This version of Cass is not canon as she still has her ability to "read" people and her speech is still non-existent. Batwing (the character (from batman: batman bad blood + batman inc. vol. I) not the aerial vehicle) will not be showing up. Batwoman (batman: bad blood version) will, just not in this chapter. Also this chapter is very slow
Damian X xx X first person cause i feel like it
They had no right to father's trust, or grayson's for that matter, but seeing as he gave it out to everyone that point was moot. The other sentiments stood, as I wasn't given and inch of slack simply because of a life I no longer lead, and they come with altered genes, godly powers, the ability to blow up an entire world sitting on their chest cavity and an affinity for lethal violence and where was father's distrust now? And for that matter where was grayson's initial caution?
I was certain that Grayson's attempt at diplomacy was going to fail, for several reasons, not the least of which being the fact that we knew nothing of them, other then they were a group of individuals called the "Avengers" who had too much moral ambiguity and only defended the world from external peril. We should have brought the Martian or Grayson's pet witch girl, someone who could be in and out of their minds in a heartbeat. There is no doubt at all that they've all killed each with varying levels of remorse, and that was reason enough to enter their minds as readily as they entered our world.
Unwrapping my food, I opened my mouth to broach the subject of their motives when I noticed the sound of someone climbing up the side just as we had to let the archer and the assassin, who insisted on coming with us. I opened the window and Cain land gracefully and noiselessly on her feet next to me and upon surveying the room put her guard up without letting it show in her stance, effectively becoming unreadable to everyone. She walked over to Drake, sat down, and continued to gaze with faux passivity at the outliers. I was glad she had just wrapped up a case, she would be an asset today with her ability to tell if someone was lying and what about and even discern to truth before the lie was even told. I just thought that she would be here a bit later because she was supposed to be packing to go back to Hong Kong.
There was a yawn and everyone turned to look at Drake who seemed like he was ready to fall asleep, but I could see that while his needless exhaustion was very real, he was by no means unalert and he carried himself to easily attack or defend should he need to.
Not that I cared either way but it was reassuring to know that, if needed Drake would be welcome distraction so the others could retreat, that was all
Bruce W. X xx X
What he was about to do was risky, Bruce knew that, but he also knew that they'd find out no matter what if they had half a mind to do so. It was better to make it come across as a leap of faith than a forced hand. So while the maverick group of extra-dimensionals were eating, tentatively at first then with with extreme gusto (save the Clint and Natasha, Clint ate like a normal human being at a normal pace and Natasha ate like she would prefer to test it for poison first), unrelenting crusader spoke, "Dick trusts you, so I will make an effort to do the same. To that end…" he looked to the others and, with a nod from them, removed the cowl the that hid much more than his identity,
He was interrupted before he could introduce himself or the people to his immediate right as the rest of them decided to introduce themselves and Dick went first,"He is Bruce Wayne, owner and CEO of Wayne Enterprises and this is my family: Barbra Gordon while she is not here, you know her as Oracle, and she still has both her parents, i still think of her as my sister. Obviously my name is Dick Grayson and besides Barbra I'm the oldest, Cassandra Cain was batgirl but decided that wasn't for her, she doesn't talk often and you'd do well not to be on her bad side. You wanna go next Jason?"
He was halfway through his second double burger and he didn't seem to appreciate the interruption, "Thanks asshole." he spat sarcastically, but he went anyway, "Like he said I'm Jason Todd and no son of his but I was the second Robin and I am still legally dead. Meet my replacement." he smirked at Tim the way he did me at the cave yesterday.
He was immediately looked up from his food and coffee, alert and annoyed, "For the last time! I am not your replacement! Why you ju- Ow! Seriously dude?" we looked at him pointedly, "Oh yeah. Right. Sorry, I'm Timothy Drake-Wayne, but please call me Tim, and because I don't want to die imma wait until Steph gets up to introduce herself."
Then Cassandra looked pointedly at the youngest of the group, but he just made the "tt" noise he always makes when he'd rather be slicing someone to bits and took a huge bite. Then all of us were looking at him, expectant and with varying levels of annoyance and or amusement "What?" then he gave in, "Fine! My name is Damian Wayne, blood son of Bruce Wayne and Talia al Ghul and now Robin. I was to inherit the demon's head, until my mother went mad" and then he went back to ignoring people and eating the only vegetarian food he found palatable at the dinner he got all the food from.
The was a tense silence on until the Tim busted out laughing. Almost everyone else followed suit. "God Dami you're so dramatic!" Dick barely managed to whease out because he'd choked on his food in surprise.
"What was it you once said Dick? 'Blood thirsty 'smore like it'? Truer words were never spoken!" Timothy goaded
"Shut it, Drake." Damian snaped
"Drake-Wayne" was Tim's come back
"A name you want for it's inheritance no doubt. Not that you'll see it of course" his son sneered
**god I can't much more of this, it's been going on for to long** then his com came online and Bruce leapt up to go deal with a shipment at the docs, the rest of what was on his plate getting snacted up by Jason who hated when food went to waste.
Jason X xx X
"I have to go" said Bruce standing from where he was eating. We'd only just gotten in the building and already "dad of the year" Bruce was leaving for:
"League business"**of course I'm right.** Jason thought smugly, **oh well, this will go much faster without him anyway,** he grabbed his burger and before he took a bite he muttered "make small talk" in Russian to his brothers.
He was surprised to see Natasha roll her eyes but pretended not to notice until she spoke up. He wasn't going to try her hard to get information from them because it could be easily found on their computer and the intel would probably be a lot more reliable anyway, despite the hacking they'd have to do. So it was only out of boredom that he wanted to hear them slip and say something they didn't mean to. At least that what he convinced himself of, **this is Dick's stupid idea and the sooner he realizes that it wont work, the sooner I can get back to running an empire** then again that's what he'd said to himself about the hell spawn and the little bitch hasn't tried to kill him lately.
When she spoke it was with faux indignation which melted into a seductive tone that was just as fake even though this time she was trying to hide the way the clearly disingenuous (at least to him they were) like poison honey, "You should speak English in front of your guests, besides I'm sure you'd much rather get right down to the nitty gritty?"
There were a lot of things Jason wanted to know, like who 'altered' her for example, but he wasn't so much of an asshole to ask her that right out the bat, especially when he didn't know whether or not her team knew, or as unbelievable as it maybe, if even she did. So, the swain flirted back
"And let slip all the fun we could have? Nunca!" he said as thought the idea appalled him
On his right two seats over, Damian snickered, "Don't start, Todd, she's out of your reach. Besides redheads have always been more Grayson's forté. Isn't that right?" Dick looked away in embarrassment and went back at him with:
"And, apparently ravenettes are yours. By the way, did you two finally decide what to name the dog?" Damian bushed.
Blushed! It had to cuter than Tim yawning, or that time Dic-
From the other side of the table someone snickered, cutting off his next thought. Dick, Tim, and Jason were pretending to have had forgotten that we had an audience, Dami was pretending they didn't exist, and Cass was still monitoring, so the sudden input 'surprised' three of the five of them. Damian was annoyed, or at least he pretended to be, and Cass was unmoved, or least she pretended to be.
"You're all so eager to tear each other to pieces that you cannot even enjoy a meal! How petty!" said the long blond haired man sitting opposite Dick
Before any of them had the time get offended The Captain stepped in, "Really Thor? You're going to antagonize the people feeding you? Besides I don't think you have room to talk, the last time you talked to Loki, he was trying to kill everyone including you, your mom, and your dad he turned to us as frustrated as he was tall, the man was a mountain, and continued, "On behalf of of my friend, I apologize."
"Apology accepted, Rogers. Now, please continue and keep your associate in line." it was Damian, of course, with his overly formal speech. **That kid needs to learn how to talk like a normal person** Jason mused.
Their resident tech guy seemed to have a similar thought, because he was looking at Dami the way the way Jason saw Tim look at an open case sometimes, "Hey kid, where'd you learn to talk like that?" Steve face-palmed at his bluntness, and Timmy looked like he was resisting the urge to laugh.
It was Dick's reaction that worried him. His brother looked at Cassandra, and when she nodded, he paled. Having actually been taught by the league after the pit, jason could more or less guess what Cassandra had confirmed. "D, you don't have to if you don't want to te-"
"Shut up, Grayson. It's not as bad as Father, Jason and Cassandra would have you believe." he turned to look at Tony, "well Stark if you must know, while English is not my native tongue, my mother felt it was imperative that to speak it better than most Americans. She told me that it would endear me to my father, and make him more inclined to entrust his empire to me. So she found someone well versed in formal, conversational, and different types of colloquial english."
And while archer dude opened his mouth to ask another question through a full mouth Dick decided to keep the conversation light.
"Clint," Dick opposed, "if anyone asks my brothers one more personal question, they have two options, my escrima sticks or Jason's bullets." Even though Jason knew he had a point, he would never admit it. "How are you all enjoying your food? Do you guys have Big Belly Burgers? Lil' D doesn't like it cause the only vegetarian thing they have is salads shakes and fries, none of which are great for his super-strict self-inflicted diet.
Nice, he left no room to go back to what they were talking about before and directed the conversation without making it seem like they HAD to talk about any one thing with suggestions already there: food they enjoy, differences in each dimension, light hearted information about each other.
"You're vegetarian?" said the good "must be zen" guy How do you sustain that with the work you do? Or eat with people who aren't? I'm vegan and I can barely manage to hulk out without crashing"
"You never told us this" the boy scout **good god, not another one, the last thing we need is another big blue all-american boy scout** turned to look at his friend, "is that why you don't order in with us?"
"Well, keep in mind tha-" Dick was cut of from whatever he was going to say in defence of people who don't eat animal products (because this indirectly affected his precious little boy) by the door to the bedroom to the captains left opening and Stephanie shuffling out, dazed from sleep, but when she saw the mismatched group that had congregated, she scowled.
Specifically, at Jason.
"Are you here to try to kill to Tim again? Or have you finally reached the conclusion that not enough of the brain cells necessary to run a criminal empire were resurrected along with your pension for violence, and you need our help with your dirty dealings?" Dick coughed.
"Ummm, Steph, these are the avengers, extra-dimensional heroes, and potential leaguer's. Bruce is away right now and left them in our care." it was just like the golden boy to church it up, but to try and change the subject he did the stupidest thing I've ever seen him do, and that's saying a lot. He turned to look at the group ahead, smiled encouragingly, and in the voice he normally uses to remind perfect little demonic screw-up that even if he fuck up sometimes it will not change his opinion, Dick asked, "So, why did you guys decide to take a trip to earth-(insert random number here (personal fav. is 394) 'cause i'm pulling thing from a lot for different timelines, dimensions, and comics)?"
Yeah, i know it's short