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.
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.
