*hisssss* My comfort human!
Nightwing stared, he turned his head staring at Zatanna in a way that clearly spelled the question: Are you seeing what I am seeing?
Zatanna only gave him a shrug with a smile before focusing back on the meeting, leaving Nightwing to turn back and stare. He wasn't the only hero in the room with that reaction. There were a couple others too that reacted similarly. Only Batman appeared to be able to hold his pokerface.
Right before them was Constantine trying to explain to them all how their goverment basically fucked them over, while a 'ghost' teen was clinging to the man's shoulders glaring and hissing at them all. Worst of all Constantine was acting like the kid wasn't even there. Like there was no a white haired, black and white dressed teen hugging the man around his shoulders while glaring at them with glowing Lazarus green eyes.
"Uhm John? What's with the kid?" Green Lantern finally asked interrupting another one of the magicans rants about how screwed they were to which the Brite only glared at the hero.
"Ignore him."
"But..."
"IGNORE him."
"Maybe we should remove the child from this meeting before we continue?" Superman offered good naturally and Constantine looked pretty much done with them all, Nightwing noted. The blond waved with his hand as if telling them to 'go on try it'.
The heroes exchanged glances. Before Superman moved forward reaching out to remove the teen....
...and promptly got bitten. Nightwings eyes widened as he noticed the teen actually broke kryptonian skin!
The teen then proceeded to hiss at them while clutching onto Constantine protectively. The magican only let out a suffering sigh and muttered something about never touching a core again.
"My comfort human! Get your own!"
“Kiddo” Hal says to the probably magical teenager “why are you so attached to Constantine?”
The teen glares at him and nuzzles closer to Constantine’s shoulder. “He’s a sad Trenchcoat Man. He needs hugs. And ductape for his soul.”
“You should let go for a little while. So Constantine can go shower.”
Constantine gives him what would be a glare, if it wasn’t weakened by how tired he is.
“His stench is part of his charm” argues the teen. “He’s my stinky man”
“And he needs his own space. Come on, Kiddo. You can have him back in a few hours.”
“You would deprive me of my comfort man?” The teen makes puppy eyes at him.
Now Hal is the bad guy here. Great.
Batman stalks closer to them. He glares at Hal and Hal moves out of the way.
Batman places a black wristband on Constantine. He gives a red and yellow one to the teen.
“It monitors his heart rate. Lets you know if anything happens.”
The teenager smiles and lets go of John. He watches the monitor. John, finally free, escapes to shower.
“How did you do that.”
Batman stares at him. “I used logic”.
I just realized that the wristbands are batman and robin color-coded. So at some point batman and robin were wearing them. Probably something Bruce made after Jason died and has all robins wear now.
When other people recognize the subtle plot points I shove into the background, I get so excited. Like, amazing! You thought about the implications! Have a cookie!!!
Or rather, have an extra update. I thought of the origins of the bracelets slightly differently, so it’s not quite what you expected.
Also, I just realized Nightwing was in the original prompt. Alas, I already marinated this idea in my brain. Too late. Just pretend that he wasn’t there.
That, and sorry it took a while. I’m not a fast writer, and this took me quite some time to make.
//-\\-//-\\
Nightwing watched Constantine exit the League meeting with a passive stare. Really, Dick was holding himself back from outright glaring at the man. They let Constantine, the mess of a conman who has threatened the fabric of the universe as many times as he’s saved it, join the Justice League. Yet Nightwing, a hero with a great success rate, still had yet to get in.
It was probably Batman’s revenge for all the pranks they pulled on the Justice League. Messing with Batman’s coworkers was an unwritten rule of becoming Robin. Even after passing on the mantle, Nightwing still played high frequency audio tones at Green Arrow. It was fun to prank the League.
Damian didn’t quite understand the pranks yet- he kept going a little too far into death threats territory. Thankfully, the presence of Spoiler made up for it. She had once targeted Superman with Hair removal cream in his shampoo. The press in Metropolis had a field day when Superman had to fight Lex Luthor while sporting his bald look. Clark Kent had to write an article about it. Clark was not happy.
Around a minute later, another person exited the meeting room. This time, it was a teenager. Small and lanky, with visible insecurity on his face, the kid had shining white hair that Dick wanted to ruffle.
But what caught Dicks eye the most was the bracelet. Dick remembered that bracelet. Batman had initially created it for him, after all.
“Dick, chum, I made something for you” Batman had said. “I know you’ve been scared that I’m going to disappear on you. And I want to promise you that as long as I can help it, I’ll come home to you.”
Batman gently guided his son’s hand to his chest. “You feel that? That’s my heartbeat. It means that I’m still alive. These bracelets will measure heartbeat. It sends that information to the other bracelet, which will display if you tap, and have an alert if it gets too high or too low. You can always see mine, chum, and I can always see yours.”
Dick put his bracelet on. He smiled. “Thanks, dad” Dick wrapped his father in a hug. “I love you.”
Bruce stood stiffly for a moment, then patted Dick on the back. “I love you too, kiddo.”
Dick smiled at the old memory. The bracelets had since been upgraded, fitted with a tracker, the tech made lighter and more compact, and eventually implanted into their body.
Even Jason, who had his struggles with the family, had an implant. After some long discussions with Bruce, he agreed that his old man at least deserved to know whether or not Jason was alive.
Every Robin had worn the bracelet at one point. Even people who weren’t Robin. Batman had given the Robin bracelet to each member of his family, extended or otherwise. It was a two way security thing.
Nightwing was glad his mask contained a camera. Just by blinking twice, he could snap a picture of whatever he was looking at.
The pic was sent to his communicator, which he then sent to Barbara. She’d inform everyone about the possible new addition to the family.
Dick put his communicator back in his pocket, and went to introduce himself. He didn’t want to scare off the kid, who looked frightened and traumatized already. (He already fit in with the rest of the family).
“Hey, I’m Nightwing.”
//-\\-//-\\
Barbara stared at the transmission from Dick.
Bruce had gotten another one. The glowing kid would fit in nicely with Duke and Claire. They had frequently complained about not having enough people with powers on the team.
Barbara tried to operate a facial scan, only to be met with no results.
Which was concerning. The kind of lifestyle someone has to have in order to appear on no cameras ever would be… disturbing. It pointed to a past like Damian’s, or Kon’s.
“Well shit” Harper said behind her. “Bruce picked up another one?”
Barbara hummed.
“You think he warned this kid about taking the bracelet off?” Harper asked.
When Harper had gotten her bracelet, she had it for two days before taking it off and tinkering with it. Within two minutes, Red Hood had crashed through the window, looked at the situation, and commed over that everything was fine.
Batman still checked on her in person that night. He wrapped her up in his cape, gave her a new bracelet, and made her promise not to take it off again. Harper came back three weeks later with an improved design that was blue and purple, and now included the ability to monitor body temperature.
Barbara thought for a moment, only to send a message to Nightwing. Better safe than sorry.
Then, after considering it for a moment, she hacked into Nightwings camera. She wanted to meet her new family member.
\\-//-\\-//
Nightwing checked his communicator as Barbara sent over a message.
All Seeing Eye: Make sure kid knows about the bracelet, we don’t want another Harper situation.
Nightwing sent back a thumbs up. “Sorry about that, important hero stuff” he said to the teen.
“Don’t worry, I get it. I was a hero in my hometown for a while before…” the teen trailed off, a sad expression on his face.
“Hey, you’re in a safe place now.” Dick rubbed the teens back comfortingly.
“Still can’t believe I’m actually in a space station.” The kid smiled. “Then I look out the window, and there’s the moon, actually.”
Dick blinked twice to capture the smile. He’d put that in his family photo album. “I’ve had tons of missions in space. There’s some pretty incredible stuff out there.”
The kid looked at him with stars in his eyes. “Really? Like what?”
“Let me tell you about the time Starfire and I fought the Space Zebras. It was actually one of our better dates, now that I think about it…”
\\-//-\\-//
Batman took the zeta tube out from the Watchtower. The meeting had taken far longer than he’d planned.
He stepped into the batcave, only to be greeted by more of his family than usual.
Tim was researching ghosts on the Batcomputer. Damian was sparring with Steph. Cass was doing stretches. Duke was watching some sort of video on one of the largest video monitors in the cave. Harper was braiding Barbara’s hair as the two of them watched with Duke. Even Cullen and Alfred were down here, despite not being active in vigilante work most of the time.
“What’s going on?” Batman asked.
“We’re waiting for Danny, of course.” Damian answered without looking away from Steph.
“I already have a room ready” Alfred noted.
Batman was confused for a moment, before remembering the kid that Constantine had brought in. “Danny isn’t coming with us.”
The room became silent. Then everyone started screaming at once.
“Father, what exactly-“
“B, since when-“
“Bruce, don’t try and deny-“
Batman rubbed his temples. “Enough. I can’t answer you when you’re all talking at once.” The room fell silent once more.
It was Duke who spoke up. “You gave him the bracelet.”
“He was worried about his caretaker, and it was interrupting the meeting. I gave him the tools to ease his worries.”
“So no new siblings?” Tim asked.
“Correct.” Bruce nodded at his son.
“Dang. Who’s going to tell Dick?” Barbara asked. Each of his children jumped to touch their nose. They stared at Steph, who was currently pinned beneath Damian.
“No fair, I can’t access my arms.” Damian let her up. “Fine, I’ll do it. But we’re having waffles tomorrow.” She pulled out her communicator.
Alfred made a note of it.
“Whose kid is he then? Wonder woman’s?” Duke asked.
“Constantine’s.” Batman said.
The room erupted into pandemonium once more.
Cass grabbed the communicator from Steph’s hand, and started typing out her own message.
“Cass, what are you-“
She looked Steph in the eye. “New baby brother.”
Each of the kids took a moment to absorb Cass’s words. Suddenly, they all sported the same mischievous grin.
\\-//-\\-//
Nightwing cuddled with his new sibling on the couch.
“Man, I didn’t know Constantine had other kids.” Danny said.
Nightwing froze. “Constantine…?”
Danny nodded. “He’s my guy now, I decided. I wouldn’t normally share, but you’re pretty cool.” Danny snuggled into Dicks chest.
Dick checked his communicator.
Spoiler Warning: Yeah, turns out that the kid isn’t B’s.
Spoiler Warning: False alarm, sorsozkwnsjiz-
Spoiler Warning: New Baby Brother.
Spoiler Warning: Kidnap. Bring to Cave. Cover in Blankets.
Nightwing knew his mission now. “Alright kiddo, it’s getting late, so I’m going to take you home, yeah?”
Danny mmm’d affirmatively. If he wasn’t convinced before, Dick was now. Danny was his new baby brother, and he’d be coming home tonight.
