“I’m afraid there was little we could do Great One… She was already in terrible shape when she came to us. We studied what we could of her human form and her ectoplasm but in order to keep her from destabilizing further we were forced to place her in stasis.” Frostbite spoke softly to Danny.
“What’s wrong though? Isn’t there anything we can do to help her?” Danny asked desperately, radiating concern and distraught.
“It seems the process of creating her was incomplete and rendered further unstable by the forced aging that her creator used to attempt at matching your age. The forced aging is at odds with the ectoplasm and her sense of self. Her human half is aging rapidly, but her ectoplasm is attempting to keep her at her proper age causing extreme conflict between both halves which were already in conflict as she is an artificially made halfa.” Frostbite explained carefully.
“But… I don’t understand, both Vlad and I are artificial halfas! We were both created by the portal! That’s-that’s science, not-not natural right?” Danny asked desperately.
Frostbite shook his head before explaining, “No Great One, your deaths were caused by the portals but you both did in fact die. The young one was born a halfa which is completely incompatible with the way that halfas naturally come into creation. A halfa cannot be created, only reborn. Unlike a true halfa she does not properly stand on the balanced line as she should, she is instead constantly shifting from one end of the spectrum to the other, unable to steady.”
“...Isn’t there any way to help her?” Danny asked helplessly.
Frostbite hesitated but chose to speak up, “I have some theories that may be able to help in stabilizing her and perhaps allowing her to become a true halfa, a chance to survive and perhaps thrive if successful.”
“What? What is it?” Danny pressed.
“The problem stems from three things; Forced aging, a lack of death, and constant conflict between her mortal and immortal forms. If perhaps…we allow her to die-” Frostbite posed gently, only to be halted by a yelp.
“What?!” Danny almost screamed.
“Not Ended, just her mortal body! Please hear me out completely Great One!” Frostbite pleaded, Danny took a deep breath and nodded shakily. “If we allow her human body to die, as a clone she will simply revert into ectoplasm and she will retreat into her Core. This will allow us to put her into a healing pod where she can begin reshaping her human body and eventually be reborn into a proper halfa. There will be some drawbacks of course, but should she regularly be exposed to and absorb your ectoplasm and human DNA her Core will more efficiently be able to learn how to stabilize her human and ghost halves from you. She will need exposure to your blood and ectoplasm for at least thirty minutes every four hours.”
Danny mulled over what he had been told, “And she'll recover fully?”
“...Not necessarily. There may be unintended side effects; memory loss, strength loss, you will also be a little weaker while supporting her. You'll need to keep her with you as much as possible but should you need your full power to fight you may leave her in a safe place or with a trusted companion. Although for her better development I would suggest a companion over solitude. I also advise against allowing others to feed her as it may cause her to take longer to stabilize.” Frostbite explained.
“How long would she take to stabilize?” Danny asked.
“From what we can tell of her current condition it may take anywhere between seven to nine months. Longer if she is fed from another source.” Frostbite advised.
“...I think we should talk to Dani about it and let her decide.” Danny sighed, shaking his head. “I'm willing to protect her and do all I can but I want her to make the choice.”
“Very well then. I shall go with you so that I can answer any questions.” Frostbite placed a supportive hand on Danny’s shoulder.
A drag path, etched in the surface, as evidence I left there on purpose - DPXDC Au
i have an idea for a new batdad au.
i have an idea for a general oneshot but the gist is, after having a rough day--between school, getting another detention thanks to Dash, ghost fights, having an argument with his parents about his misbehavior that morning, and getting into a small argument with his friends-- Danny, after a ghost fight, picks a random direction and just flies. And he flies as fast as he can, burning off a bunch of ectoplasm and healing himself from his fight as a result.
But he eventually ends up in Gotham. Pretty standard premise. But he doesn't really do anything. He just picks a random rooftop to detransform and sit on. And he sits there, taking in the sights of the city and vaguely dissociating for a few hours before feeling like he's finally calmed down enough to return to Amity. He turns the location off on his phone before shutting it down, that way he doesn't have to deal with texts and calls from his parents about missing curfew. He's already going to be in trouble, so it doesn't matter how long he stays out for.
And at first he thinks it's just a one-and-done deal. He probably won't ever return to that rooftop ever again. Until he does,,,, about a month later. This time after a particularly nasty dealing with Vlad in his civilian life. He didn't feel like there was anywhere safe enough for him to go in Amity, so despite himself, he decided to dip after a few hours.
It becomes a pattern. Until eventually Danny's sitting on that rooftop at least once a week. Trying to find a slice of peace in America's most dangerous city. He has a lot of thoughts about Gotham, many of them reflective, and many of them comparative to Amity. He tries not to do it too often, especially once he catches himself feeling bitter once or twice.
And then he meets Batman.
Their first meeting is brief, inconsequential, and lasts no more than probably five minutes. Danny had never heard of the Batman prior to this, and so after meeting him,, he's kind of hyped. He leaves the man to his city, and doesn't really plan on seeking him out, but it doesn't stop him from feeling a sense of solidarity with him.
There are a few more run-ins with Batman after this. Sporadic and random, but they happen. Until eventually--Danny guesses that Batman figured out he had a pattern--Batman starts showing up often to this spot Danny's carved out for his own. Danny allows him. He knows he's encroaching on Bat's territory, and he views it as them existing in parallel to each other.
Danny's first proper conversation with Batman--the first one that lasts longer than a minute and consists more of short, awkward answers from Danny and curt responses from Batman--is when Danny, city-watching and lost in thought, tells him that he thinks Gotham is pretty.
Batman turns and looks at him, and goes: "...You do?"
Danny stumbles through an explanation after that, and somehow the conversation keeps going. And keeps going. And keeps going.
They don't always talk, and Batman doesn't always stick around for long, but Danny likes the little bouts of camaraderie they have. It reminds him of passing some of his classmates in the hallway, and they nod in greeting at each other. Sometimes, Batman lands on the roof, and then disappears a few seconds later. Danny thinks he might be checking on him.
Something interesting starts happening sometime after this. Usually, if Danny is flying to Gotham after a ghost fight, his injuries heal on the way there. Something about the rate he's burning ectoplasm that exacerbates his healing. Like cauterizing a wound.
That's been faltering lately. Danny doesn't know what's wrong. It started with a twinge in his shoulder that should've disappeared after a fight with Skulker, but lingered all the way to Gotham and up until Danny had to fly back to Amity. When he got back to his bedroom, it healed.
In any case, he didn't pay it too much to mind -- his little bumps and bruises were easy enough to hide from Batman. And they healed before he got home.
And then he shows up on their shared rooftop with a shiner that refused to heal, even when Danny tries to force it, nothing changes. It only forcibly reminds Danny that he doesn't have as much finesse over his powers as he wished he did.
He's frustrated and hurt, and on top of that, his ribs smart from a hit he took point blank. Deep breaths hurt. He pushes himself against the HVAC that's not up to code, throws up his hood, and curls into a ball.
This isn't something he can hide from Batman. A fleeting thought hits him to just leave so he doesn't have to explain himself if the man decides to stick around.
He doesn't.
And Batman, much to Danny's brief, insincere consternation, sticks around. He notices immediately that something is wrong. Danny keeps his head buried in his knees and tries to deflect.
It doesn't work.
Normally, Danny is very good at getting people to get off his back. Just be a bit prickly, a bit snappish, throw in some sarcasm, and they back off with a scoff, or they decide to scold him for that instead of pursuing their original reason for bothering him.
Unfortunately--Danny should've seen this coming, considering Batman's occupation--Batman sees right through him. He sticks around, verbally prodding at him, and when Danny snaps at him, he falls silent and just. waits. And perches patiently from a distance away. Which stings in a cathartic way.
Danny's resolve crumbles in minutes. Eventually, he silently turns his head and rests his cheek on his knee. He doesn't say anything, just hopes that maybe the light pollution in the city is bright enough to show off the bruise circling around his eye. Or it isn't bright enough, and hides it.
Batman is quiet for a beat. Then calmly and flatly asks who hit him. Danny stays stubbornly silent, and refuses to meet his eyes. When it becomes apparent he won't respond, Batman stares, and then reaches for a pocket on his utility belt.
He pulls out an icepack, and holds it out to Danny.
Danny is flabbergasted.
And then feels immediately fragile for reasons he can't articulate or understand.
Quietly, he takes it, and mutters "thank you". It's the kindest thing he's said all night.
Batman nods, and when he has to leave, it's with great reluctance.
This keeps happening. Danny shows up occasionally injured, mostly bruised and scratched up, thankfully. Batman appears, and notices, and quietly prods. Danny sometimes throws out an excuse--he fell, he tripped, he made some other clumsy mistake--and Batman doesn't believe him, but he doesn't pry. He quietly hands off to him something that could help. A bandaid or an icepack. Or just his quiet company.
The bruises increase; Batman gets just a little bit tenser each time. And then it plateaus.
And then it comes to a head after a nasty, ugly fight with Plasmius that included his favorite physical pastime: strangulation. Danny books it to Gotham the moment he thinks the coast is clear, and is furious upon landing to find that the bruising refuses to heal.
He's not fast enough to leave before Batman shows up, seemingly having pinpointed the time of Danny's arrivals by now. He whirls around on his foot when he hears him landing, and isn't fast enough to slam his hand over his throat and duck before Batman sees it.
And Batman sees it.
And Batman is very calm, and very furious when he says; "Who did that?"
Danny, despite his flawless deflections all the other times, falters and panics. Caught off guard by his arrival and already running on adrenaline, he stammers out an inconsistent slurry of excuses.
"Nobody. Nobody! It was nobody-- just my, just my uncle--" Danny's eye twitches in panic, "Just- nobody. Nobody important. Nobody did anything."
It's too late to take back anything.
"Your uncle?"
Danny refuses eye contact, staring off over the edge of the roof widely, "No! No-- nobody. Nothing. Nothing happened." His ruined voice says otherwise.
"Is he the one that's been hurting you?" Batman sounds very resolute as he says this.
Danny isn't quite sure how he managed to get out of that conversation-- it ends up being a total blur--but he does know that he gets out of it with his secret identity intact.
He doesn't return back to Gotham for almost a month; he regrets it every time he misses the days he goes and visits. The passing time presses down on him. He feels increasingly flighty and on edge; his temper shorter.
When he returns, Batman is waiting for him already. He doesn't say anything, and for a -- disappointing? -- moment, Danny thinks they're just not going to acknowledge Danny's freakout the last time he was there.
But.
Batman is waiting for him.
And with a burner phone for him.
There's only one number on it: his own.
He doesn't need to say anything for Danny to catch his meaning, or what his intentions are.
Danny stares at it dumbly for who knows how long, his eyes stinging suspiciously, before he looks up at Batman. He's gawking.
The first thing out of his mouth: "Are you sure?" it's croaky.
Batman grunts affirmatively at him. Holds it out closer to him: "For emergencies."
"You don't have to do this." Danny says, but he's reaching out for the phone anyways, snatching it out of Batman's hands, and cradling it preciously to himself. He's so cognizant of his hand and the weight of the phone against it.
Batman says nothing; it means everything to Danny.
"And you're sure?" He repeats, and sniffs conspicuously. He hates how fragile his voice sounds. He knows how monumental this is, not just to Danny, but to Batman as well. That solidarity in heroism coming back to bite him as Danny knows, intimately, how important it is to allow someone access to you personally. "You-- you're sure? You're sure." He sounds like a broken record.
Batman nods curtly.
Danny's vision wobbles. His next words come out in a broken, horrifically fragile, barely-there whisper: "What if- what if I just, just want to talk? Uh-- text. N' it's not an emergency."
Batman thinks for a moment. "…You can do that," he says after a beat, "Call if its an emergency."
"Really?" Danny doesn't know why it hurts so much to say that. He sounds pathetically squeaky.
"Yes."
Batman is a man of few words; Danny quite likes that about him. He's surprised by it himself.
The dam ends up breaking; Danny's tears spill over and his shoulders convulse. When he cries, it's entirely silent, he doesn't want to draw attention to himself. He makes short, choked-off breathing sounds, and begins to curl into himself. He's not sure why he's reacting this way; it's just a phone.
He still ends up tilting in towards Batman, and collapsing into him. Batman catches him, and sinks them both to the ground, and lets Danny smear tears into the armor plating of his suit.
-----
I dug my heels into the gravel
As evidence for you to unravel
A drag path etched in the surface
Can you find me?
Danny's horribly embarrassed about crying over a single phone.
He can't remember the last time he ever cried like that, or when he last cried in general. It's just not something he does. Get teary-eyed? Sure, but nothing ever enough to break seal and fall down his face. Nevertheless actually sobbing.
He's mortified later, when he's come down from the emotional high long enough to realize and care what happened, and pointedly pretends it didn't happen when he makes it back to Amity.
Danny didn't have a breakdown over a phone of all things. He most certainly didn't sob into the armor plating of another hero from a city nearly a thousand miles away. And he most definitely get tears and snot on Batman.
It didn't happen. It's too humiliating.
In any case. The first thing he does upon getting back to his room--it's well past midnight and he can feel his shoulders already burning from the disappointed stares from Mom and Dad boring into him--is check for cameras.
He doesn't know when they started showing up, but he bets it was when Vlad started visiting more often under the guise of "reconnecting" with Dad.
Danny only realized they were there nearly two months after the fact.
He tries not to think about it too hard, otherwise he gets incurably nauseous.
(There's always no less than three in his room when he goes looking. He's never found one in Jazz's. He doesn't know if he should feel relieved or not; regardless, he wants to peel his own skin off.)
He doesn't find any from when he last checked (this afternoon after school). Only then does he pull his burner out-- and still he hunches around it, trying to keep it out of sight, and marvels.
It's inconspicuously black and simple.
Danny spends thirty minutes messing with the ringtone, then spends another thirty coming up with a new contact name for Batman that isn't his hero moniker. It's one of those rare moments of awareness he has, remembering that cause has an effect.
(He has a premonition over texting Batman--because Batman said he could, and Danny might take him up on that--and someone; Dash, his friends, Jazz, his parents, Mr. Lancer--anybody--looking over his shoulder, seeing the contact name, and questioning him.)
He ends up going with 'Buzz' after his favorite astronaut.
(He can't explain why he's texting someone over burner rather than his regular phone, but at least he won't have to explain why the name is Batman.)
He considers sending a message. Something to check and see if the number Batman gave him was actually his--a part of him thinks he's been punk'd--or (more irrationally) see if the connection would still hold even this far from Gotham. Or, perhaps, to just tell Batman he made it home safe.
All options sound terribly unappealing, Danny's lingering mortification over his reaction to getting said phone clinging to him like a leech. He shuts the ideas down.
Batman wouldn't punk him, he's not like that. Flip phones don't need wifi, they need cellular connection. Amity Park has plenty and so does Gotham. The connection is just fine. Finally; Batman is on patrol (something Danny should be doing; there might be a ghost that snuck through the portal despite him checking before he left that it was off) he's too busy for Danny to be bothering him right now with unimportant updates.
With that being said; Danny shuts the phone with a satisfying clack and collapses into bed.
(He's back up again about two hours later, his ghost sense going off like a bucket of ice water being dumped on his head. He hates it when that happens, his nerves are always immediately shot.)
His first message is the following morning. Danny agonizes over it for ages in his room, stuck between needing to leave for school before he's late, and needing to sate his own anxiety over his phone.
The end result, as normal, is Danny approaching it the same way he approaches every uncomfortable thing: jokingly.
>> "hey houston do you copy?"
(It takes him five minutes to hit send. He plans on shoving his phone into his pocket and ignoring it immediately after.)
It takes thirty seconds for Batman to respond.
>> "Yes."
Danny startles. And then his surprise alights into glee, like a spark against gunpowder, that he promptly tries to keep contained. It's not normal to be this happy about a reply. It's not a big deal. The feeling burns in the back of his throat; Danny presses his lips together in order to stifle the smile.
He leaves his room and starts heading downstairs.
>> "just checking to see if the phone works"
>> "didn't expect you to respond so fast"
>> "thought you'd be sleeping or smth. arent bats nocturnal?"
>> "Yes."
>> "I am not."
Batman is a terrible texter. Danny had no expectations of how he'd text, and yet it's exactly what he thought it'd be.
He's irrationally delighted by it.
That smile he's been trying to hide slips out and spreads across his face. It's like Danny can hear him talking, it's a bit dizzying how excited that makes him.
It's a bit unreal that he's actually texting Batman.
How crazy is that?
He hurries down the stairs, grinning from ear to ear.
>> "cool cool"
And runs into his parents in the kitchen.
The smile immediately fizzles out, the lighthearted, fluffy feeling in his chest dropping like a stone in a pond. Danny closes his phone before he can even think about it, curling his hand inwards to his chest the same way he does when he's trying to hide the screen of his other phone. The same one that's in his back pocket and hasn't been touched since his alarm went off.
"Where did you go last night?" Mom asks, mouth curled into a deep frown. "You left your phone in your room again."
Dread replaces the happy lump in his throat, and his lungs turn hollow and cold.
(He started leaving his phone at home sometime after his trips to Gotham became commonplace. Both to avoid uncomfortable questions if his parents checked his location, and then because it felt nice to be untraceable.)
Feeling like one of those little lumps of plastic that shrivel under high heat, Danny's shoulders hunch up.
Crap.
He averts his eyes and seals his mouth shut.
"Daniel James." Dad goes, his voice outside of its usual loud bluster. Danny inwardly slumps. "We thought you stopped doing this."
Especially love Danny's feelings about Vlad's spy cameras. A lot of times when it's brought up, people just kinda brush it off. Just one more villainous deed on Vlad's rogue rap sheet. But actually, yeah, I think it would feel extremely, personally violating.
For sure!! I was going to include it, but couldn't figure out a good way to implement it and make it sound natural, but Danny was supposed to mention that he changes in the bathroom nowadays, rather than in his room. Even after being sure he found all the cameras, he can't guarantee that he did get all of them, and feels paranoid.
At least in the bathroom he can trust there won't be any cameras. He's checked multiple times and never found a single one.
Dating of convenience because we both lied and said we had a partner but are not good enough liars to fake it so now we have to actually speed run being a couple or everyone will think we’re lame and single PsychReport. You agree.
"I know it's a lot to ask," cut in Danny before Batman could go from confused to angry, "Just let me explain. I swear it's for a good reason."
Batman eyed his teammate skeptically. King Phantom was one of the League's newest and youngest members. Despite his unorthodox introduction to the team, he and his sister, Stray, had proven to be valuable additions to the Justice League and to the Teen Titans respectively. He was tall and imposing, despite his relatively slender frame. His visage was made the more menacing by the Crown of Fire that hovered above his head in a tiny version of the Aurora Borealis instead of his predecessor's green flames, the royal armor over his jumpsuit, and the fur-trimmed coat made of a rippling window into space.
"Ok, so you know how Bruce Wayne adopted Cassandra Cain, but she's David Cain's biological daughter, right?"
"..."
"...right! So, at some point, David sold human eggs on the black market," he continued, "you have no idea how hard it was to get the information on Vlad's supplier, but we did figure out that he bought the eggs from Cain for his experiments and then completely messed up the cloning process."
"How?"
"We have no idea! But my clone, my sister, has my ghost DNA, but part of mine and someone else's human DNA."
"What makes you think it's Cassandra's?"
He pulled out his phone, a two-year-old model with a cracked screen, and showed him the face of his sixteen-year-old sister in her human form next to a picture of Bruce's own eighteen-year-old daughter from a tabloid.
"She looks a lot like me," he admitted, "but she also looks a lot like Cassandra Cain, so we think Vlad got a sample mixed up or forgot to take out a nucleus or something and made-."
"A daughter instead of a clone."
It was a good thing Phantom wasn't particularly good at reading body language, or his tightening fist might've alerted him that something was wrong.
"I mean... sort of? It's different with clones. She's technically my daughter but I turned nineteen, like, a month ago, so I don't thi- I'm getting off track! The point is, Dani's destabilizing again and I need a clean DNA sample to help her. I tried to get into Wayne manor, but the place is warded to hell and back. You know Bruce Wayne, right? Can you help me talk with Cassandra?"
Batman sighed and turned his head to Phantom's right.
"Orphan."
"Motherfu-! How long has she been standing there!?"
She didn't respond to his yelp/question and instead turned to Batman.
"Take a tube to Gotham and ask Cassandra Wayne for a DNA sample."
Orphan nodded and walked off to the tubes.
"... Is it just me or was she a little quieter than usual?"
Bruce sighed, not looking forward to whatever his week was about to become.
Steph was worried. Cass had stormed in, ripped off her mask, and began pounding the nearest sandbag to the point she was starting to feel a little sorry for it.
"Everything okay Cassie?"
"I have a daughter."
Steph blue-screened, rebooted, and responded in a very intelligent manner.
"Say what now?"
Cass stopped torturing the poor sandbag to catch her breath and respond.
"Princess Phantom, the Stray."
"When did you and King-? Wait, no, that doesn't make any sense," stammered Steph, "how can you have a daughter that's two years younger than you? Time travel? Do you and King Phantom get together in the future or something?"
"She is four," pointed out Cass, "Plasmius made her. My egg. Bad lab."
"How did he even get-?"
"David," she hissed, "he is dead and he still-! He still-!"
"Hey hey, easy," cooed Steph, holding her close to wipe away a brimming tear before it could spill, "that bastard doesn't deserve a second of your thoughts, ok?"
Cass shuddered as she took in a shaky breath, before nodding.
"Have you actually spoken to her?"
"Never had to," she admitted, "missions are different."
She took a deep breath to steady herself before continuing.
"She is sick. Needs DNA."
She drummed her fingers against the sandbag for a few seconds as she made up her mind.
"I want to meet her."
"Cass, you don't have to-."
"I need to meet her."
With that, she grabbed a swab, collected the sample from the inside of her cheek, and slipped her mask back on before she strolled over to the Bat-Computer (silly name, she loved it) and opened a link to Phantom's communicator.
"Orphan? Is that you?"
The video was distorted, a constant problem since ascending, so she hoped he could see her hold up the sample and point at the Tube behind her.
"Be right there."
It was only a few seconds before the tube activated, declaring King Phantom's and Batman's arrival.
King Phantom wasn't entirely sure what to expect when he entered the Batcave, but a dinosaur wasn't part of the list.
"Why...?"
"It's the big batcave mystery," piped Spoiler as she approached with Orphan, "no one can get him to tell us what case it's from. We have a betting pool going."
"Maybe he just likes dinosaurs?"
They looked at Batman, who gave a near-imperceptible smile.
"Seriously!?"
Even Orphan placed a hand on her forehead.
"Great, Phantom wins. Oracle's never gonna believe this."
Orphan, a little miffed she'd lost, handed him the sample.
"Oh, thank you," sighed Phantom, cradling the test tube as if it were more valuable than any gem in the treasury, "I don't know how I can ever repay you."
Orphan began signing.
"Sorry, my ASL's a little rusty."
"She says she's sorry it took so long," translated Spoiler.
"Oh it's fine," he reassured her, "we caught it early and put her in stasis. It'd take days for her to destabilize to the point her life would be in danger. I probably made it sound more urgent than it actually was."
Orphan signed again.
"Cassandra mentioned that she wants to meet her," translated Spoiler again, this time after a second of hesitation, "if it's not too much trouble."
"I'd have to make arrangements," mused Phantom, not noticing the look Batman was giving Orphan, "the ectoplasm at Phantom's Keep is too strong for most humans to handle for long, so I'd need some time to set up an isolation room. Tell her to give me a week and I'll come for her."
He breathed into his palm, producing a number of rhomboid ice crystals, with a particularly ornate one in the shape of a snowflake made of star fractals standing apart.
"This one is for Cassandra," he explained as he picked out the ornate one, "the rest are for you guys. If you ever need help in a hurry, break it. Oh, but if it's not that urgent, just draw a circle and I'll come. "
By the time he left, there were several dozen crystals on the table, as well as the fractal crystal that Cass gingerly in both hands.
"Cassie," called Bruce as he took Batman off, "are you sure about this?"
"Family."
He sighed, thinking carefully about what he should say before speaking.
"When we found Connor, I made a mistake," he confessed, "I became too focused on what he might need. I didn't think enough about Clark's feelings or how violated he must have felt. Perhaps if I'd thought about that, it would've taken him less time to reconcile with the idea."
"Or it might've taken him longer," pointed out Steph, "no way of telling. Kryptonians are stubborn."
"Regardless, you should know that no one would force you to have a relationship with this girl," he continued, "whatever you choose, we will support you."
Cass took her father's words into consideration as she fingered the small gem King Phantom had given her. She considered every angle she knew and most she could think of, before giving her answer.
Cass drummed her fingers impatiently as the timer ticked away. Last night at roughly three am, a clock hand had emerged from the center of the snowflake. It had slowly made it's way around, taking an hour to reach each of it's ten arms. She'd had plenty of time to get ready, shower, gather a basket of Alfred's cookies, and defend said basket from her siblings. It was now 12:55 pm, meaning that King Phantom would be there in a few minutes.
She and her family had decided to wait for him in the sitting room. Bruce was sitting next to her on the couch with Dick on her right, Alfred stood diligently behind them, Damian (and his knife) stood behind the love seat to her left that Steph was lounging on, Jason was doing his best to look threatening on the chair to her right, while Tim and Duke chatted amicably behind him.
"You still have time to rethink this," her dad reassured her.
"We can also come with if you like," proposed Dick.
Cassandra shook her head.
"I will bring her later," she told them, "but I need to meet her first."
Damian clicked his tongue, "I still say a Bat should come along."
"We wouldn't want to spook her," pointed out Duke, "King Phantom really loves her, so if we scare her..."
"At least she has the blood blossom gas," pointed out Steph.
Cass thumbed the canister in her pocket pensively, staring at the snowflake as it finally hit the last arm.
The crystal pulsed and hovered, before breaking apart at the center. Each arm became the corner of a hole in space, a gateway into King Phantom's castle.
A massive man in black armor walked out of the portal and stood at attention to its left, the Fright Knight if she recalled correctly.
"Do we have to do this?" complained Phantom's voice from the other side of the portal.
"It is the proper decorum, My Liege," affirmed the knight before clearing his throat, "Presenting His Highness, Heart and Guardian Knight of the Infinite Realms, The Unliving and Undead Monarch, Servant and Savior of the Dead, Lord of Phantom's Keep, He Who Walks the Line, Great One to the Far Frozen, Holder of the Third Highest Score of Doomed-,"
"COME ON MAN!"
"- and Bearer of the Crown, King Phantom!"
Said king hovered in, blushing bright green and pinching his nose ridge in annoyance.
"I really gotta look into whatever law makes you say that," he groaned in exasperation, before looking up to greet the Waynes, "sorry about that, he insisted."
"As is my duty."
"As is his duty for some reason," he sighed, "I'm Phantom, we can leave the whole King business at the door thank you very much. I understand you want to meet Dani?"
Cass nodded and stood up.
"Oh, are none of you guys-?"
"Me first," she insisted before anyone could invite themselves along, "the others later."
"Just take care of our sister," said Jason with a scowl.
"You can count onnnn- have you been dead?"
The others blinked in surprise.
"Yeah? How did you-?"
"And you came back angry, confused, did some shit you regret? You still feel angry enough to kill something sometimes?"
"... maybe."
"One sec."
Phantom stuck his hand into the portal, rummaged around, and pulled out what appeared to be a green jellyfish, that he promptly plopped on Jason's head.
"...what the fu-?"
"Language Master Jason," scolded Alfred.
"That's a blob," he explained, "they eat corrupted ectoplasm and filter it out. It should help with the rage and stuff."
The blob proved to be cuddly, and Jason was struggling to keep it from nuzzling into his face.
Damian looked immensely jealous.
"Let me know if it starts dividing though," he pointed out, before standing back to offer Cass an arm, "shall we?"
Cass nodded and waved goodbye to her family, before walking through the gate. The Fright Knight clicked his heels together before following. The gate closed behind him and turned back into a snowflake.
"Think she'll be okay?" asked Tim.
"I trust Phantom," supplied Bruce.
"But do you trust him with your daughter?" asked Steph with a smile.
"..."
"This is probably a bad time to say this, but Cass left the ghost repellent spray in my pocket," piped Dick.
Cassandra could probably be forgiven for having certain expectations of what The Castle of the King of the Dead should look like. Maybe not walls dripping blood and the screams of the dammed, but certainly not a comfortable sitting room with a velvet couch and a 4K TV with an impressive movie collection on a shelf to its left.
"It's right this way."
"Thank you, King Phantom."
"Ki- right. Still getting used to that."
King Phantom seemed to think something over as they walked down the hall, before stopping and turning to her.
"Actually, you know what? You'll find out eventually," he figured as he took the crown off and gave it to her to hold, with the cloak and armor disappearing in a burst of green fire as he did so, "it's better to start this kind of thing without secrets."
A ring of white light emanated from his waist and spread to his head and feet, leaving her to look up at a much more ordinary-looking man in a faded NASA t-shirt where King Phantom had stood.
"My name is Danny Fenton," he reintroduced himself as he took the crown back and tucked it under his arm, "you know the whole Unliving King thing? That's because of this."
"You are... not dead?" Cass was genuinely confused at this point.
"Nope, only half. It's part of the reason I got this powerful so quickly. Something about souls only making ectoplasm in a body or something."
"It's also what caused most of the Little One's difficulties Great One," rumbled a new voice belonging to an eight foot tall beast, "Greetings! I am Frostbite of Far Frozen. I have been supervising the Little One's recovery since her treatment started."
"She is well?"
"She is getting better," he affirmed, "we caught it early this time, so we avoided the worst of it. It did take some time for all of her skin to grow back."
"Which was really disturbing to see," shivered Danny, "so, are you ready to meet her?"
Cass nodded and let them lead her to Stray's room, where was being walked through rehabilitation by another yeti.
"Tense the leg up," instructed the yeti, "then push it down... now again."
"This suuuucks!" whined Stray, "Stupid Vlad and stupid legs."
"You'll be fine," sighed Danny, "it's what happens when you have to regrow your legs."
"Regrow?" asked Cass, alarmed.
"Vlad attempted to change her appearance during her creation," explained Frostbite, "we assume it was to further mimic the Great One's appearance when your facial traits became more prominent, but the real problem is that it affected the treatment. She partially destabilized when your DNA tried to change her appearance. No permanent damage, but her leg muscles are more or less new."
Stray turned to them and Cass immediately saw what they were talking about. Where she and Stray had once held a passing resemblance at best, their relation was now unmistakable. While her eyes were definitely Danny's, her jawline and cheekbones were unmistakably her own.
"...okay this is weird," she admitted after examining Cass for a minute, "wait, Danny? Why are you... you?"
"I figured it might be best to keep the bullshit to a minimum," he replied, "how are you feeling?"
"Well, I'm not melting, that's always a plus," she scoffed, eyeing Cass warily, "is this...?"
"I am Cassandra Wayne," she introduced herself, "but I was once Cassandra Cain. It is good to meet you."
"Stray," she replied, before turning to Danny with an odd look, "if you showed her what you really look like, does that mean I have to?"
"Whatever you're comfortable with," insisted Danny, "Cass just wanted to meet you."
"We can be friends," she explained, "or sisters... or strangers. Whichever you are most comfortable with."
Even if she'd offered the option, it was clear Cass wasn't too happy with the last idea.
After some thought, Stray underwent a similar transformation to Danny, turning into a sixteen-year-old girl with black hair like her brother's.
"I'm Danielle Fenton," she introduced herself again, "but my friends call me Dani."
"Val calls you Ellie," teased Danny.
"And only Val calls me Ellie," she snapped at him with a blush.
"Val?"
"Her girlfriend."
"His ex-girlfriend."
"I assume you have similar tastes?"
"You could say that," scoffed Dani, before grinning as a deliciously devilish idea for payback occurred to her, "speaking of which, does that mean you're my new mommy?"
Both of them blushed at that.
"Wha-? Dani!"
"I mean, I already have a dad that's more of a brother," she pointed out with a smirk, "an aunt that's more of a sister, and a grandpa and grandma that are more like a dad and a mom. Why not a mom that's more of a sister?"
"Ok, that's enough," sighed Danny, flicking her in the forehead, "sorry about that. Sisters, you know?"
Before Cass could answer, another ghost entered through the door. An eyeball in a red cloak.
"I believe I said I wasn't to be disturbed today."
Cass actually flinched at the sudden shift. It was an unexpected change from the jovial goofball she'd gotten used to.
"I apologize for the intrusion, My Liege," apologized the eyeball with a deep bow, "but there has been a development in the ectoranium case that requires your urgent attention. I would not have come if it were not important."
Danny sighed, transforming as he stood back up to put the crown back on, followed by the rest of his armor.
"Sorry about this," he apologized, "I'll make it up to you, I promise."
"Duty calls bro. Kick butt."
"I would like to stay to talk, if possible."
Danny turned to his sister, who smiled and nodded in reply.
"Fright Knight will take you home when you want," he told Cass, "I guess we'll talk later?"
There he was, back to what she had realized was his real personality.
"We'll talk later."
Danny nodded with visible relief, before turning to the eyeball ghost and walking through the door with him.
Dani smirked mischievously, having noticed the way Cass' eyes trailed after her brother, though she wasn't sure the older girl had noticed herself.
"You know, he is single."
"What?"
"Yep. He hasn't dated since sophomore year," she affirmed, "Sam's great, but they realized they're just good friends giving into heteronormative peer pressure. It happens."
"I see?"
"Yeah, I think he likes you too."
"You think?"
Both of them were surprised at how eager she sounded.
It was late morning by the time Cass returned, obviously Bruce was still up, though she wasn't expecting Jarro to be awake. He was terrible with mornings.
"Hi Cassie," he greeted, looking up from the game he was playing with the smallest Robin, "how was everything?"
"She likes me," she reported, "you'll like her too."
"I've met Stray," offered Jarro, "she's nice."
"I invited them to dinner," she informed them, "I want you to meet them too."
"When?"
"Next Saturday, if it's okay."
"I'll check our schedule and have Alfred make a menu. What do they like?"
"She likes Mexican," recalled Cass, "spent time in Jalisco. She mentioned pozole?"
"Oh! Save me a bowl!" piped Jarro.
Cass shook her head, "You come too."
Bruce raised an eyebrow.
"She wasn't Stray," she told him, "she was Dani."
"You want her to know about us," concluded Bruce, "hmmm, I'll need to talk it over with the others."
"She's family."
Jarro nodded eagerly, getting a chuckle from Bruce.
Danny could be forgiven for having certain expectations of what dinner at the manor of one of the wealthiest and most influential families in the world would be like.
Maybe not gilded wood paneling and endangered animals taxidermied on every wall, but definitely not the Batman and the entire bird clan. Even Jarro was perched on Robin's shoulder.
"Ummm, Bats? Whaaaat's going on here?"
In response, Orphan stepped forward and took off her mask.
"CASS!?"
"No secrets," she said, "you trusted me. We trust you."
"But that means..."
He trailed off and looked at Batman, who smiled and took off his cowl.
"Looks like you owe Sam twenty bucks."
"You jerk! You just watched me make that bet!"
The others laughed as they took off their respective masks.
"That's Bruce for you," chuckled Jason as he took Red Hood off, "everyone forgets he's the biggest prankster here."
"Ok, you actually make sense," pointed out Danny, "how'd the blob treat you?"
"Pretty good," he admitted, "my head hadn't felt that clear in years."
"We did have a minor problem though," admitted Tim.
"It divided?" guessed Danny.
"Well, that, and Damian-."
"I will fight you for them."
"... that."
"You can keep them," he reassured the smallest of the group, "there's plenty of ectoplasm to eat around here, but don't be surprised if they wander off."
"I will need instructions about their care."
"I'll get you a book," he figured, before shooting Cass a confused look, "still, I'm a little surprised. This whole time I thought Orphan was mute."
"I'm not good with voices," she admitted, "I didn't learn until recently, so I don't talk when I'm Orphan."
"Learn?"
"To talk."
"David was no one's idea of a good father," cut in Bruce at Danny's look, "he was under the impression she'd be a better killer if she didn't know how to talk."
For a moment, Danny saw red. The mere thought that anyone could treat their own flesh and blood like that... it brought Vlad back to the forefront of his mind, and the way he treated Dani, knowing well how much the girl loved him.
A touch to his hand brought him back. Looking to his left, he saw Dani locking eyes with him. Looking to the others, he saw Cass' family itching to reach for their weapons.
He gave Dani a grateful smile and calmed himself down, letting his eyes cool from a furious red to their usual green.
"Sorry," he sighed, taking off the crown and dispelling his royal garb, "family shouldn't-... I'm sorry. That you went through that I mean. No one deserves being treated like that."
Cassandra nodded with a smile, reaching up to pat his shoulder.
"I know that now," she said, "my family taught me that."
Dinner was a pleasant affair. After losing the costumes and powering down, the Waynes and the Fentons both introduced themselves properly and sat down.
"Ok, I gotta ask," started Dick, "Why Stray?"
"Oh, I used to crash in Catwoman's couch," she replied, "I ran into her a couple times, then I touched an Egyptian artifact that turned me into a cat for a week, and she gave me a name after that."
"Huh well that explains a few things," mused Bruce, "a couple of years ago, Selene texted me "I caught me a Robin!" followed by a long line of hearts. Since all the kids were here and the whole thing with Darkseid was going on, it slipped my mind."
"Oh yeah, that's when you first summoned Danny, right?" recalled Jazmine "call me Jazz" Fenton, "Scared mom half to death."
"Her? I'm the one that got the weirdest power-up of all time," scoffed Danny, "it was freaking terrifying."
"You're not usually that powerful?" asked Jason.
"Nope, the Crown responds to threats to the realms," he explained, "normally I'm somewhere under the Supers, which is where I'm comfortable thank you very much. Darkseid made the Crown turn me in the most powerful thing in the multiverse for a solid minute. I saw infinity and couldn't get out of bed for a week afterwards. Don't recommend it."
"See any evil versions of us?" joked Dick.
"You don't want to know."
Luckily, Alfred started serving before anyone could continue that particular line of questioning.
"Ooooh, pozole!" cheered Dani, already dropping in onions and sliced radishes, "How'd you know?"
"I do my research," replied Cass with a smile, "I heard you travel a lot."
"Yep, sometimes I even check out other dimensions," she replied with a smile, before being overtaken by a pensive look, "actually... you guys are an actual family, huh?"
"One that is ever expanding," affirmed Alfred, sitting down next to Bruce, "it's always good to see the house fill up again."
"Oh, that's good to hear, because-."
Danny nudged her.
"What is it?" asked Bruce, looking concerned.
"I was gonna tell you at the next meeting," sighed Danny, "a parallel timeline collapsed recently, there was only one survivor... a Robin."
"One of us?" assumed Dick.
"Not exactly... Her name's Carrie Kelly."
"You'll like her!" piped Dani, "She's fun. Little younger than Damian."
"Can we meet her now?" asked Tim.
"I can have her summoned," affirmed Danny, nodding to the Fright Knight, "do you mind bringing her?"
Bruce has a strict 'no metas/powers (except duke) allowed in Gotham' policy in place but it has a clause, BYOR (Bring Your Own Robin)
No one is allowed entry untill and unless they can produce their very own certified robin-shaped identity card
Whenever someone with even a hint of supernatural powers in them arrives at Gotham, they're first met with Bruce standing at the city border with a notepad in hand
Bruce: State your name and purpose.
Kon: Kon-el, here to hangout!
Bruce: Your Robin?
Kon, flourishing Tim from behind him: Ta-Da!
Tim, waves: Hey Bruce
Bruce: Approved, you may enter
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce: Name and purpose?
Hal: Here to investigate a case, Hal Jordan
Bruce: Your Robin?
Hal: I.... don't have one?
Bruce: Denied
Hal: What?! But-
Bruce: Denied.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce: Yes, Wally, where's your robin?
Wally: Oh shit lemme just- *zaps away and returns with Dick, who was in the midst of brushing his teeth, in a bridal carry*- Here!
Bruce, grumbling a little: Fine. Approved.
Dick: You gotta stop using me as a key already, man
Wally: Blame Bruce.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bruce: Name and purpose?
Clark: Clark Kent, here for our monthly barbecue
Bruce: Robin?
Clark, producing an actual robin bird: Does this count?
So in the bunny AU? Are the rogues all still the same? Do more and more powerful ghosts come through the portal only to get destroyed by a half dead lagomorph?
SOME of the ghosts are also animals, others are people shaped still. Whether or not theyre an animal now is entirely reliant on how funny itd be for them to get beat up by a rabbit.
Meta-human rights are a touchy topic in Gotham. While the city is known for Batman's view on them, it's also known for Bruce Wayne's viewpoint.
The Dark Knight did not welcome Metas, while the Light Knight worked tirelessly to employ charities and programs to support Metas. Both men- if Batman was a man- influenced Gotham so intensely that their viewpoints became the face of the public.
Even people outside of Gothman learned what "Are you a Dark pawn or a Light pawn?" meant when it was spoken about during national debates.
Really, it was no surprise that Batman and Wayne got caught up in a rather explosive public argument over the subject. Or rather, Wayne yelled at Batman during a hostage situation when his party boat got taken by a group of masked men.
Thankfully, Batman was able to save everyone on board, and although he didn't stick around to argue with Wayne, it was noted that Batman seemed intrigued by a few of Wayne's passionate rants. A few reporters were excited to point out there may be a chance of growth within the vigilante, but it was overshadowed by gossip rags that used this incident to make up a wild rumor of Wayne being a bitter ex with Batman.
This rumor runs for months, with various people posting online proof of a relationship. It sparks debate and anger, with other people responding by fact-checking and countering the "proof." Eventually, the argument moves away from Meta-human rights and falls into celebrity gossip, which has Wayne steaming.
People ignore his passionate activism to better the lives of Metas, only watching his speeches, marches, protests, and donations to various charities to gain new proof of his nonexistent romance that may or may have been in his early twenties when he mysteriously vanished to see the world.
That's when the video comes out.
A young teenager wrote a song parody of what was happening. A soft acoustic guitar accompanied his short words, accusing the masses of caring more about a wealthy man's pants being on or not than the lives of his people.
This young teenager is Danny Fenton, a known meta from a small town in Illinois. This quickly turned into people attacking the boy, who released another song using the hateful comments as new lyrics.
Wayne reposts one of his sons, claiming it a masterpiece, which is when one fan notices the similarities between the two. She makes a post talking about how Wayne and Fenton could be father and son as a joke, expecting people to take it seriously.
Overnight, the internet finds out that Fenton was, in fact, adopted into his current family after being surrendered at a fire station anonymously. More and more people started to notice the similar features between the rich man and the small-town singer until a video of Fenton using his powers was leaked.
Fenton's power is invisibility. This resembles another well-known Gotham dweller who can appear and disappear through the city's shadows. It's not long before Fenton is being called the love child of Batman and Wayne.
It leads to so much media attention and harassment aimed towards Fenton that Wayne steps in. He offers to take a paternity test to finally put the rumors to rest and let the young boy vanish from the limelight (should he stop writing songs).
The only problem?
The test is positive. Wayne is Fenton's biological son. The whole nation loses their minds when it's leaked by a very regrettable intern at the clinic where the test was done. (To be fair, the intern's email was hacked, so when she scanned the papers for herself, they were able to steal them)
Worse, Joker thinks it would be hilarious to kidnap Wayne's newly discovered son and, on live TV, give him another paternity test against Batman. The clown is laughing hysterically while his men prepare the results, only to become more gleeful when it's a match again.
Fenton is the son of both the Dark Knight and the Light Knight. It matters little that Batman's DNA is slightly messed up, as various people already suspected him of not being human.
This just proves Fenton is not a meta-human but rather half-human and whatever the hell Batman is. Joker is having a ball reading out the results, proclaiming he would help Fenton meet his biological grandparents with his one guarantee.
His words are cut off when Fetnon- unknown to the viewing public- escapes his bonds and swings an axe from the emergency fire station inside the aged wearhouse at Joker's neck. The clown collapses to the ground dead, the boy bathed in his blood, and the half-finished joke is cut off by the sound of choking blood etching across every screen in Gotham.
The remaining goons and Fenton stare at each other in stun silence while one is brave enough to rasp. "But Batman doesn't kill."
"Do I look like my absent father to you? Besides, Joker venom is a war crime. I'm within my rights, and if I'm not, I would have killed him again anyway."
Fenton quickly outshines his fathers in the public's eye because no matter where one stood on the Meta Rights, everyone stood on the "Kill the Joker" debate.
I mentioned in a previous post that I recently bought the complete Danny Phantom series, and as I rewatch the show you'll probably see more posts like this from me. I would have started from Mystery Meat, but I had been talking with friends about some WIPs I had with Pariah Dark, and I just couldn't resist. I have a lot of thoughts about this two-part special, and I'll try to split it into a few parts as well: commentary and initial thoughts, speculation and theories, and the brain worms the episodes spawned.
Nonetheless:
Spoilers and long post ahead!
I don't know if a show that's been out for 20 years warrants a spoiler but well. You've been warned.
Initial Thoughts & Commentary
It's been a long time since I watched full episodes, so I went into this like it was my first watch. And I have to say I am so pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed it? There are a lot of things that I can tell would not have flown in this day and age, which I will come back around to later, but otherwise I had a really good time. I'm not going to do a play-by-play of the whole episodes, just the parts that stood out to me the most.
At the very start of the episode, we're given quite a bit of exposition thanks to Vlad's monologuing, and while it's entirely in-character, it also felt a little jarring to me. But here we learn that Vlad has quite a bit of ghost lore knowledge knocking around inside that head of his. He clearly knew who Pariah was and how to open the sarcophagus, although he wasn't quite bright enough to realize that oh right Pariah is still in there. A bit of a face palm moment, but again, pretty in line with some of Vlad's previous shortsightedness.
Also I completely forgot that was what Pariah Dark sounded like. RIP me I guess.
Maddie pouring steaming tea on Vlad's lap and head might have been a highlight of the episodes for me, I won't even try to deny it. On the downside, it was frustrating to see that Maddie was suspicious of Vlad, but never notices the other suspect behavior. Or you know. Does anything about it other than pour scalding water on him. Kick this man out of your house!
It was a little upsetting to hear Vlad insult Jack all the time, blatantly too, and Jack just brush it off. For example, when Vlad first arrives in the Fenton Labs after he escapes the Ghost Zone, he calls Jack his "fat friend" and maybe Jack isn't self-conscious about his size but that first insult just ticked me off and every verbal punch he made after that irritated me to no end. Jack, do you have such low self-esteem that you think this behavior is befitting a "good friend" or are you just that oblivious?
I don't want to call this a flaw of the show. The dynamics are what makes these scenes interesting and gives us a lot of insight into the characters! Unfortunately, it also illuminates a lot of personality traits that rubs me the wrong way. Again, not a flaw of the show, just my honest experience with it.
Speaking of things that rub me the wrong way, I forgot how much of a total creep Vlad is to characters outside of Danny. His first interaction with Valerie made me deeply uncomfortable, and one scene later on in particular did not ease my concerns. So the first part of the special is where Vlad approaches Valerie and gives her the upgraded ghost hunting equipment. But before he does this, he approaches her at Fenton Works (when Danny brings her and Sam there to hide from Dash, Nathan, and Sam's mother respectively) and asks her to take a walk with him to discuss her equipment. And puts a hand on her back. The ick I felt. And maybe on its own it wouldn't be so bad but here is a line we get later on, verbatim:
Danny: Oh, man, that's gotta be the ring the Fright Knight's looking for! Vlad must've given it to her!
Tucker: Isn't he a little old for her?
If I hadn't thought about that before, I certainly would be now!!!
It was just. Eugh. I didn't think the show would be allowed to make a reference like that but apparently not. Anyways, this is your daily reminder that Vlad is a creep to fourteen year old boys and girls. But I digress.
This next part got a squeal of excitement out of me, because the body control! When Dash tries to throw a punch at Danny, he makes his chin go intangible so that the punch passes through him. It was unintentional on Danny's part, but if he put a little more practice into it??? The scream I scrupted.
Small complaint, but when Maddie is caught by Fright Knight she just hangs there and waits for rescue? I understand the need to showcase the abilities of the Ecto-Skeleton, but she couldn't have even put up a token protest? I don't know, it just felt out of place from her previous behavior. It did give us a cute moment where she swooned though. Honestly Maddie and Jack were absolutely adorable together for the whole special, you can tell how much Maddie cares from the way she worries about Jack whenever he's winded after using the Ecto-Skeleton. Danny is absolutely right, it must be killing Vlad inside.
Onto the next order of business: the Ring of Rage. More specifically, Fright Knight's hunt for it. I definitely didn't remember this before I watched the episodes again, but the only reason Fright Knight claims Amity Park for Pariah Dark is because Vlad (or anyone else, for that matter) doesn't return the Ring or Rage fast enough. And he did wait, he fights Danny and Vlad (and later Valerie) for a while before he plants the sword, making the claim.
This was my initial reaction, taken from DMs with friends:
FRIGHT KNIGHT ONLY CLAIMS THE TOWN AFTER THE RING ISN'T FOUND WHICH MEANS IF HE HAD JUST GIVEN UP THE RING EARLIER NONE OF THIS WOULD HAVE HAPPENED???
I have to say that Valerie's solution to fire the Ring of Rage into the Ghost Zone when she realizes it's what Fright Knight and Pariah Dark are looking for is actually super clever? Honestly I loved Valerie so much this entire special, I was giddy and kicking my feet from the moment she and Danny smiled at each other. I am a really big Gray Ghost shipper, so these two episodes were extra special to me.
On the topic of ships, I was surprised by how heavily they implied Sam had feelings for Danny? Sam protested Danny's newfound interest in Valerie the most; just to be clear, Tucker warned Danny as well, and at the end of the special he sicced Nathan on Valerie alongside Sam, but Sam's protests definitely came off more strongly in my opinion. There was also quite a bit of meaningful eye contact in the scene leading up to Danny shooting off into the Ghost Zone in the Ecto-Skeleton. There's a bit of dialogue where Danny says something along the lines of "if you have something you'd like to tell me, now would be the time to say it", and Sam looks like she does want to say something but ultimately holds her tongue. I can promise you I will absolutely be going more into depth about that in the speculation section.
Also, can I just say I was really impressed by how mature Danny was in these episodes? Of course early on we see Danny struggle a lot with Dash's bullying and fights back with his powers. But when Danny sees Valerie hurt from the attacks, he immediately feels guilty and when Tucker tries to reassure him that it's not his fault, Danny says: "Maybe not. But it is my responsibility." And in that scene where Danny is about to fly off with the Ecto-Skeleton, he tells his friends, "C'mon, guys. You didn't think it was always going to be as easy as shoving the Box Ghost into the Fenton Thermos, did you? I'll be back." And like that moment I got oddly emotional? Not crying emotional, but it just like he was all grown up.
And with his rally cry when he tried to convince the ghosts to help him fight the ghost armies, he clearly knew what he was up against. He knew that there was a chance none of them were going to come back. He had overheard his mom call the Ecto-Skeleton suit's effects 'fatal', and Tucker reminded him of that again later too. And yet he still goes out and gives it his all and just. Damn. That's my Danny Phantom.
ALSO THIS IS THE EPISODE WHERE DANNY ANNOUNCES HIS NAME IS DANNY PHANTOM NOT INVISO-BILL I WAS WONDERING WHEN THAT WOULD COME IN
But before Danny makes off with the Ecto-Skeleton, Jack and Maddie explain how the machine works to a group of refugees. And Jack is the first to offer, saying that, "Because if the suit's going to be killing anyone, it's gonna be me." It was a very beautiful moment to me, but then Maddie knocks him out and says she'll take her place. Of course then Jazz knocks her out, and intends to take her place. But to my surprise, next it was Jeremy Manson, Sam's father, who offers to use the Ecto-Skeleton to fight Pariah. Pamela then knocks him out, and she's then knocked out--it's a bit that ends when everyone in the room is knocked out save for Valerie and Team Phantom. But I was still taken by surprise when the Mansons both offered to fight? It was a pleasant surprise for sure, it's always nice to have new insight into their characters.
This is also where Damon enters the scene and Danny reveals Valerie's identity in front of him to prevent her from taking the Ecto-Skeleton. I really like how his first reaction was to check that she was okay. It was only after she confirmed that she was alright that he went into angry, protective dad mode and grounded her. And honestly, I can't even blame him, Valerie had been really beaten down by this point. I was just impressed with Damon altogether; he didn't make many appearances, but he adapted quite handily to the Fentons' equipment. I can see now why he was one of the few to survive ten years after Dan destroyed the world. But that's a topic for another day. And analysis post.
But let's move onto the star of the show, the whole reason I started with this special. The fight between Danny and Pariah Dark. I was absolutely thrilled to see how many powers Danny showed off in this scene. While the Ecto-Skeleton helped with the raw strength, the sheer number of powers and the control he had over them reminded me how much more formidable Danny could be when he grows up and learns more control and, very likely, grows into his power as well. If he could grow to the point of 100x his current power, the power the Ecto-Skeleton granted him, is a little harder to say. As it stands, Danny could barely push Pariah Dark back into the Sarcophagus of Forever Sleep, that is how powerful Pariah is. Pariah is fighting to the very end here too, the only reason he doesn't break out is because Vlad finally deigns to show his face and lock the Sarcophagus so that Danny can stop fighting.
And I know this is the episode that popularized Danny becoming Ghost King, but honestly, watching the show now, I don't really see it? You can tell how much Danny struggles to fight Pariah even with the suit, and there's even more to it than that. When the ghosts are explaining to Danny who Pariah is, they refer to how Pariah was the only being powerful enough to wield both the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire. When Pariah does eventually acquire the Ring again, he groans with pain. The crown and the ring are far more powerful than we give them credit for, and I don't really know if Danny could handle it. I should have probably left that for the speculation section, but I guess this is a sneak peek.
Here are some bits and pieces of dialogue during the fight scene that particularly piqued my interest:
"I don't have to win. I just have to make sure you lose!"
"Having that much power- it's a burden, isn't it child?"
I am going to have a field day in the speculation section aren't I? I can already tell. But regardless, that first quote implies that Danny never actually won his fight. He just pushed Pariah inside and Vlad, ultimately, sealed Pariah inside. Vlad makes a comment about it as well: "What? That I used two fourteen year old pawns to turn a knight and topple a king? It's chess, Daniel. Of course, you don't understand. But, but then you never really did." Like ultimately, it's Vlad who takes the credit while Danny did all the work. Just as Vlad planned, just like his style. Work smart, not hard, I guess.
(Going back to Danny and his maturity in this episode, I really loved to see how quick he was? He figured out Vlad's plan to use Valerie as a distraction, and when Vlad made a remark about Valerie catching them, Danny blasted the street light which pits the street into complete darkness, which Danny then used to his advantage to blast Vlad out of the safety of the ghost shield. Not only was it the perfect come back to Vlad's bait, he was also very strategic about it. But I may be getting away from myself here--)
As you can tell, I had a very good time with this special! I enjoyed myself thoroughly, and will probably come back to it again as I explore all the plot bunnies that grew from this revisit. Best of all, the theme song still slaps.
So let's move on to the fun part of this analysis:
Theories & Speculation
This is about to be wildly out of order, but I don't even care, I am writing this at 2:30 in the morning, it's a miracle the words are on the screen at all.
I already talked in part about the Ghost King Danny headcanon and how I don't really see how the idea fits as much anymore. I specifically brought up the line earlier where Danny said: "I don't have to win. I just have to make sure you lose!" This dialogue, paired with how Danny previously removed Fright Knight's sword, unwittingly surrendering to Pariah Dark and his claim, leads me to believe that it just doesn't work right. Danny does not have the upper hand for the majority of the episode, and the Ecto-Skeleton only boosted his chances so much. He had already surrendered, how does the surrendered opponent come back around and usurp the crown when the King is a) not dead and b) the new guy barely survived the fight in the first place? Danny's defeat of Pariah Dark broke the claim and brought Amity Park back from the Ghost Zone. It reestablished equilibrium, it didn't establish a new order.
However, the specific wording used to describe Pariah Dark and his relationship with the Ring of Rage and Crown of Fire honestly led me to believe that there had been no Ghost King before Pariah. His infamy is so renown that ghosts knew about him, even though he had been locked away for longer than they've been alive. Pariah Dark set the precedent. That is why the order of ancient ghosts was established to defeat him, there had been no such order before him. He threw the entire balance of the Ghost Zone off, and that's why the ghosts didn't struggle without one, there was never meant to be one. This special just has the gears in my mind turning like crazy.
I have so many thoughts and opinions about Pariah and his personality. He only fights Danny after Danny challenges him to stop talking and start fighting. His commentary to Danny: "Having that much power- it's a burden, isn't it child?" is going to sit with me for weeks. Pariah is oddly conversational during the fight. He even tells Danny to surrender. And I get that this might be seen as stereotypical villain dialogue, but it would have been just as stereotypical to have Pariah enjoy the idea of crushing Danny. Except he never had any qualms with Danny, did he? He only had a bone to pick with Vlad for stealing his ring, and planned to execute them both when neither returned it. Had Danny worked independently of Vlad for the episode, could he have come to another solution? Could he have freed Amity Park without a fight?
Let's go back to the beginning of the episode: the exposition we got from Vlad about the artifacts. Vlad clearly knows a lot about ghost lore and [SPOILERS FOR THE GRAPHIC NOVEL A GLITCH IN TIME] we see in AGIT that Vlad has collected quite a bit of these artifacts beyond what we see in the show. What did he intend to do with them? How did he learn all this lore? It doesn't come naturally to a ghost, or else Danny wouldn't have had to be told all this information.
Moreover, what deal did he make with Fright Knight at the end of the episode? Obviously it had to be lucrative enough for him to betray Pariah Dark in the end. (Also, I laughed so hard when Vlad told Fright Knight to call him at the beginning of the episode, this man I swear--) At the end of the special, Danny wonders to his friends what Vlad had planned and what deal they had made. His friends tell him not to worry about it, and he ultimately relents, but it leaves me curious too. We never know what became of it. Fright Knight only appears in a handful of episodes after Reign Storm: The Ultimate Enemy, where he worked alongside with Dan rather than aid Vlad, Frightmare, and Phantom Planet (in which he had no lines). We'll never know what the showrunners had intended to do with their deal but I'll be forever guessing.
Since this is the speculation section, I am going to make a wild guess: I think they had probably planned to bring Pariah Dark back at some point? I don't see why else Vlad would have tried to turn Fright Knight, because yes, it's true that the less help Pariah Dark receives is an advantage to their side, but as we see from Season 3 there are many other very powerful ghosts that have no known connection to Pariah that Vlad knew about.
In "Torrent of Terror", Vlad frees Vortex to ask for help and while Vortex declined at the time, who says he wouldn't have agreed if the promise of, say, the Crown of Fire came with the deal? (Obviously Vlad wouldn't have given away the Crown or the Ring, but he believes he's manipulative enough to pull it off.) Did Vlad not know about Vortex yet? Could Vlad just not find him? After all, Vortex was imprisoned and being held for trial by the Observants when Vlad released him. Maybe Vortex had been in hiding at this time to escape punishment? Vlad did seem surprised to see Pariah was in the Sarcophagus, so that might explain why he wasn't prepared initially, but after he escaped Pariah's Keep, he could have searched for allies then? He gave the Ring to Valerie specifically so that he could have more range of movement.
The point is that Vlad could have gathered more allies, just in case Fright Knight never turned traitor (and maybe I'm just giving Vlad more credit than he deserves, when does this man ever think ahead). But there must have been some distinct advantage to have Fright Knight join the cause. Maybe if we'd had the fourth season, we could have gotten a plot where Vlad became King and then Danny usurped the throne? That would be more in line with the previous threads, since Danny had been more of a pawn, hence why Vlad technically took the credit for Pariah's imprisonment.
Or maybe it's back to my initial theory that there was never meant to be a King? Pariah Dark was the precedent and Fright Knight didn't want to be tied to him any longer as a servant and Vlad promised him freedom for his betrayal. Except that doesn't quite explain why Vlad wanted the Crown and the Ring himself. Presumably for power, but Vlad doesn't actually… do much with the power he has? He's wealthy in the human world, but he didn't try to exert any political power until his prank war with Danny, which was why he ran for mayor. He's collected all these artifacts, maybe in search for the ultimate power, but again, he's barely a blip on the radar to most of these ghosts. Behemoth (who, if you're not familiar with the show, is the ghost that was guarding the Skeleton Key that released Pariah Dark from the Sarcophagus) absolutely thrashed him the first time Vlad tried to fight him. While it's implied that Vlad eventually snatched the Key, since he released Pariah later on, it's very unlikely he did so through combat and more likely he tricked Behemoth and ran with it.
(Also very fascinating to see how Behemoth was first introduced in Season One, long before we received the two-parter Reign Storm, which implies that this plan of Vlad's had been a long time coming. It definitely feels like there had been a long con, but we never actually see it come into fruition because by Season 3, he seems more obsessed with making himself a nuisance in Danny's life. He does have delusions of grandeur still; in DMs, a friend pointed out to me that in "Infinite Realms", Vlad believes he has a greater destiny. ["I know I'm destined to rule greater things than just Amity Park."] But again, in that third season, he doesn't seem to try very hard to achieve that destiny?
I know in Phantom Planet he has this whole plot where he announces he'll save the world if they make him their ruler, which I thought was pretty stupid because… what happens if they don't agree? Was he just going to let the planet be destroyed despite--in the wise words of Peter Quill--being one of the idiots who lives in it? I understand that this is probably a plot hole from a writer's perspective, but I need an in-universe explanation for this and unfortunately that explanation is that he's stupid.)
I don't know, I think if I dedicate any more time to this, I'll drive myself insane.
Let's shift gears again and go back to ships. I think that Danny knew, or at least suspected, that Sam had feelings for him but since she never made the first move, he wasn't sure if his suspicions were correct so he decided to pursue Valerie instead. I doubt he'd want to ruin their friendship, and Sam is usually the type to say what's on her mind. If she did like him, surely she would have said something to him by now… right? That's what I imagine his thought process was like. Whether he would have agreed or shared his own feelings for her, if she had admitted her own, we don't know for sure. I can imagine he might have, had Valerie not started to show interest in him by this point. Relationships politics are so confusing.
I think I've done enough theory and speculation for the day, so let's move onto our final section for this analysis:
Plot Bunnies
I said this to my friends already, but I feel like I should do more with Vlad and his collection of ghost artifacts. We know that Freakshow's family has been fascinated with ghosts for a long time. The clash these two could have over the same ghostly artifacts. Or if Vlad tried to steal something from Freakshow and he finds out about it, which leads him to break out of prison again after "Reality Trip". It would probably be similar to "Reign Storm" in the sense that these two are dueling it out, and Danny has to step in because innocent people have now been caught up in the crossfire. However, it would be interesting to see Danny be forced to do more in his human form to skirt around any mind control magics Freakshow has stashed away.
Of course there's always the idea that Freakshow and Vlad could team up to "finally rid themselves of the ghost boy problem" which could be just as interesting to see. Both Freakshow and Vlad know about his secret identity, and has shown the willingness to out Danny's identity as well unlike most ghosts, so Danny would have to be extra cautious about how he moves against them. I think the bigger question in this scenario would be what Vlad wants to happen to Danny? Because it's very possible that Freakshow could provide Vlad with some sort of magical device that would allow him to control Danny, make him his perfect son, so he still gets his evil apprentice/perfect family while Freakshow doesn't have to worry about him anymore. But does Freakshow demand more than that? Does he want his revenge? Does he want Danny to somehow make back the money he lost when he got caught after Danny broke the staff? Many opportunities to explore.
I have so many plot bunnies now thanks to that scene where Fright Knight claims Amity Park for Pariah Dark. I need to write, like, three different fics where each diverged from canon just minutes apart from each other in the original timeline and yet spawned wildly different results. Like what if Danny had taken the Ring from Valerie as soon as he had figured out that was what Fright Knight was looking for? The next time he clashed with the Knight he would have been able to return it, thus releasing the claim. What if he had agreed to help Fright Knight return the Ring, once again posing himself as an enemy to Vlad but also acting as an ally to Fright Knight and Pariah Dark?
Imagine if Danny had never accidentally removed the sword, which surrendered Amity Park to Pariah's rule. How long would the town have been stuck in the bubble? What if, eventually, the ghost equipment made a tiny gap in the bubble that opened up to the rest of the world? Can you imagine how the adults would have been forced to prioritize who gets sent out first? Obviously the kids and teenagers, maybe, would be able to fit into the space, but who else can they save? Is it possible to send some patients with critical injuries out for their protection? Even if Amity Park still has their energy grid in tact, they'll lost their water reservoirs. They have, maybe, all that's left in the pipes and some that's been collected in water towers and that's it. How long can they survive like that until a bigger hole is made and more people can escape?
I'm just picturing Danny being forced to make himself scarce so that his parents don't force him through to safety. Because this is his responsibility, this is his town to save. I just ughhhhh it could be so good!!!
Most fascinating of all, in my very biased opinion, was how Pariah expressed surprise when he found out Vlad and Danny were halfas. While he took the news fairly… genially, I guess you could say, what if he hadn't been so eager to kill Danny and Vlad for their slight against him? What if he saw this new discovery as, say, deserving of research and development?
But regardless of Pariah's feelings about halfas, it is most curious to me to see that there have never been halfas before Vlad and Danny. Does that mean their biology can only be manufactured through unnatural machinery? So halfas couldn't be created through natural portals, but only through forceful rips in reality? That would require much more power, the kind of power necessary to mutate DNA and create halfas to begin with.
Another plot bunny that just came to me as I started writing this was… what if Vlad had left Danny in the Ghost Zone? Sure, maybe he saved him from the Ecto-Skeleton, but if he left Danny to fend for himself… that would solve a lot of his problems wouldn't it? Sure, Sam and Tucker were there in the Specter Speeder to help him as best they could, but Vlad could have easily just… whisked Danny away somewhere with a duplicate and lied to Sam and Tucker that there was nothing left of him after the Ecto-Skeleton took it all. or maybe he died valiantly as his last stand against Pariah.
By doing that, he could isolate Danny and possibly force him to depend on Vlad. He knows where Danny is, he can always come back and offer to save Danny if he finds that Danny is still too sick to save himself. There's reasonable evidence that shows the Fentons' portal doesn't open up to the same place every time. Danny would still be far too weak, and without the help he needs to recover quicker. Who knows what he could get up to during this time! Maybe… who knows~ Maybe he will meet a certain Master of Time earlier than he did in canon? Maybe he'll come across the Far Frozen and meet Frostbite?
As cliché as this is, it also needs to be said--Danny could have gotten amnesia from the Ecto-Skeleton. Maybe it fried his brain and he doesn't remember anything. Now he has to work his way back to where he was before. Can he get that power back? Or is it lost forever with the Ecto-Skeleton?
My favorite plot bunny of all: what if Pariah didn't lose? What if Vlad didn't arrive soon enough to lock the Sarcophagus and Pariah broke free, but by this point Danny has every last bit of his power left, so Pariah now goes unchallenged? What then???
But! I feel like this post has gone on long enough. Thank you so much to everyone who made it all the way down here! I know it's long, so I really appreciate it. I hope not all of the analysis posts will be this long, but I hope you'll enjoy those too! Thank you!
Was talking about ship names and I said “DPxDC” outloud and my Real Life roommate turns to me and says “Deadpool… dick cock” and then broke down laughing for like 3 full minutes.
I have been looking desperately for a Mom Danny thread. Danny is pregnant with ... At least one of the clones, and he's been dragged to the Wayne's by Vlad. Cass realizes he's pregnant and gets Dick to help. Eventually, Danny stays with the Wayne's. When the Bats go to tell the Fenton's, Jazz goes after Vlad with the Creep Stick on live tv. I'm pretty sure you had additions to the post but I don't remember if you wrote it. I didn't see it on your masterlist so I'm a little desperate. Can anyone link the thread?
Alright, I tried for hours to find the prompt you're talking about cause I know exactly which one you're talking about. But I can't for the life of me find it, it's driving me nuts. DX
I have been looking desperately for a Mom Danny thread. Danny is pregnant with ... At least one of the clones, and he's been dragged to the Wayne's by Vlad. Cass realizes he's pregnant and gets Dick to help. Eventually, Danny stays with the Wayne's. When the Bats go to tell the Fenton's, Jazz goes after Vlad with the Creep Stick on live tv. I'm pretty sure you had additions to the post but I don't remember if you wrote it. I didn't see it on your masterlist so I'm a little desperate. Can anyone link the thread?
Alright, I tried for hours to find the prompt you're talking about cause I know exactly which one you're talking about. But I can't for the life of me find it, it's driving me nuts. DX
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