#maybe bart x danny

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

Bart was on a snack run to Washington for a bag uniquely flavored gummy worms they had there and stopped somewhere in the woodlands on the way back when he heard someone crying.

In the deeps woods.

At night.

Under a full moon.

Thinking to himself, "It will be fine, I'm too fast to get murdered." He headed off towards to sound.

-----

Danny clutched his stomach, trying to stem the bleeding when he heard a voice ask, "Why are you crying?"

He looked up to see someone else's face about an inch from his own and he fell back screaming. "Whoa! I didn't mean to scare you!"

Danny huffed, but didn't bother to get up. He wasn't sure if his wound would let him anyway, "What are you doing out here anyway?"

"Grocery shopping." Bart replied, holding up his bag for him to see. "What about you?"

"I uh, kinda crashed here. Where am I?"

"Washington. What do you mean you crashed here?"

Danny shrugged, apparently unwilling to answer. "I can help you get were you need to go, just leave it to me. I'm a speedster after all."

"No, its fine!" Danny said, still laying on the ground. The next thing he knew he was in the 'speedsters' arms.

"Just say the place and we'll be there in a-" Bart seemed to notice how wet Dannys shirt was and pulled his hand away to see it coated in blood, "wait you're shirts not red."

Danny, who was panicking, "No hospitals!"

I am not pleased with this but I woke up from a power nap and now my brain is that special brand of fuzzy

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 1 - "It's not too late, let's go."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: G

Warnings: -

Danny frowned, his head resting on his arms as he sat in a café, staring at nothing in particular. Tucker was sitting next to him, typing away on his PDA and Sam was across from him glaring at his current state of dramatic pouting, frowning and sulking while ignoring his favorite coffee order she had especially ordered for him somehow even though the store did not even have it on their menu.

"Danny, how much longer are you going to sulk?"

"I don't know. How much longer until my next chance of ever meeting someone from outer space?"

"Danny."

"We missed the Hero Gala, Sam! That was our one and only chance!"

He looked away from her like a stubborn toddler. He knew he was being especially dramatic but his friends and him had planned this whole trip solely for meeting members of the Justice League in person. For one, to maybe meet the people that have been ignoring their cities' call for help for years now and request it personally if per call won't work and two, fulfill some of their own personal selfish desires to meet the hero's each one of them admired.

Though their trip clearly had been eventful considering how a lot of his ghost rogues tried to stop him from even leaving Amity Park, they also learned about the whole media black out surrounding Amity. Turns out, the reason the Justice League was ignoring them was entirely because they didn't even know they existed in the first place. It was a miracle that they even learned about a Hero Gala in Metropolis if it weren't for an invitation somehow making it to the Mansons Estate.

Fun fact. Even if the invitation made it to them. Once they did make it to the Gala location they learned that it had happened years ago. Well wasn't that just great, and here Danny had hoped to get some help and maybe meet Superman or better Martian Manhunter.

Slamming his head onto the table and gaining the attention of some other cafe visitors briefly. Danny only turned ever so slightly so that his cheek was squished against the cold table surface. Still refusing to look at Sam but instead watched Tucker who was by now frowning at his PDA.

"Guys, I think there is more to it than us being simple late a couple of years to a Gala." Blinking made a noise to ask him to elaborate while Sam verbally asked why.

"Things didn't add up when we first left Amity, aside from all your ghost rouges were even trying to make us stop leaving until the very last second. Look at this, this is a photocopy of our last news paper from home and this-" Tucker slit a paper across the table and pointed at a specific spot at the top of the paper so both Danny and Sam could see it clearly. "-is a news paper printed today from Metropolis."

"I don't get it." Danny honestly stated staring at the spot Tucker had pointed it. Sam proceeded to hit the back of his head lightly, apparently having seen what Tucker was pointing out to them.

"The dates are way too far apart." She stated and Danny blinked, looking back at the printed date and the date displayed in the image of Tuckers PDA. "Are you sure you didn't save up an older newspaper?"

Tucker gave him an unimpressed stare. "Look at the headline. That's the incident that happened right before we went on this trip."

"Okay but what does that mean?"

"From what it looks like. Amity Park lives in a time bubble. Our technology as well as date seems far behind from everything we saw ever since we left. Even my beloved PDA appears to be old technology here."

The tree sat in silence for a moment, mulling over what they had found out so far after leaving Amity for the first time. But now that they thought about that, Amity was a closed community. There were hardly any people coming in and out of their town. In addition the only one who had ever entered their city from the outside was Vlad and even he didn't talk much about any other cities or people he could possibly know outside of Amity.

"That's a pretty interesting topic you guys are talking about."

Startled, the three looked up to see a new face that had appeared out of nowhere and was spitting next to Sam. The boy with auburn hair and yellow eyes who looked only a bit older than them and was smiling brightly at them with a back of chips in his hands.

"So you guys lived in a time bubble? That sounds interesting, can you tell me more?"

A second later two black haired teens appeared next to the boy, one sheepish and in a punk style and the other frustrated and appearing to wear more formal clothing. The frustrated one eyed them for a moment and Danny caught his eyes, noticing the calculating look and couldn't help narrowing his own eyes on him.

"Sorry about my friend, he sometimes acts before he thinks."

"I have a friend like that too, don't worry." Tucker answered and Danny shot him a quick glare before turning his attention back to the three newcomers.

"We couldn't help but overhear what you guys were talking about. You missed your chance to go to a hero gala right?" The sheepish one said after exchanging a look with the other black haired teen and Danny couldn't help but feel like there was some silent communication going on. The same he had at times with Tucker.

"So what?" Sam huffed, not willing to talk about their woes and sharing information with strangers.

"We happened to be on our way to one that's not open to the public but we could help you get in. Granted, I would like to hear a little more about your situation and how you missed the one you originally wanted to go to." In other words, give us information and we will get you to somewhere where you can meet hero's. Danny narrowed his eyes further, there had to be more to this catch.

His distrust must have been visible as the formal clothing black haired teen let out a sigh. "Look we have experience with time shenanigans, so we might be able to get you into contact with people that can help, from Young Justice or maybe even the Justice League."

"No one just offers help like that, without getting something out of it." Sam huffed arms crossed and glaring at them. Tucker also eyed them with suspicion and Danny had yet to let up on his distrustful glare.

"Well we do. So common, the private gala is still going. We only escaped from it for a little bit to get this guy some coffee. It's not too late, let's go! We can figure out the whole time bubble thing on the way there!" The brightly smiling auburn haired answered instead bouncing in his seat next to Sam. Eager to have Danny and his friends come along.

Only way later did Danny learn that the three teens that snuck them into a privat Hero Gala were actual members of Young Justice but that was only after they figured out the whole Amity lives in a Time Bubble situation.

[savanir]

DP x DC prompt [13]

Impulse is a little back in time, simply to retrieve a thing from the most haunted city in america.

the instructions were clear, in. grab thing. out. no funny business, no anything else.

why the fuck did it had to be impulse then?! that’s never gonna- ah, whatever…

So Bart does not just do only that. He remembers to keep moving fast so he’s not seen, but well, he spotted these two white suited goofballs who looked upset with their little box contraption and somehow were missing the little unplugged wire and Bart figured, what could the harm be?

so he might have plugged the little wire in while he was there, sue him, the guys looked surprised but pleased that their little thingy was suddenly working. good job Impulse right?

he didn’t forget about it but he might have shoved it in the back trunk of his head while he went on to do his actual job which is essentially forgetting for a guy with eidetic memory.

So yeah, imagine his surprise when he gets back to where he came from and finds himself on a doomed, desolate earth with green skies and nothing but scorched rock and ruins for miles.

What he’s seeing is an earth in the aftermath of a war against the infinite realms.

So now he has to go back to the past and fix his reckless mistake. Would it be wise to maybe see if he can find a single living soul with some info on what happened to make this ordeal a little easier? maybe, but that might involve him having to explain himself which will most likely be followed by a subsequent well deserved lecture and Bart is hoping to fix this without all that because he clearly fucked up. like, it’s very obvious. and he’s feeling very bad about it, honest.

back in the past again though, he nearly collapses, he’s seriously overdoing it at this point, afterall he was supposed to be able to recuperate once he got back. 

But he has to push through, he can’t slow down, he has to find those two guys and nab their little machine that’s apparently a doomsday device or something, he doesn’t know when they will use it, or where, so slowing down now is absolutely out of the question.

“woah hey there man, are you alright?”

he’s startled into complete stillness, and then he’s just thinking about how this guy looks like a fusion between Robin and Superboy, he can picture it perfectly in his head, fully animated dragon ball fusion style.

it’s SuperRobin, real name Ton, or maybe Kim.

getting distracted, he was asked a question, better answer.

“yeahI’mfine” he wheezes, very believable stuff.

“no you’re not, do you need a hand? sick Impulse cosplay by the way”

So, yeah, Danny pesters Bart into at least eating and drinking something, he says that if the two guys, who are now identified to Bart as the guys in white also known as the GIW or the Ghost Investigation Ward… and Bart going “oh I know a ghost! she’s really great” and Danny being pleasantly surprised.

but anyway if those guys do anything he will know, cause apparently they are very loud and quite destructive. and that’s honestly no comfort to Bart cause he knows what the future is gonna look like, but also he’s about to pass out and that would be super uncool and also make him totally useless anyway so… eating and drinking first it is.

Danny is a local, which is useful cause Bart only knew the route he needed to take for his previous mission and not really anything else regarding this place. And he tells Bart that he’s screwed with the GIW before so he knows how they operate. it fucking sucks that Bart accidentally aided apparent government bad guys… the others can never find out…

Overall, working with Danny is pretty great. For a civilian the guy is very resourceful. he’s witty, smart, funny, a lot stronger than he looks, honestly maybe the SuperRobin fusion thing he thought about before has some merit… are there any hidden clone labs around? billionaires with zero morals? yes? no? maybe?

Bart simply told Danny that he needs the machine from the white suit guys for future superhero reasons. and he’s fully intending on just handing it over to Robin, hopefully while not having to explain why he has it in the first place, and see if he can figure out how it’s gonna cause the world to end so they can make sure that can never happen.

Danny says that the machine is probably just an anti ghost weapon of some kind. Bart is skeptical, because first of all, why would anyone need anti ghost weapons when magic is already a thing and works on them just fine. Like all the superhero exorcists that Bart knows use some form of magic, well he guess anti ghost weapons would be useful for the bats, but that begs the question why is the government going around trying to shoot ghosts? and why hasn’t Bart heard of this before, cause this sounds like something Robin would enjoy telling him about.

But Bart, with significant help from Danny, manages to… confiscate (steal) the machine from the white suits.

he promises Danny he’ll visit, cause they are friends now, it’s official. And he would love to introduce him to the others as well.

Once back Bart still gets lectured of course, and Tim does reveal that yeah, the box really is just some sort of ghost trapping device, and he’s keeping it.

Bart doesn’t really care, the only thing he cares about is that everything is back to normal and he even got a new friend out of the whole ordeal.

It's then that Robin brings up a new member for Young Justice who will soon be joining them, and Bart is completely confused.

Everyone else is confused at Bart’s confusion, this was already known a week ago? and Bart figures that something did change somewhere somehow anyway, that’s fine.

Kon reminds Bart of the new guy’s callsign, apparently it’s Phantom.

Bart tries to imagine what they would look like, but at the moment he can only picture Danny in a SuperRobin outfit.oh well, hopefully this just means that Bart manages to get two friends out of this whole mess.

[faeriekit]

Health and Hybrids (XIII)👽👻💚

[I can't remember the original prompt posters  for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and the prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]

PART ONE is here PART TWOis here PART THREEis here PART FOUR is here and PART FIVE is here PART SIX is here and PART SEVEN is here PART EIGHT is here PART NINE is here PART TEN is here PART ELEVEN is here PART TWELVE is here and this is part thirteen??? Hello??

💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts

Where we last left off...

Trigger warnings for this story:  body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) |  my nonexistent attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.

💚👻👽👻💚

…Bart doesn’t really do patience.

He doesn’t have to, so he doesn’t. Growing up in a world that wasn’t exactly real didn’t make for a real strong understanding of reality, or timing, or estimating how long something takes, or how long it would take a garden-variety human to complete a task.

He sits in the chair. He kicks his legs.

So. Bart doesn’t really do patience. When he wants to make his way through a book, it takes a few seconds to read through the whole thing at his standard pace. It’s great! Finishing the Troy Dodson series had taken ten minutes. He watched the full set of movies on quadruple-fast mode in about half an hour, and then still had the time to show up to the tower for trivia with the team that afternoon. It had been Crash!

And when—when Bart had wanted to learn how to cook, he went through half the recipes in Ma Kent’s copy of The Delights of Cooking in two days flat. And that was with missions. He even taught himself how to prepare squirrel from the back of the book! It tasted…uh, weird, sure, but that might have been his substitution of Caribbean jerk seasoning for garlic powder.

Patience is… Well, when Bart is on a mission and he has to wait for everyone to go at a human-comprehensible speed when laying out the plan of action, that’s patience. Sometimes he jumps the gun a little, maybe—but usually it all works out!

And when Bart has to wait for Barry and Wally to be free and off work for their day jobs, because they’re adults with real world things they have to do and Bart’s just—well, he’s—he tries to be patient! And he distracts himself with other things, and he takes the time to explore the world and get in new experiences he couldn’t have before in his own little virtual world, and he tries new things, and he eats new foods, and then Wally or Barry shoot him a text or ring him up and then he’s back in town in seconds anyway!

…But there isn’t a way to speed this along.

The doctor with the cute cat lanyard and Wonder Woman both have been trying to explain to Bart how bad the damage is. But Bart can tell. He has eyes.

His friend is physical now, but he’s not…right. His face is caved in, like someone hit him really really hard, or someone gouged out the whole front face of his skull—Bart can’t see any red matter, but that’s because of the pulsing green sheath that’s covered all of his friend’s open injuries.

And there’s a lot of green.

That means he’s super injured. Bart can see most of his glowing green not-face through the window of the metal tube his friend is sleeping in.

It’s not just his missing face, his crooked jaw, or his barely-moving chest, or his green-soaked fingers anyway; there’s open pits in his chest, slathered in green goo that shifts when he breathes and glows just a little in the odd light of the medical wing, lumpy and half-scarred from stitches that were sloppily applied. Utilitarian.

Tim told Bart that the sutures were probably meant more to prevent extra clean-up in a lab setting than to keep Bart’s friend alive.

…Bart doesn’t really want to think about that.

There are lime-tinged scrapes and scars across and around his friend's hands and up his arms, verdant-veined legs that aren’t exactly the right shape and orientation legs should be, crevasses in his stomach, his chest, against his collarbone, and the clawed-out pit where a face should be.

All green. So green. Like grass… Like the Earth, when Bart comes home from space.

It’s scary. It’s frightening.

Wonder Woman gave Bart a hug and said it would be okay when the Medical team started to apply white-swathed casts around misaligned legs, and Bart almost cried. The medical team thinks the green is his friend’s body working on healing him. That Bart’s friend will be okay.

Bart lets everyone say comforting things, because it’s kind when everybody’s kind. But Bart’s been an experiment in healing the unhealable and he knows as much as anyone else does that there’s simply no way to know if his friend will be okay.

But his friend isn’t alone like he was. Bart makes sure of it.

So he sits at his friend’s bedside, eats a granola bar, kicks his feet in the stiff chair Medical had to offer him, and Bart practices his patience.

By the end of this, he might even be good at it.

[halfagone]

Oooh, good point! I think I’d prefer to go for a mix of two and three. An experienced Danny who’s super sick of the hero life, but he’s still pretty experience and maybe even harbors resent for the league since they never helped him out. I kinda have a thing for stories about Danny having issues with the league, lol. What do you think?

This is in continuation to this post.

From what I've seen you're not alone with that preference/niche! lol I've even read some Miraculous Ladybug x DC crossover with a similar concept, back when I used to read fics for MLB (it's been a while since I last read fanfic for MLB though). I know I did play around with the concept for down the rabbit hole (goes the throne). However, something that's very tricky to balance is making sure Danny doesn't come off as... self-centered, I guess the right word would be?

Because yes, it's understandable that Danny would be upset that no one tried to help him if they did reach out. At the same time, you have to consider the possibility of censorship thanks to the GIW (which is a popular headcanon) or that Vlad used Desiree to make a wish that would shield the town for his machinations and schemes (which is another headcanon I've seen used before). Danny can be upset at first but if he finds out that their attempts for contact literally could not connect, then it would be unreasonable for Danny to keep harboring that resentment when they're here now because they found out. That implies that had they known back then they would have tried something too, but they are not meant to be omniscient, no matter how hard Bruce might try to be.

Plus... the JL already have a lot of responsibilities. Most if not all these heroes have a base of operations- an entire city to take care of. And yes, so does Danny, but they can't just drop everything and come to his rescue, especially if the problem is much more extensive than just closing the portal. (Which Danny could technically do at any given time, but chooses not to.) But let's not talk about that. And there's also all the off-world missions they're in charge of or participate in. And many heroes have their day jobs and civilian lives to maintain, and plenty of these heroes have kids! Things are complicated!

But complex situations make things all the more interesting, do they not? ;3

Let's play around with that, shall we?

---

"Are you really a ghost?" Bart asks Phantom in curiosity. Is it just 'Phantom' or is it 'The Phantom' because the latter sounds much more mysterious, but is that trade-marked by-

"You think too fast," Phantom grumbles under his breath as he zips around a burning piece of rubble. He hardly bats an eye at it, just watches it fly past and then freezes it, effectively putting out the flames. The rubble slides innocently across the blacktop, falling alongside all the other pieces he's already frozen over.

Phantom's hardly even trying. It's so not crash.

"You're not like any ghost I've ever seen before," Secret agrees with a small frown. She doesn't distrust Phantom necessarily, but her own curiosity is hard to fight down.

Phantom's lips twist with amusement. "I could say the same to you actually." The group collectively watch as Phantom's legs twist and disappear into a wispy tail, the ghost curling it around as if to hug himself.

"What kind of Casper..." Kon overhears Tim mutter to himself. It's a good thing he doesn't have a piece of paper, else he'd be taking rapid fire notes. A computer would've done in a jiffy, of course, but it's not like they had access to one of those in a blown out city street like this.

"I've never heard about you before," Cassie comments with pinched brows. She doesn't look happy about it.

And for what it's worth, Phantom doesn't either.

"You wouldn't," Phantom drawls. There's no mirth in his voice. He turns back to the villain of the day, hands sparking as he zaps the machine so thoroughly that sparks fly and the metal audibly creaks.

Kon shivers at the display. He's not afraid, not really, but he's still uneasy... He knows that Captain Marvel is one of those heroes on par with Superman, and right now, watching Phantom wield his lightning, Kon's starting to see why.

The group shuffle around uncomfortably as Phantom sucks up the villain into a soup thermos? Now that's not something you see every day.

"What's that do?" Tim, ever perceptive, prods Phantom for answers.

"It contains ghosts, spectral entities, the works," Phantom replies curtly, capping the thermos with practiced ease. Ease that spoke of experience. "You kids alright?"

"Dude, you're barely four years older than some of us," Anita deadpans with an unimpressed look. "You don't get to call us 'kids'."

Phantom lifts his shoulders in a shrug. "Sorry, y'all are still babies to me." He points at Kon. "You've gotta be, what, not even six months old?"

Kon prickles at the remark. "That's none of your business." He knows he's not that old chronologically, but that doesn't make him an infant. He'd appreciate some respect about it.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to offend you," Danny replies and it sounds sincere? But most of them don't take too kindly to him anyways. He just gives bad vibes is all. "Where are your mentors? I feel like there should be at least one of them around to supervise."

"We can take care of ourselves," Tim insists, crossing his arms over his chest. Uh oh, he's hurt Timmy's feelings. That's never a good sign.

"You're kids, you shouldn't have to," Phantom sneers slightly, snidely more like.

"Like you did?" Secret asks tentatively. Phantom's hair visibly floats up, picked up by an inexplicable wind. His eyes glow a shade brighter. It's eerie. It's uncomfortable.

Phantom's face might be impassive, but he still remains an open book.

"Yeah, something like that," Phantom murmurs, his tone unreadable. "I hope you can take care of yourselves. One day you might be the only ones that do."

With that ominous warning, Phantom disappears. Here one minute, gone the next. Like a true ghost.

"I vote we call him 'Casper the Unfriendly Ghost'," Bart announces out of the blue. "Raise your hand if you agree?"

At once, every single member raises their hand.

"Motion passed."

[spacesuitsforemergency]

Bug Bros

Word Count: 2.4k

Requested by @lina-lovebug: Jaime Reyes x Parker! Fem! Reader? They both have a cruch on eachother and Tye and Ed and Barr tease him a lot about it, and always wonder why he doesn't just ask her out. Jaime just doesn't want to start a long distance since she lives in New York, but when she becomes part of the Young leaguers, now he has no excuse. They go out on a first date, which ends abrupt cuz his friends ended up following him. She kisses him anyway and he walks her back to Mt. Justice.

“Dude, staring at her isn’t gonna do anything.” Eduardo snickered at Jaime.

“There’s this thing called talking, you should try that with her.” Tye shook his head as he tossed the guys a soda, sitting down in the Mount Justice lounge with them.

“Shut up, guys!” Jaime groaned, face burning red.

You and your teammates, Peter Parker and Sam Alexander, were here in Rhode Island on official S.H.I.E.L.D business. This wasn’t your first visit here, so nobody was surprised when none of you had really paid attention to the debriefing back at S.H.I.E.L.D (as per usual), so the trip was taking longer than expected (as per usual). Your twin brother, Peter, was currently trying to work out some sort of deal with Black Canary, you and Sam were not listening. You were both bored, and eventually snuck off to the lounge, where some of the Outsiders were chilling.

“Guys mind if we crash here?” Sam asked them, sitting down next to Bart without an answer.

“Sure.” Tye mumbled sarcastically at him.

“So what do you guys do to avoid meetings around here?” You asked as you leaned against the back of the couch behind Jaime, eyes on the tv, which was currently playing Remember the Titans. Jaime’s eyes widened and he stiffened with how close you were to him, and his friends noticed.

“Usually just run the other direction.” Bart said through a mouthful of chips.

“What’s your meeting about, anyways?” Eduardo asked.

You and Sam both shrugged.

“How many times do we have to visit you guys for you to know we never know what’s going on?” You grinned.

“Yeah, we just follow Web Heads lead.” Sam stole a handful of chips from Bart. “It’s funny how you think we take our job seriously.”

Everyone looked at the both of you, concerned.

“We’re kidding, we take it seriously.” You reassure them. “Just nothing to do with...business meetings.”

“Nova! H/N! Get back here!” Spider Man ordered you. Sam rolled his eyes and took one last handful of chips before putting his helmet on and flying over.

“See ya later, Bug Bro.” You ruffled Jaime’s hair before shooting a web and swinging back over. Jaime’s face was now bright red, and he was clutching his soda can so tight his knuckles turned white. Eduardo and Tye started snickering at him, Jaime throwing his empty soda can at them in retaliation It didn’t affect either of them the way Jaime wanted it to, and they kept laughing at him.

“Why don’t you just ask her out?” Bart asked.

“Because.” Jaime crossed his arms and pouted.

“It’s a simple resolution, dude.” Tye picked up the soda can and tossed it back at him teasingly.

“Just ask her out, amigo!” Eduardo shouted a little too loud. Thankfully, you were too busy getting scolded by Black Canary and Batman to hear. “She obviously likes you, and even a deaf and blind man would know you like her!”

“I can’t ask her out, guys!” Jaime snapped at them, now actually angry. Now they stopped laughing and looked at him, concerned.

“Dude, whats up?” Tye asked his best friend.

“Looks, she lives all the way in New York. I live in El Paso.” Jaime sighed. “There’s no way it would work.”

“But you’re mostly here.” Bart tried to reassure him. “Rhode Island isn’t too far from New York.”

“Asami lives in Japan, we still make it work.” Tye added.

“Asami doesn’t live in Japan. She moved here last week. Don’t think I don’t remember.” Jaime mumbled.

“But before that we had a long distance thing.”

“For like a month while she sorted stuff out with her parents.” Jaime scoffed. “Y/N lives in New York. She’s not moving anytime soon.”

“So...you like her, but you’re not willing to even give long distance a try?” Eduardo raised an eyebrow.

“Well that makes me sound like el huevón, dude!” Jaime snapped. “Look, it just won’t work, okay? Would you guys just drop it?”

The boys all glanced at each other, shocked at Jaime’s outburst. He was always so chill, would hardly even yell at villains, so they almost didn’t recognize him when he was angry. Even Tye didn’t, and he’s known the guy since middle school.

“What’s the ups, dudes? Change the channel, games on.” Virgil waltzed in, snatching the remote from the coffee table.

Virgil didn’t notice the tense atmosphere until his team scored, and he went to high five Jaime, and didn’t get a response.

“Uhh...don’t leave me hangin, bro!” Virgil said, then finally looked at the other boys’ faces. “What’s going on?”

“Nothing.” Jaime grumbled, getting up and walking out to the balcony.

“What’s his deal?” Virgil asked. “I didn’t think it was physically possible for him to be angry...”

“I’ll go talk to him.” Tye rushed after Jaime.

He walked out to the balcony, Jaime sitting on the rail and mumbling to himself, something he often did when he was nervous. Tye would often catch him doing this before math tests or trying a complicated skateboard trick.

“Talk to me, man.” Tye leaned against the railing, resting his chin on his hand.

“I really like her.” Jaime said, just above a whisper. “I don’t know what to do.”

“Well, you can either tell her and try, or never tell her and miss your chance forever.” Tye said nonchalantly, staring out at the city.

“Wow. That makes me feel better.” Jaime chuckled.

“Hey, you can always count on me to be real with you.” Tye nudged him lightly.

“That I can.” Jaime playfully shoved him.

“So? What are you gonna do?” Tye raised an eyebrow.

“I’m not sure yet.”

•

“Bug Bro!” You shouted, before jumping onto Jaime’s back. He yelped, quickly straightening up and holding onto the backs of your legs to keep you up.

“Warn me next time?” He asked, grinning up at you and you leaned over his shoulder to see his face.

“Sorry.” You laughed, ruffling his hair affectionately. “I have news, bro.”

“What is it, bro?” He asked as he continued making his way towards the kitchen for some lunch.

“Fury gave the green light, I’m joining the Outsiders!” You beamed excitedly.

“What? Really?” Jaime asked, eyes widening in shock.

“Yeah, I’m gonna be a counselor too.” You smiled.

“Why aren’t you staying in New York?” He asked as you hopped off his back and walked next to him.

“I need a change of scenery.” You shrugged. “Some space from my brother. I love him and all, but he never lets me do a lot on missions. Thinks I’ll get hurt or whatever.”

“Is it permanent?” He asked curiously.

“Nothings permanent, Jaime.” You giggled. “But maybe. I do want to help people more directly. I love my team but I just don’t have that kind of opportunity with S.H.I.E.L.D.”

“Yeah...S.H.I.E.L.Ds kinda scary.” Jaime rubbed the back of his neck nervously. “Well, I’m glad to have you on the team, Y/N.”

“Now I’ll be with my Bug Bro all the time!” You grinned, elbowing him playfully.

“Yeah! Totally.” He grinned nervously.

•

“Dude, what do I even say?” Jaime hyperventilated as he paced back and forth in front of Bart and Tye.

Tye and Bart didn’t really get along, they tolerated each other, but thy weren’t best buds. But when Jaime needed help, they would stop the bickering and work together.

“You got the hard part over with.” Tye shrugged. “She said yes to the date.”

“I know. I thought that was the hard part, turns out it’s not.” Jaime said as he checked himself in the mirror for the thousandth time. “Now I gotta actually make sure she likes me?”

“Well...Yeah?” Bart blinked at his homie. “Dude, just be yourself.”

“But a little less nervous.” Tye added.

“And maybe stop sweating.” Bart nodded.

“Quit worrying about your hair, it hasn’t moved since 2008.”

“Try to flirt a little more.”

“But not too much, you don’t want to come off as an idiot.”

“But you said be myself! None of those things is myself!” Jaime shouted at his friends.

“Be yourself...but calm.” Bart instructed.

“How am I supposed to be calm? I-“

“Dude! You’re late!” Tye yelled when he saw the time, 7 minutes past when Jaime was supposed to leave to pick you up.

“Shit!” Jaime snatched his keys from the dish on the side table. “See you guys later! But what if I mess this up-“

“Go!” Tye and Bart both yelled. Jaime stuck his tongue out at ten before rushing out to his car.

Bart and Tye sat in awkward silence for a few minutes, blankly staring at the tv.

“Wanna follow him?” Bart grinned.

“Oh yeah.” Tye nodded. “Let me call for reinforcements.”

•

“...and then Danny punched a hole trough the wall and hit Sam on accident.” You giggled as you finished a story about your teammates.

“Isn’t Danny supposed to be the chill one?” Jaime chuckled.

“Apparently.” You shrugged. “To be fair, he had a reason to be mad.”

“I suppose. So-“ Jaime opened his mouth to ask another question, but froze when he saw something: a few tables back and on the row across from them, he saw Tye, Bart, Eduardo and Virgil wearing sunglasses, fake mustaches and their hoods. He instantly glared at them, motioning discreetly for them to leave.

“What are you-?” You turned to look where he was.

“Wait Wait Wait!” Jaime shouted, a little too loudly, gaining the attention of several other customers. He smiled nervously and cleared his throat. “Um...you mentioned earlier a time when Sam crash landed into the White House?”

“Oh yeah!” You laughed, and began the story.

Jaime wanted to pay attention, he really did, but he couldn’t take his focus off his idiot friends. First of all he couldn’t believe Tye agreed to the ‘disguises’. Second of all, he couldn’t believe they were spying on him! Had they no regard for privacy and personal space?? Okay, so, maybe he did believe it.

‘Jaime Reyes, I advise you to focus on the Y/N Parker. She may grow angry if she discovers you are not listening. Shall I activate and obliterate the Tye Longshadow, Bart Allen, Eduardo Dorado Jr and Virgil Hawkins so you may focus properly on the Y/N Parker’s story?’ The Scarab asked.

“No! No obliteration!” Jaime mumbled.

“Is the Scarab talking to you?” You asked curiously.

“Yeah, sorry. He’s been yapping in my ear, it’s hard to concentrate.” He rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

“Oh. Well, we can leave if you want.” You smiled and waved over the waitress for the check.

“Please, let me.” Jaime set down his credit card before you could even open your wallet.

“Come on, you drove us here.” You sigh as the waitress took his credit card.

“It’s no trouble, really.” He shook his head. “It’s my fault this is ending so abruptly, it’s the least I can do.”

Once the waitress came back with his card he led to back out to his car, glaring at his friends as you passed the table. They all snickered, quickly paying their bill and piling into Virgil’s car.

“Where’d they go?” Bart asked as he leaned forward, between Virgil and Tye.

“Uh...there!” Eduardo pointed ahead. “¡Dale!”

Virgil stepped on it, following close behind Jaime’s black car. Tye looked at his phone when a text alert went off, seeing a text from Jaime: Quit following me! You’re all dead!

Tye just snickered, before responding with: wow, texting and driving? Not cool, man.

They followed Jaime’s car all the way back to Mount Justice, Eduardo and Bart bickering as they tried to see between the front seats, shoving each other. Virgil parked far behind them, just close enough to be able to see.

You were clueless to the car full of idiots as Jaime walked you up to the entrance. Jaime was well aware, and worried that you would notice them.

‘Jaime Reyes, get her inside quick. Once the door shuts we shall obli-‘

“Scarab, Stop!” Jaime scolded.

“He’s still chatty?” You giggled at Jaime as you reached the doors.

“Yeah, sorry.”

“Don’t apologize. You can’t help that the alien parasite attached to you is talkative.” You smile up at him, making him laugh. “Uh...I had a really good time. Even if it was cut short.”

“Yeah, me too.” He smiled back at you, equally as nervous and awkward.

You both stood there for a few moments, not sure what to do next.

“What are they doing?” Eduardo asked as he shoved Batt aside to see better.

“They’re just standing there.” Virgil shook his head. “Is this dude really not smooth at all?”

“Trust me, hasn’t been smooth ever since we were kids.” Tye shook his head. “Doesn’t have a smooth bone in his body.”

“Actually, I’m pretty sure your bones are smooth-Ow! What?” Bart rubbed his arm where Eduardo punched him.

“Come on, Jaime, do something.” Virgil groaned, starting to get second hand embarrassment for the guy.

Jaime knew he wanted to kiss you, but was it what you wanted? Would you yell at him? Not return it? Never lack to him ever again? Luckily, his anxious thoughts were interrupted when you suddenly craned your neck up to be able to press your lips to his. It was a quick peck on the lips, just to test the waters. He pulled you in for another kiss, and you wrapped your arms around his shoulders to lift yourself up a little higher.

“Finally!” Tye shouted, probably loud enough for the both of you to hear if you weren’t so busy.

“Oh, gross! I said kiss, not suck face!” Virgil pretended to gag.

“Dang, they’re really going at it.” Bart mumbled.

“You guys ruin the mood.” Eduardo shook his head. “Is this what it’s like to date you?”

“First of all, watching someone suck face is way different than sucking face.” Tye said.

“Quit saying ‘suck face’.” Eduardo cringed.

“Second of all, I am a delight to date.”

“Ha!” Virgil snorted, then slapped his hand over his mouth when Tye sent him a death glare. “I mean...yeah dude, who wouldn’t date you? You’re just so...lovely.”

“Uh...guys...Jaime’s coming for us.” Bart warmed.

“Crap! Start the car! Start the car!” Eduardo shrieked as Jaime activates his Blue Beetle suit, flying at them with the thirst for revenge in his eyes.

[thegeekerynj]

Short Reviews, when the Big Mouth doesn’t have much to say… Or is trying to get caught up from COVID / Election Overload

An Occasional Attempt to Read, Discuss and Review the Wonders of Comics

By: John Rafferty, cranky old man, and Fan of All Things Comics

Short Takes 

Short Reviews, when the Big Mouth doesn’t have much to say… Or is trying to get caught up from COVID / Election Overload

Legion of Super Heroes 6-10  (DC Comics)

Writer: Brian Michael Bendis    Pencils: Ryan Sook (#6 - 7, 10) Various (8 - 9)   Inker: Wade Von Grawbadger (#6 - 7, 10) Various (8 - 9)

‘You want to be called Bouncing Boy?

Looking at the Memexes, we were considering “The Bullet”.

Bullet?

It’s a projectile that——

No, with me, it’s all about the BOUNCE.

———————————————————————————————————

Can Brian Bendis write everything?

Between story, and downright FUN, this is a great book.  Team books are hard to do well, if for no other reason, because of the characterizations. 

Multiple characters mean multiple personalities, and some of those will always get underdeveloped in relationship to the team, as the writer invariably has favorites  Unless…

What we are seeing with LSH is development of characters from across the spectrum. Every book has development of some of the characters, even if they’re not directly involved in the story. This is a far cry from what you see in other books.

Add to this Ryan Sook’s breakdowns, and Wade von Grawbadger’s inks, and you get a pretty package, all tied up in a big bow. More importantly, this is a story with a legacy reaching back 60 years, and is being truly refreshed for a new audience.

This isn’t the Legion I read in 1967, but it’s damned good! 

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

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Suicide Squad #9 - 10  (DC Comics)

Writer: Tom Taylor  Artist: Bruno Redondo

I have Kord’s location.

Okay. Do you also have the Senator?

Oh, did you want him back for some reason? That spineless mouth-breather championed a law to dump more waste into the sea. Delusional, greedy @#$% thinks he owns the world.

I have some friends reminding him he does not.

———————————————————————————————————

Floyd Lawton, first appearance, Batman #59, June 1950, as the man who never misses.

Floyd Lawton, a man who feels no rereason to continue living, but has no wish to die: who puts his life on the line to save his teammates time and time again, to save his daughter and her mother, all with the wish of dying in a truly spectacular fashion.

Floyd Lawton, who finally finds a reason to live, in the eyes of his daughter, Zoe.

Floyd Lawton. Deadshot. Perennial member of Task Force X, finally earned his pardon.

Game Over.

By all that’s Unholy, Tom Taylor is a hateful SOB! But the man writes a great story!

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

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Marvel Zombies Resurrection # 1 - 4  (Marvel Comics)

Writer: Phillip Kennedy Johnson   Artist: Leonard Kirk

‘Fine. I guess we came all this way. 

Might as well do something really stupid.

———————————————————————————————————

This sums up exploring the World, any world, during a Zombie Apocalypse. Especially when those with Super Powers have been turned into Super Zombies.

So, we pick up with Peter Parker, Forge, Karla Sofen (Moonstone), Valeria and Franklin Richards, a Flerkin named Chewie, and the reprogrammed Sentinel lovingly called ‘Nana’, moving from defendable place to defensible area, seeking a ‘safe place’. Somewhere they can rest for more than one night… if that is possible.

Always realizing the next tree could be hiding a zombified Avenger, or Defender, or Loved one…

Johnson’s Miniseries is another version of the Marvel Zombiepocalypse, which begs the question, what happens when Zombie Galactus infects your world? Or, more importantly, when it CARRIES the infection to your world?

Leonard Kirk’s art style is perfect for this story, a very dark, visceral style which is a little hard on the eyes, making the reader work for every panel. Yes, it hurts to read, but IT SHOULD! It’s Zombies!

This is worth the read if you can get all 4 issues (the first issue came out in July).

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶

===========================================================

Rorschach #1  (DC Black Label)

Writer: Tom King   Artist: Jorge Fornes

‘They won’t talk to me. Treating me like I’m a  damn Kindergarten kid. I got twins in Kindergarten. Duane and Dwight. I’m not a Kindergarten kid. 

Jesus Christ. What’d they say to you?

That you’re dying.

Shit.

===========================================================

In 1985, Walter Kovacs died. 

It went unnoticed, but for the few in attendance, for Kovacs died following the Alien Invasion of New York, which, in effect saved the world.

Yet, unnoticed, but for the few, Walter Kovacs became a red splash on the Antarctic permafrost.

And Rorschach, the Crime Hunter, died with him.

Or. did he?

In a world existing somewhere between Watchmen 1985 and Current Multiverses, Tom King and begun a noir-ish tale… Did Rorschsch come back, to foil an assassination attempt, and die in the process?

Did he come back, and fail at an attempt at assassination?

Or, Gentle Readers, is there a whole slew of balls in the air we just haven’t seen yet, that we are going to be expected to juggle deftly, as they drop just into sight?

I can’t wait for the answer!

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

===========================================================

Justice League #54 - 57  (Death Metal Tie-In) (DC Comics)

Writer: Joshua Williamson    Artists: Xermanico (54, 57), Pencils: Robson Rocha (55 - 56), Inks: Daniel Henriquez (55 - 56)

“Don’t you get it Cyborg? We’re not the Justice League!

We’re the Suicide Squad!

———————————————————————————————————

I have said before I am not a fan of Joshua Williamson’s writing.

Maybe I just don’t like him on the Flash. 

Four issues, each of them a very good story, each building, with some action and humor, to a smash mouth endpoint, that brings us to Death Metal #5.

I have to say, I’m enjoying this run of Justice League, even with the switch of artist teams mid - tale Xermanico’s work os beautiful, right into the valley of the Starros (that gave me giggle fits!) Rocha and Henriquez’s work is very pretty, and a little darker than Xermanico’s, giving a more atmospheric touch to the Antenna of LOD.

I have to admit, they do a mean Kori, as well! Really FIERCE, with a Full Length mohawk!

Well worth the cost of admission, and a strong addition to the Metal storyline.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

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Nightwing #75 - 76 (DC Comics)

Writer: Dan Jurgens   Artists: Travis Moore and Ronan Cliquet (75), Ronan Cliquet (76)

‘We have to talk.’

———————————————————————————————————

Four words. 

Four words that have ended more relationships than violence.

Dan Jurgens has done a masterful job of tying up the Ric Grayson / Amnesias storyline that seems to have run for nigh on ever… by bringing it full circle to Anatoli Knyazev, the KGBeast.

The artwork in these two issues was pretty, with obvious switches between that of Travis Moore (the Titans / Batgirl pages) and Ronan Cliquet’s Batman / KGBeast pages.

Nicely tied up, completing multiple storylines in two issues. Ready to move forward/

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶.5

===========================================================

Young Justice  #19 - 20 (DC Comics)

Writers: Brian Michael Bendis and David  Walker   Artist: Scott Godlewski

Red Tomato?

I think he said Tornado, and you know it.

Honestly, he talks so fast, I can’t understand him most of the time.

———————————————————————————————————

Damian Wayne, Robin.  Cassie Sandmark, Wonder Girl. Bart Allen, Impulse. Conner Kent, Superboy. Stephanie Brown, Spoiler. Keli Quintela, Teen Lantern. Zan and Jayna. the Wonder Twins. Jinny Hex, Naomi, Amethyst,

Twenty issues in, and the book is cancelled… or is planned to end. Either way, this is a suck way to do things, DC.

This is a great group of characters. Much better than the roster in the Young Justice cartoon, simply for the diversity. Some heroes just coming into their own, some who have existed for years,  (the Wonder Twins have been around in MULTIPLE iterations since the 1970’s), all helping each other… This was a great jumping in book for pre-teens who weren’t up for all the violence / hyperkinetic action / storytelling of a true adult book.

And, it was FUN!

Bendis, Walker and Godlewski produced a fantastic product every month.

One which is ending too soon. Unless, of course, it is going to come back in a new package… 

Hint, hint, hint…

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

===========================================================

Amazing Spider-Man 50 - 53  ‘Last Remains’  (Marvel Comics (duh!))

Writer: Nick Spencer   Artist: Patrick Gleason

‘You’re going to love it, Pete. There’s no better feeling in this life — Than being surrounded by those you love.

———————————————————————————————————

So, what are the rules around DEAD Characters returning?

Do they have to be relevant after so many years? Shouldn’t they be, well, driven to do something? Not take more than 50 issues to finally get around to saying…”Bazinga!’, or it’s equivalent?

I must admit, issue 50 is the first issue of a Spider-Man book I picked up, and started to enjoy, until I realized I needed to pick up the LR issues also in order to get the whole story. Didn’t’t we get enough of this in the Shooter Years? 

What about a year and a half ago, when Marvel vowed they would never pull this crap again?? 

I guess they forgot… (Insert comparison to jackass in office here).

Too much work, don’t really care.

Especially when the reveal of who Kindred is happens in issue 50, and Peter finds out in #53… Puh-Leez!

At least it’s not Professor Warren and his Gwen Stacy clone. **BRRRRR** Freakin’ Creepy Old Perv!

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶

===========================================================

Batman 101 - 102 (DC Comics (bigger DUH!))

Writer: James Tynion IV   Artist: Guillen March (101)  Pencils: Carlo Pagulayan   Inks: Danny Miki   Artist: Carlos D’Anda (Pages 13 - 16)

‘DOUBLE RENT! And you don’t talk to the other tenants! They are good people.

Little Santa Prisca is a community. We live through BANE. We live through JOKER. Don’t blow it up with all your nonsense!

You got it Charlie, No Nonsense. Not Here.

Hey! What’s your policy on Hyenas?

———————————————————————————————————

So, Lucius Fox is one of the richest men in the world. 

Selina Kyle has put the Bat on a One Year Clock to get his stuff together, or she walks.

Clownkiller might be the Bernard Goetz of Superhero Vigilantism (look up the reference, I can’t do everything!), but he goes about proving you can’t keep a good vigilante killer down if he has Google.

Ghost Maker is more than we thought, and knows who Bruce Wayne keeps in the closet (or cave).

Is there anyone in Gotham who doesn’t know who Bruce Wayne is?

Tynion continues to pump out some great product, the stories and characters do not disappoint. Including Grifter as Fox’s ‘bodyguard’ was a nice touch, having him get the drop on Batman, a nicer one.

The art in both books, while vastly different, is simply gorgeous. I want to see more od the team of Pagulayan and Miki, I’m hoping to see their work grow with the storylines.

Next issue, BATTLE Sequences! Should be fun, not that it hasn’t been so far.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶.5

===========================================================

Shang Chi  #1 - 2 (Marvel Comics)

‘I have to save my Little Sister!

I have to kill my Big Brother!’

———————————————————————————————————

Only meetings should have agendas.

-Me, just now

Once upon a time, Sax Rohmer wrote stories about the machinations of one Fu Manchu, and his oft overturned attempts to take over the world.

In 1973, Steve Engelhart and Jim Starlin brought Shang Chi, son of Fu Manchu into the Marvel Universe, where he and his MI-6 partners Clive Reston and Black Jack Tarr were responsible for being the monkey wrenches in the machinery of Fu Manchu’s Plans.

It seems that Shang Chi is back, without his prior father. He is still proficient in all forms of martial arts, but now, he is ‘Champion of House of the Deadly Hand’ (like that name isn’t going to come to but him in the butt like a Karmic werewolf), and since the passing of his ‘Father”, now the Commander of the Five Weapons Society.

The artwork is pretty, and the story, steeped in Asian Mysticism, is a little draggy so far. Is the story good? Yeah, it’s a nice reminder of a character I exjyed a long tome ago.

Will it get better? Time will tell.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶.5

===========================================================

The Rise of Ultraman #1 - 3 (Marvel Comics, by way of Tsuburaya Productions)

Writers: Kyle Higgins and Matt Groom    Artist: Francesco Manna

Oh. You’re here to fight because you think we’re one of the species that can’t evolve.

No. I know you cannot evolve.

Fifty-Four of your years ago, my brother came to assist you. And you killed him.

———————————————————————————————————

In the late 60’s, on certain New York television stations, the Saturday Afternoon hours were filled with Japanese imports, Kaiju - United Science Patrol, and of course the story of the death of Moroboshi, and the coming of Ultraman.

Ultraman, a human - alien symbiosis, who fought the Kaiju menace coming to take over the Earth.

Forward to 2020, a new Ultraman, with a new team of USP helpers / friends, and what looks at this point to be a corrupt system surrounding them.

This creative team has done a marvelous job with the material thus far, reviving this character for a modern reader.

It’s just a shame it’s only 5 issues…

It is definitely worth the read.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶🌶

===========================================================

American Vampire 1976 #1 - 2 (DC Comics)

Writer: Scott Snyder   Artist: Artist: Rafael Albuquerque

‘DAMMIT! Before what happened with Gus, you were the best vampire tracker and killer around. I’m asking you to help me take down whoever this PEELING MAN is.

But if this shitty music and LASERS is your life now, then just say so, and I’ll leave you to it.

It’s not a laser, you goddamned idiot.

It’s a SOLAR LAMP. **klik**

———————————————————————————————————

Ten years ago, Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque and Stephen King started a journey which has spanned 10 Years in real time, but 200 years, and 12 separate cycles in series time.

The current iteration has our favorite group of vamps and exterminators running around 1976, wrecking discos, trains, and graveyards, all in the name of bringing back Stoker’s primary villain.

Snyder proves again he is up to the task of creating a world of whimsy and horror, providing mayhem, madness, and the occasional snorting giggle. His droll wit, and ability to write a phenomenal action piece makes this cycle of the American Vampire story a must read.

Out of 5🌶        🌶🌶🌶🌶

[faeriekit]

Health and Hybrids (X)👽👻💚

[I can't remember the original prompt posters  for the life of me but here's a mashup between a cryptid!Danny, presumed-alien!Danny, dp x dc, and the prompt made the one body horror meat grinder fic.]

PART ONE is here PART TWOis here PART THREEis here PART FOUR is here and PART FIVE is here PART SIX is here and PART SEVEN is here PART EIGHT is here PART NINE is here and this is part ten oh gods this was gonna be short at some point oh fuck

💚 Ao3 Is here for all parts

Where we last left off... Bath boy took a bath! It was only a little gross! ...Ok JK it was quite gross.

Trigger warnings for this story:  body horror | gore | post-dissection fic | dehumanization (probably) |  my awful attempts at following DC canon. On with the show.

💚👻👽👻💚

“Gifts from Medical, coming through!”

Wally barely feels the way Bart whacks him with a spare pillow case, but the whiffing noise is kind of a clue that the teen wants him to slow down. Or, in all actuality, Impulse probably wants Wally to buzz off, but Wally’s got boxes and boxes of tinker toys in his arms and nowhere else to put them down, so there really isn’t an alternative but a direct route to his destination.

“Go away!” Bart complains, and whacks the back of Wally’s head with the pillow case again. Wally hopes it’s one of the clean ones. He’s seen the ones that Bart’s favorite patient has…used. “No adults allowed! Bats said so!”

That's true. Batman had said that. “Well,” Wally says, dodging his way to the curtain to Bart’s clear dismay, “Medical said it was alright, and we all have to listen to them. They also packed gifts for your bud, so…”

Bart grabs onto the back of Wally’s suit and digs his feet into the tile. “Thatdoesn’tmeanyoucanbargeinhisspace!” the kid protests, teeth gritted, as Wally drags him across the floor with nothing but a determined gait and a tiny bit of the speedforce. (Just a little.) “It makes him nervous!! And then he’ll bite you!”

Oh, yeah, the biting. Wally stops at the edge of the curtain, hands on the gross gray fabric. Hrm.

“Uh.” There’s gotta be a solution to that. He looks down at Bart’s weird mop-head hairstyle. “Will he stop if I bring gifts?”

“Nah. He’s going to eat you.”

…Great.

“Bossy,” Wally decides, even if this is, in the end, for the alien-kid’s sake. Bart squawks. “Oh well. I gotta deliver these anyway. Hey, stranger; I come bearing gifts from your medical team! Uh…hiss if you get mad, I guess?”

Wally bumps the free-flowing curtain to the side with his hips, showing off the aforementioned pile of toys in his arms before poking his head in.

The cluster of darkness on the bed, being largely a mass of black in the vague shape of a humanoid, says nothing.

Bart crawls underneath Wally’s outstretched pile of deliveries so that he can go straight up to the bitiest occupant of the Watchtower proper. The teen kneels down on the floor, put his chin on the entity’s cot mattress, and leans up on the bed up at the shadowy mass of teenager up above him. “I can tell him to go away if you want me to,” he tells the entity, who sort of…turns? Towards the speedster. “I could beat him up.”

Wally snorts. No he couldn’t.

“…I could get Superboy to beat him up,” Bart immediately amends, which, hey! Not nice!

…True, maybe, but not nice!

The shadow-kid doesn’t get up and leave, and he doesn’t start hissing or throwing things—both things Wally is pretty sure he’s capable of. And, well, Wally has a job to do, and unless the alien entity teen actually discourages him from doing it, Wally’s going to do his best to help the kid out on this one.

“Bart, if you really want to help him feel comfy when I pop this on his bed, get between him ‘n me, please.”

Impulse, thankfully, holds off on sulking. He hops onto the alien kid’s medical cot-bed, carefully tucking in a blanket beneath him as to stay…sanitary.

Wally’s got to admit. It doesn’t smell so hot in here. Maybe he ought to have let medical wrestle him into some hygienic gear instead of zipping straight down. Eh. Too late now.

Wally carefully releases the pile of presents from the kid’s medical team onto the bed— snatching one or two bouncers out of the air before they fall onto the floor.

Bart and the nameless alien kid lean in closer to inspect the colorful packages. “Oh, sweet!” Impulse exclaims, eyes wide. “Hey, look, you got new stuff!”

New stuff is right. Finance lets medical essentially decide their own budget; purchase orders of new physical therapy tools are consistently approved even with oversight. In this case, it looked like the team was more than happy to take advantage of that goodwill with a run to the local children’s educational shop.

There are boxes upon boxes of colorful children’s toys on the mattress. Bart looks like Christmas has come early. The alien kid looks—at attention? At least? His claws gently rake over the rainbow-bright cardboard boxes, turning them this way and that so that he can see.

Wally zips away and zips back with a chair for himself. The cot is gross, yes, but more importantly, Wonder Woman has made very clear in her notes that the bed is part the kid’s perceived personal space. Violating that trust with the alien-entity-kid is largely a non-option. If they want to hold themselves up to the standard that J’onn was able to impart in their brief conversation, they have to be kind, careful, and considerate of his personal space.

The Flash (the second) hops into the chair. “Want to help the kid open the stuff, Impulse? Might be hard with his. Uh. Hand claws. Claw…hands?”

They both look at the aforementioned being’s hands. The claws look like hands and sometimes they look like claws, but they mostly don’t look like anything. If Wally stops paying attention, he legitimately thinks he’s alone in the room with Bart and a stiff breeze. 

“…Fingers,” Bart finally decides on. And then he beams. “Yeah! Okay. Hey, look! Let’s open this one!”

The kid-alien-thing mostly seems to respond to the brightly-colored and waving object in his vision and Bart’s cheery tone. Still, react he does. The amorphous form gets closer, tilts forward, and shimmers ever so slightly with attention as Bart begins to narrate his unboxing of colorful grip-shaped silicone toys, with little suction cups on the ends so that they can stick to things.

Bart sticks one to the kid’s side table. It takes the kid a second to observe, come to a conclusion, and then—fumblingly—claw the bright blue sucker off with his fingers until it comes free. The wobbly form of a teenage alien tries, misses, and then tries again to get the suction cup to relatch onto the table. The purr at his own success vibrates quietly through the room. It…the sensation shivers through Wally’s body.

It feels very, very weird. A little too personal. Like…the sound is embedded beneath his skin. Wally carefully scratches at himself, but the sensation of fingers on his suit doesn’t get rid of the feeling brushing against his muscle layer.

Bart doesn’t even react to the feeling, even if he can tell that Wally’s getting twitchy. “Tim thinks that most of his being is extradimensional. That’s why I can tell what he’s up to more; he zings in the speedforce.”

Wally slowly pushes himself up in his chair. “Wait, really?”

Bart doesn’t look up from his new project: unwrapping the cling wrap from dry erase lapboards. They look like they have the alphabet dotted along them in little spots of blue ink. “Mmhm.”

That’s… “Does Barry know?”

“I dunno.” Bart shrugs. He’s too busy watching his friend watch him unwrap preschool toys to give a clearer answer. “You can text him I guess. I think it’s just a theory, but he’s not biting you for being in his space right now, and he’s hissed at like everyone else who’s been here. Hey, look!! This one’s slime!”

Wally half gets up out of the seat. “Okay, okay, I think that one—“ He’s gone and back in a couple of nanoseconds, a plastic cafeteria tray clutched in his fists. “—That one needs a tray, I think. Don’t mess up the sheets with your new goo just because you’re excited.”

Impulse, teen speedster from the future, and a so-far nameless, bodiless alien teenage entity, share a vaguely textured cafeteria tray as they smush purple and yellow sensory beads around in rough circles. There are other toys that get opened, but are left largely untouched: a clock puzzle with insertable shapes serving as the numbers, and a 3D drawing pad with reusable cords on a velcro backing. The winner of the batch seems to be the colorful sensory beads in little tubs, considering that the two recipients of the stuff seem to gravitate back towards it with every new unboxing.

Of course, the favorite has to be the messy toy. Honestly, Wally should have guessed. Whatever. The plastic and wrapping trash is gone in seconds, leaving the kid’s space nice and clean, since apparently Wally is hanging around to be adult supervision. He might as well help out a bit.

And, apparently, the alien kid has something of a heart in his not-quite-present body; when Wally’s done throwing the trash out, the kid’s projectile of choice to chuck at Wally’s torso is a red block of floam putty sensory beads, matching the red of Wally’s suit.

…Wally’s going to take it as a nice gesture. The kid is purring and playing and generally disarmed, so this is probably an attempt at bonding.

The kid has a toy. Bart has a toy. Wally has a toy.

“Thanks,” he says, and unwraps the plastic on the stuff.

The alien might not have words to respond, but he purrs, and he purrs, and he purrs, and Bart hums right along with him.

And they knead putty together.

💚👻👽👻💚

Toys for injured ghosts:

Squigz™ Master Set

Squish & Squeeze Sensory Beads

Double-Sided Early Writing Skills Lapboard

Shape Sorting Clock

Rainbow Cord & Picture Pattern Maker

Yes I used real toys and went on a fake shopping spree; I used a combo of Lakeshore and Melissa & Doug, mostly looking for stuff that either aided with fine motor skills, language acquisition, or both. They know Danny doesn't speak English and they know he has trouble with his hands, and at least one of the Medical team has to have or has young kids, and this is what they came up with collectively. Do they resent that Wonder Woman got to him first? No, definitely not. :( They did try to find toys that weren't outrageously condescending, though; no dolls, no fine motor toys meant for, like, ham-fisted babies. The fact that the toys are, like, equally interesting to Bart, is, like...unique to Bart. Maybe Kon, too. I feel like Tim gets to watch Cassie, Bart, Kon, and the alien play around determinedly with the Squigz while he's defrauding Lex Luthor from his laptop nearby lol