Chapter Text
The digital clock in the corner of your screen read 11:37 PM. Great.
The lab report stared back at you, unimpressed. Twelve pages in, and it still looked like something a freshman had cranked out during a caffeine-fueled breakdown. The graphs made no sense, the analysis was barely coherent, and your grasp of the results was... tenuous, at best. But you had twenty minutes left. If you could just make it somewhat intelligible, maybe you'd scrape enough credit to pass.
You couldn't take Digital Control Systems Laboratory a third time. You would truly crash out.
You were reformatting a table title, fingers flying, when your laptop screen blinked once and went black. You froze. Held your breath. Prayed. Nothing.
The whirr of the fan that had been buzzing for hours went silent. You hadn’t even noticed the noise until it disappeared. No lights. No sound. No response.
"You have got to be kidding me."
And then you looked up.
Suddenly, the lab report, the due date, the crashing laptop, all of it dropped away like static. Because standing across from you, in your living room, was a man. A masked man. Dressed in black from head to toe. Arms crossed over a broad, armor-clad chest and your eyes were involuntarily drawn to the symbol emblazoned across it. A bat.
You screamed.
Seemed like the reasonable thing to do.
Then you grabbed the nearest pillow and hurled it at him.
“What the hell?? who are you?! What are you doing in my apartment?! How did you even- Get out! Get out! Are you insane?!”
You scrambled off the couch, heart pounding, backing up instinctively. Your shoulders bumped the fridge and that gave you a chance, amid the many other concerns, to realize that it wasn't humming, wasn't vibrating, wasn't making any noise at all. That was concerning, but was very low on the list of concerning things at the moment.
The man raised both hands slightly, palms open. A gesture of peace. Not that it helped. His expression didn’t change. Still scowling. Still somehow managing to look bored by your panic.
“Apologies for the intrusion, ma’am, try not be alarmed”
You blinked. “Ma’am? Alarmed? Oh my God, you break into my apartment dressed like Batman and ‘don’t be alarmed’ is your opener?”
He didn’t answer. Just took a half step back, cool as ever, and leaned against your dining table like he had every right to be there.
“Who are you?” you demanded again, more ice in your tone now. You clocked your phone on the couch, just a few feet away. Too far to lunge without him reacting first. Still, you inched closer, trying to look casual.
“That would be futile,” he said flatly, tracking your movements with his eyes. His voice had that clipped, private-school arrogance, sharp and slightly nasal. “Your phone. Your laptop. Your fridge. All non-functional. Everything electronic has been disabled.”
You stared at him. “Are you for real right now?”
He tilted his head just slightly, as if acknowledging the sarcasm, then looked away, bored, again, like none of this was worth his time.
“Why on Earth would my electronics be dead?”
He sighed as if answering you was some immense chore. “Try your phone for yourself if you don’t believe me.”
You grabbed it. Pushed the power button. Again. And again. Nothing. This wasn’t happening. Out of the corner of your eye, something flickered at the window, a shape, a face maybe? Watching?
You blinked and it was gone.
You turned back to the man. “Are you going to explain yourself?”
He didn’t even look at you.
“Or what? You’ll call the authorities?” He nodded toward your dead phone with mocking emphasis.
The condescension radiating off this guy was almost impressive. “You do not understand what’s coming,” he added, finally meeting your eyes. “And I assure you, you will want me here.”
“I can assure you in fact that I want you to leave right now”
No response. His gaze flicked to the window again, more wary this time.
You pushed, “I don’t care about whatever potential threat you think is ‘coming.’ Some dude dressed like Batman broke into my apartment. That’s my priority.”
“Dressed like Batman?” he echoed, glancing down at himself as if genuinely confused. “I am Batman.”
Oh no.
You stared at him. “...Are you messing with me or are you delusional?”
“Neither.” He pulled a bat-shaped gadget from his belt like that would prove something. It didn’t. You took a subtle step back.
“Batman. Really. As in Bruce Wayne, billionaire boo hoo orphan, that wears a cape and punches clowns and like any other criminals?”
His scowl twitched. You’d hit a nerve.
“Excuse me?” he said, and his tone had shifted to much more guarded. “What would any of this have to do with Bruce Wayne?”
You blinked. “Seriously? You bring up Batman and I mention Bruce Wayne. I’m not a comic book nerd but I know that’s hardly a leap.”
“...Comics?” His posture changed. Subtle, but noticeable. He straightened. Reassessing. “What do you mean…comics?”
“You know. Comic books. Movies. Media. Guys in capes. Punching things…”
He muttered something under his breath, you barely caught it, and looked down at one of his gadgets. It was silent, by his expression (at least the part you could see) it seemed his electronics were dead as well.
“I may have strayed further than I expected,” he muttered. He looked at the window again.
“Seriously. You need to leave.”
He didn’t budge.
“We need to stay calm,” he said instead. “What’s coming will feed on your turmoil.”
“...What’s going to what now? That needs some additional context please.”
“I cannot give you the details yet.”
“Oh, of course you can’t. But breaking into my apartment during a power outage is totally fine. Also my lab report! I need to do my lab report, do you realize it's due at midnight? I can’t afford to fail this class!” You were starting to hyperventilate. “Wait you think you're Batman right?” You cut off his protest, “-doesn't that mean you're like super smart, surely you know something about Digital Control Systems?”
He blinked slowly. “I’m not here to help you with your lab report.”
“Because you don't know how?” you goaded in a last ditch effort. The scowl somehow became even less impressed and more condescending. Figured it was worth asking, Jerk.
“I told you,” he said, coldly, “we need to stay calm.”
“Buddy, I’m not having a calm conversation with a burglar in Bat-ears.”
Something in the air changed. Micro-emotions flitted across his face far too fast to decipher before he seemed to come to a decision. Very deliberately, he reached up and removed the cowl. Black hair, tousled and damp with sweat, fell messily around his face. He looked younger than you expected, close to your age. Early 20s, maybe. His eyes met yours in challenge, a steely green not dull just calculating. His brow was furrowed and you suspected it had been since the moment he set foot in your apartment. That seemed to be his default expression.
You stared. “You just took off your mask. Wait. Are you going to kill me? Isn't that, like, a big no-no for both burglars and Batmen?”
He rolled his eyes. “Bruce Wayne hasn’t been Batman for some time. You don’t know who I am.”
You folded your arms. “And you just assume I couldn’t find out? Ever heard of reverse image search?”
He glanced pointedly at the dead phone on the table. “Planning on submitting a sketch?”
“Shut up. I could be a phenomenal artist.”
“I’ll take my chances.”
You tried not to notice that he was regrettably attractive under all that scowling. The room suddenly felt smaller.
“I have a boyfriend” you blurted.
A pause.
“I’m not here to seduce you,” he spoke firmly though there was a bit of hesitancy, as if he were unsure how that might be received. You snorted, somehow the idea that this man was afraid of a social faux pas after breaking into your apartment at midnight and seeming to set up shop made the whole thing slightly less terrifying and more ridiculous.
The temperature in the room dropped. You looked back at your laptop, only to find the screen had warped, just slightly, into something that looked like an open mouth. Grinning.
You slammed it shut. Your fingers reached instinctively for your phone again. Still blank.
“Obsessively checking your screens will not prevent what is already in play,” he said dryly.
“Gee, thanks, how ominous.”
He matched your scowl before resolutely turning to face out into the darkness again.
Outside, something past the window pane moved.