The Meeting
After getting cornered by the Batman, Jack agreed to talk about the past.
That was just a few minutes ago.
And here in the commissioner's office where Batman, Batgirl, Nightwing, Red Robin, Red Hood, and Robin stood Jack and Agent Fowler with someone else supposed to be by shortly.
Jack had a pretty Good Idea as to who but he didn't ask who.
Jack stood with his arms crossed with a scowl on his face glaring at the agent.
He still had of his standard equipment on him, the two guns the baton and Knife.
Still wearing his trench coat, hat and boots.
Fowler was expecting a not so happy reaction from Jack when he saw him next, he didn't feel any better seeing it for himself.
Finally, commissioner's secretary rung him on his Phone, "Commissioner? Your other guest has arrived!"
James pressed the button on the receiver, "Send him in!"
The door opened to reveal a man who appeared to be in his late thirties, dressed casual in jeans and a pollo shirt, he was well built to the point of which one would think he was wearing football pads under his shirt.
The made eye contact with the commissioner and smiled in greeting.
"You must be Commissioner Gordon…" The man said.
James nodded in confirmation
Jack recognized the man's voice instantly. Under his hat, his eyes were wide.
His arms dropped, with his shocked posture Barbara noticed it instantly and her hand on his shoulder just as fast.
"Jack…?" said the girl.
"Optimus…?" Batgirl's question was unheard be the young man.
The human holoform of the Prime heard Jack.
"It's good to see you again Jack…"
"The feeling isn't mutual!" came a sharp reply.
The man winced as he turned to address Jack.
"You have to understand Jack, we only wanted you to be safe…"
"By sending me to a damn orphanage where I wouldn't be able to protect myself!" Jack hissed.
Everyone Jumped at the ferocity of his exclamation.
"In case you didn't pick it up, had it not been for the timely arrival of Agent Fowler and his men I would have been strapped to a table, had my flesh stripped from my body and had implants placed in me that turn me into something even Metallo would be afraid of!" Jack said.
The Bat family had similar reactions to one another.
Most of them had wide eyes. Tim and Jason just about growled out in hearing about this.
Even Damian was shocked to hear this and very rare was he shocked to hear anything horrifying such as this.
Batman schooled his reaction but inside, there was a hail storm brewing.
'sounds like something the league needs to get in on!' he thought to himself.
And Batgirl had just gone numb after hearing that.
"I came to Gotham to disappear…" Jack looked down, "I was just going to be another face in the crowd, no one would know who I am, nor would anyone care, the batman sure as hell wouldn't have paid any mind to me, why would he…" he looked at the caped crusader, "He had more important things to do besides looking1 for a missing teenager with… parental issues…"
Batman sighed, "And you would be right…" He admitted.
"And to top it all off, If M.E.C.H. thought I was in this town they would have to search it with a fine-tooth comb and by the time were only half way done I would have heard about it and left already!"
"They have no morals when it comes to hunting their prey, just like Arachnid, so as far as I am concerned, Damn be the nightmare that come with it, I'll let the blood of the criminals stain my hands if it means innocent people are not harmed!"
"You have 12 already Jack…" Optimus started.
"…15, the day my father died was the day I started taking any attack on police personal. So many were buried that day…" he muttered the last part
Most everyone had been silent as the old aquatintist talk, until Nightwing spoke up, "We need to put those animals down!" he growled.
The bat clan agreed.
Commissioner Gordon sat in silence as he watched the exchange.
And then an idea hit him like a lightning bolt.
"What if I deputized you as a Gotham Protector in front of the populace?" the man asked the teen.
Optimus objected instantly only to shot down by Jack, "You lost any say of what happens to me when you tried to send me away!" he hissed.
Jack turned back to the man who brought up the idea.
"Would you want me to spearhead the fight back at them?"
"Not necessarily, but the three of you know of M.E.C.H fairly well from what I gather, so having you three leading the charge would be a good idea."
The man turned to Batman, "I want your teams to follow up behind them, follow what ever orders they give when it comes to taking them down…" Batman nodded.
"I'll rally the league when I go to the next meeting." He agreed.
"Take Jack to your place, he'll be able to rest better there…"
"I was able to rest perfectly well where I am now!" Jack growled.
"And I don't doubt it, but I want you to have back up should M.E.C.H. get bold!" Jim said putting a hand on Jacks shoulder.
"Besides, I don't think my daughter would like it too well if you went MIA all the sudden…" the man smirked as he said that.
"Oh, you-a, ha-ha-ha, you heard about that…" Jack said blushing slightly.
"She told me the night of the press conference."
"I am sorry those officers got hurt…"
"Pff, had you not been there I don't want to know what the casualties would have looked like!" the man said.
A rather somber silence passed over the group remembering hearing about that night.
Batgirl and Batman were the only ones in town that night.
Everyone else had Jobs out of town that they had to tend to.
"Commissioner?" The Prime asked.
Said man turned to the one who addressed him.
"Is it true about what you said about Jack? Do you really want to deputize him?"
Optimus was many thing's; a doubter was not one of them.
"From where I am standing, it is the best defense we have against M.E.C.H. if they decide to make an attack run against Gotham."
Optimus nodded, "then you have my team's support!" he said.
"After what I've done?" Jack asked, gaining the attention of the whole room.
"I have more blood on my hands than Batman could dream of having, as far as I am concerned, I don't deserve that kind of honor!" he said dejected.
"Nah man, you deserve that credit, after what Batman has explained to us and your past… we have your back, every step of the way!" came the voice of Jason Todd.
The next voice came from someone wasn't ready for, "And as dark as your past may be, we will all still think very highly of you!" Batgirl said.
The rest of the bat crew nodded in agreement.
"I am going to guess that means I have to move?" The younger man asked.
"Not necessarily, but we have more than enough room for another guest…" Nightwing stated.
Jack raised and eye brow at him… "Meaning you'd let me into your residents?"
The heads of all the heroes nodded.
Silence overtook the room.
Optimus looked at the dark knight.
"Can you guaranty Jack's safety in your residences?" the Prime asked
Batman nodded, "He can handle himself where his is now, but where we are, he would be more than safe with us."
"Looks like I gotta go pack than…" Jack said with a smirk.
Suddenly he looked down, "A hot shower sounds really good too!" he said quietly.
Nightwing smiled, "You'd get that and a lot more bunking with us!" he said.
"Y'all took a better liking to me than I thought you would…" Jack said.
Damian spoke, "Any one who fights for the innocent will have our respect, even if the way they fight is… 'unorthodox'." He said with a smirk.
Everyone nodded.
"Jack?" Batman spoke.
Everyone's attention was on him.
"Your past is dark, and I know you weren't expecting to be getting my help, and I can't fault you for taking the dark path you have. And I won't stop you from killing M.E.C.H. personal. Just promise me afterwards, when this hell passes, that you'll seek us out for help."
Jack nodded. "I guess that's fair…"
"One more thing… when we find M.E.C.H. and we WILL find M.E.C.H. give us a chance to knock Silas around." The batman said, the bat clan members nodded.
"We all what a piece of him!" Tim growled.
Jack nodded, "Go for it…" he said with a smile.
Jack now had allies,
allies that he could fall back on,
allies he could confide in,
allies he count on,
allies that would help him.
So, I had this chapter kind of hung up on the doc's folder for the last eight weeks and I have slowly been adding to it.
I didn't really have a good place to cut it off, so I made a few adjustments.
Don't hate on me too badly I know I did say I'd try to make these chapters longer, problem is I am in school now, and my time for this has been cut massively short. Thank you Texas, if I had the ability to just go to the damn fire academy instead of having all the weird regulations I gotta go through…
Or that may just my local college fire school, I don't know.
But anyway, thank you guys so much for reading this chapter, if you liked it, fav, follow and review, And I will see y'all later!