Transfer Student Danny Fenton is Accidentally Bonded to Gotham Itself and Damian Wayne Is Not Handling It Well
Danny Fenton transfers into Gotham Academy with paperwork that looks like it was filled out during a power outage and an emergency contact that may or may not answer calls. He’s quiet in class, terrible at lying, and keeps pausing mid-conversation like he’s listening to something no one else can hear.
Damian decides within five minutes that this is suspicious.
Things get worse when electronics start glitching around Danny. Lights flicker when he walks into a room. Security systems fail exactly when he leans on them. During lab, he touches a live wire and the current just disappears like it got bored and left.
Danny insists that’s normal.
It is not.
Then there’s the sparring incident where a hit phases through him for half a second. Danny stares at his own hands like they’ve personally betrayed him. Damian stares like he’s about to start a full investigation.
Danny starts asking weird questions after that.
“Hypothetically, if a city was alive… how would you know?”
Damian does not answer hypothetical questions. He answers by gathering evidence.
Patterns emerge. Crime scenes with unexplained malfunctions. Criminals reporting that buildings “told them to leave.” Streetlights flickering in sequences that almost look intentional. Gotham behaving less like a place and more like something that is paying attention.
And always, Danny is nearby.
The realization hits in stages.
Danny isn’t causing the disturbances.
Gotham is reacting to him.
Danny, meanwhile, is having a completely different problem. Because the city isn’t just reacting. It’s communicating. Not in words, not exactly, but in pressure, in sound, in the way old structures groan like they’re trying to be understood.
And somehow, Danny understands.
He stands on rooftops at night like he’s listening. Answers under his breath like someone asked a question. Gets distracted mid-conversation because a building across the street “said something important.”
Damian follows him once. Watches him tilt his head at a flickering streetlight and nod like it made a valid point.
This is unacceptable.
Because Gotham is supposed to be something you protect.
Not something that picks favorites.
Damian does not like that Gotham has chosen a half-feral transfer student with no sense of normal human limitations.
Danny does not like that Gotham is getting louder.
Neither of them are prepared for the moment when Gotham stops whispering and starts asking for help.
I can understand how "modern person thrown into the past gets by pretending to be a healer/doctor" is as surprisingly common of a trope as it is. I mean I'm fluent enough at bullshitting to be pretty sure I could pull it off to impersonate a doctor in any time pre-1800s. If I have no idea what something is or how to treat it, I could just get the opinion of the other whatever-passes-as-medical-professionals around, but if their suggestions sound like bullshit I'm not doing it. And I'll beat the shit out of anyone suggesting bloodletting or mercury. With my healing stick. I've tied little bells on it, that jingle comically with every smack.
The awesome curative powers of my healing stick come from two separate sources: Placebo, and me using it to beat anyone trying to give my patients mercury.
Ooooh you reminded me of that protocol I wrote about how to reinvent penicilin with only alchemical tools. You know. Just in case I did end up dumped in the past and needed a stable income.
I am so glad you asked! I unfortunately lost the protocol because it was probably on my laptop, but I remember the broad strokes. So! In case anyone does end up stuck in the middle ages and can find a kindly old alchemist willing to lend you his gear, here's the revamped Penicilin (Re)Discovery Protocol!
0. WASH YOUR GODDAMN HANDS.
We're not working in a lab here, cross-conatamination WILL happen. Your job is to minimize it as much as possible. If you end up in a place where soap hasn't been invented yet, wash your hands in distilled alcohol. Your skin won't thank you, but you can afford all the nice hand creams after you cure the plague and get rich.
Find some Penicillium mushrooms!
Yes, penicilin is produced by mushrooms, though Ascomycotes are usually called moulds, it's a fungus, and it makes me laugh to call it a mushroom. Plus, in the middle ages, mushrooms were known to have medicinal properties, so you'll get a lot farther by calling them mushrooms rather than molds.
First thing you need: mouldy fruit. Oranges, or cantaloupes are preferred.
Here's the thing: mold is everywhere, so getting it will be the easiest part. The tricky part start with identifying the correct mold. You don't want to feed your patients black mold, do you?
So. Leave some fruit out. The more the better, because you want to up your chances. Then let it rot in warm and humid places. After a while, pick any fruit that looks white on the outside and green in the middle:
Not the best picture, but that's what it should look like.
2. Transplanting your (potential) Penicillium mushrooms
Until you get it on a plate it's damn near impossible to tell which mold you got. Get ready for some trial and error because you will have to sift through a lot of unwanted mold. You might want to wear a mask.
First you need something to transplant it onto. Making modern agar plates is probably impossible but thankfully not needed. You just need:
Glass plates (the kind that can be closed, you want to minimize cross contamination)
1-2 cup of Hot water (preferably distilled, ask your alchemist if he can do that)
1 cup whole milk (should be 13g of lactose per cup, if your Penicillium won't grow adjust the water-milk ration in favor of milk)
If available: Instead of milk use corn steep liquor. Unfortunately only available after America was discovered, so YMMW, but Penicillium LOVES this stuff. It will make your life SO much easier if it's available.
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon Yeast extract (get it from a baker)
3-6 teaspoons Gelatin (get it from a butcher)
Disclaimer: The ratio of each of the ingredients will have to be adjusted depending on the purity of the ingredients and on the conventional measuring sizes of the place you end up.
Gently mix it all in and pour out into the plates, let it solidify. If you end up dumped far enough that such refinement isn't possible, make bone broth and strain it through cheesecloth several times to make it as clear as possible, then mix it 5/6 broth and 1/6 milk. Again, if available, use corn steep liquor, but if not milk is fine. Add gelatin (should still be able to get it from the butcher) as needed to solidify it. I'm afraid experimentation will be needed depending on the resources you will be working with.
When you're done, you should have something like this:
Now that you have your plates, run an inoculation loop through a flame to sterilize it.
Something like this. Wave it through the air to cool it so you don't kill your mold, grab it from your fruit and geeeeeently spread it on top of your improvised agar without breaking the surface of the gelatin!
You can see the motions on this one pretty well. Close your plates, stack them about a meter/3ft from the fireplace. Judge for yourself, but ideally somewhere you would consider comfortably warm (20-24°C).
3. Identifying your Penicillium Mushrooms
If all went well, you are going to have something that looks like this:
Well, realistically, it will look something like this:
We're not actually doing it in a lab, after all. But IDEALLY, it will look like the above. It doesn't have to be perfect, you just need to be able to identify Penicillium molds for now.
IDEALLY, on the plate that matches the description of the penicillium mold you'll see an exclusion zone of bacteria around the mold, like the fourth plate in the second row, so you know you have a potential winner, but if you managed to avoid bacterial growth you need to take a few extra steps.
Penicillium molds have characteristic rings of growth, grey-green-white rings. They're easy to differentiate from bacteria because the molds are fuzzy and the bacteria as smooth and slimy. In the above picture, there are four plates that potentially have what we want, and two are less certain than others. Wash out the unwanted ones, make new agar plates, sterilize your inoculation loop and transplant your best candidates. You might need to do this several times.
Two types are confirmed to produce penicilin: P. chrysogenum and P. rubens.
The former is far more widely used today, but since we're sourcing them from literally thin air, we're more likely to get P. rubens, but unless you're a mycologist you probably won't be able to tell the difference. Thankfully you won't need to, because they both produce penicillin. Which brings me to the next step.
4. Confirming it's the penicillin producing mushroom
We're gonna need more agar plates for this one, and believe it or not, you're gonna need to mix blood into your agar. Wash your hands THROUGHLY.
(Theoretically you can get away with just milk, but identifying the correct bacterial colony on white agar is going to be a nightmare, so just add some sheep blood to your agar, conventionally it's about 5% by volume but you might need more to make it)
You need some gram-positive bacteria, preferably of the Bacillota type. Please don't go out and find a patient with fucking botulism or tetanus, you need to live long enough to make the cure. Instead, if you have a vagina, scrape some of the white, mucousy stuff from there and plant it on your plate. If you don't have your own vagina, a borrowed one is fine. Penicilin also works on Treponema pallidum, so if you get a syphilis-affected prostitute that should also work. Just wear gloves.
Ideally you get something like this.
This is actually Lactobacillus brevis, but Lactobacillus colonies all look relatively the same. The important thing is that it's all gram-positive, and will therefore be affected by penicillin.
Take new plates again, plant your Penicillium mold in the middle, and the bacteria all around it, getting as close to the center as possible. You can put down a paper marker for the mold. Wait for about 20 days.
Ideally, on at least one plate, you will get something like this:
This is literally a textbook example of testing antibiotics, but the Zone of Inhibition is what you're looking for. It means the mold is releasing a compound to kill the competing bacteria for resources, in this case, Beta-lactam antibiotic, or penicillin. Make sure to pick the one with the WIDEST ZoI, because that's the one that produces most penicillin.
So now we have the root stock, but our problems have just begun. This is the part where you're absolutely going to need an alchemist's help.
The problem is that a human body is not a petri dish. It's quite a bit larger. And you want the good bacteria destroying stuff without all the nasty contaminants, so you need a SHITLOAD of mold producing a LOT of penicillin, and then you need a way to filter it. You are going to need actual lab equipment for that, or near as they had it.
Since I lost the original protocol I'm going to need to do research all over again how to do that with alchemy equipment (or at least a microbrewery), so that will be in the next installment.
Concept: generic fantasy adventure where the wizard has a crackpot assistant and he explains sadly that while Hreithbert is an excellent person for keeping the wizard tower tidy and the homonculi fed they're obsessed with cooking like ten million plates of inedible goop but it makes them happy so he permits it
And at the end of the story the big reveal is Hreithbert is a time displaced biochemist who has finally fucking refined their process for penicillin.
Danny who has really bad PTSD and Paranoia brought on by Vlad bugging his house. So when Danny and Jason move in together, and Jason insists on a security system, he gives Danny full control. He lets Danny pick where all the cameras go, and he links them up to Danny's phone so Danny can shut them off to feel safe if he needs to.
Everything goes fine for a while. Danny shuts the cameras down when hes having a bad day, but usually he leaves them and even seems less paranoid about them as time goes on.
But then, Danny finally convinces Jason to let them get a dog. Jason agreed so long as it was small to medium size, so of course that ment they brought home some sort of massive breed that Jason pretty sure is part wolf. Or demon. But Danny insists its a small dog, and won't grow any bigger than 36inches tall, and he looked so happy and in love with the dog that Jason just couldn't say no. At least it was well behaved-
-But after a week or so of having the dog, it started acting weird one morning. Standing the middle of the living room, they barked at the corner of the house repeatedly, not coming for food or water or to play. Finally, Danny checked out what they were looking at, and as he dug around and searched, his body started shaking in fear.
It was a camera. Not one of their, it was more high tech, smaller, and not at all where Danny placed them. Danny threw the camera on the ground, breaking it, before frantically tearing the house apart in search of more, the dog more than happy to help him search. Danny looked and relooked and checked for four hours before finally collapsing in the closet and having a panic attack.
When Jason came home to the house torn apart he freaked out and was relieved to find Danny in the closet with the dog. Though, he was worried that Danny was completely despondent and that his face was stained with tears.
When he finally got him to talk, and tell him about the cameras, Jason was pissed. He had a good idea who planted them, and he was so angry that they caused such a setback.
Jason took Danny and the dog to a hotel, watching with a tense jaw as Danny did a sweep of their room 6 times before laying on the bed and passing out.
Filled with righteous fury, Jason went back to the house, gathered up all the smashed cameras and drove straight to Wayne Manor. It was a shame, Jason hadn't been feeling the pit rage as strongly as of late, and now suddenly it was bubbling all up to a surface, and just when Jason was thinking of trying to reconnect and mabe introducing them to Danny. But now, now he kind of just wanted them all dead for setting Danny back in his healing.
Oh Jason screaming at them til his throat raw, hand twitching towards the hidden gun he forgot to leave behind in his anger.
He storms out without hearing them out, taking Danny away from Gotham for a impromptu road trip, no electronics, car completely checked right in front of Danny right before they leave.
It was Vlad. He finally found a way through Danny's security measures, he just had to use a Meta with density shifting instead of planting the bugs himself.
Vlad had been watching for ages and figured out one of Danny's triggers that caused him to turn all of their security systems off. He deliberately had Danny triggered, then set the Meta boy in there while they were out of the house. He'd told the kid some sob story about trying to get evidence of Danny being abused by his partner, so that they could get him away legally and safely and the other guy put in gaol, and the kids was more than happy to help - it's Gotham, this isn't an uncommon story told about them by outsiders.
Even more luckily for Vlad, Danny and Jason assumed that Jason's air-headed bimbo father had them installed, making the two boys leave the safety of Lady Gotham's city without any sort of electronic device or way to contact the outside world for help.
He has their safe house gassed with knock out gas and the two safely transported back to his castle with none the wiser.
Danny who has really bad PTSD and Paranoia brought on by Vlad bugging his house. So when Danny and Jason move in together, and Jason insists on a security system, he gives Danny full control. He lets Danny pick where all the cameras go, and he links them up to Danny's phone so Danny can shut them off to feel safe if he needs to.
Everything goes fine for a while. Danny shuts the cameras down when hes having a bad day, but usually he leaves them and even seems less paranoid about them as time goes on.
But then, Danny finally convinces Jason to let them get a dog. Jason agreed so long as it was small to medium size, so of course that ment they brought home some sort of massive breed that Jason pretty sure is part wolf. Or demon. But Danny insists its a small dog, and won't grow any bigger than 36inches tall, and he looked so happy and in love with the dog that Jason just couldn't say no. At least it was well behaved-
-But after a week or so of having the dog, it started acting weird one morning. Standing the middle of the living room, they barked at the corner of the house repeatedly, not coming for food or water or to play. Finally, Danny checked out what they were looking at, and as he dug around and searched, his body started shaking in fear.
It was a camera. Not one of their, it was more high tech, smaller, and not at all where Danny placed them. Danny threw the camera on the ground, breaking it, before frantically tearing the house apart in search of more, the dog more than happy to help him search. Danny looked and relooked and checked for four hours before finally collapsing in the closet and having a panic attack.
When Jason came home to the house torn apart he freaked out and was relieved to find Danny in the closet with the dog. Though, he was worried that Danny was completely despondent and that his face was stained with tears.
When he finally got him to talk, and tell him about the cameras, Jason was pissed. He had a good idea who planted them, and he was so angry that they caused such a setback.
Jason took Danny and the dog to a hotel, watching with a tense jaw as Danny did a sweep of their room 6 times before laying on the bed and passing out.
Filled with righteous fury, Jason went back to the house, gathered up all the smashed cameras and drove straight to Wayne Manor. It was a shame, Jason hadn't been feeling the pit rage as strongly as of late, and now suddenly it was bubbling all up to a surface, and just when Jason was thinking of trying to reconnect and mabe introducing them to Danny. But now, now he kind of just wanted them all dead for setting Danny back in his healing.
Oh Jason screaming at them til his throat raw, hand twitching towards the hidden gun he forgot to leave behind in his anger.
He storms out without hearing them out, taking Danny away from Gotham for a impromptu road trip, no electronics, car completely checked right in front of Danny right before they leave.
It was Vlad. He finally found a way through Danny's security measures, he just had to use a Meta with density shifting instead of planting the bugs himself.
Vlad had been watching for ages and figured out one of Danny's triggers that caused him to turn all of their security systems off. He deliberately had Danny triggered, then set the Meta boy in there while they were out of the house. He'd told the kid some sob story about trying to get evidence of Danny being abused by his partner, so that they could get him away legally and safely and the other guy put in gaol, and the kids was more than happy to help - it's Gotham, this isn't an uncommon story told about them by outsiders.
Even more luckily for Vlad, Danny and Jason assumed that Jason's air-headed bimbo father had them installed, making the two boys leave the safety of Lady Gotham's city without any sort of electronic device or way to contact the outside world for help.
He has their safe house gassed with knock out gas and the two safely transported back to his castle with none the wiser.
Danny who has really bad PTSD and Paranoia brought on by Vlad bugging his house. So when Danny and Jason move in together, and Jason insists on a security system, he gives Danny full control. He lets Danny pick where all the cameras go, and he links them up to Danny's phone so Danny can shut them off to feel safe if he needs to.
Everything goes fine for a while. Danny shuts the cameras down when hes having a bad day, but usually he leaves them and even seems less paranoid about them as time goes on.
But then, Danny finally convinces Jason to let them get a dog. Jason agreed so long as it was small to medium size, so of course that ment they brought home some sort of massive breed that Jason pretty sure is part wolf. Or demon. But Danny insists its a small dog, and won't grow any bigger than 36inches tall, and he looked so happy and in love with the dog that Jason just couldn't say no. At least it was well behaved-
-But after a week or so of having the dog, it started acting weird one morning. Standing the middle of the living room, they barked at the corner of the house repeatedly, not coming for food or water or to play. Finally, Danny checked out what they were looking at, and as he dug around and searched, his body started shaking in fear.
It was a camera. Not one of their, it was more high tech, smaller, and not at all where Danny placed them. Danny threw the camera on the ground, breaking it, before frantically tearing the house apart in search of more, the dog more than happy to help him search. Danny looked and relooked and checked for four hours before finally collapsing in the closet and having a panic attack.
When Jason came home to the house torn apart he freaked out and was relieved to find Danny in the closet with the dog. Though, he was worried that Danny was completely despondent and that his face was stained with tears.
When he finally got him to talk, and tell him about the cameras, Jason was pissed. He had a good idea who planted them, and he was so angry that they caused such a setback.
Jason took Danny and the dog to a hotel, watching with a tense jaw as Danny did a sweep of their room 6 times before laying on the bed and passing out.
Filled with righteous fury, Jason went back to the house, gathered up all the smashed cameras and drove straight to Wayne Manor. It was a shame, Jason hadn't been feeling the pit rage as strongly as of late, and now suddenly it was bubbling all up to a surface, and just when Jason was thinking of trying to reconnect and mabe introducing them to Danny. But now, now he kind of just wanted them all dead for setting Danny back in his healing.
Oh Jason screaming at them til his throat raw, hand twitching towards the hidden gun he forgot to leave behind in his anger.
He storms out without hearing them out, taking Danny away from Gotham for a impromptu road trip, no electronics, car completely checked right in front of Danny right before they leave.
Danny who has really bad PTSD and Paranoia brought on by Vlad bugging his house. So when Danny and Jason move in together, and Jason insists on a security system, he gives Danny full control. He lets Danny pick where all the cameras go, and he links them up to Danny's phone so Danny can shut them off to feel safe if he needs to.
Everything goes fine for a while. Danny shuts the cameras down when hes having a bad day, but usually he leaves them and even seems less paranoid about them as time goes on.
But then, Danny finally convinces Jason to let them get a dog. Jason agreed so long as it was small to medium size, so of course that ment they brought home some sort of massive breed that Jason pretty sure is part wolf. Or demon. But Danny insists its a small dog, and won't grow any bigger than 36inches tall, and he looked so happy and in love with the dog that Jason just couldn't say no. At least it was well behaved-
-But after a week or so of having the dog, it started acting weird one morning. Standing the middle of the living room, they barked at the corner of the house repeatedly, not coming for food or water or to play. Finally, Danny checked out what they were looking at, and as he dug around and searched, his body started shaking in fear.
It was a camera. Not one of their, it was more high tech, smaller, and not at all where Danny placed them. Danny threw the camera on the ground, breaking it, before frantically tearing the house apart in search of more, the dog more than happy to help him search. Danny looked and relooked and checked for four hours before finally collapsing in the closet and having a panic attack.
When Jason came home to the house torn apart he freaked out and was relieved to find Danny in the closet with the dog. Though, he was worried that Danny was completely despondent and that his face was stained with tears.
When he finally got him to talk, and tell him about the cameras, Jason was pissed. He had a good idea who planted them, and he was so angry that they caused such a setback.
Jason took Danny and the dog to a hotel, watching with a tense jaw as Danny did a sweep of their room 6 times before laying on the bed and passing out.
Filled with righteous fury, Jason went back to the house, gathered up all the smashed cameras and drove straight to Wayne Manor. It was a shame, Jason hadn't been feeling the pit rage as strongly as of late, and now suddenly it was bubbling all up to a surface, and just when Jason was thinking of trying to reconnect and mabe introducing them to Danny. But now, now he kind of just wanted them all dead for setting Danny back in his healing.
AU: President Obama falls for part white house intern part rockstar Harry Styles. Obama surprises Harry in the audience of one of his shows and the affair blossoms from there.
masterpost, I am... so migrained. pls no editing, I know there are issue
Danny is pacing like he’s a Speedster. Every so often his eyes dart to the tube that the other him is in. Bart winces even as he think of the person in the tank like that. It’s not fair, not to Danny or to this… this Phantom.
But Bart still keeps himself between Phantom and Danny.
That’s also not fair.
Bart just… Danny’s upset, and Bart hates that. He hates that Phantom makes Danny upset. He hates Phantom, even though he shouldn’t. Bart lets out a breath and tries to let go of his hate too. It will just make him feel bad if he keeps it all inside, like none of his insides can sit still even when he’s not moving. Bart wraps his arms around his stomach. .
Phantom tilts his head, his white hair floats with the motion. He’s watching Bart.
“Sorry, handsome, but this is too much science for me,” Constantine is saying to Bruce where they are looking over the consoles nearest the tank.
“Hn.” Bruce grunts back. “We’ll bring Robin in. He studied cloning after Superboy.”
“The Yeti’s,” Danny says. It’s the first thing it’s said since seeing Phantom. “Um, one of the yeti’s might be part of their science staff. Their leader was my doctor.”
Constantine smacks his palms against his thighs. “Well, I better go talk to them all then. Do you want to come with?” He asks, eying Danny.
Danny looks from Constantine to Phantom to Bart. “I…”
“I’ll come,” Bart promises, holding his hand out.
Danny takes it and doesn’t let go, not even as they enter underground parking garage. It’s dim down there. It feels dimmer still after the blinding white of the rest of the facility. Down there in the concrete things suddenly feel more grungy. More real.
The ghosts linger through the space. Some are up in the cross beams, tucked away into nothing but glowing eyes. Some drift, listlessly, through the space. Others group together down at the floor, seemingly alive but for their translucency. It’s these groups that react when Danny walks in.
‘Phantom’ the ghosts whisper, the word coming from everywhere and nowhere. One of the yeti rise. They seem smaller than most of the others, but hold themselves strongly. There’s only a faint tremor that gives away the strain of they have been through.
“Phantom,” they say with a slight tip of their head. “I am glad to see that you remain. There was a time when I thought that they had tested you too far.”
“That’s not… I’m not…” Danny takes in a deep breath and lets it out. “I’m not who you’ve been feeling. They broke it. They broke it and they took it.” Danny’s voice hisses like the ghosts’.
Bart doesn’t let go of his hand.
The yeti reaches out, like they want to touch, but they don’t move closer. “Is it…?”
Danny shrugs even as he shakes his head. Bart swears he can feel Danny’s confusion and grief swirling in the air. Danny’s free hand clutches at his chest. “They—it’s—they healed… or filled in… There’s another Phantom. No. The core is Phantom. I don’t… I don’t know who I am.”
The yeti’s eyes flicks to Bart and Constantine before they step forward. Their large hand was careful as they tilt Danny’s chin up. “You are still our Phantom, even if there is a new neverborn.”
Danny’s eyes were wet with tears that he swallow back. “I’m not whole.”
“We will see you to Frostbite; you will heal,” the yeti says confidently.
“I’ll be different,” Danny says like that was a warning enough to take back the gentle offer.
They yeti just smiles. “You are a half. You are different every time that we meet, that is not new. We will see you to Frostbit. You will heal.”
The tears finally spill free. Danny struggles to hold back a sob as both him and Bart are pulled forward into the yeti’s arms. Bart is mostly through the yeti, but Danny is held tight like the ghost is a solid thing. Danny lets go and cries.
It starts with Superman. At first, no one noticed, because Clark is always surrounded by adoring fans whenever he takes the time to interact with the civilians. He's used to people crowding around, begging for photos, autographs, and even handing him gifts.
Clark follows Bruce's suggestion to avoid autographs but allows selfies and accepts gifts. He tries to say yes only to kids, though, because he has a soft spot for them and doesn't trust the adults. After a normal save- a school bus almost fell off the edge of a bridge after three tires popped and the driver lost control- he was once again surrounded by children begging for his attention.
Amid the chaos, Clark's arms were filled with gifts from well-meaning teens who talked over one another and clustered close. Everywhere he looked, there was a teen with bright eyes and a wide smile, many clutching thier phones for a photo or two. Clark allowed them close for about three minutes before he politely excused himself and flew away, ignoring their disappointment.
He checked every gift, high in the sky, making sure there was no tracking or dangerous item. Once they passed his checks, Clark flew to his apartment, making sure he wasn't followed. After touching up his latest story- writing was mostly editing, he found- he took a bath and got himself some dinner.
Only then, right before he was set to head off to bed, did Clark bother to go through the gifts. Most were drawings and handmade beaded bracelets that reminded him fondly of his own high school days. There was one Superman plushie that seemed handmade, which found its way to a shelf in his room, but the one gift that really stole the show was the very last one.
It was a scroll that, upon unrolling, melted Clark's heart. It was an ink painting of Superman saving an elderly couple. It was obviously from the fire a month ago at the Daily Planet, and the couple was someone very dear to the hero.
There, in bold, sharp black lines, was Clark carrying his Ma and Pa out of the fire, thier faces beaming with love. The artist made the artistic decision not to include the disaster he was rescuing them from, so the image depicted the hair midflight with his parents in each arm, the wing blowing thier hair and thier smiles wide and warm.
He would hang this in his fortress as soon as he flew by the farm to show his parents. He stared at it a little longer before rolling it up and hiding it in his closet behind a false wall.
Clark never suspected anything because there was a picture of Superman saving the Kents, taken by one Jimmy Olsen. He fell asleep that night thinking about how much his family would love it.
That was until the monthly Justice League meeting, where the painting came up in casual conversation after it concluded and members were in the process of leaving. Barry was just retelling his most daring rescue of a group of high schoolers at science camp, outrunning a flood to reach the children. He was also showered with gifts, but his favorite was the ink painting of him running with Iris in his arms from the time he got her out of a building with a bomb.
Clark doesn't normally interrupt a conversation- because his Pa raised him better than that- but he couldn't help it this time. "An ink painting? I got one of those from a teenager two weeks ago."
"I got one too," Hal yells from across the table. He's leaning his cheek back with his feet up. Clark knows Bruce is fighting every instinct in himself to not snap at Hal to take his feet off the table. "It was even in a fancy scroll."
"Mine too." Barry and Clark say at the same time. The three pause, exchanging confused looks. A throat clears on the other side of the room; the men turn to find Diana standing there holding a very familiar scroll.
It is the same fabric that Clark's was made of, the same dark material with the twisting green swirls around the painting. The painting itself was of Wonder Woman, sword held high above her, shield at her side, and right behind her, smiling upwards at her like the goddess she is, stands Steve Trevor.
Except Steve Trevor has been dead for over eight decades. There was no way a random high school had found a picture of him, because Diana had spent years looking for pictures of him and had only found two, both too blurry to really see his facial features. The government had destroyed nearly all records of him when Steve became a part of a secret task force in WWII and couldn't afford to have him linked back to the USA.
This meant the gift giver was someone who had gone out of their way to find Steve and knew that he was someone special to Wonder Woman. Which meant this person also knew that the people they had painted for the other members weren't a wonderful accident but a deliberate choice to use thier family members.
"This just became a risk to our loved ones," Diana announces, hand tight around the top of the scroll
Hal stopped rocking in his chair, swearing softly. "They painted my niece and nephew after I saved them from a fire. I did a few loops and tricks in the air to help calm them down, so a lot of photos of us were taken. I assumed that the artist just used one as a reference. I had no idea that....."
His words fade, but no one calls him out on it. Clark's own heart was hammering in his chest, worry and anxiety licking at his stomach in a nauseating manner. The knowledge that someone out there knew his parents and was even bold enough to taunt him by sending him a painting scared him more than he thought he was capable of feeling.
The four gathered around, retelling how they received their gifts and comparing notes for any similarities. The one thing that stood out was that the scroll was always dropped off when a group of teenagers was nearby, meaning the one behind it was either using teenagers or was a teenager themselves.
"Do you think we are the only ones being targeted?" Clark questions while tapping his arm. "Does anyone else in the League receive them?"
"I'll send out a message," Barry offers, typing away on his tablet. A beep goes off on everyone's communicators, reading out the message in code and calling all members back for an emergency briefing. "We need to make it quick. I don't like leaving Iris alone now that I know someone knows about her."
Turns out every one of the main seven had received a scroll, which made everyone uneasy. Almost everyone.
"Did you not like them?" Bruce doesn't pout, but it's the closest any of them have ever seen him get to. "He worked really hard on them."
"He? Batman, do you know who sent these?"
The Dark Knight leans back in his seat, as stoic as the day they met him, but everyone knows him well enough to see the emotions just beneath his skin. Bruce was preening.
"My son painted those."
"Robin?" Clark frowns. "Why did he not just give it to us at the Watch Tower?"
"No. My other son. He doesn't know he's my son, but I know that he's my son, and I'm watching him go out in the world and act like he's not my son."
"Hold on." Barry holds up an arm. "I got confused. Which Robin are we talking about?"
"None."
".....Then how is he your son?"
"He's my biological child, whom I had during a fling with his parents during thier visit to the Tower of London."
"Parent s. As in plural?" Hal cuts in, eyebrows raised.
"Yes." Bruce nods once, sharply, decisively. And because they know him so well, smugly, "They're ghost hunters."
"Right, so your biological son, who doesn't know he's yours because he was raised by the two-thirds of your threesome, painted pictures of our family members and gave them to us as gifts." Oliver summarized, with confusion clearly coloring his words. "Does that mean he knows our secret identities?"
"Yes."
"Did you tell him?" Clark asks
"No."
"Then how does he know?"
Bruce paused for a single second before he shrugged. "He takes after me. He painted one for me as well"
They watch the man eagerly pull a scroll from its strap on his utility belt, letting it roll open on its own. It's an awe-inspiring painting of Batman mid-swing over the city of Gotham, with the moon behind him. It has bold, thick lines that create a contrast with the white fabric.
It is a true masterpiece....were it not for the giant world written across the scroll.
"It says menace."
"Yes. He does not like Batman"
Diana very delicately stepped closer, placing one comforting hand on Bruce's shoulder. "He'll come around."
"He will not. He thinks Batman is a ghost and has attempted to kill me multiple times. He won't let me close enough to talk"
There is another heavier pause before Clark stands. "All in favor of helping Batman with his child, say aye."
"Aye." The word is echoed by six different voices.
Bruce rolls up his scroll. "That's nice."
"Don't worry, Batman. How hard can it be to track down an ink artist?"
Two years later, Clark is sobbing into his hands in the conference room that has been covered inch by inch with Ink paintings. Every new piece is a new taunt. A reminder that for all his superpowers, he had nothing on the mind of a very determined and petty Wayne. "Where is he? Where is that boy?"
"What is he!? A ghost!?" Hal flings blurry photos over the table, each with a teenage boy. He's never in focus, rarely facing the camera, and the only thing clear about him is his bright green eyes, which almost seem to glow. "How can none of us get a good picture of him!?
Bruce turns from where he's admiring his son's latest work. "Wait a minute. You might be on to something."
Character A who has B wrapped around their finger and thinks they're completely in control of their precious loyal partner x Character B who is way more powerful and aware than A thinks and A only controls B because B lets them but B definitely gets off on that fact
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