Chapter 26: Two of a Kind

It has come to my attention that this story was being heavily plagiarized. That story has only existed since August, whereas this one has existed since 2017. I'm not against authors using this as inspiration and giving credit to the original work, but this author stole exact lines from chapters of this story. I reported it on FFN for duplicate content.

Update: the story and profile seem to have been taken down. Thank you to those who did report! I do work hard on writing this for y'all and I was upset to see someone had taken it all.

There shouldn't have been anyone knocking on his door. This was literally why Jason refused to live in Wayne Manor; sometimes he just needed some "me time." And by sometimes, that meant most of the time. Hence the reason he had this studio apartment in one of Gotham's shadier neighborhoods. It normally meant no nosy neighbors, no large gatherings of people, and no solicitors.

So whoever was knocking on his door was either a bold Girl Scout selling cookies, or someone who was here specifically for him.

How tedious.

Jason silently dragged himself away from his wonderfully comfortable bed and moved over to quickly check his security camera (and grab the extra hand gun he kept next to it just in case). To his surprise, it looked like he probably wouldn't need to use the weapon– his guest was rising internet star Danny Johnson.

Jason was fairly delighted by the newfound popularity of #thevillainwrangler hashtag just because of how tightly Bruce had clenched his jaw when he had seen it. What a wonderfully unplanned nuisance for Batman to manage.

He still held his gun casually behind his back when he answered the door. Hey, there was always the chance this was a clone of Danny… or he could've been mind controlled… honestly, it was sad how many possible threats it could be. After opening the door a smidge and surveying Danny through narrowed eyes for any suspicious signs, Jason stepped back and allowed him into the apartment.

"Mi casa es su casa," Jason proclaimed dramatically as he walked over to the couch to hear Danny out, tucking his gun into his waistband as he did. "Wait– don't take that seriously. You're not moving in here if you're looking to escape your three housemates."

Danny had cautiously followed him into the room, but remained standing in front of the couch with his hands shoved in his jacket pockets. "I do need help, but not with that."

"Oh?"

"You were in that assassin group of Ra's al Ghul's."

All signs of amusement slid off Jason's face at the mention of the League of Shadows. He sat up straighter and tensed, ready to spring into action. "What about it?"

"I need you to train me how to fight."

Well, now wasn't that surprising.

"Why?" Jason asked, still guarded but now curious.

Danny huffed heavily in annoyance, and Jason wasn't sure if it was aimed at him or at Danny himself. "I'm a liability. Me and all these kids are; Joker showed that wonderfully," he hissed the last words with something close to hatred (Jason could heavily relate to that). "But all these kids can't defend themselves– they're in hospitals. So I've got to learn to protect me and them." His eyes finally lifted from where they'd been glaring angrily at the floor, and Jason could now see the determination in his gaze. "I need to learn how to fight to keep this from happening again."

Out of all the people that would understand how it felt to be beat down and need to learn to fight again, Jason might've been the best person Danny could ask. Granted, while Danny had survived his encounter with the Joker (who'd clearly been toying with him), there were enough similarities.

"I have two conditions."

Danny seemed to be surprised he was actually agreeing to this. "Really?"

Jason smirked a bit. He could have some fun with this. "First: training is 8pm starting tomorrow, and every time you're late you owe me a bottle of gold Bacardi. Second: You listen to everything I tell you. I say jump-"

Danny sighed, but the quirk of his lips showed he found it humorous. "Yeah, yeah, I say 'how high.'"

"No, just fucking jump! The bad guy isn't gonna wait for you to ask 'how high!'"

He couldn't really complain since he had 100% asked for this, but wow was he really regretting it now that every muscle in his body was sore. He could feel soreness in areas he didn't even know could feel sore.

Training with Jason for the past week had been brutal. Danny wasn't out of shape, per say– he did regularly go for runs, but that was nowhere near enough preparation for what he was doing now, especially after his bout of sickness. They started with a mile run, but Jason also had him start lifting weights and learning basic martial arts moves. He had to pick up everything very quickly, and he was at least getting better at blocking after Jason started using a pole to attack him from farther away.

Ironically enough, Jason had also been the one to help him find his next requested villain.

It just so happened that Killer Croc (aka Waylon Jones) happened to be part of their monthly poker club (Danny was honestly amazed at how ridiculous it sounded, even to him). Turns out, the same Roy Harper that had been to visit him in his Watchtower hospital room had been sponsored by Croc when recovering from alcoholism. Now Croc was a member of the Outlaws' game night, and Jason had begrudgingly agreed to take Danny to their next one.

That's how Danny found himself seated at a table with Jason, Roy, an Amazon named Artemis, Killer Croc, and for some reason, Cassandra Cain.

"She just showed up one time," Roy said with a shrug when Danny asked about it, with Cass nodding in affirmation.

"She wins almost every time too," Croc growled, glaring at the girl. Cass merely raised an eyebrow in response.

"Perhaps not this time," Artemis countered with a grin as she accepted the cards Danny was dealing out. Since he was the newcomer and not involved in any of the group's squabbles, he had been nominated as this week's non-biased dealer.

He was sure there was a story behind that one too, but he became too focused on watching Cass win by a landslide to bother asking. The others grumbled a bit as she gathered together her winnings of $25 (each of them had put $5 in the pool), but Danny could tell that they weren't upset about it.

"Change your tells," Cass said with a shrug when Croc muttered about her being a secret mind-reader. "You too, Danny."

He was caught off guard by that. He hadn't even been playing. "What?"

"You came here to find Croc." There was no questioning tone to her words.

Killer Croc's eyes narrowed in suspicion at Cass' words as he surveyed Danny. "You want somethin' from me, wrangler boy?"

Danny wasn't too worried about his safety with so many witnesses in the room. "Maybe," he answered coolly. "When's the last time you hurt a person?"

He was pretty sure Croc laughed at that (he couldn't tell 100% by the sound, but it seemed like a fair assumption). "Last week. Some government goons tried to take me in by force for Waller, probably."

Danny couldn't exactly argue about that. The few snippets he had heard about Amanda Waller and the government from Harley and some of the other villains he had met were… not pleasant, to say the least. "Fair enough. When's the last time you hurt a kid?"

This time he was certain that Croc snarled at him. "I'm a monster but not that type of monster."

"Awesome. Roy, how's your Tuesday looking?"

Roy had been watching the conversation like an amusing tennis match with his head swiveling back and forth between them while they talked, and Danny tried not to snicker as the ginger reeled back in shock at being addressed. "Who, me? Uh… I should be free for the most part."

"Great. You're going to be coming with me and Croc to Gotham Children's. There's a child with a craniofacial malformation that wants to meet you, Croc."

It had been a bit of a hassle to get Croc into the hospital (the building was put on lockdown do keep the hallways empty so he could walk through to a lounge space unbothered), but from the happiness on the little boy's face, it was worth it.

Four year old Connor had a vascular malformation that covered his lower right jaw, the right side of his neck, and down onto the top section of his right arm. The skin was an angry red and tough to touch, but that didn't keep Connor from clambering all over Croc.

"Look, Mr. Croc, I got skin like yours! Except I'm red and you're green… we're Christmas!"

Danny had tried really hard not to chuckle at that, but he was only human. Roy didn't even bother trying to hide his laughter.

Connor was in the process of convincing the big greenie to let him hold onto Croc's hand when it was lifted in the air so he could swing back and forth when one of the two nurses in the room rushed forward to put a stop to it ("young man, Mr. Croc is not a swing set!"). Roy was still standing next to the door with one of the hospital's security guards, so Danny found himself alone with the final nurse.

Something occurred to him as he watched Croc and Connor together. "Does Connor have parents or guardians here?" He asked the curly haired nurse in a low voice. "I usually don't see them if I bring guests to visit very late, but it's the middle of the day…"

The nurse winced slightly at his words. "He's an orphan," she whispered back. "He was in his aunt's 'care,' if you can call it that." There was a slight hiss to her words, and she explained a bit more at his confused glance. "The police brought him here. The little guy thought his name was 'freak' when he first got here two months ago. She's awaiting trial."

The low growl from across the room let Danny know Croc had heard every word, but that didn't keep Connor from staring in awe as he made the sound. "Teach me how to do that! Teach me teach me!" He bounced up and down with each word.

Whatever Danny had been expecting from this visit, it wasn't to have Killer Croc sit a four year old on his knee and show the little kid how to mimic the growls he made.

"We got a secret language, Mr. Croc!"

"Sure thing, little red."

Gasp. "That'll be my name! Red Croc!"

Well. That was certainly a new one.

Ask and you shall receive... It only took me a few years but here is Killer Croc! Much of this is based off of the DC Rebirth version of him where he's a bit more grounded.