Across || Tim Drake + Avengers Crossover

Chapter 20

The four brothers sat side by side in the room as they waited. Tim couldn't stop smiling, much to Damien's chagrin.

"Drake, stop smiling."

"Yeah stop smiling. You look like you took a sneaky shit or something."

Tim rolled his eyes, trying his best not to think about what that even meant as the door opened. Nick fury stepped into the room, followed by Steve and Peter, who was still in his Spiderman costume. He glanced at Tim and looked the most uncomfortable Tim had ever seen him, including the time they were cornered for interrogation about the machine. The said machine was set on the table in front of them.

Dick stood up, stepping forwards to shake everyone's hand with a smile like the sociable person he was. Jason leaned over to Tim from where he was sitting.

"Who's the grumpy pirate?"

Tim shook his head sharply with a frown, kicking Jason in the shin as he too, stood up. Jason kicked Tim back, making him buckle slightly. Damien smirked, but pretended to remain indifferent, choosing to scrutinize the newcomers instead. Tim could tell Jason was doing the same, despite his relaxed body language.

"I believe everything needs to get in order. Let me introduce myself, I'm Steve Rogers, Captain America. This is SHIELD's director, Nick Fury, and this is Spiderman." Steve spoke to them in a kind voice. Peter gave them a half hearted wave while Fury glared at all of them.

"We want some information. We know your identities," The brothers with the exception of Tim stiffened. "So I suggest you cooperate."

Jason turned to Tim dramatically and slowly took off his helmet to reveal his masked face. "You gave them our identities?"

Tim avoided his eyes. Dick spoke up hesitantly. "We'd like to have some proof before you can threaten us with that."

Fury produced a folder from the recesses of his trench coat and slid a brown folder towards the brothers. They all leaned in, looking at its contents.

It contained exactly four pages; the first being a brief contextual summation of the events that had happened. Next came Dick's, Jason's and Damien's sparse profiles. Tim assumed that his was probably stored somewhere else. Dick's eyes narrowed at the name written next to his alias and handed the folder over to Jason so he could see his file clearly.

Tim could tell Jason was trying to hold back a smirk.

"Well, you've got us." Dick said resignedly, sitting back down with a slight shake of his head. "What is it you want then?"

Steve looked over at Fury who took over. He motioned to the machine on the desk again. "An explanation for this."

The brothers looked at the half finished machine curiously. It was hardly recognizable with the way some of the parts had been twisted and damaged. Tim fumed, knowing that it was a few good days lost because they hadn't handled it properly.

"Okay, we've never seen this before." Dick hesitantly stated.

Tim spoke up. "It's a machine."

"No shit. What does it do?"

"Nothing with the way it is now." Tim said sarcastically. Fury glared at him so he continued.

"It's for teleportation."

Tim could feel his brothers send a look of silent understanding behind his back. He would have normally lied about its use but he knew that Tony had likely looked at the machine and given his own verdict.

"And why would you need such a device?"

"Convenience?" Everyone in the room could hear the silent 'duh' Tim was conveying with his tone. "Peter's literally making one too and this was just a prototype from a blueprint I had before so I could help him with his. I don't see how it warrants an interrogation."

The room fell silent and Dick saw this short pause as a time to step in.

"Look, we've come just to take Red Robin back without him fighting Spiderman. We did not mean to harm your agents and had no idea that you'd arranged a meeting with him right afterwards. I apologize for the inconvenience, but if you're done talking to my colleague and us, I'd like to leave."

The tension in the room was so thick, Tim wondered if it would ever dissipate.

_________

After a tense conversation that was more like the barking of instructions from Fury's part, they were allowed to leave. They'd promised to stay under the supervision of the Avengers for the time being under the same deal Tim had previously been under.

The boys had been dropped off at the Tower and much to Tim's happiness, the tap-in key Tony had given him for accessing the tower worked without a hitch, meaning the boys did not have to go the way he had previously. None if the Avengers were inside, allowing the brothers to change into their civilian clothes and relax after Tim meddled with FRIDAY's surveillance system again.

"You told them we're acquaintances?" Jason exclaimed dramatically, squinting at Tim from where he was spread on the couch.

"I mean I couldn't tell them I had brothers all of a sudden when it isn't written in the records I made for myself!"

"Whatever, acquaintance."

"Shut up, Jeremy." Damien smirked from the corner.

"Speaking of, I can't even retaliate against the brat because his name is fucking better than mine."

Tim coughed.

"Where did you even fucking get 'Jeremy Justice' from?"

Dick chuckled. Jason rolled his eyes. "Like you got it any better, 'Declan Rees'."

Dick shook his head. "I donno Jay, I'm pretty sure Declan Rees is better than Jeremy Justice."

"Fuck off, Dick."

Tim couldn't help looking over his brothers once again. It'd been so long since he'd properly had a look at them. He could feel the happiness grab his heart again and felt himself smiling again. He couldn't care any less about what his brothers thought. It'd been close to three months living in this foreign dimension by himself, he wasn't going to let anyone make him feel bad for being happy.

All of a sudden, Dick jumped up. "Oh, God, I forgot about Bruce!"

Tim perked up at the mention of his father's name. Bruce came? Dick fumbled with his pockets, pulling out a small black box. Tim and the others gathered closer as their oldest brother fiddled with the machine. He finally clicked a button, making a holographic screen pop up in front of them. It showed a loading screen before it was connected to the other dimension.

"It's sending signals across dimensions directly to the Batcomputer and there's another one of these connected to it so it's transmitting directly here. No satellites needed. It should be setting off an alarm on Bruce's phone."

Tim nodded, intrigued with the machine, but more interested in contacting Bruce. The said man appeared in a moment, cowl down, face tired. Tim smiled widely, keeping the second set of tears at bay.

"Hey Bruce."