Danny's in Gotham because there's an astronomy exhibit event at their observatory. Now, astronomy stuff often gets hitchhiked by astrology people. If even one more person asks him 'oh whats your star sign' he is going to EXPLODE.
Either because that exact thing happened or not, while at the gala Danny runs into Tim Drake. Both of them kinda make friends bonding over complaining about the astrology people attending the physics convention and confusing everyone who doesn’t know the difference. It escalates to obvious flirting because we all know what this type of fanfic is for.
Predictably, the event gets invaded by rogues, everyone taken hostage.
The cult doing it... starts asking people their star signs... and takes everyone with a certain one and puts them in a group. Danny is going to completely pop off the moment he manages to get enough eyes off him to switch forms, he is seeing red. But of course he’s dragged forward with the others – and so is Tim before he can get away – distress beacon already active of course.
After they're collected together the cult surrounded the crowd. They begin chanting. It's short, not what anyone expected, things are happening before anyone has time to react. Danny had been expecting to have longer to try and pretend to get the ropes off and take a running break. Tim had expected the chance to stall for the arrival of the Bats.
… And the magic? It tears Danny in half into Super & Fun (or a different balance) because the dimensional barrier gets punched through directly on top of the group. What else did it do? Dealer’s choice. Summoning, power granting to the cultists, whatever.
Now, obviously, Danny isn't fourteen anymore, so his two halves are thankfully a little less cringy. He's an adult. He's matured. But it does still result in some really extreme personality shenanigans since he's literally two parts of a mind, unbalanced. These two halves are used to relying on the self-control of the other to keep impulse in check after all.
Phantom saves everyone while the Bats arrive in the middle of this chaos. He yoinks Tim out of the way of the fight without any fanfare and shields him because the idiot tried to help and got himself in trouble. Whatever the cult did with the magic besides just hitting Danny like a chainsaw, the ghost handles, which the Bats are not suited for and know so. Magic is not their strong suit. But it certainly is Danny Phantom’s in this regard.
It certainly draws attention. After it's done with police keep making comments like 'oh a new meta cape' and asking Batman 'whos this' and Batman is absolutely bullshitting his way through it because he has no idea. Phantom is struggling – trying to remain collected in front of a crowd of unfamiliar people. Batman manages to send the cops away quickly for his sake and most of the crowd has been evacuated too.
At the end of everything the Bats realized one civilian stuck around, who approaches after the police are there and taking away the cult members. Nightwing bars his way and requests he go back to the crowds since they don’t do autographs, and gets laughed at as Danny ducks right under his arm and past him pretty casually, which Nightwing allows because, well, he seems like he should be there from how he's acting right? They realize this random civilian must know the new hero when he starts speaking.
Danny instantly – but in good humor – lays into Phantom the same way he would himself in his own sarcastic inner monologue for any mistakes in the fight, and teases him for being caught by the Bat. The one thing they were supposed to Not Do in Gotham of course. He had ONE job.
Tim Drake, who trailed after Danny like a lost puppy upon realizing the new friend he made at the event was approaching the Bats, tries to defend the ghost; he’s kinda like HEY HE WAS A BIG HELP?? Which they both turn on him about to stare.
While it’s nice of him (and very cute and touching since Danny and Phantom are not used to people trying to defend them), it feels weird to have what amounts to inner thought processes get interrupted with someone countering him on his own review of how he could improve.
As soon as the Bats recover and launch into interrogation towards who the two are Danny tries to nope out really fast by turning to sprint. Phantom just grabs him by the back of the shirt and lifts him up like one would to a misbehaving puppy and says "NO." Danny crosses his arms and just dangles there for the entire rest of the conversation. They see nothing weird about this. The Bats absolutely do.
So then Danny and Phantom need to get away from the Bats, resolve the separation by getting back to Amity somehow with the fairly noticeable Phantom (Danny took a bus for the event and Phantom can't stay invisible 24/7), and deal with the aftereffects of the chaos caused by the cult.
The next time they run into him both of them keep hitting on Tim Drake, while the Bats totally think they’re an item due to the extreme amount of over-familiarity, such as constant interrupting of each other mid-sentence when one might say something they really shouldn't. Poor Tim is caught in the middle of this. At least one other Bat develops a crush on one half but not the other.
When they call Jazz because they're stuck in Gotham and split but Danny can't stop talking about the cute boy they met while Phantom just yells at him 24/7 that this is SERIOUS they need to GET HOME EVEN THOUGH THERE'S A CUTE BOY she laughs so hard she drops her cellphone on the ground.
i was inspired by this post from @ceilingfan25 ! i saw it and was like wow! there are so many dannys! but then it made me think of this scene from spongebob, lol
not aligned w the graphic novels’ continuity at all, just thought val would be funny here :)
