Work Text:
“So will you do it?” Duke looked over at Dick, who had decided to brave the day as Nightwing in order to ask a favor.
“I’m not sure, Nightwing, That’s your team, and I’m perfectly happy taking care of Gotham.”
Dick pouted and dramatically flung himself over the nearest gargoyle. “You sure? I could really use the help. Don’t you want to lend aid to your poor, poor brother?”
“You are literally a billionaire.”
“Ha ha, Signal. You know what I mean.”
Duke sighed and joined Dick beside the gargoyle. “Yeah, I do. Are you sure you need me ? Why not Tim? Steph? Heck, even Damian would love the chance to boos those guys around.”
Dick sighed. “I told you, The mission occurs at the same time as one on the opposite side of the world, which I already have Tim scheduled for. Steph is woking a case in Hong Kong with Cass. And Frankly, I doubt the Team would appreciate Damian’s … style of leadership. This one is smaller, and less of a priority. I have some of the newbies and more older members on it, but none of them have experience with leading stealth missions.”
“So give one of them the experience!” Duke was getting a bit exasperated. Why did Dick think it would be a good idea to handle a mission on a covert team he’d never even met before?
“It’s not that simple.” Dick frowned. “This mission is time sensitive, and delicate. It really does need someone with experience leading it, but all my best people are elsewhere.”
Duke tilted his head, considering. “Why me?”
Dick laughed. “Why NOT you? Seriously, Signal. You handled a whole group of Robins, by yourself. No Batman. You proved yourself, and you’ve earned respect. I trust you with this.”
Duke considered, thinking through everything Dick had said. “Alright,” He sighed, “What’s the mission?”
*****
“Team, I’d like you to meet Signal. He’ll be joining you on the mission, as well as over seeing things.” Nightwing stood at the front of the group of heroes, turning to where Duke had just come in from the zeta tubes.
Duke walked forward, surveying the group. “ ‘Sup?” He asked, unsure of what else to say.
“Signal, meet Beast Boy, Kid Flash, Wonder Girl, and Blue Beatle.”
Duke nodded and extended his hand, “Nice to meet you.”
“I’ve been waiting to meet you for so long, dude!” Kid Flash said, racing forward to shake Duke’s hand. “I’ve heard all about you, but the dates on when you actively joined the guys in Gotham were murky, and since I couldn’t ask Nightwing or Robin – wait, does that mean Tim’s no longer Robin? Why didn’t he say anything? Unless the history books got it wrong, in which case woah, sorry I said anything – anyway it was a bit of a tricky situation. Of course, I probably could have looked it up on the internet, but that feels like cheating y'know?”
Duke blinked several times. “Um, thanks, I guess? I didn’t really think anyone bothered with me.”
“Are you kidding?!” Kid Flash was literally bouncing at this point. “You’re one of the coolest bats! You patrol during the day, for one thing, plus your costume is pretty crash. Not to mention you’re literally the only meta human Batman has ever let stay in Gotham! Although Black Bat might be one, no one was ever really clear on that.”
“You’re a meta human?!” Beast Boy asked, shoving Kid Flash to the side. “Seriously? And you work with Batman?! How does that work?”
Duke laughed. “Yes, I am a meta. No, Black Bat isn’t. She’s just awesome. And I was Batman’s protege before I gained my powers. When we found out, we kinda just rolled with it.”
“Translation,” Nightwing added, “He grumbled a bit before deciding that the rule only really covers Green Lantern.”
“Didn’t it always though?” Duke asked his brother.
Nightwing laughed. “Probably. He never seemed to keen on Superman either, to be honest.”
Duke frowned. “Wait, then why did he stop by for tea last week?”
“Wait, he did?! Why wasn’t I invited?!”
Duke shook his head and tsked. “Downside to no longer living at the house dude, that’s all I’m saying.”
The Team was looking back and forth at the exchange. “Wait,” Blue Beatle said, holding up his hands. “Superman comes over for tea, at Batman’s house, which you live in, but Nightwing doesn’t anymore?”
“Yup,” Both of the bats said.
Blue Beatle blinked, then nodded. “Alright then.”
“What are your powers,” Wonder girl asked.
“Light stuff, basically,” Duke said. “I can see in several different light spectrums, lets me do a bunch of stuff, like limited x-ray vision. I can also 'replay’ what happens in rooms, due to the light residue. I can also see a few seconds into the future.”
Everyone blinked at him.
“Not to mention you can control shadows!” Nightwing added helpfully.
Duke cringed. “Yeah, but that’s new. I’m not really familiar with it.”
Everyone stared, except Kid Flash, who just continued bouncing.
“Alright,” Nightwing said after a moment, “Let’s get on with the briefing.”
*****
The mission was simple: Infiltrate a high rise owned by Lex Luther in San Francisco, and retrieve information that was being stored on a hard drive. Said drive was only going to be present in the tower for twelve hours, nine of which Lex was also present. Hence the need for a small team, and the precise timing.
The infiltration was scheduled at 1400 hours, after Lex had left for lunch, and before the buyer of the information had arrived. Duke had been given the plans of the building, and multiple suggested strategies. One of these strategies was modified by Duke, and was what led Beast Boy (who insisted Duke call him Garth) turning into a fly in order to get through the vents.
“Are you sure I can’t go for something more fun?” Garth asked on the way to San Francisco, “Like a snake? Maybe even a monkey!”
“No,” Duke had said, “A fly is the best option, it’s the least likely to set off motion sensors.” At the disappointed face, however, Duke conceded, “You can be a monkey when you open the side entrance.” Garth had whooped in triumph, and Duke had to crack a smile.
Once Beast Boy had managed to get into the building, he made his way to the main security center and dismantled whatever detection systems Lex had in place, allowing Kid Flash (Bart, Duke learned) and Signal himself to make their entrance. The trio made their way to Lex’s office, only needing to take out a single guard, and retrieve the hard drive from one of Lex’s many (There were like thirty, sheesh) safes in the room. The cracking of said safe took longer than initially planned, but Duke managed to hack the system in time for the guard change. Boy was he glad Tim taught him how to hack.
With the target in hand, they made their way out to the back alley, where Blue Beatle (Jaime, he said his name was) and Wonder Girl (Cassie) were keeping watch. They were almost caught at one point, but Duke saw the guards coming and quickly shoved his teammates into a closet, along with himself. In the end, two guards who were lagging behind on their shift change intercepted them, but Blue Beetle knocked one out, and Wonder Girl got the other.
“Took you long enough,” Cassie said with a grin when she saw the trio returning.
Duke grinned right back at her. “You have any trouble?”
“If these two count as trouble,” She replied, kicking one of the goons.
“Sounds crash!” Kid Flash replied. “How about we get out of here before something blows up?”
Duke frowned. “Why would anything blow up?”
Everyone turned and gave him a look. “You’d be surprised,” Blue Beetle said.
“Better not jinx it, then.” Duke spook, and the team made their escape.
*****
“ - Complete insubordination! Do you know what you did?!”
Duke paused at the doors, looking in on the meeting room where he and the others were supposed to go for their debriefing. Turns out, the other part of the Team was already there, and being chewed out by Batman himself.
“This was supposed to be a covert mission , and you go and get the entire building blown up!” Huh, they weren’t kidding about explosions, Duke thought. “You clearly disobeyed the mission parameters, opting instead to joyride with the robots you were sent to destroy! Do you know how many lives you put in danger?!”
“It wasn’t our fault!” Tim Drake, better known as Red Robin (Though Duke thought Bart mention that he still went as Robin here? Boy, Damian was gonna be pissed!) told Batman. “The robots got activated remotely, and dragged us along. In the end, they self destructed!”
Batman sighed, and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like “I let Kaldur go one one vacation …”
“You can at least acknowledge we got the job done.” Tim said, and Bruce sighed once more. He looked so tired, and Duke could barely hold in a grin. From the scared faces of everyone else in the room, Duke gathered that no one else found it quite so funny.
“Yes, you got it done,” Batman conceded, “But your methods are far from acceptable! All of you need to reevaluate how you-”
“It’s almost kinda funny when I’m not the one being chewed out!” Duke turned to find Jaime and Garth standing in the door beside him, the latter of whom had spoken.
“Oh it’s definitely funny,” Duke replied. “I’ve had front row seats to these types of things since I joined the bats. I”m almost never the one in trouble. Surprised it’s Tim, though. Usually Nightwing.”
Both of their eyes widened. “ Nightwing is the one in trouble?”
“Yup. We – the other bats and I – have a running bet on how long the rants last. B’s best record is two hours, fifty minutes, thirty-seven seconds. It was right after Nightwing spray painted the bat-suit glittery pink, though I’m pretty sure Spoiler helped.”
Jaime opened and closed his mouth for a few moments. “Wow.”
Just then, Bart and Cassie showed up. “Are we late for the debriefing?” The latter asked.
Duke shrugged and pointed into the room, where Batman had moved onto a rant about aerial combat and unneeded fuel. “Nope, There’s is running late.”
The group turned and went back to viewing the scene before them. After another fifteen minutes, Batman said. “I have another team coming in soon for debriefing, so let’s hope that they were at least partially competent.”
Duke thought that would be as good a place as any to make an entrance, so he brought his fist to his mouth and coughed a bit.
Everyone turned slowly to find the grinning group standing at the doorway.
“Signal,” Batman said, and Duke knew he was relieved, “Did you just get back?”
“We’ve been standing here for twenty minutes, B. Seriously, your lecturing skills have not gone unpracticed.”
Batman sighed, putting his fingers on the bridge of his nose, not a sight unfamiliar to Duke, but from the gaping mouths, Duke was pretty sure no one else thought anything about the exchange was normal. “Please tell me your mission went well?”
“Without a hitch,” Duke replied grinning. “We got in and out easily. Had a tad of trouble with hacking the safe, but we got it open.” Duke turned to Tim, “Thanks for those lessons last week, they really paid off.”
Tim grinned “Welcome. Wanna continue when we get home?”
Duke nodded. “Sounds good.”
“Were there any complications?” Batman growled.
“We took out three guards quietly, and avoided two more that I saw coming right before they turned a corner, but other than that, no.”
Batman glared suspiciously down at Duke, who only smiled. “Any explosions?”
Duke frowned. “What is it with this team and explosions?” Batman glared some more, “Calm down B, no explosions. Everything was quiet.”
Batman nodded. “Good job, Signal. You dropped off the target with Nightwing, I assume?” At Duke’s nod, he continued, “You get head back to Gotham, then. Finish your report in the cave, and finish up your patrol if you want. I’ll make a note on the file if we ever need you again.” He paused, and looked critically at Duke. “Would you?”
Duke looked back at Garth, Jaime, Bart, and Cassie, who were all nodding their heads furiously. “Sure,” Duke said, “Why not?”