Fruit Bat. Also known as the Megabat or a Flying Fox but, those names sounded much more threatening than Tim knew he was. Still, the names were deceiving of the creature itself. On record, they could grow over sixteen inches, fitting for their name but, the animal could vary in size based on region and would sometimes grow no bigger than two inches. They prayed on mangoes and nectar from fruits like it and were often easily handled by people with proper training. Tim supposed he could be a Fruit Bat, a smaller one. Like Stella Luna before him, the teen wasn’t quite a predator of the night, separated from his mother and still learning how to use his wings, but a bat none the less. At least, for now.
Shaking the facts clear from his head, (and when had he read so much about fruit bats?) Tim went over the man’s questions again, hoping he hadn’t paused too long in answering while having been stuck in his own head.
“Curiosity killed the cat.” Tim almost chided, though managed to pull it off in a half hushed tone, besides, who was he to talk. Was he really supposed to answer? He supposed Red Hood did want to know, but did he really want to divulge such information? The young hacker knew he wouldn’t get any in return, and while that was disheartening, it wasn’t really news. “If you believe that no one has a healthy past, then you already have your answer.“ Because really, did he want Tim to fill in the bubbles? To circle the right answers and pass his papers forward? Check box number one if you have one or more dead parents, box two if they were mean to you and box three if you’re just fucked in the head. Yeah, right. The younger male rolled his eyes, huffing lightly before turning back to the large consoles.
Finally, after, quite possibly, the longest two minutes Tim had ever experienced, (half because of his anxiety over Dick’s safety, and the other due to this conversation he was expected to take part in), the computer beeped, red dots springing forward on the map. Dick sure had gotten around. The cameras that had most recently spotted the renegade teen belonged to the GCPD. It was weird, hacking into his own employers network, especially after promising to do good, but this was good right? He had found Dick’s trail and he— he was in the back of a police car? Finding the number of the patrol vehicle, Tim tracked the built in GPS until the car reached its destination. Once there, the older teen’s image was picked up by another facility with functioning cameras, a backup generator.
Tim pulled the footage up onto the screen, with another flick of his wrist, showing the older teen sitting in a six by eight holding cell, pout clear on his boyish face.
"He’s at the, um, Gotham City Police Department.”
“Curiosity killed the cat.”
“Did it? Last I heard, the Cat was in Bludhaven.” He smiled at his joke, not knowing if the girl would get it. Selina was…complicated. He wasn’t sure if Bruce had managed to tell the others about her yet.
He cocked his head to the side as the image of his student popped up on screen, sitting bored and annoyed in a jail cell.
“Fuck. What the hell?”
Dick knew better. He wasn’t afraid of his identity getting out, but still. The kid had connections to Jason, and getting arrested wasn’t a good thing. Arrest records meant a paper trail, which meant Dick was a liability. Unless…
“Thanks, Kid. Gotta go save the Padawan, you know.”
Turning on his heel, he walked past Cass, stopping only to hug her tight one last time, not knowing when he’d see her again.
“Be good, Baby Bat."
Fifteen steps later, he spun around, calling out one last jab at the girl at the computer.
"Dick is friends with Harley Quinn. Wrap it before you tap it, alright Kiddo?”
He was in the Dragon after that, climbing in to see a very pissed off Kory in the copilot chair.
“I’m in trouble, aren’t I.”
and all of this will never be the same again 