Ghost King Meets Batman

So Not Asterous

[Updated April 16, 2023]

[TW: Really brief mention of suicide]

The next morning started early for Nico. He was awoken by the sounds of his tumblers aligning and the creak of the old door hinge. It really needed to be oiled. He could hear his heartbeat in his skull and his breaths were getting caught on the edge of his throat. The nightmare and the late-night adventure from the night before had left him with a pounding migraine and it felt like he'd been run over by Mrs. O'Leary. He would ask for some aspirin when he saw Alfred, but right now he had bigger problems. Someone was coming into his room.

At first, Nico thought that it was an intruder, but when he soul-searched and discovered that it was just Jason. The use of his powers made his headache worse and he couldn't remember why Jason would be in his room, much less sneaking in. Nico figured he had his powers to blame for his current predicament. He had really used them too much the night before and his body was going to punish him for it.

Nico kept his eyes closed and pretended to be asleep. He wanted to see what the older boy would do when he thought he was still asleep. He could hear the floorboards creaking with each shift in the older boy's weight. They were old and they creaked very easily-- which was both a blessing and a curse. At the moment, Nico had no complaints.

Suddenly, there was a weird feeling and his hand and Nico could distinctly smell shaving cream. It didn't take a genius to realize that Jason had put shaving cream on his hand, hoping that he would smear it across his own face. That was when Nico remembered that the prank war was supposed to begin this morning. Apparently, Jason had decided to get the jump on him. Now that he knew what was going on, he decided to play along and bide his time.

 When Jason dragged what felt like a feather across his upper lip, Nico made sure to shift and grunt, trying to make it authentic. Jason tried it again, receiving the same results. The last time, Todd got careless and leaned close enough to Nico's face that he could feel Jason's warm breath on his face. He knew that this was the moment he had been waiting for.

This time, Nico brought his hand up and smeared the cream right down the middle of Jason's face, being sure to get it all off on the older boy. As Jason realized what had happened, Nico was already locking himself in his bathroom, getting ready to shower, having left his change clothes in the bathroom the night before. As Jason was muttering curses, Nico was humming happily as he stepped into the shower. When he left the bathroom, he was surprised to see that Jason had left. Though, Nico suspected that he hadn't left without leaving him a surprise. Nico suspiciously looked above the door to see if Todd had left anything there, surprisingly, he hadn't. These were no amateurs.

Nico walked carefully through his room, looking everywhere for potential traps. He was surprised and suspicious when his inspection came up negative. He slowly headed for the door, intending in going downstairs to breakfast which was probably going to start soon. As Nico reached out to touch his doorknob, he hesitated. He stared at the doorknob for a minute, trying to decide if such a mundane item could be rigged. After a minute, Nico felt silly. It was just a doorknob, the Stolls had never done anything with doorknobs except put superglue on them. Nico couldn't smell or see any superglue on the handle. Nico stood there for another minute, debating using the door or going out his window.

He decided that he was acting like a fool and reached out to grab the handle. He had almost grabbed it when he felt the hairs on his arm stand up as he got closer to the handle. Static electricity. Jason had electrified his doorknob. Ok, at least now Nico didn't feel like a fool for being overly cautious. To make sure he was right and it wasn't just static, Nico touched the back of his hand to the knob. The idea was that, if the door was electrified, his muscles would contract and his arm would bend away from the door and break the circuit. Just as he suspected, his hand jerked away as soon as it touched the handle, and he rubbed his stinging hand.