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Artemis kinda wondered how she ended up here.
‘Here’ being Wayne Manor.
Okay, honest truth, she’s been to Wayne Manor before, when the tiny freshman who’d taken her picture invited her to his birthday party.
“No offense, but why?” she’d asked him.
He grinned. “Because we’re friends.”
Artemis raised an eyebrow. Sure, if ‘friends’ meant one of them followed the other around like a puppy. An annoying puppy. “No offense, but we barely know each other.”
The kid just shrugged. “Well then, you’re Bette’s friend.”
“What’s that got to do with anything?”
The kid flashed a grin. “Bette’s my cousin. I’ll send you an invite,” he added, then he was gone.
Artemis had brought up the whole thing with Bette, who’d given this awkward and rather convoluted explanation involving her cousin’s cousin, who adopted a million kids, and her mom disproved and they weren’t supposed to claim to be related but Cousin Kate was all for it and very vocal about it, and Dick was so much like Kate sometimes, really...
And Artemis loved Bette, she really did, but sometimes the girl just kept talking.
Of course, it was at this point that Artemis put together something she really should have figured out long ago.
Dick, or ‘Grayson’ as the faculty called him, was Richard Grayson. Ward of Bruce Wayne. Gotham’s resident celebrity billionaire.
Bette had talked her into going to the party, where Artemis spent the whole time vaguely uncomfortable with how huge the whole place was.
(Also, Dick’s youngest brother—little Timmy (It’s Tim, not Timmy, actually, but Dick calls me Timmy and now I think Jason is doing it to bother me because he keeps laughing) Drake wouldn’t stop staring at her.
ANYWAYS. All that aside. In some bizarre chain of events, Bruce Wayne had pissed off someone big, said someone big had been sending out threats, Jason Todd nearly got kidnapped, and the Justice League decided they were responsible for protecting the kids of one of their biggest financial—and political—backers.
Well. At least what part of the League was still around. At least half of them—including Batman who, for some reason no one would explain, had apparently taken Robin with him—were on some big space mission.
Whilst another chunk of them were doing something in Australia.
And the rest of them were trying to track down whoever was threatening the Waynes.
Which was how the Team had found themselves placed on protection detail.
Considering their track record, Artemis just knew this would go badly.
M’gann wondered how this had happened.
M’gann liked the Wayne children.
Dick was very friendly, and Jason was kinda loud, and Timmy was quiet and Cass barely talked at all, but they were all sweet children.
They were currently staying at Wayne Manor with their butler, an old man named Alfred who, M’gann discovered, made the best cookies.
She wished she could ask him to teach her.
Bruce Wayne was away.
According to Alfred, the Manor had some of the best security in existence. He honestly seemed to think it was unnecessary for the team to be there.
Kaldur had decided they should split up, each member of the Team keeping an especial eye on one of the Waynes.
The thing was, M’gann liked the Wayne kids. They told the Team embarrassing stories about each other and talked them into playing video games and got Alfred to make them all hot chocolate.
But they were very hard to keep track of.
M’gann swore she’d only turned around for a minute, just to say goodbye to Superboy, who was going with Alfred who’d insisted on going out for groceries. When she turned around, Cassandra was gone.
“Alright, M’gann, don’t panic,” she murmured, flying through another hall. “It’s okay, you’ll find her, it’ll only take a minute, she couldn’t have gotten that far...” The building was too big. And there were so many shadows...
“M’gann!”
M’gann jolted to a stop in the air, surprised. She swung around to face Artemis, who was standing in a doorway with her hands on her hips and an annoyed frown on her face.
“Have you seen Dick? Little shit gave me the slip.”
M’gann shook her head, gnawing on her lip. “No. I can’t find Cass anywhere, either.” And just like that, she was on the verge of tears again.
A yellow blur shot up the stairs and materialized into Wally, right next to Artemis.
Artemis scowled, and straightened to shuffle a few steps to the side.
Wally didn’t notice. “HasanyoneseenJasonIswearIturnedaroundforonesecondwhy--”
Kaldur appeared up the stairs next. He looked at the four of them, then sighed. “I suppose I am not the only one who seems to have lost my charge?”
“WALLY!”
Everyone started. Jason Todd was clutching Kid Flash’s arm.
“How--” Artemis started, but Jason talked over her.
“Two-Face got Tim!”
Aqualad took a deep breath. “M’gann, Artemis, find Cassandra and Richard--”
Jason shook his head in frustration, then glared right at Kid Flash. “Dick went after them and Cass went after him. I came to get you guys because this is goddamned Two Face we’re talkin’ about.”
Which made zero sense, because where did Two-Face come into all of this?
And also. M’gann felt her panic rise as she thought of the grinning teenager and the little girl coming face-to-face with him.
“Aw, shit,” Kid Flash muttered. “Any idea where they’re headed, Jay?”
Jason smiled, sharp and a little gleeful. “Follow me, I’ll pull up the trackers.”
Kaldur’ahm wondered sometimes how his team always ended up in these situations.
Right now, he was running over a maze of a catwalk in a dark warehouse near Gotham Harbor, Richard Grayson keeping pace behind him.
He was just thankful he’d actually found the boy. The others were still trying to find Two-Face, Tim, and Cassandra.
For lack of other ideas, Wally had taken Jason to GCPD’s HQ.
Jason said he’d be fine, he’d find the Commissioner. Wally said he’d be fine. Kaldur would like to push a little harder, but they had to find the other three.
All of a sudden, the room flooded with light. Kaldur squinted against the blinding white light from the spotlight not three feet away, and focused in on the man standing below them, right in the circle of light made by the floodlight.
“Well, well,” Two Face said. “Not the big man, hm? Heads or tails?”
“Don’t answer,” Dick whispered behind him.
“Don’t think I don’t know you’re there, Dick,” Two Face said cheerfully, and Kaldur pushed the younger boy further behind himself.
We’ve found Two-Face, he called over the mind link. Find the children.
He knew better, by now, than to jump straight for Two-Face. “What do you want, Two Face?” he asked instead.
It was worth a shot. A surprising number of criminals Kaldur had dealt with were happy to outline their goals for the sake of a dramatic monologue.
“Satisfaction, a better Gotham, I’d actually settle for Batman,” Two Face said, conversationally. “Heads it is, I suppose.” And tossed the coin in the air.
Kaldur felt Dick move, and grabbed his wrist. “Tim’s here somewhere,” the boy hissed.
“Well,” Two Face said, looking down at his coin. “I guess you’ll do.”
The spotlight switched off, only to be replaced by two more. One lit up a tub of bubbling acid on the floor.
The other lit up the child wrapped up in ropes and hanging from the ceiling.
“Timmy!” Richard screamed, and darted forward, only jerking to a stop thanks to Kaldur’s grip on his wrist.
“Stop! Putting yourself in danger will not save your brother.” M’gann! Get over here, now! Kid Flash, Artemis, find Two-Face!
“And how do you plan to do it?” Richard snapped.
Little late, Aqualad, he already found us.
Him and like thirty goons— gah !
We’ve got this, Miss M!
I’m on my way, Aqualad!
Kaldur tried to keep his voice calm and confident.
“Help is on the way, your brother will be okay.”
“I’ve got this, Kal,” Robin said, and Kaldur startled bad enough that when Richard pulled away, he was a second too late to stop him, his fingers brushing the younger boy’s shoulder as they both lunged forward.
He was fast. (Of course he was, Kaldur knew that, he realized) and before Kaldur knew it he’d flung himself off the platform, swung from a rafter to a random pulley and knocked into Tim, apparently cutting the rope at some point because the both flew out of sight into the shadows.
M’gann flickered into visibility three feet away as Aqualad belatedly called “Robin!”
(He realized his mistake a moment later, but he blamed instinct and habit after too many missions with Kid Flash and Robin.)
Artemis and Kid Flash burst through the door. Artemis took in the whole scene. “What just...?”
Wally looked up at the ceiling, down at the tub. “Dick was with you,” he said flatly.
Aqualad looked at him sharply, but nodded.
“Aw, man,” Wally sighed, rubbing his nose.
“Where’s Dick?” Artemis asked.
Kaldur sighed. “M’gann, try to link up with...with Robin.”
M’gann shook her head, then nodded and closed her eyes. Artemis’s eyes widened. “The little...” she shook her head slowly.
“GCPD’s got Two-Face, they’re taking care of his men,” Wally reported.
“That went...wrong,” Artemis said.
“In more ways than you can imagine,” Wally agreed, and winced when Kaldur looked his way.
Robin! M’gann’s voice rang in their heads.
Hey. Even over the mind-link, Robin’s voice was shaky.
Where are you, Robin? Kaldur asked, concerned.
There was silence for a moment.
There’s an alley-halfway down the block from Ashton and Crowley.
We’re on our way.
Wally wondered how things had escalated so quickly.
They found them huddled in the shadows in the corner of an alley. Dick—dressed in civvies, as Wally had suspected with a sense of dread—was holding Tim tight against him. Both of them were shaking and breathing quickly, and Wally just knew they were both on the verge of panic attacks and trying very hard to suppress them just for the other’s sake.
Cass, looking very much at a loss, was crouched next to them, arms around them both, but once they’d gotten within five feet of them she whirled around, new crouch definitely threatening and face hard. She relaxed when she saw who it was.
Wally made a beeline for his best friend, and put his hands on his shoulders.
“Hey, Dickie.” He could feel the whole team’s eyes on him, but thankfully they didn’t say anything.
Dick looked up at him, eyes red.
“You okay, bro?” Alright, stupid question, and Dick’s breathing was getting even faster.
“He was gonna fall, Wally,” he gasped. “He was—he--”
Alright, alright, stupid, stupid Wally, what did he do now-- “Hey, hey, easy,” Wally said, “It’s okay, he’s alright.” He felt a hand land on his shoulder, and Cass was there, arms around her brothers again.
“Safe,” she agreed.
“Jay,” Dick said suddenly. “Where’s Jay?”
“GCPD, with Gordon,” Wally said, and eyed Tim. He started to reach out, a little worried the kid might be hurting with how tightly Dick had started to squeeze him, before realizing the kid’s arms were almost equally as tight around Dick’s neck and decided it would probably be better not to try to pull them apart. Even a little. “Speaking of which, they got Two-Face. We need to get you to the cops, yeah? They’ll call Alfred, we’ll get you home and get Jason and it’ll all be over. Okay?”
It took a little more coaxing to get Dick moving, but within fifteen minutes Wally was watching Jason sprint towards them, and James Gordon, who’d showed up, gently usher the four kids into his car.
I just want to warn you all, Wally announced over the mind link, That Batman will definitely murder us all when he gets back from space.
Aw, shit, Artemis said. Batman is...?
No way, M’gann exclaimed.
Yes way.
Kaldur sighed. How do we always end up in such situations?