JLD's Apprentices

Danny

The morning after patrols, especially after a big Arkham breakout, was usually followed by a long rest and a big breakfast. Many of them had stayed at the manor, too exhausted to go to their hideouts or apartments. Alfred had prepared a large assortment of food: bacon, pancakes, eggs, muffins, and waffles.

Out of nowhere, a green portal appeared at the end of the table, and a teenager walked out holding a clipboard.

"Damn it, I still gotta work on my aim with these portals," he said jumping down from the table," sorry about stepping on the table B."

The table then erupted, weapons were pulled from seemingly nowhere, and each of the bats launched themselves at the intruder. The teenager was unfazed as their weapons passed right through them.

"You know, when you said that Gotham was dangerous, I wasn't expecting such a warm welcome," they smiled at Bruce.

"Good morning, Danny."

"Father, you know this intruder?"

Bruce sighs, "This is Danny, he is an apprentice under Justice League Dark."

"He works with Constantine?"

"Ew. No, I mostly work alone or with my friends."

"Father, how does he know are identities?"

"I actually didn't know your identities until I stepped through the portal. Sorry about that. The portal I was using was tied to the location of a soul, not a general location." Danny rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepishly at the ground. " This is what I get for following Constatine's advice," he muttered.

"What did he say?"

"Quote 'The bloody paranoid bastard is probably in his cave still brooding or whatever. end quote."

Several of the bats stifle laughter

Bruce sighs into his coffee. " What did you need, Danny?"

It was Danny's turn to sigh. "There is going to be an uptick in supernatural phenomena in Gotham soon."

"What kind?" Bruce said his headache was growing by the second.

"The usual. Creepy Fruit loop cult."

"Fruit loop?" Dick asked, but didn't get an answer.

"What is the plan?"

"My team has been monitoring the cult for a few weeks now; many of them are upper-class idiots." Danny paused for a second realizing who he was talking to. "No offence. Most of the rich people I have met have either been stuck-up assholes or egotistical maniacs."

That earned more laughter from the bats as well as a few nods.

"We've all attended galas. We know."

"Danny, continue."

" Right." He opened another portal and pulled out a silver tablet.

"We found out that they are going to be here in Gotham a month from now for your gala. My friends and I will be there to monitor anything that might happen. I believe that more than one of my rouges may be involved." Danny said as he sent the files to Bruce's tablet.

"The first being Plausimius, he is ruthless and will use his powers to gain anything he wants, which is usually power or influence. His main skill set is overshadowing, similar to possession, in that he can take over a person's body. I'll give you any additional equipment to avoid that. He also uses fire powers and many other standard ghost powers. The other ghost is Penelope Spectra. She is manipulative and highly intelligent with a focus on genetics and psychology. Her main power set focuses on stealing any power or energy from other humans or otherwise. Her favourite source of energy is misery, which, no offence, makes Gotham look like an all-you-can-eat buffet. She is narcissistic, and her main goal is to use the energy she steals to maintain her appearance." All of the bats had crowded around Bruce's chair to see the file on the tablet.

"Both of them can appear as humans unless they are forced to reveal themselves or they are detected by special sensors that we will also provide. The files should give you more of an idea of their powers and methods."

"Man, these files are impressive. You have every aspect categorised."

"Thanks, but I can't take all the credit for those. Pharaoh handles all our tech; Belladonna and Red Huntress usually gather intelligence. There are a few others, but they haven't decided on a name, or their ideas are immediately vetoed."

"Thank you for the information, Danny. We can meet at a later date to further go over the plan."

"No Problem. I'm just happy I don't have to explain this twice, given you're the bats. Oh, and Zatanna said she is coming to the gala too."

"tt. Your group needs supervision to complete a mission?"

Danny's eyes snapped to face Damian, glowing the same haunting green as the Lazarus pits. Everyone at the table froze. Everyone had seen eyes like that. But they usually followed a violent, fiery rage. But no, Danny's rage was cold. The bats were staring at those eyes, but Duke wasn't. He was staring at the crystallized crown that glitched in and out of focus right above Danny's head.

"Damian Al Ghul Wayne, that makes sense that you're related to that weirdo. Your Grandfather is a real pain." Danny massaged his temples, closing his eyes briefly. He sighs and looks back at Damian. Now with his eyes back to the normal blue.

" Zatanna had offered her help on this mission. She is not here to supervise. My team and I have been unsupervised from the beginning. We have defended our entire town by ourselves for over a year till the Justice League offered a mentorship or partnership." Danny left no room for argument.

"I'm done here, Bats. Contact us when you are ready to discuss the plan." At that, he ripped open another portal and stepped through.

Noise returned to that dining room once again as each of the bats and birds talked over each other.

Alfred, having just stepped back into the room, silenced all of them with a single raised eyebrow.

"Phantom was here to discuss a cult that is working with at least two of his rouges."

"Father, who was that, and how do they know grandfather?"

"That was Phantom or Danny. He and his team work injunction with JLD. On paper, they are apprentices, but mostly work alone and only in their town of Amity Park. The majority of them are still in high school, hence apprentices." Bruce sighs.

"How many are on his team?"

" Around eleven, but many of them aren't suited for fieldwork. Primarily, six work in the field, with the others working behind the scenes with research, public outreach, investigation and engineering."

Jason gave a low whistle, "Damn, that's organized. What's their on-field skills like?"

"Phantom and Specter are their heavy hitters. Skilled in hand-to-hand combat and weapons training. Ranging from guns to swords. Swordfighting style similar to Greek warriors. Powers are superstrength, flight, invisibility, and the list goes on. Many of them have advanced hand-to-hand combat training and magical aptitude." Tim rattled off, scrolling through several files.

"Tim, how many times have I told you not to hack Watchtower files?"

"I will stop hacking them when they stop being so easy to hack," Tim stated, not looking up from the tablet.

"Father, you never answered my question." Daiman turned back to Bruce, "How does he know Grandfather?"

"Danny, by the rules of combat, had gained the throne of the infinite realms. The infinite realms as Constantine explained them, are the space in between dimensions that houses any and all afterlives. Danny is the prince of the infinite realms until he fully takes the throne. Given that Ra's uses the pits to obtain his immortality. It is apparently an issue that Danny is facing."

"That explains the crown that was floating over his head," Duke says, poking at his now cold breakfast.

Tim continued to flip through the files on his tablet as many others leaned in to look and discuss them.

Behind them, Alfred cleared his throat., "I believe there is a rule at the table that states that no work at the table, civil or otherwise?"

"But....I....fine." Tim gave up the tablet, and others returned to their seats.

"Alfred, is it too late to cancel my meetings for today?"

"Master Bruce, you have already rescheduled these meetings twice before."

Danny: *de-aged, sipping on a juice box*

Red Hood: *unconscious in an alley*

Danny:

Red Hood:

Danny: *Sips* On the one hand, Auntie Jazz said not to go near weirdos in costumes.

Red Hood:

Danny: Or to pick things up from the alleys.

Red Hood:

Danny: *Sips* But Auntie Jazz also said not to eat things off the floor, even though we all know the floor has the best stuff, so....

Red Hood:

Danny:

Red Hood:

Danny: Finders Keepers!

*Danny drags Red Hood home to his aunties and uncles dismay*

[ insert Aunt or uncle of your choice]: what you got there bud?

Danny dragging a 250lb unconscious vigilante through their apartment door: A juice box.

girl I would kill myself if I did that lol

reading harry potter actively makes you less literate

j why did you censor the name of the scottish play

I think doing that is way funnier than saying the Scottish play, and I’m not going to risk actually saying the name and having something bad happen

i just realized despite me making fun of you for saying m*cbeth, i refused to say it myself. i am fucked up

even I, the op, flinched while writing it in the notes 😔

do y’all only post from inside a theatre?

All the world's a stage, catgirlforeskin.

have i mentioned how much i love villains being not villainous because of small (or not so small) child?

because

anyway

imagine you are killer croc and you are just kind of chilling in the sewers doing killer croc things

when suddenly there is an Intruder! In! Your! Territory!!!

so obviously you take your scary face and take on a more menacing stance and go to fight off whoever is down here because

this is your place! and you do not share!!

and then you get there its a child, and like, you have fought robin before but his dad was there and he was in good health and you might have gone easy on him but you will never admit to it so it might as well have never happened

but that is a young teenager(!), looks like he might be 13(!!) but with how skinny he is he might be older and just malnourished(!!), he is actively bleeding(!) and might get an infection(!!!) from the wound on his chest that on closer inspection looks like a Vivisection(!!!!!!!) wound on his chest and he is looking fearfully at the manhole cover that he just came in from

so obviously you scoop him up and bring him deep deep down

crocodiles are excellent parents and highly protective of their young

he even runs through the water instead of swimming because of all the grossness lf the sewer

this kid is his now and he will protect him with the ferociousness of a wild boar

Waylon didn’t like others in the sewers. He tolerated Grundy but other people he couldn’t stand. He’d often catch the occasional drug smuggler working their way through. They were either really bold or really stupid. The latter was usually the truth. But the worst things he finds are the bodies. The Mafia or gangs sometimes dump them down here not that he cares they eventually float out into the harbour. That is what he thought the kid was. 

He collapsed right outside a manhole cover entrance. The kid had to be around 14. His clothes were in tatters. The hoodie he was wearing had burn marks all over it, the kid probably had the burns to match. The kid had more bandages than a B-rate horror movie Mummy and was just as shittly wrapped.

“Hey, you alive?” Waylon asks pushing the kid with his foot.

The kid let out a hiss of pain as Waylon’s foot brushed up against him. The kid’s eyes snapped open a bright green. The kid immediately went into a fighting stance it reminded him a bit of the bat’s robins. That image fell apart as the kid lost his footing, probably from blood loss, and smacked his face on the concert floor.

Waylon sighs. “Okay…. Great.” He checks the kid over again. Good, he was just knocked out. Waylon sighs again as he picks the kid up. Probably isn’t the best to take him to a hospital by himself but maybe Doc Thompkins is still in.

_____

Danny had been running for a while. He just escaped and was running on empty. Bleeding heavily as he ran around this city. He wasn’t sure what city this is, but it definitely wasn’t Amity Park. Everything was blurry, his mind and the world around him. He’s sure he fell into something but he wasn’t sure. The pain that he felt he was sure of that though. Everything hurt. He fell again. Somebody picked him up he wanted to get away but it was nice and cool here. Like a big ice pack picked him up. 

His consciousness was fading in and out. It snapped back to him when he saw a needle.

No. NO. he needs to get away. Not again. No more needles no more. The needles went away and a mask fell over his face.

----

The kid was a pain to wrangle, even when he was barely conscious. The doc and him had to hold the kid down just to sudate him. Doc had to use gas cause as soon as the kid saw a sharp object he nearly broke Croc’s arm. If the kid had any more energy he definitely would have. Doc cut off the bandages as nurses ran around grabbing supplies. One of the braver nurses asked him to wait outside so they could help the kid. So here he was waiting in the waiting room with a few other patients. About an hour later the Doc came back and told him about the kid.

“Where’d you find him?”

“Where else? I thought he was another body dump.”

“He nearly was. There is evidence that either he was an experiment in a lab or somebody was trying to sell his organs. But he’s mostly intact so I’m leaning toward the experiment. You want me to tell Batman?”

“I don’t think the kid’s in any condition to be integrated by the bat.”

“I’ll give it a few days but I think this is something they need to look into…. I’m surprised you brought the kid here and stayed to hear about it.”

Part of Waylon wanted to sneer at the comment but he didn’t know himself.

The doc hummed. “The Kid has some pretty bad burns on his abdomen, several medical incisions all over his body, and a pretty bad crack in his skull like someone hit him with a baseball bat. I’m not one for miracles but the fact that he is even alive is nothing short of one.” 

Their conversation ended when the bell on the door chimed and three vigilantes walked in. Everyone stopped for a moment. Waylon put his hands in front of himself showing that he wasn't he for a fight. Doc’s clinic was one of the only neutral places in Gotham. It wasn’t exactly a haven but almost everyone knew no one fights anyone here.

“Hey, Croc. Hey, Doc.” Nightwing says with a smile holding his arm to stop the bleeding.

“I would punch you if you weren’t injured,” Hood said.

Robin nods in agreement. “This is just another example of your idiocracy,”

“Like tonight, when you tried to do an extra flip when you were being shot at.” Hood added.

Nightwing feigns shock.  

“No fighting boys, come on I’ll get you patched up.” Doc leads Nightwing away as Hood and Robin stay behind.

Robin stares at Waylon, his hand on his katana.

“Hey, brat you heard the Doc no fighting you know the rules,” Hood said to Robin.

Robin clicked his tongue in response. 

The time drags on for a while as they wait.

“Why are you here croc?” 

Waylon debated on what to tell them. He should tell them about the kid.

“Found a body dumped in the sewers. Except this one was still alive.”

The slits on both their masks crease.

“You usually aren’t that nice.”

“The bodies dumped aren’t usually kids. The kid is in the doc’s care now. Ask her your questions.”

Even behind the masks, Waylon could tell they were angry. Robin gripped his sword’s hilt a little tighter. Hood went to go find the Doc.

“Where did you find him?”

“In the sewers below the manhole cover in a back alley off 5th street just outside Crime Alley.”  

Robin turned to go find Hood. “Thank you for the information,” he said before running off.

At least Batman was attempting to teach this Robin manners. Waylon was about to walk out the door when there were a few yells from behind him and someone ran right into his back almost making him fall forward. Waylon tried to turn to see who was behind him but then they started to climb his back and onto his shoulder and he was met with the same glowing green eyes he met in the sewers.

“Kid you are going to give people, myself included, a heart attack.” trying to move the kid off his shoulder.

“You failed to tell us he was a meta,” Robin said from behind him.

“Thought the doc or the kid would.”

The kid’s face scrunchs in on itself. He was confused about something. He tried to say something but his voice wouldn’t work. He tried again and again but it wouldn’t work. He was getting more and more frustrated until the Doc handed him a piece of paper and a pen.

The kid sat on the floor surrounded by Croc the vigilantes and the nurses as he wrote out what he wanted to say. When he was finished he climbed back on Waylon’s shoulder and handed him the paper. The handwriting is a little shaky but readable for the most part.

Waylon started to read until the vigilantes interrupted.

“Hey, share with the class.” Hood interrupted.

“Yeah, I wanna hear what your koala wrote,” Nightwing said.

The kid stuck his tongue out at Nightwing’s remark.

“fine, It says: Hi, I’m Danny. To the alligator… crocodile -whichever- man, thanks for the help. I was really out of it when you found me so I don’t know much about what happened. But I really don’t like hospitals cause the people chasing me could find me. So thanks I think. I have a few questions too so how about 20 questions?”

“Kid if I was your English teacher I would fail you. This was so hard to read.” Croc said and Hood agreed after looking over the paper.

The kid took the paper back and wrote a little more.

“Been their done that.” 

Hood was just more frustrated. Danny was laughing so everyone could tell he was messing with them a little. Danny was running out of paper so the doctor got him a dry-erase board and a marker.

“This better?”

Much better, Thank you, Danny wrote smiling back at Doc with sharp pointed teeth.

“So Danny you get to ask a question first.”

Your names?

“Doctor Thompkins.” doc introduced herself first but everyone stopped when Danny flinched.

“Clinic’s a kind of safe space, no fighting. And whoever hurt you is not allowed here.” croc says surprising the rest of the room.

Danny nods after a moment.

“Red Hood and this is Robin and Nightwing,” he says gesturing to each vigilante.

“Waylon.”

Danny nods along waving at them.

“So where are you from?”

Danny began drawing a picture. The kid was focusing hard on the drawing his tongue stuck out. NightWing nudged Robin says “Hey you do that.” Robin just responded by clicking his tongue.

Danny finished holding up a picture of Illinois and a small dot labelled Amity Park.

“You’re a long way from home kid. How the hell do you get all the way to New Jersey?” Hood asks.

Danny tilted his head eyes widening a bit.

Well, that answered my other question. I didn’t know where I was cause they moved me so much before I escaped.

“...Okay, who is ‘they’? They're the ones that hurt you?” Nightwing asks.

The room gets quiet after the question. Tears roll down Danny’s face then break out into full sobs as he curls in on himself. Waylon placed his hand on the kid’s head.

“Hey, I said before no one here is going to hurt you or let you get hurt, okay?”

Danny nods after a few minutes he picks up the board again and writes.

Everyone’s blood boils at the answer they got to Nightwing’s question.

They are my parents and an agency called G.I.W. I don’t know what it stands for. 

Danny set the board down and curled back into a ball. He didn’t pick up the board again. Doc draped a blanket over Danny as he passed out leaning back against Waylon.

Part two! ( cause I have ideas now)

It’s been weeks since Danny was taken to the clinic. He healed after a few days and was released. The bats had offered and found him a few different places he could stay as they were looking into what little information they had on him. But Danny had always found his way back to Waylon. Even here in the old subway depot that was sealed and abandoned.

“Hey Waylon! I helped move some furniture and they bought me some burgers do you want one?” Danny said with a big grin showing off his sharp teeth. 

“Kid! Jesus don't do that! And one you shouldn’t get food from strangers and two how the heck do you get in here? Most of this tunnel is submerged.” 

“But I know Harley and Ivy! They work at that cafe on the corner. So not  strangers and to answer your second question.” Danny lifts up the bag of burger and sticks his hand through the bag not ripping it at all. “ Kid, you really should be showing off your powers like that. Gotham’s full of creeps and shitheads that will try to take advantage of you.” Waylon winced at his words after they left his mouth.

Danny slumped into an old sofa that Waylon had somehow gotten down here. “I know but it’s …painful… not use to them.” Danny said quietly as he rubbed his neck. The scars had scabbed over but the memory of it was still there.

 Waylon had overheard  the bats, birds and Doc talk as the kid was brought back to the clinic's cots. He was wearing a collar before he arrived at the clinic. It wasn’t around were Waylon had found him. The bats thought it was one that would damper his powers and shock him if he tried to remove it. 

“Just be careful kid.” Waylon sighed.

---A Week Later---

“Wing, Croc is going on a ramage on fifth street Hood and Black Bat are headed there as well.”

“What happened? He was fine with the kid.” Hood replied over comms.

“Where is the little creature?” BB asked back. BB had met Danny before. She affectionately calls him a little creature. When she first met him beating up a mugger he gave her the widest sharpest smile he could muster. 

“I don't know he didn’t show up for burgers last night. I’m joining in.” Spoiler replied. Steph had met Danny out of costume. She was at Harley and Ivy’s cafe when Danny was working there. Steph was there picking up Tim’s caffeinated nightmare after she lost a bet to him. She had caught Danny pranking a “regular annoyance” , a customer that harassed Harley and Ivy, at the cafe. He had put a laxative in their drink. After that Danny and Steph would regularly meet for a Pranking conference.

Each of them had also reached fifth street a white van was catapulted into a building.

“Jesus, what’s got him worked up?”

On fifth street Croc was fighting off a number of men in white suits. Each of them armed with blasters and tasers. Croc was on a ramage. He charged and clawed at the agents some of the bleeding on the ground.

“Where is he? I know you took him!” croc roared as he swept through the agents.

The comms crackled to life. “Oracle, Report.” Batman’s voice came through.

“B, Croc is on a rampage on fifth street; he is attacking an agency in white suits.”

Batman paused before he answered. “Nightwing secure the area. Spoiler detain the agents. Black bat and Hood secure Killer Croc.”

Each of the rushed to it.

“Wanna tell the class who these shitheads are?” Hood said dropping into the street below.

“They are an illegal agency that’s mission is to detain and experiment on ecto entities. Their capture and imprisonment is the justice league’s current mission. The Agency is called Ghost investigation ward or ..”

“G.I.W. That the same agency that took Danny before.”

“Explain.”

“When you were working with the JL for the last month and a half we met a new friend that was captured by them before. And Croc took him in…and it looks like they captured him again.”

“The agents are need for questioning at the watchtower.” 

Each of the Bats turned to the agents. 

‘So that means that they just need to talk right?’ was a thought all the bats had. 

The bats doubled their efforts through the agents. Each of the agents sporting broken bones and concussions but they could still talk. After they were secured Hood had eventually caught up to Waylon.

“Hey they took the kid right?”

“Yeah they took him after work. Harley ran and got me when she lost the van.”

“We’ll find him.” 

 “Hood, you remember what they did to him? They..”

“I know.” Hood said as he turned to the other bats.

“I have the footage from Harley’s cafe. The van headed to the docks on the west side near G.U.” Oracle chimed in.

“Alright. Hood and Nightwing pursue the van. Jordan and Superman will be assisting on this. I will be there shortly.”

“I don’t think Croc will let you adopt this one B.” 

Obsessed Stalkerish Eldritch Danny and Tired Jason desc bc I kinda love this dynamic;

Danny would give anything to eat Jason whole. He would do anything for him. He'd serve himself to Jason, let him crush Danny's thrumming core in his hands if it meant that wonderful passion would be aimed at him for even a moment. Danny would give anything to capture Jason's soul in a photo and keep him stuffed in his pocket forever.

Jason just kind of wants.. well, he wants a lot of things, like the twinge of dull pain in his bruised ribs to go away, to set his dislocated shoulder, to lick away the blood from his split lip, to get better at pretending his broken clavicle isn't broken, and to do what everyone told him not to do which is sleep away his concussion. Oh, and for whatever is trailing him to make up its mind about attacking him or not because having to explain why his shadow does not move in tandem with himself is beginning to get tedious. Stupid fucking cultists and their stupid fucking rituals getting him into this situation.

If it wasn't for the fact that his shadow being possessed or whatever, he would think this was stupid. It was a little before patrol started, not that he was going anywhere.

"I know you're attached to my shadow or whatever, but like, are you going to attack or what?" He asked his shadow.

The shadow bubbled and shrunk.

" If you can't answer with words or shadow puppets, Im not really up for charades, though. I'm going to ask some magicians to see if we can be disconnected."

At that, the shadow bubbled over. An inky hand reached out, pressing on the ground as an arm followed. Soon, the silhouette of a man a head shorter than him stood in front of him, still cloaked in shadows that moved like smoke. The man slouched, and he was nervous.

Hood crossed his arms. " Well?"

" It was the dumb cult's fault."

"So what are you just like trapped in my shadow?"

"...yes"

"You're a terrible liar"

The shadow sputters

"So you're not attached to me. You just don't want to leave. Why? It's been a week since that cult."

The shadow mumbled something.

"What?"

" It's warm."

"What?"

"It's warm I wanna stay."

"My shadow is warm?"

"...not your shadow ....you." The last was said so quietly he almost missed.

"I'm warm?"

"Yes." The shadow sputtered again, slouching even more. Looking like they wanted to sink back down into Jason's shadow.

Jason sighs. He didn't need the shadow following him around, but it's not likely that they are going to leave anytime soon.

" Look, you can stay, but you have to one get out of my shadow eventually. A lot of people around me are questioning why my shadow is doing weird shit. Don't you have other stuff to do besides trailing after me?"

The shadow stood up a little straighter, looking at Jason with an unreadable expression. The swirling shadows began to recede back into Jason's shadow. Reveling a man with sliver white hair and beautiful green eyes. A green blush spread around his face only interrupted by a smattering of glowing freckles. The blush spread to the tips of his pointed ears. Jason couldn't help staring at this man in front of him.

Soulmate facts x Cosmic Love

Danny had grown constantly checking his soulmate facts. He wasn’t the youngest of his soulmates (there had been two long years where he thought he didn’t have one, where Dash’s words hit hard, before he woke up one day to Arabic on his left arm and English on his right.)

Danny made sure to write down everything about his soulmates. He learned Arabic, struggling for months before he finally learned the basics. He made sure to never cover them, except when he was Phantom, of course. He couldn’t wait to meet them.

Jon was one year, two months and five days older than his youngest soulmate. He begged his mom to help him find someone to teach him Arabic, and only ever hid his arms when he was in costume.

He dreamed of finally fitting with people. He couldn’t wait until he finally met them, and could protect them. He couldn’t wait to never be alone again.

Damian was taught from a young age that his soulmates were important and sacred. They would be his consorts, joining him just as grandmother had joined grandfather for so long.

Damian knew having two soulmates was rare, but he swore he wouldn’t hide them. He wore his arms like badges of honor, tracing the words reverently.(He was the youngest, unfortunately, but he catalogued every fact to help him find them when he was older.)

Damian met Jon for the first time when he was 11, with the matching sentence “I want to be an astronaut.” catching his eye the minute he entered the room.

(It was annoying they shared the same facts, but Jon pointed out the matching was the way they found each other immediately (Damian maintains he would have recognized Jon as his soulmate within a few weeks, simply due to the facts he had memorized about them over the years.)

Jon flew to Wayne Manor the moment he saw that their third’s sentence changed to “I hate dying every day.” They spent months trying to figure out if their soulmate was a meta with a regeneration factor or a terminally ill person whose heart stopped often.

The next years sentence, “My parents tried to dissect me.” was the final straw. They were finding their soulmate, or they would burn the world with them.

Just as Bruce was finishing up a report on the batcomputer. The chair he was sitting in was ripped from the floor and thrown across the cave. Bruce had quickly escaped before the chair could crash into a cave wall. He landed several platforms below in the cave.

Looking up, he could see Jon floating just above the platform for the batcomputer. Red eyes staring back at him.

At the sound of the crash, Tim rushed over to where Bruce had landed. He was in the cave working on new tech at the time.

" B, what is going on? I've never seen Jon like this. Should I call Kon?"

" Yes. I need to know why he needed me away from the computer." Bruce said

As soon as his name was said, Kon had flown into the cave. He flinched when he saw Jon.

"Hey, bud, what's going on?" Kon asks gently to his little brother floating up to the platform. Jon had turned to him only for Kon to be met with heat vision. Dodge it quickly and watch it burn a hole through the giant penny. Kon snapped back towards Jon, trying his best to calm him down as Bruce and Tim made their way up toward the computer.

"Come on, bud, just let us help."

Briefly, Jon's eye flick back to their bright blue before snapping back to burning red.

" We don't have enough time. They are hurting him, " Jon said, his voice quiet and strained.

Just as Bruce was climbing the last of the stairs, a voice called out.

" Jon, I have what we need. We're leaving."

Just as Bruce had made it to the platform. He saw Damian dressed in his Legaue of assasins garb. He was staring at Bruce briefly before turning back to Jon. Jon grabbed Damian and rushed toward the cave exit.

" Bruce, Tim, what is going on? " Kon asks, eyes flicking between the exit and them.

" I'm going to find out." Bruce said, running back to the computer. "Call Oracle. I need to figure out what Damian is going to do."

Tim called Babs through the batcomputer.

" B, what do you need? I am still on my shift at the library. "

"Jon and Damian had accessed files on the batcomputer. I need to know what."

After a few moments, Barbara was able to remotely pull up the files Damian acessed.

" Do you mind telling me why you have files on all of our possible soulmates, Bruce?"

Before Bruce could answer Tim spoke up.

" Demon brat first, but we are definitely talking about this later."

-----

The king of the Infinite Realms and his two Red Knights

King Phantom sat on his throne, listening to the pleas and demands of his people. Many for Gotham asking for justice. Many ask for justice against the Joker. The ghosts plead with the king to end the clown. Beside him, his two knights stand. To his right Red Huntress's hands tighten on her blaster as she listens. And to his left Red Hood stood frozen but close enough you could see the slight tremble. The ghost that was speaking remembers her death but very little of her life. She tells the king of the Joker and how she worked for him.

“I hated it I know I did something bad but couldn't make it right, I should have. I lured someone …someone important... to him and I watched him nearly beat them to death. The joker then locked us in together and set explosives.” The woman was crying and struggling to make it through. “That person I led there he …he tried to save me even if I led him there he tried to shield me from the explosion.”

“I know I shouldn't ask for anything but I want to ask that you make sure that person knows that I'm sorry and to tell them ‘thank you’” 

Beside Phantom Hood shook slightly trying his best to hold himself together.

“Despite your pericous actions I will see to your request.”

The ghost's image flickered and she smiled as tears streamed down her face.

“Thank you.”and then she was gone.

The throne room cleared, Phantom relaxed into his throne as his knights did the same. 

“ It never gets easier, does it ghost boy?”

“No…no it doesn't.”

After a moment's pause. Phantom speaks again.

“Hood….Jason." Danny calls in a gentle voice. 

Jason turns to face Danny. His face was hidden by the helm but Danny could tell he was close to a panic attack. Danny and Val gently walked toward Jason trying to usher him to sit down.

“That was…that was my mom, my biological mom. She..she apologized?”

“Some ghosts are remorseful for their actions and want to repent.” Danny sat on the ground next to Jason and Val on the other side. 

“The Joker was the one to kill us but she she helped.”

“The Joker is enough of a threat to ghosts as well given his brushes with death. He fall within my jurisdiction. And even if he didn't,”

“  We would have still ended him for you.” Val finishes Danny’s sentence.

Jason removes his helm and stares at them. “He wont let you.”

“Killing the joker wouldn’t be hard.” 

“No I talking about Batman he wont let you kill the Joker.”

“As I said the Joker is soaked in so much death that he falls under my jurisdiction.” Danny smiles, his features stretch his form becoming more eldricth as it shifts.

Val smacks him on the side of his head. “Enough of that save it for the Joker”

“Ow Val.” Danny rubs his head as Jason snickers at the two of them.

“ You deserved it, you royal pain in my ass.”

____

Gotham, Greynight security. Two days later.

" Hey, Jay invited us over for dinner. He's making chicken alfredo." Val said not looking up from her phone.

" Sweet! I'll just finish this," Danny said, not looking up from his work. Val pulled a chair to the workbench.

"So have you thought of how we're going to get him?"

They sat in silence for a moment. Many of the workers have gone home for the day. They could finally discuss this. Danny took out his phone, adjusting the security to not record their conversation.

When he was done, Danny sighed, " I think we should wait."

Val slammed her hands down on the desk.

"Why should we?! You heard what that ghost said! You know what he did to Jay!" her eyes flared red as the cybernetic suit she had partially activated.

Danny held up his hands in both surrender and to try and calm her down.

" I'm not saying we shouldn't do it. I'm saying wait. There are a few things we need to plan for."

Val paused and waited for him to continue her eyes, never letting go of her hatred.

" Think about it. One if we go into arkham, we could run into trouble with the other patients."

" inmates." Val corrected

" Yeah, okay, and most of them don't fall into my jurisdiction. So that would be trouble. But one of my main concerns is that the Joker will probably come back as a ghost, and I will have to find a way to contain him that will hold him permanently. I don't want a repeat of Pariah dark."

" Why don't you just end him?"

" That's the other concern the ghost legal system and Dame Gotham. I can't just end him. I have to consult Dora and Gotham."

" More breacracy." Val slumped back into the stool

" Hey, at least we have Dora to help both the infinite realms' law and negotiations with Gotham."

"Yeah, I just wish we could help him already I hate waiting."

HE 👏 WENT 👏 LOOKING 👏 FOR 👏 TROUBLE 👏

The euros fail to consider the form: it’s not Johnny’s hubris that is the subject of the song. It’s the devil’s, who thinks his power is worth more than simple love for a craft

neither americans nor the modern era have any sort of monopoly on one-upping the devil. one of the oldest european folk tales is The Smith and the Devil, in which a smith makes a deal with the devil for his soul and when the devil comes to collect, the smith tricks him into leaving him alone forever. tricking that bastard is an old and storied tradition.

"average person who makes a deal with the devil is dragged to hell after 10 years" factoid actually just statistical error. average person who makes a deal with the devil uses their new hellish gifts to outwit the old bastard so they can keep both gifts and soul for the rest of their long and prosperous lives. faust, who bargained for knowledge of all things and then wasted his 10 years chasing a girl who wasn't all that into him, is an idiot and should not have become the cornerstone of modern understanding of the trope.

*Scrolls past*

*reluctant sigh*

*scrolls back up*

*rebogs*

Some idiot: "Why are you reading your own fic, that's shallow and stupid"

All fanfic writers and writers everywhere: "Who the fuck do you think I wrote it for?!"

What I love about this is seeing that he's clearly a hockey skater. Now, I don't know shit about fuck when it comes to cold slippy antics, but what I notice is different between hockey skaters and nearly all other skaters is that hockey skaters essentially run on the ice. Any other skater is trying to glide, perform, or be otherwise smooth. Create a new type of mobility, but on ice. But hockey skaters? The floor is slippery but that's why they've got knives on their feet, so it's running time. Run run run run.

So this is like playing tag on ice, except the one guy you're trying to get is magically not on ice. And I think that's pretty neat.

He’s also making really good use of the stoppers on the front of his skates. You can clearly see several times that when he starts juking and running he’s not actually running with the wheels in contact with the ground – he’s tipped forward to run on the rubber stoppers, which will give him more traction on the slippery surface. He can change direction faster because none of his kinetic energy is going into countering the inertia of spinning wheels.

I don’t know if the picks on the front of ice skates are used similarly (because ice hockey is not so much of a national pastime in Australia) but I wouldn’t be surprised. But I spent a bit of time with a roller derby team, and I recognised that particular stopper run :)

toe pick!

The Past // The Present

Spread page for a Genshin fanzine: Quintessence

Thank you, shark. Much obliged, shark.

sometimes you need dialogue tags and don't want to use the same four

For anyone who needs this

!!!!