A Basket Full of Bats

Not the Batman I know

Batman ended up ordering the transformer parts through the Justice League account. He was still footing the bill but by hiding the parts order under the JL umbrella, it wasn't obvious to a clever investigator that Bruce Wayne had blown out a large transformer the same night ARC-X activated.

Superman picked up the parts, then Zeta'd them to the cave.

Lucius had replacement parts for the Batcomputer. The only things salvageable on the Batcomputer was the displays and keyboards. It was the Batcomputer. Everything was well backed up.

Tim who had broken the encrypted copy of ARC-X into fragments and then painstakingly decrypted the fragments hours and hours later, reported they'd really dodged a bullet with the massive and insidious computer virus. It could have taken out the power grid of the entire country and fried most public computers but somehow the heavily firewalled Batcomputer, combined with the fact that the Batcave and mansion were off grid had kept the damage contained. Tim was trying to develop virus protection to counter ARC-X but he'd not slept at all, he was ghost pale and starting to stutter. Bruce came, hauled him off to bed and sent the files with strongly worded warnings to a special contact in the cyber division of the FBI, for them to counter.

"I just need coffee Bruce. I can do it. I just need coffee."

"Tim go to bed. Cassie, Jason, Stephanie, and Carrie have all gone to bed. Damian will too as soon as he gets back from the milk run. The JLA are here now but won't be able to stay much longer so take advantage of the opportunity and sleep."

The Flash was working with Superman to repair the transformer. Batman or Bruce depending on what level of the house he was on was disconnecting and collecting everything with a microprocessor large enough to hold the virus. Hundreds of thousands of dollars of damage had been done, frankly the number of zeros behind damage estimates might need an extra decimal place when the Batcave equipment damage was all added together.

Alfred had acquired more diesel, a lot of ice to keep things from spoiling, and a large takeout carafe of coffee.

Bruce went to go check on Richard. He just needed to see that his baby boy was alright. J'onn had said he was fighting pneumonia now? What was worse, is that it was probably a direct result of this whole ARC-X thing. It's my fault thought Bruce. Bruce's frown eased when he went in and saw Diana was currently on cuddle duty. She looked up and smiled.

Bruce came over and gently stroked Richard's head. He was sleeping.

"J'onn said he's not developed enough yet to stay warm on his own so I'm saving a life by holding him close and lending him heat," Diana explained softly. "Not that I should be complaining about it to you because things here have been obviously trying but for me the last few days have been the type that tear at your very being. I have been in such a bad mood."

"You don't look like you're in a bad mood now."

"No. If they could bottle and sell, cuddle with a sleepy baby, half of the world's problems would evaporate overnight. He even smells like comfort."

"I haven't actually gotten to hold him like that often. The incubator bed is still safer for him." Bruce was still gently petting Richard. "They kept saying soon. J'onn says he has pneumonia but what did J'onn do? His color is better." The nurse was currently out of the room finding a way to warm a little milk.

"J'onn said two things. He fixed your son's heart and the stopped the related medication. He also said something about telepathically shielding Richard's nervous system for a few hours last night? The stimulation of being shuffled from person to person and all of the new colors, sounds and such was apparently too much. Richard started crying and just couldn't stop without help. J'onn had to go back up. He was needed elsewhere but I think it's been fine. Richard's been asleep since before he left."

"I've been dreading second heart surgery. They were putting it off till he was bigger. I had no idea J'onn could do that. As much as I want to steal my baby from you right now if he's been having trouble with over-stimulation and he's actually sleeping, the last thing he needs is to be moved again. I suppose I should go help Barry and Clark with the repairs."

"How much does he weigh? I've never seen a baby this small."

"He's almost a pound and a half now. He should be heavier. The current plan is to fortify his milk to increase the calories but part of the problem is that his gut isn't well developed yet so he's not absorbing the milk he gets properly or voiding well, then he can't keep down his feedings."

The nurse returned with a small syringe full of warm milk. She let Bruce take it. He slowly injected it into the feeding tube, uncovering Richard and rubbing his belly a little and quickly checking his diaper. Sleepy eyes opened half way. Bruce got one of Dickie's pacifiers holding it for him to suck on. "Shh, go back to sleep baby," whispered Bruce tucking him back in.

The walkie-talkie crackled to life. "Bruce we think we've got the transformer ready for business but we'd like to test it out without starting up the big power." The whole world didn't need to know Bruce Wayne had a nuclear reactor in his basement so everyone had started referring to it as big power.

"Roger. I've got everything non-priority shut off. We'll plug in the secondary backup generator and see what happens. I'll be right down."

The Justice League returning to the Watchtower were greeted by Green Lantern. Who smirked at them.

"How'd it go?" He didn't want to have anything to do with a raging Bat.

"Actually, he said thank you," answered Superman quietly.

GL looked incredulous.

"We weren't interfering in his city. We were helping protect his family. You misjudge him if you think his pride comes before his family," explained Wonder Woman quietly. Then she smiled, something GL hadn't seen her do in about a week. "Batman has a very cute baby."