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#BY ROBIN NUMBER 3 SHE IS USED TO DOING THIS WITHOUT BATTING AN EYE
rainparadefromhell · 2 years
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s4 "quick" review.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
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this is probably the best piece of television i have ever seen. this is why i am so in love with writing and characters and storylines and imagination and creativity and my god do the duffer brothers have all those things. i am actually in awe.
some things that i LOVED that come to mind :
- literally loved every new character?? except jason, is that even his name he can rot why was he in every corner with the satanic shit giving me a migraine smh, eddie is the loml, rip chrissy she was cute and more importantnly steve FINALLY made a new friend his age yay!!!
- steve harrington is gonna do one thing every season and that is be steve harrington aka slay every and any one and he is the best character blabla u already know. also him fucking tearing that bat creature apart was so hot for no reason
- dustin!!!!!????! CARRIED this season. always loved him but his humor really stood out to me this season, gaten acted his ass off
- lucas and that little speech telling max he is always there for her? he has my heart
- sadie oscar when?
- i was screaming "WILLIAM!!" at any mike and will scene. idk why the government name jumped out of me buuuut oh my god i felt so bad bc he is clearly in love w mike and i don't think it's reciprocated....i do think mike knows bc some of them scenes were so awkward but cute i love will
- loved seeing jonathan be so fun (i mean he was high most of the time but still lolol)
- robin????? kiss??? me???? oh MY GOD, her steve and dustin were my absolute favorites, everything she says is comedic gold
- VECNA'S ORIGIN STORY FUCKING DUFFER BROTHERS PLEASE SPARE SOME TALENT. no but i was screaming "he's number one!!!!" when he tricked el. the actor is so talented and his monologue was perfectly evil without being corny. i LOVED them fleshing out the villains more and the whole 1920s victor creel storyline with that beautiful house and the clocks and everything was so stunning visually???
- THE FUCKING SPECIAL EFFECTS CGI WHATEVER THE FUCK WHEN VECNA WOULD BREAK PPLS BONES IT LOOKED SO FUCKING CREEPY AND AWFUL AND SADISTIC AND AMAZING R U KIDDING ME????? this just put ST on another level. the way that that genuinely freaked me out so much with their jaws hanging and missing eyes??? it was truly horror this season.
- hopper and the russian prison guard fighting the demogorgon actually had me on the edge of my seat, it was amazing!! also joyce saving the day by pushing random buttons is such a joyce thing to do lol.
- imma need a written note from netflix and the duffer brothers that my girl el will live a nice, calm and comfortable life in an isolated cabin somewhere after all of this on my desk by monday bc tf?? millie was just flexing her talent bc she was crying and in pain like 90% of the season so far. chefs kiss as always
- dr. br*nner is the biggest piece of shit i have ever seen and if we ever cross paths he is catching these hands. bitch.
things i didn't like :
- there is seriously just one big thing and that is nancy and steve. i love both characters and steve is prob my favorite even but my god do they just not fit at all....nancy and jonathan are both calm and very similar and i just wanted steve to thrive whether by himself or with a new girl. the show made a point that nancy never really loved him and now suddenly it's true love? give me a break, they barely interacted in ages. it just seemed like they didn't know what to do so they used them for cheap drama even though the nancy and jonathan long distance issues were, in my opinion, enough and completely valid and relatable. also emotional cheating isn't cute.
- wanted to see more of mike. a lot of people don't like him but i do. feels like the show doesn't know what to do with him sometimes though.
and that's it. bc the season was basically perfect in my eyes. 10/10
i was, as i'm sure many people as well worried that ST would decline in quality after season 3, hell even 2. but s4 just proved me the fuck wrong. it is absolutely my favorite season so far. i know we are getting a s5 but this makes me want at least 5 more!!!!! but i do trust the duffer brothers to end everything on a high note. but i just cannot wrap my mind over how good this season was??? everything just clicked with el's backstory in the lab and vecna's origin story they REALLY thought everything through and it SHOWS.
this is what tv should be. just pure talent and a thought out idea. and of course an incredible cast. what a delight. i am filled with serotonin. congrats to everyone involved in making this season from the creators to the cast & crew. we will be talking about s4 of stranger things for a looooooong time you best believe.
in short I FUCKING LOVE ART!!!!!!!
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Batman: Gotham Adventures #3
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Into The Unknown, Part 5
First
Previous
Tim finished up pretty quickly.
After all, all the baby toys seemed to just be different variations of each other. Some crinkle, some make sounds, some squish, some… do nothing at all? Tim had no clue how he used to get by as a kid.
He ended up getting Damian three toys:
A tiny rubber duck. He’s almost completely sure that Marinette would have bought one if Tim hadn’t. At least when he was the one buying it he could opt to get the Darth Vader one (Damian had always been woefully uncultured, this was his one chance to make the kid watch sci-fi without risking getting stabbed).
A plush cow with crinkly ears. He had to hope that this could maybe jog memories of Batcow and, in turn, everything else. Tim had tried to think of something a little more relevant but all he could think of were things related to Batman, to Superboy, to the League of Assassins (did their lives really revolve around vigilante-work that much?)... and, unfortunately, this reality didn’t have merch that he could give the kid.
And a squishy plastic baguette. Because that was all he could think of to get back at Marinette for the duck thing.
When it came to little kid books he hesitated for just a bit before getting the basics -- stuff like animals and the letters and Spot The Dog. He wondered, vaguely, if he’d have to teach the kid numbers since they already used the Arabic numeral system. He got a book on it just in case.
Then he got a couple of books on parenting.
He checked out and then walked back to the sitting area where he was supposed to meet Marinette.
… she was taking forever.
He sighed quietly and skimmed through a book on parenting.
… oops they were supposed to breastfeed until Damian was about two. No clue what to do about that. Maybe the kid was already used to a bottle? He hoped so. He’d watch him more carefully while Marinette was holding him to see. In the meantime, he’d get a bottle and some formula on top of the baby food they’d been getting so far.
Alright so the kid was supposed to learn behaviors and language through observation. Good. That, hopefully, solved that problem. Tim probably would have just given the kid a textbook and said ‘good luck’. Marinette… he didn’t really know what Marinette would have done, but the woman wasn’t a teacher as far as he could tell and asking her to teach the kid properly was a little unfair.
Babies around his age are supposed to speak in something called… protowords? Like… a baby language? Damn, he has a miraculous and it seemingly allows him the power to understand every language but apparently ‘baby-speak’ didn’t count as a language. Tim called bullshit.
He felt a weight settle down on the bench next to him and absently glanced over.
Marinette sent him a slightly tired smile. She was wearing a new, dark red scarf.
He opened his mouth to say something only to have her shake her head and adjust her scarf a little to show him something.
Ah. It looked like Damian had fallen asleep on her shoulder so she’d fashioned the scarf into a makeshift baby sling.
“Could’ve used the stroller,” he whispered, setting his receipt in the book to mark his page.
She snorted. “And risk waking him? He cries every time he wakes up, I’m not dealing with that right now.”
He bit his lip. “You know… this book says he’s supposed to cry for, like, an hour to an hour and a half a day.”
She tipped her head to the side a little. “He’s cried like… three times.”
“Yeah, and he was really easy to shut up. Decidedly not normal.”
They looked back down at Damian, identical frowns on their faces.
“Does it have an explanation for why he’d be like this?” Marinette asked, her voice soft.
Tim hesitated.
“The only reasons I can think of are that he doesn’t think we’d help him if he cried or he thinks crying is something he’d be punished for. Considering how he was raised… it could be either. Or both.”
~
Marinette yawned as she sat back on the hotel bed. She leaned back against Tim, leaving him to bear the weight of both her and Damian.
He, to his credit, barely even blinked. He turned slowly until they were both leaning back against each other.
She tipped her head back to rest on his shoulder.
She could fall asleep like this, she thought. Propped against Tim. Damian, in her arms, watching an episode of something called True and the Rainbow Kingdom… it was nice.
Or, at least, it would be if Tim could stop that infernal tapping.
“Ugh, could you stop that? Some people actually sleep.”
He gave a tiny puff of laughter that acknowledged that he heard her but, alas, he continued typing.
She groaned a little and reached a hand behind herself to give him a tiny bap to his side.
“Hm. This may shock you, but hitting me really hasn’t helped your case.”
She huffed and twisted around to try and see over his shoulder. She’d given up on sleeping, anyway.
“What are you even doing?”
He shrugged just slightly. “Trying to figure out what to do about money.”
She nodded slowly, looking over his shoulder as he scrolled through jobs they could do with zero experience or degrees. That could sustain a family of three and pay for the daycare they would have to take Damian to. The options... weren’t great.
Damian tugged on her shirt for her attention and she looked down as he pointed at his screen with a bright smile. There was a black cat on the screen. She didn’t really know what he wanted until he kept saying ‘ma’ over and over. She nodded and said ‘cat’ in both Arabic and English, which seemed to sate him as he went back to watching… the giant green yeti monster stealing a basket of candy? What the fuck was even going on on this show? Were kids’ shows like this in her own world, too? Or was this one’s shows just especially weird?
A thought occurred to her and she looked back over at Tim.
“You exist in this world, right?”
He nodded absently and opened a tab that, despite its claim that it was an entry level job, apparently required two years of experience and a degree. He closed it quickly.
“Why don't we just mooch off of the other you?”
Tim sighed. “Because that’s illegal?”
“You’re a vigilante. I don’t think that ‘borrowing’ money from your alternate self is where you should draw the line on illegal activities.”
“I draw the line when it harms innocent people.”
She laughed at that. “He’s rich. It’s not like he’s going to miss it. Think of it as… giving the money to people who need it.”
“You’re a regular robin hood,” Tim said sarcastically.
“I know. I’m so kind,” she agreed, grinning.
There were a few moments of silence.
Then, finally, he shook his head. “Even if we could somehow do that -- which I can’t guarantee because I’m not completely sure I could guess my passwords -- the fact that we’re in Texas… he’d notice.”
She shrugged. “Then let’s move back to Gotham.”
He blinked and finally looked up from the computer. “What?”
“We don’t have much of a life here, really, so why not move?”
He considered this for a while before sighing and flopping back on the bed. “Let me see if I can even get into the account. There’s nothing to say that I even have the same social security number here...”
She nodded her understanding and laid back next to him. Damian whined a little at the sudden displacement but just ran a hand up and down his back absently until he was watching his show again, completely silent as he stared at the screen. Now the main girl was reaching into her bag for a weird orb of light that was, apparently, sentient. Was this the Dora of their world? God help their children.
Speaking of helping their children...
She picked up a parenting book to read while Tim tried to guess his otherworldly counterpart’s passwords.
~
Tim managed to get in.
He rested his head in his hands, cursing quietly.
She glanced over and smiled at his slightly flushed face.
“What was the password?”
He grumbled under his breath.
This only seemed to encourage her more because she started nudging his shoulder, the soft smile morphing into a cheeky grin.
He sighed and took a moment to gather himself before looking over at her. “It’s… ‘<3Richard<3graysons<3little<3brother<3’.”
“... I don’t get it.”
“Good. So you can’t tease me about it,” he said, sticking his tongue out at her.
She scoffed. “That’s not fair.”
“Totally is.”
He set the computer down beside himself and stretched his achy old bones. He’d had a baby for approximately two days now and he could already feel the bad back setting in. Tomorrow he would have gray hair.
“I’m going to look it up if you don’t tell me.”
“... he’s a celebrity,” Tim said quietly.
Her grin wavered back towards that genuine smile for just a second before spreading into an even wider grin. She reached out and pinched his cheeks. “Awwww, Tim, that’s so cute --!”
“Shut up,” he complained, batting her hands away.
She snickered. “No. I’m going to write that password on your tombstone.”
“You’re assuming I’m going to die first.”
“I have an extended lifespan. You’re only going to have that for another fifteen years. After that? Unless I’m really stupid you’re gonna die first.”
He rolled his eyes. “I’m going to find out how to be immortal now. Purely to spite you.”
She snorted. “Okay. Good luck with that.”
“Thank you.”
With that, he pushed himself up with a groan. “I’m going to get him ready for bed.”
She nodded her understanding and continued with her reading.
Damian whined a little when Tim tried to take him away from where he had curled up next to Marinette but that seemed to be more because he was tired and cranky than genuine distress.
Tim was the one to bathe him. It wasn’t a bubble bath, he wasn’t eager to repeat the previous night’s mistakes, but he did give Damian the rubber duck. This seemed to work for all of them, since Damian now allowed them to take him out of the bath as long as he got to bring his duck.
Marinette grinned when she looked over at where Damian was chewing on his rubber duck as Tim struggled to click the annoyingly difficult buttons of the onesie into place.
“Told you he would love it.”
“We both know that wasn’t why you wanted to get it.”
“And we both know you didn’t get that squishy bread-thing just because you thought he would like it, either.”
He smiled. “Maaaaaybe.”
The onesie finally allowed itself to be buttoned and Tim picked Damian up so he could get into bed.
Marinette frowned. “This book says we shouldn’t let him sleep with us every night. Says it creates a bad habit that’s hard to break.”
Tim raised an eyebrow at her but, reluctantly, carried the kid over to the crib so they could sleep separately.
“Fine. But I’m going to sleep before him so I don’t stress out all night.”
She snickered. “Fine. Fine.”
He climbed into bed, set a pillow between them, and promptly dozed off before he could get woken up by Damian whimpering through the night.
… Tim woke up a few hours later -- his body wasn’t quite used to sleeping through nights just yet -- to find that Marinette had brought the kid into bed with them again.
He smiled a little and moved the pillow out from between them. Even if Damian was currently too trapped in Marinette’s arms to even reach it, it was best to make sure it couldn’t happen.
Damian whimpered a little in his sleep again and Tim tipped his head to the side. He reached over and gently combed his fingers through the fuzzy little tufts of hair that the kid had so far. Damian relaxed.
Tim sighed and shifted in the bed until he was closer to Damian, then maneuvered through Marinette’s mess of limbs to press a tiny kiss to the top of his head. The baby smiled in his sleep and, though the kid couldn’t see it, he returned the smile. He rested an arm around the kid as well in hopes that it would keep the kid feeling safe before allowing himself to drift off.
~~~~~
Next
@nathleigh @peachmuses @unoriginalmess @hammalammadamdam @astrynyx @laurcad123 @927roses-and-stuff
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ragingbookdragon · 3 years
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An Unexpected Friendship, But A Friendship Nonetheless
A Jason Todd and Harley Quinn One-Shot (Non-Reader Insert)
Word Count: 2K Warnings: Explicit Language, Angst
Author's Note: So I wrote this for @aurailia or @nitebirdie because she drew that wonderful Jason picture for me which you can find right here! I hope you like this, Jess! Love you! -Thorne
**********************************************************************
Jason expected a lot of things.
1. Getting yelled at by Bruce for shooting serial murderers and rapists? Check.
2. Getting yelled at by Damian for calling him short? Check.
3. Getting yelled at by Tim for spray painting a billboard of him with penises? Check.
4. Getting yelled at by Dick for picking on his younger brothers? Check.
So really, it was getting yelled at by his family that he expected the most, but all things considered about his life, his expectations weren’t pretty high. He knew he was going to get hurt on patrol, knew was going to spend the rest of his life dealing with the chronic pain and learning how to manage it.
But the one thing Jason never expected, was to end up being friends with Harley Quinn.
And honest to God, the whole friendship only started because the psychiatrist they both went to accidentally scheduled them at the same time. A screw up. A monumental screw up. But it did lead to a revolutionary session where Jason and Harley spent most of their time badgering each other about their habits while the woman merely watched on and scribbled furiously at her notepad.
When they both left, they were in such a heated argument about which way would be better to deal with the Joker. Jason suggested a bullet in the head and Harley suggested cutting off his arms and legs. An excellent suggestion, he had to admit, but nothing would satisfy him more than killing the pasty bastard, and she knew that too.
Surprisingly, when Harley got to her bus stop, she grabbed the front collar of his shirt to keep him in place while she typed her number in his phone. Of course, Jason wasn’t sure what to be more concerned about: the fact that she’d lifted his phone without him knowing, or that she was putting her number in it and telling him to call her when he needed someone to talk to.
He’d responded that he didn’t need another shrink in his head.
She’d given him a pitied look and said it wasn’t for that, but for a friend.
And Jason wasn’t sure how to feel about that, but three weeks after, he was dialing her number at two A.M. just to hear someone’s voice over the deafening silence in his apartment.
They talked for hours about anything and everything. Cars, weapons, games, favorite childhood memories, everything they could think of. And by the time they’d finally talked until their tongues were numb, the sun had started peeking above the buildings in the distance.
He apologized for keeping her all night.
Harley laughed and asked to hang out on patrol come Friday night then hung up.
Jason hadn’t even told her who he was, but low and behold she was doing cartwheels on the roof of the building he was looking out on that night. And it should’ve annoyed him but hell, he’d grown up with Dick—gymnastics was something he was used to being around.
Halfway through their stakeout, she was perched on the side of the ledge, staring at the side of his head, and it shouldn’t’ve unnerved him like it did, but there was something about her bright blue eyes drilling into his brain that made his skin crawl—and not in the good way.
Will you stop boring holes in me, Quinn? He’d grunted. Pay attention.
Why? She’d retorted. Aren’t you tired of doing this? Don’t you wanna go do something fun?
Stopping drug dealers is good for Gotham.
I’m not talking about good for Gotham, Jason. I’m talking about for you.
Harley hauled him up and tugged him along, him barely resisting because good God she was relentless and headstrong when she put her mind to something. So, he let her. And she dragged him to the Bat-Burger down the block and shoved a roll of money towards the cashier, ordering one of everything on the menu.
And Jason found it really odd when he was balancing two trays in his hands while Harley carried the milkshakes over to the booth in the corner where they huddled in and started eating.
She held up a packet in between her fingers. Want some Jokerized seasoning?
He blinked at her and gently took it, sprinkling the red, white, and green flakes over his fries. And he wasn’t offended when she reached over and took one, popping it in her mouth.
It’s terrible to say it, but God I love this shit. She laughed and Jason’s jaw dropped.
I know! He agreed with a grin. I can’t help it! It’s so good!
Her eyes had narrowed at that. You should smile more, Jason. You look normal when you do.
Normal? He repeated.
You look happy. And that’s what you should strive for. She finalized and took the Robin Nuggets from his tray, grinning when he let out a noise of complaint.
When they could finally move after consuming so much food, she tugged him along to the department store that had closed hours before and while Jason wasn’t one to ever care about breaking and entering, he did have a problem with property that wasn’t a center for criminal activity.
Don’t be a baby. She griped and slipped in though one of the vents and Jason merely stared at the opening before he heard her yell to him. Get a move on! We have stuff to do!
Begrudgingly, he squeezed himself into the way too small vent and shimmied after her.
And Harley Quinn must’ve been planning this for a while because when his feet finally hit the floor, he watched as she started disabling security cameras and alarms in the entire building before spinning around and grinning at him.
Mall’s ours. Let’s get it. And she was off.
Bruce was not going to be happy about this but watching her swing that electrified bat at the glass windows, watching them shatter into millions of shards stirred up something devious in him and Harley was cackling when he broke a window with an armored elbow and yanked out the mannequin, tugging the black leather jacket off before shrugging it on.
He posed with his shoulders squared and strong and she clapped her hands. Looks good! Wanna go hit one of the jewelry stores and find some silver earrings to go with it?
Jason nodded and somehow Harley ended up piggybacking on him, giggling profusely when he started belting out Queen at the top of his lungs; she even joined when they got to the operatics.
And somehow, he let her convince him to go and help her raid the major makeup store in the mall. Harley managed to fill three backpacks full of lipsticks, foundations, eye-shadows, and a whole lotta other shit that Jason had no idea what they were for.
How much money do you think all that is? He inquired and she shrugged.
Probably a grand? Maybe two if I’m being honest. This place is a money-sucking-makeup-hog and I’ll be damned if I’m paying a hundred bucks for one set of lipstick and eyeliner.
She turned to him. Anywhere you wanna go? There’s a map out there if you wanna go look.
Jason nodded and walked out of the store while she was busy filling whatever belt pocket wasn’t empty.
After a few minutes, he heard, Found anywhere?
He pointed silently at one of the stores on the brightened map and she squinted, looking it over.
You wanna go there?
Wouldn’t’ve suggested it if I didn’t.
She shrugged and piggybacked him again. Lead the way, Jason.
He hated that the elevators had been out, and while he hadn’t broken a sweat carrying Harley up three flights of immovable stairs, his knees and his back were killing him when they finally got to the store.
He started wandering inside but stopped when she tossed him a duffel bag.
Fill it up with everything you want.
Jason tried to smile but could only manage a grimace as he stepped in and started going up and down the aisles. He wasn’t too picky with his choosing. Books that looked like they’d help manage his pain he shoved in the duffel bag. An electric pulsing gel pad went in too followed by a vibrating roller he could stretch his muscles on.
He was flipping through a book geared towards mindful chronic pain management when he felt her slide next to him.
Finding everything alright?
Mostly…this one is all about conditioning the mind to work with the pain.
Sounds useful. Meditation and mindfulness have been known to work. It’s really all about placebo-ing your mind into it. She looked at him. Jason, do you ever think about going to a physical therapist?
He scoffed. I already go see a shrink. Why would I go see another doctor?
Because your mind is one thing, and your body is another. Her hand was cool when she placed it on his arm. Jason, if you’re in pain, there are people who can help you.
He really wanted to be snarky but all he could do was glare at her. And what about you? Do you go see a doctor for all the things he did to you too?
Harley gazed at him for a long time before answering him firmly. I will if you do. Or… she started, then trailed off and picked up a few books on physical therapy. You can come to the apartment that Ivy and I live in and we can do it together.
And Jason blinked in shock because he’d never met a person who would agree to do something for themselves if he did something for himself, an agreement for dual help.
You’d really do that for me? For you too?
Harley smiled, big and pearly white, red lipstick a bit smeared in the corner from their meal earlier.
We’re both screwed up cause of what he did, Jason. But here’s where we’re different from everyone else.She linked her arm with his, leaned close and murmured. We’re not going to stew in it while healing is in our futures.
You know we’ll never be one hundred percent fixed, right?
It’s not about fixing, Jason. It’s about healing. Healing doesn’t mean you’re fixed. Memories, pain, it’ll always be there and no amount of management for pain or therapy is going to fix that.
She stared up at him. But it will remind you that you’re still you. Even if there’s a few broken pieces here and there. And no one can take that from you. Not even him.
Jason’s lungs were too tight to form words and his eyes stung horribly but he managed to swallow the lump enough to choke out his reply. You’re alright, Harley.
Smiling, she pressed her cheek into his bicep. Call me Harleen, Jason.
Not Harley?
No, not Harley. I only let the ones I care about call me Harleen.
Does this mean we’re friends then?
Oh, this absolutely means we’re friends now. Best friends, in fact. She tugged at his arm. And I think there’s a Wayne Enterprises outlet somewhere in here and I think we should leave Brucie boy a message.
Jason laughed and wiped his eyes, hurrying after her. Can we spray paint dicks everywhere?
Only if I can spray paint boobs.
You’ve got yourself a deal, Harleen.
Jason expected a lot in his life. To be yelled at by his family for being a pain-in-the-ass son and brother, to be injured on the job, to see a therapist every Tuesday and Thursday, to call his family every night to tell them he loved them.
But the one thing he never expected, was to find one of the greatest friends he’d ever had in a woman he had once been on opposite sides with.
He also didn’t expect Batman to come through the window of the outlet in the middle of their spray painting but that’s another story for another time.
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boldlyanxious · 3 years
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Remember when 23
Call me Maybe
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Tim almost dropped his phone in his hurry to answer. He didn't expect his phone to make a sound again until he changed the settings back but the picture of Marinette flashed on the screen with her name at the incoming call. He was feeling a bit breathless after the excitement of trying to keep hold of his phone and also because she was calling him. He tried to keep his voice even when he answered anyway.
"Hello?" He waited for a response but she didn't respond. He assumed she had to bully herself into calling a bit so he kept his voice calm so she wouldn't hang up.
"Hello… are you there?" He waited again before softly saying, "Please talk to me Marinette."
That was his first clue that something was wrong. There was no response on the line but he could hear someone talking near the phone.
"Well isn't that something, Marinette? Clearly you are hiding something if you aren't even giving out the right name."
The sudden silence signaled that the call had ended. A feeling of cold horror tightened painfully in his stomach. He suspected things were going very bad for her and that he had just managed to make them far worse.
---
Barb was surprised to see Bruce in the cave when she entered. It was just as well though. They would need everyone for this. He didn't even notice her until she spoke. He looked like he had been there quite a while based on his posture and discarded plate and mug. She felt a bit bad that he felt the need to hide in his own house. She decided to just skip right over the awkward and get straight to the mission.
"Everyone is coming now to suit up," she said. "Looks like it might be a long night. Alfred is bringing tea and coffee."
He faltered for a moment. He was surprised she was talking to him. Especially after he had spent the last few hours reading all the information Tim had compiled about Rouge Gorge aside from their interactions with her. She hadn never gotten much news coverage because her saves were rather small in comparison to the Rogues or the organized crime that the bats usually dealt with.
Tim had talked to the criminals and the victims of hundreds of crimes where the response was always that she was dedicated and focused. She was friendly, efficient and never used unnecessary force. Some of the reports went back even further than when she had caught Red Robin on the rooftop and definitely before they knew anything about the new drug. He pulled away from the computer, not quite getting the folder closed before she saw it. She raised an eyebrow at him questioningly but he pretended not to notice.
"What do we know?" he asked, avoiding the awkwardness for now.
"It appears to be a coordinated attack on the drug ring. Reports indicate even more locations are being attacked than we have information on."
She pulled up a map to display as others started arriving. Bruce stepped away to suit up. Robin was already there and Black Bat. Dick and Steph came down but she said that Hood would join them out there along with Arsenal. No one had heard from Tim since Barb had left his place.
"Who is leading the attack? Who even had that kind of resources?" Dick asked.
"It seems to be mostly coming from Falcone, probably for revenge. They are being joined by other gangs to fight for the right for territory and distribution," Barb said.
"Splitting the distribution among several gangs could limit the spread of the drug. Especially if we can interrupt the process," Steph said.
"It's too early to know for sure, but I think Penguin is using the chaos to make a move. It looks like he is banding gangs together for greater force. Whether he is doing this with Falcone or as a counter move is unknown." Barb said.
"Let's see what we can find out tonight." Batman said, moving toward the exit.
---
She was surprised to be pushed down onto a cushioned surface before the cloth was removed from her eyes. The drive had been short and silent before they moved her in. She looked around the room from the old couch she was sitting on. She wasn't surprised at all to see the drug dealer from the party in front of her. Lt. Howard Branden, if she was remembering the information from the meeting she ran from before her disappearance a few months ago.
There was no sign of the other 2 he had been working with before but the group was exactly who Batman promised to turn her over to if she didn't give him more information. She knew that Batman sometimes worked with the police and Branden was, or maybe had been, a police officer with the SWAT team. She didn’t pretend to know how any of that could work but it did seem like a possible connection.
She was surprised to see the guy she had met at the party who had tried to use her for free drugs. He looked like he was currently on drugs but was seemingly willing enough to be there that he wasn't bound in any way. The leader was already looking through her phone and she could see another trying to get into her laptop. She basically had no information on her phone. It was as low tech as she could manage to find. She could see some device attached that would probably get past her 4 digit PIN. She knew it wasn't very secure but it was a burner phone with 3 saved numbers and no names. She tended to reset it frequently.
"Work, T and A. Sounds like you know what you want out of life. But look at that history. No calls in days."
Marinette shifted herself but didn't try to talk through the gag. She just watched him and hoped she could find a way out of this as he continued.
"You friend, Dustin, here told me all he knew about you but it doesn't seem like anyone knows very much. He couldn’t even get much from his friend who works with you. Apparently no one knows much about you.”
He removed the gag. But she said nothing.
"Who are you?"
"Meg," she said, offering only information he already had.
He stepped closer.
"Why is that the only information anyone knows about you, Meg?"
"I'm a private person."
"Hmm. So who is this ex in your phone. You don’t even have a name in there. I thought he had broken up with you but based on your messages you dumped him."
She looked away rather than answering.
"He wanted you to call back. Shall we try it?"
She tried to jump up and stop him when he pushed the call button but one of the henchmen blocked her. She could hear the ringing tone and then heard Tim answer. Her mouth was covered again so she couldn't call out to him but she could hear him still trying to get a response. His third try to get her to talk he gave the only clue the man before her needed.
"Well isn't that something? He called you Marinette. Clearly you are hiding something if you aren't even giving out the right name."
He hung up the phone and set it down while watching her. The man preventing her from talking removed his hand and pushed her so she fell back onto the couch.
"What does it matter to you?" she asked.
"He is like really into you," Dustin said. "He found me after that party and asked me to help him find out more about you."
"That's it. I'm interested to know all about you. Do you ever get dressed up and go out?"
"You had men kidnap me for a date?"
Marinette was fairly certain he meant something else by his question but she was certainly not going to just follow where he wanted to lead her. Batman may have told him who she was but he had nothing if she didn't confirm it and he couldn't prove anything. Even breaking into her electronics couldn't get him that information. Without finding the magical box they would have no evidence. All her non-magical equipment burned in the fire.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by movement from the henchmen. He went up to talk to the man. They spoke in low voices for a few minutes and she had a bad feeling about whatever was being discussed. After a few minutes all the others left the room. They took her phone and laptop and one of them guided a stumbling Dustin away with them. When he caught her gaze he walked closer to her. She fought to keep her breaths even but he sat directly in front of her refusing to look away.
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artxyra · 4 years
Text
The Secret Life of MDC | Part 4
Part 4 - Riddle Me This!
Part 1 | 2 | 3 |
It just had to be the Riddler who decides to grace his appearance at the strip mall. Just looking at his outfit was a crime against her eyes. Marinette had her far shares of a run-in with the green suited villain, and after countless complaints, he still hasn’t changed his outfit let alone attempt to contact her about an outfit change. Catwoman literally has her number; he could have just asked.
“Now who wants to go first. Choose wisely and you shall survive, but choice wrong and you may get a bullet.” The Riddler taunts his capture victims. They squirm under the threat, eyes widen beyond belief.
From afar, Marinette could see the shaking figures of her classmates. Years of being under Hawkmoth’s terror, showing little to no emotions during an attack, and they are shaking to the sight of the Riddler. Perhaps it was because there was no Miraculous cure or they have forgotten their permanent residency.  To be honest, Marinette was just waiting for Lila to say something stupid that would most likely get them all killed.
“M-my Damiboo would save me!” Yup, there she goes. Everyone, that was not fooled by Lila’s words (ie. Gothamites), facepalmed and groans as she gains the interest of the Riddler.
Tapping his chin, he stares at her before introducing his first riddle of this heist, “It's raining, and you pass a bus stop. There are three people there; your trustworthy friend, the love of your life, and a woman about to go into labor. Your smart car only has two seats. What do you do?”
Lila blubbers her answer, something about taking the love of her life and leaving. She is then scared shitless as a bullet zooms past her, nearly hitting her ear. A shock facial expression stays prominent on her face until she falls down, fainting.
“Oh, how the fibber swoons to darkness. Batsy isn’t here yet and I really want someone to solve my riddles.” He searches the crowd for his next victim. The Parisian teens quickly try to wake up Lila, but they also hope not to be the Riddler’s next targets.
Marinette mentally goes through answering the riddle. Chloe and Adrien stare at one another before shaking their heads. They knew what Marinette was thinking and that is a bad idea. Then again it might bet the better option seeing as they have no idea when the bat crew would make it to the scene.
“You give the keys to your friend so that they can take the woman in labor to the hospital and wait for the bus with the boyfriend.” Marinette confidently answers. The GA Trio stare at the Marinette in awe.
“She does that a lot,” Adrien whispers just enough for their new friends to hear. That was true, Marinette has a tendency of solving riddles which were due to her time being Ladybug.
Chuckling happily, the Riddler turns his attention to Marinette. Marinette doesn’t falter at him glancing at her, but she does narrow her eyes just enough to enforce a challenge.
Dancing closer over to Marinette and her friends, the Riddler chuckles. Half of the weapons turn to them, it's Adrien and Chloe that hold their ground while the GA trio looks like they want to bounce to safety.
“No amount of sass can save you from this riddle, pick the correct answer and your friend shall do free but pick the wrong—”
“They die?” Marinette quirks an eyebrow at the villain.
The Riddler blanches and says, “Only one color, but not one size, stuck at the bottom, yet easily flies. Present in sun, but not in rain, doing no harm, and feeling no pain. What is it?”
Emotionless and quick, Marinette gives her answer, “It's a shadow.”
“How about this one: if eleven plus two equals one, what does nine plus five equals?”
Adrien turns to Marinette, he knows the answer as Chloe taps the ground giving away the crook with a gun behind them. Tensions slowly rise among the group of friends.
“Uh, it’s two o’clock. You’re adding the hours of time.” Marinette answers with a sigh of relief at the end. She knows they are aching to pull the trigger, but unknowingly to the Riddler if anything happens to her, well let's just say he might not live to see another day.
The Riddler growls clearly frustrated with the teen's ability to answer correctly. Only a handful of people can do this to him. “In that case, what is it that given one, you'll have either two or none?”
Marinette only smirks, riddles was also one of her favorite past time against Tim when they are both on the verge of death by lack of sleep. Those late-night twitter messages give much to their twisted mindset on a lack of caffeine.
As Marinette draws on the answer a little longer, Chloe and Adrien take down the henchmen behind them. The henchmen fall to the ground swiftly as the blonde duo nod their heads. Adrien quickly pulls out his phone to see if there were any messages in the group chat. There’s none.
“How long do you think we can hold him off until they get here?” Chloe whispers side glancing at the rooftops of buildings.
“No clue, they haven’t sent anything in the chat, should I try texting Jon?”
Chloe’s eyes narrow causing Adrien to gulp and quickly tap on his phone.
“It’s a choice.” The blonde duo turns their heads towards Marinette who was now toying with the green suit villain. It was clear that she was slowly becoming agitated. “You know, what I have a riddle for you. What’s green and yellow, has no sense of fashion, and is literally killing my eyesight?” She yells at the villain.
It’s like a pin drop as everything freezes once more. Her classmates on the verge of leaving the scene as they were no longer the targets. Seriously, you’re just going to leave them to fend for themselves. Yup, they are as they make a large dash out of the scene. This then creates confusion among the Gothamite as they are used to this and what did they expect, screaming?
“Uh, I—uh…” The Riddle tries to formulate an answer. It takes him a second before pointing to himself. “Me?”
Marinette, like a disappointed mom, nods her head. “Yes. You dare show your face in such a green that could put someone’s eyes out. Don't you dare get me started on the yellow question marks? That tone does not do well on your skin. Gosh, you had one job, Riddler, one fricking job.” Marinette begins to go off. The Riddler and his henchmen pale at every word she says.
Just as Marinette was beginning to calm down, a shadow in the shape of a bat looms over the Riddle.
“Finally,” Marinette huffs as the Riddle turns his attention from her to fight against the Batman.
“Hey, you guys okay?” It was Nightwing who asks appearing behind the blonde duo. If looks could kill, he would have been six feet under with the look Chloe was giving me.
“Oh, my lord, it Nightwing!” Allegra squeals in the background but she goes ignore as Nightwing rubs the back of his neck.
“Get us out of here, like now!” Chloe screams to the vigilante.
Robin rushes to Marinette and tries to take her away from the situation.
“Are you alright miss?” He asks bringing them to the safety of the public. Marinette stares at him deadpanned before nodding. As much as we would like to kiss her lips, he sends her a shrug over to her friends. “Where are your classmates?”
“Gone, unless Alya decided to do something stupid like try and get a film of you guys in action.” Realization began to set over Marinette’s eyes. “You’re going to need to find them. Hopefully, they made it back to the academy without any problems.”
Robin nods then proceed to send a message over the coms about the missing foreign class from Paris. He quickly joins the search as Marinette turns to her friends.
“Do you any idea how ridiculously stupid that decision was?” Chloe grills the designer before whispering, “You know we’re not even in our suits.”
“Sorry Bee, but did you see that outfit?” Marinette counters before going on a massive rant about the Riddler’s outfit and how he could choose it.
~*~
Nette @GothamsFashionSense Yo, some foreigner just grilled the Riddler on his outfit. I’m so proud of her. #prideful #doIseecompetition
Chloe B. @QueenBeeOfParis Replying to @GothamsFashionSense That was my sista @MarinetteMemes, she too loves your content.
Nette @GothamsFashionSense And I ❤️ her, that rant was amazing 🤩. Need any tips @MarinetteMemes? #futureapprentice #fashionmess
~*~
Case in point, Alya did separate from the class when they were trying to escape once word got out that the bats were on their way. She is quick to make sure that Lila was alright before dashing back to the “crime” scene with her phone recording.
Batman had found her, but before he could get a word out, Alya was blasting him with questions regarding the situation and personal questions. He, of course, ignores them. Alya even tries to bring up Lila’s name but he doesn’t answer. Nightwing pulls on up on his bike to take the “aspiring” journalist back to the academy against her pleases and constant questions.
Upon returning to the academy, Alya was heavily lectured by the GA’s headmistress before her own teacher baby her. Mlle. Bustier was never one to give punishments unless it was warranted and even then, she doesn’t do it right. Alya was lucky to return to her dorm with a slap on the wrist and detention.
~*~
Babe Bee @Iheartthebatboy23 Um… can we talk about the girl that grilled the Riddler and how she looked so much like a Wayne? #newWayne #theorieseverywhere #brucewayneexplainplease
~*~
After a week of grueling classwork (aka grading assessments), getting pestered by her former classmates in Mlle. Bustier's class, Marinette wakes up with a beating headache. She hasn’t felt that way since the last time she had gone days without sleep, running on twelve shots of expresso before crashing.
“C’mon buggy, it’s Saturday and Jon’s in town. You know how much the kitten would want to spend time with him.” Chloe states, standing in front of Marinette fully dress and with a businesswoman power pose.
“And here I thought you did want to be the fifth wheel.” Marinette retorts only to get a chuckle out of the mayor’s daughter.
“No, but I will be FaceTiming Gami while you and the boys have fun,” Chloe responds back as she laughs at the dismal look on Marinette’s face. “But seriously though, get dressed. We’re meeting the boys in thirty.”
Marinette rushes over to her wardrobe and picks out her clothes then rushes to the bathroom. She comes out in fifteen minutes wearing black leggings and one of Damian’s sweatshirts that look like a dress against her small frame.
As the teens exit the school, they were quick to avoid Lila who was making up another story as to where she’ll be this evening. It was something along the lines of going on a date with her Damiboo. It took everything in Marinette’s body to not grill the liar about her boyfriend, but with soothing words from Chloe, they managed to get out the building without bloodshed.
If only that wasn’t the case later on that day.
Part 5 >>
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rosesgonerogue · 4 years
Text
How to be a Dad 101
Chapter 2 - Villain Attack
Jasonette July Day 3
Masterlist
Marinette had thought that her years of being Rena Rogue would have improved Alya’s need for documenting dangerous situations, or at the very least her impulse control. As much as she loved her best friend, she was beginning to sincerely regret being cajoled into going to Gotham, of all places. A part of her couldn’t help but speculate whether of not Alya had been hoping that they’d end up in Crime Alley.
Jason was an unexpected bonus to their trip, though. None of them were quite sure what to think of the native Gothamite, but he did make an excellent tour guide. He was attentive, and surprisingly knowledgeable about the city’s history. Although he initially came off as angry and intimidating, he was also witty and attentive, especially to Marinette.
Okay, he was also hot. Like, absurdly hot. While Adrien was attractive, Jason was… Marinette didn’t know what words she could possibly use to describe just how broad his shoulders were, or how defined those muscles seemed. At one point he hugged her into his (very firm) chest so an inattentive biker didn’t hit her while they were crossing the street. She was grateful that he took the time to cuss them out, or he would have seen her face as red as her Ladybug suit. At another point when he took off his jacket and she saw his arms, she nearly choked on her spit.
She was dangerously close to relapsing into the Marinette of her teenage years, and that was the singularly worst outcome she could picture. Something about Jason made her feel… safe, protected.
The first day of their acquaintance with Jason was blessedly uneventful. Marinette was a little sad to bid him goodbye for good, but when he dropped them off at their hotel, he asked, “So what time should I be here tomorrow?”
A blush crept up Marinette’s face. “You don’t have to do that, really. We don’t want to bore you–“
He met her eyes, his own piercing. He was evaluating her, and based on his smirk, he liked what he saw. “I’ll be here at ten.” Jason raised a massive, strong hand to brush an errant strand of hair out of her eyes. “Gotham would eat you up, and we can’t have that.”
When he stepped away, Marinette almost collapsed on the spot. She knew her face was flaming red, but she managed to stammer, “W-Well, we’re going to have breakfast at the bakery just down the block at seven, but we’ll definitely be back by ten.”
“I guess that’s safe enough,” Jason said with that same smirk. “But no more wandering around Gotham, you got it?”
“S-Sure.”
Even though he had just vacated her personal space just a second ago, he leaned in close enough that his breath tickled her ear. “Sleep well, sweetcheeks.”
He left them standing in the hotel lobby, Marinette completely frozen. Before the boys could do or say anything, Alya grabbed her hand in an iron grip and hauled her up two flights of stairs to the room the two of them were sharing.
“What was that?” Alya demanded, closing the door with a bang.
Still dazed, Marinette collapsed onto the bed. “What was that?”
“Do you suddenly have a thing for bad boys now? I just… and how did we bump into him? He’s like the buffest man on the planet.”
“He called me sweetcheeks. Is that a good thing?” Marinette mumbled.
“Marinette, focus,” Alya said, shaking her best friend. “I’m worried.”
Finally Marinette made eye contact. “But he’s safe. He protected us.”
Emerging from her purse, Tikki settled on Alya’s head. “Marinette, I don’t think that’s what Alya is talking about.”
Sitting up, infinitely more level-headed than moments earlier, Marinette smiled softly, eyes holding a depth of sadness that should have been unfair for a twenty-year-old. “I know that nothing will happen between the two of us, we fly back to Paris in five days. But I just… I just want to be a normal girl for a week. I was fine with coming to Gotham because it meant I had a week to just be Marinette, not Ladybug, not MDC. For once I just want to let myself get caught up in my emotions – and if I end up hurt, that’s fine, because it means I’m allowed to feel again.”
Tikki and Alya shared glances with each other before Tikki spoke. “I guess I can understand that. But are you sure you can handle whatever happens, Marinette?”
“I’m a big girl, Tikki.”
“Besides, did you see those biceps? That alone almost makes up for anything he might do,” Alya said, fanning herself.
********
When morning rolled around, Marinette was the only one awake. Even Tikki was worn out from staying up entirely too late giggling about Jason and embarrassing Marinette with Alya’s help. Used to helping in the bakery every morning since she’d graduated, the lack of sleep was nothing to Marinette when she rolled out of bed and tied her hair up as per usual.
She was a little nervous about walking around Gotham alone, but Jason had dubbed this a safe part of town, and it was just at the end of the block. Her phone and her wallet were safely secured to her person, so she couldn’t be pick-pocketed either. Besides, even if something did happen, she had been Ladybug for years. Even without being transformed, Marinette had developed a number of self-defense skills on her own. It would be fine.
Getting to the bakery was no problem because, as previously stated, it was only a block away. The streets were fairly empty, and the weather was pleasant. She’d heard that Gotham was almost always storming, but she had yet to see any of that.
The bread was still warm in the bakery. Marinette was mostly curious about the differences between French and American bakeries, and she knew her parents were expecting a full report of any special items.
It didn’t seem like there was anything too different about the bakery except the various vigilante inspired pastries, and Marinette refused to bring that up – she didn’t need to see Ladybug bread everywhere she went. They actually had a far smaller selection than she was used to, but she’d heard that that was to be expected in America.
She ordered a bit of everything, and after deliberating a bit, she ordered a few extra Red Hood donuts. They were vaguely gun-shaped and filled with raspberry jelly. It seemed like the sort of thing that Jason would find amusing, and if not, there were plenty of other things for him to choose from and Adrien and Nino wouldn’t complain.
Piled high with pastries and breads, Marinette left the bakery humming to herself. Bags swung f rom her arms as she skipped a few feet until she froze, an ominous feeling creeping up her spine.
Crouching in a nearby alley, Marinette looked out at the street for a sign of what had her on edge like this. Sure enough, only seconds later a roar shook the streets, and a villain she recognized as Killer Croc barrelled his way through, jaws snapping.
Marinette’s eyes widened when she noticed he was clearly heading straight for the alley she’d ducked into. Too late she noticed the open manhole cover just a few feet behind her. The telltale sound of vigilantes pursuing the mutant were enough to spur her into action.
Unwilling to put down the food, Marinette kicked the manhole cover back in place – it would slow Croc down for a few seconds. He was still about fifty meters away, causing mass panic on the street. Desperately hoping that the wheels were unlocked – and surprisingly gratified, Marinette body checked the nearby dumpster, shoving it right on top of the manhole. Without her Ladybug suit, this was the most she could safely do. Bolting to the nearest building’s fire escape, Marinette hauled herself up the ladder as quickly as she could without smashing the bags of food.
Killer Croc wasn’t far behind her, and when he saw the covered manhole, he bellowed. Marinette started moving more haphazardly as she clambered up, desperate to reach safety. It was only a metal ladder within a foot of most windows, and it was only anchored by a handful of bolts every few feet of the ladder.
Her hand slipped when Killer Croc roared beneath her, catching sight of her handiwork. A neatly wrapped pastry fell out of one of the violently swinging bags, bopping the reptile on the head.
“This was you!” he growled. “If the Bats are going to catch me then I may as well take you with me.”
Scaled hands grasped one of the bottom rungs. Marinette did all she could to haul herself up the ladder faster, but it was a thirteen-story building – making it to the top was sounding less likely by the minute. She would have leapt into one of the nearby windows if she weren’t convinced that it would end in a paranoid Gothamite taking her out before Killer Croc could do the job.
Metal groaned as the reptilian man wrenched the bolts out of the very brick they’d been anchored in. The ladder shook, and Marinette screamed as the section she clung to was ripped from the wall, leaving her stuck between a structurally questionable ladder, and a very pissed off crocodile.
“Going so soon? Our playdate was just getting fun.”
Marinette could have sobbed when she saw Nightwing enter the alleyway, flanked by Red Robin and Red Hood. In a deep voice, Red Hood said, “You two take down Croc, I’ve got the girl.”
The other two looked surprised, but conceded easily enough. While Killer Croc was distracted by the vigilantes, Marinette moved even faster up the ladder – she only had three flights to go before she was at the roof, but the ladder was shaking like it would fall at any second, and she really didn’t want to find out what that would do to her and the pastries.
She vaguely registered that Red Hood was demanding someone’s something hook, but Marinette’s sheer panic was lessening her grasp on the English language by the second. With his loudest growl yet, Killer Croc wrenched the ladder free of the building. Marinette screamed, her stomach clenching with dread as she released the ladder, trying to curl her body in a way that she hopefully wouldn’t break anything upon impact.
Something whistled through the air, and before Marinette could hit the ground she collided with something – a man, who wrapped an arm around her. She hadn’t realized she’d closed her eyes, but Marinette opened them to find herself face-to-face with the abomination that was Red Hood’s mask, but for the moment she could forgive the fashion crime.
He kicked off of the brick wall, giving them some distance from the ladder before it fell with a glorious clang. Marinette’s heart finally started beating, hammering in her chest as the vigilante slowly lowered them down to the ground.
When she finally forced herself to look, the other two had Killer Croc pinned and trussed up like a pig. Nightwing waved, smiling brighter than Marinette thought was allowed from someone who lived in Gotham. “The manhole cover and the dumpster? Brilliant move, we never would have caught him if he’d been able to get into the sewers. You made some risky moves, but I can tell they were calculated. Nicely done!”
Safely on the ground, Red Hood was examining her for any injuries. Clearly irked, he growled, “Since when are we encouraging civilians to jump into the middle of this sh-“
“Hood, she would have been involved one way or another just because of where she was standing,” Nightwing interrupted. “She saw us coming, and she just did a few things to slow him down while doing her best to keep herself safe. What’s up with you? Normally you’d be high-fiving a civilian for something like that.”
“Whatever,” Red Hood mumbled. “I’m escorting her to make sure she gets to wherever she’s going safely. Make sure the lizard doesn’t get away.”
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@jasonette-july-2k20 @ira-sairain @myazael @pawsitivelymiraculous @nik-nak-3
Note:
I got a couple questions about this being a Mominette fic - it is, just not yet. This one is going to be a lot different from I didn’t so much fall in love - It kicked me in the face and I am stoked to see how you guys like it! If you want to be tagged in future chapters, just leave a comment, and once again, blow up Jasonette July! I’m super excited to see what everyone else has to say and write! 
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mischiefandspirits · 3 years
Text
Colony of Gotham (1/7)
Special thanks to @starlightandsunshine​ for helping me with this <3
The Colony of Gotham is an urban legend that is whispered about in the dangerous city. It's said the Colony is a family of demons and spirits that stalk the night, hunting for the souls of the guilty.
When Bruce became Batman, he'd never intended to be mistaken for a demon. He was happy to lean into it, though, and as he gained his partners -- as his family grew -- they all followed suit.
Next Part
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Bruce Wayne was born a vampire, one from the long-standing Kane family of vampires through his mother. This nature granted him a few abilities. He was more durable than a human and could heal faster. He was stronger and faster than a human and had better sight and hearing, though not to anywhere near the degree that some metas boasted. He could take on the form of an animal and could influence bats, corvids, canines, and felines to a certain extent. Finally, he would stop aging once he reached his thirties, a trait of those who were born or turned young instead of those like Alfred who were turned at an older age and therefore would always be that age.
However, when he set off on his path to becoming Batman, he swore to himself that he would not rely on any of this to fight the criminals that plagued Gotham. He would not be like those heroes past who relied on their powers, then were left defenseless when those abilities faltered or were ripped away. After all, only a vampire’s healing and longevity remained during the day and some spells and devices could similarly strip his nature away.
Batman stuck to his wits, tech, and martial arts training.
Even still, the criminals of Gotham could tell something was off about the Bat. Rumors flew about a demon haunting Gotham’s night, which Bruce leaned into. He hadn’t chosen a bat just because of the family significance. He wanted to strike fear. As such, he stuck to the shadows and allowed his fangs to bare. He used makeup to make himself appear paler and contortionist tricks to make his movements uncanny. He allowed Batman to become an urban legend that sent shivers down the spines of Gotham’s infamous.
When Barbara Gordon became Batgirl, she quickly realized his tricks were just that and leaned into them as well. She became a ghost following in the Bat’s footsteps. She disappeared into a mist made from special smoke pellets and spun across the ground and air in a weightless way that came from years of ballet and gymnastics training. She wore shadows like Batman’s, but violet and gold peeked through the darkness to make her stand apart.
Bruce initially didn’t want her in the field, but she eventually proved herself both competent and stubborn. In a bid to help protect her, he outfitted her with proper gear and let her in on the secret of his nature. She considered it, then a week later she asked him to turn her so she could always watch his back.
Then Dick Grayson was taken in by the billionaire and became the Bloody Robin. They called him a demon child, the son of the Bat who flew on bird’s wings. His cheerful laughs and giggles echoed and hissed eerily thanks to a voice filter. His clothes were bright colors, but were covered by the wing-like shadows that wrapped over his shoulders. Fake blood dripped from his hair and eyes and coated the tips of his gloves and cape. He chirped like a bird as he flipped and flew through the air. His mask made his eyes glow white and his body almost appeared boneless when he moved around on the ground thanks to the contortionist who’d babysat him at the circus.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
The three heard the tales when teams of heroes began to form, but they didn’t reach out. Gotham’s Colony was a myth, an urban legend. Those outside of Gotham had never heard of them and those within only spoke in whispers.
That was how the Colony preferred it.
Besides, the rest of the world wasn’t as dark as Gotham.
Their tricks and games worked fine in the shadow-filled gothic architecture that made up Gotham, the near-perpetual overcast days, and the deep darkness of Gotham’s nights, but cities like Jump, Metropolis, or Central were far brighter. They could do without, they’d proven that plenty of times against the bigger villains that were either too crazy or brave to fear the Bat, but why should they? The tricks and games had become a part of them over the years and discarding a piece of themselves just so they could work outside of Gotham with strangers felt wrong.
So the Colony stuck to their own.
On the job, at least.
Dick met Wally West at a two-week-long Jr. Forensics Summer Camp when they were eleven and thirteen respectively. Bruce had sent him to brush up on his skills while Wally’s mentor, Barry Allen, thought it would be good training. Neither boy knew about each other's secret lives, but became close friends all the same and kept in contact when they returned home. Dick didn’t reveal it to Wally when he discovered the other boy was Kid Flash, but kept a close eye on Central City just in case.
A similar situation happened two years later when the Colony discovered Green Arrow’s latest protégé, a girl named Artemis Crock, lived in Gotham and had been helped into Gotham Academy by the other billionaire. Dick decided to keep an eye on her, but his pseudo-stalking quickly turned into a genuine friendship.
He may have taken a bit too much joy in introducing Wally and Artemis to one another. Wally got back at him a few years later by introducing him to the model Kory Anders, the secret identity of his celebrity crush Starfire. Dick had to admit to having a crush on Kory as well to explain his nerves.
It turned out to be a net gain in the end, though, since he came out of it with her phone number.
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As time passed, Dick started to get too old to be the demon child. He decided to create a new story for himself. One that would let him step out from under the shadow of the bat, using a name from an alien myth in Bruce’s files that he’d loved reading growing up. He and Bruce argued, and Dick spent some time sleeping on Barbara’s couch, but with nowhere to run they were forced to come to a compromise. There was still tension, but it was smoothed over with time and a bite.
Nightwing was a nocturnal bird that had taken human shape after being taken in by Batgirl’s elegance. It chased after and raced the ghost, nothing but shadows and a blue streak flying through the air. Those who got close enough to see his face would say that his skin was like porcelain while black wings covered his eyes completely and his lips were painted with darkness.
Nightwing wasn’t the only change to the Colony, though, because as Dick was finishing up his designs for the story, a little boy was stealing the tires off the Batmobile.
Dick was furious when the kid climbed out of the car into the cave, thinking Bruce had brought the kid in as a new Robin without even consulting him, but anger’s quickly replaced by confusion.
Because Batman wasn’t with the kid.
Jason Todd had gotten grabbed by the Bat after having already nicked three tires off the batmobile. Batman caught him before he could run then replaced the tires. He’d made a mistake in leaving the boy in the car when he went to call for someone to pick him up, however. Jason, who some might generously call impulsive, proceeded to use the opportunity presented to him to hotwire the vehicle and take it for a joyride that ended when he accidentally had the autopilot bring him to the cave. 
Dick was immediately taken with the small spitfire’s story, as well as his stubbornness and intellect. Meanwhile, Jason was amused by the fact that Gotham’s demon was, in his eyes, nothing more than a spectacular conman and wanted in. They teamed up to force Bruce to adopt the younger boy through underhanded -- and perhaps slightly illegal -- tactics.
As Dick started using his new story more and Robin less, Jason got his own turn under Batman’s cape.
People started to say Robin was more vicious. He’d climb walls, the claws on his feet and hands easily cutting into brick and metal. He’d give a fang-filled smirk as he hung from the ceiling like he’d forgotten he was a bird instead of a bat, only to drop down on unsuspecting shoulders. If he wasn’t clawing at opponents, he was beating them with his fists.
As one of his first acts as Robin, Jason saved a young boy who had been kidnapped for ransom. The kid had acted out of it during the rescue, but Jason put it down to trauma. He’d had no reason to realize the young detective-to-be had noticed the edge of Jason’s fake fangs through the shadows and fake blood. No one could have predicted the rabbit hole young Tim Drake had just fallen down nor that it would lead him to massive discoveries in the near future.
When Jason discovered Catherine Todd wasn’t his birth mother, he considered going alone to look for the mystery woman who’d given birth to him. He and Bruce had just had a fight about his temper that had left him benched and he wanted to prove himself, but something Dick had told him months before echoed in his mind.
“No matter how much we argue, we’re always going to be there for each other. Us birds and bats, we’re a family. We have to stick together.”
In the end, he asked Dick and Barbara for help. It was something he was thankful for when his mother sold him out to the Joker. At least he could hold out against the torment with the knowledge his true family would soon come for him.
When Batgirl and Nightwing arrived, Joker fled. Barbara got Jason out while Dick, after seeing the state of his brother, tracked down the clown. Bruce got to him just in time to stop him from beating Joker to death, but when he saw Jason’s condition he couldn’t bring himself to scold his elder son for his loss of control.
Jason was barely hanging on and Bruce, knowing there was no other choice, turned him.
The boy lived, but his injuries were too severe and he fell into a coma.
Three weeks later, Bruce and Dick came into Bruce’s study to find Tim Drake waiting for them. Both were a little more focused on “My parents are never home” than “so I’m in a perfect position to cover for Jason as Robin while he’s sleeping,” to Tim’s confusion, but he ended up in the suit all the same.
The whispers that had come after Joker’s latest incarceration had him crowing about clipping bird wings tapered off as Robin sightings flared up throughout the city. People saw him flying next to the Bat and they heard him tap-tap-tapping his claws. He tapped them against the walls as he hunted through warehouses and against the floors as he crouched in front of technology that seemed to unlock under his gaze thanks to the computer that’d been built into his gloves, the interface of which could only be seen through the lenses in the Colony’s masks and cowls.
Tim didn’t really know how to feel about being adopted by Bruce, aside from the guilt he knew was mixed in there somewhere. It felt wrong to be slipping into the family like that while Jason was right there and Dick had to talk him down when the anxiety attack eventually hit.
Tim was Tim. He wasn’t Jason and they didn’t want him to be Jason.
Dick understood though. He explained how Dick and Jason had both had similar feelings regarding Barbara and Dick respectively, though Dick could admit he’d gotten off easier all things considered. He told Tim that the Colony was a family, and adoption or not, Tim was a part of that now. Jason wasn’t going anywhere and neither was Tim.
When Jason woke, Dick had a similar conversation with him after Jay saw a news broadcast about Tim while waiting for the others to arrive. It soothed him some, and Tim soothed him more when he assured Jason he wasn’t taking Robin from him.
“There can’t be two Robins.”
“Why can’t there?”
As Jason went through physical training to get back in shape, the two worked together to develop a strategy for acting as Robin together. One part of this was Trillic.
Tim, with help from Dick and Jason, invented a secret language made up of chirps, whistles, and clicks. It started as a way for the Robins to communicate with each other without giving away there was more than one, but over time the rest of the Colony picked it up and the vocabulary expanded until it became the family’s own personal language that they’d use whenever they didn’t feel like using words.
A few days after Jason was released from the hospital, Dick found Jason down in the cave and grew worried his little brother was pushing himself too soon after his accident. Then he saw the young woman on the screen. She looked a year or two older than Jason with long red hair, olive skin, and bright green eyes.
They’d met in Ethiopia, Jason told him, while saving a woman from some men. Jason had wanted to try to track her down now that he was awake. He’d succeeded, but it turned out she was an Amazonian hero.
Combined with the fact her name was Artemis, Dick couldn’t help but laugh and make a joke about Jason following in his footsteps. Jason smacked him and told him she was really more of an anti-hero so it wasn’t the same as Dick making friends with Kid Flash and Tigress, but Dick ignored him.
Jason did end up contacting her, and even got her to take a visit to Gotham. Dick took the opportunity to introduce her to Wally and his own Artemis, who Wally began to refer to as Stripes to not get confused. When questioned, he claimed it was because of some outfit of hers that stuck in his mind. Dick and Jason, knowing it was actually based on her identity as Tigress, nodded along and picked up using the name, to her annoyance.
Surprisingly, the two women didn’t get along despite their similar attitudes. This led to them taking great offense whenever people couldn’t tell which Artemis was being talked about, something only Jason, Dick, and Alfred never managed to do.
While the teens were laughing over this, whispers were going around about how the Bloody Robin seemed to be everywhere. If you fled from a room you knew he was in, you’d find him standing right in front of you in the new room. There was no escape. And he trilled more than ever, though his voice almost seemed to echo back at him as if he was having a conversation.
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Not long after the Justice League had formed, Barbara had hacked into their security system and planted a little bug she named Mockingbird. It was designed to alert her whenever someone mentioned the Colony’s civilian or vigilante identities and copy any footage during the time. More often than not all it gave her was Wally and Bow-Artemis (as most of the family thought of her, to contrast with Axe-Artemis) discussing Dick. Every so often though, there’d be someone pining after Dick or Bruce, which could be good for a laugh depending on who it was.
On a day not long after the Robins had been set loose together, Mockingbird gave her something that was sort of new, yet at the same time not.
The video started with Wally discussing some prank he and Dick had pulled on Bruce and slowly devolved into him just bragging about how awesome Dick was. Suddenly he froze, staring off into the air.
Artemis took one look at him and asked, “Did you finally realize you’ve got a crush on your best friend?”
He immediately went to reassure his girlfriend, but she said got it and even shared his feelings.
Barbara settled in to watch the show.
Unfortunately, it took longer than she’d anticipated for Dick to catch on that the two actually wanted to date him and not just spend more time with him. He was usually pretty good at picking up on people’s feelings, yet Artemis ended up having to pull him into her lap during a movie night and kiss him flat on the lips before it sunk in.
When Barbara approached him about it, he pouted over her spying. Then he admitted that he’d known for years they all had feelings for each other, he just hadn’t wanted to risk getting in the middle of the two’s relationship since they seemed so happy together. When he’d realized how they’d started flirting with him, he’d been worried they were just after a quick thing and he couldn’t do that to himself. So he’d put on his media mask of naive ditz Dickie who wouldn’t recognize flirting if it hit him in the face.
Thankfully the two had reassured him and after talking it through, the three settled happily into their throuple.
To congratulate his brother, Jason gave him a solid week before making jokes about Dick following in Bruce’s footsteps by dating someone with a feline-themed suit.
The next hurdle was deciding how to deal with the media. Dick was Richard “Dickie” Grayson, eldest son of Bruce Wayne. The media loved to go on about him. Pretty much every second of his relationship with Kory had been recorded by the press. Neither of them had minded. He was still a performer at heart, always would be, and she was a warrior princess who had been in the spotlight all her life.
But Dick knew Wally and Artemis weren’t Kory so he talked to them about how they wanted to handle things.
In the end, they agreed only friends and family would know about Artemis, but Wally and Dick would go public. They all had practice keeping much bigger secrets so it wasn’t hard on Artemis to hide their relationship. Meanwhile, Wally didn’t mind playing around for the cameras. Plus, he knew how people treated Dick when they thought he was single and a small possessive part of him didn’t want them trying anything, even if he knew Dick would never cheat.
Things didn’t actually turn out too bad. Of course, there were always the conservatives that came around when Dick got a boyfriend, but they never stuck around long. Bruce had made his support of Dick’s sexuality very clear from the beginning and no one wanted to risk really ticking someone as rich and connected as him off by attacking his son like that.
The real problem came when their agreement to tell their families accidentally didn’t reach everyone.
Dick had been alone at the manor when it happened.
Bruce had gone on a weekend business trip, bringing Tim with him. Alfred was on a trip to England. Jason had taken the opportunity to spend the weekend hopefully not blowing things up with Artemis Grace, who had ended up getting a small flat in Gotham to act as her home base so she could visit with Jason and Dick during the rare occasions she wasn’t running across the world causing trouble with the Outlaws. Dick had been planning to spend the weekend with his partners at Stripe’s apartment, but they’d both been caught up by something (Dick assumed a mission had unexpectedly run long) so he had the night to himself.
He was watching a movie in the theater room when he felt a shift in the air. He immediately dropped to the floor, barely avoiding the sai that had been coming for his throat. Then he was over the back of the couch and engaging the assassin. He quickly realized she was with the League of Assassins as he recognized moves Bruce had picked up from them. She was good, too, but she had clearly come to the fight unprepared to face a Gotham myth. He didn’t take too many hits before pinning her and binding her hands and feet with the obijime from her dress. He then disarmed her of all her hidden weapons just in case.
When he questioned her, she declared that she was Artemis’s sister and had come to avenge her honor after Wally had betrayed her for Dick. She was not going to sit back and let the fool cheat on or dump her sister for the likes of a man she had believed was nothing more than an airheaded socialite.
Then, with narrowed eyes, she added that she had clearly been mistaken as not many airheaded socialites had been trained by assassins. Nor did they use moves only known by those trained by Ra’s al Ghul.
Dick ignored that and explained the trio’s situation as he untied her, having recognized her as Cheshire aka Jade Nguyen aka his girlfriend’s -- apparently protective -- assassin sister.
He took pride in the fact that he was dating someone who was only related to criminals instead of actually dating a criminal, unlike a certain father of his.
She thankfully believed him, though she did warn that should he be lying or should he hurt Artemis, she wouldn’t underestimate him a second time. She made a few more thinly veiled digs at his assassin-based fighting style as he showed her out that he cleanly sidestepped with comments about self-defense training. They both knew she didn’t believe a word of it, but she left it alone as she slipped away into the night.
So long as her sister remained unharmed, she had no desire to get involved in whatever was going on between the Wayne’s and al Ghul’s.
Before she left Gotham, though, she met Artemis and Wally on their way in and informed her sister that she approved of her new boyfriend. Both to be sure Dick was telling the truth and to mess with the speedster. The two predictably freaked out and she used their panic to slip away.
Dick answered Artemis’s call with, “Oh hey, Stripes! Your sister came by earlier to give me the shovel talk over tea. It was pretty gory, but I think the one Jason gave Wally was still probably worse so I’m not going to complain. Are we still on for tomorrow?” to their relief.
Artemis had not wanted to try to explain her assassin sister to her civilian boyfriend.
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I decided to use Stephanie's Batgirl suit for Babs because most of Babs' suits are either bright or look just like Batman's. Steph will get other suits of hers when she appears.
The Robin suit looks just like Dick's from The Batman (2004), just bloodier.
Nightwing's suit looks like the typical V one, just with the eyes of the mask being blacked out. Also, black lipstick because yes.
Vampires’ animal forms:
Bruce: Gray bat
Alfred: Common raven
Selina: Oriental shorthair cat
Barbara: Little red flying fox
Dick: Black-billed magpie
Jason: Malayan flying fox
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maribatlife · 4 years
Text
Without Context Pt. 3
Prev
AO3
Shorter wait this time guys!
Tag List:
@bee-wrecker
“This is unbelievable. You’re probably the only person in Gotham who wouldn’t recognize that name. Wayne, as in Bruce Wayne, the Prince of Gotham.”
“Oh, is he your dad?”
“Pixie, never change. But the rest of the family is going to want to meet you soon. I let you know when.”
“Sure, my schedule is wide open.” He gave her an expectant look. “Oh, duh, you need to be able to contact me. How could I forget that? Silly Marinette, hehehe.” She babbled as she wrote down her phone number for him.
“Thanks Mari, I’ll text you later.” He said as he put his helmet back on and swung off the balcony.
As Jason left, Marinette realized how late in the day it was getting. “Gah, the shop! How could I forget!”
“Marinette, Marinette, MARINETTE” Tikki shouted. “You’re the owner, you decide when you open.”
“But the customers….” And she rushed down the stairs.
The day was fairly slow, a few people popped in to see the new shop. Jason texted around noon to set up dinner for Friday.
Right before she was about to close, 3 women entered the store. Marinette let them browse as she set up for the next day. “Is there anything I can help you with?” She asked, having run out of busy work.
“Actually, yeah,” the girl in purple replied. “Our,” she paused, clearly trying to think of the right word. “Brother just met his soulmate.”
“And you’re meeting them soon?” Marinette finished.
“Exactly! Plus, I’m sure there’s going to be a huge fancy-ass party as soon as his dad can get everything together.”
“Your site said you do commissions?” The one in the wheelchair asked.
“I do, the ready-wear can be fitted and ready for the end of the week, and commissions are dependent on the final pattern. I have a look book here if you would like to browse for ideas. We can schedule a consult appointment for later in the week...” she trailed off.
“Oh, right, I’m Barbara, this is Stephanie,” she gestured to the blonde in purple, “And Cassandra.” She motioned at the young Asian girl with them. “Later in the week definitely works for the consults.”
“So you met your Soulmate?” Stephanie asked as she browsed the racks.
“Yes, a few days ago.” Marinette sheepishly admitted. “He startled me and I screamed in his face.”
“Well, it’s better than mine,” Stephanie laughed. “Mine scared me at night and I smashed him in the face with a brick.”
That night, while embroidering on her couch, Marinette heard a thump from her balcony. Seemingly ignoring it she placed her hoop on the coffee table and reached for the bracelet she kept in her pocket. As she turned around, she saw the giant shadow, entering through her balcony door. Batman, she thought. What the actual f-
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng,” his low voice boomed.
“Oh look it’s the man with a giant batsuit,” She sassed back.
“It’s Batman.”
“The man with a giant batsuit.” No way was she going to let him know that he had actually frightened her. “What do you want, furry?”
“What are your intentions towards Hood?”
“Well I figured that we would ride off into the sunset together and live happily ever after.” Her saccharine voice biting through his armor. “Oh, maybe we could raise unicorns and exist off candy all day long.” She dropped the tone, “Go jump off a roof. Our plans are between us and if you want to know you should try building a better relationship with Hood. Now get out of my apartment before I call the cops.” She turned back and continued her embroidery. After he left, she locked the sliding door, no more unexpected visitors tonight. She had barely covered a petal of the flower, when she heard another thump, this one significantly lighter. One of the birds she thought.
On her balcony, Robin struggled to open the door. He had managed to get it unlocked but did not realize she kept a barrier on the track to stop it from opening.
She sighed before getting up to open the door. “What do you want Draco?”
“My name is Robin. I do not know this Draco you refer to.”
“You poor, uneducated child.”
“-tt- How can you be worthy of my brother?”
“Take it up with the universe, kid.” Robin was visibly getting angry with her, but she was done.
“I challenge you to a duel,” He snapped, hand flying towards his sword.
“Nope, nope, no you don’t.” Nightwing swung down and grabbed the sword out of his hand.
Unhand my sword Nightwing. She must prove her worth to join this family.”
“Robin, that is not how any of this works. I’m so sorry, Miss.” He directed towards Marinette. “Baby Bird and the Bat have issues respecting privacy. Have a good night.” He called out as he jumped off the balcony, dragging Robin with him.
“You know what,” Marinette told the kwamis that had gathered around her as she secured the door again. She cast a forlorn glance at her embroidery sitting abandoned on the coffee table, “I think I’m just going to go to bed. It’s too late for this.”
Early Friday morning, the 3 women from earlier came by to pick up their altered items. A few hours later, Marinette had worked herself up into a full panic. “Tikki,” she whined from the depths of her closet. “What am I going to wear? What if they hate me? Gahh, I can’t do this right now!”
“Marinette, whatever you choose will be fine.”
“But Tikki, this isn’t a normal meeting. This is meeting my soulmate’s family! It has to be perfect.”
“What about the Chat dress,” Plagg interjected. “It’s black and don’t you always say you can’t go wrong with black?”
She dragged out a 50s style off the shoulder Swing dress with a built in alternating neon green and black tulle petticoat.
“Oh and the Ladybug heels,” Tikki dragged out the aforementioned deceptively simple black shoes. Marinette had painted the sole and shank of the heels to mimic her original Ladybug costume.
“Hmm,” she mused. “What to style it with?” She quickly added a few loose waves to her hair, before hesitating. To bring Kaalki’s glasses or not? At a nod from Tikki she grabbed them and they shifted into a pair of cat-eye glasses. “Alright, I think I’m ready.” At that moment the doorbell rang. “Oh, that must be Jason.”
“Marinette,” Tikki said from her bag, “Don’t forget the Macarons!”
“Right,” she grabbed the box. “Thanks Tikki.”
Jason stood, leaned against the hood of a cherry red convertible. “You ready to meet everyone?”
“Can you go over everyone again on the ride?”
“Not a problem,” he opened the door to let her in. “First, we have Bruce and Alfred. Alfred raised Bruce after his parents were murdered. He knows everything and is amazing.”
“And Bruce is your dad, right?”
“Yes, he might go full Brucie on you.
“What is full Brucie?”
“Oh that’s what we call it when he acts like a total dumbass. Dick coined it, he was the first one that was adopted. He’s now a Cop in Bludhaven. After me, B took in Tim. He’s sixteen and already graduated High School, right now he’s working at WE in R&D. The last of us is Damian, he’s Bruce’s bio son. His mom showed up a coupla years ago and told B, “surprise, it’s a boy!” He’s an angry little shit.”
“Do they know that I know?”
“Nope, figured we could have fun with that. That’s why you’ll get the Brucie treatment.” Soon they pulled off the long mountain drive onto a private road where an ornate gate stood open, waiting for them.
“They’re watching us as we pull up right?”
“Oh, most definitely.” Jason parked the car next an imposing staircase, leading up to the soaring Gothic entry.
“Wow,” Marinette muttered under her breath. “I wish I had my sketch book.”
Jason chuckled as he led her up the stairs. “You’ll have plenty of chances to sketch to your heart’s content.” As they reached the top step, the double doors swung open to reveal an older man in a suit. “See spies everywhere,” Jason murmured in her ear.
“Master Jason, welcome home. This must be Miss Dupain-Cheng.”
“Hello Monsieur Pennyworth, please call me Marinette.”
“Of course, Miss Marinette, if you call me Alfred.”
As they walked into the entry, they heard a cry of, “She’s here!” As, who Marinette could only assume was Dick, flipped off the second-floor balustrade, swinging on the chandelier on the way down. “Hi, Marinette, right?” He held out his hand to her.
“You must be Dick.”
“Aw, is Jay-bird talking about me?”
Marinette got a teasing glint in her eye. “Oh yes, he mentioned how you can’t stop yourself from jumping off of high places.”
Before she could continue, she was interrupted by a wordless scream of unadulterated rage. “Drake, get back here and face your punishment like a man!”
Two boys came running down the stairs, the younger chasing the older with, wait is that a katana. They really weren’t any good at this whole secret identity thing, were they, thought Marinette.
“Really Demon Spawn, you’re going to do this today?” Jason said as he plucked him off the ground. Dick was just pinching his nose in exasperation.
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timmy-drake · 3 years
Text
The Robin & The Owl || Self Para
Summary: Red Robin goes back to the body in search for clues - when he finds a riddle. Mentions: @barbaraxxgordons , @ofnygma , @enthusiastofwaffles , @cassiesandsmarkk & @experiment13s  Trigger Warnings: Violence, Death
He’d been searching for clues when he found a riddle. 
He could have been on that date with Cassie and Conner right about now. It certainly would have been awkward but at least he wouldn’t have been carefully removing a small rolled up slip of paper from the ear of a decaying corpse right now. Placing the tweezers aside, Red Robin unrolled the paper carefully and squinted at words too small for him to read without a magnifying glass. Which luckily could be found amongst the Medical Examiner’s tools. Grabbing it from a drawer, he looked over the slip. On one said it read very clearly: To the Detective ? 
Sorry, Riddler. I’m sure you mean Batman but I’ll have to do.
At least that was the assumption he was immediately making. He was shot twice, likely this person was in a manic state of mind and the skill of the shots didn’t exactly look to be the skill of a professional hitman. ...But he was beaten to death by something heavy and thin. A metal cane? Now to top it off, he found a clue on the body. Though he was shocked that no one before him came across this slip of paper. It only took him around 5 minutes to find and Barbara had sharp eyes. She would have seen it. So was it planted only today?  
Tim flipped over the paper and glanced at the inside. “I never stop, I control your life, but without me, you wouldn’t go anywhere. What am I?” He whispered. Was he kidding? This riddle was so easy a toddler could solve it. He glanced from the slip towards the wall where the clock hung and reached up on his tiptoes to remove it from the wall. The first thing he noticed was that the clock was broken. It was stuck on the time 3:14. Turning it around, there was another riddle taped on. 
“A girl was going down a one way street in the wrong direction. Why didn't she break the law?” Easy. She was walking. But street’s font looked like it was bolded. So... 314. Street. Walking... 31st street was in walking distance of the precinct. 4 could be a house number. This was so easy that it felt like a trap. 
He better tell someone about this, just in case. Not that he couldn’t handle the Riddler of all people. Taking out his communicator, he paged Oracle. “Oracle, come in.” Radio Silence. Did he have time to spend on this? On calling her until she picked up? The first riddle was beginning to worry him. It could be a double meaning. A vailed threat. Maybe he had a limited amount of time to get there. 
“Oracle?” More silence. He placed the clock back on the wall and climbed up into the vent he came in through. Once he was outside again, Red Robin hurried down the street to the street that was implied in the riddle. Like he thought. 4 was a house number and the house it belonged to was for sale. So it might not have any occupants. He had to be careful about how he entered. If this was a trap then the door might set off something. It was too obvious. So: he used his grabbling hook to get to the roof and shattered the glass of a window. Slipping in quietly. The place was a bit of a dump from what he could see but a lot of places in Gotham were. Climbing down the stairs as Tim carefully searched the house, he turned the corner and noticed a singular light on. Illuminating a threatening message currently being spray painted onto the wall by a woman with short black hair. Echo. 
The message read in green: What was yours but now is mine? This didn’t read like a normal riddle. Instead, it read like a threat. If this was meant for Batman- wait. Taking out the slip of paper found in the man’s ear he looked at the tiny word. Detective. In the first note. The ink of the word your was lighter than the rest of the words and the ink of the word girl in the previous riddle shared the same fate. He thought it was a printing error but it was actually the answer to this riddle. 
A shiver ran up his spine as he realized detective didn’t mean Bruce. Detective meant Jim. 
“Where is she?” Tim demanded as the Echo shot up with surprise. He was early. This little trap was meant for Commissioner Gordon who probably had yet to look in the M.E. Room. His fist clenched as he began to approach Echo. Her eyes widening with fear... but they were shifted to the side of him slightly. She wasn’t looking at him. She was looking behind him. In the same moment as he turned his head. A dart whizzed by him and hit Echo in the neck. She went down with a thud. Someone took her out before he had a chance to interrogate her. 
His blood ran cold as he turned to face the person who took out the Riddler’s henchman. Standing a lot taller than him was a dark figure. The light illuminating the sharp blades running along his chest in their holders and reflecting in the goggles on his face. A sharp and tiny beak in-between them. It almost looked like the face of an Owl. 
He knew who this was the moment he saw him and in that same moment- he knew that he might die tonight. The Talon was a highly trained assassin for the Court of Owls and as trained as Red Robin was. Tim was well aware of his own limitations. He wasn’t as talented as a fighter. He wasn’t going to win this fight. Especially since his leg was injured from his earlier patrol with Orphan. He was going to try and stay alive during it until he figured out a way to get himself out of there. After all; what really mattered was that Oracle was in danger and he was the only one who knew who had her. That was information he needed to get back to the Batfam. 
Tim sunk down into a fighting stance and watched as the Talon ran towards him. Leaping up and using the man’s shoulders to flip over him and land behind him. This leg faltering a bit from the landing. Talon whipped a round and with two daggers in hand attempted to go for his face. He dodged one blade while the other left a small nick on his cheek.
Moving swiftly, Tim kicked out his injured leg while the other held his weight. Hard and fast into Talon’s gut. Sending him stumbling back some while Red Robin took that moment to very quickly get out his communicator from his utility belt. He had to get a hold of the other bats and tell them what was going on. Maybe then he could get both Barbara and himself out of the deep water. Talon was too fast though, he recovered like it was nothing and kicked him back. Sending him flying into the wall. The wet spray paint marking up his outfit. Out of breath, he still attempted to call for Stephanie over the coms. “Spoiler-” He got out but Talon was right back in front of him, gripping him and holding him against the wall. The communicator falling out of his hands and landing on the floor where Talon crushed it with his foot. I hate to say it, Drake. But you’re not doing so great. He thought to himself. Eyes darting around for something he could use and landing on the green spray paint can on the floor than up at the chandelier.
His new plan was simple. Get out of this hold. Blind him to get the advantage and try to trap him under that giant chandelier just long enough to hightail it out of here. Titans Tower was the closest he could get for a little backup so that was where he’d be heading. While he was thinking (and struggling in Talon’s grip), the assassin had managed to take a hand off him to grab one of his blades. Stabbing it into his upper leg as they struggled against the wall. Letting out a sudden gasp from the pain, he felt Talon rip it out and move to stab him again. Tim moved his head back before slamming it against the other’s head. Quickly pushing against him. The assassin fell back and tripped over Echo’s body to land on the floor. Quickly, Tim leaned down and snatched the spray paint. Spraying it over the goggles with one hand while he tossed a birdarang upwards towards to free the chandelier from the chain holding it up. Just barely getting out of the way as he fell on top of Echo and Talon. 
Not the slickest move ever but right now all that mattered was escaping. Ignoring the pain in his leg he ran towards the window to escape the house and get back to Titans Tower. If he didn’t bleed out before he got there. 
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Tim’s Secret Weapon Pt. 5
I’ve been slightly obsessed with @ozmav​ ‘s Damian Wayne/Marinette Dupain-Cheng pairing as of late, and just saw a post that has inspired me more than anything else has in months, so I felt the need to write it
Summary- Tim has always seen the numbers floating above people’s heads, been able to perceive their threat levels with a single glance. After being a hero for so long he thought he was desensitized to seeing high numbers above people’s heads until Damian brings a new friend home. Part 1 Part 4 Part 5 (HERE) Part 6 _______________________________________________________________________ Dick got a look on his face. 
A pinched sort of look that made it look like he was thinking something over intently.
It was a look that filled all of the Bats and anyone that knew him from his Robin days with a sense of dread.
“Dick…” Jason drew out slightly, “What are you thinking?” 
“I’m going to do a thing,” He replied almost offhandedly, “Since she hasn’t seen us yet.” 
“Don’t-” Damian didn’t even finish since Dick had already disappeared, causing Tim to bury his head in his hands. 
“God that’s annoying,” The other three found themselves groaning in unison, their own inside joke even as found his path almost instantly.
The eldest son snuck through the crowd of teens unnoticed, surprisingly. Most would think that one would notice the thirty-year-old right outside the secondary school, but he easily weaved through the crowds and worked his way behind the baker’s daughter. 
Marinette was too involved in his conversation with the blond to notice Dick grinning mischievously at her from behind the half wall she was leaning against. 
In a swift move, the acrobat grabbed her and lifted her onto his left shoulder in one fell swoop, earning a high pitched squeal from the girl as he spun in a circle perched on the half wall and drawing almost all of the attention of the whole courtyard.
“Hello, Mari!” He greeted casually as if her hands weren’t twisted into his hair in her shock. 
She blinked down at him, taking a few seconds to register what was happening before her face morphed into fond irritation, “Seriously, Richard?” 
The blond, Neon Green 15, she had been talking to was staring in between them as if he wasn’t sure if he was supposed to be concerned or bemused. 
“Ummmm… What’s going on?” the buff boy, White 12, from nearby asked, hand raised slightly. 
Marinette glanced around and groaned as she realized that her entire class was staring at her up on top of Dick’s shoulders. 
“Everyone, this is Dick” Marinette introduced, “He’s a family friend of sorts. Dick these are my classmates.” 
“Nice to meet you,” Dick greeted waving a hand happily with Marinette still balance on one shoulder. 
“Should have known Mari was skanky enough to get with a guy twice our age.”  The Batfam stiffened and turned to look at the origin of the voice. It was the girl Tim pointed out earlier as being dangerous, Copper 9, a wide smirk on her face as her posse snickered. None of them had to turn to feel the bloodlust boiling off of Damian, not that they would deny the red tinge to their vision. Marinette had wilted in a millisecond. 
“Told you that was a bad idea, Grayson,” Damian snapped as the other three walked over much calmer than they were feeling. 
Marinette lit back up at their appearance and started poking Dick’s cheek.
“Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down. Put me down.” 
“Okay, Okay!” He laughed as he lifted her off his shoulder and passed him easily to Jason. 
Jason grinned, holding her on his hip, “Hey Marigold,” 
“Jay!” She giggled giving him a hug, “Not the brother I wanted, and don’t hand me to Tim cause he looks like he hasn’t slept this week and I don’t want to be dropped.” 
Jason clutched his chest, “That’s so mean, sunshine! Though you’re right about Tim.”    
“Rude,” Tim grumbled, but couldn’t stop the grin that came to his face, “but hug the devil spawn before he tries to rip our arms off.” 
Damian glared at him, but as soon as  Marinette wrapped her arms around his neck he softened, placing a kiss on her hair, “Missed you, Habibiti,” 
“Missed you too, Dames,” She giggled, excitement bubbling, "What are you guys even doing here? I know you don't like to travel too much." 
Jason cut in, "Bruce was inspecting the Paris branch, so we just decided to tag along." 
"Oh, Bruce is here too? I'll have to make some of those strawberry cream macaroons he likes."  
“Brothers? Wow, that’s a new low,” 
“Who the fuck are you?” Jason finally snapped, glancing over at Copper 9. 
“Who are you?” one of the other girls standing with her, an obnoxious orange 5 twisting over her, asked, phone pointed at them,  “Cause showing up to a high school isn’t exactly a good look for post-college graduates, mister.” 
“Well going from oldest to youngest, He’s Dick, as Mari already said, I’m Jason, that’s Tim, and the twerp that’s snuggling up to Marigold is Damian, her boyfriend.”  
“We’re brothers,” Dick added, as the group around the two girls looked stunned while many of the others perked up. 
“This the guy you’ve been telling us about huh?” The tiny pink-haired girl, Icy Blue 13, comments, giving Damian a considering look. 
Buff White 12,  next to her smirked at them, “You do go for the lookers, huh, Nette?” 
A red-haired boy, a lavender 4, laughed softly, “I thought he’d be taller,”
“Since when do you have a boyfriend?!” Orange 5 yelped, causing Mari to roll her eyes as she finally pulled away from the youngest Wayne. 
“I’ve been telling you, Alya,” Marinette snapped making the boys blink. There was actual venom in her voice, ice pointily aimed at the other teen. Marinette never had real heat in her words, not even with the Rogues, “I started dating him a year ago, but you didn’t believe me.” 
“Two soon,” Damian piped in, looking smug at the flabbergasted group. 
“But you’re into Adrian!” 
The blond boy, Adrian, Neon Green 15, frowned, “She and I are just friends. She’s been trying to get me with my crush for the last six months? Why on earth would you think she had a crush on me?” 
Marinette shrugged, “I mean I did, but I got over it around your fourteenth birthday.” 
“Wait,” the boy got a look of realization on his face, “Is that why you always stuttered around me?!” 
“Oh my god!” Icy Blue 13 cried, “You can’t tell me you’re seriously that dense!” 
“Homeschooled Alix!” He snapped back, “I was homeschooled by a recluse!” 
“But if she’s not in love with Adrian,” The pixie cut blonde, Buttercup Yellow 3, questioned trembling slightly, “ Why has she been so mean to Lila?” 
“Perhaps,” the nerdy boy, Nerdy White 12, pushing up his glasses, “Marinette’s feeling towards Lila has something to do with the fact that Lila’s claim of having a disease that causes her to do or say things she does not mean to can only be labeled as Compulsive Lying and yet half of the class believes every story that she tells and gets upset at anyone that dares to question her.” 
“Shut it, Max,” Alya growled, “This has nothing to-” 
“Utterly ridiculous,” The blonde girl, Canary Yellow 14 over her head, cut in without looking up from her phone, “You can’t seriously tell me this has nothing to do with Dupain-Cheng questioning Rossi’s idiotic stories.”
“No one cares about your opinion, Chloe,” Lila purred with an ugly scowl, “Or is it Chealse? I can’t keep up since your mother never seems to get it right.” 
“Yeah, no,” Chloe continued, “That insult is like a year and a half too late, and I don’t have to do anything but ask questions.” 
“What are you playing at, Bourgeois?” 
Chloe looked up from her phone, eyes going to the group surrounding Lila, “At lunch, Lila was talking about her new boyfriend, right? Who feels like reminding everyone of who that was?” 
The ginger girl, Tan 4, piped up, “She’s been dating Damian Wayne for the last month! They met at a conference for her nonprofit in Achu.”  
Tim couldn’t stop the snort that escaped from him as Damian’s face twisted into disgust. Marinette’s hand covered her mouth to cover her smile but Dick and Jason didn’t even try to stop their laughter from shaking their frames. 
“Of all the fucking people!” Jason wheezed, “You pick him!” 
“Hey! Don’t laugh it’s romantic!” Canary Yellow 3 cried, tears pricking her eyes. 
“Isn’t it Rose?” Lila cooed, eyes narrowed at the laughing group, “Dami-bear is such a sweet man.” 
Chloe hummed, eyes sparkling, “I bet he is, but I have another question.” 
“What?” 
Instead of answering Alya’s question, she turned to the group that was laughing even harder, Dick and Jason were only standing from clutching to each other as they repeated, ‘Dami-bear’ over and over again. 
“Do you boys happen to still have your passports on you?” 
Tim held up a single finger as he tried desperately to regain his breath. 
“What are you playing at, Chloe?” Alya snapped after a tense moment. 
“Her point,” Damian growled, and suddenly Tim had a giggling Marinette leaning against his shoulder as the younger man stalked over “Is that I’ve never been to Achu.” 
He thrust his passport into her camera lens. 
Damian Wayne standing out from the page in stark clarity. 
"Oh that note," Tim piped in, smirking slightly as he watched her nine wavier in place as if ready to flick down. Oh, how her tower of lies was crumbling, "using the Wayne to further yourself or claiming that one of us is cheating on anyone can be considered Defamation so I would suggest that you retract any statements you've made before we're forced to talk to our lawyers." 
They didn't stick around to see the effect the pronouncement beyond the sickly color Lila turned as her whole posse turned to stare at her in disbelief. Alya looked panicked as the boys grabbed Marinette, who was practically vibrating with nervous energy and herded her towards their car. 
Alfred raised an eyebrow, "Did you enjoy yourselves, sirs?"  
"You know it!" Dick laughed, as they snapped their seatbelts. 
"I hope they didn't cause too much trouble, Miss. Marinette." 
"Hello Alfred," She greeted lightly even as her shoulders pulled up next to her ear, "It's nice to see you, and don't worry, they fixed a problem for me."
Tim wanted to ask, and he could see his brothers did as well, but Marinette shook her head. 
"Can we go to where you're staying? I think my classmates are going to break out of their stupor soon and I don't want to face them yet." 
Alfred's eyes were hard in the rearview mirror, but his voice was as level as ever, "Of course, Miss Marinette. Master Bruce actually would like to meet you at the hotel we're staying at." 
"Let's not keep him waiting then,”
______________________________________________________________________ 
Telling Marinette they knew she was Ladybug could have gone in a lot of different ways, they were aware of this, and had planned for a multitude of them to try and ensure an easier time of getting the girl used to the fact that they knew and were in fact Superheros too. 
What they weren’t expecting was for Marinette to pale the second Damian spoke the words, “We know you’re Ladybug,” and flip the platter of sweets into his face, effectively cutting him off before sprinting to the window screaming, “Spots on!” 
They were not expecting a bright pink light to overtake her, nearly blinding them. 
Tim was not counting on the fact that he could see her number through the blinding light as it faded to pure white as the numbers climbed higher and higher, vanishing once they reached 99, the light fading in the next millisecond to reveal Ladybug in all her glory. 
They were not expecting her to open the 80th-floor window of their hotel suite and throw herself out of it, yo-yo catching the next building and flinging her away faster than humanly possible. 
“Well,” Jason drawled, eyeing the carnage, “That went well.”
_______________________________________________________________________
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yikesharringrove · 4 years
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ok so i just had a dream about this and i feel the need to tell you because its prime protective Billy shit. So after the whole mind flayed thing Steve and Billy get to be pretty close friends, and almost immediately they both fall for each other HARD, but both of them refuse to believe the other could ever like them, despite Robin screaming at both of them to just ask the other one out already. (pt.)
(pt.2) one day some random dude comes into the video store and starts flirting with steve, who figures he hasn’t gone on a date since Nancy, the guys cute, sure he’s not Billy but he seems nice enough and steve is also just very lonely, so they set up a date for that Friday at 6:00 and Steve is pretty excited. When he gets to his house and tells Billy, who was there for their wednesday horror movie night, billy tried to seem happy for him even though he ready to kill this guy
(pt.3) Billy does a pretty decent job at hiding his feelings about the date, and he doesn’t want to hold Steve back, but when he gets home he calls Robin and bitches for a sold 30 minutes, she just tells him if he’d got his shit together and just asked Steve our this wouldn’t be a problem. So the day of the date rolls around and Billy doesn’t see Steve all day, can’t bring himself to see him so excite to go date someone else. Around 6:15 his phone buzzes with a call from Steve             (pt.4) he answers and when he does Steve sounds awful, he’s been crying for a while. Asks if Billy can come pick him up, and billy speeds his way there. When he shows up and sees steve leaning against the brick wall rubbing away tears he loses it. Asks him what happened and Steve quietly tells him his date was a huge asshole, flirted with the waitress, pointed out the scar on steve’s hairline and told him he’d be a lot cuter without it, but don’t worry you’re still good enough for a fuck
(pt.5) Billy is ready to kill someone, he hugs steve and drags him to his car and tells him to stay put, slams the door and gets inside before steve can argue, find the guys pretty quickly, grabs him by the collar and spits out some pretty harsh words drops him to the floor and leaves. They are both quiet on the drive back but when billy drops steve off at his house he sheepishly asks him to stay, when billy tells him it’s a bad idea steve says okay and kisses him goodnight. Billy almost faints. 
I am SO SORRY this took a thousand years, it got a lil lost in my inbox.This is modern, Billy got possessed but the kids burned it outta him, everything else is canon.
“Who the fuck is that?”
Billy was “helping” Robin re-shelve, which meant he was pulling random movies off their shelves and putting them in different spots until she noticed and yelled at him.
She looked in the direction Billy was glaring, looked to see Steve batting his eyes as that guy, the tall jocky guy that comes in a few days a week to flirt with Steve.
“Oh, that’s Ben. He comes in all the time and flirts with Steve.” Billy’s eyes were dark.
“And does Steve, does he always, flirt back?” Robin rolled her eyes. Billy was so bad at acting nonchalant.
“Yeah, Dingus really has a thing for him. Talks to me nonstop about him.” Of course he talks about Billy way more often, but Robin is over the two of them being so fucking oblivious.
“Oh. Good for him.” Billy was blinking a lot.
Steve was leaning over the counter, was giggling like a schoolgirl.
The bell over the door jingled. Billy was gone.
-
Wednesday nights had become a tradition. Billy and Robin would come over to Steve’s, would take turns picking scarier and scarier movies.
It all started because Robin thought Steve should expand his horizons, and Billy liked the way Steve would get scared, would hide in Billy, would shove his face into his chest, or his arm, or wiggle his way into his lap.
But he was not in the mood for a movie tonight. Not after watching the way Steve had gone all bashful earlier.
But he found himself pushing open the double doors anyway.
“Bill! Guess what!” Steve was jamming around the kitchen in thick socks and little shorts, a faded Hawkins High Swim Team sweatshirt, and his glasses, like he was trying to fucking kill Billy with how adorable he is. “I got a date!” Billy’s heart thumped to a stop.
“You, you what?”
“I got a date! With that cute Benny that comes into Family Video. He asked me out! We’re gonna go to dinner on Friday!” Steve was so fucking excited. Billy couldn’t find it within himself to bring down the mood. “I just, you know how lonely I’ve been, and, I haven’t been on a date since Nancy.”
Steve was rambling, going on and on about this fucking guy. Was talking over the movie, which normally, Billy would think was kinda cute, but it was all, Benny said the SWEETEST thing, or look at this meme Benny sent.
Billy was about four second from tearing his hair out.
He was driving Robin home after movie night needed to vent.
“Look, I’m not saying I want Steve to be unhappy. I want him to be so happy. But I just, I get a bad feeling about that Benjamin guy.” Robin rolled her eyes.
“Well if you had gotten your head outta your ass and just asked Steve out like I fucking told you to, you, Billiam could be going on a date with our sweet Dingus.”
“I just, after everything this summer, I didn’t know if, if he was ready, and he never really seemed the same after the Nancy shit.”
“That’s a lame excuse and you know it.”
It was. And he knew it.
He avoided Steve the next two days. Couldn’t deal with all the excited posts on Steve’s secret Insatgram account, the one just for his friends.
Apparently he had done a face mask, had taken a fucking candlelit bath. He posted outfit options on his story.
Billy spent Friday chain-smoking in bed, yelling at Max whenever he got kicked off Netflix for too many screen in use.
Steve was getting picked up at 6. Had been posting a fucking countdown on his story. Billy wanted to crawl into a hole and fucking die.
When 6 came, Billy was working out, listening to loud, angry music as he lifted weights. He was trying his fucking best to keep his mind off of Steve, that fucking Benjamin.
But his music was interrupted by his phone going off, Steve’s contact picture filling the screen, a silly one Billy loved of Robin shoving marshmallows into his mouth. He could fit 17.
“What’s up?” It was only half past 6. Something must’ve happened. “Stevie, are you okay?” He could hear Steve sniffling.
“Bill, could you come pick me up?”
Billy was already out the door.”
“Drop your location, Pretty Boy. I’m on my way right now. Don’t move. I’ll be there soon.” Billy sped to the diner.
He saw Steve sitting on the curb outside, his face buried into his knees.
He had gone with outfit option number 4 from his Instagram, a thick cardigan, made of soft dark green wool, his nice jeans, the ones that made his ass look great, and a soft t-shirt. His hair was the most done Billy had seen it in a while. It made Billy’s heart break.
He pulled into a spot, dropping to sit next to Steve.
“You wanna talk about it?” His eyes were red-rimmed, glazed over as he loked at Billy.
“He was, he was so different from how he, how he was. He kept ignoring me, and flirting with the waitress, and he kept like, pointing out the scars on my face, like, like the one here,” he poked at his hairline. “And he said, I’d cuter without it, but, but that I’m still okay for a fuck if he took me face down, because, because my ass is the only thing I got goin’ for me-” Billy pulled him into a tight hug.
“I’m so sorry, Baby. You’re so much better than that, than him.” He kissed the mark on Steve’s hairline. “He still in there?”
“Yeah. I asked him to take me home and he said if I was gonna give him blueballs he might as well fuck the waitress. Since she’s hotter than me anyhow.”
“Stay here.” Billy got up, cracking his neck as he walked into the diner. He found the guy right away, was smiling so sleazy at the waitress in question who looked like she’d rather die than go out with him, but needed a good tip. He stared at her ass when she walked away.
Billy sat in the seat across from his.
“So, Benjamin. Figured you and I ought the have a little chat.”
“Who the fuck are you?”
“My name’s Billy.” Ben rolled his eyes.
“God, Steve wouldn’t shut the fuck up about you.” Billy’s heart swelled, but he was on a mission.
“Steve is the best person in this whole God-forsaken world. And you dare treat him like he’s shit on your shoe. You’re fucking disgusting.” He reached up, pulling on the collar of his shirt, slamming his nose into the table, letting his head bounce back up.
“What the fuck, you psycho.”
“He is like sunshine, he is the only thing good in this fucking town, and you have the audacity to hurt him. He is made of love, and you could;ve had him, but you’re a garbage human who deserves jack shit.” He stood from the table, Ben’s nose bleeding into a mad of napkins.
“If you don’t at least text him an apology, I will be breaking more than just your nose.”
Billy stood up, sweeping out of the diner to find Steve waiting by the passenger seat of his car. They drove to Steve’s in silence apart from the odd sniffle from Steve.
They sat for a moment in his drive way, the car off, crickets chirping in the bushes.
“I heard what you said.” Steve’s eyes were wide, his face shadowed.
“And?”
“I didn’t know you felt like that. About me I mean.” Billy sighed.
“Stevie, you are probably the best thing that’s ever happened to me. And I, I love you.” Billy was fidgeting with the steering wheel.
“You mean it?” Billy just nodded, looking straight ahead through the windshield at Steve’s house. “I love you too. Like, a lot. I just thought, maybe you didn’t, didn’t feel the same.” Billy whipped around to look at Steve, see if he was lying.
All he say on his face was such happiness at Billy’s admission.
“You should stay the night.” Steve’s hand was closing around his wrist.
“Look, if we’re gonna do this, I wanna do it right. I wanna, take you out, and spend time with you in a, in a romantic way before we, before we do anything.” Steve’s eyes were so soft.
“Okay. You wanna go out tomorrow? We can do something chill, like, like see a movie.”
“I would really like that, Pretty Boy.” He took Steve’s hand.
“Can I kiss you goodnight, then? Kiss you thanks for saving me back there. Being my knight in shining armor, defending my honor and all that?” Billy’s mind was spinning as he breathed out yeah.
Kissing Steve was as perfect as he always thought it would be.
His pretty lips were soft, and he made these breathy little noises into Billy’s mouth, their hands were still clasped together, Steve’s other holding onto Billy’s bicep, Billy weaving a hand into Steve’s hair.
Steve’s eyes were closed when they pulled apart, they were soft when he blinked them open.
“So, tomorrow then.” Billy grinned, pressing a kiss to his nose.
“Tomorrow, Pretty Boy. I’ll call you in the morning. We’ll talk.” Steve danced like a loser all the way up to his porch, making Billy laugh and flash his headlights. He stumbled through the front door.
Billy texted Robin right when he got home, sent her a simple Benjamin’s the worst but you’ll be happy to know I pulled my head outta my ass :)
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elareine · 4 years
Note
Deaged Jaybird anyone?
Well, judging from ao3 and tumblr, I think the answer to that question is ‘everyone and amazingly so,’ but I might as well throw my hat into the ring, thank you <3
I thought this was gonna be sweet and funny. It didn’t exactly turn out that way.
rewind, fast forward, stop Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply - Childhood Trauma, Implied/Referenced Child Abuse, Implied/Referenced Underage Prostitution, Temporary Character Death, Angst Relationships: Jason Todd & Bruce Wayne, Tim Drake & Jason Todd, Dick Grayson & Jason Todd Characters: Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne, Dick Grayson, Tim Drake, Damian Wayne, Duke Thomas, Cassandra Cain, Alfred Pennyworth Additional Tags: Age Regression/De-Aging, De-Aged Jason Todd, Family Issues, Family Feels, Loss of Trust, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Hurt with Temporary Comfort, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, The Batfamily Needs Therapy, Bittersweet, Unreliable Narrator
“If he says the words unstable molecules one more time, I’m going to hit something,” Dick muttered.
“Jason’s been gone for two hours, and you’re already trying to replace him?” Tim asked. It was a weak joke, and Dick didn’t laugh.
Nygma and Crane were still arguing at metaphorical gunpoint (i.e., genuine sword end), bent over the makeshift crib.
“I didn’t expect this to happen, either! What’s the point of posing riddles if he’s a baby?”
“Well you still fucked up and now we’re here, basically hostages—”
Bruce held up a hand. Everyone fell silent.
“So. His age will change several times?”
“Yes.”
“You cannot predict the intervals.”
“No.”
“What does he remember?”
“I don’t know. We should ask him…”
“…when he reaches an age where he can speak, yes. Will this stop once he reaches the age he’s supposed to be?”
“I don’t—”
“Then we will find out. Nygma, you have 24 hours to fix this.” He turned and looked at Dick. “Call reinforcements and start the lab work.”
Dick nodded, but whatever he was going to ask wasn’t going to be heard because Jason chose that moment to start wailing.
Everyone froze. Despite all the arguing, the fact that they know had to care for a baby hadn’t seemed real until that moment.
Bruce, though, just lifted Jason up and to his chest with the same natural competence with which he handled explosives and batarangs. “There, there, Jaylad. You’re hungry, hmm? I bet Alfred has already prepared a bottle. Let’s go find him, shall we?”
——
Dick volunteered to stay home and watch the baby that evening. Except when he returned to the crib with a freshly prepared bottle, it was a toddler staring back at him.
“Hey there, little man,” Dick greeted him.
Silence.
Dick tried again. “Jason, are you in there?”
The kid stared back at him, clearly wondering what the strange man was talking about. His eyes were so blue. “Me.”
“Yes, you’re Jason,” Dick agreed. “Do you remember me?”
Jason’s brow furrowed as if he was concentrating really hard. “No?”
“That’s okay. I’m Dick. I’m—” your brother. But how did you explain that to a toddler who didn’t remember any siblings? “A friend.”
After a minute of stern evaluation, Jason’s expression melted into a smile, and he held up his short chubby arms. “Up?”
“Of course.” Dick bent down and scooped Jason up with one swift motion, bouncing him up and down for a few seconds, to Jason’s great delight and giggles. Then he settled him onto his hip. “How about some food, buddy?”
“Hungry!” Jason declared. It sounded like ‘angry.’ Dick wanted to record that and use it as Jason’s ringtone forever.
He couldn’t very well give him the baby formula now, so: “Let’s go to the kitchen, then, huh? I like midnight snacks, too.”
“Snack,” Jason repeated. He seemed to like that word. “Snack, snack, snack!”
“Yes, snack. Hey B,” he called softly through the non-emergency line as they walked through the corridor, “listen to who woke up.”
“Baba?” Jason asked. Dick had no idea whether he meant Bruce or was asking for his own father. Either way, it was devastating.
“Jaylad,” Bruce murmured back. Dick didn’t call him out on the use of real names. “Why aren’t you sleeping?”
“No.”
Dick tried not to laugh at the sleepy pout. “To be fair, I don’t know how ‘slept like a baby for hours,’ literally, affects his sleep schedule.”
“How old is he?”
“About… two? Maybe?” Dick was not an expert in estimating the age of children, so sue him. “Maybe younger. He’s real small, and he doesn’t remember me.”
Silence. “N, we’re coming home.”
The bats had barely been out for an hour. “Sure. See you soon.”
——
It was Tim who discovered the next transformation. He’d taken over the early morning shift by virtue of not sleeping anyway. Jason’s room had been quiet; Tim had just wanted to make sure he was doing okay when he was greeted with a much larger shape in the bed than he’d expected.
Which, fuck, that couldn’t be good, right? Last time Jason had only skipped a couple of years, but now he was at least six.
The figure was also too still to be asleep. Tim switched on the nightlight they’d installed by the door and looked at Jason. Yeah, his eyes were definitely open. It was eerie, the way he held himself still as if he was trying to disappear into the darkness. Don’t notice me, his position screamed. I’m not here, go away.
It was so familiar. Tim couldn’t breathe for a second for the way it was a perfect reversal of the way he himself had spent his childhood. Notice me, look at me, don’t leave.
“Hey,” Tim called out softly, unconsciously imitating Dick’s voice. “Can’t sleep?”
“Who are you.” His voice was clear and hard, a far cry from the sweet toddler who had played with Tim’s cape when they’d come home from patrol at midnight.
That had been four hours ago. It was going to be a long day, wasn’t it?
“I’m Tim,” he said. “You don’t remember me right now because you’re… sick, but we know each other.”
The distrust did not wane. “Where am I?”
“At my father’s house. Wayne Manor.” Tim smiled. “Maybe you’ve heard of it?”
“Who else is here?”
“Your family.”
That did not have the expected effect, at all. Jason shrank back, hands gripping the blanket tight even as his expression remained blank.
Tim’s hand moved to his bracelet and pressed a button. He’d promised Bruce to wake him up if there was a development. Besides, he was in over his head here, and he knew it.
“I’m going to call them, okay?” There was no answer.
It took less than two minutes for the doorway to be filled with people. Bruce was first, of course, closely followed by Dick, with Damian, Duke, and Cass lingering just behind them in the hallway.
“You’re going to crowd him,” Tim pointed out. “We’re all strangers.”
“Tim is right.” Bruce stepped forward. “Stay back.”
They watched as he crouched down in front of the bed. “Hi, Jason. You don’t remember me, and I know that’s scary.”
“I’m not scared.”
Tim couldn’t see his face, but he would bet good money that Bruce smiled at that. “No, you aren’t because you’re brave, aren’t you.”
“Hmm. Where’s mom?” Jason asked.
“She’s not here. I’m sorry. You’re staying with our family and me for now.”
“Where’s dad?”
“He’s not here, either, but—”
Jason’s shoulders deflated.
Oh. Oh.
Tim could feel the tension rack up in the room as every single family member was simultaneously filled with rage.
Bruce, however, looked calm. “As long as we are here,” he said, quietly but with the kind of conviction that could move mountains, “no one is going to hurt you. Your mother is fine, and so are you.”
And Jason looked up and believed him. Tim could see it in the way he relaxed, how he slumped down against Bruce’s bulk as if it was the only thing holding him up. He didn’t say anything.
Tim felt a gentle tug on his elbow. He followed the others outside, quietly, leaving Bruce to keep vigil. It was touching, but something about the scene bothered Tim.
“Do you think,” he quietly asked Dick as the group dispersed, “that we should call someone else? His friends? You have Roy’s number.”
“It will help, being here, when he reaches Robin age. They’re strangers until he’s an adult.”
That wasn’t the point. Tim frowned. “I know you think he should be with family when he’s like this. But Dick—we haven’t been his family for a long time. We shouldn’t see this stuff.”
Dick swallowed, but he didn’t argue with that. “B already knows.”
“Not all of it. Not what will happen when—”
“Yeah.” Dick’s shoulders slumped. “But do you think you can convince B of that?”
“No.” Tim sighed. “No, I don’t.”
——
“Master Jason, what are you doing in the kitchen?”
It was eight a.m., and even Master Tim was asleep by now. Alfred had kept an ear out for the sound of a preschooler waking up, but Master Jason must’ve aged again. He looked to be about nine now.
The kid frowned. “I don’t know who you are, but I need to make breakfast, or mom won’t eat.”
Alfred took a moment to fix his apron, blinking discreetly. “Of course, Master Jason. Your mother, however, isn’t here at the moment. Would you like to help me prepare some pancakes?”
——
There was a sound like something heavy falling, then a curse. “Where the fuck am I?”
Dick and Tim exchanged a glance. They’d installed Jason in front of the tv, at first, but he’d been more interested in the few children’s books Bruce kept around for guests.
Tim had tagged along—at this point, he had somehow wound up one of Jason’s primary caretakers, and wasn’t that a sentence he hadn’t expected himself to ever think? Looked like the time for children’s books had run out.
When they walked over to the armchair Jason had buried himself in, they found a pile of limbs in front of it, scrambling to get up and look at them. The family had taken to dressing Jason in the largest clothes they could get him in without them falling off, just to spare his modesty at the next change. Not that Jason had really grown much over the last few episodes…
At least he was dressed as he woke up in an unfamiliar living room because he couldn’t remember the previous episode or his adult life, Tim thought. Honestly, this curse/science mishap/whatever seemed hellbent on making their lives as miserable as possible.
Dick advanced cautiously. “Jason—”
“And you would be?” the boy asked, his voice suddenly much lighter.
“My name’s Dick Grayson, and you’re safe here.”
“Hmm, am I?” There was something wrong with the way Jason looked at Dick. His weight was shifted to the side, pushing his hip to the front, his long lashes almost fluttering, and there was something challenging in his gaze as if he was daring Dick—as if he was—
The idea was so incongruous—so impossible—that it took Tim too long to connect the dots. It was the exact pose he saw the working girls and boys adopt, night after night when they approached a car.
The thing with Tim was: He could be thrown off a building, and his brain would still keep on working all the way down. (No, seriously, that happened several times.) It was just how it was. So he could be shocked at what was happening, at what he’d just learned about Jason, and still notice that Dick wasn’t.
Perhaps he was making a mountain of a molehill, then. Perhaps Jason had just seen too much on the streets and was trying to play along, to give Dick what Jason thought he wanted, and then he’d punch him when he got too close and get out of here.
Perhaps.
“Let’s just—wait it out, okay?” Dick sighed. “You got temporary amnesia. It’ll all be clear tomorrow.”
“Sure.” Jason looked like he didn’t believe him, but was willing to run with it. “You got some food?”
——
“Oh, hey Dick! You look different!”
Dick thought he was about to cry with relief. Finally, a Jason that knew them, that wouldn’t have to be reassured about their intentions every few hours. “Hey, Jason.”
“Is it for a case?”
“Something like that,” he said. “You’re in the future, sort of. We have to wait a few hours before you can go back.”
Jason’s eyes went wide. “Really? That’s so cool! Can I talk to myself? Where am I? What year is it? What am I doing?”
“We can’t tell you that,” Tim said suddenly. “You know. Time travel code. Gotta follow the rules.”
“Ah.” Jason nodded as if that made any sense. “But you can tell me about other things, right? What about the cave? Can I see how it changed?”
“No, not the cave—” not while that damn memorial was still there, “—but Alfred has a collection of photos in one room if you want to see.”
That would be fine. Jason wasn’t in any of those, anyway.
“Whoa,” Jason commented when he saw how many pictures there were. “This family sure has grown. Wait, who is that?”
“That’s me,” Tim said.
Jason frowned. “That’s a Robin outfit. Are you Robin after me?”
And Dick—he could see how Tim tensed up. Understandably so, they had all heard what Jason called him. “Yeah, I—I didn’t mean to repl—you were—”
“It’s okay,” Jason shrugged. “Robin is more than one person, right? Dickie here said that. You don’t stop being Robin. You just share it.”
Tim blinked once. Then again.
Dick watched in some concern, because—surely that’s what he said to him back when he gave Robin to Damian, too? Right? It was all such a blur, but he must have.
Jason was already moving on to the next picture. “Wow, are these your wings?!”
“Yeah.”
“Did you make them? That’s so cool, I wanna fly too!”
Dick watched in amusement as a blush spread across Tim’s face. “I could show you the plans?”
“That would be fun! It could be a project.” Then he whirled around. “Do you go to school?”
“Uh, not really.”
Jason frowned. “You should. Grades are important. You can’t go superheroing forever if you don’t have money.”
“That’s true.” Tim looked suitably chastised. Dick bit down on a laugh as he watched Jason walk along Alfred’s little gallery, commenting on everything he saw and pulling Tim along.
God, thinking about the kid they saw yesterday, this Jason was a miracle. Dick knew what it meant to pull yourself up after darkness crashed down on you, how to find a way to smile after you lost everything.
And he knew, too, what a single person who cared for you—who believed in you could do.
(Maybe Dick should’ve remembered that when Jason became a miracle for the second time.)
Bruce had been that for both of them. Even now, Dick could see him at the doorway, watching Jason with such pride and unbearable longing on his face. Then a shadow fell over his expression, and he turned away.
“Dick!” Jason called over. “Tim has never heard the train story! C’mon, you’re the best at telling it.”
“He hasn’t heard it because it’s embarrassing,” Dick whined, but he walked over and joined them. Might as well make the most of this, right?”
——
“I’m sorry, Bruce,” Zatanna said. “There’s nothing I can do.”
She was magic, Cass knew, and Bruce didn’t like magic. So if he was asking her for help… Duke, next to her, looked worried, as well.
They weren’t letting the two of them see Jason, and that was okay. Neither of them had ever been close to Jason. Not that Dick or Tim had been, exactly, but they cared in a way Cass and Duke admittedly didn’t.
“Is there anything that could slow down his aging process, at least?”
“Nothing but putting him into stasis, and he would not thank you for that, Bruce.”
Duke dared to ask: “But Nygma said the effect of the gas should stop once he’s reached his proper age, right? So that should be… alright?”
“And what,” Bruce ground out, “if the next time he phases forward, he’s dead?”
“Bruce.” Zatanna put a hand on his shoulder, empathy in every line of her body.
Bruce shook her off as if he couldn’t bear the touch. “We don’t know if he’ll wake up this time.”
For a second, Cass wanted to hurt everyone who made Bruce sound like that. But she knew there was nothing she could do. Love, she knew, cut like that sometimes.
——
Damian was well aware that they would prefer to keep him far away from Todd. To a certain extent, he understood. He would not wish more people than necessary to watch him relive his own childhood, either.
However, no one in this family was prepared for what was coming next. Damian knew.
The minute the screaming began, Damian walked into the room.
Jason was convulsing on the bed. Dick was frantically checking him for injuries, and Damian clicked his tongue. “That won’t help. He is not bleeding.”
Bruce turned to him. “Damian, what—”
“He’s in pain. His body is half-alive, half-dead,” Damian told them calmly. His voice wasn’t shaking. It wasn’t. “It won’t stop until he swims in a Lazarus Pit.”
His father should not look like this. Helpless. Pitiful. Damian resented him for it, just a little bit. Father had not been there the first time. This would only last for hours, and all he had to do was wait. The crushing weight of how to fix this was not on him as it had been on Mother.
“I’m going to get a tranquilizer,” Dick murmured.
——
Duke wondered what they would do if Jason woke up in full rage mode. He had seen the files, had read everything he could the minute this started happening. Cass had told him the rest, pieced together from hints her brothers had dropped over the years. There was no way they could deal with that if they were unprepared and Jason was in their home. No way.
So he was… nervous. Just a bit. Enough so that he was camping out in front of the bedroom that they were keeping Jason for now. Sure, Jason had been medicated, but Duke had seen Bruce trying that on Red Hood before. Red Hood had barely slowed down. Whatever the Lazarus Pits were, exactly, they sure did a number on a person’s metabolism.
Duke got his answer when Bruce sent everyone out of the room. Batman would wait alone, then. Dick and Tim obeyed, albeit reluctantly.
Tim, however, returned a minute later with Bruce’s utility belt, shock full of batarangs and other weapons. The older man, however, hesitated to take it.
“Bruce,” Tim said, and he very gently touched a scar on his neck.
Bruce took the belt.
——
The next morning, Jason left.
Minutes before, Bruce watched him as he woke up.
He had known as soon as he had seen Jason as a toddler that his son would not forgive him for this. The others, maybe. They had only tried to help. Bruce was the one too selfish to let Jason keep his secrets, bring him to people he trusted.
Because that sure as hell wasn’t him anymore. Deservedly so or not, Bruce had had to face that reality a long time ago.
Still, when Jason opened his eyes and there was only a tinge of green in them, nothing like the rage of the pit, just like they had been the last time Bruce had seen him without the mask—for that one moment, Bruce allowed himself to hope.
Maybe, just maybe, Jason wouldn’t remember. Then he could use the whole thing as a learning experience—see it as bonding, even—something that would allow them to finally move on; that would help Bruce to find the right trigger to get Jason to give up his mad crusade and come home.
Then Jason blinked, and his eyes were empty even of hate.
“My phone?” was all he asked.
“In the cave.” Bruce kept his voice even because what else could he do?
Jason nodded. Then he left, and he did not come back.
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Soulmarks, Part 3
First
Previous
~~~
After what felt like years, J.J. stopped laughing.
Joker, on the other hand, was laughing like he’d just heard the funniest joke in the world. Even as Batman broke free and threw a knife at his head, even as he was sprinting away from the vigilante, he wouldn’t stop. He certainly had a lot to laugh about, he’d won before everyone had even got there. No matter how terribly the vigilantes won that night, there was nothing they could do to fix what had happened to Robin.
Marinette pulled her head from Harley’s grip and locked eyes with Batgirl. 
Batgirl swung down and crashed into Harley, sending them both flying.
Marinette touched her scalp where a chunk had been torn out of her hair.
Nightwing touched down next to her. “Are you alright?”
She nodded slightly and let her hand drop.
“That’s good. I’m glad. Get Tim out of this environment for us, please.”
She nodded and sent him a wave. “If we live I’m teaching you slang! You sound like a textbook!”
“Don’t say ‘if’!”
She rolled her eyes. Chat Noir would love this guy.
Her yoyo buzzed as her partner called her. Speaking of…
She picked it up and pulled it open, and Chat managed to get out a “M’lady!”, then she snapped it shut. She had problems to deal with outside of missing their normal meeting time for patrols.
Her gaze found its way to Tim and she hesitated.
They’d both been doing vigilante-work for about the same amount of time, if she was going off of when she’d gotten her soulmark, but she guessed that he’d had training beforehand. His fighting would likely be more polished.
On top of that, she’d be pulling whatever punches she did manage to land. He was a human and, when she was wearing the suit, she wasn’t. She didn’t know how much damage she could do if she really tried, but after the Nightwing fiasco earlier that night she wasn’t about to try and find out.
She would have to hope that it wouldn’t turn into a straight fight.
“Tim…” she said softly.
He was staring at her yoyo.
She fastened it back to her belt. She’d thought a lot about what she’d say if she ever met her soulmate over the years, but all the dumb pickup lines and polite questions she’d thought up didn’t exactly fit the situation she was currently in.
“I don’t know what they put you through... but it’s over now, okay? I’m going to take you home, okay?”
He looked at her blankly.
She stepped towards him carefully, her hands up in a kind of surrender. She didn’t know what to say. She was only fourteen, why was she expected to know what to do? Fuck, she didn’t even know if he spoke French, or if he could hear what she was saying at all.
She pulled a pleasant smile to her face as she neared him. “Let’s go...” She hesitated as she tried to recall the English word. “‘ome?”
Marinette held out her hand.
He stared at the outstretched hand for a few seconds, then looked back at her. He slowly reached out and took her hand.
And then he pulled.
She cursed as she was thrown off-balance. A knee slammed into her stomach and she groaned.
Marinette hooked her arm over his back and pushed down, looking for one of the pressure points she’d been taught.
His legs swept hers out from under her and she hit the ground with a dull thud, only barely managing to roll out of the way as his foot came after her.
She flipped to her feet and regarded him carefully as he advanced on her. She couldn’t fight him; it wouldn’t work out in her favor, win or lose. She couldn’t talk it out with him. What else was --?
Her yoyo buzzed again and she winced as she pulled it out. She flipped it open. “Not right now, Chat!” She hissed, then closed it again.
Well, since she had her yoyo out...
She sent Tim a tiny wink before hooking her yoyo around a pipe overhead and swinging herself to the second floor. She didn’t waste a second, ducking for cover behind a pile of dusty boxes labelled ‘props’.
She needed a plan! She was known for her plans! She just needed to think of one!
He climbed up. His feet creaked on the old floorboards as he searched for her. She brought her hands to her mouth to muffle her breathing as he passed by her boxes. He slowly continued on --.
Her yoyo buzzed.
His footsteps stopped.
The box above her head splintered and she squeaked, her hands coming up to shield her face as wood and plastic props rained down on her. She abandoned her hiding spot, using the dust as cover as she opened the yoyo.
“This better be really important, Chaton!” She hissed, glancing back and cringing as she saw Tim pick up Harley’s abandoned bazooka.
She dove under the table for the second time that night and looked down at the screen.
Chat looked incredulous. “You mean you don’t see Bona-parts?”
“No, obviously not.”
“Where are you?”
“In America, fighting my soulmate.”
Chat Noir looked concerned.
She shrugged and lifted up the edge of the tablecloth to show him what Tim looked like, she figured it was pretty self-explanatory, only to find he was right in front of her. A scream slipped from her lips as she quickly fell back and scrambled out the other side.
Ribbons streamed past her face and she squeaked, ducking out a door and running down the hallway.
“Anyways, I won’t be there for a while, so you’re going to have to stall.”
“I’ve been stalling for two hours! He’s almost beheaded every important person in Paris!”
She ducked into the stairwell and jumped down a flight. There, that was some good distance… She looked back at Chat. “Get Rena Rouge and Carapace. Hell, get Chloe if you have to!”
“Chloe is dead! And, if we don’t do something quick, Rogue and Carapace are next.”
Marinette cursed again. Great. She weighed her options.
Option one: stay and finally find out what happens when an akuma gets what they wanted, or let Chat Noir beat them without her and have every single major political or economic figure die because she can’t fix damages of a fight she wasn’t involved in.
Option two: somehow take Tim back to Paris, pray he didn’t get akumatized the moment Hawkmoth finds out about him, and fight both him and Bona-parts at the same time.
Or option three: leave Tim here for the bats to deal with if -- when -- they won.
She sighed, listening to her soulmate kicking open doors. He was getting closer and closer…
“Get Master Fu to open a portal.”
They’d be losing their numbers advantage, but it would at least be three-on-three. Hopefully, that would be enough for them to win.
A portal opened in front of her and she sighed, glancing back at the top of the stairs...
Only for her eyes to widen as Tim launched himself at her. He crashed into her and sent them both flying.
They fell through the portal together.
~~~
Next part
Taglist
@pawsitivelymiraculous @golden-promises @salty-fang @kitsunebell @sassakitty @octobitch @glastwime859 @miyla-lokidottir @onlyabatfan @ira-sairain @2confused-2doanything @ultimatetornshipper @ladybug-182 @laurcad123 @we-want-mini-mini @roguishredaxion @just-reblogs-by-h @futursworld
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Cruel Summer (Episode 4: “Spread Thin”)
Summary: This sequel to The Boy of Your Dreams centered around season 3. It’s been 7 months since the happenings that brought you, Steve, and your little Hawkins family together, and things seem to be heading in the direction of normal, with demogorgons and life threatening situations in your rearview mirror. With your past, and strange powers, it all seems like a dream. But what happens when it’s summer, and amidst an existential crisis, your visions come back in full force, and with a future that seems even worse than the last?
Pairing: Steve Harrington x Nine!Reader
Word Count: 4.9k
Warnings: Mentions of blood and guns, fluff, cussing, idiots being idiots, friendships blooming
A/N: I can’t tell you how excited I am for all the action to start because I love writing that shit. Let me know your thoughts!!! I’m flying by the seat of my pants with this so I have many a doubt.
CS Masterlist - TBOYD Masterlist
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Apparently the girls were playing a game of spin the bottle, where El would spy on whoever’s name the bottle landed on. The idea occurred to them when they decided to spy on Mike and see what he was up to. It was a total violation of privacy, but you could see where their 14 year old brains were coming from.
When the bottle landed on Billy Hargrove’s name, El went into the void and looked for him. However, what she found was much weirder and more sinister than she imagined. She saw Billy, crouched over something, when suddenly he sensed El and looked right at her.
At first, Max wrote it off as something weird that was normal, but you knew, as someone who had been in the void before, that this wasn’t normal, even by weird standards. The only ones who had the capability of seeing you in the void, were beings with strange abilities, or worse, from the upside down.
So, if you took this into account, mixed with the fact that Billy Hargrove had been popping up in your visions lately, you could deduce that it was anything but a coincidence.
Now, you all sat in a circle on El’s bed, with your journal in the middle opened to a fresh page with every single vision you had with Billy thus far.
Billy Hargrove, in his blue car, swerving off the road towards a building at night. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin. Billy Hargrove, with his veins protruding from his skin, with his hand around your throat. Someone calling out Billy’s name.
It wasn’t a lot, but you had your ways of finding out more if you needed to. Although when it came to Billy Hargrove, you were reluctant to say the least.
“So...something is wrong with him?” Max asked after a moment of silence.
“You mean other than the usual? Yeah, something’s wrong with him,” you said.
“I was right,” El uttered.
“Yeah.”
“But...what happened?” Max queried.
You shrugged, “Something tells me that it has to do with when he swerved off the road, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense for it to be a vision. If the gate is opened again, then it could be….”
“The Mind Flayer,” El finished the thought for you, her eyes getting dark.
The thought of the Mind Flayer gave you shivers down your spine. You hadn’t had visions of that giant creature in the red sky, watching your every move, but you remembered it as clear as day. Poor Will Byers was its last victim, and now that it didn’t have him, it could have picked someone else.
Suddenly you were wondering if Will was okay…
Max’s voice interrupted your thoughts. “What do we do?”
“Investigate. Find Billy,” El said sternly.
You nodded. It was the best and most obvious idea. Whatever Billy was up to if he was in fact possessed by something, he had to be stopped. However, the thought of your little sister getting mixed up with this, with only her friend, scared you. Billy Hargrove all on his own was a nightmare, you couldn’t imagine what he would be like controlled by an alien from the upside down.
“Tomorrow morning,” you said. “Tomorrow you can meet us here Max and we can all go to your house together. And investigate.”
She seemed surprised that you were tagging along, but nodded, “Okay, fine.”
***
More dreams came that night.
A man who delivered packages, with a uniform that read LYNX on the front in red font. You, Steve, Robin, Dustin, and Lucas’ little sister in a large room with boxes, screaming. Steve getting punched, you screaming his name. Hopper with something glowing in the back, crying as he smiled sadly. 6.62607004. 
When you woke up, the vision of Hopper crying hit you with a surge of anxiety that you couldn’t quite shake. You had never seen Hopper cry before, and you didn't know the context of the vision, but you hoped it didn’t mean what your fears were telling you it meant.
There was still time for more visions, and still time to change things.
Whatever it was, you wrote it all down - the number first so you wouldn’t forget.
***
As promised, the next morning, Max met you guys outside of the cabin. At this point, Hopper didn’t ask twice when he saw that it was just going to be you three having a “girl’s day” (as far as he knew). However, your car was finally back from the shop, and Hopper did have protests about you driving again now that your visions were back in full swing.
You ordered the girls to get into the blue bug, while you argued with your dad.
“Dad, it’s fine. Now that I know they’re back, I can sense when I’m having one so I’ll stop if I have to. I’ll go slow, I promise.”
“Yeah, but if you get into another accident, I’m personally taking away your license. Got it?”
You saluted him and said, “Yes, sir.”
With that, he left you alone. Although when you got in the car and started the ignition, Max piped up from the backseat,
“Are you sure this is safe?”
You huffed a groan, “Visions aside, I’m a great driver, alright? Now, shut up, please?”
She grumbled something you could barely hear, but didn’t care to know. At this point you were just happy to have your car and your music back, which you popped in immediately.
Max gave you directions to her house and on the drive there she complained about how she wished you were all at the mall instead of doing this. She believed you and El, but it seemed like she had her doubts about whether or not Billy was truly acting out of the ordinary.
  Before you knew it, you were parked right in front of a very small, but very cute home. From what you could tell, it looked empty.
“His car’s not here,” Max said.
That took a little bit of weight off of your chest. At least you didn’t have to get into it with the asshole anytime soon. For a hot second you were wondering where Steve kept his old bat with the nails.
“You really wanna do this?”
You looked at El, who was looking straight at the house and nodded.
With that, all three of you got out of the car, and started your investigation of Billy Hargrove. The main place you’d be looking in? His room.
The second you went inside, you frowned in disgust, and were grateful that you had gloves on. The place was littered with dirty clothes, empty beer cans, old food, and plates with cigarette butts.
You scanned the area with your eyes, afraid to touch anything, even though eventually you’d have to pick something to see if it sparked anything. While Max looked through the drawers and groaned when she found his porn stache.
“Gag me with a spoon.”
Across the way, there was a door that led to the adjoining bathroom. El went straight for it, and the two of you followed closely behind. And maybe it was all in your head, but the energy felt different in that room, and it was only confirmed when you all saw the empty bags of ice floating on top of a full, abandoned bath.
It wouldn’t have been strange by itself, but considering the context, it was weird.
“What if it’s just for his muscles or something? He works out a lot,” Max said.
You shook your head, “Something tells me that’s not the case.”
A thought popped into your head, one from a long time ago.
He likes it cold.
You scanned the rest of the bathroom, looking for any more clues. To your dismay, you didn’t have to look very far, because the second you looked down at the sink, you noticed blood on one of the cabinets.
El’s eyes went wide.
“What the hell?” you whispered.
She bent down and opened the cabinet doors with no hesitation, and took out something you couldn’t see past her body. 
“What is it?”
She straightened up, and in the reflection of the mirror, you could see she was reaching into a green trash can, and out of it, she fished a red lifeguard fanny pack, followed by a yellow, bloodied whistle.
Your bottom lip dropped in shock. You had seen those two things before, you didn’t need your journal this time, because it was in your mind as clear as day. Mostly because it was the strangest vision that stood out to you from the rest.
The lifeguard at the public pool. It was the same pool Billy worked at, and if these things were hers, and they were all covered in blood, then that didn’t mean anything good.
“Oh no,” you uttered.
Max looked at you now. “Is there any way you can get any visions without Billy being here?”
You looked around and shook your head. “My best bet is skin to skin contact, but….I could try going under, and see if it triggers anything?”
“Okay, yeah.”
To make the best environment for you to go into the void, you unplugged the bathtub, and turned on the shower to have as a source of white noise, while Max looked for something clean for you to use as a blindfold. When everything was ready, you sat on the floor of the bathroom, and with a nod to the girls, you put on the blindfold, and went in.
You took deep, even breaths, and focused all of your energy on Billy. You repeated his name over and over in your mind, and visualized his face. The sound of the shower faded away, and suddenly everything got cold. The blindfold was gone from your eyes, and when you opened them, you found yourself to be standing in a deep dark space. The floor was damp at your feet.
Ahead of you, there was nobody.
“Billy?” you called out.
You heard a chuckle coming from behind you, and whirled around to see the source. To no surprise, it was  him, with that same curly blonde hair and that stupid face, except he was looking right at you. He shouldn’t have been able to do that.
“What happened to you?” you asked. “What did you do to that lifeguard?”
He laughed the most sinister laugh you had ever heard from him as of late. 
All he said was, “I remember you.”
Somehow, you had a feeling it wasn’t Billy talking.
Pain in your skull came in a wave and you buckled to your knees with a grunt. Your eyes rolled to the back of your head and images came, all about Billy.
A lumber yard. Billy, sitting at a dinner table with people you didn’t know. The lifeguard (Heather, you could hear her name) and Billy standing over two bodies on the floor. A giant creature feeding on people in a dark place. Billy, sweating and crying on a tiled floor, calling for Max. El, lifting Billy in the air before throwing him. Billy, with his hand around El’s throat in the middle of a place that looked familiar. “You were happy.”
“Nine!”
“Nine!”
With a jolt, you came back to reality and as soon as you became aware, you pulled off the blindfold and let in the light. Both El and Max were on their knees next to you, worried. Your heart was beating fast from the experience and from what you just saw.
“What happened?” they both asked.
You shook your head, “Nothing good.”
You relayed every last bit of information as you wrote it down on the page dedicated to Billy Hargrove. As usual, they were like pieces of a puzzle, but some were missing and you needed more context, but it was enough to give you all a warning of what to expect.
You had been so wrapped up in all of this, that when you checked your watch and saw that you had missed going to Steve’s house, you gasped out loud.
“Shit!”
“What?” Max asked worriedly, probably thinking something else came up, but really you had almost forgotten about the other side of all of this that had to do with Russians and a secret code. You promised you’d help figure this out, and you couldn’t spread yourself too thin.
“I have somewhere I have to go. I have to meet Steve at Starcourt. We have our own investigation going on.”
“Is ‘investigation’ just code for making out?”
“No! This is really important and I’m already late.”
You looked between the two of them worriedly, El specifically. You didn’t want to leave her alone, but you also didn’t want to be overbearing. Knowing her, she probably would’ve done this by herself, and is capable of doing so. After all, she went to Chicago by herself and came back in one piece.
“Are you guys capable of continuing this investigation without me?”
“Of course,” El said.
“We can take care of ourselves.”
“Just for today, okay? If you need me, radio Dustin, I’ll be with him.”
At the same time they both blurted out, “Dustin?”
“Yeah, it’s a long story. And here,” you took out your journal and ripped out the piece with your visions of Billy, folded it up and handed it to El, “Take this, maybe it’ll help. And if you see Billy...be careful. Clearly he’s dangerous. Okay?”
“Okay.”
Remembering that you had a car now, you stopped and asked, “Do you need a ride?”
***
You dropped the girls off at the public pool, their next stop on the investigation, while you quickly got to Starcourt. You dashed inside, aiming straight for Scoops Ahoy, when you heard Steve’s voice call to you from somewhere in the mall.
“Nina!”
You whirled around, looking everywhere amongst the faces, until you saw him waving over to you from behind a plant. Dustin was there right next to him, looking through a pair of binoculars. With a perplexed expression, you went over and Steve straightened up to talk to you.
Immediately he started questioning you about your whereabouts in a fast ramble.
“Baby, where were you? When you didn’t show up to my house, I was worried that something happened. I thought you got into another accident, or something. I even called your house, but then Hopper said you were out with El. ”
You bared your teeth apologetically. You really hadn’t thought about how much he’s be worrying about you, but considering the circumstances you could see why he would be.
“Really?”
“Yeah, you had me freaking out.” 
You hugged him around the waist tightly both as a greeting and as reassurance.
“I know, I’m sorry. Something came up with El and Max. Something crazy, which I’ll tell you about later. But I had to help them and I lost track of time. I’m alive, though, okay?” You motioned to your whole and healthy self. “What are you guys doing, anyway?”
“We’re looking out for any suspicious individuals, remember?” Dustin answered.
“Right,” you nodded. Noting the absence of a third party, you frowned and asked, “Where’s Robin?”
“She’s still in Scoops, decoding the message.”
***
You headed on over to Scoops Ahoy and found Robin sitting on the counter against the sliding window. She had a drink in one hand and a notepad in the other, with her headphones around her neck. You walked up to the counter and dinged the bell to get her attention.
Without looking up, she asked, “What can I get for you?”
“One silver cat please.”
Confused by the odd request, she looked up. When she saw it was you, realization set in, and she smiled.
“Ha. Where have you been? You had the dingus worried for your life.”
You sat on the counter and slid on over to the other side. “I had some business to take care of with my sister. She needed me.”
“Ah ok. Is your sister the red head?”
“No, that’s Max. My sister’s name is El. You probably haven’t seen her since she’s not allowed to be here without permission.”
She raised her eyebrows. “Hopper’s strict, I’m guessing.”
“Protective, more like.” 
She nodded and added, “You know I used to wonder what you saw in Steve, but the more I see you guys interact close up, the more I start to see it.”
You raised your eyebrows in surprise, “Really?”
“Yeah. No offense, but I used to think he was just some asshole with an ego, but now...I don’t know. He seems to really care about you.”
The fact that someone else could see that, warmed your heart.
“That’s the thing about Steve, when you get to know him, you learn that he’s not just some asshole with an ego. I mean he has his moments, but really, he’s just an idiot with a big heart. Amongst other things.”
“That’s good to hear,” she said. “Steve ‘The Hair’ Harrington’s got a heart.”
You had heard that nickname used before many times when Steve was still in high school. His long standing popularity and his hairstyle won him that name. It was the reason you got so many stares when you started dating as you were basically a ghost in Hawkins at the time, dating the “king” of Hawkins High School. Even though you knew him better and you were happy together, those last few months gave you a glimpse of who he used to be. Although at that point, he reminded you that he didn’t care about all of that anymore.
The tone of voice Robin used when saying it, reminded you of those who didn’t particularly like Steve. If she knew that name, she must have gone to high school with him.
You walked up to the counter she was on, she adjusted herself to make space for you, and you jumped up so that you were side by side in front of the window.
“I’m guessing you knew Steve in high school?”
“I knew of him, but not personally, no. I was a band geek and he was busy, well, being Steve.” She flashed her blue eyes, which were full of insinuation. 
“So, I’ve heard.”
You had heard enough from Hopper and the kids about how much of an asshole Steve used to be. It was honestly wild to hear considering the version of Steve you grew to know and love now.
But then, you were reminded of a time when you yelled at him on the train tracks for being a dick, and giving Dustin shallow dating advice. That was only a fraction but it was enough to piss you off. However, he apologized shortly after, no arguments. That’s when you saw that he was just caught up in playing a part, that he was actually sweet underneath all of that.
The life threatening situation really helped bring that part out.
He was vastly different from who Robin probably remembered him to be, and hopefully, she would see that one day.
Wanting to change subjects, and get back to the topic at hand, you motioned to the notepad with your head. “Have you figured out what any of it means yet?”
“I keep going over it in my head, but nothing makes sense yet. I’m stuck on ‘The silver cat feeds’. There’s nothing that reminds me of a damn silver cat.”
You looked upwards towards the ceiling, racking your brain as if the answer was going to be there somehow. The only thing you could think of was something from your visions which was the word, LYNX.
You brought it up to Robin and even showed her your journal so she could see the spelling. Her eyes widened excitedly.
“Well, you know a lynx is a cat, right?”
That got you excited, “Really?”
“Yeah! So, it’s definitely a clue. Do you remember where this was?”
With a deflated frown you uttered, “No. I’ve never even heard of a company called LYNX before.”
The two of you sighed, and sat there for a few moments, thinking, while Robin murmured the phrase over and over. Some people came in and got ice cream, and when the shop was empty yet again, she sat back down, except instead of focusing on the code, she looked down at your gloves.
“When did you know you could see the future?” she asked abruptly in a low whisper.
You looked around, making sure no one was listening before answering.
“My whole life, actually.”
“Wait, you could see the future your entire life? Like, even as a kid?”
“Yup.”
“So, you were born with it?”
“No,” you said vaguely and when she gave you a look like she wanted to know more, you went on, “It’s a long, fucked up, and complicated story, which I’ll tell you one day, when we’re not surrounded by so many people, especially potential Russian spies.”
She pointed at you. “I’m holding you to that. Apparently there’s a lot of weird shit going on in Hawkins and I am out of the loop.”
You chuckled, “Too much. And hey while we’re at it, maybe you can tell me about Tammy Thompson and any other potential girl crushes.”
“Oh, please. As if that part of my life is in the least bit as exciting as your powers. My love life or lack thereof is a disaster.”
“I mean if it was a secret for so long then it seems to me like it’s a pretty big deal.” You cast her a sidelong glance and she smiled.
She took a sip of her drink. “Thanks for not telling the guys, by the way.”
You shrugged, “No problem. I figured you should get to choose who and when to tell. Under non-psychic circumstances at least.”
It’s how you’d want your secret about your abilities treated.
“You know, I’m kinda glad you know, though. One less person to have to hide it from, or explain myself to. It’s freeing.”
You couldn’t help but agree. Robin’s secret was different from yours, but you knew what it was like to have to hide parts of yourself or lie in order to be taken seriously. When you were around people who knew you and your past, people who accepted you, it was freeing. 
It made you wonder if you were the first person that knew Robin’s secret.
“Oh, I get that.”
A knock coming from beyond the window made you jump, and stopped the rest of your conversation. Robin snapped into action and proceeded to open the window and take off her headphones as another knock came. 
You sneakily peered through with a perplexed gaze and watched as she opened the door leading to the hallway. Robin’s body covered most of what was on the other side, but your heart stopped when you caught a glimpse of who was on there when she took the box from him and put it down on the floor.
A delivery man, with the word LYNX in red, stamped on his uniform.
“Holy shit,” you whispered.
You couldn’t see Robin’s face from where you were, but you could only imagine she had noticed it too.
She signed the paper he gave her, and they exchanged goodbyes.
“Have a nice day.”
“Yeah, you too.” You could hear the hesitance in her tone.
When the man disappeared back into the hallway, you scrambled through the window to get to Robin, all while breathlessly saying,
“Robin, did you see?”
“Yeah, yeah I did.”
You both ran out into the hallway, basically crashing into each other, and watched the man walk back down the hallway. On the back of his uniform was a symbol of a silver cat in a circle. At that point, it was obvious.
“Silver cat,” you uttered.
“Silver cat,” Robin repeated with a smirk on her face.
You had the next piece of the puzzle. You knew wherever the transmission was coming from, it was Starcourt. And now? You knew who the silver cat was.
Robin’s mind was basically made for solving puzzles, so her mind was already working ahead of yours. In fact, she knew the entirety of the code more than you did.
“Come on!”
She took your hand and pulled you back through the door, past the backroom, past the front register, past the boys who were making their way back, past even the threshold of Scoops, all the way until you were both in the middle of Starcourt.
When she got up on an empty ledge, you stared at her wide eyed. 
“What are you doing?”
“Get up here!” she motioned for you to join her. Without hesitation you did, to which she brought the notebook to you and explained her idea.
“All of these codewords have to do with something in this mall. The code is Starcourt, Y/N. If we just look we’ll find it.”
You still weren’t sure where she was going with this, but you started looking around, trying to make connections as you huddled over the notepad.
She repeated, “A trip to China sounds nice,” her gaze scanning the entire area, until she pointed to the Chinese restaurant you had passed by many times before. Imperial Panda.
That was when it clicked for you, and you saw what she saw.
Oh, the code is Starcourt.
The next line was, “If you tread lightly.”
You peeled your eyes for any connections, until you found a shoe store on the second level. With a gasp you pointed at it and Robin grinned widely.
“Yes!” She looked at the next line and closed her eyes, thinking hard. “‘When blue meets yellow in the west’.”
You looked around, your eyes tracking every blue and yellow thing. But you had to think west, what was in the west?
“Look,” Robin said, who was looking up.
You followed her line of sight to a large clock with blue and yellow hands.
“Oh my god.”
“When blue meets yellow in the west.”
“Robin, Nina,” Steve came up to you both with Dustin in tow. He looked at the two of you like you were crazy. “What are you doing?”
“We cracked it,” Robin stated gleefully.
“Cracked what?”
You jumped down from the ledge and grinned. “We cracked the code. Well, it was mostly Robin, but we got it.”
***
Day quickly turned to night, but instead of leaving Starcourt like you normally would have, all four of you stayed and took to the roof to spy on all of the incoming deliveries coming in by LYNX. Unlucky for all of you, it started pelting rain on top of you, and even the rain jackets you had on could barely keep you from getting wet. 
Your hair was dripping against your face, and you were shivering so much, you had to keep your teeth from chattering. The gloves were soaked through and pointless at this rate.
You were all crouched against the ledge overlooking the delivery entrance where two guards flanked a set of double doors, and two men in yellow raincoats wheeled in boxes. Robin, you, Steve, and Dustin were all in a line next to each other. Dustin was looking through his binoculars to get a better close up look. 
“Look for Imperial Panda and Kaufman Shoes,” Robin instructed him.
“They’re with that whistling guy, 10 o’clock,” he pointed slightly left, to a man who was dollying a stack of boxes as he whistled.
You narrowed your eyes to get a better look, but had to swipe away at the rain that kept getting into your eyes.
“What do you think is in there?” Steve asked.
“Guns, bombs?”
“Chemical weapons?” you chimed in.
“Whatever it is,” Dustin said, “They’re armed to the teeth.”
“Greaat,” Steve uttered sarcastically, wiping away water from his eyes. “That’s great.”
You bit your lip anxiously. “If they have guns then they must be protecting something pretty messed up.” 
Up ahead, there was a beep as a guard scanned a keycard, and the grey double doors swung open automatically. From this distance you couldn’t see what was inside, even if you did try leaning over.
“Hey, what’s in there?” Robin asked.
“It’s just more boxes.”
Steve reached for the binoculars and tried taking them from Dustin’s hands to see better, but the kid wouldn’t let him. They both fought and tugged back and forth at them, until the binoculars hit the ledge, making a loud clang. It made the guards jump to action and lift their guns. All four of you moved in a flash and slid down behind the ledge so you were out of sight, on your backs.
Your heart was hammering against your ribs with how scared shitless you were and the shaking from the cold only worsened by the fear. Your hand reached for Steve’s instinctively, and to your surprise, Robin reached for yours. All four of you layed there, as silently as you could as the rain came down like bullets, squeezing each other’s hands for dear life.
You all exchanged a glance, and Robin quickly retracted her hand from yours, but you kept holding tight to Steve’s. A Russian gave some kind of order from below, and the four of you took that as you cue to go. So, as low and as quickly as the rain let you, you all scampered towards the way you came and headed back inside the mall.
When you were down the stairs and back in the hallway you walked through, safe and sound, you breathed a sigh of relief. 
“Holy shit.”
“Well, I think we found your Russians,” Robin commented.
“Yeah and they almost killed us,” your angry gaze directed at Steve.
“Hey, sorry, alright? I wanted to get a better look, but Henderson here didn’t want to let go of the binoculars,” he said defensively. 
“Hey, lookout was my job, Harrington.”
“Okay, can you kids stop fighting, please?” Robin sniped.
Yeah, you found the Russians, and you were somewhere between terrified and excited. You had dealt with man-eating alien dogs, but people with guns? That gave you flashbacks to a time when you were an experiment in a lab. Dr. Brenner always did like precautions. Somehow they were just as scary as aliens, but in their own way.
The funny thing was, with the whole Billy ordeal, aliens weren’t too far away either.
***
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boldlyanxious · 4 years
Text
Remember when
Part 7: Control
RW masterlist
Tim looked up as Dick walked up. The coffee and boxed cupcake could be considered a gift but Tim recognized the logo. It Dick's way of letting him know that they found his secret place.
"Did you know that even if you turn off the tracking on your phone, laptop, and other electronics that you can still be found by the gps on your motorcycle?"
"So you tracked me to find out where I've been working away from the office?"
I did. I had a point to prove. Cute worker. But also stops to help those in need."
"Is there a point to this?"
"Not really. My original plan was to tease you about it mercilessly."
"Oh, I can hardly wait."
"You are going to have to. Before anything else I need you to remove that video of her from the internet and anywhere else."
"What? Why?"
"She was really closed off when I asked her anything. She started acting really uncomfortable."
"Sounds a lot like she isn't interested in you."
"I agree. She definitely wasn't but when Babs showed her the video she got really upset, possibly distressed. We think she is in hiding."
It took Tim a while and he was distracted by urgent business a few times but by the end of the work day he had removed every trace of the video he could. He sent a message to Babs to double check and make sure she was unable to find it. It was then that he even had the thought that Babs probably could have done the same thing as him. He wondered what was keeping her so busy that she couldn't help remove the video. It wasn't like Dick to just give up the opportunity to tease him mercilessly when for something as simple as a crush.
---
When Marinette got home from work she looked all over for the video. She wasn't very good working with computers. She could use them functionally but beyond the basics of setting up a website that she used to sell her designs. The trickiest thing she had done was set it up online without connecting it to her former identity. Actually she never really stopped being Marinette, it was the only identity she had in any system and how she still thought of herself. But she hadn't told anyone that name in years, not since leaving France.
She was getting really agitated. She searched everything she could think of to locate the video the couple showed her but she found nothing. Hopefully that meant it would be hard for other people too but she didn't have the resources of someone like Gabriel Agreste and she didn't know what kind of technology existed that he could use to find her. She didn't even know if he would be making an attempt to find her but considering the everything he put Paris through as Hawkmoth and the fire she didn't want to take any chances.
---
Racing across the rooftops was the best way she knew to relieve stress. She didn't even bother with listening in on the bat channel. She did check to see that they were watching out for an expected move by the drug runners again, something that seemed far too complicated for her to get involved with so she just moved to a different area. She liked to do the little things that would make a huge difference to one person rather than take on all of the major crime in Gotham. Tonight she was mostly just running and swinging to feel the air on her face. It would help her clear her head and relax.
It had been more than a month since she had helped the children out of the fire. She wasn't sure what the bats current policy was on her rooftop activities. She had seen Batgirl and Hood on separate occasions since the fire but she wasn't sure if she had been seen or if their claims of not bothering her had only been for that night.
She chose not to worry about it tonight because she just wanted to feel free. She hadn't seen anything going on tonight and she would rather just run. She stood for quite awhile on a tall building just staring at the lights in the city and beyond that to the bay where the lights reflected back. She stood and watched until she started to feel cold through her suit and her worries no longer plagued her before she looped around to head home.
With a surprising lack of crime during her patrol the city felt very peaceful. She was swinging along towards her apartment when a bright blue flash and crackling electricity encased the building directly in front of her. There was an explosion to the right about a block away and another in the other direction somewhat further away. The loud pops were followed by the sound of energy draining and the lights clicking off in succession.
Rouge Gorge has dropped suddenly out of her swinging in surprise at the sudden flash and sound. Her eyes felt like they were swimming in the dark chasing bright spots of light and her ears were buzzing at the sudden sounds. She needed a moment to recover before heading home but she didn't get the option. Hands wrapped around her arms from behind and there was a clicking sound that she thought was probably a gun.
As her eyes regained her vision more she could see a man in front of her. He had an armored suit that was crackling with blue lightning. The rest of the blocks nearby had darkened and the man in front of her provided the only light. He signalled and 3 men with them set off fireworks, she assumed this was to hide their activity and provide cover for the sudden light and black out. She pulled at her arms to test the hold while she still might have a chance of escaping. The hold was firm but that mattered less as she could see that she was surrounded and near their get away vehicles.
For the number of them working it was a quiet operation. At least it was until a man was dragged out of the big house. He was struggling and yelling. The man before Rouge Gorge approached him and with a flash of blue from his gauntlets the body collapsed. The woman who had been focusing on trying to get away to reach her children let out a piercing scream. Her mouth was quickly muffled by a hand and the man in charge threatened her in a low voice that couldn't be heard from a distance. She still struggled and one of the men holding her struck her.
"The children!" said Rouge Gorge desperately. She struggled herself to get to them. She pulled at her arms and flung her head back making contact with the person's face. As soon as the grip loosened she rushed over to the children and had them face away from their parents. She wrapped them in her cape and hid her movements. She wasn't sure what time she would be allowed before she too was bound as the parents were currently being restrained or killed for being in the way.
She flipped the switch on her radio. She kept her voice low and comforting for the children and to not alert the guards with guns who were luckily giving her space for the moment. She asked the children if they saw the flash of light or heard the transformers blow but they had been asleep. As she spoke she tore off a bit of her cape and wrapped it around Red Robin's logo and a scrap of paper she wrote the license plate number on. She put it under her foot with the logo down hoping that it would be found by the bats after the group left. She hoped they could hear over the radio the names of the children Sofia and Alberto and they could use the information and the black out to find them.
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-several of the tags didn't work. I'm trying to figure it out but if you asked and I didn't tag you it wasn't on purpose I'm just really bad at this.
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