Curate, connect, and discover
Brain Dead, Tim becomes a halfa
This could be a whole fic.
It was supposed to be an easy bust. Tim had been excited, at first. He had discovered the discrepancies in Dalv Co.'s books. He had done all the legwork pinning Vlad Masters down like a butterfly. He had dug into the man's past and discovered all the questionable business transfers that had skyrocketed the man into wealth. So, when it came time to raid the man's mansion in Amity Park, Illinois, Tim was going to be there. He deserved to be part of this.
When they busted into the mansion they found it empty. The man was nowhere to be found, but they had a search and seizure warrant, so they searched the place. Tim let the Justice League and the SWAT team deal with the nitty-gritty of cataloging and removing Master's stuff and Tim went looking through the mansion.
It was in the library that he knew Masters had a hidden room. He could feel air flow coming from behind a bookshelf, and when he pushed against it, it swung right open. Stone steps led down, deep underground the estate. He radioed Batman to let him know what he was doing and started down the steps.
When he reached the bottom he heard voices. Tim pressed himself against the wall and listened.
"I'm not letting you escape, Vlad." a voice yelled, young and male.
"You won't have a choice, Daniel. Don't forget, if I go down, so do you." that voice was older. Probably Masters. Tim sent a silent message to Batman over his wrist computer.
"I didn't have anything to do with your shady business dealings, and if you out yourself, then that's entirely on you."
Vlad said something then, too quiet for Tim to hear. He leaned in just a little to catch the words, but his foot slipped on a step. There was no way they didn't hear that.
Sure enough, two people came around the corner, a young man with black hair and the bluest eyes Tim had ever seen and the man Tim had been trying to get arrested for the last six months.
Vlad Masters grabbed his arm in a surprisingly strong grip and pulled him out of the stairwell. "Well, well, well, look what the bat drug in." Masters sneered.
The boy, Daniel Vlad had called him, grabbed Vlad's arm and held up a hand, as if to physically stop the man. "Let him go, Vlad."
"Like you could ever stop me, Daniel." Several things happened all at once. Vlad pulled a strange looking taser out of his pocket and tased Daniel. The boy fell to the ground with a scream and a spasm. Tim aimed a kick at Vlad's face, but he was flung across the room and into some kind of device embedded into the wall. He hit the side of the device hard. There was a bright flash and blinding pain.
---
Tim didn't know when he blacked out, but he must have. Otherwise, he wouldn't be blinking into consciousness, staring up at the fluorescent lighting of an unfamiliar room. His whole body felt like pudding. He groaned and brought his hand up to rub his face but froze. Something was wrong. His black gloves were white.
"Red Robin!" That was Batman's gruff voice. "Don't try and sit up yet."
"No, let him sit up." That was the boy's voice. Daniel. "It's best if he gets oriented quickly."
"When I want your input, I'll ask," Batman said through clenched teeth.
"I'm just saying. Not like I know exactly what's going on with him."
"What is going on with me?" Tim asked, looking over at Batman, then the boy, Daniel. Daniel was in handcuffs.
"There was an accident. We don't know the severity of the damage, but I promise, I will find a way to fix this." Batman said.
"He's not broken!"
"Please, will someone tell me what happened to me!" Tim said, desperation leaking into his voice. He looked down at his suit and it was all wrong. His pants, boots, gloves, bandolier straps, and cape were all white, his belt was silver, and his shirt was deep forest green. There was something else wrong, too, but he couldn't put his finger on it. He put his hand to his chest and then he knew. He wasn't breathing. He didn't have a heartbeat. "Am I dead?"
"No," Batman said at once.
"Sort of," Daniel said, earning him a growl from Batman. "Lying to him and yourself isn't going to help anything," he said to the man before turning back to Red Robin. "The accident changed you. You're what's known as a halfa. Half ghost, half human."
"I've never heard of that. How is that possible?" he asked. even though he didn't have a heartbeat he could feel a panic attack building.
"It's rare. There are only three true halfa's in existence. You, Vlad, and Me. You have an advantage over us, though. You won't have to figure this shit out on your own."
Tim looked into Daniel's bluer than blue eyes. His whole world was crashing down around him. Everything would change, he knew. But maybe it wouldn't be all bad.
Halloween prompts no. 10
The demons instructions had been clear. Infiltrate the house the new Lazarus pit had taken over and report back. They were six highly trained assasins. This should have been easy.
The city of "Amity Park" had randomly appeared in the woodlands of Illinois with no warning or reason. All the buildings were in ruin and looked like no one had lived there for years, yet no vegetation had reclaimed them. The house the pit was in was the most eerie thing however. A thick glowing ooze seeped from the darkened windows, metal supports jutted up from the top of the building from where they had supported something massive once upon a time. He was embarrassed to admit he just now realized that the entire city was completely silent. Even the animals that should be out this time of night were no where to be found. Odd.
The Lazarus House- as he'd taken to calling it- opened its front door as they approached. The long unnerving squeal from the henges truly set the horror movie tone. It felt like something inside was mocking them. Daring them to come inside. Entering they found the living room to be a completely ordinary, save for the fact that all the decor and electronics were decades out of date and the glowing green ooze was all over everything casting a dim grow on the entire space. There seemed to be writing on the walls made in the slime, but they had no idea what it meant. Thankfully their goggles were capable of both video and audio recording as well as establishing a live feed from which the Demons Head was no doubt currently watching.
They came across a door with glow in the dark star stickers and space shuttles on it, but the door wouldn't budge. Even using explosives on it didn't seem to phase it at all. They came across another door with the name Jasmine spelt across it and this door opened easily enough inside was a very feminine room loaded with pinks and lace save for the window which was just as blacked and ooze filled as the others and filled with a heavy sadness. The saw a laptop and made a note to retrieve it on thier way out.
It didn't take long after that for things to start going to crap. First, one of his team had mysteriously disappeared. Then one of the doors slammed shut immediately after one of them entered and he knew that the screams that followed would haunt him for the rest of his life. Things continued this way with thier team being picked off one by one until he was the only one left.
He sprinted down the stairs after his attempts at breaking one of the windows proved futile and would up in the basement, which turned out to be the location of the pit. The vibes this room gave off were comforting on the surface, but had an undercurrent of apprehension. Like someone was holding thier breath and waiting for something to happen. This place seemed to be a lab of some sort with metal walls, scientific equipment strewn about and a machine in the far wall making large gaping hole that sparked with electricity every so often. His focus snapped back to the pit once he realized there was something moving in it. His other assasins? No. It was a single figure and far too small.
A white haired child floated to the surface of the pit, glowing just as brightly as the waters themselves and his eyes were filled with that God awful green. Instead of enraged he seemed distracted, dazed-as if half caught in a dream. "No, you're not the one." He said blankly, no emotion evident in his voice.
And then everything was black.
Ras Al Ghul stared at the screen, contemplating. A child living in a Lazarus pit? How would that effect the body? Was this child perhaps created by the Lazarus pit? Was that why he could seemingly control it?
---
Red Robin looked at the house warily, then back at Jason who was refusing the leave the vehicle they have in. Jason had tried to stop him from leaving it as well but that didn't work out very well for him.
He swears the house welcomed him in. Every door his came across was shut tight and wouldn't budge no matter what he did. The only exceptions were the door to the pink room where he found and retrieved a laptop and the door that lead to the basement were the Pit was most likely to be. Finally resolving to go down there he stood on the stairs as the door slammed shut behind him.
Taking a steadying breath he walked down to investigate the obvious lab, starting with the large hole in the wall. He was careful not to go inside it and get shocked by the electricity sparking in it. He stuck a USB stick into one of the nearby machines and began downloading whatever information was on them when he hard something behind him.
Spinning around he saw nothing. Wandering over to the pit he reached down to collect a sample when a white gloved hand grabbed his wrist from the waters. A figure slowly emerged with white hair and familiar glowing green eyes, "Its you. You're the one from my visions."
Tim only had time to hold his breath as he was dragged under. The...pit creature held his wrists as his legs fused together and formed a tail that was then used to wrap around his own legs, keeping his pinned at the bottom of the pit. During his thrashing he looked over and saw another boy that looked exactly like the one that was drowning him but the outfit and hair was the opposite of the original. It was by staring into the black haired teens glassy blue eyes did he realize what he was looking at.
A corpse.
He was going to die. This guy was going to kill him. It was only after the panic left him along with his breath that the infamous calmness that came with drowning seeped in and he heard what the being had been saying to him, I'm so sorry. I never wanted this. At least I can teach you how to use your powers
Powers?
Yes, so many powers! Flight, intagibility, plasma blasts, telekinesis-
Red Robin wanted to listen more even if to only gain a better grasp on this things abilities but he was fading fast. He was dying.
Soon
Tim didn't know what that meant since he was very clearly dying and just before everything went black he felt a kiss be placed on his forehead.
Thank you
The next think he knew he was waking up to the worst pain he had ever felt in his life. He was being electrocuted. No, he wasn't being killed again he was being resuscitated. He gasped as he sat up hurriedly only to realize he was still in the pit. Oddly enough all the pit water was gone and he and that guys corpse were laying on the dry ground inside of it.
A pained groan from the teenager next to him made him switch gears. He was alive? The boy immediately apologized to him after he came to, but wouldn't say anything other than that he was sorry. He grabbed Tim's wrist and flew them out of the pit. It was then that he noticed all the goo was gone but he didn't have time to question it as the other teenager flew them up and through the ceiling and out the front door. They stood there for a moment, silent while Tim watched the other boy shiver. Probably in shock, he thought. This must have been traumatic for the guy, heck it was for him.
It was then that Jason charged at them, not ran, charged and punched the other guy in the face, "What did you do to him?!"
"I'm sorry!" The other guy cried from his place on the ground.
Red Hood aimed his gun, "What did you do?!"
Tim reached out intending to stop Hood from shooting someone when he noticed his gloves were white instead of black. His heart dropped when he looked down at himself. All his colors were changed. The blacks had become whites, his reds had become a pastel yellow. It reminded him too much of the being from the pit. "What?"
The teen appearently did something Hood didn't like and a shot was fired into his shoulder. The guy cried out before giving one last apology before telling them, "I'm sorry. I was fading. I needed the creation of another to heal myself." He then vanished, leaving Red Robin and Red Hood alone in front of a brick building that was slowly starting to crumble before thier eyes.
No, not just the building. All of them. The whole city was crumbling around them and they needed to get out. Now.
They raced out of there with Red Hood cursing the entire way. RR pouted about needing a charger to start up the laptop seing as it was the only thing they got out of that crapshow of a mission. Hopefully the USB wasn't destroyed and he could access it later though it outside connection he used as a failsafe. He needed to know what was happening, not only with that kid but now himself.