Chapter Text
Bruce had told him to take his book off the supercool spaceship thing that he was helping the Justice League build. Heck, Bruce had told him not to go in there but Jason went anyway. To his defense, reading in a Bat-themed space-shuttle for the Justice League is not something he gets to do regularly, so obviously he was going to do it no matter what Bruce said.
The problem was that he left his book in the cockpit, and while he was at school Bruce transferred it to the Watchtower using the big zeta tube. Now, Jason is never going to find out if Ponyboy ever gets reunited with his brothers.
Jason considers just asking Bruce to get it for him, or just buying a new one, but both options would mean telling Bruce, which would mean Bruce being right and saying ‘I told you not to read in the space-shuttle.’ He could try lying and just say he lost the book at school, but Batman is the world’s greatest detective, so there’s no point in trying to fool him. That leaves Jason with the last and most daring option.
Sneaking into the Watchtower. He’s always wanted to do it anyway.
He’s only officially been Robin for a little over 2 months now, and Bruce said he’s not allowed in space until he’s at least 16, but harsh times call for harsh measures.
Luckily, Dick taught him how to hack the zeta tube last week over a bet. Using the code Dick taught him, neither the Watchtower nor the Batcave systems will even be able to register his trip. Apparently Dick isn’t allowed in space either, which is weird because Jason’s pretty sure Dick is 16 by now at the least. He guesses that’s what people mean when they say being the oldest child sucks.
Jason knows that Batman is in a meeting at the Watchtower right now, which means it’s the perfect time to go. Bruce will never even notice he left the Batcave. He’ll sneak in as part of the engineering staff, avoid Bruce, get to the shuttle, grab his book, (maybe sneak some selfies to send to Dick), and then head back home.
Simple, quick, easy.
***
It was not, in fact, simple, quick, or easy.
Actually, Jason feels like its appropriate to say that shit just hit the fan.
Its just Jason’s luck that the zetatube in the cave leads straight to the zeta-platforms used specifically for Justice League members rather than the other staff members in the Watchtower, which brings him to his current predicament.
“Hey there kiddo, we aren’t going to hurt you,” a Green Lantern, he thinks this one is Hal Jordan, says from down the hall. “Just come out and we’ll help you find your parents, okay?”
Jason zeta-tubed right in front of several League members. He’s guessing they’re here for the super important meeting Batman is supposed to be attending, which is really bad because now a bunch of Justice League heroes are looking for his scrawny ass and will totally rat him out to Batman if they find out he’s the new Robin.
Jason has currently hid himself in the dark corner on the ceiling at the end of the hall, a move that Dick taught him. Hopefully it will be enough to fool the Leaguers, but Jason knows he’s not that lucky. These are real powerhouses. They aren’t going to be fooled by some kid.
Down the hall, Green Lantern’s glow slowly begins to illuminate his corner. “Here kiddo kiddo kiddo. We have ice cream!” he shouts.
“Jesus, GL, he’s a kid, not a dog,” another man says as the two come into view. It’s the Flash, and Jason holds his breath because, holy shit it’s the Flash.
That’s when Jason realizes how close they are to him. They’ll definitely see him now, there’s no way—
“Welp, doesn’t look like the kid went this way,” Green Lantern announces. “If he did, he would have come out by now. I mean, come on. It’s the Green Lantern. What kid doesn’t love the Green Lantern?”
“I’m pretty sure a lot of kids actually rank you on the bottom of their favorite super hero list,” the Flash replies.
Jason finally gets why Hal Jordan is Bruce’s 2nd to least favorite Lantern. His least favorite is definitely Guy Gardener. His favorite is Hope Corgi.
Jason lets a sighs in relief as he watches the two heroes leave the hallway without noticing him. A minor hiccup in his plan, but now he’s back on track. All he has to do is make sure he doesn’t run into anymore Leaguers, get his book, and find a way home.
With a quick scan of the area, he pulls out a tracker Bruce uses to keep all his gear in check. Lucky for Jason, Bruce also put a tracker on the Bat-themed spaceshuttle he built. The young boy makes his way through dozens of halls, careful to avoid everyone, especially Leaguers, until his finds treasure.
After what seems like a forever navigating, Jason finally opens the door to the space-shuttle room. Its almost like a garage, but for spaceships. Jason has only seen things like this on TV, but standing in the room like this in real life is a completely different experience. It feels like the first time he walked into the Batcave all over again. Today is going down as one of Jason’s favorite days ever.
In the back is the Bat-themed spaceshuttle. Jason thinks its funny because the only parking spot next to Bruce’s ship is empty. Everyone is probably too afraid of Batman to even park their spaceships next to his. Jason laughs. He quickly dashes toward the ship and opens the bay doors. There, sitting idly on the pilot’s seat where he left it, is his book.
Jason’s little escapade is almost over, and once he’s home, he’s finally going to find out if Ponyboy, Sodapop, and Darry ever get reunited. But just as Jason is about to leave, someone appears behind him.
“Hi there,” it’s a woman’s voice. Somehow, she had the stealth to sneak up on him without him even noticing. Hell, he didn’t even notice anyone even in the garage when he first entered. She’s probably right behind him. “This is Batman’s ship. Are you lost?”
“Um…” Jason takes a deep breath and slowly turns around. His eyes land on the telltale lasso he’s only ever seen on TV. Jason realizes that standing behind him, in all her amazing glory, is none other than the one and only Wonder Woman. Jason is speechless.
“Oh,” she looks him over in surprise. “You’re a child.”
Jason nods nervously.
“You don’t have to be scared. I’m Diana,” she crouches so she’s at his height and offers out her hand for a handshake. “What’s your name?” The smile she gives him at the end makes him much less afraid.
Jason can’t seem to get any words out of his mouth. His hand slowly goes up to shake hers. All he can think about is how sweaty his hands are and how it’s probably really grossing out Wonder Woman. He’s so embarrassed.
Abruptly, Jason realizes Diana is still waiting for an answer. “I’m, um—I’m Jason.” His voice is small and higher than he remembers it being. He feels his face flush.
“Hi Jason,” Diana smiles and Jason can’t get a grip on himself. “What are you doing here?”
Jason can’t lie, not to his favorite hero. With as much courage as he can muster he blurts out, “I left my, um—I came to …um…book.” He holds up the book so Wonder Woman can see it.
“How fascinating,” Wonder Woman comments as she studies the cover. “A fan of literature, I see?”
“Yeah…I read a lot.” Jason looks to floor and fumbles with the book in his hands to distract himself.
“Did you want to read in Batman’s spaceship?”
Jason doesn’t know what else to say, so he goes “I…um, yeah?” Its pretty true since him wanting to read in the spaceship is what got him into this mess in the first place.
“Do you like Batman?”
This, Jason confidently knows the answer to; “Yeah,” he answers with enthusiasm.
“That’s wonderful! He’s one of my favorite superheroes too. Would you like to come meet him?” Diana asks.
Jason does a double take. “Wait, Batman isn’t my favorite superhero.” Even to Jason, he sounds like a stupid little kid, but he isn’t about to let Wonder Woman think that his favorite superhero is Batman. Jason loves Bruce, but on the hero rankings, Wonder Woman definitely beats Batman by a million. It doesn’t even register that Diana was offering to take him to Batman, which would most likely end up with him being grounded.
“Oh?” Diana gives him a puzzled look. “Then who’s your favorite hero? I’m sure we can find him or her somewhere in the Watchtower.”
“You’re my favorite superhero.” Jason confesses. He is avoiding eye contact at all costs. His face feels really hot and he’s pretty sure he’s blushing like crazy. “You were my mom’s favorite superhero too.”
Wonder Woman gently tilts Jason’s head up so they are looking eye to eye. “Thank you, Jason,” she says humbly. “I’m honored, and I hope I can live up to that title.”
All the nervousness leaves him and for the first time in the conversation, Jason gives a genuine smile.
“Speaking of your mother,” Diana continues. “Is she working on the Watchtower? Is that how you got here?”
“My mom is dead,” Jason answers on reflex. He didn’t mean to sound so blunt but ever since Bruce adopted him, people keep trying to pry the answer out of him assuming that he’s some kind of love child Bruce had with a random woman. Those people really annoy him.
Wonder Woman looks apologetic. “I’m so sorry Jason.”
“Its okay,” Jason replies because he has nothing else to say. Even though he’s been over her death for a long time now, somehow this moment is making him miss her again. He feels his eyes getting a little wet in the corners.
“Don’t fret little one,” Diana tries to comfort him. Jason rubs his eyes trying his best not to cry in front of his favorite superhero. “Everything is going to be okay. How about you come with me around the Watchtower and we can find you a way home? Would that be okay with you?”
Jason is so overcome with emotions right now. He’s star-struck because he’s meeting his and his mom’s favorite hero, but he’s also really sad because his mom isn’t here with him to meet her and he really misses his mom. He’s also really nervous about Bruce finding out about his little adventure and getting mad, but at the same time he really wants to go home and find Bruce and Alfred and hug them.
Jason doesn’t really want to think about anything right now so he nods and lets Wonder Woman hold his hand as they leave the bat-spaceship. He’s pretty sure he’s crying at least a little.
***
The last thing Diana expected to do today was find a small, defenseless child in the docking bays of the Watchtower. She was in her invisible jet as a small figure all but ran to the bat-shuttle. She had no idea who or even what it was, but anyone who dared to mess with Batman’s gear was either incredibly stupid or incredibly evil. She decided to investigate.
Much to her surprise, it was a little boy, very small, who looked no older than nine years old. He said his name is Jason. When she had found him, he had this adorable caught-red-handed look on his face that made her want to smile. She’d been there before with her own mother.
But the more she learned about Jason, the more worried she became. He seemed nervous and scared when he talked, which she assumes could be because of meeting a superhero and being in outer-space, but then she had found out his mother had died and it made him tear up.
Diana has decided that she will not leave this child until she finds his home. She doesn’t really care that there’s a Leaguer meeting happening in a few minutes. Batman can chew her out about missing it later. Right now, helping this small child was her main priority.
He could be one of the staff’s kids, but she’s pretty sure children aren’t allowed on the Watchtower. Perhaps one of the other heroes, but then why wouldn’t Jason have told her that? And which hero thought it was a good idea to bring their kid to the Watchtower while they had their meeting that could take hours? Was it really that hard to find a babysitter? Diana didn’t know.
She wanted to avoid asking Jason about his father, considering the condition of his mother made him cry. The small boy was sniffling and held onto his book like a lifeline as Diana led him through the halls.
“Wonder Woman,” Black Canary called as Diana turned the corner, “oh good, you’ve found the kid.”
“Do you know who he is? And where he came from?” Diana asked, “He’s a little shaken up right now.”
“We’ve been looking for this little guy for the past two hours,” Green Lantern John Steward answered as he approached from the hall behind Dinah. “He got here through a zeta-tube. We have no idea who he is or which zeta-tube he used on earth.”
In that instant, the Flash makes a sudden entrance in front of the group at terrifying speeds. Behind her, Jason flinches in shock of the new comer.
“Hey there buddy! We’ve been looking all over for you!” Barry greets and smiles at Jason. Diana can’t help but notice Jason getting more nervous. “You’re the news of Watchtower! Its all anyone can talk about right now!”
“Flash, stop.” Diana orders calmly. “I think you’re scaring him.” She bends down to Jason’s height again and asks, “Jason, are you okay?”
Jason nods but doesn’t take his eyes off the other three heroes.
“These are my friends. They are heroes as well. Meet Green Lantern, Black Canary, and the Flash.” Diana smiles.
Jason gives a small wave. Whether he’s scared or star-struck is hard to tell.
“Hi Jason. Do you need help finding your parents?” John asks. “Do they work here?”
Diana interjects before they say something that might make Jason more upset. She turns around and whispers to the rest of the group so Jason can’t hear, “His mother is dead. I’m not sure about his father yet but he is still a bit shaken from talking about his mother. Perhaps its best if we give him a little time to rest first.”
“Sounds good,” Black Canary replies coolly, then turns to Jason. “Hey Jason, the zeta-tube you used on earth didn’t register in our systems, but in maybe an hour or two we’ll be able to find out where you came from. In the mean time, would you like to hang out with us in the cafeteria?”
“Wait, what about the meeting?” Diana asks. That’s the whole reason why everyone was here today.
“Batman was supposed to be leading it, but he left in a hurry saying he had a family emergency.” John comments.
Jason makes a little gasp. “What happened?” the boy pipes up at the same time Diana asks “Are Penny-one and Nightwing okay?”
“Not sure,” Black Canary answers. “He ran out before any of us could ask.”
Diana glances down at Jason, who seems distraught by the news. She doesn’t like how this is making him sadder than he already was.
“Don’t worry, bud!” Barry cuts in. “The Batfamily is way tougher than all of us. Plus, it’s Batman. He has a plan for everything.”
Jason lets out a sigh. He’s not crying anymore but Diana can see how his lip is quivering just a bit. By the Gods, this child should never ever have to be sad like this. It makes her sad as well.
“Jason,” Diana calls his attention. She thinks of her favorite thing to do when she’s upset. “While we wait for the information about the zeta-tubes, would you like to get ice cream?”
Jason gives her a small smile. “Yeah.” He answers in the smallest of voices.
“That’s great! We can all go since Batman isn’t going to be back yet.” Barry offers a hand for Jason to hold. Jason stares at the hand and then back up at Wonder Woman.
Wonder Woman offers her hand instead. “Would you like to take my hand?”
Jason seems embarrassed but grateful as he takes her hand. She leads him towards the cafeteria, leaving behind a dejected Flash.
Its fine, Diana thinks, he’ll get over it. Plus, Diana is really starting to like this kid now.