Tim was really starting to get worried about his new brother.
Danny moved into Wayne Manor after his parents were arrested. Jack and Maddie Fenton opened a portal to the infinite realms with no way of stopping any of the world-ending threats. They let the ghosts wreak havoc and never once closed the portal.
Danny had gotten some sort of connection to an ancient being. The Justice League Later found out that the ancient being was using the connection to gain a way to stay on Earth. They were able to sever the connection but Danny is not getting any better.
Since the attacks in Amity Park started Danny has been getting sicker and sicker. He got paler and started to bruise more easily. But after they severed the connection he seemed to no longer have energy.
Even now that they have gotten him away from amity park, nothing seems to be helping. It's been 3 months with no sign of getting better. they're on their last straw and they finally decided to get a magic user to try and help. unfortunately The person who knows the most is Constantine.
Constantine walked into the room with Bruce. Danny had no idea that they were connected to the Justice League and they were hoping to keep it that way. They don't want to stress him, especially with how sick he is. Constantine and Bruce stopped in front of Danny.
Bruce tried to use a gentle tone and said “ danny I know you're having a lot of trouble so I called in someone to help “
Danny had an apprehensive look.
“Kid, I just need your hand,” Constantine said as he reached out a hand. ”I'm not going to do any creepy shit, I'm just trying to make you better”
Danny reluctantly placed his hand onto constantines. it was a few minutes before Constantine Swar under his breath.
"What is it” Bruce demanded.
”the little ghosty left a parting gift”
“that's not an explanation”
“the kids got a neverborn”
“What's neverborn?” Tim asked, interrupting their conversation.
“The closest equivalent I can make is that technically Phantom got the kid knocked Up”
Okay, but I can see that been the drop that finishes Danny's patience. He's doing he's best to lay low and survive until Phantom finds he's way back to him. Having to hear the Wayne's talking about how Phantom won't be able to reach him again in comforting tones, as if that wasn't what was killing him right now.
He thought Red Huntress and his parents abilities to blame everything on Phantom were outstanding, but they're nothing compare to the Justice League and their "he's using you to reach the world of the living."
With his body deteriorating by the day, and Ellie's core getting weaker as time goes by because he's feeding off of it, instead of it feeding off of him as it was supposed to, Danny was hanging by a thread. And now this con artist comes in and tells him his been knocked out by himself?
Danny couldn't help it, he started laughing. It was long past ridiculous. He must have looked hysteric because the con artist went ahead with a pitting look and made it worse.
"Don't worry kid. We can get rid of-"
"You touch Ellie's core and there won't be an Ancient capable of stopping me from ripping your head off your body!"
Stunned silence filled the room, and well, maybe that was the wrong move, but Danny was in survival mode and extremely tired. It's inevitable that he would snap if they threatened Ellie. There was a silent conversation between the three men that were in the room with him.
"Danny, I know this isn't easy," Started Bruce "but your body it's been deteriorating, this thing it's -"
"This thing it's Ellie's core, and it's the only thing keeping me alive right now. Which it's bullshit because the whole incubating thing it's supposed to work the other way! But no! The league of imbeciles had to get their noses where they weren't called!"
And, more stunned silence. There goes laying low until Phantom found him. Whatever, at this rate Ellie was going to fade before Phantom came, and then Danny was going to die, and then Phantom was going to fade too. The Justice League should be proud, their getting an endangered species back to having just one member. That's if they didn't ruin things for Vlad to, Danny doesn't have a way to know.
"Danny..." Tim brought Danny back to the present. Feeling the burning sensation in his eyes, he realizes tears have been gathering in them, but he can't be bother to keep them back. "What do you mean by the only thing keeping you alive?"
Danny bites his lip and glares at the floor. He isn't sure he wants to explain, what would even be the point? He's tired, and angry, and worried, and scared for himself and Ellie, he doesn't want to talk to these people. The Wayne's are kind, but they're basically cell keepers for him, people tasked with keeping him away from his other half.
Bruce kneels in front of Danny, looking him in the eye with a protective determination. One that somehow just makes Danny feel worse.
"Danny, if Phantom has-"
"Fuck, Phantom isn't the problem!" Danny jumps to his feet, almost hitting Bruce. "The problem was the fucking Justice League being unable to listen! If they had listen, they would have known that Phantom wasn't any Ancient possessing someone! They would have known that I was Phantom!"
Danny could see the color draining from the con artist, a contrast to the worried gazes Bruce and Tim were sending him. Of course they don't believe him, they think Danny is being manipulated by Phantom. Danny starts pacing.
"They come into my haunt, months after their not needed anymore, months after everyone has settled to our new normal, and fucking rip me apart! Acting all heroic as if they were rescuing me, and then throw me here to die! They're so lucky that an apocalypse hasn't started yet! Because that's usually what happens when you separate a Halfa!"
"But Halfas are supposed to be extinct" The con artist mumbled and both Bruce's and Tim's whipped their head to look at him. Horror setting into their faces as the guys words confirm that what Danny is saying is true, and not something he's been pushed to believe by Phantom.
"There's no such thing as extinction in the infinite realms. All there have to happen for a species to come back, is someone dying the right way."
Ok, from what I see here… The most logical way for this to happen to this degree is this way…
1st.. after a dimensional break or apocalyptic issue, Constantine, at the time of assessing Danny, has been out of the dimension for more than those 3 months, possibly cleaning up loose ends or moving very fast… I mean Constantine possibly just woke up from a work hangover to see the messages left by the league about what happened in Amity Park and what Danny is currently going through (without obviously finishing reading the reports, otherwise he would know what is going on just by mentioning Danny's Halfa ramblings).
2nd. everything regarding the Amity Park dimensional portal was handled correctly according to the JLD magic users currently present, remember as far as we know, most of the inhabitants of the infinite realms are extremely powerful beings, some capable of devouring the world or universes, so leaving said portal open without any way to contain it is very irresponsible… (example many incidents before the non-aggression pact, such as Undergrowth, Pariah Dark and others)
3rd. The halfa, are a species that has been extinct for millennia, to the point that their existence is doubted, I would not be surprised if the only one who has some knowledge of them is Constantine (and only because the guy wanted to see the risks of pregnancy between humans or a living being and a being from the infinite realms)
4th. The books/mentions about halfas were at some point destroyed from known existence (with some exceptions like the House of Mystery) because of some cults that have tried to create/become halfas for their great power… possibly their only results of these attempts are the Lazarus Pits, which would cause even more restricted knowledge.
5th. What ended up drawing the JL to Amity Park, was possibly another Freakshow scheme, where, along with the theories of the Fentons (with no identity revealed) and the users of available magic, they mistakenly believed that Phantom was an Ancient who was taking over a living city.
6th. only the teenagers of the town (already known as rebels by the adult community) were the ones who helped the ghosts with their obsessions…
Danny would be seething if he found out that all his suffering and stress could have been cut short long ago if Constantine had read the complete reports.
"All this stress, all this pain, all this fear of fading/dying, could have been prevented if you had read the reports as you were meant to do!"
The Justice League has yet another meeting where Batman is looking at all of them like they are misbehaving little kids, and reminds them that reports are meant to be read completely for a reason.
If Danny can become whole again, I kinda want him to just... leave. Take his ball and go home, let them deal with the consequences.
And I don't mean the usual consequences of the door being left open and ghost rampaging, I'm talking about what it could mean if the opposite happens and the door locks behind him.
Which very well might happen! This realm has been a repeated threat to the citizens of the Infinite, and to the actual Infinite Realms (and all of reality by extension) as a whole. There's probably only one reason it hasn't been cut off until now, and that's because it was the favored reality of, and contained the haunt of, a newly formed ancient of an already endangered species (not to mention every single other member of that species).
Now though? Danny doesn't want to be here anymore, that's for damn sure. He's also been kicked out of Amity, rejected, been forced to accept that it's been taken from him and isn't his haunt anymore. He sure doesn't have any reason to stay in or protect this specific realm above any other.
And the protection provided by the presence of Halfas as an endangered species? Well you're actively threatening the continued existence of two of them at the moment. The third one? Vlad? He probably went to ground the moment he saw what happened to Danny; if they split him like that he'd fade in minutes; unlike Danny he doesn't have a second core in him to sustain him. Vlad probably escaped into the zone the moment the option to flee through his portal (and close it behind him so they couldn't chase him through, even if that would also keep Phantom from getting out) presented itself.
In other words, the universe has effectively invalidated every single reason it was being protected in just the three months Constantine was out of dimension. So Danny? The moment he's whole and leaves for the Infinite Realms permanently? The Council of Ancients meets for a vote and comes to a unanimous decision to lock the doors.
All Portals close
Ectoplasm ceases to leak into the DC realm
Ghosts can still leave (they have to fill out and file the proper paperwork, but it's intentionally kept easy to make sure it's not really a significant barrier to emigration) but no new souls are forming.
And, big problem, superpowers and magic start to fail. There's less and less of the extradimensional energy that powers a ton of powers, and like someone not getting enough food would weaken, anything that used some form of the omnipresent extradimensional energy starts to run down.
The lantern rings
The speed force
Magic of all kinds
The special bioelectric field that underlies all Kryptonian powers
The will of the gods that brought Diana to life from clay
The psychic field that Martians rely on
If you're looking for angst, I cannot emphasize enough that this looks to me to be Fertile ground to grow it. Because the universe is slowly starving, a lot of the heroes who saved the day in the past are too, and the idiots and adjacent to the government who started this mess in the first place are still yelling about "ectoplasmic scum" and "not negotiating with terrorists" and "ripping that entire damned zone apart to protect ourselves."
Okay but imagine how utterly, unforgivably mundane they all slowly become.
No longer can anyone just conveniently be missed by fucking bullets because the bad guys just happen to suck at aiming. There are no last minute miracles. Obsessions are just horrible mental illnesses that make people just unable to function in society at large without proper therapy and medication. The bats are getting picked off because frankly, their city spirit isn't there to protect them any more. All their villains are just regular mentally ill people with no powers to speak of. Technology no longer works in the crazy way they used to be able to make it work. Freeze guns? Doomsday rays? Nonsense, you can't just make that shit.
You know who I almost feel bad for in this scenario? Superboy Prime.
The kid specifically came from a mundane reality without any heroes outside of comic books. Then he gets Superman powers, ends up in the DC universe, goes more than a smidge mad, becomes an incredibly powerful villain (see: "gets Superman powers, but also add a yellow lantern ring- the one based on ability to inspire fear- on top of that), and ends up punching the universe so hard it breaks reality like glass and brings Jason Todd Wayne back to life.
Now don't get me wrong, the kid is a legit villain and terrible person. That being said, none of *waves hand* this whole situation is at all his fault. He's still gonna suffer all the costs anyway, and is probably the only person alive to truly comprehend what's coming.
Also, quick side note, how's Red Hood doing?
...
Shit, how's anyone who was brought back to life by various comic shenanigans doing?
...
Okay. I need to highlight that I, the person behind the keyboard, actually just paused for several real world seconds as I was overwhelmed by trying to process the dawning realization that spilled over me with that last sentence. Is... W-who's actually still alive, and doesn't start to feel 'symptoms' as whatever force defied reality to make them not dead any more starts to run out of juice?
Setting the stories aside for a sec, this is legit horrifying in a way that fascinates me personally. It feels like it strikes at the very heart of what makes comics what they are to my subconscious in a way I don't know how to come to terms with. @virgamsysxvolumes, I need you to know that your writing took my idea and Evoked it for me, made it deeper and more visceral in a way that captured my imagination and will keep me thinking about it, and you have my appreciation for that.
If anyone has anything more they want to add on to this, I look forward to incorporating the meaning you put into your additions into my introspective spiraling.
The contemplating of how Universal Mediocrity affects the heroes and villains is fun and all, but I'm thinking about how it affects the common folk.
I'm imagining that it's like the Narrative Potential (NP) concept from writing-prompts. Where some people have more NP than others, and those people live their life like the protagonist of a fictional world and have wacky and traumatic adventures. While everyone else lives less than interesting lives.
Now everyone is below average and mediocre.
You know that phrase, 'If everyone is special, then no one is special?' Well, the DC universe has become the antithesis to that.
"If everyone is mediocre, then no one is."
And I imagine it goes something like this.
