The acts Unmasked
AO3 prev Master next
Danny panics in the alley.
Danny was just lost. Just waiting for some ball to drop.
Why would they help?
The girl, the black bat, gave him chalk and they didn’t bat an eye at frostbite. They just didn’t make sense. No one had ever listened before. He had fully expected them to go back to doing whatever sketchy stuff they were up to on that rooftop. He hoped.
He had also hoped his parents wouldn’t touch Ellie.
That didn’t pan out.
Yet this group actually did.
It was obvious these three were in some type of group. Working together with no need of talking. Non-verbal responses, and nodding of heads are obviously trained. Nodding to one another. It would be three against one. Well, one and dead body weight. Who knew when Ellie would wake up?
The alley had to be beyond cold. Even he could feel it now. His core was free for most to feel. Ellie needed more ectoplasm frostbite and said she just needed to rest and balance out. He couldn’t stand the waiting.
It wasn’t safe. It was always a matter of time until someone found and attacked them. His ectoplasm was already leaking into the air. Mixing with the dead vibe of Gotham.
Batman was slow to approach them. Cautious likely. Danny did go making a few big threats here and there. You know.
Suggesting the end of the world and all.
Danny didn’t really want to hear the man out he just wanted his sisters. Both of them, Ellie was still asleep, and who knows how long it will be and Jazz was off somewhere in Gotham. No matter how much he pushed his ectoplasm into her it felt like nothing was happening. It just wasn’t replenishing as quickly as it had been taken.
Blood blossoms are deadly to ghosts. It makes sense it would take a while to recover.
When the man finally made it in front of him, he discussed moving out of the alley. Getting somewhere safer.
Batman offered two options.
When a spaceship thing in space was mentioned, man Danny really tried not to be in awe. No matter how cool that was, he thinks an ambassador wouldn’t get starry eyes over something like that. Out of everything he went with, why an ambassador?
What did they even do?
Batman did make plenty of points on why staying on Earth could be bad. With the passing of the acts, the United States wasn’t safe. No duh, they literally bought his little sister. Plus, there was the whole extraction thing Jazz had mentioned at one point. Ellie was probably... maybe… at least equivalent to a fugitive.
Total not his little obsession with space acting. It's not his fault ghost cores required them, once he fully recovered from the operation he’d have more control. It’s just like how little kids have issues regulating their emotions. His love of space just happened to be his problem. Danny wasn’t a kid he just really had to focus on not being distracted by it. He was a master at focusing.
So, it was just the logical decision to agree to go to space.
They just needed to find Jazz for him first. She was no doubt worried, and she’d help keep Ellie safe while recuperating.
And…. Well... hopefully Jazz could help him tell Ellie what was going on.
How does one say oh… yea… by the way you’re a princess. The core transplant kind of made you a member of the royal family. We just didn’t bother to tell you that part. And you may have been outed just a tad bit even before you were aware. Oh… and by the way. Don’t out me as royalty as I did to you. That just wasn’t going to go well.
Jazz had warned him to let her know. Not to just spring it on her as the council did to him. She at least wouldn’t have Fright Knight showing up in the middle of movie night announcing himself as bodyguard to the king.
The trio had thought Pariah was back and coming to take them on.
It was such a great way for the council to inform him of his position. 0 out of 10 would not recommend it.
Fright Knight just kept following him around. If he was human frighty, was invisible and hovering. The dude did not appreciate Dash at all. Frighty wanted to send him off to his nightmares. Proclaiming how he was bound to serve and protect the royal family. Which he didn’t get the whole bound to the royal family nonsense. The man just had no chill in his humble opinion. Danny just wanted peace and quiet, not the fright knight announcing him to all his rouges.
The faces he got were almost worth the annoyance. The look on the box ghosts face had been his favorite.
Frighty had stayed way too long.
It took weeks to convince him he was fine.
Only for Vlad to ruin his peace after Ellie first came into existence. Fright Knight had made a second appearance after finding out he had been cloned.
Danny blamed all of it on the fruitloop for destabilizing the king's core and forcing Danny into this position. The old king never would of been freed, and Danny never would have absorbed Pariahs core. He could in fact wait to be king. Vlad just had to try to gain power from the ring and crown.
The Fright knight had been ready to throw hands at the fruit loop. At first, following the madman around after the events of Pariah's core fizzling out. Returning to announce himself as Dannys supposed body guard crown and ring in hand. Only to then offer Danny the chance of disposing of him, after the reveal of the whole bodyguard thing. At first, he was very confused by the question.
Like why had frighty offered?
Danny had no intentions of sending Vlad to the nightmare realm for all eternity.
The fruit loop just needed to calm down.
Just like Danny needed to calm down.
How long does it take to find a person? Why haven’t they brought Jazz to him yet? He gave them her university and the location of the apartment, what more could they possibly need?
He just had to be patient. Once she got here, they’d all ditch this death-filled town. Not just out of the country. No someplace off the earth.
Space.
It was totally the safer option. Yea… jazz, she would definitely agree. mentioned extradition in previous contingency plans. So, like. Other countries are not that safe. They needed to be prepared for anything.
Honestly, there had been no good ideas.
But SPACE. That’s a new one. That’s an unknown. Never before had they considered that option. In theory, he didn’t need to breathe when ghost. At least he is assuming. They tested it underwater once. No issues there. The cold of space wouldn’t even bother him. His cores base was ice after all. The cold only bugs him when he bottled up his powers.
He should test his theory and just fly to space. Wait no. There was that spaceship thing.
This was apparently on a thing called the watch tower. But they couldn’t leave the alley with the agents yet. He had no guarantee that Jazz would be with them if not.
Ellie needed to wake up. Jazz needed to show up. He was getting antsy.
The agents still remained. Restrained as they were.
Batman claimed people were coming to collect them. To at the minimum move them. Jack and Maddie were already taken away. A person who had hardly given a second look at him and Ellie. They deserved the Harsh treatment the man in red gave them.
Words were spoken between the two. But man, he didn’t care what they had to say.
Batman had just grunted at him. Like he didn’t approve or something.
He didn’t even feel bad that whatever was coming for them would be far worse than the prison. Walker may be obsessed with his made-up rules but overall, the prison wasn’t that bad. Jailbreaks were easy enough from there.
Now Fright Knight on the other hand has an entire nightmare realm who knew what else they had in the realm? It would be handled by someone else. Frostbite had always assured him that they would get what was coming for them. Honestly looking back that was more said to himself than to Danny. Frostbite had been waiting for this moment.
The dungeon at Fenton Works had nothing on the one in the king's keep. That’s an entire area he avoided when there. Gave off tyrant vibes. Slowly it was morphing into his personal preferences, meaning fewer torture devices. Hopefully, that lower level entirely disappeared.
He did not need to think about the keeps torture chamber. Nope. He needed to focus on the alley. Where even less agents remained. He needed to focus.
There was no one else to rely on.
It was just him to protect Ellie. Can he actually trust this guy? The dud has kept away from him, which was nice. But adults don’t care. When Spectra gave the school the ghost flu, the adults just accepted the answer with no care. Jack and Maddie caused property damage left and right with no citations. The GIW just come into town, and they all just accepted it. The acts hadn’t passed but no one batted an eye.
Why was he just going along with this?
He needed to leave.
No, he needed to-to… Needed to breathe. He needed to stay calm. Ellie would wake up. Jazz would show up. It all would be fine.
Where were they?
Honestly. What was taking this long? He wanted Jazz.
Not to be in some alley with a man who wanted to be a bat.
Did one of the agents twitch? Yeah... definitely.
He wouldn’t let them get her again. Never to one of their labs. He has stopped them before. The ghost hadn’t even know what happened. That exams table was never used.
Three months of attempts at capturing another speciemen.
Three months of stopping them.
If they ever got one, they were free within an hour.
It had been so easy when it was just his donors. HE never thought the first four months would have been so nice. Only dealing with the ghosts and blundering oafs of his parents.
Nocturne had been such a snooze.
Undergrowth only needed to chill out.
He had even kept Vortex from leaving Amity.
He’d rather take on the three ancients than see one of those rooms again. The GIW twisted it all. Weapons designed to sting and hurt. To linger and fester. The pure white of the room.
Barely avoided that disaster.
How many times had this universe just had to make a name for itself? Why study ghost here? WHy force a hole through reality? just why get noticed by the realm?
Why couldn’t he just focus on what was happening in the alley?
Danny still hasn’t told the council about the missile. How could he? It would have destroyed the realm and every other dimension. It would have ended everything in just a blink of an eye.
Wouldn’t that make this place an even bigger threat? Would the stopping of the GIW even save the planet? Would this even work? Where was jazz? They were twitching. He couldn’t help but despite how close she already was but pull her in closer. The air dropping in temperature even more. She needed to wake up. Why did his donors have to be like this? If they had listened even once. This wouldn’t have happened. Jazz and he went off on them over and over. But of course, no they didn’t listen. Facts vs science, with the “science” oh so falsified and based on personal beliefs, and don’t get him started on The GIW just shoot first and wouldn’t listen, shot after shot. No one ever helped no one ever liste-
Breathe
He’s human right now, that’s right. The air was important for his human half.
Did Batman just have to remind him to breathe? The dude really just reminded him of a vital bodily necessity and then backed off. Which he means. Well, it’s actually nice. Not to be hovered over.
Did someone just groan?
Ellie, she just groaned.
She was still half asleep, but awake. He couldn’t stay in the alley. It had been too long. Too much time had passed, and his ecto signature ran rampant in the town. Just because the agents o and k’s groups were down. They had plenty of others. It would only be a matter of time until they were found out again. The air was thick with his own ectoplasm the GIW had multiple ways of tracking it. Amity just had too much residual to get anywhere specific unless you used the boo-meranang. That was a direct tracking device.
That device at the least had been in the lab. It should have gone out with a bang.
Who knows what else his parents had sold to the government? Anyone willing to sell a child of any dimension had no morals.
Danny managed to ask the bat about Jazz. According to the bat, Jazz wasn’t in her dorm or the apartment.
She was probably out looking for him. She’ll summon frostbite eventually, At the 24-hour mark, as per the agreement with the realm. A whole shebang he argued against for hours which he lost. The realm insisted on knowing where he was and how he was. They needed check-ins, updates, and everything under the sun.
Which come on. If the realm can force a crown on him, he should be allowed to do as he pleases. He can't be that bad.
So, what if he did the same with Ellie? She is only 12 and has a non-existing and unstable core. He didn’t care that Jazz agreed with the council Danny was nearly 16 it was not necessary. This wasn’t about him tho.
He just had to focus on Ellie.
Get away from the alley.
Get away from amity.
Get as far away from his donors as far as possible.
Dragging a half-asleep sister into space was the best solution. The bonus of space. No risk of extraction as there was in a separate country.
Seeing as there were no more blood blossoms, no chains, and not even any attempts to secure him and Ellie. If this was a trick….. well it would be a good one. He was still confused about who exactly the league was, only having one group's perspective was not ideal.
He blames Jack and Maddie. The two didn’t believe the news, it was all fake. No newspapers, nothing. If only Sam or Tucker was here maybe, maybe they would know who they were. The Batman was just watching him, waiting for him to give his okay. It was just odd. No, forcing him the guy wasn’t even forcibly starting a conversation. Just the one time when he was panicky and even then, it was just one word and then answered his question about Jazz. Just patiently watching.
It was now or never. Danny, holding the bulk of Ellie’s weight as she moved had at least nodded in response to leaving the alleyway.
Out of all the ways they could end up in space, he wasn’t expecting some form of teleportation. That was the one skill he had yet to see in the realm. The question he’s sure Tucker would be asking is if it’s science or magic. He really needed to get ahold of Sam and Tucker.
More things just kept popping up.
But He could see the stars.
So much better in space than any observatory he had been to. Amity didn’t have the best one around. All the lights from the lab, the constant green glow from the town border. He swears sometimes he can even see a dim green glow in the sky. The green light pollution really lost sight of the stars.
How could anyone focus with a view like this?
It was so amazing. So vast. Stars aplenty.
THUD
“Danny focus” Did Ellie really have to smack him on the back of the head? “You can fangirl over space later.”
He wasn’t that bad… it was just space. The stars were just so bright. His donors took away the possibility of becoming an astronaut. He could always fly up, but that wasn’t the same. Right focus.
Rapid blinking and shaking of his head… right. Not going to look at the windows or everything around them. Definitely not going to look twice at what appeared to be an obvious alien. No ecto signature so he couldn’t blame the green skin on that. Didn’t feel human either. They were in space. Anything was possible.
Shoot... yea focus.
Oh man, he really most overused his powers. His head was absolutely pounding.
No, not focusing on the random headache. Focus on Ellie and the weird ship in space. They were in an unknown situation. Ellie still wouldn’t be able to transform, so the air was a must. No noping off into space for them.
His momentary lapse of focus had unfortunately definitely been noticed. He was definitely selling his position of power. Well, the observants called him unfocused and immature, so yea this track.
Batman and the green man were looking at him. Ellie was just giving him her version of Jazz's disappointed look. It was adorable. He couldn’t help but notice the man in a trench coat, who felt all sorts of messed up. Human but something more was up, he felt split up? Yea, split up that felt right.
That man was just staring Ellie down. His face went from confused to a very concerned one. That look when you know you messed up. Could he tell she wasn’t fully human?
No… man why can’t he focus.
Right, Batman had a room for him and his sisters to wait?? Rest... honestly not too sure. He didn’t really ask too many questions, just knew that Ellie needed to get off earth not in the realm and they promised to bring Jazz.
Concerns for a future date. Preferably when he could freak out with Jazz and after the whole princess reveal.
He just had to follow them. Ellie was more aware at least. Her sass was back so that was good. He just needed to follow them. Not look at the stars in the windows. Why were there so many windows in space?
Now Ellie was elbowing him. He lost focus yet again. Why did she elbow him? Oh…. they were at a door.
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