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Duke has had enough.
His mom and dad are locked away in some "rehabilitation facility” which is just the lay man's term for a mad house, his foster brother is a racist asshole who keeps taping a picture of a monkey to his face at night, his foster parents just let it happen, and Batman and Robin are gone.
He could have handled that. All of it was horrible but his mom always said that when the going got tough just keep going. No, the real problem arose when he woke up with yellow eyes.
Duke hadn’t even known what was happening until his foster mom looked up from the stove and screamed. His foster brother called him a freak and Duke finally decided that he was over this whole fucking mess.
He packed his bag and marched out the front door, ignoring the halfhearted calls for him to come back.
Duke didn’t know where he was going just that he had to get away from Gotham. He bought the cheapest plane ticket for the furthest place he could get, which happened to be Los Angeles.
The flight was 6 hours long which gave Duke time to get his glowing eyes under control but now he didn’t know where he was. He’d been wandering around for the last half an hour and he was starving.
His stomach growls for the third time just as he’s walking past this place called Granny's. It looks like it’s in the process of being repaired but Duck can see a display case filled with donuts.
Duke very carefully makes his way over the broken window and into the trashed store. Once he’s inside he grabs the first one he finds, a jelly one as the new stain on his shirt will tell you, and eats. It’s stale and the jelly tastes a little weird but it’s food so he doesn't care.
Duke goes through six more donuts before he hears a throat clearing behind him. He turns around to find an extremely tall red demon lady and a just as tall bat-man. And not the one he’s familiar with.
“H-”
Duke screams and the entire room is plunged into darkness.
“What the-”
Duke takes the opportunity to grab his bag and bolt out the door. He hears the demon lady curse and take off after him.
“Dammit kid slow down, we just want to talk!”
Yeah right.
Duke ducks his way into an alley and is met with the giant bat guy.
“Come on dude we just want to take you to a private and secure location.”
Duke's heart starts beating out of his chest and the light in the area suddenly gets twenty times brighter.
“Agh-”
“Oh for fucks sake Sonar!”
Duke looks around and spots a fire escape. Well, time to put those old parkour lessons to use.
“Mel, he's climbing away!”
“So go get him dumb ass! You can fly!”
“I would if the kid hadn’t turned the brightness on max! I can’t see shit!”
“Fuck okay. I’m gonna portal to the top and meet him there.”
Well at least they’re stupid. Duke thinks. He was going to climb all the way to the top but now he just climbs into the next open window. Thank fully the homeowners seem to be out so Duke crouches down behind the couch and waits.
“Fuck where did he go? Did you see?”
“Again Mel I couldn’t see shit! Munchkin has some crazy power on him.”
“He’s not a munchkin Sonar. The kid is probably 15 years old.”
“That does not make him any less of a munchkin. He’s gotta be in one of the houses right?”
“Yeah but if we go in any of them Blazer is definitely going to throw a fit.”
“So back to SDN then?”
“No choice. Robert is going to be pissed we failed a simple B&E.”
“Well Bob can get off his lazy ass and chase the little shadow bender himself.”
The conversation slowly fades out and Duke feels his adrenaline crash.
“Shit.”
He drops down to the floor fully and leans against the couch.
“5 minutes.” He mutters. “5 minutes and then I’ll leave.”
Duke wakes up four hours later to a very loud shriek. He has just a few seconds to shake himself awake and shoot out of the open apartment door before the homeowner, a guy in his late 40’s who could really use a shower, throws something at him and shouts about the cops.
Duke runs until his legs start burning and he has to lean against a nearby wall to catch his breath. It’s only then that he realizes it’s dark outside. He hadn’t noticed because whatever part of town he ended up in had so many neon flashing lights that you could barely see the sky.
“Crap.” He mutters. He tries to read the street signs only to find that his eyes are tinted yellow. He starts panicking as he slowly slides down the wall, eyes darting side to side trying to find something he recognizes.
“No, no not this again please.”
But whatever's happening to him doesn’t comply with his desperate pleas and he starts seeing visions. A woman paying a hot-dog vendor that isn’t there, a guy reading on a bench that doesn’t exist, kids buying candy from a clearly closed shop. Things that can’t possibly be happening at the moment.
“Hey kid are you alright?”
No, just go away.
“Can you hear us sweetie? Is there someone we can call for you?”
I just want to be left alone!
“Come on buddy you gotta give us something-”
JUST LET ME DISAPPEAR!
“Whoa-”
“Where did he-”
“Some one call the police-”
“No no hold on I have an SDN subscription-”
Duke tunes out all the voices, wraps his arms around his knees, and burying his face in his lap.
He never should have come this far. He’s got no idea where he is, he has no money and worst of all he’s got nobody to help him. At least back home he could have gone to Izzy's or Riko's or hell even his dementia ridden grandma would have been a better option. But he’s all alone out here. With powers he’s got no clue how to control.
“I can’t do this mom. Not without you. Not without Dad.” Duke whispers quietly into his lap.
“Sounds like quitter talk to me.”
Duke’s head shoots up to find an extremely gorgeous dark skinned woman in a black body suit with split dyed pink and blue hair. Her boots and gloves match her hair and she looks down at Duke through a visor. Duke looks around but everyone else on the street is looking at her like she's crazy.
“Who are you?” Duke asks with a thick tone of voice.
The lady looks at him for a moment longer before dropping into a crouch and taking off the visor to reveal kind hazel eyes.
“Names Prism. Got a call from some concerned folks about a disappearing boy.”
Duke scoffs and drops his head again. “ Clearly I didn’t do a very good job if you can still see me.”
“Nah. You actually did okay, I just have powers similar to yours so it wasn’t that hard to shift the light around. Something tells me you didn’t do this on purpose anyway.”
Duke just hunches his shoulders.
He hears a sigh and the click of heels before there’s a body next to his. Duke turns his head to peek and finds the woman, Prism, sitting next to him scrolling through her phone and taking a hit of her vape.
“So what’s got you running around pulling a disappearing act?” she asks through a cloud of smoke. Duke stays quiet.
“Look if you don’t want to tell me that's fine, I get paid to sit here and smoke the longer you decide to hide, but I’m offering an ear before I hand you over to CPS.”
That gets Duke to bring his head up and give her pleading eyes.
“Please don’t. I don’t even think they could do anything for me since I’m not from here but I’m sick of being placed in shitty homes.”
Prism lowers her phone and raises an eyebrow at him.
“No shit? Where you from?”
“Gotham.”
Prism barks out a laugh and pockets her phone before taking another hit of her vape.
“Damn kid. I heard that place is, like, full of crazies. I’m surprised you didn’t run sooner.”
“Hey, Gotham is beautiful. Sure we’ve got the occasional killer clown but it’s a great place to live besides that.”
Okay well not that he’s said it out loud.
Prism laughs again. “Holy shit kid I know you heard how that sounded. But seeing as LA ain't that much better I’ll leave it alone. Seriously though I can’t not hand you over-”
“Please! I just got these powers and I have no idea how to use them and every foster home they've put me in has either been racist or abusive or just flat out unresponsive and I was chased by a demon and a bat guy and I just can’t do it again so please don’t send me back! I’m sorry that I stole the donuts, I’m sorry I broke into that house and I’m just sorry!”
Duke can feel himself shaking, his breathing is coming out heavier, and he recognizes the signs of a panic attack but he can’t stop it. He closes his eyes to try and hold back his tears when he feels Prism place a gloved hand on his back. She starts rubbing circles in his back and somewhere in the back of his mind he thinks they must make a funny image.
“Alright kid calm down. I won’t rat you out but we can’t stay sitting on the street.”
“But my powers they keep- I can’t control them.”
“Well lets start small. Let’s make you visible again yeah? Cuz the folks are looking at me like I’m crazy.”
Prism holds her other hand out and Duke watches in amazement as she gathers light in her palm and makes a rainbow.
“The base of your power isn’t actually all that hard to understand. Focus on the light that surrounds you. Not the artificial ones but the moon light in this case. If you ever think there's no light just reach out for it and it’ll find you. Anyway, gather the light around you and move it back to where it was before.”
“Wha- I can’t do that! I don’t know what light feels like!”
Prism smiles and the rainbow in her hand shifts to be a mini version of her.
“Well what did light feel like before you got powers?”
What did light feel like before he got powers?
“Mom, come on!”
Duke is bouncing on his heels while his mom laughs as she scoops him into a big hug. The hug is warm and inviting and Duke can feel the sunlight on his back.
“Okay okay baby.”
But that’s sunlight so moonlight is-
“Dad, that movie was awesome!”
Duke is holding his dads hand as they cross the street to the pizza palace. The moon is shining high above and it's not cold per say but there's definitely a pleasant chill.
“I’m glad you liked it son.”
“Okay, okay.” Duke whispers to himself as he closes his eyes and reaches for the cool chill of the moon. He finds it wrapped around his body in a twisted way. He concentrates on moving the light back to where it goes. He knows he’s succeeded when the crowd that's been watching Prism talk to herself gasp as Duke becomes visible again. When Duke blinks his open Prism is giving him a reassuring smile.
“Look at you. Got it on the first try.”
Duke launches himself at Prism.
“Oof, what the hell kid?”
“Thank you. Please don’t send me away. You're the only one who can help me.”
Prism sighs and wraps an arm around Duke.
“Ah what the hell, Robert’s gonna be pissed but he can deal.”
She coxes Duke into standing and they start walking down the street through the confused crowd as she brings a hand up to her ear.
“Hey Robert? Yeah yeah you drama queen shut the fuck up for a second. I found the kid and we're on the way back but I’m gonna need the rest of the day off.”
She pauses for a beat then rolls her eyes and pulls Duke closer by his shoulder.
“Because the kid needs some help and last I checked none of you had light powers. Also tell Malevola and Sonar to keep out of the way, they scared the hell out of-”
She pauses again and looks at Duke.
“Whats your name?”
Duke grins at her as it sinks that she's really going to help him.
“Duke Thomas ma’am.”