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Chapter Text

Night of the Autumnal Gala, Abandoned Warehouse, Trenton, New Jersey

A striking, somewhat exotic looking woman in a green dress leaned over a multi-screen computer set up that had recently been installed in this temporary center of operations. She glowered at some of the feeds flashing across the screen, but kept her feelings bottled up, not keen on giving anything away to her subordinates that were flitting around the room. There would be time to hash everything out in the open soon enough.

“Report,” Talia commanded as she stood and turned around to see a kneeling ninja. Onyx was one of the few operatives she knew to be more loyal to her personally, rather than to the League of Assassins as a whole or to her father. It didn’t mean Talia trusted the other woman, but it did mean she was willing to count on her to play her part in what was to come.

“The Circle of Six have received their orders and will be in Gotham by the designated date,” Onyx, an extremely fit dark-skinned woman with very short hair, answered directly. “They are as yet uniformed of the operation’s objective but will be prepared for conflict.The other assets are taking more time given the care we have to take moving them, but I assure you all will be ready in two months’ time. Oh, and the contract for the outsider has been paid,” she added after a moment with obvious distaste.

“Acceptable,” Talia responded. While a few lieutenants like Onyx knew the plan, most of the operatives involved with her plan were unaware this was an unsanctioned operation. She fully intended to achieve her goals as a fait accompli before her father was any the wiser. However, that did mean they had to move more slowly, and be subtle moving things into place.

After more than a century of being the dutiful daughter, Talia’s frustrations with her father’s unending rule were reaching a breaking point. He knew she had long desired to lead the League of Assassins herself, and while he encouraged her ambitions in a Darwinist sort of way, she suspected she would never truly ascend to be the Head of the Demon if she let things continue as they were.

Her father may talk about wanting an heir, or even play with the idea of stepping away from the organization from time to time, but she held no illusions. Ras was immortal, born of the Lazarus Pit, and he would long continue to cling to his power. Especially since, while he was happy to have female assassins among their ranks, Ras had the chauvinism of the ancient era to which he was born and scoffed at the idea of having to settle for a female heir. It was why his inability to sire anything but daughters was perhaps his greatest regret.

It was also what made it so infuriating that he was now favoring her prodigal elder half-sister Nyssa, who had just returned to the fold after a long absence. He was even planning to place the unworthy traitor in charge of the day-to-day operations of the League while he recovered for a time following his upcoming planned refresh in the Pit. She could take his insistence of looking elsewhere for a male heir but refused to come second to another woman.

“And the weapon?” Talia asked while keeping one eye on a lower ranked assassin currently unboxing a crate of weapons on the other side of the room. The fact that she had developed her own shadow organization, Leviathan, within the League was a closely guarded secret, but she couldn’t ignore the possibility her father had become aware and had spies watching even now. In so, she was careful to make sure no one seemed to be taking too much interest in her conversation with Onyx. If they were…. Well, theirs was a dangerous business.

Onyx shifted, her face momentarily flashing discomfort before she schooled her features again. “Nuvo-Gen assures me the weapon will be fully developed in time.” Onyx’s eyes darkened, “these scientists are impetuous and speak above their station, but-“

“Hamilton and the rest will learn their place in time, or suffer the consequences,” Talia interrupted dismissively. The important thing was that the child would be delivered on time. It was an ignominious action she’d had to take, but one the traitor had forced upon her. She turned back to the monitor that showed some talking heads blathering about her once-beloved’s false life. “I have business to attend to with my father, but I trust you to monitor the situation and make sure all is in readiness upon my return.” She would keep his eyes away from Gotham and what she had planned; after all, when you were planning to stab the demon in the back, it helped if he didn’t know it was coming.

“As you wish,” Onyx replied. The Fangs of Demon were finally drawing close around the throat of Gotham.

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Wayne Sibling Chat:

DUKE: I am happy to report Marinette has gone from total gaming newb, to being entirely addicted to Stardew Valley.

CARRIE: Duke, brother of mine, I need you to stop trying to leet speak in your texts.

MARI: I mean, addicted is a strong term, but it is really fun! My farmer has so many hats!! I don’t get why they bothered adding in all these romance options though.

HARPER: Well, it’s optional so if you don’t want to mess with the whole marriage mechanic you don’t have to.

DICK: Yeah! If romance isn’t your thing, it’s still a fun little farming sim. OOH we should start a multiplayer family farm!!! 😀 🤠

DAMIAN: We will not be doing that.

JASON: Seconded. Motion carried, Dickwad. 

DICK: 😢

MARI: What, no. I meant why, did they bother to add so many options when Haley is obviously the only correct choice? 

HARPER: … How can you say that when Abigail is right there!?!

DUKE: Uh, I think you meant to type Maru.

DICK: What about Leah and Sebastian???

TIM: I’d do the family server if we play Terraria instead.

STEPH: What, Tim, we aren’t talking about that anymore. We’re talking about Mari ignoring the awesomeness of Emily.

JASON: Why do I have to be in this chat?

CASS: I also picked Haley. ☀️ 

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Wayne Manor, Morning After the Gala, September 2nd

Selina held her mug of coffee up to her nose and willed the smell of her favorite roasted blend to bring her to full wakefulness. Imported coffee beans might low-key be her favorite little luxury that had come along with marrying Bruce, and some mornings a strong pot brewed by Alfred was the only thing that let her pretend she wasn't totally nocturnal. Really, she'd normally be sleeping at this ungodly hour of 8 AM, but she'd made the effort to be awake to see her children off for the first day of school.

She was a bit nervous for Marinette in particular, who was clearly a bit stressed about starting at a new school, even if her newest daughter was doing her best to hide it. Over the last several months, Mari had adapted admirably to her new home and country, but even setting aside the trouble Mari had run into with her old Parisian collegé, starting school in a new place was bound to be nerve-wracking. Luckily seven of her siblings and two of her cousins also attended Gotham Academy, so she'd have someone to watch her back.

Selina shook her head to focus on the impending difficult conversation as she slipped through the hidden door behind the grandfather clock. Technically this little conference wasn’t Bat related, but considering the subject matter, it was likely to drift in that direction. That tended to happen whenever the clown came up. Either way it was a secure room.

Slipping into her usual seat at the circular slate grey table the family of vigilantes often used for briefings and discussions and settled in to wait for her husband and her eldest daughter. Bruce would be returning from taking Helena over to the Kane estate (Diana was taking her niece along for a special kid’s day at the museum), and Babs had texted that she and Dinah were enroute to the Manor. There was nothing left to do for the moment besides wait.

“What, no coffee for me?” Barbara called out a few minutes later as the doors to the Cave’s elevator entrance opened. Like the rest of the Manor, the entirety of the Batcave was wheelchair accessible. Selina looked up and smiled as she saw the redhead, clad in a casual green hoodie and sweats, wheeling herself in, while Dinah, similarly casual in a purple sweater and jeans, followed after. 

“As if you didn’t have at least two cups before you left our apartment,” Selina shot back playfully. 

“Hey, you and dad were the ones who wanted to meet at this ungodly hour, I need my caffeine!” Barbara protested as she wheeled herself up to the table. Her tone was light but Selina could detect the hint of tension beneath it, likely due to her worry over not knowing what they were about to discuss. Oracle was used to being the one with all the information, and even when it was momentary, didn’t love being kept in the dark. 

“Apologies,” Bruce answered as he himself descended from the grandfather clock entrance, “the matter is somewhat time sensitive.”

“And we wanted a chance to talk to you without any of your siblings trying to listen in,” Selina added. If you got down to it, the family knew the importance of respecting each other’s privacy, but they all had a bad habit of ‘practicing their surveillance skills’ on each other, and the parents wanted to avoid letting this particular cat out of the bag until Barbara had a chance to process it.

Bruce decided to rip off the band-aid, “Doctor Summers at Wayne Medical has made considerable progress with a new procedure to return mobility to paraplegic patients. It’s still cutting edge but so far it seems very promising and has progressed through the first round of human trials successfully with no major complications arising in participants.”

Selina slid a tablet with details over to the younger women for them to look out before continuing the explanation. “There’s an opportunity for you to be part of the second round of trials; your injury meets the profile and-“

“-what’s the procedure?” Barbara cut in; her voice controlled as she passed the pad over to Dinah to look through. The blonde put a comforting hand on her fiancée’s shoulder as she began to flick through the data. As a trained physical therapist, she was the more versed of the two about this sort of thing.

“A surgery to affix a cybernetic chip to the base of the spinal column,” Bruce explained, “the implant provides an alternate path for neurological signals that bypasses the damaged section of the spinal cord.” Bruce paused for a moment before continuing, “it could restore some but not all of the motor function you’ve lost, and, like all surgeries, isn’t without its risks.”

Knowing how emotionally fraught the subject was for Barbara, Selina tried to be as gentle as she could as she added, “it’s also something that would be somewhat delicate. Day to day activities wouldn’t put too much stress on it, but high intensity aerobics, any sort of heavy impacts and the like could.”

“So, I’ll still never be Batgirl again,” Barbara stated plainly what they were all dancing around. She’d long ago come to terms with that fact but understood why her parents were being gentle about poking around at that scar. She turned to look up at Dinah, “what do you know about this?” 

Dinah, wanting to make sure Babs could make an informed decision, bit her lip before explaining cautiously, “I’d need more time to read over all the specifics of this new surgery, but Dr Summers is well respected in the field…” She locked eyes with Babs, “and if, if you get this, it, well, it won’t be a cure-all, darling. You haven’t voluntarily moved those muscle groups or fully used those neural pathways in years, so you’re looking at a lot of physical therapy to retrain your body. Even then, there will be some days when you still need the chair and other mobility aids. Probably a cane at the very least.”

Barbara took a deep breath and closed her eyes as she did what she always did, use her logic to sort the whirling thoughts in her head until they were under control. Would this improve her quality of life? Potentially, at least in part. As much as she refused to let her condition define her, there were certain activities that she just couldn’t do from the chair. On the other hand, she would be the first to tell you that her disability didn’t stop her from living a full life. Did she need this, or was she chasing the past?

In technical terms at the moment, her injury was classified as sensory incomplete. That is to say, she had sensation and feeling below her waist but almost no motor control. On a really good day she could wiggle a toe. This implant might not restore her to where she was before the shooting, but it would be a massive change for her.

‘ One that would come with a lot of complications of its own,’ as her eyes danced over the data on the pad. She’d be in bedrest for at least a week after surgery, and then came the no doubt painful and, to the always on the job Barbara, tedious months and months of physical therapy. If she did this, she’d have to take time off of work, and scale back her activities as Oracle for a while, something she didn’t feel entirely comfortable with. The way she kept herself from worrying about her family in the field was by being right there beside them as a digital ghost, and letting go of that even for a little while would be a bitter pill to swallow. 

Selina reached over and squeezed Bab’s other hand, since Dinah had already started holding one of them. “Kitten, whatever you decide we support you 100% of the way. This is an option, but it’s just an option.” Catwoman was never really going to be able to get over what the Joker did to her eldest baby, even if the clown was literally a pile of ashes, and she knew this wouldn’t ‘fix’ what happened. At this point, she and Bruce just wanted Babs to have the best life she could have, whatever that ended up meaning for her.

Eventually one thought cut through all the other considerations for Barbara. It was silly, and maybe a little selfish compared to all the other more practical concerns she was trying to balance, but it was what won out. “I think I want to do it,” she said hesitantly before looking up at Dinah and explaining, “I just, it would be kind of nice to be able to dance on my wedding day.”

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Mount Justice, Afternoon, September, Next Week

Artemis Crock idly spun a green shafted arrow in her hand as she watched Bart Allen, AKA Impulse, demolish a plate of nachos at inhuman speed. The scarlet archer and her teammate were hanging out in Mount Justice’s central lounge area, awaiting the arrival of the rest of Young Justice.

Artie was normally early, partly out of overpreparation, and partly because she’d take any excuse to get out of Gotham for a bit. She loved her mom, but the former villain turned social worker could be more than a little overbearing sometimes, so it was nice to get out of the house and into her hero persona. Even if it meant watching Bart unhinge his jaw at superspeed to devour the jalapeno and cheese encrusted chips he was currently shoveling into his maw.

“Y’know, it might be nice if the snacks for a meeting aren’t all gone by the time everyone gets here for once,” she quipped sardonically at her friend.

“Food belongs to those who strike first,” Bart shot back, before adding, “besides, I can dash into the kitchen and whip something up in a flash if anyone else is hungry.”

“Like we’re letting you into the kitchen after what happened last time,” Rocket, real name Raquel Ervin, replied as she hopped over the low backed sofa to sit next to Artemis. “I think M’gann’s baking something anyway for the new kid.”

“Did someone say my name?” Miss Martian, who was currently green skinned but in casual earth attire of a long red skirt and a white frilled blouse, asked as she floated into the area, carrying a tray of steaming chocolate chip cookies with her telekinesis. She set the tray on the long coffee table, along with a pad to cushion it. “Is she here yet?” The Martian girl was always excited to play host for the newest young members of the hero community. 

“Not yet,” Artemis responded as the door to the base’s training area swooshed open to reveal Superboy, Kaldur'ahm, the second Aqualad, Static (real name Virgil Hawkins) and Blue Beetle, his mask currently retracted, arriving for the meeting.

“Still no sign of Rob?” Conner asked, while pointedly not looking at Miss Martian. The teens had broken up a little over a month ago and things were still awkward between them. The open secret that Conner was apparently already pursuing someone else, a civilian named Tana Moon, didn’t help matters.

“Typical of the high and mighty Bats to keep everyone else waiting,” Jaime complained, despite the fact this was both supposed to be a casual meet and greet and that it wasn’t to start for another five minutes. The alien exosuit wearing boy was testy after losing a training bout against his half-Kryptonian teammate, even if he told himself, it was due to restricting himself to the less dangerous options his suit provided for a friendly fight. 

Static manipulated a bolt of lightning to levitate the tray with the few remaining nachos on it over to him as he flopped on the couch, worn out after his training against Aqualad. “Relax, my man. I’m sure the new girl has enough jitters without us being unnecessarily intense.” Static liked his blue shelled friend, but the guy could stand to be less serious all the time.

“RECOGNIZE W-3, RECOGNIZE MB-2” The computerized voice of the zeta tube system announced as Wondergirl, Sandra Kane, and Mockingbird’s sidekick Lark materialized on the pad. 

The two close friends were mid conversation about something but were quickly interrupted by Impulse zipping right in front of them and excitedly asking, “Hey Lark, you and MB work in Gotham, have you met Lady Noire yet? What’s she like? Do you know when she, Rob and BG are going to get here?” While Bart himself knew it, Lark’s actual name wasn’t known to the entirety of the team, so he was careful to refer to her by her heroic moniker. 

Rose Blackthorn cocked an eyebrow, “I’ve met her, she’s cool, and they’re already here.”

There was a moment of confusion for some members of Young Justice, though notably not M’gann, Conner or Kaldur (due to telepathy, super hearing, and a good poker face respectively), before Sandra cupped her hands to her mouth and called out to the rafters, “stop being a bunch of drama queens and get down here!” 

Much to the surprise of the rest of YJ, three dark shapes dropped from the ceiling, landing right behind Rocket and making her jump a little bit. Of the three, Lady Noire looked a little sheepish, Raptor seemed mildly put out to have been caught and Batgirl was just smiling playfully. “Took you long enough,” Steph quipped. 

Mari had surprised herself a little bit by being less nervous to meet her siblings’ teammates than she’d been to debut before Gotham high society, but, then again, she’d always felt more confident in her Lady Noire costume. She’d been skeptical of pulling a prank of the other young heroes but gone along with Steph and Tim in the end; besides, improving her stealth was one of the major areas she was racing to catch up with her siblings, so hiding from the rest of the team proved a practical purpose beyond demonstrating the Bat ability to seemingly appear out of nowhere.

“Seriously guys,” Tim scolded, “I know this is our headquarters, but you need to work on having constant situational awareness.” Mari had to resist a giggle, something quite out of keeping with the dark vigilante vibe she was going for, as she exchanged a knowing glance with her sister. She’d been told by her siblings that Tim turned into a bit of a team mom when he was with YJ but seeing him in action was rather amusing.

Blue Beetle rolled his eyes, while Artemis narrowed hers at M’gann. “How did you not sense them, M’gann?”

Miss Martian put her hands on her hips, “I’m not always reading everyone’s minds,” she said pointedly. Then telepathically she added just so Artemis could hear, “ Steph asked me not to say anything, so the rest of the team could practice.” 

“In any event,” Kaldur interjected, nipping the bud on any further bickering. He turned towards Lady Noire, “it is an honor to meet another ally. We have heard remarkable things about your performance in Paris.”

If she had been in civilian clothes, she may have blushed from the compliment, but as Lady Noire she was able to playfully wink and demurely reply, “Merci. It was an interesting year to say the least, and while Paris is a beautiful city, I am happy to be home.”

Barbara had informed her that the general speculation on Lady Noire once the wider world became aware of her was that she was a protégé of Catwoman’s who had been sent to Paris to work the Hawkmoth case and broadly speaking the family had decided to roll with that misconception. Mari personally felt it was a bit insulting to Selina, considering how inept she felt she was when she started out, but ultimately it was another bit of useful subterfuge to distance Marinette Wayne from Lady Noire. ‘ Although, Gotham really does feel more like home than Paris at this point. It’s only missing one thing…’

Artemis rose and extended a hand for Mari to shake, “well, nice to meet you, I’m Artemis, and the blurry kid currently trying to eat your welcome cookies while no one’s watching is Impulse.’

“Bwah!” Bart blurted through a full mouth under the glare of both M’gann and Kaldur, looking every inch the naughty kid caught my mom and dad. 

Mari flashed her slightly elongated catlike fangs as she shook the other girl’s hand, “it’s fine, we brought our own refreshments. Batgirl?”

Steph plucked a clear water bottle full of a viscous red substance from the back of her belt and handed it over to her sister, “of course Lady Noire. I made sure to grab your favorite before we left the cave.”

The sisters got to enjoy the blanched looks on the faces of the more gullible members of the team, even if it made those closer to the Batfamily roll their eyes. Even among other heroes, many were convinced by their abilities and the misinformation campaign spearheaded by Barbara, that the Bats were in some way supernatural. They typically weren’t consistent with it, but Steph in particular liked to drop hints that the whole family were vampires of some kind, and Mari, who genuinely was supernatural funnily enough, had been convinced to go along with it. 

She finished sipping her tomato juice before saying, “truly though, it is an honor to meet you.” She did a slight curtsey. “While I’m not planning to join your group full time at the moment, please do consider me an asset if you need assistance in the future.” Technically she was going to be made a reserve member of the team, which was the same position held by Harper, Duke, Damian and Cass.

Unlike the Titans or the Justice Society, Young Justice was a big tent organization, much like the Justice League. That was to say there were far more young heroes with association, or reserve status, who weren’t active day-to-day members, than there were members of the core team. They might cooperate for a mission, or occasionally train with the team, but they weren’t typically hanging out around Mount Justice.

That was because, much like the Justice League itself, the point of the organization was to provide basic coordination and, considering the age of Young Justice’s would be heroes, guidance and oversight. A teen with superpowers and no clue how to use them could be a danger to themselves and others, even if they were trying to do the right thing.

Mari was quickly introduced to the rest of the Team, shaking hands and exchanging short greetings. She knew most of them by reputation at least, and had actually met Connor as Mari when he came over to the manor to hang out with Tim. She’d also met Artemis, though the other girl wasn’t aware of that since she wasn’t privy to Mari’s civilian identity. 

Artemis was a bit like the Wonders, living in Gotham but largely using the Zeta network to operate elsewhere, in her case Star City where her mentor Green Arrow operated. As such, she was a scholarship student studying at Gotham Academy, a year ahead of Mari and Damian, in Harper and Duke’s class. They were the two who knew her somewhat well in their civilian identities and had to be a bit careful around her when under their cowls. 

Gotham Academy had been a refreshing change of pace for Mari, and a bit of an anti-climax considering how stressed she’d been before her first day. She wasn’t as behind as she’d feared she’d be considering her six months out of school, and after a month or so attending the sprawling elite private school, she found she rather liked it. 

It wasn’t perfect; like any school it had its fair share of jerks, bad teachers, and general high school annoyances, but it was a damn sight better than her last days at the College Francois Dupont had been. She didn’t know if it was her status as a Wayne, or the reputation she’d begun building as Nettie at the Gala, but her classmates tended to be distant and respectful towards her; no one was targeting her for harassment like Lila had ‘and thank the Kwamis for that.’

She’d stuck close to Damian for the most part, and her other siblings when she crossed paths with them at lunch or during study hall. The émigré was cordial with several other students but hadn’t formed any close friendships yet. That said, she didn’t feel nearly as much pressure to do so right away, considering she now had a supportive family to always fall back on. It was something she was still getting used to.

“So, why’d Catwoman let you fly solo in Paris?” Jaime demanded after introductions were finished. “I’ve been protecting New Mexico by myself since I became Blue Beetle, and they still insist on sending Booster Gold to check in all the time.” Blue Beetle was one of the handful of young heroes without a dedicated mentor, the previous Beetle having perished in the same explosion that led to the scarab attaching itself to his spine, so Booster had been occasionally stopping by to try and fill that role, mostly unsuccessfully so far.

Mari gave him a flat look, summoning a bit of the cold persona she used as Nettie, “who’s to say she wasn’t checking in with me? In any event, I don’t second guess her decisions.” She had a low-key high-key grudge against the other teen despite just meeting, due to him apparently being a jerk to Stephanie in the wake of their breakup. Apparently the two were able to be polite enough to one another when working as a team at this point, but Mari still felt protective of her older sister.

“Why don’t we show Lady Noire around the Mountain?” Aqualad said, smoothly changing the subject. “You may not be joining us full time, but you are still welcome to use the facilities.”

“OOH, a tour!” M’gann said enthusiastically before grabbing Mari’s hand to lead her around the Mountain. She was exceptionally curious about the newest member of the Batfamily, particularly because she couldn’t read her mind. Like she’d said earlier, she’d learned on earth that it was considered an invasion of privacy to read the minds of others without permission, but with Lady Noire she straight up couldn’t.

All the Bats had a mental discipline that made delving into their thoughts difficult, if not impossible, but with Mari it was as if there was a shadowy wall stopping her from even touching it directly. Her uncle had warned her that would be the case, as it was apparently a result of Lady Noire’s unique abilities, but it was still bizarre and intriguing for the Martian girl to experience it for herself.

What she didn’t know was that Plagg, who was currently fused with Mari while her Miraculous was active, was the cause of Mari’s mental shields. The two were bonded on a metaphysical level, and the cat spirit could easily coat his spirit around Mari’s to block most forms of mind reading, brainwashing, and the like, especially that of the non-magical variety. 

Mari chuckled quietly and let herself be whisked off through the cave as the assembled YJ dispersed throughout it, only Impulse, Batgirl, Aqualad, and Static coming along for the tour, despite all of them obviously being well acquainted with the place. Her siblings’ friends seemed nice, but she also understood what Duke had meant when he said they were “a lot.” Reserve status was going to suit her fine for the time being.

“Hey Lady Noire, where do you stand on Chicken Whizzies, the best food ever, or absolutely the best food ever?” Impulse hurriedly asked before launching into another question before she could answer. By the time the tour ended and she was able to slip back into the Zeta tube, even reserve status was seeming like “a lot.”

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The House of El Chat, that Night:

BIG KANSAS: Lombard’s appendix burst. He’s fine, but he’ll be out for a few days and Perry asked me to cover the sports beat while he’s gone. I’m afraid I’m going to miss dinner tonight since it seems I’m going to the Monarchs game. At least with any luck I’ll get to see them smash the Mercuries. Wally’s going to be insufferable if Keystone wins the series again this year.

LADY EL: Aw, poor baby, you have to go to a free baseball game of your favorite team. JK, sweetie, we’ll miss you at dinner but I’ll make sure the ravenous pits we call our children leave you some pizza

BIG KANSAS: Actually, the Planet gave me two tickets if anyone wants to come with me. What do you say, Conner, want to catch a ball game with your old man?

THE METROPOLIS KID: Thanks, but no thanks dad, I’m busy tonight. Actually, I’m out for dinner too.

LADY EL: Uh, Conner? Why is this the first we’re hearing about this? You need to tell us if you have plans.

THE METROPOLIS KID: I’m telling you now. Some of the guys at school are getting together to go check out this production of Arise the Demon they’re putting on at the University of Metropolis.

BIG KANSAS: Son, since when do you like theater? You fell asleep the last time your sister dragged you along. 

KARBEAR: Since one of the ‘guys’ going to the play is Tana Moon.

THE METROPOLIS KID: KARA!!!

LADY EL: Conner, you don’t have to hide it if you have a date. Do I think there are better options for a smart young man such as yourself than the intern who broke my printer, yes, but you’re allowed to date. All we ask is that you be careful.

LADY EL: And don’t move too fast.

LADY EL: And always use protection.

THE METROPOLIS KID: RAO MOM, STOP!! It’s not a date. It’s a bunch of us going, so lay off Kara.

KARBEAR: After all the crap you gave me about Cass when we started dating? Fat chance bro.

BIG KANSAS: Kara, Conner, be kind to each other.

THE METROPOLIS KID: Yes, pa.

KARBEAR: Yes, pa

KARBEAR: If that ticket’s still available I’d love to go to the game, but I don’t want to leave mom and Jon all alone.

LADY EL: Please, go enjoy yourself, comet. Jon’s been bugging me for another playdate with Helena, so I’ll see if Selina and Bruce mind us joining them for dinner. Can you zip us over before the game, Big Blue?

BIG KANSAS: I’d be happy to. Kara, I’ll meet you after school and we’ll take a cab from there to the ballpark. It’ll be a lot more fun with some company!

KARBEAR: Sounds good! I’ll need to zip home for a minute to grab my old Monarchs jersey, but this is going to be great!

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Wayne Manor, September, the Next Friday

“Catch the kitty!” Helena cheered as she ran around the den, giggling happily. Plagg, the spirit of the Destruction Miraculous who lived in Marinette’s ring, was floating and bobbing just out of reach of the four-year-old as the two played. The godly kwami had taken a real shine to the youngest member of the Wayne clan, if you didn’t count the one-year-old Alfred the Cat, and after relaxing a bit about revealing himself to Marinette’s new family, often liked to entertain the child.

“Careful around the coffee table, Plagg,” Marinette warned from where she sat curled up on the couch. The teenager had just gotten back from school for the day and was still in her uniform, taking a minute to chill before going to change into more casual clothes.

The Gotham Academy Uniform wasn’t bad, if a little traditional. It consisted of a royal blue blazer with silver piping and the school’s coat of arms emblazoned across the left breast pocket that could be worn open or partially buttoned, white collared button ups for the base layer, a striped tie of blue, black and silver, and then dark slacks or a blue and grey plaid skirt. She’d gone for the skirt that morning.

Which meant the little personalizations made to the uniform via accessories were the main way students could express their personal fashion during school hours. Today Marinette had worn slightly dangling silver and moonstone earrings, a thin choker necklace, a burgundy ribbon tying some of her blue-black hair back, and a cute heart shaped purse over her left shoulder. 

She’d gotten in the habit of accessorizing back in Paris, both as an extension of her natural style, and to distract attention away from the accessory she always wore, Plagg’s ring. If the ring was only one of several pieces of jewelry, it would hopefully stand out less. That said, the particulars had changed from the cheap costume pieces she wore last year, considering the silver dangling from her ears and the tiny diamonds around her neck. 

Add a light but well-done makeup job, (far less than she did for galas but more than she used to wear casually), and the general better care she was taking care of herself these days and Marinette Wayne actually looked very well put together, and dare she say cute. She even had her nails painted with a decorative sakura blossom design. 

Well, she was actually wearing temporary nail extensions, something she, along with most of her sisters and Selina, did habitually in public. As much as Selina joked about her long nails being ‘claws’, nails of that length weren’t exactly practical when punching villains every other night, or other activities requiring full dexterity. Easily removable press ons were just more practical, and also lent themselves to easy coordination with a particular outfit, something Marinette quite enjoyed. 

“Relax, the corners are baby proofed,” Harper chimed in from the opposite side of the couch, not looking up from her phone. Marinette’s sister had her attention glued to Twitter and Reddit that afternoon, eagerly awaiting the announcement trailer for the new Star Trek show that was supposed to drop that day.  Marinette had actually found herself enjoying some of the old show when Harper forced her to sit down for a few episodes but couldn’t say she matched the slightly older girl’s hype.

“Notta baby!” Helna protested, while still chasing Plagg. The girl had her hair in pigtails that bounced about wildly as she pounced at the cat spirit, finally catching him and collapsing onto the carpet in joyful exhaustion.

Marinette might not be stuck to her phone, but she was messing around with a device of her own. The Switch her brother had picked up for her was addictive, and she was taking a break from tending her farm in Stardew Valley to goof around with a port of the infamously bad video game based on Mr. Kent.

“I’m just saying it feels like we should be doing something about this pop,” Duke said as he and Bruce passed into the room. The pair were apparently in the middle of some conversation, and Mari could guess what it was about.

Bruce sighed and stopped to put a hand on Duke’s shoulder, “I understand anything relating to Hush is stressful, but there’s really nothing else we can do at the moment that we aren’t already doing. Gordon Elliot, whether he’s genuinely who he claims to be, or, as I suspect, an opportunist looking to get the Elliot fortune, has no connection to his criminal brother we can find. We’re monitoring the situation, and the GCPD is investigating his claims, but for now we just have to wait.”

The arrival of a supposed bastard son of one of Gotham’s other famous families had been the bombshell to finally push Marinette off the society page headlines. Frankly she was more than happy to quickly be blending into just another one of the Wayne kids, but she understood her brother’s concern. Based on the files she’d read, the comatose Tommy Elliot had been a uniquely dangerous foe, responsible for the death of an old ally of the family named Harold, and his brother turning up was bound to draw attention.

So far though, all this Gordon had done was start the legal process of asserting his identity and right to the family fortune and started trying to make inroads to Gotham high society, who were waiting to see how the lawyers and trust decided to weigh in before embracing him. He hadn’t even gone to visit Tommy in the coma ward, and Marinette thought like Bruce that he was probably just a grifter looking for a score, not something that needed the family’s attention.

“But you said yourself that Roger Elliot wasn’t the kind of guy to cheat and sleep around,” Duke protested. Something about the whole situation was nagging at him, and he kept searching for something deeper going. Duke took a breath, ‘ maybe you’re just freaking cause anyone who could kill a close ally of the family scares the crap out of you.’

“I said he didn’t seem like the kind,” Bruce replied, “and I was also a child when he died. While I think an imposter after the Elliot fortune is more likely, it’s not impossible he fathered a previously unknown child. It has been known to happen.” 

Duke glanced awkwardly over at Marinette before nodding, “yeah, that makes sense. I’ll ask Babs to circle back to it once she’s back to full strength but for now we’ll let it play out. I’m gonna go suit up for patrol.” To take advantage of his light manipulating meta-abilities, Duke operated in the daylight hours more than the rest of the family, typically patrolling in the afternoon during the school year for a few hours.

“Speaking of Barbara,” Bruce began, turning to his daughters sitting on the couch, “Her surgery has been scheduled for the 28 th . Selina and I are going to accompany her and Dinah to the hospital, and she’s said the rest of you are welcome to come too if you want but you are not obligated to.”

“We’ll be there,” Harper and Marinette said in almost perfect unison. The whole family was nervous, but a little excited about the potentially life changing surgery the oldest Wayne sibling was soon to undergo and wanted to be there to support her. 

“Ugh, assigned partners are such bullshit,” Jason Wayne loudly complained as he stomped into the room. Mari sweat dropped, the Waynes were really wonderful so far, but there were so many of them the Manor felt like a high transit intersection sometimes. The college student tossed his motorcycle helmet onto the divan before collapsing in an armchair. “This girl I’m paired up with for my Victorian Lit project is going to drive me mad.”

Bruce frowned slightly, “I’m sure she isn’t that bad.”

Jason gave him the stink eye, “trust me when I say Alexis is the absolute worst. She’s so flaky, and combative and pretentious-“

“Yeah, a pretentious argumentative English major who’s always disappearing sounds dreadful,” Harper snarked, since that description could also be applied to Jason. The older brother turned his baleful gaze towards her before huffing and grinning slightly in good humor.

“I see what you’re saying,” Jason said, “I’ll try and cut her some slack. Anyway, Marinette!”

Mari, startled to be suddenly addressed directly, hastily put her console to sleep. It wasn’t that she hadn’t been paying attention, but a good portion of her bandwidth was until that moment focused on trying to get Uncle Clark to fly through the damn ring. 

Jason continued, “one of my contacts finally came good on the location of the chop shop the Neon Dragon Triad’s carjacking ring is working out of. I could use some help on the bust. What do you say, want to fly with Red Bat for a change?”

Marinette immediately perked up at the offer, flattered to have been asked. While they weren’t exactly coddling her, the family had definitely been steering her towards the less dangerous threats facing Gotham, and she was eager to show what she was capable of. Add to that she hadn’t really gotten to patrol with Jason much, usually shadowing Selina or Stephanie, and partnering with Damian or Harper, and she leapt at the chance.

“Letmegogetmycostumeon!” she said so fast that the accent she was diligently working on losing came back in full force and she slurred her words into one. Hopping to her feet she dashed off for the cave to start getting prepared, calling out behind her “C’mon, Plagg! It’s Claws Out time!!”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Paris, September, Same Day

(All Dialogue in French unless otherwise stated)

Bug Boy nailed a fleeing thief in the small of his back with his Ladybug Yo-Yo, sending him sprawling onto the pavement. He hadn’t even needed to bother with a Lucky Charm and quickly retrieved the bag the man had stolen before walking back down the lane to return it to its owner, who thanked him profusely

While he smiled and winked at the unfortunate tourist who’d been mugged, internally he couldn’t shake his disappointment. ‘ Is this what I’m reduced to, chasing purse snatchers?’ He complained to himself as he ducked into an alley to take his spots off. ‘ I used to save the city from Akuma on a weekly basis, practically single handed!’

The teen model wasn’t taking the come down from the regular adrenaline of the year long fight with Hawkmoth particularly well. Sure, it had been dangerous, as Lady Noire loved to nag on, but it had been fun! ‘ Plus, the people loved us, even if she would never stick around to talk to the cameras.’

The people still loved Bug Boy, but it wasn’t quite the same just fighting mundane crime. It didn’t help that he’d discovered he wasn’t exactly very good at finding mundane crime which tended to be less obvious than the citywide Akuma attacks he had gotten used to. One thing you could say for Hawkmoth was that he didn’t do anything small. He called “Spots Off!” and let Tikki hop in his pocket to rest before dashing off down the street.

“At least he was a good villain, even if he was a rotten father,” Adrien muttered as he snuck back into school via the side door. He’d just wanted to get out of there for a bit, so had ditched study hall to put his spots on. When people looked at him as Bug Boy, they still did so with adoration, rather than the pity that had become the norm of his civilian identity.

The fact that his father had been the villain who terrorized and isolated the city for over a year was very public knowledge, and, while surprisingly few people seemed to blame Adrien, he couldn’t stand the condescending concern they insisted on showing him. He was Adrien Argeste, holder of the most powerful Miraculous! How dare they look down on him, like he somehow needed their help.

“There you are,” Lila Rossi, his girlfriend, huffed when he slipped back into the library, “you were almost late, again bugaboo!” Adrien had decided to let the Italian girl in on his secret identity a few weeks ago, and she was now very useful in helping cover for his disappearances. Lady Noire had always been the one who was so obsessive about keeping their identities secret, and now that she’d abandoned him and the city, he found himself relaxing on some of her dumb rules.

“Sorry, Li-Li,” he said with a smirk, “Paris would be lost without its real hero.” His former so-called partner may have run out of the French capital, but he was happy to stick around. He was still deeply upset with the cat themed heroine for skipping town just because Hawkmoth was defeated by those limelight stealing heroes from the Justice League, but he was actually coming to enjoy having the spotlight all to himself.

Lila smiled indulgently and gave him a peck on the cheek as the bell rang, signaling it was time to head back to class. What Adrien didn’t know was that Lila had been on the verge of dumping him before he revealed his scarlet shelled alter ego and renewed her interest tenfold.

The habitual liar had only pursued him in the first place for two reasons, to get a connection to the rich and successful Gabriel Argeste, and to steal him away from Chloe and secure her place at the top of the school’s social scene. The blondie was attractive, sure, but Lila fancied herself able to have any man she wanted. With Chloe gone, who knows where, and Gabriel in jail, she was prepared to trade up for less damaged goods; then Adrien told her he was Bug Boy.

She leaned against his arm and smiled up sweetly at him as they walked through the hallway together. Ever since she’d learned about the two heroes who had become the darlings of Paris, she’d wanted to manufacture a connection to them she could exploit. The closest she’d come with Lady Noire had been co-opting Alya, who had a dedicated fan site and actually had met the heroine, but now she was dating the real Bug Boy. She wasn’t in love with him, despite often saying so, but she did love the feeling of power that came from having him under her thrall.

Arriving in Monsieur Clemont’s class just before they’d be late, the couple had to separate to take their assigned seats. Lila sat between her ‘best friend’ Alya and the annoying as hell Juleka who stared her usual daggers at her as Monsieur Clemont called roll.

Lila’s triumphant total control of the class had slipped somewhat since the Wayne revelation. Her latest lie about Mari continuing to be a horrible liar herself who turned her hypothetical friend Stephie Wayne against Lila had worked for the most part, but there was a small contingent of students who had formed a new anti-Rossi camp. ‘ No doubt, if she hadn’t turned tail and run from the city over the shame of her father’s impeachment, Chloe would be crowing like a rooster.’

 Juleka, Alix, Sabrina and Nino all no longer trusted Lila, if they ever truly had, and had become a somewhat isolated self-contained little group from the class and the school at large, who still bought Lila’s lies hook line and sinker. It actually put a certain amount of strain on Juleka and Nino’s relationships, as their partners, Rose and Alya, were still definitively in Lila’s camp. ‘ I actually think I could get Rose to dump Couffaine if I pushed a bit. Wouldn’t that be delicious?’ Lila mused to herself. 

As much joy as she got from being the center of attention and ruling the school with a manicured iron fist, there were other things weighing on the ambassador’s daughter’s mind as the teacher began his morning lecture. Specifically, the Miraculous, the apparent source of Lady Noire and Bug Boy’s powers that Adrien had revealed to her, and something Lila had instantly wanted for herself.

She always wanted, needed to be the most special person in the room, and coveted the potential of magical superpowers for herself. Unfortunately, it wasn’t so easy; apparently when the Justice League swooped in, they took and hid away the majority of the magical jewelry, putting it well out of Lila’s reach. She occasionally considered just stealing the Tikki earrings from Adrien, but since they were apparently ‘bonded’ or whatever, decided that was overplaying her hand.

Stealing the Cat Miraculous to become the new Lady Noire would have been ideal, but the black cat heroine had also decamped for the states. Lila was actually a bit suspicious of the timing of both Marinette and Lady Noire relocating to Gotham and had begun to theorize the two were one and the same. It would have explained why Dupain-Cheng had pushed back so hard on Lila’s false claims of friendship with the vigilante. However, a recent news report from the Gotham Gazette showed Lady Noire swinging in to rescue the newest Wayne heiress when that clumsy oaf Marinette stumbled off a roof.

(Lila was of course unaware that the entire event had been staged the previous week. Marinette and Rose, Blackthorne not Lavillant, were supposedly playing catch with a frisbee on the roof of the Blackthorne’s building, and Marinette ostensibly tumbled over the edge foolishly rushing to catch a long throw. Harper was in the Lady Noire costume ready to catch her, and J’onn J’onzz played the helpful bystander who snapped a picture of the rescue to sell to the papers.)

The thorn in her side getting embarrassed was always gratifying, but it did pop a massive hole in Lila’s theory. ‘ I mean, Marinette’s such a wimp and a rule following teacher’s pet, there was no chance she could have been Lady Noire’

Still, Lila desperately wanted some of that power for herself. Or at least, some kind of power. Which led her to the offer she’d been considering in the back of her mind for the last few days. It was high risk, but the reward…

Bethany Snow was someone Lila had met a handful of times at diplomatic functions her mother attended. The American was an anchor and reporter for GBS news, assigned to their European branch a few years ago, and thus a mildly prominent public figure. Honestly Lila hadn’t given her a second thought, but apparently Bethany had taken her own interest in her.

The older woman had approached her at a small party held at the Italian embassy over the weekend to celebrate their national football team making it into the World Cup preliminaries. Lila had been annoyed to be pulled aside, but then intrigued by what the reporter had proposed. 

According to her she was part of some sort of clandestine organization that had taken an interest in Lila. They apparently owned a company called Meta Solutions dedicated to turning superpowers into a sellable product and kept their eyes open for young people with potential. If Lila was interested, Snow’s organization, called Honeycomb or something like that, could get her included in a new trial, and even provide some training with whatever abilities they were able to give her.

It was an enticing, tantalizing idea, but one with drawbacks. She’d have to leave Paris, at least for a time to undergo the procedure, and then there was the vagueness of what exact powers she’d get from it. ‘ Stealing the Cat Miraculous would have been so much cleaner,’ she moped as she got her test passed back to her. It was a perfect score, just like Alya’s, who she’d copied from.

She twisted a strand of brunette hair with her finger. She relished being on top at Francois Dupont, but perhaps this was a battle she’d already won. If she could gain abilities and become Bug Boy’s new partner, why, she’d have far more attention than a measly single class could provide. ‘ Besides, I have most of them so far under my spell, it will be child’s play to reassert control upon my return,’ she decided. It was time to take a little trip to Zandia for some self-improvement .

Sneaking out her phone she shot a message to Ms. Snow.

LILA ROSSI: I’m in, set up the procedure.

+++++------++++---

Gotham, Late September

September meant the start of the school year in Gotham, and that was just as important to Dick as it was to his younger siblings, considering by day Dick worked as a math teacher and gymnastics coach. He’d always liked educating and training others, from his early days with other circus kids, to his siblings, to the Titans, and teaching had felt like a natural fit. It probably helped that he had what Babs called “big team mom” energy (or as Jason put it, he was a bit of a mother hen).

Unlike his siblings though, he had not returned to the private Gotham Academy this Fall, though he had attended it when he was younger. Instead, he taught at a public school, Dennis O’Neil High, in downtown Gotham. It wasn’t exactly the place people expected the eldest child of one of the wealthiest couples in Gotham to end up, but it was where he wanted to be. He liked feeling he could make a difference in his civilian life just as much as he could under the mask.

Of course there were challenges a plenty at O’Neil High. Even after a mysterious Wayne Foundation grant had shown up to help augment the school’s inadequate funding, resources were stretched a bit thin. His students were a bunch of good kids and he wanted to support them as much as the school was able to.

That said, it was frustrating to him how little his colleagues made for the work they did. Not everyone had a trust fund like Dick, and frankly many of those who did weren’t teaching in inner-city schools. At the end of the day teachers were the backbone of the education system. It was part of why the Wayne Foundation’s major educational push, beyond scholarships for students, was a stipend directly accessible to educators, as opposed to the flashier technology grants or new facilities. Unfortunately, that kind of private charity was only a band aid, and Dick knew the real solution would require cutting through the graft and corruption that, despite improvements over the last ten years, was still endemic to Gotham.

Dick shook his head before he got caught up thinking about a perennial gripe and focused back on the situation at hand. He was currently in his Nightwing costume, huddled atop a rooftop as he lay in wait for his latest quarry. A personal case had fallen into his lap and had his full attention.

It had only been a few weeks into the school year when the trouble reared its head. O’Neil High’s football team had a blistering start to their season, absolutely demolishing the opposing teams, but the behavior of some of the players was troubling to Dick. Teens would be teens, so some amount of hormones and ego were expected, but Dick had been handing out detentions left and right because of aggressive behavior to members of the team. It hadn’t taken long for his paranoid mind to start seeing a pattern.

In particular there was a student in one of his classes, Mason Forrest, who was behaving very erratically. He’d had the kid for geometry a year back, and the difference between then and now was night and day. While a lot of things could change a person’s personality, Dick was experienced enough to swiftly surmise drug trouble as the most likely cause, and with a little digging, realized it was steroids of some sort.

A little light sleuthing, trailing some of the players, dropping a micro bug on Mason’s letterman jacket, and so on, had helped him figure out pretty quickly that at least half a dozen players on the team were using some sort of steroid and stimulant they referred to as Slappers. Dick had even managed to snag a discarded one, which just appeared like a white medicinal patch, from the trash after one of the players tossed it. Batman was currently analyzing it back in the cave to get the exact chemical breakdown, and also using it as a chance to teach his little sisters and Damian a lesson in forensic chemistry. 

Frankly, as a teacher, Dick had enough he could have just taken it to the principal or the police at this point, but that would only get the kids sent to juvie. While they absolutely shouldn’t be using these Slappers, Dick understood the pressure they likely felt to do so; for a lot of kids in his district a scholarship was the only way they were going to be able to go to college, and quite a few of the players were likely pushing hard to earn an athletic one.

No, someone was peddling this stuff and Dick wanted the guy at the top.

Unfortunately, it was taking a while, considering their stakeout was entering its third hour, something he could tell was beginning to irk his partner despite the distance between them.

“<Have patience>” Dick signed over to ‘Flamebird’ who was crouched on the roof across the alley from him. “<We need to find the supplier>.” It had been a hard lesson learned in his early days as Robin that you couldn’t just leap into the fray at the first sign of a crime all the time. Sometimes you needed to play it cool if you wanted to catch the big fish that actually ran things, rather than petty thugs. In this case that meant not going after the dealer immediately, and instead tailing him in hopes of traveling up the supply chain to the source of the steroid patches.

It wasn’t actually Flamebird, but rather Troia wearing her sister’s costume and a wig. Dick could tell the difference easily enough, Donna was slightly taller with somewhat broader shoulders and a larger chest, but that was largely due to his familiarity with his cousins. Under the uniform, pretty much everyone else would only see Flamebird.

Occasionally wearing each other's costumes was a longstanding tactic the Batfamily used to keep people off the scent of their secret identities, but the Kane side tended to do it a bit more regularly. This was largely because Donna and Sandra’s heroic identities were connected to Diana’s, and they didn’t advertise that Wonder Woman lived in Gotham. (Diana was already a public hero when she and Kate got together, and they hadn’t wanted Diana moving to Gotham to be connected with Wonder Woman suddenly showing up in the same city.) So, when Donna, Diana or Sandra wanted to patrol Gotham, they tended to borrow a costume from a family member who was on the bench that night. 

Of course, in an emergency all three would happily jump into the fray in their Amazonian garb, but outside of that they tried to not have too many Wonder sightings in Gotham, again to help preserve the whole family’s secret identities. They’d debated making alternate Bat or Bird identities for the three, but generally the current situation worked well enough, and the Wonders were needed to help patrol other cities via Zeta much of the time anyway.

Finally, as the sun fully dipped below the horizon, the dealer they’d tailed to a small flophouse in the Bowery, reemerged back onto the street, and he wasn’t alone. A shifty looking older guy with a scraggly salt and pepper beard was with him; based off of the conversation inside the drug den Donna and Dick had been listening into over the bug they’d slipped on the dealer, a younger dark haired man called Reggie, this new guy was being brought into the Slapper distribution network and the pair were on their way to introduce him to the supplier. All the cousins needed to do now was follow to land the big fish.

It didn’t take too long; the masked heroes were careful to keep out of sight as they shadowed the criminals, hopping from rooftop to rooftop as they wound their way through Gotham’s urban jungle. Eventually they arrived at the apparent destination, the Gotham Docks, specifically a dilapidated boat house built for storing a few dozen smaller craft, dinghies, punts and the like.

‘ Though it would seem it’s been repurposed for a new function,’ Dick thought as the criminals looked over their shoulders before ducking inside the building. It wasn’t the worst place to set up a covert distribution hub, the kind of boring little building most people wouldn’t give a second thought, well away from prying eyes. 

“<Ready to take them?>” Donna flashed via hand signs over to Dick. The building was small enough there shouldn’t be too many potential opponents inside. This was probably their best chance to catch the local supplier and ask some pointed questions in the Bat fashion.

Dick nodded, and the two Titans began their approach in automatic sync. There were two entrances to the building, one street side and another opening onto the water for bringing boats in. Since Donna could fly, she’d enter from the seaport, floating above the water to burst in that way without making any kind of splash that could alert their prey. Nightwing would bust through the front door; it wasn’t his preferred approach, but without any windows or easily accessible ventilation, it would have to do.

Using the thermal imaging in his mask, he identified five individuals inside, the two dealers and three others who had been in the building ahead of time. Based on their body language, the two dealers were talking to the seated boss, while two bodyguard or underling types hung out further back in the boathouse, nearer the water facing entrance.

Pulling a small plastic explosive from his utility belt, Nightwing carefully placed it on the peeling whitewashed door of the boathouse. It wasn’t enough to badly injure the men inside, but it would give him his entrance and ring their bells enough for them to have the advantage.

Donna signaled with a click over comms that she was in position and the pair launched into action. Dick flicked a button on his belt, BOOM!, the door exploded inward with Nightwing leaping in right after. He tossed a bola at Reggie, who was coughing on the smoke, binding his ankles and sending him to the ground, before tossing an electrified Batarang at the new bearded dealer, stunning him and sending him twitching to the ground.

Farther in, partially obscured by a row of old rowboats, he could tell Donna had engaged the two suspected enforcers, though it was taking her longer to dispatch them than he would have expected. He couldn’t focus on that, as the presumed boss was still there and demanding his full attention.

“You picked the wrong guy to mess with, birdbrain,” the man growled. He was a beef slab of a man, well over six feet and built like a brickhouse. He wore only a stained white tank top and a pair of black bike shorts. His muscles bulged like crazy, though Dick assumed that wasn’t entirely natural if the Slapper shaped discoloration marks on his arms were any thing to go with, especially considering the man slapped two of the white patches down as he stepped forward to confront Nightwing.

They fell into the dance of combat and Dick felt like he was on the backfoot. It wasn’t that the guy was a particularly skilled martial artist or anything like that, but more that he felt his own jabs and kicks weren’t making an impact. He was used to taking down musclebound bruisers, but when jabbing his electrified escrima stick into the guy’s gut barely seemed to slow him down, he began to worry a little bit.

“Nightwing, Code: Yellow, possibly Code: Black,” his pa’s voice suddenly buzzed in Dick’s earpiece as he dodged the thug’s fist, only to see it make a small crater in the cinderblock wall behind him. “The Slappers are a Venom variant, expect meta-level enhanced strength opponents and the possibility of Bane’s involvement.” Bruce’s voice was as taciturn as ever when under the cowl, but Dick could hear the worry in it, even if he couldn’t do anything about it as he focused on dodging his opponent’s Venom enhanced blows. 

‘ Well, that explains some things,’ Nightwing thought as he somersaulted around a right hook that splintered the end of one of the rowboats. Donna had Amazonian super strength, and he’d been confused why her fight with what he’d thought would be mundane criminals was taking a little while. Unlike conventional steroids, Venom could boost a normal human’s strength into the meta range and was consequently a serious issue if it was returning to Gotham.

Of course, Dick had been tangling with superpowered opponents since he was a teenager, and a mook with Venom enhancements was a surprise but not something he couldn’t handle. He took his time, careful to avoid taking a hit, but eventually he managed to tire the criminal out to the point he could catch his leg and send him tumbling to the floor. After that he was able to fully subdue him by tagging him with a tranq dart retrieved from his belt, the powerful sedative warring with the Venom high until the guy fell unconscious.

“Ah, I see you have yours handled,” Donna noted as she rejoined him, two unconscious toughs Dick assumed had also been Venom enhanced slung over her shoulders. Venom enhanced strength but it didn’t make you a match for Troia.

Not everyone who used the Santa Priscian drug became as strong as Bane. The deadly crime boss had his surgically implanted delivery system that pumped way more of the drug into his system than could be done conventionally, was already incredibly strong before he’d started using the substance and used a much higher end variant than what normally ended up on the streets. Add to that the fact Dick suspected these Slappers were a milder variant of the drug, and you could understand why it hadn’t been enough to do more than slightly slow the cousins down.

Dick tapped his comm, “No need to come to the rescue, Batman. Flamebird and I have the suspects subdued and will contact Gotham PD after a little questioning.” Nightwing knew his adoptive father and suspected he had abandoned the chemistry lesson in the cave to fly to their aid. “No sign of Bane, or any obvious Santa Priscian connection. Obviously, they’re likely to be involved somewhere along the line considering we’re talking about Venom, but there’s no immediate danger.”

Bane was one of those villains the Batfamily took very seriously, though it actually tended to be the others being protective of Bruce when he came up. No one wanted to see another Bat broken.

“Understood,” Batman replied, “appraise me of the investigation as it progresses. Since Bane returned to Santa Priscia following our previous confrontation, he’s shied away from Gotham and according to the commissioner, Venom sources dried up quickly in the city. If a new supply is coming in, it could be a prelude to Bane and his syndicate trying to make a play for Gotham again.”

“And that’s the last thing we need,” Dick muttered in agreement while Donna tied up the downed thugs, temporarily gagging Reggie who was the only one still conscious. The streets of Gotham were getting dangerous enough over the last few months with the escalating gang war between the new Red Hood and Black Mask. A third major player trying to take over crime in the city would be pouring jet fuel on an already deadly fire.  

The two Titans began their investigation of the dock house, careful not to disturb anything ahead of the official GCPD investigation that would happen after Bullock sent some uniforms over to the commotion. Nightwing frowned a little as it quickly became obvious this was just a minor drop house, not a real base of operations, and none of the criminals they’d captured were the big fish in charge. This investigation was going to take a while.

‘ At least we got the dealer supplying my school,’ he thought to himself. ‘ Mr. Grayson will still have to have a chat with the team, and maybe get some counselors involved, but hopefully this new drug ring isn’t established enough that another source of Venom based steroids is readily available. With any luck I can steer them towards treatment, and then catch whoever’s shipping this junk into my city, so no other kids end up hooked.’

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

The Real Sidekicks of Mount Justice (Young Justice Group Chat):

SPEEDY GONZALES JR: Hey Raptor, can I come hang at your place tonight? Flash and Max are being a bunch of atomic bores, and I wanna get out of the house.

1. SURGE: Dude, you have to learn to text people direct instead of always blowing up the group. I don’t need this pinging while I’m trying to cram for a math test. 

Lt. SURGE: Sidenote, I hate calculus

BULLSEYE: Especially considering not everyone knows where Rob lives.

ARMORED INSECT: Or what his real name is. Cause he’s a cabron.

ROBIN THE THIRD: Yeah, you can come over Impulse. Just give me an hour to wrap up some research I’m doing. 

ROBIN THE THIRD: AND I MEAN AN HOUR THIS TIME!

SPEEDY GONZALES JR: WHOOO! SLEEPOVER AT THE BAT PAD!!! SB, you in?!?

BOY OF STEEL: Hell yeah, I just have to walk Krypto then I’ll head over.

THE BLONDE WONDER: Sweet, I’ll swing through after I finish my patrol.

SPEEDY GONZALES JR: AWESOME!!! Wondy’s on board, what about you MM? Party at Rob’s place?

ROBIN THE THIRD: Whoa, when did I say everyone could swarm my house, or that any of you could stay the night?

BULLSEYE: Also, I get that it’s because Rob and BG are paranoiacs about their secret identities, but it’s kinda rude to make plans in front of the rest of us that we’re not invited to.

ARMORED INSECT: More like super rude.

KAL’DURHAM: It is somewhat inconsiderate.

MARVINELLA: Thanks for the offer, Impulse, but I’m busy tonight.

ROBIN THE THIRD: This is Batgirl. I’ve co-opted Raptor’s phone since you guys are giving him a conniption fit. Impulse, you can come over for dinner and hang out after but you need to run back to Max’s after. You know he’ll be mad if you don’t go to bed on time on a school night. Superboy, same offer for you. Wondergirl, well, you basically half-live here anyway so do whatever the hell you want.

ROBIN THE THIRD: Also yes, this was very rude Impulse. I know the extra caution we take with our identities can seem overly safe, but you’ve all sat through enough briefings on op-sec to know the fewer people know a secret, the better chance it has of staying one. I’ll reiterate that the members of the Team privy to that information are privy due to their mentors already knowing, and not due to any judgment or lack of trust directed towards the rest of the team.

ROCKET POWER: Wow, you know you fucked up when Batgirl has to be the mature one.

SPEEDY GONZALEZ JR: Sowwy!

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Justice League Moon Base, Early October 

Ryan Choi still had to resist the urge to gawk every time he passed a viewing port at the Justice League’s headquarters. ‘ Sure, everything’s supposed to get routine with time, but we’re still on the FREAKING MOON’, he thought to himself. It was surreal for the young scientist, and not something he thought he was going to get over any time soon.

The newest Atom didn’t think he was going to get over any of the remarkable changes to his life in the last handful of months anytime soon, really. He’d gone from a doctoral student, his biggest concerns being polishing his thesis, to standing side by side with the superheroes who defended his planet almost overnight. He was still concerned about his thesis as it was, but now he had quite a bit else on his mind.

It all happened after his Doctoral advisor, Dr. Ray Palmer, accidentally shrunk himself into a petri dish with no way to regrow to normal size and managed to get a signal to Ryan in the adjoining lab. Before he knew it, he’d discovered his teacher was the Atom, and he was donning the hero’s spare bio-belt and shrinking down to embark on the adventure of a lifetime to rescue Ray.

The final surprise had occurred a week after the two men had managed to escape the microscopic dimension Ray had gotten stuck in. Apparently, Dr. Palmer was really impressed with how Ryan handled himself in the belt and looking to take a step back from heroics to work on things in his personal life, at least for a time; he offered to mentor Ryan and let him take on the Atom name, something he’d accepted.

Which was what led him to here, the Justice League’s moon base, desperately trying to act like he belonged there. It was his third time at bat for monitor duty, and while most of the more veteran Leaguers viewed the job with annoyance, it was still pretty novel for the newbie and he was focused on doing a good job.

“Oh hey, I thought Green Arrow had the shift before me?” Atom said in surprise when he walked up to the Monitor Womb to discover Captain Atom unexpectedly sitting in the chair.

The silver skinned hero, whose body was actually an energy containment suit in the shape of a man that held his energy-being self together, grinned as he stood up. “Oh, he asked me to cover for him. Apparently, there’s some broad he’s trying to nail and he had a hot date tonight.”

Ryan smiled back a little uneasily. He had a hard time getting a read on the hero he shared half a name with. Sometimes Captain Atom seemed really by the book and straitlaced, but other times when he relaxed a bit he could be, well, a bit crude. ‘ I guess that’s not that weird for an Army guy, polite in formal situations but a blue sense of humor when hanging out with the guys’

“Well, that was nice of you to do,” Ryan replied as he stepped forward to take over the chair; one perk of following Atom, who had full control of his energy and no ambient body heat, was that the chair wasn’t literally warm.

Captain Atom gave a little salute, “yes siree, you can always count on good ol’ Captain Atom. I’m gonna go hit the hay in my room before I zeta back down to the planet. Don’t have too much fun.”

“I won’t, I won’t,” Ryan replied as the other Leaguer left and he turned his attention to the Monitor. Monitor duty was a bit more complicated than how it was often derisively described as sitting by the phone and watching the news. The Justice League wasn't a surveillance state, and respected the law and people’s right to privacy, but the originally White Martian built base had a whole host of monitoring equipment to help them catch disasters early.

They had every kind of meter you could imagine, to detect spikes in radiation, tremors in the earth caused by quakes or eruptions, and on and on, not to mention all the systems they had pointing away from earth to track incoming threats from beyond the stars. The system was also plugged into a dozen different cooperating United Nations databases, and all the major news outlets. 

That meant there was a lot of information, too much for anyone not called Flash to process on their own; so, they didn’t. There was a good bit of automation included, but more than that, a whole staff of administrators who helped keep things running smoothly. Indeed, in addition to the heroes who frequented it, there were over a hundred civilian support staff on the base at any given moment, credentialed by the UN. There were layers upon layers of security, with the staff not being able to disclose publicly that they worked for the JL, but they were an essential part of keeping the complex operation the Justice League had become running.

A solid chunk of that staff was dedicated to generating reports on developing situations and answering the many, many calls the Justice League got for assistance. It was a simple reality that they needed a system of trained professionals to weed out what needed to rise to the level of League attention. All that work resulted in a more condensed stream of information that was relayed to the Leaguer who sat in the Monitor Womb’s chair.

Today, thankfully seemed light on the Crises so far. Ray saw Hawkwoman and Hawkman were helping evacuate people from a building collapse in Tongo, but the pair seemed to have it well in hand along with local authorities. There were mass protests in Greece over something or other, but it was both peaceful and a domestic matter, nothing for the Justice League to get involved with. The only thing that caught his attention as it flashed across his feed was the sensor he understood the least pinging off a location in the Mediterranean.

In addition to all the hi-tech gear, Silver Sorceress, the League’s main resource for all things mystic, had installed some sort of weird voodoo thingamabob that was monitored by an actual camera and the results fed into the feed. Ryan was a man of science, and had no clue what it was exactly, or how in the heck it worked. In any event it was showing mildly rising levels of something on some island he’d never heard of.

‘ I mean, it’s only a yellow alert, no klaxons are ringing’ he thought to himself. Still, even if he didn’t need to raise the alarm, this might be a thing that needed looking into. The only problem was that Silver Sorceress was on indefinite hiatus, meaning he didn’t exactly know who to ask about it. Doctor Fate would be the other option, but no one had been able to get ahold of the helmeted magic user in a couple of months, though he’d been assured that wasn’t unheard of with the guy.

He settled for dropping a message in Silver Sorceress’s inbox for whenever she came back, pausing before copying Wonder Woman on it at the last moment. WW might not be a magic user per se, but she was maybe close enough?

Shrugging, he went back to watching the monitors, blissfully unaware of what exactly was brewing in the tiny nation of Zandia down below.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Barbara and Dinah’s Apartment, After the Surgery, Mid-October

Babs grunted in frustration as she struggled to cross the mere five feet of the railed walkway that had been set up on the floor of her living room. She was starting on her physical therapy and had each rail in a death grip with her hands as she strained to make her legs move after so long.

“C’mon, babe, you can do it. Just one more set,” Dinah said, encouragingly. She wasn’t Babs’ assigned PT, but as a trained therapist herself, she was imminently qualified to help her fiancé complete the exercises she was supposed to be doing daily on her own. Or, as she suspected the case would be with her favorite workaholic redhead, make sure she didn’t overdo it.

Taking a lot longer than she would have liked, Babs finally managed to make it to the other side, even if her arms were taking most of the load. She was encouraged that she was getting some movement out of her lower body, more than she’d been able to voluntarily in years, but she was still impatient.

Her back ached from the surgery and her scars were still healing from the implant. It was a good thing her wedding dress wasn’t going to be backless like Dinah’s, since they’d probably still be quite evident by the time the wedding arrived. That was the looming deadline she was working against; the idea of being able to have Bruce walk her down the aisle on her own two feet, and share at least one dance with Dinah was what convinced her to go through with this in the first place and she’d be damned if she couldn’t get to the point she was able to do those things before the big day in January.

Dinah helped her over to the couch and Babs let out a groan of mixed pain and relief as she relaxed against her fiance. “I’m not getting anywhere with this.”

Dinah gave her a flat look, “babe, it’s been a week since you got out of the hospital. These things take time and you’re honestly making remarkable progress. I didn’t think we’d work up to the bars for another week at least and you just managed it three times.”

Barbara scoffed, “with my arms doing most of the work.” Her upper body was quite fit from regular exercise with the chair, and the pickup wheelchair basketball league she played in from time to time. She sighed, “I just, I want this to work, you know?”

The blonde smiled down gently at her. Barbara was as fierce as they came and rarely showed moments of vulnerability. Dinah always took it as a gift that she was willing to do so with her. “It is working, sweetie. Now, c’mon, let’s turn on something dumb to watch, and take a moment to unwind before you have to hop on the computer to help your brother with tracking those shipping manifests.” They were still trying to figure out how the Venom variant Dick had discovered was getting into the city, and narrowed it down to by sea, which meant a smuggling operation for Oracle to help ferret out.

Barbara hummed in agreement, grabbing the remote to flick on the season finale of Maddie In Metropolis. Darci Mason’s, an actress Babs had actually met at a gala or two, romantic comedy show wasn’t prestige television but it was a kind of mindless fun they could have on in the background while they enjoyed some time together. 

A beep sounded from Dinah’s purse, discarded on the coffee table, and she leaned forward to fish out her phone, before looking at it and grimacing. Babs raised an eyebrow, “trouble?”

“Ugh, no,” Dinah replied, putting her phone down. “It’s just my mom, she’s dating this new guy, some sort of suave playboy type and I’m guessing a public figure since she’s being cagey on the name. She’s in her gushy mode and I can only hear so much about my mother’s love life before I need to check out.” Dinah’s parents had divorced when she was only four, and she’d long since gotten used to her mom’s rotating suite of suitors.

“Does she want to use her plus one after all?” Babs asked, her eye twitching at the thought of reworking the byzantine seating chart yet again.

Dinah shook her head, “thankfully no, she said she didn’t need to. She seems serious about this guy, well as serious as she ever is, but when I asked, she told me she was good. Maybe he has some conflict on the day; it’s probably for the best, considering two of her exes are already going to be there and I’d like to avoid the Laurel Lance fireworks as much as possible.”

Dinah’s mother Laurel had been the third Black Canary, just as Dinah was the fourth. It was a legacy that went all the way back to her great grandmother, a founding member of the Justice Society and a heroine back in the forties. Laurel had been every bit the hero her daughter and mother were when she’d worn the costume, but she was also a somewhat flighty woman in her personal life and a bit of a headache at times for Dinah.

The exes in question were Dinah’s father Quentin, naturally, but also another longtime member of the Justice Society, Wildcat. It was awkward, she still had a good relationship with her former stepfather, her mom’s second husband, and he had even been the one to train her in martial arts but things were even more strained between him and Laurel than they were with her dad Quentin, unbelievably. In the end it was probably for the best that she wasn’t bringing along whomever this new boytoy of hers was, just to cut down on the drama.

“Hey, I’ll take your mom’s dating drama over one of the countless powder kegs on my side of the aisle blowing up,” Barbara opined. “Commissioner Bullock is apparently using his plus one to invite ex-detective Renee Montoya along as a friend, so I guess my aunt’s ex-girlfriend is coming to the wedding. I’m going to have stress dreams about Auntie Diana challenging her to an honor duel.”

Black Canary laughed, “oh c’mon, your aunt isn’t the jealous type. I’d be more worried about Vicky Vale sneaking in for a scoop and your mom clawing her eyes out.” 

If the thought stressed Babs, she didn’t show it, just smiling dopily over at Dinah. “Hey, guess what? We’re getting married.” It still felt unreal to the redhead that she could have found someone as perfect as Dinah, who cared as much as the blonde constantly showed she did.

“We’re getting married,” Dinah agreed, smiling back at her. Their lives were hectic, Bab’s road to recovery was still long and winding, and all the wedding planning was making fighting Apokolips’ hordes seem easy, but with Bab’s by her side, she felt like there was nothing they couldn’t conquer.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Coast City, California, Day Before Halloween, Thirteen Residence

“Damn it,” Traci Thirteen muttered as she shook the last oatmeal packet out of the box. After she cooked it, she was officially going to be out of food. And out of money. And, if she had to guess, dangerously close to being kicked out of the little apartment that sat over her father’s private eye office, an office that had been empty for two months at this point.

Her father, the occult investigator and debunker Dr. Thirteen, disappearing without warning was unfortunately not an uncommon experience for Traci. Sometimes he’d remember to arrange some sort of supervision for her, but she remembered being left to her own devices for days at a time when she was as young as 8, an experience that made her fairly self-reliant. 

She didn’t think it was active malice from her paternal figure, though they had more than their fair share of conflict when he actually was there, but just that he forgot about her when it wasn’t convenient. He loved adventure and often leaped into things feet first, the fact that he had a kid at home he should probably tell he was going to be going away for a while slipping his mind frequently.

The fifteen-year-old ran her fingers through her long thick dark hair and stared up at the ceiling, trying to figure out what she should do. She’d learned to take care of herself, but Terrance had been gone longer than he ever had before without at least eventually checking in, and there were certain things she couldn’t do. She could catch the bus to school and keep the house decently, but she had no access to the family funds and thus couldn’t refill the dwindling pantry, hence her mounting current dilemma.

“Also, not sure how behind he is on rent right now,” she added absently. While he’d been quite successful in his heyday as a popular debunker, her often absent father’s star had fallen over time and she knew money was tight when he couldn’t get cases. Of course, a big part of that was his resistance to taking any case he didn’t find sufficiently interesting, but Traci had never been able to successfully argue that point with him.

So, without any money, and not knowing when the landlord was going to come knocking, she was considering her options. She’d tried every way she could think of to contact him, calling him, calling the burner phone he thought she didn’t know about; hell, she even tried the communication spell Zee had taught her even though she knew he’d hate the reminder of her magical nature, but to no avail.

All she had to go on was a hastily scribbled note she’d found two months ago saying he was hired by some widow to investigate why a developer, who after a bit of digging appeared to be a Lexcorp subsidiary, was trying to buy up a house she inherited from her late husband’s family. The fact that the bayou house was supposedly haunted had been the angle that got Dr. Thirteen interested enough to look into it, and left Traci with no more information, other than the fact that he'd run off to Louisiana and would be gone for ‘some time’.

No address for where he was going to be staying, no emergency contact, nothing but an assumption she could take care of herself for however long he was gone. In the pit of her stomach, she was seriously beginning to worry he’d bitten off more than he could chew and that’s why he still wasn’t back.

Traci pulled the pot of oatmeal from the stove before it could burn and set about pouring her last bowl. A quick whispered “Dloc” chilled it off enough for her to eat it right away without burning her tongue. It still felt weird to do magic in the home, and she found herself looking over her shoulder for a reprimand that wasn’t coming. 

The half-Asian girl didn’t have the best relationship with her father. Okay, she had a pretty crappy one, but she was still worried about him. He cared about her in his own way, at least enough to set strict rules for her when he was around, and it was hard to have no affection for the only parent you’d ever known. Her mother, a sorceress and a friend of her mentor Zatanna, had passed before she was old enough to really form memories, something she always regretted.

Zatanna was the obvious person to call in this situation. Her father may have put harsh limits on how much the older witch could be a part of Traci’s life, but he wasn’t exactly around to enforce them and Traci knew the magician would be willing to help her. Unfortunately, all her communication attempts with Zee were failing too.

Her teacher had at least been considerate enough to let Traci know she was going to be gone for some time, apparently quite literally going to another dimension, which sounded incredibly cool to Traci at the time. ‘ I mean Zee said she wasn’t sure how long it would take, but I really thought she’d be back by now’ . She was as worried for Zee’s safety as she was for her father’s but she had a bit more trust in Zatanna’s judgment to not get in over her head.

Outside the window there was a brief green flash as Green Lantern flew by the window, all bright and shiny. Coast City was theoretically his home base, but given how often he was in space, it was actually somewhat remarkable to see him in town. Of course, there were like 20 other Green Lanterns you saw from time to time, so you never knew which one you were going to get. She thought it was Domino Mask, the first GL of the current crop, but she hadn’t been looking closely when he passed.

“I guess I could call the Justice League,” she thought aloud. She didn’t really know how you did that, but Zee was part of the superhero team, and they might be able to contact her when Traci couldn’t. On the other hand, she didn’t really have a way to prove her connection to Silver Sorceress without blowing Zee’s secret identity, and she wasn’t going to do that.

Actually, there was someone else she could try calling for help. Her father didn’t exactly make friends, but he had one colleague he’d worked with frequently enough that Traci knew him and thought it possible he’d be willing to help. At the very least he may be willing to let her borrow some food or crash at his place until she managed to reconnect with either her father or Zee. (The fact that her father’s effective abandonment of her would be a matter Child Services would want to intervene in, hadn’t occurred to the girl.)

Finishing her oatmeal, she grabbed her phone and threw on her favorite purple hoodie, before heading downstairs. Her father left his office locked, but an unlocking spell had literally been the first thing Zatanna had taught her, and one of the handful Traci could do confidently. The older witch may have intended it to help her pop out of handcuffs as an escapologist, but it was useful in all sorts of situations.

She strode quickly through the dusty office, trying not to dwell on the empty chair at her father’s desk. Dr. Thirteen, for all his hatred of the occult, hadn’t exactly embraced modern technology either, so she found herself searching through an actual physical rolodex until she found the number.

Taking a deep breath, she dialed. It rang, and rang, and just as she was worried yet another avenue of assistance was going to be a dead end, the line picked up.

“Uh hello, Detective Chimp? This is Traci Thirteen, Terrance’s kid. I think I need your help.”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

(Formerly Gotham) Sirens Chat (Selina, Harley, Ivy, Lois, Zatanna, Diana, Kate, Iris)

SUPERMOM: My sister is driving me crazy. I love her to death but, dear Rao, she has the worst taste in partners. Her latest boyfriend was even worse than the girl she dated before that. They just broke up and I’m struggling to not actively celebrate while I’m supposed to be her shoulder to cry on.

MAMA CAT: You should take her out on the town and get her to let loose. Metropolis may have a pitiful excuse for a nightlife compared to Gotham, but a night of partying for the Lane sisters is sure to have her forgetting what’s his face.

SUPERMOM: Selina, that’s just a recipe for her to make another awful hookup. I don’t want to hit a bar with her only to turn around and find her sucking face with the worst person in the place. Twice was enough.

PHD, BITCHES: No offense Lois, but you can’t really control who other people fall for. It’s just one of those things you put up with for the people you love. Like when your wife thinks it’s a good idea to adopt a dog without asking.

NOT THE MOTORCYCLE: Babe, I said I was sorry. He was just so cute, and Rose obviously got attached, and c’mon! Bruce let’s Selina bring home like fifty different pets.

PHD, BITCHES: Bruce and Selina live in a sprawling manor with more room than they know what to do with. We live in an apartment full of rare delicate plants that are already getting knocked over by the adorable mutt.

NOT THE MOTORCYCLE: HA you called her adorable, I win!!

SUPERMOM: I know, it’s just, she’s my baby sister, you know? I want her to be with someone who deserves her. Plus, she’s so smart in every other area, I don’t understand why her brain turns off when picking who to date. I’m also worried bad taste might run in our family considering my son is trying to woo the most obnoxious junior intern the Planet has ever had. 

MRS. FLASH: Hey, dating’s hard, sometimes you take what you can get. 

NOT THE MOTORCYCLE: I’m guessing the blind date didn’t work out last night, Iris?

MRS. FLASH: I know nobody I meet is going to be Barry, but it would be nice to connect with someone decent. Of course, with the twins, it’s extra complicated finding someone.

XENA: Iris, I have told you before I know of several steadfast warriors curious about man’s world who I could set you up with. Callista in particular would be a wonderful fit.

MRS. FLASH: Thanks Diana, but as I said last time, I’m 100% straight, so an Amazonian bride isn’t what I’m looking for.

THE BETTER BAT: Hey, don’t knock it till you try it. 

MRS. FLASH: Changing the subject, it’s been like forever since Zee’s chimed in. Is she really still on her mystic quest thingy?

THE BETTER BAT: Unfortunately, yes, considering the backlog of things needing her particular expertise. Bruce is beginning to be his worrywart self about it and if it takes much longer, I think he’s going to try to mount a rescue.

MAMA CAT: Which means either tracking down Dr. Fate, who’s also MIA, or having to deal with Constantine. We have literally hundreds of tech experts on speed dial, but finding warlocks you can trust is apparently nearly impossible. Magic is always the worst.

THE BETTER BAT: Says the woman whose newest child has a literal magical girl transformation button sitting on her ring finger at any given moment.

MAMA CAT: Whoa, hey, Mari OBVIOUSLY is the exception to magic sucking. Just like how we all agreed John is the exception to Green Lanterns kind of being jerks.

NOT THE MOTORCYCLE: Oh, I don’t know, Jessi’s not so bad.

MAMA CAT: She and Simon are new, so judgment’s still out on them.

PHD, BITCHES: Wait, so by your logic if there’s only one exception to these arbitrary rules of yours, if Mari is the exception to magic not sucking, you must have really had a falling out with Zee. And Isn’t Diana kind of magical?

MRS. FLASH: Ladies, stop giving Selina a hard time. You know she hates it when you pick apart her words just to mess with her. 

MAMA CAT: 😢 😡 💔

SUPERMOM: Okay, Lucy just somehow managed to open a second bottle of tequila when I wasn’t looking, so I’m going to sign off so I can keep an eye on her.

XENA: Wait, did Ivy say she and Harley got a dog?

MAMA CAT: Oh shit, she totally did! Ivy, Harley, we’re coming over to meet the puppy. Diana, I’ll pick you up on the way!

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Gotham City, Halloween Night

Halloween was always a tense affair in Gotham City, at least since the likes of Joker, Scarecrow and Mad Hatter burst onto the scene. And that was before you even considered Calendar Man and the Holiday killer. It only took a couple of mass fear gassings or haunted houses actually rigged to kill, to take some of the joy out of the holiday. 

That didn’t stop people from celebrating entirely, particularly among the younger generation; teens still had parties, and the suburban youth went trick or treating, but all night long those with longer memories would hold their breath. For the vigilantes who made the city their charge, it was to be a long night indeed.

Marinette flipped through her dark green utility belt pouches, double checking her equipment and making sure she was well supplied with gas pellets and batarangs. While it had been an adjustment, carrying more equipment than the magical staff created by the Miraculous, she was beginning to wonder how she’d ever lived without it. Indeed, she now wore an entirely mundane version of her Lady Noire outfit, woven from the same advanced semi-bullet proof, knife resistant, fireproof fibers as the rest of her family. It would be covered by her magical costume most of the time but was a reassuring fallback that made using Catastrophe a bit less risky.

“Hey Mari, look at all the work Cass put into her costume,” Harper snickered, passing her phone over to Mari. Her sister was already suited up in her Bluebird costume, sans the mask at the moment. Glancing over, Mari tried to suppress her own giggle when she saw an Instagram video of Cassandra at a Halloween party in Metropolis.

Unlike Gotham, the Big Apricot had no such complicated feelings about the holiday, and Cass was accompanying her girlfriend to a costume party at one of Kara’s friend’s places. In the video, taken by Kara’s friend Winn apparently, Cass and a red-faced Kara were just arriving. While Kara had gone somewhat traditional with a corpse bride costume, Cass had apparently decided to go as Supergirl, and unless Mari was mistaken, had just donned a blonde wig, and then literally stolen her girlfriend’s actual costume to do so.

“Okay, focus up everyone,” Barbara called from the raised platform bearing the main Bat Computer monitor, “tonight’s going to be a long one, so let’s get through the briefing as quickly as we can.” The hoodie wearing redhead instantly commanded the attention of the small horde of costumed or half-costumed heroes getting ready in the cave. Considering it was Halloween, the family was going to be out in force and only Cass, Duke, Ivy, Diana and Donna wouldn’t be patrolling or on standby. (Sandra, Wondergirl, was going to be borrowing the Black Bat costume tonight.)

Babs began running through the briefing, assigning patrol routes and going over known threats. Luckily most of the usual suspects for Halloween mayhem, Calendar Man and Scarecrow, were both in their Arkham cells, and Kate and Bette would be watching the island tonight for any breakout attempts. Most of the rest of the family were similarly paired off and assigned to patrol different areas of the city, with the exception of Bruce and Tim, who were going to be continuing their investigation into a series of disappearances in the Coventry District.

Privately Mari was impressed how focused Babs was on her work as Oracle, considering it had only been a few weeks since her surgery. Oracle had cut back her duties, letting other members of the family sub in as the guy or girl in the chair, but she wasn’t going to sit on the sidelines on Halloween. She’d been Batgirl during the year of the Long Halloween and remembered how quickly things could go south.

“-and if you run into trouble in the Bowery, Mockingbird and Lark are on standby at mini-cave theta,” Bab’s continued, earning a nod of acknowledgment from Jason and Harper who would be patrolling that area. “They’re going to stay in and stay rested for tomorrow if everything stays calm tonight, but if the shit hits the fan don’t hesitate to call them in for backup this time.” Barbara gave her brother and sister a pointed look before continuing, “Lady Noire and Robin, you’re back up for Nightwing tonight. Meta-level thugs have the potential to be in play, but most likely very low-level ones. Still, be careful, follow Nightwing’s lead, and if he makes the call for you to retreat, get clear immediately and return to the cave.”

Dick gave the twins a double thumbs up while Damian tsked at the threatened benching if things got too hot. Mari was a hair more concerned about the small but extant possibility of a major threat Barbara alluded to, but overall, she felt a twinge of pride that they were letting her tangle with something more serious, even if only working as part of a larger team.

Oracle finished and gave the nod to Batman, who had just donned his cowl, transforming from Bruce into the Dark Knight. He glowered down the table, instantly commanding a sense of gravity that had those members of the family still checking weapons and straightening their costumes snapping into sharp focus.

“Criminals, by nature, are a cowardly and superstitious lot,” Batman began, “and a night like Halloween brings out the worst of that superstition. Calendarman and Scarecrow may be accounted for, but they are far from the only villains who would want to take advantage of the holiday’s symbolism. New threats will always arise, and you need to be prepared for anything. Don’t underestimate them, don’t let your guard down, and don’t get sloppy.” He never raised his voice but the baritone warning sunk in for the younger members of the family.

Mari felt a comforting squeeze of her shoulder and turned to see Selina smiling down at her. The elder cat licked her thumb and pushed back a strand of Mari’s hair that had fallen loose from the simple pony it was in. (Her transformation made her hair grow and braid itself anyhow, so she mostly just tied it back to keep it out of her eyes.) “Don’t let Bruce stress you out, kitten; this should hopefully be a relatively quiet Halloween.”

Lady Noire grinned a little and nodded. Reading some of the disasters that had happened on previous Halloweens had perhaps stressed her out a little unconsciously, but she reminded herself it wasn’t a threat she had to face alone anymore.

, “... and remember if you get into trouble-” Selina drawled as the individual vigilantes broke and began to head for their chosen means of transportation into the City.

“You’re only an emergency comm away,” Mari finished for her. 

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Gemworld, Same Time, Final Assault on Castle Opal

“For Amethyst!” one of Chloe’s comrades yelled seconds before an onyx crystal shard embedded itself in his throat, leaving him gurgling as his life bled out. She should be shocked, stricken with pain for the loss of a man she’d fought beside for close to a year, but in the moment all she could do was curse the idiot for breaking cover.

“Stick together,” Amethyst barked over the din of the battle. They were on the front line, trying to pull off Lady Emerald’s audacious hail kwami of a plan to storm Dark Opal’s capital and cut off the head of the snake while the bulk of his forces were ravaging their lands to the south.

Her unit, a squadron of veteran fighters led by her friend and bodyguard Lady Turquoise, had managed to breach the castle’s eastern wall by sneaking through the ancient sewer system. They’d burst forth in the fortress’s galley and were now engaged in fierce room to room fighting as they pushed deeper into the enemy stronghold. Chloe, or Amethyst or Amaya, or whatever they wanted to call her these days, had come a long way from being an absolute neophyte with her magic, helped along by a skilled mentor in Zatanna. While Lady Turquoise was an able second, this was Chloe’s unit and it was her duty to use her magic to defend them.

“Follow me on three,” Chloe commanded, “I’ll provide cover but we need to take the next hall quickly before they can dig in and mass their fire!”

Reaching deep within herself to the well spring of mystic power she had learned was her birthright, Amethyst pushed it outward until it snapped into place as a shimmering purple forcefield covering the hallway. On the count of three, her troops charged from around the corner, and she pushed the barrier forward as they advanced, feeling slight pulls on her energies every time it deflected an arrow, thrown weapon or, most draining, an attack by an enemy magic user. 

She dropped the shield at the last instant of the charge, allowing her forces to fall upon the enemy. In a brutal thirty seconds of fighting, they took the still scrambling forces of Dark Opal, who were no doubt rather surprised by the sudden attack, apart. As much as possible they tried to disable and restrain their enemies; they needed to show they were different from the cruel tyrannical foe they were opposing. 

While Chloe and her small unit were infiltrating from the east, Zatanna, along with Citrine, was leading her own flanking attack from the west. Their goal was to pincer the opposing forces by pushing them heavily on both flanks. The bulk of their forces were besieging the southern wall under the command of Lady Emerald, who was similarly tying down the majority of the defenders. The whole goal was to get Amethyst and as many other elite fighters as they could into the throne room to attack Opal and bring an end to the madness that had engulfed Gemworld for over a decade. 

“You doing okay, princess?” Turquoise asked as she pulled her crystal sword from the dissolving form of one of the Onyx golems that were supplementing the ranks of their opponents. The magical constructs formed a reinforced backbone for Opal's troops, fueled by some unknown great magic Opal had gotten a hold of before his coup, and only fell apart after taking serious damage. The assumption by the most skilled sorcerers on the side of the rebellion was that the artificial soldiers would cease to function if they could defeat Opal himself, which would suddenly flip the advantage towards the cause of House Amethyst and their allies across the realm.

Amaya let out a humorless life as her unit regrouped and prepared to hurry forward, plunging deeper into the evil fortress. “I’m fine, but don’t call me princess.” She wasn’t entirely comfortable with the title and more than that, had come to think of the other young woman as a friend and didn’t want the layer of formality between them.

For all that everyone in her forgotten homeland hailed her as Princess Amethyst, Chloe hadn’t exactly been living in luxury. Instead of a feather bed in the palace, she’d gotten used to roughing it on the hard ground. Her meals weren’t medieval feasts, but rather whatever hard scrabble rations they could get their hands on, and there had been some hungry nights before Zatanna joined them and used her magic to help secure food. In short, she’d learned to rough it in the near year she’d been there and regarded her royal title with a certain amount of irony. ‘ Then again, hadn’t it always been her lot in life to be a paper princess ?’

Even back in Paris, her heiress persona had been something of a put on in a lot of ways. Andre Bourgeois had always projected more prosperity than he actually had. They had some money but Andre also lived well above his means and tried to stretch himself into the circles of the uber-rich, not just the moderately well off. Not knowing anything else, Chloe had mimicked that behavior, bragging about every luxury handbag bought on credit, or boasting about her political connections to try and bolster her sometimes flimsy self-worth. Fake it till you make it was advice that could be quite useful in some situations, but when it came to financial matters, it had led Andre to overextend himself, symbolized by his purchase of Le Grand Paris.  

That luxury hotel had been their ‘palace’ back on earth, but for Chloe it sometimes felt more like a gilded cage. She’d gone along with Andre and Audrey and habitually bragged about living permanently in a suite there, but it had honestly felt a little cold and impersonal for her, particularly because she ended up seeing hotel staff more than either of her supposed parents. She’d also put together over the Akuma year, in part due to Mari influencing her to be more inquisitive, that Andre had needed to borrow heavily against his other real estate holdings to buy the hotel, and the balance sheet was still deep red.

It was this long list of creditors that had made him so susceptible to bribery. Indeed, the money-making potential of the office may very well have been what attracted him to the idea of becoming mayor in the first place. ‘ Then again, he also just always wanted to be important, so I’m sure that was part of it’. Chloe remembered the mayoral campaign with mixed emotions, especially with the perspective she’d gained since. 

At the time she’d loved it, mostly because they’d played happy family for the cameras and she’d gotten absurdly rare affection from Audrey and increased attention from Andre. Of course, Audrey had left pretty much for good once the campaign wrapped up, and Andre becoming mayor had meant Chloe’s rearing was almost entirely left up to servants. She could see now that the Bourgeois were just putting on a show for political purposes, but it had been nice at the time. It was only after she’d started experiencing, bizarrely to her world experience, unconditional affection from Marinette that the temporary favor shown by Audrey began to seem fully hollow.

Her squad set off at a jog, rushing through the hallways to gain as much ground as they could. Deeper and deeper they wound their way into the fortress until they hit resistance again. Outside the grand library a phalanx of four golems supported by a half dozen pikemen and a tall pale warlock, whose hand’s crackled with dark power, rounded the corner and sent the forces of Amethyst dodging into the massive chamber and scrambling behind bookshelves for cover.

‘ I need to focus,’ Chloe commanded herself as she popped out from below an overturned lectern to blast one of the golems with a surge of purple energy. ‘ We’re in the endgame now.’

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Gotham, Halloween Night, Same Time

The first sign something was going wrong was that it was an exceptionally busy night for the Bats, and busy everywhere . None of the incidents were massive, an attempted arson here, a drunken brawl pilling on to the streets over there, but they were happening all over town

A lot of it could be handled by emergency services, but the Bats, Cats and Birds were plugging holes wherever they could. Dinah went with Batgirl to foil an attempt to heist opioids from Gotham General, Red Bat and Bluebird were frantically trying to stop an out-of-control tram hurtling through uptown, Catwoman, ‘Black Bat’, Batman and Raptor were corralling a frenzied Plasmus, rampaging in the diamond district, (which technically may have qualified as a massive incident), and on and on.

Lady Noire was with Robin and Nightwing and the trio were working Nightwing’s ongoing investigation into how Venom was leaking back into their city. They’d determined a particular warehouse near the pier was the likely main distribution hub and were staking it out.

“It seems the docks will be quiet tonight. We should leave a bug and go assist the rest of the family,” Damian said for maybe the third time that night. Mari couldn’t say she disagreed, listening to the rest of the Bats over comms, dealing with the seemingly mounting troubles elsewhere in the city. She was itching to do more than watch a stubbornly silent warehouse.

“Trust the others to handle things, Robin” Nightwing calmly replied while examining the warehouse with compact Batnoculars. They were camped out on three different rooftops adjacent to their target, leaving only the sea facing side uncovered, and communicating over comms. The Bats had a complex channel system to keep the main line from getting filled with chatter, so the three were essentially in a private call, though still able to hear the mainline.

“Are you sure?” Lady Noire asked, leaning on her staff as she watched the west side of the building.

“I’m sure,” Dick replied with practiced ease. He’d learned to act confident in stressful situations way back when he first crossed a tightrope. Even if things became rough enough in the other parts of the city that the family needed backup, Oracle would call in Mockingbird and Lark first; Damian and Marinette were capable, but the family was extremely careful not to toss their younger members into the deep end too quickly.

Something caught his eye, and he adjusted a dial on the Batnoculars, shifting his vision into another end of the spectrum. There, slipping in a side entrance to the warehouse was a trio of rough looking men, led by a guy Dick recognized. Edward ‘Eddie’ Skeevers was a three time loser of a mafioso who’d worked for half a dozen crime families over the years, always seeming to survive like a cockroach when his boss of the moment went down.

He wasn’t a threat, more likely to run or surrender at the sight of a Bat than put up a fight, but there was a reason Nightwing knew him on sight. Once upon a time, Edward Skeevers had been part of the gang of a particular Maroni sub-boss, Tony ‘Fats’ Zucco, the man who killed Dick’s first family. In the days after he’d first become Robin, he’d learned the names and faces of every member of that gang, and he’d probably never forget them.

Still, the sight of him didn’t make Dick fly off the handle, instead signaling patiently for Robin and Lady Noire to get in position to potentially enter the warehouse. They had parabolic listening devices set up to hear what was going on inside, and their primary goal that night was gathering information, but depending on what they heard, Dick might make the call for them to take the gangsters inside.

Eddie Skeevers had worked with Zucco, but he hadn’t had any direct involvement in the scheme to threaten Haly’s Circus into smuggling drugs, or murdering the Flying Graysons as an intimidation tactic. The sight of him might leave a nasty taste in Dick’s mouth, but he wasn’t the kind of threat he was too worried about engaging with that night, even if the old mook was using Slappers these days.

“I have something,” Robin informed them over comms. The younger vigilante had his own listening set up on his rooftop, to catch what Dick and Mari couldn’t from theirs, and provide as much coverage as they could get. “Sounds like an argument. The new arrivals are upset that the boss isn’t ready to meet them. Goons inside are getting heated, say the boss is busy in the back room.”

Nightwing mulled it over for a second before making his decision, “Lady Noire, Robin, we’re going in. Sounds like the boss we’ve been waiting for is in there after all. We’ll go in via the ventilation shaft we identified earlier, then use a smoke bomb barrage to mask our initial attack. Stay frosty out there.”

Damian groaned and Mari chuckled over his dated lingo, but both twins fell into sync, leaping through the dark to the warehouse roof. Dick, who’d had Damian as a brother for a good bit longer than he’d known Marinette was his sister, was sometimes amazed at how the two unconsciously mirrored each other. On the surface they were quite different, and Marinette probably spent more time with Harper than any other sibling if you counted up the minutes, but when she and Damian got serious in the field, you could tell they were twins. 

The initial attack by the Bats went blissfully smoothly, especially considering the unexpected amount of trouble the rest of the family was running into that Halloween. The seven total gangsters inside, including the three who had just arrived, were indeed using Slappers to enhance their strength, but the heroes were prepared for it this time. They quickly set about disarming and disabling their opponents, and Nightwing breathed a sigh of relief when no reinforcements came streaming out of the backroom. The boss, if they were indeed in there and the goons hadn’t just been bullshitting one another, must either be holding up, or unable to hear the fight through the thick industrial door that was the back office’s only exit.

Though he’d been careful not to show it, Dick had been a bit apprehensive about bringing the youngest vigilantes in the family along on a mission that had even the remote possibility of Bane showing up. A fighter who could defeat his father, even under extenuating circumstances, was something he would never take lightly. So, frankly he’d been alright with the bust that night’s stake out looked like it was turning out to be before Robin confirmed the boss of the Slapper running operation was supposed to be inside. 

Damian and Marinette may actually have a large amount of combat experience due to their unique, and frankly unfortunate, life experiences before coming home to the family, but the twins were still his baby siblings and he felt protective. He didn’t want to smother any of his siblings, or his teammates for that matter, but Nightwing had an admitted problem with not instinctively trying to take care of everything himself; it was a trait he and his pa had in common.

Swinging his escrima stick in a furious arc, he connected with the temple of the last of the thugs in the immediate area, dropping him like a sack of potatoes. Immediately checking on his little siblings, he found Marinette twirling her staff above two downed goons to his left, while Robin was sheathing his katana and reaching for cord from his utility belt to tie up the hulking bald steroid junkie he’d taken out. 

Nightwing set his sticks back in their holster and chastised himself. ‘ There was nothing to worry about; they handled it just fine. Besides, Babs was 99% sure Bane was back on Santa Prisca, so there was never going to be a major threat to worry about ton-‘

“Hello, boy wonder. Did you miss me?”

The sound of the voice made Dick Grayson-Wayne’s blood run cold and his heart rate jump a gear. It was a voice he would never forget until the day he died. The family had fought a lot of foes, and so had the Titans, but this man was the one that kept him up at night. This was the evil that haunted the dark corners of his mind. This was Slade, armed, prepared for him, clearly on a mission, and standing less than 3 yards away from Dick’s baby brother.

“Lady Noire, Robin, retreat, now.” There was no room for question in Nightwing’s voice. He couldn’t fight at the level he needed to when going toe to toe with Deathstroke while trying to cover the two younger heroes, and Wilson was always happy to exploit that kind of vulnerability. He took a step towards Deathstroke, who stood almost relaxed against the storage unit he’d been hiding behind.

“Now now, Robin,” Slade drawled, clearly addressing Dick despite using the codename currently used by Damian, “don’t you want to let your friends stick around for the fun? It’s been too long since I humbled someone wearing that ridiculous red leotard.” Damian’s death glare towards the mercenary somehow grew even more intense, but he held his ground, not rising to the bait. Instead, clearly not wanting to, he started to edge away the mercenary, towards the main exit, while being careful to keep himself facing towards the villain. Deathstroke wasn’t the kind of guy you turned your back on if you wanted to live through the night.

“So, this is a trap then?” Dick asked, “you faked evidence of a Santa Priscian connection to lure in a Bat?” More than searching for information, Dick was playing for time and trying to keep the focus on him as Mari and Damian started moving for the exit. Using a bit of sleight of hand, he thumbed the general emergency signal for the Titans on his belt. Oracle would have heard over comms what was going on, but with Deathstroke making an appearance, Nightwing made the executive decision to call in external help to Gotham.

“Oh, these fools aren’t associated with me,” Deathstroke replied, taking a step forward himself and gesturing to the downed enforcers. “It was obvious you’ve been pursuing them, and I just took advantage. The bodies of their bosses are stacked up in the backroom, though I don’t recall where I put the heads.” Slade drew his blades at the same moment Nightwing armed himself with his escrima sticks. “And I wasn’t after some random flying rat, I’m here for you.”

Triggered by some signal she couldn’t grasp, Nightwing and Deathstroke flew into combat against one another as Lady Noire regretfully made the dash for the exit along with Robin. Every instinct she had screamed at her to fight by Dick’s side, but she forced herself to ignore them. Her eldest brother had earned her trust, and she needed to trust his judgment. 

Putting distance between them and Deathstroke, Robin and Lady Noire fled away from the docks toward the Bowery. Able to once again spare attention listening to the main feed, it became apparent a busy night had turned into a crisis all over Gotham.

“Nightwing is engaging Deathstroke,” Oracle was explaining in a tense voice, “Red Bat, leave the Bowery to Bluebird and reroute to give him back up. Lady Noire-“

“Negative, can’t leave current scene,” Jason grunted, “highly skilled assailant is targeting Bluebird and-“

“I can handle it, whoa!” Harper came in, pausing to dodge something.

“No, you can’t, rely on Red Bat and get out of there. Mockingbird and Lark are enroute to you,” Oracle commanded. “Batwoman, I need you to return from Arkham so-“

“Attempted break in at Arkham,” Kate informed them at the same instant Babs was trying to recall one of the two heroes babysitting the insane asylum to the city, “dark robed assailants using traditional weapons. Flamebird and I are engaging.”

“Plasmus is secured, Catwoman and Black Bat will go-“ Batman started before the sound of a sword slicing through the air interrupted him.

“Batman is under assault by at least four combatants,” Catwoman informed them, the worry about the deteriorating situation facing their family breaking through Selina’s voice. “Black Bat, Raptor and I are assisting; we’ll finish this as quickly as possible.”

Stephanie’s voice came in over the line, “Black Canary and I have discovered assailants similar to the ones Batwoman described planting a bomb on the hospital’s generator. She’s covering me while I attempt defusal.”

“Understood,” Oracle replied, her mind rapidly processing the best course of action. “Wonder Woman and Troia have been alerted and are inbound for the city. Black Orchid is heading for the Fawcett City zeta, and-“

“Damian, get back to the cave now!” Jason barked, the stress of the situation causing him to momentarily forget to use his little brother’s name (luckily his hi-tech full-face mask muffled his voice when he didn’t have the speaker active). “This guy has League of Assassins training, this is Ras.”

Marinette had watched her twin brother’s face darken in concert with her own spirits as the news of mounting disaster and danger for their family rang in their ears. At the announcement it was apparently connected to the cult of killers he’d been raised in, he snapped. “I will NOT retreat at the first whiff of danger! We are obviously under a full-scale attack and there is safety in numbers. Lady Noire and I will regroup with Nightwing and help him defeat Deathstroke before coming to the aid of others.”

“Negative!” Nightwing exclaimed, his voice ragged and the sound of combat momentarily breaking over the line when he spoke. 

“Absolutely negative,” Oracle said sternly, “Lady Noire and Robin return to the cave, now. Bluebird, the instant you can safely disengage, retreat. This is Code: Black.”

Damian ignored their sister, turning around to head back towards where they’d left Nightwing. He shared a look with Marinette and she hesitated for just a moment before following him. ‘ I can’t leave him alone, right now’ she rationalized to herself as she too disobeyed orders and went to rescue Dick.

A minute later they were a few rooftops away from the dockside warehouse, running across the top of the shuttered old Gotham Aquarium, when a dark figure hurtled out of the shadows and collided with Robin. Skidding to a stop over the building’s skylight, Lady Noire saw the diminutive dark clothed figure tumble with Damian before the pair spun away from each other and each drew blades. The attacker was strangely about the same height as the notoriously shortest Robin. 

Alarm klaxons and panicked voices still sounding in her ear, she took one step towards her brother, before something hard and heavy smashed into her back, smacking her down and shattering the skylight, sending her falling into the darkness.

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Gemworld, Same Time 

“I honestly expected something more after all this time,” Dark Opal drawled to the restrained Amethyst. The blue skinned despot looked like a cross between a Roman centurion and David Bowie and seemed totally relaxed in spite of the ongoing assault on his castle. 

‘ and why shouldn’t he be calm?’ Chloe thought bitterly as she strained against the conjured black crystalline chains she’d been restrained with. She and Lady Turquoise had made it to the tyrant’s throne room with a small remaining number of soldiers and attempted to take him. It would have been nice to wait for reinforcements, but the whole point of the plan had been to strike swiftly. Every second they waited for help, was second Opal’s own forces could be regrouping.

Over the last several months, Chloe had learned more about how to use her magic, and how to fight, nearly every single day. She wasn’t the warrior Lady Topaz was, or a master of the magic arts like Zatanna, but she’d fancied that she was becoming formidable. She’d fancied that she stood a chance.

‘Just another mistake, Chloe,’ her inner voice taunted her. After only a few minutes of brutal fighting against the mystically empowered mad man, most of her soldiers lay dead or dying. Turquoise was unconscious and bleeding out from the ebony blade embedded in her gut, and Amethyst herself had been captured in conjured manacles.

Summoning all the mana she could, she tried to blast an energy bolt from her hands to break her bonds, but there wasn’t even a purple glow. “That won’t work, you silly girl. The Bindings of Daanuth seal all magic of lesser sorcerers.” Twirling his hand in the air, he somehow summoned a purple crystalline goblet sloshing with wine.

“There’s always a way out,” Amaya spat, quoting a favorite phrase of her mentor. Zatanna was the second-best escape artist on Earth and carried that philosophy into the rest of her life. 

Dark Opal chuckled, “not this time, dear child.” He took a deep sip of his wine, “even as we speak my forces are destroying your little rebellion. I really must thank you for giving them the foolhardy courage to come out into the open. It lets me kill all my enemies in one move.”

Chloe continued to struggle, a desperate plan forming in the back of her mind. She needed to keep him talking. “You have no right to rule over Gemworld and oppress its people!”

The tyrant smirked, “and House Amethyst did? Here’s the truth, sugar bean, those with the power have the right. I’m the most powerful being on Gemworld, so I have the right to take anything I want from anyone. Like this glass I plundered from the ruins of Castle Amethyst, for instance. I wanted it, so I took it, and the hysterical woman who owned it could do nothing to resist me. Oh, you may actually remember her, I think she was your mother.”

Chloe refused to think about his words, or the birth mother she would never meet. If he was gloating, he wasn’t going out into the castle to do battle with the rest of the rebellion. She fixed him with a predatory grin, using every ounce of the false confidence she’d long ago learned to project. “Oh, is that right? Then why do you live in fear of Amethyst? I’ve listened to the people of this world. You forbid the mention of my house, you hide behind walls and golems, and you scoured the land trying to find me when I was just a baby, because you were afraid of a child!”

WHAM! 

Dark Opal slapped her across the face with his gauntleted hand, cutting her cheek and letting her blood begin to drip to the ground. “I would take care in how you speak to me, whelp!” 

“I don’t bend the knee to a fake king bondage outfit,” Amaya snapped back, taunting him, “I mean I heard your brother was the real wizard in the family, but I didn’t think you’d be so pathe-GAH“

Her words were cut off by Dark Opal grabbing her by the throat, lifting her in the air and beginning to choke the air from her lungs. Frantically she moved her fingers, trying to complete the final step of her horribly risky plan, when the door on the opposite side of the throne room from where Amaya had entered, exploded inward in a storm of flapping white doves.

“Hcuot ym dlihc, dna nrub!” Zatanna cried, her eyes shining with golden magic. Instantaneously, Black Opal’s hands were seared where he touched Chloe, and he was forced to release his choke hold on the purple haired girl, allowing her to fall, gasping, to the dark tile floor.

Time seemed to slow down as the tyrant turned to confront the attacking hero, Amethyst laying bound and temporarily forgotten at his feet. Still gasping for breath, Chloe finally slipped her bindings; no real magic may have been able to affect them, but stage magic was entirely fair game. Over countless evenings spent together during the long march to Castle Opal, Zatanna had taught Chloe a handful of mundane magic tricks, starting with how to slip out of a pair of handcuffs.

She wasn’t great at it yet, and her wrists hurt like hell, but she’d done it. She rose to her feet and conjured a violet crystal blade in her right hand in the same motion, thrusting it upward with every bit of strength she could still muster.

The blade of Amethyst slid into his flesh and between his ribs with surprising ease. In the space between his last heartbeats, the decade-long nightmare of Opal’s tyranny ended. The immortal warlock, scion of House Opal, servant of the Lords of Chaos, and ruthless overlord of Gemworld had finally accidentally let someone within his guard. He’d been so confident in his magic, and so dismissive of Amaya while she couldn’t use hers, that he made a fatal error in judgment.

Opal stumbled away from Chloe, black blood running down the length of the blade that had pierced his heart. Amaya was nearly as shocked as him that it had actually worked, albeit with a very necessary distraction from Zatanna, who was now rushing to her side, and just crouched there on her knees, breathing heavily.

Before her eyes, Dark Opal went from bleeding out, to literally dissolving . As the various enchantments that girded him began to fail, his body was tearing itself apart, as various supernatural bargains suddenly came due. His blood boiled and evaporated, his flesh rotted, and his skeleton turned to dust, while all his magic broke at the same instant his body perished.

There was a shockwave that blasted out from where he had stood, knocking Chloe on to her back, and making Zatanna raise a gloved hand to block her face, her top hat flying away from the blast. Throughout the castle, and then the rest of Gemworld, and even to planes beyond, Dark Opal’s magic failed.

On earth, thugs who’d bought the new cheap kryptonite flooding the streets were suddenly holding bullets made of common gypsum. In the lands of Emerald, the curse that had ruined their arable land lifted, a long-delayed spring coming into bloom. Among Dark Opal’s forces, both those fighting in his castle, and those of his allies Sapphire and Ruby to the south, his golem army became inert. Enchanted blades turned to pig iron sticks, and those sorcerers who’d been allowed to draw on a fraction of their master’s magic were left to their own smaller pools of mana. 

Amethyst didn’t know any of it at that moment, couldn’t hear the cheers of the rebellion’s forces echoing through the fortress, or even feel the joy of having finished the task that had been set for her when she’d been whisked to this magical realm so long ago. All she could do was sit there on the ground, grappling with the fact she had just killed a man, while she felt the comforting arms of Zatanna wrap around her from behind.

In a small voice, the hero of the rebellion said, “I’d like to go home now.”

-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+

Abandoned Old Gotham Aquarium, Near the Docks, Same Time

“Unhh,” Mari groaned as she rose from the ground, blinking in the darkness of the exhibit room, distant moon light coming in through the broken skylight and bouncing around the empty glass tanks that had once housed exhibits. She stumbled uneasily to her feet, trying to avoid stepping on the shattered glass and regain her bearings. The voices of the rest of the Batfamily in her ear disappeared for some reason, leaving the deserted aquarium eerily silent.

There was still an active Gotham Aquarium, reopened in a new building on the north side of the city, but this place had been closed down ever since it was ground zero for Joker’s laughing fish epidemic. 

“I apologize for the rough landing,” a female voice said from the darkness, “I had been under the impression cats always land on their feet.”

“Cats usually don’t get hit in the back with a bowling ball,” Marinette shot back. The room was dark, true, but the powers of the Cat Miraculous gave her night vision fit for any feline, and she could see a dark haired woman in a green qipao lurking in the shadows. Still, there was no reason to reveal she had that advantage so she added, “why don’t you come out here where I can see you?”

“I’d hardly call Onyx a bowling ball, habibi,” the woman replied, at the same time Marinette clocked another dark robed figure standing further back, partially hidden by the cobweb covered penguin exhibit. “In any event it doesn’t matter. All that matters is you’re here with me, now, and I’ve come to take you somewhere your talents will be appreciated, Marinette.”

Considering how the night was going, with at least several members of her family fighting for their lives, Lady Noire hadn’t thought she could get more tense, but the mystery woman casually using her real name had her clutching her bo staff till her knuckles turned white.

“Who are you,” Mari growled in an approximation of the voice Bruce used for intimidation. It didn’t work as well with her younger, higher pitched register, but it was worth a try.

Her answer was a knife flying out of the shadows, straight for her face; luckily, she saw it coming and flicked her staff on reflex, batting it out of the air.

“Excellent,” the woman declared while hurling three more daggers towards Lady Noire, who deflected them with a spin of her staff, taking a step backwards. “I’d worried your soft childhood would have diminished your skills, but the blood always runs true. Once you’ve been properly trained you will be a force to be reckoned with, my child.”

“Talia,” Marinette muttered, the detective in her putting together who this woman might be. She may have purposefully avoided reading too much about the woman or her League of Assassins when going through the Batcomputer’s case files, due to the emotional baggage that came with investigating her absentee birth mother, but she knew enough to understand the clues in front of her.

“I’d prefer you call me mother, daughter,” Talia replied, stepping forward into the dim moonlight, so there were now only a few meters between the two of them. “I apologize for taking so long to come and collect you after learning of your survival and fortuitous empowerment. It is somewhat cumbersome to fully distract that poor copy of the League your father surrounds himself with.”

“My survival?” Marinette asked. While she knew she should be focusing on the threat, focusing on the fight, she couldn’t deny asking the questions she’d long desperately wanted answers to, not when they were right in front of her.

Talia frowned momentarily, “yes, I had tasked a loyal servant of mine to rear you away from my father’s eyes. He may not have valued a female heir, but I knew your potential. She was to raise you in a city with minimal League presence, and see you were properly instructed so I could collect you later. Unfortunately, an earthquake collapsed the building she was staying in with you as a babe, and the reports indicated all occupants were lost. I’ve already dispatched someone to eliminate the French fool who confused you with the child of the crack addict staying in the next room over.”

Mari’s mind raced; she’d known she was recovered after a disaster, and that there was no known family, sending her into the system from infancy. Since coming to live with the Waynes, and learning some of the truth of her parentage, she’d assumed Talia had literally just abandoned her, maybe granting her the mercy of a life outside the League, but apparently it was all some kind of cosmic accident that led to her growing up in Paris, alone. 

“Why should I believe you?” She demanded, “You could have kept me within the league like you did with Damian, even if you weren’t grooming me to be some kind of flesh puppet for the ghoul you call a father. Your interest now is in the ring, not me.” People always wanted the miraculous, and the power it held; it seemed far more likely Talia was angling to get a wish, rather than suddenly discovering a belated maternal instinct.

The master assassin scoffed, “your traitorous brother has a flawed understanding of the order that is our birth right. If you were kept within the League at that time, you would have become just another tool for my father.” Talia paused, before dramatically declaring, “he clings to power, but his time is ending, the age is turning. The league needs a new head, a new leader. You were to be by my side, habibi, as we took our rightful places.”

“So, you just wanted me to be a tool for you instead, is that it?” Lady Noire nearly spat. If Talia didn’t want to raise her as her daughter, she could have left her with someone who wanted her. Marinette could have grown up with Bruce and Selina from the start, in Gotham, where she belonged, but that had been denied to her because it didn’t benefit Talia Al Guhl’s master plan.

Talia shook her head, “you were not born to be a pawn, Marinette. And I could care less for that silly ring you use as a crutch. Now, my forces will only detain your fool of a father and his false family for so long. I know you came to Gotham under extenuating circumstances, but I’m offering you a real choice, to come be with your real family.”

“I’m not going to go with you,” Marinette retorted incredulously. “You abandoned me as a baby and sent assassins to kill my family.

Tallia scowled and snapped, “they aren’t your family, child! They are a collection of strays and a common thief who hold your father back from greatness. Your brother has already fallen to delusion, but that is his weakness. You have been here a mere six months; you cannot yet be corrupted by his failure.”

As she spoke, the deadly woman closed the distance between them faster than Marinette would have thought possible, jabbing a scimitar towards her head. Mari dodged her head to the side just in time. The blade whistled through the air to her left, but Talia slammed the hilt of the weapon into Marinette’s temple, knocking her onto the ground.

This time she did manage to display catlike grace, dropping to all fours to avoid falling on her tail. She sprang away just in time to avoid being sliced by the second scimitar Talia was wielding. Her long tail-like braid flew wildly as she desperately worked to put distance between her and her murderous biological mother, going fully on the defensive to dodge or deflect the sword strikes.

“YES!” Talia cried, ecstatic, “you are a warrior my child! You must feel it!”

Lady Noire was a very skilled fighter for her age, with her year against Hawkmoth giving her more experience than some members of the Justice League had. Add to that her recent months being trained by the Batfamily, and the moderate improvement to her speed and strength granted by Plagg, and she should be a formidable opponent. 

She was nothing in the face of Talia al Guhl’s onslaught. Her opponent was a centuries old master of the killing arts, and it was all Marinette could do to stop one of those blades from cutting into her flesh. Moment by moment her defense had to grow tighter, as she caught a kick to the ribs here, or a shallow cut to her ear there. Worried she was being pushed into a corner, she decided to try something drastic.

Inky black energy flowed over her right hand, sheathing her claws in the essence of destruction. Backflipping to avoid an X-slash of Talia’s blades, she passed the old whale tank and ran her claws against the glass with a cry of “CATACLYSM!”

The gargantuan glass tank exploded into shards and powder, shaking the building. The force of the Kwami borne destruction, breaking most of the other nearby tanks and cracking the foundation. Mari wasn’t a killer and wasn’t going to use her ultimate move on a living person, no matter who they were, but everything else was fair game. Her intention was to use the distraction of the explosion to get away, flee the building, and try to find Damian, who was no doubt fighting his own assassin at the moment.

She only forgot one thing. 

Talia’s subordinate Onyx, who had been patiently watching events play out.

THUD!

As Marinette turned to flee, a brick flew at her, nailing her right between the eyes. If her transformation hadn’t still had five minutes left after the use of Cataclysm she could have been seriously injured. As it was, she fell back onto the ground, nursing a likely concussion. She woozily tried to turn around and face her primary assailant but couldn’t immediately pull herself together to get back on her feet.

Talia didn’t go in for the kill, instead sheathing her scimitars on her hips and walking slowly towards the prone Marinette. She stared down at her prodigal daughter, “you fight well, habibi, but you are untrained. Your father lacks the heart to do what must be done when rearing a child, and he is letting your potential wither on the vine. I could make you magnificent.”

Mari tried to respond but found her mouth full of blood, either from built up internal damage or biting her cheek during the fall. She coughed it up as Talia came to stand above her, just a few feet away.

“I had to send you away once, but now we can be together. With you by my side, we can overthrow my father and rule the League ourselves, do things properly, as mother and daughter,” Talia declared, reaching a hand out towards Marinette.

Marinette struggled back to her feet, stepped backwards, and drew her fist across her mouth, wiping away a trickle of blood pouring from it. There was only one answer she could give, the truth. She grit her teeth, bared her fangs and said,

“I already have a mother. Her name is Selina.”

Talia’s expression turned into a sneer and she snarled, “you would oppose your own blood in the name of that back-alley whore? You are as foolish as your brother.” The assassin redrew her blade and began stepping towards the still groggy Marinette when the skylight above them burst open, a dark feline figure descending from the night sky to stand between them.

“Do. Not. Touch. My. DAUGHTER!” Catwoman snarled.

Mari smiled, because she knew at that instant, she knew she would be okay. Her mom was there to protect her. As Plagg’s magic ran out, and she depowered, the accumulated damage caught up to her normal body, and the darkness of unconsciousness engulfed her. The last thing she saw was Selina trying to claw out the eyes of the woman who’d tried to take her daughter away.