Chapter Text
The last thing Danny wanted to see when he got home from school was Vlad’s smarmy face. This was his time to collapse on his bed and take a few minutes for himself before he either started on homework or chores, or got attacked by a random ghost. Getting visually assaulted by the closest thing he had to a nemesis completely ruined his mood. And yet, there he was. Being smug in Danny’s general direction.
The fruitloop in question smirked at Danny from an armchair in the living room, while his parents sat together on the couch. They were also smiling in a way that instantly had Danny concerned.
“Hey, Danny boy!” Danny’s dad said. “Come sit down! We’ve got some good news.”
“Vlad’s moving back to Wisconsin?” Danny muttered. He tossed his backpack on the floor and took the armchair across from Vlad. It was the one that Jazz usually used, back when they used to have family movie nights. Danny used to sit on the couch, with his parents. His dad would put a comforting arm around him when movies got scary.
Now Dad didn’t even notice Danny had said anything. He was grinning at Vlad. Danny’s mom frowned a bit, but gave Danny a small head shake to indicate he needed to stop being rude.
“V-man found a fantastic new school for you!” Dad continued. “I think it’s gonna be a great place!”
Danny felt himself freeze. “The… what?” New school? His hand flexed, wanting to turn into a fist. He couldn’t go to a new school. Casper High was kind of trash: it was underfunded, understaffed, and the kids on sports teams or with rich parents got away with everything because they brought in funding. Still, it was his. He knew what to expect, even if it was predictably cruddy.
His mom answered, “Vlad found a great school that we think is really going to help you, Danny. It’s very highly rated for math and science.”
Danny felt a sinking feeling in his stomach. “But I already have school? And it’s in the middle of the semester.” They couldn’t mean to pull him out of Casper, could they?
An awful smirk crossed Vlad’s face. Thin-lipped and a little too broad, with a pull to one side that made it look even more nefarious. Danny was pretty sure Vlad had practiced that smirk in the mirror. “Well, Daniel, Mansfield Academy is a Math and Science Magnet school with impeccable ratings and test score records. Their alumni regularly receive merit-based scholarships to Ivy League universities. Several graduates hold positions at top companies and elected office. They just started accepting boarding students this year.” His smile got somehow worse as he paused for dramatic effect. “They are willing to make exceptions to the usual admission rules, since I’m on the board.”
Oh. This was not good.
“I- But-” Danny cast about for the words, for the arguments. This was nuts. “I like my school!” he lied.
Mom frowned. “Didn’t you say you were getting bullied last week?”
Well, this was one hell of a time for his parents to actually pay attention to what he said. Danny tried to shrug like it wasn’t a big deal.
“I’m working on it,” he said weakly. Mom clearly wasn’t impressed. She frowned with a
“This is an opportunity,” Vlad sleazed. “A new start with new people. They won’t know that you were a miserable failure in your previous school.”
Danny glared at Vlad, but he had to be careful to rein back his anger. He couldn’t afford for his parents to see his eyes glow.
“But this is where all my friends are,” Danny argued. “If I go off somewhere else I’ll just be miserable!”
“That’s alright, Danny boy! You can make new friends!” Dad insisted. “All you gotta do is find someone and start blabbing about stuff to them! That’s how I met Vladdie!”
At least that knocked Vlad’s smirk down a notch.
“I think those friends of yours are the problem,” Mom said with a frown. “You’re always out too late with them.”
“What?” Danny stared. She’d never blamed his friends for him being out late before. “But you- It’s just Tucker and Sam. I’ve been friends with them for ages!”
“Yes, and we’ve given you lots of leeway because of it. But you keep missing curfew, and your grades haven’t improved. You’re still getting Cs, Danny.” Mom sighed and flipped through the papers on the coffee table. “I think this will be good for you, Danny. A more structured environment will give you discipline to get your work done on time. The teachers are all excellent. Think of the scholarships you could get if you pull your grades up!”
It didn’t matter that he was late because of ghost fights, or that his grades were suffering because he was too tired most days to take good notes. Danny couldn’t tell them that. Vlad knew Danny couldn’t tell them that. This was playing directly into Vlad’s hands.
Danny glared at Vlad. The old jerk gave him a toothy smile that looked like a threat.
“It really is for your own good, Daniel,” Vlad said. “The school will give you opportunities you’d never have from a C-rate place like Casper High.”
“I haven’t agreed to it yet,” Danny argued.
“Well, we have,” Mom said. Danny stopped glaring at Vlad to stare at her with wide, shocked eyes. “I know you don’t want to leave, Danny, but it will be better for you.”
The ground falling out from underneath him would have been easier to handle. At least then he could have flown away. This was his world being taken from him, the gravity well he orbited disappearing all at once, leaving Danny to drift.
He was moving before he realized what he was doing. Danny marched up to Vlad, lounging on Jazz’s chair like it was his own personal throne. He put his hands on the armrests and glared in Vlad’s face.
“What the hell are you up to?” Danny growled.
“Daniel James Fenton!”
“Woah, Danno.”
Dad’s hand clasped his shoulder, pulling him away. Danny let it happen. Whatever was going on, Vlad had won this round.
—
Damian had come to appreciate the normal life living in Gotham had brought him. He never thought he'd find himself saying that, but the city, and the people within it, had “grown” on him. He was not entirely fond of that metaphor, however.
A usual day at the League would have been training from sunrise to noon, tutoring from then until dinner, and then more training until bed. It was a tiring regiment that, looking back, he had hated more than anything. In Gotham, a usual day included school, meals, and an excess amount of free time to explore his various passions, due to the fact he already knew most of what school would teach him. He didn’t need to study. After one such day of schoolwork, casual activities and family time, Damian gathered with the rest of family down in the Batcave.
Everyone stood in a semicircle around the Batcomputer, fidgeting with batarangs or typing on wrist computers, waiting for the briefing to begin. Usually Richard would stand in the half circle with them, but this time he stood at the Bat-Computer with Father, quietly conversing. Reading their lips, Damian caught the words ‘return’ and ‘long gone’.
Both of them turned to face the rest, their expressions grim. The bats stood straight, facing Batman and Nightwing.
“To begin today’s briefing, we have some serious news. H.I.V.E. has returned.” Father said.
Damian raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t heard that name before.
“What’s H.I.V.E. again?” Brown asked.
Richard prepared to speak. “H.I.V.E. was a privately owned organization that existed during my Robin days to ‘train gifted prodigies how to use their abilities to benefit . Essentially, it was a boarding school for supervillains. The Teen Titans took out their leader, Brother Blood, years go.”
“So, Blood is out on the loose and has started up his education torture chamber again?” Todd said, flipping one of his many knives between his fingers as he did.
Richard and Father shared a brief glance, and Damian knew what the answer would be.
“No, Brother Blood is still in custody, and content to be, in fact. We currently have no idea who has restarted H.I.V.E. or what their motive is, but we plan on monitoring them for the next few months until we can figure it out.” Father said.
To leave them alone for that long would potentially cause too many problems, Damian thought. If this was a school for supervillains, even leaving it alone for just three months may cause more future problems that would not benefit them in the long run. Gotham itself already had so many villains, any more on their plate would make it incredibly difficult to keep the peace. They would need to take it down from the inside, and soon.
“To take down H.I.V.E. properly and efficiently we’ll need an infiltration mission. Seeing as I am of high school age, I volunteer myself for this task.”
“Dami, no.” Richard stepped toward him, and Damian stared him down.
“Yes. I will be going, and you know that’s for the best. I can handle myself, Richard.”
They didn’t break eye contact for a solid minute. While the two of them were staring, Father put his name on the H.I.V.E. file on the Batcomputer.
“Lets work out a cover story for Robin. Red Robin, start putting together false identities for Robin and myself. Have it ready in the next three days. Robin, we need to enroll you to H.I.V.E. academy.”