Although the world is full of suffering,
it is also full of the overcoming of it.

( Helen Keller. )

GOTHAM CITY, ALREADY A CRUCIBLE OF CRIME AND DESPAIR, is plunged into an unimaginable biological horror. A sentient fungal organism lies dormant beneath the city's ancient foundations. Awakened by recent, ill-advised deep-earth drilling, it erupts, spewing spores that rapidly infect the populace. This isn't just a plague; it's a sentient assimilation, transforming its victims not merely into mindless drones, but into grotesque, specialized creatures reflecting their deepest fears, desires, or dominant psychological traits.

Faith Dempsey, the sharp-witted sidekick of Batwoman, finds herself caught in the initial terrifying wave. Her world, already shadowed by Gotham's peculiar brand of gloom, collapses as loved ones and strangers alike succumb to the burgeoning fungal nightmare. Together with the heroes of Gotham, Batgirl is desperately trying to maintain order, save lives, and find answers as the city, their families, and their very hope begin to rot from within.

As notorious villains like Poison Ivy become grotesque spore-spewing mothers, Scarecrow a living nightmare generator, and the Joker a gleefully horrific fungal jester, Nightwing and Batgirl are forced to confront the true, ancient intellect behind sentient virus. Their journey takes them from the crumbling gargoyles of Gotham's rooftops to the putrid, pulsating heart of the fungal entity buried deep beneath the city.

With Batman grimly clinging to the last vestiges of hope, Oracle fighting a losing battle from a besieged Clock Tower, and the city itself becoming a living, breathing spore-infested organism, Nightwing, Batgirl and Robin must race against time to uncover the fungus' ancient secrets and discover a way to sever its connection to its hive mind, even if it means making an unbearable sacrifice. This is not just a fight for survival, but a desperate quest to reclaim their humanity from a horror that seeks to redefine life itself.

STARRING

FAITH DEMPSEY . . . BATGIRL 🦇

SHARP-WITTED. EMPATHETIC. KIND.
THE FAITHFUL LADY OF JUSTICE.
　

EVEN IN DECAY,
THERE IS A PATH TO FIGHT.

RICHARD GRAYSON . . . NIGHTWING 🌃
( or just DICK )

RESILIENT. CARING. PLAYFUL.
THE BRIGHT KNIGHT OF GOTHAM.
　

EVERY PATH IS LINED WITH ROT.
WE MUST CHOOSE CAREFULLY.

WITH

bruce wayne ✶ BATMAN
kate kane ✶ BATWOMAN
damian wayne ✶ ROBIN
barbara gordon ✶ ORACLE
jim gordon ✶ COMMISSIONER
vicki vale ✶ JOURNALIST
pamela isley ✶ POISON IVY
dr. jonathan crane ✶ SCARECROW
dr. victor fries ✶ MR. FREEZE
joker ✶ CLOWN PRINCE OF CRIME
harley quinn ✶ CLOWN PRINCESS OF CRIME

✶ dedications ✶
mithranidel maliraology pepperronys pseudonym-lux void-daniella starfragment samwnchesters latte-to-go indirys xonceuponatimex justanillusion KookieANDLeo dash-of-clarity liminal_faces -beewrites-

　✶ alright, y'all know the drill. as always, i do not own or take credit for DETECTIVE COMICS (DC) or any of it's characters. all rights respectfully belong to the writers and creators. i do, however, take credit for all the original content found within this story, from the original characters, plot, and dialogue.

　✶ anyways... welcome to my DICK GRAYSON fic 🌃 before we dive into the story, I would like to give a massive shout-out to my friend KookieANDLeo. without amanda and her insanely beautiful talent, this story wouldn't even exist. so, let's all say thank you amanda!

　✶ amanda is a very talented artist, and a few months ago, she posted this really gorgeous body horror art of poison ivy, which i just instantly fell in love with (the horror enthusiast i am lol) and immediately told her that it was giving gotham city horror fic vibes. so, naturally, after several months of brainstorming, i finally finished fleshing out this plot and now i'm so excited to share it with you all. also, here's the poison ivy piece that amanda drew! isn't it just to gorgeous? 😩 you should all go follow her. like, now. i'm not even kidding lol.

　✶ as a way to honor amanda for inspiring this plot with her art, i gave her the honor of naming the fungal virus. she came up with the name terraceps, which is derived from a mix of terra being the latin equivalent of gaia/personified earth, and ceps from cordyceps the parasitic fungus. however, the virus will also be called the surge by the public. this name, in amanda's words, was "totally not at all inspired by the parasitic infection of alien origin called the flood in the halo franchise". and i love it. she is a genius.

　✶ as for faith, some of you may remember her from that titans fic i posted a while back. a brief history on her would be that her family was poor and her younger brother got really sick. they didn't have the money to pay for the treatments he needed, so her father started working for the joker, doing whatever he could to earn money for his family no matter the cost of his humanity. this eventually resulted in the death of her father, by the joker himself. faith took matters into her own hands after that, seeking vengeance for her father. around this time is when kate kane/batwoman found her and offered her the opportunity to do some good, to bring justice to the man who killed her father (without losing her humanity in the process) and giving her family the money they needed for her brother's treatments. however, her brother would later die anyway, the cancer having spread too far enough for kate's money to help him. faith's mother is still alive, however, she left gotham a long time ago, so faith now lives with the bat-family.

　✶ trigger warnings include but are not limited to: violence, gore, blood, death, vulgar language, sexual themes, etc. please read with caution. you have been warned.

ANDREA / DUNBONNET 2025