#messing with the justice league as a form of bonding

[the-wandering-mage]

I've seen a lot of Batfam meets the Justice League fics where Batman has hidden his family. I'd really like a Batfam meets the Justice League fic where he doesn't try to hide his family no. The Batman who loves scaring people, popping out of shadows, disappearing into them, and overall just fucking with people, the head of the chaotic Batfam, he knowing that the other heros don't know a lot of what goes on in Gotham so he just pretends like they know. He tells them it's Oracle's system that runs watchtower and he make a bunch of vague references to the other bats knowing they are going to take it a different way. He doesn't try to hide his relationship with the other bats when his kids and their teams run into the Justice League. He just sits back and watches the chaos as the leaguers try to make their perception of The Batman fit with what they are seeing.

And his kids and their teams? Well they should have believed them when they said Batman was they're dad. It's not their fault they thought they were joking. Even Alfred is in on it making calls to watchtower and Titan's tower about being home in time for dinner and forgetting their lunches at home. Alfred is happy how this is bringing them together and that Bruce is making friends.

Meanwhile the Hero community is scared shitless about Batman's retired dad that doesn't have a no kill rule. They've never met him in person but the overall respect of the Batfam has towards Agent A as well as the fact he raised Batman makes them never want to meet him or for him to feel a need to come out of retirement.

***

"oh Batman isn't the head of the Batfamily"

"what?"

"Agent A is"

***

"who's scarier than Batman?", one of the leaguers asks rhetorically

Batfam member who pops up behind them from the shadows, "Agent A, he doesn't have a no kill rule"

"who's Agent A?"

"The man who raised Batman"

The leaguer who once referred to him as that old guy that answers the batcave phone: 😨

[pinkiemachine]

Alright @newtonnote ! This one’s for you!

STORYTIME!! (spoilers)

So, starting off, forming this new team was Tim’s idea. The OG Teen Titans had been drifting apart for a while, Cyborg was a member of the Justice League, and it looked as though the whole “Teen Titans” thing was gonna be shelved indefinitely until Tim came along with the idea for the old crew to form Young Justice instead, and he would reboot the TT.

Now, the first TT was not sanctioned. It was a spontaneous thing that happened more or less behind Batman’s back, but this time around, the Justice League had more of a say in the matter. Hence, all the sidekicks.

At the beginning of the NTT run, the only members are: Tim/Robin (founding member), Spoiler (invited herself), Miss Martian (Martian Manhunter volunteered her), Aqualad II (Aquaman volunteered him), and Wonder Girl II (volunteered by Wonder Woman). All the Justice Leaguers think it’ll be a good bonding and training experience for them, because they’re all a bunch of anti-social/socially awkward beans in their own ways. Tim likes the idea of leading the NTT, but soon realises he just might prefer working alone (if you want something done right, do it yourself) but he’s stuck in this situation now, so there’s not much he can do about it! XD Miss Martian is from Mars and she’s still learning all about every day teenagering, and can get very nervous about fitting in and can’t stand when she messes up. Wonder Girl (who I decided will only be called Olympia AFTER her time as Wonder Girl II) is a homeschooled girly (or, she *was* while her mother was an archeologist) but now she’s being forced out of her comfort zone and having to make friends for her stupid mental health, or whatever Wonder Woman said she had to do… meh… It’s not like she doesn’t want friends, it’s just that it’s so much work to make new ones. Then there’s Aqualad. He’s an interesting case, because no one else can seem to really understand him. He’s quiet, painfully practical, and almost emotionless. He doesn’t really do “chit chat” or “making friends.” He’s simply here following orders from Aquaman, and trying to be a “good soldier.” Steph/Spoiler is the only person keeping them all together.

The team’s first mission is in Atlantis, something super small scale that Aquaman picked out for them—almost laughably easy stuff. But while they’re in the underwater city, they happen to get their fortunes told by a fortune-teller lady. She says that someone in their team will betray them. Dun dun dun.

Not very long after that, the NTT get an alert that there’s a meteor headed straight into the ocean nearby! When they go to investigate, turns out it’s not a meteor, but a space ship. Inside, they find Kon El. He’s taken back to the Hall of Justice for questioning and other such scrutiny, but questions abound. (This happens after the Death of Superman, and Kara and Krypto are in outer space taking care some other stuff, which Batman thinks is suspicious timing.) So, without the only other Kryptonians around to verify this new guy’s legitimacy, they have to rely on his word and a DNA test for the time being. Kon-El claims that he was just one of the few lucky survivors after the end of Krypton, and when he heard that Superman was living on earth, he came as quickly as he could. Imagine his surprise when he was told that Superman was dead.

With nowhere else to go, he was allowed to stay with the NTT, as he adjusted to life on Earth. Kon-El decides to take up the secret identity name of Conner, and he decides that, if he should pass the Justice League’s tests and become a beginer superhero (which he does) then he wants to be called the next Superman. But the name doesn’t stick, and everyone winds up calling him Superboy instead, which irks him. All the while, that little prophecy the team had been told is hanging in the air.

Then—BLAM—the NTT’s first major fiasco happens! BLACK MANTA. He’s come for revenge, and to reclaim… Aqualad… his son? Dun dun dun! The backstabbing, just as it was foretold! And surprisingly, Aqualad goes with him! Now, to cut a long story short, here’s the skinny: When Aqualad (Kaldur) was a little toddler, he was present when Aquaman fought his father Black Manta, driving him away from Atlanits for a while, and accidentally killing his mother in the chaos. Aquaman felt so horrible that he decided to take Kaldur in and raise him at the palace. All the while, though, Kaldur seemed to be growing up a little… strange. Because of the shock he went into, witnessing all of that, his brain chose to react by almost shutting down all emotion. He was sleepwalking through life, too young to make sense of what had happened, and by the time he was old enough to understand, it was such a blur that he could barely remember any details. He accepted Aquaman’s hospitality, he entered the royal guard after a certain point, working his way up to becoming Aqualad, but through it all, the only reason he was doing it was because he was told to. He was told to learn to fight, because he was told he had an aptitude for it. He was told he could become Aqualad, so he accepted. And so on. But he never had any agency in those decisions. Life was happening to him. Around him. Never inside him. So when Black Manta came, telling him to leave the NTT and join him instead, Kaldur accepted.

Eventually, after a long and meaningful journey, the NTTs are able to get through to Kaldur, and essentially “wake him up.” For the first in his life, he was going to choose what he wanted to do, and what he wanted to do was protect his friends and his home from Black Manta. Double-double-cross! So Aqualad comes back to the NTT, Black Manta’s defeated, the prophecy (we presume) has come to pass, and Kaldur is actually a little excited to continue his journey with his new friends.

After that… I haven’t decided whose story is next, so we’ll leave that space blank for the moment, but I know whose story comes third! After the grande finale of (whoever, either Wonder Girl or Miss Martian) their story, there’s suddenly a time travel anomaly! A certain someone with big hair comes tumbling out of the time-stream—and it’s BART! aka IMPULSE!

So the next arc is all about Bart. He’s come back in time to warn the Justice League to prevent a horrible future from happening! One where planet Earth was invaded by an alien race called The Reach. Only problem is, not long after arriving, the Reach themselves travel back in time and try to capture Bart! They grab him, and are about to time travel back to the future, when the rest of the NTT grab onto them and stow away, sending them all beyond the Justice League’s help.

The Reach timeline is a grim existence. They invaded sneakily at first, posing as allies, but over time, they revealed their true colours. They were a nomad society, flying in one massive ship around the galaxy after their home planet was destroyed, going from planet to planet gathering resources. When they got to Earth, they discovered more than just water and minerals and crops… they discovered human beings, and their “Meta Gene.” No other known races in the universe possess this seemingly magic gene that grants superpowers, and once the Reach realised its true potential… they couldn’t just leave well enough alone. They schemed and they lied and they manipulated the human race so easily, they fell within a matter of years, and once they were in control, they started the Meta Human black market, where they would study Meta “Specimens” and/or sell them to other unsavoury alien races.

Where was the Justice League? Why didn’t they do anything? Batman was the first to suspect them, long before things turned bad. However, during his investigation, he was discovered by the Reach, and he was silenced. One by one, they found ways to lure, trick, manipulate, or just plain overpower many heroes, such as Superman and Wonder Woman, but they didn’t just kill them. No, no. Their central hubs were known as Mothercities. Entirely technofitted, entirely run by AI, entirely for the purpose of breading and raising and harvesting humans. The AI at the helm was a super advanced AI named Arcturus. The thing that made him so advanced was that he didn’t rely on normal computers for hardware and processing power. The Reach, as a whole, prefer biotech, and so what Arcturus used instead… was the human mind itself. By harvesting even a few dozen human beings, a massively powerful AI could be sustained, and the more minds you add, the bigger, badder, and faster it gets. Arcturus loooooved Batman and Wonder Woman’s minds, so full of processing power and knowledge about the planet, and the Reach were enthralled with studying Superman’s Kryptonian biology, being a member of an endangered species and all. Soon, they had built the Byway, a massive space station in Earth’s orbit, specifically for the black market’s selling and buying, and through it all, the Green Lanterns were nowhere in sight. Leaving Earth to believe they had been abandoned.

Over time, things just kept getting worse and worse. The superheroes kept on fighting, but with every victory came two losses. Then some of the Reach’s AI programs began going rampant. Some went straight up crazy, bombing as many locations as they could, or blasting themselves into space. Others changed allegences, to other countries or to the Resistance, but the most powerful—Arcturus chief among them—remained loyal to the Reach. All in all, it left Earth a tattered mess. To top it all off, Starfire, Princess of Tamaran, died trying to protect Earth, and the Tamaraneans were so livid… well… They called it “Skyfall.” A mixture of starbolts and space debris sent falling down onto the planet’s surface. Many Reach cities were destroyed… but many bases belonging to the Resistance were also hit.

Countless heroes were either harvested or killed during the years this took place over, but the few who remained made Atlantis their final stronghold. Including The Flash’s son, Don Allen, and his son, Bart Allen. Now, sadly, even though Bart was young, he was tasked with being a member of the American Meta Human Army due to the fact that he had a superpower. This would prove to be a terrible mistake, because during Skyfall, where Bart was present trying to evacuate refugees, he slipped up, and was captured by a Reach Harvester. For an entire year, he was plugged in to Arcturus’ mainframe, and boy did Arcturus love having a mind that could think so fast. He loved it so much that when Don Allen and a rescue team came to break Bart out, he swore that he would do everything in his power to get Bart back.

From that time on, Bart was not required to fight. Instead, he stayed with his father and his father’s cousin, Wally West, who were on the verge of a breakthrough. Time Travel, using the Speedforce. If this worked, they could undo everything. Fix Earth. Save their loved ones. Don and Bart were charged with the task of going back in time and warning the Justice League, but only Bart made it through. Don stayed behind to fend off a surprise attack from a group of Harvesters. Bart alone traveled to the past, where he met the New Teen Titans and the Justice League. But of course, after capturing Don Allen, a fellow speedster, the Reach were eventually able to figure out how to use the Speedforce for time travel as well, and used it to go after Bart.

Back to where we left off in the story:

Everyone was sucked into the Reach Timeline, and the NTT found themselves in a Mothercity, completely outmatched. Miss Martian and Aqualad were harvested almost instantly, Robin and Wonder Girl got caught shortly after that, and the only members who were able to escape into the lower levels of the city were Superboy, Spoiler, and Bart, who might have been able to prevent all of that from happening… if he hadn’t been so afraid. Ever since coming out of Arcturus, he’d been different, and mortally terrified of technology—any kind of technology. Now, though, if they were going to rescue their friends and get back to the present, he would need face his greatest fear one more time.

Now, I’ve thought about this story so much, and written so much down, I could go on for another 40 pages, but I’ll spare you each and every minute detail.

Yes, they rescue their friends eventually. They wind up breaking out of the Mothercity and joining the Resistance back in Atlantis. There’s a big final battle against the Reach and Arcturus—they go up into space and discover that the Green Lanterns hadn’t abandoned them, the Reach had simply been holding planet Earth hostage and forming a blockade, severely limiting what the Green Lanterns could and couldn’t do, and keeping them at arm’s length for years, though they were trying everything they could think of to save Earth. But now, things had changed. Sneaking the Green Lanterns onto the planet, the fight was finally fair, and they were about to beat Arcturus once and for all…

But then he pulled out one last dirty trick. He put his AI consciousness into a chip in Don Allen’s mind, effectively controlling him and using him to go back in time to prevent Bart from ever being rescued in the first place. The NTT chased him down through the timestream, but in the end, they realised that there was only one way to stop him. Only one way to stop a speedster. Bart looked away when it happened.

When they finally returned to the present, Bart was with them (their only means of returning to their time) and he was forced to keep living… but he couldn’t bear to remember everything. So he asked for his memories to be wiped. Thus began his new life with the NTT, as a new Bart Allen. (But those memories weren’t completely gone…)

Then begins Superboy’s arc. In the days following their little “time travel adventure,” Conner had been acting strange. He’d been disappearing a lot too. Eventually, it was discovered that Conner was secretly working with Lex Luthor. When the NTT found out, they were shocked. Conner had been a little wild and a little aggressive, but he was their friend. They told jokes, they stayed up late talking, they saved each other’s lives over and over again, and… now that his secret was out, he wanted them to know that he was sorry… but he couldn’t say no to his father. Lex.

Conner had been made in a lab, using spliced DNA from Superman and Lex Luthor. Superman’s powers + Lex Luthor’s brains. After countless failures, finally Conner was born. He was trained and “programmed” (as Lex called it) to covertly get close to the Justice League, learn their weaknesses, and ultimately be the force that brought them down from the inside. Then, Lex would frame it as though the Justice League had gone rogue, and his invention—his synthetic Heroes for Hire—had saved the day. Not only would HIS version of Superman become famous, he’d also get rich. But Conner… he was a lot more human than Lex ever gave him credit for. Ever since being born, all Conner wanted was some kind of affection from his father, but Lex made it very clear that he was not, and would never be, Conner’s father. Lex was Conner’s creator. His manufacturer. Conner was a product. Property. Nothing more. But secretly, Conner still wanted to impress him and please him, so he went along with his mission eagerly.

While he was away, he learned about Superman, his “other father.” He was crushed when he discovered he was dead, because for a moment he had thought that maybe he would be able to find a father figure in him instead… but it was not to be. Instead, he often found himself sitting alone in front of the Superman memorial statue at the Hall of Justice, talking to it for hours. Filling him in on how his life was going… imagining what it would be like to have a real dad… most of all, he told him about his new friends, and how… he didn’t want to betray them, but he didn’t want to betray Luthor more. He was sure that if he completed his mission, he’d get what he was after.

Flash forward, and the NTT were captured for discovering Conner’s secret, and the plan to take down the Justice League was in place, about to begin, and Conner looked to Luthor, hoping to hear some kind of encouragement, only to be reminded that he was just property. He did as he was told by Luthor, or he would be terminated and replaced by anther clone. But the cherry on top was when Luthor presented something to Connor. A Blue Scarab Beetle. The AI powered supersuit parasite that the Reach use to enslave their mightiest warriors. How did Luthor get his hands on this one? Conner had no idea, but the fact that Luthor wanted to use it on Conner… that was what finally convinced him that Luthor really wasn’t ever going to care about him, let alone love him. Now, thankfully the Scarab didn’t activate when presented to Conner, so that idea was a bust, but Luthor still had control over Conner with a kill-switch he could flip at any moment, so Superboy was forced to continue with the plan, fearing that there was nothing he could do. He really was nothing more than property. He was half of Lex Luthor, a villain, and he was about to do the unthinkable to his friends because of it.

That’s when Superman came back. The full story takes place with the Justice League, but there’s a crossover here. Superman comes back, totally scaring the living daylights out of Lex and foiling his plan, and in the end, he convinces Conner to join the light side by promising to protect him from anything Luthor would try to do to him. He was a good person inside, and he had people he cared about, and wanted to protect. Superman just helped bring out that side of him. When all was said and done, Luthor was defeated, and Conner’s kill-switch was destroyed. He was free to actually live. He was so excited to do all the things he thought he’d never be able to do, and to keep his friends! Most of all, he was excited to learn from his “big brother” Superman (though to himself, he still thought of Supes as a father) and he couldn’t wait to start making up for all the bad stuff he did. He didn’t care what he had to do to make things right—he was just happy he had the chance to! And of course, there was his budding relationship with Miss Martian… two awkward little alien beans…

So those are the most fleshed out stories I’ve got, but beyond that, Tim and Steph are a power couple—he’s the dark, she’s the light, he’s the calm, she’s crazy, and they’re amazing together. Wonder Girl II I’m still thoroughly exploring and learning about her character, and Miss Martian goes through a whole identity crisis as she tries to determine who she wants to be, because she’s spent her whole life trying to please other people, and be the girl they wanted her to be. Conner helps her discover herself on her journey.

I hope that wasn’t too much info… sorry if I buried you a little… but trust me…. this is the condensed version. Anyway, I hope you enjoyed! Thanks for reading!

[flamingpudding]

I love your writing so much but I'm here with a crack idea just imagine deage Dan is Klarion.

Dan was able to find out who he is outside of Danny then he was able to change his name Klarion Jackson Fenton/Nightingale he is still a little villain boy also now a mom boy.

Ghost King Danny is his mom young justice was so confused when Klarion you're the best gifts get your mom after not talking to him for a while to also begging them to pretend to be his friend . Justice League dark is panicking in the background about the electric being that just shows up.

Danny in full ghost king attire standing there with a plate of cookies ready to meet his son's new friends.

Thanks so much! I am glad you enjoy my writing!

Also thanks because I absolutely love this Idea/Prompt! Sooooo please enjoy this piece inspired by it! Also I haven't consumed a lot of DC material lately so i am basing this all on my memories. In other words.... I went with Tim's little team here.

Hope that's okay and that this won't disappoint.

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

Dan, who was going by Klarion for some years now, had a massive problem. It was the huge kind of problem build on small bubbles of lies that then turned into this one giant bubble that was about to pop just because of one little question asked by his mom when his sister decided to throw him under the bus to deflect from herself and the fact that she was dating a demon. Don't get him wrong he still loves her, but man did he want to strangle Danielle right now.

"So Klarion, Ellie is right. When will I get to meet your friends you told me so much about?"

It was such an innocent question from his mom. And while his moms titles don't scare him, cause at some point in time they could have been his too, the happy dopey smile like nothing was wrong in the dimensions with little expectations directed at him was the scariest thing his mom could ever direct at him when he had asked THAT question.

So now Klarion was in need of a quick solution. When his mom had asked he had mumbled out a quick: "Next week maybe. We won't be busy with hero stuff then." He had started to form a plan. First of all, he needed to remember what all he had told his mom about his new and redeemed life on Earth 43 he had build for himself with the name Klarion Jackson Fenton-Nightingale.

Which fuck. There was a lot he had told his mom just so he wouldn't worry.

Cause now he also remembers that whenever he had gone out to cause some chaos he had made it seem to his mom like he was going out to bond with his new friend or help them with their hero duty. Well, in a way maybe his chaos causing could be seen as bonding. The ghostly kind, that is. And as for helping with the hero duty... he did give them work, something to do with their hero status. Anyway Klarion tried to remember all possible names he had dropped. Shit why did he also mention to his mom that he was working with heroes to make her proud? He should have name dropped some villains instead but nearly all of them were adults. He knew his mom would have frowned if he had only adult friends and no one around his age.

He was pacing his room in their castle. He need a plan, a good one at that. He knows he name dropped Robin, now Red Robin, Superboy and Impulse on a whim once. Superboy more so cause his mom had been interested in the Alien Heros of the Earth of the dimension he was partially living on now. He had mentioned Robin for the joke of knowing that there is a Dinner in an other Dimension with the same name. And because his Grandfather didn't like the Flash-clan which meant his mom didn't like them too much because of their messing with timelines either, he had mentioned being friends with Impulse on pure spite because of a punishment one day and to see their reactions. So he had to get these three on board anyway, and because for the heck of it he would get Wonder Girl involved too. It was never bad to have a girl in a friends group.

Klarion stopped his pacing. Turning towards his demonic ghost cat companion, kind of what Cujo was to his mom now. "Teekl, I think I have a plan. I will convince these Idiots, that shouldn't be a huge problem. Most of them are normale little flesh sacks." Teekl and him stared for some time at each other and after a moment Klarion huffed turning away with crossed arms. "It's a good plan don't be so sceptical, they are heroes right? They will not refuse my request!"

Well maybe Klarion should have planned this a bit better.

The next day Red Robin blinked at the witch boy up from the ground in the living room of what looked like to be an normal apartment. He had just been in Gotham, working on a case and now he was here? Looking to the left he also noticed that Superboy (the older), Impulse and Wonder Girl were also with him. They all looked stunned he observed and partially disoriented. Additionally they hadn't heard from Klarion since the last time they had foiled his plans on raging chaos upon the earth, that had been weeks ago.

"Kla-"

"I have summoned you heroes here. For the moment it is fruitless to try to leave because of the magic barrier." Okay rude to be cut of but that explained why he suddenly wasn't where he remembered to be last anymore. It was now Superboy who opened his mouth first but before he could even make a sound Klarion decided to speak over them again. "I have presents."

Four young heroes collectively blinked, confused, stunned and weirded out. As the which boy before them waved over to wards a table filled with boxes and packages. "I come in peace today, to proof that I brought these are presents, filled with various goods from different dimensions that should be to the liking of you all. Technologie, accessories, snacks, weapons, as well as clothing styles."

Red Robin shared a glance with his friends, a silent communication but before he once again could say anything Impulse was already by the table going through the stuff. They could here his 'oh's and 'ah's, which inevitably made them curious and they wandered over too. Klarion was not acting hostile at all yet but Red Robin did not trust that so he kept the which boy in clear view the entire time.

"Rob! You gotta see this! That actual futuristic Tech!"

"Look at these snacks."

"These accessories don't look to bad..."

His eye twitched when he noticed Klarion was sporting a smug look. Red Robin had to ask now, because this was not normal for the other. "Okay usually you would have started some big shot chaos plan by now. I don't buy this peace offering act and your way to formal talking. So what is going on?"

The other three, thankfully in Red Robins opinion, finally looked away from the tempting gifts and also turned their attention fully on Klarion. Who's smug smile falter as he let out a sigh and stared at them with what they could only describe as a frustrated look.

"My mom is planning to visit me."

"And?" Impulse asked between munching on three different bags of chips that where on the table.

"And he believes I am friends with you idiots."

They stared slack jawed. Impulse was pinching himself like he couldn't believe what they had just heard. Did one of their Villains, just informed them that their mom believes they were friends? Red Robin was starting to think he might be in a sleep deprived Hallucination.

"Why would she?" Wonder Girl questioned next to which Klarion glared at her with fire in his eyes.

"First of, my mom uses the pronouns he/Him. Be rude to my mom and I will find a way to make your life a permanent hell on earth." Wonder Girl blinked lifting her hands as in a sign of peace. "Second, my mom is under the believe that i work with heroes not against them. I do not have the heart to disappoint him after everything that happened in the past. So I embellished the truth a little."

"A little?" Superboy retorted sarcastically, to which they caught a light blush dusting the which boy's cheeks.

"Look my sister threw me under the bus and my mom wants to meet my friends now! So I need you idiots to play nice with me for when he visits!"

"And we will do that because?" Red Robin crossed his arms, watching their villain sceptically still not really buying this entire act. This was to strange of an behaviour change. Something was up, and he was going to get behind it.

Klarion on the other hand was starting to panic internally. His plan was not as he had hoped. The presents he had specifically gotten from other dimensions with what he believed was their interests did not work to make them simply accept his request. This was the last time he would listen to old man Vlad on how to bribe humans, he wasted his entire week on getting all that stuff. His mom was going to show up soon enough he need to have them act as his friends by then so he could remove the magic barrier. Or else his mom would notices he faked everything.

They left him no choice. He would have to throw his pride away for the sole reason to not disappoint his mom.

All four Young Justice Heroes blinked as Klarion suddenly threw himself on the ground before them into a pleading position.

"Please! I beg you, just for the time my mom is here. Please act like my friends!"

"I didn't think Klarion was a mama's boy...." Impulse whispered to the rest of them in pure disbelief as they stared stunned at the kneeling witch boy.

Cut to the heroes that noticed their teens were missing.....

"Where is he?" Batman growled at the Constantine who was sighing tiredly.

"Look mate, the way you and the other Spandex wearing friends explained it, made it sound like they got summoned by a being of the Infinit Realms." The blond man sighed lighting another cigarette eying the four heroes, Batman, Superman, Wonder Woman and Flash. Zatanna was behind him pouring over a book about the realms and trying to find a tracking spell to trace it back and to where they could have been summoned.

"Don't you have something like a tracker on your boy?" Batman only growled something under his breath to which the Brite couldn't help to arch and eyebrow. Constantine was going to say something sarcasting as Deadman suddenly appeared a panicked look on him. "The Ghost King has chosen to come to our dimension."

"Say bloody what now?" All attention that had been on the heroes and their problem of missing teenage heroes turned now to Deadman and the news he brought with him. "The ghost, shades and spirits talked, for the king has decided to visit our Dimension. They are in an uproar, no one knows of why our King is on his way."

"Bloody fucking hell!" Constantine cursed. "We are fucking screwed! Isn't that guy a fucking tyrannical eldrich war maniac?!"

Deadman nodded solemnly and Constantine uttered another hearty and colourful 'fuck'. While the heroes present exchanged worried glances, not only were their kids missing but now a, by the sounds of it, highly dangerous being decided to appear in their dimension? Batman couldn't help but think that there had to be a connection to the missing teens and this.

Meanwhile in the Infinite Realms the Ghost King Castle...

Danny smoothed out his fur trimmed cape and adjusted his crown so it was floating nicely and evenly on his head. Today was the day he would get to meet his sons friends. He needed to make a good first impression. That was why he had chosen to take on his Ghost King form for this. With the wave of his hand he made an ice mirror appear before him, checking how he was looking once again. Once satisfied he nodded to himself looking over towards Fright Knight who was holding the plate of cookies he had baked himself. It was the fifth batch, and the only one that didn't turn out burned. He had needed Jazz help for this one to turn out well. It was only proper if he brought some cookies for the kids. Also he would have loved to bring his families fudge but... the last time he had tried making them had turned into a disaster.

"Thanks Frighty. Do you think Klarion's friends will like these? Wait don't answer! If they don't like them I will just get something else to thank them for taking care of my boy." Danny rambled on as he glanced at the plate of cookies in his hands. Why was he so nervous? He was just going to get to meet his little boy's friends. Sure his boy had dropped some stories about them and his adventures with them here and there. But hearing stories and meeting the kids were two different things.

Shaking his head Danny put on his best smile as he summoned a portal to Klarions apartment in the 43th Dimension of Earth. It was time to visit his boy in the place he had made his second home and thank the people that looked after his kid.

[thevoidstaredback]

Saturday's at Wayne Manor are family days. The whole weekend is reserved for the family to come and go as they please, but the biggest events are the Game Days on Saturday from 11:00 to 16:00 and Sunday Dinner at 18:00.

Every Saturday is a Game Day, but the third Saturday of each month is Competition Day. The kids all choose their favorite games, and everyone competes against each other. It's very rarely missed by anyone, but there have been times when someone has had to tap out for one reason or another. Alfred keeps track of who's missed how many days. Barbra keeps the tally of who's won what and how many times. At the end of the year, on December 31st, the scores are announced.

Sunday Dinners are sacred. No one ever misses a Sunday Dinner. The last person who did Jason is still getting subtle jabs and looks from everyone and that was a year ago and he had a very good reason, thank you very much! Everyone is always present for Sunday Dinner because everyone still has a room and the option to stay the night between the two days. Most usually take up the offer, but there have been extenuating circumstances that have pulled someone from the Manor.

No matter any of that because everyone is here and everyone is staying the night. That means everyone is patrolling Gotham tonight. Almost everyone. Batwoman has offered to take over Bludhaven for the night, so that's where she's gone.

Bruce plans to present his idea of messing with his coworkers when everyone gets back to the cave after patrol. All his kids know who they all are, having been trained by him, so there's no risk or accidental reveals on his part. In actuality, the kids thought of it like a game. They even had a folder for it on the Bat Computer and everything!

Yes, that night, after everyone returned to the Bat Cave, he would gather his Chaos Gremlins and invite them to mess with the Justice League with him. He'd also try and get Alfred in on it. Family bonding, and all that.

Though, making his kids sweat was its own form of amusement for him. It was 3:00 when everyone finally returned. They all ran their own routes, watched over by Oracle, and their own times, but everyone was always done no later than 3:00. It was a rule that the Gotham Rouges had yet to pick up on because Batman went back out until dawn more often than not.

Anyway, Bruce has been the first to get back and had put on an act of being upset. He usually kept his Batman persona with his suit, so he was rarely ever this stoic while he was Bruce Wayne. He hid his smirk as he sat at the head of the meeting table in the Cave, waiting for his children to change and sit with him. Duke normally was asleep by now, but he'd asked the boy to be there, letting him in on the harmless prank while they waited for his siblings and Stephanie to arrive.

Once everyone was seated, he waited a total of thirty seconds, meeting eyes with every one of his children, before he spoke. "I'm very disappointed."

Dick's eyes narrowed ever so slightly. He'd known Bruce the longest - aside from Alfred - and had likely picked up on something the second he saw Bruce and Duke at the table. "At who?"

"The Justice League," It was amusing to watch the tension melt off of all of them when he shook his head, "We all know who all of them are, as well as everyone who trained under them, but they don't know who we are."

"Except Wonder Woman," Jason pointed out, "She figured me out when I came back."

Fair, Bruce supposed. Jason was always Diana's favorite. "I think they need some help," he said, "A push in the right direction, so to speak."

Stephanie had a smile on her face that promised mischief. "We're not telling them, right? 'Cause that'd be no fun."

"Course not!" Duke yawned, "B said we'd give them a hint."

"What did you have in mind, father?" Damian asked, stoic as always, but matching the gleam in Cass's eyes.

"We invite them to the Bat Cave," he said, "Show them around a bit. The only exits we tell them about, though, should be the Lane," How the ground vehicles get in and out. "-the Zeta Tubes," Obviously. "-and the elevator. But, we don't tell them what's upstairs."

Alfred seemed very amused from where he had taken his seat at the other end of the table.

"From there," Bruce continued, "We invite their civilian identities to the next Gala. Meet them. Hint about the Cave without actually saying anything. If I know Clark as well as I know I do, then he'll, at the very least, piece together that the Bat Cave is under Wayne Manor."

"And if we play it right?" Dick's grin was manic, "They won't connect who we are."

"Won't that be suspicious, though?" Tim spoke up for the first time, "They may not have put things together yet, but they aren't stupid. They're heroes. If we give them the pieces, they're gonna piece them together."

Damian was the one to answer him. "Batman and Bruce Wayne hate one another, though there is a grudging acknowledgement and respect."

"Give them the right pieces, with a few from the wrong puzzle, in the wrong order, we could totally have them fooled!" Jason explained.

The group shared looks between each other. Nothing needed to be said because the looks and movements said everything.

Alfred smiled and shook his head fondly. "You may plan this in the morning. For now, go to bed and get some sleep."

Part 1 Part 3

[yanmuffins]

I've been thinking and I've come to the conclusion that it wouldn't make much sense for Bruce to neglect one of his children.

Think about it, in canon, most of the mistakes he made that ended up harming his family were either because he was completely buried in work, or because he was slightly manipulated, both by the narrative and by third parties.

In addition, he also cannot fully communicate with others, both because of his early trauma, the loss of his parents, and all the loneliness caused by the grief he went through growing up. Not to mention the years of self-discipline and training he went through to become Batman. From everything he's seen and experienced, and all the scars he has, I can't imagine how much that grief and and especially a sense of justice, survived.

so I don't think he would simply neglect one of his children

What I propose is; accidental negligence. Think about it, if he is busy all the time with both Batman and his other persona, Brucie Wayne, and then the justice league, investigations, meetings of Wayne Enterprise, galas, charities, other rich people, the usual rogues gallery of Gotham, etc, etc, I don't think he has much time to spend with anyone.

He is able to spend more time with his other children because they are all vigilantes, like him, and are usually just as busy as he is. Having a civilian child in the middle of this mess wouldn't do much good, especially if that child doesn't know what they do most of the time, like, y'know, vigilantlism.

Imagine everyone's absolute horror when they realize, after the p&f reader is unfortunately busted, that they paid so little attention to that child that she managed to do all these crazy things right under their noses for the whole summer. And who's to say she hadn't been doing this before this summer? How many things have they inevitably missed in her life?

What I mean is that to counter the p&f reader's luck, everyone in the batfam is unlucky enough not to be able to spend time with her. And they are aware of it.

Their guilt would be immense and the angst would be delicious.

(And it would explain how Damian hás time to spend with p&f reader, since he's a kid and his only obligations are school, socialization and being Robin, so he would technically have more time??? If that even makes sense???)

context &. context.

YOU!! YOU GET IT!!

i wholeheartedly agree!

not that "accidental" neglect is any better, it's neglect all the same and has negative consequences in so many levels. but when we're talking about Bruce Emotionally Constipated And Terrible At Communication and Could Sometimes Make Better Choices Regarding His Kids Wayne, it could absolutely happen.

i'm not one to make character analysis because i have very shallow knowledge of Batman lore, but...

like you said, all of Bruce's children participate in vigilantism. they're all extraordinary, most have horrible trauma, and have relied on him for guidance. they are all Robin, and more relatable to him, in a way. that means he's consequently more involved in their lives, more physically there engaging with them, forming an emotional bond, acting as a mentor and father figure. on top of that, like you said, he has a whole life as Bruce Wayne and Batman going on.

which brings us to neglected! Reader, more specifically mine: P&F! Reader and Vampire! Reader.

on a... financial, material level, I believe they wouldn't want for anything. Alfred is the one managing their bank account and making sure they're well-provided for and though it's fun for angst purposes, i don't think they would have a tiny little bedroom isolated from everyone in the manor, mostly because it's our favorite butler who would select which bedroom Bruce's child would be staying at in this gigantic mansion with plenty unocuppied rooms. Alfred would NOT put you in the broom closet. it would be a bedroom that's at least as big as Damian's in Son of Batman, for example.

(i more than understand suspension of disbelief and playing around with all sorts of interesting concepts and characters, so I'm not criticizing anyone!)

in fact, i think it's kinda worse that, say, you have a bedroom that's a wall across from Tim's and he still kinda forgets you exist.

also, i believe Bruce's kid would absolutely have access to a more than generous amount of money. not broke at all.

so the only type of neglect going on here is of the emotional kind. your father and your siblings have created tight-knit bonds amongst themselves based on their shared experiences and the proximity brought by them all working as vigilantes, and you're just not a part of the club.

timing is also relevant.

P&F! Reader arrives at the manor some time after Damian, which means that not only have all relationships been formed over the years, Bruce has also experienced having kids, as well as having a biological child suddenly enter his life. they're a fish out of the water, and their dad is kinda awkward about this (apparently) normal child that showed up at his doorstep. while Damian is still kind of adapting, running around at night trying to bypass Bruce's security system and solve dangerous cases by himself, P&F! Reader is in their bedroom having a virtual sleepover with their Metropolis friends, streaming movies and eating caramelized popcorn.

fun fact: Damian and P&F! Reader are neighbors. he was not happy about Alfred placing his half-sibling on the room right beside his for the longest time. P&F! Reader has definetly caught him sneaking out, but they're no snitch. and you're right, he does have more free time, and he's also on summer break so no school and no homework to worry about. He's got free time to be his sibling's keeper.

and as we all know, the impression that P&F! Reader is just a normal regular kid that totally doesn't build ridiculous thingamabobs in their spare time, it's kinda easy to forget they're there amidst the Wayne family mayhem(s). Bruce is also kinda doesn't really know what to do with this kid or how to connect with them, but they don't really demand immediate attention and seem to be doing fine – so he probably shouldn't worry too much, right?

you could also argue that he's kinda awkward (emotionally constipated) with this kid and is very bad at consoling and accomodating them after the trauma that made them have to move in with him. he doesn't straight up forget they exist, although he starts paying more attention to them after Damian gets more involved in ther bio sibling's antics. and when it comes to siblings, it's just easier for their relationship to never evolve past more superficial interactions (with the exception of Damian who decides to mind P&F! Reader's business earlier on, more or less). P&F! Reader doesn't know about the vigilantism for a long time, so it's natural that they're excluded from any and all matters regarding that. and because everyone else is so busy with their own lives and P&F! Reader seems to be doing fine, so easy to overlook, has plenty of friends in and out of their new school and the Batfam is already a formed unit... Well, you get the picture.

there's also the matter of Damian. he is the kid that "needs more attention" because of his background. he's been through a lot. nevermind the possibility that you might also have gone throguh your own fair share of trauma, at the end of the day you're the easier kid. the "okay" kid with regular problems. which is sad and unfair, but that's what we're here for, isn't it? and Dick is the biggest offender when it comes to that.

not that P&F! Reader is bothered by any of that! They have an amazing summer ahead of them. 😎 It's definetly Batfam being unlucky that prevents them from spending time with P&F! Reader, but that allowed them to mostly enjoy summer without being smothered by their family. the guilt would be unmatched, that is for sure.

"And who's to say she hadn't been doing this before this summer?"

hehe :)

vampire! Reader (she was not mentioned but I'm talking about her anyway, spoilers for the fic because i want to rant) is a different story. again, timing. she arrived at the manor sometime between Dick leaving for Bludhaven and Jason being brought in, so she didn't really get a chance to develop a deeper emotional connection with Dick. that also means Bruce was a lot younger when he is faced with a biological child being thrown at his door, not to mention the less-than-ideal-circumstances in which she came to be in his custody.

and after trying to make her his newest sidekick didn't work, in the coming years he would dedicate most of his time to fighting crime as Batman and taking care of/mentoring Jason who had a rough past and is now his new sidekick. connecting and relating to Jason was easier than connecting with Vampire! Reader, but he always made sure to check on her and make sure she was okay (and the answer was always yes, because of course it was).

during this time Jason and Vampire! Reader were actually pretty close, but then he, uh. kinda died horrifically. so not only was Vampire! Reader dealing with the loss of her brother, her father was now full-on neglecting her, self-absorbed in his grief, so she felt the proper thing to do would be repress her emotions to accomodate her father and try to be his emotional support. not that it worked, but she was there! so we have the emotional neglect and we have Vampire! Reader starting to take a parental role for her own father because he's not being a parent for her. she was also completely alone in that huge manor with the exception of Alfred because none of the other kids were in the picture yet, and Dick had long since moved out. as you can see, not very nice :)

from then on she just kinda blends into the background. financially she's provided for. she is her father's daughter, so communication and expressing emotion are not her forté, but she tries her best to connect with the incoming batkids. it does not work. i have said this before, but she is the mature child, the (again) normal one who puts other people's needs before her, so she doesn't complain when Bruce makes time for literally every other kid who becomes Robin except her. but don't be mistaken: Bruce is definetly more controlling and aware of Vampire! Reader in comparison to P&F! Reader due to reasons (guess you can say early yandere signs?). Jason too is... Sort of complicated. the situation here is definetly darker and resonates with tone of the story better. and when Bruce realizes how terrible he was? oh, boy.

so I guess you can play around a lot with the neglectful! Reader trope, and that's what makes it so entertaining. yeah. that's all I have to say for today, I guess??

[dclovesdanny]

Soulmate facts x Dying Sparks

Danny always wondered about his soulmate. He had always traced over the words on his arm, committing each one to memory. They were his last thought when he was electrocuted, and never left his mind.(Especially since soulmates were a big deal to ghosts. Apparently to mess with a soulmate bond was the worst crime a ghost could commit.)

Billy liked looking at his arm. The words were his comfort when it was hard to keep surviving, his determination to stay alive and keep the world safe fueled partially by a selfish desire to find his soulmate. (He was so glad his arms were covered when he was Captain Marvel.)

Unfortunately, Billy was in Captain Marvel form due to a meeting with the Justice League when the change happened. They were discussing the government basically declaring war on the Infinite realms when Billy felt it.

He excused himself to the bathroom quickly, pulling up his sleeve to stare in complete confusion and disbelief when he saw the sentence.

The only thing he could think of was “I guess we have that in common.”

I’m a hero.

[mkarchin713]

You guys know this story

If you don’t, it’s basically a fic where the BatClan convinced the JL that they are demons who reproduce asexually by absorbing the souls of dead children and that Batman is pregnant.

(Read the fic for more information)

Anyway.

What if it was true.

What if Lady Gotham was the Gotham-Born-Bat-Demon’s goddess who turned (insert Wayne Family Ancestor here) into a Bat Demon and all subsequent Wayne’s were either conceived asexually through the absorption of a dead child’s soul, the traditional way with the child coming out 100% Bat Demon, or were individuals who undergo a magical ritual and bathe in Lady Gotham’s blood.

Thomas was born a Bat Demon but his lovers Martha and Alfred were turned into Bat Demons through the ceremony.

Kate and Luke died sometime in their childhood and were incubated by Martha and Thomas respectively. This makes them Bruce’s siblings by Demon Bat standards.

The Bat Demons are able to shapeshift between their demon form and their human form at will. In their human form they are nigh indistinguishable from an Olympic level athlete and are highly intelligent. In their Bat Demon forms they can turn into shadows, use magic, etc.

The Batclan uses their Bat Demon Forms as inspiration for their costumes. Red, yellow and green markings are common for adolescent Bat Demons.

Bat Demons can only be killed in their true forms. If they receive mortal injuries in their human forms they go into healing comas which can last anywhere from a month to a hundred years.

When the Waynes were murdered they actually went into healing comas and were stored deep in the Batcave.

When Jason was killed by Joker he was placed in the Batcave crypt. Unfortunately there was an earthquake/cave in which buried him alive and caused his newly revived self to dig his way to the surface. This combined with Jason’s head trauma from his murder, caused Jason to forget he was a Bat Demon and believe he was only human.

The Lazarus Pits are a sacred places to the Demon Bats and are believed to be pools of Lady Gotham’s blood. They have the power to turn humans into Demon Bats when accompanied by a magical ritual. Without the ritual the pits can only heal humans, but prolonged exposer can give them Demon Bat traits. If a Demon Bat is exposed to the pits without the ritual it can cause Pit Madness as it messed with the bonds that Demon Bats have with their flock.

…..

This is all I have so far.

I may add more.

Free to use.

Credit for idea to the OPs.

[fanfic-recs-01]

Daminette Fic Recs Part 2

Here is the second part to the Daminette Fic Recs!

Link to Part 1

Updated 11/2/24

Look What You Made Me Do by Kiatana6 *Unfinished*

~The class goes to Gotham for an exchange program(because that's how Daminette stories go) Damian sees Marinette closing herself off and it reminds him of how he used to be. ~

The String That Binds Us by FaithAndATypeWriter *Unfinished*

~The string that connects the hearts of two soulmates is a powerful thing. It brings people together to form a bond that can outlast strife, overcome adversity, and forge lifelong partnerships.

As Marinette finds out, it can also be a pushy annoyance that will drag a person all around a crowded business building.~

An Email Away by LovelyLore *Unfinished*

~Marinette had been startled to find out that her school and a school in America were collaborating to do a pen pal assignment. To be fair, the assignment was suppose to help the students with the grammar of the language they were learning. Marinette pulled a random name out of the box. She hoped Damian wrote good French and that she could write well enough English.~

Moth, Bats, Cat and Bug by Tineabean *Unfinished*

~Marinette Todd Dupain-Chang hasn't had the easiest life, and she'll be the first to admit it. While she was planning to return to her home town one day, she didn't think it'd be when Hawkmoth was still at large. Unable to pass up the opportunity and ignore the pull she feels, she finds herself once again in the home of the famed BatFam™~

Beyond Miraculous: A New Adventure in Gotham by AlyceSaysNo *Unfinished*

~After the defeat of Hawkmoth and the retirement of her partner, Marinette has been adrift. She can't seem to get excited about what she used to, can't settle into the quiet humdrum of civilian life. Sure, she's has taken over guardianship of the Miraculous, graduated high school, and moved on to a nice apprenticeship. She's moved on from the drama and heartbreak of lycee and from being Ladybug.~

Warmth by FridayFirefly *Finished*

~When Damian wakes up with a stranger in his bed, he knows that there is only one possible explanation: that stranger is his Soulmate.~

Travels of Passion by StarShine583 *Finished*

~When people as famous as the Waynes come to visit your city, the most you'd expect to get from them is a quick little smile. A hand shake if you're in the right place at the right time and extremely lucky. Marinette didn't really expect to get either, and she certainly didn't expect to get what she actually got.~

Organized Mess by withluvsan (lostlovelis) *Finished*

~Marinette ran away from her past as Ladybug. After Hawkmoth's defeat, she had nothing left to treasure in Paris, so when she received a scholarship capable of score her not one but two majors in some random city of the States, she didn't think twice.~

Purrinette by Rierse *Finished*

~Marinette gets stuck as a cat in Gotham and ‘adopted’ by Damian Wayne where she slowly starts to fall for the green-eyed vigilante.~

Soul-Stitching: The Heir and the Guardian by ggomoz (ggomo_springtime) *Finished*

~Step 1: Be accused of terrorizing Paris with magical butterflies Step 2: Watch Paris fall into chaos Step 3: Watch the Justice League fall into chaos Step 4: Attend court trial and-

have Adrien Agreste as your defense attorney?!~

When a liar gets you left behind by SentiWayne *Unfinished*

~Despite the fact that many things had changed in her class, Marinette was content-she wasn't happy, but she was not sad or negative towards what had happened between some of her classmates and herself.~

I Need A (Girlfriend) Hero! by LilaVaporizer9000 *Unfinished*

~Daminette as told through equally socially unaware messes, general misunderstandings of each other's skill and experience, and a total lack of awareness as to how many flowers are too many flowers.~

Broken Harmony by Dessarious  *Finished*

~One in five people in the world have a Soulmate. Damian Wayne was unfortunately one of them. When he was in the League, it was a problem because his mother found out about it. Even though his Soulmate's song in his head was the one good thing in his life, it was still a weakness to be used against him. Once he went to live with his father, it was the same. He was perfectly content to stay away from them in order to keep both of them safe. At least he was until their song changed.~

Be My First, Be My Last, Be My Everything by Intercoursefluids *Unfinished*

~“Such lovely hair… Oh, right I am being so rude, not introducing myself. I am Talia Al Ghul, I am the one who hired those men to bring you here. They were only supposed to bring one of you though. They were so incompetent, unable to take the simplest orders. They had to die before they ruined my plans.”~

Alfred's Appreciation Party by StarWarsMum *Finished*

~The bat boys decide Alfred deserves to know how much they appreciate him and are throwing a party. Fluff ensues when Damian contacts an internet famous baker that Alfred likes and convinces her to come and cater the desserts for the party.~

love is embarrassing by ademonandhisangel (WithLovePoohBear), WithLovePoohBear *Finished*

~After Damian Wayne unintentionally fabricates having a girlfriend to his family, he finds himself in a desperate need to make his lie a reality, and quickly.

In steps Marinette Dupain-Cheng, the enigmatic new student whose intelligence and social standing appear promising.~

Pinocchio (Or Demon Spawn Becomes a Real Boy) by Mentally12ReadingPJO *Unfinished*

~Damian's brothers are curious: the demon seems to be acting like a real boy. It was subtle at first, but it became increasingly obvious when he called someone they caught "sus". It was even less subtle when they found him scrolling on his phone in a blanket at 2 am and whispered "ding" while flicking his wrist. Needless to say they were concerned.~

Watch The Eyes by finallyaniguana *Unfinished*

~A soulmate au between two superheroes across the atlantic. ones a very angry boy with a history of assassins and the other is the embodiment of sunshine with a history of baking. they make it work, but first they gotta find each other.~

Every Morning as I Wake by StripedSunhat *Finished*

~Featuring the Batfam in all it’s insanity glory, Ladybug and Chat Noir in all their insanity power, Bad parenting, worse parenting, Chat Noir actually being returned to being Ladybug’s partner, ninjas, abysmal life decisions, a trolling author and kicking Hawkmoth in the butterflies.~

The Sun Who Lit Up The Night Sky by FandomQueen10325, leaping_lizard_babe *Finished*

~4 months after the defeat of Hawkmoth, the akuma class wins a trip to Gotham. While they are there, Marinette keeps attracting bad luck, and can never seem to stay out of trouble. The Batfam is very interested when they learn about what had happened in Paris, so they question ladybug. Marinette manages to worm her way into the hearts of the whole Wayne family ~

the things that keep you from falling apart by apileofashandember *Unfinished*

~Ra's al Ghul should have been more careful when using the Miraculous to create the Lazarus Pits.~

Ménage(rie) à Deux by dontyoublink *Unfinished*

~A potential ally appears in Gotham just in time to help the Batfamily face down a formidable enemy. What Robin finds confusing is that she's wearing a different costume each time he runs into her. Where is she getting all of them? Why are they all animal themed? And most importantly, when did he start looking forward to seeing her on patrol?~

Fate Goes Both Ways by My Old Works (TheFairMaidenofFandom) *Finished*

~Marinette has been left behind by her classmates. By Lila. When a family friend offers her an opportunity, she just can't say no. Now she's in Gotham, alone, with a dead cell phone. Maybe she'll meet a new friend. Or something more?~

Sielvartas by sunshine_and_symphonies *Finished*

~The Lithuanian term "Sielvartas" can only be described as "soul tumbling", caused by grief and resentment. After Marinette bolted from the classroom, her friends and family know that something within the girl has irrevocably changed. Trapped in the most volatile city of the world, where emotions make you a terrorist's puppet, how is one supposed to grieve?~

Accidental Union by That0neGuy *Unfinished*

~An accidental spell that binds the 2 souls of Damian Wayne and one Marinette Dupain-Cheng, how will the 2 navigate this new world and how will their presence in each other life's change them.~

Cat and Mouse by Nory_Gail *Unfinished*

~Marinette has started a new chapter in Gotham. She's on a mission and she won't let one of Batman's little birds prevent her from reaching her goal.~

[gorogues]

Hello :)

Just wondering, who are the people closest to the Rogues outside of their team? Honestly you can just include a list of all the people each of them consider friends, or pick the top few if the list is too much.

Thanks! Have a cookie 👉🍪

Hi, thanks for the cookie!

Len: His grandfather in childhood was his primary role model, but he died when Len was 11. Sometimes he was friendly with Wally West, and he clearly liked Catwoman but doesn't seem to have been close to her. He's worked with other non-Rogue villains (Secret Society of Super-Villains, some cold-based villains), but wasn't really close with any of them. He briefly had a girlfriend named Myrna Troy, but she betrayed him and he more or less tried to kill them both. He later had an ongoing relationship of sorts with a sex worker named Angie, but it seems to have been strictly business as far as she was concerned.

After Flashpoint he was briefly friendly with Barry Allen in his civilian identity. He was also personally recruited to be an employee of Lex Luthor, and worked with some other villains and the Justice League a bit, but probably wasn't close to any of them.

Lisa: Her grandfather in childhood (but he died when Len was 11 and Lisa was even younger). Sometimes Wally West, and she dated several different Chillblaines until one murdered her. She also had a temporary boyfriend called the Ringmaster after she mind-controlled a random man into being her catspaw and then fell in love with him…but that wasn't a real relationship, which even she noted.

She had a former skating coach we saw briefly after Flashpoint, and she at least briefly worked with children from abusive backgrounds.

Digger: At some point in the past he had a relationship and a son with Meloni Thawne in the future, but they parted under unknown terms. He was part of the Secret Society of Super-Villains, but mostly hung out with the other Rogues on the team and once with Captain Stingaree. He was then forcibly drafted onto Task Force X and it was obviously a coerced relationship, but over time he eventually formed complicated bonds with most of them…however unhealthy it was at times. He had a frenemy relationship with Deadshot, and didn't exactly get along with Amanda Waller, Rick Flag, Bronze Tiger, Vixen, or other Squad mainstays like Nightshade or Count Vertigo, but in a messed up way I guess they were co-workers. He was also close to his mother while she was alive, though probably didn't have much contact with her once he left Australia.

After Flashpoint, he continued to be on incarnations of the Suicide Squad at varying times, and again had complex relationships with his associates, including Harley Quinn, Deadshot, Flag, and Waller. He even formed a relationship of sorts with the Revolutionaries-turned-Suicide-Squad, despite them first trying to kill him for something he'd done in the past. And he's been part of Task Force X for so long that he's got pretty firm bonds with at least some of his current/former colleagues, even if they don't always like each other and wouldn't have chosen to be there.

Owen: Kara Zor-El, and Black Lightning (Jefferson Pierce). He had a found family with the Outsiders (Nightwing, Grace Choi, Anissa Pierce, Shift, Katana) but sometimes had tensions with them and left under bad terms because Nightwing frequently refused to trust him. He tried to make friends with Tim Drake (Owen's dad had killed Tim's dad), but Tim mostly wasn't having it. He then worked with several iterations of Suicide Squad, but wasn't terribly friendly with any of them, except kinda-sorta Deadshot after a rocky start.

Post-Flashpoint he was dating a Bond girl named Para Dice, but he had a very different backstory and was basically a new character.

Hartley: Wally West and Linda Park. In the past, he was close to Connie Noleski, Chunk, Mason Trollbridge, his boyfriend James (not James Jesse, a different guy), and his boyfriend Mike. Long ago, he had a boyfriend named Earl Povich who eventually became hostile to him after a long stint in prison. He has a sister, Jerrie, that he clearly cared about a lot, but she only appeared in one story.

Post-Flashpoint he's had a longterm boyfriend, David Singh. He was also roommates with Barry Allen for a little bit, and is now a member of the Flash Family again. He's an uncle to the West kids, is a close friend of Wally's and Linda's, and is presumably friends with or at least a close associate of the rest of the Flash Family. Plus he works for/with Mr Terrific.

James: He had a friendly relationship with Blue Devil (Dan Cassidy) and his girlfriend Sharon, and was something of a mentor to Kid Devil (Eddie Bloomberg). He also worked closely with three scientists with whom he trained Kid Devil. He became close to Catwoman for a time, but that relationship doesn't seem to have lasted long. He had an ex-girlfriend named Mindy Hong, with whom he had a son Billy Hong, but we never saw Billy nor Mindy again after James first learned he had a son. It was implied that they'd be around and be sympathetic to him, but that plot petered out.

After Flashpoint, he had a long-term business relationship with Copperhead that may have been something more, and he kept Axel around as mentee/minion. He mind-controlled Kristen Kramer into being his 'girlfriend' so he could get close to the reins of power in Central City, but that was clearly just a means to an end.

Axel: He had a gang on Earth when the Rogues were trapped on the Salvation Run planet, but he wasn't bothered when the Rogues returned and imprisoned them all in a mirror, so he doesn't seem to have been very close to them.

After Flashpoint, he was part of a crew called The Outlanders after the Rogues kicked him out in the New 52, and they became a found family for a time. He also worked with the Riddler because he was tired of the Rogues treating him poorly, but it quickly became an unequal relationship when Riddler coerced him into doing his bidding. In Rebirth, he hung out with James Jesse and Copperhead for a while (James wasn't affiliated with the Rogues at the time, so it counts), but that also doesn't seem to have been an equal relationship because James was definitely in charge.

Roscoe: Before Flashpoint, not really anybody. He possessed and impersonated Barry's dad and Barry remarked on how close he felt to his dad for the first time in his life, but that was a relationship under false pretences. Later, Roscoe was mind-controlled into being heroic and worked with Barry and became friendly with him, but that was due to the mind control. He worked with Barter (who returned for the first time in decades in the current Birds of Prey series) to acquire a new host body, but that was a business deal.

After Flashpoint, New 52 Roscoe Dillon was close to Eobard Thawne, Magali, Block, and the Folded Man, but he was a very different character with a very different backstory. The team turned on Eobard once they realized he'd been manipulating and using them; they were protective of each other so they may have remained together after they left him, but we never heard from them again. I don't know how New 52 Roscoe relates to Rebirth-era Roscoe now that the guy currently appearing is more like his pre-Flashpoint self again. They might have been split into two people.

Mark: He was close to his brother Clyde once upon a time, but that was before he became the Weather Wizard. Eventually a retcon was added so that he'd killed Clyde in a fit of panic. We know he had other living family (his son and his mother), but he wasn't close to either of them.

Post-Flashpoint Marco was somewhat close to his brother Claudio and his sister-in-law, Elsa…until he found out that she'd killed his brother, so he killed her.

Mick: He briefly lived with Barry Allen in the Bronze Age, and spent time becoming friendly with Guardian (Jim Harper), Kon-El, Serling Roquette, and the rest of the Project Cadmus crew when he worked there. He worked with villainous non-Rogues on several occasions too, but doesn't seem to have been close to any of them. He does seem to have been close to his colleagues in the circus during his youth, but unfortunately he killed them during a pyromania episode. Same with his biological family during childhood.

Sam: He didn't really have anyone before Flashpoint. He was part of the original Injustice Gang, but doesn't seem to have been close to them, and ditto for the original Secret Society of Super-Villains. He did recruit Copperhead to work for the Silver Ghost as the SSoSV was crumbling, but wasn't particularly nice to him.

After Flashpoint he was personally recruited by Rick Flag to voluntarily work with some villains and anti-heroes to combat Amanda Waller and various other baddies, and he seemed to get along with them well and became friendly with them. He was especially friendly with Flag, and to some extent Peacemaker, Bloodsport and Ambush Bug, but they eventually drifted apart after their work was done (and the book was cancelled).

Evan: Miss McCulloch was the primary bright spot of his early life and he clearly still has affection for her, but he left her orphanage in his teens and probably hasn't had contact since (except to donate money anonymously). He was friendly with Animal Man when they worked together, but it was an alliance of convenience and they've never interacted since. He had a girlfriend named Emilia in the semi-distant past, but she turned him in out of fear and then he stalked her until realizing how much he'd frightened her.

He worked with Abra Kadabra, Grodd, and the Folded Man after Flashpoint, but doesn't seem to have been close to any of them because they didn't even know what he was getting out of the deal.

Roy: He was in cahoots with and in love with Monica Mayne, who was Wally's co-star in a crappy Flash movie, but she didn't return his affections. He also had a friend in the distant past named Paul Morris, but Morris stole his artwork and took the credit, so Roy hated him and sought revenge. He also seemed to be having a good time teaming up with Dr Double-X, but that probably didn't last. He was also close to his parents while they were living.

Albert: He had a wife named Rita, who stuck by him for a long time but eventually seems to have divorced him after too much weirdness in their life. He was good friends with Barry Allen and Iris West, and was on friendly terms with Wally West and probably the Dibnys. However, later in life he completely isolated himself and turned to his books.

[cpurubyheart]

A Knight and a Lantern’s goodbye

With defeat of Kil%re behind them and nothing much to do while they wait for Bruce to finish inputting the code that will allow them all to return to their own worlds.

The other members of the Justice League and the group of RWBYJNR simply chatting with one another within the “Command Center” as Weiss had dubbed it.

Though, two individuals seemed to be absent from the room which didn’t go unnoticed by one Ruby Rose.

“Has anyone seen Jaune or Jessica?” The Red Reaper asked in a tone that hinted at her being a bit concerned by their absence. With Kil%re gone they should all be safe but that didn’t mean she wouldn’t worry.

Seemingly everyone else took a moment from their own conversations to take a quick glance around the room only to find that the Knight and Green Lantern were nowhere to be seen.

Clark was about to suggest that they search for the duo when he was stopped by Vixen.

“They’re just in the room down the hall.” The orange clad hero began, getting everyone’s attention. “Those two just wanted to talk in private. They’ll be back soon, no worries.”

This seemed to put the others at ease as they returned to their conversations.

Vixen let out a small sigh of relief. Jess and Jaune needed this privacy to say their proper goodbyes.

~~

He understood her.

She was scared.

In a room just down the hall from the Command Center…

He supported her.

She just needed a little support.

White chest plate Armor and matching spaulders lay resting on the floor…

He comforts her when she needs it.

She was dragged into this whole mess.

Jaune sat in a wooden chair with the rabbit design of his Pumpkin Pete’s hoodie now exposed…

He elected to help her when no one else would.

She didn’t need to go off on her own.

Jessica sat across his lap, her head resting against his chest and her arms wrapping around his middle while his arms were wrapped around her in a warm and comforting embrace.

His very touch puts her at ease.

He wants her to feel safe.

Jessica wanted to simply speak privately with Jaune. So, the two found themselves in this room just down the hall from the others.

Though they’ve been here for roughly fifteen minutes and have barely uttered a word to each other. Instead finding themselves in their current embrace.

There was so much they wanted to say but were just having difficulties getting the words out.

How they wanted to thank the other for sticking by them.

How the other was just so strong and brave.

How they each thought the other was just an incredible person.

How much they realize they will miss each other.

How they didn’t want the other to leave.

How they wanted to invite the other back to their world… and how selfish that would be… they were both needed on their respective worlds.

They’ve only known each other for maybe a day but that was certainly enough time to form a bond.

With a sad sigh Jessica was about to speak when she felt a small drop of water land on her forehead. Looking up she saw that Jaune has tears in his eyes he was trying to hold back.

“Sorry.” He apologized. His voice cracking slightly. “I’m. I’m not good with goodbyes.” Another tear fell.

Her own tears started to well up. “It’s okay.” She spoke in a quiet voice as a couple of teardrops ran down her cheeks. “N-Neither am I.”

After so long of just sitting there in silence the Knight and the Green Lantern finally spoke. Spoke the words they had such difficulty getting out earlier.

“Thank you. Thank you for being here with me through this whole mess.” Jessica said. Freeing one of her hands as to wipe away one of Jaune’s tears that had run down his cheek.

A little sniffle escaped Jaune before he spoke with a small smile. “You have so much strength in you, Jess. To keep moving forward like you do.” He too wiped away some of Jess’ on tears. “I wish I had half the strength that you do.” His smile vanished.

“Hey…” Jessica had gently place her hands on either side of Jaune’s face, forcing him to look into her eyes. “Please, don’t think you’re not strong.” She begged.

“You’re stronger and braver than you think.” She gently caressed his cheeks with her thumbs. “I know you are.”

For a moment Jaune could only stare in silence into this sweet girl’s emerald eyes. She has so much confidence in him and cares so much. It was enough to open the dam holding back the majority of his tears.

“Jess…”

Jessica wiped away some more of his tears before wrapping her arms around his neck in a firm hug.

“It’s okay.” She said as her own dam broke.

Jaune wrapped his arms around her small frame and held her tight. Not wanting to let go.

“I’m going to miss you so much.” He said as his tears stained her shoulder.

“I’ll miss you too.” She said as her tears stained his shoulder.

They stayed like this for a few minutes. Letting it all out of their system.

~~

“Are you two ready?” Diana asked as she stood with her arms crossed just outside the Control Room’s entrance.

Jess and Jaune had an approached hand in hand down the hall. The two looked to each other with small smiles and nodded.

“Yeah, we’re ready.” Jess answered.

Diana looked between the two before nodding herself, turning to enter the Command Center.

Jaune took a deep breath in then out. This was really going to be goodbye.

He made to take a step forward but was halted by Jessica.

Looking down he saw that she was looking up at him, her cheeks tinged slightly pink.

“Jess?” He asked. A bit concerned.

She then did something rather unexpected. Using her powers to create a small stepping stool and using said stool get herself closer to Jaune’s own height…

“!”

Jessica placed a quick kiss onto Jaune’s cheek.

“I-I hope we can meet again.” She said stepping off of the stool before it disappeared.

She then made to take a step only to be quickly wrapped in a tight hug from a red faced Jaune.

“I hope we do too.” Jaune said before placing his own quick kiss onto Jessica’s fore head.

He only held her for a few seconds more before releasing a now equally red faced Jessica.

The Knight and The Green Lantern smiled to each other before entering the Command Center still hand in hand where instead of “goodbye” maybe it will be “see you later”.

[zahri-melitor]

Newish Comics (15/01/2025):

Absolute Batman #3: This comic continues to feel like the triumph of aesthetic over storytelling. Sorry, Snyder. Tiny Bruce and Selina are very cute, despite that.

Alfred, stop stalking your daughter who explicitly told you to stay out of her life.

Action Comics #1080: In the Clark story I quite liked the range of heroes that got tapped to help round back up the Phantom Zoners. A lot of heavy hitters. I can also see for Superman fans that Clark and Mon-El are very much having a moment here. Personally, I’m still giggling that Kon hasn’t taken off the Over-Admiral cape yet and is still swanning around in it. (Every other family member other than Clark switched to jackets in the last two years; Kon, the original jacket guy, now has a cape on)

In the Kara story, we are so clearly at the climax, and I am loving the discussion of identities and echoes of each other in this. Particularly that we just got an echo of Kara Zor-L. I really want to see what Tamaki does with that next issue.

Batman and Robin: Year One #3: What is really interesting about this that it’s so early in Alfred, Bruce and Dick’s relationships that all three of them are still messing up and learning the balance for each other. I like that it’s early and rough, and that we’re going to see how they form those strong bonds through this story. And that was particularly evident in this issue, where Alfred is frustrated with both Bruce and Dick but unable to communicate his problems to Dick; Bruce is not yet able to disengage himself from hyperfixation to remember that he has a child to take care of; and Dick’s pushing for boundaries and not finding them, while also not taking enough care in risky situations, and his mess ups are causing harm to Bruce.

Batman/Superman: World’s Finest #34: It was nice to see the version of Babs and Jimmy that Waid consider exist in this timeline. Barbara is so tired, folks.

Catwoman #71: something that fills me with joy is non-American writers getting to write stories for DC that are set outside North America. In this case, Selina is a perfect choice for it because her background specifically involves a lot of time in Europe pulling various cons and uncovering plots. So having a Norwegian writer having Selina running around in Sweden? It’s fun, especially with the cultural touches and jokes that you wouldn’t get from a US based writer doing that.

Challengers of the Unknown #1: I’m trialling this for the Justice League plot. I’ve read a few scattered issues of Challengers stuff before, but never for them yet.

My main thought was that this title was going WAY too hard with the Challengers going ‘oh we’re just mere mortals next these heroes and gods’ as they’re unpowered humans, and that would feel more reasonable if they weren’t working with heroes like… Ted Kord and Michael Holt, both who famously are unpowered heroes. Not to mention the Question, or all the Arrows and Bats running around. I think you’ll fit in okay, folks.

Green Lantern/Green Arrow: World’s Finest Special #1: Hard Travelling Heroes get a WF era book. It does what it says on the tin. Deathstroke for boring reasons attempts to kill Hal, (and incidentally Ollie and Barry), and after Slade fails miserably at that, he walks off the page to go attempt attacking teenagers over in NTT and watch Grant die.

You’re such a loser, Slade.

Dinah gets to appear in this title exactly long enough for Ollie to call her to pull Hal out of danger with a plane and patch him up, despite the fact the boys are on a cross-country roadtrip and have presumably left her behind running Sherwood Florist on her own. Lucky Dinah.

(Yeah this sort of GA/GL stuff is not my favourite era for Dinah sorry)

Jenny Sparks #5: so after having read another of Tom King’s asynchronous plot minis this past week, the big things I noted reading this today was that we finally, as of issue 5, have a handle on what is actually happening in this story.

Look I don’t mind a story told asynchronously (Indeed I think they can be really fun ways to mess with people’s understanding of how things happen and give context), but this one needed more of a hook and more explanation earlier, because reading it monthly has dragged horribly, and while I think it will read better in trade it still feels very very late to finally have a decent grasp or understanding of what the goal of the plot is.

I’m also very very confused as of the final page of this issue, because my understanding from the nonsense going on in terms of the concept of this title, plus how Outsiders 2023 decided to lean really hard into ‘there are lots of Century Babies of various types right now, but we’ve wiped Jenny Quantum from existence’ thing, was that Jenny Quantum at this point only exists in the Wildstorm universe timeline and n52 and got deleted by Rebirth.

The final page of this issue involved Jenny Sparks, in 2016, being in the bedroom of a blonde teenage girl asleep in her bed.

…

I know Jenny Quantum has black hair, not blonde, but given everything I’m not convinced the team on this book is aware that Jenny Quantum has black hair, not blonde. It’s certainly suggestive of this teenager being SOME sort of Century Baby.

The New Gods #1: the art on this title is sumptuous and worth reading for that alone. They went HARD for this launch. And it’s seducing me, because part of why I haven’t read more New Gods is getting past the Kirbyness of all the designs.

It’s a very very Ram V title. He’s clearly having fun, and I suspect is going to recruit some more fans for the cause (godly space opera).

Nightwing #121: Look Watters, you didn’t have to bribe me with Babs-hacks-the-Pentagon, but as a Dixon BOP enjoyer, I am glad to see it being acknowledged that Babs can hack the Pentagon. I’m enjoying how in conversation with the Taylor run this is – I do love when a writer picks up threads from where things were left and puts their own spin on the situation, rather than just hitting a reset button and wandering off in their own direction.

Plastic Man No More! #4: and this continues to be extremely Black Label body horror. Eel blows himself up with a nuclear bomb, Luke doesn’t get blown up by the bomb, and Tim lies to Batman.

Luke O’Brien reminds me a fair bit of Owen Mercer in various ways in this title and uh I’m not sure that’s a great thing? At least his mother is happy.

The Question: All Along the Watchtower #2: I think it’s interesting that DC are running this complicated multi strand plot at the moment in the birth of this new JLA, and it particularly seems to have been a chance to use a diverse range of characters. But there’s some odd outliers, as most of this book are characters able to support a run by themselves (Batwoman, the Blue Beetles, Animal Man, heck even Nightshade) and then there's random appearances like Bulleteer, who I had to look up.

I'm still not sure on the vibe and tone of this book being particularly Reneeish yet, but I'm willing to be convinced, and it's at least trying.

The Warlord #81: this week in Skartaris…Jennifer and Joshua meet each other! Oh boy oh boy we’re back to a main plot here, who knew!

Travis has a dream about the time he fought and killed clone-Joshua, recapping the important elements and complexities of Joshua’s backstory for anyone who hasn’t read all previous 80 comics.

And Jennifer and Joshua team up against some New Atlantis troops trying to kidnap them…after which Jennifer clues into Joshua being mysterious and unusual. She decides to take him along with her on her hunt for Travis.

Siblings United!

[weebsinstash]

It would be hilarious if batsis! Reader managed to flee her dimension but ended up in like, Earth 63 a.k.a DC VS. Vampires universe.

Reader unlocks a metagene or finds an Apokolops Motherbox that let's her warp to other dimensions and she tries to run from the Batfam by 'jumping' and just runs into infinitely worse reincarnations of them

Like just for example uhhhh I know this is a separate character for a moment but have you considered how absolutely unhinged yandere Superman from the Injustice timelines would be. He loses Lois and his unborn child and he's in full "you know what, not only is murder ok, what if I bonded with Brainiac's ship and literally became a brainwashing fucking fascist" mode and he winds up transferring a lot of trauma and misplaced affection and obsession onto you like, and that's on top of the other unhinged shit like killing Shazam who is you know, not that he knew but that's literally a child, he accidentally but still did indeed murder a child, and even after learning the truth he's like eh sacrifices must be made, and like, THE BAD ENDING? He literally figures out how to rob people of free will and JUMPS at the opportunity like, this scene is genuinely horrifying "You make the right choice or I make it for you" like oh my god i would actually kill myself before I let him get his hands on me

Then you have not exactly a universe but more of a timeline but, you want to talk about unhinged alternate versions, we literally have Flashpoint Thomas Wayne. Bruce brutalizes locks up and or frames and even sends away anyone who messes with you. Thomas just outright fucking kills them. Thomas literally has nothing to lose and has no qualms against being an absolute menace. Like god romantic/sexual yandere are always my cookies and cream but like platonic yandere Thomas would either be the most terrifyingly protective person you'd ever met or extremely soft to you and you alone because he's already lost his family, his CHILD, so like, absolutely fuck your chances if you stumble upon him and he forms some kind of bond

Just also imagine just as a general concept like the whole universe travelling thing basically plops you down in the same place just different worlds and how either convenient or terrible that would be. You wind up jumping from the Batcave straight into the Owlcave. You go from the Watchtower to The Crime Syndicate's HQ or some other evil Justice League. But alternatively in more positive twists, from a Joker hideout being kidnapped to like.... the Lego Batman movie where him and Bruce are just chilling on the couch eating popcorn and also I still have to watch that movie I hear it's absolutely adorable 😩❤️ or you go from a Gotham that is just genuinely fucking awful, not even the smallest sparks of joy, crime and lunatics everywhere, full on edgelord comic book world some real The Boys But The Horrible Comic Version shit, and you wind up jumping from that to Brave and the Bold Bruce and get to basically relax and be your inner kid in full on superhero camp wackiness like genuinely BatB is soul healing in it's genuine, idk, wholesomeness like look at these dorks

While on the subject of heroes and such I'm trying to remember how much I actually wound up reading/watching through YouTube videos of the Invincible comic bc I'll be real I'm still down pretty bad for Nolan Grayson 😩 actually him and Superman give me very similar ideas of "oh what if you turned out to be a member of my species and I want to either train you or adopt you or mate you or whatever and I'm occasionally being casually terrifying about it" like idk if I mentioned this before but like, imagine finally learning how to fly and you get found out by Nolan (or Clark) and they literally help fly you all the way back home and like, it genuinely IS to make sure you get home, you just learned to fly and you could very easily get lost, but also like, they're following you home as you demand them not to and you're so inexperienced with any sort of fighting that if you tried to punch whichever one in anger they'd just like catch your fist and be like "oh wow you can hit harder than most your age that's really impressive 😊" but like very, very much still fending you off like you're not that much different than a human to them

I feel like I should often be, how do I put this, I love adhd ranting about shit and explaining things to people so I kinda feel like sometimes I should genuinely just talk about certain things to introduce them to people who have no idea what I'm talking about because like, idk I often talk and refer to things in ways only consumers of that media would understand and I could occasionally like you know link a clip or ramble or something to include other people? For example, this is an example of why I think Nolan is scary but also like in a sexy controlling way 😏 you know, hypothetically. And like he literally tried to teach his son a horrifying tough love "humans don't matter earth doesn't matter only we viltrumites matter fuck earth lets conquer it for our race" lesson by literally holding his son's body up in a subway to be hit by the oncoming train and let his invulnerability literally rip the passengers inside the train apart while his son was SCREAMING IN HORROR BY THE WAY. And also still scary but more mildly, did I ever reblog that Superman art where he's got you up in the air with him and your like extreme fear of heights has you clinging and hugging onto him because, also something both of them would do 🥰 cuddles because you don't want to be dropped and die! Not that they would do it but, you know, bonding, yay! ❤️

[morninkim]

Series Outline

Rise of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers is a character design series/AU that aims to reimagine MMPR as an animated action/comedy series in the vein of Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Justice League Action and Steven Universe, while combining elements of several incarnations of the team and larger Power Rangers lore.

The story is split into three "seasons" that would consist of short episodic adventures and longer, more story driven episodes that push forward an overarching plot. Each season would feature a different antagonist and grow the threat with each one as the Power Rangers get used to and grow into their role as superheroes.

Details all under the read more if you're interested!!

Season 1

Season 1 would feature Goldar, Squatt and Baboo as main antagonists, following themes of new friendships and the coming together of the team. The Rangers start the story mostly as strangers, but would become a close-knit group of friends by the end, willing to put their lives on the line for each other.

Introduced early on as supporting characters would be Grace and Tommy Oliver, a mother and her daughter. The two of them would serve as an in with the NASADA associated science team at Promethea Base and the non-Ranger civilians in Angel Grove.

The culmination of this development and personal focus episodes for each Ranger would be the summoning of their respective Power Weapon, ending the season with a fight against the newly released dark spirit of Rita Repulsa, who then takes possession of the team's friend Tommy Oliver, leading into Season 2.

Season 2

Season 2 would see the introduction of Zordon and focus on the Rangers' struggle against Rita as she uses Tommy's body to enact her evil, eventually claiming the missing Green Power Coin to become a Dark Green Ranger and wreak havoc with the Dragonzord.

During this, Zordon would pass on the story of his original chosen team, how he forged the Power Coins from a Zeo Crystal, as well as knowledge of the Zords.

The theme of this season would be maintaining bonds and being there for your friends when they need you, culminating in the Rangers being able to summon their Zords and combine into the Megazord to defeat the Dragonzord. A ground battle would then see them free Tommy from Rita's possession by appealing to her directly, allowing Tommy to break it and exorcise Rita from her body.

Rita's spirit would then use what little remaining power she had gathered to resurrect Lord Zedd. As a "reward", Zedd steals her essence to sustain himself, absorbing her and all knowledge of the Rangers she had attained from being in Tommy's body.

Having discovered the Rangers' identities toward the climax, as well as Tommy's new identity as the Green Ranger, Grace would resign from her position at NASADA. However, she would still pay visits to the now ruined and cordoned off Promethea Base to work on a project she'd managed to keep hidden...

Season 3

Season 3 would then pick up a few months later and start with a short mini-arc where the Rangers are joined by the Masked Rider from Edenoi, Prince Dex. His darker attitude and angsty brooding catches everyone's attention and admiration, but Tommy develops a sense of inferiority for a time, feeling replaced by the "cooler" new guy. Her friends are able to pull her out of it again by assuring her that she won't and can't be replaced, and they love her the way she is.

The second half of the Season would then see the Rangers' personal lives messed with from the shadows by Lord Zedd, who takes the form of a shadow influencing Angel Grove as he grows in strength. Their insecurities preyed on and their bonds tested, the Rangers will have to trust each other more than they've ever had to before to defeat the Evil Empire once and for all.

In the midst of this, it would be revealed that Zedd and Zordon are brothers. In a sense. Two halves of a single being, the Morphin Master, who was split in two when he came into contact with a powerful Zeo Crystal that had shattered. The same Crystal that Zordon forged the Power Coins from, while a seventh shard was laid into Zedd's staff. Zordon, a White Light representing Free Will, Creation and Light, chose to allow heroes to choose their own destinies and do good on their own terms, splitting his light spectrum into six colors to empower them. Zedd, a Dark Specter representing Control, Destruction and Darkness, controlled and pulled the strings behind those who would seek to do harm across the Universe, his followers establishing the Empire of Evil.

For a time following Dex's departure, the Rangers would be aided by a mysterious Phantom Ranger in some battles. This ally would be revealed to be Grace, using a self-made morpher she'd engineered from recovered alien tech to keep her daughter safe, putting her "leave the world saving to those who are actually qualified" in practice. Zedd, seizing the opportunity when presented, wrests the Phantom Morpher from Grace's grip and uses it to regain his physical body.

A final battle would see the Rangers combining the full spectrum of their powers to harness the Light as a team of White Rangers to destroy Zedd for good.

An epilogue would then see Zack, Jason and Trini graduate from Angel Grove High and moving on to College. Tommy, Billy and Kimberly recruit freshmen Adam, Rocky and Aisha as the new members of the team and continue the fight against evil as the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers.

Unplaced Story Arcs (little plots that would happen, but might not have a definitive place just yet, mix of funny bits and more character-driven bits)

Kim's parents get divorced, Trini supporting her and helping her through it with her own experience with her parents' separation. The girls go on a short trip to stay with Trini's dad for the weekend so Kim can get away from everything for a bit. She neglects to tell her parents and they naturally get super worried. Ends with Kim's parents assuring her that their separation doesn't change the fact that they love her. Kim and Trini are besties.

A loose Footloose parody episode where dancing is banned at AGHS, where Zack tries to get it unbanned by directly approaching Principal Caplan as the Black Ranger (which fails because he starts to unmorph in the middle of it, since he's trying to use his powers for personal gain) - eventually it's unbanned when the Rangers defeat Pumpkin Rapper at the school's Halloween Party by following Zack's lead and using Hip Hop Kido.

Tommy joins the Football team, but feels insecure and doesn't perform as well as she knows she can because she feels self conscious indulging in "masculine" interests as a trans girl. Zack assures her that she's not less of a girl for doing "guy" stuff and confides in her that he's a trans guy, he just hasn't been open about it since starting High School. The two of them wear trans flag colored face paint during a major game to support each other. And they win!

Jason somehow gets it in his head that Trini likes him (dumb teen stuff, maybe he reads a thing about girls laughing at your jokes when they like you and Trini laughs at him a little bit after so he goes OH she must like me :) ) and decides to ask her on dates because he thinks it'll make her happy, since she's been kinda gloomy lately. Wacky shenanigans happen where Trini thinks that he likes her and goes along with it so she doesn't hurt his feelings. Ends in Jason being the second person ever that Trini comes out as gay too, with the rest of the team following shortly after. Immediately they take the opportunity to tease her about her crush on Richie.

Tommy and Kim struggle to go on dates, always getting interrupted by Power Ranger business. For a second they consider just not dating until they've saved the world, but the others talk them out of it. Ends in them having a movie date where Tommy sets up a projector in the Command Center, but they do end up having to watch it with Zordon and Alpha.

Billy and Trini bonding episode!! Smart kids!! They realise that they're both struggling with classes the other does really well at and decide to help each other out, while Trini also helps Billy be more confident at fighting. Probably happens early on.

Jason and Zack give Billy the rundown on public High School, helping him get used to the whole deal and try to get him involved in some extra-curriculars. Funny bits where he's not good at Football, he's not good at Gymnastics (despite Kim's best efforts), he's good at Chess Club (but no one else is), he's too good at Shop, etc, etc. He ends up joining all the clubs the others are in, even if he isn't good at the activity, because they're his friends and he likes being around them regardless of what they do.

[merchantziro]

Alright since I've been overthinking this Cassandravania variant of Vampire Cass... I'm just gonna combine this with ideas from my old ass Danny Phantom x Castlevania AU post

Putting Danny off to the side for a moment, I'm just imagining all the potential shenanigans playing with Cass being Dracula's Reincarnation and having many of the same powers Soma did in Castlevania canon. Likely as a result of her experiencing her own variations of Aria of Sorrow and Dawn of Sorrow's events with the biggest difference being that I imagine, due to her life as a crime fighter, she keeps the Souls she's gained between the two games and the potential inclusion of the Justice League Dark and maybe Julius Belmont, Yoko Belnades, and Genya Arikado/Alucard as JLD contacts.

I think in this AU Cass (and the rest of the Justice League Dark) probably doesn't tell the Batfam about her awakened abilities and status as Dracula's Reincarnation mainly because Cassandra herself fears how... Cautious Bruce can be sometimes and how he could perhaps go as far as to try and "cure her affliction" in a misguided attempt of helping her that would cause more harm than good for a number of reasons.

...Maybe that could be a parallel between her and Danny, with fear of rejection by their families for their supernatural natures if you wanna go down that route.

Though I have also thought about the potential chaos of at least one member finding out (and Alfred who she told straight away within the week of the Aria of Sorrow incident because it's Alfred) and the shenanigans that follow using Cass's wide array of powers she has since acquired.

My personal favorite mental images are just the following.

Cass using Paranoia's soul to hop into mirrors and just mess with everyone. Like Tim is in the bathroom brushing his teeth when he looks up to see Cass suddenly standing there behind him. He quickly looks behind him only to see no body there before looking back and seeing her reflection gone with only a laugh echoing. "She's in the walls... She's in the goddamn walls!"

If Damian is the one who finds out about her vampiric abilities first, Cass bribes him to stay silent by using her Bat Form to turn into a smol fluffy bat and/or uses the Student Witch's Soul to summon a bunch of cats and a few kittens, "She made a very convincing argument."

Cass uses her more passive Enchanted Souls blatantly in public just to mess with people and give her siblings heart attacks. Like using Rahab's Soul to breathe underwater as she is just relaxing in a beach chair at the bottom of a pool or under the sea but still blatantly visible like she's tanning. This begins a series of debates online that Cassandra Cain is either a metahuman, an Atlantean, or in fact a cryptid that Brucie adopted because of course he would. "I will neither confirm nor deny the rumors."

Now bringing the Halfa back into the equation. I'm imagining Cass follows him either because she can recognize his status as a Halfa while Danny recognizes her as a vampire/Dracula's Reincarnation, can recognize a baby ancient in the making and becomes curious, or senses him as the Vampire King/Queen's other half as Ghost King Phantom. Depending on whatever you wanna go with.

Regardless Danny is confused why this vampire girl wants him and hilarity ensues with the ship related shenanigans, maybe with Cass and Danny just bonding over supernatural trauma like "You were dragged inside a Solar Eclipse and had to fight the embodiment of Chaos!?" "You were displaced through time and had to fight your evil future self!?"

Just... CV x DC x DP. Vampire Queen Cass has so much potential with and without Ghost King Danny and I have been overthinking it for the longest time now since the previous post.

The Batfam think they know vampires.

They dont.

Especially since Cass has been a vampire the entire time.

She gets her drinks from the med bay, wears expensive high quality sunscreen and minds her powers. Most stuff the family believes in is movie propaganda. So imagine her surprise when a cute and tasty boy instantly recognizes as a vampire.

Danny has little experience with actual vampires. Most just comes from his godfather, who is a half ghost vampire, but its enough to recognize a beautiful vampire girl on his field trip in Gotham. He just has to ignore it and not draw attention to himself.

Oh God why is she following him?!

[mountswhore]

𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐠𝐮𝐞 — mason mount

summary: mason, ben, and declan had formed a bet: can mason score you? ben and declan bet against mason, saying he wouldn’t. and it was going swimmingly until you found out.

notes: i’m aware mason, chilly, and declan seem like twats in this, but it’s a fic.

my requests are open! ask away!

“Was that part of the bet?” + “Because I’ve fallen for you, isn’t it obvious?”

(italics are past interactions)

“There’s no way you can get a girl like Y/N.” Ben stated, throwing his water bottle onto the turf at his feet. “She’s way out of your league.” Declan laughed, knowing it hurt Mason’s ego a bit, seeing as he just clutched his heart.

You were the England team’s trainer, and you’d seen them and worked with them enough times to form a bond with them all. You’d definitely caught a few of the team’s eyes, but Mason never seemed interested. The only reason Ben and Dec suggested this bet in the first place is because Mason was far too cocky.

“I can get whoever I want.” Mason boasted, chest sticking out with pride but an evident smile on his face. “I’ve got the talk. I can woo any girl into bed. Y/N will be my easiest challenge yet.” The boys ‘ooh’ed at him, waging their bets.

“Alright, £100 you can’t get with her by the end of September.” Ben stated firmly, holding his hand out for Mason to shake. Mason just chuckled and looked over to Declan, who agreed with Ben.

“I’ll throw in £100, too. I don’t think you’ve got it, you don’t even like her.” Declan reasoned, the situation seeming a bit too harsh on you.

“Trust me, you’ve given me two months to do this. I’ll have her wrapped around my tiny finger.”

Mason had started this bet off by asking you out for a drink. Which you had accepted. Sure, it was wildly unprofessional to act upon your feelings during work, but this was out of work. As long as you maintained a professional relationship at work, there was nothing to worry about.

You’d been out for drinks with him, blushing at his compliments and talking about your common interests and hobbies. Like most first dates go, it was awkward but you both enjoyed it. Mason had dropped you home, kissing your cheek and arranging your second date. He’d made sure to let the boys know exactly what was going on as he did it, to prove he wasn’t backing down from this bet.

Your second date was a lot more relaxed, Mason taking you to a nice meal and one of those drive-in movie theatres. That night had ended with a kiss to your lips, and Mason confessing he really was enjoying his time with you. There was a part of Mason that felt wrong for leading you on, but it was all fun and games. Nothing serious, you’d be over it before the next time you’d see him.

There was a break between training, giving Mason a week to spend with you. And you’d taken him as a guest to your friend’s engagement party. He’d dressed up nice, still proud of himself for managing to keep it going for almost a month now.

“How do I look?” You asked, when you had entered through to your living room, where Mason was sat waiting for you. Little did he know that looking up would be the very thing to break his constant cockiness when it came to women. It would break all sort of confidence around you, sending him into a stuttering mess at the beauty stood before him. “Should I take your silence as an insult?”

“No,” he breathed, standing from his seat on your couch and approaching you, “no, you look…” he paused, trying to find a word that did you justice, “stunning.” His hands were on your waist, pulling your face close to his. His second wrong move of the day, kissing you had put a seal on these feelings he was experiencing. This wall of pride he had, knowing he was world class and had ladies at his feet, it was gone. He didn’t need that anymore, he needed you.

The engagement party was fun. Meeting your friends, they were all super sweet and accepting of Mason. They spoke so highly of you when you’d left to grab drinks. The night was approaching and he felt worse — what was he doing to you? You’d caught him standing by the entrance, top button of his shirt undone and his hair now being anxiously pulled at.

“Mase,” you quavered, worried at his distressed state, “what’s up?” He wouldn’t even look at you, it would kill him inside. All those feelings he felt when he looked at you earlier, none of that mattered anymore, because if you’d found out about the bet, it’d be over. Mason would be the one getting over you, not you getting over him.

“Y/N,” he breathed, closing his eyes and grabbing your hands in his. He could do it, he could say it all now. But he didn’t want to lose you, he couldn’t lose what you had. “I need to go home, I’m so sorry. I’m really not feeling good.” You just nodded, wondering what had caused him to feel like this. If he ran off, would you see him again?

“Of course,” you mumbled against him as he pulled you in tightly, “do you want me to drive you home?” Your compassion was wrecking him, it made him feel worse. Knowing what he’d agreed to a month ago, it destroyed him. If he’d known he’d actually fall for you, he’d never have bet on you. He’d never have agreed to lead you on for two months and dump you.

You hadn’t heard from him in two days, you’d worried that your friends had said something to him and he’d ghosted you. Training next week would be torture if that were the case. But it wasn’t.

Mason was at his house, he’d been moping around the past two days. Trying to figure out what to do. If he were honest with you and told you what happened, there’s a chance he’d never get to have you. To fall completely in love with you. But if he kept it from you, it wouldn’t feel right on him. It would weigh on him every day until he snapped.

It had come to him when he was out for a jog, how he should go about it. You were more important to him than a stupid bet, and he needed to prove it to you. Then you’d never have to know.

You were relieved to have gotten a text from him that evening, asking you to come to his. You’d pulled on a casual outfit, to look as if you weren’t trying, before you were in your car and on your way. Mason was pacing, calming himself down before having to face you. This was where he tells you he’s sorry and how he’s feeling.

“Y/N.” He whispered into your hair, holding you tight. You smiled into his chest, happy you weren’t ghosted because you were really beginning to like Mason. “I’m glad you’re here,” he spoke quietly, grabbing your hand and leading you to his living room, “I just wanted to apologise for the other day.”

“It’s okay, Mase. You said you weren’t feeling well.” You didn’t really care if he was lying to you, whether he was just feeling uncomfortable and felt bad, so made up an excuse. As long as he was okay.

“No, I wasn’t. I guess when I’m not working, I feel funny. I’m a workaholic.” He laughed, earning a smile from you. “But I’m sorry for not texting you for a few days, I just needed to clear my head. I promise it’s not you.” It definitely lifted a weight from your chest, knowing you hadn’t done anything to scare him off.

“Really, Mase. It’s fine.” You sighed, still having a tight grip on his hands. “At least you’re okay now, right?” He nodded, finally feeling like the guilt wasn’t eating him alive. This is what he needed. You.

September was now coming to a close, not that Mason was counting anymore. He was completely engulfed in you, coming back to yours some nights, even if you’d seen each other at work. You’d still have cute dates, nothing was official, you were in the fun stage still. There were definite feelings for each other, you just hadn’t admitted it to each other yet.

Mason had been planning this for a while — to ask you to be his girlfriend. And tell you he was falling for you. He’d been on his best behaviour all week, hoping not to concern you with his chipper attitude. The boys assumed he was extra happy because the bet was coming to a close, but they’d never get a chance to talk about it with him. Because he was always with you.

He was planning on doing it tonight, inviting you over to his and having a nice Chinese in the outside fort he’d made. His sister had recently bought a projector, which Mason had borrowed, and bought a white sheet to hang up too. He’d hung up fairy lights, his sister also helping with the decoration too. She’d never met you, but clearly you were something special if he was going to this effort.

With a hug goodbye from his sister, he was patiently waiting for you. You’d put on your nicest casual outfit, as that was the attire Mason texted. You’d driven over, heart almost leaping out of your chest when you saw him.

“Hello, gorgeous.” He beamed, kissing you quickly before leading you out to his back garden with his hands over your eyes. He let his hands fall, watching your reaction. You’d gone from a neutral expression, to bursting with joy. You’d squeezed him tightly, a few kisses pressed to his cheek.

“This is amazing, Mase. I love it.” He smiled and let you in, the assortment of food surrounding the cushions. It was as if you were in heaven, you had everything you wanted right here. The pair of you exchanged a few bashful looks and kisses, Mason quickly getting up to go start the movie.

His phone lit up beside you, and you weren’t curious, but it was hard to ignore a large amount of money being transferred to his account. The notification from his banking app worried you, where was this money coming from?

“Just a sec, babe. The WiFi is slow out here.” You hummed in response, watching a text come in from Ben, someone you’d gotten on well with at training.

You won the bet. £200 gone. 😭

Are you gonna end things with her now, Mr. Womaniser?

End things with her? What was Ben on about? You broke every rule you set yourself in a relationship, and picked up his phone. He was open with his passcode around you, even allowing you to borrow his phone if yours were ever dead.

The group chat had appeared, with him, Ben, and Declan. Scrolling through even a small amount of texts had given you context: you were a bet. If Mason could get with you, he’d win £200. Was that all you were worth? £200 to break a girl’s heart. You couldn’t believe your eyes. Your sweet Mase, the one who always woke you up with a tea and a biscuit, the one who would rush to the shops at whatever time to get a smoothie when you wanted one. It was just a facade for the hollow man he seemed to be.

You locked his phone and put it back where you found it, thanking the heavens it was dark in the fort. Mason had slid in beside you as the movie started, pulling you onto his chest. As the movie played, tears fell from your eyes and onto his chest. He was none the wiser, he had no idea the girl he could admit to himself that he loved, had just found out everything he didn’t want her to.

Your tears had dried on your face, and you were pleased Mason had chosen a sappy romance, as you could blame the tears on that. When the movie was over, he’d paused it and gotten back inside with you, turning a small light on his phone.

“Y/N,” he chirped, holding you close, “I need to ask you something.” You had an idea of what he was going to ask, but you couldn’t find yourself to answer it. You just listened to him spurt out these lies to your face. If football ever failed, he had a sure spot in Hollywood. “Will you be my girlfriend?”

You were silent, it wasn’t the reaction he had anticipated, nor was this the answer he anticipated. “Was this part of the bet?”

He couldn’t believe his ears. There was no way you’d found out. He wondered if the boys had felt the guilt and told her. He was stunned, seeing the tears form in her eyes once again. “What?”

“Don’t play dumb with me, Mount.” You protested, moving away from him and pulling your knees to your chest. You couldn’t believe you were still sitting here, the less confident version of yourself you once knew would have snuck to the bathroom and not returned. Mason had given you this confidence over the last two months, and you were using at against him.

“I didn’t want it to happen like this.”

“Didn’t want what to happen like this? You wanted to fuck me over a bit more publicly, so you can feel like the bigger person? Well, I’m sorry Mason. I hope I didn’t break your poor little heart.” You were seething with rage, but still felt like a broken, little girl once again.

“No, Y/N, you’re not understanding.” Mason tried to calm you down, reaching out for you, but it was no use. You flinched at his touch, shifting further away from him. “Let me explain, please.”

“Is that all I’m worth to you? £200?” You hid your head in your knees, wrapping your arms protectively around your legs. All displays of confidence now broken after relaying the texts in your head. Three footballers who’re to represent England in the coming weeks, had made you feel the size of one of their studs.

Mason knew you wanted him to leave you alone. But you were worth the fight, he was willing to do whatever to make this work. “It was a stupid bet. That’s all it was. I don’t know what I was thinking, I should’ve said no the second it was suggested.” Mason was scraping for words to say, but nothing felt right.

You had enough of hearing his excuses, barging past him and running inside to collect your things. Mason on your tail, wanting you to listen to him. “One more training session, then I’m handing in my resignation. I want to see the boys, who actually respect me, do well.”

“No.” Mason whimpered, not only was he losing you personally, but professionally too. You made work just the extra step more fun. “No, you can’t quit. Please. We need you, I need you.” You slid your shoes on, grabbing your coat and bag before heading to his door. “Please, just listen to me, Y/N.” You could hear his voice breaking, the man was playing the part this well that he was crying for you.

You turned, exhausted with him and everything else for one evening. “What. What is there to say that you so desperately need me to hear? Why won’t you just leave me alone, and stop leading me on?”

Mason stood still, silent. This was not how he imagined telling you how he felt. But he was willing to do anything to keep you from leaving him. “Because I’m falling for you, isn’t it obvious?” He yelled. He wasn’t angry, more so at himself, but he was so tired of hiding it. He wanted to tell you he loved you and needed you, every day and every night.

“I set this all up tonight to tell you I loved you, to ask you to be my girlfriend. I forgot about that bet weeks ago, I felt guilty but I wanted you. If I didn’t love you, I wouldn’t wake you up with a tea and biscuit everyday. I wouldn’t drive to the shops at almost midnight to grab you a fucking smoothie. I love you, Y/N. And I’d do anything to prove to you that the bet is the least of my concerns.” He exclaimed. You had stood there and listened to it all, half of you wanted to slap him round his face for even doing this to you, but you opted for your heart.

Pulling him into a kiss, it caught him off-guard. It was what he was hoping for, but not what he expected. He held you and kissed you like his life depended on it. “I promise that bet means nothing to me. I’ve fallen for you in ways I can’t imagine.”

“Good.” You whispered against his lips, looking up at him, “because I’ve fallen for you too.”

[thedivinedemom]

An AU of DC with a mass crossover of PS4 properties.

Provisional name: Players Searching for Detectable Changes (Get the pun?)

The setup:

This is the future of DC, a world where the old guard has slowly withdrawn and the newer generations have risen to the occasion. The original Titans in particular, most of which have formed the new Justice League while many other, very similar teams had started to form across the world. One of which was a resurgence of the Teen Titans, led by an older and purified Raven. She wanted to make the Teen Titans something akin as it was for her, a place to belong and learn to use one's powers.

The first 'class' of such individuals include:

Stargirl (of the now-disbanded JSA and still getting used to the Starrod)

Blue Beetle III (Freshly attached to his alien symbiote and freaking out a bit)

Robin V (to work on his anger issues, mostly at the new Batman's request)

Kaldur (a half Atlantean half metahuman who is struggling with his identity and the surface world, Aquaman feels a kinship for the boy seeing their similarities)

Static Shock (a promising new hero but little experience working outside his city or in groups)

Mary Marvel (she's... she's going through alot. Fresh from a coma, her brother is distant as he acts as the new Wizard, and she may be, sorta kinda, being corrupted by Black Adam's gifted power)

The team was rough and there was plenty of head butting (Mostly between Stargirl and Robin/Damian as one is almost the unanimous leader while the other thinks he should be) but they were getting there. They were more of a clean up crew for the Justice League, they did more than the "kiddie missions" that the Outsiders didn't do, and they meant more than the PR grab that was the International team. Though they didn't seem to amount to more than that. They still did their best, pushing past the silent ridicule, as they went about their missions.

This may be why tempers were so high that day.

One day, outside a little city by the name of Weller's Point, the prisoner transport for the villain Plasmus had an "accident". Released and awakened the creature went on a rampage, heading ever closer to the populated area. Luckily, the mentor of the New Teen Titans could teleport. The new team did fairly well in the fight, though they did struggle a bit as Plasmus was not a being where simple brute force would work. It made the fight tricky and more than a bit... messy.

Messy enough that juvenile and emotionally compromised Mary Marvel lashed out against the downed villain but was stopped by her teammates... things escalated from there. Restraint turned blows and the whole team struggled to stop their powerhouse without hurting her. The ones who do the best are Raven, Stargirl, Blue Beetle, and oddly Static.

While both of the former could use their abilities to restrain her to a very effective degree Static was actively draining her of strength, or at least of the electic aura she was radiating and blasting with. Frustrated, done with the situation, and a bit petty Mary launched her largest attack yet by saying her magical word.

SHAZAM.

Virgil did what he did best, he handled that lightning as it came crashing down towards Mary and the Titans restraining her. Well, he tried. The bolt was just too powerful, too unlike anything he had ever encountered. He could not handle it and it was dissipating, if anything it clung to him or tried to jump towards the girl. He had to get rid of it and he had to get rid of it quickly, safely too if he could help it.

He shoved it into the ground, into the power lines. He did it as carefully as he could, trying to prevent overload or flashover as guided the charge into the power grid.

What happened next was a combination of a few things. 1. The Mystic and transformative properties of the Lightning, 2. It is effectively being filtered through a bang baby, 3. The kryptonite power plant owned by, provided by, and operated by Lexcorp.

This interaction, this new charge, cycling through the power grid interacted strangely with a number of devices but none more so than PlayStation 4s and the devices connected to them. This new electricity changed things, literally. It brought fantasy into reality.

Whatever game was loaded into became a part of our reality in a small way. Sometimes TVs, Controllers, and even the system changed to reflect items from the game but the bigger change came with the Players. If a person was playing their console during the surge then they would become a metahuman with abilities based on the playable character they were playing.

The city, the county even, was now flooded by an abundance of metahumans and items of varying power of devastation. Static felt horrible.

He couldn't help but compare what has happened here to what happened in Dakota City but on a wider scale. And this time it was his fault. His sense of responsibility wouldn't, couldn't, let that stand. He had to fix his mistake and his team was dragged along for the ride.

The story to follow is a mix of Final Crisis and Kingdom Come with a bit of the Young Justice cartoon in events and themes, a few twists and likely a bit lighter in tone but to the DC geeks this should give a rough idea… Maybe a bit of Marvel's Civil War but hopefully not the rushed knee-jerk mess that that ended up being.

But it's here that I start having issues with my planning. One part in worry as outside the set up we start to follow the perspective of OCs (something rarely smiled upon) and another part in wondering which OC to focus on.

Now, one thing I love in fiction is progressive powers and the conflict escalating from the different paths people take in said progression. In that vein, I have a pair of protags in mind as well.

The main two/co-protagonists:

The Lawkeeper- a cop before the change and now a member of a task force made up largely of those affected by the surge. A gamer, a man of color, and a believer of the spirit of the law. He doesn't always get along with his fellow officers but he believes in what the blue does. He believes that an organized response is what is best.

His abilities are based on those of Jesse Fades of Control. Meaning he has tremendous psychic potential but he needs 3 things to reach his full potential.

1.Items to bond to so he can generate these psychic abilities. Jesse's used altered items of her universe to get thematic abilities from them (ex: a safe to generate a shield, a carousel horse for a dash ability, ect). Here he can use items generated by the surge.

2. A patron/partner entity to help guide, give insights, and empower. It also let's the user enforce reality, basically becoming an anti reality warper.

3. A bonded morph weapon or a weapon to come to his hand when called.

The knight- a recent college graduate who instantly decided to go the route of the caped hero. She, after figuring out how to get her powers to work, instantly went the route of a caped crusader. Going out to the streets, saving lives, stopping instances of surge item abuse, and (in the humble opinion of the local Police Department) getting in the way of operations. In her opinion they were taking too long to get things done.

Her abilities are based on those of Prince Noctis of Final Fantasy XV. This means she has tremendous physical and magical potential but like the above she has a number of check marks needed to gain access to the character's full power.

1. A gem/crystal to draw power from.

2. 13 magical weapons to boost strength. The generated game weapons will do and I have most picked out in a way that likely would help the plot progress.

3. The blessing of 5-6 gods.

4. A power ring of some king to channel all this power.

I keep debating the two above as I do like the idea of both of them climbing in power and clashing over conflicting ideals of what to do with their power. At the same time, I think that just smooshing aspects of both into one (which is actually where they started, a single character) and play off the different ideologies of how best to help people from within her friend group and precinct along with internal conflict. Maybe have the one be a fellow officer they butt heads with because of the... precarious nature

Another OC I was thinking on, keeping with the theme of what to do when you have power, is a thief who played Persona 5. Like both of the above they would be crippled in their ability to use their abilities without a way to fake the connection to. In this case, without the Mementos App, they would need an item that could affect or enter the hearts of others. Luckily, more unlucky really, there are plenty of items floating around that can do just that. Namely Keyblades.

Most other Players are an odd mix but most are variations of the Shooter build. Peak physical humans who heal quickly and often have bullet time. But there are enough other variations to cause trouble. Demigods of unreal strength, men and women who can easily tap into a patron for powers from the outside, 2 variations of spider powers, cat eyed men and women who can cast magic with simple gestures, and so much more. But the real issue was the first two, the demigods without a parent to protect them and those easily connected to a divine source.

The disembodied New Gods of Apocalypse were very happy with those groups. For how bad this can be please look at what happened to Mary Marvel in canon Final Crisis.

Thoughts and opinions would be appreciated.