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If Danny was being honest, this should have been expected.
The earthquake that hit Gotham a few months after he, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz escaped Amity to go there? Typical Fenton luck. The fact that the government couldn't even be bothered to make sure that all the civilians actually made it out of the city before destroying every bridge out of Gotham? Practically on par. No way to get supplies or contact the outside world?
Literally their specialty at this point.
At least the police were actually helping this time, even if they were only acting in unofficial capacity. Danny had briefly considered joining the 'Blue Boys', but he knew where his skills were needed most. He'd catch glimpses of Batgirl every now and again, giving hope back to the civilians who suddenly found themselves in their own personal hellscape. The Bats were the symbol of this city; not Phantom.
But, luckily, Team Phantom was more than familiar with what was needed to keep civilians alive when the rest of the world pretended like they no longer existed.
It hadn't taken Danny long to realize that Gotham wasn't exactly known for its farmland and even with part of the population having been evacuated, there wasn't enough food to last for long. Especially since the rogues made it hard for normal civilians to get to the stores where most of the food was sitting.
"Sam?" Danny looked over at the girl and she gave a sigh.
"I'll look into it."
Looking into it turned out to be succeeding in getting a lot of the orphan kids in the streets to Robinson Park where Poison Ivy was growing fruit and talking her into sharing it, not just with them, but also distribute it to the rest of the city as well. Danny assigned Jazz to organizing a system to distribute food to the city while Danny and Tucker looked into their water problem.
Not only was the water in the Gotham River less than safe to be drinking, but the government had also filled it with mines to ensure people couldn't swim across it to get in or out of Gotham. Danny intended to have words with the American Government once they got themselves out of this mess, that was for sure.
Bottled water was only going to get them so far and utilities had been shut off, leaving no water coming through the pipes. The thing about Gotham was that it was old; old enough to still have the original aqueduct system. Tucker was able to pull up schematics of the tunnels that ran through Gotham where a lot of the aqueducts still were and Danny got to work.
By the time Bruce managed to get back into Gotham, he was expecting to come back to a war zone. To say that he was surprised to find that things looked relatively normal was an understatement. It wasn't surprising to find that Gordon was still there and leading a group of police to help keep people in check. Huntress had stolen the Batgirl uniform and was taking care of some of the rougher rogues.
Bruce had been about to chalk the community that seemed to have been created with the civilians up to those two things, but then he came across Poison Ivy.
She was, of course, using Robinson Park as her own personal greenhouse, growing tons of fruits and vegetables that children were harvesting and taking to different stations to be processed. It could have been Ivy's doing, he knew, but it was just a little too organized for her alone and he didn't see anyone else of any note around.
"Batman," the woman said, turning to look at him as he approached, "You've decided to crawl out of whatever hole you were hiding in?"
"I was trying to get the government to send help," he corrected, even as he looked around at the children running back and forth to the plants, "What is going on here?"
"Hm? Oh, the children stay in the park where I can protect them and I've taught them how to care for the plants. They harvest the food and take it to be processed and distributed to the rest of the civilians."
"Efficient," Bruce commented as he noticed one of the kids run over to another red haired woman. It wasn't super common to see in Gotham and he usually attributed it to Barbara and Poison Ivy.
This woman was neither of the ones he was used to and was, in fact, holding what appeared to be some sort of PDA. The child said something to her and she offered a smile back, nodding and marking something on the PDA.
"How does her PDA still work?" Bruce asked and Ivy shrugged.
"I don't know how any of their tech is working, but whatever they're using is working."
"They?" Bruce looked back over at Ivy.
Ivy gestured toward the other red head, "Jazz and her team. They organized all of this. Got the old aqueducts going so we could water the plants and have clean water to drink. Created the distribution system to make sure no civilian went hungry. I've even seen her take a bat to a few henchmen who thought they could take advantage of her."
Bruce's eyes narrowed a bit, "Who all is on this team of hers?"
Gothamites were resourceful; came from living in the city. This was another level. This spoke of experience beyond what Gotham could have given.
"The two boys and the other girl," Ivy replied and Bruce gave her a look, "I don't know their names. They don't usually stick around long enough for it. Rumor has it that they're trying to rebuild a bridge to give us access to the outside world again."
"How?" Bruce asked, just barely managing to not sputter in response to that.
Ivy shrugged again, "Whatever they're doing, they're good at it."
It took Bruce longer than he'd like to admit to find the 'two boys and the other girl'. He had tried to approach Jazz to ask her about her team and their plans, but she had coldly shut him down and told him that if he didn't leave he'd end up on the wrong side of her creep stick.
He was fairly certain she was referring to the bat Ivy had seen her use against the henchmen so he had agreed and left.
As sit was, he found the two boys and girl where the bridge that used to connect them to Bludhaven was. And, sure enough, they seemed to be in the midst of building a new one. Not, Bruce could admit, one that would actually be able to be used by cars if the construction was anything to go by, but it would be enough to move people and maybe they'd be able to get some supplies from Bludhaven.
One of the boys turned and looked at him before he'd meant to make his presence known. Black hair, blue eyes, he could have been any of Bruce's own kids, but he wasn't. Bruce did not know this boy, nor his companions.
"Well look who's back," the boy commented lightly and the other two turned to look at Bruce as well.
The girl scoffed, "Some hero you are, disappearing when the city needed you most."
That stung, but Bruce could understand. Gordon had also felt betrayed by him, and he was sure there were others who felt the same. They had no contact to the outside world, weren't aware of the things Bruce Wayne had been doing. Even if they had been, there was no real way for them to know that Bruce Wayne was Batman anyway.
"I was trying to convince the government to undo what they did," he replied instead, "They weren't keen to listen."
The other boy turned his attention back to what appeared to be a PDA, similar to what Jazz had been using, with a scoff, "Yeah, imagine that."
They were younger than Bruce had been expecting; Jazz had also been young but they appeared to be younger than her. He wondered just what it was this group of kids had gone through that allowed them to be this resourceful and bitter toward the government.
"You obviously know who I am, but I am at a disadvantage of not knowing what to call you," Bruce said, cautiously. Whoever they were, whatever they had been through, it was clear they had some sort of power over the city that Bruce didn't at the moment.
The girl scoffed again and the first boy gave her an exasperated look before fully turning and offering Bruce a hand, "Danny. These are Sam and Tucker."
Tucker gave an absent wave, not looking up from his PDA and Sam crossed her arms. Clearly not a friendly bunch. Bruce took the offered hand and was surprised by the strong, confident grip he got in return.
"Thank you for all that you have done. What do you need me to do?"
The bridge to Bludhaven changed everything.
Once they were in Bludhaven, their phones had service again and they could suddenly contact the outside world. And contact them, they did. Pictures and videos from inside Gotham went instantly viral, causing a public outcry for the government to do something. It didn't take long after that for the government to give in and decide that Gotham was still part of the United States and send help.
Batman and Commissioner Gordon took over with the Blue Boys in managing the help that was coming in. The bridges were rebuilt, the mines were fished out of the Gotham River, and utilities were restored to the city.
Danny, Sam, Tucker, and Jazz slipped back into the shadows that they had come from. It was easy to do with everything else that was happening. Danny knew that Batman would come looking for them eventually, but he had his hands full for now.
Danny looked over at the sound of his phone pinging, frowning a bit. The people who would be contacting him were in the room with him, so it was strange that he'd be getting a message. He got up and grabbed his phone, blinking in surprise at what he was seeing.
Nice job, we owe you one - O
"What is it?" Jazz asked, looking over at Danny.
"Spam email," Danny replied, clearing the notification, "So what movie do you guys want to watch tonight?"
"Something gory," Sam replied and Tucker turned a little green.
"Maybe something a little more relaxing than that," the boy countered.
"What were you thinking, Danny?" Jazz asked as Danny moved over to their movie collection.
"Oh, I was thinking a space documentary," Danny replied with a grin as the other three groaned in response.