Chapter Text
In all the recent excitement of the Rogue War, and the developments in both their personal lives, Wally forgot to tell Piper that he and Zatanna had tracked the Top down and restored his mind.
Piper liked to try to empathize with Wally. The guy did have an awful lot going on, like, all of the time, and the poor boy wasn’t coping well with the trauma of losing his unborn children shortly followed by his wife leaving for an extended break. He was really going through it, and since Piper had moved to a different state and gotten so busy with becoming his sister’s guardian, he wasn’t even around to offer emotional support. He did feel for Wally, truly.
It’s just that that was a particularly important thing to slip his mind. He knew Roscoe had a history of targeting Piper. A head’s up about an old enemy becoming that much more dangerous really would have been nice.
Piper was in the middle of Robinson Park, battling intermittently with Weather Wizard, Harley Quinn, an unfamiliar girl with pigtails and a bloodied staff that he incorrectly guessed to be Quinn’s sidekick, and the new Captain Boomerang, when the Top tore through the park in a whirlwind that even Mark couldn’t keep up with. Piper was launched to the fringes of the battle, the wind knocked out of him. Before he could get to his feet, Roscoe hauled him up by the front of his costume in a perfect imitation of the last time he’d tried to scramble Piper’s brain.
“I’m going to take it all back. You’ll be just as you were, just like all the rest. No more allies, just enemies-what the devil?”
Piper could feel Roscoe’s tendrils trying to claw their way into his mind but this time they were even easier to repel. He had so much more experience and besides that, he knew what Roscoe was trying to do.
“You’re such an arrogant prick, Roscoe.” Piper shoved him away, then wound up to hit him, but Roscoe went into a spin, sending him into a tree. Piper clutched at his side, then dove aside to avoid some of the debris Roscoe’s spinning was launching around the park. “You’re not the reason I reformed, you bastard. You never touched my brain.”
“Lies! He wanted allies and I gave them to him, me!”
Piper grabbed his pipe and just managed to freeze Roscoe in place before he could launch another spin attack at him. Once Roscoe was frozen, Piper approached him and made sure they were making eye contact. “If your Mind Over Matter powers are so much stronger than my hypnotism, you should be able to break through this. Go on. I can see you trying. You’re so much better than me, right?” He leaned in closer. “I want you to understand me, Dillon. You have never had any influence on my mind and you never, ever will. Now keep those disgusting impulses of yours to yourself.”
“Piper! You okay?” Wally appeared at his side, then scowled when he saw Roscoe’s frozen form. “When did the Top get here? Aren’t there enough psychos on this battlefield already?”
“Yeah, about that-” But before Piper could finish his thought, a yellow blur grabbed Wally and pulled him away. Piper took a few helpless steps in the direction they’d gone, then a wave of dizziness hit him in response to the other speedster’s unsettling aura. He collapsed to the ground, completely disoriented. The wrongness in the air faded quickly though, and Piper climbed unsteadily to his feet.
By then, Roscoe was also gone.
“Shit. Shit-shit-shit.” Piper tapped his earpiece. “Nightwing? Something fast and yellow just disappeared with Flash.”
“Hands are a bit full with Mirror Master and Scarecrow. Can you alert the other speedsters?”
“Are Mirror Master and Scarecrow working together?” That sounded like a terrible combination.
“Can’t talk.” Dick cut the line, and Piper let out a frustrated almost-scream. He tried to think of where he’d last seen Dick in the park, but then he barely knew where he was anymore thanks to Roscoe and most likely a Reverse Flash of some kind. But he was determined to find them. McCulloch had already taken enough from him; he wasn’t going to hurt Piper’s partner on top of everything else.
While he darted around the park, looking for signs of people reacting to Fear Toxin or flashes of light from mirror guns, Piper informed Bart and Jesse Quick about Wally’s disappearance. He tried to get Jay Garrick on the line too, but he wasn’t responding. Hopefully that wasn’t as foreboding as it felt.
Piper tried to keep his head down and stick to well covered portions of the park’s trails while he was distracted by his earpiece. Despite his caution, someone was still able to get the jump on him. He was explaining the situation to Jesse Quick when someone ran up behind him and struck him with something hard and heavy. He was able to twist to the side before impact, so it got the back of his shoulder instead of his head, but it was still a powerful blow and he wound up collapsed against a tree.
His assailant hit him again, this time going for his knees. Piper fell to the ground with a cry, and when he looked up he saw Edward standing above him in his green unitard costume, clutching his gold cane. “Hello, Hartley. Fancy meeting you here.” Ed wound up, and this time he connected with Piper’s head.
Seeing stars, Ed’s shrill laughter ringing in his ears and pain blossoming from multiple points of impact, it was incredibly difficult to keep conscious and oriented. Piper tried to aim a sonic gun, but he was too slow. Ed knocked it out of his hand, breaking some fingers in the process.
He crouched down beside Piper, grasped him by the hair and pulled his head up so that they were eye-level. “I suppose you’ve left my lovely little child somewhere safe, rather than bring her into this melee. I’m going to need you to tell me where that is so that I may collect her.”
“She’s not your kid, you deranged creep,” Piper ground out.
Ed let out a deep sigh, and stroked his free hand down the side of Piper’s face. “It could have been so nice, you know. If you’d been sincerely interested in rekindling things. We could all be living in the nicest little home, spoiling the girl rotten while nurturing her intellect. But you had to go and be such a spoilsport. And for what? The Bat-floozy’s going to get sick of you eventually, Hartley. He doesn’t have the attention span for a real commitment. That’s why half the hero community’s run through him, and a not insignificant chunk of the villain community as well.”
“Shut up. Shut up, you son of a-”
“Oh, hit a nerve, have I?” Edward’s lips stretched into a cruel grin. He let Piper drop back to the ground, then got to his feet and hefted his cane. “As amusing as this is, I’m afraid my investment in your sorry love life isn’t what it once was. Tell me where to pick my daughter up, and I’ll be on my way.”
“Fuck off.”
Ed wound up and delivered a powerful blow to Piper’s back. “Let’s try that again. Where is Jerrie?”
Every time Piper tried to focus enough to use his hypnotism, another blow landed and his concentration fell off. Soon he stopped even hearing what Ed was yelling at him between hits.
Then a murder of crows descended on Edward, mobbing him like he was a hawk. He swung desperately with his cane, trying to get them off but more just kept coming, and they were all glowing blue.
Jerrie jumped down from a nearby tree and landed at Piper’s side, fully costumed. She helped him to his feet, then wrapped a bracing arm around him. She let out a short whistle, and the crows backed off but remained nearby, glowing blue eyes menacingly trained on the Riddler. It took more concentration than he wanted to stay on his feet, but with Jerrie’s help Piper just managed it.
“Hi, Edward. I’m going to need you to leave me and Brenda and my brother alone now. I told you, I want to live with Hartley.”
Edward’s face was covered with blood, and there were tears and gashes all over his costume. “Jerrie, dear. You don’t know what you’re saying.”
“Of course I know what I’m saying. I wish people would stop telling me that I don’t know things I know! I know we were friends and that I used to like you, but you’re mean. You hid a bomb in my room and you tried to kill my pet. I don’t want to be friends with you anymore. I’m sorry, Edward. Maybe you and Edie can figure out how to be family though.”
“That’s really kicking a fellow when he’s down.”
A wall of ice sprang up between the Rathaways and the Riddler, and then Captain Cold, Mirror Master, and Weather Wizard appeared in the clearing. They all looked a little worse the wear for the battle (Mark had clearly been fighting Heat Wave at some point, based on the state of his hair and the singed portions of his costume), but none of them was hurt badly enough not to be a threat. Piper shifted so that he was holding more of his own weight and got the hand with functioning fingers on a pipe.
“You got a sidekick, Piper?” Cold regarded Jerrie with surprise, and possibly disapproval.
“Can’t believe someone modeled themselves after the faggot,” Mirror Master muttered. Weather Wizard nodded his agreement.
Jerrie’s face had gone a little red but she locked eyes with Cold, lip curled in dislike. “My name’s Songbird, and so what if I’m a sidekick? I’m not afraid of you losers.”
“Aw, that’s just adorable. What are you, sweetheart? Fourteen, fifteen years old?” McCulloch took a step closer. Piper moved to put himself in front of Jerrie (which she noticed and tried to stop), while Cold reached out a hand to keep McCulloch back.
Then Edward darted forward and swung his cane, hitting McCulloch’s head so hard that he broke the Mirror Master helmet. McCulloch dropped to the ground, and, startled enough to forget about his wand, Mark just pulled back and punched Edward in the face.
Cold smacked a hand over his face, let out a groan, then picked up one of McCulloch’s mirror guns and shot the ice wall. “We’ll take care of Riddler from here.” He motioned to Mark, who grabbed Riddler by the scruff of his costume and yanked him through the ice wall, while McCulloch made a less than dignified exit on his hands and knees. Once the two of them were through, Cold turned his attention to Piper. “Be careful, kid. This isn’t the kind of world for baby sisters to be running around in.” Then he disappeared into the mirror portal and closed it behind him.
“Hartley, are you okay?”
“No, not really.”
Jerrie helped him into a sitting position, propping his back up on a tree. She tapped her own earpiece. “Hey, is anyone-um, could anyone like, help me and my brother get outta here? He’s hurt.”
“Songbird, use codenames when you’re talking to other heroes,” Piper said.
She let out an annoyed huff. “Sorry, can someone extract the Pied Piper please?”
Piper hissed in a quick breath, and begged the universe for a hero he got along with to respond. Or at the very least, anyone but Batman.
For once, the universe had his back. Starfire’s voice came over Jerrie’s earpiece, asking for their location. Kory touched down in front of them shortly thereafter, and brought them to the Cave for medical assistance.
Axel watched the news coverage of the battle in Robinson Park, feeling some FOMO about not being there in person. It had been hours since his last Fear Toxin aftershock, so he was probably fine. He was sure he could fight.
It’s just that Poison Ivy and Harley Quinn disagreed, and they’d left some kind of plant monster outside the living room before they’d left. Anytime he tried to do anything but use the bathroom or get food from the kitchen, he found himself wrapped in a spiky vine cocoon and thrown back onto the couch. His arms and face were covered in light scratches from the stupid plant spikes.
So he ate his sugary breakfast cereal and pouted, watching clips of all the other guys having all the fun. Even the old geezer Trickster was there and…
Axel almost spit his cereal out. He set it on the table and then darted across the floor and knelt in front of the TV screen. It took forever before he caught another glimpse of the costume he was looking for, but finally, there it was. Someone in a blue version of the Pied Piper’s costume. Short, skinny, with cascades of dark red hair and the cutest little upturned nose. As he watched, the new costume darted between some trees with a trail of eerily glowing crows and blue jays following after her.
“Fuck yeah, babe. You look amazing.” Axel sat back on his heels and smiled stupidly at the television. He wondered what side Jerrie was on. He was pretty sure she was living with her goofy ass brother, and she’d patterned her costume after his, so she’d probably picked the nerds. But who knows? She was tight with the Riddler which, granted, wasn’t great for Axel’s romantic prospects, but he’d still rather her be a supervillain than a superhero.
If Jerrie was running with the goody-goodies, him living with Harley and Ivy was probably going to be an issue. That is, assuming she ever found out about it. Axel would just have to keep that to himself when he finally got in touch with her again.
Speaking of which…
He finished off his cereal, then poked around the kitchen (the vine monster made some tentative moves in his direction but didn’t actually stop him) until he found a notepad and some pens. It was intended to be a shopping list, but he just crossed off the picture of a shopping basket from the top of the paper and sat down at the table to write.
Hey pretty girl,
I know we left things off kinda bad the last time we saw each other. It’s been eating away at me like crazy. Can I have another shot? I hope I didn’t blow it forever. I saw that your in Gotham. Isn’t that crazy? I moved to Gotham to! I’m staying with some rad friends and I’m never gunna see Edy ever agane if I can help it. I wanna see you. I wanna see your pretty face. Do you miss me at all?
Bye the way. How’s the new bird? Does Brenda like her roommat? Yeh that was me. I got you the purple bird. Isn’t she pretty? Not as pretty as you though ;) I knew it was a special bird and that it shuld live with a special lady.
Miss you soooooo much,
Axel
Oh yeh, not really sure how you shuld answer this. I’l send another letter when I have a phone or something again. Maybe email me? I think I’ll be able too check an email soon. Thnx babe!
Axel folded the note over and shoved it in his pocket. He’d ask Harley to mail it for him when she got back. Harley seemed like an easier touch, as far as opening up about his romantic woes went. She’d probably be sympathetic.
Note, finished, Axel parked himself in front of the television to continue watching footage of the supervillain battle, keeping his eyes peeled for a blue capelet and glowing birds.
Piper was resting upstairs in the bedroom he and Dick were using while they stayed in the manor when the battle ended and the heroes started trickling back in. With some help from his metamour, he’d patched up and changed into a comfortable pair of sweatpants and an oversized t-shirt, taken some pain medication, and was groggily listening to some music while Jerrie sat by the bed and kept him company. She’d changed out of her costume as well, in light of Alfred’s rules, but she’d kept her earpiece in and was giving him updates.
“Everyone’s on their way back now,” Jerrie said. “No one saw Captain Cold or Riddler or those other two meanies after they portaled away. Nightwing said something about the Gotham guys doing a sunk cost fallacy? I don’t know if I get it, but anyway, Penguin told his guys to pack up, and the Scarecrow was just kinda doing his own thing with his gasses and stuff anyway until Robin and Kid Flash took him out and brought him to Arkham.”
“Has anyone seen Wally?”
“Not yet. Oh, Robin said that Kid Flash went missing too.” Jerrie frowned and moved from the chair to sitting on the end of the mattress so she could squeeze Piper’s unsplinted hand. “Does this happen a lot with them? Should we be scared?”
“Wally and Bart disappear all the time,” Piper said, which was perfectly true. He refrained from saying anything about the Reverse Flashes, preferring to keep that particular terror to himself. It’s not like he and Jerrie could do anything to help, so there was no sense in panicking the both of them.
Jerrie perked up. “Nightwing’s leaving the park but he’s not coming right back here.”
“Wait, what?” Piper felt a little stung by that, and then mad at himself for it. Dick was an important hero who was almost always in the center of the action, and this particular battle had involved his home turf. Of course he had better things to do than run home to comfort his incompetent boyfriend, who’d gotten his ass handed to him by the Riddler, of all people. While Ed was a dangerous psychopath, he really wasn’t known as a physical fighter. Piper was not proud of himself for sustaining as many injuries as he had in a confrontation that had involved zero gadgets or death traps.
If Ed hadn’t gotten that first heavy hit in while Piper was distracted, he most definitely would have out-fought him. That’s what he would be telling himself, anyway.
“He said he has, he has somebody with him and he needs to make some arrangements, but he’ll be back as soon as he can. He wants me to sit up with you until he gets here, and to make sure you don’t have a concussion.”
“Alfred already checked. I don’t have a concussion.”
Jerrie frowned at him. “You probably should. Edward walloped you pretty good with his cane, and it’s really heavy.”
“Yeah.” Piper was under the impression Edward had held back a little bit on the head blow, but he’d put his full strength into the other hits. He was going to be sore for the foreseeable future.
“Um…the guys that took Edward. Do you think they’re going to hurt him?” Jerrie’s head was down, eyes focused on her fidgeting hands.
Piper wasn’t sure how to answer. He was pretty sure the guys had been out for the Riddler’s blood and they’d had more than enough time to kill him. Considering all the bizarre, improbable events that Piper had witnessed in his life and the many ways people he knew managed to escape death, even when it seemed incredibly certain, he wouldn’t say with absolute certainty that the man was dead. But it did seem the most likely outcome.
Jerrie wiped at her eyes. “I know he was bad. And I’m glad you came and saved me. I just, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to him either. He was really nice to me when I needed a friend. I know that doesn’t make up for all the bad stuff he did though.”
“Sweetheart, I will never, ever judge you for having complicated feelings about a supervillain. The hypocrisy would be astounding. I’ve known and cared for quite a few people who have gone down that path. It’s okay to be sad.”
Jerrie moved from the chair to climb onto the bed with Piper. She curled up at his side and (carefully) rested her head on his shoulder.
They were still sitting like that, almost an hour later but watching an episode of Sailor Moon, when Dick finally got back to the Manor.
His civilian clothes could have been hiding some significant bruising, Piper supposed, but based on looks alone it seemed Nightwing had gotten through the Rogue War relatively unscathed. Obviously, Piper was happy to see it, but it didn’t make him feel better about his own condition.
Dick sat down on Piper’s other side and leaned forward for a quick kiss while Jerrie scooted back onto the chair. “I’m so glad you’re okay,” Dick said. “Jerrie’s extraction call scared the bejeezus out of me, but I was clear on the other side of the park trying to corral a bunch of Fear Gassed henchmen. By the time I got out of that mess, Kory had already grabbed you guys and then-”
“Love, it’s okay. I’m more embarrassed than hurt-” Piper started to say, but was cut off by an incredulous snort from Jerrie.
“Hartley has two broken fingers, a bruised spine, a broken knee, two bruised ribs, and a whoooooole lotta regular bruises. He’s gonna be really purple and not, like, in a pretty way.”
Piper inhaled deeply through his nose before turning his attention on his sister. “So Jerrie, do you think you could go to your room for a little bit and let me talk to Dick?”
Jerrie smiled sweetly at him and then got up to turn off the television.
While she was doing that, Wally appeared in the room, violating the rules of the house by wearing his Flash costume. “Hey, guys. I just need to steal Piper for a-”
Dick immediately wrapped a possessive arm around Piper and all but snarled at Wally. “He’s injured. He’s staying here.”
“Oh, don’t worry about it,” Wally said. “I’m actually taking him to a hospital anyway, so-”
“Wally-”
“Don’t worry. I’ll be back for you in a sec.”
Before Piper was able to register his own objection, he was wearing a knee brace and then everything got suddenly blurry. When the world came into focus again, he was indeed in a hospital room, seated in a wheelchair with his bad leg propped up.
Wally, now dressed in civilian clothes, wheeled Piper to Linda’s bedside, beaming with barely restrained delight. Linda bore her own delighted glow, though she was less exuberant than her husband.
The twin babies in her arms probably had something to do with her state of exhaustion.
“What…how did…oh my goodness. Twins?”
“Yeah,” Wally croaked. “Look what we made. Aren’t they beautiful?”
“I still don’t understand what happened,” Linda said. “One minute I was infertile but physically fine, then I was being rushed to the hospital with some kind of ruptured internal injury, and then as I was bleeding out something changed,” she threw a significant look her husband’s way, “and I was nine months pregnant and giving birth.” She looked at Piper and then mouthed ‘speedster shenanigans.’
Right. Wally’s identity was secret again.
“Oh yeah, I need to, uh, head over to the bathroom again. I think I left something in there. Be right back.” Wally leaned over to give Linda a kiss, and kiss the tops of his newborn babies’ heads, then walked out of the hospital room, pulling the privacy curtain closed behind him.
Piper made sure to keep his voice low. “How the hell did he get me in here?”
“If they go fast enough, they’re invisible,” Linda whispered back. She continued at a normal volume. “We want to name the girl Iris but we haven’t settled on the boy’s name yet. We’d…well, obviously we stopped talking about baby names when we’d lost them. Would you like to hold one of them, Hartley?”
“Oh, I would love to but I’m not sure it’s a good idea.” Piper held up his hand, showing off the splinted fingers. “There’s been enough excitement today without me dropping a baby.”
Wally walked back into the room, a visibly irritated Dick Grayson trailing just behind him. Dick’s expression instantly softened when he saw the babies. Wally barely finished asking if Dick wanted to hold one of them before Dick was taking a baby from Linda and snuggling it.
“Which one’s he got?” Wally asked. “Is that little Iris, or Wally junior?”
“We’re not naming him Wally junior,” Linda snapped.
“It was a joke. I’m not saddling another person with Wallace Rudolph for a name. Unlike some people, I care if my kid loves me.”
“That’s Iris,” Linda said. She smoothed a hand over the fuzzy black hair of the baby still nestled against her chest. “This is our son.”
Dick crouched down so that he was next to Piper’s wheelchair. He brought the tiny infant as close to Piper as possible, and he gazed down at the little girl in wonder. She was so small.
“Hello, Iris.”
Wally’s grin was so big it looked like it hurt. “Irey, say hello to your Uncle Dick and your Uncle Piper.”