Danny barged into the police station, slamming the door so loud the receptionist flinched.
“Where are they?” He growled.
“Excuse me?” The receptionist attempted to regain his posture. He was an older man with sideburns and decked out in the standard Elmerton police uniform (because of course only Elmerton police would be dumb enough to attempt an arrest on the Fentons. Batman probbaly tried Amity first and got rejected.)
“I’m looking for Jackson and Madeline Fenton. They were arrested from Amity park 26 hours ago and have been illegally held in your station for most of that duration.”
The desk officer’s face soured. “Young man, you cannot just barge into this station to demand to see criminals-“
“They are not criminals.” Danny snapped. Doing his best to rein in his temper. “Criminals are those arrested with evidence supporting they’ve committed a crime. What you’ve done is arrest them on probbaly cause. This means that they are suspect for a crime but have not been confirmed. They also have a right to a lawyer, which I am, so now you are either going to take me to them, or I’m going to use this and the surrounding station’s video as evidence for a new case in which a corrupt officer is obstructing the laws and 6th amendment of the United States.” Danny advanced to the desk, boring holes into the officer as if he could see every sin the man had ever committed. “Are. We. Clear.”
The officer gulped. “C-crystal.” He shakily got out the keys and scrambled around the desk to lead Danny to his parents.
Danny held his briefcase close and followed. He was glad he had used the extra tough dragon leather Dora got for him or his ghost strength would have already torn off the handle. It was already enough of a struggle not to let his claws out.
When they finally entered *cough* stormed *cough* into the iron walled interrogation room, Danny was greeted to the sight of his parents, lacking their preferred jumpsuits and cuffed. They sat patiently in front of a table with another officer.
“Danno!” Jack’s face instantly brightened as he spotted Danny.
Something in the halfa’s core relaxed at the sight of both his parents, safe (for the most part) and unharmed. He did a quick check of their persons to make sure the arrest wasn’t ‘forceful’. But besides the bandages wrapped around his mother’s arm from Robin’s assault (which still made him growl), they were unharmed.
The commotion caused the officer already in the room to turn around and suddenly, whatever calm Danny had managed to force on himself during the walk evaporated.
Because sitting right there in the interrogator’s chair, acting like he owned the place, was Dick f-ing Greyson.
Oh HO, Danny was hating the bats more and more.
He wasted no time marching up to the table and slamming down his briefcase, eying the bat in ‘disguise’ like he was a chunk of Pariah’s snot Danny had just scrapped off his shoe.
Nightwing stood up and held out his hand, a charming smile already spread across is face. “Hello, you must be the attorney. I’m officer Grey-“
“This interrogation is over and I am taking my clients back to their accommodations.” Danny didn’t care what the bat had to say. It was just a waste of his time.
The man laughed as if Danny had made a joke. “You can’t do that.” He looked at the officer who lead Danny there. Shrugging as if saying can you ‘believe’ this guy? The receptionist though was still properly cowed from their earlier encounter and just gave a strained grimace, not meeting anyone’s eyes. Greyson just kept smiling. It was really grinding Danny’s gears.
“Oh I assure you, I can. You have made an unlawful arrest and I intend to correct that.” The Halfa started riffling through his brief case. “The Fentons have been arrested on suspicion alone. Without proper evidence to support that arrest, the state of Elmerton can only hold them for at most 24 hours. You are 2 hours over that time and therefore, according to the law, you are holding two innocent civilians against their will with no probable cause.”
Finally, Nightwing’s smile started to dim. “Young man-” what was with all these people using ‘young man’ “-I can assure you that the charges against these two are very real. We have multiple video evidence of them attempting first degree murder on the hero known as Phantom, as well as assault.” Danny could see his parents flinch at that. “And we have multiple reports and photographic evidence of property damage caused during their ‘ghost hunts’. And from an anonymous source,” Danny scoffed at that, “We also have reason to believe they were in the process of illegally making weapons. I don’t know what you call that, but those are serious crimes. We have more than enough evidence to convict them. As their attorney, you can fight for their defense in court but you can’t just walk out of here with them.”
Danny barked out a laugh. “Oh, that’s where you’re wrong.” He finally found what he was looking for and shoved a file into Nightwing’s chest, using just a smidge of ghost strength to make the officer take a step back. “This is a copy of the Anti-Ecto acts. A former law by the United States declaring that it was perfectly legal to hunt those who classify as Ecto entities such as Phantom. If you had done your research, you would see that all the timestamps for those videos are before the acts were repealed. In fact, the Fentons had not only ceased their attacks on Phantom and other ecto-entities before the law was repealed, but they were also a major help in getting it repealed in the first place. Using money from their own personal coffers. There is not a single piece of evidence indicating an attack on ecto-entities afterwards that was not self defense.” Nightwing struggled to hold the file before it could fall. Skimming through the papers to determine if what Danny said was true or not.
Oh but Danny wasn’t done.
He grabbed the next file. “This is a record of their previous court case.” The bat’s head snapped up. “The officers at Amity are not incompetent, and I’m not saying they have not had a record of property damage in the past. However, unlike the Justice league, they were tried and made to pay reparations. This file contains the court case, verdict, and even the amount payed to cover the damages for all previous and recent property damage. And as an officer of the law, you should know that once a court has made a decision, you cannot arrest someone on the same charge again. And THIS-” he slammed down the next file, taking immense joy in how rapidly the vigilante’s face was paling as he tried to read through all the files. “Is a record of a previous contract with the US government. But again, the Fentons had ceased making weapons a while ago and have since transitioned into scientific inventions and even medicine. Of course, you will also find the patents for each of the inventions filed and approved with legal permits to use them. Naturally, this will all be available again when Batman answers for why he decided to steal government contracted property in the upcoming trial.”
Nightwing was drowning in papers now. A few slipping between his fingers and falling on the floor, likely causing an organization nightmare. It didn't matter, the vigilante could keep them. Danny had copies of each of these at his home, the Fenton home, on a private server, with Vlad, and even a set hidden in the Infinite Realms with Ghost Writer.
“Finally.” Danny pulled out a single sheet of paper. “This is the filled out release form stating that I can in fact ‘just walk out of here with them.’ Now of you don’t mind.” Danny held out his hand expectantly. “The keys.”
Nightwing looked like he really didn’t want to comply, but Danny was nothing is not patient, and after about 10 minutes of the ‘officer’ trying his best to delay by reading all the files ‘thoroughly’, he finally gave in and set the keys in Danny’s palm. Sure, Danny could have gotten the receptionist (who had been slowly trying to back out of the room) to give him a copy. But it was so much more satisfying to have Nightwing do it.
With his parents now released, Danny made for the door. But at the last moment, he stoped. “Oh, and by the way, I know exactly who you are officer Greyson. During my research I discovered you are often working cases involving the bats. What I find curious, is why an officer of Bludhaven is operating in a completely differnt state without proper authorization or a warrant granting you authority?” Nightwing froze. “Hmmm, I guess it doesn’t matter. You’ll have your chance to explain when I bring it up in court, along with this whole incident. Oh…you do remember that court is held in the state the crime was supposedly committed right?” Danny gave him a shark-like grin, no fangs needed. “See you in Amity Dick.”