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Despite the abnormally large amount of strange situations Danny found himself in frequently, he could explain how he got there more often than not. Whether it made actual sense or not was irrelevant.
This was not one of those situations, however. Oh no, it was not in the realm of explainability to explain how he had managed to end up caged like a bird in Gotham.
“We’re jailbirds,” One of the two boys sharing a floating cell with him snorted. He was the older of the two, evidently, a black boy wearing a red jacket with an “R” embroidered on the shoulder plates. Under the dim light afforded to their cage, his face almost shone, mouth set and dark eyes watching each of the cages that surrounded them.
“Ha… ha…” Remarked Danny’s second companion, a short brown-skinned boy that also wore clothes with an embroidered “R”.
Now, Danny was no Gotham expert, but he was fairly sure that meant they were both Robins. Robins with a rivalry if the looks they kept sending each other was anything to go by.
Older Robin snorted at his younger counterpart, “Get it? Cause we’re Robins.”
“No, you’re not. I’m Robin, you are an amateur.”
Given that Danny was fairly sure Little Robin was far from the first hero to take on that name, he didn’t really see the logic in being mad that another one of Gotham’s vigilantes had done so as well.
“Hey, everybody’s gotta start somewhere,” Danny butted into the Robins’ conversation.
Older Robin pointed at him triumphantly, “See, this guy gets it.”
Little Robin rolled his eyes and went back to pushing at the bars of the cage that kept the three of them imprisoned. Or, well, at least it kept Danny’s companions imprisoned. He technically could phase out at any moment, if the situation was dire enough. For now, though, transforming while displayed up above for all to see seemed foolish at best.
“You’re going to give yourself a hernia,” Older Robin told the littler one.
“Hernias are for amateurs,” Was the response he got, prompting a snort from both of his companions, “At least I’m not just standing around.”
“I’m just waiting to see how this goes,” The tone in Danny’s voice was perhaps a bit too light, all things considered.
Older Robin looked over to him briefly, “First time?”
“Far from,” The words were out of Danny’s mouth before he could think of what the implications were. After all, wasn’t he just a regular person to the pair of Gotham vigilantes with him? However, neither batted an eye.
Gotham , Danny though.
He wasn’t supposed to be in the city in the first place. His family vacation had been planned for a sunnier place where the sound of waves rolling into shore was not drowned out by sirens. Instead, his parents had gotten the signal of a ghost while on the road and had followed its trail into Crime Capital, USA. In his attempt to find the ghost on his own, Danny had ended up here. Wherever here was.
As he watched his jailbird companions gaze out through the bars, he wondered if his parents had even noticed his absence, and let out a huff at the thought immediately after. Obviously, they hadn’t. They were likely caught up at the moment, too busy with their work to look around.
Jazz had probably noticed. Probably .
“…I don’t get why they aren’t here yet, anyways,” Little Robin trailed off, leaving Danny with the realization that he had tuned out the conversation. Perhaps not the smartest thing to do in his position.
Then, a group of people with owl masks entered the cage room, dragging another pair of Gotham vigilantes with them inside, although he was unsure of what their names were. The taller of the two wore a red helmet that reflected the harsh light afforded only to the spot where the owls were.
“Speak of the devil,” Said the Older Robin.
“You think you are birds?” Said one of the owls, which Danny couldn’t help but find ironic, “You are worms . Bait for the Gray Son.”
“The who?” Danny questioned, looking at Older Robin’s similarly confused expression and Little Robin’s determined one.
“A legacy. Goes way back with these owl guys… amateurs wouldn’t know about it,” He didn’t look at Danny as he said this, but at Older Robin.
Older Robin scoffed, “So explain.”
“No, I don’t think I will.”
The Owl’s voice boomed once again from under them.
“These two combatants will fight, and whoever comes out triumphant will take their rightful place among us,” From his left, Little Robin tensed, “Fight… to the death!”
For the first time, Danny’s consideration of going ghost to get out of the cage turned serious. After all, he didn’t know what those owl men would do when the pair refused to fight. But, instead of that, the Gotham vigilantes under him began combat right away.
“What the hell?” He didn’t mean to say that out loud.
Older Robin frowned, “They’re not actually gonna go for the kill, I don’t think.”
“One of them doesn’t have reservations about killing,” Said Little Robin as he gripped the bars of the cage tighter.
The two of them had their heads practically stuck to these bars, observing the fight below intently. When he looked around, Danny found that every other cage painted a similar scene, so with another short look around, he transformed and phased out of his prison. Before he reached the floor, he remembered to turn invisible, and he slowly inched towards the fighting duo and their owl kidnappers.
By the time he had reached them, though, it was clear that there was something off about the duel. The pair seemed to be synchronized far too well to actually be trying to harm each other. Then, the helmet guy flung the other one into the air, and he heard Little Robin yelling at everyone to get their hands out. He took advantage of the commotion to hit the owl closest to him upside in the head. Soon enough he was joined by the rest of the people who had been caged, and it didn’t take long for every owl that entered the room to be knocked down.
Every owl, that is, except for the last ones to appear. These ones were bigger, their armor seemed different, more intricate, and more importantly, at least one of the Robins seemed absolutely terrified of them.
“ Ruling Gotham from a shadow perch ,” The girl said, hands wrapped around her knees as the battle against the bigger owls raged on.
“Why aren’t you fighting?” Yelled Little Robin.
“ They watch you at your hearth, they watch you in your bed… ”
“Well, that isn’t creepy,” Danny said sarcastically, prompting both Little Robin and Older Robin to look over at him.
“You have a meta in your team?” Asked the Older Robin, eyes fixed on where Danny’s feet didn’t quite meet the ground.
“Wha-“ Little Robin spluttered, “Don’t try to trick me! That’s one of yours!”
“No,” Older Robin said, “No, he’s not. I thought…”
“I’m right here, you know?” Danny interrupted, “ Not a meta, by the way.”
“Then how…” Older Robin gestured vaguely at the entirety of Danny.
“How me?” Danny gave a short laugh that was interrupted by a giant owl’s hand coming towards him. After dodging it, he called out, “Long story!” continuing trying to stop other people from being squished in the owl’s hands.
But with too many people, and too many hands, and soon Little Robin was yelling something at the Owls that Danny couldn’t quite hear but knew it got them to stop. Somehow, he got the feeling that this wasn’t a good thing.
“You need to go home,” One of the vigilantes, who’s name Danny had learned was Red Robin, called out soon after, “The Court of Owls won’t hesitate to kill you.”
He locked eyes with Older Robin a little behind him, and knew that neither of them would be going home tonight. Some others protested as well, but soon it was only the helmet man, Red Robin and who Danny now knew was Older Robin’s gang left. And himself, of course. The group was heading towards a place called Gotham Academy that one of Older Robin’s group had figured out was likely where the owls went.
“I’m Duke, by the way,” Said Older Robin on the way, hand extended and easy smile despite the circumstances.
“Are you supposed to say that?” Danny questioned and only got a shrug in response, so he took the hand and introduced himself by name was well, a rarity he only allowed himself because of how far from home he was.
“Don’t tell anyone, though,” He made sure to add and Duke gave him another one of those smiles paired with a ‘ ditto’ .
“You could be one of us, you know,” Duke said. “I saw you out there, it was pretty clear you were doing much more defending of other people than yourself. Which probably isn’t the smartest thing to do but pretty on brand for someone in the vigilante business around Gotham.”
“I’m not from Gotham,” Said Danny, “Was just passing through. I suppose the color scheme of my clothes worked against me today.”
“That’s a shame,” Duke replied, “Glad to fight for my life with you though, no better way to bond.”
Danny gave a snort at the phrasing but quickly recovered as they were faced with a group of the owls they had face earlier. Now, however, there was a new one amongst them.
“Little Robin…” Danny started, looking at the shirt boy in his owl mask, “What did you do?”
The boy remained firm in whatever choice it was he had made, a choice Danny was sure he needed far more context for. In fact, he fought every other person there for it, skills evidently heightened by whatever it was that mask did. He knocked down Robin after Robin after Robin, and soon it was just him and Danny standing.
“Two to go,” He heard from behind him, and saw Duke standing up.
“Two to go,” Danny mirrored, smirking at the other boy.
The battle that followed was far more intellectual than Danny had expected, with the biggest blows coming from Duke’s words rather than his punches or anything Danny would feel comfortable sending a human’s way. Finally, Duke gave him a look, and Danny found it shocking how easy it was to read with how little they’d known each other for, but he got the message just fine and took a step back while Duke spoke to Little Robin.
Whatever final verbal blows he administered worked, because the owl mask was gone from the boy’s face soon enough, the owls retreating as soon as Little Robin started fighting them again.
Once everything was said and done, Danny found himself beside Duke at the edge of the former battlefield.
“I meant what I said,” Duke suddenly spoke.
“You said more than one thing,” Danny remarked.
“You could be one of us, that’s what I meant,” The boy clarified, “I’m not saying that as an invitation to join, mostly as a compliment. Although vigilantes are pretty insane, so take that as you will.”
“Thanks…?” He replied with a laugh.
Duke nodded at him, “I mean, I still don’t know what’s going on with your whole,” He gestured at Danny once again, “thing, but if you’re ever in Gotham again, give me a call.”
He handed Danny a paper, then looked at the other members of his gang, “Give us a call. Even if it’s just to hang.”
“Will do,” Said Danny, “If you’re ever in Amity Park, give me a call. Just for ghost repellent.”
Duke let out a short laugh, clearly out of shock more than anything.
“For what?” Duke started, then, “You know what, I don’t even wanna know. Nice meeting you strange non-meta floating guy, may we meet again.”
And then he was gone.