Chapter Text
Jason, Tim, and Dick were sitting on the couch in the Batcave. A few years ago, Bruce had amplified the cave and added a lounge area where everyone could just sit and hold discussions. The idea came to him after the Teen Titans had come to stay at the manor and Bruce had realized that the cave wasn’t large enough for all of them to train or simply coexist without someone getting hit by an on flying weapon.
So the three of them sat lazily on the couch while waiting for Batman, and also for Damian to arrive. They were all wearing their super suits, Dick had put his on because he was supposed to go meet with Starfire, Jason had just returned from patrol with Red Arrow, and Tim had already been in the cave doing research when he got the message from Alfred to be in the cave.
After a few minutes, Damian arrived, also wearing his suit and with Ace right by his side. “Nice of you to finally join us” Jason remarked.
Ace jumped on the couch next to where Dick was sitting and rested his head on the man’s thigh. “Hey buddy” Dick patted the dog’s head without hesitation.
“So, why do you think he called us all?” Tim asked now that they were all present.
Jason shrugged, “No clue, but I was coming here anyway.”
Dick scratched the back of his neck, “Well, Star got the weekend off and we were gonna spend it together so I hope it’s not something too serious.”
Damian glared at his brothers, “Father wouldn’t call us here if it wasn’t serious.”
Tim tilted his head, “Well last I checked his files there weren’t any big threats after Superman came back.”
“Yeah. Remember when he called us here when Damian brought a cow home!” Jason reminded them with a laugh. He always got a kick out of reminding Bruce who he called them to ask for help when Damian had basically forced him to bring a cow to the manor with them after a mission.
“Don’t look at me, I haven’t brought any new animals here” Damian defended himself.
“Bet he’s bringing another kid home….” Jason suggested.
“What?” Tim and Drake spoke up in unison. Though neither would be that upset if it were true.
Dick had watched Bruce bring three more boys to the manor so it wouldn’t be that strange. Plus, all the kids that came to live with them were orphans, like he himself had been, so if Bruce was bringing another kid home it probably meant that it was another orphan, someone who was alone, someone who needed a family ... .like they all had been.
“You think father would do that?” Damian asked.
“He brought three kids home before he even knew you existed, trust us it’s not hard to believe” Tim retorted.
“Or maybe someone found out his secret identity” was Jason’s next
“That would constitute an emergency” Damian agreed.
Dick raised an eyebrow, “You think one of the Justice League members figured it out?” He would be shocked if they did, he had worked with some of them when he was little and it had always baffled him how none were able to piece together that Bruce Wayne was Batman. Seriously, who else from Gotham had enough cash to finance the freaking Justice League??
“Maybe…” Damian said, “but I have no idea how that could have happened.”
“Well I know for a fact none of the Titans and our friends would betray our trust like that” Dick stated.
Damian nodded in agreement, “Fair enough, I suppose none of them have been given reason to be distrusted……at least that we know of.”
“Let’s just wait and see what he has to tell us,” Jason proposed. And so for the next thirty minutes they all sat together, sharing small talk while waiting for Batman.
—————————————————
Superboy watched as he and Batman arrived in Gotham. He had been told that the city was dark and edgy, and honestly it was true. The city was the complete opposite of Metropolis’ clear skies and golden skyline.
Superboy was a bit worried about being in the unknown city, but he had to. He would face the unknown and discover what he could make of himself.
As Superboy was busy with his thoughts, he hadn’t noticed that Batman had diverted the ship’s trajectory away from the city. “Where are we actually going?”
“My base is on the outskirts of the city,” Batman responded. He directed the ship towards some fields filled with trees. Superboy understood, he had been to Superman’s Fortress once, it made sense that super heroes need to have bases that are well hidden from any prying eyes.
They flew towards the trees and up until they reached a cavern, and flew inside the cavern with no hesitation. It was dark, very dark. And long, it felt like they were flying in a dark corridor for hours. So Superboy’s eyes widened when he saw industrial lights inside the cavern.
“This is the Batcave” Batman told Superboy when he saw the boy’s mouth hanging open.
“I’m not even surprised you call this place the Batcave” Superboy responded as he kept staring.
The industrial corridor ended when they reached a large open room with a platform for the ship to land. And Superboy could see that there were other platforms with a plethora of other vehicles.
Batman landed the ship on the platform and began shutting off the engine, “The boys must be waiting for us” he unbuckled his seat belt.
“So do I get to know who the ‘boys’ are now?” Superboy asked as he unbuckled his own seat belt.
Batman sighed, “They’re my Robins….”
“They’re your sidekicks” Superboy cut in.
Bruce gritted his teeth, “They’re also vigilantes, but they’re also my family” he explained. He clicked a button on his monitor and the doors of the ship opened. “Come, I’ll introduce you” he gestured for Superboy to follow him out.
Superboy watched as Batman exited the ship and stepped onto the hanger, and as he followed, he noticed that there were four figures walking over to Batman. He didn’t recognize them, but he had heard on the news once that Robin was Batman’s sidekick, though he didn’t think there’d be four of them.
“Good to see you’re all here” Batman said as he approached the boys.
“Hey B what’s up?” Dick asked as he approached his father, the fact that he didn’t seem injured was good.
“Why did you summon all of us?” Damian got straight to the point.
“I called you all because we have a situation” Bruce started.
“What is it father?” Was Damian’s next question.
“Father??!!” Superboy said a little too loudly as he was stepping out of the ship, he had heard every word exchanged so far thanks to his super-hearing, causing all the boys to turn their head towards him.
“Told you he found another kid!” Jason shouted next, “I should have bet money on that.”
Dick looked Superboy up and down, “Seriously, are a magnet to black haired young boys or what.”
Bruce took a deep breath, “This is a different situation entirely. And that’s why I need all of you and….where’s Alfred?”
“He’s upstairs with Roy,” Jason answered.
Batman raised an eyebrow, “And what are they doing?”
“Alfred is stitching him up,” Jason said bluntly.
“What, you didn’t tell us that?” Tim stared at Jason.
“What the hell did you do to him this time?” Dick did a face palm.
Jason huffed, “Would you calm down, a bullet scraped his shoulder. He’s fine.”
“Uh, alright. Anything else I should know about?” Batman asked in a tired voice.
“Kori is coming to stay the weekend” Dick states.
“Sure, she’s always welcome” and he meant it. Since Dick and Kori were soulmates she was already his daughter in law. Heck, she pretty much was since they were late teens and already dating, even before they found out they were soulmates.
“Okay, so who’s that?” Jason asked, gesturing towards Superboy.
Bruce took a step to the side so that he could probably introduce them, “Boys, meet Superboy.”
“Superboy?” Jason, Dick, and Damian said in unison.
“Superboy!” Tim nearly pounced onto the other boy with excitement. “Oh my god, someone get me some coffee…” he took one of Superboy’s hands to shake onto his own, “Okay I’ve wanted to meet you since I found out Lex Luthor cloned Superman.”
Superboy’s face contorted into pure confusion, “You did?” He had dealt with weird fans before, but this boy in a red suit seemed stranger than most.
“Duh, I have so many questions!” Tim let go of Superboy’s hand. “I’m fascinated by the technology they used to create you, since technically you’re not a clone right, Lex must have cloned himself or Superman first and then infused the other’s DNA. Basically creating a child without a female. Right?”
Superboy blinked, “Uh….” Even with super hearing he hasn’t understood all of Tim’s rambling. Usually people would gush over him to bring a ‘clone’ of Superman, not over his entire cloning process, it made him feel a bit nauseous if anything.
“Does Kryptonite affect you? Or are you immune since you’re half human? Also how old are you? Clearly your ageing was accelerated, but are you gonna age normally now or are you gonna get old really fast too?” Tim kept rambling with questions, he had always been fascinated by technology so finding out that someone had successfully created an artificial clone-child was absolutely fascinating.
“I’m sorry, I-I don’t know the answers to most of that” Superboy stuttered. He really didn’t know anything about himself, but seeing someone look actually interested in knowing more about him felt…..exciting.
“Oh..” Tim made a clicking noise with his tongue, “..it’s okay.”
“Actually, Red Robin isn’t entirely wrong,” Batman said.
“Huh” Superboy and Red Robin turned to the others, they had been caught in their little moment that they forgot they were still in the hanger bay. “Those are important questions….well mostly”
“Hey!” Tim snapped at his father, making Superboy laugh.
Batman turned to the half Kryptonian, “We need to know the full scope of your powers but also weaknesses, the whole point of you being here. We’ll have to explore all of it.”
“Yeah, it’s fine. We can make a whole file on you” Tim agreed with no hesitation.
“File?”
Dick walked up to them and put a hand on Tim’s shoulder blade, “Calm down Tim, you’re not supposed to scare him that fast” his voice was laced with sarcasm.
“Maybe we should move this conversation to the sitting area,” Batman suggested. So they did. They all walked over to the sitting area where Ace was still sitting on the couch. Dick, Damien, Jason, and Tim sat on the largest black couch, while Batman and Superboy sat across from them.
After they were all seated, Dick started the introductions, he offered a gloved hand which Superboy shook, “I’m Nightwing.”
“I’m Red Hood” Jason introduced himself next to them.
“I’m Red Robin,” Tim smiled happily.
“And I’m Robin” Damian was still eyeing Superboy suspiciously, with his arms crossed over his chest.
They started with their vigilante names, like they always did. Revealing their true names always took some time and familiarity with the person they were sharing the knowledge with.
“I’m Superboy, it’s nice to meet you all.”
“Okay so now, what is he doing here? Shouldn’t Superman be the one to help him with his powers?” Jason questioned Batman. Because sure, Batman was great at training rouge and talented orphans from Gotham, but they were all human! How were they all supposed to help train an alien?
Batman looked down at Superboy with sympathy, “Do you wanna explain?” He was fine with explaining the situation himself, but offering Superboy the chance to speak on his own behalf.
Superboy stopped breathing for a moment, he was being asked what he wanted to do. It was honestly sad at how joyous simply being given the opportunity to talk freely made him feel. “I can do it.”
Bruce smiled faintly and leaned back on the couch, “Go on.”
Superboy took in a deep breath, “I guess you already know I was…made by Lex Luthor. Well now that he’s in prison I thought I would live with Superman too..” he met eyes with Jason, “But he didn’t want me, he wanted to throw me into STAR labs like I’m a lab rat. So I was planning on running away….” that brought a collective gasp between the Robins, who would imagine Superman doing such a thing.
“But Batman stopped you?” Jason then asked.
Superboy nodded shyly, “Yeah, he said I could live with him….with you guys I guess.”
“So you kidnapped him against Superman’s wishes?” Damian directed at his father.
Batman shrugged his shoulders, “He was going to run away either way, I just offered him a place to run off to.”
Dick smiled widely, “So some things never change.”
“Huh?”
“We’re all adopted, Batman found us over the years and brought us into his family” Dick explained.
“Except me, I’m the blood son” Damian stated matter of factly.
Superboy snapped towards Robin, “What?”
“Don’t ask” Tim implored, they didn’t have time to go into that whole situation right now.
“Okay…?” Superboy concluded it was best not to argue.
“So we’re housing a smuggled alien now? I won’t call Robin’s adoption strange ever again” Jason laughed.
“Shut up Todd” Damian spat at the older, which only made Jason laugh harder.
Superboy felt like he was in a completely different world. Both in LexCorp’s lab and at the Watchtower, everyone around him was always extremely serious and detached. But here everyone seemed more laid back, they weren’t coworkers….they were family.
“Okay but do you think Superman is gonna come looking for you?” Red Robin asked, he was still studying Superboy with his eyes.
Superboy lowered his gaze, “I don’t know, he wanted to send me away so, technically I’m doing him a favor aren’t I?” He ended his self depriving statement with a sad laugh.
Nightwing felt bad, “Just gotta know in case we have to fight an angry Kryptonian in the near future” Dick awkwardly explained himself.
“We have enough kryptonite to take him,” Damian said flatly.
“Don’t be overconfident Robin” Batman said to his youngest son.
“Okay so next question, is he gonna live here with us?” Red Robin asked the next question.
“I brought him here for that exact purpose.”
“Cool, so are we gonna let him in on the whole secret identity thing?”
This made Superboy almost jump in his seat, “Wait….” he turned his body to face Batman properly, “Not even the Justice League knows who you are, but you’re gonna tell me?” He was floored! Today had been the first time he had a proper conversation with the knight of Gotham, and the Justice League had known the bat for years, yet he was being trusted with such information?
“We’re not gonna live around you wearing our masks,” Jason retorted.
“You guys live in this cave?”
“Of course not, we have a house, this is technically our basement” Batman answered.
Superboy looked over his surroundings, “Your basement? You mean this whole secret base is under your house.”
“Just wait til you see the house,” Tim added with excitement.
Superboy looked into Red Robin’s eyes….well the white eyes of his mask. “And you guys, trust me?”
“Well you wouldn’t be the first young super to know, honestly it’s mostly just the league that doesn’t know” Tim responded.
“What?”
“All the titans know, and other sidekicks know too,” Dick added.
Superboy didn’t know what to make of that information, but he would definitely be asking about that earlier, “Oh, that’s…..surprising.”
Batman put a hand on Superboy’s shoulder and spoke in a clear but firm voice, “I’m willing to trust you with this, but you have to swear you won’t tell anyone, not any of the other members of the league, not Lex Luthor, and especially not Superman.”
Superboy felt a chill down his spine. So Batman didn’t trust THE Justice League with his identity, but was willing to share his most intimate secret with a clone made by Lex Luthor??
Well the not telling anyone part wouldn’t be that hard, who would he tell anyway? The Justice League pretty much saw him as a rogue and unchecked clone of Superman. Lex? His creator was in prison, and Superboy didn’t want to see his face anytime soon. He would never risk Lex trying to bring him back to LexCorp. And Superman?? He didn’t want to see his other father, he wanted to be as far away as possible from the Kryptonian.
So he definitely wouldn’t tell anyone, but that wasn’t the most important thing, the important thing….is that he didn’t want to! Batman was the first person to be kind to him, to see him as more than a clone of Superman, to let him speak his mind, to give him a chance to just be human. Whoever the man was, Superboy would take his secret to the grave. “I promise, I won’t tell anyone” he spoke with vigor and finality.
Batman smiled, “Very well…” and he reached over his head to unclamp his cowl. And in what Superboy could only describe as slow motion, the black leather fell back to reveal a man with black fluffy hair and icy blue eyes. “Nice to meet you Superboy,” the man said.
Superboy felt the air be pulled from his lungs, he recognized the man. He recognized Batman! “You’re Bruce Wayne, the billionaire?”
“Is that shocking? Like seriously, who else in Gotham can afford this?” Jason sounded exasperated. But Bruce just kept looking at Superboy.
The scientist at LexCorp had a hidden tv at the Lab (that they would hide whenever Lex came to ask for updates on their work), so he had seen clips of Bruce Wayne on the news. “I-I always heard Lex Luthor complain about how he could possibly lose business to an idiot like you…” Superboy laughed.
Bruce mirrored his laugh, “That's kinda the plan.”
“You’re a genius! You play stupid in front of everyone so nobody would think you’re Batman!”
“He gets it,” Dick nudges Jason’s shoulder.
“I won’t tell anyone Bruce, I promise” Superboy promises once again.
“Good” was all Bruce said, then he turned to his sons, “..boys?”
They understood the message, and Superboy watched as the four boys started taking off their masks.
Nightwing was the first to take off his mask, he looked a lot like Bruce, with black hair and blue eyes. “Nice to meet you Superboy, I’m Dick Grayson-Wayne.”
Superboy thought that being called ‘Dick’ was odd, but decided it was rude to comment on someone’s name being inappropriate.
Red Hood took of his helmet in one swoop, only to be another black haired with bluish-green eyes, “Jason Todd-Wayne”
Robin took off his eye mask, “I’m just Damian Wayne.” And yep, he was like a smaller version of Bruce.
Red Robin was the last to take off his mask, “Tim Drake-Wayne” he smiled at Superboy, his own blue eyes glowing in the light.
“Nice to meet you all” Superboy smiled at all of them.
“So what’s your name?” Tim asked him excitedly.
Superboy’s smile faltered, “I…don’t have one.”
Damien raised an eyebrow, “You don’t have a name?”
“Well for a long time Lex just called me thirteen because that was my trial number, then I became Superman but the media rebranded me as Superboy and the name just….stuck”
“And Superman didn’t give you one either?” Tim asked, he sounded sad….sad for Superboy.
“No.”
Tim made an angry face, “Well he’s a jerk.” He then got up from the large couch and moved over to the smaller one and plopped himself next to Superboy.
Dick, Jason, Damian, and even Bruce were thrown off by Tim’s action. They all shared a worried knowing look but decided to keep quiet for now and just let the scene unravel.
Superboy wasn’t uncomfortable by Tim’s presence, he felt a little honored that someone seemed so angry on his behalf. “So you didn’t get to pick your hero name, it’s fine but you can pick your regular name.”
Superboy tilted his head, “I can?”
“Well you can’t walk around Gotham as Superboy” Bruce reminded him. And he was right, if Superboy wanted to keep a low profile and hide from Superman he would need to change his name.
Tim wrapped one arm around Superboy’s shoulders, “Of course you can, just don’t pick Richard, Jason, Damian, or Timothy, having repeat names is a no.”
“Are there any names you like?” Dick asked Superboy.
Superboy raised his hands in surrender, “Not really?”
Tim placed a hand on his chin, “How about……Ryan?”
Superboy shook his head no.
And so the name suggestions began rolling in….
“Lucas?…Henry?…Llyod?…Manuel?…Luke?…Brandon?…Alex?…Carlos?…Anthony?…Magnus?…Kai?…Patrick?…Adrien?…Leo?…Austin?…Steven?…Frank?…Conner?… Michael?….”
“Wait!” Superboy stopped Tim’s rambling, “T-the last one.”
“Michael?”
“No, the one before that..”Superboy’s cheeks flushed a little.
“Conner?”
“Yeah ... .I like that one” his voice was quiet.
Tim smiled triumphantly, “Perfect, Conner it is then!”
Conner had been lost in thought when he suddenly heard footsteps in the distance. It was only at that moment that he paid close attention to a set of stairs a few feet away from the sitting area. Based on the fact that the boys called the Batcave their ‘basement’ he could only assume that those stairs led into their actual house.
Then came the voice, “Hey fam what’s up?…” And out of the shadows stepped a red haired man, wearing what looked like a pair of red and blue pajamas and a white bandage wrapped around his shoulder and upper arm. He looked over at the bat family and sat in the lounge area, until his eyes landed on the new face, “Oh, did Bruce bring another one home?”
Jason jumped off his seat when we saw his soulmate casually walking down the stairs, as if he hadn’t been shot mere hours ago, “What the fuck Roy, your supposed to be in bed!”
“Master Jason!” came another voice, sounding older and definitely mad. Then a man dressed in a pristine grey suit. “Language!” the man scolded Jason again.
“Sorry Alfred.”
A lightbulb flickered in ConnerMd head, “So that’s Alfred?”
Bruce nodded, “My butler, but he’s part of the family.” So yet another member of the family, Conner couldn’t believe that everyone thought of Batman as a loner when the man was the complete opposite.
Alfred let Jason fuss over Roy’s bandage and strutted over to Bruce, Tim, and Conner. He looked down at the new boy sitting on the couch, “I see you are all well. And I assume you are the guest that will be saying it over?” He spoke to Conner.
“Yes Alfred, Conner here will be staying with us for a while” Bruce responded, making Conner smile.
Next they heard an alarm sound and a message pop up on the main computer across the cave. “What’s that?” Conner whispered to Tim.
“Just our camera system,” Red Robin answered.
Dick rushed over to the computer to turn the alarm off, “Oh Kori is here! I gotta get out of this suit.” Then he rushed over to the changing room Bruce had also added to the cave for everyone’s privacy while changing into their suits.
So Dick changed into his civilian clothes and started rushing upstairs to open the door for his girlfriend. Meanwhile, Jason accompanied Roy back upstairs so he could lay down and rest. And Damian also left, claiming he had to go feed his cow.
“You guys have a cow?!” Conner’s eyes followed Damian as he walked towards a little area in the corner where a large cow was sleeping on a pile of hay.
“Of course we have a cow!” Damian said with a scowl.
“Oh boy, welcome to the fam Conner, let’s see how long you survive” Tim joked.
Bruce glared lightly at his, “He’s joking….mostly. Just don’t comment on Damian’s pets, he prefers to care for them himself.”
“Got it,” Conner nodded. He wondered if all families were as intriguing as the Wayne’s, they were apparently a group of orphans that were all taken in by a random billionaire but were out at night fighting crime on the streets of Gotham. But at the same time, watching the boys argue with each other or the way Bruce seems fond yet very much done with it. This feels so much better, so much more real, more alive…than anyplace he had ever been.
Tim then hopped onto his feet and extended a hand to Superboy, "C'mon Conner, let us show you Wayne Manor!”
Conner hesitated, he looked over to Bruce for extra assurance, and when the man smiled at him encouragingly, Conner gladly took the hand.
Red Robin walked them to the changing room first so he could change out of the suit. Conner stood outside, checking out the cave as Tim changed.
“So, you think you’ll like it here?” Tim spoke from inside the changing room.
Conner had been looking over the computer monitors when Tim asked him the question. He was caught a bit off guard, but replied honestly, “It’s different from what I expected.”
“Is it now?” Tim raised an eyebrow as he walked out of the changing room in a pair of puffy black pants and a green hoodie.
“I didn’t expect Batman to be a dad.”
Tim thought for a moment before agreeing, “I think most don’t.” He nudged Conner’s shoulder with his fist, “Now c'mon, let me show you around…oh and you’re gonna love Alfred’s cooking.”
Conner laughed, “I bet it’s better than the food at LexCorp, lead the way.” And he followed Tim up the stairs.
Bruce and Alfred had been talking in the sitting area. Mostly about the upcoming charity gala Bruce would be hosting to introduce his newest foundation. But they also watched Tim leading Conner into the manor.
Alfred looked at Bruce questioningly, “So you brought Superman’s son into our home, are you sure about this decision master Bruce?”
Bruce sighed, “I know it’s risky Alfred. I know I’m risking Clark figuring out my identity….but I couldn’t let him be sent off like he’s nothing.” He looked up at the stairs again, though no one was there, “Besides, I think he’ll like it here.”
Alfred hummed, “I’m sure he will sire.”