Unattended Children Will Be Adopted and Taught To Kick Ass
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Baby ghost are supposed to bond to parents both for protection and for their cores to properly develop. It’s a deep and meaningful connection that all ghost parents wish to feel for the rest of the lives and all ghost children hope to feel for as long as possible. Both sides gain strength from their connection, can reach out and feel nearly anything that has to do with each other can just Know when they are needed and what the other feels. Danny is a baby ghost. Danny is absolutely Not Dealing With This Nonsense. Maybe Clockwork already Yoinked the position of Worlds Best Dad, or maybe Danny being closer to Maddie in life made his Core search primarily for a mother figure, regardless his Core is trying to get him adopted by any and all mother figures he has.(he tells Frostbite, Clockwork and anyone else that asks the reason his Core doesn’t bond with Maddie is because she’s already his human mother and he’s a halfa and halfas are weird. Not even he believes it.)
He doesn’t want to bond with some weirdo adult who’ll coddle and care for him like some defenseless baby! He’s a MAN. He can take care of himself. He has Been taking care of himself. He’s fought ancients, saved the world and/or universe a dozen times over, single handedly routed armies and so much more. He’s perfectly fine on his own. If only his Core would get the message and stop going “If not Mama why Mama shaped?” every time he’s in the presence of an even somewhat competent women he feels no romantic attraction to.
But it’s fine, if his Core won’t stop trying to reverse adopt a mother figure for him any time he spends time around a women who he could potentially view as a mother. He’ll just never spend any time around women who seem like they actually care for him and want him to both feel and be safe and happy! Problem Solved! It’s not even hard, there’s no one in his life who really qualifies to begin with. He keeps telling himself that’s a good thing like if he says it enough he’ll believe it.
Then he joins the Justice League and everything falls apart.
The assembled ladies of the justice league were all there, along with Superman and Batman. All of them staring him down, glaring really. Danny could literally TASTE, the animosity in the air as he floated there at the head of the room, dumbstruck. Danny was beyond thankful that he altered his suit to the full hazmat configuration. If he hadn't they would have seen the stupid look that was definitely on his face as he endured being dressed down.
His mind was buzzing with so many conflicting emotions. He felt like a little kid again getting caught with his hand in the cookie jar. Their accusations were… Okay now that he had a minute to think about how his actions looked from an outside perspective. They definitely had a point. His erratic behaviour and desperate deflections didn't paint a pretty picture of his personality. It took all of Danny's thought an effort to simply turn his head to look away from Batman droning on about appropriate behaviour as a hero, and 'outdated gender norms'.
Danny looked out at the seated heroines and felt his emotions fray. He was facing a nightmare, a tsunami of disappointment and simmering rage radiating from the women that he admired so much. He wanted to cry. He to bury his head against Hawkwoman's side. To hide behind Wonder Woman. To collapse and beg Black Canary for forgiveness. He wanted to curl up with Vixen's fingers running through his hair.
The onslaught of opposing emotions was fraying his nerves and felt like it was frying his brain. Everything was fuzzy in his mind and he KNEW, that he wasn't getting out of this room without giving SOMETHING away. The dead boy hero sucked in a breath and tried, tried so hard to focus on keeping his emotions and his core locked down tight.
"I'm not a sexist… I'm… I'm wrong." That was what came out of his mouth first. And thankfully the statement confused everyone enough that he just got away with interrupting freaking BATMAN. Danny couldn't wait for someone to ask a clarifying question or rebuke his interruption. "You all know that I'm not… I'm not a human, not anymore. My species is literally made of emotions like you are made of flesh. My problem isn't with looking down on any of the Heroines here. I am terrified of what my soul, the physical core of my being is trying to do." Danny knew he was rambling, but with his eyes squeeze tight to avoid seeing their expressions, he could only continue and hope that his explanation would be enough. That they wouldn't try to press him harder with the strange bombshell that he'd just dropped.
"My species, Realm Spirits. We forge bonds with each other through our cores connecting. Our souls choosing new family and magically reinforcing those new bonds. The most common, and often the first created upon a realm spirit forming, is a parental bond. I… My creation wasn't standard, and that might be why bonding never happened with me for so long. But now I can feel it. I can feel my core reaching out and trying to form bonds with most of you in this room. PLEASE, understand what I'm trying to avoid! Parental bonds means that whoever is connected to the realm spirit is empatically linked. The parent would know when their bonded child was hurt, distressed, even just so much as feeling SAD!" Danny's voice was getting frantic now. Panic eating at his focus as he rambled.
"I am begging you all to think about that level of a personal violation! That bond is a constant eye over your shoulder, no, a eye in your MIND. My core bears witness to you all and the amazing work you do. Your power and capabilities and how wonderful you all are as people and I can FEEL it reaching out to you to form those bonds and I am DESPERETLY, trying to fight my base instincts. But if I lose focus while I'm near you my core tries to form those bonds and I refuse to do that to my coworkers for BOTH of our sakes." Danny's chest was pumping like a belows as he well and truly wound himself up. The waves of distain washing over him turning into concern was NOT helping either.
"I… I'm sorry that I've apparently put you all off so badly… but I need to go. You can contact me incase of an emergency through the usual channels." Danny finished speaking and without even opening his eyes he turned himself invisible and phased himself through the floor, speeding off invisibly back towards earth at three hundred miles per hour, leaving the conference room filled with concerned super heros behind. ~This is it…~ Danny thought. ~They know my secret now. That I'm really just a kid trying to avoid attachments to people that could care about me…~
Back in the conference room the assembled heroes were still staring at the spot where Phantom had just been pouring out his heart to them.
"Wow, I really didn't think that the reason he acted so weird was because he wanted to adopt us." Hawk Woman said with a grimace.
"I'm also happy that the ancient ghost doesn't want to have backdoors into our thoughts." Black Canary added with a shudder.
"Wait, does that mean Phantom is sexist against men if he didn't want any of you as his kids?" Vixen asked, looking up towards the front of the conference room, where Batman and Superman were still standing.
"… Regardless for how the ancient protector spirit feels, this situation is still untenable. I'll look into getting Phantom enrolled into mental discipline courses with the martians while we re-examine the situation." Batman stated with a note of finality, ending the meeting.
Yeeees! This is wonderful!
Danny: Ok, I have now cleared up the misunderstanding. They know I’m a kid with no parents. They’re gonna treat me so differently. They won’t respect me anymore. This is horrible!
The League: Ok, we have now cleared up the misunderstanding. Phantoms got a nasty case of empty nest syndrome and is trying to keep himself from accidentally surprise adopting us. Does he view us as children in need of protection? Does he know we can take care of ourselves? Does he still respect us as colleagues and equals?
The misunderstanding, now three times the size, chilling in the corner like the Despicable Me meme: Hey.
I have read @arbiterlexultionis continuation with Dani, and I have been inspired to make things even worse.
Wonder Woman and the rest of the justice leagues heroines were... conflicted and confused about this whole situation. Something wasn't lining up correctly with Phantom. Why was he only worried about adopting the adult women of the league? Why is that that he didn't seem to have an issue adopting the younger, less experienced, and powerful girls from the junior teams? Phantom had been gone from the watch tower for almost a week now, and nobody felt like cracking his bubble of isolation until he had his issue settled. But there WAS someone that could answer questions at the headquarters. Phantom's Daughter, Spirit.
Ooooo Yeeeees! You get it! I didn’t even think of how to add Dan into this but there are so many possibilities!
Does Dani try her hardest to not give out too many details to try and respect Danny’s wishes? Only to wind up accidentally letting really vague details slip that more or less amount too “the one who used Danny to make me made Dan as well. He went mad from all the trauma and grief he got from my maker(went insane when he fused with Vlad’s ghost half) and Danny had to be the one to stop him for good.” Or even maybe something even WORSE by the power of ✨Misunderstandings✨.
Does she give most of an explanation? “Dan went insane from what the Frutiloop who used Danny to make me did to him and Danny, and became a villain. Became More than a villain. Within three years of escaping Amity Park was the last bastion of earth. He deliberately left it, the place where it all began, for last. The very last victory of his vengeance against the world that he and Danny did so much to save but never bothered to save them. After ten years it was the last bastion of Everything. All of earth, the Reach and lantern cores, Darkseid and the New Gods, every afterlife and everything in the realms he could reach before the Ancients put up a barrier to isolate our corner of the multiverse and the section of the realms it’s tied to from the rest of the multiverse. Kronos(AKA the mad titan that had the oh so calming hobby of eating babies alive and was Super Duper Mega Evil as far as anyone in the League knows) stepped in because he was going to break the Ancients barrier as soon as Amity Park fell, having only baited them into putting it up in the first place so no one would interfere with the start of his vengeance and growth into his power. Allowing Danny to stop him for good and change the timeline.”
Diana just got told that the most evil person she’s ever heard of, the literal monster of her nightmares sense she was a kid, took one look at Dan and what he was doing and went “Holy Shit, that’s fucked up. I am morally obligated to save the multiverse from you.” She is SHOOK. Straight up not having a good time. In the process the League finds out that Danny somehow managed to beat the being who soloed Literally Fucking Everything. Even if Dan only pulled it off through trickery and “cheating” and Danny only manage to beat him through the same this means that Danny is far, Far stronger than they thought he was. So everyone is shook. They might also wind up, you guessed it, misunderstanding and thinking Danny was forced to kill his own son in order to save all that is, was and will ever be. The ANGST!!!
There are just sooooo many opportunities with this! I love the direction you’re taking it! Please give me more brain food for my last two brain cells to munch on!
Ok, so I really am not a fan of 'Ghost King Danny is the strongest super ubergod that kicks everyone's ass forever!' Type of stories nd fanfiction. It's almost always boring and I'm not going to weigh in on that. It doesn't stop Danny from being capable of ALOT though. So here's my continueation, enjoy. Dinah could feel a migrain coming on as she walked back to her quarters in the Watchtower. Wonder Woman was... out of commission, if Black Canary was right. The amazonian heroine was mumbling about Kronos over and over again under her breath as she trudged back to her own room. So it looks like Dinah was going to be the one to compile a report and file away the new wildly disressing information that Spirit just shared. Dinah sat down at her desk, pulled out a bottle of Don Julio 1942 from her drawer, poured herself a shot, and then started writing down everything that Spirit just shared.
First thing that Dinah recorded was the first bit of evidence of a 'parental bond', that any hero has seen so far. Spirit was so horrified and guilty about revealing the existance of her brother, that the first thing she did when she managed to calm herself was pull a cell phone out of her abdomen and call her father, Phantom. To the surprise of Dinah and Diana, Phantom had apparently already been on his way to the watch tower, having known about Spirit's sudden spike in fear, horror, and guilt as it happened and knew that she was in the watchtower from a general sense of her location. Needless to say that this incident has put to rest Dinah's reservations about these 'parental bonds' existance and how they functioned. Dinah had NO, desire to have Phantom constantly aware of any influx of powerful emotions she had. As nice as the idea of having that kind of ability to understand and comfort some of her younger charges as the Justice League's premier therapist. A nanny in the back of her mind is the last thing Dinah wants. After Spirit managed to calm her father and then relax herself, the younger looking heroine started talking again. Dinah wished that there was a better way to describe Spirit's story, but the only word for it is horrifying. Dinah felt dirty even as she wrote her report, but what Spirit was describing was basically a reverse flashpoint paradox, mixed with a greek tragedy. But potential threats on the level of Reverse Flash HAD, to be documented into the League's Database. First of all was Spirit's explanation that her Father isn't the one who told her about this 'Dan'. Instead Spirit had stumbled across a prison locked outside of time while performing a mission for her realm spirit grandfather. Some questioning from Wonder Woman lead Spirit to reveal that Phantom's apparent adoptive realm-spirit father was the ghost of time itself. (This lead to more terrifying revelations, like the idea that CONCEPTS, have ghosts.) Wonder Woman went pale at this time, having realized that this 'Clockwork' Was likely the incarnated soul of Kronos, the titan of time. Evidently Spirit's discovery of the prison lead Clockwork to reveal that trapped inside of a technomagical thermos, held in an empty dimension outside of time itself, was her brother from a future that no longer exists. Spirit stated that Clockwork was not completely forthcoming about Dan and the situation that lead to his creation and imprisonment. But Spirit managed to weedle and guilt the soul of Kronos into revealing enough that Spirit put the rest of the story together. What Spirit described was that Phantom's still living bloodline was completely wiped out in a potential future. Apparently Phantom himself must look out for his descendants as a protector spirit. Something near apocalyptic must have happened for Phantom's entire living family to have died in an 'Explosion'. I recomend looking into more potential countermeasures for nuclear armageddon or meteoric impacts in the future if this was caused by such an apocalyptic detonation. (What else would have caused Phantom to be unable to save a single member of his family?) Spirit stated that the devestating loss of his family and his purpose caused Phantom to loss himself. No more motivation, no hope, unable to muster the will to continue being a hero. And that apparently was an opening that someone was waiting for. Spirit refused to elaborate on who this 'Fruitloop' is. However I will be opening an investigation into the superpowered sex offender that has already previously harmed and imprisoned Phantom. Finding out that subject 'Fruitloop' is not only still alive, but a present day threat has increased the urgency in which this investigation needs to happen.
In this timeline, Phantom, weakened and desolated, was once more taken by subject 'Fruitloop'. Spirit was thankfully light on details of what happened, but nobody in the league is a stranger to violance, captivity, and even experimentation. Let alone what would cause another child to be created. Apparently, not even minutes after Dan was born, Phantom was slain by his son and subject Fruitloop was eaten by Dan. Dan became a realm spirit on the same level as Phantom but with an obsession with violence and destruction. Over the next years, Dan killed every member of the Justice League, The Light, The Legion of Doom, and every single independant powered individual on the planet. Needless to say I was shocked at how this could have happened. Of course Phantom is strong, but to kill every member of the Justice league single handedly? I asked if Phantom really had that kind of power, and Spirit looked away from me in shame. Spirit said that she had thought about what she'd do if she had to fight members of the league. The Anti-Ecto Acts and it's former champions the GIW, made the thought process clear. To mine and Wonder Woman's horror, Spirit actually listed off several contingency plans she had to put down the league on her own. Most of her plans involved overshadowing superman and/or members of the flash family first, But her ideas to use possession and super speed to destroy anti-possession shielding. Use League Members bodies and powers against each other. Even the awful idea of overshadowing kryptonians and then eating pounds of kryptonite... The ideas were well thought out and horrific. Spirit said that those plans took five minutes for her to make. A realm spirit of Phantom's power and with an obsession of destruction and murder? Incredibly plausible. Once all super powered resistance was gone, Dan then went on a years long murder spree spanning the globe. So much blood was spilled that The Ghost of Kronos decided to step in personally. Phantom was summoned from the past by Clockwork. Phantom, at the point where he grew in power the fastest. Phantom fought his son Dan, at the peak of his power and just barely managed to prevail, sealing Dan inside a silver thermos. Phantom handed over his over future son's prison to Clockwork who then sealed the container outside of time. So THAT, is why Phantom doesn't worry about adopting any men of the league. He's been even more traumatized by his future son that technically doesn't exist inside our timeline anymore. Dinah REALLY wishes Phantom was just a sexist. Dinah could deal with a second Guy Gardener a LOT easier than this clusterfuck.
First things first I frickin love that final line. 10/10.
Love this whole thing in general. Everyone getting a front row seat to how the bond works to know what Danny’s trying so desperately trying to avoid while still completely misunderstanding the situation. Dinah going “man ngl that’d be super useful for my job as a therapist but I’m really glad I’m not on the receiving end. Hopefully I never wind up bonding with Danny!”
Giving just enough details to be absolutely horrifying while still leaving everyone confused, beautiful.
Phantom being told that Masters was in a high security prison, in a Ghost proof room so that none of the other Ghost rogues get him out, leads to Phantom physically giving off feelings of relief and joy.
What wasn't expected was Phantom taking off his helmet mask and throwing himself at Superman for a hug. A squeaky voice repeating "thank you" like so many victims get when they finally get justice. But something is wrong. The voice is too high, the frame too thin. Only for Phantom to pull back and look Superman in the eyes while saying thank you again.
That's the face of a 16 or 18 year old. Barely. Baby fat that he'll never get to outgrow. Big eyes filled with tears and snot dripping from his nose. The loose outer hazmat fading out of sight to reveal a skin tight version underneath. An unrealistic thin frame one would only get from borderline starving. Long limbs of a boyish figure. A wisp of a thing with shaggy hair and too big hands that will never get to grow up.
"I thought you'd be older." Batman interjected in the scene.
"Huh? Wha-why?" Phantom's eyes were wide in disbelief. "I'm glad you thought I was mature, though."
"It doesn't really matter, given how long you've been a hero. Just because you look 18 doesn't outweigh the thousands of years you've been a hero." Diana looks at her coworker with warning. There was no need to say something that could be seen as mocking at such a heartfelt moment.
"Thousands of years? Oh! You mean time traveling."
"You're a time traveler? Hm. This means our information on you is faulty. We will need your actual active time as a hero for our records. Though, we will still refer to you as an adult, given your situation."
"That's a relief. I've been a hero for four and a half years. Since I died."
"You... died almost five years ago?”
"It's usually best not to ask about a ghost's death, as it can be traumatic. But yeah. I died on my 14th birthday. Freak accident in the lab."
"... And how old is your daughter?"
"Oh, she's four! Just turned a bit ago."
"Ah. These will be important for our files."
"Of course. Let me know if there's anything else you need clarified! I need to go let my daughter know the frootloop is gone. Thanks again."
Yk....
Vlad is probably in much deeper shit now than he already was.....
They're also going to realize that that means Danny is 'still aging'. And probably, instead of going to Danny, ask Constantine or Zantana. Or any other magic user. Or even ask Tim, since he used to have a Ghost teammate. Which leads to everyone thinking that Danny ages himself unconsciously because he does not know how to stop living/has yet to fully accept his death.
I’ve actually had an idea about Danny’s aging for this post for a long time.
The whole “parental bonds are vital for the proper development of a child ghost core” has an even greater level of importance to those who died as children. Their core, their Soul, wants to grow up. To change, to become what they could have been if their future wasn’t taken from. But they can’t do it alone. They can only grow and reach adulthood with the support of a parental bond.
Young Blood could have grown up, but the protective affection he received from the first ghost he began to bond with was too much. Too much like getting to eat nothing but that yucky soup because “it’s good for you”. Too much like being told he couldn’t go out and play with the other kids because “it’s not good for you”. Too much like being locked in a hospital room for years on end because “it’s for your own good”. Too much like dying in a to firm bed with scratchy sheets while Mom and Dad argued in the hallway.
So he ran, and ran, and ran. He just kept running from anyone who thought he was dumb enough to believe they were trying to “help” him. He ran until it was too late, ran until he ran out of time. He’s no longer a ghost child but he’s still a child ghost, and now he always will be.
Danny’s charging towards the same fate, ignoring it in the way that only a reckless teenager can. Tearing his own future apart in a desperate attempt to hold together his past. To not have to look back at the life he lived, at the way his parents cared for him and Jazz, at the way they treat him now, and realize, accept, admit, to himself and others that it was not and is not ok.
Admit that watching your 9 year old sister cook dinner for the family isn’t normal, that your parents are supposed to be the ones going to parent teacher conferences and not your older sibling, that spending hours vomiting because papa left a glass full of chemicals out and you were thirsty isn’t your fault. Admit that not feeling safe in your parents arms is a sign that something is wrong.
Every time he’s around the women of the Justice League, with every casual reassurance, every gentle show of care, every piece of advice, every smile, he feels his heart soar and stomach drop. Because this….. this is what having a Mom is supposed to be like. But if this is what a Mom is, what the hell is his Mother?
The more he’s put back together and allowed to feel whole again by the care the women of the League the more his life, childhood, the lies he tells himself about them shatter and fall to pieces.
A couple other related ideas I had are some of the other potential consequences of a Danny not getting a proper parental bond.
Asides from stunting his physical growth/preventing him from aging entirely it can also prevent or otherwise interfere with his powers. Weakening him, preventing him from properly controlling his powers, random misfires and the like. Or maybe as an (almost) silver lining the constant fight or flight panicked state not having a parent to protect him forces his core into causes his core to go into overdrive trying to give him the strength to survive, which is the reason his power has grown so absurdly fast and he’s developed so many powers. But such fast growth put immense strain on his core with potentially life long consequences for his health. Maybe “growing pains” in the short term, like random flashes an extreme pain or constant chronic pain?(mayhaps even relieving the pain of his death for brief moments at random if you really want to up the angst)
Trigger warning: I think this next bit might count as body horror or mutilation, and could probably be classified as a form of self harm. Don’t read anything that makes you uncomfy, drink some water and love yourself.
Also also, a ghost core is formed and shaped by the ghost Core, so strain and damage to the core can have visible/physical effects on the ghost body.
So the longer Danny keeps pushing everyone around himself away, the farther he pushes himself, the more stress and strain his Core gets put under, the more his Core cracks, the more banged up and beaten down Danny looks.
At first its small things that could just as easily be explained by his vigilante work, so small that not even Danny himself really notices at first. Smudges of dirt and oil that’s always somewhere on him. Dried blood that can’t be simply washed away.
It starts getting worse, rips and tears in his hazmat suite that he got from no one and can’t be mended. The League gets their first glimpse at his face when he arrives with half his gas mask broken off, part of his cheek, forehead and left a glowing eye exposed to world for the first time. Seeing his face, seeing just how young he looks, it’s the first time most of the League stops to wonder just how young Phantom was rather than looking through cave paintings and ancient texts trying to find out how old he is.
It gets worse and worse and worse, until suddenly it’s okay. He goes from a shambling mess that looks like he went 10 rounds with Doomsday to the exact same as he was when they first met overnight.
Life goes on. Villains are fought. The world gets saved a few times.
For a while, everything is okay.
The Leagues doing some one on one sparing match’s. Phantoms initially paired up against Black Canary but weasels his way out of it like always, winding up paired with Superman.
Superman throws a punch at Phantom, as he has a thousand times before during these sparing sessions using the same amount of force as he always has. Phantom meets it head on, his own fist clashing with Superman’s to cancel out the blow, as he has more than a dozen times during this spar.
But suddenly, nothing is okay.
The first sign was the sound that echoed through the gym. A sharp snap, crackle, pop like ice being crushed under foot, they’ve all heard the sound countless times before, especially around Phantom. But this felt different, foreboding, nearly a haunting melody.
The second sign was the cracks. At first they crawled up from where his fist met Superman’s, coiling around his arm like parasitic vines up a tree. Then they started to appear all across his body.
They could do nothing but watch as every part of Phantom that cracked shattered, could only watch as their comrade fell to pieces.
His entire right arm, two fingers from his left hand, half his right foot, his left leg up to the knee, half of his gas mask, fist sized bits and pieces scattered across his body, a bowling ball sized chunk where a lung should be.
Just…
Gone.
Superman stared in horror as what little of his face that had been revealed, and his horror and fear for his friend soared to new heights. Unlike before, when half of Phantoms mask broke off and the League got their first true look at his face, Superman could not look him in the eye, for there was no eye to look in. In its place sat a cavern of shards, showing nothing to Superman but his own visage as dozens of reflections danced within, a kaleidoscope made flesh.
What was left of Phantoms shoulders shook as he fought to suppress a coughing fit. He lost that battle, hacking out a sound like shattering glass for a few moments before finally calming down to a wheeze like wind chimes.
Ecto-ice began to grow into his empty spaces, but not as the smooth and near instant rush they were all familiar with. It stuttered to a stop as soon as it started, slowly inching its across the gaps, like a wounded animal dragging itself across the ground.
“You don’t need to worry about it.”
“It’s normal nowadays.”
Superman watched with his x-ray vision as ice began to grown inside Phantoms body. Around his muscles, expanding and contracting in sync to grant strength. Thick plates just beneath the weakened skin to protect what little flesh he had left. Along his spine, forcing his back straight so he could stand tall despite the agony.
“It’s okay.”
“I’m fine.”
The ice finally stopped growing and instead shifted, colors changing until they matched what had been there. Until Phantom stood tall in front of them, looking whole and healthy, just like he had mere minutes ago and months ago when they first met.
“It doesn’t matter anyways.”
