#IT WOULD ALSO WORK WELL DUE TO STEPH KICKING THE DUDE IN THE HEAD

[peppersonironi]

For @duketectivecomics‘s Duke Week Day Five: Leadership (A day late, I know, but I had wifi trouble)

Summary: Nightwing offers Signal a chance to lead a small group for a mission. Duke is wary, but accepts the challenge. He proves to be a rather great leader.

Notes: Takes place after Season Two of Young Justice, and ignores Season Three (I still haven’t seen it, unfortunately).

“So will you do it?” Duke looked over at Dick, who had decided to brave the day as Nightwing in order to ask a favor.

“I’m not sure, Nightwing, That’s your team, and I’m perfectly happy taking care of Gotham.”

Dick pouted and dramatically flung himself over the nearest gargoyle. “You sure? I could really use the help. Don't you want to lend aid to your poor, poor brother?”

“You are literally a billionaire.”

“Ha ha, Signal. You know what I mean.”

Duke sighed and joined Dick beside the gargoyle. “Yeah, I do. Are you sure you need me? Why not Tim? Steph? Heck, even Damian would love the chance to boos those guys around.”

Dick sighed. “I told you, The mission occurs at the same time as one on the opposite side of the world, which I already have Tim scheduled for. Steph is woking a case in Hong Kong with Cass. And Frankly, I doubt the Team would appreciate Damian's … style of leadership. This one is smaller, and less of a priority. I have some of the newbies and more older members on it, but none of them have experience with leading stealth missions.”

“So give one of them the experience!” Duke was getting a bit exasperated. Why did Dick think it would be a good idea to handle a mission on a covert team he'd never even met before?

“It's not that simple.” Dick frowned. “This mission is time sensitive, and delicate. It really does need someone with experience leading it, but all my best people are elsewhere.”

Duke tilted his head, considering. “Why me?”

Dick laughed. “Why NOT you? Seriously, Signal. You handled a whole group of Robins, by yourself. No Batman. You proved yourself, and you've earned respect. I trust you with this.”

Duke considered, thinking through everything Dick had said. “Alright,” He sighed, “What's the mission?”

*****

“Team, I'd like you to meet Signal. He'll be joining you on the mission, as well as over seeing things.” Nightwing stood at the front of the group of heroes, turning to where Duke had just come in from the zeta tubes.

Duke walked forward, surveying the group. “ 'Sup?” He asked, unsure of what else to say.

“Signal, meet Beast Boy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beatle.”

Duke nodded and extended his hand, “Nice to meet you.”

“I've been waiting to meet you for so long, dude!” Kid Flash said, racing forward to shake Duke's hand. “I've heard all about you, but the dates on when you actively joined the guys in Gotham were murky, and since I couldn't ask Nightwing or Robin – wait, does that mean Tim's no longer Robin? Why didn't he say anything? Unless the history books got it wrong, in which case woah, sorry I said anything – anyway  it was a bit of a tricky situation. Of course, I probably could have looked it up on the internet, but that feels like cheating y'know?”

Duke blinked several times. “Um, thanks, I guess? I didn't really think anyone bothered with me.”

“Are you kidding?!” Kid Flash was literally bouncing at this point. “You're one of the coolest bats! You patrol during the day, for one thing, plus your costume is pretty crash. Not to mention you're literally the only meta human Batman has ever let stay in Gotham! Although Black Bat might be one, no one was ever really clear on that.”

“You're a meta human?!” Beast Boy asked, shoving Kid Flash to the side. “Seriously? And you work with Batman?! How does that work?”

Duke laughed. “Yes, I am a meta. No, Black Bat isn't. She's just awesome. And I was Batman's protege before I gained my powers. When we found out, we kinda just rolled with it.”

“Translation,” Nightwing added, “He grumbled a bit before deciding that the rule only really covers Green Lantern.”

“Didn't it always though?” Duke asked his brother.

Nightwing laughed. “Probably. He never seemed to keen on Superman either, to be honest.”

Duke frowned. “Wait, then why did he stop by for tea last week?”

“Wait, he did?! Why wasn't I invited?!”

Duke shook his head and tsked. “Downside to no longer living at the house dude, that's all I'm saying.”

The Team was looking back and forth at the exchange. “Wait,” Blue Beatle said, holding up his hands. “Superman comes over for tea, at Batman's house, which you live in, but Nightwing doesn't anymore?”

“Yup,” Both of the bats said.

Blue Beatle blinked, then nodded. “Alright then.”

“What are your powers,” Wonder girl asked.

“Light stuff, basically,” Duke said. “I can see in several different light spectrums, lets me do a bunch of stuff, like limited x-ray vision. I can also 'replay' what happens in rooms, due to the light residue. I can also see a few seconds into the future.”

Everyone blinked at him.

“Not to mention you can control shadows!” Nightwing added helpfully.

Duke cringed. “Yeah, but that's new. I'm not really familiar with it.”

Everyone stared, except Kid Flash, who just continued bouncing.

“Alright,” Nightwing said after a moment, “Let's get on with the briefing.”

*****

The mission was simple: Infiltrate a high rise owned by Lex Luther in San Francisco, and retrieve information that was being stored on a hard drive. Said drive was only going to be present in the tower for twelve hours, nine of which Lex was also present. Hence the need for a small team, and the precise timing.

The infiltration was scheduled at 1400 hours, after Lex had left for lunch, and before the buyer of the information had arrived. Duke had been given the plans of the building, and multiple suggested strategies. One of these strategies was modified by Duke, and was what led Beast Boy (who insisted Duke call him Garth) turning into a fly in order to get through the vents.

“Are you sure I can't go for something more fun?” Garth asked on the way to San Francisco, “Like a snake? Maybe even a monkey!”

“No,” Duke had said, “A fly is the best option, it's the least likely to set off motion sensors.” At the disappointed face, however, Duke conceded, “You can be a monkey when you open the side entrance.” Garth had whooped in triumph, and Duke had to crack a smile.

Once Beast Boy had managed to get into the building, he made his way to the main security center and dismantled whatever detection systems Lex had in place, allowing Kid Flash (Bart, Duke learned) and Signal himself to make their entrance. The trio made their way to Lex's office, only needing to take out a single guard, and retrieve the hard drive from one of Lex's many (There were like thirty, sheesh) safes in the room. The cracking of said safe took longer than initially planned, but Duke managed to hack the system in time for the guard change. Boy was he glad Tim taught him how to hack.

With the target in hand, they made their way out to the back alley, where Blue Beatle (Jaime, he said his name was) and Wonder Girl (Cassie) were keeping watch. They were almost caught at one point, but Duke saw the guards coming and quickly shoved his teammates into a closet, along with himself. In the end, two guards who were lagging behind on their shift change intercepted them, but Blue Beetle knocked one out, and Wonder Girl got the other.

“Took you long enough,” Cassie said with a grin when she saw the trio returning.

Duke grinned right back at her. “You have any trouble?”

“If these two count as trouble,” She replied, kicking one of the goons.

“Sounds crash!” Kid Flash replied. “How about we get out of here before something blows up?”

Duke frowned. “Why would anything blow up?”

Everyone turned and gave him a look. “You'd be surprised,” Blue Beetle said.

“Better not jinx it, then.” Duke spook, and the team made their escape.

*****

“ - Complete insubordination! Do you know what you did?!”

Duke paused at the doors, looking in on the meeting room where he and the others were supposed to go for their debriefing. Turns out, the other part of the Team was already there, and being chewed out by Batman himself.

“This was supposed to be a covert mission, and you go and get the entire building blown up!” Huh, they weren't kidding about explosions, Duke thought. “You clearly disobeyed the mission parameters, opting instead to joyride with the robots you were sent to destroy! Do you know how many lives you put in danger?!”

“It wasn't our fault!” Tim Drake, better known as Red Robin (Though Duke thought Bart mention that he still went as Robin here? Boy, Damian was gonna be pissed!) told Batman. “The robots got activated remotely, and dragged us along. In the end, they self destructed!”

Batman sighed, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “I let Kaldur go one one vacation …”

“You can at least acknowledge we got the job done.” Tim said, and Bruce sighed once more. He looked so tired, and Duke could barely hold in a grin. From the scared faces of everyone else in the room, Duke gathered that no one else found it quite so funny.

“Yes, you got it done,” Batman conceded, “But your methods are far from acceptable! All of you need to reevaluate how you-”

“It's almost kinda funny when I'm not the one being chewed out!” Duke turned to find Jaime and Garth standing in the door beside him, the latter of whom had spoken.

“Oh it's definitely funny,” Duke replied. “I've had front row seats to these types of things since I joined the bats. I”m almost never the one in trouble. Surprised it's Tim, though. Usually Nightwing.”

Both of their eyes widened. “Nightwing is the one in trouble?”

“Yup. We – the other bats and I – have a running bet on how long the rants last. B's best record is two hours, fifty minutes, thirty-seven seconds. It was right after Nightwing spray painted the bat-suit glittery pink, though I'm pretty sure Spoiler helped.”

Jaime opened and closed his mouth for a few moments. “Wow.”

Just then, Bart and Cassie showed up. “Are we late for the debriefing?” The latter asked.

Duke shrugged and pointed into the room, where Batman had moved onto a rant about aerial combat and unneeded fuel. “Nope, There's is running late.”

The group turned and went back to viewing the scene before them. After another fifteen minutes, Batman said. “I have another team coming in soon for debriefing, so let's hope that they were at least partially competent.”

Duke thought that would be as good a place as any to make an entrance, so he brought his fist to his mouth and coughed a bit.

Everyone turned slowly to find the grinning group standing at the doorway.

“Signal,” Batman said, and Duke knew he was relieved, “Did you just get back?”

“We've been standing here for twenty minutes, B. Seriously, your lecturing skills have not gone unpracticed.”

Batman sighed, putting his fingers on the bridge of his nose, not a sight unfamiliar to Duke, but from the gaping mouths, Duke was pretty sure no one else thought anything about the exchange was normal. “Please tell me your mission went well?”

“Without a hitch,” Duke replied grinning. “We got in and out easily. Had a tad of trouble with hacking the safe, but we got it open.” Duke turned to Tim, “Thanks for those lessons last week, they really paid off.”

Tim grinned “Welcome. Wanna continue when we get home?”

Duke nodded. “Sounds good.”

“Were there any complications?” Batman growled.

“We took out three guards quietly, and avoided two more that I saw coming right before they turned a corner, but other than that, no.”

Batman glared suspiciously down at Duke, who only smiled. “Any explosions?”

Duke frowned. “What is it with this team and explosions?” Batman glared some more, “Calm down B, no explosions. Everything was quiet.”

Batman nodded. “Good job, Signal. You dropped off the target with Nightwing, I assume?” At Duke's nod, he continued, “You get head back to Gotham, then. Finish your report in the cave, and finish up your patrol if you want. I'll make a note on the file if we ever need you again.” He paused, and looked critically at Duke. “Would you?”

Duke looked back at Garth, Jaime, Bart, and Cassie, who were all nodding their heads furiously. “Sure,” Duke said, “Why not?”

#dukeweek2020 #duke thomas #the signal #Young Justice #Nightwing #Beast Boy #Kid Flash #Wonder Girl #blue beatle #leadership

[nhlarchived]

Part One ~ Part Two ~ Part Three ~ Part Four ~ Part Five

Word Count: 2.7k

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“Y/n come on you’ve been in the house all day!” Stephanie shouted as she gripped your wrists trying to get you to follow her outside.

It’s been a week since you and Auston had made it “official” agreeing to give him a chance. Things had been going great and you’ve been spending a lot of time together. Although, you’ve been friends for years, you began learning more about each other. You were both sharing a deeper, more domestic side of yourselves.

You felt bad however, because you definitely started hanging around him more often, and the girls took notice. They weren’t offended or upset, they understood, but they definitely wanted some time with you before you all left to go home.

“It’s supposed to rain any minute I don’t feel like getting wet!” You argued in between giggles. Stephanie, Sydney and Lexi were trying to get you to lay out on the dock with them. Since the clouds were mostly covering the sky, it made it much cooler that way you could enjoy the sounds of the waves. However, a storm was ready to hit any moment.

“Stop being a baby the dock is literally a three minute walk!” Sydney returned coming up from behind you to push your back towards Steph. Finally, you gave in, figuring a little rain would hurt anyway.

“Fine!” You sighed easing your strength from Steph’s pull. You left your phone and your watch on the kitchen table that way they wouldn’t get ruined in the rain before following the three girls out onto the beach.

The sun was completely covered and there was a strong breeze that whipped across the beach. The forecast didn’t call for rain for another two hours, but you could feel the humidity outside rising fast, making you believe it was coming within the next twenty minutes.

You tried to ignore it as the four of you finally arrived at the dock, the echo from the wood mimicking the sounds of your feet as you walked down. It was a private beach so the only people that went on it were the ones that lived here but due to the weather, everyone had stayed inside.

You made it down to the end and you all sat with your feet dangling off the edge. The waves were slightly more rough than usual, thanks to the wind, but it made for a very calming sound. The water crashed against the poles of the dock spraying the bottom of your legs with the room temperature ocean. At first you didn’t want to come all of the way out here especially with the rain, but now you realized how soothing it was. Between the breeze, sound and water, it felt peaceful.

Within the last couple of days, you’ve worried about returning to Toronto. Sure, this week that you’ve spent with Auston has been amazing, but you knew things would change once returning to the city. You’d have to return to your work and he with his practices, and soon enough, games would start up again. Yeah it was easy being friends during his past seasons, but you also didn’t crave to see him as much.

The thought wondered in the back of your mind constantly. It was one of those things you would worry about until you get in the moment and see how it actually is. But for now, the ocean was enough of a distraction to keep those thoughts at bay.

“Y/n?” Sydney questioned tapping the side of your arm with her elbow. You turned to look at her and noticed all three girls were giving you a confused stare.

“What?” You asked, clearly missing something.

“What has you spacing out like that? We’ve been talking to you for the past two minutes.” Lexi jumped in. Obviously while focusing on the waves and Toronto you were too concentrated to hear anything else.

“Oh nothing. I was just listening to the waves.” You said looking back at the white caps below the dock.

“Why are you lying? Is it Auston? I swear if he hurts you I’ll personally get Matt to kick his ass.” Sydney added. Her comment made you laugh as you shook your head.

“He didn’t do anything Syd, it’s nothing I promise.” You said in between giggles, laying down onto the dock behind you. You watched the clouds move swiftly above you trying to make shapes out of them.

“Well just know as soon as he does, I’m flying back to Toronto, and I’m bringing Matt with me.” Sydney continued laughing on her own. Sydney was your closest friend out of all the girls. She acted like a big sister to you. When you found out she was moving back to New York it definitely hurt you a little, but you knew she was ready to go back home so, you were happy for her.

As you were laying down you felt a drop of water land on your cheek. You decided to ignore it until another one hit, and then another. Eventually they started falling by twos, then threes, and that’s when you knew the rain was coming and coming fast. You sat back up and turned to the girls who were occupied in their own conversations. You then noticed a wall of rain coming fast from over the ocean.

“Do you guys think we should head back?” You questioned looking at the rain wall with wide eyes. It was pouring only a near mile in the distance and if you left now, by the time you got back to the house it would be here.

“Oh, come on it’s just a little rain.” Stephanie said nonchalantly. You almost wondered if she had seen the rain or not but there was no way she didn’t. Moments later a loud crash of thunder echoed across the water and waves of the ocean that made all four of you jump.

“On second thought, Mitch is probably looking for me, let’s go back.” Stephanie quickly said standing up on the dock. You laughed at the fact nature worked in your favor before getting up yourself and following the girls off the dock. By the time your feet stepped off the wood and onto the sand, the pouring rain had reached you guys, beginning to soak your bodies.

You all started laughing and running towards the house seeing who could get there the fastest. You weren’t scared of the lightning or thunder as it was still far out over the water, so this was more of a fun time to let loose. The cold rain cooled you off of the humidity as you guys started singing and giggling along while retreating back to the house.

~ Auston’s POV ~

“Y/n?” I called as I walked through the silent house. Most of the boys were still sleeping in as they usually do on their days off. Sleep in until 2pm and stay up until 2am. I normally wake up around noon and hand out until everyone else awakens. However, usually the girls are up by 10am talking in the kitchen. But this morning it was quiet.

I walked upstairs to her bedroom and the door was open with the room was vacant. I headed back one more flight downstairs to the kitchen/living room area and not a single person was to be found other than Mitch eating away at a bag of chips on the couch, flicking through the channels on the television  

“Where is everyone?” I asked him while walking over to the fridge to grab a water bottle.

“Sleeping.” Mitch answered sarcastically as if I should have known that. I rolled my eyes taking a sip of water before questioning again.

“Where’s y/n.” I inquired walked over to stand beside the couch.

“Oh, her and the girls went out to the dock real quick.” He answered unphased, not removing his sight from the TV that now played some old 90s cartoon.

“Isn’t it about to storm outside?” I questioned looking out at the clouds in the sky that looked like they were going to drop water any minute.

“Not for like, another two hours.” Mitch stated clearly annoyed that I was interrupting his cartoon show. I rolled my eyes again at him before moving to look out the patio door windows. There was a clear wall of rain moving quickly towards the sand that obviously wouldn’t take two hours to arrive.

Before I could think anything more of it, I heard a loud vibrating buzz come from the table behind me. It was a symphony of echoes playing through the hallow wood. I turned and noticed y/n’s phone laying on the table, lit up with a call. Mitch paused the television to grab himself a drink when he heard the sound as well, walking over.

“Whose phone is that?” He inquired leaning over the table to snoop at the call.

“Jack? Like y/n’s ex Jack?” He continued squinting at the screen. The moment he said his name I felt my heart drop down to my stomach. Not believing him I looked at the screen myself seeing his name lit up across the top.

“What the fuck does he want?” I mumbled under my breath, eyebrows tightening in confusion. It took everything out of me not to answer, but I had no business to.

“I don’t know, why don’t you ask him.” Mitch said sarcastically, laughing at me noticing how defensive I got once seeing his name. Finally, the call stopped, and the sound seized.

I began walking away from the table to sit on the couch when the vibrating started once again. His name playing across the top of the screen just like it did moments ago.

“Dude, why are you so bothered? They’re still friends you know.” Mitch accused bumping into me as he retreated to the couch.

“I’m not bothered.” I spoke shrugging my shoulders to seem unphased, moving away from the table to sit next to Mitch.

“That’s not what your water bottle is saying.” He teased, I looked down at my hand that was clenching my water bottle to the point it would probably pop soon. I eased my grip and took a breath to calm myself. I couldn’t even explain why I was so bothered. I know y/n wouldn’t go back to him. He lives in Europe now. Maybe it was just the years of jealousy building up.

Suddenly a loud clash of thunder sounded from the outside scaring both Mitch and I. We then turned to each other with wide eyes realizing the girls were still outside. Soon after the sound of rain began tapping on the windows and balcony outside. Both of us ran out onto the covered part of the balcony to see the dock in the distance and make sure they were all okay. We had a sigh of relief once seeing they were all frolicking in the rain towards the house, clearly enjoying the rain way more than they should have been. Matt showed up behind us shortly after hearing the thunder as well and worrying about Sydney.

“So, we all agree not to let them do that again, right?” Matt said while looking out at the storm that was approaching. Mitch and I nodded our heads before going to get towels to dry them off once they came in.

They eventually stumbled into the house soaking wet, still laughing from how much fun it apparently was. I was happy to see y/n smiling and laughing but if they could do that while not out in a storm, that’d be better.

“Glad you’re ok.” I whispered draping the towel around her shoulders.

“It’s just a little rain. The storm won’t hit for another half hour.” She argued. She then started shivering and her teeth chattered due to the air conditioning in the house since she was soaking wet, so I definitely needed to get her warm.

~ Your POV ~

At first you didn’t notice but the whole house felt like an ice box once you stepped in. Normally you wouldn’t feel the breeze from the vents but now it felt as if you were on top of a mountain. You tried to hide your shivers, but your jaw and shoulders couldn’t help but jitter.

“Come on, let’s get you warmed up.” Auston stated guiding you to your room. You could tell he had obviously been nervous thinking the storm was a lot closer than it actually was, but it made you feel good that he cared.

You stepped into the bathroom alone to change your clothes and dry off. You figured you’d let your hair air dry and hung the towel up over the shower curtain pole also to dry. After finishing up you walked back into the bedroom and saw Auston sitting on the side of your bed, with concern still written all over his face.

“Oh, come on, there’s no way a little rain and thunder scared you that bad.” You laughed, placing your hands on his shoulders to steady yourself as you climbed onto the bed to straddle his lap. His arms immediately wrapped around your waist to hold you secure onto him. His face pulled into a smirk admiring your presence, but you could see there was something still bothering him.

“What’s wrong?” You whispered, not needing to speak loudly with the small amount of space separating you two. You could see in his eyes there was some sense of fear or doubt.

“I know it’s none of my business, you don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but do you still talk to Jack?” Auston questioned. Your face immediately tightened in confusion. You didn’t know why he would ask that or where it was coming from. The question didn’t bother you, sometimes you wondered about his ex too, you just had no idea why he was asking.

“He’ll text me and ask how I am every once in a while, but nothing more than that. I haven’t been responding at all this week.” You explained studying his facial features as you spoke. You noticed they relaxed once you answered.

“Why do you ask?” You continued. He looked down not wanting to make eye contact. You could tell he didn’t want to bring it up or talk about him, but he was curious.

“You left your phone on the table and he called a couple times. I was just wondering if that was normal or not. But I know you guys are still friends, I trust you. Curiosity just got to me.” He explained himself. His statement reminded you of the call he had made to you in the restaurant. He never called twice, and the one time he did it was to tell you he missed you. So, maybe it was a good thing you weren’t there to answer.

“Well trust me you don’t have to worry about him. He’s in a whole different continent doing busy and important things.” You admitted, leaning in to plant a kiss on his lips. You felt them pull into a smirk again after you made your accusation and your lips pressed against his. You could feel the stress ease off of him as the kiss lingered. His arms tightened behind you as it prolonged with him slipping his tongue between your lips.

His breath was becoming more steady and you could feel his heartbeat against your chest. Your fingertips rubbed the hair on his neck while the kiss continued. You completely forgot about Jack as the sounds of your mouths moving simultaneously filled the room and the touch of his warm body against yours rose goose bumps.

Another loud crash of thunder shook the house causing the two of you to get startled and break apart. You both giggled due to the scare, then you decided to hop off his lap to lay down on the bed. You patted the comforter next to you for him to lie down before resting your head on his chest and listening to the thunder storm until you fell asleep.

______________________________________

I hope you enjoyed this part, sorry it took so long! Drama is coming guys I can’t wait!!

#auston matthews #toronto maple leafs #nhl #hockey #imagine #au #fan fic #fan fiction #series #trust me series

[jwgammuto]

Raw Recap 2/11/19

Forgive me, lil Golden Fleece diapered Baby Jesus, for what I say. The go home Raw for Elimination Chamber is over and I have some things to say. Here’s The Good, The Bad, and the WTF: #FTR Edition.

The Good: It happened. It actually happened. Dash and Dawson are the Raw tag team champions and there’s a small chance the division might not be embarrassing for a few months. What an amazing match between these guys and Power and Glorious. Credit to Roode and Gable. I never liked the gimmick but they really gelled as a team while they had the titles. This was a match worthy of a PPV and almost made me forget about what i had watched from 8-1015. #TopGuys are back and this fan couldn’t be happier.

Rollins and Heyman square off on the mic. Paul always makes for a good segment but Seth really shines here as well. This was significantly better than if Lesnar had actually been there. The weird moment with Ambrose being a babyface again was unnecessary but who knows what the hell he’s doing since he’s leaving the company shortly. I will say this, I don’t want a cluster of run ins helping Rollins win. Let Seth win clean at Mania. Please.

Kevin Owens blasting the product and telling us he’ll be back in a month. Then throwing a gutter ball. A welcome addition to either show but Raw needs him. Too many heels on Smackdown.

Ruby Riott vs Nikki Cross. It wasn’t anything special but they did book this right. Ruby looked like a viable and vicious contender who can win without the Riott Squad. I hope she is allowed to have a great match with ArmbarCity Sunday.

The Bad: The crowd. Hot crowds make for better shows. It’s irrefutable. It’s why it’s so damn important to kick off the show well so the ticket holders are engaged from the jump. Grand Rapids, Michigan, you failed us. Granted they watched a lot of trash that we’re about to get into, but they could have done something. It felt like everyone was tweeting about the badness rather than watching it.

Dean Ambrose vs EC3. It took exactly two weeks for them to make EC3 irrelevant. Now he’s 1-1 against the same dude, who coincidentally also has no creative direction, and he STILL hasn’t said a word. Can it be salvaged? Sure. Turn him heel. Will they? Of course not.

Triple threat ladies tag match to determine EC order. Hey look. Another potential tease for a Bayley/Banks split. I think I’ll wet my pants. Two straight weeks, Banks has left Bayley on an island to defend herself alone due to “injury”. While Bayley has made the best of this and looked pretty damn good and capable in the ring, it has this feel as though it’s going to be another long dragged out “will they/won’t they fight” program that never pays off. Ugh. Also, I want Nia and Tamina to lose at EC as much as I wanted the Revival to win the titles. I guess that means they’re doing their job. Logan and Morgan don’t get enough credit for their ring work because they’re always losing but watch them. Not bad stuff by any means.

The WTF: Balor Club, Beardy Ryback, and Our Aging Olympic Hero vs Black Chris Masters, 1/3 of 3MB, and the current champion of cheap heat, Baron Corbin. Remember when Vince, Steph, and Trips told us we were in charge and we’d be getting fresh matchups and better programming? Pepperidge Farm remembers. The roster is crowded. I get it. But all 6 of these guys have nothing to do of interest so they’re stuck in a cycle of fighting each other and it’s just awful now. And worse, the IC title is starting to have that US title stench of uselessness. Has Lashley defended it yet? He will Sunday....finally. McIntyre is rapidly losing momentum and assuming Rollins wins the title in April, they better have Drew first in line or he may have to actually reform 3MB. This match was a cluster and had to be restarted. Everything about it was sub par. Nobody looked great. Even Balor eventually winning was meh. Although he did jump halfway across the ring for The Coup de Gras. That’s always fun.

Elias vs Guadalajara with party llama in tow. A disturbing recent trend is the company forcing turns and reactions rather than allowing them to happen organically. Elias can be a great heel just by cutting promos. He’s done it before. The interruptions are part of his Schtick and that’s fine, to a degree. It’s starting to get overdone and it’s hurting his character. Everything feels forced. Side note: Kalisto can actually play guitar and that was fun.

Vincent. Kennedy. McMahon. Clearly I’m not the only one watching Raw Replays from the Attitude Era in the evenings. The beauty of Becky Lynch’s rise in popularity was the fact that it was pretty organic. Similar to how Steve Austin did it. That’s where the parallels should have stopped though. It sure feels like they are doing much more to mold old Stone Cold roles into Lynch and I’m not loving it. The entire apology segment was weird but felt predictable right? She would opt for defiance and the HHH and Steph would make her life miserable until her peak triumph against insurmountable odds at Mania. Instead, they had Lynch apologize, albeit reluctantly. *Scratching head*. “That’s it?” Becky exclaims. Enter Vince, who still believes he’s the Mr McMahon of 1999. He suspends Lynch (which we all know won’t keep her off TV) and inserts his shiny new corporate puppet, Charlotte Flair, into the match. There’s a million reasons to hate this and none of them are because Charlotte doesn’t belong. Flair is perfectly capable of being a top heel without being a corporate stooge. Save that shit for Rollins/Orton/Corbin. A lot of people don’t like the idea of a triple threat at Mania for the Raw women’s title. I really don’t mind it, but this is a lazy and garbage way to set it up. For starters, it’s been done. Flair is the Heel Rock and Lynch is Austin. Oh yeah, and there’s the actual champion, who is becoming an after thought in this mess. Another concern is the Smackdown Women’s title. Who the hell is going to face Asuka at Mania? Mandy f**king Rose? She’s the only female heel with even close to enough heat on the show. This is a complete cluster and I have to believe there are differences in opinion at Titan Tower on how this should have been booked. Save us, HHH. Please.

This show was a general disaster and following a trend of piss poor go home Raw show for big events. I have tix for the go home Raw for Wrestlemania and based on this trend, I might be really drunk by 915. They really sucked me back in with the Revival’s win and then pooped in my cereal with that last segment. 2 Belt Whips because #TopGuys.

#WWE #WWE WWEraw ProWrestling Wrestling Raw #pro wrestling #wwe raw #raw #monday night raw

[new53]

changes to main canon

a comprehensive list 

last edited on 3/14/18

batfam:

bruce wayne: batman & the patriarch of the family. started this whole bat thing

stephanie wayne: the first batkid. adopted by bruce wayne at age 13 after directly aiding in the arrest of her dad. when steph started her senior year of high school, bruce died, causing her to be batman. she’s been spoiler & batman. 

jason todd: brought in at age 16 (a few months after steph was adopted) and became batboy. after discovering that he was the long-lost twin brother of cassandra cain, immediately started to reconnect & discover the truth of their parents. this crusade, unfortunately, led to the deaths of both jason & cass at the hands of the joker. 

cass cain: discovered a few weeks after jason todd was adopted and brought in, only to discover that she & jason were twins. she became batgirl & along with her brother, aimed to figure out who their parents were. she died before she could discover that it was shiva & cain. lady shiva teamed up with talia al ghul to bring cass back to life so cass could join the league of assassins and/or shadows, as she was the best fighter known to either woman. this backfired on them, and now cass roams gotham as the red hood, seeking revenge for her brother’s death & trying to have a healthy & functional relationship with her siblings & outlaws. 

damian wayne: the son of bruce wayne & talia al ghul. arrived at the manor shortly before the death of bruce. after bruce’s death insisted it was his destiny to be batman, then was given the role of nightwing. he’s been nightwing ever since. 

olive silverlock: brought in after damian started at gotham academy & sybil silverlock died. steph was batman at the time & it was her decision to invite olive to live with them. olive accepted and is now flamebird. 

duke thomas: after the mysterious disappearance of the second batboy, duke started the WE ARE BATBOY movement and was brought in by batman himself. for a while he trained and decided what he wanted to do, and was offered the spoiler mantle after steph took the batman role. after batman came back, steph offered to take batgirl up but duke offered her the spoiler role and he’s now the official batboy. 

superfam:

lois lane: sent to earth from kryton as a child and raised with the lanes, kala jor-el becomes superwoman after learning about her true heritage. kala--lois--is a reporter who turns down opportunities to write about superwoman day after day because she wants to write “real” news. 

kara zor-el: cousin of kala, kara was sent to earth to look after her cousin but knocked off course along the way. she landed when lois had already been superwoman for several years, but was quick to join up as supergirl. kara has been adopted by lois and in her civilian life goes by kara lane. 

conner lane: kon is lois’s clone. he initially started fighting crime as supergirl red, but once figuring out that he was a boy, became superboy instead. he lives with kara & lois in wayne manor, and goes to school with steph at gotham university

flashfam:

iris west-allen: after jumping in front of her friend barry before a bunch of chemicals got stuck on him, she was hit by lighting and granted with superspeed, becoming the flash. since then, she’s married barry, helped found the justice league, and is thinking about settling down (for a little while) to have kids (she knows it’s gonna happen sometime). for now, though, she’s decided to continue to be the flash and resist the urge to ask bart how pregnancies work if you have superspeed and your kids are going to, too. 

barry allen: the regular dude husband of iris. he loves his wife dearly and sometimes wishes he could help out, and has settled in the role of providing food for the speedsters all around him. turns out he makes a pretty good chef!

wally west: the nephew of iris who gained his powers by asking her, repeatedly and excitedly, how she got hers. after obtaining these powers, he proceeded to make himself a costume and go as KID FLASH. he fell ill due to puberty with super speed, but has since recovered and became another flash. barry & iris adopted him when he became kid flash

bart allen: a time traveler from the future, bart’s orgins are pretty much the same. he likes to hang out with the titans and cook with barry and play tag with wally (tag with speedsters is. fun.) he’s impulse.

avery ho: she got superspeed for reasons unknown to anyone just yet and was brought in by iris & wally. since she had perfectly able parents she wasn’t adopted but she was given the role of kid flash. now she helps iris or bart or wally and hangs out with the titans and goes to family dinners at the west-allen house. 

wonderfam:

diana trevor: wonder woman & an amazon warrior who’s hundreds of years old. she’s been on themescyra for years but has recently emerged after a pilot on the way to vietnam crashed landed on her island, leading her out to try and help resolve the conflicts. in doing so, she helped with the situation in the vietnam and helped found the justice league. she’s currently an ambassador who works for peace and tries to spend time with her husband.

steve trevor: the pilot who crash-landed on themescyra. he’s married to diana and has retired from the air force and now helps veterans and people with psd. he has a service dog named willy. 

donna trevor: the daughter of diana & steve & current wonder woman. she was adopted and gained amazonian powers after marching up to olympus and demanding them. she received them after completing some trials and feats, and she now defends the earth from supervillians while her mom defends the earth from the evil in regular people. 

cassie sandsmark: diana worked at a museum as a hobby and picked up cassie as a sidekick. the role was solidified when helena died in an explosion and donna managed to save cassie’s life. she took cassie in after discovering that cassie’s father is zeus and cassie became wonder girl after gaining her powers.   

canaryfam:

dinah lance: the head of the star city vigilantes, who were a ragtag bunch of kids with slingshots when she found them and adopted them and invited them to crash on her couch. 

connor lance: connor & his adopted sister mia were inspired by the crazy guy with the arrows who talked about some island or something, and they started to try and do arrows and whatever themselves. it failed at first, but now they have a cool mom and even more siblings. 

mia lance: she used to be a sex worker but connor & crazy arrow guy helped her get out of it, and then dinah adopted her and connor and they became the arrow canaries. which is kinda a dumb name but also kinda cool. sometimes mia looks out the window and wonders where the heck arrow guy went, but oh well. 

emiko queen-lance: emi escaped from her mom and went to star city hoping to find her brother after rumors of him being alive resurfaced, but instead got brought in by black canary and arrow canaries and red arrow and now she’s red arrow. go figure.

roy harper-lance: roy left the navajo reservation to get his hands on some drugs, but then he was kicked out for good and stuck on the streets, and then black canary showed up and decided to take him in, which is cool, and now he’s red canary and has to manage a bunch of random kids dinah thought it would be a good idea to adopt. which is fine. 

lanterns:

hal jordan: the first green lantern of earth, now a crotchety old man who lives in the city and shakes his fist at the teens and really wants some peace and quiet. the other human lanterns come visit him, at least one visit a week, and they’re saving up to buy him a plane (but shhh, don’t tell him)

alan scott: the second green lantern of earth and hal’s husband. they’re both retired and have both pretty much adopted the other human lanterns & like to ask them when they’re gonna have kids so alan and hal can have grandkids already. 

john stewart: [tbd]

guy gardner: [tbd]

kyle rayner: [tbd]

jessica cruz: she used to be the green lantern of earth, but now she’s the personal-representative/bodyguard of princess koriand’r of tamaran. that’s just how things go sometimes. jess and simon are in love but also great at communicating, so it’s okay if jess flirts back when kori does. 

simon baz: the only green lantern of sector 2814. he likes to defend earth and call jess and flirt with alien girls (or boys, depending) and check on kori’s kid for her. 

aquafam:

mera: the queen of the seas. she rules in atlantis and is much beloved in her kingdom. 

marella: aquawoman & the wife of mera. she does justice league stuff while mera rules over atlantis.

arthur curry: the husband of david hyde, who was devastated after his husband went evil. arthur is a human who lives by the sea in hawaii, and he resides there with his son. he’s a close friend of mera & marella and lets them stay with him if  they need to. 

jackson curry-hyde: when his second dad turned evil and returned to the sea was about when jackson discovered his own powers. turned out he was adopted from atlantis & is atlantean. he’s kind of a part-time aqualad who works with marella sometimes

dolphin: aquagirl! she’s marella & mera’s adopted daughter and she lives in the castle & works as aquagirl ! ! ! she loves her moms & they love her & she’s workin on learnin asl!

garth: he works for mera in the castle & is her apprentice in wizardry

catfam:

kate kane-kyle: after getting kicked out the army for being a big fat lesbian, kate was a little lost until she met selina kyle at an lgbt support fundrasier. it was pretty much love at first sight, and now they’re married and live in bludhaven.

selina kyle-kane: selina was already catwoman when she met kate, but after falling in love decided that maybe being a criminal wasn’t what she wanted to do. she revealed her identity to kate, and they decided to remake catwoman’s image in another town, so they moved to the sister city of budhaven, where both women became catwoman. 

harper row: right before leaving gotham, the kyle-kanes picked up harper & cullen on the streets. they adopted them and took them to bludhaven with them, and now harper is catgirl with her moms. 

cullen row: cullen lives with his moms and sister in bludhaven. he’s catboy and is constantly annoyed with the jokes harper likes to make about their household being split into bis and gays. he does like going to pride as the catfam, though. 

the clovers: claire and her brother hank were inspired by the cats and decided to become heroes themselves, due to a combination of claire’s ballet skills and hank’s wrestling skills. they were quite frankly awful at hero-ing, but selina felt bad for them and decided to train them. hank and claire moved in next door to the kyle-kanes and were all but adopted by selina & kate. claire is night and hank is shadow. 

the gordons:

jim gordon: he’s the comissioner of the gcpd. it’s the same thing as regular

barbara gordon: after babs was shot she became oracle, dragging her brother with her. they live in a crappy apartment in gotham together with babs’s niece, and babs is a librarian by day and oracle by night. she and dick operate outside of the bats’s sphere of vigilantes. 

dick grayson-gordon: gcpd cop under his dad by day, delphi by night and devoted father in the evenings, dick has it all. cute boyfriend, great sister, sweet kid, life couldn’t be better. 

mar’i grason-gordon: the daugher of dick & kori. she loves her dad(s) and she misses her mom, but she’s sure that her mom will come back soon, or they’ll invent intergalactic skype, one or the other. 

james gordon, jr: listen ill b honest idk a thing about him but he’s basically the same except he has an older brother and he resents dick cause he feels like dick took his place in the family that’s all i know 

the outlaws:

red hood needed some magic, so she sought out fellow outcast, raven. this escalated into them moving in together and falling in love. one day they sought out ravager for a laugh. this escalated into the three of them falling in love and causing trouble in gotham together. 

misc:

tim drake: after he quit being batboy and after the death of his father, tim retreated to titans tower to become the gatherer, a self-made hero who’s salty about the bats and in love with superboy. 

courtney whitmore: she discovered she was a she had powers when she moved to keystone. she started sneaking out and practicing with her powers, & when a aestroid almost fell on keystone, courtney slapped on a mask and stopped it with her bare hands. she took the star-gold from within the aestroid and with her beams of light fashioned them into a belt and staff, which helped her harness her powers. since then, she’s become stargirl and nowadays she likes to hang around gotham and flirt with spoiler (the OG one, not the duke one)

koriand’r: starfire crash-landed on earth, kissed the first police officer she saw, fell in love with him, and had a kid. now she’s in space with jessica cruz, negotiating peace on tamaran and flirting with green lantern, waiting to return home to her daughter. 

the kents: after clark & lana got married, they moved to metropolis for a fresh start. lana works at a florist shop & clark’s a reporter--the reporter who gets all the superwoman stories, actually. they have two daughters, carol and mia. mia, the younger of the two, is secretly a meta and she can fly. her dream is to be a superhero one day like her hero, superwoman. carol’s dream is for her sister to stay safe and for carol to grow up to be just as awesome as her hero, lois lane. 

kathy kent: she was sent down to earth after the destruction of her planet. after her grandfather died, she lived with lois for a time but then was adopted by clark & lana, who are normal enough to take proper care of her and loving enough to be good parents for her. she’s around mia’s age and loves her sisters and new parents. 

klarion the witch boy: he was sealed from his own dimension and stuck on earth for the time being. he’s currently rooming with steph and looking for ways to get back home, of course getting into trouble while he waits. 

zatanna and john: a week after zatanna ran away from her father, she ran into john and they started running together. they grew up on the run, weaving in and out of dimensions and trying to master magic. these days they help klarion or the justice league. neither of them are members of the jl but they are the primary resource on magic  (they’re also in love)

#PLEASE rb this #new53 #bruce wayne #stephanie brown #jason todd #cassandra cain #cass cain #damian wayne #olive silverlock #duke thomas #lois lane #kara zor-el #conner kent #iris west #barry allen #wally west #bart allen #diana prince #wonder woman #steve trevor #donna troy #cassie sandsmark #dinah lance #connor hawke #emiko queen #roy harper #hal jordan #john stewart #guy gardner #kyle rayner

[angel-gidget]

Stars Unearth Your Fires (ch2/?)

Title:  Stars Unearth Your Fires (Ch 2/?)

Fandom: DCU, Teen Titans, Red Robin (preboot)     

Rating:  PG  | Words: 1200 approx | a03 link    

Summary: Tim Drake never thought of himself as a troublemaker as far as Robins go. But a passing accusation quickly escalates into a case of stolen memories, technologically backwards clues from his past self, interdimensional hijinks, reflections on the good old days, and possibly the rekindling of a foregone romance. Eventually Tim/??? Mystery ship!

A/N: I ask that any fashion nerds reading this forgive me for my fake fashion week plot device. Lets just say the DCU has extra fashion weeks bc magic and leave it at that. Thanks again to @kiragecko for the beta!

"Wait, dude. Scrappy Doo hacked your diary?"

"It wasn't a diary, Kon. But, kinda."

"A lockable device on which you record your private thoughts you share with no one? Soundslikeadiary,man. Youshouldembraceit."

"I could repeat lectures verbatim from Diana about refusing to be shamed for traditionally feminine things that are actually emotionally reinforcing, but I think I'll spare you since you're not fooling anybody."

He could have come alone, but he had returned their texts on a whim, and when they had learned he was going to scavenge their old HQ at Happy Harbor... well, there was no stopping the remnant of Young Justice otherwise known as his best friends.

"It was more like a smartwatch jam packed with ridiculous hardware and old ipod levels of memory that I had filled with work reminders, but whatever."

Cassie and Bart had a point. But the truth was, the closest thing he really had to a diary was the dozens of hand-written letters he had written essentially screaming at his father. Letters he had tossed in the fire before he could be tempted to actually leave them where the (now dead, now lost) man could find them.

But some things remained too raw to share.

"Hey," Cassie was the first to touch her toe down on the threshold (Normally, Bart would beat her, but he had allowed himself to be a bit distracted, fully zipping around a couple laps to check out external changes).

Cassie started entering the old security codes without a hitch. She was not even thinking about it, and it gave Tim a tiny surprising warm fuzzy tingle in the chest, "Damian didn't use anything in it against you, did he? Trying to dig up crap on--"

Tim allowed himself a chuckle, "No. Assuming he did manage to read any of my entries, I would have paid money to watch him try to figure out what any of it meant."

"Oooh," Bart zipped back, and darned if he wasn’t talking faster and faster, allowing his own nostalgic excitement to kick in, "Did you write it in a code?"

"Sort of."

Kon was floating by the graffiti wall. It didn’t matter how many times they cleaned it, "Hanson Sucks" would always reappear as if by magic. Tim used to suspect Bart solely, but looking back, (and looking at Kon's face now) he suspected a little differently.  

The guy's grin has a bit of the ol' Kid when he glanced over his shoulder, "You didn't just write it in code, you wrote it in SLANG, didn't you. Yes, you did."

Tim snorted. But denied nothing. There was no point.

"Bet it was like 90% rap references."

"Ooh, don't underestimate Tim's eclectic-ness, Bart. There was no doubt a healthy dose of Enya lyrics entwined in there."

Bart's nose scrunched, "Enya? Seriously, Tim?"

"Hey," Cassie interjected, "I like Enya."

"You also like country music and boy bands dangerously similar to Hanson. It's okay, Cass. Weloveyouanyway."

The rules for Gotham and his team had always been different.  While clever hiding spaces had been a practically intellectual game in his home city, sometimes the trick to hiding something in YJ HQ was to just place it somewhere really dumb.

“The girl’s locker room, Rob? Really?”

“You never looked for any of my toys here, so clearly, it worked.”

The locker combination was Steph’s birthday. Something his teammates had no reason to know and something Batman and Nightwing might overlook. Or at least, they would have overlooked it back then. Maybe he should change it. Did it matter? Would he ever have cause to use this thing again? It was worth thinking about, but not something for just yet.

The lock released with an obnoxious clack and the door swung open with a creak. There were some things in his life that Tim kept meticulously clean, but no locker had ever been on the list. His crumpled extra Robin uniform tumbled out along with a collection of scratched CD’s, multi-sided dice, hand-drawn diagrams of team formations covered over by Bart’s doodling, and a cracked baseball bat.

At least his uniform had been through the wash before he stuffed it in there. Small favors from his former self. Tim carefully unrolled the Kevlar cape, tumbling his old wrist computer into his palm.

He would need to replace the battery. Specifically, remove the battery, and carefully charge it, then place it back into the device. He was not going to risk synching the thing—even to the old YJ mainframe—by plugging it into the computer directly. Maybe he was being paranoid. Hm. Not the worst thing to be.

“So…” Kon interrupted, “You gonna tell us what’s up?”

His first—heh—impulse was to be cryptic, but he swallowed it down. These were his friends.

“I was singled out by those Gatekeepers. I want to know why. When I checked the dates, I realized all of our computer records were compromised. I think… I think a more personal record might have escaped their notice.”

A moment of silence. He would have enjoyed the rarity of quiet in the old YJ cave of all things, but they were looking at him with a high-alert concern that was on the edge of tipping into horror.

“Woah. The bat-computers were compromised? Holy Hera, Tim.”

“DoyouthinkitwastheGatekeepers? You do. You totallythinkitwastheGatekeepers.”

Tim nodded, “Yeah. I do.”

“So what, man? You think they waved their triple-joined finger and just…?” Kon waved his own hand.

“Erased a week—maybe more—of events that happened while our reality was colliding with something outside of our own multiverse. And in a room with you, the Flashes, Booster Gold, and Guy Gardner; the person they expected to cause trouble was me.”

“And you can’t remember because they probably also erased our memories.” Cassie inferred.

Kon nodded until Tim’s earlier comment sank home, “Hey wait, whattaya mean ‘with me’?”

Bart giggled, “Oh, as if you don’t remember what you were like back then.”

Kon sighed as Bart and then Cassie joined in on ruffling his hair. They had to be fast. And reach up on their tip toes to do it. But Kon let them for a good half of a second.

“Ok. Point taken.”

The wait for the charger to hit green felt like an eternity. Plenty of time for the ambiance of the old cave to slip from nostalgia to haunting. Bart had opened up an entire closet of junk—chemicals, paint, mechanical insects—that he had apparently collected with Greta. Kon had dusted off Anita’s old masseuse table, only to find that no one was really in the mood to hop on it. Cassie found an old set of brass knuckles that belonged to Slo-bo, but quietly set them down when she noticed their discoloration was due to dried blood.

Nobody messed with the dusty arrows kept in hopeful little spaces. Nobody looked at the archer’s targets. At least, no one looked when others were looking.

Tim sighed and watched as Cassie floated around, fidgeting. He remembered how hard she had clung to the idea of Cissie returning to the hero life, terrified that her best friend would grow distant as a result. Tim had… been more optimistic. At the time.

He knew where their old friends were. He knew Greta Hayes was a freshman in college now. That they girl they had once called Secret had impressed the entire faculty of St. Elias with her ability to catch up and surpass academic basics. He knew that while she excelled in her math and science classes, she enjoyed the chaos and the friendships she found in her drama electives. He knew because her teachers kept good notes that were easy to hack.

He knew Anita took odd jobs to support the two tiny children that were her de-aged parents. She would put on her old Empress costume on occasion, when crime had the gaul to come to her doorstep, but lived quietly in Louisiana for the most part. Supergirl had been the last hero to come into contact with her, and told him all about it.

None of them had really had the chance to feel close to Ray, but Tim knew that didn’t make them special. Ray Terrill’s profile with the Justice League displayed a new team every year. He had run with reserve units, the JSA, Freedom Fighters, and more.

Then there was Cissie, Arrowette, the girl who took them by all by surprise once every few months as her face appeared on a cereal box, in an energy drink commercial, or on a motivational poster in a sporting goods store. Because nothing sold that stuff better than an Olympic archer who had looks as well as accuracy.

It wasn't a painful thing for Tim personally. Hell, there had been a time when he thought he was headed for a similar path, a time when he thought retirement for himself was a strong possibility, just a few years away. But he knew better now. And he knew that Bart always bought things with her name or her face on them, but didn't actually look at them. And that when Cassie heard her voice blaring from the TV, she would stare mournfully at an old number in her phone before putting it away unused. As much as they would wish otherwise, Cissie King-Jones had drifted away from them.

Not that Tim didn’t also fit the drifter profile to an extent. The thought hit him hard. He hadn’t been to the Tower in over a two months, but like a dog with a bone, the Titans had refused to let him stay out of touch. Even when Dick had the bright idea of sending Damian to the tower, to try to get him to interact with ‘younger’ heroes—because apparently Dick could’t be bothered to remember that he was sending an eleven year old to socialize with a crew that no longer possessed a member under the age of sixteen—his friends had reached out, insisting that Red Robin was the only Robin on their roster.

It was humbling, and it put a scratch in this throat and a watery heat behind his eyes that—

BEEP!

Charging complete.

Bart zipped toward the outlet, and hopped on his toes while waiting for Tim to unplug the device. He felt Conner and Cassie join in hovering behind him as he began to skim through the files. There was only one that matched what they were looking for, with its simple text repeated in the space-tab code.

R E M I N D E R S

Dig up 8th grade time capsule

Go 2 fashion show @ Hollywood Mall. Compare/Contrast costume

Be outside July 4th

Go 2 most romantic city on July 15th

“That’s it?” blurted Kon and Bart at once.

“Fashion show?” Cassie scratched her head.

Tim sighed, “I was watching out for key word triggers. I think.”

Bart frowned, “Like, if  you actually said anything close to what you meant, you were worried the Gatekeepers or whoever would notice and erase everything like they did with the Batcomputer?”

Tim nodded, “The ‘reminders’ are literally reminders. Straightforward intel would be too dangerous.”

“‘Cause God forbid your lil’ bitty bat-self actually tell your future self what was going on.” Kon huffed impatiently.

Cassie elbowed him in the ribs.

Kon hissed. “Sorry! Too dangerous. I get it.”

Cassie raised her brows and let it go. “So, what are you going to do?”

Tim shrugged, “Do what they tell me to and hope they help me remember, I guess.”

Bart looked up from his phone, “Better hope the ‘reminders’ don’t have to go in order, Tim.”

Tim winced, “Why?”

Cassie looked over Bart’s shoulder at his screen, “Because the only major summer fashion demonstration in California hits the runway in about 12 hours. Woah.”

Tim powered down the wrist tech. He didn’t like the idea of going out of order, but only two of the reminders had actual dates attached. At least he had opened the file right before July. Small favors.

“Fine. Mall first. Grab some food and rest and meet back with me in—“

“Only if you do,” Cassie’s eyes were narrowed.

“Yeah, man. No caffeinated all-nighters.”

“Kon and I will tuckyouinifwehaveto.”

Tim snorted, “Fine.

It messed with his plans, but if he was being honest, Cass was in town, and Steph had mentioned to Dick in the cave that she was done with her freshman comp essay. Red Robin wasn’t strictly necessary when Blackbat and Batgirl were around to help out.

He did his best to take it as the impromptu bit of fortune it was.

He didn’t let it hurt.

#stars unearth your fires #fanfic #gidgeblog #tim drake #the core four #core four #bart allen #cassie sandsmark #kon-el #conner kent #dc fic #dcu fic #red robin #wonder girl #kid flash #superboy #kiragecko