November 28 - 30

Coming off of the successful Conner-harassment that was Thanksgiving really pointed out some of the things they had not quite want to address just yet.

For starters, Dick seemed to genuinely come out of his self-imposed shell once more. The days he spent with a barely noticeable, but so blatant once you were aware, mask dictating his actions and emotions seemed behind him. The forced smiles and disingenuous interactions were even noted by his teachers at school once he actually remembered to go to his classes.

They were more than accommodating the moment they saw the turnaround he had made these past few weeks. Though his grades never suffered, his energy in class did. Even during winter it felt like a little ray of sunshine was sitting in their classroom and clearly they felt the need to inform and praise Bruce for helping him through what was bothering him.

It also served to explain itself when Danny had to be snuck in to do is entrance testing late in the evening. By request of course since he wasn't public yet. Gotham Academy wasn't the top rated school for nothing, bending protocol for those with deep enough pockets or a reputation that dwarfed theirs. Plus, with the power of an alum and current student backing it, the choice was easily made. Still, they wanted to be sure the administration had time to get everything sorted before being overwhelmed by midterm and vacation madness.

Which was another thing they were somehow caught off guard by.

Having to make sure nothing got leaked, it was only Danny who went to maintain plausible deniability of there being only one of them. They had figured the boy would have been shy, closed off even from the rundown of how fancy rich kid schools work from Dick's experience. Hell Dick even recounted some of the stuff Roy had to deal with back when Oliver first took him in.

Yet, despite all of that, there he was. Comfortably socializing with the supervising teachers and board members. He carried himself so confidently well that even Dick's homeroom teacher mixed up their names so much Danny simply stopped correcting the poor woman. A simple charming smile to wave it off and it was like nothing was ever amiss.

It wasn't a surprise at all when he seemed to breeze through the tests they had prepared for him either. All the work Selina had put into making sure he got used to Dick's level of schoolwork, and all the times Miss Waller and Mr. Wilcox spent with him to make sure he wouldn't fall too far behind, seemed to have paid off.

Danny even asked if sending them a little thank you note would be too much, but they deemed it to be a little much if not creepy for Mr. Wilcox who was not in the know and tracking down Miss Waller seemed more tedious than it was worth given that she moved to more off grid work after leaving Belle Rêve.

Even on less academic aspects were they daring to call out the evolution seen in their two trouble makers.

While Dick was still keeping most at an arms distance, he had taken to spending more time talking with Conner and Zatanna. Even Red Tornado found his communicator pinging a few more times with random little inquiries the boy had.

On the other hand, Danny had found himself daring to ask J'onn some low ball questions. He still struggled to know what to ask the Martian as he wasn't sure what counted as appropriate, but he had the confidence of Bioship's support of him to back him up.

It also didn't help that he had Aquaman message him a few times since the mission. The man insisted Danny called him Arthur like everybody else, but Danny refused. Finally he could understand where Frostbite was coming from as anything other than Aquaman or King Orin felt wrong. Still, he would take the awkward small talk over Dick having to deal with the awkward chats with Barry.

The man still refused to play middle man for Wally, but that didn't make it stop feeling like he had to answer them both when talking to just Barry.

So he just didn't.

Wally and Barry were here in spirit anyway as Danny's recent appetite seemed to mirror theirs. His little stunt back in Qurac had kicked his snacking into overdrive. Even with Alfred accounting for his increased need for food, they were going through snacks and supplies a lot faster than before.

Not that it was a bad thing of course. Danny eating more was quite the opposite as his healthy appetite helped get him back on track on his healing journey. The medication he had to take went in a lot easier when he had the right food to take it with. Which in turn got Dick to passively snack a little more as he couldn't resist stealing a bite here and there. They were growing boys after all, and very active ones at that. Alfred had more than enough experience with teenage boys to know how to handle their nutritional needs.

Of course, that did also come with it's moody counterpart.

"Zeta trial 29, recognition test one." Dick grumbled out, already frustrated at the lack of progress. Running the scanner over Cujo napping in his lap, he could already tell it was going to fail as the scanning beam flickered in and out of existence. Pushing the data over to Danny's side, he went back to trying to figure out why the beam wasn't working this time.

They had more than enough work to keep them busy to use as an excuse anyway. There were still a lot of issues to sort through before Dick would distance himself to prepare for his upcoming midterms. Danny may not have that exact issue, but he was currently the only one who could work on the complicated ghost-code needed to fix the Zeta programming. Asking Technus was somewhat out of the question at the moment, not quite sure if he could trust the man to not take advantage of the expensive tech laying around for some misguided fun.

It was mostly Danny handling the ghost side of things while Dick fought to get the regular code to accept the new code they were trying to introduce. Weeks of failed attempts made them cautious enough to already disconnect all the Gotham access points from the main Zeta Network. At least if they broke something this time, only Gotham would be affected.

They even had the foresight to shut down the Batcomputer for the moment. Totally not to force Bruce to finally do some important maintenance and cleaning on the beast, that would be silly.

It was absolutely because they knew Clockwork was easing them out of the quarantine bubble, however. Which was why they were using the remainders of their personalized time bubble to get some of the more tedious maintenance done.

Of course, it wouldn't have been a Bat Maintenance Day if they didn't manage to short-circuit the Zeta Network at least twice with failed attempts to integrate the two wildly different pieces of code. If they could just get the broken connecting string figured out without electrocuting Bruce, they would finally be able to check that task off of their To Do list.

And finally use their own codes, but that was just a bonus.

Exhaustedly Danny pushed himself up from his crooked slump. Taking a big swig from the bottle that definitely did not contain an energy drink without Alfred's direct disagreement, he waited for Dick to do the same. "Zeta trial-fuck what number were we at?"

"34, darling." Selina called out from her perch at the Batcomputer. Luckily she was there to help Bruce out and be their subsequent functioning braincell as letters and numbers all started to blend together by this point.

"Right." Danny sighed, failing to rub the strain out of his eyes. Blinking hard, he already typed out the error log before even starting.

Dick wasn't feeling any more optimistic, already having run into 8 failed trials this session alone. Staring up at the ceiling, he let his hand fall, not even having the energy left to properly press the enter key. "Zeta trial 34, recognition one."

Recognized Cujo C 0 3

Raising an eyebrow, he didn't want to cheer too soon. Cujo's code had worked for a while now, though it wasn't an official one before. Borrowing a visitor code before, they decided to just make all of their furry, or less so, collection their own codes so they could easily Zeta as well in case of emergency. Though it was best to keep testing. Who knew if the edits they made to fix their own codes would have broken something in theirs. "Zeta trial 34, recognition two." Pointing the scanner over to the tangled mess of limbs a little bit further, he figured there was no harm in stress testing while they were at it.

Recognized Nanaki C 0 4

Recognized Shiro C 0 5

Danny's back straightened out with an audible chorus of cracks. Checking over the internal data just to be sure, he found no notable issues. Sure the response time could have been better, but given this was their first triple success since starting he dared let the hope flicker to life.

Feeling a little angsty himself, Dick wiggled about until he was sitting somewhat properly in his chair. "Zeta trial 34, recognition three." Daring to point it at himself, he couldn't help but feel relief wash over him when he heard his code read out for the first time in over a month and not have something break right after.

The air cooled down significantly as Danny's stress rose. That now made 4 consecutive successful tests. The current record of the entire past week they worked on it. There was only 3 trials remaining and both were him. Gripping the sides of his chair, he let the rings pass over him as he breathed out. "Zeta trial 34, recognition four."

Recognized Phantom B 0 8

He felt like he would break the armrests any second if he didn't just rush to get this over with, the fear of failure when success was so close tiptoeing him to his second death if he waited any longer. "Zeta trial 34, recognition five." Squeezing his eyes shut, he didn't dare look at any of those looking at him as the rings passed over him once more. The stress of the final minor trial before the true test speeding up his heartrate to regular human speeds.

Recognized Phantom B 0 8

Dick nearly catapulted out of his chair as Danny sat frozen. This was uncharted territory, never having gotten past the initial recognition in ghost form before. That was where the problem lay after all. The failure to differentiate between the two brothers based on the minor differences in their DNA. Phantom was mildly easier, having a higher ecto rating than when he was human. But now that appeared to finally be a problem of the past.

Even Selina paused her teasing of Bruce as she looked over her boys. Dick was rambling excitedly, careful to not trip over the furry fiends surrounding them as he pulled Danny to his feet. Dragging over the stunned boy to the Zeta platform, their final test was finally put to the challenge. Whispering something she couldn't catch, Selina watched Danny transform back with sunglasses to cover his eyes. It still helped, having the physical difference to separate which version of Phantom he wanted to become.

Yet another thing they had trialed and errored their way to success.

Hopefully they could count this to their track record as well.

Dick could barely contain his excitement as he stood ready to note down their victory. All readings still fell within normal parameters, nothing having been pushed too far with the previous tests. "Zeta trial 34, recognition test six. Final trial." Making sure the Robin code was shut down, it truly was a make or break test.

Danny stood facing the Zeta tube. Heart racing to the best of its ability, he stared down the looming hunk of metal. The amount of times he stood facing a big metal tube that would transport him somewhere while having the risk of something going horribly wrong were starting to stack up to a concerning number. Maybe this was his true destiny, not king to an entire dimension but a transportation tube tester.

Fidgeting with his fingers, cracking a few joints in the process, he finally gave the go ahead to his brother. He tried to stay calm, feeling his body tingle as the scanner passed over him. Honestly, he regretted having slowed down the procedure to give him an escape should something go wrong. Now it just felt like torture as the compartments kicked into gear and prepared for the teleportation process.

Recognized Phantom B 0 8

Yellow energy pooled at the back of the tube, illuminating every panel as he could vaguely hear the wheels of Bruce's backboard roll out from underneath the Batcomputer. It brought him some comfort, knowing that if something went wrong, he'd at least not have to be alone. Feeling the tingle in his body intensify, like a soft bass string vibrating through his muscles. The compartments quickened their pace as the light became brighter. For a split second it felt like it worked, that momentary weightless feeling so unlike flying lifting his spirit.

Only to come crashing back down in disappointment when the Zeta powered down and all he saw were the same walls and disappointed faces.

Silence fell over the cave, not even the resident critters daring to move. The failure hitting harder than they expected. The past month and a half was nothing but fails. They should have been used to it by now, but still, getting run over by the Batmobile would have hurt less than seeing the look of disappointment on everybody.

"Hey," Dick called out gently, that annoying pitying look scrunching his face together. "We got further than last time at least? Next time, I'm sure." He may be, but Danny was starting to lose hope. Maybe he should just ask Frostbite about learning teleportation again, maybe borrow the infi-map in the meantime. Or ask Wulf to teach him, that might be a smarter move.

"Did you reconnect us to the network?"

That one line casually called over by Bruce was like a loose cog getting stuck in a wheel. Train of thought? Gone. Confidence in ones own ability? Evaporated.

Dick rushed to check through everything, not even answering the innocent question as his eyes scanned over so many lines of code they all blurred together. "Dick?" Danny's voice cracked, stress rising once more as he watched Dick's face contort more and more with every micro-second that passed by. Before Danny could even move out of the way to check anything for himself, the Zeta sparked back to life.

Recognized Phantom B 0 8

"Wha-"

Where once stood a scared boy was now nothing more than an empty platform. Immediately pulling up a new window, Dick looked for where his brother had gone. Phantom's tracker pinged in Bristol, right near Wayne Tower. Giving manual permission for access into the Batcave, he was swiftly teleported back.

And swift it was as he barely formed back in the cave before he dashed off of the platform and lifted Dick up into the air. "It works!" He beamed, stirring up a swirl of bats trying to escape the sudden volume increase. Slowly lowering down again, Danny made sure to reactivate the Robin code before dragging his brother over to the platform and vanishing once again.

Silence fell over the cave once more as the spooked bats settled once more. Selina sat blinking, astonished at how fast the mood shifts at times. Bruce wasn't fairing any better as he had barely been paying attention to what they were doing in the first place. He had his own maintenance to deal with.

Pushing himself up, he reached over to the laptop Selina was using. Quickly checking both their recent destinations, they were still logging rapidly as his two whirlwind disaster magnets hopped around various Gotham locations before seemingly settling for Mount Justice.

"Well, we know what they're doing over there." Selina joked, already imagining how they were terrorizing Conner as they played around with their own success. Her suspicions proven right as a new log came through with Zatanna and Conner's codes accompanying them.

"You know..."

"Don't start, Selina." Bruce sighed, still keeping an eye on their little victory run as they somehow started playing around with all the new C-codes as well. He had doubts about making the cats teleport but Wolf and Sphere would be rather handy if they got used to it. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he immediately regretted it as whatever was gunked on his fingers now made it onto his face.

Pulling out a wet wipe, Selina started cleaning off the nasty. Her sweet gesture clearly having no effect on Bruce's resolve. "It's not our responsibility. Clark will never-"

"You're right." She cut him off, pushing his chin up to get a better angle. "That blockhead will never give him what your little disasters are already working towards." Bruce's eyes narrowed at her smirk. He knew what they had been doing behind his back. Explicit instructions to not go too far thrown out the window the moment Alfred got involved.

He had hoped Clark would have changed his mind by now. The only other thing than trying to talk to him was calling up Ma and Pa but that didn't sit right either. He would just comply because his parents pressured him into it rather than doing it on his own accord. Was that really any better than their current circumstance?

Bruce wasn't given much time to ponder as Alfred finally returned with pre-patrol refreshments. Having to cut their escapade short, he called his boys back home as well. With everybody focusing on their own bit, they got the Zeta Network back running properly. A sprinkle of extra focus to get the Batcomputer completely hooked up again had the task finished within the hour as well.

"So what patrol route are we doing tonight?" Dick asked as he pulled on his gloves, playfully glaring at Danny as he smugly looked over when transforming. The tediousness of getting dressed felt exhausting at times, but it was more than getting into the suit. It helped to get into the Robin mindset as well. It was the one thing he'd never actually envy about the transformation. Having that split between Dick and Robin while suiting up was something Danny had substantially less of when becoming Phantom was just a second long lightshow away.

Bruce smiled, luckily not fully dressed yet. "I was thinking of letting you choose that." Holding up his hands in surrender at Dick's suspicious glare, he got the Batmobile started from the panel in his glove. "Think of it as compensation for cutting your victory run short. Midterms are closing in soon so your patrol hours are getting cut too."

Dick's mood soured only slightly. Time felt like it was going way too fast again. Midterms were only three weeks away, which meant Danny's return to school was only little over a month out and they had barely rehearsed the excuses to tell the world. Hell, they hadn't even started drafting the actual announcement.

Would it be bad to ask Clockwork for anther go at the time bubble?

He didn't get much time to worry over any of that as he was unceremoniously thrown into the backseat of the Batmobile. Vowing to get Danny back for that, he kept his word as he spent most of the patrol battling to get the highest score in their little crime hunting game. Even Bruce and Selina managed to get roped into it with Gordon having to play referee.

Did the commissioner know why the entire Batclan was presenting criminals of all kind like a cat proud of the dead mouse they brought in? Of course not. But this was Gotham after all. He had long since come to learn ignoring when they got like this was the better option. Though he had to make sure there was somebody stationed at the precinct doorstep, garage and roof at all times as their numbers had doubled since the last time.

"Alright you two." Batman's voice came in through the comms, the grit covering the smile he was hiding from the outside world. Of course they had all been keeping tally, frustrated at how they kept managing to tie over and over again. "Patrol's over."

"Wha-Now already? It's not even midnight?!" Phantom complained as the perched on the old clocktower. Robin sat next to him, kicking at an imaginary rock. Finals schedule was never fun but he got why Bruce enforced it so strictly. School came before being a hero and he was already given a lot more leeway than other years with how little he actually attended school this semester.

"Fine." He pouted, signing to Phantom to get ready to take off. "First one home wins." The second Batman's grunt of confirmation crackled over the comms, Phantom grabbed a tight hold of his brother and shot towards Wayne Manor at his top speed.