#Bruce must hates explosions they keep taking his children from him

[littlefankingdom]

~ Batman: Detective Comics (2016)

The fear on Bruce's face when he hears what Tim has planned, the stress as he run toward his son, calling EVERY allies in the area to come save his son because he will be too late (again).

"The blood of the covenant is ticker than the water of the womb" is really prevalent in Batman. His family doesn't share blood, but they bleed together. And here, the message is even stronger because the enemy, the one that is responsible of the death of his adopted son he loves so much, is his uncle, the brother of his dear late mother.

[diyunho]

The Joker x Reader - “Gotham Comic Con”

The Joker and his girlfriend decided to attend “Gotham Comic Con” this year dressed as The Batman and Cat Woman. It took Y/N some time to convince her boyfriend but here they are about to have fun and nothing could spoil the event. Right?...

“Oh my God, this is awesome!” you giggle entering the venue designated for the yearly special event “Gotham Comic-Con” dressed as Cat Woman.

The Joker is right behind you sporting The Batman outfit and he flexes his knees a few times, growling.

“What’s wrong?” you ask although you have a clue because J’s been complaining about since he got off the van parked on Lot B5.

“I hate these stretchy pants! I don’t know how that asshole does it!”

“You’re the one that insisted to come as Batsy,” you reveal point out the truth. “You could have been anyone else.”

“Like who?”

“Cinderella,” you elbow him and your boyfriend is not a huge fan of the concept.

“Why??!!”

“The drama, obviously,” you keep walking alongside him and he’s definitely ready to blow at your insinuation when you gasp. ”Baby, I think that’s Bane!” you gesture towards a massive individual flaunting a Sub-Zero costume.

“How can you tell?” The Joker squints his eyes and the bubbly Y/N has to say it:

“I would recognize his physique anywhere! Plus, he still has the scar between his eyes,” you pucker your lips and The King mumbles a bunch of PG 13 rated things regarding his business partner.

Why?

Last week they got into a brawling and almost killed each other.

The reason?

Y/N.

The Joker believes that Bane always flirts with you (which he does since he likes to refer to you as “a breath of fresh air”); stuff escalated until you had to break it up: J ended up with a busted lip, Bane with a cut between his eyes due to The Clown trying to stab him in the head and you ended up with an inflated ego.

“Hello Mister B.,” you tap the pile of muscles and he turns around to see who’s bothering him.

“Y/N!” he excitedly exclaims, immediately unhappy at the sight of his business partner. “Joker…” the low tone greets.

“Bane…” J sneers.

“What are you two doing here?” Bane inquires.

“Having fun; I finally convinced him we should do this and mingle for once. No better way to spend the day,” the bubbly comment pleases your conversation partner. “So we dressed up and here we are.”

“I must say you’re like a breath of fresh air,” Bane admires your skin tight costume and stilettos which prompts The Joker’s disapproval:

“If you want fresh air, go outside!”

“Make me!”

Oh no! Not again!

“Are you here alone?” you change the subject and distract them from getting into a fight. Not that you wouldn’t enjoy it, but… too many witnesses at the packed Comic Con, it could end up in a total disaster.

“With my niece and nephew. I lost them for a second and I’m searching the premises; they can’t be far,” Bane reports. “Which reminds me: I should get going and find them otherwise my sister will go ballistic. I’ll see you later, Y/N,” he acknowledges you and ignores your man.

“Bye Mister B.,” The Queen snickers at the evident teasing.

“Just her, huh?” The Joker grumbles. “What about me? Did you forget we have a meeting next week???”

“Too bad and super sad: I’m not talking to you!” Bane’s attitude emerges.

“I certainly could care less because I’m not talking to you either!” The King strikes back.

“Then what are we going to do?” Sub-Zero’s better judgement brings up a good argument.

“Y/N will translate!” J proudly states.

Oh no! Not again!

That means they will snarl and make weird noises and you’ll have to guess what it means; an absolutely excruciating task that even a breath of fresh air can’t accomplish without losing it.

Maybe you should let them kill each other. 

“Fine!” Bane decides and distances himself from the couple while the Joker shouts since he has to have the last word:

“Fine!”

“Mister Batman?” the 5 years old dressed as a hobbit shily tugs on J’s cape.

“Hm?” the fake vigilante looks down. The little boy suddenly sneezes and wipes his nose with the fabric as the mad man is less than lenient at someone ruining the outfit replica he paid a fortune to have.

“Goddamn…” and he can’t finish his sentence because a large group of screaming children surround him in a heartbeat.

“Batman! Batman!” they jump up and down hyped up to see their hero.

“Go away!” J attempts to reason with the sea of kids he has no patience for. Of course nobody can hear him over the deafening sounds that attract more offsprings and parents.

“That’s so cute!” one of the moms gushes and takes a picture. “It’s delightful seeing a guy dressed as The Batman performing such a public service for our town!”

“He loves people, especially babies, “ you lie without blinking and immortalize the moment yourself.

“Awww,” a few people sigh touched by your praises.

“He must be a nice dude,” a kid’s dad concludes and you sweetly smile from under your mask:

“You have no idea.”

Somebody from the crowd places an infant girl in The Joker’s arms and the mob goes ballistic!! Rosie cheeks keeps sucking from her binky, glaring at the interesting person.

Clapping, cheering and whistling intensify whilst J feels compelled by his increasing popularity to lift the 6 months old above his head for everyone to see how cool he is.

This is not bad, The King enjoys an endless string of applause and the sudden explosion occurring in the diaper followed by quite a foul smell puts an end to his exuberance.

“Jesus!” he crinkles his nose, appalled. “Whose kid is this?” he yells and the thrilled parent waves at him, taking back the stinky, adorable bundle of joy. “Uncle Batsy needs to run!!” J makes up a random plan although nobody can hear him: the noise is overwhelming after he hyped them all up.  “Let’s bail before they trap me again! Pretty soon I won’t be able to walk, Princess. Everything is crammed in there, a total mess! I hate stretchy pants!!” he addresses his woman and quickens the pace until an atrocious abomination stops him in his tracks.

A specimen mocking The Joker wearing a purple suit is getting quite the attention: over exaggerated red lips smudged over the lip line, tattoo on the forehead that spells “Cabbaged”, a bunch of cheap golden chains from the Dollar Store around his neck and a sloppy green wig complete the assemble in a cringy manner.

You are equally speechless and The Joker manages to utter:

“What… THE HELL… is that????!!!!”

“Ummm… a Clown?” your sassy remark doesn’t score high marks as expected; you feel his eyes burning holes through you.

“You’re hilarious! Would you like to share your standup comedy talents on the stage??!” his index finger points at the platform meant to host a guest appearance from Bruce Wayne in the next hour.

Courtesy of “Wayne Enterprise” sponsoring the event: free food and refreshments for everyone under 18 years old.

You don’t answer and pout, upset J’s pissed attitude is already ruining your mood.

“I’m going to kill that buffoon posing as me!” he inhales full of spite and reaches for the knife hidden in his left boot.

“You can’t…” you hesitantly halt his movement. “Dozens of people, that’s just asking for trouble!”

“I’m not going to let a prick disrespect me!”

“You won’t, we’ll figure something afterwards. We can wait for him outside in the parking lot and take care of it without drawing attention! Please?” you beg hoping he’ll listen to you. “Pleeeaaaase!!!!“ you insist, perfectly aware he’s about to commit murder regardless. “I have a bunch of VIP passes to take pictures with celebrities. You promised J!” you stomp your high heels, exasperated. “You promised we’ll have a fun date!!”

“Why do I have to take pics with celebrities?! I don’t like anybody!”

The look on Y/N’s face: sheer disappointment; most of her features are covered with the mask yet he can tell.

“But I like you so the most I’ll do is take a selfie with you!” The Joker makes amendments on his own terms.

The Queen sniffles, trying to bottle up her emotions and she can’t help it: she bursts up in tears at her boyfriend’s candor.

Oh no! Not again!

Why?

The King of Gotham says nice things maybe twice a year and each time you struggle not to cry but it’s impossible: how can one resist such charm?!

Your complete meltdown makes him roll his eyes while your shaky hand takes a picture of the royal duo.

“Ugghhh…” J’s grimace turns your attention towards him.

“What is it baby?” you wipe your tears with his cape.

He would probably criticize such affront still there’s a pressing issue taking precedent.

“Princess, these tights are making my legs numb. I can’t feel my crown jewelry anymore.”

“Huh?” you forget to weep, startled.

“Cursed stretchy pants! I think I won’t be able to have sex for a month!” The Joker stretches his feet, uncomfortable.

“What??!!!” you raise your voice, panicked. “A month???!!”

Hell no!

Y/N grabs The Joker’s right hand and starts dragging him after her, yelling:

“Out of the way! Out of the way, it’s an emergency!!” whilst everyone is wondering how can someone wearing those 7-inch stilettos can march so fast.

“Where are we going, Pumpkin?!” J is inquiring and you yank at his arm, alarmed.

“To the car!”

“Why?”

Y/N doesn’t have time for explanations: she basically flies across the parking lot to get to section B5, opens the van’s back door and shoves J inside. He lands on his abs as you relentlessly pull on his boots, accomplishing to take them off in record time. Then you heave at his tights, huffing a storm at the stiff garment:

“I’ll be damn if I’ll wait a month for a ride in Funky Town!”

A mother and her 11 years old son pass by and she covers his eyes, horrified at the indecency as she guides him throughout the maze of vehicles.

“There are children here!” the woman protests. “Get a room!”

Luckily, she wasn’t heard by The Clown and his girl because… victory! The stretchy pants are off, J only in his boxers now.

“How are you feeling?” you roll him and he exhales, assessing the damage succeeding Y/N swift actions.

“Not sure, same?... Sit on my lap,” J offers and you don’t need a second invitation.

“Well?” you hold in the anxiety reaching high levels under these dire circumstances.

“Dunno, kiss me and we’ll see.”

You kiss him and he purrs.

“Well?” you interrogate again.

“Kiss me again!” he orders and you put more passion into it since your future happiness depends on it. “Hmm…” J groans. “I believe things are improving.”

“Yeah?” Y/N is about to have another breakdown although J didn’t say sweet rubbish; it’s just that kind of occasion.

“U-hum!”

“Then… what do you say we go home and celebrate your recovery?” you whisper in his ear.

“What about Comic Con?”

“Screw it!” you hop off his knees. “I’ll drive, you focus on your convalescence, ok baby?”

“Ok,” The Joker agrees and begins to stride around the van as Bruce Wayne’s limousine happens to drive by, the billionaire preparing to attend the event he sponsored.

“Stop the car!” Bruce commands at the weird view in the distance: a man wearing a replica of his Batman suit-- helmet, mask, gloves, cape… but no pants or boots, the bottom part of his attire consisting solely of underwear. “Right when you think you saw it all…” he shakes his head in denial, oblivious about who the person is.

Mister Wayne should at least have some empathy for the man enduring those tights for as long as he could; it might not be a record, but who could ever beat the real Batman at wearing stretchy pants anyway?!

Also read: MASTERLIST   

https://diyunho.tumblr.com/post/153664676321/joker-x-reader-masterlist

You can also follow me on Ao3 and Wattpad under the same blog name: DiYunho.

[enchantedlokii]

Ringing

Rating: PG-13

Warnings: language, implied/referenced terrorism

Characters: Peter Parker, Tony Stark, Pepper Potts, Morgan Stark

Mentioned: James Rhodes, Bruce Banner

This is loosely based on a dream I had recently where my brother and I were apparently Tony’s children. Anyway, the house blew up and my brother was hurt similar to how Peter is hurt in this. My mom and I were inside and didn’t get hurt too bad. It was strange, I know.

When Peter first started to hang out with Mr. Stark, he did have worries about being caught in the crossfire of something that didn’t involve him. He knew that there were dangers of being around the man. He was old enough to remember the attack on his Malibu penthouse years ago, and he didn’t doubt that there were still people who hated his mentor enough to do something similar in the future.

His worries started fading after a few months, however. He had his Spider-Sense. He knew when he was in danger. He never felt like he was in danger around Mr. Stark except when they were in the middle of a battle.

After the Battle of Earth, that fear was completely gone. The man had retired. He wasn’t a threat to anyone; villains or business tycoons. Peter didn’t think that anyone would target him now. They had no reason to. So when he felt the tingling in the back of his neck, he brushed it off. He thought it must be something small. He didn’t think he needed to warn Tony. They would be fine.

“Morgan found some new videos and has been talking about you nonstop all week. Fair warning, she’s probably going to ask half a million questions within the next hour.”

Peter grinned. He loved the little girl. “I can handle it,” he chuckled, jumping up the porch steps ahead of him. “I—”

Peter flinched as the tingling grew stronger. He started to tell Tony when he saw the worried look he gave him, but that’s when it happened. There was a loud noise, a flash of light. He vaguely noticed Tony running towards him before his vision went white.

That’s when the ringing started. Peter groaned softly, squeezing his eyes shut at the light. He was numb at first, the pain coming slowly. He gasped as a shooting pain shot through his right arm. He blinked his eyes open and turned his head slowly, seeing that there was something pinning him to the ground.

“Pete!”

Peter blinked. That was Tony. He sounded panicked, and Peter guessed he must have been calling for him before his hearing returned. There was pain there too, but for the moment he was just glad he was alive. He could handle injuries. As long as he was awake and talking, he would be okay. “Mr. Stark?”

Peter winced at the shakiness in his voice. It sounded weak, he realized. It hurt, too. It hurt to speak. It hurt to breathe, actually, but he tried not to focus on that. Panicking would only make things worse.

“Thank God,” he heard Tony mutter. He probably wasn’t supposed to hear it, but now that his senses were back they were dialed up more than ever. “Are you hurt, Kid?”

“I’m okay,” Peter lied. “Are you alright?”

“I’ve had worse.” Peter heard shuffling. As the man got closer, he could hear his fast heartbeat. He peeked through the mess of rubble and caught sight of him. “Okay. Okay. Talk to me, Pete. Help me find you.”

“I’m right here,” he told him. He let himself close his eyes and focus on his hearing. He could hear other voices a bit farther away. Pepper and Morgan. They were okay. They were alive. “G-go check on them.”

“Let me get this off of you first,” Tony countered. “The house is mostly fine, okay? They may be a bit scratched up, but I’m confident that they’re not trapped under a pile of wood.”

“I hear them,” Peter mumbled. “Around the back, I think.”

“Good, that’s good. They’re okay, Kid.” The wood started to shift around him a bit. He hated thinking it, but he was surprised that the man had the strength to move it. Especially if he was hurt. He guessed it must be adrenaline. “Tell me if anything hurts you.”

It did hurt. Everything hurt, but he didn’t complain. Finally, he saw light and let himself smile when he saw Tony in front of him. He was beaten up, bleeding from a cut on his cheek, but overall okay. He had been a bit farther back, and Peter guessed he was the one who took the brunt of the explosion. He was glad, too. “H-hey.”

“Hey, Pete,” Tony murmured, reaching down and combing through his dirty hair as he looked over him. He noticed his pinned arm and immediately moved to try to lift the beam off of it. “Sh*t.”

“It’s broken, isn’t it?” Peter groaned. The pain in his arm was growing every second, and it took all his will to not cry. He had been in a lot of pain before, but this had to be near the top of his list. On top of everything, it was still getting harder to breathe and he was struggling to keep his panic at bay.

“I think so, Kiddo,” Tony sighed. “Are you hurt anywhere else? I know you said you weren’t before, but I can see the pain in your eyes, Pete. So tell me if anything else hurts, alright?” He paused, looking over his shoulders. “Pep! Over here!”

Peter squeezed his eyes shut again. He could hear two sets of footprints. Morgan was running, he noticed, and collided with Tony. She was crying and he hoped it was out of fear rather than pain.

“Peter? Hey, look at me.” Peter blinked up and saw Pepper was over him now. Her face was dirty and a she was a bit scratched up, but her eyes were clear. She wasn’t hurt. “Where are you hurt, Kid?”

Peter ignored her question, looking over at where Tony was stroking Morgan’s hair, whispering to her that it was okay. He looked back at Pepper after a moment. “Mo?”

“She’s just scared, Peter,” Pepper assured her. “She was upstairs in her room. She wasn’t hurt at all. I promise. So let me know where you’re hurt, okay?”

Peter raised his left arm, the one that wasn’t injured, and held his chest. He didn’t want to say. Not when Morgan was right there. He saw Pepper’s eyes widen and she looked over at Tony. He followed her gaze and saw that he saw too. “Morgan, let’s go wait on Uncle Rhodey, okay?”

Morgan looked up at Pepper. She looked like she wanted to protest, but she nodded. She squeezed Tony one more time before walking over to her mom and taking her hand. As soon as they were out of earshot, Tony moved closer and put a hand on Peter’s chest. “You’re going to be okay,” he promised. “Just keep breathing.”

“It hurts,” Peter admitted.

“I know. I know it does,” Tony murmured. “Just. . . Just don’t panic, alright? I know it’s hard right now, but you need to keep your breathing steady right now. Don’t push yourself.”

Peter nodded, but in reality he could feel his heart pounding even harder now. He could tell that Tony was struggling not to panic right now himself. His own heart had started pounding faster again now that he realized Peter was hurt. It was easy to tell he knew something was wrong. “You’re hurt too,” he found himself mumbling. Because he knew that he would push himself to his limits if anyone else was hurt and ignore his own injuries.

“I know, Pete. It’s not that bad, I promise,” he replied, putting a hand in his hair again. “Don’t worry about me.”

“Always do,” Peter grunted, closing his eyes again. His body wanted him to sleep, but he knew he shouldn’t. He had to wait for Rhodey to get there with help. Then he could rest.

He huffed and tried to push himself up, hissing at the pain in his chest. He was sure he felt his ribs shifting as he was gently pushed back to the ground. “No, stop,” Tony said sternly. “The last thing you need to do is puncture a lung. I’m already afraid one’s collapsed, Kiddo. You have to stay still.”

“I can’t go to the hospital,” Peter told him, opening his eyes again. He knew he needed to, but he also knew that his identity would be in jeopardy. “I-I gotta just deal with it.”

“You are not going to just deal with it. You’re going to the compound. It’s not finished yet, but Rhodey said the medbay was finished,” he explained. “You trust Bruce, yeah?”

Peter nodded weakly. He liked Dr. Banner, and knew that he would never do anything to hurt anyone if he could help it. They weren’t exactly close, but they had talked a few times since the battle. He knew he could trust him.

“Good.” Tony smiled at him and then looked up. Peter heard a new wave of noises and realized that help had finally made it. “Hold on just a bit longer, Kiddo.”

Peter wasn’t sure how much time had passed when he woke up later. He was a bit confused at first, missing details of what had happened and how he had gotten to the medbay. He could hear a steady beeping noise that lined up with his heartbeat. Then he felt the cannula under his nose helping him breathe and the IV in his arm. His other arm was wrapped up close to his side. It hurt, but not as bad as it had before.

“Hey, Pete.” Peter felt a hand squeeze his. He smiled a bit and turned his head, finally opening his eyes. He was a bit surprised that Tony was with him, but he could tell that he had been looked over too. His face was cleaned up and one knee was wrapped up similar to how his arm was. He looked tired, but the pain had cleared from his expression. “How are you feeling?”

“Tired,” Peter murmured. “Like I’ve been drugged.”

“That’s pretty accurate,” he replied, pointing a finger at the needle in Peter’s arm. “Super soldier painkiller. Not a very high dose, but you’ll be groggy for awhile.”

Peter just hummed in reply. He closed his eyes and tried to gather his thoughts. He remembered Morgan has been crying. Where was Morgan. “Mo?”

“She’s okay,” Tony promised him. “She’s sleeping now, but I’m sure she’ll be in here when she wakes up. She was worried about you. We all were there for a bit.”

“‘M ‘kay,” Peter told him. He didn’t want to worry anyone. Especially not when he wasn’t the only one hurt. “Jus’ tired.”

“I know, Kiddo. I know,” he replied. “Get some rest, alright? I’ll be right here.”

“You rest too,” Peter countered, glaring at him. He was sure that Tony hadn’t slept any since they got there, and he wasn’t sure how many hours that had been. He had to be exhausted.

“I will,” Tony promised, raising a hand and combing it through Peter’s hair. “I’ll sleep here on the couch, okay? I’ll be right here if you need me.”

Peter smiled and closed his eyes again. “Mmkay,” he hummed. The strokes were killing him to sleep more than the drugs in his bloodstream. He felt safe.

“Love you, Kiddo,” he heard Tony murmur as he started to drift off. He thought he felt something on his forehead; a kiss, but he couldn’t be sure. Either way, he smiled. He was too far away to respond in any other way, but he knew that he would understand.

Love you too.

[lookforanewangle]

first lines: fic-writers meme

Rules: List the first lines of your last 20 stories (if you have less than 20, just list them all!). See if there are any patterns. Choose your favourite opening line. Then tag 10 of your favourite authors!

pseudo-tagged by @demenior <3

I only have 15 fics posted on my ao3 and I refuse to delve back into my ffnet, so here we go, in order from oldest (2013, ffnet would have gone all the way back to 2011 orz) to newest:

Hold On, We’re Gonna Make it if it Takes All Night (Star Trek AOS): The instant the serum from Khan's blood is prepared, Leonard is leaping from his seat and dashing to the other end of the Medical Bay, frantically shouting orders at the rest of the med staff.

You Try Your Hardest (Percy Jackson & The Olympians) G: You are tired.

I Can Take So Much (Young Justice) G: The silence in the room was deafening, filling the space with an eerie stillness, crushing them under it's silent roar.

yours, mine, ours (Check, Please!) G: “My Moomaw gave that to me.”

when the lights go out I’ll be listening (just stay) (Voltron: Legendary Defender) T: Shiro wakes to a hand combing through his hair.

trapped (Young Justice) T: Dick comes to with a splitting headache and someone hissing in his ear.

one false move (Batfam) T: They’d all been kidnapped before. It was a packaged deal; be the children of the wealthiest person in Gotham, or be a vigilante, it all worked the same. Being kidnapped was bound to happen now and then.

all in a name (Batfam) T: He wakes to burning heat, the cloying stench of sweat and blood, and a buzzing-ringing in his ears.

keep breathing (Batfam) G: He was always trained not to panic.

on my mind (Batfam/Young Justice) T: Bruce fucking hates magic.

I’ve got you (Batfam) T: Dick is wearily unlocking the door to his apartment when his phone chimes urgently in his pocket.

i’ll stick with you (Batfam) T: The end of the world starts and goes as it always does, with threats and explosions and battles raging across continents. (note: please mind the tags on this one!)

and we’ll be carrying each other (until our dying day) (Batfam) T: It was supposed to be a normal patrol.

crack and shatter (Batfam) G:  Everything must be finally getting to him, Dick thinks, because that’s Damian across the way, staring at him wide-eyed.

safe now (Supernatural) T: It takes awhile, but Jack is able to bring Castiel back from the Empty.

as for patterns....I seem to start all my fics w one-two standalone sentence(s), never any paragraphs hmm

fave line out of these: hmmmmm probably crack and shatter’s!!

tagging: anyone who wants to play!! <333

[allyvampirelass29]

The Besiege of Bruce Wayne McQueen

A NOS4A2 Review By: Allyssa J. Watkins

I didn't say you could get up I'll swing the hammer back Until you've had enough Your armor cracking, amidst your son's frantic call Tell me, Victoria Who's the Strongest Creative of them all? Bones breaking You cower before me shaking As I wield my blunt instrument without relent You've had your fun, Bad Mother I hope you've gallivanted to your heart's content I am the magic your beautiful boy has so long lacked Bruce Wayne best behave Or I'll break his mother's back Lost Boys belong in Neverland Consider me, his Peter Pan You don't care for him like I can Neglect and endangerment is the McQueen way, isn't it? You selfish fake C'mon Vic He's safer with his Uncle Manx You ungrateful Brat....... Just say THANKS!!!!

Three words. PULSE. POUNDING. PHENOMENAL!!!!!!! I write this wide-eyed and shell-shocked, a trembling wreck of electric emotion, the prevalent being pure, paralyzing BLISS!!!! DAMN, NOS4A2 you are SPOILING us!!!! Is it Christmas!? Last week I watched the glowing potential of the ascending firework disappear, and just as I lamented its predicted fizzle out, it SHATTERED the skies around me with an explosion of colours brighter and more vivid than anything I've ever seen, in a deafening ROAR!!!! HOLY SMASH!!! I LOVED THIS EPISODE, so much so, that I feel like I lived it, every death defying second, so ALIVE with the rawest emotion, the most terrifyingly beautiful villainy, my every sense heightened, and in this bloody besiege for one, Bruce Wayne McQueen, our spectacular cast shines BLINDING, giving their best, and most authentic performances of the series. Prepare yourselves for a Lake House excursion, you will NEVER forget!!!!

I LOVED how this episode sent us sprawling right into the action, and I was so so so wrong about the fantastic build-up of the suspense from last week going to waste, because it lit the fuse for one HELL of a firework display. Where last week didn't hit me quite hard enough, this episode STRUCK like LIGHTNING, electrifying every vein, and barely taken breath. The fight scene....... yes, you know the one, the all out, claws drawn, hammer wielding, haughty taunting, smoulder and slashing duel to the death was pure, screaming, POETRY!!! It's ART, the most electric, ENTHRALLING, aria of wit and savagery, it's the single most INTOXICATING scene, not just in an episode full of instant iconic images, but of the ENTIRE series.

Vic VS Manx, a faceoff fraught with revenge and raw energy, no special powers, no knives even, just hurling razor-edged words, fighting, grappling, scraping, nothing but an autopsy hammer between the two of them, was MESMERIZING!!! Charlie is a black, roiling wave of breathtaking rage, coming down on his worst enemy like hurricane thunder, with a ruthless, ferocity, such as we have never before seen. I loved every second, even as I fell apart at the seams, hand clasped over my mouth, trying not to scream. While some might say this head on collision lacked his usual finesse and refined showmanship, I must vehemently disagree. How clever of the writers to give us a Charlie driven to the verge, snapping, shaking off his gentleman's cape, to reveal his sharpest edge, and rawest fury, not to mention darkest intent. Charlie's done playing the game....... he's ready to win, to take the queen. Or in this case, the prince.

The juxtaposition of his elegantly brandished wit, and the brutality of his swiftly dealt blows, is pure, and utter genius, not to mention one hundred percent CHARLIE!!! I grinned like a lovesick schoolgirl when he told Vic, "I hope you have galivanted to your heart's content." I'm swooning, even as I write that, his dialogue was on point, as the kids say, as perfectly tailored to his elegant malevolence, his beautiful wickedness, as that magnificent chauffer's coat!!! Also, forgive me my shameless fawning, but can we TALK about his shiny, raven especially gorgeous HAIR during this episode!? Whether it's falling wild in his eyes, as he draws back his blood-thirsty hammer, or hanging in dark, feathery waves, as he smirks, leaning over his seemingly vanquished nemesis, Charlie's iconic silken strands were as deadly as his backswing, drawing my eye, and stoking my passion something fierce!

I loved how he laid it all out for her in his Malicious Manx Rhetoric, and one of the things I desperately love about Charlie, is how he can speak such vulnerable truth, even in the midst, of a rasping seethe. He explains it all, passes his sentence, this is why you don't deserve him, this is what I'm going to do, and why you can't stop me, even as he pounds the hammer against her back, oblivious to the protective armor, cleverly concealed in her biker jacket, due to some quick thinking, and a fun, surprising telepathic assist from the miniature McQueen. "No Mom, just play dead......" I loved all the nerves Charlie touched on, not just physical nerves, but the exposed, emotional ones as well. He knows how insecure Vic has felt, about the kind of mother she's been, her shortcomings, her fear about not being good for him, not able to love him like she should, provide for him, and Charlie exploits that to profound perfection. "You won't be able to ride away from your Beautiful Boy. He'll call you, sometimes, from Christmasland, and you will see...... He's BETTER with me!!!"

But the thing that shook me the most, was the bleeding truth of his words as he told her, "That's what you do, Victoria, you run. Even from the things that you LOVE!" WOW Charlie....... the depth, the piercing insight in that quote still gives me chills like mad, and it's a searing revelation. I also marveled at Charlie's outright admission of having been in love with Vic, which I'd always suspected, especially after Parnassus, but he's never just come out and said it, and definitely not to her face. "It's a dangerous game...... endeavoring to love Vic McQueen, I found that out myself with Craig, after you set us both on FIRE." I love how he snuck that in there, how he makes Craig and himself out to be HER victims, and I think Charlie's relationship status with Vic will always be, "It's Complicated," because while she holds a special fascination for him, most of her allure lies in the challenge. What he loves is the most about Vic is hating her. Hell hath no fury like Charlie Manx scorned.

You know what else, was just....... a THRILLING chill!? After giving her a good and proper thrashing, and tongue-lashing, Charlie's voice is a spiteful growl as he rasps furious, "Just say THANKS!!!" I could NOT breathe!! WOW........ What SPLENDID writing!!! It's not enough for Vic to lie there, and take her punishment, the punishment that in Charlie's eyes she so obviously deserves, but he demands her thanks as well, for taking her only child, reprimanding her wicked, wanton ways, sparing her from having to be a bad mother. "If you had a grateful bone in your body, you'd thank me......" Charlie has always seen himself as the hero of NOS4A2, saving children from their broken homes, and lonely lives, and if you told him point blank he was actually the villain, the antagonist, he'd scoff in your face. This idea that he's being generous, actually helping Vic, even as he enacts his ultimate revenge speaks volumes to that, and I loved it. He even tells her young son, with such soothe, "Don't worry........ She can never hurt you again."

That being said, I also loved how Vic fearlessly turned the tables on our handsome phantom, dropping the pretense of excruciating pain to strike hard, breaking Charlie's leg, and leaving a nasty gash across his lovely cheek, before reigning down hell on the Wraith. This was especially jaw-dropping for me, since I had written a scene eerily similar, over a YEAR ago, in my NOS4A2 Series, and it was such a giddy, breathless joy, to see it all play out, exactly as I had imagined it!!! I loved how Vic gives Charlie his insisted upon thank you, after making her move, even though, yes, I was a little heartsick, seeing that impossibly perfect face so drastically marred. The warm, happy, fuzzy feel of Wayne's childhood memories, interspersed with the impassioned violence was yet another INSPIRED, and poignant stroke of brilliance, and in my opinion made the scene even more powerful and intense. It also inspired a fascinating theory....... That Wayne is a Strong Creative, that can speak through his memories telepathically to his mother. There are several instances in, "Bruce Wayne McQueen," where our adorable title character floods his mother's mind with happier times, and words of wisdom. Yes, Vic is a powerful Creative, and this could very well be her own doing, but as she's never been one for sentiment before, something tells me Wayne is speaking to her, calming her down, keeping her safe.

This episode is a masterwork of action and suspense, a transformative audience EXPERIENCE. You're in the Wraith with Charlie and Wayne, sitting on the edge of the backseat, you're treading water, traumatized with Vic, as the bullets whizz past you under the surface, flinching with every shot Bing fires, and you're pressed up against the window with Wayne, hands on the glass, as his mother sobs her devastated goodbye, promising to find him, her stricken eyes so full of love, knowing she has to leave him, if ever she'll have the chance to fight again. It's so beautifully executed, every shot, drawing us into our creative heroes' journey with immersive cinematography. It's unique to any other episode that has come before, and stands out as a groundbreaking method of emotional storytelling.

I must say this though....... This episode was as close to achingly perfect as you can get, right up there with Sleigh House, a MAGIC that I never EVER thought anything in my natural life could touch, but as much enamour as I feel, there were a few slightly detracting flaws. I absolutely LOVED the shifts between different points of view, it may be an unpopular opinion, but I thought that was another daring risk, that definitely paid off. My issue however, lies in the repeated events from one person's point of view to the next. I felt that the needless repetition slowed down the breakneck action, throwing a kink in the timeline. There were more than a few times where I was like WAIT, did that happen before or after what we've just seen!? I appreciate that they were trying to give us a new vantage point to what we'd just witnessed, maybe even belabor the moment for dramatic effect, but it ate up valuable runtime, and undercut the flow in my opinion, as well as shortchanged the suspense, knowing full well what was going to happen, because we'd already seen it from another character's point of view! How much better to show a scene from one perspective, and then jump right into the consequent action with the change to the next? How much MORE would we have gotten to see!?!? Had they done that, then this episode would have surpassed even Sleigh House, my ultimate ideal.

Don't get me wrong, I did enjoy getting to see what happened in the car with the boys, during Vic's ride through the woods. I LOVED how Charlie, ever the paternal guardian, was so taxed by Wayne's vehement cries, and frantic banging on the windows, that he says, in true exhausted parent fashion, "Please Wayne, just a small nap......" There were times that the rewind worked, but most times, I just wanted to get on with the story. Another grievance....... What the HELL are the Wraith's windows made of!? Yes, I understand that this is a supernatural, sentient car, but SERIOUSLY!!!! No amount of force, be it from a swung wrench, or slammed autopsy hammer, or SPEEDING bullet, could shatter even one of the Wraith's windows. Yes, I know it added to the suspense, watching both parents try desperately, and still fail to free their son, but it detracted from the reality, suspending my suspension of disbelief. They should have been able to at least break ONE!!!

I was also a tad bit disappointed with The Hour Glass Man, how about you guys? The way Abe set him up to be this heavy hitter, this "Fixer," in the Dark Creative World, I was so excited to see his knife and how it worked!!! At the beginning of the episode, our calm, sharply-dressed secondary villain, uses an hour glass, not to stop time, not to rewind time, not to alter time, but....... to hypnotize the two feds long enough to assault the lake house, SHOOTING Chris McQueen in the leg, before turning the gun on themselves. Yes, it was only our first look, and I'm sure our man of unsolved mystery has more than a few tricks up his ironed sleeves, he isn't in high demand for nothing, but....... as he was supposed to be Charlie's ace in the hole, I had prepared myself for something truly mind-boggling, something more than just compulsion, an everyday occurrence on The Vampire Diaries. Even in his second go at Vic, he pulls a Manx, and just hits her with his far less supernatural SUV. I knew something was up, the way Charlie didn't veer, and try to run Vic off the road as she pursued him on her new motorcycle, firing shots into the driver side window. He let her ride alongside him, so calm, and I KNEW he was leading her into a trap, and leading me straight into my second disappointment with The Hour Glass Man. I don't know, even though it got the job done, and landed her in the hospital, him hitting her with the SUV just felt....... underwhelming, which this episode is definitely NOT.

The hidden hero of "Bruce Wayne McQueen," is by far Chris Freaking McQueen, who has redeemed himself in my eyes through his fearless fight, both to stay sober for his daughter, and to keep her from losing her son. Not gonna lie guys, I was HORRIFIED, when I thought the Feds killed him at the beginning of the episode, and for the longest time after he got shot I was like DON'T you dare FREAKING kill Chris, oh god, is Chris dead!? A question to which there is no answer until nearly the end of the episode. Vic, still treading water underneath the dock, shakes violently as she hears the gunshots go off a little too close, and I, myself, was scared as HELL, thinking Bing was firing straight down, having discovered her. A horrible moment, as the blood falls thick from between the wooden slats of the dock, directly onto Vic's forehead. And then....... Chris Freaking McQueen, like a gun wielding white knight charges the sick BASTARD, Bing Partridge, shooting him repeatedly, although, to our collective chagrin, does not kill him!!! Seriously. Somebody gut that Creepster Pervert like a fish!!! Chris even takes on Charlie all by himself, firing at the Wraith, as it speeds off to my complete and utter delight WITHOUT Bing Partridge leaving him behind, FINALLY!!! You GO, Charlie, time to sever ties with that obnoxious deadweight.

Where this episode uncovers Charlie in his most heightened, dangerous state, raw and intense, Bing is portrayed at his detestable WORST, and my hatred for this hulking henchman was infinite. I HATE the way he is with Wayne, it literally made me sick to my stomach. Charlie is so sweet and gentle, paternal, and patient with our dear little Bats, doting upon him, and you can tell how excited he is to be his father, how this particular child, Vic's only son, is the second most important entry into Christmasland, after his own daughter. I'm still dyyyying from the way he said, "You and I have been dreaming about each other, haven't we?" How PRECIOUS!!! In counterpart, Bing is disgustingly abusive, grabbing him up off the ground, dangling him by his arm, threatening to shoot him, bite him, calling Wayne a, "pretty girl," (GOD, YOU SICKO!!!!) and I just couldn't stand it, I was so damn furious, I couldn't see straight, and I'm DONE with Bing, I want to put a hit out on that lewd, child abusing, BASTARD!!! It would seem Charlie is done with him too, leaving him behind to die, and I especially enjoyed that cleverly veiled threat in the car, Bing droning on and on about what he wants to do when he gets to Christmasland, and Charlie smirking with a coy mention of a special feast. Yeah...... I see what you did there, Babe. It's time to hang a Partridge, swinging from a pear tree.

Another thing I particularly loved about this episode, was that it had the unique symmetry of beginning and ending in the hospital, and in both instances, Wayne's birth, and the aftermath of his abduction, Vic loses him. Even as a newborn, after a harrowing C-section, Vic knows something is wrong, crying out to the nurses, as they do CPR on the tender little babe, and after only just bringing him into the world, Vic already has to face the threat of one without him. That was beautifully mirrored in the final, heartbreaking scene, when Vic, seeing her boyfriend, and father in hospital beds from her own, but no Wayne, realizes, with abject terror, her son is gone. Her worst fear, the ONE man she'd fought for eight years to protect him from, has taken him. BEAUTIFUL, heart-wrenching, devastatingly good acting from Ashleigh, the desolate sobs, as her mother holds her in her arms, the hopelessness, and fear in her eyes. It shattered me.

An all time high for NOS4A2, "Bruce Wayne McQueen," holds all the emotional drama, and high risk of a proper Season Finale, and we're only FIVE episodes in!!!! If it's THIS good, this early in the story, I can't even imagine what lays in wait, as the Wraith races away with a very special boy in tow. Hold on, Strong Creatives....... Our WILDEST dreams are about to come true.........

[bookworm242]

After much consideration...

I have come to a conclusion. The Marvel Fandom wish to return to 2012 BUT they want to bring all the new characters minus their emotional baggage... Sort of... (they want the character development and fluff).

I have a solution for this.

I propose we create an entire new reality for the Avengers consisting of the following:

Tony and Clint live on coffee (Clint replaced milk with coffee in his cereal one time and got banned from the fancy coffee machine for two months)

Natasha and Clint have their own language consisting of Russian, signing, gibberish and facial features

Clint lives in the vents

Thor lives on pop tarts

Loki is baby sat by everyone and treated as the overdramatic emo teenager ("where is that screaming coming from?" "Loki, someone ate the left over pizza.")

The Science Kids and Science Bros become the Mythbusters. There are many explosions.

Movie nights, chores lists and family meals are expected

There's no unnecessary romance

Everyone tries to become Morgan's favourite (Peter's number one, then Natasha. I refuse to believe otherwise.)

Prank wars are a common occurrence

Casual joking games turn into full out competitions

Avengers start an ultimate frizebee and dodge ball team as a joke. They end up getting banned from the park (which Tony then buys just because)

Family meals are chaos

Everyone teasing Peter about girls at school. Natasha shuts it down when she sense uncomfort.

Pietro is Thors speedy delivery boy

Wanda and Pietro sibling bonding

Visits from the Gaurdians (Quit hating on Quill. How would you react if the love of your life died just so their parent could add something to their ugly bracelet?)

Rocket follows Bucky around for his arm and Sam records it all

Shuri and Groot take digs at Peter

Gamora and Natasha compare weapons

Nebula hangs with Rhodey

Mantis and Thor get along weirdly well. It's probably the love of pop tarts

Val is sort of like "must protect adorable bug with my life"

Clint brings home a unicorn that Thor befriends after it insults Loki’s hair and fake horns

Training sessions gone wrong. Took them three hours to get Steve unstuck from the wall because everyone was laughing too hard

They all live in Avengers Tower that somehow manages to fit everyone.

Occasional visits from the X-men. Pietro and Peter fight over Wanda.

Fury bans a drinking contest between Logan and Thor. Something about not wanting the god of thunder and an irritable lighting rod drunk

Carol visits with Goose

Shuri and Peter feed Goose the most random assortment of objects. Thor joins occasionally.

The Fighting Grandpa Squad trying to figure out their way through the 21st century

Morning runs between Steve, Sam and Buck: "On your left." "On your right."

Sam retaliates by flying past them yelling "ON YOUR ABOVE!!!" He's got a sign flying behind him made by Tony.

Baking sessions are a nightmare

Team outings that usually result in them being banned from everywhere

Family holiday

Trying to find something Peter can't stick on.

Lady's only brunches where the woman relax and swap stories about the idiotic men in their lives. Shuri shows them the video of T'Challa kicking the suit

Scott sitting on people's shoulder to get places. Usually pretends to be their conscience. Peter freaked out.

Thor adopted a black cat with green eyes and a grey paw and called it Loki junior.

Natasha too has a black cat. His names T'Chacha. T'Challa loves him. Claims he is T'Chacha's uncle.

Peter has a golden retriever named Thor. Thor loves him.

Special days are... Interesting.

Valentines day is full of bad pick up lines that progressively get worse throughout the day

Christmas is as normal as it can get in Avengers Tower until people start opening gifts. Then it's just ridiculous. People get weirder and weirder gifts every year.

JARVIS is the AI

Defenders show up occasionally

Clint tries signing to Matt.

Ned and MJ are unofficially adopted by the Avengers

May visits occasionally

Peter gave Happy the nephew equivalent of the dad talk. Happy was just trying not to laugh throughout

Strange and Wong visit every Tuesday.

Villains send post cards

The Fantastic 4 visited one time and Jonny and Steve decided to mess with everyone. Bucky and Sam did not appreciate that.

Clint stole a penguin. No one knows where from.

Everyone goes to Bruce for everything. He ends up crying into Thors shoulder because "I'M NOT THAT TYPE OF DOCTOR!!!"

Black Fridays are a nightmare

Nerf wars are dangerous.

The assassin squad win every year

Hide-and-seek is ridiculous. Steve used a metal detector one time and Bucky retaliated by removing his arm

Bucky’s got his goats

He named one Steve because it's a reckless idiot and keeps running into walls

Assassin Squad make dead body jokes and Peter's still not sure if they're joking or not

Pietro calls Clint old man

Clint adopts everyone and everything. "Clint! Stop recruiting people!" "But this one's got potent..." "THAT'S A PIGEON!"

No one knows where Clint is getting all the animals from

Pietro gives everyone nicknames

Steve and Natasha trade Mom Friend duties

Tony wants to recruit Cassie

Scott is offended that Tony acknowledges Cassie but not him

Training sessions are now explosive. Thor and Steve almost took out Loki one time.

Everyone is ALIVE

That is all for now. Feel free to add more. If you miss everyone feel obliged to add more. I miss my children.

[imagine-loki]

Soulbonds and Fairy Dust

TITLE: Soulbonds and Fairy Dust CHAPTER NO./ONE SHOT: 33/?

AUTHOR: nekoamamori ORIGINAL IMAGINE: Imagine one of the fae has been helping the Avengers, jumping in to help them on missions and vanishing before Shield can bring her in.  Loki joins the team and convinces her to come talk to the team and consider joining before Shield takes more drastic measures. RATING: T (so far)  NOTES/WARNINGS: Also on AO3 here

You were woken early the next morning by Thor barging into Loki’s room. You’d spent the night there, curled in Loki’s cool arms. Loki jolted up immediately and threw his dagger at Thor before his eyes even opened.  He was well-practiced at stabbing Thor.  Even long-distance stabbing. 

Thor, however, was used to such antics from his brother and deflected the dagger using Mjolnir. “We must be leaving for Lady Sigyn’s meeting with Director Fury,” Thor reminded him.  You somehow hadn’t woken yet somehow, used to Loki’s antics as well.  

Loki groaned, and glared at his brother, but relaxed enough to look at you.  “Come on, love. You need to get ready,” he told you gently and tried to wake you.  

You nuzzled into his arms, glowing softly as you were in a dream.  “Loki…” you murmured with a small smile on your sleeping face.

Loki gave you an adoring smile.  “Wake up, my love. We have important duties to attend to,” he told you gently as he shook you awake.

Your eyes fluttered open and you gave him a warm smile.  Your eyes were still glowing softly in pleasure.  “Morning, Loki,” you purred and squeaked softly when Loki pulled you into a very passionate kiss for so early in the morning.

“What were you dreaming about, my darling?” he asked when the kiss was broken.

 “You,” you told him, softly, warmly, your voice a gentle purr. 

Loki chuckled. “I figured that. You said my name in your sleep, my love,” he said, clearly pleased.  

You couldn’t help giggling in reply.  “In one of my dreams last night we were going on a grand adventure with Thor to steal your father’s best liquor.  He decided if we were all going to get drunk we were going to do it properly.  Did we really blow up an entire wing of the palace?” you asked him.  Not all of your memories were back properly, though you had a lot of them returned.  

Loki burst into laughter.  “We did. Alcohol and magic never mix well,” he said mournfully.

You couldn’t help giggling at that.  “That was a lot of alcohol and he,” you gestured at Thor “Was somehow too rock-headed to be blown up in the explosion, which is probably a good thing or Mama Frigga would have killed us,” Frigga definitely would have killed you for killing Thor, even if the adventure was his fault.  

Loki chuckled. “Very true. It would not have ended well for anyone,”

“Mother was still angry at all three of us for a month over that stunt,” Thor added sourly from the doorway.  “And she made us sleep off the hangover in the dungeons,” he grumbled, reminiscing over the stung.

Loki nodded. “I think we deserved that, since we destroyed a whole wing of the palace,” Loki said with a shrug.  He didn’t mind mischief and he hated getting in trouble, but he at least accepted responsibility when he was in trouble. At least he had then when you were children and he had no choice.  

Thor laughed.  “At least we learned not to give you two alcohol until you could control your magic,”

Loki nodded in agreement, shuddering at the idea of what would have happened if you  all hadn’t learned that lesson. “A good thing too. Especially since our magic gets stronger as we age,”

“Except when you’re sick, in which case you seem to have all of it at once so that even Mother could not turn my hair back from being pink…” Thor grumbled at another old memory. 

Loki burst into hearty laughter and it warmed your heart to hear him so happy. “That was absolutely hilarious. You should have known better than to bother a sick person, especially one with magic.” Loki felt no remorse for turning Thor’s hair pink when he was sick.  None at all.

“My hair was pink for a week!” Thor growled.  “And then she caught it too and turned half of my hair purple!” he whined.

Loki glanced over at you. /Are you thinking what I’m thinking?/

You gave him a smirk in reply.  /I believe so, my love/ you replied and flicked your wrist in Thor’s direction, turning half of his hair a bright obnoxious purple when you did.  Loki made the same he does the same, turning the other half a bright neon pink.

You erupted into more giggles and watched as Thor caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. “Put it back!” he demanded angrily.

Loki laughed.  “That will teach you not to barge into my room, brother,” he replied easily.  He’d been yelling at Thor to knock for centuries, since the boys were old enough to have separate rooms.

“Put. It. Right!” Thor growled, ending your giggles with his anger.

 Loki glared at his brother.  “Control your anger, brother. We were just joking,” he snapped his fingers and Thor’s hair was back to normal.  Thor raised an eyebrow, usually Loki’s tricks weren’t ended by a simple growl.

“Of course you were,” Thor replied, still confused because he was an oaf.  

Loki turned to you, ignoring his idiot brother.  /Are you alright, darling? Did my brother scare you with his outburst?/

 /I’m fine/ you replied from safe within Loki’s arms. You still hasn’t admitted your fear and you were at least alright enough that you’d been able to hold your large form.

Loki pressed a kiss to the top of your head. “Are you ready to get up, love? We have your meeting with Fury today,” he reminded you gently.

You nodded, stole a kiss, and bounced off to your own room to get dressed and ready.  You couldn’t help stiffening slightly as you brushed past Thor on your way out of Loki’s room.  You noted Loki’s eyes on you and how he noticed you stiffening when you past Thor. Thor noticed it too and raised an eyebrow at Loki

“I’m not exactly sure myself,” Loki admitted when you were gone.  “Just do me a favor and control your temper around her,” 

“Perhaps you should find out. We all have hot tempers around here,” Thor reminded Loki.  After a pause he continued.  “We will be taking the jet out after breakfast,” 

Thor left to go rescue his breakfast before the other Asgardians came downstairs to eat it all. Loki waited for you in his room, dressed and his hair styled just so.  You came back in a couple minutes in a cute green top, jeans, and converse, your hair tied back and your ears exposed.  You weren’t hiding what you were from Fury. 

Loki smiled warmly when he saw you.  “Green is a perfect color on you, dearheart,” he told you, his voice a purr.  

You gave him a bright smile, then a smirk.  “Are you sure you’re not just saying that because it’s your color?” you teased, knowing your Loki well.

“That’s part of it,” Loki agreed with an incline of his head. “Though it brings out your beautiful eyes,”

You blushed at that. “My eyes are weird…” you reminded him.  Tri-colored eyes weren’t exactly normal.  

“I find them beautiful. It makes you even more unique,”

 You smiled brightly up and him and kissed him.  “I don’t need to be any more unique.  I have fae hair, and ears, and eyes,” you knew your looks were strange by human standards.  Even by Asgardian standards.  

“You look different, yes, but you will always look beautiful in my eyes, Asgardian or fae,”

You kissed him again. “I love you too,” you told him warmly.

He gave you a loving smile.  “We should go get breakfast before my brother decides to eat all of it,”

“Good idea. That oaf will eat everything if we don’t,” you’d gotten used to having proper meals again over the last couple of weeks and didn’t want to experience an empty belly again, especially so soon.  You took Loki’s hand to go find breakfast with him. 

Cap had made breakfast that morning, so it was sadly only eggs and bacon. Nothing sweet. Loki pouts at the lack of sweets but still eats his breakfast.  

“Cap doesn’t believe in sweets for breakfast,” Clint commiserated with the pouty Loki.  “And he insisted he wanted to cook, so I got overruled.  I think he’s nervous about bringing the two of you before Fury,” he adde, picking at his eggs.

Loki raised an eyebrow.  “Nervous? Why?”

Clint shrugged. “You’re you and she’s on probation.  Are you really going to be happy if he deems her too dangerous and out of control to stay here?” he asked Loki bluntly, surprised no one had told Loki what was at stake with this meeting, why Fury had been so determined to catch the fae.

Loki growled. “If he does, then I will not think twice about blowing his precious carrier out of the sky,” he said, magic sparking around his hands.

“Ergo, nervous,” Nat said dryly, not afraid of Loki’s display of anger.

 Loki got control of his magic.  “I will not sit by just because the Captain is nervous having the two of us on the jet. He cannot stop me from leaving this tower to stay with Sig,”

Nat shrugged.  “I’m not concerned.  Her tongue is almost as silver as yours and she’s no more dangerous than the rest of us.  Plus she keeps you in a reasonable mood,” she teased Loki.  It was true. She glanced to make sure Cap wasn’t watching before she produced a chocolate chip muffin to add to Loki’s breakfast from somewhere.  Loki’s eyes lit up and he winked at Nat before moving to scarf down his sweet muffin

Nat smirked and returned to her own breakfast.  She was actively trying to be Loki’s friend, as was Clint.  Stark was trying to befriend you, as was Nat.  Bruce didn’t talk to anyone but Tony.  Thor liked everyone, and Cap was… Cap.  Loki was starting to pick up on the effort Nat and Clint were making to try and befriend him, finding it curious, but happily accepting it. He’d changed, especially with Sig around, and he was part of the team, of course they wanted to befriend him, at least to have a cordial relationship. 

The meal was finished with lots of yawns.  Loki stood when you had finished eating and held out his hand for you to take so they could head to the jet and get the meeting with Fury over with.  You took his hand and the entire team piled into the elevator to head up to the jet.  You looked nervous at the giant flying metal contraption and your grip on Loki’s hand tightened.  He released your hand and wrapped one of his arms around you. /You alright, my darling?/

/I’ve never flown on anything besides my own two wings/ you replied nervously /And fae and metal aren’t known for being the best of friends/ 

/Iron right? Don’t fae have an aversion to iron?/

/Iron is worst, but we don’t always take well to other metals besides silver and gold.  It varies by the fae/ 

Loki nodded, taking in the information /You’ll be alright. I’ll be with you the whole time/ he promised as you got onto the jet, dread filling you as the metal surrounded you.

[marvelfanficprompts]

Hot Take on Why Steve Rogers’ Ending Doesn’t Make Sense

No one:

Literally no one:

Me: hey you want to read my 1,000+ word essay on why Steve Rogers’ Endgame ending makes 0 sense?????

Now, to preference, I am a Stucky stan, I have been since I first started watching Marvel. However, this is not written from a fandom, shipper perspective, but rather only canon and facts, from the perspective of a person who has a best friend they would do anything for and who’s entire life and therapy/mental health history revolves around moving on and not living in the past. Also, I love Peggy, she is probably my favorite female MCU character, and she has been for a long time, Peggy/Steve is also my favorite of the main romance relationships in the MCUl (Tony/Pepper, Thor/Jane, Bruce/Betty, Peter Q/Gamora, etc). Now, onto the essay.

Steve’s story revolves around Bucky. A statement that might take a bit looking into to fully convince you is accurate, so let’s look at the movies.

The First Avenger. Let’s be honest, Steve is a stubborn bastard, rather Bucky was there or not, Steve would have found a way to enlist, Bucky wasn’t apart of this part. Yet, even after the serum, Steve wasn’t in the battle, he was traveling and being a ‘show monkey’. He hated it, yet didn’t have the ability and/or motivation to change this and finally prove himself. What got him on the front lines? Learning Bucky’s unit was captured, Bucky included, and going against all orders to save Bucky and the other soldiers. Bucky was the driving force that got Steve to prove he was able to serve, if Steve hadn’t gone after the 107, he likely wouldn’t have reach the front lines until much later if at all. Now, after Bucky dies Steve says something interesting: “I won’t stop until all of HYDRA is either dead or captured”, a very stark difference from his original “I don’t want to kill anybody.” Bucky’s death was a trigger for Steve, who changed from “killing isn’t the only option” to “I will kill them all.”

Winter Soldier. I don’t need to explain this one to say the title is literally Steve Rogers: Bucky Barnes. From the unmasking, to just the sight of Steve allowing Bucky to break some of HYDRA’s conditioning, to Steve refusing to fight Bucky, it’s easy to see how much Steve and Bucky mean to one another, how important they are to each other, and how intertwined their stories are.

Civil War. It was shown Bucky was Steve’s weakness before hand, but Civil War really nailed it in. From the beginning scene with Steve freezing after Bucky being mentioned to Steve bringing Bucky to Wakanda to heal, Civil War is constantly showing us how Steve does everything he can to keep Bucky safe, even from his friends and allies. Now, one could argue Bucky was the cause of the Civil War, though it was indirectly. Steve freezing following Rumlow mentioning Bucky caused Steve to not be able to contain him, which gave Rumlow enough time to blow himself up in which Wanda threw him into the building which caused the deaths that began the Accords. Once again we are met with Bucky, though this one is Zemo pretending to be Bucky in order to put the blame of the UN explosion on him. After being told Bucky’s location, Steve goes to protect him from T’Challa and the authorities, which leads to a fight where Steve fights by Bucky’s side. Following the arrest of Steve, Bucky, Sam, and T’Challa, Zemo poses as a psychiatrist and sends Bucky on a rampage, where Steve manages to sneak Bucky away with Sam’s help. From there we see Steve form a team after no one believes them about Bucky’s innocence, and then the two of them going after Zemo, where they are met by Tony and form a temporary truce until it’s revealed Bucky, while under HYDRA’s control, killed Tony’s parents. From there we enter a fight, where Steve didn’t hesitate to fight against Tony, his friend and teammate, in order to protect Bucky. In addition, you can see how much harder Steve fights after Tony blows off Bucky’s arm. Once the fight is over, Steve leaves with Bucky, dropping the shield and with it the Captain America mantle. No matter how much it must have hurt, Steve supports Bucky in his decision to go into cryogenic sleep until a cure is found for his brainwashing.

Steve spends most of the MCU losing Bucky and then chasing Bucky, so why, after so many years of this, would he leave the moment he finally has Bucky again? And this time for good?

Steve’s entire story theme is moving on. It’s seen in nearly every movie he’s in, including Endgame, where one of our first scenes with him is him leading a therapy group about moving on and not living in the past. Does this rule just not apply to Steve? To live in the present instead of the past because the past can only hurt our future? The entire message of Steve’s character is focus on the present, don’t live in the past, and instead look towards the future, it has been built up since his entrance to the MCU, why would he erase all of it to return to the past? Going against the entire point of his journey?

Now, if anyone deserves to be a bit selfish, it’s Steve; who always seems to put someone else above himself. Yet, he knew Peggy had gotten married, had kids, and lived a very happy life. He knew Peggy, despite Steve’s ‘death’, had moved on and lived without allowing it to bring her back. Instead of accepting this, he instead went back to the past and built a life with Peggy, ignoring her husband and children and how happy she was with her life. It’s not like it’s impossible for Steve to be happy in the future, with Bucky, Sam, and the Avengers. He could have gotten married and had children with anyone, continued the life he’d been building since waking up from the ice, yet he didn’t, as if he believed the only way to have a happy life was with Peggy and no one else, even if it meant leaving behind everything he’d done and everyone he had met during his years in the 21st century, including his best friends Bucky and Sam. Obviously he didn’t leave forever, but the Steve that came back was very different, both in body and mind.

Speaking from experience, I couldn’t imagine leaving my best friend, everything I’ve done, for the chance to redo a past I messed up, to have a different chance at happiness with a person I once loved. My entire life revolves around the idea of moving on, looking towards the future, focusing on the present, and not living in the past, much like Steve’s does.

The future built up for Steve, of moving on and living in the present instead of the past, was a major theme of the MCU for many characters. Everyone else managed to do it, Wanda after Pietro and Vision, Pepper after Tony, Clint after Natasha, Bruce after Betty and the Hulk, Bucky after his time as the Winter Soldier, Thor after losing everyone and his home, but Steve, who reinforced the idea constantly, instead of following through, took the first opportunity he had and ignored every part of what he’s told everyone else to do, leaving the present, forgetting the future, and living back in the past without thought.

[inappropriatefangirlneeds]

Gotham s5ep4 “Ruin” Personal Review

“There goes the element of surprise..”    Warning spoilers below (ahaha not this week, boy am I late, not that anyone would have missed this though, also little meta content this week)  

What I loved about the episode is that it´s the “apocalypse” and then it comes down to a crime scene investigation! I would take much more of that! Much more!  Just less of a bloodthirsty MOB. Like would they really want Zsasz hanged? The evidence was pretty clear, Jim Gordon really got no reason to lie to them, actually it would greatly benefit him if he did. Do they really not want to see the real culprit punished? I´m not a fan of lynch/mob law in general but does it make sense for the mob to want the wrong guy hanged, that way the police probably will think / claim everything is settled and call it a day, which means the real culprit is free to do that again, but then again I wonder how many people know about Zsasz and him having been a hitman, did some of them have had relatives that got into Carmine / Sal Maroni crossfire, was this partly a he´s a guilty filthy criminal *anyway* thing?  * “You don't need to smuggle in explosives when you can detonate 250 gallons of highly pressurized heating oil that's coursing through all the floors.”  Ah damn, they really had Edward Nygma do it, I kind of didn´t want them to follow that route. Also why put that running guy with bomb in there then, huh .. damn exploding herrings.  HOPE goes on and off this week:  “But whoever destroyed that building can't destroy the hope we've built. Not unless we let them.” “I told the people it was safe. I made them into a target.” “Jim, you gave 'em” “Don't tell me I gave 'em hope. They're dead.”  * It´s GOOD vs. EVIL “This city will never be what you want it to be, Jim. It's always gonna belong to the bad guys, like me.”  “People like you are always trying to own this city. But you never will.” * It´s GOOD ft. EVIL Oswald Cobblepot poses as if he was the synthesis of both those opposites: A bad guy that cares. “I lost people, too, Jim. People you lured with promises of safety and security, only to have them incinerated.”  Oswald arms the GCPD talking about working together just to take over and get his own trials and justice going. He´s claiming to provide what Jim can´t. While both Barbara Kean & Oswald Cobblepot claimed their help came no strings attached Oswald´s help does not include staying aside and letting them do their work. Although to be fair he said “Save for the one that we will cinch around the neck of the Haven bomber.” What is it with people that it always needs a couple hundred dead people that they can focus on nice things. Anyway everyone is appropriately appalled with this atrocity. They also gave all the villains some selfish reasons. OSWALD COBBLEPOT wants people and their cheers. EDWARD NYGMA wants the file of the inmate.  “I've been putting out feelers.” BARBARA KEAN is worried Sirens might be next, making her probably the least “selfish” one because she seems to care about the people that she protects and might not demand the same level of praise that Oswald does. (I know probably other things but unless canon proves me wrong I headcanon slightly differently) She feels hurt but understands Jim would suspect, even for a moment that she could be responsible for the destruction Haven. They slowly get her back on suitable for Jim Gordon to kiss track, which phu idk. I liked her and their relationship in S1,  but there´s just so much happened in between. And plenty in Barbara´s characterization I didn´t like so it´s nice to see her on a more reasonable track now but how about they just gave her an awesome relationship with Tabitha ........  Characterization questions aside I really loved that she did not and could not kill Oswald in the light of the explosion! That was a touching moment!  Also her outfit is nice, although they toned down the make up. And Jim gripping her arm during the kiss almost gives old timey movie vibes. I´m sure I don´t need to write on Babs / Oswald paralells, I assume I just can reblog better words on it from someone ..  * Also something tells me if JIM GORDON  had gotten that shoot out with VICTOR ZSASZ, that kiss would not have happened …… “Inmate number 1215 knows! Knows what???!!??!” Ha, distressed, puzzled, annoyed EDWARD NYGMA is a joy to watch. I don’t really have to say more on that. Edward snatching the blanket from the woman when walking into the GCPD makes me wonder, what would he have done if that woman hadn´t been there? Just walked in? Did he have a stupid disguise and was like, oh no wait that´s better.  He and LUCIUS FOX were a delight. Edward trying to snatch the file from him and run was wonderful! Him preening in pride when his expertise is wanted was delightful! Lucius claiming, he´ll deny having said the praise he gave Edward in the end, precious! Lucius playing him like a fiddle, and moving him with barely more than his fingertips, damn! Just that the whole thing was shot like when Ed pursued Kristen Kringle!  Their dynamic is just wonderful: “Impressive. Calculated the angle of incident to follow the trajectory through the window, into the fuel oil tanks.” “Yep. That, and the RPG case is right over there.”  * One thing that stressed me was Ed sending the Files flying around him on the rooftop. Like at that moment he didn´t yet know that the woman he saw in the window was connect to the note he put down on his hands. Even when the inmate was dead there could have been some hints in the file or who knows in hid grave. Like, no Edward! No! Go run and pick them up.  * Someone needs to do a Parallel Meta for 5x04 & 4x12  when Ed found out he hired the hit on Leslie Thompkins. * “I did not make that building go boom, Jim.”   Yeah, that´s a VICTOR ZSASZ line. Love him. * ““Hey, do you guys have any canned peaches? Man, I'd trade an arm and a leg for that right now. Not mine, somebody else's.” Food and cut off limbs, that´s another one. Love him. * And that one: “Do the math.  If I blew up a building full of people, I would have covered every inch of my body in sweet, sweet scars.  You guys want to do a strip search?” “I'd let Alvarez do it. He's handsome” * Him shooting Oswald´s head on the major poster after he said something was a great detail! * Him drinking while waiting for the bullet hail to stop as well. * I´m gonna make a post about the Gunman magazine that fell on the floor, after Jim tackled him so majestically ...  * Zsasz usurping the applause afterwards, and later was adorable. * “Is this about Sofia Falcone? Because you should really move past that. It's not healthy.” DOES HE KNOW SHE KILLED CARMINE, DOES HE OR DOES HE NOT ???? They had him express sympathy towards Carmine in Season 1, they showed that he cared when Carmine got killed. I get that he might abandon issues like that in the current environment but they can´t open up such a plotline and then just drop it. Does he know that Oswald didn´t kill Carmine? Like honestly .. I know it´s the Jim Gordon show but I would have loved it if Victor Zsasz just had saved himself!! I would have loved it even more if along the way they somehow figured out the whole misconception, Zsasz would recognize that Sofia and not Oswald is to blame and maybe even apologize. * But hey Oswald´s “Well said” about the mumbled last words was mean but awesome. * Soooo who went in the trashy local torture museum to get the guillotine? * How does Zsasz work? There where zero people shown around him. What is it like to live on Zsasz turf? * Zsasz mumbling must have been bewildered that they aren´t honouring the tradition of the last meal before an execution, like he got his order ready, that was the last silver lining, if he´s really going to face his end at the hands of penguin in those halls at least he´s going to get his teeth into something juicy and tasty before it happens ..  SELINA KYLE, (Bruce Wayne), JEREMIAH VALESKA, ECCO * Sykes and the Soothsayers digging a tunnel for Jeremiah Valeska. Is that poetic justice? Also is this a new tunnel, when the Soothsayers had the children dig it they went out of their way to state that their cruelty is even more infuriating because the whole endeavour is very likely futile.  Like they made it damn clear that the TUNNEL is not going to go anywhere. Also would Jeremiah, who made the bridges go boom want a tunnel that remedies that  issue partly? Only for himself? His cult? Is he doing something else altogether? Is it about what he can get into the city through it? Is he better at static issues and remedied the tunnel digging plan? Was he involved before?  * “Yes you certainly have set a very high bar - for devotion.” Fucker gave me an earworm, Ordo Rosarius Equilibrio & Spiritual Front - A Song 4 Hate and Devotion (live) I mean quite a fitting mood considering all the other portrayals of the Harley and Mr. Jay relationship, but maybe they give ECCO and JEREMIAH VALESKA a different path. Aside from that the little dance was slightly nice. * “Bruce Wayne and his sidekick Curls Or is he the sidekick?” Yes! Ecco got the right spirit. I wonder if Ecco sees herself as sidekick?  “You see, a river cuts through rock not because of its power, but because of its persistence.So what do we do when we feel like giving up?” “Dig a little deeper.” “And what do we do when we can't possibly go on any longer?” “Dig a little deeper.” “And what do we ..” “Deep enough?”  I´m afraid it was not deep enough, I´m afraid it was quite shallow because the show is not as clever as Ecco, I bet that he isn´t dead, if he was it if could have actually been just about her. Honestly, I would love that. All the BatJokes built up and then it´s about Selina. And she has plenty right for it to be about her, Jeremiah almost killed her. What else does it need.  * SELINA KYLE keeping in the shadows investigating, disguising herself as one of the people there, then getting close to Jeremiah dressed as Ecco: She´s good! She´s awesome! * That GCPD woman that was doing PAPERWORK when Ed sneaked into the building. Do they do regular paperwork? Cause damn, considering the governmental neglect if Jim got them to bother to do the regular paperwork he must have given one hell of a speech. Or is it paperwork related to organize a place like Haven? How do they do things? * Oswald destroying all strategy with a megaphone: “There goes the element of surprise.” * “Elevated position, back to the sun.” * “Never ever ask me to do anything like that again. Pull yourself together.” Harvey does not approve of Wild West Jim  * “ I know the wheels of justice turn slowly, so I'm here to provide - a modicum of grease.” / “I did not expect you to go soft, Jim. Actually, I did.”  / “By the power vested in me by well, me, I sentence you, Victor Zsasz, to die.”   * “One of the areas in which I excel is the loosening of tongues.” “No. He's mine”  Oh damn I thought Jim said “it´s mine” as in he´s better with interrogations. Well there goes my whole comparison with the Edward Nygma & Lucius Fox expertise quip:  “So, the second smartest man in Gotham needs my help.” “Explosives are not my expertise.”  “Didn't realize you had one.”  *“Jim Gordon cares more about protecting a murderer than he does about protecting you!” Okay look who is projecting .... 

[hysterialevi]

cobblebats fanfic pt. 12

From Bruce’s POV

I crept into the sky train depot through an open window, sticking to the shadows and scurrying around as I searched for the cure. It was a rather quiet night, thankfully, and so far, there hadn’t been any sign of the Children of Arkham, or their leader, leaving the depot empty. As much as I appreciated the lack of security though, I couldn’t help but feel as if it was a bit too quiet. After all, Oz did say that the cure was going to be heavily guarded and yet, from what I could see, there wasn’t a single one in sight. To say I was suspicious would’ve been an understatement.

Hopping from one beam to another, I stuck to the top of the depot as I observed it from above, one of my drones following me from the opposite side. I pressed my earpiece.

“Alfred,” I whispered, “how’s it look?”

“There’s a laboratory down there, sir--most likely the one you’re looking for. If I’m not mistaken, this is the same depot where you foiled Lady Arkham’s plans to drug that train station.”

“I thought it looked familiar. I guess they repaired the train. What about the cure?”

“Let me take a better look.”

The drone flew closer towards the ground. 

“There’s a case of vials next to the lab. They’re holding some sort of green liquid inside them, though I’m not entirely certain what. It’s not the drug, that much I’m sure of.”

Oz’s voice came through. “That’s it, Bruce...” He sounded even weaker than before. I almost couldn’t tell it was him. “...that’s the cure...!”

“All right. Let’s do this.”

“Err--please proceed with caution, sir,” Alfred warned quickly. “As I’m sure you’ve probably already noticed, this depot is suspiciously empty tonight. I expected at least a handful of guards, or even a lookout, but thus far, I haven’t seen a single Child of Arkham. Dare I say, it could be a trap.”

“You’re not the only one thinking that, Al. I’ll be careful. How’s Oz doing?”

“He’s resting in the Batcave with me at the moment. I’ve stabilized him as best I could, and tended to his injuries from the fight before, but if we don’t get that cure soon...” Alfred let out an uneasy sigh. “...I don’t mean to put pressure on you, Bruce, but without the cure, I fear that Master Cobblepot may not survive the night.”

I remained composure, but I would’ve been lying if I said the news didn’t make me a nervous wreck. 

“Understood. I’ll do whatever I can,” I took out my grapple gun. “Keep in touch. I’m going in.”

“Good luck, sir.”

Latching onto a lower pole, the hook attached itself with a metallic clank as I hurled myself to the lower level of the depot, landing as quietly as possible and beginning to sneak around. Even if there was no one here, I still wanted to be cautious.

Approaching the chemistry lab, I slipped through the darkness and examined the tools and chemicals lying on the table, looking to see if there was anything else I could put to use while I was here--or destroy, for that matter. It had obviously been used recently, and a group of barrels filled with Lady Arkham’s drugs sat nearby. She was desperately trying to replenish her stock after losing most of it to Harvey’s bomb.

I tried to block out the morbid memories from that tragic night, but the screams of those who were caught in the explosion relentlessly echoed in my head, along with the horrifying display of flames as they devoured the collapsing building.

Stop it, Bruce. I mentally slapped myself. Now is not the time for that.

Resuming the current task at hand, I walked up to the case of green vials and reached to take one, but before I could even touch the bottle, a tremendous bolt of lightning-like energy zapped the entire box, causing the vials to shatter and sending me flying back against a wall.

It took me a second to gather myself and process what had just happened, but once I spotted a lone vial rolling on the floor beside me, I hurriedly snatched it without a second thought and shoved it into my belt, frantically scanning the depot for enemies.

A chilling laugh bounced off the metal walls. 

“I knew you’d come,” they taunted. It was Lady Arkham. “Oh, you poor fool...did you honestly think it’d be so easy?” She laughed again. “If I had known you were so gullible, I would’ve tried this method ages ago.”

“Where are you?” I shouted. “Show yourself!”

“Still have some fight left in you, huh? I must admit, I’m impressed. Most people would’ve given up by now.”

“I’m not most people.”

I jumped out of the way as another bolt of lightning jolted towards me, burning through a cluster of beams instead.

“Why do you persist!?” Lady Arkham hissed, irritated. “This resistance of yours is pointless! It does nothing except delay the inevitable. This city’s hypocrisy will be exposed--and there is nothing you can do to stop it.”

“Sir!” Alfred exclaimed. “Look out!”

She shot one final bolt directly into a barrel not too far away from me, making it explode and sending a carpet of flames to crawl along the floor as it began to consume the depot. I was blasted back by the force of the impact and found myself spinning through the air until I crashed against another wall, a stomp of pain rattling throughout my entire body. Out of the corner of my eye, I could see a blurry silhouette of Lady Arkham herself emerging from the raging fire, staff in hand and mask shielding her face.

“I’ve tolerated you for long enough,” she snarled. “Tonight, this laboratory becomes your tomb, Batman.”

With a surge of strength, I sprung back up to my feet and faced her, Batarang in hand.

“You can’t win this war,” I said. “You’ve already made too many mistakes. Your first was using innocents as weapons. That only ever goes one way.”

Lady Arkham chuckled. “Then come on, Batman. Show me what you can do. Beat me, torture me--do whatever you wish.” She pointed her staff at me. “I want you to deliver me to the devil in pieces.”

Without warning, she suddenly swung her staff at my head, missing by only a few centimeters. I could feel the power behind her attack ripple against my flesh and a sharp, heavy whoosh rang in my ears.

Leaping out of the way, I tossed a Batarang at her hand and used the grapple gun to take hold of a barrel behind her, yanking it towards us and causing to slam directly into her back. To my surprise, she managed to not only deflect the Batarang, but also avoided the incoming barrel on time, twirling her staff.

“You’re gonna have to do better than this, Batman.”

Just then, I saw the drone hovering above Lady Arkham. She didn’t notice it.

“Just say the word, Bruce.” Alfred prepared the mini-missiles.

I prepared the grapple gun. Lady Arkham got closer.

I pressed my earpiece. “NOW, ALFRED!”

“What!?” Lady Arkham blurted out, whipping around to face the drone. I took advantage of the distraction and hooked onto her ankle, wrenching her towards the ground as the staff popped out of her grasp. I went after it.

“NO!” She yelled, chasing me.

Before she could get anywhere near me though, I had already fired a bolt at her, flinging her across the depot as she smashed into a pole, the drone getting into position. For one final time, I used the grapple gun to pull myself to the window I had used to gain entry earlier, slipping out and leaving Lady Arkham alone as she tried to limp after me. 

“Firing.” Alfred announced, pushing the button.

A batch of missiles came soaring out of the drone with a trail of smoke behind them, making a beeline straight for the supply of drugs. Before they made impact, I sprinted my way out of the depot and the area surrounding it as quickly as possible as the Batmobile came into view.

Making sure the cure was still secure in my belt, I hopped into the vehicle and charged out of there, zooming back home. 

“I got the cure, Alfred. I’m on my way back.”

“Very well done, sir,” he sounded panicked, “but I’m afraid we have one more problem to deal with. Gordon’s been trying to contact you. I’ll put him on the line. Connecting now.”

It switched to Gordon’s gruff voice. “Batman!”

“Lieutenant. What’s the situation?”

“I hate to keep pestering you about the same problem, but it’s Dent. I don’t know how, but the bastard managed to break out of Arkham!”

“What?” 

“Yeah, he’s fled to Wayne Manor. According to my men, he’s taking hostages there. He’s threatening to kill them all if Bruce Wayne doesn’t show up!”

[letthesleepingdoglie]

From Whence He Sprang - 09

Title: Never Left or Right

Part: 09 of 18

Rated: M

The Batcave

Gotham City

January 17th, 2012

17:24 EST

Team Year One

“You look like crap.” Artemis noted as she stepped off the open elevator platform that had brought her down into the Batcave.

Dick tore his gaze from the screen in front of him and turned to look over his shoulder at his friend. At least, he tried to. The movement was stiff and sluggish on account of the many bandages and stitches covering his exposed torso. It had taken Alfred the better part of an hour to patch up all the wounds that Dick had received from the fight last night, and the last thing that he wanted to do was tear all the meticulously stitched cuts open.

Now that the adrenaline from the events of last night had worn off, each and every one of the wounds he’d received ached and throbbed as he moved. The fight with the mysterious assassins had been so intense that he didn’t remember receiving half of them.

“You should see Bruce.” Dick grunted as he finally managed to complete his turn.

“Seriously?” Artemis asked, an expression of surprise on her face. She could count on one hand the number of times she’d seen the dark knight seriously injured. “What happened to you guys?”

Dick shrugged. “Assassins, sword fights, explosions. The usual.”

A cursory glance told him that she must have come straight from school; she was still wearing her hated Gotham Academy uniform.

“What brings you all the way out here?” He asked her, which was a valid question. Batman didn’t have a Zeta Tube installed in the cave, and Wayne Manor was a relatively long trip from her home in the East End.

It was Artemis’ turn to shrug. “You missed class. I was worried.”

Dick suppressed a small smirk, though he tried to hide it. Artemis always put on a tough front so that people wouldn’t see how vulnerable she truly was, but it was always endearing to see that she cared.

“Plus,” she continued, pulling a handful of papers from her backpack, “Barb wanted me to make sure you got your homework.”

Dick groaned, but took the papers from Artemis and flipped through them. It wouldn't take more than an hour to get through, but it would be tedious, and he had bigger fish to fry at the moment.

Artemis took advantage of Dick’s momentary distraction to glance at the screen that he'd been working on. A meaningless scroll of names, numbers and code flashed across the screen.  “What’re you working on?”

“A difficult case.” He put his homework to one side and hit a few keys on the bat-computer’s keyboard, bringing up the relevant files and images for Artemis to skim through.

“About two weeks ago, Batman and I met a kid named Jason Todd and sent him over to the Catherine Hershey school. Yesterday, we got word from Commissioner Gordon that he’d gone missing. We went to the school to see if we could find any leads on what happened to him and ended up being ambushed by a group of assassins working for something called the Court of Owls.”

He pointed up at the corner of the screen, where the image of a man with inverted eyes was displayed. “He was their leader. Called himself Shrike.”

Artemis frowned as she looked at the picture. “What’s the Court of Owls?”

“We have no clue.” Dick sighed in frustration. “The assassins blew themselves up when they realized that they were going to lose. We’ve been looking since the attack and haven’t found anything. Batman’s never heard of it, and I can’t find any references to it in anywhere.”

Artemis’ frown deepened. It was rare for Batman to have never heard of something. “Do you have any leads?”

“Not many.” Dick admitted. He gestured over to the side, where several items sat arranged on top of a high-tech scanning bed. The mask that Robin had removed from Shrike. The swords and throwing knives the assassins had dropped in their fight. Charred pieces of limbs and barely identifiable chunks of tissue.

“Most of the physical evidence was obliterated in the explosions. We’ve run their DNA through all the databases we could and come up with nothing. Their gear is also untraceable. We’re analyzing what’s left, but nothing yet. Batman’s back at the school, looking for anything we missed.” Dick sighed. “All we really know for certain is that the Court of Owls is good.”

He tapped at the keyboard again, bringing up a series of case files bearing the GCPD’s logo. “Look at this.”

Artemis moved so that she was standing next to Dick’s chair and peered at the display. Dozens of names and faces populated the screen, each identifying a child between the ages of 10 to 13. “What am I looking at?”

“GCPD missing persons reports. Specifically, children listed as missing from the Catherine Hershey School. Notice anything?”

Artemis frowned. Some of the kidnappings stretched back decades, with some going all the way back to the 70s, when the GCPD had started keeping track of missing kids. She realized what she was supposed to be looking for as she read the dates listed on the files.

“Like clockwork… One kid disappears every four years. Jason was just the latest.”

“Right.” Dick confirmed. “And those are just the disappearances that we have official records for. Unofficially, I managed to dig up reports of similar disappearances stretching all the way back to the school’s founding.”

“Why?” Artemis asked, incredulous. For a school to have this many missing kids… Granted, this was Gotham City, but still, even accounting for the fact that a boarding school oriented towards strays and orphans would probably have more runaways and disappearances, how had someone not noticed?

“I don’t know.” Dick said. He was clearly frustrated, which was understandable. He’d been trying to come up with the answer to that question for the last few hours. The problem was, he didn’t know if that was the right question to ask.

At first, both he and Batman had based their theories on the assumption that Jason had been kidnapped because someone was trying to bait them; after all, it was a common enough strategy amongst their regular rogue’s gallery. But now that he’d dug deeper and found the reports of serial disappearances, he was forced to come up with new theories to work around.

It was like trying to put together a puzzle, except he didn’t have all the pieces, he didn’t know which pieces he had were useful, and he had no idea what the final image would look like.

Knowing that a child’s life was likely on the line, his inability to figure the situation out was maddening.

“Any ideas?” Dick asked her. “I could use a fresh pair of eyes on this.”

Artemis hesitated, considering how she could best contribute. It wasn’t that Artemis thought she wasn’t smart enough to help, or that she was intimidated by the fact that her mentor wasn’t a world renowned detective. The simple truth was that most of the things that she could think of right then and there would have already occurred to him. If she wanted to help, she needed to draw on the resources and skills that she had exclusive access to.

“How good were the assassins who attacked you?” She asked.

“Very.”

“League of Shadows good?” She pressed.

“No. Better. Much better.”

Artemis considered that for a moment before pulling out her phone. “I’ll ask my mom if she heard of anyone like them when she was part of the League. They try to keep tabs on anyone that has skills like that.”

“Thanks.”

As Artemis took a few steps away so that she could call her mom without disturbing Dick, an automated notification popped up on the Bat-computer’s screen to tell him that the detailed scan he’d been running on the assassin’s bodies was done.

“Whoa…” Dick breathed as he read through the results.

Almost every biological sample that he and Batman managed to collect displayed some evidence of either chemical or genetic manipulation. For example, the assassin’s blood contained cells that looked like normal platelets, but upon closer inspection, appeared to function much more effectively, clotting in a matter of seconds rather than minutes. Fragments of bone revealed that their skeletons had been coated in a porous material that allowed biological materials to pass through, but was as strong and as light as titanium. There were even remnants of organs that the bat-computer didn’t recognize as human.

No wonder he hadn’t been able to find a match in any of the databases he’d looked at. Even something as fundamental as their DNA had been re-written to include what looked like distinct strands of animal genes. This was almost Cadmus level gene-manipulation; there were parts that barely looked human anymore.

It wasn’t just the sheer scale of the enhancements that Dick found overwhelming, but also the amount of time it must have taken to implement them. He’d seen full body augmentation and reconstruction before, of course, but it wasn’t something you could do all at once. Even with advanced tech from STAR Labs, someone undergoing this much surgery and gene therapy would need, at best, several years to adjust to all the changes being wrought on his or her body.

Years… Dick realized with a start, as a disturbing thought crossed his mind.

Working quickly, he minimized everything on the computer screen except for the picture of Shrike’s face that the cameras built into his mask had captured, then opened up a program that had been designed for forensic investigators so that they could “age” pictures of young children to find out what they might look like several years after their respective disappearances.

Dick ran the process in reverse, taking a scan of Shrike’s face and reversing the aging process so that it displayed an approximation of what Shrike might have looked like at the age of 12. Granted, the image was very, very, very rough, but at least it gave him something to work with. He ran the image through every database concerning missing children that he had access to, both within the US and internationally.

Even with a super computer as powerful as the one that was built into the Batcave, the search still took a few minutes.

That gave Dick a moment to ponder. And to hope he was wrong. He was so lost in his own thoughts that he didn’t notice Artemis was done with her phone call until she was standing next to him.

“Nothing.” She told him, tucking her phone away. “My mom says she’ll ask around though.”

He looked over at her. “Are you sure? I don’t want her to get into any trouble.”

Artemis waved his concerns away. “It’s fine. She knows how to take care of herself. Besides, I think she likes being able to help with hero stuff. It gives her something to do besides sit around the house all day, you know?”

“Mmm.” Dick conceded. He could empathize with that.

He sighed, rubbing his face, giving his eyes a rest. He’d been working non-stop on this since the ambush last night. Just because he was used to long hours of work didn’t mean that it never caught up with him. It was just hard to focus on things that seemed as trivial as food and sleep when someone’s life was on the line.

“Are you alright?” Artemis asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Yeah.” Dick said, pushing himself upright in his chair. “It’s just been a rough day.“

“You should get some rest.” She said. Dick glanced at her. He recognized that tone. Despite phrasing it as a suggestion, Artemis’ voice made clear that she was prepared to frog march him upstairs if she thought it would be necessary.

Oh, to have an big sister like Artemis.

“I’m just gonna finish this search, then I’ll grab a quick nap.” Dick promised.

Artemis crossed her arms and raised an eyebrow at him. It wouldn’t have been the first time that he’d made a similar promise to her, only for her to return hours later to find him slumped over the keyboard, fast asleep.

“I will.” He insisted when she didn’t budge.

She continued to stare at him for a few moments longer before she uncrossed her arms. Inwardly, Dick breathed a sigh of relief.

“Fine.” Artemis said as she made her way back towards the elevator leading up to the manor. “But if you don’t give Zatanna a call by the time I get back from the Cave, I will beat the crap out of you.”

“Fair enough.” He conceded.

Artemis rolled her eyes, but gave a quick wave goodbye as the elevator doors slid shut.

The computer chimed in with a notification, letting him know that the search was done. Facial recognition had found a relatively close match for a child that had gone missing in Oregon.

“Matthew Board.” Dick said to himself, reading the name at the top of the report. Born to David and Serena Board, September 1975. The youngest of four children. Reported as missing January 16th, 1988. The official notes listed it as likely the child had run away from home.Interestingly, it hadn’t been his parents who had reported Matthew as missing, but a teacher at the school he had gone to. He ran a quick check and found that both the mother and father had criminal records, mostly for drug related offenses, though there were more than a few citations from Child Protection Services as well.

Dick’s discomfort was starting to grow. It felt like the picture on the puzzle was starting to become clearer. Matthew matched Jason’s profile almost exactly. A child from a rough background, around the age of 12, whose disappearance wouldn’t raise any eyebrows.

This being the United States, which maintained a national database of missing children, there were DNA records for Matthew on file that Dick could access. He pulled these up and compared them to the samples that he had recovered from Shrike.

After Dick edited the sequences of animal DNA and removed them from the analysis, they were almost a perfect match.

Shrike was, or had been, Matthew Board.

Dick’s blood ran cold at the realization. Whatever the Court of Owls was, it had been kidnapping children in order to turn them into super-powered sociopathic killers. They’d been doing it in Gotham for years, decades even, right under their noses.

And he and Batman had put Jason right in their path.

——————————————————————————————————————————

The Labyrinth

Location Unknown

Time Unknown

Jason knew he was going to die.

That was his only rational thought as he stumbled forward through the dark, displaying none of the learned caution or stealth that he normally would have used. In truth, he was so consumed by the realization of his impending demise that he was scarcely aware of his surroundings, moving forward out of stubbornness rather than any real hope of going anywhere.

He was going to die, and there was nothing he could do about it.

The way he would die was irrelevant. Cut apart by another booby trap. Bludgeoned to death by the fists of ferals and torn apart to be eaten. Finally succumbing to the gnawing pit of hunger and thirst that was welling up inside of him. It would all mean the same thing in the end: dying, alone, down in the dark.

Strange, to think of his death in such dispassionate terms. In a way, the only thing that surprised him was the fact that he was still alive.

He hadn’t seen any signs of life for…

He didn’t know.

He didn’t remember.

He didn’t care.

Lorena. Joseph. Chris. Sean. They all probably thought he was dead.

Maybe they were right. It certainly felt like he was in hell right now.

For all he knew, they were the ones who were dead. The tunnels reeked of so much decay and abandonment that he couldn’t really believe that there was anyone friendly left in the world. Moving through the darkness, still covered with clotting blood and other visceral filth, he felt so cut off and isolated from everything that nothing felt real.

One of the few reassuring things he still felt was the weight of the knife in his hand. He vaguely recalled prying it, his own hands still sticky with blood, from the grasp of a fragmented skeleton that he’d tripped over as he’d stumbled through the dark. Judging from the size of the remains, it had probably belonged to a past aspirant. One who had fallen into the blood pool, just as he had, and somehow died, just as he would.

The knowledge had scared him at first. He had stared at the knife for a long time, knowing that he could have turned the weapon on himself, ended all of the pain that he had endured and the pain sure to come by slitting his own throat.

The prospect had, admittedly, been tempting.

But Jason hadn’t done it. Instead, he thought back to when he’d found James’ body.

His friend had known he was going to die the moment he realized he’d been caught in the floor trap that had dumped both of them down here. Even with everything that had happened to him, he’d gone down fighting, quite literally tearing the guts out of his feral killer.

Even in death, James would have avenged himself had Jason not intervened.

That seemed like a good example to follow.

If Jason was going to die no matter what he did, he wanted to die doing something, die fighting his fate. As much as he wanted the suffering to end, he wouldn’t take the easy way out. As much pain as it would bring, he would keep moving, resist, even if brought him to the bitterest of ends.

Jason clutched his looted knife tighter and kept moving forwards.

It was as good a direction as any other.