Often-daydreaming - Insomniac

Secrets

He wasn't spying or sneaking around or anything really. Well, not right now at least. Tim was only trying to look for Co-, Superboy. He was looking for Superboy for very heroic reasons that didn't involve a lunch date. It was a meeting. A really important meeting Superboy was running late for. That was his only intention for searching some of the more secluded parts of the Watchtower after Dick had mentioned seeing Conner helping out in one of the lower areas. Really, that was it, he truly didn't mean to witness what seemed to be a very private moment going on in one of the smaller garden areas that were rarely ever used.

However, as he saw the scene unfolding right in front of his eyes, he couldn't help but regard it with a little bit of curiosity.

Because Bart wasn't supposed to be up here. He'd been busy all day judging from some of the reports coming in but there he was, sitting on one of the benches and just watching the view of space with Phantom, the mysterious new hero that had recently appeared in Central a few months ago.

He was human or at the very least human adjacent with tech that was years ahead of everyone else on the planet and that was mostly guessing since he rarely used anything besides a few gadgets and his hoverboard that could easily break the sound barrier. Nobody knew if he had anything else or how advanced it all was since he refused to let anyone else touch his gear. Phantom even went out of his way to get patents to cover everything he used after too many people started annoying him about it.

B didn't like it. He didn't like the idea of one person having so many unknowns in their file but Bart had been the first to jump to Phantom's defence with the rest of his family and the Arrows joining in and quickly shutting down any sort of investigation.

Dinah had been ready to take a swing at Bruce over the issue and since then they'd gone out of their way to keep Phantom away from any and every member of the Bat family but here he was just talking with Bart who was quietly leaning against his side, his expression very, very different from normal. He didn't have his usual grin or an easy-going smile. Bart just... he looked so sleepy.

It was probably the first time Tim had seen it outside of the aftermath of an invasion or some major reality ending incident that left everyone completely drained but even then Bart always seemed to have a sort of bottomless energy like nothing could keep him down for long. But seeing him like this he just looked so relaxed, like he could fall asleep any second now.

Tim's racing thoughts were momentarily cut off when he watched on as Phantom pulled out a pocket watch of all things, the casing shimmering and the inside glowing a dark Lazarus green that almost had him rushing forward before he stopped himself, his finger hovering over one of the alarms as he continued to watch the pair.

He couldn't see what they were looking at from the way they were angled so he continued to watch on as Bart leaned more of his weight against Phantom's side looking like he was close to falling asleep.

They were chatting, mumbling in hushed words he couldn't place. He should know it though. Something inside him twitched at the alien like words they were sharing like an itch he couldn't scratch.

It sounded a bit otherworldly in nature maybe even a bit magical but still so soft with every small gesture Phantom and Bart made for each other. None of it was over the top but each movement was considerate of the other, eyes and hands lingered, their smiles growing just that bit sweeter the longer they talked and it intrigued Tim more and more the longer it went on and they got more comfortable.

With his hood pulled back and his mask off he could see a portion of Phantom's face and noticed the faint traces of worried lines on his forehead. He was prime adoption bait and a small part of Tim felt like he was being rude for spying on them like this, but another part which was huge and overpowering, desperately wanted to know everything they were hiding.

Phantom let out a sigh before he said something again, then Bart's shoulders shook the tiniest bit, a small laugh echoing across the garden before he finally took Phantom's hand interlocking their fingers together. Bart whispered something in whatever odd language they were using and Phantom responded with a low murmur. They stayed like that for a moment, conversing with soft voices that Tim couldn't hear anymore which was to be expected. Everyone knew B was recording everything up here in the Watchtower and with how far out of the way the two of them were it was clear nobody else was meant to overhear or even witness any of this at all.

Phantom released another long weary sigh and nodded at whatever Bart was whispering to him only a strong tug on his cape pulled him away before he could overhear anything else as Conner picked him off the ground and hurried down the hall away from the pair while quietly lecturing him about boundaries yet again.

It wasn't even his fault this time.

Add to it if you want but I just really like the idea of Danny and Bart surviving a messed up apocalyptic future together and meeting again in the past. Danny is playing up a Red Huntress/Hunter kind of role since he's putting a lot of miles between him and Amity Park and Bart is helping him hide since they know just about everything about each other after traveling around with Danny for so long when they were sorting out the whole messed up future/evil fusion problem. They handled it. It's not gonna happen anymore so they'd like to have an afternoon off every once in a while where Danny with some help from Clockwork can just block Bart's connection to the Speed Force and dampen both of their superhuman senses for a little bit so they can relax.

FremiMay Day 27: Historical

Thought I'd draw Fremi in a traditional French sailor outfit for this one! ^^ Maybe he's a cabin boy or something? Idk

FremiMay Day 17: Modern

This is more of an odd idea.

I mean with everything his parents can do and Danny being Danny he's gotta have some engineering skills and since he's in love with everything space related I can kind of imagine him building his own base on the moon. He'd just need a little help to get started but with his parents skills, Tucker's tech and a little extra from Sam's allowance it slowly starts to come together piece by piece and the Justice League has no idea what to do.

Cause he's obviously in love with their orbiting watchtower but it's not his and he knows better than to just invade someone else's haunt/territory without an invite so Danny settles for admiring it as he flies back and fourth with thousands of pounds worth of equipment.

And the Justice League is sort of stumped cause there's a kid making multiple trips to the moon nearly every weekend but what can they really do. He's not hurting anybody. He isn't breaking any laws either but his 'friends' who are easily the size of the moon are giving every magic user on Earth a heart attack.

Governments are calling. People are worried about another invasion. Amity Park doesn't care and nobody in the know wants to ruin Danny's fun.

Meanwhile Danny is having the time of his life building a base the size of his hometown. It helps with his obsession and sort of evens him out which is good for everyone so he doesn't see the problem with calling in a few favors from Undergrowth and Vortex in order to make his little corner of the moon habitable for his friends and family.

Short DP X DC Prompts #34

Lil ghost blobs start following Jason after he exits the Lazarus pits. They act Will o’ the Wisp style to assist Jason on finding batfam members when they need help. Batfamily is confused how Jason ALWAYS appears at the right place at the right time.

Hectic

It was just a rumour at first, an unbelievable one since no one really believed it at first but it slowly grew a little bit more every day as the hero community and more importantly Gotham's underworld noticed the changes in Red Hood.

He was all over the place.

One day he was in Metropolis. The next he was in Coast City. Then Star City and so on. Him and his team were hunting something or someone but the biggest change was the fact that Jason wasn't killing anymore.

He wasn't breaking the big bad bat's golden rule but he was hurting them. It didn't matter if it was an everyday rogue or one of those strange men in suits, Jason was breaking his enemies just enough that they weren't getting back up as quickly as they usually would. If anything the rogues and street criminals seemed to have it easier when compared to whatever group the Outlaws were dismantling.

His family thought he was spiraling again.

They couldn't find anything on the men in white or why Jason was targeting them so there was always the worry that his Pit Rage was somehow getting worse and Batman himself was seen stalking the shadows of Red Hood's territory in search of his wayward son except he couldn't find a trace of him, only the aftermath of his attacks against the group.

He stood before burning buildings and broken bodies night after night but was still somehow just a step or two behind his son.

Nightwing couldn't even pick up a trail and Oracle's ever present eyes were blinded by someone or something able to erase Jason's digital presence whenever he was out on one of his hunts.

After weeks and weeks of searching they were only whispers and rumours and they were close to asking for help when the alarms in Arkham went off.

It was a massive breakout.

Multiple rogues.

More importantly Jason was in the area and quickly responded with a huff of annoyance and a promise to be there and while they never saw him the Bat Family heard Red Hood's presence through the comms. "He's barely even using his guns." Barbara's voice echoed through a private channel.

"He's faster."

"Maybe he's picked up a couple of new tricks?" Dick suggested, sounding almost hopeful until Jason accidentally stumbled across the last person he ever wanted to see.

Neither Tim or Barbara could piece together the beginning of their conversation but every single one of them heard the Joker's rage filled screams as the madman mocked the little bird fluttering around their wayward bat and it caused them to freeze for just a second because no one was anywhere near Jason at the time. Batman and Robin were on the other side of Arkham dealing with Ivy at the time and Red Robin was busy with the Riddler so who was shadowing Red Hood?

Most of the cameras in the area were down so they didn't have much to work with when they started looking into it later. The few that weren't were heavily compromised leaving behind staticky images and blurry video that they watched again and again.

Bruce watched it the most, the brief confrontation as his son walked into frame, barely even glancing at the Joker, the only rogue still locked in his cell for some strange reason trying to goad him into responding and almost succeeded. He could practically see the green creeping into Jason's eyes as he stared down his tormenter before it vanished just as quickly as the blurry image of a hooded boy around Damian's age ran past on the upper floor urging him to hurry up with a shout of, "Come on old man!"

They'd apparently had a game going, a bet to see if the kid could take down more criminals than him and that had been more than enough for Jason to turn away from the Joker with a small shake of his head and an amused smile.

He didn't hear what his son said in response but Bruce watched that moment again and again as Jason walked away leaving the Joker pounding on the door to his cell screaming threats at him and the kid, trying to get some kind of response out of him since the electronics in the door were fried.

They'd been lucky there. A sudden power surge moments before the attempted prison break had left him trapped in his cell and out of the way. Reports claimed it would be weeks before a technician could get it open and Bruce was keeping an eye on it in case anyone from his gang tried something.

He read every report.

Tracked every log in and watched through a dozen different monitors as the Joker grew more and more annoyed about his recent turn of bad luck but his gaze always drifted back to the brief footage of the unknown boy that danced around Jason as they worked together to clear their part of Arkham before backup could arrive.

They had the bare bones of a file, brief moments of footage that showed he could fight, possibly had some kind of League connection judging from the style but nothing else. No alias. No other sightings. Nothing. The kid was practically a ghost and they still couldn't find any trace of Jason anywhere. He was back in Gotham. Reports had him and his new partner patrolling Crime Alley and beyond like nothing happened but soon enough there were news reports and theories and speculations and conspiracies all slowly starting to spring up about a black and grey bird fluttering around the dark red bat.

After months of nothing there were suddenly pictures of Jason and his new partner sitting on the edge of a rooftop eating burgers and fighting rouges along with grainy footage from Star City showing Roy helping the kid do a handstand while Jason watched on with a rarely seen smile.

"He looks happy."

The news labeled this new unknown Sparrow, they speculated over who he was, could he be Batman's newest bird, a sidekick or maybe even an Outlaw but Bruce was more focused on everything the news wasn't reporting.

Jason wasn't killing anymore.

He hadn't even come close in nearly two years now and while there were some concerns over his new approach to handling criminals even that was slowly fading away with every new piece of information they were able to piece together.

-_- -_- -_-

"He was expanding." Tim explained as he pulled up a map of Jason's old territory next to the new one that was easily twice as big. "Those weeks of unexplained rage we were concerned about was really just Jason pushed the mob families out of the areas surrounding Crime Alley."

Well them and the strange groups always dressed in all white. They still didn't know anything about the group or why Jason had been so hell bent on hunting them to the ends of the Earth but he'd pushed them out of Gotham before they could even begin to set up shop.

-_- -_- -_-

"Come on Roy. Please..... I'll beg if I have to."

"No."

"Please."

"No. He's asleep right now and I'm not gonna wake him up."

"You mean Sp-" "No, Jason. Danny's at school right now." Because Jason had thought tooth and nail for the kid to have a somewhat normal life and his definition of normal meant setting Danny up in a safehouse in Star City and quickly having a mini freakout over behaving like Bruce whenever he caught himself coming up with contingency plans to make sure no one could disrupt that. It was kind of funny to watch.

"Then send me some pictures."

-_- -_- -_-

"You must be the revenant. I'm here in search of the Great One."

Jason stared at the yeti standing out in the middle of the hallway blinked and slowly closed his door.

"Danny!"

I don't know what would fit better for this but I was stuck on two main ideas for how it could happen. Either Danny's parents hired the Outlaws to handle the GIW while they had to go on the run or Clockwork meddled and made a deal with Jason that he couldn't refuse. Either way Jason gets help with the pit, gets a kid who can curse the Joker with bad luck and calls some friends to help take down a rogue, badly run black ops group trying to destroy another reality and kind of forgets to let his family know what's going on so they're stuck learning about it through the news. It's not his fault. He asked Roy to keep them up to date. Roy just assumed they already knew and Starfire thought Roy said something since he was the responsible one.

A deaged Danny on the other hand, cause I like the occasional gremlin kid Danny fic is more than happy to let the adults handle things. Clockwork and or his parents trust Jason and he could finally put some of his fighting skills he picked up while time traveling to good use. League? What league? Oh, they're calling me Sparrow now. It's better than Invis-o-Bill so why not. Can I curse the clown? Please, please, please, please. It'll be so funny.

Keep Running

In between one moment and the next reality quakes and for the briefest of moments Jason finds himself standing in the remnants of a destroyed Star City. He knows it's not real, that it's just some magical mumbo jumbo overlaying memory magic nonsense bleeding into their timeline but he can smell the smoke in the air from the fires and hear her tired laughter as the static filled image of a red haired woman sits down beside him. He knows her or at least this version of him does as they talk about the little suicide run they were planning in order to hopefully end things for good and Jason can feel how tired his alternate self is as he takes a seat on the ground beside her. It's all a rush of emotions and faint memories that were getting harder and harder to ignore before he's suddenly back on the Watchtower with every other available hero the League could call in stuck arguing about these stupid visions affecting heroes and villains all over the globe if some of Ra's latest movements were any indication. His men were searching everywhere for answers while others like Luthor were making more subtle inquiries. The only upside to all of this was the reactions coming out of Arkham but that didn't mean he wanted to be up here with the League nearly at each other's throats.

With everything he's managing to piece together through a couple of brief check-ins with Dickie and the girls he could see why B wanted answers.

As morbid as it sounded Dick and the others were a few of the lucky ones who were able to be pulled out of their memories faster since they were at ground zero when the Watchtower was pulled out of orbit. The quicker you died the quicker it was over but neither of them were as lucky.

In those jumbled memories him and Bruce were the only two left after Gotham went up in flames since Phantom went after them first and there were still a few lingering effects clinging to that since he could still remember what the older version of himself felt. It was somewhat muted now but some of it was still there and if he focused hard enough Jason could still see the makeshift doctor's office in his mind. He could feel the phantom pain and see her flowing red hair. She seemed so relieved to find him alive and he wanted his own answers but Impulse was in the wind.

The little speedster was gone before anyone could really recover from the sudden onslaught of memories and while Bruce was doing everything he could to figure out a plan of sorts the others weren't as lucky with Superman stuck bouncing between the moments of his own brutal death and worrying about his family's safety. Whoever or whatever Phantom was, he knew exactly where to hurt them with Jon nearly losing it in public after being forced to live through the memories of his mom dying and the man of steel's own death at the hands of some magical Martian whatever.

Wonder Woman seemed the most put together out of everyone but even she was kind of twitchy, her had never leaving the pummel of her sword as Zatara went over what he could piece together on his own since the bulk of JLD was still out of commission.

His own daughter was comatose from the magical backlash of whatever this was while Constantine was just missing, his home a mess of overturned books and hurried scribbles which left them on the back foot for now since the only solid lead anyone had was Impulse and Young Justice was closing ranks around their missing speedster.

With JLD in shambles and Ra's on the move Replacement was running his own investigation into whatever was going on and shutting everyone else out of his systems after the first attempt at locating Impulse through his tracker backfired horribly.

I blame my cough medicine and a love for Fallout for whatever this is turning into but I felt like adding onto Run a little. I wouldn't even begin to know how to explain it but I just have this image in my head of Bart and Danny in a Fallout like world but the whole memory thing could be anything really. I just like the idea of reality shifting to the left just enough that Bart suddenly remembers details about his past he'd forgotten thanks to time travel/reality resetting and he suddenly remembers Danny while the rest of his team remember bits and pieces of their missing teammate Phantom. Everyone else just gets doomsday memories cause I really don't care and mostly think it's funny so I'm either blaming this on the gauntlet from the movie or Clockwork but anyone could add something else if they want.

FremiMay Day 29: Melusine

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:)