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Damian doesn't know how, but somehow, Jerry got out of the barn and was now following him as Robin. He could hear Jerry's feathers flap as he jumped on roofs behind Damian. He couldn't even be mad; he could never be mad at his precious pets.
Patrol continued like that for a couple of hours. Damian was just happy the Jerry watched fights instead of trying to help him.
A trip to the vet would end with father finding out about his addition. Damian won't admit it, but it would also end with him crying into his Baba's shoulder. Everything was going alright, almost too good.
Screams sounded out from a couple of streets down. Damian fucking jinxed it. With a sigh, he pulled the trigger of his grapple and shot off. If Damian smiled a little when he heard the flutter of wings behind him, well that was between Damian and Gotham.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Damian arrived at the scene and immediately put his gas mask on. Joker Gas, his brain supplied. A couple of seconds into being there, the alarms finally started to blare. It always pissed Damian off that the alarms were so late.
Getting up onto a higher roof, Damian heard the Joker's laugh. Damian followed it to a rundown apartment building. They had recently started renovating the place, meaning that it was completely empty of homeless people. A small miracle.
What wasn't a miracle was that the Joker and his goons now had five hostages tied up to chairs at the center of the room. Why rouges always go for the circle design, Damian will never know. It just makes it easier to reach other people's ropes and help untie them. But Gothamites were too stupid for that.
Looks like it was up to Damian again. He heard Oracle's voice in his ear, telling him to be on standby and wait for backup. However, that wasn't an option with hostages involved. Damian knew he should convey that, but the space was tight; if he tried, everyone would know that he's there.
Sticking to the shadows, Damian circles the room from above. He was trying to see the best way to free the hostages without injury.
Damian didn't even get to make a move before his plan was spoiled.
Jerry burst through the roof very loudly. His entrance startled everyone into looking up at him. While Damian would never be mad at his bird, he couldn't help the exasperation that overcame him as Jerry made his way to Damian's side. That brought all the intention in the room to Damian.
The Joker laughs. In the middle of his cackles, he had begun to speak. "Well, well, well, if it isn't the new boy wonder! I see you've brought your little pet." The word "pet" was spat out distastefully. It made Damian even more angry that the Joker didn't like Jerry.
As much as Damian wanted to attack the Joker for that, he had to focus on the hostage's safety. If he attacked the Joker out right, his goons would start killing the hostages. Now that Damian could stand up right, he could see the hostage's features properly.
There were 5 hostages total. 1 was a man, 2 women, and 2 children. The children were bawling their eyes out. Damian rolled his eyes when he saw that, pathetic.
"Release them," Damian never was much for talking on patrol unless it was over the comm or criticizing his brothers. The Joker laughed more, "Oh, sure! I'll make sure the corpses are still nice and warm!" Damian grinded his teeth, the Joker's laugh grated on his ears.
Damian thought more, how could he help the hostages. Embarrassingly, Damian forgot the building was under renovation. Looking down at he saw a creak, the wood underneath him began to split. In full Robin uniform, he tumbled to the ground.
The Joker's startled laugh was the first thing he heard. He had found actual joy in Damian falling from above. Damian's face flooded red. He couldn't think of that right now, he needed to gather his bearings. As soon as the thought hit him, he realized he didn't have time. Goons were already grabbing him and tying him up.
Damian kicked and fought. That turned out to be fruitless endeavor as the goons put him into both knees in front of the Joker.
The Joker was walking over to him. That was until he deviated his path. He was going on and on about how he was going to torture Damian, video it, kill Damian, kill the hostages, send the video to "Dear Batsy", spread the video all over the internet, then reveal all of their identities.
Damian scoffed as the plan was laid out before him. He knew that father and his brothers would never let that happen. It was an underlying fear that they wouldn't make it in time.
There were more security measures after Todd, but Damian hadn't told them that there were hostages or that he was engaging. That means his sibling were still on their way, but probably still stopping petty crime on their way over.
The Jokers chuckle brought him out of his head. He looked over to see the Joker picking up a crowbar before making his way over to Damian. Usually the Joker would say something, but that wasn't the case this time.
As soon as the joker got in range, he struck Damian across the mouth. Damian could hear his teeth cracking under the sudden pressure. The Joker's grin seemed to widen as he saw the newest Robin spit out his teeth. Before the teeth even hit the floor, the Joker raised the crowbar and struck again.
Damian found himself gasping for air as the Joker struck him in the throat. H4e could hear the gasps and louder crying coming from the hostages.
He didn't have the time to react as the Joker grabbed him jaw and forced him to look up so they could make eye contact. Damian's vision whited for a few seconds as hot pain was sent through his jaw.
It caused Damian to gasp in pain, that was all it took for the chaos to start.
Jerry descended from the shadows above. Everyone in the surrounding area could hear the Jokers startled cuss as, in his opinion, a dirty farm animal landed on his face. Damian was now solidifying the thought of giving Jerry a heater and a cool as Jerry started to claw open the Joker's cheeks.
With the distraction, Damian broke free from the goon's grip. Despite his injuries, he started to fight all the goons in his field of vision. Damian looked over to Jerry and the Joker once he was done with all of the goons.
Damian was proud as he saw Jerry holding his own. The Joker had long dropped his crowbar in favor of using both hands to pry the feathered beast off of him. Damian was about to help Jerry when one of the hostages caught his eye. How could he forget, the hostages still needed saving.
Damian made a mental not to be more aware of his surroundings in the future as he made his way over to them. Drawling his sword, he brought it down in a swift arch. The sharp blade cutting through the rope without much resistance.
He expected the hostages to run, but they just stood and stared. Damian turned around to see what they were looking at. The Joker was one ground, screaming and flailing. Jerry was sitting on top of his while pecking at parts of his face.
The Joker got a lucky hit and sent Jerry flying. The hostages saw Robin run over to the feathered farm animal to check up on him. While this happened, the Joker sat on the ground, catching his breath.
This turned out to be the wrong move. Before Damian could even reach his non-human companion, Jerry shot up. Jerry screeched as he ran over to the Joker like his life depended on it.
Jerry held his head up high and brought it down. His beak piercing through the Joker's left eye. The whole room froze with Joker's scream bouncing off the wall. Well, all but Jerry. Jerry was furious that this grass-headed, pasty, rot-smelling, Maranda Sings, human hurt him. Even more so that he hurt his human.
Jerry wouldn't let this man off the hook with just a blinded eye. This man needed to pay thoroughly. He could smell the pain and suffering that this man has caused. Jerry went for another peck and to the horror of no one, came out with pieces of the Joker's brain.
Everyone could see the light leave the Joker's eyes and his pulse stopped.
Silence.
It was loud in everyone's ears. Jerry made his way back over to Damian. He was confused when his human didn't react at first, just stared at the body. Jerry thought he upset his human, that was until his human broke out into a wide grin and picked Jerry up.
His human started to card his hands through his head feathers, just the way he liked. Jerry was extremely happy, he could feel the awe, happiness, giddiness, proudness on his human as his human looked at him.
Jerry was also happy for the fact that he followed his human tonight. He understood that his human acted different when his skin went black around the eyes. He trailed his human to see why he acted different. It turned out to be a good thing, or else his human would be way more injured than he is right now.
He saw his human raise his hand to his ear, "Situation handled. Robin turning in for the night."
Jerry was more than comfortable as his human cradled him all the way home.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Most of the batfamily had their jaws on the floor of the batcave. After Damian called in early from patrol, everyone was worried. Damian never called in early. They knew he had a run in with the Joker, which worried them even more.
When they arrived, they saw Damian sitting on the cot with his jaw and neck bandaged up. They asked time and time again what happen, but Damian refused to answer. He just sat there; his only action was giving Jerry extra treats.
Barbara has long gone home, so Bruce demanded that Tim bring up the footage.
That was what brought them to this situation as they watched Jerry absolutely annihilate the Joker. Bruce has sooo many questions. It was clear that they were going to be unanswered as they turned to see Damian with a smug smile on his.
Before they could comprehend that the Joker was finally dead, Damian was already in his room, fast asleep with a sleeping turkey right by his head.
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
A week later, a video went viral. One of the hostages posted the video from the Joker's camera.