Work Text:
When Lonnie Machin frantically opens the window of the insurance office, he can see his father’s expression. Like he was expecting and dreading this at the same time.
“Dad, Dad I fucked up.”
Mike hurries over to the window Lonnie entered through, slamming it shut and frantically pulling down the blinds as well. He pulls the blinds for all of the other windows as he almost shouts at Lonnie, tone urgent and vaguely horrified, “Take off your costume– now!”
Lonnie does as ordered, struggling to pull off the crimson cloak with the mannequin head still attached. His dad helps him after locking the staircase door and the fabric pulls at his long hair and scalp. It stings, but both Mike and Lonnie are too frantic to care much about a couple of strands of hair.
Free of the costume, a wave of vertigo hits Lonnie and he raises a hand to the side of his head and his fingers come away with blood. He remembers that Batman had punched the mannequin head and narrowly missed knocking off the golden mask. Instead, the mannequin’s cage had banged into his skull from the force.
He quickly wipes it off his dark red sweats, hoping his dad hadn’t noticed. He doesn’t.
Mike, with Anarky’s cloak under one arm and one hand on his son’s shoulder, begs, “Hide, Lonnie, please . There’s a janitor’s closet around the corner and don’t come out. No matter what, okay?”
He feels awful and embarrassed and frazzled, standing in front of his father in the costume’s matching underclothes and the mannequin head he rigged up is in his hands. He’s leaving his dad to confront Batman , alone, when Lonnie was the one to bring the Bat down on them.
“... Okay.”
He feels confused too, watching Mike pull off his grey blazer and put on the bright red cloak. And he’s about to ask why, but–
There’s a shout from downstairs and heavy footsteps running up the stairs to the floor his dad’s cubicle is in and Lonnie sprints to the closet and he feels like he is damning his father.
He can hear the staircase door being kicked open with a bang just as he closes the closet door. He pushes himself behind the janitor’s cart – nose full of the smell of dirty water and cleaning supplies – and covers his mouth.
If he breathes as quietly as he can, he can hear his dad and Batman speaking, muffled as it is.
“--give up, Batman. I’m Anarky,” Mike says weakly. Then, as if filled with a renewed vigor, he shouts, “And I’m… I’m damn proud of it too! The system is corrupted and I’ve only… only exposed the parasites for the public to see!”
Oh .
Lonnie’s eyes burn as he realizes what his dad is doing and tears spill over onto his hand.
“I have the files on you here; I’m sure you want to keep those away from the public’s eye,” he says to Batman, a false smugness in his voice.
He listens silently as Batman arrests his dad, arrests Anarky. He counts to 300 and peeks out of the closet. The insurance office is dead silent and he opens one of the blinds. Lonnie watches as Commissioner Gordon helps Mike (handcuffed and dressed in the red cloak) into the police car.
His father looks up and he might be smiling reassuringly. Lonnie’s too far to see.