"The shell is increasingly strong, made of both hulk gamma-coated and croc calcium-coated, protected from any environmental threats, and the hairline crack hasn't breached either of the sacs thankfully as they need more time to grow which I can see is 3 more months, from the size their egg is, to a pumpkin-size.", Fate slowly spoke, and Poppy's heart raced, "They?".
Fate nodded as the projection went deeper, showing the inside of the egg, "Yes, Miss Wayne, as in twins.", revealing one baby sleeping upward, with another baby sleeping downwards, like yin and yang, "I can't make out of the genders, but the first one sleeping upright is looking to be a human with croc features including a growing tailbone, and the second one sleeping upside down is looking to be a mix of mini-hulk and croc, which I believe was the one Dorji envisioned about.".
"Will... will they be able to change themselves?", Poppy asked. "Like when I was born, I was pretty much hulked out the whole time for much of my first months.". Poppy and Waylon certainly hoped that was the case; last thing they wanted was to try to hide their children from the world. After all, it would make a pretty easy connection about who was the She-Hulk.
Fate replied, "I believe it's similar to your situation, Miss Wayne. Neither way, they are doing just alright. They just need to be warm and if your instincts are telling you to keep them safe in the nest, do so if it's important. And as for the other eggs, well, I'd need your permission to siphon their yolk by magic to the egg as protein for the twins, since well, it's more than one. If it was one baby, they wouldn't have any problem, but I'd not want them to unintentionally take from each other if they knew they are hurting each other, when they need more protein into their sacs to help them grow and sort of eat upon, since they aren't of the womb anymore.".
There was a brief pause for a moment before Poppy sighed and nodded, "Go ahead... I don't want to lose all of them...". Waylon gently was brushing her back as he held close to her as she started to sniffle.
Fate nodded, and then vanished the projection, and then chanted in Latin as his magic then made the string of magic from the egg to the first batch that was unfertilized, taking all the yolk, shrinking the golf ball-sized eggs into nothing, streaming into the egg of the twins, and to their shock, came a sound, two tiny purrs was heard barely through the hairline crack which is slowly becoming smaller.
Martha widened her eyes as she was in the nest, "Is that normal?", and Fate replied, "First time I ever did that, Mrs. Wayne. Honestly, as far as I know, this is your kind of normal in this family.".
Thomas gave a little chuckle, "He's not wrong there.", as Fate replied, "May I still continue?", and Poppy nodded as she was both sniffling yet stunned with Waylon to hear their two children reacting, realizing that they are living and surviving!
Fate kept going with the same thing in the second batch that was half fertilized, but failed to make correctly into full fertilized eggs, siphoning all the yolk from them, with the orange-sized eggs into nothing, and the purrs became louder as the yolk arrived into the egg of the twins.
Then came the final batch of the eggs, the papaya-sized eggs that survived to full fertilization, to almost full development yet got crushed/damaged in the accident, not surviving, and Fate went to carefully siphon the remaining yolk, and a surprised noise came from him.
Bruce glanced at him, "You alright, Doctor Fate?", and Fate nodded, "Yes...Turns out I felt Kel taking care of the lost five souls, and just now, in a blink of eye, maybe because time was nonexistent in Heaven, but four of those five souls got new lives, just got born to families not too far around Gotham and out there. Kel told me their names to watch out for, Richard G., Tim D., Jason T., and Carrie K.".
"Maybe we'll run into them someday…", Waylon said. "Obviously, we'll have to do it naturally though; they have every right to live normal lives that don't cross ours. Perhaps it might be better for them.".
"As long as it's loving families… then I'm happy.", Poppy gave a small smile. "And the fifth one?".
Fate replied, "The fifth one is staying with Kel, but is determined to be with the Wayne family one way or another way officially, and knowing that since you two got twins to worry about, Poppy and Waylon, and that Martha and Thomas are just happy with each other, and of course, there's Jane already to raise together in a sense as Alfred and Caroline are like Thomas' brother and sister adoptively, so that leaves Bruce.".
Bruce widened his eyes, "ME?! B-But...That would take years of waiting...The fifth soul wants me?", and Fate replied, "You are closest to Poppy in blood, and even if the mother would be different, it's going to be a Wayne nonetheless...That is, the gist Kel can make out of telling me...".
Martha carefully got out of the nest, and replied, "Jane waited just over two years, I'm sure they will be patient for you, son...", with a smile, and Bruce exhaled, "But...what if...what if I make awful mistakes, and they don't want me later on?".
"You can't be afraid of that, Bruce. I can't make any full promises, but I think you will do well.", Thomas put a hand on his shoulder. "I like to think we did a wonderful job raising you; if you just do much of the same, then you'll never have to worry.".
Bruce took a deep breath as he took in his father's words and glanced at Poppy and Waylon who gave him accepting, warm smiles as Poppy replied, "Fate's right...We'd be focused on the twins and their survival. And I'd be happy if I knew my former lost child found a home in you and whoever's the lucky woman someday, they'd be safe either way, being a Wayne no matter what.".
Waylon nodded, "Yeah. I'm sure Kel would tell the kid stories, and they wouldn't blame you if you are taking time to find the right woman since you'd be wary, especially with what Talia did. Trust goes a long way first before even considering friendship and love for finding a woman.".
Bruce gave a small, appreciative smile, and nodded, "Okay, I'll be on the prime list then.", and Fate gave a warm hum, "Kel just told me that the soul is glad, and happy to wait patiently.", as he then siphoned the last of the yolk from the batch, with all the damaged/crushed eggs vanishing into nothing, which Poppy is relieved, knowing that smells of damaged yolk would have attracted bats or such, which would be dangerous for the lone egg of twins who purred even louder as the last of the yolk came into the egg, with the hairline crack gone, like it wasn't even there anymore.
Poppy instinctively moved, scooping sand back into the hollow nest with her hands and feet, ignoring the pain of her sprained ankle which was now almost healed to a light hairline fracture, burying the purring egg, with the hollow warm air keeping it warm and safe.
With a huge yawn, Poppy dug a slight enclaved spot, and then collapsed into it, curled around the buried egg's spot, and Waylon copied her, doing the same, opposite her, curling around the egg on the other side, keeping his eyes awake with a soft growl, "We wish to be left alone now.".
Martha joined the others as Fate did some magic, popping some blankets over Poppy and Waylon in their Hulk and Croc forms, and they left, leaving Waylon with a chuff, nuzzling and kissing Poppy's nose, "Well done, my mate...", seeing her asleep as she was that exhausted, and after checking their surroundings of the pond and up in the ceiling by sniffing with his nose, he then joined Poppy into dreamland, protecting their egg of two precious, miraculous twins who deserve to live and survive.
In their walk back, Martha glanced at Fate, "It's going to be three months before they hatch?", and Fate nodded, "Yes, and with all the extra yolk as protein and nutrients, they will grow, and the shell will expand to fit them as they grow. I do not know if they are going to protect the egg every hour of the days ahead, but I do know that mama crocodiles almost never leave the nest until for mealtimes and some cooling down from the heat during the summers, since with this being March, it's going to be June.".
"And nothing else should go wrong?", Thomas asked as Fate sighed. "Well, obviously nothing can truly be promised; but odds are strongly in favor of things going smoothly.", he said as Thomas nodded, "That's good…".
Indeed, things went smoothly for the most part, with many days here and there where Poppy and Waylon had to reluctantly allow Thomas and Martha to protect the nest while having to do some kitchen work and schooling, knowing that people would be suspicious of Poppy not taking her work seriously like they have seen for the last several months.
It was most intense the first month, not completely settled as they were overprotective of the egg, the second month became less intense after seeing the proof occasionally by Fate's help to realize that the egg has been growing successfully, with the twins' genders revealed as a boy and a girl, and on patrol nights, cameras has been set on the nest, with Bruce and Martha checking on it, with Alfred or Thomas updating them, while Poppy and Waylon slept into the third month, needing all the energy to meet the twins, and of course, seeing signs of horny hormones and milk lactation.
As the expected hatching date got closer, everyone was tense, even little Jane who was excited to meet her cousins, and even the criminal underworld has noticed how Batman and She-Hulk has increased patrols for some reason, not knowing that the Wayne family felt that with less dangers of the criminal underworld, no one would threaten the egg, and soon, the children, especially with their newborn looks sooner or later.
And it was the same with Selina Kyle. Batman stood on a rooftop, his sharp gaze looking over the west quadrant of Gotham, and a female voice replied, purring, "Well, hello, Dark Knight...I missed you last week, Bat...".
He spoke lowly, "Not in the mood, Catwoman. And I was in another neighborhood last week...", and Catwoman cooed as a taloned hand touched his cheek, "Oh, I know...You should have said hello at least...Come on, it's just little old me.".
He fought the urge to flinch, and grabbed her wrist, looking at her through the white lenses in narrowed eyes, "I'm on patrol, and I'm not in the mood to play.".
"I followed you for the past hour, and you hadn't caught a bad guy once...What's the problem? Can't you see that I'm interested in you, Bat? It has been three months since that fateful day when you caught me and pinned me, remember?", Catwoman smirked.
Bruce could hardly forget. It was a normal patrol; fairly quiet for once until he was near the Natural History of Gotham Museum. Things might have been different had he not stepped on the roof and noticed one of the glass windows up on the roof had been carved. He instantly went into action mode as he made his way in and quietly lurked in the shadows, looking for the break in.
He almost thought that whoever broke in must have already left; that he missed them when he turned a corner into the Egyptian wing and saw right near the wall a black suited woman that had a catlike motif and was placing her hands on one of the car idols.
"Find what you're looking for?", Batman spoke, causing her to almost jump and nearly dropped the idol. "Hey! Careful! I nearly dropped this!", the woman snapped as he walked a few steps closer to her.
"You taking a liking to things after hours and plan to put it back or are we going to have a problem?", Batman asked as she smirked. "No, I was thinking of… liberating this little piece of history.", the woman said.
"Planning to take it back to Egypt or keeping it for yourself?", Batman raised an eyebrow, though obviously, she wasn't really seeing that thanks to his mask. He couldn't see her face much either since she was in a skintight black leather outfit and a cat mask that covered the top of her head.
"Suppose you wouldn't let a nice young lady like myself to just walk out with this, huh?", the cat-masked woman had put the idol in her bag and sighed before instantly breaking out a whip that had a cat-o'-nine-tails on the end and swung it right at him.
Bruce dodged swiftly, and ran at the woman who replied, "You're fast, but luckily, I'm faster!", swinging faster with the whip, as Batman replied, "You don't know who I am, do you?", sweeping into the shadows.
"A bat costume, a fan of the shadows, and scary at times? Oh, yeah, I know who you are, Batman, and this is going to be interesting.", the woman chuckled as she whipped into the direction of Batman, and frowned before Batman charged at her, out of nowhere off of her side, and she dropped the whip, and blocked the fist with a grin, and then moved into a series of moves that is a mix of acrobatics and women's karate which Batman quickly defected, fighting back, as it was a tight room of space.
Then a boot kicked him in the side, and Batman groaned before smoke then crashed around him, with the woman laughing, "Nice try, Bat!", grabbing her whip, and grabbed into the rooftop window, escaping, and his eyes narrowed, coughing to clear his lungs, and ran swiftly, using his grappler to do the same, and saw her going off.
He shot off, watching her route, and he thought fast, using the shadows, chasing and not letting his eyes off her for several minutes, and then as the woman looked back, humming, almost disappointed in the Batman, catching her breath as she smirked, still proud of tricking him out at least, when suddenly, out of the shadows, Batman leapt and tackled, catching the woman, and pinning her down.
In a corner of the rooftop, with a sign alighted up for the night next to them, the dark side facing them, but the light was strong enough to reveal the woman better as they panted.
Bruce saw that her cat mask has green-tinted googles of some kind, hiding her true color of her eyes, a tuft of very dark hair, perhaps black peeking out of her cat mask, and the rest of her face is a very rich cinnamon brown, like African American with a hint of Caucasian in there somewhere, due to her nose, and her skin-tight catsuit is very dark gray, with gloves of black, with slight claws that looks very sharp.
"You want me to start screaming?", the woman said as obviously she was trying to play what only trick that she had left due to her compromised position. Pinned down by him meant that her options were very limited.
"Don't know if that would really help you considering you're carrying a priceless antique that you've stolen.", Batman said as she huffed.
"You better consider yourself lucky that it isn't broken or anything; I'd be more scared of me than the museum if that's the case.", she hissed.
"Of all the things you went for, it was that? Judging from that and the costume; seems to me that you're very much into cat-like things.", Batman responded.
"Of course.", she smirked. "That's why they call me Catwoman... meow.". That meow had quite the sexual undertone to it; almost as if she was flirting with him which caught him somewhat off guard. Off guard long enough that he lost his grip a bit which was all she needed to throw him right off and get back onto her feet with almost feline like precision.
Meanwhile, Batman had been thrown off the roof's edge and was hanging on for dear life for a moment before he managed to quickly regain a stronger hold; but certainly, delaying him long enough that she was able to start putting some good distance away.
"See you around, Dark Knight!", Catwoman laughed into the night. Batman exhaled deeply and long, realizing that Catwoman is rather a different person from Talia, but he is wary of her as she played him like that, just like Talia, and headed out with his grappler in the opposite direction, stopping on the next rooftop with a smirk when he heard Catwoman's shriek of anger, "Batman!", as he had subtly slipped his hand during the throw off to take back some of the jewelry she stole, knowing that the idol is somewhat heavy, and she would have noticed faster than the smaller ones she had in that bag of hers.
"See you around, Catwoman.", Batman spoke into the night, secretly enjoying that for once, he hadn't underestimated an attractive, bad girl, and his nightmares of Talia's attempts got a bit easier from that moment, heading off to return the reported jewelry to Commissioner Gordon, knowing that the commissioner can return the jewelry to the right people.