Hi! This is a contiunation of that Assassin jazz post from a while ago.
link: https://www.tumblr.com/hoodielord/730510867508150272/woo-part-two-this-took-some-time-somebody?source=share
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The Bats had set up a safe house for her and Danny. The bats constantly checked in with her. It's been three days since Danny was brought into the clinic and he still hadn't woken up. His past injuries caught up to him. The doctor had told her could be like this for a while but she was unsure of his status as a metahuman. When Jazz wasn’t working with the bats to catch petty criminals she was sitting by Danny’s bedside.
“He's still not awake?” Hood asked as he crawled through the open window.
“no…Has Oracle learned anything?”Jazz didn’t even turn to look at him.
“Not much else other than what you already know.”
Jazz stared at him wondering what he’s withholding.
“There is something you’re withholding from me…isn’t there?”
“...Look B doesn’t think you should know because he doesn’t know how you would react.”
“Are you going to tell me or not?” Jazz huffed. She knows well enough that Hood and Batman don’t see eye to eye on most things.
“We are going to tell you because you need to know.”Red Robin said as he crawled through the same window.
“That and B is an ass for not sharing,” Hood said.
There was a pause. Hood and Red Robin hesitated
“Why are you hesitating?”
“What we learned has been sent to the Justice League.”
Jazz stopped to think. Why would the Justice League need to know? Sure the trafficking ring was transporting metas; but what did that have to do with her brother and her?
“There was an incident in Amity Park. It appears that your parents, the Fentons had opened a portal to the infinite realms. This portal had released a lot of ghosts.”
“My…no…The Fentons had put a lot of effort into working on that stupid thing I am surprised it works.”
Silence followed. They had more to say but hesitated again…it’s something important.
“You keep stopping, spit it out.”
“In Amity Park there is a hero named Phantom he’s a ghost but…”
Red Robin had pulled out a laptop and opened up a file. In the file was an image of a teenage ghost with white hair and a black hazmat suit like the Fentons wore. The face though…it was Danny. Jazz glanced back at Danny.
“The JL believes that Danny is in some way tied to Phantom and the infinite realms. We still don’t know how. There's more, there is a law that has declared any being from the realms or even those that are ‘touched by death’ are considered fair game for any ghost hunters to exterminate.”Red Robin supplies.
Jazz thinks through all the information that she just got it... It was insane. She had fought with assassins, metahumans, and aliens. She thought that she had finally escaped The Fenton's insane ramblings about ghosts but it always seemed to haunt her and her brother.
“The JL is working on the law and we are working on keeping the ghost hunters out of Gotham.”
Suddenly a gust of wind had blown in the smell of gun smoke and smog. The room darkens as a shadow sweeps into the safe house.
“Do the knights of Gotham truly wish to help those of the realms of the dead?” the shadow spoke in a cacophony of pained voices.
They had all reached for their weapons but the shadows spread pinning them to the walls.
The vigilantes grunt as they are slammed into the walls.
“Oracle back up to the safe house,” Hood called before his head was slammed into the wall.
“The prince painfully sleeps because of what those hunters did to him. And to think that they had promised to keep him safe. Tell me…” the shadow crept toward Jazz. “Do you truly wish to help those who have died and those who have been wrapped in death's embrace?”
Jazz struggled to try and free herself from the shadow but it was too strong.
“What are you?”
“I am the city and the city is me. I am Gotham. Many from the realms call me..” the figure moves and shifts like black ink in water.
“Lady Gotham.” A small voice came from behind the entity.
Danny was trying to sit up in the bed. The shadow had moved away from Jazz and toward Danny.
“Get away from him!” Jazz shrieked as she continued to struggle in Gotham’s hold.
“She won't hurt me…”
“My prince, you are awake. You must rest more. I wish I could bring Frostbite but I am unable to do so.”
“I see…” Danny turns toward Jazz and the vigilantes and then back toward Gotham, “Don’t hurt them, they helped me.”
“Very well..” The hold of the shadows loosened but they still couldn’t reach Danny.
Gotham bowed toward Danny. “My prince, I offer a haven toward you. It pains many ancients to see you struggle. I would also see that you are well protected by giving a piece of my power to you.”
“...no… you don’t have enough strength… don’t” Danny was struggling to stay conscious.
“But to lose the prince is to lose the heart of the realms; it is a price that many of us do not wish to pay.”
“But”
“Please let me help.” Gotham’s voice was pleading.
Danny had lost consciousness and Jazz had lost her patience. She had pulled out a special dagger she had from her time under the League of Assassins the same one that was covered in Lazuras water. She plunged the dagger into the shadows ripping her way toward Danny till she stood in front of Danny.
“I just want to help my brother…I don't want to see him hurt anymore.”
“I would give my very being to do the same. Would you?”
“Yes.” Jazz answered without any hesitation.
The shadows recede, fully from Jazz, retreating into the being and Lady Gotham takes the shape of a woman but the face still shifts under her veil.
“I will give you a piece of myself to you and the prince to better protect him…if you hurt him in any way you will feel the wrath of the ancients of the infinite realms.”
“I would never hurt my little brother.”
A smile could be seen under the veil for a brief moment. Gotham’s form flickered slightly and gave Jazz a small ball of shadow that seeped into her hands. Gotham had then leaned over Danny brushing his matted hair out of his face.
“Young Prince, I welcome you and your sister into my city, may my shadows guard you for eternity,” Gotham said as she placed a hand on Danny’s and her shadows wrapped around his arm.
Gotham’s form had flickered once more as she turned toward the vigilantes. She raised her hand and they dropped to the floor. Many more vigilantes had rushed into the room just then. They were about to rush toward Gotham but stopped as if glued to the floor.
“Gotham’s Knights. I have seen many of you grow from the young chandelier crasher to the brave young man.” She turned toward Nightwing. “From the street child to the hard-hitting outlaw.” Toward Red Hood. “The intelligent young mind to that of an unparalleled genius.” toward Red Robin. “From a brave young leader to an even braver knight.” toward Signal. “And the many more of you that have helped protect those of mine, Thank you, I hope that we may meet again.” Gotham's veil shifted slightly to see the tears streaming down her face the shadow slipping from it as she faded.
The room seemed lighter, as the shadows faded, but now held its own kind of heaviness.
“Why does it feel so..”
“Painful” Orphan had signed.
“Yeah, why..”
“That’s because she gave away too much.”
“Danny!” Jazz had all tackled him.
He looked confused as Jazz wrapped her arms around him.
“I don’t know…”
“It’s Jazz… Danny, it's Jazz.”
The kid paused thinking of what to say next.
“During Christmas, when I was five, what happened?”
Jazz let out a laugh but it was choked out by a sob.
“The experiments that were in the fridge had contaminated the turkey. It attacked us. I beat it with a broom.”
Danny suddenly wrapped around her like she would disappear.
After a few minutes, the sobs had tapered off.
A cough had broken the silence.
“Sorry to interrupt but you kind of left us hanging with more questions,” Nightwing says.
“How does a turkey dinner attack?” Signal asks
“With extreme aggression.” Answers both Danny and Jazz at the same time. Both had let out a laugh like it was the world's funniest joke.
If the vigilantes hadn’t been disturbed by the recent events they would have been shocked even more by Jazz. The cold assassin was laughing and smiling, it was almost haunting to see the girl that they had known would carry out a mission with extreme efficiency do so.
“... still need answers to our other questions.”
“Uhh… sure I can try my best,” Danny answers.
“No, first you are going to take a shower and eat some food.” acting very much like the annoying older sister Danny remembers.
Danny stares at her for a second about to retort.
“...Sure.”
Danny paused looking at the cuffs on his wrists. “Can you take these off please?”
Before the vigilantes could recover Jazz had already busted the lock holding the cuffs together.
“Thanks,” Danny said, rubbing his wrists. A little bit of his colour had returned to his face. He flashed a fanged smile at Jazz and the vigilantes.
====
“I still agree with Slade.” Jazz says flipping a pancake.
“About what?” Nightwing says leaning on the kitchen counter
“You guys are really nosy.”
“Yeah, blame B. He raised most of us so.” Hood supplies as he mixes more batter.
“I am still very confused about the turkey and literally everything else.”
“Yeah, I think this is just a level of weird we haven’t seen yet, Narrows.”
There was a pause and the briefest of curses.
“What is it, Hood?”
“It’s weird… supernatural weird…. So that means..”
Nightwing slumps into his seat with an exasperated sigh.
“...You gonna fill us in…. Unless it’s more weird stuff, I think I reached my quota.” Signal looked between Hood, Jazz, and Nightwing.
“Constantine…. We might have to work with Constantine.”
Both Hood and Nightwing groan.
“Wait, I’ve heard that name before…” Danny said from the doorway.
“What do they look like?” Danny said after a pause.
“Middle-aged man, scruffy, chain-smoker.” Nightwing starts
“Asshole in a trenchcoat.” Hood continues
Danny snaps his finger, “Sad Trenchcoat Man.”
The vigilantes huff in laughter.
“Yeah, that’s an apt description.”
“You met the guy?”
“Yeah, he was investigating Amity.”
“Perfect, more questions for the list.”
“So… interrogation over pancakes,” Danny asks.
“Yep,” Hood says placing a pancake in front of him.
Danny tore into the pancakes, “Okay shoot.”
“Don’t talk with your mouth full.” Jazz said.
Danny stuck out his tongue at her, a gesture she returned.
“Who was that lady that appeared?”
“That was Lady Gotham, she is…was the city spirit of Gotham.”
“We aren’t experts in the supernatural, kid. You're going to have to give us the SparkNotes version.”
“City spirits are guardians of cities. That was Gotham’s Guardian.”
“Was?”
“...yeah… was,” Danny said, not touching his pancakes.
“She called us Gotham’s Knights.”
“That’s cause you are all the ghosts in the ghost zone talk about.”
“Ghosts talk about us?”
“Yeah, whoever said that dead men tell no tales is a liar. Ghosts are all gossips.”
“What did she do to you and me?”
Danny looked down at his half-eaten pancake. “She gave up her power to help me heal. And I am guessing she gave some to you too. That's why she faded…. I just hope she’s not gone gone.”
There was a tense pause in the air.
“You have more questions, ask them.”
Nightwing starts first.
“What is your tie to the infinite realms?”
“How about I start at the beginning and you ask questions at the end.”
“That works for me.”
“Sure.”
“Okay, I lived in a town called Amity Park…”
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“After I was found by my…. By the Fentons I was …they…,” Danny choked on his words like he had when he talked about the portal.
Jazz interrupted him her voice was quiet and cold. “They gave you those scars on your chest right.”
Danny clenched his hand in front of his chest and nodded.
Jazz wanted to break something…. She shouldn’t have left, she should have stayed…Should’ve, could’ve, would’ve.
“Then you ran away, right? And got caught by that trafficking ring?” Hood interrupted.
Danny nods.
“There is something I don’t understand… You have powers now?”
Danny nods.
“Then shouldn’t you fall under the Meta Protection Act?”
“I don’t know what that is?”
The vigilantes had a mix of shocked and concerned faces.
“I shouldn’t be surprised that you don’t know. That firewall around your town worked both ways.” Red Robin started tapping away at his laptop.
“That’s true I didn’t know a lot about the world when I ran away. And some of the information I had learned was false.” Jazz answers. It was a steep learning curve even for her.
“The Meta Protection Act is in place to protect individuals with powers.”
“That may help me but what about the other ghosts.”
“Many of the ghosts you mentioned seem to want to fight you why would you..”
“Because when I defeated Pariah Dark I was crowned…” Danny interrupted rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly.
“Gotham called you Prince.”
“You’re the prince of the infinite realms.”
Prince? Cass signs.
“Yep,” Danny said popping the p. Danny had made his ghostly crown appear on his head.
“Alley, I take it back. I think this is my quota for weird shit.”
“I am right there with you, Narrows.”
====
After everyone had calmed down, the safe house’s intercom rang with a voice that made the vigilantes groan.
“Oi Birds and Bats let me in.”
“Oh, it's the sad trenchcoat man.”
“... It’s you! You Brat!”
Danny turns back to Jazz and the Bats with a fanged smile. “He remembers me!”
“Dude, what did you do to him?”
“When I said he was investigating Amity..” Danny started with Invesigating in air quotes, “He was annoying the crap out of me.”
“Danny, what did you do?”
“....I asked Youngblood to haunt him.”
“Which means?”
“Youngblood is a ghost, that only kids can see, so I asked him to play pranks on Trenchcoat Man. He swapped his cigarettes for ones that dyed his mouth blue. He swapped his flask with one filled with apple juice. Just a little stuff.”
A huff of laughter came from the window. Batman had entered the window with Robin in tow. All the vigilantes stared at Batman.
“Is picking on Constantine a sport or something?” Danny asked.
“Yes.” several replies rang out with different levels of enthusiasm.
