Random Wren and Teen Titans 3
Tim found the whole group in the media room with Bart and Gar showing Wren their video game system and the more age appropriate games they had. Somebody had introduced Bart to Lego's and he was *hooked#. He was showing off the video games with the Lego people while zipping off to show the corresponding character from his Lego collection. Cyborg and Starfire were off in the tower doing their thing but Raven was there watching with interest. Solstice was hovering around the edge, letting the boys control the action.
Cassie and Connor approached Tim soon after his call to Batman. Cassie said, "Um, Tim, is Wren, like. Um. I'm not sure how to say this. She's been here all week. Hiding and all. And I think you should know... That is... "
"There is something really wrong with Wren," Connor interrupted his wife. (Author: I live in a happy life. The two got their crap together and married and are happy. And this fic takes place 5 years later.) Cassie elbowed him hard and he winced. "What, you were going to take all day to get to the point. There is really something off about her and we're kinda worried!"
"Such as," Tim said calmly. He had a pretty strong idea of what was wrong but he wanted to know what they noticed first before he said anything to color their perceptions.
"When we cleaned up, she wrapped her hands. I saw it earlier and was wondering about it but there is nothing wrong. And she had written all up and down her arms and hands things like 'stone,' 'hard,' 'unbreakable,' and 'rock.' She got angry when I tried to wash it off," Cassie said.
Connor interrupted her, "And she kept singing the same couple of verses from some song about rainbows. And just now, we were getting things to snack on and she ate an apple. The whole thing! She ate the whole apple, rind and everything. Even the seeds and the stem."
"Wren is also doing this twitchy hand thing," Cassie imitated the movement after a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching. "She also stares off into space like she's looking at something but there isn't anything there. Its all a little weird, a little off."
Tim massaged his forehead and temples, trying to figure out how much and what to tell his friends. The whole matter was complicated. "I'm not sure what to tell you. Batman and I are looking into it. Wren was exposed to what should have been a lethal dose of modified fear gas and psychotropics over a period of time. We're not sure how much of her behavior is related to the incident and how much is her original personality. Or if it has permanently changed her. She's still flushing the last of it out of her system."
"Well, how much is she different from before?"
"We don't really know, not for sure. The information on what she was like before is a bit colored by inexperience observations by secondary sources. There is no reliable, primary source information for us to really tell. Wren only came to our attention after the incident. No, don't ask me what it is, I'm still uncomfortable talking about it. But rest assured, Batman and I are watching the situation. Though given this, I think she warrants an even closer eye."
Cassie frowned for a bit, something niggling in the back of her mind. Something about what Tim said, about being uncomfortable with talking about it as well as the mention of fear gas and drugs tugged at her memory. In a moment it came to her. Her eyes widened in surprise and she couldn't hold back the gasp of shock. Her hands covered her mouth for a moment before she removed them to say, "Oh my god! It's that poor little girl. Annabelle Smith, the special..." She tapered off to wave her hand, not wanting to say the words aloud.
"Who?" Connor asked. The name seemed familiar to him.
"You know, Annabelle Smith. She was in the news a while back. The little girl who was on Arkham island for a month after being kidnapped by aliens."
Connor interrupted her to giggle, saying something about 'kidnapped by aliens.'
"They did experiments and stuff on her, giving her a bunch of drugs because she could tell they were aliens disguised as humans. And when the island was attacked, they tried to kill her but she escaped and lived on the island for a month. When Wonder Woman tried to rescue her, Annabelle Smith threw several pods from Poison Ivy's plants, including one with sex pollen. She's the one responsible for getting Diana pregnant."
"Wait, Wonder Woman is pregnant? When did this happen?"
Cassie gasped, staring at Connor in shock. While her and the amazon weren't as close as they once were, they still were good friends. She had listened to many the phone call as well as gone over to Diana's place to talk with her and help her plan for the baby. Donna and Cassie had their hands full with the anxious mother-to-be. Cassie couldn't believe Connor had, apparently, not been listening when she had talked about the older woman or about being jealous, cause her own biological clock was ticking and other things.
Connor kept a straight face for all of 30 seconds while Tim tried not to laugh. He knew that Connor knew because he'd shared his own concerns with him. Connor had been keeping a tally of how many times and how much Diana vomited due to morning sickness. Which apparently was going pretty rough for the super powered woman. Connor had collected a bunch of home remedies, asking just about everyone for advice on how to help the woman and then getting the supplies.
Once Connor broke out into a grin, the trio started to laugh. "Kon, you!"
"Yes, Wren really is Annabelle Smith."
"Wow, really, I?"
"So, you're going to be training her and stuff? I mean, she has a code name and the spandex tights. Though she needs lessons on how to put on a mask. And how did she break my nose? Your secret Bat tricks?"
"I think I can answer that part," Raven said. The sorceress has approached early in the conversation but had remained quiet throughout. Rose had come through at one point, listening in while grabbing something. She was sitting off to the side but Tim was pretty sure the Meta could still hear but was feigning disinterest. Tim had been worried when they came over, wondering if he should include them but all things considered, he was thankful to get it out in the open. "The child has very little magickal abilities but I think she took advantage of what was available to her. Writing 'hard' on a hand and on the bandages is a type of sympathetic magick. If you write 'hard' then what you wrote on becomes hard in your mind. It can be as simple as it sounds but I am quite surprised that it worked. Even if the spell prevented the child from crushing her hand when hitting a Kryptonian, is still shouldn't have been powerful enough to break Superboy's nose."
"Yes, but it can be both." Tim jumped in. They had consulted with Zatana when they did their initial assessment of the child. "Natural, innate ability, like with my sister Cass as well as magick. Or it could be neither. Wren isn't old or experienced enough to really understand how she does it. It might have something to do with her synthesia, That's one of the things we're trying to figure out now. If she had synthesia before or if the indecent heightened it or if she developed it because of them. We think it's natural for her, that she always had it. We're pretty sure that's how she was able to tell the Sceloporus were aliens. There are other observations by her family and the school psychologist to the same effect but she was never diagnosed."
Bart buzzed over to ask what they were talking about while he grabbed snacks from around them. The supply by the TV only partially taken, since he was leaving it all out for his friends. Tim said he'd talk to him later about it and asked for a few minutes to finish telling the others before they went and watched the movie. Bart told them that he'd gotten the original 1939 movie as well as the newest adaptation "Tin Man."
"Look, we're not training her to be a superhero or be the new Robin or anything. She kinda has, um... Well, she's really fascinated by Batman and the Batcave and Red Robin. Its kind of a er... hero-worship-sort-of-crush-thing. Annabelle keeps sneaking into the cave to watch us. One night Alfred caught her trying one of our training exercises. Frightened him something fierce. Frightened us too. Some of our regimens are quite dangerous, even to us. We've been using the outfit as kind of a bribe. She can only wear it when we're with her and she can only try exercises that we approve. It was inspired by the costumes worn by the Chinese delegates at the Olympic games. She's quite fascinated by the Olympic gymnasts as well, so we've been showing her those things rather then martial arts training. The domino looks to be one of Dick's original ones. The cape is mine. I gave it to her when I found her on Arkham island and she's hardly ever without it. Though it was an aunt that cut the cape short and used the extra material for a hood and pockets. As for the Wren thing," Tim shrugged his shoulders. "Her nickname is little songbird. I didn't want to shout her name in the hanger and Wren is the first songbird that came to mind."
Cassie and Connor approached Tim soon after his call to Batman. Cassie said, "Um, Tim, is Wren, like. Um. I'm not sure how to say this. She's been here all week. Hiding and all. And I think you should know... That is... "
"There is something really wrong with Wren," Connor interrupted his wife. (Author: I live in a happy life. The two got their crap together and married and are happy. And this fic takes place 5 years later.) Cassie elbowed him hard and he winced. "What, you were going to take all day to get to the point. There is really something off about her and we're kinda worried!"
"Such as," Tim said calmly. He had a pretty strong idea of what was wrong but he wanted to know what they noticed first before he said anything to color their perceptions.
"When we cleaned up, she wrapped her hands. I saw it earlier and was wondering about it but there is nothing wrong. And she had written all up and down her arms and hands things like 'stone,' 'hard,' 'unbreakable,' and 'rock.' She got angry when I tried to wash it off," Cassie said.
Connor interrupted her, "And she kept singing the same couple of verses from some song about rainbows. And just now, we were getting things to snack on and she ate an apple. The whole thing! She ate the whole apple, rind and everything. Even the seeds and the stem."
"Wren is also doing this twitchy hand thing," Cassie imitated the movement after a quick glance around to see if anyone was watching. "She also stares off into space like she's looking at something but there isn't anything there. Its all a little weird, a little off."
Tim massaged his forehead and temples, trying to figure out how much and what to tell his friends. The whole matter was complicated. "I'm not sure what to tell you. Batman and I are looking into it. Wren was exposed to what should have been a lethal dose of modified fear gas and psychotropics over a period of time. We're not sure how much of her behavior is related to the incident and how much is her original personality. Or if it has permanently changed her. She's still flushing the last of it out of her system."
"Well, how much is she different from before?"
"We don't really know, not for sure. The information on what she was like before is a bit colored by inexperience observations by secondary sources. There is no reliable, primary source information for us to really tell. Wren only came to our attention after the incident. No, don't ask me what it is, I'm still uncomfortable talking about it. But rest assured, Batman and I are watching the situation. Though given this, I think she warrants an even closer eye."
Cassie frowned for a bit, something niggling in the back of her mind. Something about what Tim said, about being uncomfortable with talking about it as well as the mention of fear gas and drugs tugged at her memory. In a moment it came to her. Her eyes widened in surprise and she couldn't hold back the gasp of shock. Her hands covered her mouth for a moment before she removed them to say, "Oh my god! It's that poor little girl. Annabelle Smith, the special..." She tapered off to wave her hand, not wanting to say the words aloud.
"Who?" Connor asked. The name seemed familiar to him.
"You know, Annabelle Smith. She was in the news a while back. The little girl who was on Arkham island for a month after being kidnapped by aliens."
Connor interrupted her to giggle, saying something about 'kidnapped by aliens.'
"They did experiments and stuff on her, giving her a bunch of drugs because she could tell they were aliens disguised as humans. And when the island was attacked, they tried to kill her but she escaped and lived on the island for a month. When Wonder Woman tried to rescue her, Annabelle Smith threw several pods from Poison Ivy's plants, including one with sex pollen. She's the one responsible for getting Diana pregnant."
"Wait, Wonder Woman is pregnant? When did this happen?"
Cassie gasped, staring at Connor in shock. While her and the amazon weren't as close as they once were, they still were good friends. She had listened to many the phone call as well as gone over to Diana's place to talk with her and help her plan for the baby. Donna and Cassie had their hands full with the anxious mother-to-be. Cassie couldn't believe Connor had, apparently, not been listening when she had talked about the older woman or about being jealous, cause her own biological clock was ticking and other things.
Connor kept a straight face for all of 30 seconds while Tim tried not to laugh. He knew that Connor knew because he'd shared his own concerns with him. Connor had been keeping a tally of how many times and how much Diana vomited due to morning sickness. Which apparently was going pretty rough for the super powered woman. Connor had collected a bunch of home remedies, asking just about everyone for advice on how to help the woman and then getting the supplies.
Once Connor broke out into a grin, the trio started to laugh. "Kon, you!"
"Yes, Wren really is Annabelle Smith."
"Wow, really, I?"
"So, you're going to be training her and stuff? I mean, she has a code name and the spandex tights. Though she needs lessons on how to put on a mask. And how did she break my nose? Your secret Bat tricks?"
"I think I can answer that part," Raven said. The sorceress has approached early in the conversation but had remained quiet throughout. Rose had come through at one point, listening in while grabbing something. She was sitting off to the side but Tim was pretty sure the Meta could still hear but was feigning disinterest. Tim had been worried when they came over, wondering if he should include them but all things considered, he was thankful to get it out in the open. "The child has very little magickal abilities but I think she took advantage of what was available to her. Writing 'hard' on a hand and on the bandages is a type of sympathetic magick. If you write 'hard' then what you wrote on becomes hard in your mind. It can be as simple as it sounds but I am quite surprised that it worked. Even if the spell prevented the child from crushing her hand when hitting a Kryptonian, is still shouldn't have been powerful enough to break Superboy's nose."
"Yes, but it can be both." Tim jumped in. They had consulted with Zatana when they did their initial assessment of the child. "Natural, innate ability, like with my sister Cass as well as magick. Or it could be neither. Wren isn't old or experienced enough to really understand how she does it. It might have something to do with her synthesia, That's one of the things we're trying to figure out now. If she had synthesia before or if the indecent heightened it or if she developed it because of them. We think it's natural for her, that she always had it. We're pretty sure that's how she was able to tell the Sceloporus were aliens. There are other observations by her family and the school psychologist to the same effect but she was never diagnosed."
Bart buzzed over to ask what they were talking about while he grabbed snacks from around them. The supply by the TV only partially taken, since he was leaving it all out for his friends. Tim said he'd talk to him later about it and asked for a few minutes to finish telling the others before they went and watched the movie. Bart told them that he'd gotten the original 1939 movie as well as the newest adaptation "Tin Man."
"Look, we're not training her to be a superhero or be the new Robin or anything. She kinda has, um... Well, she's really fascinated by Batman and the Batcave and Red Robin. Its kind of a er... hero-worship-sort-of-crush-thing. Annabelle keeps sneaking into the cave to watch us. One night Alfred caught her trying one of our training exercises. Frightened him something fierce. Frightened us too. Some of our regimens are quite dangerous, even to us. We've been using the outfit as kind of a bribe. She can only wear it when we're with her and she can only try exercises that we approve. It was inspired by the costumes worn by the Chinese delegates at the Olympic games. She's quite fascinated by the Olympic gymnasts as well, so we've been showing her those things rather then martial arts training. The domino looks to be one of Dick's original ones. The cape is mine. I gave it to her when I found her on Arkham island and she's hardly ever without it. Though it was an aunt that cut the cape short and used the extra material for a hood and pockets. As for the Wren thing," Tim shrugged his shoulders. "Her nickname is little songbird. I didn't want to shout her name in the hanger and Wren is the first songbird that came to mind."