Everlasting Trio trope that I haven’t seen utilized yet and it’s a crime.
The three would be living in a two bedroom apartment. They’re sharing a single king bed because the second is for their computer stuff and Dani’s crash pad. The kitchen has a meal schedule up with all their favorites. It’s next to a calendar of all the things they’re doing together that month around their mutual errands and obligations.
If you ask if they’re dating each other each of them would sputter in denial.
They’re just saving money. It was the least shitty apartment in the budget. They’ve been best friends forever it would be weird not to. Gotta go bye!
Because, once again, Vlad wanted something he couldn’t have.
Wayne Enterprises stood proud and held its own for generations. If Bruce Wayne wasn’t beloved he was definitely envied. Proud father of many sons and now his upcoming wedding to the beautiful Selena Kyle made him the talk of elite social circles.
Vlad was never one to congratulate the success of others.
Timothy Drake, a child in a position too large for him to fill, would be the first to go. After all, it would really be too easy. Of course everyone would believe the boy would foolishly sign his company away to VladCo in a predatory takeover. He had met the boy a few times already, and Drake’s reputation proceeded him. Making him board a private jet for parts unknown in the dead of night would be simple. The scandal would be too much for him so of course he would run away in shame. Once Vlad stopped overshadowing him the plot would only cement itself into place. Let him make excuses to his too trusting adoptive father. The damage would be done.
Vlad could be more spontaneous from there.
He didn’t expect his plans to go wrong from the very start. The second his invisible doppelgänger attempted to overshadow the boy a series of alarms sounded throughout the office. The windows instantly secured themselves with solid iron and the once wooden door was secured behind an imposing series of metal cords.
Vlad let his genuine surprise play into his act. This was supposed to be a simple meeting about a possible joint project. But he could feel the distress of his doppelgänger. A burning sensation clamped down around his core.
Drake looked at him with a clinical eye. With a flick of his wrist he silenced the shrill klaxons, revealing the sound of chiming cords hiding beneath them. Vlad could feel the clamp around his core shift, but not painfully so. He blustered, trying to find the right words.
“So it’s magical then?” Drake appeared to be talking to himself. Then another flick of the wrist to activate the intercom on his desk.
“Tam? We seem to be having a false alarm. Could you tell Bruce to stop blowing up my phone? And send electrical to check the override. I don’t care if Chris is currently on Mars, if he isn’t here to fix this he’s fired.”
He ended the intercom and continued to stare at Vlad. Vlad might be in some kind of hold but it wasn’t enough to stop him. He willed his doppelgänger to try again but the strangling sensation intensified until it destabilized enough to become visible.
“A ghost,” the brat looked satisfied of all things as he stood up.
Now Vlad just had to kill him.
But before he could stand the office began to shift again. Lights flashed and metal clanged and Vlad found himself pinned beneath more cords. He looked away from the brat long enough to realize his double was similarly pinned. Drake took the opportunity to disappear himself.
Free from an eyewitness, Vlad ordered his visage to fight to the bitter end. Unfortunately the bindings proved too chaotic the maneuver around. The resulting struggle was enough to dissipate his double, letting its bindings cool to the floor. Vlad looked down at his own to see tiny runes etched into each cord. Patters of ancient languages and runes each fought to bind him. Each individually might be shaken off but their combined power was too much a mess to out maneuver.
Vlad was still plotting when a familiar green light began to pull him out of the cords while also compressing him down.
<<<>>>
Vlad Masters had covered his tracks well, but not well enough. His background and financial records didn’t hold up against Batman-level scrutiny. Enough former CEOs were left in the wake of innocuous business meetings that every precaution was taken. Even the more eccentric ones.
“Dammit, I owe Nightwing dinner for this.”
“You knew magic was the most likely possibility,” Batman secured the thermos into a carrying case etched in runes.
“The ghost-catching thermos threw me off,” That the two mad scientists swore by it’s effectiveness even as their young son replaced the one they were selling with a different, more enhanced one, was also cause for doubt.
“Constantine will be in Gotham within the hour. We’ll know more then.”
Jazz was going to college. Scholarship, grants, invites to academic clubs, the whole nine yards.
She’s 18 and terrified.
She sits her parents down after she gets the news. They’re thrilled, but before they could say anything, Jazz gives them an ultimatum.
“I’m not going unless every single thing in this house is made safe for Danny.”
No more ecto in the fridge, no more weapons ‘accidentally’ firing off when he enters the room, not a single ghost alarm getting set off when he’s nearby. Jack and Maddie would have to stop the hunt for Phantom until every Fentonworks product was 100% safe for humans. If they couldn’t put their mission aside to keep their own son safe, then she’d be leaving and taking Danny with her.
There really wasn’t a choice in the end.
Danny comes home to see his dad setting up a new fridge in the kitchen and his mom recalabrating the control unit for the house’s ghost shield. She gives him a big smile and tells him that Jazz has got some good news to share.
Four month later the Fentos roll up to a big ghost fight. It was a classified ‘turf war’ between Phantom and a ghost suited in white. A ghost powerful enough to attract lesser ghosts to attack as a pack. The Fenton’s recalibrated weapons were advanced beyond anything they had made before. The new Spector-Ejector could even knock a ghost out of a possessed human without any damage. Jack scatter shot the field with it while Maddie sniped every ghost with the Fenton Bazzoka. Every ghost hit was dragged directly back to the zone for an easy clean up.
Then the moment of truth, Phantom captured his rival in his stolen thermos. Maddie had her shot lined up and fired the second the cap was placed.
Nothing.
Her targeting system informed her there were no ghosts to fire at.
Ghost King Danny has inherited all contracts made with Pariah Dark but doesn’t know it until he finds himself pulling a bullet out of Bruce Wayne.
He was instantaneously summoned in Ghost King regalia to a shooting in progress. Luckily, he had taken Clockwork as his mentor and could bend time just enough to take a bullet out of someone and put it back into the gun it came from. He was as surprised as anyone else at the gala to have saved his life, but was trying to be casual about it to hide his panic. He jumped right to being annoyed about being all the way in New Jersey when he had a test tomorrow.
He stole the Joker’s wallet to pay for his coffee tomorrow morning and left him with the police. Pointedly not saying anything of who he was or why he was there.
Clockwork broke the news to him about his newfound inheritance. People were still able to make contracts with the ghost king when he was in the sarcophagus, but since Pariah couldn’t hold up his end of the bargain the contracts would be voided. Someone must have made a contract before Danny became king but only became relevant when the bullet was already in Bruce Wayne’s heart. They had to check the castle’s archives and found a solitary valid contract. A contract to preserve the life of one Bruce Wayne until his natural death. Paid for on completion with the eternal human soul of the signer.
Cue phantom sheepishly ringing the doorbell and asking to see Mr. Pennyworth about a Life Assurance policy he purchased.
Everyone has a long night, figuratively and literally.
First <;> Previous <> Next (Final)
<<<<>>>>
“How was I supposed to know they were all superheroes?” Danny’s voice echoed amongst the ticking and tocking of all the clocks floating in Clockwork’s lair.
“You didn’t think to check before agreeing to save their lives from certain death?”
“I wasn’t thinking anything except giving a grandpa some hope that the teenager in charge of his afterlife had his back.”
“Then you succeeded, didn’t you?” Clockwork had a few of his screens replaying the events of the past few weeks. Danny groaned as a replay of him spilling his guts to the Justice League played in the background.
“I know I’m supposed to wait for the right time for training, but I need help with this summoning business.”
“You know you don’t have to accept the summons. The urge will pass as the summoner gives up on the ritual. Even the most persistent of humans will tire.”
“It’s not that. His family must be worried about him but I can’t leave him here to let them know he’s ok. I need a way to get to and from the ghost zone that isn’t in my parent’s basement. Even if Frostbite will let me use it, the Infi-Map is way too powerful to carry around.” Danny felt weird just holding onto the scroll, it looked inert enough in his hands but he felt it was just waiting for him to wish himself to the dawn of time. “That kid could have taken it out of my hands before I knew it.”
“Precocious, isn’t he?” Clockwork side-eyed the screen with the youngest Wayne brandishing a sword nearly as big as he is.
“If that word means young but dangerous, then yes. I can’t risk the map and flying from Amity to Gotham is not ideal. I know some ghosts can tear open their own portals, Wulf and Cujo can do so naturally and still end up where they want to be. Even my parents had some success making smaller portals fire from the Fenton bazooka.”
Clockwork smiled, and Danny knew he was amused with what he was going to say next.
“What I really need, is time to make this right.”
“How fortunate for you, your mentor has some experience in the matter,” Clockwork raised his glowing light to gesture to his lair. Every clock gave one last tick and stopped. Danny could feel the threads of time stiffen. He hadn’t even realized they were moving, though it seemed obvious in hindsight.
“You have already found and altered the threads of time. Now it’s time to find the folds of space.”
<<<<<>>>>>
Frostbite sat in the vault and looked over the data his brethren had compiled. Their unsuspecting guest had been a wealth of discoveries on the acute decay of ectoplasm. It had only been a few hours since his arrival and he was ready to be moved from the stasis tube and to a bed. Only a light sedative would be needed to keep him in a restive sleep. The Great One still had plenty of time to return.
That was the predicament, wasn’t it? It was no secret to the Ghost Zone that the boy had taken on a soul contract. One inherited from Pariah Dark himself. The young man contaminated with ectoplasm was one of the humans he was contracted to protect. The Great One had bemoaned the situation that led to the two collapsing at the edge of his people’s realm. Now he was seeking the counsel of his ancient mentor, hoping that he will return in time to see him home.
The old king had not pretended to care for his thralls, had not even beguiled those who struck a deal with him. He had cared for his power, and had used it to threaten ever-increasing numbers of the living and dead until they too signed their souls away for safety.
Danny was not Pariah, but Frostbite didn’t have the benefit of knowing where Pariah rose. If he had ever been a boy who complained over his responsibilities or made promises with hugs.
Frostbite realized he had been staring at his notes instead of reading them. He set them aside. Before he could decide where to turn his attention, he picked up a familiar scent. The sharp burning smell of reality being circumvented. Danny stood before him, the Infi-Map in hand.
“Frostbite!” the young king wrapped his arms around the arm that wasn’t made of ice before jumping back, “Sorry! I know you just saw me. But it’s been a while, for me.”
Frostbite must have made a face, the Great One was quick to answer it, “It was just a month. Clockwork taught me how to make my own portals. I didn’t want to leave until I got it right.”
“Ah, well then, Great One,” Frostbite picked up his notes again, “Would you like to hear the good news about Jason?”
“Yes! He’s ok? Did he wake up? Clockwork said it was only a couple of hours. What happened?”
Frostbite guided the young monarch back to the medical ward, one of the most powerful relics of the Infinite Realms left on the dais without so much as a backward glance.
<<<<<>>>>>
Wayne Manor hadn’t seen a morning this bad in a long time. Light was poking through the slivers of the living room curtains and falling on the figures within. Dick, Barbra, and Duke had gotten there an hour after the ritual. Their exclusion had been a deliberate act on behalf of the more reckless members of the clan. The fighting and crying and accusations had stopped a few hours ago. There was nothing but silence now. No one had slept, but it was wrong to say they were all truly awake.
Tim thought the lack of sleep was getting to him. He was starting to see lightning in the corner of his eyes. When they didn’t go away, he shoved Dick in the shoulder. Understanding the universal language of younger brothers, Dick shoved him back and looked to where Tim was looking.
“Yeah, I’m seeing that too.”
That got the attention of the rest of the family. A split second later a crack of lightning heralded a radioactive green disk appearing in front of the fireplace. A slip of white poked out of it. Fortunately, Damian was very nearly asleep, so Alfred was easily able to hold him back by hugging him tighter. Instead of a shock of white hair, the white was the white of a small cloth attached to a stick.
After a beat, the crowned head of the ghost king emerged from the disk.
“Jason is ok, please do not attack me.”
<<<<>>>>
Jason was awake. He realized he hadn’t been the second before. He had definitely been asleep, but he had jumped to being awake with no preamble between the two. It wasn’t morning, because there wasn’t any light coming from that one broken blind he’d been meaning to get fixed for the past two years.
He got up, but realized that he failed that. There was a big heavy fur blanket over him. On top of that blanket was Damian. He could just barely see the little brat’s scowl from the glow of the heart monitor next to the bed.
Oh.
A simple finger monitor was attached to his left hand. Other than that, nothing was holding him in place but his little brother. Jason considered knocking him off and getting out of there when he noticed the puff of white coming from his own breath. What kind of hospital was this cold?
“Give them a few more minutes.”
Green light shone from across the room, illuminating the forms of his other family members as he got closer. They were curled up beneath their own blankets, little puffs of their breath almost glowing in the dim light. The face beneath the crown pressed a finger to his lips nodding his head to the other side of Jason’s bed. Alfred had the seat of honor, right next to the bed and leaning his head against the wall. Jason realized he had never seen him like this, disheveled and exhausted.
Everything came back to him then.
“What did you do to me?” He said it quietly as he could, not that it mattered, his family looked dead to the world.
“I possessed you. The same way I possessed the Joker. Something inside you reacted badly to it.”
“Understatement.”
“It’s all we got right now. You responded well to a transfusion. I brought your family here as soon as I could. They were up all night worrying about you.”
Jason wanted to deny it on reflex. Wanted to say they didn’t really care about him. Something stopped him. He tried pinpointing why, but couldn’t. He couldn’t even manage to feel angry. Angry was something he very much should be given everything that was going on. But the anger didn’t come. In fact, he felt, good. Great even.
Maybe he wouldn’t kick Damian off the bed after all.
“I’ll be back with some food for everyone. We can talk with the doctors after.”
“Damian’s a vegan, brat probably won’t eat anything that casts a shadow.”
The king gave a very un-kingly snort, “We have that covered. The yetis are very hospitable.”
Danny was almost home from Sam’s when he felt another tickle at the back of his mind. He huffed and picked up the pace. It had been a good week curfew-wise and he had to say goodnight to his parents before any more ghost king-related shenanigans. He was turning the last corner when that tickle turned into an uncomfortable itch. His dad nearly knocked him over as he reached the front door.
“Danno! Nearly missed you! Your mom and I are heading to the city!” Jack held up a duffel bag as proof.
“Just until tomorrow night honey,” Maddie rolled out the suitcase filled with just-in-case weapons, “Our usual circuitry supplier is having a warehouse sale. We left some money on the fridge for some pizza and remember to text us if you’re going out tomorrow.”
“No problem mom,” Danny rubbed at his eye with the palm of his hand, the itching had progressed to dull pain, “Get some blinky lights for me.”
Jack rubbed his son’s hair at the familiar joke and went to pack up the car. Danny scrambled upstairs and let the rings transform him, first into Phantom and then into the Ghost King. The pain eased and he could focus on what exactly was happening.
The crown was here to answer this time. It was a request from a contract holder. Since there was only one contract holder right now, there was only one place to go.
He stepped out of his bedroom and into a dim room. He kept rubbing at his eyes as they tried to adjust.
“Mr. Pennyworth? Did you call me? Did you change your mind?”
The pain in his eyes left just as a pain started to build in his chest. When he went to scratch at it, he found something in his way. A blade glinted in what little light the room had, and what little left of the blade wasn’t in his chest. Danny was nearly entranced at the sight, the dulled recognition of the pain that replaced where his heart was a few seconds ago. The blade grew, the hilt retreating away as the strings of time pulled it away, bloodless and shining. His heartbeat returned just before the last of it left his chest.
Time was returning to normal and it was still too dark to see well. The crown appeased its liege. An explosion of bright green Aroura Borealis filled the room to every corner. It revealed the sword and its wielder.
“That wasn’t nice,” Danny was NOT on his catchy comeback game today, but he was also just stabbed in the heart, so might as well go for the truth.
There was shouting, overlapping and overwhelming. Danny stood still and tried to figure out what he was looking at. More superheroes? The League? But the crown assured him that this was a contract holder’s domain. He picked one person and tried to pin down a name.
“Red Hood?” Ah, that was a gun. Guns hurt too. Guns bad.
Well, it worked last time. Danny stepped forward and into the Red Hood.
Death, everything felt like death. It was the accident all over again. Every atom was burning, splitting, reforming. Again and again and again. Danny couldn’t breathe. Air was replaced by ectoplasm. The helmet was filled with bile. He was thrashing, trying to get out. Their limbs were sticky and their legs kept vanishing. The smell of ozone pierced through the smell of iron and he was falling into the familiar weightlessness of the Ghost Zone.
It is in the Ghost Zone’s nature to preserve, to exist in stasis where life exists in change. The crown burst free of the helmet, cracking it in two and allowing Danny to barely see through the ichor pouring from his eyes. It was the crown that parted the way to familiar realms. The burning of his core eased at the drop in temperature. Danny embraced the snow beneath him and thought no more.
<<<<>>>>
Batman returned home to find a sigil circle drawn of what used to be an emergency blood transfusion in the cave. He recognized the pattern from today’s project, right down to Zatanna’s modification of one of the runes. The briefing had mentioned that without the help of a Homo Magi the pattern would have to be made from blood.
Alfred stared down a line-up of everyone who should have been home from patrol and in bed by now. A distinctive motorcycle was parked in the vehicle bay but Jason was nowhere to be seen. Bruce stood beside Alfred, he hadn’t been able to think of anything to say on the way home but was spared when Alfred spoke first.
“There is a great deal that needs to be said tonight, Master Wayne. However, I do believe we should start with what your children have done in your absence.”
“It was Damian’s fault!” Tim shouted.
“Your incompetency is to blame, Drake! You didn’t banish it correctly!”
“We were just supposed to talk to it, you’re the one who stabbed at first sight!” Stephanie pointed at Damian’s favorite katana, clean and set aside next to the bloody circle.
“You’re all fools to think bargaining would work. Killing it is the only way to break the deal.”
Bruce felt a gentle tug at his right arm, Cass was looking up at him. He waited for her to find the words.
“The Ghost King took Jason.”
<<<<>>>>
“I’ve committed Grand Theft Grandkid!”
“You could hardly be blamed for this Great One,” Frostbite looked way too amused about the current situation.
The situation being the man built like a tank floating in the medical stasis chamber. Samples of the ichor and bile they found Danny-as-Red Hood throwing up were contained in test tubes and Petri dishes. The other members of Frostbite’s clan were studying the samples while some were monitoring Jason’s vitals.
The crown assured him that the infamous Red Hood was indeed the contract beneficiary known as Jason Todd. Meaning that the rest of those beneficiaries were not, in fact, a normal family of rich socialites.
“I am so doomed. When Batman finds out I stole one of his kids, the League will hunt me down and I’ll never graduate high school.”
“Deep breath and hold it,” Frostbite continued his exam of the young monarch, seemingly pleased by what he heard through the modified stethoscope, “Your lungs are clear and it looks like your core has successfully purged the contamination from your corporeal form.”
“What happened to him?” Danny looked over to the stasis chamber. Clean, refined ectoplasm circulated through and carried away nasty-looking clumps of ichor away.
“We’re still unsure. His vitals resemble yours in many ways, but he has no core to speak of. He was either infected with contaminated ectoplasm or came into contact with ectoplasm that he was unable to expel on his own. Without ectoplasm, his body began to shut down. We will learn more when he awakens.”
“Thank you, Frostbite,” Danny sat for a minute on the exam table, trying to think of a plan.
“I need to see Clockwork. If they summon me again, I’ll be stuck back on the Human side while he stays here. Then I would have to get home without them following me. Not to mention what he’ll do if he wakes up surrounded by yetis.”
“You handled it well the first time,” Frostbite gave into the urge and scooped the little king of this half of reality, Danny squawked but didn’t fight him. He let himself be carried away from the medical ward and towards a guarded vault deep within the Far Frozen. He gestured to a dais where a scroll floated, “The Infi-Map is yours to use, Great One. Go see your mentor. If he is willing, you will be back before the young man awakens.”
“I know how much the map means to you Frostbite, thank you,” It was Danny’s turn to give in to an impulse, he hugged what he could. There was no way to get his arms anywhere near around the yeti, but he tried, “I’ll bring it right back. I promise.”
He scrambled down and let the map take him to the realm of his mentor. Time to face the music. The smug, cryptic music.
Danny answers a very polite summons and immediately puts his foot in his mouth.
Original Post <;> Part 2 <> Part 4
<<<<>>>>
The next summons was very polite all things considered. Saturday afternoon right after lunch. Chores and homework were done and it’s was still a few hours before he was supposed to meet up with Sam and Tucker. It wasn’t instantaneous either, just a whisper at the back of his mind. Someone, somewhere, was requesting an audience with the king of the infinite realms.
With the track record of the past month, he thought it would probably be best to answer it now and get it over with.
A portal opened up with his acceptance, and it was a smooth transition from his bedroom to face Superman.
“You’re Superman.”
Danny didn’t even have time to kick himself over one of his worst introductions. The rest of the Justice League was staring at him.
He stared back. In the back of his mind he registered the plain metallic room they were standing in and the sigil pattern Danny was floating above. Nothing was more attention grabbing than the collection of superhero’s that could certifiably make his half-life much harder.
“I swear it wasn’t my fault! I didn’t even know I had a contract open!”
The crown, maybe trying to get it’s liege to shut up, dropped the temperature sharply enough that small ice crystals started to form in his immediate vicinity.
“Enough,” that was Wonder Woman. Wonder Woman was telling him to shut up and Danny had to swallow down a thank you. The ice crystals dissipated as she turned and yep that was Batman standing next to her.
“Now he’s here. Say what you need to.”
Batman glided forward, graceful as any ghost could have. The cowl made his eyes two white slits in the void and Danny didn’t shrink back exactly but his legs did lose their form and become a tail.
“Are you the King of the Infinite Realms?”
Danny nodded.
“Were you the one who saved Bruce Wayne’s life after the Joker shot him?”
Another nod.
“Why?”
“I am bound by a contract. I will ensure that he and his family will only die from a natural death.”
“Who made a contract with you?”
“That’s the problem! He didn’t make a contract with ME, he made it with the old ghost king. I didn’t know about the contact before I was compelled to honor it. When I tried to get him to take it back he refused and told me to keep it a secret. Said he didn’t want his family to worry about him. Which I totally get because I’m keeping secrets from my family too. Why did I tell you that?”
Batman took a step back. Danny looked at the sigil circle on the floor again and noticed that the outer ring was glowing gold. His eyes followed the gold right back to Wonder Woman.
“Let me guess, the Lasso of Truth makes everything you say inside of it the truth?”
The League members seemed to brace themselves, and that was fine, Danny totally had this handled.
He went invisible and floated out of the sigil circle, he kept quiet as the supers started muttering to themselves on if he left or was just playing them. Luckily no alarm sounded as he made his way out of the metal room and into an equally metal hallway. No problems then, he just had to find which of the three dimensions was the way out and he would be good.
From his experience with hostile organizations, metal rooms and hallways usually meant underground. So he made his head intangible and took a peek at the space above the ceiling. What he wasn’t expecting was actual space. He ducked his head back down before he risked any vacuum-related injuries. After a quick checked his eyes and ears, he took a deep breath and let the laughter take over.
“I’m in space!”
Danny took off down the hallway and kept going, alarm sirens eventually started sounding but at this point he completely didn’t care. He phased through every emergency door and into an elevator shaft until he found something interesting.
There was a room filled with monitors and consoles and more importantly a 360 degree window out into open space. He stayed invisible while talking a long look out the windows to see if he could spot any familiar constellations. The space station was already in the night half of the world so the earth was alight of what looked like the European continent. Some supers came into the room to man the controls but they weren’t saying anything worth paying attention to.
When he got tired of the sirens interrupting his view he decided to hide on the ceiling and watch the league work themselves up. There was one oddball in the crowd of tights. A scruffy looking man in a trench coat looked really irritated as he consulted a heavy looking book. Danny couldn’t remember if he was in the room or not when he was summoned but the pretty lady next to him was.
Feeling impish, Danny dropped down quietly and stood next to Zatanna and whispered “Watcha doin?”
She didn’t jump but trench coat guy sure did, he brandished some kind of rune that snapped a net of light, wrapping around his arms and pinning them to his sides. Danny wasn’t particularly worried, and became visible again.
“Rude, after that really polite summons too,” Danny let the rings of light that change him from Phantom to Fenton appear, it negated whatever spell trench coat man used. Zatanna still didn’t jump and looked oddly calm about the situation.
“It’s been fun up here, but how do I get down without breaking something expensive?”
“We use the Zeta tube system, fifth floor in the elevator. I can override the controls to get you back to earth.”
“Cool,” Danny let his legs form again and stood on the ground. He followed Zatanna into the elevator. Others in the room tried protesting, but she waved them off.
As the elevator descended he turned to face her, “I understand why you did it, I’m not happy about it, but I get it.”
“Can I ask one more thing before you go?”
“I won’t promise I’ll answer, but I won’t lie to you if I do.”
“What’s your name?”
Danny laughed, “I guess ‘your highness’ would get old wouldn’t it? My name is Danny, Danny Phantom.”
“Nice to meet you Danny, I’m Zatanna.”
They shook hands as the elevator dinged for their floor. A complicated looking machine that looked right out of Star Trek was waiting for them. Zatanna went over to the controls to unlock it.
Danny couldn’t help but fidget a little, “On a scale of 1 to hunting me down and skinning me alive, how mad are they?”
“Not mad, just scared. Batman is very protective of his home. He doesn’t trust easily and he will try to understand you and everything you can do. The League is much the same.”
“But not you.”
“If it looks like a teenager and acts like a teenager…”
“I don’t really scream ancient monarch of all ghosts do I?”
“The crown is a nice touch.”
An aurora borealis form around the crown, “The crown says thank you.”
Zantana smiles and a reassuring beep came from the console, “any place in particular?”
“Can you get me close to the Great Lakes? I’ve got a thing tonight.”
“Chicago it is. We hid the drop point in a junkyard shed. Just step inside.”
Danny went to, but stopped shy of the platform, “I can’t break the contract from my end. If I did, what I’ve done would be reversed, and Mr. Wayne will die.”
“And if you honor the contract?”
“A man gives me his soul. I don’t know what happens to him after. I’m still trying to figure out that part.”
“From what I understand, that will be up to you.”
“I was afraid of that,” Danny stepped into the machine and let himself be taken away.
In a secured sub-basement apartment in crime alley, a computer finished its heavily encrypted download of the Tower’s security feed. As it began scrubbing all evidence of the download, a small shaking hand gathered the copy made to the USB and stashed it away. No one in the room spoke.
One of them pulled out a phone and a started dialing.
One of you had fantastic names for the other failed Danny-clones. It was in a post where Danny had named them postmortem and I thought they were so good but I can’t find the original post to give credit.
I remember they named the big one “Atlas” and the scary skull one “Nebula” for the skull nebula.
If you wrote the post or remember the other names pls share.
