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Green Arrow slammed his tray down beside Clark, who jumped. “Geez, GA,” he laughed, “do you gotta scare a guy like that?”
“You,” Ollie pointed his fork at Clark, practically poking him in the chest. “You said. That Bats’s kid was an easygoing, happy guy! Roy agreed with you! Do you two think this is funny or something?”
“No...?” Clark felt the puzzlement slot into place. “He is happy and easygoing. It’s hard to believe that Batman raised him, sometimes. But, I mean, he has his broody moments...”
“Is this a joke at my expense or something? Ha, ha, ha. I’m not amused, Supes. That kid is the angriest, most intense kid I’ve ever met in my life . He tried to stab me! With a katana! What part of stabby murder child screams ‘easygoing’ to you, exactly?” Ollie stabbed at his food blindly, then shoved his fork into his mouth.
“Stab...?”
“Angry, perhaps,” Diana said from Clark’s other side. “But he was a perfect gentleman in my presence.”
“Angry?” Clark turned to Diana. “He wouldn’t stop smiling when I was talking to him. I mean. I’m sure everyone has their moments of anger, but I wouldn’t call him an-an angry person.” He frowned from Diana, then back to Arrow.
Oliver leaned his cheek into his hand and stabbed at his tray a few more times. If Clark had to give his expression a name, he’d say Ollie’s expression fell into the ‘petulant’ category. “Angry! He was a little demon. I didn’t know that much vitriol could fit into someone that short.”
Short? Clark opened and closed his mouth, then frowned.
“Short?” Diana asked, as if pulling the thought from Clark’s mind. “I find that most men are of shorter stature than I am. Even so, I would not call him short.”
“Tiny!” Ollie insisted.
“And skinny!” Barry said, sliding down the bench. He dragged a tray with him, loaded up with absolutely everything available in their cafeteria, for the day. “I don’t know what they’re feeding him, but it’s clearly not enough.”
Skinny? “I wouldn’t. I mean – slender, maybe? But I wouldn’t call him skinny. Athletic, definitely. Very, uh, active,” Clark said.
“I absolutely disagree.” Diana crossed her arms and frowned around the table at each of them in turn, clearly confused. “He was built sturdily, with a strong musculature. I would go so far as to compare his physique to his father’s.”
“Huh,” Clark said.
“Okay,” Barry said slowly. “Well, whatever you all think, I think he was a bit... off.”
“Off?” Clark asked. He didn’t mean it to come off so sharp, but he would have thought that Barry, of all the others, would appreciate a hero with a little more optimism.
“Yeah, he needed a nap, man. Like. Bad,” Barry widened his eyes and nodded urgently. “I swear I saw him with three different energy drinks and a huge coffee, at different points when he was updating the software. And when I tried to talk to him, it took like four tries to get him to acknowledge me. Even then he wouldn’t look away from his work.”
“What?” Clark asked. He was immediately aware of the echoed ‘what’ from Diana and Ollie.
All four of them sat quietly, eyeing each other with a measure of distrust.
“I did see him running some code on his gauntlet computer,” Clark said slowly.
Barry motioned toward Clark, relief flooding his features. “Computer-y tech Bat,” he said, like Clark’s observation lent any authenticity to his own previous observation. It didn’t, really, since Clark also clearly remembered Batman’s son saying he wasn’t allowed near computers with drinks because of... some accident he’d had in ‘The Cave,’ recently.
“I would not have taken him for the technologically inclined,” Diana said.
“Really?” Barry asked.
“Me either. I mean, yeah, knives. Shuriken. Batarangs . But not computers. He seemed more of the hands-on type, to me,” Ollie said.
“Huh.” Barry turned to his tray of food. If there was anyone who could look thoughtful while eating, it was a forensic scientist who happened to be connected to the Speed Force. “Well,” he said, pausing in his thoughtful consumption of what looked like meatloaf, “When I saw him, he wouldn’t look away from the screens, like, for anything. The one time I saw him in the halls, he had his nose in a tablet, even.”
“Hands-on rings true,” Diana said. “Though, I would question the blades assessment. He did appear to have several, but he seemed to favour his guns, whenever he was on the defensive.”
Everyone stopped and looked at Diana with wide eyes.
“What?” Diana frowned.
“Guns,” Ollie said.
“On a Bat,” Barry added.
Clark cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Yeah, that’s really weird, Di. Are you sure you were talking to B’s son...?”
“Positive. You doubt me?” Diana asked.
Clark leaned back from the table. “Guys,” he said. “I don’t think we’re talking about the same kid.”
“Ya think!” Ollie motioned toward Diana. “Guns? Really?”
“No, I mean,” Clark shifted. “I don’t think... any of us are talking about the same kid. We can’t even agree on height or body type. Clearly something’s missing.”