Danny is in Gotham (yes, that Gotham, different universe, long story) to finish his education before moving on with his life—or afterlife—and eventually ascending to High King status. It’s a good reveal AU. He still has his parents. He still has his friends. Clockwork just strongly suggested that if he wanted to rule the Infinite Realms one day, maybe he should get some cross-dimensional academic experience first.
So now he’s here.
The problem? Everyone is rich. Not “my dad owns a company” rich. More like “we have generational trauma and private islands” rich. Danny tries being friendly. Smiles. Makes conversation. Offers help with homework. It does absolutely nothing. These people only care about connections.
Which would be funny—if it weren’t so isolating—because they have no idea he is, objectively, the single most powerful networking opportunity in the multiverse.
So yeah. He’s a little lonely.
Enter Damian.
One of Damian’s brothers (who will not be named but absolutely thinks he’s hilarious) jokes that Damian has never had a normal civilian friendship in his life. That if he had to, he wouldn’t even know where to start. He offhandedly gestures at Danny like, there, that one looks harmless.
It’s a joke.
Unfortunately, Damian takes it as a challenge.
Not because Danny is a “target.” He isn’t. Damian just fully decides he will prove he can form a normal, healthy, civilian friendship. Out of spite.
There are misunderstandings, but somehow, despite everything, they start… getting along.
And Damian, internally victorious, decides to present Danny to his family as evidence that he can, in fact, maintain a normal friendship.
Danny is delightful.
He charms Alfred. He debates with Tim. He listens to Bruce. He somehow gets Jason to laugh. He and Dick vibe immediately. He treats Damian like an equal without even trying.
Phantom: *floats into the Watchtower with a baby strapped to his chest*
Batman: ...Phantom why do you have a baby?
Phantom: Oh, I was summoned last night and some lady sacrificed her baby to me, so I'm a dad now.
Superman: What?!
Wonder Woman: Oh? Congratulations.
Batman: You can't seriously just...keep them.
Phantom: Sure I can, anything thats sacrificed to me is mine to do with as I please. Got a puppy once, her name's Bugsy.
Superman: Do people often get sacrificed to you?
Phantom: Oh yeah, but most sacrifices are adults, so I just let them go back to their mortal lives. I'm working with Constantine to get the word out that I prefer nonhuman sacrifices, like food, or herbs, but its slow going.
Batman: Phantom we can't let you keep the baby.
Phantom: *tightens his hold on the baby and eyes falling into slits* And why not?
Superman: Well, you're a ghost and they're...living. I don't think you'd ever hurt them on purpose, but accidents happen, especially with babies.
Batman: A ghost is not equipped to raise living children.
Phantom: Oh, is that all you're worried about? Then- *transforms into living form and quickly puts on a mask* There! I'm human, problem solved. *happily walks away*
Superman: Did you know he could do that?
Batman: *shakes his head*
Wonder Woman: *nods her head* Phantom has many talents, tis why Pandora looks down upon him favorably.
Danny had to escape his home dimension due to the GIW hurting him too badly during one of their little hunts, causing the ancients to deem Danny’s dimension too dangerous for him. Clockwork gave him a hand making up an identity in another dimension (DC), but he failed to tell Danny that this dimension was nothing like his, and Danny, so focused on getting himself back to his feet and going unnoticed, doesn’t notice that’s the case on his own.
He’s overwhelmed by how much more advanced technology is in this dimension, and with much reason, they’re like XX years over his dimension, but at least he doesn't have to worry about sustainance, since Clockwork placed him on Gotham's academy Scholarship list, and the school is providing for all the basics. He would cry if he had to figure out a job in a place so much more advanced than his own dimension.
Now, Danny knows better than to just repress his powers, he doesn't want a repeat of the freezing incident. Less now that he's alone. Solution: casual use of his powers within his house. But maybe he got a little too used to that, because he kept slipping when having people over. But that's okay, he'll just play dumb and gaslight everyone into believing it didn't happen or Danny has nothing to do with it. After all, powers are not normal, and Danny is a completely normal human boy.
Or at least Danny thought he was playing normal pretty well until his friend from school just created a shadow sphere out of nowhere and started talking about metas and Danny doesn't really hear what else, because his blood is rising in his ear. Is this normal to humans here? Has he been playing human wrong? Shit, how does he ask about what his friend clearly sees to be normal information without giving out he’s from another dimension?
-_-_-_-_-_-_-_-
Duke knows his friend from school is a meta, he’s seen Danny slip with his powers multiple times, and honestly the excuses Danny gives him are getting a little ridiculous at this point. He wants to be able to bond with his friend over the meta experience. So after much thought, he decides to reveal his meta status without revealing the whole extent of his powers. Just to give Bruce some peace about his decision.
But instead of the opening up he had been hoping for, Danny looks completely lost. Did he come on too strong?
"Um, Duke, can everyone just… do that?" Danny asks confused.
"What?"
"I mean, I know growing up in a cult kinda cuts you off from some basic information, but I would have thought we would have at least been told if humans develop the ability to do… that."
"You what?"
Now, learning that Danny grew up in a cult was not how he envisioned this going, but what worries Duke more is that after explaining what meta were, Danny didn’t immediately jump to identify himself as one. So now Duke is worried. Does Danny not know he has powers? Does he actually believe all those excuses he had been giving Duke in the past when he slipped up.
Most people in Amity know Danny is Phantom, especially the teenagers. More importantly, they've realized that everyone in Amity is liminal enough to be summoned with the correct runes. And so a system has been devised so when they want to hang out somewhere, one person goes in, draws a big summoning circle, and just summons everyone else. It saves a lot on transportation and it's just practical.
Now that they're all old enough to go to college, most have spread all around the country. Staying in contact is not a problem, however, they can just summon each other, get together for a while, then break the circle and send them back to wherever they were before. Perfect solution. It doesn't even register as weird, they've been doing it for years and no one even bats an eye anymore. No one in Amity that is.
It'd be fine except they've caught the attention of the Justice League. On the heroes perspective, they have just discovered a cult that formed seemingly out of nowhere and keeps leaving neon green summoning circles with ominous runes traced along the edges in random places all over the country. They have not found any sign that people are getting hurt but that only means the cult is thorough at covering their tracks. Where did so many well-organized, clearly trained people come from? What are their bigger plans? Who are they targeting? They're clearly a big threat and they need to be a priority in investigating.
AKA "Danny Fenton accidentally hits the Joker with the GAV during a livestream. It quickly becomes a Gotham meme." DCxDP prompt! TW: Brief description of vehicular assault.
Pro tip: Don't drive while on the phone. You could hit somebody.
Okay, so Danny does ghost-hunting livestreams (endorsed by FentonWorks) and tours the most haunted cities in America. Gotham happens to be in the Top 10 Cursed Cities of America, featured by youtubers like Buzzfeed Unsolved and Netflix true crime documentaries. Danny just... capitalizes on that a bit. He needs to make money, okay?? His "ghost hunting" is mostly debunking supposedly haunted places, doing side quests for ghosts with unfinished business, and interviewing interesting people.
Anyways. Gotham City is confusing. The streets make no sense, half of the city is blocked off due to the latest Rogue attacks, and he's pretty sure he saw an ambulance smash through a barricade with zero hesitation followed by several cop cars. Danny's livestream chat is blowing up, begging to see what just happened, and he's fumbling with the dashboard phone holder when several groups of people in clown masks start swarming the street. They're surrounding the truck, actually shooting at him, a couple swinging baseball bats and crowbars. He takes his eyes off the road for one second just to check whether the GAV has its shield deployed.
One second is all it takes. He feels more than hears the thunk of something particularly human-shaped hitting his front bumper. And his stomach drops. Heart-stopping panic grips him and all he can do is grip the steering wheel and drive forward. He can vaguely hear shouts all around the GAV but shock blurs everything together until he's frantically driving away. He somehow ends up in a quiet one-way street that looks half-abandoned. His livestream comments are a mess of what just happened?? and r u okay?? and, notably: WAS THAT THE FUCKING JOKER?!
As Gotham finds out, Daniel J Fenton did, in fact, commit a hit and run on the Joker. The GCPD dismissed a vehicular assault charge as the livestream showed Danny being shot at during the time of the assault; judges would absolutely categorize the case as self-defense. The Joker unfortunately didn't die. Also unfortunately, screenshots of the livestream got leaked and now Danny's absurdly baffled and horrified expression post-hitting the Joker is trending on Gotham News.
A new trend of "Get Ready With Me to Hit The Joker With My Car" circulates, much to Danny's utter horror and mortification. Gothamites adore Danny. There's something hilariously ironic and slightly endearing about some out-of-towner hitting the only person in Gotham that everybody agrees should be dead with their car. Unintentionally, too. Even the Bats begrudgingly can't even be mad about it. The situation for the kid was clearly traumatizing and horrific.
(Although once Danny learns what the Joker's done and why everybody's so viciously gleeful, he feels a little less bad.)
"In other news, the newly discovered Infinite Realms, an alien dimension that sits right next to our own, has announced that they do not believe in America."
"...What?" Flash asks, protein bar halfway to his mouth. He's in the cafeteria of the Watchtower, and he's not the only one with his eyes pinned to the TV.
"I'm not sure I understand, Linda, can you clarify what they mean by that?" The male reporter asks, smile strained.
"Certainly, Todd. The Infinite Realms has stated that they do not believe that the United States of America is a real country, and as such, will not seek to make any deals or treaties with them."
Wonder Woman raises an eyebrow, leaning back in her seat.
"Then...then what do they think America is?" Todd asks from the TV, sounding a little desperate.
"Apparently, they view America as 'a collection of toddlers that bathe in money pretending like they own the world'."
Green Arrow starts laughing so hard he dry heaves.
Tim: *talking ab Gotham City rogues* And as you know, we have really deadly villains. Like Catwoman, a conniving, wily cat thief who takes valuable things from others without hesitation.
Danny: Oh, the nice lady that feeds the stray cats and gives the homeless kids food?
Tim: Uh. Sure. There’s also Two-Face, a man who’s murderous whims rely only on a coin toss.
Danny: Oh, that guy who donates his money to charity and sometimes helps defend people in court!
Tim: … are we talking about the same Two-Face here…? Okay, we also have Poison Ivy and Mr. Freeze, two deadly people with abilities that can devastate the city.
Danny: The woman who’s taking care of Gotham parks and the man who really loves his wife? I’ve seen them sometimes. They’re cool.
Tim: …… uh huh. We have the Croc as well, an enormous, reptilian creature with sentience that lurks in the sewers.
Danny: *nonchalantly* Waylon. He sometimes protects the homeless kids too.
Tim: *sigh* Sure. Whatever. Well, the Joker is—
Danny: That fucking asshat who hurts people and doesn’t deserve his name because of his shitty, unfunny humor? I hope that bitch dies already, me and so many others have been praying on his downfall but that cockroach is still alive somehow.