Chapter Text
Over the course of a month, the Bats came across a group of heavily-armed fruit salad-coloured teenagers with almost Bat-level training.
Bruce (nor anyone else in or affiliated with the family that could have, for that matter) didn't remember training anyone, let alone six people, in the last few years.
Therefore, they were stuck with four main questions:
- Who are these people?
- Why (how) do they have (almost) Bat-level training?
- What are they doing in Gotham?
- Were they potential enemies?
The first time, it was nearing the end of the Bats’ patrol one Friday evening. That night had been boringly quiet so they were heading in half an hour earlier than they usually would on a Friday.
On their way back to the manor, they came across a mugging. However, before any of the five who had gone out that night could intervene, they discover a person (dressed in what vaguely looked to be red-coloured pyjamas complete with a matching colour hood with a katana strapped to their back) had already beaten them to it.
The Bats could have assisted but stopping a mugging really didn't need more than one person so they remained on the rooftops. Once the mugger was subdued and the victim had been consoled, Bruce took the opportunity to jump down into the alley to confront the possible new vigilante but by the time he got down there, they were already gone. The alley was empty save for the Bats and the now-unconscious mugger.
The next time happened barely a week later, only three days later.
Tonight was a Monday evening — a school night — therefore only Batman, Red Hood, Black Bat and Red Robin are on patrol (Dick was back in Bludhaven for the week).
It was barely twenty minutes into that evening’s patrol when Cass caught sight of two people wearing the same pyjama-plus-hood getup disappearing around a corner. Neither of them were the same person from the ;ast time, one of them was wearing blue and has a thinner build than the one from Friday (and is armed with nunchucks) while the other was wearing grey and had a definitely more feminine build (and was wielding a spear).
When Cass turned the corner in hopes of following them, the pair had disappeared.
The questions that Tim posed at debrief later were “just how many of them are there?” and “are they a threat?”
The answer to the first question, it soon seemed, was quite a few.
Over a week passed before the Bats see any of them again. That was enough time for all of them, even Bruce, to believe that was the last they would see of them.
But come the next Friday, they were proved wrong. Tonight the Bats were dealing with (yet another) Arkham breakout.
At the mandatory debrief and check-in afterwards, all teams reported seeing the same colour-coded people from a week ago but also a green, a white, and a black-coloured ones. All six appeared to have been…helping in rounding up the escaped inmates.
Once again before one of the Bats (which, due to an Arkham breakout being an All Hands Needed affair, was nearly twenty vigilantes) could stop any of the new fruit salad vigilantes (name courtesy of Dick) to extract any information from them, they all disappeared.
In short, it was getting a bit frustrating (and concerning).
“What do we know about these…’fruit salad vigilantes’?” Bruce asked.
All the core members of the BatClan (so everyone from Alfred to Duke, including Barbara) were gathered around the debrief table even though it was the middle of the day. Usually, they wouldn’t be holding a meeting now but this was a special case. They were holding this meeting in order to consolidate all their information in one place and to keep everyone informed.
“Not much; there are no appearances earlier than last Friday, December 2nd,” Tim spoke up, copying what he had just said onto a blank document that was projected onto the far wall for everyone else to see.
“There are at least six of them, maybe more,” Cass said.
‘Red, Gray, Blue, Green, White, and Black’ got added to the board.
“They have training — but not League training,” Jason.
Training, not League.
“They’re armed with an odd array of weapons,” from Dick.
Odd weaponry.
“They favour a tendency to disappear around corners or into the shadows,” from Duke.
Tendency to disappear quickly.
“They have powers,” Damian added. This last bit of information turned all heads towards the current Robin.
“Powers? As in meta-powers?” Bruce asked his youngest.
Possible metas? got added.
“There isn’t enough data to confirm it as meta powers,” Damian said. “Has no one else noticed their powers?” he asked.
They got a round of shaking heads from all those present. He barely managed to not call the rest of his family “unobservant heathens”.
“I can confirm the powers of three: the red one has pyrokinesis, the gray one has hydrokinesis, and the blue one has electrokinesis,” they said instead of insulting.
Pyrokinesis was added under Red.
Hydrokinesis under Gray.
And Electrokinesis under Blue.
“The others?” Dick asked.
“Unconfirmed, it can be assumed that they too bear similar powers,”
Before anyone can add any more, two questions get added.
1. Why are these people in Gotham?
2. Are they potential enemies or allies?
“Don't forget: Why are they only showing up now?” Jason called out.
3. Why are they only showing up now?
“Is finding out their identities a priority?” Steph asked, finally speaking for the first time since the meeting began.
Bruce shook his head.
“Not at the moment,” he told them all. “Although if an opportunity to do so comes up, take it,” he added.
“Is there anything more?” Tim asked when no one had said anything for a minute or two.
There was not.
That was the end of the meeting; after leaving the Cave, everyone dispersed across the manor and some across Gotham.
The third time, a few days later, Cass and Steph are attempting to spy on Tim who was on a date with Conner. Someone sitting at another table caught Cass’ eye and poked Steph hard in the shoulder to get her attention.
“Ow. What is it?” the blonde asked.
“The group sitting at table number eleven, the brunet and the girl are Red and Grey,” Cass told her.
“Really?”
“Yes; their body language is identical,” the black-haired lady confirmed.
The two ladies returned to what they had come here to do, but they both kept an eye on the group at table eleven. And when they went to leave, the two vigilantes got up too. There would be plenty of other opportunities to spy on their younger brother later; this particular opportunity, on the other hand, might never come again.