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elizabethemerald · 8 months

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5+1 Meeting the Nightingales

5 Times the Bat family met Jazz Nightingale and her son Danny, + 1 Time the Nightingales met the rest of the Batfamily

AO3

The first time Jason met Jazz and Danny he was actually dressed in civvies. He had run out of a few staples and knew at least one of his siblings would drop by unannounced hoping he would cook for them this weekend while Alfred was out of town, so he was in the little corner store in Crime Alley that always had the freshest fruit. Red Hood personally marked the place as off limits because it provided food for half the alley.

As he searched the shelves for what he needed he was surprised to hear a midwest accent in the next aisle. It was rare enough that out of towners moved to Gotham, much less moved into Crime Alley. A quick glance, caught between the shelves, showed him exactly why this person had come to Gotham.

In the next aisle was a tall red head, with a young child holding her hand. Jason would be a fool and a liar if he said she wasn’t beautiful, but it was clear she wouldn’t be in the mood for any flirting. Her flaming red hair was messily and crookedly cut short, like she had done it herself in a truckstop bathroom. She had a split lip and a black eye, and wore long sleeves that fully covered the rest of her body, and if they way she winced and flinched said anything, hid many more bruises.

Even the little boy she had with her was covered in injuries. He had his own black eye, and what looked like a fucking handprint on his fucking throat. He also shook slightly and seemed terrified of being out in public if the comforting whispers of his mother were anything to go by. Jason’s rage at the kid’s injuries wasn’t helped by the fact that he looked like adoption bait.

Jason had to force himself to leave as the green filled his vision. He doubted a mother and her toddler who recently escaped whatever hell they had come from would be receptive to a guy his height and size confronting them in the grocery store. More than that, he needed to get a firm handle on his anger before he spoke to them so he didn’t scare them off. They were in Red Hood’s turf now and they needed to know he would protect them.

He found them later that week when he was out as Red Hood. He had already used his information network to find which apartment building they were living in and waited for them on a neighboring stoop in his armor and helmet. Still creepy, and he wouldn’t blame them at all for being afraid of him, but he had to at least offer them his protection.

“Danny, we’ve only got a little farther to go, then we’ll be safe at home and we can have dinner, ok?” Jason would recognize that midwest accent anywhere.

He kept his body loose and relaxed as they approached so he didn’t startle them. Little Danny looked like he was barely keeping on his feet, except his mom’s arms were full with bags. He gave her a small wave when she passed, still plenty of room between him and them, so they wouldn’t be afraid of him grabbing one of them.

“It's not everyday someone new moves into the neighborhood.” Jason said, his voice coming out softer and monotone with his helmet’s modulator.

The woman stiffened and put herself between him and Danny, not that Jason would ever allow a child to be hurt in his presence, but he didn’t begrudge her the action. He kept himself relaxed against the stairs. He waited a moment for her to reply, but didn’t hold his breath.

“You’re in Crime Alley now, this is Red Hood turf.” Jason said. “I make sure people who live here are as safe as they can be. If anyone ever messes with you, or the little one, you tell me or one of my guys, and I’ll make sure they don’t do it again. And if you ever, ever need anything to make your stay safer or more comfortable, reach out. I take care of my own.”

His message passed on, he looked away, willing to let her return to her home without any word from her. However his attention snapped back to the pair as Danny stepped away from his mother closer to him. He kneeled down to be at the kid’s level as Danny reached up towards his helmet.

“Danny!” His mom hissed, panic in her voice, but that didn’t stop the kid from approaching.

The kid tapped his hands on Jason’s Red Hood helmet curiously as he looked at him with wide eyes. Jason stayed absolutely still, though he could see the boy’s mother relaxing minutely.

“You protect?” The kid said, nearly breaking Jason’s poor dead heart.

“Yeah, buddy, I protect.” Jason said, even as something inside him seemed to sing. He slowly reached into one of the pockets on the front of his vest and pulled out a Wonder Woman sticker that he handed over to the kid. There wasn’t much Red Hood merch on the market, more’s the shame.

Danny returned to his mom’s side to show her the sticker with a wide smile on his face. His mom shot him a small smile, clearly relieved to have her son back by her side. She also gave Jason a thoughtful look.

“My name’s Jazz. Jazz Nightingale. Thanks for the welcome.” She said.

Jason gave her a nod and let her go on her way. Maybe once she knew him better and trusted him more he would offer to help her carry her groceries, but for now he let her go with her son to her apartment and disappear within.

Tim was crouching on a rooftop a month later the first time he saw Jazz and Danny. He didn’t know their names, all he knew was a mom and her kid were walking alone late at night in a bad part of town. He kept a silent watch over them from the top of a nearby building. It had been a slow night and the major players were all either in Arkham or licking their wounds and preparing for their next big show, so Tim felt he could forgive himself for paying extra attention to this one small family.

He was worried because they were in Crime Alley, it was even riskier for the pair to be traveling, and it was risky for Tim to be here. While things were better with Jason and the family he still took offense any time any of the Bats wandered into his turf without his permission. He really wanted to get through tonight without getting shot, he didn’t think this calm would last and he needed to be ready to help the family when things inevitably went wrong.

The small family moved quickly down the street, the mom keeping a close eye out. She actually noticed the first thug before even Tim with his height advantage did. The big guy, clearly not actually from the Alley, moved in front of them, forcing her to deviate course. Unfortunately she didn’t see the second thug Tim could see, who moved behind to close off her escape. They were herding her into a narrow alley where they could act unhindered.

He prepared himself to swoop into the alley to intervene, except the little boy grabbed his mom’s hand and they both vanished before his eyes. He didn’t have any time to look for where they had vanished to, or to try other filters built into his domino when the two thugs entered the alley and loudly began exclaiming their confusion and annoyance that their quarry had vanished. Tim couldn’t find it in him to feel bad for them.

Tim was just debating whether it would be worth it to still drop into the alley and remind the thugs about proper behavior or if he was just asking to get hurt now that the victim had escaped, when he heard the sound of a kicked can. The thugs were complaining too loudly to hear the noise, but Tim followed along the alley from the rooftop until he reached the other street.

There he saw the pair reappear just as suddenly as they had disappeared. Except the boy collapsed down to his knees, almost dragging his mom down with him. She lifted him into her arms, and in a feat of strength that could only be from the adrenaline fueled desperation of a mother, ran down the street with him in her arms, seemingly desperate to get him home.

Tim once again considered following to make sure they were home safe, or to investigate them more, but he could see some of Hood’s lieutenants down the street, they would make sure she was safe, and they were even more likely to take a shot at him than Jason was. He thinks the lieutenants had some kind of personal scoreboard on hitting members of the family.

Instead of following, Tim leaned back and let his hand rise to his comm.

“Confirming the presence of a new meta in Gotham.” He said, interrupting the family’s chatter.

“Powers?” Bruce said, even his questions sounded like an order.

“Short interval invisibility.” That was the only power that made sense with what he had seen.

“Do one of us need to make contact?” Bruce asked.

Make contact was such a polite way to refer to Bruce’s usual tactic. Research and investigate every possible connection a person had, lay their entire history bare. Anything that could be exploited by the criminal element of the city was brought to the forefront during a face to face confrontation. Then a list of contingencies in case they joined that criminal element, willingly or not. In theory it was all for the protection of the meta. With people like Scarecrow, Ivy, and Joker who were more than willing to use mind controlling or altering substances to get what they want, and the mobs and gangs who had much more violent methods of control or influence, it was easy to see how on paper, this was for the best for everyone.

In practice however, it gave Batman a reputation for hating metas, and violently expelling them from his city. When the meta already had a desire to commit crimes, they just became a problem for some other hero, when they didn’t they became terrified that they would be beaten if they stayed. Duke had sat down each member of the family and coached how it looked and felt to him as a meta, and how to use better methods rather than a blanket hammer. He had tried multiple times to break Bruce of the habit, but even Alfred couldn’t break Bruce of his paranoia.

“No. They made it less than sixty feet and almost collapsed. I don’t think they are a concern to the safety of the city.” Tim declared.

Normally he was just as paranoid as Bruce, and just as quick to judge, but a kid desperately trying to protect his mother at the cost of his own health was no risk to the city. Any mob or criminal wouldn’t even get any use out of the kid’s abilities. There was no reason to turn someone’s life upside down for no reason. Especially when they were clearly living in Crime Alley for a reason.

“Hm.” Tim could feel Bruce’s disapproval in his voice, but he wouldn’t voice it over the comms. “Description?”

Tim rolled his eyes. And here was the worst part of his paranoia. He couldn’t trust his own family, so he was going to keep an eye on the family even if everyone else agreed not to bother them. Still it was better to give Bruce a little before he lost his mind and started stalking people, again.

“Looked like a mom and child. Mom was tall with short red hair, kid looked like adoption bait and seemed sickly. They’re not a threat B.”

“What the fuck are you doing so close to Crime Alley, Replacement?!” Jason’s voice interrupted before Bruce could demand further information. Tim started in surprise, he wasn’t even aware Jason was listening in.

“Are these people known to you, Red Hood?” Bruce growled.

“Yeah the fuck they are. They are under my protection and you will leave them the fuck alone or the next cape that crosses into my turf is going to get pumped full of holes!” Jason snapped into the comm before immediately dropping off the line.

Tim wisely decided to move on and patrol another section of the city, he had no desire to get between Jason and Bruce when they were like this.

There were a lot of strange things that were unique to Gotham that Duke had noticed. A single mom and her kid wouldn’t usually hold too much of his attention, except when they were connected to one of the other weird things.

Ever since Duke’s powers developed, he started to notice small green blobs in the air. They didn’t let anyone get too close, and no one else seemed to notice them. And they were so rare at first that he had thought that it was just his powers tripping up, especially since he had never seen them outside of Gotham at first. It wasn’t until the first time he saw one outside of the city that he realized what they were, and where they came from.

Ghosts. Or something like that. They formed in old battle grounds and cemeteries. When he joined the family he brought it up and they had an investigation that eventually required them bring in members of Justice League Dark. They were the energy of death, wrapped in the emotions of the dying, and operated solely on instinct. No intelligence to speak of. Not a threat, better to just ignore them, they had been told.

Duke wasn’t certain he believed the dismissive tone of John Constantine who had to cast spells in order to even see the little green blobs. He didn’t watch the blobs form little swarms or schools, almost like fish, or the way they froze and shook when held by his spells then fled immediately once they were free. So he kept an eye on the little green blobs, and just like with any metas in the city kept any changes on them to himself.

One day while he was watching over Gotham’s day shift from one of the local towers, he noticed that there was a larger than normal cloud of blobs about. He was worried that there had been a new serial killer around and that was why there were more blobs. Then a beacon split the sky, like the Bat signal an emerald beam of light flashed out from Robinson Park.

None of the people reacted to the beacon, so Duke didn’t think there was a new supervillain attack, however all of the local blobs started to excitedly swim and fly towards the parks. It reminded him of the koi in Alfred’s pond following after Damian when he brought out the feed bag. Curious, but not too concerned, Duke followed the blobs into the park towards where the beacon had disappeared.

Most of the blobs have disappeared, but a few are trailing behind by the time he gets to the park. They lead him to a sheltered area, hidden by enormous roots that Ivy had grown the last time she was free, and safe there among the trees was a young woman with short cropped red hair, though it looked like her hair had grown out since Tim had last seen her and a little boy who would have looked right at home at the Wayne family dinner. He could only be the same meta kid that Jason was protecting that Bruce had been struggling to find any information on in the last four months.

To Duke’s vision, the kid had a glowing green aura, which wasn’t so unusual, most metas had some kind of glowing aura, what was strange was that the kid’s aura almost seemed to be restrained. There were sections that were brighter and striated sections that were dimmer, like the bars on a cage. He hated to see a young kid in a cage, even if it was some kind of meta aura cage.

Especially because the kid looked so happy. He was dancing and laughing with the blobs as they floated and swam around him. They darted in and out of the bright patches of his aura like ducks in a bird bath, Bruce could shove his uptight anti meta rules up his cape, this kid wasn’t causing any problems.

Duke stepped a little closer into the clearing and the boy’s mom gasped and whirled around. She grabbed her son’s shoulders and held him tight, fear clear on her face. They looked like they were about to bolt, and even though he was a Bat he didn’t want to terrorize them.

He leaned back against one of the trees and called a small ball of light to his hand. He tossed the ball hand to hand for a moment before he started on his usual routine to help kids feel more relaxed. He had gotten really good at yo-yoing once to win a bet with Dick and he started yoing the little light ball up and down, and making it walk the dog and other silly little tricks.

The kid watched him with wide eyes before calling a little bit of green light to his hands and trying to recreate the tricks. Duke smiled and showed him the trick again slower, drawing the kid closer. His mom stayed close, keeping a wary eye on both him and her son. Duke smiled at both of them.

“I know some of the other Bats aren’t chill with metas, but you don’t have to worry about me.” Duke said softly, still showing his tricks off. “I’m just like you, I’ve been where you are, I won’t let anyone hurt you, ok?”

The kid smiled back at him, and kept trying to mimic Duke’s powers with his little green balls of light. Eventually the kid’s mom gave him a little smile too.

“Thanks Signal, I appreciate what you do.”

Duke shot her a wider smile and spent the next couple of minutes playing light tag with the kid until he had to leave.

Cass and Steph met Jazz and Danny during a city wide riot six months later. A prison convoy from Arkham to Black Gate was interrupted, with all the prisoners getting free and fleeing into the city. Three bus loads of convicts decided to make the city into their personal playground. There were multiple fires spread across the city and the full extended Bat family was out trying to put out the fires, recapture the escapees, and protect the people of Gotham.

The two Batgirls were working together in one of the worse hit neighborhoods. Cass as the best fighter in the family was quick to knock out and restrain those taking advantage of the trouble and the escapees. Steph was quick to comfort any victims and direct them towards the shelters set up across the city. They had both been fighting and flying across the city for hours and were exhausted, when they heard shouting from the next street over.

“Quickly! Follow me!” A feminine voice shouted.

“Hey, you bitch! I’m going to fuc-”

*CLANG*

They glanced at each other then dashed across the roof and jumped over the alley onto the next building. Steph got to the far roof edge first to look down and see a tall redhead, with her hair tightly tied back away from her face, waving an elderly couple into the opposite alleyway. She had a green painted bat in her hand and there was an unconscious thug in the street. It didn’t take two vigilantes trained by the “World’s Greatest Detective” to piece together what had happened. They watched as the couple disappeared into the alleyway and were about to move on when they heard someone call out for them.

“Hey! Down here!” The red head shouted, waving up at them. “I need your help!”

While they had just seen she could handle a thug by herself they still swooped down to meet her on the street level. Up close they could both see just how fit she was. She was easily as tall as an Amazon and built like a gymnast. Her muscular arms were on display in her short sleeve shirt. Cass couldn’t help a raised eyebrow at how Steph checked out her body up and down, her girlfriend was so predictable in her tastes.

“We’ve got several injured inside, they need more care than I can provide and Danny told me that there is a big crowd of thugs heading our way, I don’t think I can keep them all out on my own.”

With the name Danny, they now knew this woman was the mysterious Jazz. Duke had told them about his encounter with the mother and child in their Bruce-free chat. After that Tim and Jason had weighed in, though they both insisted, and Duke agreed that they weren’t a threat and should be left alone. None of the bat kids felt that the small family deserved to have Batman haunting their lives.

Jazz led the two into the alley and past a broken door into one of the buildings. They found most of the surrounding neighbors sheltering there. There were older folks, people who were sick or injured and a bunch of the local street kids all huddled together. Steph immediately put her in progress nursing degree to use to start treating those who were injured while Cass stayed near the door with Jazz.

“Here’s more” A young voice called right before Danny the meta boy swooped in, hovering a few feet off the ground, a couple of street kids followed right behind him. Jazz opened her arms and the little boy flew into her embrace. Cass was relieved to see Jazz checking over Danny for injuries but she was surprised the incredibly protective mother let her son out of her sight during the crisis.

“Are there any more people in danger?” Jazz asked, her voice tight, but her little boy shook his head. “Ok, I want you to stay here.”

“But bad guys coming!” Danny protested, his eyes glowing green. He looked like he wanted to float out of her arms, but she kept a tight hold on him.

“That’s why I need you to stay here. You need to protect Spoiler, OK?” Jazz said, gesturing to where Steph was wrapping a bleeding wound. “She’s helping the hurt people and you have to keep her safe!”

Danny gave as serious a nod as a toddler could. Steph waved the little boy over and he floated through the air to her side. Cass arched an eyebrow as Jazz’s shoulders dropped in relief. Apparently the little kid was doing much better than Jason, Tim or Duke reported. Though she was surprised his powers had developed so quickly, going from barely able to maintain invisibility for a block to effortlessly floating in the air.

However before either Batgirl could question that interaction the sound of approaching shouting drew their attention. Jazz and Cass stepped out of the hiding hole and snuck to the mouth of the alley. The escaped convicts had apparently assembled something of a mob as they pushed through the city. The two women could possibly stay hidden and let the riot go past, but Cass itched at the idea of letting these criminals go. If anyone was harmed by them after she let them go, that guilt would eat at her.

Jazz looked the crowd over closely, then turned to give Cass a careful look over. Cass could see Jazz examining her just as Cass often did to others. Eventually Jazz nodded and marched to the mouth of the alley, smacking her bat against a drain pipe.

“Hey you fucks!” She shouted, catching the attention of the mob. “Why don’t you try me on for size?”

Cass grinned under her mask, and she could feel an almost magnetic pull towards Jazz. She examined the approaching thugs with keen eyes, and could see how they all focused on Jazz and ignored her. She presumed Jazz was also some kind of meta, though still not worth bringing Batman’s particular brand of invasive investigations into her life.

Jazz funneled the mob into the narrow mouth of the alley so they could only approach her two or three at a time. Cass stayed right behind her, ensuring no one could catch her backside. She thinned the numbers with precise Batarangs and bolos and stepped forward to cover if Jazz tripped or needed a moment to catch her breath.

Cass examined Jazz’s fight style using her own unique skill with reading body language as the two worked their way through the mob. Her fighting style was an eclectic mix. She had the foundations of someone who was trained by an expert, though most of the improvements on that foundation seemed to be largely self taught. What was the most interesting was the roughness of a self-taught fighter was polished into a style that almost matched that of the Amazons of Themyscira.

The two women finished knocking out the last thug, leaving the pile unconscious and groaning. They turned to see Danny smiling at his mom, and Steph smiling for a completely different reason. Cass rolled her eyes at her girlfriend, before giving her a small nod. Danny flew to Jazz’s arms and gave her a tight hug. Steph walked up as well and threw her arm over Cass’s shoulder.

“Hey, my girlfriend and I saw you from across the bar, and we really liked your vibe.” Steph said, with a coy smile.

“Are you really flirting with me in costume?” Jazz asked, though she didn’t seem to mind.

“Yeah, is it working?”

Jazz gave them both a searching look, including running her eyes up and down their costumed forms. Cass noticed a red blush climb up Jazz’s cheeks to slightly pointed ears with a grin. Finally she hitched Danny up higher in her arms and gave them a nod.

“You have to know that Danny’s safety and happiness are always going to be my top priority.” When both of the bats nodded she continued. “But if you want to try…

Batman finally met the two metas more than a full year after they had arrived in Gotham. He knew multiple of his children had met them and were for some reason purposely keeping their whereabouts and information from him. He had searched for them on his own, but with the vague descriptions and his own children obfuscating the case, they just weren’t a high enough priority, though he hated having an unknown meta with unknown abilities in his city.

However when he found out that Orphan and Spoiler were apparently meeting the mom for clandestine rendezvous, the metas rose sharpley on his priority list. He still couldn't convince any of his children to tell him about them.

Red Robin had stayed stubbornly silent, even the threat of benching him did nothing except ensure he slept at his Nest for two weeks. Red Hood had threatened to go back to trying to kill the Bats if Bruce tried to push him. Signal had been furious, perhaps even angrier than Hood, when Bruce mentioned them to him.

“You claim this city as yours but it doesn't actually belong to you.” Signal had snapped. “It belongs to the people, and they deserve to live their lives without your interrogations.”

That left Batman no choice but to go behind their backs and search on his own. Trackers placed on their gear were ineffective and attempting to hack into the family group chat was only marginally less so. He tripped one of Oracle's alarms and got shut out immediately. No doubt any information was then immediately purged, and they had treated him with suspicion after that, ensuring he had to do the leg-work the more intensive way.

He had gone back to when Red Robin first reported the sighting of the pair of metas. He had followed Red’s patrol on cams and with the tracking data until he found the suspects on the street cameras. There were fewer cameras in Crime Alley, but eventually he was able to create a pattern from the pair’s movements and sightings on the cameras that did exist. Then he meticulously hacked into the records of the apartments in the Alley. He found a few other criminals hiding in Hood’s territory and flagged them in his system to ensure he could keep an eye on them. He did eventually find a pair who had moved in during a time that matched up with the profile he had created.

Then he did what he did best. He dug and he dug.

He found the Nightingales, Jasmine and Daniel. He determined quickly that their surname was falsified. He dug further and found a Jasmine Fenton who matched the profile he had created. He found it highly suspicious that Jasmine had a brother named Daniel who had been declared dead right before they had arrived in Gotham and no history of a pregnancy that could have resulted in her son. In a world with time travel, invading aliens and metas attacking in the city streets, a simple de-aging wasn’t that farfetched.

When he dug further into the Fentons he knew his suspicions were correct. The elder Fentons would have easily fit in with the rogues of Gotham. They were clearly mad-scientists, though their studies did inform him of a new threat to keep an eye on, and plenty of weapons to use as contingencies. Though they favored guns and blasters more than Batman thought was appropriate.

In one of their reports Batman was able to determine exactly where Daniel the younger had come from, and what exactly he was. An experiment on their own son deaged him and Jasmine took her brother and ran, claiming him as her son as they started their new life in Batman’s city.

If the elder Fentons were correct about even half the powers the two metas could have at their disposal then they were currently two of the biggest threats in Gotham, especially since they were manipulating his kids.

He compiled the information into a folio to give to the two most affected by Jasmine's manipulations, Orphan and Spoiler. He held them back after a long patrol when he knew their aggression against his arguments would be at its lowest. They were both exhausted, still in their uniforms.

Orphan refused to take the folio he tried to hand her. She just stared at him, her full face mask hiding any possible micro expressions. Spoiler took both folios from him and he thought for once she would be the voice of reason, except she then turned and tossed both of the folios into the dark abyss that bordered that section of the cave.

They left him standing there and by the time he entered the Manor proper they had departed. Batman stayed up late into the morning furious and on edge that the metas had managed to coax away his best fighter. Even with all of his contingencies he didn't believe he could defeat Orphan in a fight. Batman knew he would have to confront the threats personally and that he wouldn't be able to count on any assistance from his children.

The first thing he needed to do was ensure his kids, especially Orphan and Spoiler, wouldn’t be able to stop him. So he gave them orders that sent them all over the city, each would be busy until long after the metas were out of his city. Next on his list was to have the proper preparations. He used a series of shell companies to order a Fenton Ghost Collar which should contain Daniel’s powers. Just like he always carried Kryptonite on him as a worst case solution against Superman, he prepared a nuclear option, a single button primed to send a report to the Ghost Investigation Ward, to ensure that the threats would leave.

With all of the other Bats scattered to the winds, Batman silently slipped into the window in one of the bedrooms of the meta’s apartment. He landed next to a child’s bed and quickly slipped the collar from his belt; he needed to contain the meta threat before the kid could wake up. Just as he reached down, the door to the room burst open and Jasmine rushed in.

“Get away from him!” She shouted, a green glowing bat in her hand.

Batman stood between her and her supposed son, he hadn’t expected her to be able to hear him enter, but he would still get his point across.

“Hello Ms. Nightingale. Or should I say Ms. Fenton.” He growled at her. “You and your son are not welcome in my city.”

He watched her face pale in fear before she tightened her grip on the bat.

“You may be Bruce Wayne but even you don’t own the whole city.”

Batman let his eyes widen slightly. Of course she had manipulated Orphan and Spoiler into giving up the family’s secret identities, he should have realized, but two could play that game. He flicked the button into view.

“If I press this button, an automatic notification will be sent to the GIW bringing them here. You remember them right?” He was pleased to see her grip on the bat slacken as she stepped back, her breaths coming faster in her panic.

“You- you wouldn’t.” She took another breathless step back, almost falling against the boy’s bedroom wall. “They would come for everyone, Hood, Cass, Steph, there are so many people who would be in danger.” What was she talking about? His kids weren’t ghosts. “How could you support an organization that wants to commit genocide against an entire parallel realm?”

What.

“Oh daddy bats focusing too much on a perceived threat and ignoring the obvious implications. Who could have guessed?”

Batman spun on his heel to see Spoiler stepping out from the closet, Orphan right behind her. In Spoiler’s arms was none other than the meta, Daniel. He completed his turn to see the sleeping child in the bed melt away to nothing.

“Danny!” Jasmine ran to her son and scooped him up in her arms, Orphan immediately stepped in front of her, putting herself between the Batman and the metas.

“Do you think we’re stupid, Bruce?” Spoiler continued. “Do you think we didn’t see your stupid plan to try and confront Jazz and drive her out of the city a mile away?”

“She is controlling your mind.” Batman growled out, furious that his greatest secret was out in the open being bandied around.

“No she is not.” Batman wasn’t sure he could be more surprised when Martian Manhunter floated through the wall. “Neither of the Nightingales are exhibiting any form of mental manipulation I recognize.”

“Yeah, Bats, for someone who always likes to pretend to be the smartest in the room, you really stuck your dick in it this time.” John Constantine said as he walked into the room.

“We called back up. And unlike you we actually listened to the experts.” Spoiler continued as Batman scowled more and more. “At this moment, Babs and Tim are scrubbing your files of everything related to Jazz and Danny.”

Orphan stepped forward and signed aggressively. “We will protect Jazz and Danny, even from you.”

Batman looked around, surrounded on all sides by people who should be his allies, his subordinates, his soldiers and he did something rash. He pressed the button still in his hand.

He knew he shouldn't have even as soon as he pressed it. There were facts here he hadn't been aware of. He knew he could get tunnel vision before a perceived threat and this many people couldn't all be controlled.

Batman knew he had made an irreparable mistake as Jasmine wailed in despair and Orphan and Spoiler both stepped up as if to stop him. He knew it as Martian Manhunter flinched and Constantine scowled. He looked down at the button he had so carefully created, the nuclear option, and felt shame and guilt curl inside him.

“You really are predictable, B.” The heavily modulated voice of Red Hood was heard as the man himself climbed into the room from the window. “Oracle wiped that thing out as soon as you had created it, we won’t let those scum get called here.”

Jasmine sobbed in relief, holding Daniel tight to her chest. Oracle and Spoiler wrapped her their arms, Daniel happily babbling to the three women, now that they were relieved. Red Hood pressed forward, pushing Batman back away from the small family. Constantine and Manhunter approached as well.

“Come on Bats, let’s have a conversation on the Watchtower. Wonder Woman and the Boyscout have some words for you on knowing about an organization like this and not bringing up to League attention.” Constantine muttered as the two escorted him from the room.

Batman glanced back at the metas, at Jasmine and Daniel, at the tears in her eyes and the way he held onto her as tightly as he could, at the loving way Steph looked at them and the glare in Cass’s eye directed at himself. He let the others lead him away without a fuss.

Jazz reflected on the chaotic last year and a half as she walked up the long drive to the manor that loomed down over her. In the past 18 months so much had happened. Her parents had caught Danny mid transformation and attacked him. She had managed to escape the basement with a heavily injured and rapidly shrinking Danny. They had run from the GIW, moving constantly until they found themselves in the most crime ridden city in the US if not the world, Gotham.

She had been terrified and basically alone in the city, with only Danny who was now for whatever reason an actual toddler. He didn’t remember anything from before, and his powers were wildly out of control and hurt him to use them. She felt the only place she could feel safe with Danny was in Crime Alley, where no one would rat them out to government goons.

Running into Red Hood had been a miracle, a terrifying miracle but a miracle nonetheless. He offered her protection and what help he could provide. When Jazz saw a few GIW agents sniffing around, she told one of Hood’s lieutenants and the Red Hood Gang targeted the agents with extreme prejudice whenever they were sighted in the city. For once she felt like she could actually relax and focus on raising Danny.

The rest of the vigilantes in the city were strange. She was passingly aware of one of the Robins keeping an eye on her as she made her way through the city on occasion. It seemed like most of the rest avoided Red Hood’s territory, which was a relief. She didn’t need anyone else aware of what Danny could do.

Meeting Signal had been nice. He was kind and had played with Danny and showed him some training exercises to help him practice his powers in a safe way. If he assumed incorrectly that Danny was a meta instead of a ghost, then that wasn’t her business. By that point, Danny’s powers were starting to recover, and he was finally healed from what Jack and Maddie had done to him, though he didn’t return to his previous age.

Jazz had been in the midst of a panic attack while Danny napped, terrified that she wouldn’t be a good enough mother for her brother, when time had frozen around her. Clockwork himself appeared. She wanted to rage at the Time Ghost, she wanted to scream and hit him and see how he enjoyed experiencing everything Danny had gone through at the hands of her former parents. It was the palpable grief in his expression that stayed her hand. He mourned Danny’s loss, and the childhood Jazz had sacrificed not once but twice to raise him.

Clockwork said that Observants had bound him and prevented him from interfering and it had taken until now to be able to assist. He couldn’t undo what had happened to Danny without him experiencing all the pain afresh. But the two of them could take this as an opportunity. He had every confidence in Jazz’s ability to raise Danny to his full potential. As King. His full potential as High King of Ghosts.

Jazz politely asked to schedule another Time-Out for that evening to freak out properly about that.

As the person raising Phantom, even if Danny couldn’t take on his ghost form at this time, that gave Jazz power and privileges. She was effectively the Queen Regent until Danny was able to take the crown for his own. She couldn’t make too many decrees as Regent, other than for the protection of the King, nor could she be challenged for the crown.

The first decree she made as Regent was for the Observant Council to be punished for their interference, which allowed the King to come to harm. Fright Knight personally oversaw their punishment; his fury at the harm to his King was extraordinary. Eventually they would be able to return to their duties, monitoring the time stream and recording the history of the cosmos, their ability to restrain Clockwork significantly reduced.

The spectral crown that now hovered invisibly over her head as a sign of her Regency granted her some additional benefits as well. The crown had its own aura of pure ectoplasm, allowing Danny to heal faster and for his powers to recover almost back to what they were, which presented its own challenges considering he was still a child. Fortunately as Regent she was able to restrain his more explosive powers, like his Wail, though she promised him that she would allow him to protect her if he needed to.

The flood of pure ectoplasm also enhanced Jazz’s own liminal powers and abilities. She was stronger, faster and had enhanced senses. Not quite Superman level, but well above any baseline human. Which certainly helped when she needed to defend herself. Her latent empathic abilities were now incredibly powerful, she could read the intentions and emotions of those around her as well as manipulate them to a degree, either drawing their attention to her, or forcing them to ignore her, both of which were very useful for a Queen Regent with a young king.

In addition to healing Danny and boosting Jazz’s powers, it also seemed to filter the ambient ectoplasm in the air, which led to Red Hood’s territory feeling a lot less bitter and angry. Honestly the whole city of Gotham seemed less smog filled and hostile after a few months of living there as Regent. Once Danny was older she would have to investigate why that was, she presumed a city like this was cursed up to the sky scrapers, and maybe the crown helped clear some of those curses out?

If Jazz was being honest with herself, running into Cass and Steph in costume as Orphan and Spoiler, had been a life saver, an absolute life saver. They saved not just her life but Danny’s as well.

Of course, on the day of the riot Stephanie’s help with the injured folks they had recovered was invaluable. And Cass’s help with fighting the rioters saved her very directly, though she always could have called on Fright Knight to take care of things.

She would have much rather sheltered in their little apartment until the riot was over. The problem was that along with Danny’s reemerging powers, came his reemerging obsessions. She had painted the ceiling for the whole apartment with different space themes, including an accurate map of the night sky. She had borrowed almost every book in the Gotham Library on space at some point and had them reserved months out.

However his protection obsession was more difficult to sate. She managed to focus it most of the time toward him keeping her safe, but during the riot so many people were in danger and hurting that it would have torn him apart to ignore all the calls for help he could feel. Just like he could feel the exact positions of the stars day or night, he could feel every person who needed help around them.

Jazz had mobilized as well as she was able. She ordered the local blob ghosts to find her a place where she could bring people who were hurt or in danger and ordered Fright Knight to follow Danny invisibly as he sought out the people to bring to the safe house. Unfortunately, despite her skills with patching Danny back together after fights, she was still only one person and couldn't treat those Danny brought to her and keep them safe at the same time, so the two bats showing up was a huge relief.

Their help after the riot was what made them lifesavers and she didn’t mean just the dates, though they were nice. She hadn’t expected the two very attractive heroes to flirt with her, any more than she expected to take them up on it, but it was nice to have someone in the city who had her back. Of course the dates and… dates… were very nice. Especially the… dates… with both Cass and Steph at the same time. That was an especially mind-blowing night the first time.

Predicting and intercepting Bruce’s paranoia had been a huge help, delaying him in his pursuit of her and Danny. And then when they couldn’t delay him any more, they were there to stop him from hurting Danny. She had been furious at first that they hadn’t told her about convincing her son to create a sleeping clone to distract Bruce, but they had taken her words when they first met as Law. Danny’s safety and happiness was her first priority, even over her own mental health.

With the two girls and Cass’s siblings working together they stopped anything bad from happening that night. Then they set to work. A reporter from Metropolis, Lois Lane, started releasing articles roasting the GIW and the lawmakers that allowed the law through. Jack and Maddie were arrested and their designs and weapons seized by the Justice League. Young Justice and the Teen Titans made a competition of hunting down the GIW agents once the laws were revoked. So far YJ had the lead, but the Titans were planning a raid on a GIW facility that would even the score.

Jazz had even been able to make a deal in the following month as Regent with Constantine that had him and the other JL magic users going after Vlad. He was arrested and tried for his crimes against Danny, bound to his human form and unable to create duplicates. Then he was tried for his even more numerous corporate crimes. In the end he was imprisoned, penniless and destitute. Once Danny was King he would have the authority to collect the various pieces of the Laughing Magicians soul so he wouldn’t spend eternity getting torn apart.

Now with the ghost hunters taken care of, and the ghosts safe once again, it was time to meet the rest of Cass’s family. She had Danny on her hip as she walked up to the massive manor, and Jazz couldn’t help but feel trepidation. This was more than meeting her girlfriends’ family, which would have been scary enough on its own. This was meeting her girlfriends’ family and that family was the defenders of the city. The defenders who had worked to make her and Danny so much safer than they had been basically… ever. Certainly safer than they had been growing up under the roof of Fentonworks.

She took a deep breath and held onto Danny just a little tighter. Danny giggled and squirmed a little in her grasp and she set him on the ground before knocking on the door. The door opened immediately as Alfred had been waiting for them.

“Grampy!” Danny squealed and ran forward to hug Alfred’s legs. He was still a little too young to understand the difference between a grandpa (Bruce) and a great-grandpa (Alfred) so he had given Cass’s grandfather that name. Fortunately Cass and Steph had already ensured that Bruce would be away from the Manor for the day. Jazz couldn’t help the blush that rose in her cheeks at Danny assuming her girlfriend’s grandfather was also his grandfather. Maybe one day.

“Ah, hello young master.” Alfred said with a small smile. Cass had insisted that she and Danny meet Alfred before they met the rest of the family. Even though he tried to hide behind his mask of professionalism, Jazz could see that Alfred was deeply touched by Danny’s excitement. “And hello to you Ms. Jazz. Please come in, the family is waiting for you in the media room.”

“Hello, Alfred.” Jazz said with a smile, as she followed him into the manor. Danny excitedly jogged alongside Alfred’s longer strides. He quickly out paced the older man as he took to the air, practically vibrating with excitement as he flew.

“Cass!!” Danny screamed as he rocketed into the media room and tackled Jazz’s girlfriend.

Cass had a brilliant smile that made Jazz’s heart race as she held Danny and peppered his head and cheeks with kisses. Jazz stepped up to her girlfriend and gave her a kiss on the cheek of her own. Steph jumped up out of her seat and ran to squeeze Jazz against Cass’s shoulder and both women turned and gave Jazz simultaneous cheek kisses while Danny laughed his little head off as his two favorite ladies and his mom were around him.

“Well you two! Are you going to introduce us to your girlfriend?” A cheery voice called from one of the couches.

The rest of her girlfriends’ family were scattered around the media room. Jazz recognized them all just by description. Dick was the one who had stood up and spoke out. Sitting on one of the couches was Jason, Red Hood, out of costume and shooting them a small smile. Tim who had watched over them and destroyed Bruce’s files on them. Damian scowled with his arms crossed even as he stepped up behind Dick to introduce himself next. Duke was there, once again playing with a little ball of light. Barbara turned her wheelchair around so she could smile at them as well.

This was her girlfriends’ family, the protectors of Gotham City. Jazz smiled and wiped a few tears from her eyes at how happy she was and Danny was literally glowing with unrestrained joy.

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