Chapter Text
Danny gave a satisfied smile as he finished painting the last dragon princess on his daughter's wall. His little sunrise was currently obsessed with dragon princesses and Lady knights. He blamed Dora who has been babysitting her for him the last couple weeks while he set up his clinic in Crime Alley. As he finished putting away the paints he heard his door open letting Jazz, who was in town to visit Dawn and him, into the apartment alongside his baby girl.
"Daddy is it done? Is it done?" Called out his little chaos gremlin.
"All done sunrise. It still has to finish drying so we can't touch it." Danny said unable to keep the smile off his face as he thanked his sister for helping keep an eye on her.
"It's no trouble Danny you know I love my little niece to the zone and back. Maybe you guys can come visit me up in Metropolis next time I could introduce you to my friend Kara." Jazz said her own softer smile stuck on her face as she came in with the bag of takeout that she had brought for dinner.
After dinner and saying goodbye to Jazz who was headed back to Metropolis so she could be at her practice for the coming week Danny and Dawn were getting everything ready for their nightly stroll in their ghost forms to help stabilize both of their cores. With a flash of twin white rings Dawn and Danny transformed Dawn in a cute little black dress with white highlights including what is now their family crest of a white D with a P inside and her now white hair in a pair of pigtails with little blob ghost shaped barrettes to keep her bangs out of her eyes. Danny's own specialized reverse pressure suit a stark contrast as its thick soles and helmet giving him an almost extra foot in height leaving his daughter only reaching his knee.
Dawn wasted no time in climbing onto a special harness on his back that let's him help spread his ghost powers to her as he turned invisible and intangible (some of the only powers he could use without having to leave his suit alongside flight and his cryokinesis) and quickly flew them to a random area of Gotham before dropping his invisibility and spreading his ghostly aura to about half of its maximum (about 1 block in any direction). Feeling that and knowing it was the sign that she was free to roam his little starlight hopped of his back and started skipping hear and there to explore their new home with childlike wonder.
This continued for a few blocks and started forming a small crowd of onlookers who were enjoying the chance to see the peaceful father daughter duo versus the more violent minded rouges and vigilantes. Soon Danny and Dawn noticed one of the more infamous citizens of Gotham Waylon Jones AKA Killer Croc who seemed to be passing through on his way back to the Hoods territory. With a delighted gasp his little starlight rushed over to him chattering a mile a minute. Waylon seeming a little overwhelmed at the lack of fear was halting but answering as best he could. Danny who thanks to his aura could tell Waylon would not hurt his little starlight was content to let this continue as long as he didn't seem overwhelmed until Dawn in her excitement started climbing on him without asking permission.
"Starlight."
Waylon Jones didn't know what to think. He wasn't used to kids not looking at him in fear though he figured with a father as intimidating as Big Daddy it wasn't to big a stretch. He answered all the questions he could though he kept an eye towards the behemoth in armor so that he would be able to tell if he was gonna suddenly attack him for talking to his kid (it might have been paranoia but Waylon knew what kind of reputation he has). He was so busy trying to watch her dad that he didn't notice when Starlight hopped up and clambered up his shoulder while chattering about an aunt and a dragon.
"Starlight."
Waylon only looked away for a second but that powerful voice shook him even though it wasn't a yell. As he turned to the armored man who's posture and changed from the relaxed way it was to a stern posture with crossed arms. As Starlight floated off of his shoulder (he didn't know the squirt could fly. Oh God what if her dad can to that was a horrific mental image) looking guilty. Her father didn't say another word but it seemed like he didn't need to As the contrite little girl turned back to Waylon.
"I'm sorry I sat on your shoulder without permission mister Jones. I just got so excited because you look so cool like a dragon man" The little girl looked remorseful as she apologized with her hands fiddling with the hems of her sleeves. Waylon took a moment to look at her pops and saw as he gave a thumbs up and shifted back to a more relaxed stance his body language clearly saying that it was exactly what he wanted her to do (how could a guy be so expressive in a full body suit)
"T's all right little bit I don't mind so long as your papa is ok with it."
The glowing toddler seemed to brighten up as she looked at her father for permission. The man waved her towards him and with a happy squeal the glowing child hopped back onto his shoulder and continued asking him all sorts of questions about everything and anything and Waylon couldn't help but smile right back his heart warming when the child and father alike didn't react to his teeth.
The conversation continued and Waylon found himself asking her questions right back about knights dragons magic and whatever other topic the little girl came up with as he grew more comfortable and noticed no signs that Big Daddy had any negative feelings about his precious daughter being so close to a monster like him. It was while he was distracted that his instincts honed from years living as a rouge in Gotham City caught a distinct sound of a safety pin being pulled from a grenade.
Croc wasted no time in grabbing that little girl and curling up around her refusing to let such a bright and innocent child be hurt. He barely wrapped himself around her before the deafening sound of an explosion rang out behind him.
Jason Todd was many things but one thing no one could say was that he was heartless. With a recent uptick in an anti-mutant group attacking Metas with physical differences in Gotham he was not about to let Killer Croc walk home without some sort of backup especially with how hard he had been working to leave the life of crime behind.
He was not expecting the newest metas in Gotham and was pleasantly surprised at the fearlessness of that little girl. He shouldn't have been surprised when Black Bat seemed to appear beside him, his sister had been expressing her concern about the peaceful duo. (Jason personally thinks Cass projecting about the one girl she is teaching at her ballet studio and how cute and talented she is)
"Didn't expect the little firefly to be so comfortable around so many teeth." He remarked trying to act like he hadn't jumped when his sister bumped his shoulder.
The two were so caught up in the sweet scene in front of them that they didn't notice the guys in the anti mutant paraphenailia rushing towards them until the grenade had already been thrown. Jason didn't hesitate he saw Waylon shielding the child and Big Daddy shifting out of his relaxed state before he leapt at the perpetrators knowing that if that bomb ended up hurting his friend or that child he was going to pull another duffel bag incident.
He and Cass made quick work of the bigot and his knucklehead buddies and turned to the scene of the explosion as the smoke and dust was starting to settle.
Jason was pulling medical supplies out of his jacket pocket only to freeze because right in front of the hunched over form of his friend was a wall of ice unharmed by the explosion and with a trail of it leading to Big Daddy who was on one knee with both hands on the concrete at the end of the trail of ice leaving no doubt who had made the shield.
As Jason watched Croc was uncurling from where he was willing to protect that child and Big Daddy was walking towards the idiots who put his kid in danger every step leaving frost in its wake and the viewport on his helmet glowing a bright blue.
Jason turned to look at the horrified bigots and could only say one thing with a chuckle in his voice....
"Well you're fucked."