Dc x Dp: Just Your typical Wayne Gala
Just imagine your typical Wayne Gala/Charity Event. Except it also involves Mob Families, Fear Toxin, Fights and a little bit of flirting.
The party was for once going swimmingly. It seemed to be a quiet night, and the charity actually raised a good amount of money. Now Bruce could easily donate the same amount of money and make it back in a day, but where was the fun in that? It was good for the other high socialites to give back to the community once in a while.
Now this party wasn’t only for the charity; it was also to keep an eye on shady business. And tonight it was specifically Vladimir Masters. He was a businessman who became a billionaire in under 4 years, which is extremely impressive and suspicious, but other smaller businesses also had a habit of signing any deal he came to them with, which was a huge red flag.
Bruce kept his eyes on Vlad Masters from across the room. For a man who was in his early forties, he had a full head of grey hair. Bruce knew that wasn’t his natural hair colour, having seen university application records, but how he got a full head of grey hair was a mystery. It was probably due to the accident he had, which in and of itself was also a mystery.
Vlad Masters was also excellent at socialising despite often being described as a recluse. But despite this, Bruce could still see from his body language that Masters wanted to be anywhere else than talking to Lex Luthor. (Which is understandable.) His eyes were darting left and right across the room. Bruce followed his eye movements to see that they landed on 4 children, each on different sides of the room.
They were another element to this story. Vlad Masters had 4 legally adopted children, all coming from the same family. But three of the children looked like triplets even though they were obviously not the same age. The identical siblings all had the same face with black hair and freckles, but there were only slight variations in the siblings. The older of the three had red eyes, longer hair, and a tall, bulkier body type. The middle child had effortlessly unkempt hair, blue eyes, and a lanky, tall (but shorter than his brother) body type. The youngest was obviously the shortest, with her hair in pigtails. But other than those variations, they were practically identical. The only different one was the oldest sibling; she was extremely tall, had ginger hair and cyan eyes, but again, the same face.
Bruce didn’t trust the Masters family one bit; they seemed like the typical structure of a mob family. This was why Bruce came to this party in the first place, just to keep an eye on them.
“B, what are you looking at?” Tim practically spawned next to Bruce, actually looking refreshed for once (thank you, Alfred).
“Timmy, could you do me a favour and find everything you can on Vlad Masters and his family?”
Tim’s eyes followed the direct line of where Vlad was walking towards one of the siblings, Daniel, if Bruce was remembering correctly.
“Mob family.” It wasn’t even a question, really, as Tim already had his phone out, but Bruce was going to answer it anyway.
“Seems like the most logical answer.” All Bruce got in return was a faint “Hmmmm…”
Bruce’s gaze went back to Vlad Masters and his gaggle of children. Daniel seemed to be stuffing his face with pastries at the food stand. The older boy (Dante?) was standing in a corner brooding, or rather, watching more people with a sinister-looking glint in his eyes. Jasmine (right?) was busy chatting it up with the other young women at the party. The youngest (Danielle, he was pretty sure) was busy cackling with Damian. (He should look into that.) Vlad Masters himself looked absolutely resigned to everything that was happening around him as he sipped his wine. He had the face of a tired parent.
Bruce patted Tim on the shoulder, signalling that he was going to do some reconnaissance. Tim just nodded, his head still tilted towards his phone, but Bruce could see that his eyes were following him. He took a few steps closer; with each step he took, Bruce could start to hear the conversation between Vlad and Daniel.
“Daniel, please at least have some decorum.” Masters sounded exasperated, like this wasn’t the first time this had happened.
“How about, Nah.” Ah, that deadpanned expression reminded him of Damian, whom he really should check on.
“I don’t see you harassing Dan about his manners when he’s practically murdering people with his eyes.” Daniel stuffed another strawberry in his mouth.
Vlad just raised an eyebrow so high, it disappeared into his hair. There was a pause for a second before Daniel sighed.
“Yeah, fair. But what about Ellie or Jazz?”
“Well, Danielle is having fun with the Wayne boy, and I’m not in the mood for Jasmine to…well, give me a therapy session.” Bruce would have laughed if he wasn’t trying to be discreet.
Daniel Danny gave Vlad a frog blink before slowly turning back to the food table. Vlad just sighed as he picked up his wine glass again. It was quiet again except for the hustle and bustle of everyone else in the hall. Bruce turned and was about to make his way back to Tim when a sharp clink! caught his attention.
His eyes quickly snapped back to the scene, just in time to see a red mist cover the food table.
“Fear Toxin” The words tumbled out of his mouth without hesitation.
Vlad quickly jumped away from the gas cloud, with a quickness and efficiency that made Bruce believe he was trained. His sleeves were instantly over his nose. Bruce almost would have suspected that Vlad was the one who brought the toxin into the party if it weren’t for the fact that the man quickly opened the window closest to him to let it out and what he said next.
“Daniel! Don’t breathe it in!”
But from what Bruce could see, it was already too late. The boy stumbled about, his eyes glazed over and unfocused. His breath was shallow and quick. Danny’s eyes swept over the hall frantically; everyone took a few steps back until they landed on Vlad. Then the most peculiar thing happened. Danny’s eyes sharpened like a cat, and his lips pulled back into an extreme scowl that put Damian’s scowl to shame.
All it took was one blink, and the next moment, Danny had lunged at Vlad, throwing deadly accurate punches and kicks. Growling at Vlad throughout the whole fight. Vlad didn’t seem very shocked, but he wasn’t pleased either.
“Damn it, Daniel, I told you not to breathe it in.” Vlad muttered as he dodged another punch. He grabbed Danny’s arm and threw him over his shoulder. Bruce would have said it was an extreme reaction if the boy hadn’t immediately done a flip to right himself and tried to sweep Vlad’s feet from under him. But he was unsuccessful, as Vlad had jumped a few steps back.
Out of the corner of his eyes, he could see that Tim was already gone. Good, at least someone was on the way with the antidote. Because this was ridiculous. He turned back to the fight to see that it was still ongoing.
“Kids, would you be a dear and help me handle your brother?” Vlad’s voice hadn’t changed an octave as he continued to dodge and block blows.
“Why should we, old man? What do we get out of this?” Dan said while picking his nails as if his brother wasn’t trying to hurt their father, as if this wasn’t important. He sounded like Jason.
“A trip to Greece.” Was all, he said, but that caused Dan and Ellie to perk up.
“Add a new bike into the mix and you’ve got yourself a deal, old man.” Dan said as he picked up a discarded broom and tested its weight.
“I want a unicorn.” Ellie said as she pulled the curtain rope, causing it to unravel into a long, thick rope. Damian, who had been standing next to her, snapped his head towards her and blinked rapidly.
“Yes, yes, a new bike and a unicorn. Now. Assistance.”
The two kids rolled their eyes. But in an instant, Ellie threw one end of the rope, like it was a rope dart. It wrapped around Danny’s arm, and she pulled, causing the boy to stumble. Dan came from the side, the broom handle aimed to smack his brother in the head. He looked absolutely insane with glee.
Danny dodged Dan’s swing and tried to kick him in the stomach. But luck wasn’t on Danny’s side as Dan grabbed the leg and threw him across the room, causing Danny to crash into the wall. Before he crashed into the wall, Ellie did a series of quick spins and untangled the rope from Danny’s arm.
“Hey, watch it! You almost made me crash into that wall with him.” She stomped her foot in annoyance at her brother's negligence. Dan didn’t even spare her a glance, as Danny had already gotten up and they were fighting again.
“I feel like I’m watching an anime.” Was all, Damian said as he also spawned Bruce. (Bruce absolutely did not flinch. Not at all)
Vlad was off to the side observing the fight. In one quick motion, Vlad grabbed a glass of champagne from the tray next to him and downed it in one go. Everyone around the man took a step back as he rolled up his sleeves, eyeing him suspiciously.
“Kids, Could you please wrap this up?”
Dan huffed in annoyance, but he jumped back. Danny’s eyes were darting between his two siblings and Vlad. His body was shaking; it seemed like he was seconds away from crashing. The boy had only taken a step forward when something smacked the boy’s head with a loud, dull BANG!
Danny stumbled for a few moments before the same thing hit him again. The boy crashed to the floor motionless. Behind him stood Jasmine, a steel chair in one hand, while breathing heavily.
“YEAH! In comes Jazz with a steel chair!” Ellie cheered as Dan burst out laughing.
“Since I technically defeated him. I want everyone to go to therapy.” Jazz said as she dropped the steel chair. Vlad, Dan and Ellie just groaned.
It was at that very moment that Red Robin grappled through the window and froze in confusion at the scene before him.
Jazz knelt next to Danny, checking his head for a concussion, and checked his eyes as Vlad calmly made his way over. The other two just observed the situation.
“You have to antidote, correct, Red Robin?”
Tim flinched at being addressed and quickly made his way over, taking out the syringe. He injected the needle into Danny’s arm.
“It should take a few hours for him to awaken, but he should be fine.” Tim said, putting on his best smile, What the fuck?!?!
“That won’t be necessary.”
Danny’s eyes snapped open, and Bruce would be lying if he said it didn’t remind him of a reanimated corpse.
“Ugh, I feel like I just got rammed into by Skulker.” Dan snorted at that statement like it meant something.
“You were under the influence of Fear Toxins, Daniel.” “Are you feeling any side effects?” Vlad and Jazz both asked their questions at the same time. Danny gave them a frog blink.
Tim moved forward and helped Danny to his feet. “You should take a break for a few days to recover.” Danny gave another frog blink, then he gave a charming smile. “Sure thing, Handsome.”
Bruce saw the exact moment when Tim blue screened. Damian snorted from his spot next to Bruce. Danny was transferred to his older sister as they helped him to their car. Red Robin stood there for a while before he quickly turned and power-walked to the next nearest window and disappeared into the night.
“Well, tonight sure was something, huh, Damian?”
“Indeed Father. I now have perfect blackmail material to use against Drake”
Bruce couldn’t help but laugh as he ushered his son out of the hall and back to the cave. They had a family to spy on.
I’m so happy I posted this it took 7 hours. I’m tired.
