Chapter Text
..
..
Dick, Tim, Jason, Steph, Duke, Cass and Damian had decided to hang out at the library and bug Barbara at work as she did her "day job", which wasn't an unusual occurrence...
But the skies outside were growing darker as night drew nearer and soon Barbara was going to have to close the library for the evening.
The bell above the door jingled as it opened then closed. It wasn't too odd that someone had come in so close to closing time, in fact it happened quite frequently..
Hardly anything about this particular evening was unusual..
Hardly anything.. except..
There was suddenly a group of around ten teens at Barbara's counter, some of them were older teens, some were younger teens, some of them were girls and some of them were boys. Not too out of the ordinary considering her extended family were all mostly mixed ages of teenagers and were also hanging out in the library...
Barbara smiled and asked how she could help them ..
And then one of the older teens was suddenly pointing a gun in her face demanding all of "her" money or rather all the money "in this place" ..
Honestly she was barely able to refrain from rolling her eyes ..
"Look lady, just give us all the money and no one here gets hurt." one of the girls in the group said from the boy holding the gun's side ..
"Are you guys supposed to be some kind of gang?.." The voice of a young boy asked from behind one of the bookshelves..
Barbara watched as one of her newest regular bookworms, a young boy named Peter who was around maybe eight-years-old came out from behind a bookshelf leafing through a book as he walked, he didn't even look up at the gang of teens in front of Barbara as he continued strolling forward without even loosing his place in the book ..
One of the kids in the gang yelled out a "Yeah! We're The Slashers and this hood is gonna be our turf now ..."
"Uh huh .." Peter replied "Yeah sure .. And your first act as a gang to stake your claim on this part of Gotham is to try to rob a public library.."
"Exactly!..." One of the gang members crowed out proudly..
"A public library where pretty much everything is free..." Peter pointed out..
"There's gotta be money here we know it!" The teen holding the gun boasted ..
"Thirty to fifty dollars max .. Wow .. you guys are really hitting the big time with this heist .." Peter's voice sounded bored and belittling as he turned the page ..
"Shut up you little shit!" The kid holding the gun yelled and whirled around to point the gun at Peter..
Peter didn't even look up from his book but he did raise an eyebrow and sigh heavily "Do you even know how to use that?"
"Of course I do!" The gun shook slightly and the teen holding the gun's voice had raised in pitch slightly..
"Riiighhhttt..." Peter drew the word out almost like it was caught on a yawn "You know how to use that gun just like your piercings aren't fake and your tattoos aren't those temporary kind you can get with a quarter from a gumball machine .. Where'd you get the gun? I'm guessing you got it from your mom's purse and then decided to try to get all your little friends and their younger siblings together to try to become a gang overnight.. I'm guessing that you're all trying to get attention.. probably because your parents don't hug you enough or maybe it's because your parents wouldn't let you have something you wanted.. maybe it's both of those things .. or maybe you're all just morons .."
Peter had been walking towards the counter the entire time and the "gang" of teens had basically parted like the Red Sea for him as the looked on in confusion as he completely ignored the gun pointed at his face..
Peter eventually brought the book down and closed it and set it on the counter, calm and cool as a cucumber not even acknowledging the older teen boy with a shaking hand holding a gun pointed at him ..
"I would like to check out this one this evening, please Miss Barbara.." Peter was always the perfect picture of good manners..
Barbara took the book and slowly began the process of entering in the information for the checkout but couldn't help darting a quick look at the teen holding the gun ..
"While she's busy with that.." Peter stated and turned to fully face the barrel of the gun that was inches from his forehead as he did so ..
Peter looked up at the older teen holding the gun and the look on his face was unimpressed, bored.. not even a little bit scared ..
The older teen cocked the hammer of the handgun back as he said "Now listen here you little.."
Peter reacted like a bolt of lightning..
Barbara had barely been able to blink before Peter had grabbed the wrist of the older teen, twisted and disarmed him in a fast, fluid, singular motion and in that same motion he had switched the Safety on, ejected the bullets and safely emptied the chamber..
Barbara then had a chance to blink right as the now empty handgun and the bullets were carefully deposited onto her side of the counter with the barrel of the gun pointed away from her and the bullets enough space away from the gun that picking them up to attempt to load the gun again would take some time, enough time to again disarm the person attempting to wield that gun ..
Peter then twisted the wrist of the now disarmed teen and slammed him face down onto the counter and began kicking the older kid's legs apart and patting him down the way a cop would ..
The other "gang members" began backing away and attempting to slink towards the exit..
"Oh no you don't.." Peter stated as he reached into his own pocket and threw something at the door and suddenly the other kids in the "gang" couldn't open the door for whatever reason.. Barbara couldn't see because of her seated position and Peter had the kid who had held the gun face down in front of her so she couldn't exactly see past him ..
Peter continued to pat the disarmed teen down while the others shouted "Hey let us out!"
Peter gave a triumphant sound of "Ah hah!" as he pulled a cellphone out of the pocket of the disarmed teen..
"What?.. Are you seriously gonna call the cops on us man?!" The disarmed teen said with a sneer..
"Not at this moment.. First.. I'm gonna do something worse.." Peter replied
Within seconds Peter had scrolled through the disarmed teens contacts and found the one saved as "Mom" and hit the call button..
"What the fuck man?! You're calling my MOM?!"
Peter's grin was like a shark as he put the phone on Speaker ..
"Hey kiddo what's up?" Asked a woman's voice ..
"Hello ma'am your child is currently being held in restraints at Gotham Public Library after he and a group of his friends made an attempt to rob the librarian. The police are also about to be informed of the crime as well so you might want to seek some sort of legal council as well as some kind of mental therapy for your child and you may want to inform the parents of your child's friends that you no longer want them around your child as apparently he is either not a good influence on them or they are not a good influence on him, either way, your kid needs different friends.." Peter had pitched his voice to sound deeper and older and Barbara was surprised by how tiny eight-year-old Peter could sound enough like an adult to get someone to take him seriously over the phone..
"Who the hell is this and where is my son?!" The older teens mother asked..
Peter did something making the older teen cry out in pain "Tell her .. Tell her the truth .." Peter said calmly..
"Mommy!" The older teen cried out sounding suddenly much younger "I did something bad! I took your gun from you purse and me and my friends tried to rob a few places in Downtown Gotham .. But I wasn't gonna hurt anyone for real.. I swear!.. We just wanted to .."
Peter twisted the older teens wrist making the older teen grimace and groan in pain "Fine!" The boy yelled "There isn't really a good enough excuse for what ee did! Are you happy now?!"
Peter eased up and the older teen let out a sigh of relief ..
Peter then kicked the older teens legs out from under him forcing him onto his knees and told him to lace his fingers behind his head and to not move ..
Peter then went around to the other members of the "gang" demanding their cellphones which some of them did hand their phones over without fight .. but others .. well.. Peter had to .. twist their arms a little..
Peter then proceeded to call all of their mothers and tell on them all the same way ..
None of the mothers of the "gang members" were pleased..
Peter then called the police and made sure that all of the moms of all of the misbehaving children knew which police department their kids were going to be taken to for booking ..
"Now you all are going to sit here quietly and cooperatively and wait for the police to get here and when they get here you are going to behave and go with them without a fight or else your moms will all find out and they will not be happy.." Peter told all of the kids in "the gang" who were all scowling at him but all of them sat down quietly and kept their hands in their laps and sat still ..
Then Peter approached the counter with a polite smile on his face "I should probably be going.. It's getting late and you're going to have to close soon.." he held out his hand expectantly but politely..
Barbara blinked twice at him then stamped his book and passed it back over the counter ..
"Thank you Misss Barbara!" Peter exclaimed brightly "See you tomorrow after school!"
Then Peter whirled around and strolled out of the library like he hadn't just stopped a "gang" of criminals by calling all of their moms on them and like he hadn't been phased in the slightest from having a gun pointed at him.. like the potential danger of the situation hadn't even registered to him..
Dick, Tim, Jason, Steph, Duke, Cass and Damian were all sitting at their usual table looking equally stunned and impressed..
Barbara huffed and threw a glare in their direction "A whole lot of help you all just were .."
"What?.." Jason said with a shrug "The kid seemed to have it all handled on his own.."
"Yeah.. Who is that kid anyway?" Steph asked..
"His name is Peter, he's a new regular.. kid loves to read .. " Barbara replied feeling proud of and protective over Peter..
"Well... I like him.." Jason said with a grin..
Barbara just sighed and prepared to have The Bats and The Birds hanging out at her workplace during operating hours more frequently because she knew that none of them would be able to resist finding out more about Peter...