Small intro: hello! I’m bunny and I’m somewhat new to tumblr!! I made this because it felt needed because the intro post is my intro but I kinda wanted to make a new one…. In some way… also there will be very slow updates!!
Small things: if you want to get tagged whenever I make anything please just ask in the comments I’ll do my absolute best to reply and add you on!!
Also here’s the intro and id like to tell you all that i still have the same boundaries!!
THE SPIDERS WEB chapter 4 update… uhh… it’s getting written but I’m rewriting it because it was lowk buns and uhh it may take like forever for me to get it done..😊😓
“Here kitty kitty~” - platonic batfam x neglected black cat reader x spider man
Summary :: ever since you were taken in by Bruce Wayne, his tendency to collect things and quickly discard them when they showed no purpose or shared interest became clear to you. Lucky for you, you couldn’t care less when the lack of attention took eyes away from your little…hobby in New York
Things ;: wrong geography purely for the sake of canon please, maybe batfam ooc, reader is low-key cringey but free, reader is fem, reader and spiders relationship is more fanon than how black cat and spider are in the comics, implied sex
The living room one flight down from your room was lively, you could hear the residents of wayne manor busting and talking to one another, your invite had seemed to get lost in the mail between lips just like anything else in the house.
There were only so many times you could make excuses for their lack of attention, until you gave up all hope on them, but tonight you no longer roll in self pity, you had shit to do.
Zipping up your fur lined latex bodysuit you thought at the very first time you had a nightly activity of this kind. You were 16 and bored, but most of all dirt poor, how one might ask
"How is a child at wayne manor dirt poor" well lets say that a certain bat forgot to even set you up with a allowance in the first place, so you had to live off what little money your mom left to you and whatever you found around the house, which still wasn't enough for to the ever growing greed in your yet to be seen need.
So following after the very popular cat themed thief thief you planned out a simple house on a not so pleasant councilman member, the hustle overall went smoothly due to you having the full schematics of his house and the security layouts, it was a simple in and out job that was until your inspiration herself confronted you.
Instead of reporting you to bat man, just to be petty like you thought she was going to do, she just simply told you to get your own turf. And that you did, yes it was a bit far but what's 40 mins (30 if you pushed it) to new york.
In the new york scene you thrived, not worrying about the bats and birds (aka your family since they were the worst at keeping their voices down) and always the other villains in the city coming after you. In new york, you were simply a robin hood except you hated birds and you kept everything you stole.
It took as long as a month for you to get a proper costume, at first it was a simple black bodysuit and a lenless diamond mask in the matching black, that was until you upgraded to the current fur lined latex body suit you wore, that you had changed it because people were sizing you as a woman which largely annoyed you, that's also why you started to wear a white wig. You wanted to make sure you stood out more.
By month 3 you had official earned your villian name, the black cat—simple yes you were sastified with it. Also in that month you had officially met new yorks bryggest (well one of them) hero's, Spiderman. You had been in the middle of swiping some flash drive full of info from a tech company for a client (because you felt just stealing jewels had become pointless as some point.) when he had lowered himself slowly next to you.
"So who what are we doing?"
if you hadn't seen apex of his red and blue ass costume point arrlier you would have jumped 5 feet in the air with a scream, but instead you kept working for the flash drive.
"If it isn't the little spider, and you came here for lil ol' me?" your voice lined with a teasing tone that was bordering on flirtatious. "I thought you would have to go deal with one of these other actual threats, I'm just a harmless kitty" you pause as you finish your sentence and approach him more directly making the now standing spider man back up slightly.
"If you call stealing millions of dollars worth of stuff harmless, then the bar sure is low!!"
You could hear the plain sarcasm in his voice, entertaining as you hold your hands behind your back and continue your approach towards him and he continued to back up. Clearing his throat to regain some kind of control "You know you're gonna have to lose that bolt now?" you raise your eyebrow in amusement, perching side notes clearly never this. "aw, but then how would my client pay me? would be a shame if I showed up empty empty handed now would it?"
At this point you were circling the poor hero and him seemly flustered at your tone of voice, "If you leave the flash drive here, I will let you have at least 3 mins until the cops come to get a head start." You tilt your head and tap your chin with the USB side as if actually thinking about his offer, "How about I keep the flash drive and get a head start now..."
You perch in the open window you were discreetly moving towards the entire time "Sorry spidey, hope our next meeting is more exciting than this, but a kitty needs go, deuces!" using your grappling hook, you flew out the window into the night.
After that, you had more run in's with spiderman, many more actually, there were multiple times you guys had teamed up to face a bigger threat, or that time he had gotten a symbiote in himself, after all those times he tried again and again sorry and yes yes to became a full hero with him and you would always say the same thing "calling me a anti-hero is already pushing it and besides spidey, I'm a black cat—misfortune is my whole thing."
It's been a full year since you guys fully met and of course you knew more about him than he knew about you, you knew the man behind the mask and the mess—he had was your first name and your face with only the mask.
So it was a common thing during your encounters for him to say random last names to try and guess mostly getting the horribly wrong. He also knew you weren't native to new york when you two had fucked and the other time you brought him to your small base in gotham after you found him on the brink of death.
Synopsis: When a girl gets bitten by a radioactive spider, she and her friends work together as a team, they all find a place to stay so they can operate, the main girl meets Talia Al Ghul, getting a note from her then she returns back home finding out that someone really close to her knows what she had been doing, when weeks pass she goes to a party with her friends meeting a girl named Hazel.
Jason TODD X FEM! SPIDEY! READER
Warnings: slight cursing, death, injury, throwing up/gagging, teens being teens, mentions of theft (DO NOT DO THAT), very uncomfortable topics, forced friendship, creepy and really weird dynamics
Note: Also, if you'd like to be on the tag-list, just ask me politely in the comments! There may be some bad Grammar in here, but I'll keep doing my best to make this good! Also, there will be slow updates— mainly because I have school, and I lose interest in things very quickly if I have to be honest! Anyway, I hope you have fun reading, and don't forget to like, comment, share, and please re-blog this post! anyway. Thank you so so much, reader, and goodbye! ~ sincerely Zeep
PREVIOUS — ACT I, CHAPTER THREE — MASTERLIST — NEXT
summer has ended, and school time was now here… yeah you 100% bawled because you had unfortunately found out that Hazel went to the same school as you and when you met her after that she just kept on pushing it, kept on running into you when you went out with your friends out of costume and the whole attention from her was just simply getting too much. Felicia had noticed everything then it went into a domino effect with how the rest of the friend group noticed.
when you walked into the building you saw Otto at his locker which all of your lockers were put into a line together because you had always requested every year for your classes and lockers to get in line together which was nice. when you opened the locker you put some of your things inside the thing then you heard it. "hey, [Name!]" you heard that agitating GRATING voice.
"hey.. Hazel…" you forced a smile looking at her, she didn't seem to notice your discomfort and she started to talk your eat off, "oh, well, look at the time! me and Otto have science together! ah, I'm so sorry but we have to go.." you strained out, before running off with Otto to go to science class, once you sat down in the seat, Otto sat down next to you as you took a deep breath in and out.
"you should set some boundaries with her, or you should stop being nice to her, hazel's attention and want for friendship is unwanted by you so why do you keep feeding into her delusions." Otto whispered to you, he was right of course, but you just didn't have it in you to be mean to Hazel, she seemed like she needed a friend and you've been there before, In a less creepy way though. you nodded, "I will do it at some point I just… " you replied, he gave you a look. "You better do so." he said.
week after week she tried to insert herself into your life, she ended up finding out you Uncle and Aunt's phone number and she would constantly ask if you and her could hang out which Uncle Ben and Aunt May always said that you couldn't go out, which was perfect cover for you when you'd be out and about fighting crime. it was just really hard to be juggling your life constantly when all she'd do was revolve her whole f*cking life around you constantly. it was tiring, and it made everything harder and harder.
when you went to Jason's grave that night you just slumped down next to it in costume as you just started to cry and tell him everything that was going on, and how tired of it you were, it was hard to just do this constantly, so you just continued to cry lifting your mask up so you can not get your mask all dirty because you did not want to clean that, "I got an eyebrow piercing so.. that's a plus.. right?" you sniffled, "i— I just don't know what to do Jay.. everything I do it feels like I'm being idolized and I don't want that… I don't want to be idolized by anyone at all!— Otto told me to set boundaries with her but its still… its still hard to do so because shes.. she seems like shes had no friends in her whole life and being… whatever it is to her is just not my thing right now…" you whimpered.
after a bit you pulled your mask back up and shot out a web as you shot out your webs swinging to get back to the ware house, once you got inside you picked up your phone from the counter and saw the amount of messages that were there, it was all from Hazel asking you 15 thousand questions, you just put her on silent and walked to go up the stairs to your room, when you flopped onto the bed you just passed out immediately because of the whole thing.
the next day when you stepped foot into the school there was Hazel, her bangs were styled to be like those heart or frog bangs Jason had, she had clothes like him and a copy of pride and prejudice in her hands. "what are you doing?" you asked being very direct this time, she smiled at you as if she was doing nothing wrong, "oh, I'm doing nothing wrong Ladybug!" she smiled, you stared at her in utter silence, "what the hell is wrong with you?" you asked again, she looked utterly confused on why you were asking her that. "I don't know what you're talking about." she smiled, the smile becoming more strained as she fidgeted some more, "'i don't know what you're talking about'. no, you know exactly what you're doing!" you hissed, Hazel looked shocked that you'd even imply that.
she giggled nervously, "you don't just get to walk in here in that outfit and pretend nothings wrong!" you yelled, Hazel's brows furrowed as if she was trying to act confused, she just smiled nervously, "you are nothing but a good for nothing asshole who's trying to tarnish Jason's memory!" you cried out, you felt tears prick at your eyes.
"i wont stand for this! you don't just get to play dress up and call me things that only he called me! so go fuck off and find someone else to jack off to!" you shoved her away, she looked shocked, then angry at you being upset at her, "you're awfully protective over someone whose dead [Name] don't you think that's weird or is that some kink you have?" she taunted getting upset at you while she was the one dressing like him and acting like him.
"the fuck did you just say to me? my best friend is dead and i cant speak to him or see him anymore hazel! just because you want to pursue a friendship with me doesn't mean you can go out and around saying that I'm wrong for mourning him! you don't get it hazel you never will, my best friend is gone and you just want to be best friends with me when i cant stand being around you for even a moment!" you yelled, your breath hitched slightly as you thought about Jason.
"we are not friends and we will never be friends. plus if you ever try to act or dress like him again i will kill you." you said before slamming her into a locker and walking off. when you got into science you just sat down and put you head into your hands your breath started to shake bit by bit, then before you knew it tears started to fall as you cried more and more, of course you kept it quiet but it was just hard to have that happen and to not be able to do anything about it unless it were to be a yelling match, you heard people file into the room and there Otto was walking on in but you just didn't look up unwilling to just look at anything at the moment. the main reason for that was the feeling of your eyes burning from the tears. Otto sat right next to you, he looked at you for one moment and decided to join you in laying your head down on the table world! yayyy…
"what happened?" he asked keeping his tone of voice down to a mere mumble. you turned your head to look at him quietly, "Hazel, just… dressed up as him and held a Pride and Prejudice copy.." you sniffled, the whole situation didn't feel great but you'd have to persevere or whatever. he looked shocked for a moment then his brows furrowed as his expression got serious, "are you serious?" he asked before looking at your face and noticing you were more than serious about the whole situation, "oh, God I knew she had some crazy screws loose.. well, I'll tell the others about it for you and now we have a serious enemy in school now." he tried to joke with you to make you feel better.
you nodded in reply and he got up and grabbed tissues for you because you needed something for comfort at the moment. "it was about time you did something you know," he said softly, patting your arm before he handed you the tissues. he then sat down calmly and poked your arm some more. when the science teacher came in you looked up immediately she told everyone to grab their things from their bags, and what not. when you grabbed your textbook it was a biology text book which you were more better at for some magical reason, anything with engineering was something you were more… bad at… believe it or not, yet it was just something you beat yourself up over which Otto would take over all of the work in there even if you weren't in the same class together. it was just something that could not be controlled and you always have felt bad when he would do all of the work for you.
in return you did all of the work he wasn't the best at, anyway, you stared at the teacher as she mentioned something about radio active stuff and what places were radioactive, one girl said Chernobyl which made you mad, not because she was right, but because with how OFTEN she named the place, it was at least TWICE— no FIVE times each day already. that's what made it bad, like it IS an answer but at this point its an overused one. like there are other things that are radioactive, like those clocks that the radium girls painted, there's also Hiroshima, Fukushima Daiichi, Hanford, The Polygon (Kazakhstan), Lake Karachai, Mailuu-Suu, Sellafield, Ramsar, Goiania, Siberian Chemicial Combine, the radium girls bodies, Marie Curie, people who consumed radium or anything like that, people who drank radithor, the places where uranium was found at. there were so many places and so many people who died due to radiation but Chernobyl is the only one worth knowing??
plus she knew about Chernobyl because you first mentioned it, plus she got the story behind the place wrong, and you corrected her, ever since then Chernobyl was her go-to answer. yeah, you did not like hearing that answer half the time, it for sure wasn't a bad one it was just irritating to hear the same answer over and over again.
when lunch rolled around you sat at the lunch table, you all were talking and yapping to each other, you were complaining about something, the whole group knew what went down with Hazel earlier that day, yet Felicia noticed that Hazel was more… angry for some reason, and it was very clear with the reason why but Felicia expected Hazel to look more… humiliated instead of angry, because anyone in their right mind would be upset for being humiliated In-front of a crowd, but Hazel didn't seem to understand what she did was wrong, and that's what made the whole thing suck. at some point Felicia got up and she said she was going to ask Hazel on how she felt on the whole thing.
you all nodded giving Felicia the go ahead to ask Hazel why she was angry. when Felicia walked she asked a few people where Hazel went, they all pointed her in the direction where Hazel was which Felicia thanked them and continued to walk, when she found Hazel she just stood next to the sitting girl, who was clearly fuming on what happened, "hey, Hazel why are you so… angry?" Felicia started with, Hazel looked right up at her and glared across the room to look at you. "[Name] is the problem, I HATE her, she had the gall to yell at me for dressing this way when I want to be friends with her…" Hazel stabbed the food with her fork, Felicia hummed staring at Hazel, "well, since I am [Name]'s friend and I've known her a week after her best friend died well… dressing up as him and trying to act like him isn't the way to go, he died and she can't get him back, just seeing you in that outfit with that book just… got to her, you know?" Felicia asked, she was trying to get Hazel to see it from your perspective. which was no problem but it still didn't seem to click with her. "I DON'T CARE! she should've known that I wanted to do for her, she probably didn't know her own best friend, no wonder he's dead, he probably died because of her because shes a good for nothing ^!" Hazel yelled, Felicia blinked just staring at her for a moment.
"what is wrong with you? he didn't commit he was at a place and died due to a gas leak or something, you don't even know her at all Hazel, I came here to understand your side and you ask why you're upset. but also no matter which side is right or wrong, it was and is wrong of you to play dress up with someone that died and that person is specifically close to the person you want to befriend." Felicia hissed, Hazel seemed to get more mad at the whole thing most likely was that she still thought she was the one in the right plus she believed she just did nothing wrong, when the thing she did was on so many levels of wrong. "I don't care about that, [Name] showed her true colors! I want her dead!" Hazel yelled, Felicia groaned and just decided to walk away because dealing with this situation would only make it worse and worse. Felicia wasn't planning on doing anything else with the whole thing at this point in time.
when she came back to the table, she sat down, "yep, Hazel does not understand what she did is wrong, oh, also she wants you dead [Name]" Felicia groaned, Otto just nodded, "Okay, okay at least shes gaining an original thought." Otto hummed, you just stared at him and nodded.
"yep, life is great trust me!" you smiled, Max just thought for a moment, he looked up at everyone, "well, knowing Hazel shes kinda legit on what she says, you may need to like genuinely watch your back [Name]." Max murmured.
"oh," you hummed, everyone else got quiet for a moment. you all looked at each other for a moment, "well, we stick together and we make sure the person who got us into this vigilante crap wont die and we'd be damned if we let that happen." Eugene hummed, you just stared at everyone, "what in the my little pony…" you mumbled that seemed to get at least a chuckle out of everyone. "but… Thank you." you hummed, they all nodded smiling a bit, the subject then changed pretty fast, then before you knew it the bell rang and you all went into class.
in History you just stared at what was being shown as the teacher spoke on some genocides that had happened in the past, personally you loved to learn about genocides because you wanted to know how to prevent it in the future, you loved learning about everything serious in history. some people disliked history because it was too political, but at the end of the day, everything is political you cant really do much about it. so if they only shame history for how political it is then how about you shame absolutely everything the world hands to you. mostly everything has an undertone of some meaning, plus lots of media is political so it has always been a normal thing you didn't really care about.
anyway, when the school day ended you were walking towards the entrance so you could go home like what everyone else was doing. once you stepped foot outside your spider sense came out of nowhere to warn you about something, then you heard running behind you, so you ducked just at the right time before side stepping, you moved your leg off to the side slower than you expected then the person who tried to tackle you tripped and fell after you moved away from the entrance. glancing back you saw Hazel right there and a trash can on the ground Infront of her and it had water falling out of it, "what the heck?" you yelped unsure on how to feel on the whole situation at hand. there Hazel was in all her glory with her hair and absolute mess and the pride and prejudice copy skidded to your feet, you picked up the book and opened it, the copy had two names on the side and a small doodle that was more than familiar to you, when you saw the doodle and names it got painfully obvious on who it belonged to.
it belonged to you, the copy in itself used to be Jason's but he always called it his and your own copy, like you both were the owners to the copy, not just one person. staring at the book you looked up to stare at Hazel, "you stole my book too?" you asked firmly, even more upset. first she decided to dress like your late best friend, tries to act like him, calls you by a nickname he gave you, steals your copy of Pride and Prejudice, talks to you like you've known eachother for an eternity, then she acts very parasocial even though you go to the same school and are on a first name basis.
you both weren't friends, you knew that, you thought she understood that in some sort of vague way, but it seems like you were wrong. "are you kidding me?? I swear on everything around us if I find one little writing on it one little doodle that wasn't there before, I swear you're done for!" you yelled, putting the book in your bag, it honestly hurt that she took something that was so dear to you, so completely dear to you. it made you even more angry than anything, the whole thing was making you feel… a lot was an understatement. this was your fault, that was what was starting to enter your mind.
if you just told her from the get go that she was being weird and creepy with you then none of this would've happened… right..? that feeling was getting worse, when you looked back up you saw her fist moving towards your face, you dodged pretty quickly and she skidded to the floor falling on her face, the people around you stopped and started watching the scene Infront of them. many pulled their phones out to take a video. you didn't exactly care about that at the moment, you were more worried on what Hazel was trying to do. she got back up, her nose was bloody probably broken— "Hazel are you okay? we should get you some ice." you said on instinct, but she flung herself at you again which you grabbed both of her wrists, her standing was unstable which was what you noticed, "stop pretending like you care you snake!" she yelled.
"oh, I'm the snake?? says the one who dressed up like my dead best friend, tried to act like him, followed me around outside of school, and you stole my book!" you replied, it just simply upset you when she acted like she was the one in the right. the people watching in the back let out some 'oooh's, Hazel started to scream and she tried to kick you but out of instinct you put one leg in between hers and knocked her down, she tripped over the trashcan and fell into the trash water which you didn't mean to do.
her fall took you by surprise and she just kept getting up and she grabbed something out of her bag, it made your spider sense tingle, once she showed what she was holding, you saw that she was holding onto some scissors, she lunged at you with them in her hands, "everyone please back up!" you yelped, moving to grab her wrists again as everyone screamed a bit and they ran into the building, probably to get a teacher but some stayed to film, you personally never thought the day would come when you'd get attacked with some scissors which was VERY dangerous, those things were really sharp too.
this fight made one thing very clear, she was not okay in the head, which was very obvious from the start but now everyone knew she was more than crazy at this point. she was still pushing to hurt you but you continued to keep a firm hold on her wrists, "you are a mean person and you don't deserve to walk on this earth! I'll help you see your best friend again!" she laughed, you just stared at her in utter shock not knowing how to respond.
"what are you talking about??" you snapped at her, at some point a teacher came and a school security guard came they had to pull the scissors out of hazel's hands as she kicked and screamed at everyone and everything. a teacher moved Infront of you as the officer took care of a screaming Hazel, the other people put their phones away immediately. the whole thing was just messy.. no it was more than messy— if that was even possible, the teacher guided you to your aunts car, "hey Mrs. Parker, there was a situation with your niece and another girl and it got really bad, the whole thing will be taken care of but tomorrow [Name] may need to get pulled away from her classes." the teacher told your aunt, she seemed shocked for a moment but you just got pushed into the car as the teacher walked away to go see what was going on.
"do you need to stay at.." aunt may trailed off, you knew what she meant. you looked at her wide eyed, "Aunt May…? I need to tell you something really important.." you muttered.
she looked at you calmly, "what is it [Name]?" she asked softly not even going to say a thing to push it immediately. "this is a really bad idea…" you mumbled, glancing back up you made eye contact with her, "you know that Web-Spinner vgilante?" you asked reluctanly, Aunt May nodded keeping that gentle look. "well, that's me. I work with some people and there's a… warehouse used as a base and it has enough rooms for us all so I have a room there… can you… drop me off there?" you asked, Aunt May seemed shocked by what you had just told her, she then looked forward and sighed, "kid, there's a lot of criminals here in Gotham… and you usually take on the big guys at least that's what the news said… but are you sure that is something you want to continue doing for the world?" she asked, making eye contact with you. "either option you choose then i'll support you.. I just need you to be careful [Name]… you cant save everyone and that's okay… you don't need to save everyone in the world to prove that you can be successful." Aunt May responded, she looked at you softly, the whole thing was a shock, you'd at least thought she'd be upset or tell you to stop doing the vigilante stuff.
"well, I don't plan on stopping… I have gotten in way to deep already," you hummed.
Aunt May nodded in response, "well, kid.. wheres this warehouse you've mentioned?" she asked you, glancing at her you told her exactly where the place was and she started driving there taking some hidden ways to get there sneakily, when you both got there she parked in an alleyway locking the car as she hopped out to follow you. when you opened up the door to the place you let her inside and she got to see the whole place, "wow, you kids really rehabilitated this place…" she hummed, staring at some of the phones which were put in a bowl next to the door, she recognized the who owned each one. along with the shoes by the door.
"so, its you and them?" she asked, staring at you quietly. you looked at her and smiled cheekily, she did follow you as you toured her around the place, her suspicions on who the people there were solidified when she saw the names and photos on the fridge.
"sorry for not telling you sooner.." you hummed shyly, Aunt May just stared at you and sighed shaking her head, "[Name], its fine. its no big deal, its hard to take a guess on what the reaction will be…" she smiled, you stared at her face for a moment. then you thought about what to say, before shrugging, "well, Uncle Ben found out quite fast if I do say so myself, but what he doesn't know is that theres a whole base and team for this type of thing." you said without a care in the world. now that's what got Aunt May in shock, "he knew???" she asked very alarmed, you just stared at her in silence for a moment. "oops…" you murmured, aunt may just started to laugh at your reaction to her reaction.
"kid, don't worry its not your fault, its just really surprising he found out first since… he can sometimes be more on the slower end with things." she smiled, you just stared at her some more thinking about if you should take her to the underground area where most definitely everyone was getting ready for the vigilante work. but also your suit was down there so it'd be pretty useless if you didn't go down there and get changed, after all you and them had some stretching to do. "Well, I'm going to go home and tell your uncle everything if that's okay with you [Name]." she smiled, you nodded and watched her leave but you followed after her in the end.
once she got to the car safe and sound thats when you left to go back inside. when you entered the building again you made sure to lock the door and you walked to the middle of the room and stepped on the small metal ring around the middle, then you typed in the code before it went back down, you stepped back and watch the elevator lift up, you walked into the elevator listening to it close as it started to desend.
once it did you waited till it hit the bottom and it then opened up and you walked on out of the elevator, "hey!" you hummed, everyone else looked at you Felicia smiled and ran on over to you, "I brought my aunt over here… she and Uncle Ben know about… this whole ordeal… I felt like it was right to tell her." you told them shyly, they all looked at you and Felicia snorted, she patted your back softly. "Don't worry so much Webs, out of everyone who could know, the most trustable ones would be your aunt and uncle, along with Jason… but he's kinda…" Felicia hummed, you nodded in response unsure of what to say.
"anyway, everyone get dressed we have a long night ahead of us!" Max called out, you moved away from Felicia and ran to the bathroom down there and got changed as fast as you could, once suited up you walked back out. you all moved to sit in a circle in the spinny chairs down there, "okay, so there's a whole illegal trade of this stuff called Goublin Green going around, its meant to make people smarter but also with the wrong dosage or using too much every day is what makes it all fall down. the stuff in general isn't the greatest. its very very flawed and dangerous. I also did somehow manage to get in contact with the bat from the thing he gave you [Name] he's letting us do this on our own. this is our run down on how the team will operate with the same goal in mind." Max explained, you all nodded.
"okay what will our jobs be?" Eugene asked, Max looked at him and then he looked at Dmitri.
"me and dmitri made this plan, Otto will be here and making gadgets as usual but the gadgets needed will be directly for this whole plan to find the Goublin Green, Eugene you will sweep the streets and question the gangs who have their hands on that stuff, Felicia you will check over anyone who is funding any of this stuff, Dmitri you need to gain information, and [Name] you gotta find the direct source of this stuff, I have warehouses counted off of suspicious activity with the Goublin Green." Max told you all, everyone of course nodded, you all put your hands out in the middle, Otto added one of his tentacles, "okay, one, two, three, Team!" you all said together before getting up and moving to Otto's lab to grab some things like a updated wristband for you, but everyone else finally got their own, "this is an extra contact thing, and it has a map, this right here is an SOS type of thing, which its meant to contact the bat, or anyone close to that is here in Gotham." Otto explained happily, you all put the device on and started to do the practice drills in the biggest room in the basement area.
once it got dark enough out you all snuck out, "good luck everyone" you told them before leaving to go do what you were told to do, it was pretty simple for the most part, many people were out and about, you ran into some people who were selling Goublin Green, and marked the spot for Eugene to get, and you just swung away finding what warehouses you could find, there was not much of any guards in the area. you squinted and swung to get closer, moving towards the window of the place you quickly found out they were only guarding the interior, making the Goublin green. you checked if the window was unlocked and once you found out it was infact unlocked. these people need to learn how to lock windows, or at least to block them off.
you crouched down listening to them talk, then you tapped on the device in order to record the conversation, you heard them talking about doing a mass selling, and surprisingly found out the black mask had nothing to do with the spread of Goublin Green, so this was very obviously not his workings, for some reason it relieved you, maybe you'd have to figure that out some other time, it was simply just a not right now type of thing at the moment.
once you gathered enough information you decided to show yourself but first you took out the bigger guys, the ones making the Goublin Green didn't seem to notice. too busy talking among themselves to notice that you were taking out all of the stronger guys. which… unlucky them. once they were all knocked out you decided that it was finally time to strike.
getting up on a crate you stared at them, "hello, may I talk to the person who started this whole.. smuggling thing?" you hummed, they looked at you so unbelievablely fast, shocked. "What the—" you webbed them up before they could get any more word in, "electro, got one place marked, they are all webbed up, its safe to call to the location." you hummed, you heard typing in the background, "got it, sending a call right on in." Max hummed, you then left from where you came and swung away, you patrolled a little longer before going back to home base. you were the first one there, Otto was working on something as you gave him a sample of the Goublin Green you got your hands on. "you got a sample???? THIS IS AMAZINGGG" Otto yelled, then he started to maniacally laugh.
you took off your mask and walked off putting the sweaty costume in the washing machine, the wrist cuff's were put back into your locker, when you came back to Otto he was taking a small sample and looking at the thing, "hrm… oh! [Name], we need to do some tests on your whole durablility and powers at some point, everyone else's test runs are done already so you're the next one." he muttered, as he concentrated on his work.
"yep, yep I know Otto.." you hummed.
"you better know." he responded, you smiled and walked off to go to your room so you can sleep in peace. once you got into your room you decided to take a shower first, once that was done you went straight to bed and passed out when you woke up you saw your phone right on the nightstand, Felicia probably brought it over to your room once she got home. letting out a huge yawn you got up and went to the closet and grabbed some of the clothes in there and put it on. the jeans were low-rise since whenever you went to go thrift with Felicia she got everyone clothes she knew would look great on you all. anyway, you then grabbed a shirt and put it on, it was a halter top, the color was a color that looked really good on you, dang.. Felicia absolutely knows what colors are complementary. you put on some makeup, and got a necklace on along with some bracelets. you then grabbed the jacket that you took from Jason's room a long time ago, Bruce did call and he said that you could keep it, so you did keep the jacket, when you walked out of the room you walked down the steps which everyone was in the kitchen eating some food.
"how'd everything go on your guy's ends last night." you asked, Eugene looked fine, Dmitri had his head slumped onto the table, Otto looked energized, Max looked calm and content, and Felicia looked a-okay too. "Dmitri's fine he wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. but his whole act was not… the best he's done." Felicia said for Dmitri, Eugene nodded looking back at Dmitri before looking back up to you. "yeah…" Eugene mumbled.
you all made sure to eat some food first before running off to go to school, you of course took the faster route, "my whole body hurts.." Dmitri whined, Felicia looked back at him and you followed her gaze. "is it the walking or how you got a whole beat down last night?" you asked, Dmitri glared at you, "ha, ha." he responded sarcastically. you just smiled at him and continued to walk through the streets, you turned back around to look Infront of you.
you all continued to walk, once you got to the school you walked into the building but a teacher stopped you from continuing to walk, you just sighed and followed the teacher into the principals office, there were officers and there was Hazel in one seat, and you were guided into a different seat. an officer stoop in-between you and Hazel, she was sending you a death glare. you just looked ahead not making eye-contact with her.
the principal asked for her side of the story and she gave her side of the story which it was exactly honest and it was exactly how everything happened, then when it was your turn you waited for a moment unsure of what to say at the moment. "uhm, so me and Hazel met at a party, she was getting picked on so I helped her but after that she started showing up in places where I was at when I was with my friends.." you started to explain. they looked at you, one officer was writing everything down. "and when school started she just started sitting with us, which wasn't any problem but like everytime she'd ask for my number, my aunt and uncle's number, and then she'd just continue on and on. talking to me everyday, knocking at my bedroom window when I was getting changed, sometimes she'd try to follow me to the grave yard, I've always went there once every week to talk to one of the graves because my best friend had passed away." you murmured, you felt your cheeks heat up as you looked down to your lap. they all nodded which Hazel looked like she wanted to interject and explain why she did what she did. but also she actually just skimmed over the big stuff.
"your late best friend was.. Jason Todd correct?" the principal asked you.
"yes." you confirmed, they nodded and they looked at you so you could continue recounting what happened, "at first I wanted to be kind and nice to her but she just continued to push and pry at everything in my whole life, like who Jason was to me when it can be found at any news source or whatever. One of my friends told me to talk to Hazel and to set boundaries with her.. but I felt like it was the wrong thing to do when she seemed so desperate to have a friend. so I put up with it but once she started to get touchy it put more of a strain on how I felt, she asked me to go out to watch movies with her, but when I would look at the plotline I found out quickly they were all rather.. explicit in some sort of way." you continued, you finally brought your gaze up to look at Hazel. she seemed like she was fuming.
"then one day she came to school in an outfit that Jason would wear, she tried to parrot his voice in some way. her bangs were made to look like his too… she then held a Pride and Prejudice copy that I later found out was mine, it had doodles and small little notes In the page he and I had made. but at the moment I didn't know that, she tried to act like him and thats what set me off, I yelled at her and I did nothing else, I knew she was upset only because of how humiliating that would be but I was tired of everything that was going on so I just snapped at her. at lunch my friend walked over to talk to her to try and get her side, along with that she found out that hazel quite literally wanted me dead. which I thought nothing of it because.. I thought she meant that in the more non-literal sense, but at the end of the day I found out it wasn't a… non-literal." you recounted the events trying to keep your eyes down, the whole situation in itself wasn't stressing you out, you knew you could handle something like that on your own so it wasn't a panic type of thing.
"I didn't throw the first punch but what set Hazel off was me taking my book back so then it just escalated from there, I did make sure she didn't hurt anyone and when she tried to kick me that's the only time I really pushed her," you explained, the officers nodded and after a bit of talking you decided to press charges and Hazel was confirmed to be expelled that day, you of course felt bad for what happened but you had to tell yourself that it wasn't your fault.
the whole day and week went by rather normally. You told Jason's grave what had happened, and of course, you got absolutely no reply which was whatever. you stopped expecting some ghost of him to respond, when you all were at the basement of the warehouse, you just talked to each other. Max was reading the progress report (you had to make a progress report for Batman because he wanted to know how you guys were doing). Tonight was possibly going to be the last day to get the job done. Well, actually it was the estimated end of the work before Batman had to take over for you guys.
Which that whole deal was what you all were fine with that, Batman was very unwilling to let you guys run free with this type of thing, you all talked out the plan for that night and you left the place swinging off to the last warehouse you had to go to. something in you was telling you to not go and rush into the whole thing, so you did stop some crooks a bit. then you had to psyche yourself back up and once you got to the warehouse something felt wrong. so you tapped on your comm link, "hey, guys?" you murmured swinging up to a gargoyle and sitting there.
"yeah?" they all symontainously asked, You sighed as relief flooded Your system. glancing back to the warehouse You saw a hooded figure walk on inside of the warehouse, "I'm having a very bad feeling about this warehouse, and I think my suspicions have been confirmed…" You told them, You heard Max curse. "I got into the camera's into that warehouse and there's like huge tanks of that stuff… and… wait, is that Hazel???" he yelped, Your eyes widened. everyone symotainously said "WHAT?" all together.
"this warehouse may need to be a batman thing, but you can grab Hazel and web her up." Max said, everyone didn't exactly agree with that from what you could hear, Felicia sounded unsure on the idea, "this whole thing is how we can prove ourselfs Electro, it would suck to call it quits when a building is full of that stuff, Web's can contain it just fine without our help, shes done it so many times to count— Webs if anyhting goes wrong then we'll come to help okay?" Felicia said. Max sounded unsure but when everyone agreed then he sighed and agreed to the whole thing, "fine, we'll do it on our own but if anything goes wrong then we call Batman." Max finally said.
everyone cheered and You just swung to the warehouse, opening a window and sliding on in, Hazel was there in big oversized clothes, she had cuffs on her wrists, but yet that seemed to not deter her, she climbed up to the ledge of the neon green goublin green liquid, "hey, if I remember correctly you're not meant to be here miss." You showed Yourself, she looked at You she glared at You for a moment, "what do you want? I can be here whenever I want, my dad is the one making this stuff." she said carelessly.
"huh, well, why are you here?" You asked, she rolled her eyes as if that was obvious. You kept quiet for a moment, eyes trained on her as a whole, "I'm here to become smarter than [Name] Parker, she sucks and I hate her! and if I become smarter then her I can find out why she's playing victim!" hazel hissed. You were just kinda taken aback on why Hazel said that, like yes You knew she was crazy but what You didn't know was that she had it in her to holler about You 'playing victim'.
"and you cant stop me!" she yelled before jumping into the goey liquid, You ran over concerned, You hoped that she was okay but You weren't going to take a bet on her being just fine and dandy, but You weren't going to jump in to grab her since You still didn't know of what that liquid was capable of. so You decided to click on the call Batman button and when he answered You just rushed an explanation because what the heck, "whatever you do don't jump into it web-spinner, I'm in the middle of doing something so I wont be able to help you right away. get away from the tank and call your team." he told You, it made sense on why You should do that along with why he was telling You what to do, You were still a kid and new to this even if You've been doing this whole thing longer than Your teammates. "o-okay.." You whimpered, before hanging up and calling the team to get over to where You were at. "hey, uh so Hazel jumped in and I may need backup just in case." You told the team, before backing away from the tank, You still saw hazel's body inside of the green goo, it was starting to twitch. "on it!" eugene responded very quickly, "I'm coming over right now!" Felicia said, You heard typing in the background which was max, "otto's going over there too. Dmitri are you able to run over to help them out?" max asked. You all heard a hum, "yep! running over there now!" he responded.
"good!" Max then said, it took a few minutes but everyone got there, when looking at the glass of the tub— You realized that Hazel's body was starting to contort and it sounded like her bones were breaking. she was also starting to grow bigger, "its…" Otto trailed off. Dmitri stared at what was going on, "everyone get in your places, we've practiced this too many times to count!" You all followed what was commanded You used Your webs to get up on the fence thing, You crouched down waiting for something to happen.
Otto had his metal leg thing's get the shield mode out, Felicia got her 'claws' ready, Eugene bent down getting into a jumping position, and Dmitri stood back getting the gauntlets that Otto made him ready, You placed a small recording module on one of the metal bars so it can record the fight, "recording module set up," You told them. watching the body in the goo was weird to see, "keep Hazel inside of the building, the outside cams show a civilian walking close to the warehouse." Max informed You all through the comm, "thanks electro." You hummed.
there was choked screaming in the goop, as there was a louder cracking and breaking sound, You waited for a moment and You all saw the body grow bit by bit, after a good five minutes she climbed out of the goop, she was a bright green, her eyes were red, her hair was more straw-like, the oversized orange clothes were hanging by a thread, "oh my goodness this is the best learning experience on what happens with this stuff!!" Otto yelled joyously.
"Doc Ock!!—" You all groaned.
"what?? I'm being true to myself!—"
"not the time!" Dmitri yelled.
Hazel opened her mouth and roared, at You all then she threw the first punch, her tail lashed around, oh she had a tail now— when the tail went in Your direction You jumped out of the way and moved to a pillar, You distracted her a bit as the team waited for the right moment, "go, go, go!" Dmitri yelled.
the whole team ran at Hazel, Eugene was the first to kick her as Otto grabbed a scale and put it in his pocket, it made Hazel let out a screetch as she moved to fly up to the ceiling, You hopped down to the ground and You attached Your webs to her legs, Otto then used his metal octo arms to grab onto Hazel. You attached the webs to the metal pillairs around then You attached the webs to the wings on her back, You kept trying to pull her down until help could come.
You saw everyone else attack her as You and Otto kept her from flying off, when she was finally pulled down to the ground You saw her tail move, You did Your best to keep her down for longer but that was easier said than done. yelping You webbed her tail down and once she was down right Infront of You all she didn't move. "boom, at least its all done now!" Eugene chirped turning away from Hazel with everyone, she looked at You and grabbed You, yelling she flew on out, the movements more messy and unsure as she held You. once out of the warehouse she slammed You onto the ground stepping on Your right ankle using all her weight, You screamed, and connected Your webs to her face and slam her head into the ground, everyone ran out trying to get to You.
Hazel picked You up and chuckled You to a building, You fell Infront of a red haired girl that went to Your highschool, "h-hey, you may need to run.." You smiled, Your voice strained, her eyes went wide as she bent down checking Your ankle, "you're hurt." she said.
"yeah maybe a little." You muttered, the girl looked back to the team ganging up on Hazel so she wouldn't be a threat to anyone. "may I see? also what happened?" the blue eyed girl asked, "that's Hazel Osborn, she jumped into the goop and frog-man decided to jinx it when she went down." You informed her, the red-headed girl took off Your shoes and peeled off Your sock, when she saw the swelling of the wound it made her pause, "its most likely broken. not bad, bad but it is bad enough to keep you limping for a few weeks." she said softly, checking over Your wound for a bit longer, "I need you to stay down." she told You, keeping quiet You nodded.
"can you please go and get to safety?" You asked quietly, she nodded and she got up and ran off but she first got You leaned up against the wall, when she was gone You got up and jumped into the fight so You could help Your friends, it took like an hour to get Hazel down and not fighting anymore, when Batman's car showed up he walked over to You and helped You stand. he looked at the scuffed team, and You all just looked at eachother. Otto moved first, "are you okay Web-Spinner? you really got thrown around like a ragdoll. I need to make you more durable things—" he was about to go on a rant but Felicia stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder, their gaze turned back to Batman, "so.. what'll happen now?" Felicia asked.
"you kids did good on your first run, but nextime you need to make sure the person your fighting isn't getting back up." Batman told You all. Dmitri nodded looking back up, he thought for a moment, "alright we'll do better next time we promise." Dmitri promised for the team.
You kept silent just focusing on keeping weight off of Your leg, "i'll take your friend to a doctor that I know, and I need you guys to only talk to the commissioner for me, anyone else then they'll probably scold you." he said before turning around and getting You into the back of the Bat-mobile, You looked out the window looking at Your friends, it was scary for some reason, but You trusted him so he has to be helping You in some sort of way, he already had helped You and the team so many times to count.
he sped over into Crime-Alley, then he stopped Infront of a clinic, 'leslie's clinic'… huh, "are they good?" You asked, he looked back at Your masked face, "yes, shes good, shes also very trustable with your secret identity." he reassured, he helped You get inside of the building, You just kept quiet and once taken inside he called out for Dr. Thompkins, she came and gasped when she saw you, it wasn't a big problem, you were fine, and you stayed off of the injured leg for that whole fight but either way you were just fine there were no problems.. which that was what you thought. when you were taken to the back Dr. Thompkins had you sit down on the bed in there, she then told Batman to leave the room which he did do.
"alright sweetheart, you can take off the mask… you're safe here and I won't tell anyone what I saw I promise," she hummed. you nodded and reluctantly pulled off the mask, she seemed a little shocked at seeing you but she kept her composure, at some point she softly pushed you down to lay on your back, she then gave you a sedative after asking if you had any allergies, and all that stuff, when she was sure you'd be fine, she gave you something so you can go to sleep, when you woke up you had a bandage around your leg which it was wrapped tightly around the wound. when you came to your senses she explained everything to you, that you were durable enough to not need anything big.
when your aunt and uncle came to pick you up aunt may ran over and held your cheeks, "are you okay?" aunt may asked, she was very alarmed it seemed, letting out a yawn they got you in the car, "are you sure we wont have to pay you?" Uncle Ben asked Dr. Thompkins. she smiled and shook her head "I'm very sure, now I need you to make sure shes somewhere safe and sound, probably away from home, I know that may be hard but a girl named Hazel may want her dead and her being away from home is the safest option for everyone. I hope you both can understand that.." Dr. Tho
mpkins explained, the two nodded and thanked her for her help and left. when you got back to the warehouse, you just stumpled on inside of the warehouse, then they helped you up the steps to your room in the warehouse. you hugged them before they left and they walked out of the room.
you got changed in your pajamas and then you flopped onto your bed and went to sleep.
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P.S. PLEASE ASK TO BE ON THE TAGLIST!! ALSO FEEL FREE TO SEND IN ASKS BUT PLEASE KEEP IT APPROPRIATE!!!
Synopsis: When a girl gets bitten by a radioactive spider, she and her friends work together as a team, they all find a place to stay so they can operate, the main girl meets Talia Al Ghul, getting a note from her then she returns back home finding out that someone really close to her knows what she had been doing, when weeks pass she goes to a party with her friends meeting a girl named Hazel.
Jason TODD X FEM! SPIDEY! READER
Warnings: slight cursing, death, injury, throwing up/gagging, teens being teens, mentions of theft (DO NOT DO THAT), very uncomfortable topics, forced friendship, creepy and really weird dynamics
Note: Also, if you'd like to be on the tag-list, just ask me politely in the comments! There may be some bad Grammar in here, but I'll keep doing my best to make this good! Also, there will be slow updates— mainly because I have school, and I lose interest in things very quickly if I have to be honest! Anyway, I hope you have fun reading, and don't forget to like, comment, share, and please re-blog this post! anyway. Thank you so so much, reader, and goodbye! ~ sincerely Zeep
PREVIOUS — ACT I, CHAPTER THREE — MASTERLIST — NEXT
summer has ended, and school time was now here… yeah you 100% bawled because you had unfortunately found out that Hazel went to the same school as you and when you met her after that she just kept on pushing it, kept on running into you when you went out with your friends out of costume and the whole attention from her was just simply getting too much. Felicia had noticed everything then it went into a domino effect with how the rest of the friend group noticed.
when you walked into the building you saw Otto at his locker which all of your lockers were put into a line together because you had always requested every year for your classes and lockers to get in line together which was nice. when you opened the locker you put some of your things inside the thing then you heard it. "hey, [Name!]" you heard that agitating GRATING voice.
"hey.. Hazel…" you forced a smile looking at her, she didn't seem to notice your discomfort and she started to talk your eat off, "oh, well, look at the time! me and Otto have science together! ah, I'm so sorry but we have to go.." you strained out, before running off with Otto to go to science class, once you sat down in the seat, Otto sat down next to you as you took a deep breath in and out.
"you should set some boundaries with her, or you should stop being nice to her, hazel's attention and want for friendship is unwanted by you so why do you keep feeding into her delusions." Otto whispered to you, he was right of course, but you just didn't have it in you to be mean to Hazel, she seemed like she needed a friend and you've been there before, In a less creepy way though. you nodded, "I will do it at some point I just… " you replied, he gave you a look. "You better do so." he said.
week after week she tried to insert herself into your life, she ended up finding out you Uncle and Aunt's phone number and she would constantly ask if you and her could hang out which Uncle Ben and Aunt May always said that you couldn't go out, which was perfect cover for you when you'd be out and about fighting crime. it was just really hard to be juggling your life constantly when all she'd do was revolve her whole f*cking life around you constantly. it was tiring, and it made everything harder and harder.
when you went to Jason's grave that night you just slumped down next to it in costume as you just started to cry and tell him everything that was going on, and how tired of it you were, it was hard to just do this constantly, so you just continued to cry lifting your mask up so you can not get your mask all dirty because you did not want to clean that, "I got an eyebrow piercing so.. that's a plus.. right?" you sniffled, "i— I just don't know what to do Jay.. everything I do it feels like I'm being idolized and I don't want that… I don't want to be idolized by anyone at all!— Otto told me to set boundaries with her but its still… its still hard to do so because shes.. she seems like shes had no friends in her whole life and being… whatever it is to her is just not my thing right now…" you whimpered.
after a bit you pulled your mask back up and shot out a web as you shot out your webs swinging to get back to the ware house, once you got inside you picked up your phone from the counter and saw the amount of messages that were there, it was all from Hazel asking you 15 thousand questions, you just put her on silent and walked to go up the stairs to your room, when you flopped onto the bed you just passed out immediately because of the whole thing.
the next day when you stepped foot into the school there was Hazel, her bangs were styled to be like those heart or frog bangs Jason had, she had clothes like him and a copy of pride and prejudice in her hands. "what are you doing?" you asked being very direct this time, she smiled at you as if she was doing nothing wrong, "oh, I'm doing nothing wrong Ladybug!" she smiled, you stared at her in utter silence, "what the hell is wrong with you?" you asked again, she looked utterly confused on why you were asking her that. "I don't know what you're talking about." she smiled, the smile becoming more strained as she fidgeted some more, "'i don't know what you're talking about'. no, you know exactly what you're doing!" you hissed, Hazel looked shocked that you'd even imply that.
she giggled nervously, "you don't just get to walk in here in that outfit and pretend nothings wrong!" you yelled, Hazel's brows furrowed as if she was trying to act confused, she just smiled nervously, "you are nothing but a good for nothing asshole who's trying to tarnish Jason's memory!" you cried out, you felt tears prick at your eyes.
"i wont stand for this! you don't just get to play dress up and call me things that only he called me! so go fuck off and find someone else to jack off to!" you shoved her away, she looked shocked, then angry at you being upset at her, "you're awfully protective over someone whose dead [Name] don't you think that's weird or is that some kink you have?" she taunted getting upset at you while she was the one dressing like him and acting like him.
"the fuck did you just say to me? my best friend is dead and i cant speak to him or see him anymore hazel! just because you want to pursue a friendship with me doesn't mean you can go out and around saying that I'm wrong for mourning him! you don't get it hazel you never will, my best friend is gone and you just want to be best friends with me when i cant stand being around you for even a moment!" you yelled, your breath hitched slightly as you thought about Jason.
"we are not friends and we will never be friends. plus if you ever try to act or dress like him again i will kill you." you said before slamming her into a locker and walking off. when you got into science you just sat down and put you head into your hands your breath started to shake bit by bit, then before you knew it tears started to fall as you cried more and more, of course you kept it quiet but it was just hard to have that happen and to not be able to do anything about it unless it were to be a yelling match, you heard people file into the room and there Otto was walking on in but you just didn't look up unwilling to just look at anything at the moment. the main reason for that was the feeling of your eyes burning from the tears. Otto sat right next to you, he looked at you for one moment and decided to join you in laying your head down on the table world! yayyy…
"what happened?" he asked keeping his tone of voice down to a mere mumble. you turned your head to look at him quietly, "Hazel, just… dressed up as him and held a Pride and Prejudice copy.." you sniffled, the whole situation didn't feel great but you'd have to persevere or whatever. he looked shocked for a moment then his brows furrowed as his expression got serious, "are you serious?" he asked before looking at your face and noticing you were more than serious about the whole situation, "oh, God I knew she had some crazy screws loose.. well, I'll tell the others about it for you and now we have a serious enemy in school now." he tried to joke with you to make you feel better.
you nodded in reply and he got up and grabbed tissues for you because you needed something for comfort at the moment. "it was about time you did something you know," he said softly, patting your arm before he handed you the tissues. he then sat down calmly and poked your arm some more. when the science teacher came in you looked up immediately she told everyone to grab their things from their bags, and what not. when you grabbed your textbook it was a biology text book which you were more better at for some magical reason, anything with engineering was something you were more… bad at… believe it or not, yet it was just something you beat yourself up over which Otto would take over all of the work in there even if you weren't in the same class together. it was just something that could not be controlled and you always have felt bad when he would do all of the work for you.
in return you did all of the work he wasn't the best at, anyway, you stared at the teacher as she mentioned something about radio active stuff and what places were radioactive, one girl said Chernobyl which made you mad, not because she was right, but because with how OFTEN she named the place, it was at least TWICE— no FIVE times each day already. that's what made it bad, like it IS an answer but at this point its an overused one. like there are other things that are radioactive, like those clocks that the radium girls painted, there's also Hiroshima, Fukushima Daiichi, Hanford, The Polygon (Kazakhstan), Lake Karachai, Mailuu-Suu, Sellafield, Ramsar, Goiania, Siberian Chemicial Combine, the radium girls bodies, Marie Curie, people who consumed radium or anything like that, people who drank radithor, the places where uranium was found at. there were so many places and so many people who died due to radiation but Chernobyl is the only one worth knowing??
plus she knew about Chernobyl because you first mentioned it, plus she got the story behind the place wrong, and you corrected her, ever since then Chernobyl was her go-to answer. yeah, you did not like hearing that answer half the time, it for sure wasn't a bad one it was just irritating to hear the same answer over and over again.
when lunch rolled around you sat at the lunch table, you all were talking and yapping to each other, you were complaining about something, the whole group knew what went down with Hazel earlier that day, yet Felicia noticed that Hazel was more… angry for some reason, and it was very clear with the reason why but Felicia expected Hazel to look more… humiliated instead of angry, because anyone in their right mind would be upset for being humiliated In-front of a crowd, but Hazel didn't seem to understand what she did was wrong, and that's what made the whole thing suck. at some point Felicia got up and she said she was going to ask Hazel on how she felt on the whole thing.
you all nodded giving Felicia the go ahead to ask Hazel why she was angry. when Felicia walked she asked a few people where Hazel went, they all pointed her in the direction where Hazel was which Felicia thanked them and continued to walk, when she found Hazel she just stood next to the sitting girl, who was clearly fuming on what happened, "hey, Hazel why are you so… angry?" Felicia started with, Hazel looked right up at her and glared across the room to look at you. "[Name] is the problem, I HATE her, she had the gall to yell at me for dressing this way when I want to be friends with her…" Hazel stabbed the food with her fork, Felicia hummed staring at Hazel, "well, since I am [Name]'s friend and I've known her a week after her best friend died well… dressing up as him and trying to act like him isn't the way to go, he died and she can't get him back, just seeing you in that outfit with that book just… got to her, you know?" Felicia asked, she was trying to get Hazel to see it from your perspective. which was no problem but it still didn't seem to click with her. "I DON'T CARE! she should've known that I wanted to do for her, she probably didn't know her own best friend, no wonder he's dead, he probably died because of her because shes a good for nothing ^!" Hazel yelled, Felicia blinked just staring at her for a moment.
"what is wrong with you? he didn't commit he was at a place and died due to a gas leak or something, you don't even know her at all Hazel, I came here to understand your side and you ask why you're upset. but also no matter which side is right or wrong, it was and is wrong of you to play dress up with someone that died and that person is specifically close to the person you want to befriend." Felicia hissed, Hazel seemed to get more mad at the whole thing most likely was that she still thought she was the one in the right plus she believed she just did nothing wrong, when the thing she did was on so many levels of wrong. "I don't care about that, [Name] showed her true colors! I want her dead!" Hazel yelled, Felicia groaned and just decided to walk away because dealing with this situation would only make it worse and worse. Felicia wasn't planning on doing anything else with the whole thing at this point in time.
when she came back to the table, she sat down, "yep, Hazel does not understand what she did is wrong, oh, also she wants you dead [Name]" Felicia groaned, Otto just nodded, "Okay, okay at least shes gaining an original thought." Otto hummed, you just stared at him and nodded.
"yep, life is great trust me!" you smiled, Max just thought for a moment, he looked up at everyone, "well, knowing Hazel shes kinda legit on what she says, you may need to like genuinely watch your back [Name]." Max murmured.
"oh," you hummed, everyone else got quiet for a moment. you all looked at each other for a moment, "well, we stick together and we make sure the person who got us into this vigilante crap wont die and we'd be damned if we let that happen." Eugene hummed, you just stared at everyone, "what in the my little pony…" you mumbled that seemed to get at least a chuckle out of everyone. "but… Thank you." you hummed, they all nodded smiling a bit, the subject then changed pretty fast, then before you knew it the bell rang and you all went into class.
in History you just stared at what was being shown as the teacher spoke on some genocides that had happened in the past, personally you loved to learn about genocides because you wanted to know how to prevent it in the future, you loved learning about everything serious in history. some people disliked history because it was too political, but at the end of the day, everything is political you cant really do much about it. so if they only shame history for how political it is then how about you shame absolutely everything the world hands to you. mostly everything has an undertone of some meaning, plus lots of media is political so it has always been a normal thing you didn't really care about.
anyway, when the school day ended you were walking towards the entrance so you could go home like what everyone else was doing. once you stepped foot outside your spider sense came out of nowhere to warn you about something, then you heard running behind you, so you ducked just at the right time before side stepping, you moved your leg off to the side slower than you expected then the person who tried to tackle you tripped and fell after you moved away from the entrance. glancing back you saw Hazel right there and a trash can on the ground Infront of her and it had water falling out of it, "what the heck?" you yelped unsure on how to feel on the whole situation at hand. there Hazel was in all her glory with her hair and absolute mess and the pride and prejudice copy skidded to your feet, you picked up the book and opened it, the copy had two names on the side and a small doodle that was more than familiar to you, when you saw the doodle and names it got painfully obvious on who it belonged to.
it belonged to you, the copy in itself used to be Jason's but he always called it his and your own copy, like you both were the owners to the copy, not just one person. staring at the book you looked up to stare at Hazel, "you stole my book too?" you asked firmly, even more upset. first she decided to dress like your late best friend, tries to act like him, calls you by a nickname he gave you, steals your copy of Pride and Prejudice, talks to you like you've known eachother for an eternity, then she acts very parasocial even though you go to the same school and are on a first name basis.
you both weren't friends, you knew that, you thought she understood that in some sort of vague way, but it seems like you were wrong. "are you kidding me?? I swear on everything around us if I find one little writing on it one little doodle that wasn't there before, I swear you're done for!" you yelled, putting the book in your bag, it honestly hurt that she took something that was so dear to you, so completely dear to you. it made you even more angry than anything, the whole thing was making you feel… a lot was an understatement. this was your fault, that was what was starting to enter your mind.
if you just told her from the get go that she was being weird and creepy with you then none of this would've happened… right..? that feeling was getting worse, when you looked back up you saw her fist moving towards your face, you dodged pretty quickly and she skidded to the floor falling on her face, the people around you stopped and started watching the scene Infront of them. many pulled their phones out to take a video. you didn't exactly care about that at the moment, you were more worried on what Hazel was trying to do. she got back up, her nose was bloody probably broken— "Hazel are you okay? we should get you some ice." you said on instinct, but she flung herself at you again which you grabbed both of her wrists, her standing was unstable which was what you noticed, "stop pretending like you care you snake!" she yelled.
"oh, I'm the snake?? says the one who dressed up like my dead best friend, tried to act like him, followed me around outside of school, and you stole my book!" you replied, it just simply upset you when she acted like she was the one in the right. the people watching in the back let out some 'oooh's, Hazel started to scream and she tried to kick you but out of instinct you put one leg in between hers and knocked her down, she tripped over the trashcan and fell into the trash water which you didn't mean to do.
her fall took you by surprise and she just kept getting up and she grabbed something out of her bag, it made your spider sense tingle, once she showed what she was holding, you saw that she was holding onto some scissors, she lunged at you with them in her hands, "everyone please back up!" you yelped, moving to grab her wrists again as everyone screamed a bit and they ran into the building, probably to get a teacher but some stayed to film, you personally never thought the day would come when you'd get attacked with some scissors which was VERY dangerous, those things were really sharp too.
this fight made one thing very clear, she was not okay in the head, which was very obvious from the start but now everyone knew she was more than crazy at this point. she was still pushing to hurt you but you continued to keep a firm hold on her wrists, "you are a mean person and you don't deserve to walk on this earth! I'll help you see your best friend again!" she laughed, you just stared at her in utter shock not knowing how to respond.
"what are you talking about??" you snapped at her, at some point a teacher came and a school security guard came they had to pull the scissors out of hazel's hands as she kicked and screamed at everyone and everything. a teacher moved Infront of you as the officer took care of a screaming Hazel, the other people put their phones away immediately. the whole thing was just messy.. no it was more than messy— if that was even possible, the teacher guided you to your aunts car, "hey Mrs. Parker, there was a situation with your niece and another girl and it got really bad, the whole thing will be taken care of but tomorrow [Name] may need to get pulled away from her classes." the teacher told your aunt, she seemed shocked for a moment but you just got pushed into the car as the teacher walked away to go see what was going on.
"do you need to stay at.." aunt may trailed off, you knew what she meant. you looked at her wide eyed, "Aunt May…? I need to tell you something really important.." you muttered.
she looked at you calmly, "what is it [Name]?" she asked softly not even going to say a thing to push it immediately. "this is a really bad idea…" you mumbled, glancing back up you made eye contact with her, "you know that Web-Spinner vgilante?" you asked reluctanly, Aunt May nodded keeping that gentle look. "well, that's me. I work with some people and there's a… warehouse used as a base and it has enough rooms for us all so I have a room there… can you… drop me off there?" you asked, Aunt May seemed shocked by what you had just told her, she then looked forward and sighed, "kid, there's a lot of criminals here in Gotham… and you usually take on the big guys at least that's what the news said… but are you sure that is something you want to continue doing for the world?" she asked, making eye contact with you. "either option you choose then i'll support you.. I just need you to be careful [Name]… you cant save everyone and that's okay… you don't need to save everyone in the world to prove that you can be successful." Aunt May responded, she looked at you softly, the whole thing was a shock, you'd at least thought she'd be upset or tell you to stop doing the vigilante stuff.
"well, I don't plan on stopping… I have gotten in way to deep already," you hummed.
Aunt May nodded in response, "well, kid.. wheres this warehouse you've mentioned?" she asked you, glancing at her you told her exactly where the place was and she started driving there taking some hidden ways to get there sneakily, when you both got there she parked in an alleyway locking the car as she hopped out to follow you. when you opened up the door to the place you let her inside and she got to see the whole place, "wow, you kids really rehabilitated this place…" she hummed, staring at some of the phones which were put in a bowl next to the door, she recognized the who owned each one. along with the shoes by the door.
"so, its you and them?" she asked, staring at you quietly. you looked at her and smiled cheekily, she did follow you as you toured her around the place, her suspicions on who the people there were solidified when she saw the names and photos on the fridge.
"sorry for not telling you sooner.." you hummed shyly, Aunt May just stared at you and sighed shaking her head, "[Name], its fine. its no big deal, its hard to take a guess on what the reaction will be…" she smiled, you stared at her face for a moment. then you thought about what to say, before shrugging, "well, Uncle Ben found out quite fast if I do say so myself, but what he doesn't know is that theres a whole base and team for this type of thing." you said without a care in the world. now that's what got Aunt May in shock, "he knew???" she asked very alarmed, you just stared at her in silence for a moment. "oops…" you murmured, aunt may just started to laugh at your reaction to her reaction.
"kid, don't worry its not your fault, its just really surprising he found out first since… he can sometimes be more on the slower end with things." she smiled, you just stared at her some more thinking about if you should take her to the underground area where most definitely everyone was getting ready for the vigilante work. but also your suit was down there so it'd be pretty useless if you didn't go down there and get changed, after all you and them had some stretching to do. "Well, I'm going to go home and tell your uncle everything if that's okay with you [Name]." she smiled, you nodded and watched her leave but you followed after her in the end.
once she got to the car safe and sound thats when you left to go back inside. when you entered the building again you made sure to lock the door and you walked to the middle of the room and stepped on the small metal ring around the middle, then you typed in the code before it went back down, you stepped back and watch the elevator lift up, you walked into the elevator listening to it close as it started to desend.
once it did you waited till it hit the bottom and it then opened up and you walked on out of the elevator, "hey!" you hummed, everyone else looked at you Felicia smiled and ran on over to you, "I brought my aunt over here… she and Uncle Ben know about… this whole ordeal… I felt like it was right to tell her." you told them shyly, they all looked at you and Felicia snorted, she patted your back softly. "Don't worry so much Webs, out of everyone who could know, the most trustable ones would be your aunt and uncle, along with Jason… but he's kinda…" Felicia hummed, you nodded in response unsure of what to say.
"anyway, everyone get dressed we have a long night ahead of us!" Max called out, you moved away from Felicia and ran to the bathroom down there and got changed as fast as you could, once suited up you walked back out. you all moved to sit in a circle in the spinny chairs down there, "okay, so there's a whole illegal trade of this stuff called Goublin Green going around, its meant to make people smarter but also with the wrong dosage or using too much every day is what makes it all fall down. the stuff in general isn't the greatest. its very very flawed and dangerous. I also did somehow manage to get in contact with the bat from the thing he gave you [Name] he's letting us do this on our own. this is our run down on how the team will operate with the same goal in mind." Max explained, you all nodded.
"okay what will our jobs be?" Eugene asked, Max looked at him and then he looked at Dmitri.
"me and dmitri made this plan, Otto will be here and making gadgets as usual but the gadgets needed will be directly for this whole plan to find the Goublin Green, Eugene you will sweep the streets and question the gangs who have their hands on that stuff, Felicia you will check over anyone who is funding any of this stuff, Dmitri you need to gain information, and [Name] you gotta find the direct source of this stuff, I have warehouses counted off of suspicious activity with the Goublin Green." Max told you all, everyone of course nodded, you all put your hands out in the middle, Otto added one of his tentacles, "okay, one, two, three, Team!" you all said together before getting up and moving to Otto's lab to grab some things like a updated wristband for you, but everyone else finally got their own, "this is an extra contact thing, and it has a map, this right here is an SOS type of thing, which its meant to contact the bat, or anyone close to that is here in Gotham." Otto explained happily, you all put the device on and started to do the practice drills in the biggest room in the basement area.
once it got dark enough out you all snuck out, "good luck everyone" you told them before leaving to go do what you were told to do, it was pretty simple for the most part, many people were out and about, you ran into some people who were selling Goublin Green, and marked the spot for Eugene to get, and you just swung away finding what warehouses you could find, there was not much of any guards in the area. you squinted and swung to get closer, moving towards the window of the place you quickly found out they were only guarding the interior, making the Goublin green. you checked if the window was unlocked and once you found out it was infact unlocked. these people need to learn how to lock windows, or at least to block them off.
you crouched down listening to them talk, then you tapped on the device in order to record the conversation, you heard them talking about doing a mass selling, and surprisingly found out the black mask had nothing to do with the spread of Goublin Green, so this was very obviously not his workings, for some reason it relieved you, maybe you'd have to figure that out some other time, it was simply just a not right now type of thing at the moment.
once you gathered enough information you decided to show yourself but first you took out the bigger guys, the ones making the Goublin Green didn't seem to notice. too busy talking among themselves to notice that you were taking out all of the stronger guys. which… unlucky them. once they were all knocked out you decided that it was finally time to strike.
getting up on a crate you stared at them, "hello, may I talk to the person who started this whole.. smuggling thing?" you hummed, they looked at you so unbelievablely fast, shocked. "What the—" you webbed them up before they could get any more word in, "electro, got one place marked, they are all webbed up, its safe to call to the location." you hummed, you heard typing in the background, "got it, sending a call right on in." Max hummed, you then left from where you came and swung away, you patrolled a little longer before going back to home base. you were the first one there, Otto was working on something as you gave him a sample of the Goublin Green you got your hands on. "you got a sample???? THIS IS AMAZINGGG" Otto yelled, then he started to maniacally laugh.
you took off your mask and walked off putting the sweaty costume in the washing machine, the wrist cuff's were put back into your locker, when you came back to Otto he was taking a small sample and looking at the thing, "hrm… oh! [Name], we need to do some tests on your whole durablility and powers at some point, everyone else's test runs are done already so you're the next one." he muttered, as he concentrated on his work.
"yep, yep I know Otto.." you hummed.
"you better know." he responded, you smiled and walked off to go to your room so you can sleep in peace. once you got into your room you decided to take a shower first, once that was done you went straight to bed and passed out when you woke up you saw your phone right on the nightstand, Felicia probably brought it over to your room once she got home. letting out a huge yawn you got up and went to the closet and grabbed some of the clothes in there and put it on. the jeans were low-rise since whenever you went to go thrift with Felicia she got everyone clothes she knew would look great on you all. anyway, you then grabbed a shirt and put it on, it was a halter top, the color was a color that looked really good on you, dang.. Felicia absolutely knows what colors are complementary. you put on some makeup, and got a necklace on along with some bracelets. you then grabbed the jacket that you took from Jason's room a long time ago, Bruce did call and he said that you could keep it, so you did keep the jacket, when you walked out of the room you walked down the steps which everyone was in the kitchen eating some food.
"how'd everything go on your guy's ends last night." you asked, Eugene looked fine, Dmitri had his head slumped onto the table, Otto looked energized, Max looked calm and content, and Felicia looked a-okay too. "Dmitri's fine he wanted everything to be absolutely perfect. but his whole act was not… the best he's done." Felicia said for Dmitri, Eugene nodded looking back at Dmitri before looking back up to you. "yeah…" Eugene mumbled.
you all made sure to eat some food first before running off to go to school, you of course took the faster route, "my whole body hurts.." Dmitri whined, Felicia looked back at him and you followed her gaze. "is it the walking or how you got a whole beat down last night?" you asked, Dmitri glared at you, "ha, ha." he responded sarcastically. you just smiled at him and continued to walk through the streets, you turned back around to look Infront of you.
you all continued to walk, once you got to the school you walked into the building but a teacher stopped you from continuing to walk, you just sighed and followed the teacher into the principals office, there were officers and there was Hazel in one seat, and you were guided into a different seat. an officer stoop in-between you and Hazel, she was sending you a death glare. you just looked ahead not making eye-contact with her.
the principal asked for her side of the story and she gave her side of the story which it was exactly honest and it was exactly how everything happened, then when it was your turn you waited for a moment unsure of what to say at the moment. "uhm, so me and Hazel met at a party, she was getting picked on so I helped her but after that she started showing up in places where I was at when I was with my friends.." you started to explain. they looked at you, one officer was writing everything down. "and when school started she just started sitting with us, which wasn't any problem but like everytime she'd ask for my number, my aunt and uncle's number, and then she'd just continue on and on. talking to me everyday, knocking at my bedroom window when I was getting changed, sometimes she'd try to follow me to the grave yard, I've always went there once every week to talk to one of the graves because my best friend had passed away." you murmured, you felt your cheeks heat up as you looked down to your lap. they all nodded which Hazel looked like she wanted to interject and explain why she did what she did. but also she actually just skimmed over the big stuff.
"your late best friend was.. Jason Todd correct?" the principal asked you.
"yes." you confirmed, they nodded and they looked at you so you could continue recounting what happened, "at first I wanted to be kind and nice to her but she just continued to push and pry at everything in my whole life, like who Jason was to me when it can be found at any news source or whatever. One of my friends told me to talk to Hazel and to set boundaries with her.. but I felt like it was the wrong thing to do when she seemed so desperate to have a friend. so I put up with it but once she started to get touchy it put more of a strain on how I felt, she asked me to go out to watch movies with her, but when I would look at the plotline I found out quickly they were all rather.. explicit in some sort of way." you continued, you finally brought your gaze up to look at Hazel. she seemed like she was fuming.
"then one day she came to school in an outfit that Jason would wear, she tried to parrot his voice in some way. her bangs were made to look like his too… she then held a Pride and Prejudice copy that I later found out was mine, it had doodles and small little notes In the page he and I had made. but at the moment I didn't know that, she tried to act like him and thats what set me off, I yelled at her and I did nothing else, I knew she was upset only because of how humiliating that would be but I was tired of everything that was going on so I just snapped at her. at lunch my friend walked over to talk to her to try and get her side, along with that she found out that hazel quite literally wanted me dead. which I thought nothing of it because.. I thought she meant that in the more non-literal sense, but at the end of the day I found out it wasn't a… non-literal." you recounted the events trying to keep your eyes down, the whole situation in itself wasn't stressing you out, you knew you could handle something like that on your own so it wasn't a panic type of thing.
"I didn't throw the first punch but what set Hazel off was me taking my book back so then it just escalated from there, I did make sure she didn't hurt anyone and when she tried to kick me that's the only time I really pushed her," you explained, the officers nodded and after a bit of talking you decided to press charges and Hazel was confirmed to be expelled that day, you of course felt bad for what happened but you had to tell yourself that it wasn't your fault.
the whole day and week went by rather normally. You told Jason's grave what had happened, and of course, you got absolutely no reply which was whatever. you stopped expecting some ghost of him to respond, when you all were at the basement of the warehouse, you just talked to each other. Max was reading the progress report (you had to make a progress report for Batman because he wanted to know how you guys were doing). Tonight was possibly going to be the last day to get the job done. Well, actually it was the estimated end of the work before Batman had to take over for you guys.
Which that whole deal was what you all were fine with that, Batman was very unwilling to let you guys run free with this type of thing, you all talked out the plan for that night and you left the place swinging off to the last warehouse you had to go to. something in you was telling you to not go and rush into the whole thing, so you did stop some crooks a bit. then you had to psyche yourself back up and once you got to the warehouse something felt wrong. so you tapped on your comm link, "hey, guys?" you murmured swinging up to a gargoyle and sitting there.
"yeah?" they all symontainously asked, You sighed as relief flooded Your system. glancing back to the warehouse You saw a hooded figure walk on inside of the warehouse, "I'm having a very bad feeling about this warehouse, and I think my suspicions have been confirmed…" You told them, You heard Max curse. "I got into the camera's into that warehouse and there's like huge tanks of that stuff… and… wait, is that Hazel???" he yelped, Your eyes widened. everyone symotainously said "WHAT?" all together.
"this warehouse may need to be a batman thing, but you can grab Hazel and web her up." Max said, everyone didn't exactly agree with that from what you could hear, Felicia sounded unsure on the idea, "this whole thing is how we can prove ourselfs Electro, it would suck to call it quits when a building is full of that stuff, Web's can contain it just fine without our help, shes done it so many times to count— Webs if anyhting goes wrong then we'll come to help okay?" Felicia said. Max sounded unsure but when everyone agreed then he sighed and agreed to the whole thing, "fine, we'll do it on our own but if anything goes wrong then we call Batman." Max finally said.
everyone cheered and You just swung to the warehouse, opening a window and sliding on in, Hazel was there in big oversized clothes, she had cuffs on her wrists, but yet that seemed to not deter her, she climbed up to the ledge of the neon green goublin green liquid, "hey, if I remember correctly you're not meant to be here miss." You showed Yourself, she looked at You she glared at You for a moment, "what do you want? I can be here whenever I want, my dad is the one making this stuff." she said carelessly.
"huh, well, why are you here?" You asked, she rolled her eyes as if that was obvious. You kept quiet for a moment, eyes trained on her as a whole, "I'm here to become smarter than [Name] Parker, she sucks and I hate her! and if I become smarter then her I can find out why she's playing victim!" hazel hissed. You were just kinda taken aback on why Hazel said that, like yes You knew she was crazy but what You didn't know was that she had it in her to holler about You 'playing victim'.
"and you cant stop me!" she yelled before jumping into the goey liquid, You ran over concerned, You hoped that she was okay but You weren't going to take a bet on her being just fine and dandy, but You weren't going to jump in to grab her since You still didn't know of what that liquid was capable of. so You decided to click on the call Batman button and when he answered You just rushed an explanation because what the heck, "whatever you do don't jump into it web-spinner, I'm in the middle of doing something so I wont be able to help you right away. get away from the tank and call your team." he told You, it made sense on why You should do that along with why he was telling You what to do, You were still a kid and new to this even if You've been doing this whole thing longer than Your teammates. "o-okay.." You whimpered, before hanging up and calling the team to get over to where You were at. "hey, uh so Hazel jumped in and I may need backup just in case." You told the team, before backing away from the tank, You still saw hazel's body inside of the green goo, it was starting to twitch. "on it!" eugene responded very quickly, "I'm coming over right now!" Felicia said, You heard typing in the background which was max, "otto's going over there too. Dmitri are you able to run over to help them out?" max asked. You all heard a hum, "yep! running over there now!" he responded.
"good!" Max then said, it took a few minutes but everyone got there, when looking at the glass of the tub— You realized that Hazel's body was starting to contort and it sounded like her bones were breaking. she was also starting to grow bigger, "its…" Otto trailed off. Dmitri stared at what was going on, "everyone get in your places, we've practiced this too many times to count!" You all followed what was commanded You used Your webs to get up on the fence thing, You crouched down waiting for something to happen.
Otto had his metal leg thing's get the shield mode out, Felicia got her 'claws' ready, Eugene bent down getting into a jumping position, and Dmitri stood back getting the gauntlets that Otto made him ready, You placed a small recording module on one of the metal bars so it can record the fight, "recording module set up," You told them. watching the body in the goo was weird to see, "keep Hazel inside of the building, the outside cams show a civilian walking close to the warehouse." Max informed You all through the comm, "thanks electro." You hummed.
there was choked screaming in the goop, as there was a louder cracking and breaking sound, You waited for a moment and You all saw the body grow bit by bit, after a good five minutes she climbed out of the goop, she was a bright green, her eyes were red, her hair was more straw-like, the oversized orange clothes were hanging by a thread, "oh my goodness this is the best learning experience on what happens with this stuff!!" Otto yelled joyously.
"Doc Ock!!—" You all groaned.
"what?? I'm being true to myself!—"
"not the time!" Dmitri yelled.
Hazel opened her mouth and roared, at You all then she threw the first punch, her tail lashed around, oh she had a tail now— when the tail went in Your direction You jumped out of the way and moved to a pillar, You distracted her a bit as the team waited for the right moment, "go, go, go!" Dmitri yelled.
the whole team ran at Hazel, Eugene was the first to kick her as Otto grabbed a scale and put it in his pocket, it made Hazel let out a screetch as she moved to fly up to the ceiling, You hopped down to the ground and You attached Your webs to her legs, Otto then used his metal octo arms to grab onto Hazel. You attached the webs to the metal pillairs around then You attached the webs to the wings on her back, You kept trying to pull her down until help could come.
You saw everyone else attack her as You and Otto kept her from flying off, when she was finally pulled down to the ground You saw her tail move, You did Your best to keep her down for longer but that was easier said than done. yelping You webbed her tail down and once she was down right Infront of You all she didn't move. "boom, at least its all done now!" Eugene chirped turning away from Hazel with everyone, she looked at You and grabbed You, yelling she flew on out, the movements more messy and unsure as she held You. once out of the warehouse she slammed You onto the ground stepping on Your right ankle using all her weight, You screamed, and connected Your webs to her face and slam her head into the ground, everyone ran out trying to get to You.
Hazel picked You up and chuckled You to a building, You fell Infront of a red haired girl that went to Your highschool, "h-hey, you may need to run.." You smiled, Your voice strained, her eyes went wide as she bent down checking Your ankle, "you're hurt." she said.
"yeah maybe a little." You muttered, the girl looked back to the team ganging up on Hazel so she wouldn't be a threat to anyone. "may I see? also what happened?" the blue eyed girl asked, "that's Hazel Osborn, she jumped into the goop and frog-man decided to jinx it when she went down." You informed her, the red-headed girl took off Your shoes and peeled off Your sock, when she saw the swelling of the wound it made her pause, "its most likely broken. not bad, bad but it is bad enough to keep you limping for a few weeks." she said softly, checking over Your wound for a bit longer, "I need you to stay down." she told You, keeping quiet You nodded.
"can you please go and get to safety?" You asked quietly, she nodded and she got up and ran off but she first got You leaned up against the wall, when she was gone You got up and jumped into the fight so You could help Your friends, it took like an hour to get Hazel down and not fighting anymore, when Batman's car showed up he walked over to You and helped You stand. he looked at the scuffed team, and You all just looked at eachother. Otto moved first, "are you okay Web-Spinner? you really got thrown around like a ragdoll. I need to make you more durable things—" he was about to go on a rant but Felicia stopped him, putting a hand on his shoulder, their gaze turned back to Batman, "so.. what'll happen now?" Felicia asked.
"you kids did good on your first run, but nextime you need to make sure the person your fighting isn't getting back up." Batman told You all. Dmitri nodded looking back up, he thought for a moment, "alright we'll do better next time we promise." Dmitri promised for the team.
You kept silent just focusing on keeping weight off of Your leg, "i'll take your friend to a doctor that I know, and I need you guys to only talk to the commissioner for me, anyone else then they'll probably scold you." he said before turning around and getting You into the back of the Bat-mobile, You looked out the window looking at Your friends, it was scary for some reason, but You trusted him so he has to be helping You in some sort of way, he already had helped You and the team so many times to count.
he sped over into Crime-Alley, then he stopped Infront of a clinic, 'leslie's clinic'… huh, "are they good?" You asked, he looked back at Your masked face, "yes, shes good, shes also very trustable with your secret identity." he reassured, he helped You get inside of the building, You just kept quiet and once taken inside he called out for Dr. Thompkins, she came and gasped when she saw you, it wasn't a big problem, you were fine, and you stayed off of the injured leg for that whole fight but either way you were just fine there were no problems.. which that was what you thought. when you were taken to the back Dr. Thompkins had you sit down on the bed in there, she then told Batman to leave the room which he did do.
"alright sweetheart, you can take off the mask… you're safe here and I won't tell anyone what I saw I promise," she hummed. you nodded and reluctantly pulled off the mask, she seemed a little shocked at seeing you but she kept her composure, at some point she softly pushed you down to lay on your back, she then gave you a sedative after asking if you had any allergies, and all that stuff, when she was sure you'd be fine, she gave you something so you can go to sleep, when you woke up you had a bandage around your leg which it was wrapped tightly around the wound. when you came to your senses she explained everything to you, that you were durable enough to not need anything big.
when your aunt and uncle came to pick you up aunt may ran over and held your cheeks, "are you okay?" aunt may asked, she was very alarmed it seemed, letting out a yawn they got you in the car, "are you sure we wont have to pay you?" Uncle Ben asked Dr. Thompkins. she smiled and shook her head "I'm very sure, now I need you to make sure shes somewhere safe and sound, probably away from home, I know that may be hard but a girl named Hazel may want her dead and her being away from home is the safest option for everyone. I hope you both can understand that.." Dr. Tho
mpkins explained, the two nodded and thanked her for her help and left. when you got back to the warehouse, you just stumpled on inside of the warehouse, then they helped you up the steps to your room in the warehouse. you hugged them before they left and they walked out of the room.
you got changed in your pajamas and then you flopped onto your bed and went to sleep.
------
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[ ✸ Under his heart with you ✸ - JASON TODD X G.N Reader (Under the redhood au) ] 0.1
✸ Under his heart with you ✸ - JASON TODD X G.N Reader (Under the red hood au)
CHAPTER 1 ── you meet the past, and maybe your past again.
Word Count: 7,200 words
Synopsis: He played two cruel jokes. One was your “death.” The other was his you remember that day too well, the way it burned into you, the way it never really ended. he died. Jason Todd. Maybe the only person you ever loved. that’s the story, isn’t it? the punchline everyone believes. That he died. but the real joke the crueler one was you. Pulled from icy waters by a creature that wasn't supposed to exist, you survive with more than just scars. A god lives in your ribs now. thank the joker, You leave Wayne Manor, your grief, and Bruce's moral code behind, building a new life in Gotham's shadows with only your jellyfish-"your children" for company. Two years later, a man in a red helmet intervenes during a hit. He fights like Jason. He stands like Jason. in a way...?
Content Warning: Major character death (Jason Todd), graphic violence, torture (referenced), drowning, asphyxiation, suicidal ideation, body horror, blood/gore, murder, revenge fantasies, parental grief, trauma responses, emotional breakdowns, consumption of humans (by creatures), dissociation.
A/N: i originally wanted to do a normal reader, lol, but then i had a suggestion and we ended up flipping a coin… and somehow landed on jellyfish powers 😭 this is kind of sad but also funny. this is my first fic here, so i’m kinda nervous! also, sorry if it's bad.
Life’s full of shit.
You don’t even say it out loud anymore, you just carry it, like a second spine, like something threaded through your ribs that won’t let you stand straight.
It had only been a week.
One week since that red-helmeted bastard, since decided to crash into your life like he belonged there
Because this wasn't the first time. You'd noticed it about a year ago or two… Small things, at first. A shadow that didn't belong. The feeling of being watched on nights when the alleys were too quiet. A shot that took out a man who'd had a knife to your throat before you could even react.
This man made sure, Death won't even think about you even once, in a way.
You'd dismissed it at first. Coincidence. Gotham was full of violent people with their own agendas.
But then it happened again.
And again.
And again.
He was following you.
It was never close enough to confront. Bodies dropping before they could touch you, taken out with clinical precision by someone who never stayed long enough to explain himself.
You'd tried to catch him. Multiple times.
Changed your routes. Doubled back. Set traps. Used your children to sweep rooftops.
Nothing.
He was always one step ahead. Always gone before you could close the distance. Always leaving you with nothing but questions and the infuriating feeling that he knew exactly what he was doing.
Why?
That was the question that kept you up at night.
Why follow you? Why protect you? Why watch for a full year without a single explanation?
It didn't make sense.
You weren't anyone important. Not to him. Not to anyone who wore a helmet and moved like violence was a first language.
You weren't working with Batman anymore, not really. You weren't part of some grand mission. You were just… you. A person with too much grief and a god inside their chest and children made of hunger.
Why would someone like him care?
Unless…
No.
You shook the thought away before it could form.
Because that way led to hope. And hope in Gotham was just disappointment dressed up in optimism.
Anyways…
One week since you’d fought side by side with someone who joked through bloodshed and looked at you like you were something interesting instead of something broken.
A drug deal.
Of course.
Because Gotham never let anything end clean. It just stacked rot on top of rot until the whole place smelled like it deserved to burn.
You stood above it all, watching from the edge of a rooftop, the city stretched out beneath you like something diseased. Down below, men talked in low voices, passing around packages like they were trading candy instead of poison.
How sweetly fucked up. Jason would’ve hated this.
That thought came uninvited.
Jason Todd hated drugs, Not just in “this is bad for society” way people liked to preach about, but in a personal, guttural way. The kind that lived in his voice when he talked about it. The kind that made his hands curl into fists even when he was trying to stay calm.
He told you once.
About his mother.
About what it did to her.
About what it did to him.
You remembered the way his voice changed. It was just… honest. In a way he didn’t let many people see. And you’d listened. Because something in you had understood, even then, that this wasn’t just another story.
This was trust. This was him handing you something real. The thought sits heavy in your chest. You still remember it.
You remember too much. And that’s the problem. Because memory isn’t comfort. It’s evidence.
Because somehow without realizing when it happened you had become the second person he ever let see him like that.
Maybe even the first who really someone he ever-
And now-
Now you stood here, watching the same poison move through Gotham like a disease no one could cure.
And Jason wasn’t here to hate it with you.
The thought hollowed something out inside your chest.
You exhaled slowly, the breath shaking just slightly despite yourself.
You’ve always hated drugs too.
Not for the same reasons.
They took your parents.
Slow, ugly decay. Bad choices stacking into worse ones until there was nothing left but absence and resentment and a version of childhood you don’t like thinking about.
So yeah.
You hate them.
You hate what they do to people. You hate what they turn people into.
You hate the way Gotham lets it keep happening like it’s just another background noise.
Your children stir again, brushing against your arms, sensing the shift in your mood. they're hungry...
You exhale, long and tired. Below, the deal continues. Money changes hands.
Lives get traded in ways. You watch it all like you’re outside of it.
A mistake layered on top of other mistakes. A body carrying something that shouldn’t exist, feeding it, letting it grow.
Wait..
Why are we even talking about you?
You almost laugh.
Because it’s true, isn’t it?
You’re not the hero.
Not even a proper villain.
You’re something in-between.
Something that doesn’t fit.
Gotham runs on pattern crime, punishment, justice, failure, repeat.
You look down at the deal. At the men. At the poison being passed around like currency.
You tilt your head slightly, eyes narrowing.
“…Let’s crash it.”
“Bold plan.”
The voice came from behind you, close enough that your shoulders tensed before your mind caught up.
You turned.
And there he was.
The red helmet. Rain beading over it like the city itself refused to touch him properly. He stood a few steps back on the rooftop, arms loose at his sides, posture casual in that dangerous way you’d already learned meant the opposite.
You narrowed your eyes. “You stalking me now?”
“Now?” he echoed, amused. “That implies I started recently.”
Your jaw tightened.
You stare.
“…You’ve got to be kidding me.”
He leans casually against the low ledge, looking down at the deal like it’s mildly interesting at best. “Five glowsticks and a bad attitude?” he says. “Hate to break it to you, Jelly, but that’s not exactly an army.”
Your children bristle at that, drifting tighter around you.
“Huh?” you snap. “Who asked you?”
He glances sideways at you, amused. “Nobody. I just hate watching bad plans in action.”
Before you can fire back, he pushes off the ledge and drops.
Straight down.
You curse under your breath and move to follow, but he lands first.. clean, effortless, and looks up at you like he’s been waiting.
“I thought I told you to take a nice vacation,” he calls, voice carrying easily through the rain.
You scoff, already climbing down. “Yeah? And I thought I told you to mind your own business.”
He tilts his head slightly, and then, casual as breathing he says, “Aw, Jelly.. You pierce my soul. I am half agony, half hope.”
You freeze.
Your grip slips just slightly on the ledge before you land.
That line-
Your heart stutters, sharp and sudden. Because you’ve heard that before.
Not from him.
From Jason.
Persuasion, Captain Wentworth's letter to Anne Elliot...written by, Jane Austen.
He loved JANE AUSTEN....
Late night, half-laughing, half-serious, leaning too close while quoting that line, whenever you tease him, called him dramatic, and he’d rolled his eyes like it didn’t matter but it had.
It always had.
You stare at the red helmet.
“…What?”
He pauses.
Just for a second.
Like he didn’t expect that reaction. Then he shifts back, subtle, almost imperceptible but you catch it.
He caught himself.
Interesting.
“I suggest you stay up there,” he says instead, tone changing just enough to feel deliberate. “Sit this one out. I’ve got something to take care of.”
You don’t answer immediately. Because now you’re looking at him differently. Because now something isn’t sitting right. But before you can pull on that thread
he moves closer again.
And suddenly his voice drops, lower, sharper, not teasing anymore.
“You don’t hate it as much as you pretend.”
The words hit harder than they should.
You stiffen.
“What-?”
“You hate that you don’t hate it,” he continues, like he’s reading straight off your bones. “You act like you love it. Like it’s easy. But every time someone dies, you sweat. Your breathing changes. You check your hands like you’re expecting blood you can’t wash off.”
Your chest tightens.
“…Stop.”
“You count it,” he adds quietly. “Don’t you? Every body. Like keeping score might make it mean something.”
“Shut up.”
But your voice doesn’t carry weight Because he’s not guessing.
He’s right.
And you hate that.
He tilts his head again, studying you like a problem he’s already halfway solved. “So why are you here?” he asks. “Why do you want to kill them?”
You hesitate.
Just for a second.
“…I don't know..” you say finally, flat.
“They’re dealing to kids,” he says, voice going colder now, stripped of the humor. “New batch. Stronger. Cheaper. Hooks faster. They want it to spread.”
Your stomach drops.
The words hit harder than anything else he’d said.
Your expression shifted despite yourself.
“Yeah,” he says. “Thought that might get your attention.”
You look back down at the deal.
At the men. At the packages changing hands like it’s nothing.
Children. Of course. Of course Gotham couldn’t even let that line stay uncrossed.
He watches your reaction carefully.
He turned his head slightly, the red helmet, catching the light of the city.
“…To set an example,” he said.
“So the next genius who thinks about dragging kids into this remembers what happens.”
There’s something different in his tone now.
Not righteous.
Personal, You don’t know why, but you believe him.
He exhales once, then gestures vaguely toward the scene below. “So here’s how this goes,” he says. “I handle it. You stay out of the way.”
You lower your umbrella slightly, rain finally touching your face.
“You can kill them,” you say.
He blinks.
“…Huh?”
“I’ll stay here,” you continue, voice steady despite the storm inside your chest. “My reasons to hurt them are more… personal.”
Your children drift closer, sensing the shift, the permission not given.
“Yours,” you add, after a beat, “is the greater good...”
There’s a pause.
He studies you again, slower this time, like he’s trying to decide something.
“If it’s okay,” you finish quietly, “just leave some bodies.”
Your voice falters just slightly on the last word.
“For my… children.”
Silence.
Then-
“…Got it.”
Something in his tone shifts again. Softer. Almost respectful.
And then it’s gone.
He moves.
Fast.
Dropping into the deal below like a bullet given purpose.
And you stay where you are. Umbrella lowered. Rain soaking through your clothes. Watching. Your children hovering close, restless, waiting their turn. that phantom heartbeat aches again.
You watched him move, and something inside you went very, very still.
This wasn’t how Batman fought.
There was no restraint. No careful calculation meant to preserve life. No last-second mercy.
This was something else.
It was final and It was Brutal.
He didn’t just take them down, he ended them.
Gunshots, clean and deliberate. A knife when it was faster. No hesitation, no pause to reconsider. The men didn’t stand a chance, and he didn’t pretend they did. It wasn’t a fight; it was a purge.
And for a second just a second, you saw it wrong.
You saw a boy with a crooked smile and a stubborn tilt to his chin.
You saw Jason Todd, bloodied and furious, fighting like the world had already taken everything from him and he was daring it to try again.
Your throat tightened.
Your vision blurred.
No.
No, that wasn’t real.
You forced the thought down, hard, burying it where all the other impossible hopes went to die.
Hallucination.
It had to be.
Grief did that. It rewrote things. It made ghosts out of strangers.
You stayed where you were, breath unsteady, watching him finish.
Because that’s what it was. Done.
Every single one of them was down.
No survivors.
The rain washed over blood that didn’t matter anymore.
He stood in the middle of it, shoulders rising and falling once, like the violence had somewhere to go and nowhere to stay.
Then he looked up at you.
A small tilt of the helmet.
Come down.
You didn’t argue.
You dropped from the rooftop, landing a little rougher than usual because your hands were still shaking, your head still not entirely here.
He didn’t comment on it.
You didn’t look at him either too.
Instead, your attention caught on the duffel bag he was dragging.
Heavy. Too heavy for just supplies.
You stepped closer, crouched slightly, and pulled it open and the world tilted.
Curiosity killed better people than you.
You stepped closer.
“What’s in-”
You opened it. And the world tilted.
Heads.
Severed. Bloodied. Faces frozen in expressions that hadn’t finished forming.
Your stomach dropped so fast it felt like falling through your own body.
You staggered back, your footing slipping as the place spun around you, your knees hitting the ground harder than you registered.
“…What the-”
You couldn’t finish it.
He was already moving.
He crossed the distance in two quick steps and crouched in front of you, one hand catching your arm, steadying you before you could tip fully over.
“Hey-hey, stay with me,” he said, voice lower now, sharper with something that almost sounded like concern.
Your hands were shaking.
You couldn’t stop them.
“…That’s-those are-”
“I know what they are,” he cut in, steadying you on your feet. His grip was firm, grounding, like he’d done this before. “Breathe.”
You tried.
It didn’t help.
Because you’d seen bodies.
God, you’d made bodies.
You’d fed them to your children, watched them disappear piece by piece.
So why-
Why did this hit different?
Why did this feel....
wrong?
“They’re lieutenants,” he said finally, like he was explaining something simple. “Every major crew in this part of the city including those guys over there.."
You stared at him.
“…You’re joking.”
He didn’t react, He didn’t deny it.
He didn’t even try to soften it.
Realization hit you like a second blow.
He zipped the bag halfway, then looked at you.
“You can have the bodies,” he added casually, nodding toward the scattered remains around the alley. “For your kids.”
Your children, as if summoned by the word, drifted forward immediately, circling, lowering, beginning their quiet, hungry work. One of them brushed past your shoulder, a cold, familiar comfort against the chaos in your chest.
You barely noticed.
“Why..?” you asked, voice barely above a whisper.
“To send a message,” he cut in.
You were still staring at him.
His helmet tilted slightly toward you. he didn’t look annoyed… if anything, he seemed ready to stand there all night and explain everything, like seeing you was the only thing that made him happy.
“Because this city understands fear better than it understands hope,” he said. “And right now, it needs to be afraid.”
Rain slid down the red surface, distorting your reflection in it.
“That’s why I told you to take a break,” he added. “Gotham’s about to tear itself apart trying to figure out who did this.”
A pause, Then-
“And it’s gonna be looking for someone to save it.”
You swallowed.
“…Batman....”
A short, humorless sound left him.
“It ain’t gonna be him.”
Something in the way he said that sat wrong.
You heard it faintly, the wet, quiet sounds, the soft movement as they curled around the bodies, lappets wrapping, dissolving, consuming. You should have looked away.
You didn’t. Because somehow, that part didn’t shake you.
This did.
“Leave,” he said suddenly.
Your gaze snapped back to him.
“What?”
“Get out of Gotham. For a while.” His tone wasn’t teasing anymore. It wasn’t even mocking. It was… serious. “Lay low. Stay out of this.”
You frowned.
“Why do you care? I don't under-”
He didn’t answer that. Instead, he stepped closer.
Your breath hitched, not from fear, not entirely.
He reached up.
And before you could react, his gloved hand brushed against your hair, pushing a damp strand back from your face with a strange, almost absent-minded care.
You froze.
“What are you-”
But he was already stepping away. Like it hadn’t meant anything. Like he hadn’t just crossed a line neither of you had acknowledged before.
Your heart kicked hard against your ribs.
Something felt-
Wrong.
You didn’t stay to figure it out.
You turned and ran.
Your boots hit pavement hard, breath coming faster than you wanted, the rain soaking through you as the alley disappeared behind you. You didn’t look back.
Didn’t want to.
Didn’t trust what you might see if you did.
Behind you, unnoticed-
something small clicked into place.
A thin device, no bigger than a coin, clinging where his hand had brushed your hair.
A tracker.
A listener.
He stood in the place, watching you go, one hand lifting slightly to the comm at his ear.
Your breathing crackled faintly through it.
He exhaled.
…sweet.
Like something he didn’t quite mean to let slip.
“…Yeah,” he murmured, quieter now, almost fond under his breath. “You’re still the same.”
A beat.
His thumb brushed the edge of the comm.
“…Hope you got the memo.”
One of your children lingered. It hadn’t followed you immediately.
Instead, it drifted back toward him, curious, its soft glow reflecting faintly off the red helmet. It hovered there for a second, studying him in its own strange way.
Then-
it tapped gently against his head.
He stilled.
“…Huh.”
The jellyfish lingered a moment longer, then turned and floated after you, disappearing into the rain.
He watched it go.
Then looked back at the alley.
At the bodies.
At the bag.
“…Of course,” he muttered.
You didn’t stop running until your lungs burned.
Until your legs threatened to give out. Until the city blurred into something unrecognizable.
You slowed eventually, breath ragged, a cough tearing its way out of your chest as you bent slightly, hands braced on your knees.
Your children gathered around you again, brushing against your arms, your back, your face. checking, soothing, existing.
You forced a laugh.
It came out weak.
“…Why are you acting like you haven’t seen bodies before? [NAME]” you muttered to yourself, voice rough.
Because you had.
You fed them to your children.
You watched them disappear.
You didn’t flinch.
So why-?
why did this feel different?
Why did he feel different?
You straightened slowly, rain dripping from your chin, your thoughts a mess you couldn’t untangle.
“…What the hell is wrong with me?"
That didn’t matter right now.
Your mind was moving too fast, thoughts slamming into each other hard enough to hurt.
The red helmet.
The heads.
The way he spoke like he knew you.
The way he touched you like he already had.
Your stomach twisted.
The Bat-phone.
Bruce.
Fuck.
“Fuck-”
You stopped dead in the middle of the alley, rain soaking through your clothes, panic finally catching up and sinking its teeth into you.
You’d left it.
Of course you had.
Back in your apartment, shoved carelessly near your bed under a pile of clothes, because apparently your survival instincts liked taking breaks now.
“Fuck, fuck, fuck.”
That guy might be suspicious.
No, he was suspicious.
No normal person followed someone around Gotham for over a year, shooting people before they could touch them. No normal person quoted Austen at you. No normal person carried severed heads around like grocery shopping...!!
Your children circled you immediately, reacting to the sharp spike of panic in your chest. Cold lappets brushed your arms, your throat, your face.
“…This guy might be…”
You couldn’t finish it. Couldn’t even think it all the way through.
Hope always was-
Your children pressed closer anyway, surrounding you in soft blue light until the city noise dulled at the edges. The cold returned.
Vast.
Ocean-deep.
Suddenly you weren’t in Gotham anymore. Or maybe Gotham had simply drowned.
You felt yourself sink into that endless sea again, your body weightless as your children circled around you like moons around a dying planet. Their lappets curled around your hands, your throat, your ribs—
Guiding.
And then you heard it.
Every pebble beneath invisible water.
Every lotus-pad leaf trembling at the surface.
A voice not words exactly, but meaning.
We will walk you through your confusion.
The jellyfish lifted you gently, carrying you through that strange half-world between instinct and reality. Rooftops blurred beneath your feet. Fire escapes. Gutters. Broken neon signs reflecting in rain puddles.
You moved before you consciously chose to.
Following the pull in your chest while your children drifted ahead like lanterns through fog.
Then-!
An explosion shattered the night.
You landed hard on the edge of a cargo box overlooking absolute chaos.
Below, Batman and Nightwing were fighting some gigantic orange monstrosity that looked like a military tank had a baby with a demon. Metal screamed across the rooftop.
“Hello to you two-” you said as you landed beside them.
The creature turned immediately, its heavy frame grinding against concrete as it charged. Batman didn’t hesitate—he hurled explosives straight toward it.
Boom.
Boom.
Smoke swallowed the thing whole.
Nightwing landed beside Batman, staring upward skeptically while debris rained around all of you.
“Will that do any good?”
“It’ll slow it down,” Batman answered flatly.
You stared at the massive shape climbing straight out of the smoke, completely unharmed.
“…You think so?” you shouted.
Then the thing-
You blinked slowly.
“Oh, you have got to be kidding me.”
“Run,” Batman ordered immediately.
“What the hell is that?!” you yelled, already sprinting after them anyway.
Batman glanced sharply toward you while grappling forward.
“How did you get here?”
You stared at him in disbelief. “Does that matter when we’re running for our lives?!”
The creature roared loud enough to shake nearby windows.
Nightwing looked over mid-run and immediately broke into a grin.
“Oh shit,” he laughed breathlessly, “baby sibling’s back.”
“Shut up,” you snapped instantly.
That only made him laugh harder.
God. You forgot how unbelievably annoying Dick Grayson was.
Two tied-up men nearby froze as they stared at you.
“…Wait,” one muttered. “Who the hell are they?”
The second thug squinted harder. “Holy shit—that’s one of Batman’s old kids. The one that worked with the second Robin.”
“Gotham hasn’t seen them in years-”
“Get to higher ground!” Batman barked.
Before anyone could move properly, Nightwing grabbed you around the waist and grappled away just as the rooftop behind you exploded.
“Did you know he could fly?!” he shouted.
“No!” you yelled back.
“Move!” Batman ordered again from ahead of you.
“I wouldn’t be offended,” Nightwing coughed dramatically while hauling you through the air, “by a few warnings beforehand!”
“You idiot!” you snapped, clutching onto him for dear life.
He tried to swing you safely onto another rooftop, but the momentum sent you skidding dangerously close to the edge before your children reacted instinctively.
Cold lappets wrapped around your arms and waist.
For half a second, you floated.
Nightwing’s eyes widened.
“…Okay,” he said slowly. “What…?”
Batman glanced sharply toward the two of you. He clearly didn’t understand what Nightwing had seen, but the look he gave you said he’d already filed it away for later.
The creature roared again.
“He’s got the same weak points as a human being!” Batman shouted through comms.
“Got it,” Nightwing replied, spinning his escrima sticks into his hands. “This might sting a bit…”
The electrified sticks slammed directly into the creature’s ears with a violent crack of blue electricity.
The thing screamed.
So did Nightwing.
“Oh, that is way louder up close!”
The blast sent both him and Batman flying-
At least-Dick was safe-!!
And you.
Your stomach dropped.
“Nightwing!”
You were sent straight toward the creature itself, while Nightwing caught onto Batman.
You reacted instantly, trying to recover midair! but the creature slammed into you hard enough to knock the breath from your lungs.
Pain exploded through your ribs.
Then your children surged forward all at once.
Glowing bodies wrapped around you before impact could finish the job, slowing your fall just enough to keep you from being crushed.
“…Okay,” Nightwing said slowly, staring directly at you. “I definitely saw that.”
Batman turned immediately. “What did you see?”
Nightwing looked between you and Bruce, visibly trying to process it. “I-I don’t know, it looked like something caught them-!”
“O-oh dear,” you blurted out quickly, forcing an awkward laugh while climbing shakily to your feet. “Must’ve been adrenaline.”
You straightened stiffly, trying to pretend nothing strange had happened.
Nightwing stared at you.
Batman’s gaze narrowed beneath the cowl.
Before either of them could question further, the creature swung again. You barely had time to react before it backhanded you across the street.
The world spun violently. Then strong arms caught you midair.
Batman.
You stared up at him for half a second, disoriented.
“…Thanks?”
“You’re distracted,” he said sharply while setting you down.
The creature turned again, glowing eyes charging brighter.
Nightwing looked up.
“…Lasers,” he deadpanned. “He’s got lasers!”
Your children darted forward instantly.
To Bruce and Dick, nothing was there but suddenly the creature’s targeting began jerking wildly, its aim thrown off by invisible interference weaving around its face.
Nightwing frowned deeply. “What the hell happened to the-?”
Batman moved before he could finish. He slammed something directly against the creature’s eyes.
Putty?
Nightwing blinked. “I don’t think putty in his eyes is gonna-"
"Hurt him.”
The explosion rocked the entire block.
For one horrible second, the machine stood there headless.
“But plastique will. Oh. Nice.”
The headless body staggered once, sparks bursting violently from its ruined neck, then collapsed into the pavement with a deafening crash.
Smoke curled upward into the sky.
Nightwing stared.
“…Okay,” he breathed. “That was kinda awesome.”
Then Batman turned toward you fully.
“What are you doing here?”
There it was.
The Bat Voice.
The one that made you feel fourteen again.
You opened your mouth to answer-
-and suddenly your lungs forgot how to work.
The red helmet.
Your breathing broke sharply.
Your children crowded around you immediately, cold lappets brushing frantically against your throat and shoulders as if trying to hold you together.
“Hey-hey,” Night wing said instantly, stepping closer. His voice softened fast. “Easy. Breathe first, interrogation later.”
You tried.
Batman was watching you too carefully. Not your face, the air around you.
Suspicious.
You forced yourself to inhale.
Exhale.
Again.
Eventually your heartbeat slowed enough to think.
Nightwing crouched slightly in front of you, hands raised.
“There you go,” he said gently. “Better?”
You nodded once.
Batman’s gaze lingered on you for one more second.
Then the moment passed.
“It can wait,” he said finally, voice clipped and practical again. “We have more important things right now.”
You exhaled shakily and nodded once.
Right.
Focus.
The massive orange creature whatever the hell it was hung restrained upside down now, thick cables binding its limbs while black oil dripped steadily onto the rooftop below. Nightwing was still securing the last restraints while muttering complaints under his breath.
“You know,” Dick grunted while tightening another cable, “I miss when criminals were just emotionally unstable shits. but not the clown.”
“Well, The clown was emotionally scarring..” you muttered automatically.
Nightwing pointed at you immediately. “See? They get me.”
Batman ignored both of you completely.
The three tied-up men from the shipment sat trembling near the wreckage, terrified, staring between the Bat family and you like they were reconsidering every life decision that led them here.
Batman stepped toward them slowly.
“This shipment was meant for Black Mask,” he said flatly. “I doubt you’re behind this.”
The men exchanged panicked looks.
“Who do you work for?”
“I swear,” one of them blurted immediately, “we’re not working for anybody!”
“This was our gig,” He insisted quickly. “Our idea!”
You stared at them.
“No,” you said quietly.
Batman’s eyes flicked toward you.
You stepped closer, Water from your hair as your children drifted silently around your shoulders.
“They’re lying.”
Batman didn’t even glance at you. He already knew.
The men stiffened immediately.
One of them looked straight at you and paled.
Batman noticed.
So did Nightwing.
Batman turned slightly. “Nightwing. Release it.”
Night wing blinked once.
“…Right.”
He hit the release.
The giant orange monstrosity suddenly lurched downward with a violent metallic scream.
The tied-up men panicked instantly.
“WAIT WAIT WAIT-!”
One of them shrieked loud enough to crack his voice.
Then suddenly-
he screamed again.
Higher this time.
Your eyes slowly drifted downward.
One of your children had wrapped gently around his arm Stinging him.
Not enough to kill. Just enough to terrify.
Good...
“STOP STINGING ME!” the man shrieked hysterically.
Night wing stared.
Batman stared harder.
You stared too performing confusion a second too late.
“Oh my god,” you blurted awkwardly, looking around dramatically. “That’s crazy. Who could possibly be doing that. We are right here, Unless Batman created something new.”
Nightwing slowly turned toward you.
“…Really?”
“I’LL TALK!” the man screamed before anyone could question further. “I’LL TALK, JUST STOP-STOP!”
The jellyfish drifted back obediently.
The man sobbed once before gasping out-
“The Red Hood.”
Your entire body went cold.
“…What?”
“We’re working for the Red Hood!”
The words slammed into your chest hard enough to hurt.
Your heartbeat spiked violently.
Red Hood.
You stepped forward immediately.
“The guy with the red helmet?” you demanded. “You saw him?!”
The men nodded frantically.
“Yes! Yes!”
Your stomach twisted. You didn't care anymore. That Bruce saw you. (Maybe you will be asking.)
“What does he look like?” you pressed instantly. “How tall? Did he say anything? Did he-”
“We don’t have a choice!” one interrupted desperately. “He’s got-”
Crack.
The man’s head snapped sideways violently.
For one horrible second nobody moved.
Then-
another shot.
Another body dropped.
Gunfire exploded across the rooftop.
You flinched hard as concrete shattered beside you.
“The shots came from the rooftop,” Batman barked instantly.
A sniper.
Your chest seized.
Oh.
Oh shit.
Batman was already moving, lifting his binoculars toward a distant building.
“…Good one,” he muttered under his breath.
You stared at him in horror.
Good one?!
“What the hell?!” you snapped.
Nightwing rushed beside Bruce immediately. “See him?”
“Yeah.”
Batman’s jaw tightened beneath the cowl.
Then he activated comms instantly.
“Batplane. Now.”
The distant roar of engines answered almost immediately.
You blinked.
“…Wait.”
Batman grappled forward without hesitation.
The Batplane descended overhead.
And then-
Bruce left.
Just like that.
Nightwing stared upward in disbelief.
“Hey- wait!” he shouted. “Right. Leave us with them!”
You looked down at the corpses.
At the sniper wounds. At the skyline.
And suddenly your body moved before your brain caught up.
You ran.
“HEY-” Nightwing shouted behind you immediately. “[NAME], WAIT-!”
You ignored him completely.
Your boots slammed against wet ground while the Batplane vanished deeper into Gotham’s skyline.
This was bigger than you thought.
The Red Hood.
The way he knew you.
Your children surged around you instantly, glowing brighter as they lifted you across impossible gaps once Dick disappeared behind you.
Cold lappets curled around your waist and arms.
You flew. Or something close enough to it. Wind tore past your face while Gotham blurred beneath you in streaks of neon and smoke.
Because now there was a name.
Red Hood.
And somehow, this is-
You flowed through Gotham like your life depended on it.
Maybe it did.
Your lungs burned.
Your thoughts burned worse.
Red Hood.
The name looped through your head over and over again like something trying to claw its way free.
By the time you reached the warehouse district, smoke was already curling into the sky.
Your stomach dropped.
“No-”
The explosion hit a second later.
The entire warehouse erupted in fire and debris, the shockwave knocking you backward hard enough to skid across soaked concrete. Heat slammed into your face. Metal screamed. Windows shattered outward in violent bursts.
“Batman!” you shouted instantly.
For one horrible second, all you saw was fire.
It-
...That's how you saw-
Then-
a dark figure burst through the smoke.
Batman landed hard against the pavement below, rolling once before catching himself on one knee.
You ran toward him immediately.
“Bruce-!”
He looked up sharply beneath the cowl, clearly startled to see you there at all.
“You’re injured?”
“I’m fine,” you said too quickly. “Are you okay?”
Batman stood slowly, smoke curling around him while flames consumed the building behind him.
“I asked you to stay back.”
“And I ignored you,” you shot back breathlessly. “Clearly a family tradition at this point.”
Then his gaze narrowed slightly.
“How did you get here this fast?”
Your stomach twisted.
Right.
Normal explanation.
You forced yourself to answer immediately before hesitation could betray you.
“I-I stole a vehicle,” you admitted, wincing slightly. “One of the transport bikes.... I was going to return it, but then it exploded while I was following the Batplane, so… sorry?”
Batman stared at you silently.
You kept going before he could dissect the lie.
“I ran the rest of the way.”
Technically true.
Mostly.
Your children hovered nervously around your shoulders while Bruce studied you long enough to make your skin itch.
Then suddenly his hand lifted.
You blinked.
“…What?”
Before you could react, Batman reached toward the side of your head, fingers brushing carefully through damp strands of hair-
and pulled something free.
A tiny device glinted faintly beneath the warehouse firelight.
Your eyes widened instantly.
No.
No way.
Batman looked down at the device once.
“A tracker,” he said flatly.
Your stomach dropped straight through the floor.
“And a listener.”
Oh.
Oh, you were going to kill him.
Batman crushed it instantly in his hand.
The sharp crack of broken metal sounded absurdly loud beneath the burning warehouse.
“Well,” he said slowly, voice lowering into that terrifyingly calm tone that meant he was absolutely putting things together, “that explains why you were asking those men very specific questions about the Sniper."
You stared at the destroyed tracker in horror.
Then down at the ground.
Your face suddenly felt very warm despite the rain.
Your children slowly drifted farther away from you like even they knew this looked bad.
“…I can explain,” you muttered weakly.
Batman folded his arms.
“That would be a good start.”
You rubbed a hand over your face immediately.
“Okay, in my defense-”
“In your defense,” Batman repeated.
“-I didn’t know he put a tracker on me!”
Bruce stared at you.
You pointed vaguely at your own head.
“He touched my hair and then I panicked and ran away! That’s not exactly a moment where someone expects to get bugged!”
Batman’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“He touched your hair.”
You froze.
“…That is not the important part of this conversation.”
“The important part,” Batman said evenly, “is that Red Hood has been tracking you.”
Your heartbeat kicked harder.
Because hearing Bruce say it out loud made it feel real in a way your own thoughts hadn’t.
Batman looked toward the burning warehouse briefly before continuing.
“He knew where you lived. He knew where you’d go. And based on your reaction earlier…” his gaze sharpened slightly beneath the cowl, “…this isn’t the first time he’s appeared around you.”
You looked away first.
“…No,” you admitted quietly. “It isn’t.”
Batman’s expression darkened almost immediately.
“How long?”
You hesitated.
“…About a year.”
That got a reaction.
Bruce straightened slightly.
“A year,” he repeated.
"I am not saying the rest!"
Batman went still. Bruce rarely lost control of himself like that anymore.
But you saw it anyway in the sudden rigidity of his shoulders, in the way his jaw tightened beneath the cowl, in the silence that followed your confession like the city itself had paused to listen.
“A year,” he repeated again, lower this time. “You knew someone was tracking you for a year and said nothing.”
You swallowed hard.
“It wasn’t like that-”
“You were being watched by an armed vigilante killing people across Gotham,” he cut in, anger finally slipping through the cracks of his control. “Someone who planted surveillance equipment on you. Someone connected to something dangerous. And you decided to handle that alone?”
Your children recoiled slightly from the sudden shift in his voice.
You felt yourself tense immediately.
“I was handling it.”
“No,” Bruce snapped, taking one step closer, “you were surviving it. There’s a difference.”
The words hit harder than they should have.
You looked away instantly.
Rain poured between both of you while the warehouse burned behind him, flames turning the edges of Gotham gold and violent.
“You should have told me.”
Something inside you twisted painfully.
Should have.
Should have.
Should have.
The phrase echoed through your head like a curse.
You should’ve saved Jason.
You should’ve stopped Joker.
You should’ve died instead.
You laughed suddenly.
Batman’s expression shifted slightly.
You stared at him.
Then laughed again.
“What the hell am I supposed to do, Bruce?” you asked, voice cracking around the edges. “Seriously. What exactly did you want from me?”
“You come to me when you’re in danger.”
“Oh, now I come to you?”
The bitterness slipped out before you could stop it.
Bruce stiffened.
You felt it immediately, the moment the conversation crossed the line/
But you couldn’t stop anymore.
Not now.
“You don’t know what’s happening to me,” you said, your voice shaking harder now. “You don’t know what I am anymore. And I didn’t ask you to.”
“You’re not alone in this.”
“Then why does it feel like it?!”
Your voice broke loudly enough to echo off the surrounding buildings.
Your children circled frantically around you now, reacting to your distress!
Bruce stepped forward again.
You stepped back immediately.
“No,” you snapped. “No, don’t do that.”
“[Name]-”
“You never tell me anything either!” The words ripped out of you raw and fast now, years of grief and anger finally tearing themselves open. “You keep everything locked up until it destroys everyone around you and then act surprised when nobody knows how to help!”
“That’s not fair.”
You stared at him in disbelief.
“Fair?”
Your laugh sounded hysterical now.
“Fair?”
The grief inside your chest finally split open completely.
“You wanna know why I didn’t tell you?” you shouted. “Why would I tell the man who couldn’t even avenge his own son?!”
Silence.
Absolute silence.
The second the words left your mouth, you saw it hit him.
Bruce Wayne didn’t flinch like normal people did.
But something in his face...?
Huh?
Because now you were crying.
Hot tears, while your breathing tore apart in your chest.
“Jason died and nothing happened!” you screamed at him. “The Joker’s still out there laughing and breathing and hurting people and living while Jason’s underground and you expect me to trust your way of doing things?!”
Batman’s hands clenched at his sides.
“You think I don’t live with that every day?”
“I don’t care!” you shouted instantly.
And that was the worst part.
Because it was true right now.
You were too angry to care.
“I don’t owe you every miserable thing happening in my life!” you continued, voice breaking harder with every word. “I don’t owe you explanations about what I do every day just because-"
SHUT UP! If you wanted revenge if you wanted justice for Jason then why didn’t you take it?!
WHY?
Was it because you were scared?
Scared of him?
Scared of that laughing clown?
Then why ask Bruce to do it?!
You could’ve done it yourself!
Jason died screaming and you let that monster keep smiling.
YOU COWARD
YOU KILLED ALL THOSE PEOPLE TO FEED YOUR CHILDREN you told yourself it's the only way, wait you didn't know. of course you were scared. HOW DO YOU THINK BRUCE WAYNE’S GONNA LOOK AT YOU WHEN HE FINDS OUT, HUH?! YOU’RE FUCKING INSANE, YOU’RE GONNA END UP IN JAIL. LIKE YOUR PARENTS ENDED--
“[Name].”
“No!” you snapped violently. “I don’t want to tell you. And if I don’t want to then I don’t!”
Your children crowded around you protectively now, lappets curling around your arms and shoulders like shields.
Bruce stared at you silently.
Behind him, the warehouse continued to burn.
And suddenly he just looked-
tired, after all-
A father who lost his son and never learned how to survive it properly.
His voice lowered when he finally spoke again.
“…You think I didn't want to-”
Your breathing hitched.
Bruce looked away briefly toward the fire.
“There are nights,” he admitted quietly, “where I still hear Jason screaming in that warehouse.”
Your chest tightened painfully.
“And there are nights,” he continued, voice rougher now, “where I wish I had.”
The silence afterward felt unbearable.
Just heavy enough to crush whatever anger was left inside you.
You stared at Bruce for a long moment before finally looking away first. Your chest hurt. Your throat hurt worse. The adrenaline had burned itself out, leaving only exhaustion behind.
You took a slow step backward.
Then another.
You exhaled hard.
“…Sorry, Bats.”
Your voice came out smaller than you wanted.
“I didn’t mean to add to your pain.”
Bruce said nothing immediately.
You could still see the grief.
You always could.
That was the problem with loving people for too long, you learned where the cracks lived.
You rubbed tiredly at your face.
“I know you cared about him,” you muttered quietly. “I know.”
Bruce’s jaw tightened slightly.
You swallowed hard.
God, why was talking suddenly harder than fighting monsters?
“…Let’s just go,” you said eventually, exhausted more than anything now. “I’ll answer your questions.”
That finally got his attention.
You forced yourself to keep speaking before your courage disappeared again.
“I’ve seen him,” you admitted quietly. “The Red Hood.”
Bruce’s gaze sharpened instantly beneath the cowl.
You looked down at the rainwater pooling near your boots.
“And I didn’t…” You frowned slightly, struggling to explain something you barely understood yourself. “I didn’t tell you because…” Your voice faltered. “I don’t know. Something about it felt…"
Familiar.
You closed your eyes briefly.
“It felt like something was protecting me from Gotham itself,” you whispered. “Like every time something was about to happen, he was already there.”
The shadows watching you from rooftops before disappearing again.
You laughed weakly once, but there was no humor in it.
“I know how insane that sounds.”
Bruce didn’t interrupt.
Didn’t dismiss it either.
That somehow made continuing easier.
“I don’t understand his motive,” you admitted. “I don’t understand why he followed me for so long. Why me. Why any of this.”
Your children drifted closer at the tension in your voice, brushing softly against your wrists.
“And I can’t explain why I couldn’t tell you,” you continued quietly. “Every time I thought about it…” You shook your head slowly. “Something in me just, stopped.”
You hated how pathetic that sounded.
But it was true.
Hope had wrapped itself around your throat too tightly to name.
You finally looked back up at Bruce.
“…But I’ll help,” you said.
Your voice steadied slightly then.
“I’ll help however I can,” you finished quietly. “Not for you.”
Bruce’s expression didn’t change.
But he listened.
You swallowed once.
“I need to know why he did all this.”
The ride back to the Batcave was quiet.
You sat in the back of the Batmobile staring out through rain-streaked windows while Gotham blurred past in.
Your children drifted lazily around your shoulders, their glow faint beneath the dark interior. Every now and then one brushed your cheek like it was checking you were still here.
Bruce said nothing the entire drive.
You were grateful for it.
By the time the cave opened beneath you, stone, shadows, humming monitors, endless black you felt wrung hollow.
And somehow seeing it again hurt.
The Batcave looked exactly the same.
Cold monitors glowing against black stone. The distant echo of dripping water.
The low mechanical hum of computers that never truly stopped running.
It almost hurt how little had changed.
Because it still felt like home.
That was the problem.
You walked in quietly behind Bruce, clothes clinging to your skin while your children floated nearby. They seemed calmer here somehow. Curious. One drifted toward the giant dinosaur before slowly spinning away again.
He stood there like he owned the cave, one hand dramatically planted against on his waist.
“This bit of intel,” Nightwing announced, “is what brought me to town.”
“Good thing I’ve always had perfect timing.”
“You say that every time,” you muttered.
“Because I’m right every time.”
You quietly moved toward the edge of the platform, arms folded tightly across yourself, trying very hard to become furniture.
“Take a look,” Dick said.
A surveillance image flickered onto the screen.
Blurry.
But unmistakable.
Red helmet.
Your stomach tightened immediately.
“The Red Hood,” Batman said flatly.
“Might be,” Dick replied. “He bears a resemblance to the original.”
Bruce folded his arms.
“Several criminals have utilized this persona.”
“Yeah,” Dick nodded, leaning back against the console, “but there’s one criminal of particular interest, though.”
A beat passed.
“But he’s locked up.”
“Not his M.O. either,” Bruce added immediately.
You stayed quiet while staring at the image.
Red Hood.
Even blurry, he looked familiar in a way that made your chest ache.
“There’s been an uptick in heavy trafficking,” Dick continued, “but crime is down.”
“Indeed it is.”
You turned.
Alfred Pennyworth approached carrying a tray with tea and snacks balanced carefully in his hands.
And somehow that almost hurt more than everything else.
“Master Bruce has gotten almost three hours of sleep in the last two days,” Alfred said dryly. “A true busman’s holiday.”
Dick snorted.
Bruce ignored him completely.
Then Alfred looked at you.
And softened instantly.
“Ah,” he murmured gently. “You came back home.”
Your throat tightened unexpectedly.
“…Temporarily,” you mumbled.
“Of course,” Alfred replied politely, in the exact tone that meant he absolutely did not believe you.
One of your jellyfish floated curiously toward his face, lappets brushing the air near his cheek.
He couldn’t see it. he paused slightly. then-
Smiled faintly.
Like some instinctive part of him felt something there anyway.
“You’ve grown,” Alfred added softly. “Quite the same, though.”
You looked down awkwardly. “…Not that much.”
That earned the smallest smile from him. Alfred handed you a plate.
Your favorite snacks. You blinked at them for a second too long.
“…You remembered.”
“My dear,” Alfred said gently, “I remember all of your favorites.”
Your smile appeared before you could stop it. Across the cave, Bruce looked up briefly.
You didn’t notice. Dick definitely did.
And unfortunately for you, Dick Grayson never let anything go unnoticed.
He leaned toward you slightly while Bruce continued scanning files.
Then, in the most obnoxiously conspiratorial whisper imaginable=
“So,” he murmured, “from what I’ve seen, Gotham’s newest homicidal crime lord has a huge crush on you.”
You nearly choked on your tea.
“What?!” you whisper-hissed back immediately.
Dick grinned shamelessly.
“He protected you for over a year.”
“He tracked me for over a year,” you corrected instantly.
“Protectively.”
“That is not better.”
Dick’s grin widened.
“He touched your hair.”
“That means nothing and he put a tracker on me. ASK BRUCE.”
“He stalked you with sniper support.”
“That sounds worse when you say it like that!”
“It’s Gotham,” Dick whispered dramatically. “That’s basically a love confession.”
Dick was joking! But- GOOD GOD.
You stared at him in horror.
“Oh my god you genuinely don’t know.”
“There’s nothing to know,” you hissed quietly. “I hoped maybe he was trying to help, okay? But this guy literally put a tracker on me to see what I was going to do.”
Dick blinked once.
Then immediately looked even more entertained.
“You hoped?”
“No- not like that- shut up.”
“You hoped,” he repeated with absolute delight.
You wanted to throw the tea at him.
“He told me to leave Gotham because it was gonna get dangerous,” you muttered quietly, glancing toward the Red Hood image again. “And then he tracks me anyway? Looking at all this… whatever this is… he clearly wanted to keep tabs on me.”
Dick tilted his head thoughtfully.
“…Still sounds romantic.”
“It sounds insane.”
“Those overlap here.”
You rubbed your face tiredly.
“Jason would’ve beaten this guy up.”
Dick snorted loudly enough that Bruce briefly glanced over.
You immediately looked away like absolutely nothing suspicious was happening. Dick lowered his voice again.
“Oh, absolutely. Jay would’ve thrown him through a wall for stalking you.”
Dick leaned closer again while Bruce worked silently at the Batcomputer, lowering his voice like he was sharing state secrets instead of actively making your life worse.
“You know,” he whispered with a grin, “Jay would’ve been insanely jealous.”
You stared at him flatly. “Of a guy in a red bucket helmet stalking me around Gotham?”
“Absolutely.”
“He would not.”
Dick looked genuinely offended. “You think Jason Todd would react normally to some mystery man following you around for over a year?”
You opened your mouth to argue.
Then stopped. Because honestly… no. Jason probably would have tracked the guy down within twenty-four hours and committed at least three felonies about it....
“He would’ve hunted him down immediately,” Dick continued, clearly enjoying himself now. “Like, scary immediately.”
“And brought him to justice,” Bruce added from the computer before either of you could continue.
Both you and Dick looked over in surprise.
Bruce still wasn’t facing either of you. His eyes stayed fixed on the files glowing across the screen, jaw tense beneath the cowl.
Then, after a beat, he added quietly, “And broken his teeth.”
Dick blinked once. “Okay, wow. Weirdly specific.”
Bruce didn’t answer.
For one tiny second, it almost felt normal. Like Jason was just somewhere else in the manor complaining loudly about all of you discussing him without permission. Like he’d walk into the cave at any moment, dramatic and alive and impossible to ignore.
Dick smiled faintly at the thought too.
“Honestly,” he said more gently now, “Jay probably would’ve hated the guy immediately just because he made you nervous.”
Your chest tightened.
“But,” Dick added, pointing at you, “he also would’ve been there for you through all of it. Even if he acted annoyed the whole time.”
A weak laugh escaped you before you could stop it. “That sounds exactly like him.”
“He’d pretend he didn’t care,” Dick said, grinning now, “and then you’d catch him sleeping outside your apartment because he thought someone was following you.”
“And he’d deny it too,” you muttered. Dick nodded.
“Besides,” Dick started lightly, “Jason probably would’ve done the same thing if h-”
Bruce’s hands slowed against the keyboard for half a second.
Dick noticed anyway.
He stopped himself instantly. The sentence died halfway out of his mouth. The mood changed so fast it almost physically hurt.
Bruce slowly looked over at him.
Dick immediately went quiet. Your smile disappeared too.
Because all of you heard the rest of the sentence anyway.
Jason probably would’ve done the same thing if he loved someone enough.
Or maybe:
if he thought he was protecting them.
So your feet moved before your brain caught up.
You drifted away from the Batcomputer slowly, The Robin suit stood behind glass like preserved ghosts, frozen pieces of people Gotham had already swallowed whole.
And there-
Jason Todd's-
You stopped in front of his suit without realizing you had.
The glass reflected your face beside the uniform, blurring the two of you together strangely beneath the cave lights until, for one horrible second, it almost looked like you were standing side by side again.
You missed him. You missed him like an injury that never closed properly.
Like something inside your ribs had been ripped open years ago and simply learned how to keep bleeding quietly.
Every day.
You didn’t notice Alfred Pennyworth approach until he was standing beside you.
Alfred nodded slowly, eyes lingering on Jason’s uniform too.
“We miss him as well.”
A weak laugh escaped you.
“Yeah,” you murmured. “I can tell.”
Because nobody here had truly moved on.
The entire Batcave still felt built around Jason-shaped grief, like every computer, every weapon, every shadow in the cave had learned to live around the hole he left behind.
Alfred stepped a little closer then and gently rested a hand against your head, patting it the same way he used to years ago.
The affection nearly shattered you.
“Missing someone,” he said quietly, “is the unfortunate price of loving them properly.”
Your eyes burned immediately.
“It’s Jason or no one,” you admitted before you could stop yourself.
Across the cave, Dick looked over toward the two of you. His expression softened instantly into something warm and painfully fond. Dick joked constantly. But he always noticed when things mattered.
Bruce remained near the Batcomputer in silence, though his gaze flicked briefly toward Jason’s suit before he looked away again like it physically hurt to stare too long.
Then Dick cleared his throat lightly, dragging the conversation back toward the case.
“But he is locked up,” he said, turning toward Bruce again. “Like… a lot locked up.”
Bruce typed something into the Batcomputer without looking up.
“Maybe we should go for a visit,” Dick continued.
You nodded faintly. “That makes sense-”
Then stopped.
“…Where’s Bruce?” Dick turned around. The Bat computer chair sat empty.
A second later the Batmobile engine roared violently through the cave.
Both of you snapped toward the tunnel just in time to see the car already- He was already in the car.
Dick threw both hands into the air dramatically. The biscuits- fell down..!!?!
“Could you just once say, ‘Let’s get in the car’?!” he shouted “Is that so hard?!”
Alfred shoved a few snacks into your hands before you and Dick bolted for the car...
“This is gonna be fun, I did miss going with you guys..! wait… meeting-”
