Don't You Have Enough Edgy Kids, Bruce?

sometimes bullshit is nice. sometimes.

ok, so nico was wrong after all.

The bat did notice he was there, and wasn't going to let him in on the fighting.

As soon as the long black car they were in skidded to a halt and the gothamites jumped out of it, Batman tapped some panel and the car closed again, locking Nico inside it.

Being a demigod from the thirties, Nico wasn't very good with technology on a good day.
Even if he were, he doubted it would be easy to get the doors to open.
This was batman's car, after all. What did people here say it was called, again? The bat-o-car? The batmanmobile? Something equally stupid?
Whatever.

But he couldn't just stay there, either. Though the car was certainly sturdy, it wasn't sound proof. Or maybe the punches being thrown were just that strong.
He could hear almost everything.
Bodies being slammed against metal. Punches.
At one point, gunshots, though they didn't last.

That didn't make him feel any better.
He had to help out.

He didn't know for sure that he could - he didn't know what was going on at all, nor anything about the abilities of his allies, or even who they were fighting.

But he had to try, didn't he?
They had agreed to help him. They had offered to take him in.
He couldn't abandon them in their time of need.

He could… he could probably shadow travel out of the car.

He knew if Will were there he'd give Nico a look - gods, Nico missed that asshole - or maybe hit him for even thinking about it.

But, well.

Will wasn't there, now was he?

And yeah, he might have passed out when he shadow traveled nightwing and himself, but that was probably because it was two people.
He wasn't ready for two people. That was clear. But he could manage himself, at least.

Probably.

Possibly.

Nico stepped into the shadows.

...

When he woke up, his first thought was 'son of a bitch'.
Really? Really??
He couldn't even travel himself now?
Couldn't even get out of a damn car?

His second thought was, 'where am I and why is there a small child here?'

The first of the questions was easy enough to answer.

This was a rich person's room.
The big windows, huge bed he was in, the expensive looking sheets, the painting on the wall in front of him that was very… modern… and framed in gold.

It almost reminded him of his father's 'house' back in the underworld.
It was certainly gloomy enough, with everything being dark and victorian-inspired.

But it wasn't his father's palace he was in.

His father would not let a small, strangely dressed, angry-looking child into his place of living.

(Hades wasn't a big fan of children. Nico would know.)

The child wore a dramatic caped costume, full of sharp lines and colored in dark greens and reds and dawning a domino mask similar to both Dick's and Tim's.

The kid held a long sword in his hand, possibly a katana, and was staring quite intently at Nico.

Nico cleared his throat awkwardly.

The child straightened his stance.

"Do not be alarmed, citizen!" He announced. "I am not here to harm you, or you would already be dead!"
He seemed oddly proud of that.