Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Now make no mistake, Timothy Drake was a very smart person. He’s the Robin who could outstubborn Batman. He is the Robin who could make the Riddler cry upon seeing him if he was determined enough. He is the third Robin and he is a force to be reckoned with.

Yet somehow, some way his achievements seem to jump out of the window the moment his team is in trouble. Tim’s teammates mean the world to him. Young justice is the team that he poured his sweat, tears, and goddamn life into. He had found out a long time ago that he would do literally anything for them.

Bart was the first to get shot. 

It’s almost funny in a certain light. Because here's the thing: It doesn't matter how fast you are. It doesn't matter how smart you are. It doesn't matter that he is a teenager in over his head. Not paying attention to their surroundings is what gets them killed in their line of work. 

He had seen the wound before he had felt it. Bart probably wouldn’t have even noticed if it wasn’t for Cassie screaming his name. Then Tim watches as Impulse looks down and notices the wound with eyes blown wide. 

Wonder Girl was rushing over to him to provide first aid when Impulse was covered in a gold and blue shroud of light. The only remnant of him being there in the first place was the blood left on the floor.

“Bart what the fuck!” Kon yelled. Tim could barely process it with the ringing in his ears.

The man who had shot Tim’s friend had stopped moving, stopped breathing. Cassie went to move to attack him. Too soon found the man in the blue suit snapping back to the world and taking another shot at the team.

Then it was Cassie who got shot next.

It hit her in the bicep. Red Robin and Superboy watched in horror as their friend scrambled to try to pull the shrapnel out of her arm. Even from across the room Tim could hear the squelching sound it had made. 

Kon could hear as the muscle in her arm was shoved around by her finger as she dug to pull it out. He could smell the blood that was coming out from the wound and onto her hand along with the bullet. He could hear as her arm was stitching it back faster than the average person but oh so slowly for someone with her powers. He hated having that good of hearing but most times it was useful. This just didn’t happen to be one of them.

And she almost was quick enough. The moment it was out of her arm Wonder Girl made the move to drop it to the ground. She hadn’t been quick enough to get it out of her hand.

Cassie was engulfed in the same gold and blue light that had covered and stolen Impulse. Then she was gone with less of a trace then Bart had left behind. She had been taken along with the light and Tim had literally nothing to show for it.

The ringing in Tim’s ears had gotten even louder with Cassie's disappearance. It was the only thing that he could really hear in the room that processed. It was in the background but at the same time it was in his skull pounding.

Both of the remaining heroes saw red. The man in the blue suit had realized what had happened in full. From behind Tim couldn’t see the smile that the man had worn. But Kon had, and Superboy was furious.

Red Robin and Superboy had moved to attack at the same time. Another gunshot goes off. Another bullet goes exactly where it needs to be. Neither boy left standing even recognises where it hit. Because it didn’t hit Tim; It couldn’t have from that angle. And of course it just couldn’t have possibly hit Kon because he uses his TTK like a shield around his body.

So they Ignore it and press forward. Tim gets a hit into the guy with a batarang that had ricocheted off of multiple surfaces. He had thrown that shot so that the man wouldn’t be able to figure out where it actually came from. It was the best way to make sure the man couldn’t shoot him. 

Except Kon had realized something too late. The bullet had gone down his boot so perfectly that the shrapnel had stayed inside. He had made the move to try and pull it out in time. Just like Bart, just like Cassie he was too late to stop anything that was coming. 

And just like Bart and Cassie he was engulfed in a shroud of blue and gold. He was gone.

This is when Tim stopped making rational decisions. Because now he had just watched something happen to his team that he couldn’t have stopped. Yet it will always be on him for any of their failings. This could have all been avoided if he had been better. If he had chosen to push himself harder.

Don’t you dare tell him that he couldn’t have stopped what happened. He was the smart Robin. He was The Robin that brought Batman back from his spiral; back from the dead. Timothy Jackson Drake was the third Robin and he is supposed to be a force to be reckoned with.

Nevertheless he wasn’t good enough and now he was compromised. It wasn’t physically because that was just too good for him. No, he was emotionally compromised. He saw that there was hell to repay to the man in the bloodstained blue suit.

His first act had been throwing three more batarangs to ricochet in different directions. He closed the remaining distance between him and the man. Red Robin's next move had been close quarters, kicking the man on the back and using his staff to knock the gun into the air.

The vigilante had caught the gun in one hand as it was falling back to the ground. Red Robin’s staff had been hovering dangerously close to the man’s throat as one foot was planted on the man's chest and the other on the dominant arm.

Red Robin had snarled out, “What did you do and how do you undo it?”

Underneath him the man flinched ever so carefully that it was hidden. The man in the blue stained suit had kept his cocky smirk and had laughed at the vigilante’s anger.

“There's nothing you can do now that your little super friends are gone. I would say I’m sorry but ahhh I don’t care.” The bloodstained blue suit man had said.

“Alright then. Your information,” Red Robin, Tim Drake had said, “Means nothing to me!”

He had taken the staff and hit the man in the head with it.  Red Robin had brought the man's hands together to put them in multiple zip ties. If you are put in one of them maybe you can get out of it but there's no way of escaping multiple unless you have tools in the vigilante’s experience. 

The ringing in his ears had finally stopped.

Before he did something really stupid and really dangerous he made the smart move. Tim dropped bleach onto the concrete floor where Bart’s blood was and took a towel to wipe it up. Once he could guarantee that he had moved on from the task to the next.

This is when every rational decision he could make in this situation went unanswered. Now it was time for him to do something fucking stupid for the chance of rescuing the people he cared about. It wouldn’t be the first precipice that he throws himself off of to bring someone back from the “dead.”

He pulls the gun back out taking note of the details. It has these blue lines in it that look like they give off a faint glow. It almost looks like the Colt from the show Supernatural . He would almost say that he was “ saving people and hunting things because it’s the family business.” But the situation feels too dangerous to quote and make a joke like that.

Red Robin made a move that felt all too familiar to him. He pointed the gun towards himself and prepared himself to get shot. Now don’t get him wrong he was smart enough not to point it at anything vital. Hell he barely even had it at an angle that could say that it was directed at him.

He put his finger on the trigger and pulled. It just barely hit the kevlar like he had planned for. The shrapnel had gotten caught in the fabric. He was the last to get shot.

Now Tim was on borrowed time. He hit an emergency button on his tracker and tore it off of the suit. He made sure there wasn’t anything left that people could use against him that he could get to in time. Then he grabbed the shrapnel to put in his glove so it would be unable to go flying (it would be easier to reverse engineer that way).

If he had gotten more time and didn’t act quickly he would have found out just one more detail. What it was wasn’t important enough for it to have made a real difference to his case. Not at all. But it does make the case he leaves behind run just a little deeper.

Because if he would have sat back and investigated he would’ve been around long enough to recognise he didn’t leave the main witness. The batarangs were not enough to kill the man in the blood stained blue suit. No Batman had trained them all how to aim better than that,

The man didn’t pull them out so he would bleed out to leave no loose end; he was too tied up to do that. He didn’t break some poison capsule in his mouth like some action movie spy. No mob boss came to shoot him for such and such. 

No, the man died of blunt force trauma to the head. Specifically it was the wound made by a bo staff. The vigilante never chose to stick around long enough for him to see what he had done. Maybe that’s for the better. Maybe that’s for the worse.

All that anyone can say though is that when the Red Hood shows up three hours later all he has are missing teenagers, four less bullets, and a murder he chose to be blamed on himself. No one mentions to him how it had impacted the case. But if you had asked Dick, Batman wouldn’t talk to him, much less give away any information to him regarding the case. 

(Oracle had still given him the information anyway. She knows that Jason was not the one to take the final blow. Barbra never told anyone that it wasn’t Jason's fault, for she knew why he did it. To protect his brother from their fathers wrath.)

––------

Tim felt the disorienting feeling of being thrown into somewhere he shouldn’t be. His eyes were being somewhat blinded by the blue and gold. And then he was thrown into Bart and Cassie as if he was a human bowling ball.

Red Robin, Wonder Girl, And Impulse had hit the warehouse’s concrete ass first. Meanwhile Superboy was laughing at them, the jerk. It took Tim a few moments to stop feeling dizzy enough to actually start thinking correctly.

Kon had hauled them up to their feet with his shoulders still slightly shaking. Tim had started to catalog his surroundings. Daylight streamed in from the roof's skylights. He immediately gets the feeling that they aren’t in Kansas anymore, Toto.

“I still think that we’re going to have to pull the bullet shrapnel out of your leg Bart.” Cassie said. There was something in her tone that made it feel like the word dumbass was in every word in that sentence. If you weren’t a part of the team you wouldn’t know that that was how she showed that she cared, that she was worried.

“Are you sure!” Bart whined. (he knew the answer).

Cassie looked him dead in the eye. She stared at him for a few moments just to convey how much disappointment she feels in the look alone. Then she finally spoke up “do you want to get an Infection, because I don’t think the speed forces healing bullshit can do much about an infection. Plus I literally pulled mine out of my arm Bart, woman up.”

Tim had a realization and couldn’t stop himself from starting to speak, “Wait, I don’t think that we actually have too. Cassie did you hear your bullet hit the ground because we didn’t hear it drop on our end.” 

She had to think for a second before answering, “I don’t think so. Kon did yours drop?”

Both Kon and Tim had responded in perfect time with each other, “No, It didn’t.”

“I put mine in my glove but it’s not there anymore. I think that might be how it works. It dissolves into nothing as it does its job to get you somewhere new.” Tim said. It looks like he’s about to start frothing at the mouth at the idea of studying the technology. None of them can find out whether that’s a good or bad thing. 

“So we don’t have to go digging into my leg,” Bart cheered, “Hooray! I’m safe!” 

Tim had pulled his first aid kit out of his pocket. (if anyone asked where it came from outside of the bat clan they would answer with “out of his ass.” with a deadpan look.) Tim moved to Cassie first since her wound had almost finished filling itself up.

He poured the rubbing alcohol and watched as it made the little foaming bubbles. The smell of his friend's blood was still overwhelming to him but it’s lessened and that’s all he can ask for. Tim poured water over her arm to get the extra liquid off.

Next he moved over to Bart who had pulled up the leg of his suit so that Tim could get to it. Bart, no matter how many times his wound is disinfected he will still feel the sting from it. He hates it every single time and Tim always feels bad about it. But It was for his friend's safety so he did it anyway.

For Bart’s Injury he had to do more than he did for Cassie. While he heals fast, he doesn't heal as fast as an amazon does. Tim put gauze over the wound carefully to make sure that the skin wouldn’t trap it when it was healing. That was a lesson the team had to learn the first time Bart got a serious injury on a mission, it was not something repeated. Tim could still remember having to pull it out of the wound and hearing Barts screaming. He had finished wrapping the wound to his standard.

Standing up Tim ignored any feelings he had at the moment and started thinking. They didn’t know where they were, how far they were from home, how to get back, and not many resources to help them. They are well and truly shit out of luck.

Okay Tim remember rule one: stay as calm as you can, everyone needs a composed and dependable leader to rely on. He can do that. It was going to be hard given the extent of what happened, but he can get shit done. That is what Batman had expected to do in this situation, after all.

Rule two: Assess, catalog, and fix any and all immediate dangers and problems with yourself and your team. He’s got that. Two injuries that have already been treated, one in arm and one in leg. Most of their technology is not working (looks like the circuits were fried during teleportation.) Team is in a state of disarray (to be expected.) Currently do not have a source of food and water. And they are in broad daylight.

Third rule: blend in however possible. That means get ready to have to speak a different language or find a way to avoid talking if you don’t speak it. Try to fix hair and other noticeable features to fit the area around you. Get out of your hero suits as quickly as possible, being in  them can and will get you killed.

So that’s the first order he gives his team. “Alright everyone find your wall to stare at and fix your outfits to the best of your ability. Double snap when you are finished”

Everyone did as they were told and took minimal time to get out of their hero costumes. Once eight snaps had rang out around the warehouse they had turned back and met in the middle. Tim looked at his teammates in approval, noting that they had done a good job compared to way back when the team had first started.

Most of Kon’s outfit had remained the same. The jeans were a part of his hero costume and the leather jacket was normally fine. All he really had to do was change his shirt around so it was being covered by his jacket.

Bart had to remove his suit completely but had a graphic t-shirt that were the James Webb telescope images and a pair of leggings. Tim had instilled it into him years ago that he needed to have clothes under his hero costume so that in a situation like this he had a decent pair of clothes to change into. Tim’s glad to know that his friend still follows this rule.

The top of Cassie's hero suit had been made so she could flip it inside out for disguise if she needed too. Her suit's cargo pant’s had stayed the same because they weren't a problem. Her lasso and wrist braces were nowhere to be found.

In truth it was Tim who had to really do the most to change. His cape and cowl were gone (zipped up into a backpack that none of the other bat’s knew how it works to this day.) all his belts and bandoliers were placed into it along with his domino mask.  His suit was removed now leaving leggings and a plain white shirt. His bo staff was collapsed and shoved into his pocket.

Now what was rule number four: do not, under any circumstances, let people know that you are vigilantes. In a new environment no one is to be trusted unless it is your team that you went there with. For all you know the different versions of yourselves our a justice league member could lead you to be compromised. They had all had to learn this the hard way, Tim especially. Outside of them, there is no one to be trusted. 

And finally rule five: stay hidden, stay diligent, stay alive.

Bart broke the silence “Okay, what’s the plan, boss people?” 

Chapter Text

Many people would assume that young justice had never and will never do anything illegal. However, if you were to say that to their faces Cassie would laugh at you, Bart would start whistling suspiciously, Kon would stare off into the distance as if remembering war crimes committed by the team, and Tim would be gone from the room. No one would answer any questions past that.

Let Bart explain. They snuck into Darkseid's emo castle to deliver coal for Santa. Cassie joined a cult at some point or another. Tim hid a literal batmobile in the goddamn Batarang budget and Batman still doesn't know about it to this date.

 Not to mention the first time they had met Kon had been breaking into a secret laboratory. They had ended up kidnapping- rescuing Kon from his rich asshole father on a split-second decision. (Tim will not confirm or deny threatening Superman at kryptonite point into being a better father.) Come to think about it, this might be the reason why Young Justice was so heavily ride or die oriented.

So yeah, Bart can officially say that all of them wouldn’t really hesitate to do something questionable. There’s a reason that Tim wouldn’t hesitate to have contingencies for when they get arrested. Not a bail fund, contingencies. Tim’s ready to start a prison break for them and Bart prays that it never happens.

But anyway, this is a very long and exaggerated way of saying that no one really bat’s an eye when Tim said they would have a solid identity and a paper trail within a week. They had found out very quickly that they were in Japan and definitely not in their universe. Bart doesn't know if it’s better or worse than being trapped in the speed force.

When Bart had asked Tim where he had gotten so good at doing this his soul was stared directly into as the Eldridge monster in front of him told him he didn’t want to know. Bart had found an interesting piece of flooring to focus on after that. (Oh, are those dust particles laying perfectly enough to form a flower-!)

No one is going to actually look that deeply into it but Tim’s document falsification runs deep. According to Tim, they are four emancipated minors with parents living back in America. No, the four of them live with Tim’s loving, caring, kind uncle Eddie. He has a few little things to add depth, a parking ticket here, a minor J-walking fine; they're just little things to give him depth and validity.

It was only when Bart was handed a manilla folder with a pile of information did he finally feel like he existed. Cassie and Tim had never felt it but both him and Kon had cried to each other on nights that they didn’t feel real. 

Kon was built in a lab as a replica and replacement. There were no legal documents to tie him to reality. Lex Luthor never needed him past the boy being a deranged lovechild of a man and one of his worst enemies. And Clark? He never did more than the base for Kon when it came to creating an identity.

Don’t get Bart wrong he knew Barry had done his best with what he had. But It never really had done enough to make him feel that he was anything more than a man out of time. Yet here one of his best friends standing in front of him having poured out all his talents to help them. To help him.

This was a tie to a new reality that they weren’t even planning to stay in. He has more history here for a civilian identity than he did back home. More ties, less time. It feels like a knife to the side, but he won’t acknowledge it. Not right now at least. (Bart does file the request for Tim to make Kon a real civilian identity for later)

“Where did you get the money to do some of this Tim,” Cassie asked, “because I’m pretty sure that you would've needed a bit to fully put some details in.”

“Oh, that’s easy, I've been stealing some money from Endeavor!” Tim said with a shit eating grin.

Bart blinks once, twice, thrice before he fully registered the statement. His friend casually dropped that he was stealing from the number two hero. And then Bart remembers the young justice's personal Batmobile and ends the confusion. What Bart should be curious about is whether he was taught by the bat or if he taught himself to do insane tricks like this. Because Tim’s contingencies have a thousand different execution plans and his paranoia could have caused him to learn. You just never know with them though.

After they had fully got their stories memorized, compared, and quizzed It was finally the time that they could really think about what to do next. So far none of them have really talked about their next steps. He thinks it’s because it might be permanent. None of them have truly had to deal with dimension travel in quite that way. 

Right now, they can’t think about that. Right now, they are not teenagers scared out of their mind about their dimension becoming hiraeth just out of their reach. Right now they aren’t the kids they started out as. They aren’t scared of what their future truly holds for them because they can’t be.

At this moment they have to be the heroes sitting around a round coffee table that has low lighting with file’s spread around them as if they were preparing to fight in a new war they could never be prepared for. But not only will they win, they will come out on top. They have to .

Cassie had brought out her own folder except this time It was red instead of the bland color that Tim picked. She put it on the table pulling out the papers in the process and setting them down spread out. Each paper had a collection of photos with two lists on them. 

Then she leaned forward on the table with her hands intertwined in front of her. She looked like she was about to tell you that she held years of blackmail that could destroy you in minutes if they got released. She would have made a damn good lawyer if her heart wasn’t set on other things.

“You can see that we have a few options to choose from, but I have one that I feel is the best decision to make.” Cassie dragged one paper out from the row and spun it to face everyone. “Before everyone starts complaining about what I have to say next I have a reason for this choice.”

Her eyes had passed over everyone at the table and they all nodded that they were going to listen. “Our best option would be going to the number one hero school in Japan, U.A.”

She hadn’t been interrupted after she said that, but she saw they just looked like they hated the idea. Good she had taught them all well. “I know all of you already hate the idea. We’ve all spent years learning how to be heroes building up knowledge from the ground and it sucks to act like we didn’t. Heroes are going to be convinced that we are teenagers who have to be taught how to save people when today society's priorities are very different. And we will have to hide our skills and be smart and careful.”

“But the pros outweigh the cons if we go there. We could get access to the best technology this world has to offer not to mention the ability to fix and make more of our gear and make new advances for our own. Then there's the fact that we can learn just what we’re going up against if we had to stay in this world for longer. We would have more access to information that we wouldn’t get as civilians. This gives us the most benefit. In truth the other ideas are mostly a fallback if things truly went to shit.” Cassie had finished

Now it was everyone else's chance to get some words in edgewise. She sat back in her seat and let them discuss whether or not they would go for it. In truth it was known that Tim would take her side quickly noting the benefits of the situation while still taking in the fact that they would have to be very careful. Though the other two had to be convinced.

“I’ve never been in a school setting before, I highly doubt that it is a good idea for me to go there because there’s a chance that I could easily give us away.” Kon said sheepishly.

Tim had leapt in to defend Cassie's plan, “Kon I put on your papers that you've been homeschooled your whole life. We can chalk whatever social awkwardness in that setting is to you not being in it before.”

Cassie nodded, “And I've been saying that we have to improve our undercover skills. What better way to do that than in a high stakes situation like this when it matters so much. This can work. We can make it happen if you guys are willing to put a little bit on the line and take some risks.”

“I’m in.” Bart had said, staring at the table. He believed in Cassie and Tim wouldn’t push something that he didn’t think would work. Bart knew that they could actually do this if they try but it’s going to be one of the hardest things they do. Stand out by being in the class of some of the strongest people in Japan while still fitting in enough to avoid any suspicion from people whose job is to check every detail.

“Alright.” Kon said finally after weighing the options one more time. “I trust you guys.”

“Don’t just trust us, trust yourself.” Bart said.

“You know that all I can do is to try when you ask that of me.” Kon said.

“That’s all we would ever ask.” Tim said.

“Is anyone else really hungry right now? Or is it just me?” Bart said, perfectly changing the subject.

—----

A few days later found Cassie and Bart doing some research on U.A. And by research they meant hacking in using one of the devices that didn’t get destroyed on their transition over. It makes it impossible to tell when someone is in your system but gives access to everything that won’t set off an alarm when it is opened.

They had wanted to do some extra planning for how they would get in. From Cassie's more legal research she knew that there was going to be a written and practical exam (that was most likely to be focused on being catered towards flashy powers). So of course she wanted to know just what they were getting themselves into because Tim can do a lot if he has a plan.

“Ooooh we can bring in support equipment and weapons if we get them registered. We gotta tell Tim, he would love that!” Bart said, showing his screen to Cassie.

“Yeah, especially if we're going to have to be fighting robots for the practical.” Cassie said.

“Were fighting WHAT?” Bart yelled.

Cassie pulled up the photo’s of each robot before listing them off. “ The one pointer which isn’t strong, the two pointer that gets a little more dangerous, and the three pointer that still isn’t bad considering what we’ve all been up against. Now here’s the Zero pointer that is way bigger and is meant to be a distraction.”

“How much do you wanna bet that there's also a hidden point system? Because there's no way that they would just put something like that and not make it worth something.” Bart said before adding “It's what Batman would do and I still have nightmares from when Batman came to train us.”

Cassie took that into account and wrote it down on a pink sticky note. Then she stuck it on the wall in front of them. It was color coded by multiple different things and it was an old Young Justice habit that Tim instilled in them years ago.

Some of the notes were about who was teaching there. It had notes on who would be their upperclassmen for the hero course. Also Bart would like to take note of the funding that goes into U.A because hot damn that’s a lot of money.

They were going to do every bit of research on this school that they could because the last thing that they needed was to get caught off guard. If they did then there secrets were as good as out and they can’t afford that

For all the jokes they made about Batman’s training, it did them a lot of good. They would be way out of their depth if they didn’t spend those hours getting taut, quizzed, and trained. Because if there is one thing that Batman expected them to be it was prepared and he had damn well made sure that they were. 

Granted they don’t think that the bat would like their plan to go to a hero school that much because it’s not exactly fitting in. However he isn’t here right now so he doesn't get to dictate all the teams actions like he usually can. 

Tim was the best at bending Batman's orders and everyone knew it but the bat himself. Bart still thinks about some of the times that the boy had disobeyed a direct order for him because Tim “knew his team and knew that wasn’t what they needed in that situation.”

Bart can’t wait to see what hell he puts on his teachers this year because of it. He knows that Tim is going to get into the hero course because really it can’t be more dangerous than Gotham is. Like fighting robots? Try having to deal with the Riddler, Mr. Freeze, and Poison Ivy all in the same hour then tell him that fighting robot’s is going to be bad.

All four of them have a damn good chance at getting into the hero course actually. Kon’s really strong and has his TTK. Cassies always badass and literally has the powers of a demi-god so of course she’ll get in. And then he can use his speed to phase through and rip out wires.

They got this entrance exam down.

----

Jason didn’t know how to feel right now. He and Tim were finally on good terms with each other, but something had to go and fuck that up. The moment they had started to bond, and Jason tried to mend the shredded threads of their relationship he had just disappeared. Gone. Poof. Just like that.

He had rushed to find his brother the moment the tracker went off despite being hours away. Jason had nothing to show for it except for a missing brother and a body whose death had been blamed on him. (He knows why he took the blame, and he wouldn’t change that no matter Bruce’s reaction.

Green kept returning in his vision threatening to take over. The parasite used this as fuel to make itself known, to pretend that it is needed. Because if you had let it stay you would be stronger. If you had let it stay maybe your brother wouldn’t be missin- . No he can’t let it think like that.

If he gives the pit control, then he has no idea what he will do because of it. Before Tim was one of the major catalysts that set the pit off (THANKS TALIA) but now he would be given anger not at Tim but for him. Jason doesn't think that he can really control the pit if he jumps off of the deep end again because of it.

So he just pushes away all his emotional ties at the moment and forces himself to sit back and do his job. He cracks down on major cases in crime alley, and makes sure people get home safely. God knows he doesn't need one more thing on his plate to deal with right now. And if he flinches every once and a while because he can hear one of Tim’s endearing annoying as hell habits, no one will need to know. 

Jason is not the only one who has been hit harder at this situation than they rationally should be considering their past treatment of Tim.

Damian has been distancing himself from the family for the two weeks that Tim has been gone. Jason’s not stupid, he knows how to spot falsified emotions and hidden built up rage behind a mask of indifference. It’s slowly getting worse and worse the longer that they go unable to find their missing brother. 

Yet for some unimaginable reason, Jason is the only one who seems to actually know what is going on with the kid. Bruce it’s no surprise that he doesn't recognize it considering the fact that the only emotion he ever shows is anger directed towards the rogues and disappointment toward them. 

But he thought that Dick would have known given that Dicks spent the most time trying to teach him while shit hit a fan around them. Damian latched onto Dick the moment that he had joined the family. But Jason was the only goddamn person in that family that was smart enough to recognize that something was wrong with the kid.

He shouldn’t be the one trying to get the kid to communicate his feelings to someone. Jason’s literally worse than the kid when it comes to emotions. But someone has to do something about this and like hell was he just going to let this kid fester in his emotions. They already have enough members of the family who do that, they don’t need more.

It was after a patrol that Jason had finally approached the kid like he was a wounded animal that needed to be convinced that he was safe. He sat down on the bench next to the kid as he was trying to prepare himself to write a report to Bruce as if there wasn’t already too damn much on the kid’s mind that needed to be addressed.

They had sat side by side for a few seconds as both of them were trying to figure out what to say. Jason has to choose his words carefully because one wrong maneuver through the minefield and it all comes raining down. Damian just sat there with all his little tells that showed he was so close to socking Jason In the jaw. 

“Spit it out Todd, I do not have all night for you to waste my time.” Damian had snarled out.

“Kid, I know something’s wrong with you at the moment. And I know that it has to do with Tim’s disappearance.” Jason had finally said. He had decided to throw away any of the more flowery ways to say it.

Damian did not react well to that. “Timothy’s disappearance has not affected me in the slightest Todd. I half expect him to show back up in a few more days and say that he had been playing a joke on us.”

And that, Jason had discovered, was complete and utter bullshit. Because for one Damian called him Timothy. Not Drake in an insulting manner. Not my brother in a scathing tone. No, he had called him Timothy.

Second of all Damians fist clenched the moment that he had said their brother's name. The third and final nail in the coffin, Damian shoved papers and other items off the desk in his anger. Damian is always more composed than that. It was all Jason needed.

“It would not seem that you truly think that, Damian.” Jason said. He gestured to the items now on the ground.

“Fine, yes. I am slightly worried about Timothy’s absence but that is of none of your concern.” Damian said.

—

Damian is used to pretending that he is unaffected so that nothing can be used against him. That is something that his grandfather had worked so hard to instill in him. He remembers the needless slaughter of the animals he had taken interest in for starters. Every emotion you show can and will be used against you. That is just how the world works.

He doesn't need Todd to come and question his emotions. Damian had his own problems to deal with right now. Finding Timothy. Because as much as Damian acted like he hated Timothy now he knew that it was different. 

The boy had been starting to work on a plan to make up for his past actions before Timothy had disappeared. Damian had hated him for the longest time and a big part of that probably wasn’t even his own thinking. 

He had been gullible. He had always hated being caught doing something incompetent but gullible was always, always worse. He was convinced that he needed to kill Timothy. To claim his spot by his father's side. But was that what he had wanted, or what his mother had wanted. Because that answer might not be the same.

Damian had first started to reflect on his actions when he found an old notebook hidden so perfectly in plain sight. It had gathered dust from how long it had remained untouched where it sat and that had piqued his curiosity.

On the front cover had the words “Plans to pass Robin by choice” in Tim’s fast paced handwriting. It had almost enraged Damian to think that Tim planned to hand someone the mantel as if it wasn’t meant to be his. 

But he kept reading on. It had detailed notes on how he planned to improve the suit, how he would be the Robin who finally sat there and trained their successor, and it had little notes about teaching detective work.

Except one thing had made itself known throughout the pages as he flipped forward. The successor he was talking about had been Damian. But the notes got less hopeful. They got few and far between with the dates. But the final nail in the coffin was that on the last page only two single sentences had been written. 

“Dick went behind my back and has given the mantle of Robin to Damian now. I suppose it’s time I give up on this.”

It had hit him like a bullet when he had read that notebook because he didn’t know that Tim had wanted to do that. He didn’t know that Tim had planned to do that for him. Damian had regretted so many of his actions at that moment.

And here he was now a long time after he had started to plan to fix it with nothing to show for it. Because Timothy was gone as if he had decided to drop off the face of the earth. 

Damian was enraged when Todd had come to talk to him as if he had understood what was happening with him. How dare he assume that he could know.

That is what it had taken for his rage to get the better of him. All the anger in him was pulled at once and he snapped like a rubber band. He had punched Todd in the face. Todd had stumbled a bit disorientated as he was sitting mere moments ago. He could not figure out if he had regretted it or not once he had done it.

Jason had composed himself and walked out of the cave because he knew he needed to get a better handle on the situation. All Damian had done was watch the retreating form of Todd and couldn’t help but feel that all he had done was make one more mistake to add to his list. Neither said another word to each other.

Chapter Text

The team had been cram studying for the few days before they had the exams that they were taking today. Let Bart tell you that he played so much Kahoot in the past five days that the song is engraved into his head. That was the only way that Tim could get him to sit down for a while and study.

But now they were finally standing in the building they were going to be infiltrating. Tim said not to call it that, but Bart is not wrong. The written exam had finished an hour ago so now they were ready for the practical. All of them were excited to be here right now (Kon just wanted to fight something).

Tim had gotten his staff registered to fight with so now everyone was prepared to go kick some ass. They had been put in separate sections as Tim had predicted but he had gotten put in the same area with Bart. Him and Bart had agreed on splitting up until they had found the zero pointer to take down together.

He had gone through tearing down robots with his staff as he had run past them cackling like a madman. Tim feels like if Jason were here, he would shoot at him (with rubber bullets) for trying to imitate Joker. Of course, he had pulled some of these idiots out of the way when they didn’t notice they were about to be crushed. He had gotten varying insults for that.

Anyway, he was out here destroying robots as if they were common Gotham thugs. Actually, compared to some of the thugs he would say that the robots were easier. He would ask what they were feeding the thugs, but everyone knows that it would be more likely it was from drinking the water from the harbor.

When he heard the ground start to shake, he knew it was his and Bart’s time to really shine. Tim had started running to where he had heard the noise from while people were running in the complete opposite direction, the losers. Tim doesn't really have a flight response anymore; it has gotten replaced with an extra adrenaline rush.

Tim spotted Bart and immediately started running at him. He turned around and gave Tim a nod to show he was prepared. Bart put his hand together and once Tim’s feet had landed on them, he was thrown upwards.

Launching himself upwards he had started to climb the robot as fast as he could. His steps were practiced and moves like this had been prepared with the team for a long time. It’s the best way to get Tim to scale something this big and he’s already given a head start to attack whatever they were fighting.

Bart had chased after him using the different fake buildings around him to propel himself up. There was nobody left in their vicinity, so they were ready to bring this thing down full force. This was the moment that they had truly been waiting for. They finally get their chance to truly show what they can do when working together.

Tim had found the weakest point in the robot up at the top and jammed his staff into it. After he had accomplished Bart had phased himself down into the Robot while pulling the staff down with him and destroying its insides. Tim stayed where he was and just started ripping whatever wires he could grab out.

Then the bot had shut down. Bart left the robot before tossing the weapon back to Tim. Both went their separate ways to find the final few robots nearby. Then the clock had run out and both heroes knew that they had done well.

Meanwhile over with Cassie she didn’t plan to do anything about the zero pointer until it really mattered. She could take it down at any moment, but she wants to get as many points as possible.

She had gotten a decent number of points racked up throughout the test and she’s 97% sure that she’ll get in. Then a kid with blonde hair who looked like a theater nerd had been about to get blasted. So of course, she had to do what she had been taught and take down the huge ass robot.

When she saw that she had a good opening she had destroyed the thing within seconds. Then the robot's laser had gone off at the last possible moment and hit a nearby building. The theater kid in front of her didn’t even realize what was happening. She might just have to yell at this kid for being a dingus.

Cassie swooped under the rubble to pick him up before the rubble hit him. Less than a second after there was an audible sound of metal slamming into concrete.

“Do you make a habit out of sweeping men off their feet or is it just me?” The boy had said- And nope Cassie wasn’t putting up with that shit not today. Not tomorrow either. Let’s check her future plans and nope wait it says nowhere on her calendar that she will be putting up with this at a future day.

“I’ll put you back under the rubble, don't test me.” Cassie deadpanned.

The boy had then burst out laughing and said, “I don’t actually swing that way, I just couldn’t pass up the perfect chance to make the joke.”

“You can live then.” Cassie said, then she had added as an afterthought, “for now.”

When the exam bell had finally run out and signaled the end Cassie had sighed in relief. While it had been fun to be able to fight something again It was way too easy compared to the things Young Justice has had to face. She just wants a challenge that she really has to work for to win y’know.

She sticks around to help people get to Recovery Girl because Diana had told her that being a hero means extending a hand as much as it means raising one. If you do everything to hurt and nothing to help you are not meant to be a hero. Cassie fears that not many heroes in this world have been taught the same lessons that she had.

If someone only had a minor injury, then she would treat it herself. So many kids had been here and a lot of them had been foolish and gotten them hurt. Cassie has to remind herself that these people had not trained themselves as she had. They relied on their powers alone, but Cassie had spent years homing in her skill and making them work for her.

The people in front of her had not gotten the same training opportunities as she had. She had to learn and be taught to be as good as she was. These people, if they made it in, would be trained like she had been as well. And if she has to train them herself then she will.

Once she couldn’t find anyone else, she decided it was finally time for her to go find her friends. (And by that she means hunt them for sport and maybe possibly publicly scare the hell out of them.) Y’know as friends casually do.

She had been looking for less than 5 minutes when she had found them. Silently she had crept towards her team. The only one who acknowledged her existence was Tim. You would think that it would be the one person with super hearing that would notice her, but no. Tim is a cryptid and needs to be treated as such.

The moment that Cassie believed that she was close enough she jumped and tackled Kon. He had let out a high-pitched scream as he fell down. It had drawn some concerned looks from passersby until Kon had started to laugh alongside her.

A teacher looked like they were about to intervene until Bart had shaken his head as if this were normal.

——

Nezu was having the time of his goddamn life. He loved to see his expectations broken and while he usually gets a few promising students he had never had the joys of watching people starting by using their quirks (or lack thereof) to their fullest potential while still being able to function without them. And don’t even get him started on the Quirkless boy with the staff. The way he wielded it spoke of years of hard work and dedication to the craft. Not even to mention the amazing teamwork he displayed when he and his friend had taken down the zero pointer together.

Aizawa and Kan had both taken an interest in the boy when they had seen his skill. Very early on they had asked him what the boy's quirk was; he had taken a long sip from his tea just so he could watch them get antsy. Then he had told them that the boy was quirkless. That was when a fight had broken out between the two heroes.

Before you assume it was because of anything quirkist he can assure you that it wasn’t. Both teachers had fought to have the kid. Aizawa because finally someone who walks in with some talent who won’t rely on solely a quirk but doesn’t fully rely on support equipment or hand to hand. Vlad wanted him in the class because he knew that the kid would be able to push himself to the limits and pass them if it would make him better. Plus, it was someone who had actually put the work in before he had come. It was also for the fact that he knew this kid had to have dealt with discrimination for a lack of a quirk.

So, after so many rounds of arguments and other teachers begging him to put a stop to it, he said that he would flip a coin and told them to call it. Kan was heads, Aizawa was tails. Nezu had flicked it up, caught it in his hands, and slammed it down onto the table.

"It would seem that the win is yours Shouta. Drake Timothy will be put into your class” Nezu said.

The man in question had let out a “YES” so loud that it had put his husband’s quirk to shame. Kan had put his head in his hands and looked like he was praying for a god to smite him. Now he knew how Aizawa felt in class most days.

"However,” Nezu started drawing a scared look from Aizawa. “Bakugo Katsuki will be placed in your class to balance out your students.”

"Nezu, why would you do this to me? I thought I could trust you!” Aizawa shouted. “Is it because-"

"You expelled your entire class last year. Yes, it would be” Nezu cut him off.

Actually, come to think about it, Kan can have Drake and the rest of his class because he planned on quitting. Oh wait he can’t quit because Nezu had them sign their souls away when they had agreed to teach here. Aizawa half thinks that if he were to die that Nezu would start studying dark magic just to bring him back from the dead and to continue teaching.

Aizawa wouldn’t say that it was going to be a fun year but it sure as hell would be interesting and that’s exactly what the god in front of them wants. God help them if the kid is actually just a carbon copy of Nezu here to make ethics and morals bow to him. He doesn't think that he could handle it if that was the case.

—-

It was a week later when they had gotten the letters saying they were in the hero course; (Tim & Kon in 1-A with Cassie & Bart in 1-b). And it was another week after when they were finally entering the school as official students. Tim had to say that the best part of waking up that morning was finding out that apparently, he was the only one who actually knew how to put on a tie.

Cassie had only needed to be shown how to put it on once and then was good to go but it was not the same with the others. Kon hated the texture of it and how much it made him feel like he was being strangled no matter how much they loosened it. After a few tries they had eventually given up on it. Bart just hated the piece of fabric and purposefully kept messing with it until Tim had just decided that it wasn’t worth it. If their teacher had a problem with it, that was on them to deal with.

They had gone their separate ways after a few moments, and they had made it in there a few minutes before the bell rang and man that was a huge classroom. Like they understood why it was so big but also it just feels really weird to them. It kind of reminded Kon of the tower for some reason.

Immediately after stepping inside Tim had spotted Aizawa and gave him a nod of acknowledgement. Kon had said a low “hello sensei” before going to find a seat next to Tim. Aizawa had narrowed his eyes because he knows for a fact that none of the other student’s had recognized him yet. At least not the students that had quirks that didn’t amplify your hearing.

Situational awareness was not a thing that many students had going into the hero course, and it especially was never that good when they started. He left a mental note for himself to worry about later. It's just one more thing the kid had put work into before he entered U.A. (He’s totally not still bragging that he had gotten him instead of Kan.)

 When the bell rang Tim and Kon immediately turned to face the front where Aizawa would rise up as if to say, ‘who summoned me.’ Both boys had a feeling that their teacher was going to be a no bullshit kind of guy that occasionally commits psychological warfare to keep you on your toes. Honestly, not the worst kind of teacher to have for this kind of job in Tim’s opinion.

They had watched as the man had told their class off for not being able to quiet down and Kon wished he had that ability on some days. It had been kind of funny watching kids ask about where he had come from as if it wasn’t really obvious. Honestly, he has to ask how they didn’t notice that the man was there.

Gym uniforms had been handed out and they were told to be down on the field in less than 10 minutes in the clothes. A kid that Kon would be referring to as Robo Cop until he actually got the kids name had asked in a really annoying tone about orientation. Really who wants to go to that, it’s boring as hell.

Aizawa had responded that they now had only nine minutes. Him and Tim were already down the hall and to the left when Kon heard that and repeated it. They knew better than to try and question and whine about a small order like that. Apparently, some kids were questioning why they had just walked out when their teacher asked that.

Kon thought about it for a few moments and decided that these kids wouldn’t last two days with Batman’s much less three years like they were getting here. He knows that Tim’s thinking about it as well judging by the smile on his face.

They had gotten to the locker rooms in four minutes and took a minute and a half to get changed. Not as fast as either of them would have liked and definitely took too long if it were up to Batman to make a decision. But they had the excuse that they didn’t know their way around the campus yet.

Looking up, their teacher was surprised to be met with two of his students before the six-minute mark had passed. One more point in their favor. 

“I would sit down If I were you two. I have a feeling that the rest of your class isn’t going to be as hasty as you.” Aizawa said. “I am curious about how you got here and changed so quickly.”

“For one we didn’t stick around asking stupid questions and wasting time. We probably would have been faster about it if we were told where to go but I can also see why you didn’t.” Kon said

“One of the people who had taught me was very strict about stuff like that and I made Conner learn a lot of the stuff I did.” Tim said nonchalantly. 

Aizawa had to think about his reply to that for a few seconds. “Does that mean that Kent knows how to fight with a bo staff like you do.”

“Know it as in: enough to be dangerous? Yes, all my friends do. But have they trained enough with it to be in the same place I am? No, I’m afraid that that’s something that they choose not to use in a fight.” Tim replied.

“Is that why your friend was able to help take down the robot from the inside while you attacked from the outside? I’m still trying to figure out how he did that by the way.” Aizawa said.

“Yep. And he has a speed-based quirk, but we found out that if he used it a certain way, he could make the atoms in his body speed up enough to just be able to go through it.”

—-

Cassie and Bart were bored out of their minds sitting in this room. Honestly whatever Kon and Tim were doing was probably better than sitting here and listening to this. Even Green Lanterns presentations were better than this and she was always ready to punch someone not even halfway through them.

At some point Their teacher had taken pity on them and asked if they were doing okay because he could see the looks on their faces. Bart took the initiative and started to speedily explain that if they had to sit there any longer, he would go through the floor and Cassie would start some drama to entertain themselves.

Needless to say, Kan-sensei had been willing to let them off fairly easily and they left without saying another word. They had wandered for a little bit looking for their friend's classroom before discovering that they were gone.  It took another 15 to finally find where they had gone. And oh, thank God they looked like they were doing something that wasn’t boring as hell.

They had gone up to the teacher and asked (more like begged) him to let them in on whatever their class was going at the moment. Cassie had explained that they literally couldn’t stay in the auditorium any longer less they wanted problems to be started. So, they came to find the other hero class to see if they were doing anything that wouldn’t make them go crazy.

Aizawa had told them that they were going to be running a bunch of fitness tests and that if they wanted to stick around, they would have to join in. And they would have to do decently on them. What he expected was for them to turn tail and run back to the orientation.

What the man didn’t expect was for them to turn to each other and say “hell yeah we're in.” One of the 1-A students, off brand Pikachu, looked at them as if they had lost their marbles. They were told to put their clothes on and emerged very quickly. 

Temu Pikachu had run over to them and told them that no they in fact didn’t want to do this and that their teacher was crazy. Cassie and Bart laughed in his face. They had both had more strict instructors than that before. Plus, it’s get the zoomies out or go back and fester in the auditorium. Bart very much prefers to get the zoomies out please.

Aizawa told them that they were the only ones who wouldn’t be allowed to use their quirks and again, they were okay with that. Tim had instilled the importance of no power training into them so hard that it left an indent on their brain.

“Oi Blasty, think fast.” Cassie during her throw of the ball before chucking it at his face. Surprisingly the ball went farther than his own did. Kon applauded her for her audacity. As he should. 

Blasty however did not seem to have agreed with that sentiment. He tried to charge at her quirk blazing. Aizawa turned on his quirk and was going to use his capture scarf when Kon put a hand on his shoulder and shook his head. He told the teacher to let it happen and that Cassie can and will defend herself.

She put him on his back in less than five seconds. Then she said “If you try that again I'm going to break something. Do I make myself clear?”

He made an affronted noise and struggled to get out of her grasp. It was useless for him; she had dealt with way worse enemies. Some of the students look mortified by her actions, especially this one green haired kid. However, she’s got something she needs to do so she’s not too worried about what's going on around her.

“I will repeat myself since you were clearly unable to hear me the first time. Do I make myself clear?” There was a heavy amount of malice in her tone. Blasty needed to know that there was only one way out of the situation.

Bakugo had finally let out a ‘yes’ and Cassie released her hold on him. He looked as if he were contemplating trying again. Then he saw the look on her face and decided that it was the worst possible option he could make. He wasn’t running away; it was more like a tactical retreat.

—-

At the end of the day, they had made their way to the support department to see if they could use the labs (mostly Tim). When they opened the door to the classroom Power Loader looked as if he was questioning his life choices. It reminds them of the time they broke into Cadmus, and everyone was disappointed in them-.

“We came to ask a question but if now's not a good time we can come back tomorrow.” Kon was the first to speak up.

“No, It’s fine.” Power loader said as if it had caused him great pains to do so. “What do you four need?”

Cassie was next to speak, gesturing to Tim, “our friend was wondering if we could use the lab to make our own support gear. He had a lot of ideas for items to make and has blueprints for them if you need them. But he needs something to fall back on.”

“Yes, but please at least try to have a support course student with you for safety reasons,” The teacher said.

In perfect timing a student with pink hair came over and said, “You want to use the labs. Your hero students aren’t you!”

“Please have any student but her with you.” Power Loader had asked.

Listen they would listen to that, if it weren't for the fact that they had already made a decision and had her agree with them. Hatsume was a support student and loved making babies (support items) and watching things go boom. She had agreed to help them as long as they tried out some of the stuff she makes. It was a done deal.

Power Loader looked like he was about to just quit his job then and there. What a mood, honestly. He was just waiting for when he could finally leave and not have Nezu tracking him back down and bringing him back to his classroom.

When he had finally, finally been able to leave  Maijima had all but run out the door to escape his newfound purgatory. He ran to the teachers' lounge and slammed it open. Everyone's head whipped around to face him. Their eyes had tracked him as he stormed his way over to Aizawa. Everyone was waiting for a fight and Nemuri had passed around popcorn for the viewing. 

He looked Aizawa into his cold dead eyes and asked “Aizawa, that's alcohol, right?” 

Aizawa had raised an eyebrow but nodded anyway, questioning why the man looked like he had looked like he crawled out of hell. Maijima’s eyes were blown wide, and he looked as if we were going to commit a murder any second now.

“Great, I'll take some of that.” Maijima said before grabbing the bottle and taking a swig. “I think I finally understand what you mean by your hell children, Shouta. I am so sorry that I ever doubted you.”

Aizawa had said nothing, just nodded in understanding. All he could do was send his colleague thoughts and prayers. They were going to be having a long year weren’t they

Chapter Text

Lois Lane was an investigative journalist and a damn good one at that. She mentions this because her job has caused her to be a very astute person. But not only is she a journalist, she is a mother and she knows when something is very wrong with her kid. Put two and two together and she just might be able to figure out what it is.

She had first caught her son staring at the door all Saturday as if waiting for someone to arrive. When said person didn’t show up he had looked like he was trying to convince himself that they would show up tomorrow. When said person didn’t show up he looked like he was starting to get mad.

Clark walked in the next day after being on a business trip for a week and Jonathon had immediately perked up. Louis would have assumed that was the problem if it weren’t for his shoulders deflating when he took note of who it was. That was when she had really decided that something was wrong.

When her son had gone back to his room she followed after him while Clark watched in confusion. She doesn't know how, but she knows for a fact that he has something to do with this. If it boils down to calling Ma and Pa Kent to get information or a confession out of him she won’t hesitate to.

Jon had been laying on his bed with his back to the wall when she had walked back into his room. She could hear the faint noise of crying and immediately she was alert and ready to kill someone. Lois wondered if Lex still had that kryptonite dagger. It’s not like she was asking that with ill intent towards someone of course. At least not towards her sons.

She had sat herself down onto the bed next to him and started running her hand through his hair. Lois didn’t know what had caused this but she did know that whatever happened had hurt him. All she could do was try to help her son now.

“Hey, what’s wrong sweetheart?” She had asked as gently as possible. Emotions were like a minefield, you never knew the proper place to step.

Lois had watched as her son had shrugged and pulled his stuffed animal closer to him. It was the dinosaur that had the S shield sewn onto it. It had been something Conner had given him for his birthday-. It was about Conner wasn’t it?

“Is this something to do with your brother?” she had asked. 

The only response she had gotten was a nod of the head. Okay they were getting closer to the problem she could do this. She had done a lot of connecting dot’s for her job. She could do it now too. She’s got this.

“Did he do something?” Lois pressed on.

“I don’t know.” he had said. 

“Were you waiting for him to arrive?” Lois asked.

 She had gotten an ahh in response. So as close to a yes as she was going to be getting in his current state. She had to figure out how to go from here. “Did he make you mad by not showing up?”

“No.” he said.

Lois then asked “did he disappoint you by not showing?”

“Kind of.” He answered.

“But there's more to it?” Lois asked after a shrug she continued, “are you worried about him?” 

“Yes.” 

“Can you tell me why?” She asked.

“He hasn't responded to any of my text’s in weeks and he hasn’t done that before. I can’t hear him.” Jon said. 

“I’ll do what I can, okay honey,” She said standing up, “I think that you need to get some sleep for now.”

Lois had stood up and turned off the light before whispering goodnight and closing the door. Now it was time to see what Clark knows because he has to know something about what’s going on. She stepped on silent feet through her apartment making her way to the kitchen. The only light in the room was from the fridge being open.

Clark didn’t notice that she was in the room with him until he had turned around standing face to face with her. He was startled when he saw her. Clark had gotten more worried when he had seen the look on her face.

He had taken in note of every part of her body language. The crossing of her arms showed that had showed she was pissed off. The twitches of her eye that had showed that she was worried. The stance that had made her phone easily reachable in case she needed to call his parents because he was acting like a fool. What he couldn’t find out was why she had looked like that.

“Where is your son Clark?” Lois asked, her voice cold.

“He’s in his room, weren't you just in there.” Clark said.

“You should know that I mean your other son, don’t try to play stupid.” Lois replied.

After a few moments of silence as if trying to choose his next words carefully he said “we don’t have any other kids Lois. What’s going on?” 

Lois did not like that answer, god did she hate that answer. “Where is your son Conner? Do I have to spell it out any more clearly Clark?”

The next thing that he had said made her have to remember why she had married him in the first place. Because he said that Conner wasn’t his son, and that made her furious. Lois didn’t have her genes running through him and she would never question the fact that he was her son. Conner was half of Clarks DNA and he doesn't care to call him family. Oh hell no.

“Want to rephrase that.” It was not a suggestion but Lois had worded it like it was anyway. Let’s see how deep of a grave he would choose to dig for himself.

“Lois, he's not a child.” Clark said. Wrong answer. “He’s a clone.”

“He is half your DNA therefore he is your child Clark.” She said in a warning tone, “Now I need to know where he is because Jon has been waiting for him to come home. He hasn’t been responding to my texts and now I found out he isn’t answering Jon’s either.”

“It’s fine he’s probably out doing things stupid teenagers do. Probably got in over his head and did something he shouldn’t have and he’s too scared to ask you to bail him out.” Clark said.

“My brother would not do that.” Jon said from the hallway. 

Both of the adults swiveled their heads to see him from where he was eavesdropping. He had his dinosaur in one hand and the other fist was clenched. Jon’s eyes were puffy from  the crying. Most importantly he looked angry. Sometimes Clark forgets just how much he takes after his mother until he sees them standing side by side angry at him.

“Sweetheart can you go pack a bag for a trip to Ma and Pa’s while I finish talking to your father real quick.” Lois said and Jon had immediately turned to continue before her husband could start, “As you can see me and Jon are going to go stay with your parents for some time. Don’t even think about coming back until you bring my boy home.”

And not even half an hour later they were in the car driving. They weren’t around to hear that Clark had gotten a call from the league.

—-

Barry and Iris were not having a fun time. Both of them had gotten used to having Bart in their house and a lot of their schedule was influenced by him. He brought a lot of humor into the house and it was nice to have someone to keep them from getting too stuck to what they expect to happen. (Neither were big fans of change.)

So when they had gotten the phone call from the league both of them had not taken it well. Barry used to the speed force acting up but this was a whole new topic. They couldn’t guarantee that they could rescue the kid from it. This was a whole other game and Barry didn’t know how to play it yet.

Iris had just gotten home when the phone started ringing and had barely even had set her stuff down. Their night had gone downhill from then on. She had called out for the rest of the week so that she wouldn’t have to pretend that everything was fine while they waited for Bart to come home. And he would come home because they don’t know what they would do if he didn’t.

—

When Bart had walked into the kitchen that night looking for food because he couldn’t sleep he didn’t expect to see Kon up in the living room as well. It seemed like it was going to be another sleepless night for them both. He wondered what it would take for the both of them to get a good night's sleep.

Instead of greeting him with some stupid remark Bart just sat down next to him on the couch. Kon had not raised his head, instead he just kept staring at the mug convinced that if he looked into it long enough it would give them a way home. It was a nice thought but it would never actually work. Oh how Bart wished it would work.

Bart laid his head on his friend's shoulder and Kon wrapped an arm around him. It has become a well practiced move over the years and it’s gotten more use now than ever before. Kon so badly wished that they didn’t have to do it for them to just be able to calm down at night. 

The nightmares just kept getting worse for them. Bart can remember the pain he had felt in the moment’s before he was brought here. Kon can remember the screaming from him. He can remember the sound of Cassie trying to pull the shrapnel out of herself. He doesn't think he could ever forget the sound her skin had made then. 

Ahh the joys of being heroes. When people tell you that heroes are everything, that they are amazing, that you want to be like them, they don’t know about the worst side of it. They don’t know about the addictions people gain to drown out the sounds. People don’t talk about the coping mechanisms some heroes gain just to be able to move in the morning. And the nightmares, god the nightmares that come from it.

Nightmares aren’t just reliving things. That’s not how nightmares work. Nightmares draw in your fears, your failures, the people around you but they commonly do not give you memories. Sometimes you think that it’s for the better. You think that because it was different you can easily tell yourself that it isn’t real.

But sometimes nightmares can be just as bad as reliving. The sound that was just pulling the shrapnel out before, becomes the sound of wolves tearing her to shreds. The screams that Bart had let out became a siren trying to drown him into the water.

 They aren’t logical, they aren’t realistic, they don’t show you repeated scenes. They don’t have to. And that, that is what makes them so dangerous in heroes. Kon has seen so many of them wake up trapped in their own mind. He’s seen Tim barely able to move after waking up because a mission had gone so badly. 

Everyone wants to be a hero until they realize the lasting damage it does to someone. Right now one of the worst parts about it is that none of the student’s that are training for it realize just what they are getting themselves into. He thinks that might be why Aizawa is so harsh on his student’s, because if he’s hard they can know to stop. But sometimes that has the opposite effect.

He wonders what it’s going to be like for them on the field. To see the first life that they couldn’t save. You never forget the time that you first see the light drain because you couldn’t be fast enough to help them. Because you made a mistake.

You tell yourself that they are in a better place now. Whether that be the land without suffering or the stars in the sky is your own belief. But that’s how heroes have to cope. And these new baby heroes in training don’t know that yet. Kon hopes, fruitlessly and selfishly, they never have to.

It’s not fair to see anyone else lose themselves to coping strategies. It’s not fair to be brought into a fight when you have no idea why you really want to in the first place. But that’s how Bart got brought in. It’s how Kon got brought in. Hell he could even say it’s how Cassie and Tim got brought in. 

It’s not fair, but the thing about life is that it almost never is. It’s cruel and it takes and it rips and it crushes right before your eyes. But it can give you so many beautiful things too. The world eats its young until there is nothing left to feast on but without that darkness you will never truly learn to appreciate the light.

So the only real question to be left with is, is it fair to take the darkness in the world away from someone if it makes them unable, takes away their chance to truly see the light. Kon think’s it’s been too long since he’s sat down to talk to Dinah. He’s stuffed himself too far inside his own head and can barely understand himself anymore.

What did she have him repeat to himself again? 1: You can’t save everybody. 2: it’s okay to not feel okay just do not hurt yourself or someone else to feel better. 3: healing is not linear, it’s like a stock market constantly going up and down.

Bart had started saying them over and over as if to remind himself and at some point Kon had found himself joining in. Kon handed Bart a water bottle and they had found themselves back into their silence for the time being.

Then Bart grabbed the remote and put on an animal documentary so they wouldn’t just be stuck in the silence with their thoughts any longer.

----

After however long but probably a few hours later Cassie had come stumbling out of her room as well. It was around One am now and they had gone through a few episodes of the show Bart was watching.

“You guys too?” She asked hesitantly. She missed home. Everyone did and she knows that but… she just was starting to feel like there was no way back. That none of the league was coming to save them. That Tim wasn’t going to pull something out of his genius science brain. That they were just trapped.

She had tried to sleep, she really did but she had kept tossing and turning unable to get into a position that didn’t make her feel like she was suffocating. Eventually she had decided to cut her losses and go sleep on the couch. Apparently she wasn’t the only one with this idea seeing that Bart and Kon were also up at this hour. Oh well tired minds think alike she supposed.

Cassie had laid down on Kons other side and eventually got to the state where she wasn’t fully awake but it felt like noise wasn’t actually real.  She didn’t notice that the volume got turned down on the TV. she didn’t notice that she had been moved to a slightly more comfortable position. They were all thankful for it because she probably wouldn’t have actually gone to sleep if she did.

And then slowly but surely the other two did as well. Bart was the next to fall into the realm of the dreaming, his rapid breathing slowing down by just a little bit.

Kon was almost fully asleep when Tim came into the room. He motioned the boy over and just sprawled out on top of them. When he did that he brought a giant blanket with him to cover them with. 

Everyone in the apartment had finally been able to get themselves some sleep.

----

In the morning, when the teams walk into their respective classrooms their teachers know that something was up. They didn’t need to see the dark circles around their eyes to see that. Because it was more than just that.

The kids were good at hiding it, don’t get Eraserhead and Vlad King wrong, but it was in their posture. They've both seen this kind of tired before hell they've seen it in the mirror. It’s the tiredness that someone with the weight of the world on their shoulders has. And they've only ever seen it in adults.

So why are these four students, these four kids walking as if they had seen death and all they could do was ask if it would be painless because he knows bargaining isn’t an option. They held themselves up through it. All of them kept taking notes as if their lives depended on it.

But it was all the little things that had the teachers growing more and more concerned. It was Bart ready to jump up and run at any moment. It was Cassie watching over them as if she would make one wrong move and either of them would disappear. It was Kon snapping to face every noise as if it could kill him. It was Tim who’s paranoia shined through at every given moment

Aizawa had thought he knew paranoia, but he came to learn that he never has. He notices Tim working through plans in his mind on and on his paper. No it isn’t plans, it’s contingencies. Aizawa has noticed that Tim never let’s his back stay to a person if he can. He knows the way Tim positions himself against the wall to see every entrance and exit.

It breaks their heart to see someone so young this scared. To see Bart always so energetic became resigned. It’s terrifying to see someone so confident falter. To see someone calm and composed act as if an enemy will show up at any second. To see someone who snarks back but is a really good kid face the world as if they know that they are going to have to fight.

Because it makes all the face’s they've seen before be a front. And they’ve seen those on pro heroes who have spent too long working like this for a job as well. Both teachers don’t know why they are like this, how they have gotten to this point. They can say one thing and one thing only for sure. They were going to find out what had caused them to be like this.

Chapter Text

It had been the day of the battle trials that they had been caught onto. Well it was before that but it was then that someone had actually started to make a move. They had been tired from the fights when they were told to stay after the final bell had rang.

For the fights Tim had been on a team with Shoji and had won, Kon won with Momo. In class 1-b Cassie had won with Pony (the only actual foreign exchange student). Bart had lost to the two with Monoma. They didn’t use the fights as a learning experience as much as Tim decided that it was his job to rework the hero costumes. Seriously Bruce could do better than the companies even if he had less funding.

Someone had looked a little too closely at their identities and Tim knew it was going to happen. Tim and Kon had been called to 1-b after the day had ended and now Aizawa, Yamada, and Kan had stood in front of them as if they were about to be interrogated. Knowing Aizawa, they were going to have to be careful about how they proceed.

“We're going to cut to the chase here, we cannot get in contact with your guardian. U.A frequently checks up on its students through their parent’s or in your case Drake’s uncle.” Aizawa said with a raised eyebrow.

Tim knew what he was doing, he had done this before. He had fooled Bruce Wayne with his tricks and if he played his cards right they would get off scot free. All he needed to do was hope that the team trusted him enough to get them through it and to play the story as needed. It’s really not that hard to do.

Bart was the first one to say something. “Oh he can be kind of hard to get in contact with unless it’s one of us. He works a lot of weird hours and usually only answers work emails and barely checks text messages unless it's one of us.”

Step one down. The teachers most likely wouldn’t buy it that easily so they had this prepared to go on for as long as they needed it to. Aizawa asked bart to send a text just to confirm that theory. Tim had long since made a program where if they sent a text to the number it would reply with something on topic. Bart asked what was for dinner, the program responded with stir fry.

Aizawa then said “we do still need to get into contact with your guardian ourselves for safety reasons.”

Now it’s Cassie's turn “we can try and see if there's a day where we can set up a parent teacher meeting if it’s really that important?”

“That would be great.” Yamada chimed in. Tim’s plan had gotten them to believe the story they had spun  hook, line, and sinker. If it could fool Bruce then it could fool them and Tim never had any doubt in that. He just has to hope that Nezu never has to try and involve himself. Tim doesn't know if he could beat the rat with old tricks.

When the last four student’s had left to go work in the labs the teachers had turned to each other. They didn’t fully believe the kids, a habit of being both teachers and pro heroes.

They had a lot that they would need to discuss before they had that meeting.

----

“Alright Hatsume new side project!” Kon yelled the moment that he stepped inside the lab. Power Loader was already long gone having decided that it wasn’t worth the migraine to stay after. He cares about his students, he really does, but sometimes  they manage to find his last nerve and dance the macarena on it.

Hatsume as if on cue had fallen off a table covered in soot. She lifted the safety glasses to the top of her head and waved them over. She had a crazed look in her eyes at the idea of a new project to work on. She’s always going from one thing to another and she hates following the prompts for Power Loader because she says it restricts her creativity.

“Whatcha got for me!” She yelled, shaking him by the shoulders.

Cassie handed her a small binder that had new ideas for class 1-A’s hero costumes. It had blueprints, measurements and pictures of the old suits. She only had to look at one of the pictures to say that yeah they definitely needed to be redone. Seriously who was going to let them onto the field looking like this those things weren't stab proof!

She yelled “Who made these! Who do I need to show the business end of my wrench!”

“The companies that work with U.A. Anyways, are you in?” Bart said,

“You know I am. We're starting with plans for Hagakure because I cannot in good conscious, let her walk around like that. There's no support, there's no protection and she’s going to get herself in so much trouble like that.”

“I think with hers we could either make some clothes with her DNA (I got permission from her to do it) or we use something that would essentially be like a chameleon.” Tim said. Pulling out the pages that had a stack of details.

“The first one sounds like a better idea. Can you start working on Momo’s while I do that?” Hatsume asked.

The five spent around five hours bouncing ideas off of each other while they worked. Hatsume and Bart went back and forth blasting music to keep themselves somewhat focused. When all of them had finally left the building they had the base of almost all the suits ready to be built upon.

On the ride home Tim had done some research on who to hire as his definitely totally real lovely uncle Eddie 2.0. It was a not at all known actor who had yet to get his big break and was looking for a little bit of extra money. In summary; the perfect poor soul that Tim can manipulate into pretending to be a parental figure for a few hours.

Really the only request that had been not exactly needed but would add character to their story was the glamorous eyeshadow. Tim had stated that it needed to be as flamboyant as possible. When asked why, He said that This was a detail that he had the first go round with this story and it would help if he had more familiarity.

They found the right suit to match the personality that they had been looking for. Not too expensive, but nice enough to show that he was someone who took things seriously. He needed to look like someone who was busy but would always have time for the kid’s that he looked after.

After finding the suit they gave the rundown on what this guys story was going to be. He seemed a little bit skeptical but Tim told him that it was going to work and that after this he could go on a nice vacation. That was what had gotten the man to just go with the flow and follow them. And if Tim didn’t exactly mention that he was going to be talking to pro heroes then all the better.

Look things will work if you have enough confidence that they will. It’s how Tim had managed to gaslight Batman into thinking that there was no batmobile to be found in the budget after all. And after so long of being his friend the rest of the team were inclined to believe.

Their friend had been taught to calculate how long he should be able to talk to someone by his parents. He knows how to give so much but so little information. The biggest part is convincing yourself that if you're better and smarter than the other person then you got this.

He knew that his whole team was better than these heroes. The heroes here had simply been trained to fight, and be police thrown further into the spotlight. Young justice and their brand of heroes had been taught to think. To worm their way around every situation and come out on top without hesitation.

Needless to say U.A wouldn’t know what hit them when they pulled up uncle in tow.

----

On the day of the meeting with their “guardian” the team had remained calm and composed. Vlad king had kept shooting glances at Cassie and Bart as if trying to find something hidden in their posture. Whatever he was looking for, it wasn’t there so eventually he had given up.

“Allen, why's sensei been watching you guys so much today.” Monoma said from behind him.

“He’s making us go to a parent teacher meeting today.” Cassie said.

“What! Why?” Tokage cut in.

“Because our guardian can be kind of hard to get in contact with if you're not family or family adjacent and apparently that got more than one teacher worried.” Cassie said nonchalantly as if it were the most normal thing in the world.

They left the conversation there but as both Cassie and Bart were bored they ended up playing a random game that got Monoma and Pony interested. The game in question: UNO. They had asked to join and soon enough they had been fighting over the rules. That was the first mistake to be made.

Here's the truth about a beautiful game like- no the beautiful game UNO. No matter how many times you play it, no matter how, no matter who you play it with you will never truly agree on the rules. It’s fate, it’s destiny, it’s verbatim. There's no way for people to agree on the rules and there's a point where you just have to pick a side to see whose rule was right. The losing person will always be salty about their rule being ignored.

“Bart, you have to keep drawing until you pull a red!” Cassie yelled.

“No, you only draw one doofus.” Bart replied.

“I’m with Sandsmark, you gotta keep drawing.” Monoma chimed in to try to stop the fight. (Bad idea.)

“Shut up you don’t get a say in this.” Bart said, turning his murderous glare to face him.

“I’m sorry I’m pretty sure it’s not just you two playing.” Monoma said calmly.

At some point, somehow things had escalated so bad that their teacher had to get involved and break up the impending fight. They only felt kind of bad but listen, you don’t get involved when the rules of UNO get called in question. Pony was the only one who actually felt bad out of the four. Monoma pleads innocent and that he had absolutely nothing to do with the fight. Sure, keep telling yourself that.

They had continued playing after Vlad had left telling them to at least not get into another fight. That was the second mistake to be made. Because even if you get past the initial fight about the rules (usually settled with rock paper scissors) there's always more problems to come: alliances.

Nothing in the world is like the feeling of everyone around you placing coordinated plus fours the moment you can finally call uno and feel your hands almost empty. Monoma had been one card away. A singular card. Then he had been betrayed by the ones he thought he could be called a friend. Pony was the one to place his killing blow.

Of course it isn’t a true game of UNO until someone throws a deck and or a table at someone else. That was when Vlad had gotten so fed up with them and had taken their cards away. It was the third mistake that was made. The spirit of UNO will live on into the next game that you play. Looking back from a teacher standpoint it was the best decision he could make with the knowledge that he had.

Nothing other than the prophet Cassandra could have predicted they pulled out next. Because apparently Pony had forgotten to remove her backpack from a game night a few days ago. The fourth and final mistake: falling into the capitalistic temptation.

It had started out fine like all games do. They had gotten around the board the first time with jokes and smiles and overall just having a good time. Half the board spaces were still un bought and they were making jokes about getting a perfect roll to get the property.

Then Monoma had swooped in and got all the railroads. From then cassie had managed to obtain all of the green properties. Bart had somehow managed to obtain every card for the cheapest side of the board.

Houses had started to go up. Then followed hotels. Soon enough the board became a minefield. Everything from there had just gotten worse for everyone involved.

“What do you mean luxury tax!” Cassie cried out.

“Guys look at this I won second place in a beauty contest, look!” Monoma said.

“Land on my properties Allen, you know you want to.” Pony said. Fully knowing that landing on park place or boardwalk with hotels would knock him out of the game. She could not find it in herself to care.

“I don’t think I will.” Bart said before rolling the dice. He managed to pass her and then land on the community chest. Everyone was chanting house assess, y’know the monopoly equivalent to praying on someone's downfall. He didn’t show his card, instead choosing to read it word for word. “Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass go, do not collect 200.”

It had been exactly what he wanted, what he had needed. Everyone was angry with him but it didn’t matter to him. Person after person kept landing on more than one property and with hotels he was racking up cash while he was in jail.

Everyone wanted it to be him that got house assess but it ended up being Pony who suffered from community chest. It had made her have to go as far as to mortgage her precious boardwalk.

Soon enough the first player was out of the game, Bart was not happy about getting out. Then it was Pony who blamed house access for her downfall. It was left to the two biggest capitalists there is, Cassie and Monoma.

Cassie had lost. But not to Monoma, no she lost to Income tax. Cassie was annoyed. Pony was mad on her behalf. Then Bart had started laughing at her loss. So she tossed the bored at him.

From there we must not mention the events that befell them. However, if you must know a single detail it ended with Vlad thinking about pulling an Aizawa and just expelling his students so he didn’t have to deal with it. Somehow he knows that it would only end up with an even bigger problem than what he had started with.

----

At exactly four pm Edward Drake (the second) had showed up in his snazzy suit, briefcase in hand, with the most flamboyant red eyeshadow. He had walked through the doors with minimal amazement and didn’t stop to see the sights. He had a job to do right now and he couldn’t fail.

He had made his way over to the 1-A classroom and was invited by his “nephew’s” teacher. The man bowed and entered, noticing the teacher's eyes following him as he walked. Edward had ruffled Tim’s hair before sitting next to him while the other two kids under his care sat behind them.

“My nephew said that a meeting was requested but didn’t give me more information on what this was about.” He started “I’m sure you can understand my worry for what this could be about. I know my little Timothy gets good grades so I was wondering if student’s had been causing him more trouble. I really was hoping that he wouldn’t be having trouble anymore now that he was in U.A but-”

That, Tim had to say, was perfect acting. 10/10. He wished that he could have hired him the first time he had been cooking up this scheme. The man had played the perfect role of worried parent with enough concern to make his teachers squirm. Good, that was what the team needed. Bart’s already planned to make Tim give the man a raise.

“Oh, no no no you have no need to be worried about that I can assure you. U.A has a strict no bullying policy and you can be assured that anything like that would be stopped before it would even have the chance to start.” Yamada had reassured.

“Actually it was because we were worried about the lack of ability to contact you unless one of the kids does it.” Aizawa said. “We usually do check-ins but you were unable to be reached when we had. It is both a safety measure and it makes it so that the parents are aware if there is homework they need to complete or if they are struggling with classes.”

“I’m so sorry I had no idea- kids did you know about this?” Edward said worry laced into his tone. “My job makes it so hard to contact me and it might have been my personal phone instead of my work one. I almost never pick that one up unless the kids use it. But most of the times they still send the messages to my work number. Again I’m so sorry it must have been so worrying! I just can’t always guarantee i’ll be able to answer all the time if it’s a phone call. Is there any way I could give you my work number and get texts instead of calls? It would just make it so much easier.”

What did Tim say the other day, oh Kon remembered, hook line and sinker. Seriously he just watched this man play Tim’s uncle so well it had the teachers, PRO HEROES believing his woven tale. Truly the team has an amazing talent to make people believe that they are lovely, sweet kids. (It’s not the truth.)

Cassie watches as Edward gives the teacher a new phone number. The number was connected to two phones that were owned by her and Tim respectively. It worked better to have two incase one phone got confiscated while they were being massaged by a teacher.

Kon remembers the time Tim bought him a burner phone because superman kept taking it away when he thought he was “acting disrespectfully.” It was one of the times that Kon had been slapped in the face with the fact that Tim was rich and his parents didn’t care as long as he wasn’t bothering them.

The moment that the meeting ended. Edward motioned for the kids to follow him out and had fussed over them all the way to the entrance. If the teachers had checked the camera’s they didn’t find anything other than a worried uncle asking about how their days were going and how class was.

Everyone had gotten on the bus and then the act had been dropped. Tim handed the actor way more money than what was agreed upon and the man had stared at the stack like it was a pot of gold.

They had gotten off at separate bus stops with changed outfits. The team was likely never going to see the man again and they were okay with that. It was meant to be a one time role that was the best one that they had ever witnessed.

None of them mentioned that they just lied to one of the best underground heroes in the world and had gotten away with it. It seemed like a bad idea to mention their victory so soon, almost like inviting karma onto them.

Cassie had suggested that the get some special food to celebrate and Bart had immediately seconded that. Food time it was.

Chapter Text

Sometimes Tim loves the bat training as it prepares him for everything other times he despises it. Today he can’t pick which emotion to lean into. When they had gotten to U.A, reporters were swarming the entrance and it reminded him of the gala’s his mother made him attend.

He can hear her saying “now Timothy, smiles and nods but do not give them the information they seek. One word is all it takes for them to run you into the ground. You would do best to remember,” Even dead, even in another world her voice still haunts him. He will never truly be free of the claws that are Janet and Jack Drake.

Cassie, Kon, and Bart can be seen rescuing a few student’s from the reporters clutches and just barely making it out themselves. Tim thinks about his options. One: walk straight into them. Two: wait for one of his friends to get him. Three: just go home and not deal with this today,

Tim considers for a few moments what would cause his teachers the most strife. Eventually he goes with option number four: parkour over his problem. His brother would be so proud of him right now.

Jumping he flips over a group of reporters and grabs a hold of the wall attached to the gate. He climbs his way to the top and once he’s on top he gives a two fingered salute and falls backwards. Tim saw Aizawa out of the corner of his eye looking like he wanted to do anything but be there. Mood.

Deciding that y’know what that wasn’t chaotic enough Tim, instead of going through the front entrance to the building, goes to grab onto the windows and starts climbing. It reminds him of back home minus the gothic architecture. He can feel the headache he is causing his teacher from here. To that Tim says he could be going through the vents instead of the outside wall. Pick your battles and cut your losses.

Once he was at the right level he moved over to the right window and tapped on the glass. At first they dismissed it as if he was just some bird. No that won’t do. Tim started to tap harder but now in morse code telling them to o-p-e-n u-p!

Iida was the one to come to his aid and actually move the window upwards. The look on his face reminded Tim of green lantern when he was being told to form a coherent thought. Iida’s face was unmoving with his eyes blown wide. Tim had just managed to shake the composure of one of the calmest student’s in the class. Really this was shaping out to be a typical Tuesday for him.

Iida had been frozen still for too long because Tim decided that it was enough and shoved him aside. Iida had begun to move again. His mouth opened and closed but no words chose to spill out. Tim told him to go back to his seat with an innocent smile on his face.

Aizawa came in 10 minutes after the bell, still muttering about ‘damn reporters.’ Picking up his coffee mug from off the table (on it the words the tears of my students on full display). The teacher took a long drink as if trying to convince himself that teaching was worth it.

He took one look at Tim and yelled, “problem child! Don’t think I didn’t see you climbing the building. I will make you run the Hell course twice if I catch you doing that again. Don’t test me.”

Jokes on him, Tim loves the hell course. It reminds him of his early robin training days, just a little stressful and not like he was Atlas. Honestly after so many years of being a vigilante working with Bruce nothing really scares him anymore. Especially not since he had gone searching through the timeline for him. 

Everyone could see his smile and was concerned for his sanity. He lost that long ago but if they could actually find it that would be awesome of them.  The teacher could see it on his face and Tim knew it but Aizawa ignored the look anyway. If Tim didn’t know any better he would say that he was Aizawa’s favorite student.

“Your trip to the USJ is tomorrow. Today is a free day but I swear to god don’t annoy me.” With his final words he activated his quirk and watched as the students gained another healthy dose of fear. It doesn't have any effect on Tim because it’s not as bad as Janet's or, universe forbid, Alfred.

All it took was asking and Tim and Kon were free to go to the support department to work on something. They stopped by class 1-B to see if they could steal Bart and Cassie since it was a freeday. Monoma and Pony asked to come with because they were bored of sitting and doing nothing.

Vlad said it was okay. Actually he said it was okay as long as the four didn’t come back with any board games. Tim was curious what that was about. Judging by the look on the teacher's eyes they didn’t want to know.

It was finally the day where Tim was going to make modifications to his staff and Hatsume should be finished with the suits by now. They have no idea how the girl works that fast but hey they aren’t going to complain.

At first he wasn’t planning to change anything about it but then he had an epiphany. Batman didn’t exist here. That means no one is regulating the danger level of his staff. Finally he can add the blade feature he had to scrap because, and he quotes, “Tim I already feel you’re almost on the path to killing people, we don’t need to speed it up.”

Jokes on Bruce he had already crossed that line and because of the league thing he had been worse than Jason. The destruction of the assassin's bases had been worth every second of him questioning his morality. Suck it Ra’s your operation was brought down to one knee by a mentally unstable teenager.

When they got there Tim immediately got tackled by Hatsume shouting that the suits were finished. Then she questioned why the two new people were there and if they would be considering support equipment. Pony looked taken aback by her energy and Monoma looked like he didn’t understand a word that she had said.

“Hatsume these two would be Monoma and Pony of the hero course.” Cassie said casually. The inventor's eyes widened with joy. “Before you get them to test your inators at least tell them what it should do without it going boom.”

She let out a gasp, “I would never let something go boom when there's a potential customer around.”

Pony and Monoma shared a look asking if this girl had lost her marbles. The answer is yes but they don’t need to know that right now. The pink haired girl walked through the lab and showed off her inventions describing them as she went.

Eventually deciding to spare them of the impending explosion Tim got her attention, “Hatsume how would you like to help me make a new staff so I can add in a lot of things that I was previously banned from adding in.”

Nothing short of pure joy entered the girl's face as her mouth formed a maniac grin. She grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him to the work station. Power Loader saw the chaos that was about to be unleashed through the lab window. He decided that it wasn’t his problem until someone actually got hurt.

Tim put up a projection of his regular staff's blueprints. Hatsume then said “whoever built this before was ignoring so many possibilities. How dare they deny you of putting blades in your staff. Don’t worry she’ll be good and even more lethal- I mean helpful when I’m done with the baby.”

----

Y’know the day really was going quite well until the class got onto the bus. Tim had received his new staff with promises to test it out. Kon had gotten a pretty good night of sleep the night before. No reporters attacked them when they got to school.

And then they had gotten onto the bus to the USJ or unforeseen simulations joint. The bus wasn’t actually that bad considering that it was filled with teenagers. However the moment they had gotten off Tim knew that something was wrong. This wasn’t just random paranoia, this was bat training showing through.

He and Kon told the man when they had gotten off the bus but nothing really happened. Their teacher just told them that he felt it too but don’t be worried. Wow thanks Aizawa because that’s totally helpful.

Tim’s just glad for the fact that his new staff is ten times more deadly than the last. Lady Shiva would be so happy for him. Bruce however would not be. But Bruce isn’t here so his im not mad just disappointed speech falls on deaf ears. He pulls out his trusted weapon just in case it really does hit the fan.

A few student’s gave Kon questioning glances and he told them to be on alert because Tim said that something doesn't feel right. Kon has learned to always trust the boys intuition after years of being on the same team. (If he didn’t trust his intuition then Kon wouldn’t be standing there free today. Still a mindless entity for CADMUS.)

Right now the only thing that had made the whole situation suck a little bit less was the fact that the new costumes had gotten handed out before they left. One of the classmates, not going to name names, had said that the old ones were better. Tim quickly shut the kid up.

Most people would shut up when met with the business end of Tim’s staff but that’s neither here nor there.

When they entered the building they were met with the space hero Thirteen. The poor woman's posture looked anxious out of her mind and Tim can remember that feeling before it was trained out of him. Just another thing that he had lost to Janet Drake.

10 minutes. 10 minutes was all it took for everything to take a turn for the worst. The hero had been doing pretty good with her speech and she was about to separate them when suddenly Tim’s feeling had been proven justified. He would like to say that he called it, he knew that this was going to happen. He’d like to thank his bat training, Lady Shiva, Jason Todd, Janet Drake, and Alfed when Tim did something stupid.

The swirl of purple had revealed a figure that looked like mist and an emo loser of a man. More portals opened up and revealed a bunch of not important looking criminals. Honestly the average gotham goon makes 10 of these people look like a joke. Wow Tim misses his beautiful disgusting city.

After that they were separated. Tim was put with Iida, this was going to be a team made in hell. Mr. I follow every rule to the T and sir I trifled with a hundreds of years old assassin cult leader and came out on top, were not meant to interact much less be on a team together.

“Drake what are you doing?” Iida asked as Tim started searching for a communicator. He had it specifically for situations like this and he needed to check if it was still on. When it wasn’t Tim thanked a higher being for their luck.

“Currently making sure we get back up. Next question?” Tim said with just enough snark in his tone. Bart and Cassie were notified that the signal stopped going through and are hopefully trying to get a teacher to believe them.

“But the signals are jammed.” Iida said.

“That works in my favor, it's how this is built. It notifies people when it gets turned off” Tim said, jumping to his feet and extending his hand. “Now come on. Unless you want to stay here and get attacked.

Iida didn’t say anything else, instead taking Tim’s hand to put himself up. He made the move to ignore Tim’s mutter of ‘good choice.’ They started walking in the shadows back to the center of the building.

At the first sign of a fight Tim flicked his staff and watched it light up like an escrima stick. Iida looked a little concerned but said nothing. Together the two pushed forwards making quick work of any enemy they came across.

Surprisingly and unsurprisingly, Iida had taken really well to carrying out Tim’s orders as they were called. Given who he could have been put with instead he was pretty glad to be working with the blueberry instead of some people. Tim’s just surprised that the boy would take orders from a classmate and not an adult.

Next they found Kon and Denki and told them they were going to get to the center and get Iida out of the building to warn the heroes. The boy looked to be shocked for a few seconds as if he didn’t think he could do it. Then he schooled his emotions and nodded.

Then they had made it to the center. Iida had immediately taken off running to find the open exit, leaving him, Kon and Denki to try and get people safe. He told them that they needed to spread out. Denki was to get as many people he could out and count them as they left. He looked hesitant but Tim wasn’t going to allow that.

He shoved a batarang into the boy's hand then said, “Denki you can do this. I wouldn’t be giving you this job if I didn’t think you could do it. What I just put into your hand is a batarang. It is sharp and it is perfectly weighted to be thrown. You only have one so I would use it like a knife and throw it as a last resort. You can do this.”

Denki finally took it and ran off immediately, finding two other classmates hiding in the rubble. He turned to Kon and motioned that they were going to have to fight their way through. Then the Nomu had shown up and started to attack Aizawa. In that moment the one thought that passed through their mind was not our teacher, not today.

----

“You don’t understand something is wrong!” Cassie shouted at her teacher. Usually she was very respectful but he wasn't listening to her. Her friends were probably out there getting hurt and he wasn’t listening. “I trust Tim’s technology more than anything else. His communicator goes off when a signal is cut by force. If you don’t believe me, fine but if they get killed I’m not letting you off.”

Just then Robo Cop of 1-A came running past them screaming about the usj being attacked by villains. Both Cassie and Bart pointed angry fingers in his direction and yelled “we told you.”

Vlad started to panic and said “everyone stay here. Kendo you're in charge, do not under any circumstances let anyone leave unless U.A gets attacked too. Understand?”

She nodded her head and got everyone to calm down. Meanwhile Cassie and Bart had already left the room to put their suits on. They nodded at each other and took off. Bart was immensely faster so Cassie was the only one noticed by Vlad.

“Sandsmark get back in the classroom or so help me.” Vlad yelled as he continued to run.

“No. Those are my friends out there and you didn’t believe me. I can guarantee Bart is already there. You can’t stop me.” Cassie said. There was venom in her tone. No one can tell her not to help her friends. Before she sped up exponentially she called “See you there teach.”

When she got there she saw Kon and Tim fighting off a giant monster and the 1-A teacher laying on the ground. The teacher's quirk was activated and he was glaring at the emo looking man.

“Quick report!” She called out.

“Came to train, the portal showed up, and a bunch of common crooks showed up. So did the blue haired man and portal guy. They brought mr. monster with them. It regenerates. Blue hair 5 point activation, decays things. Are more teachers coming?” Kon said, rushing to get the words out.

She nodded. “Birdy switch me places you go for bluey's emo cousin.”

He nodded and the staff got even more dangerous. If you weren’t him there's no way that you could hold onto it for more than three seconds. He’s really gotta hand it to Hatsume, she did an amazing job making it dangerous.

“Imp your with Pikachu make sure first aid gets administered to those that need it.” Cassie called when the blur went past her.

“Y’know that staff isn’t going to be useful when I turn it to dust. What are you going to do then? You probably don’t have that great of levels.” the emo- Shigaraki had said to himself. “I came here looking for a bossfight.”

He made a move like he was going to catch the staff and said, “I guess you’ll have to do then won’t you.”

The man touched it. For all of half a second. He couldn’t decay it at that time and Tim saw that coming. God did he enjoy the look on the man's face. Tim wonders what this would do against Ra’s and the Joker and- No Tim now’s not the time.

Shigaraki made an enraged noise and yelled “your hacking! Stop using cheats and actually fight me!”

Tim slammed the staff into the man's side and said, “I’m quirkless. Technically if anyone was using cheats it be you. I just spent more time upgrading my gear.”

He called out for Kurogiri as Tim knocked him onto the ground. Soon enough there was no villain left for him to fight. Tim ran up and jabbed his staff into the Nomu as Cassie went for the head and Kon held it still.

After all the time they had spent fighting on their own the heroes finally showed up. Honestly the only ones he had respect for were Mic, Snipe, and Eraserhead. Snipe just made a really cool entrance, Mic was immediately getting kids to safety, and Eraserhead was one of the main reasons they were still alive.

The Nomu had been taken down but it took a lot to do it. A ringing in his ears had returned after weeks of not being there. The last time he had it was when he was facing the blue suited man covered in blood.

For some time Tim wasn’t fully there after that. He could feel as Bart had carried him out of the building. He slightly noticed as Cassie had made him drink some water. He could feel Bart’s hand moving along his back. Sight and sound just wasn’t processing right for him.

He was facing the ground with his eyes open. But he couldn’t think of what the ground had looked like. Tim didn’t know if he was on grass or concrete. He didn’t see that his hands were covered in this dark grey substance. He didn’t see or hear as Kon kept people away from him arguing that once Tim comes back to himself he chooses between the medics and them as who checks him over.

In theory they should be letting the medical professionals through to make sure that he isn’t dying. In theory it would be best to be checked over by someone whose job is to do just that. In theory Kon shouldn’t be arguing with doctors AND pro heroes over this.

But in theory it does not always happen the same as in execution. If they did let the doctors forward there's no telling how he would react. Tim has been trained to attack until he is dead. He has been trained to fight past any emotion and injury. If he’s even tapped by someone that he doesn't know it could end in disaster.

You don’t expect a trained dog not to bark, you don’t expect the sea to stay still during a storm, and you don’t trust a bat not to attack when compromised. Those are the rules of the world. The doctors don’t know this but young justice has spent years learning. They know their friend better than anyone else does and if they say not to approach, don't you dare think about approaching.

At some point the feeling in Tim’s hands returned, as did the ability to understand noise, and see what is ahead of him. He was sitting on grass above a patch of daisies. He saw Kon looking as if he were about to get into a fight with Midnight

When he talked his voice felt disgusting but he got past it “What happened after they got there.”

Cassie gave him a rundown of everything. Most student’s only have minor injuries like scrapes and bruises but most don’t have any at all. Aizawa is heavily injured. The two main bad guys got away but all the common crooks were being questioned currently. Then Cassie asked who he wanted to be checked over by.

He said them in a heartbeat. He didn’t trust himself not to attack if it was anyone else. The medics seemed skeptical and they watched everything Young Justice did but in the end he turned out completely fine.

Ah well. What a day for Young Justice. Theres no way that any of them are getting any sleep tonight without sleeping in shifts.  

Chapter Text

“What the hell were you thinking! I mean in what world was this a good idea! You could have gotten hurt or killed or- or worse! But no you disobeyed a direct order and ran in anyways. So tell me why.” Vlad yelled. The hurt had shown through in his voice. Bart and Cassie felt bad but they had to do it.

“With all due respect sir, it worked in this world. It worked because we were there to help. If we hadn’t gone we couldn't have guaranteed that everything would work out or that you would make it on time. We can't know the what ifs but what we do know is that our friends were in danger and we would risk ours a thousand times. Because if there is one thing I know for certain it’s that Kon and Tim would do the same for us.” Cassie said.

Vlad hit his hands together with his each word, “If you had died what do you think it would have accomplished. You could have lost your lives, what your family have done? Not only that, you helped keep medics and doctors from your friend.”

Bart then said, “But we lived, and the past won’t change now. And for keeping the medics away, it kept both Tim and the medics safe. When he’s in that state he reacts because his mind is telling him he needs to survive. Letting medics near him could hurt him and we can do the procedures ourselves.”

“How did you know to do those procedures?” Vlad asked.

“Tim’s quirkless.” Cassie said as if that explained everything. And in the world they are stuck in now, it almost does. Quirks are everything in this world. They almost hate that people are so reliant on them. They also hate the look of understanding that crosses their teacher's face.

Cassie and Bart knew what they were implying with that statement. Tim had already said to use it as a resort. They have fake stories in place, records, and emotions. If they go digging they’ll find something but it isn’t the truth. The person they would search for is real in everything but an actual life.

Judging by the look on Vlad’s face, history is needed. Cassie knows that what they’re doing is like playing with fire. Trust her, she knows how dangerous everything she does is. Cassie could still remember telling her team that out of any course of action it was the best.

Cassie remembered a time where none of them had any trust for each other. Back when they were just kids who were being forced to interact by their mentors. Cassie even remembers the look on Tim’s face when he was told they were going to be on a team.

She yelled at Diana that day telling her that it was such a bad idea. Then they had gone on a mission together against the league's wishes and found Kon. They had been in it together when they broke into CADMUS. 

Over time they had bonded the best way that they could. They had fought together, they had lied to the league to protect the team, and they had kept secrets that were taken to the grave then past that. Their loyalties lie with the team, and people who treat being a hero as a job are not forcing their way past those barriers.

----

It was during a much needed training session that someone had managed to shove their way into the first barrier set up. (They decided that this world had taken their preparation) Honestly the purple haired boy hadn’t even meant to walk in on them sparring. He just wanted to get some extra training before the sports festival rolled around.

Yet here he was getting dragged over by a blond girl yelling that they had a new person to train. He noticed the bo staff in one kid's hand and the fact that there was a red head and someone who could fly fighting each other.

The one with the staff was calling out orders during the fight. After the staff kid had called the match winner was Conner they turned to face him. That was when a bunch of things clicked with him. He was well and truly screwed.

Because these were hero students. And they had taken an interest in him. Shinsou had briefly considered running away but he knew that he would be captured in seconds. He only knew two of the people's quirks and for all he knows they could know his.

So Shinsou made the decision to try and work his way out of it without getting himself in trouble. “Oh I think I made a wrong turn. I’m Shinsou Hitoshi, I'm only in the general education department. It's really easy to get mixed up in huge campuses like this. I don’t want to bother you so I’ll just get going.”

He knew that throwing his name in there was a risky move but he did it. He would probably regret it later, but that’s a problem for Hitoshi later, not now. The boy made the move to step back and leave,

“First of all that would be a really good lie if I hadn’t been trained to spot them.” Shit. The staff kid called his bluff. “Second of all, if you are training to get into the hero course we can help train you for it.”

Hitoshi did not believe that at all. Many years of him being treated as less because of his quirk would do that to a person. Still he knows that he’s under scrutiny and it might just be easier for him to nod. At least then it gets the situation over quicker.

“Well my name is Drake Tim, that is Allen Bart, Sandsmark Cassie, and Kent Conner. None of us care if you use our first or last name.” Tim said. Then he leaned closer and the feeling of being a butterfly under a glass amplified. “So tell me Shinsou, what can you do?”

And wasn’t that the question everyone had wanted to know and got disgusted by the answer. The question got worse every time he had to answer it. He took a moment to prepare himself “my quirk is-”

Then he was cut off by Drake saying “That is not the question I asked. I asked you what you can do.”

Shinsou was caught off guard and decided that apparently it was time to run his mouth, “I mean it’s the answer that everyone wants when they ask. I don’t know why now it would be any different but I can do a few basic things in hand to hand combat. I know how to use knives lightly and I've been planning to learn to fight with a bo staff or a spear.”

“Maybe this will come as a shock to you but no one here actually believes that a quirk is equivalent to your status.” Tim said before adding, “I’m quirkless and I know that they know better than to assume that a quirk is everything.”

Out of the whole interaction that was what had confused Shinsou the most. He’s never met people, especially ones with such strong “heroic” quirks say that they don’t care. For now he won’t trust, he guaranteed that right now he would hope and what was all that he could ever do.

“I can teach you how to use a staff and even how to throw batarangs. However I want to see you become better at hand to hand before I teach you to use something that sharp. I would also like to know what your quirk is just so we can see what limits can be tested in a fight.” Tim said.

For the first time in his life Shinsou didn’t dread that question. When he answered the question Bart rushed to get a piece of paper so Tim could write down things to help him use his quirk. And y’know for the first time he got to feel like maybe he could keep these friends.

“Wait, what's a batarang?” Shinsou called out incredulously. He was met with laughter on all sides before Drake pulled out a weapon.

----

They told him to meet up a few times a week. Each time he started by fighting one of the four. This was his second time fighting Allen, yet he had still not fought Tim. Shinsou was curious as to why that is.

So he asks. Then he watches them all share looks with each other and say that if he wants to try then he’s free to.  Shinsou does and gets knocked down in less than five minutes. He should have seen that coming.

Kent scrambled to start explaining for him, “out of all of us Tim spent the most time learning how to attack and turn anything into a weapon. He’s quirkless sure, but he likes people underestimating him. It’s why we are the ones who are giving you practice fights. All of us can turn the react option off in an instance. Tim fights to win.”

“Oh.” He said a little less disappointed that quickly. “Are you ever going to tell me where you learned to do that?”

The silence is the most telling. It wasn’t the kind that was withholding information for no reason. It was the kind that was meant to tell you that you don’t want to know. It just told Shinsou that something had either happened to his teacher or that his teacher was a terrible person.  He made the note not to bring it up again. 

The comment went unanswered verbally.

----

“Is this one of those ‘I fear not the man who has practiced a thousand kicks once but the man who has practiced one kick a thousand times’ kinds of things.” Shinsou asked, not knowing what he was about to unleash on himself.

“Ew god no. Never ask me that shit again. Tim would murder me if he thought I was teaching you that,” Cassie had replied. She looked as if the question had physically pained her to think about.

“But I thought that was what we were doing?” Shinsou had questioned. 

“Shinsou look at me in the eyes when I say this because I need you to understand this. The man who practices one kick can get himself killed just as fast as the other. Because the one who practices a thousand times has become predictable. Being predictable is one of the most dangerous things that you can be in this business. Predictability gets people like all might hurt. It’s what gets people killed.” Cassie said. 

“What I expect you to do is learn and train. You find the moves that work for you then you work to perfect them but you remember that you can’t always rely on them.” She continued putting the weight of the world into her words. “That’s what makes me so dangerous. It’s what makes my friends dangerous. Okay?”

Sinsou nodded and he thought he understood why he had been told that. He had turned to leave the room as their training session was up. He likes these sessions because they taught him a lot and it wasn’t just fighting about fighting it was about helping and winning.

“Oh and one more thing Shinsou.” she had called out to him the moment Shinsou had opened the door. “If I ever, and I mean ever catch you calling out your moves like some of the other hero hero course kids do, I won’t hesitate to kick your ass myself. And you sure as shit won’t be getting a warning then.”

With a healthy dose of fear Shinsou had left the room a little more terrified of the wonder that is Sandsmark.

Cassie had been doing the most to train him in hand-to-hand combat. He knows that what the others have been teaching him is helpful too but if he had this years ago it would have been so different for him.

He’s not got a chance into the hero course because of the people he had met by accident. They don’t care about what his quirk is, only his ability to think, help, and fight. These are the people he had needed to meet for years. These are the people he had wished that he had on his side years ago.

Now he has people who care about him. He won’t forget when Tim had seen through the concealer and asked him for names. Shinsou refused to give them. Tim told him that he could get people put in Tartarus within hours if he had the names. Shinsou didn’t know how but he believed him.

Still no answers were given and Tim promised that if Shinsou ever needed help he would be there. Shinsou told Tim to call him Hitoshi.

Hitoshi wished that he could make the same promises but he doesn't think he would ever be able to face the people who trained Tim.

----

The first time that Hitoshi had used what his friends had taught him. It was not, in fact, at the sports festival. It was in an alley that had gotten cornered in by some of the people who used to call him the underground's next villain in the making.

His first thought was that if his friends could see him they would probably be disappointed in him. His next thought was that the hold they had on their knife was very wrong and that it would be easy to disarm. Like painfully easy.

When the brown haired boy went to strike him with the blade Shinsou hit a pressure point. He dropped the blade as predicted and Shinsou caught it before it hit the ground. What surprised him was that he was able to pull this off while getting called a monster.

After spending so much time with people who couldn’t care less about his quirk it felt surreal. He was told that some people are like vultures scavenging for a reason to damage your name. Let them believe what they want but do not give them anything to damage you.

It went well for him until one of them asked where his muzzle was. He had run. 

Because that happened in the morning he spent the entire day walking through a haze. Mic had asked him what was wrong but he couldn’t answer in a way that actually gave information.

Shinsou had still gone to his training session. He needed one good thing to make it through the rest of that week and his training sessions are what he looks forward to. They found out the bare bones of what had happened that morning and they were furious. Bart said that he could walk him home if he needed it. It wasn’t actually a question.

----

Meeting Hatsume was an interesting experience to say the least. Like with most people she gets introduced to, she immediately attacked him with questions about support equipment. He could only understand every few words and Cassie explained that she does it to almost everyone she meets.

Then Cassie had dramatically pulled a cloth off of a mannequin. From behind him Bart told him that the costume was for him when he gets into the hero course. Shinsou wasn’t too much of a coward to say that he didn’t cry when the words had registered.

----

Cassie kept seeing Diana every so often. She can’t tell if it’s just lighting or if being in a different universe is getting to her. It’s completely random when she sees her mentor but one thing she has noticed is that it most commonly happens when she’s proud of herself or someone else.

Diana showed up for the first time when she had been teaching Shinsou to disarm a basic knife. It wasn’t that hard for him to learn but she was proud either way because that was her student. She wondered if this is how Diana felt teaching her.

The next time she had felt the pride that had brought Diana’s image to her was when Hatsume created one of Cassie's Ideas. It had become a really effective tool and was now a part of Tim’s arsenal. The smile that had crossed Hatsume’s face when she had finally got it to work was amazing. 

Next was when she was walking with Pony and Monoma and had seen someone committing a petty crime. She turned to them and said ‘pop quiz, what do you do when that happens?’ Together a plan was created and executed between the two in seconds and the guy was brought to a local pro hero. What had been the icing on top was when the two asked the woman if she wanted to be walked home.

All these experiences she learned from. Everytime it was someone or something new and it felt so nice to see her mentor again. Even if it was for seconds. Even if it was just her experiencing a trick of the light it made her feel like she was at home. Cassie would do a lot of things to go home.

Hope was a dangerous thing and she knows it. Hope made her join a cult, hope made Tim travel the world to find a dead mentor and almost get himself killed in the process. Hope likes to take but sometimes it keeps people alive.

If Cassie had to make a bet whether they were going to get to go back home or stay in this universe she would look you in the eye and say stay. Because after so long your hope slowly dies out. Sometimes you can be like Odyssyus and make it back home after every odd stacks itself against you. But that’s not how it works all the time.

All four of them have people to get back home too. They’re mentors, their city’s, their family’s. Everyone has someone that they miss here

She misses her mom more than anything else. 

Chapter Text

Cassandra Cain had not been home in a long time. She had been on a classified mission in: you don’t get to know where and was just happy to be home. Cassandra was happy to see her little brothers again. (She refuses to acknowledge that Dick and Jason are older than her).

It was around 10 pm when Alfred had picked her up in the airport just outside the city. Nobody really wanted to risk what would happen if they put one inside of Gotham. She had been tired after the long flight but wanted to see her family again. She would get some sleep while she waits for them to return.

Alfred had not told her anything about what the family had been working on in her absence. He had a feeling that she would get right back on the plane if she had known what had happened. Alfred also felt she would blame herself, she wouldn’t be the first too.

Everyone had gotten back around one am and she was waiting in the cave for everyone. She could not spot one key person in the family.

‘Where’s Tim?’ she signed.

No one wanted to answer her. So they didn’t and her question was met with silence. Cassandra had then begun to repeat herself. Over and over she repeated her words until she got desperate enough to say them out loud.

Her voice was a little scratchy as was everytime she had spoken, but she knew they understood her. So why, when Cassandra asked a question, did they ignore her. A few of her family had turned because they couldn’t even look her in the eye. They knew what had happened but they didn’t share. Has Cassandra done something?

Cassandra looked at their posture. Damian looked like he was about to try and run from this conversation. Jason looked tired almost like whatever happened had kept him up for nights on end. Bruce looked like he was trying to turn off any emotions that he had left. And Ritchard was beyond furious.

Dick swiveled to face bruce. “You didn’t tell her?”

‘Tell me what?’ she signed.

She stomped on the floor to grab everyone's attention. Cassandra needed to know why Tim wasn’t in the room right now. She had to know that her baby brother was okay. Cassandra knew everything that he had done for the family and if something had happened she deserved to be given a straight answer.

Jason was the one who had finally given her one. “Cass, he’s been missing for weeks. No one can even get a trace on his team. It’s possible that he might be dead”

Cassandra didn't want to believe this. Her brother wouldn’t just go missing like that. Cassandra has seen him in action and knows that it wouldn’t just happen so easily. What scares her the most is the fact that he might have done something to go missing on purpose.

If it was for his team she knows that he wouldn’t hesitate. 

She didn’t hesitate to leave the cave. They were just playing a cruel joke on her right? Tim would be somewhere hiding waiting to welcome her from her journey home. S he ignores the fact that she knew he was telling the truth from their body language.

----

Dick was never quick to anger. These last few weeks made him feel like a rubber band that was so close to snapping that it was almost comedic. He hated the feeling that had welled up inside him because the last time he felt like this he had almost ended the joker. Then he found out that Bruce had repeated an old mistake.

Bruce was not like a broken clock, those were right twice a day. Bruce Wayne was like a broken record. Always repeating mistake after mistake but every time it hurts more people. Every time that Dick thinks that the record is fixed it plays the same song.

The man knew how much it had destroyed him to come back from that mission in space. Bruce knew that he still laid awake some nights because he missed that funeral. Bruce knew what happened when he withheld the fact that a sibling was gone because ‘it could jeopardize the mission.’

No mission is more important than your family. Bruce still failed to retain that information. 

“I am going to ask you one question. You are not going to lie to me. You are not going to shut yourself off. You are not going to talk your way out of or around it.” Dick said. “When, after seeing what it did to me to not know about something like this, did you decide it was a good idea to do the same to Cassandra?” 

“Dick you have to understand-” Bruce started.

He was cut off, “No. Do not do that right now. I asked you a direct question and you are going to reply to me not as if i’m a child but the adult that I actually am!”

“She was too busy doing important things to have something like this on her mind.” Bruce stated.

Of all things that Dick knew of the man, it was that he knew the man liked to dig himself into graves. He was exceptionally good at pretending that it was not his own fault for putting himself there.

“Does Tim not happen to be important to you?” Dick asked. His voice was cold.

“Come on now you know that it’s not like that.” Bruce replied.

 It was as if he was twisting a knife into someone. With every word it went deeper and the wound became more infected. He showed no signs of remorse for his actions. He probably thought that he had done nothing wrong. 

“That’s what it sounds like you were implying. So if it’s not then what were you saying? Tell me what it is.” Dick's voice was full of malice. 

“What I think is interesting,” Bruce said, “Is that you and your brother were not on speaking turns before he had gone missing. Yet now you are doing everything as if it were to protect him. I think that you only care right now because he is gone. I think that you want your siblings to see you as the protective older brother when you could not protect him.”

That was when they had started fighting. 

----

Jason remembers when Dick and Bruce used to fight when he was a kid. Actually he doesn't think that he could ever forget what the sounds of his yelling sounded like. He used to hide himself at night when their shouts started up.

He told Damian to leave the cave the moment that it had looked like it would start. At first the kid wouldn’t listen to him because he thought he was old enough to handle it. Then voices started rising and the boy quickly realized that it was because Jason didn’t want him to be around the two when they really got into it.

If he listened to the voices enough, if he pretended that a lot of things hadn’t changed then Jason could pretend that it was the same people arguing. After all that’s changed over the years they still sound the same people they were when he first joined the family. 

The world's greatest detective and the first boy wonder in their truest forms standing next to each other. Old habits tend to die the hardest don’t they? Because doing them has become commonplace. 

He looks at the box on one of the workbenches asking him to light one. It’s been a year since he had last picked one up due to Tim and Cassandra being worried about him. 

Jason’s boots clinked against the floor of the cave as he walked out. He didn’t need to be around this today. Not when the pit has already been louder in his head than it had been in months.

Oh, did it try to take control of him. Jason could hear the colors whispering to him telling him that it would take some of his problems from him. It said that the next few days would be easier if he just let himself fall under the magics control. It said that it could do what it takes to bring his brother back from wherever he is.

Most days he ignores it. He’s seen what he’s like when he listens to the magics influence. Jason knows that he’s not a good person half of the time but when he listens to the green then he knows that he’s never good. He’s hurt people. He’s gotten people killed because of the green.

Sometimes he considers it briefly. If Jason listens to the magic then he wouldn’t have to feel as he did for the moment. Then he realizes that the pit talks like that and that he doesn't. He doesn't want to block out all emotions except for rage like Bruce does.

Every time he tells the pit to shut up. That does the trick most times.

----

Damian had not heard voices like this before. He’s seen Ra’s silent burning wrath. He’s heard Tahlias cold and quiet rage. He’s witnessed Jason’s brash destructive fury that comes more from the pit than him. 

He thought that he knew what Dick’s anger looked like. So far he had never really heard what fathers anger sounded like. Damian had realized that he had been very wrong. In the cave he had heard a noise that changed his view of a lot of things. Damian thought he knew the people around him. That was an error.

Tim had mentioned their fights in passing. His brother had always got a few weird looks from the family when he mentioned it. Jason would usually chime in with a joke from his own experiences that got even more weird stares. There would always be an apology from Dick but nothing would ever go past that.

When he heard about these fights he had made assumptions about how they had happened. He assumed because he didn’t think that either of them could be like this. Assumptions can be a dangerous thing can’t they?

Because he had assumed that they were not capable of these kinds of fights he was not ready for this. Ra’s told him to never make assumptions and only take the facts at face value. Right now he wished that he would have listened. 

Damian pulled out a new canvas and black and white paint. He had an image that needed to be put on paper. He had to remind himself of what happens when you don’t investigate the details by yourself. Damian's brush speeds across the page as he tries impossibly hard to not think about how he felt.

For the moment he was okay. As he was painting there was nothing wrong with him, only the people on the page. It’s not his job to acknowledge that the person on his page is covering his ears. He doesn't have to notice the corner that the person was against. Damian doesn't feel like a cornered animal that has the world shouting at him. The person on the page does.

He didn't finish the painting before his vision became slightly blurry. Damian just let it happen because he’s done it before. He doesn't need his painting to be perfect. He doesn't need it to be good. He just needs to put emotions down. 

When he finishes the painting he thought that would be it. Damian had washed his hands of newly stained paint and avoided looking at himself in the mirror. He didn’t think that Pennyworth would be very fond of sweeping up mirror shards at this time of night. 

Damian went back to his room and shut off his light before laying down. He couldn’t find a comfortable position to lay in his mind, not letting him calm down from the events of the last few hours.

The boy didn’t expect the screaming to start to reach his ears. He thought the anger had ended hours ago, maybe a little after he had left the cave. Then Damian thinks about the fact that his father had made it so that no echoed words could make it to the manor. The realization that they had been arguing like this for hours had not come easy.

He ignored the voice in his head that said that Tim could have been able to handle it if he were here.

----

Jason was not happy when he could hear the fight from his library. He thought that they either would have been separated or stopped by now. It seemed like it was too much to ask for a night of peace.

He thinks about just taking a few books with him and leaving the mansion. It would be so much calmer at one of his safe houses then it would be here. Then he thinks about the siblings that he would be leaving in the middle of a storm. He shoves the books in his bag and slings it over his shoulder.

Then he makes his way up the stairs to go grab Damian and Cassandra. He wasn’t just going to leave them here, especially not since he’s sure that this is the first time they have seen Dick and Bruce fight like this. He wished that they never even had too in the first place. It’s a little too late for that now.

First he goes to Damian’s room and it hurts what he finds there. He sees his youngest brother sitting up on his bed with a blanket over his shoulder and hands covering his ears. He remembers the times that he was in the exact same position as his brother was.

Jason thinks about the times that Alfred used to come find them when the two were fighting like this. Being a book nerd he loved to find parallels in his life past and present. This is the first time in a long while that he didn’t like what he had noticed.

He pulled out his noise canceling headphones and turned on some Greek mythology songs. They weren’t EPIC because a lot of the songs from the sagas were loud and that wasn’t what Damian needed right now. Jason slowly pulled the hands away from Damians head and slid the headphones on gently.

Damian looked confused and scared. It was the only two emotions that he could spot on his brother's face and he hated it. Jason took the time to make sure that Damian's Breathing got to a regular rhythm. Jason doesn't think about the fact that he needed it as much as Damian did.

‘I’m going to find Cass. Pack a bag and we can leave when you are ready.’ Jason signed.

The boy looked confused but had nodded to his words anyway. Jason left him to grab his things as he rushed down the halls opening doors and looking for his sister. The shouting got louder and he didn’t know how their throats weren't hurting right now.

He had finally found her in a closet shaking with eyes wide. For his emotions sake he ignored the fact that this was the same closet he used to hide in before Alfred convinced him to stop.

Jason didn’t have headphones to give this time but he knew that he could distract. He was the man that had made the people of crime alley feel safe after all. He could do this for his sister.

“Cass, look at me,” he said. “Nothing is going to hurt you right now, I won’t let it.”

She looked like she didn’t believe him but she had signaled ok anyways. Right now he’ll take what he can get.

“When Damian finishes packing we are going to one of my safe houses. Your bags are still sitting in your room, correct?” Another nod and Jason continued, “We are going to go grab them together and get Damian. Do you want me to carry you there?”

Normally she would make a joke about it but still accept it anyways and climb onto his back. However this is not a normal instance so all she did was nod and Jason lifted her off the ground.

He didn’t run down the hallways but he wasn’t slow about it either. He knows that time is very sensitive right now and if he makes a mistake it is not going to end well. When he makes it to her room he shifts her so that he can sling the bags over his shoulder before he exits the room.

After a particularly loud shout Cassandra’s eyes darted to the staircase as if someone were about to run up and attack her. Jason didn’t know what to do right now. He didn’t know if anything he could say would be the right thing to do. However when he thinks about the fighting happening downstairs he knows that he could be doing way worse.

“Hey look at me. Look at me. It’s loud, I know. But in a few moment’s we’ll be gone. Damian’s always quick about packing things so we won’t have to wait on him. We won’t have to hear them when we’re outside. Look at me. It’s going to be okay Cass.” Jason said.

Damian could feel him enter the room and silently ask if he’s ready. He nods and they walk down the stairs and Jason keeps their attention while they walk past Bruce and Dick. They don’t need to see that right now. It’s bad enough that they can hear it, they shouldn’t be seeing it. 

When they exit the building Alfred was nowhere to be seen and Jason wonders where he had been when this was happening. He didn’t know why he wouldn’t try to put a stop to it when he knew that there were kids in the building way too young and way too hurt for this to be allowed.

Jason walked over to his car and opened the door laying Cassandra on the seat. He put the bags into the trunk before shutting the door and watching as Damian crawled into the front seat. He turned the car on and made sure that the AC would be warm enough before he pulled out of the driveway.

The following drive to his apartment was a quiet one. Normally he’d be blasting music so loud that the car shakes but now isn’t the time for that. He had two siblings in his car that he was taking care of right now.

After they entered his apartment in the bowery he made them some past really quickly before he sent them to go get some sleep. Damian took his room and Cassandra took the spare while Jason slept on the couch. Or he tried to at least.

It’s one of the nights that he knows is going to haunt him for a long time. Not because it was something that happened to him, no this was because something happened to his siblings. He doesn't think that they are going to walk out of this the same. Jason doesn't expect them too either.

 It was hours later when he had gotten a phone call. Light was already streaming through the windows as much as it could in Gotham. He checked the time on the stove that had displayed 11 am. Surprisingly it’s the most that he had slept in a while.

When he checked the caller ID it showed Dick Grayson and had the stupid photo of him doing a handstand. Dick was lucky that he was in the business of ignoring the pit because he was mad that his brother had the audacity to call him now. He picked up the phone anyway.

“The hell do you think you’re doing calling me?” Jason asked, his voice raspy.

“Jason, I can't find Damian.” Dick started. “I’ve looked all over for him and he isn’t in the cave, or in his room, or anywhere in the manor. He’s missing and I can’t find him and-”

“He isn’t missing.”

“Yes, he is Jason. We can’t find him anywhere.” Dick replied. He was desperate.

“Damian isn’t missing because he’s here at my safehouse with Cass.” Jason said. It took everything he had to not yell at him.

“Why didn’t you say anything? You scared the hell out of me Jason!” Dick said.

Oh no. He does not get to make it seem like it was Jason’s fault. Not after what he had seen last night. Not after what he had heard last night. Not when he was the one who had to carry his sister out and keep Damian from looking backwards.

“Dick, when was I supposed to tell you? Before or after you and Bruce started yelling at each other. Before or after I found Cass in a closet trying to hide from your yelling. Before or after we left the manor while you two were still on your high horse trying to prove that you were better than each other. This is just like when I was a kid. This is like when I had to keep myself calm after you two decided that fighting was better than talking things out.”

“Jason I-” Dick said.

“I am not done. Listen to me. You two are incapable of choosing whether you want to have a good or bad relationship with each other. While you sit their choice changing like the wind it is your siblings who have to sit through it. It is your sister and your brothers that have to try and keep this family together.”

Jason paused. “You were so busy fighting that you couldn’t notice that you terrified them. Do you know how close the pit was to triggering? You are lucky that someone stopped and kept themself calm for the kids. If I didn’t and I had a pit episode, there wouldn’t be any family left for those kids to turn too.”

“If you want to be a part of whatever part of this perfect family we have left then I suggest you fix yourself because I won’t do it for you.” Jason said.

Dick replied with “Jason I’m so sorry. I didn’t mean to.”

“You didn’t think about the consequences and that is your own fault.” Jason said.

He hung up the phone before Dick could say anything else. He then managed to thank whatever god had helped him keep his voice from rising.

The next 24 hours were going to suck and he knew that. He also knows that the kids are going to need someone to be there for them if everything goes downhill. If Bruce shows up on his doorstep then so help him he might just do something that he would regret. 

Cass was the first to emerge from her room. She looked exhausted but he could tell that she was doing better than she was last night. Cass had walked over too him and laid on his side. Jason got the feeling that he wouldn’t be moving for a while.

Damian came out next with his sketchbook and pencil and leaned against his other side. That was what had sealed the deal in him not moving for the next while. He just allowed himself to fall to that fate.

It stayed quiet for a while after that. Everyone felt like if they talked they risked bringing it to the volume it was before. That was until Cass had asked him about food. Damian mentioned that he was also hungry and they both started pestering him about cooking them lunch.

After a few moments he had finally relented and had to move them off of him. Damian looked like a disgruntled cat and Cass looked like she had been betrayed by the move. Then he pointed at them and said that it was either he cooked them food or he goes back to his spot. They had let him move freely after that.

Chapter Text

The day of the sports festival the team (and their student) were all prepared to play U.A’s game. It was the time for them to show just what they could do outside of a classroom and villain attack. More importantly they were going to get Hitoshi into the hero course even if they had to fight tooth and nail.

Since Shinsou wasn’t in the hero course he was allowed one weapon to enter the competition. He took in the bo staff that Tim had made specially for him to wield made with slightly unethical technology. (No of course Tim was not forcing Hitoshi into taking pictures like a proud mom, he had no idea what you were talking about. Shut your yap.)

When the first event had been described the team looked at each other then looked at Tim. Kon knows that he’s got something prepared for this although he doesn't know what. He can see it on the boy's face.

Hitoshi looked like he was worried about the challenge but determined to get to the next competition. The bell had set off and before the purple haired boy could even do anything he was dragged by the hand. He looked to see who it was pulling him forward and saw Tim in his most terrifying state: Creating a plan that only loosely follows the rules set before him.

People (including Shinsou and the other members of the team) watched in horror as they used the old robot parts to launch them towards the end. It took the boy way too long to realize that they were in the air. The moment that it did register he started freaking out and planning on how to get the boy back after this. 

He did have to admit that it was a very effective plan. The two had even made it to the finish line before Kon had. It was satisfying to be in the first five people who had made it to the next challenge. He really does hope that the next one wouldn’t scare the shit out of him as much as this one did.

If the boy went off of the look on his friend's face, then it probably would be just as terrifying. When he looked at the people in the stands and at Midnight, he saw that they were just as shocked and concerned at Tim’s death wish.

Being friends with Timothy Jackson Drake is like mixing a deck of many things with a cards against humanity deck. At first, it's not so bad but then you pull something that could smite you but use it to defeat an enemy in some insane way. Then you kind of have to smile and nod as if it were the plan the whole time.

All the while Tim stands beside him looking completely content with his options as if there was nothing wrong with them. Not for the first time Shinsou questioned the boy and wished people other than his friends would believe him when he said that Tim is a cryptid sent to infiltrate the unsuspecting U.A students.

He doesn't know if he’s fully ready to be in class with the four. They are great teachers, and he is thankful for all of them. But they manage to scare the life out of him at least once every training session.

Most likely when he gets put into the hero course he’s going to be put in a class with Tim and Kon and oh boy is he terrified. Not only does Tim like to play a “logical ruse” as he would like to refer to them, so does Eraserhead who would be his teacher. The man is his favorite hero but goddamn there is only so many times questioning every option that you have in front of you before you have to say fuck it.

Shinsou had been stuck in thought for so long that when Midnight was explaining the cavalry battle Bart shook him so that he had paid attention. It did not sound like it was going to be fun. And the target was going to be placed on him and Tim for being the first ones to cross. For the love of-.

—-

He had made It to the fight brackets thankfully. Shinsou was terrified of the fact that he would fight Tim. Shinsou had been taught to use a bo staff by the other boy and could get it to use it against him in seconds. The boy already knows his quirk. Not to even mention that the first time he had ever fought Tim he was down in seconds. He really did not like these odds.

Still, he went into the ring knowing that his odds sat at, hmm let him check… Zero. But by any spirit still taking pity on him he was going to try. He could feel his heartbeat quicken at the thought his friend, a mentor, now an opponent 

Across from him Shinsou never could have known about the plan forming. At the crack of a weapon both of them had started moving. 

Neither had charged at each other. They had made it close to the middle when they had started looking for a chance to strike at one another. Eventually Tim had made the first move striking him in the side.

He had forgotten how much Tim’s special steel toed boots tended to hurt. Shinsou had forced himself to continue on. He had made hit after hit that would have landed had Tim not been the one to teach him those moves. 

Tim watched as his student made him proud with every swing. He didn’t attack back, he just kept dodging. He could see by the look on Hitoshi’s face that he was confused as to why. He hadn’t been asked, and he hadn’t given a response.

Watching just how far the boy had come had been amazing to see. Shinsou had put in the work with them and on his own to be able to get himself into the hero course. Tim was still so glad that Cassie had dragged him over that day. If she hadn’t then he would have walked away, and they wouldn’t have become friends.

Shinsou had then got a hit on the other boy. Wordlessly Tim had paused in his dodging and walked out of the ring. This was what he had planned to do. Give the boy an honest win. He had told himself and the other young justice members that if Shinsou could manage to hit him before the time was up then he would have won the match.

Neither boy was a fool and they both know that if Tim wanted to, he would win. But he didn’t want to, he wanted to see his student prevail. He would never just hand over a win. Batman and Lady Shiva had taught him that isn’t how it works. So, he did what his teachers would expect him to do and make the boy work for it.

And oh Shinsou had fought for it. They had barely any time left but a staff got slammed into his shoulder deciding the winner. Tim had learned that there was a satisfaction to watching someone you taught win like that.

—-

In the end Cassie came out as first place, Bakugo in second, and Todoroki in third. To be honest he had expected those to be the final rankings. What he hadn’t expected was for Bakugo to be put on stage in a muzzle and chains.

Cassie looked enraged like she had told them that this was a bad idea, but no one would listen to her. Enraged like they tried to show her that it was okay for some bullshit half assed reason for another. They ignored her because they were pro heroes and she was just a teenager, what did she know about a situation like this.

Except she had known a lot. After years of being a hero she had learned a lot about human behavior. She learned that even the smallest thing could scar someone in their field of work. She learned that after you become a hero all the little things will remind you of the horrors you see in the field.

Bart was not having it because Bakugo was just a teenager. Yeah, he knows that the boy can be a jerk, he knows. But Bart also knows that Bakugo is a teenager that needs to get someone to help him with his emotions in a healthy way. Not whatever this experience that U.A was giving him.

If you had paid attention, you would see Aizawa yelling to get his student out of the chains from the host's box. You would see that another staff member of U.A would be telling him to calm down. You would watch as Mic so carefully keeps himself from breaking down at the sight.

However, the focus was on the stage.

Cassie took her meddle, dropped it to the ground and told the people who had cheered her on to shove it up their ass. She didn’t want it if it was going to be tainted this shade of red. She didn’t think that any hero should want to carry the trophy of a winner if this is how it would be earned.

She saw beside her as Todoroki had done the same, glaring at his father. That was something she was going to contact Tim about later. Honestly, she had the feeling he was going to be in the mood to destroy some top heroes very soon.

The moment that Tim saw the muzzle he was pissed. He was enraged. He. Was. Furious.

Do they realize what they were doing? How traumatizing that was? Or did they just not give a damn because they are U. fucking A and they thought that they can do whatever they want.

 In the corner of his eye, he saw Shinsou. Shinsou who had been training with him and the team since closer to the beginning of the school year. Shinsou who has a vocal based quirk. Shinsou who would have been damn good at applying concealer if Tim wasn’t a bat and trained to notice things like that.

Tim saw red. Yes, Bakugo was an ass 97% of the time and needs to learn to control himself. And he gets comparing him to a yappy Pomeranian. But they had no right to do this to him. Tim had used his grappling hook to get him on stage in seconds. Mei, bless the inventor's amazing heart, had given him control of the speakers the moment she saw him moving. He owes her some good tools now. And maybe a few things to set ablaze.

He quickly worked to get the lock removed from the muzzle. Then he turned and threw the full force of his glare at the people in the stands. The game makers. And the cameras that made this horrific event into entertainment. It was the glare that he had learned from his mother to make ice look warm that was meant to be hidden behind a smile and laugh. It was the glare that had been taken in, shaped, and perfected by Alfred.

“You call yourselves heroes.” Tim started. “And yet you sit there watching. You sit there doing nothing. You sit there thinking this is entertaining. You call yourselves heroes while a teenager, a child is being put into a device meant only to hurt.”

He gestured towards Bakugou, rage seeping into his posture. For a moment the trick of the light you could say, he saw Damian. His asshole of a little brother that he knows has always deserved better. Better than what any of his family had given him. The one who wasn’t allowed to be a child. The one that hit nerves and fought and lashed out because he had something to prove and anything and everything to lose. The brother that was trying to be better. The brother that Tim wanted to be better for. That split second trick of the light added fuel to his fire.

If he could see Damian in the muzzle, then he could see so many others. Would Kon have been put in one if they had never saved him from CADMUS? Could Tim have been put in one when he went searching for a mentor that everyone had believed dead?

“Do you know what that is? It is a muzzle, and its only purpose is to hurt for being different. All you do is watch as a student, some of you it’s your own, and you let. It. Happen. I bet some of you even find it funny.” his hand runs over the rim of the muzzle where there had been a light coat of blood. “Do you see this?” Mei zoomed the cameras in to show his hand. “It is his blood that got drawn while you sat and let it happen. His blood rests on my hand but it stains all of yours.”

He paused to let his words sink in. To let it dig deeper. “Do you know what the most dangerous thing in the world is? It’s not quirks those help more than they can hurt. It’s not villains who hurt and lash out at people and destroy. It’s inaction.”

“Inaction leads people to become villains. Inaction that leads people to use their quirk for bad rather than the good. It Is inaction that creates the cracks in society. It is inaction that causes discrimination to fester. Inaction is where it all starts.”

Tim took a breath. He organized his words. He calmed the fuck down before he said something he would regret. There was so much he could say to make the meaning of his speech reach a knife's point.

 But Tim could hear his mother's voice in his head saying “ Timothy what have I told you about feeding the vultures. They do not take well to being fed information. When you give them all that you have, they want to consume. They want to dig more and more into your life, and you will be unable to stop them. It is in your best interest to remember that."

“All every single one of you here has done today has fed into the most dangerous thing possible. Everyone has a chance to do something. To help you don’t need to be a hero. But the people like the heroes here today. You feed into your own hurt, your own destruction. The heroes here today had the chance to stop inaction from festering, yet I had to do it. The same age as the student being wrongfully punished stands before you doing more than you have dared to. You call yourselves heroes and you let this happen.”

“The only person who has made an attempt to stop this, the only hero that wasn’t emotionally compromised, was being held back in the host's box. Let this be a lesson. You cause a break that is nearly impossible to fix. I am the person in front of you trying to repair the remaining shards.” Tim finished.

Tim broke the lock that had been around Bakugou’s arms and jumped off stage. Mei made the cameras and speakers return to their regular scheduled program. And if she had watched him dash through hallways to run into his friends, she knew that she was not in the right to say a word.

Bart said nothing as he was the only one fast enough to catch Tim from falling into the ground. He said nothing as Tim sobbed about seeing his brother in those chains. He said nothing as Tim yelled about them not caring for the people. He said nothing as Tim broke down in his arms. He just held him tighter, rocking him back and forth. 

Timothy Jackson Drake had never been a crier, his parents had ensured that years ago and the team knew it. So to watch their friend get so destroyed like that pains them. They could not have stopped this, but it still feels as if the weight is on them.

Shinsou had come to find him after the ceremony only to stumble upon a non-responsive Tim Drake. He didn’t know what to do for him to actually be able to help. But his friends had let him stay so he did. He might not be needed at the moment, but he was there. That was what was important.

Cassie had taken note of his arrival. Back when they had first started to train the boy Tim had pointed out where the concealer was so close to his skin tone but one away. They had all been ready to hunt someone down and destroy them financially if they ever got a name.

She had been the one to tell him one day that if he ever needed a place to stay, they had space. Hitoshi had denied but all it would take was one instance of him being hurt and they would steal him from whoever caused it.

Whether he planned for it or not he was one of theirs now. And young justice had always looked out for each other. So wordlessly while he hovered over Tim trying to figure out if there was anything he could do to help she pulled him into a hug. 

They had ended up having not one but two unresponsive students when Aizawa found them in a slightly hidden corridor. Mic had been following in tow and both had to confirm that the kids were okay. Because once again that’s all that any of them are. 

Aizawa doesn't know what had caused them to see the world like this. He wished that he could know what Tim was thinking on that stage. He wished that they had never put Bakugo in those chains. He had wished a lot of things about the situation to be different.

Yet they weren’t. So, he and his husband sat there with them as he watched five kids try to calm themselves down after something like this. He had the feeling that nothing they could do would be able to help them like it normally would.

He didn’t know what had caused it but he started to run his hands through the kids' hair and told himself that he would have to remember this moment. He would not allow a mistake like this to ever happen again.

—-

Damian’s eyes had been blown wide as he laid unmoving in his bed. All he could see was Tim standing there as if he had been defending Damian from punishments that the league had dished out. Back when everything was hidden by a silver tongue, but nothing got past Ra’s. 

He could never tell you if he thought that was real or if his brain was playing something far too cruel on him. He couldn’t tell you if it where the emotions were running high from last week. Either way he wished he could fix so many things. He wished he could just have his brother back. Damien was going to be the one to get his brother back.

Chapter Text

Damian Wayne knows that he is not the best person. How could he be after everything that he has done? How could he after growing up living in the league of assassins base, after killing people in them to survive? It just was never going to happen.

It had been a few days since Jason had taken him and Cassandra to his apartment and he was still thinking about the nightmare from last night. He had been told that it was probably all it was. Damian didn’t believe that. He just couldn’t convince himself that he didn’t see his brother.

Of course no one in the family can leave things like this alone. All the nightmare could do for him was tell him that it was time that he went investigating. No one had let him on the case because they believed it to be too dangerous for him. As if he had not spent years training under some of the most formidable opponents.

Going against Batman was basically a right of passage for them at this rate and honestly if it brings Tim back it would be worth it. So he decides that this is the time that he should take the case into his own hands. He is doing this alone.

He flips to the first open page in his sketchbook. It was right after a drawing of the nightmare done in colored pencils and a little bit of pen. He pushes the image away from his mind and pulls out his sharpie pen from his case. 

There is something that I need to look into. I’m sorry that I could not tell you in person but it needs to be done. I cannot tell you what I am going to do as I fear that it could compromise my plans. Please do not look for me while I am gone. I promise I will come home safe.

-Damian Wayne.

He left the book open and slid out of the window. Damian had to take a moment to reassure himself that this was the best idea for himself. Still he couldn’t help but think about the fact that he was leaving his siblings to do this. The boy made himself leave anyway. He had a brother to bring home.

 Damian's grapple made no noise as he flew away but he could hear the wind pushing past him as he flew. Damian knew how much his brother loved flying like this. Did he miss that fundamental part of himself wherever he was?

The boy had enough cash to get him wherever he needed to go. First of all he wanted to get out of this city because if he stayed for a moment too long Barbra could find him in seconds. Right now there was a good chance that she had already been contacted by Jason. 

He was on a bus and left in under an hour after he had left his room. A couple people have given him worried glances and one had even asked him where his parents were. He glared at them and was left alone.

—-

At some point or another Damian had realized that while not required, it would be smart to get someone who knows magic to help him. So as much as it pains him to say it, he was going to call in a favor with Constantine. He was not so happy that he was the only magician that he could easily get in contact with.

So he had managed to get himself a plane ticket and make his way to California. It was a long flight and he was very uncomfortable but now he was in the city he needed. Honestly the feeling of walking through Los Angeles as a person who lives in Gotham was the weirdest feeling. What do you mean they get to see the sun most of the year? Back home they would have a heart attack if they got some vitamin D.

Damian walked into the penthouse and (for dramatics let's be honest) he kicked open the door. He drew the attention of a few people with that but it wasn’t enough to bring who he was looking for into the room. The people there looked like it was a normal enough occurrence and let it slide.

“Constantine!” He shouted. “I’m here to call in a favor!”

That was what got the people confused. They were probably expecting him to be here to get into a fight out of revenge. Close enough but not exactly the truth. Damian isn’t that surprised that it’s a normal occurrence for someone to go looking for revenge here. 

“What the hell are you talking about-” Constantine yelled. 

He shut his mouth after seeing the boy in front of him. Constantine was a member of the league that had known their identities. No one really knows how he figured it out but they did. So a member of the bat family to show up calling for a favor surprised the hell out of them.

“Leave.” Constantine told the people left in the room. They did. “What do you want?”

“I’m looking for my brother and his team. The running theory is that they had been put into a different universe.” Damian said.

“And what makes you think that I would want to help you?” He asked.

“Because you know how important using favors is for us and you have one less for someone to call in. Also you know that anytime a bat calls in a favor it tends to end up stopping a bigger problem from happening down the line.” Damian said.

He was right. Everytime that they needed the magician it solved at least three other problems for them down the line. Damian could see the look in the man's eyes that showed that he had known it as well.

“Fuck- alright where are we going?” Constantine asked.

“Las Vegas, Nevada. Are you going to use magic to get us there or are we going to have to use a zeta tube? Keep in mind that we will be traced if we use that form of travel.” Damian said.

“I’m sorry, do you mean to tell me that we are going to be doing this behind the bat’s back!” Constantine yelled.

“Yes it took you long enough to figure that out.” Damian said.

Honestly you think that he would have known already. Batman never sends any of his kids to make deals like this. The magician should have thought about that before Damian had to practically spell it out for him. It took Damian everything in him not to tell the man that he was incompetent.

Constantine then said “you do realize that this is going to cost you more than one favor now.”

Damian didn’t say anything. He just glared until Constantine dropped something on the ground and they went from one city to another. The swirl of the surroundings would have made a lesser man throw up. However Damian stood as if it had done nothing to him. Sadly Constantine could not say the same thing as he could.

The lights in the city were even more blinding than in Los Angeles and Damian really did miss the dark dreary vibe that Gotham had. But he was doing this for his brother so instead of thinking about it kept moving them to the warehouse district.

“Alright, do you have anything that your brother owns so I can try to trace him?” Constantine asked.

 Without saying anything, Damian unclasped the watch that had been sitting around his wrist. He had found it in his brother's room while he was trying to find something that could share his whereabouts before the cave incident had happened. Damian probably shouldn’t have taken it but it was his brothers and he would return it when he had finally brought him back.

Something Damian didn’t ever pay attention to was the initials engraved into the back of it. It wasn’t T.D as you would expect for the owner by the name of Timothy Drake. It wasn’t A.D for Alvin Draper the art thief that his brother had pretended to be. 

In the gold on the back of the watch had the letters J.D. The original owner of the watch before his brother had inherited it. Jack Drake. The father that had never cared to stick around for his son. The father that Tim never truly got to know. Tim had kept it as a reminder that nothing ever stays the same. That it hurts to forgive As much as it did to hold on to that kind of anger.

But neither of them had known that so all that had been said was ‘follow me’. There was a blue light before the watch had started to direct them into the right direction. It took a long time before they had made it to the right place.

All they had found was a single gun and a dead man in a blue suit. Eventually after so much time of searching they had finally decided that there was nothing more to find. So Constanitne decided they should turn to the one witness that they hadn’t considered talking to yet.

The first thing that the man said when his ghost was summoned was “what the hell?”

“Oh you’ll be going there after you answer some questions.” Constantine said.

Then the ghost looked back at his body. The face he made showed that he was pissed. Not sad or confused that he was dead. No, he looked angry about it. As if the man had any right to be angry after he took Damian’s brother.

“The fucker with the staff killed me! How dare he kill me. When I find him.” The man said.

Damian stopped processing the words spoken for a few moments after that. What does he mean Timothy killed him. Timothy was the one who followed their fathers orders the most. Timothy was the one who had followed every one of the rules handed to him. Except didn’t he tell stories of being the one who could lie to the world's greatest detective.

Still Timothy wouldn’t just kill someone like that. At least Damian didn’t think that he would. Would he?

Eventually it had been long enough that Constantine decided that he needed to snap the boy out of his spiral. Still it sat like a parasite against his mind. Would he, would he not? Over and over it repeated itself. 

The boy thought that he had finally been taught that assumptions were a dangerous thing. Yet here he was getting his world rewritten because he had dared to think that Timothy was the one with the most morals out of them. After he found his brother Damian would need to do some research as to just what happened on his trip to find their father. He has a feeling that it was going to be a very different story to the one that they had been told. 

But was that where he had taken his first life or had he done it before that? Had the man in the blue suit been his brother's first kill or his last. How much did Timothy hide from them, from him. He wonders if he had ever been deserving of any information that Timothy could have given.

Right now he had to try and focus. Because there was so much on the line for him. Constantine didn’t need to find him for any reason other than it would be less of a headache. The man helping him didn’t care much for the outcome of this meeting. 

Yet a huge part of Damian’s world did. If he couldn’t bring Timothy back then how much else would he lose. If he couldn’t be strong enough to save then would he be strong enough to keep his family from falling apart. So far the answer is so far out of his reach.

Soon Damian finally made his way back to the world where the ghost was still desecrating his brother's name. How dare he. He had no right to speak those words of his brother.

He turned to Constantine and said “Is there any way that I could hurt the ghost during this interrogation?”

Constantine gave him a curious expression. Damian knew that he wanted to know why he would ask something like that. If he wanted to know then he would just have to watch and find out. The man handed him an amulet and showed him what to do to use it.

The ghost in the blue suit had fallen to the ground shrieking as Damian turned the magic up to almost full force. Constantine stared at him in shock of the sight before him. Damian guessed that the man didn’t expect him to torture the man who sent his brother away.

Still with the magic basically torturing the ghost Damian loomed over him. “Here's what's going to happen. I am going to ask and you are going to answer. If you lie to me, and I will know if you do, the pain will get worse. 

Then Damian said“You think that it’s bad right now? Think about the energy, your soul melting away from the only body you have left. I’ve heard that it feels like you were getting third degree burns from a lot of people. Although everyone is different. I wonder what it would feel like for you. Now do I make myself clear?”

The ghost had frantically nodded. Constantine, deciding that they hadn’t intimidated the man enough said ”he said ‘does he make himself clear’ that means a verbal response! Yes or No?”

The ghost stuttered out a yes and that was what had started the slightly unethical round of questioning. At one point early on the ghost tried to lie just to see if he could get around them. Damian did not put up with that. He turned the amulet back on.

“Alright! Alright! There were four people there: Superboy, Wonder Girl, Impulse, and Red Robin! Now please turn that off!” The ghost said.

Damian did when he believed that it had gotten the point across. “Now how did they get sent into the other dimension?”

“The bullets in the gun. But there are none left anymore, all of them had gotten used that night.”

“Who made them?” Damian shouted.

“I don’t know.” The ghost said. 

The amulet went back on.

“I swear!  He never told me. I didn’t even see his face when he had given them to me. He only gave me the name Lacuna. He said that if he gave me any more than that name then he knew that someone would end up looking for him. He was behind a screen the whole time that it was being given to me.” The ghost cried.

The amulet went down but not off. “Do you have names for the people who brought it to you?”

“Micheal Graves and Alana Blackwood.” the ghost said.

“Notable features? Accents? Clothing style? I need to know.” 

“The man sounded like he was from the south. The woman had a boston accent. They were wearing the same suits but I couldn’t find the maker on it. Micheal’s hair was red and Alana’s was brown. That’s all I know.” 

Damian nodded before turning the amulet to the max. He nodded and started to walk away from him.

“Wait, I don't know anymore! Please turn it off. It burns, please stop this. I'm sorry. I don’t know anything else. I don’t know what you want from me!” the ghost screamed.

Constantine banished the ghost in the blue suit with eyes widened. The boy in front of him had just done something entirely unexpected.  He didn’t even know why the youngest bat would do something like that. The magician knew him to be a little stabby, but this is a whole new experience.

The man followed Damian out into the rain. Still contemplating what he had been involved in. Eventually he pulled himself together to get himself to be able to ask a question. He tried to convince himself just to ask why. 

“Spit it out Magician.” Damian said. He had just a little bit of venom lacing his tone. Not enough to be scared but enough to tell Constantine to tread with caution. What did he get himself into this time?

“You know that he didn’t have any information left to give you. So I am curious as to why you decided to use the amulet like that. I would say that it wasn’t that bad but I know better than to underestimate the pain that that can cause to spirits that I summon.” Constantine said.

“That, what is the word that Jason would use? Bastard that had been put on the earth only to help big companies pollute the air simply by breathing deserved what he had gotten. He is the reason my brother and his teammates are missing currently. The man shot. My. Brother. There was no kindness that I could spare for a man who stole my brother from this dimension.”

Constantine did not know what he had been expecting. He knows that out of everything that he could have said he didn’t think that it would have been the answer he was giving. Just a little bit, Constantine had been concerned to see what the boy would do to save his brother. He decided that he wouldn’t like the answer he would get if he was asked.

“This is where I need to part ways.Your favors have been used and while I won’t tell the bat about what happened now, If you come back for more help I will tell him. For the love of any higher being that is still out there listening, don’t do anything more illegal than you already have.” Constantine said before he was gone.

Damian nodded with his words but he already knew that it was going to be a lie. He had people to hunt and a brother to return. He couldn’t limit himself to following the law while he was in a situation like this.

Chapter Text

It was a few days after the sports festival when Midnight came bouncing in announcing to the two classes that she was going to be helping them create hero names. They had some ideas but none of them really knew what they were going to say.

They could always just stick with their old hero names. But was that really them anymore? Red Robin was a title made out of petty revenge that Tim regrets to this day. Superboy was a name that was all but forced upon him. Cassie said it was not what she wanted to use when she couldn’t go home. To Bart it just felt wrong to use. Yet none of them really knew where to go from there.

At some point while they were having a crisis Hitoshi leaned towards them and asked “Guys what do you think my name should be.”

Without missing a beat Tim replied, “you could always go with Mockingbird. It keeps the name on theme with your quirk but can still be very misleading.”

“Yeah I think that I'm going to go with that.” Hitoshi said.

He wrote it down on his board not knowing the situation that was going to unleash itself. Ah the beautiful feeling of not knowing that things were about to hit the fan. He couldn’t have known It was going to happen but man did he miss the solid five seconds of peace that he had gotten before this started.

“Oh my god guys are you seeing this!” Bart called. 

A gasp from Cassie “Holy shit he claimed Hitoshi! I can’t believe this is real! I’ve been waiting for this day.”

She moved over to Tim and shook his shoulders. She was cackling while she did it and they drew a few concerned looks. Bart just made a ‘you don’t want to know’ motion at them and they turned away from them.

“What?” A concerned mutter came from Hitoshi.

“No I didn’t Cassie. I don’t know why you are making such a big deal about the name I gave that he doesn't even have to take. It was just an idea, nothing more nothing less.” Tim said, slightly annoyed.

“Bullshit.” Kon said. He got a glare for that.

“Okay I’m confused. Could someone please tell me what you guys mean? Like what the fuck do you mean by ‘he’s claimed me’? You guys aren’t making any sense.” Shinsou said. He didn’t like being kept out of the loop like this.

“What they are suggesting is that because I’ve given you the suggestion for a bird themed name that this was me officially claiming you.” Tim said, “But we are already friends so I don’t know why they are saying that I claimed you.”

Everyone on his team seemed to give him the same look of ‘that’s bullshit and you know that’. Hitoshi still sat there looking like he was questioning everything that he had ever done in his lifetime. Bart looked ready to be the next one to shake him. And Cassie, sweet wondrous Cassie looked ready to throw hands at his bullshiting.

Cassie started, “Y’know what let’s run this down in order of all the things you have done to claim him since you just so happen to be oblivious. First of all, helping to train the shit out of him. Secondly, threatening to financially destroy the people that hurt him. Next we have declining his suit. Then we have all the crazy shit at the sports festival such as the way you helped him get through the first round, doing everything in your power to get him past the second, and literally walking out of the third round for him.”

“And now. You suggest a bird themed name. A theme that you and your family really like using for possible hero names. And don’t try to tell me it was ‘under the pretenses that it connected to his quirk. So now my dear lovely friend Timothy, try to be a lying liar who lies your way past this.” Cassie finished.

The only thing that Tim could think to do at that moment was sigh and throw his head into the table. If Kon didn’t know any better this was the point that he reached peak exasperation and was done with their nonsense. This was in fact not true, he was actually trying to come up with how to lie to his friends without actually lying (it wasn’t working).

“Fine. Yes. Alright. I admit that I did essentially just claim him through the naming. Are you done now? Can we stop bullying Timothy?” Tim said. He pretended that his voice was annoyed but they could tell that he was fond.

The team looked like they were satisfied after that and none of them noticed Hitoshi was having a bit of a crisis. He would be fine. Of course he would. But wow that is one hell of a realization to make someone go through at nine in the morning. He hadn’t even had any coffee today.

Hitoshi does end up using the name because it’s better than anything he could have come up with. Plus he could see that they would not be letting Tim live this down for a long time. All in all it was a pretty good decision to make if he did say so himself.

It was actually Cassie’s teasing that had helped him get his name. He said that he always goes for bird names so why not keep it on brand. Also people in his family like to tie in the deeper meanings into their name so why not make that work.

Peregrine, he had decided on. Some people could recognise the word at its base meaning. What people could recognise it for was the bird species that was attached to it. A bird of prey; and one of the fastest damn birds in the world while we're at it. But many do not realise the alternative meaning of the word.

Peregrine (adjective): coming from another country; foreign or outlandish.

Make note of the key word in that statement, Foreign .They are foreign in a world with no similarities to their own. The heroes are not the same. All of them have never once existed here and none of them can decide whether or not the world was good for it. 

Here these people have never had to worry about the future of themselves or a trusted teammate becoming a villain. In this world it means having a good database of backup to help you on the field if it is needed. This world allows you to choose the path instead of getting dragged in kicking and screaming.

But they still have the Hpsc that is too much like CADMUS for Kon to ever feel safe at the mention. Here they are so reliant on heroes that can’t save everyone. Crime is a bigger problem here than it is in their world, loathe they are to admit it. Not to mention the heroes that use their status, their power to hurt . And they get away with it because they are society.

So while he didn’t know if the world was better or not with them in it they were still not from here. Honestly he didn’t know if he would ever be able to describe a place as home anymore. Tim knows that they all want to go back but he doesn't know if he ever did more harm than good.

Midnight just smiled saying something about another person with the bird theme. 

Kon was next. On his board he had the name Eclipse written down. When asked about it he wouldn’t give an answer other than the fact that it was personal. Midnight hesitantly let them slide.

He gets his power from the sun, the same as his father and his brother. His family means home to him. The sun is his family. Right now he couldn’t make it back to them. They were so close to being there but they weren’t.

In a total solar eclipse the moon is so carefully laid itself so that it obscures the light from the sun. That was what was happening to him. A universe stood in front of him seeing the sun again, seeing his family.

Cassie went with the name Themis. It gave her ties back to Greek mythology and it tied her into young justice. Themis is the titan of justice and a lot of statues that have a woman with scales in her hand and a blindfold on her face is her.

Bart was called up and he just wrote Blaze onto his board not really thinking about it. Midnight had asked him why Bart gave a random excuse of ‘It is good for misleading people.’ The hero didn’t look like she believed him but let it slide anyways.

The most concerning name in the classroom had been Iida’s. He had picked his brother’s hero name. The same brother who had been crippled less than a week ago. The brother that can no longer walk because of a villain attack.

‘The hero killer’. Tim has roots in the underground. If you know him but think he doesn't then you would be a fool. He has heard the name floating around for a while now. A villain who had started out as a vigilante (honestly is he trying to give vigilantism a bad name) that has turned to, you guessed it, Pro heroes.

Let’s be real, he doesn't care about making things better for the people. If he cared about making things better he would have become a Red Hood kind of person instead of whatever he is now. Those people while some of them they can admit deserved it, some of them still could have helped citizens.

But anyways Tim’s scary good knowledge aside they plan to keep an eye on him. 

At some point after the naming, they had gotten bored. Tim had pulled out a deck of cards. Vlad, seeing a game even in the direction of his students, had flashbacks. Aizawa and Midnight asked him what was wrong but he was too busy reliving the day that he stupidly and naively allowed them to play a game. 

Without speaking he walked over to where the tables were moved together and stole the cards from his students hands. Aizawa’s kids looked confused on why he had taken the cards from the blondes and Bart specifically.

“Don’t even think about it, you four are banned from any types of card or board games. You know what you did. The rest of you can carry on.” Vlad said after returning the cards to Tim’s hand.

The boy who brought the deck in the first place was sitting confused next to Hitoshi. He was about to start teaching the boy how to hustle people while playing poker when the hero came over. He had no idea why there had been such a horrified look in his eyes.

He turned to the four in question. The only answer that he had gotten was a shrug and a mischievous smile and a shrug. Tim trusts absolutely none of them to tell him what happened. Still he doesn't ask any of them for answers. Honestly he probably doesn't even want to know what happened for them to make their teacher that scared.

The other teachers in the room had asked him why Vlad took the cards from the kids. He didn’t even take all of them, he only took the ones from his students. Midnight had just thought that they were going to play a game like teenagers do.

None of them had gotten an actual reply from the man. He just kept staring at the ground and muttered in terror. They caught every few words that he said. Something about ‘hell children’ and ‘that uno game will give me nightmares for the rest of my career.’ They decided it was a better idea to leave it alone.

—-

Later they were handed binders of who gave them an internship. Cassie pointed out Iida interning with Manuel’s agency. Something ain’t right. Tim tells his team to try to pick a hero near Hosu if they can. They looked confused before he said code foxglove. That told them all they needed to know.

After class Tim went to ask Iida if he was doing okay because he seemed off during class. The boy said that he had to get going before shoving past him. Something is definitely off with him, he’s planning something.

Tim has a feeling that he knows exactly what reckless plan the boy got into his brain. Time to stop some misguided vigilante justice it seemed. He remembers when he did things like that. Man he was not a stable child and Tim needs to remember that it’s not normal to go on a revenge plot. Sometimes teenagers are very good at scaring the living shit out of people.

He wonders what would have happened if he didn’t actually pull off bringing Bruce back from the timeline. He probably would have taken a jump off of the morally grey and straight into the villainous path below. Best not to dwell on his possible villain arc right now.

Aizawa stopped him before he left the classroom, “you and your friends all picked internships in or near Hosu. Why is that? Does your choice have to do with something related to the conversation you just had with Iida?”

“Let’s just say that it’s another bad feeling. I have a feeling that I’m going to have to make sure some things don’t happen there. How do you know that it isn’t just them wanting to be where I am during internships?” Tim said.

“Because it’s never allowed to be that simple with you four is it.” Aizawa said.

Tim didn’t dignify that with a response. It was almost like being asked when something happens, why is it always you three? Believe him Tim has been asking himself that question since he strong armed his way into the vigilante life.

He is almost surprised that Aizawa hadn’t gotten used to their antics yet. Even the league had stopped trying to keep them on the straight and narrow after so long of being a team. They are all magnets for the worst kind of trouble and they know it.

At least it provides some form of entertainment.

The team and Hitoshi had met up and made their way to a nearby cat cafe. It was a suggestion that Hitoshi had suggested earlier in the day. The walk there was actually pretty nice for them.

While waking Hitoshi decided he didn’t want the silence. “So I’ve been thinking about the name thing and I was wondering if you would tell me what is the big thing with birds?”

Tim chuckled, “Well it started with my father. He said that if he were a hero he would name himself Batman. You would think it’s because he had a bat related quirk or just really like them. But no, they actually scare the shit out of him. My father said that when he was younger he had an unfortunate encounter with some and has been scared ever since. He said his hero name would be Batman because if it scared him then it would terrify other people.” 

“Hold on wait, your telling me Mr. I make nightmares scared of me thinks bat’s are scary.” Kon asked. “Oh I am so using this against him next time I see him.”

When they entered the shop they all got a drink and a pastry. Tim paid for the drinks. Hitoshi handed over some money to pay for his costs. Tim did not take the money, instead shoving it back to him.

They went back and forth for a few moments. Eventually Kon sighed and told the boy that he wasn’t going to win. Even if Tim did take it the boy would find the money in his pocket hours later. Hitoshi looked like he wanted to protest but Kon just shook his head. Hitoshi admitted defeat and put the money back where it was.

It only took moments of sitting down for a few cats to come over to them. Two of them were laying on Hitoshi. One of the cats had made it onto his head and was just sitting in his hair. Cassie and Tim took pictures on their phones. 

Tim’s was significantly better from his bat stalking- ehem he means watching casually as he was taking pictures. Hitoshi looked over the boy's shoulder at the best photo of himself that he had ever seen in his life. How the hell had his friend managed to get a picture that good of him.

It shouldn’t have been possible but the way the light caught him literally made him look like he was glowing. Not to mention the smile that had been on his resting bitch face. He didn’t know that he could look like that.

Kon must have seen his face because he said “yeah he does that. No one knows how he got that good. I’m half convinced that he sold his soul to be able to get photos like that. Actually he’s so good at bleeding contracts for everything that they're worth Tim wouldn’t just give up his. He might have gotten the demon to give up the soul instead.”

Hitoshi laughed at him. Kon just stared. There was no joking on his face. Well he was going to remember that for a later date. Side note for himself that if he ever found himself in legal troubles to get Tim onto his side. He’s not a lawyer but he could probably convince people that he was.

Once again Hitoshi wondered how much of a cryptid his friend was. The whole group is amazed that he lived that long and unsurprised that he had cheated death. Well there was nothing Hitoshi could do about it now. He was officially one of them whether he realizes it or not.

Chapter Text

Jason has gotten very good at keeping himself calm. You would think otherwise due to the pit madness stuck in the back of his mind. But no the pit made him be able to take a breath, steady his heart, and get his shit together. If he didn’t the green would take over and he would lose himself and he couldn’t afford that.

All this to say that normally he would be able to not lose his mind. Normally his youngest brother wouldn’t disappear with the only trace he left behind being a note. A single paragraph stating not to look for him. 

What was Jason supposed to do then? Keep himself together for a little bit longer, that’s what. Two of his brothers might be missing, one more than the other, but he still has to look out for Cassandra. So he makes sure that he shows nothing other than calm for his sister.

The first thing that he (and any other sane person) did was call Barbra. He barely managed to keep the panic out of his voice as he told her about everything. The fights, Cassandra coming back to see a catastrophic argument, taking her and Damian to a safehouse, and finally Damian running away leaving nothing but a note.

She listened through all of it and when he was finally done she said “I’ll see what I can do.”

Nothing else, just those simple words. But they managed to get him a little bit better and bring him down to earth. Soon enough she would give Jason a location and he could ask the boy not to give him a heart attack like that again.

He kept pacing back and forth for what felt like hours. His phone was sitting in his hand waiting for a call that he might not even get. Cassandra walked into the living room at some point and asked him what was wrong.

Cassandra asked him what was wrong and he didn’t know how to answer that. But he knew that he had to.

—-

From the moment that Constantine had left he was prepared to be alone on his quest. He did not account for a woman named Prudence Woods to decide that she would be helping him either way. Not to mention that she was an (ex)-follower of his grandfather.

Prudence told him that she would be joining him whether he liked it or not. He tried to get rid of her a few times but the efforts did nothing.

“Why are you even helping me bring my brother back?” Damian asked before adding, “How did you know that he was gone?”

“Your brother saved me a while ago, helped me defect from the league when it would get anyone else killed. We helped each other a lot during that journey but I decided he was my genius idiot after that. As for how I knew he was gone, we have a system. We do frequent check-ins to make sure neither of us got killed by Ra’s when we weren't looking. When It’s been weeks and I still didn’t get a response I thought it was about damn time I went looking.” Prudence replied.

Damian had more questions he wanted to ask but couldn’t. Instead he kept himself quiet and made his way into the vents with Prudence following him. 

Never let anyone or a movie tell you that climbing in a vent is a clean task. If you don’t clean them out, they can be full of dust and dirt. He’s glad that he managed to remember to grab a face mask before he started to crawl through them.

After a few minutes of directions they finally came to the correct vent cover. Damian held his hand behind him so that he would be handed the tools needed to take it off. Once it is pulled off Damian gracefully dropped into the room on silent feet. Prudence managed to fail on the graceful part but wasn’t loud enough for someone outside to hear her.

Prudence starts searching in the filing cabinets as Damian slowly pops every desk drawer open. Muffled swears can be heard the longer that the woman is unable to find anything. Damian kept getting frustrated with the lack of dirt on these people here. 

It was hard enough for the two of them to find any connections on Alana Blackwood in the first place. Finding where they were located so they could get information on Micheal was even harder. These people and their operations are meticulous. It just helps the duo know that there is something that they are trying to hide. 

Damian put his ear to the wood and started to knock on the desk. He found the spot that sounded a little too hollow. When he pushed it the spot went up by a little bit. He pried the wood from the spot and pulled out a canister.

On it the thing said: catalog of ebony. Bingo. He pulled out a few other things from the desk but that was the most important one. Once he replaced the stolen items he sealed the wood back in place and slid out from under the desk.

‘Have you found it’ he signed to Prudence. 

She nodded and they climbed back into the vents. Once again they enter the extremely uncomfortable space. The only benefit to them being like this is the fact that no one expects the two to travel through them. All the while he can only think about the fact that Tim would be investigating if he were here.

Prudence led them back to the hotel that they were staying at. Damian forced himself to ignore all the thoughts that were swirling around in his brain. Taking a walk is always great for thinking until it's the only thing that you don’t want to do. At some point they stopped forcing themselves into his mind and he could finally calm himself down.

It was the dead of the night and he wished that he could see the stars. He remembers the time in between his stay in the league and living with his father. When he was trying to find the man who had earned the love of his mother he traveled the world. Nothing will match up to the country sides where the purple, white, and black had never looked more beautiful.

Before he knew it he was sitting in the hotel room with papers spread out around them. Neither really knew what a concrete sleep schedule is and were ready to work on this until the early hours. He pointedly doesn't think about the fact that he would taunt Tim for the same thing.

When he opened the canister everything was encrypted. This was going to be a very long night.  Tim would have loved or hated solving something like the papers in front of them.

—-

When Prudence woke up the next morning she saw Damian still up trying to decipher the pages. She sighed remembering Tim’s calls of I don’t need sleep I need answers . It seems that everyone in the family inherited the inability to actually consider sleeping when there is a challenge afoot. It doesn't matter that there aren’t any genes shared.

She picked him up by the collar of his shirt and dropped him onto his bed before saying, “go to sleep or so help me.”

For a moment the boy searched her face for anything that could show that she was just joking. She wasn’t and was fully ready to enforce this tiny child's bedtime. He seems to find that out before drawing the blankets over his shoulders and turning on his side. She had to stop herself from asking how he had managed to actually get the blanket out. Hotels are crazy.

 Prudence took the papers that he had been looking at before she stepped in and noticed all the notes made in red pen. How had he managed to get all of this done in the time that she had been asleep. How do these people work like that?

Don’t get her wrong she can get things done pretty quickly but not that fast. These people are truly something else. It had taken a few more hours of working but she had finally got a location to add to the names. Looks like it will be time for a new hunt soon.

As much as she’s glad that she isn’t working for the league anymore, Prudence really missed being able to go fight people for money more often. She also missed Z and Owens but they were long since dead. They would have found this whole situation so annoying.

When the time finally came and Damian had gotten a full eight hours she had woken the boy up and they made their way to a private jet. It was the one that they had swiped from Ra’s when Tim made the bases go kaboom. It was the best decision that she had ever made.

The flight was boring. Prudence tried to get the boy to watch a few different TV shows but he seemed too distracted to enjoy them. At some point she had managed to find a notebook and pencil and gave it to him. She watched as his eyes lit up and started to sketch. 

Later when they had landed she watched as he snapped out of his haze. She briefly got a glimpse of the page but on it was him, someone looking like they were cosplaying Castiel from Supernatural except he had blonde hair, and a ghost with his body on the ground. She wanted to ask what that was about but decided that it was probably best left not talked about.

They followed Alana for hours after they got off of the jet. There was no way that they were going to let the woman surprise them. They planned to corner her later that night and get some answers but first they need to make sure that they are prepared. The last thing they need is for them not to account for something and alert everyone attached to this.

Prudence and Damian watched in disgust as this woman treated her workers like trash on the sidewalk. Honestly she deserves to die for that alone.  But overall she seems like the type of higher up that only ever cares if something gets her paid and makes her look good.

Both of them are glad that she isn’t a notable figure like Lex Luthor that acts like a jerk and is a literal villain but you can’t do anything about it. It means that they don’t have to worry about what will happen when they kill her. Not an if, but a when.

After the sun finally sets is when they make their move. She was still in the building she worked in a few hours after everyone else had left for the night. It was mostly dark but the room she was in was lit up.

She didn’t notice the two on her own. Damian had snuck in trying to catch her by surprise. But Alana didn’t spot him when he had started to make obvious movements. Prudence decided it wouldn’t be worth it and walked in like she not only owned the building but everything inside of it. With the confidence she had she might as well have.

Prudence slammed her gloved hands on the ebony wood and watched as Alana’s eyes filled with shock. She looked up and down as if she were trying to look for a quick way out. She was unable to find one and when she tried to stand up she was already cuffed to the chair. 

The woman seemed to realize just what kind of situation she was in for and started to struggle. Alana started speaking “please I haven’t done anything wrong. I don’t know what I did but I’m so sorry. Please don’t kill me!”

“Give up the act Mrs. Blackwood, neither of us are fans of liars.” Damian said. 

At the statement her face fell neutral and she stopped struggling. Alana placed her perfectly manicured hands on the sides of her chair. She looked like this is the most comfortable place she’s ever sat in. Given the fact that the people who cornered her both used to be a part of the league of Assassins, that was about to change for her. 

“In case you haven’t gone through a situation like this before, here's how it goes: we ask, you talk, you don’t lie because we will know and it will not end well for you.” Prudence said. 

“What makes you think that you can get anything out of me that’s truthful?” She said smugly. Clearly she hasn’t had anyone knock her off her high horse in her idiotic life.

Instead of saying something Prudence punched her in the face. Her face snapped to the side and she looked pissed more than anything else. Really she’s lucky that Prudence didn’t start by breaking her nose on principle. Honestly everyone should acknowledge that she was so nice for not immediately doing that.

“Really that’s all you think that it takes?” Alana laughed out. 

Damian kicked her in the stomach before saying “on what date did you distribute bullets to a man by the name of Antony Miller?”

“Let me see… the second of december.” Alana said.

So that was how she wanted to play this. Fine. They didn’t have to be nice to her if she didn't give them the answers that they needed. What did his mother say? Sometimes letting someone be dead is better than letting them be a liar. It’s about time he started listening to her on this subject.

One of the nails on the woman's hand wasn’t so manicured anymore. The skin looked disgusting underneath it and she screamed at the removal. Did it make him a bad person for not feeling anything at that sound? He doesn't know if he actually could care about this woman after she had hurt his brother. 

“That was what we call a lie Mrs. Blackwood, we already established that we aren’t fans of those. Now would you like to tell us the truth about when you distributed those bullets? Or will we have to do something else?” Damian said. His voice was deceptively calm, he wanted this woman to understand what she helped to steal from him.

“September 15.” Alana gasped through the pain.

“Very good. Now who put those in your hands to sell?” Prudence asked.

“One of Lacuna’s scientists. I don’t know what her name was but I was given some information when I started to work with her.” Alana said.

“Do you have any address that you can tie to her, or bank records, hell if you have a parking ticket of hers we would take it.” Prudence said. 

“All of it is already burnt. You think Lacuna would let his lackey’s papers lie around.” Alana said.

It was Prudence’s turn to do something. She put a knife into the woman's shoulder making sure that it didn’t hit any artery or anything else important. All it had to be was enough to hurt. Then she took lemon juice and put some of it onto the wound.

“While you were telling the truth about Lacuna, we both know that you didn’t get rid of those papers. So tell me where you have put them.” Prudence said.

“I can’t exactly tell you where it is but I can lead you there.” Alana said. Unfortunately that was the truth.

Damian redid the cuffs so that they could move the woman without having as much of a struggle to do it. Before they walked out he dragged out a new hacking usb stick to copy any files that they had on this situation and be able to get access to new ones after they get added on. 

When Prudence shoved the woman into the car she definitely didn’t happen to accidentally shove the woman's head into the door.  No of course not she would never do something like that she swears it on her life.

It was an hour of Alana giving directions when they got on a road in the middle of the gods know where. Alana told them to get out of the car and she led them to a random tree. She pulled out a piece of bark from the tree and behind it revealed a stack of different files hidden behind it.

“Now can you please take me back now I have so much that I need to get done?” Alana said with annoyance coating her every word. 

Under a minute later she was dead on the ground. Above her stood Damian and Prudence who both had guns that had just been shot. They said that she was going to be dead by the end of this meeting, didn't they.

—-

“Do you think that our families are looking for us?” Cassie asked into the quiet of the night.

“There's no way that they aren't.” Bart said. He was staring at the reflection on the turned off TV. It’s weird to see how much they have changed in so little time. Everything does but it feels like it shouldn’t be that easy for them to be so different.

“Honestly I don’t know for mine. John and Lois might be, but with the genetics givers it’s a 50/50 chance whether they might go searching. What about you Tim? You think anyones searching for you right now?” Kon said.

“Maybe some of them are. Bruce I have no idea. Dick, I would like to think that he would look for me but after my world traveling journeys I don’t think that he would. I would like to think that Jason would after we had started to get closer. Again I would hope Cassandra and Barbra would. Damians definitely a no.” Tim answered.

Chapter Text

The moment that they stepped on the train the team could feel the air shift. Not in a ‘oh no something really bad is about to happen’ way like at the usj. It was more of a ‘we have no idea what’s going to happen and we might have to stop a murder’. So more like their usual missions with their team.

All they need is a world ending threat and then it’s practically their average tuesday. Barts only joking he swears. Kind of. They have good tuesdays on occasion when the world takes pity on them and decides it can be calm for once.

It’s going to be hard for them to keep the hero’s eyes off of them. Normally in the school the teachers watching isn’t a big thing but it’s noticeable. With the heroes they in turn with they will probably be under constant supervision ‘for their safety’. The team isn’t the problem here. The problem is the person considering taking up murder as if it were a fun pastime.

Don’t get them wrong, they know that it’s better for the hero’s to pay a lot of attention to them. If the hero doesn't watch them it means that they aren’t good at their job. Really with what’s probably going to go down it’s better for the hero to watch them as if they could commit a crime at any moment.

But that doesn't make it any easier for the team when even a little bit of attention can get their teachers contacted. If their teachers get contacted they’ll start to look a little deeper than they did before. If that happens there's no telling just what they will find on the team.

They are in their hero suits and they all feel out of place being somewhere so calm. Bart looks like he’s about to go through the wall. Cassie looks like she doesn't expect it to be calm for much longer. Kon looks like he’s tempted to jump out the window to get it over with. The shadows look like they are trying to claim Tim. 

Poor Iida looked so uncomfortable around the chaos bringers. More than that he looks like he’s always quite close to getting lost in his head. None of them know what to say to him to make him feel better so they don’t say anything. None of them are good with comfort if they are unable to promise safety.

When they got off they started going in different directions. None of the team saw Todoroki until they saw a glimpse of candy cane hair. Tim was going to keep note of the fact that he was there until he spotted that he was going in the same direction as Bart. Good to know.

He’s pretty sure that he is going to be interning with Endevor. Tim has exactly zero trust in the hero and hopes that he doesn't act like a fool when he is supposed to be teaching his friend and classmate. 

Cassie went off to find Mirko’s agency. She wanted to be ‘learning’ under a hero that she knows can kick ass and Isn’t a fool. Honestly Mirko was probably the best hero in the area for what Cassie wanted to learn. Mirko is also a hero that won’t take anything from anyone and it’s a really good skill for a person to acquire.

“Are we going to the same agency?” Iida asked after a long moment of walking in silence.

“I guess so. Manuels, correct?” Tim asked. Y’know like a liar who didn’t pick the hero because he knew something that he probably shouldn’t.

Iida nodded and looked like he was annoyed with the answer. He doesn't know why Tim was there but he didn’t like that it could interfere with the plans he has. What he doesn't know is that Tim has plans of his own. 

“Well I look forward to working with you.” Iida said. It just barely avoided sounding rude and sarcastic. 

Tim said, “I’m glad that I’m going to be interning with you instead of some of the people in our class.”

Once again Iida doesn't say anything. He feels that if he does speak then Tim might find out his plans. He’s seen how smart the boy and his friends can be. He’s seen the way that Allen can come up with answers seconds after questions are asked. He’s noticed as Sandsmark can find a way to get every drop of information out. He’s watched as Kent inhales information.

But he’s not interning with any of them. No Iida’s inturning with the one who he’s watched pick someone apart piece by piece within seconds. This is the one who helped him tear through enemies at the usj. This is the one who managed to find the weak point in any opponent's plan. 

Now he fears that he’s going to be under the boy’s close inspection along with Manuel’s.  Iida knows that he’s going to have to be more careful than he was already planning to be. Killing Stain was going to be harder than he had prepared for, but he could do it.

—-

Bart was having a fun time trying to talk to this brick wall beside him. He was trying to be his normal bouncy self but Todoroki did not seem amused with him. Bart made himself calm down a bit but could still feel himself about to vibrate through the ground.

When they entered Endeavor's agency he could immediately understand why the candy cane was not having it. If he had to be in a setting like this so often then he would probably start a fight. Like I’m sorry do they not know how annoying it is to make the walls look like they are trying to blind him. 

Todoroki stiffened beside him the moment that Endeavor came out to ‘greet’ them. This man would not know the term decent human being if it bitchslapped him in the face.

It was not like Bart could actually communicate this with the man lest he wanted to get sent back to UA early. He thinks that if he did Vlad might actually consider murder as an option. He would not like to see if his theory is easily proven so he keeps his mouth shut.

He does, however, glare at the hero and flip him off when his back is turned. That got a chuckle from the boy behind him and a smile on his face for a mission well done. Bart thinks that he’s going to befriend this kid if he has to drag him kicking and screaming. 

Wow not even a day in and he made Bart regret his decisions. Bart would rather have to endure more of Green Lanterns training sessions then do this. He didn’t think that the bar could go that low but It’s so deep into the earth that it’s melting.

He wonders what Cassies up too right now. She has to be having a lot more fun than he was.  Cassie chose Mirko right? She seems like a no bullshit kind of person but way better than Endeavor. She’s got to be having fun right now right?

—-

Cassie decided that she liked the energy the woman was giving off the moment that she walked in the door. It very heavily gave off fuck around find out energy and it reminded her of Dianna. Specifically it reminded Cassie of when she looked like she was going to get into a fight with Batman. 

She missed seeing the look on her mentor's and it was nice to see it matched on Mirko’s face. The woman had told her that they were going to be fighting within the first five minutes of them being there.

They went into a gym and the hero set a 30 minute timer. Cassie was asked if she thought that she could actually keep fighting for that long. Cassie looked the hero in her eyes and asked Mirko if she took her for a newbie to rely on a quirk.

Mirko didn’t answer her. She studied Cassie before giving a cross of the arms. Cassie could tell that it meant that she would see what her answer was after. The woman then told her that she wouldn’t be allowed to use her quirk for their fight. 

Oh did Cassie enjoy a challenge like that. It was basically saying that Mirko didn’t believe that she knew how to attack without using it. Not only Batman would kill her, Tim would never let the body be found if he thought that she put too much reliance on her powers.

A while ago Kon had asked why he needed to learn how to fight with all those different weapons that he could teach. She had known the incoming storm but he hadn’t. Kon was put on the floor and Tim said “Having powers means nothing if you are unable to defeat an opponent with a special stick.”

The hero didn’t know why Cassie had looked so happy at the thought of quirkless sparing. Mirko had the feeling that she would find out why her new intern looked overjoyed at the idea. Most of the time when interns show up at her agency they look annoyed at the prospect of not using a quirk.

Mirko hopes that it isn’t just her new student being cocky. If she had to put up with someone who just thought they could beat her without putting any work in she would commit atrocities. 

And thus the fight began.

—-

Kon had no idea what he thought would happen when he walked into the agency, but he did not expect for Gang Orca to be looking like he wanted to fight someone. He knows that this hero is very good at staying calm and making others feel like it’s going to be alright. Gang Orca took a lot to annoy and even more to look furious.

“Hey, are you okay?” Kon asked.

The hero looked like he hadn’t noticed him until he started talking. His emotions looked like it did a quick flip and he stopped slightly pacing. 

“Yeah, It’s just been a really long day. Nothing that you have to be worried about.” Gang Orca said, “I suppose that you are my new intern.”

Kon nodded, “that would be me.”

“I’m still kind of surprised why you chose me. I’ve heard that quite a few pro’s wanted to get a hold of you. I’m pretty sure that Hawks was itching to get you in his talons.” Gang Orca said.

“Ah he kind of scares me. I don’t really know how to put it into words. People are always Hawks this, Hawks that. Fawning over him. But I can feel the way he picks things apart. Like everything you say is getting noted down in case he needs it to be used against you. I probably wouldn’t have noticed it if I didn’t know other people like that.” Kon said.

“I get that.” The hero said.

Kon didn’t say that it reminded him of Cadmus. He didn’t say that he saw himself and what he could have been in the bird hero. Kon had long since moved past the days of being controlled but Hawks hadn't. And Kon knows that there's something deeper with the hero that none of them could figure out yet despite Tim’s efforts.

No one has that clean of a record. They feel that part of it might be due to the hero commission. But really all they can say right now is that they have their eyes on him. One ear in the sky and one in the roots where Tim likes to steal information from.

He wondered how Bart was dealing with the internships. He picked Endeavor right? He feels kind of bad for the boy. There's no way that he could have known how much of an asshole he was.

Gang Orca was a pretty good decision on his part. He was actually really nice to be around and he wasn’t too focussed on anything other than hero related things.

—-

Shinsou went into this knowing that he would get his ass kicked. He trusts his friends' training but he has no chance going up against the best underground hero. Aizawa wanted to see how he would do in a fight. 

Except Aizawa only expected him to be able to do very basic moves. He didn’t even think that Bart and Tim taught him how to roof jump. Aizawa thought that he knew how to maybe throw a simple punch and kick, occasionally being able to wave a fancy stick around. But that is not how he was trained.

He only had a few weeks of training but he had learned more than he ever had under the study of Cassie. Kon taught him just how fragile the human mind was and how to use his quirk better. Bart taught how to fight against differently powered opponents. Tim taught him the most about information gathering. And after the sports festival and him being admitted into the hero course Tim finally started to teach him how to throw a batarang.

Aizawa said that he could fight with a weapon if he would do better with it. The hero had gotten a confused look when he was asked just how stab and slash proof his hero suit was. When a batarang got thrown at him the answer was not as much as he thought. Aizawa grumbled at the fact that he would have to get someone to fix it for him and use his spare suit.

“I need to know how that actually managed to make it past my hero suit. Normally anything sharp tends to just slide off it.” Aizawa said, examining the blade under the light of the warehouse.

“Never underestimate what can happen when you put Hatsume and Tim together.” Shinsou said.

“Maijima’s worst nightmares made this. That makes sense that Hatsume would have a hand in making something that can get past the fabric. I can’t wait to make the phone calls about a kid managing to make something that my suit was weak to.” Aizawa said.

“He calls them that?” Shinsou asked.

“No but I hear some of the things that Hatsume does in the labs and know that it’s implied.” Aizawa says. “Now that you’ve proved to me that you actually put more than the bare minimum of work in, do you know how to roof jump?”

Hell yeah he did. Shinsou said as much and the hero told him that they would be testing that. Shinsou decided that was the perfect moment to chug the rest of his coffee that he got before they started the night.

It’s the first time that he is outside when he does it. This is the first time that it isn’t a training session where Cassie was ready to catch him if he fell. Aizawa probably would but it still feels like it would be way safer if someone who could fly was helping him. Maybe it’s the fact that he spent more time learning with them.

But the feeling of the night sky looking down on him as the wind blows through his hair. Shinsou couldn’t help but laugh at the feeling. He can feel Eraserhead shaking his head at him. He knows that it was like this for the hero when it was his first time roof jumping for real. The adrenaline running through his body made him feel like he was on top of the world until he pulled himself back down.

When Shinsou heard someone scream he led the hero to where he heard it from. Okay two criminals, mutant and emitter. The mutant is an angler fish so he probably has bad eyesight. If Shinsou is silent and stick’s to blind spots he can take them down. The emitter can mess with the dust particles in the air. Angler fish man has a gun. 

Shinsou’s suit is practically everything proof but he can’t guarantee that for the other people there. So get the gun out while he gets the emitter's attention off of the woman on the ground. The hero in training can do this. 

The boy doesn't notice that the hero beside him was trying to come up with his own plan. Eraserhead saw that Shinsou was speeding through what he could do. Aizawa wanted to trust him but he was just a student. Then he saw the gun in one of the man's hands. He was going to signal to his student to wait behind but he was already off.

Aizawa watched in horror as he extended the staff and knocked the weapon out of the man's hand. With a well placed hit the man was down and only had one more enemy. The hero dropped and turned off the man's quirk before knocking him out as well. Their opponents were down within seconds but it didn’t help that he was given a heart attack in the process.

He wanted to yell at his student for being reckless but before he could do that he watched as the kid walked forward to the woman. His student ran through a few different checks to make sure she didn’t have a concussion or something else. Then he watched as Shinsou helped to clean and bandage a wound.

When the girl was free to go, she asked them if they were vigilante’s. Shinsou laughed and told her that he was only a hero in training. A smile passed her face as she told him that they could use some more heroes caring about this area.

Aizawa turned to his student and said, “what you did was stupid, reckless, and could have gotten you killed. That gun could have ended your life in seconds and you wouldn’t have even noticed. It was so unbelievably stupid and-”

“I know sir.” Shinsou said.

“-It was a well executed plan and had you not given me a heart attack when you did it, it would have been a very good job.” Aizawa said.

Shinsou was not expecting him to say that. Actually he was expecting the man to tell him that he didn’t want to teach the boy anymore because of his actions. He was not expecting him to be somewhat impressed with his actions. 

He wouldn’t say that he was surprised by the praise, but it was a very new feeling for him. Shinsou’s eyes were still a little wide because of the man's words. When Aizawa started moving forward it took Shinsou a little too long to snap back and follow him.

“Now did you teach yourself those tricks, Mockingbird, or did you learn them from somewhere?” Aizawa asked.

“Oh you're going to have fun with this. So the terrors from 1-a, 1-b, and Hatsume-” Shinsou started. He talked for hours about the training they had given him. He joked about being stolen by the introvert and indoctrinated into the friend group. Aizawa didn’t smile at the words per say, But Shinsou could see the way that his face had changed slightly at his words.

Chapter Text

Kon was so glad that he finally got the chance for people to treat him like a hero. Granted he’s still ‘in training’ and ‘can’t be trusted to perform properly without adult supervision.’ Personally he thinks that he has had to deal with more world threatening things than the local crook of the day.

None of these heroes have any faith in his ability and it’s actually kind of insulting. Like no, good sir, you don’t have to teach him how to do the most basic of things. He’s known how to do that for years but no go ahead and try to reteach it while doing it wrong.

Also can he just say that he hates paperwork with a passion. He can see why people in this world turn to vigilantism instead of going pro. They saved themselves from entering corporate hell and Kon envies them for it. (Please don’t tell any of his teachers they might not react the best.)

Is this how the justice league feels when they have to fill out papers for missions? Mission reports are very important, don't get him wrong. But seriously why would anyone sign themselves up to do this? He thinks that the league trying to get him to do paperwork will be how his future self goes down the path to villany. Bart would support him.

Pending future plans aside He’s enjoying the internship so far. He may or may not have considered fighting people for being anti-mutant on their patrols. It would have been worth it but the hero didn’t seem to think so.

At some point on their patrol route they run into the pro hero Hawks. Aka the one hero that he was desperately trying to avoid. Kon needs to see if someone cursed him with bad luck when he wasn’t watching.

He could feel the hero's gaze on him. Kon was aware that he was being picked apart like a clock every second that he talked to the hero. He didn’t trust himself not to reveal any cards when he was talking to the man. If this man learned about the fact that he was raised in a place like Cadmus- no, a different universe then all hell will go loose.

Kon keeps his mouth shut as much as possible. Still it felt like he was losing a battle at every word that came out. Gang Orca must have noticed that he didn’t feel comfortable because at some point the hero made a bullshit excuse so they could leave.

10/10 teacher everyone. He noticed that Kon was uncomfortable and pulled him out of the situation. He’s pretty sure that’s how teachers are supposed to act at least. Cassie told a few stories of teachers doing something different but we don’t acknowledge those.

A few hours later, when they were taking a bit of a break a kid came up to him with stars in his eyes asking if he was a hero. Kon missed the feeling that it gave him. He missed when he could make people feel safer just by being in their presence. Just one more thing that the universe had taken from him. 

Then the kid asked him a question. Something that he knew was going to stay in his mind forever even when he goes home. “Can I be a quirkless hero and still help people like you?”

Out of all the questions, that was asked. Kon could see the kids' mother out of the corner of his eye. She looked like she was dreading the kid feeling one more rejection. One more reason to toss out the dreams he had. Kon would never do that, especially not when he could see his little brother in this kid. “

“Why yes of course you can! Actually one of my best friends is quirkless and he’s in the hero course with me. He’s the one that taught me a lot of the stuff that I know. It’s going to be a little harder and you are going to have to put more work in to get ahead but if you are dedicated then yes!” Kon said.

“Really?” The kid asked.

“Yes really.” Kon said. “What would your hero name be?”

“Empty: the quirkless hero!” the kid said.

“I can’t wait to see you make the hero charts, Empty.” Kon said before ruffling his hair.

The kid ran back to his mother, taking her ear off. She looked up to him and smiled. This is the feeling that Kon wanted to give to people. Hope and safety, the kids are our future. He did mean it. He thought that the kid would be a good hero.

He also didn’t lie about the fact that it would be harder for him to get farther. This world favors having powers whether he wants to admit it or not. Decisions of how people are treated so heavily rely on what kind of power you have and if you don’t have one it pushes the distance so much farther back.

Kon hopes that the kid doesn't back down. He hopes that it pushes the kid to work 10 times harder to prove people wrong. Kon hopes that this kid helps be one of the people who changed the world. He tries not to wish but oh does he hope.

When he walked back to Gang Orca the hero asked him what the kid had asked him. Kon did a gesture of closed lips. The hero sighed knowing that he wouldn’t get any answers if Kon didn’t want to give them freely.

Once they had made it back to the agency dorms where he was staying the day started to weigh on him. It was a great day and he had gotten to do things that he hadn’t in so long. But the boy was still allowed to admit that it made him feel like being tired would be a permanent fixture on him. (If he slept easier because he had gone on patrol, that was nobody's business.)

—-

If Bart get’s into a fist fight with the number two hero, he swears that it isn’t his fault. He would never start a fight, he’d finish one, but never start one. Except apparently he would now because this no good, disrespecting, flaming pile of trash motherfu-. That’s enough description so hopefully you get the point. 

He wants to leak his social security and his address on this universe's Tumbler just so that people all over the world harass him. Bart hopes this man will get burnt by his own flames because he decided that he was better than everyone else. 

No, Bart was acting perfectly normal about this. How dare you assume that he had lost his marbles. He was not bonkers. Bart was still on his rocker thank you very much. He just. What could he call it so it would make it look less bad in court? Ah yes, a temporary moment of insanity. Just like how he was going to temporarily shove his foot up the hero’s a-.

Todoroki seemed to be amused by his comments at the very least. Occasionally he chimes in with his own possible threats and Bart is so glad that he might have found a partner in this crime. It was nice to bounce ideas off of eachother for a theoretical murder that may or may not happen. 

And then Todoroki had suggested the best thing that he had heard all day. The boy just casually had his dads credit card. Todoroki also casually asked Bart if he would want to help him spend as much of the money as possible. Bart said that he would love to go to the mall whenever they got the chance. Y’know casually.

Man, Bart loved interacting with this boy. Candy cane was determined to piss off Endevor and he lived for it. It reminds Bart of the times that they had done anything they could to make Lex Luthor wish that he was in hell. Ah good times and very very fond memories. If Luthor ever found out that there were stacks of money missing, no one ever believed that it was Superman responsible. 

Wait a minute that gives Bart a few good ideas. Well good is a relative term, he wanted to make Endevor regret acting like he was the best thing to happen since the wheel was invented. Which is so wrong because popcorn was so much better.

“Hey Todoroki,” Bart said, getting his attention.

“Yes Allen?” Todoroki said.

Bart then said “How would you like to make your father regret being a walking matchstick that needs to watch his mouth? Like if I theoretically had some old plans laying around from when we were pranking someone who shall not be named, what would you say? Just harmless I can assure you. Except it might be a little more than that.”

Todoroki got a glint in his eye. The same glint that Cassie got when she considered pranking the justice league for shits and giggles. Bart loved that glint because it so perfectly managed to match the mischievous little smile that tended to appear on his face. 

His reaction to his question had made working with Endeavor become just a little bit more worth it. Endeavor wouldn’t know what had hit him. He also wouldn’t know that Bart was very good at getting his hands on things that would never leave your carpet once it’s made its home there. 

Now where would be the nearest craft store that would heavily upcharge them that also gives them the ugliest glitter that he had ever seen? Hmm he wondered if there was a Hobby Lobby nearby that would allow them to clear out a shelf of glitter. He bet’s that they are dying to get rid of the confetti made in the underworld. And some slime. It would help to get some of that too.

“What do you have in mind, my new partner in crime?” Todoroki asked.

“Have you ever heard of the fact that glitter will stay somewhere for a minimum of three years after it is placed there? Longer if you try to do whatever you can to get it off.” Bart said.

“I think I know what you mean.” Todoroki said.

They may or may not have snuck out to go acquire it. In their defence if you didn’t want them to break out then you shouldn’t have made it so easy for them. Looking at it they really should put more of their efforts into their security. If it’s that easy to sneak out of a place as two teenagers, then how easy would it be for an adult sneaking in.

Never mind. Bart prefers not to look a gift horse in the mouth. It never seems to turn out that well. He still thinks that Endeavor should at least try to make it a little less easy to sneak in and hurt his interns. He had to know that if they got hurt on his watch, he would be charged for it by U.A right. He thinks that he’s the untouchable kind of rich person though so maybe not.

Hobby Lobby workers are determined to make you leave with way more projects to do than you started with. All the better for the two of them seeing as they are determined to use all of it. And ohh the glitter that they had found looks atrocious. Cassie would approve.

When they were breaking back into the building they ran into a man that was definitely not supposed to be there. How would they know that he wasn’t supposed to be their one might ask? He wasn’t wearing a uniform that showed it and Todoroki couldn’t recognise his face. Also the fact that he was spray painting things that you would find on the wall in the boys bathroom of an american public school.

The moment that the man had spotted them he put his hands in the air and looked like he had been caught murdering someone. Jokes on him, Todoroki would never snitch on someone when they do something that would enrage his father. He watched in horror as Bart walked towards him and took something out of his bag.

Suspense raised as he tried to plan an exit route but it was unsuccessful. Then a box had been set into his hand and he hesitantly looked at it. The intruder wondered why the hell this kid would put glitter into his hands. When he looked at the kid he could tell that the boy knew exactly what he was doing.

“I see you had a similar plan to us. We are his current interns and we decided that this place could use some… new additions. You have just volunteered to help out. And be the scapegoat but that’s not very important right now.” Bart said.

The man was frozen and shell shocked until Bart and Todoroki pulled out some craft materials and started deface the office. Now how to start? The carpet does seem a little sad and boring. Slime and glitter could fix that he’s sure of it. The man is still staring at them as they empty entire things of glitter onto the floor of the office. 

And then he starts to empty out the glitter with them. A smile grows onto his face to match them as they completely destroy the room. Then Bart starts pulling other things out like paint, beads, and most importantly All might merch. Stickers cover every surface along with googly eyes.

Eventually the man has to bid farewell so that he doesn't get caught. Bart gets to work removing him and Todoroki from the footage. They have no idea what’s going to happen if Endeavor finds out about this and they don’t intend to find out.

Dabi was way out of his depth. He didn’t know what the hell just happened. But it was one of the best things to happen in his life.

—-

Cassie had a pretty good day all things considered. It was nice to finally be back out there scaring the life out of villains. It feels like it’s been a lifetime since she had gotten a challenge. (At this rate when they go back to their universe she might have to stay in Gotham for a bit just to get a sense of normalcy and danger back.)

It’s weird that none of these people that she’s fighting are just the kind of insane that you would find back in her world. Like c’mon you’ve got monologues, you can be just a little bit crazy. She’s only run into one of those people here so far and that was back at the usj.

Mirko seems to be surprised with her efficiency. She does a lot of rescue work because it’s just easier with her powers but she still enjoys fighting people.

Somewhere on patrol there are heroes just standing there while a villain causes problems because ‘oh no none of our quirks are meant to deal with this.’ Bullshit. She knows that Tim would rip them a new ass if he heard them saying that. 

Cassie studies what’s happening before she charges in, ignoring the shouts of the heroes around them. Distantly she hears the hero ask what she thinks she’s doing. Mirko knocked them upside their head and essentially said “your job for you.”

This person could make your quirk fight against you. Not the easiest but Cassie knows damn well that she had to at least try. The heroes are supposed to be able to help even if the situation isn’t tailored to fit your quirk. If these people seriously can’t fight without a quirk and win in a fight against a low level villain like him, then they shouldn’t be heroes in her opinion. 

She stops using her powers while still attacking the man. He looked surprised as if no one had ever tried to fight him without their quirk. It makes Cassie angrier because men like this are able to just walk around and cause problems but no one stops it because they supposedly aren’t fit for the situation.

You aren’t supposed to be fully prepared to fight every battle with your quirk. Heroism is as much about taking risks as it is about being careful. It’s a balance and you are supposed to learn it early into your career. 

The only one with a quirk that would be ‘meant’ to work with this situation would be Eraserhead. At least he wouldn’t just leave the person to cause problems because he thinks that it isn’t a fair fight. Even Vlad King would be more likely to actually do something without a quirk than these useless heroes.

Her fight was over soon enough and Cassie brought the villain over to the cops and put him into quirk canceling cuffs. The cop had thanked her but she more or less ignored it. Cassie had more work to do. 

Walking over to the medics she asked if there was anyone in need of first aid that wouldn’t be treated as quickly as some of the patients. They directed her over to a small group with only minor wounds before thanking her.

“Don’t thank me. This is my job. It’s theirs too whether they realize it or not.” Cassie replied.

Something bitter was hidden in her tone. She didn’t care to think about it but it sat there. Slowly it tried to fester in her. Cassie's heroes would never have done something like this. Cassie's heroes would have been right there with her helping provide first aid. They wouldn’t have waited for Wonder Woman or Superman. They would have helped people.

A few heroes had even come to reprimand her as she was doing her job. Mirko and even a few of the people she was badaging had argued with the asshole of a pro. It was nice that they were willing to defend her.

Cassie went and bought bottles of water and granola bars to pass out to the people who had gotten injured. She was pulled into a hug by a few people. One of them, Cassie , recognised the red in her shoes and another had a spider mutation. 

It took her a few moments to realize just why they had hugged her. They didn’t think that someone would help them. Because that was the kind of place she lived in. Where people had to be surprised that she would help them.

They asked her for her name and she said Themis. She didn’t know why but she told them it was because she was a keeper of justice. Whether they realized it or not they had given her something to think about as she passed around items to help people.  

Something she definitely didn’t realize was someone in the crowd taking notice of her. They noticed that she had run in when others didn’t. They noticed that Themis cared more about helping than winning that fight. They noticed that the hero did more than she was expected to by purchasing equipment to hand out of her own volition and how she got yelled at for it. Most importantly she did it equally, justly to everyone that needed it.

He didn’t have much faith in most heroes these days but Stain was proud to see that not all was lost.There were heroes in training like Themis. He truly hoped that there would be more like her and that he wouldn’t have to keep a job with the new generation.

—-

Chapter Text

Iida did not know if he would be able to go through with his plans. It wasn’t even Manual who was the cause of his problems. It was Drake Tim. He knows that he is under scrutiny from the boy. And the boy knows that Iida is onto him. What he wants to know is just how much Drake knows about his side quest.

He bides his time anyway. Iida has to do this for his brother and if not for him then his legacy. His brother didn’t deserve this so if he has to do one thing, kill one bad person then it’s worth it. No matter what, Iida knows that he had to do this for his brother.

That’s not what Drake seems to think though. If the attention he pays Iida is any indicator he wouldn’t think that the killing for his brother was okay. Drake wouldn’t know the feeling that he does while the villain who hurt him keeps walking.

 Iida doesn't stop to think about the morality of it for long. Because if he did then he might have to talk himself out of it. This is not just something that Iida is able to turn his back on and no one else would understand that.

So he keeps doing his job and keeps his head down. Nothing will be able to get past his mind if he has anything to say about it. (He doesn't acknowledge that he can feel Drake trying to get past his walls.)

—-

It was in the middle of the night when Iida decided that it was finally the time for him to strike. He didn’t know if he was fully prepared but tonight was going to be the night. Stain was going to be close to them and Manual wasn’t watching them too closely. 

He slips open the door before he hears it.  Iida turns to see Drake standing there with Iida’s notebook with his plans in his hand. His arms are crossed and his eyebrow raised as if to ask him what world that he thinks that his plans were a good idea. Most importantly he was standing in his Peregrine suit instead of clothes for sleep.

“Let’s be honest here, I know what you plan to do tonight. Don’t think I don’t. What you plan to do is reckless, idiotic, and is going to get you killed. You think that you can go up against a man like that, you stand no chance.” Drake said.

“Drake you don’t understand.” Iida said.

“I know damn well understand. I understand that you planned to go in with no back up. Iida you're doing this for your brother and I see that.” Drake said “But going in without a plan and anyone to back you up if something goes wrong gets a hero killed in any situation. And trying to not only fight, but kill him. Iida you're doing this for your brother but what do you think it will do to him?”

He didn’t know what to say to that. Iida had spent so long trying to justify it but now, standing in front of Drake his plans shatter. How would Tensei react to this? What would Tensei do if he had gotten killed by the same man who had crippled him?

“So you are going to listen to me. We are going to do this right. I’m calling in backup. No ones going to die. We are going to do this slowly and carefully. You are going to listen to everything that I tell you to do. And if all of these requirements are met, then we are going to go to sleep tonight having put one of the most dangerous villains walking around.” Drake said.

That had caught him off guard. Why would Drake help him do this? He nodded, having lost his ability to get anything passed his mouth. Drake moved from his position and walked by him.  

It took Iida a few seconds for him to follow the boy. When they stepped out of the dorm the halls were dark and empty. It didn’t feel right to see it when it wasn’t full of life. Actually he kind of hated it. 

But they walked past it anyway. When they stepped out of the building Drake clicked a button and handed him something. He didn’t do anything with it and after so long of waiting the boy sighed and helped him put it in his ear. 

“Check, Peregrine to justice?” Drake said and he could hear it come through his ear.

Before Iida could respond he heard a voice coming over his com. “This is Themis at checkpoint 12. Can hear you loud and clear, birdy.”

“This is Blaze loud and clear. At checkpoint 7.” Came Allen’s voice.

“Eclipse almost to checkpoint 3, where are you?” Kent said.

“Good everythings working properly. Me and Ingenium are almost at checkpoint one. Any sightings of Mr. Cleans worst nightmare?” Drake said.

“I’ve heard whispers but no one has seen him so far tonight.” Kent said.

“A camera caught a glimpse of him around checkpoint 16 but he is long since gone from the area.” Allen said.

“If he started there then he’s probably around point 14. Get there as quickly as possible but do not under any circumstances be spotted or get close. Being spotted is going to get you attacked and remember, do not let him anywhere near your face. Because of how invincible your suits are, that is where you are most vulnerable.” Drake said. “Going dark until we’re at the point.”

Before Iida could even get a word in edgewise he was forced to keep up with Drake if he wanted to know what's going on. Iida had a feeling that even if he had asked there would most likely be no answer given. He knows that he deserved to be left in the dark but it still made him feel unsettled. It was not the time to dwell on any thoughts, especially not those.

—-

Cassie was already suited up and ready to go when the call had rang out. She had been getting some extra training out when no one was looking. Mirko had long since crashed out for the night when she left the building to go help.

She knew what they were going up against tonight. Cassie also knows that there is a chance that Iida would definitely get himself killed if he thought that he could do this on his own. Whatever convinced him that hit was a good idea was fucking crazy buy damn if Cassie wasn’t dow for a challenge tonight. 

They had all studied what his quirk was to the best of their abilities. He could make people be unable to move when he ate their blood and different blood types could hold them for longer or shorter. Cassier kind of wants to know what it would do to them since not all of them are fully human. 

Cassie was a demigod and who knows what genetic bullshit it could do to her blood. Kon was mostly Kryptonian so there is a chance that he doesn't have a proper blood type. They always just used O negative if they needed to give him a blood transfusion. And Bart wasn’t someone with a quirk. He was Meta. Do you know how much crazy science and magic that could go into it? Tim is the only one that they truly had an answer for.

Iida didn’t know but they had a plan. They have had a plan for way longer than he has and it actually has a chance of survival. Tim had sent pictures of the plans in the notebook and let her say that there was no chance of him surviving without outside help.

Help that he wasn’t planning to get. Cassie knows that the boy is smart, but damn he would have gotten himself dead in their world. She can’t even imagine the look that he would get on his face if he heard about the shitshow that is Gotham. It would chew him up and spit him out.

But she doesn't say any of this because she had a mission to achieve. Cassie was to keep watch on her checkpoints and if he was spotted take pictures and notice weak spots. If she could get a DNA sample it would be all the better. 

The team has someone in mind to drop him off with. Detective Tsukachi, the man with a lie detector quirk. Honestly Cassie doesn't think that he's smart enough to weasel his way around lying to the detective. Young justice could but that’s just because Batman would kill all of them if they managed to reveal their identities in a stupid way.

Stain stands a chance against the team but he doesn't have the best one. All of them have years of experience with crazier people than him. But he’s fast and quick on his feat. Something that most of their average opponents aren’t.

Cassie would just have to see how it would play out.

—-

Bart had no idea how today would turn out for them. On one hand he’s got a lot of faith in the team and their strengths. On the other he knows that this man doesn't just want to fight. He wants to kill them. And he would stop at anything to be able to do it.

He wishes that he could say without a doubt that they would know. But he just couldn’t seem to.  All Bart could do was try to believe in them. Wasn’t that all that he ever could do. If they could come up on top long enough to survive until now then they could make it a bit farther. Right. 

Bart can never seem to add up their wins and think that they can do it again. So many times he had walked into a battle where Cassie had full confidence but he still wouldn’t bet on their win. Bart wishes that he had some of the confidence that she pretended to walk with.

The boy knows why she’s so confident too. She believes that she had to be the one getting their team to believe in themselves. Because if she didn’t have faith in them then no one would. Bart wished for one second that he could relieve her of that.

Yet he can’t. So he sits on his roof top and watches. When he saw more flashes of the villain he called it in and continued to take photos. Then he checked on checkpoint 9. It was only when he saw the villain stalking a local hero that he knew it’s time for them to start moving. 

All he could do was shout into his com that he was on the move and why. He was running through the streets doing whatever he could to get there. He prayed to whoever was listening to them this lovely day that they would be able to stop him. That he would be the one going down tonight. That no one in the team would be lost to a single man.

Really he didn’t know what he would do if he lost any of them. But now isn’t the time to think about that. As Cassie would say, they have shit to do today.

—-

Kon was freaking out. It was a fair reaction considering the fact that he didn’t even know what this man’s quirk would even do to him. And then it gets called that he was about to kill someone.  Yeah, no. He had a right to be scared out of his mind.

He hoped that he was still in control of himself and his powers enough to make sure that he stayed silent. Do you know what the team would do to him if they found out that he got himself hurt because he acted like a fool? Not even Luthor with his crazy ass technology would be able to find his body.

Don’t be mistaken, he loves his team but all of them have the capability to scare the shit out of him. Even Bart with his happy demeanor has the chance to be terrifying if he wants to be. Kon would never forget the time that he fully believed that Bart would tear his insides with a butter knife. Everyone thinks it was a joke but he swears Bart did it. 

It’s always the super happy ones that have the most potential to be batshit. But he digresses, they have more important things to do right now.

When he catches sight of the Katana that was about to imbed itself into the hero he immediately jumps in and throws a batarang. As expected it hit square on and he can see the wound that would take forever to heal on the shoulder. 

Kon doesn't acknowledge that it reminded him of the bullet that had lodged itself into Cassie. As Tim would say “they don’t have time for that emotional crap, right now.” The villain turns and tilts his head as if considering him for a few moments. Then the hero killer lunges at him.

He was barely able to doge and started shouting into his com “This is Eclipse calling for ETA to checkpoint!”

“I'm here!” Themis called.

That had drawn the villains attention long enough for him to be able to pick up the hero there and get him off of the ground. Then Peregrine showed up with Ingenium in tow. He threw one of Hatsume’s smoke bombs onto the ground and the area filled with many different hues. It also distracted from the flare that got sent up for any nearby hero. 

It was beautiful and horrifying to watch the blade and staff clash against each other. He knew that nothing short of a nuclear bomb can break the thing considering how it was made. The same could not be said about the Katana.

Stain’s sword had been shattered by Peregrine by a few very risky moves. Themis had taken two of the man's backup blades. Eclipse and Blaze were doing anything they could to get any extra hits in. Themis gets a brutal kick to the face and they watch as the man's head snaps back.

Punch after kick and he was still standing longer than he should have. They don’t know what this man is taking but it’s like trying to fight a really fast brick wall. Stain gets his own hits in but is struggling to use any of his weapons against them. 

Eventually he had gotten a slice on Peregrine. They had no idea what would happen but they had to be careful. They watched as he was unable to move himself but still held his staff to protect himself. Stain tried to attack him further but the staff reacted, shocking him.

Then he managed to get a hit Into Themis. It didn’t do anything to her and she kept fighting like the tank that she is. Stain looked as if he hadn’t expected that to happen and yeah, neither did they. 

It might have been the thing that had managed to bring him down. Because while he was so distracted by the failed attempt she knocked him on his ass. Peregrine finally broke at of the spell and all five of them had managed to tie him up. Blaze and Ingenium sped through trying to disarm the man as he struggled against them.

“You were supposed to be a true hero, Themis. How dare you compromise that position by working with them to capture me!” Stain yelled.

What the hell did he mean by that? Themis and him looked at each other as if they were trying to decrypt the words. Neither of them could really find out what the hell he had been talking about. Can’t reason with crazy it would seem.

But he keeps going on and on about how he had seen her helping people on her patrols. Themis didn’t realize that he had been watching her that closely. She didn’t think that she would have the fear of someone watching her unless she was in civilian clothes when people thought that she was a little too dainty to protect herself. Themis could always defend herself but that’s not even being called into question.

Someone had been watching her every move on patrol and she never would have thought that they could have done it. Themis didn’t realize until it was almost too late. She was ‘emotionally compromised’ as they say in the business and she had every goddamn right to be. Eclipse knew that this was going to be the newest addition to things that keep them all up at night. 

“Why in the hell. Would. I. Want. The. Approval. Of. Someone. Like. You.” Themis said, jamming her hand into the man’s chest.

Ingenium and Stain looked almost terrified of her. None of them had seen her fear before. They haven’t seen the nights where she’s thought that she could die at any moment and turned that into a defence mechanism. Themis didn’t have an actual flight response. She couldn’t. So she chose to use her anger as a weapon. 

Her anger is a sharpened blade that she spent years mastering. It was a dagger for her protection that helped keep people away when they got a little too close to her. It was the dagger that came out when she knew that she had to walk home alone at night. And now because someone was watching her that blade draws blood once again.

Stain didn’t know what he had unleashed but he let loose a Cassie that feared. He let lose a Themis that wants her justice. He let loose a woman that has had to fear for her life one too many times to let a man like that walk away without a consequence.

Themis took one of his own blades and stabbed it in a spot that wouldn’t kill him. But it was deep. He could see the look on the man's face. The face that was once left unshaken. Eclipse could tell that it burned. Eclipse could also tell that she wanted to do more.

Eclipse stepped in before she could go against the man again and held her back without scaring her.

Midoriya and Todoroki make their grand entrance only to see the hero killer on the ground trying to get out of his handcuffs and many layers of zip ties. That was when the pro’s had finally arrived on scene.

Chapter Text

They had been sitting in a police station after getting minor wounds treated for a few hours. It was still the middle of the night and all of them were tired but none of them had gone to sleep yet. Gang orca and Manual were sitting in the room watching them as if the moment they took their eyes off the kids they would go out and cause more trouble.

Which was a fair assessment considering how they got here but it was still kind of rude. The team was too tired to do anything else right now and technically it wasn’t their fault that Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida were there. It is kind of Iida’s fault that they were but they definitely weren't going to throw him under the bus.

(They also planned to ignore the fact that young justice probably would have gone and found Stain one way or another.)

Cassie was still trying and failing to calm down from Stains words. Bart knows that she would have gone further with the punishment if she hadn’t been held back. No one would have found the body and Japan would mysteriously have one less problem to deal with. This isn’t a threat, no no no, this is simply a promise.

Detective Tsukachi walked in and everyone's head snapped to face him. The man looked as if it was taking everything in him not to walk out the door and all the way to the nearest bar. Aizawa feels that.

“Alright I need to inform you before we start the interrogation that my quirk is lie detector. When you give me a reply something similar to a buzzer will go off in my brain when you lie to me. Now are all of you able to answer some questions. Tsukachi said.

Everyone gave a nod. None of them wanted to be the first to talk. 

 “Who were you going up against?” When he received a look of ‘what do you think’ he said, “Just humor me, did you know who it was?”

“Civilian name: Akaguro Chizome, name while he was still a vigilante: Stendal, villain name: Stain.” Tim said. His words were nothing more than clinical and cold.

Aizawa took a sharp inhale. It was probably at the fact that the kids had gotten the man's civilian identity before some of the best cops in the city. Judging by the looks on Midoriya, Todoroki, and Iida they were left out of the loop almost as much as the heroes were. Goddamn these kids were going to be the death of them.

“How did you come across this information?” Came Gang Orca’s voice.

“It’s called doing your own investigation, really It’s not that hard if you put the work into it.” Bart said.

The occupants in the room looked shocked at the words. Because this teenager just implied that they did something that pro heroes couldn’t for a year and it was easy. When they had the equipment they did it really wasn’t that hard for them. 

“When something happens it just always happens to be you four chaos heathens, why is that? Do you make it your mission to cause problems while simultaneously ending more? Is that just what all of you plan out doing in your spare times?” Aizawa asked.

“Believe us, we’ve been asking ourselves the same thing for years, sensei.” Kon said.

“Okay, we need to get back on track here. How did you find him before any heroes could?” Tsukachi asked.

None of them answered him. Young justice already agreed that the question just couldn’t be answered reasonably. It was also a question that would get one to many eyes on them. Thankfully Iida didn’t snitch on them either. When none of them answered Tsukachi asked the question again.

“If I may, sir, I do believe that we have a right to remain silent. And for that question we invoke the right.” Tim said.

“How exactly did you manage to subdue him? Most hero reports say that after they get him in handcuffs he manages to escape before police can arrive.” Tsukachi asked.

“He was a pompous little asshole and he shouldn’t have watched his mouth and chosen a better profession.” Cassie said. No one mentioned how she stared at the floor when she said that.

“We have him in the other room and he said that you stabbed him in the leg after he was put in handcuffs. Is this true?” Aizawa asked.

Is this a good time to say that Tim was ready to interrogate him. “That fucker’s in the other room. Uh uh,  I’m getting information from him.” 

Before anyone could respond the chaos bringers were out of the room and racing down the hall. Cops tried to stop them but they were unable to be fast enough to catch up. The door to the room slammed open with Tim storming in. 

The criminal didn’t look phased until he saw just who it was. They were still in their hero suits and were a sight behold when they weren’t trying to fade into the background. The room was filled with light but shadows still came out to greet them. It seemed that Stain finally realized just who he was dealing with. 

“Well it seems that the little fake heroes came to find me. I think it’s funny that you hurt a man when he was already down. Isn’t it, she who names herself after a figure of justice.” Stain said.

“We're going to ask, you will answer. You don’t have a choice in this. What makes you think that you ever had any right to go and do the things that you do?” Cassie said. 

She slammed her hands into the table and they all felt joy at the fact that he flinched back. Tsukachi came running into the room and his eyes immediately landed on them. He just about had a heart attack when he saw one of the most dangerous villains flinch back because of her.

“To answer your question, justice, all those heroes were fake. I was only teaching the lesson that if you use the title hero to get famous, to get money, or anything like that. You aren’t a real hero. They weren't helping the people therefore it was time for them to go.” Stain said.

It was Tim’s turn, “those heroes that you killed because of the simpler reasons could have gone on to help more people. Did you know that?” 

Kon pulled out a file and flipped to the first page. Then he started speaking “Starlight, killed in may last year was near a man that had been beaten to death. Her patrol route lined up to where if she had lived, the man would most likely still be alive and in good health.”

“Clownfish, killed a month ago. When he died he was two streets away from a child being attacked. If he was left alive the kid wouldn’t have the trauma that they live with now.” Cassie said on the next page.

“Woodwork, killed in September. He poured a lot of money and work into charities and even held a few up on his own. If he were still alive the Dahlia foundation, the Raiely foundation, and the Orb Weaver foundation would most likely still be functioning. Before you even think to start, we looked into them and none of them had a single penny laundered or misused.” Bart said, his normally happy demeanor disappearing.

“Lady Polar, killed a week ago. She was very well known accumulating followers on different social media sites. That is only the base of it. Lady Polar used her following to talk about many social justice issues and pushed to help make multiple different changes in laws that were quirkest.” Tim said finishing.

“People's lives are not a game Stain. They are rarely one thing or the other. Lives could have been and are currently changed by the people who reach out to help. When you kill those heroes you do not simply teach a lesson. It doesn't matter that they were popular or did it for money, they all fought for the people. And if they are guilty of the crimes you accuse, then your precious little Allmight Is more guilty than some of the people you kill. What do you think of that, hero killer?“ Cassie said. 

None of the team had heard her voice be that cold in a long time. They can’t exactly know and she can’t perfectly explain, but they could try to know why she felt the way she did. Sometimes you aren’t able to understand. The best thing that you can do is listen. 

Stain looked as if he had been shot. His ideals had been brought into question and no one ever likes when that happens. The man made the move to lunge at her but was unable to due to the security focused on him. Stain hit the floor face first and everyone in the room could agree that he deserved it. 

Tsukachi was standing there, eyes wide. Not a single word of theirs had ringed as false and he was shaken at the fact that they didn’t know half of these things about the heroes. No one had known that Woodwork had thrown that much of his paycheck into charities

When Aizawa walked in he saw the state of the room and sent a questioning glance. He was told that he would be able to see the recording later. There had been no further questions asked from the hero.

“Is it bad that I want to see how much more they know and what they can get out of the villain.” Tsukachi whispered.

Aizawa then said “I saw we let them. They've already brought him in successfully, might as well see if they can do the full procedure that they would as heroes.”

“Tell me Chizome” Bart said. they all enjoyed the surprise that crossed over his face “when and who was the first person you killed.”

He paused and then said “Mirror, three years ago.”

“Ehhh wrong.” Tim said. “Don’t take us for fools, we can tell when you're lying.”

“Is he right?” Aizawa asked. Tsukachi nodded.

“We have a theory. Correct us if we're wrong. The first person that you ever killed was a woman when you were twelve. I mean she did go missing, however they never found a body and you just so happened to be right there. It’s almost funny how you show up to the scene and almost no one was able to find any evidence on the hero you killed. The only thing that was found was a note in your hand writing. Funny ain’t it. So did we get it right?” Tim said.

“Really. That’s what you and your little heroes in training came up with? No I didn’t.” Stain said.

“Out of the two of them, who's telling the truth?” Aizawa asked

“Let’s just say that I think we solved an old cold case.” Tsukachi said.

“Again, do not take us for fools.” Kon said.

—-

They had been in the interrogation room for a few hours. The four had been squeezing out any bit of information that they could get their hands on. Pro heroes watched on in shock as these kids managed to do more in hours then trained professionals have done in years. The same question had sat on all of their minds.

Just who taught these kids how to do this? Because you don’t learn things like this on your own. Things like this are also almost impossible to teach. Yet here they are standing there making trained professionals look as if they were just playing pretend.

Aizawa and Kan had only gained more questions about their absent parental figures. The more time that goes on the more that they question whether they were ever truly children or if they had been made to be weapons. Kan was scared to find out the answer that his students would give them.

Both teachers didn’t even think that they would ever get any answers from the four judging how they had dogged every question they sent to them. Every time that Kan had asked Cassie and Bart if they were okay he was shrugged off. Everytime that Aizawa asked how they felt about their parents being so far away his questions were carefully measured and held no lies but not enough truths. 

Neither of them had any faith that Tsukachi could pull anything out of them. No matter how smart the detective is, the kids just keep surprising them. Kan and Aizawa wished that the chaos bringers would trust them. 

It hurts everytime they are lied to because it means that they can’t be trusted. They were supposed to be trusted by their students and they couldn’t achieve that. 

All they could really do was try. They would work towards being deserving of the kids' trust. Someone had hurt them and took the ability away from them. They would do anything in their power to undo that. Whether that would take two days or ten long years is anybody’s guess.

—-

They had gone back and finished their last two days of internships. While the four were used to lying to everyone around them to make sure secrets don’t get out, the other three kids involved weren't. Tim watches slightly judgmentally as Iida stumbles around every few lines and gives way more information than he needs to. 

He hates that the words are so uncalculated but some people never had a mother made of ice and marble whispering. “ Never tell the truth if you can handle it, do what you can to save face. Dignity and your image is worth more than your life. Better to die with your reputation as a pillar than to live with a tarnished name.” She never cared what he had to do to keep himself together. 

Still it got so bad that Tim had to pull him aside and tell him that he needs to learn to lie better. He looked uncomfortable that it had been said but had nodded anyway. After that Tim didn’t mentally wince every time that someone had brought up them “sneaking out to ghost hunt in an abandoned building that was being watched over.” Tim still wished that someone would teach this boy how to lie out of his ass.

—-

It was hard for Cassie to go back to her internships. Mirko knew what had happened and tried to keep her in the hero's sights. It just still terrifies her that someone could be watching her every move. If the hero killer had been then why couldn’t someone else be. 

They have hundreds of watchers everytime they are up against a villain. What's to say that one more person isn’t just watching them through their phones. What if one more person was more determined, more spiteful, and more cunning than Stain. What then?

Would she be able to defend herself next time? Is she going to be able to watch herself or is she going to need someone to make sure that Cassie doesn't get herself killed? Still she goes on her patrols and she pretends that nothing is wrong with her.

At some point she helps a woman get saved from falling rubble. The woman had looked at her and asked what was wrong. Cassie had told her nothing and the woman basically said that she was full of shit. The girl sighed and asked how she knew. The woman had replied that she was a mother. A mother was supposed to know what was wrong.

Cassie could remember her mom saying that to her. She remembered when her mom would say that while she didn’t know the cause of it, Helena Sandsmark was able to find out that something was wrong with her.

What was it with worried people telling them that they are concerned for her.  Her teacher says it, Mirko says it, hell Monoma and Pony have even said it. Why does she need to convince people that she would be okay? It’s impossible for people to believe her and she doesn't know why.

She just wants to go back to their apartment and stay up late watching some stupid sitcom. Cassie wants to go back to their home here because they can’t truly go back to where they belong. How long does it take for somewhere new to become their home.

—-

Among other things, Bart is tired. Every time that he hears Endeavor's voice after the incident he considered just commiting a murder. Then he thinks about Stain and the fact that if he does he’s lowered himself back down to that level. So he doesn't say anything.

He sits back, grits his teeth and pretends that nothing is wrong. Because if Bart believes that everything is okay then it has to be. The world is a sphere, the sky is blue, and if Bart says that nothing is wrong, then everything is a-ok.

Bart can tell that Todoroki is taking notice in his shift. They don’t say anything about it but they sit together in silence when no one else is there to fill it. Both of them know that something important is being hidden. Still both boys didn’t feel that it was in their place to ask or to tell. 

It’s not that they want to keep whatever is bothering them to themselves. It’s just that neither didn’t know when they would be ready. Would they ever be able to spill the things that controlled their lives. It didn’t feel like it but emotions are a powerful thing. They don’t care about your opinion on a subject. 

Emotions get to decide that you break. Emotions get to decide if you need to keep pushing forward. They keep moving no matter how much emotions carry. Because neither knew what to do if they lost their ability to push forward.

Chapter Text

Dick Grayson didn’t make a habit out of drinking. There were times where he’d get a little taste of it but never any more than that. When he was a kid those little tastes were more to scare him away from drinking it because of the smell and how bad some of them could taste.

The first time that he had ever truly got wasted was when he came back from space only to find his brother dead and already buried. Dick would never forgive Bruce for not letting him be there and he will hold the anger about the ‘good soldier’ title until he leaves this earth.

He stole a bottle from Bruce and went back to Bludhaven before he had opened it and experienced being intoxicated for the first time. Dick hated the feeling the next morning. The feeling of his body working against him made him feel worse than he had started with.

For a long time that had remained the only instance of him being intoxicated. No matter how many fights he got into with Bruce, no matter how many times the image of Jason had haunted him he stayed sober. It just wasn’t worth feeling okay for two hours and hurt for much longer.

And it stayed like that. At least it had until a man was parading around with his brother's face yet so, so different from his family. Dick had decided that if the world were to haunt him like that, he might have just deserved feeling like shit. 

Bruce had never heard of either instance. Dick knew the kind of angry rant that he would have been subjected to if he had been made aware. So he sat on his own both times and suffered the consequences of trying to make himself feel okay again.

Over a long period of time Jason had finally come home and slowly made his way back into the family. It wouldn’t be the same but at least he had his brother back. He almost never had another reason to drink.

Not even when Bruce was lost in the timeline and everyone thought him dead. At that point he had a family to think about. He never did a good job at keeping things together when Bruce was gone but oh had he tried.( He would never tell anyone or let himself remember that part of that was the fact that Bruce wasn’t worth drinking for.)

Dick had never planned to pick up a bottle again. He thought that the family would finally go back to normal after Bruce had come back and for the longest time it had. Sure not everyone was as close as they were before but they still functioned and that is what had mattered to him at the time. 

All of that had gone down the drain when Tim had gone missing. For weeks he had thought about it but he had never even gone near a bottle. He had a family to look after at that point. 

Yet he still couldn’t take care of them, could he? Jason had to be the one to step up. His little brother had to be the one to take care of their siblings. He’s noticed a pattern here. He isn’t good at keeping his family together no matter how much he tries. And right now part of that is his fault. (Even deeper he blamed Bruce.)

Then even Damian had gone missing leaving a note saying that he was looking for their missing sibling and not to follow him. It was like a knife had been twisted into him. Because what was he supposed to do if he lost more than one brother to the same enemy.

Dick just couldn’t think about that anymore. Because if he did he was going to spiral and won’t be able to get their voices out of his head. All he would hear would be his siblings telling him that he wasn’t good enough to save him.

They would say that he was so bad at taking care of the family. They would say that he wasn’t worthy of being Nightwing. He wasn’t worthy of being a part of the family if he couldn’t keep it together.

Is it selfish for him to consider the option if it’s because he’s drowning out the ones who are telling him not to feel better. Does he really want an answer to that question or is he just asking that to try and make himself feel better

His thoughts just kept going on like that for hours. They got worse and worse the more times he tried to push them down and keep himself going. Dick would say that he didn’t, that the temptation did override his brain. But it was so easy for him to break.

With no one left relying on him he thought that he might as well do it one more time. This time he hadn’t stolen one from Bruce. All of them felt too tainted by him to even consider it. It was the first time that he had ever been to a bar outside of Bat business.

It was loud and uncomfortable but it was worth it. The neon lights had burned into his mind and the smell had been overpowering. A few spots down they had a tv playing some sports game or another. The team they were cheating for had been up by twelve points. Good for them he guesses.

The bartender asked what he could get him. Dick chose the first thing that sounded like it would be strong enough to knock his ass out. The bartender asked him if it was a midlife crisis. Dick replied with ‘something like’ that and the words were left there. It wasn’t worth spilling his life to the first person that he had found.

Slowly it was like any critical thinking of his had faded into the background. His vision had become a little more foggy. Soon enough he wasn’t in control anymore.

—-

Jason had still been doing his rounds as when he found his older brother.  He always passed the bars in his territory to make sure that no one was underage drinking in them. Jason couldn’t do much when they were doing it at home but at least he could stop some of it from happening. 

He came across the last shitty bar for the night when he had spotted Dick in the window. Before doing anything else he had gotten out of his hero costume just in case and made himself look like anyone else.

Jason didn’t even need to be near his brother to see that he looked like he was going to keel over right there. It was not what he had expected for the day but it was the last thing he could have wanted to have happened. Why did he have to be the one who takes care of everyone? Why couldn't it be a more mature adult than him?

Where is Alfred while this family is falling apart at the seams. He’s the only one that everyone will listen to in the family and he’s just staying out of it. Someone had to fix this family and god dammit Jason wasn’t qualified to bring everything back together.

The boy had gotten close to his brother and tried to start talking to him. Immediately Dick had started to start trying to talk to him but he had slurred his words so badly that Jason couldn’t understand him. He just kept mumbling out words that he couldn’t understand. 

Dick had then tried to stand up and walk toward him. He could barely move properly and not fall over. When he finally had gotten close to Jason and tripped. Jason, the loving, caring brother he was, didn't let him hit the ground face first.

“C’mon, let's get you home. I’m not letting you stay here you dumbass. ”Jason said. It was the only thing he really could say in that emotion. Under his breath he whispered “God, you're lucky that B wasn’t the one to find you here.”

He was only lucky for one thing in that situation, Cass was staying with Babs for the weekend. Jason was so lucky that she had pitched that to him when he started taking care of his two brothers. It’s the only reason that he feels safe to bring him back to his apartment.

—-

“Babs, would you be okay with keeping Cassandra for an extra day or two?” Jason asked.

“Yes but you have to tell us why.” Babs responded.

“Thanks Babs. I found Dick getting wasted in a crime alley bar. I need the time for him to get sober and have a talk with him. ” Jason said. His voice sounded heavy and he didn’t get any sleep last night.

Babs can tell how he felt. Jason knows what the humming over the call means and he hated that both of them were just as tired. Both of them are too tired to be dealing with the fact that they are the ones being the people trying to repair a breaking family.

—-

Helena Sandsmark was many things. She was an archeologist, she had gotten a Doctorate degree, she was friends with Dianna, and she was a mother. Helena had lived many years and achieved many different things.

Out of everything that had affected her the most it was finding out that her daughter had been a part of a hero team. Helena knew that there was never going to be any chance to talk her daughter out of being a hero so she stood and tried to help her do it as safely as she could.

No one had told her when her daughter had been missing. Helena didn’t know for weeks that her daughter was gone. She hadn’t been connected to the league the same way that the other kids' parents had. 

She had contacted Dianna asking where the hell her daughter was. Dianna didn’t even do it over the phone because she knew how much it was going to affect her. Helena let her into her phone and had made her coffee before anything had happened.

Then she was told that her daughter had been missing for weeks and there's a chance that Cassie and her friends might never be found. Helena had told her to get out without a second thought. Diana had listened to her and left in seconds because she knew that it was better not to fight.

Hellena had sat there for a few moments just processing the information that she had been given. It felt weird hearing that her daughter had a chance to never come home anymore.  What was she expected to feel in a moment like this? 

It took everything in her to make sure that she didn’t snap and break something. She doesn't know what it would take to go and bring herself together. Right now Helena didn’t know if she wanted to be put together. But still she goes into work and lies that she is fine.

People at her work can tell that something is wrong but they don’t ask her what's wrong. Thank the gods no one had asked what's wrong because Helena never would have been able to lie her way through it. Does she want to keep lying?

Many times she had stayed up late wondering if this would be the mission that got her daughter killed. Many times she had barely gotten sleep during the night because her daughter might have gotten lost, or left behind, or forgotten. Helena was never prepared for that to happen.

She had to believe that her daughter would come home. Helena didn’t know what she would do if Cassie never came home. She thinks that it might break her to not see her daughter ever again. It’s not fair to have her kid ripped from her but when is life ever fair?

—-

Lois had been sitting on the couch in Ma and Pa’s house when Clark had finally come home. She first thought that her son had finally been found and it had made her feel so much better. Lois knows that it wasn’t only her to be overjoyed at the family coming back to her. 

. 

Except he had walked into the building alone. Lois knows that she told him to come back when her son had been found. But she had let him into the building anyway. It was about time that she had gotten some answers from him. 

Before she could say anything, Clark beat her to it, “There's a chance that he might not come home.”

“What?”

“The whole league had been looking for not only him but Bart, Cassie, and Tim. They were out on a mission together months ago and no one had been able to find them since. The four didn’t leave any traces when they disappeared.” Clark said.

Lois hadn’t been expecting that. She had believed without a doubt that her son would get brought back to her. What was she supposed to do when she found out that her son might not be returning. 

She went to the bathroom and she locked the door behind her. She had slid to the floor and lost her mind just like anyone else would. Lois didn’t come out of the room until Ma had called them for dinner. It took everything in her to not break in front of everyone else.

—-

Kan was… Well he didn’t really know. Neither of these kids were okay and no one else was acknowledging it but Aizawa. Nedzu just keeps sitting in his office drinking tea as if nothing was wrong with them.  In truth it had made him angry that the all knowing all powerful Nedzu sat back and watched as these kids worked themself into a grave. 

He could see the way that Cassie kept looking over her shoulder. Kan could see the way that Bart was pretending to be happy. Neither of them had been okay since the internship and there's a good chance that Aizawa's gremlins felt just as bad. In all of Kan’s years of teaching he had never had students quite like them.

Building trust wasn’t easy. Gaining trust with people who have already been hurt was even harder. No matter how much he wants to help these kids he can’t. Because if he does,  if he forces them to accept his help, that can destroy their trust just as quickly. 

Kan needs to wait until they come to him, but it feels like they could die in the time it takes them to ask for help. Sometimes when you ask for help it’s already too late. But there is no way that he would just be able to give up on his students. So what is he supposed to do if none of them know how to ask for them to intervene.

Still he waits for them to come and talk to him. In the meantime he watches and feels that he could be doing more. He knows that it’s not how it works and that the world isn’t cut and dry enough for him to say that if he intervened it would be okay in the end. 

Kan is scared for these kids who he knows has had to face more than anyone should at that age. He’s scared that they've never had anyone to truly help them. He’s scared that ‘uncle Eddie’ isn’t what he seems to be. He’s scared.

People like to think that heroes can do everything. That they can move mountains if they put their mind to it. That’s not how people work. No one who isn’t a hero knows that being a hero means regrets and failure. It means seeing the people that they never could have helped break. 

Heroes were never meant to hold the whole world on their shoulders. They were meant to make people feel safer. They were meant to protect the people. They were meant to do community service work that would be easier to do with powers than with their bare hands.

They were not supposed to be soldiers. No matter what the commission seems to think, they are just kids. Kids that had so much of their life torn away from them. Is that what happened to the kids?

Were they taken in by someone like the commission who just wanted to use them. Is that why they seem so terrified every time that a hero even looks at them? It wasn’t easy to spot, of course it wasn't. But once you get to know the kids and pay attention you will find out that something deeper than the surface.

You’ll see that they have habits that only fully trained heroes have. You’ll see that they can efficiently give information and absorb it as if it was a habit. You’ll see that they never let someone out of their sight if they think that the person is strong enough to be a problem.

He’s seen them watch some of the upperclassmen as if there would be a fight any second. As if they were looking for a fight and the kids were looking for a reason to protect themselves. Kan’s seen people like that. He’s seen them be hurt and it hurts every time. 

But what is he going to do if he can’t just ask the kids if they need help?

—-

“Hey when you said that there is always a place for me, where you serious about that?” Shinsou asked. 

Kon had picked up the phone and had no idea what he was talking about until he remembered a conversation that Tim and Cassie had. Kon put him on speaker before he had said anything. 

“Always.” He said, “You’re on speaker. Do you need someone to pick you up or do you just need an address?”

“Can one of you pick me up?” Shinsou asked.

“Of course.” Kon said.

He didn’t mention that he saw Tim and Cassie already putting their shoes on and walking out the door. He knew that they were going to be picking him up either way. It was more that he wanted the boy to feel that he had the choice.

“Cassie and Tim are on their way. Do you need me to keep talking while you wait?”

Chapter Text

When they were told that they were going to fight pro heroes the hero classes freaked out. All except for the chaos bringers. When normal people hear that they will be fighting pro heroes they tend to panic. When the team hears the same statement they decide that it sounds like a normal challenge for them.

“That sounds easy.” Cassie whispered. Bart nodded along with her. They were both ignoring the looks they had gotten from their other classmates. The team had to train with Batman; their teachers hadn’t stood a chance against them. Kan had seemed inclined to disagree but what was he to do?

“Cassie, Bart, you both know that I love you as friends. You know that I mean this in the nicest way I can possibly say it, but what are you two on?” Monoma asked from beside them. He looked as if he was reassessing their bored game fights,

“It’s not like it’s actually that hard to do.” Bart said.

Monoma and Pony blinked at them. They looked at the teacher, looked at their crazy friends, looked at the ground, then looked at each other. Something passed between them and they once again came to the conclusion that the people in front of them are just insane. 

Pony then said, “The craziest part is that I don’t doubt their capabilities. They have the full capability to win and I have no idea how. I probably don’t even want to know. And y’know what? I’m not going to ask how. Plausible deniability is a beautiful little thing.”

Bart laughed and put his hand on her shoulder. The two held eye contact for as long as Pony could hold up. He then said something along the lines of ‘ doing that sounds like a good choice to me.’

Then Monoma had slammed his head on the table with a whisper of “Don’t do that again, not today, not tomorrow. Preferably not ever.”

Class 1-A had reacted much the same when Kon had been the one to say it. Iida, Todoroki, and Midoriya had notably stayed silent when everyone was speaking their doubts. Good for them.

Aizawa had sighed into his mug before downing whatever remained of his coffee stash. Shinsou felt that right now. He wonders if Aizawa would let him make a run to the nearest caffe if he brought back a cup of coffee for the man.

He asked and the man had sadly said no. Well he guesses he’s resigned to his fate of being tired and done with this shit™. Shinsou is curious as to who thought it would be a good idea to make a bunch of barely trained teenagers fight heroes who had years of experience. Alas who was he to criticise how Nedzu runs the school? (Fully sane that's who he would be.)

They still had a few days until they would have to fight so at least they would have the chance to prepare themselves for it. Judging by the looks from some of the other kids he isn’t the only one. Shinsou chooses to ignore the look of planning on Tim and Kon’s face.  It just wasn’t something he needed to know. If they planned to bend law and ethics to their will then that's not something he needs to know.

When the day was over no one asked about why Shinsou was taking a different route home today. The two teachers take note that they went with the chaos bringers. Both of them had the same thought of ‘that might be one more kid for them to be worried about more than normal’.

Aizawa is pulling out more adoption papers as he thought about it. And if he was acquiring good tea for Nedzu to get the good lawyers from U.A so he and Kan can take custody when the kids finally come to them for help? Well that was nobody's damn business but their own. And Nedzu’s of course but everything ended being his business eventually.

Shinsou felt weird on the ride back. His friends were willing to just give him a place to stay, no questions asked. But he hasn’t done anything for them in turn. Yet they never had asked him for anything had they?

They trained him and they only told him to push himself to be ready for the field. They had helped him study. They helped get him gear that wouldn’t break at the slightest mention of strength. And now they were offering him a place to stay when he needed it.

He would like to know when he did something in his life to deserve them. To deserve Cassie who looked at him like she was proud every time she saw him. To deserve Kon who had talked about just how easy to break the mind is and how to use that to his advantage with and without a quirk. To deserve Bart who did everything he could to make the people around him happy. To deserve Tim who had backed out of a win so he could make it to his dream. 

Then he has Hatsume who is just a little bit crazy but a genius when you sit down and listen to her. Pony who has let him use his quirk on her to train with and let people help give him tips on his quirk. Monoma who again is a little bit crazy but will defend anyone against quirkists.

Monoma had found him getting harassed by some people from his old school and had cut that out then and there. He’s probably the first friend that Shinsou had made in the school on his own. Then he found out that they had some friends in common. It helped him trust the boy a little bit more. 

Shinsou trusts them. It’s hard, and it’s the first time in a long while. But he’s trying and that’s what makes it so much better for him. He knows that there are still some things being kept from him. Shinsou also knows that they don’t know everything about him. He trusts that the information will be shared with him when it becomes important.

—-

They watched each other's fights and Tim almost jumped the table to fist fight Bakugo because that is not how you treat a teemate. He can tell that the two had been arguing and on the field that would have gotten them killed. They passed on what Kon would like to call a miracle and a half. Midoriya helped Bakugo pass and Kon knows that he probably wouldn’t have helped if that was him in the test.

When it was Momo and Shoto’s turn it thankfully didn’t make Tim want to fist fight a classmate. They worked together well and had good plans when they talked it out. They could work on their situational awareness a little bit. (at least that is a bat’s opinion and they know way too much about their surroundings if they want to.) Watching the two bringers of chaos decided that they should also get Momo to work on her confidence. Maybe introduce her to Hatsume who would definitely enjoy someone who can make practically anything.

On second thought that idea might be a little too dangerous. Who knows what crimes against the universe she would be able to make with that power. Ehh it would be worth it to stop Momo from comparing herself to others as if she isn’t one of the most overpowered kids in the class.

Next was Tsu and Tokoyami. Both of them were doing okay but had struggled a bit with the amount of extras that they had to fight. They weren't as used to going up against a mass of opponents as they could be. Something to bring up to the teachers later.

Denki and Mina fail but it really isn’t that surprising. Anyone going up against Nedzu should have been prepared to fail. That was when Tim realized that the ‘fail and you don’t go to the training camp’ really cemented itself in his mind as a lie. 

Because Aizawa had to have known they wouldn’t win against the principal. And why would they deny extra training when it is obvious that they need it. U.A isn’t stupid no matter what villains like to believe. They don’t train students to get killed and that sounds like what would happen if they didn’t let the kids get the training that they need.

Then it was time for Tim and Kon to go. They would be going up against Vlad King and they had plans. Are all of them completely morally sound? No, probably not. However they were passing this exam if it killed them. Batman taught them to win at any cost except for taking a life. Tim hasn’t always followed that rule but he’s not the only one to ignore it for their survival. Tim will always believe that the crippling of Ra’s empire was worth it.

Class 1-A had watched as the two had done the exam. Even Bakugou had started to pay attention to them. They saw as they immediately moved to clear a building and set up some traps around it. They had been in different parts of the house waiting. 

Neither of them would have to see Vlad King to know he was coming. If the hero didn’t have better control over his speech he would have let out a stream of swears that you would hear from the average resident of crime alley. However he had done a lot of stealth missions where speaking would get him killed.

Vlad had made his way into the center room only to find that it had been empty. He did not expect for Tim to be silently signing for Kon to attack. Making sure that he didn’t cause any sound he flew and tackled the hero. 

The hero had been quick to recover and immediately started to try and take him down. He had realized a little too late that he wasn’t being ambushed by the other chaos bringer. While still keeping his defence up he searched for Tim but was unable to spot him. 

At least he was unable to spot him until Tim had dropped down from the ceiling and right behind him managing to be completely silent. Vlad recognised that he was a bigger threat and threw more of his energy at trying to fight Tim instead of Kon. 

Big mistake. Kon was the one who had the handcuffs the whole time and Tim was just the distraction. A little bit manipulative but hey, it worked. Vlad noticed that the handcuffs had been clasped around his wrist and the intercoms came on to shout students pass. Vlad king looked a little bit disappointed at his loss but he took it anyway.

—-

Later in the day it had been Cassie and Barts' turn to go up against a pro. They would be fighting Eraserhead. Not their first choice considering his quirk but they still took it anyway. Honestly they just wanted to try and fight Allmight.

Alas they got put with the most dangerous underground hero out there and they were going to have to be careful. There's no telling what his quirk would actually do to their powers. If he used it on them it could be worse for Bart or it could have no effect. They hoped that if he did use it they would be fast enough to turn off their powers.

When they stepped into the grounds they immediately started to move. Bart was the one who had taken the handcuffs. Cassie had led them through sporadic decisions of going down alleyways to try to throw off the hero if he was on their trail. Then they spotted him looking around trying to find them. 

Cassie had gone onto the roof to try and attack. Aizawa spotted them immediately and started to fight. Cassie dogged and Bart joined into the fight. Unlike Vlad his attempts to fight them had been even and he was more careful about who he attacked at witch time. That made it all that much harder for them to find an opening in the man's defence. That didn’t stop the two from being determined to beat him.

Aizawa had moved to attack Bart and that is exactly what he needed. Bart’s molecules like to move at speeds that make him able to faze through anything if he is really determined enough. He decided that it had been the perfect time to pull that ability out of his ass.

The punch had almost landed but went straight through him. Before Aizawa could process what was happening Cassie grabbed onto the hero's arn from the other side to stop him from moving. Bart had slammed the handcuffs onto the hero and listened as the speakers called out ‘students pass.’

Aizawa had taken off his mask and had a slightly suppressed expression on his face. The only way that they were able to tell was because they had to deal with Tim’s poker face and it was the one thing that they had not been able to fully learn how to decipher. They could tell what he was feeling but not to the extent that it was. 

When the duo had left the hero pulled his hair out from the hair tie keeping it from moving and his face immediately changed. What the hell had he just discovered about these kids? 

—-

When the day had ended and they were free to leave, Aizawa pulled his husband and Kan into an empty room so he could talk to them about the fights. Both had looked concerned at what this was about but waited for him to tell them anyway. Kan already had an idea on what this was about. Hizashi had asked his husband what had gotten this kind of reaction out of him. It’s not often that he loses his poker face for this kind of situation.

“When we were in the exams I used my quirk on the chaos bringers and it had no effect on them. My hair was up and my face was covered so they couldn’t tell that I was using it. Either something is wrong with my quirk or we have another thing to add to the list about these kids.” Aizawa said.

“What?” Kan said.

Aizawa started again “when we were in the exams-”

“I think that it was more of a what the hell do you mean than a question for you to repeat yourself. First, were you 100% sure that your quirk had been active and that they were using theirs?” Hizashi said.

“Yes I was using my quirk. And I know that they were using theirs because Bart was using his quirk while my fist had passed through as if he wasn’t even there. It’s how they managed to win the fight against me.” Aizawa said.

“Someone needs to tell us what we had gotten into with these students.” Kan said, rubbing his forehead. He could feel a migraine coming on.

Hizashi said, “how much do you want to bet that Nedzu knows about this? Like he knows that somethings off with them but he’s letting them dance circles around us because he can. It sounds like something he would do for his own entertainment.”

“I don’t like that as a possibility. Because if Nedzu doesn't know that something is wrong but he doesn't know what, then they manage to throw off the smartest hero in Japan.” Kan said.

—-

It had been a few days before Shinsou had finally cracked and asked why he hadn’t seen their uncle at all. (More importantly he was questioning why he hasn’t stopped by to kick him out yet.) He watched them look at each other to ask if they wanted to tell him something. 

Cassie nodded and Tim turned to him. Then Tim asked if he could keep a secret even if it meant lying to some people. Shinsou said yes without question. Really even if he did say no  he doesn't have any grounds to stand on as he had been staying with them since they had gotten back from the internships.

“Okay this is going to be hard to explain.” Tim started. “My uncle Eddie isn’t an actual person. He’s faker than when Hatsume tries to convince people that she is perfectly sane and that no she didn’t just cause an explosion.”

Shinsou didn’t know how to respond to that at the moment. They had lied to their teachers and had done it flawlessly enough for them to get away with it. He swears every time he learns something new that's important about them he has to reassess some of the things that he knows about them. 

Just how much more shit are they hiding that stays locked up? And why had they trusted him to keep this a secret? Shinsou could sell them out at any given moment but they believe that he wouldn’t to the point that they would tell him something like this. Well his mama didn't raise him but the foster homes he had been in sure as shit didn’t create a snitch. 

He told them that he wouldn’t tell anyone and he had meant it. It was the question of how much he would have to do to avoid suspicion. For all he knows, the heroes could a;ready be onto them. What would they do if they had found out about this. Shinsou really doesn't want to have to go back to jumping from foster home to foster home every time they decided that the villainous kid wasn’t worth it.

“I promise that this will stay between us for as long as you need it to.” Shinsou said.

Cassie's eyes softened and once again Shinsou saw just how much weight had been in them. “Thank you Hitoshi, it means a lot that you keep this silent.”

Chapter Text

They had been going to the mall to get some things when they had run into Shigaraki for the second time. Mostly it was Midoriya who had the run in, but of course Kon and Tim being the people that they are had to intervene with the situation at hand.

He had a hand around Midoriya’s throat and looked like he was threatening him. Honestly his threats don’t scare them. Because if he went through with them then he would end up screwing himself over.

“Shigaraki, I would say that it’s lovely to see you again but I hate you.” Kon said.

“I wouldn’t come any closer. If you do then the bush gets disintegrated. Is that what you want?” Shigaraki asked him.

Kon had to keep himself from rolling his eyes. Really that was the best that he could come up with. It would be a stupid move for him to make and the villain has to realize that. Unless someone has to spell it out for him.

“You're not going to do that.” Kon said matter of factly. 

“What makes you think that?” Shigaraki asked.

“Because it would probably be one of the worst decisions that you could make in this situation.” Kon said.

“No it’s-” Shigaraki was cut off.

“Actually yes it is. Here's why; you can’t afford the attention that it would put on you. If you did that here and now then everyone in the mall would see it. It would be on camera. People are already looking for you and this would double the efforts to find you.” Tim said. “Don’t tell me you're too stupid to realize that.”

Shigaraki had thought it over and as much as he loathed to admit it the hero brats had a point. He had left soon after that. The villain didn’t want to test his fate more than he already had. 

Tim had slipped something into Shigaraki’s pocket as the villain had slipped away. He didn’t think that it would stay with the villain for that long but it could get them some good information. Exactly what they needed on him.

Midoriya looked confused but didn’t actually ask any questions. He just mumbled about what the device could be and why they used it. There were a few good statements that went unanswered in case any of this left the mall. Midoriya was done talking about it when they met up with the rest of their class.

—-

So Shigaraki and Kurogiri were looking into hiring people. That doesn't concern them, not at all. The hiring also doesn't make them feel scared at the idea that they would have to take the evidence to the pro heroes. Hitoshi had been the first to say it and they all knew that the boy was right.

The device had been destroyed not that much later in the day. Hatsume and Tim had mourned the loss of it but had quickly moved on.

If they didn’t take the information they put themselves and their classmates at risk. So they turned in as many of the recordings as they could. Aizawa asked how they had gotten this and they told him. It was the first time that the team had truly given the heroes any information.

Aizawa paid attention to their words as they told him that they had been trained to drop things like that on people if it’s needed. Tim told about how he had been used to sneaking around since he was a kid and how that translates very well into hero work. Not once had Aizawa gotten a name of who trained them.

But this felt like trust. It felt as though the kids were finally coming to him about something. And they had been right about needing to add Shinsou to the list of kids they needed to watch out for. Not in a bad way, but in a ‘I don’t trust that these kids would make it to their adult years without some serious intervention’ kind.

He knows that someone had trained them and that's a start.Now they just needed to find out everything else about these kids. Like the name of the person who taught these children to not be children.

Aizawa swears that he just wants to talk to the person. He only wants to (shoot) talk to their trainer. He swears that shoo- talking is the only thing that's going to happen. What do you mean ‘pro heroes can’t get away with murder’ Midnight? Aizawa was a professional and had no such plans.

—-

Dabi could be described as many things. Right now the number one descriptor could be ‘way in over his head’. He was standing in a bar full of crazy people. There's the leader Mr. Speaks in video game terminology because he had no life whatsoever. There was the epitome of a theater kid taking it too far. There was a teenager with way too much energy. And let's not forget the person who probably writes love letters to Stain in his free time.

Listen, Dabi used to respect Stain. Key word there was used to. He read the reports about the take down of Stain. Now Dabi grew up around a pro hero and could tell when he was being lied to by one. So he did some of his own research.

The man had found out with way too much hacking that it was because they were covering up the fact that six hero students had been there. One of them had been his brother. Stain had attacked six kids and after that Dabi’s opinions of the man had quickly dropped. Now he had to keep himself from starting a fight with the guy who kept saying ‘stain this stain that’.

Kurogiri and Magne had to be the only two sane ones left in the building. And yes he could admit that he wasn’t. Though trashing Endeavor's office had been a huge help in him regaining his abilities to feel like a person. Dabi is glad that it seems his brother is at least trying to get out of their dad’s thumb. 

He missed Shoto. The boy probably didn’t even remember him that much since he had been so young when he ‘died’. Dabi’s biggest regret will always be the fact that he left his siblings behind. 

Dabi can’t go back for them now though. It’s too late for him to pretend that he can save Fuyumi, Natsuo, and Shoto from Endeavor. Would they even want his help after all these years? After he had abandoned them? 

 It’s too late for him to think about the situation's outcomes.

Shigaraki had called them over for the first mission as a team. He wasn’t told much about his role other than the fact that he would be a distraction. At least it’s not too bad of a job. Dabi didn’t like the sound of some of the other roles. 

—-

The bus ride to the training camp hadn’t been that bad. Until they had been dropped off the side of the mountain. The hero team had told them to start making their way down and maybe they would be able to get there before lunch was over. Kon had taken note of the fact that class 1-B wasn’t there and had decided that it was complete and utter bullshit.

However Kon decided that he wanted a challenge so he made his way down with Hitoshi and Tim. There were one too many instances of him having to pull the boy away from poison oak and poison Ivy. At some point he had to stop and tell the boy that if it had three big leaves and you don’t know what it is then it could be out to get you. He remembers being taught that rule by Pa Kent and had to cut out a train of thought real quick.

—-

Cassie and Bart had been waiting for the others too show up. She didn’t know what they were currently doing but their teacher looked like he was glad that he was not the students of class 1-A

Monoma had been doing his usual speech about how 1-A when they had finally showed up. Well some of them had. At least half the class had still been missing. Monoma cut his ramblings to say hi to Hitoshi, Tim, and Kon, then went back to speaking.

Tokage had asked why he would greet them if the boy had hated 1-A so much.  Monoma looked at her and said that they didn’t count. She had no idea what that was supposed to mean but she didn’t stick around to hear him talk about it. At some point Pony decided it would be funny to tackle him and they watched as the boy went down screaming. He would not be made aware that Cassie had gotten that on camera.

Monoma had tried and failed to get the girl off of her. At some point he had accepted his fate. This caused surprised looks from many onlookers who decided that it wasn’t their problem.

The boy pulled out his phone and started scrolling through a random website. If Cassie squints she can see- holy shit Monoma is on Ao3. Finally someone who she could read fanfiction with. Pony was reading it over his shoulder and Cassie was so happy that she could share her hyperfixations with someone. She was already pulling up links to her favorite fics to share.

Late that night all seven of them had been sitting together talking. Someone had pointed out that something feels wrong about this. Their old training had kicked in once again and Cassie told them to be careful. 

She then told them she was going to drop a camera or two just to make sure that they would be able to see someone coming to attack. It wasn’t foolproof but it was better than nothing. They had gone to tell their teachers and after all they had called before something happened, they had listened to them.

—-

Getting up at 5:30 in the morning was not a fun thing for most of them. The team had been used to terrible sleep schedules and so was Hitoshi but none of them wanted to be awake. Alas they had to get up less they missed their training. 

1-B had mostly been focusing on endurance training.1-A was going through the quirk assessment test again. Still, even with how easy today was gonna be, they were still looking for their shoulders. They didn't like that it was quiet, especially not with the fact that Shigaraki was recruiting. 

Tim already had ideas on where the base was, but nothing was concrete. If all else fails, Tim just releases a file on everything they have the villains so far.  Honestly, it's too much to ask for one normal field trip. Who was he going with Miss Frizzle? 

For a few days training had gone like that. Expecting something to happen and the team waiting to have to fight for their lives again. Of course, it was finally when they were calm that something happened. 

It had started with the blue fire in the forest. Cassie checked the camera’s and noticed that there were multiple people in the forest who shouldn’t be. Worst of all was the fact that they had already been split up. They have been doing rounds just to make sure that nothing happened and of course that's when it came back to bite them in the ass.

Tim had gone on the phone with him and immediately started talking. He wasn't fully sure that the words coming out of his mouth were actually words, but he was speaking. Why couldn't they have a normal damn day for once? 

Aizawa kept trying and failing to get his attention. Tim brushed past any ‘kid’ and ‘I need you to talk to me about what's going on.’ That’s what he was trying to do if you would listen to him Aizawa.

Eventually Aizawa pulled out the one thing that could get him to listen. Tim could never tell you what it was. Whether it was the tone, the words, or the exact match of the voice. But all it took was Peregrine REPORT. Aizawa didn’t even know who that statement was practically trademarked by.

And Tim was trained to do one thing when he heard that word. Speak. And that’s when everything unraveled. Who was with them and against them. What injuries they were fighting with and what they had on them. When they think they will run off of supplies or be taken down. Where they were. Why the situation was so dangerous. How they had gotten to that position. In this moment a bat is not to forget a single important detail

Peregrine did not recognise that in thinking he had been told that by Batman because of the high stress, he didn’t realize that he had called his teacher that. He didn’t recognise that his voice had shifted and his posture had straightened as Bruce had trained him to. He didn’t see the way that his classmates stiffened at his change.

Because with those words he had a job to do and like hell was he going to disappoint Bruce  Aizawa like that.

What Aizawa had known at that moment that Peregrine hadn’t was that the response would be filled for later. Because no hero in training responds to that so perfectly, it takes pro’s years to retain that. Not even his own student’s could be taught that communication. And most of all he didn’t know who Batman was to elicit that sort of response. 

His student did a 180 flip and simply at the idea of it has been this “batman.” One more stone in the path leading Tim and his friends to be a part of experimentation and child soldier training.He doesn't think he’ll like the destination it will lead to. 

Then the phone went silent and he could no longer hear his student explaining every little detail about the conversation. Maybe he just lost it in favor of doing something important. Aizawa couldn't focus on it. He had more things that he needed to do. He needed to make sure all his kids had got to safety.

Hitoshi had been alone when he had gotten jumped. He reacted, but not quick enough to save himself. He barely got a glimpse of the person before he got knocked out. The person had a black and grey suit that Hitoshi just knows Hatsume would have slandered if she had been there to see it. 

Monoma had been in a similar situation when he had been knocked out. For him it was someone who had the features of a gecko who had gotten the drop on them. Soon enough these three students had gone without a trace.

—-

When the fire had been put out and everyone they could find was in the cabin the teachers did a headcount. Three of them were missing, they noted with grim horror.  It wasn’t even a question of who it was. 

If you entered the room at that moment you could tell who the most pissed off people were. Pony, Cassie, Bart, and Kon all looked like they were about to summon something from the afterlife just to sick it on the people who had taken their team.

And they knew exactly who had done it. This is why they have been getting new people to join them, isn’t it? So they could pull something like this off. Like hell were they going to let this stand. 

They had information and they had the information to find them. Cassie isn’t going to let them be lost even more than they already were. (she ignored the voice in the back of her head that was asking if it was her fault for this.)

One of the wild wild pussycats had come over to ask them if they needed anything. Cassie looked her in the eyes and asked for permission to kill one of the people responsible for this. The woman had gotten the look in her eyes as if she had heard that before but shook her head anyway.

Cassie then told her that she would be of no use for them at this moment. Mandalay didn’t like where that was going. She didn’t like the fact that the kids who had seemed so bright were waiting on permission to kill someone as if they were going to ever be granted that. She had a lot to think about.

—-

Damian and Prudence had found Lacuna’s scientist and got the information out of her. There is nothing left for anyone to find of her. If Lacuna comes looking then all he will find is a note that will point them to a new enemy. (Said enemy being Damians grandfather of course.)

They only had one last thing that they needed to solve. How in the hell are they supposed to figure out how to apply her notes into creation. There was only one bullet left for them to reverse engineer so they had to be very careful when they took it apart. They can’t just ask the dead scientist to tell them how to make them. Well they could but there was no way in hell that Damian was going to ask Constantine for more help.

After everything that had happened, the duo were determined to figure out how to make them even if it’s a one time thing. So they slowly translated pages upon pages of data. They took the time to slowly remove small parts from the bullet while they had taken hundreds of pictures so they didn’t mess anything up.

But they were so close to finding them. After months of some of the world's best heroes searching, Damian was finally going to find his brother and Prudence would find her friend. Nothing was going to stop them from bringing the four back home to their universe now.

—-

Chapter Text

Tim Drake had not been knocked out many times in his life compared to other heroes, contrary to popular belief. He hated waking up disoriented and unaware as would anybody. Because he had been the son of Jack and Janet and the CEO of WE he had been kidnapped multiple times for ransom. So waking up in a base in the middle of nowhere was a familiar but unwelcome feeling.

He keeps his eyes closed but listens into the situation around him. Five other people in the room with him, two currently arguing over… Mario Kart? Y’know what, not his problem. Two of them are definitely other hero course students.

One of the students was struggling to get out of their binds. Judging by their movements their hands are either duct taped or ziptied. On the other side of him he hears someone awake but not making any move to escape. Probably because he knows that it’s not likely to be successful.

Slowly Tim acts like he’s waking up and his eyes get assaulted by the ugliest bar that he had ever seen. Seriously even if they are villains, they could still have the common dignity to have some class. Even Gotham criminals have more self respect than this.

“Finally awake huh, you took way longer than your friends here did.” came Shigaraki's voice. Somehow he managed to make it more crusty than his voice. He wondered what boy bands he had been in to achieve that.

Tim looks to the sides of him and sees Hitoshi and Monoma. Out of all the damn people that he could be kidnapped with! Neither of them likely had any experience in a situation like this. Out of his class he wished that he would be with Momo or Todoroki because at least then they would have most likely been in a ransom situation. 

Anyway that’s not important right now. What's important is keeping his friends alive. He’s not optimistic enough to assume that they can make it out unharmed. Tim will do anything to keep them safe whether that means he gets hurt in the process or not. He doesn't think that they would appreciate that sentiment. 

“Well it was either stay asleep or listen to your gravely ass talk. And in getting to sleep longer I pissed you off. It was a win for both parts.” Tim said, channeling every bit of remaining Robin sass™ that he still had.

Mr. Turtle came over carrying a medkit asking to check his wounds over. Oh hell no. They are not going anywhere near Tim if he can help it. He’s not afraid to bite through a finger like Jason had taught him to.

“I’ll be fine, a little infection never killed anybody.” Tim said.

“Actually yeah it did, it killed a lot of people.” Spinner said. “Look if you think that I can’t handle it, I’m a doctor.”

“You also so happen to be a villain who most likely had assisted in our capture. I cut my losses.” Tim said. 

“Did the program that turned you into a child soldier teach you that or did you learn that on your own terms?” Spinner asked. His voice was cold but his face had given more away than he had likely planned for. He was concerned.

Tim decided he might as well play it up. His eyes widened just enough to show that he hadn’t expected that comment. Ha! Like he would ever let his poker face drop like that, Ra’s would have killed him in his globe trotting extravaganza if he had ever shown that much emotion.

Spinner continued at the sight “you weren't expecting us to spot that were you? It wasn’t that hard to tell when you pay attention.” 

Hitoshi had looked like he had gained questions that he knows better than to ask now. This might be the tipping point for Tim to spill everything to him. When they get out of this Tim knows that he owes some people answers. (He ignores the part in his mind that Bruce spoke to him in. The one that would have told him never to trust someone of a different universe. To never give up any information on yourself.)

He continued to make his way over to Tim and the boy said fuck that. Tim bit into the man's arm hard. Blood had started to seep through the bite and Tim had smiled. He got what he deserved. That’s what he gets for being a Stain supporter around him.

“I wonder if you were able to spot that happening. Did you know that a person can have one of the most dangerous bites? Mainly it’s because of the bacteria residing in a person's mouth. Sometimes a bite can be dangerous enough to visit a hospital. Do you have anything to say about that doctor? ” Tim said. 

Monoma had looked at him as if he had just watched a man lose his mind in front of him. Hitoshi looked as if he had somewhat expected it. Not enough to put money down on a bet but enough to not be very surprised. Tim wondered if Cassie had taught him the tactic in their training sessions. Something to ask about when he wasn’t currently stuck in a chair.

Spinner stumbled back like he hadn’t been prepared for someone to be able to attack like that. Sucks to suck, Tim is going to assert his dominance in any way possible. The medic had just been in the wrong place at the wrong time. At least it will teach him not to anger a bat. 

The villain stayed in the room and cleaned his new probably soon to scar wound while Shigaraki left. Which, rude don’t just leave your injured teammate here with the person who injured him. Whatever happened to looking after your fellow villain. Once again Tim felt the need to acknowledge the lack of class these villains had. Where did they get their teamwork from, the back alleyway of a Denny's?

—-

At some point another villain by the name of Magne had come into the room to help Spinner. Help with what you might ask? Well they are currently trying to indoctrinate the three hero students into their little villain group. As if he would join them. Tim would sooner become Nygma’s henchman than work for the crusty bitch.

“Someone had to have trained you to be a weapon, kid. You couldn’t have just gained all that on your own and I know better than to assume you learned all that from UA. Whoever holds control of you, we can get rid of them. And we can do that for you friends too.” Magne said.

Tim could only- sorry he could only laugh at that. Shoulders shaking, maniac, almost joker sounding, laughter. Because these people really thought they could stand a chance against Batman? Sorry that’s not right he didn’t do that much to train him to fight. No, no, no, these people thought they could beat Lady Fucking Shiva . That just makes Tim’s laughter even louder and now tears are escaping him.

Shinso and Monoma look at Tim as if he had lost his goddamn marbles. And yeah he did, years ago, when he had first become a bat. Scratch that true gothamites were born into it. These losers wouldn’t know batshit if it was hailing down on them

“Look, I think it’s cute that you are doing this under whatever false pretenses of help you are trying to give. But none of you would stand a chance against the people who trained me. One of them literally used to try and kill her students.” Tim said. That had gotten some looks from Hitoshi. Tim signaled that he would give information when he could

The villains had sat there stunned. They could never have expected that kind of admittance from the kid. It’s not the information that they had wanted, but it was the only thing that Tim would be willing to cough up about his training. They would just have to live with it.

 “Also, all of you are so hypocritical that it isn’t even funny. You talk about getting me out of a situation where someone holds control over me. But what of your friends Tomura and Kurogiri? Do you not notice the hold that bonds that sits over their wrists?” Tim said.

Both of them had looked at eachother confused. They didn’t know what the hero student could be talking about. Sure the villain had said some concerning things about his sensei but… Could it really be as bad as the boy said it was.

“What?” Magne  whispered under her breath.

“In Spinner's own words ‘it wasn’t that hard to tell when you paid attention’. Tell me, did you pay attention enough to notice that he had been treated like that? Or did he just brush you off and say something rude to get you to drop the subject?” Tim said.

Once again they had looked at eachother and called for a girl named Toga to replace them on their rotations. The girl had come down and had some… energy. Tim was slightly uncomfortable with it and so had Tim’s friends. If Tim had to guess, this was most likely a side effect of a quirk or its drawback.

—-

A few hours later Toga had switched watching shifts with a magician and an emo. Tim had relaxed with the change but not by much. Every time someone new walked through the door it was a brand new unknown. If there was one thing that a vigilante didn’t like, it was unknown variables.

“We would like to once again bring up our offer for you to join-” Dabi started.

“Listen My Chemical Romance we have already told your merry band of motherfuckers that we’re not going to join you. How hard is it for you to take no for an answer.” Tim said. His comment drew out some laughter from his friends and Mr. Compress. See Kon! He told you that he was funny.

“I'm sorry, did you just call me my chemical romance? What the hell does that even mean?” Dabi asked with a bewildered expression on his face.

That got more laughter from Mr. Compress. Obviously that was a sign that Tim should continue. So with a straight face he said “When I was a young boy my father took me into the city.”

Monoma, the theater kid that he was, had to do as many dramatic movements as he could while chiming in. “to see a marching band. He said ‘son when you grow up would you be the savior of the broken, the beaten and the damned?” 

Slowly Hitoshi was dragged into it. “He said, will you defeat them? Your demons and all the non-believers, the plans that they have made?”

Together they shouted “Because one day, I'll leave you a phantom to lead you through the summer. To join the black parade.”

Dabi was sitting there like he was having a crisis. He was muttering what the hell with his head in his hands. It didn’t help that the students went all in for their rendition of the song. Mr. Compress had been laughing alongside them. Good for him to get the chance to lightly bully his teammate. Sometimes you just have to call them emo in the most indirect way possible, it builds character.

At some point when their laughter had died down Mr. Compress had cleared his throat and said “This is why teenagers scare the living shit out of me.”

Tim didn’t have any capacity to respect these villains with the state that they were in right now. However, the villain had just gained whatever semblance of it that Tim could give. The joys of bonding over making people regret walking into a room.

—-

Later when the bar was mostly in silence and they were being less monitored, Tim had finally made some connections.  What he didn’t know was if he wanted to share those with his fellow students or not. The answer was probably a no, but hey why not?

They were all bored and looking for something entertaining. Why not start up a betting pool? Damn Tim really did miss Gotham if he was willing to start gambling.

“I bet you 1,000 yen that the villain Dabi is Todoroki Toya.” Tim said out of nowhere. That had immediately got his friends' interests peaked.

 “Sorry what did you just bet on?” Hitoshi asked. He had had a long (maybe few) days and his brain was not functioning at full capacity.

“Right now, I'm calling it. I’m putting money down on the idea that Dabi might be the supposedly dead Todoroki sibling that they had never found the body of.” Tim said.

“What led you to this conclusion?” Monoma asked.

“A lot of things. I don’t fully know how to explain it but I swear that he is.” Tim said. 

Both the other boys had nodded and taken that into account. It was information that could be used later and it was something they needed. It was best if they could get any leverage possible before the heroes arrived.

—-

It had been a while later and Tim felt kind of stupid that he hadn’t come to the realization earlier. Really it was a mistake on his part for not paying enough attention to the people holding him hostage. Still it was a shock to put two and two together to figure out that a teammate had run into Dabi before.

“Wait, I recognise you. You're the one who helped Bart and Shoto vandalize Endeavor's hero agency.” Tim called out. 

“You know him!” Dabi asked.

“I’m sorry, Bart what!” Monoma called. He had a look on his face that had shown he didn’t believe what he was saying. As if he believed that Bart could never do something that chaotic. Boy was he in for some shocking discoveries. Who thought that Bart wouldn’t break the rules? People who hadn’t taken their eyes off the boy long enough for him to break a law, that's who.

“Long story short, Endeavor sucks, reminded him of someone who definitely should have treated Kon better, Bart got ideas, Todoroki joined in, after they got back from a craft store they saw him and he helped them with their plans. But seriously, you helped them?” Tim asked.

Dabi had rubbed the back of his neck and nodded his agreement. Oh that just added more fuel to Tim’s fire in believing that he was the dead Todoroki. He was giving a lot of conspiracy theorists a run for their money.

“Okay listen up Toya. Can I call you Toya? I’m going to call you Toya.” The look on his face said everything and Tim continued. “Can we agree to make some deals? I feel as though both of us would benefit from them. Plus I bet I could pinpoint exactly what you want.”

The villain had hesitated but he knew that the cards were stacked in the boy's favor. So he nodded and tried to pretend that the kid's words had no effect on him. The boy could definitely see through his bullshit and to- Dabi wasn’t stupid enough to think that he fooled him.

“Great! What would you say if I told you that I could ruin your father. I mean drag his name so deep into the mud that he drowns in it. Don’t think about why I’m asking, just give me a solid answer.” Tim said.

“I would probably say you're full of shit normally. I would probably say that the strings attached to a deal like that would end up getting me killed. But I have a feeling that you are the type of person who could get shit like that done and quickly.” Dabi said.

“Here's the deal: you have to leave the league. When the heroes show up, and they will, you go with us. You answer a few questions from a dear detective that we’ve met before. We bring you back to life and have you talk to your sibling while opening a court case after revealing many recordings and documents.” Tim said.

“Why do I have a feeling that those were not obtained in legal fashion?” Dabi asked.

“Oh my dear friend, never ask where someone like me gets the information from. It gives you plausible deniability and saves the headache.”

Dabi looked like he was questioning his choices. He didn’t have many and not all of them were good. But this way he would get to see his family again. This way he could put an end to Endeavors career. At least this is the least likely way to get him killed. He wasn't going to lie and say that his plans was any better.

“I’m in.” Tim had caught the villain hook, line, and sinker.

—-

Cassie was pissed. So was the rest of them but she was angry beyond belief. It felt that no one was actually doing anything about their friend's disappearance and she was losing her mind. She was this close to just sneaking out and finding them herself.

It wouldn’t be the first time that she had been a part of a crazy rescue mission that the heroes didn’t want her on. The only thing that had been stopping her was the heroes monitoring them. 

She knows why they were there, okay. After all the team had gone after a serial killer whose main targets were heroes. But she knew damn well that she could lead that mission. At the very least she deserved to be a part of it.

Yet here they are, stuck inside of U.A’s walls as their friends aren't just missing. They were taken by a group of villains and she had been helpless to stop them. Just like she had been helpless to stop them from getting thrown into this universe-. God she needs to stop thinking right now.

Chapter Text

If there was one thing that young justice hated it was doing nothing while their friends were hurt. That's exactly what these heroes have them doing. Waiting around isn’t going to get anything done. They know it, their friends know it, hell the teachers probably even know it as well.

They had been (interrogated) interviewed by detective Tsukachi to see if they knew anything about why the three had been taken. None of them had any idea as there was no good reason for it. All three of them would never even consider joining the villains and their plans.

Come to think about it, the only reason that they are still there is either for Tim to keep up a front and make a plan. For all they know he’s planning to systematically take down the whole organization.

So they sit back and they watch themselves for some time. They don’t share any plans in front of the heroes and they move carefully. Getting caught now would make everyone that trained them disappointed. Damn does this remind them all of their early young justice days. Everything felt so much simpler those days.

Eventually after a certain mark of time hits they decide that it’s time that they get involved in the situation. Their friends have been gone for too long and none of them liked the implication that it has. They know that if their friends are hurt then the laws are going to get ignored and the team will do something drastic. 

One night when the eyes are off them they sneak around U.A.  Around an hour and a half later the team plus a few others showed up in class 1-A. Iida, Momo, Kirishima, Todoroki, and Midoriya had walked in and silently shut the door behind them. Todoroki locked it and turned back to them.

“Are we sure that this is a good idea?” was the first question that was asked.

“It is better than just sitting around and waiting for a hero to do it.” Cassie said.

“Caissie this sounds a lot like I did when I was talking about Hosu.” Iida said hesitantly.

“Hosu worked because we were there, Iida. And unlike Hosu we don’t plan to engage in direct combat. It will be a quick get in and get out mission. Even if you don’t believe us, we have done jobs like this before.” Kon said.

Everyone in the room looked like they had questions at the last statement but had kept quiet. None of the team had felt the need to give them information on that now. Maybe if it was important enough they would tell later. But right now they had shit to do.

“Here's the plan.” Cassie said.

—-

Sneaking out of the building had been relatively easy all things considered. They thought that with their track record the security would be a little bit tighter. Or maybe Nedzu just hadn’t factored in that a bunch of highschool students would be ballsy enough to sneak out of one of the most notable hero schools in Japan. 

It was enough of a shock that no hero had even seen them sneaking out of the building. Once again Bart thinks about the fact that these heroes really need to up their game. This never would have flown with the justice league. He blames the hero commission for making celebrities instead of protectors. 

When they got to the station Todoroki used Endeavors credit card to get them tickets. All of them looked the other way as the prices were up charged for them. Todoroki respects this person's audacity.

They got onto the silent train and watched as the sights had passed them all by. The kids were shaky and full of nerves. They were going to walk into enemy territory to steal their friends back. So many things could go wrong so quickly. But they couldn’t afford to think about that right now. 

Iida was scared if he was being honest. Not too long ago they had done some vigilante business for him. When he was doing it he almost ran head first into danger and got himself killed. Now he’s doing something similar for his… could they be considered friends? He guesses that breaking the law and going against some heroes to do the right thing together had to make people into friends. 

But that wasn’t the point. It felt like now the roles were reversed but they still had so much more experience. How the hell had they gotten this good. Iida almost wished that they would teach him. At least then he wouldn’t feel like he was doing everything wrong. The four always had so much confidence and they kept it when a member was missing. How does he learn to have that much faith in himself and his friends? 

He didn’t voice any of these thoughts. He knew that he couldn’t in public. Iida almost wished that Kirishima and Momo were involved in the incident because at least he could ask them for advice. Iida decided that his best option right now would be to calm down. 

When they got off the world around them felt almost too silent but so loud at the same time. It felt like the calm before the storm and none of them had a single idea why. They stopped at a store and Cassie made sure that all of them had good disguises.

Midoriya pointed out the broadcast that U.A was showing all over Japan. It was an apology. It was them saying that they will do better to watch over their students. It was them saying that they will do everything in their power to get their missing students back.

Everyone around them was talking about how U.A was at fault for these kids getting hurt. They talked about how they shouldn’t have let this happen in the first place. They talked as if there was anything they could have done to see this all coming. 

The answer was that they couldn’t have. The truth was that they had tried everything they could to keep the students safe. People talked as if they had any idea what was actually happening. They didn’t And it angers the students that the people think they do because they couldn’t be more wrong.

Before any of them could get angry and start a fight, they got dragged away by young justice. They couldn’t afford to draw any attention to themselves even if they were disguised right now. That is how they get caught or worse, killed for their stupidity.

This is their first mission under cover so the team can’t blame them. The team can say that they were acting foolish and they need to work on sneaking around undetected. If even one person found out that they were sneaking around on a mission it would get them caught in the future. Experience is the best way to learn how to act.

All of them keep moving no matter their feelings on the topic around them. Sometimes you have to swallow your pride to save your life. Kon had a feeling that their teacher would agree with the sentiment. 

—-

Aizawa was tired. He was scared. The hero was worried. None of these were a good mix for an underground hero. Those emotions meant that they felt like they were doing their job wrong. Nothing good ever comes from a concerned underground hero who feels cornered. 

What was he going to do if he couldn’t get his students back? There was still so much that they needed to learn about the students' situations. Aizawa was so damn close to figuring out what had happened to them but the line just had to go silent. His kids just had to be taken.

He also isn’t a fool. He knows that it won’t be long before the rest of the chaos bringers go hunting. The question was how long did he have and what would he have to do to stop the impending murder. Aizawa didn’t even know if he could do that considering he was planning to commit one himself.

Then he gets the call that the remaining chaos bringers plus five more were now missing as well. The worst part of all of this was that he couldn’t do a damn thing about it. Aizawa was so busy going and talking to the press that he couldn’t even make sure that they weren’t out getting themselves killed.

His kids were going to be the death of them and he had the feeling that they knew and didn’t care. Aizawa missed just being able to expel his whole class without any problem. At least then he wouldn’t have gotten so attached to them. At least he wouldn’t have to watch them get themselves killed.

And oh, did they all remind him of Oboro. He can see it in the way that they joke around. He can see it in the way they walk into dangerous situations. It killed him to look at those kids and think that they could meet the same fate if he wasn’t careful. 

—-

“27 bottles of beer on the wall 27 bottles of beer. You take one down and pass it around, 26 bottles of beer.” Hitoshi sang.

They had been doing this for a while at a certain point they had decided that if they were going to be annoyed then so were the villains. The three had been taking turns doing whatever they could to be annoying. It was as if they had all spontaneously gained little sibling energy.

“You do realize that all of this ends the moment that you let us leave right? It is you keeping us here that causes this pain for yourself.” Tim said when Hitoshi had finally gotten down to zero. None of the villains had made the move to let them go.

It was Monoma’s turn to start being a nuisance. He had just the right thing. He started singing “Divorced. Beheaded. Died. Divorced. Beheaded. Survived. And tonight , we are liveeee! Listen up, let me tell you a story. A story that you think you've heard before We know you know our names and our fame and our faces. So I picked up a pen and a microphone. History's about to get overthrown.”

Tim’s first thought had been that it reminded him of Jason. He thinks about the times that he would sit on the mans couch while Jason blasted music and cooked. Wow he misses his brother's cooking. 

He would never admit to it, but he thought his cooking was better than Alfreds. Tim knew that everyone in the family would fight him for a comment like that, especially Jason himself. But somehow, somehow  it had managed to always be better than Alfreds.

Dabi didn’t say anything, but he could recognise the look on his face. The desperate need to go home. The fear that you would never be able to. Was that why the kid was so willing to help him? Because they were similar in that way.

For the next while he thinks more about that than the blonde’s rendition of Six the musical. It took every bit of mental control that he had to tune out the singing. Is this his punishment for everything he had done in his life? Dabi knew that he deserved it but he thought that he would at least be dead when it happened.

The villain is still thinking over every part of the decision that he had made. That deal still seemed worth it to him. He would finally get the justice that he had deserved. It just didn’t feel like he had the right to be happy.

Why would he get to be free after he allowed his siblings to be caged for so long. Why couldn’t he have just gone back for them. Dabi doesn't think that he would ever be able to make it up to his siblings. He would still do everything in his power to try.

—-

It was a few hours later when the team had finally found the villain's base. It was some run-down bar Cassie knows Tim would be bitching about. They would never forget the time that the boy had insulted the quality of the warehouse to their captors face.

Kon pulled out a device and started hacking into every camera that they had in the building. He relayed that there were eight possible enemies in the building. Their friends were currently in the room with a Stain stan, a washed up theater kid, and was that… the emo that helped Bart and Todoroki trash Endeavors office. 

Something ain't right with that but they have more pressing matters at the moment. It was then that they realized that they would probably have to start a fight. Bart told Momo to make a few flash weapons. When she did Cassie, Kon and Bart had entered from different directions. 

Todoroki said screw it and followed in with them. It ended with Momo and Kirishima being the only ones who stayed outside. Risky on one hand, smart on the other. Slowly they cleared out rooms as Kon signaled where it would be safe to move down. 

All of them had items to encourage the villains to stay asleep if they needed them too. It probably wouldn’t look the best for them to use but hey, you gotta do what you gotta do. They keep fighting their way through. 

Soon enough the villains realized that they were there and one of them started making doubles of the people for them to fight. It wasn’t fun but they were working through it. Todoroki said that he was going to freeze off some of the halls. Kon replied not to let any of it near Bart.

Bart snuck in behind the three villains. Tim saw him and what was in his hands. He told their friends and surprisingly, one of the villains to close their eyes. Bart dropped the cylinder and they (didn’t) watch as the room went up in a blinding white light.

This gave the boy an advantage and he knocked down two of the villains and went for the third. After he tackled the emo he had met before, Tim called for him to stop. Bart gave a questioning glance but backed off and moved to untie them.

He got to Tim and saw the handcuffs holding him to the chair. Before he said anything the emo came over and opened the lock. Once again Bart sent a questioning glance and Tim mouthed ‘tell you later’.

The rest of their rescue team came into the room and saw the state that they were in. Cassie glanced from Dabi to Tim and asked “who the hell is he?”

“I’ll tell you later. If anyone asks, for now tell them that he was also a hostage. Just trust me, this is important.” Tim said.

That was the last vaguely calm moment that they got before everything had gone to shit. Because then the pro’s had shown up. And with them, came the most notorious man in the underground. The one person Tim had wished that he wouldn’t ever meet in this world. 

He reminds Tim way too much of Ra’s except this one has the power to take and give people powers (uglier too but it wasn’t like he was gonna do a side by side comparison). All for one is dangerous and Tim has known that since the first time that he had gone looking in the underground for ways to get back.  And now the man stands across from them in a destroyed bar. Goddamn it.

Tim couldn’t remember much from what happened after that. He had started fighting like he had expected too. Momo made him a staff to fight with. It’s not exactly his but he could make do.

Then something happened. He felt a hand on his shoulder and felt an unwelcome amount of energy entering his body. What the hell was that? He was held in place for a few more seconds before he was released. Tim didn’t know what it was but he had dropped to the ground screaming. He spotted All For One and had the sinking feeling of what just happened. 

The energy was wrong and it felt like his immune system had temporarily worked against him. But that couldn’t be right because if it was his immune system this would be worse. He remembered the times when he first got his spleen removed and he wasn’t careful enough. 

He couldn’t move  and he felt like every moment that he struggled against the energy his body started to hate him more. Is this what dying felt like? Damn Jason, he has some apologies to give up. Tim would like to officially say that he would prefer having to sit through a chess game with Ra’s than do this. What hell has been released for him to ever say something like that.

He thinks that this might be worse than the time that he had lost his spleen. Did Ra’s still have that? He has to make a note to steal that from him. Then he blacked out. The villain watched as this happened. He didn’t care about someone hoping to be a hero. He had things to do. He might as well make a symbol of what would happen if they continued to involve themselves in his business. 

All for one vanished and took the league with them except for Dabi who had been fighting with them. None of them knew what to do at the disappearance of the league of villains. But that was the least pressing matter.

Bart noticed from across the field and ran to rescue his friend. It was too late. The damage had been done and Bart didn’t even know what happened. 

Cassie and Kon had met them and Cassie started screaming to get him to a doctor. They didn’t realize that it was too late for Recovery Girl to do anything about it. Now all they could do is wait as the quirk melded to fit inside of Tim’s body. The only one who knew what was wrong was All Might. 

People swarmed them and they were rushed into an ambulance to get back to U.A. They tried to get the three to ride separately but like hell were they going to leave their friends' side like that. He just passed out in the middle of the battle and could have died. They have to be there to make sure that he is protected.

—-

Throughout the night Tim kept waking up and going back to sleep. He kept saying random things and a few times Kon had been mistaken for one of his siblings. They didn’t like seeing this from their friend. It felt like they had failed him. Just one more thing to add to their list of times that they could have done better.

None of them left his side at that time and Aizawa kept walking into the room to check on them. If it was anyone else they would have glared at him and told him to get the fuck out. But the fact remains that this is one of the people that they respect. The teacher probably doesn't realize it but he had done a lot for them. 

Chapter Text

“Do you think he’s going to be okay?” Bart whispered into the night. They had been in the hospital for hours and still nothing had changed about his condition. He was still writhing and shaking. None of them had seen their friend like this in a long time and all of them hated what it meant for his condition.

“It’s Tim, of course he will be.” Kon answered. All of them ignored that he had to be in his voice.

They sat in silence for a while. They didn’t know what to say to make it feel like they will be fine. Because Tim might not be and they hated it. All of them had seen what happens when a member of the team dies. The others will go to the ends of the earth to bring them back. This world wouldn’t be able to handle them if Tim died. The one thing they knew in that situation was that bitch for one would certainly deserve whatever he got. 

But while they were waiting for their friend to make it they couldn’t make any moves. If they were to kill the villain then they would have to have all their team members in tact and form a suitable strategy. 

Kon doesn't think about the fact that he was planning for a situation that might never have a chance to occur. Tim might never be able to get back at all for one. The three might have to go on a rampage on their own. 

Right now he had to calm himself down. He forced himself to listen to the sound of his friend beside him. Kon listened to his slightly more elevated than normal heartbeat. It was all that he could do to keep himself from a spiral. What would the justice league say if they could see the team now.

—-

Aizawa and Kan watched as their students went through the five stages of grief and were planning for their sixth. Both teachers would be inclined to help get revenge against the villain who did this if the idea of who it was didn’t scare the shit out of both of them. They both knew who did this.

Eraserhead had spent years in the underground. Going from taking down shady organization to organization. He knew who the Boogeyman of the underworld was. He took any chance to stay far the fuck away from him as did any other underground pro hero.

Vlad King didn’t know as much but he had heard the stories. Of a man who could take and take quirks. It was an old story parents told their kids to make sure that they weren’t acting like fools. Kan has always believed that there is a truth hidden in any story. Aizawa had always agreed with him on that part.

Now they had to watch as their student and those around him had to suffer the effects of a person who everyone believes to be a story. What the hell is fair about that? The worst part is that they have to face the world as if everything has gone back to normal because of the commission.

What is a hero- no a teacher supposed to do in this situation? When there is a student harmed and a minimum of 10 students traumatized from it.  A drink would be a damn good place to start but that’s just his opinion.

—-

Two days into the hospital stay was when everything truly got worse. His friends had watched as different animal features had spread across him and retreated back into his skin. Kon could hear the crunches and squishes as the features came and went. Once again he is reminded of the sound of Cassie pulling the bullet out of her arm all those months ago. 

Just one more thing to haunt them isn’t it. The sight of his face, the sound of him crying for someone that wasn’t even there with him, It all just adds to the list of things they will never unsee. Is this all that being a hero means for people like them? Death and tragedy? More if the world decides it’s not done with them and brings them back from death. 

Bart thinks that all of them had gone way too long without seeing Dinah. What would she say now? She’d tell them that the best is always what we want to happen but death is a part of living. She’d ask what was more important, losing yourself because of your friend's pain or becoming better because of it. None of them can give an answer now. 

Everything had been going decently until now. None of them had their identities come out yet and they hadn’t gotten into something they couldn’t get out of. So why now did they have to face the consequences of everything going well for them? Did the world like toying with them that much?

—-

Tim had been in the U.A hospital for 4 days only partially lucid. Hatsume had been taking notes as they came and went for the boy when he woke up properly. (None of them liked to acknowledge that the question was an if.) They assumed that he would like a base to start on with his newfound abilities once he wakes up.

Everytime Aizawa tried to use his quirk to stop the new features iit had only caused more problems. It seems that all they could do is wait for the boy's body to adjust to the shitstorm that was shoved into him. They knew that the boy would be pissed when he woke up for real to find out that his body was functioning differently than before.

None of them commented on the screams that could rupture a person's ear drums. No one said anything as the boy flinched back when anyone other than his friends touched them. Outsiders know better by now than to go near the room. Bart almost fist fought someone for trying to shove their way into the room. Aizawa dragged the person away before he could start.

—-

Tim finally woke up. His eyes flashed around the room to see if anything was different but all he saw was his friends by his side and the hero teachers on chairs in the room. He had no idea why he would be in a hospital. 

He could only remember parts of what had happened. Tim remembered his friends showing up to rescue him. He remembered telling them that Dabi was a hostage as far as they were to know. Then his memory got shaky. The only thing he remembered fully was the sight of a hand on his shoulder and collapsing. 

He went to rub at his eyes as if they would give him answers but his hand had claws that reminded him of a crocodile instead of having claws. Tim looked to his friends who had given him a knowing look. Hatsume placed a notebook into his hands and Tim starred in slight confusion.

“While I don’t know how, I think that you got a quirk forced upon you from one of your captors. For the last few days while you were out you had a bunch of different features constantly changing and growing. I think you might have gotten a shapeshifting quirk.” Hatsume explained rubbing the back of her neck.

“I have a few questions and theories for it.” Hitoshi said. Everyone looked at him surprised. “What, he was one of the people who helped me master my quirk so I might as well return the favor.”

“Thank’s Hitoshi.” Tim said. The offer had made him feel better about Batman’s no meta’s in Gotham rule. Would he be affected by that rule? Bruce had made exceptions to that before but would he care enough to make them for Tim? Or would Tim have already served enough of a purpose to not be needed anymore?

Y’know what, screw that. Tim had almost died for this power, Bruce didn’t get to dictate jack shit that came with it. If he wanted to use whatever shapeshifting ability he gained in Gotham, then he would do whatever he damn well pleased. Robins learned how to go against the Bat from day one and who is he to let down the legacy. If Tim was careful about it he could probably even gaslight Bruce into getting some sleep with it.

“First can you try taking away the feature without gaining a new one. The only thing that had been consistent when you had been asleep after the quirk came in was the fact that you always had a feature,” Hitoshi said.

Tim tried and that was definitely a no.  It was like something was physically stopping him from doing it. Hitoshi took the lack of change as an answer and Hatsume started frantically writing things into a new notebook.

Next he tried to change the feature he had. His claws receded and he heard bones crunching, snapping and growing. The only reason that he couldn’t feel the pain was the painkillers he had been on earlier. He was slowly coming off of them and knew that he would feel the effects soon.

Judging by the looks on everyone's faces they could hear it too. But after a few moments of his body making the sounds that one would hear from an eltridge monster he had gained the wings of a bat.

Some of the people in the room sat confused as the four and Hitoshi had broken out into laughter. They didn’t know why Tim had chosen that to be his feature and that was their loss. Aizawa had sat there and watched his choice silently thinking about Tim mistaking him for a ‘Batman’ while Peregrine was reporting the night where everything went wrong.

“Holy shit you gotta scare him next time you see him. What would Mr. I Fear Bats say if he saw you standing in the shadows looking like Lex merged you with one in some messed up experiment?” Cassie jokes. 

“Oh hell no. If someones getting blamed for this were going big or going home. I’m saying that this was Ra’s revenge for me setting fireworks to his base.” Tim said. He was already planning that out. This is what you get Ra’s, suck it. 

Again Tim’s words only brought them questions.

—-

When Tim was discharged he immediately decided that he didn’t know enough about his power set and that he needed to learn more about it. So that's how they found they found themselves in ground beta testing the shit out of Tim’s new powers.

Tim could finally feel the pain that it caused but he would probably get used to it the more he used his powers. Now though he just felt like he was in a stereotypical  werewolf movie where you can hear the body changing. This doesn't make him a fury right? Just asking for a friend.

Anyway that thought aside he could tell that it would be a very useful power once he got used to it. Even if Bruce told him that he couldn’t use it, he would still be using it for an intimidation tactic at the very least. Do you know how terrifying it would be to watch as someone snaps their bones at you before starting to ask you questions. You aren’t going to withhold anything after that.

One of the huge downsides is finding out how he can cover it up with his clothes. Tim could only imagine what kind of scandal it would unfold if one of Gotham’s elite was caught covered in scales. He shudders at the idea of Vicky Vale covering that story.

He quickly learned that he would have to be careful in making sure his clothes don’t get damaged in the change. He already ripped a few shirts trying to gain features. Kon finally got the chance to repay him for all the laughs that Tim had back in the early young justice days.

Then Aizawa came into the room to offer some help with him practicing his quirk along with the people already there. Tim decided that it was the perfect chance to scare the life out of Aizawa. He jumped off of the room tops and swooped behind Aizawa. His landing was a little… rough buddy as Bart would say but it’s too be expected. 

As expected Aizawa told him not to pull that crap again and to use the fire escape or a grappling hook like a normal person. Tim laughed in his face and the man had the distinct feeling that he was already planning to do worse.

“I swear you eight are going to give the whole U.A staff grey hairs before you graduate.” Aizawa muttered. All he got for compensation was the feral children cackling at him. 

“Listen, whatever god that finds humor in my pain decided to let me live another day. I’m fully prepared to make that everyone else's problem.” Tim said with a straight face.

“You do realize that you're not allowed to die yet, right? I’m pretty sure all of us would do some ethically questionable things if you died.” Hitoshi said.

He watched as the kids' friends all tore apart the quirk piece by piece to make it as efficient to use as possible. They talked about what animals would help with each feature and what hurt Tim the least.

Multiple people in the room were confused as Cassie said “And this is why I watched Wild Kratts as a kid and still do no Kon. Take your insults for the show and shove them up your ass.”

Correction, the chaos bringers would be giving the U.A staff grey hairs before they even managed to make it to their second year.

—-

Pru was… well she was definitely relieved. Both of them had spent months researching. They did everything they had to to get information and sometimes did more. The duo would be leaving many bones behind. All of it would be framed as the league but both would remember the things they did. The things that they knew would always be worth it.

With this mission, and it would be easier for both parties if they would just refer to it as that, they put a lot on the line. But it's a high risk high reward as is anything with a vigilante and ex league assassins. 

They both spend the day packing a duffel bag for essentials. It has enough granola bars to look like it’s over kill. They both have changes of clothes and spare weapons with some ammunition. There was enough medical equipment to make someone assume they were doctors if they looked into it.

After that was over they had decided that it would be best to do this in the Bat Cave. Pru thought that was a stupid name and voiced her opinion the moment she heard it. (Damian had agreed but he would never voice that out loud.)

Damian took the time to disable any cameras that could even vaguely be pointed in their direction. They had to do this undetected because they knew that someone would try to talk them out of it. Both of them knew that it was a stupid idea okay. They knew. 

But neither of them would be able to forgive themselves if the team was lost because they had gone to people for help. Prudence still owed Tim for helping her defect and she wasn’t just going to throw away her chance at a rescue. It just wasn’t going to happen if she had a say in it. Damian agreed with her choice. 

When all the camera’s were down Damian entered the code that would let them into the building. They only had 10 minutes before a message was sent to the justice league about the break in and they had to act as fast as possible. 

As quiet as she could Prudence snuck over to make copies of every single note they had made to recreate the bullets. If the other bats follow them, it’s their decision. However the duo know that they aren’t sticking around for them to make that choice.

Once that was done both of them slipped into their suits and got ready to go into a different universe. Pru threw the duffle bag over her shoulder and handed the gun to Damian. They had both agreed that because he was younger he would be the one pulling the trigger. (Don’t ask them how they came to this conclusion.) 

Then in quick succession two shots rang out across the cave. Both bullets lodged themselves into the suits and sat there until they disappeared into their destination. 

Neither noticed that there was someone in the cave who had seen them. No one noticed as Jason watched as he had lost a second brother as if one wasn’t enough. He lost another brother as if he hadn’t rushed to the cave the moment that Babs said that he was there. As if it didn’t break every part of him to watch as his youngest sibling disappeared. 

Jason didn’t know what to do except call Babs. She asked if he had gotten Damian and when he would be back at his apartment. What she hadn’t expected was for the man to break down sobbing over the phone. She thinks that she knew the answer before it was even given to her. She still listened to Jason as he told her what happened.

Why was it up to them to fix this fucking familly when everyone wanted it broken?

—-

“Goddamn that felt weird. You okay shortstack?” Pru asked.

“I will be fine. Now I have to find my brother.” Damian said.

Before she knew what was happening he started to dash around the setting and Pru had to be careful to catch up. The halls looked like that of a school and she felt weird entering one after so long. 

After passing so many hallways and running in whatever direction they saw fit they finally found Tim and his team. Damian made an impulsive decision at that moment. He tackled the brother that he hadn’t seen in months and read off the code for situations like this.

Tim immediately recognised the Time And Universe Travel Tom Fuckery™ code and responded to it in kind. He then watched as the brother who he thought never cared about him broke down and apologized over and over. The boy also watched as out stepped Prudence in all her glory.

“I don’t have some fancy ass code for you, but it’s me bird boy.” She said.

For the first time in a long time Tim and his team allowed themselves to hope. Aizawa chose that moment to turn the corner and yell about intruders. That dashed some of his hope but not all of it. 

“Aizawa, these aren't intruders. This is my brother and my friend. Prudence put down the gun, he is an ally.” Tim said without even having to look at her.

“You're no fun.” she muttered but still she shoved the weapon back into her bag.

Tim looked at his friends and they nodded. “Aizawa, It’s time we tell you some things. You will finally be getting the truth that I know you desperately want.”

Aizawa got the attention of his husband and said “call Vlad King and Detective Tsukachi NOW!”