"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.
Nothing greater than crawling into bed and reading fan fiction about the same two people falling in love in every conceivable universe. My yaoi time is sacred.
In Young Justice, Black Canary works as a counselor for young heroes, and sometimes other kids/teens.
What if…Phantom came to her for help? Not for himself, of course, but for his son!
Background
the Anti-Ecto Acts were repealed
Danny and Dani are part of the Justice League (whether Dani is part of the Teen Titans or another young superhero team is up to you)
Danny is 16-17 by now, making Dani 14-15, with Dan being deaged back to 14
Dan is on house arrest in his own personal rehab facility somewhere in the Realms, away from everyone else until they’re sure he won’t go on a rampage again. Dw they visit him when they can
The JL think Phantom is an adult because he wears a full hazmat suit that covers his face, Spirit is his daughter, etc
The JL also don’t know Spirit is a clone. The cageyness with which they talk about “fruitloop” and some other things surrounding how Spirit was “made” lead many to assume Phantom was taken advantage of
Obv no one asks the two about it because it’s clearly a sensitive topic
This means various JL members are silently collecting info about who “fruitloop” could be so they can lock them up
Slowly but surely, Dan had been making progress. Jazz was putting her psychology classes to good use when she visits him. Having a family member as a counselor/therapist is a conflict of interest, but she was the only one he was comfortable with, and wouldn’t maim. For a while, it worked.
Until it didn’t.
At some point, they hit a wall and he wouldn’t open up any further. Jazz isn’t surprised, “There’s a reason people are more comfortable opening up to strangers, you know. It’s less personal, there’s nothing to lose because a stranger holds no control over your life.”
So, they just have to find someone new to work with him. Someone unbiased, unconnected to their lives. No big deal, right?
Except Dan is…deteriorating. A ghost’s health is tied to their mental and emotional states, moreso than humans. Plus, he lacks the things needed for a healthy ghost; A fraid (besides Jazz he doesn’t tolerate his old relationships very well), an obsession (they don’t know what his is or if he has one, they tried giving him space stuff but it upset him. Reminds him of what he lost)
These things combined means he is doing…not well. At all.
But finding a good therapist/counselor is hard. Sure there are plenty of dead ones, but Danny still has to vet them. He refuses to have a repeat of Spectra. But Dan’s issues are also pretty unique! How many therapists are equipped to handle time travel, villainy, and all the trauma that comes with it? Very few!
Dan is getting worse (how this physically affects him is up to you) and it’s stressing Danny out. They may not have a good relationship, but he doesn’t want him to suffer, especially now that he’s actually trying to reform!
But then, he hears from Dani that Black Canary counsels the younger heroes, making her qualified to deal with Dan’s…everything. She may not be super knowledgeable on ghosts, but that can be remedied! Jazz is happy to giver her her notes on how ghost psychology differs from humans (she plans on writing a book on the subject)
So, Phantom pulls Black Canary aside one day and awkwardly asks (pleads) that she work with Dan. Promising that “You’ll be compensated, obviously, and there’ll be security and failsafes and I can even ask Clockwork to mess with time so it doesn’t interfere with the rest of your schedule—”
She appreciates the lengths he’s willing to go to get help for his son, and accepts the job, though she’ll just fit him into her schedule the normal way, uncomfortable with the idea of altering time for non-emergencies. Frankly, she’s excited for both the challenge, and to get closer to Phantom and Spirit. The two are great coworkers, but haven’t really opened up much about themselves personally, so this is progress!
From there she gets a quick rundown of the situation, some research about ghosts for her to study, and is sent to counsel Dan! Not without some misunderstandings, of course!
The reason Danny calls Dan his son even though they aren’t really close is because, if Dani is his daughter then it’s only fair to call Dan his son. And because otherwise he’d have to explain the whole “my soul was ripped from my body, fused w my nemesis’s soul, became evil and we had to deage him” thing and saying “son from another timeline” is way easier
Because of this omission, Dinah believes that in this other timeline, Phantom got taken advantage of again, died in childbirth, and his son was raised by “Fruitloop” to become a supervillain until Clockwork (who might be Kronos?) stepped in to help and Phantom defeated his own son before erasing that cursed timeline
From then on it’s a story of comedic misunderstandings, angst, and helping a traumatized teen through his redemption arc.
Bonus things I can see happening in no particular order
Dan ranting about Vlad, ranging from things like “nobody says no to Vlad Masters!” Is something he’s actually said! That’s a real quote!” To “he’s so ridiculous he doesn’t even swear! He just says things like “oh butter biscuits!” So lame!”
Spectra ending up on Dinah’s shit list when Dan tells her “my last counselor called me a freak” and she learns that there’s a villain who pretends to be a highschool counselor to torture students and feed off their misery. As soon as Vlad is dealt with she’s next lol
Have Dan pick up a bunch of random hobbies to 1 give him some healthy coping mechanisms and 2 maybe spark a new obsession in him. Dinah’s a florist sometimes I think, so maybe she gets him into flowers? Idk just give this boy some hobbies
Picking out a new name for him since “Dan” is literally just what they call him because he doesn’t have another name
After being sure he isn’t an active threat to the public he’s allowed outside, because he REALLY needs to socialize. Spirit introduces her hero friends to her “little brother” and they’re confused cus they didn’t know she had one
The first time Dinah calls him “hon” he thinks she’s going to call him a honey badger and loses his shit. She calms him down and makes a mental note to figure what that’s about
Welp, that’s all I’ve got for now, maybe I’ll add onto this later who knows
“we have you now spook! there is nowhere you can run and hide with our new spectral tethers active!”
Danny winces at the small metal clips that have hooked themselves in his leg, some new GIW tech that is messing with his powers.
“oh yeah? I was just dying for you guys to give me a challenge” plan. plan. He's gotta think of a plan to get out of here and fast. He takes a steadying breath and starts to look for anything that can help him.
he can’t get caught here. He just can't. He simply won’t allow himself.
suddenly the two GIW goons in front of him click their earpieces to clearly listen to what someone else is telling them, Danny is very glad for his own enhanced senses.
“Operatives K and O, be advised, there have been sightings of a new ectoplasmic entity near your location. Other operatives report that it’s incredibly small and moves fast. watch your backs, this may be an ambush”
small and fast? it better not be some poor little blob ghost, Danny sort of hopes it’s some manner of ectowasp, at least that could be entertaining to see.
“you better not be hoping for back up, ecto scum”
“I have no idea what you are talking about”
It's then that a small bright green light zips on scene and weaves through crowds in the distance with ease and then speeds up towards the two operatives who do not hesitate to shoot, missing completely like the storm troopers they are.
Whatever it is, it is indeed going very fast but Danny manages to figure out what it looks like and it appears to be a… ring?
“hold it you tiny accessory shaped ecto fiend!”
The ring does a speedy circle around Operative O while K is lining up a shot and ends up blasting the poor guy point blank in his face, “O!”
Danny takes a step forward with an arm outstretched and a “oh damn! Are you alright?” on his lips when the ring takes the chance to slip on his finger.
“Daniel Fenton of Earth”
Danny already had a freakout about a ghost jewelry getting on him, his experiences with those so far have been incredibly bad after all, what with the rings and crowns and pendants… now this damn thing is just straight up outing him!
Thank the ancients the two GIW stooges are too busy with each other right now to pay close attention to what this weird ring is saying.
“You have the ability to overcome great fear” ah so this is related to him steeling himself just now? Maybe? or something??
You have been chosen” never good, we are back to freaking out again.
“Welcome to the green lantern corps”
… the what?
Danny notices that his usual outfit suddenly has more green going on, and his DP symbol has some sort of… he guess it’s supposed to be a lantern, maybe? shape around it.
He’s somehow even more glowy now, and there is something on his face. Feeling its shape makes him think it’s some sort of mask.
The metal clip things are no longer attached to his legs though so that’s great!
“You’re not getting away so easily ecto scum! sentient ghost paraphernalia coming to your rescue or no!” They both aim their weapons to take a shot.
Danny figures he can now easily hold them back with his usual shields,“you guys realize you just called this weird ring sentient and thereby negate the whole nonsentie-ack!”
“Attacking a corps lantern is punishable offense as of the instatement of the galactic diplomatic immunity as declared by the-” Okay so now Danny is just raising his eyebrow at this weird as fuck ring. Just what is it going on about?
“notifying nearby lanterns and requesting assistance with apprehension of hostiles”
what?
“getting your friends to help you out vile spook? such a thing is useless with the Blackout still very much in place”
Well… the two streaks of green light in the distance is making Danny doubt that statement.
Maybe there is more to this Lantern corps thing than he thought…
And something tells him his life is about to get even more complicated than it already is.
Ok but I know we make fun of Dan for making sex jokes about Phil and we tell them like oh TOO MUCH INFO DADS GROSS, what if instead we responded collectively gaslighting Dan that he could never actually pull Phil Lester. Like come ON DUDE you WISH you could tap that 😩😩 only in your wildest dreams baby face Howell 🙄🙄🙄 stop hitting on your coworker he clearly isn’t into you 😤🤚🏻
Danny's human form ages like normal, but his default form as Phantom is still the 14y/o he was at his time of death. Luckily he can change that with concentration, since his ghost form is malleable. But he has to a) have the time to enact the change and b) consciously maintain his form. His superhero colleagues don't know he's half alive, so he's typically got his adult ghost form firmly in place before they meet. While fighting a powerful enemy, Phantom's concentration slips and he reverts to child form. Doesn't matter, it's just aesthetics and the enemy is what's important. He’s equally strong in his 14 y/o form. Except, his colleagues are very concerned to “discover” that their teammate is a child who has been lying about his age all this time. So now Danny has to figure out how to convince them that he's just looked 14 for over a decade now, or bite the bullet and show them all his secret identity. Preferably before they demote him to a team of teen heroes, or he gets forcibly adopted.
