cue, Kory returned, bringing other too young heroes behind her, and though he still thought that something other than her age seemed off about her, he shifted his focus to the odd lineup. Vic was thankfully not gold, and hopefully old enough to not hit on anyone with breasts. Gar hadn’t avoided the situation this time apparently, and Dick briefly wondered if the green teen was going by Beast Boy now or Changeling. He was Beast Boy with Tim‘s team, but at his current age, he would’ve thrown a fit if you called him that. Not that either name was really easy to say in a pinch, Gar had chosen codes names that might have only been two syllables, but somehow were a complete mouthful of curvy words. Raven had returned to Earth young, so there wasn’t much change there, though she did appear more gray than pale. Perhaps his little brother had been aged again and he found himself amused at the thought of Tim being the older brother.
“Dude, we’ve been wondering when you’d wake your lazy butt up.”
“Back off, Beast Boy.” Gar now hung like a fish from a robotic arm for a second before he really was a fish. “Give the man some room.”
Four sets of eyes stared expectantly at him and if he hadn’t grown up with Batman he most likely would have sunk into the bed. He opened his mouth to have Kory slip an ice chip in his mouth for his trouble, letting those eyes stare at him while his throat relaxed. His voice was still weak and cracked despite his efforts to control it.
“I’m fine you guys, really, considering,” dimensional crisis, dead friends, deathray, de-aging “everything. But how long have we been like this? And who was it this time?”
“What do you mean ‘like this’? You are the only one who has sustained injuries.”
“Yeah, you promised you’d stop running off in battles on your own, too.”
“What happened? Don’t you remember anything?”
Dick cocked his head in thought. If they didn’t realize something was off with their age and he did, then it probably wasn’t just a simple age issue. Crap -- Limbo -- which was perfectly plausible since the walls of reality had just been crumbling. It also meant that he was probably the “Robin” Starfire had been worried about before and maybe Tim was not in danger. And since he doubted all four of them could be fooled by the illusions of Limbo, they were probably figments instead of his friends. Gargoyle had probably chosen a different set of friends, since Roy had accidentally saved them all last time. Though Figment Raven was a poor choice considering she had helped him escape from Gargoyle the second time. Limbo was more a nuisance than a threat, and the fastest way out would be to figure out what was holding him here.
“No.”
“Slade.” Figment Beast Boy’s voice was filled with a weary venom Dick hadn’t heard from him since the days after Deathstroke’s trail, when Gar had spoken to the man and was still unsure he could hate the merc. He said the words like it explained everything, and it almost did.
The venom was echoed in Dick’s mind, a seething hatred he never felt for the man until very recently. Even while infiltrating the Society, he had had some measure of respect in at least Slade’s honor and moral code. A respect that had clearly been misplaced. The man who had attempted to stop Cheshire from bombing Qurac had now blown up at city, his city, most likely chosen for that reason. Slade liked leaving messages like that.
The burn marks weren’t on his left hand from when he had briefly lost his glove in a building collapse, and for now, that was poof enough he wasn’t in his own body. This body felt more like a deadweight to him, and for Dick who was movement, it felt like death. He had let his emotions overtake him and he reflexively clamped down on them as not to hurt Raven before he remembered this was Figment Raven. She had not spoken yet and seemed undisturbed by his recent turmoil, which Dick hoped meant she wouldn’t offer to dissipate his emotions for him. After rebelling against Bruce he had enjoyed having any emotion, even unpleasant ones. Though that could be her purpose here, to skim off his anger so he’d always be stuck.
Limbo was annoying enough, a Limbo that promised his recent Terminator issues was going to be a blast.
He had forgotten that the figments were waiting for a reply, so Dick swallowed as much disgust as possible before he echoed Figment Beast Boy. “Slade?”
“He was attacking the Wayne building for some electronic doohickey Cyborg could tell you about.”
“He lead you away from us as battles before.”
“We found you unconscious with this,” Figment Cyborg produced a metal disk with a stylized “S” on it that Dick didn’t recognize, “which in short attacked your nervous system by disconnecting your brain signals to the rest of your body. I think it was supposed to be worse than that, but something must have disrupted it. Your situation should only be temporary, maybe a few more days.”
“I have been monitoring his brain waves. I can detect no damage or alterations on the surface, though I would have to go deeper to be sure.”
“No, Raven, that won’t be necessary. Guys, I’m really okay. Just give me sometime and I’ll be good.”
“I believe it is shock that prevents his remembering, he should be fine with some rest.”
The figments’ eyes shifted towards some vague center point, as if they’d seen Dick’s recovery habits before.
“Look, it’s not like I’m going anywhere; I can’t move.”
“You are right, Robin,” Dick was not going to wince when Figment Starfire called him that, “would you like us to bring you some entertainment, perhaps a board of games?”
Dick was also not going to wince at the figment’s speech pattern. “Just my computer is all. I should update some old case files.”
“I would rather you rest than work, but I’d rather you work than be bored. We will get you your computer on the condition you rest first.”
Dick gave them his most reassuring smile, the one even his real friends had never gotten entirely immune to, and was rewarded with a beaming smile from Figment Starfire before she ushered the rest out.
“And don’t worry about a thing, I’ve got the whole leadership thing taken care of while you’re stuck in bed all week.”
“Sure thing, Green Genes.”
He shouldn’t have been so informal and comfortable with the figments as it stopped them all near the door to stare at him. Dick was worried they weren’t going to leave for a minute, but they finally filed out leaving him alone. The repercussions for “Salad-Head” could have been a lot worse he supposed, but it reminded him these weren’t the people he knew. Though why his mask was on when Gargoyle knew his face and name?
Roy should be here to do something unexpected. Dick could take crazy risks instead of complex plans as field leader, though not without assessing the situation more than his team realized. There were just too many assumptions for him to proceed at this point, and he couldn’t just go around punching everyone until he was free. So he had to gather as much information as he could about what was keeping him here and away from his family and fiancée. He silently hoped the answer would be on the computer, like all the written word was replaced with Kryptonian symbols or the answer was typed repeatedly on the computer screen like so many movies.
As he was, Dick couldn’t do much more until he could move. He chose a Tibetan meditation technique Bruce had taught him long ago, and Dick had used enough he should have been able to regulate and slow his breath easier. Mind and body slowly merged as his awareness flowed to the edges of his limbs and beyond.
After one thousand heartbeats, Dick felt the fabric shift as his mind sent signals down his arm and forced the fingers of his right hand to curl. After two thousand, he could no longer feel the fabric as his mind forced his right hand to lift an inch off the bed. After three thousand, he could feel latex as his mind forced his right hand to rest across his mask. His eyes opened and blinked in confusion as he looked out through the fingers of his left hand.
.:N:.