#I thought of it as Danny is the one with the concussion

[ri-afan]

Soulmate au - first words on skin

“Woah, hey, you probably shouldn’t be doing that.”

“…Are you my conscience?”

Person 1 is a vigilante helping someone with a probable concussion after an attack of some kind.

Person 2 is a person who’s had many a philosophical debate on whether or not the words on their skin made them reckless or if they were reckless all on their own.

[lexus-k4]

Dp x DC prompt/idea

What if: we combined 'little shit Danny' who looks like one of the bat kids, and Bruce running oon little to only 8 hours within the last 4 days.

Batman going home from patrol, having had only 8 hours if sleep withing the last 4 almost 5 days because of patrol, Work, galas and business meetings back to back.

Also batman, running into Danny sitting on a roof eating a sub sandwich.

Batman: what are you doing here. Your meant to be at home. Your benched remember. *heavy sigh* whatever I'll just take you back myself.

Danny: huh? Wait-what? No side, I think your mistaking me-

Batman: up we go. Home time. Then I'm gonna make sure your going to bed then me or else penny one is gonna have my head.

- - - -

Danny in the Batcave with a de cowl'd batman, revealing Bruce Wayne's face. Danny still eating his sandwich as Batman aka Bruce lectures him about properly watching your health and injuries especially with a missing spleen, which told Danny that whoever Bruce/Batman thought he was, was missing a spleed.

Danny quickly sensing a message to his sister jazz letting her know he's sorta been kidnapped by a new Fruitloop and activates his tracker.

Jazz: OMW

Also jazz- sprinting to Danny's location across roofs with a creep stick in hand and her eyes slowly starting to glow because of her liminality.

Tim walking down into the Batcave not long later but then pausing eyes directly on Danny as they have a stare off.

Tim: uhhh. B?

B looking at Danny thinking he spoke: hmm?

Tim: B...

B slightly confused: how are you talking. Your mouth isn't moving?

Danny still chewing on his sandwich lifting his hand and pointing to Tim behind Bruce.

Que Bruce looking back and forth between Tim and Danny, eyes squinted as he tries to clear his bleary eyes.

B: but. Your sat here. But your also stood there... What?

Tim: B. That's not me...

B looking at Danny: then who's this?

Tim: HOW AM I MEANT TO KNOW?!

Danny: Hi. I'm the kid you kidnapped, most likely thinking I was your son. But I'm not. And now I know that Batman is Bruce Wayne. Which honeatly. Did not see that coming. I owe Wes sooo much money... Oh god, I can't let Wes know. I'mma be broke. More than I already am...

Then you have Tim and Bruce stood there confused out of their minds as they slowly realise what's happened. Then Tim leave to go get Alfred leaving Bruce and Danny still in the cave.

Not long later jazz shows up running down one of the long entrances/exits for the vehicles holding the creep stick panting, out of breath, and then running up to Bruce about to swing.

B: Babs? Is that you? But. Your walking... Your legs are better. Oh I'm so happy. It's amazing. Your better again. Your dad must be so happy.

Also B- going up to a stunned frozen jazz and hugging her.

Jazz: huh?

Danny: I think he's either concussed or just mentally unwell. Or both. Who knows.

B: your standing again. It's amazing. It's-

Tim who just came down stairs with Alfred: B... What did you do now...

B turning around with a slight smile: TIM! It's Barbra. She's walking again! It's amazing!

Tim: B... That's not Barbra...

B: what? But...

Alfred with the most disappointed look known to man kind: Master Bruce. Miss Barbra is still in the library helping the other still on patrols.

B:... Then who...

Alfred : master Bruce. I'd advise you go to bed before you make more mistakes, you have already exposed your identity. Now, if you do notgo to bed within the next 10 minutes I will personally prevent you from patrolling. I have already been lenient these last 5 days.

B: but-

Alfred: NOW.

B: yup. Bed. Going. Got it.

The following minutes are filled with silence as Bruce hurries to get out of his costume and up the elevator all while Alfred follows him with his gaze alone.

Jazz: huh?

Danny grinning: turns out Batman is Bruce Wayne.

Jazz looking frazzled, confused and still holding her creep stick as if she's gonna swing: wha...

Alfred:my apologies. It appears master Bruce isn't in the best state of mind due to a lack of sleep. Would you like some tea? How may I address you two?.

Jazz: I uhh... Yeah. Tea...

Danny: I'm Danny. This is my sister, Jazz.

Alfred: very well, master Danny, miss Jazz. I will bring some tea shortyl, I hope master Tim is able to get you comfortable while you wait.

Tim: sure thing Alfie.

Following this you get Tim leading Danny and Jazz to a sitting area in the cave, then Alfred coming down with a tray of tea, and decaf coffee for Tim.

Tim proceeds to explain to the two that they were mistaken as him and a family friend who is similar to a sibling due to similar appearances.

Later on Dick, Jason and Steph walk into the cave before freezing realizing that there are civilians and they've take off their masks. They proceed to try and replace them before Tim stops them and tells them Bruce had already messed up.

Tim, Danny and Jazz explain what happened which leads them to bursting in laughter.

- - - -

Jason: wait. I get how Danny got in here. But, how did you get in here?

Jazz: oh... Well, Danny keeps a tracker on his phone in case of emergency that let's me know where he is when he activates it.

Jason: okay, fair. But that still doesn't explain how you got in here, because the exits are all blocked off or unaccesible because they're through the manor.

Jazz: oh, I just followed his tracker, realized he was somewhere that isn't available on foot so I just started phasing through the wall till I got in that tunnel.

Jason: you what?

Jazz: I phased through the wall.

Danny: Jazz... I think your for getting something...

Jazz: what?

Danny: normal people don't phase through walls...

Jazz: what do you- oh. Oh, fuck.

Danny: yeah.

Dick: well... That's cool. We've got metals in here. Duke's gonna be happy. He should be coming down in a few hours to start patrol too.

Duke: nope, already here. I noticed no one had come upstairs yet other than Bruce and got curious.

Steph: HOLY SHIT! Don't sneak up on us like that!

Duke: are you guys really metas? What can you do? I can control light and shadows.

Steph: hey don't just ig-

Jazz: well. Yeah I guess we count as metas, because that category is broad anyway. I can phase through stuff, have increase strength, and emotionally affected fire hair, glowing eyes and fangs, and mild pyro-kinesis.

Duke: swe-heet. What about you dude?

Danny: oh well, strength, fly, invisibility, intagibility/phase through shit, glowing,ice powers... And yeah. That's the basics, yeahthere is more but that other stuff. ... I'm less meta more half human though. So..

Duke: cool~

Dick: hey, why do you guys call it phasing and not density shifting. Isn't that the same?

Jazz: well not exactly. Density shifting is the act of being able to manipulate your density to a molecular level so that you can pass through the molecules of another object. However, it can be blocked with a night dense material.

Danny: whereas phasing is essentially the act of going momentarily intangible while maintaining your density, or more accurately control ably not just momentarily.

Steph: ... Yeah that's too much words for me.

Dick: basically, density shifting -you can still be touched and blocked by some stuff and change how physical you are on the tiny scale. Phasing- you ignore laws of science to not be able to be touched and ignore how thick something is. Right?

Danny: yeah.

Jazz: pretty much yeah.

Steph: sweet.

[on-the-clear-blue]

Dead Man's Diner drabbles since I need to get back into writing it.

Robber, bursting through the door, gun already pulled out and shouting: EVERYBODY PUT YOUR FUCKING HANDS UP AND OPEN UP YOUR WALLETS

The whole God damn Batfam just looking up from their respective places in the diner:..

Danny, behind the counter, tired as hell from basically taking over feeding them all: Take the fucking shot.

---

Nightwing, laying dramatically over the breakfast bar as Danny walks in, a rose between his teeth: Hi~ I need to place an order

Danny, woke up 15 minutes ago: It is to early for this (it's 7 pm)

Nightwing, watching as Dany just turns around and leaves the diner: Wait no.

---

Bart/Wally/Berry, finally done helping their respective Bat with Gotham Things ™️, stumbling upon the Diner:Sweet, no need to run back home on empty!

Danny, seeing the one that he has seen Clockwork scream about walk into his diner: shit I gotta make a call.

(15 Minutes later)

Bart/Wally/Berry crying into a massive plie of pancakes as Clockwork reads them yo filth.

---

Wes, grumbling as he is kicked out of the diner for the fifth time this week: God damn it Fenton! Stopping hiding your ghostly existence! The people demand the truth!

Bernard, there because Tim recommended it, trying and failing to hit taking him there for a date, head snapping over to Wes like a horror movie: I sense a conspiracy theory.

---

Cass, squating on a bar stool: *pouting face*

Danny, squinting at her: No.

Cass, looking up at him with the most hurt expression: *kicked puppy look*

Danny, feeling terrible:Okay! Okay I will get Cujo to come over! A-and I will throw in Ellie!

Cass, breaking unto a smile: and hot coco?

Danny, fully broken by her: Sure, why the hell not.

---

Tucker and Sam, finally coming into the diner: honestly? Not as bad as I thought it would be.

(A Bat getting chucked through the door, and Rouge following after)

Tucker:Holy...is he okay?

Sam: I take back what I said.

Danny, looking at the property damage:Nope...nope this is normal, Red Hood your tab just doubled.

Jason, fully concussed: Sure thing...babe...

---

Based on an idea I have for later on, Jason and Danny are in the middle stage between friends and Dating and Jason finally gets to meet the other two of the everlasting trio...

Sam, has a baseball bat in hand that is starting to sprout out branches: You hurt Danny and you'll end up dead again, and this time you won't have the hands to dig your way out.

Tucker, with sparks flashing in his eyes and a grin on his face, his PDA blinks with info that no civilian should have: Jason Peter Todd-Wayne, I know all about you, mess things up with Danny and your Pride and Prejudice Self insert fanfiction gets shared with your family, as well as your Wattpad and Tumblr accounts will be sent directly to the Justice Leauge.

Jason, crying a little bit:Danny your friends are terrifying.

Danny, walking out in a pink apron:Oh shit...ugh, Sam! Tucker! I told you dont do that!.

---

Vlad, being a creep to Danny: Oh little badger...truly looking forward to seeing you begging for your life once more

Jason, equidded with Fenton works guns: Anyway I started Blasting.

[emacrow]

The reborned Kronos and her overprotective baby that the Justice league haven't figured out how to calm down.

Especially when the angry head of the Cultists who were around the sacrifice alter in a circle started shouting at one on the left, which caused the lil baby clinging to Kronos newly form female body to stiffen up and wailed, causing the large glowing spike of ice to emerged and quickly freezes every single one of the cultists.

Martian man has confirmed that Kronos is going through a Major psychic backlash to even move or even speak, point that just taking a peak in her mind, gave Martian man a near concussion from the emotional sensitivity overload and several hundreds of whispering self reflecting thoughts cluttering her consciousness.

The Justice League and the Dark Justice are trying to figure out how to get close to Kronos and her screaming bloody murder child without going through what the cultists went through, especially when the Frozen ice was still spreading slowly widening.

Shazam is going through the worst-case headaches as several voices were screaming, yelling at him to destroy the Mad Time God while Two sounded like they eating popcorn and enjoying the drama. Constantine was about to suggest something until a unknown voice that sounded hoarses spoke.

"...Danny..."

That when the Flash rather quickly saw Kronos's hands twitch. Motioning the other heroes as they all began to watch and wait as Kronos slowly bringing the baby closer to her chest.

"..World is covered by our trails, Scars we cover up with paint.... I would rather see this world through the eyes of a child, , Darker times will come and go..... Times you need to see her smile and mothers' hands are warm.... When a human strokes your skin,That is when you let them in, I would rather feel alive with a childlike soul, with a childlike soul.." Kronos whispered softly to the wailing baby that was slowly calming down. Superman can hear the lullaby even if he couldn't understand what she was saying to the child.

"...it's been a long while I'd entertained the living." Kronos said in a rich soothing voice as she had slowly open her eyes revealing a mesmerizing deep purple color with what seem to be a tiny thousands of clock gears ticking surrounding her pupil, turning to justice league

Part 1 << >> Part 3

[spicysourchimken]

Interesting reunions

Tim and Danny are twins, Danny was given up for adoption by the Drakes when he was a baby and Tim was never told he has a brother.

After a reveal gone bad, Danny, Jazz, Sam and Tucker became thieves after closing the portal. They mainly target supernatural or cursed items. Their target, a necklace, is being held in a museum with their in being a private event to show off the piece before it's sent back to its owner.

The heist would've gone well if Tim hadn't also been in attendance.

------

'Lmao and here I thought you didn't want to be here'

It was a text from Dick.

Not exactly the strangest thing to happen when Tim was forced to attend an event.

He'd been benched after a mission resulted in a minor concussion. He'd personally been planning on going over his paperwork for Wayne Enterprises, but apparently that wasn't 'rest', instead he was sent off to be bored out of his mind at some art function. He didn't have time to prepare notes or even do any real research. But he still had Dick who had apparently been dragged along as his babysitter (And was fortunately interested in the items on display)

They'd been texting throughout the night. Dick fed him enough information to be mildly interested in topics of conversation, and when that failed the strange history of the main display. An old necklace that supposedly was connected to a string of deaths and all around misfortune.

So no, the text wasn't strange, but what was, was the photo attached. It was a picture of a man, grinning and chatting amicably with a woman whom he could barely make out as the collection's curator. His hair was longer than Tim's, tied neatly back to be clear of his glasses and to give clear view of the man's face.

Tim's face.

There was a clone at the event.

'can u get me another pic?'

Tim was now significantly more interested. Tim could identify the room they were in, housing the main display and it was about two rooms over from where he was currently hiding out. He could get there easily enough.

Dick sent him a thumbs up before replying with another, distinctly more uncomfortable photo of the man. He smiled awkwardly and Tim could finally get a better look at his face. Tim's brows scrunched together. A lichtenburg scar stretched up from beneath his collar and trailed along his jaw and in the light the man's eyes almost looked green.

He ran the photo through his facial recognition software, getting at least a few pings on himself before finally landing on Jonas Spencer, private security currently assigned to shadow one Morgan Deveraux. His history was solid, highschool records, even a spotty criminal history (points where he'd almost been arrested for bar fights) before he'd joined up with his firm.

So. not a clone. Probably.

Tim would still need to check it out. He pushed past a dark haired woman and entered the main show room. Dick, luckily had kept him in conversation but Jonas looked flighty, his eyes always drifting back to his charge.

Then he caught sight of Tim.

He froze. Staring at Tim for a moment before he tapped his ear- and what Tim assumed to be a comm. He made a move for Morgan, leaving Dick in the dust.

The lights flickered. Jonas reached for Megan, his hand wrapping around hers. Tim could've sworn his eyes darted upwards. Then there was a complete blackout. There was a clatter as a vent grate fell to the floor, shouts arose from the attendees.

Then the lights flickered back to life.

Jonas and Morgan had vanished, and so did the necklace as well as three other paintings.

Good news, its not a clone. Bad news, he might have a twin brother who is in a gang of thieves.

--

Daniel Fenton, or as his ID currently stated 'Jonas Spencer', wouldn't exactly call himself a thief- personally he was more of a collector. Or a curator, whatever the hell you might call a guy who grabs haunted and or cursed objects and dumps them in an alternate dimension.

And it wasn't exactly like he was normally the one stealing things either! That was mostly Sam, he'd done for a bit when they'd first started up (pushing his hands through the glass and taking a necklace with him, or making a painting completely invisible as he whisked it away) but then Sam started calling it 'cheating' and claimed 'his technique was lacking' and promptly took over his position.

(He didn't exactly mind, using his powers too often made his skin crawl. He may not have the GIW constantly hunting him, but he'd had enough run ins to make him sweat. He also didn't want to think about his parents.)

So maybe their entire deal wasn't completely altruistic. When you've been on the run since seventeen and had decided that you, your best friends and your older sister are going to become international thieves, sometimes you have to steal things so that you can have an income. And sometimes stealing is fun.

Unluckily their current job wasn't recreational. They'd heard word of a haunted necklace, there was a string of bad luck connected to it. Mirrors shattering, injuries popping up only days after interacting with the piece, lights falling out from the ceiling. There'd also been a case of near death.

Very clearly the latest display piece was cursed meaning they needed to grab it before it was shipped back into it private collection in France. That meant a time crunch, meaning they wouldn't be fully prepared. It was fine- they'd stolen the dagger of Amon Ra when they had half a day to plan, so three should've been fine.

He and Jazz manned the floor, Jazz kept to grifting while Danny worked as support if things went sideways on any front. Jazz, currently wealthy socialite 'Morgan Devereaux', draped an arm around a politician as he guided her through the collection. Jazz shot him a glance telling him to stay back, keep monitoring the main floor with the necklace.

That was fine. He could do that. He approached the curator and complimented the piece, letting her tell him about the struggles she had getting it overseas let alone her conversations with the owner. Ok, so definitely cursed.

Danny felt eyes on his back, and from the corner of his eye he saw someone take a photo. Tall, dark hair and a bright smile.

Sam pointed out that it was a Wayne.

At that point Danny made an attempt to leave, if he was going to get into a fight we wasn't going to do it there. He'd be too close to the necklace for Sam to get in and grab it without attention being drawn to her too. But Grayson cornered him impressively fast. He asked Danny for a photo, claiming that he looked just like his brother. Danny relented.

Then Tucker chimed in that someone had ran his face. Fuck. Dick kept him in conversation but Danny was eyeing their escape roots. Sam warned that another was coming through the left entrance and that she'd already lifted his phone. Danny turned, preparing himself for confrontation.

Then Danny saw him, his doppelganger.

Grayson hadn't been lying. That thought was terrifying.

Danny sent two taps into his earpiece and made his way towards Jazz. They couldn't risk staying any longer. Danny didn't know if they'd been made or not but he wasn't taking chances. He nodded to Sam who went for the jewels as Tucker cut the lights. Jazz and Danny took a painting each.

Sam went for the vents and Danny and Jazz disappeared through the front door.

[methoughtsphantom]

Jason “my family doesn’t know im alive” Todd and Danny “my family doesn’t know I’m dead” Fenton going alongside each of their plans my beloved. like Danny will absolutely go head-to-head with all of Gotham to support his new best friend on all his crime lord endeavors while he drags Jason to also attend collage with him. They are roommates and there never seems to a mention of family from either side. It’s an unspoken understanding they have. They met because Crime alley as a ghost lair thrummed with so much loneliness, it was at first the perfect place for Danny to hide his ecto signature in. But then he saw the dumbass whose lair it was lean his motorcycle just a tad too much when making a sharp turn to an alley, he sweeped the floor through a lifted chain link that passed his body but not his helmet. Yep that’s right the red thing got stuck. Danny who at the moment happened to be watching through his window snorted. Much to his horror because if not a ghost that dude could’ve gotten his head flung off.

Still, the scene was ridiculous.

On a whim he irrationally sees the police closing in on the guy and panicked at the thought of the guy using intangibility to free himself so Danny phased them both through his apartment wall and left the guy sprawled in his couch. Jason didn’t freak out but that’s normal when one’s got a concussion, one the guy immediately denied having as Danny laid out the medical supplies. The idiot proceeded to almost flatten four steps to the door with his stubbornness. He also said “I’m asexual” in the most deadpan voice as Danny dropped him back in the couch.

Danny sighed. Clearly though, he’d done so too early in the night because the guy kept trying to go, kept trying to knock Danny out, kept trying to slash him with knifes Danny didn’t know he had stashed. He’d only disarmed the guy from his guns. The visible ones apparently, cause at one point the guy did take out a gun and shoot until the ammo ran out and then teetered the thing like it was an art prop and hit his moon lamp.

Danny "yeah you aren’t officially my friend until you’ve tried to kill me" fenton my guys.

Anyways both keep having the same argument over if Danny technically kidnapped Jason or not. Danny holds the fact that the police at least didn’t see the guy make the ridicule. Jason argued that happened cause he was sporting a concussion. Danny argued he got that after.

Jason at first thinks the guy's a meta, but no. Danny introduces himself, sheepily now that he recognizes this is who the lair he invaded is from. He bandages him and tries to cook for him. If Danny didn’t have ice powers he most certainly would’ve burned the apartment. Jason then proceeds to kick him out of his own kitchen and make them both enchiladas. It’s the most normal both had in a while with another person and the air seems oddly settled. From then on, Jason constantly invited himself over, under the pretense that this was his territory and therefore he could drop in unannounced. Danny who has actual powers says he only allows this because Jason cooks very well.

Danny stays away from the crime fighting business unless his buddy is in deep shit he can’t get himself out. Also it’s Danny’s turn to cover for his vigilante friend which Sam and Tucker give him so much shit for. (but also advice)

And they were roommates. (omg) Danny effectively derails Jason’s big comeback plans by casually dropping ghost lore every two days. Like,

Jason, talking about how he doesn’t want Bats snooping on his territory:

Danny: Just don’t let them in

Jason: ??

Danny: yeah!! Hasn’t Batman died and got revived??? You can totally kick out death touched people you don’t want entering on your lair.

Jason: …I can?

Danny: Yep dude, your lair’s supposed to feel safe.

Jason: wait does that mean I can kick you out?

Danny: First this is my apartment. Second, im dead, not dead touched. Third, it’s too late to get rid of me. bitch.

Anyways Jason is super excited. You mean to tell him he can actually deny people over to his territory haunt?? (Yes it’s only to people who have died and came back but still!! The sample size is exactly the type of people he doesn’t want to see—!)

Joker my beloathed can’t step foot in Crime Alley.

(Jason’d feel a lot safer if the clown was dead but the possibility of his murderer turning into a ghost and their little loophole not applying on the clown is too scary to contemplate.)

Anyways, Jason loves experimenting with the power. It can go from simply making people shudder and not want to enter crime Alley to straight up not letting them enter like there’s an invisible wall blocking the way.

Jason because he’s hurt that Bruce never even patrols Crime Alley and also because he’s petty put B under the category of “invisible wall” blacklist. His reasoning is that the man doesn’t even attempt to enter Crime Alley. To him it’s surely just a place shadowed in tragedy. (anyways that’s it’s the place he met Jason)

Ironically, Jason totally forgets that Batman does venture into Crime Alley one day in the whole year. The day he met Jason.

Okay. He didn’t forget at first. The first year Jason remembers cause it was only a few months till then but then the next— Jason forgets that today’s the anniversary of the day’s Bruce’s parents died. He forgets to allow B in when he feels a slight tug and dismiss the feeling that prompts Bruce to investigate because he literally can’t enter Crime Alley. He starts the trialsTM, he scouts on the very edge and sees people the whole day enter and get out and cross with no problem but Bruce can’t.

It’s literally just Bruce.

Time to call Constantine, i guess.

[redflagshipwriter]

ANOTHER UNDEAD FENTON

Inspiration came from this post by @stars-obsession-pit !

Word count: 1479

Masterpost of Archive Down Fics here.

(I wrote three dp x dc fics based off of prompts I've seen in the last day for reading while the site is getting maintenance. )

There was a high, shrill scream in the Fenton lab.

Maddie bolted for the stairs, abandoning her coffee without a thought. She flung herself down to see Jack bent over a body in front of the portal.

“Is this person a threat?” Maddie prepared to defend her husband, but the body didn't move.

Jack looked up at her. “No, I was just surprised! I think he's hurt, Mads.”

Her bleeding heart husband. She crossed the room and rolled their intruder over to see it was a kid, maybe Danny's age. In his sleep, he had a sweet, soft face. His face and throat were covered in faint scars.

Well. That was one of hers, now. No getting around it. That was a teenage boy on her floor who has obviously been the victim of violence.

“Well, shit,” Maddie said companionably. She blew out air between her teeth. “Dear, would you put clean sheets on in Jazz's room?”

They were running out of space, between the clones and the past evil alternate future children.

Jack saluted her, shouted an affirmation , and bounded away.

Maddie took a moment to wonder if her children would be an infinitely expanding collection and if so, if it would be better to move into Vlad's castle than to build the home addition they had planned for.

She gathered the teenager up in her arms despite him being her size, and laid him out on an exam table. She started checking his vitals.

A hand shot out and grabbed her by the wrist.

“Good morning, sweetheart,” Maddie said. She redirected her hand to smooth hair behind his ear. He blearily followed the movement, just as obviously intelligent as he was obviously compromised. She didn't know if it was a concussion or drugs or what, but this boy was not well. “It's Friday June 29th, and you're in Amity Park, Illinois. I'm Madeleine Fenton and you're at my house because you fell through a portal. Is there someone I should call for you?”

He stared at her. She could see the moment he decided not to speak to her.

That situation didn't change much all day. The kid walked himself up to bed and peered around at Jazz's old posters. He seemed to want to be alone, but Maddie caught him watching Dani and Dan playing catch in the yard. She made eye contact with him over her book and then looked back at her shrieking kids. Dan was doing flips on the trampoline and launching his sister in the air, catching and tossing her back up in the nick of time between flips.

Their new boy closed his curtains.

“I was thinking about Dante,” Jack said, bringing out a pitcher of iced tea. “Or, how about Jasper! Eh? Eh? You know, like Jazz-per?” Jack belly laughed.

“He probably has his own name,” Maddie said calmly. She'd estimated him at 16 or so, anyway. But whatever. If he wasn't going to give them a name, they did eventually need something to call him. And they needed to sort out accommodation fast, before Jazz got back from her college tour trip.

“Let's go with Jasper until he gives us his real name.” There were enough Ds in her home, honestly.

She lured Jasper out of his room for lunch. He sat at the kitchen table and watched them all warily. He only ate what they ate.

Danny arrived mid-meal. “Mom! Dad!” There was a whumpf as he probably threw himself onto the sofa. “We wanna go to Elmerton, that ok?”

“You should take your brother with you,” Maddie called back. “He needs clothes.”

“What?” Danny clearly pried himself up and came into the kitchen. Maddie silently offered to make him a plate. “No, I ate at Tuck's. Dan, what'd you do to your clothes?”

“Nothing, you pathetic worm,” said Dan, who really was a sensitive boy. “I am not the topic of discussion, you blithering fool.” He jerked a finger at Jasper. “New one.”

Danny stared.

Jasper looked uncomfortable. He gave a sort of hello nod.

“He's, uh, he's not-”

“Not a clone or alternate future version of you, nope,” Maddie agreed. “Though he did come out of the portal. We wondered if he might be a ghost, but it didn't seem necessary to ask.”

Jasper full body flinched at the word “ghost”, but he looked confused.

Danny squinted at his new bother who, it must be said, did look a bit like a Fenton already. “Not a ghost,” he said after a long pause. “But a little undead. Not sure what kind. But yeah, you're walking dead, buddy.” He clapped Jasper on the shoulder.

“You'll fit right in!” Jack cheered. “Dan is half dead! So is Danno! And so is Dani here! And-”

“Thank you, Jack,” Maddie cut him off. “It might be a sensitive subject, don't you think?”

“Nah,” said Danny, stealing food out of the pan despite saying he wasn't hungry. “We aren't that sensitive. Like-” he looked at Jasper and explained: “I got electrocuted to death in the lab two years ago. Dan is from an alternate future where everyone he loved died, so then he killed everyone else on earth. And Dani is a science experiment baby.”

“It's true,” Dani said solemnly. “I'm a work of science.”

“You make me sound so uncool,” Dan complained, stabbing at his spaghetti.

Jasper laughed for the first time. He himself seemed surprised by the sound. It was hoarse but there was promise there.

When the boys were off at the mall in Elmerton with Sam and Tucker, Maddie called up Vlad.

“You want to come here?”

“I’ve got more kids than I have rooms in my house,” she said wryly. “So if the offer is still open…”

“Yes, of course it is,” he assured her. “But- most of the little ones are still in the Ghost Zone, correct?”

“They're not big enough to leave yet,” Maddie agreed. “Which is why I need to be near a portal.” The ghostlings were staying with the LunchLady and Box Ghost, but they needed to be able to be in touch. “But no, I've got another one.”

Glass shattered in the background. “Another- what happened to Daniel this time?”

Maddie laughed at how flustered her old college friend got. “Nothing to do with Danny, actually, this one fell out of the portal. He's some level of partly dead, but we don't think he's a ghost at all.”

Left unsaid was that they needed to do a lot of research to figure out what other possibilities there were. If they could get into contact with Danny's GP, he might be able to get them on the right track.

“Well.” Vlad took a moment to rally. “When will the family be arriving?”

Two months later, all the kids were pretty settled in.

Jasper had never shared a name, but he was happy to let them call him Jay. He was a phenomenal big brother to Dani. He wrestled with Dan. He bullied Danny into doing his homework. It had been something of an administrative nightmare to get Jaspen enrolled in school, but Vlad had pulled off whatever magic trick he'd done for Dani (applied a lot of money to the problem, Maddie supposed) and Jay had settled in very well.

“Your debut in society,” Maddie hummed, making a point of straightening Jay’s tie. He was growing already, she was sure of it! He was going to wind up as tall as Jack.

“I've been to parties before, Mom,” Jay drawled, and then flushed a dark red that meant he didn't want to be asked questions. Maddie tweaked his nose instead of answering.

“But this is the first one where Vlad's introducing you to his business friends!” She said, already dressed up for a fun night. Vlad had flown them all in on his private jet for the day.

“Queen is a family man as well,” Vlad had said the night before, aiming for calculating and coming off soft. “It will put him off his guard or perhaps make him sick with envy that I have brought a higher quality child than he could ever manage to produce.”

They arrived together, Maddie on Jack's arm, keeping her flock of kids within eyesight as Vlad led the pack. She had a perfect view of Oliver Queen seeing them arrive, the smile dropping off his face, and him choking on his drink. He did look very silly, Maddie had to admit.

“Inept,” Vlad hissed, very pleased. “The fool can't even drink. His company will be mine-” he looked at Danny for some reason. Vlad faltered at whatever be saw. “....Through legitimate business practices, such as buying a majority of stocks,” Vlad weakly finished.

Maddie slapped him on the back. “Go get him, tiger.”

[letoasai]

Will work for food ~part 3

Part 2 ~ Master Post

Tim was beyond irritated. He could have been on a date. Okay, he wasn’t sure if they were dates but they could have been. Damn it. He’d continued to summon Phantom weekly and they’d gone to lunch every time. Pizza. Barbecue. An amazing ramen place. They went to a music festival and visited all the food vendors. 

Things had been going smoothly. He’d been learning more about the Infinite Realm and about Danny himself and was having a great time despite his meddling siblings trying to butt in at every turn. Dick was a repeat offender but Duke, Cass and even Damien had all attempted to ambush him. It was lucky Danny thought it was hilarious and helped Tim avoid them. 

The last two weeks had been a disaster though. He’d had a four day mission with his own team, and had to deal with his friends poking fun at him while trying not to get shot at. Superboy had vastly exaggerated his interaction with Danny to the others! 

By the time he’d gotten back to Gotham, he’d had a small backlog of cases to get through. It was really cutting into both his CEO work and his freaking lunches with a really cute guy who just so happened to be an immortal king of a realm. 

Just when he thought he’d have a little time in the next day or two, Scarecrow was back on his bullshit with his fear toxins. Hadn’t they just done this recently? How had he gotten out of Arkham so fast? 

Tim was woozy, having taken a breath of the toxins and gotten a swift injury to his leg in the process. He’d say it was luck that he already had an antidote on him to fear toxins, but they all carried one with them at all times. He wasn’t freaking out but he could have done without the lightheadedness. It always briefly had him wondering if he’d gotten a concussion, but it was just a side effect. Usually. 

“You good, babybird?” He heard Nightwings voice through comms. He probably thought he was whispering and had no idea how loud he actually was because of the chaos of the night. 

“Never better.” He grumbled, trying to shake off a chill while limping. There was no one around to see at the moment so it was fine. “I’m headed your way.” 

“Good, Scarecrows around here somewhere. Slippery nut job.” Nightwing said. 

“Pay attention.” Batman’s voice ran through their comms. “He divided us on purpose. This isn’t his usual pattern.” 

There was grumbling across the line, everyone having figured that out already but B wouldn’t be B if he didn’t state the obvious for them some nights. 

Tim grappled from one street to the next, hearing sirens far enough in the distance that they couldn’t have been for this. When he landed safely, he pressed his palms to his masked eyes. The throbbing in his head was so annoying, but the jack hammering of his heart was…something he probably shouldn’t ignore but he was. 

“Not a concussion, Red.” He muttered to himself. “Just a stupid sore leg and Scarecrow’s stupid toxins filtering out.” There was always the option that it was a new strain and his antidote didn’t work as well but he wasn’t hallucinating his worst fears so maybe not. 

Trying to shake off his limp, Tim wandered across a nearly empty parking lot. There were a few abandoned cars, most of them missing their tires and on blocks. He kept an ear out, listening for anything that didn’t belong but it was Gotham, and even in the dead of night there were noises. Traffic, generators, air conditioners, nocturnal animals. There was always ambient noise, the key was ignoring the background hums and focusing on the shuffling goons. The problem he was having now however, was the faint ringing in his ears. 

“Red?” Nightwing's voice drifted across comms again. “I don’t see you yet. Something happen?” 

“No i’m…” Tim swallowed, suddenly parched and feeling overall…bad. He tilted his head back to check his surroundings and realized he’d gone the wrong way. How disoriented was he? “Okay, i might not be okay.” 

“Red Robin?” Batman’s voice was calm but urgent. “Do you need backup.” 

Tim almost stumbled but caught himself. “I feel like shit. I think there was something new in the toxins my antidote didn’t take care of.” 

“Oh, how wonderful. You figured it out so quickly.” 

Tim tensed, whirling around to face Scarecrow. Tim hated to think he’d been snuck up on but the rogue was sitting on one of the ripped apart cars in the lot. 

“I’m coming to you!” Nightwing said firmly. “On my way!” 

Tim waved Scarecrow’s words away cockily and only just noticed the way he trembled. “You’re losing your touch. Not a single, horrifying hallucination.” 

The rogue just chuckled. “Oh no, tonight’s a bit of a tester. Something a little different.” 

“That right?” Fuck. 

“Oh indeed, you don't mind being a guinea pig, do you? This particular batch didn’t have the hallucinogens, no. What it is doing is creeping through your system, forcing your body to activate all too real symptoms of fear.” 

“Seems a little corny for you.” Tim said, knowing the others were listening carefully. 

“And you're shaking.” Scarecrow’s huge grin grew broader. “What else, little bird? Over heating? Or are you freezing? Heart pounding? Knees weak? Feeling a fresh wave of tears building? Do let me know. It’s for science.” 

Tim tsked. He wasn’t about to cry but his throat was tight. It was almost like he was having trouble taking in a breath. 

“Somehow, a gas that makes people sick is so much less impressive than your normal routine.” Tim said, his trembling getting worse, but he was positive he was being tracked by at least some of the others. He just had to stall until Nightwing got there. “A couple of phantom pains the best you could come up with?” 

That wasn’t his best quip but Scarecrow took the bait anyway. “Oh no, it’s very real. Your body might not know why it’s so panicked, but it’s pulling out all the stops. Who knows, maybe your heart could just stop.” 

The problem with a lot of Gotham rogues, was the fact that they were actually intelligent people. The man likely could have gone on and on, but he jumped up and moved onto the offensive. He had a pitchfork tonight, and no one could say the man was original. 

“Now just stay still!” 

Tim dodged, the pitchfork surprisingly leaving quite the hole in the concrete. It should have been a simple dance and disarm kind of fight, but Tim’s shaking just got worse, and his stomach started to hurt, and his heart really was trying to beat out of his chest. It really was like he was terrified, the chills of his body making him sweat. 

“No ever actually stays still when someone’s running at them like a lunatic.” Tim said, but the words were almost hard to get out. He wasn’t choking but his throat was so clogged. 

The sass cost him though, and he was hit in his already wounded leg. It sent him rolling across the parking lot and Scarecrow just laughed. 

“Oh, what fun. It’s a shame though, i really miss the screaming of my patients visually seeing their worst nightmare, i’ll have to combine them.” 

Tim legs nearly gave out from under him when he tried to get up. Injury and the damn shaking leaving him unstable. He’d had to stay crouching, pulling out his staff to dig into the ground in front of him to hold himself up. 

“Regardless of my fears, you’re not one of them.” Tim wheezed, wondering if the hallucinogens were actually kicking in when a mist appeared. It was a frigid kind of cold that left ice crystals on all nearby metals. 

“Oh, we’ll see, little bird. I have plenty for your entire family. In fact, i’d love to see what a second dose would do to you.”

“Nearly there.” Batman said, but there was a hiss to his tone that said he knew it wasn’t going to be a timely arrival. 

“This isn’t good…” Tim whispered, watching Scarecrow pull out a small canister, and he was too wobbling to put more distance between them.

With a laugh, Scarecrow hurled it towards him. “Don’t be afraid to inhale!” 

Tim jerked back using his bo-staff as a crutch to give him some kind of momentum but he watched as the canister exploded midair and…something was strange. The cloud of chemicals had been clear for one second before disappearing. There was no time to worry about how quickly it could have been caught on a breeze when even Scarecrow himself looked confused. 

“So fear is your niche.” 

Tim shuddered, eyes going wide as his head jerked towards the sound of the voice. The gentle reverb of the words slicing through him. His solace was that the ire he heard wasn’t directed at him.

Danny was there. Well, King Phantom was there, having appeared out of thin air. It was the first time Tim had seen that form in a while but his friend was just as hauntingly ethereal as Tim remembered. 

He dropped the canister, and Tim had at least a partial answer. Whatever had gone wrong with the toxins had been Phantom’s doing. 

The king stared down at Scarecrow, but Tim couldn’t see his face from where he now sat. “I know a thing or two about fear.” Danny whispered. 

“Impossible.” Scarecrow spat, puffing up like a cat. None of the Gotham rogues liked their plans being disturbed and by a newcomer no less. “What did you do?! Did you inhale my toxins!? Absorb them!? Fool! You’ll be their next victim! You won’t be so relaxed for long! Even Red Robin’s a terrified mess!” 

“Red Robin! Report!” Batman’s voice was firm in his ear. 

“Relaxed?” Phantom mused, deceivingly calm. He’d stiffened, head turning just a little as if checking on Tim, but he never truly took his attention off the rogue. “No, not relaxed. Angry. As delicious as your parlor tricks were, i take offense to finding you hovering like a predator over my friend.” 

He rose into the air a few feet, and only then did Tim realize that he had been standing instead of floating, well, he was floating now. 

Scarecrow just tsked, unaware of the power in front of him. “Meta? Alien? It doesn’t matter. That combination of chemicals-”

“Was delicious.” Danny repeated. 

Tim scooted away, his leg throbbing. “Phantom.” He muttered, finally answering Batman through strangled breaths. “Phantom’s here.”

“Regardless, the offering was not enough to pacify me.” Danny muttered, the black crown over his head spinning. 

Scarecrow actually began laughing, it started with a chuckle but then it grew into something loud and boisterous. “You’re barely more than a child, are you sure you’re ready for this? The hero game is crowded here in Gotham, and you don’t look like any bird or bat i’ve ever seen.” 

Tim watched the way Danny’s hood swayed to the side as he tilted his head. “I am no bird, nor am i a bat.” 

“I’m sure you’ve impressed your little friends with your meta abilities, but it means nothing in a city like this. Though i see you have your talents. How are you unaffected by my toxins?” 

Ice erupted from the ground, enguling Scarecrow’s legs an inch at a time, creeping up his body without a hint of warning. “You misunderstand.” Danny whispered. “I am not here for a conversation. I’m here for my friend, and to teach you that dabbling in fear is childsplay to a being like myself.” 

Tim couldn’t see… Danny was facing away from him but his galaxy cloak billowed out around him without even the slightest breeze. There were shadows…? Something? Tim couldn’t see though he tried. What he could see was Scarecrow, and even with his face covered, his body language betrayed his growing horror. 

“You can not frighten the dead.” Danny said, but in a voice that was decidedly not his own. 

Scarecrow started screaming, a desperate sound that had him thrashing in place, the ice now well around his chest. Tim didn’t know what the rogue was seeing but if scaring someone to death was really a thing… 

“Phantom.” Tim tried to raise his voice and had to close his eyes to shove away the sudden lightheadedness. He was shivering. “W..we good…?” 

Whatever was going on paused, and Danny seemed to reign himself in. The strange movement of his cloak stopped and Tim briefly made a mental note to ask Danny what kind of other forms he might have. 

Danny turned to him, looking normal, though he hadn’t seen his white hair in a while. “I forget sometimes…” He commented, voice even softer than usual. “The living are so fragile.” 

Scarecrow was still screaming, but his head was lulling back and he looked seconds away from passing out. He was held in place by the ice, and obviously wasn’t going anywhere. 

“Yeah, we’re like that.” Tim muttered, shoulders slumping now that the danger was taken care of, it didn’t stop the way his body twitched. His stomach hurt so bad. 

Danny landed by his side silently, a gentle hand on his shoulder. “Are you alright?” 

“Yeah. Leg’s a little messed up but it’ll heal. The… the toxins in my system are going to have to run their course, unless i can work out how to s..somehow come up with a new antidote before then. St..stupid…” 

Danny cocked his head to the side, wispy white hairs floating around his face. It was unfair how attractive he was. “Want me to eat it?” 

Tim heard a confused “Wut?” from his comm. Spoiler summing up that comment nicely. 

“I can absorb emotion. Because it can sustain us. I just think of it as a different way to eat.” Danny said. Tim breathed a sigh of relief that that half ghost had been around him long enough to know that he liked explanations when he didn’t understand something. 

“That’s w..why the fear toxins didn’t affect you.” 

“Mhmm.” Danny hummed. “Gotta get that recipe though. That was tasty. Frighty would love it. 

Tim sighed, feeling another wave of nausea and he…was pretty sure he was seeing colors he shouldn’t be. “You always leave m…me with more questions than answers. My s..symptoms aren’t emotional. Chem..chemically induced.” And fuck this was so embarrassing in front of the King of the Infinite Realm. 

Danny hummed, and if Tim wasn’t mistaken, he sounded amused. He leaned closer, fingers touching Tim’s face and all at once, he started to feel better. His shaking stopped almost immediately and he was left to assume that despite the chemicals he’d inhaled, Danny was still able to take them from him. Honestly, scientifically it made no sense whatsoever. 

At least his stomach didn’t hurt anymore. 

“What do i owe you for this one?” Tim asked with a weary smile. Other than a sore leg, the other symptoms seemed to disappear. 

“I got two separate fear meals. I’m good.” Danny chuckled, helping Tim to his feet only seconds before Batman and Nightwing arrived. 

Nightwing made a beeline for Tim, grabbing him in the tightest hug while Batman was instead looking Scarecrow over who had, in fact, passed out at some point. 

“Wing, watch it! Watch it! The leg!” 

“I’m so glad you’re okay!” Nightwing clung anyway. He then held a hand out to Danny. “Thank you so so much, your Majesty! Your timing is to die for!” 

Tim knew he was in trouble when Danny took Nightwings hand to shake, and his eyes lit up. “Wing…” Tim said in a warning tone that went unheard. 

“No big deal. Visiting Red Robin really lifts my spirits.” Danny said with a small grin, fangs a little larger than in his living form. 

Nightwing tipped his head back and laughed. “Yes!” 

“No…” Tim groaned, shoving away from his brother. 

“In all seriousness, i’m glad i came.” Danny said. “I wasn’t sure if you were trying to summon me or not so i thought i’d poke my head in and see.” 

“I…didn’t realize i did?” Tim muttered, checking his utility belt. “I do have the spell circle but…” 

Danny shrugged “Well you said ‘Phantom’ at some point. I thought it sounded a little different but well…i didn’t think it would hurt to double check. I’m glad i was able to help.” 

“We appreciate it, your Majesty.” Batman commented in a gruff tone. He very much did not appreciate it but couldn’t be mad about someone saving Tim when he wouldn’t have gotten there in time.“What exactly did you do? This ice is-” 

“Oh, right.” Phantom waved his hand flippantly and the ice disappeared. Scarecrow dropped to the ground like a sack of potatoes. “He’ll probably suffer nightmares for the next week but he’ll shake it off.” 

“I have… so many questions…” Tim repeated. 

Danny just looked at him fondly. “You always do.” 

“I’ll take him in.” Batman said. “Red Robin, return for medical treatment.” 

“I’m fine, B.” Tim said, but he was getting a look. “Grab whatever he has on him so we can make new antidotes.” 

Batman grunted, and it was possibly lucky that the rogue was already knocked out. 

“Hey, hey, King Phantom-” Nightwing began. 

“Just Phantom is fine.” 

Nightwing was positively giddy. “What do you say to four a.m. waffles? I know you ate the fear or whatever but you deserve a proper thank you meal.” 

There was something so boyishly charming about the way Danny smiled. His constellation freckles even seemed to twinkle. “As long as they don’t bite back. I’d like that.” 

“Concerning.” Tim hummed, testing his weight on his leg. It wasn’t broken but he wouldn’t be grappling anywhere else tonight.

“Great!” Nightwing said, tapping his own comm. “Spoiler will meet us there!” 

Danny glanced at Tim. “Do uh.. You go…” He gestured to them. “Dressed like this?” 

“All the time.” 

“Okay then.” Danny said, and the only adjustment he made was to reach up above him and grab his crown. It disappeared from view. 

“So many questions.” Tim heaved a sigh. “I guess breakfast would be nice. We haven’t done breakfast yet.” 

Danny nodded once. “At least i feel like i earned it this time. You’ve just been treating me so much lately.” He sounded as close to shy as Tim had ever heard and it was killing him. 

Ugh, now he was doing the death puns… 

“You don’t have to earn your food with us.” Tim said softly. 

“RR is right, you know?” Nightwing beamed. “You should totally get him to bring you home one night, Phantom. Best home cooking you’ve ever had.” 

Danny hummed, “It’s a low bar, but that could be…nice.” 

“We’ll discuss it over waffles!” Nightwing just…decided. 

Tim shook his head, not sure how he felt about these two getting along but Danny was smiling and Tim was a sucker for those smiles. 

“Alright.” Tim said, stifling a yawn. “My leg is stiff so one of you is gonna have to help me get there, but let’s go eat.” 

Danny’s green eyes just glowed with mirth. “No problem.”

[takumiraine]

Once Upon a Time chapter 7

<first> <prev> <next>

Danny is still going thru it. I’m not going to put it on Ao3 until I’m done with it. I have no idea about a master post though.

Some blood and a bit of puke in this chapter.

—

Danny was furious. Furious and terrified and alone.

Jason. His one friend. Red Hood. The man who had sworn he wasn’t a Bat. They were the same person. They worked with Batman. Bruce Wayne funded the Justice League. Bruce Wayne was Jason’s father.

He was going to be sick.

Danny stopped running to throw up in an alley, half bile, half swallowed blood. His nose was still dripping and oozing and throbbing and the force of his heaving set it bleeding in earnest again. He swore, spitting on the ground, before flattening himself into the shadows as the trill of police cars sped by, heading the direction he had just left.

He had to find a way to contact Tucker and Sam. Tucker was monitoring the GIW passively, and it was set up to know if anyone searched for him. If there was suddenly more chatter or a mobilization. But if the Bats were watching him…

Danny checked the street and darted another couple blocks before pressing against another wall and checking. When he got to his building, he scampered up to his apartment and locked himself in. Not that the locks would do anything against anyone that seriously wanted to hurt him but…. He moved his bed up against the door too.

Danny went to sigh out of his nose and spattered half clotted blood everywhere again. “Ancients fucking damn it!” Danny felt tears springing to his eyes at the thought of yet another mess he’d have to clean up before he could pass out. He went to the bathroom and growled at his reflection in the mirror. The break in his nose was obvious and he knew that if he didn’t fix it now, it would slowly fix itself over the next week or two.

If he had a shitton of food and a way into the Zone without drawing suspicion he could heal it in a couple hours but…

A deep breath in and a gritted yell out, and Danny was able to reset it, icing it in place with the little bit of his powers he was able to use without drawing attention. Gotham had a lot of random cold spells from that one supervillain. Danny wasn’t going to argue it.

He changed his shirt, and washed out the blood in cold water, gingerly wiping off his face as he went. Once it was laid in the kitchen sink to dry, Danny took the duct tape he had in his drawer and taped his windows shut.

The point was to make it obvious if they were tampered with and make a lot of noise in the process.

From there, he pulled his blankets into the tub, crawled on top of them and went to sleep, thankful it was the weekend. He would get the blood off the wood in the morning. He didn’t sleep well, waking up with barely muffled shouts and gasps for breath as the memories of broken bones healing while being used, burns so bad he couldn’t feel them regrowing nerves, the concussive blast of the Fenton Bazooka, the shredding feeling of the Fenton Ghost Peeler haunting his unconscious mind.

The irony of his parents handing over their otherwise harmless weapons to the GIW who upgraded them into the most painful versions possible under the guise of protecting him from Phantom was not lost on him.

He did not go to campus Saturday or Sunday, but showed up for his Monday class the slightest bit late, anxiety chewing through him like squirrels liked to gnaw through cables. Jason was in their usual spot, but Danny slid into one nearest the door, frowning when he caught Jason looking at him. He knew he was still all bruised up, he had to ration again, and aside from some bottom of the barrel cheap ass junk food, he hadn’t eaten this weekend at all.

He could feel Jason’s eyes on him most of the lesson, and Danny kept his head down, scrawling his notes the best he could with battered and split knuckles. He felt one of the scabs tear and absently lifted it to his mouth, making sure he didn’t bleed all over his notes. From across the room, Danny felt something from Jason’s core and used his own to push back “no” and “asshole”.

Jason might not be able to tell exactly what Danny meant, or even why, but he should be able to get a vibe. Judging by the small flinch, barely perceptible even when Danny was looking right at Jason, Danny was fairly certain his point was made.

The end of class came and Danny was the first one out the door, pushing his core down to nothing and ducking down another hallway and into a doorway of an empty classroom. He sat against the wall there to do his homework, rather than being predictable and going to the library.

Jason was well aware that he had fucked up. Danny looked half dead, more than the first time, with bruises on his face and hands and up his sleeves. Then Danny’s knuckle split and he sucked it into his mouth. Jason felt a pile of things swirl around the place in his stomach the pit occupied. Guilt tinged with arousal, followed by embarrassment at the arousal in this situation and then…. He felt like a wall slammed into the pit. He didn’t flinch, not anymore, but there was a hard blink in response. Danny’s glare told him all he needed to know. It had come from him. Somehow.

Then class was over and Danny bolted almost immediately. By the time Jason made it out of class after him, he was gone.

The next couple of classes went the same way.

Jason needed to find him, to talk, to explain, to apologize, to ask him how the fuck he knew. He almost got his chance on Wednesday when Jason was in the library with Babs, shelving books silently with her. Danny snuck around the corner and startled so hard he dropped the book he had been planning to check out, probably for their lit class. He looked between Babs and Jason for one tense moment, and Jason watched him go pale(r) in the bright lights. He opened his mouth and reached out a hand, and Danny flinched away, fear slamming into Jason like the force of that bomb. When he could breathe again, Danny was gone.

“He’s afraid of us…” Jason muttered, confused. “He took on six goons in the middle of the night and got stabbed, but still walks around Gotham at night without fear…. But he’s afraid of us.”

Babs looked up at him. “We need to find out what happened.” Her voice was matter of fact. “Before B stumbles into it and makes things worse.”

“I know.”

Friday, Jason got his chance.

Danny was creeping across the courtyard and Jason was just happening to cross at a different point. “Danny!” He called, just loud enough to be heard. He had his hands up, empty, as he approached. He was ready for the fear slamming into him this time, and ate the angry that followed behind it. “Wait. Please. It’s important.” Danny didn’t move, didn’t run, though he was scoping out exits. Jason made sure to leave him with several.

“You have one minute. Any other…. Associate…. Joins you and you don’t get another chance.”

“Fair. It’s just us.” Jason came close enough that he could talk without being overheard, hands still up. “I want to say I’m sorry first. I wanted to tell you, but it isn’t something I can really tell people and the relationship is complicated and we don’t really work together. But that’s not the point. B wants to know how you knew it was me and how the pit got to you. We tried to look it…. You… up but there was a weird firewall? Some account required shit and a number. One of the…. Others… called it and it went to a government information warehouse? She pretended it was a wrong number and it was on a burner that we destroyed after but- “

Danny looked ashen. “You called the GIW?”

“You know them?”

“They want to kill me. Again.” Danny crumpled to the ground, hunching in on himself. He took a step closer to hear what Danny was whispering. “-gonna fillet me… don’t have the shield, need to warn Tucker and Sam and…. No not Jazz. She’s normal… she’s safe… they don’t want her… they only want me… my fault…my fault…”

When it turned into Danny just repeating “my fault” over and over, Jason knelt beside him. Danny flinched, curled in deeper, but Jason just gently placed his hand on Danny’s shoulder, reminding him quietly of where they were and that he was safe.

It took time, but slowly Danny’s rapid and shallow breathing returned to normal. He looked up at Jason. “Why…? Why are you doing this to me?”

“We didn’t mean to call the government. Everything ever associated with you has had a firewall around it. Oracle can’t break in without alerting them. Why are they after you?”

“Batman and the league called them.”

“I…. They’ve never worked with the government.”

“Right.”

“Seriously.” Danny still looked skeptical Jason raised a hand calmingly. “Okay. Let’s pause that. Why do you think they would call them on you. What happened?”

“There was a lot of… weird and dangerous stuff happening in my town…. With me. I kept calling the league and leaving them messages. First asking for help… then asking for someone to just talk to me… make sure I wasn’t… going to hurt someone. Then the GIW showed up…”

“What does GIW really stand for?”

“We always called them the Guys in White, because that’s all they wore… but..” Danny took a fortifying breath. Jason noticed he was shaking. “Ghost Investigation Ward. See… my parents… were inventors and I accidentally turned myself into a halfa when I fixed something of theirs…”

Jason stared. It was a lot to take in. Bruce wouldn’t have ignored a kid asking for help. Hell, Supes or the Flash could have been there and back in less time than it took him to have a cup of coffee. So many questions ran through Jason’s mind, starting with why had he been the one the universe picked for this? Dick and Tim were both more emotionally available, able to give more than just a ‘there there’ or ‘that’s rough buddy’. Instead of the reasonable questions, like ‘what kind of weird things?’ or ‘what are you capable of?’ Jason just asked “Halfa?”

“Half ghost. Half human. Technically I died in my parents’ basement. But also I didn’t.”

“Is that how you knew it was me?”

“Yeah. Gotham has a little ambient ecto, all the violent deaths here. Not as much as home but, it works. You died once too though, pretty… permanently. But your core was still weak. It’s formed up a lot more with me, but it’s…. Like a fingerprint.”

“I need to tell B. That you’re being hunted by the government guys and why you think it was him and the league that sold you out. He’s going to want to crack the firewall, and probably hear your side of the story himself.”

“Just… when they come give me as much of a heads up as you can. We were… or you pretended we were friends. You owe me that much.”

“If I have to take on those dicks myself, I will. I won’t let them keep hunting you here. Those of us that died but got better have to stick together.”

Danny still looked suspicious. Jason didn’t blame him. “When he cracks the firewall, he’s going to learn who I really am. If…. If he wants me to trust him, I need to know who he really is.” Danny eventually said, quietly. Jason didn’t blame him.

“I’ll tell him that.” Jason didn’t know what Bruce would say to that. He assumed the answer would be as close to ‘No fucking way in any hell that exists or was ever imagined’ as Bruce got. But he would ask.

Danny nodded. Seeming smaller and way older than he should. Looking like a man that hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in years. Like every drop of anything worth anything had been wrung out of him. Jason knew that feeling. He wanted to make Danny feel safe again. If Danny really did try to avoid hurting people, he deserved safety.

He could have outed Jason to the whole town. He didn’t. Jason thought that was something. “I’ll talk to him.” Jason promised again.

[cat-autism-wizard]

wes watching phantom is nothing new. everyone knew wes was spitting nonsense about that poor ghost boy and they just stopped listening to him at one point. it came to bite in the ass for him.

after the countless fight for the day, phantom was tired of everything and just wanted to go home and sleep but lady luck never smiled at the fentons other than to mock them. as he was flying towards a safe space to change back he heard very familiar voices shouting after him.

"we will catch you phantom and we will dissect you molecule by molecule." he heard his father shouting.

not this again.

he usually was better at avoiding his parents but this time his exhaustion was catching up to him.

wes saw phantom flying and decided to follow him. he knew nothing was going to happen since it was the fentons. until they shot him. wes didnt think too much about the shot, danny endured so much worse than a little shot from his parents. wes saw danny fly away to behind some building, probably to transform so he could get rid of the target on him. so he waited him to come out of nowhere to excuse him of being phantom but he didnt come out.

"i swear to ancients if you flew away to not to face your parents or me i will-"

wes' sentence was cut by the scene in front of him. danny passed out on the ground with blood coming from where he was shot.

"fenton?"

shit. this wasnt supposed to happen. it shouldve been the regular easy-to-heal wound, not the wound-so-bad-turned-human wound. shit shit shit SHIT. what was wes supposed to do? he cant leave him like that, even though they dont get along the best danny was still a person, half ghost or not.

wes decided to go to the fentons for help. he could get danny some help and could expose him too. two birds with one stone.

what he didnt expect was how the fentons react.

maddie and jack laughed like it was the funniest joke ever.

"you silly boy. ghosts cant turn humans, if something like that happens its just a ghost manipulating you to pity it." maddie said.

"no i mean what if theyre a half ghost?" wes tried to explain but it was to no avail.

"nonsense, everyone know half-ghosts dont exist. theyre like leprechauns, nonexistent!" jack stated.

their ideas were not even budging even a little.

"what if that ghost turned into someone you know?" wes asked trying to hear some sympathy or just a little hope that they will help.

"then we will regret that ghost ever taking that form." maddie said smiling but anyone could tell it was a violent smile.

shit.

wes weston was a lot of things. observant, annoying, stubborn.. and apparently stupid was one of them.

he was stupid to think two of the most ghost obsessed mad scientists could change their ideas just by his words.

"oh. oh yeah alright. i uhh i need to go." wes sadi and ran towards the place danny was lying unconscious. he tried his best to put some pressure on the wound to hopefully stop the bleeding. the moment he put his hands on it he heard danny hiss with pain.

he didnt know what to do. he couldnt call an ambulance, half ghosts probably had a different bodily functions he guessed after seeing danny avoiding to go infirmary even after a concussion in the school. he couldnt call his parents apparently.

"who knows about phantom after than me. think wes think" he thought out loud. then he realized.

ancients he really was stupid.

wes tried to find danny's phone in his pocket and called one of his friends to get them to help.

as the phone was ringing he was getting more anxious and worried by the second.

"dude this better be good i was middle of a mission in do-" wes cut tucker.

"foley i'll send our location. you have to help fenton."

"wait is that you wes? why do you have danny's phone? i didnt know you were a fully a creep-"

"folley shut the fuck up and come here. fenton's hurt." the line went quiet. then wes heard some typing and a chair noise.

"i texted sam. send us the location we'll be there in 5. and wes if something happened to danny because of you i'll make sure you regret everything." tucker hang up. wes expected a threat but he thought it would come from the goth and not the geek.

wes send their location and tried to get danny in a more comfortable position without moving him too much. he put danny's head on his lap and pray to the ancients that tucker and sam would be there soon.

tucker and sam came after five minutes like tucker said but for wes it felt like hours.

sam without even talking started to tend his wounds best way she could while tucker started to ask questions to (investigating) wes.

"what happened to him?" tucker asked with no sign of his normal upbeat tone.

"his parents. fenton was flying and they shot at him and actually succeeded then he flew here i followed him and i found him lying on the ground unconscious." wes explained.

"so you were stalking him again." sam spitted like venom.

"i was not stalking. i saw him and i followed him. would you rather him dying here with no one by himself?" wes argued.

"dont you fucking there saying stuff-"

"sam thats enough. we will shout at him later." tucker tried to stop sam. she mumbled a 'fine' and continued to make sure danny was not losing any blood.

"he needs ectoplasm and blood." sam said after a while of silence.

"ectoplasm is easy we can get into fenton lab easily but why blood? he never needed blood before." tucker asked.

"yes because he never go unconscious when he got shot like this. he lost blood as a human too this time." she stood up as she collected her aid bag. she sighed.

"i dont know how we're going to find blood for him though. i could try to buy some but it will land us in a list or something. we cant go to a hospital and cant ask his family for some blood." she thought out loud like she was asking them.

"i can give it to him." wes said suddenly after a quick thinking.

"he has an O negative type he could only get from O negatives." sam explained annoyed.

"i am an O negative." wes said as he took of his jacket and put under danny's head as he stood up. sam and tucker shared a glance.

"i guess it would work." sam said with defeat. "tucker you get the ectoplasm from the fentons, i'll get wes and danny to my house for the blood transfusion." she gave out orders. tucker nodded hurried up to the fentonworks.

"help me get him to my house." sam said, wes just nodded and lifted danny bridal style and sam got her aid bag and wes' jacket. he was careful not to touch the wound or fuck up any bandages. all the years he knew danny for the first time he looked vulnerable like that. it hurt wes' heart. he looked tried, it was obvious he didnt get any sleep more than a day. he was too focused on not hurting danny, he was only reminded of sam's existence when he heard a pic take noise. he gave her a questioning look.

"black mail." she said as if it explained anything for wes.

"dont worry my house isnt that far." sam informed wes and started to walk, wes following after her. after a little while they stopped in front of the manson mansion. sam waited for wes' reaction to be like everyone else's but he just stood there and waited for sam to open the door.

"not gonna react? 'wow you were actually rich? why didnt you tell anyone?' or something?" sam mocked as she was unlocking the door. then she realized something.

"wait dont tell me you already knew my house because of the stalking." sam accused. wes with wide eyes.

"what? no!! seriously do you guys think anything about me other than a creepy stalker? i figured out you were rich after you paid for almost everything for the both and even offering to buy blood if it didnt land you in some list!!" wes defended himself.

"now can you open the door so we can get to saving your friend, who im carrying?" sam opened the door and guided him to her room.

"put him on my bed. i'll get the syringe." wes did as she said and sit on the bed waiting for sam. he stared at the boy who was on the bed. his white shirt he always wore now had blood stains and another stain wes guessed as ectoplasm. he was sweaty from the pain, his hair was sticking to his face. wes gently removed his hair from his face and stared some more.

wes was an observant person but he never really looked at danny other than him being the phantom. now he looked at him as a person and not just phantom. and he was pretty. really pretty.

"alright weston, roll up your sleeves." sam came into the room with the necessary equipment at hand.

"have you done this before?" wes asked as he rolled his sleeves up.

"with blood?? no. i did it with ectoplasm multiple times though. however they feel different, so it'll be different for me. blood is more liquidy than ectoplasm." sam explained as she set the stuff accordingly.

"this does not help me relax at all." wes mumbled with anxiety.

"relax it will be fine. probably." sam flashed a teasing smile. wes gulped.

sam carefully inserted a sterile needle in wes' arm. they were really lucky that wes grew out of fear of needles or it would be impossible for him to stay with a needle on his arm in a teenager's room without any professional.

oh ancients he was about to lose it.

"ho-how many more you do you- uhh do you need?" wes stuttered. sam checked the blood in the bag.

"not much like a five minutes top. why?" she turned to wes, who looked like they saw a ghost which ironic because he was currently donating blood for a ghost.

"wait. are you afraid of blood? wait, no you were fine when you were helping danny. are you afraid of needles?" sam grinned. wes didnt say anything knowing it was pointless to deny it.

"wow. thats what i call a character development. giving your archenemy your blood even if youre scared of needles?" sam started to laugh. wes wanted to deny it but with everything that was happening she could be right.

"hes not my archenemy." he mamaged to get that out.

"sure whatever you say, weston. but good news is the is enough for now. we could think about other options when danny wakes up." sam said as she get the needles out of wes' arm. he sighed with relief. she started to set the bag for danny when the door rang.

"wes open the door its tucker." sam said as she continued to set things up. wes opened the door for tucker.

"okay i got some ectoplasm luckily i think its from the blob ghosts' ectoplasm so no ghosts were damaged with this one also i saw some disturbing new weapons." tucker started to explain as he gave the container to sam.

"what kind of weapon?" sam asked.

"was it the one they used on fenton today?" wes asked. tucker was about to start explaining but he stopped himself.

"sam can we talk after you set up danny's ectoplasm and blood?" sam nodded and finished up inserting needle into danny's arm. she put the contained ectoplasm into a bloog bag and put next to blood. after the blood she was gonna set the ectoplasm to the intravenous line.

after the set up tucker and sam went out of the room to talk. wes sighed. he couldnt blame them for not trusting him. he did try to expose danny to everyone everyday for two years now.

as the time passed by wes pulled up a chair next to the bed and waited.

then danny moved.

"danny?" wes gently said as if he was afraid of waking him up.

"wes? why are you here? where am i?" danny tried to get up only stopping when he realized the needle in his arm. he looked around and was relieved when he realized its somewhere he was familiar with.

"dont move. i'll get manson." wes stood up but danny held his arm to stop him.

"alarm her later, she wont let me breath if she knows." danny said weakly and sat up. wes didnt think it was a good idea but still played along and sat down.

"what happened?"

"you were shot and then passed out i found you, called foley and now youre here." wes explained briefly.

"shit." danny said as he started to remember stuff.

"do my parents.. know?" he asked but he didnt want to hear the answer.

"no. they dont." wes assured. danny looked at him with suspicion in his eyes. he didnt blame him.

"i'll get manson." he get out of the room this time without letting danny stop him again. then he overheard tucker and sam talking.

"what do you think? should we trust him?" tucker asked.

"he does seem changed but i dont think we can trust him just yet." sam replied.

he couldnt blame them.

he knocked on the door to alert them. that he was coming.

"hey, danny's awake." he said. both tucker and sam quickly went into the room to check up on their friends. it was more of a scolding than a check up.

wes smiled at sight. he had so much to think about. he went to the door.

"where are you going?" danny called out for wes. he turned back.

"since you were good, i thought i would leave you guys alone." wes explained like it was the most obvious thing ever. the trio exchanged looks and turned back to wes.

"do you wanna stay more?" tucker asked.

"what?"

"he asked if you wanted stay more, weston." sam repeated.

"why?"

"geez we thought you would like to stay more. no need to-" wes cut sam mid sentence.

"no no i mean why would YOU want me to stay? you dont trust me, understandably so. we're not friends. i actively put you in danger by trying to exposing you. why would you want me to say?" wes explained still not processing the question.

"because you helped me." danny said. continued to explain when he saw wes' confused look.

"if you actually wanted to hurt me you would left me to perish or expose me at my lowest but instead you stole my phone to call for backup."

"also gave blood while being afraid of needles" sam added.

"also uncharacteristically you were quiet the whole time you were helping, you listened to us without questioning." tucker stated.

"so? what? are you gonna give me the 'not much of an asshole as i couldve been' award?"

"no, we're giving you a chance to be less much of an asshole. like a second chance." danny explained.

"it still doesnt make any sense. why would you-" wes started to argue.

"wes just shut up and join us for the day, okay?" danny said with a faint smile. wes looked at the trio. they seemed genuine.

"okay."

wes never knew he had so many common interests with the trio. they talked for hours, never excluding wes from the conversations and explaining stuff if he didnt understand.

he felt good.

[too-much-tma-stuff]

We Will Care For Her (Part 8.5)

Previous | Masterpost | Next

When the call came in about screaming and gunshots in the woods the Teen Titan’s were worried to say the least, and the closest ones to the scene. With no bigger emergencies all four of them mobilized to check it out. It was unlikely that all four of them would be needed, but they worked better as a team and no one wanted to be left behind.

Tim wasn’t sure what he was expecting, but it was not his brother in full Red Hood getup sprinting out of the building with a white-haired young woman cradled in his arms and someone in a skull mask on his heels. At first Tim thought that the person chasing Jason was causing the problem, until he saw the official people in white after both of them with guns, those sorts were always bad news. If there had been a registered, above board research facility of some sort out here he would have known about it. 

Then the stranger turned and let out some sort of concussive scream that was definitely more powerful than even Black Canary's. Everyone chasing them was blasted back into the building and the concrete and steel of the building itself crumpled in on itself like toothpicks. Who were they!?

“Red Hood, what’s happening?” Tim called out to Jason, who glanced at him but didn’t answer,he barely seemed to register Robin was there before his gaze turned back to the masked individual Tim didn’t recognize. Well, didn’t recognize until Hood called out to them and called them Hyena.

That was Hyena?! That was a completely different outfit then the one he was used to, and he had never seen, or even heard of, Hyena using a power like that! Sure he’d told Batman he was powerful, but it was one thing to be told that and a completely different thing to see it. But sure enough he responded to the name, and as he approached Hood, Hyena drew his humanity back around him like a veil, the skeletal appearance covered again by the costume Tim recognized. Tim tensed, ready to step in if he needed to, if Hyena lashed out at anyone. But he was calm, practically huddling up with Jason and the girl, and gently stroking her hair.

Unsure what else to do, Tim signed to Impulse and Wondergirl to check the perimeter. He doubted there was anyone still alive after those explosions, but they needed to check just in case. However that meant that when Hyena took the girl from Hood and brought her over to them it was only Robin and Superboy present, which turned out to only be for the better. Tim had never seen Danny so emotional, it was… jarring, especially compared to his usual manic energy and smile. 

“You, you're Super boy, the clone right?” Hyena asked Kon, and after glancing at Robin who gave an almost imperceptible encouraging motion, Kon nodded warily. “She is too,” Danny sighed looking down at the pale girl. “Back when I was still a hero my nemesis made her, she’s… my daughter in any way that matters, my flesh and blood but I… the way I am now I can’t look after her. I never could really, I tried but I was just a teenager at the time,” He let out a self deprecating little laugh. “I managed to stabilize her, but I can’t keep her.” 

Hyena had been a hero?! When and where?! Tim had never heard of a hero like him before, certainly not one with this motif, though he knew suits probably changed, especially since ‘Hyena’ was hardly a heroic persona. He had been young then too, very young to be cloned like that. Whoever his villain was sounded like a piece of shit. 

“She goes by Phantasm, will you take her? She’s… she’s a good kid, she needs someone better than me. I think your team, or if she needs an adult Wonder Woman or Martian Manhunter, would be best.” Hyena continued, and when he looked up again Tim realized he was actually crying, which had him reeling! Dealing with people’s emotions was always the part of this job he was worst at, and Hyena was someone Tim would almost consider a friend, which did not make it easier. He had never seen Hyena cry before either, somehow he hadn’t even considered it. 

Before Tim had even fully processed what was going on Connor had agreed that they would take Phantasm. Not that Tim would have said no, a (probably) empowered young person who needed help like this? That was 100% in their purview, even if she wasn’t a clone, which Superboy was predisposed to be protective of.

“Thank you,” Hyena sighed, tired and sad. “Tell her her template loves her, and tell her where to find me. She’s always welcome with me, just… warn her what I am now. I was very different when she knew me.” 

Tim glanced at Connor and resisted the urge to bite his lip. He tried not to obviously show emotion when in costume, but he worried how it felt for him to hear those words? Words that neither of Connor’s DNA donors would ever say about him. He hoped Connor was okay.

“What happened here?” Tim asked again, since no one had answered the first time. He couldn’t just write off so much destruction and loss of life! Even if he wasn’t quite As strict about the no killing rule as B, and he did trust Hyena and Hood more then a bunch of unknown goons in white.

“Remember when I mentioned being experimented on by mad scientists?” Danny asked wryly, Tim nodded and Danny simply gestured back at the facility. These were the people who had done that to him!? He’d been serious? That actually did explain some things. “I didn’t realize they still had her or I would have burned the place to the ground a long time ago. Here,” He said, fishing a USB out of the inside pocket of his jacket and holding it to Tim. “This has info on the organization, I meant to give it to you eventually anyway.” 

Tim took it automatically. He’d have to check it for viruses first, and he wouldn’t take anything at face value, but it would be a good place to start his own research. Danny slumped back like a poppet with its strings cut, wiping his eyes with the back of his hand. “Come visit me soon, and tell me how she’s doing if she doesn’t want to see me, please?” He requested, looking back at Tim with a pleading expression that made Tim sort of uncomfortable. Why was he so bad with emotions! 

“Right, okay,” Tim agreed awkwardly. He would have anyway, since he met up with Hood and Hyana regularly now. Danny nodded back and then turned, walking back over to Jason with his back hunched and his feet dragging. Jason lifted his arms, letting Danny walk into them. Then they were both just gone, just completely disappeared. 

Tim stared at the place where Hood and Hyena had been just a minute ago. Damn did he have a lot of powers to add to his file on Hyena between the transformation, the invisibility, and that earth shattering wail. He shook his head and looked back at the girl Kon was still holding, she was what was important right now.

He looked up, meeting Superboy’s gaze seeing the same confusion and determination on his face. They didn’t know what was going on or why really, but they were going to do right by Phantasm as best as they could. “There are no heartbeats left in the building, and the fire isn’t spreading. We should get her home before she wakes up,” Superboy told Robin softly, who agreed. 

As if on queue Impulse skidded to a halt next to them and Wondergirl returned from an overhead scan. “Anything we can do to help?” Tim asked the two of them. Wonder girl shook her head and Impulse shrugged. 

“I couldn’t get into the building at all, it’s just a pile of rubble now. I’d be really surprised if there’s anyone still alive in there. So, who are we going to arrest about this?” Impulse asked, shifting from foot to foot absently. 

Robin shook his head at Impulse, they wouldn’t be arresting anyone today. Even if maybe they should have at least brought Hood and Hyena in for questioning… Well, it's too late now. “We answered the call and there’s nothing we can do, let’s get home. Wondergirl, do you mind carrying me back to the Tower? I don’t think Superboy is willing to let go of Phantasm,” Robin requested dryly, and Superboy gave him a sheepish smile that told him he was absolutely right about that.

“Sure,” Cassie agreed, clearly amused by Superboy’s reaction, if confused by… everything that was going on.

“Hey, what about me?” Impulse asked with a dramatic pout that had Tim rolling his eyes behind his mask.

“You’ll probably get home before we do so You can start brewing the coffee,” Tim told him dryly, already heading over to Cassie. 

Impulse sighed dramatically at Tim and then he was gone, with the air rushing in to fill the space he’d just occupied with a little wooshing sound. Robin shook his head with a soft laugh and allowed Cassie to arrange him like she was going to give him a piggyback ride before she took off, Superboy on their heels as they headed home. 

They had plenty of guest rooms since the Teen Titans had an extensive network of young heroes and empowered individuals and sometimes they needed a place to stay. Since most of the rooms were available, they picked the one that was closest to the Core Four’s rooms and settled Phantasm in there. Robin checked her over, checking her pulse, her pupils reactions, her reflexes, and her other vitals, she seemed fine, though still unconscious.

Cassie cleaned her off of all the blood and the odd green fluid, and changed her into some spare sleeping clothes while the boys waited outside the room. When Cassie called to say that they could come back in Phantasm was already tucked into bed, looking much better already. Superboy went and sat on the edge of the bed. 

“We should make sure someone is always with her till she wakes up. We have no idea how long she’s been out, or how she might react when she wakes up. Connor, do you want to take the first shift?” He suggested, glancing at his friend who just nodded absently. “Right,” Tim said a little awkwardly and shooed Bart and Cassie out.

They all headed to the kitchen and Tim poured himself a cup of coffee while Cassie and Bart started talking about how fucking weird that had been. Tim lingered just long enough that he thought it wouldn’t be suspicious before heading back towards their rooms. He acted like he was headed back to his own room before detouring and slipping into Phantasm’s new bedroom. He was worried about Superboy and wanted to check on him, this was bound to be a more emotional situation for him then any of them. 

Superboy was staring down at Phantasm, his expression blank and his posture suspiciously straight. He was upset. Tim went and sat down next to him, after a moment of hesitation he took Connor’s hand, and gave it a squeeze to bring him back to the here and now. “How are you holding up?” He asked when Connor blinked and looked back at him.

“I’m… okay?” Connor said, looking back at the girl.

“Are you really?” Tim asked dubiously, that did not sound convincing. Connor gave a one shoulder shrug.

“Not really, it’s so fucked up. How many villains clone their heroes like that?! It’s such a messed up thing to do. But… I guess I’m a little jealous of her? Because even if she was made for ‘nefarious purposes’ or whatever, she has someone who really cares about her. But I’m happy for her too, it’s just making me remember… a bunch of shit you know? A lotta feelings,” He sighed, making a vague gesture with his free hand.

“Ya, I know,” Tim said without letting go of Connor’s hand. “You’re not alone though, I’m here for you, we’re all here for you,” He added quickly in case he made Connor uncomfortable with the intimacy. Though… Connor also hadn’t let go of his hand, and squeezed it gently as he gave Tim a slightly strained smile. “You have people who really care about you too.”

“Thank you Robin, that means a lot,” Connor said softly, bumping his shoulder against Tim’s.

-------

It had been 23 hours and Phantasm was still asleep. It was a worrying amount of time, but her heartbeat and breathing had remained stable so Robin wasn’t that worried. Tim was the one waiting by her bedside now, he had already gone through all the documents on the USB Hyena had given him. It contained a frankly horrific amount of evidence, including some pictures and videos that clearly weren't fake, even though Tim sort of wished they were with how gruesome they were. He still had his laptop on his lap though, now looking into any publicly available (or hackable) information to corroborate the information Danny had already given him. 

He was also working on a powerpoint to inform the JL about this travesty of a government organization, which they’d somehow allowed to form in spite of the obvious breach of meta-protection acts. When he heard a sound from the bed he nearly jumped out of his skin and slammed his laptop shut, not wanting Phantasm to see what it was he was working on first thing after waking up. He put his laptop down and turned his attention towards her as she stirred in the bed and let out a little groan. After a moment she opened her eyes just a little and glanced around, it looked like she was trying to pretend she was still out till she got the lay of the land, but she hadn’t been trained to properly mask body language. 

“You’re safe, Danny found you and freed you, he asked me and my team to look after you,” Tim told her. 

She jolted and opened her eyes fully, looking at him with wide eyes. “He’s alive?” She breathed incredulously. 

“Yes, he goes by Hyena now. He says he escaped a different facility a bit more than a year ago. He thought you were dead too or he would have come back for you sooner, but we’ll talk more about that later. How do you feel?” Tim asked, setting his computer aside. 

She paused as if considering the question. “Okay, I think,” she said thoughtfully.

“Alright, do you think you could manage something to eat and drink? You’ve been asleep for a while and we don’t know how long you were in that tube before that,” Tim asked.

“Ya, I can try, probably better to stick to liquids for now though,” She sighed, squirming to prop herself up a little more against the pillows. 

“Alright, I’ll text Superboy to get you some soup then. He’ll be happy to see you’re awake. He’s a clone too and he’s been worried about you,” He told Phantasm absently as he pulled out his phone to text Kon.

“Right. Before he comes, you know Danny’s name but you mentioned he goes by Hyena now? He’s still got a secret identity and stuff? He still a hero?” Phantasm asked, tilting her head to the side a little.

“Ya, I know his name because he’s dating my brother. He knows my secret ID too. He’s still a Mask, but he’s not exactly a hero anymore.” Tim said as delicately as he could as he texted SB.

“Oh dear, how bad did he get?” She breathed, eyes wide and worried.

“Judging by the powers he displayed yesterday nowhere near as bad as he could have. I won’t say he’s not a villain, since my brother is a crime lord, and they both have a body count, but I don’t think he’s a bad guy,” Tim told her as gently as he could.

“Oh,” She sighed, relaxing back against the pillows, which was a bit of a surprise. “Ya, not as bad as it could have been. Do you think he’s happy?”

“He and Red Hood seem really disgustingly in love with each other, so he’s got issues obviously, but ya, I think he’s happy.” 

“Good, he deserves to be happy. He was a good hero, people didn’t deserve him anyway.”

That was not the reaction Tim was expecting. He didn’t think it was the reaction Hyena would have expected either, with how worried he had been. Before he could ask more Superboy showed up with a soft woosh with a bowl of hot soup for her, pausing the conversation while he fussed over her.

[flamingpudding]

Fictober23 Prompt: 5 - "You're the smartest person I know."

Fandom: DPxDC

Rating: T

Warnings: Mensions of Blood, Injury and Violence

A/N: This is kind of a bad timeline kind of situation that plays into the Gamer Pal Prompt I wrote before but can still be read independently.

Danny gasped as he staggered along the alley wall, with no idea where he was. He leaned with his shoulder against the wall as his left hand pressed against the wound on his stomach that refused to stop bleeding. He was confused, dizzy and pretty sure his father had given him a concussion, so closing his eyes and just sleeping on the side of the street was out of the question.

Tucker had thrown him through a portal Wulf had opened and that portal had spit him out here in… he doesn't recognise anything. But he was pretty sure he wasn't in Amity anymore. His vision was blurry but he was pretty sure that there were skyscrapers or at least buildings way taller than he was used to.

"Fuck." Danny cursed as another wave of pain made his body shudder. If he could just transform than maybe these injuries wouldn't be as bad but next to the pain Danny could also feel electricity surging through his body thanks to whatever Vlad zapped him with that stopped his transformation.

He coughed, squinting his eyes at the red spots that splattered to the ground. Things had gone to shit and real quickly and for a moment Danny thought that maybe they should have listened to their Gaming friend. Listened to his words of caution and advice to find a way to leave or to have at least a couple more of back up plans if things go horribly wrong.

Well it all came back to bite Danny like usually, as he spat out another glob of blood. Maybe Tim hadn't been as paranoid as they had assumed.

"You okay there kid?"

Danny needed to blink a couple of times until the red and brown blob before him finally took the shape of a person. He blinked several times more until his brain also finally caught up with who he was seeing before him.

"You're Red Hood?" Danny somehow managed to say in between coughing again. Tim had told them about Gothams vigilantes and how he could contact them to get them to help with Amity. To get them into contact with the Justice League. They had thanked him but refused the help, citing the fact that even one overshadowed hero could spell even worse trouble than they already had.

Now he felt stupid having refused that kind of help.

"Hey there kid." Don't black out now. Your bleeding pretty heavily we should get you to a doctors and-"

"No hospitals." Danny cut the vigilante off, coughing once more. Even though Tim somehow had managed to get the Justice League started on the removal of the Anti-Ecto Acts they were not yet gone. He couldn't risk that yet.

But meeting Red Hood meant that Danny was in Gotham, which meant he could probably go directly to Tim for help. His Gaming Pal did say that he knew his cities vigilantes personally.

"Okay no hospitals then." Hood confirmed for him as the man reached out to Danny just as he lost his balance falling forward. The last thing Danny remembers was muttering something along the lines of "Tim… I need to find him."

The next thing Danny then became aware of was the soft beeping of a heart monitor and loud arguing not too far from him. He groaned audible and the arguing stopped instantly. A wight rested on his shoulder and Danny blinked through the brightness and blurreyness once more until he vaguely recognised the shape of a person he so far had only seen through video chats.

"Tim?"

"You absolute idiot." Was the response he got and yea that definitely was the voice he had heard so often during all the late night Doomed gaming sessions.

"That checks out. You are the smartest person I know." Danny chuckled lightly until a sharp pain made him gasp. "Shit, I will feel that for weeks."

"The smartest person you know is Sam. Between the four of us she has the best grades, remember? Besides that, do you have any idea what kind of panic you and Tuck send us through?"

Danny peaked at Tim and grimaced at the frustrated glare the other teen was sending him. "Tucker was the one throwing me through a portal."

"You're lucky you landed in Gotham." The other then muttered, shaking his head.

"Again. You are the smartest person I know. You would have figured out some way to track me? Like the time you hacked our phones and tuned in onto Desiree's ectosignature to find her. Works better than the Booomerang that keeps hitting my head."

"That's because that thing is only tuned on you."

"And you somehow got rid of the GIW and I still haven't figured out how you did that."

Danny watched how the other teen shrugged. There was a silence between them. Tim was texting on his phone, probably informing Sam and Tucker. Danny, meanwhile, for the first time took notice that he was in some sort of medical bay, also noting that whoever Tim had argued with had already left. If he could believe Red Hood's words, then even if this looked like a hospital room it was not one.

"Hey Tim?" Danny finally broke the silence and the other teen only hummed. "Is your offer to stay with you in Gotham and to go to school and college here still open? I think I am ready to leave Amity behind now."

Tim looked up from his phone at Danny and gave him a feral grin. "About damn time. I had all the papers ready for you for ages now. It's about time we finally make use of them."

Danny chuckled. "And you still don't believe me when I say, that you are the smartest person I know?"

"Anyone in my family can do at least that, you know? These papers are nothing special."

Danny only raised an eyebrow at the other before both teens started to laugh, with one laugh getting cut short by a groan of pain and the other by fussing over the other right after it.

[lurkerdemon]

We Have a Blob-lem - Part 3

Part 1, Part 2

Danny & Jason are around. Then a Blob crashes the party.

Content Warnings(?): Mild swearing, and Guns

Word Count: 1547

“Wow, you suck at this.” 

Another beam of green energy flashes through the air at the can Danny launched across the training area of the cave. The laser clips a top corner and sends the object spiraling into a wall as Jason flips him off with his free hand.

“You. Shut. And I’m still hitting them!”

Danny simply floats over to throw again. The next can gets hit right on the bottom as it makes its spiralling arc through the air. The resulting concussive force from the Fenton brand weapon launches it upward as it collides with the stone ceiling far above with a resounding aluminum clang. Danny gives a low whistle.

“Overcompensated the aim. Cool party trick though.”

“Ass.”

“And that’s why we’re friends!”

The slug Jason aims at Danny’s arm has no real force to it, but that still doesn’t prevent him from going intangible just to watch the larger man take a moment to regain his balance at the lack of resistance. Jason glares and Danny chuckles.

“I told you it’s different when you use lasers!”

“Danny, I know how to use more weapons than you ever will, dead or half-alive.”

“And I was told how to hold a Fenton blaster when I was seven. Plus I can to do this-”

Danny waved one hand as green energy enveloped four cans and then chucked them across the room. All he needed was one jump-suited finger as an ecto-beam shot out and blasted each can to a partially melted mush. They hit the floor with a dull, metallic thud while Danny took a bow.

“And now you’re the showoff.”

“Coming from the guy who just bragged about knowing how to ‘use more weapons’ than a ghost. Maybe you could do with the reminder to stay humble.”

Jason turned around to spare himself from seeing more of Danny’s smirk as he made his way back to the nearby table.

“Oh yeah? Let’s see how your aim is with something that has more kick to it then.”

He stopped halfway, body stock-still and tense. Danny frowned and floated down to take a look for himself.

“What? Cat got yourrrrrrrrrr - Oh. Oh no.”

Sat at the table where Jason had left his holsters for his favorite pistols was a familiar green blob, the soccer ball sized creature giving low growls as cartoonish pointed teeth gnawed on the grip. It jerked backward occasionally, slowly making progress before one final pull got the weapon free and onto the table. It continued chewing.

Jason broke free of the shock and pointed.

“What is that?”

“Umm. Damian’s new pet? Let me just-” Danny floated sloooowly closer, “Vee. Hey Vee! Good blob. Stay right there.”

“V?”

Danny stopped as the blob’s attention turned. 

“Short for ‘Eviscerate.’” He said in a low voice.

“The hell kind of name is that?”

“Look, you try telling Dami what to name his pet. It took me an hour just to talk him into a name that we could come up with a nickname for. Not many options for ‘Destroyer of Worlds.’”

“... Dee?”

“There are three potential D’s at this place already, I am not adding a fourth and getting confused with a blob ghost!”

Danny winced at the louder than intended exclamation, turning to the now growling Vee who was starting to drag the gun backward along the table. He glared at Jason.

“Oh please. I’ll do it.”

“No wait!”

Jason strode forward, closing the gap in a few steps, to which Vee responded by enveloping the gun whole in it’s body. He scowled and approached even faster.

“Give!”

Too late. The blob darted away from them just as Danny moved to cut off its exit further into the cave.

“Vee! Vee drop it!” 

Vee darts left. Danny dips left. 

Vee darts right. Danny dips right. 

Jason began to creep up from behind while the blob’s little eyes showed more smugness than Danny thought possible. The standoff lasts several seconds while Vee shimmies in place. All three of them tense at the same time.

What neither expect is for Vee to glow, Danny sensing ectoplasm concentrating on the gun as the blob deflates by a third of its size. He has enough wherewithal to put up an ectoshield in front of Jason just in case, only for Vee to take on the tell-tale transparency of intangibility and run through him instead. Gun and all.

Both look on in horror as it heads straight up the staircase leading back to the manor.

“Okay so, didn't know they could do that.” Danny says with a dumbfounded look.

“Never would have guessed. You owe me a new gun if it messed up my favorite.”

“Hey! I'm already letting you use the Fenton one!”

“Excellent point. You're letting me keep the new gun if it messed up my favorite.”

Danny narrows his eyes while Jason just raises an eyebrow in an unspoken ‘what’ya gonna do about it.’

“Fine. Just help me catch it before someone gets home.”

- - - - -

Danny was learning a few things right now.

1) It is really annoying to try and find a small pet in a manor with a lot of places to hide.

2) It's even more difficult when said pet doesn't have to adhere to the laws of physics.

3) Blob ghosts, while one of the most harmless ecto-entities, can apparently extend these ghostly rule bending properties to things with enough ectoplasm. (If the now ecto-coated gun in Vee was anything to go off.)

Danny never did enjoy the “learning on the fly” part of ghost stuff, and these weren't an exception.

He called out just as he turned into the main foyer and spotted Jason returning from the left wing.

“I think I got close before seeing Vee go your way. Any signs of them or Alfred Cat-worth?”

“Nothing. Cat’s in Damien's room though. Shut the door for now.”

“Alright, one less thing to worry about.”

“I told you already, the safety for the gun is on – oh yee of little faith.”

“Look with my luck I'm just trying to prepare for the worst. Now I can still pick up Vee on my ghost sense but it's going to be difficult to get the exact position. So I think-”

BANG.

“...”

“... Don't. Say. Anything. I know for a fact the safety was on.”

“.... Anything.”

Jason bit back a groan. 

- - - -

“Eassssy Vee. Everything’s fine.”

Danny really should have made Jason be the distraction. Trying to not look at him creeping up behind Vee again was killing him.

Vee just gave another growl, sounding a lot like a dog saying ‘No’ as it sunk slightly lower onto the guest bed. The blob was a bit smaller again, maybe the size of a handbag, so definitely used up more ecto doing whatever caused the gunshot. Which was fine. Danny was sure the guest bedroom could have used some art hangings anyway. He definitely didn't feel a cold sweat run down his back every time he looked at the wall next to him by the dresser.

This is fine.

“Okay. Okay. I'll stay right here. See. Nice and-”

Jason lunged and grabbed the blob. Vee gave a betrayed howl in return as he forcibly got a hand on the pistol. He refused to let go even as his hand filled with a chill and a pins-and-needles static raced across his nerves.

“Hey! Be careful with them!”

“I. Almost. Got it.”

With one final tug the gun came loose. He immediately checked for the safety (still on! Hah!) and shoved it to the side while his other arm held the angry chaos ball. 

Danny gave a sigh of relief. “Safe.”

“Speak for yourself. I’m still checking the gun over later and then you get to explain the hole in the wall.”

“Hey!”

Jason just grinned. Vee meanwhile continued to wriggle in the hold pinching it to his chest, small dot eyes looking up at him.

Then it bit his arm.

He looked down at it, blinking as confusion turned into a weird wave of cool indifference. Then he frowned even as the blob expanded in size.

“The fuck?”

The irritation quickly slid along that same wave, right before it crashed against the beginnings of something green in his vision. He wasn't Pit Mad, but it was definitely stirring up enough to make him consider punting the thing for whatever it was doing.

Danny stepped in just before that became a serious consideration, pulling the now beach ball sized blob away. Jason felt the wave of whatever that was die back down.

“Bad blob! Bad! You don't know where he's been!”

“Hey!”

Vee was gagging in Danny's arms like it just ate a lemon. It growled and grumbled, ectoplasm glowing again.

POP.

Then Danny is suddenly holding four blobs. Vee in normal ectoplasm green, two a light ghostly blue that reminds him of Box Ghost, and a fourth a dark verdant green that is currently gnawing on one of his fingers.

This time it was Danny’s turn to groan. “Sure. What's one more surprise today.”

“Congratulations, it's a blob.” Jason sneered.

“Hey these are technically yours! Now either you take them, or you’re helping me get them out of here before Damien-”

The door creaked.

“Before I what?”

= = = = = =

1) I debated what name Damien would give the blobs for a long while, and then simply decided to go based on Wayne Family Adventures and say he chose violence (literally) because I thought it was funny.

So now introducing:

Vee (aka Eviscerate aka the one and only Bat-Blob)

May (Maim)

Mu (Murder)

and Kay (Kill)

Imagine with me:

Criminal: *be doing a crime*

Robin: *descends from the shadows and points*

Robin: Kill

Criminal: *Screaming as they get a face full of angry (but harmless) green*

2) I debated specifying whether or not Jason & Danny got armor or something for approaching a potentially live gun and decided to just stop debating and get this posted.

That being said I feel I should say the obvious and take care with firearms. Giving the blob a gun was for the funny.

3) I do have plans for more parts, I am just slow and easily distracted.

[fangirlwriting-stories]

Mouse Trap

Summary: Neither Sam or Tucker thought that there was an actual reason Danny abandoned them out of nowhere. Then they end up stuck with Danny in a ghost trap and learn that not only was there a reason, it's a lot darker than they wanted to imagine.

Or: A no one knows au where Sam and Tucker come to the wrong conclusion, but it helps anyway.

...

Honestly, Sam couldn’t picture many ways this day could have gone worse.  The Fenton’s ghost weapons have never really worked right, but she thought they’d at least know how to keep their ghost-proof cages from going off totally randomly, and capturing her, Tucker, and Danny.  If anyone should be safe from these things, shouldn’t it be their own son?  Not to mention that the last thing Sam needed right now was to be stuffed into a confined space that got launched 50 feet in the air with her best friend and her very much former best friend.  But here she was, caught in a cage trap in the trees just outside of school, far enough away that no one had seen it happen, with Tucker and Danny.

Tucker hit his head on the side of the cage when it launched upright, meaning Sam was pressing her jacket into the side of his head so he wouldn’t have to look at the blood, and trying not to look at Danny on the far side of the cage, who was looking around like a cornered animal.

And honestly, that was a bit much.  For as clear as he’d made it that he didn’t want to be around them anymore, what with his saying it to their face, Sam thought he could at least be in the same place as them for ten minutes.

“What day is it?” Sam asked Tucker, focusing her attention very firmly on him.

“Tuesday,” Tucker said with a wince, moving his head slowly down to shield his eyes from the sun.  “And I have a terrible headache.”

“What’s your name?” Sam asked, making sure to not let the worry show in her voice.

“Tucker.”

“What’s my name?”

“Samanth—”

“Shut it.”

Tucker smirked up at her, which eased Sam’s worries a little bit.

“Just hang in there,” she said.  “I don’t think you’ll need to go to the hospital.  We’ll just head to your house as soon as Danny’s parents get here.”

There was a sharp intake of breath that for a second Sam thought came from Tucker, an instinctual reaction to how little he liked hospitals, but Tucker raised his head slightly to look over at the other side of the cage, meaning it came from Danny.

Sam glanced over too, half caring, and found Danny with his head pressed into the space between his legs, clearly trying to calm himself down.  She scoffed and turned her attention back to Tucker, pressing the jacket more firmly into his head wound that took obvious precedence over being around people you don’t like.

Tucker, however, didn’t seem to agree, and a second later said hesitantly, “Uh, you okay man?”

Danny, as the only person “man” could refer to coming from Tucker, jerked his head up so hard he slammed it into the back of the cage.  It made Sam wince despite herself, but he didn’t even seem to notice.

“Hey,” she said anyway.  “Stop that.  I don’t have another hand if you get a concussion too.”

“What?” Danny asked, like he hadn’t noticed the fact that Sam was giving Tucker very unqualified first aid care.

It seemed he really hadn’t noticed, however, because a second later his eyes widened and honed in on Sam’s hands.

“Wait, are you okay Tuck?” he asked, making a half-aborted motion towards the other side of the cage.

Sam stared at him for a second.  “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

“I’ll be fine,” Tucker said, brushing past Sam’s annoyance.  “Why do you look like you’re caught in a trap?”

Danny took a turn staring at them at that.  “Have you not noticed the cage surrounding us on all sides?” he asked.

“Dude, it’s your parents’ cage,” Sam said, rolling her eyes.  “As soon as they get here they’re going to let you out and start fretting over you.”

Danny didn’t reply, instead reaching a hand up to grip one of the bars of the cage so tightly his knuckles turned white.  And that was certainly… odd, but Sam had more pertinent things to worry about.

She turned her gaze back to Tucker’s head, and found the bleeding had mostly stopped and hadn’t soaked through her jacket, meaning he was probably going to be okay until someone else got here, the way the light hurt his eyes aside.

She kept her hand pressed firmly on his head, supported with her other arm, but she also leaned back against the side of the cage as much as her position would allow.

“You’re gonna be alright,” she confirmed to Tucker.  “Just stay awake.”  She was pretty sure that’s what you were supposed to do, anyway.

“Surprisingly not feeling that tired, what with the way we’re hanging in an already faulty ghost trap 50 feet in the air.”

“You’ll be fine,” Danny said, looking out the side of the cage, though Sam wasn’t sure what he was looking for.  “It’s not faulty.”

“It captured three humans and launched us into the air with no obvious ghosts around,” Sam deadpanned.  “Who’s to say it won’t drop us all next?”

Danny looked back over at her, but Sam couldn’t read his face.  After a second, he just amended, “It’s not that faulty.”  Then he went back to looking out the side of the cage towards the school.

Sam sighed but didn’t say anything else, and turned back to Tucker.  The wound had stopped bleeding now, but she still wanted to get Tucker out of here sooner rather than later.  She looked outside of the cage, but she couldn’t hear any students still at the school.  It was well past 3:00, after all, they would be on their way home.  But the teachers wouldn’t leave for a couple hours yet.

“Do your parents have like, alarms that go off when one of their traps goes off?” Sam asked, turning back to Danny.

Danny tightened his grip on the bar of the cage.  “Mm-hmm,” he said.  Sam could see his hand shaking a little bit.

“Okay,” Sam said, turning to face Tucker.  “They’ll probably be here pretty soon then.”

But Tucker was still looking back at Danny.  “Dude,” he said.  “They’ll be here soon.  You don’t have to freak out.”

“I’m fine,” Danny said, with a voice that was distinctly not.

“Oh, he’s fine,” Sam snapped, rolling her eyes, and returning her glare to outside the cage.  “He just can’t stand being in the same place as people he knows he’s fucked over.”

“Sam,” Tucker said quietly, leaning close enough that Danny wouldn’t be able to hear.  “I think he’s really scared of something.”

“Oh please,” Sam said, not bothering to keep her voice quiet at all.  “What, just ‘cause we’re caught in a ghost trap—” she stopped.

When she thought about it, it was a real possibility.  Before he had kicked her and Tucker to the curb without a second thought, they’d known he was terrified of ghosts.  He vanished as soon as they appeared, and didn’t show up until after they were gone.  Neither of them had ever known where he went, but he’d always looked worse for wear or shaken when he came back.

And right now they were dangling in a cage meant to trap ghosts.  It wasn’t an impossible leap that one would show up.

“Danny?” Sam said, despite herself.

Danny looked over at her, and yeah, now that she wasn’t denying it, the scared mouse look in his eyes was obvious.

“Hey, we’re in a cage meant to trap ghosts,” she said, keeping her voice low and being as comforting as she could stomach.  “Why would any of them come here voluntarily?”

But that didn’t seem to help.  If anything, it just made it worse.  Danny gripped the bar so tight Sam almost thought it bent, but that was impossible.  Then he shifted so Sam couldn’t see the bar and leaned his head back against the cage, squeezing his eyes shut.

“Hey, dude,” Tucker said.  “It’s okay.”

Danny just glared at him.  “Leave me alone,” he snapped, which, honestly, Sam wasn’t sure what she should have expected.

“Danny,” Tucker said, because he didn’t get the memo.  “Seriously, dude.  It’s okay.  We’re gonna be fine.  You said it yourself, the cage isn’t gonna break and drop us.”

Danny just shook his head and pressed his head back against the bars, squeezing his eyes closed again.  Tucker didn’t say anything else, and neither did Danny.

Sam paused and looked at Danny for a moment, taking in the hunched shoulders and the tension in his face and the shaking hands.  He really was scared of something.  But if it wasn’t the ghosts, then what was it?

A voice came suddenly from down below, loud and familiar.  “It should be just this way, Mads!”

Danny’s eyes shot wide open and he pressed himself back further against the wall of the cage, gaze instantly dropping to scan the ground below them all.

Wait, he wasn’t…

A second later, Mr Fenton appeared, followed closely by Mrs Fenton, and both of them looked eagerly up at the cage.

But as soon as they say who it was, their grins dropped.

“Danny?  Sam?  Tucker?” Mrs Fenton asked in concern, stepping towards them.

“Uh, sorry Mom,” Danny said, waving.  Sam wouldn’t have seen the way his hand was shaking if she wasn’t looking for it.  “One of your traps caught me again.”

Again?

“Oh, for pete’s sake,” Mrs Fenton said, putting her hands on her hips.  “I don’t understand why they keep doing that.”

“Don’t worry Danno, we’ll have you down in a jiffy!” Mr Fenton called.  He aimed his ecto gun at the rope above the cage.

“Uh, wait,”  Sam called.  “Maybe don’t—”

He fired before she could finish, leaving Sam just enough time to spin around and pull Tucker’s already-injured head into her chest before the cage started to fall.  She held Tucker there tightly until it hit the ground a second later, which— ow.

“Okay,” Sam said, pushing herself back into a sitting position.  “There really wasn’t a better way to do that?”

“Sorry, sweetie,” Mrs Fenton said as Mr Fenton went to work firing at the bars at the spots where none of them were sitting.  “We designed it for ghosts, you know.  Obviously we’re not going to give them an easy way down.”

Sam didn’t know quite what to say to that.  After a second, she looked across the cage at Danny, and found him warily eyeing Mr Fenton firing at the bars.

Sam turned to face Tucker.  “You okay?” she asked.

Tucker nodded, and when he pulled back from Sam’s chest she saw that his wound didn’t look any worse.  They’d just head home and let his parents look at it.  He’d be alright.

“Sorry about that kids,” Mrs Fenton said, as Mr Fenton slung his ecto gun back over his shoulder, having successfully blown apart enough of the bars for them to get out.  “A lot of our equipment seems to react to Danny for some reason.  We’re still trying to figure out why.”

Sam looked back over at Danny, who was pulling himself up using one of the bars and not even seeming to notice the fresh cut on his elbow, probably from when they fell.

“Alright, it’s back to the drawing books with this one,” Mrs Fenton said to Mr Fenton.  “We’re gonna have to figure out why it’s not working before we try using it again.”

“Yeah, I know,” Mr Fenton said with a sigh.  He turned back to face the rest of them.  “Do any of you need a ride home?  Danno, you want to come with us?”

“I’m okay,” Danny said.  Sam shook her head, and Tucker did the same after her.

“Alright, then we’ll see you at home Danno!  Sorry again!”

And with that, the two of them walked back towards the school, already talking about how they could potentially fix the cage.

Sam stared after them for a second, not sure what she was feeling.

The first one of them to move towards the shot-open-exit was Danny, and she could see him trying to take deep breaths as he did.  As soon as he got out, however, he turned and waited for both of them to do the same.

“Is your head okay?” he asked, looking at Tucker.

“Uh, is your elbow okay?” Tucker asked.

Danny looked down at the wrong elbow first, which was definitely… something.  Then he switched to his injured one and just kind of stared at it for a moment.

Instead of responding to Tucker’s question, he looked away from his elbow and stepped forward, then started peering at Tucker’s wound like he actually knew what he was looking at.

“It’s a head wound,” he said after a second.  “They look a lot worse than they are.  Just watch it and make sure it doesn’t get worse.  It doesn’t need stitches.”

“Uh, thanks?” Tucker said hesitantly.  “How… how do you…”

“Bye,” Danny said, and walked away before either of them could even start thinking about saying anything else.

Regardless, neither of them said anything for a long pause after he left.

Finally, Tucker turned to face her.  “Sam,” he said slowly.  “He was scared of his parents.”

“Yeah,” Sam agreed, as the pieces clicked together horrifyingly in her head.  “So, we’re officially the worst friends ever, huh.”

…

Okay, upon thinking about it, they probably weren’t actually the worst friends ever.  Danny had still walked up to them and directly said that he didn’t want to be friends anymore and that he wanted them to leave him alone.  There wasn’t much they could do about that.  But if Danny’s parents had been… that, and they hadn’t noticed, that officially made them terrible friends.

And Sam had a pretty good guess as to why she hadn’t noticed.  She hadn’t wanted to believe Jack and Maddie Fenton were capable of it.  She’d known them almost her whole life too, after all, just like Danny.  She and Tucker had sleepovers with them in charge as little kids, they’d played games, they’d grown and matured and learned lessons with them, they’d been disciplined by them before, they’d asked questions about growing up and had gotten answers, just like they had with their own parents.  She hadn’t been able to imagine them hurting her on purpose.

And maybe they weren’t actually hurting Danny on purpose.  Maybe they hadn’t realized Danny had gotten hurt yesterday.  They clearly hadn’t realized that Tucker had.  Maybe if they realized that their inventions were actually hurting Danny, they’d stop.  Maybe they didn’t realize the toll this was taking on him.  There were a million maybes.

But in the end, the maybes didn’t matter.  Because Danny still looked scared when he heard it was them coming.  He’d still reacted like it was perfectly normal that he’d fallen fifty feet and his elbow was bleeding.  He’d still known whether Tucker’s head needed stitches or not.

(And maybe the other maybes were plausible too.  Maybe it wasn’t indirect.  Maybe they’d gotten mad that Danny had broken one too many of their inventions, through no fault of his own, and they had—)

But no matter which maybes were true, the way all of it was affecting Danny was a fact.  And Sam didn’t even need to talk to Tucker to know that both of them agreed they weren’t going to let Danny deal with it on his own anymore.

So, at lunch the next day they searched around until they found Danny.  Somehow, he’d ended up with a lunch tray on the roof.

He looked more stunned than Sam had ever seen him when she managed to push the trap door in the ceiling open and climbed out.

“God, Danny,” she said, pulling herself exhaustedly up and reaching back to help Tucker as soon as she did.  “Could you pick a place to hide that’s less impossible to get to?”

“What are you doing here?” Danny asked, scooting back on the roof.

“We came to eat lunch,” Tucker said, letting his and Sam’s lunch boxes slide off of his arms and drop to the roof.  Sam grabbed hers and walked over and sat down next to Danny, and Tucker followed just behind her.

“What— I told you—”

“Yeah, and we’re telling you to stuff it,” Tucker said.  “Danny, we’ve been friends since the second grade.  If you were gonna get tired of us you’d have done it before now.”

Danny looked away.  “I—”

“You don’t have to talk about it,” Sam said, and Danny turned to her with wide eyes.  “Whatever it is you’re not telling us?  You don’t have to talk about it until you’re ready.  Okay?  Just stop trying to push us away, idiot.  We’re not going anywhere.”

Danny looked down at his lunch.  “I don’t want you to get hurt,” he whispered.

Sam exchanged a worried glance with Tucker.  Then she took a deep breath and reached out to grab Danny’s hand.

“That’s not on you to worry about,” she said firmly.  “That’s not your responsibility.”

Danny shook his head, like he disagreed, but Sam cut him off by squeezing his hand.

“Dude, if we get hurt because we’re your friends, then it’s on whoever’s doing the hurting,” Tucker said.  “Not on you.”

Danny didn’t say anything, but after a second, he squeezed Sam’s hand back, which she was going to take as an answer.

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, almost too quiet to hear.

Tucker reached out and put his hand over the top of both of theirs.  “It’s okay,” he said, and Sam nodded.

“We’re staying here, with you,” she agreed.  “No matter what.”

[echoghost1]

Phic Phight Phic #3!!!!

Title: I’ll Eat You Up I Love You So

Prompt: Danny is consumed by a much more powerful ghost.

Prompter: @astatia-ghast

Word Count: 770

You can read it on AO3 or down below the cut!

Frostbite was walking the outer fields when a small ghost crashed down in a streak of green not too far from where he was.

He picked up his pace to see if the ghost was injured in the fall and to see how lost they were.

Not many travel this far, to a place this harsh, on purpose. 

He peered over the edge of the crater and was thankful he had a strong stomach. 

The snow was splattered in a thick layer of green with a quivering crumbled ghost in the center.

It took a moment for Frostbite to recognize the poor ghost through all the mess of ectoplasm. 

“Great One!”

He looked up as best he could with the huge gash above his left eye bleeding down his face.

“Frostbite?”

“Yes Great One, I'm here.”

“I flew as fast as I could.” He looked around slowly, “maybe too fast.”

The slowness of his movements made Frostbite wonder if he possibly had a concussion along with his other injuries.

“It’s alright. Just be still and let me get a good look, okay?” Frostbite said as he gather a small amount of clean powdered snow.

The Great One relaxed and Frostbite carefully used the soft snow to wipe away as much ectoplasm as he could.

He hoped it looked worse than it was. Sometimes wounds bleed more than they needed too. 

Maybe a few stitches and the Great One would be as good as new.

The more he saw the worse it got.

There were so many deep cuts, the bleeding wasn't slowing fast enough, and if the concussion wasn't bad enough, he was pretty sure the Great One had several broken bones.

It was bad.

So bad he knew it wasn’t safe to move him alone.

Bad enough that there wasn't time to get help.

Frostbite never thought he’d ever see the Great One look so weak.

“Great One?” Frostbite conjured a small patch of ice to cover the wound on his forehead, “You trust me don't you?”

“Yeah, course.” He slightly slurred, “it's why I'm here.”

“Good, good. Close your eyes and I'll take you somewhere safe.”

He relaxed into the snow as if it was his own bed. 

If Frostbite ignored all the injuries and mess, his hero looked more like a child than ever before.

There was no way he could let him stay injured like this any longer.

Frostbite looked around just to make sure he was truly alone.

There was only one way Frostbite could save him now, but he hadn’t done this in a very long time or in such dire conditions. 

Normally there was a long process of checks and information sharing so that everyone involved knew what was going to happen.

He didn't have that luxury now.

He needed to act quickly if this was going to work.

He just has to hope that the Great One would understand. 

That his companions would too.

Frostbite lowered himself so his chest was nearly resting in the snow. He carefully slid his ice arm under the Great One's body and just barely lifted him off the ground as evenly as possible so as to not injure him further. 

He brought the Great One closer and then opened his mouth as wide as it could go. His jaw creaked like glaciers as he opened to its absolute limit.

Then he simply slid the Great One in whole.

Frostbite snapped his jaws shut and sat back on his haunches as he waited for the Great One to compress and settle inside.

While the Great One was rather small for his greatness, he was gangly and a bit too large for the space he was currently residing.

While Frostbite wouldn't call this a pleasant experience, it wasn’t painful either.

He was hyper aware of his chest and his internal passenger. 

He could feel as the Great One's limbs curled inward and receded into nothingness. 

The rest of the Great One's body followed suit until all that was left was his tiny little core.

Once everything had settled, it was replaced with a pleasant chill next to his own core.

Frostbite sighed in relief and placed a hand on his chest, right over where the Great One currently rested.

“Take as much time as you need, Great One. I'll keep you safe.”

Now that he was confident that the Great One was no longer in danger, Frostbite started his trek back home. 

Despite the circumstances, he had a feeling his people would be thrilled by the news.

It wasn't often they got a new member of their clan.

[redflagshipwriter]

Ghost Driver 6

Masterpost

His body was shaking. Jason came back to himself in fits and starts, mind suffering through the sludge of a concussion and heavy duty pain medication. His ears had finally stopped ringing after the explosion. He was aware enough to know that he had been in and out of it for what must have been hours.

He checked in with himself: he hurt. His body hurt, like he had hit a wall at high speed because of the uh, the explosion. His eye ached obnoxiously, and he had a crick in his neck. Jason rolled it cautiously. “This is not my beautiful sofa,” he said. Where was he? He should be sleeping off his injuries in a shitty cold apartment in downtown Gotham. The world rumbled around him like he was on top of an old water heater, or traveling at high speed.

“Definitely not,” said Dickie.

Oh. It was another dream. He closed his eyes. There was no scenario in which Batman took him back to the cave that didn’t involve waking up on a bed in a room with no shoelaces. He was scrunched into the front seat of a vehicle– that was the source of the shaking. A motor. He peeled open one eye to reconfirm that the world outside was wavy and green.

“This is different.” He didn’t feel much of anything when he looked at it. It was kinda dumb. He deserved a more substantial hallucinatory sequence after the new worst day of his life “Hey, was I really fuckin annoying when I was little? Is that why you didn’t like me? Because I dreamed I was on a road trip with little me and I gotta say, he didn’t deserve to have his head beat in with a crowbar, but he was truly obnoxious.” He grimaced. So sincere. Christ. He was an idiot and he always had been. Of course Bruce would never choose his son over his morals.

“Not a dream,” said a new voice. “Sorry.” They coughed.

Wait. Jason struggled to put it together. He did know that voice, but the guy it came out of was all wrong. “You look like a space mermaid,” he told Danny Fenton disapprovingly. “I am not a pirate. What are you doing? There’s no coherency in this dream.” He waved a hand around and immediately regretted it. “Go back to your other face.”

“Uh.” Danny sounded nervous. “This is just what I look like, all the time.” He gave a very bad fake laugh.

That was suspicious. Jason considered this. Fuck, his head was pounding. He sat up and fought past nausea to assess what was going on around him better.

Dick was staring at him inside the cockpit of an unidentified vehicle. He was aiming for a cheerfully detached mien, but Jason saw right through it. Dick was stressed out of his big dumb pumpkin head. Next to him was a Robin.

Jason narrowed his eyes. That wasn’t a ghost or vision. That was the new kid, upgraded uniform and all. “You lack panache,” he told Tim Drake disdainfully. He skimmed over the techno mermaid version of the incredibly hot getaway driver he had promised to protect from Batman and had the dim suspicion that he had fucked that up. He nodded at the vampire who was driving their spaceship through green air. “Hey, man.”

“...Hello,” said the vampire.

“Ignore him,” Danny hastily said. He gave Jason a queasy smile and twisted his fingers together. “You’re up up now? Sorry, you missed kiiiind of a lot. When you didn’t come back I decided to figure out what happened to you and I did kidnap a guy, so we have to fix that with paperwork.” He paused. “Also I did kidnap Robin a little bit. But that was an honest mistake! I thought he was dead.”

Jason watched this babbling, perplexed but charmed. “Who else did you kidnap?” His voice was a little choked up. He had kidnapped Robin? Batman must be losing his mind. He fought down a hysterical giggle. Dickie was here too, hell. The Bat-aneurism would be blinding.

The vampire heaved a massively put-upon sigh. “Some ruffian styling himself as a Joker,” he drawled. He was so powerfully unimpressed that his words took a moment to penetrate Jason’s brain.

He froze.

“So dear Phantom here gifted him to Skulker.” He pronounced ‘Skulker’ like the name might leave mud in his mouth if he wasn’t careful with it. “Skulker is disinterested in giving up his toy, so we are now in a very exciting chase.” The vampire sneered.

Jason hauled himself upwards with difficulty. His body felt so heavy. Every muscle hurt. “We are chasing him?”

“No, he is chasing us.” Dick pointed a thumb towards the back. “We’re, uh.” His whole face twitched. “We’re towing the Joker behind us. Skulker keeps trying to harpoon him to get him back.”

The ship jerked violently. Jason looked over to the vampire pilot, who was serenely unaffected by the violent subject matter.

He took a moment to experience childlike wonder. What had Danny done while he was unconscious? How had he pulled this off? Was it an elaborate proposal? If so, he didn’t need to try that hard, goddamn. Jason had an empty ring finger.

Jason considered all of this and tried to be cool about it. “What’s the end goal?”

Dickie leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees and make deadpan eye contact. “We are going to take the Joker to a private prison in the Infinite Realms run by a cowboy ghost named Walker, and I am going to oversee transfer paperwork to give to Inspector Gordon.” He said it all like it made some sense. “Can’t have the Joker disappear without a record.”

“...Right,” Jason said, remembering that bit of information. He inserted as much disdain as possible into his voice for the sheer fun of it. “You’re a fucking cop.”

Dickie flinched.

“That’s right,” Danny said, pleased and impressed. “How did you know that? I found him at the police station and he said he would help out. This is my estranged godfather vampire, Vlad.” He gestured at the driver. “And I’m Phantom,” he said, despite being obviously Danny Fenton in a superhero transformation.

“...I’m Jason, but you can call me honey,” he said.

Dick choked on air.

Phantom flushed a very pleasing teal.

Jason flung an arm over Danny’s shoulder and reeled him in. He might have also leaned on him a bit, but that was the blood loss talking. He wasn’t swooning. “Tell me about this prison and how you feel about gold versus silver.”

Drake made a gagging sound.

“No, shh,” Dickie said quietly. “I want to see where this is going.”