Chapter Text
It was almost midnight when Damian appeared back at Billy’s door with the three most likely hideouts that Scarecrow could have been using right then. Billy had only reluctantly eaten dinner after Alfred had spoken to him and convinced him to come down. Bruce hadn’t eaten with them, and Billy hadn’t asked where he was: it was pretty obvious that he was still down in the Batcave, still not letting Billy join the search and the fight. Alfred seemed used to these situations, which just confirmed what Damian had spoken about earlier: everyone had most likely gotten benched at some point. It did help Billy feel a little bit better, but not enough to change his mind.
“Master Billy”, Alfred had said as Billy had finished eating and was leaving the dining room, “whatever you decide to do, I implore you to be careful.”
“Don’t worry about Bruce. I’ll talk to him about it”, Tim had said when they’d run into each other near the study, “he can be a little stubborn. Okay, he can be the most stubborn person I know. But don’t do anything reckless.”
And, of course, Bruce had said nothing. Billy hadn’t even tried to go to the Batcave to continue their conversation, because it was pretty obvious what he would say. There was always the possibility that everything would go even worse if Billy tried to argue his case further: so, when Damian finally came to him with the possible locations, Billy was more than ready to go.
“I could have found out his exact location with more time”, Damian told him, “but I believe we agree that the sooner you act, the better. Once you find the correct hideout, message me so I can provide backup.”
“You want to come as backup?” Billy asked. He was actually surprised by this: earlier, Damian had said nothing about coming along. This was apparently a stupid question because Damian rolled his eyes.
“Only idiots go in without any kind of backup. You find the correct place and get the brats out, then we deal with the Scarecrow. Simple”, he explained. From the tone of his voice, you’d think he’d already explained this same plan ten times before – but no, this was the first time he’d ever mentioned anything about it. Not that Billy was against the plan. He was pretty sure he could handle all parts of that plan by himself, but it would be extremely ungrateful to deny Damian’s help at this point.
“Yeah, sounds good”, Billy said, taking a closer look at the addresses listed on Damian’s phone. He didn’t know why he bothered – it wasn’t like he was going to recognize any of them. Damian would just need to send them to Billy’s phone so he could even find any of the places. That was one more superpower he wished he had: an internal navigator of sorts. Seeing a superhero fly in the sky looked cool. The coolness factor was significantly less if the superhero in question was holding a phone and getting lost while trying to find their destination. Now the only problem was leaving the manor without anyone else noticing. If Billy transformed into Captain Marvel in the yard, it wouldn’t be very difficult for Bruce to realize what was going on. Though, to be fair: it would be too late for him to do anything.
It wasn’t like Billy thought Bruce would be able to physically stop him from leaving. It was more about the stern talking to and disappointment he was definitely scared of. If Bruce found out before he left, he might have been able to talk Billy into staying. So, to avoid even the possibility of anything like that happening, they needed to leave fast and quietly. Billy could transform somewhere else, and they could sneak back later. Once Bruce found out about the kids being saved and everything turning out just fine, he would have to admit to being wrong about benching Billy.
“So, how are we going to leave without anyone noticing?” Billy asked. He knew Damian had a motorcycle he was definitely too young to legally drive, but that would make too much noise in the night.
“Aren’t you the one with the magical powers? And the magical portals?” Damian gestured toward the closet. Billy had repaired the portal to Fawcett City about a week ago after realizing that it was still very useful. He didn’t have to hide his identity in the manor anymore, but if any outsiders saw Captain Marvel flying in and out of the Wayne Manor on a regular basis, it would most likely raise a lot of questions.
“Oh. Yeah, that works”, he said. He would have to fly right back to Gotham from Fawcett City, but at least Bruce wouldn’t be able to hear the lightning all the way from there.
“What about you?” he asked. Damian gave him another, incredibly smug smile.
“I have left the manor without father noticing multiple times. Just remember to send me the message after you find the hideout”, he said, and with that, Billy stepped into the portal and closed the door behind him.
This time, he’d placed the portal in a different location on the other end – it was near the subway tunnels he used to live in, and though that meant the location wasn’t as good as it had been with the previous place, it was still safer. Billy still had no idea how Mister Mind had been able to find the previous portal, but he didn’t want to risk that happening again.
While Damian had been gone, Billy had been trying to figure out the best way to save everyone and fight Scarecrow. He had tried searching for information on the internet, but nothing he’d found was really helpful in his situation. There were quite a few articles about Scarecrow getting captured, escaping, fighting Batman, and getting arrested again. There were a couple of web pages discussing some sort of “fear gas” he used to attack people with. Some people actually seemed interested in his work, but thankfully, most people seemed to agree that he was an awful human being and shouldn’t be roaming the streets of Gotham City.
It took Billy a moment to get up from the tunnels and into the Fawcett City night. There, he transformed and left immediately for Gotham City. He wanted to find everyone as fast as possible, in case Scarecrow was hurting them. It was one of the scariest parts about this: Billy had no idea why Scarecrow had taken children and thinking about the possible answers to that question was even worse than simply not knowing. All he could hope for was that everyone was still safe, and whatever Scarecrow was planning hadn’t had time to take place quite yet.
He sent Damian the first message once he was back in Gotham. The first place he visited was a completely empty warehouse – Captain Marvel did have to break a window to make sure, but as the place seemed extremely abandoned, he didn’t feel too bad about it. Also, it was in the shadier part of Gotham he’d never seen before: he didn’t even have to wonder why no one had taken him there yet. It wasn’t a secret that Gotham City had plenty of shady neighborhoods and finding Scarecrow’s lair in a place like that wouldn’t be surprising at all. It was the opposite, in fact: Captain Marvel was certain that he would find Scarecrow in the dirtiest, shadiest place he could imagine.
Or a cornfield. But somehow Captain Marvel knew that the guy wasn’t being quite THAT literal with his name.
Captain Marvel wasn’t sure how long it would take for him to actually get used to Gotham. He knew Fawcett City extremely well, but this was new territory, and the people were different. Of course, people needed help everywhere and he was happy to provide it, but right now he was on Batman’s territory. He would probably stick to teleporting to Fawcett City to still help the city he had grown up in, and if people saw Captain Marvel in Gotham City too much, it would raise lots of questions. He didn’t want the people back in Fawcett to think that he’d abandoned them: he also didn’t want the people of Gotham to think that Batman needed another hand. Bruce was being stubborn right now, but Gotham had been doing mostly fine in Batman’s care, at least to Marvel’s understanding.
It took a bit of looking around for Captain Marvel to find the second place, but when he did, he got a feeling that this was the correct place. It seemed to be an abandoned office building with planks covering the windows and graffiti all over the walls. The street beneath the building was littered with trash, empty bottles, and cigarette stumps, and someone was slumped over in one of the corners. Captain Marvel wondered for a moment if he should wake the man up and ask if he’d seen anything – but upon further consideration, he knew it would be a stupid idea. So, he flew to one of the nearby windows and tore the planks away, revealing a smashed window that would be easy enough to enter… at least for someone who didn’t have to worry about getting cut by the glass.
The room he climbed into was dark: the only spots of light came from the cracks on the planks, which let the streetlights slightly inside. It was cleaner than Captain Marvel had expected, though that wasn’t saying much: the floor still had a slight coat of dust and sand, and it wouldn’t have been surprising to see a mouse or a rat scurrying across the floor. Captain Marvel continued forward as quietly as possible – he didn’t want to risk anyone getting hurt, in case anyone heard him coming and panicked. If Freddy and the other kids were here, they needed to get out first, before anything else could happen.
Damian was also expecting a text from him, but Captain Marvel still wasn’t completely certain that this was the right place. As soon as he got any kind of confirmation, he was going to send the message.
He wasn’t used to being sneaky, but thankfully, he didn’t have to step on the floor, so creaky floorboards couldn’t give him away. Captain Marvel floated silently through the halls, peeking into the empty rooms, hoping to find anyone. Preferably, Freddy and the others, but he wouldn’t have minded finding Scarecrow, either. Hopefully, either one would lead to the other, and he wouldn’t have to worry about having to spend too much time looking for everyone.
Captain Marvel didn’t have to wait for long. After a few more minutes of searching, he heard voices from one of the rooms. He didn’t recognize the men speaking, but at least it confirmed that the building did have life inside.
“Where the fuck is Fred? He was supposed to be here an hour ago!” a male voice complained.
“Quit yer whinin’. My headache’s gettin’ worse”, another one snapped, followed by the sound of something hitting the table. Captain Marvel stood still, quietly hoping to hear anything useful.
“I’m going to fucking whine as much as I fucking want! I’m not getting paid enough to fucking sit here and watch over some fucking brats. If Crane wasn’t fucking nuts, I would have left already”, said the first voice, who sounded like he was competing with Jason for the ‘most swear words in a sentence’ award that some people just really liked fighting over.
“Shut the fuck up”, the second one, the one with the headache, mumbled, “just be fuckin’ quiet, will ya? Yer louder than the bastards.”
It was enough evidence: this was the correct place. Captain Marvel sent a quick text to Damian, ‘found the place, it was in this address’, then stepped into the room. To the two men’s credit, they were immediately on their feet as he entered the room. However, their faces were soon lit up by confusion.
“Who the fuck is this?” asked the loudmouth, aiming a gun at Captain Marvel, “we were told to prepare in case the Bat was going to show up, not this clown.”
“Okay, I’ll give you a chance to tell me everything”, Captain Marvel said, stepping further into the room, agitating the men further, “where are the kids, and where is Scarecrow?”
Sometimes that worked. Captain Marvel had been able to build a reputation in Fawcett City in particular, and sometimes the smaller criminals, like muggers and such, did give up before anything else could happen. Right now, though, the men definitely didn’t let go of their guns – instead, they aimed them further, apparently extremely unaware of what definitely wouldn’t hurt Captain Marvel. Like, come on. Most people definitely knew how invulnerable Superman was to all kinds of attacks, but here was Captain Marvel, getting a regular gun pointed at his head. How long would it take for people to know that something like this simply wouldn’t work? Even Batman wore a bulletproof suit, so you didn’t even have to be actually bulletproof to win that fight.
One of the guns went off, and Captain Marvel felt a bullet hit his chest, then watched it fall to the floor. Multiple screams rang out from another room. He let the man get another shot in, just in case he wouldn’t believe the first one, then grabbed the gun and broke it in half.
“Where are the kids?” he asked again, stepping even closer. The second guy still had his gun, but didn’t start shooting – instead, he seemed to realize how futile it would be and lowered the weapon, still not letting go of it.
“What do we get if we tell ya?” he asked, like there was any chance of him getting anything. Captain Marvel gave him a cold look that answered everything, and the first man didn’t wait for a proper response.
“The brats are in the next room, right over there. Scarecrow is in the basement, doing whatever he even fucking does. We’re just paid to be here”, he said, giving his buddy an annoyed look. Captain Marvel nodded.
“Good”, he said, glancing at the door the man had pointed at. This was working out well: he could get the kids out first, then he could deal with Scarecrow. He wasn’t going to let these guys just walk out, either. He didn’t have time to fly them to a police station – he wasn’t even sure where the nearest police station would be – so he compromised by grabbing them both and putting them in one of the windowless rooms in the building and blocking the door with a rusty locker and a bookshelf. He followed that by sending Damian another message, informing him of the two grunts. Damian had responded to his previous text with a simple “OK”, so Captain Marvel assumed that the boy was on his way to the building.
Everything was going smoothly. Marvel returned to the previous room, finding the door to the other room unlocked. The building was probably way too old and decrepit to actually have working locks on each door, but since the grunts had guns, it wasn’t a surprise that the kids hadn’t tried to escape on their own. Captain Marvel opened the door quietly.
The room inside had no windows, and the only furniture was a couple of dusty bookshelves, a broken table, a broken lamp in the ceiling, and a singular chair with slightly wonky legs. Huddled together in the middle of the room were the missing children – there were maybe ten or fifteen of them, with the youngest looking like he was maybe six years old at best. Their eyes were filled with suspicion and fear, but one of them smiled when he realized who had entered the room.
“Is that… Captain Marvel?” he asked with visible excitement. It caught the attention of the others, and they started to stand up and cautiously approach the man. Though the situation was incredibly serious, it felt really, really good to be recognized by someone like this.
“Yes, it is me. I’m here to get you out of this place”, he said. His eyes combed through the kids and a terrifying realization struck him – he didn’t see Freddy anywhere. It would have been impossible to miss him, since Freddy was such a big fan of all superheroes: even if Freddy had just gone unnoticed, Captain Marvel would have at least heard him. But no, Freddy wasn’t in here, and that was not a good sign.
“I wanna go home”, one of the youngest boys cried out and clutched onto Marvel’s leg. It did wake Captain Marvel up just enough to realize that no matter what was going on, he wouldn’t be able to keep up his search for Freddy before he got everyone here to safety.
“I’m going to get you home. I’m actually working with Robin, so there’s no chance that anyone here is going to get left behind”, he said to the boy, giving him an encouraging smile, “is this… everyone that’s been here? I don’t want to leave anyone behind.”
“That one boy is still in the basement”, replied one of the oldest-looking kids – she was probably older than Billy, although no one else in the room but Marvel knew that. That gave him a bad feeling.
“One of you guys is in the basement?” he asked. As in, the basement where the grunt had said that Scarecrow was. No, that did not sound good. The girl nodded, twirling a strand of blonde hair nervously around her finger.
“They… kept taking some of us down there. I’m not sure what’s going on there, but nothing good. She came back from there a couple of hours ago”, the girl explained and nodded toward another, brunette girl, who was probably in the same age range as Billy.
Captain Marvel hadn’t really noticed the girl earlier, but with just one look, he knew that something was wrong. She was one of the very few kids who hadn’t really reacted to his arrival, almost like she hadn’t seen him open the door. She was sitting in the corner, pressing her legs against her chest and just staring forward with an empty stare in her blue eyes. Captain Marvel walked up to her, slowly and gently, and kneeled so he would be on her level. Still, there was no reaction.
“She hasn’t told us what happened. She hasn’t really… done anything, after she came back”, the blonde girl continued with a worried look in her eyes. Captain Marvel raised his hand slowly, so as to not frighten the girl, and laid it gently on her shoulder. The blonde girl took a step forward.
“You probably shouldn’t—"
Her reaction was instant: her head turned toward Captain Marvel and she let out the loudest scream she could, almost tripping on her own feet as she tried to stand up. Captain Marvel raised his hands like he was surrendering, trying to convey that he didn’t mean to do anything bad, but it didn’t help at all. The other kids were already retreating to the other side of the room as the little girl stared at Captain Marvel with wide-open, fear-filled eyes.
“Stay away from me!” she screamed, her eyes darting from Marvel to the other kids, even to the empty floor and the walls, “stay away from me, please, stay away! Go away!”
Captain Marvel blinked in surprise.
“I’m not here to hurt you. I’m here to help you get home”, he said. He didn’t come any closer and kept kneeling, as his full height might have been too intimidating right now. Tears were running down the girl's cheeks and she had started shaking, her eyes still not focusing on anything in particular. It didn’t seem like she was entirely aware of where she was, or that she was being talked to.
“She’s been like that all the time since she came back”, said a boy with a rocket-shaped backpack, “she was even worse before because she wouldn’t calm down before.”
The girl was breathing heavily and holding her hands up in fists like she was ready to fight anyone who came too close.
“Do any of you know her name?” he asked. The only reply he got was a bunch of murmurs and shrugging, meaning that no one here had any idea. It made things slightly more difficult, but Captain Marvel pushed on. He really wished Damian would already respond to his text to tell him that he had arrived because they really needed to get the kids out as soon as possible.
“Hey there. My name is Captain Marvel. Can you tell me your name?” he asked. The girl's eyes moved to stare at him, but it still felt like she was looking at him through a field of fog. At least she wasn’t screaming anymore, and she seemed to be realizing that no one was attacking her right now.
“G—Go away…” she whimpered, her words faltering, “I—I can’t… I tried to—your faces are—”
Captain Marvel furrowed his eyebrows. He wished he knew the girl’s name because at least that way it would be so much easier to draw her attention. He just needed to get her to calm down, and in order to do that, he needed to know what was going on.
“What do you see? Can you describe it to me?” he asked. The girl’s breathing hitched, but she seemed to actually consider the idea.
“There are… there are dead people in here”, she whispered, closing her eyes as she said the words, “the faces are scary and they—they keep looking at m-me.”
Captain Marvel looked around. All the children in the room looked perfectly normal, nothing dead about them.
“Everyone in this room is alive. I think you saw a nightmare”, he said, “I promise you, there are no dead people in this room – and even if there were, I could easily protect you from them. Could you please come with me, so we can leave this place?”
The girl opened her eyes reluctantly. She was still shaking like a leaf, but she managed to look at Captain Marvel. There was a certain understanding between them, and finally she walked up to him. She stopped in front of him and reached her hand out, placing it on the left side of his chest.
“… You’re alive”, he said. Captain Marvel smiled. His phone buzzed, signaling Damian’s arrival.
“Yes, I’m alive. And everyone else here is alive as well. We should leave this place, don’t you think?” he asked, offering his hand to the girl. She clutched onto it with both hands. Captain Marvel checked that the text message was actually from Damian and turned to the rest of the group.
“Okay, listen, everyone. Robin is waiting for you outside, he’ll take you to a police station, where your parents or guardians can get you home. I’ll take you to him, but then I’ll need to look for the last boy you mentioned”, he said, gesturing with his free hand for the kids to follow him. He received no complaints, as the kids were understandably eager to leave the building. The scared girl kept squeezing his hand with all her might as they walked through the empty halls and promptly ignored the blocked door, where Captain Marvel had stashed the grunts. Robin was waiting for them at one of the windows, ready to help the kids climb outside.
“Wait, or you’re going to cut your hands open”, Robin commanded as he broke the remaining glass so everyone could climb out with more ease, “one at a time, and hurry up. We don’t have all night.”
He could have been slightly more compassionate with the way he spoke to the children, but then again, this was Damian Wayne they were talking about. It was already sweet enough for him to make sure that the kids wouldn’t be all cut up from climbing through broken windows. As the kids started to leave through the window, the scared girl on Captain Marvel’s hand turned to him.
“Are you… going to come with us?” she asked. Her voice was still frail, and she was still pale and shaking, but it was much better than how she’d been just a few moments earlier. Captain Marvel shook his head.
“I would, but I need to make sure that everyone here gets out. Robin will make sure that you get back to your family”, he said with a smile, turning toward her. She took a deep, shaky breath.
“My grandma. I’m just visiting”, she corrected quietly. Okay, in that case, this was probably the worst possible first visit to Gotham. Hopefully, it wouldn’t sour the entire visit.
“They’ll find your grandma, and you can go back with her. I don’t think I caught your name”, Marvel said, trying to get her in a better mood. She looked up at him as her turn to climb through the window was coming up.
“Mary”, she told him, “and… thank you. For saving me.”
“That’s my job”, Captain Marvel smirked, “but you should really go. I think your grandma is worried sick.”
Mary managed to muster the smallest smile on her face, but that was more than good enough. Robin instructed her through the window, and before he climbed out himself, he took a look at Captain Marvel.
“Are you not coming, Marvel?” he asked. Captain Marvel shook his head once more.
“No, there’s still… one more. And Scarecrow”, he said, wondering if it would be weird to name Freddy while the kids were still so close-by.
“Scarecrow is in this building?” Robin asked.
“Yeah. Apparently, he’s in the basement… with the last kid.”
Robin thought about it for a few seconds, then gave Captain Marvel a warning look.
“Do not do anything stupid. I’ll take these kids to the station, explain the situation, and after that, I’ll come back here and we take down Scarecrow. Do not go down there alone”, he said, climbed through the window, and disappeared into the night with the kids.
Captain Marvel left immediately to find the way down to the basement. He knew Robin meant well, but he was not going to wait. If Mary was anything to go by, Freddy could be in huge danger, and waiting was going to make everything so, so much worse. He didn’t know what exactly was going on down there, but these were the situations where superheroes were needed. If it weren’t for him, the kids would still be in the building, and probably would be for a long while – maybe Batman would have been able to find them later on, but even that felt too slow. No, this was his job, his responsibility. Captain Marvel was the one who needed to take care of this, no one else. With that resolute mindset, he kept searching for the way down.