General Summary: Danny after a series of unfortunate events where his parents have a bed reactions to him being Phantom, being hunted by the GIW, and losing those that he cares about is taken to a different dimension to rest and hide. With nothing but the clothes on his back and a certain green ring in his pocket he finds himself meeting none other than Hal Jordan.
"Yeah man! I've got time." Barry's cheerful but concerned voice calls out from the phone, "Everything alright? You sound kinda nervous."
"Alright? Of course I'm alright. I’m great even!" Hal tries to play it cool, otherwise he knows Barry will be here in the blink of an eye, and he has a feeling Danny wouldn't react well to another person he doesn't know suddenly in the apartment. The last thing he wants is to make the kid raise his guard even more.
"Uh huh." Barry says with a tone that means that he clearly doesn’t believe anything Hal is saying right now.
"Everything is alright, but-"
"There it is."
"BUT! I do have a situation that I need to pick your brain with." Barry hums as a sign to let Hal know he has his attention. "So I have a kid in my apartment-"
"Oh my god you had a kid! You're a dad?"
"No! Can you let me finish talking before jumping to conclusions."
"Sorry" Barry sheepishly says, "you're right, continue."
Hal lets out an exasperated sigh before he speaks again. This conversation is much harder than he thought it was going to be. “The kid is a new green lantern, like I saw the initiation of him accepting the ring in my apartment new.”
“Oh shit man.” Barry says his words slowly as if he’s still processing exactly what Hal said before rapidly asking questions, “but wait, this happened in your apartment? What was the kid doing in your apartment before all this? How old are they?”
“I honestly don’t know man! From what I was able to drag out of the kid it seems like he came in through a portal made by someone he knew. As for how old he is I’d have to guess somewhere between 13 and 15.” Hal explained to his friend. “He’s running from something, and whatever it is it’s bad.”
The two sit in silence for a brief pause before Barry asks, “So what’s the plan from here? Because it seems like you’re responsible for this kid now, and I need to know if that’s something you can handle. Maybe we should contact the other JL members and we can all discuss what to do?”
Hal’s immediate reaction is to say no, that he can’t take care of the kid. HIs life is hectic enough as it is dealing with problems on space and on Earth. This isn’t just any kid though, this is a young Green Lantern who will need a mentor. Someone to help navigate this new world he just stepped into.
Maybe he could have one of the other Earth Green Lanterns be that person for the kid, Danny, but something in his head is telling him not to do that. So Hal decides, maybe foolishly, right there and then what he was going to do. “I’ll take care of him. He came to me for a reason right?”
“Hal-”
“Barry!” he cuts off his friend from speaking in that obviously unsure tone. “I promise you I can do this. No need to get everyone involved right now. That would probably just put the kid even more on edge right now. I’ll let the JL know all about this at our next meeting, that’s like only a couple months away.”
Despite Barry’s defeated sigh he responds seriously, “Okay, I believe you, but if you at all ever feel like you need help you call me. Taking care of kids is a lot of work, and there’s no shame in reaching out to others. Especially in this type of situation.”
“Of course, I-”
“Also, I won’t make you tell the JL as a whole right now but,” there’s enough of a pause between words that Hal just knows that he won’t like what comes next. “You do have to tell Bruce.”
“Wha-, Barry, you can’t be serious! Of all people you-!”
“Hal, I know you and Bruce don’t always see eye to eye, but you kinda don’t have another choice right now. This kid is going to need a solid paper trail if he’s running from something as well as a reason for why he’s now under your care.” The more Barry talks the more Hal hates how right his friend is. “And who better than The Bat to get all of that handled?”
“Fuck”, Hal says defeatistly, “Fine, but I’m only telling him about Danny. He’s not meeting him yet, that’s just a disaster waiting to happen.”
“I can accept that!” Barry’s tone now is much less serious than what it once was.
With that, conversations become much more light. The two of them briefly catch up with one another with a promise to talk more later before hanging up. They’re whole talk lasted just under half an hour.
Hal decides he’ll pick up some before calling in an order to the local pizza place down the street. Wanting Danny to at least get a couple hours of sleep before he bothers the kid with more uncomfortable talks that they unfortunately need to have.
On the other hand maybe he’ll just hold off until tomorrow.
Tomorrow.
Tomorrow itself brings a whole list of things he’ll need to do. Getting Danny some clothes and everything else he’ll need. Plus, he’ll need to look into getting a bigger apartment. Hal’s already dreading having to sleep on that thing tonight, and call The Bat.
Maybe he can convince Bruce to pay for all of this. That guy can’t seem to resist helping every black haired traumatized teen he comes across. He’ll just have to remind Bruce that he can’t take this one to join his bat vigilante army. This one belongs to the stars.
Summary:
Danny after a series of unfortunate events where his parents have a bed reactions to him being Phantom, being hunted by the GIW, and losing those that he cares about is taken to a different dimension to rest and hide.
With nothing but the clothes on his back and a certain green ring in his pocket he finds himself meeting none other than Hal Jordan.
Everything happened so suddenly. It was a perfectly normal morning, a good morning Danny would have even said, but in the blink of an eye everything turned into a nightmare. He can’t help but wonder in a deafening moment of silence if there was anything he could have done differently as he recounts the events of the day.
Danny honestly wasn’t sure how it happened. Maybe they saw him transform between his two identities. Maybe he said something that made them realize what he was. Either way he knows he must have done something to tip his parents off that he was Phantom.
It was only because of Jazz he was even able to get out of the house. His sister had managed to block their path as they screamed about how he was just a thing that had killed their son and took his face as a means to trick them.
Once out of the house the first place Danny ran to was Tucker house. From there the two of them had contacted Sam and planned to meet up behind the school and talk about what they were going to do from here. What they were going to do about Danny’s parents, and the fact that he most likely would never be able to step foot back into his home again.
Everything was admittedly looking bad but things went from bad to worse pretty quickly once the GIW flocking to the streets in droves. Every corner they turned revealed another white van quietly waiting for him to show his face. His parents must have contacted them pretty quickly after he ran out of the house.
This is when the day truly starts to just blur together. One moment he feels like he’s mentally present and the next staring at Sam and Tucker’s lifeless bodies on the ground. They had been cornered because of course fucking course they were. Apparently, the GIW didn’t have any problem hurting normal humans if they thought that they were too far gone under the “evil influence” of a ghost. The GIW has truly lost all standards now.
Danny knows he would have been quickly caught himself if it hadn’t been for the fact that Clockwork opened a portal right under his feet just as the GIW was approaching him. Which led him to where he currently finds himself; in the Ghost Zone.
That fucking bastard is his first thought as he reorientates himself with his new surroundings. He couldn’t have done that earlier? It had to be only after he lost his friends? Danny takes a deep breath before speaking, “My friends are dead. You made me watch them die before you decided to help me.”
Clockwork who was floating in front of him looked at him with gentle eyes, “My boy I-”
“How dare you.”
“...I know nothing I say will make this situation better, but I hope you will eventually believe when I say that this is not the way I wanted things to be.” Clockwork speaks calmly to him unperturbed by Danny’s obvious anger.
“My sister.” Danny isn’t going to bother acknowledging him. His words mean little to him at this point; his intentions don’t outweigh his actions. “How is she?”
“She is well, no harm has or will fall upon her.” Danny doesn’t know if that is a lie or not but he’s going to choose to believe it’s true.
“So what happens now? There’s no way I’m going to be able to step foot back in that town again. Not unless I want the GIW following my every move.”
Instead of answering right away Clockwork puts a hand on Danny’s shoulder and gently guides him to a different area of the room until they are both standing in front of a bare wall. Of course, with Clockwork though nothing is ever as it seems so it doesn’t surprise him when a portal is suddenly standing where the wall once was. “I’m going to be sending you to a different dimension while things calm down. One that is similar but vastly different as well. I know you will do well there.”
“Y’know you’ve said a lot of crazy and cryptic things to me before, but I think this takes the cake.” Danny feels his head pounding, the adrenaline of the day must finally be wearing off. “So that’s it? I just step in and tough it out in a world I don’t know a single thing about?”
“Not quite,” Clockwork at this point pulls out a green ring seemingly out of nowhere. “This here will guide you to others that will be willing to help you.”
Looking down at the ring Danny can’t help but feel oddly drawn to it. Which is why he doesn’t hesitate to grab it when it is offered to him. He’s going to chalk that up to some kind of trickery Clockwork is pulling as a way to make Danny follow his plan. Not wanting to think more on that thought though he quickly shoves it deep into his jean pocket.
“So- so this is it then I guess.” Danny stares ahead at the green swirling portal in front of him. He’s ready to just find somewhere quiet and fall asleep. “I’m sure I’ll be hearing from you sooner or later, but I’d appreciate it if it was later rather than sooner.”
He feels Clockwork squeeze his shoulder for a moment before letting go and stepping away from him. Taking that as a sign Danny steps forward into the portal. No turning back now.
On the other side of the portal he finds himself tripping on something and falling to his knees. When he lifts his head up he finally realizes that he is in someone's messy apartment. The place almost even looks abandoned if the dust cloud settling around him is anything to go by. Maybe that's why Clockwork dropped him off here; a safe place for him to at least sleep for a few hours before venturing out in this new world.
That is exactly what Danny plans to do at least with his remaining energy before a bright green glow starts to fill the room. It's different from the normal ghost green that he has become so accustomed to. Which is why it startles him more than he would like to admit.
After a few seconds he finally realizes that the glow is coming from him, or more specifically his jean pocket. The ring.
When Danny pulls it out the glowing only seems to get more intense, and starts to float in front of his face. That is when a calming voice fills his head, "In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight. Let those who worship evil's might, beware my power, Green Lantern's light! Do you accept this oath?"
"Yes." Danny says in a serious tone. Clockwork gave him this ring for a reason after all, and he's not going to ever deny a chance to help others; to do what's right.
In the blink of an eye the ring is suddenly sliding itself onto his finger, and with that the green glow encompassing the room seems to finally settle. That doesn't slow his fast beating heart entirely though, still half expecting for something else to happen as he stares at it.
While nothing else happens with the ring, Danny is very surprised when a voice on the other side of the room speaks out.
"What the-"
-
When Hal walked into his apartment after spending weeks in deep space the last thing he expected to find was a kid becoming a green lantern. From what he could tell just by looking at the kid was that he was a young teen boy who looked like a strong breeze could knock over right now.
For a moment he thought this was one from Batman's brood with the black hair and blue eyes, but that was quickly thrown out once Hal got a clearer look at the kid.
"What the-," is all Hal can say before the boy is shooting to his feet and backing away. He is clearly physically and mentally exhausted yet he still raises his fist to fight. The kid's got spirit, he'll give him that. In the back of Hal’s mind he’s already thinking of the potential this boy has to become a truly great green lantern.
“Who are you?” The kid’s voice is hoarse as he tries to speak, almost as if he had been doing a lot of yelling recently Hal silently notes.
Wanting to keep the kid as calm as possible he slowly raises his hands to his head before answering, “I’m Hal Jordan, this is my apartment we’re currently having our little showdown in.”
His actions luckily do seem to calm the boy down a bit. Enough so that he feels comfortable taking his eyes off of Hal and takes a moment to look all around him. “... You live like this?”
“Ok!” This little shit, “That was very much uncalled for!”
“Well I’m just saying,” the kid now lowering his fists to gesture to the space around them. “I thought this place was abandoned when I got dropped in here.”
Hal is choosing to now ignore any comments about his apartment. So the place isn’t the tidiest right now, he was in space doing important things! “That actually brings me to another thing, why are you here?”
That question causes the kid to tense up once more before he starts to speak nervously and quickly, “My- I’m sorry. I didn’t really know where I was gonna end up exactly. He sorta just left me here.”
“Is ‘he’ the same one that gave you that ring right there?” That was another very important thing that Hal wanted to talk about. If Hal could take a look at it he might even be able to get some information about the last ring user. He turns his hand to show off his own matching ring, “I’ve got my own, see? You can trust me.”
Seeing Hal’s own ring actually seems to settle the kid down quite a lot. He’d make a guess that the kid was at least told to trust other green lantern ring users before being left on his own.
“Yeah, they’re one in the same, but I don’t think he ever wore the ring before.” Which is now something that only causes Hal more confusion to this whole mystery. “I’m- I’m Danny by the way.”
Danny. He’s happy to now have a name to call the kid, and he feels like maybe he’s doing something right since Danny felt comfortable enough to share that information on his own accord. In other words he’s nailing this!
“Hi Danny,” Hal feels himself truly begin to relax now that tenses have lowered. Taking a look at the young boy now awkwardly standing in his living room he concernedly asks, “You feeling ok?”
“Yeah, I’m just … tired.” Which is something that has been obvious since the beginning to Hal.
Taking a few tentative steps forward and gestures to the door closest to Danny. “The bedroom is right through that door. Why don’t you go and take a nap while I uh- clean up and order us some food? Is pizza good, allergic to anything?”
Danny for a moment doesn’t look like he likes the idea Hal’s suggestion, but when he looks down at the ring on his finger his shoulders slump and he slowly nods his head. “Ok. Pizza sounds good man, I’ll take whatever.”
“Good.” Hal nods as well, not really knowing what else to do at this moment, “Good, I’ll give you some time to sleep, and wake you up in a couple hours. Let me know if there’s anything you need.”
Looking between Hal and the door Danny shuffles his way towards the bedroom, but before he disappears completely into the room he says one more thing, “I wouldn’t try anything funny if I were you. I might be having a bad day, but that doesn’t mean I won’t keep fighting.”
With that the door is quickly shut before Hal can even think to reply. Which honestly amuses him more than anything that he did do that.
Taking a deep breath Hal puts his hands on hips and looks around his apartment. He wasn’t originally planning on cleaning up, but he’ll be damned if he’s going to let a teenager judge him about his cleanliness again.
Before he starts that though he really feels the need to just talk to someone about what just happened. Pressing his phone against his ear in a matter of seconds he waits and listens for the other end to pick up.
