The five of us stood up on a rooftop in the East End. A red hue hung over the sunset, promising some much-needed rain. Robin was sweating to death. Batgirl was fanning herself with her cape. Danny was making little snow clouds to blow over himself and the other three. I was happily soaking in the heat. There hadn't been any serious crime in the hour we'd been out. A rarity in Gotham. While Bats was scanning every nook and cranny with binoculars, I was practicing my juggling. I'd gotten to four ectoballs. With any luck, I could get to the point of hardly looking at them. That'd be pretty cool in a fight. "Hey Danny, throw me another one. I want to see if I can catch another ghost's."
"Alright," he muttered, tossing another one my way. I tried to catch it in my energy field I was using to guide the balls, but it was just off beat and ended up hitting another one. The balls burst and a wave of energy smacked into me. It knocked me off the edge of the building, but I grabbed the railing before I could fall. "Shadow!"
"Are you okay?" Batgirl questioned.
I pulled myself up, fighting down a snort. When I saw there faces, I actually started laughing. Robin smacked me in the back of the head, but I just laughed harder. "That hurt," I giggled. "But that was funny."
I could just see the eyeroll going on behind their masks. "Hey B, any luck?" Danny asked Batman.
He shook his head. "Still quiet."
"Well if it's quiet over here, mind if we split off and scout Old Gotham? Promise I'll watch the kids," Batgirl remarked.
"Hey, we're not kids," I argued.
The group of four glared down at my smoking jacket and crisped up white hair with disbelief. I took an involuntary step back before she continued. "Couldn't hurt to have a wider spread."
"That's fine. I'll keep patrolling around here. Call in if there's anything serious, and message Ethan if you have any criminals to pick up."
"Thanks Bats. We'll catch up to you in…"
"Just meet back at the rendezvous point at three."
"Can do."
"Want a lift?" Danny asked, holding his hand out to Robin. He took it and Danny started flying them both up into the air.
"Batgirl?" I asked, doing the same.
"So long as you don't blow yourself up again," she jabbed, grabbing on.
"Ugh, fair enough," I grinned, grabbing onto her and chasing after Danny and Robin. "So how'd school go this year?"
"Well I didn't get attacked by any students dressing up like animals, so fairly well."
"True, true."
"So how'd you do?"
"Fairly certain I failed most of my classes. Course I didn't try in any of them either."
"What are you going to do when you're out of here and you actually have to do good?"
"I listen good enough. And I'll have to take all these classes again once I get back home. I did pretty good in the Latin trimester though. Never seen a school that teaches Latin before."
"Private schools for you. Mine only offered German and Spanish."
"Hey, let's stop down over here and walk the rest of the way," Danny called back, lowering down into an alleyway.
I shot him a thumbs up and followed after him, landing gently on the ground and letting go of Batgirl. "Lights out Danny," I said, letting rings of fire spread out from my waist. Soon Danny did the same, and we stood in our human costumes.
"Alright, come on, it's right this way," Robin called, running out around the corner. The three of us went after him, dodging streetwalkers and heading towards the small crowd surrounding the brightly lit restaurant. A few pedestrians shouted out about stupid kids, but we laughed and ignored them, well all of us but Batgirl, who was shouting to slow down and calm down.
We made it to the crowd, watching as a man with a moustache in a Batman costume cut a ribbon in front of the doors. Applause followed, and the doors sprung open. Just in time. The crowd filed inside, forming a line. In front of us were two teenagers dressed as Batman and Catwoman, and behind us three little kids dressed as Danny, Batgirl, and Shadowrule. Robin struck up a conversation with the couple, who were apparently having a date night to celebrate their six month anniversary of being together.
"Those costumes look great. Where'd you get them?" the girl asked.
"Oh, our dad got them for us. He knows a really good tailor," I answered. "So what made you pick Catwoman?"
"Come on, we all saw her and Batman in the news, partnering up. I wouldn't be surprised if they were a little more than friends," she said conspiratorially.
The four of us broke into giggles before Danny said, "Actually, we're a bit new to town. Haven't heard anything about it."
"New to town and your dad's letting you run around Gotham City by yourself? I'm seventeen and it's like pulling teeth to get my mom let me out of the apartment," the guy said.
"Dan and Ellie are new to town, we're not," Robin piped up, giving us some new identities. "Our Batgirl's on babysitting duty though. She's the oldest."
"Yeah, Robby knows the city like the back of his hand. And Red over there keeps us out of any dark alleyways," I chimed in.
"Well hey, it looks like the tables are going to be pretty full when we get to the front, want to sit with us?" the Catwoman offered.
"Sure, what's y'all's names?"
"I'm Mary, this is Warren. What about you?"
"I'm Dan, that's Robert, Ellie, and everybody calls ginger here Red."
"So you dressed up for your names?" she giggled.
"Thought it'd be cool to cover all the sidekicks, and it worked out perfect."
"Next!"
The couple looked to the guy grumbling at the counter. "Guess that's us."
"You know what, why don't we all order together. We can cover your dinner," I offered, stepping up with them.
"No, no, that's too much."
"No, country courtesy. To celebrate your night," I insisted.
"You know what? Cool. You guys are awesome," Warren said, waving for me to step forward while I dug for the cash in my utility belt. All six of us put in our orders. It came to around a hundred bucks. I told the teen behind the counter to keep the change before we got our food and sat down. Said change was probably more than he made in a week, and Mary said as much, but I waved her off.
"How do you have so much cash? B never gives us money like that," Robin asked.
"Have you ever asked? I just ask for odd amounts at different intervals so he doesn't catch on that I'm just stashing it for shenanigans. Not to mention the last time I asked for some money to hang out with Kris for the day, he gave me five hundred bucks. What is anyone going to spend that much money on?"
"He would spend that much money, that's why he did it," Batgirl added, rolling her eyes. "I've seen him out at parties before. He throws cash like it's just dust on his shoe."
"That's just crazy to me."
"Is that your dad?" Warren asked.
"Yeah. His job makes good money. Hence the costumes."
"I'm just glad you decided to spend it on us," he joked. "So what's it like moving to Gotham?"
"Definitely different," Danny said, shaking his head. "Really gloomy here."
"Gotta look for the light when it comes. Like have you seen how clear the sky has been? I've lived here my whole life and I've never seen it like that."
I took a long sip of my Phantom shake while Danny and Robin stared at me, much to Batgirl's confusion. "I think I like city life. Always something to do, even if it feels busy sometimes. More fun to listen to people talk in Jersey too. Illinois is kind of flat in the conversational department."
A sudden crashing noise stole our attention away from our talk and food to the front door. Coming through the smashed glass was a madman on a pogo stick. Other patrons started rising from their seats with gasps, ready to bolt, but I shot the others a look to stay down and continue as normal. With a cackled laugh, the man landed on the ground, shouting, "A monument to my second greatest foe, Batman? And all of you, wearing his likeness. This just can't do. The Toymaker will—"
"Excuse me sir!" I shouted, raising one hand, holding a burger in the other. Warren and Mary's eyes nearly popped out of their skulls. "Excuse me, Toy-dude, don't cha think it's a bit rude, crashing through the glass like that? The door was, like, extremely unlocked."
"Ellie, are you nuts?" Warren hissed.
"Watch me," I said, shooting him a wink as Toymaker's glare fell on our table.
"Insolent little… you're just like him! Out to ruin me, when all I bring is fun!"
"Actually you're bringing an interruption to a lovely meal with some new friends, so if you could kindly leave before this becomes serious, that'd be great."
The pudgy man hopped back on his stick and crashed down on top of our table. I glared down at where his toy had punched through my shake. "Children should know when to play, and when to be quiet. And something about those costumes tells me you don't know how to tell the difference."
"You're wrong."
"Oh? Ready to say you're sorry?"
"No, you're wrong about the other thing. Because I can promise you a two of three average at this table aren't wearing costumes." In response to the dumbfounded look on his face, I stood up, taking a bite of my burger while rings of fire spread over my waist. "You know, this was supposed to be a good time, ditch the Bat for the night and have some fun, but you just HAD TO RUIN IT!" A red ectoblast knocked him in the chest, throwing him across the room and into another table whose occupants had cleared out. "But let me just tell you, I'm not in the mood."
"W-what? You're… Then that means…" Mary's eyes went wide.
"Sorry 'bout that," I remarked, rubbing my neck. "Mind if we explain after we deal with this guy?" The two of them nodded dumbly while Danny, Robin, and Batgirl flew out from beside me to go deal with Toymaker. I activated the communicator in my ear, calling, "Shadow to Batman, we've got a situation."
"What's happening?"
"Toymaker's crashed the grand opening of that new Bat Burger place. We're handling him now."
"You mean the grand opening you ditched patrol for?"
"Ha, no," I denied, scratching my arm.
"I knew that's where you were going. I also suspected with an opening like that, trouble was a possibility. Part of why I didn't stop you."
"And the other part?" I heard his snort on the other side of the line before it cut off completely. "He just laughed at me. Batman just laughed at me." Rolling my eyes, I flew over to a crowd of civilians and started ushering them out to counter their urges to pull out cameras. I turned to see Robin landing a punch on Toymaker's face. Blood splattered from his nose before the man covered his face and curled away in fear. My heart seemed to spike and I felt an uncomfortable shaking come over me. I clenched my eyes shut and took a long deep breath. Just calm down.
The snap of a cape pulled me out of my wandering mind. "You seemed to handle this situation well. Good job taking crowd control. You're not usually as mindful of it."
"Thanks Bats," I muttered, turning around. "They seemed to have things handled anyway."
He looked me up and down while I fit my fists against my hips, cocking out a smile. Didn't reach my eyes though. His look said 'talk approaching.' Avoiding that like death itself, I decided to finish a conversation. "Mary, Warren, I assume you want an explanation," I called, running past Bruce. The couple was latched onto each other just out of reach of the disaster zone.
"You're the real deal? Like, the real deal?" Mary demanded.
"Real as the air you breathe."
"So the names?"
"Danny and Danielle Phantom, Robby Robin, Red for Batgirl, a bit too convenient. Sorry to have to lie to you. We weren't exactly expecting a working break, but I'm glad we were here. Are you okay?"
"We're fine," Warren said, nodding rapidly. "When you called him over, I thought for sure he was going to hurt you."
"Sorry, guess I'm just a little over-compulsive. I hope this didn't ruin your night."
"No, no, a little excitement never hurt anyone. And we got to sit down for a meal with four of Gotham's heroes. Who can say they've done that?" Mary supplied.
"That would mark you and… Flash, I guess?" They started laughing, at what I could only guess to be the ridiculousness of the situation before we were broken up by Batgirl flipping down beside us.
"Batman wants to talk to you. He's having the rest of us handle things from here."
"Great. Have a great evening you two, and happy anniversary."
"Thanks Shadow!" With a wave, I turned on my heels and ran towards the door Batman was lurking near.
"Outside," was all he said, gliding through the door and out to the street. Police lights flashed down the whole block. A safety barricade had been made around the damage. His grappling gun shot up, I followed.
My boots landed softly on the gravelly roof while I crossed my arms. "What is it Bruce? I thought you said you expected us to run off tonight. It wasn't even my idea, it was all Robin."
"You know that's not what this is about. You didn't act like yourself tonight."
"Maybe myself is different. What's wrong with that?"
"What's wrong is that I know what's causing it. You said you were okay. If you're not, I have to know."
"How could I be? After everything that happened? It's fucking messed up Bruce. One second things are business as usual, the next… I know it's been months, everything got fixed, I should feel fine."
"I don't expect you to be."
"What?" My eyes snapped up to his face, but it read just as blank as usual.
"I don't expect you to be alright. I've spent my entire adult life dressing up like a bat every night because I saw what you did. Does that sound alright to you?"
"No. I don't know. Maybe? I don't know anymore. One second I'm fine and the next it's like it's happening all over again! All it took was seeing a few freaking drops of blood and I froze over faster than a computer after a bad update."
"Just take a second to breathe Shadow. Count to ten. You're running too hot."
Finally noticing the fire burning around my hands, I took his advice, slowly breathing in and out while counting to ten. The fire shrivelled away. "What am I supposed to do B? You're the one with all the answers."
"This time, I'm not. It's going to take time, and it's not necessarily something I can help you with."
"I don't want this to be on my mind. They're okay, but every time I think about them I see charred bodies, not my family." I closed my eyes. My fists were shaking. "I took crowd control because I was afraid someone would get hurt. I think about it more now than I did before. It wasn't because I was afraid of the fight. That's okay, isn't it?"
His hand came down on my shoulder. "That's more than okay. What we do every night, it's not about fighting criminals. It's not even about winning. We're here to make sure all the horrible things that have happened in our lives never happen to anyone else."
I opened my eyes and looked up at him. "Is it alright if I hug you? Because I really need a hug right now."
"Of course," he answered, gently pulling me against his symbol and letting his cape drape over me.
"I'm glad we landed on your doorstep," I muttered, wrapping my arms behind his back for a moment before finally pushing away. "This may sound weird, coming from a ghost, but do you think we go somewhere after we die?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"I just… I was wondering if you thought they knew about all the stuff you've done, about saving Gotham, and the world, and us."
"I like to believe they do." His eyes traced the skyline to the north. The sun was long gone, but a bright signal lit up the sky. "Think you can get back to work?"
"As long as you can keep up."
"Just watch me."
