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silverwhittlingknife · 1 year

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I noticed something in a lot of your Dick and Tim fics. It's probably so obvious, but you always write that Tim is watching Dick. In your newest one, Tim's watching Dick, in The Return Tim's watching Dick, and you even write that Tim is always watching him. Is Tim trying to read Dick? Trying to understand? Or does he understand him by watching? What is he trying to figure out by watching Dick? What does that say about Tim? I really hope this is intentional lmao because I would be embarrassed. Maybe this is just something so obvious that I'm just getting now.

YES IT’S ON PURPOSE <333 Anon. Anon. I'm so sorry this answer took forever, but listen, this was a really delightful ask <333 I think about this a lot. I really love origin stories—I like stories that resonate through a character’s history.

And for me, a whole lot of what interests me about Dick and Tim is that theme of watching and being watched. Seeing and being seen.

"Watch me on the trapeze, Tim. I'm going to do my act...'specially for you." | "Timmy, don't look." | "I turned away... I couldn't watch. Then I heard you crying and I turned back... I'm sorry, Dick. I didn't want to hurt you by telling you all this." Dick's watching me. Gauging my reactions. (Tim watching Dick watching Tim!) | "I'm taking off the blindfold." "No!" | "I can't see him. You can't see him. But I know Robin. And Robin's always there when you need him." | I love that kid. Too much to let him see me like this. (But Tim spots him anyway.)

Spotlights and lighthouses and cameras and photographs. Blindness and vision and masks and detective work and trust.

I'm going to try to be coherent about this but it's gonna be incoherent sdfsf BUT I'M GOING TO TRY so. Below the cut, a really long grab-bag of my rambling on vision and watchers and watching.

Tim + watching / Dick + being watched / different dynamics

Tim's origin story

Being watched goes with vulnerability/exposure

Incomplete list of moments with Dick and Tim and vision

Tim + watching

The first time we see Tim's face in LPoD: a close-up on his eyes looking for Dick, a close-up on his eyes at the moment that he sees Dick, a pullback to his face at the moment of recognition, a pullback to his face + his camera (you could maybe even argue that Tim comes into existence at the moment that he sees Dick, like, conceptually. the act of seeing is his defining characteristic. it is the thing that makes his character happen. he is the kid who's watching.)

Tim's a very vision-centric character: he's first introduced as a camera, then as a pair of binoculars, then as a pair of eyes. His whole backstory is about watching: watching Dick's parents die, watching Dick on TV, watching Batman and Robin. I've grabbed a few panels above with Tim watching Dick but there are so many more. His major deductions are all vision-based: he sees Dick-the-acrobat and later recognizes Dick-as-Robin; he sees Bruce-in-the-past and recognizes him as Bruce-of-our-time; the climactic moment in Red Robin is about going into a dark cave with a torch so he can see what's there.

And he's a detective. He pries into secrets. He analyzes people. He's a worrywart and a fusser who always wants to understand what's going on with other people. In a lot of those panels where Tim's watching Dick, his inner monologue is busy deducing Dick's emotions and trying to psychoanalyze him. Tim's caring and watchful and intuitive... but all those qualities also make him very very intrusive.

Dick + being watched

Dick performing acrobatics for Bruce, Donna, and Tim in Detective Comics 38 (his first appearance), New Teen Titans 16, Batman 441, and Nightwing 88 (where he reflects he's glad to be back in the hot glare of the spotlight)

Dick's a detective too, of course - Tim deliberately mirrors Dick, both in-universe and out-of-universe. But also Dick's a performer who loves being watched and also wants to control how he's seen. He gets a kick out of showing off, making puns, kicking ass, taking names, and he gets a kick out of having an appreciative audience. And he's got a kind of yearning for recognition - it hurts, when Bruce won't look at him, and in fights with Bruce, Babs, Roy, he'll often bring up the past, trying to get them to acknowledge a shared history.

At the same time, he's a very private person who withdraws and hides and pushes people away when he's upset. Right before Tim shows up, Dick's just ghosted the Titans because he's having emotional turmoil and doesn't want to have it in front of them, and they're trying to respect his wishes... but that solitude doesn't last long, because then Tim tracks him down. Tim will do this again when Dick's having an emotional crisis and trying to avoid everybody in Nightwing 110.

Possible dynamics

Tim watches Dick in Robin 11, while silently analyzing Dick's anxieties about Two-Face

"The watcher and the person being watched" is a dynamic that really interests me, partly because it can be so complicated?

You can see in Dick and Tim their very first roles: enthusiastic performer and the enthusiastic audience member. Dick likes to perform and show off and entertain; Tim likes to watch; those are roles they both easily slide into and they have a lot of fun together! But also you can look at the harsher side: the crime victim and the voyeur, the amateur photographer and the guy who hates being photographed. Dick's intensely private about his vulnerabilities; Tim's intrusive and watchful and constantly trying to figure out how other people tick. Sometimes Tim's the caring friend who watches Dick closely, reads him well, understands him; sometimes he's the nosy mini-detective who pries into Dick's secrets. And that's just two different ways of describing the same thing!

One of the things that kinda fascinates me about Dick and Tim's relationship is that in a lot of ways it's built on a bunch of low-key boundary violations. A lot of their early relationship is driven by Tim's desire to know more about Dick vs. Dick's reluctance to get close to anyone from Gotham; Tim's often out-of-line, but without his pushiness, it's hard to see how they would've developed a relationship at all. Later on, their friendlier relationship is marked by Dick teasing and low-key bullying Tim; it's pretty obvious that Tim isn't actually bothered by this, but it does involve Dick ignoring whatever Tim's claiming he doesn't like ("Quit it!" "Shh").

And one of the aspects of those boundary-violations is that Tim has a habit of witnessing things that Dick would prefer that nobody see. Tim's a witness to Dick's first and most miserable tragedy; he sees the aftermath of some of Dick's fights with Bruce; he's there when Donna dies. And he's sharp and observant and analytical, and I like to imagine this as being something Dick's not entirely comfortable with.

When Dick first meets Tim, it's before he's learned to wear a mask. And Tim spends a lot of time trying to see through Dick's masks, and he's pretty good at it, and a lot of that prying comes from love and care, because one of the ways that Tim shows love and respect and admiration is by trying to absorb absolutely everything about you, like a little sponge. But there's also something unsparing and even threatening about the search for the truth of someone else. It can be comforting or threatening, to know someone's watching you.

And I love how all that complexity is wrapped up in Tim's origin story? Both the giddy childish "Watch me on the trapeze" and then the awful grim reality of what Tim actually sees as a result and then the difficult connection when Dick and Alfred finally get Tim to explain how he knows their secret identities.

Tim's origin story

Tim (recounting his origin story in LPoD): My parents held me back as the thing moved to you. I cried out to warn you. (Two panels where we see just Tim's eyes, as he watches a crying Dick. He sees Batman approach and start trying to comfort Dick.)

I think fiction sometimes presents "being understood / seen / known" as an uncomplicatedly good thing, and there's nothing wrong with that! But I like complications, and I like the way Tim's origin story frames that moment of witnessing as difficult and fraught. Tim doesn't want to tell Dick how he knows their secret identities because he thinks it'll hurt Dick to know it: I don't want to hurt you, Dick, and I'm really afraid I might. And he's not wrong. It is painful; it does hurt; it's not something Dick's happy to know.

Dick's a very private person, and there's a painful intimacy to Tim's origin story - it's not Tim's fault he was there, but at the same time, it's not like Dick chose to have the most traumatic moment of his life on stage in front of an audience of strangers, you know? It's kind of a violation. In NTT/NT/Nightwing, Dick's pretty violently hostile to photographers, and he's intensely private about trauma in general, and I like to imagine this as partly a reaction to that foundational trauma of losing the most important people in his life and also doing it publicly.

And Tim's part of that audience. And he sees the worst part, the part that Dick can't talk about. He sees the bodies and the blood. He has nightmares about it for years. He hears Dick crying and sees him holding onto his parents' bodies. Not at all the kind of first impression Dick would want to make. Not at all the kind of person he wants to be seen as. And that understanding can be painful, because it's so close to the bone, and when Tim's just a stranger, it's upsetting, because Tim knows things that Dick would never have chosen for him to know. Their few conversations about it are awkward partly because Tim's thirteen and awkward... but at the same time, it's not Tim's fault so much as the situation! There's no way for Tim to talk about what he saw that wouldn't be uncomfortable for Dick.

... And yet, and yet. Tim's also one of the last people to see the Graysons alive. He sees Dick and his parents together; he even takes a picture with them. He remembers the whole thing so vividly he'll recognize Dick's somersault years later. He sees the grief. And so I think of that connection as kind of a metaphor for witnessing. Tim sees these things and they become real; Dick can't hide from them; in the act of being seen he's caught, he's in a spotlight, all the grief made real. You can't hide, that way. And Tim's got this unforgiving memory; he won't ever forget; he won't ever stop knowing.

But then, too: Dick's seen, he's known. Even at the very beginning, when Tim doesn't know enough to understand what he knows, he knows the important things.

So that shared memory is a barrier and a bond between them. It can be a source of discomfort or a source of comfort. And that's how I think about Tim watching Dick in general - it's complicated, and sometimes Dick's glad of it, and sometimes he resents it, and also it just is, it's a fact of Tim, that Tim watches. It's notable when he's not watching, when he's turned away.

Being watched goes with vulnerability/exposure

So I'm going to talk about the fraught feeling of being watched more in a little bit, but first: I think it's fascinating that Dick likes screwing around with games where Tim can't see!

Here's Nightwing 25 - Dick's come up with the idea of trainsurfing while blindfolded:

Tim: Are you sure this is such a good idea? Dick: Shh! Listen. Tune into the changing sounds and - Tim: I'm not so - Dick: JUMP!

Here's Robin 49 - clambering through a tunnel into No Man's Land:

Dick: Hard not to think about the river. All the water above us. And bugs. This tunnels' probably full of 'em. And rats. Big ones. Big blind rats with teeth as long as -

Here's Gotham Knights 9 - ambushing Tim in a sorta game of hide-and-seek:

Dick: Gotcha! Tim: Augh!

I feel like mmm I don't want to emphasize power dynamics too much because it's easy to overplay it BUT when I think about headcanons it's interesting to me to think about how maybe when Tim can't see, Dick's more in charge / in control, and so he feels more comfortable and less vulnerable, and that's often when he's most relaxed and playing around the most?

Whereas the moments when Tim's looking at him are often a bit more fraught, as here in Lonely Place of Dying:

Tim: I'm sorry, Dick. I really am. I didn't want to hurt you by telling you all this. Dick... Dick: It's all right, Tim. No matter how old you are, there are some things you never forget. Or get over. (Silent panel: Tim's watching Dick as Dick turns away and stares into the window.)

Or here in Nightwing 6, when Tim wakes him up from a nightmare:

Dick (internally, imagining a kid falling): He shouts to me. He always shouts to me. I never hear what he says. Tim: Nightwing! Wake up!

Or here in Gotham Knights 26, when Bruce is accused of murder:

(Silent panel where Tim's watching Dick.) Tim: I'm sorry. This must be hard for you. Dick: Me? Why? Tim: Well, I mean, it'd be one thing if we really knew he was innocent, but as it is - Dick: Wait, what? Stop right there. What are you saying, Tim?

Here's Tim spotting him before he can get away in Nightwing 110:

Dick (watching Tim from a distance, internally): Still, Timmy played it through nice and clean. Disarmed the perps, protected and avoided the cops. Kept any civilians from getting shot. God, I love that kid. Too much to let him see me like this. Tim: Hey! (appearing on the roof above him, fake-cheerful) You weren't gonna leave without saying hi, were you? Dick (looking away, very quietly): Hey, Timmy. Tim: Look at you, man! Back on both feet! Think you're done stopping bullets with your body for a while? Dick: Hope springs eternal. (Silent panel with Tim watching Dick, who's turned away.) Tim: You okay, Dick? Dick: I'm fine. Tim: Well, where're you staying these days? Dick: With some people.

Of course, sometimes Tim's watchfulness is frustrating but also a comfort, as in Detective Comics 874:

Tim (watching Dick, who's looking away): Are you listening to me, Batman? I'm saying the gas the Dealer used on you was powerful stuff. Dick: I'm fine, Red Robin. Besides...you're here now. Tim: You're not fine. And with or without me, you shouldn't be out on patrol ye - Dick: Sshhh. Here they come.

(Later in the comic, Dick mentally concedes that Tim's right that he hasn't really recovered from the gas, and Tim saves him from drowning when he's hallucinating. So Dick feels kind of exposed by the scrutiny, but also... he invited Tim along, so there's trust there, too - Tim's perceptiveness can be a good thing, too, when things are serious.)

Incomplete summary of moments with Dick and Tim and vision

I think I already mentioned a lot of these but here is my LIST

almost the first thing that Dick says to Tim is "watch me on the trapeze, Tim" and then Tim does and he basically never stops watching;

Tim watches Dick's parents die and watches Dick sobbing on-stage and watches him on TV and recognizes him by seeing a particular trick because he's dreamed about Dick doing the trick in his recurring nightmares about that night;

in New Titans 65 which is their very first team-up comic after Tim's origin, Dick's training pre-Robin Tim and gives him a test about watching for details and later Tim's takeaway is "I saw how [the Titans] listened to you";

there's a moment in Showcase '93 12 which is just Tim watching Dick and analyzing what's going on with him and there's another moment in Prodigal which is the same thing;

in Nightwing 6 Tim sneaks into Dick's apartment and hides in the dark and Dick spots him and tackles him; one of their most important bonding comics is Nightwing 25, where Dick insists on blindfolding him to get him to rely less on vision; when they sneak into No Man's Land they're in the dark and Tim can't see again and Dick's teasing him;

there are multiple moments when Tim can't see Dick for a bit and panics about his safety, in Nightwing 25, in No Man's Land, in Transference, in Bruce Wayne: Murderer;

Tim's there watching when Dick's wedding to Kory falls apart and he's there watching when Bruce and Dick fight and he's there watching when Donna dies and he's watching when Dick and Bruce swing together on the night before Infinite Crisis, and when Dick goes down and almost dies in Infinite Crisis we cut to Tim watching and seeing it happen and screaming;

there are multiple moments which are just silent panels of them staring at each other trying to figure out what's going on with each other or having a stand-off - in Bruce Wayne: Murderer, in Resurrection, in Red Robin;

in the aftermath of Donna's death there's a panel where Dick's watching Tim from a distance and not approaching;

in the aftermath of Blockbuster Dick spends half the comic just staring at Tim from a distance and hiding himself because "I love that kid - too much to let him see me like this," but Tim sees him anyway and chases him down and then they lie to each other and *ranting* LISTEN TO ME the whole comic is about Dick trying to AVOID being SEEN both literally but also METAPHORICALLY AND --!!!

(the only thing i'm even as halfway obsessive about for them is the heights thing because also there are a bunch of moments involving falling or Tim being anxious about heights and worried that he'll fall or Dick will fall)

In conclusion

Consider the progression in all these moments where Tim's watching an upset Dick and worrying about him!! From reaching out instinctively-but-pointlessly when he's too far away in the LPoD flashback, to almost reaching out in LPoD but hesitating, to putting a hand on Dick's back to walk him back to the Cave in Gotham Knights 10, to physically dragging him clear of the water in Batman: Black Mirror!

In conclusion I don't have a conclusion but basically YES, "watching Dick" is a core Tim characteristic as far as I'm concerned, and Tim watches Dick a lot and that can mean all kinds of things from admiration to nosy intrusiveness to worry to care to gratitude to trying-to-figure-out-what's-going-on-with-him, and sometimes Dick's resentful and sometimes he's relieved and sometimes he's playful and sometimes it's a mix of all those feelings.

And at first it's always Tim watching Dick, but later you've got Dick watching Tim too, and there's that moment where Dick's secretly watching him fight but Tim spots him in Nightwing 110 and there's a silent panel where Dick's watching him in Resurrection and at the very end of Robin there's a scene where Dick's secretly watching him fight but Tim spots him and in the very last issue of Red Robin Dick's watching the end of the confrontation with Boomerang and in Prodigal Dick's the one who notices his face is bruised and aaaaaaah

Anyway I think they're neat <3

#ask tag #hi anon this is SO old i'm so sorry sdfsfs #if you're still here hi!! <333 #this was such a validating ask to get because as you can probably tell i think about the vision thing constantly #also this is SO long oh man. sorry i just started typing and it went on and on sdfdsf #dick grayson #tim drake #dick & tim #it's like. it's just endlessly fascinating to me because the paparazzi/photography stuff is one of dick's biggest triggers #and tim's introduced as a surreptitious amateur photographer #so there's no WAY they will ever get along #but then there's the Meaningful Photo from before the show #that low-key shows that tim's freaky obsessiveness comes from a place of genuine caring & this moment of real connection #so you have early days!dick kinda vibrating back and forth between 'I DON'T WANT HIM MAKE HIM GO AWAY'#vs. those moments when he IS getting attached to tim kinda against his will sdfsdf #and just. the dichotomy between paying attention as a form of love vs. being watched as a kind of violation and exposure #and that both are kinda the same thing?? and dick deeply craves the first and deeply hates the second #tim shows up being all I REMEMBER and what he remembers is exactly what dick was demanding bruce remember in b416 #but /also/ he remembers /everything/ 'i remember it all' he remembers the graysons dying in incredibly painful detail #and like. kid!tim is very tactless & has only two switches of 'TELL HIM NOTHING' and 'if forced to speak then overshare'#but the tactlessness is a fixable problem and the remembering is /not/#it's not like it's any better for tim to keep his mouth shut & dick to just be painfully /aware/ that he's thinking abt the graysons dying #bc ofc /tim/ remembering forces /dick/ to remember #but!! but also. you know. maybe that remembering /isn't/ entirely a bad thing #and dick's feelings about it can change over time #anyway tim's not the only person that dick has this kind of conflict with - wally & roy sometimes chase him down when he's withdrawing too #and he often doesn't really appreciate it from them either #and dick's not the only person who gets subjected to tim's particular brand of intrusive caring #conner's not thrilled about the dna thing & ives would be within his rights to resent the stalking even though he doesn't #but i am obviously personally most fond of the ways this plays out with dick & tim

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riderofspades · 5 months

Text

Christmas JayTim not-drabble(?)

Holiday seasons, growing up, had meant pain to him. It meant an empty home, sometimes without heating, because his parents had forgotten to pay the heating bill while away again. It meant eating tuna straight from the can for the umpteenth time, or even moldy bread. (Sometimes, he had beans heated up in the microwave as a treat.) It meant going to sleep in the most luxurious bed money could buy, listening to the ticking of the clock outside the cavernous hall counting down to midnight, hoping he would find sleep before the fireworks went off and reminded him of what he never had (what he could never have). And above all, never ever going out on Christmas Day, because going out meant families, meant love and warmth and home.

(Meant a feast before his starving eyes, mocking with looking his fill but not being able to touch.)

Such were those times. Lonely. Sad. But simple.

Now he spends his Christmasses busy. There’s the yearly fundraiser, Bruce. You’re not coming, right? So I definitely have to go. Oh sorry, Dick, but I’m in space right now. Young Justice business. What do you mean it’s Christmas Eve?

Sorry, Alfred…

Sorry…

Then he hangs up his phone and his mask falls. And he goes back to the Nest, just in case Batman or Nightwing is checking, and does an umpteenth sweep of the place for trackers. And eats the umpteenth can of tuna, straight out of the can. Curls up on his couch under the muted light of his high-end flatscreen TV to sleep.

(Some things really never change.)

And this story would’ve ended here. Except.

Except.

At some point, Tim meets Jason. Really meets Jason. Not the Robin he had once worshipped from afar, not the vengeful Red Hood who had tried to kill him. Jason, who was the books he loved, and the weird dreams he had when crashing from a 30-hour work binge, and the bad breath he suffered from in the morning, and his impeccable angel’s food cake that he baked. And so, so much more.

Jason, who was alive and here and warm and had chose him, who was not far away across the world or a mere figment of his fanciful boyhood wishes. Who gave him awkward hugs and imperfectly made coffee, because he was still learning, because he had bothered to learn. Who was not as subtle as he’d thought in gauging what he assumed Tim would like as a present, and who hid his Christmas dinner plan ideas in his sock drawer, written out in pencil with poorly scratched-out lines over and over, all because he cared whether Tim was allergic to nuts or fucking hated cranberries.

He was right; Tim hated cranberries.

He was also wrong; Tim would eat them by the bucketload if it meant making Jason happy.

That was when he realised, this was it. This was who he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

(But ah, that is another story.)

#behold my trashy writing sprint results #jaytim #my rambles #fanon tim haters avert you eyes!#my fic writing

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aries-writingblog · 1 year

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Enemy Fire: 17

Summary: There's a new kid in town, and she's got a city to usurp.

Pairing: Jason Todd × F. Reader

Word count: 2.5k

Warnings: language, violence, threats

AN: photos are from Pinterest

Jason stared down at the scene before him.

Riot vans were hastily parked halfway on the sidewalk, the streets swarming with police and SWAT teams.

“Oh, shit.” He murmured.

YN looked furious— hell, she was acting feral.

Not only had the police placed her in meta-cuffs, she was being transported in a case. The glass and metals had to have been forged with her in mind, or at least with someone who had her power in physical strength.

With her arms cuffed behind her, she used her shoulder to ram into the sides. Attempting to break the glass.

When none of her attempts phased the guards surrounding her, she shouted colorful taunts and jeers at them. Trying to bait them into a slip up. He could see an automatic temperature gauge on the side. It was down to fifteen degrees Fahrenheit. Her body was steaming in the frigid air of her cage.

He supposed that it was a good idea, to lower her internal temperature. Perhaps it could prevent her from conjuring any rogue flames.

Or it could cause her entire body to seize and she would go into hypothermic shock.

Fear paralyzed his lungs. He couldn’t just march out there and tell them the dangers of changing her temperature without knowing what would happen. He couldn’t have connections to her at all.

Not if he wanted her to be able to get out.

Jason tore his eyes away from her steaming fury. He had to work fast. He and Roy had spent the entire day brainstorming a plan and now, even those frayed ideas were falling apart.

He needed to find Roy, they needed to regroup. Figure something else out.

He cursed under his breath; He should’ve told her when he found out. He could’ve prevented this by letting her prepare herself.

He looked up; Nightwing stood at the top of the buildings. Watching the process from above. As soon as he saw that Red Hood had spotted him, Dick melted back toward the shadows.

That didn’t stop Jason from abandoning the scene to find his way to the rooftops.

Dick was still there, waiting for his arrival. A frown etched into his features. Jason never lied about a lot— sure, his feelings, his general well-being, the occasional fib about having somewhere to be, escaping family activities.

But this one felt like a punch to the gut.

Jason ripped his helmet off, the moment he arrived at the roof. Loud, heavy boots colliding with the concrete slabs, echoing in the cold air with his breath. Escaping in clouds of anger.

“Is that Arkham’s SWAT team?” Jason demanded, pointing down to the swarming groups of black Kevlar below.

Dick leaned back against the wall, his arms crossing over his chest. His eyes were whited out by his domino mask and for once, he was glad. Thankful Jason couldn’t see his whole face.

Because his jaw was set into a stern frown, but his eyes… he couldn’t be sure what they said. And Jason would know. He would know and he would twist his emotions to work in his favor.

Jason huffed, irritated by his brother’s silent treatment. He clenched his fists, the leather of his gloves creaked in warning.

“Dick, you know what people do in Arkham— she hasn’t done anything she didn’t have to do.” He insisted, stepping closer to his brother.

He resisted the urge to dominate over the shorter man— to loom over him and attempt to intimidate him with stature. It wouldn’t do any good, Dick was much too confident in himself to fall for that trap.

“She burned people alive, Jason. Committed arson and extortion.” He spat, lunging from his place. He ran a gloved hand through his hair, pacing for a moment. “I don’t see any of that as necessary.”

“Dick—“

“Jason.” He spun around, his face stern. Jason felt taken aback by the voice. His father voice. Even though Dick wasn’t a parent, sometimes it felt like he could easily assume the role. “You’re lucky you weren’t charged with aiding and abetting.”

His heart thudded, skipping beats.

Fuck.

Fuck— panic swelled in waves, quickly drowning his rationality.

He knew his family was trying to catch her, and that they found her. He just didn’t know how they found her— he thought he had hidden her well enough. And she followed his instructions and her instincts.

All that was left was them. The people hunting her down.

The people he had trusted.

Like a switch flipping, Jason felt all his panic simmer down into pure rage. It thrummed in his veins, settling like poison and stretching cloying fingertips to every last part of him.

“Were you…. You were using me to catch her?”

His voice was soft. Too soft. His eyes gleamed— a dangerous little spark Dick had seen directed at Bruce, and anyone that happened to get in his way. Dick clenched his jaw, exhaling through his nose. Steeling himself against the onslaught that was inevitable.

“We were doing what we had to.”

Jason scoffed, adjusting his stance; A disappointed grin stretched his lips, sharp teeth showing. His hands falling to his hips. His eyes stung, but he swore he wasn’t going to cry. Not now, not in front of Dick, who would immediately break down into tears himself and try to hold him.

Then the whole ‘incident’ would be talked through and the whole family would be involved. Nothing would be solved— Jason would still be angry, YN would still be in custody.

So, no; He didn’t want to talk it through. He wanted to give in to the fire burning against his sternum.

Because somehow, out of all the shit he had seen, things he had done, this was it. This is what stung and made his stomach queasy.

Like a baseball bat to the abdomen.

It felt so familiar. This is what could have happened to him. If it hadn’t been for Bruce and Dick, finding him and stopping the Knight, cleaning up his mess; Jason could have been the one in chains. Being carted off to Arkham.

If they could catch him, at least.

And now, here they were again, only this time, Jason was on the other side. Seeing the same, tragic storyline from the opposing team.

Because she wasn’t as fortunate.

Because she wasn’t a Wayne.

“So, all of this bullshit about giving people a second chance, that only applies to adopted children of billionaires, then? You only cared because it was me.” Jason determined, his tongue sticking into his cheek.

Dick froze, his eyes widening.

Just as he had assumed: Jason had taken his words and twisted them around.

“That’s not fair.” His voice hoarse. Emotions caught in his throat, choking him.

Something in Jason’s chest snapped.

“Yeah, well, look around, Dick. This city isn’t fair!” He shouted, his arms shooting out to reference where they stood.

“The best place for her right now, is where she is.” Dick replied, attempting to keep his voice steady.

Jason swallowed his laughter, though he couldn’t prevent the deprecating smile from tugging his lips. He turned around, facing the various flashing police lights. They had began to pack up and leave— YN was already gone. The SWAT trucks gone as well, leaving behind the police department to canvas and take care of her apartment.

“Would you have said the same of me?” Jason asked, softly.

Dick clenched his jaw. He wasn’t being fair.

They had different circumstances, different backgrounds. They were not the same.

He had fought so hard to save Jason because he knew he could be saved. Jason was a bright kid, with a blindingly bright future.

YN had been raised under the strict hand of a New York crime lord. Used her powers and abilities to harm those around her. So, no; No matter how many gift baskets he saw her give out to the homeless, it didn’t change the facts.

She attempted his brother’s life, several times. Endangered the lives of civilians, lit people on fire, destroyed and damaged properties, just to... to what? Gain power?

Take Red Hood’s network away? Kill him?

Or was her plan to entrap him; Laying all the blame to trace back to Red Hood.

Because if Jason had been caught with her, he would have been in the same predicament. And Dick didn’t know if he could have gotten him out of it.

Jason seemed to understand what the silence meant. He nodded, biting down on his bottom lip. Leaning down, he snatched his helmet and shoved it back over his head. Yanking a grappling hook from his belt, he secured his escape, and got away fast.

As soon as his feet left the roof, Dick felt his heart sink further— if it could go any further down.

He hated this.

Sure, he and Jason fought a lot— small, petty arguments that didn’t mean anything. ‘Who ate the last cookie?’ ‘Why are you in my apartment at three AM?’ ‘Could you stop holding Damian by his ankles over the balcony?’

This? This was a fight.

Something of this caliber hadn’t happened since the Knight’s reign over Gotham. Since Jason had Dick by the throat, pinned to the ground, spitting and snarling at Bruce.

Dick exhaled, shakily, leaning back against the wall.

This was ending in bloodshed and disappointment; For one, or the other.

“You ever get that blood stain out of your cape?”

Stephanie groaned, dramatically. Her sat her coffee cup down heavily; Barbara’s hand shot out in precaution, aiming to prevent a spill.

“No— it didn’t come out and I’m pissed.” The blonde complained.

Barbara hummed in commiseration, keeping an eye on the screens as she typed.

“You try lemon juice?” She suggested. Steph’s face screwed up, her lip raising.

“What?”

“Lemon juice. Let it sit for like fifteen minutes and then scrub it out with cold water.”

Stephanie frowned, her eyes narrowing. The way Barbara was sat, staring forward and busying herself seemed suspicious.

And Stephanie had pulled enough pranks on the other members of the Wayne family to know when she was being taken for a ride.

“Now I think you’re just making things up.” She declared, crossing her arms. Barbara scoffed.

“I’m not! Look it up—“

The door to the stairs blew open and footsteps pounded down the metal stairs. A flash of a leather jacket and red accents told them exactly who they were dealing with.

“Hi, Jason?”

Jason barely spared them a glance, anger evident on his face, as he posted himself beside the elevator. Waiting with his arms crossed.

“Fuck you people.”

The elevator doors opened with a quiet ding and Bruce stepped out. In the next moment, Jason was right back to pestering him. Practically begging at this point; It definitely left him bruised, but he would nurse his ego later.

“Bruce, this isn’t right. She was only doing what she had to.”

The Batman stopped, fixing his son into place with a blank stare.

Jason had tracked him down, staying on his heels, fussing and berating his adoptive father about LN.

There hadn’t been a moment’s peace or silence for an hour. At least.

“This whole time, you’ve seemed to know more than you let on.” Bruce stated, finally approaching his elephant in the Batcave. “Give me good, undeniable reason and I will talk to Flash and get her transported to their meta security.”

Jason swallowed, his Adam’s apple bobbing uncertainly. YN would forgive him if he told Bruce… she had to. She would see the logic. It was for her, after all. To get her out of the trouble he put her in.

He blinked. She wouldn’t forgive him. It was her information, her background. The things that she had scrubbed so throughly from the internet they didn’t even exist anymore. And that had taken hard work.

He couldn’t.

The less the Bats knew, the better. He would just have to take his chances.

“She isn’t looking for any more trouble. She was just on the run. Doing what she had to do.” Jason repeated, sticking by his original statements.

Bruce sighed, his lips pursing.

Jason knew immediately; It wasn’t enough.

“She still did them. She is still required retribution.”

Jason pushed his hands through his hair, heaving out a sigh. He pressed the heels of his hands into his eyes, forcing his emotions back. Angry tears would help no one. Especially not himself.

His hands dropped and he let them fall to his sides as he shifted his weight over to his opposite side. Staring at Bruce’s feet for a moment.

“Do whatever you want, just don’t put her in Arkham. It’ll only make things worse.” He decided, shoving past Batman and making his way to the stairs.

Bruce called his name; Jason paused, hesitating by the bottom of the stairs. He didn’t turn. That message was strong enough.

“Is there a reason you’ve taken so strongly to this woman?” Bruce asked.

Jason’s chest seized. Anger flooding his veins again.

Of course. Of course Bruce thought he was sleeping with her. Because that’s the only way she was redeemable to him.

“I haven’t. I just know that she doesn’t deserve to be in that damned asylum.” He spat, climbing the stairs before he could be pulled back.

Bruce exhaled through his nose.

Jason had fallen in love. And he didn’t even know it yet.

“Are you changing her arrangement?” Stephanie asked. Barbara turned her chair around to face him, to listen to the conversation.

Bruce tugged the cowl from his head, his hair sticking up in different directions. Sweaty and disorganized.

He brushed a hand through his dark locks, slicking it back into a somewhat respectable style. His eyes still had the blackout makeup smeared around them.

“I can’t. I doubt Gordon would even entertain the idea.” He admitted. Guilt chewed at his stomach, though his mind was convinced he did the right thing. No matter how certain Jason felt about her. “The public is in a frenzy over LN and trying to shift the influence now would only cause hysteria.”

Stephanie’s lips parted, her mouth halfway open.

“This is the only thing Jason has ever asked you for. The only thing he’s even remotely felt, deeply, since he came back.” Barbara spoke up. Bruce clenched his jaw. “You’re taking that away.”

The whole team was slowly turning on each other. In the beginning of the hunt, most of them thought Bruce was right. Hell, even Bruce thought he was making the right decision.

But now… doubt was creeping into his mind. Jason was clouding his reasoning. His morals.

Barbara was joining Stephanie and Jason’s side; Dick and Tim seemed to be straddling the fence, the last he spoke with them. Damian was only with Bruce because he never disagreed with his father— too bent on his approval than the right thing.

The woman was dividing them at a time when they needed to be a front. A United team.

A family.

Bruce just wanted his family back together again. And as usual, he was managing to shove his foot into his mouth and destroy it all over again.

“I can’t sacrifice the public for one person.” Bruce finally stated.

His words were met with silence, until a sigh broke from the blonde before him.

“Y’know… sometimes, it’s alright to be selfish. To damn this city because all it ever does is take.” Stephanie frowned, picking up her phone and coffee cup from the desk. She began walking away, muttering back to them: “These people will always find a moral high horse to climb and look down on everyone else.”

#jason todd x reader #jason todd x f!reader #jason todd x fem!reader #jason todd x y/n #jason todd x you #enemy fire

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slightly-nerdy-rambles · 2 years

Text

Robstar Week Day 5: Self-Defense (Prompt: Bodyguard)

And now the time has come for this year’s Royal Family Verse prompt! For those of you unfamiliar with this ‘verse, the short answer is that I place one Robstar Week fic a year in a special continuity wherein an attempt on Galfore’s life ultimately leads to Starfire returning to Tamaran as its Grand Ruler and Robin officially joining her under the Tamaranean name Nightwing. For the more details, feel free to check out the other fics on the Royal Family Verse tag! For those of you who are keeping track, this one takes place somewhere between “Looking Back, Moving Forward” and “These Winding Halls.”

Self-Defense

“Hey, can I ask you a really dumb question?”

Starfire turned her attention from her meal to give her husband a questioning look. The week-long celebration for her coronation had finally wound down to a close, and she could tell that Nightwing was relieved to be a little further from the public eye. She suspected it helped that informal meals like this one were not undertaken with the same spirit of competition as proper feasts.

Even so, he looked a little ill at ease. He was toying aimlessly with his sputlinks (one of the few Tamaranean dishes she knew for sure suited the human palate, so that wasn't the problem) and glanced once or twice at the stoic guards stationed at the door.

“Of course,” she said gently. “Although whatever it is, I am certain it isn’t dumb. I am well aware of how it feels to be new to an entire planet.”

Nightwing chuckled. “It’s not that, exactly. More like… Okay, I get why we have to have bodyguards — high profile targets, extra precautions, yadda yadda — but why so many?”

He started absently waving his food around as he spoke. “I mean, you’re basically a warrior queen. Half the reason you were picked for the job in the first place is because you’ve already beaten someone else in a one on one battle for it, and you can totally hold your own if some idiot tries to challenge you. But here we are surrounded by, like, six guys wherever we go. Is that much backup really necessary?”

Starfire couldn’t quite stop herself from wincing a little at the question. “Well…”

Nightwing suddenly cringed back. “Oh, sorry, even more of a stupid question than I was thinking. It’s because of what happened to Galfore, isn’t it?”

Starfire chewed her lip for a moment and looked down at her food. Galfore was healing well, but after all the recent excitement he needed extra time to rest and recover. It was the only reason he wasn’t at dinner with them now, but…

“Well, that is part of it, but not all,” she explained. “There are several security measures being taken to prevent another attempt on the lives of anyone in the palace, but… In truth, most of the additional guard is not for me.”

Nightwing tilted his head and frowned. “Then what… Oh.” He looked up at the guards again, taking a moment to scrutinize their silent gazes.

“They’re for me.”

Starfire fixed him with a sheepish little smile and nodded. “It is a… complicated affair. As a reigning monarch who has already proven herself in official combat, my own prowess is known. It is not that your skills are unknown, not precisely… but the vast majority of your achievements have taken place off-world, against enemies whose level and type of threat my people do not know well enough to gauge.”

Nightwing frowned at that, though Starfire was relieved to note that he seemed more confused and thoughtful than offended.

“But what about the Rite of Welcome? I thought the whole point of that test was to prove that I was worthy of being consort.”

Starfire gave him a wan smile and shook her head. “The Rite of Welcome is… something of an advanced citizenship test, really. The fact that you passed it proved you capable enough to live on Tamaran by my side, but the full extent of your individual strength still has yet to be determined.”

Her smile faded at that point, and she felt herself awkwardly avoiding his gaze.

“There is also… something else to it, I fear. While Galfore and I both know of your great skill, there are those who doubt your ability to defend yourself against Tamaranean foes. They cite your lack of notable powers… and I believe some are concerned by your more peaceful home culture as well.”

This was the part of the conversation she’d been dreading. She knew that her husband took great pride in his skills, a pride he had well earned, and she hated to think that her own people could doubt him. He had sacrificed so much of his old life to stay with her, and she desperately wanted him to feel welcome here.

It was because of these thoughts that she found herself entirely baffled when Nightwing suddenly chuckled. She furrowed her brow.

“You are not upset?”

Nightwing actually laughed out loud at that. He placed a reassuring hand over her own and said, “Star, when I first met you, you almost creamed me in a fight with your hands literally tied. If I hadn’t spent the past few years getting to know your strengths and weaknesses, and known that you’re a way above average fighter even among Tamaraneans, I would doubt my ability to defend myself here. Honestly, I’m just surprised it’s taken this long to come up.”

With one more reassuring smile, he pulled back to take a few bites of his food. Starfire did the same, and the two of them ate in companionable silence for a few minutes before Nightwing’s expression turned thoughtful.

“All that being said… it would be nice to have more of the people’s confidence,” he admitted. “Not to mention not having quite so many guards breathing down my neck all the time — er, no offense.”

The door guard he’d addressed that last comment to responded with a respectful incline of the head, so he went on. “Is there anything I can do to, I dunno, help that along?”

Starfire couldn’t help but grin at the suggestion. She leaned forward, chin on a hand, and gave him a mischievous smile. “Oh, I can think of a few things we might try.”

******

In most Earth cultures, the sight of a newly-wed royal couple preparing to face off in a sparring ring would doubtless turn a few heads. There’d be gossip, talk of a scandal, probably suggestions that this was just the first sign that something had gone terribly wrong in the marriage already.

On Tamaran, it was an invitation to grab some kaksgor to munch on and find a good seat.

Starfire could tell that her husband was finally starting to feel in his element. He was still very much getting used to the new place, and she knew from her own experience that such a change would take a while to adjust to, but combat and performance were both something he got.

Nightwing had a small staff in hand and a playful smirk on his face as the two of them faced off. “Just like back at Titan’s Tower, huh?” He commented.

With a brief look at the surrounding Tamaraneans, he added, “Although this audience is a bit more exciting than Cyborg and Beast Boy.”

Starfire, already in the air, smiled back at him. He didn’t have quite the array of unique weapons and gadgets he’d carried around as Robin, but she knew better than to assume he didn’t have other tricks up his proverbial sleeve.

“It would appear that way,” she replied. “Shall we give them a worthwhile show?”

Nightwing gave his staff a small twirl and dropped into a ready stance. “Wouldn’t have it any other way. Our usual wager?”

Starfire laughed. “I do not think we have to worry about who does the dishes anymore. How about, whoever wins gets the honor of acting as bodyguard for the loser?”

Nightwing snorted and smirked. “You know, I don’t know whether it says more about Tamaran or me that I didn’t even have to think about why something like that is the prize. But as you wish, my liege.”

With that, he rushed forward to meet her in mock battle. Starfire shot higher up and started pelting him with starbolts, but with quick movements he used his staff to deflect the first volley. That was fine — she was just getting warmed up, though she knew he was as well.

Starfire went in for another pass, and this time managed to clip him in the shoulder. She dimly noticed the crowd’s cheers swelling into a roar at the first contact, but did not let it distract her. She swooped in and plucked her stumbling opponent from the ground, shooting him a cheeky smile as he yelped and looked up at her.

The confusion left his eyes in a second, though. “Nice shot, but you’ll have to try harder than that,” he said with a wink. He then twisted himself out of her grip, dropping to the ground before she could pull him too high up to safely escape.

And as the crowd went wild around them, she knew that he would find his place here just fine.

#Teen Titans #Robin #Starfire #robstar #robstarweek #writing #prompt #fanfiction #I swear one of these days I will actually write about the Rite of Welcome #Other entrants probably: Oh yeah time for a bodyguard AU/one of these two guarding the other during a mission #Me: Time for Nightwing to complain about palace guards and then get into a sparring match with his wife

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envysparkler · 2 years

Text

“Why are you here?” Batman growled, and then spun to stare at a patch of shadows near the door.

The shadows squeaked. Dick stepped smoothly to block his gaze. “You’ve been hiding something from me,” he said levelly.

“For a reason,” Batman said, “It will be difficult for you to be impartial. Hood knows enough information to get under your skin.”

“Hood?” Dick tilted his head to one side, “Red Hood? You’ve captured him?”

“Yes,” Batman said, still watching him with that predatory gaze, “Someone crafted him into a carefully designed enemy. He knows who I am. Who you are. Bits and pieces of our life.”

“Lots of people know who we are,” Dick raised an eyebrow.

Batman’s glower deepened. “And,” he said slowly. Cautiously. Gauging Dick’s reaction. “He looks a lot like Jason.”

Dick didn’t try to hide his raised eyebrows. “Jason’s dead,” he said flatly.

Some of Batman’s tension relaxed. “I know,” he said gruffly, “This imposter seems to have bargained on our sentimentality.”

“Well, they clearly haven’t met you,” Dick cracked a smile, and moved closer, “Why don’t you show me what you have? A fresh pair of eyes can help.”

Batman was still watching him, guarded, but he allowed Dick closer to the files. The physical, first—blood test, DNA, no strange anomalies there. The memory tests were a patchwork—some things were correct, but a lot were missing or confused.

The final section were the trigger tests—aimed at instinctive reactions, those that couldn’t easily be faked. Dick read through each one as Batman loomed over his shoulder, clicking past muscle memory tests and taste triggers and sound triggers and visual triggers.

“Hmm,” he said, stepping back, “Can I see them? Sometimes cloning technology leaves things looking a little…uncanny, and pinpointing an imperfection might lead us to the source.”

Batman stared at him, his face guarded, for a long moment. Finally, he nodded, leading Dick to the back, the long row of containment cells.

Only one was occupied, the second from the last. A newer model, installed after Tim became Robin—Batman clearly wasn’t taking any chances. The cell was bright white, the front completely transparent, and Dick could see inside. There was a figure curled up in the furthest corner from the door, and they visibly tensed as they heard the footsteps.

“Hood,” Batman growled, low and flat.

The figure slowly raised their head—their gaze darted first to Batman, visibly shaken, before catching on Dick and freezing.

They straightened to their feet in a sudden movement, and Dick stilled. “Dick?” the figure asked hoarsely, “Nightwing?”

The figure stepped closer, eyes wide, something painful and raw in their face. “Dick, please,” the figure rasped, “Help me. He’s lost his goddamn mind, Dick, please.”

Dick catalogued the features, trying hard to be dispassionate—dark hair with a streak of white, eyes more green than blue, a hulking frame that showed years of training. Tear tracks glimmering in the light. Desperate, frantic hope.

“You’re right,” Dick hummed, stepping back, “The resemblance is definitely creepy.”

“Jason’s grave was vandalized,” Batman grunted, “They most likely got their genetic material there.”

“Dick,” the figure begged, “Dick, please, Dick, I’m sorry, just make him stop—”

“They clearly sacrificed resemblance for functionality in a couple of places,” Dick said, stepping to the side to get a better view, “Jason wasn’t this tall, and the kid was a bruiser, but he was never going to look like you.”

Jason’s face crumpled with a low moan, his gaze sliding into despair as he stumbled back, pressing himself against the wall again.

“I think comparing the physical differences would be a good place to start,” Dick said to Batman, turning away from the cell and the low, wrenching sobs within.

Batman followed him back to the Batcomputer, and Dick took the chair, waiting patiently as Batman leaned over him to access the right files, his gaze moving from Dick to the computer screen—

Dick twisted the needle in his hands, and lashed out.

Batman shot him a look of betrayal edging into fury as he wavered and collapsed—Dick pulled the needle out, and jumped out of the chair.

“I don’t know what happened to you,” Dick said quietly, “And I’m not staying long enough to find out.”

He strode away from Batman, heading back to the cells, and Tim stepped out of the shadows, shivering and darting frequent glances back at the Batcomputer. Dick felt his suppressed emotions straining against his control, desperate to lash out, fury and horror churning in his stomach.

Dick punched in the code for the containment cell, and wrenched the door open—Jason snapped his gaze up, wide-eyed and terrified, pressing further into the corner as he curled up.

Dick forced himself to gentle his movements, dropping into a crouch a few feet away. “It’s okay, Little Wing,” he said softly, “I’m going to get you out.”

Jason clearly didn’t look like he believed him, but between one blink and the next, Dick had his arms full with his sobbing little brother.

“Don’t,” Jason begged, “Don’t, please, if this is a trick—please, I can’t take it, don’t—”

“Not a trick, Little Wing,” Dick soothed, “I swear, it’s not a trick, I’m getting you out, I’m so, so sorry.”

#my snippets #paranoid batman #jason&dick #oh yes this was a spooky one #captivity #medical whump

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butwhyduh · 2 years

Text

Starlight and sunsets

Jason todd x reader

Warning: blood, violence, alcohol, smut, cursing, child endangerment

Part 5/6

Masterlist

“Killer Croc is detected in north Robinson Park. There are… now 4 reports of 911 calls in the area. Be careful and do not engage, Robin. He is highly dangerous and will literally try to eat you,” Barbara said to the new boy wonder.

“Not a problem. I’ll survey to see if we can find his location better,” Tim said in his comms.'' No need to get killed tonight,” he said with a little laugh before wincing. That probably wasn’t very tasteful to say.

“Keep on your 6, Robin,” Oracle replied. “Spoiler is on the other side of the park. Let’s get a locale on Croc so Batman and Nightwing can round him up.”

Tim walked across the roof of a building across the street from the park. It wasn’t enough to look in the depth of trees that ran towards the center of the park. He hated giving up his strategic location but he would never see anything this way. He slunk down to walk in the shadows of the trees.

————————-

“Batgirl, come in,” Oracle said in your earpiece. You sighed.

“Look O, I’m not working tonight. I’m three sheets to the wind with a bottle of Jack on my roof. Unless someone’s had a bike shoved up their a-“

“Okay, I get it,” she interrupted. “I will count you as busy. But it would be really great if you could look into the file of missing persons I sent you. Batman and even Nightwing are a little busy rounding up the rouges. And since you’re staying home for the night…”

“They aren’t Jason. He didn’t kill them,” you replied bluntly.

“I didn’t- I did not think Jason did this,” she sputtered. “I just need a detective on it.”

“Fine, I’ll give it a peek.”

“Thank you. I’ve got to go. Robin and Spoiler are reconning Robinson Park for possible Killer Croc sightings,” she said.

“Croc? You have the KIDS on it?” You asked sitting up. Your buzz all but disappeared. “That’s way too dangerous.”

“I know. But they are just watching and not engaging,” she replied.

“I’m on the way,” you said, standing up quickly. Your head swayed. That was not great for Batgirl work but those kids were in danger.

“Woah, I thought you were drunk,” Barbara interjected.

“I am. But they don’t know how he works. And they’re going to get hurt. Where the fuck is Bruce? This is his shit,” you grumbled sliding on your suit.

“He’s out by the pier putting Penguin in cuffs right now,” Barbara said.

“Well he’s too far away. Where’s Nightwing?”

“Helped him catch him. I’ll have him come to the park. Robin hasn’t even found him yet. You really don’t need to come over if you’ve been drinking. It’s a bad idea,” Barbara pushed.

“Yeah, so is every idea. Send me the address O.”

You were drunk enough to realize you shouldn’t drive but luckily there was a bus that was coming through that would drop you off a few blocks away. Sure people stared at batgirl on a bus but it wasn’t exactly new.

—————————-

Much like every other part of Gotham, the parks were one step below walking nightmares on the best of days and Robinson Park was particularly nasty. Creeps and criminals, poison Ivy’s plants, and any other death traps set up were awful. And with rogues on the loose and apparently children going after a literal human crocodile, this was basically hell.

On the outside, the park looked like a normal park with shitty playground equipment, poorly cut grass, and the errant bush that someone planted in hopes to beautify a trash can. But that was simply the edge of the 4 acre park. As you moved farther in the grass turned to trees and thick brush. It was large enough to lose Killer Croc if that was any gauge of size. Like Central Park’s crackhead little sister.

Tim moved farther into the brush, his eyes peeled for any movement. He hated this park. He grew up far from this side of town but his interest in Batman taught him that this park was a frequent criminal stop. His breath came out in puffs in the night air.

The Gotham city Reservoir came into view. The largest water treatment center in all of Gotham that treated around 80% of all freshwater was a big deal. A few smaller criminals had tried to threaten to bomb it since Tim became Robin so Tim had a basic understanding of the building.

Massive cylinders filled with dirty water were cleaned before moving down the line to huge cans of water that were fine filtered to be safe to drink and use in Gotham. And at night, it looked like black pools of danger. Killer Croc could be hanging out at the bottom of one of these things for all Tim knew. He didn’t want to, but he knew he had to climb up on each one to look in them if he really wanted to know if the criminal was actually there.

Tim began to climb up the ladder that led to a gangplank over the water.

————————-

Barbara called Dick. “Hey, can you hurry to Robinson Park? Robin and Spoiler are tailing Killer Croc. Batgirl is currently drunk but going over there to rescue them and Batman is still on the other side of town,” she explained.

“Oh shit,” Dick said. “I- okay,” he said hopping up. He was hoping for a quick nap since he’d been awake for 36 hours but this couldn’t wait. He threw his suit back on and chugged an energy drink before racing out the door.

————————-

Stephanie found the treatment plant only a few minutes after Tim.

“Hey Boyfriend, are you thinking what I’m thinking?” She asked in her comms, having arrived on the opposite side of the plant.

“I’m not- we’re not-“ Tim sputtered before calming down. “Having to climb up and look in?” Tim had already weighed the risks. High chance of being attacked if Killer Croc was in there but very low chance of him being there and Batman would be mad if they left a stone unturned.

“Yep. This is gonna be a bitch. I’ll look in mine if you look in yours,” she said. Tim rolled his eyes before agreeing. He gripped the metal bars that were cold even through his gloves. Steam could be seen coming off the water that was unnaturally still in the Gotham night.

The top of the vat had a thin gangplank with metal railing. Tim carefully climbed up. He slipped a hand in his utility belt to grab a flashlight just as he heard Stephanie quietly say “shit this is deep.” He flipped on his own light and looked in the water. It did look much deeper and the light did a piss poor job illuminating the pool. Tim would have to walk the entire top to see inside. He walked across slowly while shining his light.

The water rippled. Before Tim could do more than think oh shit, a clawed hand wrapped around his ankle and yanked. He clung at the railing to keep from being pulled under. Tim vaguely heard Stephanie curse and run towards him. It didn’t take much more pressure before he felt a sickening pop as his leg dislocated. Tim screamed.

“Robin!” Yelled Barbara into the comms. Tim was in no place to answer. Stephanie was scrambling over to rescue Tim and his grip was waning. He knew that if he let go and went under, he was a goner.

“Robin and Spoiler in danger at the Gotham City Reservoir and any vigilante nearby requested for immediate support. This is an emergency,” Barbara called over the broad comms.

“Fuck!” You said as you ran down the street from the bus stop. You were 5 minutes out.

Across town Bruce froze in fear. He was nowhere near the kids. He was going to lose another Robin. He dropped everything and raced towards the park. Bruce ignored the fact that he was a good 10 minutes out.

Dick was grappling between buildings but he wasn’t close and he was so tired. It would take at least 15 minutes or more to get there. But he pushed himself to the point of burning his lungs to go faster.

Stephanie grabbed Tim’s leg and pulled it and it felt like he was stuck in cement. His breath came out in great huffs as panic began to set in. Stephanie grabbed one of Tim’s throwing stars and started chunking them in the dark water and whatever had him.

You saw the kids fighting over the reservoir pool and tried to move faster. This was giving you flashbacks. You couldn’t save Jason. Now Tim and probably Stephanie were going to die too. You grappled across the remaining area before landing on the gangplank.

Tim’s leg was momentarily loosened in Killer Croc’s grip and you jumped over. It was a common tactic to make the victim feel they had gotten away before attacking again.

With no time to think, you acted.

—————————-

Years ago

“This is a tool! Not a weapon!” Bruce yelled. “If you use this, it could kill. Never use your grappling gun as a weapon!”

You leaned up on the floor of the cave, panting.

“You’re only pissed that I beat the record for this simulation,” you quipped. Bruce’s eyes flashed at you.

“That’s the fastest way to get someone killed, playing with equipment,” he snarled in a quiet deadly voice. Your young bravado quieted under his gaze.

“Geez boss, never a weapon. Got it.”

————————

Now

You shot the gun in hand, pointing it right at the crocodile’s face. He moved in the last second and the point buried into the flesh of his shoulder. Croc immediately let go of Tim’s leg as he bowled in pain. Both you and Stephanie quickly pulled Tim over the side and down to the ground away from the pool.

He looked bad with pale skin and eyes closed into a grimace. His leg had an unnatural angle where it was dislocated likely at the hip. But Tim was alive. And an angry crocodile man was climbing out of the pool, harpooned with your grappling hook. Blood ran down in black sheets.

“Fuck,” you groaned when you didn’t feel any weapons. You were drunk and forgot your shit. Stephanie handed you her retractable bo staff. It wasn’t near good enough. Stephanie stood protective over Tim while you prepared to fight the villain. This situation was so bad.

He jumped from the pool’s edge towards you and you swung the stick only to hit air as a man threw himself against the beast causing them both to fall back into the pool. Bruce was in the tank.

“No!” a voice came from behind you and Dick ran up the ladder and leaped into the pool. Violent water splashed as both vigilantes fought. You climbed up the ladder right as Dick surfaced with the grappling hook handle in hand. You took it from him and yanked hard. A spasming groan sounded loud enough to hear underwater and Bruce surfaced. You yanked the rope again before wrapping it around a sturdy pipe.

Dick pulled Bruce from the water. He was bleeding heavily from gashes across his chest and looked close to fainting. Killer Croc thrashed but couldn’t seem to slip the grappling hook from his shoulder. You asked Barbara to call the police through the comms.

“Fuck! Bruce, stay awake,” Dick commanded as he pressed all the bandages from Stephanie and Tim’s kits against Bruce’s wounds.

“I’m fine. How is Tim?” He said weakly.

“Good,” the boy equally lied.

All the same, all 3 of you helped the pair into the batmobile and Dick drove them to the cave where Alfred fixed them back up. Bruce needed a full bag of blood and a ton of stitches and Tim had some pretty strong painkillers before his hip was relocated.

“Steph, you have really pretty eyes,” Tim slurred. You looked away so you wouldn’t laugh. “So pretty. Just like Kon’s. Can you be in love with 2 people at once? Because you both; I’m so gay for you.”

“Wow,” she said. “You are Gonna have to come out some other time but right now, sleep.”

“Yeah, pet my hair. You’re pretty,” he said back. A few strokes of her hands in his hair had Tim out cold.

You moved to leave.

“Batgirl, a word,” Bruce said from his bed. Dick had gone to take a shower and Alfred was fixing a snack. “Tonight. You were drinking. And then you put on your suit. That was reckless.”

“Are you fucking kidding me? Robin could have died if I wasn’t there,” you spit out incredulous.

“And anyone could have died because you were altered. You shot Killer Croc with your grappling gun which is also not allowed. He almost died tonight because of you. Either you follow the rules-“

“You can shove the rules right up your ass-“

“Or you can give up the suit,” he finished just as Dick rounded the corner dressed in a fresh set of sweats and drying his hair. “I won’t have someone willing to kill on the team. I can’t have someone who works drunk on the team-“

“Then FUCK your team. You want the fucking suit?! Here’s the fucking suit,” you said unzipping it right there and stepping out in your sports bra and underwear. “I’m not batgirl and I’m not listening to a piece of shit like you any more.”

“You leave and you’re done,” he warned. “Do you even regret almost killing a man tonight?”

“I regret so much shit that I could fill a book, but right now Bruce, I regret nothing,” you said coldly before walking out the cave. Dick offered you the towel and you shrugged it off. A nice cold bike ride would calm you down anyways.

—————————

A month after Jason died

You sat in the cold pew, rain was pouring in Gotham again. It was pretty much empty in Saint Mary’s. A few abuelas prayed near the candles lit in rows to the side. An alter boy scurried around doing odd jobs. And you sat, staring at a statue of the Virgin Mary holding Jesus after he was removed from the cross. Tears fell from her eyes as she looked down on her son.

“This statue was commissioned by the original Father of this church when it opened in 1807. He wanted to capture her sorrow and what she sacrificed,” a man said sitting near you but not too close. You looked to see him in priest clothing.

“Hello,” you replied.

“Would you like to talk,” he asked plainly.

“I’m not Catholic. I’m not sure if it’s okay,” you replied.

“Everyone is welcome here. You can talk to me if you would like,” he said.

“My boyfriend went here. He used to go here before-“ you said before stopping. It hurt to say. “Before he died.”

“I’m sorry for your loss. Can you tell me his name? I might have known him,” he said.

“Jason Todd.”

“Skinny fellow with black hair and always reading?” The priest asked after thinking a minute.

“Yeah, Jason loved to read,” you smiled sorrowly. “He liked classics. Could argue with English teachers for hours. I always told him he should be a writer when he grew up.”

“I’m sorry to hear he’s no longer with us. He was a kind boy,” the priest said. He appeared thoughtful before adding, “I have something of his that I can give to you actually.”

“You do,” you asked.

“Come with me,” he said and you followed him to an office. He opened a drawer with a key before grabbing a book to hand to you. It was an old leather tattered copy of Tristan and Isolde. You stared at the cover.

“He was reading it up on the ledge above the congregation one day and I happened to see him. He ran off and left this behind,” the priest told you. “It was only a month or a little more ago if my memory serves me right. He hasn’t been back where I could give it to him.”

“What’s it about?” You asked.

“Well, it’s an Irish tale about 2 lovers that were doomed. The soldier falls for the princess he rescues for the king but they can’t remain together. She has to marry the king and he marries another woman. But when he’s wounded by a poison arrow, Tristan calls for Isolde. He dies before she can get to him. I think she dies shortly after but it’s been a long time since I’ve read it,” he admitted.

“Oh,” you said, looking at the book again. “I regret not talking to him more. I didn’t know what he was reading before. Jason loved to read. I should have asked more about it.”

“”You couldn’t have known. Regret is common after a sudden loss. Things often feel unfinished. What would you do if you had time with him again? Would it be spent talking about books? There’s probably a lot you would add or change. That’s natural. But now you can only change the future. Does that make sense?”

“Yeah, Thank you,” you replied before leaving the church all together. You went back to your place and wept while reading it. Jason has written a few notes in the corner of the pages and you sobbed as you felt his hand writing.

————————-

Now

You noticed the book as soon as you got out of the shower and sat on your bed. That was Jason’s. His name was written on the inside cover. You knew where he was staying and the chance that he was home was high. Just take the book over and talk to him. See him. Stop being a punk.

You tossed the bag in your backpack along with some clothes and got on your bike to ride over to his safehouse. As the early morning sun first peaked over the horizon, it wasn’t nearly as cold as it had been earlier.

You paused before knocking on the door. What if he didn’t want you there?

“Who is i-“ Jason said, yanking the door open before stopping. “Hey. Come in,” he added, stepping out of the way while holding the door to let you in. You stepped into his safehouse. He was dressed in sweats and looked like he had been sleeping.

“Are you okay,” Jason asked as you sat on the couch. He noted that your hair was wet and the late hour.

“Well I quit batgirl because Bruce is a dick. But otherwise I’m fine. I have something of yours,” you said, pulling the book from the bag. Jason raised his eyebrows but didn’t say anything. He had his own shitty opinion of Bruce but it wouldn’t help now.

“Tristan and Isolde,” he said, looking it over. “I lost this years ago. Alfred bought it for me. How did you- how did you find this?”

“At your church. It was right after you- you died,” you said, looking down at your callused hands.

“Oh,” Jason simply added, looking at you.

“Can I- can I kiss you,” you asked and Jason looked at you with a furrowed brow before nodding. You cupped his cheek before gently pressing your lips together. It wasn’t hurried or frantic. It was gentle and nice.

You kissed for a minute before turning your body towards Jason. You wrapped your arms around his neck and slid into his lap to get closer. His warm hands rested on your hips and he smelled so nice.

You moved your fingers under the hem of his shirt and Jason froze. You stopped your hands.

“What’s wrong Jay?”

“Nothing, I just- it’s,” he started before stopping. “I’m not the same as before.”

“Yeah neither am I,” you said, pulling back to talk.

“No. I’m….damaged. I died and you can see it if my shirt’s off. I don’t care. I don’t. But I don’t wanna freak you out,” Jason said, looking away.

“Im just so fucking happy you’re alive. I don’t care,” you said cupping his cheeks and turning his face gently towards you. “You’re here. For real,” you said, pressing your lips to his. “And I love you. I fucking love you.”

Jason huffed out a laugh while smiling at you.

“Can I take your shirt off,” you asked. Jason nodded while sitting back on his heels. You sat up and pulled the fabric over his head. You had prepared yourself for any number of gruesome injuries. But a huge ropy Y shaped scar that could only be an autopsy scar was not one of them.

“Yeah…” he said, motioning to it roughly. “A cool present I got when I came back. Apparently the lazareth pit doesn’t work well on postmortem injuries. I hate it.

“Can I?” You asked and he nodded. You ran a thumb along the skin before kissing his collarbone. Jason inhaled at that. “Still sensitive,” you said with a smile. You pushed him back on the couch. Your lips kissed at his pecs. They were much more defined than they had been before Jason had died. Of course they were. He was now a grown man instead of a boy.

Jason gasped and his hands clenched and unclenched as you kissed at his abs. Your mind was pretty well blown at how big he had gotten. Your short king was now so beefy. And he looked so good. You looked up at him while running your hand down to his belt line. You pulled your shirt off.

He stared openly at your chest. The boy who would blush at the sight of your bra was no more. Instead he pulled you on top of him while massaging your breasts with his hands.

“Do you have condoms,” you breathed as he sucked a hickey on your neck. It took a minute for Jason’s mind to catch up.

“Uh, no,” he admitted before pressing his forehead against yours. “I wasn’t really planning for anything, you know? I don’t,” he stammered as you continued to rub against him. “Fuck,” he groaned as he gripped your ass.

“You’re clean,” you asked.

“I’ve never- I haven’t- I’ve been a little busy,” he said with an awkward chuckle, still distracted by your movement.

“Never,” you asked softly. He looked up at you with red in his cheeks.

“Never. I shouldn’t ask but you…”

“I did. But it wasn’t this. It didn’t matter. Not like you,” you answered. “Since we can’t, can I?”

“What,” he asked but it soon became evident the way you moved down his body to between his legs. “Oh, yes. You can,” he said before gulping. “If you want.”

You pulled his pants down while looking up at Jason and that’s when he knew he was in trouble. He was beyond hard and had to take a deep breath to not cum just from you taking him in your hand and mouth. You were gentle with him, wanting to make the first time great.

Jason groaned when you swirled the head with your tongue. “Oh fuck me,” he breathed out while suddenly understanding the allur of sex. This was way better than the occasional jerking off to relieve stress. Sure he thought about it before he died but after coming back, Jason was truly a little busy.

Your mouth took him deep and then you swallowed around him and Jason’s head hit the arm of the couch as he arched. He trembled when you really started sucking him off and it wasn’t long until he was gasping out your name.

“I’m gonna- fuck, I’m gonna cum,” he moaned. You grasped his hand in yours while letting him finish in your mouth. Jason made incoherent noises as he came and his hips jumped. One hand moved to stroke your cheek softly. You let him go when his jerks moved away rather than towards you. Jason looked at you almost reverently.

He pulled you up and kissed you roughly and it surprised and excited you.

“Teach me,” Jason said, flipping you over to where you laid on the couch. “Tell me what to do.”

“Holy hell, okay,” you said before teaching him how to go down on you and he was an excellent learner. With both of you thoroughly spent, you fell asleep wrapped up together on his bed.

You woke to the sound of your burner phone going off. It had to be Barbara. She was the only one with the number.

“Hey, I know you had a falling out with Bruce but I have this case. I think it’s Pyg. There are missing kids. Please call me,” she said in your voicemail.

Part 1

Part 2

Part 3

Part 4

#friday night smut #jason todd x reader #batboy x reader #red hood x batgirl!reader #red hood x reader #jason todd x batgirl!reader #starlight and sunsets

132 notes · View notes

mrspanky · 3 years

Note

I'm not really sure how long these are meant to be. "Right, I'm pretty sure that's called trauma".

Trauma Bonding, (a Jason Todd x Reader)

Warnings: Language.

Genre: Fluff/angst/comedy/romance

Authors note: This prompt is perfect, thank you @aethers-stuff ! Sorry it took me so long to write! I hope you like it. ♡(: _______________________________________________

Dick watched you two from the kitchen.

Jason was seated on one end of his livingroom couch and you on the other. You were talking loudly, gesturing with your hands so much that you looked like Italians at a family gathering. You were both exceptionally expressive and extroverted people on your own, so when you got together, the room's volume was always raised a noticeable few notches.

It was endearing, but a real headache when it went on for too long.

Dick massaged his temple. An extrovert himself, he felt the need to jump into the conversation, but he knew better. You and Jason would simply not shut up long enough for him to get a word in when you were both really on a roll, and Dick didn't feel like expelling that much energy. Plus, he was curious to see where this would end.

“...That’s ridiculous Jason”.

You crossed your arms.

“There is no way in hell you're dying your white streak black.”

He raised his hand from the couch armrest in exasperation.

“I wasn't even asking you.”

You arched an eyebrow.

“You should've been. The white streak stays. It's your trademark. If you're concerned about me being right, I dare you to ask everyone to vote.”

“Hon, I am not in the practice of asking people if I can or can't do things.”

“Luckily, you never ask me my opinion so you don't have to worry about breaking your pattern just yet.”

“...You never keep it to yourself, so why would I even bother”.

Dick shook his head. You were like an old, emotionally constipated couple and it was amusing to observe.

“Just kiss already”, he said under his breath.

You turned your head towards the kitchen, hearing him faintly, but almost unintelligibly.

“Dick, did you say something? Sorry, we're arguing here, I hope we're not too obnoxious”.

“Hey don’t throw me under the bus with you, I was just trying to have a moment of quiet meaningless thought when you started playing hair cop,” Jason quipped.

“Hush.”

“Right back at you”.

“-Both of you shut up for a minute. I didn't say anything”.

Dick rolled his eyes.

“However, we do have patrol in an hour, and Bruce sent me some weird instructions.”

“Weird how?”

You tilted your head in curiosity.

Jason glanced at you, and huffed a little. He couldn't help himself. Despite himself, he found you really endearing. Especially in moments like this when your lips were pouted in confusion and....”.

Dick snapped Jason out of his brain fog.

“Jay. Buddy. Try to pay attention.”

“Wasn't not doing that,” he grumbled.

“Then what did I just say.”

The two brothers shared a childish battle of glares.

“...fine, you made your point. I was dreaming about this whisky I saw in the manor the other day”, he lied.

“Ok. Very in character, Jason. Now, the mission is-”

“...looked decadent. It was really old and had this fancy label on it that-”

“...Guys. I can hear you from the other room”, Tim walked in looking miffed.

There was a pause as all three of the human boom-boxes stared blankly at the intruder.

“...you’re a detective, Tim”, Jason deadpanned.

“Ugh, Jason...that’s not the... just shut up.”

Tim pressed his fingers to the bridge of his nose.

“Did you all get the mission briefing?”

“Somehow, Jason didn't”, Dick fumed.

“Alright, fine. Basically, Jason, you, and Y/n are staying back tonight because you're the only ones who haven't been seen yet in the city, and Bruce wants to save you guys for an undercover mission next week”.

“What?!”

You both looked at each other in disgust.

“I'm not working for the bat anymore!”

“Yeah, and I've never even started to work for him! He can't just expect us to be at his disposal and then bench us!”

“Guys, relax. He's just doing this so you can have a better element of surprise later. You're both really valuable, ” Dick reasoned.

You and Jason paused, your egos begrudgingly satisfied.

“...fine”.

“Fine”.

“Good. Ok. So everyone suit up”, the oldest brother concluded.

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

Jason was irritated.

He found you interesting. Really interesting. Usually, he dealt with his fear of vulnerability by acting too unbothered to care, but you intrigued him so much that he struggled to keep his mouth shut around you. He was afraid to get too close to you; he would lose you eventually like everyone else.

But, he knew so little about you, despite all of the banter. A talent you both possessed, was chattering without disclosing any actual information. You had only met each other two months ago, and usually it would take both of you longer to warm up to a new person, but there was just a feeling. You were kindred spirits. He wanted to learn more about you, despite himself.

“So what brought you here”.

“Here as in what brought me to dress up and punch criminals as a nightly routine, or as in what brought me to be in an alliance with Bruce Wayne that I'm now regretting?”

There it was. Those were the kind of responses that made Jason feel just enough on his toes to be uncharacteristically comfortable with you.

“Take your pick I guess.”

“Bruce Wayne it is then. I'm not really a fan of my life story”.

“Ttt, ” Jason laughed, taking a page from his youngest brother’s book.

“I'm kind of an accidental friend of Dick’s. We met first at the Bludhaven police station, I was there for...pfft...I was just there, ” You paused with a laugh.

“He helped me out, and we didn't see each other again until he ended up working with me anonymously for info on a case as Nightwing years later. We both just figured out each other's identities and he brought me on a mission once where I met Bruce. And Bruce is a convincing prick so now here I am, somehow under his command”.

“Sounds about right. So when do we kiss?”

Great. Now he sounded like an asshole.

Jason looked at you, gauging to see what your reaction would be. He’d half said that last part by accident, but now that he’d acted out of impulse he knew he couldn’t take it back.

“-What?”

“When do we kiss? You heard Dick”.

He was really committing to his blunder now.

“Yes, and I ignored him and smoothly got him to change the subject. Besides. You're not my type”, you lied.

Jason was in fact, exactly your type.

“What is your type?”

“Shit”, you thought.

“Hmm. I like people who I can chase that don't actually like me, and then I eventually get to give up. It makes it easier”.

You admitted this in a tongue-in-cheek manner, but you weren't really kidding. Something about Jason’s persistence made you want to open up, despite your usual habitual wall-building.

“You're like a fucking mirror; you know that?” Jason laughed.

He knew you weren’t kidding because he’d said things along those lines millions of times.

“Your point, Mr. Therapist? People hurt people. I kind of prefer to enjoy relationships from a distance at best”.

“Right, I'm pretty sure that's called trauma”.

“Call it what you will, but it's a good way of not getting even more mentally busted up than an already fucked vigilante”, you grinned.

“Nice.” he smirked.

“You sound as dumb as me”.

“That’s a little low don’t you think? I’m only half as dumb as you at most, but yeah. Fine. We share some things”.

“What’s that supposed to mean Princess,” he smiled.

He felt himself get exited a little. What you had just said made it sound like you felt you two were similar just as he did.

“That I think we’re both stupid people that have really stubborn hearts that get us into trouble”.

Your heart was beating so fast. You hadn’t meant to say that much.

“Now who’s the therapist”, he said in a low voice.

He leaned in closer to you a little, testing the waters to see if you were just being a little cautious, or if you actually weren’t comfortable. He felt like you were just being scared like he always was deep down, but he didn’t want to push you if it was only going to cause you both more pain.

He was a little scared too. You scared him. Not just because you were powerful and beautiful, but because he actually liked you. He wasn’t used to that. But he knew himself, and when Jason Todd does something, he can’t do it half way. If you were in this too, he knew he’d do anything for you, and that was terrifyingly vulnerable.

As he leaned in, your breath caught.

“Fuck”, you thought.

His eyes were stunning.

You hadn’t let yourself notice how much until now.

“Jason…”

“...Todd why are you about to taint Y/n”.

Jason spun around.

“Damian!” you yelled.

The small Wayne was standing in the doorway.

“Shortstack, you are too young to be using a fancy word like taint”, Jason recovered.

Tim and Dick emerged behind Damian in the doorway.

“What’s going on?” Tim asked.

“Todd was just about to be disgusting with Y/n in front of all of us”, Damian smirked, crossing his arms.

He knew he just set up Dick to take a fit.

The oldest brother was not pleased.

“Jason, really? Damian is right here and you didn’t think to chill?”

Jason rolled his eyes.

“We didn’t do anything Dicky. The kid here is being a drama queen. The only thing he walked in on us doing was some good old fashioned arguing”.

Jason knew he was making himself look like a major...well...dick, but he knew you wouldn’t want to commit to the family knowing about anything that might be going on between you two, however small just yet.

Dick rolled his eyes, and the three brothers walked in the doorway and into the kitchen to get water. You and Jason were always an entertaining spectacle for sure, but patrol was tiring, and they all needed to cool down.

Jason looked back to you. You were looking at your feet with your arms crossed and a barely contained smile on your face.

“The kid has good timing,” he huffed with a laugh.

“Oh fantastic”, you gazed at him, laughing back quietly.

“So, you want to talk some more about trauma?” He asked in a playful, but matter of fact tone.

“Maybe sometime, Red,” you smiled.

You turned and walked away.

“She’s gonna make me work for this”, he thought.

It had been so long since either of you had met your match, and you both were going to thoroughly enjoy this.

177 notes · View notes

liquid-luck-00 · 3 years

Text

Maribat Secret Santa 2020

@maribat-secret-santa-2020

Happy Holidays everyone🎁

In my defense there was a minimum of 2000 words and there was no max so this ended up being 6112 words sorry, I think. There is some Adrien, class and Lila salt, Adrien gets some sugar later.

Without further ado @eve-v0lution I am your Secret Santa, enjoy.

~~~~~~~~~~

Marinette has never been a normal girl. When she was born the goddess Tikki appeared claiming her as her chosen and the next Ladybug. She was born the granddaughter of Ra's Al Ghul, the head of the League of Assassins, the sister organization to the Order of the Miraculous. Her older brother, and twin, Damian was called to be the next Demon.

When they were five, she was taken to the Temple of the Order of Miraculous. she and her brother kept in contact, but it wasn't much more, than 'yes I am still alive, are you?' which was fine with them. As they were often trained together by both the League and the Order.

A week before they turned 10, she was named the Great Guardian and given the Miracle box. On their 10th birthdays he returned to the League to support her brother as he was officially named the heir of the Demon. However, things never went that smoothly. Slade Wilson led an attack on the League killing their grandfather. Damian rushed on to fight the Mercenary. She followed at his side the only thing she said before entering the fray was "Duusu fans" and combat fans dropped into her hands.

Between the two of them, they pushed Deathstroke back. However, he didn't retreat before throwing a sword at Damian. She called upon Wayzz's "Shell-ter" catching the sword in the shield’s dome. She took the hilt of the blade before dropping the dome. The two of them shared a look before running to find their Mother. Together they used Kaakli's portal to go to the Order.

However, they were met with an equally gruesome sight. Many of the monks laid dead, those that weren't were not in much better of a condition.

A single elder survived, speaking of the simultaneous attack on the Order and League. He told them that he will rebuild the order, but that Mari needed to keep the Miracle box safe. In the end Mother told them that she will be leaving them with their Father.

To say it was a surprise that their Father was Batman would be a stretch. Mother and Grandfather only allowed perfection, so not as surprising as one would think. Batman being Bruce Wayne, sure that wouldn't be her first guess but so what. What actually surprised her were her new brothers.

Damian hated them but she loved their antics. Where Damian became the next Robin, Mari stayed in the cave manning the comms as well as their numerous and often injuries.

However, when she did join everyone on the roof tops, Scarlet joins them. A red cropped hoodie that ended a little below her ribs. A long sleeve Kevlar shirt with a high neck. Black gloves and arm guards were holding the sleeves of the hoodie down. Her pants were the same Kevlar as the shirt and was just as formfitting, there were guards on her thighs that wouldn’t impede on her movement as well as knee pads connected to the shin guard. Short combat boots, a red sash tied to her waist hiding the utility belt and yo-yo, and a mechanical mask that conceals the bottom half of her face. And to top it off Tikki turns her eyes violet and her hair to white.

"Scarlet" Nightwing called to her. They were partnered and patrolling the west side of Gotham.

"Yes"

"Let’s race"

"What do I get when I win?"

He held his hand to his chest in mock hurt "Just so you know one week, anything the winner says is law for one week for the loser"

"Make it one favor redeemable whenever and you've got it" she challenged. He was torn but he agreed.

"Count me in" they heard Red Hood.

"Same" Red Robin also entered "Robin?"

"Tt. No"

"Fine. First back to the cave wins" Nightwing answered. "Go!"

She swung through Gotham and dropped into a pitch-black alley 'voyage' Mari whispered too low for the comms to pick up. Dropping through the portal and into the cave. Her transformation dropped and Tikki went to sit on her shoulder. Alfred was there waiting, Duusu perched on his shoulder as well, with a tray of cookies. She gave him a nod in silent thanks, as she still had a comm in her ear.

Ten minutes later Red Hood pulls in and was about to celebrate when both Red Robin and Nightwing crash into him. Creating a mess of limbs over the motor bike.

"Ha I win now you guys owe" Jason was about to rub in his victory from the bottom of the pile when Mari giggled, pulling the attention of her three brothers.

"Sorry Jay but you lost" she, Alfred, and the kwami were clearly in the middle of tea and cookies.

"She is correct Master Jason. Miss Marinette has been here for the past 10 minutes"

"Tt. Honestly don't race against some one who teleports." Damian grumbled as he walked away from the Bat-mobile.

"Don't worry. I'll wait until you forget you owe me to cash in" she smiled wickedly. "Good night."

And that was when they remembered 'Right Mari has the ability to use the powers of several pocket-sized gods' that was a lesson they wouldn't forget soon. Well Tim and Jason didn't forget; Dick would still bet against her though.

Jason found out she is the perfect prank partner. And no one in or out of the manor was safe. How they managed to swap all of Green Arrow's arrows, each being a different gag, was a mystery even Batman couldn't or wouldn't attempt to solve. The fact that the Justice League saw and heard Batman fall to the floor laughing, scared most of them from finding out. Those who didn't learned what happens when you don't leave well enough alone.

School was well boring; between the curriculum of the League and the Order she had already gotten 2 PHDs and 5 masters. School was nothing more than a pleasantry at this point. Father wouldn't let them out of school, something about needing to be normal kids. That only seemed to draw the twins into the spotlight more, because they were the only two blood children of Bruce Wayne. Damian became known quite fast as Gotham's Ice Prince, but Mari became known as Gotham's Sunshine just as fast.

But don’t let the name fool you, within the first year their classmates learned that yes Damian Wayne is scared of something, and that something was actually a someone who just happened to be his twin sister. Damian apparently was feeling petty about something, and for the life of her she can’t remember what, but he decided to write in big red letters ‘NO!!!’ across every page of her sketchbook. She found that out during lunch, and that was when the entire school learned that the little sunshine child was the only thing that can put the fear of God in the Ice Prince.

---

Freshman year Mari finally got her Dad to agree to letting her into the exchange program for the next four years.

So, she decided on Paris.

Why, why did this exchange have to be four years long. I’m not gonna survive this.

Admittedly it started off okay, okay not really but then things went downhill, fast, faster than you could imagine.

It started when she met her host family. They met her at the airport and that was an experience, I guess.

"Mlle Wayne? Correct" a tall slender woman in glasses asked her.

"Yes Madame" she replied with a polite smile.

"Natalie Sancoeur" the woman replied "And this is" she started but was cut off by a boy around her age, he had blonde hair and green eyes. But what stood out to her was his attributes reminded her of an overexcited and hyper puppy.

"Adrien Agreste" he smiled at her, so she did what was expected of her in polite society.

"Marinette Wayne" and she extended her hand to shake his. However, instead he pulled her into a hug. Once she realized what was happening, she pushed away from him and took a step back. She looked at him and her thought of him being a puppy was only reinforced with the look on his face. So, she looked at Sancoeur, while the woman looked at Agreste with indifference she looked at Mari as if she was in the wrong.

This is going to be great. Was the only thought as she endured the drive to the Agreste household.

Agreste would not shut up the entire way and seemed to be hurt that she didn't answer him. Agreste was also the one who was to give her the tour of the mansion. It wasn’t so bad it gave her the chance to gauge the defense systems, which was lacking, and the layout was simple compared to the Wayne Manor, the League's compound, and the Order's temple.

Unfortunately for her, Agreste ended the tour with her room and then proceeded to sit on the bed and continue to ramble about whatever was on his mind. She did try to get him to leave but that was a complete waste of time and effort. Kwami it was like he couldn't hear me or more likely didn’t even care about my opinion. So, she put in her headphones, hid them behind her hair, pressed play to of music and went to unpack.

As she was finishing setting up the bathroom she noticed, like every other door in this house, there was no lock.

Ugh I need to speak with Monsieur Agreste.

She went back out and saw him. Agreste was at the desk where she had set her laptop and was trying to open it.

"Excuse me but what are you doing?" she asked pointedly, having taken out her headphones and set them in the case.

"I was trying to see what you had on your laptop" he shrugged "can you tell me the password to get in?"

"No" she deadpanned; he had the gall to look shocked. That was when Mme Sancoeur entered the room, without even knocking.

"Lunch is" was all she said before Agreste cut her off.

"Natalie make her open her computer for me" Agreste whined.

She was about to speak but Marinette beat her to it. "Um No. What I have on my personal computer is none of your concern" his face fell while Mme. Sancoeur pursed her lips. "Furthermore, I am assuming since you are at the desk, the bed is askew, and the drawers are open and my clothes are in shambles you were going through my things" she was now glaring at the blonde invading her space. Now he had the decency of looking ashamed. "Am I to assume lunch will be held in the dinning room?" Mme. Sancoeur only nodded, and she left the room.

Lunch, if you can call it that, was also a disaster. Apparently, Americans eat chicken noodle soup, a hamburger, and a load of fries. Because that was what was set in front of her.

Ugh this is going to be a long four years.

"Mlle. Wayne, I hope everything has been to your liking" M. Agreste, Gabriel, as he introduced himself earlier spoke. “You have hardly eaten.”

"Would you prefer my honesty or would you rather me lie to you" Marinette responded swirling the water in her glass.

"Your honesty" he answered slightly unsure.

At this she scoffed "I am going to assume that you and no one else had bothered to read the file of my information that was sent to you" he as well as Mme. Sancoeur remained quiet "Because if you had you would know I am a vegetarian."

Mme. Sancoeur searched some thing on her tablet and there was a soft "oh" from her.

"Your son is also suffocating, to the point that when I asked him to leave the room so I could settle in peacefully, he remained as if I hadn’t asked him to leave" M. Agreste was going to say something but she continued "He also has no sense of privacy as he went through all of my belongings and was attempting to go through my laptop as well." Again, he was going to say something, but Mari continued. "On the topic of privacy neither the bedroom door nor the bathroom have a lock."

“Paris is completely safe, as the house is protected, it should not matter if there is a lock on the door” he replied in a monotone.

“I’m sorry doesn’t matter, in what universe is it alright for two teenagers of the opposite sex be in a house where one of said teenagers doesn’t respect the other enough to leave them alone” she almost started yelling, but kept her head and voice level.

M. Agreste didn’t respond right away, but he gave a small hum before stating that “I will take your request into consideration.”

“Alright, just know that I will guard myself and will not hesitate to use force if necessary” she knew they wouldn’t take her seriously but hey I am warning them, they only gave a nod that they heard. “Also M. Agreste I tend to have a strict morning regimen is it possible for me to continue it using the home gym while here?”

“Of course,” he waved dismissively.

“What does this regimen include?” Mme. Sancoeur asked politely.

Marinette had a wicked smirk as this was going to be the lightest of her routines, she could give but would still most likely shock them. “Oh it is nothing much just a 5 kilometer run as a warm up, then half an hour of boxing, a half an hour of sword forms and training, half an hour of holographic combat training, followed by half an hour of ballet, and half an hour of meditation.” She was smiling watching their reactions and it was priceless. “I usually start around 4 in the morning.”

All of them were shocked, and who would blame them, here I am in my 5’2” high glory with a sunshine disposition stating I can most likely drop kick them into next week. “Actually, if you don’t mind, I was unable to do it this morning on account of being on an airplane, this will be a good way to see the city” so she smiled leaving them gobsmacked.

Finally, she was able to breathe as she ran the streets of Paris listening to her music softly. Back at the mansion she had figured out she had an audience less than ten minutes into boxing, but she continued. As she was about to start the holographic training, that Tim, Barbara, and she had created, but by now the entire Agreste household was watching her. “If you’re only going to watch me leave or else have the decency to spar” she shot at them.

“I’ll do it” little Agreste spoke up “But if I beat you, you’re giving me your computer password.”

“Fine, but when I win, I get locks on both my bedroom door and the bathroom inside” she challenged.

Agreste senior nodded his head and replied bored “Only if you win.”

“First to be knocked down three times loses” she grinned. She went to grab her two training twin swords and handed one to little Agreste.

“These are real swords” he exclaims clearly off balance by the weight of the weapon.

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic, neither have an edge” they got into positions and it was easy to see who would be victorious. I got locks and some privacy oh the small victories are truly sweet.

---

Sunday was uneventful, but so long as she was in the mansion for meals unless she had checked in with Mme. Sancoeur, she was free to her own devices.

Monday she would come to regret that it had to end later, but not for a while at least.

Mari rode to school with little Agreste and that was her first mistake. Everyone in the entire school watched her exit the car added to the fact that she's starting in the middle of the semester and that kicks.

She was wearing a charcoal shirt splattered with metallic red paint, a faux caramel brown leather jacket with a hood, black jeans with burgundy all stars. Her hair was down, and a black messenger bag was over her shoulder.

She got out and simply walked in and towards the main office ignoring everyone, she got her schedule and a map of the school. The principal himself walked her to her homeroom and to her horror little Agreste was in the class.

"Mlle. Bustier" he spoke. "Meet your new student."

"Please introduce yourself" she spoke with a sweet smile.

"Bonjour my name is Marinette, and I will be a part of your class for the next four years."

Marinette moved to take the open seat in the back but of course Little Agreste had to speak. "Mari there is an open seat behind me."

It took all of herself control to not facepalm. "I prefer the back"

"I'll spar you for it"

Now she couldn't hide the smile in her eyes or the one playing on her lips "Okay Agreste, but what makes you think you'll win this time?

"Fencing uses lighter swords" he answered mumbling the end.

"Wait why are you challenging the new girl?" a boy in a red hoodie and two-toned hair asks.

"Probably to redeem his honor from our last bout" she was now smiling. Maybe this won't be all bad.

"Then I get the next challenge" the same boy answered confidently.

"Alright" she agreed "Name your sport, um..."

"Sorry Le Chien Kim" he supplied. "Swimming freestyle"

"You're on" a devilish smirk on her lips. Afterwards everyone introduced themselves and she sat down in the back.

They spoke with M D'Argencourt about it during lunch and he told them to wait until after school for the fencing club to set up. So, they did. Honestly, the class isn't so bad, just a little pushy, apparently a student isn't here today but should be back soon. When they all went back after school, that was when Marinette saw her.

"Gami" Marinette ran to the girl in a red fencing outfit and gave her a brief hug.

"Mari-hime what are you doing in Paris?" she asked.

"Exchange program" Mari waved it off.

"Your brother?"

"Not interested" Mari responded.

"So why at the fencing club?"

"Agreste challenged me."

She looked towards the blonde and gave him a pitying glance. "Then you should both change"

"Right" Mari called as she went to the locker rooms. Her uniform was a red bodice with black sleeves and pants, but the gloves, shoes, and socks were a shade of green so dark it appeared black, the stitches on the entire thing were in golden thread. Both her saber and helmet were a combination of black and gold.

They both got into positions when Marinette heard her.

"This is going to be a slaughter" and Gami was right.

Faster than anyone could blink Mari had scored a touch before little Agreste even moved.

"Huh and here I was hoping for a challenge. Agreste" she turned away from him and faced Kagami "Match?" was all she asked, and the girl stood and faced Mari.

Facing Kagami was like fencing Damian. Both are powerhouses and decisive, but Mari's strength was in speed and agility. They met each other strike for strike, she is probably one of the few civilians that may be a match for her and her brother. By the end of practice, she was offered a spot on the team which she accepted.

To little Agreste's dismay Kagami offered to show her around Paris, to which she had agreed.

---

One-month Mari had to settle into her new class. She made fast friends with Le Chien, after their swimming match where she also met a girl named Ondine, Alix Kubdel was next she is competitive with a need for speed, side note never let her meet Jason. Max Kante and Nathaniel Kertzberg were also added to our little group. She met Luka Couffaine while wandering Paris for inspiration, they became fast friends, and she designed the costumes for Kitty section as well as their Demo Album cover. The final and most shocking, apparently, addition to their group was Chloe Bourgeois. Along with Kagami her small group of friends were unshakeable and for the next four years will be thankful for them.

After that one month, a weasel entered the class. Her name was Lila Rossi and everything that came out of her mouth was a lie. Honestly, Mari wouldn't give her a second thought but then the strikes against her grew.

Lila's first mistake was lying about her best friend, Jon, or in reality about Superboy. Oh, she was in a relationship with him. Sorry but Jon is super bi, but leans towards men more, like a walking romantic mess that was a golden moment when he figured it out. The same can be said when it finally dawned on Damian when he figured out for himself. As the amazing sister that she is of course she would tease those two. But the teasing and cooing only escalated when the two started dating. So ya not buying that he took you out, much less as Superboy.

Lila's second mistake was threatening Mari in the bathroom. Please if your going to threaten someone make sure you aren't being recorded. And second don't threaten a Wayne, especially an Al Ghul turned Wayne. So, Marinette recorded every lie, every threat, and every reaction. If she were going down not even the Devil himself would think to help her.

Unfortunately, it had a rather annoying side effect. Little Agreste kept pulling her aside to try and make peace with the liar.

"Please Marinette, can you stop calling out Lila" he repeated for the up-tenth time . They were on their way to dinner about two months after Lila rejoined the class. "Just take the high road"

They were in the hallway outside of the dining room.

"No" Mari stated as calmly as she could. As they both walked in, Mme. Sancoeur and M. Agreste were already inside.

"Why? Her lies aren't hurting anyone"

"Not hurting anyone" she spoke finally turning towards the blonde "What unicorns and rainbows paradise do you live in?"

"Wait, what?"

"Nino almost didn't enter his script for a contest because Lila said she would get someone in Hollywood to help produce it" she answered "It took Max, Nathanial, and I almost an hour for him to submit it on the thought it couldn't hurt"

"Okay that's one"

"Alya's reputation as a reporter is plummeting. She doesn't fact check and believes Lila solely on the idea that 'Lila wouldn't lie to her'. Where Lila uses her blog to spread her lies."

"Yes but no one believes everything they hear or read.”

"Really" Mari arched her brow, Alfred would be proud "then explain how most of Paris believes you and Lila to be an item"

"Mlle. Wayne came to explain" M. Agreste finally spoke.

"Oh, most of Paris believes that your son is in a romantic relationship with Lila Rossi" Mari spoke calmly as she opened her phone and pulled up the post from Alya's blog to show the screen.

"What?" the confusion was clear on little Agreste's face as he also pulled up the blog. The meal for her was quite quick but M. Agreste held back little Agreste.

Mari was sketching in the quiet of her room latter that evening when she heard a soft knock at the door. She opened the door and there stood little Agreste fidgeting.

"I'm sorry I never liked how Lila hung off of me but that was harassment, then I realized that's what I've been doing to you I am so sorry. You probably hate me for how I acted, and I understand if you can't trust me or forgive me and I'm sorry." He spoke so fast and barely breathed as he turned about to leave, but he stopped when Mari spoke.

"Okay. Redo"

"What?" he asked tilting his head.

"Let’s start over" she smiled.

"So, you forgive me!"

"No, I am not forgiving you" he looked saddened "I will hold you accountable, but I am, willing to start a new chapter."

"Okay” he looked a bit relieved.

"Hello. I am Marinette Wayne." she extended her hand to shake his.

"Adrien Agreste" he smiled shaking hands. "I'Il get out of your hair then." he sent a small wave that she returned and left.

---

Okay so maybe I exaggerated a bit, but Lila did make these past three and a half years a living pain. Mlle. Bustier fought to keep their class for all four years. The only addition was Kagami in the second year of Mari’s exchange.

But here she was sitting in the back with her friends waiting for the last class of the day to start. Then it happened Principle Damocles and Mlle. Bustier walked in.

"Mlle. Wayne" Damocles called.

"Thank the gods" Mari stated packing up her things and she walked down. "I would say it was a pleasure but that would be a lie" Mari just finished speaking when Alya decided to open her mouth.

"Where are you going class hasn't even started." Alya smiled trying to get Mari in trouble, but neither adult did anything.

"If you really want to know because it seems you've forgotten. I am a foreign exchange student from America, where I will be finishing the final term." Her words must have made some sense to their one community brain cell because they nodded, and she left.

Marinette flew back to Gotham and oh was this going to be great.

Of course, when she landed Poison Ivy, Harley Quinn, and Catwoman were making mischief in the airport. She recorded a video of the Bats stopping them, of course they were monitoring it because of her flight but I digress, and Nightwing lecturing them while Batman looked so done. Along with Jay-Jay or really Red Hood taking Mari's phone and taking a selfie with her, her hair was in braid tucked into a black beanie with a pair of red sunglasses. A halter top that had a golden rod yellow X on it. The top quadrant was red, and the rest was back. A black sweater lined and faded to red at the bottom. Comfortable black and red leggings with black flats. She posted the videos and picture captioned 'Back in Gotham. Home Sweet Home! Hood give me back my phone.' on her public account, before even exiting the terminal.

Her class will be here in about two weeks and stay as long, but right now she need a good stretch.

She found Alfred and loaded up her bags into the car and jumped in, told Alfred, transformed, and portaled out. As soon as the portal closed, she was in the middle of a huge hug from all her brothers. Patrol wasn't too bad, there was a run in with the Riddler and a separate incident with Killer Croc but that is a light day in Gotham.

After patrol was mostly filled with junk food, video games, and movies with her brothers.

Going back to Gotham Academy was like she never left. In a way she didn't, as every break she made sure to spend some time with her friends, dragging Damian with her. She would constantly text or video chat with them. To the extent that they knew about Lila and her class, almost as well as her family.

Two blissful weeks of quiet and patrols filled with teasing and bets was amazing. Yes, she will miss patrolling with Nightrunner. Yes, he is part of the extended Bat clan, but it is different with her brothers.

---

Three days granted that was longer than Marinette gave the class to avoid a villain attack. Of course, it had to happen when they were visiting, WE. Dick had volunteered to lead the tour, mainly to get more evidence, but Mari wasn't there. Since she was on break, she decided to take lunch for her brothers. The cafeteria food was good but still, and Tim would probably be holed up in his office.

She was in a blue collared button up tucked into a black skater skirt. A black and indigo letterman Jacket, black glasses frames and blue heels finished the outfit.

"Nettie?" Dick asked when she entered the cafeteria.

"Brought you lunch." Dick's face lit up.

"You are a god send"

She giggled as he took the food. "Not exactly but close."

"You going to force Timmy to eat"

"Yeah. Is he still in his office?"

"Should be"

"See ya at home Dicky Bird" she turned and found herself facing her class. Most of them registered she was there and glared at her seemingly guarding Lila from her sight, her friends noticed her so she sent a wave to Kagami, Chloe, Kim, Alix, Nathanial, and Max.

Getting Tim to eat usually proves a challenge. Mostly because he has one hand glued to a coffee mug and the other on his work. Yet when you make an entire meal into finger foods that are perfectly bite sized it is a breeze. She was going to leave when both Tim's and her phone shot an alarm. It was from Dick 'WE 2 Face' In a flash Mari transformed and waited for Tim, opened a portal, and fell into the lobby.

The two of them took out the goons and restrained them before turning towards Two Face.

"The word on the street is that you and the bird are dating, and you know the Bat." Two Face spoke out to everyone, "Let's hear what other secrets these lips will spill." A gun was held up, presumably to the teen's mouth, but neither Red Robin nor Scarlet could see.

He was clearly holding a teen hostage, and that was when they saw the two hanging sausages, Lila. For the first time since Mari had known her, she was quiet, or at least silently whimpering.

"So, who is she dating?" Scarlet asked yoyo in hand pointing at Lila.

"Robin" she gasps.

"What!?" Both of them yelled before Red Robin started again. "Crap when did I get a girlfriend. Scarlet please tell me this is just a hallucination! I swear if this is, I won’t drink a single drop of coffee for a month!”

Scarlet however was barely standing doubled over with laughter. "She’s a little young for you don't cha think."

"Not helping" Red Robin was in full out panic pacing back and forth trying to comprehend what was being said.

That was when Lila seemed to find her voice again "I'm dating Robin not you."

"Wait, What?" Both vigilantes snapped out of their laughter and panic respectfully. They shared a look and fell to the ground laughing. Two minutes later Batman and Robin showed up. Scarlet and Red Robin were now on their feet but still laughing. No one not even Two Face moved because as everyone knows, Robin is taken and no one will be getting between those two, much less a girl.

"Robin" Batman nodded and to the two laughing teens, Robin nodding in acknowledgement.

"No need B" Red Robin finally stopped laughing.

"Hey Birdie when did you get a girlfriend?" Scarlet asked fully knowing the answer already.

"Tt. Don't be idiotic Scarlet."

"Then why is she saying she is?" Two Face now had the bat fam's attention.

"Who are you?" Robin asked the girl pinned between Two Face’s arm and gun.

"Apparently the girlfriend you never knew existed before three seconds ago." Red Robin supplied, now fully enjoying the shock on his brother’s face.

"Is that why you two were laughing like idiots?"

"Well yes" Scarlet spoke up then whispered 'Voyage, Venom' and Two Face became frozen in place.

Lila was now glaring at Scarlet as she began to yell "What the hell. Why didn't you do that sooner!"

Scarlet snapped her fingers and pointed at Lila "Oh now I remember you" she semi shouted getting the attention of everyone in the lobby. "You’re the girl from Paris who said she was dating Superboy." Lila now seemed to significantly pale.

"Are you saying this girl has claimed to have dated both Superboy and I" At this point both Scarlet and Red Robin had moved and were physically holding back Robin.

"Scarlet" Batman called.

"On it" 'Voyage' "Hey Supes your boyfriend needs you" Superboy then took Robin in a hug from behind resting his chin on top of Robin's head. Her brother now willingly refraining from moving to stay in his boyfriend's arms, while Red Robin left to talk with Commissioner Gordon.

"Miss you are lucky no one was injured, and we were here to take action, your fantasies are just that. Let's go" Batman had lectured the girl who could have been switched with a statue at this point.

All the vigilantes left, and Mari sure as hell made certain Tim finished his food. In fact, he hadn't even changed out of his Red Robin uniform, so Mari guarded the door. She only left when he finished eating, knowing he could now fully react.

Mari was walking out of the elevator and into the lobby and you could practically see the change that occurred. Most of the class were huddled together, her friends were to the side along with Adrien, and Lila was practically glued to the teacher.

She spotted Alfred with Dick not far from her friends, so she decided to go over and speak with her friends.

Unfortunately, that just caused hell's gates to open as she approached, she heard. "You knew she was a liar didn't you" Alya yelled at her friends and Agreste, but Alya was specifically yelling at Agreste. That made her blood boil, so she stepped in.

"Yes, but you didn't believe me when I told you, you didn't believe them either" Mari was now standing between her friends and the blogger. "Agreste didn't want to rock the boat and how you were all treating me it is no wonder."

"Ya but she is a liar, and you are a bully" Alya retorted.

"Was I a bully. Or was that what you were told by the liar" Alya now went quiet. Of the almost four years she was in Paris there was never any proof she bullied Lila. No bruises, no destroyed items, just she said claims. "Yes, I called her out on her lies but that was all. You all were the ones who acted on her words that I bullied her with no proof and bullied me to ‘teach me a lesson'. I have more than enough evidence however, on most of this class and the liar, for cases of assault, slander, defamation of character, and destruction of property."

By now everyone in the lobby was watching this unfold. The class seemed to pale and attempted to shrink in on themselves. Lila and Mlle. Bustier seemed to try to become one with the floor. Her friends were to the side struggling to not laugh along with Dick and Chloe you traitor put down that phone.

"Miss Wayne" an employee came up to Mari seemingly afraid to get her undivided attention.

"Yes" She smiled, becoming Gotham's sunshine that everyone knew, allowing the employee and the other Gothamites to relax.

"The CEO has locked himself in his office and the Board meeting starts in three minutes" the employee fidgeted with the tablet in his hands. That snapped her into professional mode.

"Dick is the tour done?" she held out her hand to take the tablet, opened it and started going trough the documents.

"Ya"

"Go dig Tim from his office. I'll deal with the board."

"On it"

She quickly looked up to her friends "Sorry guys we should catch up later." She walked away the employee on her heels giving her more information.

A whistle was heard next to the group. "Damn I feel bad for the Board members, Mars is on a warpath and not her usual professional warpath" Dick said to Alfred.

"Reminiscent of Master Bruce even" was Alfred's response.

"She really is a Wayne"

"Master Richard"

"Yes Alfred"

"I believe it is in your best interest to retrieve Master Timothy as Miss Marinette is on a 'Warpath' as you say" Alfred barely finished as Dick began to sprint to the elevator. Alfred only sighed as he followed the eldest Wayne child, leaving very bewildered and mortified Parisians in their wake.

#dc x miraculous #dc x mlb #maribat #mlb x dc #miraculous x dc #batfam #marinette wayne #Adrien salt then sugar #ml marinette #damianette twins #damimari twins

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autisticcassandracain · 3 years

Text

The way DC is handling Duke Thomas annoys me so much, because I feel like they just don’t really know what to do with him? It’s not that I don’t think there’s a plan, it’s just that the plan seems to be focusing on the wrong things to me.

As always when I make these posts critiquing narrative directions characters are going in, I want to stress that I don’t necessarily think there’s only one correct way to develop a character, but I do have opinions on what I think would be best. So you know, that’s the disclaimer, if you disagree that’s okay, I’m obviously willing to see where things are going, etc. etc.

I think Duke’s development is happening too fast, with too little care for the establishment of a status quo. What I mean by that is, in order for change to be effective, we need to know what is changing, and what this means. This is why most stories establish a status quo before breaking it. While DC superhero comics aren’t exactly a linear narrative, we still have a sense of status quo for most of them. We know what the status quo is for Batman; patrolling Gotham, stopping regular crime, maybe dealing with a supervillain skirmish here and there. So Batman stories are free to go in on a case that breaks the status quo and actually makes things difficult for Bruce.

With Duke, we have very little idea what the status quo is. He was established as Gotham’s daytime vigilante in Batman & The Signal, but then got put on the Outsiders team, which is very much not a daytime activity. In Secret Files, it seems like he’s only just now returning to daytime vigilante activities since Batman & The Signal, and he’s immediately thrown into a giant conspiracy. Even in B&tS, there was an extraordinary supervillain threat to deal with as Duke’s first real case, one that also re-examined his family history and personal development.

As a result, we don’t... actually know what the status quo for Duke is, since we’ve only seen circumstances that break it. And since we don’t actually know what is normal for him, how he actually functions as a vigilante, it has less effect when the status quo is broken. There is no foundation to build these changes on.

This also holds true for his powers. Initially introduced in All-Star Batman, then further developed in Batman & The Signal as light manipulation. The extent of his light manipulation is still vaguely defined, which was fine in the beginning stages, and would’ve still been fine now, except. In Batman and the Outsiders, Duke got shadow manipulation, and spent the book trying to figure out how to deal with that, but even so, those powers also don’t have clearly established boundaries or limits. Now in Secret Files, he can suddenly use both, and he also has a healing factor, which is a radically different power than what he’s had so far.

By chucking new powers and developments at him before establishing what exactly his light manipulation is capable of, they’ve made all the introduced powers seem underdeveloped. It’s difficult for me to gauge what his limits are or even how his powers work, and I feel like it’s useless to do so because at any moment, a new power can be introduced. This doesn’t feel like Duke figuring out his powers, it feels like people continuously adding new ones to him (because it is). Because there is no real status quo for his powers, it means little to me when stuff is added to them. I don’t quite understand why you’d do this, either, since his light manipulation is already quite powerful and has a ton to explore. It feels like DC is scared that just light manipulation would be boring, or something.

I understand that Duke is still a relatively new character, so his status quo won’t be as well-established as that of older characters like Nightwing and Batman, and I understand that new developments coming at a quicker rate is inevitable. Still, it has been almost ten years since Duke was introduced, and seven years since We Are Robin started publishing, which marked his first appearance as a main character. We should have a much clearer idea of what Duke’s role as a vigilante entails, and how his powers function, and the fact that we don’t is because DC seems allergic to slowing down and actually developing what they have, rather than adding new things.

What Duke really needs, in my opinion, is a solo, so he can figure out what being a daytime vigilante means and how his powers work at a slower (but steadier) rate. Failing that, they at least need to stop chucking new powers and developments at him and focus on what the current ones can do, as well as focusing on establishing what the status quo of a daytime vigilante in Gotham looks like. Otherwise, big crime conspiracies, new powers, and family secrets won’t have nearly the impact that they should on me.

#duke thomas #my posts #infodumping #long post

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ectonurites · 3 years

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Dick should be like 27/28 by now iirc, Jason should be like 20/21, Tim should definitely be 18/19, and Damian can stay baby (13). And on the Batgirl side, I have no idea how old Cassandra is supposed to be but I usually see her get placed somewhere around Jason and Tim, Stephanie is canonically a year older than Tim so she should be 19/20 by now, and Barbara. I have no freaking clue how old Barbara should be or is even supposed to be rn tbh. We joke about Tim’s aging being messed up and him being eternally young but tbh he’s got nothing on Barbara, who’s been gradually and consistently de-aged so much over the years! Iirc, originally she was closer to Bruce’s age than Dick’s! Then she got younger, a few years older than Dick, and then younger, and then younger, until now most recently they’ve been shown having gone to school at the same time! It’s irritating on a sexist level, and on a comics consistency level!

Yeah logistically those things would make sense but from canon right now it’s in general super hard to tell. It really feels like dc just throws darts at a board when deciding how old these guys are sometimes

We know Dick is at least mid-twenties from a Nightwing rebirth era comic from before he got shot and became Ric

as long as Jason was 9 or older when taken in by Bruce he’s at least 21 as of Red Hood #51 for the math to work out on when he left his old apartment for his friend to watch over 12 years ago

Tim’s last confirmed on panel age was said to be 16 still during early Rebirth but its also been referenced in YJ 2019 #19 that their adventure had them gone for two years so he’s possibly closer to 18 now?

Duke I believe was said to be 16 back during We Are Robin and I don’t think there’s been any reference to him aging since

Then Damian’s in that approximately 13 age range but someone said his solo is aging him to 14 and I haven’t looked into the validity of that yet but also wouldn’t be terribly surprised

For Cass there’s references during Rebirth to her being a teenager (like during the Batwoman trial thing in Detective Comics Babs mentioned her being a teen) but I’m not really sure since then and it didn’t get specific with what age of teen, but she’s often treated as being around the same age as Tim & Steph

Steph I genuinely can not recall off the top of my head if they have even said her age at all since reintroducing her. but like I think it’s generally assumed she’s Tim’s age or that the ‘one year older than him’ thing from pre New 52 carried over

Then Babs interestingly enough we can pretty safely assume falls somewhere near/in the ‘28-35’ age range right now, because at the end of her most recent Batgirl solo her own brother (James Gordon Jr) who absolutely knows how old she is was killing redheads who had Babs’ general look and description and dressing them up as Batgirl

(Batgirl (2016) #49)

But yeah in general DC’s handling of all this is just such a mess and trying to gauge their ages is almost always including a lot of guesswork

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berjhawn · 3 years

Text

Lady Light - Character Bio

I wanted to make this little get to know my character thing before I release the last few chapters of Day & Night. This will list all her abilities and Weaknesses. Yes she is a Reader insert character but when I write her I have to envision something to base her off of. I understand that my view will be different from what most of my readers look like but please have an open mind. With Lady Light I haven’t used any descriptive words so that I could keep the reader tag true. Hopefully this will help some readers understand exactly how powerful she truly is.

Day & Night - Master-list

Lady Light

(Yes I see Lady Light as Halsey. She is the most amazing artist and person I have ever had the pleasure of hearing.)

Name: Reader insert so her name is up to you.

Age: Unknown (Thank you Themyscira)

Relationships:

Cosette & Xavier - Birth parents (Deceased)

Hippolyta - Adoptive mother

Diana Prince - Adoptive sister

Clark Kent / Superman - Ex-boyfriend

Connor Kent / Superboy - Son (Technically her son because of DNA used in cloning)

Bruce Wayne / Batman - Boyfriend (Maybe more wink wink)

Dick Grayson Wayne / Nightwing - Adoptive son

Jason Todd Wayne / Red Hood - Adoptive son

Timothy Drake / Red Robin - Adoptive son

Damian Wayne / Robin - Adoptive son

Powers and Abilities:

Superhuman Strength: Lady Light’s strength varies greatly and depends on her mental stability. She possesses vast superhuman strength, granting her the ability to lift (press) far in excess of 100 tons easily. She is one of the strongest beings in the Universe. She is strong enough to rip Darkseid in half with absolutely no problem.

Superhuman Speed: she possesses the ability to think, move, and react at superhuman speeds. She can catch bullets and can move far in excess of supersonic speeds; her speed on earth is enough to be gauged as fast enough to move at orbital velocity (5 miles a second). She can fly to the sun in less than ten minutes.

Superhuman Stamina: Lady Light’s enhanced musculature is far more efficient than that of a human. As a result her muscles produce no fatigue toxins. However, her stamina greatly varies, depending on her mental state.

Superhuman Agility: Lady Light’s natural balance, agility, and body coordination are enhanced to levels that are far beyond the natural physical limits of even the finest human athlete.

Superhuman Reflexes: She can react at superhuman speeds exceeding several times the speed of Sound.

Superhuman Senses: Possesses vastly enhanced senses. Is able to hear almost any sound at any volume or pitch. The range of her eyesight is also far greater than that of a human being. She is able to detect a single person from hundreds of miles in the air and above cloud level.

Flight: possesses the ability to float by defying gravity, utilizing her superhuman speed to fly far above hypersonic speeds (above mach 10).

Nigh Invulnerability: She is, for all intents and purposes, almost completely impervious to harm, unless she wills herself to be killed she has no direct weakness. Like all of her abilities, her durability depends on her mental state, she can go to completely no-selling Class 100-level characters but as soon as he wishes herself dead she could be killed in an instant. She has allowed herself to get hurt just to fake that she has a weakness to something.

Photokinesis: She has the superhuman ability to generate, control, and emit light.

Light Projection: By conscious control over the light she produces, she can control its direction, frequency (color), amplitude (intensity), and duration. She can produce numerous effects with the light she manipulates. She can simply cause a bright glow all about her body. She can create a pulse of light on the order of several tens of thousands lumens of power per second (the sun produces at most 10,000 lumens of brightness at noontime), which temporarily blinds people with its brilliance.

Energy Blasts: Can generate light, heat, force, and other forms of energy as powerful blasts and explosions of a yellow color. These blasts are usually generated from the hands and eyes. The maximum power of these blasts is unknown. It has burned Superman’s skin. (He found out the hard way when they were arguing one night.)

Psionic Abilities: Possesses powerful psychic and mental powers, She could erase her existence from everyone’s memories in a single moment if she wanted too.

Healing Factor: Can heal herself from virtually all injuries.

Resurrection: (This one is kind of a spoiler if I continue with my plot line) Is able to bring the dead back to life under extreme emotional distress. This also extends to simply healing others' injuries.

Genius Level Intellect: (Partially thanks to Themyscira) is very intelligent. is capable of using her powers to detect all substances in a single object and thence determine how much of what substances make up an object. Is adept with mechanics, architecture, machinery, tracing energy sources, cybernetics, robotics and computer science.

Weaknesses-

None, unless she wills herself to be hurt or killed.

Void

Locked inside Lady Light

Only comes out when LL’s mental state is in tatters

Has all lady light’s power and abilities

doesn’t care about the human race

will kill without a hesitation

surprisingly a defense mechanism for when LL just can’t handle things anymore.

Doesn’t like anyone but Bruce, his kids, and Connor

Will commit murder to protect those she cares about

Well there you have it. I hope this clears things up for everyone who is curious. Again the gifs are how I see her. You can see her however you wish too since she is a Reader insert character.

#lady light #berjhawn #reader insert #character bio #batman x reader #batman fanfiction

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rynne311 · 5 years

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Growing Pains

Summary: It’s not easy being the only parent home in the middle of the night, especially not with a sick baby that you’re trying to clean up in the apartment’s only bathroom when Dick gets home from a long night patrolling Bludhaven as Nightwing and needs that same little bathroom.

Word Count: 852

Requests are Open

Deep down, you knew this was what you’d signed up for. It was just one of those less advertised parts of parenthood. In your overtired state, you wanted to be upset with your son, but it really wasn’t his fault that he was up so late and crying.

You knew as soon as you got that note from daycare that the stomach bug was going around, it would only be a matter of time before it hit your home. You just really wished it wasn’t the middle of the night, and that Dick wasn’t out on patrol.

“I know, sweetie, I know you don’t feel good,” you cooed, trying desperately to calm Jack down. You were hunched over the empty bathtub trying to strip your son of his soiled pajamas before getting him cleaned up.

Jack’s wailing only stopped once the clothes and diaper were off of him. You took in a deep breath as you tried to relish in the moment of relative silence where your son wasn’t solely focused on his discomfort.

“Oh are we having a fun couple’s shower tonight?” Dick called out as he approached the cracked bathroom door. He could hear the shower fan already going and saw the light peeking out of the door to the hallway as he began to strip the Nightwing uniform from his body.

As he pushed the door open, you looked over your shoulder at him. You were too exhausted to play coy. Dryly, you answered, “Stop thinking with your name.”

Almost immediately, Dick was kneeling down beside you. He was trying to gauge just how long the two of you had been up and trying to clean up the aftermath of the first round of this bug.

“Not a great night, huh?” he offered. You simply rested your head on his shoulder in response.

You knew you needed to finish getting Jack cleaned off and out of the way so Dick could shower off before bed. That was the problem with a tiny apartment and only one bathroom.

“I’ll finish up with Jack, you get back into bed and try to get at least some rest,” Dick offered, gently lifting your son from his spot in the tub. “I have a feeling we’re in for a long weekend and any rest we can get now will make all the difference.”

You were too exhausted to protest, instead humming in agreement as you pushed yourself up from your kneeling position by the tub. As you stepped out into the hallway, you glanced back to offer to Dick an opportunity to back out of his offer. Instead, he was already climbing into the shower with your son in tow. Before returning to your own bed, you made sure to get fresh pajamas out for both of your guys.

In a few moments that felt both like an eternity and the blink of an eye in one, you were sitting in bed with your eyes drooping in the dim light from the nightstand. You were brought back to attention with the sound of cooing making its way into the bedroom. Dick was rocking around, gently swaying Jack to sleep as he made his way around to his side of the bed. Once he was content your son was asleep, he gently placed him in the bed between you.

“How was it out there tonight?” you asked quietly as Dick settled himself into bed.

“Same old, same old,” he answered. “I’ll call Jason to cover for me the next few nights though.”

You smiled at the thought of having your husband around a little bit more. It didn’t matter how cramped this little apartment was starting to feel for the three of you, you’d take a weekend of cramped and a sick baby if it meant you were all together.

“If we have any hope of no more shared showers with a sick baby, we do need to start looking at bigger places,” you cautiously suggested. This may be a conversation best suited for the morning, but some discussions needed to be had without a baby crying in the background.

“Hey baby shampoo leaves me smelling fresh too when I have to take Jack in there with me,” Dick joked. “But you’re right, we’re outgrowing this place and fast. Besides we’ll want at least one more bedroom if we’re still planning on making Jack a big brother.”

You imagined the excited look you could read on your husband’s face about the prospect of being made a father again mirrored the one he had as a young boy so long ago when he would get to go out as Robin, saving the city he loved. You leaned in and kissed him before leaning down to kiss Jack’s head and turning out the nightstand light. Your little family might be going through some growing pains in a home just a tad too small, but you wouldn’t trade the warmth and love that came from being cuddled up all together in bed. That is until Jack’s next round with the daycare stomach bug reared its ugly head.

Tags:

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Dick: @loliiz @princessowly1234 @drarrylov3r

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m00nslippers · 5 years

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Jason Todd in Event Leviathan #3 -- He really is that badass (Part 3)

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

So now that you’ve presumably read parts 1 and 2 where I go over basically every fight Jason has ever had that is useful to gauge his fighting abilities, it’s time to go over his most recent feat in Event Leviathan #3 where he single-handedly defeats The Detectives and walks away unscathed.

When this issue came out, a lot of Jason fans were very happy, as it finally acknowledged the skills that Red Hood has consistently been shown to have from his very first appearances, but which had recently been downplayed or outright denied in recent runs like Batman Eternal and Batman and Robin Eternal. But perhaps because of those portrayals, there were also many doubters, who disagreed with this showcase of skill by Jason and did not believe it was consistent with his character. In parts 1 and 2, I think I pretty well explain Jason’s abilities, strengths and feats, which should put this fight into perspective, but I’m going to specifically go into it even more here, blow by blow, combatant by combatant.

Let me preface this by saying that...this isn’t the best drawn fight ever. The panels sometimes actively make it difficult to tell what’s happening and the fight doesn’t feel organic or even interesting most of the time. This fight could definitely have been drawn better, written better, but that doesn’t discount the fact that what it portrays Jason doing is consistent with his skills and abilities that he’s shown in the past.

Jason Todd vs ‘The Detectives’

If you don’t know Jason, it’s easy to look at my boy here standing against a line-up that includes Green Arrow, Plastic Man, Manhunter, The Question, Batman and Robin (and Lois Lane, I guess) and think he’s got no chance to get out of the situation unscathed, but here’s the thing:

This shit is Jason’s specialty.

Jason is known for taking on large groups of vigilantes, using his opponents against each other, dropping the weakest link and making his escape against the likes of even Batman. He’s done this in such fights as: Red Hood vs Batman vs Captain Nazi, Hyena and Count Vertigo, and Batman (Jason Todd) vs. Nightwing, Batman (Damian Wayne), Black Canary and Huntress and even more recently in Red Hood and Starfire vs Lady Shiva, Manbats and Bronze Tiger and Red Hood and Artemis of Bana-Migdall vs Orphan, Azrael, Batwing and Clayface until he was distracted by needing to help Bizarro.

Fighting multiple enemies, especially heroes, is when Jason is at his best. He can take advantage of the non-lethal tactics employed by them to avoid injury, he can play on their compassion by taking out other targets that will distract them. He’s shown this time and again, he’s amazing at it.

Furthermore, Jason isn’t proud, he doesn’t have to beat his opponent into the ground and humiliate them before he calls it a day. He is fine with incapacitating or distracting a hero just long enough to get away or complete his business. Jason can win without having to utterly defeat his enemies, he just has to accomplish his goal and deny them from capturing him, whereas most of his opponents generally need to incapacitate and capture him to secure victory--which is significantly more difficult to do than simply get away. Jason’s win-condition is much more easily accomplished than his opponents’.

This being said it really shouldn’t be any wonder that Jason was able to defeat this group of ‘detectives’ when most of the group’s members would struggle against and likely lose to Jason 1 vs 1. You would think their odds would go up against Jason with more numbers, but in practice they go down because with more opponents Jason just has more options for distraction and escape. But don’t take my word for it, let’s examine the fight.

A Blow By Blow Account

The opening shot of the fight establishes the combatants: Red Hood vs Robin, Batman, Manhunter, Plastic Man and Green Arrow.

At this point, Jason is actively trying to escape by jumping off a building, at which point Robin, Batman, Manhunter and Plastic Man follow, while Green Arrow provides distance support.

Jason makes two shots, one is aimed at and hits Manhunter’s staff, the other is aimed at and hits Lois’s phone to destroy her documentation of him, grazing Batman on the way. These relatively small targets establish that Jason could shoot any of these heroes he wants in the face and just kill them--he just chooses not to. The shot at Manhunter’s staff seems to be to test what it’s made of, how durable it is and hopefully break it if it’s not very, though it doesn’t. Shooting Lois’s camera is likely to get rid of any evidence the group my use to try to further accuse him of being Leviathan. After Jason takes these shots, Green Arrow shoots an arrow to plug the barrel of Jason’s right pistol.

Plastic Man then reaches Jason and stops to quip before actually wrapping him up. This gives Jason enough time to pull his arm back and shoot the gun with the arrow lodged in it at Plastic Man, causing him to release Jason. The next to reach him is Damian, who attempts to fist-fight Jason in midair only for Batman to pull Damian away by the cape to separate them and handle Jason himself. Considering Jason’s vast history of shooting Damian and nearly killing him, this is probably a good call on B’s part, even if it seems unlikely to me that Jason would do that at this point.

All three smash through a glass ceiling and fall into a conveniently placed pool that is apparently deep enough to keep them all from dying on impact but shallow enough that they can stand up to fight. They trade blows and Jason wraps Bruce and Damian in Batman’s cape, which seals their movements long enough for Jason to get away.

At this point the scene skips a bit to Manhunter pursuing Jason, presumably after escaping the bats and jumping out of that building too, though it’s a bit unclear. This part is especially difficult to tell what’s happening to be honest. My interpretation is that Jason grabs onto a fire escape as he jumps to slow his fall, while Manhunter jabs at him with her staff as she falls. But she is falling at a faster rate since Jason is holding onto the pole and she misses. He grabs her on her way down and jumps off the fire escape and falls onto her, using her to break his fall into a garbage container.

Jason rolls off her, but Manhunter still isn’t down. She tries to hit Jason with her staff, but he ducks under it, sits up and gives her a punch that finally knocks her out, then leaves the garbage container carrying her staff. He is then met by Lois Lane who questions him about his possible connection to Leviathan.

While Jason is talking to Lois Lane, Green Arrow sneaks around up above. He shoots an arrow that is deflected by the staff Jason took from Manhunter. The deflected arrow opens a net on Batman and Robin who had just arrived on the scene. Jason then escapes before the two can extricate themselves from the net. Green Arrow and Lois do not pursue him.

But do everyone’s actions make sense?

To be frank, I think there are problems with this fight, but not necessarily with the outcome in general or Jason in particular. I am not super familiar with some of these heroes, so feel free to correct me if I make a wrong point, but I’m reasonably confident in my assessment. Let’s examine what happens and whether it makes sense.

Everyone jumps off the building after Red Hood.

It’s tempting to say this is stupid but actually I think this works. Jason is a master of escape and hiding. He has proven that time and again in Under the Red Hood, in Battle for the Cowl and Batman and Robin, he can slip away instantly and easily as soon as he leaves a vigilante’s sight. Basically, if Jason does not want to be found, he will not be found, not even by Batman. As soon as Jason slips away from a fight, he is in the wind, therefore he must be kept within sight or the detectives risk losing him. This necessitates the detectives follow him off the building. Batman and Robin are familiar with grappling and gliding, so they are fine, Manhunter can possibly fly with her staff (I’m unsure of this) and is highly durable, Plastic Man is mostly invulnerable to fall damage and Green Arrow doesn’t jump off but is also pretty familiar with grappling, so it checks out.

It also follows that since they jumped off in that way it makes fighting as a group very difficult since everyone is falling or flying differently because of shape, drag etc. so approaching one at a time or in groups makes sense so as not to knock into each other midair. This effectively means Jason is really only going up against one person at a time while the others are in close proximity, which just makes things even easier for Jason.

Green Arrow plugs Red Hood’s gun with an arrow.

It’s established in Green Arrow (2001) Issues #70-72 that Jason is not only familiar with this move, but it is basically useless against him. He understand trajectories of projectiles, he’s fast, knows tactics, shooting or moving a gun is faster than drawing and shooting an arrow. By all rights, Oliver shouldn’t have been able to even accomplish this. Jason outmatches Green Arrow at range, this is proven. But since it did happen, we have to assume it was part of Jason’s plan. I’m not entirely sure what usually is supposed to happen to guns that are plugged by Oliver’s arrows but shot anyway. I would imagine it damages the gun? Clearly this doesn’t happen to Jason’s weapons, so they must be modified in some way, which isn’t out of the question given Jason’s association with Roy. So if Jason shouldn’t have fallen for this trick, and Jason’s guns are not sealed by the trick as they should be, then probably Jason allowed the arrow to plug his barrel in the first place to be used against Plastic Man, I guess?

Personally if I was writing this fight, I would not have allowed Oliver’s arrows to plug the barrels at all because I think Jason’s guns not being affected by it stretches suspension of disbelief, but by no means should Green Arrow’s actions have hampered Jason in any way. Jason is capable of the strategy shown in this scene, and he’s also capable of avoiding the arrows if he wants, so really Oliver is a superfluous opponent in this fight all around. Nothing he is capable of should really slow Jason down at all, as shown in their past fight.

Red Hood incapacitates Plastic Man.

I’ll admit, this one stretches the bounds of what Jason, or any human character in the verse, seems capable of. Jason Todd is a top tier martial artist and strategist, but Plastic Man is a meta with some insane abilities. No matter how great Red Hood is, without special preparations he is unlikely to be able to stand up against Plastic Man, much less defeat him. Luckily in this situation Jason doesn't have to defeat him, just make him release Jason and slow him down long enough to get away, which is quite within his abilities--especially since one of Plastic Man’s few weaknesses is that he can be stunned by bullets and projectiles, and is particularly vulnerable to them in his elastic state when he cannot increase his density to shrug them off.

This is exactly what happens. Plastic Man swoops in to wrap Jason up with his arms, Jason shoots Green Arrow’s arrow and a bullet into Plastic Man’s chest, which stuns him and makes him let go. Simple. Generally Plastic Man seems to be quite fast with stretching, so perhaps he could have sealed Jason’s movements before this happened if he’d wanted to, but Plastic Man clearly underestimates Jason. He calls him a coward, thinks he’s running scared and not likely to retaliate, much less do so quickly, and Plas may not be used to dealing with shooters who are quite as fast and skilled as Jason anyway because there just aren’t many, so him stopping to sling quips at Jason isn’t outside his character. I wouldn't bet Jason could do this all the time, but given this particular situation, he absolutely was capable of what he did and I don’t think it should necessarily have gone differently.

Red Hood escapes Batman and Robin.

Jason escapes Batman and Robin all the time, so I feel like I shouldn't have to explain this but apparently some people don’t realize that Bruce has literally never captured Jason. Ever. Jason has been in Arkham and Blackgate before, once in Red Robin and once in Batman and Robin but he wasn’t caught by Bruce. In fact Bruce wasn’t even around at the time, and it wasn’t when Jason was physically healthy, he’d always been heavily injured by other opponents before he gave up the fight. At times he’s heavily injured from a confrontation and still manages to get away. So the idea that Bruce could have just nabbed Jason without an issue is laughable. Jason can go toe to toe with Bruce, he can fight him equally in most cases. You’d think adding Robin to his side might give Bruce an edge, but actually it makes things more difficult.

Jason is consistently shown to brush off Damian, in Battle for the Cowl and Batman and Robin and Teen Titans. Damian is not a challenge for Jason in any way, in fact he’s nearly killed him multiple times with little effort and shooting Damian is something Jason has done in the past to provide a distraction for Jason to get away. It’s no wonder throughout the confrontation in this comic that Bruce is trying to keep Damian from Jason, because he is perfectly aware that Jason could kill him at any point. Damian is just a liability in a fight with Jason. Bruce being distracted by trying to keep Damian from taking on Jason by himself is directly responsible for Jason being able to get the drop on him and wrap Bruce up in his cape--and Bruce and water actually are shown to be a bad mix in various places. Jason himself has had to rescue Bruce from the water before as Robin, in Red Hood and the Outlaws and possibly in Batman: The Cult as well. Bruce’s costume seems to be a drag in water, so Jason has even more of an advantage in this scene. Him getting away as he does, is perfectly reasonable.

Red Hood gets the better of Manhunter.

Again, Jason is basically just fighting Kate Spencer, Manhunter, here one on one. Is Jason capable of defeating her? I believe the answer to that is yes, especially if she isn’t trying to kill him. She’s a character who actually kills though, so it’s kind of strange that she would fight with Red Hood anyway since their philosophies in crime fighting are similar to begin with--but in this situation where she thinks he’s Leviathan, then okay fine.

Jason has never fought Spencer before, but given his feats he is most likely a more capable martial artist than Manhunter. She does not seem to have much training that I could find in my research, whereas Jason was trained by Batman, the League of Assassins including Shiva and Bronze Tiger, and the All-Caste. She relies on the abilities of the Darkstar Exo-mantle that she wears to fight, which grants her some extra strength and durability, and she may have some genetic meta abilities which include increased durability on top of that. Some of her most skilled martial artist opponents include Cheshire and Merlyn, both of whom Jason has fought and defeated--Merlyn Jason absolutely curb stomps in Batman, Inc.

I’ve seen some sources that say her staff lets her fly, but I can’t find if that’s true or not. If that’s the case, then she perhaps should have done better in the aerial combat, given she'd have increased maneuverability, but without it Jason had the high ground in the situation by being stationary while she was falling. He had more control of their placement and was able to stop her from catching herself and instead sent her into the ground with a devastating blow. Her durability however was shown off when she was able to get up, but given she was already stunned and had heavy damage from the fall, him being able to knock her out is believable to me. Manhunter can apparently shock anyone who takes her staff, but given she was unconscious, obviously she didn’t activate that ability once he picked the staff up.

Personally I think these two probably should have had a much more interesting fight. The one we are given is lackluster and difficult to follow in my opinion and doesn’t really show off either character’s abilities. But honestly I think the outcome would be the same. Given Manhunter’s feats, Jason has the advantage in martial ability and strategy. Manhunter is strong, but Jason is used to fighting people with super strength and meta powers, he won’t be phased by her suit and if he was really in trouble, he carries melee weapons such as his sword and crowbar that could easily deal enough damage to significantly hurt her through her suit and powers. He could shoot her at any point or use explosives. Again, he doesn’t even need to defeat her, all he has to do is get away, and given the difference in skill, I would argue he would do so easily.

Red Hood deflects Green Arrow’s net-arrow at Batman and Robin.

Given that Jason has deflected bullets with a shovel in Red Hood and the Outlaws #23, Jason could totally deflect an arrow, no question. Since this is comic books physics where anything goes, then it deflecting at Batman and Robin who can’t really dodge midair is fine. Oliver was sneaking around, they didn’t necessarily have any reason to think he was even going to fire an arrow they’d have to worry about dodging, so it’s perfectly reasonable they’d get hit by it too.

The arrow backfiring on Bruce and Damian might even have been deliberate on the part of Oliver. We are going to have to see how Event Leviathan turns out, but there is evidence to suggest that Oliver Queen is working for Leviathan. He was approached by Leviathan and asked to join him and was not captured but rather ‘let go’, possibly because he is choosing to act as a mole. Oliver may have wanted Jason to get away, either for lingering grief over his son Roy, who is/was Jason best friend, or to keep the detectives busy trying to capture him instead of interfering with and investigating the real Leviathan. Either way, Jason could totally have done this, Batman and Robin weren’t in a position to avoid it.

Conclusion: Jason is written correctly in this fight.

Basically Jason getting away from the detectives was something he was perfectly capable of doing in the way he did. He performed no feats he was not shown to do before, he was doing something he is consistently shown as especially good at doing, and he did not even defeat all of his opponents, he merely escaped which is a much less difficult feat. At best, his opponents were shown to be more easily outsmarted then they should have been, but it’s just as likely to be that they were underestimating him and not bringing their full capabilities to the table, or they were thrown off by his skill in midair combat, or were emotionally compromised in the face of the person they believed to be Leviathan and not strategizing or thinking clearly in their eagerness to take him in. There is no reason to say this fight was out of character or that Jason was overpowered in it. I think the fight could have been written and drawn better to show off his opponents abilities, but the fight we got did not misrepresent Jason Todd in any way.

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