Work Text:
“Oh wow! Look at that Babs! They just crushed all that Menos like they were nothing!” A dark haired man cried out gleefully. The red haired woman just rolled her eyes exasperatedly, well used to the man’s antics. The blonde girl beside them nodded enthusiastically, while the other boy next to her sighed.
The Head Captain merely grunted at their appearance, the Shinigami under his command looking at him worriedly. But then the battle between the Hollows and Visoreds continued before they could ask of the new additional arrivals.
The Shinigami tore their eyes away from the battle for a moment to gawk and wonder where the four came from, but their attention was quickly diverted as one of the Visoreds attacked the Hollow Boy.
“Should we step in?” The blonde girl asked, dropping a hand to her Zanpakuto expectantly. The man tilted his head in mock thought, while the woman nodded after a moment. The blonde grinned wickedly, before disappearing with a mastered Shunpo.
She let a whoop as she reappeared beside the Hollow boy, slashing at his head for an instant kill. But the boy just barely dodged, her blade nicking his cheek with a short clean line of red. She grunted in annoyance, her slashes becoming quicker and quicker until her arm was a blur.
Then, she stopped; “Simon says, Red Robin!” Her sword glowed and Wonderweiss stared at it before his whole body froze. She grinned wickedly. “Red Robin says, sleep.” Wonderweiss’ body slumped, and he fell from the sky like a rock.
The blonde turned back to her friends. “Are we taking him back alive?” She called.
“Yeah!” The boy shouted back. The girl shot them two thumbs up before diving for the body. She then reappears beside them, Wonderweiss slung haphazardly onto her shoulders.
“Good job,” the woman smiles, ruffling the girls hair making her grin.
“If I may ask, are you four...” Aizen trailed off. “Squad 14?” Most Souls in the area stiffened.
“And if we are?” The boy asks, stepping forward.
The man looks at Aizen, curious, while the woman looks intrigued. The blonde is already looking bored, miming talk with her free hand and mouth — she was scolded by a look from the woman, and stopped by a swat on the shoulder from the boy while man just sends her an amused look.
“My, Sosuke-chan,” the man grins, ignoring the sigh from the woman. “You were so cute when you were younger y’know? Why are you going for the world domination route now?”
“Nightwing,” Aizen narrows his eyes, a fake pleasant smile on his face. “I do not need to answer to you. I am on my way to be God, and you cannot stop me, for you are no longer my better.”
Nightwing’s eyes flashed, and the woman stepped forward. “You claim Nightwing is weaker than you?” She says lowly, exuding her Pressure out until the only people that are left standing are the three Espada and the Captains.
“He is weaker than me.”
Aizen responds by flashing his own Pressure, and the two narrow into each other, clashing in Red and Blue. With another burst of Pressure, Aizen is sent stumbling back and the Pressure of the woman is abruptly lifted.
“If you cannot withstand my Spiritual Pressure, you have no right to call my partner weak.” The red head glares down at Aizen.
“You Squad 14 are so arrogant.” Aizen hisses.
The boy flashes forward, and in a blink Aizen has a sword pointed at his neck.
“We may be... arrogant, but at least we have the strength to back us up,” the boy says. “Now then, Simon Says Sleep.” Aizen falls, his body unmoving.
The boy catches Aizen, slinging the man on his shoulder similar to how the girl was.
“Aw, thanks for defending me Babs!” The man grins, dissipating the tension that started to form. The woman scoffs.
“Well I couldn’t very well have you just burn him to ashes now could I?” She asks, raising a brow. The man just laughs, grinning at her once he calms.
“You wound me. I would never just burn someone down over a slight.”
“Maybe not,” the woman allows, “but you were going to anyway.”
Nightwing shrugs, before turning to the teenagers. “Good job you two.”
“We did all the work while you two just fooled around,” the boy scowls.
“Oh don’t be like that Timmy, you two did say you wanted this fight remember?” The man sung, ruffling their heads.
“Let’s head back,” the red head nods.
“Aww, leaving us already? Even though you didn’t even say hi?” The obnoxious voice of Kyoraku Shunsui whined out.
“We’ll pop in later Uncle Kyoraku.” The red head waved away.
“But Barbara! I haven’t seen you guys in ages!”
“Ooh, can we pretty please stay for a bit? We haven’t said hi to everyone in ages!” The girl agreed with the Captain.
“Yeah, come on Babs, it has been a while!” Barbara glares at Nightwing who gave her kicked puppy dog eyes and she sighs, sending the other three into cheers.
“Uncle Shunsui!” Nightwing flings himself at the Captain who catches him.
“Heya kid.”
“Not a kid anymore,” Nightwing grumbles as they part so the girl can hug the Captain. Meanwhile, Barbara flashes to the Head Captain.
“Stephanie! Have you grown?” The girl — Stephanie scowls at the Captain.
“Hello Gramps,” Barbara flashed a grin.
“Barbara,” the Head Captain greeted back.
Tim walked forward a few steps before flashing to Tousen; “Simon Says, Sleep.” He says, and Tousen fell. Then, he turns to Gin. “Ichimaru.” Tim nods as he picked up the other unconscious ex-Captain and slung him over his other shoulder.
“Do I gotta come with ya?” Gin asked and Tim nods. Gin shrugs before starting an animated conversation with Shunsui and the blonde — Stephanie.
Nightwing flashes before Starrk and Lillinette, startling everyone else but the two Hollows.
“Yo,” Nightwing greets.
Starrk’s grip on Lillinette tightens.
“You have Aizen-sama. I should at least try to kill you.” Starrk states.
“Except, we all know Aizen was gonna betray you the moment he feels like it,” Nightwing also states. Starrk doesn’t refute, but he does narrow his eyes. “We won’t. You’re loyal as can be, we can respect that, but you’re also the number one Espada for a reason, which makes you invaluable.”
“So you want my loyalty and to use me for your own advantage?” Starrk asks unnecessarily.
“Please, as if Aizen wasn’t. We just have the benefit of not being seen as the enemy to the current strongest army widely known. You join us, and you won’t be hunted for life. But if you don’t... well, like I said, we respect loyalty no matter which side you’re on, it just becomes a pain in our butts if you’re the enemy.
“But, if I recall correctly, you didn’t exactly want to be in this fight, did you?” Nightwing asks rhetorically. “We won’t make you fight if you don’t want to. Hell, we can even recruit you as a cover for you going and living your own violent free life if you really wanted to.”
“And... what about your Squad?”
“Oh please, in our life we’ve had worst. Having several Hollows in our ranks doesn’t even compare.” Nightwing waved a hand dismissively. “If you’ve got something better than actual honest to god Gods attempting to rule the universe or alien invasions, then you can talk.”
Starrk blinks at him incredulously and Nightwing shrugs. “Squad 14 deals with whatever’s outside the normal scope for the general Shinigami, so you see a lot of weird things when you join.”
Starrk slowly nods. “I...” he looks back at Tim to stare at his former leader. “I owe a lot to Aizen-sama. Lillinette and I were alone. Nothing could touch us without dying because our presence would just kill them. Aizen-sama found us people who could stand to be near us.”
“Ah, a tragic story,” Nightwing nods. “Now I just have to take you with us. If I don’t, my whole family will probably come and kidnap you anyway, might as well call dibs on you. God knows how many children B has at this point.”
Starrk just gapes.
“Alright, pack your things, I’mma go do the sales pitch to your friends.” Nightwing salutes him and flashes to Harribel.
“What just happened.” Lillinette deadpans.
“Congrats, you just got adopted by my big brother,” Tim muses, having been there for a while.
Stephanie pops up on the other side of the Hollows; “Nightwing might say B and the others are the ones to adopt you, but really, everyone knows that whoever they adopt is also automatically adopted under Nightwing by default. He basically runs the family and everyone listens to him after Alfred and Leslie.”
The Hollows stare at Stephanie while Tim just sighs: “Welcome to the family. We have like, seven brothers, six sisters, five aunts slash two mums and three aunts, a dad, two and a half grandpas, a family doctor that acts like our grandma just don’t say that to her face, and two cousins.” he smirks as Stephanie pats Starrk’s arm, the man growing horrified with each new mention. “Then we have god knows how many honoured aunts and uncles and siblings.”
Starrk meets eyes with a confused looking Harribel and shrugs at her questioning look.
He doesn’t know if he wants to laugh or cry. He just wants this day to be over already. Lillinette just looks forward, done with the day too.