Young Justice: Apocalypse

The prologue isn't really the first chapter so I thought I'll introduce the story here! This is an imaginative season 3 of Young Justice, mostly using my OC, Seble Howard, as the main perspective but also others from the YJ universe when needed. If sections are in italics it usually indicates an excerpt from an event before the present. it'll be dated to, hopefully, avoid confusion (fingers crossed!). I know, this has all been done before, and the chapters are super long, so why do it again? Well, although probably not by much, it does differ a bit from the other stories on the site and I wanted to see my vision unfold on paper. Egotistical? Maybe but unlikely, I have very little faith in my writing abilities! Took all my will power to put this up here! I also wanted to share what was in my head with other people and generally vent my frustration over the cancellation of a once fantastic show.

So without further ado here's 11 pages of writing, ouch! Please enjoy :-)

Seble Howard (first name pronounced s-eh-b-uh-l) professes to be your typical hard working girl living in Gotham City and as far as she knows, her life, though not easy, was pretty straightforward: wake up, feed the kids, work, pick up and feed kids, work then sleep. However, after she's fired from her job at Wayne Enterprises and somehow ends up witnessing a terrible secret there, she leaves with more questions than anyone can possibly answer. Fearing for her and her brother's life, she tries to run but ends up entangling herself further into a web of lies, mystery and hidden agendas from both sides of a game that she now is fully involved in.

-0-0-0-0-0-

Chapter 1: Beginnings

GOTHAM CITY, THE BOWERY

SEPTEMBER 03, 06:00 EST

Lying face down on her bed, arm dangling off the side and legs tangled every which way in her covers, Seble Howard was the picture of peace. Even with the sun shining through a crack in her yellow drapes directly on her face she continued sleeping. It wasn't until her alarm blared at max volume that she finally woke up.

Seble wasn't by far what anyone called a 'morning person,' she hated the morning no matter what day of the week it was in. But every day at exactly 6am she'd wake up, groaning, barely managing to drag herself from the warm cocoon of her bed to the chilly air of her room, shambling along like the living dead trying to wake up enough to get ready for work. She stretched hard, hearing her joints pop, up until she felt a cramp threatening her left calf. Rubbing her left leg she hopped towards the bathroom, bypassing a stack of books which teetered on the brink of falling. Her room was full of them, on her desk, overflowing her bookcase, on the floor and on the window sill. Reading was her preferred hobby and also the main way she kept herself up to date in the advancements of biotechnology and electrical engineering, her kind of stuff.

Stepping into the bathroom, she rubbed tired, sleep encrusted eyes and gave her cheeks a few small slaps to help her wake up. Getting up seriously shouldn't be so hard, but for a girl of 17 shouldering the responsibilities of her two younger brothers, this was something she had gotten used to over the past 2 years.

After showering, brushing her teeth and finishing off all other toilet business, she left the bathroom in search of something presentable to wear for work. Despite being a teen working as an adult, her dress sense hadn't needed to change too much. She'd always been kinda mature (plain) for her age, preferring simple monochrome tee's in dull colors and dark blue jeans to pastels, prints or brights. Of course she'd wear a blazer and a pair of low heeled black boots but that was only because she happened to work in the applied sciences division of Wayne Tech, and Seble was pretty darn sure they wouldn't let anyone without a blazer in for work. At least that's what she thought, since everyone she worked with seemed to wear one, in every color possible.

Chuckling to herself as she pulled her shirt down over her black and white curls she recalled the image of Francis (her supervisor) who once came in in a bright pink blazer (rotund belly sticking out of a tight white tee!). That was an image that was forever seared into her mind. She rearranged her amulet, the last gift from her father, so that it was lying comfortably on top of her shirt around her neck then left her room and walked down the hallway. She noticed that both her brother's Kevin and Malik's room were ajar, hopefully meaning that they were both already awake. Peeking in, she saw that yes, Malik (the older boy of 10 years of age) was awake but Kevin lay in a pool of his own drool snoring peacefully, arms and legs thrown every which way. Seble sighed, rolling her eyes, and made her way towards him, side-stepping mounds of dirty laundry and... was that the pizza they had three days ago?! Grimacing, she grabbed Kevin's shoulder and shook him gently.

"Kevin? Wake up, please?" She whispered. Of course it took more than a few times before he finally cracked open his sleep weary brown eyes, turning them towards his big sister in anger as he tore himself from her grasp. Sebel stumbled back, surprised as always, despite Kevin acting this way pretty much every morning. As he struggled to stand up, Seble shook her head and went about picking up his clothes from the floor. Kevin rubbed the back of his head, subconsciously smoothing down errant curls escaping his gel spiked hair. Looking up to make sure he was definitely getting up and not just flopping back on his bed, Seble realized that he mustn't have showered last night, which was another task to add to the many that he had ignored.

Kevin yawned, finally standing up and stretching. At 4'2" he was an average size for most children his age but his vertically spiked hair helped add a few more inches. Seble was often told that her youngest brother looked most like her, with his doe shaped brown eyes lined with a generous amount of dark lashes, his black curls that he meticulously styled to spikes and his lithe brown frame that never seemed to gain an ounce of fat no matter how much he ate. Unfortunately he also seemed to inherit her morning laziness (which she had inherited from her father) and getting him to wake up in the morning was always a nightmare.

As he walked past her, he quickly jabbed her in the side, causing her to yelp and drop the t-shirt she was picking up. "Ha! that's what you get sis! I told ya yesterday I don't wanna go to school anymore! " Kevin practically roared, which was the usual way for him to speak. "So you and Malik can chill the hell out and stop pressurizing me about it. It's not fair that I'm the only one in this family that ain't making any money" Kevin quipped like it was the most obvious thing for an 9 year old to say. He started to move towards the bathroom. Shaking her head once again, Seble watched him go. As if he wouldn't go to school, she wasn't working so freaking hard just so that he could drop out at 9 years old!

"It's pressuring, Kevin..."

"Whatever, get out of my room you grammar-nazi."

"… I'm just saying, you are not leaving school anytime soon honey. Besides, you're even stupider than I thought!"

Laughing as Kevin threw insults (and dirty socks) from the bathroom she moved out of his room. Finally at the kitchen, Seble started working on breakfast. The kitchen itself was small, with a stove, a small fridge and freezer, a sink and microwave taking up most of the space, and a small table with three chairs occupying what little room was left. She quickly whipped up a stack of pancakes, a couple of eggs, beacon, toast, orange juice and milk, all for the two growing boys. Seble herself could make do with just a bowl of cereal and a cup of coffee, which may also be the reason for her dichromatic hair. Her black curls had, through the years, become infested with white streaks, and now although mostly black, the white was taking up a significant percentage.

Frowning as she twirled a lock of hair around her finger, she didn't realize when the time had already reached 7:30. Sputtering and almost chocking on her coffee, she yelled for the two boys to come down to the kitchen. Hurried footsteps resounded from the hallway and soon enough Malik's clean shaven head popped through the kitchen doorway, closely followed by Kevin. Mumbling a good morning, they seated themselves and unceremoniously began eating their breakfast. Seble watched them eat with a smile on her face. Despite how annoying they could be, these were one of the few moments where she enjoyed watching her little brothers and could relax. That is until 8am when she'd have to start hurrying them out the house.

Being an African American family living in the Bowery of Gotham theirs wasn't the safest of neighborhoods. Scratch that, murders basically happened right outside their door, and it didn't help that they lived just a few blocks down from the infamous crime alley. But what to do? The rent was cheap and the house spacious, and she really couldn't afford any better. Though this did mean that the kids couldn't really travel around the area unescorted, so Seble always made sure to go with them no matter where they were going, whether it was dropping them off at school or at a friends house, hence why she left for work so early even though she was only needed there by 10am.

Already 8o'clock, and thankfully Malik was just finishing off his orange juice. Stretching his long browned limbs, he turned towards his elder sister with a satisfied smile on his face. Malik was a good kid, and out of the two also the most level headed. Despite his weird taste in hair styles (this time going for the Vin Diesel look, and at such a young age) he sensibly tried to make life easier for his sister, whether by cleaning up the house on weekends or by helping Kevin with his homework. He cleared away his dishes then gently smacked his brother on the head when he caught him playing with his food.

"Arggh! What the hell Malik!" Screamed Kevin, rubbing the spot where he was hit. "Don't touch me, what the hell... Seble say something!" He made to hit Malik, but he casually stepped aside, smirking as his brother flailed around, trying to get out of his seat.

"Shhh, it's your fault, it's already 8 and we need to get going to school now or we will all be late. Why are you playing around for idiot? Sis, you should get your coat and shoes, I'll pack our lunches," Malik says. She starts getting ready to the sounds of their fighting, not being able to help the smile that spreads across her face. Once they were all ready (with Kevin grumbling the entire time) they set out.

The Bowery wasn't called the worst neighborhood in Gotham for nothing. The streets were lively but for what seemed like all the wrong reason. Prostitutes lurked at practically every street corner in broad daylight, and groups of thugs conversed openly in doorways. The streets were cluttered with garbage and graffiti defaced every possible surface. The housing was dominated by high rise block flats and whilst Seble's apartment could be said to be housed in one of the cleaner ones, the scale of cleanliness only did go from'filthy and should be inhospitable for human life' to 'almost decent.' She sidestepped a huge, tattooed man with an equally large barking dog and urged her brothers to walk faster. The sky seemed to be permanently overcast here making everything look grey and depressing and Seble made sure never to linger outside.

The kids' school was in Midtown, so not completely out of her way to work, and in a better part of Gotham. Affiliated to the prestigious Gotham Academy, Whitworth Elementary was one of the hardest schools to get in to. Most of Sable's annual income went into paying the fees (as being an elementary school they didn't offer a substantial scholarship) but thankfully Malik would graduate this year and start middle school, although then will be the headache of finding a good middle school for him to attend. After dropping them off, Seble needed only to hop on to the high speed express train that would take her all the way to Wayne Technological labs, arriving at 9:30am. Hopping on the sleek metallic train, Seble made her way to sit down at her usual seat by the window, close to the exit.

She had been working at Wayne Tech as an assistant to one of the chief scientist In the biotech division, and despite working for them loyally for the past 2 years, Seble had recently been finding herself very suspicious of the going on's at Wayne Tech. Staring out of the window as the morning sun started to rise higher in the sky, watching the bustling city go by beneath her, she couldn't help thinking of all the strange things that had been happening at Wayne Enterprises lately. Especially Wayne Tech, the branch that she worked at, had recently been getting more and more curious...

When she first started, after managing to trick herself through the extensive hiring process with the help of some close family friends who worked there and some mediocre hacking skills, she felt that Wayne Tech embodied everything that she believed in; a high environmental and ethical standard as well as the keen interest for innovative technologies and promoting pro-activity and the undertaking of new ventures in the workforce. Frowning, Seble didn't really know when all this changed, but certainly in the past year things had been getting more and more strange. It started with her supervisor, Francis, giving her the task to analyze and report her findings on a particular alien artifact that had arrived at the lab a day prior, on her own.

Now, this wasn't something new. Sometimes the man she assisted, a Dr. Clive Whittaker, would be too busy with a previous project to start a new one, so naturally one of his assistants would be chosen to run some preliminary tests and analysis before returning the reigns to him. Not liking to brag, Seble never made a fuss over her own talents. If she had publicized it some people would call her a prodigy, with an IQ of 160 and an almost insatiable hunger for knowledge it would be easy to see why. Francis favored her over the other assistants and would give her more projects than the others to do on her own, which she always made sure to complete as thoroughly and efficiently as her clearance level would allow. But this time Francis told her to keep her findings on a separate external drive and to report her findings directly to him. Needless to say, this piqued her curiosity enough for her to investigate further, winning over her guilt and fear of being caught doing something so obviously illegal. Hacking into the Wayne Enterprises system was harder than she had anticipated, but since she had (thankfully) helped with the programming for a security update for the extra pay a few weeks earlier, she managed to gain access into the main servers within half an hour.

It took her hours to find what she was looking for, and even then hours more to beat the encryption on the files. She remembered the frustration and worry setting in as it started to take a little too long to gain access and fearing she'd be discovered, she was about to give up and shut the system down. Hacking wasn't her strongest skill, and her crippling guilt wasn't helping any, but she had to find out the truth as ignorance wouldn't excuse her if she really was helping Francis do something wrong. Then, literally a second later, she finally cracked it, but what she found eliminated any feeling of satisfaction that she may have had for having beat the encryption in seconds...

The train stopped at Wayne Tech, jolting her out of her thoughts, and Seble lurched to her feet, her face set still in a frown as she hurried her way out and fobbed her way through the turnstiles. Luckily the train station led almost directly to her work place so she didn't waste any time reaching there. The Wayne Tech building was a behemoth of a structure and in that way unmissable to even the most clueless of tourists. With 16 widely interspaced levels also housing Wayne Tech's subsidiaries: Wayne Biotech and Wayne Foods. The entire thing was painted a blinding white and the Wayne Tech Logo dominated most of the front entrance. There seemed to be a constant stream of people leaving and arriving, and the revolving door looked more like a carousel to Seble than an actual door. The entire place was impeccably clean and as if just to confirm her statement, a window washer hung precariously midway down the building, cleaning the wide and tall windows which dominated the 8th floor. Seble had to push her way through the throng of people crowding the doorway but finally managed to get through. Once in, two grim looking security guards checked her bag and coat whilst she stepped through a metal detector. Brown eyes rolled in their sockets as she watched the very old and very racist security guard take extra care rifling through her things before returning it to her with a smirk. At times like these she didn't know whether he was leering at her or belittling her under those wide frame sunglasses but once again, she didn't say anything.

Once through that ordeal Seble could finally make her way to work. Oddly enough she was still working on that alien tech where usually she would spend less than 2 weeks on any one project. Walking down the stark white corridor to lab number 16, she felt the usual fear and anxiety which had started to plague her ever since finding out about the truth creeping up on her.

Entering the lab, she took a deep breath as the usual smells and sounds of the lab peeps working on their projects surrounded her, instantly calming her. Now whistling to herself and softly bouncing on the balls of her feet as she walked passed a variety of beeping machinery, sterile glass cabinets housing a variety of alien biological samples and miraculously one full body specimen of a small, yellow, rat-like alien, eyes bulging out from their sockets and mouth agape, showing tiny white teeth and a long green tongue, Seble dubbed him 'Sparky,' as when she was helping Dr. Wittaker with the autopsy the little monster had shocked her fingertips just as she reached for it. The good doctor had assured her, whilst laughing, that it was nothing more than some mild static electricity, a remnant from the plasma preservative that it had been kept in. To his defense he had been trying to be heard in the midst of her screaming and waving her hand about like she was afraid it was going melt off. That little incident still embarrassed her, and sometimes she felt like the rest of the guys at lab 16 had made a little joke about her at her expense, if the new stress balls they kept leaving at her desk were any indication. She arrived at her desk, replying to the few 'hellos' and 'good mornings' that she received from her colleagues. Letting out a huge sigh, she put her lab coat on and made to start working, only to be stopped by one of the last people in the world that she currently wanted to talk to.

"Ah, Seble, good morning hun, didn't see you come in," purred Francis, today dressed in a bright yellow blazer and tight fitting washed out jeans. His bright white t-shirt barely covered his bulging belly, which shook and flopped with every step closer to her that he took, and his thinning copper hair was slicked back in what Seble assumed was a feeble attempt at a pony tail. "Just a second hun, I'll be right there with you."

Before the incident, Seble had enjoyed Francis' company and his quirky appearance hadn't offended her at all. Despite his relative strangeness and minimalist sense of style, he always had a kind word for her, and despite knowing the fact that she was underage and didn't technically have any formal education other than high school (of which she hadn't even graduated) he hadn't yet squealed on her to the higher ups, stating that the sacrifice that she had made by denying herself a normal life was already punishment enough, and that her skills and work spoke volumes in her defense.

At the time, his words had soothed and touched her, now knowing what she knew, it only helped fuel her paranoia. For all she knew he had been manipulating her all along. Forcing a smile as he continued to make his way to her (the lab was very crowded) she began to wonder if his relative good nature, especially towards her, was just a ruse to have her more compliant, basically so that she'd do as he says, no questions asked. But blind faith had never sat well with her, and it had been him who had set her this work.

What she knew was that Wayne Tech was selling their stockpiled information on the alien technology and biology that they had amassed over the years as well as a lot of the renewable energy and medical advancements to Lexcorp, doing it in small transfers on the third of every month until Lexcorp was completely up to date. Any new data was directly being sent to them too. Francis was one of the obvious culprits but it also seemed that Dr. Wittaker and one of her fellow assistant from Engineering were involved too, as well as a select few of the Wayne Enterprises board of directors. Payments to Wayne Enterprises were sent to an off shore account and unfortunately that level of security was still beyond her. She didn't know the motive behind all of this, whether it was greed or fear that drove them to betray the company. She had thought that Francis was an honest and trustworthy guy, and how wrong she had been scared her a little. It was like seeing the people she worked with in a whole new light.

Which is why when Francis did finally manage to reach her, she didn't move her chair back in anger as she first intended towards what she now dubbed his 'slimy-lying-no-good-double-crosser' smile but simply sat there waiting for him to speak.

"So, tell me sweety, how's progress on the extraterrestrial computer project going? Any new findings?" He queried, looking mildly excited. His voice carried a throaty, yet rough sound, a smokers voice, and she could smell the cigarettes on his breath and clothes. She scrunched up her nose slightly, feeling like she should scoot back a few paces.

Suppressing a grimace, She turned towards her computer, booting up the external hard drive and accessing the file from last night. She hated explaining things, and tended to be awkward around people despite having had a lot of public speaking practice at the quarterly meetings.

"Yeah, actually I have Francis I mean, this tech is amazing. It's basically like nothing I've ever seen before! Uhhh, I mean obviously it is, it's extraterrestrial object after all..." she blushed, noticing that she had started to ramble on, and cleared her throat. Damn it, if only this part could be done by a machine too! "Following from my report on Monday, I would like to add that the box does show to have had some previous human tampering, as you can see there is a titanium alloy mixed in with the alien alloy. So someone else has already modified this tech. It also seems to emit a mixture of tachyon and zeta particles, giving the impression that the box may be used as a form of transportation?" she paused, glancing at him as if looking for confirmation. Bad habit from her younger years. "I only just started theses tests so they are preliminary, just, just a minute..." she tapped a few commands on the keyboard. "The zeta particles are currently on earth being used as teleportation mechanisms by the Justice league and the, ummm, tachyon particles would indicate a temporal aspect which may..."

"Great!" Francis hurriedly interrupted, clapping his pudgy little hands together and wriggling his pudgy little fingers, forest green eyes glinting in glee. "Have a full report on my desk by closing time hun. If you can't then you can email it to me later on this evening. As always, I understand you have to go pick up your two younger siblings form school later this afternoon." At the end of his words his tone took a more sympathetic tone, a frown replacing his beaming smile. 'As always,' there it was again, like he was reminding her that he was on her side. Blinking slowly at the rudeness of being interrupted like that, Seble took a while to smile back and nod her head, affirming that everything would be ready by the afternoon. Squeezing her shoulder gently and giving her a small smile he walked away, and she couldn't help but think 'traitor!' to his back, though for the life of her she would never say it out loud. Running her hands though her mid length curls and messing it further than it already was she groaned and got to work, taking the box to the testing and metallurgy room in lab 2 and trudging across yet more stark white corridors and taking the elevator down to level 2. Once again the box sent a little shock racing up her arm as she touched it. A buzzing feeling, like a gentle vibrations enveloped her hand and after noting this to Dr. Whittaker a couple of days back he gave her a strange look, then told her she was probably feeling nothing but the small computers energy source humming with activity, so she never mentioned it again.

Along the way, she worried about her trust issue again. Telling the wrong person could have catastrophic consequences and yet telling no one went against everything that Seble believed in. She reached a corner and turned, only to come face to face to yet more unpleasant, or more correctly uncomfortable, company.

Richard Grayson, ward of Bruce Wayne and over-seer of the Wayne Tech facility, was striding purposely down the hallway, in her direction. Wandering if it would be too late to turn around and pretend she didn't see him she stopped as he suddenly noticed her and waving, quickened his pace towards her.

"Seble hi, funnily enough I was just coming to see you," he said, a warm smile on his face.

To any other girl, the tall specimen of a dark haired Adonis who preferred to be known by the name of Dick Grayson may seem as an extroverted, out-going, happy-go-lucky kind of guy. With his killer smile, lightly tanned skin, think coal black hair, blue eyes the color of the ocean and chiseled features, not least the well-toned body that he would never be caught trying to hide in his many form fitting shirts and suits, many a girl would give her right hand to spend the day being pestered by him.

Not that he was a pest. He was nice and always bothered to bring her and everyone working late in the labs a cup of coffee and it wasn't like it was his job to do that. It wasn't anybody's job! She just didn't know how to handle a guy being nice her, or know what was appropriate for her to do since she basically avoided any and all social situations like a plague. And she didn't want to insult anyone accidently. She thought then that the best thing to do would be to avoid him and thus limit the number of times that she'd make a fool out of herself.

"Seble, Seble!" he snapped his fingers over her face, a curious look in his eyes, thus jerking her out of her own thoughts. "What are you always thinking about when I'm talking to you? Seriously, you should try to be a bit more attentive." He joked.

"Sorry sir," she apologized. "Is there something that I can do for you."

Dick smiled at her again, this time looking a tad more serious despite it. "Actually yes. Bruce is at Wayne Tech today and he wants to see you," he pointed at her. "It's very important and about the work that you're doing right now. Please bring any work files that you have with you and you should head on over immediately"

"Wh-h-hat?"

"I said Mr. Bruce Wayne wants to see you. He's in lab 2, I think you were going in that general direction anyway. Come on, quickly now I'll walk with you."

"Oh yes, okay... Did he tell you anything else?"

"No Seble, you're going to have to find the rest out on your own"

His voice seemed exceptionally ominous to her, but even then it sounded distant and weak. Suddenly her heartbeat was too loud to her ears, drowning out his voice. Did he know? And if so how much? Seble could feel herself panicking. Damn her cautious nature, she should have just said something and now, now she was the one who would look suspicious!

But wait, maybe it wasn't that? Maybe she'd be commended for her exceptional work and time-based efficiency!

Scoffing at herself for her overly optimistic way of thinking, Seble took a deep breath and managed to calm herself down and level a small smile at an impatient looking Dick..

"I'll make my way to Mr. Wayne right now Mr. Grayson. Thanks for letting me know." She turned around to continue on to lab 2, steeling herself for the confrontation. Dick fell into step beside her, and for the first time since she knew him, she took comfort in his presence.

Finally reaching lab 2 Seble stepped past the metallic doors, walking through a surprisingly better kept lab to the small office room situated at the back, where most meetings took place. Swallowing past a painful lump in her throat she knocked on the plain white door (why was everything in this place so white?) and entered when she heard the muffled reply. The room was very bright, with the morning sun glaring from the tall wall-to-wall windows. The room was sparsely furnished with the bare necessities: a stainless-steel bookcase filled to the brim with books, a mahogany desk and chair facing away from the window and sun, and a pair of chairs for guests. Once her eyes finally adjusted to the glare, Seble noticed Mr. Wayne sitting at the far end of the desk, posture relaxed and open, but his eyes betrayed a more serious and stern man. Even sitting he seemed imposing, and despite not being blood related his features held a strong resemblance to Dick's. His muscular frame dwarfed the chair he was sitting on, which was made for the much smaller head of lab 2. His skin was paler than Dick's but his eyes were the same ocean blue as his son's as well as his slicked back black hair. Strong, handsome features finished his look. His hands were placed, laced together, in front of him on the desk and seeing Seble and Dick enter, he gestured for them to sit.

"Ms. Howard, please be seated." Came the deep, reverberating voice of Bruce Wayne. Seble managed to move leaden legs to sit on the chair offered to her. Dick plopped himself beside her, crossing his legs and looking like he hadn't a care in the world. Seble couldn't raise her eyes to meet Bruce's, knowing that this was the biggest tell in the whole freaking universe but unable to stop herself. However, Mr. Wayne needed to only clear his throat once and her head snapped up so fast.

"Do you know why I have called you here Ms. Howard?" He asked. Seble could think of a few reasons why, but none that she would willingly admit to, at least not until there really wasn't any room for doubt anymore.

"No Mr. Wayne," She whispered. "I really have no idea."

Bruce Wayne arched an eyebrow, almost as if in disappointment, and with that solitary gesture Seble knew that he knew and now he knew that she knew that he knew but still lied to him. She could feel sweat starting to bead on her forehead and after what seemed like an eternal moment, he spoke again, heaving a great sigh.

"Ms. Howard, it has come to my recent attention that you have falsified your academic and employment records and as such I am required to terminate your employment contract with Wayne Tech," He paused glancing briefly at Dick before starting again. "I appreciate all the good and dedicated work that you have provided us in the time that you have worked here and a full severance check will be handed to you on the completion of all the formalities. I expect you to clear out your desk and hand over all unfinished work to your supervisor."

A shocked silence ensued, then Dick spoke in a stunned whisper.

"You can't be serious Bruce."

A bit too much prose but necessary to show my OC's background I think? The first few chapters are a bit of an origin story I'm afraid but I try to add parts of the plot through the perspective of other characters from the DC universe, and plus I love writing about Batman, both in and outside his perspective!