#Wally nightingale | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

shadowsndaisies · 7 months

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codename: nightingale - usual suspects

Reference: Young Justice Season 1 Episode 25

WC: 7.4k

synopsis: fuck cadmus tbh, robin needs to work on his timing, kaldur’s got birdy’s back, and roy finally gets what he wanted

main masterlist

codename: nightingale series masterlist

a/n: guys, there's only one more in the season after this. i cannot belive my little hyperfixation fic of pure self-indulgence has come this far. i love you all so much and your support means so much, especially when i know that i go months without posting but you all come back so excited with each update! xoxo

WASHINTON, D.C.December 30th, 09:16 EST

You were all in the Hall. The mega screen before you shows the official Justice League Induction and announcement playing on every news channel. Wally and Dick were standing on either side of you, and all of you had your eyes glued to the screen.

“The Justice League was formed for two reasons: first, as an acknowledgment that no single individual, no matter how powerful, can solve all the world's problems alone. And second, to uphold the values of truth, liberty, and justice,” Superman was making the announcement this year. Usually, it was him or Wonder Woman, seeing as the Bat didn’t exactly exude charming. “That, uh, last one's even in the name,” Superman muses, gaining a few laughs from the crowd before him. “These five heroes have sworn to uphold those values,” he continues, and the camera pans over Doctor Fate, Plastic Man, the Atom, Icon, and finally, Red Arrow.

Your lip quirks a bit as you stare at Roy. he had sent you a message this morning, reminding you that you could be standing with him today, but you had just laughed and mused that with how badly he’d wanted this, it’s surprising anyone else can stand up there with him, never mind you, who would undoubtedly steal the spotlight. You were happy for him, you were, but you were also bummed. You all had just gotten into a groove with Roy on the Team, even if it was only for a few missions, and once again, he was gone.

“You are watching live coverage of the Justice League's induction of its five newest members,” Cat Grant’s voice pulls your focus back to the News. “Looks like the entire League has shown up to welcome the new blood. Everyone from Batman to Captain Marvel!” she exclaims.

“I’m glad they didn't kick Billy out,” Wally decides, and you can’t help but nod. Dinah had mentioned briefly that there had been a chance he wouldn’t be. “And I love the fact there's a ten-year-old on the League,” he says, taking a bite of his apple.

Dick hangs his head, and you see Kaldur turn toward your redheaded best friend while the new girl, Raquel, turns to you all, “There is?” she asks.

You elbow Wally squarely between his ribs, and he hunches over, “Ow, Birdy!” he groans.

“Way to keep a secret, genius,” you scoff, glaring at him through your blacked-out lenses.

“Hey, she's on the Team now, right?” Wally defends, one arm rubbing at his side while he eats his apple.

“Is this going to be a regular thing, you just blurt out secrets whenever we get new people?” you ask.

Wally has the audacity to look affronted, “I don’t-“

“You told me about the Watchtower,” Zatanna cuts in before he can say anything else, and you snort.

Wally retorts by taking another bite of his apple and glaring at you.

Everyone’s attention shifts back to the screen, “Superman is now handing out official League membership cards starting with Doctor Fate…” You and Dick both step forward briefly to squeeze Zatanna’s shoulder in solidarity, something she smiles gently in response to, and you can feel the comfort she takes from the action in the seconds you’re touching. “…The Atom, Plastic Man, and Icon.”

“You know, I was the one who convinced Icon to become a hero in the first place. I should be celebrating with him, not hidden away in here!” Raquel complains, and you bite your lip to keep from laughing.

“Welcome to our world,” Kaldur laments.

“Well, I suppose there's an upside, too,” Raquel flirts as she eyes Kaldur. Quietly to Rob, you roll your eyes and fake a gag, which gets a silent chuckle out of him.

“Finally, Green Arrow welcomes his former protege, Speedy, now known as Red Arrow, to this roster of heroes,” Cat’s voice continues, but it’s quickly drowned out by your cheers.

“Way to go, Roy!” Wally shouts, pumping a fist in the air.

“At last, he has his wish,” Kaldur nods.

“Woohoo!” you exclaim, smiling at the screen. “The first of us to make it,” you breathe.

“No one'll call him a sidekick anymore,” Dick nods.

“Wait- Since when is being a sidekick a bad thing?” Raquel demands, and you can feel the twinge in the air. “You sidekicks were my inspiration.”

“Well, see, six months ago-“ Robin explains, but he’s quickly cut off when his communicator starts to beep.

You hover over his shoulder to look at what he’s looking at and can’t help but frown. In the background, however, you can hear as Cat Grant finishes her report, “So there you have it. The world's officially a safer place!”

There are tons of questions being shot out to Superman, who was still running the press conference.

“Looks like we can’t stay,” you announce, and everyone turns to you.

“We have a mission,” Robin tacks on, and the shift is evident as we all turn to the Zeta.

SMOKEY MOUNTAINS December 30, 10:48 EST

“Are you sure it's her? I mean, are you absolutely positive?” Artemis asks, and it’s easy to pick up on her anxiety in the enclosed space of the bioship.

After the alert, you quickly got to the cave and changed before loading onto the bioship. The alert in question had been about a Cheshire spotting. After everything that’s happened in the last few months, especially in Taipei and then again in Louisiana, catching her was a top priority for the team.

“See for yourself,” Robin says, displaying the details on the screens in the bioship.

“This is the security footage from the Asheville Regional Airport. Facial recognition confirms that's Jade Nguyen,” you explain, having witnessed the details when they first came through Robin’s wrist computer. “But you've seen her without her mask. What do you think?”

Artemis stares at the screen for a second before her lips tug down, “It's Jade. Cheshire,” she confirms.

“Agreed, but focus on what she carries,” Aqualad hints. “Is that the case you saw in New Orleans? The one that got away?” He asks.

Artemis’ eyes harden, and her jaw sets, “Yes.”

“Okay, I'm guessing from the mug shot that this Cheshire's the bad guy. But what's so important about that case?” Rocket asks.

You have to bite back the urge to say you mean other than the fact that we fumbled the ball and lost it? Luckily, Robin speaks up first.

“Remember the Injustice League?” he asks, pulling up a photo of your friends from the bayou.

“And their giant evil plants? Uh, yeah,” Rocket confirms.

“Evil and Nasty plants,” you mutter lowly, glaring at the photo.

“The Team and the League put them in prison, but their allies still scheme, and whatever is in that containment case seems important to their plans,” Aqualad explains.

“We had a chance to grab it in New Orleans, but someone-“ Wally tacks on, but you interrupt him with a glare that he seems to miss as he focuses on Artemis.

“But we screwed up,” you correct. It was a team mission and the team’s attitudes and environment that culminated in what had happened. You weren’t going to place the blame squarely on Artemis.

Wally’s eyes dart to you, and you quirk a brow challengingly. He, in turn, scoffs and turns back to face the front instead.

“Approaching Cheshire's jet,” M’gann announces.

Everyone’s focus turns to the front, but when you get close enough, you let out a low gasp, and a wave of shock rolls over everyone at the scene of the downed plane. The crash had evidently been rough, but it’s a sharp note of grief that hits you that has you turning to Artemis, who is resolutely not staring at the crash anymore.

“Looks like there were no survivors,” M’gann notes, and your lips tug down as you try to assess the scene from the air.

“We need to go down,” you decide.

“NG-“ Wally’s scoff has everyone turning to you for an explanation.

“We need to check the wreckage,” you state.

“Are you serious?” Rocket asks, eyebrows raised.

“Cheshire and the case are our responsibilities, we check the wreckage,” you affirm.

It’s quiet for a moment before Kaldur speaks up, “open the hatches,” he agrees, and Wally lets out a puff of air, shaking his head, but stands up regardless.

M’gann opens a few drop hatches for those who can’t fly while the rest go ahead.

Soon enough, you’re spread out through the crash, analyzing anything you could find and looking for any indication that Cheshire was still in the plane when it went down or the case itself.

“How come Homeland Security and the N.T.S.B. Aren't all over this?” KF shouts, asking anyone.

“Cheshire's ID was a League alert,” you answer from where you’re crouched near the front of the plane, grabbing the black box and tossing it to Rob.

“Authorities didn't pick it up, and her jet didn't follow its flight plan,” Robin supplied.

“Flew under the radar, literally,” you note, standing back up.

“The Watchtower auto-tracked the jet and recorded the crash,” Robin continued.

“Then why isn't the League here?” Rocket pressed.

“Because our Boy Wonder has hacking skills and arranged to get the alert first,” Zatanna smirked. “Well that, and because Nightingale said to make it so,” she teases, gaining an eye roll from you.

“And because Cheshire and that case represent our unfinished business,” Aqualad corrects.

Superboy moves another part of the plane before asking the question that everyone had been wondering, “Where are the bodies?”

“Here's one. And it is stunning….” a voice all but purrs, grabbing everyone’s attention.

You can’t tell if you’re relieved or annoyed that Cheshire is standing tall, all in one piece, but you’re positive that this was the best outcome you could’ve hoped for, at least you were until the next voice pipped up.

“I am flora, not fauna,” the voice begins, and your gaze shifts as you spot the camouflaged ninjas along the mountainside. “I am foliage, not trees,” it continues, and your gaze keeps moving up, counting the adversaries before stopping on the man in green. “What am I?” The Riddler possesses his question, and you spot Shimmer and Mammoth behind him, too. He snaps his fingers, and suddenly, pylons are popping up from under the snow, and you groan at the realization.

Within seconds everyone is trapped underneath a green dome, “Seriously? A trap? We’re idiots,” you huff, soft enough for only Dick to hear, and he just shakes his head.

“Come on, you can get this. I am shrubbery, not grass. What am I?” The Riddler urges. “I…

“Am bush,” Robin grits, and you don’t hold back the groan that escapes this time.

“Didn't you think we'd be tipped you were on Cheshire's trail?” Riddler asked. “We're tired of your interference, kiddies. This is the end game. Ordered from above and executed by their master strategist, moi.”

You can’t help but roll your eyes. There was something about Riddler that screamed Narcissistic Personality Disorder, but that could be something you picked up from Dinah’s files.

“Miss Martian, is everyone linked?” Aqualad asks, and the second you hear him, your hands reach back to your back holster, fingers wrapping around your escrima sticks. “Yes,” she confirms, and you make brief eye contact with Dick, tilting your head slightly to indicate a direction. He responds with the same small action in confirmation. “Go!” Aqualad orders, and everyone splits up.

Zatanna makes her move first while you and Dick rush up behind and around her, “Ekahs siht ebolgwons!” (shake this snowglobe) she chants. Within your pylon-ed dome, snow flurries, creating an excellent interference from any direct attack.

The rest of the team jumps into action, using the moment of surprise and confusion to take on the ninjas.

You’ve just knocked one down when Aqualad speaks up again, “Superboy, the pylons,” he orders, and you risk a glance toward your friend with the S.

“Working on it,” he announces out loud, and you focus back on the enemies before you.

“KF-- cradle?” you inquire as you run up, behind Wally. “Ready,” he confirms, turning and dropping down, proffering his hands.

You run up and, with no hesitation, step into Wally’s grip. He’s pushing your body up a second later, giving you enough air to wail your escrima sticks down on the underprepared shadow. It’s reassuring that Wally will always have your back, even in disagreements. As he falls, knocked out, you quickly scan the rest of the battle and manage to spot as Rocket gets hit.

“Rocket’s down, she needs an assist K, and we’ve got a Shadow two tiers up, with some sort of electric disk device, looks like fatherbox tech to me,” you inform the team.

Robin quickly gets up, knocks out the Shadow, and Kaldur moves for the disk. You almost move to help him when you spot a Shadow coming up behind him, but you see M’gann moving in. You turn back to take on another Shadow, this time with Dick at your back fighting his own, but you see it when Conner launches into the air. You’re waiting for gravity to start pulling him back, but it doesn’t.

“That’s impossible,” you note as you use the electricity feature on a Shadow, who then crumples at your feet.

Robin turns his head, and his eyes widen as he stares at what you are.

“SB, you're flying!” he gasps, and your eyes widen too when you catch him using heat vision a moment later.

In his rage, he seems to miss the results of his attack. Your gaze drops, and you can see the top of Artemis’ head.

“Avalanche!” you shout into the link, hoping she’d cleared out of the way in time. You really weren’t trying to relive the Arctic in the real world. It’s silent for a moment, and then your anxiety takes over, “ARTEMIS!” you’re screaming into the link. “I’m alright!” she confirms, and you let out a breath.

Rob taps your shoulder and gestures up to where Riddler’s still standing, and you nod. The two of you make your way up, targeting Shimmer and effectively knocking her out cold with a mix of a smoke grenade, Robin’s bola, and your well-aimed punch.

With Riddler’s focus on you and Rob, Zatanna floats behind him as the smoke clears, “Tekcajtiarts!” (straightjacket!) she announces, and Riddler’s suddenly restrained, unable to get free.

“No!” he shouts. “I am not the straightjacket type! I am strictly Belle Reve not Arkham!” Riddler argues.

Zatanna huffs out a, “Gag mih!” (gag him!) effectively silencing the Riddler's little tirade.

“Hey Rob, what is broken when you name it?” you ask, a shit-eating grin on your face as you crouch down beside Riddler, who only glares at you in return.

“Silence,” Robin smirks, earning Edward Nigma’s ire.

“Hguone htiw eht ebolgwons,” (enough with the snowglobe) Zatanna’s shout echos’s across the mountain, and suddenly the snow stops.

You all quickly work on the remaining pylons before loading the bioship with Nigma and the captured Shadows.

“Cheshire?” you ask out loud.

“Gone,” Artemis confirms.

“From you? Again?” Wally challenges. “That’s like the third-“

“Enough,” Kaldur cuts in quick. “We need to drop these prisoners off at Belle Reve and return to the Cave, I imagine, the League will want a debrief and an explanation.”

“I guess it’s a good thing, I got the case, though,” Artemis adds, and you can’t help but smile at her.

MOUNT JUSTICEDecember 30, 15:45 EST

You felt like he was staring right at you. Given the whiteouts of his mask, Batman could be glaring at any of you, “Tell me if this sounds familiar. You hacked League systems, disobeyed protocol, and endangered your lives,” he pauses.

You have to fight the wince when you catch Dinah’s eye. She’s standing behind Batman with Red Tornado and Martian Man-Hunter, and she’s got an eyebrow quirked as she stares straight at you.

“And your initiative resulted in the capture of three escaped felons proving Warden Strange runs Belle Reve as a cover for criminal activity…. Well done,” he affirms, and you let out a small breath, gaze darting over to Robin, who quirks his lips in a small smile, one you match.

“And then there's this,” he adds, forcing your attention back as he and Icon approach the case that Artemis had recovered, “Bio-technology integrated with some form of nano-circuitry.”

“Though I am unfamiliar with the species, the bio-component is clearly not of Earth,” Icon confirms.

“We'll take it to the Watchtower for further study,” Batman decides, and the Leaguers head back toward the Zeta.

Canary lingers before walking over to you, mostly everyone else disperses, but you can feel Wally and Kaldur behind you, and Dick’s still at your side.

“I get the feeling that this decision was not made on your own?” she inquires, staring at you.

“I have a team,” you reply loftily. “I don’t have to make these decisions on my own.”

“No, you don’t,” she smiles gently at you, running a hand across your cheek, and then turns to the boys, “and I’m glad to know you see it too.” She says nothing but offers you a pat on the shoulder and turns to the Zeta.

As soon as Canary and Icon zeta out, you turn to the team, shoulders set, “You realize we were set up,” your tone is even, despite the worrisome nature.

“Yes,” Aqualad confirms. “Cheshire and Riddler were tipped and ready for us.”

“They knew we were looking for her, specifically,” you point out, and you can’t help the way your gut swoops.

“Not the mole thing again,” Artemis groans, and your lips turn down. How was it that Roy got to move on, but you were still battling the same demon.

“Mole thing?” Rocket asks, concerned. “Again?”

“We had intel that there was a traitor on the Team,” Wally explains, tone resigned.

“Namely, Artemis, M'gann, or me,” Conner huffs, his bravado cutting through as he steps forward with clenched fists and levels a glare at you specifically.

“It is more complicated than that,” Kaldur argues, placing a hand on Conner’s shoulder.

“And we-“ you gesture between you and Kaldur “-never said that, we only tried to look into the claim to see if it were true,” you argue.

Conner scoffs and shoves Kaldur’s hand away, turning to leave, “But your recent behavior does concern me,” Kaldur adds, following after him. “Your attack on Mammoth nearly got Artemis killed.”

Conner doesn’t respond, though he does stop for a moment. When he winces, your brow furrows, “Conner?” you call cautiously.

“There’s something I need to do,” Conner says, turning back to face you, but his tone is wholly different. “Something I need to tell you,” he admits, and you shift as you pick up the unease of everyone in the room. “Last month, on Thanksgiving, I went back to CADMUS and found a few things out.” Your eye twitches slightly at the mention of CADMUS, but you fight to keep your expression neutral. “When I was cloned, only half the DNA was Superman’s. The other half was human,” he admits, and there’s a shift from everyone else. “That's why I don't have, will never have, full Kryptonian powers.”

Your brow furrows, thinking about what you’d seen today, “You sure? Because you sure seemed to have them today,” Robin teases, voicing your thoughts.

“I've been using these,” Conner says, pulling up his sleeve and showing a patch, “Shields. They suppress my human DNA. I get the flight, the heat-vision, but I think I also get angry. Well, angrier… I’m… sorry,” he explains and only one question comes to mind.

“Conner, where did you get those?” you ask, voice lethal.

Conner winces at the question and your tone but meets your gaze. There’s an honesty there that hasn’t existed in a while, a calmness that stems from finally unloading the truth, “From my human father… Lex Luthor.”

There’s an audible intake of breath from someone behind you, and everyone’s eyes are blowing wide, but you? You’re fuming because if Lex Luthor had that much reach, it meant he must have been the silent bankroller for CADMUS, which in turn means Lex Luthor was responsible for the death of your parents, and that? That was not something you’d be letting go of, not now, not ever.

“Lex Luthor, is your dad?” Dick asks. The surprise is evident, and if not for the topic, it would’ve been a moment to commemorate, catching the Boy Wonder off guard.

“He's summoned me to Santa Prisca,” Conner continues.

The silence is deafening. Your shoulders tense as you try to gather your thoughts, and as you open your mouth to say something about Conner’s decision to keep these things secret, Artemis speaks up.

“Ahhh, listen,” she sighs. “Superboy’s not the only one suffering from bad DNA,” she admits, and you tense further, turning to look at the blond. She pulls up three IDs on the holo-computer before beginning. “My mother is Huntress, an ex-con. The rest of my family aren't even ex. My dad's Sportsmaster, and he's sending my sister, Cheshire, to fly me to Santa Prisca, too.”

You gape at the screen, but it all makes sense: her need to prove something, her secrets, her mother’s desperation, even the reason why Cheshire always seemed to escape when up against Artemis.

“That's why-“ Wally’s voice cracks, and you’re hit with a wave of understanding and regret from the speedster as he stares at the archer.

“Yeah,” she mutters. “I was so desperate to make sure none of you found out. “

“I knew you weren’t GAs niece, but-“ you mumble but stop as eyes shift to you.

“I knew,” Dick negates, and Artemis’ eyes blow wide, and you can’t help but gape at him. “Hey, I'm a detective!” he defends but quirks a smile, “But it never mattered. You aren't your family. You're one of us,” he reminds her.

“You always have been,” you manage to choke out, “nothing to prove,” you remind her, and you can see how the tension melts away from her.

Wally pushes forward and stops beside her. He hesitates on what to say but eventually settles for a small smile, propping an arm on her shoulder and jokingly asking, “So who's next?”

“I am,” comes the somber response from M’gann, and for the first time since the start of these revelations, you watch as she seems to curl up into herself.

“I swear I was kidding,” Wally says desperately, hands up in surrender.

“Queen Bee's been blackmailing me. She wants me in Santa Prisca too,” she admits.

“Blackmailing?” Kaldur repeats as if he hadn’t heard her correctly.

“How?” you press. Your voice is rough, and you notice how M’gann’s not the only one to flinch at it.

“She knows my… true… Martian form,” M’gann admits, but the way she says it makes it seem heavier than your first instinct.

“Bald M'gann? Who cares if-“ Robin wants to make a joke, to lighten the mood, but M’gann cuts him off, and before she shifts, you know why: Bald M’gann had been another cover for a secret she hadn’t been ready to share.

“No,” she interrupts, taking a deep breath before shifting.

If you thought the reactions to Luthor being Conner’s human dad were extreme, it was nothing to how almost everyone reacted to M’gann’s true form. She stood before you, a towering creature, a White Martian. While your information was limited, you had enough to assemble a theory.

You fought not to react, to stand firm and impassive beside Kaldur, just as he did. The only other person not to react was Conner.

There’s a whispered “woah” from Rocket as everyone else releases startled gasps.

“I realized you would never accept me if you saw what I really am,” M’gann tells us, and you ache for her. You struggled sometimes balancing Nightingale and (y/n) Roxo. You couldn’t imagine having kept your true self a secret from everyone, having no one to turn to. It had to have been incredibly draining and lonely… so lonely. Your anger was fading with each revelation, but there was one point where you were still stuck.

“M’gann, did we truly seem so shallow?” Kaldur inquires, and though he sounds the same, you can hear the hurt in his words, the edge you recognize as him questioning his abilities in setting the tone of his leadership.

M’gann crosses her arms, her gaze cast down. Dinah called that stance protecting by avoidance, “I couldn't take a chance,” M’gann admits. “Being a white Martian among the green on Mars, I endured constant rejection….I couldn't face that from-“

“From me?” Conner asks, carefully stepping forward and taking her hand.

The way they stare at each other is enough to tell that they are now having a more private conversation. Dick takes the opportunity to grab your shoulder, forcing you to turn to him, Kaldur doing the same.

“Now might be a good time for anyone else to share secrets regarding CADMUS,” he hints, and your lips part- he hadn’t even bothered to whisper.

“What are you talking about?” Zatanna’s question echoes from behind him, but you standing stock still, staring at him.

“You must be joking,” you hiss as you shrug out of Dick’s grip.

“C’mon, Birdy,” he urges, and you feel Kaldur’s hand on your shoulder.

You shrug off Kaldur, too, before spinning on your heel, pushing past Artemis and Wally and to the computer. Your hands shake a bit while you type, but you pull up everything you have; the news article about your parent’s death, the report on your blood from Dinah and Bruce, and the readings on the genomorphs at CADMUS. You take a deep breath before turning back to everyone now looking at you and at everything you’ve pulled up, eyes jumping between each article and report.

You sniff before reaching into a compartment of your belt and pulling out a mask adhesive dissolution wipe. When you start pulling at your mask, there are a few wide eyes, and when your glare lands on Robin, all he does is smile in return.

“My name is (y/n) Roxo, and when I was six years old, I witnessed the murder of my parents,” you begin. Everyone but Kaldur and Robin focus on you with lips parted and wide eyes. “They were Wayne Enterprises scientists, brilliant actually. They noticed some discrepancies with a project in the labs, cover-ups, and false reports. One had to do with an instance when I was in their lab and was accidentally exposed to whatever the project had been focused on,” You begin. “When we went to CADMUS on the Fourth of July, something about the genomorphs seemed familiar. I later discovered that’s because when I was young, I was exposed to a replication of their abilities, the beginnings of the research that led to the cloning capabilities. It’s what gave me the empath abilities and why J’onn thinks I could manifest further powers, just like the genomorphs have,” you explain.

“Which is why you looked like you were about to whip out some kryptonite when SB here said Luthor was his dad,” Artemis pieced, gaze jumping toward you and Conner. “Because CADMUS-“

“Because CADMUS is his project, and he funded, orchestrated- he was responsible for my parents murder,” you affirm, eyes meeting Conner’s.

“Holy shit,” Wally mumbled, and you couldn’t help but agree.

Conner was staring straight at you despite how focused he had been on M’gann only moments before. His blue eyes were wide as he stared straight at you, his lips parted but closed, and then his expression shifted as he took in the rage in your eyes and again when he saw the hurt. His shoulders sag slightly, and he slowly takes steps forward until he is right in front of you.

“I- I’m so sorry, Bir- (y/n),” he stutters over your name for a second, and you want to hold onto the anger. You want to be mad at him, but his eyes are so open and honest with you right now, and you’re reminded of the Conner who saved you from Cadmus back in July, the one who wanted to do good, to be good.

“It’s not okay, but I don’t… I don’t blame you,” the fact that your blame fell squarely on Lex Luthor went without saying.

He offers a curt nod, “a problem for later?” he adds quietly, and you give a silent nod in affirmation.

“So uh.. I know I’m new, but what now?” Rocket asked, and everyone’s eyes jumped from person to person, waiting for someone to speak up.

“We know that CADMUS has played a much larger role than any of us anticipated when we began this team six months ago, and we know that Superboy, Artemis, and Miss Martian are all expected at Santa Prisca,” Kaldur begins, and everyone’s attention shifts to him. “So we go as a team. Prepared for whatever they may throw at us. The backroom deals and secret alliances end today.”

SANTA PRISCADecember 30, 17:57 ECT

“Superboy’s about to make contact,” M’gann’s voice echoes as everyone focuses on the exchange.

You and Robin were in the bioship with M’gann. At the same time, Kaldur, Wally, Rocket, and Zatanna had taken discreet positions on the island, each of you waiting for the call.

You could feel Robin staring at the back of your head, but you ignored him instead of focusing on what was happening on the ground below you.

“Welcome, Superboy,” Lex Luthor’s voice sets you on edge the second you hear it. Still, you force yourself to watch as Suberboy dismounts the Supercycle. “I'd like to introduce you to my associate, Queen Bee.”

Even though it was expected, your heart begins to speed up a bit in reaction to the developments, “My pleasure,” she greets.

“I believe you know everyone else. Sportsmaster, Mercy, Blockbuster. And our new friend Bane, who's allowed us use of his island in exchange for certain considerations,” Luthor introduces as everyone around him steps forward.

“No one wanted to listen when I said following Bane was a bad idea, and here we are,” you huff into the link, but the rest are silent.

“So the Injustice League was just a distraction. You two have been behind everything from the start,” Conner surmises, painting his expression with shock.

“Heh, a flattering notion, son, but we have many friends,” Luthor sidesteps, and your skin crawls at the way he calls SB son.

“This one of your friends now?” Conner asks as a helicopter begins to approach and then as it lands.

“No, my boy,” Luthor smirks. “One of yours.”

Conner glares at the copter until the door slides open, “Artemis?” the name rings out with a tone of shock, and you roll your shoulders, trying to force yourself to relax.

To her credit, she plays her role well, “The hero thing wasn't working out. You get how it is. No trust,” she scoffs, seemingly indifferent to the developments around her. “This is where I belong,” she adds, and you flinch.

“You’re up, Miss M,” you announce, and she backs the bioship up a bit, making a circle around the island and de-camouflaging the bioship before parking it in the air above the group.

“It's a fast-growing club,” Queen B announces as M’gann descends to the ground.

You reach for the rope, securing yourself to the repeller in preparation for when you’ll all be making your move.

“So… you’re just going to ignore me?” he asks cautiously.

Your glare sharpens in his direction, but it’s difficult to make out with your mask back.

“I know you’re upset that I-“

“Upset? Dick, I’m furious, you pushed me into revealing things they didn’t need to know! Things I trusted you enough to share about, privately!”

“They needed to know!” he argues. “(y/n) you consistently come to the rescue, you throw your life on the line for us, you did it in the Bayou, you did it for Wally in Seattle, you did it last week for me in the Circus. You do it all the time, because you know these things about everyone, you know when they need the support, but no one- outside of Kaldur and I, even had the slightest inclination. They needed to know, because today is more than the conspiracy of the last six months. Today could be the end, of it all, for you. Today could be the answers you’ve been looking for since Dinah took you in.”

“It wasn’t your call to make,” you hiss.

“No, it wasn’t. But this team fights better, fights stronger, when it’s united, and you’ve always been able to make us get our shit together better than anyone else can,” he sighs.

You glare at him but refuse to respond, and his shoulders drop.

“Why are they here?” M’gann’s startled gasp forces you both to look back to the ground from your spots within the ship. “You promised!” she cries.

“I’ve kept your secret and my promise,” Queen B argues, tone deadly. “Now, you keep yours,” when M’gann ducks her head, the monarch smirks, “Good girl.”

“Give me more shields, and I'm in, too,” Conner decides, and your lips twitch down. Espionage was not his forte.

Luthor walks closer and stares at Conner briefly before smirking, “My boy, you're a terrible liar.”

Conner’s eyes blow wide before winding back for an attack. However, before he can, Luthor plays his card, “Red Sun.”

Conner does well with his role. His entire body relaxes, face falling flat, arms hanging limply at his side as he stands straight with a muted expression, staring at Luthor.

“What do you want us to do?” Artemis asks, stepping forward, prodding the meeting along.

Luthor nods his head once, and Sportsmaster gestures to Artemis and M’gann. “You two, follow me.”

“What about Superboy?” M’gann asks, eyes sliding to Queen B.

“He'll be fine. He simply requires a few adjustments…” she trails off.

Everyone but Superboy begins to follow after Sportsmaster, “Bring him along,” Luthor orders, and Blockbuster moves toward Conner.

Your breath catches as you wait to see what happens. You’d all agreed that it’d be Artemis, M’gann, or Conner’s call on when to move, given they were the three in the thick of it. So when Artemis starts running forward, bow in hand before shooting at Blockbuster, trapping him for the moment, before turning around and aiming at her father.

“Sorry, Dad. Wanted to play you like you tried to play me but I can't let them mess with Superboy's head!” she shouted.

“M'gann, be a dear and take Artemis down,” Queen B orders.

You look at Rob as you both step up to the drop-hole.

You let out an audible groan as you stare at the boy across from you, “After,” is all you say.

He nods in affirmation, “milkshakes?” and you nod in agreement.

M’gann lifts Artemis in the air but then uses the distraction to fling Queen B backward and into a tree. She falls to the ground unconscious, and you wait for the verbal confirmation. Artemis shoots a shot at her dad, and then M’gann lets her down.

“Queen Bee is down,” M’gann confirms. “Superboy, you're safe from her control.”

"I may not be much of a liar, but I fooled you,” Conner announced as he approached Luthor.

“And I'm so proud,” Lex states sarcastically. “I take it Miss Martian cleaned Red Sun from your mind?”

“And confirmed Nightingale, Aqualad, Robin and Kid Flash rescued me from Cadmus before you had time to install any other programming,” Conner shoots back.

Luthor sighs, “All true. Personally, I blame Dr. Desmond.”

As if verbally queued, Blockbuster frees himself from Artemis’ trap, charging at Superboy.

You observe as Bane’s goons start engaging, and the supercycle quickly lays down cover fire while SB gets busy with Blockbuster.

Artemis and M’gann alternate between defense and offense until, “Guys, reinforcement time,” the blonde calls.

Rocket and Wally are the first two to make it to everyone, and you glance at Rob, “Ready?”

“Go,” he confirms, and you both drop-down, trusting the rope and the bioship as you go. You yank the stop when you’re only a few feet off the ground, and both you and Robin stop abruptly before releasing yourselves, dropping to the ground and landing agilely on your feet.

You take a second to scan your surroundings. You spot Kaldur facing off with Luthor and his assistant, an unconscious Queen B in his arms. You turn instead to take on some of the goons. You and Rob were methodical in knocking down person after person, you hear the cocking of a gun behind you, and you turn with wide eyes,

“Ekoms dna srorrim!” (smoke and mirrors!) Zatanna chants and the gun turns to smoke, which then turns into a giant serpent, winding its way around the goon’s body. “Egnahc ekans otni sgnidnib!” (change snake into bindings); she continues, and the snake becomes a rope.

You’re frozen in surprise for a second, but that’s knocked away when Bane appears and charges at Robin, Zatanna, and you simultaneously.

“Shit!” you manage to grit out in surprise.

Your hands start moving blindly, a hand going to your hip where your grapple is. You quickly twist the cord out of the gun before whipping it and your arm out to the side in an arc. The tensile strength of the cable is enough to stop Bane as he falls forward with the three of you.

You and Rob push him off and to the side. Robin covers you while you quickly peek at Zatanna, who seems knocked out. You look up in time to see Bane get back up and start fighting with Robin. You're on your feet when he gets pushed back, facing off against Bane.

“Hola Chicita, it’s been some time,” he teases, head tilting down at you.

“Not nearly long enough, Bane,” you huff.

“Etaerc Elagnithgin Snoisulli!” (create nightingale illusions) Zatanna’s rushed chant whips through you, and you can feel the prickle of her magic as it washes over you, and suddenly, there are dozens of you all facing Bane.

Bane’s surprise is visible as he scans each and every duplicate of you. "Gotta love an army of NG,” Rob smirks as he pushes himself up.

You smirk in return and pull out your ring daggers, several duplicates doing the same or arming themselves with escrima sticks and marble bombs before you’re all running at Bane. He gets distracted by the ones jumping up at him directly and misses when the true you slip around him with one of your blades out. You cut through his tubes of Venom, weakening him. Then you turn with an escrima stick crackling with electricity and plant it firmly at the base of his neck, watching with satisfaction as it brings him to his knees and then as he collapses.

You pull back, and with the moment you have, you take in a deep lungful of air, finally able to breathe. As you look around, you realize the fighting has stopped. Artemis and KF are standing by an unconscious and tar-trapped Sportsmaster. Superboy, Miss M, and Rocket are posted up by Blockbuster. You stare down at Bane as you realize who isn’t still here, and Robin joins you a second later.

“NG?” his voice is hesitant, as he notices how you’re gripping your escrima stick and dagger, your body tense, as you stare at Bane.

“He got away,” your voice cracks as you say it, and your fists clench tighter. "Luthor-"

When Robin touches your shoulder, you both recoil quickly; his lips part as he stares at you and his hand.

“I.. I felt-“

“I’m sorry,” you whisper, tugging on all the strings threatening to burst free, trying to cram your emotions back in their place to keep them from leaking out and affecting everyone around you. You drop your weaponry, hugging yourself as you try to compact your feelings.

A different hand lands on your shoulder. When you turn your head, you see Kaldur beside you. You can feel yourself unraveling just as fast as you attempt to stuff it all down.

“Stop,” you say as you attempt to shrug him off.

“It is okay to feel angry, my friend,” he reminds you, eyes burning with the same rage you feel, and you know in that second that it is the same rage, it is your rage, that he’s taking it on, for you.

“Kaldur, stop, that’s not- you shouldn’t-“ you huff, but with each move back, he follows, until suddenly he’s holding you in a tight hug, and you can’t move anymore. “Stop,” you beg, gripping on to his arms.

“Allow us to help, epitrépste mou na sikóso aftó to város. stiríxou páno mou, chrisimopoíise ti dýnamí mou, méchri na anaktíseis ti dikí sou. Eímai statherós, paliós fílos. (let me carry this burden. lean on me, use my strength, until you regain your own. I am steady, old friend).”

His words wash over you, and you finally do that. You stop pushing against the bits that are bleeding. You can feel Kaldur stiffen when he finally feels the whole barrage of your emotions, but quickly, he tightens his hold on you. When tears start to fall from both of you, all you can do is sag into him in relief.

“Den eínai díkaio. Xéfyge. Tha éprepe na eínai edó. Tha éprepe na logodotísei gia ta enklímatá tou, ton rólo tou. Échoun fýgei kai eínai exaitías tou. Eímai tóso kourasménos kai tóso thymoménos, to niótho óli tin óra kai prospathó tóso sklirá na min to afíso éxo. Allá giatí eínai eléftheros?” (It's not fair. He got away. He should be here. He should have to answer for his crimes, his role. They're gone and it’s because of him. I am so tired and so angry, I feel it all the time, and I try so hard not to let it out. But why does he get to be free?) the words tumble from your lips in sobs of atlantean.

Part of the truth you’re admitting was too raw to admit to everyone else, none of the sidekicks had ever seen your anger, your rage— Kaldur had. Kaldur was the one who he lped you learn how to manage it. He was the one who taught you, the one who showed you how to channel it into something better.

“Thýmose, Poulí, tha diatiríso tin isorropía kai gia tous dýo,” (Be angry, Bird, I will maintain the balance for us both) he answers, his voice as calm as ever, and you can’t help but marvel at him, how he can hold your anger, your hurt, your rage, but present as calm, and keep it from seeping out when you can’t do anything but make a mess.

You know the team’s watching. You know they’re concerned and want to tell them it’s okay, that you’re okay, but you’re not. You know that. Dinah would know what to say and how to tell the team that they did a good job and that they should enjoy the win, but you can’t. You can’t tell them that you can’t enjoy it, not when the mastermind of it all managed to escape.

Quietly, Kaldur helps you back onto the Bioship. Vaguely, you hear the conversations happening around you.

“It is always like this,” Rocket scoffs, dropping into her seat.

“Told you,” Wally chimes, but you can feel his gaze on you.

“Hey, disaster averted. Feeling the aster,” Robin muses as he settles next to you but keeps a distance.

“Agreed, this has been a good day,” Kaldur nods, fists clenched as he turns to you, “but it is not the end.”

“No,” you ground out in confirmation, and you can feel the promise in his words, “it’s not.”

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adhdslugcrimes · 1 year

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Your Nightingale au (giving some old aus so much needed love)

Wally: I'm literally the embodiment of sloth, laziness, what the fuck did they feed you that makes my presence immune to you? Hm?

Dick: the consent dread of failure and perfection.

Wally:

Wally: fuck my job, we're getting you so help. *Grabbing a few things* boss man what's me to kill you but fuck me you're already doing that yourself.

#dick grayson #wally west #birdflash #your nightingale au #deadly sin sloth!wally #wally was supposed to kill him but Dick's already ahead on him on that #wally: fuck man you live like this constantly?

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th3sp4rr0w · 6 days

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A03 Link <- Starts at Chapter/Day One for those just joining us :)) Performance Piece <- The link to just the one-shot for those interested

Tw's; Bulimia, purging, vomit/vomiting, past rape/non-con mention (squint and you'll miss it tho)

Summery; When you're a performer at heart, it's hard to tell where the show stops and you begin. This can be tricky; especially when you need help.

Performance Piece under the cut :)

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

It had been the smoke from the fire burning like a raging inferno that had been the worst. The thick smoke filled the air, obscuring his vision and choking his lungs. Was that why he’d been too late?

It had been his fault from the beginning. It was like he’d forgotten everything having to do with crisis management. He was Nightwing, for fuck’s sake; he’d been Robin before that. He was supposed to be the symbol that soothed victims, the very being supposed to keep you safe from things that go bump in the night. He should’ve known better; that was a mistake Bruce should’ve been making. He should’ve known better.

The rain pounded on the window, setting him on edge. His skin itched with the urge to go back out, rocking back and forth in a desperate attempt to self-soothe. If he’d been a better man, he’d probably be suiting up to find the literal children that had been kidnapped by some unknown government hacks; as it was, he sat on the couch in his dirty apartment. For what? Because he was scared of a phantom-

A sharp breath. Bile in the back of his throat and burned. It almost felt good, grounding. What was he again? It had been so long-

It’d only been three days since the last one. Not enough time. It hardly seemed to matter.

Before he could blink, he was up. By passing the prepackaged fruits and protein bars, he reached into the back of the cabinet. The one Wally knew not to touch. What was it they called him? “Fearless leader”?

He scoffed as he shoved a mouthful of dry cereal down his throat, barely chewing and certainly not tasting. If only they knew how weak he truly was. If only Batman knew how fucking weak he truly was.

“You truly are the strongest among us, Dickie. I’m proud of you.”

It was his fault, he hadn’t deserved the praise to begin with, and now what’s he doing about it? Eating his feelings like he was a stupid child. Well, he already had the cereal. What’s another handful?

... What’s another box? He tossed the empty bag behind him; the cardboard having already been stripped in favor of tipping the whole thing back into his mouth. He grabbed the second box, tearing into it. Might as well, right? What else is he going to do?

The fire escape was so cold-

The thought jolted him. He stared at the half-empty box and put it on the counter. It wasn’t working anymore.

He turned his sights on the fridge, desperate now. Didn’t Ma Kent send over a Boston cream?

It was hardly his best moment. It was considered sacrilege to waste one of Ma Kent’s pies. He wondered what she would think of him now.

He didn’t bother with a fork, digging into the delicious treat with his fingers. The bits that clung to his teeth and tongue were heaven ; refuge in the storm. The only thing that could’ve made this better?

He opened the freezer, grabbing the vanilla ice cream Wally had left in his freezer. “Comfort food,” he’d claimed with a wink. If only he knew half of it.

Fingers already crusted with cereal dust, pie filling, and his own saliva, he dug into the frozen treat. The cold was already making him shiver with nervous energy, the rain mixing the feeling into something distinctly unpleasant. He swallowed bite after bite. It was no time at all when he finished it.

He tossed the empty containers somewhere to his side. Vaguely nauseous from the sugar, the fridge opened once more. What else is there?

Wandering hands found the meal prep containers he’d been delusional enough to buy. The carefully packaged portions intended to be reheated through the week had gone untouched for three, the contents questionable at best. At any other moment, he would’ve thrown them out. As it was, he dug in.

Jason’s condition had led to him desperately trying to get his life together. Bruce had proven he couldn’t handle a second chance; why would he let him try? He’d allowed himself the reverie for a short period, of getting his life together for his baby brother. He’d bought the stupid meal prep containers. He’d done it. He kept up with it for a single week, eating the portions and dishing them out.

Jason’s disappearance was what kept them in the fridge to rot. Whatever pipe dream he’d concocted was dead in the water, cultivating in a night of utter weakness. It was his fault. He was the one that let him go out and he was the one who failed to rescue them. He was right there, dammit. He should’ve done more.

A crack of thunder sounded out, choking him. He was back on the fire escape, his suit ripped, his scalp on fire, the guilt and the shame-

He stared down at his hands, sticky with everything he’d consumed. His stomach throbbed, bloated and beyond full. Painful. He turned around.

Empty containers greeted him. Cereal boxes and tupperware, pie tin and ice cream and everything else. What had he done?

He ran for the bathroom. His body protested the movement, gagging without his consent as he reached the sink. The first bits of it came up unassisted, something he was grateful for in the long run. Less mess clinging to his fingers.

The same fingers that dug into container after container dug into his throat. Retching and coughing up the feelings he’d just shoved deep inside of himself. What goes down must come back up, right?

It was a familiar song and dance. He’d been thirteen the first time he’d done it, young and stupid and not understanding the dangers. He’d been caught by Alfred, managing to convince the man he’d been hit with something at school and that had been why he was covered in vomit, not that he’d done it to himself. Because that would be absurd , right?

It was supposed to be a one-time thing. He’d done research after that, passing it off for a school project when Bruce had asked. It was stupid. It was deadly. It was supposed to be something that only happened to girls.

The stench of bile continued to follow him through his teens. The research had only prepared him for not getting caught again, and the support groups he’d found online were resolutely ignored. He couldn’t afford to get sloppy and was well aware of Bruce’s habit of being well and truly unhinged; if he thought anything was happening, he’d hack his way into everything private he could’ve ever owned and there would go his cover. Nothing about his... condition made its way into his digital footprint again. He made it a system.

The gymnast pages he followed were innocent enough. The weight training, the exercise- it was to be expected. If they talked about nutrition a bit too often to be healthy? Well, that just came with the territory.

It was shitty. He shouldn’t use the thing that connected him to his parents to motivate this infection spreading through him. It was a guarantee that it would be taken away if he got caught. He continued.

It was a compulsion. It was a need he couldn’t explain; even now, an adult working at the studio and supporting himself through his... minor issue, it persisted. The taste of stomach acid burned his throat and stained his tongue. The electrolyte packets he dumped into his water every day weren’t enough to stave off the bouts of delicious dizziness, filling him with a sense of accomplishment and gnawing dread at the same time. Days of emptiness followed by stuffing himself full full full only to cough and retch it back up was worth the minor sacrifice, right?

He choked on it, nothing coming up as his air was blocked. He pulled his hand away, fingers going to the drain to work it down, running the tap when convenient. He looked himself in the eye, taking in the bloodshot eyes and the puffy cheeks.

He’d managed not to get caught before, he could do it again. He would do it again.

Rinse out the mouth. Fluoride rinse after to help keep the cavities at bay, though it was easy enough to hide bad teeth when they were constantly knocked out anyways. Wash his face to help with both the puffiness and the acne. He could do this.

He took a deep breath. He went to the kitchen.

He threw away the evidence, immediately taking the trash out. Wally was supposed to be over tonight; he’d notice. He threw the tupperware into the sink, running water over it to be easier to clean. He did wash out Ma’s pie pan though; he wasn’t a monster. He also had a healthy fear of what she’d do if he messed up one of her favorite pie pans. She was a bit like Alfred; nobody had anything bad to say about them, and they’re the kindest people you’ll ever meet, but boy are they terrifying when they need to be. He’s seen her yell at Bruce and succeed ; he didn’t want to be on the receiving end.

The storm raged on. The kids were still missing. He was still having flashes of the fire escape. He felt a little more grounded with the soreness in his throat.

He turned to the hallway and nearly jumped. There in his hall was Bruce, still dressed in the bat suit, his cowl down and hair a mess. He had a pained expression.

Every performer knew one fundamental thing, and Richard John Grayson was nothing if not a performance.

He knew. He knew that Bruce knew. Bruce knew he knew that he knew. They stared, not daring to breathe a word.

Every performance came to an end. It looked like this was the end of his.

#kite flies over the nightingale nest #batman #dc universe #batfam #dick grayson #bruce wayne #ed tw #ed #eating disoder trigger warning #vomiting #tw vomit #implied/referenced rape #tw rap3 #squint and you'll miss it tho #I forgot how to tag on tumblr help me #mentioned wally west

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zylev-blog · 1 month

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Masterpost

This is the masterpost for everything that I have posted, not reblogged or added on from someone else.

DCU Only

The Batkids hide in Batman's cloak: here

DP Only

Ghosts as a separate species: here

DpxDc

Danny-centric

Young Danny: here

Danny really hates Christmas: here

Failed Ghost Danny: here

The Purge: here

Secret Arms dealer: here

Danny is Jon Kent: here

Martian Danny: here

Danny's being followed: here

Danny is Bruce Wayne: here

Danny is the clone of Barry and Hal: here AO3 link: here

Danny is Ace the bathound: here @bloggerspam wrote a beautiful fic for this!

Danny goes back in time to kill villain Tim: here

Danny is Diana's daughter: here

Danny arrives during DCeased: here

Danny is Alfred's son: here

Danny is centries old: here

"My name is Danny Fenton, and this is Jackass.": here

Danny is the son of Clark Kent and Lana Lang: here

Danny is convinced Batman is a vampire: here

Danny is Deadshot: here

Danny infiltrates the Light: here

Danny is Jason Todd: here

Danny pays Diana a visit: here

Dan-centric

Dan meets Jason Todd: here

Red Lantern Dan: here

Dan raises Kal-El: here

Jazz-centric

Jazz gets drunk: here

Halfa Jazz: here

Jazz is Lex Luthor's daughter: here

Tucker-centric

Tucker is Amity Park's protector: here

Dani-centric

Dani wants to get arrested: here

Dani is from the future: here

Dani is the clone of Bruce and Danny: here

When Dani destabilizes, Superman stabilizes her dna. She doesn't appreciate this: here

Danny is Clockwork's assistant

Clockwork's assistant au: here

Apprentice of time au: here

Green Lantern Danny

Adult GL Danny: here

GL Danny in Justice League: here

GL Danny helps arrest his parents: here

Danny and others:

Danny and Jazz go to a gala: here

Danny and Dick talk during a stakeout: here

Damian's rant: here

Cujo steals Jason's gun: here

Danny haunts Batman: here

Wally crosses into the DP universe: here

Bruce trains with Phantom: here

The Phantom siblings like to throw things: here

Gotham is on fire: here

Danny and Sam make a bet: here

Flash, Batman, and Joker accidentally cross into the DP universe: here

Danny and Bart are from the future: here

Dani and Dani decide to crash Bruce's interview: here

Mind-controlled Superman crashes Danny and Sam's date: here

Damian and Danny are best friends: here

Danny haunts Batman: here

Dick and Danny talk: here

Dick and Danny are childhood friends: here

Danny rescues Bruce in 1732: here

Jason and Danny kill the Joker: here

Deaged Danny

Danny escapes CADMUS: here

Danny and Dani are adopted by Aquaman: here

Oliver adopts Danny: here

Clark adopts Danny: here

Barry adopts Danny: here

Teen/Adult dad Danny

Ellie and Damian's forced friendship: here

Single Dad and toddler Ellie meet Single mom Kara and baby Kal: here AO3 link: here

Danny is Klarion and Nabu's Dad: here

Danny is Zeus, and Diana's father: here

Other:

Dick throws a party for his 30th birthday: here

The Batfam discover the GIW's warehouse by accident: here

Freakshow and Joker are brothers: here

Tim accidentally creates a portal to Amity Park: here

Dick accidentally saves Danny instead of Tim: here

Danny becomes backup Red Robin: here

Deaged Dick: here

Jazz, Harley, and Bruce are in medschool together: here

Halfa Tim Drake: here

Villain Fentons au: here

Valerie doesn't want to be on a hero team: here

Dick and Damian are ducks: here

Kryptonian Jack Fenton: here

Amity Park is its own nation: here

Villian Fentons: here

A Turkey ghost sends the Fentons on a country-wide chase: here

Little Baby Man Danny: here

Conner is Phantom and Superman's clone: here

Kryptonian Danny: here

Ships:

Dash/Danny: here

Tim/Danny: here

Tim/Danny gods of Krypton: here

Damian is Jazz and Bruce's son: here

Valerie/Danny raise Dani: here

GL Jazz/Bruce: here

FBI Agent Jazz Fenton(Nightingale): here AO3 link: here

Stephanie/Danny: here

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englishspeaker47 · 5 months

Text

Love Birds

Episode 1: Independence day

Today is the day, when Nightingale greets old friends and goes on a life changing mission. Wally is still Wally and Aqualad has to take care of his teenage kids.

GOTHAM CITY

Just a normal day in Gotham city- well as normal as it can be. Until ice crashes down causing panic around the park.

They start running to get away from the threat some getting frozen some just able to get out of harms way.

"Enjoying family time?" Freeze says before freezing a small family.

“My family has other plans.” Freeze says but is interrupted by a bat-a-rang to his glass helmet.

"Batman." Freeze turns around aiming his freeze ray towards where he had assumed Batman would be.

A laugh is heard before Robin flips into action and bounces off of freezes helmet, then nightingale does the same and each of them land throwing their bombs towards his helmet cracking it.

"Oh boy and girl wonder, the bats sent you to send me off to prison, frankly I'm underwhelmed" freeze says only to be interrupted by Robin saying "Great but we're kinda in a hurry here"

"Kids always is such a rush" freeze says.

"he wasn't talking to you" nightingale says looking up, freeze's eyes widen and look up to see Batman and he punches his helmet and fully cracks it.

"Wouldn’t want to be that guy" Nightingale says from where Robin and her are standing Batman and him both look and her, Robin smiling while shaking his head and Batman just gives a simple nod.

Robin raps his arm around Nightingales shoulders, “Today is the day, you ready?” Nightingale looks to Batman and at the apartments across the road.

“Yea, ready as I’ll ever be.” Robin looks at Nightingale and sighs.

“Still thinking about her?” Nightingale nods and the Hero and his side kicks leave for the hall.

After a while they make it to the hall of justice everyone and NG looks up at the hall, Green arrow and Speedy are there along with Aqua Lad and Aqua Man.

Batman places a hand on Robin and NG’s shoulder and speaks "today is the day" then green arrow says "welcome to the hall of justice" "headquarters of the justice league" Aqua Man says and taps Aqua Lads shoulder.

"OH man!" They hear from behind them so they all turn around to see flash and kid flash "I knew we'd be the last ones here!" KF says

"ironic huh?" Nightingale replies with smiling at him.

"hey gorgeous!" He says winking

"Sup KF" Nightingale says.

Nightingale had been friends with Wally for ages, since Batman brought her in to the hero scene. The two were basically siblings. They start walking to the hall entrance.

"Is that Batman?!" Someone yells "look it's nightingale and Robin!" "I see flash and flash junior!" "His name is speedy duh!" "No! Speedy is green arrows side kick!" "Well that makes no sense" "Nightingale over here!"

Everything goes silent when she looks up for a photo. Although she looks past the camera to see a lady in a black hood looking at her, her eyes widen and the second Nightingale blinks. She’s gone.

"Ready to see it?" Green arrow says interrupting her thoughts "born that way" speedy replies with "Im glad were here" aqua lad says

"have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time-" KF gets cut off by speedy

"Don't! Call us sidekicks, not after today."

"Calm down roy it's probably his first time at the hall" Nightingale says tapping his shoulder.

"that it is gorgeous, tho I'm a little overwhelmed" KF says

Then Robin starts up saying "your overwhelmed, freeze was underwhelmed why isn't anyone ever just whelmed?" NG laughs a bit before getting a small smile from Robin as they walk inside.

"Oh that's why" Robin says as he looks up at the huge statues of the league. "Robin, nightingale, aqua lad, kid flash and speedy.. welcome" Martian Manhunter said. Nightingale, Robin and KF all do a little fist bump before following along.

"You now have access to the Gym, full gallery and of course our library" Martian Manhunter says and is followed by flash saying "make yourselves at home"

Hearing this everyone sits in a chair minus speedy. "Quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of four villains attacking on the same day"

Batman says and walks up to the zeta tube and it says "Batman 0-2, Aqua Man 0-6, Flash 0-4,

Green Arrow 0-8, Martian Manhunter 0-7, Red Tornado 1-6".

Then we all hear "that's it?!" Speedy yells causing the hero's to turn around "you said we'd get a real look around not a glorified backstage pass"

Nightingale didn't really wanna listen to them argue so she grabed robins arm and used his mini computer to play flappy bird. He looks at her nodding telling her its ok to continue and turns away focusing on what speedy's talking about.

"They’re treating us like kids!" Speedy says causing NG to look up and stop playing "worse like side kicks, we deserve better than this" the group of teen hero’s all look at each other and back to speedy.

"Your kidding right? Your playing their game, today was supposed to be THE day, step one of becoming full fledged members of the league"

KF looks to Robin and NG and says "well I thought the first step was a tour of the HQ?" And gets cut off by speedy once again.

"Yea except the hall isn't the real HQ"

"What?" KF says clearly confused "it's just a false front for tourists they just have a zeta beam that teleports to the real thing, an orbiting sat alight, the watch tower"

The small bit of the full time hero's pause and Batman glares at green arrow. "I know, I know I just thought we could make an exception?" Green arrow says in hopes to save himself. ‘Someone’s in trouble’ she thought.

Batman continues to glare "or not" green arrow says in defeat. Robin retracts his arm types something and shows it to NG, ‘awkward’ she stifles a laugh and types back ‘yup’.

"Your not helping your cause son, now-" Aqua Man gets cut off by speedy "or what your gonna send me to my room and I'm not your son, I'm not even his, I thought I was his partner- but not anymore"

He takes of his hat and throws his hat to the floor. The group are just witnessing this going on not really knowing what to say.

“Roy..” NG stops.

"Guess they were right about you four.. your not ready" we all stand up and watch him leave, NG let go of robins arm and can't help but feel that Roys right.

“Superman to justice league, there is a fire at Cadmus. Help needed”

"Zatara to justice league" seeing one of Nightingales friends dad was cool but she hadn’t seen her is ages.

"Superman?" Batman asks "It's a small fire local authorities have it under control" superman replies. "Then Cadmus can wait"

Batman looks to the teenage hero’s “stay put”

Robin looks at him and says “what? Why!”

"This is a league mission" Aqua man says followed by flash saying "your not trained"

"That's the only thing we have been doing" Nightingale says "yea since when we're we 'not trained'" KF adds on.

"I meant your not trained to be apart of this team" flash continues "there will be other missions" Aqua man says "but for now stay.put." Batman says.

Then they walk off towards the zeta tube and green arrow mutters something to Martian Manhunter "agreed" he replied with.

"Ready? How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like sidekicks?" KF says "Mhm we're still sidekicks in there eyes" Nightingale says.

"My mentor, My king I thought he trusted me." Aqua Lad says "Trust? They don't even Trust us with the basics, The secret HQ" "IN space" Nightingale says adding on to KF's statement.

Aqua Lad nods and says "what else aren't they telling us" "hey I have a better question, why didn't we leave with speedy?" Robin says.

"Exactly what I was thinking" NG says and they all look down. Until Aqua Lad starts up. "What is project Cadmus?"

Then Robin smirks and says "Don't know, but I can find out"

Robin walks over to the computer and starts typing stuff on the huge key pad.

"Nightingale, plug this in the power port there"

He says, Nightingale handing her a wire to plug in.

"Will do" she says.

"Access denied" the computer said after she put the wire in the access port.

Robin looks up and says "heh, wanna bet?"

"Woah how are you doing that?" KF says, NG walks over to stand next to Robin.

"he's Batman" she says in a deep voice mocking her mentor and laughing at her own joke, KF looks at her and says,

"Very funny. but seriously how?"

"Same system as the bat-cave" Robin says

"Nightingale can do it to, she just doesn't" he continues before getting back to it.

"Access granted" the computer says

"Alright project Cadmus, genetic lab here in DC, if Batman's suspicious we should investigate" Robin says.

"We should" NG says

"If we solve the case first, it would be poetic justice" Aqua Lad says.

"Hey, their all about justice"

"But they said to stay put" Aqua Lad said

"For the sun mission, not this" Robin replies with.

"No way you wanna go to Cadmus?" KF says placing a hand on Robin and NG's shoulders.

"because if your going I'm going" KF says

The group looks at Aqua Lad "just like that, we're a team?"

"Well we didn't come here for a play date" Robin says.

"Finally an actual mission!" NG says before walking off not aware of the secret conversation behind her.

"Robin, how is she?" Aqua Lad asks the two.

"She seems off" KF says

"She’ll be ok, she’s been through a lot" Robin says before continuing.

"You both know that she is" Robin says.

Robin walks after NG and KF starts speaking to Aqua Lad.

"She may be strong but she can’t bare everything on her shoulders"

Aqua Lad nods and they silently follow behind the two.

CADMUS

The fire fighters fighting to put out the fire two people inside yelling for help "help get us out" a scientist inside yells.

Then a huge explosion knocks the two out off the building as there falling a yellow and red blur dashes in saving the two scientists and is hanging from the window.

"It's what's his name, flash boy!" someone yells.

"KID FLASH!, why is that so hard?" KF says.

Aqua Lad, Robin and NG run out of an alley way "Soo smooth" Robin says

"does he always have to run away" is the last thing Nightingale hears Aqua Lad say before getting pulled by Robin into the shadows.

As they’re running he starts his famous laugh and NG looks back to see Aqua Lad looking around.

Then Robin lets go of her hand.

"I'll get KF you get in there" he says

“Alright be safe” he nods and off he goes.

NG grapples off and swings into a window and sees Robin hacking the system and KF checking files.

NG walks over to Robin and whispers "hey did you do the math homework?"

"Yes? Why did you not?" He asks looking up

"I mean.. i started it?" She says smiling.

"When we get back I'll help you out" Robin says.

"Thanks" she says before looking out the window to see Aqua Lad doing his thing before making his way into the room.

"Appreciate the help" Aqua Lad says obviously being sarcastic.

"You handled it, plus we're here to investigate" Robin says and gets back to typing.

"Poetic justice remember?" NG says tapping his shoulder receiving a smile.

Then Aqua Lad leaves the room so the group runs after him.

"There was someone in there" Aqua Lad says.

"Elevators should be locked down" KF replies.

"Mm they should be, but why aren't they"

Robin runs ahead so they all follow "this is wrong.. thought so, this is a high speed express elevator, doesn't belong in a two story building".

"Neither does what I saw" Aqua Lad walks up to the door and forces it open.

"And that's why they need an express elevator."

Robin shoots his grapple to the top of the shaft "Nightingale grab on" Robin says "Got it” she replies with.

Robin grabs her hip and she holds on causing her cheeks to have a red tint as they’re lowered into the elevator shaft.

"I'm at the end of my rope" he then swings himself and NG onto the elevator door and slides down and uses his mini computer and Aqua Lad and KF jump onto the door frame.

"By passing security, there go!" Robin says.

Aqua Lad opens the door and they all walk into the hallway.

"Welcome to project Cadmus" NG says KF runs off down the hall.

"Kid wait!" Aqua Lad yells.

"KF get back here!" Nightingale says.

"Ah-" he yells all of these ape alien things stomping down the hall.

"Holy sh-" Nightingale gets cut off by robins gloved hand on her mouth.

"Language" he says before Aqua Lad says.

"NooOoo nothing Odd going on here" Aqua Lad says. Then the ape thing walks off.

Then the team ends up in a room with these blue tubes with aliens in them.

"K I'm officially whelmed" robin says.

"Are you kidding, what are these?".

KF walks in front "this is how they keep this huge facility hidden from the world, the real Cadmus is powered by these things, must be what there bred for".

Aqua Lad said something to the group but NG was looking at the Alien things.

"Cadmus creates new life, let's fine out why. They call themselves genomes. Oh look at the stats on these things super strength, telepathy, claws their living weapons" Robin says.

"There engendering an army, but for who?" KF says.

"Wait what's project Kr?" Nightingale saw reading over robins shoulder.

"I'm not sure the files are tripled encrypted I can't-" Robin gets interrupted by a voice.

"Hold it right there!" Nightingales eyes widened realising she recognised that voice.

They all turn around to see guardian.

"Wait nightingale, Robin, kid flash, Aqua Lad?" Guardian says in clear confusion.

NG nudges KF and say "least he got your name right" he slightly glares at NG before Aqua Lad speaks up.

"I know you, guardian a hero" he says.

"I try my best" guardian replies with.

"Then what are you doing here?" KF says.

"I'm chief of security, your trespassing but we can call the justice league to figure this out" guardian said.

Nightingale and robin look at each other and he smiles slightly, NG raises her eyebrows and he looks at his mini computer and motions her over.

Then he shows her what floor project Kr is on, as they’re about to tell the team they hear guardian yell.

"Take em' down!" Robin throws a smoke bomb and he grapple's on to a pipe grabbing Nightingale before she can object.

Then the two make it to a elevator door and rob starts hacking away.

Nightingale turns around and sees KF and Aqua lad.

"Way to be team players you two!" KF says in rage.

"Weren't you right behind us?" Robin says and before long the door opens.

And they all get into the elevator and Nightingale fills the silence

“Everyone ok?”

The responses are out of breath but all ‘ok’ and ‘yea fine’

"We're heading down?" Aqua Lad questions.

"Dude out is up!" KF says.

"No excuse me, project Kr is down lvl 52" robin says.

"Perhaps we should contact the league?"

Aqua Lad suggests.

"No point we're already here, we’ll be ok kaldur" NG says before walking out of the elevator and looking around at the strange pathways.

"We are already here" KF says to Aqua Lad.

And they all walk to the entrance of the two hallways.

"Which way?" Aqua Lad says.

"Mm bazar hallway 1 or bazar looking hallway 2?" Robin says.

"HOLD!" Some Alien dude yells and throws barrels at the team.

NG gets pulled back by one of the guys.

"Hurry!" Aqua Lad yells before they all get insides a room.

"I disabled the door we're safe" Robin says.

"We're trapped" Aqua Lad corrects.

"UH guys you might wanna see this" KF says and presses a button on a control panel and a pod in the middle of the room lights up.

"Uhh what is that?" Nightingale says.

"Big K little r, the atomic symbol for krypton, clone?"

"Robin hack"

"Right, right" robin says before speaking to Nightingale .

"Night you mind?" As he hands her the wire.

"Not at all" she says before taking the wire and plugging it in.

"Weapon designation super boy a clone force grown in- 16 weeks?! DNA acquired by superman".

"Stolen from superman" Aqua Lad corrects

"No way the big man knows about this." KF adds.

"Solar suit allows him to absorb sun radiation 24/7"robin says.

"And the devil things?" NG says genuinely confused.

"Uh- Genomes force feeding him education" he says and KF says "and I bet we can guess what else."

They keep talking and NG walks closer to the pod

Poor dude. Then she notices the devil or genomes horns turn red.

Robin then opens the pod so NG steps back and they all look towards the super boy it's quiet for less then a second until super boy jumps forward smashing Aqua Lad into the wall then onto the floor.

KF runs over to pull super boy off but he punches KF Back "I don't want to do this" robin says putting a gas bomb in his mouth.

Aqua Lad kicks him back, robin and NG pull out their tasers but he grabs the wires from both and yanks them both forward behind him onto the floor.

Then he uses his foot to keep robin from moving. Nightingale manages to land a punch to super boys face and to no avail. Then getting punched in the gut and one to the face and the last thing she heard was someone call my name before everything goes black.

#dc x reader #dick grayson #dick grayson x reader #young justice x reader

42 notes · View notes

myheadsgonenumb · 10 months

Text

A Tender Heart

@jilymicrofics

prompt: Tender

‘I know you got hit by a bludger,’ Sirius said. ‘I know it was nasty… But I also know Madam Pomfrey fixed you up in, like, a minute. So why - in Merlins’s name - do you have that massive bandage wrapped around your head?’

‘To show that I’m injured.’

‘It looks like a turban. You look… ridiculous. Prongs, mate, in all good conscience I cannot let you leave the dorm looking like this.’

‘Get away from me,’ James swatted at Sirius, as the other boy attempted to unwrap the rather ostentatious bandaging from his head. ‘It’s all part of the plan.’

‘To look like a knob?’

‘To woo Lily Evans.’

Sirius rolled his eyes in disbelief. ‘Oh, this should be good. Go on then - enlighten me.’

‘It’s dead simple - but brilliant. I look all injured and helpless and pathetic, right?’

‘You certainly are pathetic.’

‘Evans is just going to take one look at me, the Quidditch hero, injured in the line of glory, but soldiering on - despite massive brain damage…’

‘... no one would spot the difference…’

‘She’ll see my bravery but also my pain, and her tender heart will melt.’

‘Her tender heart will melt? Have you met Lily Evans? She hexes first and asks questions later. She thinks you’re a prize wally. She makes Lord Voldemort look like bloody Florence Nightingale. She’s a menace. And you are playing with fire - trying to trick her.’

But James remained obstinate, and shook his head. ‘It’ll work, you’ll see. She’ll take one look at me and want to nurse me back to health and - and marry me!’

Reader, she did not marry him (at least not for another few years).

Word Count: 277

#jily #james potter #lily evans #the path to true love never did run smooth #jilymicrofics #tender

66 notes · View notes

fandomgirlz01 · 1 year

Text

My Place In This World Pt. 1

Independence Day

Dick Grayson X Reader

Imagine on my fandom instagram?: No

Prompt?: No

Request?: No

Requested prompt?: No

Edited: Yes

Word count: 10,757

Ko-fi

Masterlist

Warnings here

You can listen to the story be read out loud here.

Post Date: December 4th, 2022

Post Time: 11:29 pm

Updated: October 26th 2023

Update Time: 10:55 pm

Summary: Growing up in Haly's circus and losing their parents in the same night makes the reader and Dick closer than anyone else. Together they go through life having one another's backs though every life change, even eventually becoming Robin and Blue Jay together. What happens when feelings have changed and slowly start to be revealed?

This series was inspired by @shadowsndaisies Daisy's story on her page is called Codename: Nightingale and I absolutely loved it to death, so I decided to try my hand at my own story line. Thank you so much for being a big inspiration to this series Daisy.

youtube

Y/n’s Pov:

I stand off to the side of the practice ring in the bat cave as Dick and I circle one another. Dick lunches towards me and I quickly move to my left, making him fall to my feet. I quickly grab his arm and pull it behind his back as I sit on the small of his back.

“That’s not fair…” Dick whines from under me as he wiggles to try getting free and I giggle.

“It was too fair. I won fair and square. Tapping out yet?” I ask him and he grunts while shaking his head no.

“Really?” I ask as I pull his arm a little more and he groans out in pain.

“Fine! Fine! I tap!” he shouts as he taps the floor lightly.

Satisfied with his answer, I let his arm go and push up off of him. I start to walk over to my water bottle, but I get tackled from behind. With a groan, I roll over and look up at Dick, who’s smirking down at me.

“Hey. That was unfair. My back was turned,” I whine and he chuckles.

“If that was a villain, they wouldn’t care if your back was to them or not. Remember what Bruce says?” he explains before asking me and I roll my eyes.

“Never have your back to an enemy,” I quote and Dick nods proudly before getting off of me.

“Today’s the day,” Dick says in excitement and I smile at him as I get up.

“It is, wonderboy. Today we get to actually see the league's headquarters,” I agree with him, smiling as I think about the happy day we’re about to have and walk over to the bench to sit down.

“So what are you doing for the fourth tonight?” Dick asks as he picks up his water from beside me.

“Not much. Just hanging out here at home,” I inform with a shrug and his jaw drops.

“You're not doing anything? Nothing at all?” he asks in shock and I take a gulp of my water.

“Don’t know if you’ve noticed, D… but you, Kaldur and Wally are the only real friends I have,” I tell him and he shakes his head.

“What about that Tina or that John guy you were hanging out with at school?” he asks with a scowl on his face and I feel a blush rush up over my neck.

“You were right about him. He was an absolute asshat. He was only using our friendship. Plus, he got really mad when I told him I was into someone else,” I explain and he sighs, shaking his head.

“Jay, I’m so sorry. Should I go all Robin on him?” he asks and I smile softly.

“No Rob, I’ll be ok,” I promise him and he smiles.

“Of course. How could I not? You’ve been with me since birth. You were the only person who understood when I lost my parents,” he tells me with a frown and I nod at him.

“I’m thankful we had each other. When our parents both passed, I almost didn’t make it out, but you helped me with it. Thank you for always being there, D,” I softly explain to him and he grins at me.

“Thank you for always being there for me too,” he says with a small smile and I smile at him before pulling him into a hug.

“I’m glad you’re my best friend Jay,” he tells me and I smile with tears making way to my eyes.

“Thank you, D, I love you,” I reply as I pull him closer and close my eyes at the thought of being able to tell him that for real.

“I love you too, Jay. Hey. Me and Wally were gonna go out to celebrate the big day tonight. Wanna maybe-” he starts, but stops when the bat cave’s crime signal starts to go off, making us turn quickly.

Bruce slides down his fireman’s pole before rushing over to the bat computer. We walk over and he types a few things before video footage of what’s going on pops up and the other league members start to video chat in.

“Get into your gear. The ice family is at it again,” Bruce tells us, making me and Dick nod in affirmation before rushing off.

We both rush to our own suits before rushing into the changing rooms that Bruce had made sure was here for us after adopting us. I quickly change into my Blue Jay suit before putting my utility belt around my waist, my ear piece in my ear and then putting my boots on.

I quickly walk back into the main part of the cave to find Bruce back at the computer in his bat suit. I walk over and stand next to him just as Dick comes out and stands on his other side.

“We’ve got Mister Freeze. Arrow, can you and Speedy take on Icicle Junior?” Bruce asks and Oliver nods.

“That we can do, Bats,” Oliver replies and Batman nods.

“Ok. Aquaman and Aqualad, you take Killer Frost. Flash and Kid Flash, I’m assigning you to Captain Cold,” Bruce commands and they all nod before signing out to go take on their missions.

Bruce closes out our video feeds before rushing over to the Batmobile. Bruce gets in along with Dick who gets into the passenger side. I go over to my Blue Bike that matches my suit and get on.

I put my helmet on and my fingerless gloves before starting it up. Bruce rolls down his window and I look over at him.

“We’ll meet up there. If you get there before us, you wait for us, understand? We don’t need you going back to the hospital,” Bruce tells me and I roll my eyes.

“One time… I’m not going to sit back and just watch them be criminals, Bruce,” I reply venomously as I roll my eyes.

“Y/n, listen to him please. Just wait for us,” Dick practically begs and I huff, rolling my eyes.

“Whatever,” I reply before starting my bike up and driving off.

I drive to Gotham City park and park my bike with a roll of my eyes. I take my helmet off, keeping my gloves on as I slide off my bike. I put my helmet away before starting to walk towards where Mister Freeze is. I don’t care what they told me, I’m not just going to sit back and wait while people are getting hurt. I continue walking until a familiar voice pulls me back.

“Blue Jay, stop,” Dick demands as he gets out of the Batmobile and comes running over to me.

“Why must you insist on putting yourself in harm's way?” he asks almost desperately and I roll my eyes again.

“I’m not, Robin. I’m just doing my job. I don’t know if you’ve really noticed, but that’s our job. Throwing ourselves out there so civilians are safe,” I tell him harshly and he sighs.

“Maybe Bruce was right. Maybe he needs to take you out,” Dick comments and I whirl around to face him.

“What did you just say?” I ask through gritted teeth.

“Look, all I’m saying is that you need some time off. You seem out of character lately,” he tells me softly as he holds his hands up in surrender.

“No. I don’t need time off! What I need is my best friend’s support,” I growl angrily and he sighs.

“And you have it. I just don’t want to see you hurt again,” he explains in a shaky tone, refusing to look at me.

“Oh… I didn’t even think of it that way… I’m so sorry. I… I… I just can’t stand bullies. You know that,” I reply with a frown as I look at him.

“I know, I just need to know you’re safe. Please… I can’t lose you too,” he tells me in a choked tone and I shake my head.

“I know, D. I know. I promise I’ll start being more careful,” I tell him as I pull him into another hug.

“I’m glad you two made up, but we have work to do,” Bruce tells us as he looks out over the scene.

Me and Dick pull away from one another, but stay close. Bruce takes a moment to assess what needs to be done before turning to us.

“Ok. Here’s what we’re going to do…” Bruce starts off with the plan.

“Enjoying family time?” I hear Mister Freeze ask before he aims his freeze gun at a family who was enjoying their Fourth of July.

“My family has other plans,” he tells them menacingly before flying over them as others run from him.

I look at Dick and he smirks at me. He bounces his eyebrows at me before he drops down from the building we now stand on. Dick throws a batarang at Mister Freeze and it just hits him in the back, making him stumble forward a bit.

“Batman. I was wondering when…” Mister Freeze starts as he turns around, but he stops when Dick starts to laugh.

I shake my head and jump down after Dick. He lands on Mister Freeze’s dome before flipping as he pushes off of him. Mister Freeze turns just as we both land on the other side of him as we both throw our shurikens at him, causing his dome to crack.

“Oh, Wonderboy and Blue Jay. The bat sent you both to drag me off to prison? Frankly I’m underwhelmed,” Mister Freeze tells us as he slowly stands up.

“I’m coming in. Just give me a moment to fix this new set of cuffs we’re trying,” we both hear Bruce grunt over the coms and I roll my eyes.

“Great, but we’re kinda in a hurry here,” Dick replies with an annoyed eye roll.

“Kids… always in such a rush,” Mr. Freeze mocks as he smirks at us.

“Not talking to you,” Dick replies in a sing-songy tone and I have to hold back a giggle, making it come out as a chortle.

Mr. Freeze's eyes widen for a moment before turning around as Bruce finally drops in. Bruce flies in before throwing a punch as he lands, completely breaking Mr. Freeze’s dome. Once he’s down on the ground, Bruce cuffs him before handing him off to the officers.

“You know, you two could have handled him without me,” Bruce comments as he turns to us and chuckles when Dick rolls his eyes.

“Yes, but we work so much faster and more efficiently when you're with us,” Dick argues and Bruce looks at me.

“You two distract one another, that’s why,” Bruce accuses and I give him a shocked look.

“Umm, excuse me! I’m pretty efficient on my own. It’s not my fault Rob gets distracted. Especially when he goes off on his own with that disappearing laugh he does,” I argue back and Bruce chuckles as he smiles.

“I must admit, dear boy, that is really infuriating,” Bruce gruffly agrees with me and Dick scoffs.

“Whatever. Jay got distracted by a squirrel the other day!” Dick argues again and I huff, shaking my head.

“It was hurt. What was I supposed to do! Leave it to die?!” I fight back and Bruce just chuckles as he crosses his arms.

“As much as I’m enjoying your little fight, don't we all have plans?” Bruce asks with a light smirk and I roll my eyes.

“Yes we do. Can we get going now?” Dick groans and I giggle.

“You're the one that started it. You know I’ll fight back anytime,” I inform and he rolls his eyes behind his mask.

“Oh, don’t I. Can’t say I don’t admire it really,” Dick tells me and I grin at him.

“Thank you, Rob. That’s really sweet,” I tell him in a flattered tone before he gives me a soft smile and a small nod.

“Ok you two, let’s go,” Bruce demands as he shakes his head. “Your connection continues to amaze me,” he tells us as we all start walking back to our vehicles.

“Why’s that, Bats?” Dick asks and Bruce shakes his head.

“Because you guys always have one another’s backs, even when fighting. It’s not always like that,” Bruce explains as he opens the driver's side door to the Batmobile.

“It’s just always kinda been easy to stick together,” I reply with a shrug as I grab my helmet.

“Well, not many people really stick together. It’s nice to see you two together. You always have smiles on when even just in the vicinity of one another. It’s cute,” Bruce tells us as I put my helmet on before turning and raising an eyebrow at Dick.

“Thanks, Bruce. What?” Dick replies to Bruce before turning to me.

“You gonna ride with me or Bruce?” I ask him and he slowly starts to grin.

“Now you want me to ride with you. Earlier you just took off,” Dick jokes, making me shrug as I get on my bike and lean back, crossing my arms.

“Earlier I was mad. Now I want my best friend to ride with me,” I explain in an even tone as I hold back a giggle at his reaction.

“Oh! So now I’m supposed to just ride with you when you want I guess,” he playfully jokes back and I giggle.

“That’s the way it works, my dude,” I reply and he snorts, shaking his head.

“I don’t know. Maybe I’ll go with Bruce,” he teases and I frown.

“You don’t wanna go with me? On the big day?” I pout and playfully bat my eyes at him and he groans.

“How can I say no to the pout face?” he asks and Bruce chuckles.

“You can’t, son. Never have been able to,” Bruce tells him in a form of amusement and Dick groans again.

“Ok. Ok. I’ll come with you. Whatever the Queen wants, she gets,” he finally agrees and I grin as I pat the seat behind me.

“Well…” I ask him with a raised eyebrow and he shrugs.

“Well, what?” he asks me and I giggle.

“You comin’ or not? We kinda have somewhere to be…” I tell him and he chuckles as he comes over to me.

“Let me drive,” Dick tells me and I shake my head.

“No way, my dad suspended my motorcycle license,” I reply with a giggle and Dick makes a noise of shock.

“He didn’t suspend it!” Dick fights back and I bite my lip.

“I’m pretty sure he did, wonderboy,” I tell him and he shakes his head.

“That I did,” Bruce jumps in and I giggle when Dick looks defeated.

“I’ll drive, don't worry. We’ll be ok. I’ve driven this many times before,” I promise Dick and he shakes his head.

“Yeah. The law would go crazy knowing good ol’ dad lets his thirteen year old drive. Fine, you can drive, but when I get my license back, I’ll be the one driving,” Dick replies and I grin, nodding.

“They really would, wouldn’t they? I’d expect nothing less,” I tell him with a soft smile and Bruce shakes his head with a shrug.

“I’ve got money and influence so it works. Helmet’s in the back, Dick,” Bruce brags a bit and Dick groans.

“You know I really hate when you go all dad mode on me,” Dick tells him as he goes and grabs his helmet from the Batmobile.

“Maybe wear a helmet and I won’t have to,” Bruce tells him and I hold back a giggle.

“Ok. I’ll see you guys at the hall of justice?” Bruce asks us and I smile over at him.

“Yup. See ya there!” I agree with him before he drives off.

“Let’s go, you big sap,” I joke and Dick puts his helmet on before getting behind me on my bike.

Once I’m sure he’s holding on and ready to go, I start my bike up and drive to the hall of justice. When we finally make it, I park the bike with the rest of the league’s vehicles before turning my engine off.

Dick gets off the bike first, taking his helmet off and looks up at the building in awe. I smile softly as butterflies swarm my stomach and I have to stop myself from loving how excited Dick is. I get off my bike and take the helmet off before putting it back in its compartment. Dick quickly rushes over and meets Bruce at the Batmobile.

He puts his helmet back where he got it from before standing up straight and walking with Bruce. I easily catch up with both of them and before we know it, we’re meeting up with the other young superheroes who stand with their respective hero mentors.

“Today is the day,” Bruce tells us as he looks down at me and Dick, putting a hand on his shoulder.

“Welcome to the hall of justice,” Green Arrow speaks up next.

“The headquarters of the Justice League,” Aquaman says and I look at Dick with a huge smile.

“Oh man!” Is heard, making us all turn to look as Flash and Kid Flash zoom up.

“I knew we’d be the last ones here!” Wally shouts out as he comes to a stop and crosses his arms.

“How are they always the last ones when they’re the fastest…?” Dick whispers to me and I snort before holding a hand over my mouth to cover my laughter.

“Honestly, I don’t know. Must mean they take longer capturing their bad guys. They really should be more efficient, shouldn’t they, D?” I ask him as I lean on his shoulder.

“Yeah. They really should. Like we are!” Dick agrees and I grin.

“We are pretty efficient, aren’t we? Ehh, it’s only because I have you. If I was working with anyone else, I wouldn’t be,” I tell him and he chuckles, shaking his head.

“Same goes for you, Jay. Anyone else and you wouldn’t get a lick of efficiency out of me,” Dick jokes and I giggle again before we hear a sound like someone gagging.

“You guys are so disgusting. You know that?” Wally asks as he walks up next to us.

“Oh we definitely do, but it makes it fun to gross you out,” I joke with Wally, sticking my tongue out at him.

“Oh, so you do it to spite me?” Wally asks as we all start to walk towards the entrance of the hall of justice.

“We most definitely do it to make you underwhelmed,” Dick tells him with a smirk and Wally gives us a shocked look.

“That’s just-” Wally starts, but stops as we walk past all the press, who start shouting questions.

“Is that Batman?!” a man to the left of us asks and Dick lets out a chortle as we smirk at each other.

“Oh my goodness,” a woman to the right of us exclaims.

“I see Flash and Flash Jr.!” a kid from the left shouts as he points over the rope.

“His name’s speedy. Duh,” the kid next to the other kid explains in a sassy tone.

“No, Speedy’s Green Arrow’s sidekick,” an older man argues with the kids.

“Well, that makes no sense,” another man replies.

“Ready to see the inner sanctum?” Green Arrow asks as he leans forward just a bit so Roy can hear him.

“Born that way,” Roy replies, making me and Dick look at each other again with big smiles.

“I’m glad we’re all here,” Kaldur comments as he smiles at me when I look at him.

“Have all five sidekicks ever been in the same place at the same time?” Wally asks as he looks at me and Dick.

“No. I think-” I start, but stop when I get cut off.

“Don’t! Call us sidekicks. Not after today…” Roy berates Wally and I frown a bit, but I feel a hand grab mine and squeeze.

I look up and see Dick smiling at me, so I give him a small smile back as I squeeze his hand back. We keep our hands together as we continue to walk, not caring how it looks.

“Sorry. First time at the hall. I’m a little overwhelmed,” Wally apologizes and Dick rolls his eyes.

“You’re overwhelmed and underwhelmed. Freeze was underwhelmed. Why isn’t anyone ever just whelmed?” Dick asks his famous question that makes me giggle before hugging his arm closer.

“Rob, I’m whelmed most of the time, am I not?” I ask him and he smiles.

“You're an exception, sweetheart,” Dick tells me and there’s another sound of someone gagging.

“Gross. Can you two not be all coupley the whole time, please?!” Wally whines and I pull back to look at him with a grin.

“Nope!” I tell Wally and he groans, shaking his head as Dick and I laugh.

Finally after what feels like a long walk, we make it to the front of the hall of justice and look up at all the statues. As we walk, I poke Dick before pointing up at Wonder Woman, who I’ve admired for years. Dick nods, smiling at me.

“Oh, maybe that’s why,” Dick comments as we come to a stop just under the statues at the door.

The door slides open and we see Red Tornado and Martian Manhunter standing just inside. They walk out and come to a stop just a few feet from us.

“Robin, Speedy, Aqualad, Kid Flash, Blue Jay. Welcome,” Martian Manhunter greets us before turning around and starting to walk back into the hall.

“You now have unlimited access to the gym, our fully stocked galley, and of course, our library,” Martian Manhunter explains as we continue to walk through the hall.

“Make yourselves at home,” Flash tells us as he turns around and holds his arms out.

The league walks over to the side to circle up and Wally plops down in one of the chairs. Dick does the same and Kaldur sits lightly on the one across from us. Dick pulls me down onto his lap and I giggle as Wally makes another gagging sound.

“Oh, shut up,” I tell him as I roll my eyes.

“Quick debrief to discuss the coincidence of four ice villains attacking on the same day,” Bruce speaks up, getting our attention.

“We shouldn’t be long,” Bruce promises before he turns around and starts to walk towards another door.

“Recognized. Batman, 02,” the scanner, much like we have in the bat cave, speaks as it comes out from the ceiling and scans Bruce.

“Aquaman, 06,” the automatic woman’s voice speaks as she scans Aquaman next.

“Flash, 04,” the voice continues as she scans Flash.

“Green arrow, 08,” she continues on again.

“Martian manhunter, 07,” the voice calls out.

“Red Tornado, 16,” the voice finishes off and there’s a hiss as the doors slide open.

“That’s it?!” Speedy suddenly yells out, making me jump before he walks over to them.

“You promised us a real look inside. Not a glorified backstage pass,” Roy angrily tells them as he crosses his arms.

“It’s a first step. You’ve been granted access few others get,” Aquaman speaks up and we all watch as Roy gets even angrier.

“Oh, really? Who cares which side of the glass we’re on?” Roy asks as he throws his hand up to point to the window above where press and civilians can look in.

“Roy, you just need to be patient,” Green Arrow tells him as he steps up from where he previously was.

“What I need is respect,” Roy argues before turning back to us.

“They’re treating us like kids. Worse, like sidekicks. We deserve better than this,” he tells us and pauses as he waits for us to agree.

I look at Dick and he looks at me before looking at Wally, who looks at Dick, then at me before we all turn to look at Kaldur. It’s like for a moment we all try to decide if he’s right or not, but we just stay quiet as we look back at him.

“You're kidding, right? You’re playing their game? Why? Today was supposed to be the day. Step one of becoming full fledged members of the league,” Roy angrily asks us and again we all look between one another.

“Well, sure, but I thought step one was a tour of the HQ,” Wally says what we’re all thinking as he looks at all of us before looking at Roy again and sitting up.

“Except the hall isn’t the league’s real HQ. I bet they never told you, it’s just a false front for tourists and a pit stop for catching zata-beam teleporter tubes to the real thing, an orbiting satellite called the watchtower,” Roy explains to us and all of our eyes widen as Green Arrow turns to look at Bruce.

“I know. I know, but I thought maybe we could make an exception,” Green Arrow explains with a shrug as Bruce gives him a silent stare.

“Or not…” Green Arrow says when nobody gives him an answer before turning back around to us.

“You are not helping your case here, son. Stand down or-” Aquaman starts as he walks forward to be closer to Roy.

“Or what? You’ll send me to my room?” Roy cuts him off. “And I’m not your son. I’m not even his. I thought I was his partner, but not anymore.” Roy takes his hat off and throws it to the ground.

We all watch with wide eyes as he turns around and starts to walk away from the league members. He heads towards the door, but slows down just a bit as he gets to us.

“Guess they’re right about you four. Didn’t expect it from you, Jay…” he tells us as he walks past us and we all quickly stand up.

My eyes start to water as one of my many brother figures walks past me. He continues to walk and we all just watch, not knowing what to say.

“You're not ready…” he adds as he keeps his back turned to us.

My eyes continue to water as I watch him walk away from us. It’s only a moment later when I feel a hand on my shoulder, pulling me out of the trance I don’t even realize I’m in. Roy finally fully walks out and it’s quiet for a minute before the sound of an incoming transmission can be heard, making us all turn to the screen.

“Superman to Justice League, there’s been an explosion at project Cadmus. It’s on fire,” Superman explains when he pops up on the screen and the rest of the League walk over to the screen.

“I’ve had my suspicions about Cadmus. This may present the perfect opportunity to-” Bruce starts, but gets cut off as another transmission comes in.

“Zatara to Justice League, the sorcerer, Wotan is using the amulet of Attan to block out the sun. Requesting full League response,” Zatara says as he pops up on the screen.

“Superman?” Bruce questions as he looks at Superman.

“It’s a small fire. Local authorities have it under control,” Superman replies in a matter of fact tone.

“Then Cadmus can wait,” Bruce agrees with Superman.

“All Leaguers rendezvous at Zatara’s coordinates. Batman out,” Bruce tells them all as he pushes a button that lets the rest of the league in on the plan.

We all walk over to them just as he signs off and he turns around. He comes closer as all the other heroes start to head out.

“Stay put,” he commands and I cross my arms.

“What? Why?” Dick throws up his hands in confusion.

“This is a league mission,” Aquaman tells us as he puts his hands on his hips.

“You’re not trained,” Flash explains as he too puts his hands on his hips.

“Since when?” Wally asks, throwing his hands up as well.

“I meant you're not trained to work as part of this team,” Flash explains as he steps out from behind Bruce and motions to the other heroes.

“There will be other missions, when you’re ready,” Aquaman promises and we roll our eyes.

“But for now, stay put,” Bruce finishes off as he looks at me and Dick with a stern look we both know too well.

They walk off and Wally crosses his arms as we watch. I still have my arms crossed too and an angry scowl on my face.

“Glad you didn’t bring you know who?” Green Arrow asks Martian Manhunter.

“Indeed,” Martian Manhunter replies before they too start to walk off.

They all walk through the door and Red Tornado stands just in front of the door, looking at us. After all the other heroes are fully through the door, he turns and follows them. The door closes behind him leaving us with the ‘Justice League members only’ sign.

“Uh, when we’re ready? How are we ever supposed to be ready when they treat us like, like sidekicks?” Wally asks angrily, throwing his hands up as he moves to look at the rest of us.

“My mentor, my king, I thought he trusted me,” Kaldur speaks in a solemn tone.

“Trust? They don’t even trust us with the basics. They’ve got a secret HQ in space,” Wally exclaims as he motions upwards.

“What else aren’t they telling us?” Kaldur questions and Dick sighs.

“I have a better question. Why didn’t we leave with Speedy?” Dick asks and my eyes only water more at the mention of him as the others look down in shame.

“Jay. You ok? You haven’t spoken much,” Dick observes as he looks at me.

“No. Speedy really hit a sore spot. You know how close we are with our anger issues… I mean him more than me, but ya know,” I mutter out and Dick sighs before pulling me into his side.

“I do know. I do,” Dick whispers to me and I cuddle into his side.

It stays quiet for a moment as we all feel the shame and pain. I straighten up as Kaldur seems to get an idea and he takes a moment to think it over.

“What is… project Cadmus?” Kaldur asks and Dick looks up at him.

“I don’t know, but I can find out,” Dick replies and I look at him as we both smirk.

Y/n’s Pov:

Together Dick and I walk over to the big computer on the wall. Dick starts to do exactly what we were taught since we were eight: hacking. He quickly hacks into the computer and while he looks for any answers, Kaldur walks up with Wally.

Kaldur stops on Dick’s left and Wally stops on my right. Dick tries the first time and gets ‘access denied’ from the female computerized voice we all know so well. Dick just chuckles and tries again.

“Wanna bet?” he asks before trying again.

“Whoa! How are you doing that?” Wally asks and I giggle.

“Same system as the Batcave,” Dick replies in a cocky sing-songy tone, making me giggle again.

“Not to mention we’ve learned how to hack since we were eight, Wall,” I tell him and his eyes widen as he looks at me.

“Wait? Really?” he asks and we nod.

Dick types for another second before hitting one last button. The screen then changes from ‘access denied’ to ‘access granted’ and the files start to open as the female computerized voice speaks again.

“See. We know what we’re doing,” I tell Wally with a smirk as his mouth falls open.

“Walls, close the mouth. You're going to catch flies,” I tell him, making both Kaldur and Dick chuckle when Wally crosses his arms.

“Mean…” Wally mutters and I giggle.

“Alright project Cadmus, genetics lab here in DC. That’s all there is, but if Batman’s suspicious maybe we should investigate,” Dick explains with a smirk as he puts his hands on his hips.

“We really should. Bats always is right whenever he’s suspicious about something,” I add with a nod of my head.

“Solve their case before they do. It would be poetic justice,” Kaldur comments as he tilts his head ever so slightly to his right.

“Hey. They’re all about justice,” Dick adds with a chuckle and Kaldur sighs.

“But they said stay put,” Kaldur points out, looking away in shame for a moment.

“For the blotting-out-the-sun mission, not this,” Dick excuses with a smirk and I smirk with him.

“Wait. A—are you two going to Cadmus?” Wally asks, making me and Dick turn to him.

“Because if you two are going, I’m going,” Wally adds on as he points to us before motioning to himself with both hands.

We then turn to Kaldur and smile at him. He takes a moment to think about it as he looks at us.

“Just like that, we’re a team on a mission?” Kaldur asks and we all grin at him even wider.

“We didn’t come for a play date,” Dick tells him and Kaldur smirks.

“Let’s go then,” Kaldur agrees, making the rest of us cheer.

~Time Skip~

When we approach the scene, Dick and I arrive on my motorcycle as Wally runs up next to us. Kaldur also comes walking up next to us.

“Man, I miss my motorcycle,” Dick complains as we both take off our helmets and I giggle.

“Then tell Bats you wanna take the test again and get your license back,” I tell him as I shove him lightly and he shakes his head.

“Definitely doing that when we get home,” Dick replies and I playfully put a hand to my chest, giving a light gasp.

“Are you saying you don’t like riding with me?” I ask him in a playful hurt tone.

“It’s not that, Jay. You know I love it, but it’s more that I miss the freedom and control,” he tells me and I nod in understanding.

“I mean I’d be pretty sad without mine,” I agree with him and he smiles at me.

“Thanks, Jay. You always understand,” he says before pulling me into a hug.

“Can you two stop acting like a couple for two minutes?!” Wally asks before making a gag noise and I tsk before whacking him on the back of the head, making him let out a light ‘Ow’ as he rubs where I’d smacked.

“You know we’re not a couple, Wall,” I scold him and he scoffs.

“Yeah, right. I’ll believe it when you-” he starts but by some magic I catch onto what he’s saying and glare at him.

“You know what, never mind,” he chuckles out nervously as I keep my glare on him.

“Woah, Jay, don’t kill him with the glare,” Dick comments as he stands in front of me.

“I wish you’d let me…” I tell him with my teeth clenched.

“No, you don’t. You love KF,” he tells me with a shake of his head and I huff.

“Love is a strong word sometimes,” I say with a roll of my eyes.

“Love you too, Jay,” Wally jokes with a nervous chuckle and I shake my head at him.

“We need a plan,” Kaldur says, interrupting us as he looks over the situation.

“Help!” We hear a man yell from inside the building.

“Get us down!” Another yells as they wave at the firemen.

“Stay put. We will get you out,” the chief firefighter tells them through a megaphone.

Just as he finishes his sentence, an explosion goes off. The two men go flying out of the window and they fall to the concrete. Wally smirks with confidence before putting his goggles on and racing off.

He runs over and up the building, catching the two men and carefully placing them on the roof before almost falling backwards. He catches himself on a window and hangs there for a moment.

“It’s what’s his name, Flash boy,” one of the firefighters yells out as he points up at Wally.

“Kid Flash. Why is that so hard?” Wally shouts as he continues to hold onto the window.

“So smooth…” Dick jokes and I giggle.

“I mean, he really is,” I joke with him and he chuckles.

“Does he always have to run ahead? We need a plan. We-” Kaldur asks before trailing off as he looks past me.

“Robin? Where’d he go?” Kaldur asks me and I shrug, shaking my head.

“Rob always disa—” I start, but get cut off by one of Dick’s famous laughs.

Together Kaldur and I watch as Dick gets up onto the fire truck and runs up the ladder. He then uses his grappling gun and swings into the building. He then helps Wally up and into the building as well.

“That’s infuriating. Does Robin always do that?” Kaldur asks me and I nod.

“It really is, isn’t it? But yeah, he does. Don’t worry, Bats and I are working with him on that,” I tell him and he nods as he turns back to watch.

“You comin’, Jay?!” Dick shouts and I giggle before running the same route as Dick.

Once I’m on the windowsill, Dick comes over and gives me a hand. I smile and take his hand as I hop down into the room with them.

“I’m going to start hacking the computers. Jay, wanna help?” Dick asks and I shake my head.

“Nah, I’ll watch your six,” I tell him and he agrees with a nod.

“I’ll take a few laps around the building to see what I can find,” Wally tells us as Dick finds a computer and I watch his surroundings.

“Appreciate the help,” Kaldur tells us as he lands in the room and puts his water bearers on his back.

“You handled it. Besides, we're here to investigate. Poetic justice, remember?” Dick asks, shrugging as he continues to type on the computer.

Kaldur looks at me with a raised eyebrow and I shrug before looking around. Kaldur walks out of the room as Dick keeps typing away and I keep watch over Dick’s back. I turn around just as Dick seems to be finishing up.

“Done yet, Wonderboy?” I ask him and he shrugs.

“Just about, miss impatient,” Dick replies as he keeps typing and I giggle, shaking my head.

“Ok. Done!” Dick exclaims as he pulls his drive from the computer. “Let’s go,” he tells me and I nod as we both rush out of the room.

“Elevators should be locked down,” Wally observes as me and Dick rush past him.

“This is wrong,” Dick comments as he pulls his holographic computer up on his arm.

“Is this what I think it is, Rob?” I ask him and he hums, nodding.

“Thought so. This is a high speed express elevator,” Dick explains and I nod along.

“It definitely doesn’t belong in a two-story building,” I reply and he hums in agreement as he continues to look at his holo computer.

“Neither does what I saw,” Kaldur comments before he walks over to the elevator and pries the doors open.

“And that’s why they need an express elevator,” Dick observes as we look down the long elevator shaft.

He then grabs me and pulls me with him as he takes a jump. He holds out his grappling gun and shoots it so we go propelling down.

“I have my own grappling gun, I could have done it myself,” I express and he shakes his head as he lets out one of his famous laughs.

“This way is more fun though,” he replies and I roll my eyes, letting out a laugh as well.

“Ok. Whatever you say,” I agree with him and he grins at me.

As we get farther down, I look up to see Kaldur and Wally sliding down the wire after us. We rush past each floor before coming to a slow stop on level 26.

“We’re at the end of my rope,” Dick comments as we hang there for a moment.

“We really are…” I suggest and he chuckles, shaking his head before swinging us to the side of the shaft.

“That was so wrong!” Wally shouts as he comes down the rope after Kaldur.

“What! You know me! When I see an opportunity, I take it,” I admit and he makes a gagging sound.

“You only make those sounds because any kind of love is gross for you,” I point out and he scoffs as I cross my arms.

“Yeah, because I don’t need someone to make me happy. I do that on my own,” he fights back and I let out a huff of air.

“Ok. Ok. You two, stop it. We don’t have time for arguments,” Dick tells both of us and I sigh, uncrossing my arms.

“You're right. I’m sorry, KF,” I apologize and Wally softly smiles.

“It’s ok, Jay. I’m sorry too. You're only being you,” he apologizes too and I smile.

“Ok. Now that that’s over with,” Dick comments as he plops down and pulls his holo computer back up.

“Bypassing security…” he explains as he types and it takes him a moment.

“There. Go,” he tells us just as all the robin faces on his screen turn green with a beep.

“Dude, is your face really your load bar?” Wally asks in amusement and Dick nods.

“Hey. It’s not that weird. Jay’s is her face!” Dick tells him and Wally breaks out into a huge grin.

“That’s cheesy, dude,” Wally says and I groan.

“It’s just the right amount of cheese though,” Dick replies, wiggling his eyebrows and I snort as I hold back a giggle.

“I mean, he’s not wrong,” I tell Wally with a smirk and he shakes his head.

“Ok. That is enough. We are here for a mission. Not to joke around,” Kaldur tells us before he steps up to the elevator doors.

Kaldur pries the second set of elevator doors open and we walk through. After crossing the threshold, we all stop and look around.

“Welcome to project Cadmus,” Dick introduces like he would if we were meeting someone.

Wally takes off running and Kaldur quickly turns to reach out like he’ll stop him.

“Kid, wait!” Kaldur quietly exclaims, but Wally doesn’t listen and keeps going.

Wally skids just as he’s about to turn the corner and stumbles right into some giant dog-looking animals. He comes to a sliding stop and one of the dog-like creatures almost steps on him, but he rolls out of the way just in time. A whole bunch of them walk past as if in a trance, not even really noticing us.

Wally quickly zooms back next to us and we all watch as the creatures all walk past us. The one in the front growls and it seems that there’s a smaller matching creature on its head.

“No. Nothing odd going on here,” Kaldur sarcastically comments as we continue to watch more pass us by.

“Let's keep going…” Dick decides just as all the dog-like creatures pass us by.

“I’m game,” Wally agrees with him and Dick looks at me.

“If you’re going, you know I am,” I say with a nod.

“Ok. Let’s go to that door,” Dick points at it and we all nod before walking over. “Give me a minute to hack it,” he tells us as he pulls up his computer again.

“Why are you doing all the hacking if Jay knows how to hack too?” Wally asks and I click my tongue on the roof of my mouth as Dick laughs.

“Ask her,” Dick tells him through his laughs as I glare at him.

“Why is he doing all the hacking?” Wally asks as he looks at me.

“I may or may not have broken my holo pad computer yesterday…” I mumble and Dick chuckles.

“And how did you do that, hmm?” Dick asks in a playful tone that makes me glare at him again.

“I fell out of my bed with it…” I mumble as quietly as I can.

“Almost got it…” Dick tells us as he keeps typing.

“How’d you fall outta bed with it?” Wally asks and I sigh, shaking my head.

“Does it really matter?” I ask with a roll of my eyes.

“Yes,” Kaldur and Wally say in unison.

“Fine… I was watching my favorite movie on it, because I didn’t wanna move from my bed to go watch in the den… and then boom! Someone decides it’d be funny to scare me…” I tell them as I side eye Dick and he smirks cockily.

“I’m not 100% the best when I get scared when I’m just relaxing. When I’m home, I let all my guards down, and Dick saw an opportunity and took it. He scared me, made me jump and I fell off my bed, breaking the arm band…” I explain and Kaldur raises an eyebrow at me.

“So it really wasn’t your fault then?” he asks and I sigh, shaking my head.

“In a way, yes and no. I should’ve still had my guard up and I should’ve had my gear in my room. Bats is always telling us that,” I explain just as the doors slide open.

“Okay, I’m officially whelmed…” Dick comments as we see what’s behind the door.

We walk in and see what looks like more of the creatures from earlier, except these ones have electricity flowing through them. We walk farther in and inspect as we go.

“This is how they hide this massive underground facility from the world,” Wally explains as he walks in front of us while looking around.

“The real Cadmus isn’t on the grid. It generates its own power with these… things. Must be what they’re bred for,” Wally continues as he turns to us and points at them.

“Even the name is a clue. The Cadmus of myth created a new race by sowing dragon’s teeth into the earth,” Kaldur takes over explaining his thoughts.

“And this Cadmus creates new life too,” Dick adds on as he walks up next to Kaldur.

“Let’s figure out why,” Dick decides before going over to the computer and connecting his holo computer to it.

“So if you still had yours, what’d you call it?” Wally asks as he looks at me.

“Holo pad computer,” I inform him and he nods.

“So if you had that, you could hack things too? I’ve been on missions with you. I’ve only ever seen Rob hack,” Wally states and I giggle while Dick laughs too.

“Oh, I’ve done it. You just haven’t seen it. Also when we’re all together, Rob prefers to do the hacking and I prefer to watch his back. He’s just a little more advanced than I am,” I inform Wally, who nods along.

“But to answer your question, yes KF, I can. When my new holo pad comes in, I’ll show you by hacking your phone,” I joke and he crosses his arms.

“You better not hack my phone. That’s a violation of privacy…” Wally replies with an attitude and I giggle.

“I’m joking KF, I’d only do that to Rob…” I joke again and Dick quickly turns to me.

“Tell me you don’t do that,” he deadpans and I slowly grin.

“I don’t know, you tell me. Do I?” I ask with a smirk and he groans.

“Don’t do that! I thought you were serious,” he tells me before he goes back to the computer.

“Do you have something you're trying to hide? I thought we told each other everything?” I ask him in a sickly sweet tone and he quickly shakes his head.

“No. I do tell you everything, but ya know, sometimes there may be some surprises I keep from you,” he explains and I grin.

“So you are hiding something,” I say while smiling at him.

“No, I’m not. Plus, you’d know if I was… you always figure it out if I do try to anyway,” he explains with a shrug and I giggle.

“Ok. Whatever you say, Wonderboy,” I continue to joke with him and he shakes his head.

“Ok. So they call them Genomophs,” Dick explains as he finally finds what he’s looking for.

“Whoa, look at the stats on these things. Super strength, telepathy, razor claws. These are living weapons,” Dick continues to read them off as I read over his shoulder.

“They’re engineering an army, but for who?” Wally asks as he too reads from over Dick’s side.

“Wait. There’s something else. Project Kr,” Dick explains as he finds more and Kaldur comes up beside me to look over it too.

“Ugh, the file’s triple-encrypted. I can’t-” Dick starts to say, but gets cut off with a voice.

“Don’t move!” we hear someone yell, making us all turn to look at the doors as they open.

A man runs in with a bunch of the dog-like animals and comes to a stop. Two or three of the creatures growl and sneer at us.

“Wait. Robin, Blue Jay, Aqualad, Kid Flash?” The man questions when he recognizes us.

“At least he got your name right,” Dick snickers at Wally as he turns back to his holo computer.

“Yeah. He coulda called you flash boy like that other guy did,” I agree with Dick, who laughs while I giggle when Wally sneers at us.

“I know you. Guardian, a hero,” Kaldur tells the man.

“I do my best,” the man replies in a nonchalant way.

“Then what are you doing here?” Wally asks him as we all stand around Dick as protection.

“I’m chief of security. You’re trespassing. But we can call the league, figure this out,” he explains in a gruff tone and I shrink back a bit.

“You think the league’s gonna approve of you breeding weapons?” Wally accuses him and he looks shocked for a moment.

“Weapons? What are you…” Guardian asks in confusion before the creature on his shoulder turns to him as its horns light up.

“What have I…” Guardian asks before trailing off. “Ugh, my head…” Guardian mumbles out as he holds his head.

“Take them down hard. No mercy,” he suddenly demands as he points at us and the creatures growl as they launch at us.

“Jay. Come on,” Dick tells me as he grabs me like he had in the elevator shaft and shoots his grappling gun.

Wally and Kaldur stay on the ground fighting as me and Dick get up into the rafters. He starts to run out and I roll my eyes before following after him. He quickly jumps down and heads for the door with me right behind him.

“What are we doing?!” I ask him as we run.

“Finding the elevator!” Dick tells me as he takes a sharp right and I follow him.

We come up to the elevator and he pulls his holo pad back out as he crouches down. He types and I keep a watch over the hallway as Wally quickly comes around the corner.

“Way to be team players, you two!” Wally shouts as he comes to a stop next to us and Kaldur stays at the end of the hall.

“Weren’t you guys behind us?” Dick asks nonchalantly with a small shrug as he continues to type.

“Hey. I didn’t have a choice, he pulled me with him,” I argue just as the doors open.

We get in and Kaldur quickly rushes through the hall to us. He gets into the elevator as the creatures come racing around the corner. He flips and lands into the elevator just as the doors close.

There’s a bang at the doors as we all stand up and we look up at the flashing numbers. The numbers count down one by one.

“We’re headed down?” Kaldur asks in an astonished tone.

“Dude. Out is up,” Wally agrees with Kaldur as he points up and he looks at me, making me shrug at him.

“I know just about as much as you do,” I tell him as I hold my hands up in surrender and Wally looks back at Dick with an expectant look, who then turns to him.

“Excuse me? Project Kr. It’s down on sub-level 52,” Dick explains his plan matter-of-factly, making me cover up a giggle.

“This is out of control, perhaps…” Kaldur disappointedly comments as he puts a hand to his forehead and walks past us before trailing off.

“Perhaps we should contact the league,” Kaldur finishes as he turns back to us.

We all stay silent, not wanting to agree with him for a moment before the elevator dings. The doors open and we all step up, ready to exit as they do. We all look out into what seems to be a cave of red for a moment before Dick rushes off.

I sigh, shaking my head before rolling my eyes. I look at Kaldur and Wally, who give me questioning looks. I shrug as nonchalantly as I can before rushing off to follow Dick.

“We are already here,” I hear Wally tell Kaldur before he follows us.

Together we all catch up with one another and crouch down, stopping to see two different hallways. Dick seems to be analyzing something for a moment.

“Which way?” Kaldur reluctantly asks with a roll of his eyes.

“Yeah… bizarre looking hallway one?” Dick says he points to hallway one.

“Or bizarre hallway number two?” I finish off for him and he turns, smirking at me and I smirk back.

“Halt!” A voice says out of nowhere as a creature walks out.

He lifts his arm and his horns on top of his head start to glow. Two canister-like things fly at us and dick quickly makes me duck as one almost hits us in the head. Dick quickly bounces back up as the canisters explode and throws two Wing Dings at the creature's head.

The creature's horns glow again and the Wing Dings stop just short of his face before dropping to the ground. The creature then lifts two more canisters and Dick grabs my arm as we run down the opposite hallway with the canisters exploding right behind us.

Wally runs faster than us and goes ahead of the group. We run in right behind him to see a doctor on the floor as Wally lifts one of the canisters and throws it between the door and wall to stop it from closing.

“Hurry!” Wally shouts as he turns back to us and waves frantically.

He goes into the door first, then Aqualad follows him in with me following behind him and Dick right behind me. Aqualad quickly runs back over and kicks the canister out of the doorway as Dick starts trying to hack into it.

“I disabled the door. We’re safe,” Dick promises as he pulls back from the hacking to look at Aqualad.

“We’re trapped,” Aqualad points out and I scoff.

“No. Safe. As Dick said…” I speak out and Dick smirks when Aqualad sighs while shaking his head.

“Uh, guys. You’ll wanna see this,” Wally speaks up instantaneously, stopping the starting fight as we all turn to him.

We all walk over as Wally presses a button and lights come on. Dick lets out a small ‘whoa’ as the case in front of us lights up, perfectly showing what looks like Superman.

“Big K, little R,” Wally comments as he walks closer the the case.

“The atomic symbol for Krypton!” Wally continues explaining what he’s seeing.

“Clone?” he asks as he turns around to look at us.

“Robin… hack,” Aqualad commands as he turns to me and Dick.

“Uh, right, right,” Dick agrees as he comes out of his shock.

He pulls his connection cord out and connects it to the computer in front of us. He types for a minute and he groans when it won’t open.

“Rob… you skipped a part,” I tell him and he shakes his head.

“Where would I be without you, Jay?” he asks, leaning over to give my cheek a light kiss and I shrug lightly before he tries the hack again.

“Still trying to hack into whatever’s on this computer,” I joke and Dick rolls his eyes giving a small ‘haha’ in response.

This time he bypasses it and Wally gives me a look. I shrug and he shakes his head.

“You two really are made for each other, aren’t you?” Wally asks with a snicker and I shake my head.

“I’m more meant for him then I'll ever be for you,” I joke with Wally about when we had met and he groans.

“I can’t help it. When I see a cute girl, I just have to shoot my shot, ok?!” Wally protests and I laugh as he crosses his arms with a pout.

“So that means flirting with every moving thing you see?” I ask, adding insult to injury and he huffs, shaking his head.

“Ouch. She’s got you there, KF,” Dick agrees with a laugh when Wally huffs again.

“I only flirt with the pretty moving things,” Wally states with attitude and I giggle, shaking my head.

“Only you, KF. Only you,” I comment with a laugh and he only huffs again as he tightens his crossed arms.

“Weapon designation superboy. A clone force grown in…” Dick reads off the monitor, but pauses and I read over his shoulder.

“Sixteen weeks?!” I shout out in shock with wide eyes.

“From DNA acquired from Superman,” Dick continues to read after me.

“Stolen from Superman,” Aqualad adds on, in a voice full of venom.

“No way the big guy knows about this,” Wally says and I nod my head in agreement.

“Solar suit allows him to absorb yellow sun radiation 24/7,” Dick reads off more information the more as he finds.

“And these creatures?” Aqualad starts to question as he points at the screen.

“Genomorph Gnomes…” Dick fills in for Aqualad as we all read over the information now.

“Telepathic, force-feeding him an education,” Dick explains even more information.

“And we can guess what else. They’re making a slave out of… well, Superman’s son,” Wally points out and I frown as I look up at him.

“Poor guy. He’s probably never been outside this case,” I sympathize and the others frown as we look up at him.

“Now we contact the league,” Aqualad tells us before he presses his belt buckle button.

“No signal,” Dick comments when Aqualad looks confused as to why it’s just silence though the com.

“We’re in too deep… literally,” Wally states and I roll my eyes.

“You’ve been waiting to say that, haven’t you?” I ask him with an unamused look and he smirks.

“What can I say? I’m full of good puns,” Wally says with a shrug and I chuckle.

“Good puns, my ass,” I joke with a roll of my eyes and Dick lets out his own laugh.

“You are not on her good side today, buddy,” Dick chuckles out and Wally frowns.

“What did I do?! I didn’t do anything to her today!” he exclaims and Dick shrugs.

“I don’t know, but whatever it was made her upset,” Dick replies before laughing again when Wally throws his hands in the air.

“This is wrong…” Wally comments as he turns back to the case.

“We can’t leave him like this,” Dick comments and Kaldur takes a moment to think it over.

“They’re right, K. We have to help him,” I comment and Kaldur eventually nods.

“Set him free…” Kaldur demands and Dick gives him a skeptical look.

“Do it,” Kaldur finally adds on and Dick finally brings up his holo computer before starting to hack in.

It takes Dick less than a second to type into it before the case starts to open. It slides open with a hiss and steam comes from the sides as we all watch. The case fully opens and we all wait with bated breath before the clone is squeezing his knuckles together, making a fist.

It stays quiet for a moment, but the creatures above the clone horns glow and there’s a light buzz. Soon I jump slightly into Dick's side as the clone's eyes fly open and he stares at us. Dick reaches out and helps me fix my stance before it’s thrown off again when the clone launches himself at us.

He knocks me out of the way, making me push Dick down with me, but he catches me with a small huff. Quickly we all scramble back up only to see the clone sitting on top of Aqualad, throwing punch after punch to his face.

“We have to stop him!” I shout as I jump into action and run over with the others right behind me.

“Whoa! Hang on, Supey!” Wally yells out as he grips onto one of the clone's arms.

“We’re on your side,” Dick also tries to tell him as he holds his other arm back.

I jump on his back and try to pull him off by the neck, but he throws Wally, who goes flying back into the glass. He then pulls me off and throws me to the left.

“Blue Jay!” Dick yells out as he takes a moment from struggling with the clone.

“I’m fine, Rob,” I groan as I roll onto my side and he nods lightly.

“I don’t wanna do this,” Dick shouts before he activates one of the many gas bombs we carry before shoving it into the clone’s face.

Dick pushes off of him as he goes crazy when the gas explodes in his face. Aqualad takes the chance and kicks the clone, making him fly back into the computer panel. Dick runs over to me and quickly helps me up before shooting out his taser just as the clone recovers, standing back up.

Dick hits him right in the chest with the taser, but it doesn’t seem to phase him at all. The clone then pulls at the taser lines and pulls Dick over to him. I get mad and rush over to try and help Dick, but the clone just flicks me away again, making me hit the wall.

I groan and roll over only to watch as he puts his foot on Dick’s chest so he can’t get up. He starts to push down with his foot and Dick groans. I try to get up, but my side screams at me to stop.

It’s only a moment later when there’s a bright light and I pause when I see Kaldur rushing forward with his water bearers.

“Enough!” Kaldur yells out as his water bearers turn into a big hammer and he knocks the clone off of Dick.

The clone goes flying back and hits the back of the case we’d found him in, leaving a big dent. Dick pulls himself up onto his knees and Kaldur puts his water bearers away before going over to help Dick. I roll onto my back and let out a sigh, but even that feels painful.

“Not me… check on Blue Jay…” I hear Dick speak and I groan lightly.

“I’m ok, Rob,” I assure him and Dick tries to get up before ultimately falling back to the floor himself.

I look down to see a piece of glass in my side. Then I realized that I had rolled through the glass Wally broke previously. I groan and carefully pull the piece of glass from my side before trying to get up, but ultimately fall back to the floor.

The clone gets up and I watch as Kaldur stands up. He shields Dick as he stands up and holds a hand out to the clone. The clone stops maybe about a foot from Kaldur.

“We are trying to help you!” Kaldur shouts out and the clone doesn’t seem to like it as he lunges forward at him.

They fight back and forth for a few minutes. Kaldur even tries to electrocute him again with his water bearers, but again it doesn’t seem to phase him. He leaps and slams Kaldur into the roof. When Kaldur still doesn’t stop, he slams him into the roof again and that’s when my vision starts to blur.

I groan and try to lift myself back up to stop him, but my vision goes almost completely black as I fall to the floor. The black edges around my vision slowly take over and I find myself succumbing to the darkness.

To Be Continued…

As of right now there is no tag list for this series, but if any of you would like us to make one we totally can. For now we have decided just to see if any of you like this one.

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oc-poll-times · 1 year

Text

The Ultimate OC Showdown Tournament has begun!

This was inspired by a lot of the tournaments in @competition-list including @transfemswagbracket @nonbiney-swag-competition @best-fnaf-character @autismswagsummit @robot-swag-competition @mad-scientist-showdown @adhdswagcompetition as well as the OC tournament done by @oc-cinematic-universe! I have over 600 of these guys, so it's finally time to figure out who the OC of all time is!

You do not need to know who they are to vote!

Their brackets will include a brief bio (one sentence), a link to their Toyhouse page, and an image! But also you can just vote on vibes, anything works! I just want to have a good time!

This post will be updated with each bracket and an updated bracket illustration each time! Polls will run for one week, and for this first round Part A and Part B will go up on Saturday and Sunday respectively! I hope we can all have a good time!

EDIT: I wanted to add more of the tournament blogs that inspired this since they're all excellent people and y'all should go vote in their tournaments as well!

Round 1A

Miranda (Carnival Casino) VS. George (Murder Mystery)

2. Cabriel (Love Gods) VS. Rouge (Bakeries)

3. Amadeus (Fantasy Story) VS. Freeze Frame (Villain Squad)

4. Nina (Whisper Court) VS. Kalliope (The Hallowed)

5. Phyllis (Villain School) VS. Adelaide (Locked Love)

6. Jinx (The Hallowed) VS. Cinna (The Hallowed)

7. Kisaragi (Whisper Court) VS. Ariyana (Angel Wings)

8. Angel (Angel Wings) VS. Zyaire (The Hallowed)

9. Wally (Villain School) VS. Mikal (Whisper Court)

10. Cordelia (Fantasy Story) VS. Catt (The Hallowed)

11. Xena (Fantasy Story) VS. Maple (Villain School)

12. Emmit (The Hallowed) VS. Abbey (Locked Love)

13. Wally (Whisper Court) VS. Glimmer (Red Signal)

14. Lorelai (Whisper Court) VS. Lily (Monster DND)

15. Willow Whisp (Whisper Court) VS. Ephraim (The Hallowed)

16. Lyra (Carnival Casino) VS. Castor (Love Gods)

Round 1B

Aurelius (Angel Wings) VS. Veridan (Whisper Court)

2. Ringmaster (Fantasy Story) VS. Darciel (Love Gods)

3. Wally (Locked Love) VS. Dusty+Coco (DND PC)

4. Johon (Whisper Court) VS. Velvet (Bakeries)

5. Khalida (Villain School) VS. Cinnamon (Murder Mystery)

6. Rose (Whisper Court) VS. Charlie (Villain School)

7. Mei/Yue/Eyumie (The Hallowed) VS. Phospher (Tech Story)

8. Irene (The Hallowed) VS. Hijack (Villain Squad)

9. Scarlet (Bakeries) VS. Evelyn (The Hallowed)

10. Ismet (The Hallowed) VS. Daisy (Daisies And Demons)

11. Finch (Whisper Court) VS. Kastra (Kastra-Verse)

12. Wally (The Hallowed) VS. Karma (Fantasy Story)

13. Blackjack (Fantasy Story) VS. Tripp (The Hallowed)

14. Meri (Locked Love) VS. Alice (Carnival Casino)

15. Lilith (Locked Love) VS. Cardamon (Fantasy Story)

16. Bella (Angel Wings) VS. Meredith/Nightingale (Artistic Licensing)

WOW. REALLY DECIMATING THE GROUP HERE. HOLY SHIT

Round 2

Miranda (Carnival Casino) VS. Rouge (Bakeries)

2. Amadeus (Fantasy Story) VS. Kalliope (The Hallowed)

3. Phyllis (Villain School) VS. Cinna (The Hallowed)

4. Kisaragi (Whisper Court) VS. Zyaire (The Hallowed)

5. Mikal (Whisper Court) VS. Cordelia (Fantasy Story)

6. Xena (Fantasy Story) VS. Emmit (The Hallowed)

7. Glimmer (Red Signal) VS. Lorelai (Whisper Court)

8. Willow Whisp (Whisper Court) VS. Castor (Love Gods)

9. Aurelius (Angel Wings) VS. Ringmaster (Fantasy Story)

10. Dusty + Coco (DND PC) VS. Velvet (Bakeries)

11. Cinnamon (Murder Mystery) VS. Rose (Whisper Court)

12. Mei/Yue/Eyumie (The Hallowed) VS. Irene (The Hallowed)

13. Evelyn (The Hallowed) VS. Ismet (The Hallowed)

14. Finch (Whisper Court) VS. Karma (Fantasy Story)

15. Blackjack (Fantasy Story) VS. Alice (Carnival Casino)

16. Cardamon (Fantasy Story) VS. Meredith/Nightingale (Artistic Licensing)

The rounds last time were SUPER CLOSE I am getting SCARED

Round 3

Miranda (Carnival Casino) VS. Amadeus Kama (Fantasy Story)

2. Cinna Hallowell (The Hallowed) VS. Kisaragi (Whisper Court)

3. Cordelia (Fantasy Story) VS. Xena (Fantasy Story)

4. Lorelai (Whisper Court) VS. Castor (Love Gods)

5. The Ringmaster (Fantasy Story) VS. Dusty + Coco (DND PC)

6. Cinnamon (Murder Mystery) VS. Irene (The Hallowed)

7. Evelyn Soleil (The Hallowed) VS. Finch (Whisper Court)

8. Blackjack (Fantasy Story) VS. Cardamon Suite (Fantasy Story)

#poll masterpost #poll #polls #oc poll #death match #death match masterpost

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toasterfroggy · 9 months

Text

hey guys, welcome to my blog!!

charlie - minor - she/they - omniromanic/demisexual - aries - INFP

NO CHAIN ASKS PLEASE!!!! they're really sweet though

a little about me:

favorite color: orange - favorite food: mac and cheese - favorite animal: toucan - favorite song: a nightingale sang on berkeley square by frank sinatra - favorite band: queen - hobbies: theater, writing, drawing, listening to music, skateboarding, reading, playing video games

i am one of those people who says they were born in the wrong generation (a.k.a I WANNA LIVE IN THE 80S AHHHH)

hyperfixations are in orange ~

fandoms: stranger things, spiderverse, heartstopper, welcome home, the muppets, dr. teeth and the electric mayhem, disney, barbie, good omens + others that aren't as significant

i am for BYLER if BYLER is for BYLER

blorbos: will byers, mike wheeler, hobie brown, tao xu, michael holden, ken, remus lupin, sirius black, reki kyan, eddie kaspbrak, richie tozier, wally darling, eddie dear, frank frankly, howdy pillar, crowley, aziraphale + and so many more help me

ships: byler, ineffable husbands, narlie, telle, reddie, wolfstar, renga + multiple others i may have forgotten

DNI: homophobes, transphobes, racists, toxic milkvans, pr0-shippers + all that jazz

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theunderestimator-2 · 1 year

Note

it's so sad that Wally never was able to regain his friendship with Jones and Cook. at least Glen Matlock took the time to recount stories for the book. does the book say anything about Wally being able to at least reconnect with Glen?

Glen did socialise with Wally back in the day, they'd meet up some place and go for a drink. He didn't hold a grudge against Glen or any of the other Pistols, I mean Lydon & Sid didn't actually know Wally and Matlock only came to know him for a few months. It was Jones and Cook that Wally expected more from, since they were old buddies and schoolmates but it was them that airbrushed him out.

When Wally went to see the Pistols play at 100 Club in Oxford Street in 1976 and they were doing a soundcheck, Lydon's voice was heard saying ' Wally's in the house'. His old bandmates though wouldn't even talk to him or about him, I mean Steve Jones still sometimes refers to Wally as 'some guy we knew back then'.

Wally actualy stayed in touch with Glen on and off over the years.

#wally nightingale #the sex pistols #did you no wrong #ron evans

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leohtttbriar · 1 year

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brūcan (Old English), vb. 2, w. gen. object, make use of, enjoy, derivatives: break, broken

tissue (Modern English), noun use of tissu "woven, interlaced," past participle of tistre "to weave," from Latin texere "to weave, to make," from PIE root *teks- "to weave," also "to fabricate."

As kingfishers catch fire, as dragonflies draw flame, / as tumbled over rim in roundy wells / Stones ring, like each tucked string tells, each hung bell's / Bow swung finds tongue to fling out broad its name...

"Butterflies emerged around the same time as flowering plants. Throughout their long history they have diversified and developed amazing adaptations like powerful poisons, silk thread, stationary flight, transparent materials, temperature regulation, astonishing colors and patterns, and defenses against bacterial infections.

They have so much to teach us."

Shall we begin by taking it as a general principle--that all disease, at some period or other of its course, is more or less a reparative process, not necessarily accompanied with suffering: an effort of nature to remedy a process of poisoning or of decay, which has taken place weeks, months, sometimes years beforehand, unnoticed, the termination of the disease being then, while the antecedent process was going on, determined?

MATERIALITY: "Time and Other" by Levinas / glossary entry: "brūcan" / NIH entry: gold (Au) / welsh verse Kat Godeu, Battle of the Trees / etymology of "tissue" (biological) / Medieval Medicine, edited by Faith Wallis / "Finishing the Hat," Sondheim / Gerard Manley Hopkins / wikipedia entry / Nietzche's "Rhythmic Investigations" / NOVA documentary on butterfly morphology / Donna Haraway, Staying with the Trouble / Florence Nightingale / article on using sugar-based products to replace single-use plastics

#the way this could've been a mile long #ecocriticism #lit #poetry #science #climate change

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shadowsndaisies · 9 months

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codename: nightingale - performance

Reference: Young Justice Season 1 Episode 24

WC: 9.1k

synopsis: the team tests their acrobatic abilities and robin takes a trip down memory lane. aka the one where ng is a supportive girlfriend. ft. couply vibes from our favorite non-couple.

main masterlist

codename: nightingale series masterlist

a/n: I know I'm consistently inconsistent, but. it means a lot to hear from each of you and to see your comments and responses to what I write. it's hard to believe that there are only two updates left in the season, but it's been a long time coming. I do plan to continue with this series, but the breaks will probably be similar to the ones many of you have already been experiencing. thank you again for all your dedication!

BRUGES December 22nd, 20:08 CET

You weren’t really sure how to feel as you stood before the crowd. Standing on the ground beside Conner, you were dressed in a white and red leotard, identical to the ones the rest of your team was wearing. Each of you was wearing a similar mask that covered the top half of your face, and while you pulled your daggers out, your eyes connected with Conner’s, he seemed to recognize the slight unease in your expression. Before he could comment on it, the Ring Master was walking into the spotlight, and the crowd seemed to get louder as he started the night.

“Damen und Herren, Mesdames et Messieurs, Ladies and Gentlemen! Welcome to the Haly International Traveling Circus! Where the world in the center ring is your oyster, and these are our latest pearls! The Daring Dangers!” he announced, and you straightened out, blades twirling in your hands.

“Dan Danger!” The spotlight focused on Dick as he swung from a trapeze high above everyone’s heads. Your breath caught in your throat as you watched; part of you absolutely amazed at how he moved in the air, and part of you trembling with fear as your brain flashed to the memory he had shown you at the start of November.

You held your breath as he launched from his trapeze and somersaulted in the air opposite M’gann, “Dawn Danger!” Haly announced, and the light focused on her for a second.

“Diane Danger!” The light moved to Artemis as she notched three arrows and then to Roy as he did the same, “Dane Danger!”

You nodded at Conner as you took your starting position, knowing your alias was coming soon. “Dean Danger!” Haly called, and a light shone on Conner, who was juggling barrels. You watched the moves, and as soon as he tossed two barrels, you ran and pushed off his crouched back. Vaguely you registered Haly’s “and Dana Danger!” announcement as the light shone on you.

You sent two blades flying clear across the ring, through a few hoops where they hit their bullseyes, triggering confetti cannons that shot up in time with Artemis and Roy’s release of sparkler arrows and Dick and M’gann’s well-timed tumbles through the hollow barrels that Conner had tossed. You barely blinked as you tucked down into a roll and came back down, using the momentum to spring up into a handspring with the agility of a trained acrobat.

“You'll never see another trapeze act like this, folks! And all of it, without a net!” you had straightened out and returned to the podium beside Conner, new blades in hand, just in time to hear Haly’s statement. You winced at the thought before your eyes caught on the pained sound that Dick made.

“Robin!” M’gann’s shout had your gaze shooting up immediately. And your heart leaped up as you watched Robin fall, the imaging too real for a memory, paired with shrieks from the crowd.

“Don’t blow our cover!” Robin instructed as he fell, and your eye twitched.

“Dean,” you hissed, at Conner, eyes dipping to the barrel in his hand, and he nodded, understanding your meaning.

“But saving your life's okay?” Conner asked, sarcasm dripping from every word as he launched the barrel up in the air with enough force to meet Dick in the air and then push him back up to where M’gann was coming back around for another pass from the trapeze.

“What did I just say?” Robin chastised as M’gann caught him.

“The crowd couldn't see me using telekinesis from below,” she countered, dropping him back at the platform of the trapeze frame. “Besides, I've been using it all night. I'm not exactly the acrobat you are,” M’gann adds as she lands beside him, the two of them wearing show smiles and waving out to the crowd.

“Yeah, neither am I right now. I think I've caught that 24 hour bug that's been going around the circus,” Dick admits, and you make a clicking noise in contempt that only Conner could hear.

“But the show must go on,” you note with an obviously upset tone.

“Yes,” is all Dick answered.

Your eye twitches once more as you start hitting targets that Conner was lobbying up in the air, most containing some confetti or glitter that would explode mid-air. You have a brief flash-back of the mission briefing, the one you hadn’t technically been invited to but had stumbled onto, to the great annoyance of Dick.

[FLASHBACK- MOUNT JUSTICE]

“Advanced weapons tech have been stolen at manufacturing plants throughout Europe. And each theft coincides with tour stops made by the Haly Circus. Batman is sending us undercover to catch the thieves,” Robin had led the briefing, and no one else had commented on it.

But you had sent him a look that made it apparent that you didn’t believe that Batman had authorized anything, but you also trusted Robin too much to make that a public fact.

“This clown car have room for one more?” Roy asked with a faux cheerful expression.

Your brows dipped as you looked at him. You weren’t completely sure where you stood at the moment. Everything he did to antagonize Artemis earlier this month still didn’t sit well with you. But this was Roy, who was practically your brother; after all the years he’s supported you and everything you’d been through together, there was no simple answer.

“Uh..” Dick shot a look at you, noting your stormy expression, “We've got this covered,” he offers hesitantly.

Your forehead creases as Roy leans closer to Robin, talking in a hushed tone you can’t hear. Whatever he says has the slightest effect in twitching Robin’s lips down. Not enough to be noticeable unless you’d been paying rapt attention to the interaction.

Haly’s announcement pulls you from the memory, and you realize you’d subconsciously been doing your routine and were now standing on one foot in Conner’s hand, hitting a final confetti target before being tossed up in the air for a summersault and then caught by Conner once more. “Put your hands together for The Daring Dangers!”

“Didn't think you’d make it through!” M’gann adds as you all regrouped together on the center podium, waving out to the crowd with show smiles.

“Neither did I. Help me backstage,” Dick admits, your eyes flashing something dangerous as you and M’gann loop an arm around Dick on either side.

Subtly you support his weight, Conner, Roy, and Artemis flanked you as the team made their way backstage. Your eyes caught on Ray, the stage hand, as he talked with the next act as you passed by.

“Ray, have you seen my other torch?”

“Here, you dropped it outside the train.”

“Thanks, you're a lifesaver!”

“Break a leg!”

Haly’s introduction timed up perfectly, “Bear witness, ladies, and gentlemen, to the Dragon's Breath!'' and a second later, the Ring Master himself is walking back to the backstage area.

The twins immediately swarmed, “Haly, what's the deal? Giving the top slot to those Danger kids?”

The other pipes in, “That's our slot!”

“Was your slot until you missed that performance in Paris,” Haly scoffs, looking at the twins and then glancing at us.

“Carlo was sick! He's better now,” one twin argues

“Plus, those Dangers are a sham! They say they're brothers and sisters. They don't even look alike!” Carlo butts in, and you can’t help the quirk to your lip because he’s not wrong. A few of you could probably pass for siblings if the masks stayed on, but not all of us.

Haly simply waved a hand at them, “Ah, you just don't like the competition!” he huffed, shooing the twins away. When he turned around again, he noticed the man in the suit standing just a few feet away. “Ah, for crying out loud, not you again! We're in the middle of a show!”

The man in the suit offered an unimpressed expression, "Then we'll talk after. But we will talk. Another city last week, another tech firm robbed. Another stop on your tour. If I prove you're responsible, I will shut you down.”

Haly frowned at the man, “I've got three minutes to gather props and get back to the center ring," and promptly turned to grab what he needed.

The suit noticed us when Haly walked off and approached, “Faraday, Interpol." He introduced himself, and you made eye contact with Robin. He hadn't mentioned Interpol during the briefing. "New act?” The agent asked.

“Yeah, just joined the tour," you affirmed, plastering on the same camera smile you used at all the events Oliver would drag you to.

“Probably clears you. But don't get too comfortable. Haly's going down for this," Faraday warns before stalking off.

You were crouched on a roof with Robin and Miss M as you all observed the prospective target when Superboy spoke up, “If Interpol's already on this, why are we bothering?”

“Because Batman said so," Dick deflected, “Why? You had something better to do?”

You turned back to look at Dick and quirked your brow, you were well aware of the significance this circus held for him, but no one else on this mission was. To them, his attitude was most likely abrasive.

“How do we know the thieves will hit here?” Artemis asked from her perch with Roy; you let your eyes drift toward them and were happy to see they were both still in one piece.

“There are more obvious targets,” Roy supplied, begrudgingly seeming in agreement with Artemis.

“And Faraday will have them covered!” Robin shot back defensively. “But I analyzed the tech already stolen, and the patterns suggest this is the place.”

M’gann interrupted with a soft voice, “How are you feeling?”

Her question had you turning back to Robin, features softening. You could see the strain he was putting himself through.

“Lousy, actually, but I'll manage,” he offers, and a frown pulls at your lips.

You were ready to butt in and tell him maybe he should stay back, but before you could, Conner cut in, “Contact! North-East quadrant.” You all watched as a hooded figure approached the gate and managed to flip their way over it. Their acrobatic skill was apparent. “Looks like we know why Carlo missed their performance,” Conner offered.

“Could be Carlo, could be his brother,” Robin reminded everyone. “Keep an open mind, and move in!”

You repelled down, Robin doing the same by your side, though you noticed as he landed a bit harsher than normal, before turning and trying to find your mystery acrobat again.

“Did you see where he went?” Robin asked as we regrouped, and everyone focused on finding any sign of your culprit.

Conner landed beside you, and a minute passed before he answered, “The warehouse.”

You all managed to slip into the warehouse undetected and took up positions surrounding the hooded figure from the railing above.

Robin laughed, drawing his attention, and that’s when you realized under the hood that he was also wearing a mask. “Caught red-handed! Red faced too, I'll bet.”

Artemis glared at him, “Acrobatics won't get you out of this.”

You saw the baton before he had it all the way up, and your eyes went wide, “Look out!”

No one else had a chance to say anything before your offender utilized a mock of devil's breath (fire) as a distraction. You all split up to avoid being burned, tumbling away from the heat.

“Somebody do something!” You huff, pushing yourself up and looking down at your arm, you can feel a burn there, and you bit down on your cheek to keep from letting out a pained cry.

“Those crates are full of live ammo! Move!” Roy shouted, and your eyes went wide. Roy jumped down toward you and helped you up, pulling you to your feet before tugging you after him.

You all found a somewhat secure spot and pulled down the metal supports around you, blocking you from most of the blast as the explosion shook the building and shattered the glass windows.

You waited an additional minute for aftershocks before Superboy kicked down the metal around you, “That guy is dead meat!”

“Superboy, no!” Robin shouted, stopping Conner before he could follow after our mystery firebug.

“You need to get her out,” you tell him as you gesture back to M’gann, wincing when your suit pulls against your burn.

“He's getting away!” Conner argued, and you couldn’t hide your surprise.

You could feel the rage pouring off of him. You hadn’t felt something this intense from Conner in a while. It was potent but awkward. You were all upset, angry, and annoyed, but no one to his extent, even with them being as close as they were.

You frowned at him, “And that matters more than Miss M? The fire's killing her!” You remind him, and suddenly the rage evaporated; his fluctuating emotions became increasingly more baffling with each mission.

“Right right!” He corrects, taking M’gann into his arms and running out from the smoke.

With the pressing concern of M’gann’s health resolved, Robin turns to the rest of you. “Artemis, NG, Arrow! Find the thief!” he shouts, but you all see as he collapses.

“Fuck,” you mutter, rushing up to him.

“Because he matters more than you?” Artemis asks, repeating your words from seconds earlier.

“You're still off your gigs, pal. We're getting you out too,” Roy determined as he and Artemis each looped an arm around him. “Birdy, you alright?”

“Fine! I’m right behind you!” You affirm, wincing once again as you grab your grapple, every movement of your arm paining you.

By the time you returned to the train, your arm was throbbing. You had applied burn paste on the bioship in the small bathroom while everyone else decompressed and bandaged it up, deciding to deal with it fully once back on the train, hoping to avoid any questions about it. Everyone seemed to be in a mood when you touched down and relegated themselves to quietly fuming while preparing for bed. Between the six of you, there were two compartments, one for the three boys, the other for the three girls. M’gann got ready for bed first, and Artemis approached you while she was in the shower. You were seated on the floor beside your bed. Despite having changed to get in unnoticed by anyone who happened to be wandering about, you still smelt like smoke and had no desire to get that on your bed. Artemis gently sat down beside you, hands hesitating before gently grabbing at your arm. You let out a hiss at the contact despite how light her touch had been.

“I saw it, before we carried Rob out, but it was hard to see, and there was fire everywhere, so I thought maybe it wasn’t as bad as I had thought, until you walked out of the change room with a bandage on…” she trailed.

“It’s fine,” you tried to shrug off.

“I know I messed up last time, but I thought about what you said. I want to be on this team, NG, I want-“ she cuts herself off, dropping your gaze. “I want them to be able to put their trust in me,” she says firmly.

You stare at her for a second, knowing she’s trying to be exceptionally open with you right now. Allowing you to read every emotion she’s got while holding your arm and meeting your masked eyes. Tiredly you pull the mask from your eyes, and hers widen.

“I’m not giving you my ID, not yet. I-” you take a deep breath cutting yourself off. “it’s a lot for me. But I could use some help with this burn, if you’re offering,” you respond.

“Yeah, let me grab the med kit,” she nods, stretching out to grab a box from under her bed.

When M’gann came out of her shower, Artemis had cleaned your burn and debrided what she could. You had taken a mild painkiller and used a localized anesthetic on the area to keep the pain at bay. M’gann’s eyebrows raised at your unmasked face but simply offered you a warm smile once you replicated though much more muted.

“That looks pretty rough, I didn’t realize you got burned,” M’gann notes, her tone full of concern.

“It’s alright. You were looking pretty rough yourself,” you muse tiredly.

“You feel any better?” Artemis asks, looking back at the Martian.

“Lots, but I’m still pretty drained,” she admits, walking over to sit beside the two of you on the floor. “Why don’t you wash up, Artemis? I can take over,” she offers.

“You sure?” Artemis asks hesitantly.

“Go,” you affirm. “It’s not like I can shower until this is properly bandaged up anyways,” you shrug,

“Alright,” she nods, standing up and grabbing her stuff before disappearing behind the doors and down the walkway to the shower.

“Big step,” M’gann notes as she picks up where Artemis left off, though her eyes glance up to make uninhibited eye contact with you.

“Maybe I’m just high on the pain killers,” you lament.

M’gann giggles, “No, but whatever the reason, I’m glad. I know you know I caught glimpses back in Biyaliya, but I’ve done my best to respect your privacy and the things I learned during that mission,” M’gann admits.

“Yeah, we’ve all come a long way since Biyaliya, haven’t we?” you muse.

“Very,” she affirms. “How goes the empath development? My uncle mentioned he and Canary have been corresponding regarding your training,” she inquires.

“Did he tell you he thinks I may be able to manifest as a telepath? If my empathic abilities continue to develop the way they have been, I mean,” you tell her lazily, the pain killer defiantly helping in your unusual calmness.

“No, he hadn’t,” she admits. “How do you feel about that?”

“Honestly? I’m not sure yet, I just started understanding my empathic abilities, grasping how to read others, how to interpret the feelings, and it’s still so easy to get overwhelmed, when everyone else’s feeling are just too loud, and I can’t manage it all flooding at me… but Canary said I’ve always been an empathetic person, that I find it in myself to forgive and understand quicker than most, we just never realized it had to do with my latent abilities more than my experiences.”

“It’s both,” M’gann assured you. “You might be an empath, NG, but that just means you can read other people’s emotions, empathizing with them has more to do with your character than it does with your powers. It’s both, not one or the other, you’re more than your powers, don’t let their inherently emotional core make you think any different,” she says seriously, picking up the tub of burn cream.

“Thanks,” you manage to croak out, staring at M’gann. You hadn’t realized just how much of a toll the overpowering nature of your powers had been taking lately.

“Anytime, Birdy,” she smiles warmly once more before wrapping your arm up. She added an additional layer of waterproof bandaging to help protect your arm while you showered. “We can check it in the morning, but the bandage should you last you through the day, and we can clean it again tomorrow night,” she adds as she finishes.

Artemis returned a moment later and smiled at your now cleaned and bandaged arm, “You’re up, Birdy,” she mused, tossing her towel over one of the hooks in the compartment.

You smiled at the two girls, grabbing your towel and shower things before exiting the compartment yourself.

BRUGES December 23rd, 08:13 CET

When you got up the next morning, M’gann and Artemis unwound your bandage, inspected it, and added more of the burn cream before rewrapping it. The three of you exited the compartment and met with the boys for breakfast. You had just finished when you spotted the return of Interpol Agent Faraday.

“Another weapons plant is hit, and once again, the circus is in town. I don't believe in coincidences,” Faraday warned.

“I don't care what you believe! My people are not responsible! I did a bed check last night. Every single member of my troupe was asleep in their bunks!” Haly defended, and your brow quirked as you looked over to your team. Everyone was dressed in their performance outfits, but given that your arms were usually on display with the leotard, you had opted to slide a compression long sleeve on underneath, perfectly reasonable given the snowy weather outside, the sleeves covering your bandaged arm perfectly.

“Well, we sure weren’t,” M’gann notes in response to Haly’s defense.

“And if he's lying about us…” Artemis trailed off as everyone settled with the idea. Your gaze flickered to Dick, caught as his eyes narrowed on Haly and then dropped to the floor.

“Let’s go, I think it’s time to debrief,” you decide, urging your teammates to move and catching Dick’s gaze once more before you all moved back into the boys’ compartment on the train, closing the door behind you.

Everyone took up varying spots in the compartment, Artemis and Dick seated on one side, M’gann and you seated on the other, while Roy and Conner stood on each end.

“S, two thieves, right? The fire breather and one of the acrobats,” Artemis offered, starting the debrief.

“Dressed in identical clothes,” M’gann offered.

“Maybe not just two,” Dick decided, pulling something up on his holo-screen. “Here's the Madrid security footage.” you all watched silently as a hooded figure bent the bars. “And now, Paris,” confusion spread as you watched another figure walk on some cables, just like a tightrope.

“So the strong man and the clown too,” Roy supplied. “If the entire circus is involved, Haly himself may be the mastermind,” he voiced, and you cringed internally, fighting to keep your face straight, knowing exactly where this was headed next.

“You don't know that!” Dick argued, standing up to get in Roy’s space.

“It would explain his lies,” M’gann offered, though her tone was soft, as she tried to de-escalate the tension between Dick and Roy.

“I told you to keep an open mind!” Dick huffed before storming out. Your lips pursed, you wanted to run after him, but you also wanted to ensure that everyone was at least somewhat on the same page.

“Hello, Megan! I'll read Haly's mind!” M’gann offered, but before anyone else could comment on it, Roy took a step forward with crossed arms.

“I’m not sure we can trust you to do that without tipping him off,” Roy decided, and your eye twitched; you were getting really sick of questioning everyone’s trust.

“Or maybe you don't trust her, period!” Conner roared, stepping forward, voicing your thoughts. “I heard you talking to Robin back at the Cave. I know you're only here to spy on the three of us!”

“There's a mole on this Team,” Roy said so seriously you could see his sureness, but it did little to change your opinion. “And there’s good reasons to suspect all three of you. Both Artemis and Miss Martian have already been caught in lies,” both of their heads dipped a bit, “And you could be programmed by Cadmus without even knowing.��

“Or maybe I take your head off without even trying!” you’re once again struck by Conner’s aggressiveness. You’d thought he’d sorted through most of it with Canary. He’d been doing better, but suddenly it seemed like it was all coming back, and you couldn’t place why.

“Okay, let's all take a time out,” M’gann decided, placing a gentle hand on Conner’s shoulder and tugging him back a bit. “Before we do something we'll regret.”

“Speak for yourself,” he grumbled, allowing her to lead him out of the compartment to cool off.

Artemis waited until the compartment door shut again, “None of us are perfect. But each of us would give our lives for this Team. So try and keep an open mind,” Artemis reminds him, and it’s reassuring to hear your words echoed by another, but also to see the calm, collectedness she managed to keep about her this time. You were proud of her and offered her a smile of your own as she left too.

“She’s not wrong, and it’s exactly what I’ve been saying for months, Roy,” you huff.

“Just because you’ve gone all kumbaya on me-“

“Don’t,” you snap. “Just don’t. I don’t know why my empath abilities seem to be such a focus for you lately, but it doesn’t make me any different than I have ever been. And this.. This being on edge, being angry, whatever it is, you need to knock it off because I can only take so much.”

“Birdy…” He says it softly, and you frown.

“I’m gonna go find Rob,” you decide, pulling a jacket from Robin's bag. “Figure your shit out, Roy.”

You make a quick stop to grab one for yourself before running out after Dick. You find him while he’s stopped in front of an old poster on a tent. When you get closer, you know why. You stare at it a second longer, The Flying Graysons, and you take a deep breath before walking up next to him.

He’s quiet as you saddle up beside him, and your fingers fidget for a second, trying to think of what to say. “They don’t know, and so they don’t understand, they can’t understand why this is so important to you, or why you’re being evasive and defensive… But I do. I know, I understand, and I’m with you all the way. If you truly think that Haly’s not involved, then he’s not, but I’m begging you Dick, please don’t block me out,” you say softly, voice barely louder than a whisper, as you drape his jacket over his shoulders and tentatively grab his hand.

He doesn’t answer, but his fingers tighten around yours, and you release the breath you’d been holding. Only a few moments later, his com rings, a quick glance lets you know it’s Wally, and Dick answers, linking you in while you both stand out in the snow.

“Uh yeah?” he answers lamely, gaining an eye roll from you, though you can hear how bothered he still is in his voice.

“Dude, where are you?” Wally asks; there’s a slight note of concern in his tone.

“Confidential mission,” Dick covers, shooting you a pleading look, “from Batman,” he adds, and your eyebrows raise.

“Wow!” Wally exclaims. “You know what I'm doing? Making a baloney sandwich, kinda like you just did,” he laments, and you can’t help but snort. “Hey there, Pretty Bird, I was hoping you’d be around,” Wally greets, and you smile playfully at your best friend’s tone.

“Hey, Wall,” you muse with a light smile as you and Dick turn to start walking, your fingers still laced together with his.

“Anyways, I talked to Tornado. You guys are NOT on a mission. Not an official one, anyway,” Wally continues, and you make eye contact with Dick.

“A friend, Jack Haly,” Dick sighs.

“The circus guy? From your old Flying Graysons days?” Wally asks, tone suddenly soft.

“Yeah. He's implicated in this global crime spree. Someone in the show's dirty, but I need to prove old Jack's clean or he might lose the circus,” Dick admits, and you squeeze his hand.

“Then why not bring me along?” Wally asks. “I know your back story, I know what that circus means to you. It's where you grew up, it's where you lost your-“

“I left you behind because you know my back story,” Dick says quickly, effectively cutting Wally off, and he squeezes your fingers back again. “I didn't want my best pal questioning my objectivity.”

“Dude, that's what a best pal's for. Plus, Birdy got to go!” Wally shoots back, though you know Dick understands the immense support and emotion behind Wally’s words.

Dick’s lip twitches up slightly as he looks at you, “Birdy didn’t give me an option,” he huffs.

You smile back at him, “I really didn’t,” you affirm into the coms, and it’s true. Dick had tried to convince you that you weren’t needed on this mission, but you didn’t relent until he gave in.

BRUGES December 23rd, 22:34 CET

“And that's our show! Farewell, good people of Bruges!” Haly announced, gaining massive applause in response before exiting the ring and joining everyone else in the backstage tent. “Pack it u! The train leaves for Geneva in two hours!” he reminds everyone as we all load our gear.

It’s nearing that two hour mark when everyone’s out by the train. You’d been helping Conner with the boxes that housed all our gear, both for the show and for our suits, when you heard Ray come up to M’gann.

“Need a hand?” he asks, and you watch him reach out to grab the box in M’gann’s grip, tensing slightly because you know the box she’s got right now has Artemis’ suit inside.

“I-I'm good, thanks,” she deflects gently, plastering on a small smile.

“Maybe one of the others could use some help?” you offer instead, with a fake smile of your own. “A lot of them seem to have that flu,” you note, seemingly offhandedly.

Ray nods, “Yeah, it's going around,” he affirms before offering one last smile and walking to the aforementioned performers sitting, trying to catch their breath.

All aboard, everyone, now!” Haly’s shout comes minutes later, and you frown as you make eye contact with Roy.

“Someone's in a hurry,” Roy notes, tone laced with suspicion, and you can’t help but search for Dick in response.

The train had been going, and you were on your way to Geneva. You were all in your compartment looking at M’gann, who wasn’t feeling well.

“You look better,” Artemis notes as she looks at Dick, “you too,” as she nods down to your arm, which still hurts, but not as bad.

“It’s getting there,” you nod.

“I feel better,” he nods, “I'm sorry, M-Dawn,” he frowns, turning to M’gann where she was lying in her cot. “I hope you didn't catch it from me.”

“I feel so silly. Who knew a Martian could be vulnerable to a human virus?” she hums, clearly tired.

“H. G. Wells?” you offer with a slight smirk, eyes twinkling when you catch Dick’s lip twitching up.

“Look, when did you first feel sick?” He asks, cutting you off before you can try for another joke.

“Just after boarding the train,” she admits, and you can remember how she had been loading up gear before, seeming fine, “it came on suddenly.”

Dick frowns, “Same with me, the other night. I remember Ray rubbed my head for good luck right before we went on,” he explains.

“Ray? That roustabout?” Conner interrupts, “He touched her before we boarded. That guy must be a walking Petri dish,” he scoffs, shaking his head.

You’re struck with a thought, the seed of one which you didn’t like. As if sensing your sudden idea, Dick’s blue eyes focus on you. You freeze for a moment. You’re used to the whiteouts of his domino, so being able to see his eyes like this makes you pause just for a moment because you realize this is the look he must always give you on missions, the one where you both just seem to know the answers together, without ever saying a word.

“Yeah, yeah, maybe,” he mutters, nodding to the door.

You quickly turn, and he follows you out of the train compartment. You look left as he looks right, and then he’s pulling your wrist, heading to the right, and you follow after him at the sight of a white button-up.

“Dana, Dan! You look refreshed!” Haly cheers, staring at you and then at Dick.

Dick’s still holding your wrist, and you can feel the tension coming from him. The nostalgia and longing that he automatically associates with Jack Haly and his past, and you have to bite back the innate need to comfort him because you would’ve hated it if someone tried to pity you, so instead, you shift your hand subtly from where it’s hidden behind his body and in front of yours, so that you can hold his hand, lacing your fingers together and offering a small squeeze.

“Thanks. Uh… Jack, how long has Ray worked for you?” he asks, squeezing your hand back once more.

“A bit about the start of the European tour,” Haly says after a moment of silence. “Poor lad's down with the same flu as the rest of them,” he adds, and you feel the team's presence appear behind you.

“We'll check on him, it’s the least we can do,” Artemis offers with a false tone of empathy.

“If you insist,” Haly smiles, and the team starts making their way toward the back of the train.

You smile at Haly as he continues on with what he was doing before, while M’gann forces herself up to join you.

“You should stay in bed,” Dick tells her.

She offers a coy smile, “As a friend of mine once said, I'll manage,” she teases, and you nod at both of them before following after the other three.

You manage to make it all the way to the back of the train, and when you get there, you’re honestly not that surprised to find the compartment empty.

“I guess he wasn't that sick,” you drawl, sarcasm laced into your voice.

“Does this circus have an elephant I don't know about?” Roy asks with a furrowed brow.

“Not on foreign tours,” Dick answers, the words tumbling out quicker than he probably should’ve let them.

Roy spares you another glance before opening the box, “empty,” he notes, and you lean over his shoulder to take a look.

He’s about to shut the box when you notice something off, “no, wait!” and he freezes as your hand reaches out and brushes up against the side of the box. “Ash,” you note, throat a bit dry as it begins to fit into place.

“From the warehouse fire in Bruges,” Dick notes, and he seems to come to a similar conclusion.

“Uh… guys?” Artemis calls, “I found Ray,” she says, holding up a face mask of who you all had assumed to be the Circus’ roustabout.

“Split up!” you decide, voice urgent. “Search the whole train!” you add, and everyone files out, heading to different carts.

You and Dick split off toward the front compartments, and he’s a few feet ahead of you before he stops and looks back at you with wide eyes. The space is silent except for the sounds of the train moving and that’s when you hear it, the muffled shouts coming from one of the compartments.

“Top?” you offer, trying to trace the sound.

“No. Haly’s office,” Dick answers with a grimace before kicking the door open.��

Your lips part when you spot Haly, stripped down to his undershirt and pants tied up on the floor in his office.

“Shit,” you mumble.

“Who did this to you?” Dick asks, tone urgent as he pulls Haly’s gag down. Though you bite back a sarcastic, who do you think dickie?

“Ray,” Haly gasps, “Ray, the roustabout! Right after the train left Bruges!” he tells you, and Dick freezes to look back at you. You offer him a roll of your eyes and your best duh expression. “Hey, I'm not Houdini here!” Haly shouts, gaining Dick’s attention once more, and you grab one of your ring daggers, tossing it, hilt first, to Dick to cut through the ropes.

“Tell Dawn!” He shouts to you, and you step out into the hallway, clearing Haly’s sight before taking off.

“Dawn, come in!” you call out over the comms.

“Uh… Dana?” she answers.

“Dan tried to reach you, the other way,” you hint.

“I think the flu's knocked out my other way,” she admits and you stop running just in time for Dick to catch up to you.

“That clinches it,” he decides, and you nod.

Clicking your comm again, you call, “Dane, Dean, Diane, come in!” you call and hear the beep from Dick’s comm as it’s linked to the call. “We're chasing someone who's stolen Dawn’s act. Her whole shtick, if you catch my drift,” you hint.

“I got him! But he's on to me,” Conner calls through, “Exiting the dining car now,” he adds, and you both take off towards the cart. “He's gone top side!” Conner corrects, and you skid to a stop, tossing a door open and climbing up to the top of the train, Dick right behind you.

“That won't work on me, clown!” Conner shouts.

“That's no clown,” you argue, theory confirmed.

“He's the Parasite! The guy who once stole Superman's powers,” Dick supplies, as you both stop across from Conner.

“As if you, kids, are who you claim to be!” Parasite argues, “please,” he scoffs, willing his disguise to melt away, leaving us staring at the alien.

“Stay out of his reach!” you order, “there's no flu going around, the weakness comes when he makes physical contact and feeds on the powers and abilities of others,” you explain, pulling out a few more daggers.

“I happen to be a bit of a glutton today. Chowed down on the skills of nearly every loser in this troupe. But, oh, my! But the pièce de résistance was Dawn Danger,” he drawled, and you saw as the rest of the team started appearing on the train roof as well. “Or whatever her real name is. Thought I'd pouch on her trapeze skills imagine my surprise when she tasted like Martian Manhunter, instead,” he grins. “She made a lovely appetizer. But guess who I want for my entrée,” he teases, and your eyes blow wide.

“SB!” you shout, trying to warn him, but it’s too late.

Using M’ganns telekinesis, Parasite pulls Conner to himself, hand wrapping around his neck while he drains him. “M-hmm, now that's the full body Kryptonian flavor I love!” Parasite taunts.

“Everyone, stay whelmed!” Robin orders, “Subdue, but keep your distance!”

Both Roy and Artemis pull out their bows, but before they can get a shot off, Parasite uses heat vision to burn them to ash in their hands, and your lips part in surprise.

“You know, I almost never say this, but I'm sated,” Parasite decides, dropping Conner's body, which falls at his feet. You catch as Parasite shifts his weight and adjust accordingly, to leap up as he takes off, “Hate to eat and run!” he calls back, but you timed it right, managing to catch onto the box he’s touting with him, but miss it as he hits Rob, nearly knocking him off the train.

You get a sound footing and climb up the box until you can launch yourself at him. There’s a distant shout of “NG!” but you’re unable to progress any further before Parasite stops you. You managed to get a hold of him in time to find something of interest, but before you could continue, he’s turning to face you.

“Sorry, no hitchhikers,” he huffs, hitting you in the chest with his Kryptonian strength and knocking you back down to the train.

You land harshly on your back, groaning when your head hits the train’s top before your body bounces off, and suddenly you’re falling. There’s a split second of panic when your hand ghosts your hip, the action trained into you by Dinah and Ollie, but there’s no grapple. There’s no pressure from your belt, no sting of a bow slung over your shoulder. For a moment you’re just falling. You think of Dinah and Ollie and how crushed they’d be, of Roy and how angry he already is, and how much worse it’s bound to get if you were to die in front of him.

Vaguely you hear shouts of “NG!” and “Birdy!” but it’s not until a hand wraps around your wrist that everything comes back to sharp focus, the sound of the train, the cold of the air, and as your eyes snap back open you’re staring straight into blue. Dick’s got a stern look on his face as he grips your wrist tight. straining as he tries to pull you up, but you know it must be taking all of his energy because there’s no leverage for either of you to grip onto. A second passes as you hang there, eyes sweeping out to the mountainside under you, “Birdy,” he grunts. You reach up and tuck a thumb drive into Robin’s wrist.

Your eyes meet his again, his eyes are wide, but you offer a wry smile. Before you can say anything, Roy is sliding down next to Dick, throwing a hand out to help grab onto you, grip bruisingly tight. Artemis and M’gann quickly drop down and help the boys pull you up, tugging until you’re back on the train with everyone else.

“Birdy? Birdy, are you okay?” your eyes had locked with Dick’s for a second, but it was Roy’s frantic tone that was addressing you.

“‘M fine,” you say, pushing yourself to a sitting position.

“Conner!” M’gann’s shout has you turning your head to look at what’s happening.

“C’mon, let’s get you up,” Roy’s voice is soft as he offers his hands to help pull you back to your feet, Artemis and Dick standing on either side of you as they maneuver you back toward the other two.

“You alright?” M’gann’s voice is soft as she checks Conner over.

“Fine, fine!” he huffs, the anger and annoyance evident.

“You're drained!” Dick corrects. “Parasite took more power than you even have!” he argues, “Heat vision?”

“I have the genetic potential for it!” Conner reminds him, “Must've been enough for him.”

Dick lets out an irritated groan pushing forward, and you make hesitant eye contact with the two archers on either side of you.

“Go! I'll manage,” Conner says, and the rest of you follow after Dick.

“Are you okay?” Roy’s the one to ask after you’ve climbed back down.

“I’m good,” you dismiss.

“You hit your head pretty hard,” Artemis adds, concern evident. “Plus the arm Rob grabbed you by was the burned one…”

You look down and see specks of blood coming through the bandage and bite back a sigh. You hadn’t even realized that the arm Dick caught you by was your injured one; you probably pulled the skin off the burn, aggravating the injury more.

“It’ll be okay, I’ll re-wrap it before I change,” you swallow, looking at both archers.

“And your head?” Roy’s tone conveys his obvious big brothering. It’d be sweet to know it still exists if you weren’t in the middle of an emotionally charged mission.

“Still smaller and smarter than yours, so I think I’ll manage,” you joke.

He scowls at you and at the slight snort that escapes Artemis, “Not what I meant, and you know it,” he grunts.

“No concusion, but I’ll probably have a nasty bump,” you relent.

“Good, and let’s not tell D and O that you almost died? I don’t think they’d be very happy with me,” he adds.

“My lips are sealed,” you assure him.

Artemis scoffs again, “mine aren’t,” she smirks viciously at the way Roy pales a bit.

You chuckle as you pull her into your compartment, so you both can get changed.

You find yourself seated with the rest of the team shortly after, dressed in your suits, a new wrapping on your arm. Artemis had spare arm braces from her stealth suit, black in color, that she lent to you so you could use them to cover and secure the wrappings, which you did.

“It's not a complete debacle,” Robin announces as we all settle. “Birdy picked Parasite's pocket, and got this flash drive,” he announced, and you feel some eyes slide to you questioningly.

“Did she?” Roy’s tone has an edge, probably because you didn’t tell him

“Looks like Parasite's working for Intergang. Everything he's stolen, they're all pieces of something!” Dick explains as data starts filtering through the holo-screen.

“It looks like they’re putting together a weapon that generates…. Black holes?” you read over his shoulder, eyes blowing wide at the revelation.

“Oh, come on! To build that, you need a particle accelerator!” Roy argues.

“Like the Large Boson Collider in Geneva?” Robin offers, tone flattened, as he glances over at Roy.

“The circus's next stop!” Roy realizes. “But now that Parasite can fly, he's got a big head start on us!” he tacks on, gaze zeroing in on M’gann and Conner.

“Sorry,” her mumbled response comes out.

“Not your fault,” you assure her with a glare at Roy.

“But this thing could wipe out entire cities,” Dick explains. “We need to hurry.”

“You, me, and Birdy need to hurry,” Roy corrects. “Without powers, the others would hold us back.”

Your eye twitches in response, but Artemis quickly counters, “Hey, you're not the only one with a backup bow,” she challenges, holding up a compact crossbow.

Before anyone else can say anything, there’s a loud thud as Conner slams his fist into the wall of the train compartment, leaving a massive dent, “my powers are back!”

Dick stepped forward, lips tugging down, “how?”

Even M’gann looks a bit shocked, “I'm still-“

“I guess Kryptonians recover faster than humans or Martians,” he shrugs and eyes shift to M’gann, but you note the way Conner rubs at his arm subconsciously, and your eyes narrow.

“Don't even think about leaving me behind,” M’gann laments.

Roy turns to you, “Well, that settles that,” you shrug.

GENEVADecember 24th, 00:37 GET

Rocking up to the particle accelerator, you spot the body and crouch to run a quick diagnostic on the man.

“Happy Christmas Eve, everyone,” you mumble while ensuring that the man would be okay until the proper authorities and medics could arrive.

“Trail of destruction, this way,” Robin tags on and you nod as you stand back up, all of you running back into the building, nearly silent as you go.

You can hear it when the accelerator starts up, and Rob’s quick to pull up his holo-screen, “We need to take him down, or at least lure him away so we can safely disengage the-“

“SB!” you whisper shout when he shouts out and starts charging at Parasite.

“No, wait!” Robin tags on, but it’s too late. Conner’s charging straight at him, revealing your location as well.

“Seconds? No, I couldn’t,” Parasite teases, eyes lighting up green.

You cringe as you watch Parasite pull Conner forward with M’gann’s telekinesis and then let out a breath as SB decks him, but another wince quickly follows when Parasite pulls him back and launches him out.

You suck in a breath as Parasite begins flinging Conner around the lab. Even Roy seems to be getting antsy when he raises his bow, “What's wrong with-“

Before he can finish, M’gann lays a hand on his shoulder, “wait,” she commands. He hesitates but does, “I might have an idea…”

We watch as Parasite pulls Conner to him a third time, grabbing onto him and feeding on his power again, “Ah, what a rush!” he goads. “How do you do it, kid? Even Superman never recharged this fast,” he says, waiting until Conner was drained before tossing his body to the side. Your eyes slide to Conner, trying to ensure he is still breathing while M’gann explains her plan.

Parasite quickly clicks something on the panel before him, “Alright, Dangers, come on out! Only a couple of minutes before this baby's done warming up and eats Geneva.

“What do you think?” she asks, and your eyes dart to the Martian.

“Big risk to take on a theory,” Roy bites, but Dick’s gaze settles on you.

He offers a slight quirk of his lip and a barely noticeable shrug; it could work.

You nod, “Do it. Go!” you order, and everyone splits up.

M’gann steps out, making her entrance obvious to the target as she all but waltzes up to him, “what do you have against Geneva, anyway?” she asks.

“Never liked the food, but the menu keeps improving,” Parasite chuckles, rubbing his hands together, before summoning M’gann to him.

“I'm just the appetizer, remember?” she huffs, managing to duck out of the way. “Here's the main course!” she shouts, knocking his feet out from under him.

Everyone springs into action. Roy shoots off an arrow that covers Parasite in a foam-like substance that traps him where he is as it hardens.

Parasite is quick to react; using his pilfered Martian telekinesis, he pulls Roy’s bow, and then Roy himself into the air, “Foam? You think foam can hold me? Or stop me from crushing you with a thought?” he demands. “Combined Martian and Kryptonian powers here!” he scoffs, using his strength to start crumbling the material.

“But do any of those powers free you before I sabotage your death thingy?” Robin asks from his spot beside the keyboard.

“This one does,” he groans, finally freeing his arms and aiming his heat vision at Rob, who ducked down in time.

Artemis drops down next, shooting an arrow that emits gas, and you roll a few marble bombs quietly into the gas’s bounds. When Parasite turns his heat vision on Artemis, it sets off the gas, and the explosion sets off your marble bombs, adding to the flames.

Roy drops to the ground with a groan, and you quickly run up to check on him. Dropping down on a knee, you roll him onto his back, and when he groans again, you breathe. Your hand checks his pulse to ensure it’s not too elevated.

“Birdy-“ he groans, trying to sit up.

You push him down, “No. Stay down, Red Arrow,” you hiss, forcing him to catch his breath and slow his heart.

When Parasite stands up and starts goading, you pop back up and move closer to Artemis. “So clever… trick me into igniting inflammable gas… but you forgot… doofuses double dose of invulnerability… Fire can’t… touch me,” he argues, but you can hear the strain the flames are starting to take, and a small smirk graces your lips.

“Unless you make a meal of my powers and get my weaknesses as a side dish!” M’gann all but hisses at the villain.

Realization falls upon Parasite quickly, “No, No!” he shouts before finally succumbing and passing out.

“Aw, poor baby, something you ate?” M’gann teases.

Robin quickly gets back to the keypad, and in seconds he has shut the system down.

You let out a sigh as you hear the doors bang open. Agent Faraday and his squad of Interpol agents run in with trained precision. “We'll take it from here,” he states as his team puts out the fire.

“All yours,” you smirk lazily as Robin walks over to Stand beside you.

“Thanks for the tip, by the way,” he adds, smiling at you both. “Definitely helps to prep the inhibitor collar in advance.”

“Glad to be of service!,” Robin nods, and you bump his shoulder promisingly.

While Faraday turns to coordinate with his team, you and Rob turn back to yours. You turn in time to catch Roy taking Artemis’ proffered hand, pulling him back to his feet.

“Wow… He deigns to touch the hand of a suspected traitor,” Artemis drawls sarcastically, and you can’t help but snort.

“Mind open,” Roy replies, repeating your request from earlier. “I guess I never really saw you three in the thick of it before,” he admits. “Superboy's a hot-head,” he adds on, turning to the boy in question who had just wandered over with M’gann, and you can’t help but let out an even louder snort, one Roys glares at before adding, “but I know I'm not one to talk.” You smirk victoriously and he shakes his head before continuing. “You could each have betrayed us here, you didn’t. I’m sorry I doubted any of you. There is no mole.”

Roy’s admission immediately affects the general comfort level around you. Conner, M’gann, and Artemis all seem a bit lighter, Dick’s shoulders relax the slightest bit, but your eyes are focused on Roy. You want to believe him, want to think that the mission genuinely changed his mind, but you know him, and more than that, you can sense his emotions, and yet you can’t see a change.

GENEVADecember 24, 10:06 GET

The train made it to the Port of Geneva train station, the rest of the team was getting all their bags and gear together for exfil, but you had decided to go with Dick as he said his goodbye.

“So,” Haly drawled, “The show will go on. And I have the feeling I have you, Dangers, to thank,” he decides, staring at Dick, though his eyes flick to you quickly before returning to Dick.

“Don't know what you mean,” he shrugs.

“No, of course not,” Haly agrees, a kind knowing smile on his face. “But I'm guessing

you'll be leaving now.”

“Time to move on,” Dick tells him, shaking his hand, and you can’t help but smile softly.

“Well, Dick, I'll miss you,” Haly tells him, and you can feel the swell of emotion in the room, and you don’t need to look in his eyes to know that this moment is so much more than Dick could have ever asked for when he decided to come back.

He’s still quick to disagree. After all, he had covers to protect, “It's Dan! Dan Danger!”

Haly chuckles, placing a hand on Dick’s shoulder, “Son, you've grown, but some things never change. Like the sight of a Grayson on the trapeze. You can't fake that. Can't hide it,” Haly tells him, and you can’t help how your breath catches in your throat. “So, doing old ring master one last favor?” he asks softly.

Haly’s standing in the center of the ring, spotlights focused, “Ladies and gentlemen, the farewell performance of the Daring Dangers! Introducing Dan Danger!” he announces, and the lights switch to Dick, who waves at the audience.

You smile as you stand next to Conner in the wings, waiting for each of your queues. Dick looked so graceful as he launched from the trapeze platform, he always seemed at ease when he was in the air, and you were glad to see it again. You knew he needed this, this opportunity, for closure at the Circus in a way he’d never had before. You only hoped it’d finally help relieve some of the guilt you knew he still carried, despite how misplaced it was.

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