Fandom: Batman
Pairing: Bruce Wayne & Male OC, Damian Wayne & Male OC [Platonic]
Rating: Teen
Content: Amnesia, Loss of identity, Blood and gore, Graphic violence, Injuries, Animal abuse, Semi-verbal character
Date originally written: 12th January 2022
Summary: A new dangerous substance has been found within Gotham, and Bruce has no choice but to focus his entire time and energy into figuring out where it's coming from...

And while Omen isn't in the front of his mind, the wolf still lurks in the shadows...

Author's notes: This chapter is longer than the others because I’ve already at this point drafted and written like 3-4 chapters of this particular plot element and I really don’t want to chop it up into too many chapters, as I would like to at least have Omen in every single chapter, even if it’s only in one small scene.

Also, warning for this particular chapter: puppy dogs (not Omen, just regular dogs) get hurt in this chapter :( no dogs die, but they’re definitely in a bad situation! They will be saved in the next chapter though I promise ♥

Over the next week, Bruce’s investigations became bigger and more complex. On top of trying to keep an eye on Luthor’s activities, Bruce was also trying to figure out what the dangerous new substance that had been found in Gotham’s streets was, and how dangerous it might be.

Currently, the substance didn’t have a name, but it’s effects were quickly starting to become apparent, as Bruce continued doing more research.

The substance was an extremely fine powder that was very easy to accidentally get into your system. Just inhaling a few small particles could have negative side effects, but the more an individual inhaled, the worse those effects became. Gothamites were being told by authorities to not go outside unless absolutely necessary, and to wear a mask if they did.

It may have seemed like a lot just for a bunch of powder, but it had been entirely necessary; the symptoms truly were something to be afraid of. Individuals who got seriously affected by this substance often experienced a burning sensation in their lungs when they inhaled it, along with other negative physical symptoms. But there were also psychological symptoms, too. Some of these symptoms included extreme dissociation, loss of awareness and other very negative effects that Bruce hypothesised could be used as an easy way to mind control someone, if the dosage was correct and brainwashing occurred during the time when the patient was affected by the substance.

It was clear to Bruce that this wasn’t supposed to be a new hard drug to get others addicted to, this was supposed to be used to hurt or control people in some way.

Bruce believed that it was likely that Scarecrow may have something to do with this, or maybe even Mad Hatter. It wouldn’t have surprised him if the two had joined forces to create this substance, given Mad Hatter’s love for mind control and Scarecrow’s experience in chemistry. Though, Bruce would have a hell of a time trying to thwart the two if that were the case.

So far, Bruce had ensured that none of his younger kids went out on patrol until he could track down a sample and find a way to reverse it’s effects. He needed to be able to administer an antidote to the patients currently being held at the many hospitals within Gotham that had taken in these patients. Doctors were trying to find a cure, but Bruce knew it wouldn’t be quick enough. And until he had an antidote, their patrols would have to be severely limited; the powder was getting spread around quickly, either purposefully or unintentionally, and it would be extremely dangerous for anyone to go outside in case they accidentally got some of the fine powder into their lungs.

One peculiar finding that Bruce had come across in his investigations was that in some cases of the powder infecting a victim who had pets in their house, the human victim was always the only one experiencing negative symptoms. The pets, on the other hand, experienced very little symptoms. The worst they ever got was a slight irritation of the throat.

This, Bruce found to be extremely strange, but it was this small piece of information that he believed could help him determine the powder’s chemical makeup, if the samples he ended up acquiring weren’t of great quality.

It was when he was reading on this specific piece of information about the substance, that Damian came up behind him to see what he was doing.

He shifted out of the way slightly so Damian could get a better look at his research. Damian’s eyes scanned the article he had been reading, and squinted halfway through. Once he was done reading the article, he straightened up his posture and looked at him with very serious eyes.

“I think I have an idea, father.”

Bruce’s curiosity was immediately piqued. “Oh?”

“This article you are reading, if it is factual, says that animals barely experience any negative side effects when exposed to the powder, except for slight irritation in the throat and lungs. This means that if you managed to get a sample from a criminal, you could bring it back here and let Titus smell it, and he could find more samples for you to confiscate. He might even be able find out where the powder is being created or distributed from.”

Bruce rubbed his chin in thought for a moment.

“That’s not a bad idea...but I’d be concerned with letting Titus out on his own.”

Damian immediately had a response to that.

“Titus has been on his own before, but you could always go with him if it bothers you. Or one of my siblings who hasn’t been banned from patrol could accompany him.”

Bruce exhaled a sigh. “I’d go myself if I could, Damian, but the moment I get access to a sample, I need to immediately start working on an antidote, or a way to reverse the effects of the powder. And the others are all currently busy on their own investigations.”

Damian was quiet for a moment, and looked down at his feet, trying to think about his next response for a bit before he replied. Bruce gave him the time he needed, and went back to reading and typing on the Batcomputer.

Damian thought through all of the different scenarios and possibilities in his head, and eventually came up with a better idea. He lifted his head up only a few minutes later, and started speaking again.

“Perhaps...Titus could be accompanied by Krypto? He’s an indestructible alien creature, one who knows Titus well and is capable of cooperating with him easily. He would make sure Titus didn’t get hurt, and he’d be able to hear our commands from anywhere on the planet, even if the GPS device on Titus’ collar stopped functioning. He could also get Titus out of danger immediately.”

Bruce stopped his typing on the computer, and seemed to think a bit longer about Damian’s proposal. It wasn’t a bad idea at all, and both Krypto’s and Titus’ senses were far better than any human’s could be. Their abilities would also help to speed up the investigation significantly.

After a few more moments of consideration, Bruce decided to go with the plan.

“Alright, Damian. You’ve done a good job in convincing me. If I manage to bring back a sample, I’ll call Clark and ask if it’s okay for us to borrow Krypto for a while.”

Damian gave a small twitch of his lip. It was his version of a smile, and Bruce couldn’t help but smile back at his son.

Bruce spent the time he had on patrol looking for any sample he could find of the mysterious fine powder that’d been terrorising Gotham for the entire week.

He’d not had any luck the previous few nights, but tonight, he hoped his luck would change.

Currently, he was traversing from rooftop to rooftop, avoiding the ground and the alleyways altogether. It was too dangerous down there, and there was less of an opportunity for him to get accidentally infected by the strange, dangerous substance when he was up this high. But, in the event he somehow did come across it even on the rooftops, he was already wearing a very heavy duty mask on the lower half of his face to protect himself, just in case.

It took him a bit of time, a bit of tracking and a whole lot of waiting, but he managed to pinpoint a particular individual who was obviously involved in distributing the powder across Gotham.

It was almost disappointing how easy it was, then, to simply follow the guy and pounce on him from above, and confiscate the powder from him. Criminals really never looked above them, no matter how much time they spent in Gotham.

They man he had pounced on had been wearing a basic cloth face mask to protect himself, but Bruce knew it wouldn’t be enough to protect him if the powder spilled everywhere and got into his eyes or in the small gaps between the mask and his face. What made the situation even more egregious was the fact that the powder was being kept in a basic ziploc bag, without anything else containing it.

Bruce was surprised the man hadn’t succumbed to the effects of the powder yet, given his shoddy PPE and lack of care when handling the substance.

Then again, these were common thugs, after all.

Bruce carefully transferred the entire bag into an airtight container and sealed it, securing it to a specific pocket within his belt that also had an airtight seal.

Sample acquired.

Now, all he had to do was go home and see for himself what this strange powder really was.

When Bruce came back with the sample, he didn’t drive into the regular entrance of the cave.

He took a different turn, and came upon a completely different entrance to the cave, one which he used specifically for situations like these where he or any of his other family members came back contaminated with some type of toxin, gas, or other substance. It was, essentially, an entirely separate part of the cave, which his kids had aptly named the “quarantine cave”. It’s safety had been engineered to be even more intense and over-the-top than the safety of the other parts of the cave, so that if a container filled with a toxic substance spilled, it didn’t effect the other parts of the cave.

It may have seemed like overkill, but Bruce had found that the quarantine cave had become a necessary and even life-saving part of his and his family’s vigilante life many times before.

He got out of the Batmobile once he’d stopped the car, and walked towards one of the tables within the cave, where he placed the airtight sealed container. He slowly and gently opened it up, placing the ziploc bag on top of the table, underneath some machines he would use later to remotely analyse the powder in the regular part of the cave. He didn’t want to be in contact with the powder for any longer than what was necessary.

He then left the table and stepped into another room with a shower, and turned on the decontamination shower immediately, not even bothering to take any of his suit pieces off.

Once he believed the suit was thoroughly decontaminated, he started stripping different pieces off until every single part of his suit and his body was free from any possible trace amounts of powder.

Finally, once he was out of the decontamination shower, he was able to return to the regular part of the cave, after going through multiple doors and scanners that ensured he was entirely and truly decontaminated.

He walked to the batcomputer and sat at the console so he could start analysing the chemical makeup of the powder. He needed to understand how it worked, so he could figure out how to negate all of the horrible symptoms it had given people.

As he started up the analysation process, Damian walked up behind him again, with Titus in tow. “Can we call Kent, now? Assuming you actually have come back with a sample.”

“Yes, we can.” Bruce replied. He brought up the contacts on the Batcomputer and clicked call on Clark’s number.

When Clark answered, Bruce didn’t even get a chance to say hello to him before Damian immediately started speaking.

“Kent. We need your dog for an investigation.”

“Um...Hi Damian! How are you?” Clark replied, clearly not expecting such a blunt hello the moment he answered the phone.

“I’m doing fine. Is Krypto available?”

There was a moment of rustling on Clark’s end as he went to check. “Uhh...he’s sleeping, actually. You said you needed him for an investigation?”

“Yes, we do.” Bruce answered, gently taking over the conversation from Damian. He explained to Clark all the current details of his investigation, and especially the interesting detail of animals not being harmed much by the substance they were trying to track down, and how Damian had come up with the idea to use both Titus and Krypto to sniff out and track where these substances are coming from.

Clark seemed to agree that the plan was a good idea, and after a few more minutes of discussing the details, it was settled.

“I can actually let you guys have Krypto for a few days, if you’d like. He’ll keep Titus safe, and I know he’ll listen to you both. I’d come and help myself if I could, but I have to keep an eye on what Luthor’s doing in Metropolis.”

“We understand, Clark. Thank you for letting us have Krypto. We’ll send him back the moment we’re done with this part of the investigation.”

They both eventually hung up, and only a few moments later, Krypto wooshed into the cave with a gust of air, his tail wagging excitedly. He and Titus greeted each other with sniffs and licks and playful bowing, and started to run around the cave, chasing each other. Damian then introduced a ball to their play, and they started running after the ball together.

Bruce let the three play with each other while the Batcomputer continued it’s analysis. It would be done in about half an hour, so he went to work on doing more research while he waited. He wanted to make sure the analysis was completely finished before he let the dogs sniff the sample. It wouldn’t be great for the investigation if the only sample he had ended up becoming contaminated it with dog DNA (or alien dog DNA, for that matter).

Occasionally, while he was working, one of the dogs would come up to him and sit right next to his chair, dropping the ball by his feet. Bruce would smile a bit and pick up the ball and throw it further down the cave, watching for a moment as the dogs chased after it, before going back to his work.

Eventually, after half an hour, the analysis was complete. As he started reading through the different components that the powder was made up of, however, he became extremely concerned.

All of the different components and chemicals that made up the fine powder were all things that Bruce had never seen before. Clearly, this powder was entirely synthetic, with perhaps only a few naturally occurring chemicals mixed in, and whoever had made it had likely spent a very long time trying to perfect it, based on the stability of the powder itself.

This was going to make creating an antidote to negate the effects very difficult. I could take him weeks . Now more than ever, he was grateful for Damian’s suggestion to use the dogs to locate where this substance was being created or distributed from. It would be imperative for him to take the toxic powder off the streets immediately to ensure that nobody else inhaled it, as there was no way for Bruce to guess how long it would take for him to create some sort of cure or antidote. Because as far as he knew, this powder was either long lasting or permanent, given that none of the patients had actually recovered from the effects, yet. All of the patients in Gotham’s hospitals were still in an almost comatose or dissociative state.

“Krypto, Titus. Here!” Bruce ordered urgently. As the dogs abandoned their play and came over to him, Bruce had already got up to put on some much better equipment for dealing with this highly dangerous substance. I was the PPE you’d expect to see in a chemical lab that dealt with deadly chemicals, and while Bruce usually didn’t need it as the Batsuit acted like PPE for these types of situations, he really didn’t want to contaminate the Batsuit a second time tonight. He also didn’t want to risk the Batsuit failing, either.

He turned to Damian, who had also come over at his father’s urgent command.

“Damian, because of the danger this powder poses to us, I want you to stay here at the computer and don’t go anywhere else within the cave, or to go upstairs and not come down. The dogs will likely end up with trace amounts of the powder on their fur and noses, and you cannot allow yourself near them until they’ve been completely decontaminated once they come back. Do you understand?”

Damian stood to attention, looking more like Robin than ever, despite the civilian clothing.

“I understand father. Perhaps we should put the GPS devices and Titus’ vest on them first?”

“Yes, good idea. Can you do that while I get the sample ready?”

“Of course.” Damian replied, and he went to go get Titus’ bulletproof vest and the two GPS-comms devices that he’d be putting on both of the dog’s collars.

He quickly managed to get the vest onto Titus, and he fiddled with the harness straps on the vest until it fit just right. The vest acted as both a bulletproof vest and also a harness that had a few handles on the outside. It allowed Bruce or anyone else to grab Titus at any angle and pull him away from danger if needed, but it also allowed Krypto to just grab onto one of the handles with his teeth, pick him up and fly away with him. It was quite a funny sight to see, but Damian always made sure to never laugh about it in front of Titus.

He put Titus’ protective goggles on the dog’s face, and swapped out Titus’ civilian collar for his vigilante one that said “Bathound” on the tag. Damian then secured the GPS devices onto both Titus and Krypto’s collars, and gave them a few simple commands to get them into the “zone”, so they knew they were about to go on a mission.

A few moments later, his father’s voice came in through the Batcomputer, communicating to him remotely through the computer within the quarantine cave. “Damian, are the dogs ready?”

“Yes father, they are.”

“Very well. I want you to open the first door to the quarantine room, and once it’s closed I’ll handle the rest, okay? Now, it’s your job to monitor the dog’s location and their audio. I’ll be keeping watch too, but I need to stay in the quarantine cave to try and work on an antidote.”

“Of course father. I’ll keep watch and update you on anything you miss.”

Damian then punched in the code to open the first of the many doors that lead to the quarantine cave, and eventually the dogs made it directly inside as Bruce remotely opened up the other doors to let them in.

The dogs come trotting up to Bruce, and in a much less playful mood. They knew they had a job to do, and all Bruce had to do was give the order.

“Alright, boys. We’re going to be searching , okay? I need you two to sniff this first.”

Bruce careful handled the bag of toxic powder and lowered it so the two could sniff it. He knew, logically, that animals didn’t get any adverse reactions to the powder, but he still kept it a fair distance away so they could sniff it, but without being too close. Bruce knew that he could never be too careful.

Once both of the dogs had got a good sniff of the powder, they went back into their sitting position, awaiting his orders.

“Search. Find. Go!”

Krypto immediately grabbed Titus by the handles on his vest and zoomed off with him, using his sniffer to take him where they both needed to go.

Bruce looked back to the GPS map on one of the screens, watching as both their icons headed towards a central part of the city. Likely, they’d drop to the ground there and start sniffing around for clues.

He then turned around to look at the powder and sighed.

Creating an antidote was going to be a total pain in the ass.

Krypto flew fast through the clouds, the cold and biting wind hitting Titus’ face and fur in an unforgiving way. Above him, Krypto had his tongue out, his tail wagging all the while. Titus was glad that he’d gotten over his fear of heights a long time ago, because he knew if he hadn’t, he’d definitely be having a bad reaction to what was going on.

Krypto eventually slowed down his flying speed until they were both in the middle of Gotham, and he landed on the ground in an alleyway, finally putting Titus down.

Titus did not like flying. He tolerated it, but it didn’t mean he had to like it.

They both quickly started their mission, sniffing around the ground and through the cracks in building walls and down stormwater drains, trying to find any trace of the scent that they’d been told to find.

It wasn’t hard. The smell, though faint, was everywhere, and it wasn’t difficult at all to find a few buildings that had the scent inside of them. But, from the previous searches Titus and Krypto had been on before, they knew that they weren’t just searching for a few faint scents. They needed to find a big scent, where the smell was coming from multiple different objects and places and directions at once; where the scent basically filled the entire air, and you couldn’t smell anything else.

They needed to be on their A game.

The two trotted across Gotham together, sniffing anything and everything they could, being given praise by Damian behind their ears (though neither of them could see him, which they’d quickly become used to on these searches).

They eventually found themselves walking towards the Big Water, where the air started to smell like salt, and it was there where the scent was becoming less faint, and more pungent.

They started running towards the scent, becoming excited. This was what they were looking for! They would both get lots of treats and pets and playtime with the ball afterwards, and it would make them both very happy.

As they get closer to the docks, though, they started to hear noises. They were hearing people, and they slowed down their run to a sneaky trot instead, trying to keep out of sight like they’d been trained to do.

Eventually, they started to see people close to the water, walking back and forth, carrying things that smelled exactly like the smell they had been told to find. Both of the dogs hid behind a large storage container, while Krypto used his x-ray vision to see through them, watching all of the people with a careful eye.

While the GPS devices didn’t have cameras on them, they were able to be used as comm devices and even record audio, and back at the cave, Damian was able to hear the talking of people at the docks through the devices on both of the dogs collars.

“Father, the dogs are at the docks and they’ve completely stopped moving. I believe they’re watching something, and I can hear some talking through their comms, but I can’t hear exactly what anyone is saying.”

Bruce looked over his shoulder to look at the top down map of Gotham, confirming the info. 

“That must be where they’re shipping the powder in from. That’s very concerning if the powder is coming from outside gotham.”

Bruce then went over to the computer and connected himself to the comm units on the dog’s collars, speaking to the two directly.

“Krypto, Titus. Caution. Closer. Hide.”

Both of the dogs followed the commands immediately, getting closer to the people while staying as hidden as they possibly could. It was then that both Damian and Bruce were able to hear what the men at the docks were talking about, although their words were slightly muffled through the masks that they were wearing.

The men didn’t say anything that Bruce and Damian didn’t already know, not at first. But eventually they started to talk more about their boss, mentioning how “anal” their boss was about the entire process of shipping in and getting the powder onto the streets of Gotham.

And then, they started to get into the really sensitive information.

“You still got the rock?” One of the men said faintly through his mask.

Another replied, “Yeah, I got it. I don’t know why we need it when our bullets are laced with the stuff, but you know how the boss is. At least we’ll be safe from the big guy if he ever shows up.”

Both Bruce and Damian’s eyebrow’s quirked up at that. They listened in deeper to the conversation, turning the audio up slightly.

“Yeah, I still don’t understand what he has to do with all of this. I figured this was some Scarecrow shit.”

“As I said, the boss is anal as hell. Doesn’t want anybody touching this stuff, not the bat, and not big blue either.”

Damian and Bruce both muttered “shit” under their breath, when a third man entered the conversation.

“You know..I can’t say I’d blame them if they did show up. I mean, have you seen what this shit does to people? If you did, you’d probably want it out of your house, too.”

The conversation trailed off into less important topics, and as it did so, both Bruce and Damian had a grim look on their faces.

Both of them realised that this “boss” must be Lex Luthor, and that somehow this substance that was being brought into Gotham was his doing.

What made Bruce’s teeth grind the most about the situation though was that some stupid lowly henchman had a chunk of kryptonite on him, and that all of their bullets were lace with it, too.

Despite the extreme danger, Bruce had to confiscate that piece of kryptonite and all the ammo from Luthor’s men as soon as possible before somebody more dangerous (such as a rogue) got their hands on it.

God knew that Bruce didn’t need any kryptonite circling the black market in Gotham.

Bruce looked up at the map again, and was about to order Krypto and Titus back home, when he heard a loud commotion over the comms.

As Bruce and Damian had been listening into the conversations the henchmen were having on the docks, Krypto and Titus had gotten closer and closer to the men, changing their positions. Krypto was now on the outside, closer to the edge of the shipping container as Titus took the inner position.

Unbeknownst to either of the dogs, Krypto had moved too close to the edge, and a part of his bright red cape was now sticking out from behind their hiding spot, waving about in the gentle breeze.

One of the men patrolling the docks turned to look their direction, as he’d been doing the past ten minutes, and stopped when he saw the bright red speck in the distance.

“Hey, come look at this! Is that what I think it is?”

His patrol partner jogged over to his position, looking at where he was pointing. “What are you looking at, man?”

“That! Look at that! That’s the edge of a goddamn cape! A red one!”

At the commotion, a different man appeared behind them. “What the hell are you two screaming ‘bout?”

“Look!” The first man pointed.

“Shit ...no way! That can’t be him!”

“I don’t care if it’s him or not! The boss told us not to risk it, so I’m not risking it!”

The first man then started shooting, the bullets whizzing through the air towards the two dogs, and the sounds of gunfire only caused the other armed henchmen to come running, aiding their fellow co-workers. Soon, at least eight men were shooting at Krypto and Titus.

The sounds of gunfire, yelling, and panting came through the comms, and Bruce immediately ran towards the decontamination shower so he could suit up and get out of the cave.

The moment he emerged out of the quarantine cave, Damian stood directly in front of him, a deep scowl on his face. He was already halfway in his Robin suit.

“I’m coming with you.”

“Damian, I said no. It’s too dangerous out there. I won’t let you get infected by that powder.”

“Titus is my dog and I promised I would take responsibility for him! He and Krypto are in trouble, and I’m not letting you go alone!”

Bruce glared at him, and Damian glared back. They were caught in a staring match.

Bruce closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, and then slowly released it. When he opened his eyes, he looked at his son with a look that he hoped was less stern.

“Damian, I need you here in the cave. You’re the only one right now that can keep an eye on the situation from afar, and I’ll need you to keep me updated on anything you here from their collars, or what their positions are.”

“Oracle could do that.”

“Oracle is busy, and so is everyone else. Please, Damian. If you do this for me I’ll...I promise to let you drive the Batmobile on our next patrol.”

Damian’s eyes widened at the promise. He eventually nodded, and relented on his desire to join him on bringing Krypto and Titus back. Father had never let him drive the Batmobile before...and if he was willing to give him that opportunity simply for staying in the cave and doing what he was told...then he would take it.

As the bullets started flying towards the two dog’s positions, Titus began to sprint away as fast as he could, and Krypto quickly followed suit behind him. They weaved to and fro between the different storage containers, doing their best to remain hidden from the men that shot at them.

But while Titus was a lot more cautious about being shot (a caution that had been trained into him), Krypto believed- he knew - that he’d never get hurt by a bullet, and so he didn’t feel the need to put as much effort into avoiding any bullets that came his way as Titus did. Besides, he’d never been trained to avoid bullets, he’d been trained to take them, in order to protect those that couldn’t protect themselves.

Krypto didn’t believe there was anything wrong with that. After all, if the tall people around him praised him for it, and he didn’t get hurt, why would he bother to change his behaviour?

A moment too late, Krypto realised that he was wrong. When one of the bullets hit him, it didn’t bounce off of his body like it was supposed to, like he expected it too. It kept going, embedding itself into his back leg, and getting stuck between flesh and bone.

Immediately, Krypto let out a horrible yelp, and Damian cringed and growled in anger at the sound coming through the comms.

Damian immediately regretted staying at the cave, and cursed his father for convincing him to stay.

Krypto completely stopped in his tracks, too overcome by the pain in his leg to continue running. Titus looked back to see if his white-furred partner was still following, and immediately stopped, running back towards Krypto once he realised that he was hurt..

As he came close, one of the armed men rounded the corner, pointing his gun at Krypto, finger hovering over the trigger. He was about to put Krypto out of his misery.

What he didn’t see, though, was the pitch black dog running towards him from within the shadows. A second later, Titus jumped on the man and grabbed one of the man’s arms and started to thrash about, tearing into the man’s flesh.

“Arrghhh! Get this fucking dog off of me! It’s gonna kill me! ”

Quickly, the other henchmen made it around the corner and start to remove Titus from the man’s arm, kicking and punching him off, and finally pinning him to the ground. A rope was wrapped around his face in the confusion, and he was thoroughly muzzled within just a few seconds.

Titus squirmed and thrashed about, trying to get the men off of him, but it was of little use. Despite Titus’ size and strength, he just couldn’t get them off; there were far too many of them pinning him down. It took a few more minutes before he admitted defeat, too tired to continue. Beside him, Krypto was too consumed with the pain in his leg to even try and lash out, and it was almost easy for the men to muzzle him and keep him down.

The men started to talk amongst themselves, and in the cave, Damian could only listen and hope that his father got to the docks in time to save the two dogs.

All of the men were panting from having to pin down and fight the dogs, but now that they’d finally captured them, there seemed to be an air of confusion around what they should do next.

“What the hell are supposed to do with them now? I mean...they obviously belong to the bat and big blue...” One of the men holding Titus’ arm said.

Another guy rolled his eyes. “We kill them, duh! We can’t give them a second chance to bite us!”

Before any of them could get their guns out to do the job, another man butted into the conversation.

“Wait, hold on! Are we sure that’s a good idea? I mean...if Batman and Superman found out that we killed their dogs...I mean shit man you seen that movie? The John Wick one? I know the bat doesn’t kill nobody, but if we were to kill his dog...I think it might just make him snap. You all saw how he acted when Robin got killed!”

They were all silent for a moment, before another guy responded.

“Shit man, you’re right. But what the hell are we supposed to do with them if we don’t kill them? We can’t just release them, they’ll go straight back to biting our asses!”

“We take them as hostages! I mean, the white dog clearly has superpowers like big blue does, maybe the boss will have a use for him or something?”

The man holding one of Titus’ back legs added, “We also got space on the boat for animals! There’s cages down in the lower deck.”

Eventually, the man who’d suggested killing the two dogs relented. “Ugh...fine! But if we get in trouble with the boss for not killing the stupid dogs, then I’m ratting you all out!”

They quickly started to take off the collars from the dogs, along with Titus’ vest and protective goggles, and Krypto’s cape, tossing them in the water as they carried the two muzzled dogs on-board.

What none of them realised- not even Krypto or Titus- were the two shifting white eyes that peered at them from within the darkness.

End notes: Perhaps I've gone mad with detail in regards to the amount of safety Bruce practices, but you really don't see many fics where the batfam or Bruce in general go through as many safety precautions as you'd expect in real life when it comes to dangerous substances like fear toxin or joker gas. Like. That shit's on your clothes and in your hair and you're tracking it through the damn cave and now it’s in the cave air??!?! Like..you mean to tell me there's not a specific quarantine area of the cave that Bruce can drive into directly from outside that's safe from the rest of the cave in the event he's super duper radioactive for some reason? Puhlease. He's Batman. Of course he has a completely separate quarantine area of the cave that's closed off and lined with extra lead and has a decontamination shower and whatever the hell else to keep himself and everyone else in his family safe ♥