#who made me a villain
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Who Made Me a Villain (6)
[Masterlist] [Ao3]
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4)(Part 5) This is a Halloween special as a treat. ------
Clark Kent, a mild mannered reporter, was drinking his coffee. Just like any other average Joe while editing Lois Lane’s latest scoop so there were no spelling mistakes and grammar errors.
Then, his super hearing picked up Lois’s heartbeat speedup. There was an ear-piercing scream that had him jumping out of his seat.
“Woah, Kent, what’s wrong?” A concerned colleague asked.
“Indigestion. Bathroom. Real quick.” Clark threw out the first excuse that came to mind before speeding down to the nearest bathroom. Being careful to keep it to human speed.
He had just finished changing into Superman when his phone rang, the caller ID showing Lois’s name.
“Who are you and what do you want?” Superman demanded.
“Name’s Rebel. And don’t worry your darling, I need her alive to do something I want.”
The voice sounded young and female. Superman went through his mental list of supervillains, trying to figure out who took Lois.
“Rebel…” Superman repeated, trying to put a face to the name. Then, he remembered Batman grumbling about Robin sending a picture of him covered in neon green paint and feathers to the Young Justice unofficial group chat who all were happy to show their mentors. It took everything for Superman not to burst out laughing when Kon had shown him the picture. The one responsible for Batman’s misfortune had been no other than Rebel.
“Aren’t you supposed to be Gotham, Rebel?” Superman asked as he flew towards where he knew Lois was.
“Ah. So the great Captain America has heard of me.”
Superman stopped in mid-air, purely due to confusion because Rebel sounded so confident that it was his name.
“Excuse me what?”
The French accent didn’t really help but make Clark think of those terrible Hollywood bad guys.
“You are excused. As I was saying, Captain, your beloved love is fine. I just need her to do this one little thing for me. Then, she’ll be free to go.”
“What do you want from me?” Superman asked again.
“Tsk. Tsk. Tsk. Captain America, the world does not revolve around you. You aren’t the high and mighty god everyone thinks you are. I just need Mrs. Lane’s help in releasing a certain truth.”
“You will let her go right now!” Superman said.
He was narrowing on his wife’s location.
“I just told you that I will do that after I am done.” Rebel replied.
Superman arrived at the location but,
“This can’t be right.”
Rebel giggled over the phone. “Plot twist! Gotta love them.”
Superman was currently floating above Stryker's Island Penitentiary where the worst offenders of Metropolis were kept.
He scanned the buildings but couldn’t locate Lois.
“What did you do to her?”
“Chill, Captain. She’s fine. I just did something so you went after a fake heartbeat while I hid Lois.”
The fact that she tricked him using a complicated method that sounded like something Bruce would come up with had Superman raising his guard up. She was not an opponent to be underestimated.
“I am not going to repeat myself. What did you do to her?”
“Urgh. Can’t you overlook this little thing just this once?” Rebel complained, not concerned about the fact that she was provoking a man who could bend metal like it was rubber. “I am just stealing her for a few hours and then you can have her back. I even swear that she will be in the condition you last saw her in.”
“No. Give Lois back. Now.”
Rebel huffed. “You aren’t going to make this easy, huh? Then… beep.”
Superman was confused for a second when she made that sound with her voice.
Then, an explosion rocked the island below Superman. Instantly, the place was swarming with freed prisoners and guards trying to put them back.
“That should keep you busy. After all, the people of Metropolis need to be kept safe from the vicious criminals. Lois and I would probably be done with our girls’ day out by the time you are done. Au revoir.”
The phone hung up.
Trapped between the decision to save his wife and his city, Superman went to save the day.
—
“Man, your husband was a pain to deal with.” Rebel said after she hung up on Superman.
She turned back to Lois who was sitting unbound on a sofa with her recorder, notepad and pencil out. In front of her was a delicious spread of cakes, pastries and cookies with a mouth-watering scent which Lois tried her best to ignore.
“You kidnapped me and blew up a prison. I don’t think he would be happy to see you.” Lois pointed out. “This isn’t about him.” Rebel dismissed. “This is about you, helping me expose one of the biggest cover ups in history.”
“What makes you think I would help you?”
“What if I told you that four years ago. There was a supervillain in Paris that used negative emotions to turn people into monsters and the mayor had made sure news of it never got out.”
Lois snorted. “I don’t write fantasy, kid. I only write the truth.”
Rebel slapped down a bunch of newspapers dated from four years ago to the most recent one and a lot of documents.
“Here’s evidence. I promise that they aren’t faked. You can even use your phone to search all of this up if you still don’t believe me.”
Lois grabbed the one that was oldest and the front page talked about some stone golems wrecking the city. She read through it. Then, she looked at another paper dated a week later and read the front page talking about evil butterflies.
Fifteen minutes later and some google searches, Lois put down her phone and the newspapers.
She gave Rebel a professional smile. “Now… about that scoop you were going to give me.”
She watched Rebel’s eyes lit up.
—
Hours later…
Superman landed on the roof of the Daily Planet where Lois stood safe and sound. He scanned her with his x-ray vision and felt relieved to see that she was fine.
“Lois, are you okay?” Clark asked with worry as he hugged her.
“I’m fine. Honestly, it was the best kidnapping I've ever been in.” Lois replied, hugging back.
“Thanks for the compliment, Ms. Lane.” The unwanted spectator to their reunion said.
Rebel cheerfully waved from where she was on her bike as Superman glared at her.
“I am going to-”
“That’s my cue to leave.” Rebel cut off his threat as she took out a lead box. “Really lucky I stole this off the Big Bat the other day.”
Superman immediately backed away when the box was opened, revealing a glowing green rock.
“Bye, Captain America.”
Rebel tossed it onto the ground and sped off on her bike.
It took a moment for Superman to remember that they were on a roof and that Rebel was insane.
He watched Rebel drop down as gravity took hold. Superman immediately flew after her, only to find that she had disappeared in between the seconds his eyes were off her.
His brain finally caught up and Superman realised that he wasn’t feeling any effect of Kryptonite.
He turned around to see that the box was still open. Cautiously, Lois picked it up and closed it.
“You okay, Clark?” She asked.
“Can you give me the box, Lois?”
She nodded with confusion and slowly handed it over.
Clark slowly opened the lead box and laughed in disbelief. Inside was just some clear plastic crystals with a glowing green light underneath.
—
“Batman.”
“Superman.” Batman nodded in acknowledgement. “Why are you here?”
“I need you to run some tests on Lois’s blood. She had a run in with one of your Rogues. She said that she feels fine. But I want to be sure.” Superman answered. He handed Batman the vial of blood. He accepted it and put it in his pocket.
“I will do that as soon as I get back to the Cave. Who was it that she encountered?”
“Rebel.”
Batman stiffened at the mention of her name. “I see. What did she do to Lois?”
“Gave an interview I suppose. Lois was immediately on research binge about something that happened in France afterwards. She also had a few of the food Rebel laid out because she was hungry and I quote ‘they were the most delicious pastries ever’. She insisted that she was fine but I wanted to be sure.”
Batman’s frown deepened at that answer.
“Is something wrong?” Superman asked anxiously. This was the mother of his child and the love of his life that was in danger here.
“Lois is most probably fine but I will still run the test to ease your mind. I know Rebel won’t do something to the food unless it was for a prank. Even then, it’s nothing toxic or lethal.” Batman answered.
The answer didn’t reassure Superman.
“She blew up Stryker's Island, Batman.”
He couldn’t understand why Batman seemed so unbothered that such a dangerous villain was running around freely and causing chaos wherever she went.
“She regularly does it to Arkham.”
“Bruce. She lured me into a trap with a fake heartbeat of Lois. She fooled me into thinking she had kryptonite. She rode off the roof of the Daily Planet on her bike and disappeared into thin air. And Rao knows why she keeps calling me Captain America!” Superman ranted.
He took a deep breath to calm down before asking his question. “Rebel is clearly dangerous so why aren’t you taking her as a serious threat?”
Batman stared at him. Clark knew that this was his decision making face.
“You said that Lois was looking into something that happened in France.”
Superman nodded. “Yeah. Is Rebel related to it?”
Batman sighed. It was filled with regret and shame.
Superman knew that this was not good news.
“I was going to bring this up at the next League meeting but Rebel appeared to be getting impatient.” Batman started.
“What happened in France?”
“We, as the League, had made a huge oversight. There was a major problem in Paris for many years. A villain who could turn people into monsters had the city hostage. Rebel intends on making sure that we rectify our mistake.” Batman started.
He told Superman everything. About how Rebel brought the issue to his attention. What her plans were. Her past.
“Bruce, are you sure? She could be lying.” Superman said.
“I did my research. It’s all true. There is too much evidence to be faked. Some parts are still being investigated but it is largely the truth.”
Superman looked solemn. He couldn’t understand how something like this never fell on his radar. Batman had to rely on reports and technology to get his information. He was just a man after all. It would be easy for something like this to slip past his radar, especially how tightly controlled the information was.
Clark had super-hearing and this news about Paris had completely blindsided him.
“How could we have missed something so big for so long?” He muttered.
“Too many factors prevented news about it from reaching us. The past is done. What we can do is prepare so nothing like won’t ever happen again.” Batman said firmly.
Superman agreed. They had to do better.
“First, we have to catch a moth.”
It wasn’t the threat of Rebel unleashing her plans on the world that had him motivated to capture Hawkmoth. It was the determination to atone for his ignorance while a city suffered hell on a daily basis.
—
October 30th, Halloween Eve…
Spoiler looked through the binoculars to spy on the group of men moving a crate gently into a warehouse. Plastered in stickers that said ‘Fragile’, the crate was an object of interest for the vigilantes.
“I got eyes on the target, O.” Spoiler reported. “They are moving it into warehouse number 32. East side of the Gotham Docks.”
“Hear that, Robin?” Oracle asked.
“Got it.” Robin replied as he ran towards the location.
“Oh. I see you, Robin.” Spoiler said.
“Eyes on the target, Spoiler.” Oracle admonished her.
“Sorry, O.”
“Hey. Can you tell me what you Bats are doing here?” A mechanical voice came from Spoiler’s left.
It was lucky that Spoiler didn’t immediately scream and instead tried to punch the new arrival. He caught her attack easily with his one hand.
“Red Hood.” Spoiler greeted once she recognised who it was.
“I am asking again. What are you Bats doing here?”
“Spoiler, you okay?” Robin’s worried voice came over the comms.
“Yeah, I’m fine. It’s just Red Hood.” Spoiler replied.
Looking back at Red Hood, she said, “I will tell you if you tell me what you are doing here.”
“I think we are both after the same thing.” Red Hood said, tilting his head in the direction of the warehouse.
“Black Mask’s mysterious package.” Spoiler nodded.
“It’s actually Rebel’s.” Red Hood explained. “Black Mask’s men intercepted the delivery and she asked for my help to get it back.”
“Do you know what’s inside?”
“She said it was supposed to be a fun Halloween surprise.”
“So it’s harmless.”
Red Hood shrugged. “All I know is that I should not be within a mile of it when the clock strikes midnight tonight.”
“We have five hours then.” Oracle’s voice came through Spoiler’s comms and inside Red Hood’s helmet.
“Jesus, don’t just hack into people’s helmets.” Jason complained.
“Well, we don’t have extra comms on hand.” she retorted.
“Hood, did Rebel tell you anything else about the package?” Robin asked.
“Just that it’s set to be unleashed the minute it is Halloween. Oh and don’t open it. I think it’s some kind of special bomb.”
“You didn’t ask?” “It’s Rebel. What harm can she do? It’s probably some kind of high quality glitter bomb.” Red Hood replied casually.
“You have no idea how destructive she has gotten lately.” Oracle said. “Last month, she blew up Stryker's Island. That was after she had kidnapped Lois.”
“Is she trying to go after Superman?”
“She wanted Lois to spread her ‘take down Hawkmoth’ agenda.”
“Hawkmoth? Never heard of him. Who the hell is that?” Red Hood asked.
“Rebel’s personal vendetta.” Spoiler answered.
“Sorry to cut this short, guys but Black Mask is coming.” Robin said. “We can fill you in on what happened later”
“Truce?” Red Hood offered. “I still owe Roman a beating.”
“No killing, Hood.” Oracle set as her condition.
“Fine. Let’s go.”
Red Hood loaded his guns and jumped into the fray with Spoiler in her purple glory following.
—
“Crap.”
Robin spotted Black Mask running into the warehouse. He slammed the goon he was fighting against the ground as hard as he could.
“Somebody go and stop Black Mask! He’s going into the warehouse.” Robin said to everyone before he picked up his dropped staff and went back to fighting.
They were outnumbered and a few of the goons were trained from what Robin could tell.
“Oracle, what’s the ETA on back up?”
“Hang in there, Robin. Batman and Batgirl’s ETA is under one minute.”
“Good. Let’s hope that someone can stop Black Mask before we find out what Rebel’s Pandora box holds.”
—
Red Hood ran towards the warehouse as soon as he heard the report from Robin.
He had a score to settle with the other crime lord.
“Sionis, where are you?” Red Hood bellowed into the warehouse.
His helmet picked up the sound of someone running and Red Hood sprinted in the direction of the sound.
It became a chase and a gunfight with the two crime lords exchanging gunfire and one trying to lose the other in the maze that was the warehouse. Black Mask used every trick he had to throw Red Hood off his track.
However, it was fruitless as Red Hood continued to chase him like a bloodhound.
As desperation seized him, Black Mask picked up a crowbar that was lying around and ran towards the box he had stolen from that upstart Rebel.
Rumour has it that it is a weapon she had made for the Bats. Intended to drive them mad.
Red Hood rounded around the corner, just in time to see Black Mask pry the box open.
“NO!”
The lid was off.
—
Last Month in Metropolis. A day before Lois’s kidnapping…
A young woman sauntered through the hallways of Stryker's Island Penitentiary. Then, she stopped in front of the cell she was looking for.
“Hello, Toyman.”
“Rebel.” Toyman greeted back. “What a pleasure to see you again.”
“I would like to contract you to make a few things for me.” Rebel went straight to the point.
Toyman gave her an interested look. “What would be in it for me?”
“Would getting you out of this place give me a discount?” Rebel asked.
Toyman smiled. “I suppose that might be possible. I’m a generous man after all. But that still doesn’t answer what you want me to make.”
Rebel chuckled. “It’s September. It’s practically nearly Halloween. And I really really want to make it a memorable one. Especially for the heroes in my city. I would like to commission a few toys. Here’s a list.”
She handed it to him.
Toyman hummed as he read it over. This could be a good deal. He would get his freedom and just make a few dolls with a bit of profit.
“How many would you like to make?”
“As much as you can before the deadline which is a few days before Halloween. Say the twenty-eight? Would that be possible? I would pay a set price for each one you can finish.” Rebel said.
“Can you back it up? I am not saying that you are not trustworthy but...” Toyman didn’t manage to finish before Rebel took out a wad of cash, all in hundred dollar bills.
She took half of it and handed it to Toyman through the bars.
“This is for the materials. Once I get you out of here, we are going to make a legal contract to discuss the finer details.”
“It is going to be an honour to work with you.” Toyman said.
Rebel grinned under her mask. “It’s nice doing business with you, Toyman.”
“So when do I get started?”
“Tomorrow afternoon-ish. That’s when something would happen and you escape in the chaos.”
“How would I know it happened?”
“You will know. And try not to get caught by the guy who wears the ‘S’. A second breakout might not be easy to plan.”
After she left, Toyman felt giddy at the taste of freedom and to make so many new toys.
—
“WHAT?!”
Black Mask reached into the box and took its content out.
“WHAT THE FUCK IS THIS?” Black Mask said in angry disbelief as he held a doll in his hands.
Red Hood took that opportunity to tackle the man and handcuff him.
In his curiosity, Red Hood glanced into the box and saw that the box just contained dolls.
There was your typical Raggedy Ann, clowns, ventriloquist dummies, string puppets, those collector’s dolls with the pretty frilled dresses, a few Barbie dolls and some plushies that resembled some of the Bat vigilantes.
“Hood. Come in, Hood.” Batman’s voice came from his comms.
“Cool your jets, Batman. I got Black Mask. He managed to open the box but it’s just dolls inside. Rebel probably tried to scare us into not opening the box because they’re for a prank and it would ruin the surprise.”
“Good to hear.” Batman said with a hint of relief.
—
Tim curiously picked up the Robin plushie and inspected it.
The Bats had taken the box of dolls with them to the Batcave to later give back to Rebel.
“The quality is so good. The details are amazing and so accurate. Wonder who made it.” Tim wondered curiously before he discovered initials stitched in the inner lining of the cape of the toy.
“W.S.J” Tim read out as he traced the letters. There was a niggling thought at the back of his head that he should look into who the mysterious toymaker was.
Meanwhile, Steph was tentatively holding the Raggedy Ann doll and telling Jason about the true story behind the Annabelle movies.
“Did you know that the real Annabelle doesn’t actually look like the doll in the movies?” Steph said as she held up the Raggedy Ann to Jason, “It was actually a Raggedy Ann doll that looked just like this one.”
Jason frowned as he gave the doll a slightly wary look. “It doesn’t look creepy at all.”
“That’s what makes it so unsettling. Something innocent hiding its sinister nature.” Steph explained.
Damain frowned as he picked up one of the collector’s dolls. “I don’t see what is creepy about some toys.”
“It’s the terror of something that should be lifeless moving around. Something that should be harmless becomes something dangerous.” Jason mused.
“But why dolls? I don’t think a piece of porcelain dressed in lace could scare anyone. I would be sc…alarmed if Father’s dinosaur came to life but not these.” Damian said as he held up one of the dolls.
“You should try watching some horror movies.” Jason told Damian.
Cass picked up a ballerina string puppet she had found and showed it to Bruce with a questioning look.
“It’s a string puppet. Have you seen Pinocchio yet?”
“No.” Cass replied as she shook her head.
“Remind me at our next movie night. So the strings make the puppet move. Here look.” Bruce took the puppet from Cass and expertly manipulated the strings so the ballerina waved and walked a bit before breaking out a few ballet moves. Cass clapped with wonder at the end of his performance.
“Teach me?” Cass asked.
“Sure.” Bruce promised.
Next, Cass took out the ventriloquist dummy and inspected it.
“Scarface?” She asked.
“Yes. It’s a ventriloquist dummy just like Scarface. How it works is that the ventriloquist holds the dummy and throws his voice so it looks like it is the dummy that’s talking instead of the ventriloquist.”
“Show me.”
Bruce obliged as he slipped his hand into the dummy and the dummy started to move its mouth.
“Hello, Cass, nice to meet you.” said the Dummy as it held out its hand.
Cass shook its hand. “Hello.”
She asked Bruce, “Can I try?”
“Of course.” Bruce said as he gave her back the dummy.
Cass breathed in and out a few times and then raised the dummy up.
“Hello. Nice to meet you.” Cass’s voice came from the dummy this time.
Bruce smiled as he ruffled her hair. “You’re good at this.”
“Thank you.” said the Dummy.
“If you are all done playing, it’s time you all went to bed.” Alfred said as he brought in his famous after patrol snacks; cucumber sandwiches. “After a shower.”
Jason put the Raggedy Ann doll back into the box.
“Well, it’s late and I need to get back home.” Jason said as he walked towards his bike.
“You can stay the night, Master Jason.” Alfred said. “I have taken the liberty of cleaning your room.”
“Thank you, Alfred but…” Jason trailed off, not knowing how to convey that he didn’t want to stay in the Manor despite his truce tonight with Bruce but also not wanting to offend the butler/grandfather-figure.
“I understand, Master Jason. Perhaps another time.” Alfred said in his wise way.
“Thank you, Alfred.” This time, there was a look of gratitude in Jason’s eyes.
—-
The morning after was a busy and bustling day but there was something not right in the Wayne Manor.
Tim woke up from having fallen asleep while working on trying to find the maker of the dolls. His laptop had turned itself off sometime during the night. He stretched and yawned.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he spied the Robin plushie sitting on his bed.
“That’s strange. I could have sworn that I left you in the box last night.” Tim said, scratching his head. He picked the plushie up and examined it again in the morning light.
It was more accurate than Tim had initially found. In fact, it was like it was an exact likeness of him. Which was a very scary thought. He wondered how Toyman knew that he had a mole on his arm near his elbow and the birthmark on the side of his hips. Tim theorised that Rebel must be a very good stalker.
He put the plushie back on bed and headed down for breakfast. Tim didn’t see the plushie morphed its uniform into the outfit that Tim was wearing.
—-
Tim walked down to the kitchen and sat down.
He thanked Alfred who set down a delicious plate of pancakes in front of him.
“Morning, Steph.” Tim said to the blonde who was dressed in a purple cowgirl outfit and a white Stetson hat.
“Morning, Tim.”
“Who are you supposed to be anyways?” He asked.
“Barbie but with the Stephanie twist.” She replied.
“Ah. Gotcha.” Tim said after he finished his mouthful of pancake. “You look so realistic by the way.”
Bruce entered the kitchen and sat down with a groan, his hand massaging his neck.
“You okay, B?” “Just feeling a bit stiff. I’m not as young as I used to be.” Bruce replied with a grimace.
Slowly, the other occupants of the house trickled in and the kitchen was filled with the Waynes and Steph dug into their breakfast.
Dick came all the way from Bludhaven to help out on what is annually one of the worst nights of the year in Gotham. At least one Rouge would have plans for Halloween.
To break this peaceful moment would be one Jason Tood who angrily stomped into the kitchen, clutching a Raggedy Ann doll.
“Didn’t we agree on leaving me alone? That includes not finding out where my safehouses are.” Jason said.
He held up the doll and asked, “Which one of you left this at my place this morning as a prank?”
Several confused faces stared back at him.
“Was it you?” Jason pointed at Steph and demanded.
She put her hands up in surrender. “It wasn’t me. I was busy studying for the test I have today. Ask Bruce. He can tell you that he helped me with flashcards.”
“Then, was it you, Tim?”
Tim blinked at Jason. His mind took a few seconds to answer because Tim was not a morning person.
He shook his head.
“No. I was looking into who made these dolls.” Tim answered.
“Why?”
“The dolls all have the initial W.S.J. and they were all incredibly detailed. I also wanted to know why Rebel would need them. The maker turned out to be no one other than…” Tim dramatically paused: “Toyman.”
“Suddenly, I feel like we should have burned that box when we could.” Steph said to break the silence.
They should have.
—
“So how bad is it?” Dick asked Zatanna, anxious about what curse had befallen his family.
They had gone down to the Batcave to get rid of the box. Only to find it empty. It led to hours of searching for them. Except Tim never came back from his room to retrieve the Robin plushie.
Dick went to check on Tim only to find that he had turned into the plushie.
Imagine finding your brother missing and suddenly the mini plushie replica of your brother started moving and talking. It immediately went onto the top ten weirdest and scariest list of things Dick had experienced.
Then, the next to go was Steph who slowly became plastic. Her face was stuck in a smile while her skin hardened into shiny plastic. She was in class when it happened and they had to go pick her up.
Cass found the dummy but it got attached to her hand and started to speak on its own in Cass’s voice. Cass herself was unable to utter a word.
The stiffness that Bruce had complained about was the fact that he was slowly turning into wood and almost invisible strings controlling his every move.
The final terror was the Raggedy Ann doll that suddenly gained life and proceeded to hunt Jason down for sport. No matter how far Jason managed to get away from the doll and Dick’s best efforts to keep the doll contained, it still managed to escape to go after Jason.
Somehow, Dick, Alfred and Damian were the only ones unaffected by the ‘curse’. They managed to figure out why when Babara told them that Black Mask and his men were attacked by the missing dolls and some of them were experiencing the same things as the Bats and about Jason’s warning from Rebel before everything went down.
Desperate, Dick asked Superman to track down Toyman and asked him how to reverse the effect only to find out that he only made the dolls. The curse was someone else's doing.
Which was why they had called Zatanna to see if she could reverse it.
“Well, there’s the good news and the bad news.” she announced. “Good news is that it is reversible and the curse only lasts for a day. I recommend to just wait it out because the reversing would take longer than the deadline. The curse is too complicated to simply undo.”
“So that’s the bad news?” “No. The bad news is that I recognised a bit of the spellwork. It is a bit similar to how my father would do it so chances are that whoever did this is a student of my father. The thing is I know most of my father’s students and what is bad is that I don’t recognise the magical signature of who put this curse on the dolls.”
Puppet Bruce jerked his head at the information that Zatanna had given them. Dick noticed.
“B?”
“Paris.” Bruce managed to get past with his wooden lips.
“Paris? Are you talking about the Miraculous?”
“Hero.”
“Wait, you think one of the Miraculous heroes is involved in this?”
Zatanna gasped. “I remember Batman telling me that Ladybug was a student of my father. I looked into his old journals and he mentioned a student named Marinette during his stay in Paris.”
“Marinette. Marinette. Why does it sound so familiar?” Dick tried to recall where he had heard that name before.
“Marinette Dupain-Cheng.” Damian answered for him. “It’s Rebel’s legal name.”
Just like that, pieces of the puzzle fell into place.
“Rebel used to be Ladybug.”
The revelation felt bitter on Dick’s tongue. He had seen the videos of Ladybug in action. He would say that she was inexperienced but she was compassionate and willing to lend a hand to anyone in need. He thought that it was nice of her to forgive her enemy instead of causing pain on the man who had caused her so much grief.
He couldn’t believe he saw the similarities between the two girls sooner.
Rebel was cunning and sharp enough to always stay a step ahead of them. Her planning and paranoia on par with the Batman himself. Useful skills to have as a hero.
Then again, Rebel couldn’t be more different from Ladybug. She was more cynical and petty. Rebel caused chaos wherever she goes instead of cleaning up the mess. She saw everything as a game and never took anything seriously.
Dick wondered what it was that pushed Rebel over the edge. The line drawn between heroism and villainy. Then he remembered how Rebel was sent to Gotham in the first place.
“Damn. Rebel has really good valid reason to fuck that Hawkmoth guy up.” Jason said. “In fact, I am surprised she hasn’t razed Paris to ashes yet.”
“Can you imagine?” Zatanna said, having been briefed a bit on the Paris situation and had heard about Rebel’s kidnapping of Lois, “The city you gave so much to save, branding you as a criminal and sending you to one of the worst places on Earth.”
“People have turned to crime for less.” Damian pointed out.
“But Rebel used to be a hero. One of us essentially. It’s just sad that we had to meet her as people on opposite sides.” Dick said.
“It only shows her lack of will.” Damian said.
“I think Rebel had reached her breaking point and honestly, I might too if I face it all alone like she did.”
The Cave was in a sombre silence for the hero that once was Ladybug. Dick remembered something Bruce once said about Two-Face and Harvey Dent.
‘You either die a hero or you live long enough to see yourself become a villain.’
—
The next day, just as Zatanna said, the spell wore off and everyone was human again and able to freely talk again. Other than some nightmares about the experience for a month or so, they were fine.
The Batfamily had a meeting about the new revelation that they had discovered last night.
“Bruce, tell us the truth. Did you know from the beginning?” Tim asked. “I only had suspicions but Zatanna confirmed them with her father’s journal.” Bruce answered. “This changes nothing.”
“It does, Bruce. You failed another young hero.” Jason said, his tone sharp and accusing. “Not even one of the ‘sidekicks’. You turned your back on the One Main Hero who had been there since the beginning and saw through it to the end. She didn’t get the happy ending she deserved. Instead, she was rewarded for her sacrifices by being sent to fucking Arkam Asylum in one of the most dangerous city in the world.”
“Todd, stop projecting. The way I see it, Rebel had seen the errors of her way and intended to fix her mistake regarding Hawkmoth. She should have locked him up when she had her chance.” Damian shot back.
“Boys, settle down. The fact of the matter is that whether Rebel used to be Ladybug or not, Hawkmoth needs to be arrested before Rebel does something more sinister than what she did yesterday.”
“Wasn’t it an accident?” Steph asked.
“According to Toyman, we had always been the intended recipients of that particular gift.” Dick answered. “It was dumb luck that Black Mask opened it while most of you were in the area.”
“After this latest incident, the League and I have decided that Rebel must be contained.” Bruce announced.
Jason jumped out of his seat. “Bruce, she’s just a kid!”
“But she’s a formidable threat. Who knows what else she might do if she is left unchecked and she doesn’t like the progress on the Hawkmoth investigation.”
Jason growled and then left.
Bruce told everyone that they should catch Rebel if they saw her before he ended the meeting.
—
Rebel stood in front of a half-finished mural, a spray can in hand.
“So we finally met, my dear daughter.” The voice belonged to the man who starred in Gotham’s nightmare.
Rebel didn’t bother to turn around and simply looked at him from over her shoulder.
“Which one are you?” She asked.
“I’m sorry?”
Rebel went back to spray-painting as she explained, “I know that there are at least three of you running around Gotham. I want to know which one you are.”
Joker laughed. A genuine laugh instead of the mad one he usually makes.
“You really do live up to your reputation, Rebel. I can tell that you are a real wildcard.” Joker said excitedly.
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Very well then. I am the Joker. The original one. Not the copycats I made because I was bored. And Rebel, I am your father.”
----- (Part 7)
Taglist: @toodaloo-kangaroo, @iloontjeboontje, @buginetye, @angelwreckedd, @anoires-blog, @ever-since-i-was-young, @shutupandactuallylisten, @its-maemain, @vel-vee, @kashlyn, @officiallydarkgeek, @jayjayspixiepop, @cmouse, @transheso, @thecrazyfantrolls, @just-a-random-girl-loves-anime, @maddiesupdates, @the-dumber-scaramouche,
#who made me a villain#biodad! joker#halloween special fic#maribat#ml x dc#superman makes an appearance#i have never watched the conjuring movies so don't come at me#would have tried to write it more scary if I had time#and descriptive skills
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i was never as optimistic about the ending of bnha as some villain stans were, but i never thought it'd end so badly it left me wondering why horikoshi ever bothered to humanize the villains or make them complex characters at all.
like-- i expected that at least 1-2 of the 3 villains who were heavily foreshadowed and outlined by the narrative as people to be saved would be, you know, actually saved. i didn't think that was a high bar. i've been let down before in fandoms where everyone was certain a character would live and then they didn't, so i tried to keep my hopes low. AND YET.
what happened to tomura was upsetting, but i wasn't that shocked after how disinterested the manga has seemed to be in him for like, the past 100 or so chapters. a bit surprised, because you'd think if anyone would succeed in the 'saving' mission it would be the MC, but whatever. dabi, well, they've spent a lot of time showing the way his quirk destroys his body even before this arc, so that also sucked but at least it didn't feel completely out of left field.
........but they're not even letting toga live???
i just-- what have we even been doing here? when zero out of the 3 characters that were marked out for saving were actually saved, you have to acknowledge that something has gone seriously fucking wrong with the storytelling. not even just from the perspective of a villain fan but from the perspective of someone who likes stories to be thematically consistent or satisfying in any way.
you can set up an expectation of these characters being saved and then subvert that and turn it into a tragedy- if done well that could even be worthwhile and interesting. but you can't turn it into a tragedy and then just... keep trucking along with the happy ending messaging and act like anything in the manga has been resolved and that the characters have somehow successfully completed their heroic origin stories.
like, maybe i shouldn't have expected this much from a shounen- at the end of the day it is still a shounen so i didn't expect to feel that it truly satisfactorily wrapped up all the themes it brought up around societal ills. but i expected it to at least resolve those things in a shounen-y way where they punch the problems and help these specific people and then you can feel good assuming that the state of things will continue to improve in the post-canon world of the manga.
instead we got... uh, none of that. the story refused to answer a single one of the larger questions it's been outlining for the past 400+ chapters. in the end, it was all flash and no substance, which again could've been fine, if it weren't for the way the story seemed to spend significant chunks of time trying to delude you into thinking it had substance.
truly makes me wonder what horikoshi thought he was doing the entire time. can it really all be blamed on burnout? the most that can be said for this ending is that it is, well, an ending. fuck dude, it is that.
and that's just... such a sad way to end a project that took up 10 years of your life.
#bnha critical#mha critical#bnha leaks#bnha spoilers#bnha 429#made a post like this earlier on main and then deleted it btw#in case you are one of like 3 people who could potentially recognize the repeated lines#Or maybe the questions do have answers they're just answers that i hate? But that's the part that leaves me wondering#Why spend so much time humanizing the villains in the first place if you were going to go that route???#Truly i don't get it.#bnha#ok i know dabi isn't technically dead yet but there's still another chapter left for horikoshi to finish nailing that coffin 🤪
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From the moment he saw your portrait, his life began to change in ways he could hardly understand. At first, he attended the auction out of obligation. He was indifferent to the event until he saw you, captured in a frame, almost lost among the other items on display.
You didn’t stand out at first. Your beauty wasn’t the kind that demanded immediate attention. Yet, when the bidding for your portrait began, he found himself compelled to participate. Was it boredom? A reckless display of wealth? He couldn’t say, even to himself.
The moment he brought your portrait home, he placed it in his room—an odd choice, one that puzzled him. It started as a mere curiosity. What was it about you that had so many people interested? Why did you look so serene, yet so stern?
Your gown, with its deep crimson velvet, was a masterpiece of craftsmanship, clinging to your form like a whispered secret. The intricate lace on the bodice gracefully embraced your delicate shoulders, while the silk train flowed like liquid fire. It was mesmerizing, yet it was your expression that truly captivated him. It wasn’t one of joy or contentment, but of solemness—a quiet command that demanded respect and obedience.
Each night, as he looked upon the portrait, he became more obsessed, wondering who you were, what thoughts filled your mind when you posed for this image. It was as though you had reached out from the canvas, drawing him into a world where he couldn’t escape your gaze, a world where he was slowly losing himself to an obsession he couldn’t explain.
His curiosity had become an all-consuming obsession. The more he stared at your portrait, the more he needed to know about the woman who had captivated him so completely. He scoured records, questioned merchants, and chased down rumors, but for the longest time, his search led nowhere. You seemed to be a ghost, a figure lost to time.
Finally, after what felt like an endless pursuit, he encountered an elderly man who claimed to know your story. The man spoke with a somber tone, revealing that you were once the Crown Princess of a proud and flourishing kingdom. But tragedy had struck when your father’s own brother, betrayed the royal family. He committed treason, igniting a rebellion that tore the kingdom apart.
Despite being outnumbered and facing overwhelming odds, you stood as the last line of defense. You took up arms, leading the loyalists in a desperate attempt to save your home. The man recounted how you fought with unmatched bravery, refusing to yield even as the kingdom crumbled around you. But in the end, your efforts were not enough.
The last anyone saw of you was during a fierce duel with your once loyal knight and lover on the edge of a cliff. Some say you were killed in that final battle; others believe you vanished, your fate a mystery. The man who recounted this tale was none other than the head butler of your kingdom, a loyal servant who had witnessed the downfall firsthand.
Through further questioning, he learned that after your supposed death, your uncle’s reign quickly fell into chaos. The kingdom, once thriving, could not withstand the internal strife and soon succumbed to external wars. These conflicts were so devastating that they effectively erased the kingdom from history, leaving nothing behind but forgotten ruins and faded memories.
The more he uncovered, the deeper his obsession grew. You were no longer just a figure in a painting; you were a tragic heroine. The thought that your story, your life, could be forgotten by time haunted him. He felt an inexplicable connection to you, as if understanding your past could somehow fill the emptiness he felt within himself.
In the end, his search led him to a humble barhouse where you, once a Crown Princess, were now reduced to serving as a maid. The sight of you, stripped of your former grandeur, struck him like a blow to the heart. How could someone of your noble stature have fallen so low? The injustice of it consumed him, feeding the obsession that had taken root within him.
Determined to restore you to the glory he believed you deserved, he decided to take matters into his own hands. He married you, forcibly and without your consent, convinced that he was saving you from a life of indignity. To him, this was an act of love, a twisted belief that he was doing what was best for you, even if you couldn't see it.
He impregnated you with his children, two daughters who became the center of his world. In his mind, he had found his happy ending—a life with you by his side, a family that completed the vision he had constructed in his obsessive heart. He had given you back everything you had lost, or so he thought.
But you, despite everything, continued to resist. You sought every chance to escape, your spirit undimmed even in the face of his control. You spoke of how you didn't love this life, how you longed to be free from the gilded cage he had created. To him, your words were incomprehensible. How could you not see that he had given you everything? How could you reject the life he had worked so hard to build for you?
In his eyes, your ingratitude was maddening. He had rescued you, loved you, given you the children he believed would bind you to him forever. Yet you still sought to flee, still spoke of a life you wanted to escape from. To him, it was baffling—shouldn't you be more grateful? Shouldn't you love the life he had crafted for you with such care and obsession?
But in his twisted perception of love, he could not see the prison he had built around you, nor the pain he caused in his relentless pursuit of a happiness that was his alone.
Maximillian Ashet, Dylan Sean Blathe, Anastacius de Alger Obelia, Dion Agriche, Cruel Harte, Rezef Hill, Eros Vasilios, Callisto Regulus, Ahin Grace, Theobold von Baden Mismarck, Noah Wynknight, Abel Heilon, Prince Escalus, Luciano Valeztena
#manhwa x reader#father i don't want this marriage x reader#i tamed a tyrant and ran away x reader#the taming of a tyrant#who made me a princess x reader#roxana x reader#the way to protect the female lead's older brother x reader#i'm not that kind of talent x reader#the villainess is a marionette x reader#villains are destined to die x reader#death is the only ending for the villainess x reader#little rabbit and big bad leopard x reader#a stepmother's marchen x reader#the reason why raeliana ended up at the duke's mansion x reader#author of my own destiny x reader#go away romeo x reader#this marriage will fail anyway x reader#rezef hill x reader#abel heilon x reader#yandere manhwa x reader#dion agriche x reader#cruel harte x reader#your throne x reader
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dropping off some of my unstable universe art because im going insane and we got 3 episodes in like one week?? below is just some sketches i dont feel like finishing but you guys can have them too i guess
#unstable universe#unstableverse#spokeishere#jamatop#ashswag#reddoons#swagdoons#parrotx2#clownpierce#minutetech#mapicc#planetlord#wemmbu#eggchan#devious duo#pride duo#tax duo#so many people oh my godddd#the recent episodes all made me insane in very different ways#spoke's just made me incredibly depressed#minutetech betrayal was crazy#im so upset about it still actually :(#but jamatop is (possibly) back!! that's cool#ash and redd are CRAZYY as villains i love them actually#i fw uu swagdoons#mostly drew them for my friend though (yk who u are hii ^_^)#also i am still not over the clown vs parrot episode probably one of my favorites still#okay ill stop yapping in my tags for now#☆ my art .
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No but like every time I think about Splinter and what he had to go through just to keep the boys alive, my heart hurts for him so badly. Is he perfect? No not at all, but none of them are and by god does he love his sons.
The fact that all of them are alive, and grew to thrive despite the circumstances surrounding them is a testament of how much Splinter loves his boys. He raised four babies following the most traumatic time of his life, all alone with nothing but the sewers to house them (to hide them.) I feel like he’s not given the credit he deserves for all he’s done.
And I get that it’s easy to hold up his flaws and faults when it comes to parenting, I myself like looking into them because flawed characters are super interesting and said flaws make them more realistic and engaging, but he tries, and again, so many others would have given up on the boys or failed along the way but Splinter didn’t.
He’s their father, for all his faults he did his damndest to make sure they survived.
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#rottmnt splinter#rise splinter#he’s not perfect as I’ve said#and he’s got a whole slew of flaws and faults#but he’s a person - we are all flawed#he loves his sons dearly dearly dearly even if he struggles along the way to show that#parenting is not easy! especially as a traumatized mutant who is forced to do it alone#side note but I think this is one of the reasons why it kiiiiiinda ruffles my feathers to see so many people assign parentification to Raph#and in turn make Splinter out to be way worse and way more distant than he is in canon?#like idk I just don’t see what so many others see ig but maybe that’s just me#i guess my thoughts are like- let parents have flaws without villainizing them?#they’re still parents even if they mess up?#we can discuss the repercussions of a parents actions on a child while not casting that parent as an awful person#parents are peopleeee#I could go on but yeahhh#idk it bothers me seeing splinter’s efforts undermined when he’s been through so much#idk if ppl realized this by now but I love me some flawed characters#tho I do think in this fandom the ones whose faults are discussed the most are like#Splinter mostly then Draxum then Leo#of the main cast#and in Splinters case in particular his faults are made to cover his good qualities which makes me sad#because he is SO INTERESTING#they’re all flawed characters and tbh so interesting because their flaws are ALSO their strengths in many aspects
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#who made me a princess#wmmap#suddenly became a princess one day#sbapod#actually i was the real one#the villainess reverses the hourglass#into the light once again#there is no place for fakes#no place for the fake princess#villains are destined to die#vadtd#death is the only ending for a villainess#manhwa#sisterhood
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my personal headcanon is the vees were unremarkable nobodies when they were alive. i just love it as a thematic throughline for them. they love to let the public of hell speculate on them being famed and acclaimed since before death, but the the truth is they were a d-list failed influencer that got by on cheap controversey and scamming, a broke junkie who burned every shaky bridge he ever had, and a worn-out broadcast production assistant with more rejected auditions and tossed out script pitches than he could count. nobody missed them when they were gone, nobody cared who they were until they were dead.
#because villains who didn't start off supremely powerful are more interesting to me#vees#it's not that they CAN'T be better. or that they're simply ignorant of the ways they fuck up others lives#they actually all do have that knowledge of being the underdog. and it's made them all the more shitty#because they never want to be those people again#narratives about people who make each other worse <3#to be clear they were still shitty people in life. manipulative. consumed by greed and envy. all their individual flaws etc etc#but hell made them into the absolute worst versions of themselves#of course what their Worst Self is and the journey/length of time/initial reaction to being in hell varies#like val sees hell as a continuation of the things happening in life. just w/ the power dynamics always privileging him#it's the same drugs and violence. except the violence isn't just survival anymore but the chance to indulge his deeply sadistic desires#vox has completely dissociated from his time alive. that person is dead and he's reinvented himself 1000 times over since then#90% of the time he has those memory files shoveled into a hidden directory#he refuses to acknowledge that he's still haunted by some of the same insecurities from almost a century ago#val doesn't necessarily see his living self in a fond light but he does see that person as fundamentally him#velvette thinks life was full of people who weren't her demographic but fortunately that's been fixed by sinners!#they just couldn't Get Her and that was all their faults#the primary way they view their past selves can be summed up as: scorn (vox) apathy (valentino) and in denial (velvette)#sorry the bulk of the post was in the tags. i will be doing this again#the scorn is the coping mechanism for shame. of course
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i binged the first season of Epithet Erased, and i cannot express enough how much i ADORE Giovanni Potage
look at this silly ass man
also he has such goofy big brother vibes AUNFFIHSBAGHGG I LOVE HIS AND MOLLY’S DYNAMIC
#epithet erased#epithet fanart#giovanni#giovanni potage#bonzai blasters#we love villains who care about their minions’ well being#mmm soop :)#i wonder if his favorite soup is tomato bc ME TOO GIRL#look at that#i made actual art!#are you proud of me#commet down below how proud you are of me!!1!1!#or else#fanart#art#drawing#weezart
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(I'm a security guard.)
#There is an overwhelming number of traumatized people who work in security#So many of us have histories of abuse#Or other things#And I wonder so often#I'm good at my job#But am I attracted to power?#I like helping people#I don't like hurting people#Or picking on anyone#But it's hard to know what the right answers are sometimes#Part of my job is working with police#Even if I disagree with them#I tell myself it's better that I'm the guard here#And not someone malicious#Or cruel#But how much am I really changing?#And am I using my power correctly#Or will I become the unreasonable authority that made me the scared person I am#Is it already too late?#What if the calls I'm unsure of are the warning signs#Maybe I'm already too late#Maybe my sense of morality and justice is eroding#To fit the hole I've placed myself in#Maybe I'm not chipping at the walls fast enough#Maybe I'm being reshaped#Just being here#Maybe my conflict of conscience is the internal monologue of a sympathetic villain#Maybe I'm the bad guy#Teablart
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I think the key component to my personal reading of post-Delphi Pharma is that he's trying to be a horrible person on purpose. Not "on purpose" in the way that people have free will to exercise their own choices, but in that Pharma's "mad doctor" persona is a performance he puts on to deliberately embrace how much everyone else hates him. Basically, if people already think you're a "bad Autobot" and a horrible doctor who just kills his patients for fun, why try to prove otherwise to people who have already made up their minds about you? Just fully embrace the fact that people see you as an asshole. Don't try to change their minds. Don't plead for their forgiveness or understanding. Just stop caring. If you're going to be remembered as a monster, you might as well be a memorable monster, and eke as much pleasure and hedonism as you can out of it before karma catches up to you and you inevitably crash and burn.
I mean, I guess you could just go the route of "Oh, Pharma was always a fucked up creepy guy and Delphi was just him taking the mask off," but I really don't like that interpretation because, for one, it feels really wrong to take a character like Pharma becoming evil under duress and going, "Oh well clearly he did the things he did because he was evil all along," as if somehow Pharma breaking under blackmail/torture/threat of horrible death was a sign of him having poor moral character. As opposed to, you know, suffering under the very real threat of horrible death for himself and everyone he cares about while being manipulated by a guy who specializes in psychological torture.
The second reason is that it just doesn't make sense to write Pharma as having been evil all along. I mean...
Occam's Razor says that the best argument is the one with the simplest explanation. Doesn't it make way more sense to take Pharma's appearances in flashbacks, his friendship with Ratchet, his stunning medical accomplishments, and the few we see of him speaking kindly/sympathetically (or in the least charitable interpretation, at least professionally) towards his patients and conclude "This guy was just a normal person, if exceptionally talented." Taking all of these flashback appearances at face value and assuming Pharma was being genuine/honest is a way simpler and more logical explanation than trying to argue that Pharma for the past 4 million years was just faking being a good doctor/person. I mean, it's possible within the realm of headcanon, but the fact is Pharma's appearances in the story are so brief that there simply wasn't room in the story for there to be some sort of secret conspiracy/hidden manipulation behind why Pharma acted the way he did in the past.
I just can't help but look at things like Pharma's friendship with Ratchet (himself a good person and usually a fine judge of character) and the fact that even post-Delphi, pretty much every single mention of Pharma comes with some mention of "He was a good doctor for most of his life" or "He was making major headways in research [before he started killing patients]" which implies that even the Autobots themselves see Pharma's villainy as a recent turn in his life compared to how for "most of his life" he "used to be" a good doctor.
And although Pharma doesn't know this, we as the readers (and even other characters like Rung) know about Aequitas technology and the fact that it actually works, so... if Pharma really was an unrepentant murderer, why couldn't he get through the forcefield too? The Aequitas forcefield doesn't require that a person be completely morally pure and free of wrongdoing or else how could Tyrest get through, just that they feel a sense of inner peace and lack feelings of guilt. Pharma has murdered and tortured people by this point, and put on quite a campy and theatrical show of how much he sees it as a fun game, so why then can he not get through?
It circles back to my headcanon at the start of this post that the "mad doctor" persona is just that-- a persona. Delphi/post-Delphi Pharma's laughing madman personality is just so far removed from every flashback we saw of him and everything we can infer based on how other people see/saw him before that, to me, the mad doctor act is (at least in large part, if not fully) a persona that Pharma puts on to put his villainy in the forefront.
To avoid an overly simplistic/ableist take, I don't think Tarn tortured Pharma into turning crazy. To me, it's more like the constant pressure of death by horrific torture, the feeling of martyrdom as Pharma kept secret that he was the only one standing between Delphi and annihilation, the physical isolation of Messatine as well as the emotional separation from Ratchet, being forced to violate his medical oaths (pretty much the only thing Pharma's entire life has been about), etc. All of that combined traumatized Pharma to the point that the only way he could avoid cracking was to just stop caring about all of it. Because at least then, even if he's still murdering patients to save Delphi from a group of sadistic freaks, Pharma doesn't have to feel guilty and sick about doing it. As opposed to the alternatives, which were probably either going off the deep end and killing himself to escape, or confessing to what he did and getting jailed for it.
In that light, Pharma becoming a mad doctor makes sense. It avoids the bad writing tropes of "oh this character who was good his entire life was actually just evil and really good at hiding it" as well as "oh he got tortured and went crazy that's why he's so random and silly and killing people, he's crazy" and instead frames Pharma's evil as something he was forced into, to the point where in order to avoid a full psychological breakdown and keep defending Delphi, he just had to stop caring about the sanctity of life or about what other people might think of him.
Then, of course, the actual Delphi episode happens, and Pharma's own lifelong best friend Ratchet basically spits in his face and sees him as nothing more than a crazy murderer who went rogue from being a good Autobot. Then Pharma gets his hands cut off and left to die on Messatine. At that point, Pharma has not only been mentally/emotionally broken into losing his feelings of compassion, he's received the message loud and clear: He is alone. Everyone hates him. Not even his own best friend likes him any more. No one even cared enough about him to check if he actually died or not. He will only ever be remembered as a doctor who went insane and killed his patients.
So in the light of 1. Having all of your redeeming qualities be squeezed out of you one by one for the sake of survival and 2. Having your reputation and all of your positive relationships be destroyed and 3. People only know/care about you as "that doctor who became evil and killed his patients" rather than the millions of years of good service that came before.
What else is there to do but internalize the fact that you'll forever be seen as a monster and a freak, and embrace it? People already see you as a murderer for that blackmail deal you did, so why not become an actual murderer and just start killing people on a whim? People already see you as an irredeemable monster who puts a stain on the Autobot name, so why beg for their forgiveness when you could just shun them back? You've already become a murderer, a traitor, and a horrible doctor, so what's a few more evil acts added to the pile? It's not like anyone will ever forgive you or love you ever again.
Why care? Why try to hold on to your principles of compassion, kindness, medical ethics, when an entire lifetime of being a good person did nothing to save you from blackmail and then abandonment? Why put yourself through the emotional agony of feeling lonely, guilty, miserable, when you could just... stop caring, and not hurt any more?
#squiggposting#pharma apologism#i'm sure the doylist reason for the writing is just that pharma was a designated villain#so since he's a villain and 'crazy' it's fine for everyone even the good guys to treat him like complete trash#i just think from a watsonian perspective taking a sympathetic approach is way more interesting and logically consistent#what i mean is like. from a meta perspective one of the best ways to show that a character is super evil and not worth saving#is when even the good guy heroes. the ones who are supposed to be kind and compassionate and wise. see him as dirt#and this is also kind of a necessity in most plots bc TF is the kind of series that just needs action villains and long-term antagonists#so not every villain is written or has a plot to be made redeemable. and pharma is one of these bc he's not important or a legacy character#so from a doylist (meta) perspective you could read the autobots' disregard of pharma as a sign of#'this guy is not meant to have your sympathy as a reader. pay no attention to him'#but from a watsonian (in universe) perspective it paints a miserable picture of pharma being utterly forsaken by the ppl he served alongsid#and like yeah i'm super autistic about pharma so of course i view him with sympathy but like#the idea of being a loyal and good person for years only to be subjected to a Torment Nexus of#being blackmailed into breaking all of the oaths you held sacred. under threat of you and all your comrades dying horrible torturous deaths#then when your comrades find out about it they focus solely on the 'harvesting organs' and not on the 'blackmail' part#and then you get literally left for dead by your comrades and best friend hating your guts#and then you get rescued by a guy who uses you as a test subject for his evil machine#this is a fucking nightmare scenario like pharma could hardly be suffering more if the author TRIED to make him suffer#and for me it's like. the evil pharma did can't be decontextualized to what drove him to that. as well as the question of like#how easily ppl can write someone off as evil and turn a blind eye to (or even find satisfaction in) their suffering bc theyre evil#and either brought it on themselves or it's just karma paying a visit#like. i feel like if pharma WERE a shitty doctor and a terrible person his whole life then the delphi situation would feel like karma#but the way it's written and the lore retroactively put in makes it feel more pharma getting thrown in a torture carousel#and THEN becoming evil. but then being treated as if he was always evil or was some sort of bad apple#bc like i'm not opposed to LOLing when a villain gets a karmic torture/death related to the wrongs they committed#but in pharma's case it feels less like karma and more like endless torture + being abandoned by ppl who should have been more loyal
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OOH YEAH BABY ITS THE SURGERY EPISODE BABY!!! ME AND THE HOMIES NEED SOME NEW FACES FOR OUR NEW PLAN, AND WHO BETTER TO GET THE JOB DONE THAN THE TWO MOST EVIL PEOPLE WE'VE EVER HAD THE MISFORTUNE OF HAVING OUR LIVES VIOLATED BY? I MEAN IT WOULD BE FUNNY. IT WOULD BE FUNNY.
#jrwi fanart#jrwi show#cw blood#cw gore#jrwi suckening#jrwi suckening spoilers#vex waylin#viv waylin#MY FAVORIT EP!! HAVNT SEEN IT IN FOREVER THO BC WELL. IM BUSY. SO BEAR W ME IM RUNNIN OFF ALOTTA MEMORY FUMES#ALSO EDIT BC FUUUCK I HADMORE TAGS BUT TUMBLR FUCKEN ATE EM. OH WELL. MY DMS R OPEN IF U WANNA UNLOCK RAMBLES.#I LOVE THE WAYLIN TWINS SSSOO FUCKING MUCH IM SO!!! CURIOUS ABOUT THEM!!! WHO WERE THEY WHEN THEY WERE HUMAN? HOW LONGVE THEY BEEN ARND?#I LOVE IT WHEN PPL SAY ITS LIKE THESE TWO WERE MADE FOR MMEE BC YES!! YES!! ITS EVERYTHING I COULD EVER WANT FROMA CHARACTER!!!#I LOVE THEIR RED WHITE N BLACK COLOR SCHEME. I LOVE HOW THEYRE BOTH SO INTELLIGENT AND GENIUS N YET THEYRE DUMB AS FUUUUCK#COOOMICAL SUPER VILLAINS. OOH ILL GET YOU NEXT TIME SHAMIA SHAMAI!!! HOW DARE YOU FOIL MY PLAN!! MY PLANS OF MUTILATING AWAKE N ALIVE PPL#COMICAL AND YET. GENUINELY HORRIFYING. VIV CAN MAKE UR BONES EXPLODE JUST BY THINKING ABOUT IT. VEX CAN BECOME SOUP#WHY DONT WE TALK ABOUT THAT MORE? THE TURNING INTO RED MEAT SLIME?? METAL AS FUUUCK. I ALSO LOVE HOW SCARED THEY GOT SO QUICKLY#THIS LIL FUCKEN RRRRRAT COMES IN. AND WELL. HES JUST LIKE ALL THE OTHERS. WE FUCK HIM UP N TOSS HIM INTO THE SUN N LET HIM BURN#SURE HE HAD ONE MORE TRICK OF REBELLION UP HIS SLEEVE BUT THE SUN HAS TAKEN HIM NOW. ITS FINE. WE'RE FINE. HEY IS THERE SMTH IN THE CEILING#OHHH WE KILLED HIM ONCE N HE CAME BACK. WE KILLED HIM AGAIN N TOOK HIM APART BUT THEN HES BACK?? HE GETS AWAY AND THEN. COMES BACK. AGAIN.#WE CANT GET RID OF HIM. THAT FOUL SHAMIA SHAMAI. A MOUSE IN OUR KITCHEN. FUUUUCK HES GONNA SPREAD DISEASE! KILL IT! KILL IT!! AAAUUGH FUCK!#I LOVE THAT THE WAYLIN TWINS AGREED TO HELP THE BLONDE TWINS MOSTLY ON THE BASIS OF 'IT WOULD BE FUNNY' BUT ALSO#OOHHH WE ARE SO CLOSE TO REACHING SOMETHING TO MAKE HIM NNEEVER FUCK WITH US AGAIN. HIS ILLUSIONS WILL HAUNT US NO LONGER#THEY WERE SSSOOO PARANOID W ALL THE CAMERAS AND BOMBING THEIR OWN LAB AND RUNNING AND RUNNING AND GETTING AWWAY FROM THIS FUCKEN! MOUSE!!!!#OHHHH I THINK IM RUNNIN OUTA ROOM so ill talk about da art real quick.BEEN WORKIN ON THIS FOR A WHIIILE.ALOTTA THESE were started when the#ep came out.so OLD!! BUT DONE!!and im very very happy w my colors n gore n EXPRESSIONS!! the top right corner comic keeps making me chuckle#I ALSO rly love the lil convo between arthur n viv.theyre SO CUTE TOGETHERR they should go ona museum date together or somethin#they need more time to just talk abt da World together.ALSO CAN I BE PETTY.I MADE ARTHUR UGLY CORRECT-STYLE#THESE BOYS KNOW NOTHING OF UGLY.I MADE THE VAMPIRIC FLESH EVOLVE N ROT N BLOSSOM AND THERE IS SQUIRMING WITHIN THE TENEBRAE#UHHH IEAH THIS GUY W A ROTTED N DISTORTED FACE WALKS INTO MY BIKE STORE IEAH IM SCREAAAMIN LIKE WADDA HELL!! MONSTOR!!!
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Who Made Me a Villain (5)
To the ppl who read my fics only on tumblr, I am sorry. I have been posting a lot on ao3 and I keep forgetting that I have a tumblr acc. I will try to be more mindful in the future.
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[Masterlist] [Ao3]
(Part 1) (Part 2) (Part 3) (Part 4) (Here) (Part 6)
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“B, what’s all this?” Dick asked during one of his visits to Gotham. He was here for Alfred’s cooking.
Upon seeing the eye bags on Bruce, Dick was understandably worried. “Have you slept at all, Bruce?”
“A few days ago, Rebel brought something serious to my attention.”
Bruce had spent days working on the case Rebel had dropped into his lap. He felt that she had summarised the situation too simply. Or she was unaware of what the full extent of the situation was due to her lack of experience and knowledge.
John Constantine was unhelpful in getting more information on the Miraculous but did confirm their presence in Paris in the same period Rebel had given. Rebel had given more information than him.
Zatanna said that she would sort through her father’s journals to give him a definite answer but told him that it was likely Rebel was telling the truth about Paris. There were surges of the magical equivalent of earthquakes from Paris which her father had gone to check out a few years ago.
Diana had overheard their conversation and talked about how her mother used to wield the Ladybug Miraculous. She promised to talk to her mother for more information. Bruce decided to ask Doctor Fate later if his research wasn’t enough.
However, the thing that had Bruce tearing apart his training dummies like they were paper was the good-for-nothing, sham of a man that Paris had for a mayor.
Mayor André Bourgeois had blocked all news about the akuma from getting out of the city. He didn’t report about it to the Justice League European branch and blocked all attempts to prevent others from reporting it. His reasoning was that the child heroes were enough. That was just the political side of things.
To further make things worse, the heroes who were stationed in France all claimed to have been told to be relocated to other cities by the Justice League Headquarters. They did as they were told under the assumption that someone else would be filling in for them. Just before Hawkmoth struck.
Bruce investigated that lead and it appears that someone had sent out that order but Bruce hadn’t figured out who it was yet or whether it really was sent by one of the Justice League. Either they had a mole or the JL Headquarters needed a new update to their systems.
Then, one of Zatanna’s contacts in Paris had informed her that magic helped in preventing news of akuma reaching outside of Paris.
By the time Dick came to the Manor, Bruce was hours deep into the many footage he had spent the most of the day collecting from the internet. He started with the first akuma where Ladybug and Chat Noir were practically strangers shoved together and forced to rely on each other. He didn’t like that the Parisians were forcing the love narrative between the two of them. Ladybug had the sense to focus on her job and remain professional while Chat Noir tried to enforce the love story. He was not pleased with that interview.
The Ladyblog that was run by a very dedicated teenager was very helpful in getting raw footage of most fights, albeit a bit shaky and blurry. He was currently watching the blog owner’s interview with Ladybug. How she got an interview with the very elusive heroine Batman doesn’t know. There was something about the heroine that caught his attention. It felt like he had met Ladybug before.
Dick skimmed over the notes Batman had taken. He whistled. “This is pretty crazy.”
“Why are you doing all of this research?” Dick asked.
“Hawkmoth. I am trying to track him down.”
“Wait, you are telling me that there is a powerful supervillain in Paris and these kids are heroes? They look like babies. They don’t even know how to properly fight.”
“We are already too late. Hawkmoth has been defeated and stripped of his powers.”
“So what’s the problem? Is he coming back?”
Bruce sighed heavily and showed off his days of research to Dick.
“Rebel had been planning something for months. Something big. I asked the reason behind it all. She asked me to bring him to justice and she would call it all off. Apparently, the leader of the hero team, Ladybug, gave Hawkmoth the equivalent of the slap on the wrist and Rebel doesn’t agree with him being off the hook that easily. He got his wife in exchange for giving back the Miraculous under his possession and didn’t face consequences for his little foray into villainy.”
“How does she know what happened to Hawkmoth?” Dick asked, “It just says that no akumas was seen for a month and then, Ladybug announced that Hawkmoth was defeated before disappearing forever.”
“According to her, Rebel used to be one of the heroes going against Hawkmoth.” Bruce told him.
Dick nearly fumbled the file in his hand due to the surprise.
“Oh. Um. That- That explained a few things. The experience in fighting. Those acrobatic stunts. Former hero, huh.”
It left a bitter taste in his mouth. The thought of somebody who was once a hero turning to the dark side.
Dick changed the subject. “Any luck finding him?”
“I have one suspect. He’s the one that fits the profile.”
Bruce handed Dick a file.
“Gabriel Agreste.”
Dick looked through it. “He’s a fashion designer. That doesn’t exactly scream evil to me.”
“Even without Rebel’s hints. He’s still suspicious.” Bruce said. “I am meeting him in a month to get a feel for him.”
Dick closed the file. “Even if he is Hawkmoth, it’s been a few years since his defeat. We can’t just take him in.”
Bruce suddenly looked very tired.
Tim popped up from where the pile of blankets besides the Batcomputer that Dick hadn’t noticed. Dick’s and Bruce’s voices have woken him up.
Dick definitely did not scream.
“Tim! How long were you there?” Dick asked, putting his escrima sticks away.
“A few hours I think.” Tim replied and yawned.
“Anyhoo,” Tim started, “Rebel had already taken care of that part. She had been using different accounts to sow seeds of conspiracy theories and rumours for people online to find Hawkmoth’s true identity. No mention of Gabriel being Hawkmoth or it won’t be taken seriously if the truth comes out. I think she is trying to spread the idea that Hawkmoth must be taken in to face the legal system.”
“Why is she going that far?”
Bruce was silent for a moment. “Hawkmoth was part of the reason she was framed for murder.”
“Framed? Why do you think that she was framed? Her father is the Joker. The Joker. The one who killed Jason.”
Bruce stiffened. Jason had left Gotham after their last showdown. Last Bruce heard of him, Jason had teamed up with Roy Harper to form his own mercenary team.
“I know. But children are not their parents.”
Bruce handed Dick another file.
“Her case file and the transcript of her trial. Read it and draw your own conclusions.” Bruce instructed.
Dick took it.
“You are not going to like it, Dick.” Tim said.
—--
A day later, Dick came back, storming into the Batcave.
He slammed the file in front of Bruce.
“What the fuck is wrong with people? How did something like this get past you?” Dick demanded furiously.
There was the last thing that was cherry on the icing of the cake that was this whole situation.
-
Rebel was not supposed to be in Arkham Asylum. She was not supposed to get a life sentence. She was not supposed to have fourteen charges of first-degree homicide to her name.
Dick read the trial proceeding.
It was way over exaggerated and very dramatised. He thought that he was reading the script for a courtroom soap opera drama. Dick even went as far as to hack into the French government to get the untranslated copy of the files and it was just as bad but in French. It didn’t take him long to find the blatant amount of bribes that were tossed around. The very obvious abuse of power. Every odds was stacked against Rebel. The unnecessary DNA test that unfortunately brought her to Gotham.
No wonder Marinette Dupain-Cheng turned to a life of crime. Everyone was dead set on labelling her the bad guy.
Then, he read Gabriel Agreste’s involvement in the case. His son was part of Rebel’s old class. Their classmates spoke about Rebel’s stalker tendencies towards him. But Dick kept an open mind, knowing how exaggerated everything was. Gabriel had blacklisted Rebel from every company in the fashion industry he had connections with. That move confused Dick until he found out that Rebel was trying to be an aspiring designer. It was essentially salt in her wounds.
Dick simply couldn’t understand the witch hunt against Rebel.
-
“Bruce, we have to do something about this.” Dick said.
“The only thing we can do right now is bring Hawkmoth in before Rebel takes it into her own hands.”
“What do you mean by that?” Dick asked.
Tim injected. “You already know that Rebel had been acting suspicious for the past few months. She had been meeting up with several different villains and secret projects we couldn’t figure out until now.”
“We found a warehouse in Washington connected to her that contained these strange stone statues.”
Bruce pulled up a picture of the stone statues in the warehouse.
“Now look at the clip of the first akuma attack.”
Bruce played a clip of Stoneheart attack. The monster looked similar to the stone statues in the photo.
“Going through the akuma fights and her movements in the past few months. It is obvious what she is trying to plan.”
Picture of Rebel talking to many different ice villains with a powerpoint presentation and a clip of the Glaciator attack.
Picture of a machine that could create floods that the Teen Titan had managed to shut down a few years back and picture of Paris being flooded.
Picture of Weather Wizard, next to a picture of Stormy Weather.
“She’s trying to recreate akuma fights.” Dick concluded. “And making it seem like Hawkmoth was back.”
Bruce nodded gravely. “I wouldn’t have figured it out if Rebel didn’t deliberately let me in on her plans. She exposed a great problem we had missed. She is giving us, the League, a chance to rectify our mistake.”
Rebel was not counting on the legal justice system to bring Hawkmoth to justice. She was counting on him as Batman to make sure that Hawkmoth ended up with the same fate as her. His reputation torn apart and dragged through mud. Behind bars for the rest of his life with the supervillain mark following him everywhere.
Or she will forcefully do it by bringing the whole world down to force the Justice League in carrying it out.
“Without Ladybug’s miraculous power, it would be disastrous for us and we would have a lot of civilian casualties.”
“I don’t think she would do that, Bruce.” Tim argued.
“Then, lock her up.” Dick suggested.
“Arkham is currently in no position to take her in.” Bruce said. He looked resigned.
Dick looked at Tim for an explanation which he helpfully provided. “It was being renovated a few months ago to put in a new security system. In the chaos, her records were wiped out from the system and her physical reports went missing. Every copy was gone. So even if we arrest her now, we have to find a pretty good justification to keep her there legally. We only have these copies because Bruce regularly back-ups the Arkham database onto the Batcomputer and the Bat-net.”
Dick cursed. While they could just put it back, it wasn’t worth the headache if it was erased again.
“What about the police? Won’t they have her records?”
“Same thing. We think she did it when Clayface attacked the police a while back.”
“How about her original case that sent her to Arkham?”
“It was erased too. We need to get to Paris in order to access their database or if she erased her case, then we need to get the physical copy and we would have to go through so much legal bullshit to get it. That will take months.”
“She covered everything.” Dick said, amazed.
“She thought of all the possibilities and covered all of her bases. She had been staying under the radar and not getting caught.” Bruce said.
“He means that he got caught in her traps if we try to catch her.” Tim said with a shit eating grin on his face.
Bruce grumbled.
“You? How did you even get caught?” Dick asked.
“Rube Goldberg machines.” Tim answered.
“Rube what?”
“Here.” Tim opened up Youtube and showed Dick a video of a marble rolling down a pipe and then knocking down a row of dominoes in a spiral which continued to set off a chain of reactions that ended with a ball going neatly through a hoop and triggering a banner that said ‘WOW!’ to pop up.
“So that’s what it is called.” Dick commented. “Aren’t these like super complicated to do? She couldn’t have set them up that quick …unless she had them set up beforehand.”
“According to my research, she has at least 50 of these set up in different locations around Gotham. There are videos of people setting these off on purpose. Rebel is always making more. They usually have victims stuck in a net or a hole. Or have water, paint or liquids splashed onto them.”
“She did that? That picture you sent me where Bruce had yellow pain all over him?”
Bruce glared at Tim.
A derisive snort came from the entrance of the Bat cave.
They all turned to look at the newest addition to the house.
Damian Al Ghul. Well, Damian Al Ghul Wayne now.
“I find it hard to believe that this one petty criminal got the better of all of you.” He said mockingly.
“Damian.” Bruce said. “Even if she is just a petty criminal, she cannot be underestimated. You must never underestimate your opponent, no matter how deceiving they look.”
“Perhaps Father, you and Drake aren’t good at doing your jobs.”
“Like you would be any better catching her.” Tim said under his breath.
“If it was up to me, she would be killed on sight.” Damian continued.
“Damian, we do not kill here. People deserve another chance to redeem themselves.” Bruce explained like he had a thousand times before.
Damian scowled. “I don’t need to kill. I have brought in targets alive before.”
The way he said it implied that those targets were in a state where their hearts were the only things that could still move.
“Do you really believe that you can catch Rebel?” Tim asked.
“I don’t have to believe. I know I can.” Damian answered, disdain in his voice that Tim dared to doubt his skills.
“I bet you can’t.” Tim taunted.
Damian lunged but was stopped by Dick who grabbed his shoulder.
“Boys!” Bruce shouted. “Tim, stop antagonising him. Damian, you know you aren’t allowed to go out on patrol.”
“No!” Damian demanded. “Drake has issued me a challenge. I will not back down. I will prove to him and you that I can catch that petty criminal that goes by Rebel.”
His declaration was filled with the determination and stubbornness that all eleven year olds seemed to possess.
Bruce rubbed his head at the oncoming headache.
He knew that despite whatever he gave, Damian would go behind his back and against his orders to fulfil his self-assigned mission of capturing Rebel.
“Tim, this is all your fault. I am blaming you for this. You will be washing the Batmobile for a month.” Bruce said after some thinking.
“Bruce!” Tim complained. “What did I do?”
“You started it. And Damian, I will let you go after Rebel.”
Damian gave Tim a smug grin.
“However,” Bruce continued. “There will be a few conditions.”
Damian stood up straighter and paid attention. “One, Nightwing will be with you.”
“What? Why, Bruce?” It was Dick.
“I am busy with the Hawkmoth case. Tim and Damian shouldn’t be together. Cass and Steph are busy with their own things. I don’t think Jason wants anything to do with me and he’s out of town. Babara has no desire to watch Damian.”
“Thank you, Bruce.” Oracle’s voice came from the Batcomputer.
“Tch. Grayson is an acceptable choice.” Damian said with a sniff.
“Fine. I can stay for a week or two. Give me a few hours to sort some things out.” Dick threw up his hands in defeat.
“However, he will not be helping you. He is going to be monitoring your every move and he will intervene if it was a life and death situation.” Bruce added.
“Fine.” Damian replied.
“Two, when you bring Rebel in, she should not have sustained any life-threatening and fatal injuries. She should also possess all of her limbs intact.”
Damian scowled harder. “I know my limits. Anything else?”
“Three, do not kill anyone to achieve your goals.”
“Got it.”
“Your deadline to bring her in is in three months. You will report to me on your progress every morning. That’s all. Any questions?”
“No. I will not fail you, Father.” Damian said seriously.
“Does anyone else find this funny?” said Dick. “Son of Batman hunting down daughter of Joker. Children of two arch-enemies repeating history.”
“That only means that I am destined to bring her in.” Damian further solidified his mission.
—--
Forty-eight hours later, found Damian, currently going by Redbird, tied up, covered in green paint and dangled upside-down over a vat of something that smelled utterly foul.
Rebel landed near Nightwing and asked, “So what’s the deal with the new kid?”
Nightwing extended a hand dramatically towards Damian, “That’s Batman’s blood son.”
Rebel frowned. “Is this going to be a thing now? Child of Batman versus child of Joker. Because I really don’t want to hurt the kid that much.”
“I AM NOT A CHILD.” Redbird yelled as he struggled against his restraint. “Nightwing, help me get untied and catch the villain!”
“Would a dip in that kill him?” Nightwing asked, pointing at the vat of whatever that was. He wanted to stay more than 20 feet away due to the smell alone.
Rebel shrugged.
“Probably not. It’s just water from the Gotham River with the contents of the nearest dumpster emptied into it.”
Nightwing shivered. He had taken a dip in the icy cold waters of Gotham River before. It was not pleasant. And the amount of showers he had to take to finally get rid of the smell.
“Good news, Redbird.” Nightwing shouted back. “You won’t die if you fall.”
Redbird threw some words in Arabic that sounded a lot like swears.
“So… I ask again. What’s up with the kid?”
“He thinks that Batman would accept him as the one true heir of the Batman title if he catches you.” Nightwing explained. “It has nothing to do with the blood rivalry thing. He’s trying to prove Batman wrong by trying to succeed in catching you when Batman and Robin - especially Robin - couldn’t catch you.”
“It’s there like a deadline for this? Because I really don’t want to play cats and dogs forever with the gremlin.”
“Oh yeah. There is.”
Rebel smirked. “That means I just have to up my game then. Thanks for the heads up, Bluey.”
Nightwing’s smile faded as he realised his slip-up. “Damn it. Baby Bat is going to kill me.”
“Hey, can I use that nickname?”
“Does it matter if I say no?” Nightwing said.
“Nope.” Rebel said with a laugh as she slipped away into the shadows.
—--
A Bat signal shone in the night sky. Calling Batman to action.
However, it was not Commissioner Gordon who met Batman on the rooftop that night.
“Commissioner-” Batman immediately went on guard as a petite figure of Rebel greeted him instead of the broad shoulders of the Commissioner.
“What did you do to him, Rebel?” Batman growled out.
“Chill, Mister Bat, he’s dealing with an anonymous tip off for his latest case at the other side of the city. I just flipped the switch to your nightlight to get your attention. Less messy than other methods, don’t you agree?” Rebel explained as she switched the Bat-signal light off.
He glared at her. “What do you want?”
“A week is up. So what are you going to do?”
Batman gave a tired sigh. To be honest, he had forgotten about the deadline. There were so many things he had to take care of. Starting with the possible Justice League breach. An entire city being under attack and no one noticing until the problem was gone. The investigation into who Hawkmoth was. Finally, dealing with a testy Damian who didn’t take his loss against Rebel well.
“My conclusions showed me that you were telling the truth about akumas. I would like to apologise on the behalf of the Justice League for our massive oversight. You were a child that had to fight a war without support.”
“I won that damn war. Without your help.” Rebel said defensively.
“Yes. You did. I am not criticising your achievement, Rebel. I am just pointing out that you were a child fighting those monsters everyday and some of those monsters had been a family or a friend. You shouldn’t have to carry a burden like that on your shoulders. Even Nightwing had me to look after him until he could step out of my shadow to fly on his own.”
“We weren’t alone.”
“You weren’t. You had other people who were as clueless as you about what to do. No one taught you the basics. You had to learn how to fight all on your own. You had to learn to do it right on the first try because a mistake would cause you everything. I am sorry that we weren’t there to provide that guidance.”
“Why are you apologising for that? You didn’t know.”
Batman’s frown became deeper. “That is exactly the problem. Something this big slipped under our radar.”
He went on to explain about how the oversight occurred. If anything, Rebel looked surprised by the news.
“So you're telling me that I could have had help. I wouldn't have to do it all on my own if it wasn’t for a lot of people meddling.”
She sounded angry. The comment about her doing it all on her own confirmed a theory Batman entertained. There was a little evidence that pointed out otherwise but with magic there was no telling if the evidence wasn’t faked.
“We never realised until now. We have failed you.” Batman apologised.
“Kwami. All this time. I thought you were too busy with your own world-saving to pay attention to Paris. Fucking Mayor Bourgeois. Fuck Magic. Fuck whoever mess with your systems. Fuck Hawkmoth.” Rebel screamed. “What else? What else do I have to know that I didn’t know?”
“That’s mostly it. I am here to get your account of what exactly happened during those years.” Batman paused (Dramatic bitch) “I also need you to confirm the identity of Hawkmoth.”
“Well…” Rebel inclined her head for him to continue.
“Gabriel Agreste.”
Rebel smiled from under her mask. “Bingo. As expected of the World’s Greatest Detective.”
She pulled out a flash drive from her pocket and handed it to Batman. “Here’s everything I wrote down from what I remembered.”
“How did you know I would ask for it?” Batman asked as he took it and put it away in his utility belt.
“I didn’t. I was going to send that to every news station when I start my Armengeddon plans.”
Batman stared at Rebel, waiting for her to hand over her Armengeddon plans she had given the other villains.
Rebel stared back at him defiantly.
“Hand them over.” Batman demanded.
“I already gave you what you needed.” Rebel said with a raised eyebrow, pretending to be oblivious about what Batman wanted.
“What about your Armengeddon plans?”
“Oh. Those plans. Yeah. Gimme a minute.” Rebel reached into her jacket inner pocket and took out a slim notebook. She tossed it to Batman who expertly caught it.
He flipped through it and noticed the jagged edges of pages torn out. He also noticed that none of the plans that involved other villains were in the book.
“Where are the missing plans?” Batman asked harshly.
“You thought it was going to be easy?” Rebel said amused. “I want definite proof that you are working on taking him in.”
“How long do I have to get you proof?” Batman asked cautiously.
“When is the deadline for your son to catch me?”
Batman knew that tone. He had heard that tone from the clown before Joker pulled out the punchline.
“In three months.” He answered.
“That’s around when the plan is supposed to start anyways. Then, if you don’t have it by the time Redbird catches me, you won’t get the plans. However, if he doesn’t catch me by the three month deadline, you will get the plans and I will tell the others that everything is called off.”
Batman had a feeling that if Rebel wasn’t wearing her mask, there would be a smile on her face identical to the one Joker would usually wear for his maniacal plans.
Children aren’t always their parents. But they sometimes inherit their parent's worst traits.
“Deal.”
What other options did he have but to play along with her games.
—-
After Rebel was gone, Redbird came out of the shadows.
“Father, what is the meaning of this?” He demanded. Redbird had been hiding to unleash a surprise attack when Rebel proposed that inane condition to Batman.
Batman sighed. “We will talk more back at the Cave.”
“I want an explanation now.”
“Just hold off trying to catch her for at least a week, Redbird. I am not going to stop you from your task. Maybe use that time to observe her instead.”
Redbird huffed but nonetheless accepted the compromise.
“Fine. It gives me more time to make more well thought out plans.”
“Since she would mostly be at school, you won’t have to do much.”
Batman grappled off the roof and Redbird followed.
When they reached the Batmobile, Redbird turned to his father and said.
“Father, I have been thinking. Perhaps I should infiltrate her school in order to get closer and gain more information on her movements.”
Bruce looked at him in surprise, remembering the first time he suggested Damian going to school and being told that he was never going to step foot into a subpar teaching environment.
“Are you sure, Damian?”
“I am sure.” Damian said firmly.
“I will call the principal in the morning and arrange everything.”
—
“Come back here, you-” The insult was lost as Redbird comically stepped on the rake. The handle hit his face like those old cartoon gags.
A slew of Arabic curses were unleashed.
"Tick-tock, birdy." Rebel taunted as Redbird held his broken nose. "It's nearly midnight and I am not still not in chains or behind bars."
"I should have your tongue cut out for your insolence."
"That threat lost its charm about two months ago." Rebel replied in a bored tone.
"Be more creative. Like ‘I will slowly take a small piece of your tongue a day, roast it and force feed it to you’." Rebel declared with an imitation of Redbird’s voice but slightly higher pitch than it actually was.
“I will gladly do so.” The threat probably would have sounded more intimidating if Redbird wasn’t still holding his broken nose and didn’t sound like he had a very bad nasal problem.
Rebel covered her mask with her hand as if trying to hide a smirk.
“Well, little bird, if you are done with your threats, I will be off- WHAT THE FUCK!”
Rebel didn’t look where she was going and had fallen down the hole in the roof that was hidden with a tarp..
Redbird grinned as he peered over the hole where Rebel had fallen into a cage he had set up to work like a bear trap.
“You aren’t the only one skilled with traps in this city.” He boasted.
Nightwing landed, giving Redbird an appreciative whistle and applause.
“Good job, baby Bat.”
“Call the police, Nightwing. Tell them I have the fiend, Rebel, in custody.” Redbird said.
“Sure thing.”
Redbird turned to give Rebel a smug look at his sure victory. It immediately got wiped out as he saw Rebel dangling her legs over the hole she fell down a few minutes ago.
She gave him a cheeky wave.
“HOW?” Damian exploded. “HOW DID YOU ESCAPE MY FOOLPROOF TRAP?!”
“It’s not foolproof if a fool like me could get out of it that easily. Nice setup though. Gave me a few ideas for my next project.”
Redbird growled and launched himself at her. Rebel rolled out of his way.
Landing nimbly, Redbird charged at her and threw a few attacks. Rebel effortlessly dodged every one of them.
Nightwing watched with a bored look on his face as Redbird chased Rebel around the rooftop.
“Well, you can tell by the way I use my walk. I'm a woman's man, no time to talk ....”
Rebel took out her phone and turned off her alarm as she ducked a birdarang.
“It’s midnight! And you know what that means. You just failed your mission.” Rebel announced cheerfully.
Redbird yelled in anger and charged at her.
Nightwing stepped in between the two to restrain Redbird.
“Chill, baby bat. You need to calm down. She won, fair and square.”
“And just as promised, I will send over the plans I made for the other villain to the Big Guy.” Rebel continued as she walked backwards to the edge of the rooftop.
“See ya around, Birdies.” She said as she jumped back off the roof while giving them a finger salute.
Nightwing hurriedly let go of Damian and ran to look over the parapet wall. Rebel appeared to be perfectly fine after a five-storey drop and was calmly putting her helmet on. She got on her bike and drove off.
“Um… guys.” Oracle’s voice came over the comms. “There is actually fifteen minutes left until midnight. She lied.”
The two vigilantes looked at each other and cursed. They grappled off, trying their best to catch the cunning villain.
—
“I am sorry that I failed you, Father.” Damian reported.
Three months should have been more than sufficient for him to complete his assigned task successfully. He even had subjected himself to the establishment called a school in order to catch Rebel.
Each time, he thought that he was close to capturing the most slippery villain in all of Gotham. Something would interfere in his plans and Rebel continued to walk free.
Head down ashamed as he kneeled on the cold floor of the Batcave to receive his punishment. Damnit, why was his vision getting blurry?
The shadow from his father’s cape moved closer and blocked out the light. Damian braced for the pain.
Damian was confused when he felt his Father placed his hand on his head. It felt… odd and comforting.
“It’s alright. You did your best. Even with the restriction I placed on you.” Bruce said.
Damian’s confusion increased.
“But… I failed.”
It did hurt to admit his failure but he was more confused by his father’s actions. Grandfather would have given out some sort of punishment by now. Like going against some of the League’s Finest on his own.
The hand moved from his head to his shoulder.
“Look at me, Damian.”
Damian obeyed and met his father’s blue eyes. The colour reminded him of the flowers his mother would sometimes wear in her hair when Grandfather was out of Nanda Parbat.
“Even if you had failed in your task, you still had helped me.”
Damian was flabbergasted.
“How?”
“In order to capture her, you monitored her every move. Because of you and your reports, I knew her every move. Avoiding your attempts kept Rebel so busy that she wasn’t able to work on her plans as much. Which gives me more time to work on how to bring Hawkmoth in.”
“I still failed.”
“And I am telling you that you still did a good job. You can learn from this experience and learn how to do better.” Bruce said.
“Aren’t you going to punish me?”
“No. I am not going to punish you for this.”
The answer seemed to have shifted Damian’s worldview. It broke Bruce’s heart to know how Damian had been treated. Being punished for failure which made Damian scared to fail.
“How.. how can you…”
Damian didn’t seem to comprehend that there would be no punishments for failing.
“Damian.” Bruce said gently. “I know that this is hard for you to comprehend but we do things differently here. We do not kill. And we do not punish people for simply failing.”
“But Drake… Batmobile.”
Oh right, grounding.
“I will reiterate. I will not physically hurt you as punishment for failing your mission. I do not like raising my hand to people I call family. Yes, you are part of it now, Damian, no matter how unexpected your arrival was. I prefer giving you chores to do instead. Like washing the Batmobile. Giving Ace a bath. Organising the case files. Helping Alfred around the Manor. Even then, it’s only if you misbehave and go against the rules of the Manor. And you may see them as pointless but they were put in place to keep you safe. I don’t want to see any of you hurt. Yes, including you, Damian.”
Bruce hoped that he got through Damian. Made him see that things were different now but they were a good kind of different. Maybe now Damian would let him in and be the better person Bruce knew he could be.
Bruce thought all of this as he hugged the slightly shaking boy in his arms who hid his face with Bruce’s chest. ------ (Part 6) ----
Taglist: @toodaloo-kangaroo, @iloontjeboontje, @buginetye, @angelwreckedd, @anoires-blog, @ever-since-i-was-young, @shutupandactuallylisten, @its-maemain, @vel-vee, @kashlyn, @officiallydarkgeek, @jayjayspixiepop, @cmouse, @transheso, @thecrazyfantrolls, @just-a-random-girl-loves-anime, @maddiesupdates, @the-dumber-scaramouche,
#who made me a villain#biodad! joker#cue bruce being a good dad#introducing insufferable damian#morally grey marinette/rebel#mlb x dc#ml x dc
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oooooohhhhhh i love the idea of a yuu based on athanasia de alger obelia from who made me a princess or maybe roxana agriche from way to protect the female lead's older brother or keira parvis from actually I was the real one or even Penelope eckart from death is the only ending for a villainess
Since I can't pick which one, I'm gonna do all of them. I'm actually not a big manhwa reader. As well if you notice I've been slowing down. It's because I'm busy or tired from work.
𝐓𝐖𝐒𝐓 𝐖𝐈𝐓𝐇 𝐌𝐀𝐍𝐇𝐖𝐀!𝐘𝐔𝐔
( English is not my first language )
Day 7 : manhwa!yuu
𝐀𝐓𝐇𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐒𝐈𝐀!𝐘𝐔𝐔 👸🌼
Athanasia de Alger Obelia is the main protagonist in Who Made Me a Princess, and the current Crown Princess of the Obelian Empire. After reading a romance fantasy novel named The Lovely Princess, the protagonist goes to sleep and finds herself reincarnated into the infant body of Athanasia
the princess of NRC, poise and elegant. Many students wonder why they are in NRC, when they should be in RSA. Headmaster umbrigde of RSA offered them a scholarship on RSA. but was rejected by them because they don't want to leave their friends.
Vil favorite. Usually make examples out of them saying to epel that he should act more like them. Epel originally don't like them thinking they are just similar to vil or are annoyed by constant comparison.
One of NRC prodigies, similar to riddle, Azul and malleus. Even tho Athanasia!yuu is known to be a kind person
𝐑𝐎𝐗𝐀𝐍𝐍𝐄!𝐘𝐔𝐔 🦋🌹
Roxana Agreece is the Protagonist of the Roxana series. She is the daughter of Lante Agreece and Sierra Agreece, and the biological younger sister of Achille Agreece.
The serpent of NRC, Roxanne would be very observant, strategic as well,very calculating. Able to manipulate situations into their favor.
They might appear charming and polite on the surface but always have a hidden agenda. They can easily influence or secretly guide people's decisions to their benefit. Some students manage to recognize their intentions like riddle, Azul and Leona.
Roxanne!Yuu have the ability to control or create poisonous butterflies that are created by their own blood, these butterflies can work as eyes and ears for them, these butterflies can devour anything as well to cast illusion.
𝐊𝐈𝐄𝐑𝐑𝐀!𝐘𝐔𝐔 🗡️🪻
Strong and resilient, kiera!yuu are an independent student. They are very sharp and observant able to pick up on subtle cues and hidden motives,They wouldn’t take anyone’s words at face value and would often find themselves questioning the intentions of others, particularly the dorm leaders and those in positions of power.
Kiera!Yuu might not be immediately outgoing, they would be fierce when standing up for themselves and their beliefs. They would quietly but determinedly pursue their goals, unwilling to back down once they’ve set their sights on something. deep down Kiera!yuu have a soft spot over the people they care.
Even tho not being skilled at the art of magic, Kiera!yuu is very athletic and Mobile they are very strong in managing to suppress many students using their skill, as well as master swordsmanship they are able to head on head with some powerful students like Lilia in martial arts.
𝐏𝐄𝐍𝐄𝐋𝐎𝐏𝐄!𝐘𝐔𝐔 🌹🌺
Penelope Eckhart was the original villainess of the otome game Daughter of the Duke - Love Project! in Normal Mode and the heroine in Hard Mode.She was the adopted daughter of Duke Eckhart, her role being to replace the Duke's original daughter, Ivonne Eckhart. She had a bad relationship with her family and was relentlessly abused by the servants which caused her to have a bad personality that earned her a bad reputation. She died in all of the original routes of the game in Normal Mode.
Penelope!yuu would approach relationships in Night Raven College with extreme caution would be thinking several steps ahead in every interaction.they’d be acutely aware of how fragile their position is and would work to secure their place in the school while avoiding conflict where possible.
Though they may come off as cold or indifferent at first, they are driven by the need to survive and avoid the metaphorical "bad ending." Yet, like Penelope, they harbor a secret desire for genuine care and understanding from others, even if they struggle to show vulnerability.
Similar to kierra yuu, Penelope!yuu would be sharp, immediately finding a solution over any situation, as well as a very skilled swordmaster. Have very quick and swift attacks before the enemy.
#twisted wonderland#not canon#twst headcanons#twst scenario#disney twst#twisted wonderland yuu au#twst mc#twst wonderland#twst x reader#twst yuu au#roxanne!yuu#penelope!yuu#kiera!yuu#manhwa#manhwa!yuu#twst crossover#actually i was the real one#villains are destined to die#how to protect heroine older brother#who made me a princess
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When you absolutely despise something a lot of people like, and no matter what way you look at it you cannot see the appeal, but you know you can’t talk about it in public or else you’ll get dogpiled to hell and back, so you just kinda sit there frothing at the mouth like this
#spaghetti speaks#minor blood#I know this image is typically used in positive contexts but it felt fitting here too#Also you probably know what I’m talking about if you’ve spoken to me before#The AM speech but aimed toward this one particular series because the rage it causes is GRAHH#it had so much potential#it could’ve been so so good#YOU COULD'VE KEPT THE PILOT PLOT INSTEAD OF INSTANTLY ABANDONING IT IN FAVOR FOR ONE OF THE WORST ROUTES A STORY CAN GO IN#I’m so mad because I WISH I could like it#I WISH I could make art for it- the character designs are fun to draw#but I’m not a fan of it#I have a visceral hatred of the series and its creator#but I’m alone in the opinion#minus my friends who agree with me#but I just#I don’t understand#I feel like if it was made by a bigger studio- people would hate it as much as me#Steven Universe was written significantly better than it- I’m sorry#SU got so much shit for years- this is praised everywhere I see#I could explain every single problem I have with this series and people will defend it#it’s so popular despite nothing being resolved or making sense#The people behind the studio were revealed to be shitty to employees but no one cares because this series got a new episode#GRRRRRGHGGHH#I hate the characters- I hate the nonsensical plot- I hate the plot holes- I hate the villain- I hate the wasted potential#I’d hijack this series and make a Snoot Game type thing if I could- my autistic ass will make this better#I'm not arrogant I’m just saying the writing is on the floor and it doesn’t take much to just fix it up and make it pretty#I’m ranting#sorry#I’m very passionate about things like this#Inorganic killers
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I've seen a lot of posts about the new episode revolving around Rio's reveal or a joke in the show that was incredibly funny, but I haven't seen a lot about Lilia herself, whose episode it was. This is by far my favorite episode of the show, and not just because Lilia is my favorite character. It was an episode about life and accepting death and a character out of time who just wanted to forget her visions and forget her past and all the tragedy she's witnessed from both her life and her visions. It also gave context to those, at the time, funny moments of Lilia randomly blurting something out, which was just incredible to see. Then the scene where she reads her own past and future, that was just so powerful. Each of the coven members played a part, and it makes me want to watch the whole series again with this context. All of this leading up to her beautiful and well-earned sacrifice. The cinematography of that scene was just incredible and tastefully done where we don't have to see Lilia's end. We just get to see her a girl again, happy, and with her coven. This episode really was a knock out of the park for me with Lilia and her character arc and a real standout in any Marvel show too. I loved it.
#agatha all along#agatha harkness#lilia calderu#rio vidal#jennifer kale#billy maximoff#william kaplan#alice wu gulliver#marvel#like alice's death was incredibly sad and sudden but lilia's was foretold throughout the entire episode#she got to choose her end and rushed to meet it#there is something so beautiful and poetic#someone who saw the deaths and fates of others seeing her own and choosing her own path#it's the opposite of those doomed heroes who reject their fates inadvertently hurting straight towards them#lilia is a hero to me#this episode just made me love her more and I hope people can appreciate her for who she is#patti lupone just gave her all for this role#also! also!!! the rest of the coven being modeled after villainous witches while lilia is literally glinda the good witch#because she is a good witch!!!! I've connected the dots
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Man “Battle Nexus: New York” was a great episode but I do have one major gripe with it.
Like. Raph being paired up with Ghostbear? Makes sense. Works great. Works amazing, even.
Mikey being paired up with Meatsweats? Yeah that checks out!!
Donnie getting…Hypno…? I mean. I guess Donnie doesn’t like magic so it kindaaa works but Kendra would have been a much better choice to me personally. Maybe Big Mama didn’t wanna include a human or something…
And Leo getting…uh…one of the Sando Brothers???? Of all villains? Nah let’s be real, his main villain is more Big Mama herself (or Leo could be considered his own worst enemy lmao-). Hell Hypno would have probably worked better here considering their shared love for magic tricks and stuff, but Carl Sando????
#rottmnt#rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles#battle nexus: new york#nah this will always be baffling to me#like no joke big mama really is Leo’s main villain so it makes sense that she’s not paired with him#given that she’s running this all#but giving him ONE of the Sando brothers?? not even both???#outrageous#hypno or even warren would have been better here tbh#at least there’s some basis there for both and either option would have been so fun#not that what we got WASNT fun it def was but the sando bro was the weak link because no one cares about him#and I would have killed for a Donnie Kendra forced team up 😭#Donnie also could have worked with Stockboy ig or hell even Repo tbh?#but Kendra is the much more interesting and fitting choice here for him imo#honestly though this post was made because I do NOT understand the choice of CARL SANDO#both of them together are forgettable enough#separating them gets rid of the one thing they even had#I remember watching and being like who tf is that#he’s got some funny moments but man anyone would have been better 😭#going back to Kendra and Donnie because I LOVE their dynamic#the result of their team up could have ended exactly the same as canon#only instead of Kendra not knowing chess it’s instead her and Donnie arguing about what the right move would be#and they never actually make a move because of it
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