Last chapter and then there's the epilogue!
Kudos to: Evening Raven and Molly Grace 16! Super sized cookies to you! (::)
ENJOY!
"So what's this big surprise?" Barry gave his nephew a suspicious look as he followed him through the corridors of Mount Justice.
Wally laughed."If I told you it wouldn't be a surprise! Just come and see Uncle B. Please?" Seeing Barry's nod of assent, Wally raced ahead of him into the living room.
Barry silently followed him, resigning himself to the idea of not knowing until his nephew was ready to tell him. In the living room, Barry was somewhat surprised to find the rest of the team already there with their mentors, minus the Atlantians. Apparently the Bat Family had pulled some strings, because Superman was there beside Black Canary and Wonder Woman. From the way Wonder Woman was watching the Kryptonian, he gathered that she was in charge of making sure he didn't bolt.
Conner was keeping his distance, staying close to M'Gann.
"Anyone else know what the heck's going on?" Barry asked. The other Leaguer's shook their heads.
"Absolutely zilch." Ollie answered, darting an accusing look at Artemis. For her part, she blithely ignored him. "They just said they needed us all here for some sort of surprise."
Recognize. Aquaman. Zero. Six. Aqualad. B. Zero. Two. The computer chimed, announcing the arrival of the two absentees. Robin immediately sat up from where he was slouched on the couch and waved to Kaldur.
"Hey! What took you so long!"
Kaldur smiled. "My apologies. We came as soon as was feasible." He looked the rest of the gathering over, seeming to be taking a mental roll call. "All is in readiness?"
"Ok, now what's going on here?" Canary asked, folding her arms with an amused smile.
"Simple." Robin didn't even look up from his computer. "Coyote's family told him to stop hiding, so he's finally taking his mask off for you guys. We kind of needed you all here together for that." He smiled.
Their reactions were priceless!
After several moments of the heroes simply getting their astonishment out of their systems, the dark knight quieted them with a look. A look that was soon turned on Robin, who apparently was immune to said look or was a really good actor. The boy wonder even went so far as to cast a cheeky grin up at his foreboding mentor.
Artemis calmly leaned into one of the halls. "You can come in now."
The heroes eyed their protégés curiously, wondering why Kaldur and Artemis had weapons in their hands, and the rest of the teens looked ready to jump into action at the slightest signal.
Coyote nervously entered the room in full costume, trailed as always by the ever faithful hyena. Nervousness showed clearly through his movements and posture. The heroes frowned, something seemed off about his appearance. The other teens moved closer to him, as if to offer moral support, and that seemed to make him feel a little easier. He pulled off his mask without flourish or fanfare. It suddenly became very obvious what had been off about his appearance.
"Joker!"
Hands flew for weapons, heroes made a rush to take down the madman before he could cause any mischief. But they soon found themselves facing two astonishing facts. First, they found their own apprentices standing against them, defending the pale freak.
And second?
The dark knight didn't make a single move to apprehend the clown!
"Ok, now I'm really confused." Barry groaned, looking from the teens gathered around the Joker and back to the motionless Batman. "Clearly there's something we're missing here…"
"Anyone care to enlighten us?" Superman folded his arms.
Damon squared his shoulders, looking the heroes defiantly in the eye as he stepped past the protective ring his friends had formed around him. "My name's Damon. For the past two years I've been living on the streets as 'Coyote the Trickster'. But before that, I roamed the darkness of Gotham as 'JJ, the Son of the Joker'. My mother is Dr. Harleen Quinzel, 'Harley Quinn. My father is the Joker."
Diana was the first to find her voice. "The son of the Joker!"
Kaldur placed a hand on Damon's shoulder. "As this team has already shown, parentage means nothing in terms of who is most trustworthy."
"If you kicked me off the team, I'd understand." Damon said calmly. "But my family and I thought you ought to know. And if you did decide to do that, there won't be any of that child services rubbish. I have a home and the doors are open to me for the first time in a long time."
"I take it you've seen your grandmother then." Batman stated.
Damon nodded. "Yes sir. I stayed away to keep my small family safe, but she told me Joker's been there several times since the night I supposedly 'died' in Gotham. Friends of the family helped stand him off."
Ollie quietly caught hold of one long strand of Damon's green black hair, running his thumb over it. Damon held still. Given the reactions of his friends, he was beginning to understand that people wanting to touch his skin and hair to assure themselves it was the real deal was a normal reaction.
"Suddenly what little you told me about having a psychotic father makes a whole lot more sense…"
Damon winced and nodded. "…unfortunately…"
Wally shuffled, unable to stand still for very long. "So… If no one's going to attack anyone else, can we all sit down and explain things to you?"
"Your move Jo."
Danae leaned forward to rest her elbows on the table, grinning widely at her elder brother. Leosani silently hid a smile, she'd seen what her godchild had done. The three were seated around the elderly Indian woman's kitchen table enjoying a quiet evening together. Sitting in front of them on the table was one of several homemade game boards Leosani's late husband had made several years back.
Joseph looked the board of Chinese Checkers over, dark eyes assessing his options. After a long moment he glared at his sister. "Some move." He grumbled. "You completely screwed up the move I had planned!"
Danae put on a false contrite expression, chewing on one finger as she pretended to examine the board. "I did? …oh no, I'm sorry Joseph. I didn't mean to."
"Ha! A likely story." Her brother snorted.
A black gloved hand slipped between Joseph and Leosani. "Move the marble along this route."
All three scrambled back from the table, whirling around to face the intruder. They were astonished to find the dark knight standing in the middle of their kitchen, his long black cloak seeming to drink in the warm light of their home and release nothing in return.
Leosani folded her arms. "I assume you're the Batman?" the dark knight nodded. "So little is known about you. Who would've thought you were a talented player of Chinese checkers?"
The dark knight didn't answer.
Joseph and Danae weren't so certain. Both were fingering the hilts of the blades they often wore on their belts. When visits from the Joker during the evening hours were a reality, one didn't run the risk of being caught unarmed.
"How did you get past the dogs?" Joseph growled.
"I didn't hurt them, if that's what you're worried about." Batman answered. "Damon finally informed the league of his true origins."
"Is he alright?" Danae asked, worry overturning her caution for a moment.
Batman nodded. "He's fine." He eyed the two teens.
"These are my god children." Leosani explained, catching that look. "And I know this isn't a social visit, so clearly you're here for a reason."
"I came to discuss the future of Damon Cliffrunner with you."
Leosani turned and headed for the backdoor. "Come with me then. We'll discuss it elsewhere. Joseph, Danae, you two stay here." She paused, giving her two charges a glare. "If I catch either of you eavesdropping, or rearranging that board, I'll skin you alive."
Once the door closed behind them, Leosani caught the dark knight's arm and motioned for him to listen at the door. He leaned forward to listen, careful to keep the curiosity off his face. He could hear the two teens speaking on the other side.
"You going to go after them?" Joseph asked.
The tone of his sister's voice was a good indicator that she probably had disdain written all over her face. "Duh! You?"
Her brother laughed. "Yep." A soft tapping sound came to their ears.
"What'd you do that for?"
Joseph chuckled. "It was my move anyway, and that move was a good one. I wanted to take it before I forgot. And this…" there came two more tapping sounds. " This is to see how much Leosani actually pays attention to the board. Now come on. We'll take the living room window in case she or Batman's watching the doors."
The dark knight cast a respectful glance at the old woman as they listened to the two teens leave the kitchen.
Leosani smirked and re-entered the kitchen. She quickly bustled around the room locking the doors and twitching the curtains closed over the windows. Then she returned to the table, carefully studying the board.
"You know your godchildren well." Batman commented.
"I do." She chuckled in agreement. "But I also know teenagers in general. Curious as a pack of kittens, that lot. You give them even a hint of mystery and they'll dive in headfirst. You can't tell me your Robin isn't the same way."
"Diving in headfirst can get you killed in our line of work. Robin's well trained to survive." The dark knight answered, taking the chair Leosani offered. Seeing the disbelieving look on the face of the woman across the old wooden table he added, "Robin may take the leap like any other teenager, and he'll probably throw in a couple of flips while he's at it. But at least he'll look first."
Leosani chuckled and nodded, still studying the board. "As has been demonstrated, I can't really say the same for Joseph and Danae. It'll take them at least five minutes to realize we aren't outside."
"Ten."
She didn't argue with him. "Ah, there's what the clever scamp did…!" she moved the marbles back to their correct positions and gave the dark knight her full and undivided attention. "There, now that that's settled, what did you want to talk to me about?"
"I'm not leaving Wally!" Damon laughed, slipping the last fur pelt in his backpack.
Wally was leaning against the doorframe of Damon's bedroom, watching him with worried eyes. "But you're packing!" he answered. "You're moving out. And everyone knows there aren't any zeta beams out near where you live. We can't just fly out and pick you up before a mission, especially if it's one of those touch and go ones."
Damon laughed, shouldering his pack and slipping past Wally out into the hall. He waited for the redhead to move then shut his door. Blithely ignoring the speedster's chatter, which was getting dangerously close to speedster talk. After that point no one but another speedster would be able to understand him. Robin had a little luck with Wally's speed talking habits, but even the boy wonder seemed to get overwhelmed after a while.
At which point he'd tell Wally to slow down or shut up.
As they entered the living room, Damon tuned in for a moment a decided that Wally was making that point about the lack of zeta beams in the Nazlini area again.
"Hey Damon." Zatanna called. "What's up?"
"Damon's leaving!" Wally called, zipping past her to get something from the kitchen. He was back about six seconds later, leaning on the couch as he munched on what appeared to be the bowl of leftover banana pudding.
Artemis looked up from her pile of arrow parts. "What?"
"Why's Damon leaving?" M'Gann asked, floating out of the kitchen.
"Damon is not leaving." Kaldur reassured.
Robin laughed, turning slow, lazy cartwheels. "Technically he is leaving, he's going home. But he's not quitting the team, if that's what you're all worried about. He'll still come to the mountain pretty often, and he'll still go on missions with us. It's not like you'll never see him again…. Well, unless his holo-belt malfunctions and he's stuck in 'invisible' mode."
"I'm not falling off the face of the planet guys!" Damon laughed. "I'm going home! Be happy for me."
"We are happy for you Damon, we're just worried. Granted he hasn't been out there in a while, but what if the Joker or Harley decided to pay Leosani a visit again?" Artemis asked. She put another drop of glue on the arrow shaft she was working on and slid a new arrow head into place. Damon was going to miss helping her put her arrows together every time Ollie gave her the raw parts.
"Neither of my parents has seen me with dyed skin." He answered. "When Mom and Pops were in town Mamaw would call me off school for one reason or another and I'd ditch the makeup fast. They would've had a frigging cow for my 'hiding my proud lineage' or some nonsense like that."
No. They would've had a cow because their son was wearing makeup. Mini Me answered via the psychic link. That cracked a couple smiles.
"Probably." Damon agreed. "And as for my parents, the Two-Wolves helped Leosani stand Pops off. So long as I can disguise my voice so I don't sound like their son or the Coyote trickster, they won't think twice about Mamaw having yet another Indian living with her."
"What about Naomi?" Conner asked, scratching Wolf behind the ear.
Damon winced. "Yeah, she presents more of a difficulty. We'll hide her in the barn for now. It's not a permanent solution, but it'll do for now until we come up with something better."
"So… how are you going to get here for missions?" M'Gann asked.
Artemis snorted. "Yeah, 'cause as much as I hate to admit it, Baywatch has a point. We can't fly out to get you before every mission."
"We don't have to." Robin completed yet another cartwheel, smoothly transitioning into a series of\ck flips. "The League's going to install a zeta tube out there near his house as soon as they find a good site for it. He'll be able to zeta into the mountain whenever he likes."
Wally took a short reprieve from his banana pudding to pat the boy wonder on the head in one of his brief upright moments. "I think it's pretty well established that you have most of the answers Rob." He teased. "You don't have to show off."
He is the son of the Batman. Mini Me commented dryly. Though I've still got some doubts about the dark knight's supposed omnipotence.
Robin cackled taking a leap over the back of the couch in a twisting move that the rest of the team had no name for. "Are you kidding? I hack the Bat Computer's restricted files every chance I get because next to me he makes some of the best firewalls. I swear, even the files of his files have files!"
"Um…I'm trying to decide whether that's OCD or just incredibly organized." Wally answered, going back to his pudding. He was very nearly finished.
Damon snickered. "You know, I envy you Robin."
The others looked at him curiously.
"Why?"
"Because you've got a pretty good chance of seeing Batman's initial reaction when he watches the video and hears Wally accusing him of being OCD." Damon grinned impishly at their thunderstruck expressions.
Wally nearly spit the last spoonful of pudding, swallowing it down with a valiant effort.
"Are you to be assigned the protection of a city?" Kaldur's face was amused as he carefully steered the conversation into safer territory.
Damon shook his head. "I can't take Nazlini under my wing, much as I'd like to. The Coyote trickster showing up in the same town the Joker's son grew up in is tempting fate a little too much for my taste. Batman says I'll probably be put on a rotation, accompanying you on patrols at night with your mentors. Unless, someone decides to mentor me, in which case I'd be patrolling with them."
"We'll be looking forward to it." Robin assured him, pointedly ignoring the still spluttering speedster.
Team. Report to the missions room. Batman's voice said over the com.
(sigh) only the epilougue to go... If it weren't for that series of one shots I'd be really sad to see this story end...
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Until next time...