Dc x dp prompt #45

Danny is no stranger to curses, he’d been on the receiving end of many.

Being cursed into a doll and thrown through a natural portal was new though, and very much not enjoyable.

When he was thrown out of the portal and into a dark attic, he thought he’d finally be able to calm down from the initial shock and get home to fix this.

And he might have, if not for his powers not working.

Duke, the fool, had fled the attic after something had startled him. Damien huffed and decided to investigate it’s not that he cared for his siblings, but Richard had pointed out on more than one occasion how important they were to the mission.

That was his only reason for helping his brot-his teammate. Yes his teammate with his fear. No other reason obviously.

The attic was as dusty as ever despite Pennyworths best efforts and at first Damien couldn’t spot the doll his bro-teammate had been freaking out about.

Then he saw it. Thin and delicate, it was different from most marionettes Damien and seen in that it was made of porcelain instead of wood. The detail was extraordinary in that the doll looked as if any moment it would come to life and begin to speak. Damien could understand why its lifelike appearance would startle his brother.

It’s skin despite being porcelain had been painted a darker almost almond brown much like Richard’s skin dark hair, silky and soft was styled much like Drakes but with a floof of hair in the front that reminded Damien of Todd’s. He picked up the doll marveling at the soft detailed clothes.

The doll wore a black skin tight suit, tucked into knee high white and grey boots, paired with a high colored white poncho with no hood. His clothing reminded Damien of nomad tribes he’d see when on assignment in his home country before he’d come to live with father.

The dolls eyes were set into a face made of soft pixie like features. Narrow chin, long elegant nose, high cheekbones, arched brows, and the eyes. The eyes made Damien snort involuntarily. Even father’s toys followed his adoption trend, because the dolls eyes were a brilliant blue.

The eyes appeared to be small glowing jewels set into a carved set of pearls. Giving the illusion of real eyes, the inset pearls had been set carefully into the dolls eye sockets and when Damien picked it up and the dolls head briefly lolled back from the motion, eyelids of the same porcelain slid over the eyes. When he held its head upright the lids slid back into the dolls head.

Damien could see how Duke could have gotten startled by this strange doll. The realistic features paired with the eerie glow of the gemstones set in its eyes was off putting almost TO realistic. But Damien couldn’t throw off the feeling of home that filled him when he looked at the doll. (For readers: he’s feeling the Lazarus pit y’all. Just the nice version of it that is Danny’s blood)

Damien made a split second decision. He would keep the doll and keep an eye on it. If Duke was so frightened then he would simply keep the doll close and monitor it for any suspicious activity. This had nothing to do with the feeling of home and comfort he felt when looked at it and held it. Not at all, it was simply a mission.

Damien careful gathered the dolls long slender limbs up in his arms and began to make his way down the stairs. As he walked he continued his examination. He picked up one of the dolls hands and studied its slender jointed fingers that had been carved to be fully articulated. He rotated its wrist and noted how its whole arm moved with the motion just like a humans would. It truly was made beautifully with extreme attention to detail.

Damien carefully measured the doll when he got to his bedroom. Discovering it to be three feet in height and that all its limbs and features were proportional to that of a humans if one had been miniaturized to the dolls size. Its movable jaw opened and closed as if freshly oiled. All the joints in its body moved just as easily none stuck of stiff as one would expect from a toy that had spent so long in the attic. After a few more tests Damien carefully set the doll atop his nightstand and left for patrol.

***************************

Danny wasn’t sure what to do. When the first boy had left looking freaked out he’d gotten ready to move sure that no one would miss him if he disappeared. Then more footsteps appeared on the stairs and with a groan of irritation he collapsed to spot on the floor where he’d walked to in the time the other boy had been gone. A different boy from the first appeared at the top of the stairs and swept the attic with sharp green eyes.

His eyes settled on Danny and in only three strides the boy was knelt by Danny’s side. After a long moment of staring at Danny, he picked Danny up and began to look him over seemingly intrigued by what he saw. When Danny’s head lolled back he was unable to stop his glass lids closing on their own. Danny could feel his heartbeat accelerating and prayed the boy couldn’t feel it. He was so delicate like this, small, with thin limbs, and made of glass. So so delicate and utterly unable to use his powers. The boy ended up cradling him in his arms and taking him downstairs.

Danny couldn’t help but notice how large he was for a doll as the boy walked down the stairs, Danny’s legs dangling over one of the boys arms. The boy had to be 12 or 13 at most and Danny was a little over half his size (Damien’s about 5 feet tall). The boy took him to a bedroom full of swords, knives and other sharp weapons Danny didn’t recognize, it was also full of pet supplies which was a bit of a confusing contrast but Danny wasn’t one to judge. The boy began to measure and study him which made Danny’s pulse skyrocket, he’d never liked being studied it reminded him of labs, and nightmares where his parents pulled him apart.

Eventually the boy set him atop a fancy looking nightstand propping him against the base of a lamp, and then left. This left Danny with an interesting dilemma. The boy would definitely notice if he left and Danny really didn’t want to deal with this family searching for him when he was like this. Hopefully the boy would get tired of him quickly and he could make a break for it but for now…for now he’d stay.

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The boy was back, he stumbled into the room eyes dropping as he made his way towards the wardrobe on one end of the room. The boy rustled around inside it for a bit before snagging some pajamas and then stumbling to the connected bedroom bathroom. There was about 15 minutes of water running then ten minutes of stumbling about and then the bathroom door opened and the boy staggered over to his bed looking just as tired as Danny did after a hard night of patrol.

The boy flopped atop his bed and in moments was fast asleep. Danny felt a wave of sympathy at the sight. No wonder his friends were always so worried for him, if that’s what he looked like all the time. He’d have to apologize to them, though that left him wondering what exactly the boy had been doing so late to make him so tired.

For about an hour the boy lay still as a corpse expect for his steady breathing and Danny himself had almost slipped into the weird half sleep this body allowed him to take. When he heard it. A whimper. At first he thought he’d been imaging things and then another whimper filled the air, and the boy twitched in his sleep. Was the boy-? the boy let out a sad little cry and twitched again turning half over and revealing his face to Danny. His little face was drawn and looked pained and Danny could swear he saw tears trying to squeeze from between the boys clenched eyelids. Then the boy let out another whimper and Danny couldn’t take it any longer.

He leapt from the nightstand and approached the boy wrapping his long limbs around the boys head and began to hum with his core. Humming a song Jazz would sing to him whenever the nightmares got to be too much.

The boy startled at first and Danny was afraid he’d wake up, but then the boy settled and a pair of arms reached up and wrapped around Danny’s middle. Danny couldn’t stop the small sound of fear and surprise as he was pulled against the boys chest. But when the boy whimpered back in response Danny resumed his humming. He eventually dozed off and if he snuggled his head into the crook between the boys shoulder and head? Well it was the least the boy could do after basically kidnapping him.

***********************

Damien awoke feeling the most rested he had in a long time. He moved to stretch and then realized something was wrapped in his arms and something soft was between his shoulder and neck. He looked down and near jumped out of his skin when he realized the marionette from yesterday had at some point last night ended up in his arms. His arms were wrapped tight around it and its small head with its soft hair was what he’d felt between his neck and shoulder. He sat up blushing furiously and glancing around to make sure none of his siblings had entered and seen his moment of weakness. No one was around.

His sudden movement had sent the doll tumbling across his bed sheets in a tangle of limbs and the clanking of porcelain. Damien felt a flash of guilt fill him. It wasn’t the dolls fault he was so jumpy. It wasn’t the dolls fault he’d grabbed it while throughly half asleep last night. Gently he picked the doll up and untangled its limbs. Then he hesitated. He….he really didn’t want to leave behind the doll, for some reason holding it felt safe and it had helped him sleep well last night and well….Grayson had gotten him so many stuffed animals over the years and they’d all gotten lost or damaged at some point.

His last one had been enchanted by Zatanna with a protection and calming charm and he’d taken it to school in his back pack and worn the miniature stuffed frog on his student ID card lanyard until it had eventually burst into flames when a curse was sent his way and the little frog protected him.

He’d insisted to Grayson that he didn’t want another after that, insisting that a new one would just get destroyed like all the others. He’d certainly never had a stuffed animal or toy as large as this one, but…Grayson was always encouraging him to act like a child, to embrace what was left of his childhood. Mind made up, Damien carefully propped the doll up in his bed so it was sitting prim and proper and when to get dressed.

When he returned he picked up the doll and held it close carefully tucking one of his arms under its armpits as he held it close to left side. The doll hung loose and limp but its head was face outward so that it could see the manor as he began to make his trek to the breakfast nook.

As they went along he pointed things out to his new companion and even introduced it to Alfred the cat when the feline came to great him in the hall. The cat seemed fascinated by the doll and for a brief moment Damien was worried the cat would try and scratch at his new companion but Alfred simply sniffed the doll once and licked its porcelain face before moving on.

As Damien walked he pondered what he should name the doll. Grayson insisted that all toys he received deserved a name. He’d named his Frog Ayman. So what should he name this one. Based on the way it was designed Damien assumed it was meant to be a boy so his doll was a he. So what name would fit his new companion. Well he could always name him based on his appearance Adham for his hair, or perhaps Azraq for his eyes. But those didn’t feel right. The doll had brought him peace last night so perhaps… right before he reached the kitchen Damien held the doll up so he could meet its blue eyed gaze.

I shall call you Damir it means one who gives peace. I think it suits you. Then nodding his head satisfied he strode into the kitchen his new doll once again tucked into his side.

Pennyworth merely raised any eyebrow at him as he sat at the table placing his doll in the seat beside him and Alfred went on preparing breakfast. Tim who had been staring at him since he came in merely sighed and slumped against the table before speaking his voice tired.

“What’s its name this time.”

Damien sniffed but answered it was good for Drake to ask as the last few of Damien companions he had not called them by their names and Damien had had to avenge their honor. Drake was learning that was good.

“His name is Damir and you shall treat him with respect pretender.”

Drake just sighed and looked at the doll over the rim of his coffee mug.

“Morning Damir welcome to the family, I pray you last longer than Damien’s last companion.”

Damien bristled.

“Do not speak of Ayman! He lived a worthy life and sacrificed himself to a noble cause!”

Drake nodded and drained half his coffee mug.

“I didn’t say he didn’t demon bear I was simply letting Damir know I hope he lived a long life.”

Before Damien could continue the argument Alfred swept in and laid a plate of tofu eggs and vegan bacon in front of him.

“Please no arguing at the breakfast table young sirs”

Damien grumbled but subsided. Besides for all that Drake wasn’t polite he doubted the imbecile had meant harm. He to hoped that Damir would last longer then any of his predecessors. Though with how delicate the doll was he doubted it.

-to be continued-

I had to go do something else but dang I have way more thoughts to this au, I’m far from finished.

DP x DC Prompt

Danny was sent to the DC universe to save him from the GIW and the Fenton's by Clockwork

Doesn't know what to do here, but as an Experienced Vigilante:tm: he takes note of all the INexperienced vigilante's causing more danger than they realize.

Danny takes it upon himself to act as a low level villain so he can secretly train these vigilante's to be stronger. One day, a Bigger Villain decides to Fuck Around and Find Out.

All his "enemies" realize Danny could've folded them anytime he wanted when he effortlessly defeats the Big Bad.

When he first saw these so-called vigilantes, Danny was not impressed. Rampant property damage, people left in unsafe situations, bad prioritization, and easily getting distracted from immediate threats by smaller ones. It's honestly a miracle that no one has died yet, though plenty had gone to the hospital when they shouldn't have needed to.

Danny tried to talk to them, give them some pointers from someone who learned the hard way, but they very rudly told him to mind his own business. Danny knew when he wasn't wanted.

That didn't mean he would actually butt-out. It just meant a change in tactics

It was surprisingly fun to design his villian-sona. A dramatic cape and some bright green accents, and of course a mask. Danny looked pretty good, if he did say so himself. Now, the more important part was how to get them to be better at damage control without being obvious.

The first night Danny went out, he decided to work on people first rescuing. A quick run through the city, shutting down some minor crime and one other villian, left the night open for his heros to focus on their lesson.

Danny grabbed a man who was harassing a few ladies and hoisted him and his car up to the top of a building. Carefully, he set it so it looked as if he was the only thing keeping it from tipping over the edge of the roof and began a loud villain speech and monologs to the night. Nobody noticed.

Danny was starting to understand why his rouges had been so flashy and loud.

He asked the terrified man in the car if he had a cell phone. The man mutely nodded, and Danny told him to call 911 and gave him the address for the police to find them.

Soon, the police arrived with lights, sirens, and firetrucks. They tried to get in the building and onto the roof, but Danny had made sure there was no roof access. They tried to negotiate with him, but he wasn't interested in what they had to say. He was waiting for the heroes. 20 minutes later, they showed up. Danny heard the policemen on the ground groan in annoyance when the flashy bunch arrived. He added a mental note to have a stealth mission for them in the future.

They shouted and immediately attacked, with no regard to the man's safety or the fact that Danny was holding him onto the roof. The car started to teeter on the edge, and he had to break away for a second to "accidentally" bump the car back on the roof a bit. He heard the sigh on relief from the men and women on the ground.

The only thing these kids seemed to be able to do right was fight. They attacked well and didn't get in each other's way, and even had a few attacks that combined their skills. But they all attacked. Not one broke off to rescue the man.

How to get them to focus on the rescue..... Danny tried to feign an attack towards the car, but they simply kept fighting him as they had before, not even trying to redirect his attack. He declared that they would never be able to take back his hostage and they just yelled back that he would never take a hostage again once he was in jail. He even whispered a quick "the hostage is in danger!" To one of the teammates, but they just gave him a weird look and kept attacking. Honestly, nothing was getting through, and the longer they fought, the harder it was for Danny to keep the damage to a minimum. Finally, he decided to be as direct as he dared.

"Look at you, you pathetic losers! You can't even rescue a single hostage! To call yourself heroes when you chose violence over saving a civilian in danger. It's disgusts me! I am Exposé, and I am here to reveal all the failings in the hero system!"

Danny had planned this speech out before, but he felt kinda uncomfortable with how close to the truth it was. He sounded villainous. But as long as no one was hurt and the heroes learned to be better and safer, he would keep that image. But he sure hoped these kids were quick learners.

As soon as Danny finished speaking, one of the heroes darted off and carefully flew the car with the man inside down to the police waiting on the ground. Good, it was about time. He kept fighting a minute longer but then pretended to take a hit and run off in defeat. They chased after him, but Danny easily lost them.

Over the next few months, Exposé made many appearances. Each time, he would shout about whatever failing Danny was focusing on that night, and the heroes would be determined to prove him wrong and fix it. They started to remember previous lessons and became semi competent. They even began working with the police and not in spite of them. Danny was very proud of the progress they had made, especially since they were handling their other villians better, too!

But the day HE showed up, Danny knew he needed to step in. This wasn't the ordinary goon with powers and a gimmick. This was a serial killer with powers and a dangerously high IQ. At first, Danny tried to act as unseen support, letting the heroes do their thing. But each trap he found was more dangerous and more tailored to each hero. Each battle the kids got into ended with them running for their lives covered in scrapes and burns. The only reason they were still alive was because this villain was playing with them. And Danny wasn't sure how long that would last. He wasn't going to find out.

The next time HE showed up, Danny was waiting.

Upon finding Danny blocking his path, the villain began a speech.

"Exposé! I have heard of your efforts to bring heroes failing to light. Do you come to witness their biggest failing yet? To fail to save this city they claim to protect? Do you wish to join me in their downfall?"

Behind him, Danny heard the kids show up, still limping from the last battle.

"Don't listen to him, Exposé! He'll just betray you and kill you later! He's too strong, you'll just get hurt!"

Danny was touched that they were worried for him. But it was time for all this nonsense to end. Honestly, the Justice League should have been here to handle this, not leave someone on this level for kids! Maybe he will have to help them learn some hero manners next. But that was a future Danny problem, now it was time to take care of this trash.

Without speaking to either side, Danny flew up and smacked the villain out of the air. He proceeded to

W A I L

at him till HE passed out, and then neatly froze him. One mentally unstable criminal to-go. Danny even froze a little bow on top just because he could.

Behind Danny, there were whispers as the heros peeked over the edge of the building, looking down at the 2 of them. He grabbed the frozen villain and flew back up to them. The kids backed up to give him spaced, unsure of what to do.

"Thanks.... " the leader said, on guard in a way they hadn't been scince Danny's first week fighting them.

Danny nodded and just set the villain down. He gave them instructions to have him moved to the meta cell in jail and under the highest security, and that HE would thaw in an hour. The kids took the frozen person and eventually turned to go. Then one turned back and asked,

"Why haven't you beaten us? You obviously could, you took that guy out is seconds, and have obviously been hinding some of your powers. We are literally no match for you. Why?"

Danny just replied,

"How would you learn if I just beat you? And we are doing under water rescues next week, so if you haven't thought to prepare for that before now, you had best get on it."

And then Danny disappeared.

Exposé didn't have to stick to one city for long. While his public image was that of a villain on the run after being beat a few too many times, whispers started to travel through young heroes. Was he a villain, or the strangest anti-hero they'd ever seen? None of his hostages were ever hurt thanks to his careful planning, but in a way no one could notice until after he fled. Some heroes ignored and doubted the rumors making their way through the grapevine, and they were the hardest to teach, but Exposé did anyway. Even switching up his fighting styles on occasion to keep them on their toes.

He learned a lot about this new world this way, too. About the Meta gene and the acts that protected them, the public image of Meta's that rose and dipped dependant on if a new Meta hero showed up, or a villain.

He had no real reason to show up in places like Superman's city, where the hero was never more than a moment away. He did test some of the surrounding areas and was glad to find some minor heroes and vigilantes that used Super as a template, making sure to show up fast, and call in bigger guns as needed. He spent some time with them working with the natural tech-blackout properties his ghost half granted him, showing them they could take bigger fights than they thought.

Eventually, he made his way to Gotham, but he knew better than to go in bat swinging the hornets nest like usual. Or... bringing a flashlight to a cave? But some of them were birds, not bats....

Regardless of the anamalia kingdom the heroes hailed from, he realized after a few days of flying around undetected that there wasn't much these guys weren't good at. Most of them seemed older, which helped, but there was definitely one child on the team, and two or three he suspected were young enough to be in high school or college. And yet, it seemed like at least two of his three concerns were out in full force every day. Signal at least have a daytime shift most of the time, so Danny gave him a pass. Maybe he had online classes. But with how often all of them were on patrol, he had to do Something.

He couldn't go in as Exposé though, this city was protected by "The World's Greatest Detective" who probably already tracked his path to have Gotham next on his list. The only question was, did the whispers reach Gotham's protector, or was he unaware of Exposé's underlying goals?

A good excuse arose when one of the first teams he fought had a transition of power; a new leader stepped into the light as another moved on. Gotham could wait a moment as Exposé came back to exact his revenge on a team already struggling with new dynamics. It didn't take long to get them settled in, though, after more experienced teammates convinced their new leader of his intentions. Three weeks later, he got himself cornered on a building overlooking an outlet to sea, and baited a hero into sending him sailing over the side. He felt a bit bad at the look in the teens face at what they'd done, so he retracted his mask a bit, enough to give them a wink, before falling the rest of the way to his "doom" during an unfortunately inconvenient blackout, so it took time for anyone to try and dredge up his body. They never found anything, of course. Danny had given a nice dramatic death but not dead excuse for himself as he tucked away one villain persona for another. It was time to take on Gotham.

By the time he arrived, it was nearing finals in the local colleges and standardized testing time in school, and he trailed the heroes for a few more days as they became frantic, trying to study on patrol. This was ridiculous! Batman had the largest team of heroes of any one city, even if many rotated out to other areas. Surely he could let some of his team members take a few days off for school.

This would take more planning than just a different type of rescue every few days. He would have to hit hard, from as many angles as possible. It was at this point he realized he may be testing Batman more than any of the younger vigilantes. If the Bat was in charge, he had to take accountability for his team, in and out of patrol.

So he tossed his villain-sona to the side, temporarily. He had to throw the Bat off after all, and instead started recruiting some low-level street thugs to help cause some chaos, and start whispers of someone new gathering power. He hit targets and committed crimes relevant to what he could overhear them studying on patrols.

A regular break-in at the Gotham Museum? Gotham PD can handle it. Just kidding, have this riddle on how to diffuse the bomb based off your history flashcards.

City wakes up to gas tanks mounted outside of the police building set to release with no way to diffuse? What a coincidence they're clearly labeled with what chemical is inside, and the vigilante just learned that misting them with regular H2O upon release will render it harmless!

Sudden challenges like these kept appearing, the team theorizing who was behind them. Riddler? Baffler? Cluemaster?

(Danny was embarrassed by the naming conventions the rogues took on in this city, and he used to fight people called The Lunch Lady.)

All the while, regular crime ramped up. Non-violent, as per Danny's anonymous request, but it put stress and surpise on the team. Which mundane crime report over the scanners would be a cover for something more sinister?

He decided to bring everything together two nights before Finals started (he had to give them at least one good night's sleep before testing started). He left clues and crimes all over the city, eventually getting the smallest Robin separated from the rest, even for a moment. The kid was exhausted even if his snappy attitude argued otherwise, and he kept muttering historical facts about notable scientists. He was easy for Danny to take out, even with the sword. (Who gave this kid a sword!?) He removed any trackers from his suit and set his earpiece by the ledge where he had snagged him from.

He didn't physically hurt the kid, just used a trick he learned from Nocturn that could temporarily put him to sleep. The kid needed it anyway. By the time he woke up, Danny was back in his Exposé costume and patiently explained his plan to the stab-happy Robin. He had him tied up and hanging over a piece of live, evil looking machinery in a warehouse. This city was weird.

He had left an extra line of a the puzzle to each crime he caused that night that would lead the kid's team straight to them, but without trackers on the kid, it may take some time for them to realize they were clues. So after showing Robin his portals and explaining he was in no danger, he went over some flashcards with the kid, thinking up a few mnemonic devices to help him remember arbitrary dates and personal facts.

Eventually, Danny felt someone step on the property and hid himself away. Hell, even Robin played along, starting to writhe and fight at the ropes, which quickly started fraying. Red Robin was first to burst into the room and reassure the young Robin, followed by the Bat himself. He had placed a few grunts around the site to make this convincing, so he assumed that's where the others were. As soon as Red Robin rushed to the platform to save their smaller counterpart, Danny started speaking. Keeping himself hidden in the shadows, he barked orders from the catwalk above.

"Ah-Ah Ah. Careful. That's not how this game goes tonight." Their attention shifted to him. "You break the rules, he gets dropped. You've played my game enough to find this place, so you best behave."

"You kidnapped one of our own, and yet still hide in the shadows. This game is over." Batman challenged him, so he pushed back a little bit. A push of the button on the control panel next to him lowered Robin toward the machine. Even if he somehow swung out of the way of the moving parts, the drop was too far for someone with no grapple hook or place to grab onto, and they were still too far from him to catch him. Robin stayed stock still as his rope slipped just a bit more off the hook at the moment, and Red Robin spoke up.

"Okay, we get it. What is your puzzle? Or should we say Riddle?"

"Hm? I suppose you could call them riddles, sure." He turned on a spotlight that hid himself more against the contrast, and illuminated three vats of chemicals. Each had a valve on the bottom to open onto the rope Robin hung from.

"Two of these are filled with very real, very caustic chemicals, that will burn through that rope before you can say 'Hero'. The third is a chemical that can't exist, and therefore empty. You choose which vat to open, and whether Robin lives, or dies." He gestured to the second control panel before them.

Batman immediately tried to use his tech to solve the compound equation written on each lever, only to find it fizzle out thanks to Danny's natural EMP properties, chanelled directly at them.

"Ah-ah. Thats cheating~" he taunted, lowering Robin a tad more, who gasped just audibly. Nice touch.

Red Robin stepped up next, running his fingers across the compounds. "How long do we have?"

"Hm?" Danny actually hadn't thought of that. "Oh, I suppose until I get bored. Does that help?" He inched Robin a tad closer to death, and Red quickly grabbed a nearby abandonded pad of paper and pen, scribbling out which compound could actually exist as written.

Danny yawned dramatically; other vigilantes had made it to the warehouse, but not inside yet.

"There!" Danny glanced down at the young hero who had solved the compound.

"Are you sure?" The vigilante's lips tightened, doubting himself only a moment. "Then pull the lever." Danny taunted, and a look passed between the two vigilantes as Red Robin gripped the lever corresponding closest to Robin. They still had no outside comms, no backup had found them. It was just down to this choice.

Red Robin pulled the lever, and an alarm sounded as the machine whirred to life, opening the valve.

Which promptly flodded their vision in bright green.

They both raced to try and reach Robin, but his screams were drowned by the rushing liquid following his dissent toward the machine below.

Danny, of course, opened up a small portal last minute, and just like he was told, Robin righted himself and went board-straight to fit through it. That wasn't what Batman and Red Robin saw, though. Danny carefully caught Robin as he came through the other side of the portal, setting him down while they were still distracted.

"Kinda feel bad." Danny started, leaning on the railing with the littlest bird, who really just seemed to be his age. "I mean, the kid was technically right."

Robin turned to him, waiting for his word to be able to move back to his team. "You rigged it? That is not as honorable as you claim to be." Danny just shrugged, making sure his Exposé mask was in place.

"Tomato Tomato." Exposé ducked as a batarang flew over his head. They were after him now that they couldn't find Robin. "Shall we?" He handed back the boy's grapple hook, who quickly rushed down to them, and the others who had finally made it up to the platform.

"Robin!" Batman rushed to his youngest vigilante, who assured him he was fine.

"How did you escape!?" Red Robin exclaimed.

"He did not."

All eyes turned to Danny as he flew down to meet them, touching down on the metal and taking a few steps to catch himself. Their weapons were drawn, but it didn't bother him.

"Robin fell because of your mistake, I simply didn't let him suffer for your actions."

"Why." Batman's voice was so deep he practically growled the word.

"Wait, I know you. You're-" Danny cut off Signal with a theatrical bow.

"Exposé, at your service. And you all have failed terribly this past week."

"You set all those traps, those bombs!?" Exposé nodded ad Red Robin. "Why!?"

"Because you are all great vigilantes. But your mentor has let you down by giving you all the wrong priorities."

Batman growled again. "What priorities, exactly?"

Danny threw his hands in the air comically. "Three of your team members are in school!!! They have finals coming up and they're still out on patrol! The little one was so tired I almost put him down for a nap waiting for you all!" Robin tutted at this, but Danny just put his hands on his hips at him.

The team was rightfully thrown off by his explanation.

"I go around, testing and pushing young and inexperienced vigilantes to know their limits, learn to work as a team, and get more people saved than killed. There's nothing along those lines I can teach you.

Batman though, you should be ashamed. Red Robin has been studying compounds during patrol for the last week and couldn't-"

"You were following us on patrol?" Signal asked incredulously, and Exposé sorta shrugged his shoulder noncommittally. Focusing his attention back on Batman, he jabbed a finger his direction.

"You should be ashamed. These kids are in school, they should not be beating people up on a weekday! And why does that one have a sword!"

The group looked to each other awkwardly at his little rant, some obviously agreeing through body language.

"You put the lives of Gotham at risk because of this? Those gas tanks-" Batman started

"Had such a strangely coincidental timer corresponding to that shoddy sprinkler on the corner." Red Robin blinked, and Danny saw something click in his head.

"The bomb, the museum would have lost-"

"Yeah, that wasn't even a real bomb. Did you even notice that? They were saran wrapped bricks of cream cheese. All of the officers on site were hired goons who lost the evidence the moment you left. And yet you let Robin deactivate it based off a question from his upcoming history test." That got a snicker out of Spoiler, and more than a few shot her a look.

"Face it Batsy, you've gotten irresponsible with your team. I pushed you all harder and harder and instead of letting them take the back seat because they have their own lives to take care of, you let them keep fighting to the point of exhaustion, which was the only way I was able to get Robin in the first place."

Batman was silent, but Danny didn't really care. He didn't mind if he didn't get a confession or apology. He'd be watching for changes anyway. But it was getting kinda awkward.

"So, do better." He patted his chest and gave them a peace sign before walking away, quickly getting a rope tangled around his wrist.

"Where do you think you're going? We aren't just going to let you walk away without facing justice."

Danny sighed at the bat, turning around.

"You are, actually. For several reasons." He walked toward them. "One, because I didn't hurt anybody. Two, because you let Robin fall. Three, because you can't touch me." He lifted his wrist and made it intangible, watching Batman's face as the metal rope fell through him to the ground.

"If you think being a Meta makes you untouchable in Gotham, you're wrong." Danny admittedly stumbled a bit when a collar clamped onto his neck, shot from one of the other teammembers who were slowly closing in.

"That would be true, if I was a Meta." Once again, he turned on his intangibility, this time for his whole body, and kept it.

"Do you want to know why I do what I do? Why I go around, antagonizing children who run around in spandex and call themselves heroes?" Danny stepped toward Batman again, and the others raised weapons, ready to strike at his word. Raising his hands to his mask, he slowly, dramatically, removed it, showing his sickly green skin, litchenberg scars creeping up his neck to his left temple.

"I do this because I was a hero, once. A child. And. I. Died. Not even you can arrest a ghost, Batman."

The horrified looks in the room gave him confidence that the message would be heard. Putting the mask back on, he walked straight through Batman before dissapearing from sight.

Batman couldn’t get the boys face out of his head, the horrible chill that had creeped into his bones when the boy had walked through him, and he most certainly couldn’t get the dead faces of his children out of his head. Yes they all had come back, but the boy…the dead boy, was right. He pushed his children far too hard.

“I do this because I was a hero once. A child. And, I died. Not even you can arrest a ghost, Batman.”

A pale face covered in glowing scars, eyes hollow and empty except for a glow in the sockets, skin that flickered and showed bones. Bruce didn’t have to be a detective to know that however the boy died it wasn’t pretty. Add on to that fact that according to Constantine ghosts of Exposés caliber were extremely rare and only existed if enough pain, misery, or fear was felt….however the kid died, was violent and most defiantly painful.

Which was why he was down on the bat computer far past patrol searching. Searching for a face that matched Exposé. He’d run the boys face against all his databases starting with America branching to Europe, searching his world data base when nothing came up, and finally the League servers to see if he could find anything.

The bat computer had to be hooked up to several extra processors and outside computers in order to process the sheer amount of faces he was scanning against the boy, and yet there was still no matches. Not in the last fifty years. He could go further back but digital records got extremely sparse by that point and he doubted he’d find anything. There were a few close matches but none with the exact same bone structure from the flickering almost unrecognizable photos he’d managed to drag from the corrupted cowl footage.

A soft shuffling step interrupted his thoughts and he turned. It was Tim his third son was wraithlike in the dark, and he stared into Bruce’s eyes with his eerie crystalline gaze. The harsh stare he’d used for years before the others showed up. A reprimand and a firm accusation all in one. It was the expression Tim as Robin would give him when he’d go too far.

He grunted and Tim sighed.

“Don’t you take that tone with me Bruce, you already have a contingency, several in fact. you already know his death wasn’t pleasant, and you already know his intentions and motives. Let dead dogs, or in this case, dead boys lie.”

Bruce grunted again and Tim rolled his eyes, his posture sharpening becoming more there. When he next met Bruce’s gaze there was something hard glittering in his eyes, something that Bruce had learned over the years to fear.

“Drop it dad. I’m all for investigating and even stalking heaven knows I do enough of it myself, but something tells me that looking into this without Exposé ‘s explicit permission is going to end horribly. You told me once you trusted my instincts, is that still true or did you lie to me.”

Something in Bruce’s heart shattered, he knew only bits and pieces of what had happened during his unplanned trip into the time stream, but he knew enough to know Tim’s trust issues and paranoia, which had always been bad, had worsened into something near manic while he was gone.

Was his search into this broken ghost of a boy he didn’t even know, worth what remained of his tenuous relationship with his third son? The answer was no. For all that Bruce struggled to understand his children he knew that Tim had been passed over far too many times in favor of others. It was time he stood by his words to Tim all those years ago.

He closed the file marking it as complete, he shut down the search systems, then after a moment of hesitation. He deleted all his theories on Exposés death. Finally he locked the computer and turned to face Tim.

“Your right I do trust your instincts son. Now chum you up for some hot chocolate?”

Tim snorted his gaze softened and something vulnerable was in his gaze.

“As long as I get to make it, I’m not facing Alfred’s wrath because I let you in the kitchen.”

Bruce laughed, and then hesitantly he stretched out an arm. Tim stared at him for a long moment before hesitantly, slowly he slid into Bruce’s side. Bruce wrapped his arms around Tim, gently slowly so as not to startle him, and was careful not to squeeze too tight, to not scare his boy away.

For a long horrible moment Tim was stiff and tense in his arms and then abruptly he melted into Bruce’s arms, he clutched at Bruce’s shirt and Bruce felt something well inside his chest at how small his boy was. He could feel boney ribs and shoulders pressed against him, thin twig like limbs and frame wrapped entirely in his grasp. He forgot sometimes just how small Tim was and every time he remembered something in him ached like a bruise that could never quite heal. His boy, his darling precious little boy.

Far above them in the distant most parts of the cave ceiling a boy with glowing green eyes smiled softly at the sight of the two of them, his teeth were sharp, and his eye sockets empty voids of anything but two bright pricks of green light. Step two of his plan: get the Bat to talk to his kids, was going nicely.