Chapter Text
After 8 hours Hal finally got off his monitor shift and immediately he knew where his first stop would be.
At a speed rivalling Barry’s he flew to the cafeteria. Only one other person was there.
“Hey Ollie, whatcha doin’?” Hal peeked over his friend’s shoulder to look at his phone.
“Ugh, kids made me download TikTok for PR and I’m trying to find an editor”
“Again in old broke man please?”
“Social media.”
“Oh! Okay, why do you need another account though?”
“It’s the biggest thing right now, plus videos will be more trustworthy to show who we are as people.”
“As people who are faking your identities?”
“Yeah that. I think the kids mostly just wanna embarrass me with dance trends though.” Oliver sighed.
“Now that I have to see. What’s it called again?” Hal grabbed out his phone with a grin.
—-
It’s been three weeks since Hal downloaded TikTok and he thinks he might have a problem.
THE THING IS ADDICTING!
He just can’t put the phone down.
Every one of his interests at his fingertips, all the news articles, shows, public opinions.
It was terrible.
But he couldn’t stop scrolling.
During his break from monitor duty he was scrolling again.
Looking at a few JLA videos to see what the public thought.
Then he saw it.
A video of some kids, just doing some dance, nothing special.
Only they were in costume.
Each one of them wore high tech kevlar suits with high grade armour.
And worse.
They each had bats branded onto their chests.
Hal nearly spat out his food.
He went to the account to learn more. Maybe they’re just cosplayers or whatever? There were dozens of videos all of kids in costumes doing some sort of trend.
But a few of the videos.
The kids were fighting! Not like, wrestling each other or fighting some other teens either, they were fighting high level rogues.
Penguin, Mr. Freeze, Black Mask. All villains Batman warned them about.
Hal ran to find Ollie.
“OLIVER!” Hal slammed the door to his room open.
“Jesus Christ man! What?!” Oliver started awake.
“You have to see this” Hal sat down on the bed and played one of the videos.
“What am I looking at?”
“Bats! These kids, there are like a dozen of ‘em. They’re going around at night in costumes, fighting high level villains!”
“What’s this got to do with bats?”
“Are you blind???”
“I’m probably pushing sixty man, yea.”
“Loo-Sixty?!” Hal diverted from his rant.
“I dunno.” Ollie sighed. “Lost count after the third kid”
“Okay well I need you to look at this!”
Oliver reached over to the side table and grabbed a pair of reading glasses before grabbing the phone and squinting.
If Hal snapped a pic with his work phone, that was nobody’s business.
“Woah. These kids are going around in the Bat’s logo, in Gotham, beating his rogues, and they’re still alive?!” Ollie looked at Hal bewildered.
“Yea. So what do we do? We can’t tell Spooky, he’ll kill ‘em!”
“… we need another opinion” Ollie decided.
—-
“BARRY!” Hal and Ollie slammed their friend's door open (after making sure Iris was in the kitchen and thus not being disturbed.
“JESUS! Why are you in my house???” Barry rubbed his eyes awake. “… And did you steal Santa’s glasses?”
Hal barely suppressed a snort and noted down to show Barry the photo later.
“That’s besides the point. We have a big problem.” Oliver changes the subject.
“What’s wrong?” Barry got serious.
“You ever heard of TikTok?”
—-
“Shit!”
“Yea.” Ollie and Hal nodded sagely.
“So what do we do?!”
“That’s what we have you for.”
“Fuck if i know! Why would you bring me into this man, I HAVE KIDS! Spooky is so gonna kill us.”
“Woah, i thought we were friends man” Hal wiped away a faux tear.
“Not when it comes to the Bat!”
“We-“
“Uncle Barry?” A red headed kid appeared in the doorway.
“Hey kid”
“Hi Wally”
Oliver and Hal waved to the boy.
“Why are you guys here???”
—-
“Ah shit” the kid scratched his head.
“Language.” Barry scolded
“Ah shiv” he pulled out his phone and started typing.
“Not sure that’s any better kid.” Ollie sighed in a relating father kinda way.
“Any ideas” Hal
“Ummm, why don’t we ask Diana! And Dinah.” Wally grinned.
~~~
Wally: Hal found Steph’s account
Wally: he already got Ollie and Uncle Barry
Dick: 👍
Dick:🫸🦸🦸♀️🦸♂️👉🌃
Dick:🍼🐥🐥 😠🦸🦸♀️🦸♂️😱
Wally: …okay?
Dick:👍
Dick:🐦♥️⚡️
Wally: love you too Babe
~~~
Two more briefings, which led to three, and four, and five, and so on.
Soon they had the whole Justice League assembled.
“So no one has any ideas?!” Hal put his head in his hands.
“We can’t go into Gotham according to the Bats rules and we have no other way of contacting them. I don't think there’s anything we can do” Supes said.
“Well we have to do something!”
“If we don’t then Batman is gonna find it and shut things down. We can’t risk these kids going rogue because of him.” Oliver added.
“Have you guys tried DMing them?” Dinah asked as she scrolled through their account.
“What nowing who?” Hal said, dumbfounded.
“Are you serious?” Oof that disappointed mom look hits every time.
“Yes?”
She sighed and put down the tablet. “Direct messaging. It’s how you contact people privately on social media. Now did any of you think to try it?”
Everyone shook their heads (to which they all received the disappointed mom ™) except Wally who raised his hand.
“Wally?” She raised an eyebrow.
“I figured none of those three did it, no response. They have a couple million followers so it’s no shock.”
“Well thank you for trying” she ruffled Wally’s hair (Hal could swear the kid was smirking at him)
She went back to scrolling as the room watched.
A boy in blue and one in red seeing how many flips they can do in a row.
A compilation of a boy in red and black with a wing like cape sleeping in increasingly odd places.
A blonde girl dressed in purple dancing with poison Ivy.
A little hooded boy carrying a box of kittens.
A compilation of several kids beating Black mask titled ‘stress relief’.
A video of two girls -the purple one and the mini batman- slow dancing, surrounded by dozens of unconscious Joker goons.
A video of the purple girl kicking the Joker square in the… berries before the camera turns to the red man wiping a faux tear of pride(?) off his cheek.
A video clearly taken from a street camera of a girl in a wheelchair taking out five masked men that tried to jump her, she high fived the red clad man who appeared and tied them up before leaving.
Just a photo of three girls (one purple, one black and one blue) covered in yellow looking dejected in the background of a yellow garbed boy’s selfie.
A video of a redhead kissing the side of the red boy’s helmet before running off.
A video-
There was no next video though.
Dinah froze and let the same one replay.
“No!” Oliver jumped up.
“What’s wrong?”
“That’s Roy! Roy is kissing a Gothamite!” Oliver tugged at his hair.
“And he knew about these children being vigilante’s and didn’t tell us.” Dinah added.
“… Yea. That too.”
“If your boy knows anything you should call him.” Arthur said from the corner.
“He won't say anything if he hasn’t already” Ollie still looked like his soul had left his body.
“We should ask around the younger heroes and see if any of them know anything too.” Dinah instructed.
The whole room turned to look at one person.
Wally.
The boy squirmed under their gazes.
“Wally…” Barry started carefully. “Do you know anything that can help us…?”
“…I can get you into Gotham.” Wally smiled awkwardly.
“WHY DIDN'T YOU SAY SO SOONER?!” Hal broke down.
“You didn’t ask!”