Ghost King Meets Batman

Minor Criminal Acts

[Edited July 19, 2022]

Nico landed in his darkened room and rubbed his palm down his face. He was fairly sure Jason (the Roman) hadn't seen him. He glanced at his clock and saw that it was 1:00 in the afternoon, long after he would have liked to have been back at the manor. He hadn't anticipated staying that long or waiting for Annabeth to get back. His plan had been to see her off, after all. 

Nico picked up his phone, which he had left charging on his nightstand, and saw that he had a new message. He'd texted Jason the night before about staying with him at one of his safe houses. He hadn't checked it before he had left for camp, though. 

He went into the messages app and hit the text-to-speech feature that Bruce had installed for him. An automated voice read out the message and Nico turned the volume down a few notches when it was uncomfortably loud.

"I don't mind if you stay with me for a few days, but you know Bruce won't like it. I don't want to listen to his bitching so you'd have to stay at the safehouse doing homework the entire time. And wear your Ghost uniform in case someone sees you," The message read out.

Nico hit record so that he could send an audio message as a reply, "That's fine, just let me know when you want me to come by." He hit send, hoping there weren't any monsters about listening in.

Then he began packing yet again. He packed enough clothes for two days, PJs for three nights, his toiletries, his homework, godly supplies, some granola bars, and his Ghost uniform. He shouldn't need anything else at Jason's place. He always had his weapons on him, after all. And Bruce was making him keep the phone on his person, too.  Jason (his brother) should have anything else they might need.

As he packed he found himself thinking about Jason Grace and what his presence at Camp Half-Blood might mean. If Jason were here, was Percy going to show up at Camp Jupiter? If so, why wasn't he there now? Had he been sent there in the time Nico had been gone? 

One of his main questions was whether or not he would be able to help Hazel get to Camp Jupiter if Percy was there and causing unrest. Or if he even had time to get her moved since he was becoming so much more involved in the world of Superheroes. We weren't even sure whether or not Bruce would let him go to California again. He needed to be able to come and go as he pleased now more than ever. There was so much still riding on him and he needed Bruce to understand that.

Once he was sure he had everything he needed, he headed back down into the manor to grab a sandwich for lunch, not having gotten a chance at camp. He ate a BLT and an orange while Dick and Tim were both busy reviewing what seemed to be surveillance footage on Tim's laptop.

"You're saying this guy lost you and your entire team after leaving Toxic Acres?" Tim frowned. Nico almost choked on his orange slice. He managed to take a drink of water before he could start coughing, though.

"Toxic Acres?" Nico asked, pretending he didn't already know what that was.

"A gated community filled with toxic waste. Poison Ivy lives in the middle of it by herself, or so we thought. We believed that the area was so Toxic that it would slowly poison any who dared enter if they didn't have gas masks and hazmat suits. However, last night the team caught sight of a teenage male leaving the house where Ivy has made her home. They weren't wearing any protective equipment of any kind but didn't seem to be suffering any effects from the environment. The team tried to follow him to see what he was doing, but the subject managed to evade us. Like he knew we were there." Nightwing explained, staring at the computer screen over the younger boy's shoulder.

"That's weird." Nico agreed, taking another sip of water. It sounded like they didn't suspect it was him yet, though. That was good. Maybe he had gotten away with the trip to visit Ivy, then.