Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

“Welcome ladies and gentlemen to the prestigious Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquarium! We are proud to announce a special surprise that we have been working on behind the scenes, a sight that will rock the world here at 11 pm in the newly constructed Amphitheatre. Don’t miss it or your friends won’t let you hear the end of it for years!”

Lex Luthor, probably one of the more pathetic billionaires Jason has had to interact with, both in the suit and out. He was basically Bruce if Bruce didn’t spend all of his time in public being a goofball, and was also evil, and compensated for his crippling loneliness and Daddy issues with a cat and hot cyborg lady rather than adoption.

Under normal circumstances Jason wouldn’t be caught dead paying actual real American dollars to see whatever bullshit Lex’s cooked up, probably predicated on treating his employees like shit and also maybe murdering them if they ever tried to unionise. He’d fought tooth and nail against this trip, but Bruce insisted on it, saying it was a valuable learning opportunity.

Oh, did he mention this was a school trip? Yeah. Not only was he in enemy territory, he also had to contend with the assholes who thought they could push him around just for being street trash, and for whom he almost got suspended after nearly breaking their noses.

He’d do it again. Timmy was half their size and never did anything wrong.

With little recourse, Jason resolved to instead pilfer as many items from Luthor as he possibly could. Hopefully the total cost of the stolen items, deftly swiped and completely unnoticed, would more than make up for the money Gotham Academy had paid for his ticket here.

As much as he hated to admit it, the exhibits were pretty cool, and yeah he would be lying if he said he wasn’t a little interested in marine life. The crown of thorns starfish were huge, and they were hunted by giant Triton snails that were just as big? That was awesome. Then Jokington Rush reared his ugly head and made a snide comment, and Jason’s mood plummeted all the way back down.

Summer was just a few short weeks away. It wouldn’t be that bad of him to ditch, right? He can just make something up about getting a limo back to Wayne Manor and escape this torture. Ugh, but then he’d just end up looking just like the other snobby rich kids.

So Jason bit his tongue and waited it out until 11, when their teacher hurriedly herded them through the gift shop and back around to the so-called Amphitheatre, a huge room with rows of ascending seats like a movie theatre, surrounding what Jason can only assume is a massive tank of water, though it was currently hidden behind a set of curtains. Jason’s first thought was to sit somewhere far away from his class, though his teacher quickly foiled that plan when she forced him right in the middle. Dammit.

Luckily, they’d busied themselves gossiping about dumb pointless stuff, leaving him mostly alone, waiting to see what all the fuss was about. They were hardly the first to have arrived, and it seemed that most of the people there had been waiting for a while, having gotten seats early. They weren’t the only school group either. Jason spotted the uniforms of Metropolis High nearby, and there were a couple schools from Gotham there too, judging by the accents.

Just when he was about to snap and start his villain arc, Lex Luthor himself strode onto the raised platform in front of the curtains.

“Welcome one, welcome all. As you all know, we here at the Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquarium place education and conservation at the topmost of our priorities. This aquarium has been…”

Lex proceeded to start some long-winded story about how much his mother loved the sea and blah blah blah it was all dedicated to her and blah blah blah he’s so happy to continue her work. Man. Rich people sure loved to hear their own voices.

After like a Brazilian years of Luthor bending over backwards to make himself look good without looking like he was self-agrandising, the man finally got to the point. Jason was disgusted. Luthor was so evil he could hold people captive without even threatening violence.

“And so I am sure it’s abundantly clear how much this event means to not only me, but how much it will mean to the scientific community and environmentalists. I’m sure you’ve heard of the mystical siren species?”

That made Jason go straight in his seat, as did it everyone else. Excited whispers began to infect the audience, as did a pit Jason’s stomach. There was no way. There couldn’t be any way…

“For many, many years this species has remained elusive to us, staying hidden far beyond the reaches of human civilisation. The days of these astoundingly beautiful and complex animals sunning on the rocks and stealing fish from nets is long gone. It has been nearly impossible to even procure a dead specimen, let alone a live one. It was for this reason that sirens were ruled an endangered species, and very heavily protected. There has never been, to public knowledge, a siren in captivity. That is… until today.”

The audience held their breaths. An electric silence filled the space left by Luthor’s pause.

“Ladies and gentlemen, I would like you to meet Phantom and Banshee!”

The curtains pulled back. Hundreds of gasps rang in the air as a pale blue light bathed the room.

Two sparkling blurs zipped from either side of the tank. They were so fast Jason couldn’t catch anything other than glistening dark skin and shimmering fins. The two shapes met in the middle, and he recognised otherworldly hands grasp each other as the two sirens – he had to repeat to himself that that was what he was seeing – twirled in the water and surged upward. Their speed let them jump out of the water, where they spun in a tight flip before dropping back down without a splash.

Finally, the sirens swam forward to the glass, placing their hands on the transparent surface. Even the distance he was from the front, Jason could see every detail. The translucent flesh of the siren on the left, like a deep sea fish, exposing his bones and faint traces of his major blood vessels. He could see the scales lining the siren’s hands, continuing all across his body. He could see the slick, smooth skin and drifting octopus arms of the siren beside him. They hung in the water with no regard for air, and their lower halves bent and swayed in a way impossible for any costumed human to perform.

The two gave the crowd toothy, childish grins.

Oh. They were children, too. Maybe even younger than Jason was. They were so small, so skinny. And Lex was having them do this… this kind of performance already?

Jason swallowed a lump in his throat. He’d taken an interest in sirens when he was younger, enamoured by the beautiful and mysterious beings that may yet have lived somewhere far from human influence. Sometimes he dreamed he’d make friends with one, and they’d risk him away to a dramatic adventure off in a distant land.

His old teacher scolded him for it. ‘Those are wild animals, boy. They’d sooner bite your throat out than sing and dance for you.’ Reality was harsh to him, even that young.

“Looks like they’re eager to meet you! We found these two juveniles tangled up in a net near Metropolis Bay. Injured and alone, we took them back to the sanctuary where they were nursed back to health. With the threats to sirens in the wild unknown and unaccounted for, it was decided they were safest here, within the walls of the sanctuary. Worry not, for they have thrived in captivity, trained by compassionate, kind hands, well fed and kept in an enriching environment. Allow me to demonstrate.”

With the press of a button, the platform rose to the top of the tank. Lex retrieved a device from his coat pocket and flicked it in his wrist, extending it into a large hoop.

Jason squirmed in his seat uncomfortably.

“You think they sell goldfish sirens?” one of the girls behind him whispered. “I’d like one for my collection especially if they’re as cute as those two.”

“The bony one’s a freak. Those things are supposed to be out of sight…” one of the dumber bullies said, the ring leader of the brutes who’d been picking on Timmy before Jason beat him up.

“Seems kinda lonely, imagine being the only two of your entire kind trapped in a fish tank…” one of the melancholier kids muttered.

“Nah, don’t you know? There was a whole study about it. Sirens are like sea cows. They just kinda resemble humans, but they’re not smart. It’s like bugs that evolve to look like other bugs as an evolutionary advantage. For all their poor imitation, there’s really nothing under the hood,” said the son of some rich dude in the oil industry.

He remembered a long time ago, when he looked up sirens on a dingy computer at Gotham Central Library, and his heart broke when he read those words. ‘Despite the resemblance to humans in both facial structure and emotion, it is generally agreed that siren intelligence is only comparable to that of other marine mammals, such as dolphins.’ He remembered staring at the computer like it had personally offended him. It wasn’t fair. He remembered growing up in the era when Superman was out there, a real life alien saving the world, when the Justice League was forming, Aquaman among them. But it was sirens who were just mindless beasts?

He remembered watching an old video of a fisherman accidentally catching a siren in his net. There was a film crew for some programme about fishing, hence the video being there at all. He looked for it trying to find some evidence that the science was wrong, that something was wrong.

He couldn’t click away fast enough. The video burned his eyes and ears all the way into the night.

At least these two sirens managed a better fate, although any fate where you’re the property of Lex Luthor couldn’t be that good.

Thankfully, or unthankfully, the aforementioned man’s arrival at the top of the tank silenced his classmates and dark thoughts alike. The billionaire clapped his hands, and on cue the two sirens ascended to the surface, sticking their heads out and staring at Lex, tilting their heads curiously. Luthor held the hoop out with one hand and used his other hand’s fingers to call out a whistle. On cue, Phantom and Banshee dove into the water, their hydrodynamic bodies quickly gaining speed before they leapt out of the tank, jumping through the hoop with a grace that would leave Dick jealous. Not a single fin on Phantom brushed against the narrow hole. Banshee’s tentacles shaped themselves into a missile as he followed suit, landing in the water with a little dollop of a splash.

The crowd erupted in applause. However, Luthor raised his hand. “Please, please. It is only a simple trick, and you’ll scare the poor things. Despite their recent arrival, we have learnt much about sirens from Phantom and Banshee. We know that sirens are social creatures, much like whales and dolphins, and they are very active physically. In fact, we’ve had to come up with many more performance routines just so they wouldn’t get restless in their enclosures.”

It just so happened that these performances would also be highly marketable for Lex Luthor’s business, Jason thought bitterly. The man kneeled down, beckoning the sirens to him, ruffling their hair like he was petting a cat. Some of the girls around Jason cooed at the ‘adorable’ display. If they knew what Luthor did behind closed doors, they wouldn’t be so admiring.

“Phantom and Banshee have lived a hard life. Their bodies have signs of significant scars and malnutrition. If we hadn’t rescued them, they may very well have perished out there, but they will live a bright future here, and we are hopeful for their full recovery. As for all of you?” Lex stood up again, facing the crowd. “As for all of you, you are lucky to be the first to witness first-hand the next step in this great city’s efforts towards conservation and protection, thanks to the revolutionary research these two will be part of. This will bring not only this city, but humanity as a whole to a new age of conservation and marine science!”

Luthor gave a bow, doing very little to hide his smug grin as the crowd stood up and clapped in a cacophony of applause.

Jason cringed in his seat, choosing pointedly to remain in it instead of rising. Instead, he looked between the bodies of the people in front, at the sirens who were gazing out into the crowd, almost as if they were searching for something. For a brief moment, it was as if they were wearing something like a facial expression, one of wonder? Of nervousness? Of excitement? Their eyes, for as inhuman and beautifully detailed as they were, swept through the crowd like a human performer might search the audience from their position high above them.

For a brief second, the octopus siren’s eyes met his. And Jason swore he saw the siren’s eyes widen with recognition. For a brief moment, those pitch black eyes that shimmered in the light with an ethereal quality froze on his location. Their acknowledgement sent wracking shivers down Jason’s bones.

~~

“It’s fu­–”

“Ahem. Master Jason?”

Jason glowered into his chicken pot pie. “It’s freaking gross. Luthor was making this hoity toity grand speech about how he’s such a good person for saving these poor helpless cReAcHeRs and giving them a home all the while he’s gonna be milking them like cash cows. I mean look at this!”

He reached into his pocket and unfolded a printed-out programme that was distributed to everyone after Luthor’s presentation, handing it to Bruce on the other side of the table. There it outlined a dizzying six shows a day, featuring of course the two sirens making rounds in the headlines. Luthor was even selling tickets for people to watch their feedings!

Bruce took the paper and narrowed his eyes at the laminated paper. “And what do you think about the sirens?”

“There’s no way he isn’t doing some kinda shady crap behind the scenes. I bet they’re collared.”

Alfred leaned over from his seat, quirking an eyebrow upward. “These pictures do not seem to depict them with anything of the sort.”

“That’s where they get you. Knowing him, Luthor’s probably invented some kind of control chip or super thin collar to shock them that the public can’t see. Plus, I looked up the supposed scientists that Lex mentioned.”

Alfred crossed his arms. “Am I to understand this as you doing more research than what a simple concerned citizen would be taking up?” he said with a withering gaze.

Jason grinned innocently. “This isn’t, you know, work. It was on our school field trip. I bet you’d be upset if I didn’t talk about what happened and just said ‘oh nothing happened’ like you complain Dick used to when he was a teenager. Who said I was talking about work? Maybe our teacher just wanted us to do some research on the science of sirens?”

Alfred hummed. “Pray tell what, if this theoretical assignment to do research on sirens is true, you found in your entirely agendaless research undertaken under academic obligation and nothing more?”

Jason shrugged. “Nothing yet. These guys have a lot of papers. I’ve only barely started going through them.

B shot him a look, the kind he pulled out when he was seeing through you, picking you apart like an old doll in his mind, a puzzle to be pieced together, a question to be answered.

“What’s gotten you so invested in this?” Bruce asked, though not unkindly. It wasn’t the kind of voice that Jason’s teacher’s used to use to criticise his interests, a kind of judging ‘why do you care so much?’ When Bruce spoke this way, Jason came to learn it was an attempt to understand.

And it made him pause, because if he really asked himself this, he would find that he himself didn’t quite understand this itch inside him that demanded he look deeper. There were six shows a day on the brochure, sure, but there was plenty of time spaced in between to let the sirens rest, and Luthor was pulling all the stops to make sure his treatment of the sirens was squeaky clean while simultaneously milking them for all his money’s worth.

Something squirmed in his stomach. Was it more ethical to leave them in captivity? They were clearly young sirens, and from the old videos he watched, it was clear young sirens were very dependent on their mothers for survival. Orphaned and alone, would ‘freeing’ them simply doom them in the harsh ocean?

“Something’s wrong,” Jason said, despite all of that. “I can feel it. I have to know, if only to make sure they’re ok.”

It felt like a shitty answer. A shameful admission that he didn’t really have a concrete reason to get all upset about what everyone and their mother was celebrating as a good thing.

But in spite of his doubt, Bruce nodded.

“Dick was the same, too.”

“So you’re ok with this?”

“Why wouldn’t I be? My gut instinct has lead me to cracking a case on more than one occasion. And, it led me to you, didn’t it?”

Jason blushed. “Yeah yeah, any more reminiscing and you’ll start sounding as old as you look. Anyway, I wanna do this on my own. This is my case.”

This is where the adults started to get concerned. “You want to do this alone? Against Luthor?”

“I’m a professional, B. Besides, this will all just be recon and info gathering. If it gets hairy I’ll call you. What? You think Robin can’t handle a little aquarium scandal? I bet Ms Lane is already working on it, and she doesn’t have any of our cool gadgets or Batman training.”

“She’s also an adult, and she’s been sparring with Luthor for years.”

“And I’ve been sparring with bad guys for years.”

“Actually, only a year and a half, Master Jason.”

“Whatever, it’s not like I’ll be fighting Luthor. I’ll just be snooping around. Sneaky stuff, like you taught me.”

The adults in the room exchanged glances, Alfred’s of consternation towards Bruce and Bruce’s look of concern.

“I can do this, B. This is what you’ve been training me for,” Jason pleaded, voice softer now, quieter. Eventually, the tension in Bruce’s shoulders melted, and he slumped down with a sigh.

“Fine, but you’ll be taking trackers, and your panic buttons.”

Chapter Text

Knock, knock, knock, knock…

Jason bounced on his heels back and forth, the shadow of Drake Mansion looming over him. Or rather he was standing under the shadow of its shadow, seeing as Jason was stuck in front of the gate, waiting for that fancy gate camera thingy to pick up on his presence.

Timmy always loved sea creatures. He had a whole sketchbook of different deep sea critters that he showed to Jason once. If Jason was going to be getting intel, then having Tim around would do wonders for his cover.

That was if Tim bothered to respond to his texts.

Running out of patience, the boy walked up to where he presumed the receiver was, and loudly shouted. “HEYYY, TIMMY?! YOU THERE?!”

The gate’s intercom crackled to life, and Jason perked up at finally having garnered a response.

“Hello, you have reached Drake Mansion. If you are looking for my parents, they are away on business. If you’re looking for me, then I am currently on a no-phones-allowed summer camp and will not be back until the start of the school year. If you have a message, please leave it after the tone,” said Timmy’s voice in a faux-automated answering machine style, confusing Jason greatly, as there was no tone after the message.

Jason huffed, feeling a little hurt. Tim went off to summer camp for the whole summer holiday? That was like three whole months! And he never told Jason?

Maybe Tim’s parents really just tossed him into some military camp or summer school, and Tim was saying it was summer camp so people wouldn’t worry. From what Jason saw of Tim’s parents, they were definitely the air-headed rich folk types that would rather their children be out of the way than actually involve themselves in their kids’ lives whatsoever.

Whatever it was, it looked like Tim wouldn’t be joining him on this excursion, leaving Jason to look for a plan B.

~~

Some time ago...

“HELP ME OH FUCK OH GOD OH NO!”

While Mr Luthor’s announcement painted the siren guppies’ stay at the aquarium as all sunshine and rainbows, Clark would be the first to admit that the reality was a little messier than the clean, marketable PR version would have you believe.

Case in point, the poor hapless intern that Phantom and Banshee had pulled into the water. Clark quickly dashed to the edge of the water to survey the damage. The intern was flailing his limbs, splashing water everywhere as they tried to swim while two miniature apex predators circled the water around them.

This was far from the first time the two had pulled someone in. The duo was notoriously fickle, and sported a sadistic streak that would put most dolphins to shame. Luckily, they’d never actually hurt anyone other than emotionally. Even the hapless intern they were circling, chirping dolphin-like chirps that suspiciously sounded like laughter, was spared the razor sharp teeth and claws that Clark knew they had. Instead, the guppies were content to nip at the intern’s clothes, poking at his exposed skin.

Clark looked around himself at the other employees running around like headless chickens. He was mostly a penguin expert, and was mostly just there to pick up the jacket he’d left in the employee room. He’d only ever heard of the sirens’ shenanigans since they’d arrived at the aquarium, but he’d expect that since them pulling people in had become commonplace someone would have figured out a protocol for this stuff already.

“HELP HELP I’M GONNA DIE THEY’RE GOING TO EAT ME PLEASE I KNEW THEY WERE KILLERS AAAAAAAAA–”

“Stay calm Wesley!” shouted a girl who couldn’t be out of college, and who was clearly having trouble not panicking herself.

It looked like this was a job for Clark Kent. The man quickly dashed into the supply room, where the sirens’ toys were held in one of the corners. He took a bright beach ball and ran back to Phantom and Banshee’s holding tank. For once his large stature worked out for him as people quickly cleared the way upon his shouting “Move it!”

Clark clambered up the steps of the tank and whistled, gaining the guppies’ attention. “Look boys! I’ve got you something much nicer to play with than old Wes. Let him go now, and you can have the ball.”

Upon finishing his offer, the man offered the ball tantalizingly just above the surface. Immediately, Phantom and Banshee abandoned the flailing human in the water to zip over to the edge, and it was only with Clark’s super senses that he was fast enough to pull the ball high enough that Phantom’s out stretched arm missed. The guppy hissed grumpily, splashing his fins against the water. Banshee surfaced next to Phantom, his octopus arms being less suited for speed than Phantom’s sleek tail.

“You want it?” Clark asked the guppies with a smile. “Then go get it!” he said, tossing the ball to the far end of the holding tank. The two small sirens dashed off, their bodies occasionally clashing against each other as they raced for the ball.

Clark turned to Wesley. “Need a hand there, son?” he asked the soaked intern. Having been freed from the sirens’ clutches, the red-headed intern was able to swim by himself to the edge of the holding tank, whereupon he took Clark’s outstretched hand, and Clark pulled him up onto the platform.

“T-thanks,” Wesley muttered, shivering. Clark looked around, locking eyes with another young man who’d been stunned still.

“Hey, can you get a towel for Wesley? He’s freezing cold!” he told the intern, who nodded and ran off.

“Just call me Wes,” Wesley – er – Wes, said.

“Clark,” Clark replied. “Clark Kent, nice to meet you! I’m guessing you’ve been having trouble with the boys?”

Wes’s eyes gained a sparkle of something strange, and his expression turned grumpy. “Boys? You mean those man-eating monsters?”

Clark rubbed the back of his neck, smiling nervously. “I think they were just curious about humans. It didn’t look like they were trying to hurt you, just wondering about your clothes. I mean, they’ve probably never seen an animal like us before, like a hermit crab that wears soft plant-like fibres instead of a hard shell.”

“You think they’d learned enough after the first ten murder attempts.” Wes glowered. “I’m just an intern! I never signed up to feed sea monsters! Just look at them!” he said, pointing to the pool, where Phantom had just pounced onto the beach ball, claws outstretched and teeth biting into the plastic. Somehow, the ball remained un-popped, and simply spun in the water, with Phantom’s back splashing into the water, the guppy letting go of the ball and floating on his back with a dazed expression. “They clearly still have that man-eating DNA in them. Plus, I think they know a lot more than they’re letting on,” Wes whispered conspiratorially.

“Err…” Clark said, not knowing how to process that.

“And anyway, they’re so picky! Some days, I give them dead fish, they throw it back at my face. But other days I give them live fish and they don’t even try to hunt them and just stare at me like I’m their waiter. Now Mr Luthor’s having me cut up sashimi every day cause that’s the only thing they’ll always eat, and sometimes when I’m feeding them they’ll just stare at me in this weird way. It gives me the heebie-jeebies!”

Clark wrapped his arm around the young man, patting him gently. He was about to give the man some words of reassurance when the room went silent, and in came the footsteps of someone everyone in the room feared.

“What’s going on here?” Mr Luthor’s voice echoed, command and control laced under every syllable. Clark stood up, adjusting his tie – as wet as it was from being next to the soaked Wes, stammering every other word.

“M-Mr Luthor! How nice it is to see you! I–”

“Kent, shouldn’t you be with the penguin exhibit?” Mr Luthor said, though his eyebrow had quirked upward with curiosity.

“Well, yes, sir, but I’d just passed by the sirens’ holding tank when they pulled Wes in.”

“Uh, hi,” Wes greeted shakily.

“So I ran to get a toy to distract the boys so they’d let Wes go. I tossed it in the water, they swam after it, and I was able to pull Wes out, safe and sound! Just a little wet, that’s all.”

Mr Luthor stroked his chin. “Interesting.”

The room held their breaths. Lex scanned the platform and his eyes landed on the bucket of food for the sirens.

“Weston, get yourself changed. Kent, put on some gloves and take some fish from that bucket,” Mr Luthor said, and being Clark’s boss, the shy man obliged, quickly putting on a spare pair of gloves from the work station, and returning to his boss’s side. The man had turned to face the tank, the glow of the water illuminating sharp shadows against Mr Luthor’s face. The bucket of fish was at Clark’s feet, so he knelt down and picked one up, just like when he would be feeding the penguins.

“Now feed it to the sirens,” Mr Luthor instructed. Clark wasn’t sure where he was going with this. Mr Luthor knew he was a penguin guy, right?

“Uhm, aren’t they a little distracted, M-Mr Luthor?”

Mr Luthor gave him a sidelong glance, then turned to the tank and whistled sharply. The two sirens immediately abandoned their toy and swam to Luthor’s feet, their bodies submerged such that their inhuman eyes were above the surface, staring owlishly.

“Go on, Kent.” Luthor stepped aside, giving Clark the floor. Gulping nervously, Clark knelt down so that he wouldn’t tower over the guppies, and held the fish out over the water and not any further, giving the guppies the opportunity to come closer and break out of their comfort zone instead of forcing them.

The siren guppies looked curiously at him, before coming closer. Instead of going for the fish in his hands, however, the young sirens were much more interested in Clark’s hand. Banshee sniffed at his wrist, while Phantom nuzzled his nose in between Clark’s fingers, sniffing him like a cat would sniff a strange human’s hand.

And, much to Clark’s relief, it seemed that they had approved of him, as Phantom’s teeth carefully closed around the fish’s head, avoiding Clark’s fingers, before pulling the fish underwater, where the two guppies disappeared.

“They’ve never reacted that well to anyone before…” Mr Luthor mused.

“I guess it’s the experience feeding penguins, isn’t it?” Clark joked.

“Yes, perhaps it is…”

“W-well, if that’s all, I really have to be going. I have to get the penguins ready for today, and­–”

“Actually,” Mr Luthor cut him off. “From now on you’ll be working with them.” He pointed to the shadowy sihlouettes under the water.

Clark bawked. “W-wait, really? B-but Mr Luthor, I don’t have any experience working with sirens. My thesis was in penguin care! I-I’m not equipped!”

Mr Luthor rubbed his temple. “You dolt! Did you forget? These sirens are the first specimens ever to be held in captivity. Nobody has any experience working with them. And these two in particular have been causing me no end of headaches. This is the fourth time this month they’ve dragged their feeder into the water. And they’re about as difficult with the trainers, too. But you? Around you, they almost seemed docile. So you’ll be handling them.”

Clark stuttered. This couldn’t be happening!

“Well, good luck. Weston will be handling your penguins under Carla’s care. I want those sirens ready for the ten o’clock show. You’ll be working alongside their trainer to make sure they’re obedient. Got it?” Mr Luthor didn’t wait for an answer before he left.

What had Clark gotten himself into?

Chapter Text

“And here is our magnificent penguin exhibit,” the tour guide said in an oddly mournful tone. The man’s expression was morose, like an artist torn away from his muse, a prince forced apart from his true love by an uncaring lord. It sounded to Jason like there was backstory behind the tour guide, Clark as his name tag said, and the penguins.

Too bad his current persona only cared for sirens.

Without Tim to help his cover, Jason had to be a little more creative, so he was decked out in a Little Mermaid t-shirt, Mako Mermaids trousers, an Aquaman-themed camera and even bracers that looked like the fins in The Thirteenth Year, and his hoodie was official merch from the aquarium, its pattern stitched to look like Phantom’s haunting mix of scales, blood vessels and bones.

His name? Damian Drake. It was like Tim was with him in spirit!

“So when are we getting to the sirens?” Jason asked in a squeaky voice, bouncing on his heels like the excited child he was personifying. “I wanna see I wanna see!”

The tour guide, for his part, smiled warmly. “We’ll be getting to that part after the deep sea section and our dolphin exhibit. For now, take a look at the humble penguin. The earliest penguin fossil we’ve ever found was from just a scant 4 million years after the extinction of the dinosaurs. Penguins are an old species indeed.”

“They have funny suits,” a little girl in the back exclaimed.

“Good observation!” Mr Clark said. “And the reason they dress to dapperly is to blend in. When they’re swimming, their white bellies look like the ice and sky above, so if a hungry predator’s below them, they won’t notice the penguins. Same thing for if you look at them from above. Their black backs look like the deep ocean.”

It was genuinely quite interesting… to Jason Todd. But Jason Todd wasn’t here today. Today, he was Damian Drake, siren enthusiast, a kid who lived and breathed sirens, had like six swimmable merman costumes and whose parents were probably making some mad science potion to turn him into a siren too.

“Do sirens eat penguins?” he asked with a smug grin. Sorry Mr Clark. Maybe he’ll come back as himself to appreciate the man’s penguin facts.

The man looked a little squeamish at the question, but quickly recovered. “We’re reasonably certain they don’t, but it’s a p-possibility. One similarity they do share, however, is their white underbellies. You can see both Phantom and Banshee have ever-so-slightly paler underbellies than their backsides. This is believed to be an example of convergent evolution, where different species from different places come to evolve the same traits. Having a lighter underbelly is very useful, so lots of different sea creatures have them.”

Jason’s eyes turned starry, and he jumped up, arms pumped. “That’s so cool! Tell me more, Mr Tour Guide Sir!”

“I’ll be sure to tell you lots, just this way, everybody!”

The tour group moved forward, with Jason trailing behind to take photos of the penguins, without the flash on, because he wasn’t an asshole like that. Jason snapped a few cute pictures, before playing the innocent, distracted child act as he quickly jogged after the rest of the tour group.

But not without subtly leaving a bug behind.

Jason played nice with Mr Clark until at last, they reached the fabled siren portion. They went into an open lounge type-place with couches and chairs just off to the side of the main tank, and boy was it truly something to behold. It easily stretched to the ceiling and above, the waters casting vibrant blue shadow waves over the room below it. Not to be outdone by its height, the tank’s expanse stretched vastly past where the eye could see. Hundreds of tropical fish roamed the waters, complete with huge forests of kelp dotted around the soft sand. Arches of rock and coral filled the space in between, whole reefs forming a vibrant ecosystem. He even spotted some octopuses and mantas. The room itself led into a tunnel going underneath the tank, getting up close with all the beautiful sea fauna.

As much as Lex Luthor was a bastard, the man sure knew how to splurge. The rest of the tour group had been similarly stunned into silence. It was insane to think that all of this stuff was just set dressing for the real attraction.

But wait, Jason had to maintain his cover!

“But where are the sirens?” he whined in the saddest, most pathetic little kid voice he could muster, his eyes beady and wet with tears threatening to shed.

The man was clearly a little flustered, and Jason felt bad for putting him through the wringer like this. The service industry was a hard job. “T-there, there! It’s a very big tank, but a reliable source has told me that Phantom and Banshee are hanging out near the tunnel, so if we head inside, we’ll probably get to meet them!”

Jason stopped the tears immediately, instead going back to his jumpy, bubbly act. “Really!? Let’s go then! Let’s go!!!!”

Unable to contain his excitement, ‘Damian’ started running around the edge of the room, his excitement and enthusiasm apparently infecting the rest of the kids there, as they merrily joined him in his celebration, much to Mr Clark’s alarm.

“Hey, hey now! No running in the aquarium! You might slip! Let’s all calm down now before we scare the fishies, yeah?”

While the man was busy trying to wrangle the other small kids, Jason took the opportunity his chaos had provided to slip another bug hidden behind the sofa.

He didn’t notice the sand stirring with alarm in the tank.

Eventually, Mr Clark was able to gain control over the kids, and corral the group in front of the tunnel. The reinforced glass gave view to the stunning tank, giving a much closer, almost intimate view of the ocean beneath. A couple of the younger kids gestured wildly at a manta ray swimming right up to the glass, its fins flapping in a wave-like motion brushing against the barrier between air and water.

“Look, mama!” one of the girls said, “is that a siren?”

“No dear, that’s a manta. Sirens have arms.”

“But aren’t those arms?” the little girl said, pointing at the manta’s flaps.

Mr Clark opened his mouth to respond, but right at that moment, the sand in front of the girl burst, revealing a grinning face with skin shifting in different colours, from sandy yellow to soft blue like the water. The little girl shrieked, startled and stumbled back. Jason jumped forward and caught the girl from behind before she could fall. He looked her over to see if she was ok, but her eyes had remained transfixed on the siren on the other side of the glass. Banshee seemed quite pleased with himself, giggling softly, and it seemed he was just as curious about the humans watching him as the other way around. He swam forward and pressed his face against the glass. His hands braced onto the transparent surface as well, giving the group a good look at the purple tips of his fingers and the flexible webbing connecting them, and the way the purple shifted into a darker colour dotted with stars and spots along his wrists.

The little girl Jason had caught steadied herself, and toddled forward, her mouth agape with awe. She walked up to the glass, and spread her hands on the glass, her fingers lining up with Banshee’s.

And then in a rippling wave that started at Banshee’s belly button, the little siren disappeared.

“And that’s Banshee!” said Mr Clark, breaking the silence.

“She’s so pretty...” said the little girl.

“That’s right, but do mind that Banshee’s a boy siren, not a girl, and you don’t wanna hurt his feelings by calling him a girl when he isn’t, alright?”

The girl nodded earnestly. “Sorry, Mr Tour Guide.”

“That’s alright! Banshee’s very easy-going. He loves to sneak up on guests, and­–”

“Surely you don’t really mean this fish thing has feelings?”

Jason glared at a dishevelled man in a suit, someone who clearly looked like a dad dragged into something by his kids and determined to ruin the fun. The man huffed. “Aren’t these things supposed to be no smarter than some dolphin?”

“W-well,” Mr Clark said, adjusting his glasses nervously. “Dolphins are also very social animals, and very intelligent for marine animals.”

“So they’re smart by fish standards is what you’re saying. And here you are talking about them like they’re people.”

“Well, th-they’re very magnificent creatures,” Mr Clark said. “And they deserve our respect.”

“What I’m curious about,” said the woman standing next to that man, presumably his wife. “Is how you can tell they’re male in the first place.”

Mr Clark, grateful for the interruption, turned his attention to her. “Oh, that’s simple. The marine biologists Drs Jack and Maddie Fenton did a lot of studies on dead sirens washed up ashore. Part of their work was in identifying a lot about siren anatomy, including their sexual dimorphism. That said, we still know little about their social dynamics.”

Back in the groove, Mr Clark continued leading the group. He explained the design of the tank as well as the many bits of set dressing for the two stars of the show. While it was all very interesting, Jason was more focused on maintaining his star-struck kid act while also looking for spots to place bugs undetected.

Part way through the tunnel, Jason felt a pair of eyes on him. He slowed down by a couple paces, drifting to the back of the group, face buried in his camera to look busy. Out of the corner of his eye, he spotted a faint shape trailing behind the group. Blinking in surprise, Jason recognised Phantom’s transparent body, the siren being nearly invisible from so far away.

Jason waved shyly. Phantom didn’t wave back. Why would he? Sirens didn’t know human social norms or greetings. But the way Banshee acted earlier in the tunnel, the way his eyes looked at the little girl, at Jason for a split second (or was he imagining it…). It felt so human.

His musings were swiftly interrupted when Banshee appeared from behind a rock. The octopus siren clapped his lower arms together and charged straight for Phantom, barreling into him. The glass muted most sounds, but Jason could’ve sworn he heard a high-pitched shriek coming from Phantom as the two tumbled downwards. Phantom’s body crashed against the glass of the tunnel with a powerful thump that echoed through the passageway. People gasp, and the crowd’s heads turned wildly until someone pointed out the clashing sirens in the water. The kids started shrieking.

“They’re killing each other!” shouted one of the adults. “Do something about it!”

There were curses, and the kids clung to their parents, shaking. Phantom’s claws latched onto Banshee as he flipped the other siren onto the sand with a savage snarl, sending the stuff pluming up in a cloud. The sirens scratched at each other’s bodies, biting at the soft parts of their skin.

Mr Clark tried desperately to regain control of the crowd, but there was no use. Some kid was crying, people were talking over each other and shouting at Mr Clark. A few of them were even on their phones calling for help. One of the adults ran off to get someone.

And yet, Jason wasn’t as worried as the others. Narrowing his eyes, and focusing his camera on the scene, he confirmed. For all their fighting, there wasn’t a wisp of blood. And those bared teeth, were they the snarls of a predator, or were they just the smiles of two kids roughhousing and having fun with each other?

He felt a lump in his throat at that thought. Two kids, just roughhousing. If he closed his eyes, he could imagine himself and Dick in their position, minus the water.

And sure enough, when the sand cleared, it revealed the two sirens lying on top of each other, their bodies shaking like laughter, their faces twisted in an eerily-human image of mirth and joy. Jason scanned their scales and skin, and found not one speck out of place, not one bite mark or claw wound.

“It’s ok!” Jason shouted. “They were just playing. Look! They’re even laughing!”

“But they were attacking each other! The octopus one tried to kill the ghost-looking one!”

Jason glared at the woman who spoke up. “Wolves play fight. Sharks bite each other affectionately all the time. Dolphins play in all sorts of ways. Just because it’s scary to us humans doesn’t mean it’s dangerous. Look, they’re totally fine.”

Banshee had gone to hiding behind a rock, his head peeking out and staring at Phantom on the sand, wiggling his butt like a kitten preparing to pounce, both of them looking positively whimsical.

“He’s right,” Mr Clark points out, rubbing his head sheepishly. “That’s what I’ve been trying to tell you. These two were definitely familiar with each other since before they were introduced to the sanctuary, and they have a very close bond. And like a lot of marine mammals, they engage in a lot of different play behaviours, like fake ‘hunting’ each other, and playing dead when ‘caught’.”

Phantom ‘pounced’ in the background of Mr Clark’s speech, launching himself for Banshee, only to miss the mark and hit open water instead of his target. The siren floundered in the water and thrashed about as he re-oriented himself, much to Banshee’s amusement.

At least, that was what Jason saw. He knew very well most of the adults in this group would tell him he was anthropomorphising.

“Phantom and Banshee have exhibited play behaviour in this way multiple times in the past, and so far it’s been completely safe for them, minus a couple bumps and bruises. They’re very friendly, with each other and with humans, so you have nothing to worry about.”

“What about the petting zoo later this week?” the skeptical man from earlier said. “Don’t suppose they’ll get too friendly with a human? Pull them in and start drowning them out of play?”

“Of course not!” Mr Clark said. “They’ve never– They’ve never actually hurt another human before, and they’ve had a lot of contact with myself and their other caretakers. They’re very well familiarised.”

“That’ll be different from having a whole crowd of people around them. They’re wild animals. Who’s to say they won’t get overwhelmed, and lash out?”

Mr Clark, for all his meekness, actually bristled at that comment. “This is not the place to discuss such things, sir. If you would like to voice your concerns, you may do so after the tour is finished.”

~~

And soon enough it was over, the aquarium well-traversed and Jason’s bugs numerously placed, and the tour concluded. The sour man from earlier tried to have another go at Mr Clark, but their tour guide simply directed him to the manager. Nice. Resting his legs, Jason found himself at the aquarium’s café, sipping an ice-cold glass of chocolate milk while he documented his findings.

Jason would be lying if he didn’t agree with the sour guy a little, though. Phantom and Banshee had barely been public for a day, but Lex Luthor was already having them do meet and greets? He glared at the brochure in front of him, advertising the rare and unique opportunities to come see the sirens in person, and even hand feed them snacks.

That shit was cruel even for dolphins. To these sirens, who kept reminding Jason of real people, it turned the phantom aches he’d felt on the field trip into full, physical nausea. The worst part was that he had to give it the biggest, most bright-eyed longing look that he could because he was still undercover, but on the inside he was firing Superman lasers into the cursed piece of paper.

His mental glowering was halted by the footsteps of a familiar someone. He looked up from his hot cocoa and spotted Mr Clark sitting down at another booth.

Mr Clark clearly cared for the sirens, and he treated them with a lot more dignity than the other people, especially Luthor. He might have a lot of insider knowledge and experience handling the sirens, giving him a unique eyewitness view of their potential humanity.

Jason picked up his glass of chocolate milk and hopped over the coral-painted tiles over to Mr Clark, already prepared to bombard the poor man with interrogation questions disguised as starry-eyed fixation.

Chapter Text

Clark sat down, his batteries drained. Who knew giving tours was such an exhausting experience, and that wasn’t to mention having to wrangle his new charges. Phantom and Banshee were small boys, but every fin packed more energy than Clark knew how to deal with. They were rambunctious, mischievous and although Clark couldn’t prove it, he was certain they were the ones that had stolen his shoes.

At last it was break time, and Clark sat down at the aquarium’s café with that day’s Daily Planet spread out in front of him.

Then he heard little footsteps run up to him. Clark hummed questioningly, and lowered his newspaper to see the little boy decked out in mermaid merch from the last tour run up to him with a sad puppy dog look in his eyes, and immediately Clark’s will to resist had broken. The man folded his newspaper away and gave him a welcoming smile. “Hello again!”

“Hi Mr Clark!” the kid said. “I’m Damian, and thank you again for the cool tour.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Damian, and I’m glad you enjoyed it. I’m guessing you’re a big fan of sirens?” he said, gesturing to the kid’s fashion choices.

“Yep! I live and breathe sirens! I’d try to breathe water if I didn’t already know it would make me drown and die a horrible agonizing death. I wish I could be like Phantom and Banshee… They’re so cool and pretty.”

Clark sweatdropped at the somewhat morbid comment from the kid. “Well, I’ll be sure to pass along the compliment. I’m sure they’ll appreciate it.”

“Woah, you mean they can understand us? No, wait, does that mean you can speak their language?! That’s so cool! Do you know what implications this could hold for the future of marine biology?!” the boy said, his eyes lighting up so much it was like there were stars in them.

Maybe he should’ve been more careful with his words. The ‘official’ scientific consensus on the subject of sirens was that they were unintelligent, simple creatures, and it was their human-like faces that was causing a significant amount of bias in perceiving their actions through an anthropomorphised lens. Of course, Clark personally preferred to treat them as fairly as he would any animal – he still talked to Krypto like a person even if he was only half-sure Krypto could understand him ­– he didn’t have what was considered a scientifically sound amount of evidence that sirens did have language, or could come to understand human speech, despite being something of a marine biologist himself. And he didn’t want to lie to the kid.

“Oh uh, well, let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Maybe they can understand us,” Clark said, half-lying. “I keep telling them to do things, and they only obey like 15% of the time at best. But who knows? This is between you and me, but I like to think those two are a lot smarter than they let on. Who knows, maybe we’re the ones trapped behind glass and they’re the ones watching us for entertainment.”

Damian’s eyes turned to dinner plates, his expression as if he’d been struck with divine realisation. “No way! Has everything I’ve known been a lie? Am I the fish on display?”

Clark grinned wily. “I’m just joking.”

“Aww!”

“In all seriousness, we really don’t know that much about them. Phantom and Banshee are the only sirens that have ever been kept in captivity. We know so little, maybe they do have their own language, but we can’t hear it because the sound’s too high-pitched for human ears, or it all gets distorted and lost once it leaves the water.”

“Oh… does that mean it’s impossible to learn the siren language?”

“Well, I didn’t say that. Say, are you hungry? It’ll be on me.”

“Oh, thanks Mr Clark! I’ll just have some fries, if that’s ok.”

“Certainly!”

Clark waved over a waiter and gave him his and Damian’s orders. Once that was done, he turned back to his impromptu guest. “So who are you here with?”

Damian shrugged, giving a circle motion with his hands. “I came with my parents, but they’re at the gift shop. They always spend hours there, so they let me go around the aquarium on my own.”

“I’m guessing you couldn’t wait to go see the sirens?”

“Nope! I’ve been waiting my whole life for this moment, even if I didn’t know it before yesterday. When I grow up some day, I’m gonna be a siren,” he stated confidently. “And maybe I’ll be the king of all sirens, but just being one is good enough.”

Clark laughed softly. “I admire a man who knows what he wants in life. You really think there’s a kingdom of sirens out there?”

“Why not? You said it yourself, right? Humans don’t know diddly squat about sirens, so how can we claim to know for sure they don’t have complex hierarchies and structured societies like lots of animals do? And heck, we’ve known the ocean’s existed since forever, but humanity has seen less of the ocean than our own buttholes.”

Clark raised an eyebrow. “You know what, I think you’ve got an idea going on.”

The kid beamed at his praise. “Thank you, thank you. It would behoove a future siren to know lots about sirens, wouldn’t it?”

“Definitely. Tell you what.” Clark leaned in, his voice lowering to a conspiratorial whisper. “You might not know this, but tour guiding isn’t my main job.”

“What is it then? Are you a penguin wrangler?”

Oh, his old job. He felt a pang of sorrow for his beloved penguins. “I wish. No, my job is now being the caretaker of Phantom and Banshee. That’s how I know so much about them.”

Damian bounced in his seat, causing the wood to scrape loudly. “Holy carp! You get to see them every day?”

“Yep, every day. And I’m a marine biologist. I think you might be onto something with what you said earlier. You know birds have a simple form of language?”

“I’ve think I’ve heard about it somewhere.”

“It’s true, and some cetaceans – that’s the group of animals that dolphins and whales belong to – even have unique calls to refer to individuals in their pods. In other words: names. So the idea that sirens might have something similar, something even more complex even, isn’t even that far-fetched.”

“No way… is this like… a hypothesis? Am I doing real science?” Damian whispered.

“As a certified marine biologist, I’d say yes. Tell you what. I’ll start a research paper right now. I’ll record Phantom and Banshee’s calls, and let’s see if they’re secretly gossiping about all of us in plain sight. It’ll take a while, but once it’s done, I can add your name to the study’s credits.”

The kid went into a stunned state of awed silence, his jaw having dropped onto the table and his body faintly vibrating like an over-excited kitten. “That’s awesome! Thank you!”

“You’re welcome! I’m hoping this will turn out well.”

At that point, their food arrived, and Clark thanked the waiter.

“So what do Phantom and Banshee like to do?” Damian asked through a mouthful of fries.

“Well, I only started as their main caretaker recently, but I’ve heard a lot of stories. Apparently…”

~~

Jason hopped into his room at the Manor, his recording devices full of juicy details from one Dr Clark Kent that he was anxious to get. His day of surveillance and scouting had, by all means, gone fantastically.

If only Tim were there with him. His mood dampened at the thought of his young friend. It just wasn’t like Tim to mysteriously up and vanish into some ‘summer camp’ for three months, and not even text him or tell him beforehand that he was going to be gone for so long.

Sulking in his mood, Jason tossed his backpack haphazardly at the foot of his desk, and booted up his computer.

No sooner than when he opened up the app to check his bugs did the characteristic polite knocking of Alfred rang from the door. It was only four pm, not in time for dinner. He wondered if Bruce wanted to see him for something. He went up to the door and opened it.

“Young Master Jason, how was your trip to the aquarium, which I might add you had spent the last two months complaining about going to, insisting that you would never be caught dead on Lex Luthor’s property and giving him your hard earned, er, what did you call them? Oh yes, Real American Dollars.”

Jason deadpanned. “Har har very funny. Did you just come here to laugh at me?”

“No, I came here to laugh at you and then deliver this letter.”

Alfred reached into his pocket, and from its cotton depths did he retrieve an envelope on the back of which was handwriting that shook Jason. Written in messy, cheap convenience store pen ink were the words ‘TO JASON’.

And as unkempt and uneven as the handwriting was, Jason knew definitively that it was Tim’s.

“I discovered this during my usual collection of the mail in the afternoon. As you know the post office has our letters delivered at around 10 in the morning. You may also note the distinct lack of a return address or stamp on this letter. Sure enough, the sensor in the mailbox detected one letter at around 3 am last night. And yet, when I investigated the security footage, I found no soul had come close to the Manor between yesterday and now.”

“That’s weird. Too weird,” Jason said, taking the letter and feeling it with his fingers. Just paper inside.

“Well, I shall let you get to it then. Remember to be down for dinner at six. Toodles.”

With Alfred gone, Jason practically slammed the door and sprinted to his desk, swiping his scissors and cleaving the top of the envelope clean off. Inside was a singular piece of paper folded in half. It had the faint smell of sea salt.

Dear Jason,

So sorry for not telling you I would be gone. As you may or may not know I am currently trapped in a phones free summer camp, but I’m totally fine! You know what parents are like right? Always sending you off to places and forcing you to do stuff you don’t wanna do.

Im running out of paper now

Ps sorry for no return address had to ask my driver to put this in mail 4me cuz prnts r super strict about this whole isolation thing

ill miss u bye

He had to squint at the last few words because of how small they ended up being. Part of him wondered why Tim didn’t just use the other side of the paper, since he’d left–

Wait, why was he worried about that, that was dumb! Why should he be thinking about the state of the paper’s usage instead of the more pertinent details, like this distinct feeling of dread he was experiencing.

Tim said he had his driver post the letter, but how could he do that without a stamp? And the letter didn’t arrive with the mail man anyway. So did it just magically appear?

And what was this about isolation? At first he had thought the three-month no-phones summer camp was dubious. Now it sounded dangerous. It sounded like Tim needed help.

But he would say so if he really did need help, presumably. But Tim didn’t know Jason was Robin. As far as Tim knew, Jason was the tough kid who helped him out sometimes, utterly incapable of saving him from anything truly dangerous.

It was at times like these that Jason cursed his double life, his enforced secrecy.

In his mind, he reworked his investigation schedule for the aquarium. It was time to take a detour.

But crime never slept, not even for other crime. An alert popped up on his laptop. In big bold letters, it read POISON IVY TAKES FACTORY WORKERS HOSTAGE, accompanied by a photo of the woman of the hour, dripping with villainous charisma. At the same time, he got a call on his phone that he quickly took.

“Yeah, I saw,” Jason said, not even waiting for B’s voice.

“I’ll be waiting then,” Bruce said, and hung up.

Jason cursed his luck all the way down to the Batcave.

Chapter Text

Sometimes, Clark wondered if all this was too good to be true.

Sirens were a predator species, that was true. The claws weren’t exactly a conventional feature of most fish or marine mammals, but the teeth gave it away. Now that he thought about it, he did see them nibbling on the seaweed and kelp a couple of times, which could say a lot about their evolution and dietary habits.

Wait, he was getting off track. With a bucket of live fish in hand, Clark paddled the water in the signal the boys had been taught meant feeding time. He was a little skeptical of giving them rigid feeding times when they lived in a massive tank teeming with life, but maybe Mr Luthor just didn’t want them eating the whole tank and leaving it barren of life.

Carla suggested Mr Luthor just wanted them used to being fed so they would behave in front of the guests during feeding times. The notion churned his stomach.

“Boys? It’s feeding time!” he called out. Two dark shapes approached from the depths of the water. Phantom’s head popped out of the water with such speed that little drops of water sprayed out from his hair, while Banshee’s face remained mostly submerged. The two chittered in a sound that Clark assumed was a greeting. He crouched, but kept the bucket firmly in his hand. The email memos (there were so many of them) noted their tendency to try and launch themselves out of the water to get at the food buckets, even onto surfaces not meant for them to slide on, resulting in them getting their skin scraped or Phantom’s fins bent.

“Heya, guys,” Clark said, smiling warmly. “I hope you don’t make a habit out of scaring the guests like that. I think that one woman was just about to call 911. Oof, that would’ve been a headache. But really, I hope you’re not too stressed out.”

Banshee’s head tilted. Merp? he chirped.

He hoped the recorder in his back pocket was catching all of this. He’d even gotten a really nice, expensive one that could record all sorts of different frequencies.

“I mean it.” Clark twiddled his fingers nervously. “I know it must be difficult, suddenly being around all these strange creatures you’ve only seen from afar, if ever, before. And I know you don’t have a good track record with interns, but I promise you I’ll do the best to take care of you, and–”

Phantom interrupted his speech with a large, cat-like yawn that showed off the terrifying arrangement of his teeth. Somehow, you couldn’t see Phantom’s teeth if his mouth was closed, despite his body and indeed his whole head being translucent. Maybe it was some weird quirk of the way his flesh refracted light. Banshee responded with a long, crooning warble as he came closer to the edge of the platform, arms out stretched and reaching out for the bucket.

“Oh, yeah! Sorry guys, I got distracted. Here you go!” Clark stood up and tipped over the bucket, releasing the tasty fish into the water. Sensing the two predators in their vicinity, the fish quickly scattered to the four winds, but Phantom and Banshee were faster. In a stunning display of aquatic adaptation and nimble    ness, the boys darted after the fish. Phantom smacked one fish in the head, dazing it enough for him to devour it whole. Banshee proved his lack of a tail compared to Phantom was no hindrance in his speed and agility, quickly catching up to one of the fish and snapping it up with his suckers.

“Most people would just give ‘em dead fish,” came a wry, snarky voice.

Turning around, Clark came face to face with the woman who’d been tasked with training Phantom and Banshee. She was short with frumpy hair, and was already clad in a wetsuit.

“Angela, I didn’t realise their training was now.”

“No, I just came to see our new fish wrangler and see if they’ve tried to drown you yet,” Angela Foley said with a hint of teasing, her arms crossed and her lips quirked in a slight grin.

“Well, you’ll be happy to know that I am perfectly dry and undrowned. I guess it’s beginner’s luck?”

“They’re usually pretty picky eaters, too. Last time I gave them live fish they just sorta stared at them and let them swim off.”

“I guess they were in the mood for some exercise. How’s Tucker?”

“He’s fine. Still bummed over missing Danny. Not even the new Switch could cheer him up. All it made him do was cry over how he couldn’t “Smash Danny” anymore.”

Clark winced. Angela’s kid had been really close with that boy, until Danny suddenly ran away from home without a trace. “No luck in finding him?”

“Nada. But enough of me and my sob stories. What about you? Any luck finding a cute girlfriend?”

Clark blushed. Him? Getting a girlfriend? “Oh, uhm, well, you know, life is just so busy what with work and… uhm… work, and everything.”

Angela laughed. “Maybe if you take good enough care of those boys in the water, you’ll accumulate enough single father charm to attract a siren’s eye.”

“Har har, very funny. If those two could understand what you were saying, they’d be very offended at the idea of being used as a dating prop.”

Angela held her hands up in defense. “Hey now, everybody loves a family man…”

As the conversation went on, neither of them noticed Phantom in the distance looking at them.

~~

Crime never slept in Gotham, and apparently it never got the concept of a summer vacation. Soon after taking down Poison Ivy, Batman and Robin got a tip about an arms deal going on, then one of their leads from a case earlier that month popped up, so they had to pursue that as well, then there was a gang war erupting on the streets.

Tim was on his mind the whole time. The moment he got out of patrol, he would go back to looking for him.

Then he fell asleep on Bruce’s shoulder on the way back, and slept all the way to morning.

But the morning meant a new day, and Robin was back on the case in no time (after a hearty breakfast from Alfred first).

Jason started on his laptop, because no good hero just went in guns blazing without intel. The first thing to go into were the Drake family’s financial records. Just a couple firewalls here, a quick hack or two there, and it was time to sift through an endless pile of records.

Oh the thrills of heroism.

Employee payments, stupid shell companies that all rich people have, offshore bank accounts… Oh. A huge donation to Luthor Aquarium. Jason’s eyes drifted to check the date. It was a week before his field trip there. That was concerning.

And he couldn’t find any other payments that looked suspicious. If Tim was taken off to some summer camp, then the money must have been paid in cash, unless of course he hadn’t gone to summer camp. And he definitely wasn’t with his parents, who, as Jason checked, were off in South Africa for a dig.

But if not summer camp, then where?

Only one way to find out.

~~

It was child’s play to scale the walls of the Drakes’ property. The nice thing about breaking into these huge rich person properties was that there was absolutely nobody around for miles to interfere with the process. While the gates might be intimidating to an ordinary kid, Robin had squared up against supervillains and won. From there it was an easy task to scale up the opulent stone walls of the mansion, up to a closed window into some dusty unused bedroom. However, it was locked with a pretty flimsy mechanism, just a latch on the other side of the shutters, and it was a really old-timey one too, so all he had to do was slip a Birdarang through the seam and knock the latch loose.

Endlessly dramatic, Robin grabbed the top of the window and swung into the room, landing with a perfect backflip, sending the dust scattering around the room in big puffy clouds.

With entry into the building, Robin bee lined for Tim’s room.

The mansion oozed wealth and status from every fibre of carpet and every brick and board that lined its walls. The hallways were decorated with podiums carrying all sorts of artifacts from all over the world. Each door was intricately carved with spiraling designs of mythological scenes.

It was cold, and empty. It had always been. The only surprise to Robin, as he swung open the door to Tim’s room, was that that place had taken on the same feeling.

Don’t get him wrong. Tim’s room was anything but the shiny, cold veneer of the rest of the building. There were posters of Batman and Superman lining the walls, some of them peeling a little, in between a calendar and band posters. There were stray clothes strewn about the room, and his bed was undone. The closet door was slightly ajar, like he had forgotten to fully close it the last time he used it.

Tim’s room was lived in, or at least it had been. The knowledge that Tim was somewhere, possibly in terrible fear, made this colourful child’s bedroom look grey and stilted.

Robin went for Tim’s laptop first, easily hacking through his flimsy password and opening the desktop. All of Tim’s files were neatly arranged into folders that were shaped like a heart on his desktop, but all Jason could find were things for homework, and one folder labelled KEWL GAME IDEAS.

For the record, Robin thought a superhero metroidvania game would be pretty awesome, but that was just him.

Tim’s search history had been deleted, but that was no issue for him. All Robin had to do was plug a USB stick into Tim’s computer, and soon he had access.

Luthor aquarium

Marine rescue procedure

Sirens

Do sirens exist

Where do sirens come from

Siren captivity

Jack fenton

Maddie fenton

Summer camp locations

He didn’t know why, but his skin turned a little cold at what he read, and his palms started sweating at what he saw. He forced himself to stop. Robin stepped back, and paced around the room, his brain bouncing increasingly rattled thoughts between the wild realms of speculation, until B’s training kicked in again, and Robin remembered to calm down, and ground himself in the moment.

He quickly saved the search history, and continued searching for other clues.

Maybe the security system held a clue as to what happened to Tim. Robin quickly located Jack Drake’s study at the top of the mansion. There, he downloaded the entirety of the camera footage from around the mansion from about one month prior up to now. Of course, he wouldn’t be able to sift through all of it immediately, that was for the Batcomputer to handle.

Robin’s communicator pinged. Dickwing was inviting him to a mission with the Titans. As much as he wanted to continue searching the mansion, Robin knew that would take hours, so he settled for having the security footage to review later, and put everything back the way he’d found it.

Chapter Text

The lights were bright and the water was warm for that day’s training session. The boys had been transported to a smaller tank about three meters tall, with a raised platform to the top so their trainers could reach them at the surface. Mr Luthor wanted the boys ready for their first show since the grand reveal. He’d given the public some time to get used to seeing Phantom and Banshee roam the aquarium, tantalizing them with that teaser of the stunts they could do.

Clark wasn’t sure he liked how many shows they would be doing in a day, but his protests fell on deaf ears. And while publicly Lex liked to talk about how friendly and docile they were, behind closed doors?

“No, bad Phantom! Carp!” cried Phantom trainer, one Steve Lombard.

Well, more like his fourth trainer. The boy went through trainers like used chew toys. Banshee only occasionally trolled Angela, but at least he generally followed along instructions. Phantom, on the other hand? According to the records, he could learn the routines and moves just fine, but seemed to have a bone to pick with the concept of trainers in general.

The first one, Clark would admit, seemed like a generally mean person, whose training methods Phantom hated, resulting in him biting the man and refusing to surface, culminating in him stealing a clipboard from somewhere and tossing it at the trainer’s head with frightening accuracy. The second one quit because Phantom’s eyes were… too unnerving to her? Clark thought they looked fine, but he wasn’t a trainer, so what did he know? The third one kept trying to touch Phantom’s belly and rub it like he was a dolphin or a dog. That was how the scientific community learned that sirens, apparently, hated having their bellies touched. Despite Phantom gently batting the man’s hands away each time he did so, the third trainer kept insisting, saying that it was ‘cute’ and would ‘endear’ the crowds, and that ‘He’ll have to get used to it. If there’s one thing people want, it’s to belly rub cute sea creatures!’ Phantom was less enthused, and after scratching the man strong enough to bleed, Mr Luthor had to admit it wasn’t working.

That lead us to today.

“Come on, Phantom,” Steve said, kneeling on the floor and beckoning with his hands. Phantom simply trilled triumphantly, floating on his back with the man’s shoe in his mouth. “You don’t know where that’s been! Give me back the shoe, come on.”

“You need any help there, Steve? Maybe you can bribe him with a fish?” Clark suggested weakly from the sidelines. As the boys’ caretaker, he had to be present for their training sessions.

Steve turned around and looked at him like he was a flying unicorn. “Oh, Clark, Clark, Clark, Clark. Don’t you know the number one rule of this job?”

“Treat the animals with kindness and compassion?” Clark said, shrugging.

“No. If you give them food for giving back the very uncomfortable work shoes they stole right off your feet, that’ll just teach them to steal more shoes in the future to get more food.”

“That’s kind of a strange thing to put as the first rule,”

“Regardless, Kent, I’ve devised a new tool to help in the disciplining of these wild wild fishies. Behold!” Steve marched inside, leaving Clark alone with a very smug and pleased-with-himself Phantom, happily chewing on the leather of the shoe. Clark gave an aside glance to the other end of the pool, where Angela was teaching Banshee how to colour shift according to clothes on a mannequin, the guppy taking to the task like a fish to water, Angela smiling and giving him salmon and scallops as rewards.

“If you give back that shoe, I’ll let you play with the hoops?” Clark offered. Phantom remained glued to the shoe, a resounding rejection of his diplomacy if he’d ever heard one.

Steve returned running to the side of the platform, coming to an uneven stop with his lack of a shoe. “Behold!” The jockish man presented to Clark a spray bottle, like the kind used to clean windows.

“You’re going to spritz them?” Clark asked in bewilderment. “Don’t they live in water?”

Behind Clark’s vision, Phantom’s ear fins lowered in suspicion, and the siren guppy bared his teeth behind the shoe.

“You misunderstand the incredible power of high pressure squirts of water. Allow me to demonstrate.”

Steve stood like an anime protagonist, holding the spray bottle like a gun at Phantom. “Malevolent marine malefactor! Give the shoe back, or face my wrath.”

Phantom, detecting Steve’s aggression, bit into the shoe even harder, giving a challenging trill.

“Wrong answer, buddy,” Steve said, unleashing the power of spritz onto the poor guppy. Immediately, Phantom’s fins stood up straight, his mouth opening and releasing the shoe in shock. Steve continued his aquatic assault as Phantom retreated, giving Steve the opportunity to use a small net to scoop up his ruined shoe.

“And that’s how you do it.”

Clark wasn’t so sure. “Wouldn’t that give him even more reason to hate you? Don’t you remember what happened to his previous trainers?”

“Oh, but those trainers weren’t Steve Lombard. Believe me, Clark, I’ve trained angry sharks before. I’ve had Dolphins sing Mozart. This little fishy can’t scare me.”

Judging by Phantom’s glowering from under the water, Clark wondered if the guppy was taking that as a challenge.

Steve then went behind Clark, and pushed him front and centre. “Now you do it.”

Clark sputtered. “Wait, what?!”

“Big man upstairs says he wants to see how Phantom reacts to you doing the training. You’ve read his routines, right?”

“Well, yes, but that was just in my capacity as caretaker. I-I’m just a scientist! I don’t know how to train anybody!”

“Relax,” Steve dismissed, waving off his concerns. “I’ll be right there behind you, yelling instructions into your ear. But you’re going to be the one who talks to Phantom and gives him fish when he does well and wags their finger when he does something bad.”

“Why can’t you?” Clark asked incredulously.

“Cause he’s a spiteful little bugger that’s why, and I don’t wanna know how those teeth would feel on my actual foot.” Steve held up the ruined shoe for emphasis.

“I thought you weren’t afraid of him?”

“I’m not, but there’s something far, far scarier than siren teeth, and do you know what that is?”

“What?”

Steve’s eyes darkened. “Failing to meet deadlines.”

Clark sputtered, waving his arms wildly at the water, but Steve remained adamant. As much as he would hate to admit it, these things would go a lot smoother if Phantom was being trained by someone he broadly didn’t hate for existing, and so far none of his trainers had fit that bill.

“Come on, Clarky boy. If you end up ruining everything then we’ll just go back to the old way. Now go, go, go. Come on. Get!”

Clark arrived at the edge of the water, locking eyes with a suspicious Phantom. “Alright, kiddo, let’s try and do this. Come here,” Clark gave the beckoning motion that the boys had been taught, and Phantom slowly approached, his dorsal fin cutting through the water like a Japanese knife through paper, coming to a stop right in front of him.

It had come off as strange to Clark, the way Phantom would act difficult and stubborn, usually causing his trainers a lot of grief, but in the end he was still able to learn the different manoeuvres and routines. It was how Mr Luthor was able to command him and Banshee so effortlessly at the big reveal.

“Try the twirly move first!” Steve shouted from the sidelines.

“You heard him,” Clark told the boy. “You remember this move, right?” He took the baton used to direct the sirens and stood up, waving it up and down in a large circle. Phantom’s ears flexed, as if in recognition, and he performed the right move, diving into the water in an arch, then curving around under the water to form a kind of wheel with his tail, spinning faster and faster.

“Anndd up!” Clark tossed his arm upward, and Phantom launched out of the water, his tail and back arching around in a beautiful front flip before landing back in the water without a splash.

“He usually tries to bite me at the top of his jump!” Steve complained. Clark ignored him, focusing on Phantom, who’d just resurfaced. He gave the siren guppy a big smile.

“Good work, guppy!” he said. Without thinking he reached down and pat him on the head, ruffling his hair. His hair strands were thicker than a human’s, and they were slimier with mucus. But it wasn’t an unpleasant sensation.

“Wait, stop!” Steve shouted. His footsteps raced up the platform. Clark froze, and realised he’d accidentally broken one of the rules when dealing with the sirens: don’t touch them outside of when it was absolutely necessary.

But instead of biting him, Phantom’s ear fins lowered, and Clark felt a rumbling vibration coming from underneath. Steve froze, even Angela on the other side of the tank had stopped to look. Blinking, Clark turned to his colleagues.

“Do… do they do that? Purr, I mean.”

Steve shook his head. “No, never. How is he not trying to murder you?”

Clark shrugged. “I don’t know, maybe–”

He was interrupted by Phantom bouncing in the water, bumping his head into Clark’s still hand, almost like he was begging for more. Clark looked into the siren’s eyes wobbling like a sad puppy. Phantom gave him a long, begging croon, and Clark couldn’t resist giving in, and continuing to ruffle his hair. The purring resumed, even stronger than last time.

“Holy shit…” Steve said.

~~

After that incident, Clark was unfortunately promoted to full-time trainer, working alongside Angela to make sure the boys were fit and happy. While it wasn’t an ignoble job by any means, Clark still mourned the loss of any hope of coming back to his beloved penguins.

Still, when he sees the way Phantom grins after preforming a particularly daring stunt, and the way the boys swim up to him, chattering and chirping up a storm, and the way the boys purr when he gave then head rubs for doing a good job, perhaps it was worth it.

However, being so close to the centre of Mr Luthor’s biggest project also meant having to deal with the man directly, far more often.

The boys did their rehearsals in front of the big man himself, and thus had to come face to face with Mr Luthor’s… exacting standards.

Phantom’s jump wasn’t high enough. Banshee’s tentacle was a little out of place. The boys are smiling too much, that will creep out the guests. They needed to do more daring tricks. More, more, more.

It was exhausting to keep up with Mr Luthor’s demands, and Clark wasn’t even the one in the water. One aside glance to Angela confirmed she was feeling the same as him.

“I think they’re too tired to do any more training, Mr Luthor, sir,” Clark meekly pointed out. He gently stroked Phantom’s back, running his hands over smooth scales and flicking off bits of sand and dirt from under his fin. Banshee was no better, having collapsed hanging off of Clark’s other arm.

Mr Luthor sneered. “Yes, it would appear so. I want their performances perfect by Monday, understood?”

Clark nodded. “Y-yes sir. We’ll do everything we can.”

“Good.”

Clark stared sadly at Mr Luthor’s retreating footsteps, sighing. He looked down at Phantom’s floating form. “You did good, boy. Mr Luthor might not be pleased, but I’m proud of you at least.”

“That man’s working these poor things to death,” Angela muttered. “I ought to have given him a piece of my mind.”

“I’m sure he just wants the best,” Clark offered weakly. That sentence sounded token even to him. “Come on, let’s get these two back to their tanks. You hungry, Phantom?”

Phantom chirped quietly, and Clark froze. It was almost like it was said in response to his question. Had he imagined that?

“Here you go, guys. You did great today,” Angela whispered, dropping a handful of shrimp into the water. Banshee’s tentacles lazily picked them up, some of them sharing with Phantom. Usually they weren’t supposed to feed the two shrimp, ever since they picked up the habit of tossing the shrimp shells at people, or just onto the floor, but shrimp was one of their favourites.

With the guppies fed, Clark and Angela guided them onto the stretchers to haul them out of the training tank and back to their main tank.

~~

Jason’s collection of clips was growing. Little moments when the sirens did something that was suspiciously human-like, little ways they acted that seemed less like curious animals and more like thinking people. It was not much, but he had something. Moments like when they made eye contact with visitors, or the way they gesticulated to each other in the water. At one point, he could’ve sworn he caught Phantom almost nodding, only to stop half way.

Some of these clips came from his excursions to the aquarium. A lot of them came from videos online. The two had exploded in popularity over the internet, their shenanigans and habits filling the interwebs like cat videos. There was one of Banshee chucking empty shrimp shells at a tourist, and another of him and Phantom sleeping on the sand, with their tail and tentacles wrapping around each other, looking absolutely adorable.

However, something strange happened to him that evening. After having dinner with Alfred, he went to check on the bugs he’d left at the aquarium. However, when his laptop opened the app, all he saw was static.

Someone had destroyed them all.

But who? And why?

His mind went to the search history from Timmy’s computer, how he was looking up the aquarium as well. Jason needed more evidence, and it seemed his two cases were converging at one location for the moment.

He needed more evidence on the siren front too, and unfortunately, the best way to do that was the brochure lying on his desk.

Mermaid Meet and Greet! Come see the famous siren duo of Metropolis face-to-face! Feed them, shake hands and watch them do tricks!

Chapter Text

“You think he’ll get it?” Angela asked him.

“He’d better. I spent a lot of time getting one of those things,” Carla huffed.

“I’m sure they’ll figure it out eventually,” Clark assured, though he didn’t feel very sure himself.

“Shush, you two!” Eve said, her phone held high, recording their progress.

Phantom showed off the triangle block to Banshee, who picked it up with a tentacle and sniffed it. Then, Banshee proceeded to try and shove the triangle block into the square hole. Obviously, it didn’t work. Then the translucent siren tried pushing the square block into the circular hole, and that didn’t work either. The cylindrical block lay off to the side, completely ignored.

“Maybe we should try a simpler intelligence test?” Clark suggested.

~~

Ring ring... ring ring…

“Hello, Dick Grayson here.”

“Dickface! It’s time to return the favour I did for you. This aquarium thing says I have to have an adult with me, so you’re coming.”

“What favour?! We didn’t even need you back then. I just invited you for funsies.”

“Nuh uh. A favour’s a favour, now are you gonna help or am I gonna tell Alfred you haven’t done your laundry in three days?”

“W-w-wha-what?! Thump That’s not true!”

“I have photo evidence, Stinky Dinky Dick.”

“UGH FINE.”

“Yippee!”

~~

Wes swore that ever since those creepy fish monster things arrived at the aquarium, his internship had all gone downhill. There was just something uncanny about them. They looked human enough to trigger all of his human recognition instincts in his stupid monkey brain, but just inhuman enough to give him a sense of primal fear and danger, the idea that getting into the water with those things could spell doom for him.

And their eyes, their hollow, blackened eyes that shone underneath the lights. Wes shuddered. He was glad Luthor had him moved to the penguins, but he still had to do janitorial work whenever the cleaning bots failed to pick something up.

And unfortunately, that meant having to go past their tank.

Those sirens loved to try and murder each other. Their ‘playfights’ were the stuff of legend online and in the staff, and they had an awful habit of ‘playfighting’ near the surface of their tank. Next to the edge.

And inevitably, that meant a fucktonne of water would splash over the side, and who was the one that had to clean it all up? Wes.

And who was there to spectate his misery? Them.

“I hate you,” Wes said, glaring at the innocently blank faces of Banshee and Phantom. If looks could kill, Banshee would be calamari right now, and Phantom would be perfectly seasoned sushi. However, he did not have Superman’s super laser eyes, so the hydrodynamic duo were free to lay on their bellies in the sand, fins and tentacles swaying gently in the water as they sampled their morning entertainment. Wes pretended not to be bothered by their unblinking stares, angrily stabbing at the floor with his mop, grumbling about the water always being more work than it looked to clean up.

Then his phone rang. Wes sighed, and turned his back to the sirens. He picked up the call and held it up to his ear.

“Hey Wes, how’s penguinsitting?” his brother Kyle asked.

“Kyle, you know I’m not supposed to be on the phone at work. Can this come any other time?”

“Yeah yeah yeah, look, Mom’s been pestering me about you. How have you been?”

Wes sighed and proceeded to do another conversational game of dodgeball as he manoeuvred around Kyle’s probing questions about dumb stuff like how he was and how his job was going. He was quickly able to get Kyle to shut up and put the phone down, at least. Wes shoved his phone back into his pocket and returned to mopping.

Only, the water level in the bucket had gone from nearly empty to overflowing! Wes’s eyes bugged out of his sockets. He turned his head to the tank, but the two sirens were in the exact same positions, all the way down to the placement of Phantom’s hip fins digging into the sand. Not even the sand was disturbed. Then he looked back at the bucket, and it was still full!

Wes felt a cold sweat on the back of his neck, and he wasted no time in wheeling the bucket out back to empty it. In his haste, however, he ended up spilling the water and making even more of a mess.

A few minutes later, after a thorough re-mopping…

“I swear to you, Clark,” Wes said, tugging on his hair with an unhinged look. “Those two did something.”

Clark looked, for his part, politely confused. “What did they do exactly?”

“I was mopping their mess again when I got a call from Kyle, and when I turned around, do you know what I saw?”

“Phantom and Banshee playing?” Clark asked, shrugging.

“NO! I saw. The water bucket.”

Clark slowly raised his eyebrow higher and higher in incredulity.

“And it was full!”

Eve Teschmacher, the social media manager for the aquarium, sighed from her end of the break room. “I was so waiting for some adorable story of the lil babies, but all you have is a freaking full water bucket?”

Wes was so horrified he had to blink to confirm what he was hearing was reality. “Don’t you see? The water bucket was empty, and then I turn around, and suddenly it’s full. And I couldn’t have done it, and the only other suspects in the room were the sirens. Doesn’t that seem a little, I dunno, suspicious?!”

“Maybe you’d lost track of time and didn’t realise it was getting filled up?” Clark offered.

“That’s impossible! I swear on my life it was nearly empty before, and then totally full just a minute later.”

“Try getting it on camera,” Eve said dismissively, going back to tapping on her phone, blowing a piece of bubble gum. “Then I can upload it to our page, maybe get you a promotion or whatever.”

If there was anything Wes feared more than the sirens, it was working with Eve Teschmacher. Word had it that she was a little crazy, and worked her interns to the bone, so Wes wisely shut up.

He still wouldn’t let go of the ridicule that those darned sirens brought him.

~~

“So, Dr Kent sir,” Jason chirped, back in his Damian Drake persona. This time, however, Dick was joining him, dressed in similar merch. “What do sirens like eating?”

“I told you,” the man said. “Just call me Clark. Banshee and Phantom eat fish, but they love shrimp. Banshee likes seaweed, but Phantom prefers kelp.”

“Can they turn into humans? Like in lots of movies!”

“No, I don’t think so. Both of them have been out of the water before, and if they were going to turn into humans, I think they would’ve already.”

“But they can breathe air, right?”

“Yep, sirens have lungs, just like us humans, so they can breathe air just fine. It’s really fascinating, actually, the way they can switch from gills like fish to lungs.”

“Oh! What about–”

Dick coughed. “Sorry about my little brother, Dr Kent. He’s really into siren stuff.”

“Oh, it’s no problem Danny,” Clark said, using Dick’s alias for this mission. “I’m just glad to see another person as enthusiastic about marine life as I am. Sadly I have to get back stage to prepare the boys. I hope you two enjoy the show!”

“Thank you Dr Clark!” Jason cheered, before leading his brother up to their seats.

“Lex Luthor’s having them perform like show animals?” Dick asked him, clearly perturbed.

“Yeah,” Jason scoffed. “And it’s clear he’s making bank off of it. Look at this shit.” And he gestured at the massive crowd around them. The venue was almost fully booked. It was only by buying off another person that Jason was able to get tickets for this in the first place.

“I guess people are bored of watching dolphin shows.”

“People want to see tHE PrEtTy MeRMAids perform tricks from them like show ponies,” Jason mocked. “I hate being here.”

“Don’t worry little bro, so do I, but mostly ‘cause you dragged me here.”

“And I assume you would’ve been having a very interesting weekend otherwise with your smokin’ hot alien girlfriend?” Jason whispered teasingly. He laughed as Dick’s face turned red hot.

Dick’s retort was cut off as the lights turned dark, and a spot light illuminated the tank of water at the centre of the room. The audience went quiet except for a few murmurs.

Then one of the spotlights started blinking erratically.

A flustered employee came out from behind the curtains. “We apologise terribly as we are currently experiencing technical difficulties,” he stammered out, before rushing behind the curtains. The lights returned to normal, as people started moaning about the delay.

“People are so impatient these days,” Jason muttered.

“I dunno, people used to get pretty rowdy if there was any delay back at Haly’s. You should’ve seen that one time a guy tried to pick a fight with Haly to get his money back just ‘cause it was delayed for five minutes. And those five minutes were ‘cause one of the performers had to help one of the elephants give birth. He should’ve been grateful the show wasn’t delayed for longer!”

“Speaking of hiccups, it feels like this place has been getting a lot more of those lately,” Jason pondered aloud.

“Why? Lots of animals getting pregnant?” Dick joked. Jason gagged, and shoved him in the head.

“No, dumbass. I meant shit like, all the puddles around the tanks. Clark told me Phantom and Banshee like playing near the surface, and that causes lots of spilling over the edge, but that doesn’t explain why the dolphin and octopus and penguin tanks also have a bunch of spills around them. Hell, my last visit I saw some red-headed janitor guy complaining about how there are spills ‘freakin everywhere now’.”

“Huh, strange. I guess the animals have been getting really energetic?”

“Unlikely. I asked the red-headed guy and he told me nothing like this has ever happened before. It only started after the sirens came in. Then he started talking like a crazy conspiracy theorist so I left him alone.”

“Why wouldn’t the sirens have caused it?”

Jason deadpanned. “Dickface, those tanks are like 20 meters apart, with no water connection. You see any legs on those two?”

“Seals don’t have legs either, but they can move on land just fine,” Dick continued, fully getting Jason’s point but just deciding to be a contrarian for no reason.

Jason pouted. “What? That doesn’t make any sense. If the sirens just freaking bounced on the ground like seals you’d think there’d be even more puddles everywhere, don’t you think?”

“Alright, then. Any other weird stuff going on?”

“I sniffed one of the vents. It smelled like half-eaten fish. The red-headed janitor guy looked like he was going to burst a vein when I told him.”

“Yikes. Maybe he needs some therapy.”

“Definitely.”

Dick held his finger up like he’d just had a revelation. “Wait, maybe Phantom and Banshee did galumph over to the other pools. And you know those cleaner bots roaming the halls? Maybe those mopped up the evidence so we wouldn’t know.”

Jason stared at his brother in open-mouthed disbelief. “You know the cleaner bots have been malfunctioning, right???”

“Wait, really?”

“Yeah, during an earlier visit I saw some technician guys getting really constipated over why one of the cleaner bots had a bunch of octopus ink in them, and why the other one had dust in places that dust shouldn’t’ve been able to get into. And, also, how the hell would the sirens even be able to climb up to the top of the tanks to get to the water to splash it down to the floor?!”

“Maybe they didn’t, my dear Watsjason. Maybe they just carried water in their stomachs and spat it out on the floor.”

Jason squinted at Dick. “You’re fucking with me, aren’t you?”

Dick laughed, as Jason attacked, jabbing at his ticklish sides with rageful aggression.

Finally, the lights came back on, without any flickering, as the audience breathed a sigh of relief. From behind the curtains emerged a tall man in a moustache and suit, waving to the audience. “On behalf of Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquariums, I humbly apologise for this awful delay. Thankfully, our skilled technicians have fixed the problem so we may begin. Hello! Come one, come all, to the world’s first siren exhibition and performance!”

Everybody clapped, except for Jason of course. Just the introduction and people were already applauding? Please. Maybe they really were that bored by the delay.

“Oh, audience, you spoil me. Please reserve the applause for the real stars of the show. My name is Steve Lombard and I will be your director for this event. And here with me is my daring partner, Phantom!”

The spotlights moved from Lombard’s position and onto a slide hanging several metres off the tank’s surface. On cue came the sound of rushing water, and Phantom came rushing down the slide with a plume of water. Instead of simply falling down the end of the slide, however, Phantom slammed his tail into the slide, causing it to rock. As the slide rocked upwards, Phantom jumped off of the slide and into the air, spinning in a circle as the spotlights all concentrated onto him. The light from the array pierced through his translucent body and scattered along his scales and the entire theatre was filled with the spinning refractions like the sun through a crystal gem. As quickly as the display had started, it ended as Phantom was taken hold of by gravity at last, and it pulled him into the water without a splash.

The audience roared with applause.

“Thank you, thank you,” Lombard said, bowing. “But come on, that’s just his entrance. Phantom, over here. Come here boy!” he said, tapping his baton against the water. Like a trained puppy – and didn’t that make Jason nauseous thinking about – Phantom swam up to the edge of the tank where Lombard was standing, sticking his head up.

“Did you see that, boy? The people loved your entrance, but I say we give them a little something extra, don’t you think?”

Jason, being Robin, noticed Lombard making a hand sign with his left hand, the one kept partially hidden under his coat and away from the less-discerning eyes of the audience. On cue, Phantom’s ear fins lowered, and the little siren shook his head dramatically, swishing his body back and forth.

Some of the more expressive kids went ‘awwee!’

“Oh, come on, Phantom,” Lombard whined dramatically. “Don’t be like that. They’ve been waiting to see you all week. Won’t you show them a bit of your amazing acrobatic skills? The strength in that little tail of yours?”

Phantom looked positively bored, although his eyes quirked in a hint of playfulness. (or was that just Jason projecting?)

“Alright then, what do you say to one of these?” Lombard pulled out a whole fish from… somewhere. And immediately Phantom’s fins sprang up, his eyes lighting up with fake interest. (was Jason just imagining the fakeness? The interest?)

“Oh yeah, you like that now do ya?” Lombard said, holding out the fish tantalizingly. He brought the fish low so that it was below the water level, and Phantom turned upside-down, his eyes glued to the treat. Then Lombard brought the fish high, and Phantom spun in the same direction and reached out for it with grabby hands. “You really want it, little guy?” Lombard said. He then brought the fish low again, with Phantom diving under again, his body visible through the glass of the tank. The showman proceeded to spin his arm around, and Phantom, like clockwork, started to spin his body too, eyes still locked onto the food. Eventually it seemed Phantom had had enough, bumping his head into the glass and making biting motions.

“Alright, alright, it seems I’ve teased him enough. Audience, what do you think? Should I give it to him?”

The crowd hollered and shouted their affirmation, and Lombard stepped back, twirling the fish in his hand before tossing it skyward. Phantom leapt out of the water, his body easily gaining height equal to three or four times his length, snapping up the fish in one bite.

“That’s our Phantom. Now that you’ve had your snack, you ready to wow the audience?” Lombard called out, and Phantom responded with a high-pitched whistle. The trainer looked out at the audience. “I think that’s a yes! Let’s go!”

The trainer spun on his heel, sprinting to one side of the tank. “Let’s try an old classic. You remember your cousins the dolphins, boy? Let’s see if you can do it better. Other side now!”

Phantom dashed to the opposite end of the water, and on Lombard’s command, he rose halfway above the surface, his tail and fins undulating in a mesmerizing pattern as he held about three quarters of his body above the water, creating a swirling splashing pattern around his hip fins as he danced from one end to the other, finishing off with a dive into the water again.

“Nice trick, Phantom, but what about your speed, huh? Give me five!” Lombard called out with a clap. Phantom’s fins locked into position as he sped in a circle in the tank with just his dorsal fin exposed, cutting through the waves like a speeding torpedo as he kept getting faster, and faster until his speeds turned dizzying.

“Attaboy! Now give me five!” Lombard held his hand out as Phantom surfaced in front of, launching high above the man. However, instead of giving Lombard a hi-five, the siren guppy instead spun around on his body and gave him a good slap in the face with his tailfin, causing Lombard to bowl over. Jason stiffened and leaned forward at the same time as Dick, his eyes squinting to see if the man was hurt. However, Lombard quickly bounced to his feet like it was just part of the routine. “Wow,” he laughed. “You can tell he still hates me for keeping that fish from him, huh? Now, for this next part, I’m gonna have to get into the water with Phantom. Not to worry, I am a trained professional that Phantom is very familiar with.”

Instead of changing like a normal person, Lombard instead grabbed the front of his suit and tore it clean off, revealing a stylish wetsuit underneath.

Then, suddenly, Dr Clark Kent burst through the curtains, clad in his own wetsuit. “S-sorry, Steve, I think I’m a little better suited for this part. Oh wait, you actually brought a wetsuit?”

“Clark, you’re not implying my muscular frame’s not enough for this physics-defying stunt?”

“I’m just saying maybe you could use a little help, that’s all.”

Lombard threw his hands up dramatically. “Fine, Kent, if that’s how you wanna do it, take the stage.”

Clark Kent waved at the audience, more than a few of which blew kisses at the handsome man, before stepping into the water as Phantom swam circles around him, clicking and chirping at him.

“Looks like our boy’s eager to get on with it. Let’s try another trick, shall we?” Lombard said with a cocky grin. “Clark, hands up!”

The large caretaker held his hands high in the sky as Phantom spun around him, and then jumped up into the water, Phantom’s hands grasped Clark’s as the siren then flexed his stomach, and stood completely vertically in the air with his tail pointing straight upwards.

Dick whistled. “That’s actually pretty impressive. Can you imagine the core strength? That tail must be heavy,” he muttered to Jason.

“Yeah,” Jason said, mind suddenly on the subject of steroids. Would Luthor be as heinous as to give them such drugs to improve their performance. No, bad Jason. No thinking about the worst without any evidence! “Clark must be even stronger, though, to hold up Phantom like that.”

“Yeah, but Phantom’s pretty small.”

“Dude, you see how fast he can swim? That tail’s all muscle, and muscle is heavy as fuck. I should know from you.”

Dick pouted. “Heyyy!”

“If you think that’s impressive, then wait till you look at this!” Lombard announced, as Clark and Phantom then let go of one of their hands, and suddenly Phantom was only balancing on one hand, and maintaining perfect form. Clark spun on his feet, flicking bits of water onto the audience from Phantoms wet fins as the kept in sync.

Jason blinked. Since when did Lombard have blonde hair?

At the audience’s chuckles, Lombard quirked an eyebrow. “Oh? Whatcha all looking at?”

One brave girl shouted. “Your hair!”

Lombard looked up, and caught the long, flowing blonde locks coming out of his scalp. “Ah, you little rascal! Banshee, quit it with the hair thing!”

The hair slowly shrank back and thickened into a mass of octopus arms, and the head of one curious-looking Banshee looking over Lombard’s shoulder.

“You silly little thing. We’ve been looking for you this whole time, and you were here all along?”

Banshee crossed his arms (another trained motion, as Jason noticed from the subtle hand gesture from Lombard’s free hand) and chirped grumpily. “Oh, don’t be like that. Join your friend now, yeah? Let’s go.”

Banshee’s tentacles moved to wrap along Lombard’s arm, all the while Clark held up Phantom’s entire body. “You ready?” he asked Clark.

“Ready as we’ll ever be!”

Lombard launched Banshee into the air, the octopus siren’s tentacles spreading out and flashing a rainbow of colours. At the same time, Clark grasped Phantom’s other hand as he tipped Phantom over, sinking the siren into the water before throwing Phantom upward, his arc supported by Phantom’s tail strokes.

For a moment, it was like the clock had stood still. Jason’s eye latched on to Phantom’s face, the grin splitting the siren’s cheek and reaching up to his eyes. He saw the way Phantom looked at Banshee, and Banshee’s own soft smile as they made eye contact as they spun, they broke it as their heads turned away, then looked at each other again as their bodies rotated back. At last, higher than any flip before, they came to the top of their arcs, and a loud slap rang through the theatre as their hands met for a wet hi five and they came down again.

The audience roared. The siren duo rose to the surface, climbing onto their trainers as each of them bowed.

“Thank you, thank you!” Lombard said, taking Banshee’s hand and waving it for him. “If you’d like to see more of Banshee, the next show later this afternoon is all about him!”

Clark on the other hand, was entirely focused on Phantom. The siren had climbed up Clark’s back and was resting his head on Clark’s shoulders, eyes closed with a content expression. Clark’s hand was behind himself, stroking Phantom’s back, and if Jason’s lip-reading was up to snuff, he was telling Phantom how good of a job he was doing.

“And now, for those lucky members of the audience to have scored themselves a VIP pass, that’s the purple card you might have received along with your regular ticket, please come to the front for an exclusive chance to see the stars of the show up close and personal! Please, form a line! The boys are very eager to see you!”

Jason huffed. Of course, part of Robining was procuring one such ticket for himself. When he couldn’t purchase one the normal way, of course he just hacked the system to give him one, and then had Bruce make a perfect forgery for him and Dick. Oh, the wonders of having a rich parent, right?

And he wasn’t the only one to boast that, as many of the kids lining up to ‘talk to the pretty little mermaid!” were clearly upper-middle class or straight up rich. Some of their parents seemed excited at this opportunity, while others appeared outright bored. He spied a couple university students in the mix, who probably just wanted to check out Phantom and Banshee out of their own scientific curiosity. Or maybe they wanted to kidnap them and start their own aquarium.

He and Dick would have to wait, however. He couldn’t get a ticket closer in line, since that would arouse suspicion, so they would have to wait for the other guests to have their turn first.

That wasn’t a huge blow to Jason, as it meant an easy excuse to hang back and watch the sirens from a distance, gauging their reactions to humans, and more importantly, if they were in distress or not.

He couldn’t trust the recording of the aquatic show, not without further intel. Who knew if what he’d seen were genuine reactions from the sirens, or just trained responses from the aquarium staff.

The smiles from them at the end felt genuine, at least. At least he hoped so.

Jason kept his hidden cameras trained on the siren duo. Most of the previous crowd had dispersed, although some of them hung back to watch the sirens some more. Clark and Lombard guided the guests in groups of two to come up to the tank. There was a shallow area near the back of the tank where the sirens could slide up to face the humans, and the human guests could talk to them. Clark had directed Phantom up there, while Banshee stayed near the front at the deep end.

The interactions were pretty tame. Lombard had switched out to be replaced by a tall, dark-skinned woman called Ms Foley, or Angela as she told the guests. Angela taught the kids some basic hand signs to tell Banshee what to do, like shaking his head in a silly way, or spinning underwater, or following the gesturer’s hand, basic stuff. Then there were the more involved tricks, like blowing bubble rings.

“If he’s an octopus,” one of the boys in the line said, “Does that mean he can change colour?”

Angela lit up. “Good observation! I was just about to get to that!” She gestured to her bright green wetsuit and made a spreading motion with her hands, starting at her collar and going down to the side of her waist. “Banshee, try this!”

On cue, colours started blooming from different spots on Banshee’s body, and suddenly his dark purple hue was replaced with a bright green like Angela’s spandex. “See? Banshee’s got a very good eye for detail. I see a few of you have some nifty t-shirts out there. Let’s see how well our boy here can replicate them.”

The kids cheered, and the meet and greet started. The guests meet with each siren in groups of two or three, and they take turns asking questions to their handler or giving them staff-approved treats, usually deshelled shrimp or bits of fish. At least the kids weren’t jerks, and Banshee looked like he was enjoying their company, including indulging in their silly requests. One older kid asked if he could swim with Banshee, and Angela had to shut that down pretty quick. Another person tossed a Skittle into the water when Angela wasn’t looking, and to Jason’s shock, Banshee caught the candy with lightning-fast reflexes and shoved the contraband into his mouth before Angela could turn around.

“Should we snitch on that kid?” Dick asked. “You know athletes have to be on very strict diets in order to maintain their bodies. That poor Banshee could start gaining weight!”

Jason showed just how much he appreciated noted policeman Richard Grayson’s narc attitude by jabbing him in the ribs.

Banshee’s attempts at mimicking the kids’ shirts was much more mixed. Simpler designs, he could just copy the colour scheme, but there were some pretty zany ones too. One kid had a Star Wars shirt that Banshee tried to mimic by turning his outer edges black, then mixing in white for the heroes’ clothes, then another shade of black for Darth Vader, then a streak of blue for Luke’s lightsaber, then gold for C3PO, and by that point the little guy was starting to get dizzy.

He took a look at the other side of the tank, where Phantom was. Sometimes he would lie on the slightly raised shallow portion, while at other times he’d slide into the water to perform a smaller trick.

Currently, he was demonstrating his slickness (or the smoothness of the shallow part) by swimming up and sliding along the smooth material, then letting go of it to slide back into the water like a seal. Sliding up, then down, then up, then down. For such a simple motion, it seemed endlessly amusing to the little kids giggling and watching him, and Phantom’s own fins were wiggling too, like a dog’s tail wagging to show it was in a good mood. Then he demonstrated a somewhat squeamish trick as he took in a breath of air, then sank under water. Phantom's chest puffed up and he blew hard while holding his nose. As a result, the air rushed out the gills along his chest, creating a heart shape.

Ok, Jason admitted he was pretty impressed. “Those jerks better not have hurt him while making him practise that. That shit must’ve taken weeks.”

Those kids hopped off their stools, and in came the next group, the forefront of which was a little girl in a little Ariel dress and her big sister. To their side were the two university students. Clark gave them the usual safety rundown and introductions, showing them a couple games they could play with Phantom. The university students kindly allowed the girls to go first. The little girl bounced and cheered about getting to see the ‘little mermaid,’ which grated on Jason’s nerves a bit, but he couldn’t blame a kid for falling into stereotypes. The university students, on the other hand, struck a conversation with the half of the pair that could actually speak, asking Clark some scientific mumbo jumbo that Jason couldn’t catch.

The girl’s body language changed. Jason shoved past Dick to lean to the other side of the line. Almost in the blink of an eye, the little girl had gone from enthusiastic to hesitant. Phantom swam forward, leaning on the rim of the tank with his arms and smiled at her.

And then the girl started crying.

Jason felt ashamed of himself for what he did in that moment, that moment when his obsession took hold and he immediately recorded the next few seconds on his phone, because in that moment Phantom’s face twisted in guilt and panic. It was unmistakable. Phantom’s eyes flicked between his field of view, switching between the older girl and Clark. His body hunched down, making himself smaller, before he forced himself to swim forward, his hands making an inexplicably human ‘calm down’ gesture.

But Phantom’s seeming attempt at calming the girl meant he was closer to her, and that only made her cry harder. The poor girl probably wasn’t accustomed to seeing bones inside of a person, or Phantom’s sharp teeth or his blackened eyes. To a child unprepared, those features would seem monstrous.

And Phantom seemed hurt, not in the way an animal would cry out after being injured, or losing a loved one. In Phantom’s expression… Jason gulped. He saw a little street kid who thought he could never be worth anything other than gutter trash. He saw a little boy who thought he would be worthless forever.

Sensing disaster, Clark stood up and laid a hand on Phantom, whispering something Jason couldn’t hear. Whatever it was, Phantom’s face fell even further. His fins started stimming back and forth in clear agitation. Even Banshee had stopped what he was doing and surfaced, staring at his friend. Clark crouched down in front of the girl and began trying to console her. The teenage girl was doing the same, but it wasn’t working, and the little girl’s sobbing only continued.

And the nerve of the people around him to impatiently tap their feet and scoff, as if the clearly very distressed child in front of them was just some nuisance to be gotten rid of.

“Phantom’s just a little guy, sis. I’ll show you. He’s harmless. Look!” the older girl said. And what Jason saw could only be described as a terrible, nonsensical dream, as the girl put her hands on the rim and lifted herself up. And Clark was so distracted talking to the little girl he hadn’t even noticed!

“Wait, stop!” Jason shouted, but it was too late. The teenage girl plunged into the water, her body shivering at its cold temperature.

“See, Abigail?” she said. “I’m totally fine! Phantom’s not going to hurt me, are you Phantom?”

It was at that point that Clark couldn’t ignore what had happened. The man stood up in alarm. There was shouting and raised voices among the onlookers. The university students yelled over each other telling her to get out. People were calling security. The little girl was crying still, hiccupping and shaking.

Phantom was scared, and stressed, and overwhelmed. Jason could tell by the tremble of his fins. So when the teenage girl stepped forward, suddenly moving in the water…

Claws flashed. A wisp of blood in the water. The teenage girl stumbled back as she clutched her bleeding arm. “Fuck!”

Phantom darted to the furthest corner of the tank. Seeing this, Banshee immediately abandoned the humans on his end and went to Phantom.

What Jason did would keep him up at night for a long time. As the crowds of people moved chaotically and their voices turned into a horrid cacophony, Jason slipped between the gaps, abandoning a floundering Dick. He moved until he had the perfect vantage point, and there he raised his miniature camera.

Underwater, against the glass in the corner with the fewest humans, Phantom’s shoulders shook as he cried, clutching his folded up tail the way a human child would hug their knees. And Banshee was hugging him. Banshee was squeezing him tightly, allowing Phantom to bury his face into Banshee’s. And the way the water distorted colours, it genuinely looked like two human kids embracing.

And Jason froze as he looked at the photo on his phone. His hands shook, and tears blurred his vision. He slipped back into the crowd again, running.

Chapter Text

AQUATIC CATASTROPHE: SIREN LASHES OUT, Gotham Gazette

GIRL INJURED IN SUDDEN SIREN ATTACK, Amity Times

MOTHER OF GIRL ATTACKED BY SIREN THREATENS LAWSUIT, Metropolis Post

On The Subject of the So-Called Siren Attack , by Lois Lane

Alexander “Lex” Luthor’s announcement of the captivity of the first ever sirens garnered praise and controversy. Indeed, for a species which has for better or worse captivated the minds of people for millennia, the sirens are a sadly rare species, and some consider them to be endangered, a species that humanity should broadly be allowing to live in peace to the best they can, after all the damage that we have done and continue to do to ocean ecosystems.

Perhaps it is that reason and the striking resemblance Phantom and Banshee bear to human children that Luthor’s announcement drew so much controversy. Specifically, his plan to have them perform in shows like dolphins and seals. What part – many critics at the time, myself included, asked – did performing for human entertainment play in the conservation and protection of this species?

In response to these criticisms, Luthor claimed that behaviour observations of Phantom and Banshee showed that sirens were a very active species, both physically and socially. In the wild they would presumably be hunting and surviving, but the safe walls of the aquarium provided no such stimulation, and so they became restless. Furthermore, added Luthor, the sirens became terribly lonely, often making long calling songs. The solution, Luthor concluded, was to train these sirens in athletic displays of play, and to interact with human audiences and their handlers.

And while Luthor’s claims swayed many, others still protested the premise of captivity in the first place. These creatures, they argue, ought to be released to their natural environment, especially if they are physically healthy enough to do tricks. Any more time spent among humans would only damage their chances at surviving in their true home, the ocean.

Nevertheless, Luthor’s plans went on, and the controversies slowly faded. That was, up until this Friday at 11 pm, when the first of these promised shows premiered. Phantom was the star of the show, and made an impressive showing with his handlers, Steve Lombard and Dr Clark Kent. However, things took a turn for the worse as the show ended, and the Meet and Greet portion began, with select visitors coming down to the tank to interact with the sirens directly. At first, the interactions went smoothly, thanks to the guiding hands of handler Angela Foley and Dr Kent.

That was until an incident happened as one little girl began to cry in front of the tank. Although our dear readers have likely read many takes on the situation, I will bring you the words of the girl’s elder sister, Anna Mandy.

“I think Abigail was just a little overwhelmed. She’d only ever seen Phantom from afar, and I think she just wasn’t prepared to see his bones, and his sharp teeth. She was just scared.”

Dr Kent and Anna quickly tried to console the girl, to no avail. In an attempt to calm her down, Anna proceeded to climb into the water, whereupon Phantom scratched her with his claws, and then swam away.

“It was really, really stupid. I was just... I was seeing all these people giving her dirty looks and I hated it, and Dr Kent and I were trying to pull her away, but she wouldn’t move, so I thought if I proved Phantom wasn’t dangerous, maybe she’d calm down. It was my fault really, and the scratch didn’t even hurt that much. It stopped bleeding after about five minutes. I think he was just startled at this stranger getting in his personal space. All these people calling Phantom dangerous… If you were in that situation, taken by strange creatures that you don’t understand and who are controlling your whole life, I think a lot of people wouldn’t be handling that well.”

“Mr Luthor sir, how do you respond to the threats of a lawsuit from the Mandy family?”

“Please. My staff and sirens behaved in an exemplary manner. If anything, I should be suing them for their daughter’s having traumatised my rescue siren. Phantom was nearly catatonic with fear when we fished him out of the tank.”

“Do you think that keeping them in captivity is causing more harm than good?”

“Do you think that sending them to an early, watery grave would cause more harm than good?”

“Mr Luthor, sir! A question! Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquariums has not posted any updates in regards to future scheduled shows. Why is that?”

“That is because nothing has changed. Phantom and Banshee will be rehabilitated, and then will continue their act. In fact, this event has only impressed the necessity for further, regulated contact between the public and the sirens. In that regard, we are giving them training to acclimatize them to humans other than their handlers being in the water with them. Soon, they will feature in our very own Swimming with Sirens exhibit.”

The crowd erupted with questions.

“Last question. Why, Ms Lane, how lovely to see you.”

“Your staff seem to be out of their depth in regards to these sirens. Not to mention the lack of updates on studying them as a species. How can you guarantee their safety and those of the people participating in these ‘Swimming with Sirens’ events if you could not do so this morning? And how can you ensure our collective ignorance on their biology will not become costly to their health in the future?”

“Ms Lane, you wound me with your suspicions. To answer your question, science is a slow process that must take time in order to achieve the level of rigour needed to be reliable. That being said, we will take further precautions to maintain safety for our residents. Furthermore, to aid our scientific efforts, we will be enlisting the assistance of the premier siren experts in the world, who prior to now had been occupied with personal excursions.”

“Mr Luthor!”

“Mr Luthor!”

“Mr Luthor, what about…”

“Mr Luthor, why would…”

“That will be all the questions for now. Goodbye.”

~~

“I feel dirty,” Jason muttered in the hotel room, his eyes glued to his phone screen, and his phone screen glued to that one picture, that one private moment stolen away and saved forever in electronic data.

Dick sat on the bed, his legs crossed. He stayed quiet.

“I feel like one of those jerks that just stand around when villains are doing evil shit and record them instead of running away for their fucking lives. But nobody’s life was at stake, and somehow that makes it even worse. Phantom must’ve been feeling like shit and there I was treating him like, like, like a circus animal, like some art piece to be gawked at.”

“But you did it for a good cause, right?”

Jason paused. The haunted expression of Phantom, the way he looked so pained. There was no way he wasn’t sentient, right? But in his head, the voices of skeptical idiots blared like fire alarms. They’re just mimicking human expressions! They’ve been around humans too much! It’s an evolutionary tactic to lure and eat humans!

Was it even worth it?”

“Little wing,” Dick said. In the intervening moments between his sulking, Dick had walked up to him and pulled him into his chest. “You did the best you could. You needed evidence, and you got it. Sometimes to save someone, you might need to do something they’re not a hundred percent comfortable with.”

Jason bit his lip.

“I mean, look at you. If it were up to you, you’d still be on the street, smoking, stealing tires. Remember the ‘big boob’ incident?” Dick said, chuckling.

The memory of hitting The Batman in the gut with a tire iron and running away never failed to put at least a little smile on his face.

“And you know, it’s not nearly as iffy as B hacking into street cameras to follow people and breaking into their homes all the time. If we weren’t heroes we’d be really creepy villains. You could be The Robber instead of Robin, the villain who always steals your money and your precious personal data!” Dick’s voice turned dramatic at the end, and Jason laughed, pushing away at his brother.

“Stop, stop Dickweed, it’s too cringe!”

“I lived in a profession where you had to kill the part that cringes. You need to do that, Jayjay. Kill the part that cringes.”

“And what if my whole body’s cringing? Should I just kill myself?”

“No, of course not! You just need to build a robot body with no cringing parts, and then upload your consciousness into it.”

“Tell Cyborg that and see what he can cook up,” Jason snarked.

And despite himself, Jason felt a little better.

“I need to save them,” he muttered. “They’re trapped in there, and Lex is making them dance like monkeys to make himself even richer and more famous.”

“Don’t forget Tim, too. You found any leads on that?”

“Just one. And I’m going tonight.”

“Need any backup?”

Jason grinned. “I thought you were done giving me favours?”

“You’ll still owe me one, Little Wing,” Dick smirked, before he locked Jason’s neck in and noogied his hair.

~~

Phantom’s face was crestfallen, his fins all drooping like dying leaves, his body slumped over. Banshee refused to separate from his friend, and so they were put on the stretcher together to be taken back to their main tank.

Clark frowned. The area had been cleared of visitors, leaving just him, Angela and the boys. Angela whispered soothing words to them, but they seemed to fall on deaf ears. Phantom’s lifelessness was an unsettling sight. Every time he was on the stretcher he would wiggle around, slap his fins, and call out cheerily. Now, the silence was oppressive.

They carried the boys back to the top of their home tank, gently sliding them in at the shallow end where they could sit half-submerged. Phantom still remained still, and quiet. Banshee, his tentacles and upper arms wrapped around his friend, choked out a cry, looking up to Clark.

“It’s ok, buddy,” Clark said. “Your friend isn’t hurt. He’s just shaken up by what happened. I’m sure you guys are hungry after all that. I’ve sent for a bucket.”

Angela looked at him, grimacing. “I knew we shouldn’t have allowed the meet and greet. It was too soon!” She held her head in her hands. “I knew it, and I didn’t do anything. Of course they’d freak out after some stupid girl climbed into the water.”

“Now’s not the time to blame anyone, Angela. None of us could have foreseen this. All the earlier meet and greets were ok. It was just a freak accident.” Clark sighed. “And besides, I should’ve noticed her climbing in and stopped her. But when I did, it was already too late.”

Phantom whined pitifully, drawing the two adult humans’ attention back to him. Banshee was laying by Phantom’s side, chirping quietly.

“It wasn’t your fault, Phantom,” Clark said gently, rubbing the boy’s head in soothing circles. “Anyone would’ve been scared and confused. Hell, I was pretty stressed out too. You’re going to be ok. Those girls are going to be ok. People make mistakes all the time.”

Angela hummed. “You did the best you could there, guppy. I saw you flying over the water there. If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought you had wings!”

Phantom’s fins lifted up pathetically, then flopped down again.

Clark was about to say something else, when Angela started to hum a lullaby. He sat still, listening to a mother’s warm melody fill the space. And to his surprise, life started to come back into Phantom’s fins, and his eyes turned a little more attentive, a little less dreary and defeated.

When an intern came with a bucket of fish, Clark shushed them, and quietly took the food. There were no tricks, this time, no games, he just handed the boys their fish as they listened to Angela sing.

When at last it was time to go, Clark ruffled the boys’ hair, and Angela finished her lullaby.

“I’m sure Lex is going to be furious,” Angela sighed. “Come on, let’s go see what the damage is, Clark. Sorry, guppies, we’ll be back to check up on you later, alright?”

The two little sirens, the only two of their species in the entire world of land, chirped goodbye, and sank into the water.

~~

Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquarium was an entirely different beast at night.

That said, its security measures were no match for Robin and Nightwing. The duo expertly unlocked the doors and entered the premises. The single night guard Luthor had hired was asleep, face buried in a still-blaring tablet. Just to be safe, Nightwing set the cameras to run on a loop, perfectly obscuring any routes they may take.

From there they made their way to Lex’s office, passing through the theatre room where the incident had taken place earlier that day. Robin winced. Moving on from there, the vigilantes arrived at Lex Luthor’s office.

Much to their surprise, however, the door was unlocked. Quickly, they assumed hiding positions, their eyes fixed on the door, waiting for whoever it was to come out.

But nobody did, and there was nobody else with them, so Robin took a step forward and jabbed it open with his staff.

The office was large, and luxurious for something that Luthor didn’t even use as his primary office. Robin and Nightwing had done their research and scoping of this place, so they knew what to expect. There were no traps at the door, but it was suspicious that a man like Luthor would leave his office just open and ajar for anyone to come in.

That was not the only suspicious thing either.

“Is it me, or are his bookshelves a little off?” Nightwing muttered. “The floorplan said they’re supposed to be about twenty inches away from the window…”

Robin quirked a masked eye-brow. “And this is relevant because…?”

Nightwing shushed him, crouching by the gap and holding his escrima sticks out like a measuring stick. “Yeah… they’re six inches off. And I’m pretty sure the desk is off-centre from the carpet. No, the carpet’s off centre.”

Robin hummed. “Ok, that’s pretty weird.” A perfectionist like Luthor would never allow such glaring inconsistencies in his office space. “But you’re kinda missing a big thing.”

“And that is?”

Robin gestured to the computer, faintly glowing against the darkness of the room. “The fact that his computer’s open? And unlocked?”

Nightwing narrowed his eyes. “Someone was here before us. A corporate spy?”

“If they are,” Robin said. “They have a terrible sense of humour. Look at this!” He shined a flashlight onto Luthor’s seat. There, they found a wet mark on the sea that was shaped distinctly like a butt. Nightwing leaned down, sniffing the seat, before taking a finger out and dabbing it in the black liquid.

Robin gagged, knowing what would come, and yet he was still grossed out when Nightwing shoved the finger into his mouth.

“Hm. Octopus ink,” he said.

“That will never not be gross. You know Lex’s butt sits on that chair too, right?”

“What can I say, Little Wing? It’s the best way to quickly identify a mysterious substance.”

“More like the grossest way. Whatever.” Robin kicked the chair aside, not wanting to get his suit all inked up. “Whoever broke into Luthor’s office is a huge japer, who knew?”

“Try checking the prints,” Nightwing suggested.

Robin nodded, and retrieved the fingerprint analysis kit from his utility belt. Or rather, a piece of sticky paper that he patted the keyboard with before tearing it off. He then sprayed a chemical reagent, colouring the fingerprints a bright purple, before scanning it with his wrist computer.

Three individuals identified. The computer sounded out. Match: Lex Luthor. No match found: Unknown child. No match found: Unknown child.

“Two children broke into Luthor’s office?” Nightwing said.

“That’s suspicious as fuck,” Robin agreed. “And they came equipped with octopus ink, too. And they’ve been moving Lex’s furniture?”

“They had to have been caught by the security system, but if that were the case, Lex would’ve found them out. I’m guessing they’ve found some way to hide themselves. Let’s check Lex’s computer.”

Robin quickly jabbed a USB stick into the computer, preparing to slurp up all his incriminating documents, while Nightwing stood guard. However, a hunch pulled him towards Luthor’s emails before anything else.

And boy, did he get the jackpot.

“Holy fuck. There’s an email chain 30 replies long here. And it’s about who keeps stealing shit from the employee fridge?!”

Robin’s eyes scanned through the messages. Whoever had snuck into Luthor’s office was a serious prankster. There were five insanely angry emails from Luthor himself about who kept moving his furniture, and the horrible revenge he would take on the culprit. There were complaints from janitors about who kept leaving fish and shrimp in the vents. There were queries by baffled staff about how random animals kept escaping out of their secure enclosures.

Robin grinned. He was going to download this whole lot as well, just to give himself something to laugh at for years.

There were other ones too. Apparently ‘Luthor’ had emailed a bunch of derogatory memes about himself and CCed the entire staff. The real Luthor then sent even more threatening emails about catching whoever was responsible.

Robin typed Phantom into the search function. Bingo. All the emails talking about the sirens.

From: Angela Foley

To: Caretaking Staff

Subject: Addressing the Sirens

Good evening all,

I am writing to remind you once again not to call Phantom a ‘she’ when he is in earshot. Not only is this scientifically inaccurate, as we have repeatedly verified that both Phantom and Banshee are male, but also potentially dangerous, as two interns have been injured from Phantom throwing fish at them after referring to him as ‘she.’

I’ve been told that this is due to the word ‘she’ having a harsh sound that most sirens don’t like. I don’t know how much I believe this explanation, but we’ve been trying to habituate non-violent behaviours into the sirens, so we would like to minimize any more incidences of the sirens attacking anybody.

“That explanation sounds like bullshit,” Nightwing mused, having gone from guard duty to leaning down right next to Robin’s ear.

Robin yelped. “Nightwing! Warn a guy next time!”

“It’s your fault for not having any situational awareness. But that raises a lot of questions, like the real reason Phantom doesn’t like being called she.”

“Nobody likes being misgendered,” Robin said. “But how, or why would a siren understand human pronouns and ideas about gender?”

“Luthor said they were found tangled up in a net, right? Maybe the reason why they were so close to humans is because they’re like the Ariels of their kind, always being near the surface and watching humans.”

Robin hummed. He pulled up the security feeds, which were on the same network as Lex’s computer, probably so he could spy on his employees. Then he went to the time stamp of just before he and Nightwing had broken in, rewinding the footage. However, they found nothing.

“Someone tampered with the footage before we came here,” Robin realised.

“Two kids?” Nightwing was skeptical.

“Hey, I’m a kid too! Jerk!”

“Alright, alright. You think they’ve got something to do with whatever or whoever destroyed your bugs?”

“There’s a good chance. Two kids keep breaking into the building every night, and keep fucking things up with Luthor. I bet they’re the ones who keep putting shit in the vents, and the ones tampering with the cleaning bots, and,” Robin eyed another email chain labelled Ceiling Footprints… “leaving footprints on the ceiling?”

“They could be meta kids, out to cause trouble for Lex. The ceilings in this place are pretty high up, after all.”

“But why? What’s the motive?”

Robin’s stomach churned. He thought about that huge donation Tim’s parents made to the aquarium, now Tim had mysteriously disappeared to a summer camp for three months without any electronics, isolated to the point that he had to sneak a letter out. He knew Timmy, to that kid, going without electronics for a week was a fate worse than death.

An idea came to Robin. “Hold on, let’s put that on hold for a sec. I’ve got a hunch about Luthor’s financial records.”

Nightwing nodded, although he seemed distracted. “Yeah, go do that.” Then he started crouching on the floor, and then started sniffing the carpet. Yeah, his brother was a weirdo.

Robin clicked on some files, and found the aquarium’s bank accounts. Of course, hacking into it was child’s play. While Lex Luthor’s companies generally boasted some pretty nuts cybersecurity, it was silly to think that his pet aquarium project could say the same.

Now, all he needed to do was compare. He pulled up their earnings, their profits and their customer intake. Luthor was the methodical type, so he’d had every guest ticket and expense categorized neatly.

“Someone’s been stealing from Luthor,” he muttered, eyes widening. “Holy shit. There’s so much money missing. Like tens of thousands. For an aquarium, that’s huge.”

Robin quickly tried tracking down the money, but it was impossible. If Luthor had no idea his money was being stolen right out from under him, then Robin didn’t have much more luck. Whoever was taking the money was covering their tracks well.

Could it have been their two mystery kids?

“I knew it,” Nightwing said.

“What is it?” Robin asked, leaning to the side to see what he was doing. Nightwing had sprayed a spot on the floor, revealing a pair of bare, child-sized footprints.

“This footprint smelled like sea salt,” Nightwing said. “Come on, follow me.”

Robin yanked the USB stick out, having finished its download, and followed after Nightwing. They found a second set of footprints roughly the same size soon after, both of them walking together. The vigilantes followed the footprints through the aquarium, and they eventually led them to the gift shop.

Nightwing immediately noticed that the clothes had been disturbed. And in fact, two kid-sized shirts hanging on the rack were a little more dishevelled than the rest. They seemed fit for an eight or nine-year-old.

“They’re wet,” Nightwing said. Then he leaned forward and licked them. “Wet with sea salt, like if a kid put his clothes on after a bath without drying off properly.

Robin went round to the shorts and pants, and just like he predicted, he found a pair of child-sized shorts, also wet with sea salt, also put back in a rough manner.

“Nightwing, check it out.”

On the floor leading out of the gift shop from the main exit were more footprints, this time wet, with water droplets around them.

The vigilantes looked at each other, and nodded, splitting up. Nightwing followed the dry footprints, and Robin searched the gift shop.

All the while, Robin began building a profile of their two suspects. They were two children, gender unknown. They entered Luthor Aquarium, and then at some point got soaking wet. Maybe they had fallen into one of the tanks, after which point they walked to the gift shop, presumably trading out their wet clothes for the clean, dry clothes at the gift shop.

If that were the case, maybe he could find those original wet clothes, and maybe get a DNA sample to ID them. However, after much searching, he found no such pieces of evidence.

So their suspects likely changed back into their wet clothes when they returned from Luthor’s office?

Only one way to find out. Robin quickly followed the wet trail of foot prints. The suspects seemed to understand where the blindspots of the camera systems were, as the footprints clearly showed them hugging the walls and avoiding cameras. He found it strange, since they already knew how to tamper with CCTV footage, but maybe it was so they could save having to delete footage later and it looking suspicious.

Then he found the impression of a wet butt cheek mark on the wall. Robin stood there for a hot second, completely baffled. Were the suspects naked?! Where had they come in?!

And as Robin followed the trail, the footsteps became wetter and wetter, the water droplets becoming more frequent, until finally, crashed into Nightwing, both of them falling on their asses on the ground.

The trails united. The intruders came back the way they came in, and as Robin reoriented himself, he realised where the trails led.

To the set of stairs leading to the top of one of the tanks. Specifically, Phantom and Banshee’s tank. Immediately, Robin sprinted up the stairs, hoping to catch the mysterious kids in the act. However, as he reached the top, he found there was nobody there.

Nobody human, that was.

The two sirens, Phantom and Banshee were, lying in the water, bodies nuzzled against each other, fast asleep.

And Jason started to get an inkling of something that would be horrible if it were true.

Chapter Text

Some time ago…

Danny Fenton was nine years old, and he was an ordinary boy. He woke up in the morning to go to school. He had not many friends, but one best friend forever, a boy named Tucker. He loved space and astronomy. He had a nerdy sister who was big know-it-all. And he had loving parents who would do anything for him.

Almost anything.

Because Danny Fenton was not a normal boy. He wasn’t sure, in this moment, if he was even a boy at all, and not a thing. Just like the things that his parents pulled from the beaches that one time, and carried to their lab downstairs, and cut open.

Normal boys had soft skin. They had legs with knees that ended in feet, with five toes each. Normal boys, you could only see their skin, because skin was supposed to do that. It was supposed to hide all your other bits.

Like the bits that his parents found when they were downstairs, when they had their sharp knives.

Normal boys didn’t look like him. They didn’t have scales. Scales everywhere. Weird, horrible, bumpy scales no matter where he looked. He tried searching for his skin again, but all he found was scales. Normal boys didn’t have skin that was like glass. Danny looked down at himself and whimpered. You couldn’t see the bones of a normal boy. You couldn’t peer all the way through the back of a normal boy and see the bottom of the bathtub they were lying in. You couldn’t count the number of bones a normal boy had just by looking through their skin. You couldn’t see a normal boy’s blue, beating heart quivering with terror inside their rib cage. A normal boy’s heart was red.

And even if Danny wanted to run away from the horrible creature he had become, he couldn’t, because he no longer had legs like a normal boy. Instead his waist transitioned into a long tail like a fish, complete with fins along the sides and a tailfin. He counted the spines of his tail fin, hoping they would at least match up to his toes, and he might close his eyes and pretend he was just tapping his feet together, but there were eight spines. Eight of them. He used to have ten toes.

And the worst part was the eyes.

Normal boys didn’t have eyes like black holes, inhuman and monstrous. When normal boys cried, their tears didn’t turn into pearls.

He couldn’t escape without legs. Would he die like a gasping fish if he left this bathtub? All he could do was wait for his parents to come and discover this monster that has stolen their child’s soul and body, and then drag it into the basement to cut open.

Danny cried, and cried, tears filling the bathtub. He cried until one of the tears knocked the tub’s plug loose, and soon the precious water started to drain away little by little. Frightened for his life, Danny scrambled to replace the plug, but normal boys had fingers that worked. His fingers were all connected by webbing, and they were oh so slimy. He only made it worse, and the plug was dislodged entirely. Danny wept, chirping in terror as the water all disappeared. And he froze there, curling in on himself as he waited to suffocate.

And he waited. And he cried.

But his vision never blackened, and his lungs didn’t stop working.

When he opened his eyes, he saw a truly miraculous sight. His hand was back. His dry, human, slightly pink hand with no scales and no webbing and no claws that he couldn’t see through. Connecting the dots, Danny reached out for the towel that was always next to the tub, and began patting away at his scales, careful not to push the tower against them but along them. And they receded away, and his skin returned!

Danny Fenton was a normal boy again. He had just had a bath, all by himself. He had legs, and feet, and skin that wasn’t see through.

But Danny Fenton knew that his life was still over. He stood up on shaky legs that five seconds ago were a bendy tail, and hobbled over to the washbasin. There, he turned on the tap, and put his finger underneath the stream of water.

And it grew a claw. Scales reappeared.

He was cursed somehow, and if his parents ever found out… Danny didn’t want to know what would happen.

And so Danny Fenton ran away.

~~

There was somebody in his house.

Tim Drake knew this because usually it was just him in the large, empty mansion. If there were five people in a house, and suddenly one other person was there, that would be 20% more people, but furthermore, there was a probability element too. Say you saw that there was a cup in the sink, but you never used any. If you lived in a house with four other people, then there was a one-in-four chance that the cup had been placed there by one of those four people, barring any other knowledge or conditions that may change this very theoretical, very mathematical scenario. Of course, you could ask every person in the house if they had done it, but nobody has time for such exhaustive interrogation methods. Therefore, most people just guess who did it, and moved on. The more people there were in the household, the lower likelihood the guess was correct.

But what happened when there was only one lonely child in the house? The only other person to grace these halls most days was the housekeeper. Tim didn’t have a nanny anymore. And the last time the housekeeper was here was three days ago.

Why would the door to the cereal cupboard be ajar, then?

Tim was a polite boy, and he was a good boy. He remembered his father scolding him for leaving one of the kitchen cabinet doors ajar, causing his dad to stub his toe on it. From then on, Tim always remembered to close the door when he was done with something. He was sure, because he usually came back after a few minutes to double check.

Was it a mouse? Did a mouse wiggle its way into the cupboard, then impolitely left the door open? Tim picked up a stool and placed it underneath the cupboard. When he opened it, he looked at the cereal boxes inside. He pulled them out one by one and inspected them. There was no evidence of any kind of mousey interference. It didn’t make sense anyway. There was barely any seam between this door and the cupboard door next to it, and mice didn’t have apposable thumbs with which to open doors in the first place. Tim double checked the back of the cupboard, and found no hole that had been gnawed through, either.

Conclusion: there was another person in his house.

So Tim laid out a camera, because he wanted to meet this person. The mansion was so big that he could never hope to search it on his own, so he decided he just needed to search the one place in the mansion that would definitely have the stranger: the kitchen.

All he needed to do was be in the kitchen at the right time. Tim used his pocket money to order two spare cameras from the internet, then set them up in hidden locations in the kitchen. Then, he skipped school. Or rather, he pretended to go to school to lure the stranger into a false sense of security. However, what he actually did was turn the corner and hide behind a tree at the edge of his parents’ property with his laptop.

And then came the waiting game.

And so he waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Until there was movement in the camera feed. Tim watched a scraggly, skinny child move into the frame. The child pulled up the footstool and stood on it, reaching the cereal cupboard, where he proceeded to take Tim’s favourite box of cereal and start eating it. Without milk!

Immediately his heart went out for the poor boy. His clothes had seen better days, and it was clear he’d been on the streets for a while before he’d come here.

Resolving to make friends with the boy, Tim snuck back into his house. The front door would make too much noise, so he circled around the mansion until he was at the window, which Tim had left open intentionally.

The boy hadn’t seen him, instead absorbed in the little food he’d managed to procure. Tim would make sure he would never go hungry again. The little boy leapt up from his position on the yard, the window frame catching his stomach as the boy yelped, eyes wide.

“Hi! Let’s be friends!” Tim shouted.

The boy didn’t seem to be as enthused, because the moment Tim spoke, he bolted away.

“No! Come back! I won’t snitch on you!” Tim yelled after him. Quickly he scrambled through the window and dashed after the boy. While the other boy was nimble, he was also starving, and Tim quickly outran him, tackling him to the ground just before the other boy could escape his sight.

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry! Please don’t call the police!” the other boy wailed, struggling to fight Tim off. But it was no use, as Tim had the advantage of three (lonely) square meals a day.

Tim shook his head. “What? Of course I won’t call the police. Everyone knows the police in Gotham suck.”

The boy only paled, his eyes tearing up. “D-does that mean you’re gonna call Batman instead?”

“No! Why would I call Batman? It’s not like I know his phone number.” That was a lie. Tim did know Batman’s phone number. And Robin’s, too. And Nightwing’s. “No, I wanna be your friend!”

The boy froze, his expression twisted in disbelief. “Why?”

“Because I’m lonely, and you look like you could use a friend. Do you want some leftovers from yesterday? I know they’re not much, but they’re better than cereal. Have you had anything other than cereal lately? How long have you been here? Let’s buy something nice for you.”

The other boy whined. “But I’m dangerous. I’m a monster.”

Tim tilted his head. “I don’t get it. Are you a kind of meta? I don’t mind having a meta friend. They’re cool. I’m Tim, by the way. What’s your name?”

His new friend looked at him for a long moment in deep contemplation. And then his body relaxed. “My name’s Danny.”

And that was how Tim made his best friend.

~~

Over the course of the next few months, he and Danny grew closer. Danny couldn’t go to school with him, but Tim would bring home his notes and repeat all his lessons to him. It was more fun than being lonely. They would sleep together in Tim’s room, and play video games together, and watch TV together. Tim would teach Danny how to skateboard, and even take him out to take pictures of Batman and Robin. But most nights now he stayed at home with Danny, and it made the nights less lonely. It was like a sleepover that never ended.

Danny was a skittish kid, and really scared of something. Tim learned what that was when they were having dinner together, and Tim accidentally spilled some water over Danny. Danny’s skin turned all scaly, like a fish, and he froze, frantically trying to hide it.

But Tim took Danny’s hand and stopped him.

“Wow! That’s so cool! Can you do it again?”

Danny hesitated. “Y-you think it’s cool?”

“Yeah! Is all of your skin like that?” Tim released his hand, and Danny let his own arm lie on the dining table, his scales remaining there for him to see. “Like, when it gets wet.”

“Yeah, a-all of it.”

“Woah… Can I see? It’s ok if you don’t wanna, but I just think it was really pretty.”

“S-seriously? You don’t think I’m a monster?” Danny whispered, his voice desperately vulnerable, unsure if it wanted more to hear an answer or wanted more to hide itself.

Tim blinked in shock. “Why would I think that? You’re my best friend!”

“My parents would think I’m a monster. They’re siren hunters,” Danny whispered. “That’s what I am. A siren.”

Tim froze. “Really? You’re a real live siren? I thought those only lived in the sea, but you changed when you got splashed. Does that mean you can turn into a siren in the water, and you turn back into a human on land? That’s so cool! This could mean so much for marine biology, and–”

“Wait!” Danny said, gripping Tim’s shoulders. “You can’t tell anybody! You don’t know what they’ll do to me if they find me. What my parents will think…That’s why I ran away. They’re siren hunters. They wouldn’t love me anymore if they knew. If people knew I was a siren, I wouldn’t be a person any more, I’d just be an animal. They’ll look me up forever.”

Tim gave his friend his most earnest promise. “I never told anyone you were here. And I’ll never, ever tell anyone your secret. Cross my heart and hope to die.”

Tears were welling up in Danny’s eyes as he pulled Tim into the longest, tightest hug Tim had ever got. It felt amazing, and he never wanted it to end. However, his curiosity still burned.

“Does that mean you can breathe underwater?”

After a long hug, his friend separated from him. Danny opened his mouth, and then closed it. “I dunno, I’ve never tried it before.”

Tim stood up from his seat, and took his friend’s hand. “Then let’s go find out!”

They ran upstairs to Tim’s bathroom, where Danny took off his clothes, and lowered himself into the water, and Tim watched in awe as his friend transformed from a regular boy to a creature of myth.

“You’re the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen…” Tim said. “You look so cool! Like a ghost!”

Danny blushed a blueish tinge on his cheeks.

And yes, they confirmed that Danny could breathe underwater.

That night, he told Tim how he became a siren. He was on the beach, alone, when he’d found a siren tangled in a net. His parents had come to Amity Park because it was supposedly the ‘most siren-infested town in America’, and they wanted to study sirens. Fearing what would happen to the siren if his parents had found them, Danny freed them.

Well, he tried to free them. The siren ended up lashing out, wounding Danny greatly. In the struggle, Danny was still able to free the siren from the net, but he had several bite and claw wounds. The siren had attempted to pull Danny by the ankle into the water, but his parents came at that moment, firing their weapons. The siren let Danny go, and his parents patched up his injuries.

“I think it’s like werewolves,” Danny told him. They were under the covers, in Tim’s softest pyjamas. “That night, I started transforming in the bathtub. It was so painful I passed out. When I woke up, I didn’t have any legs.”

Tim nodded, hugging Danny tightly.

~~

They were running out of money.

Tim’s allowance was large, but not unlimited. Soon, it had all dried up between buying clothes for Danny and food. It was with great reluctance that he was forced to call his dad.

Tim sat on his bed cross legged, anxiously waiting his dad’s answer.

“Timothy, is this important?”

Tim winced, his eyes turning to Danny, who patted his shoulder for moral support. “H-Hi Dad. I was just wondering, well, there’s this small issue.”

“Spit it out, Timothy.”

“I’ve run out of allowance money, and I was wondering if you could send some more?”

His dad sighed. “And what did you spent your considerable allowance on?”

Tim gulped. “Uhm, gifts! For friends!”

“Gifts, you say? I see. That is very generous of you. However, your allowance was already very large. You need to learn how to spend carefully, son. So no, I will not be adding to your allowance.”

“But Dad, this is really important!”

“And what is it that’s so important?”

Tim tried to call upon his plan, but the lie died on his tongue. It was always difficult to talk to his parents, no matter how much he wished he could talk to them more often. “Well, it’s a really big deal, b-but it’s a secret! So, er,”

“You can wait for the new school year for your next allowance, Timothy, and that is final. Your mother and I are at a conference now. We will be very busy. The housekeeper will continue to cook your meals, so you don’t have to worry about food.”

His dad hung up. Tim hunched over, his head hanging.

“I’m sorry I got your dad mad at you,” Danny whispered, hugging his knees tightly with guilt.

Tim responded by tackling the siren boy to the bed. “No! No sorry! It’s not your fault! You dummy!”

“I yield, I yield! But what are we gonna do?”

Tim rubbed his wrists. “I’ll still be getting food. You can have my portions?”

“But then what will you have?” Danny frowned.

The question haunted them well into the night, as they sat for what could be their final stable meal together.

But Tim was nothing if not crafty, and in his mind he began to concoct a plan.

“What if we could make a tonne of money?” Tim asked Danny that night, his room illuminated by the glow of his projector screen on the wall. Tim stood like a stately university professor giving a presentation.

“But how?” Danny asked. “It’s not like we can get a job, and stealing feels bad…”

“That’s ok, because I have a plan.” Tim pressed a button on his laptop, showing a slide of MS Paint illustrations, showing a cartoon siren and a tank. You know how there aren’t any sirens in captivity?” Tim asked.

“Yeah…” Danny said with uncertainty.

“Now, at first glance, captivity can look scary.” Tim switched to a slide of a sad dolphin crying… in the water…?? “You’re kept away from the boundless freedom of the ocean, and kept under the watch of spooky humans that you can’t understand. However, there are perks! Some animals in captivity live much longer than they do in the wild, and you know why that is?”

Danny shrugged.

“Luckily, dear viewer, I have a slide just for that.” And indeed he did! Tim showed him a large table filled along with charts and data that visibly made the poor Danny dizzy, his eyes glazing over. “As you can see, due to a variety of factors pertaining to constant medical care, a lack of predators and thus stress and easy access to food. However, the opposite is also true. For example, African elephants suffer shorter lifespans in captivity due to stress. They’re not really meant to be in an environment surrounded by humans, and different animals take to being in a zoo differently. Animals that can survive benefit from having free food and a safe place to live. Now, where does that bring us?”

Tim then switched to the next slide, with stick figures of him and Danny with frowny faces. “We, as in you and I, are in need of a lot of things. We need food, for one, and also money, and we have neither of those things. But… what kind of place does?”

“An aquarium…?” Danny asked cautiously. “But I don’t get it. How does an aquarium help us get food and money?”

“Well, aquariums feed their animals, and it’s not like the animals have to pay rent, right?”

Danny gulped, with hurt in his voice. “Wait, what do you mean? I c-can’t be in an aquarium! I’ll be all alone, and nobody will talk to me, and- and- I’ll miss you. You’re not k-kicking me out, are you?”

Tim felt he’d been kicked in the stomach. “No! Of course not! The plan isn’t for you to go into the aquarium. The plan is for both of us to be in the aquarium. I’ll be a siren with you there.”

The sentence he’d just uttered seemed to break Danny’s mind, the only thing he was capable of saying was “What?”

“You said you were turned into a siren when one bit you, right? So if you bite me, then I’ll become a siren–” Click. Next slide.

“Tim…”

“Then, if we can get into an aquarium together, we’ll be able to keep each other company. The aquarium will feed us food and maybe even entertainment if they’re nice. But more importantly, they’ll make a lot of money off of us,–” Click. Next slide. Tim’s voice started speeding up as he got into all the nitty gritty details of his plan, while his friend had something of a mind break in front of him.

“Tim…”

“Then, at night, we’ll sneak out of our enclosures in our human forms, then we’ll steal some of the money that they made off of us, and I’ll funnel some of that money into my own bank account. Then we can use it for whatever we need! I’ve already formulated a plan for how we’ll get around all the security cameras, and how we’ll acquire the money in the first place. Once we’ve had it secured,”

“Tim!”

Tim froze. “What is it?”

“A-are you sure about this? B-becoming a monster?! Becoming like me?”

Tim’s expression softened. He dashed into his friend to smush Danny against the wall. “You big silly! You’re my best friend! Why the heck wouldn’t I want to become like you!”

Danny’s voice shook with awe, like he was having trouble what he was hearing. “But it’s gonna be painful. Like, really painful. The worst pain you’ve ever felt. And you won’t be able to reverse it, a-and, people won’t think you’re a person anymore and–”

“No pain’s too much if it’ll help my friend,” Tim said firmly, his eyes shining with trust. He held his best friend tightly. “Trust me. If we follow my plan, we’ll have so much money we won’t know what to do with it. Then, when the summer’s over, we can go back to our human lives. We can even get you enrolled in Gotham Academy, just like me! I can tutor you with the computers at night, or we don’t even have to come back. We’ll have tails, so we can just leave, and travel the world. We can go to Italy and try real pizza, or head to Central America and swim through the Panama Canal!”

Danny bit his lip, still unsure. “But what about your parents? Won’t they be worried about you?”

To this reasonable concern, Tim shrugged. “They won’t be back until October, and they know I can take care of myself.”

Tim gave Danny his most earnest look, and after a long silence, he nodded softly. “Ok, let’s do it.

Chapter Text

The water in the octopus exhibit bordering the siren tank was calm as Wes carefully cleaned the glass inside from algae and debris. Gotta keep the glass nice and shiny for the visitors, after all. He thought back to the disaster that morning, about how some girl hopped into the tank and got bitten. As suspicious as he was of the sirens’ general existence, he understood why Phantom scratched her. She was getting up in his personal space, and any wild animal, even one that’s used to humans, will attack if you get into their personal space.

As he cleaned he spared a glance over to the siren exhibit. Was that the swish of a fin inside one of the caves in the other tank?

Wes set his tools aside and peered deeper. In the little cave, Phantom and Banshee were sitting.

Wait, sitting?!

Every time they wanted to recline, Phantom would lie on his belly like a seal, but instead he was sitting on his butt like a human, tail trailing out in front of him and bending around like a knee, and Banshee was doing the same, propping all eight of his octopus arms forward like they were both sitting on chairs, and were those neckties?! No, that was an octopus wrapped around Phantom’s neck, its head forming as the tail of the tie, and Banshee was straight up wearing a piece of kelp like a necktie. What the fuck?!

Had someone put a little something extra in his morning coffee? Wes rubbed his eye, or rather his goggles, but when his vision cleared, the sirens were still there! They were gesturing at each other in an eerily human manner. Then Banshee started stroking his fucking chin like a Jedi Master, nodding at Phantom. Then Phantom started opening a clenched fist one finger at a time, his other hand tapping on each finger as it opened. Was he counting on his fingers? Then Phantom crossed his arms, and shook his head.

Banshee slumped against the wall, throwing his hands up and– What was Wes witnessing? Was this some kind of business meeting?

Were the sirens plotting out his misery all along? There were no octopuses in the siren exhibit. That octopus came from the tank Wes was in. Was this… was this how they were tormenting him, by sending out secret octopus agents?! Did Banshee have some kind of ability to control octopuses, like a shittier version of whatever Aquaman had going on?!

Was he going insane?

Wes froze as the sirens turned around, their eyes locking onto his position. For a moment he felt a primal sense of fear, him a helpless land monkey in the water with two tiny apex predators. The fact that there was a massive glass wall separating them did nothing to assuage his terror. This was it. He’d found them out. He knew too much, and they were going to eat him now. This was the end for Wesley Weston. He hadn’t even found out Superman’s secret identity yet!

And instead of rushing to eat him, Phantom grinned. Oh no, that expression, that human expression of mischief, did not belong on the face of a man-eating monster! Wes flinched as Phantom swam to the edge of the siren exhibit in one strong stroke of the tail, pressing his face against the glass and staring his soulless eyes into the soul of Wes.

And then he winked.

Then he disappeared.

Wes immediately surfaced, tore off his diving mask, and screamed.

~~

Video ID: A short video posted to Instagram. It shows Phantom, a young siren living at Luthor Aquariums, being rubbed on the head by a large hand coming from off screen.

“Awe, there, there, little buddy. You want another fish? Here you go!”

The man with the calm, baritone voice hands Phantom a fish, which the siren quickly swallows.

“As you can see everybody, Phantom’s a little shaken up by what happened, but he’s recovering well. If you listen closely, you can hear him purr.”

The phone comes closer until Phantom’s hair is covering the screen. Since it is translucent, all the camera sees is the water to the side of him. There is a distinct purring sound.

“How are you feeling, champ?” The baritone voice asks.

Phantom gives a couple chirps.

“I think he’s feeling better.”

Earlier that day…

Bob_J1999: That girl’s family should sue Luthor and his stupid goons for all they’re damn worth

IndigoBH: ikr, like that guy just stood there doing jack all while the girl climbed in. shouldn’t he have stopped her or stm?!

Asdfghjk;: those sirens are dangerous. Haven’t you heard of the myths?! This is just the beginning. I wouldn’t put it past Luthor to be raising an army of sirens to take over global trade!

GGAmy: those sirens gross me out. Another person from that event said Phantom’s hair was slimy. Like EW they should go back to the sea where they belong smh

Eve Teschmacher gasped as she read the comments under the latest article slamming her beloved Aquarium and her colleagues and her baby sirens. They were calling Clarky an incompetent idiot. They were saying poor itty bitty Phantom, who was a quarter her size and had never done anything wrong, a dangerous creature! They were saying he should be tossed out into the ocean!

And there was more, too. There were rumblings online of a protest gathering in front of the Aquarium. That wouldn’t be good for business!

And so Eve started to draft plans. She needed to act quickly to reverse their fortunes. The young woman burst into the staff room, a clipboard with her plans at the ready.

“Good morning everyone! As you know, there was a bit of a situation yesterday,”

“Eve,” said one of the managers, cutting her off. “Just because Luthor gave you this job doesn’t mean you’re qualified to handle a crisis of this caliber. The Aquarium is coming under significant fire, and your selfies are not appreciated here.”

Eve stopped, her heart sinking. “But,”

“What do you know about PR, Teschmacher? Being popular on Instagram?”

Eve drooped, her energy melting away into sadness. But she had a degree in marketing… Sure she barely passed, but she graduated! She really tried! She could do things if she tried…

“I want to hear your ideas,” came a voice. It was Clarky! The man nodded to her, encouraging her to continue. He addressed the rest of the room, making eye contact with the manager in particular. “For the boys’ welfare, we need ideas to turn this around, and maybe Eve has them.”

Video ID: The video is of Banshee and Phantom in the water. It pans to Angela Foley, carrying a red ball.

“Ok, here we go boys, catch!”

Angela tosses the ball across the tank. Phantom dips into the water and quickly darts to the far end of the water, jumping up and spinning. His tail fin slaps the ball, sending it back snugly into Angela’s arms.

Angela looks into the camera, grinning. “We’ve been practising that for hours! He’s such a fast learner! Let’s go again. Banshee, catch!”

She tosses to ball in Banshee’s direction. The little octopus siren sinks into the water, before leaping upward with one motion of his tentacles, which latched onto the ball as he fell back to the water. Then they stayed stuck on to the ball, with Banshee spinning in the water due to its buoyancy.

And then Banshee transferred the brightly-coloured toy to his upper arms and swam off with it.

“Hey! Get back here ya rascal!” Angela exclaimed, laughing.

~~

Danny slumped in a little circle, his chin buried in the crook of his crossed arms, laid over his flat tailfin.

The way that girl looked at him… he felt stupid, but for a moment it was as if his parents were there, not some tiny child. When she started bawling her eyes out, it was like his skin had cracked like the glass it resembled, and suddenly Danny wanted nothing more than to comfort her and tell her it was alright. He was so distressed, he forgot to tone down his human mannerisms. He’d barely stopped from physically speaking to her and comforting her.

And then the noises had started, and his sensitive ear fins couldn’t handle it. It was so much, too much, noise everywhere swirling around him like a baton against a metal cage. He’d barely registered the teenager jumping in until she was right in front of him.

Danny shivered, looking at his webbed hands in guilt and horror. He’d hurt her.

Did that make him truly a monster now?

His mind filled with the sound of Tim’s screaming, his friend’s voice box going until it physically couldn’t anymore.

“Danny?” Tim clicked, his head poking into their den cave.

Danny chirped pitifully, his body wiggling slightly in a vain attempt at burying himself in the sand and never emerging.

Sensing his mood, Tim invited himself in, his octopus arms rolling in and settling in the spot next to Danny. “You know, it wasn’t your fault.”

Danny said nothing.

“I mean it. They were all told they weren’t allowed to get into the water with us. As far as the public’s concerned, we’re easily frightened animals. Of course you’d get scared from a stranger invading your space.”

Danny whined sadly, his fins drooped and down. He felt a smooth, slimy hand touch his shoulder, and he flinched. He remembered how Tim’s hands used to feel, before Danny spread his curse to him.

“It’s not that…” Danny said. “I hurt her. I hurt her. I thought I was being a good kid by not hurting a-anyone again, not like other sirens.” Not like the one that had cursed him with this horrible affliction. “But the first chance I got, I scratched her. With my claws!”

Tim crooned angrily, shaking his head. “You dummy! That’s nothing! Plenty of humans hurt other people. You see how that jerk Lex treats his staff, right? That guy doesn’t care about humans or sirens, but you care about everyone. Don’t you think the fact that you feel bad about the accident says more about you than the fact it happened? If you were really a monster, you’d be super happy about hurting someone, right?”

Danny shifted uncomfortably, part of him still wanting to sulk and be miserable, but some other part of him knowing that what Tim was saying was true. And it was ironic. Of all people, Danny had hurt Tim the most, and yet he was still here with him in this glass cage.

“Hey, I think Eve wants to do some kind of video with us. I spotted her up top figuring out lighting and stuff. They’re probably gonna call for us soon. Wanna check it out?”

Danny hesitated, but his reluctance ended as Tim nuzzled their cheeks together, the warm scale-contact eliciting a gentle purr from the siren boy. “Ok, ok, fiiiine,” he moaned.

~~

“I’m telling you,” Wes said, his eyes bloodshot and his hair unkempt. One of the notice boards in the staff room had been converted into a detective board, complete with red string connecting various different incidents. “Those two are up to something. I saw them with my OWN TWO EYES. They were sitting in a cave, like humans, wearing neckties, like humans! Gesturing around, like HUMANS! And do you know what Phantom was wearing as a necktie?”

The rest of the staff stayed quiet, either too bewildered or too morbidly curious to answer the call.

Wes took his stick and smacked it against a picture of an octopus escaping its enclosure. “It was an OCTOPUS. And what are octopi known for? Escaping their enclosures. And pray tell, dear audience,” Wes moved aside, pointing to some pictures of conspicuous puddles left where no puddles should be. “What kind of mischief do Phantom and Banshee love to pull? That’s right. Splashing puddles on the ground. Conclusion, those two are colluding with the octopi in the neighbouring tank to torture us and play with our fragile minds.”

Clark shyly raised his hand.

“Yes, Clark?”

“Well, not that I’m discounting the credibility of your theory, but don’t you think the cameras would’ve picked up on these octopuses moving around the grounds so much?”

“That is where you are wrong, Dear Dr Kent, for you have forgotten one simple fact, the fact that octopuses can camouflage.”

“Well, yes, but it’s not perfect invisibility–”

Eve stood up, her chair scraping the floor. “I think it’s brilliant!” she said, grinning manically. “Wessy boy, mind doing that whole lecture again for our page?”

Wes looked like he was about to cry. “Wait, really? You think I’m right?”

“Dunno! But it sounds fun, and we need more of that energy in this aquarium. Let’s head to somewhere more scenic!”

~~

Danny clung to his pool floaty, which he’d stolen from Clark that one time, to float at the surface at the very top of their tank, letting the sun soak into his scales. Tim was there too, content to just float off his swim bladder. The two siren guppies looked curiously at what was going on just over the water. Wes, the two boys’ perennial favourite victim, was ranting animatedly as Eve filmed him, nodding along.

“Look!” Wes said, pointing to him and Tim in the water. Eve panned her phone over. “They’re watching us! I bet they’re real satisfied at their handiwork. They know what they’re doing!”

Inwardly, Danny was rolling on the seafloor laughing, but of course he had to keep up a neutral, dumb fish front, so he simply tilted his head in confusion.

Eve crouched down near the water, making the zooming-in motion on her phone. “What do you think, little guys? Is Wes onto something? Have you been doing all sorts of cute schemes behind our backs?” she said in a babying voice. Danny responded by swimming forward and trying to bite the phone, causing Eve to giggle as she pulled back at the last second.

“They’re trying to eat the evidence!” Wes shouted. Danny chirped cutely, his eyes the picture of childlike innocence.

“That was great, Wes! I’ll have this ready ASAP!” she said, ignoring Wes’s indignation as she ran back inside.

Wes glared at them now that he was alone with them. “I’ve got my eye on you. Your days are numbered. The day you revealed your scheme to me was the day your downfall began,” he glowered, flashing them the middle finger before skulking away.

“You think we’re teasing him too much?” Tim trilled.

Danny spun in the water lazily. “Nah.”

Tim chirruped and slapped the water with his tentacles twice, a substitute they’d developed for nodding so as not to tip off the adults to their humanity.

~~

Before long it was opening hours, and Danny’s ear fins caught the footsteps of hundreds of humans, hoping to catch a glimpse of the world’s only two captive sirens.

It was a strange feeling, becoming famous just for existing. Every kid dreamed of becoming the centre of attention, receiving constant praise and approval, but it was a strange kind of attention Danny got. Those people who came into the aquarium came to see a wild animal, or they wanted to see something strange and unique, whose novelty came from its resemblance to themselves and the traits that they saw as human.

It was… weird.

But for all the tangled-up feelings in his stomach, there were parts of this life that he found pretty nice. He didn’t have to go hungry like he did before he met Tim, or like he would’ve had to after Tim’s allowance ran out. He got to do the kinds of acrobatic feats the old human Danny could’ve only dreamed of, and those feats made him feel cool, made the audience gasp and clap. Sure, it wasn’t as comfy as Tim’s literal mansion, but if Tim was with him, what did it matter?

And there were other things that came with his new living circumstances that he couldn’t have in Tim’s mansion. He and Tim had hours of free entertainment courtesy of one Wes Weston, and Angela and Clark treated them nice. Really nice. He was pretty sure Luthor wouldn’t approve of all the extra treats and snacks the two trainers snuck them, but Danny wasn’t complaining!

So he waited in the sand with anticipation, watching as a tour guide talked to the first group of that morning. The big tank that was his and Tim’s home overlooked the front desk area, though the tours usually went around to see the other exhibits before circling back around to see him and Tim.

His fins wiggled with excitement. One of the women in the group turned to look at the tank, saying something Danny couldn’t hear through the glass. The tour guide turned around, and started explaining something.

It was then that he decided it was his moment. Danny pushed off of the sand and burst out of his burrow, spinning in a tight circle and pressing his body flat against the glass, pressing his face against it and chirping a greeting to the crowd. The people outside the glass gasped. Some of the kids grinned with awe, a couple teenagers pulled their phones out to take pictures.

But then he saw the looks on the adult’s faces, the looks of suspicion. The guarded stances.

He swam away.

Danny found Tim by the other boy’s scent, hanging around the top of their tank. The octopus boy was clinging to one of the rocks of their enclosure, fiddling with a rubik’s cube. One of the earlier interns had given it to them to see what they’d do with it, and while Tim loved solving it with his octopus arms while out of sight, he was currently just stimming with it by twisting it around in random directions, producing the illusion that he had no idea how to solve it, or that it was even supposed to be solved. Wordlessly, Danny landed next to Tim and curled up around him, frowning. Tim, noticing his mood, slumped down on top of each other.

There were other things he was worried about. Luthor seemed really, really upset about what had happened, and he knew the man was going to put them through even more training. He hoped Clark and Angela didn’t feel too bad about it.

The boy sat together like that, wordlessly soaking in each other’s scents, and the warmth of their skin. Danny lazily looked out the glass, watching the people go by.

However, their moment of peace was soon interrupted. He felt a rhythmic thumping in his scales like a huge crowd of people clapping, or marching. He even felt the vibrations in his ear fins. He looked to Tim, and together they swam to the glass and peered out.

Bursting through the front door of the centre was a mass of people holding signs and chanting. Several security guards were in front holding their arms out and trying to block the crowd entering any further, but were quickly overwhelmed and pushed back.

“I’m surprised there hasn’t been a protest earlier,” Tim whispered, half in amusement and half in surprise. “I guess yesterday really riled them up.”

Danny shrank in on himself. “Yeah, I guess so. Luthor’s probably gonna get mad again that these guys broke into his aquarium.”

“Luthor gets mad at everything. You know how the other day he was seething over this newspaper article about Superman saving a cat out of a tree?”

Danny chuckled. While their access to the internet was somewhat limited by their watery living spaces, they were free to browse the web at night when they climbed out the water in their human forms.

The protestors held signs and chanted slogans while littering the floor with leaflets. Most of the other people there just seemed to be annoyed, quietly leaving the front desk area and escaping to the quieter parts of the building. Tim poked his shoulder and directed his attention to the left, where Angela was marching past some escaping visitors, stopping in front of the crowd. The leader of the protest came forward, an older woman with a megaphone in hand, and she and Angela were exchanging tense words, judging by their body language.

“What do you think they’re saying?”

Tim tilted his head, before putting on an exaggerated Karen voice. “We are here to FREE THE MERMAIDS FROM YOUR EVIL GRASP. WHERE IS YOUR MANAGER.”

Danny laughed, and joined in as the part of Angela. “Sorry, our manager is super evil. He doesn’t want to see you.”

“That is preposterous! If we cannot talk to the manager, we’re just going to…” Tim deepened his voice to a faux supervillain baritone. “Talk to the mermaids.”

“Oh no! How awful!” Danny gasped. “What ever shall I do?”

“Tremble beneath the might of our collective misunderstanding of the situation! AHAHAHAHAHAH”

But before their roleplay could escalate in drama, Danny heard more footsteps coming from above. The boys kicked off of the rock and surfaced, peeking over the water.

“There they are!” shouted a group of teenagers that Danny didn’t recognise, led by a couple of adults. Clark was up there too, holding them back.

“Now, now, you don’t want to disturb the boys! They’re still very stressed out from what happened yesterday, and they need time to recover!” Clark said rapidly, but his pleas fell on deaf ears.

“We will not abide by the enslavement of these beautiful creatures! Your exploitation has caused enough damage! Charge!”

The group all pushed forward shouting battle cries. Amusingly, Clark wasn’t physically fazed as the two adults in the front crashed into him, stopping in their tracks. However, the teenagers nimbly ducked underneath his thick arms, pulling out several partially unwrapped bars of chocolate.

“Be free, sirens! Be free from a lifetime of servitude under Lex Luthor!” the teenagers shouted as they tossed the chocolate bars into the water, one of them beaning Tim in the head.

“No!” Clark shouted. “What have you done?!”

Danny raised an eyebrow as he inspected the chocolate. It was a brand label that he actually quite liked, but the logo on the wrapper was hastily covered by a picture of a fish. “I think they’re trying to poison us,” Tim said.

“Huh. Oh well. Free chocolate!”

Danny didn’t take pleasure in seeing Clark’s face twist in abject horror amidst the cheering protestors, but he did grin a little, knowing Clark didn’t know that he and Tim were perfectly able to eat chocolate. Soon, extra security guards came to escort the protestors out, even as the teenagers whooped and celebrated their victory.

Ok, he felt a little bad at Clark’s expression as he and Tim cheerfully chowed down on the chocolate. Oh, that was good. Danny’s face split in a happy smile as he chirped in pure satisfaction at the delicious snack. Even the saltwater did little to dilute the wonderful taste of the chocolate.

“Oh god…” Clark muttered. The man quickly whipped out his pager, shouting. “We have an emergency! I need Angela, Cory and Jeff at the siren tank. They’ve just ingested chocolate.”

Clark didn’t wait for a response as he knelt down, beckoning the boys forward. “Alright boys, enough fun. Drop the chocolate. That’s not food!” he cajoled, his voice carrying a hint of panicked desperation. The man rapidly performed the hand gesture to signal him and Tim to drop whatever they were holding, a gesture they made sure to follow only half of the time.

Danny chirped merrily as he continued eating the chocolate, staining his lips brown while Tim swam around, going for the other pieces that were floating in the water.

“Oh no you don’t!” Clark said. In the blink of an eye he had a large pool net in his hand, deftly swooping in to catch a bar before Tim could reach it. Tim whined, and made for the next one even faster, grabbing it before Clark would confiscate the delicious sweet.

Soon, the backup arrived, Cory and Jeff being two of the vets on sight. The men froze in horror at the chocolate bars contaminating the tank, and the two siren boys obliviously munching on them. Quickly, Angela joined Clark in trying to get them to stop, pulling out every trained gesture and call, but Danny was adamant. Tim warbled petulantly, refusing to hand over his treasure, and Danny was the same. They didn’t have chocolate in the gift shop, and he and Tim could only spend so much money on the nights they did head out of the aquarium. This was a rare treat!

However, their fun was soon to be over, as Jeff started loading a tranquiliser gun. Chirping a warning to Tim, the two boys quickly dove underwater, squirrelling away in their cave.

Once out of sight of humans, the two of them broke down laughing.

~~

Of course, he and Danny couldn’t hide forever, and he felt bad about making their caretakers worry so much. After gorging themselves on chocolate, he and Danny went to sleeping in the shallows of their pool, soaking in the warm sun. It didn’t surprise Tim that a net came down on them, and Tim simply rolled over yawning as the adults scrambled around him and Danny. Cory and Jeff worked rapidly, measuring their heart rate, taking scans and looking at their breathing. By now he and Danny were used to these check-ups, and it wasn’t hard to close their eyes and let the humans do their thing.

After a lot of fussing, he heard Cory and Jeff sit down and let out a sigh of relief.

“What’s the verdict?” Angela asked.

“We’re all clear, for now,” Cory said, fanning himself. “It looks like they’ve been able to digest the chocolate so far, but keep an eye on them. And call us if anything weird happens.”

Clark let out a big breath. “Thank goodness. I don’t know what I’d do if they got sick.”

“Don’t scare us like that again, alright?” Jeff called out to him and Danny. Tim simply chirred, rolling over and exposing his belly. Of course, if anyone were to try and pat him there, he’d give them a good bite, but it was nice to lie down like a human sometimes.

Angela and the vets left soon after, leaving them with Clark. He turned to them, then to the stares, his expression contemplative.

“Well, now that we’re alone, we might as well try something… Clark muttered, before heading downstairs.

They weren’t alone for long, as Clark bounded up the stairs, partially backwards as if he’d turned to gawk at something that had just passed him, or rather someone. The kindly man perked up upon seeing them. “Boys!” he greeted.

Clark was carrying a bag full of items. Danny tried sniffing the air to see what they were, but all he could smell was brightly-coloured plastic, so not much at all. The man settled down in front of them. It was then that Tim noticed a recording device tucked in Clark’s shirt pocket.

“So, I’ve been told I needed samples of potential words that you guys might have for different things. The professor said it would be good for establishing a base of connected meanings and responses to– Well, I kinda got lost in all his jargon, but it’s important! So let’s just start off simple, alright?” Clark said, almost more to himself than to the boys. He got out a small ball from the bag, then thrust it forward.

“Ball!”

Danny blinked. “Huh?” he clicked, tilting his head in confusion.

“Ball,” Clark said again, slowly intoning the syllables. Tim’s eyes widened as he understood what the human was doing.

“I think he wants us to say ball in siren-speak,” he whispered to Danny.

“Should we mess with him?” Danny whispered back.

“He’s been really nice to us, so I don’t see why we can’t indulge him a little.”

Tim swam forward, his hands reaching out and grabbing at the toy. “Ball! Ball! Ball!” he chirped out.

“Yes, that’s right. Ball! Good boys! Let’s try something else.” Clark tossed them each a fish as a reward, before he reached for another object.

Of course, they couldn’t help but mess with the man a little bit. Partway through Clark’s little recording session, he pulled out a flash card with a picture of a fish, sounding out the word ‘fish’ repeatedly.

So of course, instead of complying like good little fishboys, Danny and Tim gave each other a look, and without any verbal communication, proceeded to launch themselves out of the water, clearly ravenous with hunger. Sadly, they were simple-minded creatures, after all, and could not understand the difference between the visual depiction of a creature they ate as food and the actual presence of that creature, and despite having been fed several fish already, they were still hungry for more.

Danny’s right hip fin flicked rapidly as he gauged his arc, then he flicked his left hip fin a little bit to adjust further. The siren guppy wiggled his butt in a mesmerising dance of prepared violence. Clark’s eyes widened as he realised what was happening, but he was too slow to react before both boys launched themselves out of the water. The hapless caretaker exclaimed as two child-sized missiles latched onto his arms.

And despite him and Tim attacking at the same time, Clark was still able to hold his balance, though he did stumble. Danny’s claws latched onto Clark’s wetsuit, while Tim did the same with his suckers.

“Hey, cut that out! It’s not a real fish! It’s just a picture!” their caretaker pleaded. “Please don’t eat the card. We don’t need two health scares in one day!” Clark pleaded, but Tim was a siren that couldn’t speak a lick of English, and whose mental capacities were too simple to comprehend language, so he continued to attack, his boneless body easily traversing the rough terrain that was Clark’s muscles. Danny’s tail, much less suited for climbing, instead twisted around Clark’s arm.

Clark held the paper in his fingers, his arm outstretched as far as possible. As soon as Tim spotted it, he quickly climbed over Clark’s chest and onto his arm.

“No! Bad Banshee! Don’t eat the card! Don’t make me get the spray bottle that you hate!” Clark threatened, and while Tim briefly hesitated at the prospect of getting spritzed like a common housecat, the prospect of tasty cardboard and/or plastic prompted him forward.

“Oh no you don’t!” Clark grunted, still managing to keep an admirable amount of balance despite the two very heavy siren children on his arms. With a quick flick of the fingers, the card flew away into the wind, landing in a distant corner of the room.

Tim whined, his voice turning to mourning and sorrow, as did Danny’s.

“Thank goodness. Now… how do I get you two off of me…” Clark muttered.

Then, the energy and life that was in the room withered away. Tim felt non-existent goosebumps litter his octopus skin as the distinct scent of over-used cologne and arrogance entered the room. Clark felt it too, freezing as Lex Luthor entered the room.

“Kent.” Luthor greeted, his eyes narrowed.

“O-oh! Mr Luthor! I-it’s lovely to see you.”

“Cut the bullshit, Kent. Is this what you call training? They need to be acclimated to other humans. I’ve sent you the training programme, haven’t I? And what is this about a gang of protestors breaking into my building, trying to poison my sirens?”

Clark visibly swallowed a lump in his throat. The man slowly waded into the water, never taking his eyes off of Luthor, and shook his arms gently. Taking the memo, Tim slid off of his arm and into the water, joining Danny.

“Well, to answer your first question, the boys need some time to recover after the stress of yesterday. They’re still really wound up, and having them start a new training routine will stress them out further.”

“So you’ve disobeyed my orders then,” Luthor said with venom. “Maybe I remind you whose aquarium this is?”

And despite Clark’s meek nature, and his tendency to shrink into a room despite being the tallest, largest man in any room he’s in, the man straightened his back. “It’s your aquarium sir, and you hired me to act as their caretaker, and I’m telling you now for their welfare’s sake that they need more time.”

Luthor glared, each small movement of his body portraying unfathomable malice. “Are you defying me Kent? Do you know how much of a public relations disaster I have been trying to quell? The people need to see Phantom and Banshee out and about. They need to see that these sirens are taking to captivity well, and for that, they need to be visible, and behaving themselves around humans, not faffing about on their trainer like a jungle gym. Do you think yourself irreplaceable?”

“Actually, I kind of am. You know that the boys will not accept just any trainer or caretaker. How can you expect to make any progress with them if they don’t have a good relationship with their handler?”

There was a dark look in Luthor’s eyes, and he glanced at Tim, and suddenly Tim felt very exposed. “That is not as much of a concern as you think it is, Kent.”

“I’m sorry, what?”

“It is clear that our understanding of the sirens is insufficient. To rectify this issue, you and Foley will be working with our two newest employees.”

And Tim smelled panic. There was panic and fear in the water. He turned to find Danny shaking horribly. Immediately he took Danny’s hand. “What’s wrong? Danny?”

Two bright flashes of colour entered the space. One large and orange, the other slim and teal.

“Please meet the Doctors Jack Fenton and Madeline Fenton, the world’s premier experts on siren biology. They will assist you in sorting these two out.”

Weren’t those Danny’s parents?

Chapter Text

Jason had a fever.

It burned against his scalp, burned against his skin, made the temperate air in  the Manor feel cold and biting. He sat in his room, eyes up in the sky, a notebook filled with scribbled-down observations and clues laid out in front of him. It was undeniable that these three oddities: the two intruders in the aquarium, Tim’s disappearance, and the sirens at the aquarium. They were all linked. But how?

Clue number 1: Jason’s odd familiarity with Banshee at the aquarium.

Clue number 2: Tim had obviously known something was going to happen to him, or had at least anticipated he would be going away somewhere for a long time, and trumped up some made up summer camp. To cover his tracks, or spare Jason’s feelings, he didn’t know.

Clue number 2.5: Tim had looked up information on sirens and the aquarium before he disappeared. His parents had also made a large donation to Luthor.

Clue number 3: He then had a letter sent by mysterious means to Jason that seemed like a thinly-veiled cry for help, but it was like the letter had just materialised at their mailbox, with no indication of who had put it in.

Clue number 4: Banshee and Phantom were smart. Really, really smart, at least for two creatures that everyone treated like cute animals. Banshee could change his colour to approximate complex T-shirt designs. Phantom had the empathy to realise that that little girl was in distress, and the kindness to try and comfort her, and the guilt to realise he’d done something wrong when he scratched that girl.

Jason still thought it was her fault.

Clue number 5: The pranks at the aquarium, seemingly perpetrated by the two kid intruders, who may or may not be metahumans. They had broken into the aquarium repeatedly, through unknown means, and had stolen large sums of money from it.

Clue number 6: Phantom hated being misgendered as a ‘she’. Animals didn’t care about pronouns and correct methods of address in the English language. This was smaller, but Jason had a strong inclination that this was important.

Clue number 7: The trail that the intruder kids left led right back to the siren exhibit, before disappearing. Phantom and Banshee were sleeping there, too. If the intruders had entered the water, surely they would have noticed, or perhaps they got onto higher ground, and their footprints disappeared because of that.

Clue number 8: …

There had to be some kind of missing link, a flare that would blast away all the smoke, and the broken pieces would fall together into the full picture, and everything would make sense.

But it didn’t. It felt like he should have a better idea of who these mystery intruders were. It felt like he should have already solved this case by now. He’d gotten so many clues, and yet they only invited more questions, and more uncertainty.

Bruce wouldn’t have had any trouble solving it, but the idea of asking his dad for help when he’d gotten so far on his own twisted his stomach around, especially after Bruce had trusted him to carry this out on his own.

Knock knock knock…

“Little wing? It’s lunch time! Come on! Alfred made your favourite!”

He turned to the door, and sighed. Maybe some food in the tank would help.

~~

“The first order of business is to make sure your neglect hasn’t poisoned my prized fish,” Lex glowered.

“The vets have already done a check-up. The boys are fine. They’ve shown no symptoms or discomfort.”

“Those idiots know nothing about siren biology. The Fentons have thirty papers on the subject. Now step aside.”

Tim shook his friend’s shoulders, his tentacles tugging on Danny’s fins. “Danny? Danny? Talk to me. Danny? Let’s go. They can’t touch you in the caves.”

Danny’s skin was cold, and his gills shuddered, his chest shaking, and his breath shallow. Tim was torn between watching Lex and the two scientists standing awkwardly behind him and his best friend, whose eyes were staring at something terribly far away.

“Uhm, Lexy? Maybe Maddie and I don’t have to–”

“Ahem. My apologies, Jack. Please give me a second.”

“The boys have been under enough stress. Putting them in the hands of people they aren’t familiar with will only traumatise them or make them lash out.”

“If it’ll make you feel better,” the huge orange-suited man chimed in. “I was a bit of a dolphin whisperer back in my college days. These hands have handled a lot of sea creatures before.”

“With all due respect, sir, I cannot–”

If Danny couldn’t move himself, then Tim would. He took hold of his friend’s hands and dove into the water and away from the humans… and straight into the mesh of a net. Tim screamed as the large net was raised out of the water, ripping him and Danny from the water and into the shock of the air.

“What the hay are you doing?!” Clark said.

“We will have a discussion over your employee conduct later. Alright, crew, get them to the medical bay.”

Tim’s eyes widened. They were using the crane to fish them out. The shock of being lifted out of the water broke the hold that the panic had on Danny, and suddenly he was thrashing in the net, wailing loudly, his claws ineffectually scraping against the firm mesh. It wasn’t an act.

Tim gripped the mesh and looked down to Clark, eyes begging him to do something, to save them. Clark stood in front of the adamant Lex, shouting something that Tim couldn’t hear.

Tim felt a prick in his neck. His vision turned woozy.

Danny’s yelling had turned into quiet whimpers.

He felt his neck. A tranquiliser dart.

He could only let out a chirp of fear as he went under. The last thing he saw was Clark’s anguished expression.

~~

He awoke to coldness on his skin, and white walls. He groaned at the faint whining noise in the background, soft enough he couldn’t quite grasp it.

“Wakey, wakey.”

Tim startled, his mind swimming in the miasma of the sedative. He chirped out a calling for his friend. He was floating in a tank, and Danny was beside him, still waking up.

And looming over them, blocking what dim light there was in the room with his shadow, was Lex Luthor. Their company’s arrival caused them both to jolt to alertness, chirping nervously.

“I’m glad to see you’re awake,” Luthor greeted with faux politeness. “You’ve caused us quite a health scare. But not to worry. It seems the toxic substances have passed from your bodies without incident.”

Danny gulped audibly. Tim’s eyes tracked the man as he walked around them. It was then he noticed that their mini tank had a closed top. They’d never been put in a closed-top tank for medical exams before.

“That is good. I wouldn’t want to have my prized trophy fish injured. After all, you have a long schedule of shows to perform for me.”

Tim wasn’t feeling good about this. The uncomfortableness he felt whenever they were in Luthor’s presence was at an all-time high. He was normally comfortable in his own skin as a siren, but Luthor made him feel naked, made him feel like prey.

Danny squeezed his hand tightly. He squeezed back. They just had to stay calm, and then they’d go back to their tank and be free from Luthor’s eyes.

“However, there is one more check-up I need to perform. We here at Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquarium value our ability to provide medical care to our residents above all else, after all.”

Luthor pressed a button on a remote.

Then the water started to drain from the tank.

Tim banged on the glass, chirping and crying out. Danny scratched against the glass, playing the part of a fish soon to be stranded on land, but Luthor simply looked on – eyes staring through their skin. Soon, the water was all gone, and Tim’s skin was all exposed to the air.

And then he felt cold. The sides of the tank blew fierce hot air all over their bodies, stripping them of what little water clung.

It was then that Tim realised things had truly got out of his control. His tentacles curled, and his skin rippled, but he clung to his form with mad desperation. It wasn’t enough. It felt like his body was being ripped away from him as smooth octopus skin turned pink, and his arms clumped together, bones re-emerging everywhere.

The fans went quiet, leaving two trembling naked human boys trapped in the tank. And Lex Luthor stood over them with a grin so wide it could split his face in two.

Chapter Text

“Danny Fenton… and Timothy Drake. How delightfully ironic, given the circumstances.” Lex Luthor stalked around them in a circle like a tiger playing with trapped prey.

Tim gripped Danny’s hand, neither boy knowing what to do or what to say.

“I do have to compliment you. You gave me the run around for quite a while. All that mischief going on at night, the security cameras failing, the chaos among my staff, the paltry sums of money you siphoned off. The fact that you thought you could outsmart was absolutely… adorable. I must ask you what your goal was in all of this. Who sent you? Jack and Janet Drake? Maxwell Lord? Veronica Cale? Or was it one of those pathetic snivelling Justice Leaguers? Aquaman? Batman? Wonder Woman?”

Tim bit his lip, quivering from the cold of the room.

“Nothing to say? A sea witch take your voice?”

Luthor produced a remote from his pocket and pressed a button.

Their screams filled the room as hot fire ignited in their nerves and their skin burned as lightning seared their necks. Tim’s vision turned white with pain and he couldn’t tell where his screams stopped and Danny’s started.

When the pain stopped, tears were leaking from his eyes, and he scratched at the necklace that he hadn’t noticed tightly wrapped around his neck.

“You’d best answer my questions, boys, or else things we might take this discussion to less… civilised places.”

Tim looked to his best friend, his best friend that he dragged into hell off of a hare-brained scheme. They should’ve run while they had the chance. He should’ve known this couldn’t have lasted. What was he thinking?

“SUPERMAAAAAN!!!!” Tim yelled at the top of his lungs, so loud he felt as if his throat were about to rip apart. “SUPERMAN! SUPERMAN!!! I NEED YOU! PLEASE SAVE US!”

The room plunged into a dead silence. Tim feared for the worse, for more agony. He clawed at the necklace around Danny’s neck, hoping to spare his friend at the very least. It was a beautiful necklace, but beneath that glimmer lay a shackle as tight as a dragon’s grip.

But the pain never came. Luthor’s remote clattered to the ground as the man’s chest heaved, then he huffed, then he fell to the wall, watching himself on a table as the vile man laughed, and laughed, and laughed until he was chortling with the force of his entire chest.

“You foolish, foolish children. This room is lined with lead, and chock full of white noise.” Luthor moved with frightening speed and gripped the sides of their glass prison, his face hanging over them ominously. “Superman isn’t coming for you. Kent isn’t coming for you. Even your precious parents aren’t coming for you, Timothy. Why, I imagine your love of all the attention my visitors have given you is but a drop in the vast ocean of your deep loneliness. Your parents never loved you? Too bad, neither did mine. And you,” Luthor moved to Danny, the boy shaking. “I imagine your parents would rather dissect you than cuddle you and protect you from the scary man.”

Danny’s eyes brimmed with silent tears. “Y-you can’t get away with this, you fruit loop. We’ll beat you, just like we’ve been outsmarting you for months!”

“How delightful…” Luthor drawled. “For a child to say such bold words, while having nothing. No money, no power, no rights, no allies, not a tool or weapon or a scrap of clothing.”

“Just let him go,” Tim begged. “It was all my idea. M-my parents can pay you anything you want. Money, artifacts. I-I’ll perform for you for you for as long as you want, I’ll behave, I won’t cause any more trouble. Just let Danny go.”

Danny’s eyes widened with horror. Tim felt his friend’s palm clam up with sweat.

“A tempting proposition,” Luthor hummed. “But I am afraid I’ll have to pass. Really, did you think it was all about the money? I am richer than your parents’ wildest imaginations. Why should I let your little friend go when I can have both of you under my service? Oh no, you will both be working for me. See, while the good Doctors Fenton were examining you, they had elucidated to me a large amount on siren biology, including your innate capacity for magic. Really, if I cared for money or fame, I would have allowed you to continue your little scheme, watching you from a distance, monitoring you at all times.”

Luthor’s eyes turned dark, his expression twisting with rage as he growled. The businessman slammed his foot into the tank, rattling it viciously.

“You have such innate talents, and yet you use them for paltry mischief and tiny sums of money!?” he shouted, then like a dime flipped, he straightened himself into a visage of calmness. “Your powers will serve humanity instead, not just me. Please take a look at Exhibit A.”

A projector screen dropped from the floor and lit up, showing a picture of Superman.

“Superman going to kick your butt when he finds out about this,” Danny threatened.

“Superman,” Luthor scoffed. “He’s not a man, he’s an it. Of course, you two aren’t much further off, but at least you were once human, now sirens, both native Earth species. This Kryptonian,” Luthor spat the word like it was a slur, “will lead us into ruin. He prances around in that ridiculous suit, saving cats out of trees and pretending he’s the god saviour of mankind, looking down upon us every step of the way. It’s repulsive. Does he not make you feel small, belittle humanity with his very existence? you two are going to help me fix that.”

Tim backed away from Luthor, joining Danny as they pressed their backs to the glass as far away from the madman as possible.

“You’re going to train, and use those powers for something productive. And when the time comes, you will help me kill Superman.”

“Never!” Danny shouted automatically. “You’re a loony fruit loop and you’ll never be half the man Superman is!”

Luthor’s expression sneered with rage. He kicked the remote up into his hand and pressed the button, and Tim blacked out from pain for a brief moment until it ended.

“Do you think you have a choice?” he growled out, veins popping against his skin. “I am offering you a noble role, far nobler than the petty crime you were attempting with your little con on me. Do you think that your refusal means anything?! Let’s say you somehow muster the courage to resist me, assuming you had the infinite willpower required to do so. I’ll just have the Fentons dissect you both like frogs. They’ve been very eager, and it’s only through my mighty caution that they’ve been held back. Once I’ve learned all I need to learn about your bodies, I could clone a hundred sirens under my command, all the while you two watch. Perhaps I’ll kidnap a thousand children off the streets, injecting them with your DNA so that they can become my army instead? Of course, such a task would be time consuming and inconvenient, so for both of our sakes, I suggest you cooperate. Any more questions?”

They kept quiet, bodies frozen under the monumental malice that could move mountains and shift the heavens, but only for the worst of reasons. Lex Luthor smiled, returning back to his calm demeanour.

“Good. It is time to begin your training, not to perform, but to serve me, and fight him.”

~~

Clark marched up to Luthor’s office, knocking furiously. “Luthor!” he shouted.

“Come in,” came the banal, almost bored voice. Clark seethed. He entered the office, where Luthor greeted him, spinning around in his office chair.

“Luthor, you’ve made a terrible mistake. The boys have been traumatised, it’ll take weeks for them to recover mentally, if not months. I cannot tolerate these decisions. I implore you to–”

Luthor waved off his concerns. “Yes, yes. It has come to my attention that the aquarium is no longer in need of your services, Kent. In other words, you are fired.”

His now-former boss’s dismissal hit him like a shot to the heart. “That will only hurt them even further. They won’t understand why I’m gone. They’ll be devastated!”

“It is that argument that only proves why you are no longer fit for your position. You are a penguin handler, while the Fentons are proven experts in their field. You treat the sirens like they are your children, but they’re not. They’re animals that resemble apes. They do not know you, and will forget about you within the week. You are replaceable, just like the other four trainers.”

“Phantom and Banshee stopped attacking their trainers after I got involved. They stopped pulling interns into the water. Their world was ripped out from underneath them when they were taken from the ocean, now it’s going to happen again. They’re going to get scared. As much as I hate to admit it the staff are going to get hurt again.”

“Perhaps they should be more careful. I set the safety standards to a very high bar. And if they cannot be careful, then maybe they don’t deserve to keep their jobs either.”

“Keeping their jobs won’t matter if they get hurt, or even die. This isn’t about business, it’s about life!”

“If they die to their own incompetence, Kent, then that says much more about them than me, doesn’t it?”

Clark’s heart clenched, but at the same time, fury burned inside him. He’d always known his boss could be abrasive sometimes, arrogant always, and focused on the wrong things, but this was sounding outright callous. “Why?”

“Why what? Kent, you are an intelligent man, and up until now I admired you and your quiet dedication. Don’t you see the accommodations I have given them? The large, expansive tank, the toys, the enrichment both physical and social. None of these things come cheap. If any other aquarium had taken them, Phantom and Banshee likely would have either starved to death or succumbed to stress and boredom, or the establishment would die first to bankruptcy. And while I deeply appreciate your tenure here, I’m afraid your methods have not produced good results. All you do is coddle them and enable their disruptive behaviour, wagging the finger and lecturing them as if they could understand. How can we expect them to learn discipline while indulging in their worst instincts?”

“You’re going to use aversive training again, aren’t you?” Clark realised with horror. The use of punishments to train animal behaviour, including withholding food, isolation from pack or pod members, and could even include corporal punishment.

Luthor shrugged. “More like a comprehensive incentive-deterrent plan.”

“That’s unethical. No, it’s unconscionable!”

“It gives results. I tire of this conversation, Kent. You are no longer an employee of this establishment, and you have an hour to get your things sorted before I have security sort them for you.”

But Clark stubbornly refused. He stood firm in Luthor’s office, glaring at his former employer.

“It’s not all about the money, isn’t it?” Clark said. “There’s something else.”

Luthor narrowed his eyes. “Be careful what you accuse people of, Kent. I respect you, otherwise I would have had you thrown out here without a second word. You think you can challenge a Titan unscathed? I can do all kinds of things to make you respect me, Kent. You know, I’ve been thinking of purchasing a beef importing company from China. I’m sure consumers would love some affordable, healthy beef. I hope any poor farmers from Kansas will be able to keep up with the changing market these days.”

And Clark backed off. He turned around, giving one last glare to Luthor, and left.

For now.

Luthor was right, he didn’t know who he was dealing with, but he would soon.

~~

He was loading his car with the last of his office belongings, mourning again his beloved penguins.

And his beloved boys.

A tear wet his shirt as he stuffed the last box inside. But his mind wasn’t consumed with thoughts of getting a new job. It was thoughts of getting justice. Something terribly wrong had happened that caused him to be completely unaware of the malevolence that seemed to so-obviously ooze from Luthor’s very being.

A hand gripped his. He turned around to find Eve, her makeup undone and her hair in disarray.

“Clarky,” she whispered.

“Eve!” he said in surprise at seeing his former colleague speak to him. He hadn’t seen anyone else on the way out. Not Steve, not Angela, not even Wes or the vets. However, he was unable to say anything else as the young woman pulled him away into a dark alley.

“We can talk here,” she said. “Blind spot in the cameras.”

“Eve, I don’t understand…”

“Lex’s always monitored his girlfriends,” she admitted offhandedly, as if that wasn’t a shockingly disturbing thing to reveal. “But things are getting too far. I need your help, Clarky. You’ve been carrying that thing with you, right? That thing, when you’re talking to the boys.”

Clark nodded silently, feeling the recorder that he’d been carrying around at all times. He scanned the area with his X-ray vision, making sure nobody was there to eavesdrop on them.

“Good. I’ve arranged a meeting with this reporter lady that can help. Please, Clarky. Won’t you come with me? I’m scared, not just for myself, but for them, too.”

Clark couldn’t believe his luck, and he nodded emphatically. “Yes. Of course.”

“Oh, thank you. I need to go now, Lex will be wondering where I’ve been. Good luck finding a new job, alright? I’m sorry about all of this.”

Eve ran back inside before he could get a word out.

Clark went inside his car, and took in a deep breath. He was going to save those boys, no matter what it took. He’d have half a mind to bust in as Superman, reputation and laws be damned, and spirit the boys away to the creek near Ma and Pa’s farm, but that was impulsive. The boys would probably be scared to death at this brightly coloured flying brick kidnapping them into the sky and dropping them off at an unknown location. And fundamentally, it wouldn’t help anything to put a stop to Luthor’s plans. And if he tried to release the recordings on his own, what would stop Luthor’s PR team from burying it, or discrediting it altogether.

This reporter that Eve had contacted, he hoped they could help him. He hoped they could help the boys.

~~

Jason shot awake, smacking his head on the back of the chair in front of the Batcomputer. It was like someone was screaming out inside of him and he couldn’t do anything except watch. He looked around himself, but the Batcave was the same as it had been when he’d dozed off.

The Drake Mansion security recordings! It was a long shot, but he had a desperate hope that they might provide the key to unravelling this mystery. He combed through the files, the Batcomputer having already finished analysing them all, and noticed it had flagged a couple of the files as having been corrupted, missing or altered in some way.

The security footage at the aquarium had been tampered with as well.

He looked over the footage, quickly identifying it as one of the artefact display rooms at the mansion. For hours, nothing seemed to happen. Of course, that was because the footage was looped. To recover the original data, he had to go back to Drake Mansion.

He hoped that he’d find answers soon.

Chapter Text

In short order, Robin returned to the place where it may all have started: Drake Manor. One way or another, he was going to find the truth or die trying. He marched his way through to Jack Drake’s office, hacking into his computer without a second thought. There he began delving into the system to recover the lost data. And luckily, he did. He squinted at the screen. Somebody had tried to get rid of these recordings, but their work was shoddy. The fact that someone went the extra mile not just to delete the footage, but attempt to scrub them from the computer entirely, meant that whatever he would find there would be insanely incriminating.

~~

“Mama, I want a pretty necklace like the mermaid does. I want one! I want one!” a little girl whined. Her mother shushed her, looking up to the tour guide.

“Sorry about her, she’s all about sparkly things. Do you know if we can get anything like those two are wearing?”

“Of course, ma’am. New research finds that sirens have a particular love of shiny things as well. That necklace Phantom is wearing was actually pilfered from one of his handlers! He liked it so much, she just let him have it,” the tour guide said jovially, his story eliciting laughter from the audience.

~~

“Daddy, where’s the nice big man?” a small boy asked, hiding behind his father’s trouser leg.

“That has me wondering, actually.” The man turned to the tour guide. “No offense to your tour guiding skills, but I was wondering where Dr Kent’s gone. He’s always been such a delight.”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, but Dr Kent has moved on to other projects.”

~~

“Why does the merboy look sad?” a child asked her tour guide.

The tour guide looked visibly uncomfortable. “Oh, well, that’s just a different facial expression. They aren’t human, so their faces aren’t like ours. It’s like how cats show their emotions through their behaviour and tail movements, instead of their faces.”

~~

“There we go, Lexy!” Jack exclaimed, putting the last finishing touches on a small probe shaped like a bouy, attached to the top of the aquarium. “These babies will keep an eye out for hydroplasmic activity and log the records. This way we’ll be able to keep track of those slippery sirens even when they’re invisible!”

“We’ll be able to collect an incredible amount of data on their behaviours now, even when they’re out of sight. Best of all, they’re small enough that they won’t disrupt the sirens’ lives. Once we soak it in some pheromones, they won’t even register as a foreign smell to them.”

Lex Luthor nodded with satisfaction. “Finally, some good results. Good work, you too. I scarcely imagine why the scientific community had rejected your work for so long.”

Jack Fenton blushed. “Aawe! You treat us too nicely, Lexy!” he said, slapping the man on the back with a thunderclap of bravado and friendliness. Lex swore under his breath.

“Yes, yes, now I believe you have some more sketches to complete?”

Madeline perked up. “Of course! Now that we have live specimens, our anatomical studies can be so much more informed now we know how their bodies are supposed to work normally. To the lab, Jack!”

~~

There was a ring on his tail, made of solid gold that glimmered in the water when the light hit it at certain angles. But a beautiful chain was still a chain, and Danny loathed it. He loathed the necklace that strangled him with electricity whenever he did something Luthor didn’t like. He hated the bracelets that made his arms feel stuffy and stifled.

He hated the fact that he brought Tim into this. That was what hurt the most. He was already a monster, already an inhuman thing, but Tim could’ve lived a long, happy life. Sure he was a bit lonely, but there were other kids that he could’ve made better friends with than Danny. Instead, Danny broke into his life, and because of him, Tim couldn’t have a life any more. That was what kept him up at night, tears silently stacking at the bottom of their den.

Luthor had subjected them to hours of testing, finding out their top speeds, the heaviest weights they could carry in and out of water, how long they could hold their breaths in water when their gills were forced shut. Any time they tried to object he would shock them with the necklaces – really, collars – around their necks. He had them held down and extracted their blood. He ripped out several of Danny’s scales for study, then forced Tim to ink for the same purpose. He chained more awful, uncomfortable pieces of jewellery, a thick ring around Danny’s tail at the narrowest part before it transitioned to his tailfin, and 8 more along Tim’s octopus arms.

When they were so exhausted they could barely move their fins, the megalomaniac dumped them back in their big tank, promising to return the next day.

The moment he left them alone, the two of them bolted for the surface, pulling themselves out of the water and willing the transformation back to their human forms, not just waiting to dry off.

But it didn’t work. Danny’s tail half-shifted into a nauseating mix of thigh bone and fish tail, splitting below the waist, but the ring above his tailfin halted the transformation dead in its tracks. Try as he might to force his tail to break through, it was impossible, and his thighs became so painful he was forced to merge them again.

Tim had no more luck than Danny had. The rings on his octopus arms served a similar purpose, preventing his disparate aquatic limbs from merging into legs capable of supporting his body on land. Their human forms locked away, the boys had no luck escaping. Trying to drag himself on land would scrape and bruise Danny’s sensitive underside, and Tim had the distinct disadvantage of having no bones in siren form.

They tried regardless. Tim hauled himself onto land, cringing as his octopus arms tasted every texture and piece of debris on the floor, pulling his body forward even as it struggled to hold up under gravity.

Then the necklace shocked him, Luthor appearing from the shadows with a smug grin, before kicking Tim back into the water.

They woke up the next day to sensors being placed all over their tank. Danny identified them immediately from the prototypes he remembered his parents inventing. The probes would scan their hydroplasmic energy, meaning there would never be a moment where they wouldn’t be monitored, where Lex didn’t know their whereabouts.

At this realisation, that there was utterly no hope for them, that everyone who would care for the sirens Phantom and Banshee had been gotten rid of by Lex Luthor, and that nobody would care for them like Clark did, the boys sank into each other in their den, and broke down.

~~

“Are – sure about –?”

“Absolutely.”

“B-but, surely we can – different way. L-like – lemonade stand, – hack into –!”

“No! – stealing!”

“And this isn’t?”

The file Robin had finally recovered after hours of intense reconstruction was barely holding up. The video had been completely corrupted and impossible to save, but he’d manage to salvage parts of the audio recording. This was dated to several weeks before he had realised Tim was gone.

Please let him not be too late. Robin was never supposed to be late. Heroes were supposed to save the day, to be the people that those in desperate need could count on when it was most needed. Heroes didn’t just ignore their friends’ plight until it was too late, until nothing more could be done.

“That’s different,” Tim’s voice said on the recording. “The money will be coming – you chickening out?”

“What? No!”

“Then hit me.”

The recording was frighteningly silent for over a minute, leaving Robin biting his lip with impatience and worry. The oppressive silence of the room weighed on his shoulders as he watched and waited for this one clue to reveal itself.

A scream shrill enough to curdle blood into clots erupted from the computer. Tim’s voice, though distorted through the computer system, howled in a haunting pain that brought forth existential dread and agony, like the dying gasps of a poached whale as a harpoon pierced its side, like a banshee howling of the death of all she once loved. Robin had heard torture victims scream less. Then came the nauseating cracks like bones breaking, all the while the second voice sobbed. “I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so so sorry I shouldn’t have done this to you I’m sorry–”

That was the end of the recording.

Robin sprinted for the Drake Mansion artefact room, kicking it open in his mad haste. He threw the carpet over, not caring the least bit where it landed as his eyes landed on a terrible piece of evidence, the confirmation that what he had heard was not some wild fluke.

It was a stain of blood upon the floor, old and faded, like someone had tried to clean it up, tried to hide their crime. And Robin’s horror only propagated, starting as a pit in his stomach to a malaise that perforated his limbs, his heart and his mind. He found bone fragments hidden in the corners. There were more blood stains in the nooks between the walls and display cases, which would have been hard to reach. The blood stains dated to around the same time as the recordings.

And for a brief moment, Robin’s terrified mood snapped as his fearful mind arrived at a terrible possibility. Had he been too late? Was what he was beholding the scene of Tim’s death, and the boy he had been pursuing all this time been mercilessly robbed of his life all alone in his empty mansion with nothing but his murderer for company?

Robin’s chest heaved, his neck sweating. He leaned on the wall, gripping his skin, pinching hard. No, it couldn’t be true. It couldn’t! He had to hold on to some kind of desperate, foolish hope. That letter that Tim had sent him, It had to have been him, right? It was Tim’s handwriting.

But then he remembered the mysterious circumstances involving the letter’s appearance, how it had simply manifested inside of their mailbox without any video evidence for who had done so.

Perhaps it was a ghost. Deadman was one such example of the dead returning to the living world. Was the letter one final, paltry attempt to soothe Jason’s soul, knowing the pain his disappearance and death would cause?

He needed to find the other voice in the recording. They might be the only person who knew what happened to Tim.

Robin went to work immediately, the hope of salvation for Tim, if not closure, motivating him in a single-minded blaze of determination. The first thing he did was dust off the room for fingerprints of every kind, then he looked up whatever information he could on the artefacts held within.

~~

Many weeks ago…

“Are you sure about this, Tim?” Danny asked as Tim removed the carpet and painted a little circle on the ground. It wasn’t actually magic or anything, just something to get them in the mood for what they were about to do. When Danny had been bitten, it took a while for the transformation to take hold, so Tim was just wearing a comfortable hoodie and shorts. Once he started changing, they would move to his bathroom upstairs.

“Absolutely. I’m ready for this.”

“B-but, surely we can get the money a different way. L-like maybe we could set up a lemonade stand, or you could hack into some random rich person’s bank account?”

“No! That would be stealing!”

“And this isn’t?”

“That’s different,” Tim’s huffed, crossing his arms and pouting. “The money we’re getting will be coming from us, so we have the rights to it. Are you chickening out?”

“What? No!” Danny said, suddenly feeling the pressure of their situation. They had had to split breakfast that morning, and his stomach was growling with hunger.

“Then hit me.” Tim said, holding his arms out in a T pose. “Give me your best shot!”

Danny pushed down the guilt that burned his throat and threatened to bubble over, reaching forward, He dipped his fingers into the cup of salt water they’d prepared, dabbing his face and mouth with it. Upon contact, his face turned glossy and soft scales emerged, and his teeth elongated into nightmarish fangs. His cheeks turned hollow and translucent like glass, and his lips became a pale bluish-white, bordering on the glass-like clearness of his cheeks.

Tim presented his arm, his eyes closed in utter and absolute trust in his friend. If Danny were any other monster, Tim could be mauled to pieces in this vulnerable state, and he would have no way to fight back.

But Tim had given him his trust every time before, every time he went to sleep with their arms entangled and skin against each other’s onesies, when Tim swam with him in their pool, never once batting an eye at Danny’s hideous form, looking upon him like he was just another boy like him.

And now he would be another monster like him.

Danny couldn’t bear to watch as he took Tim’s offered arm, his breath rolling over the boy’s human skin, and he plunged his teeth in. Tim whimpered, shaking, but didn’t pull back. Danny felt sick at the taste of blood, of someone’s stolen life-force flowing over his tongue, and even sicker when it didn’t taste bad. Suddenly an instinct pulsed inside of him, and he sank deeper and deeper, until his human mind re-emerged, and Danny frantically unlatched his teeth from his friend’s skin.

There was blood on Tim’s hands. There was blood on Danny’s lips. He looked into his friend’s eyes. Tim was clutching his arm, breathing heavily, but otherwise seemed fine. He nodded shakily, giving a weak smile and a thumbs up. “The plan’s a go!” he said.

“A-are you ok? You don’t look great.”

“I’m fine! R-really.” Tim pushed himself to his feet, taking a shaky step forward, before collapsing in a heel on the floor, his shin bent at an alarming angle, almost as if the bone had shattered in to dust.

Then the screaming started. A dark purple bruise spread from the bite mark on Tim’s arm. Danny’s friend screamed, a wailing sound communicating a horrible, wracking pain that immediately set all of Danny’s mental alarm bells off. He immediately ran to hold his friend, only for Tim to scream even louder upon being touched. Tim’s legs were deforming, muscle rippling and ripping and skin tearing open. There was so much more blood. A sick feeling bubbled from his stomach and he had to hold his nausea in as fragments of bone were expelled from Tim’s legs, expelled from his arms. Tim screamed until his throat was hoarse, his tears staining Danny’s clothes wet, then staining them with shining white oil that hardened into mineral. Danny cried. He did this. It was his fault. Tim’s skin, always a little paler than was healthy, had been consumed by the purple plague, and it had gained an oily, slick sheen like Lovecraft’s deepest nightmares. Tim’s eyes turned pure black like Danny’s in the water, and his legs at last split open, tearing his shorts into little shreds as they writhed and wiggled.

Without bones to support him, Tim collapsed unconscious onto the floor, surrounded by his own blood and bits of bone in a heap while Danny sobbed, mourning his friend’s lost humanity.

“I’m sorry Tim, I’m so sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m sorry I’m so so sorry I shouldn’t have done this to you I shouldn’t have done it I’m a monster…”

Chapter Text

Tim soared into the water, spreading his arms like a flower and spinning rapidly as he came back down with a splash, spraying bits of water onto the cheering audience. He resurfaced and climbed back onto the arms of his new trainer as his trainer bowed to the audience.

He used to look forward to doing performances, to be a sea creature that could fly through the air and be admired, the centre of attention like Dick Grayson used to be, but now the feeling was soured and dulled. Instead of exhilaration, he instead felt the stress knowing Luthor was watching, and what Luthor didn’t like, Luthor would quickly correct.

Without Clark, the aquarium felt colder, the glass walls were no longer windows to an excited public, but bars of the cage, and them the monkeys. Eve still made silly videos with him and Danny, but it was clear that even she was feeling the turn in the atmosphere. His nose was swamped by the scent of stress and anxiety practically bathing the young woman’s skin, like she was just as trapped as they were, despite being human and having rights. Wes barely even looked at them anymore, instead keeping his head down, shoulders slumped and hunched over whenever he passed their tank. No more was the half-maddened look with which he used to analyse their every movement. Luthor couldn’t have taken Wes’s attempts to expose his and Danny’s intelligence very well, now that he had an active interest in preventing that fact from getting out.

Angela Foley wasn’t there either. She’d probably been fired too. She would never have been on board with what Lex was doing. Instead, he and Danny were under the shackles of, ironically, Angela Spica. Despite sharing a name with the kind woman who held him closely and gave him pats on the head when he did well, Spica was nothing like her. Her skin was as cold as metal, and her demeanour wasn’t much better. In Lex’s underground facility she drilled him and Danny over and over, and beat them with a stick if they slowed down or stopped to take a break. When training for performances, of which there were now more than ever, she was similarly ruthless. She’d forbidden the staff from feeding them for the whole day after Danny had flipped the finger at her, when they tried to hide in their dens, she shocked them until they gave up and showed themselves.

Watching her smile at the crowd gave him a sickening feeling, knowing her true nature behind closed doors.

Any time they tried to speak real human English, the collars would zap them again. They tried writing on signs or drawing cries for help in the sand, but there was no end to Luthor’s surveillance. They started losing sleep, unsure if Luthor was watching. Danny’s scales started to flake off en masse.

The time for their charade had long been over, and when the meet and greet portion of the show came, they abandoned all pretenses of being animals. When someone asked Tim a question he nodded his head rapidly like a human boy. Danny shrugged and clicked questions at Tim when given a question a siren wouldn’t know about. Tim stroked his chin in thought when someone showed him a complex painting and asked him to colour shift.

They were real boys! Please, somebody notice!

But they didn’t. Luthor didn’t dare activate his torture device while in full view of the public, but no matter how many painfully human mannerisms they built into their body language, the visitors only seemed to find it endearing. “Awe! They’re copying you!” one mother told her child.

They watched with wretched desperation as the last of the visitors left. Inwardly he hoped one of them got the message, that one of them saw a person instead of a cute animal, the way Clark and Angela saw them.

If they had, then they gave no indication. Spica tightened her grip on his neck ever so slightly, her threat clear. “I don’t know what you’re trying, pescado, but it ain’t gonna work. Now, the Fentons want a check-up for you, so behave, or we’ll double your laps tonight. Got it?”

The mention of his parents had Danny panicking again, but Spica had seen it coming, and swiftly injected a needle into their necks. Tim gasped, writhing and trying to escape, but her grip was as tight as iron, and his boneless body turned into a limp heap.

~~

The sedative hadn’t fully taken. Maybe it was Lex’s idea. He was the kind of person who would deign to torture him like that. His body was forced into a state of relaxation as his mind raced with panic. He tried to lift his arms, to chirp in distress, to even flinch or flick his fins. Nothing worked. It was like his brain was cut off from his body, forced to watch as a passive observer with no agency and yet was in the most danger.

Spica smiled maliciously, tapping his nose with condescension and smugness, knowing he couldn’t fight back. The sadistic woman picked up the heap that was Tim’s boneless form and placed him on one of the stretchers, then pulled Danny up onto another one, pulling them away.

She took them through the aquarium and into the medbay, every step only igniting more desperation in Danny as he tried hopelessly to command some limb, to move something and get away, get away from his parents before they could see him, before they could cut him open like all those other sirens they found on the beach and cut open. A singular tear wet his eye, the only show of emotion on his otherwise still body.

He looked to Tim, similarly indisposed, for companionship, for company in the face of what would be coming. His heart was in a warring state of forced calm by the chemicals and wanting to burst from fear as the pale white walls of the medical bay loomed over them.

~~

Robin had found more blood stains, badly washed, and more bone fragments, freshly shed. He collected the evidence into clear plastic bags, but the most damning evidence of all were the fingerprints.

He’d found four sets of fingerprints there. The most obvious were from Jack Drake and Janet Drake, which he had briefly gone upstairs to confirm. Those were littered over the glass cases, and on the handle of the door, and scattered on some of the artefacts. The next set of fingerprints was Tim Drake’s, and the last one belonged to an unknown, the second voice on the recording.

His wrist computer beeped to confirm a match, and Robin’s breath hitched.

Tim’s fingerprints matched with the fingerprints at the aquarium, the ones on Lex Luthor’s computer.

He had the computer analyse the unknown fingerprints with the second set at the aquarium, and that came as a match too.

Tim and this other kid had been sneaking into the aquarium for weeks. They had been pranking Lex Luthor for weeks, stealing his money, messing up his stuff, causing chaos around the building.

But why?

And where were they now?

~~

His parents were waiting for him in the medbay, prepping materials. He tried to look for the scalpels they would use to rend his soft flesh open, but in his paralysed state he could barely move his eyes, let alone turn his neck.

“Here they are, Doctors. Have fun with them,” Spica said, laughing.

“Thanks, Angela,” his mother told her, waving her off. “But did they have to be sedated?”

“They were being rowdy, and it was the best option. Best to get it over with without stressing out the poor things.”

“I’m not sure about that, but whatever you say, Angela!” his dad replied in his usual boisterous manner.

“Try not to break a fin!” Spica said, giving Danny a pointed look of smugness, before leaving them alone with his parents.

For the last three months, the thing Danny had feared the most, feared above all other kid’s fears like school and bullies, was his parents seeing him like this, his parents seeing him and knowing it was him, and then treating him like the sirens they put on the operating table anyway.

But they were already going to do that, and a poisonous hope inside of Danny wondered if they might forgive him for being a monster if he could reveal himself now. If seeing their son’s face after three months might move them enough to ignore the monstrous parts and save him from the greater monster whose name adorned this building. Then maybe he could take Tim and run away, diving into the ocean and disappearing forever. That was just a pipe dream. Lex Luthor had made sure to lock away their human forms. He had made sure to lock away all hope they could have of freedom.

Danny whimpered in his mind as his mother looked over him, frowning. “I’m not sure about the use of all these sedatives, Jack. Look at this poor thing, his eyes are still open.”

“Yikes, Mads. Lemme just help you out with that.” And his father bounced over and placed his fingers over Danny’s eyelids, closing them shut, and shutting away the last visual indication he’d had of what his parents would be up to. All he had was the sounds of his parent’s footsteps, and the clanking of their tools. Which one was the stethoscope, and which one was the scalpel?

He felt hands press against his scales. They touched the flaking scales that had almost peeled off on his tail, on his arms, on his soft belly.

“Jack, look at this. Phantom’s scales are all loose. Did the earlier reports say anything about that?”

He heard the clacking of a keyboard. “Not that I can find, Mads. What do you think this means?”

“Fish usually shed scales when they’re stressed or sick. Poor thing,” his mum cooed, the same way she would when watching over him on the days he was sick. It hurt to hear her like this, while he was in this foreign body. “Do you think maybe they’re taking Clark and Angela Foley’s firing badly?”

“I don’t doubt it. I’m sure Ms Spica’s doing the best she can, but they know she’s not the same as their Angela, and Clarky. Let’s take some scale samples for analysis. Maybe we can figure out some kind of enrichment activity to keep them happy.”

“We’ll also need to start a vaccine programme too. Who knows what kind of illnesses might also be causing this.”

“Good idea!”

Danny felt the prick of a needle, and almost sobbed, before he realised it was just his blood being drawn.

To figure out the best way to dissect him?

“Let’s start taking measurements, too. We’ll need a good record of their physical state,” his mother said, her tone back to that factual, clinical manner she always had when talking about science.

He felt as his dad pressed measuring sticks and measuring tape on his fins, along his tail and arms. He felt a warm spot on his scales like the heat of a light. His mother pressed a stethoscope up to his chest, then his back. For a moment he could imagine he was just a normal boy at the doctor’s for a routine check-up, and the nice doctor would smile at him and praise him and give him a lollipop once it was all over, and then he’d return home.

There was nothing to return to, nothing but Luthor’s clutches that he had foolishly led his friend right to.

“It’s fascinating,” his mother said with awe. “Banshee genuinely has no bones at all. And yet he’s still capable of holding his body up and locomoting to a limited degree on land.”

“Must be all those octopus muscles. Octopodes, they’re a slippery lot.”

“It’s strange. None of the reports mentioned anything about Banshee escaping from his enclosure, even though that’s the number one thing to look out for when keeping regular octopuses. Jack, can you boot up the X-ray machines?”

“You got it, Mads!”

Danny felt like crying as his mother wrapped up sheets around him, strapping him down to the table. It was like a blanket, pressing in on his scales like a cuddle. He could really use a cuddle right now. His heart twisted from these feelings inside of him. Things didn’t make sense. When were they going to start hurting him? When?!

He whimpered, the first peep of sound he’d given, the first he’d been able to make since he was sedated. His eyes shot open, looking around frantically. He tried to thrash and scream, but most of his muscles were still asleep. His mother looked down at him with alarm.

“Phantom?” she asked. “Has the sedative worn off? Oh dear,”

She crouched down and looked at him. Danny cried.

“Oh no, don’t be afraid, Phantom. We’re just here for a routine check-up, that’s all. Just like how you used to have them all the time. Jack’s about to boot up the X-ray machine. Stay still, and we’ll get you a couple fish as a reward, alright?”

Danny whined quietly, his heart aching like a butterfly who’d flown a thousand miles without having seen a flower or a friend. He stayed still – he had no choice – as his dad leaned in from the other room, calling out to his mother. “It’s fired up, Mads! Let’s get to it!”

His mother walked around to the end of his stretcher and wheeled it into the x-ray room.  He flashed a brief look at Tim, the other boy returning his confusion and distress, before he was pulled away.

His dad kept talking to him, talking at him? Danny wasn’t sure. He had known his parents his whole life. To see them talking to him like a stranger, like an animal, brought up all kinds of unfamiliar feelings and discomfort that enmeshed and entangled themselves in every other emotion he’d been feeling since he and Tim had entered the medbay. His mind was lost in the storm, trying to cling to something familiar in the sea of disarray.

The scanning fired up. Danny had never been put in the X-ray machine before. Clark had been worried about how he might take to it, and had insisted on waiting. It wasn’t that scary, just a little noisy. If he were an animal that didn’t know better, though, he could imagine being freaked out.

“What’s up with scanning Phantom anyway?” his dad asked. “Can’t we see through him anyway?”

“But we can’t see his organs, Jack, except for his heart. I imagine there’s some kind of situation with his skin and organs having the same refractive index. Light passes through his skin, bending in a certain way. Then it passes through his organs and bends again in the same way, just the opposite direction. The result is that his internal organs appear invisible. But thanks to your modifications to the X-ray, we should be able to get a good map of his body.”

“You think Lexy will mind? Since he didn’t exactly say we could do that.”

His mother waved off his concern. “What Mr Luthor doesn’t know won’t hurt him. Now, let’s get Banshee in.”

Danny whimpered at Tim as they passed by each other again, with Tim chirping back. He heard his parents talking at Tim the same way they did him earlier, and after a short time, Tim was wheeled back, completely unscathed.

And then, his parents pushed them back into their big tank, leaving them in the shallows. And, as his mother had promised, she gave them a couple of fresh fish as a reward.

Danny didn’t know what to think.

~~

Clue number 9: Tim’s fingerprints matched those found at the aquarium, indicating he was responsible for all the pranks and embezzlement.

Clue number 10: Something had happened to Tim, something painful to the extreme, potentially even life-threatening that resulted in him losing a lot of blood and even shards of bone being scattered around the artefact room.

Robin had come so close, so so very close.

His instincts told him to go back to the aquarium, to find the smoking gun there that would blow this case out of the water, and hopefully nail Lex Luthor for his crimes once and for all. He zipped to Metropolis under the cover of night on the Robincycle, a newly purchased ticket safely printed out and tucked in his pocket.

Once all this was over, he was so going to steal some of his money back from Luthor. There was no doubt about that.

Carefully hiding the Robincycle away, Robin dipped into an abandoned phone booth and quickly changed into the friendly Jason Todd-Wayne, adoptive son of Bruce Wayne who probably shouldn’t be out on his own in another city, but if anybody asked he would just cite rich kid privileges or something. His dad secretly has a drone stalking his every move or something, so it’s not like he’s really alone.

He’d decided to shelve his Damian Drake persona for the moment, sensing that it was best to go as himself. He didn’t know exactly what he would be looking for, just that he had a feeling he’d find something out. As he entered the aquarium a chill went up his spine. He looked at the listless tour guides, the unenthusiastic guests, and the absence of Phantom swimming his little heart out behind the glass. It felt as if the life had been sucked out of the building and replaced by a hollow corporate extension. He wandered around without a tour, just using a regular ticket, keeping an eye out for Clark Kent, or Angela Foley, but he found no sign of them. Phantom and Banshee were barely visible either.

He’d been so feverishly trying to put the pieces together that he’d fallen behind on aquarium news. Jason quickly located a bench and pulled his phone up for some impromptu research.

He swore under his breath at an ominous search result, a blog post.

Why do Phantom and Banshee look so miserable lately?

now look I get what you’re saying oh theyre not rlly human theyre sirens and we shouldn’t try to force our assumptions upon them and their facial expressions and whatever might not actually map to their real emotions BUT HEAR ME OUT OK

so lots of you have been reblogging about how Dr Clark Kent hasn’t been at Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquarium lately. I haevnt been able to find any news articles about this but a lot of ppl on the ground have told me that the staff told them that dr kent had ‘left for other opportunities’ or ‘has accepted a new position at a different establishment’

I CALL FUCKING BULLSHIT

I have personally been on one of Dr Kent’s tours, and I can assure you that this man fucking adores his boys, his blorbos, his silly little fish children. many of u might not know this but Dr Kent got his PhD researching penguins, and a lot of his old classmates talk about how much he loves marine animals and caring for them. In one particularly notable instance a former classmate said that he cried all night when they had to euthanise one of the animals that they couldn’t save.

And like??? Have you fucking seen him on the tours? or at the one show he did with Phantom? this man clearly cares for those two sirens with all his heart. as far as he’s concerned they’re just scaly children and honestly I’m starting to agree (but more on that later)

JUST LOOK AT THESE PICTURES AND TELL ME HE WOULDN’T FUCKING KILL SOMEONE FOR THESE BOYS

Photo ID: A picture of Dr Clark Kent holding the siren Phantom in a hug as he ruffles the siren’s hair.

Photo ID: a picture of Dr Clark Kent wearing a wetsuit and in the water. He is in the middle of being tackled by Phantom and Banshee, the man’s face laughing

Photo ID: A picture of Dr Clark Kent rubbing Banshee’s back as the siren slumps against him, eyes closed in relaxation

Furthermore ive heard leaks from the aquarium that Dr Clark Kent was the first fucking person to actually give positive touch to the sirens – a species that we know is very tactile what with how Phantom and Banshee keep cuddling like the adorable fucking babies they are – and the first person that the sirens didn’t try to murder or something. Instead they purred. THEY PURRED AND DR KENT WAS THE FIRST TO FIND THAT OUT. NOT EVEN THE FENTONS, SO-CALLED SIREN ‘EXPERTS’ KNEW ABOUT THAT. I’M SERIOUS HERE’S A LINK READ FOR YOURSELVES

so after all of that, you’re going to tell me that Dr Kent just… up and left??? Got a new job??? Abandoned his precious boys??????

1. Call. Bullshit.

Lets shift the focus from Dr Kent to Lex Luthor, a slimeball of a billionaire that nobody should love. What has Luthor been pushing more? Shows, performances, all kinds of things that will increase the visibility of the sirens that just so happen to be his property, and which will further enrich him. Like, have you seen the fucking ticket prices of these things?! No normal person can afford this shit, and that’s intentional. Then you look at all these TV appearnces where sycophants blow smoke up luthor’s ass praising him for what a kInD and CompAsSionATe person he is YEAH GIVE ME A BREAK

my conspiracy theory: Dr Kent was pushing against the shows because he actually fucking cared about the sirens’ welfare while Luthor just wanted fame and profit, so Luthor fired the man, separating Phantom and Banshee from their favourite human and traumatising the fuck out of them, because if it’s one thing humanity is amazing at, is fucking up everything for people that we have power over

And you might be saying ‘oh but what makes you think that the sirens actually care?’ ILL FUCKING SHOW YOU

Just look at the difference between their behaviour during the era of Dr Kent, and after. It’s fucking night and day

Video ID: Phantom chirps animatedly at some passing visitors, swimming around in excitement. There are large subtitles saying ‘omg hi humans!! 💖😊what’s up how are you its great to see you!’

Video ID: Phantom is listlessly lying on a rock, lifting his head up and chirping, but seemingly exhausted or tired. There are subtitles at the top saying ‘omg my human dad is gone 😭😭🥺🥺😢 I miss him so much,,,’

Everything about their body language is different. Phantom’s fins used to constantly be flicking up and down even when he’s not swimming like he’s a happy puppy or an excited kid with ADHD, and in very, very few of the videos afterwards does he exhibit the same behaviour. Same thing can be seen in Banshee’s behaviour. If you look closely he has a lot of tics and stims that he does during the Dr Kent era, which all go away in the post Dr Kent era

Conclusion: #BRINGBACKDRKENT

PS: I’ve been told that Angela Foley, the other main trainer of the siren boys, has also been fired too, and I actually feel bad for leaving her out so lemme go make a second post about her

Jason grimaced as he read the article. So Clark was gone, and from the way it looked on the pictures in the article, it seemed Phantom and Banshee were miserable without him, without their advocate against Luthor’s general shittiness. Worse still, the siren boys were clad in jewellery like they were Luthor’s personal dolls. The man had claimed it was for their own enrichment, but Jason highly doubted it.

His eyes caught onto movement across the room on the other side of the glass. Banshee was there, staring at him. The siren boy was pale, and had lost a significant amount of weight. Jason quickly checked for other people, but he was alone. He ran up to the glass and pressed his hands against it.

“Can you hear me? Do you need help?” Jason asked, knowing that Banshee couldn’t hear him through the glass. Banshee and Phantom may be the only people who knew what Tim and the unknown kid were doing in Luthor Aquarium. If he could save them, maybe he could save Tim as well.

But that would mean finding a way to be alone with Banshee and figure out a way to break through the language barrier. He wracked his brain for solutions, including contacting members of the Justice League, but Martian Manhunter was on a retreat home, and Zatanna was on a month-long mission to Eastern Europe. However, it was in his search for an answer that Banshee did something that shot a lightning rod through Jason’s core.

He mouthed a word, and Jason’s lipreading skills caught on instantly.

Help us.

Chapter Text

Investigation mode was over. Now, it was time for rescue.

If Jason were raised by a different hero and maybe had a few nifty superpowers of his own, he would try to make off with Phantom and Banshee alone, performing some kind of daring heist in the middle of the night, but with Luthor spending so much time at the aquarium and clearly having his eye on them, there would be no guarantee that would work. Of course, he could just show up as Robin and take them out of the aquarium with his gadgets, but he had no doubt that Luthor would not take kindly to that attempt.

And he was pretty sure Luthor would go the extra mile to hold onto his prized fish. The man never did anything without a reason, and Jason knew that if he was spending a lot of time around the sirens, it was for a reason. What reason that was, Jason didn’t know. Maybe he wanted to dominate global trade by using sirens to control shipping lanes? Maybe he wanted to become a siren and was trying to live out his childhood dreams of being like Zach from Mako Mermaids. Who knew?

However, Lex Luthor had one weakness, and it was the fact that he was a rich and powerful man, and if there was one thing rich and powerful men couldn’t help but do, it was seek out more riches and power.

So Jason raced home in a rush, probably breaking several traffic laws along the way, but being a vigilante was already illegal, so it wasn’t like he was going be stopped about it. He had one destination in mind: Bruce’s study.

He wasn’t too proud to admit that this case had grown beyond him, and he was going to have to pull out all the stops to save Phantom and Banshee, and hopefully Tim and the unknown child. He raced into the Batcave with the roar of an engine, wasting no time in jumping off his motorcycle and running upstairs three steps at a time.

“B!” He shouted as he crashed through the doorway, sending the door slamming against the bookcase. His dad, for his credit, didn’t even flinch.

“How’s the case going?” his dad asked.

“I need your help,” Jason said firmly, and like a switch was activated, his dad’s eyes gained a furious intensity as he stared Jason down.

“Tell me,” he almost-ordered.

Jason gave him the rundown over the last couple weeks of investigations, and everything he had found, from the disappearance of Tim, the suspicious happenings going on in the dead of night at the aquarium, to Lex Luthor’s grubby hands on everything, to the embezzlement of his money and at last Dr Kent’s and Angela Foley’s firing and the misery that the sirens were in.

“You said that Angela Spica was their new trainer?” Bruce asked part-way through Jason’s summary of the events.

“Yeah, what about her?”

Bruce hummed. “The Titans were investigating her. She was involved in an incident in Boravia. She’s a kind of cyborg metahuman. Let me show you.”

His dad gestured for Jason to join him at the desk, and Jason did so, leaning over to see Bruce’s screen. With a few quick button presses, B pulled up a shaky video of Spica shapeshifting in a mass of writhing metal that emerged from her skin, then over took it. Jason heard the sounds of the Titans, Dick’s team, yelling banter at each other.”

“Codename: The Engineer. She’s a covert operative causing political unrest in Boravia and Jarhanpur. But I didn’t know she was working for Lex Luthor.”

So Lex Luthor had put Phantom and Banshee under the ‘tender’ loving care of an international terrorist under his payroll. Suddenly Jason felt a lot better about not picking violence as the first option to free them. As much as he’d like to Robin it up, the Engineer was no joke in the power department, and going in blind would’ve resulted in him getting captured at the minimum.

“That means he’s definitely interested in them as assets, right?” he asked.

“Most probably. I can try developing a virus to shut down her powers, but it will take a while.”

“Well, that should be fine, cause with the plan I have, we won’t need to fight her directly.”

“What plan is that?”

“Well, Lex is gonna start doing these stupid ‘swimming with sirens’ events soon. It’s gross. He’s gonna have spoilt rich kids swimming in the water with Phantom and Banshee, and he’s probably abusing the hell out of them to make sure they’re ‘docile’ or whatever. But that also means we can use it to our advantage.”

“You’re suggesting we attend one such event?”

“No, even better. We’ll make Lex give us a private event, just the two of us and Phantom and Banshee.”

“Usually these events are supervised by a trainer, that probably means the Engineer,” Bruce countered.

“We’ll request someone else. I think Steve Lombard is still working there. You have to insist it, B. And if that doesn’t work, we can get Dick to keep her busy with other stuff. As for how we’ll get Lex to agree with it, you can lure him in with the promise of some business dealing or whatever rich people do when they’re alone with each other.”

Bruce coughed awkwardly, before straightening himself. “And what will you do once we’re alone with Phantom and Banshee?”

“For one, break the shit out of those necklaces. I have zero doubt that they’re just shock collars in disguise, something to control them while appearing nice for the public. I have no doubt that Phantom and Banshee can probably understand English too, even if they can’t speak it. I’ll talk to them, ask them some questions on camera, and if we need to, we can break them the heck out.”

“And as for the legal trouble of doing this in our civilian identities?”

“Once we prove that the sirens are sapient, we can get Lex for being an abusive dickhead. I’m sure those two have a lot to say about him too, and we’ll have it on film.”

His dad hummed, clearly mulling the plan over in his head, before nodding at last. “Alright then.”

“So you’ll do it?”

“Yes, and for what it’s worth, I’m proud of you for coming to me when you needed help. I’ll call Lex immediately, and schedule that visit as soon as possible.”

~~

“Jack?”

“Yes, sweetie?”

“I’m getting the results from the DNA sequencing, and it’s a match for human DNA.”

“Well I’ll be damned,” Jack muttered. He was stood in front of a microscope, one eye shut and the other peering down the lenses. Then he raised his head, looking blankly, before blinking in shock. “Wait a minute!”

The large man rushed over to where his wife was examining the samples, and sure enough, the swap they had taken had registered as human.

“That’s strange,” Jack said. “Maybe it got contaminated with our DNA instead.”

“I could’ve sworn I did the procedure and stored it properly. This is like baby’s first science project. Let’s try the hair sample instead.”

Maddie kneeled down to collect the glass tube with the samples of Phantom’s hair that they had taken, only to gasp in shock.

“What is it, Mads?”

Maddie shot up to her feet and placed the tube on the table. Jack’s mouth gaped open. Phantom’s hair was silvery and transparent, like glass noodles almost, but the strand that was in the tube was pitch black, like a human thread of hair.

“T-that’s, that’s impossible.” Jack scratched his head. “I put Phantom’s hair there myself!”

“It must have been replaced, as a prank or something. One of the interns told me about all the pranks that have been going on the last few weeks. Maybe it was the mysterious pranker that replaced the samples, since we left them alone for a while.”

“I have a weird feeling about this, Mads. What about the other samples?”

The couple kneeled down and started removing all of the samples they’d taken from their physical exam of the sirens, only to gape with shock.

Instead of glowing blue blood like sirens normally possessed, the vial of blood they’d drawn was a dark red. Where Phantom’s scales were stored were now flakes of pale yellow dandruff.

“It doesn’t make sense, Jack.” Maddie placed her palm upon her forehead and groaned. “Maybe the security footage has answers.”

As they went to the security office to request the footage, Jack had a distinct indication that what they would find would do nothing to solve the mystery.

~~

He couldn’t sleep well, hadn’t been able to sleep well. His hearing didn’t work well listening for things underwater, but he heard their cries whenever they were above water, the way they chirped out fearfully, or in exhaustion. Luthor was working those poor boys to death, and there was nothing Clark could do about it.

Superman couldn’t do anything about it.

The very first night after he’d been fired, Clark immediately searched the aquarium for the boys, intending to steal them away as Clark Kent under the dead of night. However, his X-ray vision failed to find them anywhere.

Wherever they were, Luthor was hiding them, and he was hiding them well.

So he waited. He occupied himself flying around the world, saving cats out of trees, intervening in natural disasters, making friends with other heroes like the Flash and Green Lantern. The whole time his mind stayed singularly focused on the two boys he couldn’t save. In all his two years of superhero work, Superman had never failed to save someone yet.

He had sent all of the recordings of the boys that he could to the linguist he’d made contact with, a woman called Dr Diana Prince. She’d thanked him profusely, and then went offline. He hadn’t heard from her since then, with only the hope that she was like many scientist types and had gotten completely absorbed into her latest project to cling onto. And if she had gotten completely absorbed into deciphering the calls, perhaps that meant that there was a real language underneath all of that?

His phone rang. It was his parents.

“Hi Clark! We were thinkin’ of bookin’ a ticket to the aquarium, but the prices are horrendous!” his mother shouted into the phone, like she always did. She never quite trusted the audio would go through properly, so she always made sure to raise her voice, even though her son had superhearing.

“Hi Ma,” he breathed out.

“Oh, Clark. What’s goin’ on?”

“Well, I was fired from my job, for one.”

His mother gasped audibly through the phone. “That damned Luthor. I knew he was bad news. You’re his best employee!”

“It’s not that, mom, it’s…” Clark sighed, and caught her up on everything that had happened.

“My goodness…” his Ma said. “Those poor boys. So what are you gonna do about it?”

“I’ve been trying to find a way to break in, but I can’t just crash in without warning and then carry the boys off. They’re…” Clark swallowed. “They don’t understand things like superheroes or Superman. You know how sensitive some animals are. The shock could kill them.”

“So you’re just gonna sit around on your laurels?”

“No, I’ve got this meeting tomorrow, a journalist. They’re my only hope.”

“You’ll get through it Clark, I know you can, and the first chance you get, give that Luthor a good dent in his shiny head for me, will ya?”

Clark chuckled. “Alright, Ma. I love you.”

“Love you too, honey.”

He hoped that reporter could work fast, because every second he spent waiting was another second they were suffering.

Chapter Text

Luthor woke them up with his customary morning cruelty, whacking a stick on the side of their tank until they woke up. They’d fallen asleep in Luthor’s underground training facility, and it seemed the billionaire didn’t see the point in taking them back to their den.

“Wake up,” Luthor ordered.

For fear of his wrath, he and Tim rose to the surface, sticking their heads out of the water.

“I have a very special business partner that you are to entertain. This is a rare opportunity for me, so if you cause any kind of trouble, I will make sure you sorely regret it. Understood?”

They nodded their heads frantically.

“Good. We shall go over the drills now. Perform them perfectly, or be punished for your failure.”

~~

Jason could hardly sleep that night, and at 7 sharp in the morning he shot out of bed. Even now he still felt that buzz of anticipation the morning of a big bust, though this one was by far the most unconventional bust he’d been on. Breakfast was a swift affair, Jason scarfing down waffles and cereal as if they were liquid through a pump.

He and Bruce travelled in style, boarding his private jet straight to Metropolis, all the better to convince Lex Luthor that they were really serious about this meeting, Jason with the sirens and Bruce with Lex. They touched down at Metropolis Airport and hopped in a limousine to the aquarium. Of course, the media had no idea, Bruce not wanting people to see his visit to the aquarium as a public endorsement.

He hated that part about the media, how they see someone famous just existing somewhere and taking it as some big statement, but maybe he was complaining too much, being adoptive son to a fabulously wealthy and famous person himself.

Luthor greeted them at the front entrance, dressed pristinely and shiny head radiating smug satisfaction. “Greetings, Bruce, how humbling of you to visit my little passion project here in Metropolis.”

“I’m the one who should be humbled, Lex,” Bruce said, employing his silver tongue wrapped up in golden foolishness and an air-headed demeanour. “Your dedication to marine education and preservation is admirable,” Bruce lied through his teeth.

Then the world’s shiniest megalomaniac turned his eyes to Jason. “And you, young Jason, you seem well. How is Gotham Academy? Have you tired of it?”

“Teachers are nice, the other kids are so so.” Jason shrugged dismissively.

“Well, if you should ever tire of that old slump, try Metropolis High when you’re old enough. My old alma mater boasts very fine marine biology connections. But I bore you two with my old nostalgia, don’t I? Please come this way. Phantom and Banshee are absolutely eager to see you.”

Jason gave his dad a brief glance, to which Bruce gave an affirmative hand sign back.

They went through the backrooms of the aquarium, where they met the haggard-looking Steve Lombard. Jason had no idea why Lombard was spared the sacking that faced Clark and Angela, but from the stress lines on the man’s forehead and the scruffs on his sleeves, he could imagine it was because Luthor could control him, or because Phantom and Banshee didn’t like him as much as the latter two. He had to feel a little bad for the man. It was clear this job was wearing down on him, or perhaps it was Luthor doing that.

They were summarily lead through the premises, to a locker room where Jason and Bruce changed into a pair of specially tailored wetsuits, then continuing through the facility and finally arriving in front of a large pair of double doors.

That was when Luthor received a call from his phone. Jason smirked inwardly. Babs’ work. He took great pleasure in the briefest flash of consternation that appeared on the evil rich person’s face. Luthor straightened his tie, and turned to Bruce. “My dearest apologies, Bruce. It seems something terribly urgent requires my attention. I trust Steve here will be able to keep you company until I arrive.”

“Think nothing of it, Lexy!” Bruce said, clapping Lex on the back. “I know how these things are like. I’m sure we’ll still have your luncheon afterwards?”

“Certainly. This won’t take long.” Luthor gave Jason’s dad another shake of the hand, before leaving.

That was one interloper taken care of, now to get Lombard out of the way.

“Well!” the marine trainer said, “if you will please follow me through these doors, you’ll get to meet the jewels of Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquariums. Are you excited?”

Taking on the visage of a bored teenager (despite only being 12), Jason shrugged. “I dunno, can they do tricks?”

Steve Lombard looked briefly disheartened by his dismissal, only to perk up at Jason’s question. “Yes! All sorts of daring, dizzying, death-defying stunts!”

“Can they do other stuff?”

Lombard visibly gulped, sweating. “What kind of other stuff could you mean?”

“I dunno, like, can they talk and stuff?”

Lombard briefly glanced at Bruce, who simply put on an oblivious Brucie smile, offering zero help.

“Sadly, they cannot talk like us humans, but I’m sure they have some secret siren language that they won’t share. To destiny!” he said a little hastily, throwing open the doors.

The room was lined with black walls with an array of lights shining from the top, giving it a moody and mysterious vibe. There was a pool in the centre of the room, the waters completely calm and still. Jason squinted, there was also a tunnel at the bottom of the pool’s deep end, presumably where Phantom and Banshee would emerge.

“Where are they?” Jason asked with more than a little anxiety.

“Wait for it…” Lombard said. Jason held his breath.

Before long he caught a surge of movement from the bottom of the pool as two dark shapes emerged. Phantom surged upward and launched out of the water with a spin, before landing gracefully, with Banshee following close behind.

“Gentlemen and gentleboys,” Lombard announced, “I am pleased to introduce the unmatchable Phantom, and the devious Banshee!”

The two sirens emerged from the water, chirping a greeting. Jason’s head began to pound from the inside, almost falling over as Bruce caught him.

~~

Did all their reporters do their work in the dark and seedy parts of the city? It was at times like these that Clark was grateful for the cultivated skill of making himself seem small, despite his prodigious size, such that he went relatively unnoticed and ignored by the sparse people around him, never knowing if one of them might be Luthor’s spies. Didn’t Eve say he spied on all of his girlfriends?

He trawled through one alleyway away from sight, mentally recounting the directions he’d been given. He heard footsteps walk up to him, and yelped as a dainty hand grabbed his sleeve, pulling him aside.

“Clarky!” Eve whispered aggressively. “Can you be any more noticeable?”

She had hidden her features and frame underneath a thick coat and hoodie, and her face with a large pair of sunglasses and a hat whose brim would have cast a shadow over her shoulders, if she’d been standing in the light.

“S-sorry, I’m a scientist, not a ninja,” Clark offered weakly.

“Whatever, in here. She’s already there waiting for us.”

Clark was led into an unassuming building that he was half-sure was abandoned, into a dark and dingy room that smelled faintly of mould and whose walls occasionally rattled with the pitter patter of rats crawling around.

Was he about to get murdered? Had Luthor lured him and Eve into a trap to make sure they wouldn’t talk? If worst came to worst, he was prepared to do some covert Supermanning to make sure Eve got out alright, but he really didn’t want to risk it.

His hearing caught the woman before he saw her. They entered a dimly lit room with a ratty old sofa and armchair around an old table with one leg missing.

“Took you long enough,” the reporter said. Clark’s eyes widened.

“I’ve seen you around the aquarium a lot,” he exclaimed.

The reporter tossed her head back, clearing her hair from her face. She was wearing a sleek blouse and jeans, nothing like the usual suit and tie he was expecting, and her eyes…

For a man with X-ray vision and eyes that could fire lasers, this reporter’s eyes were the sharpest and most dangerous he had made contact with. They scanned over him in an instant, their gaze discerning and analytical. Her vision had the precision of a scalpel and the toughness of a paint scraper, and Clark knew instantly that no secret could survive her scrutiny, not even Superman’s identity. He resisted the urge to check over his shirt, making sure the Superman suit underneath was properly hidden.

“Lois Lane,” she introduced curtly. “I’m a reporter for the Daily Planet. I’ve been looking into Lex Luthor for a while, and that included extensive visits to your aquarium, Penguin Man.”

Clark blushed gently. “Oh, I never realised.” He always remembered people.

“You wouldn’t have. I was undercover. But more important is what you can tell me.”

“W-we will be kept anonymous, r-right?” Eve asked nervously. “You must understand, Lexy’s past girlfriends, they–” Her face paled, and she began fanning herself with her hands.

“You will be, and once I’m done with Luthor he’ll be lucky to be able to shit in privacy in his jail cell.” Her eyes lit up with a dangerous flame. Lois Lane was a scary woman, Clark concluded.

“Great! I’ll go first, alright?” Eve said, bouncing over and presenting her phone. She unlocked the screen, went to her photos app, then swiped to one of her albums, buried deep underneath all of the many, many, many others.

When she opened it, Clark had to squint in confusion. “What the hay?”

~~

“Kid, are you alright?” Lombard asked with concern. Jason waved it off.

“I’m fine, I’m just so… excited! To see the sirens! Hi!” he forced out with a pained grin.

“R-right!” Lombard said, chuckling with nervousness. He was far from the jockish showman that Jason had seen at the first performance so long ago. He carried himself with an uncertainty that contrasted significantly from his boisterous self back then. It wasn’t hard to guess what had caused his sudden shift in personality. Jason had no doubt that Luthor had gone to great lengths to tell Lombard not to mess up his chance to get in with Bruce Wayne. “As you know, these are the magnificent Phantom and Banshee. Say hello, boys!”

The two sirens in question sang a couple of duelling high notes that sounded positively melodic. Lombard whispered an aside to Jason. “They’ve been practising that for ages. How’d it sound?”

“Very sirenlike,” Jason said. Surreptitiously he glanced at B. They’d have to get rid of Lombard soon in order to speak with the boys directly. That moment was soon approaching. “Can they sing Dua Lipa?” he asked cheekily.

“Well, we’re working on song requests!” Lombard joked, the tension in his shoulders easing as the ice was broken. “Banshee’s got a talent for opera, if you can count hissing at me for taking his stolen items away opera. He definitely has the tragic complaining required for it! But enough about that! Have you been to any of their shows?”

“No, never. What about it?” Jason asked.

“Well, that means you get to experience the magic for the first time! To make sure they’re familiar with you, let’s try doing some patented human-siren bonding activities. Take this baton,” Lombard said, offering the same item given to the kids back at that first performance. It had a good weight to it, not too heavy that a young child would drop it, but not too light that it felt like paper. He gripped the baton firmly like the handlebars of the Robin-cycle, and stepped to the edge of the pool with Lombard.

His head spun, but he valiantly maintained balance, gritting his teeth silently as his nose swam with unfamiliar scents. He’d never been very sensitive with scents. Had someone passed gas here or something? No, that wasn’t the right smell. It was something deeply familiar to him but which he had never smelled before in his life.

“I’ll teach you the right signals to give to them so they’ll know you’re a cool dude. First of all, just offer your hand to them. That way they can give it a good sniff so they can get to know you.”

Jason nodded, half-listening to Lombard and half stuck in his own mind. The pounding in his head had turned into a migraine pulsing underneath his skull. He offered his hand out into the water, his eyes locking onto those of the sirens he hoped to save. What was the plan again? Where was he?

Instead of a nose, he felt scales grip his fingers.

“Oh, hold on! No, Phantom! No! Not yet! No, what are you doing? Down! Down boy! Down!” Jason looked over, half-dazed. What was Lombard yelling about? His ears hurt. His ears hurt so much. It felt like they were too small. His body felt too small. His pants felt too small, like they were boas constricting his flesh.

“Son?!” his dad shouted. “Son!”

Then the hand pulled him under. Jason hadn’t even seen it coming. He felt his throat give way as it flooded with saltwater, his breath rushing out as a flurry of bubbles.

~~

“What the hay?” Clark exclaimed in utter bafflement. Eve had made a serious decision in going behind Luthor’s back, but this was the ammunition she’d brought?

What he saw was a sea of blond hair and pretty make up. There were over a hundred selfies in the hidden-away album on Eve’s phone, taken in various locations. Most of them weren’t even particularly beautiful, if Clark would be so bold as to judge. He’d seen Eve’s photography and editing skills. They made Phantom’s bones look like cute features, when some children found them legitimately frightening. But he couldn’t understand what Lois Lane could do with these.

“Holy shit. Jimmy’s girlfriend is a genius,” Ms Lane muttered.

Clark gave Eve a quick sidelong glance of confusion.

“How the fuck didn’t Luthor notice these? How didn’t anybody notice you taking these?” Ms Lane asked in utter incredulity.

“Oh, they did,” Eve said nervously. “Well, actually I don’t know if they did, cause they usually just ignore me. People tend to do that a lot.”

“I don’t understand, what’s–” Clark stopped himself as Ms Lane took the phone and zoomed into the photo. “No way,” he gasped.

In the background of one salaciously styled selfie taken seemingly without a care in the world was a document, and Eve’s extremely expensive phone camera was able to capture all of the details.

And there were more. Business dealings with the dictator of Boravia, patents for a shock collar disguised as a necklace – wait, weren’t the boys wearing those exact same necklaces?! – and Clark didn’t have time to get angry before more damning details went through. There were papers on Luthor’s plans to take over half of a small country to rename it to Luthoria, even drafts to stage a terrorist attack on US soil.

“Holy fucking shit,” Lois Lane whispered. “That rat bastard…”

Clark didn’t exactly disagree with it. There were more, too. There were lists of political prisoners he was holding in his own private facility at the behest of some very dangerous names. Clark followed enough foreign policy and international politics – he had to, as Superman – to know these people were extremely evil. There were documents on what people he was spying on. Hell, there was even a section just about people who’d been nice to Superman.

That part made his stomach churn. What use was that last part for?

The lists of crimes and corruption was endless, and all of it was captured in the background of the phone belonging to someone that everyone had seen as a vapid trophy girlfriend.

“Eve, you’re incredible,” he whispered with every bit of sincerity. “You’re absolutely incredible.”

Eve blushed. “T-thanks, Clarky. I-I was really scared.”

“If you’d like to flirt, you can wait until after you’ve given me the evidence to destroy the world’s shiniest terrorist and traitor,” Ms Lane snarked, though not cruelly. She turned her sharp gaze to him, and Clark instinctively shrank like a mouse underneath the hot breath of a lion.

“Oh, well, m-mine is comparatively simple. I’ve been working with a linguist to try and figure out the siren language, so I’ve taken to carrying a recording device everywhere with me. H-here it is.”

Clark produced the device, briefly mourning its departure from his life, but steeling himself to gift it to a worthy cause. He’d transferred all of the files to his computer in his flat, and Dr Prince had most of the recordings with the boys’ voices as well.

“What am I looking at here?”

“It’s the recordings,” Clark said with a slight bit of confusion.

“No, farmboy, I mean I need you to tell me what to expect in here so I know what to look for.”

“Oh!” Clark nodded. “Well, I’ve kind of been leaving it on for pretty long stretches of time, while I’ve been at work with the boys. Luthor sometimes interrupted to demand something and then leave. The most recent recording was my firing from Lex’s office.”

Ms Lane hummed, took the device, and turned it on, quickly locating the aforementioned recording. They sat in silence as the recording replayed Clark’s most heated moment with any employer ever, and he felt an echo of the anger and shock that had ripped through him during that conversation.

“This is good,” Ms Lane whispered.

“R-really?”

“Yeah. If we’re going to do an exposé, we’ll need every bit of evidence against him. Thing is, the selfies have a lot of evidence that will land him in a legal hell dimension, but it’ll take effort to make that personal so people care. But this?” She waved the device in her hand. “It’s like the terrorism and the private prison stuff. It’s something that will make people hate Luthor. With this, I dare say we’ll have enough proof to destroy Lex Luthor legally, and in the public eye.”

Clark let out a breath he’d been holding since his firing, his shoulders melting back with relief. “Thank you so much, Ms Lane.”

“Just call me Lois, and if anything I should be thanking you two.”

“Oh no,” Eve said tenderly, “I couldn’t. It’s you who’s going to be saving me.” At the same time Clark shook his hands rapidly.

“No, no, the hard work is all being done by you, and I could never thank you enough for helping me save the boys, and,”

“Oh no that’s not quite it. Without your evidence I’d barely have anything, and I’ve been chasing Luthor down for weeks.”

Clark got flustered, but refused to back down, speaking over Lois. “I’m sure, but the boys are so important to me and he–”

“Oh will you two just shut up and kiss already?” Eve shouted, stopping them instantly. Immediately Clark felt a furious blush cover his face as he hunched down, covering his face with a sleeve.

“Oh, erm, right,” Lois said, stammering. “Keep an eye out for any more evidence. I’ll be in touch.”

He stared at the retreating form of the journalist as she exited the room. If he had the discerning eyes and senses that she had, perhaps he wouldn’t have been fooled by Luthor for so long.

“I have to go now,” Eve sighed. “Lexy will be expecting me.”

“You don’t have to go back to him,” Clark said. “Lois Lane’s going to take him down. You don’t have to let him control you any longer.”

“Easy for you to say,” she said with a pout. “Also, all my makeup’s there. And you know how I look without makeup on.”

Actually, he didn’t, but he decided not to bring that up.

“I’m serious. If you need a place to stay, you could always stay with me however long it takes for Lois’ article to come out.”

Eve looked at him earnestly, with a deep sadness behind the locks of her golden hair. “Thank you, Clarky. You’ve always seen me the way other people don’t. I don’t want Lexy to hurt you too.”

And Eve Teschmacher left as well.

~~

Jason’s eyes went half-lidded as he stared up at the surface in a daze. The pressure in his lungs was agonising as his drowned lung sacs begged for oxygen. His dad and Steve Lombard were shouting, at him, for him or at each other, he couldn’t tell. Soon a dark shape moved in front of him, it was Banshee, chirping and clicking something Jason couldn’t understand. Everything hurt so much.

Everything felt so right. Everything felt so peaceful.

~~

“Hello? Is this the security office?” Jack asked merrily. The receptionist facepalmed.

“No, Dr Fenton. This is the reception desk. The security office is over there, through the staff backrooms.”

“I know, but I’ve been through there and I couldn’t find it!”

Maddie tapped his shoulder. “Sweetie, maybe we could try going through there a third time? Maybe we just missed it.”

“That could be true, yes,” Jack said with a contemplative voice.

Suddenly Jack heard someone shout his name. He turned around to see one of the handlers sprinting for him. What was his name again? Jack Bombard? Steve Lobster? Stephen Joestar?

“Dr Fenton! I need your help!”

“What is it?” Maddie pressed, her full attention on the panting man.

“T-t-the sirens! C-come with me! Quickly!” he said.

The scientist couple chased after the handler into the staff backrooms, easily matching his frantic pace.

“What happened? What’s going on?” Jack asked.

“It’s the sirens,” the handler repeated. “They just pulled Bruce Wayne’s kid into the water! He’s in too deep. I can’t get him out, and they’re not listening to my commands!”

Jack’s eyes widened. The prospect of a kid’s life in danger propelled him forward. The three of them burst through the doors to some private showing pool. Jack and his wife immediately ran up to the edge, hands already reaching for their tools, but the sight in the water stunned Jack like a statue.

There was a large man in a business suit heaving water out of his lungs, lying prone on the side of the pool. There were red scales in the water, and wisps of blood, so much blood.

Chapter Text

Some time ago…

“Ssshhh,” Tim hushed as they climbed out of the tank. Danny obliged, his eyes noting the bugs placed around the aquarium.

Their camera vision didn’t cover the part where they could climb out and dry off to turn human, but Tim wasn’t sure if their cameras would pick up on their speech or not, so the boys vowed to remain silent.

Frankly, this whole dance of them sneaking past the cameras and not chatting like they used to was boring. For a few days, Tim allowed his neighbour’s bugs to exist, but today they’d had enough. The water slowly evaporated from his scales, turning them into smooth skin as his fins folded back underneath it, and his tail spread apart into legs.

Tim gestured to him, and he nodded. They held each other’s hands as they changed colours, turning invisible. The two of them beelined straight for each of the bugs, tiny little things that smelled faintly of sea salt, and crushed them beneath his heel.

When it was all done, the boys let go of their camouflage, panting at the effort required to stay invisible for so long.

“You sure you got everything?” Danny whispered as quietly as he could manage.

“Yeah, I followed him while he was putting them down, plus a couple extra he placed. I know a lot about this stuff.”

Tim was a heist planner, hacker, he ran around at night taking pictures of Batman, and he knew where to find bugs at the age of 9, but what surprised Danny more was that his neighbour, Jason Todd-Wayne, casually had listening bugs on him like some kind of super spy.

“So… what’s the deal with that?” Danny asked. He’d asked this question a few times, only for Tim to evade the question each time. “Is Jason secretly a super spy or something?”

“He’s a complication, that’s what he is,” Tim pouted, evading the question yet again. Danny wilted a little bit at that. He thought there were no secrets between them.

But then again, if Jason was actually a secret super spy, then Tim would be a huge jerk if he told other people about his secret super espionage, right?

“I seriously thought that letter would be enough,” Tim said. “Why’s he so persistent? Should I try and send another letter?”

Danny shook his head. “Or maybe he saw your first letter and that got him even more worried.”

“We don’t know that…” Tim argued weakly. Danny huffed. It wasn’t like they could just swim up to Jason and ask him.

“Maybe he’ll give up?”

“No, Jason’s not the kind of kid who gives up. He’s too nice to give up, especially when he’s worried about someone else. He’ll probably come to my house soon, if he hasn’t already.”

“And what will happen then?”

Tim’s eyes turned upward in thought. “I don’t think he’ll find anything. I already scrubbed any evidence of you staying with me, and most of our plans. But that doesn’t mean he’ll stop snooping around the aquarium.”

“And if he snoops too much, he might figure out we’re smarter than everyone thinks we are,” Danny said, gulping with worry.

“And if he figures it out, he’ll tell everyone, and there goes our income,” Tim concluded with a grim nod.

“So we need to play up our dumbness in front of him more?”

“Absolutely. Jason Todd-Wayne can never find out the truth.”

~~

3 minutes ago…

That was Jason Todd-Wayne, the boy who was Tim’s friend, the boy who’d been oddly obsessed with them, constantly visiting them, always observing, always trying to see through them.

Why was he here?

The humans in the room spoke to each other at first, allowing Danny and Tim a moment to process these events. They remained submerged, hidden in the tunnel leading to the pool. Danny chirped a confused question at his friend.

“Did you know your friend was going to be here?”

“No,” Tim clicked back. “Luthor never told us who we’d be meeting, but why would Jason be here?”

Before they could speak further, Steve gave them the signal. The boys pushed themselves back, then rapidly accelerated to sprinting speeds as they zoomed into the pool, angling upward for a high jump.

Danny sniffed the air for a brief second, making half a second’s eye contact with Jason.

“He smells strange.” Danny said upon submerging again. It was the same strange smell that was on the bugs, which made sense, since it was Jason that had placed them, but what made less sense was that Jason had by far the strangest scent he’d ever detected on a human. It was on the same level of strangeness as Clark’s sun-roasted skin that occasionally smelled faintly of metal and concrete.

“I smell it too. Did we ever get close enough to scent him?” Tim asked.

“No.”

Jason stepped forward, only for the preteen’s legs to suddenly buckle as he fell back into his father’s arms.

“Did we do that?” Danny hissed, alarm shaking his voice.

“I-I don’t know.”

The adults surrounded Jason in an instant, fussing over him and asking him questions as the waterbound boys whispered furious speculation. Danny and Tim fought to maintain a calm face as they conversed underwater. Speculation was passed between them, ranging from allergy to their scales, to a freak bout of dizziness, to Victorian fainting disease owing to Jason’s love of old novels. Perhaps it was Lovecraftian, Jason so appalled by their treatment that he had no choice but to pass out from sheer terror.

But as soon as he was down, Jason was back on his feet, his stance still shaky and uncertain. Steve gestured for them to give their greeting song to their two-person audience. Danny flicked his fins, pushing his head above the water as he and Tim gave Jason a long string of calls and croons, but his heart wasn’t in it. His heart wasn’t in anything they did, too haunted by the spectre of their future at Luthor’s hands.

But the second moment they had above water also gave him another chance at taking in Jason’s scent. There was fever, and stress, and pain.

The humans exchanged more pleasantries and ice-breaking as the boys returned to the water and their own discussion.

“It definitely smells familiar, like something I know really well, but that I’m so used to that I’ve never noticed and I have to really think about it. What is it??” Tim added.

Danny concentrated. It smelled like… the sea. It smelled like the sea, thrumming underneath someone’s skin.

It smelled the same as him and his friend, when they used to roam the aquarium grounds at dark. It was the same haunting odour of pain that burned his nose on the night Tim joined his species.

Movement at the corner of his eye drew his attention upward. Jason was stepping forward, with Steve giving the command to him and Tim to sniff his hand.

But with Jason’s skin so close, that scent of another like him became overwhelming, and it was clear Jason was in terrible, terrible pain.

The same kind of pain that overwhelmed Danny on the first few days of his flight from his home, when he would refuse to touch any kind of water except to drink, fearing that the more he would indulge in his monstrous impulses, the more his humanity would be corroded away.

But the longer he went without changing to the horrible visage of his other self, the more everything hurt, until at last he flung himself into a river, half-maddened and half-aware, destroying his clothes and ruining his backpack. His body had chosen the absolute worst time to force him into the water, as a group of teenagers had heard the noise and come to investigate. Danny had to hide underneath the dirt for hours while they left. And after that, he was forced to steal clothes again after mourning the ones he’d been wearing since he left home.

From then on, he had to soak in the water at least once a week, once a day if he wanted to avoid any discomfort.

So when Jason offered his hand, Danny didn’t move forward to sniff it. Instead, his body moved without thinking, his hands grasping Jason’s. Tim yelped with alarm as the adults cried out Jason’s name. Danny didn’t give mind to any of them. He threw his tail in front of him, generating momentum backward and pulling Jason in. The older boy provided no resistance, plunging into the cold depths.

“Danny! What are you doing?! Jason’s going to drown!” Tim shouted as Jason’s lungs immediately expelled their air, his eyes going half-lidded. Despite the mortal danger of the situation, Jason remained sedate and dazed, barely even twitching a muscle to preserve his own life.

“No, he won’t,” Danny muttered. “Look.”

He brushed aside a lock of Jason’s hair, revealing a singular, shiny red scale. Tim’s eyes widened. “W-when?! Did you turn him just now? Why? Shouldn’t the transformation take longer?”

Danny shook his head. “I never turned him. Neither of us had any contact with him at all as sirens, or even as humans.”

The scales came quickly. From that singular red piece, more and more scales bloomed forth. The roots of his hair bled their black colour away, starting to gain a stark red colour.

A splash. A dark shape had entered the water. It was Bruce Wayne, Jason’s dad, a determined expression on his face. Instantly, instincts stronger than thought flared up in the deepest parts of Danny’s mind. There was an intruder, a predator in his waters, and he had to fight back. He bared his teeth in a savage hiss at the intruder, claws outstretched and ready to fight. Tim flanked Jason on the other side, the two boys shielding the formerly human preteen’s body from the stranger.

But the human didn’t back off, instead he pressed forward. His hackles raising, Danny shot through the water, fins straight as arrows. His head rammed into the human man’s stomach, causing him to gasp and a dangerous amount of air bubbles to leak through his mouth. The human escaped as Danny and Tim hissed at him, returning to the surface.

~~

Two. That was the number of sirens that had been captured by Luthor Marine Sanctuary and Aquariums. Two. That was the number of sirens that had ever been held in captivity. Two. That was the number of sirens currently held in captivity at the aquarium.

The first one was Phantom, a siren built for speed and endurance, with haunting translucent skin with glowing lines pulsing underneath his flesh. The second one was Banshee, an octopus-like siren that could camouflage and wiggle into the tightest of spaces. That was all there was. One, Phantom, and two, Banshee. There were only two. Some speculated there would only ever be two.

In that pool, there was Phantom, number one. Then there was Banshee, number two.

Then, there was a third one.

That was impossible.

Maddie scanned the situation. Bruce Wayne was on the floor, heaving, coughing out water. His son, Jason Todd-Wayne, was nowhere to be found. Jack was kneeling over Bruce Wayne and checking if he was alright.

Steve had said Jason had been pulled in.

There were scraps of neoprene in the water, mixed along the wisps of blood.

She remembered those samples they’d taken from the lab, the ones that they swore up and down were secure, but had somehow been swapped out with human blood, hair and skin samples.

But they weren’t swapped out.

“Maddie, that siren– it’s wearing a wetsuit,” Jack realised with the same dawning horror.

Just like Jason Todd-Wayne would be wearing.

“My god,” Maddie said, the implications rushing through her mind. “Oh my god…”

“My son,” Bruce Wayne coughed out. “He’s in there. He’s drowning.”

“I think you have a lot more to worry about than your kiddo drowning, sir,” Jack said numbly.

“Mr Wayne,” Maddie began, unsure of where to begin. “Your son looks to be safe, but I think you need to see this for yourself.”

Jack propped up Bruce Wayne’s hefty weight and directed him to peer into the water, as if viewing a different world. Jason seemed to have been jolted awake from the apparent trance he was in when Jack and Maddie entered. He was looking over his body, sheets of fiery red and yellow scales replacing skin, fins fanning in the water, face twisted with utter shock.

And then… Phantom and Banshee conversed with him. It was the only explanation Maddie could think of. The other two sirens sat Jason down. Holding his hands, speaking at length, shaking and nodding their heads. There the adults sat, intruders on a world not their own, peering into something Maddie never knew even existed. A conversation.

“There was so much blood,” Bruce whispered. “I was terrified, but, but…”

“There doesn’t seem to be any now. The blood might have just come from the initial transformation. Now that that’s over the bleeding’s stopped,” Maddie mused. “Did you,”

“Know about this?” Bruce finished for her. “No. I had no idea. Neither did Jason. I’ve taken him to more than a few pool parties, and he never sprouted fins there.”

“Maybe it has to do with saltwater,” Jack mused.

“We need to perform a psychological test,” Maddie said. “If Jason still remembers… being himself, then that changes everything.”

“What if he’s just a human with scales and a tail, not a real siren?”

“I have a feeling that won’t be the case, Jack. Remember the samples?”

Jack swallowed thickly. “Do you think…”

“Do I think Luthor knows? I’m not sure, but if he does I’m going to be having words with him.”

“He’s beautiful…” Steve whispered. “Like the shine of a football in the morning sun…”

Bruce coughed. “That’s my son you’re talking about.”

Steve paled. “O-oh, I’m so sorry Mr Wayne, I didn’t mean anything by it. Really, I was just,”

Steve was saved by the red shape in the water rising out. It was undeniable now that he was up close. His eyes were different, a large red sclera with a slit pupil, like that of a cat, but they held a human intelligence to them. The siren boy’s face looked at them with trepidation and new peace at the same time.

He crooned at them.

“Jason?” Bruce Wayne whispered.

The siren boy with the flaming scales nodded, chirping affirmatively. He held his hands out, the universal child’s gesture for ‘uppies’, and Bruce clasped his thick, callused hands around thin, scaly ones with bright orange webbing, and pulled. Water cascaded off of Jason’s smooth scales. It rolled off of his dorsal fin as it emerged through the water. It dripped off of his arm fins and off the ridges of his gills. Once he was fully above the water except for his tail fin, he sat with his belly down like any siren would. Jason looked briefly uncomfortable, before he relaxed his upper body, and his gills opened up. The open slits gave way to a mass of water draining out from his lungs, something she and Jack studied extensively, but to see it happen in front of him, to a boy who had no gills just ten minutes ago, was nothing short of a wonder.

“D-dad,” Jason whispered, in human English, immediately calling into question all of their theories on siren speech and vocal abilities.

“Jason, are you… alright?”

“Y-yeah,” the boy turned siren-boy said. “I-it just hurt a little, b-but they helped me. P-please don’t be mad at them.”

“Jason,” Maddie said, calling the boy’s attention to him. Surreptitiously, she activated the recording function in her jumpsuit. “I’m going to ask you a few questions, to make sure your mental state isn’t being altered. Is that alright?”

“Y-yeah, that’s fine,” Jason said.

“Hold on, is this the right time to be asking these kinds of questions?” Bruce said.

“No, Bruce,” Jason argued. “I need to do this. For them.”

Bruce narrowed his eyes, but backed down.

“What’s your name?”

“Jason Peter Todd-Wayne.”

“Where are you?”

“In Luthor’s hell prison of an aquarium.”

“What’s the date?”

“XX/XX/20XX,” Jason said correctly.

“Who did you come here with?”

“My dad, Bruce Wayne.”

“Do you know what happened to you just now?”

“I got pulled into the water by Phantom. I think he realised I was in pain, and just wanted to help. Then, I drowned, I think, or maybe I didn’t, and I was just t-transforming…”

“Look, Mads!” Jack said, pointing at a spot on Jason’s back.

It was skin.

Maddie turned to Steve, who’d so far relegated himself to gaping in shock. “Steve, get some towels and some clothes from the gift shop here, stat!”

“Right, I’ll be back,” Steve said as he sprinted through the doors at a speed worthy of any national league football team.

“Luthor, he’s torturing them, Bruce. Those necklaces aren’t for decorations, they’re shock collars to keep them in line.” Jason’s voice strained. He coughed as his father pulled him closer. More scales started to disappear. More skin reappeared in their place.

“How do you know that?” Jack asked, his expression pained, reeling from the revelations of today.

Jason glared at him, but in his weakened state it came off more as a pout. “Because they told me. They told me because they can speak, and I could understand them, and now I’m telling you. Luthor’s doing all kinds of fucked up things to them. Torturing them, beating them, shocking them when they don’t do what he wants, keeping their food away.”

Maddie’s throat seized.

Jason continued, “and I guarantee I’m not making this shit up, because they were the ones who told me how to breathe on land by opening up my gills, which I didn’t have until today, mind you,” his voice was sarcastic, and biting, but given the circumstances, Maddie couldn’t blame him. “Otherwise I’d just drown from my own lungs being flooded.”

“I believe you,” Maddie said.

Luthor had been torturing these poor children, and she and her husband were complicit in all of it. That was why Angela Spica had sedated them, because they were rightfully terrified of them. That was why the boys were terrified of her and Jack.

She turned to the water, gazing through to Phantom and Banshee, who’d been watching them the whole time, their eyes shining with hope and naked vulnerability. Her gaze turned to the necklaces strung around their necks, far too tight to be comfortable. How had she never noticed?

“Phantom?” Maddie whispered. “Can you understand me?”

Phantom nodded, and the last traces of doubt within her were brutally killed. “Come closer, you two,” Maddie said, unveiling one of her tools, the Fenton Clipper, a pair of special modified scissors meant for high-precision tasks. “Jack and I are going to get those collars off. Do you understand?”

The two boys in the water froze, like they were unsure if they could trust her or not.

“We’re sorry we helped the horrible bald man,” Jack said in earnest. “We won’t hurt you, I promise.”

“You can trust them,” Jason told them, his tail a half-formed (or half-split) pair of limbs that joined together at the knee, but that joining was slowly ending as more skin was revealed, and the limbs continued to separate. Already his tailfin was solidifying into a bony pair of feet and toes. “And if they do anything, I’ll kick their asses.”

With his reassurance, Banshee moved forward, baring his neck, an unprecedented show of trust and vulnerability.

Maddie made sure not to waste it.

She immediately went to diagnostics, flipping her goggles over and analysing the make of the collar and its wiring along with Jack. For how small and thin it was, the collar was deeply complex and intricate, but nothing as complicated – or convoluted – as what a drunk Jack could cook up at 2 am on a Sunday.

With deft hands and one precise motion, Maddie snipped the necklace at the intersection between its power source and its shock mechanism, instantly deactivating it.

Banshee breathed a sigh of relief, tears welling up in his eyes.

“T-thank you,” he said, shocking Maddie with his perfect English. “T-thank you so much.”

Then it came to Phantom, still frozen, except for the faintest twitches of fear in his fins. Maddie stepped forward, only for Phantom to swim back.

“It’s ok,” Maddie said. “You’re going to be ok. We won’t let you get hurt anymore. We won’t let Luthor touch you. We’ll protect you like our own son.”

A tear leaked from Phantom’s eye. He thrust himself forward, propping his arms at the edge of the pool and pushing himself up, his eyes shut as he presented his collar. Jack quickly identified the mechanisms, and with one snap of the Fenton Clippers, they fell to the water too.

“T-there’s still our–”

The doors slammed open.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Asked the tranquil calm of one furious Lex Luthor.

Chapter Text

Immediately the adults of the room stood up, barricading the children from the evil man before them. Bruce stood protectively over Jason, who had fully turned back to his human form, wrapped in a large, thick towel. Jack and Maddie went the extra mile, drawing their hydroplasmic guns and aiming them at Luthor’s head.

“You,” Maddie spat. “You knew, didn’t you?”

“Knew what, Dr Fenton? That you and your husband have abandoned your posts to bother my VIP guest? Or that you have destroyed company property and the sirens’ enrichment items?”

“Cut the crap, Luthor,” Jack responded. “You knew they were intelligent. You knew they could talk! You collared them like slaves, like property!”

“Be careful who you threaten, Jack,” Luthor sneered.

“It’s the end of the line, Luthor,” Bruce interjected. “We know what you’ve done. You can’t get away with this.”

“Do you know who you’re talking to, Wayne? Do you think you could possibly hope to touch me? You, the man who tossed coins into a chocolate fountain hoping to make a wish, then stumbled over your own feet and tipped the whole thing over yourself. You think you can threaten me?”

He looked down at Jason, at the scales still smattering his shoulders. “I see… Your son shall make a fine addition to my aquarium, and you won’t be able to do anything about it.”

Jack scowled. “Why? Why would you do this? They’re just children, Lex. Children! They’ve never done anything to you!”

“On the contrary, they have humiliated me, stolen from me, tricked me, but that’s not important. My plans go far beyond what you pathetic snivelling twits could possibly imagine, now drop the weapons, and I may consider letting you keep your jobs.”

Maddie charged her gun, causing a distinct whining noise as it glowed furiously. “We’re serious, Luthor. You have five seconds to give me a reason not to put scorch marks on your chrome dome.”

“By all means, you are welcome to try.”

Luthor stepped aside as a mass of tiny metal shards dropped from the door way, forming into the shape of a woman. “Angela Spica?!” Maddie exclaimed as the face of the woman solidified.

“Hi, Maddie. Never liked you.”

The cyborg woman leapt forward with blinding speed, catching Maddie by the throat and forcing her to drop her weapons. “Maddie!” Jack shouted. He charged into a shoulder check, throwing the woman off of his wife and bashing her into the wall.

But she wasn’t winded, or even perturbed. Spica grinned smugly at him, before splitting apart at the torso and escaping Jack’s grip.

~~

Superman soared through the air, his head still swimming with anxiety about the boys. Every day he looked to the aquarium, just to check on them. They were growing thinner, more starved as the days went by. It tortured him worse than the burn of kryptonite to watch, unable to do anything about it.

And still he watched, because knowing what state they were in was better than not knowing, and guessing.

He had saved a cat out of a tree, helped an elderly man cross the street, and assisted a child with their homework, all things Superman, but his heart wasn’t truly in it.

The locals had noticed too. One woman he’d saved from some robbers asked him how he was, and he blushed in embarrassment for how obvious he was that something was bothering him.

Then, his ears caught something.

Superman. We need your help! Superman! Superman!

Words couldn’t describe the desperation and terror in that voice.

It was coming from the aquarium. Superman zipped through the city, arriving at the building in seconds. He flew through the entranceway, crashing a hole through the doors of the staff room as his ears located the source of the sound. He flew through long hallways, manoeuvring around shocked former colleagues as he scanned his former workplace for the child’s voice.

There, in one of the smaller pools backstage. He saw the boys, Damian Drake, Bruce Wayne, his boss, the Drs Fenton and another… person he had met before. The person was clearly a meta, shapeshifting into masses of metal to attack the Fentons. Phantom and Banshee were clearly trembling with fear, their hearts racing.

Superman crashed through the water, delivering a solid punch to the Engineer. The terrorist shouted in surprise as she impacted the war, wheezing. Distantly he noted Luthor running away, but Superman stayed to make sure the Engineer was down.

“Superman!” Banshee cried out in English. “You came!”

“Yes, I did, now what’s the situation?”

“Lex Luthor’s trying to kill those scientists! You have to save them!” Banshee cried out.

He was going to put the world-shaking implications of that sentence being spoken to by someone he’d assumed couldn’t understand or even learn English aside, and squared up against the supervillain as she got up, rolling her shoulders.

“Superman,” she spat. “You have no right to interfere.”

“You have no right to be hurting these innocent people.”

“They are not people, they are fish, just like how you’re an alien.”

“I’m as much an Earthling as you are, Engineer,” Superman retorted.

“Superman,” one of the boys whispered. “Throw her into the water. Our powers will short her out.”

So apparently Phantom and Banshee also had superpowers. Superman kept his eye on the enemy. At the same time, Jack and Maddie Fenton joined him at his side. “We’re with you, Supes,” Jack said. “Let’s beat this mechanical menace down and get Luthor.”

“Over my dead body,” the Engineer sneered.

The Fentons opened fire with their weapons. The Engineer easily danced between the hail of glowing energy bolts. She shifted her body, flipped over attacks, and formed her hands into sawblades and tossed them with blinding speed. Superman cursed and quickly flew to intercept, stopping them with his body. However, the blades melted into a mass of liquid-like metal that moulded around his hands, moving up to his throat and constricting.

“Superman! Fentons! Toss the nanobots into the water! Quickly!”

“Will do, kiddos!” Jack shouted back. He charged forward, unrelenting even as more nanobots clung to him. She tackled the Engineer and made for the water, but her leg caught on the ground and she spun on it, throwing him at the wall. Superman dove in at that moment, sweeping her foot and breaking her balance. Then he punched her straight into the water.

Phantom and Banshee moved to surround her, and immediately there was a brilliant flash of light as pure lightning filled the water, the Engineer spasming and twitching, her nanobot body shaking as it rippled and destabilised, until at last her eyes rolled over.

Phantom pushed her into the shallow area, her head above water, unconscious, but alive.

“Thank you for your help,” Superman told the boy earnestly.

“We need to get Luthor,” Bruce Wayne said firmly. “That man threatened my son. We can’t let him get away.”

The adults in the room nodded collectively, except for Lombard. “I’ll watch over the boys,” Lombard said. “Give him a good knockin’ around, will you? He deserves it.”

“Do you three trust me?” Superman asked, turning to Bruce Wayne and the Fenton parents.

“I do!” Jack cheered.

“Who doesn’t trust Superman?”

Bruce Wayne quirked an eyebrow. “Sure, but what are you going to do?”

Superman scooped up all three of them and sped off to Luthor’s location. The megalomaniac was stood in his office, sitting on the chair and looking positively calm despite the assailants after him.

The four of them surrounded him, daring him to try anything.

Luthor smirked. “Pleasant day, isn’t it?”

“It’s over, Luthor. You’re going to answer for what you’ve done.” Superman’s cape fluttered in the wind.

“Am I?” Luthor’s posture remained as smug as ever. It took every bit of willpower Superman had not to deck the man. “Do you think you’ve one just because you assaulted one of my employees?”

“We’ll tell everyone about what you’ve done, Luthor. What you made us do,” Madeline Fenton snapped.

“I highly doubt that. The truth is you have no evidence. With my power, I can have all of this swept under the rug. Sirens are animals, they have no rights, and no protections under than the kind that dolphins get. I’ll get slapped with a fine at most, and then be free to continue doing whatever I want.”

“And the fact that my son is a siren, and not just some animal?” Bruce Wayne said, almost growling with rage.

“Son? What son? All I see is another siren mysteriously appearing in the pool. Perhaps Phantom performed mitosis. I really am sorry about the disappearance of young Jason.”

“You’re out of your mind if you think I’m going to allow you to spread those lies.”

“Face it. You have nothing. I have still won. You have lost,” Luthor smiled, fully confident in his total victory.

Then, Jack Fenton’s pointed skyward, whispering something at Madeline.

“Uh, Superman, you might want to see this.”

Superman looked up, and saw one of the huge electronic billboards in the city, visible from Luthor’s office, lighting up with the headline:

Lex Luthor: Terrorist, Traitor and Abuser.

“What?” Luthor whispered, almost faintly. “What is this slander?!”

“It’s no slander,” Superman retorted. “It’s just good journalism.”

The TV came on.

“A slew of leaks obtained by the Daily Planet reveal the depths of Lex Luthor’s machinations, providing direct evidence of numerous crimes both domestic and international. These include the sale of weapons to Boravia and collusion with the Boravian president in order to start a war, so that he can claim half of the country of Jahranpur for himself. If you do not believe me, and it is truly unbelievable, then the leaked photos and documents are available for all to see. In fact, we here at the Daily Planet have spoken to several experts, who have all confirmed that the documents are authentic. Furthermore, Lex Luthor has been revealed to have been planning a terrorist attack on US soil in order to further his own goals. This is just the beginning of Luthor’s crimes, including abuse of employees, women, children and animals, fraud, insider trading and more.”

Superman crossed his arms. “It’s over.”

Lex Luthor sat there, frozen, silent as a singular tear dripped down his face.

All he could muster was a whispered “How?”

Superman shook his head, disappointed, and piteous of the pitiful creature in front of them. “You have only yourself to blame, Luthor. I’m sure the callousness you displayed in front of us today has only been a drop in the bucket. Somewhere, someone with a conscience decided to stand up against you.”

Lex swallowed thickly, his throat quivering visibly. He stood up, shaking. The Fenton parents’ guns whined, but Superman signalled for them to stand by. Luthor stumbled forward, throwing a half-hearted punch at Superman’s cheek. He barely felt it.

“HOW?!” Luthor roared, his madness echoing in the room. “I WAS AT THE TOP OF THE WORLD. HOW?! I DIDN’T EVEN GET A CHANCE TO DESTROY YOU. I WAS THIS CLOSE TO ACHIEVING EVERYTHING. YEARS OF INTRICATE, FOOLPROOF PLANS. YOU DID NOTHING, SUPERMAN. ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. YOU DIDN’T EARN THIS VICTORY, JUST LIKE YOU DIDN’T EARN YOUR POWERS, THE LOVE AND ATTENTION EVERYONE POURS FOR YOU EVEN THOUGH YOU’RE NOT EVEN A HUMAN. I WASN’T EVEN DEFEATED BY YOU. IT WAS THESE TWITS AND THE IDIOT WITH THE SPOON IN HIS MOUTH SINCE HE WAS A CHILD AND HIS STREET RAT TRASH.”

Superman shook his head, watching passively as Luthor threw ineffectual punch after ineffectual punch. “Lex, you lost precisely because of humanity. I’m just as human as anyone is. I’ve made terrible mistakes. I’ve failed, sometimes horrifically, sometimes in a way I fear can’t be fixed, but I still get up in the morning every day, put on these trunks that you said in that one interview looked ridiculous, and I try my best for other people. That’s all we can ever do. My humanity is my greatest strength, and it’s your failure to see that in me, in the sirens, and in the people around you that brought this upon you. And, despite it all, I hope you can learn one day that your humanity is your greatest strength too.”

Luthor shook violently, as if every muscle was reeling with revulsion. “Look at you, your platitudes, your smugness, the way you look down on other people and make them feel small. I could’ve saved the world and made a utopia if it wasn’t for you.”

“If it mattered to you, Lex, if it truly mattered, you could’ve done that years ago.”

Lex Luthor quivered, his face twisting in rage. Any further attempts at ranting and raving as he had been were, however, stopped by the well-timed punch by one Bruce Wayne, sending Luthor crumpling to the floor with a bloodiness.

“I’ve been waiting to do that for ages,” Bruce said.

Something about the way he punched Luthor felt familiar…

“What do we do now?” Jack asked.

There were the distant rings of police sirens. The four adults went up to the window and watched dozens of police and FBI vehicles congregate below.

“We should check on the boys,” Superman told them.

Chapter Text

The locker room had a distinct weighty feeling to it. It killed him to not be in the middle of the fight, kicking Luthor in the face, but he had a secret identity to hold onto, and it was more important he was with Phantom and Banshee. Well, he had a strong feeling he knew what their real names were.

But he’d leave that information to himself for the time being. With their collars broken, the two of them were able to use their powers to break off the remaining jewellery around their bodies. Jason realised with a knot in his stomach that Luthor had placed them there to prevent them from turning human.

They sat on the bench opposite him, clothed in pair of shirts and shorts procured from the gift shop. How twisted, Jason thought, that they would have to wear their own merch, created to profit from their existence by Lex Luthor. However, the two of them had insisted on covering their faces with towels, saying that their human faces were of extreme hideousness that they couldn’t bear to show. Only their eyes peeked through the gaps in their impromptu masks, startlingly ordinary, like their pale skin and soft feet.

Jason had briefly gone to the sink and looked into the mirror. His face was the same as always. When he wet his hands, his fingers turning scaly as webbing re-emerged between them, he splashed the water onto his face. His face looked the same as before, just with more scales. The edges of his ears had turned sharp and translucent like fins from the drops of water spraying onto them. He towelled off the water after that, returning himself to full humanness.

He came back to the main locker room, sitting across from the sirens boys, now in the shape of human kids. He crossed his legs on the bench. His phone pinged with a dozen messages from Dick. He briefly checked them. His brother had linked a news article about Lex Luthor being arrested for all sorts of crimes. He breathed out slowly with relief. It was over now.

“What’s going to happen to us?” the boy that was Phantom asked. Jason had asked for their real names, because Phantom and Banshee were just the names that the aquarium called them. They had declined, telling him their real names couldn’t be spoken with a human tongue. Jason quietly called bullshit.

“They took down Lex Luthor,” Jason said solemnly. “I guess that means you can go back to the ocean now, if you want. Nobody can keep you trapped here anymore.”

The other boys in the room shifted uncomfortably. “We don’t have anywhere to go there,” Phantom whispered. “Our pod’s left us.”

“You can always stay with us,” Jason said, twiddling his fingers shyly, earnestness in his voice despite his ulterior motives. “B’s a bleeding heart for orphan types. He’d never be able to reject you. I mean, he plucked me off the streets after I robbed him. He has a pool too. It’s chlorinated, but we can change it to saltwater for you. And it’s not like you have to stay forever. You can if you want to!”

The two sirens leaned into each other, whispering something. They separated, and turned to Jason.

“Your dad really would?” Banshee asked him.

“In a heartbeat,” Jason told him. “And like I said, you don’t even have to stay forever, just… until all this blows over, I guess. The aquarium’s future isn’t looking too great with Luthor gone, so it’s probably better for you to be in human form for now.”

“A-and he won’t mind that we’re…”

“That you’re sirens?” Jason finished for Phantom. “I’m a siren too, now, I guess. And that’s not gonna stop him from keeping me. Bruce is… he’s different from other people. From people like Lex. He’ll just be worried you’ll miss swimming around.”

Phantom’s hands clenched together, his body language shaky and fragile with uncertainty.

“Ok,” he said. “We’ll go with you.”

“There’s something we need to tell you all, actually. I-if it isn’t too much trouble, can you gather the bright-coloured scientists, a-and Clark? And Angela Foley too.” Banshee added, his voice unsure, and vulnerable.

“Are you sure? Shouldn’t you guys be resting?”

“We’ve been hiding this for too long now. You deserve the truth.”

~~

“I-if it isn’t too much trouble, can you gather the bright-coloured scientists, a-and Clark?” Banshee said, his voice carrying to Superman’s ears.

The feds had swarmed the building, and the aquarium had closed to the public. Every employee in the building was being interviewed, many of them sharing stories of Luthor’s abuses towards them and towards the sirens. Oddly, he treated the rest of the residents of the aquarium with total respect to their rights as animals. It was part of what had boggled Superman’s mind.

The others were whispering about where Phantom and Banshee were, how they couldn’t find them anywhere. Superman had a good idea where, but he kept his mouth shut for his boys’ sake. The four of them had also sworn Steve Lombard to secrecy, making sure he told nobody about Jason, Phantom and Banshee’s ability to transform.

The hours passed. Bruce Wayne was a paradox of a man, being impossibly high-profile, and yet capable of slipping away into the darkness, evading reporter and protestor alike, the newly transformed siren boys tucked away in his limousine.

Clark had wanted to offer his own flat to the boys, but he had to admit his one-man flat was a little unsuited to house two entire children. He had to admit that the man with a huge mansion would be better suited, and it would do the boys good to be with another of their kind at last.

The Fentons had offered him their thanks for his help. It seemed this whole ordeal had aged them significantly. He remembered that they were Angela’s friends, the ones whose son had run away some time ago and was never found. He could tell they carried within them a profound sadness, which was only amplified now they knew they were working for a supervillain. They were now jobless, compounding that.

As for Clark, he wondered briefly if he might be able to have his job back, and finally get back to his penguins.

In the dim lights of his flat, he chuckled mirthlessly. Even if he’d got his job back, he feared it would be forever soured by what had happened to the boys in that terrible place. What Luthor had done to them. He didn’t even know the full extent of Luthor’s treatment.

His phone rang. A familiar voice was on the other end, someone Clark knew to expect.

“Hello? Is this Dr Kent?” It was Damian Drake, or rather, Jason Todd.

“Damian? Is that you? Didn’t I tell you to call me Clark?”

“S-sorry, Clark.”

“That’s alright, kiddo. I guess you’ve heard about Lex Luthor?”

“Yeah. I’m sorry about your firing earlier. But first, I have something to confess. My name isn’t actually Damian. Or Drake. It’s Jason, Jason Todd-Wayne.”

Clark feigned a gasp of surprise. “Well, it’s lovely to meet you, Jason.”

“You don’t sound very surprised, or even weirded out that this random kid has been lying to you for weeks.”

“I guess it’s because I’ve had some very mixed news in the last few hours. My former boss has been arrested. With the crimes they’re talking about on TV, it looks like he won’t be seeing the light of day for a long, long time. But I can’t help but feel sad about the whole thing. I’ll save you all the drama, but it’s all a little bittersweet in the end. I’ve called some people at work, but nobody’s seen the boys. I hope they’re alright. All those feds swarming the building must be awfully stressful for them. They’re probably hiding somewhere…”

“I’m calling about just that, actually. But it’s too sensitive to tell you over the phone. What I can tell you is that Phantom and Banshee are safe. How soon can you come to my house? You know? Wayne Manor?”

“I’m in the area,” Clark lied smoothly. “I’ve been looking for a new job, you know, after the whole firing thing. I can be there in about…” Clark pretended to be looking up the location on his phone. “Ten minutes.”

“Great! See you here, then!”

Of course, Clark wasn’t actually in Gotham. He was all the way in Metropolis, but one of the perks of being Superman was the ability to get to anywhere someone was in need. Clark suited up, and Superman took to the skies for Gotham.

~~

Tim had been invited to the Manor several times before, but never like this.

It felt like he was stealing something, being invited to stay here for as long as he like, when he had his own house and his own parents to love him.

Alfred had respected their wishes to keep their faces hidden, slipping fried salmon and rice through the doorway, and providing them with warm, comfortable clothes. They playfully informed Alfred they didn’t have to eat fish all the time, to which Alfred told them they could work over their meal preferences later.

It hit him that Jason was serious about Mr Wayne letting them stay.

They sat together, warm fluffy blankets surrounding them on the bed, holding each other close in their freedom at last. In being able to stretch their toes again, and breathe air without the oppressive gaze of Lex Luthor looming over them.

Clark had arrived at the Manor, and judging by the car rolling up the driveway, so had Angela. Soon, it would be time to face the music.

And Tim was scared.

“We don’t have to do this, you know,” he whispered. “We could just give them an abridged version of the truth, and then leave again. We don’t have to tell them everything. We could just leave again. Take our money, and travel the world. They still think we’re ordinary sirens. They won’t be sad.”

Danny’s head hung low, exhausted. “We can’t, Tim.” He leaned on Tim’s shoulder. Tim held him close. Quietly, they purred together. “We owe them the truth.”

But the truth means…

Maybe… maybe Tim could run away on his own. He was self-sufficient enough already, and it wasn’t like he had to brave the wild ocean all by his lonesome. He could use his powers to hide on a cruiseship. If somebody caught him, he could leap overboard, pretend to have drowned, then sneak back on in the dead of night. Then he could go anywhere he wanted. The Galapagos Islands, England, Italy, India, Malaysia…

A tear broke through, interrupting his train of thought. Tim blinked in surprise. Why was he crying?

He’d been alone before. He could be alone again.

“Let’s go,” Danny said, his quiet voice like a death knell. “They’re waiting for us.”

Danny slid off the bed, landing on his feet. He picked up a towel on the bed, ready to wrap it around his face, but he turned to Tim first before that.

“I’m scared,” Tim whispered.

“So am I.”

“We could travel the world. Together. Like we talked about.”

“And we’d be alone again,” Danny said solemnly. “And nobody would be there to help us. And we’d have to lie and steal again.”

“We could steal from rich people. It would be fine, or-or we could salvage stuff we find and sell it for money. We wouldn’t even have to swim all the way. We could stow away on a cruise ship instead. We could be free!”

“What about the people who care about us?”

Tim’s throat went dry. His words dissolved away.

Danny took his hand, and wrapped the towel around his face, then his own.

“We can’t go back after this,” Tim said.

“I know. We’ll be ok. I promise.”

Danny led him by the hand, through the doors, and downstairs.

His nose, though human and muffled by the cloth, still registered the painfully familiar scent of Clark and Angela, along with Danny’s parents, Jason and Bruce. It felt like it had been years since he saw Clark and Angela.

Danny ran to their former trainers, wrapping Clark and Angela together in a wide hug, the former being so huge that Danny couldn’t even wrap his arms around him.

Then he flinched, and backed away, “S-sorry, you don’t know me, but–”

Clark shook his head. “It’s ok, Phantom. Jason filled me in on everything that’s happened.”

“I’m just glad you two are alright,” Angela told him, patting his towel-clad hair.

Danny returned to Tim’s side, and they faced everybody together. Clark and Angela were sitting on the couch on one end, and Danny’s parents were on the other. Mr Wayne was on a large arm chair beside it, with Jason swinging his legs, sat on the arm rest beside him. Alfred stood at the side of the door, at the ready if anybody needed him. There was a tray of drinks on the coffee table at the centre of the room.

Tim felt a hand squeeze his own.

“Thank you all for coming here,” Danny began. “We’re… really, really grateful for all you did to help us. We can’t thank you enough, but…” he took a deep breath, and Tim squeezed his hand back. “It’s time you knew the truth.”

Together, they took hold of their towels, and tore off the masks in one fell swoop.

Clark’s eyes turned to dinner plates. Angela gasped, her hands clasped over her mouth. Jason froze. Mr Wayne’s eyes widened too.

The worst were Danny’s parents. His mother’s eyes filled with wet tears. His dad went to his feet immediately. Before Danny could react, Jack had closed the gap. His arms crushed Danny in a mighty bear hug, and the man sobbed openly.

“Danno! Danno it’s really you! Danno I don’t believe it. We thought we lost you!” the huge man choked out between open weeping. “Danno you’re alright! You’re really here!”

And Danny cried too. He clutched his dad, crying as well. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” he blubbered repeatedly. His mother couldn’t be held down either, joining her husband and son

Jason took that opportunity to climb down from the chair and approach Tim. His friend, the person Tim had been evading the eyes of for so long, only to rely on to save him when things got bad, Jason’s eyes held only understanding.

The Boy Wonder pulled him into a hug without a word, Tim squeaking at the feeling of warmth from Jason’s touch.

Many tears later, everyone settled down again, ready for their explanation. He and Danny sat on the sofa opposite Danny’s parents and their former trainers.

“I guess it’s best to start from the beginning…” Danny began. “There was a siren on the beach. They were stuck in a net, and I… I didn’t want my parents to find them. I was scared of what they might do,” he said, looking down shamefully. “It’s because I used to see them d-dissect sirens in the lab.”

The adults in the room cast discerning looks to the scientist couple. Jack shifted uncomfortable under the stares, looking to his wife for help.

Danny’s mother frowned, focused only on her son. “Is this why you ran away? Danny, we would never hurt a real siren. The ones we dissected were all already dead. Wait, hold on a second, didn’t we always tell you to stay out of the lab unless we were there?”

Danny twiddled his fingers. “Y-yeah…”

Instead of being angry, Maddie looked resigned, and a little morose. “This was all just a misunderstanding…” she muttered. “It’s not your fault, baby. It’s ours.”

A few more tears threatened to break out of Danny’s eyes. He tugged on Tim’s sleeve to wipe them away. “S-so, when I was cutting them free, th-they freaked out, and scratched me really bad. Mom and Dad patched it up, but that night, when I was in the bathtub, I… changed. For the first time. And I was scared what Mom and Dad would think, so I ran away… Then, I ended up at Tim’s house. I tried to hide, but he found me, and then we became friends.”

Tim continued. “Danny’s really cool, and we did so much stuff together. It was like a sleepover that never ended. But I was buying food for us with my allowance, and soon that all dried up. I tried asking my parents for more money, but they wouldn’t let me.”

“Hold up,” Mr Wayne said. It was like a record scratch halting the moment. “Where were your parents in all this? Where are they now?” The man’s voice was almost frantic.

Tim looked down, touching his fingers. “Well, you know, they were on business.” Hastily, he added, “It was fine, though! I had a nanny!”

“And she didn’t know about Danny?”

“Of course not! Then she’d call CPS, and that would be the worst!”

“And where was–”

Jason elbow jabbed Mr Wayne. “B, lettem finish first.”

“So we didn’t have any money, and I was totally fine giving me meals to Danny, but he didn’t wanna, so we had to come up with a way to get some…”

Tim noted Jason’s face slowly dawning with horror.

“Long story short, I had Danny turn me into a siren, then we got ourselves caught by humans. We then got placed into Luthor’s Aquarium. By day, we’d entertain humans and look pretty for them. By night, we climbed out of our tank and turned human. We’d take money from the registers, then edit the records to make it look like nothing had happened. Then we’d put the money into an offshore account I made. After a couple detours, we’d go back to our tanks like nothing had happened.”

The room went so silent a pin could be heard dropping.

“What?!” Jason shouted, startling him and Danny. “This whole time I thought Luthor was keeping you imprisoned for whatever sick reason, but you willingly got caught by him?! And then stayed?! For months?!”

His eyes were wild and feral, his voice shaky. Tim nodded glumly. “We didn’t have a choice.”

Jason squinted at him. “Bullshit.”

“Jason!”

“Master Jason!”

“But it’s true! We literally live next door to you, Tim. Why didn’t you say anything? We could’ve helped you out.”

He felt Danny slump. “I didn’t want anyone to find out I was a m- a siren.”

Tim added to that. “And I didn’t want to be a burden…”

Jason bit his lip, still ready to argue, but Alfred coughed. “Master Jason, perhaps we should allow our guests to finish their story before any more interruptions.”

The older boy slumped at that, returning to his seat. “So what happened after that?”

“Well, Danny bit me, and I turned into a siren. Then the plan went off without a hitch. We ended up at the aquarium, got fed and housed for free, we even got free entertainment by pulling pranks on Luthor and the other staff. And then… well, things went wrong.”

The adults in the room turned somber at his words.

“You don’t have to talk about what Luthor put you through if you’re not comfortable,” Clark told them, but Danny shook his head.

“No, I promised you we’d tell you everything. Lex wanted to use us to kill Superman.”

Clark’s eyes widened by a tiny margin. The rest of the adults gasped.

“It’s because sirens have innate magic, and S-superman’s weak to magic, so he wanted to use us. He told us that if we didn’t do what he wanted, he’d just kidnap other kids and use our DNA to turn them into sirens, and make them kill Superman instead.”

He and Danny told them what they went through, what Luthor did to them. The shock collars, the torture, the constant, agonising training, the abuse at the hands of his minions…

“Baby…” Danny’s mom gasped out.

“I shoulda knocked Luthor around more when I had the chance,” his dad muttered darkly.

“And the rest is history,” Danny finished. “And now, here we are.”

Silence settled in the room for a moment, him and Danny grounding each other after their story, and the adults processing what they’d just heard.

“What’s going to happen now?” Tim asked their audience.

Mr Wayne, Clark, Angela and Danny’s parents looked to each other, before turning to them.

“You’re not in trouble, for one,” Danny’s mum began. “But I think we need to talk more about what needs to be done, not just for you two, but for us.”

“W-will we have to testify?” Tim said timidly. “I-in court, against Luthor.”

“Legally,” Mr Wayne began. “Sirens don’t have rights. But we’re going to see that changed. That said, I think Luthor has more than enough evidence against him. I don’t want you to have to relive that you went through if we can avoid it. More importantly, we need to talk about your parents.”

Tim gulped. “Please don’t be mad at them. T-they didn’t know. We lied to them and said I was going to summer camp!”

“That’s what I was worrying you’d say. But we can talk about that later. For now, the five of us need to discuss our next steps.”

Tim nodded glumly.

“Jason, can you take the boys back upstairs? And make sure they don’t try anything sneaky.”

“Got it, B. Don’t worry. If they try to wiggle away, I’ve got the nose to catch them! My sense of smell’s so good, I could sniff out your old man smell from across the Manor!”

“Har har, very funny,” Mr Wayne deadpanned.

Jason hopped off of the chair, sticking his tongue out at his dad. Tim’s heart clenched at the exchange.

He didn’t say much on the way back upstairs, the silence mostly being filled by Jason and Danny chattering. All this time, Danny had feared what his parents would do upon learning about his inhuman nature, but instead they had embraced him warmly and cried. Now, it was Tim’s turn to dread what would happen to him. There was no way Mr Wayne wouldn’t call his parents and tell them everything, and then his dad would be angry at him for causing trouble and being a nuisance.

Who was to say his dad wouldn’t stop him from transforming ever so he could be normal? But if he couldn’t transform, he’d get sick, like Danny did in the past.

Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. Maybe he could swim down and get sunken artefacts, and his parents might let him join their expeditions!

Or maybe they wouldn’t, and they’d keep Tim in a little wooden bathtub forever…

The more likely possibility was that they’d take him to get ‘cured.’ But Tim liked being a siren. He liked being boneless and wiggly. He liked have ten arms that could do ten different things. He loved swimming through the water and soaring through the air.

He noticed belatedly that they had entered the game room, and Danny was being led by Jason through his game collection. Tim’s eyes drifted to the open window.

If he could split his legs, his suckers would let him cling to the wall. Then he could turn invisible, and disappear forever. No parents, no consequences…

And no Danny.

Chapter Text

“Woah… what don’t you have?” Danny gaped.

“Anything newer than ten years ago. Seriously, my brother, Dickhead Grayson, stopped updating this collection when he was like fifteen. I had to come in and start breathing some life into this room. Can you believe it?”

“What made him stop?”

“Girls,” Jason said, gagging. “He was too busy making lovey dovey eyes at his hot girlfriend to play video games.”

“I can turn into a girl!” Danny said offhandedly.

Jason blinked. “Huh?”

“Well, I think all sirens can do that. Change between being a girl and a boy. Tim did it accidentally once, and we had to figure out how to change him back.”

“Huh…” Jason said. “Cool. Also!”

Danny quirked his head as the preteen skipped over and grabbed the air. He heard Tim yelp as his friend turned visible again, pouting furiously as Jason held him by the scruff. How strong was Jason?!

“Tim, were you spiralling again?” Jason asked, and Danny was then reminded that while he and Tim were BFFs (Best Fish Forever), Jason had known him for much longer than Danny did.

“N-no I wasn’t. I was just getting some fresh air.”

“Right, you were getting fresh air, totally invisible, and with your suckers out,” Jason said, jabbing at Tim’s octopus arms wiggling through the legs of his trousers. Tim was half-transformed, his legs wet and octopus-like, but his upper half still dry.

“Y-yeah?’

“And you totally weren’t gonna try and climb down the wall and run away again, right?”

Tim whined sadly, drooping.

Jason brought Tim back to the circle of cushions and pillows at the centre of the game room and dropped himself down on the other side, patting down a spot for Danny to sit.

“So Tim, what’s wrong?”

Tim twiddled his fingers, his octopus arms rubbing against each other uncomfortably. Four of them were already melding together to form his left leg. The other four were still a little moist. “W-well… it’s just… T-this all happened because of my stupid plan. And I didn’t want to cause any more problems.”

Danny shook his head. “No! What do you mean?­–”

Jason nodded. “What he said.”

“–It’s my fault that all of this happened.”

Jason gaped. “What?!”

“I hurt you so much, I made you just like me, a-and n-now Jason’s a monster because of me and–”

Danny was unable to speak any further as a large weight crashed down on him. He squeaked as Jason crushed him underneath his weight. Danny’s arms buckled, unable to support the additional child atop them, resulting in the boy collapsing in a flattened heap on the floor.

“Nuh uh! We don’t condone self-hating talk in this house!” Jason said as he pressed his arms into Danny’s back, flattening even further. The smaller boy squirmed and wiggled, but Jason had the advantage of not having been starved and also stronger, leaving Danny trapped.

“B-but it’s true!”

“I’m sorry, what was that?” Jason said threateningly. Danny yelped as he felt an arm wrap around his neck in a chokehold.

“I yield! I yield!”

“You’d better! I don’t wanna be hearing any bullshit about you TuRnInG uS InTO MonSTeRS. You never bit me, remember? So how could you have turned me into a siren then?”

Danny opened his mouth to speak – as much as he could while still under the chokehold – but could not find a logical reason.

“B-but how, then?”

“Beats me. I don’t exactly remember my parents sprouting scales at any time.”

In the corner of his eye, Danny caught Tim trying to sneak away again, but that attempt didn’t last long as Jason reached out and pulled the other boy back, pushing him down on the cushioned floor. Danny felt the weight on his back shift as Jason went to sitting on both of them at the same time. Tim whined. “Let me goooo!”

“Not until you stop trying to run away,” Jason said menacingly.

“But I was just going to get some water.”

“Water to turn into your siren form and run away?”

Tim gulped audibly. “S-sorry…”

Jason sighed. “Look, the plan was super dumb, especially the part where you didn’t ask noted bleeding heart Bruce Wayne for any help, but… I can’t really blame you. Everyone makes mistakes, you know? For example: my mistake was leaving you unattended for literally two seconds.”

Tim responded by blowing a raspberry at Jason, the peak of eloquence.

“Is this about your parents?” Danny asked timidly. His friend stilled, burying his face within his arms.

“M-maybe…” Tim warbled miserably. “They’re going to be so mad that I caused so much trouble…”

Danny’s skin went cold. There was no way Tim’s parents weren’t going to be informed of all of this. And it was all because of–

“Well that’s dumb,” Jason said. “As far as I can tell, you actually helped take down Mr Clean’s supervillain twin and helped a kid reunite with his parents. Where’s the trouble in that? And if I were your parents, I wouldn’t be mad that you were doing shit you weren’t supposed to, I’d be scared as fuck because my kid was in any proximity to the world’s shiniest supervillain, and then relieved when he turned out to be ok.”

“I- I guess so… do you really think that?”

“Well, duh. And if they really do get mad, then they’re shitty parents.”

Danny leaned his head on Tim, providing quiet support. In truth, he felt bad for Tim on the parents department. He never saw his friend’s parents once during the whole time he was hiding away in Drake Manor, always heading off on some distant adventure. Danny’s parents always made sure he and Jazz were included on trips.

He may have been nine, but Danny knew that was bad. It was like the opposite of those rich parents that spoil their kids and give them everything they ever want. Instead Tim just got a lonely mansion that might look cool to someone who didn’t have one, but quickly became sad and empty for anyone living in it alone.

“But they love me,” Tim whispered, voice cracking with insecurity.

“If they love you, then the only thing they’re gonna be feeling is relief,” Jason said firmly. “I mean, who wouldn’t love you?”

Tim whined as a hand came down and pinched his cheek like an old lady, with Jason sporting an evil grin. Danny laughed at his friend’s misfortune, only for Jason’s other hand to attack his cheek as well. “No! I didn’t do anything!”

“Yes you did. If I hear you talking about turning us into monsters again I’m going to cuddle tackle you to death.”

Danny’s skin broke out in goosebumps. Jason was strong enough to crush both of them at the same time. What would a cuddle tackle do to his fragile body? “T-that’s a thing?”

Jason breathed on his neck menacingly. “Yes. It’s a deadly move that even Batman fears.”

“Y-you… you still feel bad about changing me?” Tim whispered.

A lump grew in his throat, and now it was Danny’s turn to bury his head in a cushion, avoiding the questioning eyes of the other boys.

“But getting to be a siren was the best thing that ever happened to me. And it was all thanks to you!” his friend cried out.

It was like his brain had frozen, crashed, suffered an unrecoverable error and had to restart. He peeked out of the cushion and risked a glance at Tim, his face earnest and distraught.

Danny couldn’t do it alone, he was too weak to be in an aquarium all alone, performing all alone, so Tim had to go with him, otherwise the plan wouldn’t work. Tim, who left his luxurious mansion and comfortable room to be treated like an animal and sleep in a bare cave and only eat raw fish in the day.

“I don’t understand,” Danny said.

“What isn’t there to understand? I got to breathe underwater, for one. That’s cool enough already. But then I can change colour, and swim really fast, and squeeze into all sorts of tiny places. And I got to do cool tricks that people loved watching, oh and I have superpowers?! Who wouldn’t like that?”

Well… when Tim put it that way, it did all seem very cool. He caught Jason’s face leaning over his and Tim’s head. “B-but…”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “But nothing! Guess what, when I was a kid I used to be obsessed with sirens. Getting to be one is like, the mother of all cool things. I don’t even know what I can do as a siren.”

Danny lay there numbly, his mind processing this new revelation. “You guys really like being sirens?”

“Yes!” they both shouted at the same time.

This new revelation crashed through the carefully arranged pillars of Danny’s mind like a wrecking ball. He looked back upon the last few months of his life, the way Tim never saw him the way his parents saw him in his nightmares, the way his real parents didn’t see him the way his nightmares foretold. He remembered the thrill of spinning on the watery stage, dancing more gracefully than he ever could on two feet. He remembered the awe and the wide eyes with which people would look at him and Tim.

Maybe… maybe what Tim and Jason had told him wasn’t that farfetched.

Tim brightened up. “Let’s go to your dad’s pool! We can show you around, Jay!”

“Chlorine is poisonous to sea creatures, Timmy. You wanna get us all sick?”

“Nuh uh. We can just close our gills and breathe normal air instead. We could be like dolphins!”

Danny, arching his head, caught Jason reaching behind his own neck and palming his skin.

Knock, knock, knock.

The three boys turned to face the door as it opened. The bespectacled visage of one Dr Clark Kent poked his head through the door way. “Alfred had a feeling you three would be in the game room.”

“Clark!” Danny shouted in tandem with Tim. The two of them immediately throw Jason off their backs, causing the older boy to yelp with surprise as they rushed for their former trainer, jumping at his body and clinging to him in a tight hug.

“Woah, woah! Careful there, you might knock me over like a bowling pin!”

“No way!” Danny said, grinning mischievously. “You were able to hold onto our siren forms just fine, and we were way heavier then!”

“Yeah, and I nearly got a heart attack from it. An old man like me can’t handle such excitement like that. You’ll break my back!”

“Are you done with your grownup talk?” Tim asked him.

Clark readjusted his glasses. “That we have, but I also just wanted to talk to you three. May I come in?”

Jason patted a spot next to him on the pillows, having recovered from being thrown off of Danny and Tim’s backs. Clark walked carefully, balancing the two boys clinging to his sides as he lowered himself to sit amongst the cushions. Danny slid off of the man’s flannel shirt and rolled over to lie on his back in front of him.

Though he was human in shape, some parts of his siren self leaked over. For one, his preference to lie on his belly and shield his softest part, but in the presence of his friend, of Jason, a fellow siren and also the boy who’d done so much to help him, and of the kind Clark, who had treated him more like a son than a tamed beast, Danny felt no anxiety, only comfort and peace.

Clark smiled warmly upon him, his hand already half-way to Danny’s head before stopping. “Oh, is it ok if I–” Danny answered his question by wiggling closer, nudging his head into Clark’s hand.

“I should apologise,” Clark said. “I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you from Luthor. I never realised the kind of person he was until it was too late.”

Danny wiggled forward even more, resting his head on Clark’s lap. He found Tim there too, the other boy having draped himself over the space, only leaving a little bit of room for Danny’s head. “I’m sorry we lied to you for so long, and pretended to be dumb. Tim actually knows how to solve a Rubix cube in a couple seconds, and we weren’t actually trying to eat that picture of a fish. We just thought it would be funny. And we did know that the mirror was showing our reflections. We were just pretending that we were meeting new sirens.”

“And I was the one that ate your lasagne in the employee fridge. It was really yummy, and it was my idea to plant the evidence in Wes’s locker.”

Clark chuckled uncomfortably, but the boys went on.

Danny twiddled his thumbs. “And I’m sorry about making that puddle that you slipped on. I felt kinda bad about it.”

“And I was the one that let the penguins loose after hours. Sorry…”

And instead of getting mad, the saintly Clark just laughed it off. “You guys sound like you had a lot of fun, then!”

“We did, but mostly at night,” Danny said. “In the day the trainers were mean to us, and they talked to us like we were dumb, which is fair I guess, since that was the point of our plan, but it still felt annoying, and Luthor would be there, being a jerk. Even Angela was a little uncomfortable around us. Then you came along, and then we started having fun in the day too.”

“I just wish I’d known. Here I am with my fancy PhD, but you guys outsmarted me every step of the way. I knew you guys were smarter than everyone thought, but I never would’ve guessed you were trying to con Luthor for money. I’m just glad you’re safe now. I suppose I have you to thank for that, Jason?”

Jason blushed. “Well, B helped too, a-and–” he squeaked as Clark reached up and ruffled his hair too.

“What’s going to happen now?” Tim asked.

Clark straightened his back. “Right. For one, we have to make sure sirens have rights, and are recognised as people now. Danny, your parents are going to be working publishing some new research, as am I. I’m also going to be contacting Eve from the aquarium, and Lois Lane, a reporter I’ve met, to help out.”

“What can we do?” Danny asked. Tim nodded with him. Jason leaned forward, hanging onto every word out of Clark’s mouth.

“You don’t have to do anything. This is a job for us adults,” Clark said softly. “You’ve already been through a lot.”

“But we wanna help,” Tim pleaded. “And we might’ve given a lot of people the wrong idea by pretending to be dumb. So we should fix that.”

Clark sighed, but in a kind of resignation knowing he couldn’t stop them. “I suppose so. We did discuss how you guys could help if you wanted to. But for now, only Jason and Danny.”

Tim frowned. “Why not me?”

“Well, because Danny and Jason’s parents can give permission.”

“Oh… But maybe they don’t have to?”

At this, the marine biologist raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure I like this idea.”

“No, hear me out! Sure Tim Drake needs his parents to have permission, but Banshee doesn’t have any parents, so he can do whatever he wants.”

“But aren’t Tim Drake and Banshee the same person?”

Tim crossed his arms, pouting. “Not if nobody knows.”

Clark looked uncomfortable, his eyes going back and forth between Danny and Tim. Danny chirped quietly, feeling his former caregiver’s distress. He lay a large hand gently on Tim’s head, smoothing down his hair. “Tim, can I speak to you alone?”

~~~

Before Danny came, and when he used to follow Batman and Robin from the shadows, Tim had gotten into many near misses, incidents that he narrowly avoided with luck and intuition. At home, he always had a decently strong feeling when his parents would be terribly mad just before the event came to pass. In other words, Tim had a strong sense for when something terribly unpleasant was going to happen, but he couldn’t bring himself to deny Clark’s request, so he followed the man out of the room and into an empty bedroom.

The furniture wasn’t covered in plastic sheets like he’d expected. In fact, the bedroom looked positively spotless, as if Alfred had just gone through it, chasing out all the dust bunnies, fluffing up the pillows and making the bed.

“I’m so not equipped for this,” Clark muttered, so quiet that Tim wouldn’t have been able to catch it without his sensitive siren ears. He knew it. He sat on the edge of the bed, clutching his knees as tightly as he could as he awaited the bad news.

“So, we called your parents.”

Tim froze. His body buzzed with anxiety at in instant, the skin of his legs shifting imperceptibly, his octopus arms breaking out in hives of stress and needing to stretch out and squeeze something to take the edge off.

“W-what did they say?”

“Well, it was pretty difficult to get a word in edgewise. I made the call, and they were pretty busy with something. Even when I said it was to do with you, they weren’t having it. They just told me you were away at summer camp.”

“Oh,” Tim said, his face downcast. Momentarily his heart settled, knowing his parents didn’t know his secret. That his parents would be too busy right now made sense. They were usually too busy.

“Tim, you told them you were going to summer camp, while you were really with Danny at the aquarium, right?” Clark asked, his voice even and diplomatic. Tim nodded.

“Did you come up with any paperwork for them to sign?”

Tim shook his head. Suddenly the dawning fear came back.

Clark’s face turned sad. “Tim, you know I care about you, right?”

His voice was warm, and soft, and it hurt. Tim nodded. Suddenly his eyes felt funny. He squeezed them shut and leaned into Clark’s side, burying his face into the soft fabric of his shirt. He didn’t want to look at the man anymore, or look at anything. “Yeah,” Tim whispered in a tiny voice. 

“Do you know why I’m asking you these questions?”

Tim shook his head. Things were ok. Well, he had just tried running away from home like Danny did, so maybe things weren’t that ok, but the way Clark was asking questions made it seem way worse than it actually was!

“Well, usually summer camps need parents to pay for them. They also need parents to sign permission slips and all sorts of paperwork to make sure their kids are safe.”

“But I was safe!” Tim protested weakly. “For a while, at least…”

“Tim, I need you to be honest with me. Can you do that, buddy?”

Tim was afraid he couldn’t, but he muttered a weak “ok” still.

“How long have your parents been away?”

“Since March?”

He heard Clark gasp and felt his chest shudder. “And they left you at home alone?”

Tim snapped to alertness, jolting away from Clark and straightening himself, pleading with the man. “No! I had a nanny! It wasn’t like I was home alone all the time!”

He added the last three words to make it feel less like a lie.

“How did the nanny never notice Danny?”

“Danny can turn invisible.”

“She would’ve noticed the extra food being eaten, especially since you told us earlier that you guys started your scheme because you needed money for food.”

Tim bit his lip, tears forming in his eyes. “D-danny and I were just really good at being s-sneaky.” His mind scrambled for ways to get out of this situation. His skin ached to turn invisible and hide away from the questions.

“Tim, did you really have a nanny? A person who lives in the same house as you, and sees you every day, and takes you to school and cooks your meals and tucks you in and say good night every night? Because that’s what a nanny does.”

His eyes were buried in his arm sleeve, hiding from Clark’s gaze in whatever way he can as tears stained his shirt. “No,” he mumbled miserably.

Warm hands, and warm arms encased his body. It felt like a heated blanket that was strong enough to pick him up. Clark did pick him up, settling Tim on his lap. “I’m sorry, Timmy. I know that was hard.”

“Are you going to take me away from my parents?” Tim chirped pathetically, tears staining his skin and partially changing him. 

Clark rubbed soft circles on his neck, holding him close. “Timmy, I can’t understand you when you’re speaking siren, not yet at least.”

He whined pathetically, finding his voice again. “A-are you going t-take me away from them?” he repeated, choking on his own tears.

Clark didn’t respond for a moment, the only sound in the room being Tim’s sobs, as much as he tried to muffle them. He always used to cry silently. He didn’t know why it was so hard now.

“I don’t doubt your parents love you. But, sometimes parenting is… hard. And it means making sacrifices so your child can be happy. It means being there for them. And some people can struggle a little with that.”

It was as good of a confirmation as any. Deep down, Tim knew it was coming. To hear it with his own ears was a different matter entirely. His willpower faltered, and died, and he released himself to his misery. Any words he thought of to defend his parents and avert this fate died before they could even reach his throat.

He remembered hearing kids talk about the foster system. Tim wasn’t built to live in that kind of environment. They would only see him as the rich kid fallen from grace, and he would be miserable. A life living alone in the ocean would be preferable to that.

“You don’t have to face this alone, Tim,” Clark soothed. “I’m here for you. So is Bruce. The Fentons, too. We’ve already decided that, if worst comes to worst, one of us can foster you.”

And burden the people who had already done so much to help him?

“And no, it wouldn’t be too much of a burden,” Clark spoke suddenly, as if reading Tim’s very mind. “You’re a wonderful boy, Tim. You’re smart, kind, and maybe a little mischievous, but all boys have a bit of mischief in them. You’ve been alone for so long. You deserve to have someone who will always be in your corner.”

Despite himself, Tim wanted to believe it. A selfish part of him wished that every day could be like the days where Clark worked at the aquarium, where he’d pat them on the head and tell them what a good job they did. That part of him wished that every day could have moments like this, his parents being close to him, and holding him and talking to him with deep, vulnerable affection and love.

For so long, he had accepted his life as fact set in stone, beyond the possibility of change. Clark was like a steady lighthouse in the darkness and miasma of his own heart, and with him, Tim felt he really could hope for something better.

Chapter Text

He and Jason played video games for a bit, taking turns playing and heckling each other at some super difficult Souls game, then trying out some co-op games. It felt nice, getting to play video games for the first time in months. After leaving Tim’s house to start their scheme, the only video games they could play were arcade games at the shady 24-hour place down the block. The old, ratty computers at the aquarium would combust just running solitaire, let alone anything a modern 9-year-old would want to play.

Then Clark came back with Tim, his eyes puffy and red. He’d clearly been crying, and Danny didn’t need his nose to realise that. Immediately he and Jason dropped their controllers and ran to their friend, encasing him between their bodies.

“Are you ok, Tim?”

Tim sniffled, before slowly managing to speak. “Yeah…  I think I will be…”

They ended up playing video games together, with Tim cheating by jabbing a stray tentacle into Danny’s sensitive sides to interrupt a combo he was doing, resulting in his character dying horrifically and painfully to Tim’s character.

Clark was more than a little queasy at all the blood. “Is this what passes for children’s entertainment these days?” he asked.

“It’s no biggie, Clark,” Tim said flippantly. “Besides, Danny and I used to rip apart fish way more violently back at the aquarium.”

“Right…” Clark said, still looking rather disturbed at that statement.

Danny’s parents came soon after, peeking through the door.

“Sweetie?” his mum called. “Are you having fun?”

Danny nodded, shyly. He glanced at the time on the clock. It was getting a little late, close to when his bedtime used to be. At the aquarium, though, his bedtime used to be around 2 or 3 am, and Luthor would complain a lot about how he and Tim seemed to be sleeping all the time in the morning.

“Well, I guess you deserve a bit of a break, but just this once.”

His parents came in, settling around the growing circle of people in the game room. Alfred peeked his head in, and left soon after. Danny passed the controller off to his dad, who immediately challenged Tim, Jason and Clark to a Mario Party match, while his mum pulled him aside.

“Are we gonna be going home now?” Danny asked, not even knowing if home was even the same.

“Well, about that,” his mum began, her back arching with the weariness of an old mother goose. He turned his eyes to the floor, rumbling with shame knowing he did that to her. “Your dad and I have sold our old house.”

Danny’s eyes bugged out. “W-what? Seriously?”

She sighed with sadness in memory. “Well, it was difficult after you were gone. We spent a lot of time looking for you, but we couldn’t find any leads. Then, somebody from the bus company sent us security camera footage of you on a bus to Metropolis. Then, Lex Luthor offered us jobs researching the sirens he found. We decided to move over here so we could look for you.” She chuckled mirthlessly. “How ironic that that job was exactly where we’d find you, but we didn’t even know it…”

He nodded, heart heavy with the long and painful journey he’d been on, that he’d put his parents through. “I’m sorry…”

“Don’t be sorry. Just… don’t scare me and your dad and I like that again, alright? I promise we’ll always love you. We always have. I know our job seems scary and strange, we do it because we want to see sirens protected and kept safe from humans. I just wish we could’ve kept you safe from Luthor sooner…”

His mother’s voice cracked, and Danny felt deeply sad for her. It wasn’t her fault. He and Tim had done everything they could to make the humans not realise what Phantom and Banshee were up to. When they needed help, it was too late. That wasn’t her fault. He leaned in, leaning his head on his mother’s lap. It felt right to be able to do this again.

“It’s not your fault… you were there when it really mattered.”

He rubbed at the spot on his neck where the cursed jewellery once sat, now free from its mark on him.

“You can thank you friend Jason for helping us in that matter. As for our home… since our flat was sponsored by Luthor, Bruce has offered to let us stay. In fact, your dad and I are gonna be heading back to bring Jazz over. She’s with Angela’s husband at the moment. Then we’ll figure out a living situation for us.”

Danny gasped. “So we’re staying with Jason’s family? Like a big sleepover?”

His mum smiled. “Yeah, like a big sleepover. Of course, your dad and I won’t be resting on our laurels the whole time. We still need to work on getting siren rights recognised. And we’ll be helping figure out more about siren biology so we can make sure you, Tim and Jason are healthy.”

He nodded firmly. “Whatever I can do to help, I’ll be glad to!”

“I’m sure you are. But for now, you deserve your rest, alright?”

~~

Jason came out on top during their gaming tournament, but he suspected that was because of Tim being a little out of it after his talk with Clark. As much as his burning curiosity urged him to poke Tim about it, he willed himself to leave it alone for the night.

Alfred came up soon after to call them down for dinner. It was chicken noodle soup, something Alfred’s impeccable senses had predicted would be useful. Danny’s parents were still gone picking up his sister, while Angela had returned to her family. The younger siren boys had begged Clark to stay for the night, and it wasn’t like he had a job to get to in the morning, and the combined puppy (or guppy?) eyes of Danny and Tim vanquished whatever resistance the hapless marine biologist could muster.

While they and Bruce ate, Jason had a moment to himself at last, a moment where he could truly think about the uncertain future. Transfixed by curiosity and wonder alike, he tipped his finger into his glass of water. His fingernail turned into the tip of a claw, to be unsheathed when necessary, and his skin hardened into fine scales. Those scales on his fingers were like sand to pebbles in comparison to the thicker ones on his tail.

He wiggled his toes, swinging his legs back and forth. How one takes for granted simple movements until they become impossible to perform, even but for a short moment. To separate his legs and swing them joyously, soaking in the cheerful mood of the dining room.

How could this have been possible? Tim told him that he and Danny were turned by bite, but no such thing had happened to Jason. Was it his parents? He wracked his memories for any evidence of aquatic biology, for an indication they were not entirely as human as they had seemed. His nose rankled at the thought of his dad being one. But his mother… if she had this side of her, why did she never say? And why didn’t she tell him?

Maybe they could’ve lived in the sea together, and run away from the ruin and filth of Crime Alley.

Maybe he shouldn’t be thinking these thoughts. If things had been different, he wouldn’t be here. He wouldn’t have been able to help save Danny and Tim.

It really made him think.

~~

Clark ended up tucking all three of them in bed, with Tim clinging to Jason, and Danny not wanting to sleep alone. That was ok. Jason rarely got the chance for a sleepover, and he never got one before being adopted by Bruce. For rather ironic reasons, Danny had opted for a shark onesie that Bruce used to own, while Tim borrowed one of Jason’s sets of pyjamas. Bruce hovered quietly in the doorway as Clark finished up.

“Wait!” Danny asked as Clark was about to leave the room and was about to turn off the lights. “Can I ask you a question?”

“Sure, guppy. What do you wanna know?” Clark said as he sat himself down on the side of the bed. “Are you gonna go back to the aquarium? Cause Luthor’s gone now. Maybe you’ll get your old job back!”

Tim nodded. “Yeah, and then maybe you can train us to do more tricks… In the future, though.”

Jason was about to point out how that was unrealistic for a myriad of reasons. However, Clark beat him to it with his characteristic awkward response. “Oh! Well, that’s a little more complicated than any of us would like. And, to be honest, maybe marine biology isn’t for me. Maybe I wanna be a reporter instead?”

“But you loved working there!” Tim said in confusion. “What about your penguins?”

“I did. But a lot has changed. I-I mean, I don’t even know if the aquarium’s going to still be open, to be honest. Without Luthor running things, someone’s going to have to step up.”

“Why can’t that be you?” Danny asked innocently.

“Cause then every Karen in the city’s gonna be hounding him about seeing you guys,” Jason muttered sarcastically.

“Right, well, that’s not exactly the whole reason. I just feel like managing a whole aquarium, the biggest in Metropolis, demands a lot more time and skill than I can offer. I’m a scientist, not a businessman.”

“Well, we got to be managed by a businessman, and it sucked.” Tim pouted ferociously. “But you’re nicer than him, and kinder, and you care.”

Clark was quiet, like he was deep in thought.

“Well if not you, then what about Eve?” Danny asked. “Or Angela? Or maybe Bruce can buy it and then Jason can use our old tank like a swimming pool!”

Jason laughed, and he only laughed harder when he heard Bruce coughing in shock at the doorway.

~~

Jason woke to someone shaking the body beside him in bed.

“Danny! Danny! Danny!” It was a girl’s voice, and she seemed very insistent that Danny wake up.

“Can you give us five minutes?” Danny groaned. Jason felt Danny move his leg out from under the blankets (and coincidentally, out from under Jason’s legs) and started jabbing in the vague direction of the voice, hoping to get her to back off.

“Five minutes!? Five minutes!?” the girl screeched. “I have been worrying my head off about you for five months, and now you wanna make me wait for five minutes?!”

That sounded like someone who was not to be trifled with. Jason threw off the blanket that he was using as a makeshift sleeping mask. He got a good look at the girl, fiery orange hair framing a rounded, softer face like her father’s. She was definitely her parents’ children, with Jack’s loud voice and Maddie’s sharp, stern gaze, the kind you really didn’t want turned on you.

Then those eyes landed on him, and Jason’s heart skipped a beat, and his cheeks turned hot. “Uh, h-hi?” Jason offered weakly.

“You! Help me get Danny up. I’ve been waiting for this reunion for months and there is no way I’m letting Danny ruin it!”

“Go awaayyy,” Danny moaned. “I’m sleepyyyy.”

“You’re going to be sushi soon, Danny. Come on!”

Jazz grabbed Danny and rolled him and herself off the bed, crashing down on the floor. That was enough to fully wake him up. Danny yelped as he came down, landing flat on his face.

“JAAAZZZ! THAT WAS MEAN!”

“You’re up! Yayyy!” Jazz didn’t seem particularly bothered by Danny’s consternation.

Danny grumbled, but softened at seeing his sister again, and when she came in to give him a hug, he didn’t flinch away like what most boys would do when tackled by their big sisters.

“Oh my god… it’s really you…” Jazz said. “I can’t believe it…”

“I’m sorry I ran away, Jazzie. I’m sorry I was so stupid…”

“That’s ok Danny. I’ll forgive you after I FREAKING MURDER YOU!”

“What– AAAAA!”

Jason laughed as Danny’s sister immediately went for the throat, swinging around and locking Danny in a chokehold while noogeying him at the same time.

“IT BURNS!” Danny cried out. Jason, ever the supportive friend, stood by and did nothing.

“Good luck with that, Danny!” he said as he hopped out of bed, over a still-sleeping Tim, and into the bathroom to change. Guess sibling dynamics never changed, huh?

~~

Time passes, and wounds heal…

“Keep it steady, Tuck!” Danny said. “Keep it steady!”

“I’m trying! Your shoulders are so freakin’ slimy!” Tucker shouted, his body wobbling back and forth, arms flailing in a poor attempt at keeping balance. The human boy was perched upon Danny’s shoulders, with Danny in siren form in the water, his fins flapping rapidly to counteract the weight of his friend upon him.

“They’re not slimy! It’s just my natural mucus!”

Jason, for one, thought it was an awful idea, which was why he was currently balancing Tim on his own shoulders. Unfortunately, spending the better part of the last few months with writhing tentacles in place of one’s legs did very little for one’s balance. It didn’t help that Jason’s wet shoulders were doing their best to trigger Tim’s own transformation. He felt Tim sway a little too far to the right, and yep.

“Tim!” Tucker shouted, having evidently been crashed into by the other boy. Jason’s ear fins shuddered as the boys’ frantic voices mixed together as they wiped out, sending water everywhere.

Tucker swam to the surface, coughing out water, but still wearing a bright smile. “Let’s do that again! I call dibs on Jason!”

~~

It was funny how a little time, and a change in circumstance could make the same thing feel so different.

Tim had spent his whole life in this mansion, roaming its quiet, empty halls, braving cold winters and patiently awaiting his parents like Penelope her distant husband.

Very little had changed about the mansion since he had left with Danny to pursue fame and riches. The walls were still the same, spotless and clean. The rooms were just as empty, and his bedroom was only a little disturbed (thanks Jason…).

But there was a different quality about the house now. Everywhere he looked he felt a pervasive loneliness. The walls were not just clean, they felt barren. The mansion wasn’t just quiet, it was haunting and abandoned and lifeless. The rooms weren’t just unoccupied, they were dead. Everywhere there was a crushing coldness that threatened to swallow him up, only forced away by the shining beacon of warmth that held his hands.

“We don’t have to do this if you don’t want. You don’t have to do this,” Clark offered, but Tim was adamant.

“I can do this. I have to…”

He marched forward without waiting for Clark, braving the cold halls, through the empty kitchen, and reaching his room.

Almost exactly the same as he had left it.

He felt a pain in his chest, and a lump grow in his throat. Clark caught up to him, his soft footsteps approaching from behind. Tim squeezed Clark’s hands tightly.

“Are you alright?”

“Yeah, it just…”

His parents had lost the custody battle. Tim was now officially Clark’s son, Timothy Drake-Kent. There was talk of him being adopted by Mr Wayne at first, and while Mr Wayne was cool, and nice and also Batman, Clark felt like someone he could hold onto and never want to let go.

But what truly got him was that his parents had barely even showed up for even that. The courts had ruled them unfit almost on the spot for their failure to arrive.

“I know it’s difficult,” Clark said, pulling him closer. “But you can get through this. I know you can.”

The process of moving all of Tim’s things took them the better part of the afternoon, most of which was just time spent moving back and forth between Tim’s room on the second floor and Danny’s parents’ huge truck-tank hybrid, but everyone helped out. Everyone was there.

How strange was it that Tim went from having no one, to having a best friend, to now having more people close to him than he could count.

~~

LUTHOR INVESTIGATION FINDS FURTHER EVIDENCE OF ABUSE

INSIDE THE YEARS-LONG PLAN BY LEX LUTHOR TO TAKE OVER JAHRANPUR

INSIDER SOURCE REVEALS LUTHOR’S GRUDGE AGAINST SUPERMAN, AND THE LENGTHS HE WENT TO PURSUE IT

…The source further revealed a shocking piece of information. The sirens, Phantom and Banshee, who had been placed under the care of the marine rescue and research centre which bore Luthor’s name, were also part of his plans.

“[Luthor] had them doing these awful training drills. He had Angela Spica, yell at them and beat them, and if they resisted, they got shocked with the collar. Those poor boys…”

The whereabouts of Phantom and Banshee are currently unknown.

SHOCKING RESEARCH: SIREN EXPERTS CONFIRM HIGHER BRAIN CAPACITY THAN PREVIOUSLY THOUGHT POSSIBLE

“The flaw in our research was that we only had cadavers to study,” Dr Madeline Fenton, or Maddie as she prefers to be called, explains. “In our brief tenure at Luthor Aquariums before Luthor was caught, we managed to perform non-invasive scans of Phantom and Banshee. There, we found their bodies teaming with hydroplasmic energy. It’s our belief that this energy had dissipated from the corpses we had studied, meaning that our anatomical studies were lacking crucial data. As a result, we came to a lot of incorrect conclusions. For example, siren brain capacity is impossibly complex. Dare I say it, more complex than even our own brains.”

“So what does this mean?” I asked her.

“It means we need to re-evaluate our entire corpus of literature on them, for one.”

MARTHA-WAYNE FOUNDATION ANNOUNCES NEW PUSH FOR SIREN RIGHTS

Wayne Enterprises CFO Lucius Fox spoke further on the matter. “We must make sure that the abuses that Lex Luthor committed against sirens must never happen again. New research is pointing strongly that sirens are equivalent to humans in terms of cognitive ability and emotional capacity. It is time they be included under the Metahuman Rights Act, and progress on unravelling their language begin immediately.”

FORMER LUTHOR AQUARIUMS EMPLOYEE REVEALS OVER A HUNDRED HOURS OF RECORDINGS OF SIREN ‘SPEECH.’

“I am very optimistic that we will be able to make sense of this soon,” so says Dr Diana Prince, head linguist at the Smithsonian Institute.

~~

More time passes…

“Howabout we all go on a little vacation?” Bruce said one day.

And that was how they ended up on a shiny little private island just off the coast of Florida. Alfred had stayed to oversee ‘renovations’ to Wayne Manor. B was tight-lipped about the whole thing, telling Jason that he’d ‘see it once they get back.’

After a few years of being adopted by B, he’d gotten used to the extravagant lengths Bruce would go to make sure he was comfortable, but part of Jason was really hoping that what he was imagining wasn’t actually gonna happen. Instead, his mind turned to the prospect of warm beaches and summer sun.

To call it a vacation was a little misleading, though.

“Good work, Jason!” Mrs Fenton, or just Maddie as she’d insisted he call her, cheered. “Now, Danny, can you try this sentence?”

Danny’s parents were stood on the pier, carrying a pretty high-tech recording device, attempting to catalogue more recordings out of them, though they weren’t the picture of scientific professionalism. Maddie was clad in a bikini and an open white labcoat, while Jack and Clark (who was also there, taking notes) were in swimming trunks. Sometimes scientists had to be beach ready too, Jason supposed. For his part, Jason was in the water in his siren form, joined by Danny and Tim. The tides were high at this hour in the afternoon, meaning they could stay close to the pier just by floating.

Danny and Tim had long decided they were too lazy to float on the water on their own, and so had taken the comical decision of wearing water wings and pool floaties, as if they weren’t extremely adept aquatic beings meant to spend their entire lives in the water.

“It’s relaxing!” Tim had said. “You should try it.”

Jason had politely refused (that was a lie he teased them endlessly about it).

Back to the present, Danny, who was also wearing sunglasses – did Jason forget to mention that? – chirped out the sentence his parents had shown him.

“My father and mother were here and there and everywhere.”

“Fascinating…” Maddie said.

“I agree…” Clark muttered.

Some variation of ‘interesting!” or ‘fascinating!’ or ‘how strange!’ was basically their default reaction every time he or Danny or Tim spoke something in siren to them, to the point Jason was wondering if they were actually getting any sciencing done.

“Can we go play noooowww?” Danny whined in English. “Tucker’s gonna get lonely without us!”

Maddie looked to the men on the pier. “You think we’ve got enough for now, Clark?”

Clark hummed. “We’ve been at this for a while now. I’m sure the guppies could use a break.”

Tim cheered, and immediately dove for the beach, taking Danny with him. Jason chirped goodbye at the adults and chased after them.

Tim had offered to teach him how to swim with his tail, but his body was a lot different than Jason’s. Danny, for all his enthusiasm, kinda sucked at teaching, since his advice basically boiled down to ‘vibes’. Thankfully, Jason was nothing if not observant, and since his siren body was pretty similar to Danny’s in structure if not appearance, he simply filmed Danny swimming, then figured it out himself, and soon he was going even faster than Danny.

It also helped that having your tailfin entirely submerged made for much better swimming than when it was flapping in the air half the time, like Danny’s tailfin was thanks to his cumbersome excess of buoyancy.

“Eat my bubbles!” Jason trilled raucously as he raced past his friends, easily reaching the beach before they could.

“Look out below!” he shouted as he broke through the water in a jump, his shadow cast over Tucker as the younger boy screamed. Unfortunately, Tucker had so very politely buried part of his legs under the sand, leaving him utterly vulnerable to Jason’s attack. Danny’s best friend was helpless to stop the squishing as scale met skin, and boy became pancake.

“Jason!” Danny complained, having just arrived. Judging from the loud splashing sounds and the scratch of fins paddling against sand, it seemed Danny hadn’t bothered with changing back and was resorting to galumphing awkwardly on the sand. “You can’t murder my friends!”

Jason just gave him a wide, pointy-toothed smile.

“Help…” Tucker groaned from underneath him. “So… slimy…”

“Tuck!” With great effort, Danny had galumphed to the site of Tucker’s expiry, giving a long, whining moan. “Are you ok?”

“I have expired like week-old hamburger meat. All that I ask is that you consume my remains in a dignified feast worthy of the gods,” Tucker whined dramatically.

Jason deadpanned. “Sirens don’t eat humans, dummy. At least I think they don’t.”

Danny was much less reluctant. “I’ll gladly do it, Tucker. And then I’ll eat Jason and avenge your ignoble, unjust death.”

“Hell yeah!” Tucker cheered in a sudden burst of perkiness.

Behind them, Tim surfaced from the water too, pouting at having lost the race. Jason felt movement under his belly as Tucker wiggled and pushed his head out from underneath Jason’s fins. “So what were your parents doing, Danny?”

Danny slumped on the sand, whining. “They just had us click and chirp things in siren calls for aaaages. It was so boring.”

Tucker frowned. “It must be so cool, being a siren, though. You guys can breathe underwater, and swim really fast, and there are those powers you have too…”

So that was the feeling of hesitation and longing that Tucker had been giving off ever since Danny showed off his fins to him at Wayne Manor. He couldn’t imagine the shock of someone’s best friend having disappeared for months, and after so long they reunite, but so much has changed between them. He was about to speak until he felt suckers attaching themselves to his tail. Tim climbed up over him and peaked over his back, looking down at Tucker. “Do you wanna be a siren?”

Danny’s eyes widened. Tucker gasped.

“R-really? You can do that?”

“Well, it hurts a lot at first…” Danny said, quietly scratching his finger webbing with his thumbs. “But only for a bit, and then you can be just like us.”

Jason, the big brother and responsible one in this group, gave out a warning chitter. “Hold on, I’m not sure the adults would be very happy about that.”

Tucker shrugged, as much as he could while being weighed down by both Jason and Tim. “What mom doesn’t know won’t hurt her! And besides, will you really deny a poor boy his dream of being a beautiful fishkid?”

Well, Jason had never heard a more convincing argument in his life. He glanced to the edge of the beach, where Tucker’s parents were conversing with Bruce and Jazz, and then glanced back to Tucker. “Ok! Just let me get some painkillers. You know, for the horrible wracking pain of your body being turned inside out.”

Tucker turned a little pale at his words. “Oh, yeah. That.”

“No backing out now!” Tim cheered.

Jason rolled forward to their pile of towels and swimsuits and quickly dried himself off, running into the villa they were all staying in. “We’re gonna take Tucker out swimming, ok?” he shouted at the adults as he ran past them.

“Sure, Jaylad! Just don’t drown him!”

Jason scoffed. How could a human kid drown with three sirens around him to save him at any time he needed? Once inside he quickly located the painkillers in the medicine cabinet in Bruce’s room, and then took a bottle of water, running back out to meet Tucker.

“Bottom’s up!” Jason said, thrusting the pills into Tucker’s hand. The boy obliged and washed them down with the water. Tucker hunched over, clenching his fists and putting on a grimaced expression.

“Tucker,” Tim said. “We have to bite you to change you.”

The human boy blinked, his stance returning to its normal state at once. “Oh, I thought that was it.”

Danny chittered. “Let’s get you into the water! Carry us, Tucker!”

“What?”

“We don’t have any legggss…” Danny whined.

Bruce was over six feet tall and built like a brick wall, and Jason had done more than his fair share of strength training and acrobatics at night. Tucker had neither of these, and so tumbled quite gracelessly into the water after about two steps carrying Danny and Tim.

Jason shook his head fondly.

~~

Angela crossed her arms, frowning. Beside her, Bruce, Maddie and Clark were none too pleased either.

Jason sweatdropped. Danny’s eyes were glued to the floor. Tucker chuckled nervously, water still dripping off of his smooth, slimy skin. Tim was putting on the cutest puppy eyes in a vain attempt to subvert the oncoming storm.

The story went like this:

After turning Tucker, the four of them proceeded to race each other around the reef, letting Tucker stretch out his long eel tail emblazoned with gold and black patterns, teaching him to swim in a rush of competition and adrenaline.

However, they had underestimated the adults’ tendency to really, really freak out when their children went swimming and subsequently could not be seen. In short order, Danny’s parents busted out their huge boat and went looking for them, and proceeded to catch the four of them wet-handed (get it? Red handed? Wet handed?), including a very aquatic-looking Tucker.

Needless to say, the parents weren’t too pleased about them randomly making Tucker into a siren out of nowhere.

“We need to put down some ground rules about this turning business,” Bruce said.

“You can’t just turn people into different species willy-nilly!” Angela’s voice was pained, muffled by her current state of facepalming.

“B-but I wanted it…” Tucker protested weakly.

“I know, honey, but I would really prefer it if you ran it by me and your father first. What happens when a kid splashes water on you at lunch?”

Jason shrank in on himself, suddenly feeling not nearly as mature and cool as he had felt five minutes ago. Perhaps he hadn’t thought about the consequences of going along with this whole idea.

~~

It was clear that the adults were clearly reeling by the ease at which a siren could transform others. It was one thing to hear Danny’s story about how he turned Tim, and another to see Jason’s seemingly latent siren DNA awaken. It was another to see Tucker go from a bright and cheerful human kid one moment, only for his skin to turn gold with obsidian black stripes and his legs to turn into a long tail the next moment. Danny’s parents immediately had their mouths and teeth checked, then they took blood samples too, trying to figure out how exactly sirens could turn humans.

There was a brief spell of panic amongst the adults when it was pointed out that Danny had drawn blood from that teenage girl that had climbed into his tank during the aftershow meet and greet. Thankfully, Tim was quick enough to point out they’d done their fair share of biting and scratching the aquarium employees, and none of those people had ever shown any symptoms. Jack made the connection soon after that, by observing a hormone present in Tucker’s blood that wasn’t in any of the other sirens’, they had to actively want to transform someone in order for it to work. Otherwise it would act as a normal bite wound.

That wasn’t to say they weren’t displeased with their clandestine actions, though.

There was a much larger question.

They were all sat around the dinner table, with Angela as the chef for that night and Bruce, Jazz and Jason as her assistants, preparing a feast ready for eleven people. It was then that Maddie brought up the matter of transformation again.

“We can’t let this get out,” she said firmly. “At least, not before the law’s changed on sirens. There’s a lot of uses for sirens for someone who’s willing to cross a few moral lines. Their powers, for example.”

Jason gulped. Danny and Tim had gotten quite a handle on their powers, thanks to Lex Luthor’s brutal training regime. Not only could they swim fast, they could even control the movement of the water itself. Danny could turn sea water into ice along his fins, and even shoot super-chilled water out of his mouth, whereupon it turned to ice after hitting something. Both of them could turn themselves invisible and anything or anyone they were touching. Tim was able to channel bioelectricity in large amounts.

Any one of these powers would be very useful for an aspiring megalomaniac taking after Lex Luthor. They’d be able to commit all kinds of crime on the high seas.

“L-luthor threatened to kidnap other kids and have them turned into sirens if me and Tim didn’t listen to him,” Danny mumbled.

Maddie’s face turned dark at the reminder of Luthor’s existence. Tucker’s parents shifted uncomfortably. Even Clark was sombre.

“Once siren rights are enshrined into law,” Bruce said, “We’ll be able to protect sirens of all stripes.”

“But evil’s gonna do evil, right?” Jack pointed out. “Once it gets out, someone somewhere is gonna use it to do bad.”

“I’m not sure if we have a choice on that,” Angela said. “If our theories about Jason’s parentage is true, there could be any number of sirens living among humans in secret. Eventually, that secret’s gonna get out.”

“That doesn’t mean we have to say anything though, right?” Clark butted in.

“No, no we don’t,” Bruce said. “But the fact that it can get out at all is worrying to me. More importantly for the moment, we don’t know how long this campaign will take. The kids will need to go back to school.”

“I’m sure we can get them exempted from showering with other kids and pool lessons and all that,” Maurice, Tucker’s dad, said. “Worst comes to worst, we can keep ‘em inside if it’s a rainy day even, or deck ‘em out in raincoats.”

“There’s so much we can’t account for. Eventually someone’s going to spill water on them. And no offense Jason, but you’re a pretty messy drinker. At some point you’ll get some water spilt around your mouth. Regardless of how, you kids are going to get wet at some point, and unlike H2O, you won’t be getting ten seconds of grace time to run and hide.”

“I don’t drink messily,” Jason grumbled through his very wet mouth, a trail of water dripping down to his neckbone and leaving scales in its wake.

“Sure, sweetie,” Bruce snarked. “That’s why we’re going to start training tomorrow.”

At that, the kids (sans Jazz, who had the fortune of being completely human and was thus exempted) groaned.

“We trained enough under Luthor,” Danny whined piteously.

“Wasn’t this supposed to be a vacation?” came Tim’s muffled voice, the boy having face planted into the dining table.

“D-does that mean exercise?” Tucker squeaked.

Bruce nodded grimly.

Tucker gulped.

Chapter Text

The next day was sunny and bright with a faint breeze filling the island. It was perfect weather for a… triathlon?

Yeah, Danny was a bit confused too, until Bruce explained it to everyone.

A triathlon was a big race where the contestants had to run, swim and cycle. Immediately Tim raised the issue of them not having any bicycles, and that there weren’t any cycle paths on the island. However, Bruce waved off his concerns. “I’ve already ordered some for Wayne Manor. For now, however, we’re going to just have you run around the track, then jump into the water, swim around the island, and then return to the pier. This is the important part. You need to be able to quickly turn back into human form even while being wet.”

“Does that mean we’ll be naked for the third part?” Tucker asked nervously. Danny remembered the sad fate of Tucker’s swimsuit after his turning yesterday. Rest in peace swimsuit, you will be missed.

“That’s what these are for,” Bruce said, tossing them each a bundle of fabric, black and white for Danny, blue and purple for Tim, red and black for Jason and black and gold for Tucker.

If Tucker’s colours were black and gold, did that make him a bee? If Tim could shoot ink, and he was an octopus, and Tucker was black and gold like a bee, did that mean his mucus was actually honey? No, honey was supposed to be sticky, and Tucker’s mucus was just slick. But maybe he could be genetically modified to make honey. He knew there was something about bacteria being made to produce insulin, so why couldn’t a siren guppy be engineered to produce honey?

But if sirens could produce honey, would that mean Tucker would be locked up in a beehive, forced to produce endless honey for the masses with no hope of escape?

Danny shuddered with terror.

“You got that?” Bruce said, having finished an explanation that Danny had apparently missed entirely.

“What did he say?” he whispered to Jason.

“Put on swimsuit, don’t take it off, and your parents’ mad science mumbo jumbo will

One quick change later, and the four of them lined up at the starting line. Clark stood on the sidelines, holding a flag and one of Danny’s parents cool-looking scifi laser guns. The rest of the parents sat on some makeshift bleachers, each one waving a flag with their respective son’s face on it. Jazz, on the other hand, pointedly chose to support Jason instead of Danny.

Tween crushes were so gross. Danny was so glad he wouldn’t have to deal with that for a couple more years.

“Oh your marks!” Clark announced. Danny lowered himself, hands on the ground and feet ready to race, like the best Olympic sprinters. “Get set! Go!”

The pop of the gun kicked them into action. Danny sprinted, letting the burn of sport fuel him. He was the fastest in the water, and Jason was completely human three weeks ago, so he had this in the bag.

His confidence wavered a little as a Jason-shaped blur pulled ahead of him, the preteen boy grinning smugly. Danny pouted, and huffed, willing his feet to pull him faster, but he couldn’t overtake the older boy, who surged on ahead of him.

In fact, even Tim was pulling ahead of him! The only person he was in front of was Tucker! This was terrible!

“You can do it, Danny! Kick their scaly butts!” his dad shouted from the sidelines. The adults had entered a golf cart (because for some reason Bruce had one of those on this island) and were following the competition, whooping and cheering. Danny panted and shined a quick thumbs up at his dad, appreciative of the encouragement, even though only one of his competition actually had scales – unless Tucker counted, and Danny and Tim had a very long argument about whether eels actually did have scales, but in Danny’s opinion they totally didn’t.

Soon Danny reached the end of the land circuit, the pier. Jason and Tim had already plunged into the water, and Danny noted the lack of any discarded articles of clothing like what was usual when going from human to siren. He remembered what Jason had told him and braced himself, jumping into the water as the adults quickly transferred from the golf cart to his parents’ boat.

There was always a little shock to the system, plunging into the depths, that Danny had never quite got used to. Immediately he pushed out all the air from his lungs, letting the sea water fill his body, carve open his gills, and force his legs together. He held his expanding ears out for the sound of fabric tearing, but it never came. Curious and a little surprised, he looked down, and found his swimming trunks had held firm, his hip fins poking through two slits in the fabric. Somehow, the legs of the trunks had merged along with his legs, creating a seamless sleeve that hugged his waist.

“Woah,” Danny whistled at his parents’ handiwork.

“Danny!” his dad shouted from above the water. “Quit marvelling at the fruit of your mother and I’s scientific genius and get swimming!”

Right, the race! Danny flexed his fins and shot off, the thick water whirling past his face and dancing on his fins. The sea floor blurred into a mass of colours and shapes. His nose picked up the lingering scents of Jason and Tim, strengthening as he gained on them.

The swimming portion of the race took them from the pier and then around one of the smaller islands about a hundred metres away from Bruce’s island, a bit of a challenging swim for humans, but child’s play for a siren. Danny zipped past Tim, chirping raucously, and then he passed Jason, even rubbing his fin on Jason’s, just to tease the previously smug preteen. Jason chirped furiously, but was unable to catch up to Danny, still unused to his aquatic body. Danny on the other hand, had spent months as a siren more than as a human.

“Eat my bubbles!” Danny trilled as Jason and Tim turned to history behind him. He quickly completed the circuit and returned to the pier, jumping from the water and landing on the pier. Sopping wet still, he concentrated on his limbs, willing his fins to flatten themselves, his skin to regain colour, and his legs to reappear.

It was a little hard, though, especially with the pressure of his incoming competition. Jason broke through the water seconds after Danny had, but was having similar trouble breaking his transformation.

It was Tim to turn human first, despite being third to arrive. While Danny and Jason were clenching furiously, groaning as their bodies obstinately refused to turn human in a timely manner, Tim climbed up the side of the pier with his suckers, and then shook off his purple and white skin in a moment. The now-human boy cheerily waved at his struggling competitors and skipped off.

“Get back here, Timmy! I’ll get you for this!” Jason shouted, crying vengeance. “As soon as! I c-can! Turn! Back!”

Pop, Danny felt as a scale disappeared, then more in its wake. Finally! Danny didn’t wait for his reforming legs to regain full human colour, and was already racing off to catch up to Tim.

Jason wasn’t far behind, and Danny’s ears caught the thunderous beat of a sprinting twelve-year-old approaching his location at a high velocity. He gained a second wind at this revelation, just as the finish line was in view, and Tim just ahead of him. Danny pushed himself further, his legs burning from having run, transformed, swum, turned back and run again. His side pounded with pain, and his lungs struggled. He briefly lost his grip on his chest, as gills partially formed from the water still clinging to his skin.

He was a hair’s breadth behind Tim. Jason was nipping at his heels. All three of them leapt for the finish line.

“And the winner iiisss…!” Clark declared. “Jason!”

They crashed on the sand, heaving from the exertion as their audience cheered, clapping for them.

“WOOO!!! GO JAYJAY!!!” Jazz shouted, jumping up and down. Danny pouted. How dare his sister betray him! Maybe he should eat Bearbert as revenge… No, wait. Danny’s eyes followed the bloom of red in his peripheral vision, and he gagged at the sight.

Jason was blushing.

“Gross,” he muttered. Tim nodded sagely from underneath him. Oh, Danny also accidentally landed on Tim. Oops.

“Danny, I’m dying,” he moaned. Danny nodded, and remained where he was seated.

“Wait, where’s Tuck?” Danny said, looking around.

“Oh, he’s fine!” Angela called. Danny turned to look at her, and found Tucker slung over her shoulder, tail and all, his upper half a mix of human black skin and siren black skin, evidently having failed to change back at all. “He was so brave! He even managed to complete the first part, but I think he still needs to learn to swim.”

Danny clapped for him regardless. “You did great, Tuck!”

“You all did well,” his mum said. “But that was just the first round, kids.”

All four siren boys groaned in dread.

Mercifully, they were spared doing the full course the next few rounds. Instead, the adults layered different obstacles and distractions along the way. His parents hid in the shadows, tossing water balloons with frightening accuracy. Well, his mum tossed them with frightening accuracy. It was impossible not to get hit by the watery projectiles, forcing them to concentrate to maintain their human forms. Then, Maurine and Clark pelted them from shots from Super Soakers. Then they had to pass through a puddle-filled obstacle course. Landing on a puddle meant losing your feet, unless you could concentrate long enough for the sand to soak up the water.

When all was done, the four of them headed for the showers to clean off the sand, grim and sweat from their bodies.

Only to collapse on the floor as the shower heads doused them and their legs disappeared.

There came anguished shouts of “Noooo!” and “Not again!”

~~

Their ‘vacation’ soon came to an end, and Jason, for one, couldn’t be happier to be back home.

Only, ‘home’ was a little different.

“B, what the flip?” he muttered.

They all stood in front of the Manor, and though outwardly it appeared the same, Jason’s nose detected a faint whiff of sea salt and brine.

“B, what did the heck did you do?”

“Well, with now three siren boys living here, I saw it fit to have… a few renovations.” Bruce twiddled his thumbs, looking innocent. Jason gaped. “You can’t be serious. What the hell kind of construction company did you get for this job?!”

“You know what they’re like, Jayjay. You said it yourself some time ago. They’re just used to rich people doing crazy projects like this.”

“Enough talking,” Danny interrupted, taking both Tucker and Tim’s hands. “Let’s gooooo!”

The three younger guppies dashed passed him, making their way to the garden and pool. Jason cursed, and ran after them, determined not to be left behind in seeing what insanity Bruce had wrought.

Before Bruce, he used to be homeless. Before that, he and his mother lived in a dingy old flat in Crime Alley, and the idea of renovations wasn’t even a dream. It was inconceivable. He gaped open as the once-swimming pool was completely gone. In its stead was a teaming miniature lake, complete with fish, swaying plants and shellfish and natural dirt where barren, sterile pool tiles laid.

The three other boys didn’t waste a second in shucking their clothes and jumping in, stirring up a storm of curious trills and joyful chirps underwater as they explored the new space.

Jason’s eyes, on the other hand, snapped to an opening below the lake’s surface, a tunnel. However, his observation was interrupted by a stream of water delivered straight to him by Danny’s mouth. It was only from the constant resistance training that he’d just returned from that he was able to save his clothes.

“Come on! What are you waiting for!” Danny said, paddling the water with the fins of his arms.

Well, if Bruce did this all for them, then he might as well see all of from the perspective of who it was made for. Jason cracked an evil grin, stepped back, then leapt into the water, yelling “Cannonball!”. Danny’s eyes widened as Jason’s shadow was cast over him. However, he wasn’t fast enough to avoid the impact. Jason tackled Danny, crashing him into the bed of the lake, claws getting all up in Danny’s cracks and crevices in a savage tickle attack. The younger boy’s tail thrashed wildly, his voice squealing and trilling with barely-controlled laughter, breaking up his already-rough attempts to beg for mercy.

“H-help! HELP!” Danny cried out.

“I’ll save you, Danny!” Tucker shouted, charging for Jason. Jason ducked his body, causing Tucker to harmlessly glide past his sail like a bull through the cape of a matador.

“Better luck next time, Sucker!”

“Release my friend, you sea monster!” Tim shouted, attacking from underneath the dirt. However, Jason just poked him in the belly button, causing Tim to cringe inward, halting his advance. Then Jason pressed the attack, diving for Tim’s arm pits. The tickle attack instantly defeated the once-proud octopus boy, sending him laughing and wiggling on the dirt.

“Surprise attack!” Danny shouted at the top of his voice, smacking Jason in the back and nipping him in the shoulder. Jason laughed, but played along.

“oh no, ive been overwhelmed, i must flee or something,” he deadpanned, easily throwing off Danny and dashing for the tunnel as the younger guppies rallied behind him.

Now, surely this just led to a changing room or indoor pool or something inside the Manor. Jason swam through the tunnel. That was indeed what he found, a more traditional pool, though lacking in the chlorine that irritated a siren’s gills.

Only, at the edge of the pool was another tunnel. And this one went upward. His morbid curiosity (and the vengeful cries of Tim, Danny and Tucker behind him) pushed him forward.

He swam through the pool, then up the glass tunnel. Jason’s mouth hung agape as he recognised the hallways of the ground floor, only this time he was swimming through a channel of water instead of running through the halls. He kept swimming and swimming, finding intersections and connections in the tunnels. The tunnels led into most of the important rooms, like the living room, and the game room, and the kitchen. They even went upstairs, although they were sparser there.

The most shocking was that one of the tunnels led directly to the room underneath Jason’s own bedroom. There, he was utterly shocked to find the formerly unused bedroom completely flooded. Where the old bed was, now stood a giant clam bed. The floors were replaced by an expanse of yellow sand, teaming with oysters and clams. However, what drew Jason’s eye the most was the hatch on the ceiling. His eyes widened as he made the connection. Surely not?

He swam up to the hatch and pushed it open, his fins flapping rapidly to give him height. His head found air, and his eyes met the familiar comfort of his own bedroom.

“Bruce, holy fucking shit.”

“That’s five dollars in the swear jar, young Master,” Alfred said, poking his head through the open door in Jason’s room.

Jason yelped in surprise. “A-alfred! How the heck did you know I’d be here?”

“Obviously once you’d comprehended the extent to which the Manor was renovated, you would quickly follow the tunnels and channels to your bedroom. It was quite elementary, my dear Master Jason. Your father has been working extensively to coordinate and manage the construction. The other boys’ rooms are similarly changed, and you have your own dens in the lake outside as well, if you want to camp in the lake.”

“It’s amazing,” Jason breathed. “I can’t wait to show the others!”

“Looks like you’ll get your chance soon, Master Jason.”

“Huh?” Jason asked at the height of Victorian loquaciousness, his ear fins quirking up questioningly.

“I smell him! Get him, boys!” Tucker’s voice came distantly from below. Jason had about a second to react before he felt teeth on his tailfin.

“MOTHERFRAGGERS!”

~~

GROUNDBREAKING: SIREN LANGUAGE DECIPHERED IN HISTORY-MAKING DISCOVERY.

“I could not have done it without the help of Dr Clark Kent,” Dr Diana Prince, head linguist at the Smithsonian, told the Daily Planet. “He had worked diligently to collect these samples, as well as inform the contexts in which they had taken place. The siren language includes many modes of expression and nuance, containing numerous features present in human language. It is for this reason that my institution is publically joining the rallying call for sirens to be recognised as a sapient species, and for them to receive greater protections as given in the meta-human rights act, so that people like Lex Luthor will never be able to exploit them again.”

~~

More time passes…

“Good evening, Metropolis and welcome to The Cat Grant Show with me, your host for tonight, Cat Grant! Things have been buzzing around Metropolis, after our golden boy Lex Luthor was revealed to have a bit of a naughty streak, and not in the fun way. Last week we interviewed Eve Teschmaker, Lex’s now-exgirlfriend, but Lex’s crimes have run far deeper, as many of you probably already know. Among his victims were Metropolis’s undersea jewels, Phantom and Banshee. With me in the studio is someone who can tell us a lot about his experiences with them. Everybody, please welcome Dr Clark Kent!”

That was their cue to enter. Danny gulped nervously as the curtains pulled back from the side of the stage, and he was briefly blinded by the stagelights, his black eyes squinting to recover. The studio audience erupted with applause as Clark waved at them shyly, walking from the backstage area along the elevated stage and sitting himself down on the couch next to Cat Grant.

“Good evening, Cat, but please, just call me Clark.”

“Look at you, being all modest,” Cat said with a wry grin, leaning on her elbow. She smelled strongly of perfume. So much perfume. “Now, I know all about you, but can you tell our dear viewers at home who might not know about you yet?”

Clark straightened his back, Danny silently encouraging him. “Yes, well, erh, hello everybody! I’m Clark, and I used to work at Luthor Aquariums. I was a penguin handler and researcher, but Luthor transferred me to working with Phantom and Banshee. I ended up being their caretaker up until I was fired.”

“And why was that, Clark?”

“In short, I disagreed with Luthor’s methods. He wanted them to train and train for more and more shows. The boys were exhausted, and when he didn’t get the results he wanted, he started resorting to more and more abusive methods. I refused to go along with it, and got fired for it.”

“What was it like, working with sirens? What were Phantom and Banshee like?”

“Wonderful,” Clark said immediately. “I missed my penguins of course, but those two were playful, sweet, and endlessly curious. At first I was terrified of messing up. I mean, who wouldn’t be? Being the man responsible for two members of an endangered species. That would scare anyone. But soon I realised Phantom and Banshee were just silly goofballs.”

“There’s been all this buzz lately about sirens, and how the stories might actually be a little truer than we thought. Tell me, did Phantom ever want to be where the people are? Did Banshee take his voice away in exchange for magic?” Cat Grant joked.

“If what you’re asking is if they were intelligent, I think they were smarter than some of my colleagues. We did a few experiments to gauge their cognitive abilities and responses to things. For example, we put a mirror in their enclosure to see how long it would take for them to realise it was just a reflection. They ended up acting like they were meeting a new siren for months. But if you think that’s a mark against their intelligence, I would argue it’s evidence for it.”

“And why’s that?”

“Because they were smart enough to know exactly what we were doing, smart enough to know how to frustrate us and smart enough to have a laugh at our expense the whole time. But why should I explain it when Phantom can tell you straight from his own mouth?”

That was Danny’s cue. He let go of his invisibility, waving from his position draped over Clark’s shoulders like a particularly slimy scarf. His scales glinted in the studio lights, and his tail was wrapped around Clark’s arm in a manner explicitly impossible for a boy in a costume to pull off.

“You should’ve seen Clark’s face when we spent a whole hour trying to shove all the blocks into the square hole.”

Danny scanned the wide eyes of the studio audience, grinning slightly at the feeling of wowing a crowd once again.

Cat, on the other hand, was not nearly as shocked. “That’s right, everybody. For today’s special episode, we’ve invited our first very siren guests to the show. Everybody please welcome the mysterious Phantom!”

The audience clapped with raucous applause, loud enough to pound on Danny’s ears, forcing him to fold them back. Still, it made him feel exhilarated, being in front of everybody, in the air, with no pretence of

He slid off of Clark’s shoulders, making himself comfortable beside him on the couch.

Alfred had made sure he had something comfortable to wear, as it was a pretty unanimous decision from the adults that he had to wear something for the interview. He bore a stylish buttoned-up vest for his torso, with many slits carefully tailored to fit his fins. His waist was covered by a tight sleeve that let his hip fins peek out as well. Bruce had suggested a suit, but Danny hated wearing those even as a human, leading to this more comfortable compromise.

“Good evening, humans of Metropolis!” Danny said, chirping at the end. “But I’m still waiting for someone. Clark?”

“Oh, yes, how could I have forgotten!”

Clark whipped out a small box only about a foot long in either direction. Danny gave a knowing smile. It was a plain wooden box except for a small hole in the centre of one of its faces, covered by two flaps. Clark presented the hole to the camera as a tentacle emerged from it. Then, seven more emerged, before a torso, then two humanoid arms, and finally, Tim’s head, having all squeezed into that tiny space.

“Just to prove that we really are the same sirens,” Tim said, smirking. He had already come clothed in his own outfit, consisting of a little suit and hat and a skirt to cover his waist.

“I’m sure this comes as a shock to a lot of people,” Cat told them. “So what’s your story? How did you come to be in the aquarium? Why didn’t you escape?”

Danny and Tim gave each other a glance, before turning to Cat, beginning the story they’d prepared beforehand.

“Well, Phantom and I are brothers, but you wouldn’t be able to tell. Our parents died from an oil spill, so we had to survive on our own for a while,” Tim began. “Then, one day we got lost in a current, and ended up in Metropolis Bay. We stuck around for a few years, during which we learned English from hearing humans speak, and from coming onto land and speaking to them ourselves. Also, we watched a lot of TV in those days.”

“Hold on, you came onto land? And talked to humans?”

Danny shrugged. “Yeah, not like it’s hard.  When sirens get dry, their bodies look like a human body. That’s why Banshee and I have to keep moist here.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out a bottle of perfume loaded with regular water, spraying it onto his scales to demonstrate.

Clark interjected. “In case you were wondering, the boys won’t be showing off their human forms. I want them to have some privacy on land again, after spending so long being put on display. Also, they aren’t nearly properly dressed enough to be human right now.”

Danny blew a raspberry at him, mostly just because he could, not because he disagreed with Clark.

“Oh, that’s totally reasonable. What are your real names, then?” Cat asked curiously. “I mean your siren names, because Phantom and Banshee are just what we call you.”

“Oh, well, I kinda like Banshee,” Tim said with fake shyness. “And you guys couldn’t say our underwater names even if you tried. It’s something like,” Tim then started a long sequence of trills and chirps, ending it with a low croon. “And that’s just way too long. Banshee sounds cooler.”

“And shorter,” Danny said, giggling.

Clark pouted. “I for one like,” then he repeated the exact same sequence of trills that Tim did. “It’s very elegant.”

“No way. How did you manage that?” Cat said in awe. “Can you teach me?!”

“Well, let’s say I’ve discovered an affinity for language acquisition lately,” Clark joked.

“So if you could just climb out of the water and walk away, why did you stay at the Aquarium for so long? Why didn’t you escape?”

“Are you kidding me?” Danny said, crossing his arms. “Free food, free housing, a nice den, and free entertainment from all you silly humans. Also, we were stealing money from the cash register.”

Cat gasped in faux-scandalisation. “No! Really?”

Tim nodded merrily. “Luthor was making a tonne of money off of us, so really that was our money the whole time.”

“That was until Luthor got wise to our plans, and then tried to make us kill Superman.”

“Luthor was a jerk. I wish we could’ve thrown him to the sharks,” Tim said, pouting.

“The biggest jerk. I’ve met dolphins nicer than him, and that’s saying something.”

“But it’s ok now. Superman helped save us!”

“Superman’s the best. Clark’s a close second, though.”

“Thanks guys, I appreciate it?” Clark said unsuredly. The studio audience had a big laugh at that.

The interview from then on went smoothly. He, Tim, Jazz and Jason had spent days carefully crafting personas for their siren selves, including music tastes, movies, and very strong opinions about mermaid movies.

“We had a movie marathon where Clark and our human friends showed us all kinds of movies that humans make about us.”

“What did you think of the Little Mermaid?” Cat asked.

Danny made a face. “Terrible. 0/10. Firstly, how have they not drowned? Where are their gills?!”

Tim poked him in the side with an octopus tentacle. “I don’t have gills either.”

“You breathe through your skin! These ‘mermaids’ have human skin. Underwater. Have you seen what happens to human skin underwater?”

Tim shook his head.

Danny gestured furiously. “They turn into raisins! They don’t look good! She has no scales up there! No protection! What happens if her pet shark wants to nibble her! What happens if she crashes into the sand?! The clams are gonna mess her perfect skin up! And what the heck is up with that ring on her waist?! It’s an animated movie why do they look like they’re wearing costumes?!?!?!?!?”

Danny took a brief moment to gather his breath, his fins flaring with his performative anger. “Anyway I guess I can relate to the whole wanting to see the human world thing, but she didn’t have to talk to a sea witch about it! Who does that?!”

“I think it was because her dad was being a jerk. I can relate,” Tim suggested.

“Hey!” Clark exclaimed. “What did I do?”

“You didn’t let me have all the icecream!”

“We don’t even know if you have the lactase required to drink milk safely!”

“Too late. Back when we were at the aquarium we ate all of Steve’s yogurt and we were fine!”

“Wait, that was you?!”

…

“The costumes looked pretty cool. I’d wear them, honestly. You know, if I didn’t already have a tail.”

“Are the moon pools real?” Cat asked.

“Absolutely not. That’s totally fictional. A neat show, but still lacking in the scales department. Give your sirens more scales, people! We are sea creatures! We live in the sea! We need scales! So we don’t die!”

“I don’t have scales,” Tim pointed out cheerfully.

“Yeah but you have octopus skin, that’s different. And you can take my nibbles just fine. Remember when we were playing around and gave Wes a bite? He was freaking out like were going to eat him!”

…

“Any cool tricks to show us?”

“Banshee can turn into a shark. Well, he can mimic a shark’s look. It’s actually really uncanny.”

“Yep! Behold!”

Some of Tim’s tentacles collapsed into a singular tail, while others spread out around his torso. Next, he faceplanted on the couch. His purple skin shifted as waves of grey over took it. Soon there was a sharply-dressed shark on the sofa, complete with a shark tail and cutting dorsal fin.

“My face doesn’t look like a shark though,” Tim said, his voice muffled by the sofa. “Still working on that.”

~~

“So, what does the future look like for you now?”

“I wanna find other sirens, if they’re out there. It’s lonely being only one of three sirens on land.”

“This might sound crazy,” Tim added. “But we also kinda miss our performances. Sure they were hard work, but they were really fun, too.”

“And I miss our den in the aquarium. But if we ever go back there, we wanna perform as athletes, not as animals.”

“Yeah, like strongmen! Or acrobats! Human acrobats are so cool. Clark took us to a circus one time and it was amazing! They made flying fish look slow!”

~~

The interview was long, but Tim felt a strong sense of accomplishment for having completed it. Clark carried them back to their new home, Wayne Manor, although significantly more than just the small Wayne family lived there now.

Tim had nearly fallen asleep on Clark’s arms, but had successfully stayed awake the whole drive back. Clark nudged the door open to a full house. Bruce, Jason and Dick were there, as were Danny’s family and Tucker’s. Confetti poppers blew off as they went through the door as the others cheered.

“Congrats, Timmy!” Jason shouted. “You did great!”

“Wooooo! Go Tim! Go Danny! Go Clark!” Dick cheered.

The noise immediately woke Danny up from his slumber. The transparent siren, body now half-littered with patches of human skin, grinned as he beheld the party. Immediately he slid off of Clark and wiped the rest of the water from his tail, forming legs and landing square on his feet as he ran into the party, jumping into his parents’ arms.

“How dare you trash the Little Mermaid!” Jazz complained, pouting at him.

“Sorry, Jazzie, but the Little Mermaid sucks. Anyone who’s met a proper siren would know that, hmph!”

“It’s a moving story about the desire of children to move onto new places and explore the world as they mature and the connecting power of love through any barriers.”

“Yeah!” Jason said, leaping to Jazz’s defence. “Plus, the original novel is great!”

“Maybe you’ll understand if you were a siren, Jazzie.” Danny bared his teeth, grinning viciously.

“Danny,” Danny’s mom said sternly. “What did we say about turning your sister?”

Tim had little time to watch before Jason came up and plucked him off of Clark’s arms. “Come on, Timmy! I wanna show you this new trick Dick showed me. It works really well with a tail too.”

Tim nodded, his octopus arms wiggling in excitement. “Show me! Show me!”

It was a little messy, and there was a lot to do, but for Tim, things were looking up at last.

He and Danny weren’t alone any more. They wouldn’t ever be alone again.

WAYNE SON REVEALS SIREN NATURE IN EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW

“You might be wondering about all the canals everywhere, right? Well, follow me,” invited the young Jason Todd-Wayne, leading us through Wayne Manor and to the once-swimming pool. The building, which was built in 1738, was nearly unrecognisable, with long canals and tubes of water crisscrossing the halls like veins. The swimming pool, which once held famous pool parties for the rich and elite, was now a naturalistic lake, fed into by a new stream.

In the time it took to arrive there, the young Jason had already changed to appropriate swimming attire, and was half-way up the steps to a diving board, where Richard “Dick” Grayson-Wayne, Gotham’s Golden Boy, was also waiting. “You wanna see something cool?”

Giving our assent, Dick leapt off of the diving board first, giving a worthy dive as he landed without a splash. Then, Jason followed. However, when his body met the water, it transformed into a bright blaze of red and orange and gold. When Jason emerged, his ears were spread out like fins, and his skin was fiery scales.

The two brothers performed a synchronised dance under the water, making very strong use of the tail that replaced Jason’s legs. We stood there, watching with wide-open mouths even as the family butler came to offer us refreshments.

~~

Jason poked his head out of the pool, flexing out his fins and letting the sunlight bathe his scales. His latest attempt at handstanding over Dick had led to another wipe-out. Turns out balancing a huge tail packed full of muscle that was not meant to be in the air was way harder than Danny made it seem back at that show. And Jason didn’t exactly have the advantage of being born and raised in the circus.

“Woo! That was terrible!” Dick laughed. “I need a break!”

Jason’s big brother waded through the water and pulled himself onto the ledge, popping open a bottle of water and slinging a towel over his shoulders. Jason giggled. After a few short months of being a siren, watching a human swim looked pretty hilarious. “What’s so funny, little fin?”

 “No offense, Dickiebird, but humans swim pretty terribly.”

Dick scoffed in mock outrage. “Well we can’t all have fins, now can we?”

“You could if you wanted to,” Jason joked. “I mean, all it takes is a bite or two.”

“Tempting, but I’ll pass.”

“Come on, you’ll get cool superpowers!” To demonstrate, Jason slapped his tail in the water, causing a huge geyser of water to erupt, coincidentally also spraying Dick with the stuff and soaking his towel.

“Hey! Jerk!” Dick said. His face promised powerful vengeance, but Jason was a fish kid next to a pool, so he just slipped in and avoided Dick’s wrath. He clicked and chirped mockingly at his brother, inviting him in.

“Come on, Dickie. Too afraid to fight a goldfish?”

“Oh I’ll make you eat those words,” Dick said, before diving in.

“Guys!” Came the voice of a girl. Both boys paused in their fight to look up at the entrance to the pool area. Jazz had run out, panting like she had sprinted all the way through the Manor to the pool. “The news is out!”

Jason and his brother exchanged glances. In a split second, Dick was already climbing back out of the pool. Jason sputtered. “Wait, seriously? Since when!?”

“Like two minutes ago?” Jazz said. “Come on! The signing’s about to start!”

“Crap! I lost track of time! Hold on!” Jason zipped to the edge of the pool, surging out of the water and landing on the side. He rolled over himself and willed himself to change back to human, grabbing his discarded pool shirt from the pool chair and pulling it on, folding his dorsal fin flat. He scrambled to his feet, hopping awkwardly on his half-transformed foot webbing as he joined Jazz and Dick in dashing for the TV room.

Tim, Clark and the Fentons were already there. Lois Lane and Eve Teschmacher were there too, talking to Danny’s parents. Clark was talking to Dr Prince, or just Diana as she preferred to be called, while Cat Grant sipped on some wine as she spoke with Angela. Hell, even Steve Lombard was invited. “What took you so long?” Danny asked, turning around from where he was sat on the couch. “Look! The president’s about to do the thing! I have no idea what that does exactly, but it’s important!”

Jazz quickly seated herself beside Danny, hopping over the couch to do so. “The president is signing the act into law, basically the last step in making a new law.”

“Oooh.”

“Ssshh!” Tim went. “I can’t hear what they’re saying!”

The oval office was silent for a moment, as the president’s pen came down. Then, he pulled the booklet up, presenting the new law and his signature. The oval office came alight with camera flashes, and the room back in Wayne Manor roared with celebratory applause and cheers.

As the party got into full swing, Bruce pulled him aside.

Bruce looked upon him, his face radiating pride and happiness in droves, a stark contrast to the almost-legendary creature of the night that stalked the criminals of Gotham.

“You did well, son,” Bruce said, ruffling his hair, half of which was probably still crimson red from the residual pool water. “You saved Tim and Danny, and you even found a part of yourself. I’m proud of you. I’m so proud of you.”

He hugged his dad, smiling through the tears. “Yeah. Feels good.”

The end!

Epilogue: Five years later…

“Ladies and gentleladies, and stately gents of all ages! Welcome one, and welcome all to Metropolis Aquarium! You have all come here, perhaps come from far and wide, to witness the dashing, the daring, the death-defying PHAAANTOOMMM!”

The spotlights shined down on the top of the dizzyingly tall diving board, where Danny stood tall and proud, dressed in a stylish vest that left the spot where his gills would emerge exposed. He wore dazzling cuffs on his wrists, and his ankles sported half-cuffs hat left the inside of them exposed. He waved to the crowd, grinning as they applauded his arrival.

“And on the other side, we have the mysterious, the masterful, the Machiavellian BANSHEEEEEE!”

The spot light shifted off of Danny, and onto Tim on the opposite diving board, his set up mirroring Danny’s, except where Danny had one cuff split in twain between his legs, Tim had four on each ankle.

“Good morning Metropolis!” Tim cheered, waving to the ground with a charming smile. “Are you ready?!”

The crowd below cheered “YES!”

“Then let’s do this!”

Both boys poked the diving board with their heels, causing them to bounce. They ran onto the boards, using their bounce to launch themselves into the air as trapeze bars descended from the ceiling. Their hands caught the trapeze bars with ease, wowing the crowd with aerial spins to make Dick proud, before letting go of the bars at the top of their arc, and diving into the water head first.

They emerged in siren form, spraying the crowd with water as the show began in earnest.

~~

The would turned to shadow and silhouette as Clark looked over Wayne Manor, making sure nobody was near his room. Faster than a speeding bullet, he flew into the room through the window.

The coast was clear.

Though he lived in Gotham still, Superman was still a Metropolis hero through and through, and Gotham was covered by Batman still, someone he could tentatively call a friend even. He was just a little territorial, but as much as it pained Clark to hear screams at night, it also soothed him when those screams turned into whispered thank yous and professed joy upon Batman and Robin’s arrival.

To know this world had so many heroes gave him great peace.

Of course, his new family couldn’t exactly know about his activities when he was outside the manner, and he wasn’t talking about his new job as a consultant for the Daily Planet.

That said, living in a house with eight other people was a kind of chaos that he never got, growing up an only child in Kansas. He thanked his lucky stars that neither the goofy, but kind-hearted billionaire, the sharply dressed and sharper-minded butler nor the easily-distracted scientists had discovered his secret.

He tip-toed to his closet, ready to change out of his costume and get ready for dinner. His hands grasped the knobs of his closet and he swung it open.

He was met with the wide eyes of his new son and his new son’s best friend. “I KNEW IT!” Tim shouted.

Oh no.

~~

A splash.

The lights burst, plunging the ship into darkness.

Confusion spread through the ranks. “Secure the rabble!” someone shouted, going downstairs to check on the people they were shipping out.

A cold wind blew through the deck. Bill shuddered, his flashlight waving erratically across the bow of the ship in a frantic attempt to locate the source of the disturbance. His torch catches the glint of scales, the faintest shimmer of jewel-like lines beneath the flesh. He zeroes his torch in on the figure, a nightmare of a face with blankened eyes dotted by ice-blue pupils, with the creature’s bones visible through its ghostly skin.

“What are you?” Bill breathed out, braver than most of the other men, who had gone to cowering.

“I’m your worst nightmare,” Phantom said, licking his lips and flashing a vicious grin.

The boat’s engines sputtered and died. The ghostly siren lifted a finger, and fired a blast faster than Bill could imagine. His torch clattered to the ground, smoking and broken. The crew were blind as claws and tentacles came down upon them.

The end...