Chapter Text
The people’s opinion on Batman changed slowly, like a trickling stream steadily crafting its own riverbed.
What started the shift in opinion was a pair of pictures. Not the ones reporters were using to scaremonger people, Batman stood half hidden behind Superman with several bats swarming him as others looked about panicked. No, it was different. These pictures appeared online. A social media account called HJ_flyboy that took pictures of different cityscapes and made up solar systems posted a pair of pictures.
The first picture that they posted seemed unassuming at first, just a simple shot of the hall of Justice from the roof of a nearby highrise. But centred in the shot was a shape. Batman, kneeling beside his plane, a boy no older than 13 standing before him wringing his hands. The second photo was zoomed in, or maybe taken from closer somehow. Batman was standing now. His cloak open to reveal the child now clinging to him. Large arms wrapped around the boy like he was the most precious thing in the world, the child’s own arms clinging on just as tight.
It started to gain traction when someone pointed out the child’s costume seemed similar in colouring to the little bat that had been on Batman’s shoulder in the reporters’ photo. Blonde back for a yellow cape. Red tunic for the brownish fur. Eventually someone noted how Batman, a supposedly emotionless vampire, was holding the boy the way a parent held their child. Was this really the face of a cold hearted monster that wanted nothing more than the destruction of the human race? The deniers pushed back. Claiming it was an animalistic instinct to care for your young.
And so the two different sides of a secret war were born. They were near evenly matched, both at each others throats on what the Batman wanted with people and their planet. Until one day, Batman got caught.
It was meant to be a simple mission, he and Green Lantern had been following… something. Hal didn’t actually know what they were following, but Batman seemed hell bent on something being here that they needed to look into, and after the dressing down he had received at the last meeting, he wanted to win a few brownie points.
The two of them snuck into what looked like an abandoned warehouse, Hal floating behind Batman as he swept silently across the floor. It was a little unnerving how he almost lost the massive man several times when he slipped into shaded spots to check for anyone. Hal wasn’t quite sure why he was doing all this sneaking instead of jumping out as a bat, unless maybe the sun affected him whilst he was in bat form and he had to keep his protective armour on. Several parts of the ceiling were missing, large holes where god knows what had weakened the structure enough for the concrete to crumble around them into a faint dusty mist. Up ahead, near the door they were approaching, a large portion of the ceiling had completely caved in.
“Lantern can you stop.” Hal stopped following Batman and frowned, crossing his arms as he continued to hover a few inches off the ground.
“Stop what Batman, I thought you wanted my help with this?” Batman stepped slightly out of his shadowy corner to stare at Hal with those emotionless lenses before gesturing vaguely at Hal’s entire body.
“The glowing, Green Lantern. It is compromising our position. Especially in an environment like this where something glowing is more obvious in the dust cloud.” Hal looked down at his suit and then his ring. Was he really glowing that brightly? It wasn’t really something he could control though. In deep space missions where battling in large groups was always a threat, being able to spot your allies from a distance was crucial. Especially in the deep depths of space where nothing but the dark void and the pinpricks of distant galaxies could be seen.
“I can’t really stop it Spooks, glowing is like, a big part of being a lantern. It’s in the name dude. Green Lantern.” Batman gave a humm before turning back to the task at hand, sneaking across the clearly empty room. It only took a minute for Hal to fly across the room to the large metal door they were aiming for. “Look, I don’t see what’s so hard about opening this door here se-”
“Lantern no!” Batman jumped forward to try yank Hal away from the door but it was too late. His glove closed around the pristine handle and a sudden jolt of electricity surged through him. At the same time the walls started to close in until the two of them were stuck in a 10ft by 10ft room. Hal faintly heard something beep before he was finally able to let go of the door handle and collapse to the floor. He could feel his costume flickering, the ring fighting to keep the suit activated despite its wielder's condition. Hal didn’t even have the energy to panic about his identity being out in the open before he felt something getting pushed against his face.
“Stop struggling, it's one of Robin’s spare masks so it might be a little small for you but it's enough to hide your face.” Hal mumbled vague gratitude before promptly passing out. Batman would probably have it handled from here right?
Bruce frowned as Hal lost consciousness. His right hand up to his elbow was red with lichtenberg marks that definitely were going to hurt when he woke up. He had thought Hal’s lantern constructs would help with whatever these people were planning, but he forgot about his inability to be stealthy. Hal was a good hero, compassionate and willing to put his life on the line for others, but he was also headstrong and extremely forward. If he thought he could brute force an issue he would try. And now Bruce was trapped in what was essentially a large concrete pit with his unconscious backup. The ring Hal wore probably was the only reason Hal wasn’t a pile of charcoal right now.
Bruce had originally come here after following an alarmingly large sale of garlic. Apparently with Batman’s reputation as a vampire, villains were starting to bulk buy garlic and crosses to try and prevent him from interfering with their nefarious plots. This however meant Bruce could just track the mass imports. Every few times he would end up following them to a restaurant, but it was still incredibly alarming just how much money they were sinking into these purchases just to keep the mythical Vampire Batman away from their plans. At least he discovered a few really good places to eat with Dick.
This group Bruce had tracked had been buying a lot of mechanical parts as well as various vampire hunting paraphernalia, so Bruce had bumped them up to high priority. He had originally wanted to bring Olli with him but the archer was busy in star city with some new villain that had shown up. So Hal Jordan had been selected. And now because of that Bruce was trying to figure out a way to get out of this pit. He tried his comm device, but clearly something was jamming the signal with the way it fed him nothing but static.
Bruce paced around the perimeter of the room, one hand against the wall as he scanned what he could. No footholds, unless he wanted to use the debris that had been pushed into the centre with them when the walls closed in. Actually, all the walls had pushed them so they were stood right by the door. The polished metal door that was clearly newly installed. Footsteps approached from behind before something like keys could be heard jingling on the other side. Bruce quickly crouched over Hal, covering the unconscious man in his cloak, at least the semi-everything prof material should protect him better than the leather jacket and jeans he now wore.
The door opened and several cloaked figures walked in. Bruce would have attacked them were it not for the hostages they had. Each one with a glistening dagger to their throat. Bruce instead re-adjusted his cape to cover more of Hal whilst still keeping as many of them in his line of sight as possible. Eventually they formed a half circle, a man in a pure white robe stood in front of Batman. Only the lower half of his grinning face could be seen.
“Batman, lovely to finally meet you. Me and a few associates decided you’re too dangerous to be allowed to live. Now we can’t kill you, so we will instead expose you to the world, show the Justice league your true beastly nature.” The man made a gesture and the robed people threw the hostages towards Bruce. Unable to move and risk exposing Hal, Bruce caught them before they all jumped up and pressed themself against the far wall. Hopefully he was imagining the way they seemed to flinch away from his touch.
The cloaked figures all shuffled towards the door, leaving one by one until only the main one was left. He pulled what looked to be a remote from his pocket and waved it up at the ceiling. A thick layer of glass slowly covered the opening. That meant he couldn’t grapple out either, damn. The man gave a bow before leaving out the door like his colleagues, just before he left he turned to face Bruce, throwing him one final bordering manic grin.
“That’s in case you tried to fly away. And it has the added effect of magnifying the sun rays. Let’s see just how sun-proof your suit really is Vampire scum.” Then with that the metal door slammed shut and locked. Bruce scanned the room once more, really paying attention, and noticed the hidden cameras built into each wall. Fantastic. Hopefully he had covered Hal enough for his face to not be seen by them. Bruce checked his watch, 10am. He had 2 hours before it hit noon and the sun would shine through the glass ceiling and burn them all like ants under a magnifying glass. Bruce’s only hope would be that the cameras were live and a Justice league member would be able to find them before then.
An hour passed with little happening besides the temperature slowly rising. Bruce had only moved twice. Once to try lock picking the door. Unfortunately the lock was blocked on his end. And once to try checking on the hostages. There were four in total. Two children, a man and a woman. Based on their facial structures they were probably a family. The two adults had hidden the children behind themself the second Bruce had turned to face them, despite the kids attempts to wave at him. Bruce simply offered them a wry smile before checking back in on Hal.
His burns were no longer hot to the touch, but still looked to be very painful. He had attempted to bandage them earlier, but without him being conscious, he couldn't get him anything for the pain. He didn’t want to risk an allergic reaction to Bruce’s specialised burn salve. After a few more minutes one of the children managed to escape their father’s grip, running over to Batman despite her parent’s yells. The little girl stopped beside Bruce, staring down at the unconscious masked man before her.
“Is he dead?” Bruce startled back at the sudden voice as well as her unexpected appearance. Were all children so sneaky? Maybe Dick wasn’t special and they were just built like that…
“No, but he is hurt.” The child nodded at his answer and leant down to poke at Hal’s face mask. The sleeping lantern didn’t even flinch, too deep in unconsciousness to react.
“Minster bat guy, when can we leave? It’s really hot and daddy has diebeetus but no snacks.” Bruce frowned and turned to look back at the father, who was looking a lot paler than he should for the current temperature. Bruce reached into his many pockets and pulled out a handful of brightly coloured lollipops, holding them out for the child.
“Here, these should help. And one for you and your brother for being so brave.” The girl’s face lit up as she carefully chose four blue coloured ones and happily skipped back to her family. The four of them started to whisper frantically, probably about whether or not it was safe to consume. Bruce ignored them. He wiped the sweat that was starting to pool in uncomfortable places. It may not be that hot yet, but in a full titanium kevlar weave suit that was painted nearly all black, it was hell on earth.
A few minutes later the little girl came back to sit beside Bruce. Either because she found him comforting or because she wanted more sweets he wasn’t sure. He smiled at her, reaching out to ruffle her hair. The girl frowned and smacked his hand away.
“Don’t mess up my hair. Daddy spent all morning trying to plait it.” Bruce removed his hand as asked, watching as the girl tried to smooth out the loose bits of hair.
“I can re-braid it for you if you want?” The girl stopped messing with her hair to stare at him, then his hands.
“Fine but don’t scratch me with your super long nails.” Bruce took the offered hairbands from her and carefully brushed out her hair with said nails. It was a bit harder whilst wearing the gauntlets, but eventually he managed to braid her hair into a pair of braids. They were called waterfall or something like that, Barbara would tell him when he got back. The sudden sound of shattering glass startled Bruce and his instincts of being out with Robin took over. He grabbed the child and quickly pulled her under his cape, pulling the material over himself as well as making sure Hal was mostly protected. Someone screamed, probably the mother, before the sound of someone walking over had Bruce looking up.
Dick was happily enjoying his Saturday morning cartoons when a breaking news alert interrupted him and his cereal. Dick had to blink a few times as he processed what he was watching. It was a live news cast of his dad, Batman, trapped with an unconscious Hal Jordan and 4 civilians. He could already make out the edges of the room where the sunlight was starting to burn the floor. He had maybe a half hour before all of them would be dead.
Dick quickly threw his spoon into his bowl and sprinted down to the cave. He grabbed his mask and belt, ignoring the rest of his suit for time's sake. One button press later he was behind the wheel of the Batmobile as it raced down the underground cavern roads Bruce had made for appearing randomly all over Gotham. As soon as the mask had dried enough he exited through one of the doorways and scrambled onto a roof, screaming the whole way.
“Superman! Clark! Help!!!” Dick yelled for almost a whole minute before a slightly frazzled looking Superman was floating before him, nervously glancing around the city. Dick didn’t hesitate and threw himself at the man who caught him easily. Dick vaulted up until he was seated on the now very confused man’s shoulders.
“Batman got kidnapped and is going to die if we don’t save him! Go!” Clark tilted his head, similar to a puppy that was given a command it didn’t quite understand. His eyes widened as he probably heard whatever the news stations were saying.
“Green Lantern is down and there are hostages. Hold on tight Robin.” No sooner had he finished talking did the two of them speed off into the distance. Dick covered himself with his cape as Clark smashed through the glass, burning sunlight stopping barely centimetres away from burning away at Batman’s cape. The woman started to scream, tried to scramble over to Batman, but the man held her back. Both were teary eyed.
Dick ignored them to walk over to Bruce, tapping him on the shoulder once as he slowly lowered his cape. There, clutched protectively to his chest was a girl, maybe a few years younger than Dick was. Hal was also unconscious on the floor but Superman quickly swept him off the floor and sped him off to who knows where. The little girl started to cry before running off to the civilians, blubbering about how scared she was when the glass had exploded.
Dick simply hugged his dad, his heart frantically beating in his chest as he clutched tight his second father figure who he had almost lost.
“You’re an idiot. I’m better help than a stupid Lantern.” Bruce chuckled and stood, lifting Dick with him.
“That you are chum. Though maybe next time you can help with shoes on.” Dick looked down at his own feet, the soles cut open thanks to the glass, and ducked his head in embarrassment. Dick felt Bruce pull out his grapple and get them both out of the hole. Bruce gently placed him down before jumping back down to help the hostages out. Soon the two of them were headed back to Gotham, even if the flight back was made awkward with Clark’s constant apologies about how he should have noticed sooner. Bruce simply crossed his arms and sulked at having to be princess carried, but Dick knew Bruce didn’t mind as long as Dick was enjoying himself.
The media storm that followed that live stream was cataclysmic. The culprits were caught and arrested. Their leader was a man who spent his time on forums openly criticising Batman. Further investigation by one reporter, later learned to be called Clark Kent, discovered the man to be part of a meta hate group.
Interviews with the kidnapped family were enlightening. The mother spoke about how scared she had been watching that ceiling come down with her child so far from her. She spoke of how Batman hadn’t hesitated to protect her child from the sharp glass, pulling her under his cloak. It was also revealed that Batman had saved her husband’s life, he had been on the verge of a diabetic crash when he had pulled out a handful of lollipops for them. When Clark later asked Batman for why he had lollipops on him, he simply took one out of his belt and handed it to one of the many children that had crowded him when he had landed.
So thanks to the villain’s attempt to reveal Batman as a monster, more people were praising him for his willingness to save humans despite his own injuries.
Not one news station mentioned Green Lantern, though there was a single paragraph about the faceless injured human Batman had tried so hard to protect on the daily planet’s pages.
One effect that nobody had expected was the start of a fan-group in Batman’s name. The people that had been touched by the bat’s selflessness to help others before himself had people standing up against the hate even more than before. Protests filled the streets for the equal treatment of the bat, no matter his species.
This soon led to a meta-rights law being made that covered not just humans, but all sentient life that posed no harm towards humanity. Not that Bruce ever found out.