I'm not doing very well. I feel discouraged, overwhelmed, and stuck to a certain extent. I think I'm starting to fall into depression because of my job.
The work environment is great. My coworkers are amazing, but I'm already tired of working in a call center, and I've only been there for almost six months. I need the money, but I don't think my mindset, or rather my mental health, is allowing me to stay there anymore.
It takes me two hours to get to work. I usually arrive at least half an hour before my shift starts, and then it takes another two hours to get back home. It's incredibly exhausting. As soon as I get home, I have to attend my classes, prepare the food I'll take with me the next day while my classes are starting, finish studying, and then go to bed knowing that I have to repeat the exact same routine the following day.
Saturday is the only day that truly feels free, because Sunday already feels like a preview of Monday. The anxiety starts creeping back in, knowing that I have to go through the same routine all over again.
I used to work in a hands-on job, but some people didn't like that because they thought I was wasting my talents in other areas. The truth is, I don't like taking calls. I hate it. I really do. But it's the job I managed to get for now.
What do you think?
I'm thinking about giving it a little more time, maybe another month. But honestly, I'm not sure I'll make it that long considering how things are going.
Just this weekend alone, I've had two burnout episodes. And now I have to face the beginning of the workweek all over again. 😞
Batman growled under his breath, "what did you w-word for?"
"That I wasn't the only hero around."
"Dude," said the other kid in the room, "That's what I wished for!"
"And you are?"
"Oh, Ben 10. The universe got destroyed and I had to put it back together, but I kinda wondered if the job would be easier with more heroes around."
"It sucks being the only one, right?"
"Wait, so who's responsible for this?" cut in Wonder Woman.
"Me," they both said, "wait what?"
"Dude, you're a cartoon in my universe," accused Danny.
"That's what I was gonna say!" countered Ben, "You're-! ... wait."
"I could have sworn I knew your name."
"Me too."
The two looked at the Justice League.
"Actually, I'm pretty sure you guys were comic book characters," recalled Ben, "I should know your secret identities, but..."
"You're drawing a blank too?" guessed Danny.
"Yeah. Weird."
"Comic books," cut in Cyborg, "we're comic books?"
"Yeah... I think you're a cartoon actually," recalled Danny, "but I don't... really remember."
"Wasn't there a cartoon about a half-ghost kid?" recalled Spider-Man, "On Nickleodeon."
"Did you read any other comic books?" asked Invincible.
"I watched a few shows," figured Danny, "but how can we tell which universes got merged?"
"Differentiating the universes involved in the merge will be difficult," Bulkhead pointed out from the comm-screen , "as time goes on, we will forget that they were ever separate."
"Guess we'll need to get used to it," figured Bubbles.
Clones, friends, Siblings, twins? (does it really matter?) Part 1
Just as a heads up: The first half is kinda dialogue heavy, I'm a terrible writer and I don't know what Im doing. I hope you all like it tho! ૮ ˶ˆ ﻌ ˆ˶ ა
Part 0 (prompt)
1: Does it really matter?
Danny was running, he has been in the run for a while now, he isn't even sure where he is anymore...
Not that it matters, the only thing that matters is staying alive, or well at least not dying all the way. And if he wants to do that he needs to run, Run, RUN.
"Stop there ecto-scum" yell a GIW agent coming from a different direction than the others, joining his persecutor, leading a new group of them and blocking yet another of his possible escape routes.
Fuck Fuck! Fuck!!
Danny takes a sharp turn, barely avoiding being shot in the shoulder by the new comer. Were in the hell did they keep coming from!? He haven't even seen the ghost (ha) of them in over a month before today! The only way things could get any worse would be if his par- Danny stumbled back a little bit, almost getting hit by the Fenton Grappler.
"Darn it, I failed! I was convinced that I have it this time..." Exclaimed his da- Jack. Exclaimed Jack sounding disappointe, as if he hadn't fail a million times before.
"Don't worry to much about it love, I got this!" Said his m- Maddie, appearing from behind Jack, carrying a ecto-foamer and a Fenton bazooka of all tings...
He jinxed himself, didn't he? For his pare- the Fentons (they are only the Fentons, not his parents... they haven't been his parents in a while, not after what they did) to appear and block yet another of the pads that he could of taken, now, when he was just thinking about them, it has to be that he just jinx himself!! Hahaha-!
no No NO. Danny, you don't have time to spiral over something like this right now, he blinked rapidly, slightly backing off against the wall, looking frantically for a way to escape.
"Danny, baby, please come with us; let us help you" pleads his m- Maddie (why is it so difficult to stop calling her that?) approaching him slowly, like you would with a scared animal that might bite, as if that will convince him to go with her (It would be more convincing if she wasn't pointing a bazooka at him, though).
"Yes, Danno, come with us; we only want what is best for you" his f- Jack said it so earnestly that Danny almost folded, he would of if he didn't knew what their “help” actually entitled, what the-
His eyes stop moving frantically focusing solely on thing, there a couple of GIW agents that weren't standing as close together as the rest, He finally saw a opening to run trough and he isn't going to lose it just because he was lost in reflection, he knocked a couple of agents to the floor in the process (not that he cared, they deserve much more pain than a couple of bruises anyway) but he was out of the corner that they managed to trap him in and back on the run.
"The ghost is escaping! Hurry up!" shout one if the agents, bolting after him.
And with that, the start of the descent back to the chaos of the beginning was marked with the same shouts, slurs and careless shots; The only difference was:
"Danny! Please stop running we can still fix this"
The Fentons.
"Yes Danno,we can fix you like we fix the others"
The others, his rougues friends, His ghost friends, the blob ghost, the ghost animals, the shadows, all of the ghost zone inhabitants that they managed to capture and "fix" reduce to only the others as if they didn't matter as much as himself! As if the guilt he feels for not reaching them in time wasn't enough, as if the guilt of not being able to save-!
An ecto-blast brushed past his cheek, dragging him back to reality.
Honestly he was kinda surprised he hadn't been actually shot yet... Or maybe he was and just forgot about it, with how much everything hurt already, a new injury would be easy to ignore after the initial spike of pain anyway...
"Danny please stop running"
He was not going to stop until he couldn't move any more, but really...
"Why are you all trying to negotiate with me!? You don't even believe that I'm sentient!" Thinking about it, why is the GIW allowing them to do this?
"Because you aren't sentient! you are just as echo of yourself left behind when you died!"
"Firts of all yes I am, and second of, that still doesn't answer my question!"
"We now understand that you and the others aren't inherently evil, only objects, forces of nature, echoes of once living creatures"
And now they were ignoring what he said, like they all ways do... Of course... fantastic...
How did they even reach that conclusion anyway? most ghost were never alive to begin with!(yes, the ones that visit Amity the most often were alive at some point, but that doesn't matter).
"But you and the others need to leave, you all can not keep on existing like this, it's bad for you and bad for society, you need to move on! So please come with us, so we can fix this, so you can rest in peace, don't you want to rest in peace?"
He was not going to dignify that question with an answer... But seriously, how did they reach that conclusion? It doesn't even make any sense... But regardless:
"I am still alive, though..."he mumbled
"Danno... son... No, you aren't... You haven't been in a long time... We know that its difficult for you to accept that... It was difficult for us to come to terms with it as well, especially with you possessing your own body, but you are dead... All evidence points to that..." And now they answer him... That doesn't make any sense...
"But I am alive! Even if just partially... But I am alive!" Danny wasn't sure why he kept trying to reason with them, he all ready knew that it was pointless to do so, specially after all of what they did to him and the others, but he just couldn't stop himself from shoutting back at them...
"Dont lie, no living creature could survive with their body in the estate that yours is in" Maddie said coldly
"You shouldn't even be able to move, most of your bones were fractured, the vast majority of your inner organs are missing or damage and you don't even have any blood left on your body only ectoplasm" (that can't be acurred, right? His injuries can't be that bad, right!?) "And that is before taking into account your external injuries. You. Are. Dead." Her voice was so plain that it might as well have come from a robot. (How the heck did she manage to do that while running??)
"Anyway! Why do you stop running and come with us, sweetheart? We have a nice little coffin waiting for you back home! It is space themed, you would like it, Don't you want to come see it?" She added cheerfully, and wasn't that the whitlash of the century, Ancients...
"Yes, we also have a really nice grave waiting for you! It's right next to Vladie's and-"
Vlad.
Danny did not need a reminder of what they did to Vlad, how they- they-- oh Ancients... there wasn't even a core left they finished with him!
He couldn't even think about what they did... Yes, Vlad used to be his nemesis, but he didn't deserve that, no one deserves what they did to him, Vlad also had become a much better person (but still a frootloop) after he stopped being so obsessed with Maddi- Ancients, he knew that she had to have done something terrible for Vlad to grow so disappointed on her to the point of losing his main ghost obsession (Ancients.... that all most killed Vlad at the time, it would have done so if it wasn't because of his obsession with power, and the half formed family one that took it's place.... Thought that would have been a much kindred death than what he got) and become so weary of his parents the Fentons and GIW all of a sudden, but Danny didn't expect it to come to this point.
Maybe if he had taken it more seriously at the time none of this would of happen, maybe them all would still be around, Maybe D-
"-!!" He got shot in the shoulder...
Danny doesn't have the time nor energy to spare on nonsensical thoughts and emotions right now, he needs to focus on escaping and only escaping, he can spiral thinking about the "maybes" and "what ifs" once he isn't on immediate danger of being injured, captured, killed, or all of the above.
.....
After a while he had somehow managed to put some distance between himself and his persecutors, it ha take him (probably?) 3 hours, but he did!
Though if he wants to lost them for real (even if its just for now), he needs a plan.
For what he can tell, most of them are on this side of the city, probably because of the ghost haunt in this area(it wasn't the only one but it was the easiest to spot, it also seems to be acting as a shield for the other haunts), not that he needs to worry about it, they don't seem to be here right now so they should be alright, he thinks? Like...
He knows the feeling of a haunt whose owner has faded away, is gravely injured, or distressed, and none of them feel like that, they feel perfectly healthy, if just... Empty, like those that live there have just go out and haven't come back jet. In particular the biggest haunt was also coated in a feeling of righteous anger and joy, so whoever owns that one is definitely alright, thriving even; which means that Danny doesn't have anything to worry about, nope, nothing at all!
(He, in fact, had nothing to worry about. The Ghost of this area were just chilling somewhere else, not that he knew that at the time, but...)
Anyway, back to the plan! If most of the agents (and the Fentons) are in this area and the more he moves towards the southwest (or what he thinks is the southwest) of the city, the less frequently they appear in front of his path blocking it, and he is pretty sure that by the next city block (neighborhood?) there shouldn't be any more GIW agents waiting there for him, so he just needs to go over there? easy, right? Wrong.
After spending the last 30 minutes trying to find an alternative route, he has come to the conclusion that the only way to get there is by going across the main street, which is a problem because that means either being seen by the cameras, alerting them of his location, or turning invisible, which would also alert them of his location by making his ecto-signature more obvious; the only difference between the two was that one of those clues would last longer than the other...
So invincibility it was! As long as he is quick about it, he should be able to reach the other side safely, without the Fentons nor the GIW catching up with him.
But because nothing could ever be easy for him, a new figure appears out of the shadows blocking his path. On the bright side: it was none of his persecutors. On the downside: they were too close to him for it to be possible to avoid them without stopping or at the very least slowing down, exactly the things that he couldn't afford to do right now (he could hear the Fentons getting closer by the second), so he didn't have many more options than to turn intangible; that, on top of the invisibility, would surely take a strain on his core (and make his location even more obvious), but it will only be a second, so it shouldn't be a problem!
(Or so he thought...)
The moment that he made contact the stranger, he feels a tug in his core and everything turns white. It felt visceral, like having all of his organs being ripped out of his body at the same time (he would know, he has experienced it before), but it also felt reassuring in a way, like putting on a winter coat on a snowy day.
The next thing he feels is himself falling forwards, Danny somehow managed to get his balance back before he hits the floor faces first, but the thing that he sees after his vision clears up almost makes him fall to his knees anyway, because, is that a body? That wasn't there before, was it? Did he-? No. That- that is his body...
What the heck?
But he is right here? (Is he in...?) He looks down at "his" body, online to see the stranger's (Yes. yes he is) , but how is that possible? Even if he is overshadowing someone else's body he is not supposed to leave his own.... And this doesn't feels like an overshadowing at all! it feels more a kind to possessing an object, but not quite the same... Which didn't make any sense! This is clearly a person, not an object! And what else could this be if not an overshadowing or possession!?
A transmigration or transference. One of the most basic instinctive survival tactics that a halfa can have.
After all a true halfa needs a living half to survive, it doesn't matter if it's the original one or not, as long as it fulfills all the requirements... So when he make contact with a body that did just that? His core instinctively latched on to it like a starving man to a piece of bread, bringing the rest of his being with it.
Not that Danny knew about any of that...
Anyway he doesn't have time to trouble himself with the "whys whats and hows" of the situation he needs to get back into his own body or at least-
"The ecto-scum should be over here! Run faster before it escapes!"
They are too fucking close! He- he needs to- he bolts down street, completely forgetting his plan, until a couple of city blocks away...
...
An unknown amount of time has passed.
Danny was panting heavily, struggling to even out his breath while sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the walls of the abandoned building that he has decided was secure enough to take a break in at least for now.
Seriously... His situation was already hard enough...
First a bunch of ghosts disappear, then he got caught by the GIW while trying to rescue the missing ghosts, then his parents the Fentons join the GIW and help to run a bunch of experiments in the other ghost and him.
Then they discover that he is a halfa.... When that first happened, it almost looked like they were going to change their minds for the best, he was wrong to think that was even an option.... Their point of view did change in a twisted way though...
Then Vlad (whom apparently was captured before Danny) tried to scape liberating as many of the others ghosts as he could in his way out as a distraction, only to be recaptured and later on brutally killed in front of Danny. It apparently was supposed to be a warning of sorts... They don't even believe Danny to be sentient, and yet they forced him to see the whole process as a warning...
(If this is how they treat their son and their family friend like... What kind of treatment did the rest of them get?)
Then he managed to escape alongside all of the ghost that remained after Vlad's "sacrifice" (He had chosen to pretend that was the reason so few of them were left at the end, he was choosing to believe that Vlad's death wasn't in vain, for his own peace of mind), and now he accidentally high jack someone's body, losing his own in the process along side of-!
Dan!
Ellie!!
The cores!!!
Danny jumps back on to his feet.
How could he possibly forged about them for this long!? He needs to go back! He needs to go get them! He can't fail them again, he needs to--
They. Are. Here
He let's himself fall back on the floor, right next to the building's entrance, like a marionette with whose strings had been cut.
He brought them with him, their cores are right next to his own, were they belong.
"Sob- they, they still are here... hip- I- i didn't fail them this time" Ancients... He was so relive, they were here, they- "we are safe sob- I promise that sob- we are safe hip- we have to be... " it's just that he can not stop himself from crying, he wants to, but the tears will not stop; and he is just so so relive, he doesn't know what he could of done if he lost them for real...
What is even a protector spirit with nothing to protect?
But seriously... How could he forget about them even for a moment? The situation might be dire but... He was subject to Dan's painful screams for literal weeks, Danny was also screaming but he is still alive, he had to hear Ellie cry for help, he was also crying but he is still alive, he hear them both plead for it all to end, same as he did, then he had both of them die destabilize on his arms leaving only their cores behind, first it was Dan, the it was Ellie. After all of that how could he...?
At the time he had taken both their cores and placed them next to his own in the hopes that they will reform like he knew other ghost could do, but it's been months since then and there isn't any sign of progress... He does know that they are still "alive", he can still feel them feeding of his core after all, but still... Is he... Missing something?
And surely now being in a body that is not his own isn't going to help their progress at all!
...
sigh...
But on the bright side he isn't injured anymore and-
He looks at his hands, then the rest of "his" body and his mind freezes because:
"Am I dress like a fucking ninja!? What the hell?"
The sirens were blaring. The situation was quickly escalating into an all-hands-on-deck emergency, and Batman was doing his best to give every superhero who came through the zeta-tube a position that would maximize their chances of surviving this.
Which wasn't easy when the threat was a complete unknown, one with apparently limitless power. Somehow, they hadn't suffered any catastrophic injuries so far, and the Flashes had managed to evacuate most civilians within the first twenty minutes.
However, considering the amount of power the being had displayed so far, and the complete lack of damage they had been able to inflict, it didn't feel as though their endurance up to this point was the result of their own efforts. Instead, it felt like the being was deliberately holding back.
Batman hated the sensation that it was merely toying with them before delivering a final, devastating blow, like a cat entertaining itself with prey before finally killing it.
He leapt out of the path of another stray attack. The fact that he was able to evade it at all, despite having witnessed other attacks move far faster, was just another piece of evidence supporting Batman's theory that the being was holding back.
They hadn't even been able to communicate with it. They had no motive, no known objective, no understanding of what it wanted, not even a clear description of what it looked like, since they only caught a shadow of an anthropomorphic figure between the onslaught of attacks.
The relentless battle had now dragged on for nearly two hours.
“We need something else to try! Nothing we do is affecting him!” Batman heard Wonder Woman shout through the comms.
“Do we have any news from the Dark members? I may not know what this being is, but it clearly has magical properties,” Shazam exclaimed as he launched yet another attack at the being, only for the man to be thrown back. Starfire was quick to soften his landing.
The closest zeta-tube, positioned a thousand miles north, sent another activation notification to Batman's wrist computer, and he was already thinking about where the weakest points in their formation were before he even knew who the new arrival was.
He couldn’t stop the resigned sigh that escaped his lips when the zeta-tube announced B-25. It was Phantom. So far, other than Shazam, there hadn't been any other young heroes arriving, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he started seeing more of them soon. Phantom was most likely just the start.
Phantom, despite claiming to have lived for almost half a millenia, had also accepted that by his own species' standards he was quite young, and Bruce had estimated that mentally the boy wasn't older than sixteen in human developmental years.
Usually, Bruce tried to keep the younger heroes out of world-ending threats, but he had to make an exception when no alternative was working. Phantom had powerful abilities, and while Batman had no reason to believe his powers would have any more impact than those of the other heavy hitters so far, he also had no reason to stop the boy from acting.
He really wished they could have wrapped up this battle before he had to start positioning young teens on the front lines.
“Hey Bats, heard things are looking pretty bad here. Where do you need me?” Phantom’s voice came through his comm. They had never been able to completely get rid of the staticky effect the ghost inflicted on the device, but it was still worlds better than the first time the ghost used them.
“We haven’t been able to inflict any damage so far, but we’re trying different attacks. Most of our electricity-based heroes are working southwest, so position yourself northeast for the time being to avoid interfering with each other. Try some attacks, and we’ll adjust from there.” Batman tried to keep certain powers working in the same area for cases like these, where incompatibilities between allies could become an issue.
“So we really are at the 'throwing everything we have and hoping something works' phase, huh?” Phantom commented just as he appeared in Batman's right field of view, allowing him to see the exact moment the ghost froze in place.
He frowned. “Phantom, have you found an incompatibility with the being? If so, I request that you retire.” Batman spoke sharply.
Sure, they needed more heavy hitters, but it wouldn't really help if one of them had some fundamental weakness against the being. Superman was barely being any help with his weakness to magic, but other heroes trusted Superman’s experience enough to rely on the man in the field even when weakened.
It would not be the same with a young hero.
Heroes would get distracted trying to protect the kid. Young heroes might hate it and see it as demeaning, but in the end, adults couldn't ignore it when children appeared to be in danger, and Batman had to account for that bias when strategizing against threats.
“N-no, um, I know that guy.” Phantom stammered, but Batman didn't hear any fear in his voice. It sounded more like he had been caught off guard. He also noted that the being was a he. Not that knowing his gender really made any difference here, but after two hours of nothing, it was refreshing to have any information about him at all. “Hey, Batman? Could you get everyone to back away? I think I can get him to stop… at least for a moment.”
Batman turned his attention back to the battlefield. Nothing had changed since this whole thing started. Their attacks were serving more to deflect the being's assaults than to actually hurt him. To a certain extent, stopping wouldn't really change anything, but it could still place them all at a disadvantage if the being decided to stop holding back the moment they gave him space.
“Are you sure you can do that? It could put everyone in danger if you are unable to.”
“Yeah… as long as he doesn’t decide to be an asshole about it.” Phantom murmured the last phrase.
It didn’t give Batman much confidence. The being had been attacking for a long time, and sure, he was holding back, but any of Bruce’s sons would agree that this behavior firmly placed him in the asshole category. Then again, no one else even knew what he was, and nothing they had tried so far had worked. Whatever Phantom had planned here might be their only chance.
He sighed. “Okay, but you have to be quick. If the being doesn’t stop within ten minutes after we cease our attacks, we’re returning to the current positions. Understood?”
“As clear as day.” Phantom chirped.
“I need everyone to step back for ten minutes. We’re trying something else,” Batman announced through the comms.
The heroes reunited around the being hadn't even finished complying when Phantom darted closer and screamed, “Half-time! Half-time! I demand a review!” And to everyone's utter confusion, the being stopped.
“Phantom? What are you doing here?” a deep, raspy voice asked. Batman couldn't believe the being was capable of talking. They had tried to communicate with him multiple times.
Without the constant barrage of attacks, he slowly began to make out the man's actual appearance. His eyes were red, his frame was massive, and he shared a certain resemblance to Phantom that Batman did not like noticing.
“What else would I be doing here? This is my home, dipshit.” Phantom snarled exasperatedly, planting his hands on his hips. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, save us the unnecessary questions. You know I only go where the clock sends me,” the being snarled back.
“Right, because you never enjoy doing this. This place is mine, Poltergeist,” Phantom growled.
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.” The newly named Poltergeist scoffed. “Let's see.”
He reached into his own arm and pulled out a notebook, flipping through the pages. Batman could only add this action, the name, the resemblance to Phantom, and the fact that the teen knew him to his growing list of evidence that this man was a ghost.
He knew from Phantom that ghosts were powerful, but he hadn't thought they could be this powerful. He would need to prioritize contingencies against ghosts once this was dealt with. At least whatever conversation Phantom and this Poltergeist were having seemed to be going well.
That is, there hadn't been any new attacks, and he hoped it stayed that way. He could see some of his allies taking advantage of the possibly temporary ceasefire to collect themselves and get injured teammates treated as best as possible without fully immobilizing them, in case things went south and they had to resume the fight.
Poltergeist finally found the page he had been looking for. “So, is this not AU18DC86DP08062026?” he asked, reading aloud.
Phantom looked clearly displeased by the alphanumeric string that apparently described “here.” Batman still didn't know what level of magnitude “here” referred to. These exact coordinates? This city? This planet? This solar system? It could mean anything. He was going to have so many questions for Phantom later.
“Yes. Yes, it is.” Phantom growled, now clearly annoyed. “Let me see that.” He swooped forward and snatched the notebook away.
“Hey! Careful, you jerk. Whisp made that for me!” Poltergeist protested.
“I'm not going to break it...” Phantom whipped his head around to stare at Poltergeist and exclaimed, all traces of anger vanishing and pure awe filling his voice, “Wait, she made it for you?”
“Yes. I told you we've gotten closer.” Poltergeist crossed his arms and looked positively smug.
“I'm glad,” Phantom said softly, a warmth entering his eyes that Batman had only seen when the ghost looked at people he had adopted as family.
Batman had... so many questions, and he could see many of the heroes observing the scene dumbfounded. Martian Manhunter, one of the first adults the teen had dubbed “his,” looked the most baffled, and Batman wondered if there was another psychic layer to this conversation that he was missing.
Anyhow, the strange domesticity the conversation had taken on had allowed the heroes to relax even further. Batman was starting to consider organizing an evacuation for those with the worst injuries.
Poltergeist cleared his throat, now looking away as though embarrassed. “Were you not about to check the code?”
“Ah, right.” Phantom looked back down at the notebook and pursed his lips. “I don't get where you get your terrible handwriting from. Both me and Vlad have decent enough handwriting.”
“Oh, spare me the lecture.” Poltergeist waved a hand dismissively.
“I'll spare it when it isn't affecting me! Can you really confidently tell me any of these are actually sixes, fives, or eights? They all look almost the same!” Phantom complained, waving the notebook accusingly.
“Of course I... well, I think so?” Poltergeist admitted with a grimace.
“Ancients. You need to find a more reliable way to do this.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. My numbers suck. Blame the clock. You know how many codes he has me writing in one sitting?” Poltergeist threw his hands up.
“Ugh, the bastard has all the time in the world and yet...” Phantom muttered.
“Right!? Like, use your time-outs for this supposedly incredibly important information!” Poltergeist huffed.
Phantom sighed. “So...”
“Yes, yes, I'll honor your review request and go confirm this with Clockwork.” Poltergeist rolled his eyes, though his tone lacked any real irritation. “I'll let you know how it goes.”
Phantom huffed and held out the notebook. “Here. And seriously, work on your numbers.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Poltergeist took the notebook back carefully, tucking it away into his arm again. “I'll think about it.”
“Hope it goes well,” Phantom said. Then, after a moment of silence, he added almost timidly, “Hey, and if it turns out null, could you stay and visit for a few days? Feels like it's been decades.”
Poltergeist looked at Phantom for a long moment, his expression softening. “Sure, lil me.” And then the man was engulfed in shadows and disappeared.
Phantom pouted as he floated back toward Batman. “I've told him not to call me that,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Phantom. If you don’t mind, I would like some explanations. Starting with who that man was, how you know him, and why he was attacking.” Batman demanded.
“Ugh, straight back to business as always.” Phantom groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “Shouldn’t we be looking after the injured or something?”
“I trust the rest of the team is able to do that now that there isn’t an imminent threat in the field,” Batman replied.
“... Right.” Phantom shifted nervously in the air. “Um, so that was Poltergeist.”
“I gathered.”
“And he’s my older brother.”
Fantastic. Phantom has an older brother with unlimited power. Batman massaged his temple. At least this confirmed that Poltergeist was a ghost.
“And why was your brother attacking us?”
“Right, so, that’s a pretty long explanation. A lot of context is needed...” Phantom said, hovering nervously in the air. “Can’t we, like, go back to the Watchtower and talk there?”
Batman raised an eyebrow and looked around. There weren’t any civilians left, and the only people able to hear them would be other Justice League allies, but Batman could understand not wanting to discuss personal matters in front of every hero present. Even if said personal matters had caused an all-hands-on-deck level threat. He sighed.
“All right.” He pressed his comm. “Nightwing, I’m going back to the Watchtower to discuss what has happened with Phantom. Could you...”
“Don’t worry, B, we have everything covered here,” Nightwing's voice came, sounding a little strained from the other side.
Batman pursed his lips. He hadn’t received any notice of his eldest getting hurt. He glanced around the battlefield. Nightwing was too far away for him to see clearly from his position, but hopefully his son was occupied with something and wasn’t actually hiding a major injury. He sighed. He would have to trust his son's judgment. Turning back toward Phantom, he nodded.
“All right, let’s get to the Watchtower.”
—
Phantom hovered around the room, searching for the right words, while Batman checked the logs that had been entered into the system during the attack. He was trying to be patient here. Phantom was a nervous young boy, and he didn’t want the teen to shut down.
“Alright,” Phantom finally began, rubbing the back of his neck. “You know how I mentioned once that I was a protective spirit?”
“Mm,” Batman acknowledged, not looking up from the screen.
“Right, so, my brother is also a protector but… in a different way.”
“Which means?” Batman asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Um, he gets rid of the universes that are a threat to the Infinite Realms? You know, the place that I told you is connected to all existing universes?” Phantom explained in a meek voice.
“He destroys universes,” Batman concluded, barely keeping the panic out of his voice. They had had a universe destroyer attacking them.
“Well, yes. But to protect all the other universes!” Phantom exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “You know, like when you cut off a leaf that shows signs of fungus so the rest of the plant won't die as well?”
“So he’s decided our universe is a threat.” Batman growled lowly, narrowing his eyes at Phantom.
“He hasn’t.” Phantom immediately raised his arms in a calming motion. “Um, the Ancient of Time told him, but Da... uh, Poltergeist may be mistaken. Like, the code was not clear at all. He could definitely be in the wrong universe!” Phantom hurried to explain.
“Universes that have become a threat to the Infinite Realms rarely have sentient life. More often than not, they're a threat because of the way they sink ectoplasm, like a black hole pulls in light. The few that have had sentient life in them had that sentient life actively working to damage the Infinite Realms, and to my knowledge, that is not what is happening here!” Phantom rushed through his explanation in an effort to appease Batman.
“To your knowledge. There's still a chance.” Batman crossed his arms, thinking through what Phantom had said. From what Phantom had explained in the past, Ancient meant the personification of something, so the personification of time itself was sending Poltergeist to destroy universes.
His jaw tensed. From what they had seen so far, if the ghost wasn’t mistaken, they would be in great trouble. “If he was here believing he was getting rid of a threatening universe, why was he... holding back against us?”
“Believe it or not, this is not the first time my brother has gone to the wrong universe.” Phantom rolled his eyes in fond annoyance.
“So he usually fools around a little to see if Clockwork, or someone else, will intervene. Besides, there isn’t always a need for the universe to be completely destroyed. Sometimes it's enough to cause a scene for the universe to be redirected onto the right path.
Not that Clockwork would specify which universes are which,” Phantom scoffed, “so Poltergeist just takes things slowly until there's no chance the sentence wasn't destruction.”
“What would a scene entail?” Batman asked, leaning forward slightly. “Would what he has done so far count as a scene?”
“Uh...” Phantom winced. “I’m not sure.”
Batman sighed, pulling up the battle logs once more. This conversation was doing nothing to calm his nerves. He had been grateful when Phantom was able to easily stop Poltergeist's attack, but everything he heard only made his worries grow.
They had no real way to defend themselves if the Ancient of Time confirmed that this universe had been sentenced to destruction. He understood the cosmic logic behind Poltergeist's work, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let his dimension be destroyed for the greater good.
His children lived here, his friends lived here, and there were billions of lives he had worked day and night to protect. He wouldn’t let it all end just because a higher being had decided they were too much of a threat to continue existing.
The “scene” option wasn’t a good alternative either, not when they didn’t even have a definition for what a “scene” was. What would they do if, for it to be effective, Poltergeist had to destroy the Earth? He needed to discuss this with the JLD and see if there was any chance they had a way to combat this.
He should have found a more reliable way to counter ghosts when Phantom first arrived. Sure, every attempt had ended in failure, but he had let himself get distracted by other matters too easily.
Batman slowly raised his eyes to Phantom again. The ghost was hovering nervously from side to side, biting his lip as though he were trying to find words that would reassure Batman. Batman doubted those words existed.
“Phantom. What is your plan if Poltergeist returns with the objective of destroying this universe?” he finally voiced the question he had been dreading.
Phantom was a close friend of Tim's. The boy had stayed over at the Manor more times than Bruce could count, he got along with all of the other teen heroes, and more than a few heroes had an unspoken agreement of shared custody over the kid.
Bruce was excluded only because of his children's efforts to keep Phantom firmly in the family friend category, but Bruce had always found the boy somewhat nephew-like. If Phantom sided with Poltergeist, if they had to fight against Phantom in their attempt to save their home dimension... Bruce didn’t know if they would be able to emotionally survive that.
Phantom furrowed his brows. “Batman, I’m a protector spirit. You heard what I told Poltergeist, didn’t you? This place is mine. I don’t care what Clockwork says about this universe, it is mine. Poltergeist will have to trap me in my core before he can put a real dent in it.” Phantom’s eyes grew brighter as he spoke, his voice taking on more of the ghostly reverberance they heard whenever the ghost got angry.
Batman kept his eyes on the ghost, relieved to hear they would not have to fight against him, but feeling bad for the position the kid would be put in if the worst outcome did come to pass. Phantom's warm look toward his brother when they had spoken about this Whisp person getting along with him came to mind.
“Would you really be able to fight against your brother?” he asked quietly.
Phantom let out a humorless chuckle. “And win too. I have done it multiple times.” The ghost finally took a seat, or rather a table, as he perched beside Batman’s monitor, pulling his legs up to his chest and looking down.
“The truth is, Batman, a universe under my protection would never be able to be destroyed. Even if I lose and am forced into my core, Poltergeist would be too injured or exhausted to finish the job. It doesn’t mean it would go unscathed from Poltergeist's attacks but... it’ll be fine.”
“Then if Poltergeist is asked to destroy this universe, this Ancient of Time is actually just asking for a 'scene'?” Batman asked, not liking the implications that Phantom had had to fight with his brother multiple times because of this Ancient's orders, but deciding not to touch that issue at the moment.
Phantom shook his head. “If Clockwork is sending Poltergeist here, it most likely means he wants us both to be out of commission for some time, out of the way of some other great event that will be happening soon and that we, as balance missionaries, won’t like, but that Time considers necessary.”
“Balance missionaries?” Batman repeated, his brows furrowing at the unfamiliar title.
It occurred to him that they were lacking a great deal of knowledge about the Infinite Realms. Phantom had adapted exceptionally well to human society. Everything from his "Danny's" disguise to his mannerisms fit in remarkably well, and the teen also spoke casually about ghosts and the Infinite Realms.
Batman had assumed, in the comfort of easy answers and because of the teen's protective personality, that aside from the paranormal factor, they shared similar social structures.
Or perhaps it had been his dislike for the paranormal that had allowed him to remain comfortable with how little he knew. After all, the JLD was there to handle that side of things. That assumption sat poorly with him now. He had accepted too many unknowns simply because they had been convenient, and the realization left an unpleasant weight in his chest.
Phantom groaned and flopped backward dramatically onto the table. “That one is actually too long, and I refuse to explain it. Long story short, it’s a title me, Poltergeist, and our little sister Whisp got around our hundredth death year. It just so happens that Balance and Time don’t always agree.”
Bruce frowned. “If you’re aware this is only a way for him to get you both out of the way, why don’t you refuse from the start?”
Phantom grimaced. “It isn’t that simple...” He sat back up from where he had flopped onto the table and rubbed his arms uneasily. “I’m sure Constantine has told you before that paranormal beings tend not to have all the same liberties as mortals do. Poltergeists have a need to destroy what has been classified as a danger, and I have to protect what’s mine to protect. We can't not do it.
Besides, it doesn’t always work in Clocky's favor even when we go along with it.” Phantom sighed and hugged his knees tighter. “Look, even if Poltergeist does return with a destruction sentence, I’ll ask him to take it to an uninhabited place. That much we can afford to do. So it’ll be fine.”
Batman frowns. “I don’t think anyone would like for you to go fight far away on your own in a battle that, from what you’ve told me, will leave you terribly injured.”
Phantom made a wet laugh. “Then let’s hope Poltergeist returns for a brother's hang out instead, because I can’t stay here if we do have to fight” Phantom hides his face in his knees. “Fuck, I really liked my existance here, I don’t want to leave yet.”
Bruce's brow knit with concern, somewhat confused by Phantom's assumption that he would have to leave after the attack. Did the ghost believe he would be blamed for the possible destruction of their surroundings?
“You don’t have to leave, Phantom. Regardless of how things develop, no one would blame you or want you gone. This is not a decision you are taking.”
Phantom shook his head, his voice muffled by his knees. “I can’t stay in a universe where we’ve fought.” He raised his head slightly, his wet eyes peeking up from where they had been hidden behind his knees.
“Beings like us emit a lot of energy. After a fight like that? There’s no way this universe will have the structural strength to put up with me.”
“Are you certain there’s no other option?”
Phantom nodded. “Not one we’ve found in the last five hundred years.”
Batman placed a hand on Phantom's shoulder, gently rubbing his thumb in circles against it. “You haven’t searched in this universe yet. Let’s not give up until we have at the very least tried.”
Phantom’s resulting laugh was so resigned that it was heartbreaking to hear. “I’m sorry, Batsy, but I’d rather spend my possible last moments in this universe doing something other than falling into a research spiral.”
He sniffed, a hand coming up to rub at his eye, and after looking away, he started speaking again, his words almost a mumble. “I know there’s a huge cleanup going on, but do you think J'onn will be free soon? I want to stay with him for a while.”
Batman thinned his lips for a moment. It wasn’t surprising that Phantom would resign himself if he had gone through this multiple times before, but he still hated seeing such hopelessness in young eyes. He hated magic and the supernatural.
He knew some of the hero community saw him as a man who looked for children to turn into heroes, but giving those kids capes and training had always been the result of trying to keep extremely capable children with a hunger for violence and justice alive.
He would be delighted if any of his children decided to quit one morning, though at this point he was convinced it was more likely for Alfred the cat to learn to fly than for any of them to do so. But magic never seemed to give anyone an option. Not Billy with the wisdom of Solomon, and not Phantom now.
“We have more than enough people helping down there.” Batman gave the teen's shoulder a final squeeze before withdrawing his hand. “I can call him up if you want.”
Phantom only nodded, not looking at Batman again.
“Before that,” Batman continued, “do you perhaps know how long it’ll take for Poltergeist to get his answer?”
Phantom shrugged and pushed himself off the table. “You never know with Clockwork. It could be an hour, it could be a couple months.” He floated toward the door before pausing. “Could you tell J’onn I’ll be in my Watchtower bedroom?”
“Of course.” Batman hesitated for a moment. “And Phantom, if we have a question...”
“Sure, I’ll answer what I can.” Phantom offered him a small, tired smile. “Still don’t think you’ll find anything, but well, you are one of Hope's favorites after all.” With that, Phantom left the room.
Batman blinked. One of Hope's favorites? He looked at his own reflection on the monitor's screen. Something like that didn’t fit him. He shook his head, pushing the strange comment out of his mind. He needed to get the JLD to the Watchtower yesterday.
Even if Phantom didn’t have to leave the universe if a battle did happen, sending the teen to fight against Poltergeist was not a plan. They couldn’t rely on a single teenager to save them all. They needed options, and for that, he needed information.
The sirens were blaring. The situation was quickly escalating into an all-hands-on-deck emergency, and Batman was doing his best to give every superhero who came through the zeta-tube a position that would maximize their chances of surviving this.
Which wasn't easy when the threat was a complete unknown, one with apparently limitless power. Somehow, they hadn't suffered any catastrophic injuries so far, and the Flashes had managed to evacuate most civilians within the first twenty minutes.
However, considering the amount of power the being had displayed so far, and the complete lack of damage they had been able to inflict, it didn't feel as though their endurance up to this point was the result of their own efforts. Instead, it felt like the being was deliberately holding back.
Batman hated the sensation that it was merely toying with them before delivering a final, devastating blow, like a cat entertaining itself with prey before finally killing it.
He leapt out of the path of another stray attack. The fact that he was able to evade it at all, despite having witnessed other attacks move far faster, was just another piece of evidence supporting Batman's theory that the being was holding back.
They hadn't even been able to communicate with it. They had no motive, no known objective, no understanding of what it wanted, not even a clear description of what it looked like, since they only caught a shadow of an anthropomorphic figure between the onslaught of attacks.
The relentless battle had now dragged on for nearly two hours.
“We need something else to try! Nothing we do is affecting him!” Batman heard Wonder Woman shout through the comms.
“Do we have any news from the Dark members? I may not know what this being is, but it clearly has magical properties,” Shazam exclaimed as he launched yet another attack at the being, only for the man to be thrown back. Starfire was quick to soften his landing.
The closest zeta-tube, positioned a thousand miles north, sent another activation notification to Batman's wrist computer, and he was already thinking about where the weakest points in their formation were before he even knew who the new arrival was.
He couldn’t stop the resigned sigh that escaped his lips when the zeta-tube announced B-25. It was Phantom. So far, other than Shazam, there hadn't been any other young heroes arriving, but he wouldn’t be surprised if he started seeing more of them soon. Phantom was most likely just the start.
Phantom, despite claiming to have lived for almost half a millenia, had also accepted that by his own species' standards he was quite young, and Bruce had estimated that mentally the boy wasn't older than sixteen in human developmental years.
Usually, Bruce tried to keep the younger heroes out of world-ending threats, but he had to make an exception when no alternative was working. Phantom had powerful abilities, and while Batman had no reason to believe his powers would have any more impact than those of the other heavy hitters so far, he also had no reason to stop the boy from acting.
He really wished they could have wrapped up this battle before he had to start positioning young teens on the front lines.
“Hey Bats, heard things are looking pretty bad here. Where do you need me?” Phantom’s voice came through his comm. They had never been able to completely get rid of the staticky effect the ghost inflicted on the device, but it was still worlds better than the first time the ghost used them.
“We haven’t been able to inflict any damage so far, but we’re trying different attacks. Most of our electricity-based heroes are working southwest, so position yourself northeast for the time being to avoid interfering with each other. Try some attacks, and we’ll adjust from there.” Batman tried to keep certain powers working in the same area for cases like these, where incompatibilities between allies could become an issue.
“So we really are at the 'throwing everything we have and hoping something works' phase, huh?” Phantom commented just as he appeared in Batman's right field of view, allowing him to see the exact moment the ghost froze in place.
He frowned. “Phantom, have you found an incompatibility with the being? If so, I request that you retire.” Batman spoke sharply.
Sure, they needed more heavy hitters, but it wouldn't really help if one of them had some fundamental weakness against the being. Superman was barely being any help with his weakness to magic, but other heroes trusted Superman’s experience enough to rely on the man in the field even when weakened.
It would not be the same with a young hero.
Heroes would get distracted trying to protect the kid. Young heroes might hate it and see it as demeaning, but in the end, adults couldn't ignore it when children appeared to be in danger, and Batman had to account for that bias when strategizing against threats.
“N-no, um, I know that guy.” Phantom stammered, but Batman didn't hear any fear in his voice. It sounded more like he had been caught off guard. He also noted that the being was a he. Not that knowing his gender really made any difference here, but after two hours of nothing, it was refreshing to have any information about him at all. “Hey, Batman? Could you get everyone to back away? I think I can get him to stop… at least for a moment.”
Batman turned his attention back to the battlefield. Nothing had changed since this whole thing started. Their attacks were serving more to deflect the being's assaults than to actually hurt him. To a certain extent, stopping wouldn't really change anything, but it could still place them all at a disadvantage if the being decided to stop holding back the moment they gave him space.
“Are you sure you can do that? It could put everyone in danger if you are unable to.”
“Yeah… as long as he doesn’t decide to be an asshole about it.” Phantom murmured the last phrase.
It didn’t give Batman much confidence. The being had been attacking for a long time, and sure, he was holding back, but any of Bruce’s sons would agree that this behavior firmly placed him in the asshole category. Then again, no one else even knew what he was, and nothing they had tried so far had worked. Whatever Phantom had planned here might be their only chance.
He sighed. “Okay, but you have to be quick. If the being doesn’t stop within ten minutes after we cease our attacks, we’re returning to the current positions. Understood?”
“As clear as day.” Phantom chirped.
“I need everyone to step back for ten minutes. We’re trying something else,” Batman announced through the comms.
The heroes reunited around the being hadn't even finished complying when Phantom darted closer and screamed, “Half-time! Half-time! I demand a review!” And to everyone's utter confusion, the being stopped.
“Phantom? What are you doing here?” a deep, raspy voice asked. Batman couldn't believe the being was capable of talking. They had tried to communicate with him multiple times.
Without the constant barrage of attacks, he slowly began to make out the man's actual appearance. His eyes were red, his frame was massive, and he shared a certain resemblance to Phantom that Batman did not like noticing.
“What else would I be doing here? This is my home, dipshit.” Phantom snarled exasperatedly, planting his hands on his hips. “What are you doing here?”
“Oh, save us the unnecessary questions. You know I only go where the clock sends me,” the being snarled back.
“Right, because you never enjoy doing this. This place is mine, Poltergeist,” Phantom growled.
“Yeah, yeah, I heard you the first time.” The newly named Poltergeist scoffed. “Let's see.”
He reached into his own arm and pulled out a notebook, flipping through the pages. Batman could only add this action, the name, the resemblance to Phantom, and the fact that the teen knew him to his growing list of evidence that this man was a ghost.
He knew from Phantom that ghosts were powerful, but he hadn't thought they could be this powerful. He would need to prioritize contingencies against ghosts once this was dealt with. At least whatever conversation Phantom and this Poltergeist were having seemed to be going well.
That is, there hadn't been any new attacks, and he hoped it stayed that way. He could see some of his allies taking advantage of the possibly temporary ceasefire to collect themselves and get injured teammates treated as best as possible without fully immobilizing them, in case things went south and they had to resume the fight.
Poltergeist finally found the page he had been looking for. “So, is this not AU18DC86DP08062026?” he asked, reading aloud.
Phantom looked clearly displeased by the alphanumeric string that apparently described “here.” Batman still didn't know what level of magnitude “here” referred to. These exact coordinates? This city? This planet? This solar system? It could mean anything. He was going to have so many questions for Phantom later.
“Yes. Yes, it is.” Phantom growled, now clearly annoyed. “Let me see that.” He swooped forward and snatched the notebook away.
“Hey! Careful, you jerk. Whisp made that for me!” Poltergeist protested.
“I'm not going to break it...” Phantom whipped his head around to stare at Poltergeist and exclaimed, all traces of anger vanishing and pure awe filling his voice, “Wait, she made it for you?”
“Yes. I told you we've gotten closer.” Poltergeist crossed his arms and looked positively smug.
“I'm glad,” Phantom said softly, a warmth entering his eyes that Batman had only seen when the ghost looked at people he had adopted as family.
Batman had... so many questions, and he could see many of the heroes observing the scene dumbfounded. Martian Manhunter, one of the first adults the teen had dubbed “his,” looked the most baffled, and Batman wondered if there was another psychic layer to this conversation that he was missing.
Anyhow, the strange domesticity the conversation had taken on had allowed the heroes to relax even further. Batman was starting to consider organizing an evacuation for those with the worst injuries.
Poltergeist cleared his throat, now looking away as though embarrassed. “Were you not about to check the code?”
“Ah, right.” Phantom looked back down at the notebook and pursed his lips. “I don't get where you get your terrible handwriting from. Both me and Vlad have decent enough handwriting.”
“Oh, spare me the lecture.” Poltergeist waved a hand dismissively.
“I'll spare it when it isn't affecting me! Can you really confidently tell me any of these are actually sixes, fives, or eights? They all look almost the same!” Phantom complained, waving the notebook accusingly.
“Of course I... well, I think so?” Poltergeist admitted with a grimace.
“Ancients. You need to find a more reliable way to do this.”
“Alright, alright, I get it. My numbers suck. Blame the clock. You know how many codes he has me writing in one sitting?” Poltergeist threw his hands up.
“Ugh, the bastard has all the time in the world and yet...” Phantom muttered.
“Right!? Like, use your time-outs for this supposedly incredibly important information!” Poltergeist huffed.
Phantom sighed. “So...”
“Yes, yes, I'll honor your review request and go confirm this with Clockwork.” Poltergeist rolled his eyes, though his tone lacked any real irritation. “I'll let you know how it goes.”
Phantom huffed and held out the notebook. “Here. And seriously, work on your numbers.”
“Yeah, yeah.” Poltergeist took the notebook back carefully, tucking it away into his arm again. “I'll think about it.”
“Hope it goes well,” Phantom said. Then, after a moment of silence, he added almost timidly, “Hey, and if it turns out null, could you stay and visit for a few days? Feels like it's been decades.”
Poltergeist looked at Phantom for a long moment, his expression softening. “Sure, lil me.” And then the man was engulfed in shadows and disappeared.
Phantom pouted as he floated back toward Batman. “I've told him not to call me that,” he mumbled under his breath.
“Phantom. If you don’t mind, I would like some explanations. Starting with who that man was, how you know him, and why he was attacking.” Batman demanded.
“Ugh, straight back to business as always.” Phantom groaned, rubbing the back of his neck. “Shouldn’t we be looking after the injured or something?”
“I trust the rest of the team is able to do that now that there isn’t an imminent threat in the field,” Batman replied.
“... Right.” Phantom shifted nervously in the air. “Um, so that was Poltergeist.”
“I gathered.”
“And he’s my older brother.”
Fantastic. Phantom has an older brother with unlimited power. Batman massaged his temple. At least this confirmed that Poltergeist was a ghost.
“And why was your brother attacking us?”
“Right, so, that’s a pretty long explanation. A lot of context is needed...” Phantom said, hovering nervously in the air. “Can’t we, like, go back to the Watchtower and talk there?”
Batman raised an eyebrow and looked around. There weren’t any civilians left, and the only people able to hear them would be other Justice League allies, but Batman could understand not wanting to discuss personal matters in front of every hero present. Even if said personal matters had caused an all-hands-on-deck level threat. He sighed.
“All right.” He pressed his comm. “Nightwing, I’m going back to the Watchtower to discuss what has happened with Phantom. Could you...”
“Don’t worry, B, we have everything covered here,” Nightwing's voice came, sounding a little strained from the other side.
Batman pursed his lips. He hadn’t received any notice of his eldest getting hurt. He glanced around the battlefield. Nightwing was too far away for him to see clearly from his position, but hopefully his son was occupied with something and wasn’t actually hiding a major injury. He sighed. He would have to trust his son's judgment. Turning back toward Phantom, he nodded.
“All right, let’s get to the Watchtower.”
—
Phantom hovered around the room, searching for the right words, while Batman checked the logs that had been entered into the system during the attack. He was trying to be patient here. Phantom was a nervous young boy, and he didn’t want the teen to shut down.
“Alright,” Phantom finally began, rubbing the back of his neck. “You know how I mentioned once that I was a protective spirit?”
“Mm,” Batman acknowledged, not looking up from the screen.
“Right, so, my brother is also a protector but… in a different way.”
“Which means?” Batman asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Um, he gets rid of the universes that are a threat to the Infinite Realms? You know, the place that I told you is connected to all existing universes?” Phantom explained in a meek voice.
“He destroys universes,” Batman concluded, barely keeping the panic out of his voice. They had had a universe destroyer attacking them.
“Well, yes. But to protect all the other universes!” Phantom exclaimed, throwing his hands up. “You know, like when you cut off a leaf that shows signs of fungus so the rest of the plant won't die as well?”
“So he’s decided our universe is a threat.” Batman growled lowly, narrowing his eyes at Phantom.
“He hasn’t.” Phantom immediately raised his arms in a calming motion. “Um, the Ancient of Time told him, but Da... uh, Poltergeist may be mistaken. Like, the code was not clear at all. He could definitely be in the wrong universe!” Phantom hurried to explain.
“Universes that have become a threat to the Infinite Realms rarely have sentient life. More often than not, they're a threat because of the way they sink ectoplasm, like a black hole pulls in light. The few that have had sentient life in them had that sentient life actively working to damage the Infinite Realms, and to my knowledge, that is not what is happening here!” Phantom rushed through his explanation in an effort to appease Batman.
“To your knowledge. There's still a chance.” Batman crossed his arms, thinking through what Phantom had said. From what Phantom had explained in the past, Ancient meant the personification of something, so the personification of time itself was sending Poltergeist to destroy universes.
His jaw tensed. From what they had seen so far, if the ghost wasn’t mistaken, they would be in great trouble. “If he was here believing he was getting rid of a threatening universe, why was he... holding back against us?”
“Believe it or not, this is not the first time my brother has gone to the wrong universe.” Phantom rolled his eyes in fond annoyance.
“So he usually fools around a little to see if Clockwork, or someone else, will intervene. Besides, there isn’t always a need for the universe to be completely destroyed. Sometimes it's enough to cause a scene for the universe to be redirected onto the right path.
Not that Clockwork would specify which universes are which,” Phantom scoffed, “so Poltergeist just takes things slowly until there's no chance the sentence wasn't destruction.”
“What would a scene entail?” Batman asked, leaning forward slightly. “Would what he has done so far count as a scene?”
“Uh...” Phantom winced. “I’m not sure.”
Batman sighed, pulling up the battle logs once more. This conversation was doing nothing to calm his nerves. He had been grateful when Phantom was able to easily stop Poltergeist's attack, but everything he heard only made his worries grow.
They had no real way to defend themselves if the Ancient of Time confirmed that this universe had been sentenced to destruction. He understood the cosmic logic behind Poltergeist's work, but that didn’t mean he was willing to let his dimension be destroyed for the greater good.
His children lived here, his friends lived here, and there were billions of lives he had worked day and night to protect. He wouldn’t let it all end just because a higher being had decided they were too much of a threat to continue existing.
The “scene” option wasn’t a good alternative either, not when they didn’t even have a definition for what a “scene” was. What would they do if, for it to be effective, Poltergeist had to destroy the Earth? He needed to discuss this with the JLD and see if there was any chance they had a way to combat this.
He should have found a more reliable way to counter ghosts when Phantom first arrived. Sure, every attempt had ended in failure, but he had let himself get distracted by other matters too easily.
Batman slowly raised his eyes to Phantom again. The ghost was hovering nervously from side to side, biting his lip as though he were trying to find words that would reassure Batman. Batman doubted those words existed.
“Phantom. What is your plan if Poltergeist returns with the objective of destroying this universe?” he finally voiced the question he had been dreading.
Phantom was a close friend of Tim's. The boy had stayed over at the Manor more times than Bruce could count, he got along with all of the other teen heroes, and more than a few heroes had an unspoken agreement of shared custody over the kid.
Bruce was excluded only because of his children's efforts to keep Phantom firmly in the family friend category, but Bruce had always found the boy somewhat nephew-like. If Phantom sided with Poltergeist, if they had to fight against Phantom in their attempt to save their home dimension... Bruce didn’t know if they would be able to emotionally survive that.
Phantom furrowed his brows. “Batman, I’m a protector spirit. You heard what I told Poltergeist, didn’t you? This place is mine. I don’t care what Clockwork says about this universe, it is mine. Poltergeist will have to trap me in my core before he can put a real dent in it.” Phantom’s eyes grew brighter as he spoke, his voice taking on more of the ghostly reverberance they heard whenever the ghost got angry.
Batman kept his eyes on the ghost, relieved to hear they would not have to fight against him, but feeling bad for the position the kid would be put in if the worst outcome did come to pass. Phantom's warm look toward his brother when they had spoken about this Whisp person getting along with him came to mind.
“Would you really be able to fight against your brother?” he asked quietly.
Phantom let out a humorless chuckle. “And win too. I have done it multiple times.” The ghost finally took a seat, or rather a table, as he perched beside Batman’s monitor, pulling his legs up to his chest and looking down.
“The truth is, Batman, a universe under my protection would never be able to be destroyed. Even if I lose and am forced into my core, Poltergeist would be too injured or exhausted to finish the job. It doesn’t mean it would go unscathed from Poltergeist's attacks but... it’ll be fine.”
“Then if Poltergeist is asked to destroy this universe, this Ancient of Time is actually just asking for a 'scene'?” Batman asked, not liking the implications that Phantom had had to fight with his brother multiple times because of this Ancient's orders, but deciding not to touch that issue at the moment.
Phantom shook his head. “If Clockwork is sending Poltergeist here, it most likely means he wants us both to be out of commission for some time, out of the way of some other great event that will be happening soon and that we, as balance missionaries, won’t like, but that Time considers necessary.”
“Balance missionaries?” Batman repeated, his brows furrowing at the unfamiliar title.
It occurred to him that they were lacking a great deal of knowledge about the Infinite Realms. Phantom had adapted exceptionally well to human society. Everything from his "Danny's" disguise to his mannerisms fit in remarkably well, and the teen also spoke casually about ghosts and the Infinite Realms.
Batman had assumed, in the comfort of easy answers and because of the teen's protective personality, that aside from the paranormal factor, they shared similar social structures.
Or perhaps it had been his dislike for the paranormal that had allowed him to remain comfortable with how little he knew. After all, the JLD was there to handle that side of things. That assumption sat poorly with him now. He had accepted too many unknowns simply because they had been convenient, and the realization left an unpleasant weight in his chest.
Phantom groaned and flopped backward dramatically onto the table. “That one is actually too long, and I refuse to explain it. Long story short, it’s a title me, Poltergeist, and our little sister Whisp got around our hundredth death year. It just so happens that Balance and Time don’t always agree.”
Bruce frowned. “If you’re aware this is only a way for him to get you both out of the way, why don’t you refuse from the start?”
Phantom grimaced. “It isn’t that simple...” He sat back up from where he had flopped onto the table and rubbed his arms uneasily. “I’m sure Constantine has told you before that paranormal beings tend not to have all the same liberties as mortals do. Poltergeists have a need to destroy what has been classified as a danger, and I have to protect what’s mine to protect. We can't not do it.
Besides, it doesn’t always work in Clocky's favor even when we go along with it.” Phantom sighed and hugged his knees tighter. “Look, even if Poltergeist does return with a destruction sentence, I’ll ask him to take it to an uninhabited place. That much we can afford to do. So it’ll be fine.”
Batman frowns. “I don’t think anyone would like for you to go fight far away on your own in a battle that, from what you’ve told me, will leave you terribly injured.”
Phantom made a wet laugh. “Then let’s hope Poltergeist returns for a brother's hang out instead, because I can’t stay here if we do have to fight” Phantom hides his face in his knees. “Fuck, I really liked my existance here, I don’t want to leave yet.”
Bruce's brow knit with concern, somewhat confused by Phantom's assumption that he would have to leave after the attack. Did the ghost believe he would be blamed for the possible destruction of their surroundings?
“You don’t have to leave, Phantom. Regardless of how things develop, no one would blame you or want you gone. This is not a decision you are taking.”
Phantom shook his head, his voice muffled by his knees. “I can’t stay in a universe where we’ve fought.” He raised his head slightly, his wet eyes peeking up from where they had been hidden behind his knees.
“Beings like us emit a lot of energy. After a fight like that? There’s no way this universe will have the structural strength to put up with me.”
“Are you certain there’s no other option?”
Phantom nodded. “Not one we’ve found in the last five hundred years.”
Batman placed a hand on Phantom's shoulder, gently rubbing his thumb in circles against it. “You haven’t searched in this universe yet. Let’s not give up until we have at the very least tried.”
Phantom’s resulting laugh was so resigned that it was heartbreaking to hear. “I’m sorry, Batsy, but I’d rather spend my possible last moments in this universe doing something other than falling into a research spiral.”
He sniffed, a hand coming up to rub at his eye, and after looking away, he started speaking again, his words almost a mumble. “I know there’s a huge cleanup going on, but do you think J'onn will be free soon? I want to stay with him for a while.”
Batman thinned his lips for a moment. It wasn’t surprising that Phantom would resign himself if he had gone through this multiple times before, but he still hated seeing such hopelessness in young eyes. He hated magic and the supernatural.
He knew some of the hero community saw him as a man who looked for children to turn into heroes, but giving those kids capes and training had always been the result of trying to keep extremely capable children with a hunger for violence and justice alive.
He would be delighted if any of his children decided to quit one morning, though at this point he was convinced it was more likely for Alfred the cat to learn to fly than for any of them to do so. But magic never seemed to give anyone an option. Not Billy with the wisdom of Solomon, and not Phantom now.
“We have more than enough people helping down there.” Batman gave the teen's shoulder a final squeeze before withdrawing his hand. “I can call him up if you want.”
Phantom only nodded, not looking at Batman again.
“Before that,” Batman continued, “do you perhaps know how long it’ll take for Poltergeist to get his answer?”
Phantom shrugged and pushed himself off the table. “You never know with Clockwork. It could be an hour, it could be a couple months.” He floated toward the door before pausing. “Could you tell J’onn I’ll be in my Watchtower bedroom?”
“Of course.” Batman hesitated for a moment. “And Phantom, if we have a question...”
“Sure, I’ll answer what I can.” Phantom offered him a small, tired smile. “Still don’t think you’ll find anything, but well, you are one of Hope's favorites after all.” With that, Phantom left the room.
Batman blinked. One of Hope's favorites? He looked at his own reflection on the monitor's screen. Something like that didn’t fit him. He shook his head, pushing the strange comment out of his mind. He needed to get the JLD to the Watchtower yesterday.
Even if Phantom didn’t have to leave the universe if a battle did happen, sending the teen to fight against Poltergeist was not a plan. They couldn’t rely on a single teenager to save them all. They needed options, and for that, he needed information.
Clones, friends, Siblings, twins? (does it really matter?) Part 1
Just as a heads up: The first half is kinda dialogue heavy, I'm a terrible writer and I don't know what Im doing. I hope you all like it tho! ૮ ˶ˆ ﻌ ˆ˶ ა
Part 0 (prompt)
1: Does it really matter?
Danny was running, he has been in the run for a while now, he isn't even sure where he is anymore...
Not that it matters, the only thing that matters is staying alive, or well at least not dying all the way. And if he wants to do that he needs to run, Run, RUN.
"Stop there ecto-scum" yell a GIW agent coming from a different direction than the others, joining his persecutor, leading a new group of them and blocking yet another of his possible escape routes.
Fuck Fuck! Fuck!!
Danny takes a sharp turn, barely avoiding being shot in the shoulder by the new comer. Were in the hell did they keep coming from!? He haven't even seen the ghost (ha) of them in over a month before today! The only way things could get any worse would be if his par- Danny stumbled back a little bit, almost getting hit by the Fenton Grappler.
"Darn it, I failed! I was convinced that I have it this time..." Exclaimed his da- Jack. Exclaimed Jack sounding disappointe, as if he hadn't fail a million times before.
"Don't worry to much about it love, I got this!" Said his m- Maddie, appearing from behind Jack, carrying a ecto-foamer and a Fenton bazooka of all tings...
He jinxed himself, didn't he? For his pare- the Fentons (they are only the Fentons, not his parents... they haven't been his parents in a while, not after what they did) to appear and block yet another of the pads that he could of taken, now, when he was just thinking about them, it has to be that he just jinx himself!! Hahaha-!
no No NO. Danny, you don't have time to spiral over something like this right now, he blinked rapidly, slightly backing off against the wall, looking frantically for a way to escape.
"Danny, baby, please come with us; let us help you" pleads his m- Maddie (why is it so difficult to stop calling her that?) approaching him slowly, like you would with a scared animal that might bite, as if that will convince him to go with her (It would be more convincing if she wasn't pointing a bazooka at him, though).
"Yes, Danno, come with us; we only want what is best for you" his f- Jack said it so earnestly that Danny almost folded, he would of if he didn't knew what their “help” actually entitled, what the-
His eyes stop moving frantically focusing solely on thing, there a couple of GIW agents that weren't standing as close together as the rest, He finally saw a opening to run trough and he isn't going to lose it just because he was lost in reflection, he knocked a couple of agents to the floor in the process (not that he cared, they deserve much more pain than a couple of bruises anyway) but he was out of the corner that they managed to trap him in and back on the run.
"The ghost is escaping! Hurry up!" shout one if the agents, bolting after him.
And with that, the start of the descent back to the chaos of the beginning was marked with the same shouts, slurs and careless shots; The only difference was:
"Danny! Please stop running we can still fix this"
The Fentons.
"Yes Danno,we can fix you like we fix the others"
The others, his rougues friends, His ghost friends, the blob ghost, the ghost animals, the shadows, all of the ghost zone inhabitants that they managed to capture and "fix" reduce to only the others as if they didn't matter as much as himself! As if the guilt he feels for not reaching them in time wasn't enough, as if the guilt of not being able to save-!
An ecto-blast brushed past his cheek, dragging him back to reality.
Honestly he was kinda surprised he hadn't been actually shot yet... Or maybe he was and just forgot about it, with how much everything hurt already, a new injury would be easy to ignore after the initial spike of pain anyway...
"Danny please stop running"
He was not going to stop until he couldn't move any more, but really...
"Why are you all trying to negotiate with me!? You don't even believe that I'm sentient!" Thinking about it, why is the GIW allowing them to do this?
"Because you aren't sentient! you are just as echo of yourself left behind when you died!"
"Firts of all yes I am, and second of, that still doesn't answer my question!"
"We now understand that you and the others aren't inherently evil, only objects, forces of nature, echoes of once living creatures"
And now they were ignoring what he said, like they all ways do... Of course... fantastic...
How did they even reach that conclusion anyway? most ghost were never alive to begin with!(yes, the ones that visit Amity the most often were alive at some point, but that doesn't matter).
"But you and the others need to leave, you all can not keep on existing like this, it's bad for you and bad for society, you need to move on! So please come with us, so we can fix this, so you can rest in peace, don't you want to rest in peace?"
He was not going to dignify that question with an answer... But seriously, how did they reach that conclusion? It doesn't even make any sense... But regardless:
"I am still alive, though..."he mumbled
"Danno... son... No, you aren't... You haven't been in a long time... We know that its difficult for you to accept that... It was difficult for us to come to terms with it as well, especially with you possessing your own body, but you are dead... All evidence points to that..." And now they answer him... That doesn't make any sense...
"But I am alive! Even if just partially... But I am alive!" Danny wasn't sure why he kept trying to reason with them, he all ready knew that it was pointless to do so, specially after all of what they did to him and the others, but he just couldn't stop himself from shoutting back at them...
"Dont lie, no living creature could survive with their body in the estate that yours is in" Maddie said coldly
"You shouldn't even be able to move, most of your bones were fractured, the vast majority of your inner organs are missing or damage and you don't even have any blood left on your body only ectoplasm" (that can't be acurred, right? His injuries can't be that bad, right!?) "And that is before taking into account your external injuries. You. Are. Dead." Her voice was so plain that it might as well have come from a robot. (How the heck did she manage to do that while running??)
"Anyway! Why do you stop running and come with us, sweetheart? We have a nice little coffin waiting for you back home! It is space themed, you would like it, Don't you want to come see it?" She added cheerfully, and wasn't that the whitlash of the century, Ancients...
"Yes, we also have a really nice grave waiting for you! It's right next to Vladie's and-"
Vlad.
Danny did not need a reminder of what they did to Vlad, how they- they-- oh Ancients... there wasn't even a core left they finished with him!
He couldn't even think about what they did... Yes, Vlad used to be his nemesis, but he didn't deserve that, no one deserves what they did to him, Vlad also had become a much better person (but still a frootloop) after he stopped being so obsessed with Maddi- Ancients, he knew that she had to have done something terrible for Vlad to grow so disappointed on her to the point of losing his main ghost obsession (Ancients.... that all most killed Vlad at the time, it would have done so if it wasn't because of his obsession with power, and the half formed family one that took it's place.... Thought that would have been a much kindred death than what he got) and become so weary of his parents the Fentons and GIW all of a sudden, but Danny didn't expect it to come to this point.
Maybe if he had taken it more seriously at the time none of this would of happen, maybe them all would still be around, Maybe D-
"-!!" He got shot in the shoulder...
Danny doesn't have the time nor energy to spare on nonsensical thoughts and emotions right now, he needs to focus on escaping and only escaping, he can spiral thinking about the "maybes" and "what ifs" once he isn't on immediate danger of being injured, captured, killed, or all of the above.
.....
After a while he had somehow managed to put some distance between himself and his persecutors, it ha take him (probably?) 3 hours, but he did!
Though if he wants to lost them for real (even if its just for now), he needs a plan.
For what he can tell, most of them are on this side of the city, probably because of the ghost haunt in this area(it wasn't the only one but it was the easiest to spot, it also seems to be acting as a shield for the other haunts), not that he needs to worry about it, they don't seem to be here right now so they should be alright, he thinks? Like...
He knows the feeling of a haunt whose owner has faded away, is gravely injured, or distressed, and none of them feel like that, they feel perfectly healthy, if just... Empty, like those that live there have just go out and haven't come back jet. In particular the biggest haunt was also coated in a feeling of righteous anger and joy, so whoever owns that one is definitely alright, thriving even; which means that Danny doesn't have anything to worry about, nope, nothing at all!
(He, in fact, had nothing to worry about. The Ghost of this area were just chilling somewhere else, not that he knew that at the time, but...)
Anyway, back to the plan! If most of the agents (and the Fentons) are in this area and the more he moves towards the southwest (or what he thinks is the southwest) of the city, the less frequently they appear in front of his path blocking it, and he is pretty sure that by the next city block (neighborhood?) there shouldn't be any more GIW agents waiting there for him, so he just needs to go over there? easy, right? Wrong.
After spending the last 30 minutes trying to find an alternative route, he has come to the conclusion that the only way to get there is by going across the main street, which is a problem because that means either being seen by the cameras, alerting them of his location, or turning invisible, which would also alert them of his location by making his ecto-signature more obvious; the only difference between the two was that one of those clues would last longer than the other...
So invincibility it was! As long as he is quick about it, he should be able to reach the other side safely, without the Fentons nor the GIW catching up with him.
But because nothing could ever be easy for him, a new figure appears out of the shadows blocking his path. On the bright side: it was none of his persecutors. On the downside: they were too close to him for it to be possible to avoid them without stopping or at the very least slowing down, exactly the things that he couldn't afford to do right now (he could hear the Fentons getting closer by the second), so he didn't have many more options than to turn intangible; that, on top of the invisibility, would surely take a strain on his core (and make his location even more obvious), but it will only be a second, so it shouldn't be a problem!
(Or so he thought...)
The moment that he made contact the stranger, he feels a tug in his core and everything turns white. It felt visceral, like having all of his organs being ripped out of his body at the same time (he would know, he has experienced it before), but it also felt reassuring in a way, like putting on a winter coat on a snowy day.
The next thing he feels is himself falling forwards, Danny somehow managed to get his balance back before he hits the floor faces first, but the thing that he sees after his vision clears up almost makes him fall to his knees anyway, because, is that a body? That wasn't there before, was it? Did he-? No. That- that is his body...
What the heck?
But he is right here? (Is he in...?) He looks down at "his" body, online to see the stranger's (Yes. yes he is) , but how is that possible? Even if he is overshadowing someone else's body he is not supposed to leave his own.... And this doesn't feels like an overshadowing at all! it feels more a kind to possessing an object, but not quite the same... Which didn't make any sense! This is clearly a person, not an object! And what else could this be if not an overshadowing or possession!?
A transmigration or transference. One of the most basic instinctive survival tactics that a halfa can have.
After all a true halfa needs a living half to survive, it doesn't matter if it's the original one or not, as long as it fulfills all the requirements... So when he make contact with a body that did just that? His core instinctively latched on to it like a starving man to a piece of bread, bringing the rest of his being with it.
Not that Danny knew about any of that...
Anyway he doesn't have time to trouble himself with the "whys whats and hows" of the situation he needs to get back into his own body or at least-
"The ecto-scum should be over here! Run faster before it escapes!"
They are too fucking close! He- he needs to- he bolts down street, completely forgetting his plan, until a couple of city blocks away...
...
An unknown amount of time has passed.
Danny was panting heavily, struggling to even out his breath while sitting on the floor, leaning against one of the walls of the abandoned building that he has decided was secure enough to take a break in at least for now.
Seriously... His situation was already hard enough...
First a bunch of ghosts disappear, then he got caught by the GIW while trying to rescue the missing ghosts, then his parents the Fentons join the GIW and help to run a bunch of experiments in the other ghost and him.
Then they discover that he is a halfa.... When that first happened, it almost looked like they were going to change their minds for the best, he was wrong to think that was even an option.... Their point of view did change in a twisted way though...
Then Vlad (whom apparently was captured before Danny) tried to scape liberating as many of the others ghosts as he could in his way out as a distraction, only to be recaptured and later on brutally killed in front of Danny. It apparently was supposed to be a warning of sorts... They don't even believe Danny to be sentient, and yet they forced him to see the whole process as a warning...
(If this is how they treat their son and their family friend like... What kind of treatment did the rest of them get?)
Then he managed to escape alongside all of the ghost that remained after Vlad's "sacrifice" (He had chosen to pretend that was the reason so few of them were left at the end, he was choosing to believe that Vlad's death wasn't in vain, for his own peace of mind), and now he accidentally high jack someone's body, losing his own in the process along side of-!
Dan!
Ellie!!
The cores!!!
Danny jumps back on to his feet.
How could he possibly forged about them for this long!? He needs to go back! He needs to go get them! He can't fail them again, he needs to--
They. Are. Here
He let's himself fall back on the floor, right next to the building's entrance, like a marionette with whose strings had been cut.
He brought them with him, their cores are right next to his own, were they belong.
"Sob- they, they still are here... hip- I- i didn't fail them this time" Ancients... He was so relive, they were here, they- "we are safe sob- I promise that sob- we are safe hip- we have to be... " it's just that he can not stop himself from crying, he wants to, but the tears will not stop; and he is just so so relive, he doesn't know what he could of done if he lost them for real...
What is even a protector spirit with nothing to protect?
But seriously... How could he forget about them even for a moment? The situation might be dire but... He was subject to Dan's painful screams for literal weeks, Danny was also screaming but he is still alive, he had to hear Ellie cry for help, he was also crying but he is still alive, he hear them both plead for it all to end, same as he did, then he had both of them die destabilize on his arms leaving only their cores behind, first it was Dan, the it was Ellie. After all of that how could he...?
At the time he had taken both their cores and placed them next to his own in the hopes that they will reform like he knew other ghost could do, but it's been months since then and there isn't any sign of progress... He does know that they are still "alive", he can still feel them feeding of his core after all, but still... Is he... Missing something?
And surely now being in a body that is not his own isn't going to help their progress at all!
...
sigh...
But on the bright side he isn't injured anymore and-
He looks at his hands, then the rest of "his" body and his mind freezes because:
"Am I dress like a fucking ninja!? What the hell?"
Another art of Constantine, Dan, Danny and Dani. I lwk enjoy drawing these four together so I might make more art of them, but for now you need to survive only with this 🥪
In honor of my trip today of going to a university for both health and physics mechanics for health equipment I present to you mechanic Danny for health institutions
The boy is making medical devices and trying to make new ones for the betterment of medical care. Danny realizing that he can be a mechanic but not like his parents decides to throw his time from protecting people from fights to creating things to save their lives because there's only so much a hero can do but so much more possibilities for survival with the right tools.
Sam started yelling at him for quitting heroing but did a complete 180 as soon as she heard what he was planning on doing and why. So much so that she offered him to be roommates with her free of charge in order to succeed.
Sam is all about the environment but she's also all about fixing systems and creating equipment to save and protect so she was fully on board with the idea of Danny making medical equipment because she knows if there's someone who can figure something out and make something genius out of it it's Danny she has seen his inventions and knows damn well he can do it
Tucker is also elated. In the way that he announces it to the whole school one Thursday morning declaring Danny is going to become a better person than any person at that school (Tucker's also petty AF for all the bullying so his bestie trying to make a change for the world instead of fist fighting and making himself drowned? Instead using all that knowledge he had to make sure people survive? Yeah bro is glazing Danny's ass for somehow becoming a better person despite everything he's been through)
So imagine this is also dead serious where Damian and his class visit the mechanics department in their university and sees Danny doing some kind of paranormal raccoon hasn't slept in 3 days yet and genius invention with the professor literally trying to drag Danny out so he can get some rest with Danny holding on to something for his dear life trying to finish his invention.
Danny as a last ditch effort asks someone to volunteer to put that thing on
Damian ends up volunteering and... The invention works perfectly? What do you mean this isn't the final product this can actually be put into hospitals already! Do you know how many people could be saved from this?! Do you know how this would help everyone?!
This ends up being a Damien who's planning to be a doctor with Danny who wants to save lives and barely gets any sleep.
Damien goes to family dinners and stares at his family like: I have met a person with worse sleep schedules then us. He may not be out as a vigilante but his inventions save peoples lives so much that he's not willing to stop. I wish to help him
And that coming from damien? That's basically high praise and also a love declaration
So now Damian has his own feral raccoon that he absolutely adores to the moon and back. Even if he has to wrangle and guilt trip him in order to go to bed
Dannys at Wayne enterprise because his parents want to submit their inventions and "scientific" discoverys for official review. He's bored out of his mind and meets this beautiful girl his age and strikes up a conversation with her. (Or he meets a girl and starts to rant like his father.)
Danny: im just saying Orphan has to be a vampire!
????(cass): No.
Danny: Are you kidding me? She moves with far to much elegance and grace to be mortal. Credit to the other bats but they move like mortals. She dances around both rogues and vigilantes!
????(cass): *blushing* No vampire.
Danny: ok maybe not a vampire but like a shadow demon or dhamphir or something! She's to much!
????(cass): orphan. Is. good. What about others?
Danny: oh! stabby robin and red hood are top tier obviously!
????(cass): oh?
Danny: well yeah! Stabby robin practices the art of the sword, a forgotten art in modern times. And red hood shoots pedophiles! Who doesn't like that?
????(cass): Batman.
Danny: well that says something about batman doesn't it. Have you seen the first Robin's outfit? Oof!
*in cass's ear*: Red Robin here. Good job on keeping danny distracted orphan. We're in the process of arresting Danny's parents. Can you keep it up?
????(cass): mhmm. Hey. Cute boy. Take me out to lunch?
Danny: Oh! Yeah! My parents will take hours explaining everything anyway, But uhm. What's your name?
????(cass): call me cass. This is a date, Yes?
Danny: *blushing* oh, uhm, yes. I'm Danny by the way.
Cass: Danny very cute.
Red robin: uhm? You don't have to do that orphan. Hello? ...Please don't make me explain this to B. Orphan?
Bruce pinching the bridge of his nose: Alright explain to how you lost both Cass and Danny.
Tim tied to a pole because he tried to run: Okay I was following them like you said. Cass dragged him to a fanasty resternaunt where they shared a dinner, which made me want to puke. Afterward they took a walk through the park where Cass dragged him into a bush and that's where I lost them.
Bruce sighing even more heavily: Oracle can you track them?
Barbara grinning ear to ear: Not only did I already have but our dear Cassandra made it even easier by posting on Daniel's social.
Bruce sighing again: Put it up.
Danny Fenton's page blinks onto the Batcomputers screen. On the top of his fed is a selfie taken by Cassandra covering herself with what looks like the sheets from a hotel with a sleeping Danny next to her. It's captioen "Cute boy is mine, back off b*tches."
Bruce: God lord the media is going to have a feild day with this.
Tim: See it wasn't my fault that I lost them.
Barbara: As you can see not only is Cassandra is not only okay but will seem to be very well rested.
Dick: You at the bite marks on them.
Steph: Damn, do you think she'd be willing to share him?
Jason: Judging the caption probably not.
Damain: And thus another member of my family have fallen from grace.
Duke: Damain don't start, you've been simping for Rachel more than Dick did for Kori.
Dick and Damain: Hey.
Bruce: Enough. I'm going to go get Cassandra, the rest of you don't anywhere.
Steph and Cass had just heard about Phantom, Wonder Woman’s ghost son, and decided to go up to the Watchtower to meet him. They get there and figure out he’s in a viewing room all by himself, looking at the stars. Feeling mischievous Steph asks Cass to spook him, claiming that spooking the ghost would be hilarious.
Cass decides to go with the plan and sneaks through the vents. She plans to drop down behind him and poke him or something. What she wasn’t expecting was for him to suddenly perk up and turn in his seat to look right at her in the vent. How had he noticed her? Not even Superman could notice her if she knew she was sneaking up on him!
Already knowing the plan is a bust she drops down with the intention of introducing and explaining herself when something weird happens. Cass had been trained since birth to read people’s bodies. To her it was her first language. So it surprised her when Phantom seemed to be doing the same to her. Reacting to her in the same way she was reacting to him.
Danny, for his part, is also confused that this bat person seems to be communicating in what he can best describe as a mute form of ghostspeak. She only has a proto-core so she can only project the most basic of intentions to color her emotions but combined with her body movements it’s almost as easy for him to understand as ghostspeak!
It was a silent conversation but the two young heroes quickly struck up a friendship. Cass is happy that she’s met someone she can converse with without any words or sign and Danny’s happy to meet someone who’s capable of understanding and somewhat replying in ghost. The only words shared between them being those that they can’t get through a combination of body language and a weak form of ghostspeak, but they’re mostly entirely quiet.
Cut to half an hour later, Steph is starting to get worried. She hasn’t heard a single sound from inside the room and she’s just about to break in herself when Cass steps out, holding the hand of Phantom who’s for some reason blushing a bright pit green. She says one word that leaves Steph blue screening, “Boyfriend.”
Pandora comes to a stop beside Danny. She’s as tall as Frostbite, pushing eight feet, even if her six arms make her look bigger. She’s not wearing a helmet today, and her armor is lighter, just a piece over her shoulder. For the first time, Danny has an unencumbered view of her hair. It’s curly and pink, twisted in an updo on the back of her head.
“I see you found my grave.”
Danny looks back at the graves of unknown halfas. They’re in ghost speak, and none are labelled ‘Pandora’ but Danny knows living names aren’t always used here.
“You were like me?”
“At one point,” she looks at the grave. “Opening the jar was my version of your accident, and as part of the consequence of that, I found myself living here more and more, until suddenly I couldn’t access my human form anymore. It’s good, however, to remind myself that once, I was human.”
She’s slightly shrunk, seven feet now, and now only has four arms. It’s as human as Danny has ever seen her, and it’s striking how pretty she is. Danny usually sees her as a warrior, trained by Athena herself as Pandora says, and for the first time, he wonders if that was part of her myth or her life. He hasn’t meant anyone calling themselves a Greek God, but well, Vortex could have been Zeus.
The current structure of big publishers like DC and Marvel isn’t designed to tell stories with a beginning, middle, and end. It’s designed to:
●Keep an IP relevant
●Never allow a definitive closure
●Rewrite whenever convenient
●Feed the market with what “sells,” not what makes sense
That’s why you have a thousand versions of Batman, five reboots in 20 years, and timelines that look like Schrödinger diagrams on acid. (¬_¬)
The result? You’re not reading a story. You’re consuming loose pieces of pop mythology you’re expected to assemble with reader faith! (╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻
---
(￣ー￣；) 🧩 2. These series are puzzles… that sometimes don’t even fit
Each writer comes in to play with the toys the last writer left behind, but:
●There’s no coherent continuity
●There’s no emotional follow-up for characters
●There’s no real responsibility in psychological development.
●There are retcons that erase everything with no explanation
And if something written in the '80s is “inconvenient” or doesn’t match today’s ideology? It’s erased, reinvented, or ignored.
The result? Readers are left with a bag of anecdotes that don’t form a whole — just the illusion of one.
(｡•́︿•̀｡)🎭 3. Characters don’t evolve — they get recycled...
🦇 In the Bat-Family:
Bruce Wayne is the same in '89, New 52, Rebirth, Future State, and Elseworlds... and also not.
Every writer rewrites him in their style, but the character can’t truly grow or change — because that would compromise the “brand.”
Dick Grayson has been Robin, Nightwing, Batman, Agent 37, and back again. His entire arc is a constant loop of "leaving the nest" and being pulled back in. The illusion of freedom, never the reality.
Jason Todd is a victim of this: killed, resurrected, betrayed, forgiven, re-betrayed, cleaned, tainted again, and cleaned once more.
Narratively solid? No.
Emotionally explosive? Yes.
Coherent? Absolutely not.
Intentional? Only if you understand: the business isn’t storytelling — it’s product-selling.
(╥_╥)
Barbara Gordon was one of the most powerful disabled characters in comics as Oracle… then was put back in the Batgirl suit. They erased growth for aesthetics. One of the few times "representation" was reversed.
Tim Drake has been the "smart Robin," Red Robin, then maybe not, then renamed "Drake" (a branding flop so hard it still echoes). He’s constantly redefined but never allowed to mature into anything solid. (╥_╥)
Damian Wayne swings between bratty killer, redeemed hero, forgotten son, edgy loner, then brat again. His "growth" resets every two years.
Cassandra Cain, the silent Batgirl with one of the most unique arcs in DC, was shelved for years and then constantly rebranded — because DC didn’t know how to market someone not snarky, not white, and not loud.
(;_;)
---
🕷️ Over at Marvel:
Peter Parker is a man frozen in high school values. Every time he matures (marriage, business, mentorship), he’s pulled back to broke, unlucky, single Spidey — because that’s what sells. One More Day exists not for story reasons, but because editorial said Peter being married made him “unrelatable.” (◎_◎;)!!
Jean Grey is a resurrection machine. Her arcs about identity and control are potent — and then tossed into the dumpster every time they need a Phoenix event. She doesn’t evolve — she combusts, resets, and repeats.
Scott Summers went from straight-arrow leader, to revolutionary, to pariah, to dead, to forgiven, to neutered sidekick again. His journey gets rewritten so often you’d swear he has multiversal amnesia.
Logan / Wolverine is always dying, healing, mentoring, rejecting, accepting, losing control, and getting tamed. He’s a raw wound that never closes, not because the story demands it — but because the brand does.
---
(－_－)
🦹 Even villains get the rinse-and-repeat:
Lex Luthor has been a genius CEO, a mad scientist, a savior, a cosmic god, and back to bald businessman. Every time he becomes too interesting, he's reduced to "jealous of Superman" again.
Magneto has been a monster, a victim, a revolutionary, a martyr, a villain again — depending on the political winds or writer’s taste. He could be literature. Instead, he’s a moral ping-pong ball.
Harley Quinn went from tragic codependent to feminist icon to Deadpool-lite to multiversal gimmick. Her narrative depends less on who she is and more on what’s trending.
---
🌀 Even when they break the mold… they glue it back together
Wally West had a complete arc: legacy, mentorship, struggle, triumph. He became the Flash — and people loved him. But editorial nostalgia for Barry Allen erased that progress.
Wally's reward for years of growth? Trauma, erasure, villainy, cleanup, erasure again.
X-23 (Laura Kinney) stepped up to become the new Wolverine in a heartfelt, earned transition. It worked. Until Logan returned, and she was demoted again — not for failure, but because the original had to reclaim the name.
---
This isn’t growth. (｡•́︿•̀｡)
It’s character taxidermy: make them look alive, pose them for emotional impact, but never actually let them change.
No change is permanent, because change means resolution, and resolution means closure, and closure?
Bad. For. Business.
\(￣ー￣)/
So.. instead of arcs (ﾟヮﾟ)
(¬_¬) we get loops.
Instead of evolution (ﾟヮﾟ)
(¬_¬) we get emotional rearrangement.
Instead of characters (ﾟヮﾟ)
(╯°□°）╯︵ ┻━┻ we get branded templates with interchangeable emotional beats!!
(－_－) 📚 4. The Illusion of Complexity Is Just That: An Illusion
Many fans defend comics by saying:
(¬‿¬ ) > “They’re complex stories — you just have to read more to understand.”
.... (╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻ — Let’s not confuse complexity with inconsistency disguised as depth!!
Many arcs are poorly written or simply abandoned. Massive concepts are introduced — Crisis on Infinite Earths, Zero Hour, Flashpoint, Final Crisis, The Forge, The Button, Dark Nights: Metal, Doomsday Clock, Dark Crisis, The Dark Multiverse, Heroes in Crisis, Future State, Convergence...
Then what happens? (ﾟヮﾟ)
(╯°益°)╯彡┻━┻ — They either fizzle out, end with a reboot, get retconned halfway through, or are rewritten by the next creative team with a handwave like: “This is canon now.”
The result? The reader is left in limbo — fed excitement, not meaning.
Ideas are stacked on top of each other without stable foundations.
Characters evolve — and then devolve.
Events build up stakes — and then erase them.
It creates the illusion of complexity, but what we’re really navigating is a maze built from editorial decisions — not narrative growth.
(；へ：) 👥 5. The reader becomes the real writer
Because you have to put the puzzle together, justify contradictions.
still not for tiktok y'all's scalpers still don't have permission to rip my shit
Danny's been cornered by the worst kind of villain imaginable; reporters.
Okay, well, more like he's trapped in the same room as them and one of them is just asking random questions to keep him calm while they free him from one of Vlad's new and improved torture cubes. Some Metropolis vultures, a big farm dude named Clark and a sharp scary woman named Lois.
"You're a ghost, right?" Clark asks, straining as he tries to, according to him at least, hold open a panel for Lois to get into. "Do you have any living family you'd like for us to reach out to?"
Danny...Danny decides to give the craziest, bullshit answer he possibly can.
"Not in the normal sense; I'm a failed cloning attempt that was a mix of Superboy and Red Robin."
Clark seems to twitch, and Lois chokes on air.
"But you uh...are, what, only a few years younger than them?" Lois asks when she regains composure of herself.
"I mean I was adopted by Kronos, the timestream is a bit optional, so..."
The cube straight up cracks in half, and Danny shoots into the air, laughing.
"Thanks! One second this won't take long!"
Danny leaves the two reporters, unaware of the shitstorm he's left behind.
Do Tim and Kon take this not as a bit, but as truth? Do they think that someone got their DNA and cloned them? Danny never said who did the cloning after all.
How much information do they need to go from "holy shit we have a SON we have to take care of our BOY!" to being absolutely committed to the bit?
So there's this one point in the comics when Kon died, Bart died, and Bruce got lost in the timestream (they thought he died). I think Steph was also faking her death at this point, and Tim had just come off of the 16th birthday test from Bruce where Bruce pretended someone was going to betray the family and Tim went a bit crazy trying to figure it out - he went full paranoia over it. Oh, also Damian had been repeatedly trying to murder Tim, and then Dick took Robin from Tim and gave it to Damian.
Anyway, shortly after Kon dies, Tim goes a bit crazy and tries to clone him a bunch of times. I believe at one point he even tries to combine their DNA. They all ultimately fail and shortly afterwards he goes on the Worst World Tour Ever, where he loses a spleen and takes down multiple assassin organisations in his pursuit to prove that Bruce isn't dead.
Tim gets his proof and the Justice League rescue Bruce from the timestream, while Tim finishes crippling Ra's Al Ghul.
Shortly after this, we find out that Kon and Bart were brought back to life in the future and then they travel back in time, and we find out that Steph is not dead. Tim takes on the mantle Red Robin, and then we never really mention the cloning thing again.
So ... it is entirely possible that Danny could have been a failed clone that gained sentience and was ghost-adopted by Kronos. It honestly would not have been the widest thing to come out of that year for Tim.
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.
