Across || Tim Drake + Avengers Crossover

Chapter 15

"So then what happened?"

"Well, Jason tumbled into the room, smashing the only window that wasn't broken at this point. Like come on! There was literally a truck-sized hole in the wall right next to him!"

Peter laughed as Tim grumbled about the unnecessary damage his brother had done on a building in one of their previous missions. The two of them were out on patrol and were currently sitting atop a building overlooking a large park for a short break.

It had been almost a week since Tim had shared his predicament and he had finally begun working on the machine as soon as the shipments of supplies arrived at the tower. He had to be extremely careful not to raise suspicion with the Avengers, meaning he could only work on his project while Peter was in the lab on the pretense that he was helping out, but he considered his new situation a huge jump towards going home. Tim spent the rest of his time further finalizing the details of the contraption or patrolling with Peter.

"Oh shoot, I gotta get going now. May's going to kill me if I come home later than ten." Peter stood up, putting away his battered phone. Tim followed suit, dusting his legs off.

"You wanna race?" He looked at Peter and cocked his head, grinning. Peter's house was on the way to Avenger's Tower from where they were situated in the city.

"I'm not going to go easy on you," Peter warned.

"Oh please,"

With that, Tim leapt off the building ledge, savoring the momentary freefall feeling before deploying his grappling hook onto another building. He kept at it, propelling himself forwards in a rhythmic motion, not bothering to check where Peter was, knowing that he was close behind.

__________

Tim arrived at Peter's, panting slightly. Peter had just beaten him in the last minute, swinging forwards with his webs to the top of the building where his backpack full of clothes were. Tim shook his head and opted to sit on the streetlight nearby, waiting for Peter to come down before going to the Tower. He'd recently grown a liking to sitting on the streetlights, primarily because it was difficult for people on the ground to look at him and also because it allowed him to build more momentum when swinging away. It was totally not because Peter couldn't do it because his webs would block out the lights or damage public property.

"I totally won that round."

Tim looked down at Peter who was dressed in his normal clothes.

"Well, for someone who has super powers I sure am not impressed you caught up so late." Tim crossed his arms.

"Wow you're such a sore loser Robin."

Tim wrinkled his nose.

"Well, I'm gonna head on in then. I'll see ya tomorrow!"

"Okay, bye."

Tim watched Peter walk up to the door and unlock it before walking inside. He felt a dull sensation within him as his mind wandered off to the thought of when the last time he'd been home was. It had been well over a month since he'd first arrived and he was beginning to question if his family had forgotten about him already. He could never know, perhaps they'd concluded that he died...

He shook his head and looked up to where the Tower could be visibly seen towering over the other buildings. This wasn't the time to think about these things. He readied his grapple gun and swung away.

___________

Careful now... With a click, the compartment fit into place.

Tim was in the lab in secret, working on the device as the rest of the Avengers were presumably sleeping. Tony had gone out with Pepper for the evening and had yet to return, giving Tim the perfect chance to make progress on his project. Everything so far was smooth sailing, but Tim didn't dare say it out loud lest he jinxed himself.

He picked up the tweezers, taking a piece of wire and carefully threading it inside the machine. It was a delicate process. Tim held his breath and held it up to the connecting end, getting ready to solder it into place. Okay, one move and he'd-

Tim froze, his heart almost leaping out of his chest as he stayed stock still. Did he hallucinate-

The knocking sound came again... from behind him.

In all honesty, Tim didn't get that scared from horror movies or thriller books. No. How could he when he faced the horrors of the real world every night? After facing off with psychopaths like Joker and the other underdogs of Gotham, horror movies were a breeze. Not that he liked watching them, but still.

The knocking from behind him was freaking him out though.

Tim closed his eyes and took a silent breath in as he tried to reason with himself. All he knew was that there was something outside the window tapping on the glass, clearly trying to get him to turn around. Or perhaps not. Maybe it was trying to get in. He could feel eyes at the back of his neck. Regretting not turning on all the lights, he tried to get the horrifying thought out of his head. He was currently on the eighty seventh floor and knew from personal experience that there were no footholds on this level, meaning that whatever was behind him was not human.

The only thing that could possibly-

Tim whipped around to see a familiar blue and red clad figure behind him and let out a huge sigh, trying not to look too shaken up.

He stood up and headed to the window. "Okay what the actual hell Peter." His heart was still racing from the suspense and couldn't help but let some of his anger and embarrassment show in his voice.

Peter took off his mask, revealing his messy hair and sheepish grin. "Can you let me in? Someone locked the terrace door."

Tim rubbed his face with his hands, nodding before heading upstairs and opening the door for Peter.

"Thanks,"

"What are you doing here? You literally just went home and it's-" Tim checked his watch. "Two hours after your curfew."

Peter fumbled around, hurriedly pulling out his phone. "Okay, okay I know that, but you gotta check this out."

"And this couldn't wait until tomorrow?"

"Dude, just trust me."

Peter handed over his phone and tapped on the icon to play the video. It was very poor quality and it appeared like Peter had hurriedly turned on the camera. Peter was muttering to himself to hurry up before he quietened down and focused on the TV. Tim couldn't believe his eyes.

He looked up at Peter. "This- This is real?"

Peter scratched the back of his neck. "I donno, it kind of just came up on the TV. I was going to send you the video, but my phone can't handle it."

Tim nodded silently, still staring at the low resolution screen.

"You okay?"

Tim swallowed thickly as he held the phone in his hands and stared at the three faces he hadn't seen for a whole month on the screen.

"Yeah."