Identity Crisis

Doubts and Secrets

It was noon, he'd been searching for six hours now. He'd gone from every airport to bus stop in the city. No sign of Bruce Wayne anywhere. Red X sighed as he rested on a rooftop. The thought had occurred to him several times throughout the day, but he'd pushed it to the back of his mind until now, what if Bruce Wayne didn't want him? Practically speaking it didn't make sense, why take in someone you didn't want, Bruce could've taken him to a real school and left him there.

But he wasn't thinking practically; he was thinking with his heart instead of his head. And the only thought that kept coming back to him was that Bruce didn't want him, and he wasn't coming. Maybe it was supposed to be like this. He pulled his mask off and stared at it. Maybe he was meant to be Red X, forever abandoned, forever alone.

He hopped down into a nearby alley and walked for a while, trying to clear his head. It had been nice, being with Vicky, it made him want to go back to a life like that. But he knew he couldn't live like that forever; drag Vicky into the chaotic mess that was his life. He couldn't do it, he couldn't be Dick Grayson, he was doomed, cursed to be a loner forever.

Crunch

He froze in place, there was someone following him. He stepped silently towards the corner and listened. There was someone there, he could hear there breathing. In one swift motion he jumped around the corner.

"Aah!" a shrill scream escaped from the mouth of is pursuer.

"Ah!" he jumped backwards as she held an empty beer bottle above her head, ready to smash it, "He hey hey wait!" he yelled. The girl, who had her eyes squeezed shut, opened one of them just enough to see who it was.

"Red X," she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Vicky?" he recognized her voice, but she was wearing a mask and a funky aqua green costume, "What are you doing here?"

"Well, as soon as you left, I started getting ready for school, I even got on the bus and everything," she explained, "But then I realized that this was crazy, and I couldn't just let you go off alone, so I did the most impulsive thing I could think of, jumped off the bus, and here I am." She smiled, gesturing to her costume, "And as for the costume..." she shrugged, "I just grabbed some stuff from a thrift store and..." she laughed nervously.

"Vicky," he pulled her into a hug, it felt good to be holding her so close. It felt... right, "You shouldn't be here."

"Hey," she tapped him on the nose, "I go where you go. I'm stuck to you like glue," she pulled him into a hug, "There's no way you're getting rid of me now."

                    _______________________

"I told you she wouldn't be at her house," Tara yelled against the strong wind blowing in her face.

"I know, I know," Gar called up exasperatedly. He had taken the shape of an Argentavis (a giant extinct bird) to fly to Tara's school, "I just thought we should check, you know, just in case."

"Well, it's a school day, so no duh she's gonna be at school."

"Well you skipped out today, didn't you?"

"Touché," Tara rolled her eyes, "There it is," she pointed down at a school building.

"I know," Gar said as he swooped down from the sky. He recognized it from the past two times he'd met Tara there.

"Oh, right," she looked down awkwardly.

They landed on the school lawn and Tara hopped off. Gar shifted back to his human form and they walked into the school together. "The principles office is this way," she pointed to a door at the end of one of the halls.