The hiring process to become a Justice League employee was extremely rigorous. Not only did you have to have the skills of your profession down to perfection, you also had to have a certain set of personal skills to go with it. This threshold only increased exponentially when referring to those who worked on the Watchtower itself.
Few were granted such access. After all, this was the base of the world’s greatest defense. There were secrets on board that most could never be privy to.
As such, when regarding the civilians who had access to the Watchtower, whether full or partial, Batman ensured that he was at least part of the later stages of the interview process, no matter how busy he was.
That being said, he had noticed a pattern amongst those who had qualified to this stage in things: with all the requirements involved, interviewees tended to be on the eccentric side of things. Almost rivaling the League members themselves at some points.
Daniel James Nightingale was an interesting character.
In his interview he had seemed normal, too much so, in Batman’s opinion. A young man who held himself tall and confident at first glance, but at the same time made micro adjustments to posture to make himself seem smaller. It was so subtle that if he weren’t Batman, he wouldn’t have noticed. It didn’t even seem to be a conscious thing on Daniel’s part, but an action born of repetition and habit. As if he required as little attention as possible in his day to day life.
Perhaps a past victim of bullying?
Still, his general demeanor was good. He was lively and passionate about his work, competent in his tasks, and his responses on the questions pertaining to the more sensitive sides of the work carried a professionalism that rivaled some special agents. His background check turned in clean and physically he not only passed all exams, he aced them.
In essence, Daniel James Nightingale was a perfect fit for the role of live-in mechanical engineer.
Only then did the oddities begin to appear.
When you spend enough time with someone, you begin to pick up on things about them. This is especially true for someone like Batman, who’s had to rely on his brain and instinct to fight alongside and against beings of near incomprehensible power.
And yet, there was something about Daniel that left him stumped.
He was quiet most of the time, preferring to keep to his own work than chat away with the heroes and coworkers. Batman supposed he preferred this over idolization, but he was almost too quiet. Sometimes you’d be in the same room as him and you wouldn’t even know he was there even after you left.
It was this that had initially sparked his interest. It was one thing to make your presence smaller unconsciously, but to be able to sneak up superheroes spelled of a completely different skillset.
That day, Batman was on monitor duty with Superman for the night. One of the more companionable partners, he enjoyed their conversations together, even when tasked with the mundanity of sitting in front of a screen for hours on end. Not that he would ever complain, of all the people here, he knew how important it was to have this position.
Though he does have to admit that a couple Leaguers are not the most…ideal…to be paired with.
Which is why he was relieved to see Superman walk through the door. He knew he was scheduled but things happen and people trade shifts. They were quietly chatting about their children when Superman jerked to the side and spun around.
Under one of the benches was Daniel James Nightingale working on the wiring.
Was he there the entire time? And Superman only noticed now? How much of their conversation did he hear? Batman didn’t think they talked about anything confidential at least.
“Son?” He started, causing the mechanic to look at them from his shaded spot. The lighting on the various monitors in the room reflected oddly in his eyes, almost making them luminescent. “Are you okay there?”
Daniel tilted his head, “Yeah? What do you mean?”
“It’s just…your heartbeat…” Superman trailed off, eyebrows furrowing with confusion.
Daniel’s face lit up in recognition, “Oh! You mean my heart condition. It’s fine, don’t worry about it.”
“Had a small accident when I was a kid. Got a bit of a shock and things struggle to pick up on it nowadays. Nothing to worry about.” He waved Superman’s concern off and closed the panel above him before crawling out of his space and picking up his toolbox, “Welp! That’s all finished. Have a goodnight, you two.” Daniel brushed his pants off and left the two to their thoughts.
It wasn’t unheard of for things like that to happen. Barry’s heart ran too fast a lot of the time to be picked up on most technology, but Superman?
Batman needed to investigate.
It was the third month in Danny’s tenure as live-in mechanic that the alarms had sounded. Something was coming. Something big. All core Leaguers were called up to the Watchtower to plan out the upcoming battle.
Flash did not wait. He never did, but he especially did not now. The moment he had teleported in, he took off to the meeting room as fast as his legs, and the structural integrity of the ship, would allow him.
He was in the hallway next to the observatory when he spotted it. At the end of the hallway, standing eerily still, even in flashtime was a figure. Backlit by lights and eyes glowing a toxic green in his speed, it was nothing more than a shadow with lights for eyes. Elongated limbs and hands that ended in claws, an instinctual ping of fear flashed through the superhero as he gazed upon the cryptid.
They were already inside.
Flash darted forward. Ready to take on the fight. Prepared to avenge his undoubtedly fallen comrades if they’ve already gotten to this point.
It was ten steps to cross the corridor.
Less than a millisecond in real time.
The light behind it shut off.
That wasn’t a cryptid. That was their fucking mechanic, Danny. What the hell is he doing out like this?
It didn’t matter. There was an emergency and Flash had a meeting to get to. He picked his speed back up just as he was passing Danny, eyeing him wearily as he passed.
Danny’s eyes followed him back.
The Justice League was in chaos.
Nobody knew who the intruder was or what they wanted. The most they settled on was ‘war’ given the large army of invaders heading their way, but it wasn't any of their usual perpetrators and any methods of identifying them have failed so far.
Which meant that they were going in blind.
Superman glanced at Batman. He was concerned over his friend. He knew Batman took pride in his preparations but they didn’t have that here. And they didn’t have the luxury of time to gather enough information to make one.
This battle truly will be the culmination of all the skills they’ve gathered thus far.
Batman wasn’t the only one he was concerned over though. He wasn’t sure where, but the mechanic was somewhere in the room, his very faint and very sporadic heartbeat said as such. What was he doing here?
“So, we don’t have any information? No motive, no origin, nothing?” Green Arrow, another information based hero, expressed, reiterating their collective frustrations for a third time.
“I do.” A voice peeped up from between him and Batman, causing the archer to leap onto the table in a defensive position. Even Batman’s heart sped up a tad, though his outward appearance remained as deadpan as always.
There he is.
Danny Nightingale had made an appearance.
All at once cacophony started throughout the meeting room. Maybe it was a mistake calling everyone here at once.
Wonder Woman raised her hand. A wordless call for silence. It worked.
“What do you mean? What can you tell us?”
“That you’ll lose if you go out there. Those beings are not creatures that you are currently capable of fighting.”
Noises of protest were heard amongst the group, but they were cut off with a single glare from Batman, “Explain.”
Danny did not, “That does not mean all is lost, though.” He pulled out a flash drive and slid it across the table until it stopped in the center, “Plug that into your mainframe. I’ve made some adjustments to your systems for it to be compatible. All it needs is direction. Once you give it that,” he nodded to the drive that currently held everyone’s attention captive, as if it were a bomb that could go off at any moment, “ you’ll have yourselves some proper defense and the weapons on the Watchtower should be set. If you trust me, that is.”
“Then don’t. I’m just giving you the option to back me up,” the young man shrugged, looking much more nonchalant than the situation called for, “It’s more of a personal fight, anyways.”
Superman wasn’t quite sure how to describe the next few moments. One second, the League’s reliable yet mysterious mechanic was standing in front of them, the next a bright light was blinding them all. The tension in the room was palpable as everyone leaned into battle stances.
What stood in the place of the young man could no longer be considered human.
Star bright hair that flowed in without gravity, eyes that held entire galaxies, long elf-like ears, and claws as sharp as a needle. A crown of frost floated above his head and a cape woven of constellations waved gently around his feet. The power the being exudes was so strong that everyone knew immediately that they stood no chance. No one dared move.
The god gave them a nod and a quick two finger(clawed?) salute before he disappeared.
As the cacophony of his fellow co-workers rose up around him once again, Superman realized what had thrown him off so hard.
He didn’t have a heartbeat.
