Title: The Anti-Life Equation
Rating: T+
Chapter: 1/?
Summary: Darkseid is after the pieces to The Anti-Life Equation and starts with the Bat Family. Jason/Dick
Author's Note: Hope everyone enjoys it. Just a timeline note, this is a little bit after Jason returns as Red Hood but other then that, it's pretty floating.
-x-
"Why do these things never work for me?"
"It's not the grappling hook." Barbara handed it back as they descended the stairs into the Batcave. "It's you. You never tighten them afterward. That's why they keep snapping."
"Hmm…" Dick inspected it closer. "I don't know… Jay, let me see yours."
There was a moment of uncomfortable silence, like there always seemed to be when they spoke now. Dick knew it hadn't gone unnoticed by Jason but he wrote it off as an adaption period from being back from the dead.
Jason handed him the gun in a way so their hands didn't touch. "Mine usually works fine."
"Usually." Dick looked at Barbara. "And I will bet you anything Jason isn't tightening it when he's done, are you Jason?"
"I do." They filtered onto the landing and stood in front of the monitor. "Not every time, but I don't want it to give out when I'm ten stories up."
Barbara laughed at Dick. "It's definitely you, then."
Suddenly, the cave shook.
"Did somebody leave the waterfall open?" Dick asked as the three of them jumped apart to avoid the falling debris.
There were crashes of thunder as sparks appeared in the air and congregated on the other side of the cave. They wove themselves together until there was a hole of light that crackled with electricity.
"What is that thing?" Jason asked.
Dick and Barbara looked at one another. "Boom Tube." They said together and dashed apart. Dick went to the weapons closet and pulled the heaviest artillery he could find while Barbara stood at the monitor, typing wildly.
Jason looked confused. "Am I supposed to know what that is?"
"It's a portal." Barbara called over her shoulder. "I'd get ready if I were you, they probably aren't here to make friendship bracelets." Image after image and file after file appeared on the screen, only to disappear in a red flash.
Jason hesitated before he joined Dick in gathering the weapons. Even during the chaos, they kept a healthy distance between them.
"Are you clear yet, Babs?" Dick asked.
"Almost done. There's Petabytes of information on this thing."
A cluster of sparks appeared in the portal's center.
"Out of time. They're coming through!" Dick handed Barbara her utility belt.
She grabbed it, then turned back to the computer. "Cover me, we can't risk someone hacking in."
The cluster flickered green and a parademon appeared in it's center. Then dozens more clawed their way in behind it. Dick turned to Jason. "Shoot to kill." He threw him a gun. "These things aren't human." He smiled at Jason.
The parademons burst into the room. Half of them went about destroying whatever they could find. The others made a direct line for the trio. Jason fired first and landed a shot right to the head, and the creature fell to the floor in crumbles.
While Dick struggled with one, another approached Barbara. "Batgirl!"
Barbara turned just in time to stab the parademon in the eye with her taser. Sparks shot between them and the parademon collapsed. She immediately went back to the computer.
"You're not doing a very good job!" She yelled.
"There's too many of them!" Dick pointed to the portal where more were pouring in.
"It's okay! I've… just about… got it!" The entire screen flashed red.
"Watch out!" Jason tackled Barbara to the ground as a parademon sailed above them and into the computer screen.
Dick got the upper hand in a struggle against two and flung them toward the portal, knocking others from the air, which left an opening. From his collection of weapons in the duffel bag on his shoulder, Dick withdrew an emp grenade and tossed it into the portal. Sparks flew in every direction, the parademons inside were consumed by lightning and then burnt to nothing. The portal closed.
"It worked!" Dick grinned as he turned back toward the monitor. Jason and Barbara had managed to get to their feet and cut parademons from the air.
The cave shook, harder than before and three more portals opened around them. And with it, a flood of parademons who all raced for Barbara.
She did her best to keep them at bay. Dick fought his way over, but by the time he got there, they had consumed Jason so much that Dick couldn't see him anymore and Barbara was nearly overwhelmed. She pulled every piece of artillery she could from the belt; smoke bombs, batarangs, guns, when one parademon fell, there were two more to take its place.
"What're we gonna do?!" Dick threw a pulse bomb into the cluster and upon explosion, Jason was able to break free. But when more came, they seemed to forget about him and tunneled toward Barbara.
"I think they're after you!" Jason called.
They were overwhelmed. A few parademons managed to cling onto Barbara and knock her off her feet. It was like an alarm had gone off, and they retreated, dragging Barbara behind them.
She pulled her batarang from her utility belt, twisted her ankle in the parademons grasp, and shot into the back of his head. He let go and she scrambled back toward Dick, only for three more to grab her legs and pull her back toward the portal. She clawed at the floor, but there was nothing to hold so she pulled a tracker from a pouch and threw the receiver toward Dick. The parademons dwindled as the hordes made their way back through the glowing doors.
"Find the black boxes!" She screamed.
Then, Barbara was dragged through the portal and disappeared and the cave went still.
"Where did they take her?" Jason asked.
"Those were parademons, they work for Darkseid. This is very not good…" Dick looked up. "Do you hear something?"
The beeping grew louder and Dick's eyes went wide. "They planted explosives!" All around the cave, small timers went off and emitted flashing red lights. "Move!"
Dick could feel the heat of the explosion on the back of his legs as the rushed up the stairs, scurried through the hidden door and pushed closed the Grandfather clock from the inside of Wayne Manor.
"We've lost our equipment, our base and our intel. This is very very not good."
-x-
"We just need to make it to Wayne Tech - Bruce has backups there. And we probably shouldn't draw too much attention to ourselves in the meantime." Dick pulled the heavy light switch and the lights flickered on, one at a time, until the whole garage was illuminated.
The garage to Wayne Manor looked very different than the one in the batcave. There weren't cars with stealth technology or armored motorbikes. Instead, there were Rolls Royce's that had been in the family for generations, red Italian sports cars, and black town cars for Bruce's journeys into Gotham.
Dick chuckled. "Any preferences?"
Jason ran his hand along the Veneno Roadster and smiled. "We're going for speed, right?"
-x-
The drive to Wayne Tech was awkward for Dick, but not because Jason didn't have anything to talk about.
"I think I might like this better than the Batmobile!" They raced through the woods on the outside of Gotham. Jason flipped another switch, and the car rocketed forward. "Bruce has been holding out on us!"
It was exactly the type of behavior that had attracted Dick to Jason in the first place but since their reunion, things had been tense. Of all the times Dick had wished for a miracle, or a miraculous return, he never dreamed it would come true. But it had, and he'd been - still was - overjoyed that Jason was back, he just never thought the trauma from their experience would keep them apart.
Dick wanted to reach over and touch him, or tell Jason he missed him, or he still loved him, but there was something on Jason's face that told Dick those words would hurt him the most. So they drove in relative silence. Jason entertained himself with the car, and Dick looked out the window as they took the main road into the city.