#and it has the lanterns and speedsters and justice league + their supporting families as side characters in the fic

[yj-98]

rotating comics and rdr in my head at terminal velocity :)

[ragingbookdragon]

I saw you want idea for flash. Maybe Barry falling in love with Bruce's younger sister who is justice league member. Barry has a crush on her because she is a good cook and very optimistic with a habit of making puns. Cue the cute fluffy romance with food.

P.s. sorry if it's too much. I love your works on the lanterns.

Okay, I changed it just a pinch, but I think it works well! I'm glad you love my GL works dear! -Thorne

**********************************************************************

Barry had been to Gotham more than a few times. Honestly, the city gave him the creeps and he stayed away, but he’d been a few times. He was probably the superhero besides Superman and Wonder Woman that didn’t have to call before he entered the area. That being said, his Midwestern sensibilities got hold of him more than they did most, and he couldn’t help but call ahead. Except when he didn’t get a response from Bruce, it worried him, and he got to the Batcave in record time.

“Bruce!” he called, skidding to a stop near the Batcomputer, only to find a young woman sitting in the chair with a worried look on her face. “Uh…”

She jumped at the sound out his voice and spun around, the worried look giving way to relief. “Flash! Oh, I’m so glad someone answered!” hurrying over, she took his hand and led him to the screen. “You have to help Bruce.”

He blinked, looking over at her. “Who are you?”

“Who am—” she shook her head. “That’s not important right now.” Pointing to the screen, she explained, “Joker and Harley took over Arkham Asylum and they’re unlocking the cells all across the blocks. Bruce is good, but I don’t know if he can manage that many supervillains at the same time.”

She clicked a button and the screen flashed, showing Bruce in the middle of a fight with Killer Croc and Poison Ivy. “The others are busy across the city running missions.” Turning, she took Barry’s hands in her own, tears coming to her eyes. “Please, Flash. Help Bruce. Please.”

Barry could only gape at the woman and look at the screen again, watching as Bruce took a blow to the side, and he nodded, pulling away. “Alright. I’ll help him.”

Her shoulder sunk in relief. “Oh, thank you.” She picked up some kind of device that looked like a scanning thermometer and raised it to Barry’s head, clicking the button.

“What’s that?”

“It’s a scanner. I’ll be able to get into your suit’s frequency to help you.” She turned and set down the scanner, then tapped at the screen. Immediately, directions to Arkham Asylum flooded the sensors in Barry’s cowl. “There. Can you see them?”

He nodded with a smile. “Yeah, I’ve got ‘em.”

Grinning at him, she winked. “Now run, Flash. Run.”

Barry shot her a look. “That’s original.” And he was off in a streak of yellow lightning.

***

It took less than thirty minutes for Barry and Bruce to reign in the asylum and make it back to the cave. And boy, was Bruce not happy to see his coworker in Gotham city, much less her who’d called him.

“I explicitly told you not to call anyone unless I ever told you to do so.”

Barry watched as she inconspicuously rolled her eyes, but he knew Bruce saw the reaction too. “I made a judgement call.”

“Your judgement was flawed, (Y/N).”

She glowered at him. “Maybe your flaw is being an anti-social jerk.”

The Flash narrowly managed to turn his snort into a cough.

“I didn’t call in another superhero to rain on your parade, Bruce.” (Y/N) grabbed Barry’s arm and yanked him forward. “I called your friend who was going to have your back when you needed it.”

Bruce looked between the two and Barry couldn’t help but blurt out, “I still have no idea what the relationship is between you two, but I’ve seen Wally and Bart argue long enough to know that you guys are family.”

(Y/N) laughed while Bruce merely grunted. “We’re siblings. Bruce is my older brother.”

“Ah, that explains it.” Barry looked between them. “So, are you not a superhero then?”

She smiled. “No. I’m just technical and moral support for the family.” Meeting his eyes, she added, “And the occasional referee whenever someone has beef with another family member.”

He chuckled. “Telling me the woman who has no martial arts training can keep up with the master detectives?”

(Y/N) winked. “It always helps to have a Superman-Stun-Gun on your person.”

Barry all but cackled, and Bruce griped, “Are you two done? I still have business to take care of.”

She stuck her tongue out at Bruce and grabbed Barry’s hand. “C’mon Barry, you’re probably hungry.”

“I’m always hungry.”

***

(Y/N) ushered him into the kitchen and onto one of the barstools. “Sit. I was just about to pull the chicken out of the oven.”

“What’d you make?”

Cracking the oven, she let the steam billow out before opening it all the way and reaching in with her oven-mitted hands, pulling out a glass casserole dish. Inside was a bubbling mixture of chicken and rice and the second the scent hit Barry’s nose, his stomach grumbled like a whale.

His cheeks flushed and he pressed a hand to his stomach. “Sorry.”

(Y/N) smiled and set the dish down on two wooden trivets before removing the gloves; she grabbed a serving spoon from the drawer and scooped out a good helping of rice and one of the larger pieces of chicken, setting it in front of the Speedster.

When he picked up a spoonful and brought it to his mouth, she gently laid a hand on his wrist, stopping him with a quiet, “Careful, it’s hot.”

Barry closed his mouth in a small “ooo” and blew softly, then put the spoonful in his mouth. Immediately he groaned, eyes closing as he chewed.

“Pretty good, huh?”

He swallowed and nodded. “It’s fantastic.” He stuck the spoon back in the bowl. “It reminds me of the chicken and rice my mom used to make.”

(Y/N)’s eyes flashed with a sad tone, but only for a moment. “My mother used to make this for Bruce and I when we had bad days. It was the comfort food she’d learned how to make when she was young.” She blew on her own spoonful. “I’ve spent almost two decades trying to recreate that loving feeling I used to get when I ate it as a kid.”

Before he could say a word, a shout sounded through the foyer. “AUNT (Y/N)! WHY IS THE OLD MAN ACTING LIKE AN ASSHOLE MORE THAN USUAL!”

She snorted, looking towards the doors when her nephews wandered in; the tallest one stopped and cocked a brow at Barry sitting on the barstool. “Oh. So that’s why B’s in a bad mood.”

“Jason, be nice,” she tutted, spooning the food onto plates, and passing them to each boy that walked over.

The young man glowered at Barry, who was on some level unnerved, but he met the teal eyes with his own firm baby blues. “He’s in my spot.”

(Y/N) nodded to the counter. “Then sit on the counter for now. Barry’s our guest.”

Barry speedily, ate the rest of the food and stood up. “I should actually be getting back to Central.”

“Aww,” she cooed. “But you didn’t even stay for dessert.”

That made Barry perk up. “Dessert?”

She winked. “If you gimme just a sec, I’ll have it whipped up…in a flash.”

Barry cackled while the others around her groaned and then someone cleared their throats, causing them to look towards the entryway at Bruce. (Y/N) smiled and plated some of their dinner, holding it out for him.

He took it and didn’t even cool it off before taking a bite. But the way his expression softened just a moment, told her all she needed to know; he leaned over and pecked her temple, murmuring, “Taste’s just like mother used to make.”

Bruce took the plate and walked back over to the doorway, but stopped and said, “Barry…thank you for the help tonight.�� And then he was gone, leaving Barry to gape at the doorframe and (Y/N) smiling.

“I think Hell just froze over, Aunt (Y/N).”

She rolled her eyes and ruffled Tim’s hair. “And there went the loving moment.” Laughing along with her nephews, she looked at Barry. “So, dessert?”

He smiled politely but shook his head. “I really need to be getting back.”

“I understand.” She nodded and gave Jason another serving when he handed his plate over. “Barry?”

He paused, glancing back from the doorway and she gave him a look that made his insides feel warm and fuzzy. “Yeah?”

(Y/N) smiled. “Don’t be a stranger.”

Barry winked in return and was off in a flash.

[newyoungjustice]

Okay so I was gone for awhile, but i’m gonna try to be more active, so consider this like a world building type thing that explains a little about the team and it’s members.

So basically the team is

Damian (13), Jon (11), Maya (14), Kathy (11), Lian (12), Irey and Jai (11), Colin (13), Suren (12), and Milagro (12) (i wanted to add her so she’s on the team now)

Maps (13) is also a member, but is mission support (basically their guy in the chair) and Suren is a reserve member due to not being around a lot, but is still really close with everyone.

Damian is Robin and makes up 1/2 the supersons with Jon, he starts the team and asks Jon to help him. He is technically the team leader, but none of them like to igknowlage it and will fight about it sometimes, so the league just has the whole team alternate who has to do the expense reports and other jobs that team leader is supposed to do. He is a master martial artist and is highly trained due to his time on the field with his father and his league of assassins training. He can be stubborn and closed off, but as much as he has trouble expressing it, he really does care about his teammates.

Jon is Superboy and is still getting a hold of his powers. He is very kind and caring and helps Damian assemble the team. Jon is a good kid with a great heart who wants to live up to the legacy his father has created, but feels as though he often falls short. His teammates always reassure him and remind him that at 11, he can’t be expected to be perfect with his powers. Jon works hard and loves very openly.

Irey and Jai are the team speedsters Impulse and Velocity. Irey is definitely the more hyper one, but not by much. Jai definitely is very hyper, but more in the way that he tried to do too many things at once. When they were 3, there powers malfunctioned and they ended up speed aging almost 5 years. They were physically, emotionally, and mentally 8 years old, but they definitely have a gap in their childhoods that they can never get back. They both have a love for science and want to do well as the second set of speedster twins in their families.

Lian aka Red Riding Hood (many variations of this name have been used in the field) is the archer. She lives with her dad and has a very strained relationship with her mom. She is also a skilled combatant. Lian is sarcastic, but not as closed off as Damian. She does have trouble expresssing her problems to others and thinks she can handle it on her own. Lian was the reason the Justice League made their team have a swear jar. She met Irey and Jai in the hospital when they were babies and she was 5, and thought it was really weird that they were her age. but they became very close friends once they were the same age.

Maya aka Nobody is the stealth and intelligence gatherer of the team. She’s the oldest and jokes she’s the team big sister. Maya is very sarcastic and snarky, but also a lot more sunny and humorous then Damian. She likes to rile people up for her enjoyment (lovingly). Her current favs to annoy are Dami and Kathy. She doesn’t have parents, but continues to look for her mom. She gets forced to homeschool with Damian once she started eighth grade.

Kathy aka Beacon is the telepath/telekinetic of the team. She is an alien whose planet was destroyed. Kathy considers the Kent’s to basically be her family, and she stay with them frequently, and eventually goes to Jon’s school with him. She loves the country and city life and always likes to joke around with her team. She is very eager and a little confused about some things, but she gives it 110%. Will also definitely throw you into a wall if you make her make her mad.

Colin aka Abuse is definitely a lot of the muscle of the team. He has a lot of issues in the orphanage and in the foster homes he has been in, so he definitely stuggles seeing lots of the members of his team be so close with their families. He is a bit calmer then some of his teammates, and can have a bit of trouble opening up to people, but is a really sweet kid who just wants to make a difference.

Maps aka Eye in the Sky is team mom 100%. She may be sweet, but that girl definitely will not mess around if necessary. Maps is also fond of the Sarcasm, and is a student a Gotham Academy and is close with her parents. For a long time she doesn’t tell them that she’s on this team though.

Suren aka Darga does the magic on the team. He has a lot of issues adjusting to a normal life after suffering a traumatic childhood. He is a reserve member, so he doesn’t always spend the weekends with the team. He definitely is almost a little shy around others sometimes, and prefers to spend time alone when the team first starts out. Getting out of the cult and loosing his father was hard, but definitely for the best in the end.

Annnnd for the newest member Milagro! She’s Green Lantern and joins the team a month after it starts once she finished her lantern training. Her and Jamie are very close, and she knew a lot of the members before she joined. Milagro is feisty and doesn’t let anyone get to her, but also wants so badly to be taken seriously as a lantern. She has pretty good emotional control due to her training.

Part(1/2)

[bluboothalassophile]

Hey who would you pair up Mar’I, Lian, terry and Helena with??

Hello,

Team ups you mean or actual ships? Because I do have a team line up all set up to go in the HfaB Universe…

Below the cut are MASSIVE SPOILERS for Hopes for a Bastard Universe.

Terrence ‘Terry’ McGinnis - Robin, Nightwing, Batman; team leader, tactical leader, thief, expert hacker, escape artist, forensics expert, undercover operative, detective

Terry is the team leader, starting his career into the vigilante world as Jason’s Robin. He is very close to his older brother, Jason, and takes a lot of Jason’s tactical advice. However, he does stick closer to his father, Bruce’s, rules and ideals, but he’s more realistic and pragmatic about the roles he assumes and grows into. He is very close to his entire family, his best friend is Max Gibbson who has assumed the role of Oracle. He frequently complains about being surrounded on all sides by women; his childhood friends were all girls, and he’s surrounded by sisters and nieces for his long time age companions; Lian, Helena, Mar’i, and Max all take great glee in tormenting him about this. He’s also the JL resident ‘advice on girls’ man, though he has no idea what to do about his own love life; for which Mareena torments him for.

Mar’i Ervin-Grayson - Nightstar; second in command, she’s the QRF and heavy fire power too

Mar’i is Terry’s second in command, she is their heavy fire power when they are trapped and she always down plays her abilities and power levels so people underestimate her. She’s very close to her younger brother, Jake, her step-brother; Amistad Ervin-Grayson. Despite many years of unease and distrust between herself and her father, Dick Grayson, they have become close, though she still feels a very special bond with her Uncle Jay. She is also very close to her step-mother, Raquel Ervin-Grayson; however, she is very close to her mother, Koriand’r Grayson. She is frequently the flamboyant distraction when need be on missions, and doesn’t do much undercover because she’s so recognizable between her modelling and acting careers as a civilian.

Helena Wayne - Robin, Catgirl, Catwoman, Huntress; thief, expert hacker, escape artist, forensics expert, undercover operative

Helena is the wild card of the team, frequently following in her mother’s and older brother’s ambiguous morals of right and wrong and is known to frequently operate outside her team. A highly trained, skilled and dangerous young woman, she’s known to take down crime syndicates on her own with little to know help, but when she does operate on a team she works closely with her older brother; Terry. She has a very close relationship with her parents and siblings. Helena is very close to former MI6 member, Julia Pennyworth, and has learned many espionage tricks from Julia.

Lian Thea Harper - Speedy, Overwatch; over watch and weapons expert, sniper, long range cover frequently

Daughter of Roy Harper and Jade Nguyen, raised by Jason Todd and Roy, and Roy’s wife, Queen Donna Troy, Lian is the tactical expert of the team and frequently the overwatch. She is an expert marksman, brilliant tactician and revered hand-to-hand combatant. She is very close to her families, both the Queen and Wayne families, and considered Amazonian royalty through her step-mother Donna.

Amistad Augustus Ervin-Grayson - Rocket; engineering genius

Son of Raquel Ervin-Grayson, he is a brilliant engineer, frequently improving upon all the tech the team has. He is responsible for suit designs and life support systems of his teammates. He is also known for his hero work, frequently on the position of the team to run interference between the battle and civilians. He is very close to his family; his mom and step-father, and his step-siblings, Mar’i and Jake, while also holding a close relationship with his adoptive grandfather; Augustus Freeman.

Max Gibbson - Oracle; hacker and tech support, completely behind the scenes; only Bats know who she really is, rest of the team just calls her Oracle

Max joined the team when she was very young and tried to help Terry piece together the murder of his father, Warren McGinnis. Has been Terry’s best friend since they were ten. Max is not very close to the Bats, outside of Terry, Lian, Helena, and Mar’i, having grown up with them. She assumed the mantle of Oracle after Barbara Gordon-Fox’s death when she was twenty and has furiously avoided becoming a true Justice League member, only working with the team through the comms.

Princess Mareena Curry - Aquagirl, Aquawoman; usually the team diplomat, if that doesn’t work, first one to start the fight

Not the first in line for the throne, Mareena is the younger sister of Arthur Curry Jr ‘AJ’. She is the Atlantean diplomat, and the team frequently sends her in to negotiate before fighting. Mareena is a master of 360 degree combat, while also possessing her mother’s skillset with hydrokinesis, and a master of triton combat. Unlike her brother, Mareena also possesses their father’s rare ability to communicate with all the sea creatures, her best friend is Beth, the depressed dolphin who she personally liberated from Sea World. She is a close friend with Terry, and looks up to Kaldur’ahm.

Lara Lane-Kent - Supergirl; back up usually and team PR person; public thinks she’s the team leader

Clark and Lois’ daughter from the same world as Tommy Gordon-Grayson, Lara barely survived the collapse of her universe and making it to this Earth. She is the public face and publicly acknowledged team leader of the Justice League and this team, given that the Bats do not like to be seen in the spot light. She is best friends with Nora Allen, fellow refugee of a collapsed multiverse system. She has developed close and yet strained relationships with the Kent family.

Nora Allen - XS; recon and speedster

Nora is a survivor of a collapsed multiverse universe, having unwittingly been written into this universe by her father and mother; Barry and Iris Allen. She is a fast speedster, one of the fastest, but acknowledges that her cousin Irey West is the fastest known speedster. She is very close to Lara Lane-Kent. She is also the recon person of the team, because of her speed, she is also very close to Lian Harper because of the Arrow-Flash family alliances, and will frequently team up with Lian when they do small team missions.

Rex Stewart - Warhawk; usually recon and voice of reason

Son of John Stewart and Shayera Hol, he is retired USMCs, having served his time and following in his father’s footsteps. He was raised by his father after his mother was murdered by her ex lover, Cater Hall. Rex works closely with Terry’s team, and is a good friend of Terry’s; Terry’s guy best friend according to Terry who’s surrounded by women. Rex rejected going to the Green Lantern Corps and adopted his mother’s culture as a Thanagarian to become known as Warhawk.

Jacob Free - Mr. Miracle; escape artist

Son of Scot Free and Big Barda; Jacob grew up in Australia with his three foster siblings; Melvin, Timmy and Teether; and is very close to his ‘aunt’ Raven who is akin to a mentor when he joined the Justice League. Jacob is a big animal lover, and took after his father as an escape artist. He is not a fan of fellow New Gods, having been abducted by his grandfather to be groomed as a member of Darksied’s personal guard. He is a massive fanboy of the Flying Graysons, the other members of the Justice League, and is the resident geek of Terry’s team filled with obscure pop culture references.

Tai Pham - Green Lantern; galactic expert

Tai is the youngest member of the team, and the resident Green Lantern. Creative artist, and aspiring comic book writer, Tai is a close friend to Lian Harper, and Jacob Free while also being the Team’s galactic expert. He was trained by his grandmother and Kyle Rayner; he is considered one of the greatest Green Lanterns. A quieter member of the team but a crucial member; he frequently clashes with fellow Green Lantern, Kai-Ro.

The only ship I have set in stone for the future though for any of these characters is Terry and Mareena.

[new53]

changes to main canon

a comprehensive list 

last edited on 3/14/18

batfam:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

superfam:

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

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

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

flashfam:

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

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

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

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

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

wonderfam:

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

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

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

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

canaryfam:

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

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

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

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

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

lanterns:

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

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

john stewart: [tbd]

guy gardner: [tbd]

kyle rayner: [tbd]

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

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

aquafam:

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

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

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

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

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

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

catfam:

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

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

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

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

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

the gordons:

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

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

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

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

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

the outlaws:

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

misc:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

[iphoenixrising]

Anything Angsty with Tim please. Recommendations, a fic anything, just feeling angsty .... (P.S doctor!tim is everything I've ever needed and looking forward to AOB part 5! You're amazing! Good luck with your day)

Hi babe. I’m sorry I kept this for so long, but I am def aware how much you love your pain (lol) and I had this idea spinning for a while, so… Yeah. But ah, I started thinking about this what-if from the Fracture Verse and it got really long and intense really fast>.Destroyed. Basically, the Titans take on theinvaders and most the JL mentors take their sidekicks for some R&R exceptfor Red Robin, who goes back to the Tower to take care of himself and Batmanjust kind of lets him go.Well, What-If B just wasn’t having any of that? What if shit started getting so real there and just ALL THE KNOWLEDGE DROP HAPPENS THERE INSTEAD OF A YEAR LATER O_O  Like, Tim has only been back from his little torture vacay and then the mind fuckery of the Insurgents and just!

So…here it is.

**

All-in-all, invading aliens are douche canoes.

Seriously.

Kon, Cassie, Bart, Rave, Gar, and Miguel are allin agreement with him on this one; especially after they were all trapped in anendless of loop of their worst moment, worst losses, worst failures while stuckin the alien’s most powerful weapon: the Mind Trap.

Sure, it had been his brilliant, last-ditch ideato jump ball to the wall into the trap, giving him the access to their neuralnet he needed to break the hive mentality and shut them down from the inside.

It doesn’t make anything, any of it, anybetter.

While he’s reliving Kon’s final moments, Raven’snear insanity at the hand of Trigon, Gar’s out-of-control power ripping hisbody apart, Cassie’s nearly fatal injuries, Bart’s last wishes while hecoughs up blood and bile, Miguel watching his beloved slip in a coma to hoveron the edge of death—

While he’s doing all of that, Cassie is gettinghit with a two week span of time he was tortured as Tim Drake, Kon is getting aload of life with a ruptured spleen bleeding out, Bart is feeling the contagiontaking hold to kill Batman’s sidekick, Gar is feeling the pain when he, Damian,and Dick are fighting it out after the Robin tunic was given away without hisconsent, and Miguel is feeling a whole lot of owfuck from that time theRed Hood tried giving him a second smile to worry about.

But what matters in the end? With Raven’s help,he’s able to keep part of his mind partitioned off from the alien device so hecan live through the atrocities of his team and hack the invader’s tech at thesame time—enough to put in his carefully recalibrated virus to take them thefuck down.

The trap faded around them once the virus his jackpotand breaks the neural-net connection, essentially making the invaders as potentas five-year olds throwing temper tantrums.

The following beat-down is enjoyableenough to make up for the hour spent reliving their worst moments and fears, inhaving those moments share with the rest of the team.

Well, not really.

But still, it’s a pretty sweet revenge fight.

As per usual, the JL appears out of the sky overSan Fran once the main body of fighting is pretty much over and done with.They’ve already started on clean-up with the local authorities when Superman,Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Zatanna, the Flash, Martian Manhunter, GreenArrow, and the Batman show up to take a look around at the nice pile of former mayhem.

It’s a surprise when Superman goes straight forSuperboy, eyes wide with concern, gripping the teen’s arms and asking quietlyif he’s been hurt, is he okay? Does he need to go to the fortress for somehealing time?

Wonder Woman is similarly concerned upon seeingWonder Girl wavering with some bloody patches on her elbows and ribs, but it’sthe younger hero’s eyes that really bother her. Without a word to therest of the Justice League, she takes one of her protégé’s arms around hershoulders and takes to the sky, intent on going to Paradise Island for theyounger to recuperate.

The Flash pretty much catches KF in anall-encompassing hug, blurting out how bad ass the younger speedster didon such terrible bad guys, how proud he is of what KF did here today,how they need to check him over before he collapses, and just let me feedand care for you, little bro.

Zatanna feels the sharp, aching throb of paincoming directly from Raven, the power radiating in shards of agony. As a fellow magic user, she has no qualms going directly to the youngerwoman and talking gently, almost begging her to come to New York and the quietroom set-up to negate magic and allow for healing.

Martian Manhunter, who’s known Gar for years,sees the strain, the trembling, flinching muscle, and just pulls theunresisting Beast Boy up in his arms with something spoken softly against themop of green hair, and flies off with a nod to the Bat.

Red Robin, beaten and abused, bloody andlimping, is glad the JL came for his team; the aftermath of this, the rawnessof it, the pain, would be a real bitch for them to deal with. They would needthe support and the time to come back from the slideshow of horrors they allexperienced.

He turns away from the members of his team beingtaken away by their mentors and friends, going up to Cyborg with a copy of thevirus he created to take the Insurgents down, and gave the JL membersome of the deets about the who, what, when, where, and why since, you know,invading aliens are usually part of the JL’s extensive repertoire ofass-kicking.

He finally puts the bo away now that clean-upcrews are underway and the invaders are being detained by A.R.G.U.S.  Withthe job over and done with, he pulls a grapple in one bloody hand, fires it atthe convenient rooftop to take to flight. Their part is done and AmandaWaller’s people can figure out what the fuck to do with the aliens.

At least from here, he’s close enough to theTower to get half-way there without doing more damage to his ribs and theterrible concussion—

(V)

—Vash the Stampede, hitting the back of hisbrain pan. He needs antibiotics and first-aid to stop the bleeding as well aspossible other bad shit, like septic shock, from setting in (since,really, it’s ass) before he starts up adding this little sitch to theTitan’s records. Then he needs to get back on the hunt for those curiouslywell-funded labs getting Black Market equipment, and—

The slight paf of another zip line shakeshim a little in mid-air.

The shadow of the Bat is coming right up behindhim, dark cape flaring out behind the older vigilante so Red can plainly seeB’s arm already out to grab him around the middle and pretty much pull himright the hell off his own zip line.

“What the f—!?”

But they’re moving through the air, his wordslost to the rushing wind while B’s line attaches to the Batplane flyingoverhead, retracting to bring them closer to the dark silhouette in the sky.

With his back pressed up against the yellow ovaland symbol on B’s chest (and once upon a fucking time this meantsomething, didn’t it?), and that arm like iron around him, Red’s lip curls upin a sneer, shouting over the Batplane’s engine making his hurting jaw achejust that much more.

“What the hell do you need?” The unsaid can’tthis wait? Is right there.

B leans in to talk against his ear while they’restill in mid-air, probably not at all aware of the ringing so loudanyway, “I don’t need anything. Hold on.”

But through the lightheadedness, the strikes ofvertigo, the nausea rising up, Red still clenches his aching jaw and focuses onhow the hold around his gut hurting this much proves he’s pulledsomething probably important.

“Then I don’t want a ride to the Tower. I’ve gotit” Because he does. He’s had to have his own back for the better partof two years, before and after he brought B back from being lost in time andleft the Bats to figure their own shit out. He’s stayed away from their familywhen he’s in Gotham, stayed back because, well, Replacement, right?

Even if he and Jason are on better terms than ‘letme show you the pointy end of this knife,’ he’s still not even fucking goingthere.

The exit door to the Batplane slides open rightunder the cockpit. “I’m not giving you a ride to Titan’s Tower.” Is B’srumbling reply as they close in.

“Not all of us can jump from one crisis to thenext. Give me 48 hours and then you can email me with whatever intel you’reafter.” But he’s blinking behind the whiteouts, feeling sick and fuzzy, theinjuries that apparently aren’t going to just wait a minute.

“I don’t need any intel, Tim,” B snapsout, seemingly angry at something.

Red is too far into the pain game to really givea fuck about more of this little back-and-forth with his former partner.“Then what the hell do you want?” He snaps back, gripping the armaround him at the wrist, pulling his secondary grapple for, you know, justin case.

(Well, it’s not like they’re on good termsor anything—B has a Robin, so what’s this all about?)

“Stop it. You’re going to fall,” the arms getstighter with his meddling, and Red gasps out a pained noise when somethingtender is squeezed right along with it. His upper body flops over B’s arm in anattempt to curl up against the pain.

He barely realizes they’re up through the doorand into the cockpit while the plane glides smoothly on auto-pilot. The minuteB’s arm falls away, he can brace himself on the control panel and try tobreathe without puking.

Gloved hands turning him makes him jerk back astep as far as he can in the small space, pulling away.

“Just…just get me to the damn Tower,” ishoarse, blood on the Batplane’s floor now. Great, he’s going to probably get a rightbitching in his voicemail from Alfred explaining what a pain in the assbloodstains are to get out, Sir.

“I’m not taking you to the Tower,” Bgrowls back.

And there it is again, Batman is gripping hisbicep, pulling him closer, the whiteouts dipped down and the free hand rovingover the torn places in his suit.

“Then why the fuck am I in here, and—and stopthat. Shit!” His knees wobble, his move to pull back aborted when agloved hand presses along his left side. Bile rushes up into his throat,swallowed back down by sheer fucking willpower.

“The Titans just took on invading aliens,Tim. You need medical attention and time to recuperate. Your suit stood up tomost of it, but you’re bleeding.”

Again. There it is. B saidhis name more times in the last ten minutes than he has in the last year. What.The. Ever. Loving. Fuck. Is. Happening?

“Then—” he stutters out between panting breaths,fighting the dizziness and pending gray edges to his vision, “let me go to the fuckingTower so I can patch myself up.”

B seems to finally get that something isrotten in Denmark, and lets Red pull out of the hold. With his vision failingand go time eminent, Red fumbles back at the control panel in an attemptto slam the button that will open the door back for him to jump out of and firehis extra grapple. Then he’s going to be hitting the Medical floor in like, sixminutes tops because much longer and he’s going to be in oh shit landjust like when the Triad—

He misses on the first shot because B knocks hishand away and the exit stays closed.

“Wh-What the hell are you—?”

And sometimes, B is just that guy becausethe corresponding blow to his worst injury is such a fucking dickmove.

But it has the intended effect, showing how weakhe apparently is because his knees knock together and go out on him. He wouldhave ended up on the floor if B hadn’t swept him up like some fainting lily andkicked the co-pilot’s chair around with one foot to set him down in it.

“You’re in no shape to go back to the Tower,” Bmakes it statement punctuated with the last hit.

“…asshole…” he faintly gasps while the painmakes him clench his jaw against a noise.

“We’re going to talk when I’m not worried aboutinternal bleeding and broken bones. Since when have you been taking care ofinjuries this extensive on your own? I’m fairly sure a stipulation to joiningthe Titans was that you keep me updated when you get hurt.” B fills in, handspausing when he realizes the Red Robin’s suit design is…different. Verydifferent. The design has changed, along with the security traps (and hewonders when it happened. He should have the current designs of allhis sons’ suits, including armor schematics and the necessary details).

His Bat sense is going off about everything,more so than when Clark first picked him up from Gotham to inform him theTitans are in the fight of their lives because invading aliens managedto bypass the Watchtower’s systems.

He’d set the Batplane for follow them, alreadyworried about how Red Robin would be holding up while Clark sped them as fastas possible to San Francisco, meeting up with the other JL members on the way.

None of them had to say how worried they were,it was evident, even if you weren’t the so-called World’s GreatestDetective.

But the nagging something tugging at hisinner sense when Red shot his grapple without even a word to him isgetting stronger, is making him worry a hell of a lot more than he was even anhour ago.

He feels out the obvious injuries, even withRed’s hand weakly shoving his away.

“No internal bleeding, nothing broken. Thisconcussion is the bee’s knees thanks. A stop at the Tower to drop me offwould be just—” and yes, B, that was one of their agreements.Back when he was still Robin, when someone actually gave a fuck. Healmost comes out with that, but stutters to a halt because Batman gives nofucks about anything but flicking out a razor-sharp batarang and cuttingthe tunic right up the center, pulling away the dented, broken armor to get tothe body suit and main bleeders underneath.

“Tim, I said I’m not taking you there. No one isgoing back for the moment, and you need medical treatment, these look serious.”B already has the gloves and gauntlets off, “Batcomputer,” he turns slightlyand gets the acknowledging boop, “full body scan of Red Robin. Send results toAgent A.”

“N-No, no, not—” but his arms flop uselessly andthe six-minute window has already passed him up. It’s fail timeapparently.

Behind the whiteouts, B’s eyes narrow with thisconsistent fight. There’s something very wrong here, something wrong when hisformer Robin is fighting him tooth and nail when he’s half-loopy on blood lossand exertion. “Yes. There is no way in hell I’m leaving you in the Towerby yourself like this. Not going to happen, Tim. I am not goingto let you bleed out all over your computers.”

And B shoves his cowl back to show thoseelectric blue eyes, narrowed stubbornly when there’s my way or no waygoing down.

“Why,” he stutters when black replaces gray andhis brain fuzzes more, starts shutting down because of the impending owfuck,“the hell does it matter? I’m not your fucking responsibility anymore, right?”

He tries to sneer, tries to move, tries to snarland snap about why not a little bit of fuck-off for your day, butnothing is responding to command. Before he blacks out, though, he gets to see thelook of utter shock on Batman’s face, and well, the small surge of satisfactionat getting the drop on the Dark Knight leads him to the way—

Out

**

“Septic shock?” Dick gasps, utterly dumbfounded.

“Yes, Master Dick,” Alfred carefully works,aproned and gloved, cleaning the last of the ragged, raw injuries before hewould need to wrap them. The boy on the bed isn’t moving except for his chestrising and falling with slow, even breaths.

He does, however, press a button on the touchpadabove the bed in the Cave’s medical area to show the outline of a human bodywith a glaring red circle.

“It seems Master Timothy is no longer inpossession of the viscera necessary for fighting off infections.”

Bruce in only the body suit, Dick in sweats andt-shirt, and Damian without the domino all turn to Alfred.

And stare.

“You are saying he no longer has a spleen?” Damiverified, “and is thus more prone to illness?”

“That is precisely what the scans are showing,Master Damian, and I ran them several times to verify.”

The youngest Bat blinks once, blinks twice, andturns back to the unconscious form of Tim Drake lying still and silent. It wasbad enough the four of them received a nasty shock while peeling the RedRobin body suit off to reveal a mass of still-healing welts, burns, and brokenskin marring the span of Tim’s back (what the hell happened?) andthe other injuries in the process of healing, injuries that look suspiciouslylike torture on his upper body, arms, and hands; not to mention howAlfred huffs angrily at the visible curve of ribs standing out against paleskin, but finding out he also lost, you know, a semi-crucial body part sometimesince his last Bat-physical (hearing the date is the next shocker of thenight) is pretty much the last straw.

“I’m going to do some research. Let me know ifhe comes to, Alfred.” B turns away with a snarl, the muscles in his back andshoulders tight.

“I shall, Master Bruce. However, I have nointention of tying him down to the bed frame. Should I be detained with dinner,please refrain from using cuffs.”

“I’m not making any promises,” Bruce snaps back,already in his chair at the Batcomputer to start digging into the last sixmonths of Red Robin’s vigilante career and Tim Drake’s personal life.

Gingerly, Dick ruffles Damian’s hair and movesto sit on the medical bed by Tim’s hip, staring up at the closed eyes and slackfeatures. He doesn’t process Alfred taping gauze down on the current injuries,but picks up a bruised and battered hand to hold in both of his while lookingat a very obvious scar now that he knows some of what’s been going on inthe time since Tim has been back to the Manor after the Robin mantle went toDami.

(And Dick feels like a right bastardbecause he remembers coming up the stairs, thinking Tim might have been in hisold room after their thing with Ra’s people before B had been found—whenhe thought Tim might have come to his senses and come home to be RedRobin here with them…and found Tim’s room empty. His things moved out, theshelves missing his usual array of books and video games, no clothes in theclosets, no extra suits in the hidey holes, no shampoo in the shower ortoothpaste on the sink. The Flash shower curtain is gone, replaced by a genericone in most of the other guest rooms. And just turning in circles, the hardweight in his chest, the utter pain when he realized Tim never meant to comeback. He was already gone from the Cave where Alfred had patched him up,where Tim had told Dick specifically, “You’re my brother. I knew you’dcatch me.”)

He sighs, shoulders rising with the move. Hedoesn’t say anything as Alfred continues to dress the injuries and Tim sleepson.

It’s not very long before a sharp intake ofbreath from the computer draws their eyes, and B is typing furiously to getmore information. Hacking into the Tower’s mainframe is child’s play,especially when he has Vic doing the hard work.

Tim’s ghost drive, however, is yielding moreresults than he anticipated.

The video file labeled Triad makes hisstomach churn.

Dick leaves Tim to sleep off the drugs andantibiotics, for his fever to slowly come down under their ministrations. Hegrins a little at Damian asleep in the chair next to the medical bed and stepsover to the computer where Bruce is looking grim, fists clenched tight on thecontrol panel.

Dick almost asks, almost, until hecatches the video playing—

And watches Tim Drake take a whip to the backwhile their former Robin is screaming.

“Oh…Oh my God,” he blinks, chest tight,nausea rising up when the footage skips and the next scene is Tim being helddown by the arms and shoulders, the remains of his business suit ripped to givea span of bloody skin for the glowing hot iron bar to be set down.

He doesn’t know when he moved or when B got tohis feet while the two of them try very hard not to be sick as Tim screamedover and over on the security footage.

They stand together, silenced by horror as theslideshow continues, as Tim is tortured over and over, as one of their ownattempt to escape, gets to the control room and tries to get a communicationout to the outside world.

By the time they have the full picture of howthose marks got there and what Tim Drake had to go through, Bruce is deep inthe Bat, anger radiating from every pore.

Tim was abducted outside Wayne Enterprises ashis daytime persona, as Tim Drake, CEO, and none of them had known a damn thingabout it.

**

It’s almost forty-eight hours later.

The Bats are in from patrol and upstairs to dohuman things, like sleep and eat and bathe (because the sewers of Gotham are nastyno matter how many times you’ve been down there—the sitch never gets any better).B has scrubbed down and changed in the Cave, making sure he was free ofcontaminants before coming over to check on his still-sleeping Robin. Handsaccustomed to delivering pain are absurdly gentle when he lays a palm on theback of Tim’s neck, glad to see his temperature is finally getting back tonormal, and checking the IVs as well as the bandages on Tim’s healing back andnewer injuries on his side and knee. He ruffles the too-long hair gently beforegoing up to check quickly on Alfred and the boys before planning on coming backdown to stay close to Tim, hoping he might be stable enough to wake up and talkto them.

So the Cave is empty for the moment when themachines attached to the sensor clamped on Tim’s finger and the little stickypads on his chest start to pick up slightly. Not enough to trigger analert, just enough for him to blink open his bleary eyes riding the dredges ofpainkillers and sedatives.

It’s the Bat-cocktail of owfuck.

Really, he should have known better.

The fog is clearing out while his head flops onone side to look around and see where he’s—and what’s happ—how did—?

His head flops to the other side, eyes wideningwhen he realizes the big car is parked a little past the curtain, and on theother side of him, the Batcomputer looks the same, but there’s a few morethings on the control panel.

He gets the urge to violently hurl oncethe screeching overhead signals where he’s at just in case, you know, theremight be any doubt.

The air in his chest chokes off, leaving himcoughing hard for a few seconds, enough that the pulsox beeps once in warningand he struggles to get himself under control.

The haze of painkillers is still there, but nothingshort of death is going to stop him. Instead, he uses the lead to pull thelittle machine close to him and manages to pop the casing off. A few wires and boom,he takes the sensor off his finger and the monitor keeps going. It takesmaneuvering for him to sit up enough to reach the heart monitor and do prettymuch the same.

There’s cameras everywhere, but he’s sure no onewould be watching (because why would they?) as he stands on stiff,aching legs, manages to stumble a little before righting himself.

The knee isn’t going to get better anytime soon,so he’s good to be limping around because at least that means he’s onhis feet.

The Red Robin suit they must have taken off ofhim is folded neatly on a workstation table, easy to pick up.

He feels immensely better with the body suit on(even if the pressure on still-healing injuries is about a bitch, damn);boots, gloves and gauntlets, harness and utility belt. It’s enough to rock.

A domino goes on while he nabs his somewhatstitched back together cape, but the armored tunic is totes a lost cause.

Bummer.

With the machines beeping steadily behind him,Tim leaves the tunic, makes his way further down into the Cave, favoring theleg, moves as straight-backed as possible to keep the marks on his back frompulling and getting sore all over again, as been the pattern in the last monthsince he’s been back from a certain little vacay.

(And it’s fucked how B probably saw thosemarks isn’t it? Just another check in the who gives a shit category…but,the old memorial case with Jason’s Robin suit is still there where it’s alwaysbeen—and a double-take confirms it. His first Robin suit is in a new case nextto it. Mother. Fucker does it makes his chest hurt.)

The line of just in case vehicles is inthe same place it always was. A crappy beater for Matches Malone, a van forpick-ups, an Ambulance in case shit gets real. A covered car in the backcorner that is terribly, achingly familiar, and his eyes skitter away from it,just like he did with the memorial cases.

Instead, he goes to one of the four Ducati’sserviced and ready to rock, lifts up the seat while balancing on his good leg.Keys fall into his palm, so score.

His hip only hitches slightly when he throws thebad leg over the bike so the good one can steady it, and the bruises tomorroware going to be fucking beautiful.

But for the moment, all good. He’ssitting down at least, and flips the bike on, raises the bad leg to start theengine—

When Dami drops down from the ceiling vent andlands a few feet in front of him at a crouch.

No suit, no domino, but the pose is all Robin.

A Robin in his pjs, but then, well, there’sschool and shit in the morning isn’t there?

“Drake,” a low, almost-question.

“Nice to see you too,” he smirks with oldbitterness, just waiting for it.

Dami’s eyes go from the whiteouts to the bikeand back up. “This…is not a favorable course of action,” is said morecarefully than he can remember the Demon ever being.

“What now?” Because seriously, what now?

“You have been recovering from septic shock,”the youngest informs him, still in that crazy careful tone. “Among otherinjuries. It would be best if you stayed where you could be monitored shouldyou relapse.”

Now he thinks he might be more loopy on the I’mfucked up cocktail than initially assessed. Things just aren’t…aren’tmaking sense here.

“I’m in a multiverse aren’t I?” Is a stupid butkind of valid question.

Damian, however, is not amused.

“You are a fool. This is not surprising. However,as I have been informed, your team stopped an alien invasion. That if nothingelse would merit time, Drake.”

“Telepaths that want to take over our world are assholes.Haven’t you figured that out yet?” He comes back easily, “and I have a place torecoup. It would be nice to be on my way there right about now.”

The bad leg comes down, shooting a thrill ofpain up, but fuck it. Really. He needs to get out of here before JasonTodd comes around to give him a bro fist or something else just ascrazy.

The engine purrs to life against his thighs.

Again, it’s opposite day because thatlittle brat is leaning against the handlebars, scowling and talking over theengine instead of doing things like, you know, moving.

“I would not do this if I were you.”

He blinks behind the whiteouts. “I don’t knowwhat the fuck is going on here, but this is getting to creep-tasticsproportions.” He leans over the handlebars as much as he can without someserious owfuck hitting, “you wanted me gone, Demon. Riff raff,remember? That cut zip line? You think I need a written invitation toget the fuck out?”

Dami’s eye widen a fraction before narrowing,the little asshole leaning in as well like they’re going to fight it out forsome crazy reason because this is what they all wanted butwere too chicken-shit to tell him.

“Dick’s too nice to say it, but you think hereally has to after all this time?”

“Grayson—” Dami starts, voice raised to be heardover the purring engine.

“Never wanted me either. I guess you and JasonTodd were right all along. Want to gloat about it? How about you do it overSkype so I can get back to my life?”

Dami growls, baring his teeth in a snarl, “no,you fool. Grayson has missed you unbearably in the last twoyears. He has attempted to keep track of you while you searched for Father andthen later when you re-joined the Titans. He is the one that built the case foryour Robin suit.”

And just…what the ever-loving fuck?

“I am aware of how things were left whenI began my own time as Robin, Drake. I am aware of—”

“Get off.” Because now he’s blinking behind thewhiteout, his eyes getting hot and wet fast. “Get the fuck off.”

“No!” Damian snarls back, gripping thehandlebars tighter, like he has every intention of holding on. “I refuseto let you leave like this!”

And so, apparently it’s time to spell it out.“No one gives a shit if I’m here or not.” He shoves himselfstanding, old, buried pain rearing up from the terrible place in his brain panwhere he’d buried it all just so he could keep moving. “They let meinherit the cape because I was an asshole kid and found out theirsecret. They let me keep it because I did an alright job at keeping Bfrom fucking himself up like Robin is supposed to do. And he took me inbecause my fucking father was murdered when my identity was compromised.It’s ‘adopt an orphan syndrome,’ Damian. That’s it. I fucking Get.It. Now.”

Those eyes narrow, color rising to the youngervigilante’s face. But Tim leans down, blinking rapidly behind the whiteoutbecause he’s not going to give him or any of them that fuckingsatisfaction.

His voice is low, almost angry if it didn’tcrack, giving away more than he wants, especially to Damian. “Besides,why would they want the replacement when they’ve got the real son in thecape anyway, right? You said that, and you were right, weren’t you?”

“N-none of that—Drake…Timothy, youdon’t honestly,” and the twelve year old almost looks his age for once, “youdon’t honestly believe that.”

The corner of his mouth twitches up in a veryunfunny smirk, “I’m a detective, Damian. I don’t believe anything until I haveevidence.”

The younger Bat sputters a moment, looking oddlyshell-shocked, but he doesn’t let go, refuses to give up, “evidence? Openyour eyes, Drake. Father ordered the Justice League to attend your battleas soon as he knew, made Kent come to pick him up as he knew it would be thefastest way to get to you.”

“What part of aliens wasn’t clear? Thatis usually JL territory, we just happened to call dibs.”

Dami’s fists tighten around the handlebars, “Ihave been Robin for three years. Three years, Drake. If there isanything I have learned in that time, it is how Father would not leave any ofhis Robins behind. Not even you.”

Welp, that’s going to be a very hardeventual realization for the kid. But really, it isn’t any of his businessanymore. None of this is.

He sinks back down slowly, painfully becauseit’s time to go. “Get out of the way.”

The hair on the back of his neck, however, cutshim off, makes his straighten up again on the bike and rev up the engine. Damiisn’t moving, but is just staring at him looking like he might pull out thatwicked katanna for a little sliced n’ diced vigilante rather than dealwith his shenanigans. Not like it’s nothing new.

But the ghost sensation has drawn the brat’sattention as well, those eyes drawn over Tim’s left shoulder.

Without turning to look, he gives the standard,“thanks for the pick-up. Let me know when you need the next batch of intel.We’ll have a crime-fighting party with confetti and everything.”

The hand on his bicep is something he hadn’tanticipated, startling him to look up at Bruce’s bare face and angry eyes.

Oh shit. Batman’s not a happy camper. Time tohit the dirt.

From his other side, Dick comes out of nowhereand reaches around him to turn the bike off and take the key out of the ignition.

Oh, so that’s how it is? After all theyears he put into maintaining the bikes and cars just like everyone else—

“Like I said,” he deadpans, trying very, veryhard not to get pissed off at the snub, “thanks for the pick-up. I’ll gettogether whatever data you’re looking for when—”

“Get off the bike, Tim,” Bruce emphasizes theorder with a tug to his arm.

“Seriously?” Well, there goes the best ofintentions, “I’ll bring it back if this is a problem.”

“Not the point. Get the hell off the bike.”

He shoves himself to his feet, already planningon hitting up Kon in a quick text just to get a ride out of here as fast asfucking possible, itching to jerk his arm out of B’s hold (and dammit,he hates to do that now that Clark isn’t being an asshat extraordinaire). So helets it ride for the moment since, well, he pretty much shouldn’t be hereanyway, so the lecture is probably going to be fucking spectacular.

His hip hitches again when he swings his legback over the bike, but it’s only slightly painful this time around. Nope,there’s more pain elsewhere that has nothing to do with skin and soft,fleshy bits.

He in no way is prepared for Bruce pulling hisarm up and around those massive shoulders, bending down enough to be aboutTim’s height. The limp isn’t as bad with B supporting him with an arm aroundhis waist (under the worst of the older marks) and gripping the wrist, walkinghim right the fuck back into the depths of the Cave where Alfred is waitingwith hands properly folded behind him.

“Ah, the patient is awake,” Alfred is calm,cool, and collected as per usual. “Perhaps a stronger dose of painkillersshould have been in order.”

“Not necessary,” he fills in shortly, pullingaway from Bruce as soon as possible, a passing glance off the machines he’dreconfigured. “Thanks for patching me up, Alfred.”

The butler sighs through his nose and it’s sopainfully familiar. “Of course, Master Tim. If you would be sokind as to change clothing, the bandages will need to be checked again.”

He holds up a hand, “again, not necessary. I’mon my way out—”

Dick shoves sweats and a t-shirt in his chest,jaw clenched tight enough that a muscle is jumping there, and it’s fine,he gets it. Dick doesn’t want him there. He really doesn’t need this—

“I’m trying to be out of your hair,” hegrowls back at the former Batman and current Nightwing. “I didn’t ask tocome here. Not my bad.”

If anything, Dick’s expression gets even angrier.Angry enough that the hands holding the clothes are trembling finely until Timtakes them just to get the older vigilante to step back.

“Drake,” and it’s really saying something when Damianis the one stepping between them, trying to keep, well, whatever peacedistance can realistically bring. “This is difficult to believe, but there is agrave misunderstanding happening here.”

His eyebrows draw together, head tilted down tothe youngest, but he wisely remains silent because there’s volumes hecould say about that.

“Do you need assistance, Master Tim?” Alfredcuts in, trying to divert the brewing storm raging in Dick and Bruce’sexpressions, “I should say some of your injuries must be rather painful at thisjuncture. Your back, for example—”

“I’ve got it. Thank-you.”

“Very good, Sir. Once you have changed, I have adelightful pot of coffee and breakfast—”

But those words make his head snaparound, “coffee?”

Because yes. The answer is always yes.

Alfred hums knowingly, “indeed. I believe it isthe Sumatra brand you seem to favor?”

And dammit. Just, dammit Alfred.

In reply, he limps back to pull the curtainclosed in the sectioned-off medical area, flopping the sweats and t-shirt downon the gurney. Deep, cleansing breath, and he reverses order, taking off glovesand gauntlets, boots, utility belt and harness, cape and dom, leaving the bodysuit for last (since there’s the most owfuck of the day).

“Tim? You okay?” B’s voice is softer, floatingover the partition, his silhouette against the curtain.

“I’m fine,” he taps on his wrist computer withone arm through the t-shirt. Getting the sweats on is painful but it’s whateverreally, the knee isn’t going to get any better so no use whining about it.

Instead, he puts the wrist computer back on hisforearm and comes out a la civvies, his too-long hair probably wrecked,but with a KO of approximately two days?

He shoves the curtain back, cracking his neck,and starting to move to intercept Alfred’s approach. “Bandages are clean, soI’m good. Thanks.”

The butler tisks and gently simply steers MasterTim back to the gurney, “I will need to check your levels as well as theinjuries you are unable to see, Master Tim. You certainly cannot assessyour back unless you’ve taken to perform feats of magic?”

The others approach, watching with grave facesas the butler allows a cup and saucer inside the medical area, an excuse tokeep Tim’s hands busy so work can be done.

“My levels are f—” The smell hits like anaphrodisiac and his eyes fall half-mast just because coffee.

“Do not say ‘fine.’ For a young man without thenecessary organ to build up proper immunities, then I would dare to say yes.However, for a crime-fighting vigilante, your white cell count is woefully deficient.”

Oh. So that’s whatthis is about?

Shit.

“I’ve had enough time to adjust.” Is all hebites out as the butler gloves up, winds a stethoscope around his neck.

When B’s hands plant on his hips like he iswinding up for the mother of all lectures, and Damian puts a hand toDick’s forearm to stop him from saying whatever might be ready to comeout of his mouth, Tim realizes how much of a thing this might be.

The butler, however, just frowns, “then I willpose the obvious question, Master Tim. How many episodes of septic shock haveyou experienced before now?”

His jaw clenches, eyes close briefly becausewhen he got off that fucking ship—

The pinch to his inner elbow jars him out of it(luckily) or he might still be smelling stagnant water and imagine the worldrocking under his feet.

“Twice,” and he leaves it at that, going morepale at the bits flashing through his brain pan.

Alfred removes the syringe, tapes a cotton ballto the small wound. “Twice, Sir?” is quiet, neutral.

Tim swallows, looking at the span of wallinstead of any of them, “yeah.”

“Once recently I’m afraid?” And Alfred sets theblood sample aside, easily moves a gloved hand to be under Master Tim’s stillholding the delicate saucer. The minute clattering stops when he does.

“Yeah,” hoarse, but fuck yes.

“Your back, Tim?” now Alfred’s tone is movinginto soothing, someone that can (used to be) be trusted.

Still staring at the wall, keeping himselftogether, Tim gives a short, pointed nod.

“What—” Dick steps a little closer to his side,not enough to set him off, but enough to reach out, slowly, easy, “who did thatto you, Timmy?”

His shoulders tense with the contact, and heblinks hard, shaking himself out of it, shaking himself the fuck back tothe present. He lifts the cup and takes a drink of utter heaven.

It helps to steady him, to keep his head outof the two weeks he spent being tortured as Tim Drake, CEO, and the more recentfight with dick bag aliens.

“I took care of it.”

“That doesn’t tell us anything,” Dick counters.“Timmy…you were tortured.”

And well, yes. Yes, he was.

“Yup,” is his soft admission, staring down intothe depths of his coffee while Alfred moves around behind him and the shirtinches up his spine, making his hackles rise just slightly. “I was.”

And he knows, he knows, Alfred was tryingto be careful, wasn’t trying to do anything, but the wounds, the memories, allof it was still so new and raw, that when the touch hits the wrong spot,reminds him of a burning iron bar pressed against his shoulders, he chokes andmoves without thinking.

The cup and saucer crash to the floor, and he isup, moving away, spinning in mid-air, landing at a crouch with his legand back screaming, his eyes wide, hand automatically poised in a nerve strike.And he can fight, he can fight, and he can win. He can save them thistime, save them all, and he can—

He can, he will.

Whizzing and moving, focused on not throwing up,focused on not stopping.

Bruce is gripping his face between those massivepalms from one blink to the next, and Tim realizes he must have been movingagain because they aren’t standing by the medical area anymore.

Instead, he’s pinned down on one of the big matsused for practice and training half-way across the Cave, the vinyl soft andworn-in under the arm Bruce has pinned at the wrist. His back is fucking agonybecause he’s laying down on the healing injuries. Worse, he’s shaking likefuck, the coffee in his stomach rolling with it.

“Tim! You need to stop. Just. Stop.”

But it’s just as bad because he can’t be helddown.

That…he’s not good with that, and hiships take over regardless of owfuck, bucking up enough to get Bruce offhim so he can turn over, land on all fours and gag.

“Fuck…fuck…fuck…fuck…”

He gets a million vigilante points for notthrowing up his coffee.

A. Million.

Plopping down on his ass to try getting air backinto his lungs, however, is seriously the best idea for the moment even if he’sshaky as fuck and probably embarrassed the shit out of himself.

(Regretting letting him back in now,aren’t you?)

Dick kneels in plain sight, ducking down tocatch Tim’s rapidly blinking eyes. “Hey, just me,” is meant to be soft andsoothing.

It’s not.

Instead, Tim closes his eyes again it and triesto calm himself but his brain is too fuzzy, still half-stuck on the ship, inthe mind trap, in his team’s memories—

“…something for me, Tim. Let me know you’rewith us.”

He doesn’t open his eyes so he can’t see whateverexpression is on those faces.

“Should have just…dropped me at the goddamnedTower,” he manages hoarsely, bringing his knees up to hold his heavy head.

Bruce, refusing to be diverted, gets closeenough to wrap his long fingers around Tim’s ankle slowly, carefully. “No,” heclaims slowly, mind working furiously at the flow of new and disturbinginformation, “no, Tim. I’m glad, very glad, I brought you home.”

The laugh coming out of Tim’s bent head ishalf-way to a sob (home? There hasn’t been a home in a while actually),and Bruce’s hand moves up to grip into a calf instead, sliding subtly closer onhis knees.

Dick paces right beside him, being absurdlycareful, recognizing the reactions, the instincts Bruce bred into all hisRobins to fight when you’re out of all other options. It’s knee-jerkreaction to any situation.

“You blanked out for a few minutes there, Timmy.It looked like,” he hesitates slightly from saying it even if he has plentyof experience dealing with this kind of thing, “you were having a flashback.”

“I don’t talk about it,” is the hoarse reply,the horrible panting sounds finally easing down.

“I think we’re going to try checking over yourinjuries again,” Dick gingerly touches a few fingers to Tim’s limp hand,“without trying to set you off, okay? We’ll…Timmy, we’ll be right here withyou.” His finger firm a little, squeeze Tim’s fingers before the hand jerks outof his hold, the leg moving away from Bruce.

Tim scrambles backwards on the mat, shoves tohis feet because ignoring pain is something he does like a boss, but pity?Oh, he gets all kinds of pissed off about it.

Just ask Kon. The impressive choke hold issomething the super is probably never going to forget.

“I don’t need checked over. I don’t needanything other than a way to get back to my damn Tower—” and the fuckaway from here is implied.

Because really. They can stop this moundof variable bullshit anytime now.

“I don’t need whatever in the hell this,” andhis hands flutter around for a second, “this shit is all of a sudden. I lead mydamn team, and it doesn’t effect how I work. How I’ve workedfor the last few years. I’m. Fucking. Good.”

Bruce’s mouth flattens into a grim line, staringat his third Robin, the son that took his name without qualm, the son he’d letget too far the fuck away because he felt like he didn’t belong in hisown home. And Dick might share the burden of that, the younger vigilantenearly radiating beside him facing Tim down, ready to stop him if he tries tobolt.

And Bruce doesn’t feel bad about Damian andAlfred slowly coming up behind Tim to box him in, takes a moment to beratehimself for thinking he was doing the right thing in giving Tim the spacehe thought the former Robin needed to heal. The same space Dick needed when hehad to move on from the Robin mantle.

But he’d inadvertently caused both hisformer Robins nothing but pain by giving them the space to throw their bodiesinto the Mission to try and escape the devastation, the loss.

It’s another black mark under his name, but ifanything, Bruce, the Bat, has no qualms rectifying his mistakes.

And he’s perfectly fine starting now.

“Tim,” interrupts the snarling commentary on howRed Robin isn’t fucking anything up (which is unnecessary because Brucealready knows it), and makes the injured bird abruptly pause. “Let meget this straight.”

The third Robin stops, seems to mentally re-set,like when they started up a new case and the personal lives had to be left inthe Cave before they got into the big car for the upcoming night. It’s enoughof the old Tim that Bruce takes a few cautions steps, holding up fingersto tick off so he’s got Tim’s attention on the visual.

“You were kidnapped as your daytime persona, asTim Drake, not Red Robin—”

Oh shit. Well, World’s GreatestDetective. Of course he’d find out. It happened in his city.

“—they tortured you on a ship in the middle ofthe ocean. You escaped, brought them down, and turned them in to severalbranches of authorities. Four days ago, you showed up as Red Robin when theInsurgents hit Earth’s atmosphere. You went into a fight with your team againsta psychic horde without calling for back-up. And you won. Allright so far?”

“Sounds…about right.”

Bruce hums, nods, “and…why do you thinkI would questioning how effective you are as a vigilante?”

Wait.

Tim’s mouth works but nothing comes out because,well, point.

“I have no idea why you’re trying to convince mewhen I’m already well aware how incredible you are in the field. I don’tneed any other justifications. What I need to know,” and Bruce unfoldshis arms, hands loose at his sides, trying to look less intimidating so Tim’shackles won’t rise again, “is when your spleen was removed and what criminalcaused it. What I want to know is if you’ve seen anyone to help youthrough the trauma you went through on that ship. What I want to know is whyyou keep telling me you’re fine and you handle it when you are obviously notfine. No one, Tim, no one could be after all that.”

And the younger vigilante stares up at him,taller than the last time Bruce had a chance to really see him, withnarrow eyes that are already calculating his next moves. B knows it because hesees Tim’s eyes slide to Alfred and Damian, slide over to Dick before comingback to him. It’s saying something when the Bat is hovering at the fore of hismind, ready for another mad attack if Tim flips back into those flashbacks andstarts fighting by instinct.

“What I need to know is,” B counterssoftly, “why you didn’t come home when you needed to.”

When Tim stays silent, when his beaten, batteredbody gets as straight as it can, Bruce sees enough, knows enough.

He nods slowly, like he gets it, whateversilent message Tim is putting out, and returns that intense look, sees so muchhidden under the exterior that he should have picked up long before this verymoment.

“You three go upstairs. Have some downtime,” hewaves a shooing hand at Dick, Damian, and Alfred, “Tim didn’t get his coffee,and I honestly don’t need any more caffeine induced contingencies on my hands.”

“Bruce—” is Dick’s desperate attempt tostay because now he knows how much of this, how much of it isright on his head.

“Dick. Go have some downtime.”

Dami isn’t happy, is looking with his headtilted up, those dark eyes all for the scowl on Tim’s face, the sneer.

Alfred, however, steps between them, MasterTimothy and Master Bruce to break the stare down and lift a fresh cup andsaucer into the younger vigilante’s hand. It breaks the oldest man’s heart whenMaster Tim…hesitates.

But the hands are steady when the coffee istaken, and the young Master is looking carefully away from the butler, a musclein his jaw flickering.

“Thank-you,” is said softer than the rest.

“What else could I do, Master Tim? My life isdedicated to caring for my family, and that includes you.” A small pat to theyounger man’s head while the angry, defensive expression falls to wide-eyed andslack, like the younger Master is genuinely surprised. The saucer isheld tighter in busted fingers when Timothy’s spine snaps straighter and heblinks rapidly, trying to harden himself, pull his strength around him like acloak so none of them can see what abject pain he is in—how he obviouslywas very certain he no longer belonged here, with them all.

“Oh Tim,” the butler sighs sadly, gently, “thismay be untoward, so forgive me, but it is so nice to see you. As much as wehave missed, as much as you have suffered and succeeded, I am still so happy tohave you home.”

The reaction is those wide eyes, the true tellto Master Timothy’s thoughts returning to his face and immediately seeking outany deception on the butler’s part, any lies or placations, any shred ofevidence to support his previous theories.

Alfred smiles, just a small curve of his lowerlip, when the younger man’s shoulders lose a small bit of tension, just enoughto prove he found no lies here. When he can have just a hint of belief. It’sjust enough for Alfred to fit a hand on the younger man’s shoulder and squeezewith infinite gentleness before he’s herding two of his other charges up into theManor, casting a glance back at the long line of Master Bruce’s tense backbefore he and Master Dick exchange a very concerned look.

**

And they leave Tim and Bruce in the Cave withthe fluttering of bats, the gentle hum of working equipment, with damagedsuits, and healing bodies, with injuries and trauma.

It’s such a painful thing for Bruce, staring atTim and remembering a younger kid standing in the same place with the Rover his heart, the suit of his Robin and that crazy, wide grin in anticipationfor nightfall when they could move together.

When Tim’s team was Batman and Robin.

“None of this is necessary,” and it’s RedRobin’s voice, unshakeable and reliable. A leader. A vigilante.

And not the person Bruce wants to talk toright at this moment.

“I’m sorry,” Bruce cuts off that train ofthought, seeing past the denials and old pain, seeing past everythingTim is spitting out, the abject hurt, the theory that maybe, maybethey’d just been-been using him all this time. That he was just a kid ina cape or something just as ridiculous. “I’m sorry it got this far. I’m sorrynone of us, me or Dick or Alfred jumped in to remind you that you will alwayshave a home here, no matter what.  There’s no excuse for it, Tim,absolutely none.”

The younger vigilante frowns harder, his thoughtprocesses obvious to the World’s Greatest Detective.

“Once Damian and I could realistically worktogether, Dick left out of Gotham to trail the Titans and see if he could atleast talk to you, but the team was moving fast, so he wanted to waituntil you were in town again. But, regardless, we let this go on for toolong, letting you get further and further away without checking in, withoutcoming back.”

“I didn’t need to.” Tim interjects, firming hisjaw, still staying as far inside the mask as he possibly can, trying to protecthimself.

And Bruce finally sees it.

“And you don’t have to do this,” the youngervigilante puts the cup and saucer down immediately, eyes never losing that hardedge, “at all. It’s not necessary at this point. I’m still going to be theintel guy, the IT solution. I’ll still come when you call just like I’ve alwaysdone.”

“That’s not good enough.” Bruce insistsback, arms loose by his sides, “it was never supposed to be needed over wanted,and it isn’t like that. You won’t believe me until you have evidence, I knowalready, but Tim,” and Bruce comes up on him, not the stalk of the Bat or thestride of the daytime persona, it’s all Bruce Wayne—

Dad.

He’s careful but firm, hands tilting his son’sface up a little, taking in the widening eyes of surprise, “Tim, you arealways, will always be one of my sons. Just like Dick and Jasonand Damian. That’s what you agreed to when you took on the mask. You becamemine and the Batman’s, our Robin, our partner, our son, and yes,yes this is necessary. It’s completely and totally necessary becausealong the way the important things got pushed to the wayside, and it’s so farfrom fine that I can’t even begin to list the problems here.”

And the younger vigilante has the most probablereaction Bruce can predict.

He fights.

“Bullshit,” is hoarse, angry when Tim shovesaway, steps back, “and I don’t need bullshit, Bruce. You think Idon’t get it? I was the kid that figured out your secret, you hadto keep me, to keep me quiet about it. So of fucking course you’d let mewear the R. What would I have done if you hadn’t? Just because I got goodat it doesn’t mean I don’t fucking recognize how it never should have been me.It should have been Jason and then Damian. It should have been blood,not some fucking kid you never wanted.”

And God it hurts, these things tearingout him like fucking poison, like rancid bile he can finally vomit up, to get outof him.

“And you did good. You did great, Bruce,dealing with me. You really did. You did the best you could under thecircumstances,” and fuck, yes, he means it because Bruce was there forhim when he was Robin, when Dad died, when his world was going to shittime and time again. Bruce put up with his crap more than anyone in his entire life—evenhis real Dad. “I appreciate it, all the shit from back then. You don’t—” andhis chest hitches, but he grinds his teeth, straightens his back for it, “youdon’t even know how much I needed you. How much I respect you, how muchI wanted to be your partner and friend, and you gave me that, Bruce. You didthat for me, but…but your real son has the cape now, just like italways should have been, and I understand that. This,” and his handswaffle back-and-forth while he looks away, tries to choke down the bitternessall these realizations still leave behind, “this is the way it should havehappened. This is—” not okay, never fine, not really, “how itshould be.”

But when he looks back, chances a glance, hejerks a little because Bruce’s expression is—

(Is there some fear toxin somewhere? What thehell?)

The hands at Bruce’s sides are clenching intotight fists, his forearms cording, muscles getting tight.

“How long have you felt like this?” Theoldest vigilante demands in a low, dangerous voice, “how long do youthink I’ve just been tolerating you? How could you even— Jesus,Tim.”

But really, he’s the detective, right? “Iforced my way in,” he deadpans, “you never chose me, Bruce.”

And even though he’s come a long way from thatRobin to now, he’s still not fast enough to dodge Batman.

Nope. That’s not happening.

Because Bruce is across the span separating themin a skiff of shadows, literally picking him up off his feet with an arm aroundhis waist below the healing whip marks, the other hand buried in the hair atthe back of his head, pushing his face into Bruce’s neck and shoulder (and he’sshaking, Bruce, Batman, the unstoppable, the indomitable, is shaking).

The move is so out of what he expected,so unpredictable, Tim’s eyes are wide, just blinking wetly, hands up toautomatically brace himself on Bruce’s biceps.

“In…in the beginning, I was terrifiedof you,” Bruce blinks back his own wet eyes against the side of Tim’s too-longhair, “I was so scared of getting another innocent kid hurt, and you were…youwere so smart and so brave. You were fearless, Tim. You were perfect forthe job, but if I got you hurt, if I got you killed, if this world losteverything you are because of me and my Mission… then there would be noredemption. And I—” and Bruce grips him tighter, breathes in slowly,presses the side of his face into Tim’s hair harder, “I couldn’t lose you too.I couldn’t lose you, Tim.”

And that. To hear that it wasn’t becauseof Jason Todd, to hear that he was valued back then for himself, has Tim’sheart give a painful throb in his chest, makes him hold on to Bruce like he wasstill that Robin.

“In the beginning, I didn’t want anotherkid in danger. I didn’t want another person’s life in my hands, I didn’twant anyone else to suffer because of my choice to do this, to be Batman, to bethe crime fighter Gotham needed. So…so you-you were partially right. Backthen, I didn’t want you involved. When you helped solve Dick’s caseand-and you gave me no choice, Tim. You proved to me you were everything Ineeded Robin to be, everything Dick was, everything Jason was, everythingDamian is learning to be. There was no way I could let you go.”

And God, to hear that, just to hearthat from Bruce.

It’s more than he ever expected.

“You’re more than just a kid in a cape.You always were. You were always the kid I needed, the kid that groundedme, the kid that was so much like me that you should have been a Waynefrom the get-go. Just like Dick and Jason. You taught me just as much as Itaught you, and even though I never wanted to overstep my boundaries, I neverwanted to try and take your Dad away from you because—” and Bruce has to pause,has to let his eyes spill over because back then? Back then when Jack was anass, was a damn terrible father, Bruce still couldn’t fight him because, “—becauseif mine had lived, even if he couldn’t understand me and what I grew into…Istill would have at least had him.”

And Tim bites down on his lip hard enough todraw blood, but it doesn’t stop his eyes from spilling over too, from his armsmoving to wrap around Bruce’s shoulders and hold the fuck on.

“But,” Bruce breathes in, rolls his eyes upwardto try and calm down, “but when you still lost him, I…There was no question,Tim. There never was. You were my son just as much as his, and there was nevera question as to where you belonged, that you have a home here. Not-nota room, not a cot in the Cave, not a locker for your gear. Your home,Tim. And I…I thought I was helping, letting you be the vigilante you needed tobe. When you brought me back and it was Damian in the R, I… I understood why,but I still missed you. I was still…upset with Dick, doing thatwithout telling you, without giving you an opportunity to have your say. I wastrying to give you time to stop hurting, to grow from it. I was trying not topush you too hard, to make it hurt worse.”

Gentle movement, Bruce walking carefully towardthe medical gurney still carrying Tim without even straining, still holding himclose, still so painfully angry at himself for how long these thingsmust have been buried in Tim’s psyche, how all of it must have pushed thisyoung man to his breaking point.

“And I…” Bruce closes his eyes briefly as ithitches, “and I failed you, Tim. I’m so sorry that I failed you as your Dad.I’m sorry you ever thought I only wanted to keep you from telling mysecret because it was never about that.”

But Tim, hanging there, limply, pain a dull redthrob in his brain pain, gripping Bruce around the shoulders tight,hides his face away from the realizations, from the things he never imagined.

Bruce folds himself down and rocks justslightly, comforting them both a little with the motion, “and you’re not goingto believe all this. Not for a while. I know you, young man, and you’regoing to need time to believe in me again, to believe in the family, andthat’s-that’s okay. That’s completely understandable. I’ll give you as muchtime as you need, but goddammit, Tim, I’m not letting you getthat far out of my sight again. I’m not ever going to let you go. Whether youlike it or not, you’re stuck with us, kid.”

He doesn’t laugh or chuckle, still in a state ofshock since he really didn’t imagine this in his future, or well ever.

After all this time, all the bad guys andterrible night, all the sacrifices and job well dones, he’d pretty much figuredit was really…over.

This is a whole lot of unexpected that his brainpan can’t handle all at once. He needs time to think about it, to review theevidence.

“Give me a chance, Tim,” is breathed gently againsthis ear, “don’t give up on me yet. Please, don’t give up on me.”

“You’re an idiot,” he finds himself saying backwith a scratchy throat, “I didn’t give up on you when the world thought youwere dead. Like I’m going to start now?”

And Bruce, B, the Batman, just breathesout in the quiet dim of the Cave, holds this almost nineteen-year-old on hislap like he used to do to Dick when the kid was on overload or he’s finallygotten Damian to just deal with it.

“When I really believe you mean that, I’ll let yougo back to Titan’s Tower.”

That does earn a snickerbecause really, Bruce?

“Can you just��” and the World’s GreatestDetective hesitates for a second, not sure how hard he wants to push whenthere’s been some progress made tonight.

“…you want to know about the spleen thing,don’t you?”

Bruce pats the uninjured leg a little and nodswith Tim’s head tucked under his chin.

Closing his eyes, Tim sighs out through hisnose. But, well, to start gathering evidence, this might just be the way tostart.

[kierantc-blog]

DC Rebirth In Review - The Justice League

Welcome to part 3 of my DC Rebirth In Review series. DC are dropping the Rebirth branding in December and i thought i would reflect on what has and hasn’t worked in the Rebirth initiative.

To recap, you can check my previous posts, Part 1 - The Superman Family and Part 2 - The Batman Family, but in this post i’m going to be looking at the Justice League titles. To be clear though, this will be about the League specific books as well as the solo titles for the core members.

Justice League - This has probably been the most controversial of all the Rebirth books because for a lot of people the series has been nothing but a downgrade on Geoff Johns’ epic run in the New 52, and in a way they’re right. Bryan Hitch’s story telling style is all over the place but i believe the narrative he’s trying to put across is very good. It’s like having a pot of the best tea in the entire world but not being able to pour it into a cup properly. Hitch has been teasing a new Crisis event, the Forever Crisis, and who knows if that’s the way Rebirth will end or if it’s something else but it should be more exciting than it is. Also the artwork on this book has suffered massively from the bi-monthly schedule. The best talent is currently on other books and it needs to come on Justice League sooner rather than later. With Deathstroke’s Christopher Priest taking over the title soon, we’re certainly in for an increase in quality but until then, Hitch’s Justice League is worth a chance, but if you don’t like the first arc you certainly won’t like the rest. - 4/10

Justice League Of America - This book came with a lot of promise, excellent Rebirth one shots and a hero team of promise, and so far it hasn’t really delivered on it but it does show promise and improvement with every issue. Steve Orlando is a great writer, he’s doing some nice work on Supergirl and his Midnighter books have been wonderful too, but he has been slow on the narrative with this team. Right now the series is concentrating on a Rebirth mystery that came up in DC Universe Rebirth #1 with The Atom Ray Palmer sending a message to his protege Ryan Choi about a problem in the Microverse, and so far it has been good with Batman, Lobo, Ryan and Killer Frost searching for Ray. It hasn’t had the most consistent artwork but it has had some beautiful work from Jamal Campbell (Vixen Rebirth #1 & issue 7) and the legendary Ivan Reis, which make it a step above the other JL title. A must buy if you want a different kind of Justice League book. - 6.5/10

Green Lanterns - When Rebirth was announced, many people were disappointed with Sam Humphries being the writer on this book but he has changed minds emphatically with some stellar work. Writing for 2 relatively new characters in Simon Baz and Jessica Cruz isn’t easy but Humphries has made these two people into humans you can relate to and want to see succeed while also showing a lot of respect and knowledge to the Green Lantern lore of old too. The series has unfortunately suffered from some inconsistent artwork but it’s still an incredibly good read that has expanded on the mythology of the series introduced by Geoff Johns. - 8.5/10

Hal Jordan & The Green Lantern Corps - Just like with Humphries on Green Lanterns, people were disappointed to find Robert Venditti writing for Hal Jordan once again, but honestly i was hopeful as i enjoyed his post-Johns era work and thought he could get better, and it’s hard to argue against that given his run on this book. The biggest task he faced was combining a series of books into one, this series takes story beats from his previous Green Lantern book as well as Green Lantern Corps: Edge Of Oblivion, Sinestro and Omega Men and manages to combine them into one cohesive story, albeit a bit slower than some might like. My only problem with this series is the name of it, it suffers from the Birds Of Prey thing by them shoving Hal’s name on the front of it for no apparent reason. The artwork for this series is largely excellent for a bi-monthly title with Rafa Sandoval and Green Lantern veteran Ethan Van Sciver providing the bulk of the work. If you love the Lantern series you will almost certainly enjoy this one too. - 9/10

Wonder Woman - With a blockbuster movie on the horizon, the Wonder Woman series needed a big pull for Rebirth and DC more than delivered by bringing back legendary Wonder Woman writer Greg Rucka. Mixing the old with the new, Rucka uses older elements of Diana’s story and mixes them in with the New 52 elements but also deploys a unique story telling tactic by using the odd-numbered issues as a current day story and the even-numbered issues as a story titled “Year One”, a re-telling of how Diana first met Steve Trevor. The use of this type of story telling only works because of the bi-monthly schedule, otherwise it would take 12 months to tell a 6-issue story, but it works perfectly. The artwork is split between Liam Sharp on the current day story and Nicola Scott on the Year One story, and each one compliments the stories with incredibly detailed pencils. They are later joined by the excellent Bilquis Evely to round up one of the best art teams on one run. Rucka’s run on Wonder Woman ended with the culmination of both stories meeting in the middle in issue 25, and my only complaint about it was that a lot of questions were left up in the air but hopefully they will be answered soon as new writer James Robinson is living up to Rucka’s run quite handily so far. A must read for fans both old and new. - 9/10

The Flash - Written by Joshua Williamson with art by Carmine Di Giandomenico, Barry Allen witnesses a Speed Force Storm that turns random citizens of Central City into Speedsters like The Flash, and introduces the series to a new Speedster villain called Godspeed and a group known as Black Hole. While Williamson is often accused of exposition heavy writing, he also manages to make the story both easier to follow and also engaging at the same time and uses the supporting cast rather well. A later story starring Eobard Thawne AKA Reverse Flash is the highlight of the series so far, my only complaint story wise would be that Barry always seems miserable or down on his luck. Give the guy a break! The art by Di Giandomenico is rather sharp and frantic but it’s perfect for a book about a man who can run really fast. The latter half of the New 52 comic was a large disappointment for myself but Williamson and Di Giandomenico have brought the series back to prominence. There is a slow burn with the stories but i’m still engaged with them and interested as to where they might lead so that is always a positive. - 8/10

Aquaman - Of all the comics, this one feels more politicised than the others. The first 2 volumes deal with Atlanta’s relationship to the United States and how Arthur controls his kingdom, not to mention how the other members of the Justice League view him as a hero. One of the great things about this run is that it wasn’t afraid to come out of the gates quick, setting up a war between Atlantis and America with Black Manta manipulating both sides. Artwork duties are split between a group of artists such as French artist Philippe Briones, Brad Walker (Green Lantern: New Guardians) and Scot Eaton (X-Men), and they provide a similar, albeit simple style that allows for lots of action to be peppered into each issue. Aquaman is now a monthly title as opposed to a bi-monthly one but it hasn’t diminished in quality at all as it has popular artist Stjepan Sejic on art now, and together he and Dan Abnett are carving out quite the legacy under the sea. - 9.5/10

Cyborg - One of my favourite DC You books returns with a new writer in John Semper Jr. Semper is most famous for writing the animated Spider-Man series from 1994 so he’s not unfamiliar with comic book characters, but this marks his first foray into comic book writing itself and i must say, he’s doing a good job of it too. The problem with Cyborg in relation to other characters is that he doesn’t really have the supporting cast that the likes of The Flash and Batman have, so Semper has had to build him one, with new friends like Exxy the hacker and new Detroit hero The Black Narcissus. Part of the reason i like Semper’s work though is because he clearly has the Silver Age influencing him into writing big, crazy sci-fi stories. The move to a monthly has helped the book somewhat in the art department but i feel that the right artist on this book could make it a smash hit in the same way Sejic has on Aquaman. - 7.5/10

Green Arrow - Of all the Rebirth books, Green Arrow is one of only a few that kept its previous writer in the shape of Ben Percy. In Percy’s pre-Rebirth run he was accused of being a bit grim but his Rebirth series is more or less the opposite. Fan service is on display here as Dinah Lance AKA Black Canary is introduced, and for the first time since Flashpoint the romance between Oliver and Dinah is back. And that’s not the only thing as Oliver now sports his famous goatee. While the story is a bit more peppy and action orientated, Percy’s villainous Ninth Circle retain some of the grim that he had become known for but coupled with the wonderful visuals from Otto Schmidt and Juan Ferreyra the Green Arrow book finds a perfect balance that has been missing since the Lemire run in New 52. - 9.5/10

Trinity - DC took the logical step of combining both Batman/Superman and Superman/Wonder Woman into a much better Trinity series. The series, while short, so far has 2 distinct runs on it. The first is by Francis Manapul who pulls off pure magic by writing, pencilling and colouring all of his Trinity issues, the only thing he does do is the lettering. Getting back to the core of what makes the Trinity special, he opens up the past of each member to the others, allowing them to experience each other’s lives a bit more and gain a closer understanding. The second run is one revolving the idea of Trinities in DC and was started by Cullen Bunn, but now being written by Suicide Squad writer Rob Williams, involving the classic Trinity meeting the Mystic Trinity of Constantine, Deadman and Zatanna, the Dark Trinity of Red Hood, Bizarro and Artemis, and the Evil Trinity of Circe, Ra’s al Ghul and a reluctant Lex Luthor. The latter story concerns a run in with the sister of the Lazarus Pits, the Pandora Pits, which want to unleash evil on Earth. Even though both stories are different, they don’t take away from the fact that Trinity is an excellent returning series for DC, one that allows them to tell more concentrated League-centric stories without taking over the main Justice League books. It’s a must buy for Manapul’s work alone, truly a work of art. - 9/10

Conclusions

With movies coming out in the DCEU slate relating to these characters, interest in them is at an all time high and DC have done a relatively excellent job of providing interested new readers with excellent content to peruse in titles like Green Lanterns and The Flash, as well as satisfy old readers too with some excellent fan service in series like JLA and Green Arrow.

While the majority is excellent, the flagship Justice League book should really be better. Christopher Priest taking over the book provides a glimmer of light though, as the series really should be one that leads the way for the rest of the DC Universe.

Thanks for reading!

Next Up: The Young And The Violent (Teen Titans, Suicide Squad etc. lol).

[aion-rsa]

Deathstroke: RIP - Bringing Slade Wilson's Story to an End

http://bit.ly/2Il3N7c

Christopher Priest talks Deathstroke, storytelling, and where he's leaving his hit DC comic.

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Christopher Priest is one of the best comic writers of all time. His career spans almost 40 years now, and in that time he's had his hands on just about every big name superhero character out there - Captain America, Green Lantern, Wonder Woman, Spider-Man, Justice League. You name it and he's probably written it. His most famous work is probably his defining run on Black Panther, a run that greatly informed the tone of the ultra-popular cinematic take.

So when DC announced he was coming back to comics, we were understandably excited. When they said it was for Deathstroke, we were puzzled for a second, and very quickly overjoyed. The book became an instant classic, and over the course of 44 issues, Priest has given us one of the greatest single issues of the last decade; one of the best books of the year; and one of the most oddly touching. We were given the chance to chat with Priest about his new arc, "Deathstroke R.I.P.", which kicks off in this week's issue #44 and, we were shocked and saddened to discover, ends his tenure on the book after issue #50.

Perhaps my favorite moment from the series. Deathstroke #30  /  Pagulayan/Paz

Den of Geek: Dead is almost never actually dead in comics, and never more so than with the title character of a book. But it seems like Slade might be out of commission for at least a little while here. What's your narrative goal with knocking him out of the book for a bit?

Christopher Priest: Wasn’t my doing. Slade’s death was the brilliant suggestion of Teen Titans writer Adam Glass, with whom I’d been collaborating on “The Terminus Agenda.” We’d worked through the story but didn’t have an ending. I think Adam’s suggestion may have been facetious at first, but I immediately loved it because it seemed a natural escalation of the Robin v. Deathstroke love-hate story. I kind of envy Adam’s opportunity to explore the consequences of Slade’s demise with Damian and especially Wallace (Kid Flash) West, who could have saved Deathstroke but chose not to. I’d further like to assure readers that Slade is, in fact, dead. But that’s far from the end of his story.

Allow me to pause parenthetically to vent a little: my main frustration with Deathstroke has been reader reluctance to engage the series because so many of them assume the book is about slashing and killing. Now, to be fair, until uh, last month, I assumed the HBO series Six Feet Under was about zombies and didn’t watch it. Deathstroke is no more about hacking and slashing than Six Feet Under is about zombies. Both series are about dysfunctional families and the lengths to which they go in order to support and love one another.

DC Comics could not maintain nor would I wish to write a book singularly focused on a two-dimensional mustache-twirling baddie who tries and fails to kill the Super Friends every month, yet I’ve met a lot of fans who have arrived late in the game expressing surprise that our series has so much substance to it.

read more: Why Deathstroke is the Most Versatile Villain in the DC Universe

Deathstroke is not about the world’s deadliest assassin so much as it is about the world’s worst dad. Dad just happens to have this specific and peculiar job. The book has been, however, a tough sell because it stars a villain. Even The Joker has had a tough history of headlining his own title.

Deathstroke #8 / Pagulayan/Paz

The most substantial recurring theme in the run so far seems to be family - Jericho and Ravager are both important characters, and Slade's built a weird kind of found family around himself at various points in the series with Damian, Kid Flash, and Power Girl. How much are you trying to define Slade by his legacy, and how much of this is trying to organically grow his stature within the DCU?

I never had much of an agenda for Deathstroke in terms of the character’s legacy or facility within the DCU. I was just trying to do good work and approach the work with integrity. This meant not taking anything for granted but rather exploring, in as much detail as allowed, the mindset of this character. I’ve always seen Slade Wilson, as written by Marv Wolfman, Geoff Johns, and others, as an extremely complex character. But I am never satisfied to retread familiar ground but to look for unexplored areas even within established events. We re-told and condensed a lot of Deathstroke’s original history with an eye toward exploiting overlooked areas or missed opportunities, or simply modernizing his story for a 21st century audience.

read more: Deathstroke Animated Series in Development

It occurred to me that Deathstroke’s irrational obsession with teens, most especially, must somehow be an artifact of his dysfunctional family life. Deathstroke himself acknowledges this dysfunction in his choice to alienate Tanya (Power Girl) Spears by killing her dog in issue 17. I’ve never received any complaints about the numerous people Deathstroke has killed, but at every convention I’ve attended someone has complained to me about his murdering Roscoe the dog. It wasn’t a real dog, it was a comic book dog, but many readers found that shocking and cruel—which Slade intended it to be. It was the only way he could break the bond he’d formed with this teenage girl, a girl he’d grown to love, and a life he wouldn’t want his influence to corrupt.

Deathstroke #21 Cover / Ryan Sook’s homage/rebuttal to Kevin MaGuire’s classic Justice League #1 (1987)

Of course, after Slade’s “conversion” several issues later, he makes amends with Tanya by offering her a new puppy. But, still, I catch hell over that dog.

Deathstroke #20 / Pagulayan/Paz

Wallace (Kid Flash) West is an even more complex relationship, a kid Slade at first exploits but then genuinely grows to care for. As I see him, Wallace holds the most volatile and dynamic potential of any DCU character, and I wish I had opportunity to explore him more. Speedsters are extremely complex characters to write because, let’s face it, they can solve most problems before the reader can turn the page.

read more: The Interpromotional Rivalry of Deadpool and Deathstroke

As I see him, Wallace has the potential for both great good and great evil, and we’ve yet to know the limits of that potential. This makes for an extremely complex relationship with a guy like Slade, whom Wallace both abhors and admires, as Wallace himself presents enormous temptation to Slade to either exploit as a pawn or protect in a paternal fashion.

Deathstroke #40 / Pagulayan/Paz

There was a density to Bronze Age books that is very much apparent in Deathstroke - a LOT happens in each issue, and plot events aren't so much set up and knocked down as they are continually repositioned, referenced, and made important. But at the same time the dialogue is much more reserved than in older comics. Has this been a natural evolution in your work, or something you've had to be attentive to? Or is it just the right way for you to tell Slade's story

Well (laughs) I’M from the Bronze Age, so there ya go. As a reader, I like density. As a viewer, I prefer complex dramas featuring complex characters and intertwining Game of Thrones relationships between them. I think that’s half the fun of comics. Some of the best and most memorable comics (Watchmen, The Dark Knight Returns) were incredibly dense and complex. As a fan, I am often disappointed when I can read through a comic book in a matter of minutes. I love beautiful art and double-page splashes as much as the next person, but I’m invested in relationships. Many of us fans have 20, 30, 40-year relationships with these characters. Sure, let’s do the big splashy graphics, but let’s earn them by first doing the difficult work of worldbuilding and storytelling.

Conversely, there is also a time to shut up. Deathstroke is struck dead in the middle of gloating at Robin which, as I see him, was Deathstroke trying to help Damian and teach him rather than his simply being a jerk (although Deathstroke is more than capable of being a jerk, too). From that moment until the next issue box on the following page, there is total silence. That’s because arrows are silent killers and I wanted the moment to be shocking an unexpected, which artists Carlo Pagulayan and Jason Paz delivered spectacularly.

read more: Everything You Need to Know About Titans Season 2

There are usually rhythms to my storytelling—very busy, very dense followed by something big or something quiet. This is time-honored storytelling pacing from the movies. When you hear the bongo music, the heavy percussion music, you know the chase scene is starting. When the screen goes silent, you know a loud note is coming. So I write in tension, building rhythms. Words are exactly like music. If you can get inside the reader’s head and build that rhythm, you create these patterns within the narrative; the music.

Deathstroke #43 / Pagulayan/Paz

There’s also this phenomena of “Middle.” Stories should have a beginning, a middle, and an end, but over the past couple of decades we’ve seen the evolution of Middle; extended story arcs where we get installments of a larger story that lack the satisfaction of conventional act structure or climaxes. We want stories, but what we get is month after month of Middle

My preference is that each individual issue be a story in and of itself. Even if it is a chapter within a larger story arc, I want to serve up a complete meal. I actually don’t mind being called “Old School” or even “Bronze Age.” I’m committed to giving the fans a good, strong read. I beat myself up a lot and work much harder than I have to because I myself am a reader, I myself am a fan, and I hate being ripped off.

You've been working with some extremely talented artists over the course of the run. How have the strengths of guys like Carlo Pagulayan and Fernando Pasarin influenced how you've written or structured the book?

Well, Fernando is the new guy, kind of thrown into the breach after our Batman vs. Deathstroke hardcover. With Deathstroke: Arkham we needed to reinvent Slade a little, so the rapid departure from Carlo Pagulayan’s Rebirth design was certainly in order. Fernando brought a new and inventive tone that worked well with Arkham’s twisted Groundhog Day storytelling, and he continues to be a huge help to the series

Deathstroke #36 / Pasarin/Paz

Carlo Pagulayan is the architect of the Rebirth Deathstroke. He has given the character a unique voice through his amazing reinterpretations of George Pérez’s seminal arch villain. Because of Carlo, you can read every line of conflict on Slade Wilson’s face, the tortured man who desires to be a good father and even a good person but who is capable of neither.

read more: DC's Heroes in Crisis Ending Isn't About Superheroics

Carlo instinctively and intimately understands the subtext of my writing, the stuff that doesn’t exist in words but in the motivation and intent of the characters. I am deeply appreciative of his obvious investment in breathing life and intense emotional content into this work. Forget me; any epic or landmark moments represented in this series are owed completely to this man’s amazing gifts.

Deathstroke #20 / Pagulayan/Paz

Deathstroke #30 / Pagulayan/Paz

Pagulayan’s perfect, exceptional timing in Deathstroke #20. The rhythm, the music, building to the punch/exit line. I love and adore Tanya and really wish I had more opportunity to write her  /  Pagulayan/Paz

Carlo’s work is brought vividly to life most often by our regular inker, Michael Jason Paz, whom I regard as one of the industry’s top talents. Inkers are too often overlooked, viewed as interchangeable, or even dismissed sometimes by pencil artists. But inking is an artform in and of itself; the venerable Dick Giordano bringing a difficult to describe flavor to Neal Adams or Terry Austin helping define John Byrne’s groundbreaking style. There’s nobody better in the business than Jim Lee, but there’s a reason he has Scott Williams on speed dial.

read more: How Doomsday Clock Explains the History of the DC Universe

Jason has tackled nearly every artist to draw this book, handling each with his own unique signature while maintaining the individual and specific approaches each artist brings to Deathstroke. He deserves much higher name recognition, top-tier status and mo’ money. He’s just awesome, as is our colorist Jeromy Cox—the soundtrack to Deathstroke—and my letterer Willie Schubert, who provides my “voice” in comics.

I’ve been incredibly blessed by the talents and integrity of these artists, including my long-term former Marvel partner Joe Bennett, guest artists Denys Cowan and Ed Benes, and my editors Brittany Holzherr, David Wieglosz, and Andrea Shea, under the direction of the longsuffering Alex Antone.

What's Deathstroke RIP leading to? What from earlier in the run should we be looking at for clues to the future of Deathstroke?

Deathstroke: RIP is my final story arc of the Rebirth Deathstroke series as I take my bow with the double-sized issue #50. The story arc is intertwined with DC’s Year of the Villain crossover event, so expect the unexpected with no guarantee Slade, as we know him, will ever be seen again. As the DCU grapples with a world without Deathstroke and his children take center stage with unpredictable consequences, this feels like a fitting last hurrah for the Rebirth series.

Deathstroke #44 is in comic shops and online this week. And the entire run is available in collected edition. You should go buy it. It's worth every penny.

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Interview Jim Dandy

Jun 5, 2019

DC Entertainment

Christopher Priest

Deathstroke

from Books http://bit.ly/2HVQ6fX

[numbuh-7-knd]

Jinxed Archer Chapter 3

Chapter 3 of my Teen Titans/Young Justice crossover, in which Jinx and Artemis are the same person.  Also on AO3 

Summary: Jinx had the opportunity to rid herself of magic, and she took it and disappeared, Wally blamed himself. Now his new team has a new Archer whose attitude reminds him of his old girlfriend, but never would he have imagine it was really her.

(http://archiveofourown.org/works/10425393/chapters/24442635) 

Chapter 3: A conversation.  Wally and Barry have a very important talk.

This is more filler than anything, and I haven't had anyone beta read it, nor have I done a grammar check.

It had been a few quiet days in at the temporary HQ. They spent time together just being themselves , watching the TV, watching movies, and getting used to Jinx knowing about Wally's secret identity. He told her about his past, and tried to get her to share hers. She kept quiet, but would occasionally share small tidbits. They even had an animated movie night:

“So Jinx, I know you don't wanna talk about your past, but can you at least tell me your favorite movie from when you were a kid? Halloween Town or Nightmare before Christmas maybe?” Wally smiled kindly at the pink haired sorceress before throwing some popcorn into his mouth.

“Nah, actually ‘Alice in Wonderland’ was more my style.” Said sorceress looked up at him from her half-hearted attempt to watch a movie.

“Seriously? I thought for sure it would involve pink, or magic… Or a big villainess” He gestured to her hair as he spoke.

“I mean, that was before I got like this… after… after I didn't have time for kid stuff.” She glanced down at her lap, tugging on her sleeve quietly.

“How, how old were you? When did-” he couldn't get the words out without sounding rude, or being scared he'd upset her, so he stopped himself.

“I was about 8 when it happened, and I joined Hive a few months after.” She hoped he wouldn't ask more questions. This was painful enough.

“Jinx, I know you hate talking about your past, but how does an 8 year old join a criminal organization? Where were your parents?”

Where indeed. Sportsmaster certainly didn't mind selling her to HIVE, that's for sure. “Who do you think sent me there?” Did he really thinks she could have joined on her own?

“Oh… um… so do you have any other favorite movies?” He glanced back at the TV awkwardly.

“Even before I got my powers, I didn't really get to do a lot of kid stuff… Alice in Wonderland was kind of a fluke.” A theater in Gotham had playing it as part of a promotion and Jade convinced their parents that it could be educational for her to see it after reading the book recently, but she wasn't going to tell Wally that.

“Okay… so, since you didn't watch a lot of movies as a kid, wanna watch some now?” Wally watched her carefully as he spoke.

“Isn't that what we've been doing?” She motioned to the TV, showing some action movie where the hero was fighting some mobsters, or maybe they were aliens, she hadn't really been paying much attention.

“Yeah, but, you know, kids movies. We could have a movie marathon!” He smiled a very, very excited smile.

They sat through watching several old Disney movies and otherwise animated movies, most of which Kid borrowed from the main Titans Tower. (This confused Cyborg and Beastboy, who watched a red and yellow blur run by the television, taking one or two VHS or DVDs at once, and then returning a few hours later to return them and get more.)

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A few days passed, and Wally received a communication from the Flash asking him to meet at a diner in Coast City, wearing civilian clothes(thus why they were meeting in Coast instead of Central or Keystone, as people are bound to recognize the boy still being put on missing posters, or maybe recognize Barry and wonder who the kid is with him.) Wally bid a goodbye to Jinx and went to meet with his uncle.

Wally ran the relatively short (for a speedster) distance to Coast City, glad it wasn't too far from his and Jinx’s location. There he changed into a brown hoodie and jeans in an alleyway and then found the small diner. Barry was wearing his usual work attire of a long sleeved collared button up shirt covered by a sweater vest and tie, only missing his CCPD CSI identity card and his lab coat.

“Hey Wally, it's good to see you again.” He smiled warmly at the teen, if a bit awkwardly.

“H-hey Uncle Barry. So what did you want to talk about that couldn't be done over the phone?” Wally slid into the booth, glancing around quickly to make sure he wasn't being watched.

“I wanted to know if you had thought about coming to live with Iris and me. Besides, I was already here for a team up with Green Lantern.” Barry double checked his communicator, making sure his friend didn't need him.

“Oh, that… I've thought about it, but I'm just not sure how it would work.” Wally looked down at the menu, frowning as he chose.

“How what would work? You'd live with Iris and I, and you'd go back to school.” Barry looked at him quizzically and raised an eyebrow.

“Well yeah, but I'm a Teen Titan now, I have duties, I can't just walk away from that.” Wally looked Barry straight in the eyes, serious and trying to get the message across.

“I thought you worked with a partner instead of with the main Titans.” Barry took a bite from one of the many pastries in front of him as he talked.

“Yeah, but we still go on missions sometimes with the other Titans, besides I think Jinx would be lonely living in the bunker by herself. Not to mention it would be weird running halfway across the country everyday.” They grew quiet as a waitress arrived to ask about Wally’s order, he ordered a strawberry milkshake, 2 large fries, and two burgers. She brought him the milkshake right away and told him the rest would be out soon.

“Everyday? Why would you- Jinx is your partner right? Surely you two can still keep in touch, maybe meet on weekends, and she could always work with another Titan, or maybe she could use a break, some time off while you get used to being at home and working alongside the League and I.” Barry tried to reason, knowing what it's like to work with a partner on occasion, such as right now with Hal, but still apparently not getting it.

“Wait, what about the League?!” The red-headed speedster did a double take, what was this about the Justice League?

“The League has taken notice of your work in Paris, and we want you, Robin, and Speedy to join us. We want to work with you.” Barry put his food down as he spoke, trying his best “Serious and Diplomatic” impression.

“You want the Titans to work with the League?” Wally was shocked, to say the least, the league had barely acknowledged the Titans before this.

“Not-Not necessarily. I'd be fine with it, but the others aren't sure about those on the Titans we haven't worked with before. We want you. The Titans don't necessarily need you three. But we do.” Barry didn't want to scare his nephew off, and he truly thought more young heros working with the league could only be a strength, but his teammates sadly did not share this opinion.

“I'll think about it… but what about Jinx?” Was Barry really asking him to abandon Jinx? After everything they've been through together?!

“Like I said she can work with someone else, or maybe find a mentor, she's only been good for a few months, right? Are you sure this is a permanent change? And even if it is, maybe she can go home to her family, or live with the rest of the main Titans.” Barry raised an eyebrow, if Wally really didn't want to live with him and Iris, couldn't he just say so? Before Wally could respond his food arrived, resulting in him quickly devouring one of the burgers, making it disappear in under a minute.

“That's great and all, Uncle Barry, but Jinx isn't just my partner in crime fighting, she's also my uh, girlfriend.” Wally awkwardly wiped some ketchup off his cheek from his burger, hoping his mentor and uncle wouldn't react to badly to this news.

“You're dating her?! But she was a villain!” Barry was flabbergasted, didn't he teach his sidekick better than to date the enemy?

“Ex Villain! She's reformed! Besides, it's not like you've never flirted with a supervillain” Wally could remember plenty of times that his uncle distracted the villain or villainess with flirtations.

“I'm married to your Aunt!” Barry glanced at his wedding ring in confusion, he would never cheat on Iris!

“Yeah, but before that…. besides, I've seen you and captain cold. Not to mention some others, like Killer Frost, and-” Wally had a whole list planned, and fully planned on saying it all before he got interrupted.

“Enough, Wally, I get it. But seriously? You're a 15-year old kid. How serious can this relationship be?” Barry looked at Wally with worried eyes.

“Pretty serious Uncle B. She needs me. She doesn't have anyone else. She isn't close to the other Titans, and she had to cut ties with her old friends because they were all villains.” Wally needed her, too. She likes him for who he is now, not the kid he used to be, or the hero he could be. She sits across from him as he talks about physics with a fond smile on her face and calls him a dork. She likes to sketch everything from unicorns to the kitchen utensils to him; he really likes it when she draws him. They work out and train together, figuring out how to work best as a team. They debate the news. They argue about little things like tv or pizza topping out of boredom but usually comprise and wind up cuddling. She even calms him down without even meaning to when he has an anxiety attack.

“So what about her family? Is she an orphan?” Barry wanted to understand, but he still worried that Wally was too young for such a serious relationship. Maybe the league could set her up with a legal guardian to take her in, make it so she isn't only relying on his nephew for emotional support.

“I don't know, probably? Maybe. She doesn't want to tell me about her past.” Wally just wanted this conversation to end, picking at his fries and dipping them in his milkshake.

“How much do you really know about her? What's her real name? Can you really trust her?” Can I trust her with you?

“I know I can trust her. But as for the other two I don't know… I don't even know how she got the way she is now… maybe she doesn't really even have a name other than Jinx… I asked her the other day, but… she didn't have an answer.” Wally trembled, looking from Barry, to his plate, to the other patrons. Why couldn't Barry just accept Jinx? He glanced back at Barry and narrowed his eyes, hurt and angry at the accusation against one precious to him.

“Alright… maybe that was… out of line of me. Kid, I know she doesn't want to talk about it, but from what you're saying, she could probably use the League’s help. If you can talk her into it, we can probably at least get her a therapist, to make sure she stays on the right path, and to help her with any issues she might have, which, if her childhood was anything like yours, and with having to go to a school for supervillains… she probably needs. I know you Titans like being independent, but the League is here if any of you need us.” Barry felt dumb, he seriously did want to help, but he was probably doing more harm than good at this point. He knew the Titans probably didn't have that many resources (he knew for a fact that they got a lot of financial and technical support from Bruce Wayne, who had kept supporting his son even when they weren't on speaking terms) and after seeing what Wally had been through, and knowing many of the Titans were kids who ran away from home, were kicked out, or were orphaned or otherwise without a place to go, didn't want them to suffer.

“Thanks for that, Uncle B. It was a little mean of you to say that, but I know you're just worried about me.” Wally had just finished speaking when his Teen Titans communicator went off “Sorry, I have to answer this… Hey Rob, what's up? Trouble in Jump? Alright, I’ll go get Jinx and meet you at the T Tower… No she's not with me, I was meeting with the Flash… See you soon.” He glanced up at Barry, shoulders slumping as he sighed and said “Sorry, but the Titans need me and Jinx for a mission in Jump City. Say Hi to Aunt Iris for me, bye!” He rushed out as quickly as possible without arousing suspicion from the regular patrons of the diner.

“Heh, he was in such a rush he didn't even finish his fries...Oh well, more for me!” He ate his food and Wally's leftover fries quickly, trying to figure out what he would tell Iris. Suddenly his comm. link buzzed “Flash here, what's up… oh hey Hal. Yeah, I finished talking to Wally, no I think I messed up. You found the guy? Great, I'll meet you there.”

“Jinx, I'm home!” Wally entered the bunker, to find Jinx all dressed and ready at the door.

“I can see that kid, now come on, the others are waiting!”

Thanks for reading, please leave a comment and tell me what you think!

[ragingbookdragon]

DC Character Insert Guide!

So, I got my second Covid shot yesterday and while I didn’t feel much of the effects then, I’m feeling them today, and I don’t want to write any fics because it’s too much effort and everything in my body hurts.

Instead, I decided to compile a list of all the character inserts I do, just so everyone can have a bit of a better background to them. Let’s start with the Batfamily, then we’ll move to the Superfamily, then Flashfamily, and finally the Lanternfamily.

-Thorne

So, within the Batfamily inserts there are four insert characters: Batmom (Bruce’s wife and mother of the Batfamily), Bat-Aunt (Bruce’s sister), Batsis (Bruce’s daughter, and Batbrother (Bruce’s son).

1. Batmom (Bruce’s wife and mother of the Batfamily) is a model by day and support at night. She stopped being a vigilante after Dick and Bruce’s falling out, preferring to stay at home and focus on raising Jason whilst caring for the family. She was born in Blüdhaven but grew up in Gotham City, eventually getting a job at WE where she quickly worked her way to the position of Bruce’s secretary where she became a valued member of his personal circle.

2. Bat-Aunt (Bruce’s sister) is a billionaire, playgirl, philanthropist by day and depending on which pairing I’m using, she’s either a vigilante by night or support for the Batfamily (non-vigilante). She’s Bruce’s younger sister and no one’s really sure if they’re related by blood but apparently one night, the two siblings sat down to test DNA, received the answers, and never spoke of them again. They’ve been together since they were in diapers—they’re siblings through and through. She is close with Ghost-Maker and Barry Allen.

3. Batsis (Bruce’s daughter) is a writer by day and a spy-network running vigilante by night. She is the oldest sibling of the Batsiblings and takes it upon herself to keep everyone in check when they need it. Because she’s older than most of the sidekicks every major superhero has, she’s not friends like Dick is with his group, so she tends to help out with the JL more. She was born and raised in Gotham City, showing up at Bruce’s doorstep at six years old. She is close with Wally West and Kyle Rayner.

4. Batbrother (Bruce’s son) is a black ops squad leader, designation SPECTRES, who runs missions all over the world that take out terrorist organizations, human trafficking rings, etc. He is the eldest sibling of the Batsiblings, and is typically compared to being a second Bruce, but a much laxer Bruce. He was born in Gotham, but his mother passed during birth, and he was raised in the mountains of Virginia by his maternal grandfather until he was thirteen. During the time, he was taught how to live off the land—which is important because it helps him during the Super Soldier Program. He traveled to Gotham City to Wayne Manor and told Bruce he was his son. After DNA testing, it was proven true. When he’s not on a mission, he’s usually at Wayne Manor bugging the crap out of his family. He is a sexual assault survivor during his time in the military and he advocates for other survivors and also runs personal missions (without his team) to bring justice to those who didn’t receive any. He is close with Kyle Rayner and his younger brother Jason Todd.

Within the Superfamily there are two reader inserts and those are Super-Aunt (Clark’s sister) and Supersis (Clark’s daughter).

1. Super-Aunt (Clark’s sister) is the world’s Superwoman. She lives in Gotham City working for Bruce, so she is technically apart of the Batfamily. She was not raised by the Kents with Clark, as their pods hit one another in the atmosphere and shot off to different locations, hers in Jacksonville, Florida. She and Clark met during a Daily Planet trip to Wayne Enterprises. She is close with Bruce Wayne and Ted Kord—and Booster Gold because you can’t have Blue Beetle without Booster Gold.

2. Supersis (Clark’s daughter) is the world’s Superwoman. She is not Lois Lane’s daughter but considers the woman her mother. She fights with the Young Justice team and when she’s not fighting with them, she’s either at her family home or at Gotham University taking classes. She is close with Tim Drake, Bart Allen, and Jason Todd.

In the Flashfamily there are two reader inserts, and they are Flash-Aunt (Barry’s sister) and Flash-daughter (Barry’s daughter).

1. Flash-Aunt (Barry’s sister) is a Flash like Barry and serves in the Central City Police Department with her brother, but while Barry is a forensic scientist, she is a detective, working their cases so that the two siblings are always on them together—they’re currently gunning for the most solved cases award. She is not the child of Nora Allen, but instead of Henry Allen during the time that he and Nora were getting divorced. When she was born, the mother gave her to Darryl Frye and she and Barry were raised together. She is close with Hal Jordan and Bruce Wayne.

2. Flash-Daughter (Barry’s daughter) was recently introduced with the fic “If We Were Fast Enough”. She is the daughter of Barry Allen in a world where the old Justice League has retired, and their successors have taken up the mantles. Unfortunately, global devastation occurred which was a result of nuclear warfare between countries. During the all-out war on the ruined landscape, she watched every JL member fall along with every Flash. She witnessed the deaths and took their speed (she did not kill them, but merely took their speed to keep it out of the hands of the enemy), making her faster than every speedster. Within the final moments of her world, she harnessed Barry Allen’s speed before he died, making her the fastest speedster alive, even faster than Wally West (just by an inch), and escaped the imploding of her world by traveling to another timeline. After a year, she broke down and told Barry the truth, but he accepted her as his daughter regardless. She works in CCPD as a forensic scientist and is the Lightning Flash when she isn’t working. She is older than most of the sidekicks, around her late twenties, but is close with Jason Todd and Kyle Rayner.

Last but not least, there are two inserts in the Lanternfamily, and they are Lanternsis (Hal’s sister) and Lantern-Daughter (Hal’s daughter).

1. Lanternsis (Hal’s sister) is the daughter of Jessica Jordan but not Martin Jordan. She was born a few years after Martin died, her father isn’t known, and was raised in the family. Because Hal was so determined to join the Air Force and fly, he wasn’t around much as she was growing up, but seeing that no one in the family wanted to talk to Hal, especially her mother and oldest brother, she took it upon herself to have a relationship with him, calling him whenever she could, seeing him when she could. They became very close when she expressed that she herself wanted to join the Navy and become a pilot. Hal taught her everything he knew about flying and she excelled in the Naval flight programs, even at the expense of her relationship with Jessica. When her mother died, she chose an honorable discharge from the military and started working at Ferris Aircraft with Hal. Sometime during Hal’s breakdown as Green Lantern and the destruction of Coast City, the Blue Lantern Power Ring found her, and she became the Blue Lantern of Earth for her undying hope that she and the ones she loved most would be okay. She is close with Barry Allen and the Four Corpsmen.

2. Lantern-Daughter (Hal’s daughter) was introduced with the fic “When The Music’s Not Forgotten”. She is Hal’s daughter, mother is unknown, and currently lives with him in Coast City. She works at a Wayne Enterprises branch in Coast where she met with Jason Todd and started training unbeknownst to her father. During a fight when the truth was revealed, she and Hal had a falling out where she returned home and was met by Sinestro who invited her to join the Sinestro Corps. She agreed and became a Yellow Lantern. All is not lost though; she eventually becomes another Lantern type. She is close with Jason Todd, Wally West, and the Four Corpsmen.