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The first time the bats heard the scream was near the end of their patrol.
They had all tensed.
Each bat knew full well what kind of emotion the scream came from.
The screams were not of a victim. No, it was closer to the frustrated scream of a person after keeping themselves together for far too long.
It was someone forcing out their emotions, raw and unfiltered before they would lock it away once again. Pushing it all down into a small bottle, deep inside of them that always felt like it was about to shatter.
It was a scream in which if you were caught, no one would dare say a word or poke fun. If anything the person who caught you screaming or sobbing would simply sit with you till you were done.
The bats know those screams and sobs better than anyone else. They know the sounds of a soldier finally breaking down, having heard it from their family members and themselves.
That was most definitely what they were hearing right now.
Oracle quickly gave them the location she pinned the sound coming from.
Except, when the bats arrived, there was no sign of anyone having been there.
Not a single hint that the rooftop was anything more than empty.
“Are you positive this is the place?” Batman questions.
“One-hundred-percent. Whoever was screaming should be there. I’m checking the security tapes now.” Oracle informed them.
The bats fell silent, looking around for anything they might have missed.
All of them were stiff. Most of them looked around awkwardly. A few of them tried to force themselves to relax, but there was a strange feeling that they couldn’t shake.
After a few moments of not finding anything, their comms crackled back to life.
“You... Uhm... you should see this.” Oracle hesitantly states.
The vigilantes looked at each other, question clear on all of their faces despite the masks they wear. A few moments later they began heading back to the cave.
Once they arrived, Oracle showed them the security footage.
They watched it again...
And again…
And again…
Yet they saw the same thing every time.
It was very concerning.
A blue, glowing circle appears. A girl steps out of it. The girl proceeds to break down.
That wasn’t the part that scared them. Sure almost all of them tensed at the screaming and sobbing. Yet that wasn’t the concerning part of the footage.
Once the girl, a child who looks no older than twelve, stopped screaming, her tear stopped as well. The only way you could tell she had broken down was by the tear streaks running down her face.
Once those had been wiped away, the only evidence left was this security tape.
The kid ended up coming back to scream or sob at a random time during the year, and not every time was at night.
The bats ended up doing nothing about this random magic child that would break down in Gotham. They honestly couldn't do anything about this.
Sure they would hear the screams once or twice a month but they could never get there in time to talk with her.
Slowly, the visits became less frequent. Going from twice a month to once a month.
Once a month to every other month.
Every other month to every three and a half months.
Every three and a half months to every six or seven months.
Sure the visits were lessening, but the sobs and screams became louder. They became even more unnerving for the bats to hear.
The bats ended up giving the kid a code name so they were easier to talk about.
Before they had a code name the bats had to refer to her as the crying child, the kid, and other names along those lines. While they weren’t bad or mean names, it felt wrong to call her that.
They each had their code name for her, but the main code name all the bats use is Hummingbird due to how small and fast she is.
They have all tried to talk to her, but are never able to catch up to her. She also seems to flee at the first sight of danger, be it actual danger or just the vague unknown is dangerous.
At this point, all the bats are emotionally attached to Hummingbird, whether she knows it or not.
One of the times Hummingbird showed up in Gotham, the Kents had been visiting Wayne manor.
The Supers hadn’t even tried to listen for any specific sounds. Clark and John could simply hear it as if the person was right next to them.
They looked to be in pain from the loud noise, even with Hummingbird being in the city and them being on the outskirts.
The Kents who could hear her tried to get up to help only for the bats to have them sit back down. The screaming subsided eventually, leaving the heroes with a lot of questions.
“What do you mean that’s normal! People screaming like that is not normal!” Clark argued. The bats all look a bit uncomfortable with this topic.
“Pixie shows up once in Gotham to break down sometimes,” Jason says as he closed his book, so he could turn his attention to the conversation.
“Pixie?” John questions. “You know the person who was screaming and sobbing?”
“Tch. None of us have gotten close enough to interact with Shadow.” Damian states a little annoyed.
“We all have our nicknames or code names for her. Dick calls her Bluebell, Jason calls her Pixie, I call her Phantom, Cass calls her Mockingbird, and Damian calls her Shadow. Bruce and Alfred just call her the main name we have for Phantom, which is Hummingbird. We all use that code name for her.” Tim easily explains
“And this first started, when, exactly?” Clark questioned.
“About three or four years ago. We tried to track her, but she uses magic portals to get here in the first place. We attempt to talk to Hummingbird when we’re out on patrol, but usually the second she spots us she portals away.” Bruce informs them with a tired sigh.
“How old is she?” Louis asked.
“She looked to be about eleven or twelve when this first started. That would make her somewhere between fourteen and seventeen now. We don’t know for sure since we can’t get close enough to talk to her,” Dick answers.
“Have you tried approaching her as a civilian yet? Cause your vigilante suits might be what’s scaring her” John asked as if it was an obvious idea.
All of the Waynes realized their stupidity and proceeded to either groan, sigh, or facepalm.