Fanfic / A Subtle Knife

A Subtle Knife is a Worm/Young Justice (2010) crossover fanfic by industrious.

"Waking up in Gotham with no idea how I got there wasn't the best start to my day. Killing someone in front of Batman with my newly discovered superpowers just made it worse. I'm not a good person, let alone a hero, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't try to be one. After all...if not now, when?"

This story is an exploration of how much powers can influence a person's path in life, when Jacob Rodrigo wakes up as a self-insert in the Young Justice series with the powers of Jack Slash and tries to be a hero despite his predisposition to easily kill people. After beating Batman to taking down Victor Zsasz he joins the team at the same time as Artemis, and does his best to do good, not matter how bad the world makes it turn out.

But hey, at least he's got a brainy beauty on his arm and some adventures of his own to have on the side.

The fic was ended in 2022 after a lengthy hiatus, due to the author being unable to write Jacob's character anymore due to better life circumstances. Thankfully he had most of the story and sequels planned out already and made several posts detailing how the story would’ve continued.

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This fanfic contains examples of:

• And There Was Much Rejoicing: The Joker’s death apparently causes a number of Gotham citizens to start celebrating.
• Aborted Arc: The final arcs of the story became this as the author found he could no longer get into the necessary mindset to write Jacob’s character, instead summarizing the arcs and the planned sequels.
• Absurdly Sharp Blade: X-Ionized weapons such as Rako's katana and Edge's KA-BAR are near indestructible, and capable of cutting Kryptonians.
• A Day in the Limelight: Multiple characters that aren't Edge get point of view chapters, especially in the interludes.
• Admiring the Abomination: Edge feels like this when he watches Captain Atom fry and vaporize four North Rhelasian soldiers.
• Always a Bigger Fish: Captain Atom is this to the Plutonium Man. It can barely be called a fight as he absorbs the robot's radiation effortlessly.
• Anger Born of Worry: Batman, at Captain Marvel and Edge on occasion.
• Ascended Extra: Doctor Roquette, who Edge strikes up a relationship with. Captain Atom, in the aftermath of their mission to clear his name. Freddie, or Lt. Marvel, who joins the team with Edge and his Shard's prompting to Captain Marvel.
• Attention Deficit... Ooh, Shiny!: Kid Flash. Annoyingly so until story events force him to mature a bit.
• All Just a Dream: The Slaughterhouse Nine Arc is a simulation exercise Gone Horribly Wrong.
• Badass Adorable: M'gann, Artemis. Lt. Marvel joins early, and once people become aware that his secret identity is a wheel-chair bound elementary school student he gets this a lot.
• Badass Bookworm: Robin and Edge are two examples of this, though both characters go about it in different ways. Robin seeks knowledge constantly because he lacks any other 'power', so it tends to help him figure out how to deal with various situations. Edge however is just a nerd who likes reading for the sake of reading.
• Badass Normal: Robin, whose training and conditioning put him in situations even some metahumans would be wary and afraid of.
• Bad Powers, Bad People: Edge is trying to be a subversion. The Slaughterhouse Nine play it straight.
• Beware the Superman: Edge muses this when he and the Team get front row seats to watch a Flying Brick with Frickin' Laser Beams go to town on a group of soldiers with conventional guns.
• Big Damn Heroes: Both played straight and inverted with the Justice League and the team. The Slaughterhouse Nine showing up leads to some good examples of Edge's team standing up to the challenges and problems the S9's presence created.
• Canon Immigrant: The Shadow exists in the story's backstory and is credited for the countless deaths of mobsters and criminals in the 1930s-1940s.
• Chainsaw Good: Averted. The power-testing sequence in Hone 3.4 explicitly mentions that, in addition to blunt weapons, Edge's blade-projection powers (and Jack Slash's by extension) don't work on combo-weapons such as a baton with a hidden knife sheathed in it, blunt weapons that are actually sharp, sharp-looking weapons that are actually dull, or chainsaws.
• Child of Two Worlds: M'gann is a martian currently living on Earth, and constantly encounters cultural aspects that trip her up and confuse her at times.
• Clones Are People, Too: Connor/Kon'El is this in-story due to Superman's failings as an unexpected deadbeat 'father'.
• The Comically Serious: When Aqualad gets in on the joking fun at times. He's straight-faced enough to convince most of the Team that bad-mouthing the military is a death-worthy trespass before he cracks up at Edge's joke about air-boarding the guilty parties before executing them.
• Crazy-Prepared: Edge came off like this when he requisitioned a near-perfect set of equipment for when he was put n charge of the search for Clayface. It didn't stop him from getting hospitalized with hypothermia from his own cold gun, though.
• Deal with the Devil: After being sentenced to Belle Rev for killing the Joker, an unstable Jack makes a deal with the League of Shadows to get out.
• Did I Just Say That Out Loud?: After the assassins have been run off and the anti-Fog virus is uploaded successfully.
  Dr. Roquette: I know I might have been… short with you all at first, but… thank you. You saved my life, and we saved the world tonight. If there's anything I can do to repay you-?
  Edge: How about coffee? (mentally) …Did I just say that?
• Dark and Troubled Past: Edge comes off as this due to his fears about being associated with the Slaughterhouse Nine. his fears are broadcasted to the rest of the Team by Martian Manhunter's simulation in arc 9.
• Dramatic Irony: Because of his own connection to Jack Slash, Edge thinks very highly of Artemis, believing her to be Green Arrow's illegitimate daughter, and she always worries and fumes whenever he compliments her drive to live up to her "Uncle's" legacy.
• Door Stopper: The fic stands at well over two hundred and sixty thousand words at this time and is nowhere close to finished.
• Entertainingly Wrong:
  • The Heroes in-setting think they know what is going on with Edge. To say that are they mistaken is an understatement.
  • A very minor version, but after Edge has seemingly killed someone in self-defense, he sees Batman looming over him. The narration then says that he didn't see what Batman did to knock him out. Later, Batman reveals that he didn't knock Edge out, Edge just fainted from stress.
• Et Tu, Brute?: Literally everyone involved in Captain Atom's trial, from the judge to the coroner to his best friend who served as his defense, was in on the plot to frame him.
• Faking Amnesia: Edge does this from the beginning of the story to cover up that he is a self-insert. After the Slaughterhouse 9 arc, he's begun to wonder if his self-insert memories are fake ones inserted by the 9 so Jack Slash's son can blossom. He's actually a fragment of Anti-Life given Fake Memories.
• Fantastic Racism: Being a "White" martian, M'gann suffers this from both her fellow martians, as well as from some humans on Earth due to her being an alien at all.
• Faux Affably Evil: Jack Slash does this wonderfully when he appears, and use this to traumatize and hurt Edge in the process as events unfold.
• Fragile Speedster: Kid Flash is quick, but he's also constantly hungry, and being a young teenage boy, not too able to take injuries.
• From Bad to Worse: The story has gotten so terrifyingly bloody in-story due to the Slaughterhouse Nine's actions that nothing will be the same afterwards.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Batman makes the case to the rest of the League that Edge runs a high risk of this if he ever gives up on trying to be a good person, which is why they should encourage and support him.
  Batman: Imagine an assassin with a keen mind for deduction. He's resistant to physical force, and his offensive power is limited only by line of sight. In fact, his ability improves with it - he's most dangerous from far away. But he wants to be a hero, gentlemen.
• The Golden Rule: Hinted when Artemis blows her top at Kid Flash when he declares Edge isn't worth trusting because of his relation with a criminal. As the daughter of a criminal, Artemis wants to be judged on her own merits, so it makes sense for her to repay the favour with Edge.
• Gone Horribly Wrong: Martian Manhunter simulation exercise + Edge's powers screwing around with psychic dreamscapes = the Team being confronted by the Slaughterhouse Nine in the ruins of Gotham.
• Green-Eyed Monster: Connor feels this way about the charming, good-looking, Flying Brick Lt. Marvel when he's introduced to the team in the aftermath of an embarrassing incident between him and M'gann. Then he discovers that Lt. Marvel's secret identity is a wheelchair-bound elementary school student and promptly becomes one of the Lieutenant's top supporters.
• Guys Smash, Girls Shoot: Edge subverts this, being more suited to ranged combat and Social Judo.
• Holodeck Malfunction: Martian Manhunter intends to give the team a simulation exercise, but Edge's powers interfere, resulting in the Slaughterhouse Nine arc.
• Joker Immunity: Averted, in Cleave 13.8 where the Joker is killed by Edge. However, it is further elaborated that the Joker had died several times and repeatedly resurrected by the League of Shadows in the Lazarus Pit (which is also why he is more crazier than before) in order to have Batman's complete attention focus on Joker away from the Shadows' operations.
• Just Between You and Me: Since no one knows Edge is associated with the League, he allows himself to be captured spying on the smuggling ring that framed Captain Atom. He goads Yarrow and the North Rhelasians into confirming their acts while on speakerphone, with Captain Atom on the other end, listening.
• Katanas Are Just Better: Averted. While Rako uses an x-ionized katana, Edge just feels stupid about trying to swing one. He prefers a karambit, and he has a secret, x-ionized X-Acto knife for emergencies.
• Klingon Promotion: The Slaughterhouse Nine.
• Lighter and Softer: When compared to Earth Bet, Young Justice! Earth is certainly this. Robin is outright aghast when Edge describes him Earth Bet's situation, calling it a "ice cream parlor of evil".
• Measuring the Marigolds: Edge inverts this with his habits reading The Economics of Justice (by Chief Justice Posner). He later commissions a work of art.
• Mind Manipulation: M'gann, Cherish. Edge has some ability to manipulate his own mind and affect people in it, and his Shard is hinted to have much greater abilities.
• Mind over Matter: M'gann's telekinesis.
• Mood Whiplash: Serling suffers this in-story when Edge decides it would be amusing to knock on her door, pretending to be an annoying student with questions about the coursework just before she has a date.
• Mundane Solution: How to find a successor to Doctor Fate? You hold a job interview, as if it was another paid office.
• Mundane Utility: Edge invokes this by practicing skill, precision, and finesse with his powers on the food he cooks. He also notes that when nobody in the mountain in wiling to cook, they use the advanced alien wormhole technology to zip over to other cities for takeout.
• Mythology Gag: After listening a kid gushing over Robin's utter awesomeness and wondering how he could meet Batman, Edge offhandedly mentions he could try to steal the Batmobile's tires. Since the kid is named Jason, it's probably a Foregone Conclusion...
• Normally, I Would Be Dead Now: Edge does not have Super-Toughness, but he has wetware implants in Bonesaw's style to let him act like he's Made of Iron, even surviving a cut throat with minimal suffering.
• Oh, Crap!:
  • Whenever someone uninformed sees what Edge is capable of doing/surviving.
  • Also occurred when they discovered x-ionized weapons can cut Kryptonians.
  • Edge has a full-on panic attack when he comes face to face with Mannequin of the Slaughterhouse Nine, realizing just what is happening before anyone else does.
  • The hijacked TV broadcast with Joker and Bonesaw cements Edge's mounting terror.
  • Edge has this reaction again when "Joker" was actually Jack Slash in disguise.
  • Edge freezes when Batman asks him about the Slaughterhouse Nine, and Batman notes both Edge's fear and his particular hesitance to discuss Jack Slash.
• Poke in the Third Eye: Thanks to a Martian psychic ritual perform on him leaving his third eye partially open, Jack gets a glimpse of Klaron’s true form. He doesn’t take it well.
• Police Are Useless: Played straight in this fic due to most supervillains being too problematic for the police to deal with, preferring to let the League and various heroes deal with things instead.
• Politeness Judo: Edge's shard makes him arguably better at this than actual combat, when it comes to metahumans and other powered people.
• Power Misidentification: Jacob never once stops to wonder why his social power, which relied on Jack Slash's Meta Origin, works on every superhero he meets. see Wham Line, below.
• Psychic Block Defense: Presumably due to the presence of his Shard, Edge's mind is not a nice place to be. Martian Manhunter gets put through the wringer when he pokes around unwisely in the wrong part of Edge's psyche. Attempting to do it a second time during a simulation exercise results in the Team fighting the Slaughterhouse Nine.
• Really Gets Around: Green Arrow is this, which drives Edge to the mistaken impression that Artemis is his daughter when her father is infact Sportsmaster. Edge shares his theory with the rest of the team and when Artemis found out she lets them think it is true because it is better than the truth.
• Rescue Romance: Edge starts dating Serling because he helped save her from the League of Shadows.
• A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing: Inverted. Much fuss is made over how absolutely terrifying an assassin Edge would make, as well as how he is by leaps and bounds the most obvious possibility for The Mole. The audience knows that he's one of the most congenial guys we see.
• Shipper on Deck: Edge heavily, heavily ships Supermartian. To the point that he gives them a kickstart by arranging Superboy to go talk to a distraught M'gann with Chocco cookie crumbs on his lips.
• Sins of Our Fathers: Kid Flash shows open mistrust towards Edge after learning his relation to Jack Slash. Cue a furious Artemis screaming at him he cannot judge someone after his parents.
• Stating the Simple Solution: Rather than go through an elaborate bluff and double-bluff to protect Doctor Roquette at the cost of time lost in set-up, Edge points out that the camouflaged, telepathically commanded bioship is much safer and more convenient, and Dr. Roquette uploads her virus from inside with the help of an Ethernet cable.
• Stealth Pun: Arc 9 is called Slaughterhouse. Guess who crashes the simulation exercise?
• Sure, Let's Go with That:
  • Artemis is so ashamed of her villain dad she can't bring herself to disillusion her teammates from the theory that she's actually Green Arrow's illegitimate daughter.
  • When the Team learns Earth-Bet's existence, Edge lets them believe he's a native because it helps with his cover story.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Like most Heroes, Edge does his best to practice this and encourage others to do so. He gets a What the Hell, Hero? moment on his first mission when he carves up a League of Shadows assassin, but he defends himself because a) his power is blade projection so when he's protecting people he doesn't have a non-lethal setting, and b) the guy was a werewolf and his knife wasn't made of silver, so he'll eventually recover.
• We Have Reserves: Inverted. Very much a plot-point in-story due to not enough people in not enough places.
• We Need a Distraction: The Slaughterhouse Nine's behavior when they show up due to them using the civilians as tools for the traps and distractions.
• Wham Episode:
  • Interlude 5, Superboy triggers.
  • The following arc is a Wham Storyline, since the Team has to confront the Slaughterhouse Nine.
  • In Cleave 13.8, Jack kills the Joker.
• Wham Line: It’s never been a Worm crossover.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Edge and M'gann have a discussion along these lines after he brutalizes the werewolf assassin sent after Dr. Roquette. It recurs several times regarding other aliens, magical beings, and robots.
• What the Hell, Hero?:
  • Most of the Heroes reactions to Edge at points in the story, especially after meeting the Slaughterhouse Nine.
  • Edge also does this to Martian Manhunter after having both his trust, privacy, and mindscape violated.
• Willing Channeler: When confronted to Witch-Boy, Edge chooses to use the Helm of Fate and let Nabu possess him.
• X-Ray Vision: Edge encourages Conner to take advantage of his X-Ray Vision whenever possible.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Edge really doesn't have very much in the way of self-esteem, and his teammates and girlfriend repeatedly point he wouldn't give himself so much shit about his decisions if he really was a monster.
• You Are What You Hate: This is one of Edge's fears throughout the story, that he is or will become like Jack Slash.