Let's Make A Statement

Talk

Batman looked angry, no more then that he looked pissed and usually that would terrify the three it was directed toward but not this time. This time they were protecting a friend and terrified or not they weren't going to back down. Batman glared at them, "You protected a criminal and let him get away."

Robin glared right back, "Them, and they aren't criminals."

Superboy spoke, "He broke into a government building."

Batgirl spoke, "You don't even know why he was there, we do."

Kid Flash looked at Artemis, "Artemis you can't seriously want to defend this guy."

She glared at him, "I do actually."

Batman gave the others a look and they all went silent, then he looked back at the three, "Do you know who he is?"

Robin spoke, "We do, and we're not telling you who they are."

"Because you're dating them."

"I'm dating Phantom not Toxin, he is part of the deal but I won't tell you because they're friends. And while we've been chasing them they've been going after the real bad guy to prove they didn't hurt anyone and to try to save people."

Batman didn't look convinced, "He was seen with a body."

Batgirl spoke, "Yeah, seen, no one saw them kill him, they've been chasing the real killer for weeks and we've been so busy chasing them no one thought there might be someone else behind it, except Robin."

Artemis interjected, "And they've just been defending themselves every time we fought them, they never attacked first."

The young heroes looked at each other,when they thought about it that was true, he'd never attacked first, he'd never even really hurt them. The room was silent for a few seconds before Aqualad spoke, "If there is another killer why did he not say anything?"

Batman gave him a stern look and Robin answered, "He tried but no one would listen, now they're hunting a killer on their own."

That was also true, he, Phantom apparently, had tried to tell them he didn't kill the man he was found with, they didn't listen. Batman spoke, "If he has been hunting this killer have they come close to catching them?"

Artemis spoke, "Yeah, and we actually stopped them so they got away, they would have caught them if we hadn't stopped them."

Now that made all of them pause, if this was true not only had they been chasing the wrong guy but they'd helped the real killer get away. Batman spoke, "What else do you know?"

Batgirl answered, "They're the ones that have been catching the criminals."

They just stared, they'd been stopping criminals and Batman didn't know until recently, that identified the strange vigilante in Gotham. They all waited for Batman's reaction, after a few seconds he spoke, "I need to speak with him."

Robin spoke, "Them, and we're not just going to let you talk to them." Batman was going to speak but Robin cut him off, "You've been hunting them you don't get to just talk to them now."

Batman wanted to argue but the look Robin was giving him told him he wasn't winning this, and he really couldn't blame him anyway. With that the three left, they didn't say another word to any of them they just walked out. They all went home and almost dreaded the next day, the only bright side was that Danny might not have to worry about heroes going after him and Toxin anymore.

Meanwhile, Danny went back to the foster home after a long night, he thought about texting Richard to see if he was okay but didn't want to do that if he was still dealing with the other heroes. This was frustrating, not only did they jump in to protect him but he couldn't find out if they were okay until the next day at school.

In the end he went to bed and hoped they'd be okay, the next day he didn't care about anything. He wouldn't have eaten if it weren't for Toxin and he didn't talk to anyone, when it was time to go to school he was anxious. He would have just gone ahead of them if he thought they wouldn't ask questions if he did and he didn't need that right now.

When they got there he didn't go straight to his locker like he usually did, he was scanning the hallways for Richard. He looked for a few minutes but didn't see him and he was both irritated and slightly worried. Then someone put their hand on his shoulder and he turned fully intending on telling them to fuck off or even punch them.

Then he saw Richard's face and those thoughts were gone immediately, he actually wanted to hug him but didn't know how that would go. Instead he drug him into the bathroom and made sure no one else was in there before speaking, "What happened?"

Richard looked a little amused, "You had to drag me in here to ask what happened?"

Danny was not happy, "Don't make me hurt you."

Richard smiled a little before it disappeared, "Batman wants to talk to you."

Danny paused, "What?"

"We explained it to him and now he wants to talk to you, I told him I wasn't just going to let him talk to you. I wanted to talk to you about it first, I wouldn't blame you if you didn't want to talk to him at all."

Danny though for a second, "Toxin?"

Toxin spoke, 'I do not want to talk to him but it may be best if we try, it may give you fewer headaches.'

"Fair point." He looked at Richard, "We'll talk to him."

Richard smiled just a little, "I'll text you after school with somewhere to meet me."

"Fine, but just so we're clear I'm not happy about this."

"I figured, but I promise I'll be there and try to make this as painless as possible."

"That's probably not going to happen, now I need to go to my locker and then we need to go to class so I can hate everything."

Richard laughed just a little and left the bathroom with Danny, they went to their lockers and met up outside the classroom. They could already tell this was going to be a long day.