Make Noise. Scream, Cry, Laugh, Anything. Just make it Loud.
Danny was tired.
He was tired of hiding, he was tired of lying, he was tired of being hungry, he was tired of eating, he was tired of sleeping, he was tired of staying awake. He was tired of dying, and he was tired of living.
But most of all, he was tired of the in-between.
And he was getting tired of running.
Was he even running anymore?
This wasn't running. Not really. It was a half-hearted attempt at jogging.
Why was he... where is he going?
Away
His brain supplied.
No.
He replied.
He didn't want to go 'away' anymore. He was much too tired.
Run
No.
Run.
No!
Run!
Danny's knees hurt. They begged to buckle. Begged him to let them stop shaking, let his body fall, let his head crack against the concrete. Begged him to get rid of the tired. Begged him to let them rest.
His eyes blurred, and his blinks took much longer than they should.
Fog crept into his vision. Good. Let him dissolve into the smog of this city, let him drift with the blob ghosts. Let him absorb the ectoplasm, let him be mindless-
Run!
No... no, no! Let him-
Purple. The fog was purple.
RUN! RUNRUNRUNR-
...No.
Let him feel something other than tired.
Whether it be a laugh or a scream out of his lips, anything was better than a sigh.
And Danny had just enough energy to do something he hadn't done in awhile.
Take a breath.
Danny inhaled, deeply, filling every inch of his chest with gas.
He was almost excited to hear what would come out of his lungs.
~~~~~~~
The mission was going worse than it should have. Scarecrow had hidden fear gas, but before he had the chance to inform them via pointless monologue, one had gone off by mistake. Of course it had. Scarecrow was a fool to put a canister of it in a high gun-crime area. Someone had shot it, and consequently set it off.
Robin had been sent to deal with it, while the others remained in confrontation with Scarecrow, much to Damian's annoyance.
He was able to swiftlytake care of the leak, containing the canister in a box. Now, his job is to find and help any civilians caught in the accident.
From the sounds of screaming and terror, a few had been caught up in it.
So, Robin went on to help people, giving them antidotes and taking them to safe locations. However, the more he helped, the more unsettled he felt. Through the screaming, he heard... something else.
Something not quite human.
It was... laughter? No, that's not right. It was... a strangled sound, almost static-like. It hurt his ears. It was full of... relief? And pain?
When he went searching for the sound, all he found was a teenager lying against a dumpster, cooing(?) to himself. It was an odd sight, that gave him an odd feeling.
It was familiar, a tingle just under his first layer of skin, and in the walls of his organs. A specific feeling. A feeling he only felt around Jason, nowadays, but he used to feel all the time.
Pit born recognizing pit born.
Damian took in his appearance. Black hair, skinny, shaking, and... pale. So pale Damian almost thought he could see through his flesh, to his bones, and the brick behind him. Translucent. His skin surely would reflect at least a little light. It gave him a faint glow.
His eyes. What color are his eyes?
He wanted to check. He really did. He knew he should; it's his duty. Regardless of whether he's dangerous or not. However...
No.
Damian couldn't.
A shiver ran over his body. Goosebumps, hair standing up- his body was scared. His mind wasn't. His body... no, that's not quite right. It was the lazarous liquid in his veins that was scared.
"-bin? Robin, status report. What's happened?"
His hand flew to his comms.
~Bzt~
"eah..." What? What was that?
"Robin? Are you there? Are you alright?"
"ur... eh..." What is wrong with him? What sounds are coming from his mouth right now? Why can't he speak!?
"Robin? I'm sending someone to your location."
"I- I have someone who was born recently." Code for someone infected with the pits.
"Are you alright?"
"...I'm fine." His eyes remained glued on the shivering boy.
"Nightwing is on his way. Stay put for now, if possible."
"Affirmative."
~Bzt~
This was wrong. That... that thing he was staring at wasn't human. Not with that glow, not with the sounds it was making.
What... what is that thing?
"Robie?" Damian turned around. Nightwing? How was he here already?
"Nightwing." He glanced behind him. "There." He said, pointing to the thing beside the dumpster.
"Him? He's a reborn?"
Damian nodded. "Yes."
"Why haven't you approached him yet?" Nightwing asked, crouching next to him.
"I can't." He said, as if it was obvious.
"...why not?"
"They won't let me. They're scared."
"What do you mean? The re-born?"
"No, them. Like Redhood, but... fear instead of anger."
"...They're scared of that kid?" He asked, looking for confirmation that he understood correctly.
"Yes." He confirmed
"Why?"
"I don't know. They want me to stay as far away from... that as possible." A particularly odd noise came from the thing, and a chill ran through his blood.
"Alright... I can take care of this, but I want your report later."
"...of course." but robin didnt leave, not for another while. He stayed, and watched for a moment more. Watching his brother interact with... the thing.
It was only when he heard an ear-piercing scream, that his body launched him back. AwayAWAYAWAY
Green crept into his vision- and he, for the first time in maybe forever, panicked.
~~~~~
idk what this is, tbh. i know its not done though, I found it in my drafts. thought I might as well post it.
(Prompt) (part 1- you're here!) (part 2- to be written...)
The sigal glowed, and started rotating on the floor. It was working.
Constantine stepped back a little, the chant finished. He glanced at the big bat, and then the room grew cold. Frost covered all nearby surfaces, and he could see their breath. The ghost king was coming.
Cool mist drifted to the floor to reveal a... kid. Alright. Unexpected, but okay.
"Your Majesty," He said, bowing, soon to be followed by his 'colleagues'.
The kid glanced around, legs bent at the knee while he floated, arms limp at his sides.
"At ease," He dismissed, with a wave of his hand and a faux-sigh. "What is it you, ah, require?" He said, in a posh, 'holier than thou' voice.
Batman stood up to speak; "We need assistance with a large monster we believe to be one of your subjects terrorizing our cities."
The kid pursed his lips, doing a small spin, and then narrowed his eyes at Batman. "Hmmm." He did another small, smooth backflip in the air that led him closer to the hero in black.
"What do they look like?" He asked, crossing his legs and arms, floating eye level.
"They are a robot, flying around on a hovercraft and destroying buildings. They are attracting the attention of hostile aliens."
The kid nodded, eyes still narrowed, lips still pursed. "Skulker. I know him. Not very nice."
"Can you help?" Conastatine cut in.
The little king then unfolded himself, a devilish smile on his face.
"I can!" He floated over to the Brit. "For a price, of course." He said, lying on his side. "I fear I may not be able to leave this circle until we make a deal, and thus cannot get to him to stop him..." He frowned, turning away to wipe a single tear off his face that flew into the air before turning to mist.
Constantine sighed. "Naturally. What do you want?"
The Ghost turned back to him, a hand on his chin. "What do you have?"
Constatine glanced at Batman before speaking. "My soul," He said. "Or anything money can buy."
The ghost king looked him up and down. "I don't want your soul... I'm not a fan of sharing." His eyes traced over the various heroes. "Ooh, what a lineup!"
He floated to the side, looking over Constantine's shoulder. "Robots, kryptonians, Amazonians, Atlantians...and people. A nice mixed bag. Very interesting characters. You're all dressed up like heroes! Hah! You don't even have any watches!" The ghost giggled at his own... joke?
Constatine glanced over the heros the gauge their reactions. Some were disturbed, some were serious.
"Do you have hero names too!? Oh, tell me, tell me!" He shook his fists excitedly, kicking his legs and leaning forward.
"I'm-"
"Wait-!" Constaine cut Superman off. "We don't know what he could do with a name. Even a hero name."
The king's eyes locked onto him, not moving an inch, and his smile vanished. Then it returned, but it was different, and he sprang into motion once again. "So, you're the party pooper. Why'd you invite me if you don't want to have fun?" He tilted his head to an almost un-natural angle.
Constantine chuckled, more out of awkwardness than humor. He was about to say something more, but Batman beat him to it. "We don't have time for parties. We need Skulker gone, as soon as possible."
"Alright, alright. I see who's in charge. What is your little group called, anyway? I need it for my dream journal." The ghost smiled, toothy and a little less mischievous.
Batman glanced at Constantine, and with a nod, he replied. "We are the Justice League."
The king snickered. "Alright! Who am I making a deal with?"
Batman stepped forward. "I will buy you one thing from Earth, in exchange for your help. Any one thing that is not a sentient being."
The king looked to the side thoughtfully. "I suppose that's enough. Any one thing that is not a sentient being in exchange for dealing with skulker. Let's shake on it." A contract appeared out of the air, simple, but long. The bat read over it quickly, which was probably a few times for the super-human capabilities of that guy.
"Alright. Let's shake on it." The ghost king outstretched his hand, a wicked grin on his face. Batman took his hand, to which the Ghost King eagerly shook it. Constantine was worried his arm might fall off. The bat almost stumbled from the force, but looked unaffected after. When they let go, a puff of frosty air fell to the ground.
"And I'm off!" The kid saluted and then disappeared. The whole league turned to look at Constantine, then, when he gave them nothing, at Batman.
He responded by pulling up footage from a drone on the screen. For twelve minutes, the king laughed and flew around the creature that had been stealing their bodies and burning their cities. Then, he simply hit him a few times, with some blasts from his hands, and sucked him into... a thermos?
He then appeared back into the watch tower, devil grin still plastered on his face. "It's been a while since I talked to Skulker. He hasn't changed much- no one really does after they become my denisins."
The leaguers glanced around, exchanging looks. They were mostly baffled, but the bats, as always, was stoic.
"So, what is it you want?" He asked, looking grim.
The ghost's smile changed, but just slightly. A little more mischievous. "I'll tell you later. For now, this dimension is pretty sweet... I think I'll stay!" He said, looking around and nodding to himself.
The room grew tense. "What do you mean 'stay'?" Constantine asked.
The king giggled, disappearing and reappearing behind the brit. "It seems like it would be fun, with all the... ya'know." He said, gesturing to the league. "Interesting characters. As I said before."
Constantine tensed, and turned to the king now behind him. "...Well, what are you gonna do?" That earned another giggle.
"I'll tell you for a deal," He offered, hand outstretched. Constantine raised an eyebrow at that, unimpressed.
The hand lowered, suddenly snapping to the king's back. "Guess not then." He drifted over towards the crowd, arms behind his back as he looked them over with more attention than before.
His look of slight boredom turned into a mischievous grin that seemed to be his default smile. "Best to go explore, yeah? Have fun with the clean up! And then, he disappeared. But this time, he didn't reappear behind anyone. He was just gone. But one question lingered.
When would the Ghost King be back?
(Prompt) (part 1- you're here!) (part 2- to be written...)
My guess is that he will end up either asking for something deceptively small and unassuming, but so extremely specific and with so many details attached to the delivery that it’d be hella hard to get; something so entrenched into poetic nonsense, verbose and double-meaning that no one knows what he is actually asking for or something that was just plain never made before.
For the hyper-specific route I think it could be something like one of the lost writings of Plato that had specifically been in the Library of Alexandria when it burned down, rescued by a time-traveler to be gifted to a Japanese Samurai forty years before Alexander’s birth by someone who never traveled in time and then recovered at exactly 4:37 AM of a solar eclipse only to then be translated into Czarnian by a ten years-old kryptonian. Not only would it be specific enough that the League might as well take years and a lot of planning to get right, but also is something that will likely make Constantine worry needlessly a lot - sure, he will probably catch up that this is utter nonsense meant specifically to make the JL’s collective lives hell, but this is someone leaning heavily into the trickster archetype, meaning that somewhere amongst the nonsense there could be something that actually has magical significance that will turn around and bite all of them in the asses.
For the excessively verbose I can see Danny just sprouting out random bits of rhyming literature taking from laughably different civilizations translated to literally 40 languages from different universes and then cobbled together. No one, least of all Danny himself, knows what he asked and he is just hanging around while they try to either solve the riddle (I’m imagining Tim and Bruce here in front of a massive conspiracy board with eye-bags bigger than their actual eyes having a joint meltdown over the conjugation of the word melt in Lilium) or gifting him old stuff in the hopes of accidentally stumbling on the answer. Then a few years down the line Danny is hanging around in some burger joint in Metropolis being interviewed by Lois when she offer to let him have her burger and he goes: “Thank you, and with that the payment for my services has been finally given! Hopefully the next time it won’t take half a decade” and just… leave. To make things even more surreal there is absolutely nothing special about this day, he has been to burger places everywhere with a number of varied people who paid for him before, Danny refuses to elaborate.
Alternatively Danny might just ask for something that doesn’t exist at that point in time and/or that is just plainly too dangerous to give out, something like the miracle machine that the future JL with that organic Brainiac has.
Just had a thought. What if Danny asks for a star? Technically you can buy one for a given value of “buy”, so it’s covered in the deal, the part of the delivery though? Yeah, that one leave even the full JL scratching their heads.
Portal ignition isn't powerful enough to push through to the ghost zone, but ectopic being semi sentient still has the intention of connecting with an exit.
That exit ends up being the Justice League Zeta Tube network.
Where a freshly half dead Danny, in ghost form, gets plopped right in front of a horrified hero. Like... maybe you could include the detail of the freshly fried corpse being brought through.
Technicians are scrambling at the Watchtower central arrival hub and the few that manage a second to notice him gratefully mutter, "oh good, Cyborg is here."
"I'm temporarily disconnecting all league personnel from accessing the zeta tubes, in case of an emergency patch then through to be and I'll figure out a workaround. But right now while this is going on we can't afford anyone using them."
A chorus of "Yes sir" rings out and Victor moves on to focus on what exactly is going on, he’d instantly been aware something was going wrong seeing as he’s constantly connected to the watchtower’s computer system but this is a whole new unexpected mess.
He quickly notices the huge surge of energy that's somehow gotten into their zeta system, clearly looking for an exit and moving with a speed that only someone like Cyborg, or perhaps a speedster, could hope to keep up with.
But now that all other points of release have been cut off the only place left to go is this central hub.
"Evacuate the room! And have medical on standby!"
The last time there was an incident with the zeta's people ended up fused together, missing limbs, some bodies suddenly enlarged or reduced in size, a couple got flung to the other side of the universe.
It had been an absolute nightmare… It would be best to reduce the amount of potential casualties as much as possible.
People quickly make themselves scarce and it's now that Victor notices that J'onn has joined him.
"I'm redirecting the anomaly to the reinforced zeta chamber." Hopefully it won't explode under the strain.
"Could it be an attack?"
"Well, let's hope not." he says with a wry twist to his lips. It wouldn’t be the first time.
Brace for anything as usual.
There is a shrill whine that gradually builds up as the chosen zeta chamber starts to glow with an odd green energy worrying the two heroes further.
That’s new… Cyborg can’t help but glance over at Martian Manhunter who has started to hover somewhat.
Next thing they know the buildup snaps and gradually materialises what looks to be a young teen with hair so white it seems to glow.
Or maybe that’s the electricity, it’s hard to tell, and the heroes are more preoccupied with the sudden screaming anyway.
J’onn is moving to do whatever he can to help the boy who is starting to collapse on the ground, while Victor cuts all power to the hub, putting an end to the light show happening in front of them.
Victor quickly shouts for the medical team to get in there right away, and he runs over, does a quick general assessment and backs up J’onn trying to revive the teen who really does seem to actually have incredibly white hair.
The emergency response team quickly gets in there and takes over.
The situation is… bad, the kid isn’t responding to anything, they can’t find a pulse and he’s stopped breathing.
An AED gets attached to the teen and the medical professionals work hard at trying to revive him.
“c’mon… c’mon kid!”
It’s in moments like these where Victor feels so helpless, this whole thing is starting to look like some kind of massive freak accident.
And while the right people are all present, this kid may very well die right in front of him and there is absolutely nothing he can do about it.
Thankfully soon after that the boy gasps and flinches back, quickly followed by his hands tangling themselves in the AED wiring and grasping tight. The machine is showing no signs of automatically shutting down however, confusing the person holding it.
"Relax kid, you're safe, we've got you."
there is a soft mutter in the back that goes, “something with this thing is wrong..." and "we’ll check it later” and the AED gets manually shut down.
After all, any more shocks to the heart will only do more harm than good now that the boy is conscious again.
And Victor lets out a slow breath of relief.
With the boy up and moving they can transport him to the medical bay for further care and observation and hopefully figure out how and why this happened.
Or so he thinks until he notices the frown on J'onn's face.
And when he says, "The teen still has no pulse" a pit of ice forms in Victor's gut.
Danny just sort of going silent from shock and staring at everyone around him, not sure if it's real.
Just like left to think and process for a while, thinking he's fully dead and knowing he can't go back to his parents. It's probably a fever dream, right? Or somthing similar...
I'm my thoughts he just sort of haunts the watchtower, waiting for something to push him into action. Like ADHD paralysis, where he wants to do something, but he can't just do it himself and he's waiting for some outside force to occur that will let him leave, or help, or whatever.
Maybe joins young justice? Maybe JLD? Maybe he just camps out, untill clockwork (an outside force) talks to him, telling him people back home need him because of the ghosts, so he goes to fight them, and then rushes back to the watch tower.
The other heros have no idea where he goes, but he allways comes back. Sometimes he comes back hurts sometimes he comes back with random trinkets. But he allways comes back.
Make Noise. Scream, Cry, Laugh, Anything. Just make it Loud.
Danny was tired.
He was tired of hiding, he was tired of lying, he was tired of being hungry, he was tired of eating, he was tired of sleeping, he was tired of staying awake. He was tired of dying, and he was tired of living.
But most of all, he was tired of the in-between.
And he was getting tired of running.
Was he even running anymore?
This wasn't running. Not really. It was a half-hearted attempt at jogging.
Why was he... where is he going?
Away
His brain supplied.
No.
He replied.
He didn't want to go 'away' anymore. He was much too tired.
Run
No.
Run.
No!
Run!
Danny's knees hurt. They begged to buckle. Begged him to let them stop shaking, let his body fall, let his head crack against the concrete. Begged him to get rid of the tired. Begged him to let them rest.
His eyes blurred, and his blinks took much longer than they should.
Fog crept into his vision. Good. Let him dissolve into the smog of this city, let him drift with the blob ghosts. Let him absorb the ectoplasm, let him be mindless-
Run!
No... no, no! Let him-
Purple. The fog was purple.
RUN! RUNRUNRUNR-
...No.
Let him feel something other than tired.
Whether it be a laugh or a scream out of his lips, anything was better than a sigh.
And Danny had just enough energy to do something he hadn't done in awhile.
Take a breath.
Danny inhaled, deeply, filling every inch of his chest with gas.
He was almost excited to hear what would come out of his lungs.
~~~~~~~
The mission was going worse than it should have. Scarecrow had hidden fear gas, but before he had the chance to inform them via pointless monologue, one had gone off by mistake. Of course it had. Scarecrow was a fool to put a canister of it in a high gun-crime area. Someone had shot it, and consequently set it off.
Robin had been sent to deal with it, while the others remained in confrontation with Scarecrow, much to Damian's annoyance.
He was able to swiftlytake care of the leak, containing the canister in a box. Now, his job is to find and help any civilians caught in the accident.
From the sounds of screaming and terror, a few had been caught up in it.
So, Robin went on to help people, giving them antidotes and taking them to safe locations. However, the more he helped, the more unsettled he felt. Through the screaming, he heard... something else.
Something not quite human.
It was... laughter? No, that's not right. It was... a strangled sound, almost static-like. It hurt his ears. It was full of... relief? And pain?
When he went searching for the sound, all he found was a teenager lying against a dumpster, cooing(?) to himself. It was an odd sight, that gave him an odd feeling.
It was familiar, a tingle just under his first layer of skin, and in the walls of his organs. A specific feeling. A feeling he only felt around Jason, nowadays, but he used to feel all the time.
Pit born recognizing pit born.
Damian took in his appearance. Black hair, skinny, shaking, and... pale. So pale Damian almost thought he could see through his flesh, to his bones, and the brick behind him. Translucent. His skin surely would reflect at least a little light. It gave him a faint glow.
His eyes. What color are his eyes?
He wanted to check. He really did. He knew he should; it's his duty. Regardless of whether he's dangerous or not. However...
No.
Damian couldn't.
A shiver ran over his body. Goosebumps, hair standing up- his body was scared. His mind wasn't. His body... no, that's not quite right. It was the lazarous liquid in his veins that was scared.
"-bin? Robin, status report. What's happened?"
His hand flew to his comms.
~Bzt~
"eah..." What? What was that?
"Robin? Are you there? Are you alright?"
"ur... eh..." What is wrong with him? What sounds are coming from his mouth right now? Why can't he speak!?
"Robin? I'm sending someone to your location."
"I- I have someone who was born recently." Code for someone infected with the pits.
"Are you alright?"
"...I'm fine." His eyes remained glued on the shivering boy.
"Nightwing is on his way. Stay put for now, if possible."
"Affirmative."
~Bzt~
This was wrong. That... that thing he was staring at wasn't human. Not with that glow, not with the sounds it was making.
What... what is that thing?
"Robie?" Damian turned around. Nightwing? How was he here already?
"Nightwing." He glanced behind him. "There." He said, pointing to the thing beside the dumpster.
"Him? He's a reborn?"
Damian nodded. "Yes."
"Why haven't you approached him yet?" Nightwing asked, crouching next to him.
"I can't." He said, as if it was obvious.
"...why not?"
"They won't let me. They're scared."
"What do you mean? The re-born?"
"No, them. Like Redhood, but... fear instead of anger."
"...They're scared of that kid?" He asked, looking for confirmation that he understood correctly.
"Yes." He confirmed
"Why?"
"I don't know. They want me to stay as far away from... that as possible." A particularly odd noise came from the thing, and a chill ran through his blood.
"Alright... I can take care of this, but I want your report later."
"...of course." but robin didnt leave, not for another while. He stayed, and watched for a moment more. Watching his brother interact with... the thing.
It was only when he heard an ear-piercing scream, that his body launched him back. AwayAWAYAWAY
Green crept into his vision- and he, for the first time in maybe forever, panicked.
~~~~~
idk what this is, tbh. i know its not done though, I found it in my drafts. thought I might as well post it.
Content warnings: descriptions of self harm, OOC, Danny's personality (or how I wrote him in this au) is vastly different from the usual depictions of him, there will be kinda gross stuff later on, mostly depictions of gore
The High King was perched atop his throne of cosmic ice, green eyes surveying his subjects. He was, by no means, a tyrant. Never. Not in this life and not in the next. But he was a lonely sovereign. Even when he had his kin. Even when he had his family, his friends, his companions. That did nothing to the ache in his core and the way he reached and reached and found nothing but empty space.
Clockwork took note of how Phantom's gaze shifted to where Fright Knight stood, eyes icy and yet…
Nevertheless, Samhain stiffened under his king's gaze. Perhaps, it was because both of them knew that Samhain should have retired by now. Succeeded by an heir that was trained to be the next Fright Knight—the protector of the Infinite Realm's ruling sovereign. But alas… no such heir was present.
Not when that little bird Samhain was raising to become a knight was wrenched from the protection of the realms.
Clockwork remembers that day years ago. When Phantom stared at the empty space where another ghost stood. When something green—a sickening kind of Ectoplasm that dripped from nowhere before it swallowed the bird whole. Dragging the young ghost into a portal that was toxic and corroded and utterly disgusting. The master of time… remembers that day.
He remembers Phantom's eyes spreading across the island keep. He remembers the echo of a scream that has still yet to cease. He remembers the day the throne became nothing but painful ice—if someone else were to sit upon it, they would be absorbed into the throne and become nothing but a shard Phantom sits upon.
Phantom was not a tyrant.
But he was not a kind man.
Not when the bird was snatched from the starry sky Phantom curated. Not when his core throbbed and wailed and begged to be made whole again.
The High King was perched atop his throne of cosmic eyes, green eyes surveying his subjects. His gaze searched through the crowds and failed to find what he truly wanted.
"Your majesty…" Clockwork manifested beside Phantom, watching the king with careful eyes.
The portrait before them was… detailed. In a way that reminded Clockwork of one of his kins' blessed ones. A sculptor that carved a statue so lifelike that Love made it from 'un-life' to 'life'. Horrifyingly grotesque story if he had to say, but to his fortune, the painting was nothing of the sort.
Clockwork thinks it's eyes are too real-looking. But then again, the king spent a year painting it. The trials and errors experienced to make such perfection often resulted in the burning of canvases in the courtyard.
"What do you want, Clockwork?" Phantom didn't look away from the painting. It was as if he couldn't.
"Apologies for disturbing you, my king… but there is a matter we must speak of."
"And? What would that be?"
"It pertains the… Lazarus Pits."
Phantom went rigid, shoulders drawn tight as he pulled in a slow, measured breath. His hand lifted, hovering for a heartbeat before pressing flat against the painting’s surface—a quiet, almost desperate attempt to ground himself. The gesture should’ve soothed him, but it didn’t. Beneath his lashes, the faint tremor in his fingers betrayed the storm still twisting inside.
Clockwork’s gaze lingered on those eyes—crystalline, volatile, the sharp glint of solid ectoplasm barely contained in their depths. It was a dangerous light, alive with something ancient and bitter. That color had once been the mark of purity, of life’s essence refined—but in Phantom’s stare, it burned like venom. The contrast unsettled him; those eyes were not meant to hold such hate. And yet, they did—deep, consuming, and far too familiar.
"Didn't I already send people to get rid of those? Clockwore… do tell why they've failed."
(Phantom is not a tyrant.)
("DESTROY THEM! DESTROY THOSE FUCKING ABOMINATIONS! DESTROY THEM!"
"Your majesty—"
"FUCKING ERADICATE THEM FROM THIS WORLD BEFORE I GO DOWN MYSELF!")
Clockwork glances out the door where Samhain and Pandora lingered, waiting for answers. The two other ghosts were fidgeting—so unlike them. They were refined, confident, and calm folk. But faced with their cold King, such composures often crumbled.
"The waters are acidic to others. We've already sent Walker and Wulf to assess the situation… it resulted in the Warden's arm melting." Clockwork grimaced.
The issue with the Lazarus pits was supposed to be easy. Examine, destroy, cleanse—report. But that was not the case when Walker came in contact with the waters of the pits and found that they were corrosive to ghosts.
Ectoplasm—the energy and substance that made the realms and it's citizens. Things born of emotions and souls and much more.
The thing in the pools was ectoplasm at its worst state. Energy born of corrosive emotions, this corrosive to ghosts. And it had been Walker who suffered the consequences and subsequently lost an arm, though Frostbite did succeed in helping regenerate it faster than should be expected. Even so—their failure and discovery would have caused panic amongst the realms… and would certainly displease their king.
So what did Walker and Wulf do?
The kept it to themselves and kept trying to finish their task without reporting their failures.
Phantom huffed, shaking his head, finally looking away from the portrait. "And they didn't think to tell me earlier?"
"Apologies. They expected to succeed."
"Clearly they didn't." Phantom scoffed, "So what now? If it's corrosive to ghosts then what am I expected to do, O' great God of Time—father of the Olympians, leader of the Titans!"
(Outside, Samhain and Pandora flinched.)
Clockwork stared at his sonking.
"Halfas… my lord… we haven't checked if they have the same reaction." He muttered, avoiding Phantom's eyes.
Phantom stared and Clockwork doesn't know if he should look back. It would be respectful—as Phantom was king. But…
"You want me to check for myself?" Phantom laughed, "How wonderful, Clockwork. But you only need a halfa, yes?"
Clockwork nodded, hesitant. He'd wanted to make Phantom see why this operation needed his attention. It had been the king who started it, it was the king who demanded for it, it was…
Their king stared intently, eyes narrowed before a smile spread across his face.
"How about we send Plasmius on a mission for once." Once again, Phantom's gaze is directed back to the portrait. It was the brightest and most colorful thing in the room. Magnificent and yet so… uncanny with it's perfection.
His suggestion was something Clockwork never thought Phantom would ever even consider. Release Vlad Plasmius from the intensive rehabilitation and semi-imprisoned situation?
"… As you wish."
He needn't say anything else. For now, he left the room of portraits and trinkets and met with Samhain and Pandora just outside the door. They moved further down the hall until they were out of the keep. It does not so well go speak of the King in his own home after all. The walls of the keep had eyes and ears people couldn't perceive.
"He wants to send Plasmius?" Samhain gritted his teeth.
"It seems so… I will have to speak to Vlad regarding this." Clockwork hummed, "Hopefully he will prove useful. Despite his majesty's insistence on making sure Plasmius isn't given access to his previous works, I suppose the king finds value in Plasmius' knowledge… and mostly because Plasmius is a halfa as well."
"Wonderful. So we have the King's former Nemesis as a member of this mission." Samhain scoffed, adjusting his sword.
Pandora merely sighed, "Perhaps he thinks Plasmius will also be corroded."
"I hope that's his reason." Clockwork muttered, already setting his sights on Plasmius' little abode. Though—less abode, more of a comfortable prison for someone being redeemed and rehabilitated.
For now… Clockwork ought to think about the king more. His Majesty seemed to be in dire need of rest…
Vlad Masters sat cross-legged in the endless white, a lone shadow against infinity. The room had no corners, no walls — just the illusion of space stretching forever—and yet he treated it like a canvas, tracing invisible lines onto the floor until his fingers smeared with faint green. Over and over again, he drew, erased, began anew, as if each mark might anchor him to something real.
Clockwork watched in silence, the faint tick of his staff echoing through the void. The sight stirred something ancient in him—recognition, maybe pity. Their King, too, had once tried to fill emptiness with creation, to turn silence into something that could be understood. The irony wasn’t lost on him. The would-be father and the son he could never claim—both trapped in their own solitude, painting their pain into the void when their voices failed them.
The halfa looked back at him, red eyes peering curiously.
"What are you doing here?" Vlad muttered, legs wobbly as he tried to get up. He blinked, staring at the way his legs shook before he slammed a fist against his knee—as if that could stop the shaking. But not using your legs for a long period of time proved to bring difficulties.
"The King has given you a mission?"
Vlad blinked.
"What?"
"You are to return to Earth… and handle the issue regarding the Lazarus pits. It's waters are corrosive to us and we wanted to know how it would react to a halfa."
"… He's sending me to deal with acid?"
"Essentially, yes." Clockwork only shrugged while Vlad stared—bewildered, confused, maybe a little scared.
"Is he… is he sure about that?"
"Would you like to ask him yourself?"
Vlad shook his head immediately, "No need! I, erm, get it. Am I... Am I supposed to do this by myself? Alone?"
"Of course not… Walker will be joining you."
Vlad grimaced, "Figures."
Green welled up beneath his nails, pooling before sliding down to his wrist in thin, glimmering trails. He worried at the skin like it was something that didn’t quite belong to him, tugging and peeling until shreds of pale flesh curled away like damp paper. The sting should’ve made him stop—should’ve meant something—but it didn’t. He just kept going, quiet, detached, his gaze fixed on the empty space instead of the man watching him. Each tear of skin was soft, deliberate, almost thoughtful, like he was trying to find something underneath it all.
This was the lamb Phantom was willing to sacrifice.
"The Lazarus pits are volatile to ghosts. It is… concerning, to say the least. It has been known to… bring back the dead."
"It revives people?!"
"Not quite. Allow me to correct myself." Clockwork cleared his throat, "The Lazarus pits can heal someone who is near death. Had it been able to bring back the dead, I'm quite sure the king would have eradicated them himself."
"So why doesn't he?"
"Because it poses less significance to his own projects."
Vlad went silent for a moment, grimacing.
After a moment, the halfa sighed and shook his head. No point in dwelling on it—not when the King wouldn't care if Vlad agreed or not. Plasmius would be in the hands of Clockwork and Samhain. Phantom did not have time to waste on Vlad Masters—Vlad Plasmius, a prisoner yet to be redeemed.
"When do I start?"
Silently, Clockwork hopes that Vlad's action will lead to a better outcome than the one he predicted years ago.
That's what it felt like, if he ignored the clawing at the back of his brain. Power, with sacrifice. Someone else's sacrifice. Surely, this would drive humans insane?
"Plasmius...?" An almost familiar voice came. "Are you alright?"
"Alright..." What a stupid question. He was-
"What are you doing!?" An angry voice came.
Vlad turned his head, staring at the man behind him.
"I don't see how that's any of your business, hm? How rude. Where are your manners, young man?"
"This is my business because I am the one set to watch over these pits by Ra's al Ghul himself! Now who are you, what are you doing, and how did you get in!?"
Vlad glanced over to Walker. The human couldn't see him, it seems.
"Oh, I'm just a worried father. See, my son has been very stressed lately. I'm here to do what I've been ordered to, and I came in through the door."
The man gritted his teeth. "Liar!"
Vlad sighed. "Well, it seems you haven't been very diligent in your job. But, that does not mean I won't be in mine." Vlad frowned at the man before taking a deep breath and absorbing all the corrupted ecto. He shivered, vaguely hearing Walker make a sound of alarm.
Vlad, holding his eye to keep the green goo from spilling out, turned to the now stunned human.
"Maybe keep your radio closer, hm? You didn't even hear your allies cry for help..."
He then pounched forward, claws readied for the man
Danny quickly discovers he can’t move a certain distance away from his bones.
He’s freaking out about never being able to leave Amity Park ever again and certainly never be an astronaut when Tucker shrugs and says “so always take one with you? Like, it’d be easy to have a small one in your pocket.”
And then Sam has a Goth Epiphany and smiles real big and creepy and just says,
“Bone jewelry.”
If you wanna get creepy or graphic about it you can have the kids work out how to clean the rotting flesh off the bones.
Vlad would know this weakness and exploit it, whether to keep Danny close or to keep him away from certain places or projects.
If you wanna be silly you can have Danny wear different bones for different moods - like how it was popular for a while to wear a wishbone for good luck.
Danny could gift bones to loved ones.
Maybe Paulina steals a necklace or ring she thinks is pretty and learns something about Danny and/or Phantom.
DC crossovers very welcome - have a hero, villain, or side character figure out this is a weakness of Danny’s. Like if Lex Luthor has Danny’s bones and Jimmy Olsen is the one to rescue them. Or maybe to be silly Danny can ask Green Lantern to put him and his bones in an air bubble to carry them to the moon for a day trip.
Okay, okay okay. I've been absent for a while, but I just had an idea.
Imagine: batman, who has traces of Lazarus, or maybe was revived in it, whatever- has so strongly staked his claim over Gotham, that the atchual lady Gotham is starting to fade/get pushed out, unless she complies to his rules.
Batman has no idea this is happening, obviously.
So, lady Gotham now has to comply with the no kill rule.
All ghosts in Gotham are functionally immortal, and people start dying less. No one knows why.
There aren't many ghosts in Gotham, mostly just the batfam.
But, as time goes on, lady Gotham gets more and more distressed, she loves her knights, but she's starting to fade out of existence! She's getting weaker!
So, que Danny. He comes to visit his favorite snack-bar city, Gotham, only to find that some ass-hat in a bat costume is killing his drinking buddy!?
This will not stand.
Shenanigans ensue.
Alternatively, Lady Gotham is being bullied!! In her own city!! Danny will beat up the bully until he agrees to leave! But what's this? He has sons... One of which is a ghost? One of which is... Kinda cute!?
I was thinking adult, ghost king Danny, but feel free to take it anyway. I might write a one shot about this when I feel inspired.
Is it bad that this makes me want to fight Batman for Lady Gotham's honor? Actually, I'm pretty sure Dani would actually attempt this and issue her challenge by way of teeth embedded in kevlar.
Wait if Batman is making Lady Gotham fade, functionally killing her, doesn’t that mean batman is breaking his own code, no matter how unaware he is of the impact of The Batman on ectoplasmic beings?
So question: can we turn ‘batman has to relinquish his claim on Gotham as ‘his territory’ into a vital plot point, or he breaks his code by killing Lady Gotham through sheer force of his own stubborn refusal to both acknowledge he’s liminal and has a power base from criminals’ fear of batman and the hope he offers gotham to become a less lawless land, as well as he’s got a growing monopoly on Gotham’s ectoplasm, which further starves Lady G on top of him stealing her power bases (intense passion to madness, fascination/affinity for ‘commit to the bit’, violence = passion, and her role as the Keeper of Curses… and the implications that as her powers grow weaker, her curse collection runs rampant through gotham city and its citizens)
Danny came to help his buddy and may go off on Batman for ‘sustained attempted murder of a city spirit’ only to deal with broody manchild and his children
One of the first things Danny did after dying and getting ghost powers (aside from freak out of course) was look up the whereabouts of his killer. Not Sam, that was an accident, no he looked up the location of Damian Al Ghul, his biological twin and murderer. His twin had tried to kill him in cold blood when they were six, on a mission together in the US. Danny had managed to escape with his life, and ended up adopted by the Fentons. Finally he had a chance for revenge.
Turns out his twin has been living it up in their billionaire fathers house.
Time to put these new ghost powers to use!
In between school and ghost fights in Amity, Danny makes time to fly to Gotham and haunt the fuck out of Damian. He goes all in with every horror movie trope he can find. He even figures out how to make his ghost form look like his six year old self to really sell the whole thing. After making the entire Wayne Brood nearly piss themselves he declares that the only thing that will end the haunting is the death of the one who killed him.
Then the college reunion happens and Danny stops Vlad from murdering his adopted dad. Vlad is such a fruitloop and Danny really doesnt like him. On his way back from Wisconsin he has the unfortunate realization that he was on his way to becoming just. Like. Vlad.
This isnt even about Damian any more, sure Danny still hates his twin for what he did but- damn he really does not want to be just like Vlad when he grows up. Time for a new plan:
Pretend he never went to Gotham in the first place, and never go back.
He can start using his precious free time on more important things, like video games and space exploration.
Meanwhile, the Batfam is undergoing defcon fuck levels of paranoia, infighting, emotional constipation, and guilt. Damina has decided he has to let Danyal kill him, its only right after what he did. Bruce is trying to find any solution to this that doesnt result in Damian or the ghost of his other, unknown, son suffering a moment longer.
Absolutely no one, except for Danny, is having a good time.
To be clear Danny was absolutely planning on murdering damian and maybe maiming bruce just for funsies at first. He was originally raised by assassins after all. But then he saw how cringe vlad was and did a literal 180. Couldnt be him.
Turned away from the path of villiany due to unbearable cringe levels.
It all comes crashing down a few years later when the Batfam sees Danny, formerly known Danyal Al-ghul, having a peaceful afternoon at a random coffee shop in metropolis or something. Maybe because he got busy with his ghost king duties + college or he just no longer cared that it kinda just slipped out of his mind and that his teenage decisions will always have consequences. So when the Batfam approached him, with Damian crying in his arms might I add, he panics feigned ignorant. The Batfam reluctantly believed him and so he just leaves and goes on his mary day.
He knows that he can't fool the batfam forever so he decides to just fuck it and disappear. Returning back to Amity.
Que the Batfam going through crisis because now, the random yung adult they encountered that looked like an aged up version of Danyal vanished into thin air without any trace
Danny making eye contact with Bruce and Damian at the new vegan cafe Sam wanted to try. Hed flown there to get the drink because he owed her like. So many favors.
Damian gets up, tears in his eyes already making his way towards him.
"Danya-"
"Donde este la biblioteca? No wait shit i meant no hablo ingles."
"What?"
"Look behind you! Whats that?"
Damian glances back for half a moment only to hear Danny fucking book it from the cafe, overturning his chair in his haste.
The Fenton parents die. Jazz and Danny get taken in and quickly adopted by Vlad. Vlad continues to be a manipulative asshole who leverages Jazz against Danny. It sucks, so much, but the two of them both learn to get used to it.
Years have passed. Danny is twenty-one now, but even becoming an adult couldn't get him out from under Vlad's thumb. If anything, things are worse now-- he's officially been made the heir of DALV Co and he has a training position in the company.
Jazz is enrolled in the Metropolis College of Medicine, getting her doctorate. She didn't want to leave Danny behind, but Danny insisted that at least one of them should be free. Besides, Vlad was actually worse when Jazz was close.
Vlad's favorite threat as of late is to say he'll pull Jazz's college tuition if Danny doesn't do everything he says. With them being formally adopted and not technically financially independent, Jazz wouldn't qualify for student aid otherwise-- it's an effective threat. Scholarships won't cover everything, after all. A doctorate doesn't come cheap.
Danny has a reputation for being a terrifying shark of a businessman for a good reason. With his abilities and a judicious application of overshadowing, taking over business after business for Vlad is easy work.
His latest target? Wayne Enterprises.
Vlad thinks a seduction would be fitting. He points Danny at Tim Drake-Wayne, and lets him loose.
So Danny has been the ghost king and ancient of space for a long time, like a long time. Sam, Val, Tucker, Dan, Dani and Jazz also became ancients.
In this AU when GIW managed to break the connection between their dimension and the Ghost Zone, leading to the collapse of their dimensions and its total destruction. Danny managed at the last moment to tear a hole in reality to the Zone and pull his classmates with him, along with Mr. Lancer.
The first few days were hard to say but time passed, his class became more and more liminal until it stopped aging, most of us becoming ghosts because they didn't die (except for the trio, Val and Jazz). Mr. Lancer becoming a librarian at the castle. Danny taking on the role of Ghost King so he could protect his friends, for politics, freeing Clockwork from the Observants (resulting in a very unfortunate fate for them).
And at some point along the way realizing to his horror that his subjects (not the ghosts who knew him before) thought his friends were his concubines, members of his harem (fortunately not Mr. Lancer, nor Dani or Dan since the two looked like him and were assumed to be his children and Jazz being known as his sister).
Since they had no obvious role in the eyes of the fiends and didn't seem to do anything obvious besides hanging around hell the King of the Infinite Realms still gave them his protection and indulged them with whatever they wanted, except for Val, Sam and Tucker who were obviously his legitimate wives (favorites).
And Dark Pariah himself had concubines before he was put in the coffin.
And his friends, like dramatic trolls who love chaos, took advantage of this and played the part, much to his horror.
Which leads to one of the Batkids (whoever you want, I was writing this thinking of Tim or Jason) ending up being sacrificed to be the wife of the Ghost King by a cult. One small problem was that the ritual was not a summoning one, and the batkid would be registered as a child/minor.
And since Danny had long installed a clause that would teleport a child sacrifice directly to his "harem" rooms, one specially arranged for when something similar happens over the years where the person is cared for by servants.
So the batkid will find himself experiencing something of a combination of horror and imperial harem drama of
Realizing that the Phantom King's favorites were allowed a lot of freedom, with the Queen of Thorns being able to disappear into a dimension for decades,without the King getting upset,to do with plants, the Pharaoh had allowed her to go anywhere she wanted whenever she wanted with the King's permission and had allowed her to get away with a lot of things.
A little bit difficult to get at first, but I think: evreyone thinks there's a massive harem, so cult members sacrifice a batkid to the ghost king as a wife/husband for him, then they (after being isolated for a bit because of being underage? Maybe Jason's ghost core is underage, I'm not exactly sure) realise that the favorite of the kings concubines have alot of freedom, being able to travel the realms, so then they try to seduce him to become one of his favorites so he can leave back to Gotham.
Did I get that right? Cause if so, holy peak. I may have to write something for this on the plane....
Danny: I need a emergency best friend meeting without any judgment
Sam: Oh boy. Okay, let me get my judgment and put it in my locker.
Tucker: Is this meeting's topic a "Not too bad so we can speak in public" category or a "So bad I need help now" category?
Danny: the second one.
Tucker: I should have locked up my judgment too. Okay we have five minutes before the next bell. Hit me with it.
Danny: I told Superman I'm his older brother that died on Krypton to get out of explaining my powers and now he wont stop trying to summon me.
Tucker: ....I'm not going to lie thats a new one.
Danny: I figured he catch on to the lie but Supergirl confirmed that he had a brother my age who died before Superman was born and apparently, I looked like Jor-el? So now they both think Phantom is Han-El? What do I do?!
Sam: Han? Your alien name is Han?
Tucker: That sounds like judgment Sam
Sam: Right sorry. Ill just be quiet....I cant say anything thats not judgmental right now.
Danny: Help me!
Tucker: Can they hear us? I'm pretty sure they can hear us
Danny: No I put a sheild around Amity Park. Disrupts all sound to supers. As a precaution
Sam: *Face turning Purple*
Tucker: Breath Sam!
Sam: *Gasp*
Danny: Guys! What do I do? They think I lost my living memories. Supergirl spoke to me in Kryptonian and it sounded like perfect English to me just with like a voice filter that made it seemed like she was speaking from a radio- which is apparently all they needed to prove I was Han-el!
Tucker: Just....never show up as Phantom. Im sure they'll forget- and Sam passed out
Sam: *on the floor*
Meanwhile in the WatchTower:
Superman: I need to summon my dead teenage brother
Batman: Hold on, let me just update your file.....okay, let's use Blood magic
Zatanna: Why is Dark Magic your go to? We literally dont need Dark Magic for everything Batman
Batman: I like the spicy aftertaste in my mouth when we use Dark Magic
#14: Danny Fenton Was 32 When His Parents Built a Strange Machine
The Master Post | Teapot's Stories
Okay, sooooo we have passed 100 document pages!!! Wow, this is officially the second longest piece I have ever written. (longingly makes eyes at my Charades fic)
Danny is on that level-up grind. Learning about himself and his powers, gaining control bit by bit, until whoops! Okay, so thaaaaat's why he isn't allowed on the watchtower right now :/
I wonder what the heroes are gonna do about it?
Previously: Chapter 4 Part 2
Chapter 4: Super Cool Training Montage : Part 3
It’s all a ploy. They’re conspiring together. Danny swears it. Titan’s Tower has devolved into a war zone: furniture pushed askew, pillows on the floor, climbing gear in the stairwells, and perches in the elevator. The reason?
The Floor Is Lava.
There is a score board and everything.
When some of the Titans are around, it’s actually really fun. They have a point system for difficult jumps, but risk making a jump with a lot of points at your own peril because touching the floor results in lost points.
But when it’s just Danny moving around and no one is in sight, he’d rather just walk normally. Alas, Cyborg seems to have programmed the cameras to alert for feet on the floor because alarms will go off and then the whole team is rushing to see who broke the rules.
Which– and Danny is pretty sure that this is the whole goal –has resulted in Danny just flying most of the time. When questioned though, the Titans insist that it is mobility training for all of them.
The game is fun, he does enjoy it, but it is frustrating too.
When the idea was first brought about in the day after Danny’s unintentional space ascent, he was all gun-ho about it. As interested and competitive as the rest of them. However, the new limitations of his body quickly made themselves known.
The fact that he didn’t eat shit trying to jump from the back of the couch and onto the kitchen island has entirely to do with the fact that he flubbed gravity when his left ankle gave out upon landing.
He can still play, he just has to be careful and land on his right foot only, or use a bit of flight to ease the landing. Reluctantly, he does admit that is great for controlling his powers, but that doesn’t mean that he wants to be playing the game all the time. He’s not going to admit it, though. Not when he sees the heroes come in battered and weary, up late to keep an eye on the alert system or for patrols, called away to corners of the globe all hours of the day. If this is the joy that they find, he’s not going to take it away.
So, here Danny is, reduced to floating around the tower. At least it gives his ankle a break. He was able to figure out how to pull on that death veil just a little bit, so he can now fly in human-form too. The power comes easily and stronger when he’s in ghost mode, though.
That’s the other part of his training. The Titan’s will have him switch constantly between the two forms. Go ghost! Now live again! No, be a ghost! And on and on.
“It should be instinctual.”
“Switching needs to be instantaneous.”
So the light will crackle over his body like it’s burning one of his forms away, only to replace it with the other.
He hadn’t noticed it at night because it was dark, but now that he’s been a ghost for long stretches during the day, he’s sure of it. His vision and hearing aren’t as damaged in his ghost form. He can see more clearly and hear better. His vision just has a bit of a weird green haze and there’s a touch of static in his ears, like he can hear the rattle of his own core all the time.
At least with all of the back and forth between his two forms, Danny adjusts enough to the hearing and sight in his ghost form.
It’s been nearly two weeks since he last saw Martian Manhunter during their meditation session. One week, give or take, since Danny’s first flight. He doesn’t feel ignored or forgotten, though.
Manhunter checks in with Danny every few days, asking him how his day was and how he feels about his powers. Anytime that Danny has a question (which isn’t often because he doesn’t want to bother the busy hero), Manhunter is quick to respond. They’ve even had two video calls where Danny showed them his control over switching his form and with flying.
He had to leave his work laptop in his apartment on the watchtower, so he has his personal laptop, phone and tablet with him, but what he uses to contact Manhunter is an official hero’s communication disk. It’s a clever little device (Danny has already taken it apart and put it back together twice). The front is a screen or he can flip it open to look at a screen in the lid and a little keyboard on the bottom. Or he can project a hologram of a larger keyboard and type on that (with his numb fingers, he has to use that option. And he can even project a hologram of a larger screen which is particularly handy for talking with Manhunter.
Tonight is their third video call.
“Yeah, they’ve finally let up on the ‘the floor is lava’ game,” Danny reports, sitting in the standard chair at the desk that was provided with the room, one knee bent up against his chest with his foot resting on the seat. The communicator lays on the desk, projecting a hologram bust of Martian Manhunter (it was a strange sight the first two times, but Danny is getting used to it). “Which I’m relieved about, but I was actually starting to get the hang of my invisibility and intangibility.”
“Is that so?” Manhunter’s voice is as toneless as ever, the speakers not helping at all.
“Here, I’ll show you.” Danny stands up, pushing the chair aside as he moves far enough away from the desk that the camera on the communicator should pick up most of his body. “Can you still see me?”
“Indeed.” If Danny were in the same room with them, he might try to say that Manhunter seems intrigued.
It still takes Danny a moment, but he mentally grabs hold of that mourning veil and lets some of death’s energy into his living veins. It slides through him like a chill and then his body appears to wink out of existence. While Danny can see the faint, wavy mirage of his limbs, he appears to vanish to anyone else.
“Impressive indeed,” Manhunter says. Their expression is as flat as ever, but Danny is warmed nonetheless by the praise.
Actually, can he…? Hmm, maybe it would be possible.
Danny creeps forward, a mischievous grin on his lip and a green glint in his eye, even though Manhunter can’t see him. He’s already startled a few Titans this way, maybe he can get Manhunter too.
“Thanks!” Danny exclaims, dropping the invisibility like mist off of his body when his face is incredibly close to the communicator’s camera. From Manhunter’s perspective, Danny’s holo projection would have gone from nothing to a large face. He watches them closely.
As Danny’s projection suddenly appears, Manhunter’s face remains expressionless, but they do lean back in their chair and blink twice. “Very clever, well done.”
He sits in his chair again, chuckling. That’s probably the largest reaction outside of combat recordings that he’ll ever see from Manhunter. “Thanks, though I’m not sure that some of the Titians share the sentiment. Terra tried to kick me into a wall and Tempest threw his tea on me. Raven seemed to always know where I was, though.”
“I see. Both Terra and Tempest are exceptional fighters. Were you hurt?”
“No, I just phased out of Terra’s grasp and hot water doesn’t seem to affect me anymore? Or at least the tea just evaporated off of me as steam after a few minutes. I’ve taken some really hot showers since and that didn’t hurt either. Actually, they were quite nice.”
“Well, please do not be curious enough to expose yourself to boiling water.”
Danny raises an eyebrow. “No? Why would I do that? That sounds dangerous,” (Danny says as if he didn’t try to fly into space).
“Then you would be surprised with what young heroes do to test their limits.” Manhunter’s face may not show expression and his tone may not change, but from the phrasing of the words, Danny can clearly tell that they are weary and unimpressed with past experiences.
Suddenly, a week of playing The Floor Is Lava, doesn’t seem so bad and does make more sense.
“I don’t think I want to know,” he admits.
“No, I would much rather hear about how you have been practicing your intangibility.”
“Yeah! So when Terra kicked me into the wall, it was just… instinctual? Yeah, instinctual to go intangible and float through the momentum. Beast has been telling me to listen to my instincts.” Danny reaches over and picks up his closed laptop. A book would probably be closer, but there’s not much in his room and this is the closest thing. “I’m dropping things a lot less and we played around with the intanga’ during some Floor Is Lava rounds. Phasing through things actually makes for some cool party tricks. See?”
Danny holds up his closed laptop in his right hand and turns his left arm transparent (it’s always easier to use his powers on his left side), reaching through the middle of the laptop. It feels like brushing past a curtain as his arm goes through the solid object, but even turning his hand tangible again and resting his chin on his palm, his arm doesn’t hurt in the laptop. “Ta, da!”
“Very good, you have made remarkable progress.”
“Thanks. I was even talking with Best and Cyborg about maybe one day being able to extend my intangibility onto other objects.”
Manhunter takes a moment to consider. “That is not an ability that I have been able to do, but I do not see why you shouldn’t try. I am sure that your intangibility works rather differently from mine.”
“Oh yeah?” Danny asks, idly spinning the laptop around where his arm is anchored through it.
“Indeed. My density shifting allows me to pass my molecules between the spaces of other molecules. To do this, I had to learn the density and make of many substances before I had success.”
“Huh, mine just happens. I think it goes back to what Green Lantern said. If I can envision it, then it happens. I can see myself moving through something, so I do. There’s a lot I haven’t tried though.”
“We will have plenty of time to train your skill.”
“Okay… um…”
“Yes, Danny?” If Manhunter were mentally connected with Danny right now, he would know that they are trying to be open and authentic.
“Well, it’s just that it’s been over two weeks since I was on the watchtower..” And he hurts. His chest feels like an angry nest of bees. He’s getting lost in his head more often when he looks at the stars. Raven explained that the longer he’s away from his haunt and the longer that his purpose goes unfulfilled, then the worse that his obsessive tendencies are going to be (though even after a brainstorm session, they couldn’t really say for certain what his purpose is. Apparently, “obsessive tendencies” mean those moments where he gets lot in his head and has a single-minded focus on one thing, like floating up to space). The Titans actually have decided to have someone posted as a ‘Danny Watch’ at night now.
“It has. How are you feeling about that?”
He doesn’t want to admit how weird he is. He knows that it’s the ghost stuff acting up. What was it that Constantine said about a ghost being separated from its haunt? But Danny decided to leave because his haunt is safer without him. It’s okay. He’s okay. It’s just that…
“How much longer until I’m able to move back home? I miss seeing Sam and my friends on the mechanic crew. I’d like to see the stars again from the watchtower and pick up a few things from my room if you think my control isn’t good enough yet.”
Manhunter slightly tilts their head to the side, thinking. “You’ve been working hard. I suppose we could arrange a meeting.”
“A meeting?” Danny snorts. It’s so formal.
“Ah, what is it that you young Earthlings say? My niece told me. Right, a hangout.”
Danny laughs for real at the stilted way that Manhunter draws out the word that is unfamiliar to them. “Yeah, that would be really nice.”
“I will mention it to the Justice League and get permission.”
“Okay, thank you.”
“And how is your telekinetic ability? Do you still push and pull objects without meaning to?”
Oh yeah, he was working on that too. One or twice he was able to move a pillow into his path or push one out of someone else’s path during The Floor Is Lava. “I’m still working on that one, but I can make it work on command too. It’s more of the visualization and believing that I can do it. Smaller objects are bigger than easier ones. Watch–”
Danny holds up his arm with the embedded laptop, scrunching up his eyebrows as he focuses.
Pull against the veil. He can do this.
Just imagine the laptop floating off his arm and onto the desk.
Easy peasy.
That’s not how it happens, though.
The only warning that Danny gets is a pop of static in the back of his mouth before a crackling arch of electricity flings his laptop into his room.
“Oh fuck–”
Danny lunges to catch the device, but as soon as his feet touch the ground, there’s a rapid snap-crackle-pop and a bright flash of light as lightning disperses from him, pulsing in a wave over his room. The lights flicker, the bulbs in his lamps bursting.
Then the tower goes dark.
“Oh… Fuck…” Danny hisses, his mouth tasting of ozone.
Across the darkened tower, various calls of confusion start to ring out.
If anything, it’s a good reminder for exactly why he is not currently on the watchtower.
~~~
So not only is Danny’s laptop utterly fired, but now he has to fix his communicator on top of once again repairing his hearing aid. He really needs to figure out a way to insulate the thing, including all of his personal electronics it seems. Hopefully his phone and communicator just have dead batteries, but he’ll see to those later.
He has other things to worry about right now.
Such as, helping Cyborg with the tower’s central power generator.
“Really, man? Come on,” Cyborg gripes again.
Danny groans, wanting nothing more than to just disappear into the dead generator (which, actually, he could do given his powers. But his powers are what landed him here in this mess). “I knoooow. I’m sorry.”
“You got the main generator and the backup one. No telling how far the outage would have gone in the city.”
“Yeah…” Danny mutters. All that he can do is help Cyborg and let him vent.
“Then it is truly a good thing that we are on an island away from the coast of the city,” Starfire points out, her hands lit up to cast light over Cyborg and Danny’s work.
She was at home, of course, but the tower going out tripped enough alarms that she raced here to make sure everyone was okay. Nightwing then went to inform the watchtower that everything was okay, the tower would be up and running again soon. Hopefully, they were able to find a babysitter on short notice, but Danny’s just going to keep his head down and not ask questions.
“I suppose I’ll have to insulate the primary and the backup generator the same way as my backup powercell,” Cyborg thinks aloud, focused on his work.
Danny hums a bit, repairing the wiring that cyborg had directed him to.
Of course, Cyborg had also been shut down by Danny’s accidental EMP wave (it’s just… so great… that Danny now has confirmation on that…), but after a minute or two, Cyborg’s backup power source kicked in. It pays to be prepared when you’re a hero.
“Actually, how did you isolate your powercell? Probably would be good for my phone and stuff.” Primarily his hearing aid. Ever since the wave shut it off, his ear has been ringing nonstop and it’s starting to give him a headache. Well, that and the way that Danny has to squint at what he’s doing with the low light and his blind eye.
“Ask me again when I’m less irritated,” Cyborg grumbles.
“Yeah, fair enough.” Danny is irritated too, but he’s not about to let his own feelings out at the risk of another light show. Deep breath in and deep breath out, let the feelings drift away.
Starfire purses her lips, but doesn’t reprimand Cybrog for his attitude.
It takes another solid hour of work, but they get the tower back up and running, much to everyone’s relief.
When Danny is able to charge his phone and communicator again, he gets a message from Martian Manhunter telling him to be ready to meet them at the tower’s zeta tube tomorrow morning.
Okay, training again. Surely this’ll be fun.
~~~
The next day (after less sleep than Danny would care to admit), he waits at the tower’s zeta tubes for Manhunter to appear. After they arrive, they greet Danny and ask if he’s okay after last night’s incident, then they type in coordinates to the tube’s control panel and together they are off to where, Danny doesn’t know.
Stepping out of the zeta tube, Danny sees that they are in a pristine lobby of sorts, the walls white with lots of reinforced glass windows. People in long white scientist coats are walking around with clipboards in hand. A few turn to nod in greeting to Manhunter or offer a quick wave, but no one stops to make small talk. Manhunter doesn’t even hesitate in stride, returning the greetings as they turn down a long hallway.
“Where are we?” Danny asks, still looking around.
The hall has several doors and there are some windows (still reinforced glass) to look into the rooms where inventions are being made or experiments tested. A lab?
“I would have thought that you’d recognize this place.” Manhunter looks over their shoulder at Danny, amusement brushing up against his mind.
“No? I’ve never seen it before.”
They slow their stride, gesturing to a window. “Would you like to take a look?”
Inside, people are gathered around a whiteboard, discussing some kind of equation with their backs towards the window. This room seems like a workshop of some kind, there are regular tools that Danny recognizes and a few that he doesn’t.
Oh, it’s not a whiteboard with a dry erase marker at all, it’s one of those holo-screen boards where they can pull out 3d models.
Is that a logo on the corner of the board?
Squinting and closing his left eye, Danny’s right eye nearly bugs out of his head.
Star Labs.
They’re in Star Labs?!
Danny all but smooshes himself up against the glass, eyes wide and trying to take in every detail.
He’d communicated with three employees of Star Labs while he was studying his doctorate, but he’d never actually set foot on one of the campuses, much less been inside. Now he’s seeing where the cutting edge of technology is being developed?! Danny could die happy now (die the rest of the way?)
“It seems that you are quite pleased.” Manhunter asks, watching Danny.
“Oh I am much more than just pleased,” Danny admits, positively giddy as he goes over to another window and looks into a chemistry lab.
“Well, I hope it won’t upset you to know that we will be training outside instead of inside today.”
Danny slowly turns around, mouth nearly agape and eyes wide. “You mean, you’re training me here. On Star Labs Campus.”
“Indeed, we are using their track. Given the occurrence last night, I want to provide you with an open space and technology that can accommodate your powers.” They gesture with their arm for Danny to continue down the hall.
Reluctantly, he starts walking again, if a bit slower so that he can see into the labs. “What does that mean?”
“This is where Flash took some time to train. The fence around the track is specialized to pick up electric feedback and/or discharge and ground the energy harmlessly.”
Danny is up on cloud nine and he starts floating, drifting from lab window to lab window. “I’m going to train where the Flash was trained.”
Again, Manhunter is amused as they usher Danny down the hall. “There are some scientists who have agreed to help observe and record if you would like–”
“Yes!”
If they could smile, Manhunter certainly would. They gesture for Danny to wait as they continue speaking. “The findings would not only be useful to you but also to the League’s records, in case powers such as yours– ghostly or otherwise –were to occur in someone else. Also, as the holder of an entirely new meta gene, there are some blood studies that you could do. Given your health records after your accident, there is reason to believe that you have an increased healing factor. With proper administration, we may yet be able to fully heal your wounds.”
“My answer is still yes.” All of that sounds really great to Danny.
Manhunter telepathically opens the door and they cross outside into the heat of the desert. “I am sure you understand that this is all theoretical.”
Danny is actually quite content with the heat (which is funny because before his accident, he would’ve broken into a sweat by now). He knows that Martians are weak against fire, but Manhunter seems to be alright so far, their posture steady and their cape flapping at their heels as they lead the way to a cluster of people in the middle of the track and field.
“Of course, that’s how science is done after all,” Danny says. “You make a hypothesis and perform the tests and if you’re wrong, you look at what happened and remake your hypothesis and experiment again and repeat until you understand the principle.”
“I’m glad that you agree. I’ve asked two other heroes along to give us a hand in today’s exercise.”
“Oh yeah?”
The two of them come to a stop alongside the cluster of people under the white tent. There are a few scientists standing at tables of devices, no doubt ready to record various readings. Shazam hovers next to one of the tables, asking a question about each machine, and Flash is stretching on the patchy grass.
“Danny!” Shazam looks up, eyes bright.
“Hey, Danny,” Flash calls with a wave.
He waves back, still speaking to Manhunter. “So, you never said what we’ll be doing today.”
“No?” Their feet lift off the ground by a few inches as they float away from Danny and they lift their hand in a signal of sorts. Oh, Danny suddenly has a bad feeling about this as the fuzzy, giddy, warmth drops out of him through his feet. “Then let’s begin.”
There’s a blur of red light and a crack of yellow lightning and then Danny is getting the air punched out of him.
~~~
The attacks are swift and sudden, impacting him from either side and in all directions.
“This isn’t very nice!” Danny coughs, one hand on his chest and the other hand braced on his knee. His left ankle is wobbling and the only reason he’s still standing is because of the ankle brace and the fact that he’s lightened up his gravity.
“Sorry bud,” Flash says, standing a ways away, but in a red blur, he appears next to Danny just long enough to flick him on the forehead. “That’s kind of the point.” And then Flash is speeding away again.
Danny stumbles back from the impact of the speedforced flick, his forehead smarting.
The rumble of thunder is his only warning before a heavy, electric fist just about dislocates his shoulder in a single punch. Shazam floats in a loose ring around Danny, taunting, “I bet you can’t get me.”
Martian Manhunter watches, their arms crossed and face impassive. They stand separate from the fight, floating above the white research tent, but their voice carries nonetheless. “The League elected to placate you, make sure that you are happy. We’ve been told that you are powerful. I’d like to see what happens when you are mad.”
When he’s mad?
Okay. Danny can be mad.
He pulls on his mourning veil, light shimmering in sparks over his body as his ghost form takes over. Danny’s vision is washed in a tinge of green, static rising in his ears to background noise while his body becomes weightless. His feet lift off the ground and when he clenches his hands, there might just be sparks snapping in his palms.
“Yeah! That’s what I’m talking about!” Flash whoops, sliding to a stop so he can take a moment to assess Danny in this form.
Shazam bashes his fist against his palm, puffing out his chest. “Let’s fuckin’ go!”
“Zam! Language!” Flash scolds with a smile and no heat in the words.
Without warning, they both turn on a dime and charge Danny again.
He’s not entirely sure what they want him to be doing. Or maybe that is the point? They said they want to see him be angry, and Danny is angry. He’s mad about several things in his life right now, but this is currently topping his list.
Why the hell are they attacking him?
They’re world class heroes with years of training! He’s just an engineer!
How can they expect for him to try and defend from them, much less try to fight them?
His mom is a black belt and used to teach him some moves so he could defend against bullies (ha, take that Dash, look where Danny is now!) and against ghosts, but that was in high school!
Just… instincts right?
Go with what feels natural.
Envision the outcome that he wants.
Okay okay okay, go!
Danny lets his body turn transparent, intangibility taking over as he darts away from the charging heroes.
Shazam’s blow misses, the clasped fists of his overhead swing making a cracked crater on the ground. Flash is a blur of motion, taking the change in direction easily and swiping right through Danny’s ghost.
It’s… an interesting feeling.
The red lightning of the speedforce that crackles over Flash’s body tingles against Danny’s skin like pins and needles. The red electricity turns to blue, snagging against Danny in arches. He swears that he can feel it go straight into his core, his fists taking on a crackling blue hue.
Interesting, so he’s a lightning rod, huh?
Danny keeps up the dodging, trying his best to assess the heroes’ movements. Flash is too fast to track, seeming to appear at random, while Shazam moves quickly despite his bulk.
When Danny miscalculates, Shazam’s electric fist bulldozes into Danny’s back, flinging him across the track even with the intangibility.
It fucking hurts!
“Ha! Magic beats ghost!” Shazam celebrates.
Danny actually snarls at the heroes as he braces himself against a nonexistent wall and launches right back towards them.
“Yeah! Come get me!” Shazam cajoles, moving into a boxing stance with his shoulders hunched and fists raised in front of his face.
Danny’s not entirely sure what his plan is, he doesn’t even have one. He’s moving so fast that later he’ll be told how his legs turned into a tail of snapping lighting. All he knows is that he’s angry that he’s being beaten up for no reason!
Maybe it’s stupid, but Danny plows right into Shazam, their fists meeting with a crack of booming thunder. Yellow electricity meets blue and both lash out in a flashing wave that roils out across the track.
“There you go,” Flash encourages, his voice warped from the speed at which he races around under Danny and Shazam. “Give him all you got, Danny!”
“Kind of tingly,” Shazam chuckles. “Hey Flash, catch!”
The next thing he knows, Danny is being grabbed and tossed toward the speed hero.
“Hey!” Is all that he can manage before he’s slipping intangibly out of Flash’s red lighting-grasp and sinking into the concrete and dirt.
He takes the moment to catch his breath, not that he needs to breathe, but the motion feels nice.
Feels instinctual.
Anger crackles against his ribs.
It’s dark under the ground, the sounds above him muffled as Flash speeds around, talking to Shazam about where Danny could be. “Watch out,” they say, “Yeah, he could pop out anywhere.”
Shazam is hovering just over the ground by a few feet, Danny knows because he can sense the crackle of Shazam’s energy. Danny also hears the rapid tip-tapping of Flash’s feet and senses the red lighting bolt as he approaches, getting closer and closer.
Surely, Flash thinks that he’s too fast for Danny.
Watching a second longer. Danny surges out of the ground, wrapping his hands around Flash’s ankles and sending him crashing to the ground. The hero yelps in surprise as he eats the asphalt of the track, and then his body is arching with blue electricity, his muscles straining so hard that he can’t even scream.
Danny lunges for Shazam, a growl on his lips.
Colliding with Shazam’s chest is like hitting a brick wall, but the force is enough to knock him out of the sky, sending him tumbling over the ground as he and Danny make wild blows at each other.
Yellow and blue electricity crackle together, scorching the ground and pulsing off of them in waves.
In a desperate attempt, Shazam wraps his arms around Danny, twisting and lifting him up while shouting, “Shazam!” The cloudless sky responds immediately, a yellow bolt of lighting that’s so bright it’s almost white shoots into Danny’s chest, his core.
It reminds Danny of when he ate poprocks as a kid.
Then the lightning turns blue and the energy floods into his system, turning his nerves haywire. He thrashes against Shazam’s hold, somehow slipping free despite the magic that makes the hero impervious to Danny’s intangibility.
Danny whips around, hands raised and ready to shoot the lightning right back, but he stops when he sees a thin 20-something year old man in a baggy hoodie scrambling away.
With a split second to change his movement, Danny pushes his hands into the asphalt of the track just before the energy blasts out of him, scorching the earth. Still, the electricity ripples across the ground like thousands of rippling snakes, the wave spreading and spreading and spreading. The earth actually crumbles to ash under Danny’s hands.
Surging forward, Martian Manhunter reaches out a hand, lifting the young man off the ground and away from the rising dome of energy with a quick yank of telekinesis.
Just as suddenly as it started, the energy fizzles out and Danny collapses into the crater, dropping his ghost form.
“Okay,” Manhunter says, gesturing with one hand as they slowly lower the man back onto the ground. “Very good, all of you, I think that is enough for today.”
Flash walks up to the edge of the crater with one arm wrapped around his ribs, giving Danny a strained smile. “Yeah, not too shabby. That actually hurt, like a lot.”
Danny blinks the anger out of his eyes, panting to catch his breath. He still feels like there is electricity crackling through his blood, like he could turn a light bulb on just by touching it (actually… that’s an idea). He raises a half-hearted middle finger to Flash. “I’d apologize, but you came at me first.”
“Fair enough,” Flash chuckles.
“Yeah, you actually had me on the ropes for a moment there just from sheer power, your form needs work though.” The man says from the opposite end of the crater from Flash.
Danny looks at him and raises an eyebrow. “Shazam?”
“Ha, yeah, guess you know my secret now.” Not Buff Shazam shakes jazz-hands at Danny.
“You know… a lot of things suddenly make sense.” Danny pulls a small metal tube out of his pocket, twisting the catch to trigger the release. The metal expands into a crutch and Danny gets up, leaning his weight on his right leg.
“Huh?” Small Shazam asks.
“Totally crash ability, by the way.” Danny smirks a bit as Shazam face-palms. “Yeah, only the Young Justice team says that phrase.”
“You need a hand, Danny?” Flash is rolling out his shoulder now, less hunched and seeming to improve by the minute. Improved healing factor, huh?
Actually, now that Danny thinks about it, he isn’t nearly as hurt as he should be from that fight, and his aches are improving, even if his body is still tired from the exertion. Okay, he’ll have to ask about doing some ability tests at Star Labs like Manhunter had suggested.
“Nah, I got it.” He steps out of the crater, letting the crutch take his weight and balance him.
Wait, he’s an idiot.
Danny folds up his knees and criss-crosses in mid air, laying the crutch across his lap. Yeah, that's much better. He floats alongside Small-Shazam and Flash as they walk over to the white research tent where Manhunter waits.
“That’s cool.” Shazam says, pointing at the cane. “Pocket crutch?”
“Yeah,” Danny nods, “I got the idea from Red Robin’s collapsible bo staff.”
“You made it?”
“Well, yeah? You know that I’m an engineer, right.” Danny raises an eyebrow.
“I know!” Shazam protests. “I’m trying to compliment you.”
Danny chuckles, shaking his head a bit. “Thanks, but I’m still mad at both of you. That was mean.”
“You did good.” Flash squeezes Danny’s shoulder. “And blame them, they set it up.”
Mahunter claps his hands together softly as they approach. It looks stiff and unnatural on them, but the human gesture is appreciated nonetheless. “I wanted to see what would happen. That was very educational.”
“Glad you enjoyed it,” Danny grumbles.
They are quiet for a moment in a purposeful way, assessing. Then, “You enjoyed it too.”
“What?”
“Unless I read your emotions wrong.”
Danny hums as he thinks, tilting his head from side to side. “No, I guess I did enjoy it. I was angry that they suddenly attacked me and it hurt for a bit after each blow, but yeah. I did have fun.”
“Constantine said that ghosts play by fighting. I wanted to see how you would react.”
“Well, maybe you could have led with that…” Danny glares a bit at Shazam and Flash. “Maybe a little warning would’ve been nice.”
Shazam holds his hands up in surrender. “Just following instructions.”
“And as I had suspected, your anger brought out your electric abilities,” Manhunter continues explaining.
“I do say. I have a few ideas on how we can practice your abilities, Danny.”
Danny sighs, lowering his feet back to the ground, leaning on his right foot. “Yeah, I do too. Let’s get started then.”
===
Flash and Shazam: Is it really okay for us to be beating up Danny? What if we hurt him? Constantine said he's strong and he could hurt us.
Manhunter: I'm fairly certain that Danny has an improved healing factor and I want to see what happens when he gets mad, lol. You can handle it.
Flash and Shazam: Oh okay, dope. Let's go beat the crap out of Danny, we'll be fine!
Flash and Shazam after fighting Danny: that hurt
===
Okay, chat. How do we feel about Danny's disability being less prominent / impacting him less in his ghost form? I want the ghost form to be like assistive technology. The form and his powers are there to help him, but not completely wipe his disabilities away.
One of the first things Danny did after dying and getting ghost powers (aside from freak out of course) was look up the whereabouts of his killer. Not Sam, that was an accident, no he looked up the location of Damian Al Ghul, his biological twin and murderer. His twin had tried to kill him in cold blood when they were six, on a mission together in the US. Danny had managed to escape with his life, and ended up adopted by the Fentons. Finally he had a chance for revenge.
Turns out his twin has been living it up in their billionaire fathers house.
Time to put these new ghost powers to use!
In between school and ghost fights in Amity, Danny makes time to fly to Gotham and haunt the fuck out of Damian. He goes all in with every horror movie trope he can find. He even figures out how to make his ghost form look like his six year old self to really sell the whole thing. After making the entire Wayne Brood nearly piss themselves he declares that the only thing that will end the haunting is the death of the one who killed him.
Then the college reunion happens and Danny stops Vlad from murdering his adopted dad. Vlad is such a fruitloop and Danny really doesnt like him. On his way back from Wisconsin he has the unfortunate realization that he was on his way to becoming just. Like. Vlad.
This isnt even about Damian any more, sure Danny still hates his twin for what he did but- damn he really does not want to be just like Vlad when he grows up. Time for a new plan:
Pretend he never went to Gotham in the first place, and never go back.
He can start using his precious free time on more important things, like video games and space exploration.
Meanwhile, the Batfam is undergoing defcon fuck levels of paranoia, infighting, emotional constipation, and guilt. Damina has decided he has to let Danyal kill him, its only right after what he did. Bruce is trying to find any solution to this that doesnt result in Damian or the ghost of his other, unknown, son suffering a moment longer.
Absolutely no one, except for Danny, is having a good time.
To be clear Danny was absolutely planning on murdering damian and maybe maiming bruce just for funsies at first. He was originally raised by assassins after all. But then he saw how cringe vlad was and did a literal 180. Couldnt be him.
Turned away from the path of villiany due to unbearable cringe levels.
It all comes crashing down a few years later when the Batfam sees Danny, formerly known Danyal Al-ghul, having a peaceful afternoon at a random coffee shop in metropolis or something. Maybe because he got busy with his ghost king duties + college or he just no longer cared that it kinda just slipped out of his mind and that his teenage decisions will always have consequences. So when the Batfam approached him, with Damian crying in his arms might I add, he panics feigned ignorant. The Batfam reluctantly believed him and so he just leaves and goes on his mary day.
He knows that he can't fool the batfam forever so he decides to just fuck it and disappear. Returning back to Amity.
Que the Batfam going through crisis because now, the random yung adult they encountered that looked like an aged up version of Danyal vanished into thin air without any trace
Danny making eye contact with Bruce and Damian at the new vegan cafe Sam wanted to try. Hed flown there to get the drink because he owed her like. So many favors.
Damian gets up, tears in his eyes already making his way towards him.
"Danya-"
"Donde este la biblioteca? No wait shit i meant no hablo ingles."
"What?"
"Look behind you! Whats that?"
Damian glances back for half a moment only to hear Danny fucking book it from the cafe, overturning his chair in his haste.
After the Fenton's portal is closed by the Justice League, the Fentons are sent to jail for a large number of crimes. Both against the city inhabitants and against ghosts. Jazz is old enough to take care of herself, and just takes the economic support to be able to comfortably assist college. Danny, on the other hand, loudly refuses to go live with Vlad, and Jazz was not considered fit to take him in, so he enters the foster system.
After a couple of instances of Vlad trying to get Danny with him by throwing money at foster parents, Danny ends up living with the Wayne's.
It's all going pretty well, until Danny gets restless and decides Phantom needs time outside. But this is Gotham, the city of the detective vigilantes, and he knows that the Wayne's have connections with said vigilantes.
So Danny pretends he's absolutely terrified of ghosts to reinforce that he could not be one. He already had a cowards reputation back home, it'll all check out.
So Phantom starts being seen in Gotham, and soon working with the bats, and Danny goes full force with the I’m terrified of him and other ghosts.
The Waynes think it's just learned prejudice from his parents and they simply need to teach Danny better, and Danny is completely fine leaning into it. Maybe not the ghosts aren’t sentient, he doesn’t feel comfortable repeating that, but the all ghosts are evil? He can play that part.
But maybe he played the scared and anxious boy too well, because the Waynes start getting a bit worried about how bad Danny’s fears are. For them it seems that Danny isn’t even sleeping well, since he seems really exhausted in the mornings, and they hadn’t been able to calm his prejudice about ghosts one bit.
Bruce wants to try getting the boy to meet a ghost in a calm environment, so maybe they could start deconstructing those ideas. And asks Phantom if he would be willing to meet him, like of course it’s okay if you don’t, but if you could.
And Danny isn’t good enough with his duplication abilities for what seems to be a long meeting. So he awkwardly says:
I mean, I could, but I don’t know if it’ll be a good idea? That boy has been trapped in the middle of his parents and ghosts fighting all the time. Even I’ve had to overshadow him to try getting away from ecto-rays. Don’t think he’ll appreciate me being close.
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