December 3rd 

Recognized Superboy B 0 4

Recognized Shminky C 0 8

Stepping out into the cool Gotham air, Conner adjusted his hold on Shminky inside his hoodie. Her little head popping out and little mews of complaint being the only sign she was there. Following the path Selina had sent him, he tried his best to blend in while walking through the gloomy streets. Beyond a few weird looks, that seemed to go quite well. Before too long he had already made it to his destination.

Opting for a more graceful entrance this time, he forewent the open window and went in through the door like a regular person would. Climbing the stairs, he came face to face with a door that couldn't be any less inconspicuous as to who it belonged to.

Nevertheless, he double checked his instructions before taking Shminky out of his hoodie and pressing her to the door. Zatanna had shown him videos of people testing how 'smart' their cats are by holding them against a wall. Supposedly only smart cats would hold their paws out.

Clearly Shminky didn't get the memo as her little, evidently empty, head bumped against the door.

Apologizing to his precious floof, he held her close and gave her a little kiss where she had tried to become one with the door. Her murmurs of discontent was apparently the 'key' he was looking for. Rambunctious pitter pattering sounded from the other side of the door, accompanied by mildly concerning thumping against the door.

At least, concerning until the door opened on it's own. The moment it was cracked open enough, a pair of monotone cats screamed at him in greeting. Clearly the two were the ones who opened the door, given how the other cats were further into the apartment.

He had agreed with Selina to come over for a little cat-socialization, but he didn't think he'd have to do so alone. Seeing no sign of the cat burglar, he made his way inside under threat of furry screams. In his defense, the black one looked like it would have no problem biting him to get him to do what they wanted.

Closing the door behind him, he let Shminky down to meet the demons with too big lungs for their bodies. Hearding him to the couch, he saw a chubby orange cat on top of a bag of chicken whizzees. He wasn't sure, but he had a feeling that was probably Wally's cat. And Wally's snacks it seemed.

With Shminky by his side, Conner sat down in front of the couch. He tried to take the bag from the orange one, wanting to prevent any crumbs or stains spreading, but got nothing but an angry swat in return. Opting to just let it be, he focused back on Shminky being cornered by the monochrome devils. He was no specialist but considering Shminky didn't fluff up like she did when first meeting Cicci, this was going mildly better.

As 'better' as her ears being pressed flat could be.

Still, there was no fighting and they seemed to be getting along relatively well. The moment they brought over some light up ball it really took off. That was probably the most he had ever seen Shminky move without him prompting her to do something. It was pretty cute, he had to admit.

His focus on Shminky was pulled away when he heard some rustling form outside the window. Looking a little worse for wear, Selina climbed through right after a very hefty gray cat. "I swear Bono if you dare take off with a bag again-Oh, hi dumpling." She smiled brightly when she spotted Conner peeking over the couch. "You're here a little early. Or am I a little late?"

Conner shifted uncomfortably, the lack of a floof to hold onto making him not know what to do with his arms. "Probably both." He watched as she dusted herself off and greeted every cat who walked up to her. It looked...nice, to have little beings swarm around the person they wanted to see.

Not like seeing was in the cards for Conner as a pair of monochrome demons launched themselves at him. Taking up a spot on his shoulders, Shminky was left to scramble to get onto his lap to try and follow as they screeched right next to his ear.

"I see. I'll take it they let you in, too?" Selina laughed as Conner sat frozen. Unsure if moving would knock them off and into Shminky, while also not knowing if Shminky was trying to make her way up his body as well or just digging her nails into his clothes for the hell of it.

After Selina got washed up from her trip hunting down Bono, who had nabbed a bag of chicken whizzees apparently, things seemed to ease back into relative normalcy once more. The controlled chaos of fluffballs around them made it feel more comfortable to talk about whatever Conner felt like talking about.

Selina stayed with him, mostly in the room and occasionally having him help out with minor tasks like filling up the various feeding bowls or replacing the water in the little fountains. She listened, occasionally giving advice or simple commentary.

It wasn't something Conner was used to. Usually conversations happened around him, not with him. He wasn't that big of a talker in the first place, not seeing the need to repeat the same thing to multiple people all the time. Even when it came to things he could talk about like training, that need, or rather the space for him to exist, wasn't there. Yet here, surrounded by cats and left to his own devices for the most time, it felt like there was a space carved out just for him.

Knowing he'd run out of stuff to talk about, he had brought along homework to do. Yet another thing he didn't quite understand the use of, essays upon essays. Sure, he had the information programmed into his brain, or done the bare minimum of opening the book they demanded he read, but what was the point when it had no relation to real life.

As if the universe just wanted to make him suffer more, the little furry alarm brigade screamed him out of his focus when a pair of equally monochrome boys came through the window. "Mama, have you seen my Chem book? Alfie said it should be-oh, hi Conner." Robin crawled in with Phantom on his tail. Or, rather Robin on Phantom's tail as Phantom was the one to phase them in.

Phantom gave him a little wave too before dropping Robin down and catching the flying projectile that was the white screaming demon that harassed him the whole day. The black one attached itself to Robin who roamed around the apartment looking for his aforementioned missing book. Looking over the clone's shoulder, he hummed at the book report he was working on.

Conner tried to hide it, hide from the judgement, but Phantom's bright eyes creeped through the heavy shading of his sunglasses. "Looks pretty good." He mused, settling down with the white little demon nestled in his lap. "When's it due?"

Conner wasn't sure what this was about, but it would be rude to not answer an innocent question without proper reason. "End of the week. It's...taking me longer than I wanted, though." He wasn't sure what made him admit that. The whole reason he even brought it to Selina's was to maybe ask her for some pointers. Selina he trusted to ask for school-work help, the thought of asking Batman's son never crossed his mind until they just did it on their own.

Calling over Robin, Phantom handed him the book Conner spent too much time glaring at. "Huh, Adventures Of Huckleberry Finn. Didn't know they allowed that book in Happy Harbor. Hardcover too, huh?"

Conner diverted his gaze back to his laptop, moving Shminky's paws out of the way as she had once again tried to participate in his work. "I like the feeling of it." If he focused on the screen, then surely the blush climbing up his cheeks would vanish, right?

Robin hummed as he got settled on the other side of Conner, chem book and black furball in hand as he did. "I think I remember most of it. Alf made me read it." He added with a shrug when he got an amused look from Phantom.

Before Conner knew it, he had 4 new assistants helping on his homework. While Phantom and Robin were a surprising combo of helpful and useless at times, their lap warmers kept Shminky occupied enough she didn't try to add her own opinion into his file. Making good progress, he quite enjoyed it. His book report was coming together a lot smoother than when he was working on it alone, even if they got sidetracked more than they got anything done.

Whatever more progress they could make was cut short when an alarm on Robin's phone went off. Taking a peek outside, it didn't take a genius to figure out their patrol time was coming up. Taking that as his cue to leave, Conner started packing up his work.

"You know..." Phantom trailed off, a silent battle happening between the Bat associates as he messed around with the white floof purring in his lap. "You could join us for patrol. You're here anyway and getting a workout in after all that will do you some good." He looked up over his glasses, green eyes coming out of hiding as he tried to do his best pleading look with most of his features still covered in some way.

Conner looked over to Robin, finding him looking away but clearly trying to add onto Phantom's attempt with the glances every few seconds and that signature trouble magnet smile. Pinching the bridge of his nose, he sighed as he pulled Shminky closer. "I-you know I can't. Batman probably doesn't even know I'm here."

"Oh, he knows."

Conner jumped a good foot off the ground, thankful he was already scooted out from under the coffee table or it would have gotten launched with him. His head snapped to the open window where Batman stood leaning against the wall. A couple of cats circling him already as if he'd been there for a while before speaking up. Conner's heart raced, not even having noticed when the man got in. Surely the great on his body should have made more than enough noise coming through the window for him to notice?

Evidently not.

Scrambling to stand, Shminky protested heavily at the amount of jostling. "Batman." Conner stammered, excuses failing as he never actually expected to run into the man. "I was just leaving, I swear."

Batman watched him, masked eyes cold and calculating as he scanned over the entire scene. Stoic as ever he unfolded his arms and threw a package at Conner. "Not dressed like that." He threw over another package to Robin who just grinned without needing to open it to know what was inside.

Conner looked at the carefully wrapped thing in his hands. It was moderately squishy but with a few hard parts. He looked over to Batman who gave him absolutely no sign of what could be inside. Maybe handing out mystery packages was a family trait, it sure started to feel like it.

Carefully opening it up, he was surprised to see a set of regular clothes and a pair of darkened shades like the trouble magnets were wearing. Now even more confused, he looked between the clothes and Batman hoping to find any semblance of explanation.

Of course, he got absolutely none.

Well, none that was of any proper use as Robin came out of the bathroom already having suited up while he struggled to figure out what was going on. Though, it was more so looking for any sign that this wasn't what it was blatantly shaping up to be. No way that The Batman was giving him, quite literally, the go ahead to join their patrols for the night.

Right?

The bright flash of Phantom suiting up was just another piece to the puzzle he wished he could ignore just to avoid the stress rising in his veins. Didn't Gotham have a no-metas rule? They entered on special permission last time and that went absolutely horribly.

"We do." Robin smiled as he set down his black screaming demon. "But that's mostly just because most gifted people forget how fragile Gotham really is. It takes practice to know where to land and how much power to use." Pulling on his glove, he walked over to stand next to Batman with a grin so big it could blind somebody if the light hit it at just the right angle.

"It's not that hard to learn, actually. We could teach you if you want. It'll be just like training a few weeks back." Phantom added on, hovering next to him. "Unless you rather go back to the mountain to work on your book report." Though he couldn't see it, Conner was sure Phantom was wiggling his eyebrows at him.

With a sigh and definitely not under duress, Conner got changed in the bathroom as well. He wasn't sure if he should be surprised Batman somehow had patrol worthy clothes in exactly Conner's size laying around. It was odd...but it was Batman.

At least he was certain it was very odd to have to learn how their stupid grapple hooks worked. Not only did he have to get the thing to work right, but choosing an anchor point that wouldn't crumble under the attachment or his weight was even harder to get a hang of. 'Not that hard' Shminky's fluffy behind, yes it was.

The learning curve was thrown off even more with the two cackling shits laughing at him when he missed the shot. Though, he couldn't be too angry either. More than once they each caught him when he would have fallen otherwise. They weren't joking about Gotham being fragile. Not only were the structures older and not all that well taken care of, but the constant explosives that are passed around like candy had a hand in it as well.

He actually quite enjoyed himself. The rush of adrenaline when he did manage to make it up the building without falling was not something he expected. Nor was the intense practice of strength control on his to do list for the day, yet here he was. Gotham did have a majority human criminal underground so he had to be careful with what he did.

Extra careful since he was running with the Bat brigade tonight.

Even during their snack breaks did he have to move with caution. He didn't want to know how Batman knew, but the sunglasses at night thing did really help. Whatever Gotham's street lights were made of did their best to burn his eyes. Phantom said it was something he'd eventually get used to, but Conner didn't want to know how long that would take.

It was during a snack break, when Batman and Catwoman were off handling an arms deal gone wrong between Penguin and Two-Face that they had a visitor join them. That giant yeti Conner remembered from the Klarion fight stood at the other end of the rooftop.

Phantom had gotten up almost immediately, saying it would only be a minute. Conner couldn't catch most of what they were saying, only hearing an "Are you certain?" before the beastman switched languages upon noticing Conner looking over.

If he hadn't known any better, he would have thought it was a drug deal with how secretive they were being. What a thought that was. Batman's son doing a drug deal right in front of his other son and the stray they brought along. Absolutely nobody would believe him.

None of that really mattered. As soon as the yeti appeared, he departed once more. Phantom walked over, stuffing something in his pocket. Robin didn't say anything as Phantom sat back down next to Conner. Holding out his hand, he presented Conner with a little green gem. "I asked Frostie to make a few protections. So long as you have this on you at all times, it'll be fine." Phantom sounded very causal, leaning back on his arm cementing the lack of care given. Yet, something felt strange about it.

Shrugging off the weird vibe, really what about Phantom wasn't weird, he stuffed it into his pocket. Maybe he could get M'gann to make it into something he could just wear. It was small enough to be a bracelet or necklace or something and that way he wouldn't forget it. Robin didn't seem to think too much of it either, not with how he was packing down those nuggets, so what harm would it do.

Once they finished up their break, they made their way over to where Batman and Catwoman were patrolling. Having finished up the little kerfuffle between the two rogues, the rest of the night remained rather calm in comparison.

As calm as fighting side by side with the Batman was, of course. The stress of potentially making a mistake in front of the Leaguer was worse than the fear of using too much strength. Doubled when Catwoman was in the same fight or just sitting on the sidelines watching them do their thing.

"A lady knows when not to get her claws dirty." She'd say as if she wasn't just enjoying being on their side of the fight.

He did enjoy having her around, however. Seeing as he had to learn how to grapple, she decided it was the perfect time to teach the batlings how to scale walls with only the claws on their gloves. Now it was his turn to catch the falling bird and tease him for messing up. Phantom could catch himself, so that was half of the revenge lost, but he still got a few laughs out of it.

Reconvening on top of the old clocktower, Conner had to push down another blush creeping its way up when Batman praised him for his effort tonight. The unspoken invitation to come back another time hung in the air, but neither wanted to call it out. Feeling the exhaustion slowly make its way into his muscles, it was probably time to start heading back. With a little Bat Brigade escort, he had his stuff packed and Shminky back in his hoodie before the hour was over.

Atop the roof across from the Zeta point, Robin jabbed an elbow in Batman's ribs. "Come on, admit it." He teased, smirk nearly splitting his face in half. "You want to, don'tcha." Batman didn't even validate it with an answer. Turning back to face his city, he set back off into the night, hoping to clear the many thoughts swirling in his mind.