whelmed

Aquaman himself was supposed to make an appearance at the opening and the museum was buzzing with anticipation. You, on the other hand, were trying to keep up appearances as you just had to help Arthur figure out how to set up his voicemail last Wednesday. 

The exhibition itself was also a good front for recon on your little side project with Diana. In addition to objects from Themyscira, objects from Atlantis had been popping up across auction houses as well. With your connections in the museum world and the league, you were able to keep an eye on anything suspicious that might’ve been happening within the walls of the museum. 

Finally pleased with the state of the piece, you slowly stepped down the ladder and hopped off, getting ready to close up for the day. Those leftovers in your fridge were calling your name. 

Managing to put your tools away and somewhat organize the shelf in the supply closet, you started to grab your things and slowly make your way out the glass doors of the museum, waving at the night security guards that came in. 

It was fall in Gotham, which meant there was a nice chill in the air making it the perfect weather to wear your favorite crimson sweater. Not too close to Halloween that you had to worry about all the villains in Arkham (just yet) but close enough that people had started to put pumpkins out on their balconies, casting a warm glow out of the apartments above you. 

As you made your way to your flat, you couldn’t help but notice the crunch of heavy footsteps in the leaves behind you. Call it the life of a vigilante or just always being aware of your surroundings, you turn to look at the store window next to you, glancing to see the reflection of a man following behind you. 

Thinking you’re just being paranoid, you keep walking a little bit before turning right down the block. If he was following you, you did not want him to know where you lived. 

Walking a little further to the next crosswalk, just to confirm your suspicions, you crossed the street to the other side. The guy behind you followed, and you turned your head back slightly, noticing another man in all black, similar build as the first follower, slightly behind him watching you. 

You took a deep breath. You couldn’t exactly out yourself as Delphi right now, risking blowing your cover. Weighing your options, you reached down to fish your phone out of your pocket, pressing the first number that popped up, not really caring who it was at this point. 

“I know, I forgot to give you your book back I promise I’ll–” 

“Jay?” you ask softly on the phone, turning to watch your reflection in a shop window again. Still two behind you. 

“What’s wrong?” he immediately picks up on your tone, and you can hear him sit up on the other end of the line. 

“Don’t worry about the book, you can bring it next time,” you say into the phone, faking brightness, “Did you need anything from the store?” 

“Little witch, what’s going on,” Jason asks in a lowered voice. 

“Yeah, I was thinking there’s two left, I might as well grab another one.” you plead that Jason will understand your meaning. 

“Is someone listening to you?” he asks, and you can hear him pacing. 

“Yes, two isn’t a lot,” you say into the phone, forcing yourself to laugh a little. 

“Two people are following you? Are they armed?” you hear more concern in his voice before some shuffling and keys dropping. 

“I don’t know, I liked the chicken flavor better last time.” You checked the next store window. The two men behind you weren’t exactly gaining, but they seemed to be keeping a distance; almost as if they didn’t want to be caught. 

“Listen very carefully. Walk to the corner store that’s down the street from my apartment, and I’ll meet you there. I see where you are, it’s only another couple minute walk.” you hear Jason as he locks his apartment door and starts to quickly jog down the stairs. 

“Sounds good, I’ll see you soon!” This time you don’t have to fake the smile. You hang up the phone and continue walking, trying not to change pace as you don’t want to tip off the men behind you. As far as you could tell, they seemed to have been following you from the museum, and they could be a lead into who’s been trafficking all of the artifacts you’re looking in to. 

After the longest two minutes of your life, you see the store Jason was talking about. You stand at the corner, waiting for the light to change, but notice the men picking up their pace. You bite your lip nervously, pressing the button again for the crosswalk. You consider your odds against the traffic or the two men when suddenly you feel a hand wrap around your wrist. You jump and turn, meeting the eyes of a different man, this one dressed in all navy with piercing grey eyes. 

You look at him with wide eyes, weighing the options of teleportation vs. how mad your parents will be if you get kidnapped before someone makes the decision for you. 

“Hey babe, sorry I’m late,” you feel someone step behind you and wrap an arm over your shoulder, kissing your temple, “Who’s this?” 

Turning to be met with Jason’s profile, his green eyes hardening as he watches the man who is still holding your wrist. Your heart trips a little at the sight of him, both in relief and something else you can’t quite place. 

The man looks between you and Jason, looking like a deer caught in headlights. 

“My apologies, I thought you were someone else,” the man says, releasing your wrist slowly. He dusts off his blazer before stepping back. 

“It’s alright,” you respond a little shakily. You feel Jason pull you a little closer, his warmth relaxing you a little. 

“Yeah but next time keep your hands to yourself,” Jason bites out, head tilted before he gives the man a cocky smirk. 

The man opens and closes his mouth before clearing his throat and nodding. He looks at you one more before he turns and walks down the block, disappearing around the corner. 

You open your mouth to thank Jason, but before you do he yanks you a little to start walking across the crosswalk, his arm still around your shoulders. He leans closer to your ear whispering, “Wait until we get in the store little witch. The other two are still watching.”

You close your mouth and nod, moving a little closer to him to play up the part. You guys make your way across the street before heading in the store where Jason slowly lets go of you while you walk down the snack aisle. 

“Thanks for the save,” you breathe, missing the warmth already. 

“What was that?” Jason asks, looking down at you, searching your face. You let out a puff of breath before answering. 

“Honestly I have no idea. I left the museum after finishing up work and I noticed them following me three blocks after.” you spin one of your rings around your finger. Jason shakes his head. 

“I don’t like it. You just started working on this project with Diana and this happens?”

“I can’t just not do it Jason. These are sacred artifacts. They’re important to Diana and Arthur, which makes them important to me.” you glare up at him. He holds his hands up in surrender. 

“I wasn’t saying you shouldn’t do it; all I’m saying is be careful.” His eyes soften as he looks at you, “I don’t want anything to happen to you, little witch.” 

You blush a little at the name, but you blame it on the store’s heater. 

“I promise I’ll be careful. I can always banish him to Hell and have him say hello to my uncle,” you grin wickedly, eyes rolling gold for a second. 

Jason laughs at your statement, “I don’t doubt that,” he pauses in thought for a second, “I’ve never seen that guy before, have you?” You shake your head, furrowing your brows. 

“I haven’t, but I can keep an eye out at the opening on Saturday.” he pulls out his phone, already typing away. 

“I’ll have Tim pull the footage and run it through anything and everything he can. Maybe he’ll get a hit.” you turn and grab a basket as he’s typing. 

“Sounds good. Let me know what he finds, and we can keep an eye out on Saturday.” 

“We?” Jason raises his eyebrow. 

“Yes, we. Don’t act like you weren’t going to go after all that.” you point your finger at him as you reach up to grab some cheddar popcorn. He grunts behind you. 

“I guess you’re right.” You turn and grin at him. 

“Now that’s settled. Do you want to watch You’ve Got Mail, or The Holiday?” 

Jason groans, “We watched You’ve Got Mail like two days ago, and it’s WAY too early for The Holiday.” He grabs some marshmallows.

“It’s never too early for Jude Law and Jack Black,” you gasp, offended. 

“Too early. How about Pride and Prejudice?” you scoff and turn to him. 

“Pass. Watched it last week. Ooo–” you grab a Marie Calendar’s pumpkin pie from the freezer section as Jason holds the door open. 

“-Fantastic Mr. Fox?” you wiggle your eyebrows up at him as you place the pie in the basket. 

He frowns a little before sighing and rolling his eyes. 

“Fine. But if you tell anyone I like that movie, it’s curtains for you.” 

“What kind of curtains? I need new blackout ones.” 

“Har-har. Go get your snacks.” 

You mock salute and continue down the snack aisle, absentmindedly picking out your favorite snacks as you go. 

Before you headed to the House of Mystery, you decided to stop in Gotham to give Bats the report of the mission and then locate the House. Sometimes it appeared in random places (A 7/11 parking lot in Kansas? Yeah not sure about that one) but more often than not it has “learned” where you and your parents are the most, which is mainly Gotham or somewhere in London if your dad was in the middle of some work. 

So, what should’ve been easy-peasy for you had turned into you somehow landing in the middle of a drug deal gone bad (bad as in they started attacking the second you showed up) with no back up, a killer headache, and honestly just a bad mood. 

“Listen, guys, can we just pretend you didn’t see me and I’ll go on my merry way and let the Bats bust you later?” You sigh as you flick your wrist, watching one of the men scream and run away as the ropes that were holding the crate turn into snakes. 

You continuously dodge the attacks, trying not to rely too much on your magic but occasionally using it to your advantage. Making a pit so they fall into it, changing the ropes into snakes, and sending maybe just one of them on a trip through Hell. The combination of your parent’s magic really made for some interesting battle techniques but hey, sometimes a win is a win. 

But, not totally paying attention due to the exhaustion of the day you fail to notice one of the lackeys in your peripheral vision until there’s already a bruise forming on your cheek. You hiss and hold your hand up to your cheek, cooling your hand immediately to ice it.

 “Now that wasn’t very nice,” you growl out turning to the man before you cry out, feeling the wind get knocked out of you as he quickly raises his foot up to kick you square in the chest. 

You wheeze as you get knocked back, the wind knocked out of you. Your eyes are watering as you look around you a little, not realizing you had been backing up towards a wall. You groan as you take in your situation, realizing now would be a really good time for back up. 

Tapping your ear, you hear a slight crackle before you send out, 

“Hey Oracle–ow–-do you know if someone is near the docks?” you rub your chest still trying to keep an eye on the men in front of you. 

“Delphi? I thought you were on a mission.” you hear Babs on the other side, edge of concern in her voice. 

“I was but I made a detour through Gotham and ended up in the middle of a drug trade thing.” you let out a grunt as you throw a punch to one of the men who got a little too close for comfort, knuckles stinging.

“Damn I know where you are, that wasn’t supposed to be until tomorrow. Don’t move, I’ll send someone now.” you hear silence for a second before she comes back again, “Hood is closest, he said he’s on his way.” 

“Thanks, I’ll hold down the fort until he–” you let out a whimper of pain as the man you had just punched comes back at you full force, you managed to block most of the hits but he lands one to the side of your ribs. 

“Delphi? You okay?” You hear Babs again, you let out a grunt in response. 

“Is there any way I can put Hood on whatever the hell this channel inside my ear is?” You let out a breathy laugh at her response before you reach up to tap your ear again. 

“It’s not really a channel more of a link” you pant a little, losing steam against your now two attackers. Two more are heading toward you, but your eyes glow gold and suddenly the room stretches in front of them, making them farther away as they stumble at the sudden illusion. 

“Delphi?” you hear a gruff voice in your head, “I’ll be there in like one minute.” 

“That’s such a long time,” you tease as you keep pushing, “What did you stop for a burger?” 

“Very funny. I was at one of my safe houses when Oracle called. Said you were messin’ around with some drug dealers without me.” 

“Oh Hoodie you know I’d never do that to you,” you let out a laugh before gasping as another hit lands, this time splitting your lip. That one hurt. 

You hear a growl in your head, “Come on little witch I’m almost there, gotta give it right back to ‘em.” 

You nod to yourself listening to Jason’s encouragement, spitting out some of the blood that had started to spill in your mouth. As the blood landed on the ground in front of you, two small little skeletal demons popped up from the ground, crawling their way up and starting to attack your foe’s knees and ankles. 

“What the hell are these things?!” you hear one of them say as they dance away from them. As they dance away, you create a pit underneath the two that are still stuck in the illusion, the ground cracking open and swallowing them whole (only for a little while of course, until they get spat back out somewhere else). 

Unfortunately for you, the brief relief and satisfaction you felt at successfully getting rid of the three men was shattered when the other guy decided to ignore the sudden demonic intrusion and his friends going on a long trip in favor of pushing closer to you, arm against your throat, up against the wall. 

You claw at his arm, trying to push him away so you can breathe, feeling the panic rise in your head. You start to kick at him, but you can’t seem to get purchase on any part of him. You watch as a twisted grin crosses his face, “All those little tricks can’t save you now can they?” 

You growl as you scratch hard down his arm, and he hisses as he releases you slightly, allowing you to catch a quick breath before all of a sudden he’s ripped away from you, causing you to drop to your knees, clutching your throat and coughing hard. 

Looking up through your watery eyes you watch as Jason had grabbed the man by the scruff of his neck, dragging him along before slamming him into the warehouse wall with a loud metallic THUD. 

“You better get your filthy hands off of my little witch before you lose them.” you hear Jason growl through the modulator in his helmet. You can feel the very thinly veiled rage radiating off of him. 

The man’s eyes widen as he is met with the infamous Red Hood, weapons of all kinds strapped to him, his white eyes glowing on his helmet. You continue to watch as the man seems to shake slightly in fear before Jason drops him suddenly, as he does he holds nothing back as he slams his fist into the side of the guy’s head, knocking him unconscious. 

You sit on the floor watching as your coughing starts to subside a little, still trying to catch your breath. Jason quickly strides over to you and crouches down, taking his helmet off and gently cupping your face, 

“Hey, hey, it’s okay, breathe for me Delphi.” you look up at him and take a deep breath and he smiles softly. 

“There you go,” you watch as he tilts your head up a little to inspect your busted lip along with your neck and face from all angles.

“Just a couple of bruises but you’ll be alright.” he strokes his thumb over one of your cheeks before standing up and offering you a hand. You take it gratefully and stand up, dusting off your hands a little on your costume. 

“Thanks for the save Red,” you squeeze his hand, smiling up at him. He smirks down at you. 

“Any time, little witch.” you giggle a little before blushing as you recall him saying my little witch.

He makes his way over to his bike with you following closely behind. You tap your ear again to contact Babs. 

“Hey Babs, we’re all good here, thanks for calling in the backup.” you can hear her jump a little on the other end and you suppress a laugh.

“Gods I will never get used to that,” you hear her sigh, “I’m glad Hood could help. Let me know if you need anything else.”

“I will. Wanna grab breakfast tomorrow?” 

“Sure. Then you can tell me all about what happened ‘little witch’.” you blush furiously at her comment as you hear her giggling on the other side. You take a quick side glance at Jason who is looking at you quizzically, his head tilted. 

“We’ll talk about this tomorrow. Bye.” 

“Uh-huh. Bye Delphi.” 

You huff as you sever the connection and turn back to Jason.

“What was that about?” he asks.

 “Nothing, just figuring out breakfast with Babs tomorrow.” you wave him off. 

He nods and straddles his bike. “Need a ride to the manor? I can make a detour.” You shake your head as you grab a piece of chalk from your belt and bend down, drawing a line up and over to make a rectangle, bending back down so the other side touches the ground. 

“Nah I’m okay, just gonna head to the House. Thanks for the offer though.” You turn back and smile brightly at him as he watches you, seeming to be a little lost in thought. He clears his throat a little before fidgeting with his gloves. 

“Right…well I’ll see you…sometime…make sure you ice your cheek, and keep an eye on the bruises on your neck.” he crosses his arms. You laugh a little at his scowling expression before walking over, your heart beating a little faster as you do. 

“I will, Jay. I promise I’m okay. Thank you for helping me.” you reach out to squeeze his hand, tilting your head as you smile. You watch him slowly smile back and he nods. 

“I told you, any time.” you feel him softly squeeze your fingers back before you pull away. 

“I might just take you up on that.” You wink as you slowly step backwards into the door you created. He smirks as he puts on his helmet, revving his engine a little as he watches you step through. 

“With your eyes closed?” You raise your eyebrow at him. He scowls, blushing slightly at having been caught. 

“Well…when you say it like that…” he rubs the back of his neck.

“Dick! You’re supposed to be helping.” You sigh as you lean forward, putting your face in your hands, pushing your glasses up your face. 

For the past four hours you have been on your laptop researching the island of Themyscira. Diana had called you in on a side project of sorts, as artifacts from the island have been popping up at auctions around Gotham City, Metropolis, and even Star City. 

It was concerning to say the least. Some of these objects were magical in nature, while others were sacred to the Amazons. Diana was trying to figure out on her end how they were getting off of the island, while you were using your detective skills and magic-sensing abilities from the other side: tracing and tracking down a list of potential buyers and sellers, before handing them over to some of the Bats to investigate. 

“I am helping! I was just…thinking about…how…you know maybe–”

“You guys are still up?” A gruff voice from the stairs asks incredulously.

“Saved by the bell,” you mumble to Dick, your face still covered. 

“Hey I–”

“Delphi. It’s 3 a.m. Why are you still here?” You look up into the jade green eyes of Jason, dressed in his pajama pants, his eyebrows furrowed as he looks down at you. 

“Well nice to see you too, Jaybird.” You glare up at him before turning back to your laptop to continue your search. “Mom has Watchtower duty and Dad’s with Uncle Etrigan, I didn’t want to be in the House by myself so I decided to come do research here.” You answer his question, typing away. 

“Dick was supposed to be helping–”

“I am helping–”

“--but we all know how that goes.” You side eye Dick before looking up at Jason again who was watching you intently. He shakes his head and crosses his arms. 

“I don’t even want to ask who ‘Uncle Etrigan’ is after meeting your other uncle who is the literal Devil,” He grimaces at the thought before turning back to you, walking closer and placing one hand on the table next to your laptop, “But I was asking because you definitely need to sleep.”

You pause your typing and look up at his eyes again. You can feel the headache creeping in already and the dryness of your eyes, and you know he’s right. But you hate stopping in the middle of research. It’s also definitely not the reason you and Tim were forbidden from doing research together anymore.

Jason’s eyes seem to soften as they look down at you, something they rarely do with anyone else. You guys had become somewhat close after your uncle’s visit as you could lend an ear on something he never talked about with anyone–what happened when he died. Seeing Lucifer again brought back the memories, and you two had a long chat after. 

“I’m almost done,” you plead, looking between him and Dick as Dick raises his eyebrow in amusement. 

“You said that an hour ago,” Dick points out. 

You whip your head towards him, “Who’s side are you on anyway?” 

Dick raises his hands in surrender before standing up and stretching, “Well, I’m definitely headed to bed. You can stay in the usual guest room if you want.” He waves as he heads up the stairs to the manor. 

“Who said I’m going to bed?” Your voice gets higher as you throw your hands up, exasperated.

“I did.” Jason growls, leaning a little closer to you as Dick walks away, “and you better march up there right now, none of your witchy-woo tricks either–” you start to protest, “--because if you go to bed now, tomorrow I will go with you to personally check out every last name on that list you have, little witch.”

You blush slightly at the nickname he had given you, your mouth opening and closing. 

“But–”

“Now.” 

“Fine!” You huff and shut your laptop, standing up to grab your things before heading towards the stairs, Jason following behind. You can hear him chuckling as you go. 

“Now was that so hard?” you hear him ask behind you. You choose to ignore him and huff again, making your way upstairs to the guest room you usually crashed in. Late nights at the manor were quite the occurrence for you, it had almost become like a second home. 

Just as you get to the door you turn to Jason as he stops to look at you, his head tilting slightly. 

“I…thank you…I guess.” you mumble, pushing your glasses up your nose a little. 

“For what?” he smirks, knowing exactly what you’re talking about. You frown and roll your eyes. 

“For making me go to bed. I get a little too into my research sometimes and I just…need to be told when to take a break I guess.” You look down at the last part, a little embarrassed. 

“Well I will happily tell you when to go to bed, whenever you need it.” You snap your head up to look at him, your eyes meeting his as he gives you a small smile. You smile back. 

“Thanks, Jay.” 

“Any time little witch.” he winks. 

You let out a little laugh as you turn to open the door, “Goodnight then…and we are definitely going to check out that list tomorrow!” You watch Jason groan as he drags his feet down to his room. 

“Yeah, yeah, I know. But we’re stopping for coffee on the way.”

You hesitated briefly as you reached your hand up to pull on the large brass knocker. Taking a deep breath you squared your shoulders and pulled it back, knocking hard on the door before stepping back to wait. 

A few seconds later, an older gentleman wearing a suit answered the door. 

“You must be Miss Constantine, I am Alfred. Master Bruce told me he was expecting you. Please, come in.” The man smiled warmly, stepping aside to let you walk past him. You smiled back with a small “thanks” before taking in the foyer around you. Large, ornate paintings that probably cost more than the apartment you were renting. 

A beautiful mahogany staircase was in front of you, its thick, lush red carpet leading up to the second floor. You stood in quiet awe for a second before turning back to Alfred. 

“The manor is beautiful! I love the art.” you smiled genuinely, looking back up at the large paintings. 

“Well thank you very much Miss Constantine. Although I must admit the frames are rather difficult to dust.” Alfred chuckles slightly as you laugh back. 

“I can only imagine!” 

Suddenly you hear footsteps quickly approaching you and turn to be met with a very stern Bruce Wayne, quite the contrast to the playboy persona you saw all over the papers. 

“Hey Bats, I heard you had a demon problem?” you nodded up to him. 

Before he could even respond you hear a voice from behind him, “Is she here about Damian? ‘Cause it’s about time someone looked at him.” 

You look around behind Bruce to be met with a dark-haired man with a tuft of white sticking up from his hair, with a brown leather jacket over his wildly broad frame. You looked up at his eyes, noting the familiar shade of jade green, a sign of someone who’s taken one too many dips in a Lazarus Pit. 

You furrow your brows and turn back to Bruce, “There’s not really much I can do about someone who’s been in the Lazarus Pit. Dad might know more about the side-effects than I would.” 

Bruce looks at you with a slight pinch in his brow before turning back to the man behind him, who is staring at you with pure shock. 

“How did you-”

“Jason? No he’s not who you’re here to look at.” Bruce grunts, eyeing you suspiciously now. Not a lot of people outside of the family knew about the true cause of Jason’s return. You nod, eyeing the man–Jason–with a look of interest.

“Your eyes,” you answer, “that’s how I knew.” You shrugged at the question hanging in the air. 

Jason stares back at you, still shocked at your blunt delivery and seemingly uncaring attitude of how he came to be standing there in front of you. You turn back to Bruce, smiling brightly. 

“So, where’s the patient?” 

🜂🜂🜂🜂🜂🜂

“Um…well…”  you stare at your friends, holding your hands over your cheeks as you try and think of a solution. 

Bruce had brought you down to the Batcave, Jason following closely behind. As you followed Bruce he explained how Dick had gone on a mission with him and Raven where they ran into a few lesser demons. 

But, unbeknownst to Batman, Nightwing, or Raven, one of the demons was carrying an artifact that–apparently–turned whoever was not allowed to handle this artifact into a…well..

“BAAAA!” the two black goats looked up at you, blinking rapidly. 

“I’m gonna be honest, I’ve never seen this before.” you blow out a breath, putting your hands on your hips. 

“Can you fix it?” the guy you’ve learned was Tim asks.

“Or not. They’re a lot more bearable like this.” Damian responds, deadpan. 

You fiddled with your necklace as you stared down at the goats. The rest of the family was looking between the goats and you, not sure what to think. You had already tried a reversed esrever spell that your mom had taught you, a magic, should-reverse-anything-and-let-me-win-poker-night card that your dad had given you, but no luck. 

You assess the goats carefully, each embodying one of your team members, before an idea pops in your head. You snap your fingers and turn to Bruce, 

“Do you still have the artifact? Can I take a look at it?” 

Bruce nods and leads you over to the artifact that had most likely been dropped after they had touched it, sitting on the middle of the floor in the Batcave, everyone giving it a wide berth. 

You walk closer to it, and it appears to be a small wooden puzzle box. Nothing stands out to you until you walk around to the other side, bending down to get a closer look. There, you see a small, familiar symbol carved into the side. You gasp and stand up quickly clapping your hands together excitedly. 

“Oh! He’s been looking all over for this!” you smile happily. 

“Who’s been looking for what?” Tim watches you, confused. 

“Is it dangerous?” Jason asks, keeping a safe distance from the box.

“It’s not dangerous; he just put a security spell on it in case it got stolen,” you turn towards Bruce, “Do you mind if I call my uncle? It’s his box, and he can reverse the spell.” 

Bruce looks at you, he doesn’t recall John or Zatanna having a brother. He nods and reaches into his pocket for his phone before you cut him off, 

“Oh no that won’t work. One second!” you walk over and sit in front of the box, putting your hands together in front of your face, closing your eyes. You miss the way all the bats are staring at you like you’ve grown a third head. 

“What’s she doing?” Duke whispers to Tim. 

“Uh…maybe a spell?” Tim responds, 

“Tt. Maybe she has no clue what she’s doing, it’s just a bunch of hocus pocus” Damian snorts. 

Bruce squints at your posture and the gentle smile on your face. 

“It looks like..” Jason starts, head tilted in confusion, 

“She’s praying.” Bruce finishes. 

“Well, quite the interesting lot we have here isn’t it?” remarks a smooth, British accent from behind the bats. 

Tim and Duke jump in unison, grabbing each other's arms as they look over their shoulders. Jason’s hair stands on end, the voice familiar for some odd reason he can’t seem to identify. Bruce whips his head around, slipping into a fighting stance, Damian doing the same. 

In front of them stands a man in a well-tailored suit, fixing his cuff links as he smiles devilishly at the group in front of him.

“Uncle Luci!” They hear you laugh and watch as you run over to the man, giving him a big hug. 

“It’s good to see you too love, when I heard you calling I just had to come see what all the fuss was about.” he hugs you back before he notices the box on the floor. 

“Ah! I see you’ve found my box, I have been looking everywhere for the nasty little thing, well thank you for finding it love.” the man walks over to the box and picks it up, turning it over in his hands as he looks it over. 

The bats watch this whole exchange with a mix of shock and confusion on their faces. 

“I didn’t know John had a brother.” Bruce is the first to recover. You tilt your head and scrunch your nose,“What do you mean? He doesn’t.”

“You said ‘Uncle Luci’” Damian points out. 

“Well yeah…he’s my uncle?” you look at them confused. 

“How did he get in here?” Tim yells in shock. 

“He just appeared!” Duke agrees. 

Jason just eyes the man suspiciously, something nagging in the back of his mind, telling him he should recognize him. 

The man tucks the box inside of his coat before walking over to the group, “Yes well of course, I shall give a proper introduction for those who seemed to have found my box…as I can see by the two barnyard animals,” the man clears his throat before holding his hand out to Bruce. 

Rick had been adamant that you two should just leave it alone and let the security team deal with it, but you couldn’t shake the feeling that something was amiss at the museum as of late. 

Artifacts had gone missing, claimed to have been in the archives or in collections storage, but when you went looking for them they were nowhere to be found. They weren’t notable artifacts, but for someone who spent their days in the archive it was definitely noticeable to you. 

“Shhh…you need to be quiet.” you peeked your head around the corner of the display case you were currently hiding behind. 

“Me quiet? I wasn’t the one who–”

“Shh!” You glared back at Rick. He put his hands up in surrender before moving his hand over his mouth and making a locking motion. 

You tiptoed closer to where the noise was coming from, thankful to whoever laid out the large sculptures in the museum. Rick was close behind, albeit a little begrudgingly. As much as he thought you guys should just leave well enough alone, he wasn’t about to let you investigate by yourself. 

You managed to reach the statue closest to where the noise was coming from, and as you peeked around the sight before you made your eyes widen and your skin crawl. 

Four sets of human remains were on top of tables, each set of remains from what you knew to be from the opened sarcophagi in the Ancient Egyptian Department. 

A man was standing in front of the four bodies, carefully unwrapping the chest of each mummy and placing the artifacts that had gone missing inside before re-wrapping them. A scarab here, Eye of Horus there, you had no idea what he was doing but it couldn’t have been good.

Quickly hiding back behind the sculpture, you motioned to Rick to be quiet but to look out over the statue. He moved to crouch next to you before looking over the sculpture. He scowled as he turned to look back at you. 

“I hate mummies,” he rolled his eyes. 

“It’s not their fault!” you hissed back. You, Rick, and an egyptologist at the museum, Evy, had your fair share of run-ins with the undead. You teased Evy endlessly about how it always seemed to be her department, not yours, who had an endless supply of undead uprisings. 

Whatever the man was doing was sure to cause another one. You didn’t know much about the specifics of the artifacts, as your focus was on other areas of ancient history. But with your…less than spotless track record of running into mummies you had a pretty good idea of where this was going. 

Thinking about your next move, you looked over at Rick, who, to your suprise, was taking out a pistol from under his jacket. 

“Do you just carry those things around wherever you go?” you ask, exasperated. 

“Always come prepared, doll.” He smirked before looking back over the statue. 

About to argue about the need to “be prepared” for a gunfight in the middle of a museum, you decided against it as to not draw attention to yourselves from your hiding spot. 

“This guy looks like he’s about to start his dead-guy-disruption any second now,” he sighed leaning back against the base of the sculpture, “I’ll distract him while you go in and take the artifacts back. Got it?” Rick checked his pistol before raising an eyebrow at you. 

“Got it. Try not to damage any of the other artifacts in the gallery while you’re ‘distracting’ him,” you sigh, rubbing your temples, already dreading the paperwork you were going to have to fill out for the head curator. 

“Pfft you know me, I always hit my target.” Rick winks at you. 

You roll your eyes at his comment before heading towards the other entrance to the gallery. 

“This better work,” you warn. 

“Relax. It will.” He mumbles looking over the statue again, “Be careful.”

“Always am.” It was your turn to wink.