Counterparts - A DC Animated Fanfic

- 27 -

 Stepping off of the elevator, Damian was almost immediately swarmed by both Dick and Kori. Both who looked between a mix of annoyed and concerned. Dick looked liked he wanted to say something but Kori beat him to the punch.

"Why did you disconnect the camera Damian?" - She asked, advancing on the teen.

All of the preparation that Damian had done in the elevator ride had completely vanished, now instead of making sure his words conveyed the message he wanted, now, the only thing he could think of was telling them the truth.

"We have a problem." - He ignored Kori's question.

"And what would that be?" - Dick asked, honestly tired of all the non-stop problems that Titans had been facing over the past couple of weeks.

"Anarky knows who we are..." - He watched as Dick and Kori's faces fell. - "...And so does Red-X." - Kori's expression became more devastated, while Dick's scrunched up as he pieced everything together.

"Red-X knew who I was even before he even got the suit-"

"And now he and Anarky are on the same team, so he's in the loop too." - Kori concluded for him.

"Anarky claimed that he and Red-X wont act on that information, unless they have no other option to." - Damian remarked, earning a strange look from both older Titans.

Kori looked ready to blow a fuse, she slammed her fist into the wall, leaving a decent sized hole. Now calm she narrowed her eyes at Damian. - "Do you really think we can trust anything that comes from his mouth?" - She spat.

"I looked into his eyes, I know he was telling the truth."

Crunch! - Another hole decorated the wall beside him, with flickering lights accompanying it.

"Damian please leave me and Dick alone for a minute, we need to talk." - Damian just nodded and left, knowing it was better to let Grayson handle her when she was that angry.

Heading to his room, Damian passed by the common-room where he could hear Donna, Garfield and Jaime's voices coupled with the sounds of gunfire and dying aliens, ignoring that, he passed by through the kitchen and everyone else's bedrooms before coming to his at the end of the hall.

Entering the room, Damian was taking aback by the image of Raven sitting on his bed, wearing an oversized hoodie, while holding a book in one hand, and scratching Titus' belly with the other.

He was so enraptured by the sight in front of him, that he barely heard Raven's greeting.

"Hi." - He replied absently, still shaken by her presence.

"Are you okay Damian?" - She asked, worried for her best friends out-of-character daydreaming. Titus also looked at his master in a concerned fashion.

"Yeah... Yeah I'm fine." - He hesitated, before taking a seat at his desk, pushing all of the electronics and tools to one side of his desk, then he reached for his notebook and one of the sharpened pencils in his pot.

Watching Damian with interest, Raven dropped her book and got off his bed. - "What're you drawing?" 

"Anarky."

That threw Raven for a loop. She was about to ask why, but it seemed Damian had noticed her confusion, and answered the question she didn't even get to ask.

"Anarky took off his mask, but I couldn't get a picture in his face, so I have nothing to match against the facial recognition program on my laptop."

"Why couldn't you record his face?"

"I disconnected the security camera and had to take off my mask."

"Took off your mask?" - Raven cried in shock.

"He already knew who I was, it was the only way we could be on equal footing." - His sketch was about halfway done, the facial features just beginning to take shape.

"How did he know who you are?"

Leaning into his drawing, Damian seemingly ignored her question.

"Damian?" - No response. - "Damian?" - Still no reply. - "Damian!" - She screamed into his ear, that seemed to jolt him.

"Can you repeat the question?" 

Raven made sure to speak slowly and clearly. - "How did he know who you are?" 

"Red-X knew who Dick was even before he stole the suit." - He put down his pencil, satisfied with the results. - "And now so does he..." - Damian held up the drawing, allowing Raven to get a good look at it.

The sketch was incredibly detailed, it was hard to distinguish between a drawing or photograph, a product of a genetically modified eidetic memory. Raven had only seen a small sample of Damian's illustrations, and she had to say, each was more breathtaking than the last.

"Damian." - She froze in utter astonishment.

"Yeah I know, it's not my best. But once I add some colour it'll work as well as any picture for my facial recognition software."

"Not your best?" - She mumbled to herself, now the only thing she was wondering was did was his best work looked like?

"Could you pass me my laptop?"

Raven nodded and reached for the WayneTech laptop, before passing the sleek silver computer to Damian, who immediately placed the device down and opening it. Angling it to an angle where she couldn't see the screen, he typed in his password, before turning it back around.

His screensaver was one of the basic mountain-landscape ones, all of the app icons were neatly tucked in the bottom of his screen, making sure that the sight of the snow-capped peak wasn't blocked.

Moving the cursor over some of the icons, Damian stopped on an image of what looked like a clipart head in a box, before clicking on it. Done with step-1, the teenager reached for his phone and unplugged it from it's charger. Putting in a another password, Damian opened up the camera and took a picture of his sketch.

Connecting his phone to the laptop, he transferred the photo over, before entering it into the application and leaning back in his chair. Letting the program begin to find an exact match to the one he submitted.

"How long will this take?" - Raven asked, remembering how the length when they used the thing to reveal Red-X a few months ago.

"Factoring in all the face it has to scan through, I estimate a day and a half."

"A day and a half?" 

"At least..." - Damian commented.

"So what do we do until then?" - He stifled a yawn. - "Never mind."

"I can't go to sleep yet. I have still have to refit my entire utility belt." - He stifled another yawn. Raven didn't even had to say anything with Damian accepting defeat.

"Goodnight Damian." - Raven smiled, petting Titus as she left.

"Goodnight Raven." - He smiled back, watching as she left. Once the door closed behind her, Damian turned back to his workbench, ready to get back to work on his tool, but he decided against it. Pulling off his shirt, he commanded Titus off his bed, before switching the lights off.

He could deal with everything tomorrow, after all.

Thanks for reading Ch.27 of 'Counterparts' I hope you comment, vote, follow-me and read Ch.28 -MM