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dontcallmecarrie · 1 year

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thought exercise that apparently refuses to leave me alone: NHDD characters in a scenario that could only happen in the MCU [so, an AU where the Avengers are a hot mess instead of a team and this is way closer to a Bad Ending Timeline than NHDD]. AU of an AU, basically.

This time, featuring the Soul Stone.

Heads up: what some might consider suicidal thoughts [...because of circumstances in-universe, but people get Very Very Concerned]. Unreliable narrator, as well, between Justin’s inferiority complex and the Soul Stone’s influence.

This was it.

It had to be, because the other Infinity Stones were now beyond their reach and this wasn’t something Cabal was willing to leave up to chance. Justin Hammer’s faith in his rival notwithstanding, hell would freeze over before he trusted anyone with something of this magnitude.

Not when Loki’s latest trip through the branches of Yggdrasil somehow ended up with him staggering home covered in blood and ichor, hands shaking and the light only returning to his eyes hours after Justin’s best efforts.

And then Loki had found his voice and, in between sips of lukewarm tea, haltingly spoke of what he’d seen. Of a Mad Titan’s conquest, and a gauntlet equipped with two of the most powerful weapons in existence.

It had been the work of moments to put SHIELD on high alert. Even less, to kick the hornets’ nest that was the magicians on Earth via Loki ducking into their artifact storage and moving every piece of furniture a few inches to the right. But.

That still didn’t feel like enough.

Not when that still left one Infinity Stone with nothing but a huge question mark hovering over it, and the grim awareness that if nothing was done then the Mad Titan might very well come to possess three of the six Infinity Stones, and if that were to happen?

Nowhere in existence would be safe.

It wasn’t enough.

Advanced warning, all the magicians on Earth working together up to and including the Sorcerer Supreme and it still wasn’t enough.

As it was, they were at a stalemate, and... everyone in Cabal exchanged grim looks as they silently agreed on what they needed to do next. Even if Ivan glowered at the prospect of resorting to magic to counter this latest threat, but by now all signs pointed to the last, still-missing Soul Stone being the best counter to the Power Stone that was the main threat when it came to dealing with the Mad Titan.

Merely locating the Infinity Stone ended up being a challenge.

And then, when they finally succeeded?

“You should know...the Stone extracts a terrible price. A sacrifice.”

And with that, the air around Justin Hammer started to glow.

“Well, that’s that, then,” the Winter Soldier said with a heavy sigh. “And here I thought this couldn’t get any worse than the end of the world.”

At his side, Loki scoffed, and they both glanced back to where Victor von Doom continued to read Justin the riot act. It was the most furious any of them had ever seen him— and the most scared.

His voice had cracked at least twice, and the grip he had on Justin’s shoulders would undoubtedly bruise later, but no one blamed him. Not when even now, Justin was eyeing the ledge with far too much consideration for comfort, and that?

No one could tell how much of it was the stress of the situation, and how much was...

They’d all known Justin had Issues™— it was practically a requirement for entry into their fucked up little friend group, the one he’d created— but nothing like this. Sure, Winter sometimes made cracks about his self-preservation instincts, but. It was supposed to be just Ivan Vanko and Loki who’d had to contend with those particular demons, not—

But that didn’t change the fact that Justin Hammer had been the only one not to react to the Soul Stone’s immortal envoy.

Or, rather, the only one who hadn’t immediately scowled and said some variation of “fuck no, and fuck you too”; the only one who’d just. Stayed silent, and tilted his head, frowned in consideration, and okay, maybe it’d been an overreaction when Winter had yanked him away from the alcove with the creepy hooded figure, but nobody else was complaining.

The crack of a gun stole all their attention for a moment, only to see Ivan storm away from the creepy hooded figure who’d started this mess to begin with.

“I thought you were trying to get more intel, what happened?” Winter asked, and Ivan put it away with a scowl.

“I’m Russian,” Ivan deadpanned. Then, at Winter’s raised eyebrow, he continued. “And he’s one of the most famous Nazis in history.”

Winter’s eyes widened for a moment. "You’ve gotta be kidding— just when I think things can’t get any worse. Fuck, really?”

Ivan glared back towards where the figure was slowly picking himself up again, the dark stain on the his cloak receding. “I hate everything about this. And he just kept repeating that bullshit about a life for a life. And if it wasn’t that, he kept going on that the Stone wants Justin, something about how his wisdom mirrors its own? And I’m pretty sure Victor’s two minutes from going nuclear, and—”

He cut himself off because for a moment, ran a hand through his hair, and started swearing under his breath because he could deal with the potential end of the world bearing down on them, just.

Not this.

Justin hadn’t said a word since the Soul Stone’s envoy had mentioned the offer.

They knew it was freaking out everyone else who’d come with them, but...

They’d be a fool if they didn’t at least consider it. Even if just the thought seemed to have fired up everyone else even more than the Mad Titan’s rampage had, but someone had to, since the others insisted on acting like it was some unthinkable and impossible thing.

But death came for them all, and faced between an inevitability and an undeniable advantage...

What did the Soul Stone see in them?

Justin Hammer was no one important, not... as horrible as it sounded, it would’ve made more sense if the Soul Stone had been interested in literally anyone else in Cabal. Sure, it would’ve been a whole other brand of nightmare scenario, but at least then Justin could follow the train of thought that led to that conclusion. They could easily understand it if the Soul Stone had been intrigued by Winter’s strength, or Victor’s power; could easily see how anyone could have been caught up by Ivan’s genius, or Loki’s particular brand of chaos. But Justin?

The closest thing he had to a superpower was his bank account.

In the great scheme of things, it was nothing. They were nothing, considering they regularly interacted with superheroes and gods, were surrounded by the best of what humanity had to offer, and encompassed so much of the worst.

So why was the Soul Stone so interested in them?

And— okay, yeah, they were still avoiding the question. To be fair, though, it was not easy to keep one’s cool when faced with the prospect of either death by apocalypse, or death to obtain artifact of immense power. But at least it’d be worth it, one life weighed against the universe was nothing. It’s not that they were suicidal by any measure, exactly, but Justin had enough self-awareness to be able to take a step back and do the math.

Yet the mere suggestion of it had even Victor— calm and collected Victor, who took pride in his nonchalance and didn’t bat an eye even in the middle of assassination attempts on his life— up in arms at the idea of losing the weakest member of Cabal, and never before had Justin resented their over-protectiveness quite like now.

Really, wasn’t it a bit much?

These were normally the people he could trust to be most capable of looking at things objectively like him, able to separate emotions from the equation when weighing the cost between means and ends and collateral damage.

Sure, it was always different when hypotheticals stopped being hypothetical, but this reaction felt off, somehow; had the the rest of Cabal acting in a way that went far beyond worry for losing a useful ally. Had them more caught up on whatever it was than on thinking of alternatives, and for quite possibly the first time they could remember, they were at a loss as to how to approach this new variable.

No matter, Justin could still work with this. Somehow.

...once they got out of a certain someone’s crushing embrace, anyway.

“Let’s talk.”

“Your life is not up for negotiation.” Victor immediately said, eyes flashing and the ensuing conversation only went downhill from there.

“Well, that went well.” Justin leaned back into the outcropping with a quiet groan.

The others had unanimously chosen to put him on the closest thing they had to suicide watch, and he had no idea where to start with how to feel about it and now they weren’t even listening to him.

Just. Kept dismissing everything he said out of hand, and it would’ve been bad if it had been anyone else but this was Cabal, the people who, up until today, had always been the ones he could trust to at least take his words into consideration. Could trust in general, because they’d all seen him at his best and worst, and had never so much as flinched.

But now Victor could barely look at him without his hands shaking, and Ivan and Loki had taken to sharing increasingly unreadable looks and Winter had spent the past hour alternating between questioning and pummeling the Red Skull, who apparently had been the person selected by the Soul Stone to be its guardian.

Presumably as punishment, but Justin had yet to understand anything about it, so.

Now they were here, heavily monitored while everyone else made plans to leave and blatantly ignoring the fact that the Mad Titan was very much a pressing threat and they were just going to be leaving behind one of the cornerstones of the universe because nobody bothered to listen to them.

Justin had thought he’d gotten over that hangup from his childhood.

He was not happy to discover otherwise, especially at the end of an exhausting day, on the heels of the stress that came with the impending apocalypse and everything else.

‘It is a heavy burden, is it not?’

...and now came auditory hallucinations on top of everything else. Great.

This was nothing less than a nightmare.

Somehow, despite literally everyone being half a second from losing their shit and keeping an eagle eye on Justin goddamn Hammer, he still managed to give them all a heart attack.

Winter hadn’t questioned it when the man of the hour had decided to take a nap, but everyone heard his freakout when Justin didn’t wake up. A frantic check showed no signs of self-harm, but his eyes shone a brilliant gold when they checked his pupils as a last-ditch measure and now the situation was officially out of their control because nobody knew what would happen next.

All they could do now was wait, and hope, and Winter hated every second of it.

“Why me?” Justin asked, and he could almost feel the Soul Stone’s amusement.

‘You understand what I am, in a way few could ever dream.’

Justin called bullshit.

‘I offer respite, weary one. You carry the weight of two lives, the loss of one would be a kindness.’

Wait a minute. How had it— oh, of course, Soul Stone, no wonder it was able to see the echoes of a past they’d long since left behind to gather dust. Their deepest and darkest secret, laid bare to the one entity uniquely suited to see it. Well, now they felt foolish.

“And here I thought you called for my death.”

‘It could be, if you so chose.’

Translation: it would be, for literally anyone else. For anyone who didn’t have faded echoes of a life they’d never been able to remember, no matter how hard they’d tried. Justin Hammer had tried to put it out of mind for their own sanity after grad school, but... now that though thought about it, the more they remembered even as their headache grew worse.

A time before Justin Hammer, another life.

One with a family that actually cared, and they’d always been an older sibling but the first time it hadn’t been entirely on them because the child they’d once been had aunts and grandparents, and the nice librarian who hadn’t laughed when the stack of books they’d checked out was almost taller than they could look over, and the neighbor’s dog had always wagged his tail even faster when they were around because they knew where to scratch behind his ears, and their high school had asbestos but also the English teacher who thought their shitty poetry was worth something—

Another life, one where life hadn’t quite gotten around to stamping out their faith in humanity. Or, rather, hadn’t had the chance, even though the hospital visits and bills and part-time jobs had all been steadily chipping away at it, the despair of knowing their paycheck was barely enough for groceries but it’s all they had, since their parents’ went straight towards meds—

Another life. One that was just as much a part of them, as the decades they’d lived as Justin Hammer, and apparently both were equally appealing for the Soul Stone.

They couldn’t help but break down, at that.

In laughter, and tears, and all the layers of fear and grief and tired but still-burning desperate hope because it couldn’t be that simple, could it?

‘Peace, weary one. You have my favor.’

It could.

He’d been scared to hope, but...

“Okay then. Let’s do this.”

Ivan was the closest thing they had to a doctor, so he was the one who startled back with a yelp when his not-patient opened his eyes with a gasp.

“Did it work?”

Ivan was half a second from swearing a blue streak, but his attention was caught by the dazed look on his friend’s face.

“You— what did you do?!”

Because before he could even start on his well-deserved rant about stupidly self-sacrificial idiots, Justin unclenched his fists and in his right palm was the unmistakable golden glow of what could only be the Soul Stone.

Justin looked at him and made to respond, only to pause.

“I... you know what? I don’t actually remember.” He looked around with a vaguely confused frown. “Where are we, anyway?”

aka this is the AU where Justin gets an Infinity Stone, gives Cabal several heart attacks, and ends up losing the echoes of his past life [...and a good chunk of his childhood memories, because of how much the echoes were part of it].

All in all, Vormir’s technically a net gain in that taking down Thanos is fairly straightforward afterwards, but nobody in Cabal’s ever going to so much as speak of it. It doesn’t help that no one quite gets what exactly went down, since Justin’s still alive but his memories are a mess for a while afterwards, and now there’s an Infinity Stone that randomly pops up around him. Just. Spontaneously shows up in desk drawers, behind the mug he was about to drink, by his keys and he rolls with it but it really freaks most of Cabal out for obvious reasons.

I don’t picture it really affecting Justin, though. Mostly because the other Infinity Stones are being basically deus ex machina plot devices, but the Soul Stone’s presented as this very very Mysterious Mystical Artifact in what I remember of the MCU, instead of the plot device that can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.

Since my brain refuses to let go of this idea, I figure the main offensive potential the Soul Stone has is basically curses like “may you feel all/a fraction/a sliver of the harm you have or ever will inflict on others” and “may you never know a day of peace”, which sounds probably underwhelming but ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I’ve got nothing else. Plus I figured it’d be fitting, because stuff like that would be a non-issue for most people, but devastating for a bloodthirsty conqueror-type character like Ronan the Accuser or whatever.

hey if the Mind Stone’s whole schtick is mind control, this sounds vaguely plausible, right?

Also, while I’ve finally excised this what-if from my brain and don’t intend to poke at it anymore for now, anyway, feel free to imagine the potential for chaos that is Justin ‘sky-high charisma stat’ Hammer, with an Infinity Stone.

#No Hero [Downward Descending]#No Hero [And Not Made Of Stone]#schrodinger's canon #3 am musings #well...kinda #Naught rambles

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hailsatanacab · 5 months

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Family Dinners - dpxdc

"Holy shit, you're Bruce Wayne!" Danny gaped, jabbing a finger at the man sitting at the head of the table.

The bustling dining room goes silent as everyone turns to look at him.

"Danny, who did you think was going to be here?" Tim asks, disbelief plain in his voice and Danny feels his face flush red.

"Sorry, I, uh, I guess I just never put it together. Tim Drake-Wayne. Wayne Manor. It, uh, makes sense now." He laughs sheepishly and scrubs at his neck before slumping back down into his chair.

"Well," Tim says with an indulgent sigh, "at least I know you're not just friends with me for my connections."

"Yeah, I'm really sorry, I just never thought about it, I guess."

Danny sinks lower as everyone around him laughs. Come to dinner, he said, the food is the best, he said, ignore the family, he said. Danny really wishes he'd listened to Tim and just ignored them—almost as much as he's regretting accepting the offer in the first place—but... he's having dinner with Batman.

Ancients, that's so weird!

The last time he saw Batman was in the future and, suffice it to say, it was not going well. There hadn't really been time for family dinners there.

Wait. Family dinners?

He peers around the table, openly gawking at everyone as it all clicks into place.

"Everything alright, Danny? Now realising who everyone else is?" Tim asks with a roll of his eyes.

"Uh... something like that..." Danny mumbles as everyone laughs again.

From further down the table, the smallest Wayne scoffs and clicks his tongue.

"I thought you said he was smart, Drake?"

"So, you all do it, too, then?" he asks, ignoring the jibe. Danny's only a little bit jealous as he thinks of how much easier they must have it, how much easier it'd be if his family had been on his side, too. "You all work together?"

"Nah," Dick says from across the table with a brilliant grin. "Tim's the only one that works with Bruce, we all have different jobs. I'm a police officer in Bludhaven."

"Disgusting." Danny blurts out without thinking—because seriously, what kind of self-respecting vigilante would also be a police officer?—before clapping a hand over his mouth. "Sorry."

The whole table laughs again, the loudest being the blonde girl a few spaces down from Dick. Look, Danny wasn't really paying attention to names when they were all paraded in front of him. Dick only gets remembered because his name is a joke.

Come on, Danny, recover!

"That's, uh, not what I meant, though."

"Oh?" Dick asks, cocking his head slightly to the side. Is it Danny's imagination or does his smile tense slightly?

"Yeah, I mean like, you know, in costume. It must make it so much easier to have everyone together like this."

"Costume? What do you mean?"

Yeah, Danny's not imagining it, everyone tenses up at that. It's really only now that he's realising that this probably isn't how he should bring up that he knows about their... night time activities. In fact, he probably shouldn't be bringing it up at all.

"Uuhhh..." Danny looks wildly around the table as he continues making his stupid noise. Think, think, think! There must be a way out of this!

"Danny?" Tim asks, looking concerned.

"Oh, Ancients, this isn't how I wanted it to go at all," he mutters, slipping even further into his chair. He's almost on the floor now and he so, so wishes it could just swallow him up.

His real first meeting with Batman was meant to be cool! He had planned to be Phantom, maybe save them from a tight spot, prove his worth as a mysterious and powerful ally as thanks for the help Batman gave him in the future.

"Danny, what are you talking about?" Tim starts tugging on his sleeve in an attempt to pull him back up from his pit of despair.

Eventually, Danny relents and sits up straighter, hiding his face in his hands and whining all the while.

"I'm sorry, I just didn't expect him to be here and it threw me off so now I look stupid and it's so embarrassing!" he wails, flailing his arms wide. "Why wouldn't you warn me that Batman was your adopted dad, Tim? Couldn't you have let me know?"

"I'm sorry, what? Danny are you alright? There's no way Bruce can be Batman, look at him!"

"Yeah," the blonde girl laughs from the bottom of the table, "look at him! That's a wet noodle of a man! Batman can actually do things, B is incapable of pretty much everything."

"Thank you, Stephanie," Bruce sighs, massaging his forehead.

It's... Those are the first words Danny's heard Batman say since everything went down and it's enough to knock him out of his embarrassment.

It's really good to hear his voice again. Especially now, when it's strong and healthy and full of personality—even if that personality is little more than a tired father right now—far better than how it had been, at the end.

Danny sits up, back straight, and grins. He's got this. He remembers it perfectly. Some people count sheep to fall asleep, Danny repeats his mantra to be certain that he'll never forget it.

"Gamma alpha upsilon tau iota mu epsilon, 42, 63, 28, 1 colon 65 dash 9."

Once again, the whole table falls into silence.

"Holy shit..." breathes the other D name (Duke? Danny's pretty sure he's Signal) from opposite Stephanie. "Isn't that...?"

"The time travelling code." The littlest Wayne says stiffly. "We have met in the future?"

"That's not just the time travelling code, Dami." Dick says, looking between Danny and Bruce. "That's the family time travelling code."

Danny's grin freezes in place.

"I'm sorry, what?"

"1 colon 65 dash 9." Dick explains, still flicking between him and Bruce. "It means you've been adopted into the family and we should all treat you as such, no questions asked."

"Tell you what, I'm about to ask a question." Danny says, dumbstruck. "You just told me it was a code to identify time travellers, not anything about being adopted! What the hell, B?"

Bruce looks about as shellshocked as Danny feels.

"We must have been close," he says finally, after opening and closing his mouth like a fish out of water a few times.

"No! Not that close!" Danny reels back, taking a deep breath ready to refute it all, but... "Well, I mean, you found me when I first got stuck, and you helped me get better despite being... And then we fought together against the, uh, bad guy, before he, um, he... before you couldn't."

An uncomfortable beat passes while they all pick up on what Danny tried so hard not to say.

"So, you're not from the future, then, you travelled there and came back?" Tim asks, breaking the tension and leaning forward with a glint in his eye.

"Yeah, it was a whole end of the world thing, but don't worry about it," Danny says with a hand wave, "It's all kosher now, won't ever happen."

"What did happen?"

"Seriously, don't worry about it, we cool."

"How long in the future was it?"

"About ten years? You were pretty spry for an old man, B," Danny laughs, wishing they'd get off the topic of what happened and get back to the adoption bit.

Everyone shares degrees of a cautious smile as they relax out of the shock, and Dick—whose grin is the biggest—says, "No wonder you got the family code, you're already riffing on him like one of us. How long were you there for?"

"A week, before I managed to get back to my present and stop him then."

"A week? Jeez, B, that has to set some kind of record, seriously."

"Oh!" Danny says, sitting bolt upright and blinking in surprise before pointing at Dick and bouncing in his seat. "You're Nightwing!"

"What?"

"That's exactly what Nightwing said when Batman told me the code! Makes so much more sense now."

Dick laughs and claps his hands, delighted.

"You were not formally adopted?" The grumpy small one—Dami?—asks, his face pinched.

"I didn't even know I was informally adopted."

"And your parents? Are they alive or dead?"

"Damian, stop—"

"They were dead in the future, but they're alive now." Danny says, looking down. He fiddles with the tablecloth, twisting the fabric around his fingers as he fights down the pang of sadness that he always feels when he thinks of them now. He forces a bright smile on his face and hopes it doesn’t look too strained. "I just, uh, can't talk to them much, anymore."

"Damian," Dick warns, "1 colon 65 dash 9. Treat them as family, no questions asked."

"This is Damian treating him as family, the little turd has no manners." Tim scoffs, rolling his eyes, but he gently bumps shoulders with Danny to knock him out of his funk. Danny can't help but send him a watery smile.

"I have the most exemplary manners, Drake, unlike some people." Damian spits, crossing his arms with a pout. "I was merely ascertaining his status to see how he could possibly fit into the family."

"I know this is all a bit sudden, Danny," Bruce smiles, ignoring Damian and reaching out to lay a warm hand on his arm, "for all of us. But if I felt strongly enough to give you that code after spending a week with you in the future, then you are more than welcome in this family, if you so choose it. I think I can speak for all of us when I say we'd like to get to know you a bit more."

"I know a threat when I hear it, Bruce." Danny snorts. "But, yeah, I get it. I'm sorry this is all so weird, it really wasn't how I wanted to find you again, but... I'm glad I did."

"So are we, Danny." Dick says, with a warm smile. "And formally or not, 1 colon 65 dash 9 means you're family. Welcome to the fun house! No take backs or refunds, sorry. You're stuck with us."

#dpxdc #dcxdp #dc x dp #dp x dc crossover #batpham #hailsatanacrab🦀🦀writes #look. this has been in my mind for so long guys so long - and idk if its canon that the batfam have codes for time travel situations or what #but i feel like ive seen it before and if its not canon it should be #so here - how i think that would be funny to go down #i have so many thoughts about TUE and its place in a dpxdc crossover like holy shit there's so many ways it can go!!#i have another wip in the works thats kinda similar to this but with superman and i cannot wait to work on it again #there are so many ways i wanted this to go but i just couldnt get there - i wanted to keep it on the shorter side but like #perhaps ill have to expand #i just love the idea that like. theres a stranger at your table who knows you and knows you well. who knows the secret that youd die to keep #there's a stranger at your table and he says something and you know he's family. you know you're strangers but now...#now you have to be something more #oh man theres so many juicy ways it can go and I KNOW I DID NONE OF THEM #i want to write this whole plot again and make it angstier #(me with everything)#anyway! sorry love you all hope you enjoy it!!

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