Danny had always considered his life not to be normal. He was fourteen years old, and his life had been one crisis after another ever since he had been born. He had been born into the League of Assassins with his twin brother, and had been taught everything they needed to know about murder, espionage, terrorism, and world domination. Then when he was five, his brother had been assassinated by an assassin known as the Clock King, and he had been sent to live with his father. His father was as far from normal as his mother was. His father was a ghost hunter, bent on protecting the world from the supernatural.
His mother still visited from time to time until he was ten, but after that, her visits had stopped completely. It wasn’t until he was 12 that he learned she had been murdered. The worst thing was that he hadn’t even been that upset about his biological mother’s death. He had been trained better than that. To never be upset over death. His father’s teachings had told him that death isn’t always the end, as sometimes beings could exist outside of life and death, but his mother was not one of them.
Under his father’s teachings, he excelled more rapidly than he ever had with his mother. Their skills blended beautifully into his everyday routine. His father was a ghost hunter through and through, but he would never say no to hunting other supernatural beings. Danny had learned how to vanquish vampires, werewolves, demons and witches. He had earned a name for himself as Phantom, side by side with his father, Revenant. His father’s wife, Maddie, was also heavily involved in the family business, along with their daughter, Jasmine. Maddie and Jazz had a crucial role to play: they were both witch hunters that pretended to be witches. Their plan had worked beautifully for years, and they had saved the world multiple times from supernatural threats that plagued the lands.
When the ghost portal opened for the first time, Danny was more surprised that his parents would attempt to open a portal to the dimension than anything else. At first, he didn’t understand. To him, it seemed like an open invitation to invite ghosts into their world. He had rebelled against his parents for the first time, and had tried everything to shut down the portal and destroy their life’s work.
Then Plasmius had shown his face for the first time. He finally understood what his parents had been trying to teach him. They were hopelessly outgunned against ghosts; so they needed to get on their level. To do that, they needed live specimens.
Unfortunately for them, that fight had gotten out of hand very fast.
Amity Park had been the first city to burn. Even after Jazz destroyed the portal, the fight had continued to spread with ghost and human casualties becoming rampant. Supernatural beings of every race had banded together against the ghosts, but it wasn’t enough. The ghosts won, and every race was forced into slavery by the ghosts.
The Fenton family wasn’t so lucky. Since they had been the family to start the entire mess, they had been hunted across the globe. His father, mother, and sister had died a long time ago, and he had been on his own for months by that point. He was barely surviving from day to day.
His salvation appeared with a time medallion and a kind smile. A chance to reverse everything, to change everything for the better. A chance to stop everything before it even began. All he had to do was bring the man Plasmius’s head. He was more than happy to oblige, even if the ghost confused him. Wouldn’t Clockwork be happy that Plasmius had taken over the Earth? It had been a huge victory for ghost kind; something they had always lorded over the sentient population of Earth.
“Not everything has happened the way it was supposed to.” Clockwork had explained, leaving him more confused than ever. “You will learn everything with due time.”
That had led him to his current predicament. Once he had begun to wear the time medallion, he had become a time anomaly. Changes happened to the timeline, and he was immune. He had understood what Clockwork had told him at long last: the timeline had been changed. So what even was the true timeline at this point? Was the timeline stable, or was his planet doomed before he could even save it?
By the time he had turned fifteen, he had learned much more about time travel than he had ever thought possible. Time was not linear; it was a winding river, possible of many changes, but unable to be reversed once the change took hold. He reversed many things, but some things had been beyond what he could change.
He couldn’t bring back his family.
He couldn’t save Amity Park.
He couldn’t save the Earth.
But he could save countless other planets from the tyranny of ghosts. The ghosts, once given access to their dimension, had taken full advantage. Now it was his job to beat back the ghosts, and kill Plasmius.
But Plasmius was smart. Far smarter than he had given credit for. Plasmius had made a device that not only traveled in time, but in space as well. He had taken the identity of the Clock King, and had gone back in time to try and kill Danny. But he had gotten the wrong twin, and now Danny was angry. But Plasmius changed dimensions with a new mission in mind. He was going to kill every version of Danny, no matter the cost.
With Clockwork’s help, he was able to create the tech needed to follow Plasmius across the alternate dimensions. Their first battle destroyed a moon, sending that Earth back into the dark ages. He had felt guilty about it, but wasn’t given much time to dwell on it before Plasmius hopped dimensions again, trying to shake Danny from his trail.
They clashed again and again. Multiple dimensions fell to their battles, and Danny had learned how to corral Plasmius. He had begun to get an edge against the ghost, to try and capture the man who was responsible for the deaths of countless dimensions.
He was sixteen now, and had been chasing Plasmius for almost six months. He barely paid attention to the time, since it was never consistent from dimension to dimension. But he knew when his sixteenth birthday came and went, and he had been alone for it. He knew when the eleventh anniversary of his twin brother’s death came and gone, and his brother had not yet been avenged. He knew the date of when his dimension died, and their destruction hadn’t been avenged.
It was frustrating to him. He couldn’t catch Plasmius by himself. He needed help, but no ghost would help him. Plasmius was too powerful, too feared, and Danny was only human. He was an enhanced human, sure, but he wasn’t on the same league as Plasmius.
He could feel the weariness in his bones as he stepped through the portal. He didn’t know how much fight he had left in him. He couldn’t do this. He was going to die to Plasmius, and Plasmius would be free to destroy the entire multiverse. He would go down fighting, but how many more were going to die because he couldn’t stop one ghost?
He sighed, and took a moment to sit on the muddy ground, his head against the wall of the building he leaned against. He was wearing dark black robes that covered him from head to toe, hugging his figure with no extra fabric to grab. His face was covered by the same material, but his eyes were covered by safety goggles that blended seamlessly into the fabric. Dual swords were strapped into pouches on his back that he could grab at a second’s notice.
He had a utility belt made of the same black material as his robes that was full of different gadgets that he had picked up over the last few years. Some of them had come in handy against Plasmius, but by now the man knew all of his tricks. They knew each other too well to one up the other. They were at a stalemate.
“I need help, Clockwork.” He pleaded to the open air, “I can’t do this on my own.”
He wanted to curl into a ball and sleep. He longed for his family that died years prior; he longed for his mother and brother, and his grandfather. His grandfather had been evil, but even the familiarity of Ra’s Al Ghul would be comforting to him.
He heard a clanging noise down the alley. When he looked over, it was just a cat pushing an empty aluminum can. He didn’t flinch at the harsh noise. Instead, he pulled the mask off of his face, breathing in the stench of the air without the filter. The air tasted grimy, as if it was full of smoke and pollution. Without the noise-cancelling aspect of his mask, he could hear the sounds of the city around him. Cars, emergency vehicles, people chatting, screams, gunfire…
His hearing, vision, and senses had been enhanced after his first encounter with Clockwork. The ghost had called it ectoplasm exposure, and that it didn’t negatively affect him. It was probably one of the only reasons he was alive; that and the accelerated healing factor.
He ran a hand through his dirty hair. He couldn’t even remember the last time he had taken a bath. Soot and dirt was so caked in his hair, that he hadn’t even seen the brown of his hair in months. His hair had turned a dark black. It reminded him of his father, but also of his failures. His eyes were as green as Talia’s, but they were dark with the weight of his failures. His tanned skin was sickly pale from the lack of light he received.
He heard a nearby scream, but made no moves towards it. It wasn't his problem. Still, he slipped the mask back over his head, making the world quiet to him once more. He stood slowly, taking the extra time to stretch.
He never knew when he would run for his life.
His stomach rumbled. He should probably find some food, and try to get some kind of sleep. He knew he was in the same dimension as Plasmius, but he didn’t know if it was the same time or place. He might have to relocate quickly once he caught Plasmius’s trail.
He scaled the side of the building behind him. Climbing was second nature to him since he had been inspired by Spiderman and had added grip pads to his suit. It was much easier than grappling, and much quieter. He perched on the roof, taking a moment to look at the city he had landed in.
Something about the city tugged at his heart. It was familiar in a way he felt familiar with, yet he knew he had never set foot here before. It reminded him of a bigger version of Amity Park, if it had been allowed to expand and become a vast metropolis.
Maybe in this dimension, Amity Park hadn’t been swarmed by werewolves and destroyed in the Middle Ages. Or perhaps the vampire revolution hadn’t ever occurred. Any number of possibilities were possible. Without looking through a history book, he wasn’t sure why Amity Park was so much bigger than it should be.
Movement caught his eye as a shadow moved across the street. He followed the movement with his eyes, making sure it wasn’t a threat. From what he could see, a black-shadowed creature was hopping across the rooftop. He first thought of a vampire, or perhaps a fae, but from the distance he couldn’t be sure. Whatever it was, he wasn’t getting involved.
He made his way down the street from rooftop to rooftop as he followed the scent of food until it got stronger. He perched across the street from Batburger, anxiously licking his lips. He hadn’t had a hot meal in so long that he was practically drooling at the mouth at the thought of the fast food establishment. The last planet he had been on hadn’t been civilized enough to have cities or fast food establishments, so he had lived off of animals that he had to catch himself.
He dropped to the ground carefully so as not to hurt himself. He looked around from the shadows before walking into Batburger, his fingers quickly moving to turn off the night vision goggles inside his mask. The restaurant was cold, and music played in the background that he didn’t recognize. He calmly walked to the counter without looking up at the menu.
“Can I help you?” The girl behind the counter asked. She had pale white skin, dark red hair, and was wearing a purple shirt with a bat symbol across the chest.
“Food.” He muttered in English. His voice was raspy from lack of use. He struggled to make the words form— had never been the best at speaking English. His family had mostly spoken other languages other than English, such as his native tongue of Arabic, and Maddie’s native Russian tongue. But while he didn’t speak English that much, he was fluent in the language and could understand it better than he could speak it.
“Umm.” The girl chuckled awkwardly, “What kind of food? Do you want a Batburger meal?”
He glanced down at the name tag on her chest. “Vanessa.” He said slowly, looking the girl in the eye, “Give me food.”
The girl seemed a bit intimidated by him, which made him feel slightly odd. He wasn’t even trying to be intimidating. He just wanted food. “Ah, Batburger meal, you say? I'll take it.”
“Okay. Are you paying with cash or card?”
“Pay?” He asked, unfamiliar with the term. He racked his brain, trying to come up with a definition of the English word.
“Don’t worry about it.” A voice said from the back, “Just give him the food.”
“Okay, boss.” Vanessa hummed, handing him a bottle of water.
He stared at the water in awe. He hadn’t seen bottled water in years. Excitedly, he pulled the mask off of his face, holding it in his left hand as he opened the lid to the water and greedily drank the entire bottle. The cool water tasted like liquid gold to him.
“Another.” He demanded, looking the girl in the eye.
She complied with his demand. This bottle he drank slower, not wanting to make himself sick. He was handed a tray of food, and he made his way to a table and began to eat, wrappers and all. After finishing as much as he could eat, he thanked the woman at the counter and left the establishment. He slipped his mask on before he left the restaurant, taking an additional moment to switch his night vision back on.
He twisted his left arm, pulling up a hologram. He had lost his arm when he was twelve to a vampire. The vampire attempted to turn him, so his father had cut his arm off to stop the spread of the vampire’s venom. It had worked, and he got a cybernetic arm from the ordeal. He mostly used it for extra storage for guns and grenades.
The hologram was entwined with Plasmius’s ecto signature. It showed the presence of the ghost, but not that he had arrived yet. He still had time to take a nap. Dimensional travel was unpredictable, and sometimes crossing over took seconds or days. He was able to make it multiple streets over to nap undisturbed. It was almost serene, up until a homeless man tried to mug him. Then he was forced back to being awake and he now had to hide a dead body. That was life, he supposed.
He wandered for hours, exploring the city in a way he hadn’t been able to do for years. He learned the city name was Gotham, and it was in almost the same place Amity Park had been before the werewolf attacks of 1031. After that, Amity Park moved to modern-day Illinois.
It was barely two hours later when he noticed the first Wayne Enterprises building. He initially paid it no attention; the name Wayne meant nothing to him. But then he caught sight of the advertisement and stopped in his tracks.
His father was staring at him from a billboard, but looked far healthier than Danny had ever seen him. Gone was the fat that plagued his body; gone was the hideous orange spandex suit his father always wore. Instead, his father, Bruce, was younger-looking, fit, and wore a very nice suit. He had known his father’s first name was Bruce, but he had always preferred to go by Jack in his dimension, because he had disliked the name Bruce.
He stared at the billboard for longer than he should have. If his father was the face of Wayne Enterprises, what about him? Was Damian still alive? What about Jazz and Maddie?
The sun had risen and set before his ecto alarm went off. He quickly followed the alarm, arriving deeper in the city than he had been before. The closer he got, the angrier he got. He saw obvious signs of a battle, one that wasn’t being won. Why hadn’t his alarms gone off earlier? Or was this battle being lost so fast that the area around was destroyed?
“Robin!” A gruff voice yelled.
He heard a grunt of pain up ahead. Grabbing the swords from his backside, he was able to block an ecto blast that would’ve hit ‘Robin’. The figure on the ground gasped as he stepped out of the shadows, standing protectively over the human on the ground. Robin was wearing a vigilante costume made of reds, greens, and yellows that barely concealed the teen’s form. Sticky red blood lined his stomach that was bleeding profusely. He could see the black shadow nearby. The one who had shouted for this Robin, if he had to guess.
“Take him to safety.” He said in heavily accented English.
Plasmius looked the same as he always did. Pale blue skin with dark black hair that was shaped in two spikes on top of his head. The man’s white suit was dirty, splotted with dirt and grime of their previous battles.
“Did you think I would not follow you here?” He asked in rapid Ghost Speak.
Plasmius growled, his hands lighting in pink energy. “I thought I had squashed you like a bug during our last encounter.” His words were in Ghost Speak, but he could understand the language just as easily as he could Arabic or Russian.
“It takes more than that to kill me.” He smirked, knowing that Plasmius couldn’t see the expression. He kept the attention off of Robin long enough for him and the black shadow to vanish over the side of the building.
Part of him wondered if that was an alternate version of himself. Or perhaps it was some unfortunate human that had been in the wrong place at the wrong time. It didn’t matter to Danny; he needed to stop Plasmius.
Bringing up his swords, he swung them in a wide arc that Plasmius had anticipated. The two clashed with swords and fire, making the building crumble around them. Neither noticed the destruction they caused as their fight raged on; buildings collapsed, fires spread, but neither could beat the other.
A red and blue blur knocked Plasmius out of the air. He barely had time to register the attack before he was joined by other vigilantes that he didn’t recognize. He glanced at a hero in red and yellow with a lightning bolt on his chest. The hero saluted him and gestured for him to join the others on the ground.
For the first time, he looked down and realized he had been flying. He didn’t even know he could do that, but Clockwork had warned him that the more he interacted with Plasmius and Clockwork that there would be changes. He gracefully landed on the ground, sheathing his blades as the hero approached him. The hero’s hands were held up in a sign of peace as the man slowly moved towards Danny.
“My name is the Flash,” The man said, “Can you tell me what’s going on?”
“He’s evil.” He hissed out.
“I can see that.” Flash said, purposely talking slower. “Anything you can tell me about him?”
“I don’t think he speaks good English.” Flash said to himself.
He looked up where the red and blue hero had been battling Plasmius. While Plasmius was strong, he seemed to be evenly matched with the man in red and blue. But where the new hero’s fighting style was different, it was enough to trip Plasmius up enough that Plasmius looked like he was going to flee.
Getting an idea, he pointed to his wrist. “There’s a device on his wrist. Destroy it.”
Flash nodded in understanding. “Supes. Our new friend says there’s a device on his wrist that you need to destroy.”
“Gotcha!” Superman responded.
The dynamic of the fight shifted once Superman switched from offense to defense. It only took a few minutes for Superman to grab Plasmius’s wrist and destroy the dimension device, effectively trapping Plasmius in this dimension. Superman then punched Plasmius in the face hard enough to knock the man out.
Could it really have been that easy?! His eyes widened under his mask as a man in green flew over and encased Plasmius in a glowing green shield.
“Now,” Superman landed in front of him, looking him up and down, “We should have a chat.”
“Yes,” He agreed, then pointed at Plasmius. “After I kill him.”
“We don’t kill.” Superman crossed his arms. “We’ll lock him up in a secure facility and interrogate him.”
“You don't understand,” He hissed, getting in Superman’s face. He watched as the man tensed, but didn’t move to attack him, “He’s dangerous.”
“So are you.” Superman pointed out.
“Hmph,” He grunted, crossing his arms. “Yes, but it’s not the same.”
“Why don’t we take this talk back to HQ?” Flash suggested. “You could just follow us.”
“No.” He shook his head pointing to Plasmius. “He’s my prisoner.”
“Would it make you feel better if you guarded him?” Green Lantern asked.
“It would be better if he was dead.” He flexed his fingers, aching to grab his sword and drive it through Plasmius’s chest.
“That’s not going to happen.” Green Lantern said.
“Fine.” He scoffed, “Lead the way.”
Flash exchanged a glance with Superman. The two seemed to have a silent conversation that lasted seconds, but to turn was minutes. Eventually, Flash turned and ran in a different direction, leaving the other three behind. He mentally shrugged, and felt his feet leave the ground as he thought about his flight ability. He was thankful he had a full face mask on, because his face was full of surprise as he realized flying was as easy as thought.
It wouldn’t be hard for him to wait until night fell to sneak into the holding chambers and murder Plasmius. For the first time, he was hopeful that his ordeal would soon be over. Everyone and everything he had lost would soon be avenged.
The heroes led him to an abandoned warehouse at the edge of town. From there, they teleported to another location. Flash had given him a temporary code to use to access the teleporter. From what he could tell of the secondary location, it was somewhere in the middle of the sea, fully enclosed and in a remote part of the Atlantic Ocean. He watched silently as Plasmius was put in a holding cell that Danny knew would never hold him.
As the heroes turned to lead him away, he scoffed audibly. This action gathered the attention of all the heroes, none of which questioned him as Danny reached into his toolbelt and pulled out a glowing piece of chalk. This chalk was something of his own design, something he had based off of old vampire witch hunts that he used to do with Jack. He opened the door to the cage and walked inside, and began to draw ornate symbols on the walls and floor. As he finished the sigil, the holding cell began to glow brightly. He immediately hovered in the air and rushed out of the cell, closing the door. The same symbols that would hold Plasmius would also contain him due to his ectoplasm exposure. There was a bright flash of light, but it died quickly. The holding cell itself looked normal, with a small cot, a toilet, and bare gray walls. A satisfied smirk spread across his lips as he placed the glowing green chalk back into his pockets.
The only way for Plasmius to escape from the sigils now was a complicated ritual involving the sacrifice of a virgin, which he highly doubted that Plasmius would have access to. This meant that until he was able to sneak back in, Plasmius would be contained enough for Danny to kill him without a fight.
Like a lamb ready for the slaughterhouse.
He followed the heroes to a conference room. The conference room itself was large, easily spacious enough to hold twenty people. A large table was in the middle of the room, with chairs surrounding the entire length of the table. A large television was mounted to the wall, but otherwise the room was bare.
He took a seat in the back of the room, his back to the wall. He put his feet up on the table, pulling a candy bar from his pocket. He had swiped it from Flash, making the man pat his own pockets and squawk out an indignant, “Hey!” as Danny began to eat. He paid it no mind as he savored the flavors of chocolate and caramel. When was the last time he had a candy bar? It must have been some time before his 14th birthday, but he didn’t know exactly.
“So.” Superman sat next to him. “What can you tell us about what happened?”
He studied Superman’s face intently for a long moment. Deciding he really had nothing to lose, he dropped the empty candy wrapper, letting it fall onto the floor as he moved his hand to unclasp his mask. He put his feet down as the mask unclipped, and he tugged it off of his head. He set the mask down onto the table, noticing immediately how all of the heroes tensed at his appearance, but the black shadow in the corner of the room most of all.
“My name is Danyal Al-Ghul.” He said, his green eyes becoming brighter as he felt the ectoplasm run through his veins. “I’m from another dimension. The man that you would not let me kill, his name is Plasmius. He is the harbinger of destruction. He has killed billions of people, killed planets, and I have been chasing him through time and space for over six months.”
He stood, the chair falling behind him with a loud clank. He twisted his arm, his Holo-Screen coming to life. His bionic fingers moved with his thoughts, curling into a fist. Not that the heroes could see his arm, since he was still covered from the neck down in his specialty made armor from his time on Krypton.
The holo-screen showed Plasmius’s profile that he had written, but it took him a long moment to realize that the file had been written in Ghost Speak, not in English. “He was supposed to await trial on my Earth for crimes against humanity, but he blew up the planet before I could catch him.” His voice was dangerously low as he felt pain seep into his words. “He has destroyed 13 versions of Earth, the moon of another, multiple alien planets, and caused destruction on another 5 Earths but did not destroy them, as he fled the dimension before the planet could be destroyed.”
As he spoke, he cycled through footage he had recorded during their fights. Destruction, murder, and explosion after explosion as he failed to save another Earth. The room was silent with the weight of the information he told them, and decided he had shown enough evidence. He turned his wrist again, effectively turning off the Holo-Screen.
“Plasmius is guilty.” He told the room, leaving no room for argument. “He will not change, and needs to be exterminated before he kills this planet.”
The adults of the group exchanged glances, some shifting uncomfortably in their seats. It was hard to tell what they were thinking; he hadn’t run across a variant of these heroes before in all of his travels. He mostly came across Earths with no heroes, or vastly different heroes, such as the Avengers.
“If you kill him, what happens to you?” Green Lantern asked.
He tilted his head. “What do you mean?”
“You said your Earth was Destroyed,” Green Lantern clarified, “You don’t have a home to return to.”
He cocked an eyebrow. Flash, who had been sitting beside Green Lantern, smacked the green-clad hero’s arm, scolding Lantern under his breath.
“No, Flash, it is a valid question.” Danny hummed thoughtfully. “I have been on the run for six months chasing Plasmius, however war on my planet had broken out two years before that.”
He paused, contemplating how much to tell the heroes. It was in his nature to keep his secrets close to his chest. When Clockwork had approached him all those years ago, he had once been promised that if he brought the head of Plasmius to Clickwork, he would be able to go back in time and save his Earth before everything had happened. But over time, he had learned that his Earth <i>must</i> die. If his Earth did not die, it would never have prompted Danny to take revenge, and chase Plasmius across the dimensions. For all of the dimensions that suffered at the hands of Plasmius, it was a fixed point in time. The timeline had changed, and it was now permanent.
“While it’s true my Earth has been destroyed and I have no home to return to, that doesn’t mean I have to stay here.” Danny replied, “I can leave and go to any universe I want to.”
The man in black took a step forward, “if you want to stay in this universe, you can stay with me.”
“Batman…” Superman turned to the man dressed in black, “Are you sure?”
Batman reached for his face, pulling the cowl down. Danny’s expression didn’t change, but he felt the shock in his stomach. Standing before him in a costume that reminded him of a vampire, was his father, Jack.
“Jack?” His eyebrows scrunched together. He studied the man’s face for any signs of vampirism as he stood and walked closer to his father. Jack’s eyes were a bright blue, lacking the silver ring around his eyes that was an indicator of vampirism. The man also didn’t smell faintly of ginger root, which was another indicator of vampirism.
“I go by Bruce in this universe.” Bruce said, watching Danny with the same intensity that he was studying Ja-Bruce with.
“Do I exist in this universe?” He asked.
He knew all too well about having incursions from having two of the same person in the same timeline at the same time would do. He had accidentally triggered the event a few weeks after he had begun to chase Plasmius, by interacting with that version of himself from Earth.
“You died when you were five.” Bruce responded, his voice thick.
Just to say his twin’s name out loud hurt something deep inside of him.
“He’s alive.” Bruce confirmed.
A small smile spread across his lips. His interest has definitely peaked now.
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