Chapter Text
There was a screeching sound, and then the sound of someone kicking at tiny metal and then the squeak squeak squeak of small wheels.
Jason raised his eyebrow and looked towards the door to the hallway. He was sitting on a couch in the library with Cass in the seat next to him and Barbara in her wheelchair on his right.
"Ow. That was my toe!" Steph's voice called.
"Payback." Tim replied flatly.
Jason looked over to Barbara. She met his gaze and shrugged. They all had stuff to do in their hands. Barbie had her laptop. Cass had a picture anthology of dance movements Jason had bought her for her last birthday. And Jason had Dick's favorite book, as far as he knew, open on his lap. He closed the book and made to get up but Cass made a disgruntled noise. He sighed. She had been lightly pressed against him, but he didn't think it was so much to be considered leaning. She leaned harder as if to say "stay" without saying anything.
Cass hadn't been talking as much since Dick died. They weren't as close as she and Tim and Steph, but Dick had still made time for her. He'd made time for everyone, truly. And they were already hurting from Damian before… well, before.
"Door on the right." A pause. "I meant my right!"
"Well then you should have said that!"
Tim was visible now, dragging one side of those large detective boards they had. Jason guessed Steph was on the other end. They were trying to maneuver it into the room. Jason thought about getting up to help, but Cass sensed that and leaned forcefully. Ok. Message received. He'd stay put.
Finally, the board, which was covered by one of those big white sheets they had in some of the unused rooms to cover unused furniture— were they called dust covers? Nevermind. Not important— made it inside the room. Steph let go of her end and went back into the hallway. He could hear her shuffling as she fixed the hallway runner. Tim pulled the board the rest of the way towards them while she worked. Tim was kicking the breaks on the wheels into position when Steph finished and returned to the room, shutting the heavy library door behind her with a hum. She locked it and flounced over to stand in front of the board and slightly to the left of the seated group.
"Alright." She clapped her hands together, looking over her three adult not-actually siblings and ignoring Tim for now. Jason leaned back from the gleam in her eyes. Her face had recently been cleaned, but her eyes were still red and puffy, and there was fire in there. Cass hummed a concerned note. "We've brought you all here today—"
"We were already here?" Jason interrupted. "It's fam-"
"Shush. We've brought you all here today to discuss a very important topic." Steph said. She waved a hand behind her. Tim took that as his cue and yanked the cloth off the board, revealing a conspiracy board complete with different colors of string but not the signature red.
The three not in the know stared blankly, and then actually started comprehending what they were looking at.
In the center was a big picture of Lex Luthor with devil horns drawn on and x's over his eyes.
Steph and Tim gave them a moment to study it, and then Steph took a step forward. She flung her left hand back to point to Lex. "This man, this this asshole took our big brother away. He killed him. And he's back to looking pretty in the press and getting away with cold blooded murder!"
"To be fair-" Babs started.
"No! We do not need to be fair. We need to settle this. Justice!"
"Steph," Babs sighed. Oh. Yep. Those were tears welling in Steph's eyes again.
"He's evil." Tim said, quietly. "And he's bought his way out of prison multiple times."
Steph dashed her forearm against her eyes and jabbed a finger at another point on the board, a still from the mask footage Batman had allowed them to find, it only had the normal three layers of security, of Dick in the murder machine. Luthor had a hand over Dick's mouth and nose, suffocating him. Their brother's blue eyes were full of pain, fear, and resignation, arguably the worst part. "Luthor killed him. He killed Dick. But Dick wouldn't want us to kill him back. Dick's not like that."
Well, Jason felt that sentiment was a punch to the gut.
"Dick doesn't want people to die for him. Especially in revenge. So we came up with another plan!"
Jason studied the conspiracy board. His eyes flicked between various crimes of Luthor's and suggestions and also their own influences and resources were on there too. Wow. Timmy had put a lot of work into this. There were some Steph scribbles up there too, but the majority was Tim's neat but fast handwriting. Jason gave Steph a nod, and shifted his attention to Tim.
Tim took a deep breath and began on the plan, pointing to segments of the board where the emphasis was.
"Luthor has bought his way out of prison multiple times. In order to do that, he needs money. Right now, he has it. So he's been getting away with bribes and corruption. And blaming Superman for Luthor's own actions. So, we need to hit him where it hurts. His assets.
"Babs. You and I will be on the electronics team. We're going after his money accounts, draining them, and donating them to charities so it'll be hard for him to get them back.
"Jason, you're on the underground. Roy Harper and Koriand'r have already responded they'd be willing to help, so they'll be your primary team as they're kind of already your primary team. My team: Conner, Bart, and Cassie, will be communications runners. They'll be giving you new locations to bust. I haven't talked to the Titans yet, but I imagine they'd be willing to aid in busts too if you need distractions or simulataneous busts.
"Cass, you're our shadow. You're a badass on your own. You'll be on surveillance. Shadow Luthor and see what his next moves are. Recruit whoever you think would be helpful. I suggest Raven.
"Steph is on distraction and Gotham duty. She's in charge of making sure B is distracted and Gotham doesn't combust while we're busy. The Birds of Prey have a 85% chance of helping unasked, but that goes up to 97.5% when approached and given the reasons. Steph, use whichever costume you like. Batwing and Batwoman are around somewhere and should be your primary backup, but I can come too if needed."
"Any questions?"
Jason and Babs exchanged looks before turning back to the teenagers.
"I have someone who can stand in for me in the Alley if needed. Would you like me to be the one to reach out to the Titans or Steph?"
Tim hesitated and flicked his eyes between them all. "I was planning to have Cassie do the asking. We're Bats. And they're Dick's team, not ours. She can rope in the O.G.s and they can decide who else to add."
Jason nodded his understanding.
"When start?" Cass asked softly.
Tim's mouth parted in his vicious gremlin smile. "We start now."