Archive of Our Own

Chapter Text

"Since it's recruiting season, I'd like to be the first one to nominate someone," The Flash stood up as he spoke, "As you all know, my nephew, Wally, is Flamebird. Most of you have met him at this point. He's very smart and I think having another speedster would be great for the league. Especially since he's actually faster than I am."

The whole Justice League was in the watchtower at their annual recruitment meeting.

"Yes, I remember Wallace," Wonder Woman agreed, "He was very helpful when chasing a villain brought me to Keystone."

"𝕹𝖔," Batman said, almost forcefully, "𝕱𝖑𝖆𝖒𝖊𝖇𝖎𝖗𝖉 𝖎𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖉𝖞 𝖋𝖔𝖗 𝖑𝖊𝖆𝖌𝖚𝖊 𝖑𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖑 𝖙𝖍𝖗𝖊𝖆𝖙𝖘." 

Wally was engaged to Bruce's oldest son, Dick. They had been best friends since middle school and started dating a few years later. Bruce had long since accepted Wally as one of his sons, legal or not. It made him nervous to think Wally would be put into the same kind of danger the Justice League faced on an almost weekly basis. If Bruce could use Batman's power in the League to try to protect Wally, and Flamebird, even a little bit, he would.

Maybe the kids were right. Maybe Bruce did have an adoption problem.

"Why not, Batman?" Cyborg asked.

"𝕳𝖊'𝖘 𝖙𝖔𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖌."

"He's ready Batman! Cy is the same age, you didn't seem to have anything against him joining," Flash argued. Batman only grunted at him. "As much as I want to protect him, he's an adult now and more than capable. It should be his choice if he wants to join us. And like I said, having another speedster on the team would always be useful. Even you can't deny that! Especially after the invasion last week, I couldn't keep up with getting all the civilians out and fight the Apokaliptan forces with you all. We need another speedster, and Flamebird is the perfect candidate!"

Batman grunted again. He made a good argument, but Bruce was still against it.

"Barry's right, Batman. It ain't really your place to say he's not ready." Superman said, reminding Bruce he couldn't argue against them as much as he wanted to. He couldn't risk the League finding out Batman's connection to Flamebird. Superman and Wonder Woman were the only two leaguers who knew Batman was Bruce Wayne, "Barry knows him much better than the rest of us, and if he thinks he's ready then he probably is."

"𝕳𝖒𝖒." Batman hummed.

"I am calling a vote for all present members to have Flamebird join us as part of the Justice League," Wonder Woman said standing up, "Those who are voting 'yes'?"

Everyone in the room except Batman, Aquaman, and Captain Marvel raised their hands.

"Those who are voting 'no'?"

Batman raised his hand.

"Those who are abstaining?"

Aquaman and Captain Marvel raised their hands. They were the only two who had never met Wally, so neither felt they could vote fairly.

"It is decided then." Wonder Woman said, "Wallace will be given the opportunity to join the Justice League, and should he accept, he will become one of our new members."

"What about Booster Gold, I feel like he-" Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, started.

He was cut off by a collective "No" and several groans. Green Lantern brought up Booster Gold every recruitment season and was yet to get a single other member on board.

"Fine." Green Lantern pouted.

"I'd like to nominate Nightwing as another new member." Cyborg said, "He started the Titans, so he has experience working on a team like this."

"𝕬𝖇𝖘𝖔𝖑𝖚𝖙𝖊𝖑𝖞 𝖓𝖔𝖙," Batman said immediately. Having Wally's uncle, the man who practically raised him, the man who will be playing the role of Wally's father at his and Dick's wedding, nominate Wally was one thing, but having someone mention Dick himself was something Bruce couldn't let get beyond nomination. "𝕹𝖎𝖌𝖍𝖙𝖜𝖎𝖓𝖌 𝖎𝖘 𝖆 𝖙𝖆𝖑𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖊𝖉 𝖛𝖎𝖌𝖎𝖑𝖆𝖓𝖙𝖊, 𝖇𝖚𝖙 𝖍𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖘𝖙𝖎𝖑𝖑 𝖙𝖔𝖔 𝖞𝖔𝖚𝖓𝖌 𝖆𝖓𝖉 𝖎𝖓𝖊𝖝𝖕𝖊𝖗𝖎𝖊𝖓𝖈𝖊𝖉. 𝕬𝖓𝖉 𝖍𝖊 𝖍𝖆𝖘 𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖔𝖜𝖓 𝖕𝖗𝖊𝖛𝖎𝖔𝖚𝖘 𝖔𝖇𝖑𝖎𝖌𝖆𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓𝖘 𝖙𝖔 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖉 𝖙𝖔. 𝕴𝖙 𝖎𝖘 𝖓𝖔𝖙 𝖜𝖎𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖔 𝖘𝖕𝖑𝖎𝖙 𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖆𝖙𝖙𝖊𝖓𝖙𝖎𝖔𝖓 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖎𝖘 𝖜𝖆𝖞."

"Did Batman just compliment someone?" Green Arrow asked. Most of the room ignored him.

"He's not inexperienced. He's been a hero longer than I have," Cyborg countered, "He taught me almost everything I know. And if you're referring to the Titans as his prior commitment, Red Robin, took over a few years ago."

"𝕳𝖊 𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖔𝖓𝖑𝖞 𝖕𝖗𝖔𝖙𝖊𝖈𝖙𝖔𝖗 𝖔𝖋 𝕭𝖑ü𝖉𝖍𝖆𝖛𝖊𝖓," Batman stated. He was starting to get nervous again. Cyborg seemed committed to getting Nightwing to join the League, "𝕴𝖙 𝖎𝖘 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖒𝖔𝖘𝖙 𝖈𝖗𝖎𝖒𝖊 𝖗𝖎𝖉𝖉𝖊𝖓 𝖈𝖎𝖙𝖞 𝖎𝖓 𝖙𝖍𝖊 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖑𝖉, 𝖜𝖔𝖗𝖘𝖊 𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖓 𝖊𝖛𝖊𝖓 𝕲𝖔𝖙𝖍𝖆𝖒."

"We all have our own cities to protect, some of us more," Aquaman said.

"Did no one just hear Spooky actually compliment someone?" Green Lantern said, "The best any of us have gotten is 'ok', but this Nightwing guy is getting 'talented'?"

Batman shot him his signature Bat Glare.

"Ok, yeah. Fair enough." Green Lantern sunk into his chair.

"He's an adult, Batman, he should be able to decide for himself," Superman said, sending a pointed look toward Bruce. Dick had created Nightwing to get himself out of Batman's shadow, to be more than just the Bat's little Bird to the people of Gotham and Blüdhaven. Batman wasn't allowed to have much of a connection to Nightwing, "I'll call for a vote. All in favour raise your hand"

Everyone except Batman raised their hands.

"Sorry Batman, you can't compliment another vigilante and expect us all to not vote for them to join the league." Superman said when Bruce glared at him, "Nightwing will be offered to join the League, and he will be an official member if he accepts."

Shit.

Bruce knew it was a mistake to call Nightwing talented as soon as he said it. But Bruce was a dad first and everything else second, who was he to not take every opportunity to praise his children that he could?

"We will send Victor and Barry to give the offer to Wallace and Nightwing, because they will be familiar to the new members," Wonder Woman said, still standing, "And I think we should send Clark as well, as another familiar face, whether they have met him before, they both would know Superman."

Everyone agreed and the meeting ended. One by one they filtered out of the room, Batman, of course, being the first to leave.

🦇🐈‍⬛🐦‍⬛

The next evening Flash, Cyborg, and Superman made their way to Blüdhaven, deciding to recruit Nightwing first.
When they got there, they were surprised to see both young heroes sitting eating together on the roof of a nearby building.

"𝔖𝔬, 𝔴𝔥𝔞𝔱 𝔟𝔯𝔦𝔫𝔤𝔰 𝔶𝔬𝔲 𝔱𝔥𝔯𝔢𝔢 𝔱𝔬 𝔅𝔩ü𝔡?" Nightwing asked as soon as they reached their roof, never looking up from his sandwich.

"I thought we were being stealthy!" Barry said, "How did you even know we were here!? You were facing the other direction!" To say Barry was surprised was an understatement. The League's records said that Nightwing wasn't meta, so how did he know they were there? That was a Batman level stunt!

"𝒀𝒐𝒖 𝒔𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅 𝒌𝒏𝒐𝒘 𝒃𝒆𝒕𝒕𝒆𝒓 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒏 𝒕𝒓𝒚 𝒕𝒐 𝒔𝒏𝒆𝒂𝒌 𝒖𝒑 𝒐𝒏 𝒂 𝑩𝒊𝒓𝒅 𝒍𝒊𝒌𝒆 '𝑾𝒊𝒏𝒈, 𝑼𝒏𝒄𝒍𝒆 𝑩𝒂𝒓𝒓𝒚," Wally said turning around, "𝑩𝒖𝒕 𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒍𝒍𝒚, 𝒘𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒃𝒓𝒊𝒏𝒈𝒔 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒖𝒚𝒔 𝒕𝒐 𝑩𝒍ü𝒅𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆𝒏?" What did Wally mean by 'a Bird like Wing'?

"As you both probably know, it is Justice League recruitment season." Superman said, floating forward, "You were both nominated."

To everyone's surprise, except maybe Wally, Nightwing burst out laughing. He was laughing so hard he almost fell off the ledge he was sitting on. Hearing his laugh, Barry found the records hard to believe. The sound coming out of the boy in front of him was distinctly not human. It was clicking and chittering, closer to what you would expect to come out of some sort of supernatural creature than a man.

"𝑯𝒐𝒘 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑯𝒆𝒍𝒍 𝒅𝒊𝒅 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒈𝒆𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑩𝒊𝒈 𝑩𝒂𝒅 𝑩𝒂𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒂𝒈𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒕𝒐 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕?" Wally asked as Nightwing calmed himself down, " 𝑰 𝒅𝒊𝒅𝒏'𝒕 𝒕𝒉𝒊𝒏𝒌 𝒉𝒆'𝒅 𝒘𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒆𝒊𝒕𝒉𝒆𝒓 𝒐𝒇 𝒖𝒔 𝒐𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝑳𝒆𝒂𝒈𝒖𝒆."

"Actually, he didn't agree," Vic said, "He was very adamant that neither of you joined the League. But we go based on a majority rule, so we were sent to recruit you regardless."

"He did also call Nightwing 'talented' so we couldn't not recruit you," Barry added, "How'd you know he wouldn't want you to join?"

Barry was very confused. If he didn't know better, he'd think that maybe Nightwing and Wally knew Batman. But no, that would be ridiculous. Barry's nephew and his best friend couldn't know the League's resident shut-in, could they?

"So, what do you say?" Superman interrupted Barry's thoughts, "Would you two like to join us as the newest members of the Justice League?"

The two men in front of them shared a knowing and almost mischievous look. Which confused Barry even more.

"𝔖𝔲𝔯𝔢," Nightwing stood up. He moved in a way that was wrong. Uncanny barely scratched the surface. He turned to the three League members and looked at them with a too wide and almost familiar and incredibly haunting smile that didn't reach his eyes, "𝔚𝔢'𝔩𝔩 𝔧𝔬𝔦𝔫 𝔶𝔬𝔲𝔯 𝔩𝔦𝔱𝔱𝔩𝔢 𝔰𝔲𝔭𝔢𝔯𝔥𝔢𝔯𝔬 𝔠𝔩𝔲𝔟!"

Barry decided at that moment that Nightwing terrified him. Almost as much as Batman who seemed to move in a similar way. If he moved at all.

Sure Nightwing was Wally's best friend, but he had only ever heard of him from Wally, he had never actually met the guy in person before. Why did Wally have to latch onto some sort of shadow cryptid?