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Tim hadn't been expecting for Bruce to call a meeting that night, not with Red Hood - Jason it seemed, as the dramatic bastard had revealed one random night while Tim had still be confined to Titan's Tower for his "own safety" as Bruce and Dick had so stupidly put it - was still roaming the city and causing mischief in the form of murder. Though, the crime lord seemed considerably fonder of Dick these days, much more nervous of Tim himself, and almost as if he was feeling a bit sorry for Bruce ever since the man had broken into the Tower not so long ago.
The older teen hadn't exactly been subtle, using his own old codes and then not even bothering to clean the logs of the information after.
Amateur work.
Though, Tim chose to excuse it this once seeing as the other was likely - originally, at least - leaving the codes behind in the logs on purpose, and then had been too shocked by what he had heard to remember to clean them up on the way out.
It wasn't everyday that someone walked into four teens planning to murder a childhood holiday figure. Especially not when one of those four teens had been the younger bat that he was likely planning on fighting that night.
(Tim would admit to himself that he was glad that the plans had changed. He didn't know what the fucking League of Assassins was feeding the guy that had once been a god damn shrimp, but he looked like he was on steroids. Sometimes you just don't want to fight a mini Bane with Robin training.
He still kneed the other in the balls when he saw him again. If the lack of surprise that the other showed was anything to go by, the former Robin likely figured out that Tim knew what the other had been planning, and thought they were even again.
(They would be once Tim hacked all his things at least once, then he could call it a day))
Still, from what Steph had said when Tim walked in, B had invited Jason to join them for this meeting. No one was surprised when he didn't show.
What was a surprise was the topic of discussion.
Timing was something, the current Robin supposed.
"Don't we already have contingency plans for Darkseid?" Tim asked, looking at the others at the table with a raised brow.
He knew, logically, that there could never really be enough plans for something like Darkseid, the monster that he was, but the timing was honestly something.
"Not enough," was what Bruce said back. No one could really argue with that.
"So what are we focusing on today?" Dick asked next, stealing one of the cookies from the tray.
No one said anything when Cass moved it away from the man, making the former Robin scowl as the current Batgirl took one of the cookies for herself and passed another to Tim. The other teen took it with a smile, biting back a laugh at the way that Steph scowled at being left out, and pushing the bowl towards her next.
Bruce ignored it all, trying to reign in the part of him that wanted to snap at them all to take this more serious.
(they were only children after all, his children. One way or another)
"Following Darkseid to Apokolips if need be," the bat answered, knowing that it was something easier said than done. "Its not out of the realm of possibilities for him to find a member of the League or another hero during battle, and to take them somewhere else, Apokolips most likely, where we won't be able to reach easily. It would be damning if someone like Cyborg was to be the one taken by him."
They all know that was true, far more than any of them would have liked it to be.
"We can see the gears turning, B," Barbra said, motioning for the plate to come to her next. Steph slid it over to the former Batgirl without a word. "So what is it?"
"Scott and Barda would be our best bets on retrieving anyone, or anything, taken with Darkseid," Bruce said, his voice sounding tired as he did. "Their cubes making travel there possible…"
"But you're worried about not getting there on time," Steph says bluntly, lacking any of the tip - toeing that most of the others did when it came to teammates and not reaching them on time before they might have been tortured or died.
The bat doesn't answer, but they all know that Spoiler is right.
Most people in the room remained grave for a moment after that, but Tim lost it first.
"I mean," the boy started, "it's really not that hard." All eyes in the room turned to the teen right then as he spoke, but Tim just let the heavy gazes roll off of him. "I know a guy that goes there and back in one night and has time to travel the rest of the world as well every year," he said casually, as if he wasn't planning on killing that very guy very soon. As if the information wasn't jarring for the other five people in the room to hear, each of them all but stopping breathing right then. "Let me make a call real quick, yeah?"
They all watched as the Robin pulled out the phone from his pockets, all of them at the table dressed in casual clothing right then even as they were in the cave, and hit a button that seemed to be on his speed dial, bringing the phone up to his ear.
The person on the other end of the line answered on the first ring.
Even though they were all sitting right there in ear shot, and Tim was speaking to the person on the other end of the line at a perfectly acceptable volume for them to hear, none of them knew what the bird said to the person that he was speaking with. All they could do was listen as the teen spoke faster than they had ever heard him speaking before, with no hope of understanding what was being said. Even when he pulled the phone away from his ear at one point and seemed to speak to the air as if it would respond to him, and then checked the messages on his phone as if it did so, they still couldn't understand.
The speed that the teen spoke at wasn't as fast as speedster, one would have to be one to achieve that, but it was definitely faster then the rest of them could speak.
"So," Tim said once more at a speed that the rest of them could understand, "our best bet would likely be to start building a portal to the planet now as a precaution, maybe a couple of them, and having them in places that a speedster or super could quickly take anyone else to. Bart said that the Flashes haven't come across anything else like a Mother Box since Victor, and Kon said that even though Lex is trying to get his hands on one, he hasn't yet. And we all know that the Amazons are out of the question, and Atlanteans would take too long to get to theirs. So, multiple portals built around the world would be best."
Tim didn't look up from his phone as he was talking to them right then, not as he typing to the rest of what was left of his original team, plots falling from his fingers. He didn't think that they would have to go to Darkseid's planet, but they also didn't know what order Santa went in, so there was always a chance.
"I have so many questions," Dick said, understanding now a bit more the pitying looks that Jason had been giving Bruce the few times that the pair had managed to speak to one another without coming to blows since the crime lord has come back from the dead. There were somethings about his younger siblings that Dick liked to ignore, Tim's batshit insane antics was one of those things. "Was that Bart that you were talking to then?" is what he asked in the end.
Tim did look up from his phone then, his brows pinched together in confusion as he looked at his older brother. "Wasn't that obvious?"
"You were talking fast enough that no one else could understand you, Boy Wonder," Steph informed, amusement in her voice, more so when the boy only shrugged in response. "Trying to be a speedster, are we?"
"No," the third Robin answered with a roll of his eyes. "We talk a bit faster for Bart's sake and he talks a bit slower. It's called being considerate with your speedster." Tim shifted his gaze to the original bat and traffic light. "You two should try it sometimes with yours."
No one had anything to say to that, or if they did then Tim wasn't listening as he and Cassie texted back and forth on whether to build a portal of their own or run the risk of stealing the Mother Box from the Themyscira.
Choices, choices.