The park games
The disgruntled Wilson children wearliy followed their father into the gargantuan office building, with thousands of the glass windows coating it shimmering in the morning light as the imposing structure loomed above them.
They were hurried throughout the infinite long corridors with high ceilings, each transparent glass door they passed revealing several identical workspaces with desks, computers and important papers.
It had been a relatively common occurrence for Slade to be forced to take his children along on business meetings due to the unavailability of people who could have looked after them and the lack of safety in Gotham made babysitters exceedingly unreliable and he didn't want to take his chances. Although Grant was now 14 and perfectly capable of staying home alone, Slade explained that it would be hard for him to keep all his siblings in check and protect them if need be.
More often than not, this used to end with them sitting outside for ages in uncomfortable plastic chairs and unable to leave or even talk loudly, which they all found to be a source of great boredom, as they waited for their father to finish speaking to other, more successful businessmen.
His company had flourished, and Harry did appreciate that it benefitted them all, but the amount of time they had to spend there was simply ridiculous in his opinion.
However, that changed not long after it started, as one of the businessmen, Jack Drake and his wife and partner Janet, brought their son along. The now seven year old Tim Drake used to be rather shy but intelligent as he was often left home without his parents when they worked and didn't have enough connections with children his age.
Being only two years younger than Harry, they soon made fast friends, and the other colleagues ended up bringing their children to socialise as well.
The downside was that there were occurrences when the other kids were looked after by family or friends with free time instead of being taken along by their parents, and Harry noticed that his siblings and himself were the ones most often there, especially him due to permanently living with Slade. This did lead to him talking and playing more with Tim just by himself early on and it was easier than trying to include his much older brothers and disinterested sister as well.
Because they could be sitting alone, and that none of them wanted to waste their weekend morning in an office complex, the children all felt the same frustration and reluctance.
As they arrived at the double doors their father entered, Harry was pleased to see the lone boy already sitting nearby and advanced towards him with a grin, 'Hey Tim! Do you know if anyone else is coming? It is pretty early, I think my dad said the meeting starts in 20 minutes.' Harry said, sitting down next to him.
The pale, raven haired boy wearing a red shirt turned towards him, 'I have no idea but my parents were the first ones here and only your dad has arrived so far, so they might come.'
'Great! We might convince Joey and Dick then.'
Before he could say anything more, three final men arrived. The billionaire Bruce Wayne, rumored to be very sociable at galas and events had always appeared serious and stone faced to Harry when he came to work, Oliver Queen, the mayor of Star City and like the former, the inheritor of a wealthy company, though Harry heard that he and Mr Wayne were rivals and disliked each other, and were followed by Lucius Fox, Mr Wayne's manager.
To Harry and Tim's relief, a horde of children followed and sat down near them, including two girls and a boy, with Rose joining them.
'Hey guys, are we doing... well, you know what today?' asked a girl wearing a lot of yellow with matching blonde hair in a low ponytail, lowering her voice in the latter half of the sentence, glancing at the double doors that were still open for the next few minutes.
'Yes Mia,' Harry replied, 'but we need Jason, Rose and Cass to convince them.'
The half-Chinese girl with short black hair nodded and stood up, followed by Rose, and the tall boy with black hair. They, along with Mia and Tim, made up Harry's main friendship group due to their close ages and interests.
Both Jason, and the slightly older Cassandra were adopted by Bruce Wayne a year ago. Both of them, despite initial differences quickly befriended Rose, and later Harry, possibly because they were all the same age, nine. Though the competitiveness remained, it was much friendlier.
The two also brought their two year old brother named Damian, Bruce Wayne's only biological child. Harry didn't see him too much as he was frequently looked after by Alfred, the Wayne manor butler who had met and talked to Wintergreen when the Wilson children had visited, or his mother, Talia Al Ghul.
Mia was Oliver Queen's adopted daughter, and had an older adopted brother who was seventeen with red hair, called Roy. He tended to hang around Dick and Grant, being of a similar age but, according to his siblings, argued into staying home today instead of coming here, which Harry certainly couldn't blame him for as he sometimes wanted to do the same.
Oliver Queen also had two biological children from different relationships and similarly to Harry's siblings, they didn't live with him all the time so Harry didn't see them so often. Mia often called the ten year old Connor her favourite brother, he had blonde hair that contrasted with his dark skin in comparison to the dark haired two year old, nicknamed Bobby.
Mia also had a baby stepsister named Cynthia who was adopted by the florist Dinah Lance, Oliver Queen's wife, and who Harry had only met when he was invited to their house as she was too young to be taken here. Harry noted the huge amount of adopted children was strange, but he felt less awkward to be around kids with similar experiences.
Joseph was now eleven and currently talking to his friend, Richard Grayson, known as 'Dick', Jason and Cass' older brother who shared black hair with his father and siblings despite also being adopted.
The fourteen year old and Harry's brother were both easy targets as they failed to admonish the younger children's actions when needed to, stating that 'they're just little', though they were kind and supportive to their siblings.
The three chosen to convince them were strategically picked to help accomplish the goal, namely, going to Gotham Park. They weren't allowed to go anywhere unsupervised by anyone who was a teenager, and the pseudo training they did there was to allow them to reach the goal of becoming a costumed vigilante, something that Roy and Dick had already achieved.
As Rose was Joey's younger sister, and Cass and Jason were Dick's siblings, the group thought they would be the best candidates to win over their doting, even a little too much, brothers.
Everyone else, however, was met with a plethora of stern 'No's and decided they'd do additional training secretly. After a year of friendship, everybody ended up sharing their parents' secret identities: Batman, Green Arrow, Black Canary, and after a lot of hesitation, Deathstroke and Catwoman came up. Both of the latter had reformed, but only to an extent, which both groups of siblings only revealed to each other.
Tim, while not knowing anybody with a secret identity, also joined in eagerly, even more excited than some of the others, so it was crucial to win over the easiest targets, which fortunately only took a little begging and pouting.
Therefore, the fairly large group of children ended up sitting in a semicircle at nine thirty in the morning in Gotham's least polluted park. While the blackened river running through it could barely be considered water due to the extensive, copious amounts of waste and chemicals invading it, the plant life and grass still seemed ordinary enough, and managed to retain its natural colours.
As the only one in the group who had reached vigilante status, Dick stood proudly in front of them on the freshly cut grass as a light breeze provided relief from the summer's heat. Damian, restless in his oblivious brother's arms, squirmed as Dick declared himself the leader and outlined the details of the upcoming training.
'Okay so let's see, we have two, four, six... nine people so we can split you into groups of three in terms of age so you won't do anything too hard. Grant, Joseph and Connor will practice combat there, Cass, Jason and Rose over here I'll tell you what you'll do in a sec. And... Harry, Mia and Tim on the obstacle course where I can see you. All clear? Good, let's go.'
Harry locked eyes with Mia and furrowed his brow, crossing his arms. At this point he deemed the obstacle course suitable only for babies, especially after setting more and more high scores for fast completion in quick succession, and so reluctantly trudged over to the smooth stone marking the start.
It was actually mainly made up of stones, many large and uneven to jump on, a few low tree branches and crumbling brick walls, a so called reasonable distance away from the shallow neighbouring pond.
Tim, on the other hand, was positively delighted as he considered it a great challenge, so Harry let him go first as he stayed behind to talk.
'Seriously? Here? I'm barely younger than the others, just a few months' difference, and it's like he doesn't trust me enough to let me do anything else.' he huffed angrily.
'Yeah I know. We should at least be able to go a bit further, or higher but no, we're 'too little and it's dangerous'. How can we get better if they don't let us?'
They sat down on the grass for a while, watching Tim in the distance, as Harry mused about the possibilities, until he turned back to Mia with a mischievous twinkle in his eye and a daring grin, revealing the contents of his thoughts to her before he even started speaking.
'Why don't we go there!,' he whispered, pointing to the pond, encircled by taller dusty walls and lush trees, 'You know, just on the walls. Look, everyone's busy, I'm sure they won't notice!'
The girl hesitated slightly, her face contorted in thought. 'I guess so... are you sure we won't get caught though?'
'Positively. C'mon.'
Harry ran to their destination and slowly climbed onto the rough wall and gazed at the shimmering reflection of the sun on the muddy blue surface of the water, the rest of it overgrown with weeds almost as tall as him. The first steps were exhilarating, and he picked up the pace, adrenaline rushing through his veins; it made him feel braver, no, invincible, so he grabbed the closest branch, gave it a good tug and used it to propel himself forward, soaring through the air with the wind ruffling his messy hair until he reached the next one.
He heard rustling behind him and turned to see his friend join him, as they both laughed and ran, trying more and more and more reckless stunts, from flips to complex somersaults with closed eyes, until a loud screech of terror forced Harry back into reality.
'Mia! Harry!' Tim's trembling voice resonated throughout the area, 'You shouldn't do that, you'll get hurt or - or worse and it'll be my fault for not stopping you too. Please? I looked back when I finished and couldn't find you, and-'
'It's fine, Tim, really.' Harry tried to reassure the boy, his tone of voice betraying the annoyance he felt at the concern. He could handle himself just as well as almost everyone there, especially more than Tim. He didn't need concern.
Gone were the days when he glanced around nervously when leaving the doorstep, or running piteously instead of standing up for himself when faced with merciless bullies more than twice his size. He was stronger now. He wasn't going to be deterred by the measly threat of a little insignificant pain; he wasn't going to back down from a challenge now that he knew he could do it. It's what he trained for that drove him. To make a difference someday, as best as he could.
After living in the crime ridden Gotham City for so long, word of the crooks and gangsters that reigned over it with fear from the darkest, blinding shadows in every nook and cranny of the miserable city hadn't eluded Harry, and ignited the fire of determination that fueled the vigour he poured into his training.
Perhaps some would call it a naive child's hope for a better future before reality set in, others a well meaning but misguided emulation of the vigilantes featured in the news so often, and of his own father, an anti-villain at best despite his sense of honour and morals, thinking the boy was simply enamoured with the sole idea of being a hero and the thrill of chasing criminals.
But Harry's aspirations ran deeper. He wanted a world, while not impossibly perfect, at least slightly better when he leaves it than how he found it. From streets stricken with poverty and crime, to homes that could no longer be called a safe haven. But for now, he'd have to wait a painstaking length of time until he could do so, and until then, he aimed to hone his skills to prepare, and to prove himself. Even with something as silly and unimportant as this small act of independence and defiance, balancing precariously on a ruined wall.
Mia interjected in a calming tone, 'It's alright Timmy. You know we wouldn't be doing this if we weren't certain it'd be okay.' getting off to put an arm around his shoulder and prompting the sniffling Tim to nod hesitantly.
'Yeah OK. I'll just try this one last time, I'll be quick.' and with that, Harry took off like all jet.
Once more, he relished the sense of freedom, of capability, of carefreeness. That is, until his foot found an unsteady brick, dislodging it from the wall and sending him plummeting with a scream into the pond.
'Harry! Harry, are you okay?'
Harry barely registered his friends' panicked shouts as he slowly got up on his knees, spitting out brown, dirty water in his thoroughly soaked clothes. A wave of nausea overcame him and he clutched his aching head, still reeling from the unpleasant mixture of shock and fear he experienced.
He just managed to hear voices shouting over each other when he was hoisted up by two people and blinked rapidly to try focus his blurry vision until he remembered he was wearing the glasses strap Slade had made him wear for training and fumbled for his glasses, miraculously finding them intact, only to find Dick's face in front of him, his eyebrows furrowed, conveying his worry.
'How are you feeling? Anything, serious, broken bones? Why did you do that, I said it's not safe, now look at you!'
Mumbling a response and unsuccessfully trying to assure everybody that he was, in fact, fine as they trailed over to the park entrance, Harry found himself pulled aside by Grant.
'Look, Harry, I bet you weren't listening to half of the health and safety stuff Dick's prattled on about, but you've gotta take care of yourself. Sure it was shallow so you couldn't have drowned or whatever but then you might've hit yourself or gotten a concussion... the most important thing is that you don't take any uneccessary risks, 'kay? This isn't me being a boring stick in the mud, but if you get hurt, dad kills me, and I don't know how we'll explain this anyway... d'you think he'll buy the excuse that we only went right outside and you fell in a puddle?'
Harry nodded, and apologised, suddenly growing red faced with shame. He let arrogance get the better of him, and he needlessly worried the people he cared about. There's nothing he could do, but be more careful in the future, he resolved.
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Unbeknownst to the leaving children however, stood a figure cloaked in darkness and shrouded in mystery among a thick cluster of trees near the fateful pond, disappearing as they left to rejoin their parents.
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Footsteps echoed across the long corridor as a figure travelled along it at a brisk pace. Ancient stone and marble walls were etched with intricate patterns and symbols, several displaying a crest and Latin motto, and adorned with unique paintings of people that would have been beautiful if not for the uneasy sensation that their eyes followed the figure as they walked.
A long, black, hooded cloak that billowed out behind them concealed their identity, until they stopped at a alcove in the wall featuring a rather ugly stone gargoyle with a gaping jaw and jagged claws.
They pulled their hood down, revealing slick black hair, dirty and matted with grease as a low male voice simply said, 'Pumpkin pasties.'
Advancing past the moving gargoyle, the man rapped on the door in front of him, then entered into a large, circular room with cabinets and drawers of exquisite items and several portraits on the brick walls.
Torches illuminated the section near the doorway, revealing the man's hooked nose and impassive facial expression, as he stood before a wooden desk and started talking to the concealed figure behind it.
'I have good news professor. I haven't failed like the incompetent fools you assigned this job to. I found him, professor. The boy is in America. But he has a new family. I'm sure they won't pose too much of a problem though.'
The person behind the desk leaned forward, revealing an abnormally long beard, garish purple robes and half moon glasses twinkling maliciously in the light as a smug smile stretched across the elderly man's face.
'That's wonderful news, thank you Severus. Alas, it seems like my plan can still prevail.'