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English
Series:
Part 1 of Bats Stole the League Brain Cells
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Published:
2023-12-01
Completed:
2023-12-13
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18,780
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3/3
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Bouncing Baby Bat, or so the Justice League is led to believe...

Summary:

" “You know, considering how easy it was to get the League to believe that B had carried and had babies, how likely is it that we can get them to believe that he’s pregnant.”

By the mischievous looks that surrounded the table, Bruce knew that there was no stopping his mighty and stubborn army. And if you couldn’t beat them… "

----
or how to scar and prank your co-workers so hard that they question their own reality and state of mind

Notes:

(See the end of the work for other works inspired by this one.)

Chapter 1: Planning, prep, phase 1

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Hal was what you could call, an expert in his field. He had been the top of his class in flight school. Very well-rounded green lantern. A founding member of the Justice League. You name it, Hal could do practically anything….

Except, explain the enigma that was Batman.

Spooky was a lot like Hal in certain ways. Both of them top of their game. Both founding members. But those similarities were few and far between. The differences were far more obvious. Batman was a very serious person, someone who approached his daily life (at least what Hal had seen on the watchtower) with a clinical eye and stern expression. To the Batman, the Justice League was business opportunity, a way to do their jobs more efficiently. To Hal, who just wanted to wake up kick butt and make the world a better place, he saw the Justice League like a new flight team, a bunch of potential friends to kick ass with.

So, that’s what Hal did. He socialized with the other members of the Justice League, made friends. And even in the case of the Flash, a platonic soulmate to geek out over weird stuff and gossip. He was the man you went to if you needed help talking to someone, or needed the daily scoop of watchtower drama. He was friendly with everyone, and as far as he knew, no one seemed to hate him either.

Well…except for Batman.

Hal had a secret power of even getting the most stern, serious individuals to break and let loose. The only person on planet earth that he hadn’t managed to crack, even after nearly a decade of trying, just happen to be his dark and gloomy co-worker, that he saw on a weekly, near daily, basis. Hell, he got (well it was mostly John) Hawkgirl to crack and get a drink with him after a few weeks.

Spooky, just wasn’t going to be the guy who enjoyed…fun…Hal learned to accept that. Every class needed a quiet angsty kid anyways.

So, you can imagine his shock, everyone’s shock, when this new guy, Nightwing, the protector of Buldhaven as Hal would eventually learn, walked into the watchtower and made the scariest man alive chuckle.

Hal could still remember the moment vividly. He and Flash were discussing a new sci-fi movie while they were on monitor-duty. They sat on one side the room, while Batman and the new comer were on the other. Wonder Woman, and Superman had just entered due to shift change was about to happen. Nightwing began to laugh, and then the low rumbling, yet oddly warm, chuckle of the Batman echoed throughout the room.

Flash dropped his soda cup, Superman tripped on his own cape, and Wonder Woman’s jaw dropped. Nightwing, the utter witch, had asked Superman if he was alright, and then the next thing Hal knew he was in the lounge comforting, the now scared for his life, Flash.

Honestly, the event was so unbelievable, that they had to look back at the security footage to make sure that they weren’t going crazy.

However, this was far from over, as the craziness surrounding the dark knight only got more baffling. And that baffling’s name was Batwoman.

Hal’s first thought when he met her? “Did a Gotham Rogue make a gender-swapping ray?” His second, was him questioning if this meant Batman was a red head underneath that cowl.

However, once it was cleared up that they were two different people. He figured she’d be just as broody and silent as her male-counterpart…but he was wrong. So, so wrong.

Batwoman was spunky. Whereas Batman would simply analyze a fight from the side-lines if he wasn’t involved. Batwoman would be the one picking the fight and winning.  With anyone! Batman included! She and Nightwing would team up and tease Spooky like there was no tomorrow…

…And Batman would banter back…

That was the moment, that half of the Justice League began to question their sanity.

Batman would never speak to anyone unless it was about missions and boring work stuff, with Batwoman and Nightwing as the only acceptation…Hell they even called him a nickname! B! They called Batman B! And he didn’t glare at them! Batman always glared at Hal whenever he called the bat Spooky…

  All of this led to a single conclusion…Well actually three conclusions…Batwoman and Nightwing, we’re either drugging Batman, using some type of magic on him, or they had dirt and they were blackmailing him.

Either way, Hal wanted in.

Thankfully, Batwoman and Nightwing, were not as hard to talk too as Batman. In fact, it was all too easy to convince, Batwoman to sit down in the lounge with the others and have a cocktail.

“So, I hope you don’t mind me asking?” Hal said, “But what exactly is going on between you and Batman?”

Nightwing, choked on his drink…a soda because Batwoman fixed a glare (at least that was a shared trait) worthy of Batman on him when he eyed a beer bottle…and began to silently laugh.

Batwoman looked at Nightwing, “Get your head out of the gutter kid,” she smirked turning to Hal, “To answer your question there really isn’t that much going on.”

“What!” Flash said, “Come on, you two are like the only people that bats actually likes. There’s obviously something you’re doing right. What’s the secret?”

Nightwing laughed, “There really isn’t a secret, guys.”

“Oh, don’t give me that. You became Batman’s friends that’s something that happened only once a fortnight or something,” Green Arrow said.

“Friends?” Nightwing scoffed looking offending.

“What?” Flash said, “What’s wrong.”

“Me just a friend. Us just being his friends. Gosh B, never tells you guys anything does he?” Nightwing said, “We’re not friends we’re family. Batman is my father.”

And all of Hal’s speculations and theories were thrown out the Watchtower window. The conspiracy board had failed him. Big time.

Batman is my father.

The words echoed through out Hal’s mind. Spooky? With a kid? Hal was suddenly imagining a much smaller version of Nightwing, an adorable little cherub with chubby cheeks and bright smile, playing catch with the dark serious shadow of Batman. A little ray of sun shine playing in sport-teams with a brooding figure in the stands stiffly waving a tiny flag. Batman coming home a little brown hat on his head, with brief case in hand, and a tiny child running to meet him at the door.

It felt wrong.

“How?” Hal suddenly blurted out.

Green Arrow snorted, “Didn’t you go to middle school Lantern? The answer is quite simple even if a little unbelievable, Batman has more game than we realized. I mean just look at-” he raised a hand an gestured at Batwoman.

 Nightwing made a gagging noise, and Batwoman glared at Arrow…

“Or not?” Green Arrow said.

“No,” Batwoman said, firmly shaking her head, “Nightwing is my nephew, and Batman is my older brother.”

Oh…Well, that explained the teasing…and the shared theme. But it opened so many more questions. Hal began wonder; what type of weird childhood did these guys have? Gosh, Batman as a little kid, wasn’t that an image.

“If not you then who-?” Flash said.

Batwoman was beginning to look both nauseated and irritated, “Look I do not know what or who my brother does in his free time, nor do I want to know. Besides, Nightwing doesn’t have a mother anyway.”

What? Wait. How did that work?! Nightwing, being the kid of Spooky, was already hard enough to believe. Despite the black and blue suit, and dark sounding name, Nightwing was the utter embodiment of sunshine. The only way that Hal could figure such an offspring was made was with an even happier-then-a-kid-on-a-sugar-high mother to counteract the broody genes.

“Yeah, we were all shocked too,” Batwoman said.

Oh, had Hal said all that out loud?

“Yep!” Nightwing chirped.

That, too apparently.

“Listen,” Batwoman started, “I understand that you’re looking at this from a human point-of-view, and that it’s going to be super weird, but…”

“B had me all on his own,” Nightwing finished.

“Human Point of view?” Flash said, before Hal had the time to un-pack what Nightwing just said.

“Oh, dad didn’t tell you that either…” Nightwing said taking a sip of his soda.

“Wait, are you guys not human?” Green Arrow said.

Nightwing made a few shrug-like gestures, “Well…not anymore…”

“Sit back kid,” Batwoman told her, nephew? “I’ll fix your father’s mistakes.”

Hal stopped his jaw from dropping. Batman making mistakes? Well, logically it had to have happened at some point but Hal couldn’t believe it. Batman never mis-stepped, never miscalculated, always had a plan. He seemed invincible, perfect. Him making mistakes, it was against nature…at least to the League. Clearly it was an everyday occurrence to Batwoman, which being a younger sibling, it was probably the reality she wanted to live in.

Tune back in Hal or you’re going to miss the probably great gossip material.

“Listen, I’ll explain this once and only once, mostly because no one is supposed to know and it’s a pretty touchy subject even in the family, but me, Nightwing, B, and the rest of our family, are not human,” Batwoman said.

“We are…well, I guess the closest translation in your mortal tongue is Gotham-Born-Bat-Demon?” Nightwing said, his gazed flicked to batwoman who shrugged, like she didn’t have a better word for him.

“You’re demons?” Flash said, the white eyes of his suit getting bigger.

“Well, in loose terms,” Batwoman said, “In technical terms, we’re reborn human souls who were wrongfully killed as children.”

“What?” Flash said, “Wait, so you died?”

“Yeah,” Nightwing said, “I don’t really remember what exactly happened. But we think it was some kind of skeletal/muscular injury or accident, because I’m so bendy, and I remember something snapping before I woke up in Dad’s arms.”

Static. That was Hal’s mind. Static.

“And…If it’s not too much to ask…?” Green Arrow said looking at Batwoman.

 “Gunshot wound to the abdomen,” Batwoman answered, “I have a birthmark where the hole was.”

“Wait, wait, wait, wait,” Hal interjected, “You woke up in Batman’s arms?”

“Yeah?” Nightwing said.

Hal’s mouth could not move. Thankfully it seems as if his face, communicated everything.

“Is that weird?” Nightwing said looking towards his aunt, “I thought humans promoted physical contact with their offspring right after birth to seal their bonding.”

“Don’t look at me kid I haven’t been human for decades,” Batwoman said.

“Are you saying?” Flash said slowly, “that Batman gave…birth…to you?”

“The correct term would be rebirth, and yes?” Nightwing said, “I just told you; he is my dad.”

“What type of kinky shit…” Green Arrow said.

“ONCE MORE!” Batwoman cut in, “I do not know, nor do I want to know. But I need to clarify, that rebirth unlike human reproduction is not sexual. There’s no partner or hanky-panky needed.”

“Then how...?” Hal said.

“I’ve never gone through it personally,” Batwoman sighed, “But the basics are that we can adsorb pieces of a broken soul, or a murdered child’s lifeforce, into our own bodies and pretty much slowly rebuild them until their stable enough to roam around in their own form.”

“So, wait, you guys get pregnant by absorbing scorned children’s souls, growing them inside of you, and then…giving birth to them?” Flash said.

“Yeah, that’s the long and short of it,” Nightwing said.

“Yep, and it’s all completely asexual. Good thing too, our kind would’ve gone extinct centuries ago if we had to relay on partners to have babies,” Batwoman said.

“And you were born like this?” Hal said pointing at Nightwing.

Nightwing nodded, humming.

This was crazy. Of all things Hall thought he was going to discover about Batman, the fact that he had a kid, whom he gave birth to, was not one of them. Strange visions of Batman cradling a newborn, laying in a hospital bed or nest, maybe a shallow pool. Who the fuck knows what birth for bat demons looked like. Not Hal!

“Actually, Nightwing was kind of a surprise you could say,” Batwoman said.

“Surprise?” Green Arrow said, choaking on his beer.

“Yep, you see I was dad’s first and he didn’t really know what he was doing,” Nightwing said rubbing the back of his neck.

“And it ended with my darling brother waking up the entire cave up at 3:00 pm, because hey guess what! Rebirth emergence hurts. Doesn’t matter if you didn’t know you were going to have it!” Batwoman said, and took another sip of her wine. 

3:00 pm? Oh, wait. Nocturnal. Of course, they’re nocturnal.

“Wait Batman, didn’t know about you?” Flash said.

“Not until our equivalent of labor started,” Nightwing said.

Did Hal step into a reality show? My demon brother didn’t know he was pregnant. Gosh this was weird.

“And his screaming. Gosh, I can still hear it sometimes,” Batwoman said.  

“Screaming?” Arrow said, a worried expression on his face.

“Oh, well, our own bodies have to split apart in order for the Batling to detach after all,” Batwoman said.

“Very painful, so I’ve heard,” Nightwing said.

“So, you’ve heard? Kid, don’t pretend that you weren’t listening in when your siblings were born,” Batwoman said.

“It was kinda hard not to, Auntie,” Nightwing said.

WHAT!?


Bruce loved his family. Really, he did. He was always happiest when surrounded by his children and loved ones.

However, that doesn’t he’s never had regrets regarding certain things and currently he was wondering if he should regret the choice to allow Dick and Kate to come up to the Watch Tower. The reason behind this is because, no one has been able to look him in the eye for the past week.

All he wanted to know was…

“What did you do?” Bruce asked his cousin and firstborn, once the rest of the league was out of ear shot, and in the whistling language they invented when Dick was small (echolocation was what the children called it), to make sure no one could listen in.

Kate and Dick shared a pair of rather malicious smiles, like they were holding back laughter.

“You are going to hate this, and we may have made a mistake telling Flash and Lantern,” Kate started, “but it’s hilarious.”

As the younger vigilantes explained, Bruce had to agree…it was hilarious. Batman wasn’t known for his playful side, so he couldn’t react with the laugh that was trying to escape, but he allowed a strained smile. Gosh, the idea that his co-workers were freaked out by him going through a made-up pregnancy and childbirth is ridiculous. Especially when you take into account that the Justice League is in regular contact with other alien races where males were the carriers of children. Heck, seahorses did it!

And the rest of the family was just as amused.

Tuesdays were a special day of the week. It was family dinner. Ever since the new inter-dimensional additions had been made to the colony, the older children who had other homes of the own, had made more an effort to visit outside of patrol hours. Once a week everyone would come to the manor to have dinner (those who were not a complete disaster in the kitchen helped Alfred cook; which was just Jason and Terry), play games and possibly watch movies. Most of these nights the children even slept over, and that sometimes meant his bed was invaded at some point by someone.

Today just happened to be a Tuesday. Everyone, except Luke and Barabra, whom had to meet with their other families, was present. And once the rumor that Dick and Kate had spread around the Watch Tower hit the dinner table. Bruce should have known there was going to be trouble.

Stephine burst out laughing, spitting her drink through her mouth and nose, “Oh my God! They actually think that B gave birth what 8 times?!”

“We never told them an actual number, but if they thought that…I think we’d need a new Justice League,” Kate said, chuckling into her meal.

“You should’ve seen Green Lantern’s face when Aunt Kate started to explain the inner workings of our asexual re-birthing process,” Dick said.

“Gosh, it must have been priceless!” Jason said.

“Hold on, hold on,” Duke cut in, “Were you near a security camera?”

It was a really stupid question, Bruce had built and designed the tower. There were cameras everywhere.

“I’m getting my tablet! Someone call Babs!” Tim said, running out the room.

After five minutes, a little hacking, and using good wi-fi, there was a pile of laughing young vigilantes crowding around Tim’s chair.

“Look at his face!” Stephine said.

“You can’t make this up,” Duke wiped his eyes.

“Should I be discouraging this?” Bruce said, leaning to the person who sat on his right.

Said, person on his right was someone that Bruce will still trying to convince himself that was actually there. Thomas Wayne, had been probably the most unique addition to the family. If someone had told Bruce that he’d meet with an alternate version of his dead father who became batman after Bruce’s death, when he first became batman, he would probably…stared at them in a both disturbed and concerned manner, and then carted them off to Arkham.

Still Thomas’ presence was a welcomed one in the manor, since his sudden and shocking arrival. Alfred had a good friend returned to him. Bruce got his father back. And the kids now had a second grandparent to latch onto. Bruce also knew that they had been a good influence on Thomas as well. The elder batman had been dealing with his pain and trauma with alcohol and other not so great coping habits (Then again constantly adopting kids probably wasn’t all that healthy either but it wasn’t slowly killing Bruce’s liver), so Bruce had convinced Thomas to get into both therapy and rehab. Rehab was something that Thomas agreed to rather easily, especially after hearing Jason came from a home with an abusive alcoholic. Therapy was more of a fight, and consider the dreary reality that Thomas came from, Bruce could understand that there were a lot of things that his father wanted to keep buried (Bruce was killed as a child, Alfred was clearly gone considering the reaction Thomas had when he saw the butler, and his mother, was a topic that wasn’t ever spoken about which made Bruce fear what ever fate she had in that world).

Now though, his father was in a better place. Thomas has since hang up his own cowl leaving the field work to Bruce and the rest of the family. Taking up a more supportive role by minding the cave, med bay and watching the children who weren’t on patrol (Matt, and Athanasia usually, and if anyone was benched due to injury), at night. The happen ending that he deserved.

“Let them have there fun,” Thomas said.

“Technically this is hacking into a military facility,” Bruce said.

“A facility you own. Besides it’s a life skill,” Thomas said.

Bruce snorted.

“Wait, wait,” Terry said, “So, if we’re this demon race, how come no one had ever heard of us?”

“We’re endangered, obviously,” Dick said raising a finger.

“Last. Colony,” Cass said.

“Yes,” Tim, spoke holding his chin in mock concentration, “But what caused our numbers to decline so drastically?”

“A war with the Amazons and Atlanteans,” Thomas said taking a sip of his water.

“That would play into why B was so hesitant and cold when he first joined the Justice League,” Dick said.

“A war no one remembers?” Damian said with a very unimpressed expression.

“Magic spell! That Grandpa casted to make everyone forget,” Terry said.

“Why would I be the one to cast this fictional spell?” Thomas said.

“You’d be the last survivor of the conflict!” Stephine said.

“And after covering your tracks,” Jason said, “you retreated to the Gotham Territory, and built your own colony. With B, Kate, as your offspring.”

Thomas looked at Kate.

“I’m never calling you dad,” Kate said.

Thomas laughed.

“Don’t forget Luke,” Duke said.

“What about Luke?” Jason said.

“He’s more of our uncle then brother,” Tim said.

The others nodded.

“And the rest of you?” Kate said.

“Oh, we’re all B’s,” Stephine said.

“I thought you weren’t my kid, Steph,” Bruce raised a teasing brow.

“Everyday I am not!” Stephine said, “but when we are screwing with the Justice League, I will gladly be yours.”  

“Good to know your love is unconditional,” Bruce took a sip of his water.

The rest of dinner, the only discussion topic was about inner and outer workings of this fictional demon colony living underneath Gotham for centuries. What their customs would be. How the cave was outfitted into different wings for all their beastly purposes. Why Batman only surfaced recently if they had been there for centuries. How Alfred fit it. All the way through dinner and into dessert. And once the ice cream was served Steph spoke…

“You know, considering how easy it was to get the League to believe that B had carried and had babies, how likely is it that we can get them to believe that he’s pregnant.”

By the mischievous looks that surrounded the table, Bruce knew that there was no stopping his mighty and stubborn army. And if you couldn’t beat them…

“That is a ridiculous idea Brown,” Damian said.

Had Bruce really not taught one of his youngest “if you can’t beat them, join them”? Or how to pick your battles? This is something he’ll have to rectify later.

“Why? You think we can’t fool the Justice League, demon brat?” Jason said.

Thankfully, Bruce was smart enough to give his son siblings to convince him to try things that Damian believed to be ‘below’ him.

“No of course we are capable of such of feat-” Damian said.

“Then why not, Baby Bat? Come on it will be fun,” Dick said.

“Please?” Athanasia said, pulling the most lethal pair of blue puppy god eyes the little girl could muster.

Damian crumbled, “Alright, I’ll go along with this frivolous charade,” he said before grumbling to himself, “Curse Grayson for teaching you the art of manipulative facial expressions first…”

“Great,” Bruce cut in, “Now if we are going to do this. We need to make sure we cover our bases, have our stories strait, and alternate sources that point to the same conclusions that we are giving them.”

“Tim, we need a fake wiki page!” Dick said.

“Way ahead of you, Big Bird,” Tim said, already clicking on his tablet.   


 

The actual prank took place after a few weeks of prep.

Bats were thorough after all.

Tim had set up a fake wiki, but he didn’t stop there. He had also posted on several conspiracy websites and reached out to networks and tabloids that never checked their sources. Jason wrote a bunch “lost articles” that had dates spanning from the early days of Batman, to the early 1800s about a mysterious dark beings roaming the Gotham territory. Damian with the help of his siblings in some cases, created “ancient” carvings in the few tunnels and caves that Gotham’s public could access. All of them red herrings, yet together these fish form the perfect picture that the bats wanted to make.

Once the children finished their job of prep, came the Water Tower team’s turn. Over the weeks the younger one’s were setting up, Bruce, Dick, and Kate, had been game planning about what to do on the scenes regarding the League themselves. Matt and Athanasia had already volunteered to be the “newborn batlings”, being the only members of the Bat family who aren’t active in the field and not retired (with the exception of Cullen, but he wasn’t interested in vigilante work and just wanted to focus on his education. So, he wasn’t involved in the prank. It didn’t matter anyway Bruce wasn’t letting the League up into the manor anytime soon, so Cullen would just hide up there and watch).

It took the weeks of prep, but they had a plan, well more like a script, and they memorized their lines. It was now showtime.

They started small. Dick and Kate had become Bruce’s shadows. Sticking close in an almost protective manner. This behavior wasn’t really all that bat inspired, in reality only the mother bats cared for the young, but they were technically demons and not bats so they were taking liberty of it. Besides, with the false history they crafted, it wouldn’t be too hard to imagine that colony members wouldn’t be protective of expectant members.

Bruce switched from drinking coffee to tea (which was probably better for his health in general), something that Superman, or any of the members of the league with enhanced senses, could pick up on. He also started to pretend to zone out in meetings, and either Dick or Kate, or someone else would bring him out of it. Morning sickness wasn’t something that he could really fake accurately (he wasn’t Jason who somehow could vomit on que), headaches were an easier thing to fake. Along with exhaustion. That wasn’t even something he had to fake, especially without coffee, Bruce had insomnia, messed up sleeping patterns, and way too many children. He was tired.

Though, it seemed as if the impromptu nap in the lounge that was the tipping point…and Barbara suddenly had a new group chat to hack into.

Notes:

Well here is the holiday special that I posted on tumblr about. I hope you all have a wonderful holidays that you enjoyed this! the next chap will be out as soon as possible!

Chapter 2: Phase 2: Active Players

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Flash made a group chat.

Flash changed chat’s title to Concerned friends of Bat Chat

Flash added, Green Lantern (GL), Green Arrow (GA), Martian Manhunter (MM), Superman, Wonder Woman (WW), Aquaman, and Hawkgirl to the chat.  

Flash: Okay, so I’m not the only onw whos noticed bats has been weird lately right?

GL: Nope

Superman: no

GA: not the only one

MM: his behavior is out of his normal habits

Aquaman: All I have noticed is that he’s more tired then usual, which in our line of work isn’t that odd.

Hawkgirl: Let me remind you that most of our meetings are in the daytime, and his family had admitted to them usually being nocturnal??

WW: Hawkgirl is correct

Flash: Okay affair point but why would it just start efectin him now? Hes been with the league for years.

WW: Changes in his personal life maybe?

MM: I do not believe it is our place to pry.

Flash: I think it is after I caught him nappin in the laounge!!!

GA: What?!

Hawkgirl: No way

GL: Batman taking a nap!?!?!

Flash: *Uploaded Image* NW was cuddled up next to him and everything…

WW: Alright that is out of the ordinary.

Superman: Nightwing is Batman’s kid, that part isn’t that weird.

GL: STILL!!!!!

GA: Yeah, I still can’t see him actually relaxing enough to nap

Hawkgirl: The evidence is right infornt of u

GA: I still don’t belive it

Aquaman: Deniel is a poor way to live my friend.

Superman: Actually, now that you mention it, I’ve noticed some things too…

GL: what?

Flash: don’t leave use hangin supes! feed us!

Superman: Well, okay…Batman has stopped drinking coffee for the past couple weeks…

GL: what has he been putting in his mug then?

Hawkgirl: Herbal teas from what I can tell.

GA: what type of teas?

Superman: peppermint mostly

Flash: don’t people drink those to help with nausea?

WW: Some people do other’s use it for headaches.

GL: So, am I not the only one who’s noticed him zoning out in meeting, right?

Aquaman: does it happen before nightwing or batwoman tap him on his shoulder?

Flash: Yes

MM: So, currently we believe that Batman is suffering from, lack of focus, exhaustion, and the possibility of either or both, headaches and nausea.

GL: you think he’s sick?

MM: From what I am understanding of the conversation, we have simply been naming symptoms to explain Batman’s unusual behavior. I thought were all underneath this impression.

GA: that’s stupid. if he was sick, why wouldn’t he have told us? Why is we even working on the watchtower to begin with?

WW: Batman is a very private person. It has taken years for him to even introduce us to his sister and son. I think that if he was unwell, it wouldn’t be something he would tell us.

 GA: Okay but if he was sick why is he still here working?

Hawkgirl: Uhm…established workaholic?

Superman: this would explain why Batwoman and Nightwing have been so protective as of late.

Flash: You think they are waiting for him to like keel over or something?

Aquaman: I tire of all this speculation

Hawkgirl: Agreed, if we want real answers, we need to confront Batman, not talk behind his back.

Flash: Okay, Supes you go talk to him

Superman: What? why me?

Flash: Batman finds you more tolerable, and you like asking questions. your like a reporter, you want to know all the details

Superman: yeah…it’s a weird quirk of mine…

Flash: So you’re the best candidate to talk to him

Superman: Fine, fine, I’ll talk to him…


Clark, honestly felt kind of silly, as he peered into the lounge from his place just to the side of the door and behind the threshold of the room. For a guy who could literally alter the moon’s orbit, he felt pretty powerless right now. Something could be going on with his friend, or someone he saw as a friend, and he didn’t know what to do or how to help. Most people he would feel comfortable with just asking…but this was Batman.

Batman was a different story. Despite knowing each other for years, Clark knew very little about the dark knight. Personally at least. Professionally, Clark knew a lot. Batman was always prepared, always ready, always adapting. If they needed a plan, it was Batman the league turned too. He was someone they could always lean on. Clark had thought that this knowledge went both ways. He believed that Batman would lean on them too if needed.

Perhaps he was wrong. Still if something was wrong Clark needed to know, if only to offer help and clarify that Batman has his, and the league’s, support.

Clark took a deep breath and looked back into the room. Batman was currently working on something with a portable laptop, sitting at one of the tables. Nightwing was nearby, laying on one of the sofas laughing at something on his phone. Batwoman wasn’t present, but Clark could hear her walking in the direction of the bathroom.

The father and son kept whistling and chirping at each other. Like they were having a conversation. Which they probably were, but the language was one that Clark didn’t know. He had never even heard batman use it until Nightwing and Batwoman became a constant presence at the Watchtower. For a moment Clark wondered if this was their native tongue, and Batman had spoke nothing but it since his rebirth until he started interacting with humans. Then he steeled himself and entered. The chirping stopped, and father and son turned to look at the new arrival.

“Superman,” Batman said, “Is something wrong?”

Gosh, had they really only interacted with Batman when something was wrong so he assumed that???

“No!” Clark cleared his throat, “uhm no. I uh…”

Batman’s whited out gaze started at Clark flatly (Nightwing and Batwoman, had similar eyes…was it a genetic thing?)

“Superman?” Batman probed.

“Everything is fine!” Clark managed to spit out, ““W-what I mean to say is I’m not here to ask you for something

“Alright?” Batman said, sharing a confused glance with Nightwing.

“Okay, Uhm…” Clark’s mouth suddenly felt really dry, “is something…is everything okay with you?”

“Me?” Batman said.

“Well, the others and I have been noticing things that are a little…concerning and we…Are you okay?” Clark said.

Batman opened his mouth, but Nightwing cut him off.

“No, he’s not…” Nightwing said in a sing-song tone.

“Nightwing…” Batman said a tone, that only an exhausted parent could conjure.

“And you want to know why? Because he’s working too hard!” Nightwing said.

“Nightwing.”

“There’s a reason that me, and Aunt BW follow you and it’s to make sure you don’t overdo it!”

“Nightwing.”

“Even Grandpa is worried.”

“Nightwing!” Batman finally raised his voice, the younger bat snapping to attention, “I understand the reasoning behind all of the caution and concern surrounding me as of late, but I swear to the Ancient Wings if you don’t let me speak, I might lose it.”

Nightwing looked to the side, body tense.

Batman sighed, and pinched the bridge of his nose, “Listen, I know this is stressful, especially for your grandfather, but this isn’t anything that we haven’t face before. I’ve done this 9 times. I’m going to be alright.”

Oh, God. Green Lantern was right. Batman was sick. Clark felt his own heartrate sky rocket. How long had this been going on? How bad was it? It was making Nightwing worry for his father, one of the strongest people Clark had ever met. It must have been bad. Really bad.  

“Superman?” Batman said.

Clark snapped back into the present, “huh?”

“I asked if you were alright,” Batman said flatly, “you’ve gone pale.”

“I should be asking you that!” Clark nearly shouted, “How long has this been going on?”

“How long has what been going on?” Batman said.

“How long have you been sick?!” Clark said, “Why are you still here in the Tower. You should be at home getting better! Spending time with your family! Is there anything we can do? Is there a cure we can fetch or some treatment the med-bay can offer?”

There was an odd noise to his left, Clark turned and found Nightwing...laughing into the sofa cushions. Why was he laughing? This was a serious matter.

Batman huffed, “Superman. I believe you are mistaken. I am not ill.”

Someone somewhere was scratching a record; Clark just knew it.

“Then what was the talk about a stressful situation, your dad being worried about you?” Clark said.

Batman made a chirp noise to Nightwing, who returned it with something like a growl, only for Batman to give a much louder and deeper growl. The dark knight stood up, nodding his head to the side. Nightwing sighed, got up from the sofa and left the room.

“I’ll explain this only once, and please do not probe. You will not like the details,” Batman said.

Clark nodded.

“How much about our kind have my son and sister told you?”

“Not much, but that you aren’t human and are very private,” Clark rubbed the back of his neck.

“Have they cover the subject of reproduction?”

“Well, yeah, I mean I wasn’t in the room and I learned about it from Flash.”

“What did Flash tell you about it?”

“That it some how revives kids who were unjustly killed, it’s and asexual process and it doesn’t matter if your female or male…” Clark trailed off, the exhaustion, the not drinking coffee, the zoning out, the tea that helped with nausea, “Oh…oh…You mean…you’re…”

Batman pulled out the chair next his, “Sit down, you looked you’re about to faint,” he said before taking a seat himself.

“That’s your job now isn’t it, huh?” Clark said, but did as he was told. His limbs felt shaky, and oddly numb. Was this what shock felt like? He felt shocked.

“Deep breaths,” Batman said.

Clark did, and after a few moments the world stopped spinning.

“Are you alright?” Batman said.

“Once more I should be asking you that? So, you’re really…pregnant?” Clark said.

“As much as I can be,” Batman said, “And before you do. Don’t try and listen for a heartbeat. You won’t find one.”

Clark nodded. He hadn’t even thought about doing that, but he definitely wouldn’t now.

“So, you’re not dying or sick?”

“No,” Batman paused, “You have questions.”

“You told me not to pry.”

“I know you have a natural, curiosity for things Superman, this is the only chance you are going to get, and I will be denying some answers so you keep your sanity.”

Clark nodded, “Uhm, you mentioned something going on with your dad, is everything okay?”

“My father is always worried whenever a new batling is set to be reborn. It understandable given his history, but it can be smothering at times, especially when it bleeds into my own offspring.”

“His history?”

Batman fixed a scowl on him. Damnit! Clark now is not the time for reporter impulse!

Batman sighed, “My kind are endangered Superman. Once a very long time ago my father believed he’d be the last of them to ever live. Until he managed to find a safe place to build our colony.”

Clark froze. Batman’s species was endangered. His colony was the last of its kind. Batman’s father was once the last of his kind. Like Clark had been…Batwoman and Nightwing’s behavior suddenly made a whole lot more sense. This wasn’t just family members worried about the health of another, this was a matter of survival. No wonder they were so protective. Every child of their kind was immensely precious; one step further away from a deadly close extinction.

“I understand,” Clark said, “So, how are you feeling?”

“The exhaustion is hard to deal with, but it’s nothing I haven’t faced before,” Batman said.

Right. Right. This is at least his second pregnancy, Clark reminded himself.

“Well, is there anything we can do to make it easier on you?” Clark said, “Like are their things that you should be avoiding? Do you need to take a leave of absence from the League?”

Batman held up a hand, “Currently my symptoms are not severe enough for me to take a leave, nor am I far enough along to warrant that. I know my limits and I’d like that to be respected.”

His friend’s tone was so flat, it almost seemed like it had been rehearsed so many times that even Batman was tired of saying it.

“Your Family, doesn’t like that you’re working up here huh?” Clark said.

“If my family had their way, I wouldn’t leave my nest room, much less the cave, until after delivery.”

Clark snorted, “They’re very protective then?”

“You have no idea. Anything else you want to know?”

Dick walked back into the lounge, carrying two cups of the peppermint tea Alfred. While he and Bruce made his exit look like a disagreement, it was actually a signal. He set on cup in front of his adoptive father.

"I take the conversation went well?” Dick whistled.

Bruce smirked, “The seeds have been sowed. We continue with phase two.”


Flash: Supes

Flash: Supes

Flash: Supes

Flash: Supes

GL: Dude shut up!

GA: Stop spamming the chat

Flash: Sorry I can’t help it! It’s been 20 minutes since supes went to talk to batman

WW: then the issue with batman was far more complex they we thought. Be patient flash, its better we get the full story, rather then have more assumptions.

Hawkgirl: here here

Superman: Okay I’m back

Flash: Well!!! what is it! tell me!!!

Aquaman: What is troubling our dark ally?

GL: is he sick/dying?

Superman: No. on both accounts he isn’t sick or dying

Superman: Actually its kinda the opposite.

GA: What’s that suppose to mean?

Superman: Well, you see Batman is kinda…expecting…

Flash: WHAT?!?!?!

GL: No way….

GA: ?????

Hawkgirl: :0

MM: Expecting what?

WW: he’s having a baby J’onn

MM: well, then my deepest congratulations.

Aquaman: Wait are we sure? Isn’t he a male?

Superman: Apparently gender doesn’t really have a role in procreation for them

GL: Wait wait wait are u tellin me that the scrarriest man on the planet is currently gorwin a fuckin baby?

Superman: Yes

GL: Should I feel bad for the kid or…

Hawkgirl: Shut up Lantern, Batman’s a decent parent. Nightwing turned out fine

GL: K fair point

Flash retitled the chat Bouncing Baby Bat! Support Chat!

HawkGirl: ?

Flash: We needed a better name, and now that we know what’s wrong, we can help.

WW: Agreed. Does batman need to take time away from the league, or stop field work?

Superman: Actually, I think what he wants is for us to respect his boundaries and carry on as normal

Superman: Apparently he’s getting a lot of motherhenning back at home, and he just needs some normalcy at work. Batwoman and Nightwing joining him on the tower was a compromise.

GL: Batman getting motherhenned? Now I’ve heard everything.

Aquaman: While I can understand some worry regarding a new coming offspring. I was certainly a mess when Mera was expecting, but the actions of Batman’s family seem a little over protective.

GA: Yeah is it like a high risk pregnancy?

Superman: I don’t think it is. There protectiveness is steaming more from the rarity of this.

MM: What does that imply? Has there been a lack of fertility amongst the demon race?

Superman: More like their kind are still recovering from a mass near extinction, so any new baby is something they want to protect.

Flash: MASS EXTINCIOTN!!!!

Hawkgirl: Wait what?

GA: !!!!!!

GL: Spooky’s endangered?!

Superman: Alrihgt alright, calm down. I don’t know all the details, but it was some kind of conflict with the Atlanteans and Amazons centruies ago, batman’s people was caught in the middle and it didn’t end well for them

WW: what?

Aquaman: I’ve never heard of such a conflict!

WW: Nor have I?

Superman: You probably wouldn’t have.

Superman: Batman’s father was the lone survivor made sure to cover his tracks to ensure his own and his family survival. He effectively erased any evidence that the conflict happened. They’ve been hiding out in Gotham ever since.

GA: Damn….

Flash: this isn’t type of gossip I like

Aquaman: Such a tragedy

WW: And we had no clue.

WW: I will still consult with mother. If there is record left of this slaughter, we have a lot to make up for.

Superman: While I think they would appreciate the thought, Diana, I think they just really want to keep this past buried. Some rumors about their true nature have already been spending around Gotham and the internet

MM: If privacy is what our friend desires, I vote we respect his boundaries and choices.

GL: about the baby or the sudden realization that the bat demons are like red pandas?

Superman: Both GL.

GA: does this mean we can’t plan him a baby shower?


Barry tapped his fingers on the console in front of him. The beat was Lady Gaga’s poker face…at times 500 the normal speed. God, the room was so awkward…It was his shift on monitor duty, and like always he had a partner, because one person could watch the whole world…not even from a space station. However, due to a space mission Green Lantern wasn’t his partner today. No, instead he got f-ing Batman!

Ever since Batman’s…news…came to light. There has been a lot of happiness all around. This was kind of the first ever Justice League baby, well at least the one everyone knew about. Barry definitely hadn’t told anyone about the twins when they were born. However, even though everyone was happy for Batman, Barry would be lying if he said things hadn’t stayed just a little bit awkward.

He just wasn’t sure how to approach Batman. Sure, whenever one of his civilian friends tell him their having a baby, he could handle it just fine. A little cheering, hugs and congratulations, maybe plan a party. However, Barry had a feeling that Batman wouldn’t appreciate the usual excited response. Batman was a very closed off type of person…very smart…very structured…definitely someone who would not like a surprise party.

Barry’s eyes darted to his partner for a second, well second for the world ten minutes for him, taking a good look at Batman. Nothing really seemed all that different. Batman certainly wasn’t glowing, that was probably impossible, and nothing about his stomach seemed that different. No bloating or swelling. Then again if Batwoman and Nightwing had only been hovering for a few months, and Batman’s frame was pretty broad to begin with, so it was likely to early for him to show yet. Gosh, batman with a baby bumb that was going to be a weird thing to see…maybe he wouldn’t have to see that, Batman would probably take leave once that happened. It would be an obvious soft spot to bad guys in the field if he went to battle showing.

But didn’t everyone say that the first trimester was always the most brutal? Iris was throwing up on a daily basis early on with the twins, falling asleep at her own desk, and the smell of every would make her nauseous. She had even fainted a few times, and that was really scary. Was all this happening to Batman? Had he passed out in front of his loved ones? How many times had he thrown up? How could he be so calm? Was he just suffering in silence?

“Flash?” Batman suddenly said, making Barry Jump.

“What!? Is something wrong?! Are you okay?! You need anything?!” Barry blurted.

“No... why are you yelling?” Batman said.

“Oh! No reason! No reason at all!”

“Alright,” Batman gave him a side eye, “I was merely asking if you were done with the southern hemisphere. And if you needed to write,” Batman suddenly paused, putting a hand to his mouth and clearing his throat, swallowing, “Excuse me. If you needed to write your repor-”

“Do you need a bucket?” Barry cut him off.

“What?”

“Or would it just be better to zip you over to the restrooms,” Barry stood up and on reflex began pacing, “No, moving at superspeed would probably make it worse for you wouldn’t it.”

“What?”

“Do you need more of that tea your drinking?”

“Flash!”

Barry froze mid-step.

Batman gave a growly sigh, “It’s almost time for shift change just go write your report. I’ll finished up.”

“But shouldn’t I?”

“Go!”

Barry dashed out of that room, and in the blink of an eye he was in the lounge. He stood stick stiff before sitting down on the sofa next to Green Lantern.

“Is something wrong?” The red-head asked.

“Give Batman some space, I think he’s hormonal.”


“What was that about?” Barbara said, in his ear piece.

Bruce just shook his head in a bewildered manner, replaying the recent events in order. Things slowly clicking into place. The heater had been running the manor for the past few nights and because of it Bruce was always a little be congested for the first week of winter. He snorted.

“I think, Flash just mistook my congestion for morning sickness,” Bruce said, well that had been easier the previously thought.

Barbara started laughing.


Diana was conflicted.

That was probably the best way to explain it. She had always held her sisters high with honor, and with time she had learned to do that with her teammates as well. Too learn that something so horrible had been done that even the victims of the event wanted nothing more then to just bury it and forget. No justice. No revenge. Only forgetfulness. How deeply does one need to hurt someone to just make them crawl away and hide?

Diana knew Arthur felt the same but he with his work in Atlantis he couldn’t expressed the sorrowfulness the like her.

Still knowing this, made her admire Batman even more. As an ally he was dependable and trustworthy. As a friend he was quiet and didn’t react out much but he was always there. As hero he was by far the bravest, and most compassionate, even if it wasn’t always obvious. This was only proven further, when he put aside all the pain Diana and Arthur’s people caused his own, to work with them to protect the world they all shared.

Batman was currently in the assembly hall, preparing for the latest meeting that was due to start within an hour. His hands and fingers moving nimbly with the keyboard and computers, never faulting.

“Batman?” Diana called out.

“Yes, Wonder Woman?” He said without looking up from his work.

“How are you doing?”

Batman sighed and turned around, “In what terms? I’ve been hearing that question a lot lately.”

“Well, it was quite a shock to learn everything.”

“I suppose it could be for people with different habits forming offspring. But for your information. I am actually doing quite well this time around.”

“This time around?”

“With Nightwing, even if I didn’t know what was actually happening, I had dizzy spells throughout. Like I was tied to a trapeze. His brothers were worse.”

Diana resisted the urge to laugh at the thought of a Batman tied to a wild trapeze, “Worse how?”

“My second-born was a wild one. Didn’t make me dizzy, and we don’t feel kicking like humans, but let’s say the sensation was like that of being hit in the stomach with a tire iron.”

 Diana did laugh at that, “Well, he certainly made an impression.”

“Yeah, I knew what was I in for then.”

“You really care about them,” Diana smiled

“I don’t know where I would be with out them. They keep me in check, remind me what we fight for in the first place. What we are protecting.”

“Children are a blessing, aren’t they?”

“Both blessing and curse at times but I wouldn’t change a thing. Now what did you want to actually speak about?”

Diana hummed, questioningly.

“You didn’t just come to talk to me about my children, something else is on your mind.”

Oh, he just had to psychic.

 “Well,” Diana started, “I suppose I just wanted to thank you, and apologize.”

“Apologize?” Batman raised a brow ridge.

“Considering the history between our two peoples, that I wasn’t aware of until recently, I desire to apologize on behalf…”

“Wonder Woman, stop.”

She froze.

                “The past doesn’t concern me. I’m more focused on what’s to come. You’ve fought by my side and I know I can trust you. You don’t need to apologize to something you weren’t involved with. The same goes for Aquaman.”

“I-I don’t know what to say.”

“Don’t say anything. Just stop worrying.”

Diana nodded, “Thank you my friend.”


 Kate melted out of the shadows she was hiding in one Wonder Woman left.

She clicked her tongue, “You think we went a little over board with the extinction event?”

Bruce nodded, “Yeah…”

“So, Hood felt like a tire iron?”

 Bruce sighed.

“You know once he hears about this, he’s never going to let you live it down.”

“Yes. Yes, I know.”

Notes:

A/N:
Okay, so this was pretty much written before I published the first chap, three is only half-way done and it's finals week next week for me so it might take a little longer. But I hope you enjoy. Also was this in character I'm not that practiced with writing the JL. Nor have I every written a chat fic before. Thanks in advance for reading

Chapter 3: Phase 3: Delivery

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Clark really hated Mondays.

The weekend was over and everyone in the apartment didn’t want to wake up at all. Jon particularly shared his father’s feelings about Mondays. So, the kid didn’t want to go to school. And everyone slept through their alarms so the schedule was already thrown off big time. Coffee machine at work was broken and someone stole his lunch.

Now he had to deal with Lex Luthor. Great…

The mad billionaire this time around decided to attack him with giant robots, built to resemble mythical monsters and enhanced with some alien technology. An odd choice for Lex in Clark’s opinion, but maybe the mad man was feeling eccentric. They were too big and too many of them for Clark to handling on his own so he was forced to call in the League. Even better.

Now, was fate kind to Clark and offers just a little bit of relief with the arrival of backup? No! Of course not! Because Batman was there.

Now, while Clark had said that he trusted Batman’s judgement about his own health. That didn’t mean he wasn’t at the least worried about his friend, who was currently in one of the most vulnerable states that any living creature could be in, jumping into a war zone! So, needless to say Clark stuck close to his friend’s side during the fight, especially since Nightwing and Batwoman got separated from Batman during the scuffle. And since Batman liked being in the thick of the action, he of course would take the Kraken, the biggest of the mechs.

How had Batman even been allowed to jump into this fight? Clark wondered as he ripped off one of the mech’s giant burning tentacles. It had been months since Batman revealed his pregnancy and even loner since Batwoman and Nightwing first made their appearance. He had no idea how far along Batman was, he still wasn’t showing, but it was still a risk. What if the fighting and stress caused a miscarriage? Or trigger a still-birth? His flying faltered and to steady himself he landed. Rao, he didn’t want to think about that anymore.

“Superman! Get down!”

Superhero rule number 1: never get distracted in a fight.

A laser blast coming from the eyes of the Kraken (hilarious Lex, hilarious) hit Clark before he could react. Invulnerability meant that it didn’t hurt that much, so there wouldn’t be a burn, but physics still affected him. At the moment of impact, he wasn’t really an immovable object meaning Clark was thrown backwards from the blast. He tumbled in the air and then on the ground, his vision spinning. Something heavy and metallic was then pressed down on him and then it looped around his body, pinning his disoriented limbs to his sides.

When his vision finally cleared, it was pretty obvious that the Kraken was trying to squeeze the life out of him…and failing, but that wasn’t what he was focused on.

The other tentacles were darting left to right, trying to mash the others. Batman was the closest to the Clark, leaping between the heavy metal ropes and launching explosive batarangs at each limb, once they got to close to either of them.

“Superman! Break out now!”

Superhero rule number 2: never stop moving

They both screw up that rule. Clark for not breaking out. Batman for not dodging. One was significantly worse than the other.   

Two tentacles rushed forward, both stopped in an explosion and cloud of smoke from a pair of twin batarangs. Then suddenly a third and forth darted towards Batman, and he didn’t react fast enough. The third looped around Batman’s leg, as he tried to jump away, yanking him up upward. From somewhere, Batman pulled yet another batarang, and blew up the tentacle. Sending him in freefall. Leaving him vulnerable. Vulnerable to the fourth tentacle, that swiped hard and fast at Batman. Clark’s friend tumbled hard on to the asphalt after the metal rope, struck him in the stomach.   

Clark didn’t even remember the rest of the fight. Apparently seeing red didn’t just happen to humans. The wreckage to the city was worse than usual one the fighting. He felt kind of bad, usually Clark tried to minimize the damage. Thankfully, once the smoke cleared, Lex was in custody and most of the civilians had been evacuated so causalities were at a minimum.

“Clean up crews have been called,” Green Arrow said, “Hopefully the damage won’t take too long to fix.”

“I’ll be working on supply deliveries for them once I get the chance,” Flash said.  

“Thanks Flash,” Clark said, “This has been our worst hit in a while. We’ll gladly take your help.”

“Do no feel guilty my friend,” Aquaman said, “This is a work of a mad man not yours.”

“A mad man thankfully behind bars,” Wonder Woman said.

“For now,” Batman said walking up to them, an arm wrapped around his stomach.

“Hate to agree with spooky, but yeah, you got enough money, you can get the slickest of lawyers,” Green Lantern said, “At least for a moment he’s out of our hair.”

Clark nodded, then turned to Batman, “Hey, are you okay? That was a pretty bad blow you took back there.”

“The other’s have had worse. Don’t concern yourself with me,” Batman turned, taking a step…then staggering, with an inhaling hiss of pain.

“WhoA!”

“Spooky?!”

Clark was there in an instant, holding up Batman by his un-occupied arm and lopping it over his own shoulder, “Do you need a medic?”

Batman shook his head.

“Spooky, you just collapsed,” Green Lantern said.

“You need to see a medic Batman,” Wonder Woman said.

“They- They can’t help me…” Batman rasped.

That immediately sent alarm bells in Clark’s head. The hit to the abdomen. The way he was cradling it now. The heavy breathing. The hidden looked of pain in his whitened-out eyes. Oh no. The hit must have triggered something. Be it early labor or…it did so much damage that Batman’s body was rejecting the pregnancy.

“What happened?!” Nightwing called as he ran over from a mound the rubble.

“He got hit in stomach,” Clark said, allowing Nightwing to take his place supporting Batman. Father and son chirping and whistling at each other.

Batwoman wasn’t too far behind. Running up to Batman’s other side.

Ma always told Clark that he should never listen in, but as he backed away, he kept an ear out.

“His temp’s dropping.”

“We need to get him back to the cave.”

“It wasn’t supposed to happen like this.”

“He wasn’t supposed to leave the cave this week. Period.” *sigh* “Can we just take him back home. Your grandpa has everything ready. It’s going to be okay kid.”

With that Clark tuned out and let the bats leave in peace. Clearly, his guess hit the nail on the head. Something had to be very, very wrong.


“Master Bruce if your try to get up from that bed one more time, I swear I will tie you to it!” Alfred nearly raised his voice, and that was enough to make Bruce stay…at least for now.

“Listen to your butler, Bruce,” Thomas said double checking Bruce’s bandages.

Gosh, Bruce had half the mind to tell them both to shut up. But that wouldn’t end well for him. It was just five broken ribs and the rest of them bruised. He was fine. Still, he was stuck with bed rest for at least a week. Sneaking out would do no good either. All the children moved back into their rooms at the manor once the word of his injury spread, and they wouldn’t let him get away with anything.

Bruce sighed, “Yes dad.”

“Good boy.”

At least he called phase three before he was made bed bound (even if it was making the prank jump schedule, but no way in hell was he letting an EMT touch him), Barbara wouldn’t let him be bored once she hacked the Watchtower security footage.


Hal was kind of freaking out.

It had been three days since the Lex Luthor attack, three days since Batman’s near collapse, three days of complete radio silence. The tense atmosphere over the assembly hall was something that everyone was feeling, as they looked towards the empty seat that belong to Batman.

Only now they were doing the debrief of the attack. Everyone was just too exhausted to really have much of a straight conversation. So, the debrief was scheduled for a few days later. And here they were. Honestly, even after Hal had a few days to shower in hot water, sleep on an actual bed, and eat all of the take-out Chinese food he could stomach, he didn’t feel that much better. He was still unsettled.

Everyone was unsettled, because Batman stumbled, and collapsed. Batman was the solid rock of the league. Nothing shook him. His absence was felt more then anything.

Superman cleared his throat, “Well, I guess we’ll start.”

Of course, this was the moment that the Zeta tube decided to activate. Everyone perked up, only to slightly deflate when Nightwing entered…alone.

“Uhm…Hi,” Nightwing said, “Batman couldn’t come today. I’ll be filling in for him.”

“Welcome Nightwing,” Wonder Woman said, “You Father is he well?”

Nightwing took a seat in his father’s chair, “Well, he’s currently on bedrest.”

“He’ll be, okay?” Hal found himself asking.

“Eventually,” Nightwing said not looking him in the eye.

“And the baby?” Superman asked.

It took a moment for Nightwing to answer, “Remains to be seen.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Green Arrow said, and Black canary slapped the back of his head.

“Dad’s injuries aggravated the Batlings’ development, causing emergence to start too early. Grandpa’s put him on bed rest to hopefully stall the detachment process for as long as possible,” Nightwing said, “He’d been fading in and out of symptoms for the past few days. Thankfully he was close to the end, but it’s still pretty early.”

“You have our condolences Nightwing, please pass on our well wishes when you see your father again,” Martain Manhunter said.

“Thanks, J’onn, I’ll tell him that,” Nightwing said.

“You have the League’s full support, Nightwing,” Superman said, “Anything you or your family need.”

“Thanks Superman. I’ll just ask that you excuse me constantly looking at my phone. If something happens, I need to go home right away.”

“Whatever you need Nightwing.”

“Thanks, superman. Now we have a job to do, don’t we?”


Dick knew he probably should be feeling bad right now, but man were the Justice League suckers. He’d had at least three members walk up to him and offer either support or give him some kind of gifts to bring home. Most of it had been oddly some form of baby supplies, but the stuffed cartoony bat squishy was probably the best of it. Athanasia ended up loving the thing, so it wouldn’t go to waste (not that the supplies they didn’t need to go to waste after they donated it).

Still Dick was glad that by the end of the week, once Bruce was allowed on his feet again, that he could tell could invite them to the cave to meet the “new” batlings. All he needed was the call to set up the meeting.

And Dick really hoped he could use it as an excuse to get out of this really…really…really boring meeting. Gosh, no one ever talked about how much paper work superheroes had to do…

His phone started vibrating in his pocket. Perfect timing as always, Alf.

“Nightwing?” Superman called from his podium at the front of the assembly hall.

“I need to take this,” Dick said, with the most concerned tone he can give and left as soon as Superman nodded.

Half-way to the zeta tube, Dick picked up the call.

“About time you phoned, what’s going on?” Dick said.

“Master Nightwing, I believe that a semblance of finesse is required for this conversation?” Alfred said through the phone, the trigger words, Phase three is about to really kick off.

“How is he?”

“In terms of his wounds they are healing well.”

“In other terms.”

“I believe it is in your best interest to return home swiftly, final preparations have nearly been completed, and I believe we are just about ready to settle in.”

“Already?”

“We can not stop what has started, young master. Best you’re here to help with the little ones.”

Dick made sure that his nod was both solemn and slightly excited, “Yeah,” and hung up the phone.

He didn’t leave right away; Dick could feel the eyes on him. So, he took a deep breath and ran a hand down his face like he was stressed.

“Nightwing?” Superman was the first to come out of the hiding place just behind the turn of the corridor that many members of the league occupied.

“Superman?” Dick said like he was tired.

“Is everything alright?”

“Well, we’re in the final stretch,” Dick shrugged and sighed, “Listen I have to get home, but Dad told me that if things picked up, you all are invited to visit in this weekend.”

Wonder Woman creped out from the hiding spot, “Really?”

Dick gave a nod, “Yeah, Dad thought that you’d be pestering him to see the Batling non-stop once he was back, so he wants to get it out of the way.”

“What time?” Flash said.

“I’ll text it, but I have to…”

“Go,” Superman said.


Clark was exhausted when he got back to his apartment.

It had been a long day, but it got better once he got home to a kiss from his wife and hug from his little boy. Lois, had been learning some of Ma’s recipes to cook at home, because Jon was currently obsessing over is Gran’s meals and made delicious cornbread and fried chicken for dinner. Clark kept Jon occupied with homework while Lois prepped, and after dinner they swapped role. With Clark on the dishes and cleaning, while Lois put their son to bed. Rao he was so lucky.

“So?” Lois said, walking into the kitchen, Jon in bed (at least supposed to be), and Clark just finishing up the dishes.

“So?” Clark said in a teasing tone.

Lois snorted, “Well, what happened today?”

“I wasn’t anything they needed to worry about. You should know that you were at the office when Perry…”

“I meant your night job, not your day job,” Lois’s expression sobered with concern, “Was it Batman again?”

Clark hesitated, for a reporter, he suddenly felt out of words.

“Clark, you can tell me come on. I know he’s been absent; I don’t know why he is, but I know that your worried about your friend. You need to talk.”

Clark sighed, “Yeah, I do. Okay, uhm I’m sorry I didn’t tell you earlier. I just didn’t want to invade Batman’s privacy.”

“It’s fine, hon. Besides I can understand. If I was a dude who spent my free time dressed up as bat and punching people in the face, I’d probably like my privacy too. I can keep a secret though, let it on me.”

“Okay, but fair warning it is kind of weird.”

The range of facial expressions that Lois created during that conversation made Clark almost want to laugh multiple times. Still like a true reporter she didn’t comment on it and took in all the information in.

“So, Batman was pregnant, or is?” Lois started.

“Well, I don’t have all the information. From what I got from Nightwing, Batman might be in labor at the moment, and well, I really don’t want to listen into Gotham if that is the case.”

Lois nodded, “So, what’s eating at you? From what I’m understanding Batman is as okay as he can be and by the weekend, you’ll be meeting his little bundle of darkness and brooding.”

“I guess, it’s just, I think we were getting closer in the past few months. I mean I always thought that we were friends, I wasn’t sure if he thought the same as me, but I thought we were. And with him opening up more, about the baby, his family, and their history. I felt like we had more in common and were becoming closer.

“Then watched him take that hit, knowing all the context of what was going on with him, it kind of freaked me out. I was so scared. I was scared for him, I was scared for the baby, I was scared for his family. It’s pretty obvious that they are very private and isolated and only recently have they started to open up again. A death could undo all the work that Batman has done to introduce his people as heroes to the world.”

“Well, it’s a good thing that nothing bad had happened. Take a deep breath Clark its going to be okay,” Lois stood up and hugged him from behind.

Clark did as his wife recommended, and then smiled, “Thanks, Lois. Sorry about this, it just hit really close to home.”

“Yeah, I know,” Lois kissed his cheek.

“Now, you think you can help me with one more thing?”

“Oh, what’s happened now?”

“I have no idea what I’m going to do for this weekend…”

“What?”

“Like do I come in a suit?”

Lois snorted.

“Do I bring a gift? What if I bring something that insults them? I don’t know what to do! Don’t laugh this is serious! I’ve never gone to meet a baby with the exception of Jon.”

Lois was cackling, “Oh, you sweet, sweet cinnamon roll. First off, why do you think you should wear a suit?”

“Make a good first impression?”

“Okay, well considering how big Batman is on secret identities, I think you’ll make the best impression wearing your suit, not a suit, your suit, that you wear every time you go to the Watchtower.  And if you feel like bringing a gift, you will call your mom, ask for her brownie recipe, and bring a batch with you this weekend. No one can be offended by your mom’s brownies.”

Clark pulled her close, and kissed her lips, “Have I told how much I love you?”

“Not in the past 30 minutes, but if you really want to tell me you love me?”

They shared another kiss.


Hal had arrived at the Watchtower’s zeta bay at the agreed time. Unsurprisingly he wasn’t the first one there. Wonder Woman, J’onn, and Superman, whom had a small tub of what looked like brownies, were the folks who believe that there was now such thing as on time, and always showed up at least fifteen minutes early. Aquaman and Hawkgirl, were already there, but they probably arrived just mere moments before Hal did. Green Arrow and Black Canary ran into the station right after Hal, and Flash was the last one to join them, a bow tie around his neck and over his suit.

“Am I late?” Flash said.

“You would’ve been in about 30 seconds,” J’onn said.

“Sorry, I meant to get here earlier, nerves I guess,” Flash said.

“I think we all have those right now,” Superman said rubbing the back of his neck.

“What’s with the bow tie?” Hawkgirl said.

“First impressions,” Flash said, and Hal thought he heard Superman curse underneath his breath.

“Well, since we’re all here now?” Aquaman said, “Shall we go?”

“Yes,” Wonder Woman said, “We would hate to be late to this momentaneous occasion, wouldn’t we?”

The Zeta tube was the same, a whirling storm of colors and energy. However, instead of a cooly lit space station or another bright base room, at the other end was a dark tunnel with jagged black stone walls. Once the light of the zeta faded, they were left shrouded in shadows.

“So, he actually lives in a cave,” Green Arrow whispered.

“He calls his home a cave, why didn’t you think it was?” Black Canary whispered.

“I thought he was joking,” Green Arrow whispered.

“Why are we whispering?” Hal said.

“Don’t bats have super hearing or something?” Flash said.

“Batman never complained about you Flash,” Hawkgirl said.

“Neiter did Superman, and he’s got super hearing,” Wonder Woman said.

“Yeah, but they are adults,” Green Arrow said, “A baby with super hearing would one hundred percent startle from loud noises.”

“So, we’re just going to whisper this whole time?” Superman said.

Someone cleared their throat behind them, and the mightiest heroes in the solar system totally didn’t jump and shriek like little kids. Nope, not at all. Hal jerked around and froze when he realized that he and his friends were not alone.

Out of the swirling black shadows, came a slim figure. They were dressed in a suit, and long navy cloak. The hood of side cloak hid the upper half of their face in shadow, but their mouth and utterly fantastic mustache were still visible. In their thin pale, almost ghost white, fingers were a single ivory candle, its flame was a of a pure white, not orange, yellow, or red.

The figure, chuckled, it felt like a death rattle, deep and hollow, “My apologizes, I didn’t mean to frighten you.”

 The voice was prim, and very proper, encased in a British accent. Okay…

“I take it you are the guests that Master Batman, invited?” The figure said.

Flash looked over to Hal and mouthed, “master?” Hal shrugged.

“Uhm…Yes,” Superman said.

“Ah, wonderful,” The figure said, “My name is Albatross, I am the steward of the Gotham Colony. Now if you please follow me, I’d hate for get lost in these tunnels. Who know how many poor souls have wandered in here never to see the light of day.”

“Steward?” Green Arrow murmured.

“Never see the light of day?” Superman said with more concern then most.

“Well, we are very deep below the surface after all, and these tunnels can stretch all over the Gotham territory, very easy for mere humans to be swallowed by them,” Albatross said.

“Oh,” Hal said.

“Now if you will please follow me, I’ve been instructed to take you straight to the main chambers,” Albatross said.

The steward turned on the heel of his polished boot and walked into the darkness, the justice league quickly following behind.

“So, who are you?” Flash said.

“Flash he just introduced himself,” Aquaman said, “He is the steward of the colony.”

“Yeah, but some of us don’t live in the twelfth century and know what that word means,” Flash said.

“Flash!” Superman hissed, like a parent at the child who just said something incredibly insulting.

Thankfully the sharp tension in the atmosphere, flattened with Albatross chuckling.

“It is fine, I know that you have questions, and unlike some folk who live in these tunnels I have no trouble explaining,” Albatross said.

The steward’s tone, almost made Hal snort. There was so much disapproval, but it had a fondness to it. Albatross clearly didn’t like Batman’s habit of not always explaining everything, but he knew there was nothing that could possibly change it. Still, it didn’t stop the steward from complaining. Hal was getting the impression that this man was very, very brave.

 “To answer you question young man, you could say I am family. Although, not by rebirth. You see long ago, the grandmaster saved my life from war and in return I aid the family,” Albatross said.

“Wait a minute, so this dude saves your life and you became his man servant? How’s that fair?” Green Arrow said.

“Oh, you, young blood always so quick to judge,” Albatross tutted, “Originally, the deal was that in exchange for saving my life I was to help the Grandmaster to find a safe place to settle, because at the time Master Batman was set to be born and the need for a home was nearing desperation. Eventually we found the way here, and what started as a business agreement, soon became a friendship that lasted life times. Besides once Master Batman had been born the boy grew quite attached to me.”

“How’d you survive all these years?” Wonder Woman said, “Batman told us, his family arrived in the Gotham territory centuries ago.”

“A spot of the demon magic was enough to turn my soul immortal,” Albatross said, “I’m still human, but time doesn’t have the same hold it used to have on me.”

“They can do that?” Superman said.

“The Grandmaster can, but he knows little magic and most of it is a lost art now,” Albatross said.

Hal found himself nodding along with the conversation. So, this was an old family friend of Spooky? Had been with the family since Batman was born. Wait….

“Hold on,” Hal started, “Are you saying that you knew a baby Batman?”

“Why, yes,” Albatross said, “You could say I helped raise him.”

Hal held back a smirk, “Well, you have any embarrassing stories? Was he always a brooding loner?”

Albatross laughed, “No, no he was actually quite a bright and adventurous child. The brooding and dark justice obsession phase didn’t happen until he was a young adult and it didn’t break until Master Nightwing was born. Oh, I could go on and on for days, if you got me started.”

Hal wanted to deny that, Batman a bright and adventurous…Nah… that didn’t feel right. He had to have been brooding since his cradle days, but then again Nightwing was Batman spawn.

“Well, why don’t you?” Green Arrow said, clearly just as invested in baby Batman stories as Hal.

“Because we aren’t alone,” Albatross said.

Hal puzzled over this odd statement and then jumped as another figure walked towards their group form the dark shadows. The first thing that was noticeable was their eyes, and Hal knew that this was another bat demon. Their eyes were a pale blue, not white like Batman’s, and seemed to glow. Their entire body was a blackened grey, covered in armored plates, but there was no cape inside. To tall horns, or were they ears, sprouted from the front of their head. Their steps were completely silent.

“Are the visitors here Al?” They called out.

“Master Batwing,” Albatross greeted.

“Good,” The new comer, Batwing? Said, “Hi, everybody! I’m Batwing, Batman and Batwoman’s little brother,” He started giving out handshakes.  

His mouth, wasn’t visible but Hal had a feeling that Batwing was smiling.

“You’re Batman’s brother?” Superman said, his voice surprised.

“Yep! Is that weird?” Batwing chirped.

“Sorry, its just we’ve never heard of you,” Superman said.

“Eh, it’s fine. Big brother never wanted to let any of us into his friends’ group anyway, Batwoman and Nightwing only recently manages to muscle their way in after all. Besides, he can trust me with the kids so I watched them,” Batwing said.

Kids? Oh, so Spooky had more then the New baby and Nightwing in his brood.

“Oh? He trusts you with the kids?” Green Arrow said, “Batwoman or your old man can’t be trusted?”

“Dad, he does an okay job, but my sister?” Batwing shared a look with Albatross, “Nope.”

Albatross shook his head, “Absolutely not.”

“Why?” Aquaman said.

“She let them into the kitchen,” Batwing said simply.

“And why is that such a bad thing?” Hal said.

“The kitchen is Albatross’s domain, he decides if you have privileges, and father, along with my siblings, have a life-time ban…”


Clark stared in awe.

The walk through the tunnel had been very informative, but now they were at the mouth of the tunnel, a larger chamber just beyond the threshold. However, that wasn’t what Clark was focused on. It was the child that stood at the threshold that held his attention.

The child was small. His hair was dark and spiky. What skin was visible was a warm brown. He had markings that what looked like a green mask around his whited out eyes. Clothing was a mix of red, black, and yellow. A sword rested in a hilt on his red belt, almost hidden by his yellow and black cape.

The young boy, looked around 10-12 years old. Jon’s age.

It probably shouldn’t have been what Clark was supposed to be thinking, but the idea of playdates came to the forefront of his mind. Jon’s powers had come in recently, and Clark had been trying to find friends for him inside of the superhero community, so that he wouldn’t need to hide his kryptonian side from other kids at least somewhere. Maybe Batman would be open to introducing the boys to each other soon.

“Hey Robbie!,” Batwing said, and tried to ruffle the boy’s hair, only for the younger bat to dodge.

“Do not call me that undignified nickname, uncle. Especially in front of guests!” The boy, Robbie? Said.

Oh, this one was definitely Batman’s. The scowl on the child face was nearly identical to that of the dark knight.

Batwing held up his hands in a “I surrender” gesture, “Right, right sorry kiddo.”

The boy growled before turning to the justice league, “I am Robin, Batman’s true Heir, the one who is worthy to take on the cowl, unlike the imbeciles I’m forced to call my siblings.”

Oh, Batman was a very patient father.

Batwing chuckled, “I’m so sorry about him. You see Robin here is a little bit crabby because, before the new arrivals he was the youngest.”

“Oh,” Green Arrow started to laugh, “I don’t blame you bud; I hear that the Baby of the family is a coveted position. Must be hard to give that up, don’t worry though the role of big brother comes with its perks.”

Robin’s eyes narrowed into a glare worthy of his father’s, “Do not talk down to me simpleton. I can still best you in both combat and strategy.”

Batman was a very, very patient father.

“He didn’t mean anything by it Robin,” Clark step in, “He just knows that it can be hard when your home life changes. I’m sure if given the choice you’d rather have your dad keep things the same right?”

Robin crossed his arms, “It did feel unnecessary for father to have more children, when he has the perfect heir already.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with feeling that, master Robin, but you must know that your worries are never coming true,” Albatross said.

“Al is right,” Batwing put a hand on his nephew shoulder, “Your Dad loves you for who you are now, not for what you can be for him.”

“Well, said Master Batwing, now we must continue, I’m sure the others are waiting to greet the guests,” Albatross said.

With that they crossed the threshold and into the main chamber of the batcave, and Clark’s mouth dropped open in awe. The Batcave was giant. So large that in it, it could fit, a training arena that was outfits better then the one on the Watchtower (gym equipment, sparing mats, boxing ring, even a trapeze!), a parking zone for what had to be the Batmoblie and a large number of other vehicles, fully stocked med-bay, and in the center of it all the legendary Batcomputer (thank you Nightwing for teaching Clark that it was tradition to give certain items in the nest titles to show their importance. Clark had been trying to research their culture as much as possible to not accidentally offend anyone during this visit, and he had been texting back and forth with Nightwing because, not matter how accurate it seems to be, a good reporter never trusts wiki). Once Clark looked up though he saw that this place continued toward the stalactite covered ceiling, with many railed over ledges. That wasn’t even talking about the number of relics that Batman kept around the place. Clark could see the old suits and weapons of villians, a giant penny…and oh my Gosh!

“What’s with the giant dinosaur?” Green Lantern said.

“It eats intruders,” Robin said with fully serious face.

“That’s fun,” Hawkgirl commented with a smile.

“Hey! You made it!”

Clark looked back at the Batcomputer and Saw Nightwing walking towards them from where he was previous staring at the monitor. The alien paused for a moment, finally taking notice of the other two figures at the infamous set up. They looked like two teenaged boys at first glance. However, at a second look one of the boys age was a little harder to determine.

The first one was sitting in what could only be the Batchair. He had visible hair, black just like what Clark assumed to be his brothers, and pale skin, though his was certainly a few shades lighter than even what little skin Batman had. His armor was red and black, mostly red around his body, with black on his hands, feet, and a little crisscrossing on his chest. Beneath him, pooled and crumbled in his seat, looked like a red and black cape that almost looked feathered. Was that actually a cape or was that a set of wings?

The second boy was leaning against the console, arms and legs crossed. He was entirely black, like pitch black. The only thing really visible on this living shadow was the large bright red bat on his chest and his white eyes. Two tall horn ear things on his head, a little further back on his head then Batwing’s set, but they were still similar. He also still possessed a mouth that smirked though.

Man, Bat genetics were crazy.

“Welcome all you!” Nightwing said.

“We’re happy to be here Nightwing,” Wonder Woman said, accepting the hug the seemingly younger hero offered, “How is your father?”

“Well…”

“Wrong people to ask Miss Wonder Woman, we haven’t been allowed upstairs yet,” the all-black teen said, cutting off Nightwing.

 “We haven’t heard any screaming for the passed couple of days, so it’s pretty obvious that the delivery went through,” The other Teen said, now tapping away on his phone.

“I’m sorry who are you?” Green Arrow said.

“Whoops, right introductions!” Nightwing said, prancing over to the boys, “This is Red Raptor,” Nightwing ruffled the pale boy’s hair, “And BlackBat,” He pulled the dark teen into a side hug, “My younger brothers.”

“It’s a pleasure to meet the both of you,” Clark said.

“You haven’t seen you dad?” Green Arrow said, and Canary darted a look at him.

“Please, he doesn’t let any of us up into the nesting chamber while he’s in labor,” BlackBat said.

“Or while the batlings are still adjusting to being in the physical world again,” Red Raptor said, “Only, Grandpa, Aunt BW, and Albatross are allowed in,” he smirked, typing on his phone, “But that doesn’t mean Auntie can’t send us pictures.”

“So, we’ve seen the Batlings just not in person,” Batwing said.

“Especially you, uncle,” Robin said, now eyeing the container of brownies that Clark was still holding.

“Why’s that?” Lantern said.

“Because unlike the rest of the family, uncle can not keep a level head underneath pressure,” Robin said.

Clark had to resisted laughing, at both the nephew deadpanned expression and the uncle gawking head tilt.

“What?! I do not have a problem!”

“You haven’t been allowed upstairs during rebirths since what happened when Hood was reborn,” Nightwing said.

“What happened?” Clark said.

“Nothing happened!” Batwing exclaimed.

“We don’t know,” BlackBat said, “It happened before our rebirths and Nightwing won’t tell us.”

“No one told me!” Nightwing said.

“Who’s Hood?” Flash said.

“Another brother of ours,” Nightwing said.

 Six?! Counting the baby, Batman had six children! Two or three Clark could understand. But six?!

There was suddenly the sound of a motorcycle engine grumbling loudly and distantly in the channel of a branching tunnel. Clark turned finding another figure quickly riding a similar vehicle into the cave. The first thing that stood out was the bright red color of their head. They dismounted and as they got closer the more and more features became clear. The large red Bat symbol on their chest underneath a brown leather jacket the most apparent. This was another child of Batman.

Actually, there was a lot more similarities between this one and Batman. This one was slightly shorter but had the same broad built that the dark knight possessed, while the other children were more of a slimmer flexible body type. Well, maybe not Robin, he was still a child and could grow to be like his father.  

 “Am I late?” The newcomer called, their voice deep, but modulated, like a machine.

“Yeah!” Red Raptor said bluntly.

“What? I thought you said…?”

“He says a lot of things, only a few of them he remembers because he’s constantly on a caffeine high,” Blackbat said.

“Shut up!” Red Raptor said.  

“Children!” Albatross said sharply.

“Wait a minute!” Flash said, zipping up to the red-headed stranger, “You’re the Red Hood!”

“Yes?” Red Hood said.

“You…You’re a crime lord!” Flash screamed, “You cut off a bunch of people’s heads!”

Wait…what?

“Yeah,” Flash looked to Clark, had he said that out loud?, “I work in law enforcement! There were tons a gossip about how the GCPD woke up one morning to a track bag full of severed heads!”

“Oh, you heard about that,” Red Hood said.

Clark felt at least a few of the league members behind him tense. Batman had been the most solid about the “no kill” rule. If they were supposed to be heroes, they couldn’t lower ourselves to the levels that their enemies, and the actions that they were willing to take. Innocents, may fall, but they couldn’t allow themselves to be the main cause of that. Considering how harsh Batman pushed this belief on the league, Clark figured that he’d push these ideals on his own children as well.

Red Hood had thrown all of that out the window, and went on a killing spree.

“Don’t worry, I was set straight,” Red Hood said finally joining the group, “Besides, all those heads belonged to rapists and child murders. They deserved it.”

Red Hood’s whitened eyes looked to Red Raptor, “I’m not the last one here am I?”

“Don’t worry I just texted our sisters,” Red Raptor said, “They’ll be right down, and Aunt BW will be with them. Then Dad and Grandpa once they’re ready.”

“Girls?” Wonder Woman said now very interested.

Just like their brother, Red Hood, falling down from the upper levels, came three girls and another boy! They all tumbled down onto one of the training mats, but Clark thankfully didn’t hear any bones breaking. How many?!

“Did you have to shove me?!” The boy said.

His plating was bright yellow and black. Clark took a moment to gawk at the very happy color, in the very dark and dreary cave. Then he realized that the boy was not in fact pale like his brothers, but rather appeared to be of African American decent. Which considering that Batman said they revived souls of unjustly killed children, it would make sense that the children would look like what they looked like before they were reborn, so if one of the children happen to be…Clark you are over thinking this.

He looked to the girls, they varied greatly between each other.

“You made it too easy!” The girl closed to the yellow boy.  

Purple. That was the best word to describe her. Purple plating. Purple cape. Purple hood. Purple mask. The only parts of her that weren’t purple, was the visible locks of long blond hair and white eyes. She also seemed to share the same cheerful nature that Nightwing possessed.

“I did not!” The boy said, “You know that I’m on the day shift and don’t do as well in the dark.”

“Like that’s an excuse? Unlike the rest of us, you’re actually awake at these hours,” The second girl said.

 This one was mostly blue, including streaks her hair, though it was mostly purple. Her platting was a bright hue of the primary color, with a darker shade of a bat symbol on her torso, along with a similarly colored jacket. Her eyes the same white.

The last girl…well…the only way Clark could describe her was utterly terrifying. She resembled their father the most out of her siblings, with BlackBat as a close second. Her entire body were shades of black to navy. A cape that appeared tattered at the edges hung off of her back and a dark hood cover her head. Her face was mouthless, and stitched together. Eyes blacker than the void of space.

“Oh, quit it all of you.”

Clark eyes looked at the stair case, seeing Batwoman prance down them. She looked tried but there was a slight happy quirk to her lips.

“Sis!” Batwing called, “Welcome back to the land of the living! I thought you were dead again!”

Batwoman gave a short sarcastic and dry laugh, “Very funny little brother. You should be grateful that you got to stay nice and comfy down here and not upstairs get up close and personal to our big brother paying the price for his reckless choices for the past three days.”

“Whoa wait!” Lantern said, “Batman was in labor for three days!”

“Active labor,” Batwoman said, “the early stages started Tuesday last week.”

Clark felt his jaw loosen. Today was Friday.

“Is he alright?” J’onn said.

“He’s fine. The kids were just very stubborn. Father ended up having to intervene, but it all worked out,” Batwoman said, with a yawn, “They’ll be down in a minute.”

Clark breathed a sigh of relief. Batman was fine physically, but he would definitely be exhausted. Lois slept nearly 12 hours straight after having Jon and she only labored for half a day. After over a week of labor…Could Batman even walk? Batwoman said that intervention was needed. Did that mean Batman needed a C-section? Or whatever their equivalent of the procedure was.

And the spiraling just kept going.

Someone tapped his shoulder, and Clark just handed them the brownie box saying what was inside.

While waiting, the league was introduced to Batman’s daughters and remaining son. The boy was Signal, and apparently a rare day-walking demon who fed off of light rather than darkness. While the girls’ names were Spoiler, Bluebird, and Orphan respectively. They were all sweet kids, Wonder Woman, Canary, and Hawkgirl was particularly taken with the girls, which Clark couldn’t blame them for. Super-heroing was still a very male dominating industry, and Clark hoped that the amount of each gender would slowly even out over the next few years. Good to know that Batman had three well trained young ladies ready to take on the world to even the odds.  

“Alright what sort of lies have they told you about me?”

Clark was pulled out of his funk by the gruff voice of a man he had been fretting over for the past couple weeks. His eyes darted to find Batman emerging from the shadows. Batman was standing, walking. Sure, he was nearly completely swallowed by his cape, but there was no pain or stress in his stance.

“Batman!” Clark zipped over and hugged his friend.

Batman went stiff in his hold, “Hello Superman.”

Clark let go, taking a step back. Right, right, Batman was also ever serious about personal space. Probably even more so at the moment considering that in the past week he might not have been allowed much personal space.

“Sorry,” Clark apologized, “I was just worried.”

“It’s good to see you in good health, Batman,” Wonder Woman said, coming nearer.

In fact, the entire league was now swarming the Dark Knight, giving well wishes and congratulations. To Batman’s credit he didn’t react more then a half step back, but it was enough of a signal to back off. He was probably too tired to tell them to back off anymore.

“It’s great to see you man,” Lantern said, “But I thought we were going to get to see the baby?”

“Not that you have to show us!” Clark jumped in, “After all I’m sure it’s been a few stressful days.”

“If not, can we at least know if it’s a boy or girl?” Flash asked.

Shockingly Batman’s face didn’t harden into a glare, like it usually would if they were asking questions that got too close to personal matters. Instead, it softened. His empty eyes growing warm, and the smallest whisps of a smile on his face. Batman opened his cape, and Clark was met with not one, but two pairs of white empty eyes.

Clark sucked in a breath. Twins.

The twins were clinging to their father’s legs. One was a boy while the other a girl. They both had black hair, but the boy was paler than the girl. Black mask like markings on their eyes were identical. And they were both covered in what looked like stretchy black body suits. No armor to see.  

The only odd thing was that they weren’t babies. They looked like the same age Robin was.

Playdates were a thing to asked about later Clark.

“Meet Swallow and Chickadee,” Batman said.

“Wait a minute,” Green Arrow said, “These aren’t babies.”

“They grow and are reborn the age their human life ended,” Batman said, “They are newborns but they are not infants.”

“Dude...” Flash said, “Are you okay?”

Someone laughed.

It was deep, gravely, and cold. Sending chills up Clark’s spine.

Clark glanced towards the shadows behind Batman and emerged a figure that he had never seen in his life but instantly recognized.

Batman’s father.

The resemblance between the son and father was uncanny. Their heads darker than the rest of their armor, which was a grey. Though the grey on the elder bat was paler, did that speak of his age? Red rested behind the bat symbol on his chest, brighter then fresh blood. The long black cape fluttered behind him as he walked towards his eldest son with silent steps. Crests, sharp and black, sprouted from his shoulders. The eyes he possessed weren’t an empty white, but a burning infested red. They glowed with fiery rage, and a fierce protectiveness that only those who have one lost everything could feel.

In front of him was an ancient, and powerful being. One who had seen the gates of hell, walking through the realm of the devil and then burned the place down as he left. One who survived near extinction of his race, then rebuilt, and preserved what he had left. One who had carried and raised the hero who stood in the League’s highest seats. One who, Clark was certain, could and would kill each and ever one of them if it meant protecting this little sanctuary in Gotham.

 For the first time in a long time Clark swallowed with a dry throat.


Thomas had made a lot of mistakes in his life. Some of which, people he once cared about deeply had paid for greatly.

Many of which, were made when he became Batman. After his Bruce’s, and even more so his Alfred’s death, Thomas had allowed himself to be fully swallowed by the darkness of the Batman. Becoming a monster, who slaughtered and punished evil-doers as he saw fit. Forgetting what Batman could’ve been. That was probably his greatest mistake.

He had realized that, once he saw who Bruce made Batman to be. Bruce’s Batman was still dark and used fear as a weapon, but Bruce never allowed Batman to lose his gentle side. Making Batman a vigilante of justice and not vengeance. There was a very fine line between the two, and Bruce managed to walk on it, closely, but never crossing.

This allowed for Batman to flourish beyond just an urban legend or a boogie man made flesh. Flourish into a hero, whom proudly defend the world alongside peers. Guardian angels who watched the earth from the stars.

Bruce was a far better Batman then Thomas would ever be.

The Justice League was proof of that.

However, it also seemed that the Justice League was also a bunch of babies.

The moment Thomas stepped into the view of the League several members paled, some took steps back, the rest swallowed. Honestly, this was hilarious, Thomas wasn’t even trying to be intimidating. He was just pulling the usually Batman shit. Nothing scary at all.

Not that he was actively trying to scare them. Thomas was a grandfather now, he had to set a good example after all.

“Father,” Bruce greeted, playing along.

Thomas nodded, “So, these were the…guests…you invited into our domain?”

Wonder Woman cleared her throat, “It’s a pleasure to meet you sir, and we congratulate you and your son on the new additions.”

“Amazon,” Thomas said, with some distaste. He didn’t mean to be rude. Really, he was just playing along with his given role, and in no way was the Amazon and Atlantean conflict of his old world influencing him.

“Father,” Bruce said with a tired tone.

Thomas sighed, “You are welcome in our domain, but please do not wander or break anything.”

“What does he think we are little kids?” Some man in green archers’ outfit murmured.

“Yes,” Thomas said loudly, and someone snorted.

Matty ran out from where he was hiding in Bruce’s cape, trilling and whistling at his siblings. Playing his part perfectly. While Bruce picked up sweet little Athanasia. The little girl hugging the fluffy Bat plushie that had been gifted to them last week. A red head in green started smiling, and nudging the kid in red next to him. Thomas quickly deduced who the plushie came from.

“So, this is the shy one, and that one if the adventurous one,” A blond woman in black said, gesturing to each child.

“Pretty much,” Bruce said.

“Should Swallow be running around like that?” The man in Blue, Thomas thought his name a Superman, said.

Thomas scoffed, “Don’t worry, the batling needs to get his limbs reoriented, the movement is good for him,” Thomas looked at Bruce, “You should be sitting down though.”

That part was true. Sure, Bruce’e ribs were mostly healed. However, the key word in that sentence was ‘mostly’.

“I’m fine,” Bruce insisted.

Thomas just raised a brow ridge.

Bruce grumbled, but walked over to the recently vacated Batchair (Tim was playing his role and wandering around with Matty and the other children), and sat down, re-adjusted Attie so she sat in his lap.

“So, Twins huh?” The guy in red said, “Was that expected?”

“Nope,” Bruce said.

“Really?” Blue man said.

“It’s rare, but not impossible. It just means they died at the same time,” Thomas said.

No one looked him in the eye. Oh, this was too easy.

“Ah well, children are a gift,” Aquaman said, “Congratulations, and mean this from the deepest of my heart, you will have Atlantis support for anything.”

Bruce gave his coworker nodded.

“So, when exactly were you going to reveal your…army…to the rest of us?” The girl with wings said.

“They’re children not soldiers Hawkgirl,” Bruce said.

“Yeah, no,” Red man said, “There’s what twelve of them? This isn’t a family Batman it’s a small army.”

“Is twelve a large number of offspring on earth?” A green man with red eyes and a blue cape spoke.

“Yeah, like really weird. What was the average amount of kids on mars?” Blue man said.

“Most martain pairs would have twenty children on average.”

“Maybe one day,” Bruce said.

“Absolutely not!” Kate said.

“Why not?” Bruce said.

“It’s not your job to repopulate our race. And young don’t even need to have more kids, Nightwing is old enough to have spawn of his own, with Orphan and Hood not too far behind,” Kate said, before looking at Thomas, “Are you not going to jump in on this?”

“It’s really not my fault your brother has chronic empty nest syndrome,” Thomas said.

“I don’t have…”

“The second Nightwing became mostly independent, Hood came along,” Kate cut Bruce off with a snap of her fingers.

Bruce sighed, and turned to Attie, “You won’t make fun of me, won’t you?”

Athanasia shook her head smiling.

“Good girl.”

“Batman’s mental health issues aside,” The blond in black said, “We’re you ever going to tell us?”

“They’d probably have revealed themselves even if I didn’t introduce them,” Bruce said.

“You want to know why?” Kate said, “because their stubborn just like their old man.”

“Exactly like their father,” Thomas said.

“What’s that supposed to mean,” Bruce said.

“It was surprisingly cathartic watching you raise your boys,” Thomas said.

“I wasn’t that bad, was I?” Bruce said.

“You had your moments,” Thomas said, holding back laughter.

None of this had been in the script.


Diana was holding a hand to her mouth. The banter between Batman’s father and his children was hilarious.  

Thankfully, Batman’s father hadn’t seemed to upset regarding her and Aquaman’s presence in the cave. A little cold, but that was probably expected. Still, it was heartwarming to see both Batman and his equally terrifying father soften when it came to the children. Family was clearly a value that all the bats treasured greatly.

Even now off in another part of the cave, Batwing was busy playing with his nieces and nephews, keeping them busy while the rest of them talked. The sheer number of children had indeed been a shock, but…Batman had always paid close attention to children on missions. He chose to play on the floor with a little girl while the rest of them talked with parents regarding a case. Diana felt that she shouldn’t had been too surprised that Batman was a father to so many.

The little girl in his lap, was evidence enough of that. She looked so, content and happy there in her father’s arms. A father’s love and the concept of a “Daddy’s girl” were quite foreign things to Diana. Once long ago, she believed that a man couldn’t ever love a child in the way her mother loved her. Now, she was starting to see how it would work. After all, Batman’s daughters were all “Daddy’s girls”.

“So, when can we talk them out in public?” Flash had said.

Confused glares met his question.

“What? They’re cute and I want to spoil them,” Flash said.

Well, Diana could agree with that statement.

“The twins can’t leave the cave until after their first molt,” Batman’s father said, “It isn’t safe. New-reborn skin is too soft for the outside light.”

“But the others?” Diana said.

“We’ll see,” Batman said.

“And when can we expect you back?” Superman said.

“Monday.”

Over all Diana believed their visit to have gone over pretty well. No fights or war seemed to break out, but after meeting the twins, the league did stay long. After all Batman still had to be exhausted.

Still, that didn’t that half of the League didn’t let out breaths of relief once one the other side of the Zeta.

“Well, I know have something new to haunt me in my nightmares,” Flash said.

“Batman with a sweet little girl hugging curled up in his cape?” Lantern said.

“No, his old man!” Flash said.

“I’ll admit I now understand why he’s so disciplined,” Green Arrow said, “If my old man looked like that I would never step out of line.”

“He carried himself like a soldier, a warrior or the highest rank,” Aquaman said.

“Well, for all we know he had been,” Superman said.

“What do you mean by that?” Diana said.

“Well, he was probably a soldier at some point during the genocidal war, after all he had nicks in his armor, and all his children can clearly defend themselves. He had to learn how to fight from somewhere,” Superman said.

“He held himself like a military man,” Lantern said, “Okay now that we have established that Spooky’s dad is the actual scariest man life, can we please discuss how cute the kids were, and how many there were?!”


There was about five minutes of total silence in the Batcave…until everyone burst out laughing.

“Did you see there faces?!” Steph shrieked with delight.

“Especially when Grandpa came in!” Terry said.

“They were shitting their pants!” Jason yelled.

“I have to admit, that was the best thing we’ve ever done!” Kate said, “Oracle! Did you get it?”

The Batcomputer’s screen lit up with the green face of the Bat’s digital ghost, “I heard everything. Sorry if audio’s weird, Cullen’s losing his mind in the back ground,” Barbara’s voice cracked.

“And we got free brownies out of it!” Dick said, with a full mouth, already sharing the desert with Matty and Damian.

Attie scrambled out of Bruce’s lap, and towards the brownies, before they were gone. Sweets didn’t very long in the cave.

“That was awesome,” Bruce said.


Barry walked down the hall with a skip in his step, and a cookie in his mouth.

Things had been good. He’d received a recent bonus at work, and his twins were running. Running, very fast. So, he planned to take a week or two off from both work and the league to help teach them how not to expose the family secret to the world. It was going to be great.

Speaking of twins, Barry hadn’t really heard much of Batman’s twins since he went to the cave six months ago. Not that he didn’t understand. A space station, in full view of the sun, didn’t seem like the best place for kids with skin that was very sensitive to light to be. The other kids had been coming around though and Barry enjoyed getting to know them better.

Red Raptor, may have been small and brightly colored but he was just as, if not smarter, then his old man. Barry was seriously impressed with the boy’s detective skills. He honestly thought the kid would make a great CSI.

BlackBat was more like Nightwing. He had a mouth, but he could back up his words. Sadly didn’t have his father’s mind, so Barry couldn’t talk science, but like his brother he was a big movie and musical buff. That was something they bonded over.

Robin…was both fearless and terrifying. The moment the kid walked on to the watch-tower, he was threatening people with his sword, accepting sparing challenges and even won. He was a mini-Batman, without all the impulse control that Bats had. Kid was feral. But he held deep respect for his father and Nightwing so, he listened to them.

The other children didn’t show up as much. Which, in the cases of Bluebird, Spoiler, and Hood, that was to be expected. All of them were very close to Gotham, and planted strong roots there. Content with defending their city and nothing else.

Barry wasn’t so sure about Orphan. The eldest daughter of Batman was still an enigma, and Barry doubted he’d ever know more about her. She had been on the Watchtower a few times, but had never said anything, nor left Batman’s side for a second. But it wasn’t in the protective manner that Nightwing and Batwoman, had been doing. Instead, it was like she knew she was safe with Batman. Lantern had also seen her using sign language with Batman, so maybe it also had something to do with her most likely being mute.

Still Barry, signed up to learn ASL if it would make her feel more comfortable while she was at the tower.

“…Is it right for me to be nervous?”

Barry froze, and pinned himself against the wall next to the cracked opened door in the hall. A 10th of a second peek told him that Batman and Nightwing were inside alone.

“So, how long have you known?” Batman said, sounding attentive.

“I figured it out last week, and I’ve been freaking out ever since,” Nightwing said.

“Freaking out is understandable. Why don’t you start at the top?”

“Well, I noticed things have been off for a while…I had suspicions.”

“And...?”

“And then the test came back positive and…” Nightwing said, “I don’t think I’m ready to be a father, B.”

Barry dropped his cookie and thank God he managed to catch it before it hit the ground. Then he ran as fast as he can to his phone charger.


“Alright, deep breath,” Bruce said, “You and Kori are going to be alright.”

“I’m terrified,” Dick said.

“Children are terrifying. Besides chum, you’ll be more ready than I’ll ever be. You’ll have at least nine months to prepare.”

Dick huffed, “Yeah, I guess I’m not just bringing one home with no plan.”

“I had a plan,” Bruce defended.

“Yeah, step 1: take in the little orphan who you hadn’t even talked to for five minutes, and then leave him the giant house while I get revenge for his blood family’s murder. Step 2: realize this is permanent and buy as many parenting books as possible.”

“Those books were actually very helpful if you want to read them.”

Dick snorted.

Bruce’s phone vibrated in his belt. Why was Barbara calling him?

“Oracle? Is something wrong?”

“…Uhm…not so much as something wrong…but…You know that group chat I hacked into last year?”

“The one about the pregnancy conspiracy?” Bruce puzzled.

“Yeah, that one…Do you know why they think Nightwing is pregnant now?”

Bruce’s eyes flew to the door that he swore he closed, finding cracked open. Well shit…

Dick had wanted to talk to Koriand’r before making any explanations to the League. Regarding the rumors that were certainly spreading around the tower.

After explaining that joke that was played a few months prior…she insisted Dick when through with the joke with their own baby.

Here they go again.  

Notes:

Okay, this took way longer then it was supposed too. and is way longer then I thought it would be. Thank you to all the people who have commented and supported this piece. Your ideas and words are inspiring.
And I was watching YJ while writing this and I fell in love with YJ Cass's design, so just think of that one if you were confused by her description.
and I apologize fi there are any giant grammar issues with this chapter. I'm leaving town, for a few days and I knew this might never get out if I didn't publish before hand.
Thank you, and hopefully I'll see ya'll in my other projects. I want to do more in the Batman fandom. Just don't have the time in the moment. But once more tumblr is where I post future plans, and Thank you for reading.

Tumblr - https://empressgeekt.tumblr.com/