#bat-dad

Thankfully, he didn’t have to act, and he sat back comfortably in the chair he was chained to as shards of glass sprinkled onto the concrete floor below. Vigilantes descended from the ceiling and windows with such coordinated timing, that they just had to be teammates with earpieces or something.

Danny’s face lit up with a smile as he caught sight of Orphan nailing a guy in the head. He might’ve swooned just a little. Sack-head, ever a cliche villain if Danny’s ever seen one, called “Get them!”

Danny settled in to watch.

The warehouse exploded in noises of gunfire and fighting. With Danny at one end of the warehouse, he only saw the vigilantes a little with goons blocking much of the view, but he could tell the bats were holding their own. Their skills far outclassed the goons, but the goons had numbers and so the fighting went on.

It was Orphan he spotted in the rafters a couple minutes later, sneaking closer to him, and he couldn’t help the grin he flashed up at her. She was wearing a mask and he couldn’t tell if she returned it, though he’d like to think that she did. One of her soft smiles that hid a cunning and a perceptive mind, shifting eyes, taking in every detail of body language, knowing things he was saying without him having to say it—

He needed to get himself together.

She was moving even faster now, reaching for something in her belt—

There were pointy things grazing his neck.

Danny will be honest. . . .he’d known Sack-head was coming for him, probably to give the bats an ultimatum like he was doing now, threatening to. . .poke(?) Danny with his gross claws if they didn’t back off. . .but he’d. . .he was having too much fun playing damsel in distress, okay?! This was only the second time he’s seen Orphan in weeks, and as soon as this situation was cleared up, she’d be gone again, and he, admittedly, wanted to drag this out as long as he could. Even if only by a couple of seconds. It was bad. He knew this. . .but what else was he supposed to do when the source of his affections was right there, lurking in the rafters like some beautiful goddess of darkness and death? She was perfect and he didn’t know until he’d met her that someone could feel so right. 

He could take just a couple more minutes, he’d make sure no one got hurt(severely), it was fine.

Currently, the vigilantes were frozen. Besides Orphan, there was a big guy all in black like a goth vampire, Bruisy, Spoiler, Jason(AKA Red Hood), Red Robin, and the little one with the sword. He was so adorable. Like a vicious, blood-thirsty, snooty, little duckling with anger issues.

“Hey, guys.” Danny said to the frozen vigilantes, smiling good-naturedly to let them know he was okay. “Been a minute.” He gave a little wave, startling Sack-head.

“Wh—What happened to your chains?! Nevermind, not important right now.” He mumbled the second part to himself. “Surrender!” He ordered the vigilantes who ground their teeth and reluctantly dropped their weapons. Sack-head had his goons restrain them and soon they were bound on the floor.

Danny internally winced. Okay. Maybe he should stop this now. . .

. . .

But no one had noticed Orphan in the rafters. And he would really prefer not to out himself as not completely normal. He’s done an amazing job, he thinks, of helping out where he can without showing his powers. The vigilantes don’t suspect a thing. He’s just a regular dude who just happens to come across them sometimes with useful objects to help them out. Yes, totally normal.

“You! Watch the kid!”

One of the goons came and stood nearby, finger on the trigger of a gun, and barrel pointed at the floor. The claws slid away from Danny’s skin and Sack-head stalked to the workbench where he’d been playing with chemistry.

“Uh. . .Boss?” One of the goons said nervously. “Shouldn’t we. . .ya know. . .leave? They could have back-up coming.”

“In a minute.” Sack-head snapped. “The experiment will be ruined and I’ll have to start from scratch if it’s disturbed!”

Danny glanced to the bats who were either watching him, Sack-head, the goons, or assessing how to get out of the situation. Danny caught glances of Orphan moving above, but didn’t chance looking up in case the goons caught on.

“Whatchya buildin?” Danny asked cheerily, much to the aggressive Teletubbies’ continued astonishment. 

Sack-head grumbled. “Shut u—“ Sack-head paused when he whipped his head to him. “Where did you get that?”

Danny threw another popped kernel in his mouth and jutted his thumb at the goon standing guard over him. Said goon looked bewildered, casting his gaze around and pointing to himself questioningly. Danny nodded. 

“What ar—don’t feed him! He isn’t a guest!?”

“Gave me this water too.” Danny said before taking a sip from a plastic water bottle.

“What? No, I didn’t—“

Danny hummed disappointedly with a shake of his head. “Tsk, tsk, dissent in the ranks.”

“Boss! I didn’t—“

“Figs! You’re taking over for Gertrand!”

“Yes, Boss!”

Danny waved goodbye to a distressed Gertrand as his place was taken over by Figs. Popcorn crunched loudly between Danny’s teeth as he smiled broadly at his new guard. He held out his tub of popcorn. “Want some?”

Figs stared at him for a moment. Glanced back at Sack-head who wasn’t looking. And shrugged. As he reached in, Danny gasped loudly, quite convincingly, and pointed at the other end of the warehouse. “What’s that!?”

It was too easy. Every head turned and Danny pulled out a grenade and threw it. Smoke  exploded out, billowing across the floor and thick into the air. The next moments happened fast as the vigilantes had already freed themselves and had been watching for an opportunity. Orphan dropped from the ceiling. Bodies became obscured in the smoke, the sound of them thudding to the ground between fists exchanged and shouting. There were several screams. When the smoke cleared, the vigilantes were cuffing and knocking out the last of the goons. Sack-head was thoroughly bound and lying on the dirty floor.

He spotted Orphan cuffing a guy and he grinned wide, getting up from his chair and making his way over. She straightened when she saw him coming. He raised a hand. “Hey—“

Black suddenly obstructed his vision and Danny halted, looking up at the large man. “Hi. Nice. . .horns?”

He heard someone snicker. The goth vampire didn’t react at all.

“Who are you?” The guy gravelled and wow, Danny’s sort of worried about the guy’s throat. 

“Danny. Nice to meetchya. Water?” Danny pulled a sealed bottle from behind him. “You sound like you need it.”

Spoiler burst out laughing.

“Last name.” The guy grunted out and Danny frowned. The bottle lowered when the guy didn’t take it.

“Ya know, it’s common curtesy to give your name back.”

He wasn’t sure why the others kept laughing. The goth vampire didn’t say anything for a long minute.

“Oh my gosh! I can’t believe you still don’t know who Batman is!” Spoiler was leaned against a wall, cackling like her head might fall off. “I’m so glad I came.” She swiped a tear from her eye.

A hand appeared on Batman’s(?) arm. Danny turned to Orphan with a big smile.

“Hey!”

“Hi.”

“Uhh. . .nice to see you—Y’all—uh—All of you. . .”

She nodded.

“Orphan—“

“Shush.” Orphan shushed the man with a pat on his arm, not straying her eyes off Danny and he shifted a bit on his feet. “Friend.”

Batman grunted. Apparently that meant something cause Orphan said “Stop” and stepped forward. Danny stepped back to make room for her.

When he spoke again, Batman’s voice came out a tad deeper and agitated. It was hard to spot. 

There was something familiar about the way Batman postured. Danny looked him up and down, trying to figure it out; the crossed arms, the vaguely intimidating looming, the angry scowl like Danny had run off with his daughter in the middle of the night—

“He’s an un—“

“Ohhhhh!” Danny realized with a finger. “You’re her bat-dad.”

The laughing stopped. The vigilante’s masked eyes blew wide.

Ha. Danny was right.

He restrained himself from reaching out for a handshake. He had a feeling Batman wouldn’t take it.

“Riiight, okay, I get it now. Last name’s Fenton.” Danny looked down as he ticked off a finger. “I’m twenty-three, I don’t drink, smoke, or do drugs, I have a stable job, a degree in mechanics and engineering, umm. . . Oh! I have my driver’s license, though that might not be vaild here. Uh, I’m from Illinois, I know first-aid—“ He was running out of fingers. “—and how to do water rescues, I’ve never committed a crime of my own will—“

“What?”

“—and I’ve never crashed through any buildings with my car.”

“. . .huh???” Bruisy asked.

“Oh. Yeah, well. Back home, people got nervous when I said I got my driver’s license and I like to make it clear my sister taught me to drive and not my parents. Anyway—“ He said to Batman. “—I just wanted you to know you don’t gotta worry about me. . .if. . .we ever hang out. . .?” Danny said the last part to Orphan shyly and rubbing at the back of his neck. She nodded and he beamed, making a pleased sound in the back of his throat.

Batman’s eyes narrowed. “You’ve committed crimes against your will?”

Ah. “Well, I should get going. You guys probably have a lot of vigilante-ing to do and saving children from fires and all that.”

“Ans—

“Not to mention these guys.” He gestured vaguely at all the tied up goons.

“You—“

“Yep, I can tell you’re itching to get going.” Danny began to back away. “We’ll talk later?” He asked Orphan.

“Find you on roof next time.”

Danny smiled at her.

“Dan—“

Danny froze and pointed wide-eyed behind the bats. “That guy got free!”

Everyone but Orphan whipped around to look and Danny dashed out of there. He couldn’t believe that’d worked a second time.

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