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WHO: Batman & Blue Beetle
WHERE: THE NIGHT!!!
WHEN: Pre-memswap event.
WHAT: Blue Beetle and Batman, the most fearsome duo in history. Alternately: a teenager scolds a grown man for not looking after his bird son. >(
WARNINGS: None anticipated!

[With so many imPorts and yes, so many superheroes in one place, it's natural that every now and then, they happen to wind up occupying the same area, or in this case, going after the same criminal. Jaime's a hell of a lot less subtle than Batman is, even the Batman should by all means be more noticeable; while Jaime's small and light, Batman's a brick wall of a man, and ought to take up a lot more space.

But Batman doesn't glow, which is where Jaime's gone wrong when it comes to subtlety. There's a man in the alley, fidgeting anxiously with a gun, a bead of sweat trickling down his temple, breath quick and frantic in his chest. His name is Stilton (yes, like the cheese, because he has cruel, cruel parents) Wallace, and he just got out of jail one month and three days ago. He first got in on counts of burglarizing a charitable organization (shame on you, Stinky!), but to be fair, had deep roots in criminal organizations that pushed him to such lengths, desperation outweighing everything else. He talked, his sentence was shortened, and here he is again.

So while Batman may have been waiting, Jaime's quick to swoop in, big, glowing eyesore that he is.]

Aw, come on, man. I just busted you. You don't have a license for that, do you? Come on, hand it over, [he says, reaching out to him, hand outstretched.]

Get the fuck outta here! I'll shoot!

[And, of course, he points the gun at Jaime. Everyone always does.]

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Will you?

[All of the stink, and the color, drains out of Stilton. Behind him, on the fire escape, is a hunched mass in the darkness of the shadows. The eyes of his cowl peek through the inky black, along with what looks like hundreds of tiny little eyes hugging close to him. Their pleased squeaking turns into loud squawks as he opens his arms out around him and a mass of bats swarm out from the void of his cape around him.

Stinky drops the gun and cowers on the ground. Now, something else stinks about him. We won't say what, though. These powers have come in handy.]

Whoa!

[Jaime gets out of the way too, because holy smokes, he wasn't expecting literal bats to appear with Batman! He wasn't expecting Batman at all, granted - and that guy's sneaky as can be - but last time he checked, he wasn't followed around by a big ol' swarm of bats. It makes him even spookier which is, of course, just what Batman needs.]

Um. Hi!

[Jaime waving at Batman doesn't do a whole lot for his intimidation factor, but poor Stilton here is so thoroughly cowed that he's not moving an inch. Jaime bends over and delicately picks up the gun and flicks open the chamber, letting the bullets fall into the palm of his hand before he closes his fist, thoroughly crushing them beyond recognition.

He doesn't let go of the gun. No way is this guy getting his hands back onto it.]

Mr. Wallace, I know you're scared right now, but we really need to know what exactly you were going to do with this. We can't let you go until we know for sure.

[He glances back at Batman, unsure as to whether Batman will follow his lead and let him treat Stilton gently to coax information out of him, or if he's going to keep on doing his whole Dark Knight thing.]

[Batman drops from the railing like a blot of ink, almost liquid and unnatural wrapped in what's only really a cape. His bats follow him closely, like children, until the moment he hits the ground and then they're gone as though they had never been there in the first place. He rises slowly, and as he moves he seems to glide against the ground like his feet weren't touching the pavement.

But he stops far a few feet from Jaime and Stilton, and gives Blue Beetle a look. The fact that he doesn't say anything is confirmation enough that he means to let Jaime do it his way.]

[Jaime nods back at him, smiling gratefully at him. He's never sure how things are going to work out whenever another hero arrives on the scene. Most of the time, he's comfortable asserting his own authority over his own cases, but when it comes to senior heroes from home? Would he dare contradict them?

Maybe. But it'd be rough. Comfortable in the fact that Batman's going to let him do his thing, he speaks in low, gentle tones to Stilton, something that sounds a whole lot more natural to him than yelling. He's afraid, Stilton tells Jaime, that the people he snitched on will be coming for him, that he's in danger, so of course he's taking the first strike.

It's probably no surprise to anyone involved that Jaime asks him to go to the authorities for protection, promising him that if he ever sees Stilton in danger, he will save him, and that violence isn't the way to do things. Stilton agrees. How could he not? He doesn't exactly have any other choice.

Jaime straightens up, sighing, toying with the empty gun in his hands before turning back to Batman.] I'm gonna let him go now.

[Bruce rears his head slowly back to Stilton and gives him a withering stare before letting him run. Once he's gone, he turns to Jaime.]

He could have been lying. Sure that was the right call?

...yeah. Yeah, I'm sure, [Jaime says, shifting his weight between the balls of his feet and his heels in a way that could look uncertain, but his expression and his voice alike are still, confident that he made the right choice.] I think he was telling the truth. He already ratted on them once, so it makes sense that he's scared. Gotta give the guy another chance to try and live a normal life, you know?

[He always cares about the people he helps out on the street, even if very few of them care about him.]

Why, how would you have done it? [He ask despite himself, curious to hear what The Batman himself's assessment on the matter would be.]

[There's a moment of silence-- perhaps an imagining of hurting him and leaving him for the authorities after a rough interrogation. Basic Batman stuff. But he really doesn't imagine Jaime had that in him, despite what he considered a naive trust the word of the criminal approach.

He looks at Jaime, leaving it intentionally vague.]

Differently.

[He walks past Jaime, wordlessly at first, until he turns his head back to him.]

And the people after him? What do you plan on doing about them? [Without names... locations... any leading info.]

First, I wanna make sure that they're actually after him, and he's not just being paranoid. I know who they are -- I'm the one who turned him into the police the first time. That's why I know his name. I don't think that he's that bad, deep down, just that he got, you know, into the wrong crowd.

[Like the guy's a teenager, and not a grown man twice Jaime's age. But Jaime's always been a little too soft, filled with too much empathy for his own good. He wants to think that everyone has goodness in them, no matter how small, and a fear-filled gaze is a good way to get his sympathy.]

I've got his DNA, so I can track him. I'll have Khaji keep an eye on him, make sure he's not, like, running around alleyways at 2 AM again. It'd be pretty stupid for them to go after them, though; the cops would know who did it.

[He pauses, then sighs.]

But criminals are a lot dumber than I used to think.

[The amount of times they try punching his armour... before he started all this, he thought that criminals had it together, in an illegal kind of way. Now? Not so much.]

[Batman doesn't respond initially, so it must mean he's reasonably satisfied with Jaime's answer. Or he'll just take care of it himself. Who knows what the hell Batman is thinking sometimes? Truth be told, he doesn't think all criminals are bad either, but he's not ready to let them off the hook with a wag of his finger either.]

You get used to it.

I guess so.

[He's been doing this for a while now, and he still gets startled about the lack of good sense some of them have, but Batman's been doing this for a heck of a lot longer. He glances around, shifting his weight back and forth.]

Soooooo... You're, uh, patrolling?

[Smooth, kid.]

[He turns his head and stares-- funny how piercing it can be even by periphery. He's not interested in small talk, and it seems like Jaime is trying to broach a subject gently.]

If you have something to say then say it.

[Oh, geez, so much for inviting him to go patrolling with him. He doesn't want to go patrolling with that stare. He knows that if he invited Ted out like that, he'd probably wrap an arm around his shoulders and crack some sort of stupid joke before running ahead.

Man, he got lucky.]

It's not like it's something specific, I just -- I never really see you around, and I patrol pretty much every night, so I was curious if you were just, like, getting the lay of the land or something. [He pauses, then more thoughtfully says,] I haven't actually seen you around much at all out of costume either.

[He shakes his head, his shoulders tense with frustration.]

Most of the others are gone now. Tim, Barbara, Stephanie. [A pause.] There's more work to do now without them.

There's an unfamiliar company I need to run, people I don't know, and something that thinks it's a Greek deity that can destroy universes on a whim.

I've been a little busy.

[Okay, he looks a little mad. Jaime doesn't like making people mad, and there's a big part of him that considers backing down, but come to think of it, he hasn't seen much of Robin lately. At all, really. With all of these people that are supposed to be his family gone, it's hard not to be a little down, especially after they've both suffered disappearance after disappearance after disappearance. Jaime looks uncertain for a moment, clearly looking as though he’s simply going to drop it and bid Batman adieu, but then thinks to his talk with Robin, about how Batman - Bruce - may not be his father, may not have a clear definition of who or what he is, but that he’s family nonetheless.

Jaime’s father had been ported out, not that long ago, and it fills him with regret. He should have done more with him, spent quality time with him instead of slowly trying to ease him into his normal life. He got to see his father for what, a month? And then he was gone.

Things here aren’t permanent. They need to make good of the time they’ve got, before Batman disappears too and leaves Robin alone again. He doesn’t want Batman to disappear, of course, but he half-expects it by now, too accustomed to people he knows vanishing without a trace after only a few months here. Robin, though -- Robin’s always been around. Same as him.]

Yeah, um, don’t get me wrong, I hear that. Things can get really busy, and I have no idea what goes into running a company. But I did kind of expect to see you around my place more than I have.

[Which is not at all.]

You know that people disappearing is hard on Robin too, right? He could use the company.

[Your company.]

[Bruce turns around to Jaime, though doesn't seem to move much otherwise. It's like he's perpetually cautious about maintaining his imposing image, despite the fact that Jaime is well aware that this is Bruce Wayne underneath the cape and cowl.]

I heard about your father. I'm... sorry.

[His tone is sympathetic, implying he does in fact know what feelings are, but he's very cautious with them. But why is he so much better conveying sympathy to other people than to his own family? WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU, BRUCE? STOP CHANGING THE SUBJECT.]

How is your mother?

Oh. [Jaime blinks at Bruce, surprised at the sudden change in subject. He hadn't been talking about himself -- not at all. But he's not rude enough to change the subject himself, at least not immediately. It's a kind thing to look into.] It's okay. It happens around here. At least this time, I'll be able to see him again.

[He can't say the same for his others, people he'd loved like brothers, but that's fine. He still thinks that maybe one day, he'll be able to see them again, somehow. People jump worlds all the time, right? Surely it's possible.

But that's a subject for another day, and another time.]

I think it's kind of rough for her. She's not used to all this, or being away from him, but she's one of the strongest people I know. She'll be okay.

[With his help, anyway.]

You mentioned Dick before. [And things come full circle...]

I think of him the same way. And the reasons you haven't seen me are for the same reasons that you're out here with the scarab and not with her right now.

Because you know that no matter how important she is to you, you still have a job to do.

Okay, um, slow down there a little! [Jaime says, holding his hands out in front of himself as if trying to defend himself from a physical attack instead of a verbal one.] I mean, I could spend more time with her. [He pauses, looking a little guilty, and Bruce, look at what you've done -- you don't prey on a Catholic boy's guilt!] I probably should. But I didn't mean that you had to quit patrolling, or anything, but there's, you know. Other stuff.

[He shrugs.] I at least visit my Mom once a day, if I don't text. We eat dinner together, a lot of the time. I tell her about my day, she tells me about hers, that kind of thing! It doesn't have to be, like, this huge 24/7 event, you know? You could just grab some dinner.

[He pauses, thinking hard about it.]

I mean... if you did want to come over for dinner one day, you'd totally be welcome. My Mom's a good cook! And I'm sure she wouldn't mind either, if it meant meeting Dick's...

[Oh, he screwed this one up once already. He's got this!]

...guardian.

I can't make Dick or you promises I can't keep. I can only hope he understands that I've already offered him everything that I have to offer.

For everything else... well. [He stares at Jaime.] He has good friends for that.

[Bruce turns and looks like he might go at this point.]

As far as your offer, I... appreciate it. [He pulls the grapple from his belt and looks back.]

Maybe.

[Before Jaime can say anything else he zips away, disappearing over a rooftop.]

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