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Jarro had not had a normal childhood. To start, he was raised by a literal billionaire, Bruce Wayne, which would throw anyone for a loop. But that wasn’t the only strange thing about his upbringing. His Dad was also the vigilante hero known as the Batman. As such, Jarro was exposed to many different heroes growing up. He had grown so close to many of them, in fact, that he fondly referred to them as Aunt or Uncle. (Uncle Hal was his favorite, but he would never tell Dad that.) His upbringing eventually influenced him to pick up the mantle of Robin.
That , however, still was not the strangest thing about his childhood. No, the strangest thing is probably that he was a sentient off-shoot of the Giant Villainous Space Starfish named Starro, who had tried to destroy the world before being defeated by the Justice League. And being an offshoot to such a big Bad-y, Jarro was raised in careful confinement in a jar at the Hall of Justice before Batman recognized his sentience and took him in as his child.
Now, to Jarro, none of that seemed strange at the time. It simply, was. His life had begun violently, surrounded by heroes and villains and secret space missions. And it continued that way for a long time. But he grew and matured, and went on patrol together with Dad more and more often. And he was the Best Robin, he knew it, but he also began to realize that maybe who he was and how he grew up wasn’t normal. That, maybe, he wasn’t normal.
Jarro, however, was very confident in who he was. He had to be, after all, because there was no doubt in his mind that he held the position of Best Robin, and to hold that position was to have a healthy dose of self confidence. And yet, he was still forced to hide who he was. His Dad didn’t say that to Jarro, but he couldn’t help but notice that he was being confined to either the Manor or the Hall of Justice outside of patrol. And, Dad would always gently turn down Jarro’s attempts of bonding with him with an activity outside of the Manor, reminding him that they couldn’t leave. Jarro was still confined to a jar, it was just larger now.
He understood, or, at least, he thought he did, but it was still so isolating despite his Dad’s best efforts to spend time with him within the Manor or scheduling extra patrol time so Jarro could experience more of the outside world. He wanted to see where his Aunts and Uncles lived, he wanted to see all the unique places they travelled to, and, most importantly, he wanted to stretch his wings and fly, like every Robin before him was able to do.
So, he began to train. If there was one thing that Jarro knew how to do, it was how to train. He knew that he would have to blend into society if he was ever going to be allowed to even exist outside of the Manor or the Hall of Justice. Jarro knew that he had latent psychic abilities, his everyday use of telepathy was evidence of that, but he was unsure of how to do anything more powerful as their usage was discouraged by his Dad. So he approached Uncle J’onn instead, asking for guidance.
Dad didn’t necessarily approve, but Jarro thought that he understood his son’s reasoning. Dad wasn’t trying to stop him, at least.
Months passed with Jarro restricting himself from doing anything except psychic training. Even though he had the natural instinct for it, he was still unsure of the extent of his powers and, if he were to want to become like his sire, Starro, then he would not have to worry about finesse. But, he wanted to blend into society, not dominate it as domination went against all Robin codes.
Eventually, Jarro mastered the technique of, what he called, projecting. Essentially, he created a psychic net that encompassed a certain radius in which he could implant simple ideas, such as: Jarro looks like a human person and not the space starfish he actually is. The implantation process was actually quite invasive as it literally altered people’s memories and perceptions of a person or event, so Jarro kept the explanations minimal when he told his Dad about this ability. After all, the process was very un-Robin-like and he was surely the Best Robin, even in using it.
For Jarro’s first true test run of his ability, that is to say not practicing on his Aunts and Uncles, he chose New York, New York. It was a lofty goal, sure, but Jarro did choose it for a couple reasons. 1) If his test failed, Native New Yorkers wouldn’t even blink an eye at a small alien. And 2) The Hall of Justice’s entrance was located there, making his ‘escape’ easier. After all, if his disguise did work, then people would just assume he was a tourist walking out the front door. (Of course, Jarro could have escaped and done his testing anywhere. Of course he could! He was the Best Robin after all, it was just… easier this way. More efficient.)
He pictured who he wanted to look like in his mind before expanding his mental ‘net’ to ensnare the unassuming minds around him, molding their perception of him to his liking. He chose to look like the previous Robins, fixing himself with dark hair and striking blue eyes. He also made himself look tall- his height was a bit of a sore spot as he was less than a foot tall.
Once his projection radius was set, Jarro took his first steps into the busy New York City streets, and it worked! No one was giving him the looks that he would have surely received were his appearance to be that of a starfish. Jarro felt what he could only describe as freedom. Sure, he had flown as Robin and overlooked the streets of Gotham from above, and that was a type of freedom in and of itself, but being able to walk with total anonymity was something else entirely. He walked the streets a bit and enjoyed the park before heading back to the Hall of Justice, just enjoying being outside of the jar for a bit.
After his first brief outing, he created a name and identity for himself. He called himself Neal Caffrey. As Neal, Jarro became more and more bold, leaving the Hall for longer periods of time and exploring further. His Dad taught him a lot about human society, but Jarro was still young and, truly, there was no need for him to delve deeply into a subject he was not going to be able to use. But now, he was experiencing society firsthand and learning some of the intricacies of how it was run.
Everything revolved around paper. More specifically, it revolved around money, which was only given value because some old dead guy’s face was printed on it. Jarro knew about money before because of his escapades as Robin, but he didn’t realize that it was used in everyday life as commonly as it was. He just assumed that people who robbed banks did so because the money was valuable, like gold. But apparently everyone had money. It greatly confused Jarro. Why would people work menial jobs to earn just a small portion of this paper, or why would they steal something that was, in fact, just ink on paper.
It just seemed silly to Jarro. If this was something so important to the function of society, then people should just manufacture it themselves. Maybe the process was just too difficult? But then, why was there so much of it in circulation?
His next few trips were spent collecting and testing the materials he needed to make money and learned along the way that there were all sorts of different types of valuable paper. He gathered all the necessary materials to make one called the ‘Atlantic Bond’ which he found pleasing to his eye. It took him a few weeks to get everything matched up right, but by the end he had a perfect creation of an Atlantic Bond, which he turned in for the more common and tradable paper.
After this whole process, Jarro could understand why people chose to do easier jobs for monetary compensation rather than create it themselves.
Money in hand, Jarro told his Dad that he wanted to move out and explore the world on his own for a bit. Dad cried for a good long while, hugging him and making him promise to call and visit the Manor. Robin, he reassured, would be waiting for him unless he decided to be someone else. There was definitely not a tear in Jarro’s eye.
With Jarro’s newly formed skill of making money, he rented out an apartment as his ‘base of operations’ for his choice in career. He also met some people who admired his skills and showed him different bonds and currencies to make. Gaining all this knowledge and skill really made Jarro understand why more people weren’t making money and working for it instead, it was definitely not simple. But, as the Best Robin he was able to master anything.
Jarro started making foreign currencies and travelling the world with his compatriots, who were called Mozzie and Kate. He enjoyed their company as he funded trips all across Europe and Asia while they worked for some international sales company. He didn’t mind that they were gone for long periods of time, however, because he got to see and experience everything he was missing in life- bustling cities, sprawling countrysides, quaint suburbs- he got to see them all. And everything was good for a while.
Until they made their way back to New York. Kate had gotten herself into some kind of trouble. Jarro wasn’t sure what it was exactly, but he wasn’t going to let his friend be in danger. So when she called him for help, he answered. Mozzie insisted that something about the situation wasn’t right, but what kind of Robin would he be if he didn’t answer a call of distress? It turned out that he was just an unobservant Robin.
The first week Jarro spent in prison was jarring. He was more shocked than anything. He truly hadn’t realized that what he had been doing was against the law. Manufacturing money was an actual career, there were people who did that for a living, but they weren’t doing it for their own gain. They created bills and bonds to be distributed to the population as a whole and were employed by the government. They were also carefully monitored to make sure they weren’t taking home the money they created.
Researching this led Jarro down a rabbit hole of laws that existed that he was more unfamiliar with. Most of these were of the White Collar Variety.
If he was to be the Best Robin, he needed to be well versed in all things illegal, regardless of their outward appearance. As Robin, Jarro felt that it was important that he didn’t just understand the legal side of things, but also the criminal perspective. So, Jarro stayed in prison which allowed him to get to know his cellmates and their crimes; who better to learn crimes from than those that committed them.
Jarro almost felt bad for humans, as he began his formal education of the law. He spent weeks, months, years, trying to understand everything. The law books he read were more black and white than the people that he talked to, but everything basically boiled down to, everything was a matter of opinion and that everybody was just expected to know what was ok and what wasn’t ok in the eyes of the law. It was asinine, but somehow life went on within this society.
Still, Jarro felt ashamed of himself; how could he have claimed the title of ‘ Best Robin’ when he was clearly so oblivious to the constructs of the society he swore to protect. He spent 3 years learning everything that he could while staying in prison. He understood that he committed crimes and needed to serve time for that; he wasn’t about to be hypocritical. After he had learned the intricacies of the law, however, he began to get restless.
He shouldn’t be sitting here in a cell still, now that he understood what he had done wrong. Escaping was an option, after all he could change his appearance at will, should he choose. So he left. He decided to challenge himself and escape without the use of his psychic abilities; it wouldn’t do to get rusty. It was still ridiculously easy to get out; No wonder the Gotham Rogues always broke out. He should mention the total lack of security in these places to B, of course that would be admitting to him that he had been in prison for the last few years, which was something he wanted to avoid at all costs. Knowing him, he would just be put back into the confinement of a jar. One prison to another.
Jarro made his way comfortably into the city and went back to his old apartment. No one had moved in after him, even after all this time. Jarro suspected that Mozzie, or maybe even the traitorous Kate, had kept up with the rent, using the apartment as a safe house.
After some sleuthing, he determined it was Kate. She was still lugging around that wine bottle with her. Chances were she was still using this apartment, or at least had been recently. Jarro hoped that law enforcement caught up to her- maybe he could help law enforcement catch up to her.
After a couple hours, he heard someone break into his apartment. Agent Peter Burke, the man who initially arrested him. It was hard not to resent the man who locked him up for years of his life, but Jarro couldn’t be too angry. The man was just doing his job and it taught him some valuable lessons along the way. Maybe he could work with him to catch these types of invisible criminals.
Jarro was a little miffed that a simple escape from prison was worth another four years of prison. If anything he should have been given a medal for helping shore up security instead of being punished, but even after all his study, laws rarely made sense. It hardly mattered, though. Jarro wasn’t planning on spending that time in prison. He had a proposal for Agent Peter Burke, one that would be difficult to refuse. And if that didn’t pan out, then he would revert to his original plan which was a simple identity change.
Peter Burke was an interesting person. He was intrigued with Jarro and what he had to offer, which was promising, but he also reacted to everything with suspicion. Apparently, he had been under the assumption that Jarro and Kate were dating, which was completely incorrect. In fact, it made no sense at all. Jarro reproduced asexually, there was no need for a sexual partner, not that Peter knew that. Because of that, though, Peter believed that Jarro was searching for Kate. He was incredibly astute to realize that, but it was not for the assumed reasons. Jarro wanted revenge, not a relationship.
It hardly mattered, though. Jarro was able to prove his skills as Neal Caffrey, convicted bond forger and master conman, enough to get him released into the custody of the FBI to continue his work as Robin, just on a more daytime nonviolent basis. Jarro found that he didn’t mind. Peter reminded him of the good Gotham Commissioner Jim Gordon, and it made him feel slightly homesick.
He was a strong presence, that was strict when it came to the law, but had a kind heart and, when Jarro wasn’t getting into the required Robin shenanigans, was a friend to him. Jarro had never had a friend before, not someone like Peter. Sure, he had his family, but they were family, it was different. They were saddled with him because he just happened to off shoot in their direction from a genocidal space alien. They didn’t choose him. And the two friends he had thought he had had betrayed him. Kate sold him to the wolves and Mozzie disappeared, leaving him to fend for himself when he needed someone the most.
But Peter… Well at first, Peter had been nothing more than his handler. He kept Jarro on the straight and narrow and utilized his vast array of skills and knowledge. It made Jarro feel good, wanted, and useful in a way that he hadn’t felt since he wore the R. It was nice and validating and Jarro was fine with their relationship never going past that. Neal Caffrey was, after all, a criminal.
Yet somehow it became more. Case after case, Peter became closer to him, inviting him over to watch the game or to enjoy dinner with him and El. It was nice to feel so wanted. Even with his Dad, there was always a disconnect. With Peter and El, he always felt like there was nothing between them. They had become so close, in fact, that Jarro had considered taking down his Neal Caffrey disguise to show them the real him. The initial reason he declined to do so was having to admit that he had never actually tasted any of El’s food. He ate small bits of the planet’s magnetic energy instead. It didn’t cross his mind until days after his initial thought that discovering a close friend was a piece of a galaxy domineering space alien might not be accepted.
His tentative friendship with the agent, however, was just that, tentative. Jarro and Peter held a lot of different ideologies, and not just because Peter thought Jarro was a criminal. The tension was always there, but it didn’t rise until Jarro pushed the issue of finding Kate.
He still held a grudge against her and spent most of his free time obsessively searching for her. Peter pushed for him to let go, but he didn’t understand. She was a known criminal- he knew she was a criminal for the simple fact that she used him as a scapegoat. And yet, Peter had no interest in pursuing her. He focused instead on the files on his desk, on the mortgage fraud that came over his desk. Ignoring the someone who was doing real world damage now. That someone was also a person who wronged Jarro. (That wasn’t the reason he wanted to go after her though.)
Kate was actively damaging society, and yet she was given a free pass. It just didn’t add up to Jarro at all. Personal feelings didn’t belong in the field, that was something that he learned many years while he was in the field with Batman. Personal feelings led to biased decisions and mistakes being made. It was an integral Robin lesson that had been ingrained into him since his first night flying. And yet, Peter was allowing his bias of what he thought Jarro would do in the field to allow crimes to go unpunished. It was unfair and unprofessional.
And along that same vein, there should be a triage for crimes. That was how the Justice League operated as well. They didn’t care that a bank was being robbed if there was an active alien invasion. Which really made Jarro think. He had done time for his crimes that Peter had caught him for fair and square. He didn’t hold that over the man because he had just been doing his job, but his job was to hunt down people on the lowest of crimes committed. What did a couple thousand dollars forged have compared to murder, to human trafficking, to selling drugs to kids. Peter was the traffic cop of the FBI.
The FBI could use updated protocols, but Jarro didn’t know who he could speak to about that matter. It also didn’t help that Jarro knew that if the White Collar Crimes were ignored in favor of bigger fish, then White Collar activity would pick up. Even still, the balance should be skewed differently, at the very least. How they were doing it now was hardly efficient.
Not just the catching of criminals bothered him either. The sentencing of crimes was ridiculous as well. Guilty people were set free while innocents were imprisoned. How could this still be happening in a society filled with psychics who could, quite literally, find mental proof of the crime in question being committed.
He watched people get shot at and even die, but the only charges they could be convicted of was fraud. Peter would always remind Jarro that Al Capone was only able to be taken off the streets because of tax evasion, which fell under the White Collar umbrella, but it enraged Jarro instead of reassuring him. And even at that, why couldn’t that man have been sentenced for his gang crimes. The law was just a game of who-done-it that was skewed in the perpetrators favor.
Peter, of course, disagreed. He believed in the ‘importance of solid evidence’ and that every person was ‘innocent until proven guilty’. Jarro thought that, even taking the psychics out, it was easy to prove innocence and much, much harder to prove guilt. Did Jarro mention that there were now psychics readily available?
Despite their… differences when doling out justice, Peter and Jarro did get along well. Their closure rate was higher than any team ever recorded in the FBI before and they just seemed to mesh with each other. Their differences balanced each other perfectly, creating an unstoppable force that was to be reckoned with, no matter the situation. The slight bickering and occasional tensions just became a part of the norm in the office.
Kate was, eventually, brought to justice. It peeved Jarro that, within the confines of this broken system, she was only charged with theft, resulting in the minimum sentence of two years. Jarro knew, knew, that she deserved more, but he was hoping to revisit that conversation closer to her release. Right now, he has active criminals to catch. He wouldn’t let another Kate go under the radar. If he did, then how could he possibly claim the title of ‘ Best Robin’.
In fact, Jarro felt that he was being neglectful in his duties as ‘ Best Robin’. If he truly held that title, then there should be no crime at all in the world. Jarro had the means to prevent crime all together, something that none of the other Robins could ever claim. Sure they stopped crime as it happened, but if there was anything he learned from prison and working at the FBI, it was that crime was always happening. Sure, some things weren’t as serious, but crime was always happening, and the agency and forces like the cops or the Justice League were only plugs, trying to keep the inevitable dam of society from breaking.
He was the only one who could create peace on Earth.
This thought boggled around in his mind for several weeks, burning stronger and brighter with every criminal that was caught for their crimes. He could be the one to make the world happy and stress free. He could be the one who brought paradise to the plane of mortal persons. And who was he to deny a lifetime of freedom, peace, and happiness.
He didn’t want to screw up his chance though. If he was going to free mankind, then he needed to do so in one fell swoop. If he didn’t, then the people he had already brought peace to would be vulnerable to those he hadn’t. So he experimented. As an off-shoot of Starro, Jarro knew that it was possible for him to separate into tiny pieces dubbed spores and remotely control those spores to do his bidding. Starro, of course, only used them for nefarious purposes, like conquering worlds, but Jarro saw the greater potential for them. They would herald in the New Age.
The spores came naturally to him. Jarro believed that it had something to do with his instinctive purpose and his chance to use them appeared just days later. The Legion of Doom attacked New York City with another attempt at World Domination. And the Justice League rushed in to try to preserve society. The FBI, as the closest law enforcement entity, began helping to evacuate civilians.
What they didn’t realize is that society was already broken. The existence of the Legion of Doom was just proof that there were criminals who were not caught and allowed to fester until they infected the whole system.The reactive methodology was no longer going to work. Nor would it need to, not while Jarro held the title of Best Robin. They were going to be preventative from now on. Jarro glanced at Peter, who was lying on the ground, the wind had gotten knocked out of him, debilitating him for a moment as the League flew ahead to try to stop the Legion from whatever nefarious concoctions they came up with this time.
Jarro however, just saw violence being reacted to with more violence. The League, his family , were just a group of violent criminals in a gang war with other groups of violent criminals. They, too, would need to be brought to justice. And if even the Justice League was capable of crime, then that meant crime was an inherent human trait. It was ok though, Jarro would take care of it.
Jarro dropped his Neal Caffrey persona, needing his full concentration to defeat, or at least subdue both the Legion of Doom and the Justice League. Peter, who was still trying to recover, glanced over just in time to watch Neal Caffrey dissolve and Jarro’s true form take its place. And he watched Jarro grow and grow and grow until he was twice as tall as the average person, and very much a pink and blue Starfish.
Peter made a noise of surprise, but seemed unable to actually vocalize what he was feeling. That was alright, though. Jarro was sure that if Peter had turned out to be a cyborg with a human heart or a werewolf who only howled at the sun, then he would be pretty shocked too. Jarro felt that their relationship would only have strengthened in this moment if Peter were an alien in disguise, so that was ruled out quite immediately.
"Shh, Peter, trust me. Everything will be alright," Jarro reassured him. And once Jarro’s spores were in place, everything would be alright. He would make sure of it.
The Justice League made no move to stop him as when he released his spores; they most likely believed that he was just expediting the processes of taking down the Legion so as to minimize the damage caused and, well, they weren’t wrong, exactly. He was just going to take care of all the other problems conveniently placed in front of him as well.
The spores settled onto the biggest threats first before additionally settling onto the faces of all those around him: Diana, Cruz, Jones, all of them were soon under the influence of Jarro’s spores. They screamed for a second before going still. Jarro felt bad, but he knew that he wasn’t causing the hosts any pain, they just were fighting his spores and would calm soon enough.
Jarro bent down and looked at Peter before projecting his image of Neal Caffrey into Peter’s mind. It would calm him, seeing a familiar face, even if it was a false one. Before placing the spore on Peter’s face himself.
~~~~~
It wasn’t as lonely as one might think being the only non-spored being on the planet. There were infinite experiences that Jarro could delve into, plus he was always surrounded by his favorite people. Jarro spent a lot of time with Dad in his fantasy, but Jarro didn’t truly belong there. Dad lived with his parents, taking care of them in their old age while raising his children. His fantasy was domestic bliss.
Occasionally he would visit his Aunts’ and Uncles’ fantasies. Uncle Clark was visiting Krypton, Aunt Diana was training new Amazon Warriors in Themyscira, Uncle Arthur was enjoying clean oceans and peace between his two races. There was no need for crime when everything that you ever desired was yours. His favorite fantasy to visit, however, was Peter’s. The dynamic duo of Neal Caffrey and Peter Burke continued to solve White Collar crimes together and ended the day with a cold beer, his beautiful wife, and a guaranteed win for the Yankees.
Sometimes, Jarro missed everyone in the ‘real’ world, but just because each individual was experiencing life independently, didn’t make it any less real for them.
And there was peace. Jarro truly was the Best Robin ever.