Lost and Found

Sibling Solidarity

Damian lurked outside of the warehouse. It was old and abandoned, and most prominently, it was a place that gangbangers really enjoyed hiding. Hopefully, some of the Joker's cronies were there tonight. Damian really needed some information, information that he believed they could supply.

He quietly slipped in through a broken window, high up in the rafters, and swiftly made his way further into the building. He paused every now and then to listen for voices, and when he heard some, he silently made his way closer.

Damian sat silently, watching and listening to the conversion between two low life criminals. Luckily for him, they were talking about the Joker. According to their conversation he was hulled up in some warehouse across town, a bit closer to crime alley, and he was preparing to enact some big plan.

That was certainly very bad, so Damian stuck around a while longer, hoping to overhear the exact address. A few years ago he would've jumped down there and attempted to interrogate them, but now, he was a bit more cautious, and he had also improved his critical thinking skills. It was better if the criminals involved didn't know that the bats were looking into them, that would give the bats an advantage.

Eventually the conversation went on, and the two criminals left. Damian hadn't heard the exact address unfortunately, but he had enough information for Tim Drake to discover the exact location. So, Damian returned to the Bat Cave.

Once there, he waited for his family to return. When they did, his explanation of his discoveries that night went quickly.

Expectedly, his father wasn't pleased with the news of the Joker's activity, and also expectedly, Jason Todd was benched from patrols and any vigilante activity until the Joker was apprehended. His response to that order was less than approving.

"What the hell B?!" Jason Todd shouted, "that's so fucking stupid! Why can't I go help you guys get that asshole?!" Damian agreed with his brother in this instance, although he chose not to voice that opinion.

"We all know how you feel about the Joker, and I'm not putting you in a situation where you have the chance or opportunity to kill him," his father replied calmly. Clearly having had this conversation with Jason Todd before.

"It's been years, I'll be fine," Jason's Todd's tone shifted ever so slightly to be almost begging.

"No," was his fathers response, "and that's final. Don't argue with me on this."

Jason (fine brain, Damian would use their first names) glared and stomped off, mumbling under his breath. Dick followed Jason out quickly, probably to comfort him, knowing Dick.

After that, Father concluded the debrief, deciding that he would go deal with the Joker himself the following night, and Tim and himself left the cave.

Damian, though, had no intention of going to bed now (Tim probably didn't either, although for very different reasons), he needed to find Jason. Damian had an idea, but he needed Jason to be on board.

Jason, it turned out, had gone to the library. He was curled up on a couch with a book in his hands. He looked more calm like this than Damian ever saw him outside of this room.

"Hey Todd," he called out quietly from the room's entrance. Jason looked up at him. The sour look on his face had reappeared. "I have an idea."

"That's never good," Jason remarked, "will it piss off B?" Damian, nodded. It most likely would, but he didn't care. Jason laughed, "okay, so what is this idea? Were you gonna take the batmobile on another joyride?"

"No," Damian replied, "I was thinking that we could go after the Joker tonight. Father is going to wait until tomorrow, but I don't believe that this should be left to wait. I also disagree with Father's assessment of you in this regard." Jason looked bewildered at his proclamation. Damian broke rules very little these days, unless he felt very strongly about something, so this probably came out of left field to Jason.

"And you're completely sure you want to do this?" Jason asked, and Damian simply nodded. A malicious grin spread across Jason's face, and he set his book down.

——-

After suiting up for the second time that night, and jumping on Hood's motorcycle, the two brothers set off towards the general area of where the Joker was hiding. It was nearly dawn by the time they had found the correct warehouse and successfully infiltrated the building unnoticed. Inside, the Joker was standing with several of his lackies, they weren't actively doing anything malicious, but there was a photo of two young teens in superhero outfits pulled up on their monitor.

They were talking about the two teens (one in some black cat suit, and the other in a much more sensible getup. In fact, it reminded him of one of his or his brothers uniforms, except the girl's was primarily black and red with a lot of polka dots).

The Joker was saying something about going to Paris and tormenting and killing the poor kids to try and piss off Batman. Damian knew it would work. His father would be furious. But why then? What was the significance of this particular time? Was then just the most convenient?

The Joker continued on, and it answered Damian's questions. He was going to Paris, and he was going to help the local supervillain kill these kids, and in exchange he would get a favor, or something akin to it. The Joker didn't specify, but it must be bad.

Damian shared a look with Red Hood. This was bad, and they were going to intervene now. They jumped down from the rafters, Jason went straight for the Joker, while Damian worked to take out all of his cronies.

It was going well, Jason was slowly gaining the upper hand in his fight with the Joker, and Damian had taken care of almost all of the other random low lives. That was when his father and Nightwing had to show up.

Their interruption distracted Hood enough for the Joker to get away while Damian was busy with the other criminals.

"What the fuck! I had him," Red Hood shouted at the two newcomers.

"You weren't supposed to be here," Father said, leveling his Batglare on his two unruly sons, "you had no backup, and you both could've been killed or worse." Hood, although it was impossible to see through his helmet, was clearly glaring right back, and Damian was outwardly glaring as well.

"B, you can lecture them later, let's just get back to the cave." Nightwing, always the voice of reason.

——-

Back at the cave, Father asked them about what they had discovered. When they told him, their father promptly grounded them both, and informed Dick that he would be going to Paris in a few days to resolve the situation. In the meantime Tim was told to find out as much as he could about the situation.

When asked why Dick was going to Paris his reply was this:

Damian has school, and he's grounded.
Tim is a CEO, and he doesn't have time.
Jason is grounded ('yes Jason, you can be grounded, you live in my house, you don't pay rent, you eat my food, and you use my power, I don't care if you're an adult, you live in my house so I can ground you').
So Dick is the only option to send.

Damian was frankly, annoyed.