Omg but imagine the OPness of the Powerpuff Girls meeting the OPness of Danny Phantom. Dear lord they would be best friends
okay I-- I know what I just said about crossovers but, imagine the PPG and Danny being the only heroes they’ll each work with because they’re the only “real” heroes in each other’s scopes. Danny is the girls’ spooky Casper-esque friend
But I’m not sure the Fentons and the Professor could meet, because
Just wait till he finds out he got his powers in a lab accident.
Danny gripped his bangs in his fist, staring down at the paperwork before him with endless frustration and not a lick of comprehension.
Why was there so much paperwork, anyway? Pariah Dark hadn't exactly seemed like the type to keep records. Had he done this on purpose? As punishment to whomever wound up taking the throne from him? Danny had to admit, that sounded like a really devious plan. Unless the next ruler had been, like, The Secretary Ghost or something.
… that gave Danny an idea.
Clockwork had told him about this "Kingly Connection" thing he had yet to try out. Supposedly, it made it so that the king could address his subjects all at once, no matter where they may be. In case of an urgent announcement or Realms-threatening danger, or something.
To Danny, it sounded like a really efficient way to send out a 'Help Wanted' ad. Everyone would be able to hear it, and anyone who for some reason didn't could learn about it through word of mouth. Those who felt they were qualified could come see him at the Keep, and those who didn't could just continue on with whatever they'd been doing. It was the perfect plan.
Danny flopped back in his seat, relieved for the reprieve as he shut his tired eyes. He followed the pull, down, down, into his core… and then even further, til the light behind his eyes got brighter, til he reached the power of the KING.
Hey, everyone. This is your King speaking. I need like, a secretary or something. Someone who can help me handle literal millennia of paperwork. So, if y'all could come on down to the Keep, or pass the offer on to the smartest person you know, that'd be dope.
Danny felt as the power pulsed within his chest, sending his message out along the millions of tiny strings tying all Undead souls back to his. He sighed and slouched in his chair, exhaustion finally catching up to him. All he had to do now was wait. A little nap in the meantime couldn't hurt, could it?
— — —
Jason felt simultaneously floaty and more grounded than he had since his mysterious resurrection. All his anger and uncertainty was just gone, replaced by pure drive and direction. He wasn't thinking very deeply, but he knew what he was doing. It was like laying on the surface of a sunlit lake, letting the gentle waves take him wherever they wished.
The Red Hood finished the chalk circle in the middle of the wide, empty warehouse floor and stepped back. The lines and starbursts that decorated it were drawn immaculately, without a single smudge. Now, all he needed was…
… the smartest person you know…
… Where was Tim?
— — —
Edit: Now includes multiple parts! You can find #2 HERE.
paladin mike after finding the letters in mike's bedroom: ah! so my counterpart does have the longing inside him that the non-magical william and michael denied so hesitantly! i shall go show them right away post-haste!!!!
paladin mike, waving the letters in his hands: oh william- i mean will!!! i have solid proof that your michael does in fact desire you!!!
normal mike frowning before looking at what the fucks going on: wait- no NONONO
Commissioner Jim Gordon meets an odd kid in the precinct.
--
“Come on, you really don’t have a way to directly contact Batman?”
Jim smiled. Kids came to the station and asked that all the time. Usually, it was just curiosity and showing them the signal was enough to get them to sign up for the Junior Police program. This one looked a little older than most, teenagers were often “too old” to believe in Batman, but again, give them a little faith now and they’ll never loose it.
“Lookin’ for the Bat, kid?” Jim asked, knowing he was about to make this kid’s –
Jim froze. The kid turned to face him and it was Bruce Wayne. Not playboy billionaire Bruce Wayne, but freshly a teenager Bruce Wayne. The Bruce Wayne who Jim had checked in on time and again from age eight until he ran off on a globetrotting trip to find himself. The little Bruce Wayne with too pale skin and dark bags under his eyes, and not enough love to make up for all the grief weighing him down. And he didn’t look like Damian either, where Bruce was obviously his father but there were distinct traits from his mother. This was a carbon copy of a boy Jim remembered vividly.
“I am.” He even sounded like teenage Bruce. All business, like he was on a mission.
“I might be able to help you, but it’ll take a while.” Jim said and the officer the kid had been talking too gave him an odd look. He waved her off and told the kid to follow him to the commissioner’s office. Normally, he’d be more dramatic, put on more of a show for the kid, but his gut told him this was different, this was important. He offered the kid a styrofoam cup of water then closed the door behind him. “So, what do you need to talk to Batman for?”
“It’s personal. I need to talk to him in person.”
Jim took a sip of coffee from his cup. “He doesn’t appreciate me calling for no reason in the middle of the day.”
“So you do have a direct line?” The kid nearly jumped out of his seat. “If he’s upset, it’ll be my fault, just call him, please.”
“Who should I say wants to talk to him?”
The kid hesitated. “He doesn’t know me, but I have to talk to him.”
Jim frowned. “What’s your name, kid?”
He swallowed and looked like he wasn’t going to answer for a moment. “Danny.”
“Danny…?” Jim wanted a last name but Danny kept quiet. Jim sighed, “He’s likely not going to show up until sundown.”
“I can wait, as long as you guarantee he’ll show.”
“And you’re not going to tell me why you need Batman?” Jim just got a glare in response. “What about one of the other heroes?”
“Only Batman, no one else can help.”
“You sure about that? Not even Superman?”
“Not unless Superman can get me in the same room as Batman.”
“Why’s it so important that you meet him in person?”
“It’s personal.”
Jim liked this less and less by the minute. “Do your parents know you’re here?”
Danny looked away but right when it looked like he wouldn’t say anything he mumbled. “They wouldn’t care anyway.”
After another moment to give the kid time to reconsider, Jim pulled out the Bat-phone. It was a normal Wayne-Tech cell phone, but Jim had been given very specific instructions on how and when to use it. The phone listed all the Gotham Vigilantes without visible numbers so they couldn’t be copied and handed out. He pressed the one for Batman.
“Stand outside, would you?” The kid gave him a look, but followed the request. Jim could see his shadow in the door’s window, not so subtle eavesdropping.
It rang a few times, and Jim sat there awkwardly with a teenager listening to his every move. Finally, a familiar voice picked up the other end of the line. “Commissioner Gordon.”
“Sorry to call you out of the blue Batman, but I’ve got a kid here who needs your help.”
“Who?”
“Says his name is Danny, that you’ve never met him but you’re the only one who can help him.”
“Why?”
“Refuses to tell me.”
“What’s your best guess, Commissioner?”
Jim looked at Danny’s shadow, it looked like he was straining his ears to try and hear what he was saying. Danny had given him almost nothing to work with. Just his name, that he’s never met Batman but needs to talk with him in person. But Jim was here because he listened to his gut. A feeling like when you see a random rock on your neighbor’s doorstep but you’d never go in without an invitation. A feeling like you know what’s in the present and are preparing your surprised face. A feeling like when you cheated on your wife and you know she knows.
“He looks like Bruce Wayne.”
A beat of silence. “What?”
“Danny looks exactly like Bruce when he was a teenager. Exactly the same.” Jim hoped Batman would get it, feel in his gut what Jim felt.
“And he wont say why he’s there?”
“No, and he demands to see you in person.”
“I’ll be there in an hour.”
“10-4.” The line cut off before Jim had finished saying it. He called Danny in again. “He’s on his way.”
Danny glared at him. “If he’s not, if you called some social worker or something, you’ll regret it.”
“I’m sure.” Jim sighed and downed the rest of his now cold coffee.
The sun hadn’t set, but only just barely. Jim ended up taking Danny up to the roof in the end after all, if only to save his window from being broken into. The kid had a red hoodie on, but he was still shivering in the autumn chill and it was just going to get colder by the minute as the sun made its way behind the horizon.
Jim checked his watch and, at exactly an hour from when he called, he acted surprised when Batman and Robin appeared out of nowhere. “Bats.”
“Commissioner.” Batman greeted but his eyes went straight for Danny. “Danny, I assume.”
“Yeah, I…” Danny hesitated, looking at Jim and Robin.
All it took was four words from Batman. “What do you need?”
The kid held out his hand with a flash drive in it. “I’m your clone. My par- The people who made me wanted to make a stronger version of you, but they got ahead of themselves. My DNA is degrading and I’ll die if I don’t get your DNA to stabilize me.”
Holy cow.
“You don’t expect us to believe that, do you?” Robin sneered at him.
“The flash drive has all the info on it. All the data about the cloning process and the, uh, relevant experiments after that.” Batman gave the kid a look. “I didn’t want to waste time on unnecessary data.”
“If what you’re saying is true, why are you here, alone? Are they working on a different solution?”
Danny’s shoulders hiked up. “I’ve been a failure for a while now, I’m not worth the resources and they’d learn more from an autopsy.”
Oof, kid. Jim looked at Batman who seemed to feel the same… if Jim was reading him right.
“So, you wont object to a DNA test?” Robin asked with a cocky head tilt, at least he was relatively easy to read.
“You can try.” Danny said, and then realized what that sounded like. “I mean I wont stop you, but my DNA degrades faster outside my body. You’ll have to take me to whatever lab you plan on using.”
“Then we will.” Batman said and jerked his head towards where they’d probably parked that ridiculous car of his. But then he looked at Jim with a nod. “Commissioner.”
“Batman.” Jim returned the nod. “You’ll tell me how things turn out, yeah?”
“I’ll give you a report.” Batman joked – Jim could tell, it was gut feeling.
The Commissioner had said that the boy looked exactly like him. It was true, physically, but there were marked differences as well. Bruce studied him as Alfred was gently taking blood for testing.
Danny looked tired; it was likely that he'd been traveling for days, perhaps longer, but he didn't have a bag. Hopefully, he'd dropped it somewhere to retrieve later, but it was also possible that he'd been unable to gather resources before coming to Gotham.
It did beg the question of how he expected this to go. Did he intend to take a DNA sample and leave? Did he have a way of stabilizing himself, or would he return to his creators with the new sample and ask for their help? What traits had he 'failed' to present that they had expected? The number of unanswered questions aggravated Bruce. How much education had he received? Had data simply been uploaded, as with Kon?
But more than tired, Danny looked withdrawn. He shied away from Alfred, and the curious gazes of the Bats that had been spared from patrol. (Spoiler and Red Hood were still out.) His gaze was lowered, his shoulders hunched, like a shamed child. Danny seemed to lack the rage Bruce had exhibited at that age; in its place was a kind of defeat, likely from his abandonment.
Bruce suspected that he felt overindulged just to get a DNA sample, and meant to leave as swiftly as possible after that, as to not be a bother.
"I don't know if my DNA will hold together long enough to be tested," Danny said again, strained and frustrated. "It has… other problems, from some of the later experiments."
That was a half-truth, but Bruce quickly assessed it as a problem for later. "Understood."
"Everything's set up to be as fast as possible," Tim added, arms crossed as he watched. "If it breaks down before I can finish, we'll know it's not your fault."
Danny didn't look reassured. "And… what would you do?"
"We'll exercise our best judgment," Bruce said evenly.
It was obvious that Danny immediately interpreted that as 'we will play it safe and refuse to help you,' by the way his head dropped with a soft, resigned sigh, but Bruce meant what he said. Based on Danny's behavior in the interim, and his stated plans for how to proceed, he would make a judgment call. Calculated risks were Bruce's specialty.
From Damian's unwavering stare, he didn't agree with Bruce's metrics.
"This family is well acquainted with clones, I assure you," Alfred said, kinder than any of the rest of them. "We're well aware that it's not your fault where you came from. Unless we find evidence to the contrary, you are nothing more sinister than a child who desperately needs help."
Yes. A child who, one way or another, was related to Bruce.
"Recklessness," Damian muttered, his restless shifting giving away the extent of his unease. (Damian never was particularly fond of Kon either.)
Alfred handed the blood sample to Tim, who immediately scurried off with it and went to process the sample as quickly as the chemistry of the process would allow. In the following silence, Danny shoved his hands in his lap, seemingly attempting to pretend not to exist. It was an… odd look, for Bruce to see on his own face.
"If you receive a DNA sample, what do you intend to do with it?" Bruce asked abruptly. Danny glanced up, giving him a skeptical look.
"…Stabilize my DNA?" he suggested.
"Do you have the knowledge to do that yourself, or do you intend to return to the people who created you?" Bruce clarified. "Or do you know of another person who may be able to stabilize you?" There were more people in the world that had the relevant knowledge, plenty of whom would be pleased to have even a 'failed' clone of Batman indebted to them. Most of them weren't especially trustworthy.
Danny grimaced slightly, indicating he wasn't happy with his options either. "I know a guy," he said at last, reluctantly. "He's familiar enough with the cloning process that he can probably help. He's not great, but he won't let me die if he can stop it."
That indicated two things: that Danny was not certain this man would succeed, and that he did not like this man. "Define 'not great.'"
"Father," Damian said, exasperated. Bruce ignored him.
Danny shifted, clearly uncomfortable under Bruce's unwavering attention. "He's… dangerous, and immoral," he admitted, crossing his arms uncomfortably. "He's the one that discovered that I'm a clone, and that my DNA is unstable. I… didn't grow up knowing." He clenched his jaw.
"You grew up," Bruce said without meaning to. Danny shrugged tensely.
"My… creators knew that my DNA was unstable, and they hoped letting me grow naturally would help," Danny said. He smiled sardonically. "It did, technically. I'm destabilizing slowly instead of all at once."
Bruce nodded, a pit growing in his stomach. "The man you're trusting to help you."
"I don't have a lot of options," Danny said flatly. "Fewer than most clones would. It's fine. He's obsessed with me; he discovered the problems with my DNA in the process of trying to clone me. Like I said, he won't let me die, and he's not interested in you. He's interested in… traits I acquired during experimentation." Evasive again.
"What does he want in exchange."
That earned him a confused glance. "Nothing from you," Danny said. Bruce held his gaze, waiting. "…He hasn't said. I don't have any power to negotiate, so I decided it was a problem for later. Probably, he'll demand to adopt me. I expect he'll have rules. I don't really know. We haven't exactly gotten that far."
"Why."
Danny sighed, leaning back on the table where he was still seated. "He's lonely," he said, with unexpected and open pity. "He wanted to marry my mom-" Twitch. "…The woman, of the couple that made me." An open wound, Bruce noted. "But he couldn't. He has no one."
Bruce's mouth curled down. "Has he assaulted you?"
Danny looked at him again, clearly unsettled by his concern. "Sexually? No. And he hasn't indicated that he wants to. Physically?" He huffed. "Well… maybe he'll stop once he has what he wants." There was no fear there, only bitterness.
Bruce pulled the picture together in his mind. According to his words, Danny had grown up believing he was a normal child, despite experimentation that left lingering effects (unless 'experimentation' was a euphemism for something else?) and had only recently discovered otherwise because another man was attempting to clone him. To acquire him. That man had, apparently, told Danny, and they had composed a plan to attempt to save his life, possibly without Danny ever returning to his creators after the revelation.
"And you intend to stay with him."
Danny clenched his jaw, glaring at the floor. "I told you, I don't have a lot of options," he gritted out. "We'll see, okay? Maybe he'll calm down once I'm actually living with him and not beating him off me with a stick. I'm sorry I can't MacGuyver my way out of this like you can." Tight and insecure.
Either Danny was a very good actor, or he actually expected that Bruce would knowingly send him away to live with a 'dangerous and immoral' man that he described as 'obsessed' with him. Given Bruce's extensive experience with damaged teenagers, he suspected it was the latter.
Tim was acquainted with the cloning process, due to his close friendship with Kon. And Oracle would most likely be able to recover CADMUS' research on stabilizing cloned DNA. An idea started to form in Bruce's mind.
At that moment, Tim returned from the lab, far too soon to have finished the DNA extraction process, let alone analyzed it.
"I don't know how you get this from DNA," Tim announced, holding up a tube of buffer fluid that for some reason glowed faintly green, "but I have never seen a sample break down so fast."
Damian glared at the clone as Father and Drake attempted to turn whatever they had in the cave into a machine that could analyze the clone’s DNA before it disintegrated.
“Sorry I’m late.” Nightwing said as he walked towards where Damian stood watching at a distance from the Bat-Parking Garage. “What’s the situation, Robin?”
“Did you not read the brief Father sent out?”
“I did, I just want your opinion – and to know what they’re doing right now?”
“I believe they are attempting to create a machine that will cycle the clone’s blood as it analyses. The clone seems to be marginally competent at engineering and is assisting.”
“You know his name is Danny, right?”
“I doubt it.” Damian huffed as his stare got more intense.
“You doubt his name?” Nightwing asked. “Why?”
“You don’t find it suspicious?” Damian turned so his face was more towards Dick but the clone was still within his vision. “He did everything we asked, and answered every invasive question, without hesitation.”
“He's dying, of course he's telling us everything.”
“Would you? Would any of us?”
Dick turned and stared at him.
“He’s not a civilian.” Damian continued. “He said the people who made him wanted to make a better Batman. Would Batman ever be this forthcoming?”
“He’s nothing like B, though, outside of appearance?”
“We don’t know that.” Damian managed to keep his voice down despite wanting to shout it from the rooftops. “We don’t know who he is or if he’s telling the truth. We should have brought him to an external lab. We should have been more cautious -but…” Damian forcefully motioned towards where the trio were working on their analysis machine.
Dick sighed, but his frown turned into a soft smile for just a moment before he looked serious again. “I get it.”
Damian doubted that, and his doubt was proven true when Dick continued. “It’s scary when B just decides to bring in another kid. It changes all the dynamics and we each get less attention and… Danny is also technically B’s blood son, he was literally made from B’s blood. And he looks like he’s what? A year older than you? This is big for you-”
“Stop.” Damian rubbed his face then grabbed Dick’s arm.
“Listen to me.” Damian pulled Dick down a little so their eyes were a little more even. “When the clone’s blood broke down it looked like Lazarus Water. It was – I can feel it’s the same even if it evaporated before the analyzer could identify it. And this is exactly the type of thing Grandfather would do! How could a pair of random scientists get enough of Batman’s genetic material to make a clone? The list of who wants to make a “better batman” is a short one, and my maternal family is on that list. Presenting Father with a dying clone child that has to be taken to the cave, that just so happens to have been abandoned by his parents, that went straight to Jim Gordon, is exactly something Grandfather would pull to get us to lower our guards and… try to kill us or something.”
“And you think we don’t know that?” Dick asked with worry on his face. “You think Tim, who fuck’s with Ra’s in his spare time, wouldn’t think of that?”
“Then why did-”
“Because he is dying, right?”
Damian sucked in his breath. From what he’d seen… yes, the clone was dying. They watched his blood turn green and evaporate in less than a minute. When Damian looked over the clone even physically looked worse than when Damian first saw him on the roof of the GCPD.
“Dami, we’re just trying to help him not die. We will worry about all that other stuff later. And we're going to make sure no one gets hurt.”
Damian let Dick go and turned back to the clone. They’d finished setting up their strange machine and the clone’s blood was feeding into it. Hopefully, they’ll finally figure out what’s causing the destabilization and save the clone from dissolving into Lazarus Water. Then Damian can finally figure out what it wants, who sent it, and how to get rid of it. Or, maybe they fail and the problem solves itself.
Damian looked at his father’s face and hoped that wasn’t how this ended.
dededos
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