Counterparts - A DC Animated Fanfic

- 3 -

Damian awoke feeling refreshed, a feeling that he felt rarely, with his lifestyle, he usually had to rely on caffeine to wake him up... Today was the first time in probably years he didn't need a morning coffee.

He checked his phone, it was currently 8am... 8AM! He slept for 10 hours! He was lucky to get 10 hours in a week let alone a day.

'Magic' - He justified, didn't Raven say that her magic would him faster. Probably in exchange of his bodies energy and that's why he slept longer than usual.

As he stretched, Titus got up from his bed in the corner, dropping a ball at his master's feet. Damian took the Great Dane's toy and lobbed it across his room and back into the dog's bed who immediately chased after it.

Slipping on some comfy clothes, Damian moved his suit back to its rack and sat back at his computer. His search had yeilded few results - Which was disappointing but what Damian angry is that all the results were restricted by... Grayson?

Quickly moving his desk chair out of his room and into the hallway and into the tower's kitchen which was empty except for Garfield who was busy cooking his breakfast and singing along to a song on his phone.

"AND I WIILLLLLL ALWAYSSS LOVE YOOOOOU..." - Garfield sang with all his might.

Damian grabbed his shoulder. - "Hey Garfield"

"AHHHH!" - Garfield screamed. - "Dude... Don't sneak up on a person like that!"

"Where's Grayson?"

"Oh, he and Kori went for a run they should be back any minute. Damian decided to wait by the elevator's door instead of waiting in the kitchen with Garfield due to the smell of grilling tofu made he want to throw up, while he was also a vegetarian, he just avoided eating meat instead of trying to substitute it with something else.

A few minutes passed and out of the elevator came Dick and Kori both sweating and smiling.

It was Kori who was the first of the pair to acknowledge him. - "Good morning Damian."

"Mornin, little brother."

Damian skipped the pleasantries. - "Grayson can I need to talk to you, in private." - He managed to keep a neutral tone even though he was seething with anger.

Dick followed Damian into the common area which was currently empty.

"Why are there restricted files in the database?"

"What..?" - Dick asked completely caught off guard, Dick quickly deducing Damian was extremely angry, he never got this angry at him. This type of anger was usually reserved for criminals... or Garfield.

"Why. Are. There. Restricted. Files?" He asked slowly, his neutral façade quickly crumbling

"Why are you trying to access them?" - Interogated Dick.

"I need them for a case!" - Damian defended.

"What case?"

"I encountered a villian last night. I've   opened up a investigation on him."

"What did he look like?"

Damian pulled out his phone and showed Dick the one clear shot of them.

Dick's eyes went wide. - "Red-X!"

"You know him?"

"We should talk somewhere more private." - Dick stated, now it was his turn to pull Damian somewhere. The two ended up on the roof.

"So it seems you have a history with this Red-X."

Dick took a breath. - "Long ago, back when I was still Robin, The Justice League gave me an undercover assignment... I was asked to infiltrate growing criminal organisation H.I.V.E., at the time they were creating a army of mercanaries and supervillains, so I created the Red-X identity and operated as a mole in their organization."

"What happened?"

"After the mission ended I retired the suit... Soon after it was stolen and nowadays Red-X is a thief who works for anyone who can pay him well enough.

"Any clue who Red-X is?"

"Nope. All my leads dried up." He admitted.

"I'm joining your investigation. Red-X is my responsibility and I'm gonna fix the mess I made."

"Ok, where do we go from here?"

"Well the suit is powered by Xenothium, which is a rare element..."

"So we find all the places where Xenothium can be found in Jump and work from there!" - Damian finished his statement.

Damian moved to the roofs entrance before Dick pulled him back. - "Damian, who else now's about this investigation?"

"Just us and Raven." Damian told him suspicious of his adopted brother.

"Good let's keep it that way, I don't want anyone else on the team knowing about this investigation, espicially Starfire."

"Ok then." - Damian said becoming even more suspicious of Dick.

"Good, now let's get breakfast." - Dick said heading towards the roofs entrance, Damian following behind.

Thank you for reading Ch. 3 of Counterparts. Hope to see you in Ch. 4. -MM