#Danny and Jazz learned for the normal reasons

[bet-on-me-13]

Cass joins Team Phantom

So, we all know how Cass escaped her terrible dad at the age of 8 right? And how she is adopted by Batman at the age of 16-17 right? Well, what happened in between that time?

Cass has been on the run for Years now. She is 13, and at this point she has been on the run for nearly half of her entire life. So it's really no wonder that when she finally got to a relatively safe place after weeks of little food, little rest, and constant attacks by her pursuers, she accidentally fell asleep.

She woke up in a nice comfy bed, in a room that looked like an Astronomy Geek's dream. Once the people who found her noticed she was awake, they explained what had happened.

Their son, a boy named Danny, had found her passed out in their Shed the previous day while cleaning up. He had quickly brought her in and offered his Room so she could rest comfortably.

Cass doesn't really trust them, and tries to run more than once, but her weeks of constant exhaustion have finally caught up with her and she is stuck staying with them until she is fit to leave.

And unfortunately for her, the Fentons are very Endearing.

By the time she is healthy enough to leave, she genuinely wants to stay. So they unofficially adopt her, letting her stay in their house and sharing a room with Jazz (Danny did kind of need his room back, and Jazz was a good sister like that)

She ends up going to the same school as Danny and ends up befriending both of his friends, Tucker and Sam.

The day of the Accident, Cass is right there alongside Tucker and Sam as the Portal kills Danny.

After the Accident, she is a great help in teaching him some calming routines and meditation techniques so he can get a handle on his Powers much easier.

They also find out that standing in front of a Portal as it rips reality apart is just as bad as being inside of it. They all end up extremely liminal and get Powers. Tucker has Technomancy, Sam has Plant Powers, and Cass gets Shadow Manipulation (or whatever you think fits her)

She is having the best time of her life, but unfortunately it can't last forever.

About 2 years after the Accident, the GIW get a lucky shot on Danny. They were using one of the inventions the Fenton's had made before the Reveal (which was a good one) one that made Ghost Powers weaker for easier capture. While it didn't hurt Danny too much, it did weaken him enough that he flickered into his Human Form for just long enough for the GIW Agents to see him.

Now with Danny's identity exposed, the GIW could track down the Identities of the Humans who had been helping him all this time, aka, Tucker, Sam, and Cass.

During a Raid on Fenton Works, they all got seperated somehow.

Danny got injured protecting the Team, and had to be rushed to the Ghost Zone by Jazz, a stray shot from the GIW blowing up the Portal behind them. They ended up in the Far Frozen, to get Danny fixed up.

Tucker was arrested and sent to prison for a little while before a glitch in his cells Security System allowed him an opening to use his Powers to escape.

Sam was chased out of the Town by the GIW and ended up in the Forest nearby. She had to use her Powers to run away, disappearing too deep into the Woods for the GIW to follow.

Cass managed to sneak out, and ended up trying to save Tucker on his way to prison. She failed though, and the GIW chased her all the way to New Jersey before loosing her trail.

This is how she ended up in Gotham, and got adopted by Bruce Wayne. But she would never forget her first Family, and would try for years to see if she could find where they ended up.

Potential Part 2? Maybe, I have some ideas...

What do you think?

[deadsetobsessions]

Danny no longer has a haunt. So… he decides to find another one. And while he technically has a whole world (other dimensions aren’t an option because he’s going to stay near where Jazz’s grave is, damn it) there’s only a couple of other places with enough ambient ectoplasm to sustain him. Nanda Parbat, Tokyo, and Gotham.

Nanda Parbat had a weird old musty immortal that kept trying to summon him and exchange power for the ability to “take a worthy body and rain as much destruction” as he’d like. As if Danny would need a body to bring the world to its knees.

Tokyo… it’s too far from Jazz’s grave. He could ask Wulf or even open his own portal but when Danny tried it out, Tokyo was too peaceful. Obviously there’s crime, but nothing… nothing big like Danny’s used to.

Danny ends up picking Gotham, even if the sewer zombies and the weird group of rich fruit loops with an adoption problem creeps him out. So, he destroys the portal, packs up his parents’ house and sells it, and hauls ass to the cesspool calling his name. His family’s stuff is stored respectfully in a vault located on the deepest parts of his personal haunt in the Infinite Realms.

And honestly, he’s doing better. Sure, he’s got a shitty apartment near another revenant’s almost-haunt and he feels like he’s drowning all of the time, but Danny isn’t in danger of turning into Dan, he’s catching up on royal paperwork, and he’s got like a job as a barista. In his own coffee shop that paid for using his parent’s money (who, despite their hazardous everything, made a crap ton of money off of their more normal inventions).

Gotham’s got some pretty interesting local gangs, most of which respected the sanctity of Danny’s cafe. Sure, they tried blowing it up and tried extorting money from him in the form of “protection costs” but after three months of failure, they gave up.

(Really, the local gangs gave up when they saw him take three shotgun shells to the chest and continued to work.) (They didn’t know it never hit him. Intangibility is extremely useful.)

The Rogues, on the other hand, just gave Danny flashbacks. Their gimmicks are different, sure, but after years of Box Ghost, Skuller, Lunch Lady, etc., Danny’s more than done with costumed villains. They don’t bother him either. Some of the reason is probably due to Harley and Ivy, who had walked into the cafe and (because they were bruised and scratched up from a fight) triggered Danny’s mother hen tendencies. They were promptly fed and watered and caffeinated and their hyenas were also similarly taken care of. They declared the cafe under their protection and that was that.

Red Hood stops by, and begins to interrogate him. But when Danny met his… helmet eyes? The crime lord paused, paid for his coffee, and sat in a corner table of the cafe for the rest of the day.

And he kept coming back?

But Danny figures it’s because Hood was a revenant and people who had come close to death tends to feel more comfortable around him.

(Considering this is Gotham where people almost die every other day? Yeah, he’s pretty much friends with everyone. Or at least, less likely to get shot.)

(Hood does stay because of the King’s presence and the Pit calming itself, but also Danny’s hot and he’s got a sleeper build and Hood definitely did not imagine himself in the place of the heavy box he saw Danny lift effortlessly onto a table. No.)

But of course, the peace couldn’t last forever. But by then, Danny was so antsy, he welcomed the trouble with open arms.

It starts with a clown. Danny knows who he is. He knows who Danny is.

So, Danny has no idea why the clown thought it would be a good idea to aggravate the owner of Gotham’s official neutral grounds. See, Clovkwork? Danny’s learned how to gauge his own political importance!

“HAHAHAHAHA! COME OUT, DANNY-BOY! LET ME TELL YOU A JOKE!”

Danny comes out and grabs a chair, and with a flat expression, says, “you’re not funny and I hate clowns.”

And then he swings and slams the chair into the Joker’s face. Over and over again until Danny’s sure the clown won’t get back up. The thing about Gotham’s outdoor chairs is that they’re mad out of steel and are bolted down to the ground to prevent undedicated thieves (dedicated thieves can and will steal the bolted down steel chairs). The Joker’s hired muscle just watched this scrawny twenty-something year old yank the steel chair and take some of the fucking ground and the bolts with it and beat the fuck out of their boss who is the literal Joker.

They surrender on the spot and is taken to jail. Danny just smiles at the officers who come by and since he’s got pretty privilege and they don’t want to mess with the guy who, again, owns one of Gotham’s official neutral ground and also beat up Joker without breaking a sweat, the officers just lets him go with a warning.

And then the bats comes, and wow, Danny’s playing mentor to a formally dead person again!

But before that, the Red Hood asks for an autograph on the Gotham Gazette article with a picture of a tired Danny standing over Joker’s prone body. Then Hood stammers through asking Danny out (which Danny said yes to because he’s tired, not blind, and Hood is built like a brick house and HOT).

Batman interrogates him. Danny, who can tell that this man needs therapy and is Sad TM, tells Bats that Danny’s died before and that’s why he’s like this. He also calls Batman a furry, but like in a nice way. And then he kicks Batman out with a coffee and a file on Nanda Parbat.

Now, Danny’s got a date to prepare for and he realizes that maybe this is what Jazz wanted for him- to be happy and mostly safe and happy. (Or, happier, he thinks. It’s been a long time since he’s been truly happy, but this might be a good start)

[flamingpudding]

Sooo I had this idea most likely inspired by a bunch of other fanfics I read...

Follow up part: 2

Ghost kid in Gotham

The Beginning

So far Danny counted two times in his live that he had died or at least sort of remembered dying.

The first time he died, he had been eight and in an horrible turn of events was forced into a fight to death with his twin. All because Danny couldn't be like his brother. He couldn't kill, he continuously nearly fails his missions if it weren't for his twin finishing of targets that were supposed to be his. The league had seen him as the black sheep of the family. He was no assassin material yet his twin brother still protected and adored him. But then their grandfather saw how he became a weakness for the true heir. All because Danny couldn't get his shit together during one mission they were sent on together. Resulting in his twin sustaining an injury.

So Danny was sentenced to death in an obvious fight the entire league knew he could nore would ever want to win. The fight had drawn out his twin at least attempting to get him to fight back to show their family that he was worth keeping by showing his skills, even if Danny couldn't kill, he could still fight excellently. But Danny didn't play along, instead he let his brother kill him with the final blow. He didn't even bother attempting to dodge.

His first death had probably been very cruel towards his brother, but at least it meant that his twin, Damien would live on.

Though he didn't expect that right before his body could grow cold forever, that their mothers still had somewhat of a heart and dunked him into the pits and revive Danny the first time. (Only later through Clockwork did Danny learn that he had been dropped in a pit of contaminated ectoplasm which probably was also the reason he even survived - well sort of survived - his second death)

He did come out as a feral kid though he barely remembered his time at the Chicago Orphanage. His former parents the Fantons had told him that he had been a feral kid the first year they had him. Apparently for the longest time Jazz had been the only one that could touch let alone get in hugging distance of Danny without getting bitten. Jack liked to show off the bite marks as lovely memories his sweet little Danno gave him the first time he hugged eight years old Danny.

The second time he died, he had been 14 and to this day he still thinks that a dare was one of the dumbest things one could die from. Of course his adopted parents weren't normal. They were ecto-scientists, studying ghosts or rather ecto-entities. And of course they were treading the line of mad-scientists with an entire lap in the basement and ecto-weaponry laying out and about throughout the entire house.

So when his parents build a portal to punch their way into another dimension that didn't work his friends just had to dare him to get in there to take a photo - or had it been a video - of it.

Who would have guests that the on batten was inside the damn thing instead of outside and that his stumbling and catching himself on the damned button would just so happen to punch open that portal with him in the middle of it all.

Let him tell you, getting electrocuted was not a fun way to day, nor is getting revived yet again by ectoplasm that was spewing out of the portal and mixing with his DNA. At least he got some cool powers from that accident and did not go feral like he did the first time round.

Danny shuddered, imaging if he had gone feral back then with Phantoms powers. Good he truly would have been the menace Amity still couldn't decide if he was or not.

Either way that were the two time he counted in his death tolls so far. Of course there were a couple of other times. Like that one time Sam made a wish. But he didn't really count them since well they didn't have any sort of big change that followed them.

But right now. He was probably close to his third accounted death. Strapped to the table. His chest pretty much sliced open and he was pretty sure that one of the tubes on the table across the room still contained his liver his Mo- Maddie had taken out and the other his arm that had been cut off by Agent K to test his healing.

Well he should have known better than to let his sister convince him that his adoptive parents would turn on him. Looks like that with their working with the GIW and him on the table they had finally broken the last bits of trust both Jazz and him had in them.

Danny had long lost the energy to plead with them, that it was still him. At least he would be a full ghost once the bloodless and missing limbs did him in. Really his human body wasn't as resistent as his ghost body. But at least staying in human form would protect his core. Really the worst that could happen was his human side dying right now.

Letting out a mute sigh Danny closed his eyes letting exhaustion take his mind into oblivion. The only sad thing was, that he never got to find out how his twin Damien was doing and if he was still with the league…

TIME OUT

When Clockwork first had set the path for this timeline he did not realize how damaging his king's parents' reaction was. As he looked at his king strapped to the table, cut open and even missing limbs, he for a brief moment regretted that he only ever watched the timelines and sent others to intervene. Rarely did he himself interfere but this time he had to. Otherwise his king would lose the part that made him the kindest among all the ghosts in the Infinit Realms.

Carefully he removed his king from the chains holding him down and took him with him. Away from the horrors he was facing and away from the Family that was supposed to preserve his king's kindness and humanity.

It looked like he had made a grave mistake but it was something that was still possible to fix. The timeline had yet to turn into a doomed one. And so Clockwork decided to take his king away and bring him to a place that would have a close amount of ectoplasm as Amity had as well as one of the strongest Spirits in existence to protect him until he was ready.

Looking down at the teen in his arms, Clockwork also decided that his king did not need the painful memories his supposed family gave him. A blue light engulfed his kind as Clockwork let his powers work. Turning the clock back only for his king. The missing limbs returned and his open wounds closed as the body in his arms shrunk.

In mere seconds the Master of time was holding his king at the age of his first death in his arms, yet the state was not the same. The scars of his second death were still present, telling that his powers as halfa were still present in his king's small bodies. With this his king would be ready to be dropped off to his next family. Hopefully Clockwork wasn't making a mistake again but keeping his king truly safe this time.

TIME IN

Lady Gothem was not impressed with the Master of Time as that old man dropped off the body of their king with little to no explanation. Last she knew her king was supposed to be a teenager, a halfa so powerful that the Infinite Realms were supposed to become a much safer place than they ever had been under any of the previous kings.

All the Master of Time had offered her was a cryptic - and honestly when was that old cogwheel not - message of protecting his king and returning him to his family. Really the next time she they meet she would not miss the chance to lecture Cronus. But for now she studied the young sleeping king in her arms, noting the similarities he held to the youngest of her knights.

Ah, so that was the family the old cogwheel meant. Well it looked that her knights were not only hers alone now but would also protect her king now. But who to bring him too, she mused. Surely her dearest among them would have no qualms taking the child in but he was currently not in their home. The little knights of other haunts have requested his help and called him away to that watchtower.

Mentally the city's spirit went through all her knights until her thoughts stopped by one in particular. The knight she was going to request help with from her king anyway. What better way was there than taking care of two problems with one action. He would surely take that child to the others as well as receive her king's help with his little contamination problem.

With her decision made, Lady Gothom made her move.

[help-itrappedmyself]

Dead on Main Part 12

Masterpost

Jason blinks and his perspective changes. He’s looking down at Danny’s body, he is momentarily overcome by a strange sense of familiarity. He is in his own body again. He sighs deeply and then grins. “Nice to finally meet you.” Jason actually shakes the hand in his before letting go and stretching.

Danny smiles brightly as he watches him. “Great to meet you too!” Danny goes ghost and back in a short burst of flashes, then shakes out his limbs.

“Yeah, you’ve really got to tell me about that.” Jason tells him, waving a hand at his body. The Waynes at the table all watch the exchange in silence. Jazz has joined them fully, sitting down at the table.

“More important things, real fast, we’ll get back to it.” Danny turns to Jazz. “Are Mom and Dad here?”

Jazz shakes her head. “They went out to the store. They repurposed our appliances again, so they went to get replacements.” Danny nods.

“Jason texted that you ran into Vlad, what happened to him? Where is he now?” Danny looked between Jazz and Jason. Jason shrugged.

“We took care of him for the moment. You can deal with him later; I’ll bring him to you.” Danny nods at her.

“Yeah, that creep. I don’t think you should be near him.” Jason advises as Danny goes to sit on a kitchen counter.

All the chairs at the table are taken, so Jason goes in and leans against the doorframe.

“Believe me, I don’t want to be. He’s always trying to kill my dad and marry my mom and adopt me.” Danny makes a gagging sound. “Absolute fruitloop, but he’s my dad’s best friend, so.” Danny shrugs. 

“That’s not okay. That is not normal, what is happening here?” All the newcomers look confused. Danny just rolls his eyes and shares a commiserating look with Jazz.

“Well, it’s pretty normal for us. And we’ve been handling it just fine.” Jazz gives Danny a hard look. “Mostly fine.” He amends. “Besides, we both have a lot to discuss. You need ectoplasm, like immediately. In fact, wait here.”

Danny leaves, going down to the basement to grab a vial full of pure ectoplasm from the ghost portal and brings it back to the kitchen. Jason starts when he sees the glowing green liquid.

“Drink this.” Danny says, handing it to him.

Jason just stares at him. Danny groans. “This is going to make you feel so much better you’ll feel bad for doubting me in the first place. You need it or you’ll die. You are dying."

Jason gives him a side eye but drinks the liquid under his family’s watchful eyes. 

He does immediately feel so much better. He can feel something in his chest ease that he didn’t realize was tight and strained, but now that it is able to relax it feels like his entire body has dropped a huge weight, a large portion of stress is gone, and he has a sudden surplus of energy. The pit that he can usually feel in the corner of his mind and churning in his gut and gone still and silent.

He smiles wider than he has since he came back from the dead. His family seems overjoyed just looking at him. Nobody else would be able to tell, but even Bruce seems so happy he could cry. Dick is crying.

Jason turns to Danny and just engulfs him in a hug. “I don’t know what you did.” Jason mutters into Danny’s ear. “But thank you.”

Danny hugs back, a smile taking up his entire face. “Anytime.”

Jason lets go and pulls back. “You going to explain?”

Danny lets out a laugh that Jason thinks he could listen to forever.

“Yeah.” He chuckles out. “We have a lot of getting to know each other to do.”

“Can’t wait.”

His family is in the background, excited for him, and Jason is glad that they’re here. Jazz is at the table, giving them both soft smiles. Danny’s smile this time isn’t as large, it’s almost shy. And Jason is looking forward to getting to know him, getting to see every smile Danny has, and hopes he can be the reason for a lot of them. 

He has his family, his life back. He can learn to be a better brother. Try and do better with Bruce. He can get to know Jazz, and he has Danny. He has so many possibilities in front of him. And until that moment, Jason had never been so happy to still be alive.

[phantom-0-writer]

regular boy: daniel wayne

masterlist/link to ao3

summary:

“Reporting live from Gotham City!” The reporter spoke “Here at the scene of the crime where Dr. Collin Kilye, renowned geneticist, has shot himself and has been declared dead by the paramedics. Dr. Kilye is suspected to be responsible for the purposeful switching of newborns between families under his care, where an estimated over 500 babies have been swapped in the last 20 years of his employment here. Based on the information provided to the Gotham PD by Nightwing and Batman, the vigilantes investigating the crime, we are led to believe that Nightwing has been investigating this case after an anonymous tipoff of Dr. Kilye’s suspicious activities. After a month and a half of investigating, Nightwing reason to believe the Dr. Kilye of malpractice and came to his office to investigate-” - Dick had learned that people never know a situation as well as they assume they did. Dick had always assumed that he wouldn’t be one of those people. He was a detective, a Bat, the first Robin. The case file in front of him glared tauntingly. Danny Fenton; Birth Parents: Bruce Wayne (father) and Clarissa King (mother). Status: Alive

chapter 01: breaking news

tw/cw: mentions of infant death and fictional medical procedures

dick: 25 jason: 20 danny: 16 tim: 16 steph: 17 cass: 15 duke: 17 damian: 13

Danny sighed, stepping through the front door and into the empty living room not bothering to turn on the lights and tossed his hoodie onto a nearby sofa. Normally Jazz would have berated him for being messy, or maybe Mom would have nagged about Danny being older and needing to clean up after himself. But Jazz was off studying neurology at Harvard. And his parents had gotten an “an amazingly irrefutable offer, Danno” to work at Dalv Co. under their new ecto-technologies sector, that partnered closely with the GIW. So they were usually busy with that. 

Not that Danny wasn’t glad to have time apart from his parents. After what Danny only referred to as The Chicago Incident, he could barely stand being in the same room with them. Danny kept quiet about what happened. He hadn't told anyone, not Sam or Tuck or Val or Wes and especially not Jazz. He couldn’t. He’d only managed to survive thanks to the timely aid of Fright Knight and Firebolt (a ghost friend he made when he was stuck in the Ghost Zone during the GIW’s six-month Martial Law lockdown- but that was a story for another time). 

Leaving his shoes somewhere by the door, Danny made his way into the kitchen, perusing through the remnants of edible material. The equipment in the basement would have been collecting dust if Danny hadn’t taken his liberties with it. Apart from his newfound and unbounded freedom that he regarded with gratitude, Danny even began dabbling in cooking real people food. And it was definitely because he wanted to and not because he was sick of microwavable food, Jazz. 

With Danny’s rendition of chicken alfredo ready, he ate in front of the TV. He flipped through a few channels before just landing back on the news. He half-listened to the anchor telling him about the incoming weather front before the screen abruptly changed, flashing a bright red Breaking News sign for a moment before panning over to a lady in front of what looked like a crime scene. 

“I’m Jenifer Blair, reporting live from West Gotham City with Z News!” The reporter spoke urgently over the loud sounds of police and ambulance sirens in the background. “Here at the scene of the crime where Dr. Collin Kilye, renowned geneticist, and lead researcher at West Gotham General Hospital, has shot himself and has been declared dead by the paramedics. Dr. Kilye is suspected to be responsible for the purposeful switching of newborns of families under his care. It is estimated that over 500 babies have been swapped in the last 20 years of his employment here. Based on the information provided to the Gotham PD by Nightwing and Batman, the vigilantes investigating the crime, we have been told that Nightwing has been investigating this case after an anonymous tipoff of Dr. Kilye’s suspicious activities. After a reported month and a half of investigating, Nightwing had reason to suspect Dr. Kilye of malpractice and came to his office to investigate where--”

The sudden sound of his phone ringing brought Danny back to his living room. “Hey, Tuck,” Danny answered, lowering the volume of the TV. 

“Danny! Dude! Have you seen the news story of Batman and Nightwing’s recent bust?” Tucker asked, his voice radiating fanboy excitement. 

“Wasn’t it mostly just Nightwing?” Danny raised an eyebrow at his friend, even though he couldn’t see it. “Batman showed up later.” 

“Yeah, well, Batman and Nightwing-”

“Nightwing and Batman.”

“Okay, whatever- but isn’t this totally insane? It’s like Parent Trap- but illegal.”

“That’s not what happens in Parent Trap.” Danny pointed out for the sole purpose of being annoying. 

“It’s the essence, Danny!” Tucker groaned. Danny could practically hear him rolling his eyes through the phone. “We’re still on for the new Doom game tonight?” 

“Wouldn’t miss it for the world. The others come by yet?” Danny put his plate in the sink. 

“I’m adding them to the call.” 

On the third ring, “‘Sup Fenton ‘n Foley. Ready to get your nonexistent butts handed to you?” Val goaded, already hyped for their game. 

“Hey! I’ll have you know I have a very nice butt. And Danny’s isn’t anything to scoff at either-” Tucker snapped only to be cut off by Danny.

“Okay! Thanks for the defense, Tuck.” Danny stepped in quickly before the conversation took a turn he did not want to witness. 

--- 

Dick was alone in the BatCave, working out the final details of his case before sending it off to be released publicly. In all of Dick’s years as Robin to Nightwing, this case was easily one of the most disastrous to the general public. Given that it was his case, Dick wanted to make sure it went smoothly. Or as smoothly as telling a family their child isn’t biologically theirs can go. 

Sorting through the files and pairing up the families with the correct child was relatively easy, thanks to the incredible details Dr. Kilye stored in his files. If the circumstances were different, Dick would have been amazed at how much data the doctor managed to keep collecting for 568 different subjects of his experiment. Silently praising himself for having already made his way through about half the files, Dick stretched his neck as he clicked the View Next button. 

In his line of work, Dick had learned that people never know a person or situation as well as they thought they did. Dick had been confident he wouldn’t be one of those people. He was a detective, a Bat, the first Robin. He knew better than to assume anything. The file that showed up next was chilling proof that he was wrong. For a Bat, the past never stayed in the past. 

File Number: 6678

Date of Birth: 12 February 20XX

Name: Thomas Wayne Jr 

Assigned Mother: Clarissa King (missing) 

Assigned Father: Bruce Wayne (alive)  

Biological Mother: Madeline Fenton (alive) 

Biological Father: Jack Fenton (alive) 

Medical Conditions: 

Malformations of the heart and lungs

Unidentified chemicals present in blood test

Updates and Notes: 

Deceased on 23 February 20XX (11 days old)

The memories he managed to keep buried for years seized Dick’s senses, and he was back in the hospital waiting room at age 9. None of the others had known about the time Bruce and Thalia had tried to work things out and had given having a family together a try. No LoA business. No Bat or JLA. Just regular(ish) people in a regular(ish) family. 

It had gone well for the months before Talia had become pregnant. Even most of the pregnancy had gone smoothly. Dick got to be in an actual family again after the death of his parents. They had dinner together. Talked about their day. Watched movies together.

But then Talia had gotten sick, and the baby ended up coming out a little early. The doctors had told them it was normal and that the baby would probably still be healthy. So Alfred sat in the waiting room with a nervous Dick, excited to meet his first-ever little brother. He’d always wanted a little brother. Bruce came to the waiting room after making Dick and Alfred wait forever and told them they could come in now. Talia, under the alias Clarissa King, was asleep when they entered. 

Bruce had told them the doctors had taken Thomas to get cleaned and do a few check-ups. Dick remembered the anxious but excited look on Bruce’s face as he kept glancing at the door, ready to pounce the second the doctor would come back with Dick’s new baby brother. 

Except that never happened. 

When the doctor came back into the room, he had a clipboard in his hand, not a baby. The Doctor told them to follow him, and they went inside a room with a bunch of machines in it, and in the middle of the room was Dick’s baby brother.

The baby was mostly bald, but he had little bits of black hair on his head, like Bruce and Talia. Dick wondered what color eyes the baby would have. Talia had green eyes, but Bruce and Dick had blue eyes. Alfred had said the baby needed a lot of rest and that’s why he was sleeping so much. Dick would be a good big brother and wait patiently until his baby brother woke up. 

But the baby had to stay in the hospital for 10 whole days since Bruce had told Dick that his brother was really sick. Dick would check the nursery to make sure it was ready for his brother before Alfred would take him to the hospital to visit. Dick’s baby brother hadn’t been awake any of those days and Dick never got to find out what color his eyes were. 

On the eleventh day, they didn’t go to visit. When Dick asked Alfred why, the butler had walked him to the patch of loose dirt in the backyard marked with a little piece of rock with his brother’s name on it. 

Dick had seen that type of rock with his parent’s name on it before. 

It meant that he was gone, and Dick would never get to see him again. 

When Bruce had introduced Jason Todd and said he would stay with them in the manor, that was the first time Dick had truly ever been betrayed by Bruce. 

Jason wasn’t his brother. Thomas was. But Thomas wasn’t here. Jason may get to say he was Bruce’s son too, but he didn’t get to know about Thomas. 

Not letting his childhood tears deter him from his new goal, Dick quickly found the associated file. Dick’s heart pounded in his chest while his breath was still stuck somewhere in his throat, 

File Number: 77563

Date of Birth: 12 February 20XX

Name: Daniel Fenton 

Assigned Mother: Madeline Fenton (alive) 

Assigned Father: Jack Fenton (alive) 

Biological Mother: Clarissa King (missing) 

Biological Father: Bruce Wayne (alive)  

Medical Conditions: 

Normal Birth

Age 12: Electrocuted 

Hospitalized for 24 hours. 

Developed Acute Bradycardia 

No follow-up medical procedures 

Updates and Notes: 

Prefers “Danny” 

Dick looked over the file again and again. His baby brother was alive. He had come back. 

Should he tell Bruce? Obviously, that was a dumb question. How should he tell Bruce? 

Well, Richard Grayson was nothing if not tactful. He pulled out his phone from his jacket pocket, pulled up both files next to each other on the large screen of the Bat Computer, snapped a picture, and clicked send. Bruce was supposed to be having dinner with some important business people or whatnot, so Dick decided he should flee the scene before the Big Bad Bat found him, not wanting to know what his wrath would bestow on him. Heaven forbid, Bruce might even talk about emotions.

He closed all the files, stored them in a flash drive, and wiped them from the computer. After all, this was his case, and he’d be the one to see it through. Dick was right in front of the elevator when the doors opened to reveal Tim.

“You’re done?” Tim asked, raising a suspicious brow.

“I have a flight to catch.” Dick said, “I need to pack.”

“Is it for a case?” Tim asked, putting his phone in his pocket. 

“Yeah. Be the bestest brother ever and cover for me?” Dick pleaded, flashing his signature smile.

“Why should I?” He huffed already a few feet away from where Dick stayed. 

With a smirk, “‘Cause you don’t want Bruce to know what taking the Batmobile out for a ‘joyride’ was really for,” Dick said with a smirk. 

Tim turned around, alarmed. “Fine, I’ll cover. But you better not tell.” Tim hissed at him.

“Scout’s Honor.” Dick winked before catching the elevator. 

“You weren’t even a Scout.” He heard Tim complain before the doors fully shut. 

Three hours later, Dick landed in Chicago, Illinois and hailed a cab to take him the rest of the 1-and-a-half-hour drive to Amity Park. Where Thomas  Daniel Danny lived. Dick hadn’t exactly planned this whole excursion through, which wasn’t very trained-by-Batman of him. But Dick knew how to do things by the nose when he needed to. 

He had used the time in the plane to finish the rest of the files, which he completed quickly with his ultimatum in mind. Dick purposely ignored every notification vibrating in his pocket knowing he would be facing the wrath of either Tim or Bruce. 

But now he was sitting in a car for one-and-a-half hours with nothing to look out for except the darkness of the night and a relatively empty road. He opened his phone to 56 messages and missed calls. He scrolled through the groupchat, ignoring it when it was just talking about regular stuff. Next, he opened his messages from Tim. 

Timbers: Dick.

Timbers: what did you do?????

Timbers: when you said cover I thought you meant for patrol or smt 

Timbers: not whatever beef Bruce apparently has with you??

Timbers: I demand compensation!!!

Timbers: [1 video]

Dick opened the video Tim sent him. It was 90 seconds of security camera feed from right above the elevator. Bruce’s hair was disturbed from his usual well-done look he kept for business meetings and his tie was undone. He stormed towards the Bat Computer where Tim was doing whatever Tim does on the computer. Despite being dressed in business attire, Dick could practically see the flurrying of the Batman cape behind him as he walked. Bruce whipped the chair Tim sat on around to face him so fast that Tim nearly fell off. 

‘Where’s Dick?’ The camera was a bit far but still picked up Bruce’s echoing voice. To Dick’s surprise, and seemingly Tim’s as well, Bruce didn’t seem mad. Disgruntled, alarmed, slipping from sanity? Yes. Genuinely angry? Not quite. It made Dick feel a little guilty. Only a little, though.

‘I dunno,’ Tim said, still reeling from the surprise attack. 

Bruce pushed Tim’s chair away from the computer, scavenging through the files, no doubt looking for the files on Thomas and Danny. Unfortunately for Bruce, every single one of those files was secure in Dick’s jacket pocket. Bruce would come to realize that soon enough, as he took a shaky breath and stepped away from the screen.

The video ended. 

That explained the 12 missed calls from Bruce. Dick debated calling him back. No doubt Bruce would ask for an explanation. An explanation he still has yet to come up with. 

Deciding this was a problem for future Dick, present Dick decided he would let himself doze off for the rest of the cab ride to his destination.

[luffyrose]

Oh Brother....s?

I had the most brilliant mini-idea while raging at video games because my parents suck at em. Anyway, there's really no correlation there, but the idea!

So we all know the whole "Danny is related to (Batkid) and he was give away because blah blah" or "he died and blah blah". We know those, and we love them, but what if, hear me out, Danny is related to MULTIPLE of them.

Danny is the child of Willis and Talia.

Now he was definitely not planned or anything, it just happened during a random mission and Talia couldn't bother to deal with it much. She decided that if the child lived she'd give it to Willis, a sort of test. It's not like she needed the baby, Damian had been born a little while before. Talia is one of those mothers who doesn't LOOK pregnant even when she's about to have the baby so basically, Danny does end up being born but is a really sickly kid, like REAL sick.

Of course, she really couldn't care less about the kid so baby Danny was given to Willis, who just gave Danny to Jason and Catherine. He's like 8 or so, so he isn't Robin yet, and he is SO happy to have a little brother. Except he's terrified for Danny, whose name was originally something else with Daniel being his middle name thanks to Jason (also why he kept the name Danny and not his original first name), but he doesn't want Danny hurt. After a few years, just before he becomes Robin, he gives a barely like 4-year-old Danny to a shelter or something with a blanket and a note.

Everything goes the same with both of them from there. The reason why Jason is easier on Damian compared to the others? He kinda looks like his baby brother, not identical but like, there's a resemblance, and he kind of finds it uncanny. Reason Talia even gave the time to help Jason? Well, he's technically the older brother of her younger child, and after having Damian for a while she does feel a little bad. Even if she doesn't want to meet the kid, she figured helping his older brother was a good enough way to apologize.

Danny remembers his older brother. How he looked and his name, and how he always took care of him. It's why even when his new adoptive parents neglected both him and Jazz he doesn't think anything is wrong. Jason had raised him. Now Jazz was. It was simply normal to him. He's just got major parent issues honestly.

The only people who know about his older brother are Jazz and Tucker though. His parents never were told because they'd been too busy to learn about it. Jazz had helped him on the earlier nights when he cried for Jason. And Tucker had learned when they first became friends as kids. Even if he was close to Sam, he never mentioned Jason though, it kind of felt like something he shouldn't touch anymore. It'd been years and even if he still had that star blanket, the note he vaguely remembers with it had been taken and put with his papers...and well he didn't know where those were.

Jason had already died and come back when Danny had the accident, so neither was aware of the other still. Danny does the whole hero thing for about 3 years before everything came crashing in for whatever reason, and he has to run. With no plan, he just follows his core and ends up in Gotham but he doesn't know why. Gotham herself is THRILLED to have him back because Jason was hers and this was Jason's little brother as well as her king! So she's trying to help the disoriented and hurt boy to his brother.

Cue shenanigans and angst though and it take a good MINUTE for Danny to even meet the Bats, let alone Jason. I'm thinking everyone meets him in one way or another before Jason is getting something from the cave while they're talking about this meta kid who LOOKS kind of like Damian but not at the same time, so they need to figure out if it's a clone or what. Jason sees the picture and is frozen, not even noticing the fact that he started crying while the whole fam is freaking out.

It's Damian, who looks between Jason and the picture, that notices the subtle differences that had them thinking it was still familiar were from Jason. And dun dun dun, it's Jason's little brother. He never knew who the mother was and after someone gets him out of his like mini-panic from knowing his brother was close by, he just bolts to his bike to go find him.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I actually think I may make this a one-shot series. If anyone else wants to use this idea though feel free as well! Just tag me or smth :D

I honestly do think this is gonna be another thing I write though, I kinda love this idea a lot XDD

[im-totally-not-an-alien-2]

Project R AU where Danny is a clone created from the DNA of all the Robins past and present by the drs Fenton when they were teenagers.

Upon realizing the child they had made was going to be used as a weapon for evil they quickly and quietly packed up thier family and belongings and jumped ship to a new dimention with the kid after putting him in stasis so he was essentially frozen in time.

Later on little Jazz finds the baby in the tank and assumes the stork had made a delivery and flips the switch to release him from stasis so he can finish growing. A week later the pod beeps and she brings him out of the storage room as a chubby healthy baby and her parents loose thier minds for a bit.

Danny grows up normally...well not really but you get what I mean. Maddie makes sure Danny knows how to fight and wouldn't take no for an answer. No matter how much Danny complained that he wanted to play video games, go to the park with his friends or that Jazz didn't have to fight, she would never relent. Maddie knows she's nowhere near the level of a fully trained assasin but she wanted to give Danny every leg up she could.

She knew he would need it. Call it a mothers intuition.

Well, crap happens. Vlad outs Danny as Phantom and it ends very poorly for the wannabe vampire. Danny escapes into the GZ but just barely and is forced to leave his old life behind but not before Jazz tells him about what she had recently learned about Project: R.

The portals are destroyed and Danny flees to his home dimension in search of his fathers. Unfortunately when he gets there he learns most of his fathers are dead, only Damian Al Ghul and Jason Todd remaining, both having very strained relationships with thier own father Bruce Wayne and everything has gone to crap.

Theres an evil dictator in red and blue ruling the world and they're the reason two of his dads are dead. So he decides to rip the symbol off his chest, put on a mask and make his big debut as Phantom.

How you may ask?

By killing the evil Superman and his cronies on live television and announcing that he's the child of Project: R and what that means.

Damian finds Phantom in Bludhaven looking for him and asking him to take him in only to get refused. Damian fears that Bruce might try to turn Danny against him so is hesitant to get close emotionally.

Jason has no such concerns and scoops him up before Bruce can dress him like a traffic light. They then have the superhero talk and Phantom says he wants to be a anti-hero not a superhero. He already tried that one and it sucked so much. Jason definitely didn't like the fact his kid had been a superhero at any point but finding out pretty much all the adults in Dannys life had failed him so hard made Jay fly into a rage.

Bruce tries to go for custody but fails. Dannys doesn't like how the Titans treat Damian so he steals all the ABBA cds from the tower and makes off like a thief in the night. When they discover this they flip out because those were Dicks and they became practically sacred after he died.

Danny decided to cause problems on purpose. Such acts include:

1. Turning all the furniture in the common rooms of the Titans Tower into hyper realistic cake so when they sat on it/tried to turn on the TV, ect they'd be in for a suprise.

2. Stealing all the tires off of every vehicle Bruce owned and giving them to Jason/whoever was down on thier luck and couldn't afford to change thier tires. Danny says he has "a legacy to uphold" while balancing on the top of on of the tires as he runs it across Gotham

3. Torments Black Mask and Slade. Somehow all thier homes and safe houses are filled with beans. Yes, beans. Whenever they are in Gotham they get beaned in the face with a pickle. (This is worse for BM cause ya'know)

They have no idea whos doing this or why.

Ras Al Ghul is not amused by the pickleing but does not get beanified cause Danny doesn't know where most of his places are so he gets A LOT of pickles thrown at him every chance Danny gets.

4. Danny decides Damian requires lots of snuggles and just turns intangible whenever Damian tries to pry him off. Multiple people keep comparing him to Dick and its starting to get on Dannys nerves. He has three other dads to compare him to and Dick isn't even the only dead one! What about Tim??? He wants to learn about Tim! He demands his fathers tell him about themselves and Tim

[rainybyday]

twin au but Danny sorta knew who his father was

(this sounds sadder in my head but)

Danny may or may not have an idea that he was adopted, courtesy of Jazz, but he didn't mind it. It was when he started to grow over the years that he started to have second doubts about those thoughts.

You see, Danny has a dad, a mom, and a sister. A complete family and normal family if you were to ask Danny when he was younger. Now though, after a few years of being cared for by Jazz 24/7 and his parents coming to tell him that they love him before leaving to work all day in their lab had twisted his perspectives of the family to only Jazz.

Then he started having thoughts.

What if he had stayed with his original family?

What if they gave him away?

Can he find them?

Questions turned into a need to find a family that he once had. He doesn’t know for certain if his family gave him away since even Jazz didn’t know where their parents found him, but it was worth a shot trying to find out.

So, he turned for help. 

In retrospect, maybe asking both of his best friends to help his search for looking for his family isn’t the best idea when one of them has the funds to do so and the other is able hack a bit too well. 

He also doesn’t know if he should cure or bless the fact that Danny has all the equipment needed under his home to scan his DNA and use that sample to find his birthparents. 

But it any case they found out who his father was at least. 

Bruce “Brucie” god damn Wayne.

The chaos that erupted was just-

On one hand, he was known to adopt orphans left and right, the billionaire label next to his name, and Wayne Enterprises.

On the other he was also known as a playboy.

He gets brownie points when Sam was once complemented by the man on her goth attire when she went to one of their galas once. 

I mean, he can’t be all that bad, can he?

Because he’s a playboy, maybe this might hint that Danny was born from one of those nights and he never knew? It would be reasonable and maybe that was why he was adopted or given away. Would mister Wayne want him? Would he be happy to see him?

His friends let he have space and time and Jazz told them that she would always be there for him, so it was nice to know that even if mister Wayne didn’t want him, he still had his family. 

Danny decided to wait and watch for a bit and became obsessed with learning all about the Wayne’s, the history, the family and even news on Wayne Enterprises as well. He wanted to know everything about his family (even if they’re not family yet) and to understand them a little bit more before he made his decision. 

Was this some form of level of stalking? Yes. Did Danny care? A little. Was he going to stop? No.

Damian wondered what it would be like to have a brother like Dick who seemed to be very sunny. Or maybe a sister like Cassandera who traveled all around the world. Or maybe to have a genius brother like Tim or what it would be like to have met Jason before he passed away. 

He wonders and wonders and decided. 

Then finally, finally when Danny felt that maybe, just maybe that he was ready something big happen. 

Damian Wayne came into the picture. 

And the world turned over its head once he saw his face.

Because his face looked just like Danny’s.

Danny didn’t come out of his room for days. 

He had a twin? Maybe? I mean, Damian looked exactly like him in so many ways except for his green eyes. But if... if Damian, from what the papers said was true, then Damian was Bruce’s, Dad’s(?), biological son. Which means that Damian is biologically Danny’s brother at least. 

To make matters worse, Damian was given by his mom to live with Bruce.

His mom was out there, and she didn’t even bother with him but she chooses to keep Damian?

Was he not enough?

Was he a burden?

Did Damian know about him?

Will his dad even want him?

Would his entry now be bad since it would look like he would be exploiting Mr. Wayne?

Would he even want him now if Damian is in the picture?

Danny didn’t know what to do so he did nothing.

(He was glad he had Jazz to cry on. He was glad to have Sam and Tucker to protect him at school. He was glad that he would still have someone even if his family rejects him.) 

So, he watched in silence once again for years to come, falling in love more and more with the family he never reached out to. 

A few years pass by and the love for his family grew and grew until he wanted to be a part of the picture too. 

He went up to Jazz one day with a smile and told her it was time. 

Then...

Then he died and that changed everything. 

Why why why whywhywhywhywhWHYWHWYHWYHWYHYW

WHY?

WHY DID HE HAD TO DIE?

HOW CAN HE FACE THEM NOW?

HOW HE CAN HE FACE THEM WHEN HE WAS A MONSTER?

A monster that was now being hunted down!

What good would it be?

What good would it be for someone like him to be a part of their family?

Who would want him?

No...

How can he live with himself if he leads someone like Shulker to their home?

How can he protect them?

How would they love him if he might be the reason they might get hurt?

And the anti-ecto act! Bruce Wayne is funding the Justices League, so they also work with the government. Would try too arrest him? Would they just turn him in?

What does he do?!?!!

...

What does he do....

[scarletsaphire]

FAMILY BREKKIE

"Jack, honey, could you pass me that scalpel?" Maddie's voice was slightly muffled under the surgical mask she was wearing, and the all metal walls and floor of the lab made it echo weird.

jack had no trouble hearing or understanding her. "Here you go, dearest!" His large gloved hands met hers, and the glowing green scalpel passed between them seamlessly. "I'm still speechless that we're the ones who get to do this!"

"I know!" Maddie replied. Despite the glee in her voice, her hand was steady as she dug the scalpel into flesh, dragging it across flesh, following the dotted lines they had plotted only a short thirty minutes prior. "To think, we're the ones who get to have the first half ghost on our table! Do you think it'll be any different to a normal procedure?"

Jack mumbled, thinking out loud for a moment. "I'm not exactly an expert on these types of things, but the tools are certainly different.

"Of course," Maddie agreed. "We've already established that standard quality human tools don't work on half ghosts. It's part of the reason he's here and not somewhere else getting this done."

"Right as always, Mads," Jack said. "Unfortunately, even with all of the research we've done, I don't think either of us can say if this is markedly similar or different from normal. Do we have any friends from college or conventions that are in the field? Maybe we could compare notes with them?"

Maddie hummed to herself. "I think Denise did. Do we still have her contact information?"

"Aw, Denise! I remember her. I'm sure we have it lying around somewhere, and if not, we can always bust out the good ol' Fenton Fone Book!" Jack said.

"You always come up with the best ideas dear," Maddie said. She sat the scalpel on the sterile surface next to her. "Ok. We are leaving our comfort zone, so it's time to focus. Ok hun?"

"Hear, hear!" Jack called out. "Fenton Focus mode engaged!"

---

Vlad blinked his eyes open to a ceiling only vaguely familiar to him. He tried to sit up, only for pain to explode down his front, a stabbing, piercing agony the likes of which he'd never experienced before.

"You're up!" Jack's loud, boisterous voice sounded from his right, and Vlad groaned. "Help me up, you oaf."

"Of course, Vladdy!" Jack's strong arms circled under his, and he was propped up against a large number of pillows. The first thing he laid eyes on was the clearly hand made banner, and then on Maddie, Jazz, and Danny standing on either side of it.

Vlad smiled as he read the words. "It worked, then?"

"Yup!" Maddie said. "Your boob job was successful! Now both your human and ghost form will have tits for days!"

He swallowed around the lump in his throat. "Thank you both, truly. I was afraid I would be stuck with a flat chest for the rest of my days."

"Of course, Vladdy! That's what we're here for!" Jack said.

"And we'll be here for every step of your recovery too, however long or short it might be," Maddie moved her way to Vlad's other side, giving him a gentle hug, careful not to disturb his new boobs. "And while we're here, we can go over some of the data we learned from your surgery! Its truly fascinating."

Vlad settled into his pillows, not sparing the two children a second glance as they slipped out of the room. He was exactly where he wanted to be, with the people who cared about him, and tits for days. Both his heart and his chest had grown three sizes that day.

[little-pondhead]

Rejected Threads Pt. 1

[This is a series where I post the bits and pieces I decided to cut out of their final fics due to various reasons. I welcome anyone who wants to pick this up and make it their own. You do not need to ask for permission to use it, but I would like to be tagged in whatever you make. Just so I can see it :) ]

[Everything here is unedited and may ramble at times. Enjoy!]

---

Okay, so maybe Danny still had a thing or two to learn about being a ghost. It’s not his fault, really! Being dead doesn’t exactly come with a pamphlet introducing you to the afterlife! Although if his friends were here, they’d just berate him, saying this whole issue could have been avoided if he used his common sense, not his ghost sense. Which is fair. He’d give them points for that. 

But come on. How was Danny supposed to know about the GIW’s latest invention? Honestly, it felt so cliche that Danny wanted to smash his head against a wall. He’d been hit by a shrink ray. Except it didn’t work right on ghosts, because it was made by normal people who’d never even seen a drop of ectoplasm in their life, so instead of shrinking him it de-aged him. He looked like a four-year-old! Ancients, he was never going to hear the end of this from Jazz. 

Well, that was if he ever managed to make it back home. 

Right now, he was leading the rogue government agents through the streets of some damp city jungle, swinging through gargoyles and avoiding blasts with a few nudges from the city spirit here and there. A few pedestrians screeched from the ground level and had to dive out of the way of the GIW’s armored van, but Danny was confident they wouldn’t be seriously hurt. A constant stream of energy was flowing between him and the city spirit, giving the spirit the strength needed to pull civilians away from the fight with a few shadowy fingers. In exchange, Danny was suddenly living life in the third person. He could see for miles around him, feel the heartbeat of the city underneath his fingertips, and hear the quiet whispers of children and shades settling down for the night. The city spirit was everywhere and had no problem lending their senses to Danny so he could get away. He knew he’d have a headache later from overstimulation, but right now it was a godsend. 

From his enhanced view, Danny saw one of the agents lean out of their van, raising a gun toward his shadowy figure. They fired. He dodged. Is this how flies felt? Everything felt way too slow, and he could run circles around them with ease. Maybe once Amity’s spirit developed more, they could lend a hand like this one was. It was incredibly useful, if not draining. He probably wouldn’t have been hit by that stupid shrink ray in the first place if he could see behind him. Ope, Danny refocused his thoughts, almost missing the next swing. He should be paying attention more. 

Where should I lead them? Danny asked the city spirit.

The spirit took a moment to reply, struggling to form human words. North. To the park. 

Gotcha. After a moment, a thought crossed his mind. What’s your name? 

…I am Gotham. 

Nice to meet you, Gotham. I’m Danny Phantom. 

Danny. The little king of the stars.

“What? No!” Danny was so startled by Gotham’s words that he really did miss the ledge of a building this time, falling like a dead weight for about twenty feet until he caught himself. He still stumbled as his feet hit the pavement, but it was a lot better than becoming a smear. Danny glanced around frantically, but there was no one on the street and he was still invisible. He could hear the screech of tires a few blocks away, almost missing the turn as the agents tried to follow him. 

Now that there was some semblance of a plan in place, Danny needed to keep these guys on his tail rather than lose them. The shrink ray put off some very nasty vibes, which is how the GIW was tracking him, but maybe they could use a little guidance. Danny rose into the air once more, and at Gotham’s prompting, shot an ectoblast high into the sky, letting it explode like a firework far away from any buildings. 

The Bats will notice, but this is the only way. Gotham remarked. It was getting easier to understand them the more they talked. I will hide you if it is your will. 

Green eyes tracked the process of that damned white van for another two blocks, just until Danny knew their scanners would pick him up once more. Then he was off like a rocket, starting their little game of tag all over again as he led them closer and closer to the menacing grove of trees in the distance. Who are the bats? He silently asked. 

The Bats. My knights. 

You have knights?? That’s so cool. Danny panted, swerving to the left. His form flickered for just a moment, putting him onto the visible spectrum for a mere second before he was gone again. Don’t worry about me, I’ll hide myself for now. Once they’re gone from your borders. You should rest after this, I can feel the strain this has on you. 

Little king is tired as well. Keep your strength. 

Nah, I’ll be fine, Gotham. You were kind enough to offer me refuge until I figured things out. The least I can do is take care of my host. 

Hm….

Gotham’s mind retreated from his own for a moment, pulling back so he could focus on the fight. Danny appreciated it. He finally reached the trees, shadows extending to greedily pull him into the depths of the park. Danny obliged, letting the shades and wayward spirits guide him toward the center of the property. The GIW was still hot on his heels, plowing down vegetation like it wasn’t even there. A ripple ran through Gotham like they were waiting for something, and Danny almost stopped to see what the issue was, but Gotham just kept nudging him along. Danny trusted the other spirit and floated silently next to a gnarled and crooked tree that stank of chemicals and twitched whenever he turned his back. Beyond the tree was a vast patch of land filled with mutated plants and dense fog that Danny definitely did not want to breathe in. There was a broken down and shabby glass greenhouse in the distance, the source of the plants and fog. Well, this was as far as Gotham wanted him to go, so this was where he’d make his last stand. 

The GIW agents tore into the clearing, skidding to a stop a few meters away. Out climbed three men, guns charged and already pointed at him. 

“Reveal yourself, Phantom! We know you’re there!” One of them, Danny remembered him as Agent R, barked. His gun was the biggest, and Danny was sure he’d be the hardest to dodge. Gotham shushed his thoughts, calming his nervous core, and told him to wait. To stall. 

Stall for time? He could do that. “You’re so mean!” Danny flipped upside down, fading into existence. He gave the men a sharp grin, one too shark-like to be human. “We were having such a fun game of tag! Why can’t we keep going?”

Agent B, a short guy with a bright red mustache, stepped forward and jabbed his weapon toward Danny. “This is not a game, ghost!” He squeaked. “You are in violation of section two, paragraph three of the First Anti-Ecto Act. By order of Agent Alpha, you are hereby under arrest for unlawful-”

Danny snorted. “Sorry, Agent Alpha? What, is his first name Chad? Is his boyfriend’s name Omega?”

“His name is Mike Foxtrot! You insensitive bastard!” Agent B spat. 

“Agent B!” The third man, who was probably their leader, slapped a hand down hard on his subordinate’s shoulder. Danny didn’t blame him. This was the most information he’d ever managed to worm out of them in less than two minutes. He mentally pats himself on the back for the new record. 

“Listen, guys.” Danny raised his hands in faux surrender. “You may have turned me into a preschooler, buth-” He blushed violently. He bit his tongue, ruining the intimidating effect he was going for. “But I can still kick your ass seven ways to Sunday. Whaddya say we leave it at this for now?”

“Absolutely not, Phantom.” Agent R ordered. “You are to come with us quietly or we’ll be forced to use extreme force.”

“Extreme force?!” Danny shrieked, losing his smile. “You already use extreme force! I’m a fucking kid, you psycho!” Rage built in his chest, and green made his vision swim. 

Let it build. Gotham urged. Let yourself cry.

Danny sniffed, still ranting. “And now that I’m an even smaller kid, you want to arrest me?! What did I even do wrong?”

“You are a class 7 ecto-entity, Phantom. Your very existence is illegal and dangerous.” 

Danny let a few tears drip from his eyes, falling onto the weird plants below. A few flowers twitched out of the corner of his eye, turning to face him like a human would. The trees surrounding the cleaning seemed to lean in, looming ominously as their roots thrashed under the dirt. They were trying to reach for something, but Danny didn’t mind it. Gotham whispered that the plants were no danger to him right now, so he just kept working himself into an emotional frenzy. “I DIED!” He cried. “IS BEING DEAD A CRIME NOW?!”

Gotham shivered. Wail. They instructed. Danny did. 

“WHY DO YOU KEEP HURTING ME?!” His scream echoed throughout the city, carrying all the pain and anguish he could muster on such short notice. The connection he had to Gotham strengthened for those few precious moments, supplying him with enough energy so he wouldn’t pass out and transform. He did, however, collapse into the crooked tree, barely noticing how the branches seemed to cradle his limp body. The agents were blown back from the force, tumbling head over heels as their weapons were lost in the wind and their van tipped over. The nearest trees suddenly burst forth with staggered movements, surprising even Danny. Dirt was thrown everywhere as roots reached up to grab the men, restricting their movements to an almost painful degree. 

This whole thing was so unexpected that Danny just kind of sat there, being cradled like a baby by the creepiest tree in existence, listening to Gotham’s victorious hums as the GIW agents struggled against their new bonds. More roots took on a life of their own, twisting and bending their way through the van, smashing all the equipment, and tearing apart weapons without hesitation. It was just so bizarre. Small footsteps from behind made Danny’s ear twitch. He glanced over his shoulder. 

Approaching him from the fog was a beautiful woman who looked like she’d been made of plants herself. Her hair was a startling red, similar to Jazz’s, and her skin was such a rich and vibrant green it couldn’t have been body paint. Strands of ivy and flowers of all sorts were woven into her hair and clothes. Danny almost pegged her for the reincarnation of Gaea but thought better when he felt none of the Realm’s influence in her soul. No, this was a mortal woman who felt more like a daughter of Undergrowth than Sam ever did. He didn’t feel afraid, however, and instead allowed the tree to lift him to eye level with the woman. 

Pamela Lillian Isley. Gotham whispered excitedly. My precious gardener. 

“I am Poison Ivy,” The woman declared. “What are you doing near my lands, kid?”

Danny rubbed the tears out of his eyes furiously. “Sorry,” he sniffed. “I just-they were-” He broke out in hiccups, and couldn’t complete his sentence. 

Poison Ivy, for her part, was curious about this obviously meta kid who’d stumbled across her beloved greenhouse. It wasn’t hard to feel the disturbance from all the way across the city, and her pace doubled when she felt a child’s tears fall onto one of her ferns. She didn’t despise children, and so had no plans to hurt whomever she found. But she knew that the fog surrounding her precious greenhouse was toxic. Then she’d arrived just in time for the kid to let out the most inhuman cry she’d ever heard. It was full of anguish and pain, shaking her to the core. It sounded like the kid was dying. She wasted no time capturing the three men who were hunting the kid, using the roots of nearby oak trees to give them a little squeeze. As an afterthought, she also destroyed their equipment and van. Everything looked a little too high-tech for her liking. The kid looked worn out, dazed, and exhausted. She made sure the tree he was in held the boy gently while he stammered, struggling to answer her question. 

“They don’t like me. They -hic- keep trying to hurt me.” Danny finally managed to settle on a response. Poison Ivy gave the three men a deadly stare. How could they hurt such a tiny kid?! 

“Well, I don’t know how to help you kid, but I can direct you toward one of the Bats. They’ll probably take you home.” She said, still staring straight into the eyes of one of the men. He seemed especially uncomfortable with the vines wrapped around his torso. 

The kid shook his head adamantly. He floated gently upwards, an apology dripping from his lips. “Sorry, but I’ll find my own way back tonight. Feel free to do whatever you want to those men, they’re mean to me so I don’t care. And thank you for your help, Miss Isley.”

Startled by the use of her real name, Poison Ivy turned back to where the kid had been floating, but he had disappeared without a trace. Because of course he did. 

She sighed, turning back to her prisoners. “Now what should I do with you?” She asked to the empty air. The only response she got was a rustle in the wind and a grunt of frustration from a man with a red mustache.

---

Final ficlet can be found here: Kicking Names and Taking Ass, All Before Naptime

[stealingyourbones]

DP/DC WEEK DAY SIX

Prompts for November 19th. @avaritia-apotheosis

My Masterlist of DP/DC Prompts.

Families Found:

The Waynes have gone missing. The Police (The good ones anyways) have been working tirelessly on the case and not a single trace of evidence has been found. It’s like they were just walking around and living their lives like normal one second and then gone the next. Tim was typing on his computer one moment, and then free falling into… whatever this place is. Looking around there is nothing in sight. Where the fuck is he. Jason was fixing his motorcycle in his garage when his motorcycle and himself got thrown into this swirling green hell of a dimension. Sucks that he’s alone but at least his bike works here. The rest of the Bats follow suit. Each one getting dropped into the GZ with no rhyme or reason. With no way to communicate and trying to survive in a realm they know nothing about, how do they find each other again?

(Figurative approach) Billy Batson never knew who his dad was. No name, no photo, no nothing. Whoever his dad was, he was pretty sure of two things about him: His dad didn’t want him and he wasn’t human. Billy noticed he could do things most boys couldn't. His electric core thrumming and keeping him warm on days so cold that the average person should have frozen to death. His teeth were far too sharp and he could tear through even the toughest materials with them. Sure his dad was a nobody, but his heritage DID have its uses. — Billy walks around Fawcett city, age 15, when he stops dead in his tracks. Standing in front of him, was a man that looked almost identically like Shazam. The man was frozen in position as well. The man blinked. He rubbed his eyes, and then he did something that Billy didn’t expect in the slightest. The man chirped. It was hopeful, full of longing, and absolutely oozing with awe and affection. The crackling ball of electricity in Billy’s chest seemed to resonate at a frequency that he never felt before but it felt right as a sound akin to the Shazam look-alike made its way out of his mouth. Billy couldn’t believe it. His dad was right in front of him. And his dad didn’t despise him. He wanted him to come home.

Wulf teaches Danny how to open portals. It does not go to plan:

Danny and Wulf fall directly in front of a bunch of League of Shadows members who are “training” (i.e. beating the shit out of) Jason. Wulf and Danny see red.

You ever create a portal 3000ft off the ground and you get too scared to Go Ghost? Yeah definitely hasn’t happened to Danny ever. Not a single time. Yeah he certainly wouldn’t oppose a local hero coming to catch him right now.

Families Found & Wulf teaches Danny how to open portals. It does not go to plan:

Hear me out. Werewolf!Jazz is trying to learn how to open portals alongside Danny and all of them portal directly in the middle of a massive gang bust the Bats are doing. 

[deadsetobsessions]

Danny Phantom Writing Prompt:

When she comes to, a silver haired man with a matching goatee greets her. Kind of. He’s disappointed.

She’s surrounded in neon green and she is so, so, so confused.

——

Her name is-

Well. It was something else.

What matters is that Vlad doesn’t call her by anything other than “Danielle” and “you.”

She thinks if she wasn’t who she is- if Vlad hadn’t ripped her out of her own life, poured her tattered soul into this imperfect body- she’d believe the father like figure he’s poorly pretending to be. But she knows. This is a show she’s watched many times. Vlad, even if she hadn’t had years of actual life and the foreknowledge of Danny Phantom, she’d eventually clock him as a villain.

“You can do it, Danielle.” He says.

“Obey, or suffer the consequences,” she hears. She knows manipulation when she hears it. Vlad thinks it’ll work. After all, little pod baby Danielle would know no different than the confining walls of her room. But she does know, and the voices of her loved ones bolster her in this delicate balancing act.

So, she pretends to let him mold her. Let him shape little Danielle into a puppet he could pilot as he wishes.

To act like her body’s template, but to be obedient in ways Danny would never allow himself to be. To turn trusting blue eyes up towards the drawling billionaire and pretend to take his word as gospel.

In return, he gives her more freedom. He thinks it’s control, that she returns even when he gives her ample chances to leave. She knows it’s a test, and she’s always been good at those.

She collects evidence, slowly. Because Vlad might have overshadowed people and signed their companies over to him, but he was sloppy. He was sloppy and she was a paralegal.

——

Vlad gives her the mission she’s been waiting for. She goes to Danny with a neutral mask and acts like a person who knows nothing of normal social cues.

It’s what Vlad expects of her.

The time is not yet right.

——

So when the time comes, Danielle makes a decision. She was never the baby Dani. She will never be. When she punches Vlad, she tears into him with everything she has. She makes him bleed and she breaks him and she slaps the anti-ghost belt on him to lock his ability. And she breaks more, just to make sure he might not heal all the way, all the while Danny watches in horror.

And then she starts the process of legally beating him up. Danielle bankrupts Vlad in two months with legal fees, and she takes vicious pleasure in rendering him destitute.

Hah. Try creating clones of your one sided love now, you creepy motherfucker.

——

She’s melting. She makes a joke, because Danny looked terrified and she got attached. Well, it’s hard not to get attached, considering he risked his neck for her even after learning she was there to…

Well.

He saves her. She knew he would.

She’s whole again. Stable. But something in her breaks, because she knows, with a sense of unfathomable knowledge, that she will never rid herself of the name Danielle again. She’s bound to this world. The price for her life was an eternity of imprisonment in a realm where she will never see the people she loves again.

——

“I’m not… I wasn’t always Danielle.” She admits to Danny, Tucker, and Sam.

“What does that even mean?”

She sighed, leaning against the window sill.

“The reason I was stable and my… siblings weren’t was because Vlad ripped my soul out from my body and shoved it into the body of a clone. He killed me.”

Danny stuttered to a close. Grief. She smiles at him.

“Technically, I’m older than you and Jazz.”

“I’m sorry,” Sam says, head buried in her hands. Tucker just stares at her.

“Yeah. Me too. But you shouldn’t blame yourself, Danny.” Danielle knows that look on his face. “I hate him, yeah. But… I can’t change it now. So, I’ll see what this world has to offer.”

“I’m sorry,” Danny says to her.

“I get it.”

And she does. Because Danielle knows what it is to die, now. So does he.

So she flips off the window sill, enjoying her always novel powers of flight, and laughs.

“I’ll be Nellie. You can call me Nellie.”

[impyssadobsessions]

Raising Phantom Chpt 8

Raising Phantom on Ao3

Jason sat up next to his favorite gargoyle as a kid, watching the city in thought. Duke, after the party, had confirmed something odd was with Danny and Vlad. Having caught a second glimpse of Vlad as he stormed out after recovering from a punch from Bruce. Which was a shock in itself as he was supposedly knocked out cold. Would have taken a normal man at least a few hours. Duke had tried his best to explain the image, but best he could describe it was a holographic card where it was two images at once. Danny's was a boy with white hair, and Vlad's was a vampire. It sounded ridiculous if Jason didn't remember that weird feeling he had when the boy was near. He had almost forgotten-well forgotten wasn't right word- He had accepted that strange feeling. It was eerie at first but grew comforting around the kid. He tapped his foot on the edge of the stone. Vlad had a weird pull too, he didn't notice until Duke pointed it out. He had assumed it was Danny, until he tried to track Vlad. Vlad always knew where to look for him, so he disappeared once he confirmed the feeling. Dick suggested that perhaps it was a freak accident both of them were apart of? Kept it secret from Jazz? But Jason doubted it. Tim brought up their unknown parents. Jason glared at the city view. That sounded plausible, they were responsible could be the reason they all had a falling out. “..I never known a boring day in my life..” Jason flexing his hand as he recalled Jazz's voice back in the library. Definitely pointed towards parents. Dead brother too. Jason stood up with a huff, he needed to stop reflecting on it. Let the others keep playing this game, but he was going to stomp his foot down if they cross the line. Stretching as he stared over the horizon. He definitely going to keep an eye on Danny. Though the tabloid story was going to make it hard. Stupid gossip. ---

Ever since they've arrived home, Vlad has been on their couch playing the 'pitiful me' card. He would whine about the gala, how foolish he looked. He begged Jasmine and Danny to let him get back at Bruce, which both declined. “Mr. Wayne started most of the foundations and fundraisers in Gotham as well as provide jobs for the city. INCLUDING the improvements made to both my college and future place of work. You can't hurt him because he punched you for threatening his kids!” Jazz would explain for a millionth time as she give Vlad his cup of coffee. Her hair wired and frizzed. Vlad was driving her nuts. “All for show! I bet the money ends up in the rogue's pockets.” Vlad sip his cup of coffee, while sitting in his fancy robs that were out of place on the makeshift bed of a couch. He gagged at the taste of the coffee, and made a face as if to tell Jazz his opinion of it, only to snap his mouth shut at the look she gave him. He cleared his throat, setting the coffee down. “BESIDES I was well within my right! What were you two thinking running off with those brats!?” Danny who was lazily poking at his scrambled eggs, “Thinking of kicking Dick and that it be funny to be kidnapped.” “Danny.” Jazz huffed, hands on her hips as she whipped back to face him. Danny just shrugged at her. “And you Jasmine!? Off with that boy! Have you lost your mind girl?! Bad boy look? REALLY-” “Not the first time-” Danny mumbled, only to get a look from Jazz. Message loud and clear, 'You're not helping!'. “Why can't you go to Harvard?! Or anywhere else!? I have the funds, my girl, just choose a place to go. You and Daniel don't have to stay in this filthy apartment, in this waste of a city! With terrible coffee and cat piss lining the hallways. You don't have to be here. That Asylum will get you killed and these vigilantes are like flies on a rotten carcass. So I trust them as little as I would Bruce to have a thought in his head!” Vlad moving dramatically, expressing with his hands as much as his voice. “I told you, Vlad. This is important to me! If I can learn and improve things here, then I can help so many more people than I could by being a family therapist. I could actually make a difference in their lives and the lives they affect. That's worth more than a comfy job writing psychology books and being a celebrity's psychologist.” Jazz huffed out of breath, tired of arguing her point. “And that's worth more than dying? What about Danny then?!” Vlad pointed out. His words making Danny flinch. Danny just stuffed his face with his eggs, looking away from them. He didn't want to be apart of this. “What if you perished because of your obsession with helping this god-forsaken place?! Of course I would take in Daniel, but his core would be damaged! Ghosts don't take grief well.” He hissed the last part. Danny frowned. Wanting to say he was fine, but the image of Dan made him shiver as he stabbed his eggs. At least growing up again means delaying looking like his future self... past.. self? He would only be four years younger than Dan was... Danny's eye twitched at the thought, hands clenching tight the fork in his hand. “I know that Vlad, but I have you know we TALKED about it. To get a doctorate in psychology will take years, so my plans won't even be in full swing until he's almost grown. Also I like to remind SOMEONE that I have nanobots in my blood stream so I be a bit harder to kill.” She put her hands on her hips. Vlad cleared his throat, looking away from her at the mention. He put the coffee mug to his lips, “Yes, well. I still think your obsession with this city is just as bad as your parents-” Vlad felt a dark chill down his spine that not even his hot watery coffee could warm. He quickly stammered to correct himself, “Oh. .did I .. I mean um. You know what, dear Jasmine. I-i think I may have been a little... dramatic. You are a grown woman and.. have.. your own ...ambitions. Who am I to judge...? hm?” He sipped his coffee loudly, as he stared at Jazz, whose eyes glimmered darkly. He was hoping that was enough to cool the situation. Jazz took a deep breath and turned away to grab her lunch bag and purse. Danny pushed from the table, hopping down to follow her, only for Jazz to put her hand in front of Danny to stop him. “Stay here with.. UNCLE Vlad, Danny. I'll be back at dinner.” Jazz running her fingers through her hair before putting it up in a ponytail. Danny stumbled back, confused. “What?! Why do I have to be punished?! Vlad's the one that-” “Danny, PLEASE. I just want to be alone, okay?” Jazz looked exhausted. Clearly she needed the break. Danny scrunched up his face and crossed his arms with a huff. Cursing Vlad in his head. “Don't worry about making dinner dear Jasmine! I-I'll order from that run-down- I mean quaint Italian restaurant you like.” Vlad doing his best to get on her good side, realizing how badly he slipped up with that comment. “Daniel and I will have a wonderful time.” Jazz and Danny both groaned as she turned to stomp out, closing the door with a hard slam behind her. Danny flinched at the noise, and rubbed his arm. He stared down at his feet. This was first time in a while he seen her so upset. If he wasn't so small, they wouldn't have to argue like that. They could dump Vlad and be on their merry way. Danny sighed, then he glanced over to Vlad who dramatically flailed back on the couch with a groan. A hand over his face as the coffee was set on the table. He too let out a loud sigh. “What am I going to do with that girl? Insisting on living like this- surely you would like somewhere better? Right Daniel?” “Danny. And it's fine.” Danny muttered as he walked over to the table where his breakfast still sat. He picked up his plate and decided to throw it away. He didn't feel hungry anymore. “You two don't even have to live with me! It could be an apartment in a safer place. Nothing too fancy.” Vlad waved his hand as he talked, the other still on his face. Danny snorted. Vlad's version of nothing too fancy was far drastic than their image of it. “Vlad, I don't even want you here, let alone a place you own.” “Yes yes. Because of the cloning, the murder plotting, and all that.” Vlad sighed again, before removing his hand off his face peaking at the corner where Danny emerged from the kitchen. “But seriously, you can't be happy here. Aren't you afraid of what could happen to her?” Danny flinched and stared down at his feet. He rubbed his arm as he swayed in his spot. He debated on answering him. “I'm fine.. and of course.. I worry. But I delayed her life already, she deserves to seek out her dreams, ya know?” Vlad stared at him and then rolled over on the couch with a groan. “You two will be the death of me.” Danny rolled his eyes as he moved through the living room. He glanced at the tv that was playing one of Vlad's favorite soap operas, and then glanced over to the door to his room. He debated on just watching videos or playing in his room, but.. He glanced at the front door. “Hey... Vlad?” Danny asked hesitantly, refusing to look at the man. “Yes, Daniel?” Vlad never moved to look at him either, his voice showing his exhaustion. His tired face staring at the tv screen. Danny stared at his hands, the question catching in his throat. Vlad waited a few moments, then shuffled to get up on his elbows, staring back at Danny with a raised brow. Danny twiddling his fingers, frozen. “Well? Get on with it.” Danny jerked staring back up at Vlad, matching his eyes. He blinked for a moment then glanced back to the side, taking a breath. Gathering his courage to ask in a squeaky, “......How's mo- how's our... parents doing?” Vlad's eyes stayed on Danny for a hard moment. Danny could see out the corner of his eyes, Vlad's flashing red with rage before cooling down. He sat up with a heavy groan, rubbing his face with his hand. Looking older by the minute. “Daniel-Danny.. its best you forget about them.” “I want to know.” Danny stated firmly or as firmly as he could. Vlad shook his head, looking away from the child. He propped his head on his hand, while he drummed his fingers with his other hand on the coffee table. His face morphing into sympathy or perhaps pity as he thinks about what to tell Danny. “They're still alive and bumbling fools.” Vlad rolled his tongue, trying not to let his anger get the best of him. “Do they.. still-” Danny tried to asked, afraid of the answer but wanting to hear it. His fist balling up in his shirt. “Yes. They still think you took their child- Danniel-Danny I really do think its best you stop worrying about them.” Vlad really reluctant to tell Danny more, not wanting to mention how delusional their parents had gotten. “I can't.” Danny stressed, pulling on his shirt. Vlad nodded, “Of course you can't. Oh what am I going to do with you?” Vlad's voice sounded more concern and gentle than Danny was use to. Danny stared at the floor, feeling his eyes water. Stupid. He knew the answer before he asked. He took breaths to keep his tears back and turned to run into his bedroom. The tv clicked off and he felt a ruffle of his hair before he could run. “I think we're overdue for a flight, don't you little badger?” Vlad smiled. “Don't try to teach me anything.” Danny said, his voice shakier than he would have like. “Don't plan on it, now come along. Be embarrassing to be out in our jammies.” Vlad ushering Danny towards the bedroom. “Jammies?” Danny questioned the childish nickname for pjamas. “Pjs, pjamas, sleepwear.” Vlad tiredly explained. Danny just frowned, but just wiped his face and sighed. He ran to his room to change, trying his best to forget about his parents again. He still didn't really get the answer he wanted, but perhaps its better he didn't know how far they were going.

[asjjohnson]

The Operative D storyline continues. Random GIW!Val.

When Jazz was eighteen, the GIW came by to see if she'd be interested in working with them. She turned them down immediately, and was a bit disturbed about them offering. She was worried about how much they might know, or learn about, but didn't mention the incident to Danny, since she didn't want to worry him. When Danny joined them two years later, and she heard about it, she paced back and forth in front of Danny as she gave an hour-long upset and panicked rant. (...Danny didn't get much out of it, just sat there bored and a bit confused.)

When the GIW came to Valerie (a few weeks after Danny), Valerie asked what she'd get out of it. She wasn't too impressed when they'd shown up at her door, and she kind of treated them like door-to-door salesmen. It took a lot for her to accept the job. She's one of the highest paid operatives there is. She has so many health benefits, days off, etc. They almost decided not to hire her because of her conditions, but then they saw her in action (*beep beep* "Ah, hang on a second." Valerie activates her suit and flies out her window. The two operatives stick their heads out the window to watch open-mouthed. Valerie comes back in through the door in her normal clothes, saying, "Sorry about that. So, what I was saying about vacation days..." The operatives glance at their belatedly-beeping ghost alert messages).

Her and Danny are their two young star operatives. Danny has his Fenton tech and some ghost knowledge, while Valerie is the best out in the field. But Danny... he's just an average agent besides the gadgets he brings in. Average rookie pay, etc. He'd never even considered negotiating for more. Him and Valerie are opposites. While Danny tends to be nervous and a little awkward, Valerie's like a rock.

Danny and Valerie were of course put in two completely different locations. No reason to have both of their valuable agents in one place.

---

Danny's walking down a white hallway with another operative.

"I've heard someone from the Wisconsin division's visiting for the next two weeks. Some bigshot sent out to inspect our methods and tech."

"O-oh?" Danny almost trips.

"It's nothing to worry about, Operative D. You've been here three years, you know how it is. Operative Red will just look around, give us a list of things to improve on."

"Operative Red? You mean 'R'?"

"No, Red is someone else. I've heard they're the only operative in history to be allowed a nonstandard codename and uniform."

Danny hears a voice as they near a door up ahead.

"Wait. You're tellin' me this thermos will disintegrate a ghost—but only if placed on this table?"

Danny speeds up, hurrying to push the door open.

A woman in white is twisted around examining the underside of a table, a skeptical frown on her face. "...But that's not how Thermoses wor—"

"Valerie!" Danny interrupts, slightly out of breath.

Valerie hits her head on the underside of the table and then straightens while spinning around, curls fanning out from a low ponytail.

She's wearing a Guys In White suit, but the tie and gloves are red instead of black.

"Danny?" she asks with wide, surprised eyes. "I... I never thought you would go into this field. I thought you had your heart set on being an astronaut."

Danny shrugs nervously, afraid of her learning too much. "Yeah, well. The pay's good."

Valerie smirks. "Yeah."

Danny takes a good look at her. "Wow. I haven't seen you since high school." Then comments, "You still have your hair."

Her eyebrows knit as she frowns. "...Why wouldn't I? Danny, you know the Guys In White don't require a certain haircut, right? You could even grow out a ponytail if you wanted."

"No!" Danny shouts in horror. Then stutters out, "I mean, uh, I like my hair as it is. I like it black."

"What?"

"Uh. Not floaty. Completely hair-like. Never on fire."

" ...What...?"

"Ma'am," the other operative whispers to her, "Operative D's just like that. He spouts nonsense when he gets flustered."

"He hasn't changed at all." She shakes her head with a fond smile.

(Meanwhile, Danny continues to babble while panicking about how to keep Valerie from discovering the lies about the Fenton tech, and trying to figure out what to do about his pranks as Phantom.)

---

A few days later, after a prank gone wrong...

In a small room lined with shelves of assorted gadgets, on a small table, a thermos shakes and bangs around.

"Ah... a little help here? Anyone? Hello?"

There's a moment of silence.

"...I knew I should've made a contingency plan for this."

[underforeversgrace]

healing the wounds we hid - 3

title: healing the wounds we hid

words: 3,506

Finally, the sequel to broken trust and the wounds hidden behind! (Refresh here on AO3 or here on Tumblr)

Story Summary: Now that his father knows, Danny's life is changing for the better. Jack encourages him to let his friends and the rest of the family into his small word. Unbeknownst to Danny, Jack is secretly worried about how Maddie will react to the news upon her return to Amity - and how to confront Vlad once Jack learns his true identity. Amidst it all, an enemy lurks and plots their revenge.

Chapter 3 of 11: Missing You

AO3

Tumblr Chapter One

(Tumblr Chapter Four will be here)

Beta by: @probably-dead and @scarletsaphire!

Featuring art by @phantoms14! Please go check it out, it really is wonderful!

~~~~~~

“I’m so ready to come home. I miss all of you so much.” Maddie said on the other end of the line with a  sigh. “I haven’t been away from you or the kids for this long since they were born!”

“We miss you too. I can’t wait for you to come home.” Jack responded, hoping the lie wasn’t as obvious to her as it was to him.

“We’ll have to go out for a nice dinner or something! I’m sure there’s so much I need to be caught up on that I’ve missed.” Maddie jabbered excitedly.

“Ah, there isn’t much going on, Mads! I’m sure it’ll be a normal family dinner,” Jack lied. He’d talk to Danny when he got home. They needed to make a plan for telling Maddie and Jasmine. This family - after this - was done with secrets and lying and hurting each other, intentional or not.

Maddie began to say something else but her words were cut off by a yawn.

“Sounds like it’s time for you to go to bed,” Jack said.

“Yeah, it is kind of late,” Maddie agreed. “I’ll talk to you later this week, okay?”

“Sounds good, Mads. I love you.”

“I love you too, Jack. Tell the kids I love them?”

“Of course.”

“Good night! Or, well. Morning, for you.”

Jack laughed. “Good night. Sweet dreams.”

He hung up the phone, returning it to its place on the wall and sighed deeply. He dropped his head into his hands as a familiar sense of fear and worry clouded his mind. He hated lying to his wife. He hated being afraid of what she’d do. He hated the uncertainty. He hated that, as much as he knew her and loved her, he still doubted if she’d accept Danny.

He hated that he’d looked into divorce lawyers, that he’d pulled a significant amount of money from their joint account and stashed it into an account in his own name. How had life come to this? How had he messed up this badly? He lifted his head, gazing at the closed door to the lab.

That stupid fucking portal. He had built it, designed it, with Maddie. How had neither of them realized they put the fucking ‘on’ button inside the portal? He held two doctorates, Maddie had three, yet neither of them thought something was off when they installed an ‘on’ button somewhere that couldn’t be reached without a fatality?

For two geniuses, they were incredibly stupid. Or arrogant, he supposed, that they trusted their own invention so much they never doubted their abilities for even a moment. Jack wasn’t sure which option was worse - stupidity or arrogance. Which was better to kill his son with? Which was a more justifiable reason?

He grit his teeth together until it hurt, returning his gaze to the floor as he grabbed and tugged painfully at his own hair. 

When the house was quiet and empty like this, Jack could hear the hum of electricity around him, could feel the permanent chill in the air that the portal caused. Did Jazz ever get too cold? Is that why she hated staying at home? Jack and Maddie had always thought the chill wasn’t that bad - neither kid had ever complained. But Maddie and Jack were protected from it by the hazmats they wore and Danny wasn’t even capable of feeling cold anymore, especially since his ice core had strengthened. But what about Jazz?

He glared below him, as if he could see the portal in the basement beneath him. He wished he could close it permanently, dismantle it, destroy it. But he and Danny had talked in the two weeks since the reveal. Danny would die without it, without the ectoplasm source to feed and energize his ghost half. Ironic, wasn’t it? The thing that spat out the enemies Danny faced was also the thing that gave the nutrients he needed to to live.

He’d wallowed in his own misery long enough. Jack forced himself to his feet and down the stairs, to his computer in the lab. Jack had been curious about Danny’s unique physiology. He’d told Danny as much, a few days after the clearing. He’d been worried Danny would think he just wanted to study him, and he’d never before known relief as profound as he got that day, when Danny admitted he was curious too. He’d done some of his own tests and studies, but would very much like an expert’s opinion, in case he ever got really hurt.

And then he’d smiled at Jack, and there had been no fear, no apprehension, no doubt in his son’s eyes. All these years, all these misunderstandings, all the time spent hurting Danny, could’ve been avoided if Jack had ever tried to talk to a ghost. If Jack had pulled his head out of his ass long enough to listen and learn.

There was nothing to be done now to fix it. All he could do was pick up the pieces their family had shattered into and try to put them back together as best he could, even if they were never the same again.

Jack settled onto his desk chair, pulling up the files. There was the information from the first day in the lab, where they’d tested Phantom’s powers. A smile tugged at his lips at the memory - the two of them laughing and learning together, Danny entirely unafraid of him. Jack wanted to test his son’s powers again in a few months, to see if Danny’s strength was growing or if it had plateaued. Even he had admitted he gained powers and abilities at an unprecedented rate among ghosts. It was a good idea to track his power progression. Plus, Jack just wanted an excuse to spend time with his son.

He scrolled further, studying the notes he’d taken from their discussions and tests since then. Danny truly was a scientific marvel, though Jack would never say that to his son’s face.

Danny’s human blood was red with bright green sparkles interspersed within, while his ghostly ectoplasm was green with streaks of crimson. His human heart rate was low and entirely silent as a ghost. Most of his vitals were like that - concerningly low if he was a normal human, and entirely absent as a ghost. His blood pressure, his oxygen saturation, his breathing rate - he breathed out of habit, as Phantom, not need. He was hypothermic as a human and subzero as a ghost.

It was fascinating and wonderful.

It was horrific and terrible.

Jack glanced through the data again, frowning. He was working on developing anesthesia or at least pain relievers that would work on Danny. He’d learned the pain pills were more to help Danny sleep, to force him into unconsciousness, rather than actual pain relief. That had been a hard conversation, asking Danny about the illegal narcotics under his bed. They still had the pills, but the bottle stayed with Jack now. Danny had grumbled half-heartedly when Jack told him that - “I’m responsible with them!” - but he hadn’t protested much, especially when Jack had explained it was because Jack was worried about him.

It might be odd that Jack was developing pain relief for his teenage son, but Jack had stitched enough wounds by now to know that Danny needed it. He hurt just as much as a ghost as he did a human.

Hours passed as Jack hypothesized about various chemical properties. He was pulled from his thoughts when he heard the front door open upstairs, and he held his breath in anticipation.

Danny had agreed this morning to tell his friends about Phantom at school - after refusing to do it over the weekend - and Jack could only pray it had gone well.

The sound of three pairs of feet above him brought a wide smile to his face. He hurriedly left his seat, rushing up the stairs. The three were still in the living room as Jack made his way in, all chattering amongst each other as if no time had passed.

“Danny!” Jack exclaimed, nearly vibrating in excitement. He tried to rein in his exuberance, in case Danny hadn’t told them yet, but Jack had never been particularly good at that.

“Hey, Dad,” Danny greeted. He met his father’s eyes and answered the question he could see burning within them. “They know.”

Jack glanced over at the other two, who smiled and nodded at him. “They know?” He verified.

Danny laughed and suddenly white rings swept across him, morphing him into Phantom. “They know.”

Jack didn’t say anything, just turned and crushed his son’s friends into a hug. They both yelped in surprise, no longer used to a Jack Fenton hug after a year and a half without one. He released them quickly.

“Wait, I have a question.” Tucker piped up once he was free, eyeing Danny suspiciously.

“No, I never snuck into the girl’s locker room.” Danny said seriously, making the other three snort with laughter.

“Man, that’s the most surprising thing you’ve said today,” Tucker joked. “But, that wasn’t my question.”

“What is it, then?” Danny asked.

“Are you aware that you are the real life version of an anime magical girl now? You’ve even got the magical girl transformation sequence!” Tucker said, absolutely grinning from ear to ear.

Sam groaned and Danny cried out, placing a hand to his chest as though wounded. “I am not!”

“Dude, you even had a catchphrase earlier!”

“You wound me!” Danny said dramatically, pressing the back of his hand to his forehead and falling backwards onto the couch, transforming back to human.

“You two are such idiots,” Sam muttered, but Jack could see the smile on her face at the ridiculousness.

Jack began to relax, the tenseness in his shoulders abating some. Danny’s friends were good people, and he was so happy his son had them.

“You kids hungry?” Jack asked, noticing the time. “My treat!”

“I’ll never turn down free food!” Tucker answered. 

“Everyone load up into the Fenton Family Ghost Assault Vehicle!” Jack declared, grabbing the keys from their hook on the wall.

Tucker whooped with excitement - that kid got so excited for food, he could’ve been Jack’s son too! - and they all climbed into the GAV. Jack actually drove like a normal human being for once, enjoying the sound of the kids’ chattering and laughter in the backseat.

Thoughts of Vlad tried to surface but Jack wrangled them back down. He’d never told them how much the young trio reminded him of Vlad’s, Maddie’s, and his  friendship in college.

He suppressed the thoughts as he pulled into a parking space at Nasty Burder. The four of them filed out and into the building, making their way to the counter to place their order. Jack fished his card out of his wallet and paid while the teens found somewhere for them to sit. He was on his way over to the table when Danny suddenly stood and bolted towards the bathroom, throwing a look to his father. Jack sighed and placed the table number for their order down in front of Sam, noting both her and Tucker’s worried face.

“He said there’s a ghost somewhere.” Tucker muttered, the earlier humor gone from his voice.

“Damn it,” Jack swore. “I’m going to go help him, you two stay right here. If it gets too dangerous you get out of the way, understand me?”

They nodded and Jack hurried outside as inconspicuously as possible. Luckily, he was Jack Fenton. People expected him to be weird, and when everything you do is weird, nothing is actually weird anymore.

As soon as he cleared the door, his eyes were on the sky, hand resting on his ecto blaster. He didn’t have to look hard for the ghosts; Plasmius flew in front of Jack, Phantom hot on his tail. Their words were lost to the wind as they dove behind the restaurant. Jack ran after them, pulling the weapon from its holster and clicking off the safety. He and Danny had been working on his aim and he had gotten much better!

“Come, Daniel, I’m just here to talk,” Plasmius’s voice echoed from around the corner. Jack peeked, electing not to attack yet. Danny had emphasized that he tried his best to not attack first, to try and talk it out, as even the more violent ghosts could sometimes be persuaded away. Jack knew Plasmius was one of the most dangerous and aggressive ghosts in Amity, and he didn’t want to start an unnecessary fight. He frowned slightly; he couldn’t really see anything from this spot - Plasmius’s back was to him and he could only see a part of Danny.

“And be a massive pain in my ass?” Danny said, crossing his arms over his chest and glaring at the other ghost in irritation.

“Be reasonable, child,” Plasmius said smoothly. “I haven’t even done anything.”

“Yet.” Danny grumbled.

“Come, little badger. I know your second death day is approaching - it’s just two months away now, isn’t it?”

Jack stiffened as Plasmius spoke, a sudden dread settling in his stomach like a rock.

No. His mind whispered. Little badger?

Danny had likewise tensed, unaware of his father’s presence. “How did you know that?”

“You died turning on a portal, my son. While your death may not be notable within the Realms, that portal turning on is.”

“I am not your son, you goddamn fruit loop!” Danny shouted and Jack’s knees gave out beneath him.

Little badger. Fruit loop.

Vlad.

Jack had known Vlad had to be an enemy of his son’s, Danny had let him know the day of the Spectra incident that he didn’t have any allies that frequented the human world. But Plasmius? Who had possessed Jack in Wisconsin, who ruthlessly chased Phantom down just to beat him to a pulp once a week?

Who had called Jack a bumbling buffoon more than once, who had looked at Jack with such hatred. Who had become one of Amity’s frequent fliers right after Vlad Masters moved in.

Jack would quite like for his world to stop imploding, thank you very much. How many more surprises could his heart take?

He didn’t hear the rest of their conversation, instead drowning in his thoughts, crushed under their weight.  He’d hoped Vlad was one of the more unremarkable ghosts - the ones who sometimes caused minor, harmless havoc but otherwise just existed, not even worth being hunted (back when he still hunted ghosts).

Of course Vlad couldn’t be bland or boring. Jack should’ve known better. Vlad was practically allergic to being anything resembling normal - the man had been an ecto science major because it was the most unusual major he could find, not because he’d believed in ghosts. Jack nearly snorted at the irony.

The non-believer, the ecto science student who didn’t think ghosts were real, was the one who got turned into a half ghost.

He was startled by a sudden ectoblast sounding from where the two argued. Jack shook his anxiety off as he stood, again poking his head around the corner. Danny’s hand was smoking and Plasmius’s - Vlad’s - cape was singed.

“Stay the fuck away from me and my family.” Danny growled, rage in his eyes. An uncomfortable shiver went down Jack’s back - he’d never heard Danny sound so… inhuman. His voice was more animalistic, more echoed, more eerie. It nearly sounded like static.

“Another time, then,” Plasmius said as he rose higher in the air. Green energy began to crackle around Danny’s hand again in warning. Plasmius merely sighed and flew away.

Jack waited a moment, making sure Vlad had flown out of sight, before fully stepping around the corner. Phantom’s face immediately smoothed from the rabid rage he’d been glaring at Vlad with, softening as he relaxed.

Part of Jack wanted to demand answers from Danny, demand to know what was going on with Vlad, but he found he couldn’t. These were his answers to find, his wrong to right.

“You good, son?” Jack asked. “I heard the ectoblast and saw Plasmius.”

Danny shrugged. “I’m more than a match for him, no worries.” He glanced around, confirming they were alone before shifting back to human. “Back to dinner?”

“Yeah, c’mon, son,” Jack agreed, ignoring the sense of guilt in the back of his mind. Was this lying? Technically neither of them had really said much about Plasmius, and Jack hadn’t technically lied either!

He was electing to ignore the fact lies of omission were a thing. Danny and he made their way back to the table, Sam and Tucker immediately lowering their voices to ask if he was alright, Tucker fretting slightly and checking Danny over for injuries.

Had Vlad had anyone to check him over for injuries since he’d died?

Pervasive thoughts of Vlad filled his mind for the rest of the night, even after he’d dropped Sam and Tucker off at their respective houses. He hoped his distraction tonight wasn’t too obvious as he planned his next steps.

It was time to confront Vlad.

~~~~~~

“Sir, we’ve been trying for two months,” the IT agent said, frowning. “Phantom fried the servers and we don’t have off-site backups. I’m sorry, O. There’s nothing left for us to try.”

Operative O growled, grabbing the front of the agent’s shirt with one hand and pulling him closer. “Keep working!” He shouted, spit flying into the other man’s face.

The IT agent - Agent Bit - glared at O, but was helpless to do anything other than return his focus to the computer, unable to defy a command from someone so high up the power chain. “I’ll try, but I can’t really do anything else. The servers and hard drives were fried - hell, pretty much every piece of technology in the building was. Have the scientists been able to figure out how Phantom did that? It was confirmed to have an ice core, after all.”

O was silent for a moment, looking at his other hand. Well… the experimental, robotic prosthetic that had replaced his real hand. The damage done to both him and the GIW facility in Phantom’s wake had been immense. He focused on the hand, flexing the mechanical fingers, not quite feeling it. The connections between the prosthetic and the actual nerves in his hand were underdeveloped.

“We don’t know,” O admitted, eyeing Bit. “But I intend to capture him again and find out.”

“It,” Bit corrected. “Calling a ghost a ‘him’ makes it sound like a person.”

“I intend to capture it and find out, then,” O said, rolling his eyes, though Bit couldn’t see it beneath his glasses. “I expect an update within a week, Bit.”

With that, O turned on his heel and left the room, clenching and unclenching his metal hand as memories bubbled up within him.

Operative O had been the only survivor of the explosion, at least of the people in the room with Phantom. Some had been electrocuted to death, but most had been crushed. O’s partner - Operative K - was among the dead, a fact that still ripped into his heart. They had been friends, they’d started together, gone to training together. When someone became a Guys in White agent, anything from a janitor to the director, they gave up their previous life, their friends, their family. K had become his brother in arms… and simply O’s brother.

They’d been born into their new lives together and had been partners for over a decade.

And then that damn ghost happened. K hadn’t been one of the lucky ones. He’d been partially crushed beneath rubble, forced to suffer a slow death. He’d bled out in O’s arms, had cried into and stained O’s white suit. They had known the internal bleeding would kill him before the rescue team would find them. O had been left with his corpse for hours, feeling his friend go cold and stiff in his lap.

Then… nothing. All the deceased were rounded up to be cremated, the ashes dumped like trash. The official statement of the Ghost Investigation Ward had been that it had been a gas leak explosion, that everyone was fine, only a handful of minor injuries.

There was no mourning of the lost agents. No acknowledgement of their sacrifice. They’d given their lives but weren’t given graves.

O paused as he felt a twinge of pain in his left hand - the phantom pain of a hand he no longer had - and his scowl deepened.

He’d realized when they had Phantom in custody that the ghost could feel pain at a human level. He’d almost been sympathetic until the explosion happened, until he lost the one person in the world who really knew him.

Now, he didn’t care about Phantom’s ability to feel pain. He hoped Phantom could feel it. He’d killed a dozen people in that blast. Operative O would make sure that the ghost boy paid for that with his own afterlife, if it was the last thing O ever did.

[luffyrose]

Barry, Constantine, and the Kid

I was reading "I Just Wanna Talk" by foldingfacets and the way Barry interacts with Danny, and his whole misunderstanding just gave me a very very good fic idea.

Danny was Constantine's kid! But thanks to whatever ex had him, John had no idea who Danny was, nor that his kid had been put up for adoption. (I'm feeling a random one-night stand with some god-adjacent being so that Danny was already very much Other, compared to normal people). His not fully human blood had him survive the Fenton household, seeing as Jazz had radiation exposure since she was little basically so she'd survived thanks to that.

Danny kinda figured he was adopted. Sure his hair was black like Jack's and his blue eyes weren't anything abnormal, but his parents were both very very white. And he was much more tan, definitely Mideastern. Jazz actually confirmed it when he asked one time, but he still loved them all dearly. He tried to love them all, but it was hard when the only one he really remembers raising him is his sister. Until the accident happens and things just go south.

Like, Danny does his whole hero thing, and works things out with his ghosts because most of them were either messing around or didn't realize he was actually a baby ghost because he was so strong or smth, idk, they cooperate with him and just come to bug him and play fight when bored or needing to satisfy their core. All in all, he's King of the Infinite Realms now and he is not having a good time tm-

He's SEEN all the John Constantine things, but never bothered with tracking this guy down because hey! selling his soul to multiple entities to prevent ANYONE from getting it was really smart! Who was he to fault the guy.

It kind of all comes crashing down though when things go horribly ary with his adoptive parents. He overheard them talking, and even though they did love him, he learned that to them he wasn't just their kid. He was still the kid Jazz really wanted for a brother. After literally growing up in their house, he wasn't on the same level as Jazz. Simply because he was adopted, and neither had truly planned to adopt him.

And despite learning this, he tries so hard to still love and few them as his parents, because he's NOT their kid! They're right, but they still raised him no they didn't it was Jazz and he thought that they at least loved him more than that some part of him knew they never had. So when Jazz suggests they tell them, together for his own safety, he agrees for two reasons. 1, he loves and trusts Jazz and she really wanted to believe they were better than just ghost hunting. 2, he could finally know the truth, whether they would not believe him, hate him, or love him.

They don't.

Maddie and Jack both believe he died due to their creation. They don't doubt that for a moment. Jazz is thrilled at first, thinking that meant they would feel sorry, apologize, accept Danny, ANYTHING except harm him. But she was wrong as they tried to shoot him. She tried to stop them, and they told her even if he was Danny, that he was a ghost which meant it wasn't ever really going to be him again. And Jazz was horrified, asking how they could shoot their own son, ghost or not, and as if it was the simplest thing in the world, they say he wasn't their son.

And that was it.

Danny ran.

He hid in the ghost zone, and Jazz tried to come with. She ended up destroying the portal, outing Vlad, and running away with a voice recorder of their parents and the conversation they'd had. Sam and Tucker have to lay low, only messaging Danny to ask if he'd been hurt.

Danny didn't reply.

After a few months, his friends had gotten a reply a few days after, so had Jazz, saying he was fine and Fright Knight was watching over him, which was true but the Knight was more worried than anything, Pandora stopped by. She was kind of like an aunt, so she hated to see him sad. But she'd also realized something.

Halfa, as most VERY old ghosts and Ancients know, are rare to find. Vlad was an odd case, being Halfa-adjacent but not a true Halfa since it took 20 years for his powers to grow to what they were when it was normal for quick power growth like Danny. Not only does one need to die with a bunch of ectoplasm nearby, but they must have a few other requirements. Such as a bond with the supernatural, strong magic, etc. No mortal being without very strong and innate abilities would survive a full Halfa creation. So she'd always been curious as to how Danny survived when even heroes who'd been exposed to death would not near chance of being a Halfa.

Being a demi-god made it a lot easier. Even then, not all demi-gods would survive either, seeing as it would be rare for them to be within range of the ectoplasm needed to balance their god-like blood. Danny was an incredibly special case. Pandora had found out that Danny wasn't just a demi-god, but the human who was his parent was an incredibly strong magic user. So much so, that he'd tricked and tried his way through many many years of his life. Honestly, Pandora was amazed the human was alive.

Telling Danny of his father was not in her plan, though she did tell him of his demi-god blood. She also told him, that it may be safer with heroes.

So with a little time to heal, not really he was still bandaged up but at least he wasn't about to fall apart, Danny got Wulf and Cujo, the former opening a portal with a sad goodbye for the time being. (Really, Wulf would always know where Danny was.) Either way, Danny had planned to find this John Constantine, since seeing as he'd somehow avoided death all while dimension hoping, he was probably a good bet. Or at the very least could help him find a hero to help.

Falling through the portal with Cujo, he hadn't expected a giant room in what he could only guess was a secret base. There was a hero, he really should have looked up heroes, but most of his childhood hadn't really given him access to anything outside of his hometown, which was staring in shock at him.

And Flash meets Danny.

And instantly wants to adopt the kid. Sorry, Bruce! This one is his kid actually! But when he hears the boy's reason for being there, the poor kid looking utterly terrified and apologetic for barging in and trying to explain how Constantine's contact info had led him here, Barry is just crushed. He's keeping the kid entertained, panicking, and trying to contact John.

Wally ends up meeting him while they're waiting, and it instantly taking this kid as his own new brother. If his boyfriend gets a bunch of younger siblings so does he!

Either way, both speedsters are already filing adoption papers, not really as much as Barry wants to because he knows better than to take in an unknown even with how horrifying this child's accidental slips of his home-life was like.

So we have an MIA John, not like that's rare-, an unknown child who they really need to test DNA for but don't want to scare him, speedsters already mentally said kid's parent, and a whole lot of chaos. Danny had no IDEA that Constantine is his bio dad, Clockwork had Pandora hint him this way for a reason though...he got a dad one way or another and in some universes, he had 2. So. No loss situation to the Ancient.

They are not ready for this traumatized ass kid because he doesn't even realize he'd traumatized. Wait till he has a panic attack though, Danny, despite his apparent obliviousness to how fucked up he should be, will finally seem like the hurt kid he is.

And oh boy, wait till someone accidentally jostles a wound during that whole first meeting since Danny's hiding his wounds. Now that's a whole other bag of worms to open, like how'd he get them????