Chapter Text
It was July 4th, and for once, the early evening hours found the (nearly) eleven year old Tim Drake wandering around the edges of his parents’ property rather than the streets of Gotham. He’d decided not to venture into the city tonight for multiple reasons. One: the patriotism-slash-colorful-explosion themed holiday was just asking to become a target for a Rogue plot looking to make a statement. Two: earlier that day he had noticed Bruce Wayne, both his sons, Mr. Pennyworth, and the awkward bespectacled reporter that Tim had seen with Mr. Wayne at galas before and was 80% certain was actually Superman all piling into one of Mr. Wayne’s larger cars with several overnight bags apiece before driving off out of the city. They were obviously off to spend the holiday somewhere pleasant as a family. Tim thought that maybe if Mr. Kent really was Superman, then Batman might still be planning to zoom back to Gotham tonight to keep an eye on things, but he couldn’t be certain, so he really shouldn’t risk being caught up in a big Rogue to-do tonight without Gotham’s guardian nearby to put an end to it. Three: it had been a couple of years since Tim had tried his hand at photographing a fireworks show, and he’d been itching to see what his more advanced skills could produce now that he had more experience with nighttime photography under his belt. With all of that in mind, he’d decided the night would be better spent watching the skies above Gotham’s country club as they put on their over the top fireworks show rather than running through the city streets that would be more crowded and possibly more dangerous than usual.
He’d thought about just sitting up on the roof of his house, but when he’d climbed out there that afternoon, he’d realized that the proximity of the treeline meant he’d have a hard time getting the type of clear shots he wanted. That was when he’d remembered the treehouse near the back of their lot that Jack had started to build with him three summers ago.
His parents had planned to be in Gotham for two whole months and had come up with all sorts of fun things they would be doing together, but then a startling new discovery by one of their rival archeologists had them jetting off to Argentina two weeks into Tim’s summer break. Tim still had nannies back then, and it turned out the lucky college student who’d gotten the gig that summer was the daughter of a carpenter, and she actually knew how to build things like that. Since all the supplies were purchased, she and Tim kept working on it. Between her experience and Tim’s ambition, they’d expanded upon the simplistic design that Jack had originally drawn up and made the secret base tree fort hideout of any seven year old’s dreams. Sadly, when his parents returned, Jack had thrown a bit of a fit about the whole business—declared it an unsafe structure built by an amateur, fired the nanny for letting Tim do something so ‘dangerous’, and forbidden Tim from going up into his treehouse until he had time to fix it and make sure it was safe. He never got around to it, and Tim had eventually forgotten it was out there. Now, though, as long as it was still intact, it would make the perfect perch to get the shots he wanted unencumbered by trees.
So he’d packed a bag with his camera equipment, a few bottles of water, bug spray, his swiss army knife, his trusty taser on the off chance there were murder clowns in the woods or something (this was Gotham so that chance was never zero), a large bag of trail mix (with the M&ms and no raisins, duh), some extra socks and a thin sweatshirt in case the night got chilly or buggy, and then set off for a hike. The Drake’s property was far larger than it needed to be, especially since Tim was the only Drake around to enjoy it most of the time, and it took over thirty minutes to reach the back end of the property. Since no one had been back there for years, it had grown into an unpleasantly dense thicket, and he scraped his arms up some, but eventually, he made it to the base of the large, sturdy oak tree that he and Ms. Veronica had spent months scampering up and down all those summers ago.
He smiled to himself as he tested the ladder for sturdiness while letting the memories wash over him. She really had been a wonderful nanny. She must have graduated from Gotham U this year, he wondered where she was off to now… maybe he should write her a letter to see how she was doing? No, that would be weird. He was just some kid she used to watch. Besides, she’d been really upset when Jack and Janet had accused her of endangering Tim, it would be inconsiderate of him to bring back those memories for her. It would be better to leave her to her life and allow her to live on in his memories only.
Tim was exceedingly careful as he climbed up into the treehouse, making sure to test every board for stability before trusting it with his weight. He was used to such careful movements thanks to his jaunts around Gotham that made liberal use of rusted fire escapes, and with plenty of patience, he arrived safely at the top of the small crow’s nest that Ms. Veronica had added at his insistence. It was as far up on the tree as they could possibly go while maintaining structural stability, and it had a spectacular view of the picturesque backroads of Bristol. The rolling greens of the country club’s golf course started about a mile away.
He settled into his perch as the golden rays of dusk started to slip down the horizon. He had plenty of pretty sunset pictures already, but since the view was so good he snapped a few more before putting his camera aside and pulling out his phone to wile some time away before the fireworks started. After about forty five minutes, he started getting uncomfortable from sitting so long and stood up to stretch.
There was still some time before the show was expected to start, so when he craned his neck back to stretch out his back, Tim was surprised to see a bright red light streaking through the sky above him. Huh; they must have started early. He grabbed his camera and popped off the lens cap before training it on the sky, ready to catch the next firework. He could hear it now, the whistle of projectiles moving at high speeds through the sky. He trained his camera on the sky above the country club for a minute, but when nothing else showed up, he lowered it and frowned. Perhaps that was someone else’s fireworks?
It was then that he heard a loud boom. The platform beneath his feet started to shake, and in a moment of blind panic, he grabbed onto a nearby branch and clung to it for dear life as he squeezed his eyes shut. When the treehouse stopped shaking and didn’t suddenly fall apart beneath him, he peeled his eyes back open and looked around, hoping to find an explanation for the disturbance. There was nothing amiss at the base of his treehouse, but when he looked out over the woods, he noticed a strange, steady red light coming from over towards where the forested back end of the Drake property became the slightly-more-attended grounds of Wayne Manor.
Tim stared at it and bit his lip, considering. If something…weird had fallen out of the sky towards Wayne Manor, there was a chance it was related to Mr. Wayne’s night hobbies. Meaning it might be dangerous. However, as far as he was aware, the Waynes weren’t home right now to investigate this disturbance themselves. Also, what if the red light he was seeing was a fire set by a stray firework or something? He should probably call the fire department for that sort of thing, right? And to do that, he’d need to confirm it was a fire. And he couldn't tell from here if it was actually over the property line or not. If something had fallen out of the sky onto Drake Manor’s property, well, then it was his responsibility, right? His parents always did seem to like it when he took his responsibilities seriously.
He considered leaving his things up here, but ultimately decided that it would be better to bring them along. Depending on what he found, he might want his camera, and it was better to transport that in his backpack. Also, he’d need his flashlight and possibly his knife to navigate through the woods in the dark. He descended from the treehouse much more quickly than he’d come up it and headed off in the direction of the odd lightshow.
The trek through this part of the woods was more difficult than his earlier route since there had never been a path there to begin with, but it was thankfully shorter, and soon enough, he spotted the red light through the trees. It wasn’t flickering or anything, nor could he smell smoke, so he decided to tentatively rule out the fire option. A few more minutes of pushing his way around and through the brambles, and he reached the crumbling stone wall that marked out the edges of their properties. He avoided touching it in case Batman had some sort of security measures that would activate. Instead, he followed along it towards the north, where the light was coming from. When he finally reached his destination, he gasped.
A freaking. Spaceship—pod?—thingy had crashed right into the wall between the Wayne and Drake properties and was currently sitting in a pile of rubble.
It was spherical, made of gleaming silver metal, and had bright red lights circling it in a ring and giving off the constant glow that had drawn him here. He grabbed his camera and took several pictures, but he hung back in the woods, waiting to see if anyone—or any thing—would emerge from the strange object. His mind raced to come up with possible explanations. Was the Earth under threat from an alien invasion again? Was this the first attack? Fourth of July would be a good time to launch a covert alien invasion in America at least, what with all the fireworks going off all over the country. But there was also the fact that it seemed to have been aiming for Batman’s backyard. Did the alien invaders know who Batman was and were trying to neutralize him early on? Or did this belong to a friendly alien? Maybe it was one of Batman’s Justice League friends testing new tech, or someone from the Lantern Corps dropping by for a visit?
He sat and watched silently for several minutes, but nothing emerged from or changed about the pod, so finally Tim decided to take his investigation from the passively observational stage into something a bit more interactive. After all, whatever this thing was had crashed literally on the property line. This was half in his jurisdiction, right? And when Batman did show up, whatever this was would probably be whisked away before he got the chance to figure out what it was. It might be now or never to investigate the alien spacecraft. Who would be stupid enough to turn down that kind of opportunity? Not Tim Drake, that was for sure!
Tim silently crept out of the undergrowth, his camera held aloft as he approached the pod. It wasn’t very big up close—about the size of a minivan. The portion of wall it had landed on was reduced to rubble by the impact, and he could still feel some lingering heat, presumably leftover from the thing’s descent through the atmosphere. When he was a few steps away from it, he glanced up and searched the skies, looking for any sign of other… visitors. When he spotted nothing, he turned back to the pod.
He took a few more pictures from up close, but honestly, for photos of a literal alien spacecraft, they weren’t very exciting. It was a single sheet of smooth metal, unbroken except for where the lights were set. Those just kept putting out the same red glow at the same intensity. Tim pursed his lips and glanced around again, first at the sky and then peering through the gap made in the wall to make sure he wasn’t yet getting any Batty visitors. Still alone; it might be now or never. He was going to touch it.
He wasn’t a moron, so the first thing he did was grab a long stick from under a nearby tree and poke at the spaceship from a relatively safe distance. No death lasers went off, no alarms sounded, and no alien monsters popped out to attack him. Figuring that it was probably safe enough, he lowered the stick and approached the pod with his other hand outstretched. He gently settled his palm on the smooth metal surface, his heart fluttering in his chest with excitement. He was touching an alien spaceship! This had to be one of the coolest things to ever happen to him—second only to figuring out he lived next door to Batman!
Tim thought he should try to inspect it for hidden latches or buttons or something, but when he tried to move his hand, it wouldn’t budge. He frowned as he tried to pull it off, but it remained stuck. Almost automatically, he raised one of his feet to press against the ship as well in an effort to get some leverage, which was a bad plan because then his foot was stuck to the ship as well.
Huh. So touching the strange alien spacecraft that had fallen from the sky may not have been the best idea after all. Who could have guessed? God, he almost hoped Batman wasn’t actually in town tonight, this would be such an embarrassing way to meet his hero.
Before he could decide what his best course of action would be (scream? Fish his phone out of his pocket and call the fire department, or someone?), the lights on the ship grew brighter, and he felt a sudden wave of warmth settle over his skin. He looked down at his hands again and couldn’t hold in a startled gasp. He was now glowing the same bright red as the spaceship!
The red glow grew brighter, and brighter, until suddenly it was so bright it hurt and Tim had to squeeze his eyes shut against it. He threw his free arm over his eyes and twisted as much away from the light source as he could, but it didn’t seem to help because even with his eyes closed he could still see the bright red light swallowing him whole and could feel it grow hotter, and hotter, and it was getting too hot, and every instinct inside of him was screaming to get away, but he couldn’t, he was stuck and he was going to melt or scream or burst into flames—
—Tim really wasn’t sure what exactly happened next. His brain must have shorted out somehow, because one second he was drowning in red light in the forest behind his house, and the next he was blinking dazedly on the cold metal floor in a round, chilly room, all made of that same unbroken white metal that had made up the pod. Before he could get his bearings, the wall directly in front of him slid open in an oblong shape resembling a door. A thin, insect-like creature with six arms and wings protruding from its back and a perfectly round head and huge white eyes marched into the room and looked straight at him.
Tim jerked to attention and scuttled backwards, going until he slammed into the wall. The alien didn’t chase after him. It just observed him and made a series of clicking noises. Belatedly, Tim realized its head was so round and its eyes so white because it was wearing some sort of helmet.
After a bit more of it clicking and Tim must staring, the alien seemed to realize Tim didn’t understand him and reached one of its six arms up to tap the side of its helmet.
“I’m sorry, I forgot to turn the translation on,” it said in an even, monotonous tone. “Hello, and welcome to our humble ship. We mean you no harm. So long as you assist us in our endeavor, we shall return you to the place we acquired you unharmed. We have come to seek help from you, Batman, Great Fear Demon of Earth.”
Tim gulped. Somewhere along the way, he had definitely miscalculated.
Thirty minutes after his security systems had notified him of a perimeter breach (and ten minutes after the alien pod whisked away the curious neighbor boy, although he had no way of knowing this), Batman stood next to Superman and inspected the pile of rocks where the wall in the back end of his property used to be.
“Found anything yet?” Superman asked. He’d flown Bruce to the Batcave from Smallville almost as soon as the alert had gone off, had helped Bruce change into his suit at superspeed, and then used his powers to perform an inspection of the Cave, the Manor, and the yard immediately surrounding Bruce’s home before Batman had finally declared it secure and allowed him to deliver him to the actual site of the breach. When they’d gotten there, Batman had immediately started cataloging the scene while Superman hovered over his shoulder and ‘kept watch’.
Batman just grunted in reply. He knelt at the edge of the wall and leaned forwards, his eyes sweeping over the rubble and searching for any clue as to what could have done this. He’d taken a sample of the rocks, as well as the soil, but aside from concluding that some large object had crashed into his wall at high speeds from above but had gone now, he didn’t have anything conclusive.
“Was it a drone attack?” Superman suggested, his eyes sweeping the skies. “Or a satellite falling out of orbit?”
Batman frowned. “It would have to be a pretty big drone. And a pretty small satellite. And there’s still the question of where it’s gone. Neither of those things would have just up and flown away after a crash like this.”
“Maybe someone came and took it away.”
“Hn.” They couldn’t have taken it through the grounds of Wayne Manor without tripping one of his endless security measures. But if someone approached it from the other side of the wall, perhaps…
Batman stood and gestured for Superman to fly down to him. “Set me down on the other side of the wall,” he said while looping an arm around his neck. “I don’t want to disturb the scene by climbing through the hole.”
Superman complied, zipping them up and over and settling the other hero gently on the edge of the Drake property. Batman gave the hole in the wall a cursory once over from this side before turning to inspect the surrounding area. There were no signs of anything heavy being dragged. There were some freshly broken twigs that suggested something had been moving through the forest recently—a small deer, perhaps, based on the height? He took a few more soil samples from this side of the wall and was just about to have Superman take them back over when something at the base of a nearby tree caught his eye.
He leaned down and picked up a hard, black plastic circle from between a tangle of roots. “A lens cap?” He muttered, frowning as he registered the familiar shape of the object. Someone had been out here with a camera at some point, then. The lens cap had been wedged in there pretty firmly, so it may not have been lost that evening, but it wasn’t beat up enough to have been more than a few days. He would have assumed it belonged to one of the Drakes, had they not been out of the country since May, off to one of their international digs that they wouldn’t shut up about whenever they made it to a gala.
“Wait, can I see that?” Superman asked. Batman handed it to him, and he inspected it carefully. “This is from a very expensive camera,” he declared. “Jimmy favors this brand, swears it’s the best on the market. Wonder how it got all the way out here…”
“Hn.” It was a good question, but Batman was having trouble coming up with a plausible connection between a wayward photographer and the giant fucking hole in his wall. Whatever had made it wasn’t human—at least, not a regular human. Still—it was a potential lead, and it would get his full attention. In time. “I’ll track down the owner tomorrow,” he decided, taking the lens cap back and slipping it into one of his evidence bags. “I’ll see if the Drake family owns security cameras. No one’s supposed to be living in that house right now, so I doubt there are any potential eyewitnesses besides whoever lost their lens cap.”
“The house looks empty, at any rate,” Superman muttered, his eyes fixed in the direction of the neighbor’s house. “No heartbeats there either.”
“Then it’ll keep until tomorrow,” Batman declared, glancing up towards the nearly darkened horizon. “We have to be back to the farm before the fireworks start there.”
“We’ve still got an hour or so,” Superman pointed out.
Batman grunted. “Won’t risk it.” He’d promised the boys they’d have a peaceful family outing for a holiday for once, and he intended to keep it.
With Superman’s assistance, they swiftly changed back into their civilian personas and returned to Kansas where their families waited on the grassy lawn outside the Kent farmhouse and settled in with plenty of time to sit back and watch the fireworks.
Still, even while he was sitting with an arm around each of his boys and watching the colorful light show above them, something kept tugging at the back of Bruce’s mind. He felt like somewhere along the way, he’d missed… something.