#the justice league: crying over this child they killed

[phantomskeep]

Crack Treated Seriously is my jAM

Just... legit 200k word fic of nothing but Danny tricking Pariah into thinking humans need giant death-rays these days. It’s for chicken pox - the only way to really keep chicken pox away is a giant death-ray machine made out of half a dishwasher, four oreos, and a rusty spork. Danny absolutely gaslights Pariah into thinking phones are evil and if anyone dead touches electronics they get trapped in them forever (Just look at Technus. Not healthy at all.) which is how Danny’s able to keep up with the outside world.

You want some angst though? On the flip side the Justice League thinks they completely killed this kid. Danny Fenton is dead and it’s their fault. They allowed a fifteen year-old kid to sacrifice himself for the sake of the world and it’s because they just weren’t good enough. None of them could defeat Pariah and none of them paid the price for it, not really. Whenever they get notices about ghosts stealing random stuff across the world they start working overtime, joining forces with the GIW in order to fight against these creatures who are all clearly evil. Some of the Amity Park rogues get caught in the crossfire. Some manage to make it back to the Zone, others? Well, it has been recently confirmed by the GIW that ghosts can be killed. The JL+GIW gear up, working towards punching another hole in reality in order to fight Pariah Dark in the name of Danny Fenton, the young man who gave himself up for all of them.

Little do they know, Danny Fenton is on the other side tearing apart a Micky Mouse shaped waffle maker for the last piece on his newly made Fenton Thermos. 

I would love to see Pariah Dark utilized more often in DP x DC crossovers. And not as a reason for why Danny gets pulled in summoning circles, or why he becomes Ghost King, but Pariah Dark himself. Can you imagine that?

Picture this: Cultists find a way to release Pariah Dark into the mortal realm, the Justice League get wind of this. And you know what happens? He frickin' crushes them. They have powerful members, yes, and powerful magicians too. But he is the King of an entire Realm for a reason, and it is a burden and a crown not gifted to just anyone.

And yet he's been defeated before. These 'superheroes' don't compare to the boy that fought him once before, another one of these so-called heroes. He cannot decide if he is hellbent on revenge, or intends to make the boy a vassal, a replacement for Fright Knight who clearly failed in his duty to the King. The boy was young, he could be taught, molded- with the right pressure and a guiding hand, of course.

However, Amity Park is heavily protected by shields and other anti-ecto equipment. Assuming he even knows where and how to get to Amity Park in the first place. The portals have been shut down, either purposefully or because they crumbled under the pressure that's required to rip open a tear in reality. So where does that leave Pariah?

He gives the Justice League an ultimatum.

The Justice League brings him a whelp named Danny, who once defeated him in battle, or the planet burns.

Eventually, the JL figure out the last time Pariah was released, and how a small city called Amity Park was caught in the middle of it all. It's never confirmed who defeated him, but if Pariah's words to them hold any truth, someone with the name of "Danny" is the first place to start.

Oddly enough, there's exactly one person in Amity Park that goes by the name of "Danny".

Who just so happens to be a teenager.

So now the JL have to decide to either turnover a literal child, or let the planet be destroyed.

Only, Danny has not been told anything about what is going on, and is just mildly concerned about why all these superheroes are suddenly being so fussy when they never cared about Amity Park before?? And why are they being so nice to him? He's pretty sure he caught the Flash going a little teary eyed the other day, and he overheard Superman trying to convince Batman not to kidnap him, lock him in his basement, and forcibly adopt him??

He never took Batman for a Fruitloop.

The Justice League don't tell him what's going on. And it's for the best, really. Because if they did, he'd go with Pariah in a heartbeat if the world would be saved.

Even if he didn't like the person monster he'd return as.

[sleepy-grav3]

The Moon Child - Part 1

Part 2

A/n: There's a bunch of batfam adoptions, let's switch it up a bit.

Summary Background info: Danny died fully to the GIW. His class noticed when Danny disappeared and think his parents killed him. The city now believes he lives among the stars. On the same day Danny died, however, the moon was smashed to bits and rained down asteroids into the ocean and land of Earth. The Lanterns replace it with a new moon. The ocean life believes that the moon's spirit will not like being replaced.

Tw: Bad parents, depression, dissociation, vivisection scars, past death, discrimination, angst, hurt/comfort

Danny is a full ghost and looks like a child because that's all his core can expend; Danny becomes a moon spirit. Aquaman/Arthur is the movie version, the fun upbeat guy, not the serious one.

The Moon Child Part 1 - Strong Beliefs Come to Life

When the moon was destroyed, the Lanterns had agreed to send over a new one to make sure the Earth didn't destroy itself without the Moon to guide the oceans. It wasn't difficult to get one, though it was a lot of paperwork.

But when it was done, the Justice League thought that was it. Batman, being the paranoid man he was, demanded those with cities near a beach and Aquaman to report regularly about any changes in the ocean with the new moon while he checks other things that would be affected by it. They didn't bother to argue, as their luck always had it that peace was never a lasting thing. So the extra precaution was fine, but they didn't think anything of it after a few weeks of nothing happening.

The ocean life thought otherwise. Unlike the beings on land, who worship the sun, the beings in the ocean believed in the moon. Legends, myths, and many beliefs surrounding the moon's corpse that had mostly fell in their waters had risen.

The Moon is not meant to be replaced

The Moon is not like the others

The Moon will believe we did not care

The Moon will return and haunt these waters

-

Cries echoed in the dark of night. Moonstones guided the way to the origin of said sobs that were as powerful as the sirens' voice. Yet what the sirens attracted was lust, not melancholy.

Those who followed them would begin to see a dim light grow brighter and brighter, but never irritate. Instead, it would bring a wave of sorrowful tranquility.

When they reached the origin, they would see a small child holding their tail that faded in solidity. Their hair as white as how the moon used to be. Their skin as pale as a human who had died in freezing temperatures. And their eyes a beautiful silver that matched the stones that trailed away from them.

They wore loose and poofy at the bottom pants that matched a dark night sky and a translucent veil that had constellations move around the dark blue fabric. His upper body was bare, and he covered it with the veil, which darkened when wrapped to shield his body from being seen. (think Egyptian dancer)

And that's when the creatures of the ocean had a realization. Their deity was too kind to exact revenge for the blasphemy. Their pain was not one to simply end in an instant.

The Moon has returned, and they are not angered.

They thought they were replaceable, disposable. As if they never mattered.

The Moon has returned to world that acted ungrateful for what they had done to protect it. To a world who simply replaced them for another.

They felt like all they did was for nothing. Like nothing they had done ever mattered in the end.

The Moon did not have a welcomed return. And they decided to express it alone, as if nobody would care to comfort them.

-

Arthur never believed in ghosts. Not until now as he gazed upon the spirit of the moon who had taken the form of a small child with a wisp for a tail and was crying moonstones.

The seafolk had all voiced their guilt on how they cursed at the humans and aliens, speaking how the spirit of the moon would enact their revenge. They felt guilty that they had ever thought their deity would ever stoop as low as those disgraceful humans. For their deity was kind. They were perfect. And they always looked after them when they could, even appearing in the day no matter how much strength it took.

The Ocean was meant to be the Moon's temple.

And as the King of the Ocean, it was his duty to take in the Moon and shelter them in their time of need.

"Child."

The child jumped, turning with wide, teary eyes at him. Arthur smiled gently.

"Greetings. I've heard that you've been here for a while now. It... it must've hurt badly."

The child seemed to have a flash of pain from the memory alone, tightening their arms around their wispy tail.

"What they did to you was unacceptable and inhumane. You were alive and looking after so many who could not save themselves."

More stones splashed into the water.

"You saved them, save everyone and they repaid that by hurting you. Killing you. Attempting to end you. It was a crime and yet... yet they got off light. It was a crime and they thought nothing of it."

The spirit relaxed, eyes gazing at him in disbelief and awe.

"I'm sorry we weren't able to save you. I'm sorry I couldn't prevent such a blasphemous act."

They smiled softly at him and let go of their tail, flying over to him.

"I'm still here." Their voice echoed. "I can still protect everyone."

Arthur took a breath and reached his hand out, placing it on the child's head.

"Please, let me do the protecting this time."

The child of the moon teared up once more, smile now shaky.

"Okay." They whispered. "I'll trust you."

And with that, the child shined just a bit more brightly before their form retreated into a spherical oval with the New Moon glyph floating inside. He cupped his hands together, letting the moonstone with the height of 2 quarters and the width and depth of 1 descend into them. Upon observation, he noticed the moon glyph shift to always present itself in the direction of those who gazed upon them.

"I have to report this to the league." Arthur thought, worried about what they'd do if they discover the spirit on their own.

-

Pain, that was all he felt. Even after his core had been carved and crushed, he still felt the excruciating agony of it. And now he revived again, feeling the aftershocks, the phantom pains.

His core was straining itself to even let him stay out of it, willing him to retreat. But he couldn't risk being found. He couldn't risk a curious person deciding to carve him again.

That was... until this man came. A hero, one that ruled over the oceans and seas, came to him and apologized for not saving him. someone who wasn't even close to him, who shouldn't have even known about him, had felt guilty about his death. And he stayed and he begged for him to come with him. He bled out the promise of safety. Of recognition. He... wanted to protect Danny.

A hero who protected the beings of his waters wanted to protect him, a ghost.

Danny was starting to think humans really were inferior to other beings. Be it aliens... or seafolk. Atlanteans. Ha! To think an Atlantean cared more about him, who was a half human and human ghost, than a human ever could.

It hurt.

It hurt to think about.

But it hurt more to try to reject it. So, he accepted that this stranger, this hero who probably didn't even believe he could exist, was willing to protect him like nobody ever had. Like nobody ever could. Like nobody ever would.

His core will be safe with him. He will be safe with him.

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

A/n: Well... that was a thing. Poor Danny.... He was never actually acknowledged. But oh well. The next one's about him meeting the family and getting coddled.

Also, if you're thinking about the movie's Aquaman having a baby... well he's dead. Black Manta killed him through suffocation or whatever like the wiki says. So that's why he wasn't mentioned.

Part 2

[dclovesdanny]

DC XDP prompt

OK, I made a similar prompt to this one for dead on Main earlier, but I want to slightly change it up

Demon twins AU where Danny was sent to the Fenton by Talia, so that Ra’s could not kill him. He and Damian both believed the other two be dead until about age 16, when they meet due to the justice league summoning Danny.

They did the whole reconciliation thing, but the world ended up going into chaos. The GIW destroyed part of the portal, damaging Danny’s grave, and causing him to go into something similar to shock, severely weakening his powers. The league of assassins also made a mess of things, and now Danny and Damian are the only members of the family who are still able to fight. Damian has just sustained a massive injury on his side, and Danny is getting sick the longer he goes without good ectoplasm, becoming almost feral.

Clockwork offers them a deal to go back, but their bodies will carry over all injuries, including Danny being half dead. They will also have to destroy the Lazarus pits, (in this AU, the pits are a natural portal that was forcibly anchored, making it very toxic ectoplasm, similar to mold and poison.) 

They accept, and Danny and Damian wake up. Danny wakes up alone in his room at 10 years old, and Damian wakes up in his bedroom first tonight he ever spent with the Wayne’s.

The problem, is that Jazz finds her brother crying in his bedroom, with lots of scars, and his eyes glowing green. She is trying to calm her adoptive brother down as he cries in her arms, but she can hear her parents downstairs talking about the portal flickering, and has a sinking feeling in her chest.

In Manor, Alfred has gone to wake up the new master Damian, only to find him staring out the window as he bandages an injury on his side that seems to have not been treated before. The angry boy from last night seems to be gone, and his place is a scared child, one who immediately goes into a defensive position when he notices someone entering, before calming when seeing it was only him.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

Fear is a Dangerous Thing (Part 10)

A friend edited this for me because my brain is so mushy today but I haven't checked their work. Let me know if you find anything wrong.

TW: Torture, child abuse, descriptions of violence, panic attacks

Previous | Masterpost

Tim led the way to the meeting hall and opened the door to the meeting room where a bunch of the core members of the JL were already sitting. “Right, thank you for coming,” Tim started as Nightwing ushered the rest of them into the room, leading them to four empty chairs that were probably supposed to be for the teens and Nightwing. Instead the rest of the Teen Titans stood in the back and Hyena and Phantasm were sat between Hood and Nightwing. The collected members of the JL made various sounds of shock and anger at the sight of them, (Constantine looked green around the gills).

Robin completely ignored all of them and carried on as if nothing was wrong. “I’ve recently become aware of a troubling conspiracy that the Justice League must not be aware of.”

“Robin, what are they doing here?” Batman growled, watching Hyena and Hood warily.

“Phantasm is the newest member to Teen Titans, and both she and Hyena have been directly harmed by this conspiracy, so I invited them both to be here,” Robin said calmly. “Besides, though I independently verified all of it, the majority of my information originally came from Hyena. So if you have any questions at the end they’d probably be best directed to him.” Batman opened his mouth again and Robin raised his voice slightly, “Hold your questions till after the presentation please,” Robin chided before he switched to the next slide and carried on as if nothing had happened.

The presentation contained just about everything they needed to know, about the anti-ecto acts and the entire group of people that they targeted including a few members of the JL if the GIW ever got brave enough. It included that they had been experimenting on sentient and sapient beings and killed multiple people, that they were affiliated with the government and had plans for weapons of mass destruction specifically targeting these beings, and that they had taken over a small town and instilled a complete media blackout.

In other words they were unethical and illegal and the fact that the JL had allowed it to happen was nearly unforgivable.

“That concludes my presentation,” Robin announced, “If there are any-”

“Before you wrap up I have some… supplemental material. Because it’s one thing to hear about it and another thing to see it. I want you to see it,” Hyena interrupted with venom in his voice as he got up. Robin looked confused but he surrendered the projector remote to Hyena and allowed him to plug in his USB. Before he started it Hyena went back to his seat and glanced at Phantasm, hesitating for a moment.

“Little Star, would you mind leaving the room? Or coming here. I don’t want you to see this,” Danny said softly and Phantasm looked at him, judging his expression for a moment before she nodded and slid out of her chair and onto his lap. She had regressed just a little after everything, acting younger and more subservient for lack of a better word. She allied allowed  him to cup the back of her neck and hide her face against his shoulder before he started clicking through the images.

The first one was a picture of him as Phantom with Sam, Tucker, and Jazz, then the death certificates of everyone in the photo besides him. Next was a picture of Phantom when he’d first been captured by the GIW, crying, collared and gagged, looking at the person behind the camera with a pleading expression and obvious fear. There were many more after that, all bloody. They had kept a proper muzzle on him the entire time so he couldn’t scream, so his face was hidden somewhat. They showed him with his arms cut open or even off, his chest cut open and broken apart so you could see all his organs, his throat dissected and the skin pinned apart, and many worse things.

With each picture the life faded from his eyes, he was still alive in all of them but the fear, and pain, and any possible hope died in his eyes as he dissociated from the situation over years. Then there was a collection of other images, Ellie strapped to a table, destabilizing, then in the tube. Vlad’s intake photo collared and bound, then his autopsy. Ember with her arm cut off and screaming. Finally a somewhat blurry photo Danny had taken himself after his escape of the makeshift stitches and bulging wound, he had to just shove a few organs back in after all, the blood, pus, and ectoplasm leaking out of it. Someone gagged, Danny didn’t look to see who.

“In that first photo I had just turned 16, the GIW took me soon after that, killing everyone who tried to protect me from them. They kept me for two years, you just saw what they did, and the results. The GIW may seem inept, and they often are, but they are also sadistic and ruthless. They do real harm. Phantasm and I are the only people still alive to testify about it, and only then because I’m functionally immortal and she destabilized before they could get far.”

Once he finished he turned off the projector and let Ellie up and off of his lap, allowing her to slip back into her seat as he got up to grab his USB. The room was silent for a long moment, everyone's expressions ranging from furious, to heartbroken, to dissociated. Martian Manhunter, Wonder Woman, and Zatana in particular looked like they would like to tear the entire organization apart with their bare hands right now!

Jason felt a bit sick. He really would have liked a warning that Danny was going to do that because, even though he had seen the scars, it was a very different thing to see the wounds themselves. They were just as extensive as he had feared. At least now he understood why Danny had had so many panic attacks this week, if he’d been setting that up in the background it was half a wonder he hadn’t had more!

“What do you mean you're functionally immortal?” Batman demanded.

“They’re threatening the Infinite Realms?” Constantine squeaked.

“How have we let them get away with this!” Lamented Martian Manhunter.

All three nearly at the same time, it was an explosion of sound as a few others spoke as well, or tried to respond. Jason wrapped an arm around Danny’s shoulder, feeling him shaking a little bit, that had been very brave of him and Jason did think it would have the effect Danny wanted, but this explosion of emotion had to get out of the way.

One of the louder voices in the room though, was Superman, and Jason did not like what he was saying.

“Are the people of the Infinite Realms a threat?” Superman asked Constantine. “Should we have weapons to defend ourselves against them?”

Which, honestly, were fair questions but now was Not the time! Jason was sure the people from the Infinite Realms could be a threat but they hadn’t been and they had a very good reason to defend themselves. These were sentient people, would he be asking the same questions about a new species of mer? But he had already known Superman could be surprisingly intolerant for someone with his reputation.

“If we need to defend ourselves against the Realms we’re already fucked!” Constantine nearly shouted at Superman. “We should be dealing with this and be very grateful that they don’t have a king to organize them against us right now!”

“That could just make them more dangerous! If there’s no leader that we can make a treaty with then how can we trust them?” Superman argued.

“You don’t have to trust someone to know what the GIW is wrong!” Manhunter accused furiously.

“That’s not what I’m saying, of course it’s wrong,” Superman tried to placate, but it wasn’t working on Manhunter, and it wasn’t working on Danny either.

Jason and Ellie clocked it first, that the temperature in the room had been steadily dropping and was now almost ten degrees cooler than it had been at the start of the meeting. When Jason glanced over with concern he saw Hyena sitting perfectly still, his chest heaving in short shallow breaths and his eyes fixed on Superman, swirling with a very dangerous shade of green. Jason stood abruptly, slamming his hands down on the table in front of Hyena, startling him enough that his building rage turned sharply into fear and he flinched back, knocking over his chair.

"What-" Someone asked indignantly into the sudden silence as Danny backed up quickly till he hit the wall, curling in on himself.

"Everyone who doesn't know our faces, out!" Jason ordered abruptly.

"You can't just-"

"He's having a panic attack and you're making it worse! You know how dangerous panic can be in someone with powers! OUT!" He ordered and, begrudgingly but swiftly, he was obeyed and the heroes filed out of the room. The only ones left were Batman, Nightwing, Robin, and Phantasm. Jason ignored all of them.

He took off his helmet as he approached Danny quickly and crouched in front where he was curled on the floor, eyes unfocused. Jason unlatched Danny’s muzzle and took off one of his gloves, hearing a gasp behind him as he slapped Danny with an open palm, cupped for more sound than sting, enough to bring him back to the here and now. He grabbed Danny's face and forced him to look towards Jason.

"Look at me Cub," He cajoled, but Danny didn't hear, still reeling and panting. "Look at me!" Jason ordered this time and Danny obeyed, focusing on him finally. "What do you need?"

"Hold me," Danny gasped.

"Hold you or Hold You?" Jason asked.

"Hold Me," Danny hissed as he practically threw himself at Jason who braced himself and grabbed Danny quickly. He dragged them both up and spun Danny around, getting a hold on both of his wrists with opposite hands and wrapping Danny's own arms around his waist like a makeshift straight-jacket.

Jason stepped back into a fighting stand pulling Danny with him so he was off balance, and leaned back, bracing himself and keeping his head out of range as Danny thrashed and snarled in his grip, getting out his energy without trying to get away.

Jason didn't know how long it went on, but he knew his shoulders were sore by the time Danny went limp again in his hold, finally breathing properly again.

"Okay?" Jason asked sternly.

"Ya, okay. Thank you," Danny responded, meek and tired. Finally aware of what was going on around them he looked at the others in the room, and winced a little when he saw the worry and fear on Ellie’s face. Tim and Dick look worried too, Batman… Danny couldn’t tell what he was feeling. “Sorry about that guys, I’m okay now,” Danny said as Jason let him go slowly, easing him back into supporting his own weight.

Ellie rushed to hug  him and Danny hugged back, pressing his face into her hair. Dick approached more slowly, avoiding sudden movements that might freak Danny out again. “Are you sure you’re okay? That was… a lot. I’m so sorry for everything you’ve been through.”

“That shouldn’t have happened-” Batman started, and Jason had no idea how he was planning to end that sentence because Danny didn’t let him.

“Well it did, you can’t save everyone, and now it’s too late. I’m never going to be what I was before they broke me,” He said, blunt and honest, Jason winced.

“Are you alright to bring the JL back in? They’ll have questions. If not it’s alright, Hood can take you home and we can handle the rest,” Robin told Danny.

“If you do stay I’ll make sure they behave themselves,” Nightwing put in with a grim set to his jaw.

Now Danny could read Batman’s expression, he looked startled. He hadn’t known Nightwing and Robin had gotten so close to Hood and Hyena behind his back. Danny wondered if he was more likely to question their judgment or his own in the face of this revelation.

“No, I can stay. I want to stay,” Danny insisted. He had been worked up already, and then upset by what Superman was saying, especially since he already didn’t have a particularly high opinion of the big blue boy scout since his treatment of Kon. “As long as they all don’t yell over each other like that again, too much noise,” Danny said, shaking his head.

 Danny slowly eased Ellie out of his arms, guiding her back to the table so he could slump back in his own chair. He dropped his face into his hands and took a few deep breath, Jason could practically see him counting to ground himself. Quietly he approached and scooped up their masks again, putting his helmet back on before gently nudging Danny’s arm and putting the muzzle down in front of him.

“Agreed. They shouldn’t have behaved that way in front of outsiders to begin with. I’ll talk to them." He started to leave before pausing and looking between Hyena and Phantasm. "It was brave of you to come to us about this. If there is any protection the two of you need to make sure that you do not face consequences from these people, we will gladly provide it.” Batman said and swept out of the room.

Danny lifted his head and saw the mask, giving Jason a little smile before he put it back on, doing the buckle up behind his head again and making sure it was secure on his face. He was as ready as he was going to be to face the rest of the JL again. At least Batman seemed to hate him less than he did before he knew a bit more of Danny’s backstory and exactly why he was like this. He thought that was fair, he didn’t think that anyone could remain sane after everything he had been through.

There was a knock on the door and Nightwing opened it, the rest of the assembled JL members filed back in, more quiet and calm now. They took their seats again, Superman looked a little sheepish, Kon paused to squeeze both Phantasm and Hyena’s shoulders, Danny patted his hand lightly giving him a grateful look. He’d like to have a better bond with Kon, all of the Teen Titan team really, but Kon in particular, he deserved a better support network with such shitty progenitors.

“He’s telling the truth,” Constantine cut in before the ruffled feathers around the table could progress to fighting again. “We do not want to mess with those fuckers, being beneath their notice, and letting them keep that tyrant king of theirs locked up, is the best that we can hope for there."

“We’re sorry our response wasn’t ideal,” Wonder Woman told Hyena diplomatically. “It was a shock, but that’s no excuse for making this harder on you. It was brave of both of you,” She praised.

“Thank you,” Hyena said, leaning back in his seat, his hands still pressed flat against the table. “I want to make it clear that the people of the infinite realms are a threat. It contains every afterlife, demons and gods and various other ancient and powerful beings. Violence is a culture and a language. However, most of us have very little interest in the living and the mortal. Despite being without a monarch there are rules about interacting with the living worlds, humans don’t exactly put up an entertaining fight anyway, a bit boring all around,

“All of this to say, if you don’t antagonize the Infinite Realms the Vast majority of its inhabitants will continue to happily ignore you, and if you do antagonize them you will lose.” The declaration held no doubt at all”

Hyena inclined his head towards Constantine in a subtle gesture of gratitude for the backup. “With that in mind if you ever have to deal with something from the Infinite Realms, call me. I’m from this world but I’m of the Infinite Realms as well, as long as Hood agrees, I will help.”  

“As long as Hood agrees?” Batman questioned, his gaze sharp. Next to him Constantine hissed and moved to elbow him before apparently thinking better of it.

“Yes. You know this Batman,” Hyena chided him, rolling his eyes at the super hero. “I am… potentially stronger than any one individual here, but I answer to him. You need my help, ask him.”

“If you want a demonstration I’m sure he’d be happy to provide. Just not where there’s anyone to get caught in the crossfire,” Jason put in smugly. “Right Hyena?”

“Oh absolutely,” Danny agreed with an unnervingly feral cackle. “I can survive in space, maybe Big Blue and I can give the moon a few more craters! Wait, no, probably better not use the moon we might knock it out of orbit. Mmmm Neptune?”

“Maybe some other time!” Constantine squeaked before anyone could make the mistake of taking a Realms creature up on his offer to fight.

“Too bad,” Hyena sighed leaning back in his seat, his mask hiding his pout. “I haven’t really gotten to let loose in ages.”

“We’ve gotten off topic,” Martian Manhunter said. Jason bit back a laugh at how quickly Danny subsided after being chided by his favourite hero. “What are we going to do about the GIW?”

[amidst-wonderland]

ELIZABETH LANCE-WAYNE

REAL NAME : elizabeth lance-wayne FACE-CLAIM : olivia cooke MAIN ALIAS : siren OTHER ALIASES : starling ⭑ batgirl ⭑ black canary ⭑ crow ⭑ molly malone KEY RELATIVES : bruce wayne (father) ⭑ dinah lance (mother) ⭑ damian wayne, (half-brother) ⭑ olive west-wayne (daughter) ⭑ ronan west-wayne (son) AFFILIATION : batman family ⭑ justice league ⭑ birds of prey ⭑ teen titans ⭑ suicide squad ⭑ flash family ⭑ team arrow ⭑ wayne enterprises BASE OF OPERATIONS : gotham city ⭑ keystone ⭑ star city ⭑ new york city

ORIGIN & LIVING STATUS

ALIGNMENT : hero LIVING STATUS : alive, formerly deceased PLACE OF BIRTH : gotham city UNIVERSE : prime earth IDENTITY : secret CITIZENSHIP : american MARITAL STATUS : separated, it's complicated. OCCUPATION : wedding planner ⭑ socialite (former) ORIGIN : hereditary metagene obtained from mother, black canary. took on protégé role of starling as a child. CAUSE OF DEATH(S) one | killed by the joker after being stabbed with an electric rod during an arkham aslyum surveillance mission with robin and kid flash in an attempt to blow the island sky-high. two | shot by royal flush gang's queen during 'task force x' operation three | impaled by zoom in an act of revenge against flash iii four | beaten to death by 'death metal' alternative, screech in attempt to protect her children

SKILLS & ABILITIES

expert detective master martial artist and hand-to-hand combatant ultra-sonic scream (canary cry) enhanced strength and speed expert strategist, tactician and field commander trained gymnast espionage utilises high-tech equipment and weapons, such as her element adaptive mono-wire proficient archer sound immunity

RELATIONSHIPS / ASSOCIATIONS

marriage | wally west long-term | roy harper fling | adian cobblepot ⭑ joseph wilson

heroes | bruce wayne ⭑ dinah lance ⭑ wally west ⭑ zatanna zatara ⭑ barbara gordon ⭑ dick grayson ⭑ roy harper ⭑ donna troy ⭑ jason todd ⭑ tim drake ⭑ stephanie brown ⭑ cassandra cain ⭑ renee montoya villains | harley quinn ⭑ magpie ⭑ cupid ⭑ rainbow raider ⭑ royal flush gang ⭑ screech ⭑ mad hatter ⭑ catwoman ⭑ hazard ⭑ poison ivy ⭑ killer frost ⭑ joker ⭑ punchline ⭑ court of owls

MISC.

elizabeth was the batgirl to jason's robin and is arguably the closest with him, post resurrection.

after being stripped of her cowl again by bruce, elizabeth winds up babysitting 'task force x' with long-time friend, roy harper and dawning a new short-term alias, crow. the two find comfort in each-other within the band of belligerent criminals as ex-titans, roy after his split with jade and elizabeth longing for a love she doesn't even know she's forgotten.

she’s viewed as an almost modern day ‘daisy buchanan’ type figure in gotham for better or worse

elizabeth's wayne!persona feeds into the catty high-school popular girl, a little ditzy but applying where it counts. she's no valedictorian but fronting the cheer squad and the debate team whilst earning herself prom queen is no small feat (think torrance shipman) but unfortunately for her date and half the school's male populous, she's head-over-heels for nobody but keystone's cocky redhead with a heart of gold. post-gotham academy, she becomes a hilton-type party girl which doesn't go down well with wally.

even after their separation (in name only, these two would literally die for each-other) wally is still persistent that she keeps her flash button-pin on her person at all times, just in case. even after a fight, yet another break or just a storm-out he'll always be there when she needs him and he knows she's stubborn enough to only press it when she really needs him.

liz was a pretty taken aback by wally's reappearance. learning of a life she once had, the children she'd forgotten and unlike everyone else that accepted wally back almost immediately, liz was a little slower, much to wally's impatience.

she covers for her mother as black canary during league outings whilst dinah is on maternity leave, even keeping with the mantle when teaming up with wally when he returns to the flash role.

dinah and bruce were only briefly together, bruce hadn't even begun his career as batman and dinah was working part-time as a florist and club singer.

liz and dick are the same age.

all three of her costumes incorporate led lining, more-so her time as batgirl with the cowl, her batgirl colour-coding was black and sheer white, whilst starling had an ombre rainbow lining - similar to the bird and siren taking on both aspects with the black and white costume and rainbow led lights.

KEY ARCS / MOMENTS / STORYLINE

MATCHES (UNDER THE RED HOOD PREQUEL)

central characters | elizabeth lance-wayne (molly malone) ⭑ jason todd ⭑ tim drake ⭑ cassandra cain ⭑ selina kyle ⭑ adian cobblepot ⭑ oswald cobblepot ⭑ edward nygma ⭑ carmine falcone ⭑ dick grayson ⭑ barbara gordon

whilst batman is off-world with the justice league, the rest of his team have been tasked to protect gotham so newly returned elizabeth gets a whiff of a developing human trafficking ring, she swiftly adopts the 'molly malone' persona in order to infiltrate their operations and put a stop to it. however, she's met with some resistance from the city's newest mob-boss, the red hood.

notable beats

one | this is elizabeth's first solo operation in gotham since the batgirl mantle was taken from her and since she married childhood sweetheart wally west, who is currently off-world with bruce. two | selina helping elizabeth get into the spoilt mafia brat image with hair as big as her tits, heels as fake as her lips and leopard print dress peaking above her ass. during this, cass watches on at the pseduo-mother / daughter moment, longing back to her own childhood. three | seducing oswald cobblepot's absolute meathead unit of a son, adian as malone's guard-dog boyfriend after 'spontaneously' meeting in gotham's 'my alibi' strip club with the promise of opening a brothel (refuge for victims), playing on his sycophantic eagerness to get impress / out-do his own father, mirroring elizabeth's own ambition. four | red hood interrupting her first meeting with the gotham rogues, removing their attention from her, to him. jason identifies liz immediately, being aware of the 'malone' schtick from bruce but decides to toy with her game-plan just to tick her off. five | jason overhears an argument between tim and liz ordering him and cass to back-off the op, he decides to stir the pot by ambushing the boy-wonder. six | elizabeth returns to her and wally's shared penthouse only to be confronted with the red hood confirming her identity as a wayne and poking at her marriage, "does west know you're hanging off penguin jr?" taunting her to press the alarm, knowing bruce and the scarlet-speeder would return seeing the mess she's made of the op, jason offers her a hand.

ROYAL ROULETTE (THE SUICIDE SQUAD) - breakdown to be added

below is just some fun i had after seeing the suicide squad, enjoy!

SNIPPET

“Joining you, Dubois will be two classified and undercover operatives with decades of field experience between them, though you may find their methods in comparison to your active teammates are rather passive.” Amanda Waller drags out as she walks the marksman through the bleak halls of the prison. “Both parties are, like you doing this with a certain level of willingness, but again like you, they have their own rather elusive baggage.”    Dubois continued to follow the woman into her office before being shown some very familiar inmates, one blond and the other ginger, who’d been a real pain in his-    “Arsenal. Speedy and Red Arrow all known aliases of former Green Arrow protégé, Roy Harper. I know you’re aware of Mr. Harper’s craft, but you may relax. He is your covert second-wave operative on this mission.”    “Does he know that?”    “He’s been warned, whether or not he wishes to push my buttons is entirely up to him.”    “Blondie here, is your problem.”    “That’s not Quinn, is it?”    “Far from, this is Siren. Meta-human.”    “Christ.”    “That’s a moot point a third of your team are meta-humans, but this one, used to be Batgirl.”    “Fuck off.”    “Watch that tongue.”    “I thought the Bats were good guys.”    “Yeah, well some of them have tendencies, including this one.”    “What’s she do?”    “Classified.”    “How’d you get her to agree?”    “Classified.”    “Does the Batman know?”    “He knows his daughter is doing covert work for me.”    “Ooh, lying to the cape-crusader is-“ Dubois furrowed his brows, “Did you say daughter?”    “That I did. Siren is a meta-human with enhanced strength, equipped with a Canary Cry that can shatter just about any form of glass within a two-mile radius. Her mother is Black Canary, her Step-father? Green Arrow and her husband is the fastest man alive,” Waller tensed, “Dubois, no matter what the circumstances may be, I do suggest that you and your team do not cross this woman, specifically Quinn.”    “What do the Gothamites have history?” he joked, although Waller did not reciprocate.    “You don’t spend five years as Batgirl without a run in with the Clown. Joker killed her brother, paralysed her teammate, and critically injured herself to the brink of death that she spent seven months in the ICU, all to enact a grand idea that involved blowing Arkham Island to bits.”    “What happened?”    “Two metal rods, and fifty-thousand volts. Folks said the scream could be heard from Metropolis.”    “How’s she not dead?”    “Rumour is Kid Flash was able to restart her heart.”    “So Quinn’s a sore-spot?”    “I don’t want them left alone, Siren won’t kill but Quinn would in retaliation, and I don’t want the job of explaining to Flash why his wife’s body was left in some South American jungle because of a psychotic jester who nearly killed her as a teenager.”    “The bomb threat?”    “As far as she's concerned, there isn't one.”    “Why?”    “Guess.” “What about Quinn?” “Quinn’s quick and unpredictable, Siren could be dead before I hit the button. They’ve known each other for a decade - know how to make each other tick therefore it is your job to make sure they don’t."    “You want me to babysit two grown fucking women? If she’s this much of a hassle then what use is she to us?”    “Siren has trained with nothing but the best, she is a skilled, heavy hitting fighter, acrobat, tech genius, can speak four languages fluently – one of which you will need – and can be an excellent diversion when the moment calls for it. Her skill set is vital to the completion of this mission.”    “And yet Quinn?”    “Cannon fodder. She’s got more balls than any other man on your team.”

[slightly-sad-sloth]

Little fandom vent; sometimes I get annoyed at the way fandom reduces Damian down to stabby child who only cares about himself and does murder. Like yeah while I get fandom almost always reduces characters down to their funniest or snappiest traits Damian's just doesn't make sense.

Like his whole character is about how much he DOESNT want to be those things.

Damian cares so so so much about other people he just struggles to express it bc it takes a lot for him to trust someone enough to believe they're not going to pull the rug out from under him or betray him somehow. If he didn't care about other people he wouldn't have spent months trying to find Martha's pearls in the sewer, risking his life bc there was a bounty on his head at this point and further ruining his image with Bruce (who thought Damian was just sneaking off and putting himself in danger). He wouldn't have denounced the league and everything he knew to protect a man he'd met less than a year ago. He wouldn't have purposely failed a timed test as Robin to get across the city as fast as possible (a test that would've allowed him to go out alone as Robin and given him more independence one of things Damian values very highly) instead he went over the allowed time by more than 10 hours BC he helped old women with their shopping and walked women home after they were robbed and he sat with a man he saw crying in his apartment for more than 2 hours just having tea with him. I could go on and on about all the genuinely kind things he does bc Damian's empathy and kindness is one of his defining traits actually.

And yeah he used to kill people and he was more prone to violence than the other Robins but he was literally raised in an environment where his worth and by proxy his survival was tied to how well he did murder. I'm pretty sure if you raised any child in an environment where since they were born they were rewarded for killing and violence but punished for showing mercy and told them that it's for the greater good, that they're special and that there's nothing wrong with killing if the ends justify the means they'd end up the same.

Not to mention Damian fights so hard to not be violent bc he doesn't want to be, the people Damian admires most in the world (Dick and Jon) both based their entire personality around Superman (also it's confirmed Supes is his fav justice Leaguer in supersons). Damian wants to be like them so bad and wants to be kind and outgoing and as pacifist as you can get as a vigilante. Damian struggles so much to be that person but it's not as easy as just stopping when you've been conditioned your whole life that killing is the right move and that your worth as a person and the love of those around is dependent on you doing it. He literally keeps a sketch book where he just draws out all the intrusive violent thoughts he gets while fighting villains to get the anger and compulsion out so that he DOESN'T do those things. And Damian feels immensely guilty about all of his past murders which is shown over and over. When he kills no-body (an action he did to protect Bruce) he asks Bruce afterwards how he's supposed to make amends, how he's supposed to live with it.

Which leads me onto the other thing (and hopefully the last cause wow this is getting long) even Damian at his absolute worst only performs extreme violence out of either self defense or logic to him. He doesn't do it out of maliciousness (or at least that isn't the motivating factor). His worst actions were probably in his introduction where he 1) He accosted Alfred and stole the key to exit the batcave 2) Decapitated a villian 3) Attacked Tim

So let's get background on these events from Damian's pov. Damian has never been told who his father is and has to duel his mother every year on his birthday for the chance to find out. And then on his 10th birthday he wins and then that same night he's taken on a plane to go live with this man who he's told about on the plane ride over, then his first impression of him is Bruce fighting a bunch of manbats. His mother says she's leaving him with him indefinitely not telling him when she'll be back. And then this man who he only found out about hours beforehand takes him on another plane to a foreign country where he knows no-one and he finds out his father has other children as well. He's then locked in a small room adjoining a fucking cave full of weapons and told virtually nothing with no-one really talking to him except for them telling him that oh yeah everyone you know and trust is evil and your whole world view is wrong. And then when he yells at Bruce and has what's honestly best described as a temper tantrum (BC oh yeah he was literally 9 years old until a couple hours ago) Bruce in a bid to try and control his anger (since he's not sure how dangerous he is yet) uses league tactics on Damian telling him that he's dishonouring those who taught him. So the literal child whose spent his 10th birthday being flown around the globe to be a dumped in a foreign country with a man he's never met and only knows is a good fighter with a family consisting of an unknown amount of other allies who are similarly trained and then was locked in a room after being told his whole life is a lie might be forgiven for latching onto the only familiar thing here and going 'oh! Now I know how this works'

With the knowledge that Damian definitely decided from this conversation that the bats operate the same as the league it's pretty clear his reasoning is

1) Accosting Alfred and and stealing the key - a) I don't think you'd wanna be locked in a space by a bunch of strangers either no matter how nice the space is b) he probably assumed it was a challenge to see whether he was able to break out and a way they were testing his worth/ability

2) Decapitated a villian - once again assuming this is a test and trying to prove his worth/help his father in the mission to stop crime he was just told about

3) attacked Tim - a) Damian assumes that since Tim is home that he must be the current favourite and it's already known that in the league the way you replace someone is by killing them thus proving you were better than them. B) in the league if you were not the favourite/the best you were disposable c) the only way Damian knows how to earn/receive love is by performing violence, it's pretty reasonable that a 10 year old would try to go above and beyond to earn their new father's love (especially for a child like Damian whose always looking for that unconditional love he's been denied)

From Damian's perspective here he's being the best son anyone could want, he's doing the most past the point he'd be expected to and only being met with anger and disgust. Not to mention that from his view he's literally ensuring his safety since once again in the league Damian was one of the only people whose safety was ensured by proxy of him being the heir/favourite, we literally see them kill other leaguers as part of training.

Like this isn't to excuse what he did or say it's right but it is to point out that it WAS right from Damian's point of view and that he doesn't do what he does out of malice or blood thirst he's just a small child who quite literally didn't know any better.

(also him being mean is similarly a self defense thing, it's fairly common in abused kids. It's the logic of you can't hurt me if I hurt you first/you can't hurt me if I don't let you get close enough)

[cerealboxlore]

feeling evil, have some angst

so twins mary and billy, their parents died and they were both “taken in” by ebenezer and, shockingly enough, he sucks

ebenezer ends up almost killing mary and ditches her in some alley or something where someone kind finds her and gets her into a better place/adopts her but she lost her memories due to the trauma, i imagine that she very vaguely remembers billy and just knows something is missing but generally lives a pretty good life

anyways, billy saw her get beaten by ebenezer and doesnt know what happened to her after and might assume shes dead

he leaves ebenezer and lives on the streets (maybe gets some sort of revenge?)

later he becomes the champion and even layer joins the league

and one day while on a mission with the league he gets hit by a magic spell (or maybe fear toxin? but i’m thinking more a spell) that makes him relive his worst memory/fear

he manages to hold off the effects until he gets to the watchtower (maybe thinks nothing is wrong until it hits him at the watchtower?) and his whole demeanour just changes

he goes from happy cap to scared child to so full of rage and sorrow that it engulfs martian manhunter

i can’t organise anymore of my thoughts rn but basically it’s not fun times

Never stop being evil, honey bee 🐝

I've been going absolutely buck wild over this and let me tell you, the angst in this nutrious fic meal is divine! My compliments to the chef! 👨‍🍳

For the twin batson siblings, it's always been a thought of mind of how they could get separated from each other for so long. It's a thing that has different scenarios and details depending on the author/writer, but I thoroughly enjoy the idea of Mary and Billy being under Ebeneezer's care until Ebeneezer decides to get rid of one of them, via not so good means, and the other ending up running away in fear. Billy was always the one who ran away in my eyes, but the reasons into his run away decision is much deeper than one originally thinks.

Billy doesn't want to run away. He's a child who needs protecting. But he's led to believe that he has to, out of fear and wanting to live. Seeing his own twin sister getting near the brink of death would traumatize Billy. They share the same face, seeing Mary get hurt would scare Billy into thinking he was next. Maybe Ebeneezer got tired of having to take care of children, maybe he wanted their trust funds/inheritance, or maybe there was an accident with his car and he didn't see Mary playing in the drive way (or did he), and wanted to ditch the body. So many scenarios that could have lead to the ultimate destruction of this family. Mary is also a child, and to go through all of that would certainly be painful for ber to endure. I wouldn't blame her if the memories of this was too much to handle, causing her to repress everything into an amnesia like state for her own safety. She's fortunate enough to get adopted into a new family and have a fresh start in life, but she will be apart and missing that half of her that is her brother. She may not remember Ebeneezer hurting her, but the scars will stay.

As for sweet Billy Batson, running away to become homeless wasn't easy, but it's a decision he felt was safer than being in that horror of a house. He eventually becomes the champion of magic and joins the Justice League, good for him, but the traumas and tragedies of his past haunt him more than he realizes. Despite having all the magic in the world, he's still a child crying for his parents and sister deep down. This can be exposed/played with if a certain Venusian worm wanted to experiment and rot away his mind to destroy him, and what better way to do it than with Mr. Mind partnering up with the Scarecrow. I'm unsure what deal they would have to work together, but the mind is a terrifying place that holds the person together. A mind controller and a man who is fear itself would have a hell of a time together facing the Justice League.

Perhaps these two are hunting down members of the league together, slowly making their attempts to dwindle their numbers of active heroes down for a larger scale plot. Make the heroes of the world defenseless against their minds and inner fears, too mentally weak to fight against the later plot. The JL is on high alert, warning their fellow heroes of what's to come. Cap is too late for their message, already a victim to the evil duo's diabolical mental manipulation. Mr. Mind knows who Cap is and uses it to his advantage, controlling his memories to bring forward the worst memories of his life; his time in Ebeneezer's house. The abuse the went though. The starvation. The sense of worthlessness. Reliving what he believes were Mary's last moments. The blood. The dread. The fear.

Billy knows he's losing his mind. He can feel his mental fortitude rotting away and melting into insanity over the waves of grief and wrath engulfing him. Perhaps this also causes the seven deadly enemies to being to break free from their prisons as well. He manages to make it to the watch tower, desperately admiting that he needs help immediately, losing his smile and crying a storm of tears that won't stop.

He's defenseless. He feels weak. Worthless. The memories that haunt him are possessing his every thought, eating away at him.

I'd very much like to see how Martian Manhunter would handle this situation, especially considering how he would find out fast that Billy is just a kid, but also the dangers of entering a mind that Mr. Mind has tampered with. I'd love to see more interactions between these people, as well as batman, since Scarecrow is his villain/rogue after all.

I had an absolute blast with this ask! There's so much potential that goes with Billy and his past traumas, especially when it concerns Mary. The constant separation anxiety they both must feel, but Mary doesn't know what she's feeling separated from must be awful.

Oh goodness I wrote a lot

[ultramaga]

I think there's a difference between making him a weeping man-child and a compassionate hero, and lately the former has been the only acceptable model of masculinity.

Superman is stoic. He endures psychological and physical pain that would break most men. He plays weaker than he is as Clark.

In this situation, most would kill themselves, or just not struggle too hard to stay alive.

Superman, with no powers, doesn't fall into despair. He is stoic. He endures.

Can't fly? He drives a car.

No super strength? People forget he trains with Batman, who constantly demanded he be prepared, to not be dependent on his powers.

Superman, with human limitations, faces adversities, and wins.

He doesn't cry. He's nothing like the feminist version of the acceptable man.

And when he finds the villain who killed everyone he loved, he is so enraged he nearly murders him.

But doesn't. Because that villain changed over the long years, and now regrets everything he did. Because that villain is no more, and there is just another repentant sinner in his place.

And because Superman has that iron will, and holds back his righteous fury, the ancient one works with him, and sends him back to be able to stop him, erasing his own existence.

There are many ways to be a strong man.

I think it is clearest when you see Batman and Superman together.

They are both compassionate, kind, stoic and strong.

But Batman is always trying to get Superman to be harder, because he thinks that the world will break him. And as we saw in "hereafter", he's not wrong. Superman needed the training from Batman, needed to be able to cope with being merely human.

That is how Batman helps men. Be stronger. Know that your enemy will fight dirty. Know that the world is not fair.

This is how Superman helps men. Not just through his power, but through humility.

Here, Bruce, stop and let yourself enjoy this moment.

The world is important, yes, but so are you.

Take time to be simply a man and enjoy the unwrapping of a present or the singing of a carol. Enjoy the time right now. Tomorrow will wait.

In the animated series, he does it with the Martian Manhunter.

In both cases, the moral is the same. There's nothing wrong with being stoic. There's nothing wrong with being compassionate. Everything has a time and a place.

Read some actual comics, Kyle.

Superman is an incredibly kind and tender character. (If he’s not being written that way, then he’s not being written well.) He inspires hope not just through his heroics, but also through his kindness toward other people. That’s his thing. Don’t you DARE call tenderness a “weakness.” Get your toxic masculinity the hell away from me and go read a badly written Batman comic if you want a “tough” male character.

[violetswritingg]

Canary Cry

Robin/Nightwing (Dick Grayson) x OFC!

Description: Her violence was silent. Until it wasn't.

"I'm fine."

"Fine is just another word for drowning."

Rating T-M (mentions of blood, child abuse, mental health, cannon situations of violence and the like. Loss of parents, hard of hearing/deaf character, poorly written fight scenes lol)

Want to read the other chapters?

Click here

17

Mount Justice

September 23, 06:34 EDT

It was too early for Kate to be this annoyed.

It was just past the crack of dawn, but Kate had been up since three in the morning due to time zone differences between the cave and Star City. This meeting was supposed to give them answers but it had just been a bunch of stalling up until this point, Green Arrow coming out of the kitchen with a bowl of pretzels. Placing them in front of Wally, and even sitting right across from him Kate knew she wasn't going to see a single one of them enter her stomach.

She had tried to stand in the back with Conner but was dragged down by Robin, forced between him and M'gann on one side of the table that had been set up in the training area of the cave. Distant sounds of construction and clanging metal the only evidence to the massive repairs that were being done at the moment by other league members.

"Thanks, but no thanks." The speedster grumbled in full suit. Just like the rest of the team. Thank god it was a Saturday and none of them had school, though none of them would have gone with what had happened.

"Yeah, what we want are answers, about Red Tornado and his siblings." Robin piped up, following Wally's train of complaints directed at Oliver.

"Exactly!" Wally exclaimed. The man in green just looked at the boy through his mask for a second before grabbing the bowl of pretzels. Which Wally was quick to grab back.

"Leave the bowl." Wally huffed, starting to stuff his face with the snack food. Kate let out a long breathe, propping her elbows on top of the table and leaning her forehead into her hands.

"Are you okay?" Robin sprung into action, turning his body to face her, gloved hand on the back of her shoulder. The other coming to her head, "Is it your head?" Kate huffed at the attention. Pulling away from the boy's grip as much as she could without pushing M'gann off the bench.

"I'm fine Robin. I'm just tired." Kate didn't mean to snap, but she was exhausted, she caught her own tone and groaned, peaking at the boy who just wanted to help, "Sorry. I really am just tired."

"It's okay. Just, let me know okay? Don't keep it to yourself. I can't help if you don't tell me. I've installed some imaging software in my glove computer should we need to do field scans..." Robin paused, heavy eyes meeting Kate's, "Just in case."

The girl wanted to fight his concern, but stopped herself. Letting out a long breath and nodded.

"You knew?!" Kate, and the rest of the team jumped at Conner's yelling. The clone suddenly in front of Kaldur, his hands fisting the Atlantean's shirt and throwing him into the wall behind him. Batman not even moving from his position beside the two teenage boys. Having once been having a quiet conversation with the leader of the team that Kate paid no mind to before.

"That android and his maniac family almost killed M'gann, and Kate!" Conner screamed in Kaldur's face. M'gann quick to fly over to the pair.

"Conner what are you doing?!"

"Kaldur knew we had a traitor among us and said nothing!" The clone responded, anger filling his voice.

Kate's eyebrows furrowed at the news, slowly walking over with the rest of the team towards the negative interaction. Glancing at the Atlantean before looking to Artemis and then back to the two boys.

"You knew?" Robin demanded, Wally right behind him with Kate trailing behind Artemis, seeing Robin's glances her way.

"And didn't tell us?"

"I sought to protect the team from-"

"Protect us from what?! Knowledge that might have saved our lives?" Artemis jumped on the train, pushing it to move faster than it already was. The breaks broken, threatening the demise of the person tied down on the tracks.

"You almost died!" Conner's voice overlapped Artemis' scathing question.

"Enough." Batman's gravelly tone made everything come to a stop, Conner releasing Kaldur, him and the rest of the team gathering around Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary. "With Red Tornado missing, the team will now be overseen by rotating supervisors. Captain Marvel has volunteered to take first shift."

The broad man in red, white, and gold, stepped forward. Hands coming to rest on his hips in a classic superhero pose that felt a little too practiced for Kate to believe it was natural. "I'm really looking forward to hanging out with you guys." There was a youthful glint in Captain Marvel's eyes that made Kate and the other's exchange looks.

Conner started whispering something to Kaldur Kate couldn't hear until Batman stepped forward, "Red Tornado is a member of the Justice League, that makes him a League responsibility. You will leave him to us."

"That's easy for you to say." The words came pouring out of Kate's mouth before she could stop them, the girl ignoring the wide eyes and warning looks from Canary and her teammates, "You didn't almost drown or suffocate to death because of him and his family."

There was a tense moment where you could hear a pin drop in the space. Batman's cowled eyes narrowing noticeably, Kate barely managing to match his look before it got to be too much. The chill running down her spine forcing her to turn her head away, crossing her arms over her stomach and clenching her eyes shut.

"Be that as it may, I have another assignment for this team." Kate huffed out a breath as Batman pulled up the holo-computer. Articles about the mayor of Gotham being attacked popping up and constantly moving onto new articles about the same topic. Kate wanted to scream.

"Gotham Mayor attacked by Guerilla Gorilla." Wally read the prominent headline out loud as Robin scoffed.

"Batman please tell me you're not sending us on this joke of a wild ape chase." Robin demanded, coming forward as he complained. Ending up right next to Wally, leaving his spot from Kate's side.

"I never joke about the mission."

~~*~~

Kate was about to rip her hair out, Robin's incessant huffing and snarky comments under his breath about the situation and Kaldur and Batman – as well as his constant oversight of her every move – had her about ready to break.

It was just the cherry on top that Captain Marvel decided to tag along.

"Translation, he blames us for the Red fiasco. Doesn't trust us." Robin muttered over his shoulder to Wally and Kate. The girl huffing and shaking her head, walking around the boys as Kaldur came up behind Wally. Only getting a few steps before Robin's iron grip is on her wrist. "Where are you going?"

"To my seat on the bioship, Jesus Robin can I get like three feet?" Kate bit, snatching her wrist away from the boy and stomping up the bioship's ramp. Plopping down in her seat with a huff as it sprung from the floor. Artemis bowing her head to meet Kate's eyes from her own seat, the younger girl just motioning to the boys appearing behind her and rolling her eyes. Artemis sighed and shook her head as Aqualad appeared last and the bioship closed itself up and once everyone was strapped in they were in the sky.

~~*~~

Northern India

September 23, 21:36 IST

"Are you sure you wanna-"

"Yes Robin, I'm going to drop with you and Artemis." Kate snapped, the click of the carabiner attaching to her belt punctuating her words, and adding to the glare she leveled at the boy. Hitting the wings symbol and watching as her suit changed before her eyes to the all-black stealth version.

Once everyone was on the ground safely and the coast was clear as determined by Robin, Kaldur ordered everyone to stealth, "We'll review mission parameters."

"Parameters? We don't need no stinking parameters." Wally griped, hitting his suit symbol and going stealth.

"It's recon, we know what to do." Robin added, looking to Kate as if she would agree with him but she just huffed and crossed her arms over her stomach and sank into her hip. Robin huffed and motioned for Kate to follow him, the girl just ignored him and he huffed again, shaking his head and looking back to Kaldur. "The three of us started this team because the Justice League was keeping secrets from us." His anger, his betrayal was clear. It was the same negativity that was infecting the whole team.

"Or did you forget that?" Wally continued, "Like you forgot to tell us about the mole?" He finished, sliding his goggles onto his face.

"Finch come on." Robin held out his hand to the girl impatiently.

"No. Just go Robin." Kate glared; the boy receded as if he had been hit. His frown twisting Kate's stomach but her annoyance was stronger than her guilt at the moment.

"You're really gonna choose him? Over us?" Wally barked a scoff, "You're just as bad as he is."

"I'm not choosing anyone Kid. I just don't want to have dumb and dumber breathing down my neck every step I take tonight." Kate scowled and turned away from the boys. Hearing their footsteps retreating after a second of hesitation and a quiet 'let's just go Rob.'

Kate watched with a shake of her head as Conner tried to 'keep M'gann safe' only for her to break away and them have a psychic conversation no one else was privy to but judging on their facial expressions, M'gann was ripping him a new one.

"I just wanna protect you." Conner balked, as if he had done nothing wrong.

"Like Aqualad did? I'm not sure you protection or your patronizing is good for our health." Artemis cut in taking M'gann with her as they walked away.

"You coming Kate?" Artemis asked via mental link, both girls looking to the youngest of their gender with raised eyebrows. "Sister solidarity."

"Who else is gonna keep an eye on Kaldur? Trust is a two way street." Kate visibly shrugged but Artemis and M'gann agreed, telling her to stay safe before disappearing themselves.

Leaving Conner, Kaldur, Captain Marvel, and Kate. Kate almost wanted to laugh at how ridiculous this all was. But her own anger towards Kaldur for not telling them was keeping her annoyed and upset.

Not as upset as the clone though, "Why didn't you stop them! You're supposed to be in charge."

"I am-" Conner just held up a hand towards the Atlantean and leaped away.

"That's great. Scattered, no communication set up, vague recon parameters, what could possibly go wrong." Kate sighed, pinching the bridge of her nose.

"Um, did I miss the part where you actually said what the plan was?" Captain Marvel asked tentatively, almost skittish as he leaned forward slightly to be closer to Kaldur's ear. The Atlantean looking towards Kate.

"Are you planning on taking off too?" Kaldur asked, his frown pulling his entire face down. Eyebrows sloped heavily with guilt.

"Nope. Lead the way." Kaldur's expression lightened slightly as he sighed and turned on his heel, Kate trailing behind the team leader, keeping stride with Captain Marvel. Though she had the sneaking suspicion that was on purpose on his part.

"So... you and Robin huh?" Kate just looked up at the man, face twisted in disgust.

"Seriously?" She scoffed and jogged ahead a little. Captain Marvel scrambling to pick up his pace.

"Wait for me!"

~~*~~

"Why did you stay while everyone else left?" Kaldur asked as they traipsed through Indian jungle. Kate could tell the question had been sitting on his mind since they stepped foot into the jungle, Captain Marvel in the sky above them.

"You thought the mole was Artemis." Kate's nonanswer made Kaldur stop in his tracks. The boy taking in a deep breath.

"I was not sure of who it may have been." Kate could see his honesty, but it was only a half-truth.

"But you were suspicious, otherwise why ask about her maintaining her loyalties?" Kate held out her hands in front of her as sign of peace, "Aqualad, I get it. I was just as suspicious as you were when she first showed up and I know her history. It was a condition of her signing on with GA, that was a boundary set up in the beginning of Canary taking me in. No secrets. I don't like being lied to, and that includes Lies of Omission." Kate took a couple steps forward, putting space between her and Kaldur under the guise of looking around.

"Do you not do the same when you refuse to share anything with the team?" Aqualad brought up, making a good point. Kate stopped and let out a breath.

"That's the thing Aqualad. My secrets, they're personal. My secrets don't endanger those I care about, those I'm responsible for." Kate turned to face Aqualad, jaw stiff, eyes of metal, "Yours did. I can respect trying to investigate subtly, seeing if there was any possibility of it being true, but once you were sure it wasn't one of us you should have told the team. You should have trusted us." Kate finished, her frown pulling at his heart in painful yanks.

"I was not sure yet." He tried, his voice weak in his ears.

"You should have been." Kate couldn't stop the gut reaction from spilling from her, biting her lip when Aqualad glanced to the forest floor in guilt. With a breath she continued, "It was... unfortunate things went down the way they did, but like I said, I get it. I'm not happy about it, but I get it." Kate sighed, motioning for Kaldur to keep walking, letting him stay in step with her. "Working with Canary I never get away from the shrink wrap around my head, but she's taught me things about myself and about life and this job that someone on the outside never thinks of. Like how challenging it can be, to be a leader, and still human – well Atlantean, but you get what I'm trying to say." Kate waved her hand in front of her, glancing at Kaldur as she continued moving forward, stepping over a tree root in her path.

"We all make mistakes, some bigger than others, but if we can't forgive ourselves how do you expect anyone else to forgive you?" Kate's question made the boy pause, Kate following suit a couple steps ahead. "I used to live on the street in Star. Before Canary found me. Took me in." Kaldur's eyes snapped to her, wide in shock. In all the time she's been with the team they hadn't learned too much about her past, "I survived on base instincts, fight or flight, kill or be killed. There was no time for silly things like friends, or empathy, or trusting another person with anything – much less my life. Silly things like forgiveness, or giving people a chance to redeem themselves. Life or death is all I cared about, some days one more than the other. But after all this time... after all this work to get here... I like to think I've become something different. Something better. And at the end of the day a large part of that is the team." Kate shrugged into a tree, leaning back against the damp bark.

"My friends. My family. You're a part of that Aqualad." Kate breathed, thanking the fact her mask lenses covered the water in her eyes from being seen by the boy in front of her. "I never wish to be in your position, ever. Because I can imagine it really sucks in moments like this, and to report to bats... yikes." Kate forced a watery chuckle, Kaldur doing the same, "I have my secrets, and I may be a hypocrite but I also know when I need to be honest. I probably would have done the same thing in your position, with the info you had. I would have done the exact same thing. And that's what sucks."

Kate forced another laugh, kicking at the moss covered ground, "Because while It hurts that you didn't tell us. That you kept that secret from us, your friends, your family on the surface world. I get it. So I can't be angry with you, but I am upset. How can I not be upset?" A harsh laugh devoid of all humor bubbled angerly past her lips as she gestured off to the side, "Because that- that could have been avoided. I don't like it when I see the people that I've let myself come to genuinely care for get hurt but then- it's all just fucked." Kate's shoulders released what seemed to be a lifetime's worth of tension as heavy breath exited her lungs.

"I'm sorry." Kaldur stood at attention. Spine ramrod straight, eyes straight forward. Not looking for absolution. Just wanted to speak his truth.

"I know you are. I also know that this gorilla isn't going to find itself. Let's get movin' yeah?" Kate sent him a small grin, the older boy giving her one as well with a small nod.

"Let's."

~~*~~

[the-dracologist]

Cooking up a Kara Zor-El arrives on earth early AU that puts her on earth a few years before Doomsday arrives. She’s just incapacitated alongside the rest of the Justice League, so she’s unable to change the outcome of the fight and loses her cousin to Krypton’s monstrous cloned weapon. One day, she’s visiting his grave only to find that his body has been stolen.

Tracking the theft back to Cadmus, she razes their labs in a righteous fury, seeing their attempts to clone his “corpse” as just a repeat of the the very scientific sins that got her cousin killed. She destroys clones 1-12, who are severely deformed, easily enough.

But then she reaches Lab 13 and all she sees staring back at her is little Kal, looking the same as he did the day they left Krypton. She can’t do it. She breaks down crying, the limp form of her cousin still draped over one shoulder. Then, she reaches for the tube the child was growing in, now already looking 5-6 years old-

Guardian’s shield comes flying at her, knocking her hand away. The two fight, Guardian trying to defend 13, and Kara only wanting to free him. She manages to break the kid free, now looking about 12 years old, grabs Kal’s body, and flees

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Halloween prompts no. 1

Phantom gets smacked through a portal and lands directly in front of Darskeid, who immediately begins to monolog before trying to induct Phantom into his army. Our glowy boy isn't having it though and they fight.

Darkseid is actually impressed by the child's battle prowess and the ability to deflect his Omega beams, but he makes a crucial mistake.

He underestimated Phantom.

Needless to say, Danny was forced to kill the dark god in order to escape. (Or his avatar??) He has a hard time, even though he knows this is probably the most evil guy he's had to defeat and this is the first time he's had to kill. Sadly it won't be the last either as a tyrannical government won't be destroyed simply by destroying one part of it, no matter how powerful that part is. Also, Darkseids more loyal followers and his son are chasing him throughout Apokolips, trying to kill him.

After killing many of the people following him since he had to use lethal force just to get them to stop moving he was in a pretty rough state mentally and just wanted to return to the zone and find the portal. If he had plans to cry into the soft fabric of his sisters sweater than that was nobodies business but his own. Somehow, as he curled up in a nook in a large boulder somewhere his wish was granted and the entirety of Apokolips-the whole planet- was transported into the ghost zone.

Danny could hardly believe it. But his troubles weren't over. Soon after the world was teleported, the skeletons of the zone began rising and fighting off the parademons and whatnot from Apokolips and whenever an enemy soldier fell they were transformed into a skeletal version of whatever they were and fought against their still living companions.

Once the battle was over, the people of Apokolips were subdued, and Phanyom was completely worn out he left back into Amity Park and stole some of his parents force field generators and returned to find the planet was already surrounded by a ghostly force field that refused to let anything out. Shrugging, Danny went home and decided not to question it.

Now. About that crying/ therapy session.

Danny didn't know how the world was transported into the zone or why. Nor did he know why the skeletons were so keen on protecting him. Might have something to do with him being the Ghost King via "right of conquest" after he defeated Pariah Dark. Sadly the Observants and other people in power purposely kept that information from him so he would know to take the throne.(Clockwork was vetoed and ordered not to say anything to the boy. He only smirked in response) Now that same "right of conquest" has made it were everything that once belonged to Darkseid now belonged to Phantom and was being transported into the zone and isolated by it.

The Justice League noticed the entire planet disappeared and went to investigate.

[redheadjustin]

Can I request a Dc X kid Kryptonian reader? Specifically Conner or the other supes. Maybe readers parents survived the destruction of the planet, or the reader is from a different universe or timeline.

Maybe the reader is stronger than your average Kryptonian, so he's born with white hair instead. And he can't control his powers well. Maybe he gets attached to Conner? It's up to you. -🐊

Conner hated Different dimensions. Most heroes do. They make things more complicated and that was about the LAST thing heroes wanted. Especially when it resulted in you being here. Don’t get Conner wrong, he was happy to have you. Though officially he was your older brother, you had a father son relationship with the clone of Superman. He was sweet to you and never needed to raise his voice, not that it was needed given your super hearing, but you were probably the most well behaved kid but that was due to the dimension you came from.

You came from a dimension where there were three survivors of Krypton. Superman AKA Clark Kent, Supergirl AKA Kara Danvers and your father, Omega AKA Y/F/N Kent. Yes, your father was the older brother To Superman. Key word, Was. You see, Your home dimension was an offshoot of the one the Justice lords occupied. But, your father was also killed beside Wally West AKA The Flash. With The Flash and Omega dead the public became restless. The public wanted Luthor Impeached and removed from office. The Public mourned for the loss of two amazing heroes. The public watched as the execution was aired on live television. They watched as Omega Held The Flash in his arms as a kryptonite bullet was shot through his heart. The public’s reaction wasn’t that different from the hero community’s. But for the Justice League? They were out for blood. They lost two of their founding members. They lost both their older brother figure and Younger brother.

But, the one whose life was most impacted was you. You were four at the time but you still remember everything. You remember your Uncle Clark telling you about your dad. You remember crying into the S sheleid. You remember smiling when he told you Luthor was dead. You thought that's how the world should be. That the Justice Lords needed to be in control.

Then you found old YouTube clips of your dad as Omega. And you noticed that your Uncle Clark wasn’t like he was now. That he smiled and the world seemed more free. Then, the Justice Lords found a dimension like yours but with three key differences. Their world’s Flash and Omega were still alive. As was their Luthor.

You were about 6 when the Justice Lords went to Take over the Justice League’s world. You were left in the Batcave when you accidentally set a portal to the Justice Leauge’s Superman’s fortress of solitude. You were a six year old boy so off course you went through not knowing that your Uncle Clark was getting his ass handed to him.

You were in awe of this world’s fortress of solitude. It was the same as the one you grew up around. But this one feels lighter and purer. It had all the same trophies and such but this felt like it was all done in the RIGHT way.

You were admiring the trophies and didn’t notice footsteps behind you. Conner was surprised to see a small child come out of a type of portal he hadn't seen before. He smiled with bittersweet happiness as you looked at the Omega memorial. Some things don’t change from universe to universe. This universe’s Omega was killed by doomsday. Not in a political execution. You looked up in awe at both the statue and the uniform. Justice Lord Superman couldn’t bear to look at your father’s uniform.

In this universe Omega didn’t have time to settle down thus you were never born in this universe. Conner moved up slightly behind you. It was only then did he see the red sun bracelet on your wrist. Your Uncle Clark had said “I don’t want you to have powers so I don’t lose you too.”  It made sense at first but now it felt like he was scared of you. Conner knew what red sun felt like and he absolutely hated the fact anyone would put a red sun bracelet on a six year old.

“Yeah, Uncle Y/F/N was a cool hero. He was super kind to everyone.” You jumped at the voice. You turned to the voice and thought maybe Uncle Clark had a kid hidden. But as the two of you began to talk You quickly began to realize this wasn’t your universe. The two of you were unaware the Justice Lords had invaded this universe. And when Connor contacted the Justice League this world’s Superman Came to meet you and you told him your story. Justice League's Superman didn’t want to send you back but he couldn't support you in this world. So, Connor took you in.

Connor used Titans Tower a lot during your childhood as it had a lot of rooms and was hardly okcupid. Connor loves to carry you around. You were hardly on your feet. He also loves to hug you and also teaches you how to fly. You are just a bit faster than Connor but you think that Connor just lets you win. He’s alway there for a tuck in at night. No matter what. Darkside couldn’t stop him from tucking you in.

Overall you were very happy to be Connor’s son and couldn't wish for anyone better. You missed your Daddy but Connor kept your mind off it and took care of any problem you might have. And You were his Superkid and you couldn’t be happier.

[wesavegotham]

@fancyfade and I talked about DC's habit of publishing stories that make Bruce look like a bad father, but them also not really wanting to commit to it and openly blame him, which often leads to weird victim-blaming, non-apologies and sometimes nonsensical retcons to save Bruce's reputation later on.

And I imagine that it put the writers in a very difficult situation when editorial told them to create this very long storyline that was supposed to end with Damian becoming the main villain for 5G. They started this with Justice League: No Justice and the Adam Glass' Teen Titans run in summer/autumn 2018, but Death Metal would only pave the way for 5G in early 2021.

Meaning this wouldn't be a fast fall from grace, but more like tumbling down a very long staircase for over two years.

Batman being too busy to grasp the gravity of the situation and thus blamelessly fail to intervene might have been plausible for one or two short arcs of Damian becoming evil, but this was way too long. They had to acknowledge the conflict eventually, but they also couldn't have Bruce prevent Damian from seperating from the batfamily to turn into a villain.

So they seemed to have settled on "Bruce is in fact concerned about Damian's estrangement from him, but he's also too busy and emotionally constipated to ever actually get off his ass and properly communicate with his son."

It's probably one of the few things in this mess of a storyline that DC has managed to keep somewhat consistent:

Damian and Bruce had an off-panel fight in Justice League: No Justice #4 that seems to have ended with Damian seperating from Bruce to found a new Teen Titans team. Bruce's words indicate that instead of trying to stop his son he has decided to accept this seperation for now.

Damian briefly returns to Wayne Manor in Teen Titans #26 to hack the batcomputer and runs into Alfred who claims that Bruce is concerned for Damian. But it also voluntarily or involuntarily highlights the discrepancy in Bruce's behaviour. He seems to say that he's worried about Damian, but then never acts on that worry. He's not doing anything to resolve their problems. He only shows up about 20 issues later when it's far too late.

Bruce's reluctance to stop this from escalating becomes even more apparent in Detective Comics #996 when Bruce asks Damian to talk and make up, to which Damian agrees.

Too bad it's only part of a simulation:

and while Damian was in fact present at Wayne Manor Bruce chose not to follow the desire to fix his relationship with Damian that he expressed in the simulation and rather chooses to talk about Gotham's crime rate before meeting up with Leslie Thompson to celebrate his birthday with her and Alfred.

Bruce similarly deflects Damian's accusation of showing more care for strange children than him by proclaiming that the city needs him and then guilt-tripping Damian by reminding him of the teenager Bruce wants Damian to look for because he was already busy fighting a gang and didn't have the time to do it himself in Detective Comics #1017.

This, well, let's call it a refusal to face their problems continues in Pennyworth RIP when Damian leaves the wake in tears and Barbara explicitly demands from Bruce to go after Damian. Which he doesn't do and Tim is apparently more interested in telling his Alfred story than in convincing Bruce to get off his ass to comfort a crying child that blames himself thinking he got their beloved grandfather killed.

Bruce's problems with opening his mouth to talk things out with Damian before it's too late might have turned out less catastrophic if Damian wasn't equally emotionally constipated. But Bruce is supposed to be the adult in this relationship and with Alfred dead and Dick calling himself Ric there was nobody to talk with Damian for him anymore.

It took Damian killing Brother Blood (and planning to kill even more) and thus DC completing their destruction of Damian as a hero for DC to allow Bruce to step in since now the worst had already happened:

Of course DC had to make it clear that our world's greatest detective Batman had somehow no clue what brought Damian to do all of this.

Then, still not willing to open his mouth to calm Damian down, Bruce seemed to think that hugging it out with Damian while he went through an episode of murderous rage was somehow a good idea.

Which it wasn't. Who would have thought. But it's enough effort so DC can claim Bruce tried, right?

Bruce even proclaims his love for his son and admits he failed him! Which would have been more believable had this desaster lead to a change in behaviour.

Instead the arc ends with Damian quitting and walking away into a dark alley and Bruce also having already vanished.

DC could have shown us that Bruce learned from his mistakes, but chose not to because they didn't actually want Damian to come back home.

Seriously, Jon:

and even Jason (!) went out to look for Damian:

Bruce...did nothing and waited. Again. I really don't understand why DC thought it was a good idea to make that a recurring trait for Bruce in recent years. Yes, neglect also counts as child abuse, not getting involved doesn't absolve Bruce of blame, DC🤦‍♀️

Like, he canonically sat on ass, probably for several weeks after Damian killed a villain and all the other stuff, thinking Damian would return home and ask for his job back on his own. As if Damian's pride and insecurity would allow him to do that. Of course he chose a more roundabout way to get in contact again🥴

Bruce didn't really seem that eager to see Damian again though and chose to repeatedly postpone looking for him to deal with other things. Again.

Anyway, at the end of the arc Bruce it finally seemed to come to Bruce's attention that it's actually possible to follow someone after they walk away from you:

But of course DC can't end this storyline nobody liked here, so Bruce forgets that lesson two pages later.

Instead Bruce decided to wait until Damian was gone again to...finally make an effort to search for him?

And it only took us almost three years to reach this point!

Anyway, we don't see them meet until one year later in our time, when they ran into each other again in Shadow War Alpha:

But when Ra's was killed Bruce at first couldn't open his mouth to talk:

...and when he did he put his foot in his mouth:

How many times has Bruce let Damian walk away from him at this point? You could make a drinking game out of this.

As I've talked about before, this apology scene could have been good...if they didn't feel the need to retcon the events of City of Bane to make it sound like it was Damian's fault even while Bruce puts the blame on himself.

But we could have moved on. We could have had them back as Batman and Robin!

Damn, I hit tumblr's picture limit. Anyway, we could have moved on! No more Bruce doing nothing while Damian's character gets written badly on purpose! No more Damian walking away while Bruce just stands there! No more punching each other!

But no! They needed to annouce a book called Batman vs Robin! With 100+ variant covers showing them punching each other! Bruce insulting Damian! Damian as one of the antagonists! Potentially partially to blame for a global crisis if Waid doesn't give us a twist! Amazing!

Fucking shoot me, I can't do this anymore.

[secretsandwriting]

Murder Made Us Do It

Part Twelve: A History On Cults

When a killer targeting couples manages to avoid both the Justice League and the Devil Fugitives, the two “enemies” decide to work together to bring him down. How do you catch a killer targeting couples? You bait him with couples. It couldn’t go wrong, right?

TW WARNINGS: Mentions of child abuse, death, human experimentation, kidnapping, electroshock therapy, phycological abuse, phycological horror, gunshot wounds, autopsies, bullet removal, shrapnel removal, animal abuse, organs outside of the body, starvation, forced iv, blood.

Probably over tagged but I figured better safe than sorry. Anyways idk how much I like this but its good enough! I hope those of you ok with reading it like it!

SUMMARIZED VERSION WITHOUT ALL THE TRIGGERS

ALSO, if you like it pls comment or reblog with your thoughts bc i would love to hear them :D

“I really hate to have to be the one to say it… But ever since we cut contact, Matchmaker hasn’t shown up, we’ve all been feeling like we’re being watched, and we keep hearing about these people with smiley face masks. Something is going on and the only people who knew all the details are Bruce, Dick, Jason, Tim, Jacob and ourselves. The onl-” Alistair looked ready to cry.

“And the only one who wouldn’t face direct problems from it would be Jacob.” Ry finished for him.

“But he took us in, helped us learn how to function in society, got us therapy and countless other things. Why would he do something like this?” It didn’t make sense, why would he put so much effort into helping the three of you while helping the other side.

“The biggest question is who’s he helpi-” A hand clamped over your mouth and held you down, within seconds Ali and Ry were pinned as well. A familiar weight was clamped over your neck and the pain that came with it was just as bad as you remembered.

“No! Please! I promise I’ll be good!” You begged the man in the white coat. “I promise! I’ll sit still and I won’t hurt anyone I’m not supposed to! Just please don’t put the collar on! It hurts so much!” He hadn’t listened and the power restraining collar had been forced on despite your begging.

You were pulled from your memories when you were lifted up after being securely cuffed. Jacob stood up front, talking with one of the old scientists you thought had been killed. He glanced over and smirked. His eyes didn’t hold the warmth you were used to. It was like he was someone else entirely.

“Get them in the van. Make sure no one notices.” 

Why couldn’t nice things last.

Tim looked down at his phone when it pinged. Alistair. A soft smile grew on his face and the rest of the family grinned to themselves. It was cute and good blackmail material. 

“What’d your boyfriend say?”

“It’s just a location. Their hou-” He was cut off by the sound of Jason’s phone. Ry judging by the look on his face. He stepped away to answer before coming back and putting it on speaker. It sounded like Trash. The chatter was clearly a racoon and he sounded upset.

“The SOS.” Dick looked sick.

“What.” Bruce stood up.

“Y/n told me that they have a three part SOS and that the order they would come in would be Alistair, Ry, and then her. But her part was just a bunch of numbers and a book-” He typed through his phone before  showing them a screenshot with a series of numbers. 

“That's a safe code.”

“We need to go now!”

The entire group moved fast, getting into costume before getting into vehicles and speeding away. Within record time they were entering the house. Everything looked normal until two disturbed animals came running in. Trash waved them in while Appa started moving further into the house. 

They were led to a bookshelf that Trash scaled until he reached one book and tugged, looking back at the group. Damian stepped forward.

“A history of Cults?” He reached out and grabbed the book to pull it out but it only went so far before it stopped and they heard a click. Appa yowled from her spot on the ground, front paws up on the bookshelf and almost mimicking pushing it. Steph moved to help the cat and the bookshelf moved easily revealing a safe. The safe’s door was ripped off and it was empty.

“They go-” Appa yowled, interrupting Bruce and turning their eyes down to where Trash was acting something out.

“Behind it!” Jason moved and started inspecting the safe, Tim joining him. “Here. Pull!” The safe was moved and under it was another safe. “The code!” Dick put in the code and the door opened. He pulled out three files and a notebook. On the front of the books, in all caps, READ IN A SECURE LOCATION! Back to the Batcave, this time, they called the rest of the league to join them. 

“Why are we here?”

“The three from Devil’s Fugitives. Ghost, Cryptic, and Hacker have been kidnapped. We don’t know why or by who but they left us everything to get into their safe where we pulled these.” Bruce set the files and the notebook on the table. “We’re going to go over them and see if we can get any information off of them.”

“Ok, why is Dick holding a cat and a raccoon clinging to Jason?”

“They’re the girl’s pets.” 

The first file was scanned in and within seconds the first page was pulled up. 

Subject 404

It was Alistair’s judging by his ability listed. The reality of how bad it was, slowly started sinking in. They all saw the signs of past trauma, wasted as the three refused to explain things they had asked about, how how they all had weird habits that seemed off. But they never would have realized the full extent.

They hadn’t even gotten past the first page with the training plan. Just the training plan. But it was horrific. The detailed daily schedule consisted of electroshock therapy, whatever the hell fear training was, 6 hours of training daily, then an additional 4 hours of mental training as well as a whole slew of other things they didn’t want to figure out.

The second page was worse. It was the scientist's notes. While it was all important and all extremely twisted, a few things stood out to them.

—---

Today pain training went well, the subject barely flinched when he was shot. Tomorrow we’ll try multiple shots.

—---

The subject is starting to settle down. He’s not trying to make friends anymore and he’s going quietly when the guards go get him.

—---

The subject is showing signs of fear towards rats. Tomorrow he’ll go through fear training and will be locked in a cage with them until he’s no longer afraid.

—---

Today we introduced the subject to another to compare compatibility.

—---

The subject seems to be working well with Subject 532. 

—---

The Subject and Subject 532 will be introduced to the third. 

—---

Subjects 404, 532, and 673 have been introduced and started training together. Its only a matter of time before our goals are completed.

—---

The subjects seem to be getting too friendly. He was put down.

—---

During Subject 404’s autopsy, 31 bullets, 45 shrapnel, and 392 foreign items were removed. They’re currently in the process of fixing the broken bones, once that’s complete we’ll move onto the enhanced Lazurus pit injections we created.

—---

The injection was just inserted into the subject's heart. Now it’s a waiting game

—---

The subject’s heart has started beating on its own.

—---

One of the side effects seems to be a change in blood color, It's now a dark turquoise. 

—---

The first training session since the revival has revealed an increase of physical abilities.

—---

The subjects are still too close. When a guard tried to separate them, he was killed without hesitation. They’re getting stronger, we’re getting closer.

The only sound in the cave was Tim’s sobs. It was horrific. No one wanted to move onto the other files but they had too. They needed a clue as to where they would be.

The Next file was labeled Subject 532. It was Ry’s. The first page was basically the same, all the normal information a doctors office would have and then another horrible schedule plan. The Rest of the file was notes, and they braced themselves for the worst. 

—---

Subject 532 is doing well with the fear training. It only takes an hour for her to get over most fears. 

—---

The subject is still overly friendly with others but that could work as a cover so we’re letting it slide for now.

—---

We’ve found a good punishment for the subject since meals weren’t enough leverage. Give her punishments to the animals she trains with and she’ll break.

—---

The subject was introduced to a potential teammate. Subject 404. We’re not sure how it will go yet.

—---

The two subjects seem to be working well together. We’ll adjust their training to match

—---

A Third subject will be introduced. It’s earlier than planned but we’re progressing well. 

—---

The first training with the third is going well. They’ve seemed to click well. Training will be adjusted again

—---

The subject has gotten too close with the others. We were afraid of this. Subject 532 has been terminated.

—---

Subject 532’s autopsy went well. All foreign objects were removed and bones and organs were patched up. Her organs will be placed in the body and the Enhanced Lazarus Pit serum will be injected tomorrow

—---

The Subject's heart has started beating. It’s estimated she’ll be back up in less than a week

—---

There's been a change in blood color as well as a few other vitals.

—---

The first training session went well. The subject is showing signs of advanced physical abilities and increased aggression. More testing will be needed to find the limit

—---

The subjects are still too close. When separation is mentioned around them they go ballistic. Its only a matter of time before they’re too strong for any chains mankind can create

Jason looked sick, between crying and screaming. No one could blame him. The things they read in the last hour were horrible. No one should have to go through anything like that. They continued on.

Subject #673

—---

Starvation training is going good. It’s been 6 days since her last meal and she hasn’t broken yet.

—---

The subject seems to be avoiding others, that's good for now

—---

The subject refused to drink anything again today. We’ll have to use an IV

—---

The subject is doing well with most of her training. She’s being prepared for her introduction with the other two subjects.

—---

The subject wasn’t working well with the other two until a little into the session. They’ll be good together

—---

Training has been adjusted to better match the three of them. However the subjects appear to be getting too close.

—---

As feared, the subjects became too close to each other. Subject 673 was killed.

—---

The subject was autopsied and put back together with the Enhanced Lazarus Pit liquid injected into her heart at the end. 

—---

Her vitals are returning to normal and she should be ready to go soon. Her blood has started to change color.

—---

The first training session has revealed an increase in physical ability. This will do wonders for our goal.

—---

The subject has started showing signs of increased hostility, right now sh-

It abruptly cut off and blood could be seen at the bottom of the paper. There was nothing to help there. Just a list and descriptions of the horrors the three went through. That left their only hope in the notebook.

The three boys had seen enough, they had spent the last 7 months getting closer to them only to have them ripped from them and then shown the horrors the three had grown up with. But they needed to find them. They needed to save them. And they needed information for that

Previous - Masterlist - Next

Taglist:

@marvelwasmadeforthebis @g0atmansbridge182

Forever Taglist:

@butterfly-skinnylegend @fuzzycloudsz @truly-dionysus @ornebiglia @ironspiderstark @harleyq127 @goingwiththewind @mirdy47707 @batlover1303 @marbles-posts @ophelia-t-starks @theshippinglion @spoonful-of-sugar8 @cecedrake2217 @writing-mlm  @y0u-should-be-scared-of-me @dreams0304 @caffineandanime @miniarchangel @hadesnewpersephone @marvel--unsolved @cipheress-to-k-pop @greek-meth-ology @humaneleanor @a-daydreamers-day @babybatjason @walkingdiaryforhumanity @watch-out-idiot @cloudie-skay @vintagexparker @screennamealreadyused @malfoys-demigod @caswinchester2000 @ladythugs @unadulteratedlyunique @romanceandsarcasm @battlenix @am3l1a-24

[rainbowfoxes]

I can normally deal with people not reading the comics, because not everyone has the means to or even the desire to, and that's okay! The cartoons and a lot of the shows are great, and I can typically adjust to the different continuities being referenced quick enough.

But the one thing that gets me every time in fics written by people who aren't familiar with the comics is the timeline. It is always incredibly wonky and all over the place and just. Incorrect. Sometimes it makes me laugh, sometimes it makes me 🙃, and others I have to leave right now immediately.

So in the interest of saving myself (and perhaps others) a ???? reaction in the future, here is a (very) rough and non-exhaustive order of events for the Bat Clan. The time between these events are variable, but this is the general order of things.

Thomas and Martha Wayne are murdered

Bruce goes on his training trip

Bruce comes back and begins his whole I Am The Night shtick

The Grayson family is murdered

Bruce fosters Dick

Dick debuts as Robin

Justice League/ Super Friends/ whatever group is formed

Dick forms the Teen Titans with Donna, Garth, Roy, and Wally.

Dick leaves Gotham (either for college, or because of an argument with Bruce)

Sometimes more Titans things happen. They also break up at some point

Raven forms the second iteration of the Teen Titans to fight her father. The team is comprised of Dick, Raven, Donna, Wally, Kori, Gar, and Vic.

Jason steals the tires off the Batmobile, thwarts his own grandmother's attempts at robbing a museum, and is adopted by Bruce. He is also made Robin - Note that oftentimes Dick is still Robin at this time as well.

Babs gets shot by the Joker for her dad and Bruce's man pain. She becomes Oracle as a result.

Jason and Bruce have a fight, and Jason goes to find his biological mother.

Jason is betrayed by his supposed mother and murdered by the Joker.

Tim shows up and does his "Batman needs Robin" Thing.

Jason crawls himself out of his grave and promptly gets hit by a car. Don't worry, we'll check in with him later.

Tim's mom is murdered and his father left in a coma that he eventually recovers from.

Knightfall happens - Bane breaks Bruce's back, Jean-Paul Valley is Batman for a minute and so is Dick.

Contagion happens - some dumbass releases a super plague on the city but it's okay because they make a vaccine that everyone gets because it's 1996 and no one has given Jenny McCarthy the opportunity to start the Anti-Vax movement yet.

Legacy happens - It's break through cases this time but don't worry, they fix it because this is comic books and people have two braincells to rub together.

Dick goes to Blüdhaven!!! This is the big one for me tbh. Please stop putting him in the Blüd while Jason is alive, I beg of you. You're killing me.

Cataclysm happens - a massive earthquake hits Gotham, and it is Very Bad. The US government decides to abandon the city and kill anyone trying to leave or enter after a certain date. Because that's an entirely reasonable thing to do. This leads to.....

No Mans Land - the approximate year that the city was cut off from the rest of the country. Lots of shit happens during this time - Cassandra Cain debuts, Stephanie Brown has her baby, Tim goes to boarding school, Sarah Essen-Gordon dies. If there is the only one comic book arc you read, please let it be this one.

Bruce is framed for the murder of Vesper Fairchild - not really important in the grand scheme of things but I love Vesper and you should too.

Hush happens - basically Tommy Elliot has Problems and also Jason shows up but not really but yest really (hi thank you retcons). It's a thing. Read the wikipedia page it's actually very helpful.

Tim's dad finds out that he's Robin and forces him to retire.

The next couple of things happen right on top of each other so - Blockbuster sets fire to Haly's circus and blows up Dick's apartment building and a bunch of other bad things. Tarantula kills Blockbuster and rapes Dick while he's in shock.

Immediately afterwards War Games starts - Steph starts a gang war to prove her worth to Bruce, gets murdered but not really by Black Mask, it's a whole thing.

Side bar - why did no one warn me about Black Mask killing Orpheus - a Black vigilante - and then impersonating him with full Blackface? Everyone talks about what he did to Steph but I really think we need to talk about what he did to Orpheus. Also if you haven't read War Games yet, here are some accurate trigger warnings for it: blackface, sexualized murder of a teenaged girl, a school shooting where a child dies.

Tim comes back as Robin.

Under the Red Hood happens - Jason comes back to Gotham, kills some guys, tries to kill Tim, does his whole Thing. You've probably seen the movie but I also recommend you read the comics it's v good and every time I read Jason's final speech I start crying.

Damian shows up

Final Crisis happens and Bruce "dies" aka gets lost in time, so the boys duke it out over who gets to be Batman. Tim goes on his murder mystery tour. Jason goes to prison but not before adopting a weird little girl named Sasha. Dick is left with Batman.

Oops turns out Steph isn't dead she's back and she's Batgirl now and low-key co-parenting Damian with Dick. It's very cute.

Cass is off being Black Bat in Hong Kong and I miss her.

Bruce comes back, Tim is Vindicated, Jason escapes prison and rides off into the sunset with Sasha to go Cause Problems on Purpose. Dick steps down from Batman. Damian continues to be a murder baby and I love him.

And that's not nearly everything but close enough for fic writing purposes up until Flashpoint. I definitely missed things, so feel free to add on. I also again beg you - please stop putting Dick in the Blüd when Jason is still alive, it makes my blood pressure spike every time I see it. You're killing me guys. Pls.

[katamace]

Good dad Lex Luthor

An AU that I've thought about a lot and have absolutely fallen in love with over the years is the idea of Lex Luthor adopting Dick Grayson after his parents die instead of Bruce Wayne. But here's the twist: Lex Luthor is not a villain and he genuinely is a good guardian to Dick.

Stay with me here: In this, Lex isn't a villain. He's not trying to find ways to kill superman, or take over the world, or whatever it is he actually does. He does however question the safety of the city when you have a hero as powerful as Superman "protecting" it. Does Superman do a lot of good? Yes, of course, he's over here stopping bank robbers and bomb threats, and the occasional supervillain that pops up. But has the number of these supervillains appearing in Metropolis increased since Superman's appearance? Yes, he attracts them like flies; everyone wants the credit of defeating him. As strong and quick as he is, when he's in the middle of a big fight can he stop every piece of rubble from falling onto the streets below and crushing the citizens below? No. He's a liability with good intentions.

Luthor's outspokenness about these issues with not only Superman, but superheroes in general, has put him in the position that the Justice League is overall just suspicious of him. When your as rich as he is and as outspoken and active in trying to bring awareness to the consequences of heroes, it's unlikely that you don't have something planned or your not going through some kind of back channels to get these things approved. (In reality, Luthor is a businessman. He's technically a genius. He doesn't need to take illegal means to talk to people, submit the right forms, take the appropriate steps to get the ball rolling on these discussions, etc.)

So, this is where Dick Grayson comes in. In this AU, the Grayson’s don’t die in Gotham. Something small happens (Batman busted Zucco’s operation a week before Haley’s Circus came to town, Haley went ahead and paid the protection money, Zucco got pulled over for a speeding ticket on his way to cut the ropes, etc.) that makes it so the Grayson’s aren’t killed in Gotham. Haley’s Circus performs in Gotham and they move on like they always do. 

Another stop on their tour is Metropolis. They go, they perform, everything is fine. Their last night in Metropolis, John and Mary Grayson decide to take Dick out into the city. They’ve been traveling with the circus for so long, tourist sites all kind of blend together, but Dick is still young enough to enjoy them. While walking through the city, they see Superman fly overhead and into a building.  Nothing new for people who live in Metropolis, but for Dick it’s amazing. That is until a few minutes later Superman burst out of the side of said building fighting a villain. Rumble falls to the streets, where the Grayson's are waiting to cross the street. They start to run, but it’s already to late. At the last minute Mary pushes Dick just a little bit farther and he isn’t crushed. Broken pieces of rumble scatter across the pavement around him, but the only thing he can see are his parents, laying on the ground, a small pool of blood forming around them. Superman is already gone, the fight continuing somewhere off in the distance. 

Lex sees this child collapsed, crying over his parents bodies. And this is it. This is what he’s been trying to prevent, and he’s failed. And this is where the main start of the story would begin, with Luthor taking Dick in after his parents are killed by Superman’s collateral damage.

Please enjoy the details and scenes I’ve already imagined happening in this AU: 

Luthor going over to Dick on the street and trying to coax him away from his parents bodies. Lex finally getting this sobbing child a few yards away from the all the rumble and squatting down to check him over. There are small cuts and bruises from the fall and all the tiny shards of glass and rock, but nothing major, so he puts his suit jacket around him and stays with him until paramedics arrive. 

Lex taking Dick in and making it very clear to the press and public that Richard will not be in the public if he doesn’t want to be and he will sue the hell out of anyone who thinks they can harass a 9 year old. It’s the talk of the town for a while (Lex Luthor, a single 30-something year old millionaire taking in an orphan), but eventually it just kind of fades out. If you do any research on Luthor you’ll know that he has a ward, but for the average citizen they probably don’t know (I mean think about it, unless your interested in business and the big names in business, are you going to know how many kids they have and their names and stuff? Does Elon Musk have kids? IS he married? I don’t know, cause I’m not super into business or millionaires personal lives.)

Dick having an accent from traveling around with the circus. It’s not necessarily a distinguishable accent, you don’t hear it and go “oh yeah that’s Romanian” or “Yeah, that’s Slavic”. It’s a mix of different accents that he’s grown up around.

Dick is smart. Like really smart. I know when you think of the different Robins, Tim or Barbara are usually the ones that are considered the exceptionally smart ones out of the bunch, but I headcanon that Dick is equally clever. His parents homeschooled him, he was able to pursue special interests he had and interact with people and places most people will never experience. He wasn’t pushed into the box public schools have ready for you to be “prepared for the real world”.

It takes a while, but eventually Dick settles in and relaxes. It’s definitely a huge shift with so many different things changing at once, but Lex does everything he can to help.

Lex is the CEO of a multimillion dollar company, but he’s not a superhero, or a super villain. Lex makes time for Dick. There’s no nightly escapades or unhealthy work schedule. He doesn’t have a problem with staying late in the office or the occasional emergency, but he took in a child. That’s his priority.

Dick speaks MANY languages. Romanian, English, French, German, Spanish, Russian, Italian, Latin. A lot of European languages because that’s where they traveled mostly, but the younger you start learning languages the easier they are to pick up, plus I think Dick would have just enjoyed learning new languages and being able to talk to people (especially when someone doesn’t speak the native language of the area they’re in and he can help translate).

Once Dick gets more comfortable and starts to get some nice bonding time with Lex he picks up learning languages again. He learns languages like Arabic, Japanese, Mandarin, etc. Languages that are especially useful in the world of business.

Lex already knows a couple languages like German, French, Spanish, but once he takes Dick in he starts trying to learn Romanian and Romani culture, so Dicks not completely cut off from his heritage.

Dick and Lex bond over their intellect. Canonically Lex has a higher IQ than Batman himself. Lex is an inventor (maybe not in the comics, I don’t know, but I headcanon he is), so they bond over trying to get this equation to work or solving an issue with new product they’re developing.

Dick is going to have a heck of a resume by the time he’s 18, because when Dick ‘consults’ on a something, even if it is just cause he’s bored and wants a challenge or wants to be helpful, Lex includes him in the patent and has an account for all the compensation he’s getting by for his work.

Lex by no means makes Dick attend company events, but at some point he just starts tagging along. This is where he meets the sons of Bruce Wayne: Jason Todd, Tim Drake, and eventually Damian Wayne (I know depending on the media, Bruce takes in more kids, but these are the ones I know the most about). Like I said Lex genuinely isn’t doing anything shady or villainous, but other heroes don’t believe it because he so openly fights against them. I mean he has to be doing something under the table, right? For simplicity sake, let’s say they meet when Dick is 13, Jason in 12, and Tim is 9. Three years later, Damian comes to live with Bruce when he is 10 years old (I know the ages aren’t right, but whatever)

So, Jason and Tim meet Dick at a charity event and they’re like “This is Lex Luther’s kid? The guy that hates superheroes, this is his kid?” Because Dick is still his cheerful charismatic self. And like Bruce has told them about Lex Luther and they’ve seen the news reports. Dude hates superheroes and they’re superheroes, so even as civilians they shouldn’t like this kid on principle. But they keep seeing each other at events, and they’re like the only ones around the same age, so they end up spending it around each other and eventually they realize “Shit, we’re friends with him”. They exchanged numbers at some point. The rant about the downsides of being adopted by a millionaire with each other. They pull harmless pranks together at galas. They’re friends with Lex Luthor’s kid.

Damian eventually comes along, and is peeved that Todd and Drake would be friends with the son of a man who adamantly hates their alter egos. He meets Dick, and is begrudgingly like “yeah okay I get it”. So we still get big brother Dick trying to get Damian to loosen up and be a kid.

Also as a side note, Lex does NOT use Dicks past as a ploy to bring in sympathies for his cause. He never uses it in his arguments or speech’s, he never brings it up. You’d have to do some digging to find out how exactly Dick’s parents died. When the news covered it, they focused more on Lex Luther taking in a ward and less so on why the boy didn’t have guardians.

Dick kept up his acrobatics and aerial skills. He also picks up martial arts because he wants to be able to walk around the city and go places and that’s hard to do when your the son of a millionaire.

Lex takes Dick to Haley’s Circus every year when they’re in Metropolis. When Dick turns 16, he starts spending his summer break traveling with the circus as a special act.

Bonus points for Dick strongly disliking this reporter Clark Kent that is always on Lex’s case for every new project he starts, trying to find ulterior motives and is always insinuating how hard it must be living with Lex

Anyway, for the love of a God, please reblog this or comment with your own headcanons for this. I want more content for it, it’s been in my brain for years. Feel free to write a fic or draw fan art from this, I will love you forever.