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Wayne Enterprises: Coast City Branch

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne sat on a drywall pail, paperwork laid out on top of a toolbox. They weren’t ideal conditions, but he wasn’t about to argue the point. Property damage in Coast City was always higher when Atrocitus came to visit, like he had the week before.

He wasn’t there about the damage caused to their building by a Lantern fueled rage monster anyway. They budgeted for things like that. No, he was there representing Waynetech in what would probably be their biggest technology deal that year. Tression, a startup firm run by Coast City native Xandar Griffin, was about to go under. Griffin himself had disappeared shortly before his company crashed and burned.

While the Wayne Enterprises board was ready for Tim to sign the papers, pulling Tression into the Waynetech subsidiary, Tim wanted to do a more thorough analysis of their holdings before agreeing to anything. As far as he’d been told, Tression was a tech company with a focus on virtual reality gaming. Tim couldn’t help but be suspicious though, after the last time he saw Xandar Griffin.

One Month Earlier: Coast City Fundraising Gala

Xandar Griffin was the star of the night, anyone could see that. He was charming the crowd wherever he stepped. Tim wasn’t so caught up though.

Truth be told, he was in a foul mood, despite the event being held in one of the most technologically advanced buildings on the West Coast, and the relative good humor of everyone else. Tim was caffeine deprived, working on an average of two hours of sleep a night for the week, and wearing a pancake of makeup over his still mottled black eye. He was content to not take part in the event as long as Mr. Griffin ignored him.

As he sat back and watched, however, he couldn’t help but notice the three kids following Mr. Griffin around. They couldn’t have been older than Jisung. In fact, Tim was willing to bet they were younger than him. And one of them had a bright green ring on his finger.

Now why would Xandar Griffin have a pre-teen Green Lantern following him around? There had to be a reason.

Wayne Enterprises: Coast City Branch

Whatever reason that kid had for following Griffin around was reason enough for Tim to be suspicious of him. It was never a good sign when a Lantern was trying to be covert. (Usually that was because they couldn’t avoid being flashy, but that was their… thing.) Tim shuffled through the papers on the tool box looking for anything potentially damning.

VR headset? Nope. Proprietary formats for gaming? Not really. Sony did the same thing. Ergonomic controllers? That one was actually pretty sweet. CCTV network? Suspiciously similar looking to the Waynetech version, but otherwise not suspicious.

There, at the bottom of the pile though, was a real estate proposal. As far as Tim was aware, Tression was exclusively a tech company. What did Xandar Griffin want with a sizable swath of… was that Little Saigon? That’s seriously low.

Following a protest from his stomach, Tim decided that perhaps some more investigation was in order.

Little Saigon: Coast City

Tai Pham was working the counter at the Jade Market. Well… working was probably an overstatement. He’d actually been doodling in his sketchbook waiting for his mom to come back. Or for a customer. Things had been real sleepy since his dust-up with Xandar Griffin.

When the bell over the door rang, Tai nearly lept out of his chair. He had a customer! There would be an end to his boredom.

The person who walked in though… looked like he was in desperate need of a vacation. Seriously! His hair was shaggy, an odd length and sticking up in weird places. He was pale enough that Tai wasn’t entirely sure he wasn’t a ghost, and to top it all off, he had the deepest, darkest circles Tai had ever seen, short of an actual black eye.

“Welcome to the Jade Market. Can I help you with anything?” Well, now wasn’t the time for judging. Tai put on his best customer service mask.

“Actually, I was hoping you could help me find lunch,” the guy said. There was something familiar about him, though Tai couldn’t place what it was.

“Oh… Instant noodles are down aisle four.” Tai tried to hide his disappointment. Of course he just wanted noodles.

The guy pushed his hair back then, and Tai had to stop his jaw from dropping too much. That was why he recognized him! This was Tim Drake-Wayne, acting CEO of Wayne Enterprises. One of his classmates had done a project on him.

Once the shock wore off though, Tai squinted at Mr. Drake-Wayne suspiciously. The last time a billionaire had visited the market, he wanted to buy it up for real estate development. Tai wasn’t about to let Mr. Drake-Wayne try the same thing.

“Actually,” Mr. Drake-Wayne said, “I was hoping you would have a recommendation for a pho place around here. Or other Vietnamese food.”

Tai didn’t answer immediately, putting one hand on the counter to make it look like he was relaxed. He had his ring on that hand, but most people he met didn’t recognize it. Those that did were problems more often than not.

“I think I have a few places in mind. No one’s pho is as good as my mom’s though,” Tai bragged.

“That’s great.” Mr. Drake-Wayne smiled brightly. “Actually, I was wondering if you would come to lunch with me? My treat.”

Oh no… not again. “I can’t exactly leave the store right now, Mr. Drake-Wayne. I can give you directions though.”

Much to Tai’s chagrin, even as Mr. Drake-Wayne was thrown off balance, his mom walked back through the door. There went his excuse.

“Tai? Who’s this?” his mom asked. “Did you make a new friend?”

“Actually, I was hoping Tai could show me to lunch. My name’s Timothy Drake-Wayne.”

Tai’s mom went rigid at the name. She had dealt with Xandar nearly as much as Tai himself had.

“Do you want to go with him?” she asked Tai, ready to defend whatever decision he made.

If Mr. Drake-Wayne was planning on picking up the Gold Coast project where Xandar left off though, it was Tai’s responsibility to change those plans. Fear wouldn’t do him any good here.

“Yeah. I’ll take him to Sau Can Tho,” Tai said as he put his sketchbook and pencil in his backpack. He would put a stop to this, one way or another.

Little Saigon: Coast City

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne hadn’t expected this to turn into a Teen Titans recruiting trip, but he knew that’s where it was going as soon as he saw the ring on the kid’s finger. Really, he was planning on doing some recruiting once he saw how quiet the neighborhood was, but the Neon Knights and the Titans were two very different entities.

The Teen Titan’s recruiting was going to be that much more challenging, given the kid recognized him.

“So what’s your name? I keep calling you Kid in my head, but it would be nice to have an actual name.” Smooth Tim, real smooth.

“I’m Tai Pham,” the kid - Tai - said. He didn’t follow it up with anything other than tension in his shoulders.

Before Tim could ask another question, Tai turned into a restaurant. The windows were large and let in a lot of light from the street. There were charms and lanterns left up from New Years celebrations. Inside, the walls and floor were white, the tables unstained wood. How… minimalistic.

“Mr. Drake-Wayne, why are you here?” Tai opened once they’d been seated.

Of course Tai was suspicious. The last person of his relative wealth and celebrity to come through had tried to buy the whole neighborhood for a real estate project. Tim mentally shook his head. He should have known. Maybe worn a disguise. He didn’t think he was that much of a celebrity outside of Gotham though. Let alone for a middle schooler to recognize him.

Before Tim could answer, Tai continued. “You’re not trying to recruit me for anything are you?”

How? What?

“I mean, not really. I’m in the city for business, and one of my brothers insists that the best food in any city is in hole-in-the-wall places in immigrant or lower income neighborhoods.” It wasn’t strictly all the truth, but the bit about Jason’s food preferences definitely was.

“Who are you doing business with?” Tai was leaning on the table now, his ring glowing. Tim wasn’t even sure he’d noticed that.

Tim leaned in himself then, whispering conspiratorially, “Ok, you can’t tell anyone, but we’re buying up the remains of Tression.”

The ring glowed brighter at that, Tai backing away.

Tim decided then that a subject change was in order. Clearly that tactic hadn’t worked at all. “Can I take a look at your ring?” he asked.

Tai’s hands slid into his lap. Before he could answer, a waitress came over. Lunch was going to be had, even if the situation was going nowhere.

Sau Can Tho, Little Saigon: Coast City

Tai Pham slid his Green Lantern ring off into his lap, nudging it under his thigh. He wasn’t going to play that game.

Before he had to answer Mr. Drake-Wayne, the waitress rescued him. He had some time to think now. Wayne Enterprises was buying up Tression. Did that mean they were going to restart the Gold Coast project after all? But then, Mr. Drake-Wayne had said that thing about food. But then again, he suspiciously dodged the question about recruiting. There couldn’t be two Billionaire Yellow Lanterns, could there? That would just be ridiculous.

“Tai? Are you ok?” Tai snapped back to reality to find Mr. Drake-Wayne staring at him. In front of him was a Vietnamese coffee, dripping slowly into a cup lined with condensed milk.

“I’m fine.” He was not fine. But that was ok. It was his job to be not fine, and to fix things. Kinda. Being a space cop was hard.

“You sure?” He sounded genuinely concerned, but Tai could tell he was a halfway-decent actor. He could easily have been faking it.

“Positive, Mr. Drake-Wayne.” Tai nodded.

Mr. Drake-Wayne winced. “Please stop calling me that. My name is Tim.”

They sat in silence for a moment, observing each other. If it was a battle of wills though, Tai was certain he would win.

Tim broke the silence. “So… about that ring.”

“What ring?” Tai asked. He kept his hands in his lap.

Tim sipped his coffee. “Look, Tai, Wayne Enterprises is a major donor to the Justice League. I know what a Green Lantern ring looks like.”

Oh… oh no. He wasn’t supposed to know that. John kept telling him how important it was to keep the ring on him, but keep his Lantern status a secret. And here he was, exposed in front of a potential enemy.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” Tai said as he put his hands on the table. The ring was warm under his leg.

Tim looked at his hands in surprise for a moment before he smirked. “You’re a sneaky one. That’ll be a useful skill one day.”

It was already pretty useful, if Tai said so himself. That was beside the point though.

The waitress rescued Tai once again, bringing out the food. Tai was surprised to see tripe floating in Tim’s bowl of pho. Usually even more adventurous white people were unwilling to try intestinal lining. Or tendons. That was definitely a point in Tim’s favor.

This time, Tai spoke first, redirecting the conversation away from his Lantern ring. “Um… So the last time anyone from Tression was in the neighborhood, they were trying to buy up all the land for a dev-”

“I’m not going to continue the Gold Coast project. Don’t worry.” Tim picked up some tripe and some noodles with his chopsticks and loaded it all onto a spoon. That’s the way his ba had eaten pho.

Tim continued after his spoonful of pho. “I am, however, interested in opening a branch of the Neon Knights here. Coast City probably doesn’t need it as much as Gotham, but I saw the graffiti. A Neon Knights youth center might help.”

Tai vaguely remembered one of his classmates talking about the Neon Knights during their innovation project before winter break. Before he could think too hard about it though, a crash rang out from down the street.

“And with that, I think it’s time I took a bathroom break,” Tim said, winking obviously at Tai before leaving him alone at the table.

Little Saigon: Coast City

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne changed into his Red Robin uniform with practiced ease. Once suited up, he slid out the window, climbed up to the top of the roof, and hopped the next few until he found a group of kids standing around outside of a shop, spray painting something he’d rather not know onto the facade. He’d only intended to observe Tai in action, but the kid was nowhere to be found. It looked like he was going to have to step in. He sighed before gliding down on the newly designed cape.

“Hey kids, didn’t anyone ever tell you to not throw stones in glass storefronts?” That was lame. So lame.

“And what’er you gonna do about it, huh?” One of the kids turned to him, a can of yellow spray paint in hand.

“Probably beat you up before handing you over to the Coast City Police Department. I’d prefer to skip the beating part really, but that never seems to work out.” It was true. Even when he tried to talk people down, a mask always seemed to end up in a fight.

“He’s just a wannabe mask in a trashy outfit,” another kid said, looking over his shoulder.

Red Robin planned to wait until they were ignoring him to strike. The comment about his uniform struck a nerve, but he wouldn’t let it get to him. He could play the underestimation to his advantage, even in broad daylight.

Problem number one though, while one of the kids turned back to his wall, another planted himself and crossed his arms. So they weren’t as naive as he anticipated. He could rework the plan.

“Uh… guys? He’s not leaving,” the watchman announced, clearly unnerved. Red Robin fought back a smirk.

“Nope, I’m staying right here, staring at you uncomfortably, planning your slow, painful demise. You should be grateful, I’m the Gotham vigilante you got today. I’m one of the nice ones.” He chewed on the word nice, lacing it with so much venom all three of the kids shuddered. He could only hope they’d heard of Red Hood.

The first kid turned around again, fully facing him, fight in his eyes. “Leave now, or you’re gonna regret pretending.”

Oh he knew that type. The kid had sneered, nearly whined at him. It reminded Red Robin of his former classmates, before he’d been expelled from Brentwood.

Red Robin snarled and took a stance, reaching behind for his staff. He probably didn’t need it, but something was driving him to show these kids exactly what he was capable of. A signal had already been sent to the police.

“If you untrained wannabe gangsters think you can take me on, be my guest,” he said, viciously.

They never knew what hit them.

***

Red Robin was just finishing tying up the kids when, surprise surprise, the new Green Lantern flew in. He didn’t think the kid would take that long to change, but then, he’d really only been a Lantern for a couple of months.

“Hi! I already called the police. You shouldn’t have to worry about these troublemakers for a while.” Red Robin did his best to affect Nightwing’s cheer. It sounded strained, even in his own ears.

The Lantern started glowing as a construct took shape behind him.

“Get off my beat.”

Why did these recruitment trips always involve fighting?

Little Saigon: Coast City

Tai Pham was certain something was very wrong as he sprinted to an alley to change. Mr. Drake-Wayne knew he was a Green Lantern. That alone was a problem. But then, he winked after the crash. He winked!

Whatever was going on with Mr. Drake-Wayne had to be messing with his head. It was way too hard to focus on actually doing the Green Lantern thing. Normally he was good at this.

A scream finally knocked some sense into him. With newfound focus, Tai changed into his suit and flew off, considering multiple constructs to solve the problem.

***

There was a person there. In a mask. With the kids. Tied up. The kids were tied up, not the mask. Tai blinked under his own mask for a moment, blanking out at what he was seeing.

Finally, he decided that the person in the mask might be friendly, but Coast City was Lantern territory, and specifically the only Green Lantern who came to his neighborhood other than himself was John. He wasn’t about to have some weirdo in a bird suit try to take his job.

He started forming a construct as he announced, “Get off my beat.”

The mask froze for a moment before sighing. He muttered something unintelligible, and looked at Tai’s construct.

“Do I… do I really need to explain what a vigilante is twice in as many trips?” He hadn’t taken his gaze off the construct.

With his original Gundam design fully formed behind him, Tai replied, “As far as I know, vigilante-ing is illegal, same as what the kids were doing. If that is what you’re doing, it’s my job, as a space-cop, to bring you to justice.” The Gundam took a step at the end for emphasis.

The mask stepped back. “Hey, I don’t want to fight, and as far as I’m aware, vigilantes generally help things. At least where I’m from we do. Besides, this isn’t… space. Isn’t a small neighborhood outside of your jurisdiction as a space-police officer?”

He looked like he was going to say something else, but put his hands up and backed up some more.

He had a point… But this was his neighborhood! He wasn’t going to let it be overrun with dangerous elements like vigilantes and delinquent children. It was his responsibility.

“If it really helps, you can go vigilante somewhere else. We don’t need any more problems here.” That may have been a bit too much. Tai could see himself glowing. Willpower. Focus on calm willpower. Not so much the righteous fury.

“Say,” the mask said, keeping his arms raised, even as the rest of his posture relaxed, “You’re pretty young, aren’t you. How would you feel about joining a team of all teen superheroes?”

“Not interested.” Tai didn’t need more kid superheroes. If he was being honest, the idea that there were more kids out there like him was enough to possibly give him another yellow lantern nightmare.

In the distance, he could hear sirens. They sure had taken their sweet time to come.

“Well, I think that’s my cue to leave. See you around, Kid Lantern,” the mask said as he reached behind himself.

Before Tai could rework his construct to catch the mask without causing too much property damage, he had grappled off down the street. Tai sighed and floated down to talk to the local police.

Watchtower, One Week Later

Timothy Jackson Drake-Wayne wasn’t entirely ready for this. His alter ego was set to be making a presentation to the Justice League that evening, regarding the new Teen Titans. The problem was, so far he only had Kid Flash… Impulse, (that was going to take a while to get used to)(1) and Superboy, even if Superman was still a bit leery. Chickadee had expressed interest as well, but Robin was trying to talk him out of it.

Maybe more of the Justice League would send their rebellious proteges to work with him if he could make a good case for it.

As the last few members of the league trickled in, Red Robin nearly choked. There, following after Stewart and Rayner, was none other than the newest, youngest, Green Lantern: Tai Pham. Looks like someone got dragged out of Little Saigon regardless of protests.

To be completely honest, Tai looked like he was way out of his depth. Other than the other Green Lanterns, and maybe a couple of Star Sapphires, Red Robin was sure that he was the only other hero the kid had met. To suddenly have him meet the core of the Justice League… that had to be overwhelming.

Then, he must have noticed Red Robin. The green light around him flared bright and he stood up a little straighter. It wasn’t posturing, really. More just the natural fire this kid held. Of course he had passion. A little digging on Red Robin’s part had brought to light that Tai was an artist, almost perfectly suited to wielding a lantern ring.

The meeting went as scheduled. Batman briefed the League on the goings on in Gotham, and greater global organized crime. Superman gave a brief presentation on the most recent threats to Metropolis. Wonder Woman’s progress report was short -- no evident issues on her side of things. Aquaman, J’onn, and Cyborg’s reports were similar. All the while, Tai was scribbling on a notepad.

The Lantern Corps was the last contingent to go before Red Robin. Stewart informed the group that things were holding up, though there was never truly peace on the intergalactic front. Rayner gave a more detailed report of the incident with Atrocitus. When he finished, they didn’t leave.

“We’d also like to introduce the newest member of the Green Lantern Corps, and let him make his own report,” Stewart said, gesturing to Tai.

“Uh…” Tai said once he got to the front of the room. “Hi. I’m Tai Pham of Earth. My ba noi was a Green Lantern before me.”

The room was silent. Whether that was because the League members were listening intently, or because they were shocked at how young Tai was, Red Robin wasn’t entirely sure.

“So anyway… there was a Yellow Lantern problem in Coast City a little while ago. I took care of it though, and John brought him in for the Corps.”

That was unexpected to say the least. The kid had probably only been a Green Lantern since December, at best, but here he was saying he’d already fought a Yellow Lantern?

“Tai, remember to give them all the details. They need to know his name,” Stewart admonished.

“Oh right! The Yellow Lantern was Xandar Griffin, CEO of Tression until the recent purchase by Wayne Enterprises.”

Red Robin tried and failed to bite back a laugh. Of course! That’s why Tai didn’t want to tell him about the ring. It wasn’t just because of his secret. He thought Tim was going to be like Griffin. And Red Robin could guess just about how that went down, especially with the suspicions about recruitment.

Batman turned to him, frowning under the cowl. Oops.

“Something you’d like to share?” Wonder Woman asked.

“Uh nope. Not related to this anyway,” Red Robin deflected.

The Lanterns all returned to their seats, Tai immediately and furiously going back to his notes.

Red Robin took his place at the front, slideshow clicker in hand. “I’ve been working on recruitment for a little project, as some of you are aware. The Justice League does good work, but there’s enough teenage metahumans out there that I think we need a team for them, by teenage heroes.”

The projector displayed a picture of the old Titan’s Tower in Jump City. “I propose restarting the Teen Titans.” A click and the slide changed to one with pictures of himself, Superboy, and Impulse. “So far, this would be the extent of the team. However the three of us would be perfectly willing to accept any other proteges you think would benefit, or think they’d like to join. I’ve also worked out plans and a budget for how to renovate the tower to suit the needs of the new Titans.”

Tai had stopped taking notes and was openly gaping. Rayner looked like he was trying to hold back a laugh. Stewart looked on consideringly.

“Do you have these plans with you?” he asked.

“Of course,” Red Robin replied and changed slides again. “This is only a partial blueprint of course. For anyone who needs a more in-depth analysis, I have the CAD files on a Bat-drive.”

He directed the next phrase to Stewart specifically. “I know you have some architecture experience. If you have anything to add, noting that these plans were largely designed by a detective and a mechanical engineering student, we would love recommendations.”

Once the presentation was over, Red Robin took a path behind the lanterns to his seat. He had intended to spy on the notes Tai had been taking throughout the meeting, to see just how studious this kid was.

He just about fell over when he saw, instead of notes, a photorealistic drawing of himself, right down to the individual folds in the Red Robin cape. Every scuff mark, every wrinkle in his leather belt -- even the texture of his reinforced body armor -- all of it was there.

“Wow… You’re really good Tai. No wonder you can do those complex constructs,” Red Robin whispered with a smirk. Tai stiffened in his posture even more, his ears turning red.

Given a bit of time, and some convincing from his mentors, and Red Robin was sure there would be, for the first time, a Green Lantern on the Teen Titans.