Art and Doodles: into the void | mirrors | mirrors 2 | brace | tea | magazines | snapchat | bathtub | vogue | scarves | hands | when i dream, i dream of you | snapchat 2 (spoilers) | mute | kfc
Fanworks:
Matt by @kabutakitsune / @kiki-art-corner
Matttttt by @ladycakepops
Lightning by @yaycreamymancakes
Goretober Day 8: Scars by @nartothelar
Summer Storm by thepointsdonotmatter on AO3
Have fanart that I missed? Send me a DM and I’ll add it!
I didn’t see this in the notes yet. So. If you crash cars with someone. You stop, you pull over to the side if you can, you don’t leave. If someone is hurt or crying, call 911 or your emergency number. Never hurts to get checked out. You write down the other person’s license plate and car make and model and colour, and get their driver’s license number. You write down what happened and how it happened. If you both can drive and no one is hurt you can go after exchanging information (don’t try to agree on what happened. Don’t make deals with the person.)
When you get home, call your car insurance provider. Describe the damage to your car and any injuries and how it happened. They’ll ask for the info I told you to get above.
You’ll probably have to take your car to a registered provider who can get an insurance approved quote for repairs.
See your doctor if you are still shaky after a couple of hours. Whiplash gets worse for the first few days so you might think you’re fine but when the adrenaline wears off, you’re not. Symptoms include headache dizziness nausea as well as neck and back pain.
If you see an accident happen, don’t leave. Be the one to call the emergency number if people are injured or not getting out of their car and walking around. Give your phone number and name to both people or to the emergency providers and expect a call from the insurance company. They’ll ask you to tell them what you saw. Be honest.
Drive safe out there, and be prepared. You can call your dad later and he’ll be so proud of you for handling it.
Also, when you call your insurance provider, get a pad of paper or a note taking app/program. Then tell the person helping you "I've never been through this before so I'm not sure what to do. Can you walk me through it step by step?"
Then for each step, repeat your notes back to them and as necessary, ask the following questions:
-what documentation do I need to have with me? (you may need to go get things like a police report, estimates, etc)
-what is the contact number for XYZ third party? (this would be for referrals for things like doctors or repair people)
-how long will this take? (the answer to this may be "no idea" if it's something out of their hands, but they should be able to give you an idea of anything internal going on so you know when to follow up)
-will there be out of pocket expense? (this is especially true for things like rentals while your car is being fixed or copays for PT)
And make sure you have any and all claim numbers and such. They'll be how you access future help.
Listen to me, hon. It's scary. And it's unknown. And it feels really big. And for you... it absolutely is. No one gets into wrecks on the daily. But listen to me... the person helping you on the phone, they do this multiple times every day. In fact, you will likely not be the first "This has never happened before! What do I do? Help!?" person they've talked to that day. It's not only absolutely okay to ask them questions, it is expected and it's best if you do right at the jump. You are not bothering them. You are not wasting their time. You are not dumb for not knowing how everything works. In this case (and in a lot of cases) the person you're talking to has a job because no one knows how this all works. And your premiums write their paychecks. Ask all the questions ever.
I reblogged this last month, tagged it, and said “might as well see if it works.” I used this video as a reference to find all the forms that i needed (which is A LOT, especially if you’re a dependent) and sent them through the mail, not really allowing myself to hope.
dude.
$2,714 of medical debt from my top surgery - gone. im shaking this was such a weight on me for 2 years and it fucking worked. what the fuck.
All the dabbles I have posted on my DC x DP account. Under a read more due to how long it is. Broken into three categories:
Multi-parts - Dabbles that have more than one part written.
One-shots- Dabbles with only one part written.
Requests- Dabbles written for the requests of readers. (Note: If a request is for a continuation of the other two categories, they will be filed in Milti-parts)
Master Post 1 Link
Master Post 2 Link
Completed AUs Master Post Link
Master
Please read the indexes to determine which master post each au is filed in.
As of 02/10/2024: The newest stuff is inside of Master Post 2. If there are many parts from Master Post 1, they will remain on that one.
My favorite DPxDC posts on tumblr (as I find them)
Eco-Ecto-Scientist Danny (I recommend going through all the reblogs of this one, they go in all sorts of beautiful directions, but you will get sucked in for a good two hours)
Danny and Sam are Thomas and Martha reincarnated
Dead on Main singer!Danny au song
Crime Lord Danny
Everlasting Insomniacs - Tim goes to Arkham
Danny and Danielle hostages in Gotham with moving walls
Tucker is a Streamer Danny is his cryptid roommate
Jazz is Arkham's new entertainment version 1
Jazz is Arkham's new entertainment version 2
Team Phantom knocks out Nightwing
Son of Themyscira: Danny's Grave
Danny works at a diner front
Team Phantom is Young Justice Dark
Batman buys Constantine's soul
Constantine's Interns
CADMUS Danny and Match
Danny is a training villain art
Danny's Bowery Daycare (with fic link)
VVV These two start with the same prompt but go in wildly different directions. VVV
Escalation au
Instincts au
Thermos/Urn Misunderstandings
Drink mix-up and Weston family curse
That's all I can find for now, my eyes are burning and I've been at this for 3.5 hours.
As someone who lived in the middle of nowhere, Amity, the ocean both terrified and enthralled Danny Fenton.
The first time his parents took him to the beach, it was the middle of the day and he’d been stuck in the prototype GAV for hours upon hours on their “quick, ghost rumor hunting field trip.”
It wasn’t quick, and they caught exactly zero ghosts. When Danny saw the expanse of sand underneath the summer sun, he and Jazz both bounded out of the van like feral little monkeys. Danny and Jazz sprinted down the sand, their parents ambling behind them with their arms loaded up with towels, a first aid kit, and an ungodly amount of mildly ecto contaminated food that they already fought before getting onto the beach.
Danny had splashed into the water, yelped at the freezing temperature, and then promptly found a shell to keep. His mom taught him how to swim with the waves, having come from Surf City herself, and his dad taught Jazz how to dive.
It was a day full of fond memories, especially the memory of the Great War of Sand-Castle Crushing he and Jazz waged against each other.
They stuck around for the sunset, the ripples of colors and peacefulness that swept across the vast waters caught Danny in its hold.
He hadn’t forgotten that moment. Not even when he died.
After a particularly hard day as Phantom, Danny would fly to the coast and loose hours just sitting on the sand and watching the waves lap against the shore. And when those nights were clear? It felt like a slice of his own personal heaven, with the stars shining on his shoulders and the encompassing crash of the waves sheltering his heart.
And on some days, when being Danny left him frustrated, Danny would fly out to the coast and use his intangibility to walk beneath the waves. Near the coast, it’s cloudy with swirls of moving sand and disturbed waters. He walked, and walked, and floated and floated beneath the waters, taking contentment from the way the moonlight of his stars filtered through the water. He admired the way light would glint on the scales of fish and crustaceans alike as he floated beneath the surface. On those days, Danny would pick up trash and polluted things and bring them to shore, to place in the trash cans and all of the recycling cans. He picked up shells and decorated the beaches he frequented, because if it were decorated, perhaps people would refrain from chucking their waste into the sea.
Well, usually, it’d be trash.
Danny watched speechlessly, jaw cracked open just a smidge, as an explosion happened right over his head. The distortion of the water did not hide the fact that there were large chunks of plane pelting down at him, a different figure flying away from the explosion. Danny went invisible and intangible as large metal pieces plunged into his current water space.
“Gosh, people these days,” he huffed. “This is gonna take forever to…”
Danny trailed off, seeing a humanoid shape crash into the water, clearly unconscious. Danny didn’t hesitate before shooting towards the drowning person, glowing green and fully visible again. The stranger’s eyes- holy shit, that’s Batman- turned towards him before closing behind cracked open lenses. Batman slumped falling unconscious. That’s not good.
Danny rocketed out of the water with the vigilante in his arms. If it weren’t for his supernatural strength, there’s no way lanky teenage Danny would have been able to carry Batman’s grown ass built like a tank self to the shore. Likewise, if it weren’t for his strength, Danny wouldn’t have been able to start chest compressions through the layers of armor.
Danny leaned back with a sigh as Batman coughed out only a bit of water, because Danny hadn’t taken all that long to get to him, and held up his hands in a “I don’t have weapons” way as Batman whirled to him.
“Hi. Are you alright?” Danny asked, ectoplasm and instinctive ghost speak fuzzing his words a bit. Damn, Batman must have nearly died a lot. He’ll freak out about meeting Batman later.
“You saved me,” an awkward pause. “Thank you.”
“You’re welcome. The other guy went that way.”
Danny waved vaguely.
“…What are you?”
“Oh my god, Batman, you can’t just ask someone what they are!” He immediately replied, inwardly smacking himself for the joke. He watched Batman’s face, watching for any sign of discrimination against ghosts, or any sign the man had a sense of humor.
“…”
Neither, apparently, was the answer.
“Don’t worry about it. I’m just here to clean up the beaches. You humans really like to pollute the beaches. It’s quite rude, you know. That plane of yours, well, it’s not your fault,” he amended. “But it’s gonna damage sea life. And I don’t know if you’re in the habit, but please don’t litter on the beach or in the water, especially with your unconscious body. It’s tedious to clean.”
“…I see.”
“Stay. I’ll take out your plane. Make sure it doesn’t stay on the sand, alright?”
With that, Danny stood. Unaware of the way the moonlight lit up his hair like white flames and accentuated the sharp points of his ears, Danny turned away and flew back to the plane site, dragging the pieces up with ease.
Batman sat on the sand, likely exhausted from his fight, and watched him carry the pieces of the aircraft up.
“Here. All done. I gotta get going,” because Danny has school and this just lost him two hours. “Will you be alright?”
Batman nodded once, sharply.
“Good.” Danny went invisible, watching Batman sat up straighter, glancing around in a suddenly visible awareness. Oh, well. Tucker’s gonna freak out.
——
Three years later, Danny’s moved to Gotham for university.
And after midterm season, Danny went for a ghostly walk, but this time, in the waters surrounding Gotham.
When he surfaced, Batman was crouching on a lamp post, waiting for him.
“Oh, it’s you,” Danny said. “Hello. Did you know that people are polluting these waters with bodies too?”
“Yes,” Batman said, graveled voice resounding on the shipping containers around them.
“You should do something about that. Do you like places that are polluted?”
Batman sighed. “What are you?”
Danny hears a small, tinny voice by Batman’s ear, coming from a comm.
“Oh my god, B, you can’t just ask someone what they are!”
Mind flashing back to the night Danny drug a waterlogged Batman out of the ocean, Danny cracked a smile.
“Phantom,” he said, decisively. And, because this isn’t Amity anymore, “the Beach Clean Up crew from the flip side.”
——
Bruce, waking up on the sand: wtf
Bruce, seeing a child next to him who probably saved him: wtf (in “adoption”)
Bruce, seeing Danny’s skin glitter like stars, hair aflame, and pointy ears: wtf (in “I can adopt fae folk, right?”)
Bruce, seeing that Danny doesn’t leave any footprints: wtffff (detective mind goes brrrr)
——
Bruce, after Danny leaves: *donates 20 mil towards beach clean up efforts and anti-pollution causes*
——
Bruce’s Goggle Search History, documented by Oracle:
Sea spirits
Sea vampires
How to parent supernatural kids
How to thank your sea child
Are shells a good gift?
Ocean conservation efforts
Sea spirits that glitters under moonlight
Sea spirits that cleans up beaches
Wayne corporation waste disposal
Companies that dump trash into the sea
*outgoing call to Lucius Fox*
What is “mean girls”
——
Bruce, learning “current pop culture” from his kids:
Bruce, remembering the kid who saved him and realizing he’s probably as old as his own kids are: *adoption tendencies intensifies*
Danny puts up with a lot of stress, okay.
His coping mechanism is....okay, it's a little weird, he's not gonna lie.
It is widely known that he has a human form and a ghost form; it is not widely known that his ghost form can do pretty much whatever he wants it to.
This includes making it smaller. Changing the ghost tail to a fish one. Making the suit be scales instead of a suit.
He does it so many times he now officially has three forms, and one of them is purely for himself and no one else.
His stress relief is to go to the aquarium, switch to the tiny merman form, and hide in the rocks of his favorite exhibit; the shark exhibit.
He stays in the back, away from the people visiting it's sight, and just vibes. He's even made a small cave the sharks can't fit into a tiny little nest.
No one would expect him there. No one would be looking for him there. He was free to just...take a moment.
Well, so he thought.
Because the humans visiting did see him. Multiple times.
They took pictures.
Now the Amity Park Aquarium is in some deep shit with Atlantis, because there's documented proof that they're keeping a literal baby mer in there as a spectacle.
Consider: Perhaps mers naturally grow to the size befitting their environment. They don't really have distinct species, they simply adapt to the space and food availability around them. The same mer that only gets to about humanoid size in a river could grow massive if moved to a lake or ocean with abundant food.
So when Aquaman catches these pictures and discovers they date back several months and the supposed-to-be-fast-growing mer baby isn't so much as an inch bigger, he concludes that the Aquarium is keeping the baby underfed and confined to a tiny area to keep it small and "cute".
Realizing the infant is in a tank with sharks, predators that would gladly eat something the size of a baby mer, only stokes his rage.
I’m just imagining the idea that Danny himself has NO IDEA that Aquaman and his entourage are even coming fast into Amity Park because he’s just so focused on everything else in his (unfortunate) teenage life.
Aquaman? Yeah he knows WHO the guy is, who wouldn’t know who the Justice League members are, but is he keeping up with that news? No.
He’s barely even awake in school to process the news from other teenagers and teachers. He’s deliberately blocking out all the chatter just to take standy-uppy cat naps. He doesn’t have the time or brain capacity to handle you.
Going little baby man mer is his time to really relax. To unwind, laze about, and curl in his little nest with all his little possessions like a fish dragon and just rest.
So of course after a treacherous day AND night, Danny simply slips his way into the Aquarium and into his favorite water tank with the sharks where he has to avoid their curious nipping so he can unwind in his little enclosure.
It’s only going to be a little while after all.
Just a little moment to stretch out, rake his claws across the walls to make some doodles; maybe even watch the cold night outside before a short decided nap.
Just… a little… nap.
Sleep takes Danny fast and swift, and Danny stays at the Aquarium far longer than anticipated.
But Danny is so tired, and it isn’t like it’s the first time he’s overslept to the gentle sound of shark fins swimming through the artificial currents and was rocked to sleep by the gentle waves in the tank.
So what if he sleeps there longer than intended?
No one has ever seen him before, and Danny has never minded the light of the rising sun when it brings the sharks to wakefulness, or the building noise of a slowly waking Aquarium building.
It is all familiar noise to sleep to.
He only slightly minds it when he hears static — electricity — zapping outside, making his sleepy little self jerk and whine before he curls himself deeper into his tail.
It’s silent.
It’s so blissfully silent for a very long time that Danny’s tension flows right out of him.
An ear fin twitches at the sudden change in the waters currents, something bigger having entered, but nothing the sharks seemed to be worrying over. Danny thus pays little mind as he drifts away to sleep once more.
But maybe he should have tried being a little more awake, a little more alert. Surely then he would have noticed the sharks gurgling, would have noticed the tip of a sharks nose pressing against the hidden opening of his nest. Surely Danny would have noticed a very human-like hand reaching through the entrance to fish him out.
Okay but imagine he wakes up. Just imagine the sheer hilarity of it. The king of Atlantis just chewed out you, your whole staff, and all of your ancestors with the Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman - in person - and the world - thank you local news station at least someone is enjoying the accidental international incident - watching on.
And he finally goes in the tank to get the mysterious baby mer that you truly Do Not Know how it got there.
And the second he gets it out of its hidey hole this tiny, absolute speck of a mer's eyes shoot open with all the energy of a bomb going off, takes 0.0001 seconds to register the hand holding it, and - in front of God and everyone - bites the ever living fuck out of his finger, escaping the moment the guy flinches (and oof if the cloud of color is any indication bro might need a stitch. The baby has some TEETH).
Baby mer dives back into the hidey hole, Aquaman tries to soothe it into coming back out, he's here to help, blah blah. Baby Mer just hisses like an angry cat.
Aquaman tries to grab the baby again and manages to get a grip on it, but the baby latches his little claws onto either side of his hidey hole and won't let go for anything (and Aquaman could just tug harder but it's a baby he doesn't want to hurt it :(((( [and Danny could just phase out except he doesn't want to do that with people watching him when they seem to think he's a mer {he doesn't know they think he's a baby mer, he just thinks that they think he's, like, some runaway or something} rather than a ghost and is that Batman???])
(Batman has experience with bitey children. He shoved his armored hand in, and when Danny bit him he pulled him out. Like those videos of people catching fish bare handed)
Danny obviously doesn't stick around. He disappears as soon as everyone looks away. This, of course, leads to the Justice League panicking because "We lost the baby!"
From there it could be either shenanigans cracky or misunderstood angst cracky.
Shenanigans: The Justice League gets a call from the aquarium that Danny's back and it devolves into them trying to keep him contained and out of the aquarium yet he somehow always ends up back in his little nest. Like an octopus determined to escape its tank.
Angsty crack: He gets spotted flying back to Amity Park, and, since this is Amity Park, people realize he's a ghost. So now the Justice League is angsting over Danny being a dead child while Danny is whining about his nap getting interrupted to an unsympathetic Sam and Tucker.
Bonus points for this one would be having Danny's mer form look like one of Aquaman's dead relatives.
Danny looks like a small child to the merfolk, and he’s been in here for who knows how long! Little baby brain was Not taught about Aquaman or Language or life outside an aquarium. But they can’t Force him aparently, he’s got some weird Hodini stuff going on (probably exposure to ecto making him liminal mixed with the constant danger of living in a shark tank leaving him skilled enough with some weird power to escape).
The solution? Teach him.
Try to teach a basic understanding of merfolk language so they can take him Home.
Danny didn’t necessarily Like his hideout being discovered, but hey it’s a free nap, good food, and apparently some kinda tutor…. He can see where this goes right?
Meanwhile Aquaman is finding out while the baby mer’s grasp on language is Abysmal, they’re remarkably advanced in other departments (and for angst God does this small child need food and rest, their power really seems to take it out of them and they Won’t Stop Using It)
Also I wonder if the sudden publicity over cute small baby merfolk might catch others attention. I mean they Are cute, and the rich Are Willing to spend truckloads of money for cute illegal status symbols. Bit more dangerous than usual, but Hey! Smugglers are decent at their jobs okay! They gotta be with the amounts of cash flowing their way for these kinda jobs.
It might start with just Any merfolk, but it won’t take long before the pay for The baby merfolk gets too high, and the Justice League to distracted, before someone takes a crack at Danny
"...Timmy...?"
Dick hasn't called him that since before Bruce disappeared, but it's the only thing he can say as he stares at his brother's broken, bleeding body.
Tim, Timmy, his little brother in all but blood, bleeding from his ears and eyes and nose, burned so severely his skin is peeling off, actually turns to look at him.
Freezes.
"Shit. No one's supposed to see this." Tim says, and Dick lurches forward to do...something. He doesn't know what, for all his first-aid training doesn't know how he can help when there's this much damage, but he has to do something.
But Tim disappears, like he was never there.
Or; On a ghosts death day, they gain the appearance they had at death. This includes the injuries.
Danny spends his death day very far away from home, since it actually makes his human form look like he got electrocuted to death by untold voltage and mass dosages of radiation, and he really doesn't want his mom and dad to see that, even if they're cool with the half-ghost thing.
Problem; apparently he's a dead ringer for someone Nightwing knows, and he just mentally scarred Valerie's favorite hero.
Fuck.
I see the vision but I also see the vision of Death Days being so much that Danny just isn’t aware of anything around him.
That is why he had left Amity, his family, his friends, and everything in between so he could safely go through his Death Day in peace. Danny had it all figured it out even!
He had scouted out this specific place here in New Jersey, in the darkest parts of Gotham, where barely anyone even went into anymore even in its decrypt state of potential!
Danny had made space for himself, carefully nesting out an area to comfortably die in, and waited.
He felt his body arch sharply, throat closing up on a scream as a burning struck itself through bone and flesh. He felt his blood boiling, felt his muscles jump and jerk, felt blood vessels pop until all he could taste is blood in his mouth and down his throat, drowned in blood through his nose, and went blind by the blood in his eyes.
His mind faltered in the throes of that pain, and he allowed himself to retreat into himself as his body began to break.
It isn’t Danny’s fault he was walked into!
He had accounted for everything!
He had even made sure to carefully board up his little space too (paranoia and the need to comfort himself through his death assuring that he was well hidden and protected in his most vulnerable state), so it isn’t really Danny’s fault that Nightwing crashed straight into the hallway of the building and floor of where Danny was staying.
It also wasn’t his fault that he had heard Danny’s gurgles and dying whines, nor was it Danny’s fault that apparently he looked horrifically similar to someone the guy knew.
But as Danny was very dead to the world as he was going through his aptly named Death Day, he was not aware of Nightwing keening in distress, dropping next to him and calling for attention from his fellow vigilantes within Gotham. Nor was he aware when Nightwing gently assured him that help was on the way, nor that he was being carefully transferred out from his little space towards the Batcave.
Tim Drake, also known as Red Robin, was somewhere in Europe, assisting an acquaintance he had made during his time traveling across countries, unaware of the chaos occurring back home. He was after all a little too preoccupied setting things on fire and disappearing into the darkness with dramatic flares of his cape.
But we can say that Jack and Maddie, in their many experiments with making a portal to the Ghost Zone, the place between dimensions, had at least one incident where they randomly got a perfectly human baby they named Danny.
And that it was Tim from another universe.
So when the bats run Danny's DNA, it's mostly corrupted due to Ecto, which is so pure it's being read as Lazarus Water, but there's also enough left to match him to Tim Drake. :)
~~~~~~
Damian, who doesn't like Drake but is well past wanting him dead, is furious. Whatever his grandfather did, whatever Drake did to his grandfather to earn his ire, this is too far.
He's spilling every single secret he can remember, every single location he can recall, every single trick in the books.
He agrees with Father's conclusion that his grandfather is involved; Drake's blood is a mix of mostly red, streaked with green. The more time passes, the more green there is.
Every time he sees Drake, it fuels his need to make his grandfather pay.
No one deserves this.
When he's not telling Father all that he can remember, he's sitting next to Dick, refusing any and all efforts to corral him upstairs.
He is Damian Wayne, son of Talia al Ghul and grandson of Ra's al Ghul, raised as an assassin from birth and with an impressive kill count of his own.
He will not shy away from death. He will do the duty Father refuses to and stand vigil.
~~~~~~
Dick keeps sitting next to Tim, trying to keep him clean and comfortable, but that's hard when his skin starts sloughing off from the severe burns.
Timmy's blood vessels won't stop rupturing, and he's gone through multiple blood transfusions. Leslie said it was like he was being electrocuted in slow motion, but it feels a lot more like he's just...rotting away.
Dick goes to pet at Tim's hair again, as gently as he can, only for a portion of skin to peel back with the hair at the slight pressure.
The noise Dick lets out isn't human, and Leslie is quick to block the sight from his eyes.
When she moves away, there's a bandage resting lightly on Tim's forehead, hiding the new wound.
He doesn't know why Ra's locked Tim in that room. Doesn't know if he'll ever get the image of Tim writhing on the ground as burns started appearing from nowhere, and his blood poured out of his face (he knows he won't).
The most he can do is be there, because he doesn't know when Tim's last moment will be, and according to Leslie, it's coming.
~~~~~~
Bruce is a whole different level of traumatized.
He's watched all his kids die. He's watched them come back in one way or another.
But this? This slow, painful decline? The knowledge that his son is still alive but slipping through his fingers and he can't do anything about it?
No.
He refuses.
He's not spending time with Tim beyond checking in on him every four hours, because once he finds a way to cure this, and he will, he can spend as much time with him as he wants.
Leslie is wrong. Tim will not die.
~~~~~~
Duke has been trying to get ahold of Young Justice. Any of them, at all.
But he's not having any luck.
He's two steps away from stealing the jet and going to Cissie King-Jones, stardom be damned, because he knows the kind of weird shit Young Justice got up to from his interactions with Tim, and they will never forgive any of the Bats if they weren't made aware that Tim was...that Tim was dying.
He needs to let them know, because it doesn't look like anyone else will.
It's what Tim would want.
Okay, also Duke knows Tim has a boyfriend but he can't crack any of Tim's security, and he can't remember said boyfriends name, so he really, really needs Young Justice to respond to him so they can tell him that.
He'd ask someone in the family, but this isn't really a good time and he doesn't feel like poking an already pissed off bear.
He'll figure it out on his own.
Totally.
~~~~~~
Cass can't stay in the Batcave.
Tim is too still; the others keep saying he's alive, but from what she can see he is not even present enough to dream.
He is already dead. His body just doesn't know that yet.
She cannot watch her brother's body decay while it still has a pulse. It's worse than her first kill, and she won't subject herself to that. It's what Tim would have wanted.
Instead, she occupies her time following Bruce's orders and taking out base after base of assassins.
She doesn't think she will find a cure, like Bruce is hoping, but hitting back the people who killed her brother gives her a visceral pleasure.
~~~~~~
Jason was just starting to be on semi-good terms with Tim. Sure, things weren't great, but at the end of the day he'd come to see Tim as his little brother.
Definitely not as close as Dick or Cass were to the kid, but close enough that he suited up and left with Cass without a word when he saw Tim...dying.
Decaying in real time.
Cass might not kill, but Jason has no qualms about regressing just a little bit.
He's going to make Ra's hurt so bad he'll wish he was dying slow and rotting like Tim.
~~~~~~
Alfred...can't do this anymore.
It was bad enough when Master Tim had the Clench, but at least then there was some real hope that Master Bruce would find a cure.
Bruce always looks a certain way when he's onto something, when he knows without a shadow of a doubt that he will not fail. That Bruce is very different from the Bruce sitting in front of the computer, eyes bloodshot and hair a wreck as he runs test after test.
Alfred has no illusions.
Master Tim is going to die this time, and there's not going to be a last minute save.
The most he can do is make himself help Dick treat Tim, help keep the lad as comfortable as he can.
The dust can gather upstairs. Alfred can order takeout on that damnable DoorDash. But Alfred refuses to be separated from Timothy any longer than he has to.
~~~~~~
Leslie, when she got the frantic call at 4 in the morning, had known it was going to be bad.
She hadn't known it was going to be this bad.
She didn't bother telling them to take Tim to the hospital.
In her kit, the one she always carries for cases like this, she has a series of pamphlets she makes sure are up to date. She had always hoped she would never, ever need to use them.
After looking over Tim, she had taken a few breaths. Braced herself.
Pulled them out.
Pamphlets for the best Hospice cares she knew.
She didn't take it personally when Bruce slapped them out of her hand. Didn't listen to him when he told her to leave.
Instead, she made herself at home, taking on the majority of the dirtiest work in keeping Tim as stable and alive for as long as she could.
~~~~~~
Tim is in Budapest, with the entirety of Young Justice (sans Cissie and Anita because they had previous obligations and wouldn't listen to him when he begged) and also Steph, currently dismantling an underground smuggling ring that they just found out is also a doomsday cult.
Because why not.
He's not talking to the Bats, because fuck them they all went out for ice cream and didn't invite him. They also didn't invite Steph, which was what led to her telling him about her smuggling ring she was looking into.
So everyone went for ice cream but didn't invite him or Steph.
And like, he knows it's because they didn't realize that he was awake, but still.
They could have at least tried to wake him up.
It was an asshole move, and Tim is justified in not talking to them.
Bart agrees, naturally. Kon isn't completely on board, but relented when Tim showed him the emergency beacon he'd taken with him, so not telling Bruce where he was going was covered cuz all he had to do was push the button.
Tim's pretty sure they can wrap everything up in a week anyways.
~~~~~~
A week later, Bruce hears the many, many monitors they have on Tim start beeping.
One, after the other, after the other.
Then, finally, the long, continuous wail of the heart monitor. It's quickly followed by a wretched scream from Dick, petering off into sobs.
He failed.
He didn't make it.
Tim is dead, and he didn't spend any time, at all, with his dying son.
Damian is whispering hoarsely in Arabic, a prayer that Bruce knows but cannot think of the name over the roaring in his ears.
He turns, looking at the wreck Ra's made of his son, the remains...that are glowing.
They are glowing.
The wounds recede, the blood disappears, the monitors, one by one, go silent.
Tim opens his eyes.
"...Uh. I'm...sorry?"
It is this, this stupid apology over something like dying, that finally makes Bruce break down and cry.
~~~~~~
Danny's confused. Danny's so confused.
What is happening?
What is going on?
Why is he being smothered by crying dudes in a high-tech cave?
Why does he feel like he just spent a week in a five-star spa?
Why is there a teleporter in the cave?
Why is Red Robin walking out of the teleporter tube?
Danny stares in an odd, mystified horror as Red Robin removes his mask...and his own face stares back at him.
For lack of anything to say to his apparently twin or clone or whatever, Danny defaults to motioning helplessly at everyone in varying states of mourning around him.
"I think I fucked up," is all he can offer.
~~~~~~
"Have we discovered what we did to anger the Detective this time?" Ra's sighed, dropping the report of the most recently destroyed bases in favor of massaging his temples to ward off an incoming migraine.
"Black Bat and Red Hood appear to be operating under the assumption that you have poisoned the Drake boy, and act under my Beloved's blessings."
"...But we haven't. Well, I haven't. Talia, did you poison-?"
"-No. No, I have not."
"Huh. Well, the Young Detective will survive, as he always does."
"I will go tell him that this is not an action that the League-"
"-No. He destroyed my bases, I, as the youth say, do not owe him shit. Let him find out on his own that he targets the wrong foe."
Ooooo, i love all of this. The best part about this is that after the week the bats just went through, Danny can't just dip. He owes them an explanation, he knows they deserve one. They just spent a week wtching his accident play out in slow mode.
And the little details scattered throughout his explanation will make the bats concerned and anxious.
"My parents dont even know..."
"...bad enough my friends saw the actual accident..."
"...happens every year..."
"...dont normally feel this good after..."
And after all they just witnessed, to hear him glance over his actual death as a "little zap". They can recognize the downplaying as an avoidance tactic. Ghosts dont like talking about their deaths, its almost as bad if not worse than the anniversary itself, but they just got a week long play-by-play of every millisecond he went through.
They are worried.
The whole possible twin/clone thing is on the back burner compared to everything else.
After a long night of patrolling around Amity, Danny damn near collapsed onto his bed. His back ached from a stray ectoblast and his eyes felt heavier than a mountain. Technus had done something to the technology around the town. At random a piece of technology would suddenly go rogue with a virus the ghost implemented. The virus would make the item try to capture anyone in the vicinity using any means necessary. So Danny had been doing regular patrols around town to catch anyone who needed help.
That also means that his sleeping time had been radically reduced. Without even the energy to lift his head, Danny patted around for his phone. Once he finally found the device he hefted himself on his side with a groan. It was a new phone since he was the first casualty in Technus’ plan. Thankfully, Sam had given him another so his parents wouldn’t try to make him one. (Who knows what kind of ‘anti-ghost’ protection they would’ve put on it.)
Tucker had promised that he was working on fixing the virus going around. Hopefully, he had some kind of good news to share. As soon as Danny went to message him he realized he hadn’t downloaded their chat app to the new phone. With a sigh he knew that he would just have to use normal texting but with careful codewords.
Putting in Tucker's number with a yawn, Danny sent the first message.
‘It’s your undead bro. The night out tonight was killer. Any news on the techie progress?’
Danny smashed his face into his bed with a sigh after hitting send. Knowing Tucker he was probably face first in his laptop and won’t notice the message for a bit. He could probably just close his eyes and…
Before he could even consider taking a nap there was a generic jingle from the phone. He should really get to fixing that. Tuck deserves a much better ringtone than some bells.
‘Nothing noteworthy yet. It's harder to crack than normal but nothing I can't handle. Do you need me to take over for tomorrow?’
‘Also why aren't you using our chat?’
Danny squinted at the screen with a slight frown. It had been a while since Sam or Tucker tried to go out in his place. They learned pretty quickly that it made Danny way too anxious to have them out there without him. Something about not being there to protect them if they got over their heads made Danny’s chest ache.
And of course, Tucker noticed that he wasn’t using the app he made. It was a bit glitchy at times, but what tech wasn’t when it came to Danny? Not only was it secure, but it became an easier way for them to establish a timeline for filing. Jazz had been the one who realized that they didn’t have steady information on not just the rouges but the events of the fights. It became a staple to write out what happened and what went wrong after hearing her lecture about it.
‘Don’t have it on this phone yet. And you know how I feel about you being out there.’
Danny watched the screen for a bit, waiting to see if Tucker would reply immediately again. His mom probably caught him on his computer all day and was forcing him to separate himself from it for a while. It wasn’t an uncommon thing for Ms. Foley to do.
‘Yeah yeah, Mr. Possessive. Do you need me to walk you through how to get it again?’
Snorting at the pun, Danny easily replied. If Tucker was feeling sassy enough to joke about that, then he would push some buttons back. It was a simple banter that they sometimes fell into.
‘You know how I get with technology. I’m more likely to break something. Especially since this phone is so new. Whatever happened to flip phones?’
Danny snickered to himself at the message. Tucker had an ongoing war between new and old technology. While he loved his PDA he also admired some of the top-of-the-line devices. It was like the past and the future mixed in his friend's room. He would gush about the new devices but also gush about the older ones that still had functions that the newer ones lost. But flip phones? That was the only technology he knew that Tucker hated. It was the worst of both worlds for him. He’d been so excited when Danny’s flip phone was bricked by Technus’ virus.
‘I’m going to ignore that you said that.’
‘Also there’s going to be trouble in the park near you tomorrow. I’m already planning on going. Do you want in?’
Scooting up from his lounged position, Danny started to write back his reply.
‘Of course, I’ll be there. Don’t need you to go in alone and join the dead. Unusual for him to leave his plans there though. That’ll be fun to write in the report.’
The image of Jazz reading about that brought a smile to Danny’s face. She always found it interesting when one of the ghosts would change a long-time behavior. The fact that Technus was able to keep this rather on the down low would guarantee her interest. He was always one to blatantly announce his plans to the world to hear. Even though it’s a bit of a pain that he’s learning to keep things to himself it would peak Jazz’s curiosity, which made it bearable.
‘It is weird. And don’t remind me about the report. I still have the one from last week to write and I don’t want to do it.’
That made Danny laugh to himself a little. Last week the lunch lady tried to embrace the Ultra-Recyclo Vegetarian life. In the overflow of food, Tucker had gotten trapped in veggies. He was visibly green from having to eat some to escape. Sam had been excited about it at first before she saw how much food was being wasted. She ended up getting attacked for trying to explain the damage overconsumption and food waste could bring.
‘You looked like you wanted to vomit afterward. Well, at least we are prepared this time. We don’t always get that chance.’
Danny stretched out his stubborn limbs, feeling himself try to sink into the darkness. He’d have to end the conversation sooner rather than later. At this rate, he wouldn’t have a choice on whether he was taking a nap or not. At the familiar sound of bells, he looked back down at the conversation.
‘Unfortunately. Well, I’ll be finished by the time we meet at the park. I know you usually like to sleep after a long night.’
The reply made Danny’s core feel fuzzy with happiness. Tucker always knows him so well. He doesn’t know what he did to get such a fantastic best friend. It was at times like these that Danny knew he was so glad that they were in this together. With two of his best friends at his side, it made being a vigilante so much easier to bear.
‘Thanks. Remember that not just the dead get to sleep. Don’t push yourself. Goodnight.’
With that, Danny felt comfortable with setting his phone down to get changed into pajamas. It ached on his back to take off his shirt, but Jazz would be disappointed in the morning if he didn’t. She always got that pinched look on her face when he didn’t take care of himself to her standards. Her standards weren’t exactly high up either so it made him feel extra upset when he missed the mark.
Being careful to not lie on his back, Danny got back into his bed. He curled himself into the blankets with a small smile. One last chime of bells rang out in the room, probably from Tucker saying goodnight back. Picking up his phone, he opened up the lock screen and looked at his messages.
Instead of a goodnight, his stomach dropped as he realized a different number messaged him. A very familiar number.
‘Hey dude! I know you had to get a new phone so this is me. Not only did I figure out how it’s spreading, I think I finally found a way to get rid of the virus.’
Practically throwing himself off the bed, Danny got to his feet. Both his back and his mind screamed at him as he looked over the message. He tapped back to the one he’d just been replying to, finding his heart stopping at the string of numbers. One of the area code numbers was a six instead of a nine. He’d been messaging a stranger this entire time.
Looking back at the messages he convinced himself that it was fine. He was vague enough to not be recognized. It wasn’t like this person was from Amity. They won’t recognize the correlation between him and Phantom. Surely the other person wouldn’t take his words at face value.
Worst comes to worst he can have Tucker take over his phone for a bit and make sure the other person can’t find out who he is. He hadn’t bought the phone or had it under his name in any way, so they could only find out from the conversation alone.
Breathing out a breath of air he kissed his night of sleep goodbye.
‘I’ll be over in a sec Tuck. I think I just made a mistake.’
Tim glared at the sunlight sneaking past his curtains. They were supposed to be complete darkness curtains that would keep the room dark. Unfortunately, he realized that the windows in his bedroom were cut a bit too narrow for the kind of window. So now he had to suffer sunlight every morning.
Disgusting.
With a roll of his shoulders, he could hear a small symphony of cracks from his back. The chorus continued as he stretched out his arms and extended his fingers. Was it healthy to sit and type on a computer for hours without end? No, and he’d listened to more than one lecture from multiple people about it. Was he about to break that habit? Also no. Despite Jason telling him to get some sleep in their conversation, he knew he couldn’t actually do that. He needed to stay up if he wanted to keep that promise of breaking through the USB in time for them to meet at the park.
Plus, that was the most civil conversation Tim has been able to have with Jason in a while. He could tell that the older still didn’t trust him completely, that was made obvious at the prod of Tim being in Crime Alley without him. Also, the death jokes were another tell that he wasn’t comfortable with him being around. It took a bit to realize, but Jason liked to push people away using his death as a repellant. So the fact that he brought it up multiple times showed that he doesn’t want to be close.
But other than that, it was a really pleasant conversation. There hadn’t been any underhand aggression or jeers between the lines. He could tell that he’d been tired by the way he’d been texting, but otherwise nothing else. Not only that, but making jokes? It felt like Tim had finally let in on a side of Jason he’d only been able to hear about from other people.
And as stupid as it was to hold hope for someone he really should despise… Tim just wants to be able to call Jason a friend. He’d never push for something as selfish as brothers but he wanted them to at least be amicable with each other.
So if that meant staying up all night making sure that every piece of information on the stolen USB was cracked and put into organized files? Well, it was a small price to pay.
And while that price laid heavily on him throughout the rest of his day, the anticipation of the meeting at Anda Park made up for it. He was still able to help Lucius with a hardware issue at Wayne Enterprises without fuss. It turned out to be a coolant problem that they already had a replacement part for. Then once he got home, Duke had brought over a new racing game he found. They had both fought well but in the end, Duke had scraped by with a higher score. Then later that night, after Duke had left to get some last-minute exam studies done, Tim had not only ordered food but spoke with the delivery girl. Honestly, for a guy who had barely a drop of sleep to him, Tim did well. (Especially that delivery thing. Half the time he’d get so focused on something the whole day would pass by and he’d only get in one meal.)
It felt like it had all gone by in a blink. One second Tim was getting blinded by the morning sun and then now he was getting his suit on. It felt like a real life time-skip… or maybe that was just the lack of sleep talking…
Anyways, he slowly put on his suit, making sure all the traps inside were properly set. Throughout the suit were sensors that would set off various traps if anyone got the jump on him. It was a precaution so that anyone who didn’t know how to take off the suit wouldn’t be able to. It wasn’t anything crazy like a certain someone putting explosives in their helmet, but various gases and shocks that would put off most people. It made the already hellish task of putting on the suit even more awful, but it was worth it. Plus, it brought the kind of safety that Tim needed tonight.
The tip he’d found in the USB implied that the Dollmaker would be making a move at Anda Park that night. Barton Mathis was a guy who made Tim’s skin crawl. The idea of becoming the next person to be used as parts for a doll made him more than uneasy. Which isn’t something that most people would fault him for, he’s sure.
Letting out a breath of air, Red Robin turned and put the cracked USB in his pocket. Before he could think too hard about it, he jumped out into Gotham night.
As he grappled across buildings, he couldn’t help but note the bite in the air. It was getting colder outside. Soon the rooftops and ledges would become dangerously icy to traverse. But for now, it would be fine. Crime Alley's roofs were already dangerous as is. And it was becoming easier to see how close he was getting. The quality of the buildings was slowly starting to change as he traversed deeper into Gotham. There was more damage and bullet holes littered in the bricks and less stable ground for the grapple to safely attach itself.
His arm was yanked for one last time as he finally arrived at Anda Park. The park was relatively small and just barely at the edge of Crime Alley. At its prime it was used for water fountain shows. Now the once prized fountain is molded over and full of cracks and graffiti. It’s used as a ramp for skaters now more than anything. Tim would know, he’d taken his skateboard over there once or twice in the early days of Robin.
Red Robin raised his hand to his head on autopilot to talk to Oracle when he stopped. Barbra wasn’t online today. Alfred would be manning the comms later but he would still be offline for a while. Normally Jason would switch phones so often that the only way to tell him something was through comms. Luckily he could send a message to Hood the old-fashioned way.
In one of his extremely guarded pouches, he pulled out his phone. Thankfully he already had Jason's new number so he could easily send a message. He knows that before long Jason will have yet another new phone and ditch the old one.
‘I’m at the park. I’m on Riverton and Ashford.’
Nodding to himself at the message, he sent it and started his wait. Jason was punctual when it came to something important. He’d take his time and be five minutes late on purpose for anything else but this was a Crime Alley matter. At most, he was bound to see a red helmet pop over the side of the roof within thirty minutes. So he got as comfy as he could on a cold and hard rooftop in body armor and started to wait.
While he waited he kept an eye out on Anda Park. Other than the flickering park light and a nocturnal animal or two, it was pretty quiet. Eventually, Red Robin started to play a game of ‘count the number of seconds in between each light flicker’ as he shifted to keep himself on the ready. Just as he was about to count a record forty-two seconds without a light flicker there was movement.
From what he could see there were two different groups on opposite ends. Both seemed to be on the track of meeting each other in the middle where the giant fountain lay. For a moment it was peaceful. Everything was too far away for Red Robin to tell any details, but it looked like some kind of deal.
But like everything in Gotham, the peace didn’t last.
Initially, it was just one gunshot that rang into the night. Then a whole shoot-out between the two groups began. With a muttered curse Tim shot his grapple at the flickering park lamp and let his body jerk into the motion. Normally he wouldn’t dare go after so many people at once, but he knew that Red Hood would get here any time now. He had backup on the way to help him if he got overwhelmed.
And so Red Robin jumped into the fray between the two groups. To his disgust, one of them all had grotesque masks made of human skin. It wasn’t exactly the Dollmaker’s style unless it was some kind of homage to the mask he made for the Joker. Or maybe he’s working with someone? Something to ponder on later.
Immediately he feels overwhelmed by the number of people in the area. There is gunfire coming from all angles, some aimed at him or a various member of the two groups. For a decent amount of time, Red Robin is able to dodge the bullets and knock down a good number of people. However, the luck and skill eventually ran out as he felt a bullet pierce his shoulder. His next hit with his staff missed from the hit, allowing the guy he was attacking an opportunity to nail him in the face. With a pained grimace, Red Robin adjusted his stance to cover the injury and continued his attack.
As more time went on, his demeanor became increasingly more agitated and dangerous. At this point, there were only a few more people left. Some had decided to retreat as they saw Red Robin tearing through the ranks and the others were left groaning or unconscious on the ground. With barely a glance at the carnage left behind, Red Robin took out the last of them. Throughout the fight, he’d not only been shot twice, but a knife had sliced through his suit and cut his leg, and of course been punched in the face. But that wasn’t what had him pissed off.
Jason promised that he’d be here. He had said to his face or rather through a text to his face, that he would be here. So where the hell was Red Hood!
With a growl, Red Robin turned on comms to see if Alfred was on yet. Unfortunately, it was only Nightwing and Spoiler online.
“Babybird! I was wondering where you’d been. Do you need help?” Nightwing cheered, which only felt grating to Tim’s current anger.
“Send the police to Anda Park. Warn Gordan for Dollmaker,” Was all Red Robin was able to grit out, trying not to take his anger out on the wrong person.
He could practically hear the worry from Nightwing. But before he could say anything, Spoiler was already talking.
“Anda Park? Isn’t that Crime Alley? Hood’s gonna kill you ya know,” She pointed out.
“Not before I kill him first,” Red Robin huffed, hearing a scandalized noise from Nightwing.
“Red Robin! What-”
Before the lecture could begin, Red Robin turned off his comms. Without Alfred manning them, they couldn’t be turned back on unless it was from his end. Whatever Nightwing wants to lecture him about can wait.
With a pained grunt, he climbed back onto the rooftops again. He didn’t want to jostle his arm around on the grapple, so he was stuck to climbing the rusty fire escape. Once at the top he finally allowed himself to stew in his anger. Taking out his phone, he fully prepared himself to call Jason and chew him out for leaving him stranded. But once he opened it he saw that he had a new message from Jason's number.
He opened up the chat, feeling his anger get roughly pushed down from confusion. In all caps were two words from Jason.
‘TECHNUS RISE’
What the hell does that mean? What is Technus? Is it a person? A group? Tim shook his head and started to reply. His gloved hands roughly tapped out his thoughts, now both confused and frustrated. This better not be some stupid prank.
‘What the hell are you talking about Jason? Where were you tonight? This is serious!’
Immediately afterward his phone was spammed with the same message over and over again. It completely took over the chat. Before long his reply was pushed deep into nothing.
As the same thing was messaged over and over, the anger simmered down to a gut-wrenching feeling. This wasn’t normal. Jason wouldn’t pull a prank this way.
When he pulled a prank, it was usually a physical thing. He’d put red-dyed mustard in the ketchup bottle or itching powder in your suit. He wouldn’t spam your phone with an ominous message. Either this was a warning, or this wasn’t Jason.
‘TECHNUS RISE. TECHNUS RISE. TECHNUS RISE.’
Suddenly the phone was a burning ember in his hands. Even through the thermal gloves, it felt like Tim had stuck his hands into a fire. With a hiss, he dropped his phone on the roof. On the ground he could see his phone was still being spammed over and over. Despite how hot it felt to touch it didn’t make any sizzling noise.
‘TECHNUS RISE. TECHNUS RISE.’
With a disturbed curiosity, he watched as his phone began to glow green. Like it was weightlessly floating in space, the device began to rise from the ground. This had to be something magic-related. That was the only thing that could explain the way his phone was now slowly spinning mid-air to once again show him the screen.
He tried to turn on his comms and ask for backup. This wasn’t something he wanted to handle alone. This felt like something big.
But all that came through was an ear-piercing ring. Red Robin practically ripped it out of his ear to get away from the awful sound. He cradled his ear with one of his hands, still eyeing the floating device in front of him.
“Technus rise,” An automated voice rang out before two mechanical arms sprouted from his phone.
He barely dodged the attack, letting out a hiss as the cut on his leg ached. With wary eyes he flung himself to the side once more, the arms continuously reaching for him. More and more wires sprouted from the phone, all aiming for him. Without backup and not knowing what the hell was happening, Red Robin began to run from the device. Unfortunately, there weren’t any roofs on a similar plane as him, leaving him to either jump off or grapple higher.
His shoulder screamed at him as he quickly aimed his grapple. Avoiding another swipe from the phone's glowing wires, he shot out the hook. He didn’t have time to check if it was safe to put his weight on it. Seeing another arm making a sweep for him, he jumped off the edge.
Only the grapple didn’t hold.
For a moment he felt his heart stop in his chest. It was like a weight had put itself there. A weight that he could die from this height.
He wasn’t able to ponder that thought for long as a green wire wrapped itself around his waist. At that moment, he didn’t even care that he’d been captured. Struggling against the hold, he looked up at his phone once more. It now had glowing green eyes on the screen and a horrifically organic mouth.
“You will make a fine specimen for the Technus army. Technus, master of technology has recruited you…
The Number You Have Called Cannot Be Reached - Part 14
Let's just ignore I've updated this story three days in a row, @ailithnight asked me to make them cry, so we're giving the challenge a shot. This was written today and may very well have typos. Also it literally can't go on like this, I have work tomorrow.
First | Masterlist
Ship: Dead on Main (Danny/Jason)
Fandom: DP x DC Summary:
Danny is just trying to build a portal home, becoming a thief was just an unfortunate side effect of that goal. Now if only this vigilante family would just leave him alone. Especially Red Hood - the semi retired crime lord whose ghost-like presence keeps drawing Danny to him.
Jason had called ahead to let them know he was coming to the cave and then promptly turned off his comms again. He didn’t need to hear their questions. Not on comms. It was bad enough he had to face them.
He drove into the cave, his resolve the only thing keeping him from turning right around. Everyone but Bruce were in their civvies at this point. Jason shouldn’t be so surprised Bruce had called it a night. Not after ghost jumping off a roof in front of them.
Bruce did care, and Jason could tell himself that now without poison dripping into his ear about how it was only to keep his little soldiers at the top of their game. He was too exhausted to appreciate the missing put at the moment, he just wanted to go home and try to forget for a moment that Ghost had left again, but he had to do this.
Dick was sitting with an arm around Tim on the meeting table. Tim looked wrecked - good, he thought grimly and immediately felt guilty. He didn’t even have the pit to blame and yes Jason was angry about what had happened tonight, but really he was just as angry at himself. Jason might have tried to make them understand that Ghost needed help, but he’d done a poor job of it and they didn’t hear his grief for themselves.
They hadn’t felt Ghost’s terror in their electricity trap, his desperate fight to control his panic, they hadn’t felt it as he fell or the shock of pain as he landed. They hadn’t felt the panic reach a fever pitch and then utter silence.
They hadn’t been 50 yards away on another building, running, because they knew something terrible was about to happen. They weren’t the ones who thought they might have already been too late even as they caught him out of the air.
But Ghost had been alive. He’d been breathing. Panicked, but breathing, yet still utter silence.
Jason had been terrified.
And yes he was angry. He should have never let it get so far even in his desperation. They needed to stop chasing him. It wasn’t working.
It had nearly cost him his life.
He was a fucking burglar, not a rogue! He wasn’t a murderer who would kill someone if he wasn’t stopped. They should have never used this level of force. They never would have used this level of force if it wasn’t for Jason and his erratic behavior. It was on Jason, not Tim who was a seventeen year old kid just trying to keep this cursed family together.
Damian was sitting at the meeting table a few seats away from where Tim and Dick were sitting on the table and for him to willingly be that close to Tim without any needle-ing commentary it was practically the equivalent of a hug.
Jason sighed, then pulled off his helmet and left it on the bike. He couldn’t hide behind the safety of its smooth surface, not for this. He walked over to the meeting table, knowing it would draw the rest over there.
Damian took one look at him, with that sharp judgment that was always in his eyes. “You let him get away.”
Jason grit his teeth, refusing to rise to what was just an observation, but it had been a trying night and it was tempting to snap, that he didn’t let him do anything.
“His powers returned,” he said finally, carefully even-toned.
Tim looked up shortly at that and Dick squeezed his shoulder. Normally, Tim would have been on that detail like a hawk. How long did it last? Did the powers return gradually or all at once? Were there other adverse effects? And probably more questions Jason had not even thought to consider because that was just Tim. Now, Tim was silent.
“Jason?” Bruce asked carefully from somewhere to Jason’s left. Jason couldn’t look at him. Last time they’d been this close Jason had almost shot him.
Stephanie and Cass joined Tim and Dick to sit on the table, and Damian allowed Cass’ hand in his hair only because she could kick his ass six ways ’til Sunday. Duke was the last to join their loose circle standing to Jason’s right.
Jason didn’t have any excuses left. He even saw Alfred standing a ways further by the wall. Everyone was here. Babs was definitely still on comms with Bruce, even if the cowl was pulled back.
He tried to take a steadying breath without being too obvious about it. He probably failed, horribly.
“You have to leave Ghost to me.”
“Jay… you’ve not exactly…” Dick said carefully, the only one willing to even go near the fact that Jason should be the last person to go after Ghost. That he had been far from rational about the whole thing. That he was invested, personally more than they could even guess.
“I need-“ Jason looked to the ceiling, breathing for just a moment, before looking down again. “I need you to trust me on this, to let me handle it. What happened tonight… it cannot happen again.”
He clenched his hands, gathered every shred of courage, then looked to Bruce.
“Dad, please…”
He ignored the gasps from his siblings, from shock or outrage that he of all people pulled this card, maybe both, it didn’t matter. Jason only had eyes for Bruce’s stunned face, for the way his jaw tightened and his eyes were moist under pained brows. He only had ears for the way Bruce’s voice broke partway as he said: “Of course, Jaylad.”
“Thank you,” Jason whispered, afraid his voice would fail him if he spoke any louder. He held Bruce’s gaze with his as he said it, because he deserved to know how much that meant to him. The urge to go over to Bruce was strong, to see if his dad would hug him if given the chance - he thought he would, but that, that would be too much, and the pit would be back in a couple of days.
Jason couldn’t handle any more tonight.
He gave Bruce a tight nod and turned to leave, avoiding looking at the reactions of his siblings.
Out the corner of his eyes as he left, he absently noted the purple backpack he’d stolen from Ghost sitting by the evidence board and that metal cylinder, Ghost had left behind the night Jason had met him, sitting on a shelf amongst other knickknacks.
In the back of his mind an idea was taking shape, but he'd only realize that the next day.
-
I made myself cry writing this, that happens very rarely. Jason has had a really bad day, but it was the father-son feelings that did me in.
I do not know when I will update next time, the chapter this part belongs to is like 2/3rds done now, but it's the middle I need to fill out. Oh well, I'm enjoying the writing bug while it lasts.
Description: During a Pit flare up one of Jason's longest 'goons' reveals healing abilities he kept secret and offers Jason the chance to take out his anger on him. As this strange relationship unfolds Jason learns more about the man he previously knew as 'Fox'.
You can find the series on AO3 if you'd rather follow it there: https://archiveofourown.org/series/4130452
GIW finds out, but Tucker and Sam run with Danny too.
He's pretty sure there's no place on Earth they can hide that the GIW won't hunt them down eventually.
Unless...
He takes them somewhere the GIW can never go. He doesn't want to leave Earth, and he won't, because there might be another option.
Liminal Abilities are meant to adapt with the user. They're meant to guarantee survival.
Danny's adapted so much he became only half human. His ghost form can very easily adapt to pretty much anything, so his insane plan isn't so far fetched for him.
He, Sam, and Tucker steal a boat. It's technically a yacht, and it's technically Sam's parents, but they got rid of the GPS tracker and drove it out to sea until it ran out of gas.
He has Sam and Tucker ingest straight ectoplasm, and then hang out in the water for a few hours.
He's trying to trigger their liminality to make them akin to Atlanteans; able to breathe and thrive underwater, but still able to go to land if the need arose.
Look, look, the plan worked. Sure they weren't expecting to actually become merfolk all proper like. But! It worked! There is NO way the Atlanteans won't see them and be like, yup one of us! Right? Also, they can hide so much this way! If they say they are half human! (Technically true) and on the run from a shady government organisation? There is NO way they won't be looked after! Sure, learning how to move again is weird. But it's highly intuitive. Also, when Danny hopped back onto the boat? He gained legs again. So, it's not like they can't even go back top side! It's all going to be fine. (rumbling storm clouds of Aquaman's righteous fury in the distance)
What if mer already existed in the Atlantean past? They’re a species that died out due to trouble on the surface and due to the fact that they didn’t have the ability to adapt. Mer were protectors and guardians of the ocean. They were incredibly fast, agile, and in sync with the ocean in a way Atlanteans had to learn. They were the pride and joy of Atlantis. And then mer went extinct. Atlantis had to adapt to the lack of the oceans favorite sons and daughters but now they returned.
Three children. Three mer children. Having heard about Atlantis in only stories and holding tales of those hunting them for the crime of there existence. Atlantis grew angered. The mer were the sons and daughters of the ocean itself. The surface world has no right to touch them let alone hurt them.
So they took the children in. Protected by the strongest soldiers, loved in the heart of the city, with the best tutors to teach them. These mer would be safe even as Atlantis’s anger grew and Aquaman tried half heartedly to keep his people in check.
Side note I want them all to developed powers. Like water manipulation, talking to ocean creatures, etc. also maybe one of thems just flat out a siren.
Amity Park's ancestors were witches, right?...Right? I don't remember
WHAT IF it wasn't JUST witches? So as HUMANS for GENERATIONS the blood got mixed and they all have some potential to awaken their other sides. The triggering point was the ectoplasm. It only awakened what their bodies needed to survive.
Werewolves for Tucker for the win of course, witches for Sam as a treat for all and only Danny is more human than most...was, now ghosts for our space boi
And merfolk have looong ago joined the mix or joined along the way, maybe joining forces to hide their little hideout
Danny puts up with a lot of stress, okay.
His coping mechanism is....okay, it's a little weird, he's not gonna lie.
It is widely known that he has a human form and a ghost form; it is not widely known that his ghost form can do pretty much whatever he wants it to.
This includes making it smaller. Changing the ghost tail to a fish one. Making the suit be scales instead of a suit.
He does it so many times he now officially has three forms, and one of them is purely for himself and no one else.
His stress relief is to go to the aquarium, switch to the tiny merman form, and hide in the rocks of his favorite exhibit; the shark exhibit.
He stays in the back, away from the people visiting it's sight, and just vibes. He's even made a small cave the sharks can't fit into a tiny little nest.
No one would expect him there. No one would be looking for him there. He was free to just...take a moment.
Well, so he thought.
Because the humans visiting did see him. Multiple times.
They took pictures.
Now the Amity Park Aquarium is in some deep shit with Atlantis, because there's documented proof that they're keeping a literal baby mer in there as a spectacle.
Consider: Perhaps mers naturally grow to the size befitting their environment. They don't really have distinct species, they simply adapt to the space and food availability around them. The same mer that only gets to about humanoid size in a river could grow massive if moved to a lake or ocean with abundant food.
So when Aquaman catches these pictures and discovers they date back several months and the supposed-to-be-fast-growing mer baby isn't so much as an inch bigger, he concludes that the Aquarium is keeping the baby underfed and confined to a tiny area to keep it small and "cute".
Realizing the infant is in a tank with sharks, predators that would gladly eat something the size of a baby mer, only stokes his rage.
I’m just imagining the idea that Danny himself has NO IDEA that Aquaman and his entourage are even coming fast into Amity Park because he’s just so focused on everything else in his (unfortunate) teenage life.
Aquaman? Yeah he knows WHO the guy is, who wouldn’t know who the Justice League members are, but is he keeping up with that news? No.
He’s barely even awake in school to process the news from other teenagers and teachers. He’s deliberately blocking out all the chatter just to take standy-uppy cat naps. He doesn’t have the time or brain capacity to handle you.
Going little baby man mer is his time to really relax. To unwind, laze about, and curl in his little nest with all his little possessions like a fish dragon and just rest.
So of course after a treacherous day AND night, Danny simply slips his way into the Aquarium and into his favorite water tank with the sharks where he has to avoid their curious nipping so he can unwind in his little enclosure.
It’s only going to be a little while after all.
Just a little moment to stretch out, rake his claws across the walls to make some doodles; maybe even watch the cold night outside before a short decided nap.
Just… a little… nap.
Sleep takes Danny fast and swift, and Danny stays at the Aquarium far longer than anticipated.
But Danny is so tired, and it isn’t like it’s the first time he’s overslept to the gentle sound of shark fins swimming through the artificial currents and was rocked to sleep by the gentle waves in the tank.
So what if he sleeps there longer than intended?
No one has ever seen him before, and Danny has never minded the light of the rising sun when it brings the sharks to wakefulness, or the building noise of a slowly waking Aquarium building.
It is all familiar noise to sleep to.
He only slightly minds it when he hears static — electricity — zapping outside, making his sleepy little self jerk and whine before he curls himself deeper into his tail.
It’s silent.
It’s so blissfully silent for a very long time that Danny’s tension flows right out of him.
An ear fin twitches at the sudden change in the waters currents, something bigger having entered, but nothing the sharks seemed to be worrying over. Danny thus pays little mind as he drifts away to sleep once more.
But maybe he should have tried being a little more awake, a little more alert. Surely then he would have noticed the sharks gurgling, would have noticed the tip of a sharks nose pressing against the hidden opening of his nest. Surely Danny would have noticed a very human-like hand reaching through the entrance to fish him out.
Arthur managed to gently remove the infant without waking them up.
Their tail, black with white tipped scales, wrapped around his wrist loosely.
They were small, defenseless, left in a tank full of sharks, and completely trusting as they tried to burrow into his chest, hiding their face from the world.
It took everything he had not to think back to the last baby he'd held.
The son he'd lost, trapped and unable to breathe, in a small container while a predator circled around-
Arthur stopped that train of thought, focusing on securing the small, definitely underweight infant.
The sharks circled, concerned in the limited capacity that they had.
'Little Biter does not eat,' one says.
'Little Biter tastes weird, you will fix.' another orders.
Oh, he'd fix it.
The water shifted as Mera gracefully stepped in, carrying with her a an incubator. Inside was relatively bare, but soft and full of water for the child to breathe as they transported them to Atlantis, where a team of doctors was already prepared and waiting.
He gently unwound the tail from his wrist, taking the blanket from Mera and swaddling the little one with a muscle memory he was sure he'd forgotten.
That done, and the child safely in the incubator, he turned to look at the owner of the Aquarium.
The man was crying, swearing up and down he had no idea how the kid had gotten in there.
Arthur would find out if that was the truth soon enough; J'onn was already on his way.
The stuff written around the characters on this drawing are, for the most part, obsolete (especially the ages) or will be slightly changed so only use the character cards as references for them (found in the story's parts)
Some lil details : this AU takes place in the YJ cartoon universe during the 5 (?) years gap between season 1 and 2 (bc I never got over the 1st season). So as you must've guess it we'll see the team, minus Robin obviously,, It is also mostly Dck-centered
I'll try as much as I can to not be too ooc but they're all aged down and most the stuff they went through hasn't happen yet in this universe, only the formative ones kinda..? But they're not vigilantes here, just street kids trying to survive together.
And finally this is just me having fun with the DC universe, please don't take this too seriously. It is mainly supported by headcanons of mine. Im no comics writer and errors will most likely be made but hey that's part of the game and I hope you'll enjoy it nonetheless !
--This AU was inspired by the fic The Birds by Oceanera12 on AO3 read it it's so good--
The story :
here’s the beginning !!
Part 2
Part 3
Part 4
Part 5
Part 6
Extras : how the gang came to be , pile of siblings
Set in a mer AU in which Amity Park is Amity Island, a beach resort attracting all sorts of tourists, including the eccentric billionaire Bruce Wayne and his son...
But tragedy strikes when a person or persons unknown spirit the young Damian away~~
And now one Danny Phantom is tasked with bringing the boy home, even if it means crossing an ocean and evading danger at every corner :3
