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thejusticelounge2014-03-30 06:27 pm
bossymarmalade) wrote in thejusticelounge2014-03-30 06:27 pm
no man escapes
It was hard to concentrate on his work, getting some sketches for the city. Kyle kept turning over in his head what Damian said to him at the cabin and those large, resolute grey eyes staring up at Kyle. Sometimes those eyes morphed into larger blue ones, fringed with remorseful tears. Zee’s face, when she explained what Damian had meant to him.
Kyle didn’t know why he couldn’t let it go. Maybe it was because there was something reminiscent of Parallax, tied up in all this. Being taken over by some evil thing, having it control him and then painfully ripped out - Kyle hated that, and he was angry. The monster had won, and taken Kyle’s memories of Damian Wayne as its prize. It took a while to realize it, but Kyle wanted those memories back. They were his.
( ”Bananas and tonic water,” that Dionysus-creature told Kyle, before it disappeared.)
So there was Kyle in Coast City at 1am in the morning, in the kitchen with a glass of thickly blended bananas and tonic water, his Waynetech tablet connected to Roy’s laptop. He spooned some of the thick drink into his mouth, looking at the array of items on the table.
On the counter was also a mysterious necklace pendant, inlaid with the image of a rabbit leaping over a crescent moon. Kyle had found it the drawer of his bedside table, nestled between some plushie creature (a Lian gift, no doubt) and a box of emergency condoms. It definitely belonged to him, but Kyle didn’t remember anything about it. The engraving in the back indicated it was from Damian Wayne. A gift of a pendant, from a boy to him. It didn’t make sense.
Kyle ransacked his room after this discovery, finding a couple other random things - a joke envelope he’s obviously painted for Damian - cats and swords? Why? There was also a sheaf of comic strips from when Gordon Godfrey was harassing the League. Kyle remembers drawing the short-lived Love Our League strip to give his teammates a laugh, but nothing about Robin in particular. There was another joke drawing Kyle made as well, clearly to entertain Damian. Hansel and Gretel, sated on gingerbread right before the witch imprisoned them.
( “My spell sometimes masks memories if they’re too deeply rooted,” Zee had told Kyle, wriggling back so she could look at him. “I mean…I had a lot to remove of Damian from you. Unless you were completely, 100% willing to erase every scrap of Damian Wayne from your system. It’s possible that at least emotionally, he might still be in there. Just, not uncovered yet. So not everything, just…something.”)
Kyle spooned some more banana and tonic water into his face (the concoction honestly wasn’t as bad as he’d expected) and started looking through his records on his tablet, pulling them up on Roy’s computer so he could look at them better. A strange set of apology texts sent to Mar’i on behalf of himself and Damian. Really? And then there was a folder for Damian - Kyle did hoard ridiculous internet crap that reminded him of the people he loved, this was no surprise. But there was a folder for Damian Wayne and it had the strangest collection of cat gifs, kitten images and adorable baby dragons, all neatly labelled as damicito01, damicito02, etc. If the images weren’t so harmlessly cute, Kyle would have been seriously disturbed and creeped out by himself. Because honestly. With no context it all seemed incredibly bizarre.
("I gave you gum and you gave me a ring," Damian informed Kyle, tone matter-of-fact. "I kept it until you destroyed it. I broke my arm and ordered you to heal it, and you did. It nearly killed me. Father was angry, but I wasn’t. I kicked you once. You weren’t angry, either." )
Kyle couldn’t find this gum, but he did find yet another sketch, clearly done to entertain the boy. Why gum? And one of the last images in the Damian folder was a photograph of himself and Damian. Kyle had no idea who took it, or where they even were, but. This child. This strange and compelling child.
("You and I battled the Manhunters together" Damian said. "It was then that I decided you were useful.")
Kyle used Roy’s computer to log himself into the Watchtower database, hunting down this report of Manhunters on Earth from a couple years ago. He read through the part about himself and Robin, clicking through to read the long term details of what happened. The report itself was spotty enough, and the holes in Kyle’s memories made it even more confusing. But there was one thing that Kyle understood, and it was the comprehensive nature of the Manhunters. Whatever information they had - whatever nanobots they’d sunk into himself an Damian was all connected to their hive on Biot.
And that was where Kyle would get answers.
(He loved Zee - he loved her so much - but he didn’t want her magicking her way through his mind, not again. It wasn’t fair to either of them, and Kyle had mentally kiboshed that idea even as Zee had offered it. If he was going to get his memories back, he’d be responsible for it.)
"Alrighty then, Rayner. Let’s get this party started," he murmured to himself. Kyle finished up his drink and sent messages out to those who needed it. Kyle suited up and powered on, flying upwards until he broke atmosphere. His eyes blurred for a moment - all he could see was gold in his mind he heard one word: Heliodrome —
— but then it was gone. Kyle dismissed it and set the destination for his ring, a familiar and well-traveled course bound for Oa.
Kyle didn’t know why he couldn’t let it go. Maybe it was because there was something reminiscent of Parallax, tied up in all this. Being taken over by some evil thing, having it control him and then painfully ripped out - Kyle hated that, and he was angry. The monster had won, and taken Kyle’s memories of Damian Wayne as its prize. It took a while to realize it, but Kyle wanted those memories back. They were his.
( ”Bananas and tonic water,” that Dionysus-creature told Kyle, before it disappeared.)
So there was Kyle in Coast City at 1am in the morning, in the kitchen with a glass of thickly blended bananas and tonic water, his Waynetech tablet connected to Roy’s laptop. He spooned some of the thick drink into his mouth, looking at the array of items on the table.
On the counter was also a mysterious necklace pendant, inlaid with the image of a rabbit leaping over a crescent moon. Kyle had found it the drawer of his bedside table, nestled between some plushie creature (a Lian gift, no doubt) and a box of emergency condoms. It definitely belonged to him, but Kyle didn’t remember anything about it. The engraving in the back indicated it was from Damian Wayne. A gift of a pendant, from a boy to him. It didn’t make sense.
Kyle ransacked his room after this discovery, finding a couple other random things - a joke envelope he’s obviously painted for Damian - cats and swords? Why? There was also a sheaf of comic strips from when Gordon Godfrey was harassing the League. Kyle remembers drawing the short-lived Love Our League strip to give his teammates a laugh, but nothing about Robin in particular. There was another joke drawing Kyle made as well, clearly to entertain Damian. Hansel and Gretel, sated on gingerbread right before the witch imprisoned them.
( “My spell sometimes masks memories if they’re too deeply rooted,” Zee had told Kyle, wriggling back so she could look at him. “I mean…I had a lot to remove of Damian from you. Unless you were completely, 100% willing to erase every scrap of Damian Wayne from your system. It’s possible that at least emotionally, he might still be in there. Just, not uncovered yet. So not everything, just…something.”)
Kyle spooned some more banana and tonic water into his face (the concoction honestly wasn’t as bad as he’d expected) and started looking through his records on his tablet, pulling them up on Roy’s computer so he could look at them better. A strange set of apology texts sent to Mar’i on behalf of himself and Damian. Really? And then there was a folder for Damian - Kyle did hoard ridiculous internet crap that reminded him of the people he loved, this was no surprise. But there was a folder for Damian Wayne and it had the strangest collection of cat gifs, kitten images and adorable baby dragons, all neatly labelled as damicito01, damicito02, etc. If the images weren’t so harmlessly cute, Kyle would have been seriously disturbed and creeped out by himself. Because honestly. With no context it all seemed incredibly bizarre.
("I gave you gum and you gave me a ring," Damian informed Kyle, tone matter-of-fact. "I kept it until you destroyed it. I broke my arm and ordered you to heal it, and you did. It nearly killed me. Father was angry, but I wasn’t. I kicked you once. You weren’t angry, either." )
Kyle couldn’t find this gum, but he did find yet another sketch, clearly done to entertain the boy. Why gum? And one of the last images in the Damian folder was a photograph of himself and Damian. Kyle had no idea who took it, or where they even were, but. This child. This strange and compelling child.
("You and I battled the Manhunters together" Damian said. "It was then that I decided you were useful.")
Kyle used Roy’s computer to log himself into the Watchtower database, hunting down this report of Manhunters on Earth from a couple years ago. He read through the part about himself and Robin, clicking through to read the long term details of what happened. The report itself was spotty enough, and the holes in Kyle’s memories made it even more confusing. But there was one thing that Kyle understood, and it was the comprehensive nature of the Manhunters. Whatever information they had - whatever nanobots they’d sunk into himself an Damian was all connected to their hive on Biot.
And that was where Kyle would get answers.
(He loved Zee - he loved her so much - but he didn’t want her magicking her way through his mind, not again. It wasn’t fair to either of them, and Kyle had mentally kiboshed that idea even as Zee had offered it. If he was going to get his memories back, he’d be responsible for it.)
"Alrighty then, Rayner. Let’s get this party started," he murmured to himself. Kyle finished up his drink and sent messages out to those who needed it. Kyle suited up and powered on, flying upwards until he broke atmosphere. His eyes blurred for a moment - all he could see was gold in his mind he heard one word: Heliodrome —
— but then it was gone. Kyle dismissed it and set the destination for his ring, a familiar and well-traveled course bound for Oa.