Work Text:
When the number first appeared on his wrist he only knew because the area flared with pain like he'd been burned. At the time he was in the middle of fighting a gang and thought a bullet might have grazed the area, though how it would have gotten past the armor he couldn't say. But he could question how it did that later. For now he just made sure to check the wound ASAP. Only, when he went to check it after turning over the goons to the cops there was no gap in the armor. No way a bullet or knife or fuck it, dart?, would have been able to flash across the inner side of his right wrist. Quirking a brow he quickly unlatched his wrist gauntlet and moved it up to pull his armored glove off.
8,729
The number was written in bold black ink right in the center of his wrist. What it corresponded to he couldn't say. This was obviously the work of some magic or another but neither he nor any of his team had dealt with magic in the past week. At least he didn't think so, and they'd gotten a knack for recognizing most magicks over the years. His most recent fight didn't even come in question. Though he did turn to stare back towards the warehouse it had been in idly. But no, the air around the entire place didn't have a tint of magic.
Which left someone else stumbling into it. His team knew his protocols better than they knew how to breathe so unless something was still happening and they couldn't contact him it wasn't them. Which left Gotham and it's Bats. Poking at his wrist computer idly he connected to the general comms in seconds.
“Who stumbled on magic?” Instantly the bickering quieted.
“Robin and Nightwing, they were stopping a robbery of a museum but after tying up the thief Robin picked up the stone tablet he'd managed to get away with. As soon as he touched it his and Nightwing’s right wrist felt like it got burned. So far from what everyone else has said it sounds like everyone's wrist burned at the exact same time. N and R are now investigating the exhibit and museum the tablet came from. B contacted the JLD but a random number isn't high priority so it might be a bit.” Tim could only nod at that. The number wasn't counting down so yeah not the highest priority what with the whole situation he knew Dr. Fate was currently dealing with and the alert Green Arrow had sent out that pulled Zantanna into outright teleporting on top of him inside a minute two hours ago.
“Thanks, O. If there's any news let me know but otherwise I'm continuing as is.” Within a few seconds he was back on his own channel and had his glove settled back in place a moment later.
Thankfully the rest of his patrol was uneventful and he settled in at his Nest easily for the night.
He woke up to Armageddon. Or rather, to highest kill count competition argument part seven going on in the Bat’s group chat. Only this time it was more definitive seeing as they could truly settle it once and for all.
Because, it turns out the number on their wrist? It was how many people they were the direct cause of death for. He learned within minutes that Constantine had made it to the batcave about an hour after Tim fell asleep for the night and tested both the tablet and the members of the Bats present, so Robin, Nightwing, Batman, and Spoiler.
It was a localized ritual that Contantine now wanted to find out how it got activated that affected the first person with a kill count that touched the tablet (skin contact not needed which Damian had been bitching about the whole time seeing as he was wearing gloves same as all of them) along with everyone that person considered true family and anyone those people also considered true family. With a radius of about fifty miles. So, seeing as everyone was currently in Gotham, the entire Bat family.
After about an hour of testing (which Tim was so hitting up Constantine about later, he knew the man so anything longer than twenty minutes meant he'd discovered something and wanted to study it) it had been determined to be both a permanent addition and only visible to those affected by this instance of the ritual. So only they could see that there was something at all on each other's wrists, much less the exact number. There wasn't even any magic visible on their auras from it. Constantine hadn't been able to find anything different about their wrists until he'd magicked the tablet within an inch of it's life and even then it had just been a vague tether pointing in the direction of Damian. It didn't even connect.
The tablet did give up the secrets of what it did easily enough but after all that run around B was at least satisfied anyone else running across it wouldn't be able to use it to track down past victims of it.
All of that to say that after sleeping off patrol and updating everyone via Oracle there was now an entire new channel in the app they used for their group chats labeled Count.
It started off with a picture of Oracle's wrist showing 13. A little less than ten minutes later Cass’ showed up with 27. And Steph's not even a minute later with 19. It was almost two hours later that B's showed up with 7.
Shortly after ten am when Tim assumed Alfred was filled in on what exactly was up his own wrist picture showed up with a whopping 482, which. Not precisely unexpected with everything Tim knew about his past. He just was a bit surprised it wasn't more. His bet with everything he knew was closer to six hundred. Duke's showed up a half an hour after that with 4.
It was a couple hours later when the rest of their nocturnal family started waking up that the other pictures trickled in. Dick with 34, which. Tim needed to look into that. He only knew about 29. Unless there was more Joker situations which. He wouldn't doubt.
Then finally one right after the other about five minutes later, Tim suspects Dick was with them and pestered them until they showed the rest. The fact everyone had been sending in their photos to be pinned to the top of the channel was probably the only reason they did it. Or maybe the fact everyone, even Duke - even B, had any kills at all.
Damian: 390
Jason: 726
Seeing that Tim knows that Jason is probably really fucking freaked at the moment. Before. The highest count arguments have been pretty heated because neither Damian or Jason knew who of them was winning. But they'd assumed they were pretty evenly matched. The fact it's so far off. The League must have used him for more missions than was reported while his mind was gone. A lot more missions. Or. Maybe his stuff with the Outlaws in space and such. Tim knew his own wrist would have had at least a thousand from just his Young Justice days before the year B was lost in time. But, then that year happened and he blew up all the LoA bases he had access to. And while a portion listened to the random evacuation notice a good chunk didn't because it was from an unknown source. Plus a great number of the bases went very deep underground with barely five minutes in warning. And the hillside bases caused landslides in at least three cases he knew.
All of that to say Tim really isn't surprised to find out the random number, even with how high it is, on his wrist is his kill count. He knows none of his team would be surprised at the total either. But. But. While seeing all these pics means he knows the other Bats wouldn't be surprised he has a number at all. He knows they'll be surprised at what it is.
Ever since he started reading through the chat and then looking at the pics pinned the chat has been blowing up poking at him to post his own. He debates with himself a moment later before moving to have the sun coming through the window behind him directly on his raised wrist and snaps the pic.
Tim: here you go
8,729
Dick: Timmy, Timmy wtf
Jason: you can't just casually ‘here you go’ and drop that kind of bomb!
Duke: well…I guess I was right all along about neither of you being right about who has the highest body count
Cass: 🧐🤷♀️🤴🏆
Tim: yes I win, give me my trophy
Jason: it wasn't a competition!
Tim:...
Dick:...
Duke:...
Babs:...
Jason: ok fine! You know what I meant! We weren’t competing to get the most. Kills. Ever.
Tim: that is not the most ever
Jason: well you seem to be going for the record!
Tim: hey has anyone been checking with non Bats if they got a number? Cause yeah, fifty miles. But. That includes Bludhaven and possibly Metropolis or at least part of it. And I know Supe's apartment is close to the bay separating us. With Damian being who got hit initially I doubt it wouldn't include Jon. And with the rest of us that includes Harper, Supes himself, Kon if he was there. Etc.
Tim: actually yeah, with the rest of us. Would this include Selina?
Tim: wait she might still be in Brazil. I'll check on that.
Dick: ok breezing past you knowing casually where in the world Catwoman possibly is at the moment. You can't just brush past your count! We will be talking about all that at some point. But for now….you have a point. I don't know how close to us any given “family” was at the time.
Steph: what counts as family for this ritual? Like. Obviously it doesn't care about blood. But would like….hmmm. idk, Colin? For Damian. Would he count? Or Bernard for Tim. Just. Really close friends? Dating? People you care for a certain amount? And how much care? Just. Who counts. Cause there's definitely civilians that randomly have a number on their wrist in any of those cases.
Tim: oh shit. The Fox family!
Tim: and the others. But. Goddmanit Tam is gonna murder me. Brb
Tim: and O, did you check on your dad?
Babs: I feel I have made an error. Brb