Spidey & Speedy - Starling City Storm

Prologue - The Psychos Just Keep Getting Younger

"Hey, Little Ass-Kicker."

"That's Supreme Overlord Little Ass-Kicker to you, brother."

Grayson grinned at the wall, and his eyes flickered in the direction of Peter, Gwen, and Olivia as they bought ice cream sandwiches from Central-Keystone International's nearby Cream store. Olivia approached him and gave him what he ordered - chocolate cookies with a scoop of strawberry between them. Then she left him to his phone chat with his little brother. Of the boys who had ever been any incarnation of Robin, though, Damian was the only one who was Bruce Wayne's biological son, as opposed to adopted like Grayson or Jason or Drake.

"As long as I'm the only one who can get away with ruffling your hair and not wind up black and blue in the face," Grayson snickered, "you'll never be my overlord. Besides, Misha Collins is already my Overlord."

"I thought Bruce was your overlord," said Damian.

Grayson shook his head. "Not really. I mean, he used to be, but ever since the Joker..."

"I know, right?" He could see Damian's bushy eyebrows - so huge for a thirteen-year-old kid - rising up and hiding behind his bangs. Assuming he hadn't cut his hair in the three weeks since Grayson had left Gotham. "Bruce spends so much time honing my fighting spirit," Damian continued, "that he completely neglects his own."

Taking a bite of his ice cream sandwich, Grayson muttered, "Thing about you is, you're an independently awesome dude. You don't need Bruce's approval."

"What if I want his approval?"

"An admirable goal," Grayson conceded.

"What are you eating?" asked Damian.

Grayson nearly choked on the ice cream sandwich. "Uh...sorry, but it's something I can't bring with me to the East Coast."

"Not as good as North Poles Apart, though, is it?"

"Nothing's as good as NPA." Grayson grinned again, wishing he could just be home already to say hi to his brothers again. "Hey, maybe next weekend I'll come back and take you and Drake there with Olivia. And a couple of surprise guests I promised I'd show around town."

"What kind of 'surprise guests?'"

"A certain arachnid fellow and his brainy, beautiful lady love."

"Not Spider-Man?"

Grayson snickered again. "It's a little too late to take back the invite if you don't want-"

"No, no, I want it! I do! I wanna meet Spider-Man!"

The way Damian tried so hard to be mature and cool and collected, and yet he could so easily yield to the same fanboyish ways that sometimes plagued Grayson...it was the most adorable facet of his personality by far.

"Don't slack off on your guitar practice," Grayson said in a fake stern tone, "and maybe we'll talk later, mmmkay?" He cleared his throat and added, "Speaking of which, how's the axe?"

The sounds of a chord came through Grayson's phone. "Can you guess what this is?" asked Damian.

It took Grayson a moment to identify it. "You learned 'Skyfall?'"

"My favorite Bond theme," Damian said.

"When Spider-Man comes to Gotham," Grayson said, "you can play it for him in - huh."

"What's up?"

Grayson tilted his head as he looked in Peter's direction. Barry had just appeared in the middle of the concourse, and he could feel the wind from here. Judging from the look on Barry's face, something really urgent was going on. Urgent enough that Grayson's services were probably required as well.

"I'll, uh, have to call you back, bro," he said. "Say hi to Drake, Alfred, and Bruce for me?"

"You know I will," Damian said.

"I can always count on you. See you soon, Damian."

"Bye." Maybe it was just Grayson's own perception getting distorted, but Damian sounded genuinely sad to say it.

He got up, pocketed his phone, and approached the others. Whatever was about to go down, he wanted to miss none of it.