Bounce

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

_{"On His Demon Head's Secret Service" // Part 11 // [ Dami's iPod ] // @GreenGrenade}

N E W   Y O R K

“Hey, who’re you calling an id– ”

Dashing low, the small boy had shot beneath the man's notice, his presence revealed in the heel that dug into the man's solar plexus. "We're having a conversation here," the child uttered, hands still tucked into the pockets of his hoodie as took the wind out of the man's lungs.

There, he'd hit him.

Straightening back up, the boy looked over at the Spider-Boy. "Hey, what's this about a price on your head?" the youth inquired curiously.

"Like, how much we talking? I've been wanting to buy a PlayStation 4..."

Was he joking? Most likely. Even so, PlayStations didn't buy themselves. And he'd blown his allowance on a new laptop. And he wasn't getting squat for the job in Gotham City. Ghuls didn't serve the League for rewards, Damian.

Bitch, whatever. Ra's al Ghul was mad rich. If the League wasn't rewarding him, then the man must have had one hell of a sugar momma.

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

@GreenGrenade

Now I don't feel bad.

I was going to suggest Control Freak from the Teen Titans animated series, but then went "nah, too comical."

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

@GreenGrenade

Figured I'd give us an opening for something to interject itself (random villain, news crew, etc). Otherwise, I figured we might be headed toward a Damian vs Miles fight.

_{Save that for the Plants vs Zombies tournament.}

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

_{"On His Demon Head's Secret Service" // Part 10 // [ Dami's iPod ] // @GreenGrenade}

N E W   Y O R K

Want some answers?

"-tt-" the boy uttered, a half sigh and a click of his tongue as his emerald eyes flashed up at the gangly teen. "Want some answers?" the child echoed, tossing the words back at the Spider-Boy. The sense of entitlement was grating.

"You're a guy in a mask who's already admitted to lying to a child." Did the words 'stranger danger' come to mind? "You want to know what my teachers taught me, how does 'don't talk to strangers' soun..."

The boy paused, his head cocked to one side. In a flash, he pulled the ear buds from out of his ears. The faint sound of the music from his iPod trickled out as the headphones dangled down the front of his hoodie. ♪...got me lifted feelin' so gifted... sugar how you get so fly...♪

It wasn't what he heard so much as what he didn't. As the boy's eyes scanned the park interior, it occurred to him that there was a peculiar absence of by-standers. They were out in the open in broad daylight. If Damian was looking to put a hit on the Spider-Man, he couldn't have asked for a better set up.

The same was true for someone targeting him.

"Shouldn't this park be more heavily populated at this hour?" the boy asked, without glancing back up at the Spider-Boy.

He had a bad feeling about this...

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

_{"On His Demon Head's Secret Service" // Part 09 // [ Dami's iPod ] // @GreenGrenade}

N E W   Y O R K

“Yes, it’s Spider-Man. It’s not my fault that I have dwarfism, and..."

The boy's head jerked back, the skepticism transformed quickly into pure disbelief. What was it with Americans and pretending to be offended?

"Seriously, who’d you learn from, Chuck Norris?”

"Jean-Claude van fuck off," the child tossed back in answer, without so much at batting an eye. He'd just looked Damian in the eye and lied to him. Or, at least, Damian thought that he'd looked him in the eye and lied to him. With the mask, it made the whole eye contact thing hard to discern.

Either way, the gloves were off.

"Seriously, you're lying from behind a mask... and my attitude is the problem?" the child snapped, his posture tense as he seemed wavering between the choice to just end the conversation and walk away... or punch Spider-Boy in the face.

Currently, the jury was out on just which of those he was more inclined toward.

All this, because he'd stopped a lady from getting mugged? "Three syllable words though. Impressive, for an American." the boy offered mockingly. The anger from earlier in the day was starting to come back, giving some heat to his blood as the boy's mind began entertaining the thought of testing for himself just what this Spider-Boy was capable of.

Of which, convincing bullshit was not one of his super powers. "First of all, you're too tall for dwarfism. Second of all, your proportions are normal," Damian noted caustically, firing off the two observations one after the other."Pro Tip: Next time, just say you're eighteen with a glandular problem. That might be believable."

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

Meta-Humans are people who gain abilities through external incidents where as Mutants are born with a genetic mutation.

@Lord Wraith

Showing my age again, but in the 1984 Power Pack series that distinction is a recurring plot point. The kids, because they're kids with powers, are assumed to be mutants by the populace and hated appropriately for it (vice the love and feels the Avengers gets... no double standard at all there). They even have a recurring villain, the Boogeyman, whose sole agenda is based on the perception that the kids are mutants when they're not (they got their powers from an alien sorcerer).

On the flip side, the kids are friends and allies of the X-Men but are always at arm's length because they're not mutants (so they can't, for example, visit X-Factor's ship that only mutants may enter).

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

Legacies:

DCU: Damian
DCAU: Garfield Logan (Teen Titans, Young Justice)
Marvel: Katie Power

Edit: I should add that at a certain point in the 90's I started growing apathetic to Tim Drake. Growing up in the 80's, I recall Jason as Robin and Death in the Family, but was still collecting a variety of titles including the Robin solo series and particularly enjoyed the introduction of Spoiler. But the Tim/Steph story just seemed to drudge down into Days of Our Lives kind of shit and Tim just became utterly uninteresting to me.

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

I have a terrible habit of letting in everyone lol.

@Lord Wraith

Don't ever change, baby.

I figure this is the only way I got Damian in past the Batman writer!

The New Frontier: A Marvel/DC One Universe RP

_{"On His Demon Head's Secret Service" // Part 08 // [ Dami's iPod ] // @GreenGrenade}

N E W   Y O R K

Faster than expected.

Also, much lighter on his feet. The boy hadn't even realized that Spider-Boy was overtaking him until right before the web-slinger was beside him. The League had files on individuals expressing physical abilities beyond the normal range of humanity. The Big Blue Boy Scout of Metropolis was one such examples. Damian wondered what, if anything, they said about Spider-Man.

Which, on the name dropping, merited a skeptical and juvenile look that ought to have made clear that the wall-crawler was dealing with a bonafide child. "As Spider... Man... I-I-I need to know..." the boy echoed back. He had a knack for voices. The tone and inflection a near enough match for Miles' own voice that it could have fooled some voice security software. Which may well have been why he'd been trained by a voice coach. Dropping back to his usual voice, the child said, "Spider-Man, really? Really?"

It's not that Damian was hating. He was visiting New York, had just busted up a mugging, and was now having a conversation with Spider-Man in the park. This trip had already turned out to be more eventful than almost any of his others. He usually flew in and was just babysat or tutored while his mother took care of business. Then, in the last year or so, it had been Damian who was expected to contribute to the family business by undertaking missions.

Still, the fact remained that the size of the costumed individual in front of him was not the body mass of most adults. Particularly among males. He was four, maybe five years older than Damian was. "Can you really take yourself all that seriously if you can't smoke, vote, or drink legally?" the boy asked, ignoring the hero's question. "Can you even get into R rated movies?"

Now, there was a subject on which Damian could rightfully hate. So, his mother was okay with him decapitating some random dude. But for him to see an R rated movie was not okay? What, was she worried it was going to warp his conservative moral ideology?

Whatever. "Anyway, it's called MMA," Damian supplied, answering the question as he stuffed his hands down into the pockets of the hoodie he wore. "There's probably a half-dozen places around the block that teach it. It's not rocket science."

Enigma Final Fantasy [High-Casual]

Expressing interest.