Things we shouldn’t start
When Duke Thomas received the opportunity to go as an exchange student to some small city school in the Midwest, he took it. He’s been a native Gothamite his whole life, rarely leaving the city’s borders beyond missions and the occasional school field trip. This exchange opportunity left him close enough to help in case of emergency, but far enough away to not be their first call. The others thought him crazy, claimed he’d never be able to last through a whole school year.
Well Duke said the same thing when people told him he couldn’t out think The Riddler.
There were a few odd reports from him in the first month, but after that he claimed that all was well and handled. The crime rates in town were indeed as low as was claimed.
By month four, the family were certain he must be going stir crazy without any vigilante action, yet no word from his reports nor any of his FaceTime calls gave any hint of such a state of mind.
The various pictures he sent at holidays and random intervals were pretty normal, a little blurry sometimes, but just of average teen things. Selfies of him with some new friends from classes, pictures of said friends doing random things, pictures of tv screens with various games loading, pictures of random objects with weird or hilarious captions. It was almost odd how normal everything was.
Thus, that was how the time passed and Duke returned to them looking refreshed and happy if not a little wistful when he thought about the friends he’d had to leave behind.
Money exchanged hands and not in the direction most of them expected, since according to all evidence, Duke had a very relaxing and restful school year without going stir crazy.
Life continued on as usual for the Wayne’s and Co. both day and night.
Then came Damian’s birthday and with it his usual birthday assassins.
Now normally this wasn’t too huge of an issue. The family fought them off and by the end of the day, they retreated back to their master.
However, this time Arkham faced a massive breakout calling all hands on deck.
A larger group of about 7 assassins piggybacked off of an attack from Penguin’s goons managing to separate Robin from Signal and Spoiler.
With the goons surrounding them, they couldn’t reach Robin to help.
Signal put two fingers to his lips and let out a long two toned whistle.
The goons paused, waiting for whatever that was about. When nothing seemed to happen they began closing in.
“What the flipping fruit loops was that Signal?” Spoiler asked bewildered.
He didn’t answer but cocked his head a little and then stuck one arm straight out from his body.
Out of the shadows came a long stringy blur of black and white with bright green eyes only for Signal’s outstretched arm.
The thing perched upon his arm on spindly limbs. It was a somewhat humanoid being with white floating hair and a gas mask covering what might have been a face as it stared at him with its head tilted at an odd angle.
“To Robin,” Signal ordered and lifted his arm just like a falconer might do to give their Falcon better lift on their take off.
The thing shot off like a bullet from a gun and bowled into the nearest assassins with bodily force.
The goons stared. Spoiler stared. The assassins being very well trained attempted to stay on task while Robin wisely focused on fighting for his life.
Signal didn’t hesitate to deck the nearest goon and start into the next. He wasted no time in knocking them out of the fight so they could secure them.
Spoiler finally jolted out of her stupor to help him with the last few while Robin and the thing finished knocking out assassins. The thing/creature barely touched its feet to the ground, preferring to float and swoop around, limbs dancing above the ground.
Once Signal passed off the last of the handcuffing to Spoiler, he held out his arm once more and the creature flew to him happily. It perched once more and let out a wheezing raspy sound.
Signal dipped his arm and ruffled the creature’s hair with his free hand.
“Thank you babe. How long can you stay?”
The answering crackle of ice and hiss of an airlock opening into empty space seemed to have some sort of meaning only Signal could understand because his grin widened.
“Awesome. I’ll let Agent A know you’re coming.”
“That was absolutely Not what he said,” came the mechanized voice of Red Hood from a nearby rooftop. He dropped down to their level. Spoiler stared between Signal and Hood while Damian’s brow furrowed so deeply that Signal wanted to joke he’d get it stuck like that.
“What in the…” Spoiler breathed.
The creature let out a sound like a shifting glacier followed by a little questioning “brr?”
Duke watched on curiously, his fingers never leaving the swirling floating hair of his little pseudo falcon.
The sharp crack in response made Spoiler flinch.
“Okay, maybe…why the flip does that matter and it doesn’t explain why you waxed poetic about our spotlight here and he claimed you said something completely different.”
The sound of metal creaking and groaning under the pressure of empty space had a spine tingling echo to it. The creature’s head bobbed in what might have been acknowledgement or embarrassment, impossible to tell with the mask. They followed it up with a hum that shifted between several uncomfortable pitches.
“Okay, never mind. You two are officially the funniest fucks on the planet.”
Signal grinned and the creature perked up in its approximation of excitement.
“Okay, not to ruin this very touching and confusing moment, but we still have to find Penguin and whoever else is left on the list of escapees this time,” Spoiler chimed in.
“Agreed,” Damian stated. He’d been oddly quiet throughout the whole encounter, but seemed to jump back into work mode when reminded.
Signal looked to his creature.
“You ready?” With their nod he launched them off again. Signal watched them go off through the buildings, literally phasing through walls with a fond smile.
“What?” Signal raised a brow.
“You can have your little cryptid boyfriend but keep it pg or I’m coming for your kneecaps.”
Signal choked a little and coughed before taking off to a nearby roof.
“Oh. My. God…” Spoiler drew in a huge breath before shouting, “THAT’S YOUR BOYFRIEND?!”
Things not featured/mentioned but are there:
Danny actually used morse code to convey himself to Duke while just using ghost speak for the effect. Yes, they are absolutely little dramatic bastards.
Damian being able to understand the equivalent of every third word of ghost speak and is attempting to process that while also making sure no more birthday assassins sneak up on him. Boi be strugglin
Yes Danny came up and just basically started going. “Hello my love, my bright summer’s day, my shining star and dearest one. I missed you and did you know you are absolutely gorgeous in that suit. I love seeing it….”
Danny and Jason’s conversation: “bro, you’re death kin?” “No. I’m not dead.” “I said death kin not dead.” “Okay, maybe…” “That’s why you can understand me when I speak like this. Duke can’t understand it, we just use Morse code and my ghost speak is just audio effects.” “Okay, never mind. You two are officially…”
Duke had a great time in Amity Park and while he wasn’t exactly being a vigilante he was absolutely being a ghost hunter with the Dp crew. They are the friends in the pictures he took. He and Danny finally moved on to dating only 2 months before he had to leave. When Duke found out Danny’s identity, he revealed his own and they finally both admitted their feelings for one another.
Duke and Danny absolutely practiced the falcon thing back in Amity Park. They think they’re hilarious and I agree.
romaincrisis
tangentwithtanner
areudirty
turnnoffyourmind
prguitarman
s-u-f-j-a-n-s-t-e-v-e-n-s
