Chapter Text
“So, what’s the emergency?” Green Lantern demanded, looking around at the other confused faces in the room and then back to Flash who was pacing nervously at the front. At least that’s what Lantern assumed the red blur flickering back and forth was.
The speedster came to a stop, facing the room with a worried expression on his face. Hands wringing in agitation.
“We have a problem,” he revealed at last. “With Nightwing. I don’t know if we can trust him.”
A distressed murmur spread through the room. Nightwing was the newest recruit to the Justice League, having only been sworn in last week, and everyone’s experience with the young man so far had been pleasant. He had been good natured and cordial in dealing with the other heroes and efficient and competent in performing his duties. The idea that he might not be what he seemed was distressing to everyone.
“What’s the problem?” Wonder Woman asked, cutting to the chase.
“Shouldn’t Batman be here?” Superman asked, taking note of the Gothamites absence. If there were an urgent issue with a new team member it would make sense that their most security-oriented member be present.
“That’s part of the problem,” Flash told them, looking even more nervous than before.
Everyone sat up straighter, suddenly far more alert. “Has something happened? Is Batman alright?”
“He’s fine…sort of…for now…I guess…I don’t know really…I just…”
“Flash!” Black Canary snapped. “What happened?”
Flash took a deep steadying breath. “Last night Nightwing showed up for his first monitor duty with Batman,” he began to explain. Everyone nodded in acknowledgement, having known that the session was scheduled, where the Bat would give the new recruit some initial training in operating the systems and a lecture on the importance of the task despite how tedious it was. They’d all been there.
“and?”
“Nightwing showed up five minutes late.”
Several members of the team winced. Showing up late to monitor duty was a cardinal sin in Batman’s books especially for your first day.
“Bet he got an earful for that,” Green arrow whistled in sympathy.
“That’s just the thing,” Flash told them, pacing once more, this time at a normal human speed. “Bat’s didn’t even mention it. Just told him to take a seat. Like he didn’t mind.”
Several sets of eyes widened in surprise. “Wow, he must have been in a really good mood,” Aquaman noted earning nods of agreement from the others.
“That’s not all though.”
“I’d hope not,” Green Lantern muttered. Several people shot him warning looks for the attitude but no one disagreed. Flash ought to have a better reason than that to call an emergency meeting.
“Nightwing, he wasn’t just late…he brought Starbucks with him. Coffee and doughnuts.”
“He brought food and drink? Into the monitor room?”
“And Batman let him?”
Now everyone was looking a little shell shocked.
“Didn’t say a word about it.”
“Damn.”
“Maybe Bat’s got laid recently?” Green Arrow joked, earning a few laughs and a smack to the back of his head from Black Canary.
“It gets worse.”
“Worse?” Martian Manhunter prompted.
“Flash, get to the damn point.” Green Lantern also prompted, far more impatiently.
“He brought the Starbucks for everyone. A latte for himself, a tea for me, and a coffee which he handed to Batman. Just offered it to him right there in the monitor room,” Flash hissed, face pale with shock at the memory, “and Batman…he…he drank it!”
A hush fell over the room as everyone took a moment to process that information before the panic set in.
Superman was out of his seat and hovering in distressed little circles. Wonder woman was grasping the edge of the table in front of her hard enough to dent it and everyone else was in frantic conversation about how impossible that was.
Batman, accepting an unsolicited drink from a new recruit who hasn’t even cleared the probation period yet? Preposterous. It was unheard of. Heck, Batman still wouldn’t accept food from some of the people in that room even now, and they’d known him for years. Though in the case of Black Canary and Aquaman specifically that was more due to their lack of cooking skills than Batman’s paranoia.
“Flash, you were right to call us,” Superman declared. “Clearly something isn’t right.”
“He must have done something to him right?” Lantern asked, “Must have known that of everyone on the team Batman would be the most likely to discover if he was up to no good, so he’s done something to neutralise him?”
“Mind control?” Black Canary suggested.
“Hypnosis?”
“Maybe he’s not even Batman anymore? What if Nightwing replaced him with a copy?”
“What if Batman isn’t the only one? If he got to him, then he could have gotten to any one of us and we might not even know. There could be a Nightwing sleeper spy here right now!”
The room was quickly descending into hysteria with every new theory.
“Everyone, calm down!” Aquaman snapped, realising that someone needed to be the voice of reason right now and for some damn reason it looked like it would have to be him for once. “Obviously something freaky is going on and we need to tread carefully but let’s not panic, ok? We need a plan, and since our main strategist is clearly compromised, we are going to have to figure this out without him.”
“What do we do? What do we do?”
“Nothing,” Wonder Woman decided, earning frustrated glares from multiples sides. “We need to understand the threat better first,” she continued, “I say we act normal and monitor them both for further evidence that something is amiss. Then when we have more data, we gather together once more and decide how to proceed.”
It was a solid plan. Or at least the best plan any of them could come up with at that time, so they all agreed to go along with it.
“Just make sure to act natural,” Superman told everyone. “We don’t want Nightwing to know we are on to him.”
…
Several days later in the Batcave.
“The team are acting weird,” Bruce announced as soon as Dick arrived, having been summoned to the manor by his old mentor.
“Oh, thank God you think so too, I thought I was going crazy.”
“What have you noticed?”
“They’ve been watching me like hawks. All of them. Not just Hawkgirl. In fact, she’s been the least hawklike of the lot recently.”
“Have they given any indication why?”
“No. Everything was fine one day and then weird the next. Like I was on trial or something.”
“I’ve experienced the same. The team have been unusually cagey with me lately. Refusing to share information. Cutting me out of meetings. Some members of the League have begun avoiding me and others seem to never leave me alone.”
Superman in particular had been on him like a rash; acting nervous and unsure like he was treading on eggshells but refusing to admit anything was wrong when pressed.
“Do you think something has happened to them?”
“It’s unsure at this point. We should keep monitoring them for signs of unusual behaviour until we can determine the cause.”
Dick nodded. “Sounds like a plan.”