More Than a Band
Wally approached his friends after the final bell rang for the day. “Hey, you guys,” he started. “Have any of you seen Dick today?”
“Haven’t seen him at all,” Megan said. “Should we go check up on him?”
“Yeah. Let’s,” Artemis said.
Twenty minutes later they were in front of the Dick’s house. (More like mansion, the more they thought about it. The house was huge.) The door opened, revealing Alfred.
“Ah, Master Richard’s friends,” he greeted. “I apologized, but Master Richard isn’t feeling well today.”
“Is he alright?” Wally asked.
“Alfred? Who’s at the door?” Bruce appeared behind Alfred, seeing the band at the door. His expression softened for a moment. Finally he said, “Why don’t you kids come in? Dick is downstairs in the basement.” He pointed to the open door in the living room.
The teens nodded and piled into the room, heading down the stairs.
“Is that wise Master Bruce?” Alfred asked after they had gone down.
“If they’re really his friends, they’ll learn eventually,” Bruce said. “Dick could use some support right now.”
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As soon as they got reached the bottom of long stair way, they were amazed to find a gym in the basement.
“They keep a gym in the basement,” Artemis deadpanned.
Wally spotted Tim, Dick’s younger brother, sitting down on the bench. The small boy was clenching a small bat plush and staring intensely at the ceiling of the gym.
“Hey Tim,” Wally greeted, taking a seat next to him. “Where’s your brother?”
Tim didn’t break his eye contact with the ceiling. Simply, he pointed upwards toward the ceiling.
The teens looked up to see jungle of ropes, wires and swings hanging from the ceiling. Among them, Dick is flying. He’s swinging from a rope, letting it go to flip through the air before grabbing a bar. Using his momentum he pinwheel across this hanging jungle, before he grabbed a rope and just dropped.
The teens let out a gasp of fright as he does that. Dick, still not noticing their presence, stopped midway, swinging back and forth to build his momentum again.
“Oh my,” Megan said. Her hands were covering her mouth as she just watched Dick carry out.
“That’s quite impressive,” Kaldur remarked.
“Where did he learn to do that?” Wally asked breathlessly. His heart felt like it was racing.
“Mom and Dad taught him,” Tim said softly. “Before… they died.”
Wally looked down at him, startled by this news. He glanced back at the rest of his friends to see them equally surprised by the news. Tim furrowed his eyebrows, knowing he’ll have to explain it to them now that he mentioned it.
“They died a few years ago on this day,” Tim said, clenching his bat plush harder. “I don’t remember them well, but Dick does. It’s why we didn’t go to school today.” Tim looked back up at the ceiling. “He’ll come down in time for dinner. But Uncle Bruce said this is the way we cope? Dick flies, I watch.”
"Oh."
"What are you guys doing here?" Dick had finally noticed that his friends were here. He hung upside down from the rope.
"Checking up on you," Artemis said.
Wally grinned. "And hoping you're willing to teach us a few tricks, because those looked awesome."
Dick looked at his little brother, sharing a knowing look between them. Tim placed the bat plush on the bench and began to climb up another rope as Dick shifted his attention back to Wally. "Is that so? Well, I hope you're not afraid of heights!"
There would be time for painful questions later. Right now, all Dick wanted to do was to teach his friends how to fly with him.
Not gonna let you fall